Author Archive

[Game Review] Battlefield: Bad Company (XBox 360)

By
Brandon Majors
Published: March 3, 2010Posted in: Games

System: XBox 360 (Also on PS3)
Developer: DICE Studios
Pulbisher: Electronic Arts
Genre: FPS

In a time dominated by Call of Duty, Battlefield: Bad Company brings something to the First Person Shooter table. With the launch of its sequel only hours away, I figured I would give you folks a taste of what was, and of what can be expected. Bad Company delivers in many areas that other FPS games don’t, namely, environment. When you get in the game, I urge you, take a look around at a building or tree and SHOOT at it.

Trees come down, windows break, grenades will BLOW UP WALLS! Artillery and tank rounds will leave smoldering craters where people once were and buildings will crumble. The game brings a fantastic sense of realism on the virtual battlefield by allowing both the player and AI to change the playing field at almost any time. This leads up to one of my major gripes about Bad Company, namely in the single player area, and that is AI.

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[Game Review] Bioshock 2 (Xbox 360)

By
Brandon Majors
Published: February 23, 2010Posted in: Games

System: Xbox 360 (Also on: PS3, PC)
Developer: 2K Marin
Publisher: 2K Games
Genre: First-Person Shooter

Bioshock was a wicked game. It had a great story, great visuals, and was an interesting shooter. It earned the awards given to it and became a platinum hit.

Bioshock 2 released last week for 360, PS3 and PC atop a lot of hype from the underground. It would have mulitplayer, a new story, Playing as the Big Daddy sounded hella tight and I was excited to try my sea legs out inside a massive 50’s era diving suit, and all the bells and whistles that would make it a smash sequel were present. Sadly, while it is a good game, 2K Marin fails to deliver the punch that 2K Boston, the team behind the original, did.

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Mass Effect 2

By
Brandon Majors
Published: February 3, 2010Posted in: Games

System: Xbox 360, PC
Developer: BioWare
Publisher: Electronic Arts
Genre: RPG

One month after stopping a race of large sentient machines from wiping out all life in the known universe Commander Shepard is used as a figurehead for humanity and subsequently put on bitch missions to kick the last of the Geth in their robotic nads. This is where Mass Effect 2 begins, and where one hell of a ride starts.

Mass Effect 2, from the start, is a major upgrade from the trilogy’s start. The game has a fresh feel, while still keeping very close in the realm of Mass Effect. Many, many changes have been made to the sequel, both good and bad in my opinion. The story has the same idea as ME1, but with several changes. The opening of the game has you scrambling to save Joker (Seth Green), everyone’s favorite crippled, wise talking pilot, as a menacing ship appears out of hyperspace and begins an assault. The end of the opening cinematic has Shepard floating through space, suit badly damaged, and oxygen failing. The crew escapes as Shepard is seen on a crash course with a nearby planet, thus Mass Effect 2 begins.

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[Game Review] Mass Effect (Xbox 360, PC)

By
Brandon Majors
Published: January 27, 2010Posted in: Games

System: Xbox 360 (Also on: PC)
Developer: BioWare
Publisher: Microsoft
Genre: RPG

In light of Bioware’s new title, Mass Effect 2, and the embarking of this noble gamer on a nonstop binge of the aforementioned game in the sake of this website, I’d like to take a step back and go over the first in this new space trilogy.

Mass Effect, spawned by Knights of the Old Republic creators Bioware, is the first in a planned trilogy of space video games. You take the role of one Commander Shepard, by either using the preset John, or devising your own spin on Shepard. You pick from a sort of amped up RPG class list — soldiers, archers, thieves, mages — but with a serious futuristic twist.

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[Music Review] “Fortress” by Protest The Hero (2008)

By
Brandon Majors
Published: January 26, 2010Posted in: Music

Many of you may have read my review of Canadian underground mathcore giants Protest the Hero, and their second studio album Kezia. Well I’m here today to spread the word of Fortress, the third and newest album by the band.

Released in 2008 Fortress is a smashing success the band. It marks a big step foreword from Kezia, but doesn’t stray away from their mathcore/hardcore niche. Upon first listening to this album I was torn. Kezia was a big deal for me, and Fortress at first sounds like a different band. I returned to the album some time later and gave it a full play through. Two words, instant classic.

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[Music Review] Protest the Hero “Kezia”

By
Brandon Majors
Published: January 23, 2010Posted in: Music

Every so often I stumble upon an album that I put in, listen to, and can never seem to put down. Protest the Hero’s second album Kezia is just such an album.

For those not in the know Protest the Hero is a mathcore band from Canada and maybe one of the best things to come from America’s hat. The group has been together since around 1999 and has a lineup of only three albums. Kezia, released in 2006, is an absolute masterpiece as far as the mathcore/hardcore scene should be concerned. Spanning  ten tracks, it is one of the few concept albums that I can really say is fantastic.

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Get Yourself a Chicken Samwich and Some WiFi… FOR FREE

By
Brandon Majors
Published: January 17, 2010Posted in: Food & Drink, Tech

And maybe a Dr. Pepper to drink.

To clarify, only the WiFi is free. You’ll still have to pay for your chicken samwich. Anyway, people across the U.S can now officially take their large number (insert favored combo meal number here) with a large side of Wi-fi when they visit the nearest McDonald’s! Some of us may or may not have been familiar with the fast food titan’s surly charge of around three dollars for a two hour pass to the store’s wireless internet connection. Well my brothers and sisters I am here today to tell you that it is no longer so!

We have come one step closer to reaching the promise land in free internet.  Just under 12,000 wireless capable restaurants, means I’ll be spending less time at those dim lit hipster nests that we know as coffee shops and more time at the grease stained, heart destroying golden arches! Though the stores that never had wi-fi to begin with will not be gaining acces, the multitude of branches with the newly liberated Wi-Fi is still more than enough.

Source

[Game Review] Army of Two: The 40th Day

By
Brandon Majors
Published: January 15, 2010Posted in: Games

System: Xbox 360, PS3 (Also on: PSP)
Developer: EA Montreal
Publisher: Electronic Arts
Genre: Third-person Shooter

Some of you may be familiar with a game that dropped a few years back called Army of Two. It was a third person shooter much akin to Gears of war, but it featured two bad ass ex army rangers turned mercenaries. The game boasted the use of co-op (both AI and a second person) to complete the game’s many missions set across the globe and the past two decades.

You play as Salem or Rios. Salem is a wise cracking little guy with a temper to boot and a trigger finger to match. Rios is a lumbering behemoth who, though bearing the face of one caught making out with a wood chipper, is more subtle and easy going. (Easy going for a Bad ass Ex Army Ranger turned merc that is.)

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[Movie Review] Sherlock Holmes (2009)

By
Brandon Majors
Published: January 8, 2010Posted in: Movies & TV

I’m here today to inform you about the new take on a classic hero, Sherlock Holmes.

Now I have never seen the original movies, nor have I read any of his books. The extent of my Holmes knowledge comes from the wonderful world of pop culture, combined with old cartoons and the like (such as the Sherlock Holmes in the future cartoon that was on T.V. a long time ago).  I went in to this knowing the basics i.e. super smart, pipe, Elementary Watson, etc, etc, nothing more nothing less. On to the movie.

We are introduced to Holmes (Robert Downey Jr.) as he details his plans to incapacitate a lowly lackey. The detailing done in this scene set the stage for future encounters that Holmes has. After a few brutal ass whoopings inside an old tomb we meet Watson (Jude Law) who seems throughout the movie’s course that he could be his own movie star.

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[Music Review] Gogol Bordello Live From Axis Mundi

By
Brandon Majors
Published: December 18, 2009Posted in: Music

gogolbordelloFor those of you outside the know, Gogol Bordello is a gypsy punk band. A group of crazed, fun loving Eastern European nomadic people who play an impressive mix of punk, ska, and traditional gypsy music. It sounds a bit iffy on paper, I know, but I thought that too when I first listened to the band. Rest assured those of you who like punk rock, ska, or just crazy mix ups of music and sounds, this band is for you. But alas, I am here for the CD not the band.

Axis Mundi is an album three years in the making. A compilation of live sessions and bonus tracks recorded on a 2007 tour and from various other places since. The whole package is made up of a CD and DVD in a rather bright folding case. for 17 bucks it seemed like a good deal, and in my opinion it was money well spent.

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