Feeling Lucky

So far I'm having a very good break. Work was a little slow working remotely since I'm mainly waiting on Andrew to give me some code, but it was nice relaxing and even doing other things while working for a change.

So I feel very lucky overall. When I was driving home to my parent's house, I tuned in to 105.7. They happened to be advertising their new Bid 2 Buy system which is pretty much eBay. One of the things they mentioned was the DefTech ProCinema 600 system. I checked the price when I got home and it was only $200, a savings of 75%. Now I wasn't going to purchase a speaker system until like February, but I couldn't pass up this deal. The auction came and passed, and not a single other person bid on it, so I was able to buy it at it's incredible price. When I went to pick it up, the only bad thing I noticed is that the speakers are actually white as opposed to black. At first kind of a disappointment, but I think I'll get used to it, especially for the deal I got. Since these are DefTechs I know they should be good. It's a little underpowered and small, but for an entry system, it's great. Especially when you consider that I can always move the left and rights to satellites to create a 7.1 system in the future. Maybe I'll buy a good Mythos speaker to complement them. The only bad thing about the deal is that now to use them I've been searching for a good receiver and stands to put them on. I've been looking at the Sony 920 receiver, and it seems good since the Onkyo might not work with my PS3. For the stands, I've been debating purchasing the official DefTech stands. Quite expensive and overpriced, but they'll fit good and match. I can even get them in white to match. I hope I have space for all these speakers on my TV stand.

While I was home here I also was able to catch Bottle Rocket. I'm not a huge fan of Wes Anderson movies. I find them quirky and sometimes funny, but usually not enough for me to love or so, but often like them enough for me to keep coming back. I think this describes perfectly what I feel towards Bottle Rocket. Quirky, sometimes funny, kinda slow. I liked it, and feel it was probably one of his that I enjoyed the most. But that's not saying much.

Assassin's Creed/Traitor

Ugh, such a boring day at work with everyone leaving for vacation and not coming in because of the snow. It doesn't help that I'm waiting on people before I can continue. Oh well, work should pick up shortly.

Yesterday, I was able to finish Assassin's Creed. I picked up this game pretty dirt cheap a while ago and enjoyed it, especially for the price. The whole story is wrapped in this weird Sci-fi overcoat which I was not expecting. It shocked and confused me at first, but eventually got used to it, and allowed for some additional twists. I just wish they would have mentioned it maybe even sometime with the propaganda leading up to the game. The graphics were pretty good. I was amazed at the scenery and the surrounding objects, especially when I climb to view points to look out over the city. But I feel the graphics could greatly improve for the character models. Most of them look pretty average and some look absolutely horrible (the main doctor chick, UGH!). The actual game play was pretty fun - go to a city, climb to high places to complete map and find objectives, complete mini objectives to find info, complete main assassination, repeat 9 times. It is simple, but gets kind of tiresome towards then end since each time it is the exact same thing. I'm glad it didn't continue much longer. The game was also pretty easy overall. Most of the missions were easy and there wasn't a big penalty for dieing. Each town gradually increased in difficulty, but not enough to make a real difference. The story was actually quite good. Towards the end it actually drew me in pretty well and I was kinda excited to see what would happen next. Which brings me to the ending...what a complete let down. They do all this set up and all this suspense building, all of a sudden some weird shit happens and you're all of a sudden staring at the credits. It was all setup for the sequel. I thought I might get some questions answered. When developers do that, it sucks, especially since pretty much no questions answered for the entire game. It was all set up. If I can get the next one at a good price like I did this one, I might pick it up. For now, I have tons of other games to play/catch up on.

Tonight I also watched Traitor - the new Don Cheedle movie. I thought it was an ok movie. It was quite slow at times and could have used some more action to speed it up. The twists toward the end made the movie likable, because there wasn't a whole lot else. I guess my main gripe with the movie was that not for one second did I believe Don Cheedle was a terrorist. This made the entire movie's premise hard to follow. This was definitely his type of movie, but I think the role was completely off. Hopefully he can seem convincing in Iron Man 2 because I want a good War Machine.

Death Proof

Well, it's that lull before the holidays. Not much to do at work and hoping it picks up so I have some stuff to do.

Tonight I watched Death Proof. My first impression when putting it in, was why the hell was this a blu-ray? It looked terrible and sounded bad. Then I realized it was supposed to be bad and got used to it enough to enjoy the movie towards the end. The movie was fun at times, especially towards the end. I didn't like how the movie kinda wrapped itself up (poorly) and then began again at the time, but after finishing it, enjoyed it. There were times where there was too much dialog,, but it helped build the characters. It was a fun romp. My only question is how come he didn't know about the gun? He planned his other actions pretty well. And above all else, I could have sworn he was at the diner when she revealed she had a gun. Maybe he did know, and just wasn't expecting it or forgot, but I thought it was a plot hole that could have been explored.

Quickly, I also want to discuss the disappointing sales numbers. PS3 had a horrible month and it became clear that it needs a price cut and I hope Sony gives in. I don't care how much you lose, just do it! More regrettably was that I found out the numbers sold for Valkeria Chronicles. Only 33,000! That is pathetic and truly sad. Now I'm hoping it will steadily sell more copies as people wrap up their other AAA titles and want a good strategy RPG after Christmas. I know my excuse is that I'm waiting for some Christmas gift cards and going to buy it almost immediately after. I hope others may be doing the same. Please? This is a GREAT PS3 exclusive and we need to support it and I intend to since I loved the demo. The dumbest excuse I've heard for people not buy this game was that it didn't have trophies. That is pathetic. Trophies are so stupid and to not buy a game is even worse. Pointless little achievements that mean nothing. They may help you have continued interest in some games, but not a strategy game. You completing the missions should be challenge enough. I swear, people are pathetic. I just need to push my purchase to December/January. Hold on Sega! I'm coming!

Bowl Projections

I wanted to also give my predictions on the college bowl games with just a short reasoning, if I have any, just for fun. Here is the list. I plan on coming back to it to see how I did.

Eaglebank Bowl
Navy vs Wake Forest
Pick: Navy
Reason: Navy is a slight underdog, but they won earlier in the year against Wake Forest, on the road. Being in DC will draw a large Navy crowd, I think.

New Mexico Bowl
Fresno State vs Colorado State
Pick: Fresno State
Reason: Fresno State has more talent, leads in some rankings, and won more games. CSU has a first year coach which may not prep them fully for post season.

Magicjack St. Petersburg Bwol
South Florida vs Memphis
Pick: South Florida
Reason: Has enough talent to be at least ranked at one point and won against UCF, where Memphis did not.

Pioneer Las Vegas Bowl
Brigham Young vs Arizona
Pick: BYU
Reason: BYU is ranked and has won more convincingly. They have also won the past 3 Las Vegas Bowls. Arizona is bowling for the first time in a while. Arizona's run defense kinda sucks too.

R+L Carriers New Orleans Bowl
Troy vs Southern Miss
Pick: Troy
Reason: Winner of Sun Belt and most of their losses come from pretty good teams. Not much else.

San Diego County Credit Union Poinsettia Bowl
Boise State vs TCU
Pick: TCU
Reason: A tough pick, but the MWC was a tougher conference and TCU showed they can play. Boise can win bowl games as shown in 2007 Fiesta and have been putting up some crazy points.

Sheraton Hawaii Bowl
Notre Dame vs Hawaii
Pick: Hawaii
Reason: A home game for them and the Irish have a terrible coach, a pretty bad team that hasn't won much against good competition, and just cannot win bowl games.

Motor City Bowl
Central Michigan vs Florida Atlantic
Pick: Central Michigan
Reason: Has a home crowd and a better record. Vegas says by 7.

Meineke Car Care Bowl
North Carolina vs West Virginia
Pick: North Carolina
Reason: NC has a home crowd and has competed well with Big East competition.

Champs Sports Bowl
Florida State vs Wisconsin
Pick: Wisconsin
Reason: Tough pick. Wisconsin has done well in bowls, even if this is a let down year. Florida State QB could have some issues after being pulled and has thrown pretty many picks. Wisconsin has a great tight end and is representing the Big Ten. Taking down Bowden in Florida is key. Hopefully they have improved after losing some pretty ugly games.

Emerald Bowl
California vs Miami
Pick: California
Reason: Cal has home crowd, has a good running offense, and leads in several stats. Miami has lost some stinkers in the ACC. Vegas by 7.

Independence Bowl
Louisiana Tech vs Northern Illinois
Pick: Louisiana Tech
Reason: Not much here in the most uninteresting bowl. Home crowd and a better record. Did surprisingly well in the WAC they don't belong.

papajohns.com Bowl
Rutgers vs North Carolina State
Pick: Rutgers
Reason: Both teams turned their seasons around toward the end. Rutgers won by some hefty margins and leads in most stats. Vegas by 7.

Valero Alamo Bowl
Missouri vs Northwestern
Pick: Missouri
Reason: Would love to root for the Big 10, but feel Missouri leads in too many stats and Northwestern had too easy of a schedule. Missouri has Chase Daniel. Pat Fitzgerald is one heck of a coach though, maybe he can surprise me.

Roady's Humanitarian Bowl
Nevada vs Maryland
Pick: Nevada
Reason: Nevada has a crazy offense and puts up a lot of yards. Nevada has a stats advantage. Maryland can't be consistent.

Texas Bowl
Rice vs Western Michigan
Pick: Rice
Reason: Has a home crowd, a great passing offense against a bad passing defense, and did well in their conference.

Pacific Life Holiday Bowl
Oklahoma State vs Oregon
Pick: Oklahoma State
Reason: Convincing offense against injury prone Ducks. Only lost to the top teams in the country.

Bell Hellicopter Armed Forces Bowl
Air Force vs Houston
Pick: Air Force
Reason: Air Force won when they matched up earlier in the year. Both have good offenses. Houston didn't fare too well against the MWC.

Sun Bowl
Pittsburgh vs Oregon State
Pick: Oregon State
Reason: I would like to pick Pitt, but they are out matched statistically. Oregon State did pretty well once they figured some stuff out. Both seem rather lopsided on rushing.

Gaylord Hotels Music City Bowl
Boston College vs Vanderbilt
Pick: Boston College
Reason: Better record and more convincing as a team. Vandy is Vandy and took advantage of easy competition early on. BC showed they have grit to outlast others in the ACC. Leads in stats. Only challenge will be home crowd.

Insight Bowl
Minnesota vs Kansas
Pick: Kansas
Reason: Kansas is the far better team. I think Minnesota is pretty bad and only had some luck early on with turnovers, evidenced by them dropping their last few games. Kansas leads in stats.

Chick-Fil-A Bowl
Georgia Tech vs LSU
Pick: Georgia Tech
Reason: Looks to be a good match up, but Georgia tech showed it can beat the SEC. Home crowd should help.

Outback Bowl
Iowa vs South Carolina
Pick: Iowa
Reason: At the very least, for making our loss not look so bad and representing the Big 10. Iowa is hot now that they have their QB controversy settled. Shonn Greene should have a good day. If nothing else, it'll be close.

Capital One Bowl
Georgia vs Michigan State
Pick: Georgia
Reason: I'm hoping for an upset, but Sparty has been blown out in big games this season. Lots of running, should be over by 3.

Gator Bowl
Clemson vs Nebraska
Pick: Nebraska
Reason: New coach at Clemson doesn't have his team together yet, while Nebraska leads in most stats and has performed well in the Big 12 considering the competition.

Rose Bowl
USC vs Penn State
Pick: Penn State
Reason: I have to pick my team, right? Seriously, as long as we don't change our game plan now without Devlin, we should be fine, or an extremely close game, probably low scoring as well. If we continue to run Clark, they might not be expecting it. With Paterno on the sidelines, hopefully it will help and not hinder. With USC disappointed, it may give us an edge. 2 very even teams, should be a good match up. I don't like how we have to play in LA though. How about we come to Chicago for a neutral field?

Orange Bowl
Cincinnati at Virginia Tech
Pick: Cincinnati
Reason: Much better record even among QB controversy. VT had to beat a team they already lost against against.

Cotton Bowl
Texas Tech vs Mississippi
Pick: Texas Tech
Reason: Much better team with a better record. Vegas by 6.

Autozone Liberty bowl
East Carolina vs Kentucky
Pick: East Carolina
Reason: ECU showed it can win big games against better opponents and it can win it's conference. With everyone healed and rested, should be a big win for ECU.

Sugar Bowl
Alabama vs Utah
Pick: Alabama
Reason: As much as I want to pick Utah, I have to lean toward Alabama. To go almost undefeated in the SEC, is a bit more of a challenge than the MWC. Saban should have his team ready, he was able to coach them almost doubling their wins.

International Bowl
Connecticut vs Buffalo
Pick: Connecticut
Reason: No real convincing stats either way, but I think UConn's talent and defense will make the difference.

Fiesta bowl
Texas vs Ohio State
Pick: Texas
Reason: Texas is a great team, with completing 78% of their passes. It will be interesting to see if an OSU defense has any effect, but I feel OSU won't score enough to keep up.

GMAC Bowl
Ball State vs Tulsa
Pick: Tulsa
Reason: Ball State had a great season and all, but I think they may be out matched here. Both teams are 2nd place in their conference, but Tulsa has the offensive stats that Ball State doesn't.

National Championship Game
Oklahoma vs Florida
Pick: Florida
Reason: I think Florida's defense will make the difference. Having Tebow be dual threat should entertain and prove useful. Should be high scoring. but close. Oklahoma has a habit of losing BCS games.

The Toilet Bowl

So I want to go on a little rant about a series of complaints I have with the College Football post season. My first complaint is with the ridiculousness of the names of these bowls. We have to settle for crap like the papajohns.com bowl or the Meinake Car Care Bowl. These are total crap. How can a team and a fan base be excited to go to a bowl which sounds like a billboard. And I understand the need for advertising, but there are other ways to go about it. The Rose Bowl does a pretty good job about it by also preserving tradition.

Also, how can a bowl game be about rewarding teams and having post season match ups when the bowls can pick randomly. Many bowl match ups will pick the team that is most favorable to them to make the most money, not who is most deserving. As an example, this year Iowa was picked over Northwestern when Iowa was ranked lower in the Big 10. Bowl match ups should be based solely on your ranking in a conference and not how many fans may come to see you and spend money.

Another gripe I have is with the location of some bowls. Bowls are supposed to be a neutral field where teams can see who is better. That can be pretty hard when one team has to cross the entire nation and the other has to cross town. It will be a practical home game, but will displayed as neutral. That's crap. Make teams travel to play and not cop out on home field advantage. As an example, instead of having us play USC in LA, have us maybe go to the Fiesta Bowl. I dunno, it just seems unfair considering USC doesn't even have to have a hotel room.

There are way too many bowls. Bowls are about rewarding a team for a good season, but it seems more like we are rewarding mediocrity. Make the eligibility 7-5 instead of 6-6. That ensures that you at least have a winning season, which could be rewarded. Or, make it even more strict so that there aren't so many games.

Lastly is the controversy of the BCS. I feel that most times the computers pick the right teams, but to call one a champion over another is a bit unfair. A playoff system would be nice. Have something like a 12+ team playoff. The contenders should be the champions of each conference. I'm tired of having conferences excluded and all these at large bids. It's up to the conference to decide who should be sent. If you didn't win your conference/division, too bad. Now, I also don't want this to extend the game further into January. It continues too long as it is. We could even preserve many of the bowls to host the playoffs. Time would have to be considered for travel, training, and injuries, but I feel it would settle a lot of controversy.

Finally a use for Home

Mongol

Quite the lazy weekend for me. I was going to go down to NYC for shopping and holiday cheer, but decided against it. I didn't want it to be a wasted trip or go down without a real purpose. In addition, I may have wanted to come home sooner with it being rather cold. Instead I was pretty lazy and caught up on a couple things. I did watch a lot more It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia and started playing Assassin's Creed. Initial impression is a gorgeous game, but I can see it getting repetitive.

I also watched the movie Mongol. My initial impression was that I was surprised at the architecture in the game. Some of the initial scenes showed buildings ripped right out of Assassin's Creed (which i found very cool since I was just playing it before watching it). I'm a little unsure if this is accurate or not. The places could of had similar buildings, but they are very far apart from one another. Assassin's Creed being around Jerusalem and Mongol being in the Mongolia/China area. As for the movie, I thought it was pretty good. It really did a good job at humanizing Genghis Khan. I wonder how much is factual. I felt bad on most occasions for his wife though. Not sure if that was the desired effect. The movie was good, but I didn't find it very memorable. There was talk of 1-2 more being made by this director, so I'll just have to wait and see.

Vagrant Story

I wanted to do a quick post on Vagrant Story. After not playing it for a little bit, I stuck it in and tried picking up where I left off from a few days/weeks ago. The first boss fight I reached I eventually died after getting pretty far. This was kinda upsetting, and was enough for me to put the game down and move on for the time being. I may eventually come back, but it's no use playing a game that I'm not having much fun with. Since I can't give a full review, I wanted to write down my impression since I only made it about ~25% of the way through. The graphics are absolutely gorgeous and it's surprising they look that good on the PS1. From there though, my criticisms get harsher. The story is not very enticing and pretty confusing with them explaining very little. You will go for long periods with little story interaction, so it is hard to get motivated to play and continue on. The sound is pretty pathetic. The battle system is confusing and not structured very well. Pounding the action button until I get an attack is not very fun or intuitive. What makes the battle system worse is the weapon system. The weapon system has great potential, and could have been great. Each weapon has three different traits that pair up to enemy's traits. The more you use it against certain enemies, the more it builds up against those enemies. The problem stems from you only having six weapons and endless combinations of weapon traits. Also, to try and maximize your weapons, you are constantly changing weapons against each different monster you face. Being that the changing weapons is way more complex, slow, and cumbersome than needed, this process gets old, QUICK. Even if you change weapons for each monster type you come across, when you reach a boss, you will do 1HP of damage per turn, if you can hit him, while he's wailing on you and your risk stat increases, making the fight go worse. For all of the negatives I spilled off, the game is pretty mediocre. When it's good, like for the story when it comes and actually completing tasks, it's good. It just has some obvious flaws and areas they could have easily improved upon.

It's Always Sunny with Dragonballs...Maybe Not

Check out this trailer. This has got to be the worst trailer I've seen in quite some time. The movie looks horrible, without even considering that they threw out all source material. Admittedly, there wasn't much there to begin with, but still, basic properties no longer apply. Also, what's with the subtitle? Is this a sequel already? /joking

Also, I checked out It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia tonight from the suggestion of a coworker. It is an absolutely hilarious show. It's edgy and random and insanely great. I now just have a lot of work ahead of me to catch up on back episodes on Hulu.

P.S. Hulu, you need to take down your Thanksgiving commercials. It's past. (But I do appreciate your IP address targeted ads...I think)

Head in a Jar

Not too much has been going on lately. I feel like a lot of my time has been eaten up by the normal stuff, resulting in rather boring commentary. Christmas is coming so busy shopping and frantically trying to purchase stuff, meanwhile trying to keep up with the long lists of TV premieres and podcasts like always. Also, trying to create some good sleep habits that will hopefully produce good work habits. I want to do 1-2 posts about college football in the coming times, but not tonight...maybe some other time.

Tonight, I watched Jarhead, a movie from a few years ago. I was disappointed in receiving this one off my queue since I just saw a war movie and a performance with Jamie Foxx, who again, I'm not the most found of. I found this movie to be rather confusing and twisting. Not literally, but with the style. The majority of the first half seems like this war comedy that does an ok job, and the second half then takes a more serious note and focuses on the war a bit more. Each half even has flashes of the other. This was confusing in that it was hard to take the drama and action seriously and also felt the comedy wasn't really anything more than tension breaker, but there was no tension built. I understand the memoir itself and can feel very much for the characters and their struggles, it's just that the presentation was so awkward or mixed. Jamie Foxx did another good role. Maybe I should give him a bit more respect in his movies. It seems he can be quite the good actor, especially if it isn't the lead role.

The Kingdom

Tonight I watched The Kingdom, dealing with a bombing and investigation in Saudi Arabia. I thought the movie was pretty good, even though I'm not a huge fan of Jamie Foxx. The beginning scene was pretty good and drew you in, but it was unfortunate that until the end, there wasn't too much else to get excited over. The final action scene though was pretty good, and tense, mainly since they showed they aren't really afraid to kill characters, so it really kept me on the edge. The movie also greatly reminded me of the first chapter of Metal Gear Solid 4. It's not that uprising since both are in the Middle East, with gun shots all over in a war zone. One thing I didn't like was the camera work. At times it was too shaky which made it hard to see what was all going on and get my bearings. Also, the very last part wasn't satisfying at all. The movie probably would have been better without it. They were trying to make a statement about revenge, vengeance, war, religion, and a us vs them mentality, but it came across too strong and almost seemed cheesy. Overall, a good movie with it's high moments at the beginning and end.

Rant Installation Complete

Wow this image is eerily familiar. give that kid some thicker glasses and I might pass it off for myself.

I wanted to do some quick video game rants. The first being a short complaint about Sony's Home. They sure are highly touting this thing, and for as many delays it has received, it better be worth it. In my mind, it's already failed. To me, it seems like a huge second life clone, with little else to do and the main point it to socialize. Is it just me, or when do video game nerds socialize? I feel those development dollars would be better spent better on other in house development or on advertising since Sony is failing faster than ever. I really hate seeing all this effort put into something wasteful and gimmicky like this. Maybe I'm just not seeing it. Once it arrives, I suppose I may give it a try, or even sooner. I have a beta invite in my mailbox, which I never asked for, so I suppose I could give it a try. I just don't like the direction it's heading and doesn't appeal to me at all.

Not having an Xbox, I suppose I'm highly biased, but I don't see the deal with the whole new Xbox Experience. Fine, it's a new GUI. Is that all? Did your last GUI suck that much that makes this the best thing ever? Or do you not have much of a holiday lineup that you need to tout your GUI as the best thing to get for the system? One feature that I hear people swooning over, is how you can now install games to the hard drive. First off, you continue to sell consoles that don't even have hard drives (a step backwards from the original) so a lot of people won't even be able to use the feature. Also, the whole idea of an installation was seen as such a horrible thing when done on the PS3. Now to have installs that are 3x larger or more seems good? I can get just a few games on the hard drive. It's only a matter of time before the method of needing the disk is hacked. If the load times are this horrid to begin with, why patronize the PS3 for installing to help alleviate those times in the first place? In addition, will this further shoddy game development? You have games like Last Remnant being released which are absolutely horrid with load times and only becomes bearable when you install it. Will this somehow become an acceptable norm? I certainly hope not.

And speaking of developers, I want to mention the sad state of affairs that I see current RPG development. I started thinking about the wonderful worlds of some of my favorite PS2 RPGs, particularly Dragon Quest 8. With (the sad state of affairs) the Japanese console market is in, Dragon Quest 9 is being moved from a home console to the portable DS. I find this ridiculous. I know almost the whole country has a DS, and to increase sales, it only makes sense, but this series in particular was born as a home console version. It is not made to be picked up and put down easily. It's a RPG. You should be immersed in the world and take the time to fully explore it. I feel that this is truly done on a home console. It is much easier to be immersed on a home theater setup than a 3.5 inch screen with 2 watt speakers. I hope great epic RPGs continue to be developed for the home consoles, even if that means the 360. Looking at Square Enix's current and future lineup, it seems very portable heavy which I feel is OK, but you also need to have strong home console sales. Considering their last 2 console RPGs were pretty much flops, I'm hoping Star Ocean 4 and FF13 hurry and at least give them some confidence in the home console market. We need more epic RPGs on home consoles and there is no excuse for more to not be in development at this point. ::sigh:: Oh well, I guess I still have Persona 4 to look forward to. hopefully more continue in the future.