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    June 28

    Summer is Here!!

    The season I enjoy the least is here and it's cooking me alive.  I'm not one for the warm weather.   I think I prefer the Fall much more.  It just has more going for it in my opinion - Hockey, Football, changing of the leaves, Halloween, Thanksgiving, etc. 
     
    Anyways, I guess I should decide what I am going to do with my summer.  I have two vacations planned so far.  I am going to Boston on July 31 for a couple days and am going to catch a Red Sox game.  Then I'm off to NYC from Boston for a few days as well and am going to catch a Yankees game.  I've been to Boston before but never to Fenway and I've never been to NYC before so I'm really excited about this trip.  I'm also hoping to meet up with Ruffneck from Tehbias while I am in NYC as well. 
     
    My other trip is going to be, if it all works out, a road trip down to Charlotte, NC at the end of August to meet up with some of the guys and lady from Tehbias.  There's a fair number of them down in that region.  I've been talking to most of them nearly everyday for the last few months, so it will be nice to have a face to face meeting with them.  Unfortunately I don't think I'll be able to see them all while I'm down there but that just gives me incentive for another trip.  Never been to Charlotte before but from what I've heard it's a really nice place. 
     
    On the gaming front, there's not a whole lot coming out over the summer.  I guess that's a good thing because I'll have more money for my trips and plus I'm told I need to leave the house a little more often and get some sun on me, whatever that is.  ;)  I'll definately be picking up Lord of the Rings: Battle for Middle Earth II and NCAA Football.  I'm also leaning towards getting Prey.  The only game I may rent instead of buying is Chromehounds.  I know lots of people are psyched about this one but I need to cut the cost somewhere.  Plus, I'm not a huge mech fan.
     
    On top of the games and trips I think there must be a movie a week coming out that I want to see.  Superman is first and I'll be hitting the local Imax for that on Saturday.  After that, in no particular order, I want to see Miami Vice, Beerfest, Snakes on a Plan, Pirates of the Caribbean 2, and more.  Should be a great season for movies. 
     
    Also, I recommend everyone head over to Quicktime pronto and check out the uber sexy Spider-Man 3 teaser trailer if you haven't already.  I am so psyched for this movie and it's still about 10 months off. 
     
    Hope everyone has a safe and ejoyable Summer and I look forward to seeing you all on Live.
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    June 26

    My Weekend (One of the Best ever)

    I gotta admit that I just had one of the best weekends of my life.  As you can read over at ICandee's space, last night we nailed the Coffee Plantation mission in GRAW.  I even managed to stay alive until the end this time and nailed the drug dealer.  It was a lot of fun.  Then we tried the Shipping Port level and got totally pwned.  We will get it eventually though.    Friday night I played the Coffee Plantation map as well with some of the other Spacers and it was a lot fun.  Then I got in some good Burnout with Fetterdave from Tehbias and Rabid72 and a friend of his.  To everyone I played with over the weekend, thanks guys.  I had a blast and look forward to more. 
     
    However, the best part of the weekend came Saturday night when I went to the Nine Inch Nails concert.  This was the best concert I've ever been too.  The opening acts were Peaches and Bauhaus.  Wasn't too thrilled with Peaches but she wasn't too bad.  Bauhaus was really cool.  At the end of their set they did an amazing cover of Ziggy Stardust.  I actually heard some like 16-17 year old kids after the concert complaining that the end of their set wasn't so good. I wanted to smack them.   

    NIN was off the charts though.  Everything they played was amazing.  They went for about an hour and 50 minutes.  They had an awesome mix of new stuff and old stuff.  Most songs were from Pretty Hate Machine and Downward Spiral.  The only song he played from Broken was Wish.  I wish they had played Happiness in Slavery but I'm not too upset about that.  The best songs live were Sin, Wish, Head Like a Hole and Hurt.  Hurt was just cool cause everyone was singing along with it.  I'm definately going again the next time they come to Toronto.  Reznor looks a little funny with the shaved head though.  Their set design was amazing too. 

    Of course after the show all the 16 and 17 year olds there (some with their parents) were complaining that they didn't play enough new stuff.  They played like 3 or 4 songs of the With Teeth album.  I think that's enough.  I don't even think he played anything off the Fragile.  Definately a 5 star show. 
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    June 23

    GRAW Goodies Are Out!!

    As I'm sure most of you know, the new goodies for GRAW were released yesterday at a hefty price of 1200 points.  I finally got the new content downloaded this morning when I left my 360 on while I went to work.  I tried unsuccessfully to download it 5 or 6 times last night.  Everytime I tried it either went slower than molasses or it would cut out.  I don't think they accounted for how popular this stuff would be.
     
    I had a chance to go through some of the maps earlier this evening with ICandee and Ruffneck and so far I am loving them.  We didn't play anything on them.  Just took a look around.  The new maps are very large both on the ground and with the amount of places you go up in the air such as crane towers.  I cannot wait to play them later this evening in some actual co-op with the rest of the gang.  While I think the price is a bit steep, I'm loving the stuff.  Hope everyone else who got these new goodies enjoys them.  I know I will. 
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    June 18

    Movie Review: Nacho Libre

    I'll start off with a brief plot summary for anyone who is not familiar with it.  Jack Black plays a priest in an orphanage in Mexico who has dreams of becoming a Luchador (Mexican Lucha Libre wrestler).  He decides to act out his dream in order to win money to afford better food for the young orphans who are the most important thing to him.  At the same time a young nun (a hot one at that) moves into the orphanage as a new teacher.  Black also befriends a hobo who he convinces to be his tag team partner.  Of course, the wreslting must be kept a secret as it is seen as a sin by the young nun and the other priests at the orphanage. 
     
    This has to have been one of Jack Black's best movies ever.  This is exactly the type of movie he needs to do more often.   It had to have been one of the funniest, non-adult comedy movies I have ever seen.  You can also definately tell that it was directed by the same guy as Napoleon Dynomite.  As much as I liked that movie, I actually enjoyed NL more.  The wrestling action is also really fun to watch.  It's also a movie you can take the kids too.  I would say older than 7 though. 

     

    It was written by the same guys as Napoleon Dynomite and also by Mike White who wrote Orange County and School of Rock. 

     

    One of the nicest thing is that although the stuff in the trailer was some of the funniest moments of the movie, they weren't the only funny parts.  That seems to be a real problem with comedy movies these days. The wrestling action was well done and funny as well. 
     
    I would give this movie an 8 out of 10.  Just great fun to watch. 
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    Finally

    After playing more than 125 games, I finally got my 40 win achievement in Uno last night.  It would appear that it counts offline wins with your online wins since I only have 39 online wins.  It was a great way to finish another great evening of online gaming.  I got to play some Burnout, Call of Duty 2 and then the Uno.  I had played anything online for a couple of days and I was happy to get some in again.  Its not like I would be doing anything else on a Saturday night. 
     
    The reason why I haven't been playing online much lately is that I have been playing Half Life Episode 2 and Ultimate Spider-Man for the PS2.  I missed this game last fall and decided to pick it up for $25.00CDN the other day.  I have to say that this is one fun game.  As some of you may know, I am a bit of a geek so just the fact that its Spider-Man interests me alone but the game is a lot of fun to play.  I also love that you can play as Venom as well. 
     
    I guess thats it for now and I'll see you all later. 
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    June 14

    Halo 2 CAN Be Fun on Live

    I'll admit that I never really played much Halo 2 on Live mainly because of the other people who played the game, whether it was the trash talking or the taking things too seriously.  I play games for fun and enjoyment only. 
     
    Fortunately that is exactly what happened last night when I hooked up with some of the fine folk from Tehbias.com for some Halo 2 online.  I had an absolute blast playing it for nearly 3 hours.  By far I think my favourite game mode was Team Crazy King.  I think I love it so much because it is similar to headquarters mode in COD2.  We had some real back and forth battles last night for the win.  Also, playing Slayer with just rockets and sniper rifles is a lot of fun too.   I find it's good to mix things up with the game types.  If you just play one type over and over again, you'll get bored of a game but trying all these different ones rocked. 
     
    I can't wait for my next round of gaming with these guys.  It IS good to play together.  Have a great day everyone.
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    June 12

    There Are Games Other Than Those For The 360?

    Today I decided I would try and get some of my other games played that aren't on the 360.  Not that I am turning my back on it because with game sessions like I had last night how could I?  God how I love Call of Duty 2, especially when we have a full room.  I also got some Battlefront 2 in earlier in the evening with my friend Ruffneck.  It's a great game and I'm glad they made it backwards compatible.  The space battles are a lot of fun once you get used to the controls and nothing beats playing as a Jedi.  We also took down an AT-AT on Hoth. 
     
    So I started my gaming off today with some Half Life 2: Episode 1.  Half Life 2 has to be one of my favourite games of all time and I was really looking forward to the episodes and so far I am loving.  I've probably played about 2 hours so far and it's great.  Can't wait for the next one. 
     
    Then I decided I should finally open up my God of War that's been sitting next to my PS2 for the last month.  I had rented this when it first came out so I decided that although I wanted to buy it, I would wait for it to become a greatest hits title first.  Well it became one at some time in April so I picked it up.  I love this game as much as the first time I played it.  I've already probably put in a good couple of hours into it today.  It's such a great game. 
     
    I also played some more Mario Bros for the DS.  I have beaten the story but there are some secrets left that I haven't earned yet that I want to get.  This is another amazing game that I couldn't put down. 
     
    So I'm pretty happy with the gaming I got in today.  I also watch a couple of good movies last night and today.  I saw Underworld Evolution and Running Scare.  Underworld Evolution was a lot better than expected and a hell of an improvement over the first one.  Running Scared is the best Paul Walker movie I've seen and is just a cool movie in general.  Very violent but very cool. 
     
    Finally, I'd just like to say thanks to everyone who shared their gamertag creation stories with me.  You all have some great stories and much better than my own.  Also, I'd just like to say how much I appreciate everyone stopping by my little corner of the web.  It's always appreciated. 
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    June 11

    Movie Review: Cars

    Pixar has done it again.  This was one incredible movie.  Amazing animation, awesome voice work and great sound effects.  This is a movie that everyone in the family can enjoy especially if they like cars.  There aren't really any scary moments that might frighten young children like in Finding Nemo or The Incredibles.  I'm a huge fan of Pixar's movie and have seen all of them in theatres except for the first Toy Story.  Their movies appeal to both adults and children.  I highly recommend that everyone see this movie.  Definately one for the big screens. 
     
     
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    June 08

    What Your Live Gamertag Says About You!!

    One of my favourite parts about playing on Live is seeing all of the differnt gamertags that people have come up with.  I have seen some really cool ones that are quite creative.  Mine's really creative.  I bet no one can figure out what it means or where it came from.    Basically, I'd like to know how everyone came up with their gamertags.  Was it a lifelong nickname?  Was it something you saw in the paper the day you signed onto Live for the first time?  I hope you'll feel like sharing your secret with everyone else and I look forward to reading your stories.  
     
    BTW, mine's Sean80 because I couldn't think of anything else.   
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    June 07

    GRAW DLC Finally Coming Out

    There is an announcement on the offical Ghost Recon website that the new content is finally coming out for the end of June.  The details are as follows:
     
    Continuation of Co-op Campaign with 4 All New Missions in Chapter 2:
    Coffee Plantation (Day)
    This takes place on a coffee plantation embedded deep in Nicaragua. The map is littered with good cover options that appear in the form of a centrally located plantation house, coffee processing equipment, growing coffee plants, and stacked bags of coffee beans ready for transport. The Ghosts’ overall goal of this mission is to eliminate the arms dealer and shut down his operations.
    Shipping Port (Evening)
    The next mission takes place at a shipping port and the Ghosts’ objective is to stop the enemy from smuggling weapons into the country. The player will interact with rebel troops through warehouses, decks of ships, and on massive shipping cranes. This night mission provides an eerie backdrop for Ghosts to move in take out the weapon shipments and ensure that the illegal smuggling of arms will stop.
    River Depot (Dawn)
    This map puts the Ghosts in a jungle area that the Rebel forces have infiltrated and are using for storing and shipping out illegal weapons. The goal of the Ghosts is to secure the warehouse facility that holds crucial information concerning the placement and shipment of weapons. As the player weaves through the jungle and eliminates the patrols of enemies, they must also destroy all the weapon shipments and keep the Rebels from extracting from the area. Massive trees, loads of weapon shipments, and enemy transports are unique characteristics of this mission.
    Jungle Mine (Day)
    The last mission in this co-op campaign chapter takes place in a mine that is vital to the Rebel force’s regime and the Ghosts are tasked with securing the area, destroying the weapons, and eliminating the Rebel leader. The central location on this map is the mine itself and it provides a place for multi-tiered gameplay surrounded by good cover. This mission provides a new gameplay experience for Ghost Recon fans and it will surely be one of the more memorable missions in GR history.
    8 Revisited; Relit MP Adversarial Maps: 8 of GRAW’s favorite MP maps are revisited and relit for a new gameplay experience.
  • Fishing Village (Dusk)
  • Wharf (Late day)
  • Old Town (Morning)
  • Nowhere (Evening)
  • Coffee Plantation (Evening)
  • Shipping Port (Sunset)
  • River Depot (Day)
  • Jungle Mines (Evening)

    2 New Game Types with 1 Game Mode - Team Battle: 2 all new game types add upon GRAW’s long list of available game types.
  • Team Blind Siege
  • Team Battle

    2 New Camouflage Patterns: 2 all new camo patterns give new selections to further customize your character.
  • Canadian CADPAT
  • British DPM

    4 New Character Customization Faces: 4 all new character faces with new camo patterns give new selections to further customize your character.

    4 new faces with new camo

    5 New Weapons: 5 new weapons give you even further selection on how to take out your foes.
    SR-25 SD (Marksman)
    Description - "7.62x51mmSS - Combining the power of the SR-25 rifle with a suppressor, the SR-25 SD Sniper rifle is lethal, accurate, and quiet." Game Info - Silenced, 20 rounds per mag, 10 mags (increased for marksmen), Single Shot, 8x and 16x Zo
    M468 (Rifleman)
    Description - "6.8x43mm - This updated version of the standard US carbine uses a larger round to provide greater lethality against both armored and unarmored targets." Game Info - 28 rounds per mag, 10 mags (increased for grenadiers), Single Shot and Full Auto, 3x Zoom
    M468/M320 (Grenadier)
    Description - "6.8x43mm/40mm - The standard M468 with attached M320 grenade launcher provides a versatile dual-purpose firing platform." Game Info - 28 rounds per mag, 10 mags (increased for grenadiers), Single Shot and Full Auto, 3x Zoom
    AK-47 LMG (Gunner)
    Description - "7.62x39mm - Modified from the classic AK-47 the AK-47 LMG includes a 75 round drum magazine, and shares most of the characteristics of the AK-47." Game Info - 75 rounds per magazine, 6 mags (increased for gunners). Fully Auto Only, no zoom
    SCAR-H SV (Rifleman)
    Description - "7.62x51mm - This version of the SCAR-H rifle comes with a standard barrel and improved optics, making it better for long-range shooting." Game Info - 20 rounds per mag, 10 mags (increased for riflemen), Single Shot, 2x and 4x Zoom

    • No word though on how much the content will cost or the exact date of the release but I am super psyched about it and cannot wait to play the new co-op levels. 

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    WWF Wrestler Earthquake Passes Away

    One of my favourite wrestlers from 90s John "Earthquake" Tenta has passed away.  He was a big man but he was fun to watch.  He had some great feuds with Hulk Hogan in the really early 90s that I always enjoyed as a young kid.  He then joined up with Hulk Hogan's friend Tugboat who was renamed Typhoon and they won the tag titles in the old WWF.  Tenta was only 42 years old and finally succumbed to his battle with cancer.  My deepest condolences go out to his wife, three children and the rest of his family.  He will be missed.
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    June 06

    Good Way to End the Evening...

    Well I came home yesterday from the move (see review below) in a less than great mood.  It does suck going to a movie you really wanted to see only for it to be less than you had hoped it would be.  So I decided to play some video games.  I played some Burnout Revenge as I am on the 3rd last set of tracks/levels and have reached "Elite" status in the game.  I decided to turn off the system since there was nothing in the way of online gaming going on or at least that I could get involved in (people were playing Uno).  After doing my review here of The Omen I decided to play some more Burnout and I'm glad I did.  I finally got a chance to game with a couple of guys from the MSN Spaces - Superghost and TormentX.  These are two great guys to game with and I just wanted to say thanks to them for throwing me the invite for Call of Duty 2.  There were a couple of other guys there as well - The Driver and TBobdole who were fun to game with as well.  As much as I like gaming with my usual group of people, it was lots of fun to game with some new people and look forward to more in the future.
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    June 05

    Movie Review: The Omen (2006)

    Had a chance to catch a sneak preview of this tonight.  Gotta say I wasn't too impressed.  I'll get to my comments in a minute but first I'll give you a plot breakdown in case you are not familiar with the storyline.
     
    Basically an American diplomat is in Rome working for the Ambassador to Italy.  His wife goes into labour and he is told that his baby has died during labour. The priest at the hospital recommends that he claim an orphened baby as his own and not tell his wife.  Little does he know that his baby is the son of the devil.  Plenty of weird things happen along the way including people killing themselves and other supposedly spooky things. Of course the dad figures this out and tries to stop his son. 
     
    The movie was 1h45m but it felt more like 2h30.  It was very dry and not scary at all.  They relied too much on things that jumped out at you really loudly.  There was some gore but nothing much through the whole movie except for a beheading. 
     
    The acting was ok but not great except for the kid playing Damien (the son).  He was really freaky. 
     
    Overall, I would not recommend that you see this movie.  I'm just glad that I saw it for free.  Stupid remakes need to stop. 
    11:33 PM | Add a comment | Permalink | Blog it

    Stanley Cup Finals

    Here it is.  The one for all the marbles is about to begin tonight.  I guess you've all been wondering who my pick is.  I was lucky last round and picked both teams correctly.  Before that I was batting .500 for the playoffs so things are looking up. 
     
    Both Edmonton and Carolina are very good teams with great speed, grit, leadership and goaltending.  So I guess my pick now comes down to personal feelings.  Do I go with national pride and pick Edmonton or do I pick the team from where some of my friends live.  I know no one in Edmonton.  Believe it or not, Canadians do not know all other Canadians.
     
    I think I have to go with national pride.  The Americans have been hogging our Cup long enough and it's time to bring that baby home so therefore I pick EDMONTON.  Enjoy the games guys.  Should be some real good ones.   
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    June 04

    Late Night Ramblings Return (all gaming edition)

    Just had another great night of action with the guys on Xbox Live.  Played some Burnout with Rabid72 and some of the guys from Tehbias.  Everyone seemed to enjoy themselves which is great.  They're all great guys to game with.  Unfortunately before that started I played some public games with Rabid72 which were not so pleasant.  It's getting to the point where you can't help but run into a bunch of douchbags on there.  One guy had a bit of a fixation on shoving his "member" in to everybody's mouths.  I guess you're always going to have jerks in all facets of your life.  Again, I'm fortunate to play with some great people and I always look forward to meeting more like last night I played Burnout with Rabid and JPSmooth and that was loads of fun too.  First time I had played with JP.  I'm glad there's so many great people to game with off of these MSN Spaces.  Hopefully I'll have the chance to game with more of you in the future. 
     
    After the Burnout, me and the Tehbias guys went over to play some Call of Duty 2.  God how I love that game.  The new maps are a lot of fun.  Didn't do too badly either.  I lost the round of seek and destroy but my team won the Headquarters and Team Deathmatch rounds.  The Team Deathmatch round was fantastic.  The final score was 50-49.  Can't get any closer than that. 
     
    Also a thanks goes out to Noble Downfall for some great Uno games.  I've said it before and I'll say it again, I love how Live can bring people from all over the world together - me being Canadian and Downfall being Australian.  Never would have met any of the these great people otherwise.  Hopefully this summer I'll be able to meet some of them in person when I go on my roadtrip in August. 
     
    Today I also decided to rent Oblivion and give it a go.  I had resisted playing this because I saw what it had done to everyone on my list in that they ignored game invites for this beast of a game.  So far I am not overly impressed.  However, I'm not much of an RPG fan to begin with.  I do like the fact that the fighting is real time and not turn based like Final Fantasy.  The graphics are nice but I don't think I'll be buying it.  I guess my character Joe Kickass will have to disappear after I return my rental unless it somehow changes my mind during the next week and makes me buy it.
     
    Lastly, I'm happy to announce that I finished the new Super Mario Bros. game for the DS.  I can't say enough about how much I love this game.  There's some secret stuff I still need to go and finish but I finished the main story and it was fun from beginning to end.  ICandee has a great review of it over at Gamer Survival. 
     
    Until next time everyone, take care and happy gaming.
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    June 03

    Movie Review: District B13

    This movie takes place in Paris in the year 2010.  The worst district in the City (can you guess which one?) has been walled in to keep the bad guys in.  It's your steretypical slums with drugs and guns all of which is pretty much controlled by one guy.  A nuclear weopan has come into the hands of the bad guys and one lone cop is sent into to defuse it with the aid of the only real good person left in B13. 
     
    This movie has a lot of cool action and martial arts scenes.  They are all done without wires and CG.  How they can pull off half the stuff they do, I'll never understand.  David Belle (the good guy in B13) pulls off the most amazing stunts.  He is one of the founders of Parkour.  The cop is played by Cyril Raffaelli.  Some of you may remember him as the small twin in Kiss of the Dragon (one of my faves).  He had the cool fight scenes and they were quite cool to watch. 
     
    If you love action and martial arts movies I highly recommend that you go see this one.  However, if subtitles bother you, you may want to stay home.  The movie is in French with subtitles.  This of course led to some weird translations.  One of the subtitles was "it's hotting up in here" instead of "it's heating up in here". 
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    June 01

    Spider-Man 3 Set Photos

    Cinescape has a posting with links where you can view set photos for Spider-Man 3.  I personally cannot wait for this movie.  One more year.  Sooooo long. 
     
     
    I know I haven't posted anything VG related in a few days.  I'll try and get something done soon. 
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