Rough and tough

Just got around to playing Bionic Commando Rearmed.  Never played the original for the NES, so I don’t have a comparison to make, but man, what a great game.

At the time it came out, I remember a lot of people were talking about this game, especially the music.  And man, they were right!  The soundtrack really fits the game well with it being a chiptune vibe; matching with the original 8-bit game.  I liked it so much that I purchased it on iTunes.  You should do the same as well.

In addition to the music, I loved the gameplay.  I never played a game with mechanics like that before.  You know, the swinging around stuff with your bionic arm.  The only other game that I know of that has a similar type of gameplay is Umihara Kawase.  Wondering if I should try one of those games out.  Anyways, the platforming was great, but man, it was a challenging game.

It wasn’t hard enough to where I would start to hate the game.  It did a good job at being just hard enough to where you didn’t hit a wall with the difficulty, but rather just grazed it.  Another thing to note were the graphics.  I loved how it was a polygonal game, but on a 2D plane.  The 3D-ishness of the graphics as you run by objects were neat.  And to top it off, I also liked the character artwork by Shinkiro.  I’m a fan of his work from both his days at SNK and Capcom.

Nice graphics, superb music, and tight controls make this a well rounded game.  Gotta give it to Capcom, and more importantly Grin, for making such a fantastic game.

EagleClaw!

Currently watching The Aquabats! Super Show!  I watched a few episodes when it originally aired on the Hub Network, but watched them out of order and scattered throughout the season.  I knew there was somewhat of a consistent story and wanted to see it completely and in order.  I now have the DVD and it’s been great so far.  I’m about halfway through the season.

So far my favorite episode is episode three -- EagleClaw!  This episode mainly stars EagleBones Falconhawk where he creates tension for the group because of his ego and thinking he is the one carrying the band.  All of this begins at a concert where EagleBones plays a guitar solo and steals the spotlight away from the rest of the band.  Then enters his brother, EagleClaw (Jon Heder), who gets his attention by trying to blow up the band with a bomb after the concert.  EagleBones handles it alone (going solo) and faces his brother without the aid of his friends.

When he meets up with EagleClaw, he finds out his brother wants to get revenge because he believes he stole the girl he had a crush on -- Autumn Escalante.  After a battle with his brother with laser powered guitars, EagleClaw is the victor, telling his brother, “You might wanna rethink that solo career.”  Which he then slashes EagleBones’ helmet with his claws and leaves him in the desert.

When EagleBones wakes up, he’s visited by The Spirit of the Sun (Lou Diamond Phillips).  Because he agrees to stop going solo and open himself up to his friends, The Spirit of the Sun gives him a glove so he can summon a spirit animal called The Dude.  She is invisible, so he also grants EagleBones the gift of second sight to see “beyond the surface of reality.”

EagleBones apologizes to his friends and asks them to help him put a stop to his brother.  They agree and meet up with EagleClaw to do battle.  The band is almost defeated when EagleBones calls The Dude to grab EagleClaw’s laser guitar and destroys it.  EagleClaw then retreats, leaving the band to hear EagleBones talk about his spirit animal, which the band does not believe he has.

Great episode.

Lynqus

This site now has an exit.  A few exits to be precise.  Click here to view the new and shiny links page.

"I guess I didn't know"

Earlier this week The Crystal Method performed at KCRW promoting their latest self-titled studio album.  It was a powerful set of tracks and the performance was outstanding.  It is available to listen on demand from KCRW’s website.

They played six tracks, of which four are from the new album.  My favorite tracks were "Over It" and "Storm the Castle."  "Over It" features vocals from Dia Frampton where she includes a heavenly voice to the song, which is over some heavy guitar playing.  "Storm the Castle" has a lot of energy to it and kept my attention from start to end.  I also enjoyed hearing "Play for Real" and "Emulator."  They closed the performance with a remix to "Born Too Slow," which was from Legion of Boom.

Listening to them reminded me that they provided the soundtrack to an old game from the PlayStation called N2O: Nitrous Oxide.  I played a demo of this game back when it was originally released, and thought it would be cool to continue playing it, but I never got around to pick it up and play the full game.  I now had the itch to play it, so I downloaded it from PSN and just finished playing a few hours of it.  Guys, let me tell you: while the music is great, the game itself is not too hot.

It’s kind of weird.  The game is fast paced and slow at the same time.  It definitely is sensory overload.  Especially in the visuals.  For me, the game is way too fast as in there are too many enemies on the screen at one time and you’re moving too fast to actually comprehend what’s happening.  This is a high score kind of game so it gives a ton of info during the tutorial on how to increase your score, but in the end, all you’re doing is shooting anything that moves.  And what I mean by the game is slow is that your weapons don’t seem to fire at the rate you want it to.  Making it like you are not really shooting.  But the soundtrack is fantastic.  It includes tracks from their debut album Vegas.

Gone Home

I finished the game Gone Home a few days before I launched this here website.  Whenever I finish a game that has some thought provoking material in it, I tend to go online to see what others are saying about it.  Also, to make sure I didn’t miss anything in the story that was critical to understanding the whole plot.

I think Austin did a great writeup in filling in some of the backstory details I needed.  Major Props.

WARNING! Spoilers following the link.  But that should be obvious.

To the website!

Breakfast served all day

For Christmas I received something I asked for: The Hamilton Beach Breakfast Sandwich Maker.

Now, even though I was impressed by the infomercial I saw that originally caught my attention, I still had some doubts that it would be able to create a sandwich as delicious looking as from the commercial.  I’ve had the device for a few days now and can give you a quick review on the device.

This.is.a.great.product.

Even though the device looks intimidating with its many compartments, stacked vertically onto one another, it is very easy to use.  To create a basic breakfast sandwich, you’ll need:
1 English muffin
1 slice of cheese (I used Kraft American)
1 meat patty (precooked, preferably)
1 egg

First, you’ll plug in the device to warm up its many griddle compartments and wait for the green light labeled “Ready” to turn on.  While it is warming up, precook the patty.  The device will not cook the meat.  It will merely heat it up.  Once the green light is on, you will start by placing the sandwich together into each griddle compartment.  Starting with the bottom, place the small half of the English muffin, then place the cheese on top of it.  Next, place the meat patty on top of the cheese and close the lower compartment.  Now crack open an egg and place it on the next griddle level.  Poach the yolk with a fork.  Finally, place the other half of the English muffin on top of the egg and close the device.  Set the time for five minutes and let it cook.

The result will be a sandwich where the muffin is slightly toasted, the egg is fully cooked, gooey cheese, and a warm patty ready to eat.  The fantastic thing about the device is how the sandwich is already assembled.  When the timer goes off, just slide out the griddle that separates the top compartment from the lower compartment and the sandwich is now complete.  Cleaning is fairly easy too, but I recommend coating the griddles with some cooking oil so nothing sticks to it.

This was a basic sandwich, but the beauty of this sandwich maker is that you can make a sandwich your way.  Don’t want an English muffin?  Replace it with a bagel.  Don’t want to be a pig and eat a ham patty?  Substitute it with a healthier turkey patty.  Add stuff to the egg like diced tomatoes and peppers to give it a bit of zang (oh that’s right, zang).  The possibilities are endless!

I should stop now before this turns into a commercial for Hamilton Beach.  In closing, after making about a dozen sandwiches and having it for a few weeks now, I can recommend this for anyone who is interested in getting one.  Also check out YouTube because there are many videos of people using it and showing what sandwiches they’re making.

Droppin’ the noise

2013 was a great year in music, especilaly with electronic music.  Below is a playlist I made throughout the year.  I would post links, but when it comes to music, links tend to die fast.  I’m sure you can hunt these tracks down on you own though if you’re inclined to listening to them.  Note, I think two near the top of the list came out in late 2012, but whatevs.

Sleep Alone - Chapel Club
So Many Details - Toro y Moi
What a Shame - Jamie Lidell
P.Y.T. (Michael Jackson Cover) - Nite Jewel
Pull Me Down (Ryan Hemsworth Remix) - Mikky Ekko
Rose Quartz - Toro y Moi
Bavarian #1 (Say You Will) - Miike Snow
Sleepless (feat. Jezzabell Doran) - Flume
Heaven for the Sinner (feat. Erykah Badu) - Bonobo
Emkay - Bonobo
Green (feat. Andreya Triana) - TOKiMONSTA
You’re Out (Prefuse 73 Remix) - Ultraista
Partners In Crime, Pt. Two - The Internet
Goldmine - Kilo Kish

Under construction II

At a snail’s pace, this site is starting to look like the way I want it to.  Color wise, at least.  I have some temp images in place just to get rid of some of the default template stuff.  I also need to remove some of the other default fillers, like that block to the right that keeps telling everyone that there’s no about page.

Under construction

Right now, this website is using the default theme from my blog’s cms.  Things will be changing over the next few days as until it gets to the point where I can say, it’s ok.  Let’s see how far I can break take it.

Beginning

"This broadcast is intended solely for the enjoyment for all audiences.  Any rebroadcast or retransmission without the express written consent of Toonami and Cartoon Network is strictly prohibited."

Well, never mind that second sentence because I have no affiliation with either one of those establishments.  Anyways, welcome if you either intentionally or accidently stumbled upon this website.  This is going to be my personal blog so I can spew my opinions onto the internet for all to see (whether you like it or not).  But there is, however, a second reason.  This little corner of the internet is also intended for me to get familiar with this whole “web” thing.  You know, building websites and whatnot.

Get ready to see a website full of grammatical and spelling errors.

OK, three, two, one let's jam.