Friday, May 30, 2008

N + 6 + 4 = A lot of fun, it seems

I've decided that Aaron Heilman is just the complete opposite of Lloyd Christmas(Jim Carey's character in Dumb & Dumber) where as Lloyd pissed off Harry with bad things only to completely make up for it with something good. See Heilman will do something good for a little bit and then completely blow it by sucking just like usual. Uggghhhh. Oh well, let's hope the Mets win the next two to take the series. Let's hope. Hey, at least we have Pedro coming back on Tuesday. Lets hope he can make it 4 innings before getting injured.

So, Rob sent me the list for the Nintendo 64 and I wrote him back I told him I was glad about #1 and if this game wasn't #1 I was going to send the list back and make him redo it. Good thing he got it right.

Nintendo 64

Before you read this list – if you want to know how awesome the Nintendo 64 was, just watch this video (make sure you have sound) http://youtube.com/watch?v=pFlcqWQVVuU. As you’ll see from this list, Nintendo 64’s main accomplishment was that it faithfully updated all of the core Nintendo franchises from two-dimensional to three. It also holds the dubious distinction of being the last (and greatest) cartridge-based console – a format that was probably already outdated when N64 was launched in 1996. Still, this console accomplished some great things at an affordable launch price of $199.

1: Goldeneye (Sequel: Perfect Dark)
The difference between numbers 1 and 2 on this list is very slim. Goldeneye gets the edge for a few reasons. Goldeneye was the first FPS (First Person Shooter) that really succeeded on a console – and one of the only movie-based videogames that has ever been well-received. There was a good variety in levels, weapons, and tactics. Goldeneye had a cool statistics system that tracked things like where your bullets were striking your enemies. Finally, Goldeneye’s multiplayer is simply legendary and is ultimately what pushed this game into the top spot.

2: Legend of Zelda - Ocarina of Time (Sequel: Legend of Zelda - Majoras Mask)
Some consider the Ocarina of Time the best videogame of all time, and a legitimate argument can be made. If you’ve noticed the pattern, Zelda games have ranked extremely high on both previous Nintendo lists, and it’s hard to describe the feeling that I had when a game that used to be strictly bird’s eye view transformed into a beautiful three dimensional environment. This game was just a perfectly executed action-RPG, with an updated take on a classic world.

3: Mario 64 (also, Mario Kart 64)
Another Nintendo franchise that was extremely well received on Nintendo 64. Like Zelda, some believe that Mario 64 was the best videogame of all time. And also like Zelda, this game was so well received because it transformed a beloved character from two dimensions to three. There were so many worlds to explore, stars to collect, puzzles to solve. To me, this game ranks below Zelda because of my personal preferences in games, but I’m sure many would consider this game more fun. This launch title was the best selling of any Nintendo 64 game with 11.6 million copies sold.
Mario Kart 64 isn’t a sequel or even the same type of game, but since it’s a Mario game I figured I’d lump it in. Though the number of tracks was lacking, the multiplayer was just incredible.

4: Star Wars: Rogue Squadron (also, Shadows of the Empire)
In Rogue squadron, you played Luke Skywalker between Star Wars Episodes IV and V. You could fly almost the full complement of Rebel starfighters (as well as the snowspeeder) and fought against the full range of Imperial fighters and ground units. The game took advantage of the Nintendo 64 Expansion Pak and its enhanced graphics.
Shadows of the Empire was a launch title highlighted by a killer rendition of the Battle of Hoth, but also brought you to a diverse collection of locales in the Star Wars expanded universe and had several difficulty levels, making it a great game for just about anyone.

5: Ogre Battle 64: Person of Lordly Caliber
This game is a personal favorite of mine. This was an epic strategy-RPG, on a cartridge system no less! This game was released late in the life cycle of the N64 so was pretty overlooked, and it was far from a mainstream game. It featured a class system for characters to advance, an in-depth combat system, and the ability to have more than one parties of your own characters traveling to different places in the game world at the same time. The Nintendo 64 wasn’t the system of the RPG – but in this genre dominated by the Playstation, this N64 exclusive game was a rare success.

So, lastly I decided to start my 24 watching a couple days early. Instead of doing season 1, I decided to go with season 3 because it's my favorite season. So, here's episode 1, from 1pm til 2pm. The season starts off with a bang. There's a dead body dropped off at a research clinic that is infected with a serious biological desease that will kill the person infected with it within 24 hours. Now there's a terrorist cell that has it in LA and they've threatened to release it. We've found out that it is 3 years after season 2 ended and David Palmer is still president, Jack got back from a covert mission where he infultrated a terrorist leader named Salizar. Well, Salizar is in jail and now his brother is in charge. Jack has a partner named Chase who happens to be dating his daughter(Elisha Cuthbert - want to touch the hiney). And, Tony and Michelle are married and Tony has been offered a new job out of CTU, but there's no job for Michelle. Can you pack enough drama in one episode? How about we end it by finding out that Jack is addicted to Heroin. Too bad Heroin doesn't stand a chance.

Wednesday, May 28, 2008

Next

Well, we couldn't really get a definitive answer on the defensive position. How about this for toughest defensive position, the old hockey goalies. You know, back when they barely wore pads and didn't wear masks. You had pucks flying at your face and there was nothing to protect it. Even when they wore the Jason hockey masks those things weren't as good as protecting as the new masks. I remember hearing Brett Hull talk about his dad and he said that if a goalie was on fire to shoot a shot at his head and he'll think twice about making a save on you. I think the old school hockey goalies were nuts.

Well, it was nice that the Mets took 2 of 3 from the Marlins. Now we've go to play the Dodgers. We need to take at least 2 of 3 from them. Mike and Perrotti, sorry about Mr. Ian Kennedy, Kennedy going on the DL but at least Joba the Hutt can now go into the starting rotation. We'll see how that goes. Pedro had a nice first rehab start and hopefully he can go with that when he gets back! We'll see.

So, I was at the gym today and I was listening to a cd that I hadn't listened to in a while. It was a band that I first started listening to in college. Sooooo, of course that gets me thinking so I decided to list my 10 favorite cd's from my college era. In no particular order:

1. Jimmy Eat World - Static Prevails: Ahhhhh, Jimmy Eat World. I didn't know too much about them until my sophmore year. I love this album because it was pretty punky and I was all about the punk music back then(well, not like that's really changed) and pretty emo at the same time(that hasn't changed either). Not sure which song is my favorite off of this album. Maybe Rockstar or Claire.

2. Jimmy Eat World - Clarity: This is probably the album that started to put Jimmy Eat World on the map. I love Lucky Denver Mint. This album got me into music that had an electronic influence to it. This album is probably over produced, but I love it none the less.

3. The Juliana Theory - Understand This is a Dream: This was one of the albums that started me down my emo ways, ha ha. Mike, I think Kate would love that comment. Just an all around great album. One of my favorite songs of all time is on this album(The Closest Thing).

4. The Juliana Theory - Emotion is Dead: This was the album that I was listening to in the gym. This album started to get me interested in hardcore music(yes, it's not a hardcore album but there was some screaming on a few songs and I liked it.) Too bad I hate the rest of their albums. They just all pretty much suck. Oh well, wasted talent. I put these four albums first because they remind me of the end of my sophmore year when my sister graduated and my roommate and I were listening to these cd's all the time. I was living on the fourth floor of Witmer and a lot of us had the same taste in music. Just an all around great year. Ha ha.

5. The Get Up Kids - 4 Minute Mile: This was really my first introduction into emo music. By far my favorite GUK's album even though their second album is almost as good. Mike, do you remember when we went and saw the Get Up Kids and At The Drive-In? At least I think you were there. I think it was like Kyle, Greg, Justin Witmer, Me, You, Laura, Dave and Jeff Glaussup. But I could be wrong. It was freshman year after all(sadly that was 10 years ago. Jeez we're old).

6. Paul Van Dyk - Out There and Back: Yeah, I didn't really know too much about Techno growing up. I had bought one techno cd(Daft Punk's first cd) but didn't really know what to call it. Then, sophmore year I lived across the hall from two DJ's and they introduced me to this german DJ. His name, Paul Van Dyk. And this was the CD that I started to listen too. He's been putting out amazing music since(and actually way before) and he's been voted the best DJ in the World.

7. Last Tuesday - Dear Jessica: For all of the readers from CT I'll let you know something about my buddy Mike, he used to play drums for this a couple bands in college. The first band I remember is Caligo(at least I think it was. Was it Mike? Also, any chance of you having any of those cd's left?) Well, unfortunately they decided to disband during my sophmore year so, as a free agent, Mike decided to sign a 2 year contract with a punk band at school that would go through the end of school(and that summer, I believe). That band, Last Tuesday. This was my favorite cd by them(one of 3 cd's and the only one with Mike in it). Sadly, I lost my first press of the cd that had the bonus track on it. Bummer.

8. Less Than Jake - Borders and Boundaries: During my freshman year LTJ released Hello Rockview, which was a very solid album but kinda too popish for my taste. It was a different kind of album for LTJ. Then, in 2000 they came out with B&B, which just rocked from the first track to the last track. LTJ will probably be my favorite band of all time. They just keep on coming out with amazing albums. Plus, they ended up adding the sax player from my favorite local band, Spring Heeled Jack.

9. Rancid - Rancid(2000): Well, just before I went to college Rancid released Life Won't Wait, which still had some really kickin' punk songs but also had a bunch of more melo songs on it and kinda threw me off. I wasn't that big of a fan of it and was kinda disappointed by it. Well, in 2000 Ranicd released a second self titled album that went back to their roots and just frackin' rocked! It was just one great punk song after another. My favorite song is Dead Bodies.

10. Dashboard Confessional - The Swiss Army Romance & The Places You Have Come to Fear the Most: Yeah, so there's two cd's. Sue me. I ran out of room and I like them both the same. I remember seeing DC when it was just Chris Carraba by himself, on a stool, with just an accoustic guitar. It was probably the best show that I've ever been too. It was at an abandoned church at the University of Maryland. DC was the first band that played. Now, there's no way he'll ever be the first band playing. It's just pretty cool to know that you saw someone right before they took off. These two albums are just two amazing emo albums. I could always understand where he was coming from(you know, since he did grow up in a nice suburban town in Ct) and I think this made it easy to enjoy his music.

Well, thanks for this trip down memory lane. I hope you enjoyed it. Ha ha.

Tuesday, May 27, 2008

Uggggghhhhhh

So, here's a quick post before I head off to work. First off, I think there's no doubt that Mike is right in the who's under more pressure debate as Willie had the talk with the bosses about his job. And then we go out and lose to the Marlins. Good job. I like Willie also but I don't think he needs to go just yet. I think he might need to change something, though.

Next, Malone sent me an email and asked to have this quote be put up. So, here it is, "The toughest defensive position to play in all of sports is the lacrosse goalie." Now, he didn't give me anything to back this up so he'll have to post his reasons. I'll have to think about this for a little bit before I say which position I think is the hardest to play. Maybe a DB in Arena football, the guy who has to defend the WR who's running before they hike the ball. What does everyone else think?

Monday, May 26, 2008

SNES

Well, as I sit here watching Ace Ventura on TBS(I love the deleted scenes) I got the first email from Rob for the SNES. Before I give you the list I thought I'd just write about some stuff. We got to watch the Indy 500 yesterday at work. Now, I normally don't really care about this stuff but I had finished reading my book at work so I was stuck watching it. I thought it was pretty cool when Danica Patrick was knocked out of the race and then started walking over to the driver who knocked her out. It was pretty funny and I have to give her some respect for not really caring about anything and wanting to give the other driver a piece of her mind. I liked that. Lets hope the Mets can break out of the funk that their in. It's nice that we have the Marlins at home now so hopefully we can game some games on them. A nice sweep would be good. I saw the Indiana Jones movie. Most of the movie was really good. It was just like any other Indiana Jones movie. The action was good and there were a bunch of funny moments in the movie. I really liked Shai Lebluef's character in the movie and of course they set it up for him to take over. Now, with all of the Indiana movies the endings are always kinda strange. Raiders of the Lost Ark they had the Ark melt everyone away, Temple of Doom they had the whole riping out of the hearts and the Last Crusades they had the one Knight Templar there. Well, this one was probably the weirdest of them all. I won't say what happened at the end, but it was pretty strange. I liked it though. I would give the movie a B. Anywho here is the list for SNES:
1. Super Mario WorldThis is likely the first snes game most people played, and I think itholds up as the best. At the beginning of the SNESs life Miyamoto tookthe iconic genre of the previous console generation, the 2Dplatformer, and perfected it. With great depth and flawless controlsthis game is excellent all around and can essentially be picked up andplayed at anytime, or beaten in an afternoon (or a half hour if youknow the shortcuts).

2. Legend of Zelda Once again Miyamoto took a classic from the previous generation andperfected it. A Link to the Past was one of the earliest console gamesthat felt truly epic. The world feels smaller now that you have themap memorized and know where all the secrets are, but the first timeyou played Zelda you felt there was always some secret ability or toolhidden just on the next screen over. Also controls, sound, graphics,all excellent for the time and still more than passable today.

3. Chrono Trigger One of the few non nintendo offerings to make full use of the supernintendo's potential, Chrono Trigger is my pick for the best japanesestyle rpg on the system. It had cool characters and an uniquequasi-realtime battle system with fairly deep combo possibilities.This third slot could just as easily go to Final Fantasy 6 for all ofits unique characters or Super Mario RPG for its unique style andtiming based subgames.

4. Mariokart Mariokart set the standard for the kart racing game, later to beblatantly copied by Diddy Kong Racing and a Crash Bandicoot kart game.There's still nothing like timing the perfect turtle shell to sealyour victory, or leaping across a ghost level jump with a feather.Also, the earliest car battle mode I can remember, the basis for latergames like twisted metal.

5. Donkey Kong Country 2 I think this is the best of the donkey kong games, Dixie added a newgameplay element that seperated it from other side scrollers at thetime. Also the game introduced a wide variety of gameplay elementsthroughout its many levels that kept things fresh. Finally thegraphics were untouched on the super nintendo and were cleaner than any game that followed it until possibly the release of the ps2.

Saturday, May 24, 2008

The Next One

Well, if Perrotti wants me to talk about the Hills, Real World and Deal or No Deal, he's got it. Sadly I've watched a couple episodes of the Hills. It seems like a really stupid show. Actually, a worse show than that one is the spin off show about another area of Southern California and I can't remember the name of it. I just remember watching an episode where the girl was in college now, her bf is in high school, she started hanging out with some guy and then dumped said bf for new guy. It was great. I thought I lost 10% of my iq in 30 minutes! This season of Real World is actually pretty interesting b/c there's a guy who really doesn't care what people think of him. It's actually pretty funny to see everyone get pissed off at him. Also, there was one guy who's the craziest guy I've ever seen and now he's in rehad with Dr. Drew. Very fun. I don't really watch deal or no deal anymore but when I do I always root against the person because once the bank offer gets up to over $200,000 you take the money. We know you're just going to blow it.

Now, here is my list of my favorite PS2 games so I hope this makes everyone happy. Especially Malone b/c I want him to finally accept my frackin' trade! So, here we go:
#1. NCAA College Football - There isn't one year that stands out more than any other but I love this game more than I really should. What I love the most about this game is the offseason stuff that you do. I love the recruiting process and strangely enough it has helped me understand "real" college football more. Plus, the game play is amazing. I also like the fact that you can change your schedule each season and that at the end of the season you can get an offer to join another conference. Of course I play as Notre Dame and we don't need a conference!(actually I always get invited to the MAC or some weak conference like that. I never got invited to the Big Ten or ACC or Big East. What, they got no love for the ND?) It was also fun to win as many trophies as possible. You know, they always give you that option to create yourself and then play through college but I always hated it b/c you couldn't do the Franchise stuff like recruit and after the 4 years you're done. Why can't they combine it so that after the 4 years they automatically move forward like 15 years and then I'll become a coach or something? Is that too hard to ask?

#2. Madden Football - Once again, it's pretty tough to choose a certain year to be the best. I think maybe 2004 when Vick was unstoppable and it didn't seem like you could lose a game with him. I always do the same thing with Madden each year. I play the Franchise mode with the fantasy draft and I always end up like $40 mil under the salary cap. The first year that I bought Madden I didn't understand the salary cap hits and at the end of the first season I was suppose to cut like $50 mil off my salary. Let's just say that some teams(like the Raiders and Redskins) wish they could hit the reset button(or erase button) and start over like I did!

#3. Tekken Tag - I never played a Tekken game before this one. And actually, I hadn't played a fighting game since Mortal Kombat. But, I got this game right after I got my ps2 and we had soooo much fun in college playing this game. What was great about this was that I had the adapter to the ps3 where you could have 8 guys play. Well, with Tekken Tag you could play 4 guys. It was a lot of fun. What I like about Tekken is that they base their fighters off of real people(or some of them are based off of them). There's the Jackie Chan fighter, the Jet Li fighter, the Bruce Lee fighter. It was just great learning how to fight with them. My two favorites were the Jackie Chan and Let Li characters. Probably Jackie Chan #1 overall and I loved being able to get into the different stances. Just an amazing game all around. Plus, there was Tekken Bowling!

#4. Grand Theft Auto: Vice City - I liked this one the best out of these games because it was just sooo much fun to go around and kill people. Plus, Ray Liota(yeah, I can't spell, sue me) was the voice of the main character. I think my favorite part was getting the Samarai sword and chopping people's heads off. This game was just all around fun and I loved it.

#5. SSX Tricky - This was by far my favorite snowboarding game and I think the best of all time. And, the whole family could enjoy it even though the older folks didn't do as well. It was just a lot of fun and the tricks were pretty cool. Unfortunately my little sister got better at me in it and that sucked. ha ha. Oh well.

Friday, May 23, 2008

Friday

Yeah, it's Friday. Things aren't looking too well right now in the Mets camp. I'd like to point out all the mistakes that Omar made but I just don't have it in me. So, too make myself feel better I'm going to watch the super bowl again. Ahhhhh, that'll make me feel better. I also like that more and more information is coming out about how the Patriots were cheating. Nothing better than the tarnishing of the evil hated enemy. He he. I've decided that next Monday I'm going to do something a little different. See, one of my favorite shows of all time is 24. I've got the first 4 seasons on dvd and last night I decided that what I'm going to do is rewatch one of the seasons, probably #1 and do a write up about each episode. So, that'll give me 24 posts at least for next month. Now, I'm also going to write other stuff during those posts but I've always wanted to do something like this so there we go. It'll be an all time record for posts in a month for me. My plan is to watch at least one episode each day. On some days there will be more so hopefully I'll have all of it done by June 24th or earlier! This month I'm going to continue with my top video games for each platform that I've own(ed). Of course that means just two more left plus I think I might do one for computer games even though I've owned all of 7 video games. Then I'll put up my top 20 video games for all platforms. Also, if any of you would like to put up a guest post feel free to. You can email me it (most of you know my email address but just in case it's futureinmotion@yahoo.com) and what I'll do is put it up and probably write a forward or something like that. Lastly, Mike, what was wrong with Prince Caspian? I haven't seen it yet but it seemed pretty good. Well, just the previews. Sadly I haven't read that book yet even though I've meant to.

Wednesday, May 21, 2008

Playstation

Well, unpacking is soooo much fun. I couldn't unpack my stuff the past few days because of work so I unpacked a little today while the guy from TimeWarner reinstalled my cable/internet. Now I'm watching the Man U vs. Chelsea game. My questions is why are two English clubs playing in Russia? Anyone? Anyone? I'm worried about Ryan Church's injury. He had a mild concussion during Spring Training and I'm hoping this new one doesn't hurt him too much. We'll see. He's been amazing for the Mets this season so hopefully he'll be fine and be able to go back to his regular form. I was thinking of getting a Mets black Church jersey. I'll have to wait now. I like Oliver Perez but he is incrediblely frustrating. He's got nasty, nasty stuff but he can get distracted and then he's nothing. Like Kevin Costner said in Bull Durham, "Million dollar arm, ten cent head." I think that describes him perfectly.

So, here is my list of my favorite PS games. Now, I never had a gamecube but I, just like everyone else, loved Goldeneye. If I could do a list of my favorite games from this period, I would rank Goldeneye #2. But, I'm not. Ha ha.

#1. Final Fantasy 7 - Honestly, this could be my favorite game of all time. And I'm not kidding. I've never really gotten into a RPG before and this was my first introduction to it. And what a game it was. It had a great story behind it and the action was good. The graphics were amazing also. It was the first time that I saw what programmers could do with the playstation. It was unlike anything I had ever seen before. Also, the side stories were great. There were extra things that you could do, like raise Chocobos and then race them for prizes. There were miny games that were just a lot of fun. I remember really enjoying the snowboarding minigame and how much fun it was. And the best part was you had a flying ship to take you around to different areas. I think this is the best overall game in the FF series.

#2. Resident Evil - The first three games in this series were all really good but the first one was the best of the three. It was the first game that I played that actually scared me. I can remember playing the game at night with the lights out and no one home and getting to the scene were the dogs first came out and I nearly soiled myself. It was just great. The whole everyone turns into a zombie because some evil corporation was playing around with human genetics story line was great. It was cool also to choose if you wanted to play the game as a boy or a girl. And then they made some good movies, ha ha.

#3. Tony Hawk Pro Skater - I'm not sure which one I liked better, #1 or #2 but the games were just awesome. I skated a little bit and I was never any good so it was cool to be able to play a game where I could skate as one of my favorite skaters. I can't remember which one had it but you could also skate as spiderman. That was a lot of fun. Going around and doing different tricks was a lot of fun and learning new ones was great. I think my favorite part was skating against someone else. Sadly I haven't played any of the games after #2. Oh well.

#4. Twisted Metal - Now this game was fun. You got to choose which car you wanted to go around and blow up other stuff. And throughout the levels there were different bonuses for you to get to help you along the way. This game also had a great multiplayer game. I think I ended up getting the second game but I didn't get anymore after that.

#5. Driver - I was introduced to this game by my friend Leif up at my cabin one winter. The local grocery store had this game for rent and he had rented it before I was up there for Christmas break. This was the game to rival GTA and at the time this game was 100 times better than GTA. That's because at this point GTA had the sky view and it was annoying. Now driver's pov was the third person(just like how GTA is now). In this game you played the driver for some mod hitman and you drove around and helped him kill people(or at least this is what I remember. After all, it was 10 years ago that I played it). It was just a lot of fun to drive around and do whatever you wanted. I also remember that it seemed like the first time that you could go into a room and do whatever you wanted like break stuff and it actually broke, like windows and doors. It was just a great all around game. Too bad it took them forever to come out with a second one, if they did at all. I still believe that Driver could have become the game everyone remembers instead of GTA if the makers had come out with more games. Oh well, GTA fixed what sucked about their game and now it's awesome. Ha ha.

Honorable Mentions: Demolition Derby, Syphon Filter, Gran Turismo(I think it was out by now), Resident Evil 2, NHL Hockey(any of them).

Monday, May 19, 2008

SEGA

Just a few notes before I start on my favorite SEGA games. 1st, sorry Mikey & Perrotti about your Yanks. I thought that they had their double a team playing against the Mets. I did enjoy Jose Reyes' celebration after the 3 run homer last night. But, I'm pretty sure the Yanks were this bad in like 2005 and came back and won the division. Of course they got swept in the first round, but that's another issue. I'm also glad that Oliver Perez pitched well. It's about time because he's had a bunch of poor outings. The Mets are still without a no hitter. Will anybody be able to throw one for us? Will Doc Gooden please have a kid become a pitcher w/o the drug problems and then have the Mets draft him? Is that too much to ask? Right now I'm reading through Paul Shirley's book "Can I Keep My Jersey?". It's about a 4 year period in his life where he played for 11 teams in 5 different countries. For those of you who have no idea who he is, he's a basketball player. He got famous for the NBA asking him to write a blog and instead of just writing stupid stuff about basketball, he wrote stupid stuff about life, which included checking out hot chicks during a timeout. Very funny stuff. You should go down to your library and read it. Now, time for my favorite SEGA games:
Now, in the Kuhrt household, my parents did not believe in video games. Nothing that would be connected to the tv. They had no problem with computer games, but no tv ones. Well, finally around my freshman year of high school they broke down and let us have our cousin's NES up at our cabin. Well, about a year after that I took it home and traded it for a SEGA, which I kept up at the cabin and would play in my room whenever we were up there. Was it fair? No. Did I really care? Not really. Ha ha. So, here is my list of my favorite SEGA games and why.

#1. NHL '94 - No sports game will ever beat this in enjoyability. NONE! My friends and I would play this all the time. Not only was it great, but it also gave us not one, but TWO great movie quotes. The first one from swingers with Vince Vaugh's, "It's not so much me, as Roenich. He's good." And then in Mallrats with Jason Lee's "But I have a game against Hartford. The Whale!". Not sure if those are exact quotes but they're close enough! My breaks not long enough for me to check on it. (I also like the "lets make superfanboy 99 bleed.") Yes, in the '93 version you had a bad form of fighting that was taken out in '94 but in '94 you could knock a player out and make his head bleed! Can you go wrong with that? I also enjoyed how before each game it would tell you what players were hot and which ones were cold. I was always mad whenever Curtis Joseph was cold for the Blues! I swear, the Blues were always stacked but if he was cold we were done!

#2. World Series Baseball - Ahhhhh yes, I love baseball games. They were always soooo much fun. The controls were very basic but there was no stopping the fun. Too bad the Mets weren't very good around this time. I believe in the '99 version was the first to have the Home Run Derby. I always liked taking a pitcher and trying to hit home runs with them. Never really happened but I still tried!

#3. NBA Jam: Tournament Addition - Does everyone remember when Shaq had a music career? Still today whenever I see someone dunk I think back to his one song where he said something along the lines of "You can't fake the funk on a nasty dunk." Not sure why, but I do. Anywho, with this game, there was no faking of the funk. Because all of the dunks were just plain nasty! Oh yeah, I went there. I liked this version better than the original because you got more players to play with. It was also fun when you were on fire because you could make a shot from anywhere. Plus, there were no rules in this game. There were no fouls so you could push whoever you wanted whenever you wanted. I always liked taking the Kings because Mitch Richmond was my favorite player and I'd just sit back and let him hit 3 pointers all game long. What a great game. In fact, I still have a SEGA and this game. Maybe I'll set it back up! Probably not.

#4. X-Men - You know a comic book fighting game had to make it onto this list. I enjoyed both X-men games, but I liked the first one better. It was cool in the 2 person mode when someone would be Morph and then if you stood next to each other you could teleport to another area. Or at least that's what I'm telling myself happened. It was just always fun to be Wolverine and go around and rip people to shreds. I actually like the Arcade game better than any of the other video games, but this game is #2 all time for X-men games. You just can't beat it.

#5. Mortal Combat - This actually goes for any of the games in this series. I liked all of them. It was fun being able to kill each other and all of the cool fighting tricks you could do. Each game had different combatants. And at the end, everyone remembers the "Finish Him/Her". Ahhh, what a great way to get out some pent up anger.

Honorable Mentions: NBA Live(just missed the cut), Coach K College Basketball, Joe Montana Football. Come on, could I really have this list be all sports games? Strangely enough, I hated Madden at this point. Oh well. Let's just say that would change.

Saturday, May 17, 2008

Dang It

My hands hurt. The reason my hands hurt is because I spent the whole day yesterday moving. And by the whole day I mean 9:45am til 11:15pm. So, it'll be fun to see how work goes. I haven't been able to write much the past couple days because A. I got my new 52" tv and B. I had to pack and move. I'm going to post some more this weekend. Hopefully either later tonight or tomorrow. Just a few quick notes. How boring has the Celts-Cavs series been? I don't watch the NBA because it sucks but I just see the scores of the games and I think maybe one game had both teams score more than 80 points. That just seems sooo bad. I wonder when last night's Mets-Yankees game will be replayed? Will it be tomorrow? I can't believe Jason Worth had 3 home runs - 8 rbi's. That's sick. And lastly, Mike, I saw what you wrote on Jimmy Rocket's facebook page but personally I think the Blue album by Weezer is their best. There isn't a single bad song on that album and I can listen to it over and over again.

Wednesday, May 14, 2008

The big 5-0

So, I guess I'll go with Jim's suggestion and I'll post a couple top 5 favorites. This one I've talked about to people a few times before and I'm glad that Jim suggested it, he he. It's going to be my top 5 favorite NES games and why.

#1. Techmo Super Bowl - Ahhhhhh, techmo super bowl. This game was just awesome. The memories I have of this game is that whenever we had a snow day or if it snowed out during the weekends, my friends and I would go out and sled for a while, or we would go play football in the snow and then afterwards some of us would go over to my neighbor Ryan's house and we'd get a bunch of soda or hot chocolate and we'd go downstairs into his basement and we'd played Nintendo. And we'd always seem to play this game. What I loved about this game was it was the first time that you could actually switch out players, it would tell you if a player was hot or cold and you could change the plays that you called. Bo Jackson was absolutely sick in this game(there's a video out on youtube of Bo running from the 1 yard line to the other 1 yard line back to his 1 yard line back to the end zone for a TD that would take up the whole entire quarter). There were just so many good memories of this game. Ahhhhh, TSB!

#2. The Legend of Zelda - One question I have is why isn't there a Zelda movie? They've made a Super Mario Bros movie, a Double Dragon movie, a Doom movie, 3 Resident Evil movies, a DOA movie but no Zelda movie? What gives? It's one of the highest selling franchises and yet no motion picture? It's just crazy. I loved everything about this game from being able to get better weapons and shields to being able to buy potions to once you had full health to being able to shoot your sword at a bad guy. I loved being able to gamble and solving the riddles. I love that there were bushes you could burn to find secret areas. This game just rocked. Oh yeah, and the music was awesome. You just can't go wrong with this game.

#3. Contra - Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right, B, A, B, A, Select, Start. Everyone knows this cheat code. Heck, I still remember it almost 15+ years since this game came out. This game ruled because all you did was go around and kill stuff. And you were able to get bigger and better guns and you could play along with another friend. It was the two of you against these alien animal monsters attacking Earth! What do you do? Kill Them All! Ahhhh, I just loved beating this game. It was sooo much fun. It was great being able to jump up and shoot your gun all around. There were many afternoons joyfully spent playing this game.

#4. Mike Tyson's Punch Out - No boxing game has ever compared to this game that came out when Mike Tyson was actually a good boxer. The characters were great. There would always be a secret way of beating each guy(unless it was Glass Joe. Him you just beat down). And, during one round each match you could keep on hitting the select button as many times as you could and it would raise your health. I must say though, that I was never able to beat Tyson. I wish I could have. There is a video out there of some guy who beat the entire game in like 9 minutes or something crazy like that. I'm not sure if it was real, but it was fun to watch. My favorite opponent was always King Hippo. It was just fun hitting him and his pants falling down. Ha ha.

#5. Super Mario Bros - Yeah, I'm ranking this just higher than the third one. The one thing #3 has on this one is the fact it was in an awesome Fred Savage movie. This game was just fun and everyone had it because Nintendo was smart enough to package it with the NES. Everyone knows how to warp themselves to the other levels and that they can easily make it to level 8 without losing a life. The other levels out there were pretty cool, too. And everyone knows the music from the game. Ahhhhh, what a classic. It was soo much fun being able to be Fire Mario and kill most of the bad guys.

Honorable Mentions: Super Mario Bros 3, Tennis, Top Gun, & Excite Bike.

Sunday, May 11, 2008

Book Review #1

So, I thought about watching another movie on the list and giving my review of it for this post, but instead I did something else. See, on the way back from Cincy on Wednesday I stopped by an outlet center to see what was there. I went through a couple clothes stores and I didn't really find anything that I liked and then I ventured into the Barnes & Noble outlet store to see if they had a book I was looking for. Well, they didn't, ha ha, but what I did find was a book by Jeff Pearlman called "The Bad Guys Won!". Now, for those of you who don't remember, Pearlman is the guy from SI who wrote that John Rocker piece. Now that the glass has shattered and you remember who Pearlman is I'll talk about the book. When Pearlman was growing up, he was a Mets fan. His parents weren't big into baseball so if he wanted to know anything about the Mets he'd have to go to a friends house and this is when he became a Mets fan. The subject of the book is about the '86 Mets and how great of a team they were, but how big a jerk most of them were, too! And I must say that I really enjoyed the book and to get an inside look at what happened with this team. All of the wild partying, all of the late nights, all of the pranks, all of the bad times and the good times. It was just really interesting to read because we always suspect that sports players acted like it and it was fun to read it from their mouths. The '86 Mets were just a roudy bunch of guys who knew they were going to win and knew they were going to win big. You also get a look at how the '86 Mets were built. From the trades that brought the players in, to the players that were drafted, to the GM who built this whole team. It's just an all around great book to read on how to build a great team and how that team self destructed. Even though the Mets did win the '86 World Series, that team really should have one two or 3 more. They really should have. So, if you're looking for a good sports book to read, and a really quick read at that, you should look this book up. I'm actually kinda sad I finished it.

Saturday, May 10, 2008

Uggghhhh... Monday

Yeah, so today is my Monday and I don't really feel like going to work. Ha ha. It'll be an easy day but still. I'd rather sleep in later and do nothing all day. Ha ha. Anywho, I thought I'd put up a quick post before I head off to work.

I saw Iron Man last night. Now, when I first heard that they were going to make this movie I really didn't care because I didn't know too much about the comic. So, I really wasn't looking forward to it. And I didn't really care for it when I saw the teaser. But, when I saw the last trailer I was in, ha ha. So, last night I went it saw it with some friends and it was really good. Now, what makes this pretty cool is that they're going to make it into a really big franchise and have cross series because Robert Downey, Jr. is going to be in the Hulk movie for a small cameo because the Hulk & Iron Man were both part of a super hero group called the Avengers. Also, if you haven't seen the movie yet, you need to stay for after the credits.

Now, the last quick thing is SI came out with the top 5 teams to hate. Now, I completely disagree with the last two. They had Ohio State at 4 and Chelsea at 5. Now, if I'm going to hate one English soccer team then it's got to be Manchester United. People don't call them the English Yankees for nothing. And you know, the only people who really hate Ohio State are either fans of a Big Ten team or me. Ha ha. I would have put Notre Dame at 4 and Man U at 5. Or maybe the Cowboys. Well, I decided to do my top 5 teams that I hate. Honestly, I could probably do a top 15, but I'm going to make it quick. Here's my list:
1. Uconn Basketball(both Men & Women)
2. New England Patriots
3. Boston Red Sox
4. New York Yankees
5. Michigan Football.
This is my list, what about yours?

Wednesday, May 7, 2008

Cincy

So, I got home a little while ago from Cincinnati. I was down there today because I went to the Reds-Cubs game. This was the second game that I've been to there and both had something special happen. The first game I saw was Pedro's first game last season. Also, Aaron Harang pitched so it was nice to see two aces pitch. The Mets ended up pounding on the Reds so it was definately a great game. Well, today I saw something I've never seen before at a game. In the second inning the Reds hit 4 home runs in the inning and it was nice to sit by Cubs fans during this, ha ha. Also the Reds ended up hitting 7 home runs in the game and Joey Votto hit 3. I've never seen that many home runs in a game and the most I've seen one person hit was 2. The Reds ended up pounding on the Cubs 9-0. Volquez pitched for the Reds and he had a so-so game. He did strike out 10 guys and didn't give up a run in 7 innings. I think his ERA now is like 1.07. But, he also walked 6 batters, but only gave up 4 hits. I'm hoping to make it back for when the Mets are in cincy the first series after the All Star break.

Monday, May 5, 2008

Big News

So, I bet you're wondering what the big news is, eh? Well, I made my first big purchase in a long time and I bought a LCD HD TV, he he, which is nice. And, it's 52", which will be the biggest tv I've watched tv on in a long time. It won't be delivered until next Thursday, but I'm excited. I got the Philips Ambilight 2 flatscreen lcd hd tv. What I like about the ambilight is that it corrects the flaws of the LCD tv(for those of you who don't know what it is, the problem with lcds is that the edges seem to get duller and what the ambilight technology does is it puts lights around the edges to correct this, so that the picture is awesome). I've been waiting for this tv to be available and I found out that it was today. Actually, I wanted to get the 47" tv but that one is not available so I was "forced" to purchase the 52" one. I guess I'll have to live with that one. He he.

On to other stuff. I re-watched the next movie on the list, which is the Green Street Hooligans. It's a small indy movie that was mostly filmed in England. Elijah Wood is the main character in the movie. The plot of the movie is Elijah Wood is about to graduate Harvard with a degree in journalism but his roommate was ratted on for having cocaine in their dorm room so the roommate stashed it in his area. So, Elijah took the downfall because his roommate is a senator's son and Wood thought there was no way to fight it. So, he gets kicked out of Harvard 2 months before he was about to graduate. With no where to go, he decides to fly to England to live with his older sister, her husband and his nephew. Once there, he meets his other brother in law and that's where the fun begins. You see, the b.i.l. is the leader one a football hooligan gang called the Green Street Elite who follow West Ham United. These gangs are actually called "firms"(there is a real firm for West Ham, but the real name is not used). What I really like about this is the fact that they show what it's like to be part of a firm because I don't think we really understand how seriously the English, or for that matter, the rest of the world, take football(or soccer for us americans). Now, Rob is a Red Sox fan, Perrotti & Mike are Yankee fans and Malone and I are Mets fans. If we all met at some random bar one night and were there with a bunch of friends who all cheered for the same team we could co-exist just fine. We might poke fun of each other, but at the end of the night, things would be just fine. We'd go our own way and that would be it. And actually, we'd probably would have just gone together and then make fun of whoever's team lost or is having a bad season. Nothing would come of it and we'd still be friends at the end of the day. You see, that doesn't happen everywhere else with football. If someone liked Manchester United and someone like Arsenal and someone liked West Ham and they all went to a bar together and each of these people were part of a firm there would be a huge brawl going down that night. And that's what I like about this movie. It shows what it would be like to be an outsider all of a sudden thrown into this world where football is a way of life, where you could get beat up and end up in the hospital just because you liked one team or another. In fact, this stuff isn't even made up. Football hooligans have been well known to act this way and for people to die at football matches. I can still remember when I was in middle school and there was something like 80+ people killed at a football match in England and it just blew my mind. But, even with all of the violence that comes along with football throughout the world, what I really like about the matches are the fans. Not because of the fighting, but because of the passion and what goes on during the matches. I just love how each side will sing their own songs during the game and that it goes on throughout the whole match, even if your team is down 3-0. It just seems like it would be a lot of fun to go to one of these games, even if I had to wear hockey gear to survive, ha ha. It just seems that it would be cool to go to a match and to sing along with the other fans that are cheering for your team. I think that there is more of a brotherhood with these fans more than there is in America for our teams. And this is what interests me the most about this movie, just seeing how these guys interact together. If you haven't seen this movie yet, I would definitely recommend it to you jus to get a glimpse of what rooting for a team is like across the pond.

Lastly, in response to Mike, I still think that Cashman is under more pressure and that the pressure is going to mount as the season goes along because a. you didn't trade for Santana when you should have, b. Phil Hughes has sucked this season and is now on the dl, c. Ian Kennedy, Kennedy has been just as bad and these two guys were suppose to anchor this rotation and d. Hank still has his father's blood flowing through him. He acted like his father in telling Cashman to get Joba the Hutt into the starting rotation. Of course, he was also smart enough to back off the next day after BC stood up for himself. I like that in the gm and if Cashman gets fired and Omar gets fired I would look forward to having Cashman as the Mets gm. I would agree with Mike in that I would like to see some fire from Willie. I really don't mind Wagner talking because at least someone does and it's not bad to have someone say something once in a while. Most of the guys on the team are quiet and I don't really see David Wright say anything, just like you wouldn't see Jeter saying anything bad about anyone. We'll see what happens.

Friday, May 2, 2008

Quick Post

So, I was going to save today to do a review of another movie and then put down my thoughts on something else, but I'm going to save that for tommorrow. Instead, some breaking news was announced that Marvin Harrison was involved in a gun fight inwhich he "might" have shot a gun at someone and hit that person in the hand. Now, I don't know about you, but I'm REALLY surprised that Marvin Harrison was named in something like this. This is probably about the last thing I would think that he would ever be involved in. It looks like he owns 25 guns and this gun was specifically made for him and is a .50 caliber pistol. Jeez, I'm not a gun expert in anyway but that's a lot of firepower for a pistol. Then apparently the gun was hidden at his car wash which was located around the corner from where the incident was and when police came to interview him about it, it seems that maybe Harrison lied and said that the gun never left his house. Well, one of his relatives showed up and asked if the police were there about the gun and they found it in a water bucket. Hmmm.... fishy a little bit? Now, I was watching espn and they asked the guy who was reporting about it if the police dusted it for fingerprints. Now, I'm not a csi expert or anything but I'm pretty sure that if the gun was at his car WASH and was in a bucket that there's no way there would be any finger prints. Now, if there were finger prints on it, then Marvin didn't learn anything from his education from Syracuse or his lawyer told him to leave it on there because he owns the gun and of course his fingerprints were on it. Does anyone know if there's a test to tell when the fingerprints were put on an object? I don't think so, but that would be pretty cool. Now, because of this incident, do you guys think that this will ruin his reputation as a good guy wide receiver? Do we now forget what he did before and just focus on this incident or do we remember him as one of the best wide receivers we've known in recent years?

Thursday, May 1, 2008

If April Showers Bring Mayflowers what do Mayflowers' bring?

More posts! Ha ha, I'm funny. Well, April was a little disappointing in the post department because i didn't do as many as in March, so I'll try to get more out this month. Well, my gf is away on vacation so while she's gone I've decided to watch some movies that I've enjoyed but haven't watched in a while and write a review of them. The first movie that I watched was Ong-Bak: The Thai Warrior. I LOVE martial arts movies. I've watched countless numbers of them and I also own a lot of them. The three biggest names in Martial Arts are Bruce Lee, Jackie Chan & Jet Li, even though you can't leave Chuck Norris far behind. Well, my favorite up and coming star is Tony Jaa. And you know what, I think he's better than any of them besides maybe Bruce Lee. See, the difference between Jackie & Jet from Tony is the fact that he does not use any ropes and he does all of his own stunts. Jackie used to do all of his stunts, but he's gotten older and the physical demand is too much. Well, Tony is young and he can handle all of it. Honestly, he's done stuff I've never seen before. Here is a pretty cool trailer for the movie(which came out in 2003) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mf42Nr5u6Ig. Now, the problem with all Martial Arts movies is that their plots are pretty simple and this one is too. But, the action in the movie is incredible. See most people who have watched Martial Arts movies are used to seeing either Kung Fu or Karate. Tony Jaa does Muay Thai, which is a different form in which the fighters use their elbows and knees a lot, so the action in this movie is a bit different than what most people are used to. The plot of the movie is this: Tony Jaa is from a small village in Thailand and a bad guy from Thailand has come to buy a buddha figurine from one of the villagers who decides not to sell it. To get back at the village, the bad guy(Don) cuts the head off of the local Budhist God, Ong-Bak. Well, everyone in the village believes that if they don't get the head back that the village will not prosper as they are in the middle of a drought and the water in the well is low. So, they send Tony to go get the head back. So, the adventure begins and throughout the movie Tony is able to show off his fighting and gymnastic skills. There are some very cool fighting scenes in an underground fight club. I would recommend this to anyone who wants to see some really sweet fights.

I have just one last comment on the NFl draft but I didn't need a separate post for it. I was really surprised that the packers drafted Brian Brohm in the second round. I'm not sure who I feel sorry for, Brian Brohm or Aaron Rodgers? Aaron Rodgers has been waiting for years to be the starter for the Packers, especially since it took Favre forever to retire. Now, when he finally gets the starting job the Pack go out and draft a qb in the second round? What's with that? Now, for Brohm he's going to a place that already drafted the qb of the future like 4 years ago. If he had been smart enough and had gone into the draft last year, he could have gone #1. Or at least the Falcons would have drafted him. Just think about it, last years draft would have been a lot different because you would have had 3 qb's going for the #1 pick and who's to say that the Raiders don't take Brohm #1? He had a better year statistically than either Quinn or Russell and he showed great stuff. With that saying, lets say that Russell still goes #1, I don't think that the Browns trade up to take Quinn in the first round and just wait for him to fall to them in the second round. And if he gets taken, I think that Brohm would have been there for them in the second round. See, Dallas had the #2 pick, which the Browns traded for. If they don't make that trade and Brohm and Quinn are still available, I just don't see Cleveland trading up. The only team that might take a qb is maybe Baltimore, but i don't think they would take a qb in the first round. If not them, then maybe Kansas City because I don't think they are totally sold on Brody Croyle. So, I can really only see one of the two qb's going in the late first round. So, instead of doing that, Brohm stayed in college and had the worst senior year someone could ask for and instead of being a top 3 pick, he falls to the second round and could probably be a career backup. It's tough to say.