Overall **~~~ (2/5)

Along the lines of the first film in terms of enjoyment  but that’s really not saying much, although I feel this one is better I think that this film franchise could do a lot better. Movie starts off slow but builds up more as the movie goes on but after the credits rolled I was left with a…..meh kind of feeling,wait for this one on dvd TO RENT ONLY.

Language/Overall **~~~ (2/5)

Besides the flaming skulled demon crime fighting good guy vigilante and him fighting evil forces & the devil himself (in human form) along with a few bits of swearing along with delving into to some fictional spirituality while lightly dealing with real spiritual matters & you have a pretty tame film. Sarcasm ended, lol though all of what I just said was true take it with a grain of salt.

When you first power up the Vita you have to go through the normal setup process, setting time, date and things like that. In true Playstation fashion you can’t sign into your PSN account until you do an update. Because of this you have to sign in as a guest and then finish the rest of the start up process. You can’t do the update until you have done this which is a little silly. After that you update the system which takes a couple of minutes (nothing like updating the PS3 for the first time). After the update you can sign in and off you go. My Vita was about 80% charged so I could play for awhile before having to charge it again.

The interface is really nice and the touch is snappy and responsive. The icons are bubbles and looks very IOSish. You swipe up or down to scroll through the menu and hold down a bubble and they start to shake. From this point you can move icons by dragging them or delete them. There are certain apps you can’t delete (like the web browser but there are parental controls that allow you to lock it out.) Once you click on a icon a start menu appears and you have to click it to start the program. This is one thing I wish they cut out, why not go straight into the program? To exit a program click the Playstation button and it takes you out of it but it doesn’t close it. To do this you have to drag you finger from the top right corner of the screen and pull down like you are tearing off a sticker.

I had heard that load times where lengthy but I didn’t have that problem. The first time you put a game it will install the game and an icon on the screen. I’ve been playing Uncharted mostly and the controls work great, I love having the two thumbsticks. The game looks and feels like I’m playing on a PS3, the only downside I’ve found is the size. The size is great for playing games but it’s a little big to carry in your pocket. This is one thing I love about the 3DS is it fits nicely in my pocket but even with that I’m not complaining because the size is great when you are playing.

I was very excited when the Vita was announced and I have to say I am not disappointed. Hopefully this device will be supported by third party developers better than the PSP. As long as Sony has taken care of the hacking and illegal game downloads I think that they will. It’s a great platform and I am very excited about it future.

I sent my wife a postcard just to see how the card would look and was pleasantly surprised. The card has the picture and the message on the front but also has the message on the back of the picture. The picture is perforated so that it pops out of the postcard but still has the message on the back of the picture. This is a great app for sending grandparents or friends quick pictures from a trip of something special. .99 isn’t a bad price either to have it printed and shipped. Mine was made within a day and I received it in five days. The app is free and is an app that will stay on my phone.

Postagram in iTunes Store

I tried this out once when I was meeting my wife for work. She could see where I was and watched me pull into her parking lot at work. It came in handy that I didn’t have to go in to get her because she knew I was already at her building. The app is free and so is the service so it could be fun to play around with for awhile. Like I said this app is a really cool idea but one that right now I don’t have much of a reason to use. However if you meet people a lot it could be a very handy tool.

Glympse’s Website

iTunes Store

I have had some issues with the app freezing or forgetting where I was on restart. Also in one TV series I was watching it always wanted to load an episode that I had already watched, it was always the same episode. So you get some weird things like that but the app is free and is something you should download and check out.

iTunes Store

The idea of Arrived is interesting but what I wanted to use it for is to let me wife know when I went to certain stores. This is happened more than once in my house where I go to Wal-Mart or some store during the day only to get home and have my wife tell me she wished she’d known I was going there. To solve this problem I thought I would use this app to alert my wife when I go to certain stores. The one downside to this is the text isn’t sent right away. I’m sure this app checks every 15 minutes or so to see if you are at one of the locations and then sends an alert. The problem is by the time my wife gets it and text me back I’ve been gone for awhile. This isn’t necessary a faulty app problem but more likely the way it was setup. If it constantly checked where you were it would drain your battery.

This app does have some issues that are the app’s problem. The interface is clunky. It took me awhile to figure out how to delete someone from a location or how to delete a location. If you want to add someone to a location and you already have it setup for other people, then you have to add everyone again. However I think one of the biggest problems is there is no way to setup how to notify the person you are there. Take my wife for example, I have three numbers and two emails for her. With this app I have no way of saying to text her to this number or don’t text her but e-mail her. I contacted the Arrived people about this issue and they said it was something that they would look into.

I think this is a great idea and could become a great app but it needs some work before it’s ready for primetime. It is free though and worth checking out and watching for updates. If they could get the bugs worked out and get a better response time from when you arrived to when the text goes out I think this could be a must have app.

Arrived’s Website

iTunes Store

A bigger problem is the apps that Playstation advertises aren’t ready for the device yet, well at least they haven’t been released.  This includes the Netflix, Facebook, Twitter, and Foursquare apps.  Now I know that all of these are third party apps and are out of the hands of Sony but even Sony’s own apps aren’t available yet.  The Vita comes with several AR cards to play augmented reality games but to play these games you need to download apps that aren’t on the store yet.  This to me is a huge fail on Sony’s part.  I’m ok with the third party apps not being available right away but games that come with the system not being available is crazy.  I know what some of you are thinking, it doesn’t release until next week and they will work then, yes this is true but why do an early release then.  Why let your die hard fans get their hands on something that isn’t totally ready.  Also this has been out in Japan for several months and don’t they have the same AR cards?

In the grand sceme of things it’s not that big of a deal.  It’s cool to finally get our hands on a Vita and it is really nice.  I wouldn’t be playing the AR cards now anyway because of Uncharted, which is amazing, but they should of had this part available when the Vita shipped.

Overall ***½~ (3.5/5)

This was a good film,while not totally unique with its whole government corruption/conspiracies plot it plays out on screen very well. Stellar acting jobs all around and of course as usually expected Denzel is great, this is a film that will appeal to a wide range of audiences.

Language/Content *~~~~ (1/5)

Literally only a few instances of swearing and the violence that takes place is not gruesomely graphic.

Now seeing that the Island is indeed true the crew of four now must seek out Sean’s grandfather and deal with a slew of otherworldly dangers if they are to survive.

Overall ***~~ (3/5)

A fun family movie that I’m sure many will enjoy, after seeing this in 3D I’d say that its worth the extra cost as the 3D was very well done in this film but its not dire to your viewing experience. I was skeptical about this film at first but It actually turned out to be decent, The Rock usually does good movies in my opinion but he has done a few stinkers most notably tooth fairy and this film is much better that that lol so I’m sure that this film wont step on too many toes.

Language/Content ~~~~~ (0/5)

Nothing at all to report here.

Overall ***½~ (3.5/5)

This was a really good and artistic/unique film experience,take note that the film is shot in the steady cam/personal video format so that may not be suitable for some and a few other gripes were that while the film does get right to its point without much time wasting (cant afford to with only 1.5 hr run time) there were some unanswered questions, for example its never explained what it was that gave them the powers and where was it from (its obviously from outer space but nothings never implied) but other than those few gripes this is a good movie. Great acting jobs all around to go along a matching plot makes this film worthy of watching whenever you get the chance, and if your going remember this that while the film is generally good the last 20mins of the film are pretty intense.

Language/Content ****~ (4/5)

Quite a bit of swearing goes on with more than a few GD’s (at least 10) and there are some sexual situations and conversations present along with a few other intense situations that may not be suitable to all.

Do you have Mario Kart on the 3DS and want to join an awesome community (by awesome at the moment I mean me and Eddie but we are both pretty awesome), if so join the FOG community. If you haven’t played around with the online much Nintendo has done something pretty awesome in this version of Mario Kart, they added online communities. You still can’t talk to people but you can play with people just from your community. This is a feature that I have been loving.

To join our community go to online multiplayer and then click on communities. From there search for fognation or our code is 12-3995-7166-3404. If you join also leave a comment in this post. If we have several people join we may have a Mario Kart gamer night.

I have never played a Twisted Metal game but Dez can’t stop talking about them. Late yesterday afternoon the demo hit the PSN store. If you are interested download it and look for us online.

Overall ****~ (4/5)

I loved this film and I’m sure everybody else will also, Its about nothing but pure survival in this film and its jam packed with suspense and intense situations. The small cast of characters all perform very well led by Liam Neeson and the film is easy to get into because of this as its all  very much believable with the situation’s that these men face because I mean just think about it, in real life how many people get lost or stranded while out in the wild? some are found and rescued and sadly some are lost to the elements. All during the movie the viewer is anticipating what will happen next and your constantly on edge and I think this effect is achieved because there are only a few characters on screen in whom the audience gets to know very well and the simple fact that this is a very real situation and not a Hollywood summer blockbuster car chase super hero explosion fest, and not saying those are bad but this just feels more grounded and based in reality.

Language/Content **½~~ (2.5/5)

Considering the plight of these men yes I’d say there’s some foul language bound to make an appearance lol, there were a handful of GD’s along with multiple other profanities  present also. There is also some graphic talk of sex but very little and also some pretty brutally graphic scenes dealing with the wolves so this is obviously not a film for younger audiences so my suggestion is to keep it teen and up.

While this isn’t the first time that the Tuskegee experiment has been told on the big screen I think that it has to be the best from a pure movie enjoyment standpoint. Some will and can argue that there are some inconsistencies or non truths present and that’s totally understandable as of course this film and story had to get the”Hollywood Treatment” in order to make things enjoyable and play out properly on screen but I’ll tell you this that whats in place is a thoroughly enjoyable experience complete with wonderful acting, great story telling and special effects to boot. Take special note of special effect as the man himself Mr. George Lucas executive produced this film.

Overall ****~ (4/5)

Great movie that will keep audiences captivated and thoroughly entertained, a piece of oft forgotten history is being told on screen that while may not be picture perfect it relays the message well. I’d say that this film is worth seeing in theaters but if you missed it there once it releases on dvd its definitely worth a rent if not purchase.

Language/Content *~~~~ (1/5)

Less than average in terms of profanities there were about 3 GD’s present along with a few other minor obscenities.

First off, the story seems to be very interesting. You are either a human or an elf, involved in a struggle against an old race of creatures that were once allies, but now under a new leader have become your enemies. To make matters worse, while your allies are being whittled down, the enemy’s numbers only increase, because you cannot completely kill them, they are sort of imortal or something along that line. You begin as a blank slate, finding yourself in a pile of dead bodies deep in a laboratory of sorts. You make your way out of the the castle, and help the workers fight against the enemies who are attacking the place. There is more story involved in the demo, but I don’t want to spoil it as I found it very interesting.

The gameplay is action RPG, with stealth, melee, and ranged aspects. You can build your character in whichever style you prefer. I found the melee combat to be a little rough, but extremely satisfying. You can block and dodge enemy attacks, and the enemy A.I. seemed to be pretty sharp, I really had to work hard in some of the battles against multiple enemies. The ranged combat was a little less interesting in my opinion, you don’t have a reticle or any way to aim like that, once you get the center of your screen close to an enemy it locks onto it for the bows, and seems to do somewhat the same for magic combat. I found the little magic I learned in the demo to be quite fun, and useful in a fight. There seems to be a decently deep skill tree, and leveling system, though it is hard to tell in just a demo. The fate shift aspect of the combat I didn’t fully understand, and found the key mapping involved to be cumbersome, though it likely can be changed in the options and remapped to an easier to access key. I found the gameplay hit all the right spots for me, I thoroughly enjoyed every moment of it.

Graphically the game looks very nice. The world is very bright and vibrant. There were a number of graphical glitches in the demo, such as your shield being inside of you in the menus when equipped, and a characters hand was not lined up correctly on a cart handle, but other than that it looked very nice, and didn’t seem to be extremely graphically intensive. I suspect that the reason for the glitches and such would be that this is likely an older build of the game, and should be ironed out before release.

Overall, this is shaping up to be a very promising game, and has solidly moved onto my radar, and possibly may be a game I pick up shortly after release, which is something I have never done before. 2012 looks like it may be the year of the RPG for me, and it if is this definitely will be a mainstay for me.

The league/season was a long grueling and hard fought battle to claim the ultimate bragging rights (well..for a year at least lol) as the F.O.G. Madden Champ so lets all hear it for this years winner…….ME!!!! surprised were you? You know it kind of sucks because since I won I get no prizes etc lol.

Ok enough with the the bragging as in all honestly the league was a lot of fun and each and every game played was fun and hard fought whether it be against a fellow man or the ever so resilient CPU (I think we all dropped or darn near dropped a game to the dastardly A.I.) so once again thank you to all who joined us this year as we hope to continue the tradition.

This was an F.O.G. staff Super Bowl with Myself and Maverick being the the last two teams left standing and as you can see from the stat line and video highlights it was a very close an exciting game to play in as we both came out swinging and in the end I ended up winning by only four points 28-24 after scoring within the last minute and holding off Travis’s relentless attack on defense. And when I say holding off I do mean that as he was pesky lol, he nearly caught his last two Hail Mary passes with the last one actually being in his hands in the endzone until I jarred it loose for the last play of the game WHEWWWWW!!

So congrats to Maverick for the well fought game and now I’m pretty sure he’s going to be gunning for me in every single thing we play from here on out and he’ll probably succeed lol, I can only imagine next years Madden League as I’m positive he’s going to want revenge and while we’re at it go take a look at Travis’s xbl avatar when you get the chance as we had a friendly bet in which I won so now for the short time being he’s decked out in a nice shimmering Micheal Jackson jumpsuit.

Tennessee Titans 18-1…I wish they were the same in real life lol

GOD Bless

First, gameplay/controls. Extremely solid or fun gameplay can keep me playing a game even if the graphics or story are not very good. And example would be the original Call of Duty. The graphics are not good, and the story is pretty “meh”, but the superb COD controls and great gameplay keep me playing through that game. So good controls can beat out a poor story or graphics.

Next would be story. A great story can keep me playing a game despite either bad graphics, bad controls, or both. An example of that would be the first Mass Effect. As a shooter the controls were not extremely well done, and it could be frustrating at times until I got used to them. There was one point a litte ways into the game where I was stuck at a level because I just could not beat a sort of boss fight, but I kept on trying. It must have taken me twenty some tries to finally beat it, but I did because I wanted to see more of the story. Another example would be KOTOR. While its controls are not bad, when I started playing it I was a complete novice at RPG’s, so I really did not get the controls and gameplay very well, yet I kept at it because of the story So a story can trump graphics or gameplay, yet can also be trumped by gameplay in certain cases.

And finally, graphics. This is the one that is slightly more complicated for me, because by itself graphics alone will not keep me playing a game. Graphics in conjunction with a great story, or great controls will do it, but it can also be trumped by both gameplay and story.

So mine is not a perfect circle, but I think it gives the picture. It all boils down to tastes, for some people gameplay may take the top spot, and not be able to be beaten by any others, or story may be the most important. Knowing what yours are will likely help you to better know if you will like a game when reading reviews, and can help you better recommend games and receive recommendations from friends and people you know. It isn’t rocket science, but it is something that is interesting to think about.

Those who know me know that I’m a stickler for a game’s great online aspects as I’m not one to replay a games single player offerings once beaten and that if a game doesn’t include good/fun & not a trashy thrown in multilayer then I’m less likely to purchase and will only rent. I’m not against single player only games as when a game is developed strictly with this in mind it usually makes for a greater more memorable experience..in most cases, but I love the online aspect of team play/deathmatch and other competitive modes when not tackling a games campaign offering (and its a mega plus in my book if a game includes a online co op campaign) so my ideal game has the best of both worlds which is a stellar campaign and an equally if not better multilayer suite.

I’ve been gaming for 25+ years and it seems that my tastes in gaming haven’t swayed too much during this time. I’ll play just about anything but my favorite genres are Sports/Fighting/Action/Shooters (I love them all but prefer 3rd person over 1st person) and on top of that I will also dabble in the occasional rpg and racing title so as you all can see I’ve established quite the illustrious career lol.

So without any further hesitation here are my top 10 for 2011 and I may shock a few with what ended up on my list and also where some games actually landed.

10. Madden 2012

Football is my favorite sport and my favorite sports game every year is usually Madden, I may be a huge EA fan but I don’t hold my tongue when it comes to their titles. This years Madden was greatly improved in the gameplay department and the graphics also received an overhaul, madden can stand to be better as it hasn’t came out and innovated/revolutionized the genre in a while but this years offering was no slouch and it can only get better.

9. Ultimate/Marvel vs Capcom 3

When MvsC3 first released in February it was a great game but lacked many features/options that are common amongst fighters today, no spectator mode was the biggest but there were other options missing as well. I said in my review that had this game included these features that I’d give it a perfect score so when it was announced that ultimate edition would release in November (typical capcom to re- release a fighter at a later date fully improved and updated) and include new fighters and other games modes/features that were missed from the first iteration at a $40 price point that set this games place for me as my favorite fighter of the year. The games vibrant and beautiful graphics and the awesome character design all zip around the screen with crisp clean and fluid animations, this game will get regular rotations at all tournaments like EVO and in many fighting fans systems.

8. NBA 2K12

Best sports game of the year…AGAIN.. if you ask me ,what visual concepts has done/continues to do on a yearly basis is nothing short of unbelievable seeing this game in motion is a sight to see. The gameplay is as always top notch and all of the extra features/modes/bells and whistles will blow you away. With me being the huge madden fan that I am it makes me wish that the NFL license would be opened back up for everyone to use to force yearly improvements due to the competition because Visual Concepts/2k sports has for years had to compete with EA’s NBA Live franchise and that came to an end last year with EA pulling out of the race for 2 years( supposedly returning this fall) due to this games excellence and their game being inferior. But even with no competition this season 2k12 still came out swinging and greatly improved a product which was already near perfect.

7. Crysis 2

I picked this game up about 4 months after release as I had heard of how great it was but I was seriously burned out on everything FPS but when I eventually got a copy I was blown away. This is the best FPS that I’ve ever played, the story is by far the best you’ll find in the genre and the multiplayer is quite unique and engaging. This game showed console gamers what pc gamers had been talking about since the release of Crysis 1( which has since been released on xbl/psn as downloadable titles) Crysis 2 is running pretty cheap at most outlets now so if you haven’t I’d suggest you pick it up if you have the opportunity.

6. Battlefield 3

This highly anticipated sequel didn’t fail to deliver..well multiplayer wise anyways as the single player was mediocre at best and in most areas a blatant rip off of the very game that they had been gunning for the Call Of Duty series. But with that said this game still got amazing reviews and is dear in many hearts due to its phenomenal online experience. This games multiplayer is amazing and that may even be an understatement and it delivers on a level that no other game could ever do with its team based mechanics/vehicles and gameplay to go along with its total chaos on the battlefield (no pun intended) so if your looking for “THE’ definitive online FPS experience then look no further.

5. Assassins Creed Revelations

The final chapter of Ezio Auditore’s story concludes in this game,this series has become one of my favorites and in this installment it doesn’t fail to deliver, but besides a few gameplay tweaks and added mechanics and the story there isn’t much that is extremely new to this game but that’s not totally bad as what the series has built is very very good and was one of my better gaming experiences of the year. With that being said this series has to evolve with Assassins Creed 3 as this formula has ran its course and its time for a change of scenery and gameplay.

4. Uncharted 3 Drake’s Deception

How can you follow up the masterpiece known as Uncharted 2? this game is that answer and Naughty Dog brings another memorable adventure to gamers. The beautiful graphics, amazing voice work and top notch story that this series is known for all return with some gameplay mechanic tweaks and improvements most notably the shooting/aiming and the hand to hand combat making for a more enjoyable adventure. Add all of that with an also greatly improved online multiplayer offering and what you have here is a grade A blockbuster hit which will no doubt keep the masses satisfied and loyal to your brand.

3. The Elder Scrolls V Skyrim

I’ve never been been into fallout 3( had it, put in 13hrs but decided I didn’t like it) nor had I’d ever played or cared to play the elder scrolls/oblivion series as I knew I wouldn’t like them at all. Its not that I hate rpg’s as I actually like a lot of them as I loved fable 2/3 and have a little history of playing the final fantasy series but for the most part I’m a fan of MMORPG’s and action rpg’s. So after hearing and seeing( & not caring) about all the hype Skyrim had built up all year and after it released I began to get curious so I asked around/did research and I often got this reply ” Dude I hated Fallout 3 also but this so much better and different” that or similar responses so I eventually purchased it shortly after Thanksgiving and since then I’m about 40hrs in and a level 20 and have barely touched the outer surface of this game lol. I cant put into words the epic nature of this game as its a blend of all of what I like in a rpg, its not turn based but action oriented, no complicated menus to level up etc and its just too much fun. The world is massive and the quest/missions you can do are quite numerous and one could play play literally 100+ hrs and not even touch the main campaign (which is quite fun in its own right) for me to be an online junkie this game with no online aspects whatsoever has me hooked(and millions of others)..like a junkie. So if your curious I’d say do as I did step out of your normal box and try something else for a change as if any game deserves a chance its this one.

2. Batman Arkham City

Rocksteady knows how to make a Batman game and make them darn good. This sequel not only improves upon its predecessor in every way it does so in a fashion where it completely obliterates it, which is crazy seeing as how Arkham Asylum was great. Stick the Dark Knight in the middle of a part of Gotham walled off from the general public to house the cities scum in which they roam freely in the games open world environment and you have a game that has once again upped the standards for the way a superhero/comic book game should be handled. With this games gameplay & graphics,Fantastic voice work and totally enthralling story Rocksteady has served notice to any would-be game developer of the genre.

1. Gears Of War 3

Its hard not to say that this was the most anticipated sequel of the year (maybe in years) and this was a title that was supposed to release early in 2011 but was pushed back for whatever reasons, well EPIC Games went above and beyond with this title exceeding everyone’s expectations by a large margin. This game is probably the most complete and total package of the year with a gripping storyline and awesome multiplayer/co op this game was well worth its $60 price tag. The graphics are great as is the gameplay and also all of the other modes/components which will give this title survival for a long long time. It makes me wonder what if Microsoft had released this on its original date would it had been as great of a product? because it was supposedly ready for its original release date (complete with a multiplayer beta that was very well received) and that EPIC used this extra time to pour on a little…ok A LOT more awesome. But nobody but those close to the situation will ever know the real reason for the delay could it be to give EPIC’s other title bulletstorm life? which was releasing near Gears 3 original date and would’ve surely gotten buried by it. Gears Of War 3 turned out to be a fitting and memorable end to the stories of our favorite COG soldiers in their battle of survival against the Locusts……And I’m sure somehow there will be more??

Honorable Mentions

These are some games (in no particular order) that I also enjoyed throughout the year that while they weren’t in my top 10 they are really good games. Maybe I didn’t get the chance to play enough of them to consider them in my GOTY nominations (infamous 2) or while they were good there were some shortcomings ( LA Noire) but in the case of the other honorable mentions they are all great but just didn’t make my list.

WWE 12, Infamous 2, Modern Warfare 3, NCAA 12, LA Noire, Super Street Fighter Arcade Edition

So there you have it those are my top 10 but that doesn’t mean that there were only 10 games worthy enough to be played as there were dozens and you will have plenty of opportunities to play catch up if you missed any on release. I look forward to what 2012 brings as there are already some big titles coming down the pipeline so enjoy and GOD BLESS.

The Elder Scrolls: Oblivion, or just Oblivion as it is more commonly known, was released by Bethesda for the 360 and PC in 2006, with the Playstation 3 hitting the shelves a year later. The story revolves around the quest of a magical creature trying to take over the land of Cyrodiil. You begin as whichever race you choose, locked in a prison cell for some crime, but it turns out that you are divinely chosen, and will play a part in the battle for the land of Cyrodiil. I know that is extremly vague, but I don’t want to give away any of the story. It is extremely well done, and that is just the main story, there are a number of other smaller story arcs in the other quests available that are also well done. I’ve heard that if you stuck just to the main quest line you probably could beat the game in about 20 hours or so, but if you set out to do everything there is to do you can easily sink a couple hundred hours into just the main game, and probably another 50 or so into the DLC.

Gameplay is a mix of ranged and melee combat from either a first or third person perspective. I loved the archery in the game, I though it was extremly well done, you do have a small reticle for aiming, but you do need to adjust your aim based on how far away the target is, so it is really satisfying when you take down an enemy unaware at a great distance. I did not find the sword and melee combat to be nearly as satisfying, it mainly came down to block, then strike, block, and strike again. The magic was also fairly well done, with a wide variety of spell ranging from healing to spells that alter the world around you, to spells that deal damage and ones that can summon creatures and weapons. The world is one of the major draws of the game, according to Bethesda the world is approximately 16 square miles. It is fun to just ditch the quests sometimes and wander around the world exploring. One downside in the game is the leveling is very complicated, and the game doesn’t do a good job of explaining how you should go about it. This seems to be the common denominator throughout the game, as the tutorials are not very well done for a lot of things, and I would have to look up how to do different things in the game.

Graphically, the game looks ok, it doesn’t hold up the best, but still looks alright at high settings. And there are several mods available for PC where people have touched up the graphics and made it look very nice. Voice acting is extremely hit and miss. The major characters are well done, yet it seems like they tried to save money on voice acting for the other characters, as there seems to be only three or four voices for all the other male and female characters, and it really bugged me at times because you would be talking to a beger who started out in his voice, then when you asked another team he would reply in the voice of one of the guards.

As far as content, it really depends on how you play the game. It is M rated, and there are some really dark things you can get into if you want to play the game that way. In playing the game more as a good guy the content wasn’t extremely bad in my opinion, but I see how it can get much worse if you start playing more as a bad guy.

There is one more thing to talk about, after all this is a Bethesda game, so that means that thing is bugs. It’s been out for 6 years now, and I did not come across any major bugs, but even after all this time there are still bugs that Bethesda never got to. I’ve had a few instances of glitching into objects, seen animals and enemies glitched into stuff, but no major gamebrakers. If you are playing on the PC there is a fan done “unofficial” patch that fixes around a 1000 or so glitches that were never fixed originally. So if you do want to play this, at least on the PC it isn’t an extremely glitchy mess.

Overall, I would say this is definitely worth trying if you like open world or fantasy RPG’s. This game was extremely polarizing for me, I can’t think of a game I have played that I wanted to play more when I wasn’t playing it, yet dreaded playing at the same time due to some of the mechanics.

Overall***½~ (3.5/5)
Well done story, amazing world, some fun gameplay mechanics, confusing leveling.

Graphics*½~~~ (1.5/5)
Looks ok, can be improved with mods.

Objectionable Content****~ (4/5)
It is M-rated game.

Gameplay***~~ (3/5)
Archery and magic is fun, though melee is not extremely deep.

The story revolves around the character of Michael Thornton, an CIA agent whose background is chosen by the player at the start of the game, varying from a spy type who is good at stealth, to a weapons expert, gadegets expert, etc. Each “class” has different abilities already leveled some, based on the style of that class. There is also a “rookie” option where Thornton is a blank slate, and his skill can be more tailored, and also has unique dialogue options. Beating the game using the rookie options will also unlock a “veteran” option with unique dialogue options in a certain places and a few other special perks. Thorton is chosen to be part of a highly secret, elite group of spies called Alpha Protocol. You assignment starts out straight forward enough, but very soon your world is turned upside down, and things are not as they seem.

The gameplay is third person shooting/stealth. There are multiple classes of weapons available to become proficient in. However, the controls in this game are one of it’s weakest points in my opinion. Mass Effect has been criticized at times for its shooting controls not being extremely strong, but this game at times can make ME feel like a COD game as far as controls go. I find it very hard to play it in a run and gun, rush into the firefight style, the controls are just way to imprecise for me to do that. The stealthier, picking people off with a silenced pistol way was a bit better suited to the controls, though even the stealthy way was difficult at times due to sluggish and imprecise character movement. These things made for some very frustrating sections early in the game, until I got the hang of the controls. In adition, the tutorials for a few things in the gameplay, such as the hacking, were very vague on exactly how you are supposed to do it. I had to go online and look up exactly what you were supposed to do and how in the world you were supposed to do it while hacking. Additionally, the controls while hacking terminals are extremely sensitive for the parts that used the mouse, making them additionally challenging. However, once I understood what I was supposed to do and how to do it I found that I actually kind of liked the challenge of hacking.

Graphically, the game looks decent. I did see a number of clipping issues in cut scenes, such as clothing clipping through body parts. I have heard a number of people who did not like the way the faces were done, though I personally did not mind that much, they didn’t seem as bad as people made them out to be.

As far as content, this is a M rated game, there is blood during gunplay and melee combat, though not extremely excessive. I was supprised at the language in the game, other than a couple of characters there was not an extreme amount of bad language that I noticed. However, I do tend to play the “good guy” in these types of games, so the content might be worse if playing the other side of the spectrum.

Lastly, the bugs. When this game released it was very buggy, I heard horror stories about trying to play it from a few people. However, now that it has been out for a while and been patched up it was not that bad. I had a couple of times where I ended up glitching against something, and the camera did have a tendency to be a little wonky when trying to do a 180 quickly when in a smaller sized room, but other than that is was pretty uneventful.

Overall***~~ (3/5)
Definitely check it out if you like spy thrillers, solid game, I personally loved it, though it is definitely not for everyone.
Gameplay**½~~ (2.5/5)
Less than supurb controls do make it tough at times.
Content***~~ (3/5)
Strong language and blood, though not extreme amounts most of the time.

Overall **½~~ (2.5/5)

Movie was actually pretty decent but really not for me,nice plot and direction but I felt it was a boring lull in many sections. Great acting and voice work to go along with the beautiful animation, this film can be for the younger and older crowds This was a good film but nothing I’d suggest rushing out and seeing,its quite ok to wait for this film on video.

Language/Content *~~~~ (1/5)

Nothing at all really as I stated earlier the captain is alcoholic and its mentioned and seen quite a few times on screen also there are gunfights/fights etc and other action sequences but its nothing that I’d be too alarmed with.

Remember the real reason we celebrate today and that is the birth of Jesus. The greatest gift that any of us have ever gotten. For that I am extremely thankful and joyous on this day. God bless you guys and we look forward to gaming online with you very soon.

Merry Christmas

Overall ***** (5/5)

Better than the first film which came out two years ago and that’s saying a lot as that was a really good movie. This time around there is a lot more action complete with the slow motion “bullet time” moments where we have Sherlock going into his zen like state analyzing each situation uniquely playing them out in his head before they take place. Again this is a very well casted/acted/directed/produced etc etc movie and did I mention that the slow-mo effects are awesome? Guy Ritchie has really captured these characters and this era of time perfectly onscreen and it shows.You’ll laugh,cringe,think,be shocked and much more so I see no reason why anyone shouldn’t like this film and if your a fan of the characters or books already then your most definitely in for a treat so go see this now.

Language/Content *~~~~ (1/5)

This film follows the same path as the first as far as content goes so you really have nothing to worry about. While there is a lot of violence that takes place onscreen none of is is very graphic or grotesque and the only obscenities are very minor.

Overall ****½ (4.5/5)

Fantastic is a simple way to put it, this film continues its time honored tradition of espionage at its finest with its innovative action sequences special effects and stunts(which Mr Cruise does himself..Hello tallest building in the world in Dubai) this film is sure to please all as its highly entertaining complete with action,explosions and laughter that is all very well acted/directed. This film will surely keep you glued to the screen and it is a must see.

Language/Content *~~~~ (1/5)

Nothing at all except for a couple SH_T words and I’m sure there were some other obscenities but that are spoken in Russian and other than that you have some very very minimal/minor language that’s really not even worth listening.

I picked this game up for $.99 but it has gone up to $1.99. I would stay it’s still worth it if you like puzzle type games like Tetris or Bejeweled.

iTunes Store

The app does many of the basic things that you would think that it should like see who’s online playing, check messages, and send messages. You can also see your achievements and compare them to your friends. While doing this you will notice unlike other apps this app shows your avatar with motion much like the dashboard. There are also videos from the dashboard that you can watch. Most of this stuff has been done before by third party apps, the main thing this app does that others didn’t is allow you to customize your avatar. Just like from the dashboard you can dress your avatar or change their appearance all together.

Overall I like the app and it will replace what I was using to do the same thing. There are somethings this app doesn’t have that I wish they would of included like being able to schedule downloads of demos or being able to purchase games and have them download when you start your Xbox up. These are some of the things you can do these things from the xbox.com. Something I would love for them to do is to have the ability to join a Xbox party from your phone. This is something that they should be able to do and would take the social part of gaming to the next level. Maybe that’s something that will come out in a later update. For now the app is free and if you own an Xbox it’s something you should have.

iTunes Store

The films premise is quiet simple,the Muppets gang way past they’re uber popularity/heyday have all since moved one, Kermit lives alone in his big mansion,Fozzie is part of a sleezy two-bit bootleg group called the moopets and Ms.Piggy is a fashion icon in the UK, Gonzo is a Toilet mogul and animal…well animal just has issues.

Things get shaken up when a longtime fan discovers that a rich oil tycoon is buying the since dilapidated Muppet Studios under the premise to turn it into a Muppet history museum….and of course its all a lie as he only wants it for the oil it sets upon. So this sets Walter and his brother Gary (played by Jason Segel who also helped pen the film) and Jason’s reluctant girlfriend Mary (get it Gary and Mary lol simple yet corny-funny) on a mission to inform Kermit of the devious plot so that perhaps they could assemble the old gang once again and perform one more show to raise the funds to save the studio from its destruction. And all that ensues in between all this is pure comedic craziness.

Overall ***** (5/5)

I cant begin to say enough of how enjoyable this film was, its fun throughout and its something that anybody can and most likely will enjoy from all ages but especially if your familiar/grew up with the Muppets. From the film constantly breaking the fourth wall and just being flat-out downright funny. If you don’t enjoy this film then your just odd. I feel this movie is a shinning example of whats missing a lot in today’s comedies which are mostly saturated in raunchiness and vulgarity and what that is is just pure simplicity,watching this movie shows us that that’s all that’s really needed and it still works when executed properly and this film nails it.

Language/Content ~~~~~ (0/5)

Nope..zero..zilch..nadda..Dude its the Muppets.

This game is the sequal to Jedi Outcast, and it is very obvious that they took the best elements of that and refined them for this game. One of the biggest things is that you are a Jedi from the very start, you have your lightsaber, and after you make it to the academy and begin training you get Force powers. You will also get the full arsenal of weapons you had in Jedi Outcast to use besides your lightsaber. The shooting mechanics in the game are solid, nothing spectacular, but this game is no slouch as a shooter. Again, as with Jedi Outcast, what sets this game apart is its lightsaber combat. While in Jedi Outcast you had three different saber styles and could pull off some neat moves when you experimented, this game greatly deepens this feature. You not only have the three styles for a single saber, later in the game you gain the ability to wield a dual-bladed saber, or two sabers, each with its own unique moves. I personally love using the dual-bladed saber, I can’t really get into the dual sabers. In addition to the deep combat system the game also has a very deep acrobatics system. You can pull off all kinds of acrobatics, from backflips to sideflips to wall-running. Several of the moves that are crucial to learn how to do are the recoveries from on the ground. You can be knocked down by the enemy’s kicks, and force powers, and there is a saber move that they will perform(that you can also do) that is like an execution move, you leap onto the enemy on the ground and run them through with your saber. That’s why it is important to know how to do these moves, ranging from simply rolling out of the way, backflipping up off the ground, to doing a force kick maneuver where you can turn the tables on the enemy who is in front of you.

Graphically, this game is old, but it does not look to terrible for it’s age. It seems to hold up better than Jedi Outcast, the movement of your character looks pretty nice, with all the different moves you can perform. And I did not have a whole lot of trouble finding switches and buttons like I did with Outcast. I found the levels to be better laid out, not nearly as confusing as some of the the levels in Outcast. The game also has a mission based structure, where you have five or so missions per section of the game, so you can tackle them in the order you want, and you don’t need to do every one to progress if you don’t want to.

As far as content, this is a game with lightsabers, so there are arms, etc, being cut off. There is not any blood in the game, and about the worst language you will hear in the game is the phrase “Sith spit”.

I have not played any multiplayer with other people, but I have played it against the bots. It is much faster and more hectic than the singleplayer, and I found it harder to use the moves and such due to the speed. I expect it simply takes more practice to get used to it.

Overall, this is a very good game, and if you have a chance to check it out I would highly recommend it.

Overall ****~ (4/5)
Good story, great mechanics, nice mission based structure.

Graphics **½~~ (2.5/5)
Still look half-decent, holds up ok.

Content/Language ½~~~~ (0.5/5)
Pretty clean overall.

Overall ***~~ (3/5)

A very much enjoyable film for fans of the franchise, this film does a good job of moving the series along to its much anticipated conclusion in the 5th and final film(which has already been filmed,these last two were filmed at the same time) and will be released next November so us fans have another long year to wait. This series is what it is so you’ll mostly know what to expect, either your a fan and love it or you’ll just plain hate it. The movie starts and builds up slowly but the meat of the film is very entertaining.

Language/Content **½~~ (2.5/5)

On par with the other films mostly with some very few and very minor obscenities but whats different about this film is (keep in mind that they just got married after no fornication) that there are a few sex scenes that while they aren’t porn status you do see a lot of skin and caressing etc so there’s no question as to whats going on. As a matter of fact I hear those scenes nearly gave the film an R rating over its normal  PG-13 and possibly had to be altered/edited. Those scenes aren’t suitable for children at all but very much ok for anyone else.

Black Friday Deals

Best Buy
Batman Arkham City $30
Uncharted 3 $30
Battlefield 3 $30
160GB PS3 console with LittleBigPlanet 2 and Ratchet & Clank: All 4 One – $200
250GB Xbox 360 console with Fable III and Halo Reach -$200
Sharp (LC-42SV49U) 42-inch 1080p HDTV – $200

Wal-Mart
Batman: Arkham City $28
Battlefield 3 $28
Gears of War 3 $28
Call of Duty: Black Ops $28
inFAMOUS 2 $28
Dance Central 2 $15
Kinect Sports Season 2 $15
Epic Mickey $15
Xbox 360 4GB with Gears 3, 3 months of Live, and a $50 gift card $199
Xbox 360 4GB with Kinect, Kinect Adventures, and a $50 gift card $199
160GB PS3 with Ratchet & Clank: All 4 One, LittleBigPlanet2, and 3 months of
Plus membership $199

Toys’R’Us

Xbox 360 4GB bundle with Kinect with a $10 gift card $199
Kinect will be on sale for $99.99
160GB PS3 console, a free extra wired controller, and two games: Ratchet & Clank: All For One andLittleBigPlanet 2 $199
PSP 3000 Core $99.99
3DS bundle that includes the red 3DS andSuper Mario 3D Land, as well as a Super Mario Bobblehead Stylus, for $189.99

Target
Nintendo 3DS bundle w/Mario 3D Land – $180
Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D + $10 Target gift card – $40
Skyrim for Xbox 360, PS3, or PC + $10 Target gift card – $60
160GB PS3 console – $200
4GB Xbox 360 console – $140
Lord of the Rings: the Fellowship of the Ring on Blu-Ray – $8
Need for Speed The Run- $37
Forza 4- $27

Most of the game you play as Frost or Yuri, this makes it easier to follow the story and seems to give it more of a flow. The story isn’t going to wow you but it is a decent story. This series has done a couple of things well, the first, have lots of tension and incredible scenes, this game isn’t any different. The other thing this series does well is mix up the levels. Between driving boats, sniping, running and gunning it, or trying to sneak around, this game mixes it up enough that you are never bored or get that been there done that feeling. My only problem with the game is I felt that they over used the slow motion action scenes. In games past those were some of the epic moments but I felt like they went to the well too often in this game.

It will be interesting to see where the next Modern Warfare game goes with the story or if this is it. Because of somethings that happen in the story I get the feeling this is the end of the Modern Warfare series as we know it. I’m not saying the end of Call of Duty just the Modern Warfare part of the series.

Overall ***~~ (3/5)

The game is short but it’s fun and we all know the multiplayer is where this game makes it mark.

Questionable Content ****~ (4/5)

Maybe because I’ve gotten too use to it but I don’t remember a ton of language but I’m sure there was. There are some scenes that could be disturbing, nothing as bad as the No Russian mission in MW2.

Achievements ***~~ (3/5)

It’s a Call of Duty game and with that you know that some of the achievements are going to be very challenging. In one play through on normal I got a little over 300 points.

The game is based in Arkham City, a part of Gotham that has been walled off keeping all of Gotham’s criminal masterminds inside. The city isn’t huge but it’s big enough to take a few minutes to get from one side to another. One of the great thing about Batman are the villains and Arkham City makes use of some of the different villains that didn’t get used much or at all in Arkham Asylum. I don’t want to give away who is in the game or any of the story line but I will say this, I loved the story. The main storyline of the game I thought was great and since I don’t want to give anything away I’ll leave it at that.

The big question about a single player game is how long is the campaign and is there replay value. If I had to guess I would think the campaign is about eight hours long. Also once you beat the game you can play through again with all your weapons upgraded and the enemies are smarter. Like Arkham Asylum there are Riddler challenges that add to the game play, that alone adds hours to the game. Also there are still challenge rooms were you fight bad guys and in rounds and get scored for how well you did. These rooms can get pretty challenging to get your score up and can get pretty addicting trying to do better than last time. New to this game are the side missions.

The side missions in this game will get you pretty distracted. I know I played for a couple of hours one night and didn’t advance the main story at all. They are mixed in and you stumble upon them. If you buy the game new you also get several Catwoman missions. These were nice but I didn’t enjoy these near as much as the rest of the game. In fact at one point I was wondering if I could skip it and get back to Batman. They did do a nice job though of making Catwoman different with different skill sets than Batman. You may have gotten across one room one way with Batman but have to rethink it playing as Catwoman.

Overall ***** (5/5)

This game is great. I don’t say that about a lot of games but so far this is the most fun game that I’ve played this year. I would say it is a must play and a game that you should buy.

Questionable Content ***~~ (3/5)

Batman keeps it classy but some of the thugs well not so much. The violence in this game isn’t too bad as most of it are fist fights and even when guns are used there is no blood. The language of the bad guys is pretty bad. I don’t think I ever heard an F bomb dropped but just about everything else seemed to be fair gain. Harley Quinn also makes several sexual jokes that might just slip right by you but they are there.

Achievements ***~~ (3/5)

For completing the story and doing some side missions I got 390 points. It’s not terrible on achievements but you are going to have to work to get them.

“Incomplete” Games

One thing Chis had mentioned in the discussion is how he does not like DLC because it can make deveolers release incomplete games, that you need the DLC for the game to be complete. I will admit that could become true in the near future, where you need to pay to get the ending to a game, but to my knowledge there are few if any games like that out at this time, but to look into it further I decided to look at three examples that I am familiar with; Mass Effect 2, Modern Warfare 2, and Borderlands.

First, ME2. This is up there for my favorite game of all time. I loved playing this game, it was so emersive and the story and everything else was top notch. While I have played and beaten the main game, I have not had the chance yet to pick up the DLC for the game. While I really want to play the DLC, I have never felt that Bioware released an incomplete game, it is complete in and of itself. It starts well, throughs some loops at you, and gives you a good sense of closer to this chapter of the Mass Effect trilogy. Will the DLC add to it? Yes. But that does not mean that it is incomplete, you can always add more to a game without the original being incomplete.

Next, MW2. This is probably one of the most polarizing games out there regarding to DLC. I personally thing that the content you receive for what you pay would be completely worth it, and this is another game where I would love to pick up the DLC when I get a chance. However, the campaign, short as though it may be, is complete in of itself. I have not had a chance to try out Spec-Ops, but I have put a fair amount of time into multiplayer, and I have not felt that it is incomplete, or that the new maps should have been included. There is a good variety included in the game, and while it is nice to to have the new maps to get a change of scenery, you can play just fine with the maps included in the game.

Finally, Borderlands, another game that is up there for one of my top games of all time. Does this game feel incomplete without the DLC? A resounding no! The main game starts, progresses, and completes all in and of itself, a complete game (though I still do not really understand what happened at the end of the game, but that is beside the point). I never felt that I would need the DLC to make it complete, yes I wanted to get it, not because of main game incompleteness, but because I love the game mechanics and the universe, and want to spend more time in it. The DLC in this game is fantastic, and much of it is as Eric has said before, “DLC done right”.

Season Pass

So to the best of my knowledge I am not aware of any games that are incomplete without the DLC. Now the next point I want to discuss is the concept of a season pass. The basic concept of a season pass is you pay a lager sum at the start to get access to something for less than you paid if you paid each time. Let me give a real life example. I enjoy skiing and snowboarding in the winter. For the past four or so years I have bought a season pass to a local mountain. I pay about $200 for the pass, which is good for the winter. Now lift tickets cost about $40 a day. So if I get out more than five times, I’ve gotten my money’s worth. And if I get out more than five times, like the forty some odd times I got out to the hill a couple of years ago, I got a really good deal. That is why they are such a good deal if you know you are going to get enough use out of them, you end up paying less overall than if you payed each time. But why in the world would businesses want to give such a deal? If they did not have season passes and I went forty times I would be paying $1600 dolars, much more than the business would get if I had bought a season pass. The reason is because if I did not have the pass, there is no guaranty that I would go there forty times and spend $1600 dollars there. Most people are likely to not go that many times if they are not going to spend the money on a season pass, because they know that if they were going to go that many times they would spend the money up front to save down the road. So the reason why businesses offer season passes is because it is guarantied money up front. It ends up being a win-win for both the business and the consumer. It is the same basic concept in gaming, you are paying a sum up front that ends up being less than what you pay buying the DLC individually. Whether or not you like the DLC trend, you cannot really agure that for purchasing DLC, it is a great thing for gamers, because it gives you a discount on the DLC. I don’t hear people complaining about K-Mart giving great deals on games, really we ought not complain about getting a deal on DLC. Though I must confess, I personally don’t see the point of EA’s sports season pass, really what does it do other than get n00bs *cough* Dez *cough* to spend more money? Now I have come up with a way to get the three extra days of whichever sports game you care about WITHOUT spending extra money. If you quit playing say Madden on June 1st, just keep playing it until June 4th, you’ll get three more days with it just like with the pass, without spending any money!

Anywho, back to the topic at hand, Dan Amrich made a couple of good points that I had been thinking of.
Chris had made the anology that instead of looking at each individual game as its own park, hill, etc, they should each be like an individual ride in the park of the developer/publish. Dan mentioned how that analogy doesn’t line up well, you can’t get a pass to say Six Flags and expect Disney World to let you get in for free on that pass. They are two different places. This is how he put it, using COD as an example: You have your standard deathmatch, which is a wooden coaster, capture the flag is a steel coaster, headquarters is your looping coaster, and so on. And I think this makes perfect sense. Games are usually not just one homogeneous item, like just shoot, shoot, shoot, shoot, (ok, yes, COD campaigns can seem like that at times, but that is a small part of the game). They are made up of many different components, just like parks have many different rides, or ski hills many different runs. Take ME2 again. You don’t just simply have the combat. You also have the conversations, the upgrading, the missions, the exploration/mining planets, the hacking, and so on. There may be some games out there that are pretty homogeneous, but for the most part the majority of games are pretty varied, just like parks, or hills.

So ultimately, my opinion is that season passes are a great thing for gamers, just like K-Mart’s deals. Whether or not you like the DLC trend is up to you, but I think is hard to argue that getting a deal on something is not pretty nice.

So with Beenox up to bat again so soon will they hit another home run or will they strike out? Sadly they only hit a single…If you can even call it that.

Edge Of Time (EOT) takes Spiderman 2099 and The Amazing Spiderman and tries to create something special but it falls way too short and what your left with is a extremely repetitive & vanilla Spiderman action beat em up.

EOT opens up with the CEO of Alchemax (a huge company that exist in future Spideys time) traveling back in time to establish his corporation in Amazing Spidey’s timeline and he actually succeeds which changes the fabric of time so much that the current Spidey is killed by antivenom. So now Spiderman 2099 now must use that very time rift to team up with Amazing in the newly created timeline to prevent all kinds of world changing chaos from happening. Confusing huh? yeah well just keep in mind that this is a game about a rift in time/time travel so you have all kinds of portals,wormholes and other sci fi realities to make the story remain cohesive.

During the course of the game you’ll constantly be jumping back in forth between the two versions of Spiderman as they work together to fix their realities. For example a a certain point in the game 2099 is being pummeled by a huge robot so he instructs Amazing to find and destroy the prototype in his time,or it may involve Amazing uploading a villain’s dna into a computer in his time so 2099 has the info readily available in his. And you may wonder “How can the two Spidey’s talk or interact with each other” the answer is….. It all has to do with the time shifting voodoo.

No matter which web slinger your using the game is the same, your going to be going from room to room fighting rooms full of any of the few different enemies types  that the game has who aren’t really different at all besides cosmetically,some block/have shields, some fly and some and blah blah blah you get the picture. The environments are all the same basic looking pieces of scenery over and over again no matter which Spidey your using with one just looking more “futuristic” in 2099′s case. Rinse..wash..repeat..didn’t I say already that this game is repetitive?

At your disposal you’ll have a slew of different combinations and special abilities that you’ve come to expect with a Spiderman game and the game also includes the standard collecting golden spiders and different orbs etc that are used as currency to upgrade your abilities like health,combos,special movies and such. Its nothing special/unique at all and quite honestly besides the health/special move meters I felt that the player didn’t even really need to upgrade anything else and once one finds out which moves/combos they like they will prance through the game using only those as I know I did. I had unlocked many other abilities but never really used them.

The voice acting is actually pretty good though and the controls also serve there purpose. The camera rarely gave me any problems and while the game does sport average looking visuals the cut-scenes did look nice. I also liked the way that the game opened up in a pretty unique Spiderman esque way.

Overall **~~~ (2/5)

This game could’ve been so much more but its not. I had really high expectations for this game with me being a huge Spiderman fan and while I did feel the game is fun and its not horrible its just not the worthy successor that it was meant to be. This game is half the game that shattered dimensions was so its only proper that I give this game half of the score that I gave it. The story is actually decent but the sheer repetitiveness and the fact that there may only be about 5 or so different enemies to face plus the three boss characters whom you don’t need to be a genius to defeat brings this game way down.

Language/Content ½~~~~ (0.5/5)

Besides a few uses of Hell and maybe Damn this game is tame, I only give it the half star as antivenom really looks evil and menacing and may scare young children.

Achievements/Trophies ***~~ (3/5)

After playing through on normal I was able to gain nearly 500 pts (or the ps3 trophy equivalent) as you’ll get a lot from progressing through the game and the others are obtained based on doing in game feats etc. The game has the nerve to make you beat it once to unlock the hard difficulty in which you’ll then need to beat it on that if you intend on getting %100 on this game. The game will take about 6-7 hours to complete so given that and the overall quality of the product this game is a extremely cheap bargain bin buy but most likely rental only.

This is a film set in the 2020′s where the sport of boxing has replaced human beings and evolved into using gigantic remote controlled robots to battle it out for supremacy in the squared circle.

Charlie Kenton (played by Hugh Jackman) was once a wise and well trained professional boxer with a mediocre career who has run into some major money troubles and is in deep debt with more than one person. He scrapes together a living traveling around fighting his robots in various underground establishments all the while his bad luck continues to pile up.

Charlie’s life gets even more complicated when he receives word that his old girlfriend has past away and that he now has responsibility of his 11 year old son Max, a son whom he’s never had anything to do with and neither does he plan to change that. Charlie reluctantly allows him to accompany him on the road after Max shows that he’s interested and knows a lot about the sport without actually participating in it,that and the fact that Max is very persuasive.

After some more of Charlie’s horrible luck and stupid business decisions on the road Max stumbles upon an old sparring bot named Atom and convinces his dad to help him clean and fix him up and get him ready for a fight. While Charlie thinks the bot is worthless Max on the other hand sees it differently as father and son get to know each other and discover things about themselves and Atom while making headlines along the way.

Overall ****~ (4/5)

A movie that many upon seeing the trailer will think is worthless but I’m here to tell you this isn’t the case. This film is about a lot more than robot boxing and while that’s a huge part of it and as awesome as it is there’s an underlying story about a father whose trying to redeem himself for past mistakes to his son and others close to him and a son who wants the father he’s never had as they bond over the sport. The acting was well done,the special effects were top notch and the story was told in quite unique fashion. Its safe to say that I enjoyed the film a lot.

Language/Content *~~~~ (1/5)

The film is very tame with only a few minor obscenities probably less than 10 with the major words being sh*t & a** being used a couple times. There was no sexual vulgarity or content and besides the obvious robotic carnage which is ever present this film is pretty much ok for most besides really younger children in my opinion.

A Different Kind of Game

In L.A. Noire you play as war hero and police officer Cole Phelps as he makes his way up the ladder of the ranks of the Los Angeles police department. In the game you’ll take and solve cases in traffic, homicide, vice, and arson. L.A. Noire is a unique game with a fantastic mix of story and action. While L.A. Noire is a Rockstar game, don’t expect it to be a clone of other titles like Grand Theft Auto and Red Dead Redemption, this game is in a league all its own.

Most of your time in the game will be spent on interrogating crime suspects, eye witnesses, etc. While I have heard some complaints of monotony when concerning the interrogations, I felt they were well done and never seemed stale because of the varied, amazing, and often times gritty story/cases. By far, one of the biggest bullet points for L.A. Noire was the superior facial animations featured throughout the game. Looking for tells during interrogations is absolutely invaluable from start to finish, and it works because the animations are perfectly executed.

A sizable part of making a successful interrogation is gathering evidence. While I disagree with the notion that questioning people in the game gets old, I do wholeheartedly agree that looking for evidence can get quite ennui towards the latter part of the story. Eventually, instead of looking for things I thought could be clues to my case, I found it easier and quicker to just walk around until my controller buzzed to let me know I may have found some evidence.

L.A. Noire really shines once you’ve found your evidence and go to question someone. Going to your notes to find proof that a character is lying is very satisfying. Questioning in interrogations can be a bit tricky though. Your three choices when dealing with suspects and witnesses are truth, doubt , and lie. Picking truth means you believe the individual. When you doubt a person you accuse them of lying without proof (doubting is difficult to predict in some instances, in one case I doubted someone’s story and by doing that I blamed the person of murder). Choosing lie means you accuse someone of lying and back it up by choosing from your list of noted evidence (you can choose incorrectly however).

Two problems I have with the interrogations are that it feels like some clues are purposefully vague which sometimes leads you to making the wrong choice in a questioning. The other issue I have is that far too many people lie in the game. Characters can be totally innocent, and they’ll still lie about information they know on someone getting murdered for some ridiculous reason.

Other positive points in L.A. Noire are ones like the action and character personalities. While the action in the game isn’t the main strong suit, it is still nicely done. Car chases are great, on foot chases are better, and shoot outs offer a needed change of pace from time-to-time. As far as the characters go, they’re all masterfully realized and superbly voice acted. I didn’t like most of the people in the game, not because they didn’t feel real, but more because they had very believable personalities that I did not care for.

More great touches in the game were things like the mood throughout the entire experience. Rockstar and developer Team Bondi did fantastic work making the game world of 1947 Los Angeles feel authentic. The atmosphere seamlessly changes at times from tense, to dark, to even a little scary (part of the game looks like it may have been slightly influenced by movies like Seven and Zodiac). Another great thing the game does is in some missions it actually makes you use/study your map of Los Angeles. I was very surprised by the methods they employed to get you to use your map, they only thing I thought the developers could’ve done better was make it so that the player had to pass by most, if not all, of the landmarks in the game. The dispatch/ side missions are a welcome change-up in action whenever you want as well.

I’ve heard quite a few complaints about the ending of L.A. Noire, and I must say, I found the end to be realistic and oddly satisfying. If something like that had happened in real life, I could definitely see the outcome being very similar. The twists near the end were very interesting choices in direction, and they might make you think of all the main characters in a different light by time the credits roll. Speaking of credits, there is a nice extra cut scene after the end credits that flushes out the main plot a little more.

If you’re looking for something different in a game you should definitely give L.A. Noire a try. The game tends to drag in the middle, but if you stick with it I believe you’ll be glad you did. There aren’t really any big, over-the-top moments in the game, but that’s what makes it different, that’s what makes it stand out from the pack. L.A. Noire feels like someone made the movies L.A. Confidential or Chinatown into a video game, and that’s a good thing, a very good thing.

Overall ****½ (4.5/5)
If you’re looking for a great game that isn’t a clone of everything else, give it a try.

Content/Language ****~ (4/5)
There are some curse words, and the language can be a little insensitive when dealing with race, but that’s how they talked in the 40s.

Achievements/Trophies ****~ (4/5)
You’ll get a decent amount of achievements, although some are tied to collectibles that aren’t so easy to find.

Overall****½ (4.5/5)
Amazingly well shot, well narrated, held my interest through the entire film. Definitely worth watching.

Content***½~ (3.5/5)
Language is about the only thing to watch out for in this film, a few misuses of the Lord’s name and around 6-8 f-bombs, though not extremely in your face, they are not super easy to pick out through the accents.

Overall ****~ (4/5)

This film has a different feel to it with the way its shot and just the whole ambiance of it all,its very unique and goes perfectly with this film. I felt it did take a little while to get into but overall the movie was very enjoyable with its gritty feel and compelling story.

Language/Content ***** (5/5)

Ok this film will fool you as it wasn’t that bad for about the first hour or so as all there was to deal with was some language that I would say was about average for a lot of films but the last section of the film takes that and ups it by 100 notches as now you’ll see topless female nudity backstage at a strip club for about 3 minutes coupled with a few gruesome deaths etc all shown graphically on screen.

Overall ****~ (4/5)

That short simple and sweet description sums it all up and there are no surprises the title says it all so you’ll get where this film is going from the start and with a cast full of great actors who all share the screen as the film rapidly jumps from situation to situation across the world you end up with a well produced collective effort that makes this an enjoyable film. This not your average run of the mil movie but do keep in mind that I would say that while this film is clean its probably more suited for the more adult/mature mind.

Language/Content ½~~~~ (0.5/5)

Only a minor few obscenities and other than that some really…really..REALLY sick looking people.

Brendan the elder chose to stay with their father while Tommy went far away with their mother to start a new life. Now as many years have past Brendan’s life has taken him from mediocre UFC fighter to now a current physics teacher and he married his longtime sweetheart (the reason he stayed behind) and they have 2 daughters a beautiful home & an otherwise great life together while Tommy got to stick around all those years and watch his mother suffer while helping her out all that he could before joining the marines and becoming a combat veteran.

Years have past and they’ve both written their father off for all that he did to the family and the brothers themselves haven’t spoken in years. But Tommy after 14 years in exile/military duties reappears on their fathers doorstep harboring extremely harsh feelings while Brendan and his wife are facing financial hardships and are in jeopardy of have their home foreclosed on very soon forcing the teacher/retired fighter to take up fighting on the side to make ends meet.

Now Brendan has been fighting because he has too and while Tommy once a world class wrestler has separately gotten back into the swing of things but he’s been using it to unleash his aggression.

Unbeknownst to each other the brothers are both entered into a yearly MMA tourney in which the worlds top fighters compete in & that pays the winner 5 million which would wipe away any of Brendan’s financial issues and allow Tommy to repay a promise that he’s made. But before any of that can happen the two brothers will have to defeat a stable of world reknown elite fighters & may very well have to go through each other to complete their goals.

Overall ***** (5/5)

If you liked the movie “The Fighter” then you’ll no doubt love this in fact I actually like it a little better. This movie tells a great story with great acting and its a very well produced product throughout. This film does a great job with making the viewers sympathize with its characters and get engrossed with their plights. Not just for fighting or MMA fans this is a must see film for everybody.

Language/Content **~~~ (2/5)

The film probably has about 20 or so obscenities with a few GD’s and there wasn’t any sexual content present other than Brendan’s wife being in her underwear for a short while on screen but it isn’t too visible. And beside the obvious violent nature of the MMA sport this film is really nothing to be concerned over in this area.

Another nice thing about Stitcher is if you listen from your computer it will sync between your computer and phone or tablet.  So say you start listening to Dez’s week, which is usually two hours, and you get about an hour into it and have to leave.  Open the app on your phone and hit the sync button and it picks up where you left off on the computer. There are also recommendations of podcasts based on what podcast you are currently listening too.

The apps are free and so is an account so check them out at stitcher.com

During this time African American women worked as ”The Help” or maids for white families taking care of all the cooking and cleaning needs and often raising & caring for their children.

A young white and fresh out of college aspiring author named Eugenia ‘Skeeter’ Phelan who was herself raised by her families house maid and doesn’t share the same segregated views of her peers decides to write a book from “The Help’s” perspective by interviewing many local maids and having them tell the no holds barred truth on their lives and experiences their line of work.

Certain liberties and precautions have to be taken to protect the authors identities as back in those times an African American speaking out publicly about a white person would spell nothing but trouble which is also why Skeeter is having a hard time finding enough maids to put fear aside and help her out with her righteous endeavor.

Overall ****½ (4.5/5)

A really good and very well done film,I was pretty skeptical that this was going to be “Oh another chick flick” that my wife was dragging me to and also better yet a movie about slavery and blacks being done wrong and just something that would get me angry or that it was a movie made just for black people in mind but it honestly wasn’t any of that,it really was not what I was expecting at all. Every actor in this film is amazing and does phenomenal jobs,there are a lot of laughs in the film but also there’s a lot of seriousness to it and it tells a unique story. If your skeptical don’t be as this film was one of the best I’ve seen so far this year and its a great date film.

Language/Content **~~~ (2/5)

There is some swearing present with a few GD’s being uttered mixed along with a few other obscenities along with the “N” word being used a few times but other than those few times this is a fairly tame film.

The gameplay is third and first-person, starting out with a varaity of blaster type weapons, and gaining Kyle’s lightsaber after he comes back to the Jedi Accademy. The controls are fairly tight as far as the combat goes, though it is nothing super special as a pure shooter. The lightsaber conbat is pretty good, though not extremely deep. I bought the game though Steam, and it did not come with a manual, so I had a hard time figuring out how to perform different moves using the lightsaber. There is a bit of depth to it, but it isn’t extremely deep, so you can get though pretty much the entire game by just button-mashing, even against the lightsaber wielding Reborn Jedi. The level design is interesting at times, but it can be hard to figure out exactly where you need to go, or what you need to do. I ended up playing though a large portion of the game using a walkthough, because of these problems. One other gripe I have is that Kyle’s movement is a little loose, making some of the platforming in the game tricky.

To put it bluntly, the graphics in this game are old. The game came out in 2002, and they definitely have not held up super well. This also causes some problems, because buttons or switches don’t stand out very well, and you can’t always tell what you can or can’t interact with. But you are likely not playing this game for the graphics, so they really are not a super big deal most of the time.

Overall, this game is a decent play if you are a Star Wars fan. The story is pretty good, the combat can be really fun at times. If you can find it, it is definitely worth checking out.

***~~ (3/5)Overall
Lightsaber conbat is decent, good story, some really neat levels.

½~~~~ (0.5/5)Graphics
Don’t hold up well.

~~~~~ (0/5)Objectionable Content
I did not notice anything as far as Objectionable content in the game.

Im writing this up to provide a quick source of info and a overview of the league this year to give you all a heads up so here goes.

Send me antdog or fireproof xbl messages (or tweet me and ant) letting us know your gamertag and that you are serious and want in,and in about a week or so we will take all the names we’ve collected so far and randomize them all then pull names to determine your draft order for a team,you will be notified of which spot you have and your team shortly after. After we’ve had our initial draft which will take place at least a week before the NFL season starts so you can know who your working with and practice etc any newcomers can take the remaining teams on a first come first served basis.

We will need all participants to rank the teams they’d like in exact order I’d say up to the first 15-20 (if that becomes an issue ill mssg you all and ask for more teams) that way if your name gets pulled for 8th we’d then go down your list of your first picks available. So we ask for those to be sent in xbl mssgs so we can easily document.

This is a XBOX 360 league and everyone’s welcome but beware there will be some heavy hitters present.

No entry fees or anything like that but we will be giving away prizes to the winner (I’ll forfeit mine as host aren’t eligible) and to the next couple runner ups (if there are any ties etc with runner ups the winner will be chosen based on their records,if records are the same then we will looks at points scored etc).

Prizes will include things like a new transforming DPad 360 controller, MS xbl marketplace point cards, some Itunes cards and games.

While this league is for fun and bragging rights there are FREE prizes involved so to keep the league in order there will be a few rules in place.

They are as follows

I will sim the league forward EVERY TUESDAY NO MATTER WHAT SO PLAY YOUR GAMES. Im not giving a definitive time for the sim either,could be at midnight or at 530 am before I got work so just know that whether you’ve played or not its getting done.

Player trades etc will be allowed and follow the NFL rules/deadlines but only between user controlled teams & under no circumstances will there be any trading with the CPU teams & your only allowed to visit the free agent pool only if you have a player injured for more than 5weeks and the player you sign must be from the same position.

If your opponent hasn’t contacted you,or returned your messages by Saturday contact me, antdog or fireproof by sending us an xbl mssg or tweeting at me or ant asap. I/we will then try to contact the person and if no response they will be booted on Sunday(Monday at the latest) for you to play the cpu of the team.

If you are caught cheating or knowingly using any kind of gltich (or not playing your own games..lol inside joke ) or just being any kind of nuisance (which should happen within our or other friends organizations as were all respectful mature adults ) then you will be booted from the league.

No restarts whatsoever,if your losing against the cpu or a user take it like a man,we know sometimes unforeseen circumstances happen (power outages,kids,game freeze ups,emergencies etc) and that’s ok but keep in mind that the whole league can see how many times you’ve restarted a game so if we constantly start seeing 3 restarts are a patten for you then you get the Italy which is a big ole BOOT.

Due to prizes being offered it wouldn’t be fair allowing people to enter too late into the year so we will accept new team owners up until week 4 and no more after. Also if by chance you get booted due to non communication,,behavior etc or request to be removed on your own request it may be possible to return the following week but any further issues will be reviewed by the committee to determine if your allowed to proceed. This is done so that the proper dedicated individuals & not  slackers are rewarded should they qualify for prize/s.

Note that we are open to suggestions and anything to make this the best league ever so if you have an idea get at one of us pronto, and be sure to stay tuned to our Twitter Feed and facebook group pages and also this website of course as there may be changes/update to the rules.

Other than that lets all have fun and talk trash whilst playing gridiron chess matches and thanks for taking the time to stop by and as always GOD Bless.

[

I know that sounds bad, not finishing a game because of achievements but that’s the true.  Beating one of these levels would take two hours and for that two hours of jumping and fighting enemies would net you 10 achievement points.  After spending about five hours with the game I didn’t even have 150 achievement points and still had another 10 hours with the game.

I have gotten to the point that I love being rewarded with that little blink sound followed by a graphic showing me that I am special and have unlocked some achievement.  Not sure when achievements became such an important part of gaming for me even if I’m not achievement hunting but it has.  That’s why a game that I think is really well done like Alice the Madness Returns goes back to Gamefly but a game like Transformers the Dark of the Moon gets my playtime.  I know it’s sad that’s why I am telling you it’s not you Alice, it’s me.

The project has been in development for a long long time with Apes (not monkeys, there is a difference) being the test subjects and after one too many failures the project is shut down with only a baby chimpanzee who Rodman takes home and raises as his own and names Caesar being the only test subject left. It doesn’t take long for Caesar to demonstrate signs of extreme intelligence and as years go by and he grows older he begins to understand what he truly is and after a series of events (some unfortunate) “The Cure” ends up in the wrong hands and that is where the monkeying around stops as there is now a huge quantity of highly intelligent apes running rampant through the streets of San Fran.

Overall ****½ (4.5/5)

An excellent and thoroughly enjoyable film all throughout and a brilliant remake, this is most definitely one of the better movies to release this year that not only entertains with its great acting and plot along with story development the movie will also make you think on the whole “Man trying to be God” and the problems it could cause. This movie also had some great special effects as well because as the viewer you know that the apes are all or mostly CGI or in Caesars case a man in a jumpsuit but yet none of it really stands out nor takes you out of the amazing experience so go see this film now.

Language/Content *½~~~ (1.5/5)

There are literally only a few swear words are present with about 2/3 GD’s and the only sexual content is..well there is none other than you seeing a couple kissing and waking up in bed. I think this movie is suitable for most minus younger children as some of the sequence later in the film may be a little too much for them.

There are six different types of ships, with each having specific abilities and objectives. For example, the when playing with the Mono ship, you fly along the highway and try to hit colored blocks and get at least a group of three (this is the same for every ship) and avoid grey blocks, and it has the ability to widen so you can capture blocks on either side, and it also has the ability to destroy any grey blocks you may have accidentally picked up. With every other ship besides the Mono, there are several different color blocks and no gray ones, with each color having a specific value, so getting a bunch of a higher value gives you more than a lower one. But if you get more than seven blocks in one of the three rows it will cause your ship to crash, and it will take a few second for it to respawn, so it is important to pay attention and make to to make matches.

The coolest thing about this game is that it uses your own music to make the levels. It can use most formats of music, even most of the newer music off iTunes (I’ve tried to use some music I had bought off there a few years ago, and it wouldn’t work, but more recent music does). once you select the song it analyses it and creates the roadway and blocks (it doesn’t take to long, usually around ten seconds). Before you start you can see a graph showing the elevation of the road as it goes along, during parts of the song that are slower the road will be going uphill, when it speeds up it will be going downhill, and it also may have bumps if there is a lot of bass beat to the song.

The graphics are are very bright and flashy, though not extremely high def. The game does warn you about the flashing and such when you start it up, as it could possibly cause seizures in some people, but personally I’ve never had a problem with it, and it doesn’t seem as extreme as other games I have played. You are able to choose how the roadway and background will look, for example, you can have a darker background, or a lighter one, to name a couple of choices.

This game doesn’t have the ability to hold my attention for very long, so if I had a couple of hours to game I would go and play just this. However, it is a great pallet cleanser. I often will play a song or two over lunch to help relax say if I have had a tough morning of classes. It is a blast in short burst, and it’s really awesome to play with your own music. It’s easy to play, but it still gives you a real challenge if you want that. I would say it is a good value at $10, and definitely worth picking up if you can get it if it goes on sale.

Overall***½~ (3.5/5)
Fun game especially if you have a good size music library.
Graphics**½~~ (2.5/5)
Not the most amazing, but looks nice.
Content~~~~~ (0/5)
Haven’t seen any objectionable content, about the only could be explicit music if you used some in the game.

Nintendo 3DS Ambassador Program

To our loyal customers, we would like to offer you 20 downloadable games from the Nintendo eShop at no charge. These free games are available to Nintendo 3DS owners who connect* to the Nintendo eShop at least once before 11:59 p.m. Eastern/8:59 p.m. Pacific time on Aug. 11, 2011. You will be registered as a 3DS Ambassador.

Starting Sept. 1, Ambassadors will be able to download 10 NES Virtual Console games at no charge and before they are available to the public. These games, including Super Mario Bros, Donkey Kong Jr., Balloon Fight, Ice Climber, and The Legend of Zelda, are slated to become paid downloadable games. but Ambassadors get them early for free. Later in the year, once the paid versions of the games are available in the Nintendo eShop, Ambassadors can download any of the remaining games or any of the updated versions at no cost.

By the end of 2011, Nintendo will provide Ambassadors with 10 Game Boy Advance Virtual Console games like Yoshi’s Island, Super Mario Advance 3, Mario Kart Super Circuit, Metroid Fusion, WarioWare, Inc: Mega Microgame$ and Mario vs. Donkey Kong. These games will be available exclusively to Ambassadors, and Nintendo has no plans to make these 10 games available to the general public on the Nintendo 3DS in the future.

More details about this program will be announced in the future.

*Wireless broadband connection required to access the Nintendo eShop.

Nintendo

 

Sounds like a pretty good deal. Here’s a link to the Wal-Mart story

Dez asked asked me last week if the combat was similar to Batman Arkham Asylum because of the one button for everything and not only is that the same but most of the game is similar. This borrows so much from Batman and why wouldn’t they, that was a great game. The combat is very simular to Batman AA with the one button to do kicks and punches. If you haven’t played AA you may think that sounds dumbed down but it works very nicely. Also when you push up on the d-pad Captain America enters a special vision mode. In this mode you can see where you can jump, collectables glow even more, and enemies glow, very much like you guessed it AA. Unlike AA you can’t stay in this mode, it only last several seconds. Like Batman and his batarang Captain America can throw his shield and target more than one enemy at a time. This is an upgrade that you get as you go along. I got up to four people I could target in one throw.

Like many other games you get the same enemies over and over however in this game it makes sense. For the most part the game is enjoyable but there are some boss battles that get annoying. Not because they are cheap or impossible but because you have to wait on the boss to do something. Sometimes they just run around and it takes forever to beat them. This was really only the case on one or two boss battles.

If you like collectables then you will love this game. It is filled with different things to collect and do in the game. Almost so much that at points it seems over the top. Most rooms will have at least one collectable, a fair amount have three. If you take your time you can rack up some achievements finding all of them.

Aside from the campaign which is fun there are challenge rooms, yes you guessed it like AA, in which you have different goals to reach in a certain amount of time. These challenge rooms can be addicting trying to get the gold in each of them and give the game replay value.

Overall ***½~ (3.5/5)

If I judged this game off of other movie tie in games, it could be game of the year. As a game overall it has fun gameplay, the graphic are good but not great and it has about five to six hours of gameplay through the campaign. I might would buy it at a bargain price but it’s defiantly worth a rent.

Achievements ****~ (4/5)

In one play through and playing one challenge room I was able to get 550 achievement points. If you like looking for collectables you will get a bunch more. Also don’t skip the credits as there is a 13 point achievement for watching them.

Questionable Content ~~~~~ (0/5)

I don’t remember anything in this game that would keep me from letting my kids play it.

While trying to get away Clumsy runs the wrong way and several smurfs go after him to stop him. Due to a blue moon a portal has opened from there to New York City and several smurfs, Gargamel, and Azreal travel through the portal.

From here the smurfs are trying to get back and aviod Gargamel. Part of the story also centers around Clumsy and how he feels like he doesn’t fit in and has caused this mess.

Overall *~~~~ (1/5)

The story was just so so. I really don’t expect much out of these movies except a couple of laughs and it did give those. There are several parts where it appears they didn’t do a good job of lining up the actors to where the smurfs where going to be inserted later. Most of the interactions between the smurfs and people looked awkward. Also for me Jonathan Winters as Papa Smurf was a bad choice. He drove me crazy the whole movie. I would rent this movie or watch it when it comes on TV but I wouldn’t suggest going to the theater to watch it.

Content *~~~~ (1/5)

There were a couple of small comments that were borderline inappropriate but nothing to be worried about.

The movie starts out with Steve Rodgers trying his best to get into the army, even though Steve has a big heart, his size (or lack of it) causes him a problem. He has made several attempts but has been turned down on every try. Not willing to give up he tries yet again and this time catches the eye of a scientist, Dr. Abraham Erskine, who is working on an experiment to create a super solider. Erskine offers Rodgers a chance to join the army if he is willing to be that experiment, soon after Captain America is born.

Overall ****½ (4.5/5)

Even if you are not a comic book fan you should still like this movie. There’s plenty of action and the story is good. It was the first movie in awhile that I almost went back to the theater to see it again.

Content *~~~~ (1/5)

There were a couple of curse words in the movie but for the most part it was clean. Other than those few words the movie was clean.

Its up to them to locate the alien base somewhere out in the wild west and rescue all of their abducted friends and family,unlikely alliances will have to be formed in order to bring peace back to the land and restore order by defeating this galactic threat.

Overall ***½~ (3.5/5)

While I didn’t feel it was as good the trailers and hype made it up to be it was still a good movie and an obviously different take on the whole invading aliens genre. The thing that I noticed was that I was bored and a little bit restless throughout the film until the last 30 minutes when things get revealed and plots get twisted is where things finally started to ramp up. But as I stated before the movies still pretty decent with great acting and some cool special effects (I liked the way the aliens looked etc) I think most would enjoy this film.

Language/Content **½~~ (2.5/5)

There is some language with a few GD’s included and the violence depicted isn’t horribly graphic but you will see a lot of killing. There was actually a Christian character in the film who actually was a good person and voice of reason in a Godly way but in the end I wouldn’t suggest this film for young children.

Overall **½~~ (2.5/5)

Typical Kevin James so you will no doubt have some laughs,overall decent film but nothing worth rushing out to see ASAP in theaters.The animals voice acting was kinda wonky and pretty annoying in most cases.The films very predictable as you can read whats gonna happen within the first half hour or less into it but its a good date or family film though as its all very clean.

Language/Content ½~~~~ (0.5/5)

No problems with content at all, there are a couple uses of the word hell and the monkey character making a few references about throwing poop but other than that its all clean.

This film has the Optimus prime led Autobots racing to the moon to see what they can salvage of an Autobot ship that crashed on the dark side of the moon (get it) years ago before the Decepticons can do the same. It seems that the humans weren’t totally honest with Optimus and co because they knew all along of the discovery and in fact that was the main reason for us landing on the moon way back in the 60′s (films has a cameo from Buzz Aldrin himself) to have our astronauts investigate and salvage the wreck.

And of course it all gets crazy from there as the Decepticons soon spring from exile and start running wild with a plan so diabolical that it puts the whole human race in jeopardy leaving it to the Autobots to help the humans protect the planet they’ve shared with them for the past few years but can they do it?

Acting is good (with few stealing the show more than others) the special effects and action are truly phenomenal as standard with this series and mix in some comedic elements along with a great and well told story and boom! we have our movie of the summer.

Not only does this film erase the sequels bad taste but it just re emphasizes why the franchise is so good in the first place. I for one liked Transformers 2 from a 30 yr old man nerd/geek nostalgic and its great action sequences standpoint but what many say is true that the story and the telling of it sucked but that’s not the case here as its not only good but its unfolded perfectly over its 2.5hr run time.

This film truly has some of the most epically awesome action sequences that I’ve ever seen and I doubt that I’ll see anything to rival it anytime soon…maybe a transformers 4 in a few yrs?? this is a film that really grabs your attention and holds onto it.

I had my first IMAX experience with this movie and boy was the ticket price worth it because not only does it enhances the gorgeous special effects but it was in 3D also. I implore anyone who’s seeing this if its available to see it in this format as this movie just shines throughout with its brilliant use of IMAX 3D but if not then the regular viewing is just fine as I saw it my second time that way and it all still looks great.

Overall ***** (5/5)

Best movie of the franchise so far if you ask me and a definite must see not just for fans but for anyone who loves great films, I know the summer blockbuster season isn’t over yet but I think I’ve found my favorite one of the bunch and possibly of the year. From the production,story, special effects and action this film has it all and I loved it.

Language/Content ***~~ (3/5)

Not a ton of swearing but it is present with no GD’s at all, also an early scene has Sam’s new love interest Carly in nothing but underwear (camera focusing on that) and one of his shirts before straddling him (no sex ever takes place on screen in the film) there are also some sexual talk/jokes that are present. And of course there is a lot of carnage and violence with the waring Autobots/Decepticons so you will see sweet robotic death that is on par with previous films. 

The developers at High Moon Studios (Of War For Cybertron fame) were at the helm of this game and considering what they had accomplished with that game you could rest assured that Optimus and co would be handled well and they were for the most part but remember this is a movie game so with time constraints,budgets etc the final product is a short mediocre 5hr romp that is worth at least a rental for all fans.

Controls are somewhat on par with WFC and so the game handles well and the game looks pretty decent although not groundbreaking most of the games settings are just generic jungle,factory and warehouse settings and while nothing stands out the Autobots and Decepticons look just as they should. Voice acting is what you’d expect from a game like this but with a few good points like the fact that some of the original voice actors played their respective roles in the game namely Optimus Prime.

You can still transform at will but in this game you have and extra mode called stealth and in it your vehicle form hovers and is a floating mass of steel destruction in this form you’ll be able to withstand more damage while using some high quality firepower almost like a cakewalk in some instances.

The games broken up into seven chapters/levels in which you’ll play on both The Autobots and The Decepticon factions sort of giving the player a taste of the story form both ends.You’ll play as Bumble Bee,Iron Hide,Mirage and Optimus and for the Decepticons its Soundwave/Razor Beak, Starscream and of course Megatron.

Multi-player is present as well but don’t expect WFC levels of quality as there is a lot less to offer in this game, you have your basic modes like death-match and team death-match and very few others. Its still fun though but with the absence of escalation mode and many other of WFC’s options I doubt the fun will last near as long as High Moons Previous game.

Overall **½~~ (2.5/5)

For a movie tie-in this game is a blast but a very very short one at 5hrs or less but its worth at least a rental as it does offer some fun even after completing the main quest with it’s online component. You take this game for what its worth and remember what this studio did with WFC and its safe to say that this franchise’s video game rights are in great hands.

Language/Content ½~~~~ (0.5/5)

Nothing at all really but just the violence of metal clashing and explosions.

Achievements/Trophies ****~ (4/5)

One play through on easy/normal difficulty will net about %50 at least of the games offerings (a few need to be obtained on hard) and even more if you make an effort to get them as you traverse through the game, and there are a couple of easy online rewards also which is not bad for a game that can be beaten in one sitting. 

From Gameloft

Asphalt 6: Adrenaline
N.O.V.A 2: Near Orbit Vanguard Alliance
Dungeon Hunter 2
Sacred Odyssey: Rise of Ayden
Starfront: Collision
Shrek Kart

From EA for iPhone/iPod

Battlefield: Bad Company™ 2
Dead Space™
Dragon’s Lair II
FIFA 11 by EA SPORTS™
Fight Night Champion by EA SPORTS™
Madden NFL 11 by EA SPORTS™
NBA JAM by EA SPORTS™
NCAA® Football by EA SPORTS™
Need for Speed™ Hot Pursuit
Need for Speed™ Shift
Need for Speed™ Undercover
RISK
SCRABBLE
TETRIS®
Tiger Woods PGA TOUR® 12
The Sims™ 3
The Sims™ 3 Ambitions
The Sims™ 3 World Adventures
TRANSFORMERS:™ DARK OF THE MOON

EA for iPad

Battlefield: Bad Company ™ 2
BATTLESHIP
Command & Conquer™ Red Alert™
CLUE: Secrets & Spies
Coconut Dodge
Dead Space™
Draw Jump
The GAME OF LIFE™
Madden NFL 11 by EA SPORTS™
Max and the Magic Marker
Mirror’s Edge™
MONOPOLY™
NBA JAM by EA SPORTS™
Need for Speed™ Hot Pursuit
Need for Speed™ Shift
PICTUREKA!
Reckless Racing
RISK
SCRABBLE
SimCity™ Deluxe
SNOOD
TETRIS®
Tiger Woods PGA TOUR® 12
TRANSFORMERS:™ DARK OF THE MOON
Ultimate Mortal Kombat™ 3
YAHTZEE™ Adventures

(Sorry but after starting to put the link in for all of these it would take forever.)

iTunes Store

McQueen accepts the challenge to race in a three race circuit set up by former oil baron Miles Axlerod. Miles has given up the oil business and has made a new alternative fuel called Allinall. These races are to show how well Allinall works.

After Sally talks him into it, McQueen agrees to take Mater with him and that’s were the fun starts. Mater and McQueen have a disagreement and Mater decides to go back home but before he is able to he is mistaken for an undercover agent. He then finds himself working with British spies Finn McMissile and Holly Shitwell.

That’s pretty much the plot, this movie is way different from the first Cars or pretty much anything else Pixar has done. At first I wanted to compare it to a James Bond but I think a James Bond meets Inspector Gadget would be the best way to describe it.

The funny thing about this movie is the bad guys are lemons, not the fruit but cars that were never any good. So you end up with a Gremlin, Acer, and such as the bad guys. In one of their meetings there is several center displays of lemons.

Overall ***½~ (3.5/5)
Overall the story to this movie wasn’t as good as other Pixar movies but it was still really enjoyable.

Questionable Content ~~~~~ (0/5)

The word hell is used a couple of times but other than that nothing to worry about.

My closest Best Buy is about 30 minutes away but this deal is so good it’s worth the drive. Here’s a list of the games you can buy for the deal.

NCAA 2012
Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword
Madden 2012
Resistance 3
Gears of War 3
FIFA Soccer 2012
Forza 4
Just Dance 3
Batman Arkham City
Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception
Battlefield 3
Elder Scrolls Skyrim
Assassin’s Creed: Revelations
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3
Rage

Best Buy

The game is just your basic third person shooter complete with the franchise’s unique destroy anything GeoMod technology that has come to be loved, meaning that one can literally tear a buildings foundation down and watch it crumble and players can literally blow a hole into a wall and walk through if they wanted to. The game plays and controls pretty good although I feel that in this day and age a cover system is mandatory which this game excludes which is too bad as a lot of times your forced to “old school” cover by just hanging behind a wall or structure while you gain your composure or regenerating health back. Game play is just basically following a way point to your current objective while you run and gun, flip a switch fight some more monsters with some mixed in story telling cut- scenes then rinse and repeat until you’ve completed the current chapter.

The monotony of it all is broken up by various different mech driving and a on rail ride and even a flying level which are all moderately fun as well just as the game as a whole its nothing that hasn’t been done before and you’ve seen it all. The story is told through various different cut-scenes and the voice work was well done in the game,and the graphics are good but not groundbreaking.

As I said before the thing this game nails the most is the total destruction and to aid in that are some awesome weapons like the magnet gun in which the first fire shoots magnet A onto whatever you choose and the second shot fires magnet B onto whatever else you choose and what ensues is greatness as you can literally rip a building apart with this gun and also have some fun by tethering enemies to be slingshot-ed across the map or even into each other. Another I liked was a type of plasma cannon you get that when charged its the weapon of choice to destroy structures as it slices through buildings cutting them down like a blow torch put to a stick of butter, you’ll also have access to other toys like your rifles,pistols and some other various grenade and rocket launchers to help you out on your mission.

Mason is also equipped with whats called a nano-forge which is a wrist mounted weapon of power in which you’ll upgrade throughout the game by collecting scrap metal and purchasing them, you’ll have the options of collecting various different health and offensive/defensive upgrades to have at your disposal like shields/shock waves and ammo capacity just to name a few. The nano forge also has a repair ability that you’ll use a lot of so if you see a destroyed set of stairs and you want to get to point B from A then just hold the LB(or ps3 equivalent) and watch the nano forge do its magic repairing what was just broken. But you must remember to manage your use of this weapon as all except the repairing function take time to recharge (you can also upgrade speed) so be wise about it.

Beyond the single player campaign that will take you about 12hrs to complete the game has two other modes first we have infestation which is the games take on horde mode for up to for players to play over xbl/psn (honestly not sure if couch co op is allowed) you have a set amount of lives and you also have the ability to revive each other as you fight off waves of aliens. Before each new wave your allowed to pick different nano forge abilities and weapons (note you can still continue to buy upgrades etc after completing the main campaign and also buy cheats etc for a new or advanced play through) but Its really nothing special at all and I’m sure you’ll grow tired of it fast and other than that I didn’t get anything out of this mode. The second included game type is made for one player only and its called ruin which is nothing but a pure one man destruction race against the clock. In ruin you pick a map (enemies removed) and then you have a set amount of damage to do and then the clock starts and the race is on to see how much destruction you can make happen while its constantly tallied.

Overall ***~~ (3/5)

The game’s story is packed with action,betrayal and even some romance but overall it isn’t at all memorable and once you complete the game I’m sure it’ll be forgotten,a lot of times during the game I felt it was being dragged on and on with too many occasions seeming to throw too many enemies at you just for the sake of it as I went through about %30 of the game on normal difficulty then changed to easy (after seeing the achievements only rewarded you for completion on the hard difficulties) and there were still times where I was utterly annoyed. If you liked red faction guerrilla then you know what to expect from armageddon, while this game maybe be crippled from taking place totally under ground I actually enjoyed this while I didn’t the last game which is weird as that game is said to be the better. The two added modes add some fun but this game wont have legs to last, a good game but only worth a rental or a really cheap buy.

Language/Content **~~~ (2/5)

Swearing is present but its not extreme and other than the violence and creepy looking bug aliens this game is pretty tame in this aspect.

Achievements/Trophies **½~~ (2.5/5)

You’ll have to complete the game on harder difficulties to get them all but just for a normal or easy difficulty play through you can expect to receive anywhere from %40-50 of the rewards.

Even though I’d much rather had seen Ryan Reynolds portray deadpool in films he’s not a bad fit for the lantern as I do think hes a decent actor who can play many types of roles but even he cant save this film with its horrible progression and character development. As I watched I couldn’t help but to feel the film felt very disjointed and poorly edited and unorganized for example there were a lot of times where I felt scenes would transitions into others suddenly and without proper explanations or lead ins/build up it all felt very crammed and rushed.

I actually felt that the other supporting lanterns were casted well with Kilowog (voiced by Michael Clarke Duncan) Sinestro (Mark Strong) Tomar-Re (voiced by Geoffrey Rush) but all except Sinestro were made with special effects (which were very well done) which is understandable but these characters significance seemed again rushed in the film as none of them all actually had any real significant screen time. All of the other supporting characters were a also forgettable as many characters where..yup you guessed it rushed, just thrown into the mix for heck of it without being fully explained or anything.

Overall **~~~ (2/5)

Organized confusion and not a very good film at all if you ask me,maybe if you have no idea of who The Green Lantern is and you see the movie you’ll will like it but I don’t see how many hardcore or anyone who somewhat knows of the character will enjoy this.While I do think the franchise can be salvaged in future films as it does has some good points it just has too much going on in it and isn’t fully fleshed out as the movie zips around and doesn’t feel complete at all.

Language/Content **~~~ (2/5)

Film has some swearing in it but not a lot and there are a few GD’s present and besides the obvious violence there are some scenes where Parallax feeds off fear and sucks the souls out of some people.

Street Fighter X Tekken was shown and it looks stunning. The Tekken characters were given extra moves since those fighters are more close range fighters. The speed and style is closer to a Street Fighter game than a traditional versus game from Capcom which lets players be a bit more strategic.

Dark Souls the spiritual successor to Demon Souls was shown at E3. Dark Souls is a third person fantasy game that looks difficult, bloody, and brutal. Dark Souls will hit store shelves in October for the PS3 and Xbox 360.

Vehicular combat is back with Twisted Metal for the Playstation 3. Fans of the series will be happy to know the game looks just as crazy and freaky as ever. Boss battles are said to be huge and involved. The story in the game is said to be the best in any Twisted Metal game. In this story gamers will learn the history of the competition, the origin of Sweet Tooth, who really learns the contest, etc. Some modes in the game will be Nuke (capture the flag), death match, team death match, and last man standing. Twisted Metal is due out October 4.

Ninja Gaiden 3 looks as sick, gory, and difficult as ever. The action looked just as fast as other games in the franchise and the developers claim that the camera is better this time which is a more than welcome addition. There also seemed to be a lot of quick time events in the demo shown. There will be co-op and versus modes in the game. Ninja Gaiden 3 will be out in early 2012.

The mystery that was Prey 2 was on display. This Prey seems to be very different from the original. In the sequel you play as a bounty hunter. Prey 2 will be an open world adventure according to the developers. The game looks to be a visual powerhouse just as the first Prey was when it released. Parkour style moves are also present in the game. There are multiple ways to beat missions which should add to the replay factor. There will be over 30 weapons to choose from in the game.

Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine was demoed at E3. Space Marine is a third person shooter with a surprising amount of focus on melee as well. The game looks like it was built to take on games like Gears of War with the visual style and animations of the characters. Players can perform brutal looking executions to gain health so they won’t run and hide until they heal like in so many game nowadays. You can play Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine this September.

Final Fantasy XIII-2 will take play right where XIII left off. In the sequel you will play as Lightning’s sister Serah and a new character Noel. The pacing of the game is said to still be intact while the developers have added new layers of strategy to the gameplay. Once you beat monsters they can join your team now.

Hawken, the little indie game that could, was at E3. Hawken is a multiplayer mech combat game. There are multiple weapons and perks gamers can acquire to change up the strategy. The game is somewhere in between sim and arcade and it seems to have found a happy medium. You have to manage your fuel to do pretty much everything in the game, but it’s still feels fast and furious.

• COD: I think if they do a Call of Duty that is the same core gameplay as with the other two systems it would be cool if they made it so you could see the map on the controller’s screen, so you could always have it right there.  Another cool way I think it could be implemented would be if you get a controllable killstreak reward, say one of the controlled missiles, it would be neat if when you use it you would see it on the controller’s screen, instead of it popping up on the main screen.  The same would be cool for others like chopper gunner.
• RPG’s: An obvious use, and one that I believe I saw in the Zelda gameplay is to use the controller’s screen to display your inventory, so it will be up all the time.  Or perhaps allow you to switch to show the map on the controller screen if you wanted so you would always have the map up.
• Hacking, etc: Another really cool use for it would be for hacking or similar tasks in game.  For example, in Batman, you would hack security terminals to open doors and such, using Batman’s device to find the correct frequency to overload the device.  It would be really neat to do this on the controller’s screen, and maybe make it a little bit more in-depth.  Or say if Mass Effect 2 ever came to the WiiU, the hacking on there could be done on the controller’s screen.  Basically any kind of mini-game style gameplay within a game could work really well in it.
• Racing games: How about using the screen as a rear-view-mirror?
• Madden. It would be awesome to use the controller’s screen to choose your play and call audibles when playing with someone in the same room.  This could also work well for playing a baseball game (I saw a clip of a Wii Sports baseball game doing this) where you can choose your pitch location and such on the controller’s screen.
• Strategy games: The controller’s screen would also work well for real-time-strategy, allowing you to have the different actions and such as icons on the touchscreen, giving you a larger number of buttons than a regular controller.

There are many possibilities that could be done with this new system and controller, and I can’t wait to see the innovations that they can bring in games.  The one thing I am a little worried about is the cost:  Nintendo hasn’t said anything so far about what the price point will be for the WiiU.  I am hopping that it will launch at under $400,  but I also worry that the controllers will cost a fortune themselves.  I hope that they won’t cost any more than extra controllers cost for the PS3 or 360, but I could see them costing quite a bit with all the tech that is in them.  Other than worry about the price, I am really looking forward to seeing more about the WiiU, and hopefully if it launches in the neighborhood of $300-$350,  my siblings and I will be able to pick one up.  This appears to be the console that could win back the hardcore gamer to Nintendo, and I can’t wait to see more on what it can do.

Overall ***~~ (3/5)

Movie was enjoyable but I don’t think it was that great and I could’ve waited till this came to DVD. It does have a lot of good qualities though with a great cast of characters who were all portrayed in a way that the audiences feel for them and a pretty good story. JJ Abrams was at the helm of this film so I’m sure most of his fans will like it, the movie definitely has some Speilberg influences in it with the way the film looked and just its atmosphere (I can kind of compare it to ET). Explosions Explosions Explosions is what this films all about as there were a ton of them so its good that the special effects were well done and I would suggest that to get the full effect of the film you see it in theaters as there are a lot of quick shock/scare moments and of course more explosions that benefit from the sound system because this is one loud booming movie. There was this build up  all during the film as to what the creature would look like when we finally saw it and It’s my opinion that when the big reveal finally does happen that its not that impressive at all, the film isn’t meant to be a horror movie as its more of suspenseful supernatural thriller if that’s even a proper term.

Language/Content **½~~ (2.5/5)

There is a lot of language present but nothing I felt to be too offensive and I don’t think I even heard GD used even once and none of the violence that takes place is really too graphic at all. The films rated PG-13 and I honestly think its pushed to limit, this is not a movie for children by any means as they will most definitely be scared out of their pants from all the loud happenings and such (but during my viewing that didn’t seem to stop a few idiots from bringing a group of 4 or 5 children ages from about 2-7) so I’d say this is a teen/adult movie.

Uncharted 3 multiplayer was demoed. There will be different scenarios for gamers in multiplayer like trying to get on a cargo plane while fighting off other players, capturing treasures, and other cinematic events. The multiplayer looked fun, but we’ll have to wait until later this year to see if it’s the “go to game for multiplayer on the PS3″ as developer Naughty Dog says it is.

Dance Central 2 was talked about at E3. The game will have over 40 songs, not including all of the songs from Dance Central 1, which are all able to be imported into DC2 . The game will now feature multiplayer. The freestyle mode has been revamped. The sequel now touts voice control to choose songs, difficulties, modes, and use the break it down mode.

Ubisoft’s press conference started off with a new Rayman. The new rayman looks to be a co-op side scroller with more of a hand drawn style. All the comedy and platforming fun seemed present and accounted for.

FarCry 3 was announced. The game looks nice graphically and the NPCs seem to be full of character. The bad guys in the video of the game were well created in that they were ruthless, short tempered, and homicidal. The video also shows your character racing to free himself from drowning. Judging from the video, FarCry 3 will have a mixture of action and stealth gameplay.

Brothers in Arms Furious Four, a new IP from Gearbox looks a cross between Brothers in Arms and the film Inglorious Basterds. Furious Four also seemed like it will have bloody action with a bit of a humorous side.

Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Future Soldier looks simply amazing. The team/co-op gameplay (both stealth and shootouts) looked beautiful. Even the maps looked great with their satellite quality detail. The cover-to-cover gunfights are tense and very realistic.

Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Online, a free to play PC multiplayer title was announced as well. You can apply for the beta now.

Raving Rabbids: Alive and Kicking for the Kinect was debuted. This title actually looked interesting because aside from kicking and squashing rabbids, the game has other modes like “Fill the Shapes” which has you and up to three of your friends contorting your bodies to make the shape shown to you on screen. Raving Rabbids: Alive and Kicking due out November 8th, looked like it could be a sleeper hit among families with a Kinect.

Rocksmith was revealed. Ubisoft claims this game will teach gamers how to play a real guitar. Rocksmith should be available for purchase this October.

Assassin’s Creed Revelations was demoed at E3. Ezio, looking much older this time around, still seems to have some tricks up his sleeve. He can apparently see through and fight during the effects from his smoke bombs. The action seemed even more fluid and brutal this time.

At EA’s press conference Need for Speed: The Run was in display. In The Run, you race from San Francisco to New York. The game will take place in vehicles and on foot (which I believe, is a first for the series). The demo of the game showed a character running on rooftops, stealing a car, and evading the police via quick time events. The police will shoot at you, vehicles can explode, and there seem to be destructible environments.

SSX looked to feature all the insane tricks and big air that the fans of the series love. Early impressions were that the game would be grittier and more realistic, but the video displayed at EA’s press conference showed the game to be just as fun and almost as over-the-top as previous SSX games.

Fifa 12 will feature new tactical defending, precision dribbling for more conrol over the ball, and a “player impact engine”. The engine will add a deeper physics system to create more realistic and dynamic plays, action, and injuries.

Battlefield 3 was displayed. A video of the multiplayer was shown and it looked big, and crazy, and destructible, and gorgeous, and violent, and most importantly, it looked fun. A tank mission was shown as well and it looked fantastic. A multiplatform open beta will go live this September.

Gears of War 3 will have mechs! A demo of Marcus and crew fighting a giant leviathan was on display at E3. Gears looks to be more graphic and a little more destructible.

Modern Warfare 3 looks to be even smoother, prettier, and more cinematic than previous MW games (if that’s possible). Players will now fight in huge cities like New York which will change up how gamers play Call of Duty. A dual scope system was introduced (e.g. you can switch between an acog and red dot sight on the fly). MW3 will have a survival mode and the Spec Ops mode will return. Nine bang grenades will replace flash bang grenades. Predator missles are back, but they seem to be called Reapers now. A new grenade launcher called the XM25 was unveiled. The XM25 is a smart grenade launcher that judges when to explode the grenade for maximum damage.

Batman: Arkham City was shown. The ability to play as Catwoman was demonstrated at E3. Cat woman seems to be a bit quicker and more agile than Batman. In the demo Batman had to rescue Catwoman from Two Face. Arkham City looks to be much bigger (and more full of life) than Arkham Asylum. Batman’s gliding mechanic is redone as well. It seems like it is possible to finish the game without beating all the super villains. Doing all the side missions and beating all the super villains will make the game about 25 hours long. Batman: Arkham City comes out this October.

Prototype 2has a new main protagonist. Prototype 2 looks much better visually. The main character has new skills such as a type of sonar-like ability, something called tendrils power (which lets you use tendrils in gruesome physics based ways), weaponization (which lets you detach enemy mounted weapons off of things like a tank for example and use them yourself), and a black hole move. The web of intrigue, the claws, and blade from the first game are back.

Overstrike, the new intellectual property from Insomniac was debuted. Overstrike looks to be an over-the-top action/shooter/high tech game with some comedic elements. The game has four characters and seems perfect for four player co-op, it also had an interesting visual look that rested somewhere in between cartoon and realistic.

Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim was on display. The game looks absolutely beautiful running on the new creation engine. In the game you can dual wield any one-handed weapon, dual wield spells, and combine spells to create more powerful ones. Perks and powers are really how you define your character. You can be blessed by the stars via objects called “Guardian Stones”. The power/ability you are blessed with helps to make your character unique. You can only be blessed with one ability at a time (for example one power can make your warrior skills increase faster). Leveling up looked nice visually as the perk/level tree is represented as a constellation. There are over 150 dungeons in Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. Dragon battles are said to be random and unscripted, and when you defeat a dragon you absorb their souls which lets you unlock/learn/boost your “words of power”. Factions will return for fans of past games. Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim will be available this November.

Killing Floor is a Indie first person zombie game from Tripwire Interactive. At first glance it might appear to just be a generic zombie shooter along the lines of Left4Dead, but a closer look will reveal that this is a pretty deep and intricate game, and one of the best cooperative games I have ever played.

The game is set primarily in England. There isn’t really much for a story that I have seen, though there does appear to be a backstory if you read on the game’s Wiki page. The basic story is that a lab was doing experiments on cloning to try create clone soldiers, something went wrong, and they ended up with tons of zombies. The lack of a narative does not really matter a whole lot, as there doesn’t need to be much of a reason to be blowing up zombies who are trying to eat you.

The first thing that you will likely notice when you begin playing is that there is no crosshairs, much like hardcore mode in say COD. While it might feel strange to some, it never really felt odd to me, and it is extremely satisfying to headshot a zombie at a distance from the hip with no crosshairs. The controls are very tight, and feel responsive and smooth. The weapons all feel proportionally powerful, from the smaller 9mm pistols to the powerful grenade launchers and shotguns. The hit detection for the most part is spot on, if you miss a shot you usually cannot blame it on the game, as it will almost always be due to human error.

Graphically the game looks decent for being an indie type game, with some levels looking pretty nice. They are not mind blowing by any stretch of the imagination, but it has a very dark sort of art style which fits well.

While the game may look like a generic zombie shooter, once you get into it and learn how it works you will find a very deep and tactical game, especially when playing on harder difficulties. There are seven classes in the game: Field Medic, Support Specialist, Commando, Sharpshooter, Berserker, Firebug, and Demolitions, with each having its own specialties and roles withing the game. Each will get discounts on weapons that pertain to the class, and each has specific bonuses. For example, the Sharpshooter is the long range specialist, and gets a damage bonus on headshots, making this class the one to use to take out the bigger more dangerous threats while they are still far away from you. The Commando has the ability to see the health the zombies have left, and to see the cloaked stalkers that will be invisible to other players until close, but cannot deal out as much damage so it is not good to take on large targets, but he has increased ammo capacity so it is best used to take out the smaller targets that can be quickly taken out. Each of the classes has advantages and disadvantages like this, so while it is possable to use just about anything on the lower difficulties, it is important to work together with your teammates so each can play his role if you want to survive on the harder difficulties.

The game originally launched with five maps, and now has 19 different maps in the game, as well as custom maps that people have made. The game has been supported really well, and there have been special event’s that have been done for the game, such as the Twisted Christmas even last Christmas when a special Santa’s Evil Lair map was released and the game was updated so for a couple weeks over Christmas the specimens were different kinds of twisted Christmas characters, and an Aperture Science map was released in the weeks leading up Portal 2′s release.

For content the game is a zombie game, so there is blood and zombies being blown into pieces. I haven’t noticed any major language during the game, though I play with the volume turned way down because I am not big on scary games, though it is not super scary when the volume is turned way down. Overall, if you have friends to play with, this game is a really fun co-op experience. It is a bargain at $20, and I would highly recommend it, though I would recommend reading the Wiki page to help you figure out how to understand the details of playing, as I played for a long time before I really understood what I should do and what worked best for what.

Overall****½ (4.5/5)
Tight gameplay, nice levels, great co-op experience, a great game at a bargain price.

Graphics***~~ (3/5)
Decent, not the best, but they work pretty well with the art style.

Content**~~~ (2/5)
Blood, zombies are blow apart, not extremely graphic.

A new Smash Brothers game was announced for the 3DS and Wii U and it was suggested that both versions of the game might be able to interact with each other.

Lego City Stories is also being developed exclusively for Wii U and 3DS.

Other games being developed for Wii U are Batman Arkham City, Tekken, Darksiders 2, Assassin’s Creed, and Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Online, Dirt, Aliens: Colonial Marines, Metro Last Night, and Ninja Gaiden 3: Razor’s Edge (working title). Electronic Arts also seems to be working on a slew of titles for Wii U, but nothing was officially announced.

A new Virtual Console for the 3DS was announced. This Virtual Console will feature Gameboy, Gameboy Color, and other classic console games. 3D Classics Excitebike will be available for free for a limited time.

Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time 3D for the 3DS will be available next weekend. Also included in Ocarina of Time will be help videos, a mirrored Master Quest mode, and a boss challenge mode. A soundtrack to the game will be gifted to an unannounced number of people who are the first to register the game with Club Nintendo.

Legend of Zelda Links Awakening will be available for the Gameboy Color Virtual Console. Links Awakening should be downloadable now.

In September on the DSI, the four player Legend of Zelda Four Swords will be available as a free download.

The Legend of Zelda Skyward Sword for the Wii was talked about, and a special gold Wii remote was revealed and will be on store shelves at the same time as the game.

A video of Mario Kart was shown and some new gameplay features looked to be hang gliding, under water levels, and upgradable parts to your kart. Mario Kart for the 3DS is due out this holiday.

Star Fox was also discussed. In Star Fox you can either use buttons or tilt your 3DS to control your ship. Star Fox for the 3DS is slated for a September release.

Super Mario 3D for the 3DS was unveiled and it looked like it incorporated many aspect from previous Mario games into a new title.

Kid Icarus: Uprising was displayed and it seems to combine air and ground based combat with projectile and melee attacks. The game is also said to have 3-on-3 multiplayer gaming with augmented reality cards.

Luigi’s Mansion 2 was show off and it is said to feature several new mansions.

Others titles quickly shown were Resident Evil: The Mercenaries 3D, Mario and Sonic at the London 2012 Olympic Games, Ace Combat 3D, Tetris, Cave Story 3D, Resident Evil Revelations, Driver Renegade, Pac-Man and Galaga Dimensions, Tekken 3D, and Metal Gear Solid Snake Eater 3D.

Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception was shown off. The demo of Uncharted featured Nathan escaping a wrecking ship in cinematic fashion. A video of the game in 3D was also shown.

Resistance 3 was shown as well. The gameplay was full of everything you love in Resistance, big ugly monsters, futuristic weapons, and gore. It was also announced that on September 6 a Resistance 3 Sharpshooter bundle including Resistance 3, sharpshooter, move motion controller and navigation controller, and a Playstation Eye camera for $150.00.

God of War Origins Collection (which includes PSP titles, GoW: Chains of Olympus and Ghosts of Sparta) and Ico and Shadow of the Colossus Collection were announced and will be in HD and 3D, and will be in stores in September.

NBA 2K12 was unveiled using PS Move. The developers are touting NBA 2K12 as fun as accessible to almost anyone. No other new features were talked about. NBA 2K12 is due out October 4.

Medieval Move for the Move was demoed in 3D. The game is said to not have an inventory system for weapons. All weapons are selected and used by the motions you perform.

A trailer for Infamous 2 was viewable. The video showed off new powers and enemies for Cole. PS Move will also be integrated into Infamous 2.

A video for Starhawk, a third person shooter, was shown off. The game seems to feature shooting, driving, flying, and mechs. Starhawk will be available in 2012.

A new Sly Cooper subtitled Thieves in Time was revealed. The game looks to be cell shaded and has a 2012 release.

A new game was displayed called Dust, a shooter based on ground combat and planetary conquest. Dust will make use of the PS3, Move, PS Vita, and will be a part of the EVE Online Universe.

A video for BioShock Infinite was on display. It was also announced that Move will be compatible with Infinite. It was also announced that there will be a BioShock themed game on the Vita.

A Star Trek game video was debuted, and an PS Vita Star Trek game was talked about very briefly.

Uncharted: Golden Abyss for the Vita was demoed. The touch screen and six axis functionality were displayed. The buttons/analogs, touch screen, and six axis are said to be usable and interchangeable at anytime.

Other Playstation Vita games unveiled were Ruin, Mod Nation Racers, Wipeout 2043, Little Big Planet, and Street Fighter X Tekken.

Kinect Fun Labs was also announced and it will be a permanent fixture on the Xbox Kinect Dashboard. Kinect Fun Labs will let you scan yourself (your head and clothing) to create an avatar that will look more like you. 3D drawing was demoed through what MS calls finger tracking. It was mentioned that it will also be possible to scan in objects and use them in games.

Halo 4 was announced as part of a new trilogy which in a sense means Halo 4, 5, and 6 were announced at the same time. Halo 4 will be out holiday 2012.

Modern Warfare 3 was shown at the Microsoft press conference. It showed off a partial underwater level that tasked a character named Frost with blowing up a submarine and then racing to safety via a motorboat. The demo of MW3 was full of action, but didn’t really hint at story, multiplayer, or the rumored destructible environments.

Tomb Raider was also demoed at the MS conference. The new TR looks like it combines the puzzle gameplay of older Tomb Raider games with the action of newer titles such as Uncharted.

Mass Effect 3 is confirmed to be Kinect compatible. Players will be able to use Kinect to choose what Commander Shepard says and to give orders to squad mates. In the demo, Liara was with Shepard which would hint that she may join your crew once again. It looked like you could help a female Krogan repopulate her race (perhaps with Wrex or Grunt?). There was also a very quick showing of a new melee attack you can use.

Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Future Soldier was on display. The developers showed a video of how much the title will depend on teamwork, and they also showed how Future Soldier would work with Kinect. Ghost Recon will recognize gestures and voice. Gamers can use Kinect to modify their firearms and test them out in what Ubisoft is calling, Gunsmith. It’s not clear if you can actually play the entire game with Kinect.

Gears of War 3 was at E3 too (big surprise). As far as story goes, nothing new was really shown besides a huge new enemy and the fact that mechs are in the game. What little was shown looks like the Gears you all know and love.

Crytek is developing a new Kinect game called Ryse. In Ryse you will be a warrior fighting in Rome.

The original Halo is getting a shiny new make over in HD and it will be called Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary. It will be playable online in co-op and multiplayer. Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary is due for release on November 15.

Fortza Motorsport 4 was announced, and from the video shown, it’s looking even better than ever. Fortza Motorsport 4 will be out on October 11.

Fable: The Journey, a new Kinect game was announced at E3. The demo showed off a man using Kinect to ride a horse, use powers, and cast spells. The game looked to be on rails. Fable: The Journey is due out 2012.

Minecraft was announced as an Xbox exclusive title.

Disneyland Adventures for Kinect was debuted. Disneyland Adventures is touted as a faithful recreation of Disneyland. It looks like this will be a cross between Kinect Adventures and the Disneyland theme park. Disneyland Adventures will be available this holiday.

Kinect Star Wars was shown off. It looks to feature driving/racing and on rails Jedi action.

Sesame Street: Once Upon a Monster for Kinect was demoed. Favorite characters like Elmo and Cookie Monster were present in this family friendly title. Sesame Street: Once Upon a Monster is due out this fall.

Kinect Sports Season two was announced, it will feature baseball, skiing, golf, tennis, darts, and football.

Dance Central 2 was unveiled, and it will have a campaign mode, voice recognition features, and a redesigned break in down. All songs from the first Dance Central will be able to be played in Dance Central 2. There will also be simultaneous multiplayer dancing this time around.

First Class is exactly as it sounds because this film goes way back to the 1960′s to the beginning of it all with professor Charles “X”avier starting his school by gathering mutants from across the globe along with the help of friend eventually turned foe Eric “Magneto” Lehnsherr to form a team that would eventually battle with Sebastian Shaw who has his own tricks and mutants on his side and who ‘s trying to start a nuclear war between the US and Russia by playing on both sides of the line.

First Class is one heck of a reboot and it does it with a bang the other characters included in the film are Mystique,Beast,Riptide,Emma Frost,Banshee,Darwin,Havok,Azazel,Angel and non mutant CIA agent Moira Mac Taggert. Now with professor X and Magneto already in tow it would seem that this film is overrun with too many characters and cant possible flesh out enough story to include them all in any meaningful fashion  as was the case with some other films like X3 just to name one but I’m here to say that this film not only does a good job in story telling it also sets up each character and develops them all very well each and every one of them. No one is just thrown into the film for kicks (although there is an hilarious cameo or two) over the 2 hours of this film you’ll get to know all of the mutants and watch them develop and evolve into who they are today.

I loved the casting of the film and I thought everyone acted their respected roles very well (most notably magneto and professor) further submersing you into believable comic geekdom and while its not the most action packed of films whats there is quite entertaining and sure to leave movie goers satisfied.

Truthfully when I first started seeing trailers of this film late last year and early this year I thought it looked horrible and even with me being a huge comic/superhero fan I had doubts about it because I didn’t think it would be entertaining to see where the X-men first started way back in the 60′s and I felt it was a bad movie idea but boy was I wrong (I guess that’s why I’m not in the movie business huh) this movie not only hits a home run but it also washes out the bad taste left in many mouths from X3 and the Wolverine origins films.

Overall ****½ (4.5/5)

This is how you reboot a falling film franchise so all others need to take notes, great story telling and character development and added with great visuals and acting this film does it all very well and there truly isn’t much to complain about at all. A film that is sure to not only be enjoyed by all of us geeks/nerds and comic junkies etc but is easily approachable by someone who has no idea what a mutant is so my suggestion is to go see this “First Class” movie.

Language/Content **½~~ (2.5/5)

There are a few bits of minor language with GD being used a couple of times and as far as sexual content you will see a lot of skin on screen and there are few sexually provocative situations. As far as violence its very much present but nothing too graphic or unsettling and its pretty much on par with the other movies of the series.

Overall ****½ (4.5/5)

This was a really good movie as was the first iteration but this one is even better,full of a great blend of story,action and comedy to go along with great looking  animation and visuals Dreamworks has done it again. I think that the Kung Fu Panda series is/can be the next Shrek but even better and more consistent as that series sort of flamed out after the first few films. So can Po and The Furious Five keep up the goodness? well only time will tell as I’m sure Kung Fu Panda 3 is inevitable in the next 2/3 years so we can only sit back wait and hope but until then enjoy this film.

Language/Content ½~~~~ (0.5/5)

Just as the first film this is something the whole family will enjoy and while there is violence and some intense situations on screen none of it is too graphic although there’s no mistaking whats happening.

First, why are reviews important to us? The main reason that I see is because the majority of gamers cannot afford to buy every single $60 game that comes out, and they also do not have the time to play every one of those games. So they want to try and weed out the mediocre games so that they will be able to spend the time and money on games that they will enjoy. It is the same idea for movies as well. So they look to major sites that review these pieces of media, as well as smaller independent sites and word of mouth from friends, so they will know if it is worth it for them to check out a piece of media.

However, there are some major misconceptions that people have regarding these reviews, which have become extremely apparent lately. The first is that these reviews are like the end all be all for how the game is. Say a game that someone really likes, say SOCOM, gets a lower score from one place than from a bunch of others, the reaction is “oh, that guy is crazy to give such a great game a low score like that, what is he thinking, he must be just trying to get attention”. People need to realize that a review score of a game does not determine how much fun you will have when playing a game. There have been games that I have played and really enjoyed that did not receive good reviews. It all comes down to personal preference and opinion. You ultimately decide if you like a game not based on what the review score was but how you liked it.

That leads into the second thing I have notice. It seems that a large portion of the gaming community thinks that reviews are completely unbiased and that a review that comes from a major gaming news and reviews source does not have any bias based from the person who is doing the review. This is not possible, you can never be completely detached from your personal view or opinions when reviewing a game. As there is no gold standard by which all games are measured, reviews are basically just people’s opinions of the game. Yes we can try to be unbiased when reviewing but how we judge a game is based on our personal opinions. I may think that the in game graphics look pretty good because I like that style of graphics. While another person may not like them very much. Or I might really like a game and score it pretty high because I like that type of game, while another reviewer who doesn’t like that type of game may give it a lower score. This is the reason why many Japanese games don’t review very well here in the United States, they can be very good games, but most people here including the reviewers usually don’t like those style games as much so they don’t get as good a scores, even though they can be really solid, well made games. Again, with SOCOM someone who gives it a lower score doesn’t have to be doing it just to stir up controversy, that could be his honest opinion. I admire someone who will give his or her honest opinion and doesn’t just give a game a good score because it is a big release.

So what should we do? Are reviews totally worthless to us because they are largely opinions? No, they still are very useful in determining whether you will likely enjoy a game or not. You just need to understand how they work and their limitations. The best advice I can give is to find someone who likes games that are similar to the kinds you like, and see what they say about games, because their views are similar to your own. So if they really like a game there is a pretty good chance you will enjoy it as well. Personally, I’ve got a number of people I tend to agree with for the most part, such as Eric and Chris from Everyday Gamers, and Jody and Eddy. I know that if they like a game that is in a certain style or type there is a pretty good chance that I will probably like it. I don’t usually look at a lot of scores from major review sites, but my go to source for reviews from the major reviewers is Gametrailers Video Reviews podcast, because they not only review many aspects of games, they are showing actual gameplay footage they have recorded that is relevant to what they are talking about, so I can see how the gameplay mechanics work and how the graphics look. That better allows me to decide if I would be interested in a game. There have been cases where games have gotten lower scores from them that I have decided I would like to play because I have seen the gameplay and the issues that they had either are not a big deal to me or they won’t effect how I would play the game.

So reviews do have worth in helping consumers to find the media in which they are likely to be interested. We need to understand some basic facts about reviews and how they work. Don’t just look at the big sites, get reviews from other gamers, especially if they have similar likes to you. That way you can better put reviews to work for you in finding the games you enjoy.

To further complicate things its is later revealed that the feared pirate Blackbeard and his daughter are also after the fountain as well which sets off a chain of events as the race is on to see which of the three sides overcomes many obstacles and makes it to the sacred place first. Any fan of the series should know this ”THIS FILM IS BETTER THAN THE NOT SO HOT AT WORLD’S END” so that’s a good point to start with,made with the same special effects and crazy but unique action sequences the franchise has come to produce and add in the colorful cast of characters along with some laughs the film plays out very well.

Overall ***½~ (3.5/5)

Good film that I’m sure many will like whether your a fan and have seen them all or just a newcomer who’s seeing this franchise for the first time (although I suggest watching them all before seeing this,yes even the 3hr long 3rd film). While the film is good in all honesty its just as others more of the same but the only difference is that there’s some new characters/elements to deal with. It’s still an entertaining showing and a  fun experience.

Language/Content **½~~ (2.5/5)

This is a Disney film so you know what to expect or if your familiar with the series also. But just in case your not its a film about pirates etc so there’s bound to be some cannon ball damage and sword fighting/shoot outs and people getting stabbed etc, but none of it is graphic at all..matter of fact its bloodless. The only language used are words like H_ll, B_stard,and minor obscenities as such are used a few times. Also along with some of the eerie spiritual themes of series Blackbeard has some sort of dark powers (including voodoo) and who knew mermaids were evil huh.

The controls are basically the same as every other Battlefield game on the PC. The aiming feels very tight and crisp, surprising, compared to the other Battlefield games I have played, which always seem to feel a little heavy to me. The only big difference is that this game is third-person, while every other Battlefield game I have seen is first-person. This game has taken the typical four classes from most Battlefield games (Assault, Medic, Recon, and Engineer) and made three classes: Soldier, who is along the lines of the assault class, but also has the ability to heal himself and teammates who are near him; Gunner, who is sort of like a tank class, having the most health, he carries a large machine gun that can quickly take down enemies at close range, and he also can deploy a shield that absorbs damage he and nearby teammates take; and finally, the Commando, who has the ability to make himself invisible to enemies beyond a certain distance from him, and he appears transparent when you get close to him. He is the sniper of the three, and he is also armed with a knife that can take out most enemies with a few hits. He can mark targets so that teammates can see an enemy though buildings and terrain. One of the cool things about this being a cartoon shooter is the special abilities. For example, the soldier can use an ability that is almost like a force push, to throw enemies away from him, and it can also throw any vehicle; the Gunner can throw exploding barrels that will damage the enemy and slow them down, and the sniper can put out a troop-trap that will explode if an enemy gets near it, or if it is shot. There are a number of different abilities for each class, and they can be unlocked and upgraded with points earned when leveling up.

There are now eight different maps (the game originally launched with only four or five), and they have a good variety ranging from small, infantry only maps, to large expansive maps where vehicle use is key to moving quickly around the map. They all play very well, with every control point having multiple ways to aproach it, and usually a couple of pretty decent sniper positions. Graphically the game looks pretty good for a free-to-play game, despite being pretty easy on the hardware, due to its cartoon stylization.

A couple of other things: The game is almost always getting new content of some kind, lots of it may be things that you need to pay for, but there is stuff that is either free or can be purchased using the in game money. Another neat thing that they have is a number of Heroic Moments that you can achieve during each map, such as running over someone with a jeep (called a Roadkill), killing someone by hitting them with the wing of an airplane (a Wingclip), and a number of others. It is always cool when I achieve one of them in a match, and I often will try to achieve one or anther that I haven’t done before. This is a really good game for a free to play game, and is probably the best one I have ever played.

Overall ****½ (4.5/5)
A really fun game to jump in and play a few rounds, well balanced, easy to pick up, and lots of people playing. Definitely worth checking out.

Graphics ***½~ (3.5/5)
A very nice cartoon style, one of the better looking free to play games I have seen.

Content ½~~~~ (0.5/5)
Almost nothing, very clean game overall.

K-Mart link

One thing I cannot comprehend is how people can be putting the blame entirely on Sony.  I’ve heard people saying that “oh, this is what Sony deserves, screw them for trying to prosecute hackers”.  I think the major problem here is that my generation (teens to twenties)  has almost no sense of worth for some things.  Paul Charchian and Matt Helgespn had some good points on this on the latest episode of Video Games Weekly.  The discussed how this generation doesn’t think that anything that isn’t tangible should be free, so basically that if it is online, you shouldn’t have to pay for it.  This is totally ridictulus, if a store was robbed, and they were prosecuting the thieves, you don’t hear people going “oh, stupid store, they should be burnt down for trying to prosecute those thieves”.  But they think that since there isn’t any tangible money involve it is perfectly fine for them to add bogus funds to their accounts or to steal games online though torrents.

So the majority of the blame should be placed squarely on the hackers;  Sony was only doing what any company should do.  But should some of it still rest on Sony?  Reports have surfaced that supposedly they were using out of date software for their security and other services.  If that is true, then definitely some of the blame should fall on them for not taking care of their security and not trying to keep it the best it possibly could.  Another major complaint is that Sony has supposedly been handling this debacle terribly.  This one just makes me stop and scratch my head at times.  Yes, we know how we would like to have it handled, but unless you are involved in these inner working at Sony regarding the hack and the repair work, we really don’t know what happened.  Sony may be doing the best that they can, and keeping us as informed as possible, so lets try to reserve judgement until we know some facts.

So thus far I would say that yes, a bit of the blame should rest on Sony, but the vast majority of the blame is on the hackers who did it.  But there is one more point.

I just listened to the latest episode of  The FOG, and what Dez was saying about how Microsoft should be hyping up Sony’s problem and making fun of it really, really ticked me off.  First, I agree with what Matt Helgeson said several weeks ago about how Microsoft is really doing the best thing right now by just keeping quite, and not saying anything, and how this isn’t good for Microsoft at all, because it can cause people to no longer trust these services.  Secondly, XBL and Microsoft are not invulnerable to hacking like some people seem to think.  If it was created by a human, then it can be broken by a human.  It just hasn’t happened yet.  And I think it would be extremely dumb of Microsoft to start advertising and saying “Yeah, your information won’t be hacked on here”.  That would be just like giving hackers an open invitation to take down XBL, “Microsoft says that XBL can’t be hacked, ha-ha, watch this!”.  Microsoft has handled this well so far, and I doubt they would do something so stupid as that, but if they do I would venture to guess that within a week XBL will be taken down by hackers.  It would basically be sending an open challenge to hackers for no reason.

And finally, retribution.  It also kind of irks me when I hear people saying that “Sony owes us this!” or “Sony owes us that!”.  Be grateful that Sony will give you something at all.  From what I have heard Sony is suspending subscriptions to their services so that you won’t lose any time that you have paid for.  They really don’t own anyone anything.  It seems that these complaints are coming from the crowd that seems to think that Sony is totally responsible for this.  Be grateful that you are getting something, you could be getting nothing.

These are some of my thought on this whole mess regarding PSN and Sony. The lesson to be learned from this is that we should remember that we still live in a sinful world, things like this will happen until Christ returns.  Anything that we make can also be broken.

1. Exploration!  Well, sort of.

One thing that I sort of missed in ME2 was the planetary exploration from the first game. Don’t get me wrong, I loved the mining planets for different minerals, but I missed getting to drive around exploring in the mako. It would be awesome to see some of both, and leads into my next point:

2. Tank!

The mako was an amazing vehicle, but it handled terribly. I would much rather see the Firewalker tank used for exploration in ME3. It handled much better, had some pretty good firepower, and it appears that it could go almost anywhere the mako could go.

3. The sort of from up there

While I enjoyed exploring planets in ME1, it sometimes would get dull, due to the limited locations of missions. You had three or four types of structures that you would usually have to go into for missions, with the only variations being different objects scattered around some rooms, or the occasional room that was closed off in one. I liked how ME2 had more linear levels for the missions, it gave greater variety to the areas you were traversing or battling in. I’d rather have less planets to explore in a vehicle if each building or environment can be more fleshed out, like it was in the second game.

4. You were saying?

The conversations in ME1 were amazing, but they were shallow with some of the members of your team. The love interested were very fleshed out, depending on whether you were a male or female Shepard, but others would dry up quickly. Garus’ conversations didn’t last very long, and Tali’s and Wrex’s weren’t a whole lot longer. This was greatly improved in ME2, maybe in part because you had more squadmates, so there was almost always someone who had something to talk about, but they still could dry up quickly, and again, I found Garus to have the least conversations when playing as a male Shepard. So I want to see BioWare continue to expand the interaction with your team, keep adding to the conversations.

5. I am a level five mage, No Wait!

Mass Effects leveling system was a fairly deep one , with a pretty wide array of categories to spend points in. The second game dumbed down the RPG aspect of the game a great deal. Instead of having a dozen or so categories to spend points in, you only got four or five different ones in ME2. It streamlines the RPG aspects for people who never have really played one, but you don’t have as much freedom in building your character’s skills. I hope that in ME3 they will go back to a deeper skills tree and system, more along the lines of the first game.

6. Do I take this one, or this one, or this one, or this one?

One of the biggest things I want to see in ME3 is the weapons being more along the lines of ME1. When playing the second, I really missed finding weapons around different areas, as well as all the other equipment such as armor, upgrades, etc. I love the loot collecting in RPG’s, and I missed the excitement of finding a really good gun, or set of armor, or that really rare upgrade in a locked safe, or a weapons locker. Which leads into my next one:

7. If it’s a heat clip, why is it cold?

I much preferred the way the weapons built up heat, and would overheat if you fired them for to long in the first game. I much prefer to be scouring the levels for weapons, or armor, instead of searching for heat clips. Though it did make a few battles more tense worrying about how much ammo I had, and it did help me to use my powers more, but I would much rather not have to worry about ammo, so I can focus on other things like the conversations.

8. Do I throw him against the ceiling, or the wall?

Bring back the larger variety of powers in ME3. It was nice having lots of different abilities and powers at my disposal, I could take and throw one group of enemies into the air, throw another group backwards, cause a vortex that would suck enemies into it, create a warp field that would obliterate weaker enemies. I missed the variety in ME2, the ones that were in there worked well, but it just wasn’t the same using only a couple of different ones all the time.

9. Let me at it with a welder!

Upgrades were awesome in ME1, a high level upgrade could really improve the way your weapons or amour worked, allowing you to customize to fit your play-style to some extent. The science lab in the second was also great in how you could work on upgrades for your weapons and armor, and it was a nice addition to allow you to upgrade different aspects of the Normandy. So in the third game, how about adding the ability to upgrade and customize the Firewalker? It would be cool if you could develop different types of weapons, amour, or electronics to customize it to fit the way you want to play.

10. Come on in, good to see you again!

One of my biggest wishes is I want to see as many characters as possible come back in Mass Effect 3. I want Liara to be part of my team, and Ashley, and Wrex, and I really want all the characters who survived in the second game to come back. If you are battling the reapers, as it appears from what I’ve heard before, I want a BIG team. And hopefully there will be some new characters to recruit to the team. And it would mean that there would be even more conversations, so it would be a win win.

There it is, ten things that I would like to see in Mass Effect 3, it is looking very good so far, and if it is anything like the first two it should be amazing!

The far away mystical land of Asgard  (think of Greek/Norse mythology with all of its super warriors and gods etc) is ruled by King Odin who has two sons Thor his first born is a brash/cocky/careless and arrogant warrior and I forgot to mention he also has super extreme strength and power and also has control over a little thing called Lightning, and then there’s Loki  the more quiet and reserved of the two who like his brother also possesses extreme abilities but his area of expertise is sorcery/magic.

King Odin is a wise king/man and has fought many battles so when his kingdom is infiltrated by a few stragglers of an ancient enemy called the Frost Giants they are dealt with accordingly and that was fine by his standards with no further courses of action needed. But as I said earlier Thor has a different way of dealing with things and disobeys his father and in an effort to prove himself worthy of the throne (or stroke his ego) he leads his team of trusted companions Sif/Fandral/Hogun/Volstagg and his brother Loki into a battle on the enemies home turf not quite knowing what he was getting into. The battle that ensued not only nearly got them all killed but it also violated a pact of peace between the Asgardians and the Frost Giants in which his father Odin and their people had agreed to many years ago thus further complicating matters.

Odin obviously infuriated by Thor’s arrogance and stupidity punishes him for his transgressions by stripping him of his powers and banishing him to earth to live among the people and leaving it up to him to understand the consequences of his ways and to pretty much grow up and just maybe after he matures he can become one of earths greatest defenders…just maybe.

Overall ****~ (4/5)

Nice origin story and a great start to what looks to be a good ongoing series. Origin stories for these types of characters are hard to pull off so when its done correctly they are greatly applauded.With it being an origin/1st movie of the series there isn’t an overload of action (as we’d all like) but whats there is done very well,the acting and special effect are all very well done and the story telling is spot on,whether you knew of Thor before the film or not you’ll know his name by the time the credits roll.Marvel couldn’t afford to have this film suck or be anything less than great (or the upcoming Captain America flick as well) as these are the last two films that leads up to next years uberly anticipated ”The Avengers” so I consider this a job very well done.

Language/Content ½~~~~ (0.5/5)

Nothing to worry about in this one, there are some milder profanities in which words like a_s, D_mn, and H_ll are used only about 5-10 times total combined,and besides the obvious violence/fighting none of which is graphically disturbing there’s the whole Norse mythology thing.

Where's the Cake?

There have been some people that have wondered if Portal 2 is worth a full retail price tag, well I’m happy to tell you, it is definitely worthy of your hard earned $60. This does not mean however, that Portal 2 is for everyone. At it’s heart the Portal games are a part of the puzzle genre, they may not be your typical puzzlers, but make no mistake, these are puzzle games from beginning to end. So if you don’t like puzzle games you may not want to go out and buy Portal 2 just because everyone seems to love it. Give it a rent though, and you may just find out why so many people can’t wait to go back to Aperature Laboratories and see GLaDOS again to put their differences behind them, for science . . . you monster.

Everything in Portal 2 is so well done and polished it’s amazing. The level design is positively fantastic. It feels so good when you’re running through rooms, seeing the correct paths to take, and solving things quickly. It just looks so cool, and it gives a nice boost to your ego as well. All the parts of each room seem to have a purpose, there really is no wasted space. This goes for the levels/rooms which are the puzzles, the secret rooms, and the areas created for back story. I would have a hard time thinking about how Valve could’ve bettered the gameplay.

The game brings you along with a perfectly paced learning curve. There’s never that moment (like in so many other puzzle games) that frustrates you so much that you lose interest in it, you always feel like you can figure it out no matter how daunting the room may initially look. The multiplayer part of Portal is tons of fun too, and plays by the same rules as the single player. In both single and multiplayer you start out with just the portal gun to get you familiar with how the game works. After a while you’ll be introduced to advanced gameplay mechanics like ariel faith plates, hard light bridges, excursion funnels, and the different gels (which either make you bounce, make you move very fast, or give you the ability to create portals on previously portal resistant surfaces). Every mechanic is explained with it’s own set of tests throughout the game so you never feel like a baby with a Rubik’s cube.

While the gameplay in Portal 2 is great and all, the parts of the game that somehow work even better are the spectacular writing and voice acting. A few weeks back I wrote a glowing review about Mass Effect 2 and how I loved the story and that the writing was great. Well, I think Mass Effect has met its match when it comes to writing, story, and acting. Portal 2 is positively perfect when it comes to these aspects. I was taken back by how good the story is this time around (it took two twists I did not see coming, and I loved). The only bad part about the story is that I think you get more out of it if you’ve played the first Portal, and I think many people that have played Portal 2 haven’t played the original.

The writing is the best there has ever been a game, and the voice actors couldn’t have done a better job if their lives depended on it. Seriously, they are both that good. Everyone is extremely funny all the time. This is a comedic video game at its finest. From start to finish Portal 2 will have you laughing, and all the jokes are family friendly (you won’t see any Duke Nuke ‘Em style material here). None, I repeat, none of the jokes fall flat, every one of them hits their mark. This is also a testament to the fabulous voice actors in the game. The GlaDOS, Wheatley, and Rock Johnson characters all feel real, different, and hilarious, due in absolutely no small part to the terrific actors. If these guys don’t win multiple video game awards for voice acting, it’s a crime.

I honestly can’t give Portal 2 enough praise, it hits a home run in every category. I love how a game that’s not an FPS or an RPG can be so popular among gamers and critics alike. I truly feel that Portal 2 is a real step forward for the gaming industry. Many developers can learn a thing or two from Valve with this franchise. It just feels like there was so much love and enthusiasm for Portal 2 that it couldn’t help but shine through in the finished product, and for that reason alone, Portal 2 is worth a try.

Overall ***** (5/5)
Play this game! It’s really as good as everyone says it is.

Content/Language *~~~~ (1/5)
I only gave this game a one out of five because I don’t think we can give zeros here. The content in this game is very family friendly.

Achievements/Trophies ****~ (4/5)
All the achievements in both single and multiplayer are doable. With a little time and effort you can definitely get 1000 gamerscore in Portal 2.

A fantastic way to kick off the summer blockbuster movie season.

One would think  after 4 movies that a series would be pretty ,uninspiring,boring and just crappy/lame in general right? and wouldn’t even dare to take the plunge again with a 5th film in the franchise right? WRONG!!! Fast Five not only delivers it does it more than anyone would’ve expected.

The film centers around the series mainstays the trio of Dominic Toretto and his sister Mia along with ex federal agent turned felon Brian O’Connor on the run (as usual) in Rio and after a job gone bad have the most powerful drug lord/bad man in Brazil out for their blood the 3 of them are backed into a corner and sick of living a life on the run taking odd heist jobs here and there to survive and they decide to strike back by robbing the man himself of his $100 million and going on to start lives anew somewhere else. But the three of them aren’t nearly enough to tackle such a task so they need to assemble a perfect team to pull off the perfect heist. But adding to their woes is the fact that a no nonsense relentless/always gets his guy federal agent named Hobbs (played by The Rock) has brought his squad to town and are red hot one their trail so things are bound to get complicated.

The team consists of the original trio and a lot of the old associates/main/supporting characters from all the previous 4 films meaning the likes of people like Roman (Tyrese), Tej (Ludacris) , Han (Sung Kang) and many others. With all these personalities on screen there is sure to be laughter and you will be truly shocked with the outcome of this film as it is indeed very good all around, the action is great and what they did with this film is totally changed up the pacing and plot as the film really isn’t so much about racing as its actually a DARN good caper film filled with plenty of high octane excitement that’s more  than enough to keep you stuck in your seats and glued to the screen.

Overall ****½ (4.5/5)

Awesome movie and a great kickoff to what looks to be a huge summer of blockbusters. Out of the previous 4 films of the series the only weak one in most peoples eyes was the 2nd (2 fast 2 furious) and while the 3rd (Tokyo Drift) wasn’t the best it was better than the second but I can honestly say that this film is the best of the bunch hands down and that’s saying something because films 1 and 4 were pretty good. This film is a surefire attention grabber full of action and excitement so go see it now.

Language/Content ***~~ (3/5)

There is some swearing (including maybe about 5 or so GD’S) which is about average for most movies and keeping with this films tradition there are plenty of scenes with women in bikinis and scantily clad along with some sexual oriented jokes.

How well do the controls work is probably going to be the first question most people ask when they see this game. On the bottom left side of the screen you have a circle control, that controls the players movement. Then on the bottom right side of the screen are three buttons that change if you are playing offense or defense. On offense they are sprint, shoot, or pass and on defense they are sprint, block, and steal. On offense if you hold the sprint button while running at the goal and slide your thumb to shoot, you will dunk the ball. Similar thing on defense if you hold the sprint button and slide your thumb to steal, you will shove the offensive player.

Overall after playing several games, the controls work pretty well. Like most ios games like this, having physical controls would be better but it’s not bad. I wasn’t able to try the multiplayer but it works either over WiFi or Bluetooth. The graphics look great and the gameplay is good. It normally sells for $4.99, but I was able to find it on sale for $.99. If you’re a big Jam fan it might be worth the $4.99 but if you can find it for $.99 I say everyone should pick it up.

The app allows you to search for music from your phone and add it to your collection, look for new releases, play playlists, web queue, see what’s getting played a lot, see what random people are listening to, your history, recommendation based on what you have in your collection, and see what’s topping the chart. Of course it will also let you play the songs in your collection as well. The player works and looks much like your ipod. You can either stream the music or download it on your phone. If you download load it, you can only use it in the app, which is understandable. Streaming work is flawless if you have 3G coverage however over Edge it’s not so good.

The weird think with this service is that they try to make it social but they don’t do it very well. You can follow friends or random people but in the app I don’t see how to do that. I had to go to the website to add someone. Also for a service that was trying to be social it seems that you would be able to post to Facebook or Tweet what you were listening too and you can’t. Not that these are deal breaker or even really matter. Another downside is that it doesn’t appear that you can make playlist from with in the app. That maybe a feature that is coming soon.

Over I think if you are a music lover who buys a lot of CD’s this might be worth it for you. The app is free and you get one week to try out the service. After that if you still want to use it on your iPhone it’s $9.99 a month, which isn’t too bad.

Since I check out a bunch of books for my little girl, one of the features I like is you can see what books you have out. It gives you a total number and lists them by name. This is great for when you are searching around trying to figure out if you have all the books you need to return, from this same screen you can renew books as well. Some libraries have additional features like being able to check you fines, changing your pin, and making a list of books you want to read.

If you are looking for suggestions there is a section for that as well. You can see books that have won awards or are popular. Then there is a social element as well. If you have an account with Goodreads you can sign in and have books suggested to you.

Overall if this app works with you local library system and you use the library at all, it’s a must have. It handles almost everything that you would do at the library’s website and is setup well. This is an app that will always have a spot on my iPhone.

Once in the app there are check buttons next to every item on your list. Once you’re done with that or picked up that item, check it off and it takes it off the list. There are also some cosmetic features like being able to change the background picture. The best part is it’s free. I’ve been using this app for several months now and it has become my go to app for to do list.

Blue Sky Studios (mostly known as the creators of the ice age series) sixth movie goes by the name of Rio and its about a male Blue Macaw aptly named..Blu, well as Blu has been living the good domesticated life with his owner and best friend Linda in Minnesota for his whole life there seems to be a much bigger more serious situation at hand. As it turns out Blu is one of the last two Blue Macaws left and after a bird specialist tracks Linda down and informs her of this and that he and his associates have the other bird in their possession (who happens to be female) at their facilities and that its imperative that the two come together to repopulate the species Linda reluctantly agrees. The thing is its that the facility where this is to take place is all the way in Rio De Janeiro Brazil and after the two birds are kidnapped by an exotic bird smuggler the race is on as Linda races across the city in search of her pet while blue is on his own separate adventure trying to get away from psychotic birds and crazy monkeys in this exotic strange new environment.

Overall ****~ (4/5)

Good movie overall with stellar voice acting and animation. The film has all the things you’d come to expect from a film of this genre with lots of laughs and plenty of danger, adults and children should enjoy this one.

Language/Content *~~~~ (1/5)

Nothing to worry about here at all..besides the point of why these two birds are being brought together in the first place but don’t worry as none of that if ever shown. Other than that its just your standard cartoon violence and name calling.

Set in the distant future, you play as either a male or female Commander Shepard of the Aliance Navy. The game starts out with you on a simple mission to test out a powerful new ship, and retrieve a becon that was from the Protheans, an ancient, highly advanced race. Immediately you find out that things are not as they seem, and right after that things begin to get worse. The planet is attacked by a race of sentient machines known as the Geth, a SPECTRE who is shadowing you is taken out by a rogue SPECTRE, and the Beacon is destroyed. Soon you are on a mission to save the galaxy from the rogue SPECTRE who wants to unleash an ancient threat that will destroy the galaxy.

The gameplay in Mass Effect will probably be somewhat familiar if you have ever played a third-person shooter, or an RPG. This was one of the first RPG”s I ever played, and it is a good one to start with, as it is not as deep as some of the hardcore RPG’s. You will be exploring to an extent, finding weapons, gear, and upgrades, and earning experience points to level up you character. There are a number of different classes, ranging from a straight up solider, to an engineer class, to a biotic class. Combat is from a third-person over-the-shoulder perspective, and uses shotguns, pistols, assault rifles, and sniper rifles. While in combat you can press and hold the spacebar on the PC to pause the action and bring up a tactical HUD, from which you can order you two squadmates to move, as well as to use one of your or your teammates’ powers, ranging from the ability to overload an enemy’s shields, to lifting them into the air with biotics, depending your squad’s classes. The controls are not the greatest by any stretch of the imagination. If this was just an average, run of the mill shooter, I probably would have given up on it. There were times when I was so frustrated with the controls that I almost was ready to quit. But the story more than makes up for the controls.

Bioware did an amazing job with this game. The story is extremely interesting, and had me hooked the entire way through. They also did an incredible job with the universe, which is super deep, and thankfully the game includes an extensive codex of information on different things in the universe. It also has a very good conversation system. Instead of choosing exactly what Shepard will say, for example like in KOTOR, you have a radial menu that has your choices, which will usually have short 1-3 word descriptions, so you are choosing more of the tone or attitude of your responses. It works very well, and it is very interesting to talk to different people. Another thing that make the conversations amazing is the voice acting, which is top notch. I can’t think of a bad performance in the entire game. And the great voice acting helps to make the alien species that you interact with in the game seem real, almost human per say. The don’t feel alien, they are so well done, and feel like they are actually real. Connected to the conversation system is a system were you earn either Renegade or Paragon points, depending on how you behave and interact with other people. Be a jerk, you earn Renegade points, be nice, you earn Paragon. It isn’t made to be a good side, bad side, it is more in how you deal with situations, and with a high enough level of either, you can resolve most problems, albeit in different ways.

Graphically, this game still looks pretty nice. The faces are especially well, done, with very lifelike animations, which adds the the immersion, and makes the characters seem real. There is some texture pop-in, and there are short load times when going from one area to the next, but with the scope of the game it is easy to look past them.

In you travels, you will come across worlds that you can land on and explore. For this you will be using the Mako, a large, tank-like vehicle that can go almost anywhere, and can climb almost any hill or mountain. However, it controls horribly, making it hard to be precise. And there are a couple of worlds where there are things you can find that are in very rough areas, that you need to be precise to reach, so it can be frustrating at times. But considering the terrain it can traverse, it makes sense that it wouldn’t control the greatest.

Overal ***** (5/5)
An incredible game, a complete playthough can easily take you between 30-40 hours, the ability to carry your character to Mass Effect 2 is awesome. A must play game in my opinion.
Story ***** (5/5)
The best story that I have ever experienced in a game. Amazing characters, it’s almost like playing though a really good movie.

Graphics ***½~ (3.5/5)
Still look pretty good for an older game.

Content **~~~ (2/5)
The content in the game is not to bad overall. There is almost no blood during combat, and the language is not to bad overall, though it gets stronger if you play more of the Renegade style. There is the love scene of Fox News fame, but you will only get that if you actively pursue it. Overall it is pretty mild as far as M rated games go.

In a drunken rage Grayson takes down General Sarrano’s ship killing lots of innocent people and most of his own crew. All that’s left is him and Ishi Sato. Ishi however had to be fused with mechanical parts to survive. Now he battles for control of his brain from the computer that is a part of him. That’s all in the beginning, from there you are battling to get to Sarrano. Ishi wants to reach Sarrano just to get off the planet but Grayson has other ideas. That’s the story plot and it’s a decent story for a FPS.

The game itself is very entertaining. In the beginning Grayson finds a whip that attaches to his hand. This whip can be used to pull things down or more importantly used to pull people towards him. When you grab a guy with the whip it jerks him towards you in slow motion, during which you can shoot them or wait until they are close and kick them. Once you get the hang of it you can move Grayson to make him kick the guy into things or off cliffs. You learn pretty quickly to pay attention to what is around you, so that you know what you can use to kill your enemies. The whip works really well for that however sadly pulling things down with the whip on works on certain items. The items you can use it on usually has a bright light that will shine over it every couple of seconds.

There are also several types of guns in the game. My favorite was the sniper rifle. The nice thing about the sniper rifle was at the end of every shot you take control over the bullet and guide it. The enemies try to dodge the bullet, which adds some difficultly. You can only equip two guns at a time but you can change which two you have at the dropbox, which leads into the dropboxes. Dropboxes are how you equip what weapons you are carrying, upgrade weapons and refill you ammo. They are located throughout the game and you use your whip to tie into them.

To buy things you don’t use money but rather skill points. Skill points are awarded for the different ways you kill people. You get points for headshots, kicking someone off a cliff, kicking someone into spikes, shooting someone in the butt, and many more. If you don’t have enough skill points then you can’t buy ammo or upgrade weapons.

You are able to duck to take cover or go under something and of course you can also run. One feature I found myself using was the slide. By double tapping the A button it made your guy slide and he will slide until he hits something. This was a great way to get out of trouble or get behind someone. Also you could use the slide to slide into enemies and it will knock them into the air, making them easier to kill.

Overall****~ (4/5)
If you can get past the middle school humor and all the cursing than this game is pretty fun. Many of the monsters are very Gears of Warish. I think I even heard one of the big guys saying boom when he shot his gun. I did not try the online but would of liked to been able to try.

Questionable Content***** (5/5)
This game is one of the worst for language that I’ve played in a long time. F bomb’s all over the place and lot of adult jokes. There is also drinking in the game and not only in the cut scenes. There is an achievement for finding and drinking 20 bottles. After drinking the bottle the screen gets blurry and anything you kill during this time you get extra skill points, the skill points awarded are called “Intoxicated”. Because of this I have a hard time recommending this game to anyone even though it is fun.

Achievements**~~~ (2/5)
In one play through on Easy I got 230 points and that took me about five to six hours.

Here is some gameplay footage.