You Inherit $100

Halloween Mask giveaway

2011-07-21T18:02:00.000-04:00

- Stefan
As the video description says, we did this a few days after the big update last February. We just haven't uploaded the video until now for various reasons. We uploaded it on another youtube account of ours so a certain player would believe that we actually did this. I don't feel like going into the details of what's been going on in Runescape recently so I'll just sum it up like this: It's dying and Jagex seems to be letting it without a care in the world. They're just trying to suck up as much money as possible from what members they have left before the game and all of its inglorious crap finally croaks.

Our Top 5 Favorite Sports Games

2011-03-19T07:14:00.002-04:00

James Cameron Fail

2010-12-28T04:18:00.005-05:00

-by Stefan
We were watching interviews on Youtube of people that survived the sinking of the Titanic, and a few of them said that they saw a ship appear that was floating near the Titanic while it was sinking and shooting the distress flairs into the air. One of the interviewees said that she was very farsighted and she could see a man walking on the deck of the other ship. But the ship never came to help, and just floated away.

Then I realized that the movie directed by James Cameron didn't have that ship. In my opinion, it would have been really good, and kind of creepy. But I don't know why it wasn't in it. No wonder we don't like him.

Our Top 5 Favorite RPG/Adventure Games

2010-12-26T20:04:00.003-05:00

The Town REVIEW

2010-12-21T01:09:00.006-05:00

- by Joey

Long have been the days since we’ve seen a really good film, so I’d like to keep this review simple and short. I’m not going to try to sum up the story in this review because you can find that elsewhere. I’m just going to sum up my opinion about it.
-
What we liked:
>Ben Affleck’s directing. It’s realistically ominous, confidant, and artistic without being too “artsy”.

>I thought Ben did the best acting as well. Jeremy Renner did a fair job also, and I like him in general, but I think he gets too close to over-acting in this one.
-
>Not much background music.
-
>Character-driven, not “explosive driven”.
-
>R rated. Now what I’m saying is: it’s TRUTHFUL.

I’m pretty sure that a group of guys who rob banks and money-trucks in Boston would say a curse word more than once. That’s incredibly important to me. The Town was very refreshing in that sense.

-
>No annoying “What are you doing? Stop that!” hissy fits during the robbing and action scenes. They were professional.
-
What we didn’t like:

>Jon Hamm’s acting. He may be better in other things, but I got no emotion out of him here. He kind of just emitted a dry, comic-villain vibe.

>Gunshots were quiet and rather fake sounding.

I think that’s it.
-

The Town went all the way to North Carolina Avenue! Now go watch it!

Runescape's Christmas 2010

2010-12-21T00:41:00.006-05:00

- by Stefan
It's that time of year again where Jagex does almost nothing... wait, that's all year.

It's "Christmas" in Runescape and here's how we see it.

Every player automatically gets a "Golden Cracker" (picture right) in there bank, or by talking to Diango in Draynor Village if your bank was full. It's like the legendary Christmas Cracker of Runecape's Christmas of 2001, just golden. The original Christmas Cracker gave a player a Party Hat when pulled, which came in six different colors, are very rare, and very expensive now days.

This new "Cracker" gives the player that has it a golden hammer when pulled. (We aren't going to pull our "crackers". We are just going to store our in our banks in hopes of them going rare and becoming tradable like the Christmas Crackers of 2001. But we aren't counting on it.) The golden hammer is really a granite hammer colored gold and pink. If you ask me, it looks like a big Lego block on a pole.

<- Here's a player holding a "Golden Hammer".

It gets worse.

There is a quest located in "Daemonheim" (picture top) this year that will reward you with another emote that turns you into a snowman with a shield, and the snowman twists around in half once, then that's it. You also are rewarded with a hat... oh, sorry... it's a crab. :\

Don't believe me?

<- There's proof. What the crab has to do with christmas is nothing. What they are trying to do by setting the event in Daemonheim is get you to play the stupid dungoneering games, which was supposed to be a "skill" that they made without prior fan support. To make a long story short it was a ridiculous waste of time and hardly any player even does it. The crab is one found in the Dungoneering dungeons.

We didn't do the quest this year, nor did we do the Halloween Event quest this year either. Because we are sick of quests. We want Runescape holiday events to be so much more and we aren't supporting Jagex's laziness by participating. If they aren't going to do the holidays right, then we won't do what they want.

If you do the quest this year you get to join in on the "Heimland Games" which really we don't even care to know what it's like. We have read a few things about it and it sound silly.

Back to the "Golden Cracker". We thought that they did this for nostalgic purposes. Or maybe they felt generous. But upon "examining" the "cracker" I found out otherwise...

Honest translation: "We wouldn't have even made this for you if WE hadn't won this award."

Jagex stated that they had named 2010 the "year of hard work". Honest translation: "the year of pretend hard work".

Our Top 5 favorite Xbox(Original) Shooters

2010-12-17T20:29:00.005-05:00

The first in a series of "Our Top 5" videos.

Call of Duty: Black Ops REVIEW

2010-12-03T00:07:00.038-05:00

- by Stefan

I'll be honest, we were pretty darn excited about this latest installment in the Call of Duty franchise. Not because it was another Call of Duty, but because it was made by Treyarch. They were the ones that made Call of Duty: World At War a couple of years back. We found that game to be the best... heck... the only really good Call of Duty game made. We enjoyed it very well... yes, the online part... and were very happy to hear that Treyarch was the team behind this game. We felt that after the infamous Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, it would be a no-brainer... Call of Duty: Black Ops would outshine the previous COD games easily.

Well it's out now, and me and Joey have many hours behind the controller to tell you if it does what we hoped it would... yes, the online part. (The only part even worth playing now days, honestly.)

Ok, I have so much to talk about and so much that might come to me as I write, that I'm not going to categorize this review like the others. I'm just going to wing it.

I'll start off by saying that this game could have, and should have been so much better than MW2. But for some perplexing, dastardly reason, they hung on to almost every element of it that made it so horrible! Why Treyarch, why?! This is not a sequel! It's a completely different game.

Now, they did do a lot right, for example:

= Theater mode, which allows you to watch, video capture, and screenshot your finished online games.

= Two player split-screen co-op online.

= A little more customizations for your weapons.

= Emblem editor.

= Earning COD points to buy gear, etc. with.

= Claymores, tactical insertions, etc. are equipment now, and don't take up your grenades slot.

= Can cut off the music.

= Zombie mode, which really isn't a good point considering it's basically just the same as it was in World At War but much, much harder.

= Some minor changes to some perks.

...and I commend them for those things... but that does not give them the right, or the reason to do so much wrong again, and add and change things for the worse! Here's what I'm talking about:

The bad things they kept from MW2...

. Famas assault rifle still too powerful and accurate.

. M-16 assault rifle still too powerful and accurate.

. Long distant knife attacks. (which are default now)
. Knives kill you with one swipe wherever it hits the body.
. Lightweight Perk, which allows you to run ridiculously fast.
. AIM ASSIST option, which helps people aim their weapons at an enemy by basically locking to them! Which is easily the worst, and most frustrating thing in the game. (optional, like I said, but nobody disables it but us)
-
Things they should have kept from MW2...
. Hardline perk on slot 2.
. Scavenger perk actually resupplies everything you have.

. Can attach another attachment to your assault rifle if you equip a shotgun or grenade launcher to it. (with warlord perk of-course)

. Bling Pro/Warlord Pro lets you attach two attachments to your secondary weapon.

. Shotguns are a secondary weapon.

. You are awarded with an emblem and/or a title that others can see for challenges you complete.

I'm positive I've forgotten many things. But with those said...
here's what we think they should have done and/or changed. Or do for the next game that will make it so much better...
= NO AIM ASSIST! If you have a hard time aiming then get better! I'm sick of suffering and dying so much just because you suck at shooter games!

= Two swipes with a knife to kill an enemy, unless you hit a vital part of the body the first swipe.

= Warlord Pro allows you to attach three attachments to a weapon.

= Three perk slots with all of the perks choosable in whatever order you wish.

= Realistic reloading and chambering for every weapon. Really, we have been many times because it's not realistic.

So I hope you can see why this game, while better than MW2, is just barely better. I don't know why they did, and didn't do the things mentioned. Perhaps they felt pressured by the financial success of MW2. But so? That's not your series, you made World At War, which many, including us, have said that that is the best Call Of Duty game made. Why did you forget that? Why did you make another MW2? Shame on you Treyarch.
-

Call of Duty: Black Ops landed safetly on Marvin Gardens, but almost went straight to jail.

Nothing interesting

2010-10-29T02:44:00.002-04:00

Whoa, I'm already having a hard time writing this down.
I'm experiencing some of the worst writers block I've ever... experienced; and it's tickin' me off. This is just a sort of free-flowing post in a hope that it may free up this block. Stefan and I are wishing to create a cool anthology of prequels and sequels based off of our "Dracoola" character.
Just a moment ago I began a "story" apparently centered around an Irishman in 18th century Hungary, who has come into contact with a Necromancer. It's a story I had hoped would "blast off" on the page, as our "The Dracoola Account" (a 164 page book) did. But as I wrote, I tired, and finished my work for the time being. A whole paragraph was completed! Then it happened. I realized it wasn't worth saving, because I instantly lost all interest in the story.
Well... that is all I feel up to saying right now. Live long and prosper.

-Joey

Oktoberfest... not

2010-10-07T16:05:00.001-04:00

Jagex recently updated Runescape to celebrate October. They call it "Oktoberfest". They made one whole item. A ...pretzel. Not just any pretzel, an upside-down pretzel. :/

Thanks Jagex (sarcasm). Too bad you have no idea what you are doing, and are still as lazy as ever.

- Stefan

xbox isn't safe.

2010-09-12T18:51:00.004-04:00

Yesterday, Stefan and I were watching a movie on our Xbox 360. I was holding the controller, sitting in the floor in front of our couch, and rather happily viewing the images on-screen. Well, just then I heard a "pop" sound coming from my hands and felt a tense, sharp, snapping pain through my right arm. I jumped invonutarily and had no clue what just happened until I heard the thunder bolt outside.
..
In other news, my mother created a cool blog about vegan stuff. Check it out here.

-Joey

Hope

2010-08-25T05:02:00.003-04:00

(These are posts of us writing down what has been happening to us lately. It does not reveal all of our trails, but we believe it’s enough to help you see that we are going through something very different for us.)
(Also, note that even though these are separate entries, both covering slightly different topics, we are both experiencing and/or agree with each point that is made… jeeze I hope that made sense.)

.....

(This is Joey…)
I have come to understand recently that, for me, the worst state of depression is being emotionless. When I feel spiritually miserable it is of course a very uncomfortable experience, but it can and does motivate me to do something about it. It makes me want to run. My moments of heartache have been deep yearnings to go out and connect with my dreams, my revealed promises. To find and fully embrace my future. To pour my life and soul into something I would love.

For the last 5 or so years I have been far too comfortable at home. The idea of getting out and driving, or working, or just meeting others never struck a big bell with me. It was a slightly amusing idea to ponder over for a minute or so, and then discard. I was happy and untroubled to spend many hours just thinking, drawing, reading, and playing games. Even though I still do much of that, none of it holds my restless heart and mind for any substantial length of time. Every few minutes, or even seconds, I remind myself that I am trashing my time. And again I feel that drive to run out and become whole with my passions.

As I mentioned earlier there are also moments, or whole days, where I begin feeling comfortable doing nothing, and I can’t evoke an emotion. This is a horrible and frightening thing for me. Many nights I long to cry, but can’t. Feeling like a piece of furniture stuck in my dark room. Somehow the feeling of tears trailing slowly down my cheeks makes my hope feel real. They confirm that I really do want, and need my future.

I have lived the same week for so long now, it’s awful: Brooding around with my brother and annoying (but cute) dogs in this house on Monday through Friday, then the slightly more hopeful weekend comes and we try our best to work something out with the limited time we have. We have made good progress recently though. Forcing myself to drive around a bit, and separate from my family. It’s nice and my confidence does grow. And then the weekdays come and my parents go to work. Again, I’m dying to cry, or dying to run. (Please don’t misunderstand, my parents are not to blame in the slightest. They are part of providence and have done nothing but help us through this time. God bless them. The restrictions are my doing; I have loved them too much.)

Yes, I have considered getting help, and yes I have a reason why I don’t do it. I believe my “problems” are for me. I am born who I am. How could a stranger understand what I see? I am a person, and I have personal promises, and a personal relationship with my Helper. God is my Light. I am His. He has given me burdens as well as gifts. He cannot deceive me. You will all see my hope conceived when I have found it. I know this is hard to make sense of, sorry.

Without the hope of finding and fulfilling my inspirations, I wouldn’t step a foot from my house. I would be fine wasting away in a corner like a cobweb. Yet I have no desire whatsoever to be stuck around this place, and it’s people. I wish nothing more than to watch them fall away in my rear-view mirror as my headlights hit the road of purpose. I get sick of watching redneck pawn brokers recite price tags on television, and then switch the channel and watch a sweating, swaggering, witless preacher blow his teapot for one minute reciting mantras and immediately instruct an obese, tone-deaf choir to blare ear shattering gospel music for the remainder of the broadcast. Where is the talent? Where is the enlightened, humble teacher of scripture? Where is my life? I have to run, now!

Then I do weep. I realize that I will do anything to be with my future. That this place is the first step. I have to ignore my doubts and get a job, earn some money, do something and uncover my pathway. I realize that I may have to walk first; and I know that I will ultimately accept nothing else but to run for what I love. To never be satisfied with typical, or predictable. To reach high and then give my love and my happiness to others.

Jeremiah 29: 11
“For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the LORD, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope.”

.....

(This is Stefan…)

Being grown-up is a statement I thought I used to know pretty well. In-fact, I guess I can say I thought I was rather grown-up at twenty years old. Well, now I know, that just because you’re not a teenager anymore, doesn’t mean that you’ve matured.

When I first started this transition from a rather naïve, rather scared, rather egocentric boy; I wasn’t sure what was happening to my life. I had been experiencing I few things leading up to all of this. But never thought much of them. I thought that: this was the way my life was. And it’s always going to be this way. I’m a happy person, always. Nothing could make me sad. As long as it’s not too serious… Like I said, I was rather naïve, and wrong.

At the start I was afraid, and frightened to let go, and let whatever this process was happen. But I kept remembering something Me and Joey had watched no more than a week before. It was the movie starring Anthony Hopkins, about the later years of C.S. Lewis’s life. In that movie it explained that part of being a Christian, and part of life, is excepting that strange, and upsetting things can happen. But that these things are okay. And at the end of that film, there was a quote that struck me very deeply. And I still remember it. It was inspired by something Lewis‘s love of his life said while they were on their honeymoon. They both knew that she would be on her death bed again, dying of cancer again, soon.

“The pain now, is part of the happiness later.”

But the strangest part was that while I was watching this, I kept getting a feeling that God was wanting me to hear it, and remember it. Because I would need it soon.

Now, I have had OCD for as long as I can remember, but up until this time it had been very minor and never really bothered me. But now that I look back, I can see that that summer it was getting stronger, and more potent. To the point where I couldn’t ignore it. It’s kind-of funny, and this can give you a little in-sight to what it’s like to have OCD, even now it’s telling me that bringing these things back up to the surface will cause more anxiety, and more bad thoughts. Which to be honest, is why I haven’t ever written this down, or even told this story in much detail. But you know what?… If there’s one thing I’ve learned, it’s that it doesn’t matter. I used to think it did though. And that’s when all of this started.

Like I said, about a week later after watching that movie, and being moved by those words, and feeling like there was a reason I heard them, this happened… I was putting my computer up and about to go to bed when I thought of something. And it was something that I had thought of before but like I said it never really bothered me. But this time it did. It was part of my OCD.

I thought that if I didn’t lay the computer power cord down in a curtain manner that felt right, that I would use it to choke my brother with. And when I thought about that, I realized exactly what I was thinking about. And as always happens with OCD, that led to the thought that overcame me, and still gets to me from-time-to-time. I suddenly thought that what if I couldn’t stop thinking about killing my brother? From then on for the rest of my life. Ever second, until I did kill him. Then it would go away. Disturbing huh? Imagine what that did to me? I froze, and was almost in shock at the thought. Because I had never thought something so disturbing to me before. And I had never dealt with my OCD with as much strength as it had now. I almost went into panic, just standing around, not knowing what to do, or how to remedy these thoughts.

Now I can’t remember how I calmed myself down, or if I went to bed that night simply because it was over a year ago.

This next part might have been the night after this but I really doubt it, when me and Joey made a Youtube video together and posted it on our channel. I was laughing and feeling a tad better. But the thoughts were still there. Like a how smoke can linger around in your nasal passages for days after you’ve inhaled it from things like a barbecue. The video was “People are ROOD.” and is of-course still viewable. I went to bed, hoping and praying that what I was feeling would go away. I went to sleep late that night I think.

The next day, I woke up normally, then a moment later, remembered what happened the previous night, and those thoughts associated with it. I began sinking into depression for the first time really in my life. I became nervous to my stomach and frightened, and kept asking God what was happening to me? I think I kept praying that he would take this away from me. But it never let up.

I started becoming nervous and anxious over everyday things, like eating, and getting on the computer. Because I kept thinking, what if this never gets better? What if I throw-up after eating because of my nervousness and obsessive thoughts about it? What if I never feel normal again?

That evening when our parents came home we fixed vegetable wraps for supper. I took my first bite and tried to forget what I had been thinking all day. But I couldn’t. I remember feeling like I was going to throw up while I was trying to swallow it. I got past that and took another bite, same thing. I tried to think how good it tasted to help me get over this, but it didn’t really. This continued until I was finally done with the wrap. I was the last one to finish.

I couldn’t take it anymore, I had to tell Joey. I left the table and told him to follow me into my room. He did, concerned and distraught that something was wrong. I told him not to worry, that it was just my OCD. Then I began crying suddenly, and told him what I had been thinking, and that I had been so worried about it. He was relieved that it was just thoughts, and gave some encouraging words. We decided not to tell our parents for whatever reason. I think is was the hope of me getting over it soon, since I had told him. But eventually, you just have to tell your parents.

I was desperately trying to fall asleep that night, but I kept getting the urge to let my parents know what was happening to me, and share my thoughts. I got out of bed, restless, and told my brother that I was going to have to speak with them. I opened their bedroom door, and let them know I needed to talk.

We went into the living room and I sat down and explained what was going on. And wow did they know what to say.

Now, I’m going to leave our conversation out of this, only because I feel that is was a private family moment to me. But I will say that my father knew exactly what I was, and still am, going through. Because he has dealt with these things himself, and is still dealing with OCD. He said he has helped people cope with things over his years of working as a security guard at the hospital, and that what I was dealing with was not as big of a deal as my OCD would like me to think. I came away from that family moment in tears, but feeling better than I had felt since that night this started. Knowing, and being confirmed from my father saying it, that he was put on this earth and given the problems he has, and has had, to help me and Joey, and people like us, deal with them.

The next day I still felt nervous from time-to-time, and ate half a peanut butter and banana sandwich for breakfast. I was still in a better mood, but that still had no effect on my ability to deal my OCD, and the previous days.

Anyway, to make a long story short, one night soon followed (may have been that night) I was struggling to sleep because the thought came into my head that I may be going crazy. I wrestled with this thought and others while trying to stay relaxed, but I couldn‘t. Since I had gotten up late that morning, and was going to bed early that night, every time I almost went to sleep I would dream slightly that I was fighting in the UFC, (which we had watched earlier that day) realize I was drifting off, and wake up again, heart pounding a little. This distressed me, it distressed me enough that I got out of bed and lay in the floor in front of my fan until I calmed down enough to tell my brother what was happening. I kept trying to ask him if I was okay, and that I couldn’t sleep. He replied positively but was cranky, and drifting off to sleep himself, didn’t want to be bothered.

I let him be, and turned to my parents again. I told them my ordeal, being embarrassed and disappointed in myself.

They helped calm me down and told me to go lay back down in bed. They both set down on the side of my bed and again helped me relax with what was happening. They told me that I am not crazy, and that everyone goes through anxiety attacks. My father ended up staying longer and told me some things that he had thought, and things that had happened to him in the past. And that all of these things go away. Even though my head was exhausted from all of the thinking, and I was ready to just explode, I knew that he was right. Because there he was, and he is absolutely fine. This helped me finally go to sleep.

From then on things began to look better, and was coming out of depression. But my OCD never lessened. I still had a few small panic attacks a couple of times. And a couple more chats with my parents. I still would think of disturbing things, and those things would effect me for days. I would still cry over these thoughts, and cry over myself thinking of them. Things would confuse me and I would just pray for answers. Wanting my life back. But even so, things were better. I began to realize, that maybe I was learning, maybe I was growing. Maybe I was getting stronger. Stronger than I thought I was before. Perhaps God was using these experiences to teach me. Teach me to need him, teach me to not be afraid. Teach me that hope always pays off.

The months past slowly and I hit a state that I stayed in for around seven months. A state of trivial, random, ridiculous things and thoughts that had once bothered me for days at a time. Some of these were:

Would I always feel like a hair was up in my right nostril? Would I make myself have a brain tumor worrying so much? Would I always feel like I had to pee? Would I always feel like I was being Chinese water tortured? Would I make myself have a stigmata by thinking about it? Would I be possessed by demons and do revolting things? Now, these things are naturally upsetting to me now, but the difference is that I know that they are not true.

But in this state I learned so much. I became aware that what my father had taught me was what I hoped it was, true, and that it applied to me. No matter what I thought of, or what I was going through, I was able to accept it first, and then overcome it second.

Then toward April of 2010 I became aware that I was indeed getting stronger. That I was able to handle any troubling thought almost instantly, and dismiss it like I had never done before. Not throwing it away because it is disturbing… but throwing it away because it is a lie. Two very different processes. The first process was the one I was used to being able to use. But now I know that for me I needed a better method. Because that one failed, and I needed to learn about the second one. And use it.

Now, I know the month of this realization because this is the time we got our newest addition to our family, Jasmine.

She represents that realization to me. That release of worry. The fulfillment of hope. The day we got her was probably the most visually beautiful day I have ever seen. The snow was falling in such as way that was stunning to me and my brother. It looked almost like we were in a living painting. And even though we had just endured a harsh winter, and were still seeing the effects of it, and the snow was still falling, that only added to enhance it’s beauty and effect on me. And I know without a doubt, that if I hadn’t been going through the trials of the past months, that that day would have been pleasing to my eyes, but not beautiful to my soul, as it was.

All of these things have helped me in ways that I understand, and in ways that I may never understand until I die. To summarize, I am not saying that all things are good, as you might have gathered I am still not over that night last year, and to tell you the truth, I don’t know what even happened to me. I can’t explain it really. All I can say is it changed me. It wasn’t just the thoughts that sparked this journey, it was something deeper than in the mind. Something in my soul. Something never meant to be understood, just accepted, and utilized. Something necessary to develop me into a stronger, less fearful, more understanding person. To help me see things clearer.

To quote my father’s favorite verse:

Romans 5:1-5
“Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. And not only that, but we also glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance; and perseverance, character; and character, hope. Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us.”

I still get small panic attacks, but in public now. I still have disturbing thoughts that trouble me for days. I still wonder about what I’m going through, I can’t help it. But now I know that that’s alright. That I’m still me, and that God is still God, and that nothing is too high to reach it’s summit, or too low to climb out of. That God is a mighty God. And that He will never give up on you, and never disbelieve in you. And those things never change.

I’ve learned that I loved my comfortable little existence too much. That I was afraid of powerless fears. That I was fearful of a world that is full of hope, and beautiful things. Just waiting to be explored.

Re-imagining Classics

2010-07-03T05:28:00.171-04:00

This post has been long in the making. We have been thinking of ways to redo some classic stories for a while now and it's time to get them down. So, enjoy our twists, and versions of these popular stories and characters. We tell the reasons why we wanted to rethink them first off, then tell you our ideas. And sorry if you don't know some of the original stories... just look them up if you feel like it.
.
And we will probably be adding and changing things as we think of stuff, so check back to this post and see what we've done.
................................................

BLADE

Reason - We actually like the original Blade story but find it a tad on the cliche side. So we thought simple and came up with this idea.

Story - A vampire slayer, that is also a vampire himself. Aided by his trusty companion, Whistler... who is also a vampire.

Details...

Blade is of-course black. He is 5' 9" tall.
.
HERE is the original music from the first blade movie. So listen to this, and imagine him being a vampire, instead of half vampire, half human.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
THE HALO (Video Game)

Reason - Big fans of the first Halo and the story isn't bad. We just wanted to see what we could make the halo be.

Story - The future. A massive ring surrounds planet earth like a halo. Nearly transparent, like glass, luminescent. It’s origins, unknown. It’s purpose becomes clear…

Spartan Three knows it’s meaning. He’s seen it before, but on distant worlds. The halo is a beacon. A sign to others. A sign to the enemy.

Earth has been designated. It’s designation, is the battlefield.

Details…

Spartans are an elite breed of soldiers created and trained by the United States military.There are three-hundred of them as a tribute to King Leonidas‘s three-hundred Spartans. The leader is the previously mentioned “Spartan Three”. He is in his early sixties.

The Spartans are not heavily armored but more-so than the average troop.
The aliens that attack the planet are mostly humanoid in shape, but subtly sinister looking.
.
HERE'S the music from the first Halo game to put you in the mood.
.
THE WOLFMAN

Reason - Because the new movie was so horrible.

Story - It’s a cold December night, and a lunar eclipse is taking place. It’s the first one Brad has ever scene. Brad lives alone in the woods. Miles away from anyone else. Just how he likes it… until now. While the event in the sky is very interesting, it seems to have done more than just captured Brad’s attention, it has also drawn something out of the forest surrounding Brad’s home. Something strange, something monstrous. And it wants Brad very badly.

.
Details…
The wolfman looks mainly human, just quite hairy, and his eyes glow blue-green when they catch the light. His demeanor is mainly calm and silent. But when he smells the scent of a meal (Brad), this changes quickly.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
WELCOME TO CRYSTAL LAKE

Reason - We always found Jason to not be scary at all. He's just a big, retarded, momma's boy zombie. We wanted to make him more convincing and more frightening... and in-turn, more deadly.

Story - A beautiful cabin is open for rent nestled beside the shimmering waters of Crystal Lake. Far away in the forests of the Rocky Mountains. A perfect getaway. The retired, aging landlord and previous owner of the house isn’t asking for much of whoever would like to stay there for vacation. The landlord says his name is Jason Vorhees, and he also owns a hokey-mask and an eighteen inch Cold Steel Latin machete.

.
Details…
Jason Vorhees is 64 years of age. 5’11” tall. He is ex-military, and uses those skills to better accomplish the task at hand… which is of-course, murder.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
THE SPIDERMAN

Reason - Come-on... a teenager is poisoned by a spider bite and turns vigilante because of this? That's a little silly wouldn't you say? We wanted to make him more serious, mysterious, and... reclusive. (Pun, I know.)

Story - A notorious vigilantly is being secretly paid by the NYPD to use his unique skills to hunt down the most notorious New York City criminals that the they can’t catch. What type of skills does he have?… An extraordinary climbing ability, among others.

.
Details…
He looks just like an average man. He is 5’ 9” tall and seems to be in his early forties. The only strange feature about him is a large tattoo of a black spider clinging to his back by wrapping it’s legs almost around the sides of his body. Whatever the Spiderman is, he likes it.
.
.
MORTAL COMBAT (Video Game)

Reason- Just to make it dirtier. Ed Boon, co-creator of Mortal Kombat, still hasn't fulfilled his promise of making the next game “dark and gritty”. Sure, the recently announced “Mortal Kombat” is gory, but it’s still cartoony. We are ok with this in the long run because the game looks old-school; but still…

Story - An underground, realm-wide, to-the-death fighting tournament held every year for fighters to try and defeat one of the group’s top fighters called Prodigies. If one is defeated, the victor chooses either to remain a “prodigy” (who also sometimes challenge each other), or challenge Shao Khan, the undefeated creator and champion of Mortal Combat.
.
Details...
Character select screen or the menus would have rather dark, edgy techno songs like THIS one (but without lyrics), specifically, the beat that starts at the 1:25 mark.
And THIS song, starting at 2:12.
.
.
HALLOWEEN

Reason- We felt the urge to rethink this story because we didn’t honestly find Michael Myres all that threatening after considering that all he does is attack baby-sitters and preoccupied teenagers (and even has a really difficult time at that). That just about goes for every other horror icon also.
.

Story 1 - In the late eighties, a certain town experienced a spree of murders that were committed by a serial killer wearing a mask, titled “The shape”. These killings were committed every Halloween for 3 years in a row, until the murderer suddenly stopped for reasons unknown. Now, as Halloween approaches, that town has a young costumed criminal gang copying the infamous murders, calling themselves “the boogy men“; and when Halloween day arrives a familiar masked man isn’t pleased about them trying to smear his reputation.

--Here’s another slightly different story we have for Halloween that we like better--
.
Story 2 - During a Halloween night, a costumed criminal gang begin a hideous killing spree. As they come up to their fourth targeted house, a member of the gang wearing a blank, white mask enters the building alone to being murdering as the others invade separate homes. The owner of this house unexpectedly overpowers and kills the attacker, and notices other gang-members outside murder a woman in the road. This enrages him, and he removes the dead man’s mask, places it over his own head, and begins his hunt.
.
--This second story evokes a sense that he is a hero; yet we don’t know his passed life, and as the movie progresses it would become disturbingly clear that this “hero” is as much, or more so, a savage killer than his opponents. But knowing that he is, in his own brutal way, doing the right thing would create an uneasy, almost contradictory feeling as you watch.--
.
Details...
Michael Myres is around 5’ 8’’, in his early 50’s but in-shape, and naturally strong.
He uses an Ontario rat 7 knife.
.
Again, some MUSIC for the mood.
.
THE GHOSTRIDER
Reason- The movie sucked.
.

Story - One night, a few witnesses report having seen a strange flash of light atop a nearby mountain ridge. The next day the urban town sees an odd ghoul-faced figure apparently searching for something, and title him “The Ghost”.
.
Details...
The Ghost would be near 6 feet in height.
At the end of the week, this thing finds what it’s looking for, a blazing, ravaging escaped demon from Hell and somehow enslaves it inside of him, turning him into a flaming skeletal being. And once he has the demon prisoner inside him, the demon would scream harshly in rage and fear, while the "Ghost" steals a bike, and drives off into the dusk.
.
.
.
.
.
.
THE IRON MAN
Reason- Why would Tony WANT to encase himself in a weapon?
.

Story - Tony Stark, a multimillionaire and military strategist, has developed a new cutting-edge weapon. A heavily armed and armored unmanned humanoid droid that stands on a small platform, aware and activated, outside of his house until programmed to complete a mission.

This machine has also become somewhat of a popular attraction for paying tourist if they wish.

.
Details...
The Iron Man is 6’ 5’’.
The Iron Man is usually silver, but Tony sometimes coats its metal in solid black, or military camouflage.
.
.
- Joey and Stefan

UFC Undisputed 2010 - A REVIEW

2010-06-03T03:58:00.006-04:00

Four years. It's been four years since we've bought a fighting game. That's a pretty long time. The last one we got was Mortal Kombat: Armageddon. And that was basically a flop. So we have been patiently awaiting for a better fighting game ever since.
-
Well, four years later we finally found one that caught our attention. UFC Undisputed 2010.
-
We have been a fan of the UFC tournament for while. We demoed the first UFC game a while back but didn't get it. But now since there's a sequel out we became more interested. We downloaded the demo and enjoyed it. We liked the realism and more challenging aspects of it like the stamina bar, and the ability to be knocked out, better than the life bar, and not being able to be knocked out in the Mortal Kombat games. And since the newest MK game is set to be released later this year. And since we just don't trust Ed boon and the MK team much to put out a good game. We went ahead and bought this game. And here's what we think...
-
The Gameplay -
Fun and solid. The fights can get pretty intense and leave you yelling: "Yes!" when you land that devastating knockout to your opponent. Or cussing at your opponent when you lose. But on average the gameplay is just normal. There are a few glitches though that can be upsetting, especially when you would have won if it wouldn't have happened. But these don't happen too often.
The controls are kind of complicated but you get used to them, and the moves become quite easy to pull off most of the time.
-
The Graphics -
Not bad but not really good. Decent. The sweat on the fatigued fighters is nice. But sometimes on close-ups of the fighter's faces, (like when showing their stats before the fight) they can look hilariously unrealistic. Also there's just something about the shape of the fighter's body that's... well... off. I think their arms are too short.
-
The Sound -
What you would expect. Pretty good. The smack of the fighters hitting, or kicking each-other is alright. And the menu music is better than most games.
-
Character Selection -
Large. Every weight class and all the popular ones from each. Plus some not so popular ones, which we like. Yet Brock Lesnar, (the oaf on the cover) is ridiculously too fast. And a few other fighters, like Forest Griffin, and Rashad Evans are way too much better than they are in real life. But the rest are pretty well balanced and fun to play as, or verse.
-
Online play -
Actually bad. Most of the time, when you can find a decent session, it's horribly laggy. And we found that when we do find an alright one, it seems that all the other players do is tackle, tackle, and tackle! Which we hate. Leaving us exhausted of take down defence and ends up by us just quitting. There are a few ways in which you can supposedly get better online play. But they are unnecessarily complicated and we haven't done them yet. And I really have no idea why we have to in the first place.
-
Offline Play -
Excellent. Two player gameplay is very fun. Create a fighter is in depth and well done. The game modes are cool and there is a good amount of them. But we haven't played career mode yet because you have to create new fighter from scratch do so. You can't use a fighter you've created previously using "create a Fighter" from the main menu. Why they did this I have no idea. A terrible decision.
-
Final Comments -
If you want a good fighting game get this. It's fun when you want to play it.
-
Ruling -
The Good/ Offline play. - Character selection. - Create a fighter!
The Bad/ Online play. - Glitches - Brock Lesnar
Our Score - 8.0 out of 10
-
- Stefan

We just had to :D

2010-05-11T02:30:00.006-04:00

It was past 2:00 am and we noticed that the party room was rather empty. So we felt like doing a drop that wouldn't be advertised, but was still interesting. So the few, lucky players that saw it had a chance of getting something. And, because it's really fun to give! We spent 717k combined on rune stuff, and put it in the chest.

Here's the pics.

- Stefan

From "chest" - to Treasure Chest

2010-05-07T21:33:00.003-04:00

After at least 20 minutes of players begging in the party-room cc for a decent drop in a F2P world, while meanwhile P2P was getting 2-3 digit-million dollar drops one after another, Stefan and I got fed up and decided to fulfil their wishes.
.
We went to the G.E. with 2M gp each, and bought all the stuff you'll see below. Within a few minutes we had a "mega-huge rune drop"* (and some trimmed stuff) happening in the party-room.
.

----------
* A chat comment we read. :] Makes us happy.
.

- Joey

Oooh... GOLD!

2010-05-03T01:38:00.032-04:00

We just attended a 29 million drop party at around 1:00am. I never have gotten over 2 million in a single drop party, and when I saw this one, I was naturally excited. The drop was a great one. 20M coins, and a good amount of other things too. Yet this time, I had a good feeling about this one.
.
The balloons began dropping, and we began popping. I ended up leaving the corner I like to stay at but this quickly became a good thing. The drop was nearly over when I looked at what had came from the balloons I had burst. On the ground before me was a wizard hat (g)! Worth, to my surprise, over 2 millions coins. The other things lying on the floor were noted. The first one I picked up were 8 amulets of strength. Nice, but not worth a great deal. But the second thing was. Six rune scimitars! Worth a very good 600.000 gp's! I was elated.
.
I immediately went to the G.E., and sold my items. I had to sell the wizard hat (g) at lowest, but it was still worth over 2 million. Which is more than fine with me. :]
.
Here's the pictures I snapped of the story I just told.

- Those are the items after I picked them up.

- That's the hat when it sold, after I sold the other items.

- And there's the money I made off of all the stuff.

- Stefan

(This is an hour later.) If that wasn't enough, we were just at a 33 million drop. And unbelievably, I just got a saradomin full helm! Worth almost 2M. Wow, how lucky is that?. Here's a pic of it sold at market price.

(About 30 minutes later) K, last time. This is Joey.

Just attended a 15M drop in coins and popped the first balloon beside me.. it was a huge pile of GOLD. I picked it up... 1.7M! Not a very fair percentage but I've had FAR worse.

Battlefield: Bad Company 2 - A REVIEW

2010-04-30T02:24:00.039-04:00

"I played that game, and it sucks. Call of Duty is ten times better!" said the slightly overweight post adolescent clerk, ominously hanging out beside the checkout counter, not minding his own business. Not doing anything. Just sharing his thoughts right as we were paying for the "game" he thought was ten time worse that the game we grew to hate. Well, hate isn't the right word I guess, loathe, is more like it. In-fact, we started loathing it so much, that when we saw the gameplay and being impressed with it, we used our birthday money, went out that day, and bought this game. That led to the ominous clerk. The clerk that just couldn't seem to hold his tongue. Either that, or he didn't care to. He continued as we smiled falsely, thinking to our selves "Why is he telling us what he thinks of the game we just bought for $50 instead of promoting it for the company he works for?. Seeing the looks on our faces I'm sure he added as we were leaving:

"But hey, everyone has there own tastes." Well you know what, he was right. About the tastes part.

Bad Company 2 is not only not ten times worse than Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare 2. It is ten times better.

We haven't played the campaign because, well, we don't want to. We bought this for the online gameplay, and that's what we have been playing. So really, this is more of a review on that.

The Gameplay -
After the ridiculously chaotic and incredibly frustrating gameplay of modern Warfare 2, the well paced realistic gameplay of Bad Company 2 is very refreshing. It is a little awkward to move your character around, and can be difficult to aim your weapon at times, but once you get used to it, it's no big deal.

Graphics -
Better than COD, better than most. Pretty darn good.

The Sound -
Sound is very important in a game to us, and right off the bat you'll noticed the incredible and realistic sound effects of this game. That alone is a winner in our book. They are suburb and capture the reality of battle very well. Far better than Call of Duty. Yet the audio can glitch. For example: It will mute the sound of you reloading your weapon quite often if there are other sounds happening. This kinda sucks.

The Map Design -
The maps also far surpass COD 4's. They are large, fun to explore, and feel very real. It's almost like the team looked at a place on a map and recreated it into the game. There are plenty of places to hide and get a good vantage point of the battle, or whatever you want to be looking at.

The Weapons -

The weapons are balanced, unlike MW2, and are much more satisfying to use. It takes skill to use them and that's exactly what we were looking for. Unlike MW2 we first started off using the assault class, but quickly came to enjoy using the recon class. We found out that using a sniper rifle in this game is not only fun, but it's challenging. Also unlike COD 4, you have to arch your bullet at distances, and make each shot count if you want it to find it's mark. but unfortunately there is one criticism against the sniper rifles, they are sometimes far too un-powerful. Way to many times than not, a player won't die after taking a direct hit to the "center mass" with the high caliber round of a sniper rifle, even after putting the specialization for more powerful bullets on the class. And you'll have to follow up on it. This can get bothersome. But hey, it's not a show stopper.

Online Play -

It's good. Much better than COD 4: MW2. It can get repetitive, but rarely does. Often it's moving forward and requires your attention. And the matches last much longer than COD 4's. Which is a very nice thing. There are a few game modes but we only play one. "Rush and Conquest" That one just seems to be the funnest. It requires a lot of teamwork.

Final Comments -

Battlefield: Bad Company 2 is a well worth it game. It's much better than Modern Warfare 2 in the online department in more areas than it's not. And since it's cheaper to buy than MW2, it was an easy decision to make to go ahead and get it.

Ruling -

The Good/ Realistic sounds, and gameplay. - Good online play. - Vehicles!

The Bad/ Unrealistic reloading of weapons - Medic class too powerful. - Not enough game modes.

Our Score - 8.5 out of 10

- Stefan

The Dark Tower gets a new director - thoughts

2010-04-30T01:26:00.021-04:00

Originally in the hands of JJ Abrams, The Dark Tower rights were recently resold back to Stephen King and have now been re-resold to... Ron Howard.

This is a disaster. Oh no.

About 2 weeks ago, Stefan and I were watching the film "backdraft" for about 30 seconds. I knew who the director of it was, but Stefan couldn't remember. After studying the film for a bit he said aloud: "This director is horrible." I told him who it was and he wasn't shocked.

Watching Maximum Overdrive, the one and only film directing by King, I know that he has no artistic vision as a director. And his personal liking of the filmmaker Sam Raimi, and disliking of Stanley Kubrick, shows he has no vision of what good directing is. Though I was impressed of his decision in choosing Abrams to direct at first, it now seems like he just gives it to whoever (he should pick me and Stefan).

I'll admit, Ron Howard isn't the worst director, but he's on the same level as them in mine and Stefan's opinion. The kind that constantly, randomly adds dramatic music to every scene in an attempt at masking his flaws as a director. The kind that begins their films with a slowly craning camera from the sky; then later cranes the camera from a car's headlight back into the sky. The kind that spins the camera around actors like a hula hoop while they drink their morning coffee. I guess you get it.

Yet, I will also admit have a mild hope that he can straighten up. And lets pray that it turns out to be a MOVIE(S), not an HBO mini-series, or God-forbid a CABLE TV series.

.
- Joey

Into the rabbit hole

2010-03-30T17:22:00.034-04:00

Three months later and Easter has arrived on Runescape... though, again, I shouldn't really say "Runescape"; rather: "A 5 foot area of space south of Falador."

------------

To begin, talk to Charlie the squirrel, then enter the rabbit hole. At once you will grow bunny ears, a tail, bend into the form of a rabbit, and shrink away into the earth. When you reappear in the den, you are met with a mess of factory appliances and boxes filled with, if I recall correctly, "nothing but chocolate and peanuts". Enter into the adjacent room and you will meet Easter Bunny. A pink, giant... Easter bunny.

Task 1: He tells you to talk to an impling manager by a big stove. You find the fellow, and he inquires that you clean some stove parts in some water. So you do it. End of the first mission.

Return to the pink cottontail please.

Task 2: Now he asks you to talk to another manager impling who needs you to make egg glazes of various colors, then hands you a color wheel, a bowl, and vials of red, blue, and yellow glaze. Once he tells you which colors to create, you mix into bowl the proper glazes and hand him your bowl. And that's the end of the second mission.

Back to the rabbit.

Task 3: Talk to Big Ben, he needs you to dispose of anything that crosses his conveyor belt that isn't chocolate or nuts, using a device that I believe was made using MS Paint.

Revisit the Easter Bunny.

Task 4: "Go to the Easter bird and convince him to get to work", says Jr. Bunny, basically. So you do, and you scroll through windows of dialog and random remarks to say to him in the hopes of the whole thing to just end already.

What I told told him was that all of Runescape would love him if he starts working again. Stefan told him to just get to it. So I think it's random for each player.

Go again to E.B..

Task 5: "Manage the factory now!" So you proceed by hiring workers, then making 7 fruit cakes, 7 nuter... chocolate somethings, and 7 tangy egg... breads, I think. I don't feel up to explaining this process. We felt the urge to call it quits on this one due to stress and boredom.

Task 6: The bunny wants you to deliver stuff to couriers scattered all over the map. Through the use of our teleports, we did this in about 5 minutes, and before returning, we were enlightened about the meaning of Easter in Runescape...

Wow, how sweet... and completely Pagan.

So with that complete, you return to the bunny and recieve your prize.

Squirrel Ears (Hardly visible on your player), and a Squirrel juggle emote. You can also summon Charlie and Fluffy (can't remeber who that is right now.) every 30 minutes!

Yay?

------------

After the hour or so spent on this gruesome event we headed to Varrock and once again made our own holiday colored clothing. Next, we headed to a $126M drop party including a red H'ween mask, and 25m coins.

We got nothing at all. :)

- Joey

Christmas on Runescape... Where?

2009-12-25T00:58:00.017-05:00

Well this is our first Runescape Christmas event we have attended. And was it disappointing?... I'll get to that. But first I have to get there.

The greatest criticism against the event is one so incredibly insulting I have to say it first. Jagex, (the creators of Runescape) DID NOT DECORATE anywhere outside of the event. Nothing! Not one tree! Not one trace of Christmas to be seen. Still the same old dull, dark, green, rather ugly Runescape. Now they did decorate the event somewhat, but not anywhere near the way they should have. But I'll tell you all about it in a sec....

Again, you have to find where the event portal thingy is. Which is a magic wardrobe. Unrelated to Christmas, I know. You go through it and are met with snow, which is perfect to do, yet the snowflakes look odd. Christmasy fences, other Christmasy decor I can't really seem to find the words to title, and.... well that's it. Oh, and hundreds of friggin' little blue imps everywhere.... EVERYWHERE! Which is perfectly ridiculous and totally confusing. They often, hell, way too often cover up a person you are looking for, and just stand there. The whole area was really unthought-out looking. A fence everywhere you go, a dead end, a "you can't go there" type message, an imp, an imp, ANOTHER IMP! To be honest, it all just seemed, miss-placed, unorganised, uncategorized, and seemingly randomly placed. And that's just the first thing you'll notice.

Go a little ways and you run into two large "feasting" tables. Which is fine I guess, but wouldn't that fit Thanksgiving more? Hell, much more. Well, we started doing the quest. And I'll sum it up very fast. To the best of my memory.

You get an imp.
You talk to people.
You find out someone stole Santa. And Christmas. Or something. :\
You find out that someone was "Ebeneezer Scourge".
You go to his house.
In the house you find Santa in a cage. Now, I know Santa is supposed to be big, but damn... not BIG. He looks like a giant. What the heck is up with that?
You talk to Scourge's invisible self in a living room.
You later find out he is afraid of ghosts.
You need to look around his house to find some stuff to make a ghost outfit.
And then we noticed something... This is turning out to be like the '09 Halloween event... and the house therein... THIS IS THE HOUSE! Well, not exactly, but it's the same walls just colored different. Which is just plain lazy of them.
So you search around, find the stuff, make the suit, and go upstairs to the embodied version of Scourge.
You try to scare him a time or two. After random, ignorant, jabbering.
That don't work and it makes him mad.
He puts Christmas fire around the people at the feasting table.
You gotta help of-course.
You put 'em out with buckets of icy water.
You go back with Tiny Thom, who is "seflish". - You'll see why that is misspelled later.
He tells scourge he's mean and want his Christmas presents.

Scourge don't care.

You try one last time.

You show him his future. The grave.

He is struck with horror.

He lets go of Santa.

You go back to the feast table which is filled with four different types of food.

You talk to giant Santa. He says thanks, go to the tree, there is a present for you and your imp under it.

Your imp gets a scarf. Unimportant I know. You get two old emotes, and one new one. And a cool candy-cane to hold and flip around... but it's not worth a coin.

Christmas over.

Yeah, a lot I know. But if you play it just do what we did and skip through the novel sized dialogue intervals. Trust us, you won't miss a thing.

Oh, and you can get snow balls from a mound of snow located here and there to throw at people. Which honestly is the best thing this event has going for it.

So with all that said and done. Here is something we have been planning to do for a good while. Because we knew this event would turn out this way...

Here are some pictures of some of the stuff we have been talking about...

- What I was talking about earlier. Their laziness shows up in their spelling of selfish. I guess Jagex doesn't have spell check. If so, they're too lazy to use it.

- They didn't show any tales whatsoever. This shows the random, useless, confusing, parts of dialogue and fillers that are so common in that event. It's like they wanted to try and make the event seem bigger than it really was. Well, it didn't work. We saw right through it. It's scrawny.

- That's the best they could do when making a Christmas tree?!... It looks like a five year old made it over night... with play-dough. Oh and by the way, that's the only Christmas tree in the game. Yeah, they are that boring.

- Here is a picture of our drop. So you can look at it with more clarity than the video. :]

So that was Christmas on Runescape... Well, sort of. Thanks Jagex, but no thanks.

- Stefan and Joey

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2

2009-12-07T13:16:00.018-05:00

It's been quite a long time since we've done a review, I believe. And that has mostly been because there honestly has not been any movie or game recently worth a crap. Well, I think I may feel up to doing a review on this game. So here it goes...

CALL OF DUTY: MODERN WARFARE 2 / for the X-box 360

We had bought and played the first Call of Duty: Modern warfare when it came out... But was ultimately unsatisfied with it for reasons that would take to long to get into. Therefore, we ended up giving it away to our young cousin for Christmas. Without regret I might add. This was quite some time before we got X-box live so there really was no reason to play it any longer. I'm not saying we would have kept it if we had X-box live, because the sequel is almost the same... Ok, I'm getting ahead of myself. I'll just talk about the new game.

Alrighty... First off we played the campaign. Solo of-course. (and I'll level the first criticism on the game right off) You can't play the campaign co-operative! Yeah, with me and Joey that is unexceptable. Especially since you couldn't in the first COD: MW. So, unfortunately, we had to trade off controllers now and then and complete it that way. The game was impressive at first, as you might expect, but eventually our excitement wore off and we realized the game really is nothing new. We beat it in I think six hours. This allowed us to play Spec-Ops and were finally able to play together. I'll go ahead and say that Spec-Ops is the best part of the game... but that's only because the rest is so regular.

We took a break for an hour or so, and moved on to online. This we found pretty fun but just so chaotic. There are quite a few game modes but blank out the titles and you wouldn't be able to tell the difference. They are all brainless. We would have loved to have seen a more campaign-like online, and challenging game modes that test your brain along with the rest. We played online, off and on, for a couple of weeks. We unlocked most of the weapons, perks, and challenges we cared for until it just got useless to do it any longer. It just becomes "same old, same old". We haven't played online for probably a week now. And don't intend to pick it back up any time soon. It's just not worth our time.

So I'll summarize. And cover a few things I haven't discussed yet.

Solo only campaign, no split-screen co-op, no online co-op.

Spec-Ops is good for two player co-op. But once you beat most of all of the missions, you don't want to play them much anymore. Also, you have to have and invite a friend to play it online with anyone.

Online is semi-fun, but repetitive and no brain power required. Which we despise.

Oh, and here is the worst criticism of all... You can't cut off the constantly playing music. Which we loathe in any game indescribably.

Oh well. It's still a pretty good game. Just not great.

Ruling: 7.0 out of 10
Replay Value: Decent

- Stefan

Filthy Poor

2009-11-19T16:41:00.009-05:00

I'm sorry, but I just can't stand it anymore. I've got to get this out of me.

It's about the Falador drop party... and people, poor or ignorant people, that put in junk items into the chest, and then complain when they get junk instead of a valuable item. And then, as hard as this is to believe... they drop it on the floor, to be picked up by another, and put back into the drop. Or they put it back themselves! Is that not the stupidest thing or what?

If me or joey get something valueless, or near to it... we just drop it somewhere hidden. A place where it can sit there for a while, unseen, and then disappear from Runescape forever. Which is exactly what needs to happen with all that junk. So no one can ever put that crap into a drop party again.

What I'm trying to say is this: Don't put anything in the chest that you wouldn't want to get back. Not only is that called courtesy, it's called common sense.

I mean look at all that garbage they put in there...

Come-on people, are you really that desperate to disappoint somebody else who gets that filth? If not, then I can think of two other reasons why you would such a thing... You're just immature, or ignorant... which really all three are the same thing.

- Stefan

My Halloween Drop

2009-10-31T12:30:00.010-04:00

This is a video of what I got at an over one million drop party on Halloween Day... on the MMORPG game "Runescape". For those that don't know how this feature works, I'll explain quickly. It is held in a building in Falador. Players put whatever they want in a chest and pull a lever. The items drop shortly there after in balloons and players pop them as they fall and see what's inside to pick up as their own. And occasionally someone (or some people) put in rare items, or a lot of coins which adds up to millions... This is advertised throughout Runescape by bankers on that specific world/server, and players flock to it to try their luck at getting an expensive item, money, or whatever. This one happened on Halloween day where players, well most players (including Me and Joey), were dressed up. So I wanted to document this unique experience. Enjoy.

- Stefan

The Indolent

2009-09-28T13:36:00.024-04:00

Runescape is an "MMORPG"- massively multi-player online role playing game. It's a rather fun and challenging game in which players level-up various skills, earn gold pieces, collect things, barter with others what you have earned, or whatever. There are quite a good amount of skills to try and increase in order to become more efficient at whatever is it they do, and most importantly, make a profit. There is a Mining Skill, Cooking, Smithing, Runecrafting, Fishing, and more; though us free users are restricted to only about a 4th of them.
.
Anyway, this post is a kind of rant on players who sit at the side-lines of the game's hard-workers and beg for whatever it is the others are earning. It's so annoying and confusing. I'll explain why..
.
Example: Let's say I was fishing at a pier in "Kamarja". Or rather, I was harpooning swordfish and tuna! I had been there for a while, and along came a player. He walked over, stood beside me (and other workers) and said this--

"Takin free lobs or swordies" (lobsters and swordfish). To which I replied: "And I'm taking them right out of the water." He replied with the most expected and worn out excuse. He didn't have a lobster cage, or Harpoon. I told him I'm using my only harpoon and that was the end of it.
Okay, so my point is this. Why on earth, or Runescape, do you just stand there and beg for something that is right in front of your nose? It's not just fish they want. They beg for coins, armor, weapons, everything! Ugh, the stuff is all around you guys!
.
Stefan and I have worked our way into millions of dollars, and with tons of other goodies just sitting in our banks. The beggars plead for something as small as 3000 coins while all the time they could be getting 35 times that amount in a couple of hours; which flies by as you play that game, just like most other fun activities.
.
My mining level as of now is 71 out of 99. That's my main money-making skill. Stefan's kind of a chef, with a cooking skill of 57. Among other foods, he makes anchovy pizzas and sells them for more than a grand a pop!
.
Now don't think I'm all selfish on that game. I usually give to whoever asks, and even some that don't ask. I regularly donate them 5k at a time and befriend them. I even have 66 rubies waiting in my bank to hand out to people. It's just when the items are right beside you and you ask others to hand their loads to you, it's a little dumb. Just go buy a 20 dollar fishing rod and some bait, or a 10 dollar bronze pick-axe and start getting all the free stuff your little helpless heart desires.
.
I think I'm satisfied now.
.

- Joey

Automatic Weapons Take Skill To Use In WW2 Video Games?... We Don't Think So.

2009-04-23T01:21:00.026-04:00

We have been playing World War 2 games for probably around a decade, so we know our way around them. We've bought and played many, many of them over the years and one thing we have grown to love about playing them is to challenge ourselves, always, and use bolt-action rifles as much as possible. But one thing we really don't like to do is use machine-guns on them, especially online.

Why?
Glad you asked...

We strongly believe (along with years of experience to back that belief up) that you need hardly ANY skill to use automatic weapons and be good with them.

How?
I'll tell you...

What weapon would you choose if you had hardly ever played a "shooter" game before?... It would be the easiest one you could find to use, right? That would be a machine-gun. One pull of the trigger and you send round after round out of the barrel; with what... ONE finger movement? That's all you have to do. Barley any aiming necessary. Spray and pray. At least one bullet is going to hit the target whether you were aiming or not. And if it doesn't, just reload and spray some more.

And it angers us, so badly, when players think, and say they are skilled yet they use automatic weapons! That doesn't require skill! Obviously. Machine-guns are beginner's weapons! Prove yourself and face me with a rifle! Now that takes skill. Which is why me and Joey use them. Preferably the German KAR 98k bolt-action rifle with no optics attached (scopes, etc...). We love to use that gun. And it requires tons of skill, and patience, to use right.

Which leads me to...

Why bolt-action rifles?
Here's why...

You only have five shots in the weapon, (10 shots of you use the british Enfield rifle) as opposed to twenty, or thirty, or even over seventy! You have to aim, and aim well... and once the sights are lined up, squeeze the trigger. BANG! One shot rings out! Alright, if you missed, or you didn't kill them (which happens way to often) let your character actuate the bolt, sending the used cartridge out of the chamber and pushing in a fresh one. Aim again, line the sights up again, squeeze... BANG! Okay, two shots! And if that didn't do it the process starts again.

See, pretty challenging, huh? And very fair.

-----------------

So with that said, I'll just sum this up like this...

Machine-guns = An unskilled player's, or beginner's easy way out to play a WW2 shooter game and do good.

Bolt-action Rifles = A truly skilled, challenging player's way to play WW2 shooters if they can handle it.

- Stefan

Something cool we noticed

2009-03-25T01:04:00.012-04:00

Stefan and I just found this picture of Heath Ledger as the Joker dressed as a cop, and it kind of struck us of how similar it was to the first comic with the Joker. Take a look.

That comparison just goes to prove that Heath Ledger's Joker is the closest to the original Joker by far. (As talked about 2 posts down.)

- JandS

Next Grand Theft Auto Idea (Continuation)

2009-03-05T06:06:00.045-05:00

After a while of watching a few more episodes of the "Streets Of San Francisco", we are convinced, the next GTA game has to be like that or me and Joey really are probably not going to buy it. The 70's super cop thing would just be plan freaking AWESOME!

After some thought and inspiration this is the way it should most definitely be: If they do it, (by hopefully reading these posts or someone with half a brain thinks of the same thing.), it should be, of course, much more realistic... even more realistic than GTA 4, which wasn't bad. For example: The character's movements and actions should be different almost every time. As in if he jumps away from something he should do it different every time. One time he dives, rolls, and gets back up... another time he dives, outstretches his hands which support his landing, lands, and gets up. See what I mean? Why not, it would just make it that much better. Oh and onto the character...

All the other GTA's that I'm aware of have had you play as a dark haired guy. So it would be perfect for this character to have sort of shaggy, sandy blond hair, maybe with a little gray in it. Around 5' 11", slender, tough, and in his mid forties. It would be awesome to play as an older, experienced, hard edged, tough guy. I would love that. And it would add to his character. He would, or should, be the sergeant or something of the police department. Lets call him Danny Malcolm. Nickname "Mac". Sounds cool. Maybe he's mostly undercover. That would be cool.

Ok, on to other elements.

Guns: In previous GTA games, including GTA 4, the weapons can all be stored on your character, and very unrealistically. And frankly, it angers us how stupid it is that you can't even tell you have a gun until you get it out... Which used to be it would just appear there in the characters hands... They changed that however for GTA 4, now they all can be stored in and come out of his shirt. That's right, pistols, grenades, machine pistols, assault rifles, sniper rifles, and an RPG all in his shirt. OH MY GOD! I can't believe that is acceptable. Anyway... So, with that said, this is the way it should be done: How you get and choose a gun would be of course at a police station. And no, no RPG's in this game, come-on. Anyway, you choose a simple standard sidearm, like any cop. Once you have done that he puts it in a holster attached to his belt or in his pants, (you would choose), and it would always be there. That simple. And wouldn't that make it so much more realistic and intense in a way? Saying to yourself "Hey, I chose that gun, he put it on him, I see it there still, oh my, I have a gun! It's there under his coat, literally!" It might even be kind of scary. Knowing that that is there and it will kill realistically when you use it. You probably wouldn't want to. And when you did, it would be much more intense. For example when he got it out he wouldn't just calmly pull it out of his shirt like Niko does in GTA 4. He would quickly fling back his open coat, (if he had one), grab the handle, and jerk it out of it's holster. Now that would just ROCK!
And that's it. Just a pistol. That's all Mac would need. No need for big high powered guns. He's just a cop. He solves crimes and talks to people. And no one hardly uses things like grenades and AK-47's. Come-on. And if things got rough he would just shoot them, or beat the person. Which takes me to my next element....

Combat: Shooting first... I'll sum this up quickly and simply. To achieve the greatest possible realism and intensity for gun combat here is what should, and must be done: When Mac fires the sound should be powerfully loud, quick, and reverberating. (trust me, gun shots are louder than you think), the gun should recoil quickly in Mac's hand causing him to readjust his aim. The impact of the bullet on a wall for say should be fragmented and smokey. The impact on a person should cause them, normally to jerk toward the spot of collision and fall to the ground. And that's it. Simple, but highly effective.
Now on to hand-to-hand combat... We believe just to retain that cool, fun feel of 1970's type fights that in this game they should sort of be like that but, of course, realistically. Here's what I mean: When you engage in combat it should be intense and brutal, but still have that somewhat funny feel of 70's type fights. But the characters should grunt and stumble and scream, maybe even bite and spit if they're crazy enough. Mostly Mac having the advantage being probably the more experienced fighter. A few punches and kicks, but mostly grabbing and wrestling type stuff, ending up on the ground.

Cop cars: In the Streets Of San Francisco series I think the cop cars were brown with a light on top. That's perfect with me. We've always loved big 70's metal cars. That would be fun.

Stopping cars: Instead of opening a door that happens to always be unlocked if someone is in it, and jerking the driver out. Mac would simply pull out his badge, hold it out, and maybe say something like: "Stop! Police!", and the car would stop. Now wouldn't that look and be cool?

Missions: No 100 random tedious stupid tiny missions for this game. Again I'll refer to the Streets of San Fransisco. In that series each episode was divided up into a few sections. And each one started like this: ACT I, or, ACT II and a name for the act. That's it. This game should be like that! A few big cases divided up into sections called "Acts". You choose how to solve them. And that's it. A lot of a little. No tediousness there. Just a few big, enveloping stories that you figure out... or participate in if Mac's undercover. Ended in arresting the bad guy's or solving whatever needed to be.

Environment: Like I said on the previous "Next Grand Theft Auto Idea" post... San Fierro in the 1970's. The thought is really growing on me and I think it would work. I just hope there wouldn't be people fussing about it being to similar to the "Streets of San Fransisco". So if not any city like that would do.

And that's about it. Well at-least all I feel like talking about right now. I could go on for a long time probably. If I think of more stuff I'll just do another continuation post. Anyway, we strongly believe that this is the way to go. And we really hope they are smart enough to realize the potential of this setting.

- Stefan

The Joker and his face-paint

2009-02-23T16:13:00.061-05:00

Like most people, I knew, (or though I knew) that the Joker of DC comics had an origin. I knew that this origin was about a man who took big fall into a chemical tank, caused by the Batman. Later on this guy emptied out from a sewer pipe and looked in the water at his reflection. What he saw was that his skin had turned deadly white! His hair, green! His lips, red!(?) His mouth, changed into a grin! The Joker was born.

I had accepted this story and kind-of liked it. Though, in all honesty, I was never really intrigued by it. Jack Nicholson's Joker was stupid to me, and too comical, goofy you could say. I never cared to watch a minute of it. And don't get me started on Ceaser Romero's take.

After seeing Batman begins in theaters, and the cool joker-card at the end I was slightly exited. Yet like I said, the Joker never truly interested me. Later I heard of Heath Ledger being cast as the Joker. I didn't agree with that choice, yet I didn't disagree either.

Now lets skip forward a year or so. The Batman Begins sequel far from my thoughts. In the theater I am now, with my family. Sitting through the previews before I am Legend. Up comes the logos of DC comics and Warner Brothers. Then an intriguing, quite awesome voice says: "You've changed things... forever." My father then whispers to my brother and I that this is the new batman movie. I see Christian Bale, so now I am very exited. "There's no goin' back." that cool voice says. I start to remember the Joker being in this, but who is that guy speaking? "You see to them, you're just a freak... like me!" It shows a quick shot of him. It hits me. Holy hell I think I just saw the Joker. And then the laugh. The long raspy exhale at the beginning was just frightening. I didn't know Heath was capable of such a voice, I was thinking.

After a bit it showed his face; like up close.

Now just to let you know, I've always been a bit coulrophobic. So I looked away from the screen for a second. The rest of the trailer kind of confirmed to me that Heath had actually showed me who the Joker really was. He doesn't want a hair cut, or to brush his teeth. He doesn't want the take a bath, or clip his nails, (Really, look at his fingernails). I really couldn't see the actor in there. I was just watching a psycho.

So after a few more images of him were released, I noticed his face was the only thing that was "bleached" I thought. And that it seemed to change slightly. I found out later that it was make-up, and, truthfully, I was disappointed. Why not go with who the Joker originally was? I thought. But this new sweating clown face was growing on me. My fear of clowns always kicked in a little as I looked at it.

I did some research later and found that this "origin" I had known wasn't quite what it was made up to be. I found that in Batman #1 (when the Joker first appeared) he had NO back-story; no origin. He was only a demented terrorist. No funny palm-zappers, or water-squirts. A clown who is not. A clown that only wants chaos and to kill. This first appearance was used as a reference for the the Dark Knight movie. One of the creators of Joker was even a consultant on set.

I'll explain (and show you) why the first Joker is most likely wearing make up.

As in the scene in the dark knight, Joker is a dressed as a cop here.

This is the end of the comic, and he(like the movie) has removed his make up and disguised himself. He is wearing a grey mustache, and I think is wearing a grey wig. Maybe he's just older. Maybe it's dyed. That's whats so darn creepy about it. Who is this psycho?... But there's your answer: He's just a psycho. An absolute.

Notice that in the third and fourth picture he isn't smiling. No chemical face tightening here.

Now he may be wearing flesh-colored face paint, I know. But that is as much, if not, more speculative than what I have already said.

I read somewhere where the creators of the Joker said: "The make up is what made the Joker." Or something like that. I may find it sometime and link you to it.

----------------

Now I'm going to talk about what exactly changed me and Stefan into loving this make up Joker over the Clorox Joker.

He should not when asked "Why are you crazy"? say: "Because I took a bath."

In other words the Joker should not have a definite excuse for his insanity. Now he may enjoy telling different stories of how he came to be, but that's just cause he is a liar.

All comic-stories aside this comes down to what would the Joker be like in real life?

Well The Dark Knight answered that. A criminal master-mind that likes to scare people with his painted face. He chose to become the Joker.

He looks the way he does because he is insane.

Not: He is insane because of the way he looks.

Now, I give you the real Joker:

- Joey

Magic the gathering evil? Oh come-on.

2009-02-16T16:24:00.352-05:00

Me and Joey are bible believing Christians. We love the Lord and read the bible quite often. We are very strong in our faith and are nice people. And as just about every person I'm sure on this earth we have hobbies and pastimes.

And one of the many things we like to do is play Magic The Gathering card game. Well today we were listening to a Christian radio show and someone sent an e-mail to the hosts asking if kids should play games like Dungeons and Dragons, or... Magic The Gathering. And one of the hosts said something like this: "Well Magic the Gathering was a popular card game when I was like 10 years old. And it's about black magic, and witchcraft and evil!"

Uhh... WHAT?! That guy obviously jumped at the chance to ridicule a game that people play without hardly the first clue of what he was talking about. So, curious, we looked up if Christians in general think the same. And supposedly many people feel that it is wrong to play, or bad. These are the type of people that we like to call: "Overly Religious". They are so caught up in there stance as a Christian that they jump at the first sign of anything that might have to do with evil, and beat it down. Well since they are doing that why don't they jump at the Bible and try to ban it? Huh? It mentions evil all the time. The real evil.

So I'll start this off... IT IS NOT TRUE that Magic The Gathering is evil! It's not at all! IT'S FICTION! FAKE! NOT REAL! A GAME! And maybe if those type of people would actually do a little research before they label something "evil" they would find out that it is a harmless fun game. In-fact it's really quite nice. Yeah I'll agree, it does have black magic... LITERALLY BLACK! The color! It's got RED magic in it also. And white and green and blue! OH MY! COLORS AHHH!!!! God made colors! Even..... dah dah DAHHHH.. BLACK! And I (Stefan) play as black in game of Magic. And Joey plays as red. The two most chaotic colors in the game. Why? Because it's harmless. And it's not real. It's for fun. Like hopscotch, or frisbee.

I think there are three main reasons why people get freaked out about this game.
1 - Because the word "magic" is in the title.
2 - Because it has the color "black" in some of the cards.
3 - Because they don't know how to play.
So because of the third reason, they take the first two thoughts and combine them, and assume it's "Black Magic!" This is the critical ignorant error in their thinking.

Do you get what I'm saying? I'll explain the game for you to show you it's just a game.

Lets first look at the color BLACK in this game.

It uses swamps to pay for it's cards. Quiet elderly trees drooping over still waters. Singing birds in the limbs and the ever elusive crocodile silently making it's way through it's life.

And yeah there's a skull on the card. Just like there's a skull under your skin huh?

I (Stefan) play as black. And black magic in the game of magic is really only called that because that is the color of the background is black. Though Magic the Gathering rules and such state that "black" magic is the color of "death and decay".

"DACAY?! DEATH?!" you may say. Well hold on here. They may say that is the color of those things in the game but by no means do I think that I am causing anything to die or decay whilst I lay a "black" card down on a table. Nor do I want anything to die or decay. It's fantasy. I know very well it's just a piece of cardboard just like any other card in the world.

And if you don't see that then you may need psychological help frankly.

Here is a black creature card below. One people might find "evil"....

It's called Childhood Horror. Yep, just like the stories you may have been told by your parents. Are your parents evil? Is the story evil? No, it's just a story isn't it? If you say yes then how about Santa Claus? Were you told that he was real? If you say he's not a horror well he may not have been to you but he certainly frightened me to the point of tears when I was young. But you know what Santa and the thing on that card have in common?... There fake.

It is a creature, (like an animal) and no I do not think that there is a real horror on that card that's about to leap out, nor does anyone else that plays this game. That is just artwork. Just like that doodle you probably did while you were on the phone, just shaped different. That's all it is, and that's all it ever will be. And in-fact that is the reason me and Joey took interest in this game, it had a lot of really good, cool artwork on the cards. There is nothing wrong with that. Me and Joey produce a lot of artwork. Because art is fun and enjoyable. You would most likley agree.

Anyway, That card costs four mana (like dollars) to play. The skull symbol in the top right corner means you use a swamp mana (money) to play this card. And the 3 means you may use three extra of any color to pay for this card.

And as for the rest of the card... "Flying" means when it attacks it "Flies" over other creatures without "flying". Like a bird. And in no way do I think that that creature, or I, am actually flying over anything and attacking someone. It's imaginary. Just like the last dream you had. Was that dream "evil"? Did you wake up wanting to do what you did in that dream. If so did you? And I'll assure you dreams are more influential and lifelike that a piece of cardboard. "And how do you attack with a card?!" You may ask. You turn it sideways.... yeah.

And if they don't "block" the "attacking" creature with a creature they control and it hits them (the player), no one really thinks it actually hit the person. They simply mark their life total down. Just like the last time you did a math subtraction problem like "10 - 2 = 8". Actually it's exactly like that.

"How do you block a creature?!" You may ask. You pick up a creature card, and lay it on top of an "attacking" card.... yeah.

And "Threshold" is explained on the card. The "graveyard" mentioned in the text is simply where your cards go when they engage in battle and "die". So basically all magic the gathering is is a battle game made cool. But don't forget... It's fake. A PIECE OF CARDBOARD! Like a poker card for say.

The "2/2" in the bottom right corner is the cards power (2) and toughness (2). for example if this card battles a card with lets say 2/3 power and toughness, it dies and the 2/3 card survives. So it's basically like chess but more complicated. And in no way do I think that those cards are actually battling one another. No more than the time you played chess and said "Check Mate!" did you think that the king was really in battle and incapable of getting out of the deadly situation. And those opposing pieces really had weapons and if your opponent decided to he would order one to jump off the table and kill you, that it would, or that they even could.

And if evil is mentioned in a card so what? Like I said earlier, evil is mentioned in the Bible. And I certainly am not thinking of evil when I play black cards. I'm just playing.

And I really dislike that they even call it the color of death and decay. Look closer in the texts of and about black and you'll find that it is really the color of gain and winning at all costs. And that's exactly the reason why I play as black. It's the preferred color of choice I want to strategize with to win the game. That's right... the GAME.

Next up... White.

It uses plains to pay for it's cards. Peaceful wind caressing soft grass. Up in the heavens, the distant caw of the wild fowl.

White magic is the "holiest" of the colors. It is the color of order and protection. See... not bad is it?

In-fact it even has angels that you can play with. And a card called wrath of God. Don't believe me? Well here it is next...

Now even if you say it may be influential to peoples minds I say this: I have never, NEVER heard of anyone causing any harm to anybody because of a card game, or any type of game for that matter. Heck even real games like football let the kids actually tackle the other on purpose and they don't get blasphemed. Those are dangerous games and people let there kids play them all the time. But you know why they don't blaspheme football and such?... Because they are just games. And for some reason some people can't tell the difference between fantasy and reality.

If you are still not convinced I ask you this: Who is the most evil human you can think of that ever existed? Hitler? Saddam? Were any of those two men influenced by a game? Probably not. They were influenced by what they were taught and the way they were raised, not by what they did or did not play.

Yes you do destroy things in this games (so to speak) but as simple as saying "I destroy that card", and that's all you do. And if you say destroying is bad then think of this. God destroys things. Not because he is evil, but because he is just. "And God said unto Noah, The end of all flesh is come before me; for the earth is filled with violence through them; and, behold, I will destroy them with the earth." - Genesis 3:16

Now look at the card above, that's all that's happening in that art. A just god ending evil. Now I don't actually think that is God and no I don't really think anything is being destroyed in that card. I was just saying that's what the artist is depicting. I, and everyone else that plays this game knows that is just artwork. Paint! And if people use that card it's only because it helps them when the game. Period, end of story. GAME. G-A-M-E. NOT REAL. FUN. Are we clear?

Now lets take a look at the RED color of this game.

It uses mountain cards to pay for it's cards. Beautiful mountains. They bring to my mind high, shining peaks reaching to the heavens. Sometimes capped with freshly fallen snow. Where noisy sounds are far below, and unheard. I live in the mountains of North Carolina, so I really enjoy them.

Now I'll talk a bit about what the cards are like that these cool mountains pay for...They are fiery (notice the fire-ball symbol). "FIRE!!" you may be thinking as of now. "That's like Hell!" Well, if you have that strong of an aggressive stance against fire then I suggest throwing your stove out of your house as quickly as possible.I'm not the one actually using the flames here. I simply hold a piece of cardboard in my hand.

I'll show you a card that may tickle your anti-fire fancy then...

This card "Destroys target land".

Now what that means is that I pay for this card, put it on the table, choose a land-card that my opponent controls, and he or she moves that card into the "graveyard".

Now I did not an any way actually think that I was actually, magically casting a sorcery intending to annihilate hundreds of town-folk with falling rocks. I only made my opponent (and friend) move a card."It looks like Armageddon" you say? I, (and hopefully you) intend to be outta' here when that happens. And let me make extra clear that I did not bring about an Armageddon by sitting this card down on a table.So with that said, red "magic" is about (fantasy) fire, destruction, and chaos.

I use these cards while playing this game, and I stumbled upon this on a web site against these pieces of cardboard:

"Part of the game's appeal comes from 'the ability to develop a character -- you get to be somebody else. In Magic the deck you put together reflects your character -- your persona."

This statement is quite contradictory from the point they are trying to make. Think about it...

If you construct your deck based upon your "character, and persona" then how did the cards have any influence upon it? It had to have started with a fiery temper within yourself before you built the fiery deck, right? And it's not as if we come into this game with an empty character, like a robot anyway.

Even with that said, that statement is untrue. I (Joey) use this chaotic, destructive color, yet I myself am very quiet, and peaceful. I only use this color because I think it works best with the strategies I can use to win the GAME.And no I do not believe I am "somebody else" while playing this. Nor does anyone else I've seen playing this game.

That is just nonsense.Let's look at Chess- A great family game, that brings about cheers and smiles... Are you sure?!

But you control a king! He thinks only of power and domination over the weak! He is greedy and self-indulged. With his mouth he controls armies of barbarians to attack and eliminate villages and innocents. I hope you agree that that's ridiculous.

Same point goes here. I do not think I am a sorcerer when I play a "sorcery". Just as you do not think you are a king, or controlling a king as a god, while playing Chess.

The next color, BLUE.

It uses Islands to pay for it's cards.

Gorgeous, sparkling waves lapping upon white sands. The ever-aware seagull may be heard calling from the sky. A sudden breeze you feel now; cool and gentle. I don't use this color, but I can tell you what it does in the game. It's about trickery and deception. Now don't freak out here... Chances are you tricked your last opponent into losing a game of Chess you played right? Now did they actually become infected with a tricked mind because of that? Of course not.

I'll try to find the most tricky card I can in blue "magic".

Ok. To play this card, you lay it on the table while someone else is playing a card of their own. Then both cards are moved into the "graveyard".

Well that's it guys and gals: "Trickery!"

Now this may make your opponent aggravated. But trust me, they are not going to freeze you into a ball of ice, or even think about doing it.

Green.

It uses forests to pay for it's cards. Smells of pine remind you of good times past, and more to come. The mother squirrel building it's nest. Leaves wave around like a thousand greetings.

In this game green is about lots of powerful creatures. That's it.

------------------------

So if you think games like monopoly are good compared to Magic The Gathering then I have to say your wrong. What is Monopoly about? Greed, Money, Buying as much as you can. But our point is this, they are all just games. For fun and really educational. For example: me and Joey grew up playing monopoly and that's how we learned basic math. Same with this game. There's a lot of math in it. And a lot of brain exercise because of it's complexity and challenges.

And we have seen plenty of Christian people that like playing this game.

And with that said who was that person you last played a game with? A loved one? Maybe a wife or husband, a father or mother, a best friend, your beloved child? Were you in any way wanting to cause harm to them when you said lets play a game? Did you want to hurt them when they won? If so did you? When you say you are moving a knight to a space on the board do you really think that that is a knight? Does it make you want to become a knight and wield a sword? You are not controlled by a games images or the feelings they bring up are you? You are in control of yourself. And if you are not that what they make jails for.

All you have to do is teach your kids to be good and don't do evil. It's that simple. Just like our parents taught us. And the bible teaches us. And we are very happy, thankful, peaceful guys.

And trust me, the game is really fun to play and people are really happy playing it. It's very customizable and allows you to use your imagination when building a deck. We play it quite often and even make our own cards because it's just a cool game. Just like your favorite fiction book was a cool story, and that's all it was. You don't actually believe that your book really happened, nor do you intend to recreate anything that happened in it do you? And trust me, books are much MUCH more engaging than a piece of cardboard with ink on it that you put down on a table.

How about instead of hiding games like this from your children, you teach them to get the shield of God. "The God of my rock; in him will I trust: he is my shield, and the horn of my salvation, my high tower, and my refuge, my saviour; thou savest me from violence." - 2 Samual 22:3

What I'm trying to say by that bible verse is this. If you or your children have the Lord and savior in their heart they shouldn't worry about anything. "He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life." - 1 John 5:12 You see what that verse means? If you or your children or anyone else has Jesus in their heart, they HAVE everlasting life. They HAVE it. It doesn't say they will get it. They have it. They will go to heaven. And what they do in their spare time is just passing the time and having a little fun while they do it. Some obscure card game is not going to cause them any harm. It's just ridiculous if people attack something as pointless as the "Magic the Gathering" card game and call it evil. Now that is just a plain waste of time. So just make sure kids know the difference from right and wrong. And that they have Christ in their heart, and they love and trust in the Lord God. And they'll be fine.

Anyway, if there is something that's influencing children today I guarantee it's what they are being taught in public schools. Like evolution for example. And what's going on in public schools. Like pier pressure.

Ok. We'll simply sum all of this up by putting it this way: Magic the Gathering is a game. Me, Joey, and millions of other people like to play it. That's it. That's all.

Let us end with a quote from a famous book that some people call evil:

"...the gray rain-curtain turned all to silver glass and was rolled back, and he beheld white shores and beyond them a far green country under a swift sunrise." - The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King. The Gray Havens.

- Joey and Stefan

Next Grand Theft Auto Idea

2009-01-28T02:40:00.033-05:00

We have been a fan of the Grand Theft Auto series since GTA: Vice City. And now since GTA 4 has been out for a while, we got to thinking about the next GTA game. And recently an idea came to us... Every GTA game so far has been you playing a criminal. Game after game and all the stupid police harassment's. And honestly, we are sick of it.

I bet you know where I'm headed....

Yep! We strongly believe that the next big GTA release you should play as a tough, bad ass cop. We really liked the concept but weren't sure what time period it would be in. That was until our dad was watching an old TV series he used to watch when he was young called "The Streets of San Francisco" from the 1970's. We walked in the living room, watched a little bit and it hit us. That was it! A tough cop set in the 1970's maybe San Fierro.

Think about it. How cool would that be?! It would be the perfect change for the series in our opinion.

So I looked up 70's cop in the google image search engine and found art of a 70's cop that looks straight out of a GTA game. Maybe it is, I don't know. But here it is to the left <-.

You know that this concept would make such a cool style and feel for the game. Just imagine the awesome 70's cop type music they could come up with and stuff. If they went with that idea it could maybe be called, of course: Grand Theft Auto: San Fierro.

We really think this would be an awesome change to go the other side of the law... the right side.

Now I know that it may come off as a little comical, but it won't if they do it right. Make it hard edged and gritty. And much more realistic that previous GTA games. And so what if it's a little funny?... Rockstar has a lot of comedy in there games. And plus it wouldn't hurt the game, it would probably make it cooler.

But we'll see what they do.

Comparing the two: I am Legend

2008-12-27T23:06:00.052-05:00

This is a small series of entries where the movie "based off of the novel" is tested against it.

I AM LEGEND
-----------------

Lets start off with our main-man, Robert Neville. The book's/real Neville is tough and grungy. He does not have patience when things don't go his way, and resorts to violence and drinking to get out his anger. His days are spent repairing his house from the nightly attacks, and cleaning up his lawn of dead vampires. Later, if he has time, he goes and gets supplies to survive on. On these trips trough the deserted Los Angeles if he encounters some vamps (which sleep in the day) he puts a stake trough their chests; even the kids.

This life of his does take its toll though. On quite a few occasions he breaks down and weeps, often for no apparent reason, yet mostly about his deceased wife, Virginia and daughter Kathy. He hates to remember the past and wants to forget about it. It hurts him so badly that he does consider suicide, yet never follows through with it.

Now, If you have seen the movie then you remember Will Smith's Robert sleeping in a bath-tub with an M4 assault-rifle and a dog on top of him three years into the plague.

Now, in the book we are 5 months in, and Neville sleeps in a bed... alone, with vampires trying to find a way in his house and EAT HIM.

While out one day his watch stops working and he does not know how long he has been away from home, with night closing fast, or is it not?, he wanders. So he speeds through the empty, quiet streets and sees a vampire running out of a house after him. He now knows it's turning dark. He fears that they may be at his house when he gets there... And they are. They see him. He guns it.

(You can read what happens next, but I'll tell you he puts up one hell of a fight. Even after he gets in his house he goes back out to fight some more, out of pure rage.)

The movie's now... He decides to hit golf balls, and hunt deer. Then runs away from the... "dark seekers" (not vampires, which completely ruins the entire title "I am Legend". The movie should be titled "I am Wimp".)

Of course Robert himself is physically different...

Book's Neville
Ethnicity: White (English-German decent)

Height: 6' 3'' (In boots)

Eye color: Blue

Hair color: Blond

Will Smith
Ethnicity: Black

Height: 6' 2'' (Close to the book's, I'll give him that)

Eye color: Brown

Hair color: Black

I have no problem with Will at all; he's just not Robert.

Now for one of the most bothersome differences of all... ROBERT IS NOT A SCIENTIST!!!! Which is so great because most of us can relate to that. And therefore are forced to journey with him into learning about the vampires/the plague.

His former job was a factory worker. He's just a regular guy.

The vampires are described as having dark eyes, and of-course the sharp canine teeth. They are not bald, and in-fact their hair continues to grow. They are kind-of dumb, yet can still talk, and are heard muttering, and cussing amongst themselves.

As found out later in the book, the vampire is a bacteria which infects a host; humans, dogs, whatever. Robert never quite finds out what brought the virus to the world, yet it mentions something about test bombings, and there are many dust-storms that sweep trough often. As to why he is immune, he never finds that out either. He theorises that because he was bitten by a bat in a war in Panama, and that the bat had previously got the disease and transferred a small amount into him, causes him to become ill, yet his body fought it off and built up an immunity to it. He also got a tattoo of an ornate cross on his chest while drunk there also.

The music!! Not reggae!! But classical. Beethoven, Mozart, Schubert, you know!. I believe this music is completely, entrancingly perfect for this story. It described that Robert's mother taught him to appreciate this type of music. It passes the time well, he thought.
Oh, and he doesn't watch SHREK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It's 1976.

Don't get me wrong. The movie wasn't all that bad. I'm glad I hadn't fully read the book yet, or I might have fallen to the ground with a THUMP at the ending.

One of the better, emotional scenes of the movie was the dog, Samantha, being hurt, and dying. I, being a dog-lover, was in tears.

How can the book have a scene as sad as this without a dog?... It can't. Which is why it has a dog-scene. Possibly more saddening. I can't type it all out, so please just read it yourself.

The ending... Too cool to spoil, sorry. Though you may already know it.

The movie's ending can pretty much be described like this... He commits suicide. "He is our Legend".
:

Summer

2008-09-02T20:17:00.013-04:00

.. Yep, the season. I couldn't really find another blog to post this on, so I'll do it here.

I'm going to make a list of bad things about Summer. Here it is..
------

1. BUGS!
- Spiders! On the ceiling, floors, and in the basement. We had about 7 or 8 in our house this summer alone.

-Ants. For about 2 weeks in my brother and I's bathroom we had hundreds of ants all over the sink. We had to kill them, and watch them re-inhabit at night time. We finally realized they wanted the water from the sink. So every time we used it we had to wipe up every drop of water, and place little peppermint tea-bags down. (They don't like peppermint stuff)

-Ticks! My little dog had at least 3 on him every time he got to go out and play. I had 1 sucking my blood once; it wasn't "summer fun" at all! My dad had like 2 or 3, and we all had them on us all summer.

2. SUN-BURN!
- We don't even play golf in Summer cause of this. Stefan and I do NOT tan, we burn! And we all had a horrible experience at our cousin's football game last weekend. The sun was SO hot and bright we had to leave. Not even umbrellas helped.

3. THE STINK!
- Do me a favor... Ask someone from your house-hold to go outside in Summer for about 5 minutes or more. Now you stay inside, and have all the windows and doors shut or else this wont work. When they come back in give em' a sniff, and try not to gag.

4. BRIARS!
- Can't walk in the woods, PERIOD, cause of these, and because of bugs, and...

5. PIOSON IVY!
- My little dog is attacked by Summer again >: He breaks out in little pustules every time he goes out. And they hurt him. Just look at him..
He's just trying to have fun. :'[

6. SUMMER CLOTHES!
- I just don't enjoy showing my body off around my family. The floppy short sleeved tee shirts. And the stupid shorts (Which I don't wear but once or twice)... they show my hairy legs.
------

I'm just at a loss of why so many people like Summer. I have never enjoyed, just ask any of my family. It's impossible to play in! REALLY! Unless your swimming, but I don't like getting naked and soaked for no good reason. Think of all the kids urinating in that pool.
Stefan and I used to play camouflage with our cousins. We stared in Fall, and went through Winter. Then Spring came, and our cousin Jacob got stung on the thumb by a yellow-jacket and we learned then and there; it's just not fun at ALL to play in this weather.
The green-house effect on your car isn't too fun either.

This was just off the top of my head. I may find out more things about Summer/Heat that make our life horrible. I'll edit them in when I can.
I guess I'll pick something I like about it for you though... It's green, and Fall comes next!

- Joey

Chasing Darkness By Robert Crais (Our Father's Review)

2008-07-16T16:06:00.004-04:00

I was a late starter reading Robert Crais. He has been writing books since 1987. Before that he wrote for T.V. shows like Hill Street Blues. A little back story: Elvis Cole is a private investigator. His partner's name is Joe Pike. The first book I read by R.C. was The Forgotten Man about 4 years ago. I actually listened to it on audio; I kept pushing the cassettes "remember those" into the car stereo and would drive to my destination slower and slower just to listen to more. After that book, which was very good, I started looking at R.C.'s back list. And the book that all of the critics said was his best was L.A. Requiem. Well I picked it up at a used book store and read it cover to cover in 3 days, which is fast for me. It quickly became one of my top 5 books of all time. OK back to Chasing Darkness. L.A. police find a corpse in a house, during fire season, trying to evacuate houses. The corpse is holding a photo album of murdered young women. From that point Elvis gets involved and there are so many twists and turns that you won't know who the real killer is until the last 20 pages. Crais is a great writer, his dialogue is some of my favorite, his books are relatively short, which I like. Elmore Leonard said once "leave out the parts that readers skip". Well Crais does, but that by no means takes away from his powerful prose. This is a good read and I enjoyed it, not his best, but very good. And the ending is very well done. There is also a scene where Cole visits a dead girl's family that will crack your heart.

Final Thought-Very good book-I love the Elvis Cole series.

Ruling: 8 out of 10

The Brass Verdict (our father's review)

2008-07-07T19:13:00.006-04:00

I bought this book on E-Bay (ARC) . For some reason I just Can't wait for the release date of a Connelly book. The main character of the book is Mickey Haller from the Lincoln Lawyer. I don't enjoy Mickey as much as I do Harry Bosch another character Connelly writes about and that also launched his career, but I'll take what I can get. I got excited about this book because the synopsis said Harry and Mickey have to team up to solve a crime. Well Harry wasn't in much of the book but he's in there and that's enough for me. Back in 1993 Connelly wrote The Black Ice (probably my favorite Bosch book in the series. Certainly in my top 3). In that book Connelly wrote that Harry had a half brother that he did'nt know from a father he had only met once,it was only about a half a page well from that seed came the book The Lincoln Lawyer . Oh yeah Mickey is Harrys half brother. They do get together to solve a crime in this book. And during the whole book I was rooting for them to discover that they are half brothers. They do find out at the end of the book.
O.K. Connelly can't write a bad book as far as I am concerned and this one is good. About 3 quarters of the way through there was about 8 or 9 pages where it got bogged down by some courtroom scenes and I was thinking crap I paid $23.00 for this and it looks like Connelly has lost some of his MOJO. However I plowed on (I mean I paid $23.00 and gas is four dollars a gallon) and oh man then it happened the plot twist I usually can figure out how a mystery is going to end and who the bad guys are. But in the Brass Verdict Connelly threw a sucker punch and a twist that I did not see coming. I finished the last 100 pages in one sitting.
FINAL THOUGHT
Connelly has not lost any of his MOJO. And that is why I will be buying his books on E-Bay probably from now on , before the scheduled release date.
Cause I just can't wait for Connelly to sucker punch me again.

Ruling: 9 out of 10

- Jackie

The Bourne Ultimatum (book)

2008-06-10T02:00:00.029-04:00

This is the third novel I've read. I love the bourne series so much and am kind of sad that this was the last Bourne book Robert Ludlum wrote. I really did enjoy all three books very much.

But anyway...

Like I said I'm kind of sad this is the last one Ludlum wrote and was hoping (before I read it) that it would be good and a nice finish to the original trilogy. Well now that I've read it I can say that it did, and didn't live up to my expectations. But don't get me wrong I loved it, but it could have used a little more action to me.

First off, I love that Bourne is 50 years old in this one. There's just something about a sort of old guy that can, and does kick a** that I find awesome.

Secondly, the story was good, interesting and pretty cool. Bourne after Carlos again was fun. Alex Conklin and Mo Panov are lured into a trap by Carlos and barley escape. They tell David Webb that Carlos is after him again and David makes the choice to become Jason Bourne again and find and kill Carlos once-and-for-all. Pretty cool.

Thirdly, the book starts off pretty slowly and to my surprise never really sped up. It did a little, but not much. There are quite a few times where it gets really boring and throws unnecessary political situations, political people, and political organizations that I just could not understand or keep up with. And ended up scanning very quickly, or skipping those parts almost completely. But when it gets back to Bourne (which of course is mostly why I read these books in the first place) it gets very easy to read, fun, and awesome.

Fourthly, when action does happen it's pretty intense and, well, Bourne like, I guess.

It took me a while to finish this book because it was kinda slow at points, but all-in-all it was a good and fun read. And of-course, since it was a Bourne book it was awesome! But, as much as I hate to say it.... The Bourne Supremacy maybe, maybe, was the best out of the three. but I really did love the premise of this one, and in ways this book was better and worse than the others. And, again, like I said, I love the fact that Bourne is 50 in this! I guess all I can say is, in a lot of ways all three Bourne books were really good and awesome in their own ways. So, with that said, I would recommend you read all three!

And maybe I'll read the other, newer Bourne books out there even though they're written by another author. Besides I think they are based on notes Robert Ludlum made up for new Bourne books he planned on doing before he passed away. So..... we'll see.

Ruling: 9 out of 10
Reread Value: Good

- Stefan

'Salem's Lot (Book)

2008-06-08T14:10:00.010-04:00

Embarrassingly, this is the first novel I have ever read in my 19 years; so when I say it's the best, you know why. Until a few months ago my mind travelled only in the land of visual, non-thinking entertainment, only to be freed from it by I Am Legend, which I have read nearly 3 times since then (great novella).

The first 200, or so, pages of 'Salem's Lot are more about character introducing, and character development, with not much action. But it is still very interesting and fun to read, in areas.

When the story gets a kick into action, it's a very good one, which only gets better. It starts when Matt Burke (a teacher) finds Mike Ryerson (a student of his from a while back) sick and sleepy at a local.. bar.. or concert place.. [sorry, not sure what it is], and takes him home to sleep, and watch over him. Well what happens next is too cool to ruin, and I don't feel like typing it all out.

Reread value: Good
Ruling: 9.2 out of 10

- Joey

The Bourne Supremacy (book)

2008-05-17T07:56:00.008-04:00

Alrighty. I'll try to make this quick and simple. This book was easily one of the best things I've ever read. Completely awesome. The ultimate Bourne experience. If you like Bourne read this book! I highly recommend it.

I read every page. Awesome Bourne action! Awesome, tense, interesting story. Though it can get a little slow and political at times, it's still pretty interesting. Just read the book, that's all I can say. Bourne kicks a** in this book!

I'm about to start reading the Bourne Ultimatum book, so I'll see how it turns out! :]

Ruling: 9.2 out of 10
Reread Value: Good

- Stefan

MK vs DC Idea

2008-05-13T22:33:00.006-04:00

This is for me to get this off of my chest.

First off this game was such a bad idea in the first place, they had to hire comic writers to think something up for them. Well they thought up a story! MAGIC! Oh yeah, that's explains everything! How much are they paying these guys anyway?
This is the biggest, most pitiful excuse for a "new" game I've ever heard of. Ed said it would be new and never thought of... Uhhhhh, crossover games have been thought of before. And we never thought of this idea because we never thought they would do something so stupid to this already dying franchise.
I really don't understand why any real fan would support this "new" game. People say there making it teen to appeal to other audiences so they can get more money off of it. OK, so why the heck would you support such a thing? Why are you buying this game? Is it to give them money for a bad idea, or to get an awesome new MK? Talk about prejudging the game! Giving it a chance and saying it may be good is prejudging it!
The people that say this game is going to be good base their thinking on non-facts, false hopes, and imagination. The ones that say it's probably going to be a stupid and a useless game (like me) base what we say on facts, what's been presented to us, and an idea that's absurd; and we don't like what we see, it's as simple as that.
So if you go around saying "Give it a chance! It's gonna be cool!" are you basing what you are saying on fact, or imagination?
But I guess we will see.

- Stefan

Grand Theft Auto 4

2008-05-04T02:14:00.095-04:00

After the impressive awesome expansiveness of GTA: San Andreas, this newest instalment has a lot to live up to and beat. Thought we are not done playing through the missions, I can tell you what I think so far..

First things first..

Vehicles The detail put into the sound and look of them is very nice, such as bullet holes, tires busting, the vehicle stalling. I'd say there are 2 things that are very wrong with them.

One is it takes nearly 30 feet for the car to stop after you press/hold the brakes, which will result in the failing of many missions and extreme frustration.

Two is Niko (the main character) seems to have a dislike of seat-belts, which means some of the times you wreck, you simply eject out the windshield of your car. Also this will result in the failing of missions, and also death.

Stealing/getting into vehicles is relatively the same as it was for GTA:SA, you press Y and Niko walks up, opens the door, throws whoever is in out if anyone is in there, and gets in. The problem is if you even so much as accidentally press Y near a vehicle that's not yours, Niko automatically approaches it and starts to steal it, if you jerk him out of the animation before he steals it or touches it, and if a cop is around, you will become wanted and they pursue you.

..Great automobile detail..
Getting in a taxi has problems too. Taxi's are a quick, and affordable way to get around the cities but how you get in them is by holding Y. And that will lead to accidental tappings of Y which will lead to you stealing the taxi instead of getting in it. Very frustrating. Also if there is a taxi and has someone is in it, they won't stop for you when you whistle (LB). This will lead to you running around wildly in the streets looking for another taxi.

..Car explosions are better than ever..

Walking/Running It can be quite clumsy at many times. When you walk out in front of a moving car, whether it is going 1 or 100 MPH, you instantly go into rag-doll mode which can take up to 7 or more seconds to recover from. You will also run into just about everything because of the clumsiness of the walking and running. But the animations of the way he walks is better that previous GTA's.

Weapons The aiming first.. I'll put it simply.. crap. When in an intense shootout, (naturally) you tense up, pressing the left trigger hard which switches you to lock-on mode, and can mess your aim up horribly. Pressing the left trigger slightly is how you free-aim, our preferred method.

The action of the weapons is pretty brutal.. as in the people you shoot don't die instantly, if you don't hit their heads. As always in the GTA series the animation of the firearms is undetailed.. the automatic pistol's slide doesn't move, to reload the AK-47 he simply cocks it..?

Hand to Hand Combat Ridiculous

Missions I'll try to sum this up quickly. Repetitive, annoying, frustrating, boring, similar, expected, and not fun. The same crappy missions you have always had to deal with with the GTA games. You go to someones house, cut-scene, they follow you out of the house, get a car!, drive them to a destination at the other side of the map, cut-scene, go to another point close by, cut-scene, kill everyone!, get something, pickup your tag-along person, drive to a certain point across the map again, cut-scene, mission done. Almost Every Freaking Time! And of course you will fail these missions almost every time the first time, and even the second, and maybe a third. You do get a text massage on your phone that lets you press A and retry the mission, which does help the frustration, a tad bit.

By the way, you will constantly be called countless times by the people that get you missions and asked to do something, or go eat with them, or play darts. This gets really stupid and of course frustrating.

And of course you will have to beat a ton of stupid missions to unlock the next city/island, so you can play in it. Why don't they just let you NOT do the missions?! I mean come on Rockstar! We don't like them! Let us just have every place to begin with...... Oh well.

Environment Alright, I'm gonna try to go into detail about this. There are three major cities/islands. We've unlocked two already, but have crossed-over into the third for a little bit (having 6 stars while we tried to drive through as much as we could before dying). And from what we have experienced they are basically all the same. The scenery is all nice and pretty (graphics wise). ..Yes you can still swim..

But here are the huge problems: Not only are they extremely hard to get around in, it's just darn impossible to! It's so darn cramped! A building here, a building there, oh a car!, another person! Oh look, another freaking wall I just ran in to again! and again, and again, another light post, another immovable tiny object that flipped my car over! You can't move!

And you certainly can forget about stealing whatever car you want, whenever you want it, because 7 out of 10 times there's a cop or two right there with you! Many times I have gotten wanted with no cops within a mile, and even 10 or so seconds after I even stole the car, or committed any other crime.

Oops I bumped a cop, I'm a criminal! oops I bumped a pedestrian, I being cursed at! Oops I ran into a building, and another, and another. Oh man, I hit a little white picked fence going 100 miles an hour, it didn't move and totaled my car, I flew out of the windshield and hit pavement! What's that in front of me?... Oh, ha ha, IT'S MORE PAVEMENT!!!!

The places are pretty big but I don't think as big as GTA:SA's expansive awesome and free-roaming nature. That was what we liked, not city, after city.

Uh-oh, I'm wanted again for firing a pistol, run! I crossed the road, a car bumped me out of nowhere, rag-doll mode. Get up Niko! Get up! He's up. Run! Another bump, rag doll, up Niko!... Are you getting the picture?

The environment may seem impressive for the first few hours, but then it just becomes a huge hassle and hugely "same-old same-old". I'm not impressed with it.

You can't go in to almost every building, just a very select few. Such as: Clothes shops, restaurants, umm.... strip-clubs, bars, bowling ally, um.. internet cafes........... yeah that's about it. Yeah there are "Pay and Prays", but that's it! No automobile up-grader places at all, and you can't choose the color of your car like you could in GTA:SA, what's up with that?!

..Blood graphics look good..
The cites are lively and sound nice though.

One more thing.. we gave Niko eye glasses, but we quickly found out when you die, or go to jail they disappear, forcing you to go to a safe-house, and re-apply them. Just some stupid glitch I guess.

Verdict Yeah, the game's good, NOT new-gen to me at all. It simply feels like a tweaked, slightly up-graded, hugely down-graded San Andreas. GTA:4 is fun, there's things to do. If you like GTA like we do, for it's free-roam, and play around ability, get this game, you won't be disappointed.

Ruling: 8.5 out of 10
Replay Value: Great

- Stefan and Joey

......................................
Quick video showing some of the bad, and the good. (With a few misspelled words, sorry.)

The Mist (book)

2008-04-12T21:50:00.010-04:00

Alright, we bought the mist book last week and I read it. And all I have to say is wow. Not only does it have all of the good elements that the movie does but it takes those elements and makes them realistic, grosser, more exiting, and just awesome! Stephen King is without a doubt one of my favorite authors, and this story does not disappoint.
I loved it! The creatures in the book are gross, terrifying, and just how you would want them to be, at least for me.
For instance, the spider like things in the pharmacy were black, and had yellow stripes down their bodies. They had like over a dozen hairy legs and were on average the size of a big dog. And they didn't make that stupid sound all the time that they did in the movie. In the book they made a low weird sound when they were injured. Now why didn't they make them that way in the movie?!
The other creatures were also much grosser and realistically bug like. The tentacles had big suckers on there underside and those suckers were mouths! The things on the windows were like 3 feet long and and eyes on the end of 2 stalks, much more bug like. And the bird like things were albino white and had reddish eyes!
There of course were other creatures that were different in the books, like the thing that killed Ollie towards the end, it was lobster red and had a body like a scorpion that drug on the ground I think.
It also described they saw the shadow of a nightmarish "kite like" creature that flies over them. There were more creatures in the book than there were in the movie.
The book was much more realistic and interesting. If you like creature type horror things, please read this. It was a really cool book, and it's not that long.

Reread Value: Good
Ruling: 9 out of 10

- Stefan

The Mist (our review)

2008-03-31T17:31:00.007-04:00

We've always loved Stephen King's stories and movies. Our father has been a big fan of his stuff for a long time. So since we couldn't find anywhere close to rent this movie, we went ahead and bought it. We watched it last night, and here's what I think.

The movie starts off showing the main character (Tom Jane) painting an image of Roland, a rose, and the Tower, from the Dark Tower Books by Stephen King. And that was really cool. Anyway. We liked the movie a lot. It was a little old school, but it still felt new and original.

The directing was just right. The creatures were cool and creepy. The dialog was very realistic, and the acting was good. Thomas Jane did the best acting i think I've seen him do. The effects were a little cheesy but realistic. And the ending was unexpected, a little unrealistic, but still shocking.

Re-watch Value: Good
Ruling: 8.5 out of 10

- Stefan

The Mist (our father's review)

2008-03-31T17:21:00.010-04:00

This is a guest post from Treadstone 71. I am going to review The Mist . I really liked the movie I thought that the gore and effects were really on point . They were kind of old school cheesy but just the right amount of blood. I also thought that the creatures were cool and creepy especially the spiders coming out of the M P. in the pharmacy scene. The ending was sad however I think it was better than just having the people go into the mist and the movie ending there. More reviews to come from Treadstone 71. The mist

Re-watch Value: Good
Ruling: 8.5 out of 10

- Jack

Oblivion 4

2008-03-24T17:23:00.008-04:00

Ok, we're not much for RPGs but this one got our attention. Re read good reviews about it and we finally got it hoping for a good roam-around type game with swords and bows and lots of stuff to do. Boy did we get that and much, much more.
Not only are there weapons but you can enchant them with for own created enchantments! Not only is there a place to roam around in, but it's huge and full of awesome nature scenery. You can also create a character and choose just about every thing about them.
Me and my brother have each created our own characters on different profiles and each of us has taken different paths and quests and there's still so much more to do. Joey has gotten to Listener level in the Dark Brotherhood, and I have gotten to Master level in the fighters guild.
The action is descent and at times a bit frustrating and repetitive but real time, which is a good thing. The quests are most of the times similar but pretty diverse. We really like this game but it does take a long time to do things on it.

Replay value: Very Good
Ruling: 9 out of 10

- Stefan

Call of Doody 4

2008-03-23T21:56:00.003-04:00

10 out of 10 Official Xbox Magazine! WHAT! Ok, that's really pushing it.

We bought this game and discovered it was NOT all the glory it was said to be. There is no split-screen co-op, no realistic cambering of rounds, no ability to stop the stupid typical blaring music, no ability to change the weapons rate of fire, and only one air strike killing mission, WHAT! The action is Call of Dutyish, alright. The story, well there is none. A good play around type game, that's all.

Replay value: Descent
Ruling: 7.9 out of 10

-Stefan

Rainbow

2008-03-23T21:22:00.004-04:00

The Rainbow six series has always been our favorite series in all of video games. We're all for realism and tactical shooters, and Rainbow takes the cake. As a kid I loved playing Rainbow Six on the Nintendo 64 with Stefan. Then as years passed we went on to the Xbox, and..

Rainbow Six: 3. This is the first game I remember playing and being completely amazed. The graphics were top notch (and still are, compared to some games released today), the action was intense, realistic and loud. The large selection of weapons were incredibly modeled, and the reloading of their magazines have never been beat by any other game, in terms of realism. The map designs were very diverse and gritty. On one map there is Opera music playing over some speakers within a tropical estate type building. In any other game this may have came off as comedic, in this, it only added to the cold hearted feeling that you are a killer; tactically moving through this house, commanding your team, and leaving a bloody mess in your path. The only downside is there was no co-op, split screen play, for me and my bro.
Replay value: Excellent
Ruling: 9.2 out of 10

Rainbow Six: 3 Black Arrow. Now this one was made about a year or so after RS:3. Stefan and I first saw an advertisement in a magazine about this game, which showed a small screenshot of some split-screen action, which hyped us up. Well we got it when it came out, and to our horror you couldn't see your weapons when playing the co-op. But we tried to ignore it and find other things to amuse us. That only led to the discovery of worse graphics, and bad map design, that kind of made us depressed feeling. So we returned it after a while, and returned to playing RS:3.
Replay value: Sorta good
Ruling: 6.3 out of 10

Rainbow Six: Lockdown. (Not made by the same team as RS:3) I'm going to sum this up in one sentence. A horrible nightmare of cheapness.
Replay Value: None
Ruling: 1 out of 10

Rainbow Six: Critical hour. Pretty much the same as Lockdown, but with old Rainbow Six music to try and make it feel more tactical. It didn't work.
Same as Lockdown

Rainbow Six: Vegas. (Made by the RS:3 team) In the utter embarrassment of Lockdown and Critical hour they try to make up for them with a new revamped Rainbow Six game, for next-gen consoles. It worked. The action, weapons, tactics, and sounds are great, and you CAN see your weapons on the spit-screen co-op! The level designs are ok, but a bit too repetitive. The ability to take cover behind stuff and going to a third person view works well. We had loads of fun on this until this newest one came out...
Replay Value: Very Good
Ruling: 8.9 out of 10

Rainbow Six: Vegas 2. I know, the title is a bit cheap, but the game is going pretty good. The addition of the P.E.C (persistent-elite-creation) to the single player, and co-op really help this game a ton. And the level design (although repetitive) is fun, and more open that Vegas 1. The newly added weapons are a bit cheap, but cool. But there is this one reading animation that is VERY cheap where your character takes a mag out and puts another one in very stiffly, ok, but then he hits it again with NO SOUND EFFECT ADDED!!! AAHHHH!!.. sorry. We are almost finished with the campaign, and are on a very cool, tropical map that is refreshing after the mazes of Vegas buildings. So, I will put the verdict up for this one when we are done with it.
Cya then.
OK, we just finished it and it was pretty good. At the end there was a battle between you and a helecopter that was tough, and very skippy, and glitchy. But it was still good fun.
Replay value: quite good
Ruling: 8.8 out of 10

- Joey

Halo 3

2008-03-23T20:18:00.003-04:00

Alright, I'll start off by saying we love the first Halo and still play it a little to this day, just because, in our opinion, they haven't made a Halo game that surpasses it.

But, this is about Halo 3 so... The first time we played it, and shot the weapons we literally took it out, and started playing Rainbow Six Vegas again, because of how quiet and NON realistic they were, which is a huge down side to us. But later we gave it another shot and tried to ignore the bad weapons as best we could. The action is good and there are some cool moments that leave you saying: "That was cool." But there are no new aliens, and you STILL have to kill those darn veggie people again, which really gets annoying.

While the areas/maps are quite open and in some nature (which is great), it still feels like your being forced on a track to much. There are some new weapons, and new vehicles that are pretty cool. In Co-op campaign player 2 plays as the Arbiter, which is cool but, in my opinion adds nothing to the story, besides the fact that the Elites have teamed up with the humans (man-kind).

We found the game to be much more enjoyable when we played our own music from our hard-drive, and then paused the music so that no music was playing in the background. We found it funny how it said something like: "Hey! your playing music! This could take away from the experience of this game!" HA! have you ever thought about not putting any stupid music over top and making the game and battle loud, intense, gritty, and realistic! Now that would be next-gen. But instead they didn't change the game-play one bit. What a shame.

So, if you like the Halo games (like us) yeah, id say buy it if you want, It's definitely better that Halo 2, and has a lot more to it than i discussed. Also the ending is, well, expected in a way, but pretty cool. And you'll probably play through the campaign more than once because it's a decently fun game.

Replay value: Good
Ruling: 8 out of 10

-Stefan

No Country for Old Men

2008-03-14T06:29:00.001-04:00

We've heard a lot about No Country for Old Men, and everyone said it was a good movie. So we rented yesterday and watched it. And I have to say it was pretty good.

I'll have to admit some of the killings were a little cheap looking and the acting of some of the victims was not good. But on the other hand, the rest of the killings were pretty cool. The first one is pretty intense but after seeing the Bourne Supremacy and Ultimatum fight scenes, it's nothing I haven't seen done better. The bad guys acting was good and the other actors were good. The story seems simple yet complex at the same time somehow.

There is some dialog that made us laugh which makes it hard to place the Genre of this movie, it's part comedy, part drama, part Thriller, part crime mystery.

The area the movie takes place in [Texas Desert] is nice and interesting. Also the movie does not have a lot of music which makes it more intense and realistic, and were happy about that!

It's based off of a book so we may buy the book and see how it matches up.

Re-watch value: Good
Ruling: 8 out of 10

- Stefan

I am not legend.

2008-03-03T01:31:00.001-05:00

(This post contains spoilers. so if you haven't read the book, please do so, but do it after you see the movie, cause you will just be disappointed.)

If you have read the book, I Am Legend, then you probably are wandering if the screenwriters for the recent movie with the same name did as well.

I'm pretty sure this was their process..

"We need to write I Am Legend into a movie. Should we read the book?" .. "Yes!" They start to read the book .. "OK, his name is Robert Neville, he is blond headed and blue eyed!".. "I think I have an idea for the role of Neville!!!" .. "who?" .. "Will Smith!!!" .. "why?" .. "Cause he will get this movie the most money." .. "HEY! I have an idea also! Lets not read this!!" .. "You are so right."

OK, done with that.

What sounds more interesting to you?-
[1- He gave a vile of cured blood to another uninfected human, and her uninfected son, going to an uninfected group of people in Vermont, and then blows himself up with a hand-grenade. He is their legend.]
[2- He looked out over the new people of the earth. He knew he did not belong to them, he knew that, like the vampires, he was anathema and black terror to be destroyed. And, abruptly, the concept came, amusing to him even in his pain.
A coughing chuckle filled his throat. he turned and leaned against the wall while he swallowed the pills. Full circle. A new terror born in death, a new superstition entering the unassailable fortress of forever. I am legend.]

Movie- I am infected. I loose my hair and my mouth grows wide. i also can now jump higher, run quicker, and throw full grown men with my mouth.

OK. The movie wasn't bad, it had some emotional, well acted scenes, but here is what we are trying to tell you. The book purely translated into a movie would have been a film beyond amazing. Instead, it was turned into a greed-hole that erases any hope of ever seeing the book to film soon. We personally think we would be a good choice to write and direct it if it ever happens, just to ensure that no greed is involved.

The book sucks you in and forces you to finish, and you like it the whole way. It's intense, interesting, emotional, and a classic that even today, hold its own. It is written in a way that still sounds gritty and modern. The character of Neville is tough, relatible, and perfect for the story. You'll be coming back and reading it over and over even after your done. A true masterpiece.

Movie: Re-watch value: Descent
Ruling: 6.7 out of 10

Book: Reread value: Excellent
Ruling: 9.2 out of 10

- Joey and Stefan