Honey, I’m Home
So, here I am, back at the old blog, ready to continue posting those posts. Today, I think I’ll start off with just a “Hi, this blog is back to life! 
” message. So, hi this blog is back to life ! I’m back with a bunch of new ideas and a bit more free time. So, hopefully I’ll be able to make these ideas into a reality.
I’d also like to welcome back any previous members of the blog, as I really enjoyed reading my fellow members posts, and having other people on this blog. So here’s to hoping at least one of you come back and join us!
Here’s what I’m going to be posting about:
- Now Playing
- Game Reviews
- Nostalgia Reviews
More to come!
Also..
Hail to the king, baby!
Levels of Life: Coolector
This week’s “Levels Of Life” will be about the “Coolector” program.
Coolector is a program for movie lovers designed by movie lovers. I came across it while searching for a “Backloggery-esque” thing for movies. I believe the exact words were “movie tracker”. I luckily came across the Coolector website.
Coolector is the perfect movie tracking program, whether you simply want to track what you’ve watched, or track movies you own, loan, wish for and have seen. It has an easy to read display. At the moment it has about 70,000 movies/series in it’s database. I added all my movies to watch, and movies I had already watched. I was able to rate them, see what the “Internet Movie Database”’s popularity for it was, and the rating given to it by them. The only problem I’ve ever had with this program, was that one of my movies wasn’t in there. All I did was registered at the official Coolector forum, requested that my movie was added, and within not too long, it was.
There’s also a bunch of other features you can do with Coolector, such as track the movies you’ve loaned off to people, your wishlist, your owned movies, and the ones you’ve simply watched. So, if you don’t really own any movies, you simply rate them, and that signifies you’ve seen it. Or if you own it but you haven’t seen the movie, you can just simple put it as owned and not rate it.
You can also search any actor, director, or even script writer. You can also use Coolector for television series, but it doesn’t go through individual seasons, just the complete series. So, I’m not really so in to that one. But, Coolector has so many filters, you can see the best black and white movies ever, the best movies ever, best movies of XXXX year, or the worst movies ever. When you’re marking that you own a movie, you can mark exactly which edition you own: such as, Blu-ray, HD-DVD, any edition of the DVD that exists, and if you have it, and it’s not marked, you can always request it, and the Coolector team will make certain that it’s added as soon as possible.
This program is basically Backloggery for movies, it’s pretty awesome, almost every movie has it’s own picture, actor information, and best of all it’s a program, so it can be used offline, and it saves your data in it’s own type of save file [ > 1mb ]. It’s a pretty sick program, and best of all it’s completly free. Of course, you could make a donation, but if you don’t, you’re not losing any features.
http://www.coollector.com/index.html
Levels Of Life: Scarface [1983]
He was Tony Montana. The world will remember him by another name.. SCARFACE.
Scarface is still one of the most known gangster movies 27 years after release. We all know the story, but if you don’t [SPOILERS AHEAD] Antonio (Tony) Montana, who, with his friend Manny Ray, starts in with Miami’s cocaine trade. He survives an attack by chainsaw after a deal goes bad, and several other attempts by other dealers to eliminate him. Eventually the grandiose Montana becomes head of a cocaine cartel. But his enemies start coming after him, and his paranoia threatens to drive Montana’s empire into the ground. He ends up killing his best friend Manny, watching his sister die, and dying himself.
Tony Montana is portrayed as one pissed off guy. The entire movie he’s throwing tantrums, or killing people for the simplest things. The movie has been criticized for it’s over the top, exaggerated, scenes. I was confused at one point, early in the movie, the theme music plays, and then the camera zooms in on Tony’s eyes. He then does nothing. He just runs away, no killing, no anger, no nothing. I was disappointed.
The most powerful scenes would be: The chainsaw scene, which was so many amounts of awesome it was referenced in Grand Theft Auto: Vice City. Another powerful scene would be Tony’s return to his mother’s house. The way the family acts together, just shows their history so well. Then there’s obviously Tony’s final stand. Huge shootout in which some twenty guys get murdered, and then, Sosa, comes in from the back and “BOOM” adds two more bullets to the already at least full clip’s worth of bullets inside Montana’s body. He falls in the pool, and it’s over. The Rise and Fall of Tony Montana.
I leave you with this, as I am to retarded to insert videos into the post.
Levels Of Life: Now Playing #1
Alright, I haven’t really been posting often, but now, that will have changed. “The Levels Of Life” is going to be a series of blog posts, that I will put up whenever I: watch a movie, beat a video game, finish a book, listen to a new CD or even finish a TV season. I will then try to give a lengthy review of said movie, game, book, CD, or TV season. There will also be some gaming updates and book updates. I will make sure to do a “The Levels Of Life” post once a week.
I’m going to start this one off with just what I’m playing/watching and reading at the moment, because the last thing I beat is too far away, and I would just like to do an update post.
First of all: I’ve been playing through Mad World on Wii. It’s awesome. I get to play it on the big 52′ inch TV as well. Now, you don’t have full control of the chainsaw, but it comes close. It swings in your general direction. You can also, literally rip people open with katanas, or stab freakin’ signs through there heads. Alright, so I’m at Mad Castle: The Dungeon, where I get to fight my first boss that can actually regenerate health, and he’s killed me quite a few times. It’s a blast playing through though. Also, the challenges, you get a specific way to kill a bunch of people in a black and white background. Example “Head Golf” you literally take people’s heads off with a golf club.
Second: Doom 3 on PC, because yesterday I was looking for a PC game to play, and I came upon this. I’m up to where you first meet those BIG dog type things. Pretty fun, but I don’t think it has aged well, but with the graphics maxed out on my 21″ monitor, things don’t look so bad. 
Basic FPS with story elements, I believe I’ve gotten quite far in this, and I intend to beat it this time around.
Third: Saint’s Row, 360. It’s really fun, and I LOVE the freedom given to me. It’s pretty fucking awesome. I pretty much, love this. It’s a bit long, but I have fun, best GTA clone out there. I’m currently going for the get 50 cars in your garage achievement, and going around doing some missions. I’m currently in the Vice King Missions, stuck on the one where you have to bring the whore with Jackie’s voice from that 70s show, to her sex guy, then shopping and you gotta run away from your own gang.. It’s hard.
Fourth: Saw on 360. It’s a really meh game. Like, it’s okay.. But some of it, is just dumb, like the combat.. You have to hold down the Left Trigger then hit X or B. But the game is fun, just sometimes, I lose concentration. The story is pretty good, follows the Saw plots nicely.
Fifth: Kung Fu Panda, going for 100% every level. Going quite well so far, just stuck. This time in the palace, you gotta defend the treasure, and when I get close to the end, they always break a pot.
Anyways, this was the first “Levels Of Life” post, hope you guys liked it. Look forward to more.
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2
This was supposed to be a great game. In short, it was. But not as perfect as you would think.
The hype surrounding the new Call of Duty was astronomical, “How could anything top Call Of Duty 4: Modern Warfare [hereby referred to as COD4]?” But this was supposed to do it. They took a great game, turned it into a cash in campaign. The campaign on COD4 was about 8-9 hours on Regular. I beat this one in about 4-5 hours on Regular. The plot twists were easily noticeable, and the ending was a bit stretched out. Now, did the developers think that everyone thought it was originally too long of a game? No. They decided to shorten the length of the campaign, to save themselves time and money. Even though they did that, I would still pay the 70$ for it. [Got it for free ] The story brings back the characters from the first modern warfare game such as: Captain Price, Soap MacTavish, etc.. These characters act as a sense of DLC or just continuum to the original.
The graphics are much improved, the engine doesn’t seem to have had much work done on it, and the artificial intelligence [AI] seems smarter. But the game-play is where this game shines. First, the developers have added some new weapons [ Riot Shields, Akimbo, etc..] and they’ve made the ways you use the weapons better. Now when you have your pistol out, you will have the knife right under it, ready for the kill. There’s also driving, and shooting at people while driving, not with precise aim of course, but satisfying nonetheless.
I’m loving the addition of the “Special Ops” games. Where you and a friend [or unknown internet stranger] can co-operate together to win or finish a mission. Such as “kill x number of guys”, or “race down x hill” but I do believe none of the missions are the same. Some involve killing everyone while some want you to stay in the shadows.
Bottom line: If you were scared to get this because of the length, don’t be, it’s just as awesome as the first. (Well except for the menu, that disappointed me.)
Christmas Presents. :D
I thought all of us members here [or just commenters] could put what they got for Christmas this year. Either here, or in the comments, have fun
Gaming Update, and “Hardcore Gamers”.
I seriously have no idea on what this post shall be about.
First, a gaming update. I’ve been playing a couple of games all in rotation.
Mostly, I have been struggling through Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, on Veteran difficulty. The thing about Veteran difficulty is, one or two shots in quick succession and you’re dead. Most of the time you’re popping in and out of cover. Currently, I’m stuck on the “Mile High Club” level, where you must secure a VIP in a set time limit. I’ve beaten the level on all the other difficulties, and I know it by heart. But, on Veteran you get 1 minute, to beat the entire level. Now, I’m certain that I could beat this level with a longer time limit. The level is set in an air plane, where terrorists decided it was a good time to attack. As well as the :C: aspect is going, I’ve got to get all the intel. Currently, at 29 out of 30.. 
Likewise, I’ve been playing through the original Half-Life on PC. It has actually aged well, I find that it’s a little less linear than most games, but then again I could be wrong. There’s a fair amount of confusion in the game, about where to go and all that. But, I’m managing. The guns are quite fun, but it lacks the Gravity Gun. That’s what I get for playing through Half-Life 2, and the two episodes before, though.
Decided to pop Kung Fu Panda into the 360, as it was one of my first 360 games including: Indiana Jones LEGO, Stranglehold and The Darkness. Anyways, I got up to level 7, while only screwing up on one level (100%) It’s an okay game, the platforming aspect is fun.
LEGO Rock Band & Rock Band 2, DS and 360 in that order. Just slowly going through each. A few sets from beating LEGO Rock Band, and countless hours from beating Rock Band 2.
Furthermore, I’m a yellow belt in Judo now.
Okay, now for the real post.
Here it goes.
This post is going to be about…
“Hardcore Gamers”.
Now, what would you call a “Hardcore Gamer”? Someone who is 20 years old, and who plays UFC: Undisputed 2009, Halo 3, and Gears of War 1-2 all the time? Or someone who grew up playing CastleVania, Mega Man and Mario?
I believe the term would more than likely suit the latter, because, if they grew up with those types of games, then they must be good at it. Someone that I know told me how his parents would only give him one or two games per year. [Christmas and his Birthday]. So, he would go to his friend’s houses and try all their games to find his favourite one. But, when he got one of those games, he would play it quite a bit. His NES collection was as follows: Mega Man 1, Mega Man 3, Mega Man 4, and CastleVania 2: Simon’s Quest. He assures me he beat them all except for Simon’s Quest.. But that’s probably because of the “crouch-next-to-this-magical-wall-while-holding-the-red-thing” part. He has had a few other game systems, but he had to give them all away, or sell them for some reason or another.
This “someone” i talked about was my father.. I see my father as a hardcore gamer. He has a great job, a great family. “Living the American Canadian Dream” with the wife, job and money. with the hockey stick, the maple syrup, and the beavers. But he still finds time to play some games, and he highly enjoys most games on Harder difficulties. (He does have problems with the analog setup, which is why we have most games on our PC’s.) He’s beaten Gears of War on Insane, all the PC “Call of Duty”s we own, put a month’s worth of hours into games such as Sacred and Diablo, he’s beaten Left 4 Dead on the hardest difficulty, and he’s beaten a numerous amount of NES games that I’ve downloaded for him. [LEGAL IN CANADA, BITCH ] My father enjoys Sports games though
I do not see myself as a hardcore gamer though, I haven’t beaten many games on the hardest difficulty, I’m somewhat of an achievement whore. I have difficulty on Hard, I tried playing through Mega Man 1 on NES, and I couldn’t get past the first area, I had to resort to the PSP re-make, on Easy. I have a short temper, but I’ve never broken anything. Oh yeah, and here it goes.. I own Mario Superstar Saga on SNES, and I haven’t beaten one of them..
So, are you a hardcore gamer?
Waste of Time
Video games are used all over the world, so many people look to them for divestment, but some look at them as a mission, a job, “To beat the bak’laag.” or something to that effect. But, after some thought, why should we force ourselves through all this, let’s say… Just to get that next level in (random MMORPG, MMO, here), playing a game you totally hate to beaten/completion (all achievements, all 100%) just for that add in gamerscore and your completion number on backloggery.
First, the time we waste on games, it just seems irrational. I, personally have played at least a full day straight, back when Diablo 2 came out. You forget things, you don’t eat, you call in “sick” to get to that next level. All this for what? For “a level 70 Paladin”? No, for the respect of people you shall never have the pleasure of meeting. But why would you do this, work so hard, and even when it’s a tedious task, as in grinding, you can grind on lower level enemies, without even a chance of you dieing and even if you got close to it, you have about a dozen full health potions. So, why waste that time, not that I’m saying like everyone else.. “OMG, children these days are too addicted to video games.” No, I’m just saying don’t force yourself to play games that you know you won’t enjoy. Like anyone that picked up “The Simpsons Game”. What did you expect from it? An actually good game? No, you expected humour, and some platforming, which you got, but was it worth your time? You got an average platformer, some stupid storyline, and you paid for it. What happened to getting good games, no one expected it to be perfect, no, but many people bought it, whether it was an badly thought out gift or an impulse buy, you know you fucked up.
Second, a while back, you found a game for two dollars, just sitting there on the shelf, it looked okay, in good condition and all, so you bought it, bring it home, pop it in, realise how bad it is, and never play it again. But now, you must play it, so many years later, if you want to beat the “bak’laag”. But this game is just bad, it’s a mediocre FPS from the year 2003, it hasn’t aged well, back then it would have been okay.. Now, not a chance… But, you play through it, you beat it and never touch it again, so why did you just waste say 8 hours of your life on this game..? There is no reason, maybe you got eight hours out of your two dollars you say? But I could buy a book of the same quality as that game for fifty cents, doesn’t mean it’s well spent, because just as the game did, it will sit there.. While you try and beat your book’laag..
In conclusion, it just no longer makes sense to me to play bad games/games you don’t like just for the sake of beating them, sure you “have” to do it, like I see the same way, to get to zero unfinished games.. But, why can’t I just delete that one game.. I know I just went behind my whole point, but shit, I don’t even know why I’m posting this.. k bye.
Brain Age 2: More Training In Minutes A Day
Brain Age is a DS thinking game, which relies only on the stylus for gameplay. But the only gameplay is writing numbers or letters, or mathematical equations. There is one actually fun game that is “Virus Buster” AKA Tetris: The Brain Age Edition. You have to get your small stamp for the day (Completing one Exercise), as opposed to a big stamp (Completing three exercises) in one day.
There’s one of the exercises that is: you just write in the multiplication, addition, subtraction or the division symbol according to the mathematical equation in front of you. Another one of the exercises is you have to tell the time, when the clock is twisted, and the easiest thing is Change Maker, this exercise is simple. You must make the change from a given price.
Laziiness has struck so good day, sir.
Audiosurf
Audiosurf. Well, I called this beat after playing the entire Orange Box soundtrack. Alright, this game is NOT Guitar Hero, it’s like it, but it’s not.
It’s pretty awesome, your driving a car down a highway of music. You must dodge the gray cars, and hit the colored ones. It’s pretty fun, umm there’s a demo..
Wow, this game isnt very easy to review, I quit. Publishe’d.
Jelly Soup
insane2100
