Juggling Mike

So we went to see this new movie called Shoot ‘em Up yesterday. With a title like that you should be expecting a lot of action, with out too much of a convoluted plot line…and thats what it delivered with loads and loads of laughs mixed in. The hero “Mister Smith” (Clive Owen) is a your typical action hero equipped with loads of guns, ammo and witty zingers that he spews out like clock work through out the entire flick….oh and let us not forget the deadly carrots.

With out giving too much away, basically Mister Smith is at the wrong place at the wrong time. Some hit men have been hired to kill a pregnant woman. Mister Smith being an all around good guy, steps in to save the day. Now the legions of hit men are after mister smith.

This movie was simply brilliant, possibly one of the best movies I’ve seen in a long time, and it falls into the same category as Snakes on a Plane. By that I mean that this movie was meant as entertainment, yet most people will not appreciate it thinking it dumb. I think I was the only one in the theater room that understood this movie was meant as a good time…nothing serious.

If you’ve got an open mind and just want to have fun for an hour or 2 I HIGHLY recommend this movie.

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So today was finally the day. Steve’s finally received my PRS CE-22 Blue Matteo that they had had shipped down from Ottawa. I got there just as they were unloading the truck. They bring in a big box that the sales guy opens in front of me. He sets the guitar case on the counter and opens it in front of me. The guitar looked fantastic…until I noticed a nice big ding right on the front that went into the maple binding around the body.

So disappointed, I walked back to the back of the store look at what else they have to offer. I thought they had in stock a Custom 22 in blue matteo, which turned out to be a custom 24 20th anniversary. The guy offered to let me have it for a bit less seeing as he was quite pissed about them sending me a damaged guitar telling us it was mint.

Well I’m quite happy, after wanting a PRS for about 14 years now…I finally have one…and it’s not even a base model like I was planning on getting it.

Continue reading for pics!
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UPDATE: The guitar has been sold. Thanks.

Well I’ve loved this guitar for a few years, but it’s time to part.

For sale is a perfect mint condition Jackson RR1 lightning sky.

The guitar has 22frets, a JB seymour duncan in the bridge and a Jazz in the neck. The bridge is an original floyd Rose. It is a neck through construction and features real mother of pearl inlays on the ebony fret board and on the head stock (Jackson logo). The best feature of this guitar is the stunning hand made paint job. The lightning bolts are done with pearlescent paint and will really shine under the right light.

I am asking 2000$ for it or trade for a PRS CE 22 with Trem. The Jackson RR1 currently retails for about 2900$ in stores (with custom paint job) and ordering one brand new will take over 6 months to get delivered. Do yourself a favor and save a 6 month wait and 1000$.

Send me an email if interested (nocturnaldecay@gmail.com).
See images after break.
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So for the second time since I’ve lived here, we get awoken by fire last night. My uncle, who lives right below us phones to tell me lightning hit my balcony and it’s on fire. Luckily he woke up and woke us up and we put it out with out a problem.

For the people out there that don’t believe me… check out the pictures.
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So after my xbox died and it took microsoft 3 weeks to send me a “new” one, I decided to sell my 360 and ended up buying a PS3. Was it pricey? Yes! But for me it was well worth it.

The unit itself runs very smoothly. I found it to be whisper quiet when compared to the 360. The interface is not as pretty to look at as the 360’s, but the simplicity works well. I also like the online store better then xbox live, because it is easier to find exactly what your looking for. I will admit I have not tried playing online yet, but again I’m not too big on multiplayer.

The sixaxis is very light and the battery lasts much longer then in the 360, but of course this is probably only because the sixaxis does not rumble. Do I miss rumble? I haven’t honestly noticed unless I’m playing a racing game.

Do I recommend getting a PS3 right now? Well that depends, if you have the money to burn then yes or if your like me and had a lot of backlog PS2 games you wanted to play but never got a chance to. In this case you can keep yourself entertained for a long time with much cheaper ps2 titles.

If you don’t have the extra 700$ lying around, or already own a PS2, I’d recommend you wait until this September or xmas as there should be a much bigger PS3 librairy to pick from.

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So after hearing all the horror stories involving Xbox 360’s breaking down, and spending the past year and a half thinking these people had obviously done something wrong; my xbox dies. Did I do anything wrong? Well I was actually using it to play a game…I guess that classifies as “something wrong”.

My brother in law turned the Xbox on and started a game of Crackdown. He shouts for me to come look as something isn’t right. Sure enough, graphical glitches everywhere on screen…and then a nice black screen and a red flashing light.

So my reward for being a loyal Xbox customer since the launch of the 360? I now get to pay microsoft 168$CAD and wait patiently (a week and counting at this point) until they send my 360 back to me, or if they cannot repair it a “new” refurbished one.

Speaking to my friends since my Xbox has died, I have come to find out that all of there 360’s have also died, and in some cases multiple times!!! Do you find this normal? I sure as hell don’t! My original NES still works and was never repaired. My PS2 lasted over 5 years and never broke. My original Xbox lasted a good 4 years and never broke. I still have an original Game boy from 1989 that still works perfectly. Yet a 360 breaks after a year and a half?!?!?!

Let’s just say a PS3 is looking MIGHTY tempting right now, and if they had more then 2-3 games I actually would play…I’d have one sitting in my tv cabinet right now.

If you’re still debating between PS3, 360 and Wii, let me highly recommend the very affordable Wii. If Wii isn’t your style, buy a PS3 and stock up on old PS2 games you have yet to play. Hell anything is better then a 360 that will break after a few months of normal usage. If you think PS3 is too expensive, let me put it this way…PS3 will cost you 800$ after taxes. Add a cheap HDMI cable from Ebay and you’re up to about 820$. A 360 might cost you about 580$ after taxes…but then add another 168$ to that amount when your 360 breaks down right after the warranty expires. Still cheaper…but not by much…

Wake up Microsoft!

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8.5/10

I’m sure you’ve already heard about this game from multiple sources. If you haven’t, you obviously aren’t a gamer. You probably think this is yet another run of the mill GTA clone, and you couldn’t be further from the truth. Yes it’s a wide open world and yes there are cars that you can steal and drive, but that is all this game has in common with GTA.

You won’t find much of a story in this game. You start by picking an agent and your then immediately thrown into the gaming world. You have 3 gangs that each control 1/3 of the city. Your job is to eliminate every last boss in each gangs echelon. And thats as deep as the story goes.

So there’s no real story? Why should you play this game? The easy and quick answer is simply that this game is a complete blast to play. Your agent starts off slightly super human and will grow into a monster. You have 5 basic skills (agility, driving, shooting, explosives and strength) that you will level up as you go. It’s important to say that unlike similar games, there are no side missions…yes thats right 0 side missions. Just the 20 or so gang bosses to take out. Not to worry, because there is still plenty to do in the world of Crackdown.

Don’t want to take out the bosses? Spend a few hours climbing and running across the city on the roof tops collecting agility orbs as you go. Or participate in the many roof top races which will also increase your agility. Tired of that? Hop in a car and do some street races or perform stunts. Most of the fun to be had in Crackdown is surprisingly the exploration.

Visually this game looks like an over saturated comic book. Once you get close up certain textures aren’t too hot, but it never bothered me to the point of putting down my controller. The lighting is well done as is the change between day and night. Despite the sheer size of this game, you won’t experience much slow down, even with multitudes of villains and civilians and agency officers filling your screen. The city simply feels alive. The sound design in this game is amazing. You won’t even notice it. How is that good? Because it feels real. Open a car door and you will hear the music the driver was playing when you so rudely interrupted him. Walk further from the car and the music fades away. The city sounds like a real living breathing city, so it’s easy to forget about all the work that went into creating it. The music is only played when in a car and fits the game very well. The controls are spot on and very precise.

Yes there are a few bad parts. The ending in my opinion was horrible. They tried to implement a story and for me, it was just too little too late. You will also experience some slow down in frame rate if you try to create too massive of an explosion. Some of the camera angles when trying to make very precise jumps don’t help you out very much.

It should also be mentioned that Crackdown was your ticket to the Halo3 beta.

All and all this game was definitely worth the purchase. This game will keep you entertained for many hours and personally, even though I’ve technically finished the story, I’m still playing to try and get more achievements. Which is surprising, because I’ve never cared about getting achievements before.

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****Spoiler Alert - The following contains spoilers for Crackdown, Saints Row and Rainbow 6 Vegas*****

It might just be me, but what happened to story telling in video games? I remember a time when video games had epic stories and many many weeks of gaming before you got to view an ending animation that wrapped up the story and made the time you invested into the game worth your time.

Now many years and systems later, finishing a game is a rare thing in this household. Most games bore you to no end only a few hours in, other are so buggy as to be unplayable, others still have difficulty settings so unbalanced as to ruin the entire experience. But more often then not, the problem I have is that the story just does not hold my interest. Stereotypical stories you’ve heard and played million times before, or being able to predict whats going to happen next does not make for an interesting game experience.

Although all this might seem annoying, nothing has been worse the latest trend. Let me put you in context. You hear about an up coming movie months ahead of time and get very psyched about it. The day finally comes and you get to go see the movie. The entire thing is fantastic until, 2 hours in, the ending comes up…and completely ruins the experience. Instead of having a nice satisfying conclusion, you get a “to be continued” plot ending. Ok so maybe this isn’t so bad for a 2 hour movie, which will usually have the sequel out the next year. But what if you had spent 10 or more hours watching this movie?

Delving into my recently completed games of the past year or 2, I can use Saints Row as a perfect example. I played that game for weeks upon weeks, I disregarded all the bugs (and yes there were many) and enjoyed the game play and the excellent story line. The game made me laugh and made me hate some of the villains and like the “heroes” . I finally get to the end and what happens? You die in an explosion and your led to believe the “heroes” betrayed you. Might there be a sequel? Maybe….who knows. If there is, how long will we be waiting?

Another good example is Rainbow Six Vegas. Possibly my favorite game on 360 so far. I invested weeks into this game as well. Even though the story was minimal, it kept me going. I finally get to what I thought was the end of another stage…but no I literally get a nice “To be continued”.

And finally, last night I finished another amazing game called Crackdown (watch for my review coming soon). I was told ahead of time the game ends with a twist. In my opinion…not a very good one and a very predictable one at that. You are informed that your boss was the one who set up all the gangs that you just took out and leads you to believe that he now plans on taking on the world. What kind of an ending is that?!?!?

Its to a point where I’m almost preferring games with out a story (guitar hero 2 for example) or games that don’t try too hard with the story relying mostly on the game play to keep you interested.

What does the future hold? We’ll have to wait and see.

-Livløs

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