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)