I'm kind of a big deal on the Internet...

On the night of the Wrath of the Lich King release I (and many other nerds) met up with one of the WoW Insider guys at a bar named Duffy's in Chicago where we nerded out about WoW while waiting for the midnight release. Well, apparently someone was snapping pictures when I wasn't looking and I've been immortalized on the Internet...go me. I'm the guy right in the center with the orange shirt. If I look unhappy to be there, it's because the music was obnoxiously loud. Credit for finding the picture goes to my friend Sam; he's in the bottom left corner in the leather jacket and Psychonia of my life as a cartoon is in the back-right corner of the photo, sitting to my left.

I also saw this interesting article on FileFront this morning that points out the scary similarities between Robo's theme from Chrono Trigger and Never Gonna Give You Up by Rick Astley, along with an accompanying mash-up video.

Also, the Sonic Unleashed Demo hit Xbox Live this morning and I need to find time to play it.

I'm not dead yet...

So, the NXE didn't brick my box or anything, but it is a little excessive and confusing. I haven't used it for any considerable amount of time though, honestly. World of Warcraft is still eating my time. Gearing up a tank is a pain in the ass and you have to do it quickly enough to meet people's expectations, regardless of how absurd they are. People will only tolerate wiping so much before finding another tank and not bothering to give you another chance.

Also, I finished an anime called Claymore over Thanksgiving. It's nothing particularly special, but if you're in the mood for fan service, gore, and over-the-top action, this is for you. It's not a bad anime by any means, just the epitome of mediocrity.

The New Xbox 360 Experience

So, the new Xbox experience has launched and while I haven't yet booted up my system to see how the upgrade goes (WotLK is eating my soul) I have heard mixed reports of how the upgrade has gone. Microsoft has reported some problems, mostly with the Marketplace, and Gabe of Penny Arcade is complaining that his box keeps freezing when he tries to open his friends list. The former is an annoyance, the latter is game breaking. We shall see how my own experience with the Experience goes.

One other thing that I found interesting about the upgrade is that it allows games to be installed to the HDD so that the disk doesn't need to be read. This is great since you could easily confuse the sound of the disc drive spinning with a passenger jet landing in your living room, but surprisingly this can also lead to a decrease in performance for some games. For example, Bungie made a post on their website actually advising against doing so for this very reason. Hopefully, this feature is better supported for future games because frankly, the noise of the Xbox 360 hard drive is just ridiculous and the ability to mute it most if not all of the time would be wonderful.

Halo 3 Recon

So, there's a little bit of new information about the design of Halo 3: Recon. Apparently there's going to be several story arcs with different main characters all linked together by the main story of the primary character. It sounds more confusing than it is. Follow the link. Also, the new episode of Gundam 00 should be out soon...hopefully.

P.S. I have my Mac, it's super sexy, and Wrath of the Lich King is fucking awesome.

Sonic Unleashed, lookin' better and better

So SEGA has unleashed two new trailers for Sonic Unleashed (c what i did thar?) and it just keeps looking more and more must-have. I'm looking forward to it.

Also, my MacBook is shipping from Shanghai, China. Who knew?

MacBook Pro

So, I placed my order for a new 15-inch MacBook Pro earlier this morning. I upgraded to 2-3 day shipping, but with Veteran's Day on Tuesday that only leaves 2 business days before Wrath of the Lich King releases. If it ships today, I should be ok, but if it doesn't ship until Monday, I might be shit out of luck as far as having it for my LAN party. Cross your fingers for me...

Gundam 00 S2 episode 5

Menclave released Gundam 00 S2 episode 5 recently. It's awesome. Go watch it.

Also, I fully realize that my last 3 posts have only been Gundam 00 release announcements. There's just nothing else too exciting to report at the moment...except for Obama winning that whole election thing (thank god), but I'm sure you knew that.

Gundam 00 S2 episode 4

Gundam 00 S2 episode 4 was released yesterday afternoon by Menclave and is, as usual, of outstanding quality. This episode was a little slow compared to the first 3 of the season, but still quite good. They have to move the plot forward eventually, I guess =P

Also, I hadn't realized that the 4th season of Slayers had come and gone, I'll have to find that...and I started watching Claymore. So far, I've only seen the first, very gory, episode and it doesn't seem bad, but there wasn't anything that sucked me in or repelled me so I'll have to watch more to see if I like it. The art style is VERY similar to the Escaflowne movie.

Gundam 00 S2 Episode 3

Menclave has released their fansub of the latest Gundam 00 episode. This is by far the best anime series I've seen since GITS-SAC and has taken the throne as my all-time favorite. I actually like every single character and there's not many shows I can say that about. Also, they used the same music for the Arios first activation as they did for the 00 Gundam and I got little chills...I am such a nerd...

New MacBook and Windows 7

Both Apple and Microsoft had big announcements on Tuesday. Microsoft officially announced Windows 7, the successor to Windows Vista, but not. They're pretty much advertising it as "Vista done right." Personally, I never had a huge problem with Vista besides a few expected compatibility problems at launch. Regardless, if you're basing your whole new operating system on an OS that most people can't stand, I wouldn't say you're getting off on the right foot.

In less logically frustrating news, Apple has released their next generation of MacBooks and MacBook Pros and the video they released about it makes me feel a little warm and fuzzy. I want one...badly.

PRO-IP Act

Yesterday, President Bush signed the PRO-IP Act into law. It essentially provides for stricter penalties for copyright infringement and allows for the seizure of any device that may have had contact with a copy-written work. Needless to say, this act has been met with mixed reactions. Personally, I think that the part of all this that allows for seizure of all your digital media devices is a little overboard as well as the new way a "work" is defined, if that part of the act turns out to be true. Dubya can't be out of the White House soon enough...

Gundam 00 Season 2, Episode 2

Menclave has released Gundam 00 Season 2, Episode 2 in all it's HD glory. Check it out.

P.S. The music for 00 Gundam's activation is badass.

Tokyo Game Show goodies

The Tokyo Game Show is this week and amongst the hailstorm of announcements coming out of it the one that caught my eye, most predictably, is Halo 3 Recon. It's going to be a separate game that looks like it follows the footsteps of an ODST on Earth during the latter part of Halo 2 and/or during Halo 3. Along with the announcement was a new trailer. It starts out much the same way as the one from a couple weeks ago, but keeps going where the last one stopped.

Also, a new Resident Evil 5 trailer was shown that gives a bit more plot information to the game besides "it's in Africa," but it still looks like it's shaping up to be "RE4:Africa Edition." This isn't necessarily a bad thing because RE4 was great, but I'm not seeing anything unique here. I plan on buying it regardless because I'm addicted to the series, but I hope it's not a major disappointment for people who aren't.

YouTube is doing what?

So, apparently YouTube is going to start selling video games via Amazon. While completely unexpected, it creates a crazy synergy. Since YouTube is now owned by Google, they can use the same algorithms that Google Ads uses to target you with Amazon products based on what video your watching. "Oh, I see your watching a trailer for this awesome new game coming out next month. Here's a link to pre-order it on Amazon." This is some scary/awesome stuff...

Gundam 00 is here!!!

Menclave has released their likely amazing fansub of the first episode of season 2 of Gundam 00. The show aired in Japan at 5pm last night and I commend their ridiculous turnaround time on this. Keep it up, I'm looking forward to it.

Knights of the Old Republic MMO

Rumors were flying earlier this year about a KOTOR MMO and BioWare flatly denied it. However, the rumor is surfacing again and I couldn't be more excited about it. Knights of the Old Republic is one of my favorite games ever and if BioWare manages to create a successful Star Wars MMO I will be very, very pleased. Also, there's a new Halo Wars trailer.

Typewriters and Spartans

Jun Takeuchi, the producer of Resident Evil 5, has revealed that the game will not use the trademark typewriters that all previous installments of the series have used as save points. This is by no means a big deal, but it does bring a small tear to my eye... Also, Stuart Beattie has presented a movie script to Bungie for a Halo movie who is in turn in talks with Microsoft. The movie script is based on the novel "Halo: The Fall of Reach." If this comes to fruition and doesn't suck, I will be a happy man.

Fable 2 Collector's Edition

Supply issues have resulted in the scale down and price drop of the Fable 2 Collector's Edition. It is now $70 instead of $80 and no longer includes an ugly figurine and some worthless cards. Also, the CE box is no longer being used either, but the cover art is the same as the normal box so, who cares anyway. This leaves the "Making of" DVDs and some in-game extras as the only incentive to get this and the first game's "Making of" DVDs weren't that spectacular, if I recall correctly. In short, I don't think either CE would be worth the asking price and I plan on buying the normal retail version of Fable 2.

Blizzard wins Glider law suit

Blizzard has won their $6 million law suit against the company that created Glider, a botting program for World of Warcraft (and other MMOs, I believe). I don't have much to say about it besides I'm glad that they won. Having fewer people that fail at the game at the level cap will make good groups more likely. Most would say it helps the game's economy too, but I'm almost always a buyer so the extra goods the botters flood the market with helped me most of the time. However, I don't begrudge people their virtual profits and this will make "playing the auction house" more profitable, for sure.

Street Fighter IV anime

Street Fighter 4 'Chun-Li Anime' trailer

Apparently an anime centered around Chun-Li is being created that will cover the events between the end of Street Fighter II and Street Fighter IV. I haven't seen a version of this trailer with subtitles yet, so I have no idea what's going on, but It probably won't have the best storyline an anime's ever had. However, the other anime adaptations of Street Fighter have had superb fight sequences and fairly good music, so I'm looking forward to it nonetheless.

Max Payne Gamers' Cut?

So, John Moore has managed to secure a PG-13 rating for the Max Payne movie. He previously had a disagreement with the MPAA, which had originally given it an R rating, stating that it was no more violent than the recent Dark Knight film that got a PG-13 rating. After trimming some frames, the MPAA reconsidered it's decision and gave it a PG-13 rating. What I'm more interested in though is his decision to include a "Gamers' Cut" in the DVD release. Apparently, it will re-introduce a small bit of the violence, but more importantly it will also re-introduce some of the more atmospheric pieces that are being omitted for the theater release to the brain-dead shoot 'em up masses. If I'm interpreting this correctly, the "Gamer's Cut" should be much more the film noir story of the game than the theater release will be.

Prepare to Drop

Halo 3 'Keep It Clean' teaser

At 7:07:07 this morning, Bungie released a new teaser for...something. No one really knows what the hell it's a teaser for at the moment, but there is a Halo 3 logo at the end which leads me to believe that it's either new content for the game or a new game that's a closely related tie-in. We shall see... Also, Jack Thompson was officially and permanently disbarred today, not that anyone really took him seriously in the first place. At least now the courts don't have to entertain his outlandish drivel.

New Halo 3 Achievements and Fable 2

So, Halo 3's got some new Achievements that just went out a couple days ago and I think the way that they keep adding content and motivation to a console game is great. Usually, when you buy a console game, you pay your 60 bucks and don't expect anything else beyond that. It's nice to get something out or your $50/year Xbox Live subscription beyond the ability to play online, which in this day and age is taken for granted. While I understand that this is more of a hook to get people to buy the Legendary Map Pack than anything else, it's a good one and I'm thrilled that Bungie is still putting a great deal of effort into their game a full year after its initial release.

In other news, Fable 2 went gold sometime in the last few days. While the first one was a disappointment, it was by no means bad. It was over-hyped and alot of the features Lionhead wanted were cut before the finished product went out the door, so the game was much less ground-breaking than was promised, but it was still good. Thankfully, the hype train this time around has been toned down a bit and while I still don't think they're really pushing the limits on anything, I think it will at least be a solid successor to the first installment of the series, which is quite enough for me.

My Internet story...

So, as the post below says, I've had some Internet problems. The first problem in this tragic tale is that Comcast couldn't come out to my apartment until September 9th. Since I moved in the weekend of the 1st, this was a little over a week without Internet. Shitty, but not the end of the world. On the day of my appointment, the technician arrives and we go through setting everything up, but for whatever reason I can't send upstream traffic. So, she decides she wants to go out and check the box and/or replace the line to my apartment. This would be well and good if the cable connection box weren't on a boarded up alley that you can't access. So with no means of fixing the problem, she left and I canceled my Comcast account.

So, I decided to give AT&Ts DSL a try, but that would take another week and after setting up the shipping address as my apartment, I realized that there was no way I would be here to get it. So, I called back the next day trying to change my shipping address and then they told me that they couldn't change the address until after first delivery. The only problem with this was that I had no idea when first delivery would be because I had no tracking number and no way of them leaving a sticker on my door because I live in an apartment building. This, of course, resulted in me having to call back AT&T multiple times to try and change the address, which I did eventually get changed to my work address. After that, things were fairly downhill aside from some minor registration problems and a telephone cable shorter than my arm span...But I have internet access now and It's working wonderfully...it only took 3 and a half weeks...

Internet withdrawal

I still don't have Internet access at home... Long story, and one you will have to wait until I get said access to hear.

Hiatus

So, I'm moving to Chicago tomorrow and don't have internet set up at the new place yet, so I may be absent from the Internet for almost a week if I cannot find an unsecured wireless network in my building. Of course, I'll still have access at work, but next week is gonna be hellish, so I wouldn't count on any real updates of any kind during that time, either...

Also, the custom PAX consoles look amazing.

Force Unleashed...almost

I downloaded the the Force Unleashed Demo from Xbox Live last night and just...wow. It was everything that I had psyched it up in my head to be and more. Force pushing people across the room and/or hurling TIE fighters at them, yes, you read that right throwing TIE fighters, has got to be one of the most satisfying things I've ever done in a video game. It's one of those situations where you can't help but grin a little after wiping out an entire hanger of baddies in one giant explosion. However, I think the best thing about the game is that they didn't make Force lightning too OP. It's not Jedi Academy where you just run around holding down the Force lightning button until everything is dead. That had its merits, but I think the greater focus on lightsaber combat, force push/throw, and a little bit of a fighting game style combo system, are gonna make the game far more interesting to play for a longer time. And you can't tell from the demo, but I hear the story is shaping up to be fairly good as well. September 16th can't come soon enough...

Eureka Seven

So, it's been awhile since I watched Eureka Seven, so please forgive any details I may be missing. The premise of the show is that a group of hippies with state-of-the-art mecha that can surf through the air are trying to stop the government from doing some heinous act that I can't remember. The way this show draws you in is with the surfing mecha and then makes you stick around for the love story that starts to unfold. And while it sounds stupid in text, the sky-surfing mecha thing goes with the overall mood and theme of the show very well. And when I say that it makes you stick around for the love story, I don't mean that in a bad way. Combat takes a back seat for the majority of the show anyway, so if that's all you're looking for, this probably isn't for you. However, the love story isn't the only thing going on and for a large part of the series, it's fairly subtle and the plot focuses on stopping the evil government. When I look back on the series though, that's what I remember it as, a love story amidst all the other ridiculousness going on, so it does take the spotlight in the end. I'd highly recommend it for anyone looking for something a little lighthearted.

War and Peace

In general, I'm not very interested in politics. However, the recent conflict in Georgia has gotten me slightly pissed off. For anyone reading who may have fallen for the Western spin on this, let me tell you the real story. The Georgian government tried to invade a secessionist region of its own country in an effort to re-take it by force. The Russians, who had peacekeepers in the secessionist region, then bombed the shit out of Georgia in order to stop the attacks. Overkill? Yes. Would we have done the exact same thing? Unfortunately, I think so. For better or worse, we may be the international police force, but we have no obligation to protect some stupid little country half way across the world stupid enough to piss off the giant red bear next door, especially while we're already fighting 2 other shitty wars in the Middle East. Frankly, we're as ill-equipped to piss off Russia right now as Georgia was.

And all the McCain supporters out there who are touting how much of a badass he is for stepping up to the plate and throwing his support behind Georgia need to realize several things. Firstly, McCain is currently what, a Senator? He has no power to help the people in Georgia, so anything he says about how the American people support them is a line of BS with nothing to back it. We won't even talk about the facts that not all Americans support them or that we couldn't send more troops there if we wanted to. The second thing that McCain supporters throw around is that Obama is on vacation and making no statement about the conflict. I like to think that's because he's smart enough to realize all of the above and is content with the hole that McCain is digging for himself. Call it convenient, but having no comment about the situation is better than the nonsense McCain is throwing around right now.

How time flies...

Well, it's been a long time since my last post and I can't exactly say I've been too busy. I guess I was just occupied doing other things and completely forget about this little side project. However, I'm back and alot has changed since my last post. The first thing you'll notice is that I scrapped my site and have decided to just have the blog. There are two reasons for this. Firstly, I am no longer affiliated with Miami University (nor will I likely be in the near future). So, the free web hosting that I had there will expire as soon as the next batch of account terminations goes through and I don't really feel like paying for web hosting at this time. Secondly, I can get almost all the same functionality here with less effort, minus the music player, so why not save myself the trouble.

The site revamp aside, alot has happened since my last update. I've had a 3 month job at the Miami University IT Support Desk. I then moved out of Oxford, OH back to Shorewood, IL to live with my parents for 2 months. Currently, I have a job supporting a new VoIP system for Chicago Public Schools and am looking forward to moving into my apartment in Chicago next month.

One thing that was great about these last few months of unemployment (besides, ya know, not working) was the endless hours of the day available for quality anime watching. So, while I may have abandoned the blog for the last several months, I have a great backlog of anime to share vicariously with any visitors. ^_^

Appleseed: Ex Machina

I just wanted to inform anyone that actually checks this that I am indeed still alive. I also downloaded Appleseed: Ex Machina, the sequel to the 2004 movie, and stayed up way too late last night watching it, but it was worth my sleep depravity today. I also grabbed Eureka Seven while I was bored out of my mind last weekend and will probably start that sometime this weekend. I'll try to get some music up from the new Appleseed movie ASAP, but Google failed me and I'll have to try a bit harder.

Console War

So, in response to the problems that Xbox Live has been having over the last few weeks some idiots in Texas are trying to sue Microsoft for five million dollars...good luck with that.

In addition to the Xbox Live problems that occured over the holidays, Microsoft has had many other problems with it's hardware in the past and Destructoid has an interesting article about a possible Xbox Exodus if Sony ever gets its shit together.

Lastly, New Line Cinema has decided to drop the HD-DVD format and support Blu-ray exclusively. Since this follows Warner Bros.'s recent decision to do the same, it seems that HD-DVD is on it's way to becoming the next Betamax.

"Also, we are assholes. Professionally." ~Tycho, Penny Arcade

HearJapan

Apparently, a new English-language web site is launching that sells Japanese music. This has the potential to be very cool. Also, I started playing World of Warcraft...again. This can only end badly...

"The enforced revelry period has finally come to a close. Thank Christ." ~Tycho, Penny Arcade