Tuesday, January 29, 2008

Cloverfield Review

I thought Cloverfield was an amazingly realistic movie. It just felt real. Alot of the actor's emotional responses felt realistic. I thought "Wow if a building collapsed and there was a huge wave of dust and debris coming my way down the street, I'd do that too." Other people were disappointed though, which I can sort of understand (i.e. completely dumbfounded). I think they approached like watching any other movie. I went in wanting to see a documentary almost. And I was extremely satisfied. 10/10

My Next Movie: Rambo 4 tonite possibly?

Sunday, January 27, 2008

The Hard thing about blogs

The hardest thing about blogs is that right after a post (or during) I'm alway thinking up new things to post! Well I don't want to exhaust all my ideas just yet so I'm going to be putting ideas into a txt file then after a couple days posting them. Why I'm posting this? I haven't a clue.

Saturday, January 26, 2008

Looking Back at 2007/Stinger503's Game Awards

Well I'm thinking up the awards as I type this, so here is the 2007 Stinger503 Game Awards.
*Remember any nominations and winners can include demos and only includes games/demos I've played (so Assassin's Creed isn't qualified), here we go...

Bad Awards

Worst Game
Winner- Hour Of Victory(demo)
Explanation: Honestly playing the demo was all I needed, now that I have Gamespot and 25,000 other people who agreed with me, I can feel comfortable knowing that I'm smart for not buying this game just so I can give it this award.

Worst Demo
Winner- (Tie) Burnout: Paradise and Hour of Victory (edit: also Fusion Frenzy 2)
Explanation: Really want to know why? Well, I'm not buying Burnout because of it's demo, that's why. When I'm giving the choice of continuing to play or not and I choose HELL NO! Then you've made a terrible demo good sir.

Worst Download
Winner- Call Of Duty 4 beta
Explanation: It killed my Xbox. Don't give me that "It's the hardware, not the game" BS! My Xbox 360 survived over two years and survived it all! Oblivion, Halo 3 beta, everything! And I download this darn beta for over a day and a half! Killing my xbox two WEEKS from Halo 3 missing the launch! That's inexcusable!

Worst Backwards Compatible Game
Winner- Return To Castle Wolfenstein
Explanation: THEY KILLED THIS GAME! I excitedly put it in my Xbox 360 and started playing and couldn't get past the 1 level without the framerate dying and getting me killed! Worst bc game since 007 Nightfire and it's impossible to play flying level!

Tech. Awards

Best Soundtrack
Winner- Halo 3

Best Graphics
Winner- Bioshock

Best Download
Winner- (tie) Halo 3 beta, everything for Oblivion

Best Backwards Compatible Game
Winner- NASCAR Thunder 2003

Best Demo
Winner- (tie) Halo 3 beta, Medal Of Honour: Airborne, Boom Boom Rocket

Best Game... to play with your girlfriend?
Winner- The Orange Box
Explanation: Before I went back to college after winter break. My girlfriend loved watching me play Half-Life 2 to no end! It was strange, she even was disappointed when I said I beat the end of it without her. I even got her to play Portal. (P.S. I'm saving HL2 Ep.2 for when I see her next ;) )

Most Satisfying Game:
Winner- (Tie) Halo 3, Call of Duty 4, The Orange Box

Major Awards

Best 360 Gear
Nominees:

  • Text Messenger
  • Racing Wheel
  • Messenger Bag
  • Halo 3 Points Card
  • Halo 3 Xbox 360
  • Black Xbox 360 & Gear
Winner- (Tie) Text Messenger & Messenger Bag
Explanation: Typing in my Bio after the update became a whole lot easier and I finally have something that I can literally fit all of my 360 gear into!

Best Character
Nominees:

  • Portal- Ai
  • Halo 3- Master Chief/Arbiter
  • Mass Effect- Shepard & Crew
  • Bioshock-The Doctor
Winner- (Tie) Halo 3 and Mass Effect
Explanation: Definantly a tie here, I mean the M.C. and Arbiter are so badass and then you have Garrus, Shepard, etc. So it's a toss up

Best Multiplayer Game:
Call of Duty 4
Halo 3
Winner- Halo 3
Explanation: There aren't any nominees here, it was basically a showdown between these two bahemoths and it went to the 12th round. Halo 3 is superb and COD4 is too. However the only thing that brings COD4 down is it's lack of guests! The thing that's great about the Halo series is that you and some friends can play Halo 3 for hours against other people as a team. This isn't possible with COD4. So basically after COD4's multiplayer challenges, what else is there? Not really any ranking system. Halo 3 has it's achievements and ranking system and guest ability, meaning I will be playing Halo 3 far longer than COD4.

Best Voice-Overs
Nominees:

  • Halo 3
  • The Orange Box
  • Mass Effect
  • Call Of Duty
Winner: Mass Effect
Explanation: Orange Box is a close 2nd here because of Portal and it's turrets and the AI, because the AI had to basically make the story. But Mass Effect was just so well done.

Best Arcade Game
Nominees:

  • Pac Man: Championship Edition
  • Boom Boom Rocket
  • Aegis Wing
  • Switchball
Winner- Boom Boom Rocket
Explanation: As much as I'd love to give this to Pac Man or Switchball, really Boom Boom Rocket is magnificent and it's visualizer feature alone is worth 800 Microsoft Pts.

Best Atmosphere
Nominees:

  • Bioshock
  • Call Of Duty 4
  • Halo 3
  • The Orange Box
Winner- Bioshock
Explanation: Orange Box just missed out with Portal and Half-Life 2 but Bioshock really deserves kudos for this. Call of Duty 4 and Halo 3 already had their "worlds" set-up so they aren't really spectacular with their atmosphere's, but Bioshock had to create a world in the 1950s...underwater...with crazy people. And that's why they get the award.

Best Story
Nominees:

  • The Orange Box
  • Call Of Duty 4
  • Bioshock
  • Mass Effect
Winner- Call of Duty 4
Explanation: The Orange Box really just missed out on this with it's Half-Life 2(which I am now a fan of!) and Portal 1, 2 punch. But with COD4's 2 levels of just story telling (you don't actually do anything you just experience it) is amazing! This is what I love in games, they could have just taken the easy way out like Halo does at times but they made it into an experience which I love. Mass Effect and Bioshock fall short because they are just too short, which suprises me about Mass Effect because it's an RPG.

Best Game
Nominees:

  • Call Of Duty 4
  • Halo 3
  • Bioshock
  • The Orange Box
Winner- Halo 3
Explanation: Halo 3 simply raised the bar to where the others couldn't reach, Forge, unstoppable multiplayer, great single player (not to mention 4 player online/2 offline), great music, video replays, etc. Those of you who don't like it... KISS MY @$$

Prediction for next year-
Best Game- Grand Theft Auto IV

Sunday, January 20, 2008

Looking Ahead to 2008

After Christmas it dawned on me, what's coming out in 2008? Off the top of your head you can name, maybe two, plus GTAIV. Well trust me, I've looked into it and there is bright pastures ahead my friend excluding January here's 2008's festivities:
Brother's In Arms: Hell's Highway (Did you watch the E3 video of this game? No. Do it!)
Grand Theft Auto IV (Like I said everyone knows this game)
Halo Wars (Looks Sweet)
Tiberium (I'm a sucker for C&C games)
Splinter Cell: ConViction (Always been a fan of Splinter Cell)
Rainbow 6 Vegas 2 (Vegas was sweet)
Battlefield: Bad Company (Blowing up buildings? HELL YES!)
Alan Wake (Haven't seen much of this game but of what I have it looks awesome)
Banjo-Kazooie 3 (Hey S.M.G. got all those damn awards & Rare's looking to make a comeback)
The Bourne Conspiracy (Read an article in OXM, sounds good)
Civilization Revolution (There is going to have to be a delicate balance between control, video, and strategy for this game to work)
Command & Conquer 3: Kane's Wrath (Like I said sucker for C&C)
Condemned 2: Bloodshot (Condemned was pretty cool, this looks nuts!)
Dead Space (Zombies in space? Heck yes!)
Dead Island (Being a guy on an island full with zombies while looking for your wife! Why haven't I heard more about this game?!)
Deus Ex 3 (I hear only good things about the Deus Ex series)
Fable 2 (I've told my gf "this game is the only way I'm getting a dog!)
Fallout 3 (Elder Scrolls in a nuclear wasteland!? SIGN ME UP!)
Ghostbusters: The Video Game (Ghostbusters: The VIDEO GAME! NEED I SAY MORE?)
Left 4 Dead (More zombies and with 4 player co-op! There is a god.)
Lego Batman (Can this do for Batman games what it did for Star Wars games?)
Lost: The Video Game (I love the show and this could play out pretty cool)
Mafia II (1st one looked sweet)
Ninja Gaiden II (Heads are goin' a flyin')
Rainy Woods (Why have I not heard of this game either? Free Roaming! Town! Murder Mystery!)
Saboteur (Maybe this years Bioshock (artistically at least!) Black and white gameplay sounds kickass)
The rest should need no explanation:
Saints Row 2
Soulcalibur IV
Silent Hill V
Star Wars: The Force Unleashed
Star Wars Battlefront III
Tom Clancy's EndWar
Turning Point: Fall of Liberty (HOLY CRAP! FEB25 GET HERE NOW!)
Unreal Tournament 3

My pick for Suprise Hit of 2008!
Theseis
What is that? Your saying, well go look at it's wikipedia article and tell me that doesn't sound like it shoud be a movie!

Occupation: Laziness (harder than it looks)

Well I just setup my blog and profile. Under occupation I put laziness, hilariously I'm not the only one! As a matter of fact 31 other people have. Also on this blog I'm going to be posting game reviews and my Games of 2007 Awards, prestigous indeed. I also found out you can use adsense for these blogs and get money! Wo0t! Hey I guess I can do this for a living ;)

Slow Beginnings

Hello, well by some sort of miricle you typed in the wrong address and ended up here and probably are retyping the address as you don't read this. I'm Stinger503 and I'm a gamer. I'm going to use this blog to publish my opinions on stuff, (since this internet connection is so f***ing slow, it's impossible to continually update a videoblog on Youtube) but is public enough to not be in my LiveJournal. So have fun.