CBVGR: Darksiders

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Script: Welcome to the Clearance Bin Video Game Review by Organized Remains. Darksiders is the game I'm playing today. This game just came out in January, but you can find it for $20 used or $40 new. I'm playing it for the PS3, but it's also available for the 360. It also will be available for the PC in June for $40.

Take the role of War, one of the Four Horsemen who is followed by The Watcher to help you throughout your journey. The game starts off telling you the Seventh Seal is broken, and that's a big problem. You are summoned to Earth to fix everything up, and to make sure everyone has a nice day, colon right parentheses.

In order to make sure everyone has a nice day, you must kill kill, and kill some more. Tons of enemies in this game, and a lot of different ones may I add. Some require a few slashes, while some require some strategy to kill. The enemies in this game looked really cool, as for my character... it might just be me, but I think he could have been cooler looking.

The game also offers powers, a guy to buy weapons and upgrades from, and wings to glide around with. We've all seen this stuff before, but that doesn't mean Darksiders is a waste. It also offers some nice puzzles to the game. After seeing tons and tons of enemies, and getting bored with that, the puzzles are a nice break from all the action. Think Tomb Raider, but a guy, giant sword, and all hell has broken loose... ok don't think Tomb Raider.

The map to this game can get to be pretty big during the game, and the scenery looks really nice if you're into "the world is coming to an end" scenery. While I have not beaten the game yet, I have read that it will take around 20 hours, so that's not bad for a $20 game.

Final Say: When I've played a game for a couple of hours, and I'm still having fun with it, I know that the game is worth the pick-up from the Clearance Bin. While killing enemy after enemy might get a little tiresome, the puzzles will keep you glued to the screen. So if you like adventure, killing tons of demons, figuring out puzzles, and a game that you won't beat in just one afternoon. $20 for Darksiders is not a bad price, and if you see this video awhile after it has been out, it will probably be around the $10 price. Also paying the full price of $40 at their website would show support for a second Darksiders, and that would not be a bad thing colon right parentheses.

Organized Remain's Video Games

I discovered a website called Backloggery. This is where you can post your video game collection, and tell if you have beat it, completed it (100%), or haven't finished a game. I see it as almost a to-do list. Also you can post what games you are currently working on.

While I am very far from finishing this collection, I have put all my DS, Wii, and PS3 games on there. I still have to put my 360 games, Playstation Network, PS2, PS1, PSP, PC, GameCube, Xbox 1, Dreamcast, Genesis, Sega Game Gear, N64, SNES, and NES games on there. So keep checking back, but I will let you know when I'm finished. Then we can see how many games I own... I'm kind of scared to find out. I also plan to add a bunch of games that I have borrowed, or rented to the list. That way you can see my rating for these games.

http://backloggery.com/main.php?user=organizedremains

Also just to help you figure out the site, you can click the Wii, PS3, ect. and view all the games I have for that system. If the game has a Black circle with a white line next to it, that means it's a game that I am done with, but never completed. Also it could be a game that you can't beat (The Sims for example).

Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs Review

image from Amazon

Premise:
Flint Lockwood is a crazy young scientist trying to come up with the perfect invention to save his small no-name town from obscurity and financial collapse. Flint hits a gold mine when he invents a machine that transforms water into whatever food item you program it for, and the success is particularly exasperated when the device is launched into the clouds, making it rain the food programmed. Things go great for a while with Flint become a town hero, but as the town is a on the brink of really profiting from the discovery, things go horribly awry with the machine.


Standouts:
A negative point I noticed right off the bat was how similar Flint's pet monkey Steve reminded me of Doug from the movie Up. Both films feature animals that speak in simplistic messages, making the idea of an animal-to-human translator great satire, but Up does it way better. That's probably my only complaint. The first two-thirds of Cloudy are pretty above average and I thought I could see the appeal of the film. Then the third and final part of Cloudy came up and blew the first two thirds out of the water, solidifying why this movie was so well acclaimed. I would sit through this whole movie again just to watch the last third of the film where every character becomes incredibly meaningful and well defined.


My Highlights:
What made the last third of the movie so spectacular, beside great allusions to great movies and great stunt choreography for an animated film, was how everyone (barring one exception) turned into a well-rounded action hero. Bullying police officer with a passionate love for his son, Earl Devereaux (Mr. T.) single-handedly saves his family from a tidal wave of food. Infamous teen-celeb Brent McHale (Andy Samberg) becomes a man-chicken hybrid and fends off a hoard of chickens to save the main characters. But my all time favorite scene from this movie, one that will definitely be carried with me for years to come is the scene involving Flint's dad, who's generally stoic and too suborn to try to engage his son's life, reveals why he's always been so distant:





Overall Rating:
The animation was great, the choreography spectacular, the casting was all-star and the voice-acting wasn't too shabby. The only thing that could have made this film better was if the first two thirds of the film had the extra "umph", but still managed to tell a great story, be very cute and quirky, and get a few chuckles on its own merit. The ending to the movie was the cherry on the ice cream however and earned this movie a solid 4 1/2 *'s out of 5, or 9 *'s out of 10.


When You Should See It:
I didn't see this movie with kids of my own, or kids in general. This wasn't a babysitting experience or anything, and I still had a fantastic experience watching this movie. Put it at the top of your queue; yes, even above all your blow-em-up, shooter actions and blood-curdling horrors. And if you've got kids, then great, you'll both love it together!

Iron Maiden: Flight 666 Review

Source of Image
Before Watching: This summer there is a Rush documentary that I am looking very forward to. In the trailer they said that the makers made an Iron Maiden documentary, so I decided to check that out as I'm a big Iron Maiden fan.

Premise: Travel around the world in 45 days with heavy-metal legends Iron Maiden as they play 23 sold-out stadium shows from Asia to South America, battle the rigorous demands of an ambitious touring schedule, and even pilot their own custom-made airplane. Filmed during the Somewhere Back in Time world tour, this documentary grants viewers unprecedented access to the band members as they entertain nearly half a million fans. (Taken from Netflix)

My Highlights: The band Iron Maiden... duh. All the concert video, and interviews were great. Also the priest that has 162 Iron Maiden tattoos, and puts Iron Maiden lyrics into his sermons. On the blu-ray they had the documentary of the world tour, plus they also had another section where you can just watch each song from the line up live!

Overall Rating: The documentary does an amazing job showing the 45 day world tour of Iron Maiden. It's the most perfect Iron Maiden documentary you can ask for. I'm giving this film 5*'s out of 5 for showing the dedication going into this tour.

When You Should See It: If you're an Iron Maiden fan, or a metal fan, this documentary should not be missed. Go put it on the Queue!

Dilbert: The Movie

According to Slash Film a live-action film based on the comic strip Dilbert is in the works. Apparently the leading choice to play Dilbert is The Office's John Krasinski, who's likely to turn down the role due to strong, strong typecasting. So I'm going to ignore the rest of the facts about this movie and just make my own because I'm smart and no one else is.


A few years ago, I'd of said there's only one Dilbert.

Drew Carey!

However Drew's getting on in years and Hollywood's likely looking for someone younger, but if Drew Carey has no involvement it will have made his entire character on his show a waste! So I'd assign him to the character of bumbling balding, glasses-wearing mega-lazy best friend of Dilbert, Wally.

Playing the clueless, micromanaging Pointy-Haired Boss - Jon Lovitz!

Playing the angry, sarcastic Alice - a toss-up between Elisabeth Moss who's done amazing work on Mad Men, and Sarah Silverman. I'd be happy with either.

Victimized Indian intern Asok - Danny Pudi who plays Abed on Community.

Dogburt - I enjoyed Daniel Stern's voice-acting of the character so much, I'd bring him back to reprise the role.

And finally, to play the lead role of Dilbert!...

MICHAEL CLARK DUNCAN!

No, not really.

How about Andy Samburg, or even Jorma Taccone? Both have done great work in the film business thus far and really know how to engage the audience with their joke-timing.

 Samburg far-left, Taccone far-right. Sorry middle-guy.

Mythbusters

I was watching Mythbusters last night, and one of the hosts Jamie said something along the lines of "People always ask if we ran out of myths yet, and no we have not. We have a forum for people to tell us myth ideas, and sometimes that's where we find some pretty cool myths to test out."

I decided to check out the forum, and maybe post the myth of the TV ruining your eyesight myth on their forum. I found that there are a lot of people on the forum, actually putting out some good myths out there. Seeing this actually showed me a good future for the show in the way that they will never run out of myths to bust. However there were some pretty terrible ideas for them to test out on the forum.

For example: The Dryer Lint Myth. Will leaving the dryer lint in the dryer cause the dryer to catch fire? Everyone's told me this, from my mother, to The Simpsons. In the episode Marge is afraid of flying, she tells Homer that she forgot to clean the lint from the dryer, so if someone was to break in and do laundry it would cause the house to burn down... Yes I'm a bit of a Simpsons' fan.

Speaking of the Simpsons there was a thread dedicated to find myths in The Simpsons. One was the time Bart put about 15 megaphones in front of each other to cause a very loud sound. This then destroyed a ton of windows. When I watched the show I thought... it could happen. Now I'm thinking... that must be impossible... still wanna see it tested. Tons of myths from The Simpsons though, from Homer's make-up gun, to Marge's hair. From what I've seen... if Mythbusters doesn't do an episode to test the greatest cartoon series of all time, then we will never know if they can recreate the Springfield Gorge jump!

Also test if the ape in Dustin Checks In is real... How can an ape act so well?

Source of Image

Shrek Forever After 3D Review

image from Amazon

Premise:
Shrek is now an aging father begging for his old days free of the monotonous responsibilities of fatherhood, husbandry and being a cuddly village tourist attraction. Shrek finds, or more accurately, is found by the bitter, fast-talking, conniving magical midget with an affinity for geese, wigs and witches, Rumpelstiltskin to sign his life away. Throwing the world into an alternate dimension where Shrek was never born, Shrek has 24 hours to realize what he's lost and bring everything back to how it should be.


Standouts:
Tough as nails warrior Fiona and fat Puss N' Boots is going to please everyone, especially women. Also, some of the fight scenes in this film are absolutely breathtaking, especially in 3D. It's also a crazy experience to find an entire subculture of Ogres in this film, whereas in the others Shrek and Fiona were something of rare outcasts. Negative points that standout about the film are a lack of 3D interaction - some things look more impressive bulgy but you're really not missing anything if you saw this film in 2D. Also there's a great amount in this film's dialog and plot points that are very cliche. Predictability factor through the roof in the majority of this movie, but hey, it's for kids, so it's not like they know the stories yet.


My Highlights:
Shrek and Donkey escaping from Rumpelstiltskin's castle on a broom while being chased by witches, in a semi-Harry Potter quidditch fashion. Also the majority of Puss In Boots' lines are very enjoyable.


Overall Rating:
While highly predictable and not that engaging in the 3D factor, the latter of which I won't detract points from, I'd give this film a solid 3 3/4 *'s out of 5, or 7 1/2 *'s out of 10. I've now seen the entire Shrek franchise, and feel that while the third was the weakest (though still fairly enjoyable) this film doesn't really top Shrek 1 or Shrek 2. A big component I think was missing was Donkey's character was really phoned in. Everyone else in the alternate dimension has some unique character trait that's different - Fiona's a warrior, Puss In Boots in fat and lazy, Pinocchio is a bookstore clerk, and even Gingy is a gladiator. Donkey's entire character can be summed up as "Donkey being Donkey."


When You Should See It:
If you see this film come to a cheap theater, for example we have a Regal Cinema by us here that plays films two or three months after their release for $3.50 a ticket, then the price is worth it for sure. But the 3D definitely isn't. See it in normal 2D if you have to see it before it comes out on DVD/Blu-Ray.

Nintendo DS for kids

Super Mario Galaxy 2 getting great reviews is all over the web, but what about Helen? Helen is a 6th grader that had to write a letter to a company of her choice. What did she choose? Nintendo of course!

The letter explains that she is a big fan of the company, but she has a small problem. As she does own a Wii, the problem is that she doesn't own a DS. She explains how most DS games are not on the Wii, and she thinks games on the DS look really fun to play. Her parents won't buy her a DS, so she asks a favor from Nintendo. Well Nintendo's response is a DS for Helen. Also I believe all her classmates received one as well.

I have to say that Helen is right! The DS does have better games than the Wii! May I recommend Pac-Pix? One of the best DS games that no one has played!

If you want to see the letter, and response check out the link!

Fever by Sleepy Sun Review

image from Amazon

Artist: Sleepy Sun
Album: Fever
Release Date: 5/17/2010
Tracks: 9
Run-Time: 42:19


Track Rundown:
(All ratings out of 5 *'s.)


1) "Marina" - Guitar work that see-sawed between Jimi Hendrix awesomeness and someone who picks up a guitar for the very first time. Then the vocals come over and I basically lose interest. This track is a duet that see neither singer actually pull me into their song. It's essentially three songs mashed into one - a mellow Beatles duet that evolves into an African tribal ceremony, a cheap pseudo-blues pop song, and a psychedelic trip. 2 *'s.


2) "Rigamaroo" - This song seems to work together a lot better than the previous. Both vocalists doing the duet seem to be on the same page on what kind of song they want to do, and the guitarist is also cooperating with the tone rather than running away for Hendrix solos. Still missing a particular "it" factor that makes the song widely accepted, but by comparison pretty darn close. 4 1/4 *'s.


3) "Wild Machines" - A little bit of spaghetti western country, and a little bit psychedelic trip. Actually comes off pretty well and pretty harmonious. Sort of an ode to anyone playing modern day Clint Eastwood, gritty lonewolf son of a gun caught up in a crazy world. 5 *'s, could make a great film soundtrack piece.


4) "Ooh Boy" - A pretty good country duet but there's something so over the top sappy about the way the male vocalists sings with the female vocalists that it irritates me. The song starts off with just the male vocalist and he really is running it home, doing a great job, then when the female vocalist jumps in the mood changes. Not a great song overall, but thankfully they kept it short before they could do more harm to it. 2 3/4 *'s.


5) "Acid Love" - Really a letdown of a song that essentially turned to white-noise. I was so bored by this track I was looking for other things to do. 1 *.


6) "Desert God" - The first song I feel like some real enthusiasm and initiative was put into. The singers step outside their mellow laid-back California breeze and give a little bit of their heart. 5 *'s.


7) "Open Eyes" Another song that seems really slopilly put together with low tones, staticy auto-tune and genuinely nothing interesting until the final minute of the the 3:37 track. In the final third of the song things get really interesting but everything before that is a chore to get through. 2 1/4 *'s.


8) "Freedom Line" - Really? Really? A lot like the first miserable track on this album, the duet doesn't match at all (I'm starting to think that they're just ying and yang singers that shouldn't be together) and instead of the guitarist running away frequently for trippy solos, we get an overenthusiastic tribal drummer. There isn't enough chocolate and/or pickles in the world to numb the pain drawn from this song. 1/2 *.


9) "Sandstorm Woman" - Starts off with all kinds of success. A Doors tributing, psychedelic, somber in-the-background male solo with the female vocalist only coming in now and again. Then a perfect blues harmonica joins the fray and shockingly, this is the most talented portion of the entire album. The vocals only get better in the next minute of the song and the more I listen, the angrier I get that the rest of the tracks were so terrible because they can clearly do better! 5 *'s.


My Highlights:
"Wild Machines", "Desert God" and "Sandstorm Woman" should all be given a listen if anyone has any interest in checking out this band.


Overall Rating:
Averaging all the ratings together the album gets a total score of 3 *'s. This is the bare minimum of a rating I would give an album I suggest people spend their money on, so I do suggest people giving them a chance, particularly for the tracks listed in My Highlights, but as an overall experienced, I was underwhelmed and can't rightfully leave it at 3 *'s. Using my super secret big-picture brownie points powers to factor in things like hits-to-miss ratio, track length vs. number of tracks and just general entertainment value, I have to knock the score down a whole 1/2 *. The final score is an unfortunate 2 1/2 *'s out of 5, which means I certainly won't be paying my hard-earned money for it. But maybe you'll be more lenient than I am when listening to it and they'll turn out to be your new favorite California experimental psychedelic indie band. But then if you listen to it too much, if you're not already potential stoner-hippy hackysacker Vaughn Miller from Community, you may turn into him.

CBVGR: Renegade and Target Renegade

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Script: Welcome to the Clearance Bin Video Game Review by Organized Remains. This is the longest episode to this date, because we are looking at two games today. Renegade for the NES and its sequel Target Renegade also for the NES. You can find both of them around $5 shipped, or $10 together.

First we look at Renegade. Let me go over that yes it looks like Double Dragon, it is not a Double Dragon rip off though! It came out a year before, and Double Dragon is actually made by the same company that made Renegade!

Disagree with me or not, but the first thing I noticed about this game was the music, and how it reminded me of Snake Rattle N' Roll. Though I can't say this stole from Snake Rattle N' Roll because it came out after Renegade. I'll let you listen and decide if you see any similarities. I would say an 8-bit version of Renegade by the band Styx would be awesome, but I can't find one that exists. So Come Sail Away will have to work. Talking about recognizing things from this game though... this boss looks exactly like a guy from the movie The Warriors. "Get Lost Punk!"

You play as this fist pounding, kick jabbing, and flying kicking guy. Not sure why you have to do this, but it's the fun of it! The game is pretty hard, until you find out pressing both A and B make you do a jumping kick. The game is pretty much punching and kicking, until you get to this awesome motorcycle level where you... kick. Maybe a little boring after doing it for awhile, but I think it's a great NES game.

Time to punch my way to Target Renegade. First of all... why not Renegade 2? Turns out there is a Renegade 3 that was not released on a Nintendo console. So why Target Renegade? Video games do this all the time, but when I have my game collection in ABC order this messes with me! I would like having all the sequels together!

The game though looks like it's improved a lot from the first. The music even sounds a lot better! It's just weird that the main character almost looks exactly like the guy from Double Dragon. So this might actually be a Double Dragon rip off? Also the enemies look a lot like the wrestler Bret Hart... Interesting.

Not to much known about the story except you beat up people, and "Mr. Big has got your brother. Go get him. Good luck kid!" The controls are a little different from the first game, but took no time to get used to. Also I'm playing and I come across a heart on the ground, as if the heart came out of the guy I just destroyed. It's health and all, but... can I see that in slow motion? It hardly gives me anything! I guess it's better than the first game when I don't recall ever getting a heart.

I get to a boss that throws tires at me, and bam! Game over... there are no lives in this game, oh wait I'm sorry there is, but they are only attainable after beating a boss. I got to the second boss and it was the same tire throwing guy, and I died. Instead of having me at the boss again like the first game, it put me at the beginning of the level! While this makes me angry... I can't stay mad at this game for to long, because it is a lot of fun to play.

Final Say: I really enjoyed both games, some people think they're bad, but I think it's all just in taste. If you liked Double Dragon, and TMNT: Turtles in Time styled games, I think you will enjoy these games. While I do like Double Dragon and TMNT better, both Renegade games are great beat em up games.

Which would I say is better between the two? Close call, because they both have pros and cons. The first renegade had lives while the second one had hearts. If I have to pick though, I'm going with Target Renegade. I just found having more moves, and better music really helped the game.

The Informant Review

image from Amazon

Premise:
Based on a true story slightly twisted into a dark comedy, Mark Whitacre (Matt Damon) is an eccentric and neurotic mild-mannered businessman for a biochemistry company that deals with lysine, found in corn. Whitacre becomes a whistle-blower to the FBI on the company's illegal price-fixing with their competitors but no multi-million dollar company goes down easy, and you can never quite tell who to take at their word.


Standouts:
The casting choices were really top notch, as I felt genuine contempt for the sleazy bunch they cast as company officials and wanted Matt Damon to point the feds in the right direction. The directing is also very good but I felt the film got bogged down with lame factual events and fell apart in the third act. There was definitely a sense that the writing and directing knew where the film was going for hte first two thirds of the film but when it came time to tie up loose ends there was just some real lacking in the delivery. I had trouble buying it, which maybe was the point? but felt someone should have known the truth about the ending, instead of leaving everyone guessing.


My Highlights:
It's not going to sound all that thriling but there are some really tense and suspenseful scenes. Examples include when Whitacre's briefcase recording device starts buzzing very loudly and he has to fix it during a meeting he's secretly recording, and in another instance where he's video recording a conference only to have an asian businessman sit right in front of his camera, blocking the view.


Overall Rating:
For having a great two thirds of a movie and a pretty mediocre last third, I'll give this movie 3*'s out of 5, or 6*'s out of 10. It's a pretty decent movie, not as funny as I was expecting but very enthralling and pulls you in. The ending will probably dig at me for days though. Great last line though, I'll say that!


When You Should See It:
While it's a pretty good film, it was based on real, factual events that you can actually do research on yourself. Not Blair-Witch kind of real, but real-real. So I'd say don't bother wasting a queue space on it simply because in a year cable networks will be fawning all over this film waiting to get it on tv. Watch it then, it's not worth avoiding, but nothing special enough to go out of your way to watch.

New Album/Rock Band: Judas Priest Review

Awesome live version of Living After Midnight.
Recently Judas Priest re-released their album British Steel because it's 30 years since it originally came out. Also they released the Live album of British Steel on Rock Band. I'm a pretty big fan of Judas Priest, so I bought the album on Rock Band. You should buy the real album as well though because you get 27 songs live and whatnot for only $12.99. The Rock Band album is what I'm here to review.

To start it off, you only get 9 live tracks from the album. The most popular tracks being Breaking the Law and Living after Midnight, which are awesome live and very fun to play on Rock Band. The band really gets into it, and gets the audience involved. I would say that the songs United and The Rage while they're good songs, they are some what boring to play on Rock Band.

Final Say: Even though there were two songs that were boring, since if you buy the whole album pack, you get a discount. It's $14.99 for the album pack, or $18 for all the songs by themselves. $14.99 is the way to go if you're a fan of Judas Priest like myself and loved the album British Steel. If you're not a giant fan, you should still pick up Breaking the Law, Living After Midnight, and Rapid Fire. They are really great songs to play on Rock Band.

Who You Gonna Call?

ImprovEverywhere, a group who, to my understanding, specializes in flashmobs... if you can specialize in flashmobs, has posted quite possibly one of the greatest things I've ever seen. It also reminded me that what the world needs now is love sweet love, or in other words, Ghostbusters 3. That's actually what Hal David and Burt Bacharach were singing about; little known fact. Huge Bill Murray fans.

WATCH THE VIDEO!

CBVGR: Alien Syndrome

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Script: Welcome to the Clearance Bin Video Game Review by Organized Remains. We're playing Alien Syndrome on the Wii today. It's also available for the PSP. I personally got it on Goozex for 100 points, but you can find it for $5 other places.

The story to this game is the average alien story. What you're trying to do is to survive. You play as Alieen Harding... heh Alieen that's either clever or not clever at all. In the game you will find... aliens, and lots of them. To defeat these enemies you use some stick or a gun.

Alright I'm getting to what my bottom line is right now... I didn't like this game. Let me tell you some reasons why. First the game just doesn't look that graphically good, Metroid on the Gamecube looked better than this. Second the map was terrible, I think I'm next to an object, but it turns out I'm so far away from it. Look how long it takes me to get to that door... Third the game wasn't that fun to play. I beat the first level by killing all the enemies, but when I got to the second level I didn't want to do that anymore. I just started running, and before I knew it I ran threw level 2 with only killing one or two aliens... very repetitive.

I'm now on the third level, and I'm doing my same running through the level technique. I come to this elevator, and it says it's locked... I've had it. I couldn't take it anymore. It was either I run through the level again looking for the key, or I turn off the Wii.

To mention a plus the controls might be the only good thing about this game. By controls I mean the shooting controls. To look around you have to move the nunchuk, and I didn't care for that much. The shooting is very easy to control, and actually one of the best shooting controls I've seen on the Wii yet. You point at the screen... and it works!

Final Say: Some might think I didn't give the game a chance, but the purpose of playing a video game is to have fun. I was just running through the levels, trying to make it to the end. I wasn't playing it for the purpose the developers made it for. That's why I say skip over this game... unless you're really... really craving to kill some aliens... but then again there are so many other alien video games that are better! Any body say Half-Life?

Ronnie James Dio Succumbs To Cancer

According to Rolling Stone and various other news sources, metal legend Ronnie James Dio has passed away, losing his fight with stomach cancer. The man who made the "Devil Horns" gesture a staple in metal culture and a pioneer of his field.





This is especially heartbreaking news to us here at OrganizedRemains, not only because we love metal and respect the founding fathers, but also because Dio was born just an hour away from us.


I've seen cancer funds spurred from a lot less, so if there's any common sense left in the music industry we'll find ourselves hearing about a tribute concert to Dio with profits going to a Cancer foundation. My guess is we'll see it headed by Avenged Sevenfold, Tenacious Z and the remaining members of Heaven & Hell / Black Sabbath.

Condolences to Dio's family and close friends, and to Dio himself, we hope he's in a better place.

RIP Cheats

Remember when games used to be too hard so you used some sort of code to beat the impossible? I think that's something of the past now, and here is my proof. I saw on the Playstation Store a new plug-in for Skate 3. While Skate 3 just came out, I thought it was a little weird there was already a plug-in for it. So I see what it is, and that's when I see that you can pay $7 to have everything unlocked for you.

While I agree with this existing, and that it's the choice of the player if they want to work for the prize, or just have it handed to them... but for $7? Can't we just pause the game hold L2 and press X, down, left, X, right, right?

I also found out that this is also available for Skate 2, so this isn't the first time it has been done. So cheats are pretty much done for, also since achievements and trophies have come out this would make sense. If you could get the achievement of beating the game on expert while using God Mode... a lot of people would have the achievement.

Lets pay a tribute to cheats by mentioning our favorite cheats.

Nick: Getting a tank at any time in Grand Theft Auto 3. Also getting money anytime in a type of Sim City, The Sims, Roller Coaster Tycoon type game. Rosebud;!;!;!;!

Shawn: Getting a car with guns in Age of Empires 2.


Honorable Mention: Press Alt and W anytime in Monkey Island 2 and automatically win the game.

New Morning by Alpha Rev Review

image from Amazon

Artist: Alpha Rev
Album: New Morning
Release Date: 4/26/2010
Tracks: 11
Run-Time: 40:59


Track Rundown:
(All ratings out of 5 *'s.)


1) "New Morning" - A good first impression of the album as I can definitely see this fairly upbeat, primarily acoustic track ending up on a TV or movie soundtrack honoring a character who's getting a new lease on life. It would especially be fitting for a new born child. After listening to this song once I went out of my way to hear it again and again because there was something about it that really hooked me and I hope the rest of the album can live up to this track. If you like the band Brand New or Dave Mathews Band then this would be a song you should check out. 5 *'s.





2) "Phoenix Burn" - To my astonishment, this song actually tops the previous one! I'm a little scared that these guys aren't big names already just based off the strength of these two beginning tracks of the album. A bit more piano based but the vocals come out at you leaving you awe-struck! Almost a little Goo-Goo Dolls-ish. 5 *'s.


3) "White Fences" - Not a bad song at all but doesn't have the same epic delivery as the previous two tracks. A fair 3 *'s, meaning some will skip past it when it comes on and others will let it play.


4) "When Did I Wake Up" - A bit more Coldplay sounding than the previous tracks but that's no negative critique. Still not as great as the first two tracks and nothing that you'll probably even hear in a soundtrack to a TV show or film but I'd rank it slightly better than "White Fences". Only a hair though - 3 1/4 *'s.


5) "Face Down" - They don't get more experimental than this. We have... a disco tune playing behind the vocals. Yes, disco. But where this track fails is that the vocals don't match the disco music. It's sung just as all the rest - calm and interchangeable with most music. Kind of like Sting of The Police. High risk can lead to high reward but not in this case. 2 *'s.


6) "Get Out" - Both sensitive and hilarious in it's insensitivity. Basically the moral is the world is rough and everyone's going to keep giving you crap, so get out. Carve your own path, make your own life, get away from all the garbage. Good stuff, I must say. Very similar to The Fray at their best. 5 *'s.


7) "Alone With You" - Some great music but the vocals fall short. Especially impressed by the initial acoustic guiatarring but nothing else about this song really sticks out to me. Gotta give it a mediocre 2 1/2 *'s.


8) "Colder Months" - Distraught lover? Lost in the memory of a significant other you couldn't work things out with? If this is you, give this song a listen. It's very well constructed and both is wallowing in misery and hopeful for the future. The longest track on the album at almost a full 5 minutes but I still award it 4 1/2 *'s.


9) "Heaven" - Another song that's got great music but that the vocals feel like its missing an "it" factor. Maybe its a strong lyric that's MIA or maybe its just the theme of the song, but I can only give it a skippable 2 3/4 *'s.


10) "Perfect Love - Some great lyrics and a pretty good delivery but another song that's missing a certain something to push it to greatness. Certainly better than "Heaven" but falls quite short of the highlights of this album. Actually wouldn't be surprised to see it on a soundtrack though for a Rom-Com. 3 1/2 *'s.


11) "Goodbye From The Start" - A fantastic closer to the album. The age-old tale of a relationship doomed from the beginning, or at least the tale of a highly anxious lover who wants desperately for their relationship to work out. 5 *'s.



My Highlights
In the combination of "New Morning", "Phoenix Burn", "Get Out", "Goodbye From The Start" you get the next generation of Brand New, Dave Mathews Band, Coldplay, The Fray and other alternative pop bands. So these tracks are definitely checking out now so in the future you can say "Pff, I liked Alpha Rev before they were cool."


Overall Rating
The overall rating, comprised from the average of all the track ratings comes to 3 3/4 *'s out of 5. I don't typically recommend purchasing an album under 3 *'s but this is definitely worth the purchase, especially if you can find it for cheap. And speaking of, the Amazon exclusive MP3 album which comes with a twelfth bonus track, New Morning (Acoustic) is only $5.99. $5.99 people! You can afford it. This album's worth it. Give it a buy. If you don't like it I'm sure you know someone who will.

Portal Free!

Portal is a great game, everyone should play it. Portal is a great game, and is free on Steam till May 24, everyone should play it.

http://store.steampowered.com/freeportal/

No excuse.

A Serious Man Review

400th post!

 image from Amazon

Premise:
It's 1967 and a Jewish professor named Larry Gopnik has a crappy life. And I mean crappy. One kid's a pothead, one kid's a dropout mall-rat, or possibly groupie, and neither of them listen to him. His witchy wife is cheating on him with someone who looks twice his age, but is supposed to be his friend. And he's getting poked and prodded at from every angle at the school he works. So... life sucks.


Standouts:
The directing and cinematography is great. It may have just been noticeable to me because I've taken film classes and actually look at this stuff, but even the first "present day" scene (in 1967, cuz the first scene is actually from the early 1900's/late 1800's in "the old country") made me say "wow, that's a heck of a set they built." Acting was very good too.

That's about as positive as I can get about the film because the rest really irritated me. Firstly, it was a lot of yiddish thrown in like every day slang, which as a non yiddish speaking, non-Jew, a lot of the plot points and dialog left me outcasted. Also the main character is only a step above Frodo in terms of a lame duck who doesn't actually do anything. What few problems do get resolved for Larry aren't solved by his own hand but rather by "the will of God". The the ending scene completely steps away from Larry and focuses on his son.


My Highlights:
The only scene I'll probably take away from this movie particularly fondly is of the billion-year-old-looking Rabbi's words to Larry's son on the day of his Bar Mitzva.

***SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER***
It's the lyrics of "Somebody to Love" by Jefferson Airplane
***END OF SPOILER END OF SPOILER END OF SPOILER END OF SPOILER***


Overall Rating:
A Serious Man was very well crafted and artsy in its production but at the end of the day was not a movie for everyone. It's a real shame too because I got my hopes up and even blogged to hype the film up. Well constructed depiction of the Story of Job or not, I can only give this movie 2 *'s out of 5 or 4 *'s out of 10.


When You Should See It:
Unless you're a stereotypical Jew, the kind that is the butt of Eric Cartmen's tirades, don't bother. This is the equivalent of an African-American comedy that knows its target audience and turns its back to everyone else. Don't get me wrong, there are ethnic-targetting movies out there that embrace every viewer with open arms, but really, this isn't one of them. Don't bother if you're not heavily into Judaism.

The Boy Who Couldn't Sleep

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We here at Organized Remains are big fans of the comedy group Derrick Comedy. If you were to know anyone from the group it would be Donald Glover who plays Troy on the show Community, and also had his own stand up special on Comedy Central. Today I'm going to talk about another member of Derrick Comedy named DC Pierson who wrote a book called The Boy Who Couldn't Sleep and Never Had To.

Obviously the book is about a person that doesn't sleep, but as you get more into the book it becomes way more than that. These two guys named Darren and Eric start to write this book, which becomes a comic book, which they decide will be a movie and TV series epic. After a while, Eric admits he can't sleep and never has to. Of course Darren doesn't believe him, but after a while finds out he was telling the truth. The story really gets heated when a third person enters named Christine. Then you got some church coming after them to try to fix Eric. Then the government, and police get involved, and it's really just a big mess.

Final Say: I can't really say much more about the story without giving it away. What I can say is that this book was amazing, and I enjoyed it very much. It's sort of nerdy, but that's what makes it so great. I'm looking forward to any other books DC Pierson writes in the future. I can't recommend reading this book enough! You shall read it (I'm not asking, I'm telling you)!

Slash Self-Titled Album Review

Artist: Slash
Album: Slash
Release Date: 4/06/2010
Tracks: 14
Run-Time: 59:57


Track Rundown:
(All ratings out of 5 *'s.)


1) "Ghost (feat. Ian Astbury of Cult)" - A great action film soundtrack song. Not strong or focused enough for radio-play but definitely not slacking in any department. Slash, as you would expect on his own album, kicks butt with a solo toward the end but keeps things flowing nicely through the entire song. 4 1/2 *'s.


2) "Crucify The Dead (feat. Ozzy Osbourne of Black Sabbath and solo work)" - As great as this combination of Slash and Ozzy are there feels like a missing element. Ozzy definitely brought his dark aura in full effect but it almost feels like he phoned it in on the vocals. Overall not an awful song, as it really does have a great vibe to it and good soul, but not one I'll ever remember unless I hear it thirty times. 3 1/2 *'s.


3) "Beautiful Dangerous (feat. Fergie of Black Eyed Peas and solo work)" - Fergie has her lapses in the verses but really makes up for it in the chorus. On a big picture perspective if you can look past the nitpicks that bug me about this song, it's really a solid track and deserves some media attention - a music video, some film or television soundtrack love, the whole nine yards. 5 *'s.


4) "Back From Cali (feat. Myles Kennedy of Alter-Bridge)" - As cool sounding as the verses are, Myles Kennedy does this weird echo-effect during the chorus that really puts me off. It's kind of like when one person starts singing row-row-row-your boat, and on the third "row" someone starts singing it from the beginning to do a tandem sound. But this attempt fails. Verses are pretty good but I can only give it 2 *'s.


5) "Promise (feat. Chris Cornell of Soundgarden and Audioslave)" - Better than anything off of Chris Cornell's last album. A strong message and a strong tune. It's not perfect by any means which I think comes on both Slash and Cornell's part. There are points where Slash's music doesn't seem to fit Cornell's vocals and parts where Cornell's vocals are just so far-gone than his glory days. But overall not a terrible song. I'll give it a generous 3 *'s.


6) "By The Sword (feat. Andrew Stockdale of Wolfmother)" - The promoted single of the album and definitely deserving to be so. Easily the best track I've heard so far on the album. This puppy will take you on a roller coaster and both men definitely put their hearts on the line on this one. 5 *'s.





7) "Gotten (feat. Adam Levine of Maroon 5)" - I'm a big mark for anything Adam Levine or Maroon 5-related so this track is a big hit for me. Basically it tells the tale of a bad dude who may not appreciate much in his life, but does appreciate his significant other who gets him like no one else. Slash goes very bluesy and it creates this very awesome hybrid sound that for some reason makes me think of Casablanca. 5 *'s.


8) "Doctor Alibi (feat. Lemmy Kilmeister of Motörhead" - Absolutely a great track. This almost reaches the level of George Thorogood's "Bad To The Bone" of 2010. 5 *'s.


9) "Watch This (feat. Dave Grohl of Nirvana and Foo Fighters, and Duff McKagan of Guns N' Roses and Velvet Revolver) - Get three of the greatest rock and roll minds in the past thirty years together, shut up, and listen. This is an instrumental track that can tell a whole two-to-three hour movie in a matter of less than four minutes. It's got it all and I couldn't love it more. 5 *'s.





10) "I Hold On (feat. Kid Rock)" - Not a bad song but for me, I'm not that big of a fan of modern gospely/preachy-Kid Rock. Some may like it more than me, so looking at it from an artistic perspective I'll give this track a respectable 3 1/2 *'s.


11) "Nothing To Say (feat. M. Shadows of Avenged Sevenfold)" - Sounds so much like Avenged Sevenfold that I have a hard time believing that it's not. But I really like Avengend Sevenfold, so that's a plus. 5 *'s.


12) "Starlight (feat. Myles Kennedy)" - This track is kind of a letdown because it has this 1950's/1960's school slow dance soft rock kind of vibe and Kennedy is doing great, then in the chorus his pitch goes THROUGH THE ROOF! Possibly the most irritating thing to interrupt a a great thing since your mom walking in-front of your TV while you're in dire straights on a game. 2 1/2 *'s.


13) "Saint Is A Sinner Too (feat. Rocco DeLuca) - I see the artistic value of the track but it's definitely not my cup of tea. It's not good driving music, it's not good moping music, it's not good soundtrack music. It's kind of just a cross between gospel and Little Drummer Boy. An overall shotty song and really my least favorite, but again, due to the artistic value, I'll give it a generous 2 1/2 *'s.


14) "We're All Gonna Die (feat. Iggy Pop of The Stooges)" - Not bad in terms of delivery but as you can probably tell from the title, the lyrics rely heavily on shock value and grows tiresome quickly. Really not my cup of tea. 1 1/2 *'s.


My Highlights:
"Beautiful Dangerous", "By The Sword", "Gotten", "Doctor Alibi", and "Watch This". Look this up on youtube or wherever you can find them.


Overall Rating:
Tallying up the ratings for all the tracks and averaging the ratings, the overall rating comes to 3 3/4 *'s out of 5, but for the boldness of Slash to invite an all-star cast on his solo album and deliver way more hits than even remote-misses, I'm going to use my super special brownie-point big-picture powers to add 1/2 *, making this album worth 4 1/4 *'s out of 5! I don't suggest anyone spend their hard earned money on any album rated below 3*'s, but this one is far and above the bar.

CBVGR: Tony Hawk's American Sk8Land DS

Video:

Script: Welcome to the Clearance Bin Video Game Review by Organized Remains. We're skating on the DS playing Tony Hawk's American Sk8Land, not to be confused with American Wasteland. This will cost you around $5 to purchase.

Some people say the Tony Hawk series died after 4, and some people like myself say it died after Tony Hawk's American Wasteland. I'm playing American Sk8Land for the DS so I made it before what I think of as the Tony Hawk Acid Drop (skating term).

You play as a skater developing a skate park. The story isn't as in-depth as it was in American Wasteland on the consoles. It seems like they took the American Wasteland game and gutted it. The levels though I was very surprised to find were pretty big and fun to play, the graphics are not the greatest, but they're alright for the DS.

I was expecting the controls to be awful for this game. To my surprise they were not, and I was able to get used to the controls very quickly. To do special moves you have to tap the touch screen, so I barely used them. Also they use the touch screen to perform a freakout, which is mostly useless.

What I liked about the game was that they also have the classic mode, to complete goals in a certain amount of time. Also the soundtrack from the game I really liked.

Final Say: Before this game Tony Hawk's Underground 2 Remix came out on the PSP, and by far that game is better than American Sk8Land. That wins the bagel if you own a PSP. If you only have a DS, and really like skating games, this wouldn't disappoint you. If you're not so much into the skating games, then try somewhere else for your skating needs... like on a console. If you only have a DS and no other system... I think this is your only choice.

More Mystery Items

Not too long ago I mentioned I bought a mystery item off of Thing Fling. This time I found a $1.99 mystery item on T and T Daily Deals, and a $7 mystery video game pack with three games on Game Deal Daily. Since they both had free shipping, I thought I would go for it and see what happens.

The $1.99 T and T Daily Deal I received a USB SD Card Reader. I've actually have been needing to get one of these, and just never got around to it. So this deal was great for me, and left me very happy.

The $7 mystery over at Game Deal Daily got me three games. The first one is Frontlines: Fuel of War. From the ratings I'm seeing for this game, it's getting pretty good scores. It looks like a futuristic first person shooter. It says on the back that you can fly, drive and shoot 60 weapons and vehicles in an open world. I'm looking forward to playing this game which costs $7.25 by itself on Amazon.

The second game I got was MotoGP 08. Looking at it, it just seems like a thrown together racing game. I took a look at the ratings and was surprised that it got pretty good scores. $3.99 by itself on Amazon, I'm now looking forward to playing this game. Some poeple say, "This has to be the most perfect racer ever."

The third and final game is Uno: Undercover. I guess in this game you play as a spy and uno professional seeking out bad guys. I'm looking forward to playing this game, just to see how crazy they make the story about catching bad guys by playing Uno. The reviews are meh, but I was predicting that. Uno Undercover is $6.60 on Amazon.

Final Say: Each game was in mint condition and still in the plastic wrap. I'm glad I did both mystery items. You can look forward to Clearance Bin Game Reviews of each game in the future because these games look like they will be great reviews.

Robert Rodriguez's Machete

Warning: Trailer NSFW due to language and gore

His name is Machete. And he's got an all-star cast and a hilarious amount of ridiculousness and political satire.

Thoughts on Uncharted 2

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Sometimes I feel bad for people who only own the Xbox or Wii. Uncharted 2 is the best example of why. I was a big fan of the first game, but the second game blew that out of the water.

Naughty Dog the makers of Crash Bandicoot, and Jak and Daxter made this game. I was a little worried because I didn't like how Jak 2 turned out. I loved the first Jak and Daxter, but the second was just alright, and was nothing epic. I'm glad Uncharted 2 didn't follow that path, and looks like it could be an epic series!

Source of Image
Uncharted 2 has probably won the most Game of the Year titles last year. I have to agree completely. It features one of the greatest stories ever among video games and even movies. The characters (and voice acting) are excellent, the setting (and graphics) are beautiful, the plot has put the bar at a very high place, and the controls to the game are perfect for the weapons and climbing around.

Final Say: A short review yes, but I agree with every review I've seen for this game. It's epic, and should be played by everyone. Even if you're horrible at shooting games or video games in general. There is a very easy mode, which I've read automatically aims the gun for you! There is no excuse on why you shouldn't experience this epic story.

La Roux Self-Titled Album Review

Artist: La Roux
Album: La Roux
Release Date: 9/29/2009
Tracks: 12
Run-Time: 44:37


Track Rundown:
(All ratings out of 5 *'s.)


1) "In For The Kill" - The first single of the album and it was definitely deserving of this honor. Hear it once or twice and it'll stick with you. Haunting and infectious while still relatable = 5 *'s.


2) "Tigerlily" - While not nearly as dancy as In For The Kill, it's lyrically genius. Just two tracks in and I see big things in the future for La Roux. You even get some "Thriller" narration. On a big picture note, the whole track is a little creepy and the narration just draws it out. 4 1/4 *'s.


3) "Quicksand" - Not as strong as the previous two tracks but certainly nothing too offensive. Kind of catchy and probably not worth skipping. 3 *'s.


4) "Bulletproof" - By far my favorite track on the album. It's down right infectious and deserves all the mainstream media attention it gets. A clear-cut 5 *.





5) "Colourless Colour" - A song that just won't quit. There's something that says hidden gem about this track, the kind of vibe you get when you hear a song and say "why wasn't this one of the singles put on the radio?" I give it my seal of approval. 4 1/2 *'s.


6) "I'm Not Your Toy" - Surprisingly repetitive and bland in comparison to the other tracks. Still not the worst song I've ever heard but far from the best. Easily skippable. 2 *'s.


7) "Cover My Eyes" - For some of the whitest people in a band I've ever seen, this has got to be one of the best RnB songs I've heard in a long time. There's a great soul feeling to it, even going a little Caribbean with the background music. Really great song, almost perfect but the "it' factor comes and goes. 4 3/4*'s.


8) "As If by Magic" - Really dissapointing. Probably the worst, blandest track on the album. 1 1/2 *'s.


9) "Fascination" - Not as bad as the previous track but still completely skippable. Nothing about it makes me want to hear it again. 2 *'s.


10) "Reflections Are Protection" - I take back what I said about As If By Magic. This track is the worst. The first half of the album was amazing and maybe I'm not giving the second half a fair shot, but really, this track is thirteen different flavors of Vanilla. 1 *.


11) "Armour Love" - Finally a jump back from the gutter and into the upper echelon. This track breathes a breath of fresh air back into the album, and it's another soulful RnB inspired song. 5*'s.


12) "Growing Pains" - Not a great ending track to the album but compared to some of the flops, it's at least mediocre. Still, skippable filler-garbage. 2 1/2 *'s.




My Highlights:
Take a youtube/rhapsody/wherever preview-listen to "In For The Kill", "Bulletproof", "Colourless Color", "Cover My Eyes" and "Armour Love" and you'll get the full spectrum of emotion, entertainment and jams.


Overall Rating:
Averaging all the ratings, the overall comes to about 3 1/4 *'s out of 5. However because this is the band's first album and the hit-to-miss ratio is so high, I'm going to use my super secret brownie point powers to boost it by 1/2 *, bringing the final score to 3 3/4 *'s out of 5. A very respectable score for an album I advise everyone to check out.

Movie Review: Precious

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Title: Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire

May I say that it's a little weird for a movie title. Is everything after Precious really the title? I'm going to say it's a sub-title, but when I hear people talk about it they say the whole Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire. By people I mean an episode of The Office where they mention the movie like 4 times.
(Also Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon Movie Film for Theaters doesn't seem so insane anymore.)

What it's about:


Chick Flick?: Is it a chick flick? That's difficult to say, I want to say some parts screamed chick flick, but I can't actually remember any scenes. So I'm going to go with a no, but then again there was basically no action scenes, no comedy, and a whole lot of drama. You be the judge.

Similar: Dangerous Minds was a movie similar to this, but in Dangerous Minds the teacher was the main character. In Precious one of the students was the main character. If you liked Dangerous Minds you will like Precious. If you like Precious you will like Dangerous Minds. In my opinion Dangerous Minds was a better movie.

Final Say: If you're alright with a lot of drama with some intense scenes go for it. Precious is winning a lot of awards, and a lot of people love it. In my opinion this movie seemed to drag a little at times. Besides that I thought it was an enjoyable movie to watch with my woman. I say you should rent before you go out buying it though.

Drowning Pool Self-Titled Album Review

Artist: Drowning Pool
Album: Drowning Pool
Release Date: April 27, 2010
Tracks: 11
Runtime: 39:35


Track Rundown:
(All ratings out of 5 *'s)


1) "Let The Sin Begin" - A strong 80's hair metal vibe mixed with a little bit of 90's Rob Zombie. It's got a good message, referring to a girl as your heroine and allowing the Sin to Begin. It's a love song for metalheads. There's a little something lacking in the delivery though so I'll give it a 3 3/4 *'s. A pretty strong opening track for the album that engages me to listen further.


2) "Feel Like I Do" - A great song that I actually think is weakened by it's attempt at crowd interaction. "Raise your hands if you feel like I do. Scream aloud if you feel like I do. Bring the hell if you feel like I do." Maybe its just the delivery, but it doesn't grab me or make me want to do anything like he do. The tune is awesome, the verses and most of the chorus is great. This comes close to a totally amazing metal song that is very close to the 5* mark, but I can only give it 4 1/2 *'s.

3) "Turns So Cold" - Ignore the lyrics and you've got a great song. It's heavy, it's hard, it intertwines soft melody with harsh freakout. But the lyrics really aren't great. They're kind of annoyingly mediocre which makes me mad at this song, because it really would be great. 4 *'s.


4) "Regret" - A good consistency in lyrics and tune so that certainly helps this track. It's kind kind of a skateboarding game feel to it at points, or at least some sporting video game soundtrack. 4 1/2 *'s.


5) "Over My Head" - Another track that seems somewhat influenced by 80's hair metal at times but I have to say, puts the last track to shame. I originally gave "Regret" a generous 5 *'s, but this track is a legitimate 5 *'s. They stopped trying to be Soil, they stopped trying to be Drowning Pool, they stopped trying to be some weird modern hybrid between the two and sound like something innovative or at least applicable to 2010. If this doesn't become a single, it's worth youtube-ing or buying the single track of, because I already have a feeling it's going to be the hidden gem of the album that doesn't get the attention it deserves.


6) "All About Me" - I wanted to like this track but after the halfway point I was just hanging my head in monotony. It's like a food that you pop into your mouth and say "this was a really good decision" but then has a terrible aftertaste. Or even mid-during-taste. It was almost like a parody of today's metal but without the humor. 2 *'s, very skippable.


7) "More Than Worthless" - A great song for a movie soundtrack. "I'm down to one last cigarette and maybe no time left" is a great line. From start to finish it paints a great image. While it may not be worthy of driving music on its own merit, given the right media attention this song could be huge. 5 *'s.


8) "Children of the Gun" - There is a place for this track, and I will tell you where. It's lyrical allusions to violence and war, it's heavy sound... it has a home. That home is in the soundtrack to the film The Expendables. Take a look at this movie and tell me it doesn't belong here! 5 *'s.


9) "Alcohol Blind" - It's very reminiscent of "Baker Street" by Gerry Rafferty, minus the epic saxamaphoning. It's soft and melodic and a little sad. I'm not sure there's always a call for this kind of track though. It feels a little dull so I can only give it a medicore 3 *'s. Maybe skippable, maybe not. I can see the appeal, but it's not a track for me.


10) "Horns Up" - Where "Feel Like I Do" failed at crowd interaction, I could get behind this song a lot more. I was confused what the title meant at first but as I heard the calls to "raise your horns up", the singer is urging fans to raise the universal heavy metal double-horns salute. And guitar and vocally, this track is definitely worthy of saluting with such. It utlizies the rise up, the drop-off, the solos; this is another track that if it isn't utilized, is certainly worth checking out because it has a hidden gem quality to it. 5 *'s.


11) "King Zero" - A pretty good tune but really suffers from lyrics. "I am who I am, King Zero, King Zero." It might just be the delivery but it feels very Popeye The Sailor-Man. Not a terrible closer to the album but really, not the best. 2 3/4 *'s - skippable for most, but some may like it.


My Highlights:
"Over My Head", "More Than Worthless", "Children of the Gun" and "Horns Up". With any luck, at least one of these will become radio singles or movie/video game soundtrack hits.


Overall Rating:
Averaging up all of the track ratings, the final score comes to an even 4 *'s out of 5. Originally I was planning on subtracting brownie points from this album due to the lack of real strength of the singles and the majority of the first half of the album, but I'm not going to. While the wrong tracks are getting the main focus of the album, this has some really great songs on it and I would suggest it to anyone who's looking to get into modern day metal, or anyone who likes Soil or Disturbed. If you're a die-hard Drowning Pool fan, you should really keep an open mind listening to this album, because there will only be one "Bodies" track in Drowning Pool history, and it came and went. The world's going to keep turning.

Conan Interview

Conan O'brien has not been able to do any interviews... till now! He has appeared on 60 minutes to give his thoughts! Not much to say, except for watch it!


Watch CBS News Videos Online

We'll Miss You Lala

According to Rolling Stone and Lala.com's own website, Lala will be closing down May 31st. Apple bought out Lala six months ago and is now pulling the plug, but some are speculating for a greater good. What made Lala great was that unlike iTunes and Amazon that only allow for 30-second previews of songs, you were granted one full-listen to every song on an entire album in it's entirety. Then, after the one freebie, you got the 30 second preview. In an age where you have the argument of "30 seconds isn't long enough" to "how am I supposed to discover new bands I like?" fueling internet piracy, Lala seemed like a brilliant and rational step for corporate giants to be adapting to their consumers' needs. The silver lining to this is that Apple is now being pressured by water-cooler rumors the world-over to pick up where Lala left off, adapting their one free listen method to iTunes. The downfall if this happens? It's still iTunes. BUT! With a little luck, Amazon will adapt to iTunes' adaptation. Fingers crossed. Rabbit's foot ready. Horse shoe shined.

But tonight I mourn Lala, and give tribute to a great idea. Expect some albums reviewed before the site closes for good.

Pixeljunk Shooter

Video:


Script: Today I'm reviewing Pixeljunk Shooter for the PS3. It's only available on the Playstation Network, and will cost you $9.99, on Amazon or the Playstation store.

This video was recorded from using the game's video recorder. It also has the option to put in your Youtube information and you can upload right to your account. I'm just going to play through a level or two.

The game has you playing as a small ship of some sort. You must go down into the earth to find survivors and diamonds. Causalities can happen from lava, oil, and even your own gun. If you end up killing 5 survivors, you will have to start over. Which never happened to me once. Diamonds are also needed for moving on to the next episode.

When it comes to rescuing survivors it's a pretty easy game. Not getting your ship destroyed is more difficult though. I don't know an exact time, but I think it took me around three hours to beat the game's three episodes.

The graphics are pretty cool, and mashes old school with new school. The level designs are awesome, but rescuing survivors and collecting diamonds got a little repetitive near the end of the game. All the different types of terrain, enemies, bosses, and types of ships you can be, make the game really neat. Not much to complain about except a little repetitiveness, and there was this one level I had no idea you could break a rock using your spin move. I had to look online cause I spent forever trying to figure it out.

Final Say: If you like old school games like myself, then this will be nice to have on your PS3. We probably all have played games similar to this, but that doesn't mean it's not a nice game. 3 hours is kind of a short time, but after you beat it, theres still diamonds to collect, so there is replay value to it. For $10 go pick it up, or play the demo if it's available.