Vilge Duin

I know this is almost two weeks old, but the CD just shipped in Canada yesterday. Twas a bitch to find anyways for some reason. Not being backed by Roadrunner and TVT anymore really shows. This Life may very well become one of my favourite songs in recent memory. A very touching and sincere song for once. I haven't honestly heard something so heartfelt in such a long time. I didn't like the CD much on my first listen through (lack of sleep, no concentration and a migraine didn't help it), but I've listened to it a couple more times now and it's very well produced and I'm enjoying it emmensly. A bit of everything for everyone. Some heavy stuff from their starting days with Sevendust and Home, some light stuff ala Seasons and plenty of inbetween like Animosity. And some altogether new direction to boot. Sonny's guitarwork in place of Clint is very noticible. My only problem with the cd is a couple tracks have very aggravating Morgan screaming in the background (namely The Last Song). I prefer when he keeps it quiet. Enemy was the only song I disliked off of Seasons because of him. Failure and Pieces are probably my favourite tracks after This Life. Anyone who hasn't heard of Sevendust or are just looking for a excellent hard rock/metal album, I highly recommend you check out Next. One of the best of the year.

Yeah, it was actually decent for what it was. Made for TV Santa horror movie. The spear was great. Mostly great for just the killing but there's something about over the top deaths down by Santa to Christmas music. I recommend anyone who didn't watch it to try and catch it Saturday when the replay's on or try to tape it. Pretty enjoyable for what it was.

It's currently on on Spike TV. I remember hearing about it a couple years back and well... Here it is. The opening actually had me laughing. It looks so bad that it's good. The Nanny getting it in the egg nog was wonderful. And all to Christmas music. Anyone else watching or plan to? It's on Saturday too apparently.

Try Ratchet and Clank: Up Your Arsenal if you already haven't. Or the previous two if you haven't played any of them already. Very well worth it to play. They're all greatest hits now, so they're pretty cheap. Timesplitters: Future Perfect is always a good choice for any reasons. One of the best shooters you can find anywhere.

Before my sister left when I was but a wee lad I remember us having an Atari. Don't know which one specifically but I never recall playing it. First system I remember having is the original NES. My parents took me to a friend of their's for a party, and I played Super Mario Brothers. I guess I was so happy with it my father went out and bought one on the way home. Got a Super NES when it came out, a Genesis (Megadrive) shortly after. I had a Game Gear for a very short time and remember telling my father to sell it because there's was no decent games I could find. The Nintendo 64 I got the Christmas it came out. The next year when Final Fantasy 7 came out I got a Playstation. Had a Gameboy Colour somewhere around here but sold that to a friend's brother for more than it was worth. Got a Dreamcast one month before they were discontinued. :thumbsdown: Almost any game I wanted was either not in stores and just not out altogether anymore. Still got my greedy hands on Sonic Adventure and Skies of Arcadia so all's good. The year after (2002) I got a Playstation 2 to play MGS 2, Vice City and more importantly Final Fantasy X. And this year I bought a Gamecube and Gamboy Advance SP with my girlfriend. All in all the SNES has given me some very fond memories. Even more than the NES. The Game Gear was shit. The N64 wasn't what I expected since I loved the RPGs on SNES (Secret of the Mana, FFII (IV), FFIII (VI), Chrono Trigger, Earthbound, Lufia, Mario RPG... oh how I miss those days). It had a shitty ass Quest 64 until Paper Mario came out. And Playstation didn't have the same charm as the SNES. I only wound up playing Final Fantasy games, Metal Gear Solid and the original Grand Theft Auto. I can't remember truly enjoying anything else really. PS2 has been far superior with things like Jak, Ratchet and Clank, Burnout, Mercenaries, Final Fantasy, Metal Gear, Kingdom Hearts, GTA, etc. The Gameboy's been decent but my girlfriend plays it far more than I could ever want to. And the Gamecube has some solid titles but I generally have all the decent games I want narrowed down and only Zelda's coming. Meh. All in all, I find I got the best value out of the PS2 but I got the best enjoyment out of the SNES. Yeah I should stop rambling. I've never sold an actual console but have gotten rid of my Game Gear and Game Boy Colour.

After see Mick's signature I just remembered The Stand television miniseries. The Matrix (at least the last two) fit in, since they're pretty much futuristic, set in the future and post apocalyptic. Akira too. Planet of the Apes isn't futuristic but it is post apocalyptic. The upcoming V For Vendetta. Serenity is supposed to be too but I've not seen it yet. Tank Girl too...

I figure this has a better place here than anywhere else...

Slammasters was great. It had entrances! And the Scorpio boss guy was cool. Any game with Mike Hagger in it is awesome. They so need to make another proper Final Fight with the new surge in brawlers. Another game I used to love was Rock and Roll racing. That game holds the most rentals of any game I ever played when I was a kid. I think a good straight 3 almost 4 months I had it every weekend. Should have just bought the damn thing.

I suppose I was just never engrossed by Goldeneye like others. I do admit it's a good game though, but it is highly overrated. The controls were awkward to me since I was so used to the Super NES controller. Hell, I prefer Timesplitters the "grandchild" of Goldeneye over any other shooter. The foundations it laid were and are still good. The game is just espoused as the end all be all game to this day. Look at any shooter, and especially any James Bond game, and it will always be the first thing mentioned. Halo seems to be replacing it in the shooter area, but Bond games are ridiculously tied to Goldeneye. It's really just my lack of interest in shooters I suppose when it comes down to it.

Final Fantasy 7 - Woefully overrated beyond belief. Travel to any message board and see the word best get thrown around about everything is sickening. I bought the Playstation when it came out and loved every bit of it, just like I had with the previous three that I had played. However over the years I slowly grew to despise the thing because of all the ridiculous hype placed on it by fans. Yes I know it was countless people's first RPG and I have found those people deify it more than anyone else. However people who have played RPGs before it, like myself, usually will prefer something else. Hell the big twist in it is something that already happened in Phantasy Star 2. It's story is simple with convoluted twists to make it seem more intelligent and it's battle system was nothing new. Good game but made out to be the end all be all RPG (and game even) when better things have come before and after it. Pokemon - Pfft. The first couple were fine, a novel idea of collecting monsters to fight against other people with. However ten years after and they still are pretty much the same from what I've seen. Nothing at all different to the core game. Better graphics, slowly over time and more monsters. Just like every other cash cow on earth. Goldeneye - Screw Halo, at least it's not obsessed over as the best shooter ever to this day. Goldeneye was good, but had awkward controls and unless you have friends to play with it is dull. But like all "firsts" the nostalgia makes it better than it really is.

I bought a Dreamcast specifically for Skies of Arcadia. Loved the idea of the game from the moment I first read about it. Air pirates was just too cool. Alas my Dreamcast bit the dust one my second playthrough of the game. FF9 is shit on mostly by people who never experienced the ones before it... all of them. I can proudly say that I still have my original Final Fantasy cartidge, instruction manual and map. Box is long gone though. It's a whimsical tale of fantasy that serves as a sendoff to the rest of the series. A lot of people who hate it go on about it being a "Rehash" or "Parody" when that's the intention. It incorporates elements from 8 games before and tries to be its own game and does so admirably. One of my favourite games is Earthbound. I'm shocked at how few people have heard of the game and even fewer like it. The whole quirky and zany world is just to screwed up not to enjoy. Who doesn't like fighting New Age Retro Hippies? A great game with a different sense of humour, endearing characters and a modern RPG setting.

I'm going to nominate what I think is most influencial, as I can't narrow anything down to ten things I like. Pac Man or Space Invaders - Whichever came first, I can't remember at the moment, but both helped the explosion of game popularity Super Mario Brothers - Helped make modern console gaming what it is today. The Legend of Zelda - Was the starting point of the biggest adventure game series ever, plus was influential with the creation of a battery backed up save Dragon Warrior - Without this first, Final Fantasy would have never been made. Populous - The first "god" game. Made way for things like anything with Sim and Tycoon in it along with things like even EWR and such. Street Fighter 2 - The granddaddy of all fighters. Doom - Not the first FPS but the one that popularized them beyond belief. Dune - (not sure if I have the exact name) But without this games like Warcraft, Command and Conquer, etc. would have never been. Super Mario 64 - Opened the first to true 3Dness. Grand Theft Auto - Was the true originator or pointless gaming in an open ended environment. GTA III just made it 3D. Anything else is really a derivitive of things before them. I more than likely missed many things but these games generally affect what games I now play to this day. As for favourites, they're just disdended later iterations of those I listed so no point really.

Aside from what has been mentioned Mad Max is always good. Minority Report could be construed to fit. 12 Monkeys, Escape from New York/LA, Equilibrium and Water World are all set in a post apocalyptic setting. Judge Dredd too I suppose. Starship Troopers? I also liked Fortress when I was younger, has Christopher Lambert in it. Probably shit but I remember liking it.

I've never been able to track down ICO. My girlfriend learned about it and thought the concept was cool and all the vast amount of praise for it made me want to play it... but no store in this city has had one copy ever. Except one EB that had a used copy that was scratched to hell. This also strikes me as great but my luck again no store will probably carry it. Is there decent replay with it? I hate getting games that are good for only one play through.

Ooooh, they put my Cold Case on there. Dirty good for nothing righteous buggers. I'm surprised one of the numerous Law and Order's isn't on there. It's sad that they can't even try to think of a tenth show to at least stick in their number ten best spot.

It's political in nature of it's context but not really anything in particular. Davidian by Machine Head, which has been one of my favourite songs for ten years now. For Whom The Bell Tolls by Metallica is also good, if songs against war count.

I have no clue, but when I looked for a picture he does have a very uncanny resemblance to what I think Cletus would look like. I hope what I've head about a possible Venom suit isn't true. Purpleish tinge is not good. From the sounds of a lot of recent news, they seem to be going more in vain with the Ultimate universe (it was afterall started because of the X-Men and Spider-Man movies). With Harry being Hobgoblin, and the possible story for Eddie and the symbiote. I'd prefer the original storylines, but there's no real way to do the Venom arc in movies without changing it and by having Harry be Hobgoblin instead they can avoid the Green Goblin suit that everyone hated from the first. The way I see it, Harry will be the prime antagonist with Sandman as his backup/henchmen and the possibility of Venom will be there as a side threat to get bigger at a later time (and possibly movie).

Buffy and Angel weren't even that great of ideas. I've never understood why people are all up for his work. Well his writing on Astonishing X-Men is good, but I mean film and television stuff. Buffy was slightly unique (a female, teenage vampire hunter) but nothing about Angel screams great to me. I can't comment on Firefly but I plan to see Serenity sometime soon since the commercials look good. And I surely hope this is one hugely elaborate joke... otherwise I feel sorry for these people.

Jake Roberts is most certainly a PSP exclusive now. http://ps2.ign.com/articles/656/656778p1.html He's been taken off the legends list and on the end they added "PSP Legend". I think it's rather bullshit. Jake was one of the legends I was happy was in the game. Why the PSP gets exclusive content I'll never know. It alienates people with consoles. Especially considering he was stated as in in the first place. At least it's not like DoR2 where Maven was even put up on the site at the time of release and was nowhere to be found. First X-Men legends 2 and now this... stupid fucking PSP...

I just got the most annoying news in a long string of them. Next doesn't come out here until the 25th according to HMV. Bunch of bullshit. I still don't understand why Canadian's get things that much later than Americans. Eh well. Does anyone else on the board have the CD yet? I hyped myself to listen to it, but was sadly disappointed by the news. I still want to know what it sounds like.

Well you could always go through school saying "I'm named after Superman so go screw yourself"... Yeah, it'll never work. Better yet, "My father's a fucking loon".

We traded in DoR and SvsR to get DoR2 last month and I just traded it in at EB for credit. If you were to get one it depends on your situation (I'm assuming you'll mainly be playing single player since that's a concern of yours). DoR 2 can be one of the cheapest games to play against the computer. Anything with more than 1 opponent can and will be a handicap match. And with the move interuption gameplay feature, any time you go for a move that takes even a couple seconds to execute you'll get a punch from another computer stopping it and leaving you on the mat to be teamed up on. At first (especially in the first game) it was an awesome feature that I loved, but time made it sour to me. Too many moves being stopped by a stupid punch. Most of my matches turned into systematically taking them all out, which can be a bitch on Expert. DoR storyline is shit, with a fair amount of storylines taken from actual programming. And DoR 2's storyline is shit, based off shit. However it is more cohesive and sensible in a way. However watching my big brutish and ugly monster heel flirt with Stacy Keibler and save they day kind of bugged me. Super linear. The presentation is nicer, graphics are a bit better and the submission system is only moderately tweaked with the inclusion of the stamina system (blood is negligible really). Also if you like creating wrestlers (you could just stick with their templates though) you can expect to waste a lot of time. And not in a good way. Depending on what you're doing loading can take from 2-15 seconds with 5 or so being the average. May not seem like a lot at first but when you are adjusting shades of a colour it's a bitch. Since you just got a Cube though, stick with DoR. It's cheap now and isn't that drastically different from the second game. Very little loading in CAW and the AI isn't as cheap. You may or may not like the story as much. Graphics and presentation (along with Legend selection) are better in the 2nd.

I think what truly sets Sevendust apart from all other "numetal" copycats is Lajon. A lot of bands strive to sound similar in both style and look, because that's what sold when Korn kind of kick started the sub-genre. However with Lajon he has a background in soul singing and such, his voice is very versatile. He can growl and yell with the best of them, but he can carry a whole song through a great melody with something no other band provides. The new song Ugly is an example of that, you can listen to it on their site. It strikes the cord that Animosity set. It has hard enough cords and notes, but is also soft. I've gotten many people interested in hard rock and metal in general by just showing them the range over Animosity. Such as Praise, Tits on a Boar, Xmas Day, Angel's Son and Live Again. Hell Shine and Redefine are great as well. That's where they do their best, being right in the middle where they are the only ones. Enter Blue Guy, have you heard Southside Double-wide? I've meant to check it out since I've always wondered what they would sound like accoustically (after a Tonight Show appearance with Mark McGrath to perform Angel's Son) but have never found it anywhere. Online buying is a no go as well.

Is anyone else planning on checking out new album in little over a week? I completely forgot they had a new album coming out until just the other day. Mainly because I didn't realize they had left their label and their website was of course unupdated (their official one is now http://www.sevendust.info) I've been a fan since I heard Mortal Kombat: Annhilation's soundtrack (My Ruin), and I'm happy they're going back to their heavier roots. But they also are keeping the softer melody side they've gained over the last few albums and the sound mix actually works for once. Pieces and especially the first single Ugly are great from what I've heard. Can't wait until it comes out, I've come to appreciate new Sevendust promptly every two years in October.