Thanks to neogaf user Grimm Fandango I now am the proud owner of a Little Big Planet beta key. Liz and I played for awhile tonight and its pretty awesome. We played this one user made level where you had to control a crane machine using 3 people at once to control it. It was really great. I cant wait to play some more of it tomorrow.
Last night I went to see Weezer play at the All State Arena in Rosemont.
Tokyo Police Club started the night off. I am already a fan of them so hearing them live was great. They put on a really good show and sounded great. They played a lot of songs off of A Lesson in Crime, which is the album of theirs that I have. So that was cool. It made me want to pick up their newest album Elephant Shell, which I probably will do today. Their show was energetic and fun. There was one point in the night where the keyboardist's thing fell off its stand and he was playing another one next to it and holding that one up with his leg. It was pretty sweet.
After TKP was finished Angels & Airwaves came out. I thought they sounded a lot like Blink 182, and that the lead singer looked like he was a douche. He kept holding his arms out like he was jesus, reaching his hands out to the crowd, and doing all sorts of stupid stuff like walking in slow motion across the stage. I got the "I am a big douchebag" from his stage antics. I would find out later that the singer was indeed Tom DeLonge from Blink 182 and that rumors are he is a douche.
Finally Weezer took the stage. They were decked out in white jumpsuits and Rivers was still sporting his mustache. They started off with My name is Jonas, which Rivers ended in spanish ("Me llamo Jonas") which was funny. They played Suzanne, and then Say it ain't So next. Both songs were awesome. They they took off the white jump suits to reveal red track suits with "Weezer" written in white on the back. I dont really remember the order of the songs after this but they also played Dreamin', El Scorcho, Dope Nose, Hash Pipe, Pink Triangle, King, Automatic, Troublemaker, Greatest Man that Ever Lived, Whats the Story Morning Glory (Oasis cover), and Undone (where the Blink 182 guy came out and sang the first verse).
I'm not sure if I missed any but I'll update it later if I did. After the main set they went off stage, came back and played Island in the Sun, and Beverly Hills with a big group of weezer fans they had gotten a local radio station to scrounge up and bring their instruments. It was pretty awesome. They left the stage again and there was a spotlight in the middle of the stage. A roadie brought out a red record player with the weezer W on the inside of the lid and put on a red album vinyl playing Heart Songs. Right where it was getting to the part about Rivers discovering Nirvana and wanting to make music he ran out and kicked it and then they played Sliver (Nirvana cover). After that they closed it up with Buddy Holly and the big LED screen behind them switched to the Weezer W. It was an awesome show.
When I get it into my head that I want to buy something it quickly becomes an obsessive desire to get it immediately. Recently I had been toying with the idea of getting a new Digital SLR camera. Over the past few days I figured out what camera I want (an Olympus Evolt E520), and today I am struggling against purchasing it. I really shouldn't because lately I've had to make a bunch of other large purchases (couch, suit, plane tickets, wedding presents, etc.) so my financials aren't very hot right now. This new credit card is giving me evil thoughts however. I think, despite my techno-pain I am going to hold off till '09 to pick it up.
WipEout was one of the first games I remember playing for the original Playstation back in 1995. I remember it being hard as hell, yet somehow I still came to enjoy it. Recently, WipEout's success has been confined mostly to the portible gaming scene with the previous entries (WipEout Pure and Pulse). WIpEout HD changes that and brings it back to the Playstation's flagship system, the Playstation 3.
WipEout HD is way cheaper at $20 than I ever thought it would be when I first heard about it. After playing it, the reverse sticker shock is even more severe. With online multiplayer, an AWESOME picture mode (which I used to take the screenshot above), and a huge campaign, a bunch of tracks, car skins, an unlockable 2097 HUD WipEout HD does not disappoint as far as features go. I have a feeling I'll be playing this game for a long time to come. Hopefully in that time I'll get better at it again.
And in the email you send them write a short description of a level you'd like to create in LBP. Thats it! I hope I get in. I'd like to write some impressions of the game here on "the shop".
So last night I picked up Aurora Faint for the iPod Touch/iPhone. Its fucking awesome. It is a puzzle RPG much like puzzle quest. You can only move your blocks left and right and are trying to match 3 or more in a row to clear them. You level up, earn abilities and collect resources by clearing blocks. You can twist the iPod around so that all the blocks fall to whatever the new "bottom" is and then you can move left and right again. This lets you move blocks vertically in the grid. Its a really awesome game and I almost missed my train stop today because of it. Oh, and its free.
I also just picked up WipEout HD for the PS3. Its still downloading but I'll try to get some impressions of it up tomorrow.
Earlier today 1up posted that Valve will not be bringing all the new TF2 content over to the PS3 version of the game. Being someone that plays TF2 on both PS3 and PC this is pretty upsetting to me. Apparently EA cant be bothered to port the stuff over either. Thanks assholes. Thanks for nothin'!
So last night while setting up the new iPod Touch for wi-fi I noticed the signal of 2 other PS3s within range. I guess some if my neighbors have picked em up recently.
So I got my new iPod Touch. I am typing this on it right now, in fact! I really love the new form factor and the built in speaker and hardware volume rocker are great. The screen has slightly better color than my version 1 iPod Touch, and I may be imagining things but it seems like wi-fi is drainging the battery a lot slower as well (though that would make sense because they've extended the battery life from 22 to 36 hours). I haven't picked up a nike+ receiver yet, so I haven't tested that out. Overall I'm pretty damn happy with the upgrade. Most people probably wouldn't get as much out of the extra features as I do, but if you don't have version 1 it is definitly worth it.
So I decided to sell my iPod Touch on ebay so that I could upgrade to the newest model of it. Since the conference I have been thinking about getting an iPod nano to use while at the gym, but the new iPod touch comes with the reciever built in and has other updates like the internal speaker and the volume buttons on the side. If I could upgrade my iPod to the latest version for about the amount that I was planning on paying for an iPod nano I think it is going to be worth it to me. Lets do this!
Vizio, as far as budget TVs go, are among the best. I have had a model VU42LF for about 9 months now and its been fantastic. My one complaint with it was that I sometimes noticed what looked like flickering in some kinds of scenes. I couldn't figure out what was going on so I tried adjusting the back-light and it didn't help. I decided a few weeks ago to look through some of the advanced picture settings and I turned off all of the dynamic stuff. It fixed it. I guess it was trying to dynamically adjust brightness and in certain mid light scenes it would switch back and fourth. Anyway, now I'm pretty damn pleased, though I wish I had figured this out while we were watching Planet Earth on Blu-ray.
Today Shawn Elliott announced his departure from 1up.com so that he could go work at 2k Boston (the team behind BioShock). This is just the latest in a long line including Jeff Green, Dan Hsu, Patrick Klepek, Crispen Boyer, Luke Smith, John Davison, Karen Chu, and Brian Intihar to leave the videogame website. It's sad because through their fantastic podcasts, and The 1up Show us listeners/watchers/readers develop a kind of familiarity with EGM's and 1up's Editors and Staff.
My favorite podcast is now all but dismantled with the loss of Jeff and Shawn. It was good while it lasted.
Mega 64 does a Parappa the Rapper skit. Pretty good. The guy at the end is a douche.
I ordered a new couch from Crate & Barrel months ago. Well it finally came yesterday and I wanted to give the my old couch away on Craigslist. I posted a picture and a description of it and got a bunch of responses. The first guy flaked out both Saturday and Sunday but I emailed one of the other people on the list and she and some of her friends came and picked it up tonight. I'm glad it went to some normal people and not some weirdos or something. Anyway, they get a new couch and I dont have to pay for a bulk pickup. Win/Win.
The original Crysis was a really good game in my opinion – Not Halflife 2 good, but it was fun. After my initial playthrough I lost the key, and had to get another one to play around with it some more... It was a pain in the ass. Key losing will no longer be an issue for people who buy Crysis or its upcoming sequel/retelling Crysis Warhead because they just announced that both games are coming to Steam, which rocks. F you keys! I still dont see why every publisher doesnt just let their games go up on steam. Its a much better situation for customers.
