A Temple In The Sky

Sudoku has made itself known worldwide anymore so why not make it digital and sell it for $10 when you can get it free? That’s exactly what they did and guess what? I just bought it. I did demo it first, I swear, it was fun.

No matter how you look at it, it’s Sudoku. It’s got some different modes, like a timed mode and some different sized grids. The 8×8 and 12×12 were quite the mind-bender the first time I looked at them. It’s got single player and multi-player (local or over Xbox Live) and those modes are fun as well. The co-op is definitely good for some laid back Sudoku action. It’s nice to have a friend to help out.

It’s got some hardcore hint systems built in that basically make you feel like you’re cheating. You can’t use them in multi-player, but in single player they are there with arms stretched open for you. It saves all your scores and posts your total Buku score up on an Xbox Live leaderboard for the game. Basically though it’s just there for you to Sudoku around. I haven’t taken it online yet, but I think the same modes are available as they are for local play.

The controls are a little bit funky, although I’m not quite sure how they would be improved. You can move around the Sudoku grid with the left analog stick and then select the number you want to place with the right analog stick. It takes some getting used to, but like I said, I can’t think of a better way so I can’t really fault them for what they did.

You can pretty much judge how much enjoyment you’ll get out of this game based on how much you like or dislike other forms of Sudoku. It’s probably not worth the 800 points it cost ($10), but I bought it and I’m having fun with it. Once again, if you like Sudoku and achievements, you probably will feel the same.

While browsing the general library of horror movies at Hollywood Video the other day I came across a movie called Boy Eats Girl which described itself on the back as being in the vein of ‘Shaun of the Dead’. So I deccided to give it a shot and see what it was all about. After viewing the movie last night I must say I’m fairly pleased. While not really up to par with ‘Shaun of the Dead’ it had some classic moments.

The basic story goes that a kid is trying to hook up with this girl, Jess, and on the night he’s supposed to meet her see’s her getting a ride with another guy and gets the wrong idea. So after getting drunk that knight he semi-accidentally hangs himself and when his mom finds him she decides to bring him back to life with a book she found in the church basement. However, she didn’t quite read into all the consequences and he ends up coming back to life with traits of a Zombie!

All in all a pretty good flick. The Irish accents probably add to a lot of the humor because it makes certain words funnier than they really are (like ‘garage’, look for that one). The beginning set up is about half of the movie, but the second half of the movie has some awesome massacre parts with tons of limbs being removed and bloodshed (look for the tractor scene).

If you’re into funny horror movies, ones like ‘Shaun of the Dead’ then I’d say this would be a good movie for you to check out. Maybe not one you’d buy and watch again and again, but you’ll get some good laughs I assure you.

‘You’re supposed to make friends at school, not eat them.’ – Diggs

Warped Tour ’08 hit Cleveland today (wait…yesterday now) and I was in attendance. I haven’t been to Warped Tour in a few years and it seems little has changed. Literally, it was plague with people that were the same age as I was the last time I went. But really, it’s about the music right?

Warped Tour has gone through some changes over the year as has the popular music among teenage kids, which the tour is clearly focused four. I was glad to see the tour focusing on bands like Norma Jean, As I Lay Dying, Evergreen Terrace, The Devil Wears Prada, Everytime I Die, Maylene and the Sons of Disaster… which were all the bands that I chose to see throughout the day. However, I’m sure while I was glad many people who were in attendance of the first few Warped Tours are sad to see bands like Rancid being absent (do they even play anymore?)

Even with all the bands that I used to go see constantly when they were new being present, the tour being plagued with all these kids in their skinny pants and whatnot was a bit disappointing. Kinda made me feel old actually. I found myself thinking “back when I used to see these guys…” a lot, which was weird. I guess it makes sense though, my generation wasn’t the only generation that enjoyed these bands, they have to have an ever growing fan base of kids who can use their parents money to support them.

Either way, the bands all rocked. I checked out all the bands I listed above (which is why I listed so many there) and I remember what motivated me so many years ago to be in a band. So, while the fans ruin the shows for me because they are all little kids in perspective, I’ll be buying these bands records as long as their rockin out. Check ‘em out if you don’t know any of them.

I’ve mentioned in my last few posts how close I was getting to yet another 1000 points added to my gamerscore, referring to Oblivion in this case. Tonight (technically this morning) I’ve made it. I have completed the main quest along with all the main guilds and here’s what I think of the game.

Oblivion can be summed up pretty easy. It does a lot of things, and it doesn’t do any of them exceedingly well. The story leaves much to be desired, the battle system is terrible, the currency is basically pointless because you’ll find everything you need, the items and magic are basically pointless (aside from the heal spell) and everything is basically just ok. But, let it be known, that there is a ton of content so if you are just looking for things to do, this is your place.

You can enter into Oblivion and play through about 2 hours of the main storyline and then never touch it again for 100, maybe even 200 hours if you choose because there are just that many things to do. If you choose to go just through the necessary, you won’t be there long. The game really encourages you to just enjoy the world.

However, there is a problem with the world. It’s huge and has to load itself very often. You can be in the middle of fighting or wandering the countless similar looking areas and it’ll just stop you for 3-5 seconds and load. It’s not normally to long, but it reminds you everytime that the world is bigger than the game can handle. And for no reason to because most of it looks the same. The edges don’t wrap around, they just tell you that you “cannot go any further in that direction” and you can fast travel (aka click where you want to go and it will automatically take you there) instead of actually walking through the world to get to where you need to be.

Last thing I want to go into more detail on is the battle system. The game feels like it wants to have depth to it’s battles, but it doesn’t give you any more than the ability to hack ‘n slash. The big problem I ran in to was that I leveled up my characters strength immediately to get real strong, but as a result the game leveled up all the characters strength and then I was left with a medium defense but taking strong hits. This hurt me real bad in trying to play the game.

But really the fights are just lame. There is the option to block, but it doesn’t really help you any aside from upping your block skill. You might as well just head straight towards an enemy and go to town. You also may notice that the enemies A.I. tends to do what you do. If I block most of the time the enemies just stare at me. When I attack they start attacking and when I do a charged attacking they just do one right back. Which defeats the purpose of trying to do any of these things.

All in all this game really depends on what you’re looking for. If you want a bajillion things to do that are all similarly repetitive then this game will provide you a lot of entertainment. But if you’re looking for some other sort of RPG or Adventure fulfillment, I suggest looking elsewhere. Lastly though, if you played and enjoyed Morrowind, you’re not going to care what I say because you already have your opinions. Thanks for reading!

I’ve seen some more movies the last few days including ‘V for Vendetta’, ‘American Splendor’, ‘Shaun of the Dead’, ‘The Devil’s Rejects’, ‘House of Wax’ (new) and ‘Lucky # Sleven’. I can recommend most of these, but not all.

‘House of Wax’ was the lame new age horror movie I expected it to be. All the actors/actresses were totally mediocre as was the plot. The wax stuff was pretty awesome they did and of course Paris Hilton’s death scene was amazing. Not just because it was her, it was honestly an awesome kill. ‘American Splendor’ lost my interest real fast. Actually, it never really caught my interest at all. So I don’t recommend either of these.

I’m probably one of the few who hadn’t seen ‘Shaun of the Dead’ or ‘The Devils Rejects’, but I definitely recommend them both. However, my biggest recommendations go to ‘V for Vendetta’ and ‘Lucky # Sleven’. Honestly, I was completely blown away by how awesome these both were. If you haven’t seen either of these go out and get them right now because I can guarantee that you won’t be left down.

In other news, Firefox 3.0 has released with a world record setting release. Pretty awesome score for Mozilla. I’m using it right now to write this article and so far my experience with it has been pleasurable on both the Windows and Mac platforms. Great job Mozilla!