Saturday, February 28, 2009

It sucks, I'm getting sick. I can feel starting in my throat already, so in a couple days I'll be dead. It doesn't help that I'm sitting in the freezing cold basement writing this either, so you guys better enjoy it!

On Friday me and Cody both had the day off, so we figured we'd better take all our bottles, cans and juice cartons into the bottle depot. When we first moved in here we moved our empties with us and just put them in the basement. I even had a bunch of Diet Pepsi 12 packs bouncing around in my trunk since the move. The pile of empties was getting pretty huge, so we loaded up my car and took them in. If we had any more empties they wouldn't have fit in, there was a lot. At the bottle depot we took up an entire 12 foot table top with all our stuff. I thought we would get over $30 and Cody thought we might get $50, but we were both wrong because we got $73.50! I told you there were a lot of empties. I think we might go to the dollar store and stock up on food/candy. Cody wants some Fun Dip aka Lik-M-Aid.

Video games! On Thursday I went and bought some more Wii Points so I could download a new WiiWare game called Onslaught from Hudson Soft. WiiWare games are original games made for download and are capped with a 37MB file size. Most of the WiiWare games available are puzzle games, but Hudson made Onslaught a FPS. The game itself is a mixed bag with some really cool elements, but also with some crappy ones.

The single players campaign is pretty short and runs 13 missions which took me 3 hours to finish, but I replayed a couple levels and failed missions a few times before I finished the game. Missions will have you killing all enemies, getting from point A to point B in a time limit and defending your position from waves of enemies. The game had five difficulties and of course my first time I went through on Easy and now I'm playing through on Normal.

The controls are pretty good and I found throwing grenades to be easier and more accurate than other FPS games like Call of Duty: WAW and Medal of Honor: H2. Aim with your cursor and press the C button to pull the grenade pin then "throw" with the nunchuk. You can also carry four(!) guns with you and each gun is mapped to a direction on the D pad. Pressing Z and whipping the nunchuk will unlease your melee style laser whip, but there is no weapon melee. Some weapons also have a vehicle to drive that is mounted with dual chain guns. As you play through the levels you can find new weapons which are just more powerful versions of your standard starting weapons; an assualt rifle, machine gun, shotgun, and rocket launcher. I have a machine gun with a clip size of 200 and that is only the Level 2 gun. If you blast enemies at close range your screen with get splattered in green blood which will do damage to you, but by waving the nunchuk you can wipe it off.

Onslaught also features online play in co-op story mode and ranked play. When you play through story mode you get points for finishing the levels with kills/combos/health/time/etc. You can post your scores online against players from your region or the world to see how you stack up. I finished one level on Easy and I was #1 in the world!! When Cody came home I went to show him, but I had already been kicked down to #5, I was still #1 for my region( North America). I'm sure by now I'm lucky if I'm still in the top 30. The online co-op lets you and other players fight together to finish levels while the ranked matches have players battling to kill the most enemies and get the most points. You can kill the other players, but you lose points for that.

Since the file size is only 37MB some corners had to be cut and while I can live the sparse level design and graphics I wish the audio had been worked on more. There is no detail to the levels, they are pretty much all brown, no vegetation, rocks, water, but it's clean and I can live with it. I reminds me of old school PC games, so it's got the retro cheese factor going for it. As you kill enemies you can rack up combos from Good, Great, Excellent, Wonderful to Beautiful, but as you do a voice will say things like "Awesome!" and if you read anything about this game you'll hear "That's why you're just a kid." When you score a Good combo a guy will say "That's why you're just a kid." and you'll hear it many many times. Maybe because it is a Japanese made game, but I could do with the voice overs, a lady says one line that I can't even understand. My only other complaint is that your character moves so damn slow and if you are getting attacked from behind then turning around takes forever.

Overall, the game is super cheesy, but still kinda fun despite the graphics. It only costs $10 and is already better than some other full FPS titles out on the Wii. Check out the official website and be sure to watch awesome trailer which makes it look a lot more cooler than it actually is.

Tuesday, February 24, 2009

I came across this by accident at another website, but next Tuesday on March 3rd there is a new Prodigy album out called Invaders Must Die. It's already out in the UK and I read one review that said it was good with some songs having an old Prodigy Experience/Music for the Jilted Generation feel. Yaaah! On the Prodigy website they list a regular version and a CD/DVD version. I checked out Amazon.ca and they didn't have anything about this CD/DVD version, so I guess we aren't getting it? I think it has some music videos and live tracks on the DVD. I'll have a look around and see what I can find.

The newest Futurama movie, The Wild Green Yonder came out today and I totally forgot about it. I"ll probably pick it up sometime this week as it's the final Futurama movie and probably the last original Futurama we'll ever see. The straight to DVD movies have been hit and miss, I think it works better at a half hour show and not a full length movie. The last movie, Bender's Game, was my favorite so far and hopefully The Wild Green Yonder is just as good.

Saturday, February 21, 2009

I hope everybody bought their 649 tickets for tonight's big draw. I did and when the guy asked me if I wanted the Extra I said no because if I win I won't need the Extra. Also, what is the Extra? If I win I think I'll buy some new shoes and probably retire to redneck Cranbrook. Don't worry I won't forget who my friends are, you guys are all getting new shoes too.

I'd better win too because this past week for some reason I've ordered like 12 CDs online. It's not a bad deal, but it could be a lot better considering the dollar is at 80 cents to the US dollar. I know some of them will be good, but a few were total blind buys. One disc I researched after I had already bought and found out it's only available to buy online or at select Hot Topic stores in California. Red flag! They do seem so ridiculous it's funny. I do need to stay away from the computer because when I get bored I end up looking at stores online.

I pretty much have to win since I've been losing so much lately. I'm not just talking about getting killed by 11 year old kids playing Halo 3, but losing stuff like socks and a Cadbury's Creme egg. Everybody misplaces a sock doing laundry, but it usually turns up and I thought my sock would turn up when I did my other load of laundry, but it is still MIA. I liked that pair of socks too.

I'm still riding the dollar store high and went and checked out Dollar Giant, one of the dollar stores that has stuff that is all $1, none of this Loonie Plus crap. It was similar to Dollarama, they had some of the same stuff but each had junk the other didn't. At Dollar Giant I picked up a back up Marvel Iron Watch in case my Spider-Man watch breaks and costing only $1 that's is highly probable. I got some cool High School Musical CD-Rs, Cadbury Creme Eggs (2 for $1!), a Lipton Ice Tea and a Halo calendar. I saw the calendar's and thought it would be 2008, but it's actually a 2009, so I had to get it. It's hanging on the kitchen wall right now. I ate one of my Creme Eggs when I came home, but now I can't find the other one. I put it on the kitchen table and now it's gone. I'm pretty I didn't eat it, pretty sure.

When I went out today I was wearing my "Kill 'Em All, let God 'em out" shirt that Cody gave me. I bought Finishing the Game by Justin Lin at Rogers Video and when I was paying for it the girl at the till kept staring at my shirt every time she looked at me. I think she thought I was a wacko or something. "What are you lookin' at bitch?! I'm a crazy kill monger!" And speaking of crazy killings IGN posted some new videos from MadWorld of some of the over-the-top killing moves. I know Cam is looking forward to checking these out, there is no way these are "routine".http://wii.ign.com/articles/955/955889p1.html

This post is all over the place, I think I have attention deficit disorder. If off to look for my sock and my Cadbury Creme Egg.

Thursday, February 19, 2009

Today was my second of three days off this week (hooray for stat holidays) and as usual on a day off I'll go out and probably end up spending money. And spend money I did! Cody also had the day off and we ended up hitting Value Village, Toys'R'Us, Cash Converters and Dollarama. In that order!

I needed some new shirts with funny/stupid slogans on them, so Value Village was the place to go to. I didn't find any shirts, but ended up buying 5 Power Rangers VHS tapes and a Berlitz book on Japan. I think the cashier lady thought I was weird for buying all Power Rangers videos because she was like "These are all Power Rangers." My response was, "Yeah, I know." The Berlitz book on Japan is funny because it's from like 1986. I'll plan a trip to Japan based on it and find out half the stuff in it is no longer there. Plus the book even has an inscription, "To Colleen, Have a good trip and enjoy the pleasures of sharing. Love Unca' Blythe + Aunt Marie. July '86" Not only did that guy have the awful name of Blythe, but he was also Unca' Blythe. Poor guy.

At Toys'R'Us I picked up the Transformers Mighty Muggs version of Soundwave. Just like I said I would! They also had a couple Bumblebees and a Megatron. According to the box there is also an Optimus Prime, Grimlock and Starscream.

Adorable!

At Cash Converters I got a couple cheap DVDs and a Go Team CD and that's about it. Next door at Dollarama I needed a basket for all my crap. This time I got mostly food and some of it even appears edible.

Check that out! Most of that stuff it pretty ordinary like orange juice, gummy worms, beef jerky, sweet tarts, sea salt grinder, Sunny D, Reese Bar (peanut butter cups in bar form) and a Spider-Man watch. Yeah, that's not any Spider-Man watch, but a LCD watch and it was $1. Those Clover Leaf Inspirations were actually a good deal because we used to sell them at work for $3.99 and guess how much they were? Yeah, a buck! When I get tired of eating cereal or peanut butter sandwiches I'll go with some salmon with sweet pepper salsa on rice. It's my way of pretending I can cook. Making rice in a rice cooker and microwaving a pouch of salmon is cooking to me.

The weirdest things I'm scared of are the Fruit Smoothies in the pouches and I got two, Strawberry Apple and Banana Apple. Damn 2 for $1! You can drink them right out of the pouch which is very convenient because you don't have to dirty a glass. Squeezing the pouch the drink feels a lot more solid than I was expecting. For some reason I have this feeling it'll be like drinking jam, but there is only one way to find out.

and 1% DEADLY POISON!!

We also found this burger place that Cody wants to eat at, so maybe one day we'll get to check it out and the burger reviews will return.

Sunday, February 15, 2009

I received some chirashi in the mail the other day that I had ordered off the internet. Chirashi are movie fliers that are given away for free in Japanese theaters to promote current or upcoming releases. They usually feature poster art on the front and pictures and a movie description on the back. For foreign films they can feature alternate artwork and the title in Japanese script which makes it look way cooler than the posters we get. Some chirashi are cheap, 50 cents, and some are worth more depending on the film and how rare it is.

Most of the ones I have are from films I liked and/or thought the flier looked cool. As I said they are pretty cheap to collect and easy to store and it's basically just a piece of paper. Crappy thing is that they are an oddball size(7"X10") so you can pop it in a ready made frame like 8X11 or something.

Here is a scan for the Wild Zero flier, I bought it because I liked the movie AND it looks nuts.

Click for a super sized version.

I'll try to post more of the different looking chirashi when I have time. It's easier than actually writing something. Rock'n'Roll!!!!

Thursday, February 12, 2009

In my previous post I linked to some videos for upcoming "hardcore" games for the Wii and by "hardcore" I mean mature games that don't end in the letter "Z" or are mini game collections. This week saw a release of one of these "hardcore" games, House of the Dead: Overkill, an all new, all original Wii exclusive based on the original arcade shooters. In this day and age, an on-rails light gun shooter might seem a little dated, but with the Wii's IR Wiimote, it makes blowing apart zombies pretty sweet.

HOTD: Overkill came out this past Tuesday, but I just picked it up today (Thursday) from Toys'R'Us. Overkill is given a grind house style from everything to the b-movie storyline, the crackling audio, video with scratches/lint, the music and in game menus. The story is broken into seven chapters and is surprisingly good and the interactions between the two main characters, Agent G and Detective Issac Washington is pretty funny. This one is definitely not for the kiddies. Forget about the bloody and gore, I'm talking about the language! Every third word out of Detective Washington's mouth is "mother fucker" and I'm not exaggerating. Each chapter has a distinct location like a prison, hospital, or carnival and each chapter has it's own types of zombies like the carnival has zombie clowns!

As you blast your way through the chapters you can pick up health packs, grenades, golden brains which increase your points, and a slow mo-fo mode which when shot sends the game into slow motion for a short period of time. You start the game with a basic magnum pistol, but as you get money for finishing the chapters you can level up your gun or buy new guns like a shotgun, assault rifle, auto shotgun, and machine pistol. As you kill your way through the game you can collect combos of hits/kills that culminate in the "Goregasm" of 1000 points per kill, but miss a shot once and the combo is ended. As soon as you hit Goregasm a little American flag starts waving in the corner of the screen by your score. USA! USA! USA!

Once you finish Story Mode the game unlocks a Director's Cut of the game with new material, an increased difficulty and limited continues. The main games can be played by two players and there are three mini games for up to four players. Once you finish the Director's Cut it will unlock a dual wield mode allowing you to dual wield two Wiimotes to blow away zombies twice as fast. I think this would just confuse the hell out of me though.

I do have one complaint and that is that sometimes the frame rate will take a hit and freeze which can result in missing power ups or missing shooting at a enemy and ending a combo. Still there is nothing more satisfying than a shotgun blast to the chest of a zombie and having all his limbs and head fly off leaving a torso laying on the ground.

Despite that, it's fun with a great sense of style from the look of the game, to the music, even the non-stop cursing. When the game ends it hints at a sequel which will probably happen if the game sells well. I hope they just add even more zombies and fix the frame rate and it'll be instant gold. Check out the official website from Sega where you can make your own zombie poster and check out the zombie sound board. Let me know what the zombie sound board is and does because I can't get it work for some reason.

Sunday, February 8, 2009

Okay, I had some troubles copying and pasting the code to embed the videos below, so I ended up just putting up a link to the videos. For some reason I could copy and paste the code and it worked when I previewed it, but when I actually published it the code disappeared. I don't understand. It's fixed now...sorta.

I'm cheaping out and instead of actually writing a post I'm just going to give you a couple videos for watch. They are both for video games due out soon on the Wii, so chances are you'll never play them anyway. But still check them out!

First up is MadWorld from Sega which looks to take killing guys in creative and gory new ways to a whole new level. I'm sold. Due to the Wii's lack of processing power game makers have to find new and interesting ways to present games and the developers of Mad World have gone for stylistic approach using only the color black, white, and red. The red is for the blood.

Capcom released the trapped in a mall full of zombies game Dead Rising a while ago on the XBox 360 and now are porting it over the Wii as Dead Rising: Chop Til You Drop. The Wii version looks like it might be easier as it includes more weapons, a better save system, and the fact that the Wii lacks the power of the 360 means less on screen zombies. Cody has it for the 360 and he says it's pretty hard with a lack of decent weapons and save points are far and few between.

Here is a music video starring the zombified Japanese punk band GaGaGa singing what I guess is the Dead Rising theme song. It's a cool song and the band is backed by some moonwalking zombies. I hope the video is included in the game as an unlockable.

Tuesday, February 3, 2009

And sleep everyday! Finally! I told Cam at Christmas that I would make this post soon and so I guess "soon" means over a month. Both my cousins, Cam and Murray, are currently playing in bands, so here is the deal on what is going on with those guys.

Cam is in a band called The Wax Poets and they have just released a self titled CD and before Christmas did a cross Canada tour in promotion of the album. I actually bought two copies of it, one for me and one for my mom, so I'm doing my part. The Wax Poets have a MySpace page where you can get some info, hear a few songs and watch some videos. Looks like they will have their own website soon, but it's not up yet. If you want the CD you can buy it online from CD Baby, the link is on the MySpace page. I wouldn't think of copying it for anyone, that would be wrong. The album is also supposed to available on iTunes somtime soon.

As for Murray he found a bunch of other white guys over in Taiwan and formed a band called Windy City 4. They also have a MySpace page, but unfortunately they don't have any music up yet. Don't worry, as somebody has posted some clips of them playing live on YouTube, so check that out. It was good, but I was seriously disappointed by the lack of any pyrotechnics.