Category Archives: Geek
The Dark Knight Has Some Friends in the Lego World!
I’ll admit, when I first saw Lego games coming out and saw what they were like, I honestly said, “Those look like fucking stupid kid games.” WOW was I wrong! I cannot tell you how often I spent an evening intoxicated with a 6 pack of beer and playing the Lego games because they were that fun. We’ve already seen the likes of Star Wars, Indiana Jones, and yes the Dark Knight himself, and that’s what this article is covering actually, the Lego Batman 2: DC Super Heroes game.
According to sources, the game is actually a sequel to the previous Lego Batman, and will feature a large variety of playable DC characters within the Batman realm and also outside of the Batman realm. A new thing that this game will feature that I think is a first within the Lego series (if not whatever) is dialogue, which is AWESOME! It’s better than hearing grunts and whatever sounds the characters make and makes the game’s story a lot better in my opinion.
If that wasn’t all cool enough for you, there’s definitely more. The new Lego Batman will feature an open world concept and feature gameplay similar to its predecessor. As mentioned before players will get to play as characters in the Batman realm, but also other iconic characters from the DC world will be playable including: Batman (naturally), Robin, Nightwing, Batgirl, Green Lantern, The Flash, Black Canary, Superman, Martian Manhunter, Hawkman, Hawkgirl, Cyborg, Aquaman, and of course Wonder Woman. According to rumors, there will be over 70 playable characters (so I’m guessing supervillains as well from the DC comics). The game will feature a 2-player co-op mode, and since the environment is open-world they will split the screens (THANK GOD!!)
Whew, that was definitely a shit ton of information in such a small article. But yes, for those of you Batman fans who liked the Lego games or maybe haven’t tried them, PICK THIS FUCKING GAME UP!! Enough said, if you gamers haven’t played the first one, do it so you know what you’re in for.
Fable 3: Well, shit.
Like I’ve said lately, I’ve been really into Fable 3. I like open RPGs. I like being able to wander around and do silly side quests.
On the other hand, I don’t like Fable 3. It was such a chore, and no game should be a chore! Let me bring it in, so I can give you some real reasons, instead of just rambling.
‘kay. This game is for xbox 360 and computers running a Windows OS. I’ve heard through the grapevine that its way choppier on the PC, but I didn’t play via PC, so I can’t verify that. It is, obviously, the third installment of the Fable series of open RPGs.
The purpose of this game is to take our money *cough* I mean, the purpose of this game is to de-throne our hero’s big brother, become the King/Queen and rescue Albion. Seems legit, right? I have to say that I actually enjoyed the main storyline for the most part. It was a bit rushed, and needed to be fleshed out some more, but I dug it. The opening scene was especially nice. The escape attempt of the chicken made me cry. Go here, you can see it on youtube.
Anyway, up through about the first half of the game, I was okay with the story, but then it all just went downhill out of no where. I don’t want to spoil the crappy ending for you, but it sucks, and I’m sorry.
The gameplay is what I need to address right now. Ugh. I’ve been putting it off. Even now I’m stumbling instead of addressing the issues. Okay. I’ll do it.
The gameplay sucks. It’s so bad. The character moves glitchy, the game randomly lags, the bread-crumb trail disappears, there are no menus. Like at all. Everything is managed through this ridiculous “sanctuary” but there’s no way to see what items you have, what gifts you have, or anything like that. Changing clothing has become a chore, and weapons are just as bad. In a time where we have the custom designs of Mass Effect and the story and depth and menu screens of Skyrim, I feel like they could have stepped it up a notch. What the story made okay, the gameplay destroyed. It made the game awkward and frustrating. I couldn’t even pick my expressions to use on the locals! Arg!
The graphics are decent, but you’ll never notice them because we have our eyes on the breadcrumb trail the whole time, rather than paying any attention to the pretty scenery. I like the trail, though, because I’m the kid who gets lost EVERYWHERE I go… I mean, like, all the time. I’m the reason people used to make those awesome text based maps of JRPGs back in the day.
As for the expansions.. There was only the one expansion. It sucked. Once again, the story is okay, but not great, and the achievements are disturbingly easy to go in and get. I finished this expansion at 100%, and this is only the third game I’ve been able to do that for. I didn’t get 100% on the full game (yet) but I’m working on it. There are some achievements that may require that I play through again for, and I’m not so sure that I’m in the mindset to try this again right now. I really liked the last one, and was looking forward to this blowing my mind. No such luck.
There is no replay value. None.
I picked this up at Half.com for about $1 plus shipping, so it wasn’t a bad price, and I think it was worth that much. I like the characters. (I don’t like the knight guy, but other than him they’re good.) I like that most of the achievements weren’t crazy hard. I liked half of the story. I do still have issues with closure, which I addressed in the last post, but for the most part its worth a dollar.
2.5 out of 5 stars. For anger. And no menus.
FLAG: Fight Like a Girl
Finally! Those of us who have been fans of Emilie Autumn for quite a while have really been looking forward to the release of this CD. You don’t even know. We can get a little intense. Ask TheAngryNerd. I drive him nuts with it, but seriously, once you’ve seen THE RAT GAME there is no turning back. Following will be my review of the CD. I admit that I am biased, but I will put as much of it aside as I can to give you my honest opinion.
Emilie Autumn- Fight Like a Girl- July 21st, 2012, it starts with the title track, and this track explains (what it can) about why and where this is going to go. You see, when EA writes a CD, she tells a story. The last CD (Opheliac) was the first in the story which explains how she ended up in the Asylum. Soon after that, she released a book that gave the entire story, and now she’s released FLAG to give song to the end of the story. When she says, “Fight Like a Girl,” she is referring to the way that women have been taught to fight. We fight dirty. We fight to destroy more than the body in the end. And she’s saying that after everything she’s been through at the hands of men, she won’t hold back any more. //We’ve been trained by the very best// She’s saying that all of the awful things that men have done to her will be brought back on those who imprisoned her.
While this is an angry premise to a story, her intentions are clear from the writing and the style of music that this will become a Broadway production in the end, rather than become famous on MTV.
EA has been writing and performing since she was teeny tiny, but became quite well-known after her 2006 release of Opheliac. Before that she had released multiple violin CDs, as well as one other where she performed vocals, called Enchant. It is very easy to see the changes in her style from one record to another. She starts out innocent, with a naivety that is sweet. She tells stories about Rapunzel and castles and fairies. Then, according to her book, she has a breakdown. Her medication has failed her after quite a few personal issues hit her head on at once and she checks herself into a Mental Institution after attempting suicide. Opheliac describes to us what happened to get her to the Asylum, and what the first few weeks must have been like. Now, with FLAG, she is describing her break out from the Asylum, and the strange fear and excitement that comes with finally being free of her captors.
In the first minutes of listening I was nearly in tears from crooning sadness and anger from, “Take the Pill.” This song, for lack of a better term, ‘spoke to me.’ It shows what its like to be told that you must take a medication for the rest of your life in order to be safe for society and yourself.
Girls! Girls! Girls! was a treat, because it is a tongue in cheek joke about the way that women in Asylum’s were used in the 1880′s as tourist attractions to gain money for the Asylum’s where they were kept. Sometimes the girls were even prostituted out, for a small fee of course. I liked this song a lot, and I remembered it from when it was performed on Fox 2 News here in Pontiac.
The close of the CD is a funeral march called, One Foot in Front of the Other, which goes into the soul searching that she must have done after getting out to figure out how to live once she had made it out of the suffering and misery. It’s very touching, and kind of scary. Do any of us really know freedom? How do we live after we’ve all been turned into a number. It teaches us that there is sometimes too much on our plates, so we must focus on placing one foot in front of the other instead of getting overwhelmed.
If you like theatre music, girls who kiss other girls, pretty costumes, studying mental illness, and/or show tunes, this is a great record to buy. It is selling for $14.99, and you will receive a digital copy to tide you over until your physical copy shows up at your door. I give it a 9.5 out of 10. Only graded down a bit because I was expecting more lyrical content than what I got, but what there is in it is amazing, so I’m okay with it.
More shit that I’ve been wasting my time doing…
So, I’ve recently decided that I really like listening to Jim Dale perform the Harry Potter books, and I’ve been listening to them nearly non-stop (except when I’m playing Zelda as so) but if you’ve read anything about me in the past few months, you’ll know that I can’t sit still for more than 5 minutes without coming up with some crazy thing to do with my hands. (Insert “that’s what she said” here.) It is because of this that I’ve learned how to cross-stitch.
I know, I know, it sounds like this awful old lady thing to do, but I assure you that there really are cool things that can be done in this medium.
Currently I’m on a kick of redecorating the kitchen at my apartment, and because I’m the nerd that I am, I’ve wanted to include things that make me a happy panda. One of these things is hand towels that don’t suck. Insert, the Nyan cat.
This adorable little cat is going to decorate the kitchen of my dreams. It has taken me a good 5 hours already, but thankfully this is a time consuming hobby and I still have a good 40 hours left of Jim Dale narrating to me. (I’ve got another series to listen to after that if I decide I want to make another towel to go with the first.) I promise that I will post pictures of this little cat-towel hybrid the moment that I finish it.
So, the question for you all right now is, What should I put on my second towel?!
What the Hell is Microsoft doing now?
Everyone looks for a good deal. When we see Coke on sale for a $1, we all stock up on it, even if we don’t need it. ‘Tis the American way. But, Microsoft’s newest ‘deal’ is not what it’s cracked up to be. So, when I bought my XBOX 360, I think I spent around $200 for it, as I got the 4 GB model cause I’m a cheapass. But, Microsoft has decided to release a 4 GB XBOX 360 for $99. Sounds great right? Well, there’s a catch. When you buy this cheap XBOX, you have to sign up for a two year XBOX Live plan at $15 a month. This may not seem like that much, but after the two years you’ve spent $459 before sales tax; that’s over $40 more than the XBOX Kinect bundle with a separate XBOX Live plan.
I get trying to make a more affordable console, which is what I thought the 4 GB model was, but apparently that shit wasn’t good enough for Microsoft.
Nerd of the Week: Chris Evans
Comic book movies have become one of the most profitable genres in filmmaking. Hell, four of the highest grossing movies of all time are comic book movies; three of them may be in the Spider-Man trilogy, but none the less. Movies based on DC, Marvel, Vertigo, or Dark Horse comics have been flooding the market for years now, and this summer shows no signs of that letting up. The Avengers was just released, The Dark Knight Rises is set to release in July, and the summer will round out with The Amazing Spiderman. While, only a handful of real awards have been awarded to actors from these films, excluding the MTV film awards and the link, the actors have become worldwide icons.
One person stands above the others, simply because he has played more of the iconic characters than anyone else in recent times. Many people have played a single character(Tobey Maguire, Nicholas Cage, Val Kilmer, Chris Hemsworth), several have played two(Rebecca Romijn, Michael Clarke Duncan, Tom Jane), fewer have played three(Ryan Reynolds, Ben Foster, Tommy Lee Jones), but only one I could find has been in five. Chris Evans. The would be prince of comic book movies.
Evans started this run back in 2005 with Fantastic Four, and it’s sequel two years later, with his role as Johnny Storm. At the time, Evans was sort of an unknown in the acting world. Sure, he’d been in a few movies, but nothing as big as Fantastic Four.
While, the two roles as Johnny Storm were in more cheesy movies, Evans showed himself as a go-to guy for the comic relief character in a more action oriented movie.
Next came his role as the voice of Casey in TMNT. While, I didn’t personally like this movie at all, it did add another notch onto his resume. The next role of note was that of Jensen in 2010′s The Losers. Jensen, mush like Johnny, served as the lovable comic relief of the film and helped undo the gruff nature of his costars. A lot of my fellow nerds haven’t seen The Losers and that is a damn shame; the movie is very fun and I enjoy watching it whenever I do so.
Next comes the nerd mash up that is Scott Pilgrim vs the World, wherein a number of well known actors make appearances; Tom Jane, Brandon Routh, and Michael Cera to name a few. Evans played Lucas Lee, the biggest douchebag of the evil exes, but one of the funniest. This movie is a cult hit with a very devoted fan base, and it really brought Evans to the attention of a number of nerds.
This brings us to the most recent role played by Evens. The one and only Captain Fucking America, also known as Steve Rogers. Some fans scoffed at this, mainly because Evens already played another well known Marvel hero, but I saw it as a perfect fit. Evens fucking looks like what I thought Rogers would look like in a movie. He’s got that “Look at me, I’m America” face and the fact he’s beyond ripped doesn’t hurt anything. Playing Captain America, both in the individual movie and in the beyond epic Avengers. Evans looks to be the new action star of the current era, and thankfully he can actually act.
Clearly, Evans has become the eye candy for women throughout society, my girlfriend included, but Evans is more than just that. He’s fucking Captain America.
Posting Schedule
Hey all.
I figured that I would outline the kind of posts I’ll be doing.
Sunday: Nerd of the Week-this doesn’t automatically mean the person is nerdy, but their actions have added to the nerd collective, influenced society in a positive way, did an outstanding job in something incredibly, and so on. The nerds in question can be individuals, companies, staffs, groups, etc
Monday/Friday: News roundup. News that catches my eye and such
Thursday: Entertainment news.
Saturday: Character analysis/rants
And I’m taking Tuesdays and Wednesdays off dammit.
Catherine: Review
(PS3, XBOX360)
So, I’ve just finished the demo for Catherine, and I adored it. I’m not usually the biggest fan of Japanese games, but this was fun! It was a puzzle game that had an interesting storyline to it about a man who has issues with marriage and his long-time girlfriend Katherine. Then, he gets blindsided by a gorgeous lady named Catherine who wants him, and tries to get him to leave his super successful and hot girlfriend for her.
When I put this in I wasn’t expecting it to have a story at all. I thought it was just a puzzle game, so I was pleasantly surprised. I like the addition of all of the other humans in the dream world being sheep. I thought it was a funny and ironic change. It’s a survival/horror/RPG kind of story, and it was actually pretty fun!
Anyway, the story opens up in the Nightmare world, where you have to move objects in order to escape some unknown monster at the bottom of the screen who will destroy everything until it kills you. It gives you a quick tutorial on how to do everything and then throws you right into the storyline. When you wake up from your dream you’ve gone to lunch with your girlfriend (Katherine) who seems to be hinting that she wants to get married and is sick of you dicking around. You go out to dinner with your buds, who are of no help, and you drink and text your lady until its time for bed. It throws you back into Nightmare world, where shit has really gotten out of hand. It became a much more difficult game all of a sudden, and now you’re dodging the claws of your girlfriend (who is wielding a fork and will stab you with it if she can catch you) and running to the top of the screen. Once you make it out of there alive it gives a little bit of a preview of the storyline that you can expect and then hits the title screen again.
I thought it was good, and I’m going to go start looking at prices of it on half.com to grab me a copy!
Dick Tastes Yummy
You know, I love Kevin Smith. I really do.This is Kevin and Malcolm’s response to the Westboro Baptist Church.
Superman: King of the Shitty Comic Heroes
Few heroes have been around as long as Superman. Captain America, Captain Marvel, Batman and Ant-Man of course have all hit the half century mark, or more. Out of the list heroes, only Captain America, or Steve Rogers, and Superman, or Clark Kent, have had any kind of social impact. These men have become symbols for what it means to be a human, to be an American, to be a man. But, the gilded era of the American dream died in the 60s. Marvel, after a long time of waiting, finally added some real depth to Captain America; up until recently, the Captain fought villains aligned with politics(the Nazi Red Skull, the anarchist Flag-Smasher, etc), but with the advent of the Civil War storyline, Rogers got some damn personality.
However, Mr. Kent is stuck in the American dream. His personality is a shallow as a puddle, and his powers are the most generic combination of generic powers ever; I will admit that his powers were chosen at a time when no other heroes exist, and the powers were amazing at the time. But, in the current world we live in, there just isn’t room for the Man of Steel anymore. A few years ago, DC realized the same thing and released The Death of Superman; if you don’t this comic, go watch the youtube thing Max Landis did-I’ll post the link at the end of the article for it. Long story short-Kent dies in an epic brofight with Doomsday. The death of an icon, and the death of an American symbol.
However, this was bullshit. DC didn’t kill their oldest cash-cow, at least not for good. They brought him back a few issues later, using some shitty healing coma as the excuse. But, I digress into my rage at the end of death in comics as a whole. The fact I hate Superman so damn much has nothing to do with him being bought back from the dead, if I did I’d hate the majority of comic book character. I hate Superman because of how fucking generic he is. The idea of a perfect hero, whose only purpose in the universe is to better it is boring. Let’s be frank, we don’t like Bruce Wayne, Hal Jordan, Frank Castle, or Peter Parker because they save the day, we like them for the flaws and enjoy it when they win.
Let’s break down the boring that is Clark Kent and his powers; these powers that make him a god among DC heroes. Every power he has, at least two other heroes in the comic world also have it.
1: Superhuman Strength: Thor, Hulk, Moon Knight, Wonder Woman, Nova, Frenzy
2: Invulnerability: Hawk, Apocalypse, Darkseid, Osiris, Sentry, Luke Cage
3: Flight: Red Tornado, Banshee, Storm, Human Torch, Iron Man, Captain Marvel
4: Superhuman Speed: Flash, Black Adam, Warpath, Cannonball, Hyperion
5: X-Ray Vision: Martian Manhunter Booster Gold, Wildfire
And so on. Hell, Rogue or Dark Phoenix have all of these sometimes. Superman could be good, that I know. After Captain America being updated correctly, I know it is possible. But until then, the Man of Steel will simply rust away into being a myth referenced by other comics.
Damn it Clark, get your shit together.
Link for the Max Landis vid: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0PlwDbSYicM