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.
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