Heavy Rain review

Finally. One of the most anticipated games of 2010 was released this past Tuesday, February 23rd. But does it live up to the hype and expectations? Heavy Rain, not only does so but mows down all of those as well. Heavy Rain is the story of a serial killer who is going around abducting young children and murdering them by allowing them to drown. The story revolves around four different characters who are all connected through the murders. And each of them plays out in a different genre of film. No not game, film. To say Heavy Rain is a "Game" in a traditional sense, would be a wrong classification. The developer, Quantic Dream, calls it an "interactive narritive", while this isnt exactly the most sexiest of terms, it is what it is. The entire game is played out through Quick Time Events(QTE) which if you dont know are usually, as seen in Resident Evil 5, are an interactive cutscene that requires you to press a button at a precise time and depending on if you hit it or not, you either succeede or fail. However unlike other games, if you miss a button press, the scene dosent rewind back and allow you to hit it again, in order to get it right, the story keeps going. It keeps going even the event of a death of one of the characters. Quantic Dream's development team has stated that plays should only play through it once, because the character death's are perminant, in the current play through, and playing it once is like life. But you wont want to do that.
With all the different outcomes it makes you want to play it more to see what happens. A friend of mine who has the game, had a different ending, and story all together because we both did different things. I lost a character, he didnt. He chose to shoot someone that I did not, etc. It makes the game interesting. And gives something to players that very few games have, an individual story. It makes it like your own personal game, yours will be different from others, giving you and other plays a unique take on the Heavy Rain game.

As I stated, each character plays out as a different style of a movie.

Ethan Mars an architect whose son has been kid-napped, and hes giving clues on where to go, and things to do in order to save him. Ethan's story plays out a little like a horror movie. Not so much in the slasher style, but more of a psychological theme. He must crawl over glass, walk through an electrical field, kill a drug dealer, etc. It plays out somewhat like the Saw movies, only less gruesome.
Scott Shelby is a Private Detective investigating the case of the Origami Killer, the name of the serial killer. His story plays out more like a old Humphrey Bogart movie. He runs leads, tracks down suspects. Hell his car and house look like they come right out of the fifties. He is joined by a young woman named Lauren Winters, whose child was also kidnapped by the killer, and killed before the events of the game. Together they form a team, bent on finding the killer.

Norman Jayden is a FBI agent who comes to the city to help the local police with the case. His parts play out like a cop movie, something like The Departed. He dosen't get along at all with the people hes working for, and has a nasty run in with a man named Mad Jack. The only thing missing from Jayden's story is Mark Walhberg.

"Maybe, maybe not. Maybe fuck yourself"

Madison Paige is a concerned third party, so to speak, who finds Ethan hurt and helps him get better, while tracking down some leads of her own. Her story plays out like a thriller. And is easily the most intense of all the game.

The gameplay, well isnt as easy as you think for a bunch of QTEs. The button presses sometimes are so far apart from each other when you have to press more than one, making harder. But this only happens in a really intense situation, so its not like walking is going to have this style of button presses; giving you a sense of rewarding. Because when your in trouble, and those buttons come up, well it looks like you wont survive. And when you do, it gives you an overwhelming feeling of winning. And when you dont, well. You feel bad. But there are also happy moments. Especially the ending, which I wont reveal. But its as close to coming to crying that I have come to, playing a VIDEO GAME. Never, ever have I ever thought about doing that while playing a game. But this one evokes that Much emotion. It wasn't enough to make me shed a tear, but still I think you get the point. There are some downfalls however. Sometimes it seems the button presses dont match up when you press them. And it does becoming incredibly difficult in intense situations. It's not something to take lightly like any other game. It's hard, and dosent get any easier as you continue. Overall, this is a reason to own a PS3 I believe. Along with some other games. Basically:

Heavy Rain + Metal Gear Solid 4 + Uncharted 2 = why the fuck don't you own a PS3?

Heavy Rain for the Playstation 3 gets a 5/5.

Next Day Air [REVIEW]

Heavy cocaina shawty. Next Day Air is the first film in awhile to revive the coke-flick, and one of the few to take a comedic approach to it. It's no Scarface or New Jack City, and Benny Boom, a great music video director, is certainly no Brian De Palma or Mario Van Peebles; however, the lighter approach taken to the genre is refreshing, and the cast of black and hispanic actors are all up-to-standards, and in certain cases, above (why doesn't Mike Epps get more roles like this? Why doesn't Mike Epps get a genuinely good comedy script that focuses on him as the star? Such a squandering of good talent).

Next Day Air is collage film that takes cues from the Tarantino-style of film building, meshing together multiple stories about gangsters and gentlemen (or in this case, NDA workers who smoke too much hashis on their deliveries), and have them all meet up in the end for the obligatory shoot-out. Some directors have made a career out of this Tarantinosplotation; Guy Richie being the most famous, and successful of these, Joe Carnahan another. While many try to immitate Quentin to mockingly bad results, Benny Boom makes the adaption to the big screen transition much smoother than I originally expected. Although none of the film-making is breath taking, or even down-right compelling, the sense of comedic-timing is there, and most of the shoots are decent enough, especially the derivative shoot-out near the end.

As I said before, the acting is very competent, something rarely seen in these types of comedies outside the obvious notable exceptions (Friday, uh... Barbershop?). Mike Epps is fantastic in his role as Brodie, and his homeboy, Guch, played by Wood Harris. Donald Faison, of Scrubs, is humorous in the lead role, although not nearly as eye-grabbing as his fellow NDA associate, Mos Def, is in his few scene-stealing moments. Yasmin Deliz is beautiful, and provides her job as eye-candy throughout the film; she's a decent young actress who I hope to see more of (and I mean that literally). Omari Hardwick is the real star of this film though; he has a presence that most of his peers on this film lack, and his character, Shavoo, is probably my favorite in the film. He reminds me of a young Denzel, and with roles in both Kick-Ass and the A-Team in 2010, it looks like he's on for far greater things.

Not this great, though.

The score is nothing memorable, and the movie does lack that laugh-out-loud type of humor that it so desperately craves; it's a good film, which provides a few smiles, but at times it may've sufficed better with darker humor. The characters were mostly too hardened to believe they were as genuinely stupid as they were portrayed, but I guess at the same time, if this film wasn't light-hearted it's comedic approach might've gotten lost in all the drug-dealing shenanigans. Although I appreciate the approach at a cocaine-comedy, it really turned out about as well as you'd expect it to; unless you're listening to Gucci Mane, it's hard to find trapping funny. And this movie lacks all of the deadpan hilarity found in a lot of the hip-hop based on the same subject matter.

Overall, Next Day Air's definitely worth a watch if you can find it cheap, as it's a decent comedy, and even better if you're interested in the genre this film falls under. I'll be watching it again, and can see myself enjoying it more upon consecutive views; however, it's nothing groundbreaking, and it doesn't set out to be.

Trap Goin' Ham

Maybe it's because my favorite rapper's in jail (Gucci Mane), and everyone else I bumped last year is either there with him (Max B, Lil' Wayne, Lil Boosie), recovering from getting shot (Waka Flocka Flame), losing any insight of what made their music infectious (OJ Da Juiceman, Gorilla Zoe, Shawty Lo), or just, not doing anything at the moment (Drake, Kid Cudi, Jay Electronica, Kanye West), but I've been reaching out for new hip-hop artists to check out; not neccessarily new as in the unheard of sense, but emcees I haven't given a proper chance.

Maybe it's because since then, I've been listening to lyrically lyrical acts like Atmosphere, old Mobb Deep, Mos Def, Curren$y, and the like - those rappers the rest of the blogosphere wet their panties for everytime they mention a new project. I'm not a fan of most of these rappers, as the skinny-jean hipster demographic isn't the one I belong to, even if some of my favorite rappers fall under that horribly mislabeled sub-genre. Which is why duke I'm about to cover (ayo) today seems like a perfect fit for me; a street-level rapper who seems to be bewilderingly adored by journalists who listen to Animal Collective and Aesop Rock, and probably knew who Owl City were long before that fucking Fireflies song gave me the urge to kill each and every nuthuggingdenimfaggot out there.

Pill - "Trap Goin Ham" from The Educated Villains on Vimeo.

Dude's name is Pill, and he's the (former) weed-carrier of (former) OutKast weed-carrier Killer Mike. Despite the fact that he was once a weed carrier's weed carrier, and hardly even third-tier in the hip-hop echelon, Pill has recently become more relevant than his mentor Killer Mike, and even, dare I say, OutKast. At the very least, Pill gets more media attention everytime he drops a new track than Big Boi does, mainly because Pill's actually going to drop his debut album, and Sir Luscious Left Foot feels like a pipe dream that'll never come to fruition. The above track, Trap Goin' Ham, is the track that caught Pill all this love in the New York Times and the New Yorker, amongst other credible sources for what Starbucks-going, beret wearing folks should be listening to when they want their tastes to be a little more "multi-cultural."

I was not feeling this track, nor Pill, at all when I first heard it. To me, it feels like Pill is trying far too hard to be a lyrical trap rapper; a dude who wears baggy jeans, sells crack, and rolls around the hood fucking underage bitches (well, basically) with a bandana sticking out of his pocket who still appeals to hipsters because he feels kinda bad about it. A trapper the blogs could champion because he's not as pop as T.I., as materialistic as Gucci, as raw as Jeezy, or as fake as Ross; despite the fact that all four of those rappers are much more engaging, and generally, better overall artists.

Basically, he's like Waka Flocka, if you stripped Waka of his adlibs and personality, and gave him a conscious and a dictionary. Most people would derail me, and have me hung upside down from the Sears Tower if they saw me make such a comparison, but it's the truth. Both are stylistically similar, both are from Atlanta, both of them trap; shit, they almost look alike, if you don't take into account that Waka's 8' tall and Pill hasn't done a photoshoot that hasn't involved a box of Ritz crackers.

 

Gutter.

However, as evidenced here, and on the rest of his 4075: The Refill mixtape, Pill actually is a great rapper. Although he's not the most interesting of rapper, and seems to fall under the Pitchfork/okayplayer umbrella simply because he's an impoverished youth who channels the pain in his hood and virtually nothing else (as great as he is, Pill reminds me a lot of Mobb Deep on the Infamous/Hell On Earth; a gritty hustler who has no semblance on the idea of "having fun"). It also helped that Andre 3000 co-signed him (but didn't he technically co-sign DJ Unk, too?).

So, yes, my hate of hipsters trying to steal my music has once again made me ignorantly reject a talented emcee; I issue an apology to Pill. Although he's not the God-send folks make him out to be, Pill is a highly-skilled rapper who has the concept of song-making down and also has more than one-dimension to his being. That's something a lot of his peers can't say, especially the song-making part. Give him a chance.

Resident Evil 5: Lost in Nightmares Review

A few days ago I saw on the PSN that Capcom just released its first of two announced Resident Evil 5 episode DLC. I got mad at myself for trading in my copy of it to purchase something else, but today I stumbled upon something on Xbox Live. In addition to the DLC, Xbox is offering Resident Evil 5 as apart of it's "Games on Demand" line, best 30 dollars I've spent all year. So I got me a new copy of the game through Xbox, and the DLC. Along with Lost in Nightmares you get a new mode called "Mercenaries Reunion" with Barry Burton from the first RE game, and some new achievements to earn. The gameplay dosent stray away from Resident Evil 5's gameplay at all. Though there is a supposedly hidden easter egg that unlocks the Resident Evil static camera from the first game, if you dont want to play under 4 and 5's over the shoulder perspective.

The Story goes from a point in the actual RE5 game where Chris Tells Shiva about the last time him and Jill worked together. And that's where Lost in Nightmares picks up. Chris and Jill Valentine are sent to a Mansion to capture Spencer Ashford (I believe?) by the BSAA. Once inside, some old memories come back to them. You half expect a dog to come crashing through the windows down the hallway. After you spend the first few minutes inside the mansion, you go underground to the basment. And Discover all the experiments that Spencer has been conducting on people. While there you encouter 5 giant monsters carring what looks like an anchor that he swings at you. 3 of them you'll have to trap to kill in order to get a collection of items that turn into a key. And after that you meet up with the most vile man in Resident Evil.

Albert Wesker. Seriously, I LOVE that name, it's so good I wish I thought of it. Anyway, names aside. Wesker is the boss in this chapter. And pretty much plays like he did in the main game for Resident Evil 5, well the first time you mean. You really don't defeat him. Infact, when you first see him in LM, it starts the cutscene from RE5 that Chris tells Shiva about, and after the fight it finishes the same cutscene. Overall this isnt anything that's gonna add hours upon hours of gameplay to RE5, but it's a nice addition. The Lost Nightmare Chapter lasts about an hour and a half to two hours of game play, depending on how long you get lost in the basement maze. I never ever, use maps in games, but I had to for this part of the game. The cost you're gonna be spending on this DLC is about 5.00. Not to bad, but you get what you pay for. Long time Resident Evil fans will rejoice at the team up of Chris and Jill again, along with the dialouge that references the first game. New comers will enjoy it as well, if you loved RE5. And by the way, in total to Download the game, and the DLC it cost me about 36. Dollars, however know that in the next month Capcom will be releasing Resident Evil 5: Gold Edition. WIth Lost in Nightmares, and the second DLC content on the disc as well. If you don't own Resident Evil 5, and dont want to get it from Games on Demand I suggest you wait for Gold Edition. On the other hand this is a nice little addition to RE5 if you do have a copy, or want to download the game from Xbox live. Lost in Nightmares does leave a lot to be desired. But the experience isnt too bad, its so-so. Resident Evil 5: Lost in Nightmares for the Xbox 360 gets a 3/5.

I just wanna be a big rock star

Dear god, did I just title this post after a line from a Nickelback song? Yes, yes I did. God save me. Anyway. This is my second installment of Cheap Ass Video Game Reviews, featuring Rock Band, which you can pick up at Gamestop for 12.99(Used, disc only). I mentioned before I used to have a PS3 before I got my current one, and one of the games I had for it was Guitar Hero World Tour. Now after I traded in my old PS3 for my Xbox, I Kept the World Tour set because I knew I would get a PS3 again eventually, and I did not want it to go to waste. Recently I've been using the set to play Guitar Hero Metallica, but after discovering through various websites that the Guitar Hero controllers will indeed work with Rock Band I decided to pick up a copy of it myself since it was so cheap, and I already played through the song list on Metallica. And indeed the controllers work very well, so dont waste over 400 dollars buying both sets, they'll work just fine.

It took me a second to get used to the presentation of Rock Band vs. Guitar Hero because I had never played a Rock Band game before, so I was all set and ready for the little circles coming down the highway, instead of the rectangles. Really and truly theres not much to say about this game, but thats not a bad thing. If you played one music game, essentally you've played them all. They're just different songs, and for 13 bucks its really not a bad deal if you're bored with your current set list. Some things stick out like a sore thumb in this game though, like how come the bass player in my 'band' looks totally out of place, and retarded? They have a solo mechanic that seems about as tacked on as a guitar solo in a recent Metallica song. It just seems there because "hey, these songs have solos, lets make this part of the board light up!" and dosent offer much for spontanatey like many bands do live when playing, you know doing something a little different in the solos to get a rise from the crowd. The solo mechanic dosen't add much, but its not bad or anything either.

The game's career mode is about the same as Guitar Hero's. You'll start off with some easy songs, and when I mean easy I mean like God Damn, theres no inspiration from these bands easy. All of the songs you begin with are Punk songs, and not from any good Punk bands aside from the Clash. And every single one is so predictable it just leaves you waiting for the real challenge to kick in. But as with all Band games, it's quite addicting, to me at least. You just cant stop playing, because you want to play some of your favorite songs that are listed on the game. Overall this game is good, and not bad for 12.99 (Used, disc only). Rock Band for the PS3 gets a 4/5.

Excalibur's Edge III: Gimmick Pay-Per-Views

Today WWE's official website was updated with the following Pay-Per-View Schedule:

March 28: Wrestlemania 26
April 25: Extreme Rules
May 23: WWE Wild Card
June 20: Fatal Four Way
July 18: Money in the Bank
August 15: Summer Slam
September 19: Night of Champions
October 3: Hell in a Cell

Some names dropped, (Backlash, Judgement Day, The Bash) And some were shifted around (Extreme Rules, Night of Champions) but also three were added in place of the three dropped (Fatal Four Way, Money in the Bank, and Wild Card) I have no Idea what this "Wild Card" Pay-Per-View event will be, but the other two are what concerns me. Last year, 2009, WWE held five ladder matches on pay-per-view over the course of the year. Four too many I believe, then to top it off they held a pay-per-view event centered around Ladder Matches. Why? This In My Opinion shows complete lack of faith in the talent and how it will end up hurting the company in the long term. Welcome to:

Excalibur's Edge III: Gimmick Pay-Per-Views


Vince McMahon is someone many will be quick to point the finger at and go "Wtf? really?" but I don't believe he is to blame. As of this moment he is acting CEO of World Wrestling Entertainment INC. Due to Lind McMahon and her political hopes of sitting at the senate. Vince McMahon is a busy man, especially more so now that he has to take over Linda's Job as CEO. And if you don't know what a CEO of a major corporation does, especially if that corporation is owned by a McMahon, basically the job is to keep track of the companies vision, handle external forces that either help or hurt said company, and keep everyone in line, basically. If your last name's McMahon that also means you probably don't get anymore than 3 hours of sleep, if you're lucky. Because the McMahon's are some of the most involved businessmen/women in their own company, there's no "Eh, Ill take care of it later" mentality in the office if your a McMahon. Vince Russo said in an interview once that Vince was always the first person at the office, and the last to leave. Now he probably dosen't leave.

And many say, Russo and Jim Cornette among them, that Vince surrounds himself with "Yes Men", people who tell him what he wants to hear, not what he needs to hear, but when he gets the chance to breathe from all the chaos his life might be right now he'll take a moment to realize that what he's hearing isnt what he needs, he's just waiting for someone to challenge that "Yes Man" mentality. So to combat sagging Pay-Per-View buy rates, in a down turned economy, the decision seems to have been made to put on Gimmick Pay-Per-Views. Which for the short term, like any hot-shotting, will work, but in the long term will not pay off. And here's why I believe so. WWE currently charges around 40 dollars for their Pay-per-view(PPV) events. They run one a month, sometimes two. If you're the type of person that loves wrestling period with a disposable income, you're spending around 80 dollars a month on the product, 110, if you buy TNA's and I wont go into how much you're spending if you buy UFC events when they have them.

So give or take a few dollars, you're spending on average 40 dollars or more a month on a wrestling PPV. Now this Extreme Rules PPV is coming up following Wrestlemania, one of the "extreme" matches that WWE usually promotes is a Ladder Match, so that's one you can mark down. Now, if two individuals get into an intense program, its 99.9 percent possible the final match between them will end with a ladder match, which you can mark as two. Not to mention the Money in The Bank match at Wrestlemania, and another one with a PPV dedicated soley to it, thats 4. Then at the end of the year, guess what? The Ladder Match PPV. Now, do you really want to pay 40 dollars for a match you've seen four times already? It would be like if you bought a DVD, 20 dollars, but everytime you watched it you had to pay 20 dollars. No one would do that unless they just had heaps of disposable income. Which most of us don't.

So, what it will end up doing is killing the match. Whose gonna pay that much money for a match you've seen 4 or more times already? Probably involving the same people. Not only that but it in my opinion, takes the excitement out of the storyline the two men are involved in. Take the recent Hell in a Cell pay-per-view. Now. The match of John Cena/Randy Orton I believe warranted one of those matches because the two had been feuding for a while, off and on over the course of a few years. But the other one? CM Punk and Undertaker. When did they ever had a match of any significance that warranted a Hell in a Cell match, aside from the only match they had together one month prior. The hell in a cell match, I believe, has always been the trump card that no one wants to use. But when something gets so intense, where two people hate each other one of two things seems to always happen. Either A: Someone like Vince, or Eric Bischoff, got tired of the two men having matches, and getting cheated, or ruining their show with the excessive brawling that they felt there was no other choice but to make it a hell in a cell. The other thing that would happen (B:) was that one of the wrestlers involved would do something so desperate, that the other would call hell in a cell. The ultimate evil. The Atomic Bomb of wrestling matches.

It made it exciting, it made it unpredictable. But guess what? Next October you already know whats gonna happen. If John Cena and Triple H are in a storyline together guess what? It's gonna be in a Hell in a Cell match. Wheres the excitement, wheres the build? wheres the damn story? WWE thinks it's some sort of entertainment company, which in truth they are, but they're wrestling. The people outside of the McMahons need to realize that you just cant do that shit in wrestling, because well, heres an analogy. Back in the day, like in the 50s, 60s, etc. Wrestling promoters would do a midget match once a year. This was something a lot of people hadn't seen before so when they did the matches, they'd get a huge turn out. Eventually someone got the bright idea to have a bunch more than usual. And what happened? Well, it killed that match. It wasnt a special attraction anymore. And that is what will happen with these gimmick pay-per-views. Even if there is a compelling story involved, in time itll just become over saturation. But I understand too, the branding they're trying to do.

The Royal Rumble, is the January tradition. It's what gets you excited for Wrestlemania. 30 men compete for the main event title shot at Wrestlemania. They're trying to do the same for "Elimination Chamber" This is the second year they've had two championship chamber matches on the same show, in a row. They're trying to build the February PPV up as the Champions last shot to headline Wrestlemania, almost as if its a tournament style program, where your challenger wins his big match, then the champion wins theirs so now you know for sure whose gonna be in the main event. That's what they're trying to do with these other events, as well as boost sales, is so Hell in a Cell, becomes a "Fall tradition", much like Survivor Series is WWE's Thanksgiving tradition, and so on and so forth. It's a commendable idea in reality, but over using gimmick matches just kills them. I think what? TNA's ran like 50 Ultimate X matches, and now I personally could care less about the match. They run like 10 a year. And Lockdown itself is just a reason to gimmick, a gimmick match if you get me.

This is, in my opinion, just like hot-shotting a title belt. Belts in wrestling don't mean anything anymore. With gaurenteed contracts and such, the Champion won't make anymore money with or without that belt, but to make things interesting you can't have everyone win it in the span of a month. It makes the title look too easy to win, and thus kills any heat between the two guys fighting for it because, most people would think "oh well, Edge is going to win the belt tonight, cause Randy won it last month, and Cena won it the month before. " It takes the fun out of, if someone will win it or not. I believe its ok for two guys to play hot-potatoe with the belt, if and only if they're the only ones trading it, because it just shows that those two guys are on an equal level.

Got off on a tanget. but you get the idea, or you should. Running a gimmick pay-per-view, more than one anyway, for me takes the fun out of the story. And well, I dont know many people who'd be willing to pay 40 dollars for the same thing they just saw a month ago.

D-Lo - No Hoe (remix) (feat. E-40, Beeda Weeda & The Jacka) [Video]

The official song of Valentine's Day 2009. E-40 essentially kills this track. D-Lo's chorus is as much gibberish as it's ever been, especially in censored form (DLAH, DLAH, DLAH GIVE **** BOUT NAH HAH). I'm not sure why people from the Bay Area can't speak proper English (so many of them sound like Keak Da Sneak's offspring), perhaps it's something in the water? That would explain all the fucked up Californians I've met in my life. None of them remotely as cool as 40 Water, or decisively deranged as D-Lo, but they've been some weird fucks regardless.

Beeda Weeda does okay himself, pretty unremarkable. Jacka, who is apparently some type of God in the Bay Area, also compliments the song with his signature flow. I haven't listened to Jacka since his debut, The Jack Artist, dropped back in '05, and he was talking about purple-kush on that Barney track. That song slapped, regardless.

Anyway, this was on D-Lo's debut, The Tonite Show With D-Lo, which I've still yet to check out fully, and I suppose it's also being used to hype his upcoming major label (?) debut. If anything, it's got me far more excited for E-40's duel-albums dropping in March, Revenue Retrievin': Day Shift & Night Shift.