A boy and his pet giant robot, now where's the chocolate?

Heroman is the anime that Stan Lee teamed with BONES to do and it definitely has Stan Lee’s ink stained fingerprints all over it. This is a show that is bucking for Saturday morning and a toy line, possibly brought to you by 4Kids. Having said that, I’m still debating whether or not I like the show or not. It has a feel of the kind of Americanized anime that has become popular, and it also has a feeling that reminds very much of 70s and 80s giant robot shows that lends it a unique charm if you’re looking for retro giant robots. But the charm isn’t quite enough to erase the face that the giant mecha genre has come a long way since Voltron and Transformers.

You see dis fro? Dis fro be the awesome.

Our main hero is Joey Jones, he of the generic name and toy obsession with a character design scarily similar to a chocolate obsessed blond from another, much greater series. I also think that he might be gay, because there is no boy who is in junior high, let alone high school (they never quite say) that is going to say no to a cheerleader wearing a skirt as scandalously short as the one Lina wears. Which leads me to wonder if Stan Lee maybe has lost his touch with the pulse of kids these days. The other main character is Psy, a skater dude with crutches and quite possibly the most epic fro I have seen in an anime. If I do continue watching Heroman, it will because of Psy and his epic fro of epicness. An because he’s the most original character in the entire show.

The story… well there is not a lot to it. A scientist by the name of Professor Denton has sent out a message to space inviting the aliens to come make friends and sing Kumbayah with him, since they would never want to do something like destroy the world. Except they do, but that’s not really important in this episode. Joey is a boy living with

She's hot, she's a cheerleader, she has a thing for nerds, and she's a total figment of your imagination.

Someone should inform Stan Lee that he is not Alfred Hitchcock, he does not need to cameo in everything he does. Especially since he’s not even subtle about it. I can’t say much for the shows originality, unless being set in America and having Heroman covered in red, white and blue is something completely new to you. I can tell that it’s also going to play on that great Stan theme of responsibility with power. I’m interested, but I’m not sure if it really has enough meat to it to make me keep watching. Or if the meat it has is even good any longer.

The simple tale of a boy and his demon butler.

It’s not dead yet! I know it’s been forever and a day since there was any activity, so I bring some new reviews! Beginning with Kuroshitsuji aka Black Butler.

Take Little Lord Fonteroy as envisioned by the Japanese, cross it with The Tragical Tale of Dr. Faustus and then put a gothic lolita filter over the whole thing and you will probably come up with something resembling Kuroshitsuji. The show is about a young British lord in Victorian England by the name of Ciel Phantomhive, the world’s first twelve year old with a stick up his ass that may or not be made of awesome (and may or may not belong to his handsome butler). To put Ciel’s history in a brief pithy saying and hopefully not spoil it too much for those of you who haven’t watched the show, some bad things happen to Ciel after his family was killed and his home burned down. So he did what any person in that situation would do, summon a demon and make a contract with him to get revenge. Thus enters Sebastien Michaelis, butler and demon extraordinaire that looks like Vincent Valentine, and acts like a combination of Alucard and Walter from Hellsing. This all combines to make the most awesome butler in existence.

Just a taste of what you can find in the Phantomhive household.

Overall Kuroshitsuji is a very enjoyable series, well executed and it manages to handle it’s different materials well without fumbling too much. Best of all, the ending is an ending with actual resolution instead of just a trail off. Funimation got the rights to release this in the US this year, and I’m looking forward to getting to watch the English dub of it, mainly because when Funi wants to, they can do a fabulous job. I’m hoping it’ll be a bit like Hellsing where I’ll get real British accents, which would just be the icing on an already great cake. So if you want an enjoyable show that is mostly serious with funny moments and an overall unique story, you deserve to check it out. It you’re just a closet victorian/steam punk fan, you should definitely check it out.

But, as I was searching for the perfect ringtone for my new, cuddly cellphone, I realized that it’s not possible to directly select one of your favorite music from your iPod and just make it your desired ringtone.  A quick research online revealed that the evil masterminds at Apple had designed it so that you need to pay $0.99 for any ringtone, even if you own the original song.  So in a sense, they want to take more money out of your wallet, which makes the stingy bug in me jitter like crazy.  So I found a site that solved the problem, and I’m sharing it here with you~

How to Create Your Own iPhone Ringtone

1. Start iTunes and find the song you want to convert. (It must be an MP3.)
2. Right-click the song and choose Get Info.
3. Click the Options tab.
4. Check the Start Time and Stop Time boxes, then enter times for each (no more than 30 seconds apart, the maximum length for a ringtone). I used 0:00 and 0:30, respectively, as “Spit It Out” has a perfect ascending lead-in.
5. Click OK, then right-click the song again and choose Create AAC Version. You should immediately see a new 30-second version of the song.
6. Drag that version out of iTunes and into the folder of your choice.
7. Delete the 30-second version from iTunes and undo the Start Time/Stop Time changes to the original.
8. Open the folder containing the 30-second AAC file you dragged out of iTunes, then change the file extension from .m4a to .m4r. Double-click it and it immediately gets added to iTunes’ ringtone library.
9. Finally, sync your iPhone. When it’s done, you can head into the settings and select your new ringtone.

Adopted from the original article Turn Any MP3 into an iPhone Ringtone by PC World Magazine

Enjoy your new ringtone! ^_^

First thing to say is that this is obviously a Michael Bay movie, no two ways about it. There are explosions and lots of them, and then there are some more explosions plus a few more after that. The special effects are crazy good, some of the best ever seen and none where it blatantly screams computer generated, even if you know it is. There are plenty ot mechs as well, both Autobot and Decepticon. All beautiful animated and smoothly moving, and indeed there are some truly great fight scenes between the mechs that really are the highlight of the movie. In fact the fight scenes between the mechs are the strongest scenes of the movie, and more gripping than a lot of the drama scenes.

As for the plot of the movie, well there isn’t much to it. It has as many plot holes as the first movie did, but a lot more plot devices than the first. Yet for all of this there is much individual plot advancement amongst the returning characters, and the overall story of the movie is rather fragmented and not pieced together well. Another thing that seemed troubled was the pacing, it took the movie quite awhile to actually get going and the time in between just seemed a bit too much like filler. I think what the movie ultimately suffers from is too much cast and not enough time. There are dangers with having a large ensemble cast and the main pitfall is the fact that after a certain point you simply cannot develop the characters in any meaningful way. Which shows in the Autobots especially, for all the new mechs they added, I felt like I actually saw the transformers less in this movie than I did in the previous one.

The dialogue in the movie hasn’t changed that much since the first, it’s still full of one liners that are hit or miss. The same can be said of the humor, even though it has a more juvenile tone to it. Some of the best dialogue belongs to the mechs themselves, and the voice acting is absolutely peerless. There is a certain thrill that went through me the first time I heard Soundwave speak in the movie. It only the visible actors had been as believable in some of their dialogue the movie would have been even better.

All in all it a good movie, but not great and it definitely could have been better. Still, it’s good enough that I’d willing pay to go see it again. The real question will be if I will see it as often as I saw the first one.

Graphics:  The graphics of Book of Legends are more toward comic style, and you can see touches of Japanese manga style within the characters.  The lines are delicate and the facial emotions are very anime-like, which makes the otaku inside me squeal in delight.  The graphics of each scene are okay, since you can’t really do much with the seek-and-find type of game, but the objects tend to blend in just a little too much, and they’re not as sharp as the Mortimer Beckette game I played earlier.  However, this doesn’t have the problem that Mortimer has, because all of the objects are hidden well and not in the darkest shadow of the scene so that it’s impossible to find.  I just uses the hints when I get lazy or when they blend in a bit too much.

Music:  Or rather, should I say, voice over.  This is the best voice over game from Reflexive that I’ve ever played!  The characters are quite real, thanks to the actor and actress protraying the main characters, and they made them believable.  I’m not sure if they are professional voice overs, but they rock.  The teenage exasperation of sibling rivalry and having to work together… It’s just awesome.  I really enjoyed the voice over and left the speakers on at all times when I play this game, or at least uses the headsets.  The music is quite exciting and fitting of the game, and it’s not too bad, but it’s not as well orchestrated as Mortimer Beckette’s (I keep referring back to that game because they’re basically the same thing, just with slight differences and story plots).  But, this game gets a better score than Mortimer’s just because of the voice overs alone.  Whoever did the voices— you rock.

Gameplay:  The story plot is quite interesting, though quite early in the game you start to think the question “just how is this possible with the story from the beginning?”  Not spoiling too much, but from the very start you know there are “men in black” chasing after the main characters, and then suddenly they are able to run around the globe without anyone at their tails?  That fact just bugged me throughout the game.  Regardless, the game play is very well made.  The actual story-plot scene is quite short, but the game is made up of many mini-stages of seek-and-find, side jobs  that you’re hnave to do to make money to fund for your trips.  While the game says it’s optional…. It really isn’t.  But they’re fun, and have about four to five different varieties (taking pictures, finding the same item of many times, or finding different items…etc.) and is a neat break from the story plot, which is mainly solving puzzles.  However, because the main story plot is so short and the mini-games are longer, it’s kind of hard to get the continuity of the story and you loses momentum.  Not a big problem if you don’t really mind the story, but for me it somewhat bothered me.

Overall: Personally, I really enjoyed this game.  While it’s a bit short and I was having problem with keeping the momentum of the story going, I really liked this game and played through it quickly.  The story is a bit out of the cliche, but not too far from the usual Reflexive Arcade style, so they’re predicable and very children-friendly.  However, the voice over is very good and I would replay the game just for the voice over alone (not that I would, ’cause I still have so many games to play, but you know what I mean.)   The entire game was made into a somewhat movie-style, something that I enjoyed, and the ending was interesting and a cliffhanger, I can’t wait for the next installment of the game to come out.  This is a good game to play, most definitely.  I’m not sure if you would want to buy it, but you definitely should give this game a try.

Graphics:  The graphics for the Mushroom Age is mediocre at best.  It’s not something wonderfully done, but it skates by.  However, the items that you need to find are either too obvious that there poses really no challenges at all, or too bland that you can’t see it even if it’s in front of you.  I read elsewhere that the Mushroom Age uses a technique where some items don’t appear the first time you search a scene, and you have to go and search another scene first, find as many as you can first, go back to the first scene, and some new items will pop.  I’m not sure if they really utilized this technique (because frankly, I highly doubt that the producer of this game really are that intelligent…) but it kind of feels like that sometimes.  I’m just not sure if it’s because of the poor graphics or becasue of this new technique that they uses.  The animation used during the time-travel makes me nauseous, what with the too-bright colors and the continuous swirl and the bright dots that gets on my nerve after seeing it the second time, and at the end I always turn away when my character started to use the time machine.  Yes, it’s that annoying.

Music:  They incorporated the voice over for the game, which, at first, I thought was quite impressive and interesting.  But the badly-done voice over soon wears off its charm (and this happens very quick as well), as too many mistakes from the voice over can be found by people who aren’t picky at them, not to mention for me who grew up with good voice over Japanese animations.  The main character, Vera, was played by a girl who was probably on a high dosage of anti-anxiety drug, because there is absolutely no emotions in her voice at all.  I mean, (a bit of spoiler alert) if your fiance with whom are you getting married disappeared without a word and the only clue is his mentor, a crazy professor, wouldn’t you be mad and borderline hysterical when that professor isn’t telling you where he is?  But no, she was all tired and slow-speaking and perhaps just took her meds that she’s sleepy, and she is like that throughout the story.  It was grating on my nerves very early in the game.  Other voice overs are bad to borderline decent, with fake accents so bad that you’d wish they drop it.  The background music of this game is stock and crappy, and the sound effects are similar as well.  In short… I’d turn the speaker off.  You’re not losing much anyway.

Gameplay:  Like I said in the graphics part, some site that talks about this game says that it uses a technique where you can’t find everything in one scene at the first go.  This supposedly-interesting schematics only further infuriates the player, however, because the game is set up that, unless you’re looking for the same item over and over (find 15 eggs, for example), you are stuck with whatever shade you are presented with to find first.  That means if the top bar has 4 items for you to find, you are to find them first before you can find others, and nothing else even if it is obvious that the item is one of the thing you need to locate.  Each of the found shade will be replaced by another, and if you’re unable to find one first, you’re stuck.   Adding on to that, some places of the scene can be “turned over” and uncover items underneath, and they are indicated with small bright stars when your mouse move over there.  What’s frustrating is that sometimes the stars don’t shine if your cursor move over too quickly, and that presents serious problem becasue aside from those stars you are left with absolutely no clue as to what to do.  Not a very thoughtful game, this one is.  Aside from this irritations, there are some mini-games the game forces you to play, and while the first time it was charming, they make you repeatedly play it for what seems like forever, until you are this close to shutting the game down and uninstall it (or smash your computer… one way or another.)   The story plot is crazy, and that’s putting it mildly.  There are so many inapporpriate dialogues in this game, and they are meant to be funny but are not, and it’s just downright disturbing and makes you want to punch someone.  I think I endured this game from beginning to the end just so I can write this review…. The things I do for people I love (you readers)…. lol

Overall:  Let me see, what is the verdict… This game is not worth it!  That should sums it up pretty nicely.  When you add bad music, bad characters, bad voice overs, bad music, bad story plot…. What are you left with?  A horribly-done waste of time of seek-and-find that’s not even challenging.  There are other wonderfully done seek-and-find out there for you lovers to try, and you would be highly disappointed with this game.  The producers try to be humorous with the game’s contents, and they fail miserably.  In short, really, this game isn’t worth it at all.  Not your time, not your money, not even your hard drive space.  Yeah, this game is that bad.

So before I go on, let me just go on record and say that yes, I like Reflexive Arcade games (well, some of it), and yes, I will keep reviewing them whenever I finish one.  They will generally be breaking down into the similar review style that I will do with this one, because ultimately, this isn’t some hardcore game that took them over years to make (and for those it really deserve a thorough, detailed review, possibly from both myself and Taro!), but one of those fun quickie games that can be sum up in no more than 5 sentences.   Still, they deserve some thoughtful review, and I will try my best to give them to you.  With that said….

Graphics:  The graphics of this game is not bad, in certain aspects.  Since, as the title suggests, this game travels through time, they try to put in some interesting time zones for each stage.  The graphics ranges from high mediocre to beautiful in some, but nothing spectacular.  For the animated scenes beginning and end of the game, they have a semi-3D animation that’s made in the Pixar wooden people style, senza the joints, like the picture on top.  It’s more a comic-book style CG, not extravagant or anything.  The main problem with the graphics is that since this is a seek-and-find game, the game has a tendancy of hiding dark-colored items in dark regions of the picture.  My computer has a really good graphics card and a HD monitor, and I was still having trouble seeing the items ’cause they were hiding in the dark and completely invisible.  I mean, how are you suppose to see a dark eyepatch in teh darkest shadow of the tree branches?!  So, a definite major drawback there, but countered by its gameplay as discussed below.

Music:  The music is gorgeous in this game.  I really enjoyed all but the French time zone’s music (the music for the French time zone was a bit depressing, but perhaps it’s because of my understanding of the time that they are using) that I was feeling a bit down when playing this time zone.  The music tries its best to fit all time zones, and it has genres from grandiose to meloncholy.   The composer/arranger does a good job tying in bits and pieces of well-known music segments from people’s association with the time zone that even for those with no classical music background can relate to it quite well.  For instance, in the French time zone, you get to hear some measures of the French national anthem, and it tapers off quite smoothly to the arrangement.  The sound effect, on the other hand,  is little to none, as I only noticed a couple off small, stock sound effects that seemed to just be there for the filler.  But it doesn’t ruin the overall audio experience of the game, thankfully.

Gameplay:  This is the classic seek-and-find plus problem solving, in which you need to find all the hidden items in each places of the time zone.  There are some puzzles in which you need to solve using the key pieces of hidden items so you can get to the next item that’s hidden beneath.  The puzzles aren’t terribly hard, just to the level of amusing, so it doesn’t tire people that are above the age of 13 out easily.  The main drawback, of course, is the graphic problem I mentioned above, where a  lot of pieces are hidden in a complete black background that even for a good monitor/resolution/graphics card it’s still hard to see.  The good thing (at least for me, though I’m sure some hardcore seek-and-finders will protest) of this game is that there’s no time restraint on this, and the hints are unlimited.  As with all unlimited-hints games, you must wait for the hint to recharge itself before using it again, but the recharge time is short so it’s not too bad.  And really, you need the hints, because, well, the graphics problem.  Another small problem I noticed is the mapping, where the region that your mouse tells you an interaction is available is generally too small, and you’d end up passing them over and getting frustrated because you don’t know where you need to go next.  This happens especially more in the later stages, where there are more places to go in each part of the stage and you end up going, “What the hell… I know my cursor changed, but… Am I hallucinating?!” a lot. 

Overall:  In conclusion, this isn’t a bad game to play.  It’s definitely a time killer for at least 2 hours, and if you’re seasoned you can beat it faster.  There are minimal annoyance to the game, and the overall graphics and music is spectacular.  Its story plot is done in a nice, clean, straightfoward way, and you do get a general satisfaction of beating the game, even though it’s not horribly hard.  There really is no replay value, though they do offer you the chance as they would change every item’s hidden places, but it’s entirely up to the individual player to decide whether to replay this game or not.  I personally never replay them, so I don’t see the need for it.  It’s amusing with a decent challenge, so both kids and adults would all enjoy it for the time it takes them to play, however short-lived that is.

So I’m recently building a brand new, ultimate PC since my old one will probably be busted after its trip on the sea again. As a creature of habit, I headed to Fry’s Electronics, one of the largest electronic store that’s almost like an outlet.   Think Costco for electronics. 

So I went to Fry’s, and asked one of the associates at the computer components area to help me select the hardware for my pc.  I told him specifically what I’m aiming for, a computer that will 1) run for at least 6 years, 2) uses Intel i7 CPU, 3) runs Vista 64-bit.  He was quite nice and started selecting some hardwares for me, which I was grateful for, don’t get me wrong.  Now, this happened over the Black Friday time, just to let y’all know.  Also worth noting is that the sale person was very nice, staying with me from selecting the computer case all the way to the keyboard and mouse and the other accessories, so I was very grateful to him. 

So I get home, all excited.  We moved and then it took me a while until first week of December to start the installation process.  Right away I found something wrong — There is a gum-like substance on the chip-side of my brand new CPU chip, and that the chip wouldn’t fit into the EVGA motherboard I bought.  Baffled, I rechecked the motherboard just to make sure, and then called the EVGA support center.  After giving them the model number, I was informed right away that the motherboard I purchased does notfit the i7 CPU chip.  Granted, I didn’t double check before paying for the motherboard to see if the mobo is compatible for the i7, but hey, I trusted the guy who worked with all these things every single day (whereas the last computer I built was what, 4 years ago?).   So naturally, I brought my mobo and my CPU back to Fry’s for a replacement.

After getting the store credit and a new CPU, I went into the store to look for a new mobo that is compatible with the i7.  I was recommended then for a ASUS motherboard.  Being that my previous computer of 4 years+ uses an ASUS board, and that it is a good company (and from Taiwan lol), naturally I would get the ASUS board even if it is about $50 more than the Intel board that admitted having known issues.  However, at the time, the store I went to has no more ASUS mobo for i7, but there is another Fry’s with 12 of them.  So I asked the same salesperson to order from the store that has 12 and gave him my phone number to call.  With the promise that the board should not take more than a week to arrive, possibly within the next 2-3 days, I went home with the anticipation that the board should be here within a week.

So on and on I waited, and the week passed soon.  Frustrated, I called again, and was told that they still have not gotten the board, and no other store has them right now.  I asked if they ever put in a transfer for the mobo when I asked, and they said no, claiming that the mobo was sold too soon for them to do so.  Yeah, right.  Am I so naive as to believe that there are mobo mobs out there just waiting to grab them off the shelves  in every store?  So I continued to call every 2 or 3 days, until nearly three weeks passed by and I was given an answer by a frustrated salesperson (not the same one that helped me earlier, though) that “we don’t know when we’ll get them.”  Um, you could have told me that EARLIER so I can seek out other revenue!! %)@*#%&)*!

While chatting with a friend on FFXI who happened to be a computer geek/master, he introduced me to the website, Newegg.com.  Now, for those of you who -are- computer wiz, you probably already know this site and are probably thinking, “Why are you going to Fry’s when there’s Newegg, you dummy?” but at the time I didn’t know such site existed and how good it is.  I looked up for the mobo I needed, and there it is, ready to ship.  What’s more incredible is the price— The mobo is $30 cheaper than Fry’s.   Astounded, I ordered one.  Now, noted, that Newegg does charge sales tax for some states, particularly the ones they have warehouses in, and unfortunately, mine is one.  They also do charge shipping, but there are times where they offer free shipping as well.

Within a week, I receive my mobo, and I was pleasantly surprised at the enormous amount of peanuts they put in to protect the mobo.  I had to mention this because recently I noticed the lack of protection in some Amazon packaging, though they’ve only been slacking off with things that doesn’t require that much protection (such as books), but it’s still noticeable.  So I started the installation, and finished it today.  

As I’m installing it, my compy went haywire with a series of non-stop blue screens and restarting.  Frightened (naturally), I jumped on FFXI to seek out my compy friend, and under his advise I did a series of testing and the blue screen went away.  Then he asked me what kind of RAM I got, and informed me of the bad news — the RAM I got was incorrect for the machine I’m building.  Instead of the Triple Channel one I should get, the Fry’s salesperson gave me the Dual Channel.  Worse yet, since I’m running Vista (and please recall that I told the salesperson I am running Vista on this machine), 2GB is not enough, and I will need at least 6GB of RAM. 

Frustrated, I went on Newegg to look up RAM, and found the shocking thing that sent me in a rage which prompted this post:  The RAM I got, the Corsair DDR3 Dual Channel 2GB RAM, was selling on Newegg for $52.oo+tax.  Worse yet, they have a rebate of $25.00 available, making the same item I got for $79.99 only $27.00.  Now that just makes me outraged.  I understand the difference between a physical retail store and a web retail store, and how a physical retail store costs more to run, but as a consumer, I’m sorry to say, but I don’t really care.  For us, we want the cheapest price on the same item, isn’t it?  And if I am paying a physical retail price, I would expect the customer service to be a heck of a lot better than an online shop.  But, not only did I receive imperfect products, I also received poorly-made suggestions.  The salt on the wound is the huge price difference between the items.  Not to mention that the customer service at Fry’s isn’t up to par with other retail stores such as Best Buy or Circuit City (yes, I know Circuit City is going out of business, but I’m using them as comparison).  So even though I acknowledge that there are faults at my end, namely 1) I did not double check the items before purchasing them regarding the mobos, and 2) I didn’t ask around about other possible shops regarding prices.  But in my own defense on the second one, I’ve been shopping with Fry’s for the past, what, 10 years?  It’s only natural that I would turn to where I trusted for so long.

Before I end the post, let me review Newegg real quick so this post isn’t completely about my frustration on Fry’s Electronics. lol   Now take in mind that some of these reviews are from the friend who introduced me to Newegg, and he is a long-time customer with them.  So even though I’ve only done one purchase (and doing the second as we speak) with them, I think I can give a fair review on the site.  Newegg, like many large web-based merchants, have an easy navigation site layout.  The site focuses more on computer-based hardwares and softwares, while still providing other electronics such as digital camera, cell phones and home appliances. 

One of the remarkable thing on Newegg (price aside) is their searches.  Newegg does a good job of making filters of every possible combination you can think of, from your normal brand, type, and price, to useful links (with my favorite word: Discount), interface, and other useful filters.  In addition, when you clicked on a general filter, they show important details of each product in a clean, bullet-style way right there on the product display page.  So you can quickly find what you need and see whether the item is compatible to your needs, item’s warranty if applicable, and Newegg’s return policy before you click on any items, a real time saver which I heart tremendously. 

Another awesome aspect regarding Newegg is its community.  I guess techies love to review on stuff they get their hands on, and you can see that most items on Newegg have at least double if not triple or quadruple digits of reviews, making decisions have never been easier.  Of course, with any open communities, there are reviewers that are so good they should be employed by the magazines, and there are reviewers that you just want to smack them for their stupidity.  But in general, Newegg’s reviews are well-written, honest, and detail; sometimes you can even find reviews in perfect grammar and spelling, which is always hard to come by in my opinion.  Another incredible aspect, according to my friend, is that Newegg keeps in contact with all of the manufacturer that produces the items they sell, and if a user posts any negative comments on a product, Newegg will contact the manufacturer’s customer support and the manufacturer will get in touch with the user and tries to set things right.  That means if you get turned down by the manufacturer, you post a nasty review, Newegg contacts the manufacturer and let them know of your grief, and the manufacturer will contact you somehow to offer a solution.  Once your problem is solved, Newegg will ask you if it is, and then update your nasty review post to tell the world that your problem has been solved thanks to them.  While it sounds like a painful and long process, it’s better than getting stuck with something that doesn’t work and having to spend more money on another product. 

In conclusion, after all that ranting….  I’m officially disowning Fry’s.  I will still shop there, from time to time, if they have a good discount on things and if it is cheaper than Newegg, but I’m adopting Newegg.com as it is now.  It is my Amazon for electronics.  I’m gonna check prices on Newegg whenever I buy anything electronics, and unless I visit Fry’s because of some dying reason, I’m not going to buy there as often as I did anymore.  No offense to Fry’s, but I think I found a better place to go with my money.

But the thing I found most interesting of what they had said was that they want Lara to be more female friendly and attract more women to her games. Now on one hand I am heartened to see some game company execs acting like women are a legitimate marketing segment to go after, and with something much better than another generic Barbie game that’s supposed to attract me because it’s pink and has horses.

Yet even with only having played the Tomb Raider games in passing, and a brief passing at that (they just tend not to be prefered genre) I’m not really sure how exactly you make Lara more of a feminist. She could burn her bra, but given her cup size that would be rather uncomfortable and not conducive to running and jumping. I mean when you get down to it, Lara Croft isn’t actually a bad character, in fact when compared to the majority of women in video games she’s probably one of the most enlightened you’ll find. She avoids nearly all of hte pitfalls that hit the other women featured in video games. She isn’t a stupid wilting flower always needing to be rescued, she kicks ass on par with the boys, she’s independent and wealthy and she’s more than just her boob size and a skimpy outfit. Not that her boobs aren’t overly large or her outfit skimpy, but in comparison to say some of the girls in DOA, Lara is more in proportion with her body size than most others. And while the outfit it kind of lacking in material, it at least has the appearance of more functionality than the scraps of cloth and string barely holding some of her contemporaries in and up.

So I suppose I’m lost as to how exactly you make Lara more appealing to women. Sure you could do what they did to Barbie and downsize her proportions, but that’s only superficial and one look at Barbie sales will tell you that changing the proportions doesn’t actually fool us into thinking you are more enlightened and realistic about women. Sure you could leach all of her personality away so she’s some emotionless, sneering, smartass of a warrior with no warmth and no use for anything with with the male or man in it, but I wouldn’t really see that as a good thing since that is neither something I can full relate to nor envision myself as.

One way that she could be made more female accessible is simply to make her act more like a woman, make me emphasize with her more as a woman. And maybe bring more actual estrogen into the game. There are never any good, and I mean really good, female villains in these games. Yet I think if there was going to be a series that would benefit from a great female villain, or even just a good female rival, it would be Tomb Raider.

Of course the likelihood of this happening is about the same as money raining from the sky.

The concept of Rock Band is actually more like putting many popular music/rhythm-based games into one.  When you buy a set, it includes a set of drums (just like Beatmania), a guitar (Guitar Hero, ring a bell?), and a microphone (similar to Karaoke Revolution).  So, obviously, you get to choose between guitar or base, drum, or singing.  In other words, this game included all.  Good business thinking there, Harmonix!  This game has several concepts that is worth a review, such as the CG element, the music, and gameplay, and I’ll try to break it down bit by bit.  Since one of Rock Band’s most formidable opponent is the Guitar Hero, I’ll make comparison with it every now and then. 

CG:  Since one of my dear friend, Azuki, is a 3D modeler, she was the one that brought to my attention of the difference between GH and RB’s CG effect.  The people in RB has a better proportion in body than GH, and are more realistic in comparison.  To be honest, this really doesn’t effect my liking of GH or RB, since whenever I play the game, my eyes were too busy tracking the frets on the screen to really notice what the characters were doing in the background.  Sure, when there’s a long note and I’m having a hell of a time vibrating using the stick, (get your mind out of the gutter, people lol) I take the time to enjoy my character rocking it out on stage, but when the frets are coming down like rain, the screen could be blank for all I care.  But, for those of you who are hardcore in the visual department, you can say that’s the difference between the two franchises.  

Also, I personally like the clothings in RB better than GH (and I’m not including GH: World Tour in this comparison because I don’t own it yet.)  With RB, you get more customization than the GH, where you can do a lot of changes to the body, face, hair, clothes, etc. for your character, whereas GH has a fix set of characters for you to choose and customize.  While GH’s characters are nice, it’s just not the same when you can start from scratch to make your own character and have them do awesome stuff on stage.  Oh, and when you create your own character, you get to choose their “personality” among the 3 or 4 selections, and I find it amusing when my character would sometimes do what -I- would do if I were playing on the stage.  So that’s extra bonus right there.

Music:  Obviously, since this is Rock Band, keyword being Rock, many of the songs are rock and metal music.  In all honesty, out of all the Rock Band songs I’ve played so far, I only recognized 2 songs prior to playing the game by listening to them on the radio.  (But, in my own defense, I’m a classical musician, and while I enjoy other music, I don’t venture out too much… heh.)   However, I still enjoy most of the songs in RB, with the exception of one or two that either was boring in the game play, or just too loud to my liking.  The guys at Harmonix were quite careful in selecting music that would appeal to the whole family, so for those of you, like me, who are not hardcore into rock or metal or punk music, we can still enjoy the music immensely.  For those of you who are into the abovementioned music genre, from what I’ve heard, no complaints were made about the music at all, so feel free to buy it and rock it out loud.

Oh yeah, that’s one other thing I’d like to mention about the music… It’s more like a cross between music and gameplay, really.  One thing I noticed while playing RB (and GH as well) is that if you don’t turn the volume to a point where you can hear all 4 parts, it’s actually kind of hard to play just by watching the fret buttons come raining down.  However, some of the songs can get quite loud, so unless you are living in a house that is not close to your neighbor, or your neighbor’s deaf… This game is not for play at 12 in the morning on a weekday.  Trust me on that.

Gameplay:  Aside from the numerous style of playing one person can do by themselves on this game, the major lure for me was the online play component.  RB is the first to introduce online play into the music genre, and it’s a lot of fun to play with people around the world, so you never have to worry about running out of a drummer or a bassist.  There is a catch, however, that I soon discover when Azuki and I tried to play with each other, and that is one major draw back I am hoping RB would correct or GH can remedy, and that is the cross-platform playing.  According to RB publisher, because each RB platform sits on a different server (so PS3 has its own server, and Xbox 360 another, and Wii a third…etc.), those who own different platforms of the game cannot play with each other.   So, for example, I own the PS3 version of RB, and Azuki owns the Xbox 360 version, we cannot play with each other because of platform issue.  I haven’t find out if either RB or GH publisher is addressing this problem, but I sure hope they do soon.

Solo gameplay wise, you get to do the story plot either by yourself or have others do it with you, and that includes multiplayer on one system or online as well.  The RB throws in some curve balls every now and then, such as playing private parties so you earn more money and less fan, or do it for charity so you earn more fan but no money.  These incidents are random, and if you fail and you restart without saving, that event won’t come back.  The incidents usually appear after you select how hard you want to play, so if you happen to bit off more than you can chew, then oops it is. ^^||||  There are a couple of events that are always there, such as playing for a bus, and you will need to beat it to proceed to the next town, so there is a variety of different events to make the game interesting.

Personally, what I find most enjoyable of this game is the fact that I can pick it up when I need a break from studying, and play a song or two to relieve the pressure, and stop whenever I want to.  While I enjoy RPG tremendously, it’s sometimes bothersome for me to know that if I sit down for the game, I can’t quit for at least an hour or two.  Not very good for quick pressure-relief, if you know what I mean.

The way both RB and GH are designed were to simulate as much as possible of real instrument playing, while combining fun and excitement into it.  I am more appreciative of what real guitarists do in their work because of this game, and actually inspire me to learn guitar in the future (no money now, no music learning lol).  Also, this is a great game for the family and friends to get together and duke it out, in a nice way of course, so it’s definitely worth buying.  In terms of which one is better – RB or GH – it’s really up to any individual’s music preference, since both games try to incorporate different artists and songs to compete with each other.  Personally, I find both of them equal except for what was discussed above, and I really just play RB more because of the online play and my chara, but I also own GH: Aerosmith and like it as well, so it’s a toss-up.  If you -have- to choose between one, I would suggest checking on Gamefaqs.com for the complete list of songs first to see which one has more of your favorite artist/songs, and decide as such.   

Money-saving Tip and Side Notes:  Couple of things to save money for the RB package and GH in the future, plus some helpful notes:

1.  If you are considering playing both RB1 and RB2 (and you will), and you -know- for a fact that you won’t play drums that much, I would suggest you get the RB1 package instead of the RB2.  Since the release of RB2, the RB1 complete package has dropped, and for some platforms the price is now below $100, so you can save a lot of money by getting that.  The only difference between RB1 and RB2 are the drums, I believe, but I’m not too sure about this. If you decide to be a drummer in the future, just buy the extension drums for about $40 or so.  You still save over $50 if you do it this way.

Cymbol Extension

2.  Check out the following charts, courtesy of Wired.com (taken without permission), that shows the compatibility between the two games.  Most problem really exist on the drums, not so much on the guitar and mic, so you can have a basic idea of what you want to get should you want to play both games and have limited funds/storage space.

http://blog.wired.com/games/2008/11/official-guitar.html

3.  For you guitar players, I have a big money-saving tip if you want to play RB and GH.  Nyko has a really nice looking wireless guitar for PS3 (and Xbox360 I believe) that is designed to play on both RB and GH.  The retail price I’ve seen around stores are $39.99+tax, but if you buy it on Amazon.com, you only need to pay $19.99 without tax.  Instant savings right there. ^_~  I paid $6.95 for this one, and I’m shocked to learn it actually jumped up to $19.99 after Black Friday… Too bad I didn’t get more when I had the chance. lol  

I’ve tried this guitar on RB2 and GH: Aerosmith, and it works smoothly, so I know for a fact it works. ^^  Price wise I would encourage you to shop around and compare it with the Amazon price, ’cause maybe in your neighborhood stores there are cheaper ones, but this is the cheapest I’ve found.