[Review] Dead or Alive: Dimensions (3DS)

The first game I reviewed for the 3DS was Super Street Fighter IV: 3D Edition. In that review, I talked about how I wasn’t a huge fan of fighting games. I spoke of how I really only truly enjoyed fighting games if they were Super Smash Bros, how I’d never played Street Fighter II (and had no idea a third installment even existed), and how I enjoyed playing Dead or Alive for a very brief time. By the end of that review, however, I talked about how SSFIV ignited a new-found (maybe just recovered) appreciation for the fighting genre, and I became very excited for the quickly-approaching Dead of Alive: Dimensions.

Part of the reason I was excited for DoA was nostalgia. I played the hell out of Dead or Alive 2 on the Sega Dreamcast as a kid, and the thought of playing another game in the franchise after so long really brought back some fond memories. The other, larger part of the reason for my excitement is the fact that the 3DS still has almost no games worth playing more than a few times, and dammit I’m starving for some new software.

Luckily for me, Dead or Alive Dimensions hits the spot pretty well.

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[Game Review] Pilotwings Resort (3DS)

I’ve never played a Pilotwings game prior to Resort, but I’ve heard mostly good things. People seem to traditionally find that this series has always been used for showing off how technically advanced the system it is released on is, and the past games have helped set the bar for what subsequent releases on the system should be able to achieve in terms of visual prowess. One look at Pilotwings Resort and it would be easy to see that the game does in fact do a great job of showing off the technical potential of Nintendo’s new handheld, but it doesn’t do it very well.

For as technically impressive as the Island of Wuhu (first seen in Wii Sports Resort) looks with full 3D popping on your shiny new 3DS, the entire game is just completely bland and totally boring. Does that mean it’s bad? No, not at all. It’s just really hard to get $40 worth of fun out of it.

Still, there are plenty of things Pilotwings Resort does right. Can the good outweigh the bad in this 3DS launch game?

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[Game Review] Super Street Fighter IV: 3D Edition (3DS)

I’m not a huge fighting game fan. In fact, with the exception of a childhood infatuation with Primal Rage and then a brief bout with addiction to Dead or Alive and Tekken 4, I’ve never even played many fighting games that weren’t Super Smash Bros. That is why I am perhaps completely underqualified to review a game such as Super Street Fighter IV: 3D Edition. I mean heck, I’ve never even played Street Fighter II, and I had no idea there was even a Street Fighter 3.

What I can tell you is that I have bought or rented nearly every game that has released for the 3DS since its release day, and while I can’t tell you how this game stacks up against Marvel VS Capcom 3 or the new Mortal Kombat (or its console counterpart, for that matter), I can tell you how well this game holds up when sat next to any other launch window game for Nintendo’s innovative new system.

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[Unfathomably Popular Hellacious Season Review] Spring

When you live in a cold weather region, there’s no denying that enduring winter can be an appallingly horrendous ordeal. It’s miserably cold and excess amounts of wind, snow and ice can make travel and most other general life functions an unfairly difficult affair. Aside from temperatures that make for favorable sleeping conditions, there’s really nothing about it that’s pleasant.

So when one is forced to take on such gruelling conditions for several months at a time, it’s not hard to understand why there tends to be an aura of excitement when people anticipate being injected with “new life” by the upcoming spring season, which promises to offer relief from the arctic awfulness.

While this degree of anticipatory optimism is understandable, blindly ignoring the obvious fact that spring is nothing but a never ending nightmare of thunderstorms, hail, floods and 3 a.m. tornado siren wakeup calls, with an occasional nice, pleasant sunny day peppered in once or twice a month, is not. Call me a cynic if you must, but when I’m spending a third consecutive day uncomfortably crammed crotch-to-ass with people I barely know in a dingy apartment complex storm cellar, rarely does the thought “hey, at least it’s not snowing” enter my head. Continue reading

[Tech Review] Nintendo 3DS

After months and months and months of painful waiting, the biggest day of the month of March of the year of 2011 finally arrived. I sat with baited breath, eating up every bit of information regarding Nintendo’s 3DS handheld gaming console I could get my chubby little sausage fingers wrapped around. I read tons of articles, watched hours of video, and stared at countless photographs, dreaming of the day I would finally get my hands on the one thing I wanted more than just about anything else, and I finally have it.

You’ll have to excuse this review for being so late, as I secured my 3DS on its North American launch date but am just now rolling around to doing a write up on it. However, that’s not because I haven’t been using it enough to write a proper review. In fact, it is the exact opposite.

Since purchasing the system, I’ve not let it travel more than 20 feet away from my body. If it hasn’t been in my hands, it has been in my pocket. If not there, then in my bicycle trunk. If not there, then sitting safely on its charging dock. I’ve seriously invested more hours into the 3DS than I have school, work, eating or blinking for the past few weeks.

The funny thing? I’m struggling to write this review because I desperately want to play with it some more.

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[Movie Review] Rubber

Overview:

Since it’s out of competition debut at the 2010 Cannes Festival, Quinten Dupieux’s RUBBER has been piquing interests across the horror community.

Labeled as “The Killer Tire” movie, Dupieux attempts to outsmart his audience with the tale of Robert, a tire left in the California desert that suddenly finds itself afflicted with a bad case of Life. Confused about its new environment, Robert sets out to discover the world around, using its powers of psychokinesis to blow anything up that crosses its path. It starts small with tin cans and glass bottles, moving upwards to bunnies, scorpions and then human prey. Continue reading

[Drink Review] Sierra Mist Natural

August 2010 saw the latest change to an existing product by PepsiCo. Sierra Mist became Sierra Mist Natural.
Along with a name change, the product got a new recipe, new logo and bottle color.

Let’s see what’s different now.

The sweetener change is the most significant. Mist has dropped high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) and switched to natural sugar.

The amount of ingredients in Mist Natural has been lessened to only five. Carbonated water, sugar, citric acid, natural flavor and potassium citrate. Not seen in the receipe are potassium benzoate, ascorbic acid, and calcium disodium EDTA. The missing ingredients are all forms of preservatives. Mist left citric acid in both products, which is a natural preservative and helps create a sour taste.

With the new name, the logo has changed. This is where I have a small irk. Sierra Mist has traded logos three times in the last two years! This could make it hard for the brand to find it’s own signature look. From the classic mountain logo, to the weird foresty/fog logo, to the lemon/lime with text and finally to the plain, clean Sierra Mist logo it now holds. I like this logo and I hope they have made up their mind on this one.

The bottle has changed from a deep green, like their sister brand Mountain Dew, to a lightly colored and more transparent green. I like this change as well. It almost seems like it looks more healthy and bright in this new bottle. They do say people associate clear or lightly colored drinks to being better for you.

Now that we’ve covered cosmetic and formula-related differences, let’s talk about taste!

After trying an ice cold Sierra Mist Natural for the first time, I really enjoyed it. The change in sweetener makes the biggest impact. I notice that the taste and consistency are more crisp and isn’t syrupy. With the drink being less syrupy, the flavor seems to pop when it hits your taste buds. The natural lemon and lime flavors come alive and are more pronounced than before. The carbonation was fine and the soda was easy to drink.

All in all, I think this change was the best they’ve made yet. People want sodas that are better for them. With HFCS being a heavy target of obesity arguments, natural sugar is appealing. I think that Sierra Mist has found their new and best identity in its Natural form.

[Note] Since finishing up this review of Sierra Mist, I’ll be darned if Mist didn’t have ANOTHER cosmetic makeover! They recently added a light neon green to the label instead of being plain and clear. Not a biggie!

[Movie Review] The Adjustment Bureau (2011)

The works of Philip K. Dick have been adapted to the silver screen for over two decades, ranging from Blade Runner to A Scanner Darkly, Dick’s work has often succeeded in creating a completely new world based on reality. Does The Adjustment Bureau, the most recent of Dick’s works to be adapted, merit to shift to the big screen?

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[Movie Review] The King’s Speech (2010)

Last Sunday, The King’s Speech was honored at the 83rd Annual Academy Awards as Best Picture, and also earned nods for Best Actor and Best Director. Does the film, starring Colin Firth as King George VI, live up to the hype?

Yes, and no.

Firth’s performance as the troubled monarch was phenomenal and very much deserving of his Best Actor award. Firth’s humanity is evident in nearly every frame, as the soon-to-be King battles a stammering issue that has plauged him since childhood with the help of a new Speech Coach, Lionel Logue (played by Geoffrey Rush).

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[B-Movie Review] Birdemic: Shock and Terror

Overview:

While many were spending Oscar night watching the mind-numbing ceremony rewarding Hollywood’s best, I was alone in my bedroom watching perhaps the single most stunningly inept piece of B-movie trash ever created.

The movie was Birdemic: Shock and Terror a movie that ceremonies like the Academy Awards were likely created to bring an end to. Luckily, for dorks like me, they have not yet succeeded.

Synopsis:

Software guru Rod (Alan Bagh) and fashion model Nathalie (Whitney Moore) have fallen in love and are about to settle down after Rod makes a mult-million dollar business transaction. Their plans to spend eternity together hit a snag, when deadly brids unleash a wave of shock and terror. Continue reading