INCREDIBAD

This is the first album I've bought in over two years. If you're not familiar with The Lonely Island, then follow the link on the title of this post. To everyone else: Jorm, Kiv, and Andy are finally ready to release to you INCREDIBAD. Estimated Delivery February 13th; Release Date 4 Hours 30 Minutes! :)

If you want the promo poster, or even the vinyl version, it's going to cost you more, but Amazon has the basic 2 Disc Album now for $9.99. The second disc is a DVD with the music videos, most of which you (hopefully) have seen on SNL. It seems to have been a great year for The Lonely Island, and I'm so glad that this album is being released now. Fans have been waiting for this a long time. 

I'll update once it gets here. I hope Jason Vorhees delivers it so that I can get some free tickets to his new movie.

Here's what you can expect from the Dudes:

Paradise DLC

Finally, a game that releases its new retail content on marketplace DLC for purchasers of the original edition! I've really enjoyed this game, but have yet to snag all of the vehicles and billboards. Burnout Paradise is sort of a unique way of letting players meet up online by making everything super easy and accessible. The DLC that dropped today is the "Party Pack" that lets you and your friends burn through a set of games on the same television. You remember the feeling of letting someone play on your save file, hoping they wouldn't start unlocking your cars or mess with your stats somehow? Argh! This totally cleans that up by giving everyone in the room a turn on the controller in its own mode.  

If you're as much as a fan of movies as I am, you'll also appreciate the Legendary Car Pack coming out in the following days. You get the Ghostbusters, Back to The Future, Night Rider, and even Dukes of Hazard car? Yeah I'm pretty sure that's what it is. Don't forget the Toys Pack...okay?! Did I forget the island they've been working on? Yeah, Criterion's kinda got it going on. Like I said, if you own the original, don't worry about it because you've got the DLC here to choose from. Anyone who has yet to own Burnout Paradise: get on that! The new box's subtitle is named The Ultimate Box, so keep an eye out in stores.

I promise I'll let you know what I think of it as soon as I get my hands on a points card.

Chess!

It's here. 21" by 21" (extra inch due to notation) with 3 3/4" King. Now, the biggest chess set I own. This is my first true table chess set. Everything's so smooth and weighted nicely. I didn't know what that meant until I picked one up. I started playing Chess as a kid but didn't really get into it until about a few years ago. After learning things like Castling, En Passant, and the use of a Chess Clock, I was even more interested in actually getting better. This is probably my favorite board game to "feel". What I mean by that is, there's a certain level of maturity to this game. 

Picking up each piece feels like an important decision, and the difference in play depends on, at least for me, the look and the weight of the board. Chess players will probably tell you otherwise, but there's nothing fun about this game when you're feeling a crowded, small sized board. I prefer Sheesham over Ebonized, and my clock has to be analogue. These are little things that make the game more enjoyable for me. Most of the time, if those things are all in place, I'm perfectly comfortable with losing. I'd tell you that I still felt really good making and reacting to my opponents' moves.

Another game that comes close to the feel of Chess is Oware. I haven't spent too much time in looking for those boards as I have with Chess. Oware is more of a mathematical game, and its setup is so simple that it can be played without having to spend any money at all. Though, I'm happy with what I got for the price of this set. I'm usually really picky when it comes to the style of the Knight piece, so I had to get used to this one. As long as their teeth aren't hanging all out, I can get down.

There's just something demoralizing about seeing a horse with his big buck teeth out on a board. Man, I must either have really weird values or I can sense when someone's trying to make my Chess game look goofy as hell.

Colonies Edition

My copy of Lost Planet: Colonies Edition came in this morning. Two copies, actually. I bought an extra for my nephew, ACE DEF 3000. I'm pretty late on picking this game up, and I've heard mixed opinions on this revision, but you know what? It's like having the first game and a handful of extra content, so why not get it? That, and the fact that Amazon had it for $15 shrink wrapped. I spent some time playing online and I'm really enjoying the Akrid battle mode. This alone is what had me interested in purchase. Yeah, I'm pretty easy to get. 

Leveling up in ranked matches seems to go by way faster than it does in the original. I went from level 9 to 20 just by playing one Akrid battle match. I don't know what to make of that yet. I heard complaints about the Rifle having a delay in Colonies Edition. I laughed when I tried it. It's really not that big of a deal. Some of the new weapons started showing up around me, so I got to rain down missiles and piledrive some dudes.

From my playthrough today, I quickly noticed around the same number of people playing this game as the original. I was afraid it would be nearly empty, but a 16 player lobby got filled up rather quickly. There was another new player in my game and we were both trying to figure out all of our attacks as an Akrid. I never really succeeded in killing one person but I plan on going back in tomorrow for another go. It's just not a thoughtless addition; that mode is solid. 

There's not much else to say about this box. It's still Lost Planet, you just have more, but I'm sure you already know that by now. I still wish they would've offered owners of the original a download for this new content. It would have greatly helped the reviews. I really see no reason to go back now after trying this out, but I'm no reviewer, nor do I notice the technicalities that reviews are so good at seeing. I know when a game is garbage, but I'm somewhat easily entertained. For me, it all depends on host population. Let me ask you this: Have you heard of Lost Planet 2?

I'm still waiting on another package this week. :)

See you when it gets here!

#1 "Thought Wrap-Up"

"It really only takes one person to change your mind about a game. To be honest, I've always loved Lost Planet for its Single Player campaign, despite negative reviews. That doesn't mean I hated the Multiplayer modes. It's just that with many online games that have a strong competitive nature to them, it really put me off for awhile. People can be cruel, and I think most of what I feel when joining matches these days is embarrassment. Not only am I nervous about how I'll react to other players' moves and perform during the game, but it's also very hard for me to hear someone yelling at me because of my mistakes. The thing that gets me is, I almost never reply to negative comments anymore, but I still always feel this way; still feel nervous of what people might say.

What amazes me is how all of this changes once I meet someone polite for a change. I joined a lobby in Lost Planet recently and heard a voice that I could umute my mic for. That really changed my perspective once I realized how often I was leaving that game in my disc tray. After joining more games I found that that person was sort of a rare thing, at least from what I've come across. That didn't stop me from loving the Multiplayer, however. And because of that one person, I have once again gained a little confidence in playing matches with more people, thus enjoying Lost Planet even more than I had before. Want to know something interesting? I've been playing games for most of my life, but I've yet to learn to take these experiences with me. Instead, I'll start over again from game to game, once more becoming that embarrassed and nervous rookie."

"The Office was really good tonight. I could've sworn 30 Rock was going to be on. Oh well. Yeah, I commented on a television show before the Superbowl. As much as I'm not that interested in Football anymore, my heart was doing all sorts of crazy things during the 4th quarter. Well, whatever...congrats Steelers, I guess. Just stop being jerks all the time, okay?"

"Resident Evil 5. Let me be clear here: I don't play Resident Evil games. They look amazing, and by watching my brother play through Code Veronica years ago, it makes me a little jealous that people are actually up to date on the RE storyline. That game was crazy, and so was the part when the two dogs jumped out of the window on RE2. Nightmares forever! I played through the Demo of RE5 about 5 times, actually. I'm considering picking it up, but not because it was a superb demo, which it wasn't. I want to actually give a Resident Evil a try, and from what I've seen, it could at least be a respectable game to own. Also, let's be honest, any game that has its title spoken on the title screen is the newest best game of all time."

"Street Fighter IV is nearly here. Exciting. Am I a CAPCOM fanboy? It sure sounds like it. Complete coincidence, I swear. As much as I hate the idea of paying for alternate costumes in SFIV, isn't that what people in Japan arcades are doing? They're gaining credits to their fighter cards from winning matches, right? They have to put money in to play those matches in the first place. I guess someone could do the math on the value of wins versus DLC cost, but it wouldn't add up. Someone could win a lot of matches and have only dropped 100 Yen. Yeah, I guess I still hate the idea of paying for alternate costumes. I'll save my thoughts on arcades and game prices for another day."

That's all I have on my mind. :\ 

Goodnight!