Reddaye

I beat the game today and don't remember any parts where you had to mash B against a sentinel. Are you on the section where you are pressing B to open a door but there's a Sentinel head blasting you? If so, don't go through the door. You walk around to another section instead.

That's just the part I meant. Didn't know you could walk around anywhere. I just saw "B" come up and starting mashing it.

I'll have to try fiddling around with it.

So....Wolverine jumped the shark for me right now. That Sentinel button mashing bit is gonna make me through my controller through the fucking TV.

I'm assuming you're at the same part that I just got to? The whole "mash fucking B before you get blown away" BULLSHIT.

You need fucking machine gun thumbs to do this...honest to fucking God.

Hey Drifter, how the fuck do you deflect projectiles in Wolverine? I'm assuming this means bullets but it never seems to work for me. Is it just a timing thing?

Awesome game thus far though.

I'm not entirely sure that you CAN deflect regular bullets. I've never tried doing it myself...

To deflect RPGs you need to hit LT (block) just before it hits you. If you time it right he'll deflect the RPG back towards the guy shooting it.

I'd assume if you can deflect bullets it'd be done the same way?

On another note, I just unlocked the blue and yellow costume. Had to fight a Wolverine wearing that costume in a bonus room...fucking EPIC. When I finally killed him he was laying on the floor torn to fucking SHREDS. We ripped one another apart for a good five minutes or so.

This shit just doesn't get old.

My team was never in it to begin with. ^_^

I've just been enjoying the hockey without the need to discuss and analyze every bit of it. With the Leafs in the regular season I'm always watching everything closely and investing myself personally into the team and what it does. In the playoffs I just have fun watching the best hockey of the season.

Two things that bothered me about the Wings/Ducks game...

1.. the Brown hit. Interference? Depends on whether the ref's felt the puck had been gone long enough. But a major? They're assessing penalties based on the outcome, as opposed to what they should be for, which is violation and intent. Just, brutal...

2... Franzen with a flying knee strike to Jonas Hiller. The goal was good, but there should have been a penalty for the unneccessary knee to the goalie's head. The amount of crease violations that Detroit has gotten away with this season is just bloody ridiculous. Franzen could have stopped or skated out of the way, but instead he barrelled into a young goaltender. That should have been a penalty as much, or more, than the Mike Brown hit.

All of this is quoted for truth.

1. Next time I'd suggest the passer doesn't spend fifteen seconds admiring his beautiful pass, and watch where he's going instead.

2. Bullshit move by Franzen there, and he get's away with it. Literally bowling a fucking goalie over and he doesn't get a penalty? Same thing happened to Tim Thomas last night, and there was a penalty called on the play. I know referees are going to call things differently...but there should be some sort of a standard here. Poor Hiller was rammed right back into his net, his mask comes flying off. Just a classless move by Franzen IMO.

Also...I hate Lidstrom. That is all.

Yeah...X-Men Origins: Wolverine is a fucking BLAST. Too long have we been deprived of a great game featuring a character practically tailor fitted for video games.

Outside of the vicious killing at every turn is Logan's healing factor. Nothing is cooler than being blown down to basically just a metallic skeleton, and watching his body stitch itself back together. Every time someone shoots me in the face with a shotgun, I have to swirl the camera around to see Logan's skin healing itself over his metallic skull.

This game won't make you any smarter, but it's sure as fucking hell fun to play.

RAVEN DOES IT AGAIN!

The Dark Spire (DS) - Fucking kick ass Wizardry style dungeon crawler. Pretty tough at the start, but once you get into the groove it's not too bad. I just started exploring the second floor, all of my party except for my thief are at level 3. Anyone who loves old school PC first person dungeon crawls ala Wizardry, or The Bard's Tale will get a real kick out of this. It's not even in the anime style that I completely despise.

Tomorrow I'll be adding this to the list:

X-Men Origins: Wolverine (360) - Raven have never made a game I didn't like, and this looks completely awesome. I'll edit tomorrow with my thoughts once I dig into it.

So I've been hearing there's a bit of a twist at the end involving Deadpool.

Anyone know if that's true? Or if you didn't click, if there's supposed to be a bit of a twist?

Perhaps the greatest joy of all about the Sharks losing is the vindication of Ron Wilson.

It'll also be nice to see Detroit get banged around by the Ducks in their upcoming series. Between travel, and getting thrown around the ice; hopefully the Wings will be too down and out to make it to the finals.

Not that I'm anti-Red Wings or anything.

UGH...just fucking UGH.

Columbus has Detroit on their heels in the last minutes of a tie game. They're battling like warriors to keep it in Detroit's end, Osgood was playing shakey...the game was just fucking electric. The crowd was going nuts, it was amazing. So what does Columbus do?

Take a STUPID FUCKING PENALTY! Too many fucking men on the ice. What a complete fucking brain fart of a penalty to take at such an important time. What happens? Detroit score on the power play in the last forty odd seconds, and I'll assume won the game after that point.

Ugh.

Ovechkin finally scores on King Henry...but it may be too late to stop the bleeding now.

Wow...you can really feel the love in here today.

Looking at the Detroit/Columbus series pretty well shows how poor of a team Columbus really is. When players like Voracek, Brassard, and Filatov enter the lineup and grow they'll have a much stronger forward core...but their defense will still stink to high heavens.

Fact is that Steve Mason pretty well carried them into a playoff position, but obviously couldn't really put them over the hump in any major way. Which is a shame, because I like Mason, I like Nash...I like the Jackets in general, but this was a major case of a team being outclassed.

Now if the Red Wings go on to win the Cup again I'll puke.

As far as St. Louis goes (as far as late third/OT is concerned, where I came in)...they just weren't taking good enough shots to get scoring chances. Shooting from the perimeter, or right into Luongo's chest isn't going to get it done. He seems to feed on taking shots, and it showed in his positioning and awareness. Chris Mason played extremely well from what I'd seen of the series so far, but when your power play is as shakey, and frankly uncreative as St. Louis' seemed to be...it's gonna be tough to win a game.

Kudos to the Canuck's defense too. They were really clearing rebounds away during the last part of the game. I think that would have been the Blues' only really good chance to score on Roberto.

I've never played NWN2 though. Is it worth getting?

It's only worth getting for it's first expansion: Mask of the Betrayer, and maybe it's second one: Storm of Zehir (if you like old school type PC RPGs). The actual main campaign of NWN2 is pretty poor as far as story goes IMO. It has it's moments, but overall I wasn't a huge fan.

I have faith in Obsidian to do something good with the Fallout universe. Especially considering the fact that a big chunk of Fallout 2's team work there. Here's hoping for an intricate storyline with plenty of grey choices and great characters. Chris Avellone turns most everything he touches into gaming gold.

Shame their Alien RPG was canceled.

I'm double posting, but I don't give a fuck. Amusing story floating around regarding the Leafs getting the Islander's number one pick...

According to Larry Brooks of the New York Post, it seems that Islander GM Garth Snow has turned on the tables on Brian Burke. Apparently, “the Islanders would be willing to deal, all right . . . willing to deal for Toronto’s seventh-overall selection, that is.” Quite the interesting twist.

Sensing Burke’s “reluctance” to select at 7th overall, our buddy Garth Snow is offering to take that pick off Toronto’s hands in exchange for a package of draft picks in the first two rounds. As it stands, the Islanders are holding a wealth of early draft picks in the upcoming NHL Draft, including their own 1st overall selection, San Jose’s 1st round pick (26th-30th overall, acquired from Ottawa via the Campoli trade), their own 2nd round pick (31st overall), Toronto’s 2nd round pick (37th overall, acquired via the Luke Schenn trade), and Boston’s 2nd round pick (60th overall).

Supposedly, the counter-offer would include Toronto’s 7th overall pick going to the Islanders for San Jose’s 1st round pick, New York’s 2nd round pick, and Boston’s 2nd round pick. So basically, you’re getting a pick in the early 30’s and a pick in the early 60’s to move down from 7th overall to 26th-30th overall. If true, Snow must have a very short memory because he established the same price on Cliff Fletcher to move up TWO spots, never mind 20 spots at last year’s draft.

In a draft class that’s more top heavy than deep, quality not quantity is the name of the game, and Burke of all people knows this, having already outlined his desire to move up. That said, he hasn’t altogether ruled out the notion of trading down, but it would take a heckuva lot more than this. Most likely, this “rumor” is either someone’s imagination running a little wild, or Snow’s way of getting a jab back at Burke for being so open about his motives.

Rumors are going to be running rampant from now right up until the moment Burke walks up to the podium on draft day. Until then, take everything with a grain of salt and enjoy the ride.

Alright, that makes sense. I think Antropov is their only free agent this year. Staal comes up next year, so they're going to be in trouble when it comes time to give him another contract. They're really going to be hurting if the cap takes a dive the year after next.

Antropov, Morris, Zherdev, and Mara are going to be free agrents, right? I'm not really sure, but i feel pretty confident about it.

You may very well be right. I'm not entirely sure what the free agent situation is for the Rangers off the top of my head. I only know of Antropov this year, with Staal and (I believe) Naslund next year. You're probably right about Morris, Zherdev, and Mara. If that's the case then things don't look quite so bleak for the Rangers as far as cap goes.

It's been a matter of Olli coming in and playing with Iginla right away, which put him into a comfort zone. In Florida, Jokinen was the number one guy, and everyone leaned on him. He didn't thrive in Phoenix because it was Shane Doan's team and he didn't transition well into what his role was there... so he gets a fresh start in Calgary, and he's re-invigorated, playing with Iginla... but seeing that he isn't the top dog here, he leaned far too much on Iggy, and became far too comfortable playing with him. His forecheck suffered for it, and he just hasn't had the energy that he did in the first 4 games he played with us.

Seems like a reasonable enough explanation. Just seemed odd that he comes in on fire and then completely fizzles out, and really hasn't found that spark since then.

On a side note I'm pretty excited about watching the World Championships this year. Especially with this Gustavsson character playing for Team Sweden. If he's as good as I'm hearing he'll be the biggest signing for us this year. Assuming Burke can get him.

This is where I let out a hefty sigh. Both games so far, we've dominated early, looked like we were in a good spot and then... let up.

Gabe I've gotta ask...what's the problem with Jokinen all of a sudden? The guy comes in and everything falls right into place. He's banging goals in left and right...and then suddenly it all just goes blank.

I don't watch many Flames games, so I'm just curious. Why has he suddenly become a non factor?

LOL! Really? That's awesome...

Wish I had caught that from the beginning. I just happened to flip TSN on (why the fuck didn't I pay the money and get this station all year? I'm a fucking retard) and saw him talking about the Capitals and Rangers.

That's not -worthy, they always use players and coaches as guest analysts for the playoffs. It's how Barnaby and Ferraro got started, I believe. Along with others who weren't so good.

Everything Brad May related is -worthy!

MAY DAY! MAY DAY! MAY DAY!

Simeon Varlamov plays fifty times better than Theodore, but King Henry shuts the fucking door on the Capitals. WOW...I'm fucking speechless here. Lundqvist could very well steal this series for the Rangers all by himself.

Rangers up in the series 2-0.

EDIT: Seems as though Brad May has found a job hosting on TSN.

The new signings aren't on the NHL roster, so they don't count against the cap. Also, Sather sent a couple of guys to Hartford before the deadline, and moved out a few roster players then too. Most notably in the Derek Morris deal. I think it was a 3 for 1 trade, if I recall correctly.

They're dangerously close to the cap though. I'm not sure what their free agent list looks like though. Maybe there's a couple big salaries on their way out, I'm not sure.

Also, no suspension for Cammalleri, which means that the NHL suspended Carcillo and fined Stevens because it was a deliberate attempt to injure at the very end of a game that the Flyers got thumped in. It's good to know that, because nobody ever really clarified what exactly he got suspended for.

Alright, that makes sense. I think Antropov is their only free agent this year. Staal comes up next year, so they're going to be in trouble when it comes time to give him another contract. They're really going to be hurting if the cap takes a dive the year after next.

Colin Campbell was on NHL Live today and explained the Carcillo thing rather well. He basically said that Philly put out Carcillo, a guy who never takes faceoffs, never kills penalties, never really get's any additional ice time, and he just 'happens' to club someone in the head during the faceoff with six seconds left. There was no way to penalize him for it, and it basically seemed like something that was done to send a message.

I expect everyone here understands it already, but that explained things nicely for me. I was wondering about it myself.

Yeah, but that's totally something the Rangers would do.

Could you imagine if they actually tried to build a team, instead of just assemble a group of the best players they can? So many players would love to play in New York, given that the team actually had a direction.

Too true. That Wade Redden contract is an abomination.

Seems as though it's not actually that much. Might only equal out to 1.75 million a season for two years...so it's maybe a little over 3 million total. Nothing concrete has actually come out yet so who knows what Sather has done this time?

I don't understand how they can keep fitting players in and still be under the cap. Antropov, Avery, and didn't they pick up another player or two at the deadline? I know Avery's hit is only half, but they supposedly had no room at all before the deadline, now they can fit in 4+ players without moving any bodies out?

Color me confused.

He is an asshole, but I still found the picture amusing.

To go with what I mentioned before about Gilroy, the New York Post is reporting he's signed a two year deal with the Rangers for between 4-5 million dollars. Seems like an awful lot of money for an unproven player.

I am kind of interested in whether it's "I'm super strong but a fucking genius" Bane or "I'm a mindless muscle" Bane.

The site with the reveal said one of his attributes was "master strategist," so it seems like we'll be getting the intelligent Bane. Thank Christ.

Also, the look is a bit overkill. The tubes don't bother me as much as that huge thing on his back...looks weird. Guess I shouldn't be surprised though, considering Wildstorm are doing character designs. We'll have pouches and paraphernalia a plenty.