Greetings loyal Colossi.

Today we bring to you a website on this internet of ours which doesn’t suck. An old friend of the Colossi who recently rejoined the interwebz.. Good ol’ UNITQM. Remember him? We do. Here’s his new website:

http://www.austincarnivore.com

Go visit him. I dare you.

What can be said that hasn’t been said already? A landmark achievement in both gaming and story telling.. Incredible graphics, lovingly rendered with 1000’s of intricate details.. Truly beautiful locations that often make your jaw drop (the snowy winds of Shadow Moses.. wow). A story line rife with intrigue, drama, and mystery.. The plot twists at every turn, constantly keeping you guessing and waiting for the next revelation. As many of you know, this is the conclusion to the Solid Snake era of Metal Gear; it truly is a culmination of everything talked about, mentioned, or even hinted at in the previous games. Snake himself is old, constantly injured, and bad ass; always looking for his next smoke. Fan favorite Pyscho Mantis returns, although I won’t say anymore to avoid spoilage. Raiden returns, but before you throw down your controller in anger, it’s ok. He’s actually surprisingly awesome in this installment. It appears Hideo Kojima truly recognized and reached out to us fans in this one, delivering everything we’ve wanted and wished for since the original MGS. To some, the narration and story may appear excessive; I however enjoyed every melodramatic moment. If you don’t enjoy the crazy story and dialogue, what are you doing playing MGS4 anyways? It’s part of the experience.

For those of you determined to play Metal Gear with friends they’ve included an online mode, dubbed appropriately “Metal Gear Online”. Some of the modes are extremely entertaining, encouraging you to sneak up on your friends and knock them unconscious in typical Solid Snake fashion. Although I don’t consider it an integral part of the MGS mythos, it’s nice that Konami included it to extend the replay value. People are still online and this holds tantamount to the fun to be had, even stacked against powerhouses such as Call of Duty or Battlefield. It’s an experience you’ll find no where else.. something tells me this area will be expanded in further MGS games.

Gameplay itself is exceptional, the controls are spot on.. Bosses are awesome, some of the best in the series; particularly the Beauty and Beast troupe. Four beautiful women encased in metal armorment, each tormented and tortured by different demons. The battles are memorable and exciting (my personal favorite; Crying Wolf..) Tons of fan service, in particular a brief moment as the pixelated and polygonal snake from MGS1 upon your return to Shadow Moses. If your not careful, it could bring you to tears.

Truly a moving game, a memorable game, an epic game, a beautiful game, a game that deserves to be played and cherished. The main story takes about 20 hours upon first play through, but upon completion you are given medals and ranks dependent on how you played. Further playthroughs unlock items and secrets.. depending on which medals you got. Every PS3 owner should have this in their collection, but that goes without saying. A masterpiece in gaming if there ever was one.

10/10

Boy does it feel good to finally find a good movie amongst the present day piles of filth. And a good horror movie at that?! Unbelievable! A haunting, highly original, & intriguing movie from the strange folks of Sweden.. relating to vampires. Notice how I didn’t call it a vampire movie? That was purposeful; to label it a “vampire movie” is to do the film a large injustice. Much more character driven than any other such film I’ve seen.. Highlights include the incredible atmosphere of Sweden; beautiful, wintery, and dark landscapes which frame the action perfectly yet subtlety. Outstanding dialogue and acting by the young stars.. Who said kids can’t act? This movie should be a lesson to all horror directors.. Focus on the feeling, the meaning, the characters. Once you make it realistic and believable, the horror can emerge naturally. Truly a wonderful movie that I couldn’t possibly recommend more. For those of you with Netflix like me, go add & stream it right away.. I might go as far to call it a modern classic.

9/10

The Black Cab Sessions are a series of videos the Colossi approve greatly.

Each video features a different musician/band, who plays a song in the back of a Black Cab traveling down the road. Makes sense now don’t it? I love the live feel.. Things like this definitely bring to light someone who can truly play music. Good music is good music no matter where its performed. Not to mention that they have an uncanny habit of featuring my favorite bands.

Anywhoo, here are the best of the best..

Fleet Foxes

My Morning Jacket

Phosphorescent

Brian Wilson (Beach Boys..)

Daniel Johnston

Freddie Stevenson

The Felice Brothers

Hope you enjoyed and found some new music to get into on the way..

Be back soon with literally tons of reviews. This holiday has been good for my gaming.

Just in case you haven’t seen this yet.. Amazing.

We all have a love/hate relationship with the Ewok species. I understand. However, this videos immense power may sway you from hate to love.

Quick description- Ewoks drunkenly disrupting the today show by humping, moonwalking, and other forms of awesome.

P.S. -- I always knew they were real.

One of my favorite bands, Beach House, with an unofficial video for Gila.

Enjoy… and happy holidays.

Even the mighty Colossi love to celebrate.

Back to regular updates after good ol’ christmas.

Let us agree to disagree.

This game is amazing.

One of the best RPGs I have played for the 360, and in my opinion, better then Oblivion. The game starts out like just about any RPG, you get to make a character and customize it. You are allowed to chose from three races; humans, elves, and dwarves. There is some amazing back story to all three. Humans are great, but are so divided in their culture that they are constantly bickering. The majority of elves are slaves to humans but a small few live as druids in the wild, while dwarves are fighting off an invasion. The majority of the game centers around “grey wardens”, a mixture of all three races who have over come the innate racism that they share towards each other. You can also choose from a plethora of classes. I chose Mage, since slinging fire balls at my enemy from a safe distance seems better then trying to bludgeon them with an over sized hammer. The greatest part of the game I found was that each class has it’s own opening story line, which in itself is almost 2 hours long. Mages are not really a class but a race unto themselves.

The only qualms I had with this game were the fighting system and the purchase of armor and weapons. The fighting system really isn’t all that bad once you get the hang of it, but in the beginning it is alien and quite hard to get into. With the weapons and gear there really isn’t that wide of a selection to chose fro;, this may in part be that I was a mage and thusly relied more on precise spell choosing and combination in combat.. but as far as I saw there wasn’t a whole lot to chose from. Also, when you are on a quest there really isn’t anything telling you where you should go, which had me running in circles more then a few times. Though, in it’s favor, finding where to go doesn’t take to long as each map is laid out fairly well.

I found that the best parts of Dragon Age are the cut scenes, and unlike most games that have epic cut scenes, I wasn’t trying to race through the actual game play just to reach one. The game play was almost as epic as the cut scenes and told a story in and of itself.

I’ve yet to beat it, but I’m well on my way. Baring any strange and unforeseen events that somehow ruin the game, I’ll give it a 9. Yep, you heard me.

9

Everyone knows the best way to get a turkey is to punch garbage cans. They pop right out, trust me. Saved my life quite a few times. Hope you all had a lovely thanksgiving and your HP was successfully boosted.

Hope you liked the top 10 SNES RPG’s.. Agree or disagree? Feel free to comment.. Everyone register over there to the right, tons more Colossi madness soon.. First few folks who register and comment just might win a DC t-shirt. Ya never know.

Look forward to some more movie, game, and book sacrifices/reviews in the coming days and hours.

PREPARE TO BE SACRIFICED