New Jersey will be a fine place to visit - Diablo 3 Review

I know, I know. Low brow joke, I'm sure New Jersey is a lovely place to be. About 100 times better than Tristram, I swear that whole town is an established disaster. I'm even sure the plotted plants there are cursed as well.

You're probably thinking out loud "Why am I reading this crap?" "Who does this guy think he is?" "How can I have your babies?" Well to answer the first two, I have to let you all know how much of a headache Tristram is before I continue with the rest of Diablo 3. See, Tristram is where the whole series began, the titular demon Diablo was sealed beneath it and awakened in the first game, then the town is destroyed in the second game and our 3rd outing begins in New Tristram. I don't know who sold the real estate but they are going to have a few angry letters sometime around next week.

There, Tristram rant overish. Now onto D3. This game is fun. Hands down it's fun. It's a bit simplified and that DRM nonsense is back but it has a good game at it's core.

This game however doesn't look like a game that's been in development for 5ish years. More like the standard 2 year development. Seriously, despite gorgeous backgrounds and interesting design; this game isn't on par with most PC titles (Witcher 2). What is there graphically, is pretty solid and it works. Even if the character models look like slimmed down WoW sprites. The cinematic though? Gorgeous and brilliantly done, it's getting to the point where Blizzard won't gets points for that though. Style for the armor is also detailed but that ship sailed a long time ago. I know Blizzard has good visual art designs. Now if only they could update their in game engines like Star Craft 2. . . . . . . .

Combat is standard Diablo/Dungeon Crawler. Click where you want to go, character moves their in an uncomfortable looking fashion and then run into something that is upset at you for living and click it till it falls on it's keys. Rinse repeat. Thing is, games like Diablo reward the player by making the fights, even with friends, difficult. So when you pull through, you feel accomplished. Abilities are assigned to the number keys so you hit the things with every thing you got until you run out magic rage. Unlike the older Diablo games though, your liquid angst refills itself over time; eliminating Mana potions to pick up, and also remove s huge chuck of tension of battle. It gets to a point where the Wizard doesn't even run out of Mana before the last demon kabooms itself. It's nice that it regenerates but it's that it regenerates way too quickly I have a problem with. Literally ten seconds and my Wizard is back to full fighting prowess. There was a split second I was worried but after the second time I know I'd have enough magic to use in a second I just went back to my regular attack. No sweat. In fact the only time I was challenged in the game was with the final fight with Diablo. I quickly got used to Hell mode with the only annoying mode being a rare elite waiting for me behind a door. Not even that 40 year old drunken girls scout was that aggressive. And cheap. Seriously, it had the ability to box me in and create swirling flame death at me. Christ.

The story is well. . . . . . yeah. It's alright but it's not very engaging. Big bad is here to mess up your front porch, go on a country wide killing spree. Except for Tyriel, your character and series returning Deckard Cain; all other characters are forgettable. Leah? I got the feeling she was the protagonist of the game and your character was just there to help. Nope, she's just there for a lousy twist and doesn't have an emotional payoff. Seriously, everyone forgets about her and the status quo continues. It's weird, I know Blizzard can create memorable characters that are balanced and interesting (Raynor and Kerrigan) but here? Two characters and not much else. Pretty much I renamed all the other characters Cannon Fodder and added a number. I was lazy.

Other than the annoying DRM that doesn't work, seriously, people have cracked it. The fact you need to have an internet connection to play is dumb. For some though, they cracked it and are playing it offline. The only downside is they don;t get to play with friends or partake in the auction house with the option to use real money. Which is a good idea in theory but that's been hacked too. A four year development cycle and it has security gaps. Wow.

All in all it;s still a good game but I can't recommend it while it costs 59.99. I would wait for the price to drop at least to 40 or 30. You'll still have fun but the fact that Torchlight 2 will have the same content, minus the DRM fiasco for 20 dollars kind of tells you something.

Diablo 3 gets 7.4 outlandish resurrection spells out of 10.

I didn't review Mass Effect 3 because I want to wait for the "True Ending" DLC, see how that turns out. Also for Max Payne 3, us PC gamers have to wait till this Tuesday. Review for that might be up at some point over the weekend.

A Day in the Life

This is a Spidey story I wrote at work just cause. 

He grudged down the steps, eyes half open, half closed; he grumbled to himself about mondays, and the curse of Queens. Alley cats, gun shots, reruns of Sex and the City. New York wasn't the best place to live. It was home though, and it had cocoa puffs. 

He turned on the kitchen light and groaned. Light burns! He squeezed his eyes shut and almost stumbled over his Transformers pj pants. He walked past the kitchen window above the sink, he noticed the old lady next door staring. Crap, he forgot his shirt. He then bumped into the round wooden kitchen table. He wondered who put the table in the middle of the room and sluggishly made his way to the brown two door fridge opposite the door. He opened the cupboard beside it and pulled out a big bowl and his precious cocoa puffs. He would have kissed the box if he was anymore weird. He poured the contents into the bowl, each small ball making little pings as they hit the bowl. Course to him it was like an avalanche and he quickly shot the box back up, spraying the rest of the insides all over the floor. He groaned and let himself fall to the floor. Thank God his Aunt left early, this would have been a sight, a shirt less, drooling, half awake super hero nephew spread on the kitchen floor covered in cocoa puffs. He scooped up the puffs, pulled himself up and put them in the garbage pan next the fridge. The moment of truth, time to pour the milk in. He turned around and opened the fridge door. He let out a huge grin and grabbed the jug. He tipped it over the bowl and waited. One drop. No, oh no. Not now, he was hungry, sleepy and cocoa puffs less. This was the worst day ever. He bolted up stairs, determination in his eyes. He was going to buy some milk. 

There was no time to shower, he had a job to do. He ran past the bathroom, his bare feet making soft padded thuds as they hit the rug floor; he headed to his room and dived underneath his bed. Shoving the mix of clothes and paper aside, he pulled a box out and open it. Grinning to himself he started to place the padded suit on himself. It's good to be Spider-Man sometimes. 

He used his organic web to shoot the latch on his window and fling it open, then he leaped through it and webbed the window closed as he zipped down the street. He could feel his stomach rumble, soon he thought. Those cocoa puffs were his! He got to the convenient store in 5 minutes flat; passing all the busy streets of new york and the occasional tree. Yes, the part had a tree. A few people walking up and down the busy streets going on about their lives, the smell from the big ones must have been bad. He had to make a smart ass remark in his head, his way of dealing with stress or boredom. Mostly stress. He didn't think life sucks or that it's unfair but it can get hard at times, just another test to pass. 

He quickly arrived at the store, to the loud sounds of cracks and screams. Great, another day of being Peter Parker. He landed in a war zone, tossed cars and broken pavement as far as the eye can see; a joke about this being normal for manhattan streets came to mind, he had to swallow it though. His spider sense was going crazy and there were people trapped under this twisted wreckage of steel and gravel. He went where the grunts were. His sense guided him, easily tossing everything to side; making sure it didn't topple those who weren't trapped and either helping those trapped or fleeing. 

"We got this Spidey! That giant Rhino thing went further downtown." A giant Rhino thing? The hell did that mean? 

"Uhhh that sounds perfectly sane did it have a basket and a dog too? Never mind that, make sure once you get these people free, you run." He zipped down the street, following the thuds and cracks. He knew he was getting closer, because the sounds were becoming a thunder storm. Booms and cries for help echoed through the street. From a distance it looked like the Hulk. Great. Another tangle with the Hulk, cleaning up Fury's mess again. After this he was going to change his name to Fury's other eye. Wait. This wasn't the Hulk, as he got closer he noticed the outline had a horn on the forehead. The texture was a rough grey hide, with creases and an opening. A very small opening. He closed in and jumped in front of this thing, it was heading straight for a public bus. He collided with it, he saw eyes. This thing was a guy. A mutant? A mutate like himself? No time, Pete had to move him. He threw his weight to the left and toppled this thing into the sidewalk. Wait, it was still moving. It moved forward and Spidey felt himself break through something hard. It was a concrete wall. Ow. 

He could use his strength to guide this thing but he didn't know how to stop him, he needed to. Through the daze of going through a wall, he could hear people. Joints, he was going to hit the joints. Stop this thing. He flipped back and webbed the knee, pulling himself in as hard as he could he kicked as hard as he could. Success, it began to fall over. One problem, a couple was underneath them. He leaped back and caught this thing by the chest. The momentum had caused catching this thing feel like stopping a sentinel. Funny story. 

"Uuuugh, okay I know how this looks but trust me. Heh heh it's more painful than you could imagine. So how about moving slightly to ohhh I dunno.....OUTTA HERE?!" The couple got up and ran for the exit. Spider Sense! He got caught with a powerful hit to the ribs and he flew into the staircase, breaking through it. He heard cracking and breaks, the stairs were coming down on him. He knew people were up there. He had to act fast, this giant so not the Hulk was getting back up. He webbed the incoming debris and moved to help support the structure. Spider sense was going nuts. This thing had to be stopped. Now. 

"Hey everyone above me! If you direct to another stair case, you'll be fine. For your convenience this place will re-open when they stop being tacky with autumn season sales!" The people started moving away, some cheering for him. He leaped at this thing, webbed the eyes and punched him in the back of the head. How does that hurt himself?! His wrist began to burn. The hide was hard, he decided to guide it. He grabbed the horn and threw his weight to the right, this thing followed. Turning back towards the entrance hole it created. They were back out on the road. More space to maneuver. He leaped over the head, keeping his hand on the horn and drove his feet into this things chest before it had any time to react. He could feel it caving over, his back collided with the pavement and he decided to use his proportionate strength on this sucker. He sent it flying a couple feet behind him. Not very far but better then nothing. His heightened durability was able to withstand some of the weight of this thing but his legs still felt stretched. This thing was more than 15 tons. 

Spidey crouched, leaning more on his arms. Taking the weight off his legs. He had to stall, his body was feeling this battle. 

"You know, normally I don't tangle like this on first meet ups. There's usually a number exchange, a meet up place then you turn out not so much like your display picture." This thing got up quickly. It looked pissed. It lunged at Spidey, he used his arms to leap up and double jumped off this things back.

"Then I respond with I need an adult and then you respond 'I am an adult' and I write a book about it and cry with Oprah." He needed this thing pissed. He needed it focused on him, so that way it wouldn't concern itself with the people. It worked. A loud roar came out from it, words followed. 

"I'll impale ya, ya little runt!" Well now we know it was capable of speech, not very moving though. 

"Aww wittle snookums first words." It ran at him harder now. He needed it this blinded so he could guide it. He webbed down the street, heading towards the prison. It had just been given reinforced walls. He made sure to yell out to people, letting them know to get out of the way. One car however wouldn't move so he slid under it, pushed the car over head the thing and as he leaped up, webbed it so it wouldn't crash into the pavement. He had to keep going, his body felt like crap. He arrived at the prison and landed dead center on the way and looked to meet the rhino thing closing. He side flipped at the last second, spinning and driving his feet into the back of this things head, doubling the impact into the wall. He heard it groan and it stumbled. This thing had to go down. Now. He leaped forward and planted himself on it's shoulders, sending quick jabs into his head. It didn't take long before it collapsed. As it fell he rolled off it's back and landed on his back and lied there. Catching his breathe and letting himself calm down. 

It seemed like forever for anyone to respond. The police and SHEILD showed up. Nick Fury greeted Spider-Man. 

"Good to know you can be discreet." 

"Good to know you can see that." Spidey leaned up, an officer came over to offer help. Spidey waved him off. "Go take a look at big ugly, he might confuse himself as a step-child after that beating." The officer gave a nervous chuckle. "Heh I got brain damage from that last fight." Fury sat down beside Spidey and whispered. 

"How many times are you gonna do this Pete? Get beat up, let the collateral damage rise?" Spidey sighed. 

"How many?" Spidey replied. 

"What?" 

"How many people got hurt as soon as I showed up?" Fury looked forward over the harbor beside the prison. 

"....none." Spidey stood up. 

"I rest my case. I know what I'm doing Fury, if you did; you really think I'd have to clean it up?" With that he webbed home. Passing by people thanking him. 

He came through his window. Putting his torn costume in the pile. He'd sew it later. He headed to bathroom, cleaned himself up and bandaged what needed to be. His stomach grumbled and he headed downstairs were he was greeted with his bowl of cereal. He forgot the milk. Dammit! He whirled around to be greeted by Aunt May. 

"On my way back from work I heard the most interesting thing." Peter lowered his head a bit. "Spider-Man stopped an escaped mutant, and saved a bunch of bystanders." Pete looked up at here. A jug of milk in her hand, smiling at him. "Here you go Pete, you did great." He hugged her and took the jug and began eating his cereal. City saved, people happy to have him around, Aunt May proud and Fury crying. Did he mention that being Spider-Man rocks? 

The End.

Mass Effect 3 done right. And not the Hack way. Oh hai Casey Hudson.

Ahem

First off I'd roll with the indoctrination theory. So you'd have the 2 "endings" and the one continuation where your Shepard wakes up among the rubble. Now depending on your EMS/choices/Paragon and Renegade; Anderson could either be dead under the rubble, dying or alive with injuries. Reinforcements show up IF you cured the genophage.

As the reinforcements push for the beam, Harbinger focus' it's attacks. Here's where your choice to resolve the Quarian/Geth conflict comes into play. If you did, there will be enough ships to cover the fight above Earth so the Normandy flies in to help against Harbinger. If you have high Paragon or Renegade/EMS/upgraded your ship from ME 2 then the Normandy will survive and push Harbinger away. If one of those requirements hasn't been met the Normandy is either damaged or destroyed. If Damaged or Destroyed, Shepard never makes it to the beam, either to help hold off incoming Reaper forces or be killed by Harbinger. In that scenario an unnamed solider makes it to the beam but it ends on a cliff hanger.

Assuming the Normandy survived, Shepard makes it to the beam but the transportation fries his weapons. Upon entering the Citadel, they sees the bodies of C-Sec officers and Cerberus operatives. Scrapping some left over armor and weapons, they either discovers Bailey's body or finds him holding his position in a security office; revealing that all the civilians were able to get off the Citadel in time(once again depending on your choices and personality) if not; civilian bodies will be laying throughout the Citadel. If Bailey is alive then the race to the crucible console is a bit easier, if not get ready for a long drawn out trek.

Along the way, Harbinger; still in Shepards mind, tries to persuade them. Creating images of the squad mates dying, being harvested and convincing them to join the Reapers. Either Shepard gives in or they fight off the attempt. As Shepard nears the console, a keeper approaches them; revealing a Prothean AI stored in the keepers as part of the Protheans reprogramming. It allows Shepard to touch Harbingers mind where they learn of "dark energy". After this, the AI wipes the traces of Harbinger from Shepard but by doing that it terminates itself.

Now free from any more indoctrination attempts, Shepard pushes to the final room. The crucible terminal; where the Illusive Man is waiting. Looking normal, he attempts to convince Shepard to work with the Reapers and allow them to process Humanity and turn them into the next Reapers; giving them galactic superiority. Shepard can either agree or talk him down. Talking down leads to a shoot out. If Bailey is alive, he'll activate nearby automated turrets to help. If not, hope you brought a lot of medi-gel.

Either you agreed or talked down, Shepard and the Illusive Man will come face to face in front of the Catalyst console. A giant interface that sends out a signal. You can either talk down the Illusive Man and convince him to face his errors (he doesn't shoot himself in the face if you are high Paragon), kill him, allow him to merge humanity with the Reapers, high renegade he commits suicide or fight him. Which would be difficult as he has Reaper level biotics. Either way, when Shepard reaches the console they are greeted by an image of Harbinger masquerading as the Shepard opposite of your own. So if paragon Shepard, Harbinger will appear as Renegade Shepard and vice versa. If Illusive Man was left alive, he'll keel over in pain as this is another indoctrination attempt.

Thanks to the Reaper signal purge by the AI, Shepard can resist it and confront Harbinger. With the Normandy hitting Harbinger hard, it becomes desperate and commands Shepard to not activate the catalyst. Shepard can either comply or put the pressure on Harbinger by bringing up Dark Energy. That the reapers were once organics, afraid of their own mortality so they sought to live forever. With the discovery of Dark Energy, the Reapers feared that organics left unchecked will discover a way to end their 'perfect' existence. The Crucible sends out a signal that disrupts dark energy. Not only severely disabling the Reapers but possibly shutting down the relays by disrupting their own dark energy by sending the signal through them. If high paragon, Shepard will warn the fleet of what's about to happen, if high renegade Shepard will only warn the Normandy. You can choose to not warn anyone.

Either way, Shepard makes their choice and Harbinger phases out; damning Shepard. Now, if you kept the Illusive Man alive; he'll disable Shepard and activate the Crucible himself, dying in the process: Stating that he wanted to one up the Reapers and Shepard to prove his superiority. If not Shepard will activate the Crucible and either be severely crippled or die. The signal is sent out and the Reapers are made helpless as the ships blow them to hell. The signal is sent through the mass relays, if Shepard sent out a warning either himself or through the Normandy; the fleets head through the relays to get to their home planets before Shepard activates the signal. If not, they become stranded in the milky way. Either way, the Normandy heads to the Citadel and Shepard is greeted by their LI and most used squad member. They can either receive medical attention for their crippling injuries, die in their LI's arms or be helped by their LI and squad mate and limp out towards the Normandy. Then the credits roll.

If the warning was sent out, there is an after credit scene where it pans to the Mass Relay and just as it hints that the Relay is starting back up, the screen goes black. The End.

Things to note about how the ending can change. As Shepard, Hackett asks for advice on who should lead what teams where. These teams are scientific studies in reaper and Prothean Technologies. Keep in mind without these, the beam could fry Shepard and you get a shitty ending.

SWORD team. Which is the fleet, you need to manage who's in the front, middle and providing cover in the back. Same goes for HAMMER team (ground forces). This kind of micro manage will help ease the final push. It won't be a cakewalk but it'll make sure Shep needs to do what she/he needs to do.

Picking the right options will provide the least amount of casualties. Basically the suicide mission from 2 but on a grander scale. You can cock up and the Reapers win or push through and make your choices on the Citadel and receive the ending you desire.

No talk of synthetics vs organics. Seriously Casey, Asimov is spinning in his grave.

Phew. That took a bit but that's how I would have done the ending.

What is a man? A bag of guts man - Binary Domain review

It's been a hectic month. I promised to update from time to time and then I get racked with BS, driving school and getting into ICS.

 Ah yes, way too busy. What with the fiasco of Mass Effect 3 (gonna add to that later). Plus other mediocre Silent Hill games, it's been a sad panda month. I have yet to play Kid Icarus but it's on my to do list. Also movies are slow. I have seen Hunger Games and I'll get to that movie later.

So, Binary Domain. I love this game. Sure it's not perfect, it isn't "deep" or artistic and the storyline goes batshit in the final minutes of the game but unlike ME3 it fits with the overall plot.

The story focus' on Dan, dubbed "The Survivor" mostly cause of respawn saves but I digress. He's your bread and butter for the whole game. The plot concerns a corporation creating something called 'hollowed children'; robots who look and THINK they are human. So the UN sends in Dan and a squad called a 'rust crew', special squads that deal with this sort of thing. That's the jist of it. Along the way the game judges how you deal with your squad mates and the ending as well as certain motives are changed depending on how high their trust level is with you. It's moments like this that take it beyond a simple third person shooter. Speaking of which, this game is hard. It's not like GoW where I breezed through that game, I played this game through on multiple trials; on different settings. Even on easy my organic arse was handed to me on a robotic platter.

It may be your simple duck and cover mechanic but cover doesn't last long so you need to stay on your toes. You can upgrade your guns to help give an edge but you get swarmed so you really need your teammates. When they ask if they can help, you let them. One it eases up the battles a bit and it raises their trust with you. Be careful though, allowing one squad mate to act MIGHT lower the trust you have with another squad mate. See? How this is more than just a third person shooter? You have to stick to cover or you die. A lot. Issue commands to your squad and need to gain their trust for the best possible outcome for the game. You can't just plow through this game, you go through med kits in a flash. Sure you have regenerating health but it's not as fast as you think and you will die in an instant. They do give you time to either administer a med pack to yourself or call for help from a squad mate. They are responsive. Sure, they can walk in front of your shots, which does cost the trust level. That's buggy, I mean if a guy was shooting and I got in front so my ass could have hot lead salad; my reaction wouldn't be "oh great I don't trust you a-hole" it'd be more along the lines of 'AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAMUTHAFUCKASHIATE!!! Why did I do that?!"

There is co-op which allows for a lot of fun. It isn't just competitive multiplayer which is lame. It's co-op and you and your partner are thrust into an even harder experience. That's all I can really say, it's the same as the single player you just have human back up.

The music is lifted heavily from Deus Ex/Daft Punk. Very electronica, with a heartfelt orchestra behind it. It's stunning when it needs to be and gut wrenching while in the middle of battle. It helps with the atmosphere of a dystopian future of corporations and government secrets. Yes the ending gets weird by introducing human/robot hybrids that take away from the atmosphere but I wasn't expecting the Schindler's List of robotics. Especially when the token black guy; Bo goes on about Asian porn halfway through the game. CLASSY.

All in all a good experience and at 9 to 10 hours worth your money. It's a buy or a rent.

Binary Domain gets 8 Metropolis references out of 10.

I'm coming for you Mass Effect 3, and when I do. You'll know the meaning of the word "conclusion".

You Gotta be Fucking Kidding - The Thing 2011 review

I don"t like horror movies. there I said. I really don't, I know that to enjoy a movie/comic/book we have to have a certain os suspension of disbelief. Thing is, horror movies are bad, whether they be intentional or unintenional. There's an emphesis of poorly written characters, killers with god mode activated, or a group of guidos who live in New Jersey. There usually isn't really enything in a horror movie that I feel I should invest in. Now, I may say that but there are some horror movies that do things right. Instead of making dumb characters, they make interesting ones. The creature or person is what's the mystery and instead of showing them murder everyone in an easy fashion; it instead focus' the characters trying to stop it/them from striking. Look at Romero's Zombie films, yes you see the undead and them killing people or turning people; but the movies are more about the main characters trying to survive. It focus' on human nature under stress. The zombies add menace and gore when they show up but the real point of zombie movies are humans coping with their world bruning down; holding onto what they can to keep on going for another day. Some of us brave through it, others crumble and make weak excuses to rob, steal and murder others. That's the charm.

That's an aspect I loved about John Charpenter's The Thing. It was about a shape shifting alien that went on a bloody rampage when discovered, it had amazing effects and really good acting. There was tenstion and mystery. It was more of a who done it as opposed to "I have a machete! Blondes having sex! Murder!" End scene, rinse repeat. No, The Thing was straight up atmosphereic; that was it, it was all about the characters coping with an alien on the loose and worst yet; one of them could be replaced by it. It was as simple as that.

Course, leave it to modern hollywood to ham in on it. See, they have this wonderful idea that they need to remake or make prequesla dn sequels. Sometimes it works (Tron: Legacy) and other times it's . . . .well, not so much. The 2011 Thing is one such instant. They decided that a prequel was in order. So this movie focus' on the norwiegin camp base that was utterly destroyed by the time the cast from the first movie came out. Seriously. The characters go to the camp to investigate and find everyone dead, demolished and half assimilated. Yeah, they made a sequel focusing on that. It's like the Star Wars prequels. We know what happens. we know how it's going to play out. We have the who, what, where, when and how. 4, 5,and 6 gave us the pieces. The only way it could have been a surprise is if the prequel focused on something we weren't expecting. Like if I made a prequel to The Godfather and it was about a chef trying to save the mushroom kingdom from intergalatic spiders. All he had was a batch of exploding cakes and had to ride a velocorapter who also happens to be a unicorn. See? You didn't expect that, it would be the perfect prequel.

So how is the prequel The Thing? Well, exactly what you would expect from a movie made in today's standard. There's CGI everywhere, plotholes and the subtley from the first movie is gone. GONE! that's what the made the 82 movie so good. Instead, if any body forgets to flush, the creature bursts out and kills somebody. It's like the Bayformer movies, the charm is gone, the story is gone and it's one big CGI douche fest. The lead, Mary Elizabeth Winstead (or as I'll refer to her from now on as Ramona Flowers), tries her best but this is a story that didn't need to be told. Or if it had to be, would have been done right. See, it's a Norwiegian base so Ramona is flwon in by the lead Norwiegian scientist FROM AMERICA! Keep in mind the movie still takes place in 1982. See, the saving grace of this movie is that they didn;t want to piss over the original and I respect that.

It's not like George Lucas, they looked at what John Carpenter did and tried to stick to that. Unfortunatly, everything is CGI and while the orginial played around with keeping the creature in the shadows. See, you only saw small glimpses of The Thing and it made it interesting. Same with the Alien movies, oh we saw the whole thing but only in quick flashes. It created tension, it showed something menacing and would cause a panic. Here? It shows up with a boom and doesn't stop. Seriously, they find it in the ice and put in a room where it can't thaw out. There's no heat source, nothing. By all means it should still be hibernating so guess what? FUCK LOGIC! This thing erupts out of the ice and just goes nuts. In all face splitting CGI Lady Gaga on a normal day glory. And from there it's a stroke fest for regular horror fans. With explosions and loud bangs in every scene. While the original slowed down so the characters could breathe before shit hit the fan in the last half; here? I leave my respects to the countless gas stations that had to be blown up. I know they wanted to leave the bas in the state that Kurt Russel found it in the original but a helicopter crash? That wasn't in the original.

One other big problem that arises from this movie t\is that in the end, the alien tries to escape using it's ship. And it gets blown up. Blown. Up. Like Michael Bay blown up, Ronald Emmerick blown up. Death Star blown up. Course there it is, intact in the original. So I take by what I said about them not wanting to piss over the original. They George Lucas'ed this bitch. Then of course, Ramona gets away and they try to leave ambiguity as to whether it;s her or not. Which doesn;t make sense. If she did get away, why didn;t Kurt Russel's character MacCready, didn;t see any tracks leaving the base? I know it's sequel bait but for christs sake we don;t need it. Not everything needs a sequel (Watchmen). Hell not everything needs to be made period (Highlander 2). I mean good god, Hollywood needs to make new ideas. Hell I came up with one about a velocorapter riding chef. It wouldn;t be oscar worthy but they don't matter. In fact they shouldn't matter but that's a rant for another day.

This movie? A lazy story, alright acting and the mystery gone. In it's place is CGI, things blowing up and somewhere John W. Cambell jr is spinning in his grave so fast; electrical friction is supplying third world countries with enough energy to last through forever.

The Thing 2011 gets 3.5 bass beats over the end credits out 10. They slao want to remake Highlander, with the woman who wrote the Twilight movies. Not Stephanie Meyer, I don;t have her name right now but thse's writing it. She also wrote the first three seasons of Dexter. . . .I don;t know how to feel about that.

The Fantasic Year End Review Journey - 2011

Another year down and another step twoards in a procrastinating direction. I may not have updated as much as I wanted do but that was due to work, a cold and Old Republic.

This year was a turning point for me, I learned to get back up on my feet and keep trucking. I just not have to set my self a proper work scheduale. With that let's move onto my year end review. No TV in this one as I didn't watch any, although Gundam Unicorn would have won as there isn't anything on right now with such an amazing attention to detail, in animation and characters. I'm still listening to the soundtrack. Speaking of, I didn;t do music this year as well. Everything sucked, from Justin Beieber to whatever is the rap flavor of the month. So this year it's just movies, music and comic books. I had a semi busy emotional year okay? I had to deal with gungans for christs sake. GUNGANS!

With that out of the way, let's start this disaster off with movies.

The Dark Knight Rises/Nolan's Bat franchise:

Oh Christopher Nolan. Welcome back, it seems I can't rant about you enough eh? I know a lot fo people like you and I may be seen as some from of attractive hipster for not liking you like i used to but you. See, I've noticed that Nolan grounds his movies and doesn't let it go as it should, a comic book is only as real as it's main character. I know I know, Batman is a step away from being the most realistic character ever but that's not what I'm talking about. See, he got Batman wrong on so many levels. I don;t care if Joker just slaps some make up on, or if Ra's Al Ghul had body doubles. No no it's that the whole premise is wrong. Batman has always been a dark and twisted road of one man's psyche.

Bruce Wayne suffered a loss, a huge one. He had one bad day. That right there sums up the whole Batman mythos. A bad day. Not being a symbol, not being a legend. Course it's too simple for those "poets" so Nolan pulled crap out his ass, tried to make Bruce Wayne relatable, an everyman. In the Dark Knight he wanted to quit to get married. Married! Great Caesers beard, that's not the Batman I know. He's dark, twisted and tormented. Driven by his parents death but in TDK, Nolan wants us to believe he just got over that. Why? Cause he let Ra's die? In the comics he confronted Joe Chill, the actual murderer of his parents, reveals his face and Chill runs outside only to be gunned down by mob enforcers that were looking for him. And you know what? Bruce was still tormented by his parents death. Now I know some people might be telling me to relax, that movies based on a show, comic, book, worlds greatest bowel movement won;t be like it's source 100 percent. I'm fine with that in most cases. As long as the source material is respected( thumbs up at you Marvel, heart you. Except for Spider-Man starring Pleasent Ville and man thing Kristin Dust).

Nolan took themes from Year One and Killing Joke and just, well made a two hour philosophy movie. The Batman I know would have beat up Joker, tracked down Dent and offered to help him. Expose the Jokers plan and how it affected Dent, punch some useless goons and then race back to the bat cave to pound some Catwoman. Awww no character development? Blasphemy!! Fuck off with that, it's Batman, he lost his parents. Don;t get much character development than that. I may be called a comic book purist but honestly, Harry Potter and Watchmen were faithful adaptations, hell, even those Twilight movies are true to there roots.

So why can't DC get a clue? Marvel did, they took elements from the Ultimate and 616 universes; but the characters stayed true to their comic book counterparts. Steve Rogers is a nice guy, Tony Stark is an egotist, Thor is a badass and Bruce Banner has anger problems. It's not that hard, not with the trailer for The Dark Knight Rises, Bruce Wayne hasn't been Batman for 8 years. Well that's already a red streak. That was faster than I thought. I already don;t like this movie. Bane is moving against Gotham for some reason and Catwoman wasn't even in it. Just Anne Hathaway and Christian Bale in a  rip off scene from Batman Returns. Classy! And now a stadium just collapsed on itself. HOLY SHIT! That was a good effect. Oh good now we're back to more talking. Bruce Wayne's going to die. I call it. The whole trailer was just "The legend is over" "Batman is what Gotham needs even if the man is broken" You wouldn't get any more sutble if Nolan edited himself within every scene and just started shouting "Bruce Wayne's going to die!"

A fucking Bond villian was more subtle than this. If bruce makes it the end of this movie, I'll make it my film of 2012. I swear I will cause that's a brilliant twist. Course then the whole "Legend is ending" would just be hype. Like oh hey, Heath ledger died so The Dark Knight is the greatest movie of all time. I know Heath did a good job but his role doesn't make a whole damn movie when you have an ensamble cast! If people only pick Heath's role as the Joker as something that sticks with them and not Bale's Batman. You fucked up.

Wow this turned into one huge nerd rant. Listen, I like Nolan's other films; like Momento, brilliant movie but when it comes to a movie that needs to rely on some sort of suspension of disbelief such as batman and that paprika rip off Incpetion, He fails, he wants a realistic movie? Make a straight up cops and robbers movie, make a movie about corperate spies. Something realistic. Next thing you know he'll make a Naruto movie about a group modern assasssin's and the main character is just called a demon fox, talking for two hours about what humanity means with a pedo with a snake fetish. . . . .Mother of god that sounds better than actual Naruto.

The Dark Knight Rises and the whole Nolan Bat franchise gets .5 batarangs that weren't thrown out of 10. I'm more annoyed with these so called Bat fans, these internet poets. I know a movie has to have some substance but having characters talk about philosphy for two hours does not make substance. That's just filler. At least in Shakepeares plays SOMETHING happened between the talking.

Green Lantern - 2.5/10
- Proves my comic point. Respect the source material. This movie? So did it wrong. what could have been DC's Star Wars turned into DC's CGI shit storm. . . .so basically the prequels. In fact, that's this movies new name. Ryan Reynolds vs The Intergalatic Poo Monster. Cause that sure as hell wasn't Pharalax. From the cheap CGI, shoddy editing, and lackluster action; this movie fails on so many accounts. Save your money, go watch Thor.

Thor - 8.5/10
- Speaking of! This is how you almost get it right, course Marvel looses some points for not putting Thor INTO the body of Donald Blake. That's the orginal story, but what we get at it's core is a good presentation. Performances all around are well done but the Stand out are Chris Hemsworth and Tom Hiddleston as Thor and Loki. They have the characters down pat. Throw in Anthony fucking Hopkins as Odin and Kenneth Brahgah as a diector that knows what he's doing when it comes to Norse legends and you have a good movie. Oh and Natalie Portman is hot. Just saying. And that after credits scene. . . .what does it mean?

Captain America - 9/10
- Kay nevermind everything is explained. This follows the Thor formula of pulling from the source and perfects it. this is a pure Captain America movie. Chris Evens embodies the out to do good Steve Rogers and Hayley Atwell is amazingly hot as Peggy Carter. And Tommy Lee Jones is well. . . .Tommy Lee Jones just as a US General. And Hugo Weaving, damn man you are a good actor. I hate the Red Skull but you played him perfectly. Now that everything is all lined up for The Avengers movie I can't wait. Did I mention that the director Joe Johnson also directed The Rockateer? Go watch that movie too.

Breaking Dawn - .1/10
- Yeeees I went to see it. I got dragged so a friend wouldn't feel bad. It gets a .1 in score because there was one scene I liked. The wedding scene just because all the characters seemed happy. Then the dramaz begins! Pretty much the whole movie, she gets knocked up by a corpse. LOGIC!

Transformers Dark of the Moon - 6/10
- Really Michael Bay? You killed of Ironhide again? A pretty much made the same movie three times now. The Decepticons are up to something, the Autobots despite having global resources and freedom to roam it's Sam who solves everything. Again. And Optimus has to beat the shit out of everyone. Again. Douche jokes, Shia panicking and no more Megean Fox. What a mixed blessing.

Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows - 5.5/10
- Not a lot of shadowy games really. More explosions, more bromance humor and a phsycic battle as the climax. Yeah, in a Sherlock Holmes movie. Pretty much the same preformances from Downey and Jude, Rachel McAdams is quickly swept under the rug.

Tin Tin - 9.5/10
- What a refreshing movie, it doesn't try to be "complex", "dark" or "gritty". It's a straight up action movie, it's a straight up adventure that rings tro to the original. Tin Tin is a journalist, travels around with his dog Snowy and his friend Captain Haddock. that's it, a simple formula for an awesome movie. Jamie Bell and Andy Serkis do an amazing job as the leads and Daniel Craig is very sinister as the villian. All around good movie, can't wait for a sequel.

So that's it for movie, my movie of the year is Tin Tin. It attracts the child in me. It's pure fun, with a charming story and characters that are fun to watch. The animation is amazing, even if Jamie Bell comes off as a creepily real Tin Tin sometimes. Also no love interest. That's a plus.

Comic Books


DC Relaunch: The New 52.

I loved 52. It's without a doubt the only good thing DC has done in recent years. Final Crisis was very quickly undone by itself, same with Batman RIP. All the Green Lantern storylines didn't have any real impact, even though they were pretty decent blockbusters. Honestly after Blackest Night Geoff Johns started sucking. Now after the lackluster Flashpoint that had a puss out deus ex machina ending, we are now focusing on a whole new universe. Howdy doo well let's see what's new!

. . .Nothing! Absolutly nothing! DC has stated that everything that's happened in the DC universe, still happened; just in the span of 5 years. Oh good, cause that's what long time running established iconic characters needed! Cliff notes! They've grazed over characters histories, all they're really doing new is the begginnings of characters. Oh, Bruce Wayne still lost his parents but did you know that Superman just showed up one day wearing jeans and an S tshirt? Or that Wonder Woman is a n00b again? Or that Hal Jordan can no longer get it up unless he has his Green Lantern ring on him? Or that Starefire is now a sex crazed bitchy and detached person now? Cause I thought she USED to be opposite of that, you know. . . .considering the whole falling in love with Dick grayson and stuff. Characters aren't married anymore and I know DC is going to try and convince us that Superman and Wonder Woman NEED to be together ASAP! Considering that they keep cramming that down our throats all the other times.

So what's good about the relaunch? Would you believe Batman? Yeah, his titles. All 4 of them are pretty good, hell even the Batgirl and Nightwing runs are amazing. Everything else? It's all hit and miss. Action Comics is meh while the actual Superman book is pretty decent. Geoff Johns should not be writing Wonder Woman, he gets Green Lantern but not her. He's also writing Justice League which is decent, I still don;t know why Superman would act irrational and attack Hal Jordan and Batman in the first issue instead of asking them what was going with the attacks around the world when. . . .wait. . . Superman and Batman are in the same scene? Fuck! Whenever Batman is around Superman he gets amnesia and forgets that he's actually smarter than Bats! Good to know DC still has it's incosistent writing.

The art veries too, from amazingly drawn to just flat out lazy. Like I said all the Batman themed books are really well done in all departments. Jim Lee is drawing Justice League which is a big plus in my books. I can't say that much more on the art. The awful ones I barely glanced at. Oh wait! Did I mention Sinestro is a Green lantern again? Cause somehow the Gaurdians convinced him by just mentioning his planet. Yes, because. . . .yes. Just fucking yes. The last time I saw this many plot holes I was still trying to understand Heroes. Oh and Catwoman rapes Batman. You read that right. Gotham's Dark Knight lets Catwoamn mount him and he tell her to stop, and she keeps going. Stay classy DC! Your movies suck (except for Watchmen), you piss over your fans UND! Your write your characters out of their personalities every other issue.

DC's relaunch get 3.5 rewitten multiverse stories out of 10. Just wait, DC will try to reboot itself again in a matter of weeks. Hell, every big DC event apperently affects the mutliverse. Also DC, I know Batman is popular but you have other heroes. Spider-Man is Marvels most popular superhero but Marvel acknowledges it's other heroes. Like Iron Man, Ms Marvel, the X-Men, The Avengers, ect. So seriously DC, up the quality of writing on your other titles or just name your company 'Batman Comics'.

Fear Itself - 7/10
- Okay sooo Matt Fraction. I like this story but seriously; you have bad pacing, and weird story turn points. You killed off Thor again man, he came back not just three years ago. Course this being mainstream Marvel they already replaced him with a jerk. The whole Tony Stark chugging a bottle of champagne to appease to Odin, really goes nowhere. There was a huge build up that it might restart his drinkin' games. Yeah he chugs it and like a champ, shrugs it off. way to go nowhere at mach 5 there Matt. Oh and Steve Rogers has taken up the mantle from Bucky who died. So that's two people to try and reset the status quo? Oh Marvel. CUT THAT SHIT OUT!

Flashpoint - 4.5/10
- Take Barry Allen, The Flash and set him in a time shattering new universe where he remember the main DC universe. He has no powers, Thomas Wayne is Batman as Bruce was killed with his Motherand the Amazons and Atantlians are attacking the mainland. On top of that, if Barry Allen does find a way to return to his universe he'll shatter the multiverse and rewrite everything. Sounds exciting right? Well nothing happens, the Amazon/Atantlis storyline is rug swept, Thomas Wayne was introduced as a straight up killer but is nothing more than an alchoholic, and Barry Allens return just makes a new universe that is the new 52. He returns to the main universe with no reprocussions and gives a message to Bruce from his alternate universe Dad. That's it.

Death of Spider-man - 5.5/10
- I'm mixed about this, I really am. On a plus side, Mark Bagely's art is phenominal, Brian Micheal Bendis penned a story showing how much of an amazing person Ultimate Peter Parker is and then kills him. Dafuq?! Yeah, Bendis killed off a 16 year old kid. Oh everyone was upset that a half black, half espanic was replacing him; but I actually like Miles Morales. He's already his own character. . . .well kinda. He has a lot of peter Parker traits aside from his parent issues. He doesn't really have an Uncle Ben and his da is a bit of a jerk. I don't mind this, I'm upset that for no reason, a 16 year old kid died. Oh he beat the shit out of Norman 'Goblin sex' Osborn; with a truck! Still, he loses points for making the Ultimate version of the Avengers pissing on him after he pretty much covered their asses, and then he gets killed. Kudos Bendis, you kill children.

Spider-Island - 9/10
- Dan Slott. I love you. Not sinbce J. Michael Stranzynski have I enjoyed Spider-Man this much. He knows how to write him, he can balanced humor and suspense and stay true to the characters. The art is amazing and lively and the colors are bright and amazing (heh pun). The story deals with the Jackal showing up and giving ordinary citizens spider powers. he's doing this for the spider queen so she can have an army of spider knights. Oh yeah, the people start mutating into human spiders that she can control, so Spidey has a short amount of time left before this infestiation covers New York and then the world! (insert imperial march). It's a really gripping story and the line from Spidey "Just watch, I'm going to do it! I'm going to save them!. . . .I'm going to save everyone!" Still sends chills down my spine, this whole story was a huge love letter to Spider-Man, New York now respects him and everything is set on track. His twin/clone Kaine is revived and helps him, only to become the new Scarlet Spider.  Not all is well, Madame Web leaves Spider-Man with a warning; he will suffer a loss unlike any other. Until then though, Spider-Man can enjoy being the worlds greatest superhero!


My comic of the year is obviously Spider-Island. After the mess DC has created with the reboot, I wouldn't be surprised if the first DC even of 2012 is another universe reboot. Marvel on the other hand is pushing itself forward, and I like that. Spider-Island is a love letter to the underdog. It's finally giving Spidey the break he deserves that writers think he doesn't need. bull! He goes through more than the average superhero, so he needs a kit kat every once in a while. Dan Slott, I love you and I hope you stick around for a few more years.


Video Games

First Person Shooters:

. . .Really Activision? Really EA? Must you be content with hyping up your products only to deliver half a game? For full price? I may not have been excited for Ultimate Marvel vs Capcom 3 but they had the respect for a 40 dollor price tag. Modern Warefare 3 and Battlefield 3 are multiplayer games only. That's all they are, a game for multiplayer only. The single player protions are atrocious. Oh the story in BF 3 is a lot better than MW 3, but it's still only 3 hours. In a world where tech has unlimited prowess, short games should only exsist as indie games on Steam of the PSN for 3 dollars. Not 60 plus for half a game. People feed into it though, MW3 and BF3 has sold millions and that makes me a sad panda.

The games don't really challenge the player, sure Battlefield has realism going for it, but it doesn't really play out in the single player. The mechanics are only pure gold on the multiplayer. Meanwhile, a thousand miles away; MW3 has thrown realism out and created a series of exploding gas stations that would make Michael Bay blush. CoD4 had realism going for it, it showed a story that could be happening at this very second along with real world repricussions. MW2 had Russia invading America. Undetected. Oh sure, they tried to explain that Russia had stolen cryptic data to compromise the US's radar systems. But what about Canada? France? Britian? They didn't notice huge carriers overhead, moving over the ocean? And call an emergency meeting of the UN? No? Fuck.

Like I said, the games don;t challenge us anymore. No obstacles, no weight to every thing around you. All you do is fire from the hip and yell at campers. Course in a real war, camping is exactly what you do! But hey, if everyone is content with playing shameless money grabs and waste time on 12 years olds. Then boy is Call of Duty for you. Mostly PC gamers play Battlefield but I still think that game is lacking. Th multiplayer is fun, but if the single player campaign is a forgettable experiance. It's nothing new. Russia are the bad guys. Again. Hey, you know the cold war is over right? You can pick PMC's and oh I dunno, North Korea as your enemy. How about a FPS where you realize that Bobby Kotick is a douche and go blow up Activison? And as a final boss, you have to fight Michael bay on an exploding planet. Revenge of the Fallen? Revenge of my Fist mother fucker.

All FPS' are doing nowaday are trying to wage a dick size contest with eachother. It's sad really, video games are an interactive medium and all we get with war games are 'Americaaaaaa Fuck yeah!". This is why I love Deus Ex so much.


Modern FPS' get 2.5 dick contests out of 10. I miss the days of Doom and Duke Nukem. As childish and gory as they were, they still had more thought put into them than "We need realism!" "Simple controls!" "I have a small dick!". It's sad that DNF was the shit game it was, otherwise we would have seen a return to form that wasn't what Bulletstorm turned out to be.

 - Duke Nukem Forver - 1.5/10
- Hahahaha you're serious? You sent us this shit? This crap? I can see why there was an emphesis on that turd in the beginning of the game. This game tried too hard to be other shooters rather than being it's own thing. Take note, don;t try to appeal to the mainstream, becausehat you can actually do. That's why indie games turn out to be a diamond in the rough. This is just lazy. 12 years? It took 12 years for this. I'd rather watch The Dark Knight for a day straight.

Batman Arkham City - 7.5/10
- I love this game. Mostly for it's gameplay and side missions. Rocksteady really dropped the ball on the story. I know sequels have to be cranked up but 11 is too much. The took The Dark Knight approach and tried to do too much in such a short amount of time. The Penguin segement was padding, Two-Face didn't need to be in the game and the whole "Jokers going to die' storyline felt tacked on. I followed this game from first announcement and what was hinted at was a psycological battle between Hugo Strange and Batman. Pure and simple. What we got was a convoluted mess of a story with good gameplay. That's the saving grace of this game. that and Kevin Conroy's Batmand and Mark Hamill's Joker. Catwoman was hot but really didn't add anything to the game other than a different gameplay style. Her story was completely spereate and we never understood what she was trying to do in Arkham City. They layed hints for a third and final Batman game, but I'll take it with a grain of salt. Arkham Asylum was and still is the BEST Batman game.

Spider-Man: Edge of Time - 8/10
- I love Dc and Marvel, course I lean more towards Marvel because I like their characters a bit more. Don't get me wrong, the DC characters all stand for a great message; but at the end of the day I can relate to the Marvel Universe. There's positives and negatives in both comic industries, like how Arkham City dropped the ball, Edge of Time only stumbled a little. The game is bigger but it's still a bit linear. The combat is more fluid and the wall crawling camera is fixed. reviewers don;t talk about that. Sure the game is short but the graphics are more detailed, yes you only play as two Spider-Men but the combat is more varied. The leads, Josh keaton and Chistopher Daniel Barnes, are phenominal as Amazing and 2099 respectavly. With each improvment, the next Spider-Man game should be crystal perfection then.

Skyrim - 9.5/10
This game is beautiful. It's combat is polished, the envirments are big and the characters look so much better. The story is immersive and expansive, it's also a shade of gray. Skyrim is torn apart by civil war, you are the dragonborn; the only person who can permanitly kill a dragon. Which is good cause they've come back to stick their fire dick in everyone's flammable cereal. The game comes to life and sucks you in. It took me a month before I could move onto something else. And I;m still not done the game. Damn you Bethesda, damn you for showing us that a single player game is still worth it. I love you for that but I hate you for making me lose so much free time. I WISH I KNEW HOW TO QUIT YOU!!!!

Infamous 2 - 9.6/10
- This is it. This is how you make a superhero sandbox. This is also how you make a sequel. Yes you have to expand on what the first one had, but you don't cram in too much. Infamous 2 didn't lose it's focus. It was still Cole's story to the end. The combat was improved upon, the powers made bigger and the soundtrack. Oh my god this soundtrack. It's so beautiful and heart felt. It really tells the tale of a hero. Or villian, depending on which side you took; but Sucker Punch has stated that the true story is the good side. So take what you will from it. Cole and Zeke's friendship is repaired and you know what? Zeke was the real star of this game cause man, when the world was going to hell he still stuck with you through thick and thin. Everything about this game worked, just wished it was a touch longer. The ending(s) are tragic and horrific in their own sense, just like the story. Don't miss this one.

Uncharted 3 - 9/10
- Good gravy on my toast. Naughty Dog you guys rock so much it causes boats to tip over. This thrid outing with Drake has twists, turns, explosions and a giant desert. The set pieces are amazing and the acting is phenominal. I know some people are tired of Nolan North. But not me, the man can act. Sully is fleshed out and Elaine . . . .doesn't really do much. She isn't useless, but she's more of a cameo in this game than the last. The only let down is the reveal at the end. there isn't one really. The mysterious mcguffin is never really explained other than it can do stuff. You have to play the game to find otu what that is. The controls are smoothed out and there's an emphesis on close combat. Which is good because shooting in this game is sluggish. In 2 it was smoothed out but here? They went back to the first game. You can smooth it out, but why they took a step back when they took five steps forward is beyond me.

Gears of War 3 - 6.5/10
- Lazy graphics, lazy story. More of the same gameplay. What I mean by lazy story? It's all a cliche. Just think of every war movie you've seen and put what happens in those movies, in this game. Everything is revealed and it's lackluster. Like Epic gave up, which isn't surprising cause Cliffy B is an idiot. The game was still fun but at it's core, it's forgettable. Which at the end of the day, sums up the whole franchise.

Fable 3 - 2.5/10
-Really? I'm glad I didn;t spend money on this. I burrowed it from a friend. then we both set it on fire. We needed to cleasne the earth of this shit. Peter last name I can;t spell. You're games have been bland. Fable 1 was alright, Fable 2 was just an expansion (Oh hai Call of Duty) and this? Good god. Movies and Games are being puked over. Everyone's just going in for a cash grab. Thank god for Uncharted, Infamous and Skyrim. Those games had developers that took their time and look what happened. Good games.

Sonic Generations - 9/10
- First Colors, now this. It's a HUGE love letter to Sonic and all the fans that stuck by. The gameplay from Colors makes a return 9minu the wisps system) and you get to play as classic Sonic too! There's something for everyone new and old. The graphics are amazing, the running is smoothed out once more, the remixes kick ass and the story is adorable. If you went the year without playing this, shame on you. Sonic is back in gold form and you owe it to your shildhood to play this.

Zelda: Skyward Sword - 9.5/10
- The other thing setting this game back is the motion controls, yes it's clever that the enemy catches on your movements; but that's because the motion controls are gimmicky. Which best describes the wii. The world is alive and amazingly designed. Zelda is an actual character you care about, and you can even flesh out Link through dialogue choices. thank god it's no Other M. Link is all hero and that's it. It's powerful yet simple and holds true to the zelda mythos. I can;t wait to see the next one, don;t makes us wait too long nintendo! Just drop the motion controls. Gimmicky piece of shit.

My Game of the Year? Everyone picked Skyrim but I'm picking Skyward Sword. Once you get past the motion controls, there really is an amazing and artistic fleshed out world. With high stakes and characters we can actually care about, Skyrim came a little short because even though you had a huge world in it. You were still alone, it makes your character epic but when other people are activly helping you (like The Blades) that's a bad sign.

So that's it. Another year down, another to go. I'm still working on a bunch of stuff and getting myself back on track. I wish you all the best and hopefully, I won;t rage quit once I see The Dark Knight Rises. Hopefully being the keyword. then again, Spider-man and the Avengers are this year. Ahhh Nerdism, my anit-drug. Well peace out mortals, and don't let me catch you on my property again! You know who you are!