I just want everyone to know that I love you, I value your readership, I am genuinely concerned about getting some blog posts up, but most important of all; i'm defiantly NOT ignoring you to play Prototype...
Sunday, August 30, 2009
"What?... yea i'll do it later"
I just want everyone to know that I love you, I value your readership, I am genuinely concerned about getting some blog posts up, but most important of all; i'm defiantly NOT ignoring you to play Prototype...
Saturday, August 22, 2009
Raccoons: The Big Bug Scourge of the Skies

Some basic facts: You are probably larger than a raccoon, but they will still best you in combat because they are devious cheats. Conventional attacks mean nothing to raccoons. If you punch a raccoon in the face, it will just laugh at you, and then probably go rape your mom. NEVER ATTACK A RACCOON WITH A BLADE. They bleed acid, like in that movie “Raccoon” and its thrilling James Cameron directed sequel, “Raccoons.” While it’s completely unadvisable to initiate violent conflict with a raccoon without backup from your posse of bros, you must always exercise your Raccoon Risk Reduction Responsibilities:

The movie poster alone features one of the most terrifying images of a raccoon ever. Here we see a raccoon staring menacingly with its dead eyes as Dan Akroyd and John Candy brazenly ignore the laws of physics. To make this scene even more disturbing, we must remember that John Candy was later killed by a raccoon. At the time, it was widely reported that he died from “Overweight Comedian Syndrome” but this was all part of a cover-up by raccoon sympathizers in the media.

Here we see rapper/thespian, Ice Cube, seconds before his untimely demise in this unusually dark family comedy. The raccoon is trying to convince witnesses of his innocence by employing the “cartoon googly eyes” tactic. Give it up, you monster. It didn’t work for Scott Peterson, and it won’t work for you.

This truly disturbing film depicts a series of raccoon assaults on humanity. On the poster, we see a duo of raccoons (with skunk allies) using mind control to force a group of children to butt-rape Cuba Gooding Jr.

This “classic” is practically a raccoon recruitment film in which an innocent hound is corrupted and converted to the ways of raccoonism. The image here seems to depict the pair hiding in a tree after committing a heinous act of arson.
Friday, August 21, 2009
Update
Just a quick follow up to the Blizzcon news, Kotaku just posted the trailer for Cataclysm which you can view here
Suburbia in the 90s Was Weird
Oh shit, no one's posted anything in over a week! This calls for a copout video post!
Please consider the case of David Wagner. Sometime between 1990-1992, David and a couple of his idiot friends in Ames, IA, decided to kill one of the long suburban afternoons by fucking around with their Dad's camcorder. What ensued was the type of shame that any self-respecting adult would do anything to hide. Acid-washed jeans, awkward-white-kid-dancing in a school hallway, "street slang" which was painfully misused even in the early nineties, and unfortunate mullet/glasses combos were committed to Super 8 tape for all eternity.
And that wouldn't have been so bad if this video just resided in a shoebox in Dave's attic somewhere. But no, it appears that this tape fell into the wrong hands. Cruel, unfeeling hands, who unconscionably put this video up on YouTube for all the world to see.
Now, this video was posted three years ago and has a paltry 11,000 views. But I'm confident that with Shyeah's immense readership (hi mom), this video will surely have gone viral within ten minutes of this posting.
via FilmDrunk
B to the C

Level cap raised to 85
2 new races (Goblin for the horde, Worgen for alliance)
Kalimdor and Eastern kingdoms have been transformed
New race/class combos (ie. Tauren Paladins)
And much moar!
Adding to the anticipation of Blizzcon was a rumor of sorts, or "accidental slip" from the Korean version of Diablo 3 featuring the 4th unknown race. And assuming it gets confirmed over the weekend that will bring the roaster of playable classes in Diablo 3 to Witchdoctor, Barbarian, Wizard, and Monk. Huzzah!
Check out more over at Kotaku's live blogging coverage
Or View 16+ hours of Blizzcon on Direct TV or streaming on the internets
Thursday, August 13, 2009
Monday, August 10, 2009
Spent Cartridges #1: Castlevania: Symphony of the Night
Spent Cartridges is an ongoing (maybe) series of columns devoted to classic (or sometimes just old) video games. Join us as we explore the past and prance about in the clovered fields of nostalgia.
There are only two things is the world that I take completely seriously and regard with undying reverence. The first is the teachings passed down in the Wu Tang manual by the prophet RZA, and the second is a series of video games about killing Draculas.
I’m of course talking about the Castlevania series from Konami in which you take the role of various and sundry vampire hunters in a quest to finally rid the world of Vlad Tepes Dracula. The history of the series is actually quite complicated, and I’m sure I’m a big enough dork that I’ll explore it in more detail in future articles. Today, we’re just talking about Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, originally released for the Playstation in 1997. Up until this point, the Castlevania games had stuck fairly closely to their formula by consistently being really good, and really hard, platformers with a flair for supplying terrific atmosphere and music.
Did I mention the English translation and voice acting sucks? It sucks.
Symphony of the Night was radically different from its predecessors though, largely in thanks to designer, Koji Igarashi, who would go on to be in charge of the whole franchise for 12 years and counting. Igarashi had always dreamed of directing a Castlevania game while developing Japanese dating sims for Konami and finally got his chance with SotN. Apparently he thought the Castlevanias of the past were limiting their audience and lasting appeal by being too linear and challenging. His solution was to open up the game world, loosen up the series’ traditionally stiff controls, and adding RPG elements, that made the game conquerable for even the least experienced action gamers.
Structurally, he basically ripped off Super Metroid, which when you think about it is a completely terrific thing to rip off. Everybody loves that game but nobody (at the time) really copied the formula, and even Nintendo waited a gajillion years to bother making another one. The basic idea of Symphony is that your progression through Dracula’s castle was limited by your character’s abilities, and as you became more powerful and retrieved new relics, new areas would become accessible to you. Can’t reach that passageway on the ceiling? Wait until you get the high jump power up, or learn how to transform into a bat. That kind of thing. It works well, and while there is an invisible guiding hand directing you down the “correct” path, you’re totally free to wander into whatever areas you want.
Having just recently finished SotN for the first time

Castlevania is a series that once had a reputation for being notoriously difficult, but with SotN things may have been taken a little too far in the other direction. If you spend time exploring beyond the required paths and looking for secrets (which you absolutely should do), you’ll naturally level up to the point that few areas will offer much of a challenge. The second castle (an inverted version of the first that opens up after you avoid the “bad” ending) is considerably more challenging, but still pretty easy compared to Castlevanias of old. Ultimately though, this lack of challenge didn’t really affect my enjoyment of the game much at all since it’s still such a deep experience.
I wasn’t going to say much about the story at all because despite being a lifelong fan of the series, the story to the Castlevania series is one of those simplistic, yet totally complicated clusterfucks

Symphony of the Night is one of those “secret” classic games that is well-renowned amongst gamers (dorks) but kind of unknown to more casual enthusiasts. If you’ve missed out somehow, this game is available pretty much everywhere these days. It’s available on PSN and XBLA for just ten bucks, or can be unlocked in the Dracula X Chronicles for PSP. OR you could go to Japan and buy a used copy of the janky Saturn version that never made it to the US. Whichever is most convenient.
(special shout outs to the works of Jeremy Parish and friends for inspiring this ludicrously nerdy column. If you like old nerd stuff their work is required reading. Him and his cohorts can be found at GameSpite and the Retronauts blog.)
Saturday, August 8, 2009
More Like 'I Hope They Serve Beer In... Your Mom'! Burn.
Above is the trailer for I Hope They Serve Beer In Hell. It releases September 25 across the country.
The film is based off the NY Times Bestselling novel of the same name written by Tucker Max. (Link goes to website. Did I just blow your mind?) It is a collection of short stories about his drunken antics in college and beyond. Tucker, along with friend Nils Parker, adapted the book to a screenplay and sold the script to an independent studio (Darko Entertainment), retaining creative control as well as a director's credit.
Let's go over that again: Tucker Max wrote and produced this film, which is based on his bestselling novel about his life. I couldn't be more jealous of that if I tried.
To promote the film, Tucker started a production blog, where for roughly the last 18 months, he has been chronicling the process of producing the film, from hiring a director and casting roles, down to video interviews with the lowliest gaffer on the set.
And now, with the final print finished and the movie set to release in a little less than two months, Tucker is taking the film on a "Premiere Tour," as he calls it, visiting 32 cities to screen the movie to a limited audience. People who attend the screening get to see the film early, which includes a Q&A session with Tucker and Nils, and a swag bag filled with film merch. All for ten bucks.
Pretty sweet, right? Well guess what else: The first stop is in Portland. And I got tickets.
I'm not gonna lie to you: I'm a little afraid that this is going to suck. On the surface, Tucker's writing describes the kind of douchebag fratboy idiocy that I think most civilized people hate. Plus, the stories come off as severely embellished (Tucker vehemently insists that they're all true, but what else would he say?). But it's told with such a brilliant tone, and so out-and-out funny, that you really can't help but like it. That said, I'm definitely wary of the possibility of, once this is committed to celluloid, that it's just going to come off as a 90-minute Real World episode.
But hey, it sounds like fun, and I've followed it this far. May as well see this ride to its conclusion.
World Famous Jew Recording Christmas Album
So apparently in an effort to remain completely unpredictable well into the stage of life where most successful musicians are enjoying their victory lap phase, Bob Dylan has decided to record a Christmas album for release later this year.
There have been four songs announced for inclusion so far and they are, “Here Comes Santa Claus,” “Must Be Santa,” “O Little Town of Bethlehem,” and “I’ll Be Home for Christmas.” Hopefully he won’t get around to covering more modern fare such as Paul McCartney’s holiday themed abortion, “Simply Having a Wonderful Christmas Time,” because I think that might be the one song capable of killing all hope. In a very general sense.
I’m a ridiculous fan of Bob Dylan and will buy this on day one regardless, but are normal people really in the market for an album of Christmas classics translated through Bob Dylan’s husky baritone? Also, isn’t it weird that this guy is Jewish and he’s covering “O Little Town of Bethlehem?” Is he even Jewish anymore? He went through a Christian phase for three albums in the 80’s, but since then he hasn’t been name checking the Jesus much at all, and the rumor has been that he’s back to being all Jewish and stuff. Regardless of his personal faith, I for one am glad that Bob Dylan has put aside the nitpicky specifics of any one particular religion to celebrate the birth of our true savior, Jesus Christ.
Friday, August 7, 2009
id Tech 5 gives me wood
So a few hours ago Joystiq threw up some screenshots from id software's RAGE which I CAN'T FUCKING STOP LOOKING AT! For those of you that are unfamiliar id Software is the company responsible for the DOOM, Quake, and Wolfenstien franchises which we all know and love.


RAGE is the first title that will use a new game engine called id Tech 5 that was developed in house by John Carmack a founder of id and a fucking hero! I'm just glad after the 5 years since the release of DOOM 3, id has something bright and shiny in the future for us all to look forward to. On that note here are the rest of the Screenshots
Also if you are really interested in the id Tech 5 engine here is a PDF that gives some interesting information about it for those of us that enjoy the occasional nerd read.
Thursday, August 6, 2009
Warcraft Movie
It had to happen folks. A library or novels, a card game, a miniatures game, board game, RP game, the towering giant that is WOW, and in the foreseeable future a blockbuster hit. It seems as if Blizzard Entertainment will stop at nothing short of world domination. And we as consumers, gamers, or just plain nerds... are sort of OK with that (the right thing to do here would rant about how great a world run by Blizzard would be, but lets stick to the topic.)

My initial reservations were due to Spiderman 3 being soooooooo universally terribad, but as i thought more about it i was like OK I'll give him Evil dead/Army Of Darkness even 30 Days Of Night was pretty good. The reality of the situation is, it makes no difference who works on the film. because Blizzard has the money, power, and influence to bend a director or writer over the counter and fuck them into making whatever movie they want, because when it comes to lore and staying true to source material Blizzard really seems like compromise is out of the question. Not to mention the crazy responsibility that will be balancing on Raimi's shoulders if the movie is bad there will be many millions of angry nerds blaming him, MY GOD could u imagine the ANGRY LETTERS!!!!
I have long abandoned my wow addiction and yet I will definitely be looking forward to this.
Wednesday, August 5, 2009
Josh Homme, Dave Grohl, and John Paul Effing Jones unite to form Voltronesque rock machine called Them Crooked Vultures

Via Antiquiet
Remember a few months back when members of Hanson, Smashing Pumpkins, and Cheap Trick all teamed up to form Tinted Windows? Remember how they were terrible? Well that pitch black cloud hasn’t prevented other big time artists to take part in a supergroup renaissance of sorts. On one hand we have the commercially successful Van Hagar/ Satriani combination, Chickenfoot, which you probably don’t care about as much as your cool dad does. And on the other, we have the overwhelmingly awesome Dead Weather, which combines members from most of my favorite bands (White Stripes, Raconteurs, The Kills,
There’s not much information about the band yet but the lineup is Josh Homme from Queens of The Stone Age on guitar, Dave Grohl of Nirvana (and Foo Fighters I guess) on drums, and John Paul Jones from LED ZEPPELIN on bass. That last one will probably be the biggest deal to most people, but honestly the idea of Grohl and Homme working together again is exciting on its own. It’s easy to scoff at Dave Grohl considering the Foo Fighters are just about the most average anything ever, but his involvement here should in no way be glossed over. Not only is the guy a great drummer, but he has an impeccable taste in side projects. His Probot project (where he wrote all the songs and played all the instruments while classic metal singers provided vocals) was excellent, and the dude also provided drums for the first Tenacious D album
Good, right? It will probably sound nothing like that, but regardless, I think there’s plenty of reason to be pretty optimistic here. Now we can only hope that Trent Reznor’s collaboration with Bono and Ghostface Killa works out.
Craig Ferguson Figured It Out
Via Goldenfiddle
Listen, I'm kind of proud of the fact that I've never watched even a second of the Craig Ferguson Show (or whatever the hell it's called) outside of a couple YouTube clips, but I may start, because this rant might as well be my life manifesto. Kids are fucking stupid and we should NOT reward them for being such.
Tuesday, August 4, 2009
G.I. Joe: Rise of Cobra Trailer Review
"`G.I. Joe' is a big, fun, summer event movie — one that we've seen audiences enjoy everywhere from Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland to Phoenix, Ariz.," said Rob Moore, vice chairman of Paramount Pictures. "After the chasm we experienced with `Transformers 2' between the response of audiences and critics, we chose to forgo opening-day print and broadcast reviews as a strategy to promote `G.I. Joe.' We want audiences to define this film."Translated into English, this reads: "The movie's terrible, we know it's terrible, and we don't want to scare away any people that weren't swayed by the awful trailer from seeing the thing. We just want to collect our huge opening weekend and go in peace."
Monday, August 3, 2009
No Nudity In Twilight Sequel!
Jumping right in with the important stuff. This morning IMDB posted an article saying that the director of the upcoming Twilight movie denied rumors of "teh uber hawt newd scenes." that were allegedly started by Jamie Campbell-Bower who suggested several characters get naked in the movie, apparently this is not the case. I can almost hear the fan girls crying out in unison as their dreams are crushed under the iron boot of Chris Weitz to such an extent that I am envious. I guess the only way we'll get to see Michael Sheen and Jamie Campbell Bower in a nude scene together is in our minds as we lay asleep at night and dream of what could have been.