Wednesday, July 29, 2009
1MR: Battlefield 1943
Pink Floyd - Shine on You Crazy Diamond
Synopsis: It's time to do your part in the action packed battles of the World War II Pacific Campaign! Pick your path - be it as a rifleman crawling the trenches, a steel fisted tank commander or an ace fighter pilot dog-fighting to protect the skies. Play as a lone wolf or with your friends, coordinating to turn the tide of battle. Whatever you choose, you get to enjoy the thrill of a fully featured online shooter with the unique Battlefield gameplay. bf1943.com
Review: Battlefield 1942 has been revamped for the Xbox 360 and PS3 and retitled Battlefield 1943. It's hard to imagine that anyone who considers themselves a first person shooter fan would not have tried the Battlefield series by now. In a nutshell, this is team-oriented combat based on capturing and holding points on the map. Obtain a majority of the five points, and the other team's point ticker moves towards zero. The more your team captures, the faster the other team moves towards a loss.
The game ships with only three maps, and the bonus map that was unlocked (Coral Sea) is dog fighting only. Honestly, that is the only knock against the game. For $15, I dare you to find better value for your money. This is the best selling XBLA/PSN game for a reason, and people will be playing this for months and maybe even years to come. Now give us more maps, EA!
Rating: Buy
Synopsis: It's time to do your part in the action packed battles of the World War II Pacific Campaign! Pick your path - be it as a rifleman crawling the trenches, a steel fisted tank commander or an ace fighter pilot dog-fighting to protect the skies. Play as a lone wolf or with your friends, coordinating to turn the tide of battle. Whatever you choose, you get to enjoy the thrill of a fully featured online shooter with the unique Battlefield gameplay. bf1943.com
Review: Battlefield 1942 has been revamped for the Xbox 360 and PS3 and retitled Battlefield 1943. It's hard to imagine that anyone who considers themselves a first person shooter fan would not have tried the Battlefield series by now. In a nutshell, this is team-oriented combat based on capturing and holding points on the map. Obtain a majority of the five points, and the other team's point ticker moves towards zero. The more your team captures, the faster the other team moves towards a loss.
The game ships with only three maps, and the bonus map that was unlocked (Coral Sea) is dog fighting only. Honestly, that is the only knock against the game. For $15, I dare you to find better value for your money. This is the best selling XBLA/PSN game for a reason, and people will be playing this for months and maybe even years to come. Now give us more maps, EA!
Rating: Buy
Saturday, July 25, 2009
1MR: Defiance
Rangers @ Royals
Synopsis: On the run and hiding in the deep forests of the then German occupied Poland and Belorussia (World War II), the three Bielski brothers find the impossible task of foraging for food and weapons for their survival. They live, not only with the fear of discovery, contending with neighboring Soviet partisans and knowing whom to trust but also take the responsibility of looking after a large mass of fleeing Polish Jews from the German war machine. Women, men, children, the elderly and the young alike are all hiding in makeshift homes in the dark, cold and unforgiving forests in the darkest times of German occupied Eastern Europe. imdb
Review: This movie is a bit difficult to review. On one hand, the true story that the movie is based on is very interesting and having a feature film headlined by Daniel Craig to retell the story is deserved. On the other hand, the movie itself just doesn't flow all that well. Part of this could be based on the source material not being all that eventful, but I think it has more to do with bad editing. Several scenes could have been dropped while others expanded to keep away the urge to check your watch.
The Blu-ray transfer itself is very good, both in audio and video. The forest that the Bielski's occupy is vibrant without the grain usually seen in that type of environment. The sound is convincing, and the few battles are sharp and exciting. In the end, the movie is worth a rent just for the interesting story, but it won't be the prize of anyone's movie collection.
Rating: Rent
Synopsis: On the run and hiding in the deep forests of the then German occupied Poland and Belorussia (World War II), the three Bielski brothers find the impossible task of foraging for food and weapons for their survival. They live, not only with the fear of discovery, contending with neighboring Soviet partisans and knowing whom to trust but also take the responsibility of looking after a large mass of fleeing Polish Jews from the German war machine. Women, men, children, the elderly and the young alike are all hiding in makeshift homes in the dark, cold and unforgiving forests in the darkest times of German occupied Eastern Europe. imdb
Review: This movie is a bit difficult to review. On one hand, the true story that the movie is based on is very interesting and having a feature film headlined by Daniel Craig to retell the story is deserved. On the other hand, the movie itself just doesn't flow all that well. Part of this could be based on the source material not being all that eventful, but I think it has more to do with bad editing. Several scenes could have been dropped while others expanded to keep away the urge to check your watch.
The Blu-ray transfer itself is very good, both in audio and video. The forest that the Bielski's occupy is vibrant without the grain usually seen in that type of environment. The sound is convincing, and the few battles are sharp and exciting. In the end, the movie is worth a rent just for the interesting story, but it won't be the prize of anyone's movie collection.
Rating: Rent
Friday, July 24, 2009
Netflix Failing
Foo Fighters - Band on the Run
Not sure what's going on with Netflix the past couple months. I went for a year or so with absolutely no problems getting new releases. Now it seems almost impossible to get one.
Even Gran Torino, which has been out for about a month and a half, is still listed as very long wait. Netflix... FIX YER SHIT.
Not sure what's going on with Netflix the past couple months. I went for a year or so with absolutely no problems getting new releases. Now it seems almost impossible to get one.
Even Gran Torino, which has been out for about a month and a half, is still listed as very long wait. Netflix... FIX YER SHIT.
Labels: netflix
Thursday, July 23, 2009
Workspace
1MR: Seven Pounds
Radiohead - Subterranean Homesick Alien
Synopsis: Haunted by a secret, Ben Thomas looks for redemption by radically transforming the lives of seven people he doesn't know. Once his plan is set, nothing will be able to stop him. At least that's what he thinks. But Ben hadn't planned on falling in love with one of these people and she's the one who will end up transforming him. imdb
Review: I really wasn't expecting too much going into this. Will Smith seems to trade off the types of films he does. One film will be the somewhat boring drama The Pursuit of Happyness and then the next will be the action packed I Am Legend. This is another drama/"thinking" movie by the same people as Happyness. On top of that, this film pretty much got all the bad reviews it could handle and then some.
That said, I did enjoy the movie quite a bit. The first hour or so moved very slowly, and often times it was a bit aggravating how the story was intentionally being held back to later be revealed in "Aha!" fashion. Once past the first hour, however, the story came together very well and the performances by both Will Smith and especially Rosario Dawson were very good. Warning: this movie is a bit of a downer, haha.
Rating: Rent
Synopsis: Haunted by a secret, Ben Thomas looks for redemption by radically transforming the lives of seven people he doesn't know. Once his plan is set, nothing will be able to stop him. At least that's what he thinks. But Ben hadn't planned on falling in love with one of these people and she's the one who will end up transforming him. imdb
Review: I really wasn't expecting too much going into this. Will Smith seems to trade off the types of films he does. One film will be the somewhat boring drama The Pursuit of Happyness and then the next will be the action packed I Am Legend. This is another drama/"thinking" movie by the same people as Happyness. On top of that, this film pretty much got all the bad reviews it could handle and then some.
That said, I did enjoy the movie quite a bit. The first hour or so moved very slowly, and often times it was a bit aggravating how the story was intentionally being held back to later be revealed in "Aha!" fashion. Once past the first hour, however, the story came together very well and the performances by both Will Smith and especially Rosario Dawson were very good. Warning: this movie is a bit of a downer, haha.
Rating: Rent
Tuesday, July 21, 2009
Modern
Bernie Mac
I just wanted to take a quick second here during my lunch break to say that over the past few days, I've brought my blog into 2009 in a ton of ways. Not like a lot of people show up here, but it's still fun working on HTML/CSS/JS. The fun thing to realize when looking at web pages is even the simplest looking ones (maybe like this one?) are often running a lot under the hood.
If you have Firefox, go to View->Page Style->No Style. If you know anything about HTML, you'll see that the entire page is designed through CSS. Little things like what I'm listening to in each post went from 3-4 lines of code down to half a line of code. Now on all pages but the main page, there are little breadcrumb buttons to help navigate in the upper left hand corner via JavaScript I wrote (why doesn't Blogger provide this?).
On the right side of every page is a Flash version of my 360 gamercard, a dynamic Twitter box that updates when I do, and a labels box. Like I said, it doesn't seem like a lot is going on, but if you look at the code behind everything, it's pretty impressive for a little Blogger site that I update every other month or less, haha.
I just wanted to take a quick second here during my lunch break to say that over the past few days, I've brought my blog into 2009 in a ton of ways. Not like a lot of people show up here, but it's still fun working on HTML/CSS/JS. The fun thing to realize when looking at web pages is even the simplest looking ones (maybe like this one?) are often running a lot under the hood.
If you have Firefox, go to View->Page Style->No Style. If you know anything about HTML, you'll see that the entire page is designed through CSS. Little things like what I'm listening to in each post went from 3-4 lines of code down to half a line of code. Now on all pages but the main page, there are little breadcrumb buttons to help navigate in the upper left hand corner via JavaScript I wrote (why doesn't Blogger provide this?).
On the right side of every page is a Flash version of my 360 gamercard, a dynamic Twitter box that updates when I do, and a labels box. Like I said, it doesn't seem like a lot is going on, but if you look at the code behind everything, it's pretty impressive for a little Blogger site that I update every other month or less, haha.
Labels: blog, web design
Monday, July 20, 2009
Twitter Madness
Thievery Corporation - Treasures
I've added a Twitter box along the right hand side of this page. With that, everyone who was bugging me to update my blog, link Twitter to my blog, and do something to make this not look exactly the same as it did 4 years ago can all go to hell, lol.
I've added a Twitter box along the right hand side of this page. With that, everyone who was bugging me to update my blog, link Twitter to my blog, and do something to make this not look exactly the same as it did 4 years ago can all go to hell, lol.
Labels: blog, twitter, web design
Thursday, July 16, 2009
Under Reconstruction
Billy Boy on Poison - On My Way
Just a quick note for anyone who actually comes here. I've recently changed hosts for this website (and others) and forgot to grab a few files (duh). So I'll be rebuilding the DVD and Games databases as well as the photo gallery here in the next week or two. Lemme know what you think of the site's speed. I have 30 days to cancel and find something else!
Just a quick note for anyone who actually comes here. I've recently changed hosts for this website (and others) and forgot to grab a few files (duh). So I'll be rebuilding the DVD and Games databases as well as the photo gallery here in the next week or two. Lemme know what you think of the site's speed. I have 30 days to cancel and find something else!
Labels: blog, web design
