CBVGR: Saboteur

Video:


Script: Welcome to the Clearance Bin Video Game Review by Organized Remains. We're reviewing The Saboteur on the PS3. It's also available on the Xbox 360. I received a tip for this game from PSPFan2468. He told us that The Saboteur could be found new for $19.99 at Wal-Mart. Luckily now Amazon also has it brand new for $19.99, or used around $15. $15 to $20 is kind of a steep drop for a game that just came out in December.

Before I started playing this, I thought it was some monster or alien game, but I was way off. I have noticed that the Eiffel Tower is right on the cover! The game isn't a monster game, you play as an Irishman named Sean during WWII in France. Sean looks like that guy from The Boondock Saints, and sounds like the pro wrestler, Sheamus. Sean doesn't like Nazis (I won't spoil the reason why), and decides to start a revolution with a man named Luc. The story is very good: from rescuing friends, to watching plans unfold for take over. The voice acting is great for the roles as well.

As for game-play, it's like... *sigh* Grand Theft Auto. Can't we come up with a word for this type of game? I feel like a lot of games I play I say, "It's similar to Grand Theft Auto." What's different about this game though is stealth. Stealth becomes a big part of the game, as you can steal the clothes right off the back of a Nazi and blend in. This becomes very helpful in a lot of missions. Also this game features some climbing, because mostly every building is climbable. Though the controls can glitch up sometimes, the controls and game-play are pretty solid. Which is great, because usually when a game tries to have a bunch of traits to it... it doesn't really focus on the game, but how many traits they can shove into one guy.

The setting to this game is beautiful; the city, the buildings, the cars, all of it. You may notice that some parts are in black and white, and some are in color. That's because when no one respects what you're doing, the section of the city is in black and white. If people like you in the section of the city, the city will appear in color.

There is also a perks system in this game. It's almost like leveling up in a RPG. You can gain skills, and become a better character. While the perks system is great, I do wish they could have added more perks to get, like a climbing one, where you can climb greater distances. There are parts to this game where I feel like my character should be able to jump that far, but he can't.

For the most part this is a pretty solid game, but that doesn't mean I don't have complaints. I would love to see a Saboteur 2 which might not happen since the people that made this Pandemic won't be making games anymore. If it does get a sequel I hope it fixes the map, and you'll only have to press one button to open it up. To access the map I have to press start, press x to view a small map, and then press x again to view the full size map. This would be fine, but there is loading involved. Also another thing I would have liked is the idea of a teleport. Yes I know it doesn't exist, but I really don't want to drive across the whole map just to access a mission. I would much rather click a button and be there in the matter of seconds (hoping no long loading).

Final Say: I loved the game, and I'm hoping for a second one. The story, characters, and setting made it very nice to hear, and see. The gameplay isn't the best, but hey! I thought it worked. For the second one, if they fix the controls from glitching at points, had an easy map access, and added climbing perks then they will have a most-excellent game. Is The Saboteur worth the $19.99? I would have to say yes! The main story will take you around 9 hours, but there are side missions to complete, and Nazi property to destroy meaning many more hours of gameplay.

From Paris With Love Review

image from Amazon

Premise:
James Reese is a nerdy assistant to the US Ambassador in France, but is also an undercover pacifist CIA agent gathering intel. LOOK OUT! ZANY TWIST~! Reese gets paired with a hard as nails, sociopathic killing machine named Charlie Wax. Wax has so much more idea about what the actual mission is that Reese is constantly getting made a fool of. But then again, so is the viewer.


Standouts:
While the acting was all pretty great and I liked the look of each character, there was a lot to be desired. The main villains were completely two-dimensional, though one did show a brief glimpse of distinguishable personality. Basically the whole movie is a 92 minute brain-dead killing spree.


My Highlights:
Royale with cheese and beating up street-urchins in hand-to-hand combat.


Overall Rating:
Though the movie had some great action scenes, they weren't distinguishable enough from other action films that they're all that redeeming. Also, I'd of settled for a higher quantity of action scenes to make up for the lack of quality in the scenes, but still, bit of a letdown. Outside of the odd-couple main characters, nobody was given anything to do in this film other than get killed, so I give this 2 *'s out of 5, or 4 *'s out of 10.


When You Should See It:
Eh ... just don't. Seriously, if it comes on, just save yourself the mental anguish. At best, don't watch more than a half an hour of this crap, because everything you'd of thought you'd learned will just be flipped on its head. And I don't mean that in a cool, artsy, thought-provoking way.

Top Five New Trailers

5) Yogi Bear

4) Tron: Legacy

3) Sucker Punch

(NSFW due to brief nudity)

2) The Goon

1) Due Date

Battleship the Movie With Rihanna

Maybe I've been lost, but this is the first I've heard of a movie being made about the board game Battleship (was Battleship a board game?). Well the first news I do hear about this movie is that the singer Rihanna will be in this movie. I'm not sure what to think about this, because I don't like Rihanna's music.

Now that I know there will be a Battleship movie, I'm trying to ponder what will even happen in such a film. I will have to guess that it will be either Top Gun, or The Poseidon Adventure. It could be like Top Gun because when you sink a Battleship, are you calling in air-strikes, or do you have a torpedo? I think air-strikes would make the movie more interesting. While I think the Top Gun prediction is more likely, it's possible it could be like The Poseidon Adventure.

I want this movie to be epic because I've always liked the game. Something inside me tells me that it won't. There isn't that many board game influenced movies. I can think of the movie Clue... that's it (Jumanji doesn't count). Now there's a list of board game movies coming out (Candy Land, Ouija Board, Monopoly, ect.).

I see no Chutes and Ladders movie being made. I think that could be an awesome movie. Some competition course where kids, or adults fight to the top. Using the ladders and chutes to their advantage. Staring Justin Bieber as an annoying kid named Chutes that falls down a chute in the first half an hour of the movie.

Justin Bieber's Character in Chutes and Ladders

Stone Temple Pilots STA Review

image from Amazon

Artist: Stone Temple Pilots
Album: Stone Temple Pilots
Release Date: May 21, 2010
Tracks: 12
Runtime: 41:16


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


1) “Between The Lines” – I pumped myself up before listening to this album by listening to Stone Temple Pilots’ biggest hits of the past, and lead singer Scott Wieland’s voice sounds so different and more high pitched in this song that it’s kind of disappointing. The lyrics and music itself is pretty cool, but the vocal delivery feels on the fence of Bono of U2. The song is nothing revolutionary to be blunt. Great compared to a lot of rock that’s out there now, but if there was any actually good rock out there right now, this would be a pretty poor first single. In context, a generous 4 *’s out of 5.


2) “Take A Load Off” – The second single of the album, and one I like a lot more than the first. It dances more with their older work but also flirts with what the rock genre could become. If STP or Atlantic Records get lucky, this song will reach the next Rock Band/Guitar Hero, because I can see it exploding thereafter. A well deserved 5 *’s out of 5.


3) “Huckleberry Crumble” – The opening to this song reminds me of a heavy metal song inspired by Shania Twain’s “Man! I Feel Like A Woman” but you know what? I love that song, so I totally love this one. It moves away from Twain’s billboard hit if you’re not a fan of that though and just goes crazy with awesomeness. If you like the kind of concert where the guitarist and singer are all over the stage, going from corner to corner, pumping up the crowd with their energy, this is a great song for it. I’m sold on the next local concert from these guys just off the strength of this song. 5 *’s out of 5.


4) “Hickory Dichotomy” – I bursted out laughing when this song first came on because the verses sound like the B-52’s going Punk Rock. It’s just a fun, fun song and makes me think these guys have a sense of humor, not getting too serious and uptight about their music. And that’s a beautiful thing. Bands having fun = listeners having fun. 5 *’s out of 5, though probably won’t make it to radio due to its sound not exactly feeling mainstream.


5) “Dare If You Dare” – A very old school, doo-wop rock song that goes back to my comment about the band not taking their music needlessly seriously and just wanting to have fun. This is also another song that is really cool, but I can’t see it reaching radio due to not feeling mainstream. Granted, sometimes the mainstream bends in accordance to overwhelming awesomeness, but I’d still be surprised to hear on the drive to work. 4 ½ *’s out of 5.


6) “Cinnamon” – If you saw this track title being used by any other band, you would probably think it’s a cheesy, bubbly pop song. But surprisingly, that is exactly what this is by Stone Temple Pilots! It’s not a bad pop song and I’d enjoy it if I heard it on a movie soundtrack, especially if it’s a nerdy teen romantic comedy. But it’s not really what I wanted from Stone Temple Pilots so it’s a hard song to judge. I’ll say 3 *’s out of 5, but know that it’s a harsh 3 *’s only from the context. You may very well fall in love with this track, or you may find it skippable whenever it plays from the album.


7) “Hazy Daze” – WHY!? WHY WASN’T THIS THE FIRST SINGLE OF THE ALBUM!? This is classic 90’s awesomeness. It’d practically a Faith No More track. This is my dream track. 5 *’s out of 5 *’s, but only because I can’t in good conscience rate it any higher.


8) “Bagman” – A very 60’s/70’s vibe to it, but they laid it on a little thick. The song format still seems overdone from when it was originally popular. Really, the weakest track of the album. 2 *’s out of 5.


9) “Peacoat” – Not a terrible song, but ‘skippable’ by my standards. Kind of generic, nothing groundbreaking. A modest 2 1/2 *’s out of 5.


10) “Fast As I Can” – Overcoming the speed-bumps that were the previous two tracks, the album starts to pick up speed again (pun intended!). A pretty rocking track, though nothing compared to the real hits of this album. A pretty decent 3 ½ *’s out of 5, suitable for driving music and maybe soundtracks.


11) “First Kiss On Mars” – Whereas Bagman laid on the nostalgia too thick, this one is just fantastically nostalgic. It’s hardly what you’d expect from Stone Temple Pilots but the lyrics are a dead given away.

“Can we really find

Love, the magic place we dream of

Super magic robots set the

Solar system free

Reel over, reel over and over”

Come on, only Stone Temple Pilots could come up with crazy lyrics like that. I’ll give it 5 *’s out of 5, even if it may not be everyone’s cup of tea, because it’s certainly mine.


12) “Maver” – Apparently about a girl named Maver with a bonnet. Man, what an ugly name! Reminds me of Nick’s multi-hour rants about parents of today’s generation trying to be creative with the names they come up with for their kids so they’ll be unique, but failing hard. It’s not a bad song though. Another unexpected sound, this time kind of soft arena rock, wave-your-lighter-in-the-air kind of stuff. A respectable 3 *’s out of 5 to close out, though might be a favorite of yours if you’re a huge fan of Train or Buckcherry.



My Highlights:
“Take A Load Off”, “Huckleberry Crumble”, “Hickory Dichotomy”, “Hazy Daze”, and “First Kiss On Mars”. If you’ve heard the first, or maybe first and second single of this album and you were not impressed, give some of these tracks a listen first before dismiss the album. It feels like there’s something in My Highlights for everyone! Youtube it! Last.fm it! Find a means to check out these tracks.


Overall Rating:
Averaging the scores for each track, this album’s overall rating comes to 4 *’s out of 5. With my overall, big-picture, brownie point powers that factor in hit-to-miss ratio, run-time of album, and in this occasion: that there’s a deluxe edition of this album with an additional four songs, I’m going to add a big ½ *. That makes the final score for this album 4 ½ *’s out of 5, or 9 *’s out of 10! No album will be perfect, but WOW! This one is pretty close! I’m pretty much going to spend the rest of my nights crying myself to sleep thinking about the wasted months I spent wishing there was some good music left out there lately. So I HIGHLY recommend this album to anyone, everyone, and you too.

Snake (Video Game) on Youtube

One awesome shirt!
Wasting time on the internet is a national pastime. Now you can waste time... while wasting time! BikdipOnABus is an internet hero some would say by finding out pressing left and up at the same time on the keyboard will enable you to play the classic game of Snake. Well... to be fair BikdipOnABus wasn't the one that discovered it, but he was the one nice enough to make a video showing details.

Most of us know the game of Snake. There was a time cell phones came with it. If you don't know what Snake is, you must have just discovered what technology was yesterday. I would give you a link to go play Snake, but why bother, you can play it in a Youtube video!



Please add Pong.

The Taking of Pelham 123 Review

image from Amazon

Premise:
A mysterious man named Ryder (John Travolta) takes a small team of 'terrorists' to perform the heist of the century by holding a NY subway hostage. Ryder keeps things in his court by only negotiating with the subway dispatcher he's initially introduced to when he picks up the cart microphone. Walter Garber (Denzel Washington), sympathetic family man caught in the middle of this mess is hearing his boss scream in one ear, the FBI screaming in the other, and Ryder screaming his demands over everyone. And they've only got one hour to deliver ten million dollars to him in cash.


Standouts:
John Travolta is essentially his same character from Swordfish, but attempting to turn up the volume. There's a needless amount of profanity in the movie. And I'm no prude. I don't have virgin-ears, but a creative writing class that profanity works best when it's used for a reason. There just too much of it so with every **** and ******s and ****, they lost effect. A well placed ************ would have been much more effective. Also the FBI negotiator was the guy who played the bad cop in the movie Transformers (can't vouche for Transformers 2), and that's all I could think of when I saw him because he never did anything to note in this film.


My Highlights:
A whizzing contest between hostages. That's really the best highlight I could think of.


Overall Rating:
2 3/4 *'s out of 5, or 5 1/2 *'s out of 10. It was entertainment, but I walked away with absolutely nothing from it. The main villain's reasons, personality, motive, backstory, and even the hero's made no impact on me. I'm sure it's a movie my dad would like more because he grew up on worse action movies. Or maybe my mom would like it cuz she really likes the actors involved, but overall, I was pretty unimpressed. With just a little tweaking it could have been a better movie.


When You Should See It:
If it's on and you've got the time to spare, feel free to watch it. Or even if you don't have the time to spare but you're incredibly bored, watching only half of it won't really leave you all that empty I'm sure. Essentially, it's not worth the active effort to see but not worth the active effort to avoid.

Guitar Hero with Rush and Super Mario Galaxy 2!

One of my biggest wishes at this year's E3 was for a Rush game with Guitar Hero, or Rock Band. I was disappointed with no mention of my favorite band. Until now! It's not a full game (which they still should do), but the next Guitar Hero will feature the song 2112 in its entirety. This is the first 20 min long song to ever come to a music game.



In other exciting gaming news for myself is that my girlfriend and I completed Super Mario Galaxy 2! With all 242 stars it took us 29.5 hours to do. It's very rare for me to complete a game 100%, so this is a very exciting for me. For people who don't own this game... what's wrong with you?

San Diego Comic Con FTW

This will be a short blog text-wise, because it's just an update to my previous blog Who Wants To Be An Internet Hero? The long-story short to that blog was that the crazy-religious Westboro Baptist Church had declared they were going to protest the San Diego Comic Con due to making idols out of comic book characters detracting attention from God. Thanks to Comics Alliance, we have photographic evidence people took upon my advice (though I can't take credit for all those who participated, as it's becoming a regular habit when the WBC arrive) and counter-protested! Here's a photo sampler, and for about a dozen more photos click the Comics Alliance link.

Lots of Facebook

There were times people told me that sites like Myspace should be banned from the internet. Now the exact same people are using Facebook. Not really sure what to call these types of people, but I do know that there are a lot of them. So many that there's more than 500 million users.

Now there probably isn't really that many people using it, you have to figure some people have two accounts. For some reason people will go through making one, and then just decide they need a new one. I get Facebook recommendations to two Facebook friends... both the accounts are of the same person. Also you have to think that there must be at least 1 million accounts people made of fake people to stalk someone.

Sure Facebook could be the collapse of society, but lets not whine about it. For example it should be law, that if you have a Facebook account you can not say, "OMG, you guys are talking about Facebook?" I had this happen after a friend posted something on his wall, and I brought it up, because I wanted to ask a question about it. Then a third person walked into the conversation and said, "OMG, you guys are talking about Facebook?"

Alright there can be exceptions to the previous rule. Obviously if you're the type of person that have more than 50% of their conversations involve Facebook... then you need a therapy... a special type of therapy like a Facebook therapy.

If I asked you what the greatest things that came from Facebook were, you would probably have some crappy answer, "Getting in touch with old friends, getting in touch with people I didn't like in school, getting in touch with my farmer side, and getting in touch with my pokings." Well that would be a wrong answer, the real answer is Lamebook and Failbook. People being stupid on Facebook is amazingly entertaining.

Still no dislike button.

Lie To Me Review

image from Amazon

Premise:
Lie To Me stars Tim Roth (Ringo from Pulp Fiction, Emil Blonsky/Abomination from The Incredible Hulk) as Dr. Cal Lightman. Lightman and his crew [hot female partner, young nerdy tech-geek, and young, hot hispanic protege) work alongside law enforcement to crack cases using psychology. Specializing in microexpresions (involuntary facial expressions and body language) that deduct whether suspects are telling the truth or lying.


Overall Rating:
The show comes on Fox, Monday's 8 PM EST (check your local listings). I'm not caught up on the show just yet, but I'm half a dozen episodes into the first season via Netflix. From what I've seen so far, I'm utterly hooked. It's a Crime Drama, it's a Psychological drama. If you like House, you may also like .... LIE TO ME! Each episode's unique situation is intriguing, involving, and often throws you a curve! No! That curve is not "Cancer" Gregory House! But there's also great continuity between the episodes unfolding drama and personal lives of Dr. Lightman's crew. They're not just a bunch of pocket-protector bland nerds, or hardened burned out cops. They're three dimensional and well rounded. I highly suggest this show to everyone and can't wait till I get the time to watch the next episode. 5 *'s out of 5, without a doubt.

CBVGR: Mad Maestro!

Video:


Script:
Welcome to the Clearance Bin Video Game Review by Organized Remains. Mad Maestro for the PS2 is what we are playing today. The cheapest I found it was $4.50 at Half.com.

Do you know someone that will only listen to classical music? Are you that person? Well Mad Maestro shows us the way with a classical music rhythm game. Every note you hit is sensitive. Blue notes you hit softly, green notes you hit with a medium force, and red notes you hit hard. There is a meter to the right that tells you how hard you are pressing down the X button, or the other three buttons (You can choose, it doesn't matter). The left meter is the same meter from every rhythm game, if that turns sour then you fail.

For the story to this game... this fairy can sum it up for us. *Fairy*

What makes a rhythm game great is the music, does this have to music to back it up? If you like classical music then yes! I'm not the biggest fan of the genre, but all the songs in this game were great.

I've read that the controls are some people's biggest complaint. I have to disagree with that though. Until you get use to it you're going to have a hard time, but every rhythm game is like that. My biggest disappointment was that I got bored after only retrieving half the songs. After that I was just playing it for the purpose of beating it. There's replay value to the game because it features bonus games, but I can't find myself coming back to this game.

Final Say: For people that love classical music you have a fine rhythm game. If you don't like classical music, this game isn't for you. For people that are alright with classical music, and like rhythm games if you see any interest in playing this then go for it. I don't think you will be playing this for hours upon hours though.

Where The Wild Things Are Review

Premise:
A little boy named Max with an active imagination (which is putting it nicely) angers his mother and gets sent to his room. When he refuses, she gets angrier, he gets scared, and he runs away. Bending the believability of the world they live in, somehow Max ends up finding a boat by the lake, or I guess ocean, and sailing out to a fantasy island full of enormous charismatic creatures, each trying to deal with their own set of problems. They immediately buy into all the childish, imaginative stories Max spews out and crown him their king, whose main decree is to solve all of life's problems by having fun!


Standouts:
A common criticism about the film is that it's not a children's movie, despite being based off of a children's book. It's a drama, and a sad one at that. The beginning is sad, because Max's over-the-top energy and unpredictableness gives off the impression he has autism, or at the very least extreme ADHD. The ending is sad, at least in my view, though I won't give away any spoilers as to why. In some people's eyes, it may be considered a cheerful ending, but at the very least, I feel like the ending lacked definite closure in both Max's fantasy world and Max's real world.

That said, though the movie started and ended depressing for me the majority (seriously, not even the whole) middle of the film was just fun. It was fort building, dirt fighting, and pigpiles. Friendships galore. The animation/costumes, voice acting and creativity of the monsters and their abilities and particularly personalities were very engaging. The personalities might have been a little too force-fed however, as at certain points you come to believe everyone is two-faced, just for the sake of having "well rounded, three dimensional characters".


My Highlights:
The dirt fight and fort building are incredible, both visually and emotionally. And I loved when K.W. saves Max after he's angered Carol. Basically, the raccoon stole the film. If you like tear-jerkers, I can tell you that one particular aspect of the ending will be a highlight for you.


Overall Rating:
Back in May of 2009 when the movie was first advertised, I was totally pumped about seeing this film! Then it came out in October, and I put off seeing it, and put off seeing it, and nobody wanted to see it in the theater with me. So I waited for it to come out on DVD, but it took a while before I could justify getting it to the top of the list above other movies I wanted to see. Then I finally saw it and it wasn't anything I expected/wanted. I wanted all the fun that I saw in the film, and none of the depression. The director has answered this criticism in interviews that his goal was "to make a movie about childhood" rather than to create a children's movie.

Well I guess he accomplished that by having no real point or moral to the film, rather having it just be a long story that doesn't get resolved. The clearest message I could find was "kids, if you don't like your life just run away. When you come back everyone will be so happy to see you that all the bad stuff will be forgotten!" I'm going to give this film a solid 3 *'s out of 5, or 6 out of 10. I don't care if some people did give it rave reviews, I don't see it anywhere near 5 *'s, or really even 4 *'s.


When You Should See It:
If you still have any interest in this film after reading this, then I support you indulging in the viewing. I know a lot of people really did like the film, and I'll admit that dramas are hard to get a good score from me. I liked Rain Man, sure, and Forrest Gump, but for really depressing films, even if that's the intent I have trouble enjoying myself. I mean I guess I'm not supposed to enjoy myself watching a sad movie, but movies are supposed to be entertainment, and I don't consider being sad for 90 minutes entertainment.

Man, Woman, Wild

Man, Woman, Wild... Man vs. Wild, Survivor Man... we've seen these words before. We haven't seen the word Woman appear in a survivor show yet. Not to long ago, I talked about a new show on the Discovery Channel called Dual Survival. Now Friday night has became survival night with the new show Man, Woman, Wild.

They take the basic survival show formula, and add a married couple to the mix. When I think of a married couple trying to work together, I think of a lot of nagging back and forth and... more nagging. I don't want a drama show like the game show Survivor. I want to see a survival show were the grand prize is home.

Before seeing the show I thought this couple were both experts. I was wrong, and this isn't a bad thing. The husband Mykel Hawke is the survival expert, and the wife Ruth England is not. The point of the show is obviously survival, but it also shows Mykel teaching Ruth the ways of survival, and I found this to work great for the show.

I would think seeing all these survival shows, I would see the same thing over and over, but the different shows show different techniques. When Mykel is teaching Ruth ways of survival, there's also teachings coming through the T.V. to you.

Sure there was a little human drama, but I've got to give it to Discovery. They make these trailers, and in all the trailers it shows the drama part. This lures the drama loving people into the show, and that 30 second trailer was the biggest drama part of the episode. I don't want to call people that watch the game shows like Survivor a waste of humanity... but, if you watch Survivor, and don't watch a real survival show, I don't see what the point is. If you're going to spend 1 hour infront of the T.V. watching fake survival, or real survival... wouldn't real survival be better?

Final Say: I found the show to be great, and educational. I will be tuning in next week to watch the next episode along with Dual Survival. I suggest anyone that likes survival shows to check it out, and if you watch the game show Survivor, it's time to give a real survival show a chance.

Want To Be An Hero To The Internet?

According to nerdbastards.com, Fred Phelps' obnoxious protest hate-group, The Westboro Baptist Church are attending the San Diego Comic-Con! If you don't know who the WBC are, here's a quick run-down.

- They're the definitive uber-bible thumpers
- They have no real understanding of the bible themselves
- They hate gays
- They protest outside all state capitol buildings at some point no matter how irrelevant your town is to try to urge people not to allow gay marriage, or civil unions.
- They hate the military
- They show up at military funerals to protest and yell things to imply the deceased deserved it.
- The adults are bad enough, but their kids are in attendance and totally brainwashed
- They hate anyone not Christian.
- They hate anyone not "truly" Christian. Meaning their own version of the religion.
- They hate everyone.
- They hate you.
- They feed off of publicity and drawing hatred from people.
- They apparently hate comic book nerds.
- Through legal loophole, they can legally protest anywhere, about anything, waving signs as vulgar as they please and shout things as vulgar as they please.
- So long as they stay within their legally defined protest geographic parameters (ex: they can't ATTEND the funeral, they have to be across the street), and do not resort to physicality themselves, there is nothing you can do about it.
- The last part to that last statement is not true.

Because the Westboro Baptist Church are SO busy, they typically only protest for about an hour or two. At the comic-con, with all the heavy foot-traffic mid-day, they're only planning to be there for forty-five minutes. What should you do to these n00bz? The same thing you do to all n00bz. Pwn them. Pwn them at their own game.

Counter Protest!




This is Comic Con ladies and gentlemen. This is where nerds and creativity come to shine. Not one of these have anything better to do than to come up with creative counter-chants, signs, or monetary profiteering at the WBC's expense. Maybe the comic artists in attendance will create an a comic specially marketed against the WBC. Either way, I've got my fingers crossed that this will result in about a hundred hilarious pwning youtube videos from the forty-five minutes the WBC will be in attendance.

Rock Band Song

The first ever Organized Remain's single!



Thanks to Superluminal Comet for playing the drums, keyboard, and bass in the song.

Also thanks to Jon, and Sarah for being in the video.

Despicable Me

Source of Image
Premise: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c_rUbqbhUEQ

Review: I saw Despicable Me in 3D, and I thought it was going to be a 3D movie where everything is coming at you. I was wrong. Rarely did anything seem to even come close to you. Kind of like the movie Avatar how it just made you feel like you were there, it was less gimmicky. I approved of this very much.

I really enjoyed the story. I found it funny, and it kept me very entertained during the whole movie. You don't see the main character of a children's movie as a thief very often, and not just a regular thief, but one of the biggest thieves ever. I mean he's trying to steal the Moon! I'm wondering if some parents will have a problem with this.

The worst part of the film for me was the accent Steve Carell had for the main character. Not that the accent was bad for the character, I just think if I didn't know it was Steve Carell I would have liked it better. Steve Carell's voice alone works perfectly in kid's films, because he did a great job in Horton Hears a Who. It's just when you know someone and their voice, it's not the best when they try to change it. Like Matt Damon's Boston accent in The Departed, or Michael C. Hall's (The guy that plays Dexter) weird accent in the movie Gamer.

Final Say: It's a very entertaining film, and I liked it a lot. Even though I didn't like the accent, I thought Steve Carell did a great job voice acting in this. Also it wasn't just Steve Carell that did a great job, everyone else voice acting was great as well. It's a great film, and I think you should see it, even if you don't like the looks of the trailer.

Don't worry about seeing it in 3D. It's not like Avatar where the movie is a must see in 3D. The 3D aspect does make the movie look nice, but it's not a requirement.

Rainn Wilson Getting Sued

According to Bizjournals.com, one of the stars of The Office, Rainn Wilson (Dwight Shrute) is getting sued by a Portland web developer who created a social networking site called SoulPancake. It's not so much up the ally of Twitter as it is up the ally of Yahoo Answers, but more community-loving, everyone's my neighbor with a story, deal. Wilson has some good points as to why things with his developer went sour, not making him look like a total bad guy, but so much of the article sounds like it was written as a storyline for Dwight Shrute. So omitting the not as funny benefit of the doubt portion of the article, this is how this particular Office story goes.


* Dwight hires Ryan to create a website that turns everyone on it into slaves. His plan is to make everyone frequent his website to improve philosophical awareness as well as general ponderings about life. His own personal use includes posting thought-provoking questions like "If the earth's sun gives Superman the ability to levitate and fly, how does Superman control the speed of his flight?" and "How does one go about reversing the dental staining from frequent consumption of beets?".

* Ryan enters a handshake agreement with Dwight about monthly payments, and Ryan even negotiates partial ownership and further royalties from the website.

* After a year, Dwight tells Ryan that he's not going to get paid another dime because he's overpaid and underworked. Ryan tells Dwight that's not how things work. Dwight flips things, stating he's gotten all he needs from Ryan in creating and maintaining the website and terminates him. Ryan argues "Uh, I own part of the company, and I say I'm not fired." Dwight refuses to acknowledge Ryan's partial ownership and re-fires him. Ryan looks into the camera with a "seriously?" look.

* Dwight informs viewers of The Office in a private sit-down interview that Ryan's attempts to fight him on the subject show what a dishonorable little snot he is, and in the forest, there's no law against destroying the traitors and using their bones to ensure your own survival.

* When Ryan pesters Dwight for continual payments, as he still maintains and upkeeps the website, Dwight secretly hacks into Ryan's code and deletes anything personalized by Ryan to call the site his own work. But wait! There's still all that evidence of Ryan's creation on his own personal computer. Well naturally, Dwight kidnaps Ryan's computer and buries it six feet under his farmland.

* Ryan threatens Dwight with legal action, making the entire Office tense. Dwight responds with slanderous flash animations sent to everyone's email, warning them not to hire Ryan for any web developing work.

* When not building his case against Dwight with a lawyer, Ryan posts his angry ramblings about Dwight on clientsfromhell.net. Three weeks later, Dwight's website internally combusts as he gets drunk on power and makes tyrannical demands from all the site's users.

*To be continued two-part episode leaving everyone hanging.

Brain Age The Speedrun

If you have a DS chances are that you've played Brain Age. It seemed there was a short period of time where training your brain was popular. It must have been a fad and passed because I don't see as many brain test type games coming out anymore.

I thought that these brain type games like Brain Age, and Big Brain Academy were fun to play. Which I find surprising. Who would think doing a bunch of math problem, memorizing where things are, and counting coins would be fun?

The worst part of Brain Age was probably the stylus recognition. I always had a problem writing a 4 while playing, but that's where today's blog comes in. It's a Brain Age speedrun that shows how crappy the stylus recognition is. Stead of using numbers the person doing the speedrun draws Nintendo related objects, and characters from Mario, to a Super Nintendo!

This speedrun is tool assisted which means the person used a program to save when they did good, and load to the previous spot when they did bad. Usually people, including myself, get a little angry when people do this, but with this Brain Age speedrun I'm perfectly fine with it. It's like no other speedrun I've ever seen, and showing the many different Nintendo characters was 100% awesome!

Surrogates Review

image from Amazon

Premise:
Human beings are so yesterday, and today everyone's just plugged into a chair that feeds their brain into an android. 500 lb. losers can look like super models and the crippled can walk again, what a great thing these Surrogates are! Except for the crazies who think robots are the work of the devil. So it's kind of like I-Robot meets The Matrix, especially in that the story follows Bruce Willis as a cop who's not a big fan of Surrogates (but has/uses one anyways). In a conflict of interests, Willis has to hunt down a psycho using a weapon that not only kills Surrogates but instantly kills the mortal as well.


Standouts:
What stood out most to me was that a lot of people really hated this movie but I thought it wasn't that awful. People seemed angered that the delivery couldn't live up to the "unique" premise, but I didn't think the premise was all that unique, and I knew going in that it was just going to be a popcorn-eating, car-chasing, fire-fight gunning action film with a sci-fi twist. Come on, it's Bruce Willis, how much subtlety could the movie have really mustered?

What stood out almost as much was that the film pretty much crapped the bed in the last half an hour or so. The main villain reveals himself in a way that makes you think it's a lie further meant to mess with Bruce Willis' head, but uh... nope. And because of the delivery of the reveal, I really was disappointed with the choice of villain. And then Bruce Willis' final choice at the end of the film seemed so ... eh! There are no words. It was a poor choice, I'll say that. It's like they tried for complex and flawed but what came off was "well that was stupid. I guess I can just ignore any character development created in the film."


My Highlights:
I thought the best fit for this sci-fi film was the nerd who's job it was to monitor all the Surrogates activity for the government. I also liked the use of Bruce Willis' police-partner at the end. It created a whole new twist on the premise.


Overall Rating:
Despite the film not being the "OMG WORST MOVIE EVERZZ!~!1" that I heard it was, it still wasn't a great film. I'd give it 2 1/2 *'s out of 5, or 5 *'s out of 10. It was what it was. When it comes to movies about androids, Blade Runner did it better. And The Matrix, which was similar. And maybe even I-Robot, though that may be a tie.


When You Should See It:
Just pass it up. If it comes on and there's NOTHING else on, it's not worth turning off the TV to do something productive and mentally stimulating, but it's really not that great. There are better movies out there.

Monkey Island 2

If you've been to Organized Remain's Backloggery lately, you would see there are a lot of games under the "now playing". I've almost finished A Boy and His Blob, but before I could finish it the new remake of Monkey Island 2 came out! Sorry A Boy and His Blob, but Monkey Island has to come first!

I just finished Monkey Island 2, and the remake was fantastic! I recommend everyone to play it as it's the most hilarious game you'll ever play.

Also Monkey Island related: I received the Tales of Monkey Island Deluxe Edition in the mail. If you don't know what Tales of Monkey Island is, it's the newest Monkey Island games being made by Telltale Games. While sadly I haven't really got a chance to play through the Tales of Monkey Island, I must say that the deluxe edition is awesome.

I first opened the mail package to see a cardboard treasure chest. It came with a bunch of stuff. First of all it came with the game (which is rare to own a disk from Telltale Games). On the disk is DVD extras and the game itself. The cardboard sleeve has cutables from the back so you can have figurines. I want the figurines, but I don't want to ruin the packaging!

I received a bandana which is in the background of the picture. Also a pin, coin, card, and a coaster. The card I'm not sure about, but I figure I will know once I start playing the game.

Yes it was extra money, but I pre-ordered it a while ago... and actually forgot about it. They said the deluxe edition wouldn't be ready until all the chapters of the game were out. When I got the package in the mail it was a great surprise! As a Monkey Island fan, I'm very happy!

The Social Network

There's been a lot of buzz going on about the movie based on Facebook and Facebook's founder, Mark Zuckerberg, called The Social Network. When I first heard about the concept I was confused, but then I heard it was a biopic depicting the creation and rise in popularity of the website with plenty of celebrities showing up to talk about it. I thought this made sense, as it sounded like a great documentary for nerds along the likes of The King of Kong. But after watching the trailer ...



Holy Kermit The Frog. It's a website, guys. It's not the rise and fall of a Mafia family. Now I know there are a lot of Facebook addicts out there who can't wait to "like" this film, but it's the most outstanding example of Hollywood dramatizing things I can imagine. Even if everything I was hearing (because there's basically no visuals in the trailer) is exactly how things went down in real life, I still LOL because it's so over the top. Even producer Kevin Spacey says the movie is going to be a lot funnier than people expect it to be, and with the trailer not looking like a comedy, I'm guessing he means it'll be funny in a "wow this is so terrible it belongs on failbook" kind of way. But Jesse Eisenberg costars with Justin Timberlake so... I can't wait to see how they deal with the birth and revolution of Farmville that changed the world.

Review of Video Games Awesome

Video:


Script: This is Nick from Organized Remains doing a review of the Video Games Awesome DVD. Video Games Awesome is a web series that features Chet, Ace, and Dad. Chet and Ace play the games, and Dad complains about the trash. I always loved the series, so getting the DVD was a must.

The DVD, and the case itself are pretty awesome. First of all the four guys that make it possible slam their signatures down on the case! The graphics on the case are killer, and the DVDs look as great!

As for the DVD menu... It's awesome! I've never seen cooler DVD menus as this one. Taking the style of Super Mario Bros, and putting in the characters of the show made it great to see.

As for the videos shown here, I obviously liked them since I love them on the internets. The quality is much better than it is on the internet, and no buffering! I also really liked the commentary, and bonus content, these guys are just a lot of fun to listen too.

Final Say: As one of the most underrated web series out there, you need to check out Video Games Awesome. Check out some of there videos out on the internet, and if you like a couple of them you will like all of them. I suggest checking a couple of them out, and then spend the money on the DVD. The better quality makes it a lot more enjoyable. My only problem with Video Games Awesome is that it's not funded enough! If Organized Remains, was a big, rich, epically proportioned web site, I would try and sponsor these guys, but sadly that's not the case... yet. Hopefully they've made a lot of money from DVD sales. So they can just build the web series into and epically ground breaking series, and have new episodes galore! Also I got the idea from them to put links to things after the video on YouTube.

Return of Beavis and Butt-Head

image from Amazon

According to Flick Sided, creative genius Mike Judge has been working on 30, yes, 30 brand new episodes of Beavis and Butt-Head. If it the number was lower, I'd say that this sounds like a vague, generalization of a theory of an idea that may or may not come true in the future, but 30!?! Mike Judge has still got it, and has promised that the cartoon's return will feature the same faded colors and format of skit-music video-skit, only with modern day videos. Granted, none of Mike Judge's recent ideas have really been all that golden or well-received but these two are icons, and every viral video they've done since their cancellation has drawn a longing for a full resurgence.

What do Beavis and Butt-Head have to say about today's world? Are they fans or haters of Nickelback? Do they have a soft spot for Lady Gaga like so many of us? Or will we see fanboyism for indie thrashers like iwrestledabearonce's "Tastes like Kevin Bacon". Hating on Twilight-nuts is a must, I must say.

Farmville Update

I like video games, but there is one game that I've never actually played before. That game happens to be the most popular online game. Of course I'm talking about Farmville, which is a game all the people that bad mouth video games are playing. I spend too much time with video games? You have a golden farm with 3 endangered bald eagles flying around your barn.

Most of us now use Firefox, and recently there was an update. According to Kotaku the only thing Firefox updated was a bug that was making it hard for people to play Farmville. I'm not sure if you will ever hear this about any other game. Oh You're having problems playing Runescape on Firefox? That's just too bad, because I mean if you're still addicted to Runescape... have you not even played World of Warcraft?

So is Farmville the end of us? Yes... yes it is. Eat your heart out Harvest Moon.

The Green Hornet

If you liked Kick-Ass, or when Seth Rogen beat up skateboarding punks in Observe And Report, you will also love ... The Green Hornet! This is a movie to really get excited about, as Rogen's been putting his heart and soul into this as his own project for the last few years and to see it actually fleshed out looks awesome. Although the source material may have been serious and straight-laced, this looks pretty funny and I'm open to that. Expect it to hit theaters January 2011.

CBVGR: Jet Force Gemini

Video:


Script:
Welcome to the Clearance Bin Video Game Review by Organized Remains. Thanks to HalfAssedJournalist who asked us to do a review of Jet Force Gemini for the N64 by looking at our Backloggery at backloggery.com/OrganizedRemains. Send us a message, or comment if you see any games you would like us to review. $5 is the price you can find Jet Force Gemini over at Amazon.

Before we start the review let me say, long story short I wasn't able to record footage for this game. All the videos you will be seeing is what I've gathered from videos I've found on the internet.

Jet Force Gemini has been labeled as the most underrated game of all times. It's on mostly every list of underrated games for the N64 I've seen. So lets check it out!

You play as three different characters by the names of Juno, Vela, and Lupus. My favorite has to be Lupus the dog. He has an unfortunate name, but he can hover. Each character has different types of abilities, letting you get to different places some characters couldn't reach.

Rescuing Tribals is the fun part of the game, until it gets to the point where you're sick of that. The game developers decided that you needed to collect all of them at a certain point of the game. If you want to beat the game, you've got a lot of hours ahead of you.

The worst part of the game are the controls. You get use to them sure, but they're just bad in the beginning. I found using the the manual aiming system was the worst part. Also I found the story to be meh, that's usually ok, but they force you to watch all the videos! Why can't we have a skip button!

Final Say: I can see the appeal of this game, and why some people would call this underrated. I think if I played this as a kid, I would have liked it a lot more, which I hate to say. Sadly when I play some oldschool games I loved as a kid, I will think, "Why did I like this as a kid?" I'm not saying Jet Force Gemini is a bad game, and I really did like the giant levels to the game, but I think the loads of work you have to put in to rescue all these Tribals gets tiring. I still think if you like the looks of this game from the video, and you're looking for a game that will take 30 hours to beat. Then you should check it out. You might have a gem on your hands.

Law Abiding Citizen Review

image from Amazon

Premise:
Clyde Shelton (Gerard Butler of 300 fame) is victim to a home-invasion that sees his wife and daughter murdered, as well as himself attempted to be murdered. Shelton takes the case to court with Nick Rice (Jamie Fox) as his lawyer but through legal loopholes, with all the perfect evidence, one of the home invaders gets the death penalty and the other gets a couple of years in prison. 10 years later Clyde Shelton returns totally insane and decides to slaughter every single living person who had ANYTHING to do with his court case, considering it justice for an imperfect justice system. Things get particularly crazy when the murders continue after he's been put into jail.


Standouts:
There doesn't feel like the writers for this film wanted to create a plot so much as they did create a series of really awesome scenes and strung them together. Everything was understandable but the characters had no depth or background to them, and everyone who died were essentially just mindless extras. Because no one really has a strong background or well-rounded character, I spent the whole movie conflicted on who to root for. Do I cheer for the deranged psychopath, whom really I have to admit was screwed in the beginning of the movie by legal loophole, or do I root for the sleazy lawyer who's now got the weight of the world on his shoulders?


My Highlights:
The death of Judge Laura Burch, which I absolutely did not see coming in the manner it did, and the death of Clarence J. Darby which was so elaborate and beautiful it felt like it belonged on one of my favorite TV shows: Dexter.



Overall Rating:
There were some awesome scenes in the film and as a foundation the film had a ton of potential. Unfortunately things got kind of muddled and too gray to make out the outlines, so I'll give the film a respectable 3 *'s out of 5, or 6 *'s out of 10, particularly because I love a good revenge flick.


When You Should See It:
It's not bad at all, and if it comes on USA Network, or F/X, give it a whirl. It won't be for everyone, especially if you're looking for a thinker-film, but it's not worth the effort to avoid.

Pop Fiction

At first I thought I saw Pulp Fiction, but instead it turned out to be Pop Fiction. A Mythbusters type of show that debunks video games myths. There are only three episodes out so far I, but found myself fascinated with these myths. Though the only myth I heard of was Mario jumping over the flag pole, the other two myths they talked about were great. It's a series every gamer should check out!

Link to all the episodes.

Episode 1:

Let Me In

Anyone who likes foreign films or is crazy about vampire films is probably familiar with Let The Right One In. It's highly respected and well-reviewed. I haven't seen it myself, but it is on my Netflix Instant Watch queue. Coming this October America will see our version of the film, shortened to "Let Me In". Fear of children guaranteed.

Weird Al Concert

Shawn and I brought our girlfriends to see Weird Al in concert. I'm the biggest Weird Al fan in the group. I own all his CDs (Not counting greatest hits), UHF is one of my favorite movies, and I have his show on DVD. So I knew I was going to have a great time, for the others it seemed like they weren't as enthused as I was. That changed when we got there though.

I was expecting Weird Al to just sing his songs, and dress up a little. We got that, and a ton of other funny surprises including songs that haven't seen the light of day (His newest Polka song!). I want to tell you all the funny things he did, but that would ruin the experience for you. What was great about the concert was I couldn't see the jokes coming. Then Weird Al would perform a joke, and it would knock you off your feet laughing. It's one of the funniest 2 hours of entertainment I've ever seen!

We suspected that from me though since I'm the giant Weird Al fan. As for Shawn and the girls they were also blown away with laughter. I know if Weird Al comes back to New Hampshire I will have to see him and the band in concert again!

Final Say: If you didn't skip the review and go straight to the final say, then you already know what I'm going to say. IT WAS AN AMAZING CONCERT! Even if you only know a couple of Weird Al songs, this is a must see.

Tidbit: Living in New Hampshire I know of the song Granite State of Mind, which was a parody song Jay-Z did. The song consisted of jokes about New Hampshire, and everyone around here loves it. The people that made the parody was also at the concert. They were rapping... and swearing. Not to complain about swearing, but when you go see a Weird Al concert... you just don't see it coming.