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.
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.
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
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.
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
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.
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.
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.
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 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.
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.
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.
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
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
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
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
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.
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.
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
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
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)
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.
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.
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!!
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
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.
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.
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 
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.
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.