This Space For Rent

For reals this time.  No I'm not giving up gaming, I would never do that.  That would be like giving up my legs, arms, one lung, and part of my brain.  With the gaming season slowing down a bit for me, I plan to stick to one or two games for the next while (read: RED DEAD REDEMPTION), I am running a D&D campaign, blog on that to come soon, and it's summer movie season at hand, I have much much much more to talk about than just video games.  I wanted to keep this blog JUST gaming but with a multitude of other cool shit going on, I feel the need to talk about it as well.  And again instead of trying to run three blogs at once like I did before, I am combining them into one blog about everything.  I loved talking about games and I hope you guys loved reading about them, so with a thanks I bid you farewell...until you like click that link below...

Nobody Cares

Go ahead and add me to your Reader, Blog Roll or whatever subscription you use, hope everyone does!

Game Over.

- Nerdsbeware Out.

I think I am missing something again...

I was a stead-fast Nintendo supporter for many many years.  I owned/still own all my Nintendo systems with the exception of Virtual Boy (lawlz).  I didn't get a PS2 until probably 2004-2005 when the 3rd gen systems were coming out.  Even then I only bought the PS2 for a handful of games including Guitar Hero, Kingdom Hearts and Grand Theft Auto 3.  With all this being said, I wasn't into Microsoft console gaming.  Halo came out and I ignored it.  My general FPS multiplayer thirst was quenched by Quake 3, Half-Life 2 Deathmatch or Counter-Strike.  Halo 2 was huge for console multiplayer, but again I was a mouse and keyboard player, so I pass on it and didn't bother.  By the time Halo 3 came out I was a 360 owner.  I had a bunch of vacation time to use, and the hype behind Halo 3 was huge enough for me to guy pre-order, pick the game up at midnight and play until like 3-4 in the morning.  It took me a while to get into multiplayer,  the controls were quite awkward for me being used to something totally different.  Long story short, I sucked, I pushed it off for other games and eventually sold my copy back.

Then we came to Modern Warfare.  The same thing happened but I never got into it.  Eventually I played Modern Warfare 2 and went "shit THIS is what I've been missing!?" And if you regularly read this blog, you'll know that I love MW2.  In between there was Halo ODST which I didn't even bother with.  Again I was never much interested in Halo multiplayer.  So now we come to Halo Reach.

The hype behind this  game is huge.  I've heard talk that this IS Halo 4 if there was a true Halo 4.  I come to the conundrum again of will I be missing out on something as a 360 owner by not playing Reach?  The game looks really cool and the marketing for it is pretty awesome with the live action commercial.  I mean hell I feel like that's the closest were going to get to a live action Halo movie right now at least.  I wish someone could really sell me on Reach.  Besides the fact that I have a laundry list of games building up, on top of numerous games coming out toward the end of the month...Reach is no where on my radar.  Is it just because I am a MW2 fan?  Is it because I prefer FPS's via mouse & keyboard?  I don't know!  There is just nothing about the Halo games that gets me hooked like other games do. 

Like I said above I have so many games to play right now and so many coming out.  I'm currently playing Borderlands again, finishing up the Zombie Island DLC quite soon and very much looking forward to moving to Fort Knox stuff.  I forgot how fun that game is, single player is enjoyable, but not as much as co-op.  Along with that I want to wrap up my Mass Effect 2 gaming with the Katsumi DLC and the free DLC stuff they put out in March.  Tack on the fact that I am flitting between Fallout 3 and Gears Of War (yes, GoW 1 sadface here) so I can grab a copy of Gears Of War 2, to prepare for Gears of War 3, but that's a year away so I got some time.  I also just purchased Shadow Complex.  A nice bit of XBLA content made by Epic Games that puts a new spin on the whole "Metroid-vania" style of games.  Look for a full review of that soon as I just started playing it.  Coming out, sadly on the same day, is Red Dead Redemption and Alan Wake.  Both games that I am really looking forward to playing. 

All I can say is it's a good time for gaming.
- Nerdsbeware Out

PAX East 2010

Like my friend over at Eve Newb, I started this post numerous times but just didn't have the will power to get through writing out a post to the crappy standards of my other posts.  I went to write it numerous times and would just start and stop, get distracted by Plants Vs. Zombies, or start work on my first campaign for Dungeons & Dragons.  Either way, short and sweet bullet points of PAX East 2010!

- THE PROTOMEN.  The concert on Friday night was amazing.  Their live show brings so much more energy than any of the CD's could do.  Sounded even better live, if you don't know who the Protomen are you suck...just kidding, please please PLEASE check them out and support them!  The are a "Mega-Man themed rock opera" IE they don't do covers of Mega Man songs, but instead have created two concept albums set in the world of Mega Man.  GO HERE NOW.

- An Evening With Scott Kurtz:  This was just plain awesome.  He was the last panel of the night, showed up somewhat drunk and talked for almost 2 hours.  I love Kurtz ever since I first listened to the PA D&D podcasts, and have been a fan of PvP for a while now. After that seeing his first panel at PAX Prime I knew I had to see this one, he is one funny dude.  I loved every minute of it.

- The PAX East Musical Guest Panel.  Once again I went to go see the Protomen as I heard they rarely break character for interviews and they didn't let me down.  Most of them came dressed up and in their "not face paint, but robot forms."  The guys from Anamanguchi were really funny too as was the rest of the panel.

- The Penny Arcade Q&A Panels. These are always fun for the crazy shit Gabe and Tycho talk about and how they answer questions.  This time was no different.  The arm wrestling match between the two was exceptionally hilarious.

- The Omegathon Final Round. A relay race of old school Nintendo games.  First Super Mario Brothers, followed by Rad Racer, Tetris and finally Contra.  It was pretty badass...if the games didn't crash a few times!

- GAMES. I saw a TON of really cool games on the show floor, but not actual on disc games that truly impressed me.  This time around the focus was clearly on DLC and XBLA games.  Shank looked exceptionally awesome which I heard about at PAX Prime. Monday Night Combat was to be checked out as commanded by our ruler Tycho, and I got to see the new Behemoth game, Battleblock Theater.  And we picked up a new card game called Fluxx, that is just simple fun as shit.  Oh also Shootin' Ladders is god damn amazing. 

Over all a great time.  The hall seemed smaller this time around and the expo floor lacked the big name games that PAX Prime usually brings.  I chalk that up to E3 being right around the corner and that the summer isn't usually the games season so nothing big is coming out.  They already said that next year will be in a bigger place so hopefully we can expect much much more stuff.  I loved it and already can't wait for next year.

Catch you on the flip side,
            - Nerdsbeware out

Embarkment

Tomorrow we begin our venture to the north to slay the juggernaut that is the inaugural PAX East 2010.  I figure I would get one more post in before the long weekend, since when I get back I hope to report on all the awesome video game happenings.  Think of this as a sneak peak as to what's to come next week! 

PAX East is considerable smaller (in pure terms of vendor/company appearance) than PAX Prime with heavyweights like Blizzard and Bioware not putting on their game face this time around, I can only assume because E3 is right around the corner, and everyone is waiting for the big show to lay their cards on the table.
That and the fact that we are sort of at a gaming slump right now.  Not in terms of quality at all, quantity.  All your major releases have dropped, expansions and DLC are floating in the winds waiting to drop over the next few weeks, and any major announcements have been dropped.  PAX Prime had a whole panel discussion on Star Wars: The Old Republic revealing a new class and everything, they had footage and playable areas of Mass Effect 2 and Dragon Age.  I even got to demo the next WoW expansion Cataclysm and Diablo III...DIABLO III!!!  This time around, the list of companies is a bit smaller, but that doesn't mean that this wont be one of the best damn weekends I have all year.  Just being in a community where you feel, at home (lame much?) is a great thing.  Quite frankly I could give a shit less what companies show, or what games are there, because just being there alone is worth it.

While there might not be a lot of heavy hitters this time, the roster is still awesome including companies like: EA, Ubisoft, 2K Games, The Behemoth, Sega, Rockstar and Wizards of the Coast.  While Bioware isn't there EA is which means we could have a look at some new Dragon Age/Mass Effect 2 stuff, and dare I say Old Republic!?  Only time will tell!  Again those are just some of the companies listed on the PAX East side bar as sponsors so there might be more booths on the floor for other companies.  I thought Nintendo was going to be there with Super Mario Galaxy 2 or some more Other M stuff, but we'll just have to see about that.  Aside from the video games the actual Penny Arcade panels are awesome, Gabe and Tycho are hilarious.  A keynote from Wil Wheaton, concerts from some awesome bands including the amazing Protomen, tons of gaming...all in all this is going to be an awesome weekend.

With that I close this post and bid you farewell my readers,
          - Nerdsbeware Out


PS - There's a count down timer on Bioware's site sitting at 4d21h (it's currently 8:15ish AM in Jersey).  Could we be getting an announcement at PAX about a Bioware game?  Could we be getting a major announcement over the weekend PERIOD...well obviously yes, question is WHAT?  Mass Effect 3?  Dragon Age 2?  My money is on Old Republic, but we'll just have to wait...

I Have No Class: The Ranger

Today we take a step back, quite literally, from the action and take a look at the sniper class.  Now I am going to just lay this out there first thing, I'm pretty piss poor with a sniper rifle, so please, take everything I say here with a grain of salt, since most of the time I just find a small spot to camp and hang out there for a while.  Again to explain my naming conventions, in most RPG games, the Ranger or Hunter acts as ranged DPS.  If you remember what DPS is from the last post, just think of it the same way, but instead of being right on top of the guy your fighting, you are banished to the back of the room.  I apologize to most of you who read this and know what all this crap is for these long winded intros but hey, it's what I do.  So without further ado, my sniper class.

Reference: http://www.themodernwarfare2.com/

The Ranger
Primary Weapon:  As stated above, the Sniper Rifle is going to be your main weapon.  Your goal here is to provide cover for any other teammates on the rush along with being the bane of everyone who happens to get shot from across the map and never see where it came from.  Two things you wont have to worry about comparing rifles is mobility and range.  Both of these stats are automatically maxed out, you really only need worry about the other three stats, which when sniping, are super important.   For my money, I love the Barrett .50Cal.  With the highest fire rate paired with the second highest damage it's usually my top choice with a good attachment on it.  I know a lot of people use the Intervention because of its highest damage and accuracy, but it's bolt action is to slow for me.  Granted for the most part you aren't going to need about quick firing if you are a sniper, because with the correct perks, it's usually a one shot, one kill deal.  With every review I have done it's always been my personal choice, but really pick and gun, take a few shots, find what works well for you.
Attachment: Scopes.  Normally I would say ACOG, but with a sniper, I love thermal scopes.  I really never use them for anything other than snipers.  Once again I shy away from the heartbeat sensor only because you can't see it when zoomed in, and you pretty much have to rely on the audio blips.  A silencer can be nice if you don't want to give away your position.

Secondary Weapon:  I play this class two ways.  The first way is with a side arm, any type of gun.  Something to have to cover your back if someone sneaks up on you.  Pretty straight forward, you need to watch your back when sniping.  Modern Warfare 2 did a really good job of keeping the camping spots to a minimum, forcing you to always keep a look at and never feel safe with your back against the wall.  The second way is with the One Man Army Perk, which I will discuss below.

Equipment:  I would say that 95% of the time I am using claymores.  Say you are on Estate and you spawn at the bottom of the map where that building and all those generators are.  You can go onto the roof of one of the buildings right there which has a full view of almost all the front and side windows.  Place a claymore at the top of that ladder, put your back to it and start sniping.  After a while you get used to the sound that a claymore makes right before it goes off, and if you are quick enough can turn to meet your foe...if he isn't blown to hell.  It works well.  That or Tactical Insertion, just so you don't have to run to your nest each time you die.

Perk 1: One Man Army.  The reason I use this is because as I've said, I am not a very efficient sniper.  What I like about the OMA Perk is that when I spawn, I find a good spot where I can take a couple pop shots, kill a couple people, and then when I feel that my position has been compromised or I get killed a few to many times, Pop over to OMA, switch to say my Tank or Striker class, and get on the move.  It works pretty well for me and saves me from being bored sitting in the same spot missing shot after shot.  Again the downfall of this is it takes a bit of time to switch your class, and you have no true side arm to cover your back in a tough spot.  If all else Bling Pro is pretty nice, strap a scope + FMJ/HBS works well.
Perk 2: Stopping Power. I can't stress this enough.  Snipers already do decent damage to begin with, but with Stopping Power, its almost a sure fire instant kill.  I don't think I use any other perk with a sniper.
Perk 3: Again, another perk I can't stress enough for a sniper class is Steady Aim Pro.  With sniper rifles, to hold your shot steady and not all over the place, you have to press down the control stick to simulate "holding your breath."  It makes your shot more accurate which you always want.  With SAP, the duration in which you hold your breath is extended, making it easier to line up your shot.

If you like not being at the front of the action and take a more relaxed from a far view of the fight, play a sniper.  The learning curve can be a bit tough and in most cases when you see someone and you zoom in on them, the next thing you know is you are dead, because they were zooming right in on you as well.  I've found there is usually someone who is always the better sniper.

So there is one more default custom class spot, they give you five to begin and at level 70 you can prestige (which resets all your guns and stuff) and get an extra spot.  I am sorta a fan of the Pokemon gotta catch them all aspect of fully unlocking all the weapons and attachments for every gun, so I most likely won't prestige at 70.  Anyway, that 5th slot right now is just sorta nothing.  Well I have been messing with the riot shield a bit, and it can be good, but sorta tough.  You pretty much have to stay crouched and strafe if you get into a fight so your enemy can't get behind you.  Do this while trying to get close enough to bash them with your shield can be frustrating unless you use the right perks.  Maybe after I play with it some more tonight I'll right up a post on it.

Well that brings the class review of Modern Warfare 2 to a close.  First off I want to thank all my non MW2 readers for bearing through these posts, and then I want to thank all my MW2 readers for not pointing out that I fail at class building.  Stay tuned, some new stuff coming up within the next week, and then PAX EAST!

Thanks for reading,
       - NerdsBeware out

I Have No Class: The Striker

Alright, back on track.  Missed the deadline on the last post due to lame school obligations but here we are once again.  Today we look into the Striker class.  Strike is more of a Dungeons and Dragons term for DPS rather than the WoW definition of things.  If that still doesn't make sense to you, DPS stands for Damage Per Second, or just simply your damage output...but were getting off topic. Once again, MW2 doesn't really work on the standards that most RPG's do, but usually the purpose of DPS in a group is damage.  Quick and nasty damage.  So lets speed right in, and get down to it with the Striker.

The Striker
Primary Weapon: For the Striker, we want fast, burst damage.  The best results for that is sub-machine guns.  SMG's make for great weapons when you want to move quick but still crush your opponent.  SMG's lack in range greatly, but again these guns are great for close, in your face action.  I put my money on the UMP .45.  With it's above average accuracy, top damage among the SMG class and middle of the ground fire rate, it makes for a great weapon.  If you prefer to not worry about range and are the type of person that likes your rapid fire, rapid fire, best bet is to roll with the P90.  With the second highest fire rate of the group, it personally tops the Vector because of it's damage and bigger clip size.
Attachment: Rapid fire is really fun, especially on guns where the fire rate is already jacked pretty high.  While it doesn't up the damage of your gun, it sure as hell tears through someone like water through cheap toilet paper.  I only ever tried Akimbo once with the UMP and as I have said numerous times, I'm not a hip fire person anyway, and I only really like it with the Ranger.  As I always tell you kids, take advantages of sights.

Secondary Weapon:  Now here's is another bit of contention for me for a quick damage class.  It would see that a likely side arm would be a machine pistol due to their high fire rates and top mobility.  If one were inclined to use a machine pistol, I suggest the PP2000.  The stats are pretty average which makes it a good all around gun, where as the G18 is to inaccurate, the TMP fires slower and the M93 does burst fire.
Attachment: Sights, maybe Akimbo.  In reality and a close fight using FMJ to try and get someone behind a wall or box wont work as effective if they are on the other side with a bigger gun in the first place.

Personally though for my Striker class, I pair myself with a Launcher.  The reason behind this is A.) it's always good to keep a launcher handy and B.) With a SMG, and a few perks to help I can move around a lot better on a map, avoiding fire from above.  It makes it easy to zip behind a building, get into a safe spot, and take down the jet.  I prefer the Stinger above all else because of its nice lock on and damage.  I know the Javelin and RPG-7 are favorites as well, but I don't really use my launcher to go after players, I really reserve it for taking down aircrafts. 

Perk 1: Marathon Pro.  Again our goal here with this class is speed.  With unlimited sprint and a light weapon, you can kill someone twice before they notice once on small maps like Rust.
Perk 2: Lightweight Pro.  Again it's all about the speed.  Being able to sprint around someone, come up from behind and aim down your sight with quick flare is just plain fun.
Perk 3: SitRep Pro.  I like this one because most of the time when I'm on the move, I'm not really looking at the ground or around corners slowly.  I keep my head up to watch for oncoming traffic, so SitRep is a handy perk to have when you don't want to accident eat a claymore burger.

Death Streak: Painkiller or Martyrdom.  A good health boost is nice incase you take off running soon as you spawn and encounter enemies, and you can never go wrong dropping a grenade if someone knifes you.

This post was pretty short, but again the Striker class is a pretty straight forward one.  Get in, waste some dudes and get out.  Next up is our Ranger/Hunter class, whatever you feel like calling it, and we'll be taking a look at the art of the sniper.

As always, thanks for reading.
         - Nerdsbeware Out

I Have No Class: The Tank

By definition, speaking in WoW standards naturally, "A tank is a character whose primary role is to absorb damage and prevent others from being attacked."  Now of course in MW2 there's no such real thing as a "tank" since there are no bosses fights or anything, but due to the load-out and perks I choose for this class, a tank seemed appropriate.  Again you might say wouldn't a Riot Shield combo be a better fit?  And you'd be right, but again this really isn't a RPG and I'll name my classes anything I damn please.  Moving on, the point of the Tank is damage, lots and lots of damage.  What better way to do that then getting some action with a Light Machine Gun.  Paired with a good heavy damage side arm and perks that hopefully keep you alive a bit longer.  Like I said in the previous post, these are just what I use and by no way a professional take on which weapons you SHOULD be using, just my favorites. Once again, a DPS based class would probably just be a better name fit, but hopefully you'll see my point.

Once again, for reference: http://www.themodernwarfare2.com/

The Tank
Primary Weapon:  AUG HBAR.  Hands down my favorite LMG.  With it's superb accuracy for a machine gun and high damage, it makes for a great "tanking" weapon.  I generally favor this weapon for those reasons, but the only downside I can see is if I remember correctly, the clip size isn't as big as say my second favorite LMG, the RPD  The RPD lacks the accuracy and fire rate of say the MG4, but puts out optimal damage with a huge clip size.  Nothing feels better than seeing and enemy peak out of a window, and unloading 300 bullets into the wall until you hit them.  Now yea, it screws with your hit-miss ratio, but I'm more interested in getting a kill.
Attachment:  In most games, I prefer a Grip to sights/scopes.  Light machine guns accuracy is always an issue and the grip does a favorable amount to fix that.  For something like the AUG with good accuracy, roll with a sight.

Secondary Weapon: Shotguns.  Like I said above, I am looking for BIG damage output here.  Shotguns are notoriously terrible with accuracy so really only pull them out when you need that close quick kill.  With a LMG your clip is pretty big, so you should be able to hold tough with your primary for a while.  At first I only used AA-12 because of its crazy fire-rate, and brutal damage, but then at level 42, I met the Ranger. A double barrel hellcat that is a pretty much guaranteed one shot kill if used right.  Everything on this bad boy has pretty low stats except for damage, again, really only use this in a close fight.  Time it right and you can fire off both barrels at once crushing your opponent.
Attachment: There are only two attachments available for the Ranger, FMJ, and of course if you play MW2 a fair bit, akimbo.  If you are like me, at least once a match you round a corner to be looking down four barrels of death.  It's cheap, but effective, use it.


Equipment: Again I stick with what I like, Claymores and Frag grenades.  I tend to stay away from something like the throwing knife only because the gun takes kinda long to pull back out when you are switching weapons.  As for special grenades, again stuns are always great due to the fact that it slows the enemy down making it easier to lay into them.

Perk 1:  We can go two ways here, I'll explain each.  First a great choice is Sleight of Hand Pro.  Having large magazines comes with a price, they take a while to reload.  SoH really helps cut down on that.  You could always just switch to your secondary too.  My second choice is Scavenger Pro.  Again big magazines run out faster than you think, pick up more and keep unloading.
Perk 2: Lightweight Pro.  Mentioned before, LMG's reduce your speed greatly due to their size, take that burden down a bit by being able to move some what faster.  I like to use this instead of say Stopping Power because the guns do a fair amount of damage to begin, but I also don't know how or if Lightweight actually increases your overall speed with the gun.  Will have to do some tests...
Perk 3: This one is sorta a tough choice since none really impact the effect guns.  I tend to fall back on Commando Pro, but I guess Last Stand works as well.  I wouldn't rely on Ninja or Scrambler because with a giant gun, you really aren't trying to be sneaky, but both are still good perks.

Death Streak: Painkiller or Final Stand.  A nice boost when you spawn is always good, espeically in this case where you are using someone inaccurate guns.  Final stand works as well because it allows you to still use say your Ranger to try and get off one last kill.

In closing, the Tank is a heavy hitter, pulling out all the stops to lay down destructive suppression fire while still being able to survive for a while.  When I am looking to just have some fun on a map and blast the crap out of anything in my path, I play my tank.  Part Three tomorrow will take a look into my Striker class, so check back for that!

Tip of the hat to you folks,
  -Nerdsbeware out

I Have No Class: The Main

Alright back to the games...well back to the game.  I still cannot fathom how much of a hold Modern Warfare 2 has over me.  Yes, yes I know I pretty much say that in every post, but it's only because it's 100% true.  When I started playing Mass Effect 2 I took a nice hiatus (right around level 32 in MW2), but soon as I crushed out that final mission,  I was right back in the rough of it.  I'm now almost level 50, and really hitting my stride in the game.  Some games I walk away amazed at how well I did, others I'm just trash.  I guess it depends who is on the other side of that red dot.  The thrill of the game is still there for me and I am sure in a few months from now I'll be able to put down the controller and walk away but for now, this is just as addictive as WoW was for me.  The point of this post is really for you other fellow MW2 die-hards, or even if you aren't maybe this will change your mind about playing.

I'm a big RPG player, and since MW2 does a fair job of joining a first person shooter with RPG elements, it was only natural that I ended up using "class-based" naming schemes for my custom classes. First of which, naturally, is my main.  My main changes from game to game usually, it's the one class that I switch stuff in and out of the most depending on the map and how I am doing.  It's my good all purpose "I want to win" build.
 Since I don't want to have to link every weapon 10 times in the post, this is a great site reference when reading these posts: http://www.themodernwarfare2.com/

The Main
Primary Weapon: On my main I use an assault rifle (generally the M16/SCAR, but lately I have been loving the TAR-21) but really, any assault will do due to their high rate of fire, generally good accuracy and a decent damage output.  If you are more of a sharp shooter player, stick with the FAL, FAMAS and ACR.    For a more run and gun scenario M4A, M16, F2000.  The latter of the bunch being higher fire rates while still doing significant damage, and the first set having the highest accuracy, but lower than average damage. While they might hurt your mobility a slight bit, in general AR's make for a great all-purpose weapon. 
Attachment: I personally love sights since I'm not really a good hip fire player.  Especially for a gun like the TAR-21 that has low accuracy, they help. Otherwise for something like SCAR, FAL or ACR, FMJ works due to their lowered damage.  In general I stay away from the grenade launcher unless I want to unlock the shotgun attachment.  While heartbeat senors are alright, personally they aren't always reliable in cases where you are running or aiming with your stock sight.  When it doubt, sights are always a good choice.

Secondary Weapon: For the main, I tend to stick with a handgun as my side arm.  It's reliable, plain and simple.  I tend to stray away from the Magnum, and while is damage is decent, it's accuracy and magazine size are not as sure fire as a USP.   
Attachment:  I don't use my side arm that much, opting for a knife kill in most close cases, but FMJ is always a good choice when using the USP/M9 due to their lower damage ranges, or even with the Magnum/Desert Eagle to just give it that little bit of extra kick.  Again more damage is never a bad choice.  If all else fails, Tact Knife it.

Equipment: Throwing knife.  I love it.  I'm not very good with it yet, but I love it.  The knife takes a bit getting used to as you can either hip throw, or take a bit to hold and aim.  On a level like Estate when we hold the house, nothing is better than sitting above the hot tub room, waiting for someone to come over the railing to meet a knife in the face.  Otherwise, explosives are always great fall backs.  I sway towards claymores, but a well placed Frag or Semtex does the job.

Perk 1: Sleight Of Hand Pro.  90% of the time I use this, but it varies between this and Scavenger Pro.  It can never hurt to aim faster, or have 2-3 claymores set up in your crow's nest.
Perk 2: Hardline Pro.  Like I said, this is my I want to win the match class, with hardline, that make it that much faster.  Kill's come easier with AR's for me, so what better way to get more kills than calling in my Kill Streaks sooner.  Stopping Power is good to for guns whose damage is less than optimal, while if you are running with the grenade launcher and/ or frags, Danger Close works just as well.
Perk 3: Command Pro.  I like it just because when in doubt, pull out your knife.
Death Streak: Final Stand.  Why not?  A chance to get back up and fight some more, yes please.

For the most part, I end up with a good K:D ratio when using my main, and in cases where I might be playing another class and sucking, I can always switch back and pick up my score again.  Like I said, this class is reliable.  It's a good middle of the ground, new to the game build due to its all around average stats.  Substitute and change based on your level, or even try a different weapon when one gets stale.  I was using the M16 for a long time, but once I started doing not so well with it, switched to the TAR-21, and was sitting right back up at the top.

Stay tuned tomorrow for the next installment of my Modern Warfare 2 in depth class reviews, The Tank.

Thanks for reading,
Nerdsbeware out-

16 Days.

It will be awesome.

While Hollywood is off reinventing the wheel...

There are movies like this getting made, Terror At Blood Fart Lake.

Wow.  I commended whoever came up with this concept, found the funding to make the movie, people to star in it and actually make it to some sort of distribution.  Again it looks like it's supposed to be a spoof but the title alone brings into existence the thought that there are people out there making movies like that, and not shit like this.

For my day to day money making purposed, I do "data entry."  I put that in quotes because it's not really as simple as that.  I mean it is since what I do all day is essentially enter data into a database but there's a bit more to it.  I work for a pretty major book distribution company that I will leave nameless, but we also distribute entertainment (read: movies, music, video games).  Of my group there are five of us, and each get companies to handle.  These companies range from Disney, to Sony to EMI down to the no name companies that just sorta float in the dead space that is entertainment distribution.  I myself am pretty much responsible for half of that floating garbage.  When I first started working here I was the new guy, so naturally I got junked with the small companies that are unheard and uncared for.  Our main purpose here is to get titles that all the companies send, into our database, so that a buyer can order those titles for places such as Best Buy or Borders.  So when a new release is coming out, say for instance Avatar or Sherlock Holmes on DVD/BluRay, we get that information anywhere from 2-4 months before the rest of you usually find out.  I knew Inglorious Basterds was coming out in December, in August, practically a week after it hit theaters. 
Being a huge movie fan, its a nice perk to know when my favorite summer movies are coming out, and when to put money aside for them.

Now I don't have JUST small companies, I have a few major ones, plus the best one of them all, I enter every and all video games into our system.  So that same rule of finding out when stuff is coming out way in advance holds true for games as well.  It's not a bad gig and it pays the bills, and from time to time we get free promo CD's and DVD's.  What's nice is were not just handed a sheet and told to put it in, we get to actually talk to our vendors sometimes.  It ends up being a bit more personal than just standard data entry.  And then there's the movies like Terror At Blood Fart Lake.  Every once and a while you get a gem like that, that crosses your desk and you remember that no matter how bad that movie looks, someone out there is trying to do something different and not adapt, reboot or sequel something.

Real question is, if I were to get a copy of this movie, who would watch it with me?

Last one for the day, I promise.
Nerdsbeware out-

The Plot Theif

I like movies, technically speaking I love movies (I also love lamp) but sometimes I hate them, and technically speaking (again) I hate them.  I hate them for their ability to spill acid on anything awesome and melt away all the coolest parts of something, their ability to take a story and so brutally murder the shit out of it that you regret paying for that small piece of paper and stale popcorn.  I got to see a movie like that, that I was very much looking forward to, and now wish to never see again.

My girlfriend reads a lot, I don't, as proof that I have a video game/movie blog and not one about books, either way, she generally knows what's good and what's not.  I'm not really a fiction person, I like to stick to the whole wizards, lasers and hand drawn mediums.  So when my girlfriend told me about a kid series based in Greek mythology but set in current times, eyebrows were raised, interests were perked.  I really like Greek mythology, I don't know why but their gods and stories like the Odyssey, the setting of the Underworld, and all the different heroes that came with it was something that I really love.  I was a staunch hater of Harry Potter when the book first came out, as I am with most things, if everyone else tends to LOVE it, I'll hate it.  I saw the first movie, and my whole outlook changed.  Deathly Hallows will definitely go down as one of my all time favorite books.  Every once and a while, a good kid series like these come along, so when I was introduced to the world of Percy Jackson and the Olympians, I dove in head first.

As stated above I'm not one for reading that much in my free time with the exception of maybe World War Z or the Alphabet of Manliness, I decided to check out the first book in the series via audio means.  This isn't really a review of the audio book, but the kid who did the reading, was pretty bland and boring.  Despite his inability to have emotion in his voice, the book itself was awesome.  The movie however, was horrible.  The story is centered around Percy Jackson, a slightly troubled 12 year old with ADHD and dyslexia, no father figure to put him on the right track.  While on a school trip he's attacked by some crazy bitch and the ball starts rolling.  He finds out that he's a demigod, goes to a camp for other demigods and starts training.  Soon its found out that someone stole Zeus's master bolt, and that its up to Percy and his friends to retrieve this bolt, seeing as Zeus thinks Percy stole under his fathers order.  And of course, Percy's father turns out to be Poseidon, which is quite bad seeing as Greek gods aren't supposed to bang humans.  The story is a roller coaster ride across the states from this point on with Percy and his gang running into all sorts of Greek mythology celebrities like Medusa and Hephaestus.  Action ensues, bad guys revealed, bolt returned. That is pretty much like the quickest description of the book (I left out A LOT so go to the wiki page) I can give, since I want to review how badly the movie was adapted.

The title of this post is a correlation I made between the time when the book was licensed as a movie and the movie actually coming out.  Someone obviously stole the plot to the movie, hid it far from director Chris Columbus, and replaced it with something that had nothing to do with the book.  Once again I am not going to get huge into detail here because many of you haven't probably read the book, probably won't read or see the movie so it's not a severe gash to the face like it is to me.  The major problems with the movie is that the whole plot was changed to something that had NO significance in the book.  Something that was mentioned once, and not brought back til the end of the book.  Major characters (and more importantly VILLAINS who have a huge outcome on the plot) were left out.  The biggest one was Ares (and subsequently one of his daughters), the God of War.  In the book all the Gods in the book are described as constantly moving with time and staying current which is a very cool plot point, and Ares was described as a biker who probably rolled with the Hell's Angels.  Now on the credits it lists Ray Winstone, but it lists him as "uncredited."  A point I found strange because while reading the book, I knew Ares played a large part.  So I'm thinking alright maybe its just his voice? Could it possibly be him with make up or mostly CG?  I didn't know but I did know he was probably going to look badass.  Well turns out he never even shows up in the movie at all.  W T F.  I mean you have to understand this, Ares is pretty much the major antagonist during the book.  The writer wants you to believe that its Hades since he is the lord of the Underworld but in the end its not.  Hell Percy even has a brutal battle on a beach with him that serves as a "boss fight" for the end of the book really.  So when you leave him out completely, it's sort of a big deal. 

Again not to cut this short, but really I could go on for about five more pages how much I hated this adaptation.  Characters changed, plot points missing (or added incorrectly), and scenes added for apparently no good goddamn reason.  I trusted Columbus too seeing as he did the first two Harry Potter movies and they were really close to the book, and I enjoyed them a lot.  I expected more from him.  The final nail in the coffin for what should have been an awesome movie was Lady Gaga's Poker Face dance sequence followed by Kesha's TikTok.  In a movie about Greek gods wanting to start war, and a kid trying to stop them. 

Oh movies, how you love to fail me.

As always, thanks for reading,
Nerdsbeware out.

Shifting Masses

The blog has been quiet as of late for many reasons.  The main being, as I stated in another post, that I'm pretty much focused and honed on Mass Effect 2 or Modern Warfare 2.  Bioshock 2 dropped sometime ago which I did not yet pick up due to the fact that I was/am trying to actually finish games when I start them.  I failed pretty hardcore with Mass Effect 1.  It happened to come out on the very same day that the original Rock Band came out, and I ended up buying both the same day.  The choice was pretty clear, plastic drums were way way more interesting.  ME ended up getting shelved for quite a while.  I finally broke it out somewhere around a year or more later and started to play.  I got a bit into the story, picked up a few squad mates, and then my WoW addiction kicked in and I lost track of the game again.  Cut to another year later, I start up the game with the determination to start and finish it.  Naturally that didn't happen.  What we ended up with was me rushing through the first game the week that Mass Effect 2 was released.  The reason for this was that you were able to import your Shepard from the first game into the second one and have all the consequences and outcomes (plus a nice boost to your XP and credits) become part of the storyline in ME2.

On Mass Effect 2 release day I walked into Best Buy, picked up a copy off the shelf (so much for your "not getting a copy unless you reserve" bullshit Gamestop) and went home.  I promptly unwrapped the game and put it right on my shelf.  It pained me to not be able to open it and place it in the tray and being my adventures as Commander Shepard again.  No, I had to still finish the first game and at this point I wouldn't be touching ME2 until the weekend due to not being all that far into the first game.  Needless to say the rest of the week was a blur as I raced through the main story line, picking up the rest of my team, blowing from planet to planet, hunting down Saren to save the galaxy.  By the time the weekend hit, I was facing off against Saren and Sovereign and saving the galaxy.  At this point in the game I hadn't capped yet, I was maybe in the high 40's and I was going to start a second play-through  because as stated above, you could bring your character over to 2.  That lasted all of 5 minutes before I said screw it, grabbed ME2 and dug in.

With the help of two decent snow storms, Mass Effect 2 is now finished.  I capped out at lvl 26 (full cap is 30) so I basically want to play til I hit 30 so I can be ready for DLC and ME3.  Bioware really through the game for a loop in terms of game play, and I have to say, I love 90% of the changes they made to the game.  Being able to use powers like "cast-able spells" was a huge improvement in my eyes.  In the first game I did A LOT of micro managing of myself and my team which I felt took a good deal away from the action aspect of the game, especially the ebb and flow of the story and action sequences.  If you don't know what I am talking about, basically in the first Mass Effect you could only map one of your powers, other wise in the middle of a battle you would have to pause the game, pick the powers you wanted to cast yourself or your team, unpause the game, said powers cast, and then basically rinse and repeat. In it's second edition, you are able to map up to three powers and use them just by clicking the right and left bumpers on your controllers.  Awesome.

There are a few other things they changed such as your inventory system, which virtually doesn't exist anymore.  Instead of just changing full suits of gear, while on mission now you can stop at various shops and pick up various different pieces of armor (legs, chest, helmet and shoulders maybe hands?).  Each piece of armor now has its own stats that you can mix and match to make a perfect gear set for your class.  Guns now work a lot different as you only have a handful of options to choose from, but are able to upgrade whichever you want.  No more having 10 pistols from Eden Prime sitting in your inventory.  A few other things absent are all the Mako stuff thankfully, and with that Omni-Gel is pretty much gone too.  Medi-Gel now works totally different, you get the Unity skill again (which in the first game you had to unlock) that basically brings your whole squad back to life, if you have the gel.

Over all the game was a huge improvement on the first one.  Graphics were improved, the new combat style that they took with it love.  There are still a few parts of the game that drive me nuts such as the mining mini-game to find minerals that will help upgrade your weapons, skills and other things.  The new hack games are sub-par matching games that after the first few times (plus the hack extension upgrade) were like doing simple math.  The load times are somewhat long but I think that was in response to no one wanting to stand around on elevators anymore, and sometimes the AI of your party just drops to 0 and they do something really stupid.  Other than that the story is awesome, there was a real sense of "some of you might not make it back alive" to the larger picture, and there's some nice set ups for the third game.  All in all if you love Bioware, and loved the first Mass Effect, pick this up, get the free DLC, and venture forth into the galaxy.


Commander Pria Shepard reporting for duty (and hitting on Yeoman Chambers...)

 

Quality might be lame because I had to take a picture of my TV since it's not hooked up to my computer for capture purposes.

End Transmission.
Nerdsbeware out-

Weird...I thought this was a gaming blog?

Well it is, but in all honesty I haven't really been gaming that much, I mean in a sense of playing lots of games.  Hence the big posts about movies since I pretty much only play Modern Warfare 2 these days.  It's a funny story...(if this were like Scrubs it would probably cut to a dream or flashback sequence but, it's just a crappy blog so...)  Actually it's not, basically I had boycott the game, not because of all the dedicated server BS that went down, but pretty much because my history of first person shooters growing up has been strictly PC.  Now I played shooters on consoles, but I never could fully get the grip of them, I just work better with a mouse and keyboard.  For a long while the only shooters I played were Left 4 Dead and Team Fortress 2.  Oh, and that dreaded Counter-Strike.

I played the SHIT out of Counter-Strike let me tell you.  I was never anywhere near OGL standards or anything, but I could hold my own.  I got pretty damn good at Scout no-scopes which was always fun.  But I loved CS, I played almost every night with friends.  For a long time I barely touched other genres of games, esp when HL2 came out with, followed by the awesome-ness of the Orange Box.  Thinking back to my days in college playing CS, it's just funny.  Since those were the days when I had little money being a college kid with no money for anything but food and probably DVD's but not high quality gaming headsets, I had a crappy pair of regular walkman style head phones and what I liked to refer to as a "pencil-dick mic"  and I would have to lean all in and speak directly into so teammates could hear me.  My roommate and suitemates would always ask what I was shouting about or who I was talking to.  Now I have a great Logitech headset that I don't think I could live without.  Anyway, we got off topic there, so yea, I played a lot of CS, got pretty good, and quit as I do when most things get boring.  The influx of cocky, brash 12 year old kids and ratio of people with mics grew, and I got tired of being pissed on and shit talked by some kid who goes to bed at 9PM.  I moved on and played a TON of RPG's, a good deal of Blizzard games, finally settling into World Of Warcraft for a solid 4 years.  And as I said above, I got pretty good, and got bored again. 

When this new game came out that people were blown away about (COD4:MW) I was in a TF2 phase and didn't care much for Modern Warfare.  I never touched the first one at all, my brother gave me his copy, but since it was his I couldn't always go online or whatever with it.  When the second one was announced, I figured I'm steering clear.  I had put in my time with military shooters and was happy with my RPGs and 360 games.  So game comes out, I don't get it, life goes on.  My gaming world didn't come to a halt or anything, I played Borderlands and was perfectly happy...until New Years.

We head over to the greatest EVE player in the world's house (I had a submission for fun, but I couldn't find the legendary DEERBIRD 4 LYFE picture to edit, I will find it dammit) and he had gotten it for the holidays.  Before the major drinking and fun began we were watching him play, and I got lost in the game.  The next day we sat around recovering for a bit and passed the controller around and each took a turn playing.  To say I fell in love with the game is sorta an understatement, because even though I got destroyed my first time playing, the next day when we left, after a 1h45m drive home, I rushed to Target(sold out) and Best Buy (1 copy on shelf) to get it before they closed and proceeded to play til like 1-2AM.  The game is amazing.

Now this is commonplace to most people who played the first one, but since I never touched it, I was blown away.  The way they incorporated slight RPG elements into a primarily FPS game works wonderful.  The addicting grasp of multi-player fun has just hooked and reeled me in once again.  As it stands, I'm decent at the game.  At the end of most matches, I've sucked and come in last but I don't even give a shit about scores or leaderboards or any of that.  What I love is just the thrill of playing, getting that game winning kill, calling in a Predator missile, or just working with my team to win the match.  Yea, it's awesome and I feel good when I come out with a positive kill-death ratio, but for me, it's just the thrill of the game.  And isn't that what it should be about?  To most, probably not, to most it probably is all about the leader-boards but whatever.

In short, but not really because my posts are never short, I've been playing and will be playing MW2 for the next few weeks.  Mass Effect 2 comes out next week, which I am really looking forward to, but don't plan on picking up right away...maybe.  As it stand ME2 comes out on the 26th, I have yet to beat the first one because I have gaming ADD.  Two weeks later on 2/9 Bioshock 2 comes out.  I'm really excited for BS2 and don't want to pick up Mass Effect 2, only play it fleetingly between MW2 rounds, and then move to Bioshock without giving it the proper time frame to play.  If I can burn through Mass Effect in the next few days, maybe, just maybe I'll pick up a copy. 

For now, Modern Warfare 2, my heart belongs to you and only you.

Thanks for reading!
 - Nerdsbeware Out

All aboard the hype train! Choo Choo... Part III The Finale

Last stop, all off folks.  This week I finish off my retrospective of movies that I've viewed over the past few days, one generally tied to some sort of major marketing, insane buzz or general chatter.   Today we touch on comedies!  Over the past few weeks I've watched NUMEROUS comedies, and sad to say that most of them were just not funny at all.  Since there are quite a few here, I'm going to just go with small blurbs about each one. 

Land Of The Lost: Terrible.  It wasn't even that the movie was bad, I mean it was bad, but it was just boring.  I didn't laugh once.  The plot was weak, but again when you are trying to make a movie out of a 70's Sid and Marty Krofft show, you don't have much to go on.  My two biggest grips with the film were first while I never watched the original show, I knew that Rick, Will and Holly were a family, a father and his two kids.  In this iteration, Rick was a fumbling scientest, Holly falls in love with him (shes some college age woman?) and Will is a redneck who loves fireworks.  Not related at all, pretty lame.  The second thing that bothered me is once again Will Ferrel was playing Will Ferrel.  There was nothing new about his character.  Hey I'll scream a bunch in an angry voice, I'll make dumb comments so on and so on.  It was weak.  Danny McBride (who I really like) just played the same guy he did in Tropic Thunder.  The only saving grace was the beautiful Anna Friel whose performance even fell short (go watch Pushing Daises).  Over all bad movie.

The Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard: From the outside this movie looked like it could be good.  With a decent cast and a glimmer of comedy gold, I had hopes for this one.  They were quickly squashed about 15 minutes into the movie.  Another flat comedy that just was trying to hard.  I'm sparing plot descriptions for length here but basically its about a super car salesmen played by Jeremy Piven and his team of sales people.  Basically the reason this movie sucked is that it pushed the "random" envelope to much, it was trying to be a new Anchorman.  Anchorman is probably my all time favorite comedy, with its super random moments(News team street gangs WTF?) and the idiocy of people("They say 60% of the time, it works every time.") being the main reason for this.  Surprising enough the only part of the movie that made me laugh was Will Ferrel in a small cameo.  The Goods tried doing the whole random moment, people saying and doing absurd things way to much with a weak plot to stand on and in my book, didn't sell me shit.

Adventureland:  I put this in the comedy post, since it's billed everywhere as a comedy, but my god this movie was so a drama in my book.  Yes, it had parts that could make you laugh if you were so inclined to do, but I never was.  If you had told me off the bat this was a drama about kids growing up in the 80's or something, I might have had more interest and enjoyed it more.  What we got was a bunch of commericals and trailers picking out what I guess "they" (whoever "they" are) thought were the funniest parts, mainly consisting of Bill Hader saying something that people would find funny.  As dramatic movies go, it was decent, as comedies go, it was bad.  Ryan Reynolds was ok, for once he didn't play himself, Jesse Eisenberg was decent but as my roommate put last night "a poor mans Michael Cera."  So true, this dude does skinny, nerdy and awkward pretty well, and what makes me question the movie is that it's directed by the guy who did Superbad, staring Cera.  Was that role originally intended for him?  Either way, dullsville.

500 Days Of Summer: Finally starting to get to the good stuff.  This one is short, not much to say really.  It was a good romantic comedy, I truly enjoyed it.  I love Zooey Deschanel and Joseph Gordon-Levitt was really good in the movie.  The simple fact that he can play Cobra Commander in one movie, and the play the lead in a romantic comedy is pretty cool.  The story wasn't mind blowing, boy meets girl, falls in love, girl doesn't feel the same, and we have our plot.  What I liked about the movie is that it doesn't take a linear path recounting the 500 days.  We start in the 400's and then skip around to see how the relation developed and fell apart.  Normally I would hate it, but in this case, it worked so well for the movie.  Again if were defining things in comedy standards, it wasn't laugh out loud every minute of the movie, but there were a few parts that made me laugh and smile. I definitely recommend seeing this one when you can. 

Zombieland: I loved this goddamn movie so much.  When I first read about it I thought "ok awesome another comedic take on the whole zombie genre!"  Shaun of the Dead is by far in my top 10 favorite movies of all time, and they did so much to establish the whole zom-com thing that I knew I had to see this movie.  What was nice is that it didn't look like Zombieland was TRYING to be Shaun either, it looked like it wanted to establish its own place.  Woody Harrelson was actually fantastic in this movie, he hit his points perfectly while still being able to be more than a one dimension character. Jesse Eisenberg worked in this movie, unlike Adventureland.  His quirky, shy, spaz act worked wonderful for the character.  Emma Stone and Abigail Breslin were awesome.  Again as for zombie movies go, it's not to heavy on the gore and zombie stuff, which I actually liked despite the movie being called Zombieland.  It was more about how these four people learn to live and survive in a world over run by zombies.  I hope they do as planned and make a whole bunch more sequels in the Zombieland universe.  My biggest complaint, the movie was only 1h24mins, way to short.  Overall this movie falls into my Top 10 of '09 movies for sure, watch it cause it's awesome.

The Boat That Rocked (aka Pirate Radio): I posted this on my facebook in a conversation with a friend, for the US release of the movie they changed the name to "Pirate Radio" and it bothered me.  The movie is a British ensemble cast (save for Philip Seymour Hoffman) about rebel DJ's broadcasting rock music in the late 60's that was not well favored on regular British radio airwaves.  As I said before, my suspect for the name change, America has an obsession with pirates and since the three Pirate movies are well liked over here, I assume the higher ups decided that noone would want to see a movie called The Boat that Rocked, we should rename it Pirate Radio because people love pirates!  Whatever, I watched it under the banner of The Boat that Rocked, and really enjoyed it.  The movie is really about the music since nothing really happens other than the DJ's play music and hang out while British government tries to can them.  I'm not a fan of the music in the movie, I'm not a fan of Brit pop from that time period.  Before I get flamed to Hell and back, I respect what a lot of those bands did for music, they just aren't my style or what I enjoy listening to.  All that aside, the movie was great.  An amazing cast, a good director and parts that made me laugh out loud.  I really enjoy the whole British movie scene, and hope to see more movies make their way over here. 

The Hangover: And finally we come to the end.  I choose to end this with Hangover because these three posts were all about hype, and by far The Hangover garnered the most hype over the summer for being the "comedy of the year" from many people.  The first time my girlfriend and I watched the movie, we laughed a lot, it was funny.  I like Todd Phillips as a director, I really liked his other movies which include Old School and Road Trip.  So when we finished the movie we were just like "eh it was good, but not as good as everyone made it out to be."  I went on to watch the movie again at another point, and again and it began to grow on me.  The movie was unapologetic.  They made fun of everything and everyone, but did it without going overboard like The Goods did.  Having watched the movie a few times now, I've grown to love the movie, and I can't wait for the supposed sequel that is being worked on.  Most people have had a night of drinking (granted in their case there was other factors...) when they wake up and just think what the hell happened to me, and where Dude, Where's My Car failed hardcore in terms of the whole lets retrace our steps, The Hangover did perfectly.

With that we come to a close on our three part look at what hype can do for a movie, good and bad.  I still have a bunch of movies in the bank to check out, so expect some more reviews, maybe in a more timely manner, but as you all know this is a gamers blog, and to be totally honest, when I get home from work, I'm playing Modern Warfare 2 and just pass over writing in this damn thing.  What can you do?

As always, thanks for reading!
 - Nerdsbeware out

All aboard the hype train! Choo Choo... Part II

Moving swiftly down the tracks to our next station, we come upon Avatar.  What is/was being hailed as James Cameron's biggest project ever, a holy grail in terms of CGI, story, setting and many other wonders.  The hype meter behind this one nearly burst raining shards of nerdy fanboyism all over the place.  There is a lot of history behind this movie, and far be it me to try and tell things that Cameron explains so much better, go check out the wikipedia page or the 100's of other movie sites boasting his words about the story and technology behind the movie.  For now, this is a review of a movie brought to us by the man responsible for Terminator 1 & 2, True Lies, The Abyss and Titanic.  This is about Avatar.

Now before people flame me and blow up at me after reading the first few paragraphs of the review, I'll put this out in the open.  I ENJOYED AVATAR.  Meaning I did not think it was a bad movie at all, in fact I liked it a fair amount, that being said it didn't blow my mind like it blew everyone else out there.  This one for me, fell short of the buzz that it was generating out there.  So again, please do not think that I hated the movie, or that this will just be a bash to the movie, I am simply here to point out my likes and dislikes with the movie.  Also spoiler free here folks so enjoy.

No cold feet here, I'm jumping right into what I didn't like about the movie.  First off was the story, not that it was bad or anything, it was good, it was just something that I have seen (presented in so many different forms) before.  No one pegged this movie to be about the story really though, I mean yes it's integral to the movie itself, but hell I wasn't expecting it to be some fancy well known novel.  The plot had that all to familiar man undercover who gets to involved with the organization he's infiltrating and ends up wanting to help his new friends.  This had a better moral scale to it which I liked, Worthington's character was fighting for something he had grown to love and become a part of rather than the whole good guy turns to bad guy in turn becoming a bad guy but helping the somewhat likable villain...I pretty much just described the plot to The Fast and the Furious, and it just go to show how Avatar didn't fall into that trap of lamedom.  Either way the plot fit the movie, and I wasn't expecting something like Terminator 2.  I never pegged Cameron as a great writer, since I much more stand by his work with technology and directing as his strengths.  The pacing of the movie was ok, I felt it was a bit to long, with way to much time setting up for the big battle that we all knew was going to come in tn the end.  With the huge digital landscape that Cameron set up, I wanted to see more of it.  Yes, there was a fair amount of Pandora shown, but I craved more, I wanted to see every valley and cave that this planet had to offer.  Oh well, maybe in Avatar 2!

But out with bad in with the good, while I had a few gripes with the movie, I generally enjoyed it, mostly because I really like Sam Worthington as an actor.  Granted he really hasn't done much stateside, really its only this and Salvation until Clash of the Titans comes out, but this was a different role for him, in my eyes.  In Terminator he had the task of just being an action hero, a robot and a supporting actor.  In Avatar, he was the show.  There was much more of a dramatic element to Jake Sulley, while still holding onto that hero's edge.  Granted for a good chunk of the movie it was his face somewhat grafted onto a 10ft. tall blue alien but still, the scenes with him in it I loved.  Sigourney Weaver and Joel Moore filled out the science team well, and I really enjoyed Stephen Lang's tough as nails Colonel Quaritch.  I haven't seen him in anything else expect Public Enemies in which he pretty much didn't say a word the whole film.  The one thing that I don't think needs any recognition is the technology and CGI.  I mean there's not much else to say other than it was amazing.  Pandora looked fantastic, and the fact that the main female lead is completely CGI just proved how far we have come in terms of graphics.  Again, the technology has been talked about to death, and I can basically sum it up in one word, amazing.

The hype was huge for this movie, and now I never went into it thinking that it was going to change the face of movie making (even though in terms of CGI & 3D it will) or be the best movie I have ever seen, but I was still looking forward to it.  But I walked out of the theater generally apathetic to the whole thing.  I walked out and thought it was cool, but at quite a few parts in the movie, I was thinking about scenes in Sherlock Holmes which I had scene a week before.  I didn't walk out jaw dropped in awe of what I saw, and part of me felt sad about that.  I WANTED to love the movie more than Sherlock Holmes, Dark Knight or even District 9, but I didn't.  Maybe my tastes are changing, maybe it's just the fact that when movies build that much buzz it can't be as good as everyone says.  In some cases it can be that good, Dark Knight had a lot riding with it, and it delivered.  The story kept me hooked, the action kept me on the edge of the seat, the acting was awesome, it was 5/5 for me, Avatar hit like 3.5 out of the 5 for me. 

In the end, the enjoyed the movie, I plan to buy it on Blu-Ray because the movie looked fantastic and will only look better in high def.  While it didn't blow my mind all of the theater, I respect what Cameron did with the technology and can't wait to see what he has in store for everyone next.   Maybe the sequal will better impress me.  With that, my somewhat uninformative review (only because I wanted to leave out spoilers) comes to an end.

We finish up this three part review with The Hangover, but now I'm hungry and its lunch time so I take my leave of this digital journal.

Thanks for reading,
-Nerdsbeware

All aboard the hype train! Choo Choo... Part I

There are many types of hype that gets put out there in the world these days.  There's good hype, bad hype, hype about hype and general fervent craziness over something.  Over the past two or three weekends I got a chance to see a few movies that all bought a ticket to ride they hype train.

Normally I reserve this space for gaming stories, but as you all know sometimes I like to change course and talk about other stuff, mainly movies as they are my 2nd great passion.  This review will be split into a few pieces so that I can formally review each of the movies, without stunting them in some form.  The three movies in question are Sherlock Holmes, Avatar and The Hangover (a little late but whatever).  First stop on our journey, Sherlock Holmes!  PS these will be spoiler free so don't worry, read on!

I talked a bit about Holmes a few posts ago and talked about how excited I was for this movie.  In relation to the title of this post, the hype and talk behind this movie wasn't HUGE, but it was there.  I mean first you have Robert Downey Jr. who is riding high right now with Iron Man and Tropic Thunder boosting him back into huge fame and now with Iron Man 2 coming out in May, plus a few other good movies up his sleeve, hes rising fast to the top once again.  You have a huge leading man, a great supporting cast of Jude Law and Rachel McAdams, as well as Guy Riche (famous for the awesome London gangster trilogy that is Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, Snatch and RocknRolla).  To me at least that's already a winning combo.  With the setting of the story in the dark, seedy areas of London, we get a MUCH different look at the world of Sherlock Holmes.

Again in keeping with the whole spoiler free deal, I won't go into to much detail about plot, but this one seemed to have a nice old school Holmes feel to it.  Now I say that in somewhat ignorance because as I write this I haven't actually seen any Holmes movies.  Fail on my part.  Either way the first complaint I heard about this movie was that it wasn't like the older Holmes movies.  The trailers show you that Holmes is a man of action, relying less on intellect and more on beating the ever living crap out of people.  First assumptions of this couldn't be further from the truth.  Watching Holmes break down something like a fight or figuring out where he is or who something was, were some of the biggest highlights of the movie for me.  Yes, Downey plays Holmes as a cocky, brash, some what crazy shoot first and ask questions later character, but at the same time, can switch on a dime and be as smart as the character that many people have grown to love.

Jude Law was awesome as Dr. Watson.  While he was the more straight laced, think first, he played the perfect foil for Holmes.  The dynamic between the two characters worked perfectly.  The banter and teamwork came so natural to the two actors that you could swear they have been working together for years and knew each others beats and rhythms.  I guess that comes from having two top class actors playing leading roles in your movie.  The plot itself was really cool, a good mix of mystery, supernatural occurrences and a villain trying to take over the world.  Mark Strong played Lord Blackwood, a man with what many believed to be powers rooted in the occult trying to take over London and bring a new reign to power.  Again I am keeping this as spoiler free as I can so I can't really go into much more detail other than I really enjoyed the story.  The pacing kept me hooked, the beats worked perfectly with the story going from a strong action sequence to great bits of mystery solving and deduction to move to plot, right back into action.  The movie had a fair bit of comedy too, mainly coming from Holmes interactions with Watson, but the biggest laughs and stupid wide grin that came from me were the simple scenes of Holmes just figuring things out.  Again I wish I could say more, but without giving anything away (mainly because I want everyone to go see the movie for themselves) that is all I have for now.

I HIGHLY recommend seeing this movie, while you don't have to rush out to theaters to see it (even though I would) I strongly urge watching it when the DVD/BD drops in the coming months.  Tomorrow we pick up steam on the hype train as we roll into our next station: Avatar!

Thanks for reading, welcome to 2010!
   - Nerdsbeware out