EverydayGamers.com Has Officially Launched!!

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EVERYDAYGAMERS.COM

Inspired

YNFVGB becomes EverydayGamers.com

Yes we haven’t posted in a while and that’s because we’re hard at work on the next version of YNFVGB which is EverydayGamers.com!!

EverydayGamers.com is going to be huge and we are very very excited about it.

Right now you can stop over to EverydayGamers.com where we have our blog which will keep you updated on EDG news and let you know when to expect the full site. Expect the full site during the end of July or Beginning of August if all goes as planned.

Feel free to contact us with any suggestions you may have.

Please continue to show your support!!

Thanks guys

EVERYDAYGAMERS.COM

Super Monkey Ball on iPhone

Thoughts on Assault Heroes 2

The first Assault Heroes is by far one of the best games on XBLA to this day so I was happy to hear that Assault Heroes 2 was being released and so soon at that. My Xbox was red ringin’ when it was released so I had to wait a few weeks to play it but as soon as my 360 came back I downloaded it and gave it a try with my wife. We played through the first 10 areas before we realized that Medium is more like Hard. I don’t usually ever play on Easy mode but this was an exception, plus we just wanted to enjoy it. The first thing I noticed when playing AH2 was the level of detail this version has compared to the last. The overall look is a lot different than the first one, you have way more things going on on screen than before. More things to blow up, more enemies, more scenery. The jungle levels were probably the most beautiful as we climbed up ancient ruins and fought off dinosaurs…yes dinosaurs. Assault Heroes is everything I would want in a sequel. My wife is also enjoying the game a lot too. Overall AH2 is a must buy if you enjoyed the first one, it’s everything a sequel should be.

Army of Tools

Fan art time! Courtesy of you know who…

i need you, Salem by ~yuoma on deviantART

Planes, Trains, and Automobiles Part 2 of 3: The Overlook

Today I bring Part 2 of my Travel Series from my trip out west. Today is specifically my visit to the famous Stanley Hotel, often known as ‘The Overlook Hotel’ from ‘The Shining.’
Beautifully perched in the Rocky Mountains the view of and from the Stanley is nothing short of amazing and awe inspiring. The hotel was built in 1909 by the inventor of the Stanley Steamer, an early automobile. The Stanley has hosted many famous guests, including Unsinkable Molly Brown, John Philip Sousa, Theodore Roosevelt, and a variety of Hollywood personalities. The Stanley Hotel also hosted Stephen King, inspiring him to write ‘The Shining’. Parts of the far superior mini-series version of ‘The Shining’ were filmed there, but was not used for Kubrick’s version. The service and beauty of the hotel was amazing and I throughly enjoyed my stay. ‘The Shining’ loops over and over on channel 42 for those interested. While I was there both a Senior Prom and Wedding were held. What struck me as interesting was that they really don’t milk or advertise the fame of ‘The Shining’, instead it gets a small selection of items in the gift shop. It is a 1st class establishment that has such an incredible warmth and history to it. There is something very special about this hotel, nothing to do with ghosts or anything scary but of a rich historical draw that pulls you in and captures you. I told myself I would go there once before I died and I’ve renewed that commitment to go again at some point in the future for a longer stay. The surrounding area is full of shops, eateries, taverns, and local interests, a mere miles from the Rocky Mtn National Park.
What follows below is just a small portion of all the photos from that leg of the trip. It runs a little over 3 mins- Enjoy! (Rocky Mtns Part Coming Soon.)

Thoughts on Konami's Critter Round-Up

My mom and sister are here to visit and I was expecting to have Wii Fit on Monday (not Wednesday) but that didn’t happen so I decided to look on WiiWare and see if there was anything fun to download for us to play. I noticed Konami’s Critter Round-Up was available and after checking a trailer for it I thought it looked like cute family fun. So I shelled out $10…yes $10…more than the price of the most amazing PSN game ever (PixelJunk Monsters) and yes, the same price as Lost Winds. I later found out that I was totally ripped off. Critter Round-Up is a lame “build the fence around some animals” game that has super-poor graphics and looks like it was made by some 10 year olds. The point of the game is to build fences around the animals, keeping the same animals together. Bears with bears, goats with goats, and so on. You press 1 to build the fence and 2 to jump. Any animal you touch will kill you and you only have 3 lives. Bears and wolves will even run after you to eat you. My main complaint with the game was the inability to be able to stop building a fence once you’ve started. The only way you can stop is to connect it you another fence. The whole game is set up on a grid which makes it really hard to direct your guy correctly. Critter Round-Up supports up to 4 players and also has an additional 4 mini games which are better than the main “adventure,” but not by much. Critter Round-Up might be worth $5 but definitely not $10. Use that money on something like Lost Winds or PixelJunk Monsters. I don’t know if there is some cult following for Critter Round-Up or if Konami just wants to make a quick buck but it’s games like these that are going to give WiiWare a bad rep.

Thoughts on Lost Winds

Now that my Xbox 360 is in repair I was happy to come back to the Wii and check out what WiiWare had to offer. I decided to download Lost Winds over the weekend. Boy am I glad I did. I had heard some good things about it from various journalists and knew that I would have to give it a try. Lost Winds is a great game, the best on WiiWare by far. The main game mechanic at work here is wind. You use the Wii remote to blow wind towards Toku (the character you are controlling) and this causes him “fly.” Along the way you unlock more powers which allow you to do more things such as draw a line where you want the wind to go and so on. Lost Winds’ story reminds me a lot of Zelda. Even though the game is as good as it can be for $10 the world of Mistralis looks beautiful. I am also really digging the music. It’s very relaxing and is one of the reasons I love the game so much. There is already talk of a sequel in production. Visit the Lost Winds site for more info.

Lost Winds really sets a good pace for WiiWare. It also gives me a great idea of the potential that WiiWare has. I have no problem spitting up $10 for a game that is better than most of the $50 Wii games out there. If developers will sit down and take the time to utilize the Wii controls and create games that are up to speed with Lost Winds then WiiWare could over shine PSN and XBLA in the near future.

Lost Winds is a must-download if you have a Wii. If you already have the game…do you agree?

C&C: Red Alert 3

I’ve always been a huge fan of the Command and Conquer series so when I heard that Red Alert 3 is in the works I was pretty excited. C&C games are basically the only time I play PC. Even though I passed on Command and Conquer 3 I will definitly be picking up Red Alert 3 after watching the debut trailer. To convince you guys this game is worth getting I’ve embedded that same trailer below. Dig in!

Planes, Trains, and Automobiles Part 1 of 3: Philmont

Greetings!
Today I bring the 1st of a 3 part travel series for my most recent trip out west. There were 3 legs to the trip, 2 personal and 1 professional: Denver/Colorado/Colorado Springs, The Stanley in Estes Park/Rocky Mtns, and Philmont in Cimmaron New Mexico. I’m going backwards chronologically, starting with Philmont, the end of my trip. I spent 5 days at Philmont, and despite the hours of training got in some backpacking, driving, pool, and even a little country on the jukebox. (My name is now forever a part of the St. James Hotel ceiling) Philmont is a premier high-adventure base, with more than 200 square miles of rugged New Mexico wilderness. This was the next level of my professional development in my career with the BSA. In another year or so I will attend PDL3 in Texas and after an interview with the region chief, can choose to be listed as ‘available’ to be hired elsewhere and have the opportunity to move out and up. (Up North and out West have taken my heart, but I wouldn’t be opposed to NC either I got to interact with a great group of peers, many of which I’ll see in Nashville come August.
(It only runs 3 mins) Enjoy!

Lost "There's No Place Like Home Pt. 1" Review

I don’t really know what to write… all I know is that last night’s episode of Lost was great. It was interesting to see what the Oceanic 6 had to go through after being “rescued.” I also enjoyed what was going down on the island. This new hatch called “The Orchid” seems cool and I am curious to see what will happen there. This episode really delivered and I absolutely can’t wait for the season finale. Hopefully we will get even more answers before the season ends. Check back for my full thoughts after the season finale on May 29th. Score 9.5/10

PixelJunk Monsters: Encore

PixelJunk Monsters Encore was finally released on May 8th even though we were told that it would be an April release. I guess I can live with that. Now that my Xbox 360 has gone all RRoD on me this couldn’t have come at a better time. The wife and I are absolute PJM freaks and have been waiting patiently for this expansion ever since it was announced. PJM: Encore gives us another go around on an island by the name of Toki. There is 15 new maps and 5 new songs. Also the Tesla Tower is 10 gems instead of 11 and the Ice Tower is now standard. So far my wife and I completed 12 maps and out of those maps we have 6 rainbows. We’ve been playing it every night since the release and are addicted once again. PJM: Encore seems a little harder than the original maps but it could just be me. We are actually stuck on getting a rainbow on one of the Easy maps. Sick! I find the balance of PJM: Encore to be very inconsistent as some of the Hard maps were easier than the Easy maps. Overall PJM: Encore is a great addition. I highly recommend it to anyone who owns a PS3. I hope Q-Games considers doing at least one more expansion pack before pushing PJM by the way side. Oh and I found out the other day that PJM is officially my wife’s favorite game ever

Lost: "Cabin Fever" Review

Cabin Fever opened up more questions than answers, so many that I’m starting to lose track and not even care if I get answers. This is a problem, I want to care. Lost is not the same show that it used to be, this isn’t necessarily bad, but I do want my answers! In this episode we learn more about Locke and find out that he was a pretty gifted kid when he was younger. We also learn that Richard never ages or that he might be time traveling somehow. Overall the episode was good but I found the most interesting parts were on the boat. I like the idea of the island being in the “future” and the happenings on the boat being in the past…or something like that. Who knows why Jack’s father is sitting in the cabin like he owns the place. I can’t seem to get into that whole thing anyways. I’m ready to see how they get off of the island, I feel like they’ve been dragging it out for too long. SCORE: 7.0/10

Conan O'Brien and GTA IV

Conan O’Brien continues to be the best of late night television…

Universal and Gore Verbinski to take on BioShock

Taken from Joystiq:

Variety reports that Universal has signed a deal to turn Bioshock into a movie. Director Gore Verbinski (Pirates of the Caribbean) will head the project and Aviator writer John Logan may write the screenplay. Take-Two executive chairman Strauss Zelnick, who was in charge of Fox in the ’90s, handled the deal for his company and says the project will actually get made … unlike the Halo movie.

There’s also an interview with Verbinski on Variety’s Cut Scene blog where he discusses the project. He believes the movie will be rated “R” and says, in terms of the Little Sisters, that he’ll take the issue “right up to the edge,” not wanting the core audience to feel “betrayed.” Though no release date is currently targeted, Verbinski says he’ll start pre-production when Logan’s script is finished and approved.

Read the actual Joystiq post at http://www.joystiq.com/2008/05/08/bioshock-movie-in-development-gore-verbinski-directing/

GTA + RROD = OMG!!

So my wife tells me she is in the mood to play The Sims and the best thing is that it’s early like 7:00 pm which means she’ll get sucked in and play for a good 2 hours maybe even 3. This means GTA time for me, so I pop GTA IV in and come back to my room while it loads. I’m sitting on the bed and hear “GGZZRRSSHH!!!” Thinking nothing of it I go to restart my Xbox. I hear similar noises like that almost everyday. So I restart the Xbox and…wait…no…NO….NOOOOO!!!!!!!! Red Ring of Death you couldn’t have came at a better time! Goodbye Liberty City…good bye 2 hours+ of GTA goodness. I don’t want to believe it so I restart my Xbox like 3 million times. It actually started to work a few times only to freeze up before getting anywhere. It would have been nice to at least be able to say goodbye to GTA and have one last go around before this 3 week long torture. Yes, I’m depressed. I’m considering renting from Rent A Center. I like to think that I’m not addicted to my Xbox…I just like having it around…you know? It’s only $30 a week. Seems like a reasonable price. Anyways…it’s nice to have a blog where you can vent these kinds of life-changing moments. Thanks for reading about my pain. I’m gonna go cry in the corner for 2 hours now.

Please ease my pain and donate to my Xbox rental fund with the donate button located in the left sidebar.

*Update: Rent-A-Center is only “rent to own” which is so not worth it. Now I’m really about to cry.

*Update 2: Decided to try the “towel trick” on my Xbox 360 and it actually worked (for now) so I got to play some GTA for a good 3 hours. Go overheating!

The Happening Trailer

Before Ironman started we got a nice “The Happening” preview. I am a big fan of M. Night but I don’t think you have to a big fan to think this movie looks sweet. Go Marky! Awesome trailer below.

Ironman

I went to see Ironman this Friday with my wife and uncle. I had seen a million Ironman previews prior to seeing the movie. Initially I wasn’t interested in seeing it but the previews grew on me and I then realized I really wanted to see it. So we went. Overall I was very satisfied, Robert Downey Jr. does a great job as Ironman and the rest of the cast is a perfect fit as well. In my opinion Ironman is better than Spiderman, it’s somewhere near Batman for me and I am a big fan of Batman (dark knight!). The movie was not predictable and it wasn’t too “superhero-ish” either. Even though the movie is action packed you won’t find many “bad-guy vs good-guy” fights until the end, there is also a little revenge segment in the middle but it doesn’t last for very long. This left me wanting more and I can’t wait for Ironman 2. Hopefully it’s soon.

*UPDATE: Ironman 2 has been officially dated for April 30th, 2010

Lost "Something Nice Back Home"

Like I wrote in the last episode I really wanted to see another Jake flash-forward soon. After seeing the “Next week on Lost” teaser I was pretty confident that this next episode would be about Jack. For some reason Jack brings back the old memories of Lost. With all the new characters it is Jack that reminds me of the first and second seasons. In this episode we find out that Jack is sick and needs his spleen removed. I honestly cannot stand Juliet one more minute. I’m not sure if it is bad acting or what but I really do not like Juliet and she is my least favorite character, even behind the extras that don’t even speak a word. In the flash-forward we see that Jack does end up hooking up with Kate. At one point I wanted Kate to hook up with Sawyer but I no longer believe they should and I am happy to see Jack and Kate together like old times. Does anyone else think Sawyer and Claire should hook up? This episode brought a very eerie feel along with it and overall I thought it was great. I often find myself getting too overwhelmed with all the new questions, characters, and places so this was a nice break from all of that. It brought us back to Jack. SCORE 8.7/10

Just Watch (MGS4)

Metal Gear Online Beta

So as I wrote in my earlier Metal Gear post I pre-ordered MGS4 therefore I was given a beta-key to partake in the Metal Gear Online Beta. After downloading millions of updates that took well over a few hours and signing up 20 times for my Konami ID, and waiting a week because of the delay, I finally played some Metal Gear Online. The first thing that I noticed was the amazing graphics. MGO is a beautiful game and I’m sure that MGS4 is going to look even better. MGO has a different pace than most people are used to. It’s a little slower and more tactical. So far there doesn’t seem to be much to it. Just the regular deathmatch, team deathmatch, defend, etc. game types. The first round of team deathmatch that I played my team actually won and I had the most kills. This made me like the game more. The second time I sat down with it I played TD again and my team won along with me being the top player again. I started to wonder what was going on. Maybe it’s the controls, maybe it’s the pace, maybe the Metal Gear regulars just aren’t used to online play. I’m not sure what the case is but I seem to do pretty good with MGO…for now. After you get used to the controls it’s gets pretty fun but to me it was fun in short bursts. After hearing the same moan after someone dies for the 20th time it got kind of annoying. I really wish there was some voice chat in the game so I can at least feel like I am playing against real people. I think this will be the biggest complaint from anyone who has played the beta. I hear that they recently released a new map and a new mode in which you can play as Snake. I haven’t played much of the beta lately because of GTA and life in general but I’ll make sure I sit down with it soon before it ends.

Echochrome Demo

I recently had the chance to sit down and play the demo for Echochrome (on PS3). I was sorta in a hurry so I played for about 15 minutes before quiting. Echochrome is a puzzle game that will be made available through PSN for PS3 and PSP. There isn’t really a way to describe Echochrome so if you don’t know much about it I suggest you take a look at the movie below. As for my thoughts on the game, I was initially thinking that you would control the little man but you don’t, he walks himself and you control the camera angle. The angle of the camera has to be in specific positions for the guy to get past certain obstacles. I played through the tutorial with no problems but once I got to the actual levels I had a hard time of figuring out what to do. The game just seemed hard to me. Maybe if I give it another go when I have more time I might like it. I do like the simplicity of the artwork though. The is probably what initially got me interested in the game. Anyone else give it a try? Click here to download the Echochrome demo for PSP

*Update: The full version of Echochrome will be available for download through PSN tomorrow (5/1).

Movies, Movies, Movies

Over the past week I watched three more movies to keep the “movie-watching mood” in full force. These three movies included: Children of Men, Michael Clayton, and Dan in Real Life.

The first movie I watched was Children of Men. Children of Men is a very unique movie. The year is around 2027 and the world is pretty much on it’s way down hill. Women can no longer conceive and all foreigners are being sent back to their homelands. The main plot of the story is about a man who finds out that he is needed to help transport an African American girl who miraculously got pregnant to a safer place. Along the way we see some crazy and intense situations. Clive Owen puts on a great performance and confirms the fact that he is one of the better actors of his time and one of my personal favorites. Overall I really liked the movie because it was very original and like nothing I’ve seen before.

The next movie I watched was Michael Clayton. Michael Clayton was nominated for best picture of 2007 and was beaten by No Country for Old Men. Michael Clayton is a work of art. The movie was filmed awesome and the story is very intense. I thought that this movie may be a little hard to follow so I payed extra attention to it and I am glad I did. If you are willing to follow the movie closely then you will not be let down. The only complaint I have was that the ending was a little uninspiring. It ended good but it wasn’t mind-blowing like I thought it should be.

The last movie I watched was Dan in Real Life. I know that Kurt wrote about it in an earlier post but now I can say my thoughts on it. Dan in Real Life is the perfect movie to sit down and watch with the family. It’s very cute, funny, and clever, kinda what I thought Juno was going to be. I could probably watch it a few more times. Steve Carell really impressed me because he didn’t play the typical Steve Carell character, more like the opposite. The rest of the cast was perfect for the movie and I was even surprised at how much Dane Cook made me laugh. As of now Dan in Real Life is in my top 20 favorite movies. Go and rent it as soon as you can.

Don’t think I am done just yet. My movie-watching mood hasn’t faded yet so expect some more movie thoughts in the coming week.

Lost: "The Shape of Things to Come" Review

Thursdays are back to being my TV watching days. With Survivor at 8:00 and now LOST at 10:00 I have a nice little hour in between to gather myself for LOST. The Shape of Things to Come was the first episode of the return of Lost giving us a nice view of Ben and his life post-island. We learn how he gets Sayid to do his dirty work and we also see a pretty brutal side to him. After watching this episode I am realizing that Ben is just as much a threat off the island as he is on the island. It was interesting to see how the “Ben’s daughter being held hostage” ordeal turned out. No spoilers here Anyways, the outcome of that ordeal was well thought out and it made Ben’s story a lot more interesting. What are these “rules” he was talking about? My speculation is that Ben and Mr. Widmore may have known each other before this whole island thing. Maybe one would even go as far as to say they were good friends at one point. I guess we’ll see in episodes to come. I’m hoping we’ll get another Jack flash-forward soon. I thought it was funny when Jack asked Dan “You didn’t come here to save us did you?!” and Dan says “No..we didn’t.” I felt bad for Jack being the last one on the face of the planet to find that out. Everyone knew that about 3 years ago. Overall the episode was interesting but not amazing. SCORE 8/10

Kurt’s View:
YAY! Lost is back, and it is back! I’ve been waiting for this episode since the 3rd season finale. It’s about time we got some gunplay and action on the island! Ben’s nuts, Kate cracks me up, and they mowed down innocents like it was GTA! The smoke monster scene was nice. This episode bodes well for the final episodes being strong as a result of the strike break. ABC and the creators deciding to end the show at a specific point has made this show even better.
SCORE 8/10

IGN's GTA IV Video Review

Just thought you guys may be interested to see what IGN has to say about GTA IV before you go out and get it on Tuesday. They gave the game a 10/10. Check out the video review below.

Your New Favorite Video Game Podcast

For some reason we’ve been having problems with YNFVGB’s feed. I’m not sure if you guys tried to subscribe but if you did then you will notice it’s not working so well. Because of this the podcast wouldn’t work properly with iTunes so I created a whole new blog for our podcast along with a new name for it. As the title suggests the new name for our podcast is “Your New Favorite Video Game Podcast” a.k.a “YNFVGP.” I’ve created a link over in the left sidebar under “YNFVGB Links” which will take you to the podcast’s blog. If you want to subscribe to the podcast just click the link below, this will automatically launch iTunes and take you right to the YNFVGB podcast page from where you can subscribe:

http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?id=278839044

Kurt and I are planning to pump out a podcast here very soon so sit tight!

If you do want to subscribe to our the blog through an RSS reader use the address below for now:

http://ynfvgb.planets.gamespy.com/wordpress/?feed=rss2

Steam

In case you haven’t heard…Steam holds the future of PC gaming in it’s hands. Steam is brought to us by Valve, makers of the Half-Life, Team Fortress, and Counter-Strike series’. Steam is an online community very similar to Xbox Live but available on your PC. No, it’s not like Windows Live, it’s much better. Steam lets you do many things such as create friends lists, buy games, download demos, download videos, join groups, create profiles, and much, much more. The best part about it is that it’s FREE. You can see what a friend is playing just like what you see on Live. Steam is very convenient as it lets you download and launch games right through it. I had heard about Steam a while back and finally decided to give it a try. Too bad it took me this long as it is making me want to get back into PC gaming this instant. The first game we bought through Steam was Peggle. I just browsed through the store and found the game I wanted and downloaded the demo. Once finished with the demo I downloaded the full game. If you own a PC (like everyone else on the earth) then I suggest you download it and set up an account now. No credit card is necessary. Even if you don’t necessarily have a gaming computer Steam gives you everything from the hardcore to the casual so trust me…you need to download it now. Through Steam I’ve created a profile which you can visit and add me as a friend. I also created a group specifically for fans of YNFVGB. Just set up an account with Steam then come and join the YNFVGB group. In this group I will post announcements and also host chats. We have a YNFVGB chat room right in there. I’ve also included a link to the group in the left sidebar under “YNFVGB Links.” I am very excited to have finally downloaded Steam and I hope you guys will take the time to try it out and join the YNFVGB group. I’d love to get some chat rooms going every once in a while so we can just talk about games all night. Expect a chat to take place in the very near future.

To make it even more convenient I’ve included the actual Steam program which you can download right from this page—>Download Steam

Peggle

A few weeks ago I decided to download Steam. I had heard a lot of good things about it and wanted to finally give it a try. But this post isn’t about Steam (we’ll save that for a later post), it’s about Peggle, a game that I downloaded very quickly and conveniently through Steam. I had heard about Peggle from the guys on 1UP Yours and they said that it was pretty addictive. Other than that I hadn’t heard much about it. Turns out Peggle is a full-fledged Pop Cap game which you can download to your computer too. I decided to download it in hopes that it would be a replacement game for my wife’s addiction to Zuma. In the end we both ended up getting addicted to it. Maybe it’s the cheesy characters (groundhogs and unicorns). Basically the game has you shooting a little shiny ball at pegs that make the ball bounce and hit other pegs. After that ball falls down to the bottom those pegs disappear. In each level there is so many orange pegs that you must make disappear and you only have so many tries to make it happen. Each level is also arranged very differently. Along the way you will be given opportunities to obtain different types of power-ups by hitting certain pegs. All-in-all Peggle is highly addictive and I will be sure to buy the full version soon. I suggest you give it a try right now.

Metal Gear Solid: The Essential Collection

I must have been under a rock or something because it was only last week that I first heard about the Metal Gear Online beta. I knew that I would pre-order MGS4 but I hadn’t because I still had a lot of time. After hearing about the beta I decided it was time to pre-order. I made sure to ask if they had any beta keys and sure enough they did. After hours of downloading and updating I was finally ready. Everyone knows the beta has been delayed but that’s fine with me. The following weekend I was at the mall with my wife and we decided to stop in EB Games real quick. While I was in there I saw the “Metal Gear Solid: The Essential Collection” and decided to get it. I had heard about it and almost bought it on Amazon and today I was in the buying mood so I went for it. When I got home I started with Metal Gear Solid. This brought back a lot of memories. Metal Gear was the first game I had beat on my PS1 and I was really proud of it. Weirdly enough I can’ stop playing it. I keep saying “just a little more” and end up playing for hours. I think overall I am playing it for the “Oh! I remember this!” factor. I didn’t realize how crappy PS1 graphics were when I was playing it back then, it made me want to buy Twin Snakes for Gamecube again. None-the-less it’s a great game. After I played a little of MGS1 I decided to throw MGS2 in for a spin. I always wanted to get into MGS2 but I never owned a PS2 so I never got the chance. I played a little and decided that I will come back to it after I’ve played through MGS1 a little more. Lastly I play some MGS3. I’m not sure what kind of review scores it received but I’m not a huge fan of it. I felt the controls were too complicated and I just wanted that fixed camera view back. Overall I decided I am going to play through MGS1 and then move onto MGS2 once I complete it. We’ll see how far I get before MGS4 comes out. By the way…I am siked for MGS4 like the rest of the world. It’s going to be epic. Maybe I should pick up Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops for PSP while I am at it.

Best Picture?

I’ve been watching a lot of movies over the past few weeks. For me it’s easy to say no to watching a movie because I work half of the day and don’t want to waste 2 more hours sitting on the couch but I do have my times when all I want to do is watch movies. Last week and this week seems to be that time. For some reason I just decided that we would watch No Country For Old Men. I knew that it was scored well and that the majority of the world liked it so we decided to rent it. I had no idea what the plot was about so I guess you could say I was in for a ride. I also didn’t know that it was going to be so gory. It almost felt like a horror/thriller at times. Anyways, I really liked the movie. The weird thing is that I didn’t realize I liked the movie till a few hours after we had finished. I had watched it with my uncle, my wife, and a friend and the majority’s opinion was negative. I like NCFOM because it was very well made, they did a great job of keeping it interesting, they also picked a great cast. All the characters fit their roles perfectly. Lastly the story was very deep and I was intrigued throughout. I realized once I started repeating the name “No Country For Old Men” that this name has so much meaning for the movie. There truly is, as the movie shows, no country for old men…at least in Texas that is. Overall I was very satisfied with the movie and would watch it again in this moment if I could. If you’re a fan of actual endings to movies then you might not like this one.

Next on the list was Juno. Heh, I had seen a preview for it a while back and thought “this looks cute.” Time passed and we missed a few opportunities to go and then my wife left for Poland so we sorta put it on hold for a while. It was actually playing in a small theater last week but we decided to rent it instead. I know that the reviews were in favor of it and I know that a lot of people liked it but the bottom line is…I didn’t. I was really disappointed. I went into it excited and hopeful and came out of it with a bitter taste in my mouth. I pretty much knew after the first line from Juno that I wasn’t down with her. She and her friend kind of annoyed me and showed me how corrupt this generation of teens is. The one character that I did find funny was Paulie Bleeker but he barely even had a part in this movie. I really wanted to be a fan of Juno like the rest of the world but I was far from it.

Next movie was Hart’s War. Hart’s War? Yea I never heard of it either and after watching it I know why. Hart’s War came with the 5 free blu-ray movies that I was entitled to because I bought a PS3. Hey Bruce Willis and Collin Ferrell were on the cover, should be great right? Not the case with this one. Even though it was interesting to learn that some African Americans were fighter pilots in WWII this movie was plain boring. The only real part worth watching was when Terrance Howard gave a moving speech about working hard to become a pilot but other than that this movie was a waste of 2 hours and can be thrown in the garbage for all I care. Yes, I may be a little harsh but I had just watched a stupid movie (Juno) the night before. Two lame movies in a row isn’t good that’s why we are planning to watch something good tonight. At least I hope it’s going to be good.

“A good traveler has no fixed plans, and is not intent on arriving.”

Things will be quiet from me for the next week as I head out West. If I return I should have some beautiful pics and hopefully all good stories to tell. PEACE.

YNFVGB Podcast Episode #3

Episode #3 is fresh of the YNFVGB microphone as Kurt joins me to talk about Cloverfield, Drake’s Fortune, iTunes Rentals and anything else we could think of. We’ve added the official YNFVGB jingle to the podcast courtesy of Eric Sakmar. Check out more of Eric’s music at www.ericsakmar.com. Thanks and enjoy!!

YNFVGB Podcast Episode #3

YNFVGB Podcast Episode #2

The 2nd Episode from YNFVGB.com is available now. The quality of the podcast is improving but there are times when it may be hard to hear what Kurt is saying because it blanks out. We hope you enjoy it and please feel free to let us know what you think. In this podcast we talk about Maroon 5 the B Sides Collection, the Frontlines:Fuel of War demo, and The Hobbit. Enjoy!

YNFVGB Podcast Episode #2

YNFVGB Podcast Episode #1

The is the first episode of the official YNFVGB Podcast. I am very proud even though there are a few minor problems. Some problems I noticed include: Kurt might be hard to hear, the quality on his end wasn’t that great either because of the type of microphone he had to use. Next, I didn’t realize it till after we were done recording but the mic was too close to my mouth so it may sound weird at times. Other than that I am very proud of the podcast, I hope you guys enjoy it and please give us feedback here at the site. Leave a comment and let us know what you think. We are new to the whole podcast recording so I can promise you that things will only get better from here on out. We had a lot of fun with this podcast so we will definitely continue with it and there will be more available for download in the future. Check out www.ynfvgb.com for more info!

YNFVGB Podcast Episode #1

What I've Been Playing, Listening To, and Watching.

I just thought I’d take the time to let you guys know what I’ve been playing, listening to, and watching over the past few weeks:

What I’ve Been Playing:

1. Rainbow Six Vegas 2 – I finished the game but have been working on some of the achievements. Kurt and I finally got the “Beat Every Terrorist Hunt on Realistic Difficulty” which I feel was a great accomplishment.
2. Hot Shots Golf: Out of Bounds – Great game. I think I’ve played through it far enough to let you guys know my final thoughts. Expect a post in the next week.
3. Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 2 – The wife and I are veterans of GRAW but we haven’t played for a while. I finally decided to go back to it and I am hooked again, we are playing every night now.
4. Rainbow Six Vegas – Going back with Kurt and getting the Terrorist Hunt achievements for this one now.
5. Peggle – Finally downloaded Steam and got myself some Peggle. Highly addictive. Expect my full thoughts on Steam in the next week or so.
6. Command and Conquer: Decade – I splurged and got Decade because I really wanted to play some C&C and Red Alert. These games were the only reason I played PC back then.
7. Call of Duty 4 – On my pile of games I really wish I was playing. I played a few matches on live over the weekend.

What I’ve Been Listening To:

1. Vampire Weekend – Love the whole CD, this band is very talented. Favorite songs would be “A-Punk”, “M79″, “One (Blakes Got a New Face)”, and “The Kids Don’t Stand a Chance.”
2. Dave Matthews Band – I never really appreciated DMB as much as I should but recently got hooked on songs like “What Would You Say”, “Ants Marching”, and “Too Much.”
3. Jack Johnson – I really like his new CD and can’t wait to see him in concert on August 6th. My favorite song on his new CD would be “They Do, They Don’t.”
4. The 1UP Yours Podcast – Listen to it at work every week when updating the company’s project list. Great stuff!
5. Maroon 5 – The B-Sides Collection. Specifically “Miss You Love You”, “Until You’re Over Me”, and “Infatuation.”
6. Modest Mouse – absolutely love the songs “Dashboard” and “Missed The Boat.”
7. P.O.D. – Enjoying the recently released When Angels and Serpents Dance. Favorite songs include “Addicted”, “Condescending”, and “Kaliforn-Eye-A.”

What I’ve Been Watching/Watched:

1. Top Chef – Great show on Bravo. Makes me want to work in a restaurant again.
2. Stir of Echoes – Came with the free Blu-Rays I got for buying the PS3, decent movie.
3. The Prestige – It also came with the free Blu-Ray movies. I really liked it and recommend it to anyone.
4. Survivor: Fans vs. Favorites – The season started off slow but the wife and I are addicted once again.
5. 21 – Saw this at the theater over the weekend and really enjoyed it. Very interesting!
6. The 1UP Show – make sure to get my weekly dose.
7. Here Come The Newlyweds – The season finished last week. I’m guessing it was just a filler for the writer’s strike but it was still interesting. I was happy with the couple that won the money.
8. Desperate Housewives – I don’t care what you say, this is a great show. The season finally returned this past Sunday.

YNFVGB Calendar Updates

Just to let you guys know, I’ve added a better Movie Release Date calendar to the YNFVGB Calendar. Just click on the movie reel to have a window pop up with the releases for that day. Pretty nifty. In addition to that I’ve added a new DVD Release Date calendar. To view the DVD releases for a specific day (usually Tuesday) just click the purple DVD Releases rectangle and it will pop up with a list of the DVD releases for that day. Click “More Details” for a better view. Lastly I’ve added a simple US Holidays calendar which is shown in green. Enjoy!!

Supple: The World's First Interactive Sitcom

YNFVGB.com is now EverydayGamers.com – Full Site Launching end of July 2008!

About a month ago my husband told me to check out The Sims 3 teaser site. For some reason the site wasn’t working so I went to YouTube and searched for The Sims 3 trailer. Instead of finding a trailer for The Sims 3 I found a trailer for a game called Supple, which some people confused with The Sims 3. I watched the trailer and became interested so I checked out the site. On the site I read some testimonials and reviews and decided I would download the free hour-long demo. I played through the demo and instantly became addicted. My hour was up and because I really liked it I decided to buy it.

YNFVGB.com is now EverydayGamers.com – Full Site Launching end of July 2008!

In the game you play as Arin Costello, an Associate Editor for Supple Magazine. Her goal is to work hard and be promoted to Style Editor. During the game you are found competing against your coworker Hugh Chadwick who is trying for the same position. You will also meet your boss Margot Winterbottom who you must impress along the way.

YNFVGB.com is now EverydayGamers.com – Full Site Launching end of July 2008!

Supple is very similar to The Sims in the way it is set up. But like the title says, it is an interactive sitcom so it is definitly different than The Sims. During the game you have to become friends with your boss and coworker and to achieve this you’ll have to do certain things like go shopping for clothes and gifts, be social, go to the bar, take courses on the computer, drink coffee, etc. I ended up really enjoying the game and finished it on every difficulty. You never really know what to expect and that makes it interesting. Because they actually talk it makes the conversations a lot more engaging. The graphics and quality of the game aren’t that great compared to The Sims but it’s still fun if you enjoy The Sims but want more of a story behind your game.

If your interested in downloading the free 60 minute trial click the link below:

http://supplegame.com/download.html

The full version of the game doesn’t require a disk and is available to download through the site as well as the demo.

YNFVGB.com is now EverydayGamers.com – Full Site Launching end of July 2008!

PS3 Firmware Update 2.30 Walkthrough

Below is a video from the Playstation Blog which gives us a nice peak at the new PS3 Firmware Update that will be available April 15th.

From Crackle: PlayStation Store video walkthrough

Technical Difficulties

We are experiencing some technical difficulties with the pages and we are aware that a “404 Not Found” error shows up when you click on them. We are working on a solution as I write this and hopefully it will be resolved by sometime tomorrow. Sit tight!

Final Thoughts on Rainbow Six Vegas 2

A few nights ago I completed the Rainbow Six Vegas 2 campaign mode with a friend. I was happy to see that they incorporated co-op into the actual campaign instead of just letting you play some levels together as it was in the first R6 Vegas. I knew that I wanted to play through this one with Kurt. Usually I choose to play games alone first and then play them cooperatively but I felt that it would be a great game to just go straight into co-op with. When we first started out I had no idea where the story was going. It was hard to follow and frankly I guess I just wasn’t that interested. The bits and pieces I did follow seemed lame, people were always getting killed or shot and it seemed like we didn’t really do anything constructive throughout the whole game. I’m not saying it wasn’t fun, I had a blast. Story lines aren’t really ever important for me anyways.

The game does have the word “Vegas” in the title but you will only see a casino maybe once or twice. The setting is more of a behind the scenes of Vegas. That was fine with me because I played through enough casinos in the first one. I really enjoyed the settings in Vegas 2. They took us through backyards, convention centers, and even a Vegas junkyard. These new places gave it a fresh feel. The controls felt great as they did in the first one. At first they may feel complicated but you will get the hang of them within the first few minutes and after a while you will really be happy with the way they are laid out. Kurt and I did encounter some random problems such as disk read errors and some freezing up but not enough to make us quit playing. I was excited to hear they were adding experience points to the single player campaign as well as the multiplayer modes. This gave me a reason to go back and play some more of the campaign even after I finished it. I have a habit of looking at the bottom of the screen to see how many more points I need to rank up. I’m always looking forward to unlocking new armor and guns.

After Kurt and I finished the campaign we jumped right into “Terrorist Hunt” mode. We’ve been working at the “complete every map on realistic difficulty” achievement for a few nights now and so far we’ve been having a great time with it. This is definitely a great way to hone your skills before going into some death matches over Xbox Live. It forces you to work as a team and try different techniques to get the job done. The only thing I didn’t like was that it felt like the terrorists were set to spawn only when you reached a certain point. Once you walked past that certain point or threw a grenade into it they would then react to you. A few times I swore nobody was around and then I would look a second later and 3 or more people would just be standing there. This made the terrorist hunt mode a lot more difficult, it forced you to come out into the open and search instead of waiting for them to come to you.

Vegas has a very high replay value and I don’t think I will be setting it down anytime soon. I highly suggest playing through the campaign with a friend. If you want to join Kurt and I for some terrorist hunting just send me a message over Live.

[poll=4]

What Would Nintendo Do?

Some sweet fan art courtesy of the great Yuoma. Click to enlarge.

WWND by ~yuoma on deviantART

Behold the Wonder of Redbox!

I’ve never been much of a renter. Due dates, late fess, and franchise stores that charge 1/3 of the cost of buying the movie to rent it. So I mostly buy dvd, many of them blind-buys. This wonderful little impersonal red kiosk built of metal is my new best friend. Located at many McDonalds, or in my neck of the woods practically every Giant Eagle, redbox is a dvd rental system that lends you dvds for $1.00. You can browse the touch screen inventory, updated in real time to reflect what titles are all rented out and what is available, and with the swipe of a credit card you are dispensed the dvd of your choice. Then by 9 pm the next day you slide it back in the redbox, the upc is scanned and you’re done! You can even drop it off at any location! (If you keep it past 9pm or multiple days it’s just the standard $1.00 per day. As if it couldn’t get any easier, they have a very simple website where you select the movie you want, put in your zipcode, and it will show you locally where the movie is, so maybe you have to go to Goucher St instead of Broad St, etc. Your email is tied to your credit card, so in a matter of seconds after renting or returning you have an email receipt with all the details.
Great little system, and for $1 you can’t go wrong…..I think my dvd collection just took a break from new recruits…or at least will only welcome titles that I know I enjoy and will watch again. HIGHLY RECCOMENDED!

Forgetting Sarah Marshall…

It’s nice when a team of people come together and deliver something good. It’s even better when those people come together repeatedly and continue to make good stuff. Dating back to the shows “Freaks and Geeks’ and ‘Undeclared’ the team of comedians have given us ‘Superbad’, ‘Anchorman’, ‘40 Yr Old Virgin’, ‘Knocked Up’, and been involved in various other projects individually. It’s great to see the same cast of characters carried over into different films with different roles that play so well together. (And it doesn’t hurt they brought ‘Veronica Mars’ Kristen Bell into the fold.)
A great trailer and a genius viral marketing campaign are setting this up to be a great spring comedy!

Mr. Driller Online 360

This week saw the release of Mr Driller Online as a downloadable 360 arcade game.
Had I never played this game before I would have passed immediately based on the cartoon style and screenshots. I somehow came across this game a number of years back after the PS1 was dead and you could get games very cheap. I think I got it as part of a ‘lot’ of PS1 games on ebay and threw it in just to see wat it was like. Very simple but very enjoyable game.
If you’ve ever played Mr Driller in any of his adventures on Playstation, Gameboy, or Nintendo DS you know what to expect. And that is what you get, the gameplay doesn’t really vary much in any new way and the stages aren’t very different. I haven’t explored the online portion or many of the different modes, but it’s nice to have the game available without bustin out the old PS1. Try the demo and you’ll know exactly what you are getting into.

Legend of Zelda Movie Trailer Debut

I’m pretty sure this is IGN’s April Fools day joke but I am not positive as it looks pretty believable. Even though I’ve always wanted a hollywood adaptation of “The Legend of Zelda” I don’t think I could stand to watch Ganondorf look like this…

1UP Yours…Yea Right!

In case you haven’t figured it out the “Patrick on 1UP Yours” post was the first official APRIL FOOLS joke! Heh. Come on, you didn’t think I could actually be on 1UP Yours did you? Oh well, maybe someday. Feel free to still support 1UP Yours by checking the podcast out through iTunes or on their site at 1UP.com.

CrownOfThornz on "1UP Yours"

As you guys may have heard, I’ve been graced with the opportunity to be on the well-known 1UP.com podcast known as “1UP Yours.” After contacting Garnett Lee, producer of 1UP Yours through facebook and telling him about YNFVGB 1UP felt it was time to get a fan onto the podcast. This has honestly been a dream of mine for a long time as I listen to 1UP Yours every week. Recording will begin on the 11th and should be posted in the 1UP Yours section of 1UP.com late Friday. Please jump on iTunes and support YNFVGB by downloading the episode. This will also be a great opportunity to increase our traffic to the site. Stay tuned!

New PSN Store Interface

The PSN Store that we’ve come to hate so much is finally getting a glorious make-over. Coming April 17th will be a full redesigned layout that will actually be native to the PS3 and not browser based which means being able to locate items a lot faster than before. No more PSN releases will be happening until the new store is released on the 17th. Expect some new titles on that day to get the store rolling again.

PixelJunk Monsters Encore

The first expansion pack for PixelJunk Monsters will be arriving in the month of April and will be giving you 15 new maps and 5 new songs to eat your PJM heart out with. Along with those 15 new maps will also be the option to have the ice tower right from the get go and also a reduced priced tesla tower which will only cost 10 gems now. My wife and I being very strong PJM fans are very siked to see that Q-Games hasn’t forgot about PJM. No release date or price has been announced but PJM:E is speculated to release along side the new PSN store which will be available on April 17th. While your waiting for April 17t to roll around check out the new video below.

Rainbow Six Vegas: High Stakes Weekend

'I Am Legend' Alternate Ending *Spoilers*

I’m not going to take the time to review the movie, I just want to talk about the alternate ending.
The blu-ray cases states: ” Includes Alternate Theatrical version with Controversial ending.” Is it really controversial? Read on.
Most times you see ‘alternate ending’ listed on a dvd case it’s normally a few lines of dialog or a few added shots, usually nothing exciting. Then there are the films that have an ending so drastically different you wonder what the heck happened? ‘I am Legend’ falls between those. Normally alternate endings are the result of a studio forcing a director to change his vision, maybe opting for a ‘happy’ ending that leaves room for a sequel, or poor test screenings require the ending to be tweaked. I’m the first person to cry foul when a movie opts for the happy family ending, with everything wrapped up nicely and everyone riding into the sunset. Oddly enough this ending does that- and I prefer it.
The ending in theaters was after Will Smith secures the safety of the woman and child he sees a butterfly in the cracks of the glass door about to give in from the vampires, and unpins a grenade, ending his life and the lives of the lead vampire and others. (In Hollywood when all else fails just blow it up, it worked for Jaws how many times?) The woman and child make their way to Vermont and a voiceover lets us know that Will Smith was a hero, blah, blah, etc.
SO, the alternate ending begins right after he secures the woman and child through the small hatch door. The lead vampire smears his slimy hands on the glass door in the shape of a butterfly, we hear Wills daughter, and Will lifts the edge of the woman vampires shoulder to reveal a butterfly tattoo. With no sound, he unhooks everything from his test patient and has the woman open the door. He slowly wheels the gurney right up to the lead vampire, having his face mere inches from the creature. (resulting in a sense of fear that was never achieved in the theatrical) He reaches for a syringe to revive her and the other vampires swarm around him but are quickly called off by the lead. He injects her, she opens her eyes, and there is somewhat of a romantic moment, if you can call it that, between the lead vamp and his woman. (It sounds crazy, but in context with the rest of the film it’s actually somewhat touching) The lead vamp nuzzles his woman and carries her off, and the vamps all leave.
Will is left standing, with his wall of test patient pictures lining the wall behind him and we see him as the vamps must have seen him…..like a serial killer with his wall of fame proudly displayed…a nicely done reversal. Then they all load up in the family station wagon and head to Vermont, leaving us with some more cool NY in decay shots and a new recording playing on the radio.
So was it controversial in any way? Nope, just gimmick marketing for what I felt was a better ending.

Jericho "Patriots and Tyrants" Review

It is official “Patriots and Tyrants” is the last episode of Jericho we will ever see. Jericho was given a second chance because the fans just wanted more but that second chance is up and it’s time to move on. Luckily I was never really attached to Jericho the way I am with LOST so I’m not too sad to see it go. I just have nothing to watch on Tuesdays now. As for the season finale, it was a good season finale. They did a good job tying up the loose ends in the short time they were given and still kept it up in the air in case the show did awesome and returned for a 3rd season but as we now know, that isn’t going to happen, at least not on CBS. “Patriots and Tyrants” was an interesting episode but nothing that blew me away. It did what it came to do and that was end the season. Hats off to the crew behind Jericho. Check out the full episode here. SCORE: 8/10

Vampire Weekend

My new favorite band…Vampire Weekend. The Police meet Elvis Costello meet Paul Simon.

Make sure you check out the full album titled “Vampire Weekend” available on iTunes.

Song download suggestions:
“A-Punk”
“M79″
“Bryn”
“One (Blake’s got a New Face)”
“Walcott”
“The Kids Don’t Stand a Chance”

…basically the whole entire CD will do.

Listen to their whole SXSW ‘08 concert here.

Happy Easter

Matthew 27:29

“…and then they twisted together a crown of thorns and set it on his head.”

Happy Easter from the YNFVGB Family

Lost: "Meet Kevin Johnson" Review

I was very excited for last night’s episode because I wanted to see exactly what happened to Michael all of this time. I have to admit I was a little let down. I was hoping it would start from where we last saw him (leaving the island on the little boat) and the whole process it took to get him here. While we saw most of it, it was all very predictable which isn’t like Lost. I expected some crazy stuff to be going on but instead we got a story that we all could have guessed. Michael is disappointed in what he did on the island and so he told Walt, therefore Walt is mad at him. Michael wants to kill himself but the island won’t let him. I predicted that was the case before it was ever made clear. What’s the deal with Tom being gay? That wasn’t necessary. Anyways, I thought it was wrong how Sayid turned Michael in at the end. I know the guy messed up by killing two innocent people but at least he is making an effort to sabotage the boat to save everyone else. Oh well. Lastly, I heard talk before this episode that there was some “huge cliff-hanger” at the end of it and again I was disappointed. It was pretty lame. SCORE: 7.0/10

Kurt’s Side:
Another lame episode! Ouch. I’m starting to think I should have waited until the dvd came out like the other season because this shows has become very inconsistent, and more easily forgivable when you sit and watch 4+ episodes at a time: they all blend together. With this 5 week break we will then see the ‘new’ episodes that were done post-writers strike. Hopefully having to condense more into less makes the remaining episodes better. I agree with Pat- who needed to know Mr. Friendly was gay? Don’t care much about Walt/Michael, it’s been to long. Is our cavewoman really dead?
SCORE: 6.0/10

Initial Thoughts on Rainbow Six Vegas 2

The other day I picked up Rainbow Six Vegas 2 and forced my wife to sie down and play it with me. We played through all of Army of Two together and she loved it so I thought she should give Vegas a try. Even thought it is a little more advanced she caught on right away and was killing baddies before I even got to them. While we were playing we experienced some slowdown, when I would move my vision would get blurry like everything was going slower. My wife said she experienced some as well. Another frustrating thing for me was the graphics. I felt like they weren’t as good as the previous Vegas so I went back and popped Vegas 1 in and couldn’t see much of a difference. I had talked with Kurt about it and he said he was experiencing the same things as well. The next day when I played it I didn’t experience any slowdown and the graphics looked great. I’m not sure what was going on that first day. Anyways, the game is amazing. I love the Vegas franchise and am very excited to play this game through a couple times. Even though this is basically the same game as Vegas 1 I find myself going at it a different way. I’m not really utilizing the AI teammates as much as I should be. I blame that on playing the game cooperatively as there really is no need for the teammates. I also want to thank Ubi for adding the 4 player co-op story mode but I’m mad that you can’t do a split-screen story and invite a friend. Overall it feels and controls great and I highly recommend this game to any shooter fan. I haven’t gotten very far yet but check back later for my full thoughts when I finish the game.

Initial Thoughts on Hot Shots Golf: Out of Bounds

I played Hot Shots Golf: Out of Bounds with my wife the other night. I used to play 1 and 2 a lot and even got my family really into it. My Dad even became addicted and played pretty much everyday. Since I didn’t own a PS2 I didn’t get into 3 or 4 but once the PSP came out Hot Shots Golf was the first game I bought. That game was perfect for the PSP. Now we have Hot Shots 5 and since I own a PS3 and don’t have many games for it I decided to pick it up to relive one of my favorite pastimes. Initially I could see how people who haven’t played HS up until now would find it annoying and kiddish but to me it just brought back good memories. I love all the quirky characters and the funny noises. I’m not sure if my wife agrees though. She didn’t seem to like it as much as I had hoped and said she would play it “every once in a while.” Thank goodness for the online play. I didn’t have time to try it out but I can’t wait to. Overall Hot Shots 5 is fun with people. I don’t recommend playing it alone against the computer as it is definitely a game to be enjoyed with others. Come back later for my final thoughts on the game once I delve deeper into the core.

Lawnchairs & Living Rooms 08: Brian Vander Ark Live in Middle Taylor, Johnstown PA

Last week I said I was hopefully going to be announcing some great news, and here it is: Solo artist and lead singer for the Verve Pipe, Brian Vander Ark is coming to town! Monday September 8th, Brian will be rocking Middle Taylor Township! I’m still working on the exact venue, probably at the picnic grounds down the street from my home since my yard isn’t big enough, so we can enjoy the weather and make it a big block party…are there blocks in Middle Taylor? There will be more information shortly, a flyer,a facebook event group, etc. We’re also looking at having the show recorded as a live ‘bootleg’ album as well.
Come out and enjoy some great music, great food, and great friends! After the show Brian will be hanging around for photos and autographs and whatever else. MORE SOON!

Jericho "Sedition" Review

And so continues my love/hate relationship with Jericho. Last episode was the best of the season, this episode just wasn’t that great. First of all I really think Stanley was stupid for shooting Goetz. I think everyone agrees on that one. Next we have Jake taking the blame and being locked up. Beck is trying to restore order and I believe he is truly a nice guy but Jake has to cause this unnecessary revolution to happen. I feel like this revolution has no point. Also they were trying to make Jake’s “punishment” really intense but it did nothing for me. The whole show feels neutral to me. Yes Jake was locked up for defending Stanley and yes he looked pretty messed up but I honestly didn’t care. All I saw was Jake going out of his mind for no reason just because he was locked up a few days. I don’t know, I think the writers get lost trying to make it so intense. However it was interesting that the guy that was speaking with Hawkins on the phone was actually the person who planned the attacks. Next weeks episode does look interesting I just hope they don’t mess it up. At least we have answers in this show unlike Lost. That’s probably the only good thing about it besides the one or two episodes worth watching. Check out the full episode here. Score 6.5/10

PSP Update 3.93

Hey kids, grab your PSP’s and head over to the nearest wi-fi spot if not your own house and download the latest firmware update for PSP. Update 3.93 adds 20 new stations to the PSP Radio and “expands support for PSN titles.” I’m curious which titles are included in that expansion and will be trying out all my PSN games tonight to try to get some kind of list going. Everyday Shooter on PSP anyone? Feel free to comment down below if you happen to know any additional information.

Mass Effection – Part II

Another comic for the Mass Effect junkies out there. Brought to us by YNFVGB faithful, Yuoma.

Mass Efflirt 2 by ~yuoma on deviantART

Final Thoughts on Army of Two

My wife and I just finished Army of Two on Friday night. I am very glad I decided to pick it up last minute. Sometimes I rely on reviews too much but after seeing a gameplay video of this one I was willing to take a risk. I am very satisfied with my decision and my wife agrees with me that this game is awesome. We had a great time with it. As I wrote in my initial thoughts of the game, the visuals were sweet. The cut-scenes were top-notch, better than any I’ve seen thus far. I also really like when games are bright, that is one thing that really makes me enjoy a game and all of AoT’s levels were nice and bright. I don’t enjoy games that are dark and dreary and AoT keeps that to a minimum if any at all. Overall it’s a great looking game. It’s hard to believe but, the story was actually interesting. I’m not one to follow game stories closely but this one pulled me in enough to care. At one point I thought it would be cool if one of the two playable characters was in on it and you had to fight each other at the end. I thought that would have been an amazing twist, I’m just not sure how they could have pulled it off. The length of the game is perfect even though I never really did want it to end. We haven’t gotten a chance to try the online modes yet but we will eventually. I highly recommend this game to anyone who specifically knows someone they could play it with. This game goes right along with my other favorite sleeper hits. SCORE: 9/10

Blu-ray: No Country for Old Men

Winning four Oscars this year including Best Picture and Best Direction, ‘No Country for Old Men’ arrives on blu-ray with one of the sharpest transfers I have seen. Shot in the deserts of Mexico, New Mexico, and Texas the film often has a three dimensional look to it as if you were seriously there. I’m not going to try to explain the film, because in all honesty it makes little sense upon an initial viewing. It’s a film that has no resolution, no closure, no explanations, and if that type of movie (Cloverfield) drives you nuts you better skip this one. Don’t get me wrong, it’s an interesting film, very enthralling-yet very violent. I personally was rooting for ‘Atonement’ which I’ll be reviewing shortly. Rent It.

Blu-ray: Dan in Real Life

‘Dan in Real Life’ is a gem. A great ensemble piece that that doesn’t make Steve Carell the lone star holding the weight of the film. Juliette Binoche of the Polish ‘Colors’ Trilogy and comedian Dane Cook are both great in their roles. For me this film joins ‘Last Kiss’, ‘Garden State’, and ‘Little Miss Sunshine’ as my favorite honest comedic relationship dramas. The film is AWKWARD, but that’s what makes it so honest. The picture quality on this blu-ray disc is stunning. The ocean side scenes are incredibly sharp, as are the interiors set in a very rustic wood cabin. There aren’t any large scale special effect shots, or elaborate camerawork, but everything about the production is very clear, clean, and detailed in this recent transfer. Reccomended.

A Night of Hope in Pittsburgh

Last night I had the privilege of seeing Joel Osteen speak at the Mellon Arena in Pittsburgh. Great event, inspiring, empowering, and a very positive message for everyone. With a hard rain falling on Pittsburgh, the atmosphere inside was the exact opposite. Great praise and worship team from Lakewood Texas. Incredible visual presentations that were top notch adorned the screens and were perfectly timed with what was going on. He’s a positive guy with a positive message and it’s contagious.
Doing some research on him he’s quite huge, his own multimedia conglomerate with over 7 million viewers a week, books, dvds, podcasts, etc. Pretty impressive. He had no dreams of being a preacher, he was into video production and for 17 years he worked behind the scenes on his fathers show (a preacher) Joel was finally moved to give his first sermon on what would be the last Sunday of his fathers life. He then took charge of his fathers congregation and grew it so much they actually bought a sports arena. He has taken some flack for being a ‘prosperity preacher’, watering down the gospel which isn’t fully deserved. Is his message fairly broad, only positive, and ‘motivational speaker’ like? Yeah. Are their crosses or other religious emblems anywhere? No. Does that lessen the impact, making it shallow or misleading? I don’t think so. If he is able to help people improve their lives and give hope them by all means keep it up. Do I wish he was more forward instead of acting like he’s afraid to offend anyone? Yeah, his appearance on Larry King was a copout. At the end of the evening he encouraged people to not stay at home and watch his show, but find a local church where they can get plugged in and realize their full potential. I think his ability to attract both evangelicals and secularists should be seen as positive because if anything he is providing a message of hope that could lead people closer to God.

Lost: "Ji Yeon" Review

I knew before the episode started that it was going to be about Sun, the question was if Jin would be involved too. It only took until the 2nd “flash-forward” to see that Jin is involved (or so we thought). He is buying a Panda for someone we think is Sun. I had a feeling since the very beginning that there was some reason they weren’t together. Following the the tradition of people being unhappy off the island I was waiting for the big reveal. All-in-all the episode was good, nothing amazing up until the big reveal and that is what I love about LOST, you always get that mind-blowing twist right towards the end that makes you realize this show is amazing. I enjoyed it, finally seeing who was the last of the “Oceanic 6.” I have to say that I don’t like Juliet to begin with and she really made me mad when she told Jin about the affair. But I guess it was for the best as neither Jin nor Sun would have gotten off of the island if it wasn’t for her. It’s funny that they revealed Michael in this episode, I sorta thought that they would just start out an episode with him or at least let him be the cliff-hanger. Because of them revealing him sooner instead of at the very end I knew that there was going to be some great twist to end this episode on. We all knew Michael was the spy since the beginning of the season and I’m glad to see him back. I can’t wait to see what he has been up to until now. I guess we’ll find out next week. SCORE: 8.5/10

Kurt’s Side:
Solid episode. Not much in the way of action or plot advancement, but we had good time spent on the island and some on the freighter. Sometimes it seems like the writers throw darts at a wall and just make stuff up, but props for the structure of this episode. I sure as heck didn’t see the timeline split coming! Sun and Jin have always sorta been just off to the side for me, straddling that line of major/minor characters, but it took this episode to make me realize how much I really liked Jin. He’s the man. Maybe I’m alone in my thinking but I really could care less if we ever saw Walt and Michael again, it’s been too long and I don’t remember a thing about either of them. Having Hurley see Sun in the forward part made me think that once they get off the island maybe the show will be ok after all. With the mini-break coming soon they need to kick it into gear!
SCORE: 8/10

Twitter

In addition to Intense Debate, Kurt and I have added our Twitter accounts to the sidebar so you can now see what we are doing every minute of the day. We will update often, probably too often so if your interested just take a look up in the top right corner of the site. Also, if you have a Twitter account make sure to add us as friends (CrownOfThornz and UTurnFilms). Thanks

Jericho "Termination for Cause" Review

This episode was great. Too great to really talk about the episode as a whole so I’m going to recap on things I’ve noticed thus far and my thoughts on the episode. Right from the beginning this episode was intense. The opening segment had me siked for the rest. One thing I noticed is Jake likes to think with his anger over anything else. He’s a great lead character but too many times we have him acting out of anger. Another thing I’ve noticed is Goetz is a jerk. They do a good job of making you hate him. Anyways, a part that really stood out for me in the episode was when Hawkins could tell something suspicious was going on and snapped that J&R guy’s neck. Hawkins rules. I also thought it was cute how Stanley was signing to Bonnie even when she was dead. That was a great scene. The way they planned out the hospital “escape” was a great idea too, I didn’t even think of that. Goetz definitely gets punked when he finds out that he was fired but it didn’t matter because Stanley puts a bullet right through his head anyways. That was kind of messed up because now Jake is going to have to take the heat for that. My prediction is Stanley will eventually stick up for his act and face the consequences. All-in-all this was the best episode of Jericho yet. It really impressed me and I wish all the episodes were that good. It’s the first episode that I was engaged throughout. Great stuff! Catch the full episode here. Only two more episodes to go! SCORE: 9.5/10

New Commenting System by Intense Debate

I’ve added a new commenting system courtesy of Intense Debate. With this new system you can have profiles, reputation/comment voting, social traffic drive, threaded comments, and more. Jut go to intensedebate.com to sign up and create your profile you can then upload your picture, once you’ve signed up you can add friends and give reputation to fellow commenters. If your not interested in signing up you can still comment but you can’t give thumbs up or add commenters to your friends list. I really like this system a lot and I hope you guys do too. I think it’s going to be fun. Sing up and then try it out by commenting below.

Brian Vander Ark: Self-Titled

Brian Vander Ark is a musician that is so much more talented and original than anything you hear on ‘pop’ radio today, and unfortunately doesn’t get the credit he is due. Most will remember his music, but might not associate his name with tracks like the 90’s uber hit ‘The Freshman’ when he was fronting The Verve Pipe.
His third solo cd, self-titled Brian Vander Ark, is hands down the most personal and introspective of his efforts. His work as a solo artist has a different sound than the Verve Pipe, and a much more specific nature to the lyrical content. Every track is unique and intricate. The album is very well produced by Bill Szymczyk (the Eagles, the Who, Bob Seger), but far from being over produced. It is very organic and never showy for the sake of being showy. Brians vocals and beautiful lyrics are front and foremost.

The 12 track album starts off with the instrumental ‘We Heard, We Saw’ and transitions into ‘And Then We Fell’ a very layered track about September 11th. (The Verve Pipe’s last record in ‘01 had the unfortunate release date in September and despite being considered their best album, the critically acclaimed record had low sales with everyones mind being on anything but new music.)
A lot of Brian’s solo work is elegant storytelling such as ‘Lily White Way’ and ‘You’ll be the Death of Me’ is just a fun upbeat track. (“Jesus kick a cloud and let it rain down on me”) ‘Optimism’s Glow’ is a track so hard to describe I won’t even try- go listen to it. A few tracks on this album have been floating around for awhile, played at live shows, etc and one of those is ‘Evangeline’ written for Brian’s two-year old daughter. ‘Fit to be Tied’ is probably the best rock track on the album, just a great driving song-crank it up!
The song that from the beginning has stood out as my favorite has to be ‘Monday Morning Girl’ starting out slow and building to a chorus that’ll be stuck in your head as you recount the week. The album wraps with ‘We Were Never the Same’ an upbeat patriotic track that closes the album in a similar vein to the way it opened with allusions to September 11th.
All around another truly great, solid, and intimate album from Brian.

I don’t want to jinx it, but I’m working with Brian’s manager on something that could lead to something very exciting….more on that as I get more info…
(My daughter is going to be named Evangeline)

Initial Thoughts on Super Smash Bros. Brawl

Picked up Super Smash Bros. Brawl yesterday around 11:00 am instead of midnight since the newly opened Gamestop where I pre-ordered it wasn’t having a midnight launch. I convinced my wife that this was a game worth playing so we sat down and played it together. All we really did was beat the crap out of each other the whole time. She kicked my butt about 90% of the time and I promise I wasn’t being easy on her. After we played it for a while and tried out each and every character Daria decided her character of choice would be Pit and and I decided to go with Marth even though I told her I claimed Solid Snake once we unlock him. All-in-all SSBB is just like I remember it. I’m not a die-hard fan but the game is fun none-the-less. I think all the hype made me pick it up as soon as possible though. If you’ve played the Smash Bros. franchise before then you know exactly what to expect. As for anyone who hasn’t played it…you may want to dust of your Wii for this one. Make sure you check back for my full thoughts on the game once I finish it. If you’re interested in swapping SSBB friend codes then drop me and email at ynfvgb@gmail.com.

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'Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip'

If you read my other posts you’ll know that I watch tv on dvd, not tv on tv. (other than ‘Lost’ which is proving to be a mixed experience)
‘Complete Series’ dvd sets can be a mixed bag, you either get a nice little package of 23 or less episodes that serve as an excellent story, or depending on how far into the series run they were canceled, a lot of unanswered questions that we’ll never find answers for. I’m proud to say that ‘Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip’ is one of those gems that is a true joy to sit through for 23 solid episodes. While sad that we never got another season, what we did get was one of the most well directed, well acted, fully fleshed out character story arc driven series I’ve seen.

The premise of the show is the lives of an ensemble late night comedy show cast and what goes on behind the scenes and in their lives that are all so intertwined. There is a really neat show-within-a show aspect where we see the actors acting and rehearsing comedy sketches and all the logistics that go into what seems like a simple sketch..and what can go wrong. It is an intense week long process, and it seems like the writers and cast are in the studio all hours of the night pitching ideas, and timing the sketches is so much more complicated than I ever realized. It’s a fascinating look at what can go wrong in a studio system, the politics, and the frustration of always working against a clock that restarts after each live show is over. Based heavily on Saturday Night Live, everything about this show is top notch. The show is executive produced from the creator of the critically acclaimed West Wing series, and starring Matthew Perry, Amanda Peet, Steven Webber, and Bradley Whitford.

iPhone SDK Event Summary

I was eagerly awaiting March 6th, the day when we would finally hear something about the iPhone SDK. Even though it was an event geared toward developers it still had many iPhone customers siked out of their minds. I must say, they really delivered. They discussed the SDK and showed how easily it worked, looked tempting enough for me to download it so we’ll see. Then they showed us some projects that companies had been working on in a two week time period. First they showed us EA. EA put Spore on the iPhone and it looked pretty good. Then we saw what AOL does best. They made their version of AIM for the iPhone and boy did it look sweet compared to what we’ve seen thus far. Then they showed us what SEGA had up their sleeve and that was the good ol’ Super Monkey Ball. They stated that it wasn’t some “cell phone” game, it was a full console version which is very very exciting. This is a major turning point for the iPhone and someday it may be in competition with the DS and PSP. Heck, with a screen like that it could put out some pretty good looking games. I can also see the iPhone being a cell-phone killer just as iPod has taken over the MP3 community. All of these apps will be available for purchase through the App Store that will be on your iPhone after you update it to firmware version 2.0 in June. After seeing what they have to offer I don’t mind paying for some quality apps. June can’t come soon enough! Check out the full press conference in video format here.

Lost: "The Other Woman" Review

Bleh, that was the taste I had in my mouth after watching Lost last night. There is one person on that island that I just can’t seem to warm up to and that is Juliet. She is my least favorite character so when I found out the episode was about her I wasn’t too happy but I was willing to give it a chance. About halfway through the episode there was still nothing even worth writing about. I just don’t care about Juliet, whether they try to give her an interesting story or not. We did however find out that Penelope’s father, Charles Widmore, really wants to find the island. One of my friends actually predicted that and I just brushed her off because I thought that would be stupid. But here we find he really is a bad man and not just to Desmond. It was funny to see Ben happy in the kitchen scene as we’ve never seen him like that before. He is becoming even more weird to me after dropping the “You’re Mine!” line. That’s something I could expect from Ben though. Basically that was it, the episode never really did deliver. I was waiting patiently for the second half to really catch my attention but it didn’t. I felt like they just made up some random story about some deadly gas just to give Juliet something to do on the island while they told us this lame back story about her love life. Jack needs to lay off Juliet, we already know he is in “love” with Kate from the flash-forward so why is he even messing with Juliet? Not cool. Even though the ending wasn’t really a “cliff-hanger” it was still funny to see Ben acting like he is everyone’s friend now. It made me laugh. All-in-all the episode was pretty lame and I am very disappointed as watching Lost is one of the highlights of my week and this one just didn’t do anything for me. SCORE: 5.0/10

Kurt’s View:
YAY! We are back on the island! I agree its kinda disappointing to see the more minor characters being the focus of an episode but I got a kick out of seeing Ben being happy, and Juliet’s secret boyfriends backstory tying into season 1. I don’t mind Juliette, I just can’t figure her out enough to say if she’s actually good or not. I will say this though, with the person that we’ve learned Kate to be- I would rather see Jack with Juliette. With the games she plays, Sawyer can have Kate. I still can’t stand any of the new characters except for Daniel. What truly saved this episode for me was being on the island. The writing of this episode was particularly rough too (“…she’s my wife”?) I’m waiting for them to reveal that they are genetically engineering dinosaurs and plan on opening a theme park
In all honesty NOTHING has happened this season and based on the past 2 weeks the show was going down the drain quick. I hope the last couple episodes that they are shooting now after the strike are better then these that were done before the strike. (They have to be, they are condensing the story arc by a few episodes to meet the season finale)
Was this episode great? No, but it was a turn back in the right direction. (I have no intention of ever watching ‘The Constant’ again, when the dvd comes out I will skip that episode) I score this episode higher than the last two because it made me forget about everything related to the freighter and time travel. SCORE: 7/10

*Make sure you vote on the poll located in the right sidebar so we can settle this conflict of opinions once and for all.

Initial Thoughts on Army of Two

I was keeping my eye on Army of Two ever since it received all of the bad feedback from the media. The developers decided to delay the game and do all they could to make it worth buying. Delays bother me but when a game that was looking to be crap comes back with some pretty good reviews then it was well worth the wait. I always had it in the back of my mind that I would pick this title up and try and play it with my wife. I was going to put it off for a while since Smash Bros, R6V2, and Hot Shots 5 are all coming out this month, but I watched the video review at IGN and was instantly drawn in by the visuals. I ended up making a late night run to go and get it at the local Gamestop. Once I got back I had to convince my wife to sit down and play it with me. First of all I was really impressed with the visuals. This is definitely a beautiful game. I was also blown away by the cut scenes. They looked absolutely gorgeous. Overall the game is fun, it’s a little more complicated than what Daria is used to but she managed. I like how we actually have to work together unlike most co-op games. It’s taking time to get used to the “aggro” system but I think we’ll get the hang of it soon. It was getting late and I was ready to stop and my wife said “let’s keep going” so I think she agrees with me that it’s a fun game. Even though you get the whole screen when you play over live I think playing split-screen is more convenient because it’s a lot easier to use teamwork without having to talk over the mic. Just getting out of Lost: Via Domus, Army of Two is feeling worth the $60 and I am happy I picked it up. If you have one person that you enjoy playing games with then I suggest looking into this one. Check back later for Daria and I’s full thoughts on Army of Two after we finish it.

The Moment of Truth? Turn the TV Off.

Let me say this upfront. I don’t watch television. Yes, I watch tv shows on dvd as seasons, but I do not actively engage in watching television. I used to have a nice cable package, but like my home phone, it was a waste of $ and I now have the basic 22 channel setup with the major networks. Here is how little I watch tv- my friends are laughing at me because for the first time since watching the X-Files in Jr. High I am keeping current with the short run of LOST after catching up on the dvd releases. Anyhow- that’s just the setup for my rant, lol.

Coming out of the shower having left the tv on from the news I caught a few minutes of a show called ‘The Moment of Truth’ on FOX. (It’s a shame what the writer’s strike has caused to an already creatively barren tv landscape.) The show places a contestant with friends and family and are asked questions where honesty is rewarded with cash. You can bail out between questions if you want, but if you lie you lose it all- game over. The family can stop a question from being answered by tagging a buzzer as well. These questions pull no punches, are incredibly personal, and delve into areas that should remain secret. So that night I saw a woman admit that she was still in love with an ex on her wedding day, admit that she thinks she should have been married to someone else, and admitted to engaging in some ‘extracurricular activities’ with someone other than her husband after they were married. Then they asked her if she thought she was a good person to which she responded ‘yes.’ Well, she apparently isn’t and lost the $125,000 she had accumulated by ruining her marriage and relationships in her family. It’s a sad state of affairs, welcome to America. Those 5 minutes I watched reminded me why I don’t watch tv.
The American public rewards networks with ratings for airing trash where we are ‘entertained’ by watching people potentially ruin their lives, the lives of others, and act immoral? Yep. We’ve become a youtube happy voyeuristic society and I can’t imagine it getting any better. It’s scary to imagine what the next level of ‘reality tv’ might become.
Just another reason on a long list of why I think I should have lived in another era. Disagree? Come fight me in the forum! :End Rant:

Final Thoughts on Lost: Via Domus

Last night I finished Lost: Via Domus. I didn’t want to believe it when I heard it was a 4-6 hour game but it pretty much is. I guess if you really want to check everything out then it might take you 8 hours at most. LVD is definitely not a game for anyone who hasn’t watched the show as it is absolutely filled with inside jokes and lines from the show. I felt like they just threw each characters best line from all the seasons into their dialogue even if it wasn’t relevant. Even though I was disappointed that not all of the characters were voiced by the actual characters themselves it was still funny to hear someone trying to impersonate them. I do have to admit it would have felt a lot better had their voices been the real characters. The graphics looked good, the beach was really cool to see from that perspective and they had the hatch down to a T. That was probably my favorite part, just chilling in the hatch. Was it just me or did everyone really come of as rude. Jack had an annoying voice which reminded me of the little boy with glasses in Polar Express and that made it hard to believe he was actually the leader. Locke really got on my nerves with the “Brand Spanking New” line that he pulled half way through the game. He never really would have said that in the show. I feel bad for anyone who has never watched the show and may watch someone play this, it would probably make them hate the show, but us fans can just laugh at it because we know how it really is. I was also really freaked out by Desmond. He kept doing the same exact movements with his head over and over through our whole conversation which made him look like a creepy robot. It was like they had his movements on a loop. Check it out if you missed it. He is in the jungle on your way to the hatch for the first time. Overall I just felt like the game was moving at too fast of a pace. One minute we crashed the next minute Jin and Michael were on a raft trying to get home and the hatch was blown open. I only shot about 3 bullets the whole game and luckily the cave was only a short segment of the game. I didn’t enjoy that. The way they handled flashbacks kind of reminded me of XIII and also the sound from the circuit boards seemed like it was taken straight out of BioShock. It was nice to have the powerful music of Michael Giacchino in the background so that was a huge plus for the game because the music really makes the show good. Even though I was disappointed to hear the game was so short I don’t think I would have enjoyed a longer game at that quality. The last hour or so I just wanted it to end. In no way do I regret buying the game, I think that it is something all Lost fans/gamers should experience. There are some nice behind the scenes looks and a pretty sweet ending if you ask me, which was expected for a game based on Lost. The only thing I’m not happy about was the $60 price tag. This game is easily worth $30 to $40 at the most. I already see it on Amazon for PC for $20. It’s a short enough game that I probably wouldn’t have missed playing it on the 360 if I would have went for the PC deal. All-in-all I am happy they made the game and I recommend this game to any Lost fan. Just please don’t buy it at full price.

Step Brothers Trailer

One of my favorite actors of all time is Will Ferrell but lately I haven’t been digging his characters. I passed on Semi-Pro and have been waiting patiently for another “Frank the Tank” style character like the days of “Old School.” Well, I think “Step Brothers” may have been what I was looking for. Check out the trailer to see what I mean.

Jericho: "Oversight" Review

Last nights episode of Jericho was interesting just like the previous one. It’s hard for me to give a nice in-depth review of the show as it is easily forgotten the next day. But there were a few moments in this episode that really stood out to me. First off is when Dale Turner gets taken in by Jennings and Rall. We can clearly see that J&R is using this national crisis to their benefit, acting as if they are law enforcement now. Obviously we know that Goetz is using the $10,000 either to get Mimi fired or to use it for his own evil plans. I also like the fact that Hawkins is slowly preparing Col. Hoffman to hear the truth about the government conspiracy and maybe he will even tell him about the bomb, who knows. Of course the part of the show that really caught me off guard was when Bonnie pulled out the shotgun and started blowing holes through all the J&R guys. It was very intense. They sure deserved it for trying to cause trouble for no reason. I was surprised to see that Bonnie actually died. I guess it was best she did because she didn’t really have proof to show that she was doing it out of self-defense. Plus J&R would have had her in prison within the next hour anyways. I’m glad that they threw that intense moment in there at the end because now I am siked to see what happens next week. It wasn’t exactly a cliff-hanger but it was close enough. You can watch the full episode here. SCORE: 8.7/10

Site Update

I’ve added two more page tabs for you guys. The “Portal” tab is the flash version of Portal and the “DTD” tab is the game “Desktop Tower Defense” which is definitely worth trying out. Enjoy!!

PixelJunk Eden

After PixelJunk Racers and my personal favorite, PixelJunk Monsters, Q Games has announced PixelJunk Eden it’s third title. After playing the last two PJ games I have grown to trust that Q Games will deliver something worth buying. No release dates have been announced for Eden but after counting the months between PJR and PJM I am guessing this one may come out in April or May.

Lost: "The Constant" Review

I had figured the next episode was going to be about Desmond because of some of the stuff I had heard around the net but I just didn’t know how they were going to pull it off. I was talking with my wife in the car and we weren’t sure how they could do an episode about Desmond, with all the flash-forwards and him not actually being on the Oceanic flight we had no idea how they were going to pull it off. I must say I was impressed and intrigued throughout the episode. When they first flew up to the boat it was hard to realize that they were actually off of the island in present time for once. At first I didn’t really like that Desmond had no idea where he was and I was dreading this being a multi-episode ordeal but they managed to get the job done in the time allotted. I am a big fan of Dan so I was happy to see him as one of the main characters in this episode. My favorite moment of the episode was when Desmond asked for Penny’s number and told her he wouldn’t be calling her for 8 years. Very intense. All-in-all I really enjoyed the episode. It was one of the better ones this season. I can’t wait to see what next week is all about, the preview looked crazy. SCORE: 8.8/10

p.s. It wouldn’t surprise me if Michael was on the boat too…

Kurt’s Pain:
Remember the preview for this week looking good? What happened? I’m on the other end of the spectrum from Pat on this one. Hands down worst episode of Losts 4 Seasons so far. (Heck, I’d take Nikki and Paulo over this) I mentioned before that I’m scared they’ll ruin the show by leaving the island too soon and changing the dynamic of the show too much, it’s becoming a soap opera. I enjoy the ‘lost at sea’ and Robinson Crusoe angle too much. Unfortunately this episode was another step in the wrong direction following last weeks low point. Dan is great, but this episode almost felt like a filler episode where at the same time they tried to cram everything they could about the space time continuum mystery which we all knew was coming. Put me back on the island trying to survive and revealing mysteries. Still love the show, just really bummed with this episode. Seeing the light at the end of the tunnel I expect a lot from each episode…SCORE: 4/10

Initial Thoughts on "Lost: Via Domus"

I picked up the long-awaited “Lost: Via Domus” yesterday after work. I, being a huge fan of Lost, knew that I had to get it no matter if it bombed or not. If your not a fan of Lost then you can stop reading now as the game will probably be of no value to you. I could see how maybe playing the game would get someone interested in the show but this game is more for people who know what is going on as it doesn’t really explain anything if you don’t already know it. I was very excited to play this game because I thought it would be fun to be able to walk around the beach and see everything I’ve seen in the show. So far I am about 4 episodes in and I am really enjoying it. The controls are easy but a little wonky at times. This game isn’t the greatest but being a fan of the series you will automatically look past that and just think “sweet, I am playing a Lost game!” The voice work is impressive, it’s pretty convincing most of the time except Locke and Sawyer who sound a lot more redneck than they should. I really like how they made the game similar to the show by breaking the gameplay up into episodes. The game is set up exactly like you are watching the show but also playing it. I also like the way flash backs are handled. You are put into a “black and white” flash back and you have to use your camera to take a certain picture that will help you remember some more about your past. You only have a certain amount of time to take the right picture so you have to work fast. Once you take the correct picture you will actually take control of your character in the “color version” of the flashback. While you are there you are required to investigate 3 things, once you do this you will be brought back to present time. You could easily cut this game down if you wanted but I think that most “Losties” will just be siked to be able to talk to Sayid and Hurley and such. So far I really like the game and I can’t wait to see what else is in store. I can’t wait to break into the hatch! Come back for my full thoughts on the game once I finish it.

*Tip: I noticed some people being directed to the site because they googled “How to take the picture of Locke” and I just wanted to help you guys out because I had trouble too. You have to take a picture of all 3 people and make sure the focus is perfect…at first I was taking a million pictures of just Locke and then looked at the reference picture and realized I had to include everyone…I just ended up getting lucky then. Make sure you look at the ripped up reference picture.

Not Cool

I love video games very much, but I’ve never really got into mobile gaming on cell phones. Partly because I don’t like the way cell phone games control and partly because most of them suck. Today was different though, now that my wife stole my iPhone and I am stuck with hers I was tempted to try out my first real mobile game. I remembered looking through the game selection a few weeks ago and saw the game “XIII: Covert Identity.” Me being the biggest XIII fan out there decided that this was probably going to be the game I would purchase. I couldn’t locate it in the “Action & Combat” genre nor could I find it in the “Adventure” genre so I did a search. Hmmm…my result was “Save! Comic Book Heroes Fun Pack” for $11.99 which included “Heroes: The Official Mobile Game” and “XIII: Covert Identity.” I didn’t want the Heroes game and the $11.99 price tag was a bit high for a cell phone game so I was debating whether to go ahead and get the pack or not. I couldn’t find the stand-alone game anywhere else even though I had just saw it a few weeks ago. I wasn’t 100% sold on getting the pack but I clicked “buy now” without thinking that it would buy in that instant but it did, that was okay because I had a “oh…oops, oh well” kind of mind set. Excited to play the game I selected it to install but instead got the error message “File cannot be downloaded: Application will not run on phone.” I tried again…same message. Then I tried Heroes…installed fine…oh great, the whole reason I bought the stupid “FUN” pack was for XIII and now it doesn’t even work!!?? Thanks Gameloft and AT&T for making games that don’t even work on the standard Razor cell phone. There goes my mobile gaming passion down the drain…

…oh yea, another reason I don’t like mobile games…you can’t return them!

Jericho "Jennings and Rall" Review

I don’t know what it is but for me it’s hard to get excited about Jericho. It’s always a “sure we’ll watch it” kind of thing. Last nights episode started out like that but eventually became the most interesting episode this season. During this episode we learn that Goetz, the old Ravenwood leader, is now the new town Administrator. We also learn that Jennings and Rall are above the law and always have been. We find this out from Jake who used to work for them over in Iraq. I like this episode because it wasn’t too hard to follow. A lot of the time I have no idea what is going on but this episode wasn’t too hard to follow. Probably because I was actually paying attention. I’m siked that the major is turning out to be a good guy after all. I thought he knew more than he was saying but now we can see he is open for finding out the truth behind this government conspiracy. I thought that the Hudson River Virus ordeal was going to take more episodes to clear up but it seems that it was just another side story to make the show interesting. Props go to Jake for getting the job done right this time. I’m actually very interested to see how the next episode pans out. Jericho continues to surprised me with it’s great episodes every now and then, this was one of them. Watch the full episode here. SCORE 8.8/10

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XNA Game Launcher

The other day I sat down and installed the “XNA Game Launcher” on my Xbox 360 not really knowing what to expect. I hadn’t heard anything about it being released and was excited to see what it had to offer. Along with it I downloaded the 6 free trial games that were released with it. Each averaging 90mb I shut down my Xbox for the night while they downloaded. The next morning was a Saturday so I knew that I would have time to check out each of the 6 titles. What I didn’t know was how much fun it was going to be…

Thoughts on "Vantage Point"

The first time I saw the preview for Vantage Point was during the Season Premiere of LOST and since good ‘ol Matthew Fox was one of the characters I knew that I would probably see it whether it was lame or not. Some friends and I decided to go see it last minute spite the negative feedback we had been hearing. I’d rather go into a movie thinking it was going to suck than go into it thinking it was awesome and be let down. I have to say I’m kind of in the middle with this one. The way this movie is presented to us is very interesting. During the first half we watch the same scenario from 5 different views, one at a time. First we watch the main storyline where the president is shot at the podium during a peace conference, afterwords two bombs go off and kill many people. We are then rewinded back to the beginning to watch it from another perspective. This repeats three more times with the last view being that of the 4 terrorists behind this nasty plot. After we see how all of this was planned we are then brought back to the present time where we learn a big twist. The second half of the movie is a typical car chase where the good guys end up winning in the end. Before I went into the movie I thought that there was going to be more plot that we had to “figure out” ourselves but the movie basically does it all for you. This movie requires no “figuring out” as it explains everything for you. The acting on Dennis Quaid’s part was great and Matthew Fox did a good job as well. All-in-all the movie was good, it was interestingly executed, it just didn’t boggle my mind the way I thought it would. SCORE: 6.7/10

Lost "Eggtown" Review

I was a little disappointed to see that they weren’t revealing another one of the “Oceanic 6″ this week. We were brought back to learn more about Kate. Although we saw her in Jack’s flash-forward during the Season 3 finale we never really did get the proper “Flash-Forward” from her. It was interesting to see how things panned out. I did think the present-day happenings weren’t as interesting as the flash-forward though. During this episode we find out that Ben may be more of an interesting person than we thought he was. I thought it was funny how Miles just wanted to blackmail Ben into giving him money. I have to admit that I was very interested to see what/who was Kate’s son. Like all LOST episodes we were given a nice cliff-hanger at the end of this episode where we find out that Kate’s son is actually Aaron. One would assume that this is Claire’s son. My only questions are why does Jack not want to see it? Does he find out that Claire is his step-sister? I have to say that I’m not a huge fan of Kate but I enjoyed this episode more than the previous one. My predictions for the last two of the “Oceanic 6″ are Desmond, Locke, or Michael. SCORE: 8.5/10

Daria’s notes: I really liked the cliff-hanger at the ending. It surprised me that Ben is more than we imagined, being off the island now and supposedly rich. My predictions for who could be the last two of the “Oceanic 6″ include: Locke or Desmond. 8/10

Kurt’s notes: Great show just keeps getting better, and knowing that there is a specific amount of time left for the series makes it that much more rewarding. I hate Miles and Ben. Miles is just an awful actor and character, but Ben is just so great at playing a truly hateful manipulative villain that I hate him in a good way. I’m not sure we needed a Kate centered episode, she has become a bigger flip-flop than John Kerry in the last election. “I’ll keep you safe..” that’s all it takes? wow. My heart goes out to Jack, he can’t help but be a tool….anyone else think Kate is cuter on the island? I’m rambling, forgive me
I’m curious to see how the timeline falls into place with Kate’s mom thinking she was dead for 4 years….what happens to Claire…who are the other 2 of the ‘Oceanic 6′? I don’t think Locke will leave the island, at least alive or of his own free will. I think Sawyer might have a chance, but it’s interesting that he doesn’t play a part in Kate’s post-island life. Desmond shouldn’t really count as one and neither should Claire’s baby….what happens to Claire? 6/10 I also recommend subscribing to the official Lost podcast from the creators, they answer/confirm things and add insight.

'A Thousand Lost Forevers' in Reading PA

This concert review will be ‘enhanced’ with video (not mine, but from the same show) and pictures (mine)
We had 3rd row seats, probably the closest I have ever been for a Matchbox Twenty show. The show took place on Tuesday February 19 in Reading, PA.

The evening started around 7pm with a short opening set from MUTEMATH. The songs were good, if not very memorable, but the band obviously had a fun time on stage. The last song revolved around the drummer precariously perched drumming while the other band members played various items such as mic stands as percussion. At one point the lead singer did a handstand and eventually flipped over his keyboard. Good stuff- great energy, but very short.

Next up. I thought Alanis Morisette was an odd choice to tour with Matchbox…but she put on a darn good show. It was surreal to hear songs that I really enjoyed but hadn’t listened to since ‘95. She has a very unique stage presence, and an interesting outfit that consisted of the most sparkely vest I’ve ever seen and some crazy black leather pants. Her band was large and they played a nice set of songs that represent Alanis from her early man-hating angry days to her more mature motherly image songs. The funniest moment was when she covered ‘My Humps’ as a ballad where her band literally showered her with ‘ices’ and cash with a pink feather boa. Very talented and humble vocalist. After almost an hour she finished her enjoyable set and left the stage for Matchbox Twenty….

"Everyone Wants The Truth… Until They Find It."

‘Gone Baby Gone’ comes to us from the author of ‘Mystic River’ and directed by Ben Affleck. It is the story of a missing 4-year-old girl from Boston, and a couple who serve as private investigators that will ultimately risk everything to find her. Incredible performances by Casey Affleck (‘Last Kiss’), Morgan Freeman(‘Shawshank Redemption’), Ed Harris (‘A History of Violence’), and pretty much everyone else who has screen time. Beyond the performances and direction, what is so powerful about this movie is the decision made at the end, and the consequences. You’ll no doubt be debating it with those you watch it with, and everyone will have different feelings. We live in an increasingly gray world, where the ‘right’ decision is rarely clear from the ‘wrong’ one and this movie captures that perfectly. Easily one of the best of the year, a rare film that stays with you beyond the parking lot or overnight. 4/5

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Lost: "The Economist" Review

This week the 4th “Oceanic 6″ member was revealed to us as Sayid. This was very unexpected as I couldn’t imagine Sayid off of the island. I always thought of him as one that would stay. The first scene we see of his flash forward is him playing golf on a beautiful course, another very unexpected surprise. I didn’t take Sayid as much of a golfer. We then find out that he is a “head hunter” and is using a German girl to get to his next victim. Later on we find out that the German girl knew who he was all along and was using him. I thought Sayid was done with his torturous ways. I guess not.

Jericho Season 2 Premiere Thoughts

Season 2 of Jericho premiered this past Tuesday. After a little time off we are brought back to the town of Jericho where a big battle was going on between neighboring towns. The season 1 finale did itself good so I was excited to see the rest of the battle. The way they decided to go about the beginning of the premiere was interesting. Almost going the way of LOST’s flash forwards we have a flash forward that was actually the present, so we were being flashed back to the battle that already happened. Got it? Good.

Conflict: Denied Ops Demo Thoughts

So many games come out that are just fillers. Time fillers until the next Triple-A title comes out. 90% of these games I will not buy. But sometimes there comes a game that surprises you and you realize you need to give up that $60. This is not the case for Conflict: Denied Ops. I forced my wife to sit down with me and try CDO because of the co-op feature that was available in the demo. Bottom-Line this game is standard text book FPS lameness. I didn’t expect to like it and the demo confirmed that I was right. Please don’t waste your money on titles like Conflict: Denied Ops just to fill time until the next triple-A title. Maybe if we stop buying this crap then developers will stop producing it. Also it brings up the question: “Are the developers who make crap games like Conflict: Denied Ops and True Soldiers blindly thinking that their games are going to be awesome or do they just want to make a quick buck?” It sorta makes you wonder what the incentive is. Please just keep that money and buy your wife/girlfriend something nice for Valentines Day. You don’t even have to tell them it was my idea.

SCORE: 4.0/10

Great News!!

Hey guys,

Great news, we have the opportunity to be hosted by IGN.com. Our blog was accepted to be a part of the Gamespy planets network of sites. We are currently in the process of alot of different technical aspects with the move. We will probably be moving over to wordpress as they can integrate it into the IGN hosting dashboard. Right now I have no idea when we will be finished but my goal is to work on it over the weekend as much as possible.

This is a great opportunity for us and I just want to thank everyone for visiting the site faithfully and thank you for your continued support. We hope to bring all of you with us to our next home at Gamespy. Please continue to support us and if you have any suggestions feel free to email us at ynfvgb@gmail.com. If there is anyone out there who is a wordpress fanatic please drop me and email. I’m new to wordpress and want to make the best of it. We are also looking for someone who is familiar with CSS and can make a custom wordpress theme for the site.

We’ll keep you guys updated about the move and hope to maybe pump out a post here and there. We are also in the process of adding a new member to the YNFVGB family by the time the new site is up.

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YNFVGB Job Board and Amazon Store

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On the Road Again…

Over the next month you’ll see a few ‘different’ posts coming from me in the form of concert reviews as we’ve mentioned music a little on the blog. In the next month I’ll be seeing Matchbox Twenty in Reading 2-19, Brian Vander Ark (Verve Pipe) in Philadelphia 2-20, and Emerson Hart (Tonic) in Pittsburgh 3-8.