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The Thrasher ones were very difficult. Those challenges gave me some frustrating days for sure. Skate 2 was really the first game outside of GTA IV that I really pushed through and got to the end fairly quickly. If I remember right the challenges that gave me those most headaches were Alien Manual Workshop, the one with Jake Brown and the handplant, and a couple of the Rob Dyrdek challenges. The ones I always heard the most complaints about were pretty easy for me like Vert with the Vampire and Can You Spell GIRL. Though the Thrasher basketball one sucked hard.

I actually ended up just getting Godfather II and using the rest of the money to order Wrestlemania. I think I will end up getting Fifa 09 though. I haven't had a newer Fifa game in a while. I loved Fifa '01 though on my PC.

Whatever is good with you Livid. As long as it's not something really out there. Either or is probably alright with me though I know nothing about Pirates of the Caribbean haha.

Pending on rules, I'm in.

Not sure if this is the right thread but I figured it'd belong in here better than it's own thread: I've got some spare money laying around and want to pick up some new games. Anyone with suggestions on somewhat cheaper games? I'm going to grab Godfather II and probably an older Fifa game. Other than that I thought about maybe Civilization Revolution because that was pretty fun when I rented it. Anyone have some good suggestions?

Tonight I'm trying to finish off all the throwdown challenges. So frustrating. I think it'll probably be the last achievement I get as I don't really want to go through the hassle of all the Hall of Meat challenges.

The new wave of American heavy metal is such a joke. Half of the bands that get lumped into that label are metalcore bands. Basically bands that take some traditional metal elements and throw in heavy hardcore elements. Back a few years ago there were some really good bands doing that kind of thing, Shadows Fall, Unearth, As I Lay Dying. All three of those bands have gone down the crapper these days. Unearth did release a fantastic album that you should check out if you like them, The Oncoming Storm. Probably one of the most talented bands that just wasn't big enough during those days was Reflux. That had a guitarist that was talented beyond arguably anyone in the genre. These days metalcore is just so overdone with every band using the same song structure and sounding exactly like each other. Much the same as my post above. Some band does something different and then 100 others copy them, thus instantaneously ruining a genre of music. On paper, things like metalcore and deathcore should be the ultimate heavy form of music. In reality though it's just really bland and generic sounding.

Here's something that's been bothering me and maybe bothering others about metal music... What is the deal with these bands that play "death metal" that feel the need to put breakdowns in EVERY song. Now obviously that sounds a little exaggerated so I did an experiment. For a little while now I've heard that I should be listening to a few newer bands. So I got some tracks from Annotations of an Autopsy, Oceano, War From a Harlots Mouth, Whitechapel, and Impending Doom. Not only did every song I listen to by these bands have a generic sounding breakdown, they almost always happened around the same point in the song. The average song length was about three minutes and most of the songs had a breakdown either towards the beginning after a riff or two or smack in the middle. To me this is just lazy songwriting and things like this make me less and less interested in hearing more modern metal. Maybe it's because I'm a musician myself and I nitpick things but I have to imagine someone out there agrees with me in some aspect. The worst part is that some of these bands have really redeeming qualities. Either some really good drumming or creative guitar writing. Then they just muck it up by sounding exactly like every one else. Ten bucks says that if I gave someone each a track from those bands and didn't give track titles or the band name, they would think it's the same band. I'll stop complaining now.

Yeah I'd suggest Breaking Bad as well. It's been getting really good with the past couple of episodes but since it's only the beginning of the second season you wouldn't have to spend too much time catching up. Another show that I'd highly suggest if you want a darker drama type with some comedy is Dexter. Fantastic show all around.

Anyone else excited about this? From all I've seen via trailers and read via previews it's looking to be pretty solid. I only played the first one a little but enjoyed it. Number II looks like it's going to offer a lot more especially in terms of playtime with all the different rackets and power ups.

I'm a total idiot. I checked that thing for spelling but I never checked the giant letters up at the top.

Very nice Idol, better than mine haha. Didn't come out exactly as I wanted it to but here it is:

I have mine done but if you want to adjust the rules that's cool with me.

Career Mode consists of you creating a fighter and building him up through the ranks of the UFC. You have to schedule your training and rest periods to keep your fighter fit, but fresh. You also get a list of potential fights, which you get to pick one from for your next bout. Which fight you choose will determine how many credibility points you will receive based on the outcome of the fight. So, if you pick a fight against a scrub, you're more likely to win, but you'll get less cred points than you would if say, you fought against Kenny Florian. You also get to pick up sponsorships and stuff to go on your shorts and banners, which is pretty cool. Each career mode will last 7 years, at which point you have a retirement fight, and then based on what you've done, you might get into the Hall of Fame. It's supposed to last around 10 hours, give or take, for each run-through the mode. That said, the replayability sounds like it's pretty good, because each time you can go in at a different weight, train differently, take different fights and so forth. You'll only run into repeat shit in career mode if you're the type of player who finds one way to play that they enjoy, and just sticks with it. If that's how you play, then yes, it will be a rental... but if you like to switch things up and try a variety of stuff, then this game, like most other sports games, should last at least until the next one is nearing release. Thanks for the info. That pushes it more towards a buy now. Though it all depends on finances. At least they aren't just using career mode as an afterthought.

By chance do you know the names of these docs? EDIT: Oh, I just remembered another. What about documentaries about the Zapatistas? Gang War Bangin' in Little Rock. Can't remember the name of the sequel though, might just be Gang War 2.

From what I've seen it looks to be a pretty good game. Unless it's got a really good career mode, it'll just be a rental for me. I am looking forward to it as I also have always enjoyed MMA games and still play the OG UFC game on Dreamcast from time to time.

If Idol is good with it then I am. 4 way board game movie poster?

It looks really good. I like the mix of CGI for the faces and real actors for the bodies. Gives it a realer feel as you can see the weight and such of the actor in the suit as opposed to artificially lit computer graphics. I imagine I'll go and see it as well.

Honestly I've gotten so many cheap DVD's from Amazon. Earlier this year I decided to get every episode of Lois and Clark on DVD and Best Buy wanted something like $30-$40 per season and I ended up getting all four off Amazon for less then 60 bucks. I've seen movies go for really cheap as well. Just the other week I wanted to see how much that collectors edition of Robocop was and it was something like eight bucks. Just have to do some digging and you can find some good things. Though of course going to stores that have bargin bins always produce.

Not exactly what you were looking for but as far as videogame documentaries go, try to find Chasing Ghosts. It was filmed at the same time as King of Kong but takes a different approach and is actually kind of sad/depressing. On the subject of gangs, HBO did two documentaries on gangs in the south, Little Rock I think. Those were pretty good.

I decided to give Battlestar Galactica a try and watched the first episode. Sort of slow but I'll keep watching. There are a few other shows that I need to watch now that they are over with like The Shield.

S'Alright with me if it's alright with Idol.

If anyone wants to give rules go ahead otherwise I'll come up with something or feel free to do so yourself Idol.

So I've got some free time, anyone up for a battle? Preferably movie related but if you want to go two our of three or something we can add more stipulations.

I rented Legends of Wrestlemania on Thursday night and beat it in a marathon session going for all achievements as well. I've just been playing a match here and there since then. Other than that I picked up Call of Duty 4 last week and have been slowly going through it on the hardened difficulty. Pretty challenging but still really good. I'll probably finish it in a week or two. I don't know what to start playing after I finish it. A friend of mine has RE5 so maybe I'll do co-op with him. I've got Marvel Ultimate Alliance sitting on my shelf hardly played so I should probably get on that sometime. Hearing about baseball mogul makes me what to get it again. I used to be addicted to it back a couple years ago.