Super Nerd Riot

This is a test post.

2008-07-27T17:20:00.000-05:00

Testing

2008-03-12T10:29:00.000-05:00

Just testing!

Alright, I'm just testing something don't be alarmed.

Cloverfield Review

2008-01-21T09:14:00.000-06:00

So at 12:01 am on Friday I saw Cloverfield, a movie I had been anticipating since the first trailer before Transformers in July. I love hype. Big big fan of hype, somehow though I have been able to love hype and yet not let it affect the thing I am so hyped about. I can get hyped and still be let down or buy into a bunch of hype and still love the thing I was super hyped up about. Cloverfield not only came with the hype of the "mysterious" trailer, but then months and months of ARG web hype.

So when the lights came down on Friday morning and the opening screen title about this being footage found in the area "formerly known as Central Park" I was ready for anything. The movie which by now you probably know is filmed on handheld cameras. Well more specifically one handheld camera. As we follow a group of four friends from a going away party to trying to find a lost friend and get the hell out of New York City before a monster destroys them. The monster ends up being the least of their problems. Once the monster attacks the city the movie takes off and never really lets up...really. The shaky cam starts shaking and the shaking doesn't stop for nearly the entire movie. The heroes of the film are constantly on the run, from monsters, from debris, from the military.

Forget everything you think, you think you know about this movie. It's not the blair witch, it's not Godzilla, it's not a documentary, it's like nothing you have ever seen before. A gajillion dollar special effects movie filmed on a handheld camera. The sense that you are actually there running down the streets of New York while being chased by something, anything is perfectly captured. There are so many mind blowing moments, images you will never forget it's unlike anything else.

I beg of you to go see this movie, I beg of you to get off the internet and stop trying to figure out what this movie is. Just go see it. Don't worry about if the monster is bad ass or who lives and who dies? Forget about where the monster comes from or why it's here or if it's even a monster at all. Just walk into that theater with a clean slate and prepare to be blown away.

It Was A Slow Week

2008-01-21T09:07:00.001-06:00

I can't believe I haven't posted since Tuesday. It was a slow week though. The weekend was nice, and I think I am finally done celebrating my birthday. I spent Saturday with my family, and then last night working on the TV Show. Oh yeah and I saw a little movie called Cloverfield. I will write a full review and try to get it up before the end of the day. Fingers crossed Episode 1 of Nobody Knocks starts filming tonight. Keep your eyes on the site as I hope to update from the set with pics and such. Alright Cloverfield review inbound.

Assassin's Creed For The DS Revealed

2008-01-15T10:31:00.001-06:00

Ubisoft issued a press release today for the Prequel to Assassin's Creed. It shows three pretty interesting screenshots, and some additional info. Courtesy of Kotaku!

Alan Wake Website Goes Up Today

2008-01-15T10:27:00.001-06:00

The very very long awaited Xbox 360 "launch title" Alan Wake has it's "official" viral marketingish website launch today. It's called Bright Falls Dot Net. Keep checking today for the site to go up. It should be cool.

My Sweater, My Curse

2008-01-15T10:24:00.001-06:00

I'm a nerd, I'm not afraid to say it. I even wear my nerdiness on my sleeve, quite literally. I own many pieces of video game clothing, and accessories. In Sept. of 2006 Jinx launched a line of "fashionable" clothing around World of Warcraft. I got really excited and bought a couple of t-shirts and hoodies. I wear my "For The Horde" Hooded Sweatshirt everywhere I go like it's the source of my super powers.

Slowly but surely this sweater has become a curse. It started out innocently enough with people randomly asking me what server I was on, or what level was I? Then something changed....I started getting shit from Alliance players. Like at first gentle ribbing, but then full on angry people. I let it roll off my back and laughed to myself that people could take a game so seriously.

In the last two months it's gotten worse though, a constant stream of people asking me why I play the Horde, or what level my characters are, or how I'm playing my classes wrong. The final straw came two weeks ago when I went to the big mall near where I work. First I was shopping for shoes when a kid who totally fit the taking a pipe bomb to school to "show my friends" profile started harassing me for playing the Horde. Ok fine...it's happened before no biggie. Then he wanted to "duel" me in the store, and started calling out moves his character would do. It was also really hot in the store so I unzipped my sweater a bit....totally forgetting I had another World of Warcraft shirt on underneath. The kid then whips out his camera phone, and snaps a picture of me and says "this is going on Myspace". Creepy.

The story with this kid goes on a few more minutes, but my girlfriend and I just continued shopping laughing off what just happened. We then get to another store when another kid looks at me and says "For the horde!". I gave him a thumbs up and kept looking at whatever trinkets we were admiring at the time. About five minutes later in the crowded mall, in the crowded store this kid on his way out SCREAMS "FOR THE HORDE YEAH!!!".

On Friday night I was pumping gas and the guy at the next pump starts staring at me, and I know what's coming next. I hear "hey...what server" and it starts all over again. I think it's time for a new sweater, any suggestions?

Prepare For Tomorrow

2008-01-14T21:26:00.001-06:00

I was sick as a dog for the first half of the day today, and super busy the second half. So there was no posts today, but tomorrow is a big day. I have a really funny blog about my sweater I am going to push out tomorrow. Then on top of that tons of big Apple news and I will be blogging the "F" out of that. So I will talk to everyone bunches tomorrow.

Assassin's Creed For DS Is Prequel

2008-01-11T10:49:00.001-06:00

Read it! I am now about 100 times more excited about this game now. I thought it was just going to be a port, but it looks to extend the story line of the first game which I am all for.

Blizzard Entertainment Launches BlizzCast

2008-01-10T14:32:00.000-06:00

The first episode of BlizzCast is up now. You can find it on iTunes, or at the official BlizzCast site here. I haven't had a chance to listen to it yet(I will probably listen to it tonight while slowly leveling my Paladin)but it's focus is on the concept teams.

Video Footage Of Oil Rig Disaster

2008-01-10T08:48:00.000-06:00

1.18.08

Nvidia And Valve Are Giving You Portal

2008-01-09T14:46:00.000-06:00

Joystiq's 2007 game of the year Portal is FREE...if you have have a Nvidia graphics card in your computer(which I do). Details are here. I'll check it out fo' sho' when I get home tonight.

I Spent All Morning...

2008-01-09T13:09:00.000-06:00

working on Nobody Knocks stuff. Getting a website from fruition to up and running, and then trying to promote it at all the appropriate places, WHILE sitting at my desk at work was like running an e-marathon. Or maybe like jumping hurdles. Yeah like jumping hurdles.

I'm already smitten with the PSP slim. Every time I go to the store it stares at me lovingly from behind the glass like a puppy that just wants me to take it home. It whimpers...remember all the fun we used to have? Then I remind it there are no good games to play on it, and it says...but I have Skype now. That's not a game PSP I shoot back....then it gives me the eyes and it says I can go on the internet. Then I look up and see a couple of games I probably wouldn't mind playing and I get weepy, but I walk away. So when I see this bad ass mint green PSP in Japan I get even more butterflies in my tummy.

Further proof that Dan Hsu is a total bad ass. The EIC over at EGM(that was fun to type)wrote in the latest issue that Ubisoft, Sony Sports, and Midway's Mortal Kombat division have stopped sending them free games to review because of low review scores. You might remember Mr. Hsu from about two years ago when he ripped into Peter Moore about why Microsoft couldn't get enough Xbox 360's out the door. You have to remember this was at a time when everyone was kissing his ass, and Hsu just tore him a new one. The fact that he just came right out and put that in a printed magazine is amazing. It's too bad EGM has turned into a pamphlet full of game ads.

Now the biggest news today was out of CES. Microsoft has said that if customers demand it then they will release a Blu-Ray drive for the 360. This is Microsoft who had swore up and down that they were backing HD-DVD big time, but with almost every major studio jumping ship to Blu-Ray exclusive it looks like it might be time to admit defeat. Hopefully there is some kind of trade in deal for all those who bought HD-DVD players and drives.

Could You Do Me A Favor

2008-01-09T10:50:00.000-06:00

The show I am writing and producing for the internet Nobody Knocks just launched it's blog, which will soon be a full fledged site. For now though it's just a blog so if you could add it to your favorite RSS reader or whatever that would be awesome. The show should premiere in March and there should be some podcasts leading up to the first episode. I'll be back to blog for reals later.

BREAKING NEWS!! BlizzCast #1 1/10

2008-01-08T16:26:00.000-06:00

Blizzard Entertainment will release it's first podcast this Thursday January 10th. The first podcast will be audio, but future casts will be Video. You can read about it here.

Not Much Going On

2008-01-08T15:12:00.000-06:00

I guess the big news for me today is that WoW is getting patched today. Of course this is one day AFTER I just installed a metric ton of mods. Although I have to admit I didn't really care for any of them. I kind of like LocationFu, but besides that I think I am going to disable all the ones I installed yesterday. Seriously though my Pally needs some hardcore leveling today. I have to go up at least two levels tonight. I might punch a baby if I don't.

So I don't know where you live, but here in Northern IL it's been crazy warm. Instead of snowing though it was raining kinds steadily on my drive into work this morning. I don't know if it was the rain or what, but it took forever to get here. I can't wait to move and be closer to work. It took me almost an hour and a half to get here. I left work early yesterday and missed rush hour and got home in a respectable 45 minutes. Luckily I have Sirius in the car to keep me sane. Although I need a new radio my one line radio that EVERYONE mistakes for a radar detector is not cutting it. I was eyeballing the Sportster 5, but they are really slashing the price on the Sportster 4. I might have to pick up one of those.

Joe Quesada made it on to Howard Stern this morning to talk about the aftermath of Spider-Man "One More Day". Howard didn't seem to get why they had to do it, but man Joey Q could talk all day about comics if they would let him. It will be interesting to see if sales go up or down during "Brand New Day". I hate what they did, but man I can't wait to see where this goes. Throw in Slott and McNiven and I can't stay mad at Marvel.

Lord Of The Rings Online First DX10 MMO

2008-01-07T14:48:00.000-06:00

Turbine's LOTR Online which I sorta kinda beta tested and sorta kinda enjoyed is now running in Direct X 10 making it the first MMO to use the technology. I might have to download the free trial tonight and give it a whirl to see how it runs on my machine(a middle of the road rig I built myself)which sports a Geforce 8600. So I can do DX10 just not well(ask my Hellgate London account). The press release is here.

Spider-Man Brand New Day

2008-01-07T13:33:00.000-06:00

I love comics, love them to death. For some reason thought I don't find myself talking about them much on here. The big controversy in comics right now is Spider-man One More Day in which(SPOILERS!!!!!!!!!!)Mephisto(the devil basically)erases Spider-Man's marriage to Mary Jane along with making "right" some of the things that have changed with Spider-Man the last few years. Including the huge reveal to the world that Peter Parker is Spider-Man. POOOF! it never happened. I don't really like the idea much at all, but weirdly I can't wait to see what direction Spider-Man goes in now. So if you were thinking of picking up this weeks Amazing Spider-man #546(by the way it now ships three times a month) you might want to take a look at this first. Courtesy of Marvel and Newsarama it's the new Spider-Man status quo.

Ugh....

2008-01-07T11:47:00.000-06:00

So EA is saying that BioWare and Pandemic are creating 10 new franchises. This makes me very scared. BioWare loving crafts every game they make taking years to even release one game. 10 new franchises sound awful. Let's hope the quality doesn't suffer. You can read an article on it here.

In site news, I am trying to figure out why Technorati and this blog aren't playing nice. I think there are some big changes coming to the blog this year. I have a friend who designs sites and I think instead of using a blogger template I am actually going to have a coded site. Fingers crossed.

One Last One Tonight

2008-01-06T22:11:00.001-06:00

I currently use Cosmos for my World of Warcraft addons and was wondering if there was anything better out there. I have a Warlock and a Paladin. Anyone have any suggestions?

Technorati Tags: world of Warcraft

Dear PSP Stop Making Yourself So Attractive

2008-01-06T21:47:00.001-06:00

Sony announced today that the PSP Slim will be able to Skype. Which is pretty incredible. I really don't know if it's make or break for the system cause honestly it's a video game system, I don't know how many phone calls I can make from a PSP. The fact that it will be able to do it though is pretty awesome. You don't see a DS Lite holding a conversation.

Technorati Tags: Sony, PSP, Skype

Bill Gates Keynote Live Blog

2008-01-06T20:54:00.001-06:00

First of all they played a video of what Gate's last day at Microsoft might be like, and it' was hysterical. Best sense of humor ever.

Bill is talking about how all devices are going to have to connect, which is boring cause this is what he has been talking about the last few years. A total duh moment.

Surface is still pretty amazing.

Bill is talking about Silverlight, and they showed a demo of Windows Live Photo Gallery....guess what I just downloaded.

The 2008 Olympics will be broadcast on MSN with Silverlight technology.

10 million members of Xbox Live(how many are silver?), AND MGM and ABC will provide HD content.

Media Center extenders will be made by HP and Samsung.

Demoing Zune Social which is kinda cool. It's like Last.fm, but using your Zune. After seeing how the Social works I kinda sorta want a Zune.

If Microsoft can get Sync into other makes and models, or if there are Sync enabled after market radios, Sync is going to be huge.

They have a lot of big plans for cell phones, including buying movie tickets for you and your friends and then being able to text all those friends to let them know the tickets have been purchased. The down side is you have to have a windows mobile phone. Which isn't exactly cheap or available on a lot of phones.

All this mobile stuff is amazing, but it's just years and years away.

Wow so that's it....kind of a non event.

Technorati Tags: Zune, Silverlight, Windows Live

Technorati Tags: Gadgets, CES, Bill Gates, Microsoft, Key Note

CES Starts Tonight With Bill Gates Keynote

2008-01-06T15:29:00.000-06:00

So the annual Consumer Electronics Show starts tonight with Bill Gates final keynote speech. There are lots of rumors swirling about what Mr. Gates will be talking about, but a big one is that Toshiba is going to be making a high end Xbox 360. So you can watch it here or of course it will be all over the web about 2 seconds after an announcement is made. I'll even try to keep up if I can. The keynote begins at 6:30 PM Pacific time.

A Truly Cinematic Experience

2008-01-06T15:03:00.001-06:00

2007 was an amazing year for video games. Especially September through December, there were too many games. I may never actually get caught up to all the games I wanted to play in 2007. Something I noticed was how hard some of the games tried to be a cinematic experience. There was a huge amount of cutscenes and uncontrollable forced point of view scenes in the games of 2007. There are three games though that to me were the cinematic high points of 2007, and all three took a different approach to how it told you the story it was trying to convey. Halo 3, Mass Effect, and Call of Duty 4 told amazing stories, and told stories better than some movies I saw in 2007.

I think one of the best approaches to storytelling this year was Call of Duty 4. It had some of the most amazing cut scenes I saw all year. If you have played it you know the single most compelling thing to happen to you in a video game this year was in the middle of COD 4. However Call of Duty didn't stop there you were then in control of your character during the cut scene. The line was so blurred between when the game was in control and you were in control that a couple of times I sat there in awe for a minute before I realized I could actually move and look around.

Halo 3 is exactly the opposite, some of the biggest moments in the Halo trilogy happened in a cut scene. Including the deaths of major characters, you had no control the story unfolded in front of you and you watched helplessly. I don't remember too many moments in Halo 3 where I felt like I pushed the story along. I feel like I shot my way up until a certain point and then the cinematics kicked in.

Mass Effect on the other hand was kind of a hybrid of both experiences. Mass Effect plays exactly like a movie. The whole experience is cinematic. A huge part of the game is the conversation system where you decide what your character is going to say during a cut scene. It's about 50% of the game. There are whole battles you can talk your way out of. If your charm or intimidate skill is high enough you never have to go into combat during some of the side quests. Now in the main quests there is always a boss of sorts you have to defeat, but everywhere else the game can be talked around.

So the question is how interactive do you want your games to be? Do you like being able to control the huge plot moments, or do you want a sweeping cinematic to show you the most dramatic moments, or do you want to be so in control that your game is more like a move than a game? Video games are one of my favorite ways to have a story told to me, I didn't mind Mass Effect force feeding me story. I enjoyed every moment of the games cut scenes. The fact that Halo 3 played out some of it's biggest moments in an uncontrollable moment was not a problem I had. I will say though that when Call of Duty 4 through me the keys to drive the plot it was an exhilarating experience. Probably some of the best gaming moments of my life were when I had to jump behind the wheel of a cut scene and drive the plot forward. I have seen lots of people complain about not being able to control Halo 3's major deaths or Mass Effects major resolutions. So in 2008....which version of video game cinema are we going to see the most....I look forward to finding out. I look forward to seeing if maybe the story telling will be pushed in a new direction. Here's to more innovation and great games in 2008.

Magtheridon's Lair Preview

2008-01-04T13:34:00.000-06:00

So UDE has put up Magtheridon's Lair previews. It looks sick, and super hard to beat. I don't know much about the actual raid in the computer game, but if it's anything like the card game version is, it sounds really rough. There are no stages to this raid deck like there was with the Molton Core and Onyxia's Lair raid decks. UDE looks to have another unique gaming experience on their hands.

Make sure you hit up all the articles it looks amazing.