Film came out: 31st October 2008

How late: 12 days (Gibbo), 5 days (Gandysampras)

I can’t say I’m a James Bond fan but Casino Royale was a pretty awesome film. It had an easy to follow story, some good action sequences and was an overall entertaining film. So the expectations were high when it was announced that the 22nd Bond film, Quantum Of Solace, would be coming out in November 2008. Since it is a British franchise, we lucky sods got to see the film before America, but the question is, is it good? Can it really deliver a good experience after Casino Royale? Hit the jump for a double whammy of me and Gandysampras’s impressions on the film.

In the age of the internet, there is no short supply of pejorative terms for fans of certain types of media. If you’re into video games you might be called a fanboy if there is any perceived preference that you might have. The same goes for fans of Japanese culture. Whether it be the TV shows, movies, music, manga, or anime, if you have an affinity for it, you’re probably like me and have been called a Weeaboo.

I’ve been huge into Japan since my early formative years when I would watch any and every Kaiju Eiga (Monster Movies…think Godzilla), Speed Racer, G-Force, Gigantor, Voltron, or even Robotech. There was always something about Japanese animation that made American animation look pale by comparison.

I have to admit that I am running a few seasons behind and probably couldn’t tell you what the new hotness is for anime or manga right now, but I will let you in one of my more recent favorites. For some reason Azumanga Daioh is a show that I can’t stop watching, even though it’s only one season long.

I’m a married man, a very happily married man. I have to hammer this in here, I love my wife and wouldn’t wish a life any different than the one I have right now (except for my additional +100 lbs of fat and Middle Class job). If there is one thing that drives me up a wall each and every time it happens, is when I am expected to be empathetic enough to know when something is wrong and what is wrong.

I don’t know what it is, but women and men are wired completely different in the head. I can’t speak for an entire gender or speak against the same, but in my short life on this planet I’ve noticed that there is a stereotype, or should I say a “trend” in both genders’ behavior.

Sorry, I know we usually don’t post one line blogs with a video but there’s a first time for everything.

Seriously, I want to be this kid so bad.  Even with the shitty haircut.

Banjo Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts was released last week, and I picked it up immediately after work. The game is only $40, and I am a REALLY big fan of the originals on N64. I will admit that I was kind of upset about the driving elements ever since they were announced. Anyway, today while I was bored I made an image that I think perfectly conveys my feelings about Nuts and Bolts. It’s a bit lengthy and I don’t want to eat up the main page, so you can find it after the jump.

Video game soundtracks are part and parcel to a video game itself. With the right score and music a scene might move you to tears or make you laugh at humor and jokes you normally would not. It can also drive you bat shit insane when you listen to the same thing over and over and over and over and over and over and over again.

Suffering from a very severe case of ADD it does not take me long to grow sick and tired of even the best film scores and video game scores. As such I often hook up my mp3 player to my laptop, create a custom playlist and then hook up the player to my Xbox 360 or my other systems so that I can play that music rather then be forced to suffer through a video games actual soundtrack.

This week I am taking a stab at Fallout 3’s soundtrack.

Here are the basic rules for my playlists that I follow
1 – Come up with a central theme and work it.
2 – The songs must be bare minimum of 192Kbps. Most times, the average stereo headset or speaker system really can’t differentiate between 192 or higher but there is a huge difference between 192 and 128, the preferred quality of online stores and radio stations.
3 – Playlists can not exceed 15 songs nor can they be less then 5. Often times with games that focus more on the singleplayer aspect (Fallout 3, Lost Odyssey and Infinite Undiscovery), you want a larger playlist because you end up sitting there for hours at a time. With games that focus on short periods of time, round based gameplay like Halo 3, Gears of War and Call of duty for instance, you want quick songs that move fast and don’t last longer then a typical round time.
4 – Be prepared to accept criticism if you decide to share. I often share my playlists with friends and family because usually my tastes are broad enough that a lot of people can enjoy it. More times than not they have suggestions on new music to try out, or perhaps a song seems out of place in a given playlist. Accept their advice and if it generally seems like a good idea, go with it and give it a whirl.

This week is a double edition due to the fact I missed last week because of an epic party of epic proportions of epicness. I shall be continuing the Ben Templesmith set with the following two comics. Singularity 7 was written and drawn by Ben Templesmith and was his first attempt at writing a comic. Fell is a current series being written by Warren Ellis and drawn by Templesmith. Hit the jump to see what I think of them.

Release date: 21st December 2007

Lateness: Just under 11 months

If I had to sum up National Treasure: Book Of Secrets in one sentence it would be this. It’s a sad day when a rip off of the Indiana Jones series can be just as good as a new Indiana Jones film. (Doesn’t take a genius to figure out what Indiana Jones film I’m referencing) I didn’t really want to see this film, as while the first National Treasure wasn’t bad, it was nothing special. However a half-cut (drunk) individual wanted to watch this and would not take no for an answer so instead of getting into an argument, I sat down and watched it. Ironically, this individual fell asleep so I was the only one who actually watched the whole thing. Hit the jump for my impressions.

Here’s another selection of time-wasters to ruin your work day courtesy of the whores at MWN.

I am Da Vinci. This is my Mona Lisa. Please enjoy you crazy awesome people.

Hey Whores,

I’d apologize for the lack of posts this week but your illustrious leader and crew have all been prepping for the biggest party we’ll experience until next year at PAX 2009. I’ve been in town for the past 4 days learning some archaic fucking programming language that I’m sure that I’ll use at my job for a whole whopping 10 minutes when I get back to real life this Monday.

Until then, I’m here in Baltimore gearing up for the big NARP (No Apparent Reason Party) that we’ll be sharing with a whole bunch of our brethren from Destructoid.com. Today (as well as on Sunday) me and Mike aka Hitogoroshi from Destructoid’s community section went out to a restaurant called Victoria that has a beer menu that is about 20x larger than the regular food menu.

That’s not to say that the food at this restaurant is nothing to sneeze at. We had some Poutine that consisted of fries that were cooked in duck fat and was topped with Gruyere cheese, duck confete, and duck gravy…perhaps the worst thing that one can eat. OMG it was so fucking delicious though!

Banjo Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts was released yesterday, and I have not picked it up and I’m not sure if I will be doing so. I know it’s only $40, but I was a REALLY big fan of the originals on N64 and I have been upset about the driving elements ever since they were announced. Today while I was bored I made an image that I think perfectly conveys my feelings about BK: N&B. It’s a bit lengthy and I don’t want to eat up the main page, so you can find it after the jump

Your attention, please. The story you are about to see is true. The names have been changed to protect the innocent. For example: George Baker is now called “Sylvia Wiss. ”

Most of you know by now that I am normally not a ‘violent’ person per-se, but I do have my issues and often find my self in ‘interesting’ situations’.

Hit the jump to read about my latest adventures.

After finally managing to get early access to the Left 4 Dead demo last night, I shut the curtains, turned off the lights and sat down for what I hoped would be a great gaming experience.

Original release date: 26 June 2008 (UK)

Lateness: 4 months

I had much higher hopes for this movie than I did for the first in the series. This one I knew included large scale battles, and much more “mature” themes thanks to reading the books umpteen times growing up. Then again I knew the film was rated PG, so they wouldn’t be able to do the violence any justice, it would be shot in a way where the impression of violence is given but almost never actually shown.