Spectacular.

I know the last thing that all of my readers want is another long boring post about Spider-Man. Well, sorry folks, you’re gonna have to get used to it.
Now, I usually like to admit when I’m wrong about something, especially when I WANT to be wrong about it. So I will admit that I’ve always [...]

Classic Spider-Man pose. Classic Spider-Man pose.

In Anticipation – Halo: Reach

Ohhhh boy. Less than 1 more full day until the Halo: Reach beta begins for all the proud (and not so proud) owners of Halo: ODST. I just watched an preview on gamespot.com where they had 4 guys playing the beta early and it looked like a lot of fun.

I’ve been a Halo fan since [...]

Dear Ubisoft, You are not my friend anymore.

Actually. Apparently we were never really friends anyway, cause I looked to see if I’ve played any of your games anndddd yeah, I wanna say I found less than 4 on the list.
I’m not trying to be mean, I have a reason to not be friends with Ubisoft anymore, and it’s not because I don’t [...]

Review: Trigun

I just finished watching the final episode of Trigun and felt compelled to write a review for it this very instance. I’m very new to the review writing scene, and I’m not exactly a writer myself, but I’m eager to try and get better. This is probably my first anime review so hopefully I do [...]

For him, it's not always luck. For him, it's not always luck.

A-Kon Costume Announcement (sort of)

Hey everyone, just a small update (Hey I’m getting good at writing something every day).
With my recent post about Dragonball Z, I’ve officially decided that for this year’s A-Kon, I will be going dressed up as a Dragonball Z character. Most likely it will be Goku, but part of me wants to have a costume [...]

Spectacular.

Posted by AwkwardSilence on June 12th, 2010
Classic Spider-Man pose.

I know the last thing that all of my readers want is another long boring post about Spider-Man. Well, sorry folks, you’re gonna have to get used to it.

Classic Spider-Man pose.

Now, I usually like to admit when I’m wrong about something, especially when I WANT to be wrong about it. So I will admit that I’ve always been skeptical about this newer series depicting my favorite web slinger. I looked at the cartoony character animation style and thought, “gross, couldn’t they have tried a little harder? It looks weird. It’s too simple. This show probably isn’t good. I don’t know if I could get past the character drawings”.

I recently finished watching the newest Spider-Man cartoon series, titled Spectacular Spider-Man, and let me tell ya, it was excellent. I quickly got past the art style. Although I can’t say I particularly liked it, but I got passed it. Really it was mostly the villains I had trouble with (like Green Goblin’s giant chin), but even that turned out to be not a big deal.

I still am having trouble getting over how good of a show Spectacular Spider-Man was overall, and I’m going to give you some insight on why. Fans, you might know what I’m talking about, others…maybe? To start out, it was refreshing to see Peter Parker as still quite young. He’s in high school, and he’s got a lot to deal with in his life. Sometimes being Spider-Man is the least of his worries. He has to juggle around school, friends, girls, a job (taking pictures of himself as Spidey is still a job), and taking care of his dear Aunt May, all while fighting crime bosses, masterminds, and waves of super villains. As hectic as all of these things are, the show is put together very well and balances all aspects of Peter Parker’s life into each episode. This very thing is what made Spider-Man so popular in the first place. He was relatable while still being a kick-ass super hero. Props to the creators for portraying this perfectly.

The storyline behind Spectacular Spider-Man wasn’t dead on with the traditional story that some of us grew up knowing and hold as true, but that is okay. A few changes helped enhance the overall feel of the characters and plot. Also, all of the characters are there, which is nice. In fact, you even see faces of most of the bad guys, which I don’t think any previous Spider-Man shows have done. The biggest difference I can think of is Eddy Brock and Peter being good friends since childhood, which we all know changes later on. Surprisingly for a cartoon show, S. S-M has a very continuous plotline throughout, and there is a pretty big story happening in the background as crime lords are battling for supremacy of the streets of New York, and things begin to get more complicated towards the end of Season 2. I was very happy with the depth in story that was taken, and while this isn’t quite as complicated as…say.. LOST, for a super hero cartoon, it was perfect.

The characters of the show were what brought everything together. Every character, classic or not, was done with a special touch. Everyone had their own personality and problems, and when you look at them you believe they exist and you say to yourself, “man, that’s totally how _______ would act”. And you can always expect Spidey’s normal onslaught of corny jokes to come full swing, but luckily even those are easy to bare. Another thing that I found to be a good formula, was that the writers gave the other high school kids and minor characters an equal amount of importance as the villains, if not even more. The drama that ensues during the show is even somewhat believable. Love triangles(or squares?), popularity problems, cliques. You name it. However. By far the greatest depiction of a classic character in the history of… I don’t even know, ever?, was in this show. If you don’t watch the show for the action, or high school drama, or crazy scheming villains, then watch it for the greatness that is J. Jonah Jameson. I can’t even count how many times I would burst out laughing at this man. Probably every time he was present somewhere. The creators portrayed J.J. almost, if not better, than J.K. Simmons in the recent films. He was absolutely hilarious, and beyond spot of for that character (but this seemed to be true for all of the characters, honestly).

Cast of some Characters.

As a quick note, I’d like to say that the voice acting was all-round spot on. On all parts, this was some of the best voice acting in an american show I’ve ever experienced.

Finally, the action. Which is just that. Action. And it’s solid action. Everything moved fluidly and smoothly, both Spidey and all the villains. Spider-Man had all of his normal moves and common poses while flying through the air and swinging around the city. They definitely took from the comics, and it payed off. The villains and all their gadgets and powers and whatever they had were well done and helped increased the action sequences to perfection.

Again, all of these things are melded together extremely well to create a fantastic show.

Warning. Spoilers ahead.

Now, having said all of that, there’s one single problem with the Spectacular Spider-Man animated series. It’s been canceled. Yup, you heard me. Canned. All because of the transfer of rights from Sony to Marvel, then Marvel being bought by the Walt Disney Company, someone somewhere decided that Spectacular was to be canceled to make way for an Ultimate Spider-Man series coming in 2011. This is a huge shame. Spectacular S-M received amazing reviews from tons of sources, and was one of the best American cartoon shows I’ve seen or heard of on TV in a long time. It’s a shame that you can find such terrible trash of cartoon shows on TV, yet something as well put together as Spectacular S-M gets tossed, and before it truly gets GREAT in the story.

Black Cat was barely introduced but definitely had a larger role coming on, Peter just got together with Gwen Stacy (sort of) after 2 seasons of them having difficulties, Harry didn’t become Hobgoblin or the New Goblin or whatever he would have been since his Dad got taken down, Eddy just went to prison where he would have met Cledus Kasady (also known as Carnage, the most ruthless villain ever known). There was just still so much to happen! I can’t believe I’ll never get to see it! And who knows how good Ultimate Spider-Man will be…It just kills me. I might have to go back and read every Spider-Man comic I can find just to fill this void in my soul.

Now, all you who read that despite spoilers who haven’t seen the show. You should still watch it. It’s only 26 short episodes, and it’s a lot of fun.

Villains of Spectacular Spider-Man

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REDIRECT!

Posted by AwkwardSilence on May 31st, 2010

Because i put quite some time into my response, I figured I would at least advertise it on my site too. I just left a rather long response to THIS POST THAT DEV WROTE ON HER SITE. So feel free to head on over there, read her post, and read my response. It’s about multiplayer gaming. It’s good. Go.

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A look back at the Halo: Reach Beta

Posted by AwkwardSilence on May 29th, 2010

Well it came and went. The Halo Reach beta has been done for about a week now, and I’ve finally decided to talk about it. Some people will understand what I’m saying, others won’t have a clue. I’m not going to dig into all the features or anything yet, I’ll probably just talk about my reactions and gut feelings on the whole thing.

For about the first week of playing, Reach was basically a madhouse of stuff going on. People were getting use to the load outs and armor abilities, and believe me, I was one of them. I didn’t lose many matches, but I can’t claim that I helped WIN any matches either. I went most games with a negative K/D spread, and would end the playing sessions somewhat frustrated. I was a pretty good Halo 1/2/3 player. Not professional grade but good enough to win most of the time and still enjoy the game when I lost. Playing Reach was almost the equivalent of picking up the original XBox controller and playing Halo 1 (my first experience with a FPS using a dual thumbstick controller that barely fit in my hands). I stepped into Reach and it felt like I was starting all over. I couldn’t kill worth shit, I couldn’t survive anything, and I had no idea where I was on the map half the time.

The additions of having loadouts with armor abilities throws in a HUGE new variable into the classic FPS Multiplayer scene that was the Halo Universe. I still haven’t decided if it adds strategy to the mix, or just creates a new type of chaos that is jumbled into the typical playing style you use to find in Halo multiplayer (which was sort of chaotic in its own way already). Now, instead of seeing someone masterfully make a crouch-jump onto a ledge that gives an advantage or allowed them to escape, you will see a person flying from the other side of the map, chucking grenades and firing at you with a pistol (while getting shot at by another pistol somewhere else on the map). Or when you used to have just enough time to get that final shot with the Battle Rifle to snatch a kill (and feel satisfied doing so), now you get 1 or 2 shots off and your target has already sprinted into cover and around 3 corners (thus avoiding that last ditch effort grenade you’re about to throw). It’s just so different. Maybe it just adds so much extra strategy to a game that didn’t have tons to begin with and it’ll just take time to fully realize all of it? Only time will tell.

By the time the beta was ending I began to get the hang of it all. I started to do much better in all the game types, I would use my loadouts wisely for the most part, and I got used to the 3-4 maps they released. The new game types were interesting and somewhat fun. I feel as though the maps were not good fits with the game types they threw at us. Invasion was interesting with it’s single map but I still feel like they could have been better. That’s one thing about the transition from Halo 2 to Halo 3 that I remember, was that I loved the Halo 2 maps. I don’t always remember why, but I’m pretty sure it was true. Halo 3 maps were a little iffy a lot of the time, so I hope they pull through and give us some good maps to play on, and give us a good amount of maps from the start, none of this DLC after 1 week crap that you have to pay for. The Reach maps so far were pretty unimpressive in my eyes. Fun, and good choices to show off some of the armor abilities (jetpacks), but as far as maps go, I was pretty unsatisfied. Although adding names to all the areas of the map was pretty brilliant.

Overall I would say my experience was a fairly enjoyable one. I will add that having a buddy come over to have some beers and play some made it a lot more fun. Even though there was a point in that first week where I said, “you know, playing this beta is almost convincing me NOT to buy this game when it comes out”, I don’t think I’ll be able to stand by the statement. For one, it’s a Halo game and I’m a fan, and would want to at least play the campaign (which I’m hoping is excellent), secondly, I’m sure I’ll get used to it and it’ll turn into a blast playing online. Maybe it’ll even get some of my old friends who used to play with me back on.

Now, having said that. Here is my mock Dear Bungie letter that states my concerns:

Dear Bungie,

Here are some things to change for the Halo: Reach release.

Human grenades – too powerful

Jumping sucks now. Can we get some ups please?

Gun bloom – we didn’t need it in the first 4 games, why now? At least step in down a notch

Voting for the game type is nice, but its also annoying, maybe just stick to the Veto system

Why am I slow as molasses?! Just because we can sprint now doesn’t mean normal pace should be slower

The DMR is just trash. Give me my BR back.

The Assault Rifle shouldn’t take more than 1 clip to finish a guy off, thank you very much. No more reload battles or lame double beat down battles.

At first I was mad that the beat down didn’t carry over the shield, but I got used to it, however, I’m still not okay with the fact that 2 beat downs is more powerful than bullets.

The assassinations are pretty kickass, even when they are glitchy they pretty much rule.

Not sure how I feel about being able to block a sword attack, but I like that you’re thinkin out of the box on that one.

More armor options would be nice. Or maybe if the armor actual had an effect on the battlefield. Think about that! Upgrades that actually upgrade your guy?!

Maybe tell us what goes in to the ranking system? I never know for sure if I kicked ass or not because my rating will blow while everything else was pretty sweet.

Get rid of the radar jamming while using the cloak ability. It’s supposed to give you the upper hand, not completely warn the enemy you’re coming AND screw over your ability to tell where the enemy is. Seriously.

K, I think that’s about it. This will probably be one of the many games I’ll be getting by the end of the year.

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In Anticipation – Halo: Reach

Posted by AwkwardSilence on May 2nd, 2010

Ohhhh boy. Less than 1 more full day until the Halo: Reach beta begins for all the proud (and not so proud) owners of Halo: ODST. I just watched an preview on gamespot.com where they had 4 guys playing the beta early and it looked like a lot of fun.

I’ve been a Halo fan since the beginning, and it’s one of my favorites, especially because of the multi-player aspects. Halo: Reach seems like it will not disappoint. The multi-player isn’t reinventing anything, just adding to what made the others great. Things to expect include new game types, weapons, maps, and maybe the most interesting and exciting thing: Armor Abilities. In Reach, you will be able to select different load-outs at the beginning of the game and when you die, that will give you new starting weapons or armor. Each of the different pieces of armor will give you a certain power. The powers that I’ve seen so far are sprinting, a jet pack (but watch out, there is fall damage this time), cloaking (which also adds a radar scrambler effect that makes the enemy radar go crazy with red dots), and a super shield (but again, watch out because while you are invulnerable for a short time, you also can’t move).

New game modes include Stockpile and Headhunter. Stockpile is like a neutral CTF on steroids. You will have 2 teams on a map with a number of flags set up around the map. The goal is to collect these flags, bring them to your base/hill area and keep them there as long as possible. Every minute (or when the game timer ends in :00), for every flag in your area you get a point. First to 10 wins. You gotta protect your flags though, because all it takes is for the other team to run in and throw the flag out of your area for you to not get that point. Definitely an interesting take on flag games, and with the armor abilities you can assume these games will get very intense. Headhunter is a new take on the oddball mode. Instead you will be collecting skulls from other people as you kill them, but when you die, you’ll lose yours as well. You’ll need to carry the skulls to a point on the map to secure a score. This, too could turn into ferociously intense battles, but I personally see it to be pretty frustrating (clean up kills will make it difficult to win).

All in all, I’m very excited to start playing on Monday (May 3rd). Check back here soon to see my impressions of the beta. It will end on May 19th, but I may be too eager to express my opinion on Reach’s multi-player, so keep your eye open for a First Impressions post. I’m looking forward to the strategies that arise from these changes, and I’ll try to fill you in on whatever I experience.

For anyone out there that plans on participating in the beta, look for me online, my gamertag is T00MuchRazMataz (those are zero’s).

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Real fast…

Posted by AwkwardSilence on April 29th, 2010

I just have to say it.

Tosh.0 has got to be one of the top 3 funniest shows on television. Even if it is a internet clip show, it is hilarious. Watch it every chance you get. It’s on comedy central, and it’s mostly good because the dude doesn’t hold anything back. The show is put together well, so it’s not JUST him ripping on internet clips. Web redemptions for some people in these videos can be pretty awesome. Thatss all about that. You can probably watch episodes at comedycentral.com.

HOLY CRAP! I just saw a commercial while watching Futurama for ALL NEW FUTURAMA EPISODES COMING IN JUNE! This may be some of the greatest news ever. The world has been waiting for new Futurama episodes for years now, and it looks like we will get more than just 4 straight to DVD movies. If you don’t know, Futurama is also a great show. It is set in the year 3000, which really opens a lot of doors for each episode. It is very funny, and has somewhat of a continuous story. Anyway, just wanted to express my excitement of that. Here’s a little treat.

I'm in the middle as Bender, with roommates as Zapp Brannegan and The Professor.

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