New Moon...

Couldn't find a picture of Kristen Stewert quick enough so this'll do...

No need to post pictures of Robert Pattinson and the other shirtless children from this movie.

I saw New Moon yesterday... Not with my wife, she was out with a friend... I watched it by myself. Yeah... Call me gay. No better yet, call me fucking gay. Anyways... I admit its really gay of me. At least I didn't pay for it! I didn't see it at the movie theater. Somehow, in an insane stroke of miraculous phenomena, New Moon appeared on one of my flash drives I had lying around the house. Imagine that.

I'll come right out and say it... I liked this movie. Yep, that makes me even more gay. Its a lot better than Twilight (the first film) which I also liked. The only thing I didn't like about the movie was whenever they showed Jacob and his Native American boyfriends, they were shirtless. Even in the rain. That's just gay and is only there for chicks to go gaga. Okay fine, chicks can have their eye candy like we have our own in other movies. Here's another one for the chicks that us guys just say, thats fucking gay. Almost every shot of Edward is in slow motion. Good news is he's not in this movie a lot (much like the book). So yeah... I liked it. Let me put it this way, its better than Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen. Believe that.

Revisiting the Sopranos...

It feels like this show ended years and years and years ago when it was only 2007. A couple of months ago I just started utilizing Comcast's HBO On-Demand. My wife and I ordered it for True Blood. Anyways... Last month The first two weeks of October ( I think, might be off) the first seven episodes of Sopranos Season 4 was on demand. So I watched them. Twice. Then I waited and waited for the second half of the season. I watched them twice as well. Then, as I waited and waited for Season 5 to show up on demand it reminded me of how exciting it was and how impatient we all would be waiting for a new episode every Sunday night when this show was still on. So early this week the first seven episodes of Season 5 came and I watched them. I haven't watched them twice yet but I'm sure I will. So what does this all matter and mean? Nothing really. My age old Sopranos obsession doesn't matter to you and you probably couldn't care less. Unless of course you are a Sopranos fan. If you are, great! If you never got into the Sopranos.. fuck you.

Anyways... I told my wife that for xmas I want the Sopranos Box Set. That's six and a half seasons and a few special features spread across 33 DVDs. Of course I'm extremely impatient because I want to watch them NOW. Watching the Sopranos over and over on demand has reminded me just how much this show kicked fucking ass. I love(d) the Sopranos. I think its the greatest show of all time. Nothing can beat the Sopranos. Nothing. Rewatching these episodes also reminded me of how spoiled we (friends and I) were too. Every week we'd bitch that so and so didn't get whacked or this and that. Now, years later, I realize how good those episodes really were. I remember during season 5, I hated the fucking season. Hated it. I didn't think it gave us enough. Now I'm watching it and I'm thinking, why and how did I dislike this season so much?

The same thing will happen when Season 6 shows up on demand. I remember not liking the Vito story-line that took up half a season. I'll bet that once I re-watch it since it aired I'll probably say, wow, this was really good. One thing is for sure, my stance on the series finale won't change. Did I hate that too? Nope. I thought the ending was unbelievable. My friend and I would be on the phone the minute the credits rolled after each episode and argue or agree about whatever. This time though we both agreed that the series finale was absolutely amazing. What we didn't agree on is the fate of Tony Soprano. I was on the side of the fence that assumes Tony Soprano took one in the back of the head... My friend thought I was fucking insane and that that is how Tony's life always will be, filled with paranoia. Of course at the time, 12 million people thought their fucking cable went out.

I felt and still feel that since the show is mostly from Tony's point of view, the cut to black indicates Tony being whacked. He doesn't hear it or see it coming. Much like when Silvio witnessed a guy getting whacked. Silvio didn't even know it happened until the dude buckled over. But that's a whole other topic to save for another day... Until then...

Fuggedaboutit

Demon's Souls... Again.

This guy rates a 3 out of ten on the Bad-Mother-Fucker-Meter (compared to the other bosses)

I suddenly feel this blog is turning into a Demon's Souls rant board. Still no luck on conquering the Tower of Latria in full. Though I've progressed further, I'm once again stuck on a boss; Maneater. Couldn't find pictures of him but, on my Bad-Mother-Fucker-Meter, he rates a 9, easily outdoing the Tower Knight (pictured above). Now Soul Level 45, I can also run around Stonefang Tunnel with little to no worries... until I met up with Flamelurker who is another boss. He fucked me up good as I had no idea how to defeat him much like Maneater. Maneater actually wouldn't pose a problem I don't think if the 2nd one didn't show up, totally ruining your strategy. So now I find myself farming for souls and grass to level up more.

Yeah... he spits fire too.

Another problem I face constantly... The game is so immersive I always forget to repair my character's armor and weapons. While fighting Maneater... my sword and axe broke. While fighting Flamelurker my fucking armor broke, the whole set! So now I can't afford to repair this armor because it costs almost 8,000 souls per piece. Multiply that by 4... I'd rather level my guy or upgrade my weapons that drop that. For now I'll stick with my assassin armor.

*sigh*

I'm a geek. Can't wait to get home so I can play it more.

Demon's Souls Devouring My Soul...

Japanese Box Art...

This picture gives you an idea of how you'll feel playing this game.

Beaten down. Exhausted. Overwhelmed. Hopeless. Submission.

I don't know... I think I'm 10-15 hours into the game and my character is level 37 (Soul Level 37). I haven't played a game this hard since Ghosts N' Goblins and at the same time, I haven't played a game as addicting since I played World of Warcraft about 2 years ago. I cannot stop playing it. WOW was an easy addiction to break as it simply came down to me saying; "Why the fuck am I paying to play a freaking game???" Another reason why I didn't like the 360 and the reason I own a PS3. Free online? I'm there dude. Anyways... but this game... Demon's Souls... My progress is going good... or was. Now I'm stuck yet again but on a different board. At first, I was stuck in world one, Boletarian Palace then finally defeated the 2nd boss; Tower Knight. This guy was huge but not as difficult as it would seem. Your character is as big as his feet. So after hacking away at his ankles I whooped him (after he whooped me 3 times in a row).

Currently I'm back and forth trying to get through two other worlds, Stonefang Tunnel a Tower Latria. Stonefang Tunnel turned out to be a lost cause for me. My guy is powerful enough but not when I'm outnumbered. Problem is there is a way to beat them, just haven't figured out how. So then I ventured to the Tower of Latria and had a lot more success as I battled my way to the 1st boss, Fool's Idol. She was relatively easy... the real difficulty kicks in once you beat her. Incapable of doing anything, your character is abducted by gargoyles and flown high atop a tower. This part is a joke and I don't mean stupid, its fucking hard. Talk about having the deck stacked against you. The gargoyles themselves aren't hard to beat, its when you get to the swamp below that the BS kicks in. The fucking scorpion looking slugs that are roughly 5 times your size. Again... Its a matter of where you move. Move too close then you have to worry about TWO... But last night I timed my movement correctly and fought back and forth with one of these scorpion-ish-slugs. I probably could have had him but... once again, I find myself rolling in too close of proximity with another one of those things and ended up losing 15,000+ souls.

Frustratingly difficult yet... I can't stop playing it. I feel like a junky and Demon's Souls is there as my free fix whenever the urge strikes me (which is often). To make matters worse, Atlus, the game's publisher, decided that since the weekend was Halloween, they made it harder. Within the game, each world has a world tendency, when you start the game its neutral, then depending on certain circumstances, they change from white to black... Well.. Atlus put the game world in pure black world tendency... You die from two hits or less now instead of three. Enemies aren't dropping shit and everything is just more frustrating. Can't wait to play it tonight, I'm hoping since Halloween is freaking over, that it'll put my WT back to normal so I can beat these damn scorpion-slugs!

Because Nobody Asked For It!!!

This is always fun as my top 5's usually change over the course of time. There are so many talented and great guitarist that its quite hard picking out the who's who of the all time greats.

5.

Eddie Van Halen

Eddie is getting old but he somehow manages to still play like he's in his twenties. Here's a guy you go to to pump up a crowd with a wicked fast solo. There's no question that Eddie is the all time king of hammer-ons and pull-offs. Don't believe me? Listen to 'Eruption'... The song is STUNNING. It gives you goosebumps listening to it... People still talk about it today as if it were just released... Just imagine how people reacted when it came out in 1978!

4.

Randy Rhoads

"Let's hear that..."

This one is a no brainer. Randy was not only fast as hell on the fret board his talent is nearly unmatchable. You feel the emotion in his riffs/solos. He is what made Ozzy what he is today. If it wasn't for Randy Rhoads, 'Crazy Train' would have never become what it is today (the staple of ALL Ozzy shows). Just imagine how different and better Ozzy's career would have been had he lived. Or... imagine if Ozzy never met Randy Rhoads... Think about that! I only wish that Randy had a solo album with jusy him and an acoustic guitar. Imagine an album full of 'Dee' like tunes. I can't imagine that... It would be fucking tear inducing.

3.

Dimebag

DUN! DUN DUN DUN DUN! DUN DUN DUN DUN!!! RE! SPECT! WALK!

Let's all take a moment to thank that piece of shit fucking douche bag for killing this man. Better yet, let's find his grave and piss all over the fucking thing. Pfff... Fucking marines (no offense marines, but this one was a fucking fuck and I'm glad he killed himself)... When you think Dimebag... all you can think of is; "What if"... What if Pantera reunited? Probably wouldn't have happened but still. What. If? Just randomly pick a solo of his from ANY song and you can hear everything you need to know about this legend. When he wasn't melting your face off with one of his sick solos, he was pounding your fucking eardrums with a heavy as fuck riff that just kicked major ass.

2.

David Gilmour

The voice and guitar of Pink Floyd. 'Nuff said. He may not be as fast as Clapton, he may not technically be as good as Randy Rhoads but... He beats the previous three here in everything else. You can strip away the lyrics to any song he plays on and his guitar would do the talking/singing. I'm completely convinced David Gilmour can join the shittiest of shit bands and he'd transform them into a monster. You could make a guitar out of a fucking trash can and he could play it better than 99% of guitarists today can play their own guitar. Even at the age of 63, Gilmour is better than ANY guitarist playing today. Talk about the sad state of music. As Eddie Van Halen is the master of hammer-ons/offs, Gilmour can bend a string/note better than anyone. His sound is so unique that his notes practically talk and tell you; "Hi! I'm David Gilmour."

1.

Jimi Hendrix

Has any other guitarist influenced so many different people in such a wide variety of musical genres? No. Just give 'Are You Experienced' a listen... then give rap a listen.. Seriously, I'm not tossing rap under the bus. In that song the skipping and muddled sound of a record skipping/scratching is so apparent in rap (or hip hop, whatever you may call it) that is just screams greatness. Then of course the countless other people he influenced on guitar. Across the board Jimi's style is more sloppy than anything compared to say Steve Vai or Jimmy Page but you can't deny his talent. He's great. How many people can turn the Star Spangled Banner into his own theme song? How many people can turn the Star Spangled Banner into their own song? Three of the best examples of his guitar greatness can be heard in; 'Red House', 'Burning of the Midnight Lamp' and 'Little Wing'. Jimi has been my favorite guitarist for a long, long time and I don't see that changing anytime soon.

UFC Fighters... Vs. The Rest of the World... Vs. Me.

Back in the day I was a pretty big fan of MMA in general, from the no-budget UFC days to Japan's Pride organization to other promotions. While the UFC has obviously evolved into a real sport and not some street fighting level of sloppy brawlers/fighters I have a problem with it. Of course nowadays my interest in MMA has declined severely mostly because of the fighters themselves. Not to take away from their talent in whatever fighting style they do but their overall attitude. Even their presence bothers me. Dana White comes to mind (I know, he doesn't count as a fighter but he is what comes to mind when I hear UFC)... I don't know what it is but it seems that every fighter in the UFC has a personality equivalent to a bucket of mud. They're just there... and unfortunately, you know they're there.

For example... Whenever Dana White talks you want to smack him. If I didn't know any better, he was sucking off each guy on his roster. Dana... we get it, your roster is full of bad mother fuckers. I swear whenever he talks that's the only thing that comes out of his mouth, 'UFC fighters are the best of the best in the whole wide world" yadda yadda yadda. To top that there's the fighters themselves. Okay... post match interviews, they're pumped I know so they scream and yell into the microphone how great they are, their adrenaline takes over. Beyond the post match celebrations, the fighters still seem like they left their brains in the "octagon", or at home for that matter. I remember reading an interview with Chuck Liddell. The magazine was conducting it at his home and after they ask him about his job (fighting), they dabble in all sorts of things like hobbies and whatnot. He answered each one as if they were promotional questions for an upcoming event. It isn't just the "Iceman" either, its every single UFC fighter.

All they talk about is 'I'm the best!' or "I workout 15 hours a day brother!" or "When I'm in the gym, I'm in the zone baby! Its all business!!! RAH!!"... Ugh... I think as much as UFC has made MMA famous, I also think it hurt the business as a whole. Go and watch a show from Japan or something, the fighters will win a match but afterward its all about respect and being humble. You know, the attitude that its a privilege of sorts, something like that. They don't run around the ring grunting like wild animals and flexing. In the UFC even when they do interviews away from the "octagon" they have this attitude that they're sole purpose in life is to be intimidating and having 'fun' to them is "being the greatest championship fighter who ever stepped into the octagon". Fun to them wearing skin tight clothes to show all the definition on their physiques.

Their 'I'm better then the next guy' attitude is ridiculous. In other countries, an organization's promoter isn't a windup set of chattering teeth that goes on and on and on. I'm so sick of the "most people don't have what it takes to be inside the octagon". I'm sure there are plenty of people who have what it takes I think its the matter of not wanting to punch/kick or get punch/kicked as a job regardless of getting paid. Most MMA guys end up getting hooked on pain killers and blowing their fortune (see WWE also). To top everything else off, they have Brock Lesnar (I don't care if I spelled it incorrectly or not) as the champion! As a marketing gimmick that will fill more seats, lets hire a wrestler that just so happens to be 3 feet taller and 200 pounds heavier than the entire roster of fighters. Of course he's the champion! Who the fuck is going to topple him? He's fucking huge. Dumb but huge. Much like the rest.

These are reasons why I can no longer tolerate the UFC and MMA to an extent. UFC has ruined everything for me when it comes to MMA.

[/Clock Killing]

Demon's Soul (PS3)

One of the best action/adventure/RPGs of all time.

Remember back in the NES days, the games that seemed to purposely torture you? Take for example, Megaman (any)... There's a game that was difficult to begin with but then the developers decided; 'hey! since the game is so hard, why don't we make the player restart the level once he dies! YEAH! GREAT IDEA!" Bastards... Or there were other games that did something else as bad... You collect a ton of money by killing bad guys... but once you die, thats it! You lose them! Those old school gaming days of the NES were absolute horror.

Demon's Souls is like a homage 'next-gen' game to those old school games. There's one thing you need to know and accept about Demon's Souls. Your going to die. Often. I don't care how good you are or say you are. You will die. Demon's Souls is brutally unforgiving and relentless but never, ever frustrating. Doesn't make sense does it? Its true though! This game is extremely addictive and very, very fun to play. But again... be prepared to die often. I'll keep repeating that because its true. You were meant to die anywhere and everywhere. By any and all things. So if you play it, don't expect to run-n-gun it John McClane style like Die Hard because it won't work.

In Demon's Souls you have to think before you act. I'm not even done the game yet, I've put in about 5 or 6 hours and I haven't even beaten the 2nd boss. I can't seem to get over this one bridge without getting my ass handed to me. So... there has to be a way! Right? Of course! There's always a way, its finding the way that will lead you to your death numerous times. Reading all of the reviews I tried to keep track of my total deaths... I lost count. Like I said, it happens often. Too often for some. This fucking game is hard core. Demon's Souls is the equivalent to Gunnery SGT Hartmen in Full Metal Jacket... It will break you the fuck down over and over and over again until your better. At one point you'll slam your controller down and curse at your tv. You'll curse everyone but you'll keep coming back to play it more! There are games that are so difficult and so frustratingly cheap that you simply trade it the fuck in because you grew to hate it. While Demon's Souls is difficult and frustrating (at times), it never seems cheap. 99% of the times you die, its because you you fucked up. You either didn't time your hits right or vice versa, or you didn't keep an eye on your stamina, magic... Hell it could be because your sword is too fucking big to swing around in a tunnel! There are hundreds of ways to die and it all stems from player error.

Also, the game is always online and while your playing you can see other players playing, they look like a ghost. You can't interact with them, but you can leave pre-loaded text messages to help or hinder their journey. You can invade someone else's game or someone can invade yours. While I haven't tried this aspect of the game yet, it sounds fun and interesting. There are no banks in this game to save your money. In fact there is no money. The game's currency are souls you collect by killing enemies. With those souls you use them to level up your character. But there's a catch! You can carry as many souls as you want, the problem is that you get so immersed in the game and forget the most important part! Your going to die!!!! And when that happens you restart the level and you LOSE the souls (you don't lose your equipment though). You can however get those souls back... you just have to find the spot where you died, your "bloodstain". If you make it back to your bloodstain your better off backtracking to the start of the level and warp to the Nexus (the in-game place to upgrade, kinda like a limbo of sorts). But here's the kicker... If you die while trying to find that bloodstain? They're gone forever and a new blood stain appears for you.

Brutal. Unforgiving. Difficult. Relentless. Evil. Addictive. FUN.

Oh... this is only for the PS3... Remember those guys that made the King's Field (I spent many moons playing those damn games!) games back in the day? Same developers.