Mass Effect, Better Than Final Fantasy?!?

I am a few chapters away from finishing the prequel book to the new game "Mass Effect" coming out this fall from BioWare Inc. I have to say that I am thoroughly impressed.

I've been really nerding for this game since I saw a video of preliminary action back in 2006 that was shown at E3. These guys definately know how to make a decent game. If you need an example get either Knights Of The Old Republic or Jade Empire and tell me that these guys don't know what they're doing.

Long story short, in the 22nd century we (humans) find the remnants of alien technology hidden in a bunker on Mars, the reverse engineering catapults us to a higher level and inadvertantly introduces us to a first contact situation (i.e. a war with an alien species) it turns out the species we are at war with are part of a much larger group of alien species attempting to live in peace with each other. The hostilities end and we become a key player in the galactic civilization known as the Citadel Council.

The story of the game is really unknown at this point but main elements have to do with the Alliance's ongoing battle with a group of sentient, hive-minded AI machines known as the Geth.

Holy fart this game looks amazing; if you haveny already seen the previews for it, you really should. The book as well is pretty good, its just your typical action oriented sci-fi, almost your typical star-trek episode.

I for one am going to go out this weekend and put a pre-order on this game...I couldn't imagine waiting to play this one. I am going to go out on a line here and proclaim this as being better than the Final Fantasy games. My basis is that you will be able to have complete control over your characters and their development, most of the action will take place in a 3rd person shooter style (ala Gears of War) but will also include a strategy element. The dialogue and action is completely in the hands of the player unlike all of your typical cutscenes you get from most JRPGs. The graphics look abolutely stunning, it must have taken the developers of this game quite a bit of time to get all of the effects and game engine just right.

I honestly haven't been this stoked for a game since Gears of War last year, I am more enamored with Mass Effect even more than I am giddy that Halo 3 comes out before it, this is going to be the best year in a long time for us gamers. I just regret how damn broke I'm going to be at the beginning of the year.

My Thoughts on The Simpsons Movie

Let me preface this by saying that anything you read here having to deal with The Simpsons will be skewed because I am indeed a Simpsons fan, not a normal fan, but one of those horribly nerdy types who remembers fondly the names of characters that were introduced years and years ago in only one episode (Col. Leslie "Hap" Hapablap, Aristotle Amadopolis to name a few).

With that being said, I ABSOLUTELY ADORED this movie! From the moment the movie started with.....hang on a second.....

***SPOILER ALERT!!!***

From the moment the the movie started with Ralph Wiggum (my favorite character of all time) singing along with the 20th Century Fox Anthem, to the very end of the movie's credits with Squeaky Voiced Teen "Jeremy Peterson" mocking the patrons of the theater by sweeping the floors and ending with "4 years of film school for this?!?".

I saw this movie twice in one weekend, I am ashamed that I am so nerdy that I did so, but happy because it was such an enjoyable movie. The last time that I did this with any movie was last year at Clerks 2 (that's cause I am a Kevin Smith fan as well). I had missed a few things on the first pass so I was glad to have the chance to see it again.

This is so much better than most of the episodes that have occurred within the last 3 years of the show, its obvious where all of the writers went during that whole time (though I doubt it took them that long to pen the damn thing). A few things to note, since this is no longer bound by regular TV rules you can get away with more...such as nudity, swear words, and purposeful youth alcohol imbibing.

The most played parts that you've seen on the commercials don't even give you a hint of what is happening throughout the whole of the film; which is refresing in this age where the "suprise" moments are generally given away in the trailer.

All in all, it was a damn good movie i'd give it 5 out of 5 but I hate rating systems anyways. But please people for the love of whatever deity you might believe or not believe in, leave your damn kids at home! There are a few things in this movie that you might not want to explain to your little ones until they're a bit older.

I've got the 360 now I want a PS3

Forget all the fanboys, forget all of the corporate alliance, forget all of it. I've done all of my research, I know how the sales charts look, I don't friggin care, I just want one!

Looking back at the November launch last year, I admit I was excited I had the ebay account fired up and ready to sell the few that I could find in the hopes that I'd make enough money to own one of my own (sweet homonyms!). The first couple of days since it came out, the system was selling for ungodly amounts of money. I remember seeing prices in the $10,000 mark making me curse that I hadn't stood in the previous days leading up to the release.

Strange as all this price gouging was, it was nothing compared to the sudden flooding of the market (that Sony wasn't able to do with the PS2). The weeks after its release there were reports of PS3s sitting on the shelves in stores, hell even one of my friends managed to pick up the 40gb models (at a Wal-mart of all places!). You can now go into just about any retail store and pick up either an Xbox 360 or a PS3, but not a Nintendo Wii (this one I'll save for a later posting).

I bought my Xbox 360 last May, a whopping 6 months before you could consider getting a new system like the PS3, and was immediately happy that I had done so. I have had hours upon sleepless hours of fun playing games on my 360. I heard all of this noise about playing games in HD but I never truly understood what that meant until I hooked the system up to a 50" plasma TV at my parents house, that night I could have been found guilty of breaking no less than 3 commandments...I'll leave it up to you to guess which.

Since then, I've picked up a nice slightly used Sony Grand Wega 55" HDTV and hooked up the 360 'elite' up to it and have fallen in love with these games all over again. I've seriously started playing Oblivion all over again! Now things like HD-DVD and Blu Ray mean something to me...not only that but holy geez have you seen the videos for Metal Gear Solid 4?!? Holy Crap Cakes!!! I want me one of those!!!

With the things the way they are I am looking forward to being absolutely broke this holiday season with 20+ great games coming out from here to next January. Its not so much that one platform is better than the other, each has their own merits, but I am a gamer, nothing more, nothing less so I'll end up owning one sooner or later. I'm excited with how much competition there is with this current generation of gaming, its making things for us consumers all the more sweet.

Bottom line is...don't support just one system, they're all good, they all have good games either here right now or coming later but lets be good consumers and buy them all and stop all the stupid fanboy-ism.

I love my iPod...

I don't know how it happened, its almost like having a child I guess. One part of your life you don't have it then all of a sudden you have it and next thing you know you couldn't imagine a life without one. If you glossed over the title its just about me professing my love to the digital mecca that I know as my iPod.

I remember fondly picking up my first iPod in the winter of 2005 from RC Willey (a local furniture/electronics store), I was working a warehousing job at Hill AFB and was carrying around a discman and a couple dozen CDs to keep busy. My first iPod was a beautiful baby-blue iPod mini (4GB). At this time I didn't even own a USB 2.0 port on my computer (i'll save that for another posting) so I had to "borrow" my roommates computer for the night and the only cds i could put on it were "A Shuggoth on the Roof" which is pretty awesome if you've never heard it, picture A Fiddler on the Roof mixed with the HP Lovecraft stories. But alas, the 4GB I was soon to realize not near enough space for me so I hatched a scheme to get one of the newer Video iPods...

Luckily I found some sucker who paid me nearly what I had paid on the iPod mini, and all that it left for me to cover was the $100+ difference, also at this time (the following November) you couldn't find a Video iPod to save your life locally so I went out of town (to SLC and the Apple Store!!!). I found my lovely, slim, black (*gasp*!) 30gb (thats plenty of space!) Video iPod. I brought it home loaded that sucker up with a good chunk of music and podcasts and was happy until I noticed that swirls and scratches were appearing..."what a piece of crap these things are" I said to myself and drove up the very next day to get a replacement and a case for it.

Shortly thereafter I found a local company called ShieldZone that makes an awesome product (I suggest it to all of yous out there!) and bought their 30gb shield. Cant say enough about these guys...except the first time is always a pain-in-the-ass when it comes to applying it.

The 30GB was great, but I found myself wanting more, moRE, MORE!!!1 So I lined up a buyer for the 30GB (my mom I think...) and found myself getting a 60GB WHITE Video iPod and a FM Transmitter for the car at the local BX (no sales tax WHOOO!). I loved the fact that now I could stretch my legs and just throw crap into my new iPod and not worry about space.

What should happen a few months after I pick this guy up?!? The newer! Brighter! and Bigger 80GB iPod Video gets crapped out...its not a bad lot really, I feel like I've leased an iPod more than owned one. It cool though cause with every new one, its warranty is fresh and new! God help me though I was really tempted to pick up a Doo-doo brown Zune instead of the iPod this time though...did I just admit that?

So kids, moral of the story, I am a complete whore for my iPod, and the next one that Apple releases (lets hope for touchscreen and bluetooth!) I'll be one of the first in line to get it. Anyone want to buy a slightly used iPod???

Just like Dr. Nick "Hi Everybody"

...So I decided to finally get off my duff and start writing again. I don't quite know what i'll be writing about, but it will definately be topical and about my adventures living here in teh great state of Utah, which is that one near Nevada and above Arizona, you know the state with all the mormons in it. So watch this space for more later! Its nice to be here!