Friday, November 30, 2007

December Boys

The only reason i wanted to see this movie was Daniel Radcliffe, now hold on, i`m not a fan of his i was just curious what would a dude the same age as me do after reaching fame.
As some of you know Daniel got the role of Harry Potter by accident (David Heyman saw him and said he looks like Harry or something like that) and the Harry Potter series is the biggest movie he ever had a role in, there is a theory that very successful newcomers can`t be cast into other big movies because they would steal the attention or make it seem weird (see Mark Hamill - Luke Skywalker).
Surprisingly Radcliffe`s acting is very good though not many lines from his side, probably because his lack of aussie accent, the rest of the cast does a great job, but the main problem of the movie is lack of action/substance, the movie drags and gets rather boring with a lot of plot holes, someone explain to me why in late December we are told about a girl (i don`t wanna spoil) that she will return "next summer" that`s pretty big, I actually read an synopsis that said it`s actually SUMMER, but last time i checked Christmas is in December.
I understand that Kangoostralia is hot in what we consider winter but come on people, anyway if you find interesting the holiday of four orphans and their adventures into getting adopted by a charming family in late 1960s you should really see this flick.

American Dad "Surro-Gate"

Even though we have no Simpsons or Family Guy this weekend we still have American Dad`s episode 307 "Surro-Gate".
In this episode Stan will face one of the things he fears the most, his wife, Francine will become a surrogate for a gay couple, as sick as that may sound only an CIA agent like Stan will be able to deal with this kind of situation.
So don`t miss this one.

Thursday, November 29, 2007

SouthPark "Christmas Time in South Park" DVD

Although this DVD is out there for a while now, what better time to talk about it than now when Christmas is getting closer and we have no Family Guy or Simpsons this weekend, i don`t know why exactly, hope it`s not related to the Writer`s Strike.
The "Christmas Time in South Park" is something nobody should miss and couldn`t be better to give to someone new in South Park as a gift, this dvd is a compilation of Christmas specials, the episodes featured on this DVD include "Mr Hankey, the Christmas Poo", "Christmas Time in Hell" and two more. Enjoy.

Wednesday, November 28, 2007

Bionic Woman is total crap

I was so bored i did not know what to post about because not much interesting stuff happening this week, or so it seems, but anyway this was a nice opportunity to tell you guys that the new re imagining of the 70s TV show "Bionic Woman" is total junk and should not even be viewed by stoned hippies.
I mean, honestly, who gives a shit about a cyborg chick from the 70s brought up in our era of CGI and hot chicks with guns instead of legs (thank you Rodriguez, thank you) so fuck this! Maybe this show brings lots of nostalgia to old people, but even the actress is ugly and i feel like i`m speaking in the name of every dude who will eventually be old, we need hot chicks in no-brainers!

Tuesday, November 27, 2007

List of my favourite music albums of 2007

Even though 2007 is not over yet i feel i should post a list of my favourite albums of the year so far, and maybe, until the end i will make some sort of top ten. Don`t take this as an universal list if you listen to anything other than rock feel free to try some. The bands are mostly rock bands, indie rock, alternative, post-punk, post-hardcore and so on.
Arcade Fire - "Neon Bible"
Bloc Party - "A weekend in the city"
Yellowcard - "Paper Walls"
The Secret Show - "Impressionist Road Map of The West"
The Killers -"Sawdust"
Funeral For A Friend - "Tales don`t tell themselves"
Arctic Monkeys - "Favourite Worst Nightmare"
The White Stripes - "Icky Thump"
The Used - "Lies for the Liars"
Nine Inch Nails - "Y34RZ3R0R3M1X3D" (and Year Zero)
Tegan and Sara - "the Con"
Still, there are a couple of albums i want to listen to, but this is just a list if you like one band you might find that you like more from the list, something that i find rather overrated this year is Radiohead`s "in rainbows" but maybe i have to listen to it more, which i will.

Heroes "Powerless"

Episode ten of season two left us a little wondering but since it`s not a season finale prolly nothing big will happen. Anyway episode eleven entitled "Powerless" will continue the Peter and Hiro showdown and we`ll find out what will happen to Adam, Micah will try to save Monica from the gang that took her with the help of his mom and the rest we`ll just have to see next week. Sayonara.

Monday, November 26, 2007

6 Unusual Games You Should Play Before You Die


I decided to make a list of games you should play before you die after i made the one with movies you should see (right before you die), and maybe i`ll make more lists, but here are six of the most unusual games you just have to play. The criteria aren`t many but i`ve excluded classics and games most people played anyway to make this list as helpful as it could be, so if you can`t find Bladur`s Gate, Half-Life, Diablo or any other godlike game, i did not forget. So here are six unusual games:


1.Portal: Portal is by far the biggest surprise of 2007 and the biggest surprise in a long, long time, it`s genius, it`s weird, it freaks you out a little and it`s so much more than you`d think, because if you think Portal is senseless portal shooting, you are so wrong, it has one of the best stories in recent games, all with a simplicity other game developers could only dream of.

2.Grim Fandango: Grim Fandango may be rather old and it`s not that unusual after you get over the fact that you are working as a travel agent for the Department of Death, based on Mexican culture with amazing humour makes Grim Fandango one of the funniest adventure games in history.




3. Black and White: To be honest B&W is not that unusual nowadays because games tend to be as non-linear as possible but at it`s time it was a major development and today it`s still one of the most weird and funny "god" simulators, considered one of the most polished games. Made by Peter Molyneux B&W is so damn worth for this list.




4. Call Of Cthulhu: When you are making a list like this one it`s hard not to think you might have omitted some major games but that`s the beauty of it, it`s just 6 games, not THE 6 games so this is open to interpretation. Anyway Call Of Cthulhu: DCoTE is a game inspired by H.P. Lovecraft writings and from that you can only imagine how weird and good this game really is.




5. F.E.A.R. : First Encounter Assault Recon is one of that things that will mark you for the rest of your life, if you are not afraid of little girls, you will be after this game, little girls have scared the crap out of me in horror movies and not only since i can remeber. This game right here is by far one of the most frightening, weird and unusual experiences you will ever encounter.



6. Halo : Yes, i`m talking about the original Halo, and you have to admit it is a little bit unusual, but the distance between console and PC releases kind of took a little of it`s popularity so to say, but even so, chasing "aliens" around a ring-like (hence HALO) planet in the role of the Master Chief (rank) is pretty damn unusual to me.

Saturday, November 24, 2007

The Simpsons "Funeral for a Friend"

This weekend we`re in for a treat with this new The Simpsons episode entitled Funeral for a Friend (with no connection with the band as far as i know) that will make the Sideshow Bob fans very happy, mostly the ones who were disappointed with his absence in The Simpsons:Movie.
Sideshow Bob once again lures Bart and his family into his mastermind hoax consisting in Marge dreaming up that she should fast-forward trough TV ads and finally the Simpsons family take interest in an ad for some restaurant where, of course, Sideshow Bob is waiting, waiting to kill Bart.Things don`t work out for Bob as they never have but this time Sideshow Bob could be done for.
This episode has a nice guest star list consisting of: Kelsey Grammer, David Hyde Pierce and John Mahoney.

Family Guy "Peter's Daughter"

For me the weekend means Family Guy, Simpsons, American Dad and any other sitcoms that air in weekends (i think King of The Hill swell) so i should write more often about upcoming episodes.
The next episode in Family Guy season six is "Peter`s Daughter" which obviously is Meg who starts getting a lot of respect from Peter after she was hurt in an accident, this one should be funny, even funnier than the 100Th episode special and "Stewie Kills Lois" because Meg never got respect from anyone in the family, not even from Lois.

Thursday, November 22, 2007

Statistics / Blogs Blow Dot One Month Aniversary

LOG
tht
this blog now belongs to www.gamepress.ro
December 15 2007 : reached 20.000 page loads.
Most viewed posts until dec15: southpark-list.html / family-guy-100th-episode-special.html / heroes-powerless.html
Statistics for December will be updated on the 31st.

older statistics (calculated for November and 5 or so days of October):
as originaly posted:
My blog is now officially one month young and i have to say i`m pretty happy with what i`ve done so far, so i thought i should do a recap of things i done, most commented posts and statistics and whatnot. So, enjoy and come again.

Since it`s opening until now (calculated as first month = 30days) this blog got 10,647 unique visitors and 12,469 page views. The daily viewer average stands at 343 with 400 views and the user/visits peak was at 1,099 and 992 visitors on November 15th. I`m pretty happy with that.
Moving on, the most used keywords in Google to reach this blog were "south park the list" followed by "family guy" keywords (from Google Analytics). The Most commented blog posts were: "SouthPark Imaginationland 3/3 of season 11" and "10 Movies You Should See Right Before You Die"
And that`s about all, in the future i will write more and try to please all kinds of readers.


Wednesday, November 21, 2007

SouthPark "The List" Deleted Scene

I was rather happy to see some new SouthPark content even though season eleven has come to an end, here we are with an deleted scene (Alternate ending) of last week`s episode "The List" featuring the fourth grade girls and their list rating every boy in class from cutest to ugliest, the alternate ending clip contains the real un-modiefied list.
Also we have a high resolution image of the one you can see on the left right here. Until season 12 i can only hope more content or SouthPark related news come up.

Tuesday, November 20, 2007

Heroes "Truth & Consequences"

Next week on Heroes episode ten of season two entitled "Truth and consequences". Peter Petrelli will go with Adam to try and stop the upcoming virus cataclysm, Niki returns with bad news to Micah, Monica pushes her copy-cat abilities to the limit, Hiro starts his search for his father killer, Matt goes to the last person in the company photo and Maya must choose between her brother and Sylar. In my opinion this second season was a little draggy but this episode seems very interesting, i won`t spoil.

In other news, hit drama show Prison Break is curently in hiatus until January after the last episode left us with a nice cliffhanger.

Sunday, November 18, 2007

Super Mario Galaxy blasts into a supernova

Even though Gamespot already said what i wanted to say "Mario takes to the stars ..." my title is better, ha! Anyway Super Mario Galaxy seems to be a blast and i just had to mention this game somewhere in the blog, i don`t think there is a person in this world that never heard of Mario, only when i type that name nostalgia kicks in.
Until now Super Mario Galaxy has been appreciated a lot, Gamespot calls it the best Wii game to date and other critics reviewed it with maximum score. I must say i would buy a Wii to play this game but i say that a lot, Wii could have been cheaper for what it delivers, but that`s just a matter of opinion.

Friday, November 16, 2007

10 Movies You Should See Right Before You Die

I was browsing around for a list of ten movies i should see right before i die, that`s rather normal i suppose. But i was surprised to find (a lot) of lists with movies that suck, the kind of movies you would see by accident and of course you would call it a day and say "Yeah i saw that movie". So i decided to make a list of my own, only these are the movies you should see right before you die just in case you did not, these are rather known movies so it`s more like a failsafe, if you did not, run and watch them.

So without further bla bla, here are ten movies you should see right before you die:
Number One (1): The Good, The Bad and The Ugly : trust me, if you are about to die and have not yet seen this piece of art there is NOTHING i can say, just do it™.
2. Schindler`s List : Why would you see the biggest budget b&w movie in history right before you die? Because it`s one great movie with outsanding acting, how can other lists forget this movie? Geesh...
3. Leon : Leon is not exactly mandatory to see, but while i was documenting for this list i came across it again and i thought, hey, i should see this one AGAIN before i die.
4. Edward Scissorhands: This is a Johnny Depp movie, if you think Depp is all about PoTC go kill yourself, this is plain great, it`s weird, it`s funny, it`s something you should see right before you die.
5. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest : Having good knowledge about movies is like having good literature knowledge, this is the kind of movie that gives you that, i don`t know how, but this movie is weird, it`s premise sounds boring but it won`t let you go.
6. Pulp Fiction : See, this is what i`m talking about, other -movies you should see before you die- lists don`t have these movies, maybe the author thinks everybody saw them, guess again, it`s your job to make sure!
7. Forrest Gump : I`m going to pretend you have seen this movie anyway , don`t even tell me you have not.
8. Fight Club : Again, one of the recent (relative) movies that you must see, by now you are probably asking yourself why i don`t talk about the content of each movie. The answer: Humans are judgemental creatures, tell them something and they might get it wrong, humans don`t even know what they like, they think so, but they do not.
9. Back To The Future : OK, i am not insane, not yet, even though this movie isn`t something you should hang on to on your death bed, it`s just something very nice and makes you warm on the inside.
10. And last but not least, Cidade De Deus ... i ask myself why this movie, i don`t know it`s just something that opens your eyes a little, but you know, i said 10 movies, there are hundreds you should see, maybe even more, if you like those, there are more.

Thursday, November 15, 2007

Rock Band and SouthPark

OK, so i lied when i said "The List" is my last post about SouthPark, but this is not really about SouthPark, it`s about Rock Band the upcoming rock band simulator for consoles to be launched later this month.
As some of you might remember, there was and episode in SouthPark when Timmy becomes a popular rock lead singer in the band "The Lords of the Underworld" later to be renamed into "Timmy & The Lords of the Underworld", so as you are prolly guessing by now, Rock Band will feature this song on it`s new bonus track list that includes songs from Flyleaf, Honest Bob, Freezepop and many others, this brings the total songs to a number of 58.

All i can say is that the game will most definitely rock, i don`t know how it will play but it will ROCK, with songs over all rock eras and bands like Dire Straits, Ramones, KISS, The Who, Black Sabbath, The Police and ... `nuff said!

Tuesday, November 13, 2007

The 2nd best game of all time according to gamespot.

... is none other than Crysis

Again i find myself talking about crysis, the next-generation crazygame, so this game is supposed to be the second best game of all time according to Gamespot, may not mean anything to you but that`s pretty huge, putting Crysis at .1 difference under Diablo is a big step and even though Crysis is so cool according to Gamespot Diablo is still better so bad luck evil Crysis, nah just kidding.
I must be fair though, crysis is not exactly the second best game of all time, it stands at 9.5 with World Of Warcraft, Valve The Orange Box and many others but GameSpot`s actual system shows Crysis right under Diablo with a small diference. Either way i`m uncertain of this game`s qualitty yet, because it still seems way before it`s time and the fan base is not that big... i mean fans are many but unlike The Orange Box only few can actually play it properly, but who am I to argue with GameSpot.

Monday, November 12, 2007

SouthPark "The List"

So here we are just one more episode to go in season 11, airing this week "The Line" episode 1114 (preview) and season finale will feature a quest for a list made by the fourth grade girls that rates every boy from the cutest to the ugliest and naturally the boys will try to seize the list. Above all that we are promised an unexpected result when the boys finally get the list.
That`s about all for this last episode this is my last blog entry for this season, don`t forget that season 12 will start in March, also you should check out the new "Christmas Time in South Park" DVD with South Park classic Christmas specials. Enjoy!
p.s. From the preview Cartman looks so pissed off.

Sunday, November 11, 2007

Demonoid shares a grave with OiNK

.:Bloody Hell:.

Following OiNK`s takedown on October 23rd the firmly gripping hand of the law in Canada apparently threatened the company who rented their servers to Demonoid`s staff, one of the biggest (semi) public torrent trackers, so the staff was forced to take down the tracker "The CRIA threatened the company renting the servers to us, and because of this it is not possible to keep the site online. Sorry for the inconvenience and thanks for your understanding."
Prolly inspired by OiNK -if you don`t know: the biggest music tracker and prolly the biggest takedown since Napster- a lot of torrent trackers are being shut down with proportionally even more being opened. I personally did not like Demonoid but it was a fast source for stuff but it`s open-to-the-world policy may be what brought it in this situation.

Saturday, November 10, 2007

The Killers "Sawdust"

Artist: The Killers
Album: Sawdust
Year: 2007
Genre: indie/alternative rock
Release dates: November 10 - November 13 2007

So this new album from Las Vegas indie band The Killers is a series of re-recordings of hit songs, covers, rare songs and cool remixes. if you like quality rock music, and especially if you like The Killers you`re gonna love this new "compilation" again with British influences like covers of Dire Straits and British post-punk band Joy Division.
The album sounds great with lots of material you won`t get bored of, ten minute "Mr. Brightside" remix with lots of synth, abbey road version of "Sam`s Town", new recording of "Move Away" from Spider-Man 3 Soundtrack. My faves are "Glamorous Indie Rock And Roll" and "Mr.Brightside" but i love the other songs just as much.
If you don`t know who The Killers are you should buy this album and then you`ll wanna buy the others as well, no matter what people say in our age of crappy music The Killers are a fresh breath of quality.

Friday, November 9, 2007

Why is Call Of Duty 4 so great, part two.

"fifty thousand people used to live here..."

Why is CoD4 so great? because it delivers entertainment, that is what the word game stands for, and not only entertainment, if i compare it to let`s say $150 milion dollars budget movies Call Of Duty was so much better, more than entertainment, i was surprised and i am surprised to say this but it`s quite emotional, this was tried before but now you really get attached to your NPC fellow comrades and (spoiler) watch their hopes shattered right at he end *Boom* by the war they ended, the world they saved and only for them to know that.
(/spoiler)
I have to be honest, after i played Half Life Episode Two i said that nothing will please me more this year but here i am, Call of Duty is a game that has everything, it`s not senseless shooting, it`s deep, it`s tactical, it`s stealth even, it`s modern and good surprisingly good story not to mention amazing graphics.
People complained about the fact that the game is short, about 6 hours long, in my opinion, that`s the best thing, this is the way gaming should head. And maybe i can be bought with good graphics and amazing effects, but my heart beating faster and faster can`t be wrong.

Wednesday, November 7, 2007

Call Of Duty 4 feels like you are there

The official box art for Call Of Duty is anything but purple but trust me, this is as cute and cuddle as CoD4 gets, inside that box lies one of the most dramatic and shocking games i ever played.

Allow me to explain, you don`t even have time to say FUCK, the first 15 minutes are extremely intense, a fast paced blitz fight on an huge transport ship, with dramatic ending and extremely well done visuals, voice acting and directing so to say, it`s one of the most unbelievable scenes in a game, ever, i`m not over hyped i`m serious.

The very next scene you just happen to wake up being carried to a vehicle by some sort of extremists, transported to some sort of plaza where you can hear your heartbeat, silence then held at gun point and shot with a bulled that you can actually feel, only to find that you were an important leader, fucking well done! Good gfx optimisation, beautiful dramatic score, voice acting and cinematic experience, the only downside i could notice is that sometimes the great level design and overall graphics make you stop and admire the game fact that could get you killed.

Tuesday, November 6, 2007

Open Handset Alliance, Android and SciFi

I had no idea what to write about so i thought i should write about Gphone as they called it, but to be honest there isn`t really anything to talk about, the Gphone may be just a simple phone while the focus of Google is on the Open Handset Alliance and Android.

The Android is an Open Source mobile platform, they say it`s the first fully Open Source, but whatever, Google`s information for this project gives me fucking headaches, i had to browse the web for a about an hour to find stuff i already knew about it, maybe i`m overreacting, maybe something, i don`t know but it just feels like the "Gphone" with it`s Android are just the toys of a select few, the same who are working on it. The concept is mind blowing if you think how they want you to think but how will this revolutionise so much if the whole thing is so blurry.
My point is, i know what it is, you know, most Internet users do, but average people don`t even have a clue what Open Source means and i think that`s a problem in some way.

Monday, November 5, 2007

SouthPark "Guitar Queer-o"

Now that the Imaginationland episodes have come to an end it`s time for new hilarious SouthPark episodes, with two more this season this new one seems rather very interesting.
As everybody knows Guitar Hero is a very popular game for people who like to play guitar by pressing a bunch of buttons instead of the good old fashion finger fretting and picking or strumming strings. So anyhow in this all new SouthPark episode Stan and Kyle get hooked up on Guitar Hero but it seems that Stan`s incredible "guitar" skills are no match for Kyle`s, fact that could jeopardise their friendship. Don`t know if this one will be better than "Make Love Not Warcraft" but definitely worth watching for a nice laugh.

Sunday, November 4, 2007

Lucy, The Daughter of The Devil

.:La Figlia Del Diavolo:.

"Lucy, The Daughter of the Devil" is a 3D animated TV show part of Adult Swim on Cartoon Network about the daughter of the devil. She is 21, lives in San Francisco and always criticized about her weight, and of course, she must fulfill her destiny as the Antichrist to make her dad, Satan, proud.

Too bad though the number one enemy of Satan who was supposed to be dead rises as the local DJ Jesus (pronounced Hesús) and Lucy develops a crush on him, to Satan`s dismay. The adventures that Lucy, Satan, Becky The Devil`s advocate, and Jesus go trough will surely make you say this show is fucked up in a funny way.

So the Vatican couldn't just watch and on the trail of the
Antichrist they send a team of "action-heroes" called The Special Fathers and The homicidal Special Sister. With animation reminding of the sitcom game Grim Fandango, Satan with lame sweaters, Jesus with rising DJing fame and Lucy the non-conformist average-American girl will surely get you hooked up on this one.

Saturday, November 3, 2007

NFS: Pro Street Demo Impressions

As they did in the last few years EA released today the demo for their newest street racing game, Need For Speed Pro Street, from the original exotic car racing to hot pursuits, from Porsche history to car tuning the NFS premise was speed, and later on NoS addiction.

The Pro Street demo has two cars and two circuits in two different type of races, including the new type of race where you pray you don`t get your car totaled at high speeds, speaking of damage, the damage system is not that great, you only get a feeling that the car is made of plastic.
Truth is, yes, the game is not as arcade as it used to be, even on the CASUAL setting the car is difficult to control, a good thing for the series to aim at a larger group of gamers, the damage does affect the car`s overall performance, terrain affects speed and so on, taking street racing of the "streets" certainly makes it look as a simulator, but we will see about that on November 14Th.

Friday, November 2, 2007

Family Guy 100th Episode Special

Family Guy: A bit of history
Since it`s first air in 1999 Family Guy went trough a lot, it was canceled two times but FOX decided to continue it after the huge numbers of fans watching the reruns on Cartoon Network`s Adult Swim. Pretty much what happened to Matt Groening`s Futurama, to return somewhere around 2008.
After it`s comeback on FOX the show released a feature-length movie and now it`s currently in season 6.
The 100th episode anniversary
The psychological barrier of the number 100 will be passed this Sunday with a great Flashback episode and the "Stewie Kills Lois" episode, that unfortunately leaked on p2p in a nearly complete release. Anyway the episode will/is great and will make a lot of people happy who missed Stewie`s masterplans, only this time he will try to kill his Mum whatever it takes.

Thursday, November 1, 2007

SouthPark "Imaginationland" synopsis

THIS POST MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS
Now that the longest running multi-part episode of SouthPark is out i think it would be fair to talk about the whole story of the Imaginationland episodes.
It all started with Cartman and his leprechaun and the contract with Kyle that said if the leprechaun is real Kyle will have to suck Eric`s balls, finally the leprechaun makes it`s appearance to Kyle`s surprise and warns them that a terrible thing is going to happen, so it happens that the mayor of Imaginationland comes to the boys and takes them to Imaginationland, the place where everything ever imagined comes to life, and then, just like that, terrorists begin their attack on the imagination and try to free the evil imagination forces separated only by a wall, as the leprechaun warned, on an attempt to make an escape Butters is left for dead and used as a tool to send a message to the world from the terrorists. Cartman goes to trial with Kyle and the judge agrees that Kyle has to suck his balls, the government brings up their ImaginationGate and conclude that they should nuke but then the council of nine puts on a plan to defeat the evil forces, the council consisting of Jesus, Luke Skywalker, Gandalf, Popeye and more including that Asshole talking lion from Narnia.

Anyway Butters becomes the chosen one and the epic battle between good and evil is won yet again by the good but the imagination still gets nuked but re-imagined by Butters. Oh! And Kyle sucks Cartman`s balls but not how you would expect, but that`s for you to discover. This one is a great episode, and if you can get it now it would be worth it.