Right away I know what you're thinking. This game came out quite some time ago, why review it now? Well, because I just now got around to playing it. Hey, it happens. To me, it happens a lot. So get used to reading reviews here on things that have been out for a while. I'm sure there are plenty of you out there who might not have played this game yet, either. So here you go.
Chains of Olympus is the PSP entry into the God of War series. It would have been real easy for Sony to just make a portable version of one of the PS2 God of War games, but instead they took the time to create a wholly original entry into the series. Set before the original God of War, this game sees Kratos as a servant of the Gods, going where they command to act as muscle. While repelling a Persian invasion, Kratos sees the sun fall from the sky, and has to figure out what has happened to Helios, the sun god.
The controls for this game are slightly dumbed down from the PS2 games, to fit with the limited number of buttons on the PSP. This really isn't a problem, though. The game plays just as good as its big brothers do, if not better in some cases. The secondary weapon you get in this game, the Gauntlet of Zeus, allows you to lay some serious beatdowns on your enemies. I'd have to say it's my favorite secondary weapon out of the whole series. In fact, I might even say that this game as a whole is my favorite of the series. The quick time events were a bit more demanding, but other than that I can't think of a real negative for this game. If you're a God of War fan and you own a PSP, you owe it to yourself to get this.
Saturday, January 30, 2010
Friday, January 29, 2010
Pro Bowl
The Pro Bowl is this weekend, in case you hadn't heard. Yes, the weekend before the Super Bowl. Is anyone even going to watch it this year? I know I'm not. I'm usually a big fan of the Pro Bowl. It's a great way to say goodbye to the NFL season. But by moving it to the week before the Super Bowl, the NFL virtually guaranteed that many of the best players in the league would be sitting this game out. Sorry fans, I know you voted for Payton Manning, but he's not playing. And why should he? He has a Super Bowl to worry about next week! I wouldn't play either, if I were in his shoes. I don't even blame the guys sitting out who aren't playing in the Super Bowl, guys like Tom Brady or Bret Favre. Hey Bret, you just got stomped hard in the NFC Championship game. Wanna go play a meaningless game with a bunch of B-teamers while you wait to see how well the Saints do against the Colts? No? Didn't think so.
I've heard that the NFL has taken notice of the fan reaction to the moving of the Pro Bowl and has promised to put it back where and when it belongs after this year. I hope this is true. But in the meantime I'm voicing my displeasure in the only way I know how. Well, besides posting about it here, that is. I'm not watching the game.
I've heard that the NFL has taken notice of the fan reaction to the moving of the Pro Bowl and has promised to put it back where and when it belongs after this year. I hope this is true. But in the meantime I'm voicing my displeasure in the only way I know how. Well, besides posting about it here, that is. I'm not watching the game.
TNA Impact review - 1/28/10
It's Thursday night, and for me that's wrestling night. I rarely, if ever, watch the WWE shows, but I try to at least keep up with what's going on in TNA. Now that Hulk Hogan is with the company (along with pretty much all of his friends), I've been watching it every week to see if it's going to turn out good. I'm still undecided... On to this week's show!
So apparently Hogan and Bischoff have decided to set up an eight-man tournament to decide the number one contender to the World Title. I'm all for this, I always like a good tournament. So tonight they had two matches to qualify for the tournament. Desmond Wolfe beat Sean Morley, then Hernandez beat Chris Daniels. I'm pretty happy with Morley being in TNA. He was definitely the biggest shock for me when he showed up on the live show at the beginning of the year. I was always a fan of him back in his Val Venis days. Both of these matches were decent.
The next match up was the Beautiful People vs. Tara, Awesome Kong, and Hamada. Pretty cool to see the Knockout Champ, Tara, teaming up with the Knockout Tag Champs. But I can't stand what's become of the Beautiful People. I admit, I hadn't seen the show for a few months before Hogan came in. When I last watched, the Beautiful People were made up of Velvet Sky and Angelina Love, and their gimmick was the girls who know exactly how hot they are and act nasty accordingly. Now, the Beautiful People are Velvet Sky, Madison Rayne, and Lacey Von Erich, and their gimmick has basically become dumb blonds. It's really disappointing. They used to be entertaining, but not so much anymore. On top of that, they keep doing this thing where they tease that they're going to kiss, but then they don't. Now, don't get me wrong. These are three very attractive women, and I'm all for eye candy and skin, but what I've always loved about TNA's women's division is the fact that they didn't have to rely on that kind of stuff. The women in TNA are, mostly, all very talented wrestlers who can put on the same kind of show as the men. Unlike WWE, they don't need to have pillow fights, lingerie matches, or faux-lesbianism, so I hate seeing the Beautiful People resort to that.
As for the actual match, the Beautiful People cheated to win. The match really wasn't so great. Madison Rayne needs to work on her in-ring skills a bit. Lacey was only all right, too, a surprise considering she's a Von Erich. Velvet is carrying them both for now.
Next we had another six-man tag match. Brian Kendrick and the Motor City Machine Guns won out against Amazing Red and Generation Me. Now, this was my first time seeing Generation Me. I don't know who they are or where they came from, but they seem talented. Good teamwork, lots of high flying, very X Division. Problem is their look (that glittery purple trim is not cool) and that name! Generation Me? Whatever, guys. Good match, though.
After the match, the British Invasion came out to the ring. Apparently Rob Terry won the X Division Title shot at the last Feast or Fired match, and he was there to collect. So poor Amazing Red, who just got pretty beat down in the last match, had to defend. However, before the match could start, Brutus Magnus basically forced Terry to give the shot to Doug Williams. So Williams wrestled the match, beat Red, and became the new X Division Champion. All this is just furthering the angle they've been building on for weeks now where Magnus and Williams don't respect Terry, and I'm sure Terry will eventually split off from the British Invasion and go his own way.
Finally, the main event of the night, Ken Anderson vs. Jeff Jarrett. Earlier in the night, Jarrett had told Hogan and Bischoff he was willing to do whatever he needed to to get back into the swing of things. So Bischoff, being the devious little ass that he is, decides to throw Jarrett in with Anderson, who had an open challenge out. Jarrett hasn't wrestled in seven months, so he really wasn't ready for this, but he looked good in the ring. The match was good. In the end, Anderson got the win after hitting Jarrett with a low blow, but both wrestlers came out of the match looking good.
Aside from the actual matches, we got to see more of the Foley/Bischoff feud. Hogan basically gave Foley his job back on the condition he and Bischoff sort out their issues. Bischoff essentially told Foley that Foley would fall in line or Abyss would lose his job. Kind of a stupid angle, but worth it to hear Foley tell a story about how his three year old son took a poop in a tunnel at Chuck E. Cheese.
We also got a segment hyping up the feud between Team 3D and the Nasty Boys. I'm sure this will be a decent feud once the matches actually start, but for now I agree with what 3D said tonight. That is, where have the Nasties been for the past ten years while 3D was out winning titles? That's right, on their butts out of work because no one wanted them. They only have jobs now because they're tight with Hogan. But that's okay, as long as they can work in the ring. We'll have to wait and see.
Angle apologized to Hogan for spitting in his face last week after that recreation of the Montreal Screwjob (Hebner admitted to taking a payment from Ric Flair on that, by the way, and Hogan suspended him). He also announced that he would have a qualifying match to get into the tournament. I guess that's next week. After the segment, Scott Hall and Sean Waltman attacked Angle, seemingly for no reason.
Not a whole lot else happened. More of AJ and Flair, which is really not working well, in my opinion. It's just not AJ's style, pardon the pun. Bischoff called Bobby Lashley into his office to fire him. We'll see where that goes. And Ken Anderson had a funny interview with Christy Hemme. Let me make this clear. I don't like Ken Anderson. He's a good enough wrestler, but I can't stand the character he plays. I don't mean that like, "Ooh, he's a bad guy, I don't like him. I can't wait to see him get beat!" No. I mean it like, "Ugh, not this guy again! Change the channel!" His gimmick, the whole having to announce himself thing, it's just so stupid. I can't for the life of me figure out how he ever got over. But even I have to admit it was really funny seeing him pop back onto the screen after having walked away, right in Christy Hemme's face, to repeat his name again. Oh, and by the way, Christy Hemme? Still the most beautiful woman in wrestling.
Before I finish, I'd just like to add that I don't like what Hogan and Bischoff have done to the Impact Zone. I'm alright with the ring going back to the classic four sides, but it needs to be a bit bigger. The size was my favorite aspect of the six sided ring. Also, I think there needs to be more room around the outside of the ring. I swear, if you had a front row seat I think you might actually be able to reach out and touch the ring apron. And finally, that new ramp has to go! I can't even elaborate on this one, it's just bad! Put it back the way it was!
Alright, so all in all this was a decent Impact. Better than last week's, and way better than the terrible Genesis PPV. TNA has done enough to keep me interested one more week.
So apparently Hogan and Bischoff have decided to set up an eight-man tournament to decide the number one contender to the World Title. I'm all for this, I always like a good tournament. So tonight they had two matches to qualify for the tournament. Desmond Wolfe beat Sean Morley, then Hernandez beat Chris Daniels. I'm pretty happy with Morley being in TNA. He was definitely the biggest shock for me when he showed up on the live show at the beginning of the year. I was always a fan of him back in his Val Venis days. Both of these matches were decent.
The next match up was the Beautiful People vs. Tara, Awesome Kong, and Hamada. Pretty cool to see the Knockout Champ, Tara, teaming up with the Knockout Tag Champs. But I can't stand what's become of the Beautiful People. I admit, I hadn't seen the show for a few months before Hogan came in. When I last watched, the Beautiful People were made up of Velvet Sky and Angelina Love, and their gimmick was the girls who know exactly how hot they are and act nasty accordingly. Now, the Beautiful People are Velvet Sky, Madison Rayne, and Lacey Von Erich, and their gimmick has basically become dumb blonds. It's really disappointing. They used to be entertaining, but not so much anymore. On top of that, they keep doing this thing where they tease that they're going to kiss, but then they don't. Now, don't get me wrong. These are three very attractive women, and I'm all for eye candy and skin, but what I've always loved about TNA's women's division is the fact that they didn't have to rely on that kind of stuff. The women in TNA are, mostly, all very talented wrestlers who can put on the same kind of show as the men. Unlike WWE, they don't need to have pillow fights, lingerie matches, or faux-lesbianism, so I hate seeing the Beautiful People resort to that.
As for the actual match, the Beautiful People cheated to win. The match really wasn't so great. Madison Rayne needs to work on her in-ring skills a bit. Lacey was only all right, too, a surprise considering she's a Von Erich. Velvet is carrying them both for now.
Next we had another six-man tag match. Brian Kendrick and the Motor City Machine Guns won out against Amazing Red and Generation Me. Now, this was my first time seeing Generation Me. I don't know who they are or where they came from, but they seem talented. Good teamwork, lots of high flying, very X Division. Problem is their look (that glittery purple trim is not cool) and that name! Generation Me? Whatever, guys. Good match, though.
After the match, the British Invasion came out to the ring. Apparently Rob Terry won the X Division Title shot at the last Feast or Fired match, and he was there to collect. So poor Amazing Red, who just got pretty beat down in the last match, had to defend. However, before the match could start, Brutus Magnus basically forced Terry to give the shot to Doug Williams. So Williams wrestled the match, beat Red, and became the new X Division Champion. All this is just furthering the angle they've been building on for weeks now where Magnus and Williams don't respect Terry, and I'm sure Terry will eventually split off from the British Invasion and go his own way.
Finally, the main event of the night, Ken Anderson vs. Jeff Jarrett. Earlier in the night, Jarrett had told Hogan and Bischoff he was willing to do whatever he needed to to get back into the swing of things. So Bischoff, being the devious little ass that he is, decides to throw Jarrett in with Anderson, who had an open challenge out. Jarrett hasn't wrestled in seven months, so he really wasn't ready for this, but he looked good in the ring. The match was good. In the end, Anderson got the win after hitting Jarrett with a low blow, but both wrestlers came out of the match looking good.
Aside from the actual matches, we got to see more of the Foley/Bischoff feud. Hogan basically gave Foley his job back on the condition he and Bischoff sort out their issues. Bischoff essentially told Foley that Foley would fall in line or Abyss would lose his job. Kind of a stupid angle, but worth it to hear Foley tell a story about how his three year old son took a poop in a tunnel at Chuck E. Cheese.
We also got a segment hyping up the feud between Team 3D and the Nasty Boys. I'm sure this will be a decent feud once the matches actually start, but for now I agree with what 3D said tonight. That is, where have the Nasties been for the past ten years while 3D was out winning titles? That's right, on their butts out of work because no one wanted them. They only have jobs now because they're tight with Hogan. But that's okay, as long as they can work in the ring. We'll have to wait and see.
Angle apologized to Hogan for spitting in his face last week after that recreation of the Montreal Screwjob (Hebner admitted to taking a payment from Ric Flair on that, by the way, and Hogan suspended him). He also announced that he would have a qualifying match to get into the tournament. I guess that's next week. After the segment, Scott Hall and Sean Waltman attacked Angle, seemingly for no reason.
Not a whole lot else happened. More of AJ and Flair, which is really not working well, in my opinion. It's just not AJ's style, pardon the pun. Bischoff called Bobby Lashley into his office to fire him. We'll see where that goes. And Ken Anderson had a funny interview with Christy Hemme. Let me make this clear. I don't like Ken Anderson. He's a good enough wrestler, but I can't stand the character he plays. I don't mean that like, "Ooh, he's a bad guy, I don't like him. I can't wait to see him get beat!" No. I mean it like, "Ugh, not this guy again! Change the channel!" His gimmick, the whole having to announce himself thing, it's just so stupid. I can't for the life of me figure out how he ever got over. But even I have to admit it was really funny seeing him pop back onto the screen after having walked away, right in Christy Hemme's face, to repeat his name again. Oh, and by the way, Christy Hemme? Still the most beautiful woman in wrestling.
Before I finish, I'd just like to add that I don't like what Hogan and Bischoff have done to the Impact Zone. I'm alright with the ring going back to the classic four sides, but it needs to be a bit bigger. The size was my favorite aspect of the six sided ring. Also, I think there needs to be more room around the outside of the ring. I swear, if you had a front row seat I think you might actually be able to reach out and touch the ring apron. And finally, that new ramp has to go! I can't even elaborate on this one, it's just bad! Put it back the way it was!
Alright, so all in all this was a decent Impact. Better than last week's, and way better than the terrible Genesis PPV. TNA has done enough to keep me interested one more week.
Thursday, January 28, 2010
Beautiful morning
Have you ever woke up and had something happen that lets you know today is going to be a great day? I'll often go to sleep listening to the classical music station on the radio, WGUC. It helps me relax. Anyway, I woke up this morning and they did something they almost never do. They played Star Wars music! It was the opening titles from Episode I, followed by Duel of the Fates. I had been laying in bed thinking about going back to sleep for a bit, but once I heard that I knew it was time to get up and start my day.
Thanks, WGUC!
Thanks, WGUC!
Wednesday, January 27, 2010
Software review - Collectorz.com
As I mentioned in previous posts about my video game and comic book collections, I use software from the site Collectorz.com to keep track of everything. I told you all I would get into more detail about those programs, so here I go.
First, Game Collector. I got this program a few years ago. It cost around $30, but I found it well worth it. Before this, I had been using IGN's online database to keep track of my collection, but they simply didn't have every game I had in their database. Plus, their database was filled with mistakes. When my collection started growing to encompass some pretty offbeat games and systems, I quickly realized I needed another solution. Then I found Game Collector. Game Collector allows you to use a preset database to add your games if you wish, or you can simply enter the information manually however you want. So, when I bought a bunch of games for Chinese handheld Gameking, I could just type their names into the program and add them that way, without having to rely on some database to already have them listed.
But by far, my favorite thing about Game Collector is the customization it allows. You can fill in as much or as little information about the games as you wish, and you can then tell the program how much of that info to actually display in your list. Let me give you an example. Whenever I add a new game to my collection, I always put in the following information: title, platform, developer, publisher, year of release, and rarity value. But if I wanted to, I could add more. A lot more. You can also list things like the number of discs a game uses, what kind of multiplayer support it has, its rating, its genre, review scores, where you bought it, how much you paid, what it's worth, and so on. You can go really deep with it if you want. Or not.
If you like, you can add a picture of both the front and the back of the box. You can then have the program display all your box images for each system in varying sizes. And on top of everything else, there are a number of user created fields, where you can have the program display any information you want. This is useful in the rare case that you want it to display something that it didn't already have built into it. This is how I get the program to display rarity values.
Here's a picture sample of my list.
I have my list sorted alphabetically first by system, then by title within each system. You can also see the developer and publisher fields, the release year, and lastly a user created field I use to display the rarity. On the right side of the screen you see a sidebar. Now, I personally don't use this feature, so I just push it to the side to allow for more room in my title field, but for those that do use it, this is where your box art would show up, along with any description of the game you wrote and any other info you decided to use.
There's one other feature I'd like to touch on. You can go to the Tools dropdown menu and click Statistics to get this great little graph showing you how your collection breaks down. That is, how many games you have for each system. Here.
So, overall I'd totally recommend this program. It's very easy to use, offers an insane amount of customization if you want it, and you can even export your list to a number of different formats to allow you to post it online, or export it to a portable device so you can carry it with you. No more buying a game you already have! My only real gripe about the program is this. It cost $30 when I bought it, and I was okay with this cost, but then a few years later, after receiving many updates for the program, I was told that if I wanted to update to the newest version I would have to pay $30 again. I already payed for the program once, and the new update really wasn't anything special, so I didn't like having to pay for it again. But I did. I'm not sure if this means the program is $60 now, but even if it is I would still recommend getting it to any serious game collector.
Now, Comic Collector. This program features a lot of the same types of customization that Game Collector does. You can add all sorts of info for your comics, if you like. What I really like about this program is their extensive database of comics. With Game Collector, I valued being able enter all the information on my own in any way I liked, but with this program I find it much easier just to use their database. You can search through a ridiculous number of titles. Even some of the most obscure limited series are listed in there. When you find a series you like, you can same add it to a list of your favorites and jump straight to it in the future. From there, you can display a list of every issue of that comic (and sort out the ones you already have), including variant covers and reissues. Then just go down the list, check off the ones you want to add to your collection, and you're done! It makes it so simple. Plus, it adds images of the front and back cover for many comics.
Here's a picture.
This program was also $30, which brings me to one final point I wanted to make. Collectorz.com offers a way to get their software for free. On their page, at least back last year when I got Comic Collector, there was an option to complete a couple of free trial offers for some advertisers, and in exchange you could choose one Collectorz.com program for free. Now, I know what you may be thinking, but it may be worth it to check it out. I got my Comic Collector this way, and all I had to do was sign up for some newsletter, which I later canceled. No money was involved, no giving out my phone number, none of that stuff. You may get lucky and find a similar offer if you're interested.
So, if any of you out there read these reviews and decide you want to try the programs, please let me know what you think.
First, Game Collector. I got this program a few years ago. It cost around $30, but I found it well worth it. Before this, I had been using IGN's online database to keep track of my collection, but they simply didn't have every game I had in their database. Plus, their database was filled with mistakes. When my collection started growing to encompass some pretty offbeat games and systems, I quickly realized I needed another solution. Then I found Game Collector. Game Collector allows you to use a preset database to add your games if you wish, or you can simply enter the information manually however you want. So, when I bought a bunch of games for Chinese handheld Gameking, I could just type their names into the program and add them that way, without having to rely on some database to already have them listed.
But by far, my favorite thing about Game Collector is the customization it allows. You can fill in as much or as little information about the games as you wish, and you can then tell the program how much of that info to actually display in your list. Let me give you an example. Whenever I add a new game to my collection, I always put in the following information: title, platform, developer, publisher, year of release, and rarity value. But if I wanted to, I could add more. A lot more. You can also list things like the number of discs a game uses, what kind of multiplayer support it has, its rating, its genre, review scores, where you bought it, how much you paid, what it's worth, and so on. You can go really deep with it if you want. Or not.
If you like, you can add a picture of both the front and the back of the box. You can then have the program display all your box images for each system in varying sizes. And on top of everything else, there are a number of user created fields, where you can have the program display any information you want. This is useful in the rare case that you want it to display something that it didn't already have built into it. This is how I get the program to display rarity values.
Here's a picture sample of my list.
I have my list sorted alphabetically first by system, then by title within each system. You can also see the developer and publisher fields, the release year, and lastly a user created field I use to display the rarity. On the right side of the screen you see a sidebar. Now, I personally don't use this feature, so I just push it to the side to allow for more room in my title field, but for those that do use it, this is where your box art would show up, along with any description of the game you wrote and any other info you decided to use.
There's one other feature I'd like to touch on. You can go to the Tools dropdown menu and click Statistics to get this great little graph showing you how your collection breaks down. That is, how many games you have for each system. Here.
So, overall I'd totally recommend this program. It's very easy to use, offers an insane amount of customization if you want it, and you can even export your list to a number of different formats to allow you to post it online, or export it to a portable device so you can carry it with you. No more buying a game you already have! My only real gripe about the program is this. It cost $30 when I bought it, and I was okay with this cost, but then a few years later, after receiving many updates for the program, I was told that if I wanted to update to the newest version I would have to pay $30 again. I already payed for the program once, and the new update really wasn't anything special, so I didn't like having to pay for it again. But I did. I'm not sure if this means the program is $60 now, but even if it is I would still recommend getting it to any serious game collector.
Now, Comic Collector. This program features a lot of the same types of customization that Game Collector does. You can add all sorts of info for your comics, if you like. What I really like about this program is their extensive database of comics. With Game Collector, I valued being able enter all the information on my own in any way I liked, but with this program I find it much easier just to use their database. You can search through a ridiculous number of titles. Even some of the most obscure limited series are listed in there. When you find a series you like, you can same add it to a list of your favorites and jump straight to it in the future. From there, you can display a list of every issue of that comic (and sort out the ones you already have), including variant covers and reissues. Then just go down the list, check off the ones you want to add to your collection, and you're done! It makes it so simple. Plus, it adds images of the front and back cover for many comics.
Here's a picture.
This program was also $30, which brings me to one final point I wanted to make. Collectorz.com offers a way to get their software for free. On their page, at least back last year when I got Comic Collector, there was an option to complete a couple of free trial offers for some advertisers, and in exchange you could choose one Collectorz.com program for free. Now, I know what you may be thinking, but it may be worth it to check it out. I got my Comic Collector this way, and all I had to do was sign up for some newsletter, which I later canceled. No money was involved, no giving out my phone number, none of that stuff. You may get lucky and find a similar offer if you're interested.
So, if any of you out there read these reviews and decide you want to try the programs, please let me know what you think.
Concert news - 1/27/10
So I found out recently that the big four of thrash metal are going to tour together. This is huge news for any metalheads out there. The big four - Metallica, Megadeth, Anthrax, and Slayer! All on the same stage! Here's the kicker, though. Right now, they're only scheduled to tour Europe. I don't get it, guys. You're all American bands, get over here and do that tour! Metallica did a similar thing last year. The big summer, outdoor portion of their Death Magnetic tour was Europe-only, and we in the States only got a short arena tour in the fall. I guess we can only hope that the tour will be such a success that they'll bring it home for the summer. I've seen Metallica and Megadeth once each before, but I'd love to see them again, and I've never gotten to see Anthrax or Slayer. And to see them all on one night would be amazing!
According to an e-mail I got from Live Nation today, Three Days Grace, Breaking Benjamin, and Flyleaf will be in Evansville, IN on Friday. I'm a big fan of all of those bands, I've seen each of them a couple of times, and I'd love to get to see them again. Too bad I'm dead poor right now and can't go. Plus, Evansville's a good three or four hour drive from me. Not like I haven't driven further than that for a concert before, but now is just not a good time. If anyone out there gets to see that show, let me know how it goes.
Flaw will be coming to Dayton in March. Apparently they've got a new album in the works. My brother Sawdust is a huge Flaw fan, so he's going nuts for this. I hope we can make it to the show. Everybody should get to see their favorite band at least once.
Lastly, Swedish power metal giants Hammerfall will be coming back to the US for the first time in a number of years this spring. As usual with any big European band, they won't be coming anywhere close to me, so if I want to see them I'll have to make the trip up to Cleveland. I've done it a few times before, and usually enjoy the trip, so I'm actually looking forward to it. It's an expensive trip, though, between gas, food, and hotel costs, not to mention the actual concert ticket. And it's tough not to buy a shirt when you get to see one of those bands. My buddy Shin DT, who I go to virtually every concert with, has already bought us tickets for the show. I just hope I can afford to actually go when the time comes.
That's all I have for now. If any of you out there know of any cool concerts coming up in the Cincinnati area, or within a day's drive or so, let me know!
According to an e-mail I got from Live Nation today, Three Days Grace, Breaking Benjamin, and Flyleaf will be in Evansville, IN on Friday. I'm a big fan of all of those bands, I've seen each of them a couple of times, and I'd love to get to see them again. Too bad I'm dead poor right now and can't go. Plus, Evansville's a good three or four hour drive from me. Not like I haven't driven further than that for a concert before, but now is just not a good time. If anyone out there gets to see that show, let me know how it goes.
Flaw will be coming to Dayton in March. Apparently they've got a new album in the works. My brother Sawdust is a huge Flaw fan, so he's going nuts for this. I hope we can make it to the show. Everybody should get to see their favorite band at least once.
Lastly, Swedish power metal giants Hammerfall will be coming back to the US for the first time in a number of years this spring. As usual with any big European band, they won't be coming anywhere close to me, so if I want to see them I'll have to make the trip up to Cleveland. I've done it a few times before, and usually enjoy the trip, so I'm actually looking forward to it. It's an expensive trip, though, between gas, food, and hotel costs, not to mention the actual concert ticket. And it's tough not to buy a shirt when you get to see one of those bands. My buddy Shin DT, who I go to virtually every concert with, has already bought us tickets for the show. I just hope I can afford to actually go when the time comes.
That's all I have for now. If any of you out there know of any cool concerts coming up in the Cincinnati area, or within a day's drive or so, let me know!
Monday, January 25, 2010
My history: The web, sports, and anime
Since these last three sections are all smaller than the others, I've decided to combine them into one post and get it all out of the way at once.
The web: My dad bought our first PC in the early-mid '90s. At that time, there was no home internet service, at least not where we lived. My time "online" was spent connecting to local BBSes, or Bulletin Board Systems. For those of you who don't remember or are too young, these were basically like websites, except you hosted them on your own computer and each individual visitor had to dial in to you to access them. This meant most BBSes could only have one user at a time. But while there you could exchange files with the owner (called a SysOp, or Systems Operator), post on the message board, play text or ANSI graphics based games, or chat on bigger BBSes that had more than one dial in line. I used to really love those old text based games. Especially one called Legend of the Red Dragon. A lot of different people played it together, though usually only one person could play at a time, and you fought monsters and gained experience and such, and fought each other too. It was an MMORPG way before such a thing even existed.
Eventually we signed up for the CompuServe online service, which was basically one gigantic, nationwide BBS, but with graphics and images. It, like its main competitor America Online, was the precursor to the modern internet in the home. I used to do a lot of chatting there. It was good times. I still think of some of my old chat buddies from those days. I haven't heard from any of them in more than ten years. I know one of them died. Very sad, he was a good dude. RIP, The X Guy.
Of course, online services eventually went the way of the dinosaur, and straight up internet service became commonplace in the home. The days of ICQ and Napster had arrived, followed by YouTube and blogging, and here we are now.
Sports: I hated most sports growing up. Baseball I loved. Everyone in Cincinnati loves baseball. You have to. It's in your blood if you grew up here. No one from Cincinnati could possibly complain about listening to Marty Brennaman call Reds games on the radio. But I used to hate football. Mainly because when I was very young, I didn't have a TV of my own, and when football was on I couldn't play any video games. This meant every Sunday, all Sunday, all winter long. But I eventually came to love football. The Bengals making the Superbowl in the '88-'89 season probably helped a lot.
I've since come to enjoy watching most sports, though I only actively follow sports that I have a home team in. That means just MLB, NFL, and NCAA basketball (I would follow college football too, but I think the BCS is absolutely stupid). Living in Indiana as I do now, I sometimes try to follow the NBA, but my transplant home team the Pacers just don't mean as much to me as a Cincinnati team would.
Aside from mainstream team sports, I also like to watch the occasional MMA fight, as well as the Olympics and action sports events like the X Games.
Anime: I had seen some anime shows growing up without actually realizing that they were anything different from normal, American cartoons. I'm talking about Voltron and Dragon Ball. I got my first real taste of anime while at a Star Trek convention. At one of the vendor booths, some guy had a TV set up and was playing Record of Lodoss War. I remember seeing it and thinking it looked like Final Fantasy come to life, and being severely impressed by the animation and art style. I started trying to track down whatever anime I could, which in those days was not easy. The only luck I got came from the occasional anime movie on the Sci-fi Channel (which was rare) and a weekly anime broadcast on a low-power local TV station. This station wasn't on our cable, so I had to watch it over the air, and I only barely picked it up. But every Saturday night I tuned in and put up with the static to get my anime fix.
Of course, you probably know what happened next. Cartoon Network started playing Dragon Ball Z, and it blew up. They capitalized on its popularity by airing more and more anime shows (some of which, like Tenchi Muyo, became some of my very favorite anime shows ever). Anime became readily available, if still a bit expensive. And then American cartoon makers started using anime-influenced art styles in their shows, and hundreds of anime lookalike kids shows started popping up, and anime became a huge trend. And all of us who had worked our tails off in the '90s to find anime to watch became kind of disenfranchised by the whole thing. Don't get me wrong, I still love anime, but I'm never happy when something I really love becomes so mainstream.
The web: My dad bought our first PC in the early-mid '90s. At that time, there was no home internet service, at least not where we lived. My time "online" was spent connecting to local BBSes, or Bulletin Board Systems. For those of you who don't remember or are too young, these were basically like websites, except you hosted them on your own computer and each individual visitor had to dial in to you to access them. This meant most BBSes could only have one user at a time. But while there you could exchange files with the owner (called a SysOp, or Systems Operator), post on the message board, play text or ANSI graphics based games, or chat on bigger BBSes that had more than one dial in line. I used to really love those old text based games. Especially one called Legend of the Red Dragon. A lot of different people played it together, though usually only one person could play at a time, and you fought monsters and gained experience and such, and fought each other too. It was an MMORPG way before such a thing even existed.
Eventually we signed up for the CompuServe online service, which was basically one gigantic, nationwide BBS, but with graphics and images. It, like its main competitor America Online, was the precursor to the modern internet in the home. I used to do a lot of chatting there. It was good times. I still think of some of my old chat buddies from those days. I haven't heard from any of them in more than ten years. I know one of them died. Very sad, he was a good dude. RIP, The X Guy.
Of course, online services eventually went the way of the dinosaur, and straight up internet service became commonplace in the home. The days of ICQ and Napster had arrived, followed by YouTube and blogging, and here we are now.
Sports: I hated most sports growing up. Baseball I loved. Everyone in Cincinnati loves baseball. You have to. It's in your blood if you grew up here. No one from Cincinnati could possibly complain about listening to Marty Brennaman call Reds games on the radio. But I used to hate football. Mainly because when I was very young, I didn't have a TV of my own, and when football was on I couldn't play any video games. This meant every Sunday, all Sunday, all winter long. But I eventually came to love football. The Bengals making the Superbowl in the '88-'89 season probably helped a lot.
I've since come to enjoy watching most sports, though I only actively follow sports that I have a home team in. That means just MLB, NFL, and NCAA basketball (I would follow college football too, but I think the BCS is absolutely stupid). Living in Indiana as I do now, I sometimes try to follow the NBA, but my transplant home team the Pacers just don't mean as much to me as a Cincinnati team would.
Aside from mainstream team sports, I also like to watch the occasional MMA fight, as well as the Olympics and action sports events like the X Games.
Anime: I had seen some anime shows growing up without actually realizing that they were anything different from normal, American cartoons. I'm talking about Voltron and Dragon Ball. I got my first real taste of anime while at a Star Trek convention. At one of the vendor booths, some guy had a TV set up and was playing Record of Lodoss War. I remember seeing it and thinking it looked like Final Fantasy come to life, and being severely impressed by the animation and art style. I started trying to track down whatever anime I could, which in those days was not easy. The only luck I got came from the occasional anime movie on the Sci-fi Channel (which was rare) and a weekly anime broadcast on a low-power local TV station. This station wasn't on our cable, so I had to watch it over the air, and I only barely picked it up. But every Saturday night I tuned in and put up with the static to get my anime fix.
Of course, you probably know what happened next. Cartoon Network started playing Dragon Ball Z, and it blew up. They capitalized on its popularity by airing more and more anime shows (some of which, like Tenchi Muyo, became some of my very favorite anime shows ever). Anime became readily available, if still a bit expensive. And then American cartoon makers started using anime-influenced art styles in their shows, and hundreds of anime lookalike kids shows started popping up, and anime became a huge trend. And all of us who had worked our tails off in the '90s to find anime to watch became kind of disenfranchised by the whole thing. Don't get me wrong, I still love anime, but I'm never happy when something I really love becomes so mainstream.
My history: Pro wrestling
Are you tired of reading my life story yet? I'm starting to think it might be coming off vain, my posting all this stuff about myself. But I thought it was important that I establish my love for these topics before I start writing about current events related to them. You all don't have to read them, obviously. But if you are, I thank you, and I promise there's only a few more. Then I'll get on to what I actually started this blog for.
Anyways, wrestling! I know what some of you may be thinking immediately. "You know that's fake, right?" Let me get this straight, first. I didn't watch wrestling in the '80s. I missed out on Hulkamania and all of that. Much like how I didn't get into comics until my early teens, I was too busy with video games to care about wrestling until the early '90s. By this time, the wrestling business had basically given up on the idea of trying to convince people it was a real sport. Instead, they were marketing it as the truth, that wrestling was a scripted show just like any other on TV, that just happened to be performed by very talented stuntmen/actors in front of a live audience. That said, it has always bothered the hell out of me whenever anyone asks me, "You know that's fake, right?" What kind of idiot still thinks wrestling is real? No one but the most backwards, ignorant people have thought that for almost 20 years now! So when people ask me if I know wrestling's fake, I just ask them if they know their favorite show is fake. "Hey, you know 24's not real, right? I mean, it's scripted, they're not actually doing that stuff." I usually get a pretty good reaction from that. It's ironic, too, because in wrestling they really are doing the stuff you see. They're just pulling their punches to avoid seriously hurting each other.
Sorry about that little rant. It always comes with the territory when discussing wrestling. Moving on. Like I said, it wasn't until late '93 that I got into wrestling. I started watching WWF because of some friends, and really got into it. I followed it religiously all through the '90s. I also watched WCW during the late '90s (who didn't want to see the nWo?), but WWF was my favorite. I've always especially liked The Undertaker.
Once WCW and ECW collapsed, though, and were bought by Vince McMahon, and the WWF was forced to change its name to WWE, things went downhill real quick for me. With no competition, WWE's product became pretty terrible. And knowing, since I followed all the behind the scene news on the internet, that Triple H - who used to be one of my favorite wrestlers in his D-Generation X days - had married into the McMahon family just made it too hard to watch. I couldn't stand seeing Vince's son-in-law being given the title over and over again over more deserving wrestlers. So for a long time I stopped watching wrestling.
Then TNA came along. I was so happy to have an alternative to WWE! I've been a TNA fan ever since, though there are still times that I'll stop watching for a few months if the product becomes stupid to me. Like I think it might be about to get now. But that's for another post.
I've been to a number of old WWF house shows, and one TV taping for the old WWF Challenge show on Saturday mornings. I also had the privilege of attending WrestleMania XI in Hartford, CT. On top of that, I've been to a few local shows for WWE developmental leagues, and at those shows I got to meet and have my picture taken with Kevin Nash, Kane, Big Show, and Jim Cornette.
Anyways, wrestling! I know what some of you may be thinking immediately. "You know that's fake, right?" Let me get this straight, first. I didn't watch wrestling in the '80s. I missed out on Hulkamania and all of that. Much like how I didn't get into comics until my early teens, I was too busy with video games to care about wrestling until the early '90s. By this time, the wrestling business had basically given up on the idea of trying to convince people it was a real sport. Instead, they were marketing it as the truth, that wrestling was a scripted show just like any other on TV, that just happened to be performed by very talented stuntmen/actors in front of a live audience. That said, it has always bothered the hell out of me whenever anyone asks me, "You know that's fake, right?" What kind of idiot still thinks wrestling is real? No one but the most backwards, ignorant people have thought that for almost 20 years now! So when people ask me if I know wrestling's fake, I just ask them if they know their favorite show is fake. "Hey, you know 24's not real, right? I mean, it's scripted, they're not actually doing that stuff." I usually get a pretty good reaction from that. It's ironic, too, because in wrestling they really are doing the stuff you see. They're just pulling their punches to avoid seriously hurting each other.
Sorry about that little rant. It always comes with the territory when discussing wrestling. Moving on. Like I said, it wasn't until late '93 that I got into wrestling. I started watching WWF because of some friends, and really got into it. I followed it religiously all through the '90s. I also watched WCW during the late '90s (who didn't want to see the nWo?), but WWF was my favorite. I've always especially liked The Undertaker.
Once WCW and ECW collapsed, though, and were bought by Vince McMahon, and the WWF was forced to change its name to WWE, things went downhill real quick for me. With no competition, WWE's product became pretty terrible. And knowing, since I followed all the behind the scene news on the internet, that Triple H - who used to be one of my favorite wrestlers in his D-Generation X days - had married into the McMahon family just made it too hard to watch. I couldn't stand seeing Vince's son-in-law being given the title over and over again over more deserving wrestlers. So for a long time I stopped watching wrestling.
Then TNA came along. I was so happy to have an alternative to WWE! I've been a TNA fan ever since, though there are still times that I'll stop watching for a few months if the product becomes stupid to me. Like I think it might be about to get now. But that's for another post.
I've been to a number of old WWF house shows, and one TV taping for the old WWF Challenge show on Saturday mornings. I also had the privilege of attending WrestleMania XI in Hartford, CT. On top of that, I've been to a few local shows for WWE developmental leagues, and at those shows I got to meet and have my picture taken with Kevin Nash, Kane, Big Show, and Jim Cornette.
My history: Comics
As a young kid, I was too busy with Star Wars and video games to give much thought to comic books. I was aware of them in only a very basic way. I pretty much only knew about Superman because of the Christopher Reeves movies, and I knew about Batman because of the old Adam West show. I was a fan of both of these things, but I never gave a thought to the actual comics. On the Marvel side of things, I was aware of the Hulk because of the Lou Ferrigno show, and aware of Spider-Man and Captain America just because of how big they were. But still, I had no interest in their comics. I didn't have any friends who read comics, and, like I said, with video games dominating most of my time comics just never entered into my mind.
It wasn't until the eighth grade that I started making some friends who read comics. And then Fox started airing the X-Men cartoon. The Batman cartoon was great, but because of the Adam West show and the Tim Burton movie I saw Batman as something separate from comics. The X-Men cartoon was my first exposure to something that came purely from the world of comic books. I knew who Wolverine was, mainly from seeing him in a few video games, but other than that the X-Men were a mystery to me. But the show captivated me from the very first episode, and I started learning everything I could form my comic reading friends about the X-Men.
One day a friend came over to my place after just picking up some comics from the gas station across the street from me (remember when you could buy comics at a gas station?). He asked if he could leave them at my place, because his mom didn't like him buying comics. I said, "Ok.", so he left them with me, and I read them and enjoyed them a lot. It wasn't long after that that I bought my first comic, X-Men #30, the wedding of Cyclops and Jean Grey.
After that I started going to the comic book shop every Wednesday for new comics. I stayed with the X-Men books all through the Age of Apocalypse storyline (still my favorite arc ever) and a little beyond, and even started reading Spider-Man for a bit before I had to stop. It was at that time that we moved out to Indiana, and the comic shop was now just too far a drive to get my dad to make every week. Since I didn't have my license yet, that meant no more comics for me. It wasn't until years later, when a friend started buying mass quantities of comics on eBay, that I started seriously collecting.
He bought so many comics that he didn't have anywhere to put them all. He knew I liked comics too, so he asked if I would help him store some for a while. He gave me like four or six longboxes full of comics to look through, all '80s era Marvel titles. While looking through his X-Men books, I noticed a really large amount of doubles, enough to make up a full run of Uncanny X-Men from '83 to '94! I asked him if I could buy them off of him, but he just gave them to me as payment for helping him store his books. Thus I had an instant collection.
I've been working on it, slowly, ever since. I mainly only collect X-Men comics, but I also have a good handful of Spider-Man titles. Lately I've been considering Batman and Superman as well. I'm also receiving current issues of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel. I have four full longboxes, as well as a shortbox I use to hold my Age of Apocalypse titles. I currently own 999 comic books. I plan on getting a copy of Gambit vol. 3 #1 for my thousandth book. He's always been my favorite X-Man.
Just like with my video game collection, I use Collectorz.com's Comic Collector software to keep track of my comics. I plan on writing a review of Collectorz.com's stuff eventually. I like it, it does the job quite well.
It wasn't until the eighth grade that I started making some friends who read comics. And then Fox started airing the X-Men cartoon. The Batman cartoon was great, but because of the Adam West show and the Tim Burton movie I saw Batman as something separate from comics. The X-Men cartoon was my first exposure to something that came purely from the world of comic books. I knew who Wolverine was, mainly from seeing him in a few video games, but other than that the X-Men were a mystery to me. But the show captivated me from the very first episode, and I started learning everything I could form my comic reading friends about the X-Men.
One day a friend came over to my place after just picking up some comics from the gas station across the street from me (remember when you could buy comics at a gas station?). He asked if he could leave them at my place, because his mom didn't like him buying comics. I said, "Ok.", so he left them with me, and I read them and enjoyed them a lot. It wasn't long after that that I bought my first comic, X-Men #30, the wedding of Cyclops and Jean Grey.
After that I started going to the comic book shop every Wednesday for new comics. I stayed with the X-Men books all through the Age of Apocalypse storyline (still my favorite arc ever) and a little beyond, and even started reading Spider-Man for a bit before I had to stop. It was at that time that we moved out to Indiana, and the comic shop was now just too far a drive to get my dad to make every week. Since I didn't have my license yet, that meant no more comics for me. It wasn't until years later, when a friend started buying mass quantities of comics on eBay, that I started seriously collecting.
He bought so many comics that he didn't have anywhere to put them all. He knew I liked comics too, so he asked if I would help him store some for a while. He gave me like four or six longboxes full of comics to look through, all '80s era Marvel titles. While looking through his X-Men books, I noticed a really large amount of doubles, enough to make up a full run of Uncanny X-Men from '83 to '94! I asked him if I could buy them off of him, but he just gave them to me as payment for helping him store his books. Thus I had an instant collection.
I've been working on it, slowly, ever since. I mainly only collect X-Men comics, but I also have a good handful of Spider-Man titles. Lately I've been considering Batman and Superman as well. I'm also receiving current issues of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel. I have four full longboxes, as well as a shortbox I use to hold my Age of Apocalypse titles. I currently own 999 comic books. I plan on getting a copy of Gambit vol. 3 #1 for my thousandth book. He's always been my favorite X-Man.
Just like with my video game collection, I use Collectorz.com's Comic Collector software to keep track of my comics. I plan on writing a review of Collectorz.com's stuff eventually. I like it, it does the job quite well.
My history: Music
Everybody likes music, right? Well, I never used to. Not growing up. I think it may have to do with the fact that my parents did their best to keep me away from any contemporary music as a child. The only thing I was ever allowed to listen to was talk radio and the oldies station. And honestly, I didn't have much of a problem with this. I heard other kids at school talking about the latest rap song or dance song and knew I didn't want to be like them.
But two things happened to me in the eighth grade that changed things. First, I saw the movie Highlander, and subsequently started watching the syndicated Highlander TV show. Second, I saw the movie Wayne's World. What do these two things have in common? The answer is Queen. My parents had recently bought a new stereo with a CD player, our first one, and I begged them to let me buy a Queen CD. And so my dad took me to the music store and I bought my first album, Queen's A Kind of Magic, featuring the song Princes of the Universe, the theme to Highlander.
This had my curiosity piqued, but I wasn't ready to dive into the ocean of rock music just yet. The next little push I got came from being left alone at home. With both my parents working after school, and my younger siblings being at our cousin's house, I had the place to myself for an hour or so in the afternoons, and so I could check out some music videos on TV. It just so happened that Green Jelly's Three Little Pigs video was hot right then. I thought it was pretty funny, and also dug the music. I showed it to my parents, and fortunately it was cutesy enough to get them to agree to letting me buy the Green Jelly album.
Now, I can't say in all honesty that it was Green Jelly's music that actually pushed me over the edge. What it actually was that did it was seeing that, upon bringing the Green Jelly album to school on the last day of eighth grade and listening to it in class, this kind of music could open some doors for me. All the "cool", hip hop loving kids, the jocks and popular people, looked at me with distaste, which was cool because I hated them anyway. And suddenly there were all these other kids, which I had never really talked to before, who were into a lot of the same kinds of things I were, who wanted to hang out and listen to rock music! This is what tipped the scale and got me to dive headfirst into rock music.
Since then my love of rock and metal has grown without stopping. I discovered some of my all-time favorite bands soon thereafter, Aerosmith, Metallica, and Nirvana (only just before Kurt died). I developed a deep appreciation of the early days of rock, from Chuck Berry and Elvis up through the Woodstock era, and learned how wide the rock umbrella stretched, encompassing everything from The Cranberries to Cannibal Corpse. And I happily give all of it a chance, even to this day. When it comes down to it though my favorite genres are straight up rock like Aerosmith and Kiss, thrash metal like Metallica, and power metal like Blind Guardian and Edguy.
I've been to a number of concerts in my time, seeing well over 100 different acts live. I keep a database of who I see, just like I catalog my video game and comic book collections. My love of music has developed to the point where I now see music as the highest form of art, and seeing live music is almost the same to me as other people see going to church.
Oh, and I might as well add that I do listen to some other things besides rock/metal. I enjoy the occasional bit of classical music (if Beethoven and Bach had lived today, they'd be metalheads, guarantee it!), especially at night. And then there's my guilty pleasure, J-pop. I was actually listening to Japanese pop the entire time I was writing this post. ^_^;
But two things happened to me in the eighth grade that changed things. First, I saw the movie Highlander, and subsequently started watching the syndicated Highlander TV show. Second, I saw the movie Wayne's World. What do these two things have in common? The answer is Queen. My parents had recently bought a new stereo with a CD player, our first one, and I begged them to let me buy a Queen CD. And so my dad took me to the music store and I bought my first album, Queen's A Kind of Magic, featuring the song Princes of the Universe, the theme to Highlander.
This had my curiosity piqued, but I wasn't ready to dive into the ocean of rock music just yet. The next little push I got came from being left alone at home. With both my parents working after school, and my younger siblings being at our cousin's house, I had the place to myself for an hour or so in the afternoons, and so I could check out some music videos on TV. It just so happened that Green Jelly's Three Little Pigs video was hot right then. I thought it was pretty funny, and also dug the music. I showed it to my parents, and fortunately it was cutesy enough to get them to agree to letting me buy the Green Jelly album.
Now, I can't say in all honesty that it was Green Jelly's music that actually pushed me over the edge. What it actually was that did it was seeing that, upon bringing the Green Jelly album to school on the last day of eighth grade and listening to it in class, this kind of music could open some doors for me. All the "cool", hip hop loving kids, the jocks and popular people, looked at me with distaste, which was cool because I hated them anyway. And suddenly there were all these other kids, which I had never really talked to before, who were into a lot of the same kinds of things I were, who wanted to hang out and listen to rock music! This is what tipped the scale and got me to dive headfirst into rock music.
Since then my love of rock and metal has grown without stopping. I discovered some of my all-time favorite bands soon thereafter, Aerosmith, Metallica, and Nirvana (only just before Kurt died). I developed a deep appreciation of the early days of rock, from Chuck Berry and Elvis up through the Woodstock era, and learned how wide the rock umbrella stretched, encompassing everything from The Cranberries to Cannibal Corpse. And I happily give all of it a chance, even to this day. When it comes down to it though my favorite genres are straight up rock like Aerosmith and Kiss, thrash metal like Metallica, and power metal like Blind Guardian and Edguy.
I've been to a number of concerts in my time, seeing well over 100 different acts live. I keep a database of who I see, just like I catalog my video game and comic book collections. My love of music has developed to the point where I now see music as the highest form of art, and seeing live music is almost the same to me as other people see going to church.
Oh, and I might as well add that I do listen to some other things besides rock/metal. I enjoy the occasional bit of classical music (if Beethoven and Bach had lived today, they'd be metalheads, guarantee it!), especially at night. And then there's my guilty pleasure, J-pop. I was actually listening to Japanese pop the entire time I was writing this post. ^_^;
My history: Sci-fi/fantasy
One of my very earliest memories is of my parents taking me to a drive-in theater to see Star Wars. For as long as I can remember Star Wars has been a part of my existence. It is truly my oldest friend. I love pretty much all Star Wars, from the original trilogy to the new prequels (yes, I'm even okay with Jar Jar), The Clone Wars movie and TV series, and the expanded universe novels (though I've only read a handful of those).
Star Wars may have began my love of science fiction and fantasy, but it sure didn't end there. Most any movie or TV show I watch or book I read is based in sci-fi or fantasy. Other movies and shows I'm a fan of include Star Trek (I don't understand anyone who says you can't like both, the two franchises are so different!), Indiana Jones, Buffy the Vampire Slayer and The X-Files. There are lots more, but those are the really big ones.
Then there's novels. It used to be, for a long time, that 90% or more of the novels I chose to read were based off of other franchises I liked. Star Wars or Star Trek novels, mostly. Kind of sad, I know. As much as I like fantasy, especially being a big fan of the Final Fantasy game series, it's surprising to me that I didn't get into fantasy novels much sooner than I did, but for some reason whenever I saw them at the book store I just passed over them without any interest. But that changed in 1999.
My next younger brother has been reading fantasy novels for a long time, and back in '99 I was out Christmas shopping, trying to find something for him. I figured I'd go to the book store and pick out a decent looking fantasy novel. So, I'm looking them all over and I notice that many of them say "book x of y" on them. So I decided just to find one that looked cool, then find the first book in that series and be done with it. So I did. The book I wound up buying for him was Robert Jordan's The Eye of the World, book one in The Wheel of Time series. Later that night while I was wrapping presents, I took a closer look at the book. It looked pretty good, so with Christmas still two weeks away I decided to read it myself before I wrapped it up for him.
I was instantly hooked. Hooked just as bad as I was the first time I saw Star Wars, or played Zelda. I devoured this book. After I finished, I wrapped it up for my brother, then went out and bought my own copy, along with every other book in the series that was out at the time. My brother wound up liking the books as much as I did. The two of us got to see Robert Jordan once, at a book signing when book nine was released. Some of you may know that he died a few years later, so I feel privileged that we got to see him before he died, even if we didn't get to speak to him. By the way, I have yet to read the latest book in the series that recently came out, so if anyone wants to post any comments here please, no spoilers!
Reading The Wheel of Time opened my eyes to fantasy novels, and I've since read a few more series, with plans to read more in the future as time allows. Other series I've enjoyed include The Sword of Truth and Harry Potter.
Star Wars may have began my love of science fiction and fantasy, but it sure didn't end there. Most any movie or TV show I watch or book I read is based in sci-fi or fantasy. Other movies and shows I'm a fan of include Star Trek (I don't understand anyone who says you can't like both, the two franchises are so different!), Indiana Jones, Buffy the Vampire Slayer and The X-Files. There are lots more, but those are the really big ones.
Then there's novels. It used to be, for a long time, that 90% or more of the novels I chose to read were based off of other franchises I liked. Star Wars or Star Trek novels, mostly. Kind of sad, I know. As much as I like fantasy, especially being a big fan of the Final Fantasy game series, it's surprising to me that I didn't get into fantasy novels much sooner than I did, but for some reason whenever I saw them at the book store I just passed over them without any interest. But that changed in 1999.
My next younger brother has been reading fantasy novels for a long time, and back in '99 I was out Christmas shopping, trying to find something for him. I figured I'd go to the book store and pick out a decent looking fantasy novel. So, I'm looking them all over and I notice that many of them say "book x of y" on them. So I decided just to find one that looked cool, then find the first book in that series and be done with it. So I did. The book I wound up buying for him was Robert Jordan's The Eye of the World, book one in The Wheel of Time series. Later that night while I was wrapping presents, I took a closer look at the book. It looked pretty good, so with Christmas still two weeks away I decided to read it myself before I wrapped it up for him.
I was instantly hooked. Hooked just as bad as I was the first time I saw Star Wars, or played Zelda. I devoured this book. After I finished, I wrapped it up for my brother, then went out and bought my own copy, along with every other book in the series that was out at the time. My brother wound up liking the books as much as I did. The two of us got to see Robert Jordan once, at a book signing when book nine was released. Some of you may know that he died a few years later, so I feel privileged that we got to see him before he died, even if we didn't get to speak to him. By the way, I have yet to read the latest book in the series that recently came out, so if anyone wants to post any comments here please, no spoilers!
Reading The Wheel of Time opened my eyes to fantasy novels, and I've since read a few more series, with plans to read more in the future as time allows. Other series I've enjoyed include The Sword of Truth and Harry Potter.
My history: Video games
Since I'm just getting started with this, I thought I'd share with you all a bit about my history with the various subjects I plan to blog about. My pedigree, if you will.
I've been gaming virtually all my life. When I was born, my parents owned an Atari 400, which was basically an Atari home computer with a 5200 built into it, though it used different sized cartridges (Atari's slick way of making you spend more money on games). We only had a small handful of games, but we had the ones that counted. Pac-Man, Donkey Kong, Centipede, Asteroids, Missile Command, and more. There was also an old Odyssey 400 Pong-clone machine, though that mostly stayed packed away in the closet.
I cut my teeth on these games, from around age 4 to age 10 (my parents wouldn't let me play any younger than that, and it's still my theory to this day that the reason for this was so they could have more time to play themselves). On my 10th birthday I received the gift I had been clamoring for all year, my NES. Super Mario Bros. showed me a whole new world of gaming that I didn't think was possible before that. I was instantly hooked on Nintendo. But the big bomb dropped a month later, on Christmas morning. There was one game all the kids at school were talking about nonstop. They had been talking about it since before I even got my NES. I didn't know much about it at the time, but I knew I needed it. When Christmas morning came, I woke up and ran to the tree and saw that little rectangular box that I knew must be a game, and I opened it up. I was immediately struck by the fact that it was shiny and gold. I could tell because the box had a little window in it so you could see the cartridge inside! The Legend of Zelda was in my hands! This was truly a defining moment in my life. I never looked back from there.
As the years went on I did what I could to grab more games. We didn't have much money growing up, so I mostly borrowed games from friends, or rented. But I managed to get a game or two at Christmas or birthdays, and managed to get a couple dozen by the time I convinced my parents to get me a Genesis. I really wanted a Super NES, as Nintendo made my favorite games, but it was too expensive. So Genesis it was. Other than Sonic, though, I didn't find much that thrilled me on Genesis, so it wound up sitting on my shelf while I spent a summer mowing lawns and washing cars to save money for a Super NES.
My gaming cooled down a bit at this point. I was getting older, and had many siblings now, and therefore got less at Christmas and my birthday. I had to work for what few SNES games I managed to pick up for myself. I managed to pick up a Game Boy when Link's Awakening was released, and later talked my dad into getting me an N64 for Christmas when that came out, but the games were coming fewer and farther between for me. After I graduated and got a crappy job, I saved up and bought a PlayStation so I could play Final Fantasy VII, and a Game Boy Color for Link's Awakening DX. Things were still pretty slow moving though, until 2001.
A couple of my friends, while away at college, got to play the Dreamcast and loved it. Since Dreamcast was pretty much a dying system at this point, you could get a new one for around $50, so they bought one. All of my friends who played it loved it too, so we all wound up buying one. This started some kind of chain reaction in me. After buying the Dreamcast I felt the need to go back and get the other Sega systems I missed growing up, and I quickly snapped up a Master System, Sega CD, 32X, and Saturn. Then I turned to other systems, like the Turbo Grafx 16 and Neo Geo systems. I basically started buying up anything I could. I also started buying games like they were supplies for an end-of-the-world bunker. NES, Super NES, Genesis, any cheap old games I could find, even if I wasn't particularly interested in playing them.
The collecting bug had bit me. Hard. Before I bought my Dreamcast I took a quick count and saw that I owned around 70 games for around a half-dozen systems. I currently own 1,830 games for almost 40 systems. If I had the room to properly display them all, I would love to provide you all with some pictures. I guess that'll have to wait, though.
By the way, for anyone that is interested, I use Collectorz.com's Game Collector software to keep track of my collection. I may go a bit more in depth on that in a later post. It's good software.
I've been gaming virtually all my life. When I was born, my parents owned an Atari 400, which was basically an Atari home computer with a 5200 built into it, though it used different sized cartridges (Atari's slick way of making you spend more money on games). We only had a small handful of games, but we had the ones that counted. Pac-Man, Donkey Kong, Centipede, Asteroids, Missile Command, and more. There was also an old Odyssey 400 Pong-clone machine, though that mostly stayed packed away in the closet.
I cut my teeth on these games, from around age 4 to age 10 (my parents wouldn't let me play any younger than that, and it's still my theory to this day that the reason for this was so they could have more time to play themselves). On my 10th birthday I received the gift I had been clamoring for all year, my NES. Super Mario Bros. showed me a whole new world of gaming that I didn't think was possible before that. I was instantly hooked on Nintendo. But the big bomb dropped a month later, on Christmas morning. There was one game all the kids at school were talking about nonstop. They had been talking about it since before I even got my NES. I didn't know much about it at the time, but I knew I needed it. When Christmas morning came, I woke up and ran to the tree and saw that little rectangular box that I knew must be a game, and I opened it up. I was immediately struck by the fact that it was shiny and gold. I could tell because the box had a little window in it so you could see the cartridge inside! The Legend of Zelda was in my hands! This was truly a defining moment in my life. I never looked back from there.
As the years went on I did what I could to grab more games. We didn't have much money growing up, so I mostly borrowed games from friends, or rented. But I managed to get a game or two at Christmas or birthdays, and managed to get a couple dozen by the time I convinced my parents to get me a Genesis. I really wanted a Super NES, as Nintendo made my favorite games, but it was too expensive. So Genesis it was. Other than Sonic, though, I didn't find much that thrilled me on Genesis, so it wound up sitting on my shelf while I spent a summer mowing lawns and washing cars to save money for a Super NES.
My gaming cooled down a bit at this point. I was getting older, and had many siblings now, and therefore got less at Christmas and my birthday. I had to work for what few SNES games I managed to pick up for myself. I managed to pick up a Game Boy when Link's Awakening was released, and later talked my dad into getting me an N64 for Christmas when that came out, but the games were coming fewer and farther between for me. After I graduated and got a crappy job, I saved up and bought a PlayStation so I could play Final Fantasy VII, and a Game Boy Color for Link's Awakening DX. Things were still pretty slow moving though, until 2001.
A couple of my friends, while away at college, got to play the Dreamcast and loved it. Since Dreamcast was pretty much a dying system at this point, you could get a new one for around $50, so they bought one. All of my friends who played it loved it too, so we all wound up buying one. This started some kind of chain reaction in me. After buying the Dreamcast I felt the need to go back and get the other Sega systems I missed growing up, and I quickly snapped up a Master System, Sega CD, 32X, and Saturn. Then I turned to other systems, like the Turbo Grafx 16 and Neo Geo systems. I basically started buying up anything I could. I also started buying games like they were supplies for an end-of-the-world bunker. NES, Super NES, Genesis, any cheap old games I could find, even if I wasn't particularly interested in playing them.
The collecting bug had bit me. Hard. Before I bought my Dreamcast I took a quick count and saw that I owned around 70 games for around a half-dozen systems. I currently own 1,830 games for almost 40 systems. If I had the room to properly display them all, I would love to provide you all with some pictures. I guess that'll have to wait, though.
By the way, for anyone that is interested, I use Collectorz.com's Game Collector software to keep track of my collection. I may go a bit more in depth on that in a later post. It's good software.
Welcome to The Basilica
Hey there. I'm Rev. Link and this is my blog. I'm new to this sort of this, so I hope you'll bear with me. As you can see over in the sidebar, I plan on sharing news and opinions on a number of topics here, mostly fanboy type stuff. But before I go into any of that, I thought I'd share just a bit about myself.
I'm currently 31 years old. I was born and raised in Cincinnati, Ohio, though I now live just across the border in Indiana. Some of my favorite things include Star Wars, The Legend of Zelda, and Aerosmith. I collect video games and comic books, go to as many concerts as possible, and own a number of DVDs and novels. I have long hair, and I like swords. I'm also single (no shock there, I guess).
I started this blog for a few reasons. Boredom being one of them, but also because I love discussing the things that I'm passionate about. So I hope anyone who stumbles across this, if you're into any of the things I am, you'll stick around and check it out. And if any of you have any kind of suggestions on the layout, let me know. I'm sure I'll be tweaking it a bit here and there, and I'd appreciate the feedback.
Enjoy, and please excuse this next little bit of dork overload. It's my first post, so I think I'm allowed.
May the Force be with you.
The Wheel weaves as the Wheel wills.
With great power comes great responsibility.
I'm currently 31 years old. I was born and raised in Cincinnati, Ohio, though I now live just across the border in Indiana. Some of my favorite things include Star Wars, The Legend of Zelda, and Aerosmith. I collect video games and comic books, go to as many concerts as possible, and own a number of DVDs and novels. I have long hair, and I like swords. I'm also single (no shock there, I guess).
I started this blog for a few reasons. Boredom being one of them, but also because I love discussing the things that I'm passionate about. So I hope anyone who stumbles across this, if you're into any of the things I am, you'll stick around and check it out. And if any of you have any kind of suggestions on the layout, let me know. I'm sure I'll be tweaking it a bit here and there, and I'd appreciate the feedback.
Enjoy, and please excuse this next little bit of dork overload. It's my first post, so I think I'm allowed.
May the Force be with you.
The Wheel weaves as the Wheel wills.
With great power comes great responsibility.
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