So I got my wisdom teeth, top and bottom, yanked out this week. You would think that would be no big deal right? Well according to my oral surgeon I need to be bed ridden for the rest of the week. So no way in hell am I going to give up that opportunity.

In the meantime, as I have said in my blog post last week, I'm poor. After attempting to use (and failing and subsequently pissing people off on) Goozex I caved in and began my Gamefly subscription this week. This coincided with Brutal Legend perfectly so that I wouldn't be bored. Well it's 48 hours after my surgery and I beat all three games...already...dammit.


Brütal Legend
After reading the DToid review I didn't know where my excitement fell when I popped in BL for the first time this week. My hope was that being a huge metalhead (Lamb of God introduced me to music), having a high tolerance for repetition, and pure hype would blind me to any faults of the game. Overall however I have to say that BL was actually a damn good game. Far better than I think it has gotten credit for. I think a lot of people believe BL's fault lies in it trying to do too much without doing anything particularly well. Or at least Gabe and Tycho have convinced me of that. I call bollocks! BL was a damn fine hack n' slash as well as an easy to play RTS. Here are my pros (Megadeth) and cons (Metallica):

Megadeth
*If you're a metalhead this game will be right up your alley. This shit was built by fans for fans and it's obvious.
*The cast and characters are fucking metal. Jack Black finds his perfect stride, Ozzy is as lovably annoying as ever, and the old debate of who is sexier, Lemmy Kilmister or Lita Ford, will once again cause dysfunctional cubicles.
*Epic battles. Seriously.
*Balances strategy and action. This is where things get fickle but I'm gonna go out on a limb and say BL did a great job at balancing things. While it feels awkward to switch up tactics it's not impossible and strategy players and action players both have a fair shot at victory so I consider that balance.
*Beautiful world with some of the most kickass artwork this side of an Iron Maiden LP.

Metallica
*Short, short, short.
* Repetitive.
*Seriously, does Ozzy have to speak every time I pick something to buy?
*Reminds me that Lita Ford will never accept my many sexual advances. Hmph.


Batman: Arkham Asylum
I won't harp on this game. It's amazing. If you haven't played it then do so. I got it from Gamefly and easily feel like it would've been worth the $60. Pros and cons:

Heath Ledger
*Just feels like old school gaming. Just really tight controls without all the flash and dash that currently floods gaming. All the genre mashing and such. Bleck! Gimme old school action/adventure. No FPS/RPG/RTS/Puzzle/Racing sim crap.
*Totally nerdworthy. Seriously I so dig the cast here.
*A Serious House On Serious Earth, the games loose source, equals victory.
*Great atmosphere.
*Harley Quinn. Mmm...tasty.

Jack Nicholson
*Where's Two Face? Seriously. Did I miss something here? Why not make the cast perfect?
*Was it just me or did the difficulty take a giant leap about 3/4 of the way through?
*Made me think ditry thoughts about Harley Quinn...still not sure how I feel about that.


WET
Whoo! Okay let me say this game completely blew my mind. I was not expecting this game to be nearly as fun and memorable as it was. Critics be damned! I loved this game. It's just flat out fun. As a huge grindhouse (or technically exploitation films) fan this felt like a fan-to-fan game much like in Brutal Legend. Pros and cons:

Beyond the Valley of the Dolls
*Damn good writing. Seriously Eliza Dushku. Do yo' thang.
*I like the color scheme. That's gonna sound weird but if you've ever seen an aged exploitation film you know how the colors can just grab a mood. It's pretty neat and WET has got that in spades.
*Action packed. Shooting, slicing, and epic car chases. I hear some people complaining about how the slow-mo slows the game down but I was totally fine with it. It didn't bug me at all. Plus the swords were cooler than the guns anyway.
*Amazing soundtrack.
*Rubi Malone is the hottest woman in gaming. NO ARGUING!

Zombie Strippers
*I really wish they gave Rubi more of a history. Why is this sexy woman so pissed off all the time? Seriously.
*No other memorable characters other than Rubi.
*Gunplay felt a little gimpy to me. It definitely could've been tightened up.

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I have nothing even attempting to model intelligence this week but I'm having a good week. I just finished these gems and just felt like sharin'. Next week is DJ Hero! DJ HERO!!! And whatever games Gamefly sends my way of course.

I like money. I do. Always have, always will. I like making money almost as much as spending money. Oh how I love spending money. Like a rapper at a whore convention. In fact even the most excruciating of task I will do with a smile if I could have money. Hell I'd be a prostitute if I didn't have the weak body and soul of a 12 year old. But alas I love money. I dig it.

I've been an off and on gamer all my life. Certain parts of my life I endulge in it and other times I kick it to the curb in favor of, well, a life. So right now I'm slipping back into that Getting Into It Phase and I have to say there's something that's changed immensly since I left this beloved hobby of mine a few years back:

THIS SHIT IS EXPENSIVE!



No seriously! This shit is expensive! You know how much it cost to do this stuff? In the last 6 months since I've gotten back on the saddle I've spent more than I spent last year on entertainment total (this year so far I've spent $250 and maybe $150 in DLC). And you know how many games I have to show for it? Four. Four games, an XBL Indie game (which to be fair was $1), and a ton of Rock Band DLC which I play every weekend. I dunno about you guys but that bothers me. I have four games right now and I still play one of them. Well I plan on popping The Beatles back in when Abbey Road comes out but until then the only game to stay constantly spinning in my 360 is Mass Effect. And that's only until I feel my Shepard is up to snuff for ME2 next year. This hobby is fucking pricey.

But to be fair, well, it's kind of always been that way. Back in the days of cartridges we were dropping massive bones too ($80 if memory serves). It's kind of just been industry accepted that we're willing to pay big bucks for the experience of an interactive (and thanks to DLC ever expanding) medium. And now with peripheral gaming on the scene it's only become pricier. I have a $200 preorder for DJ Hero and I have to say as much as I am looking forward to the game $200 is what I, as a kid who didn't pay for his gaming, expected a console to cost.



It's not all bad. I mean some of the purchases are well worth it. For example I think the Rock Band bundle(s) are very much so worth it because they kind of are like consoles. Every week there's a new influx of content, the core of the game is solid, and with each true sequel my hundreds of dollars worth of DLC and on-disc songs carry over. Bravo Harmonix and bravo MTV Games.

And being an American means I still get some of the cheapest gaming around. Aussies and Europeans are still paying out the ass for games I can get brand spankin' new for $5-$10 less than asking price if I shop around. Hell of all my preorders I'm only paying full price for DJ Hero. The only guys I'd rather be in a financial gaming bind might be Canadians. And that's only sometimes.

And then I have to wonder how much of it is my own doing. After all I didn't need that $200 Renegade Edition DJ Hero. I could've settled for the standard package. And after all the only reason they release this shit at these prices is because punks like me buy it. And it's Activision! How doth the stains of mine sins disgust the saints!



Anyway this shit is expensive. And it's not like I'm even buying the games that will make me cool. No I have no plans of buying MW2, Dragon Age, hell I'm still iffy on buying Borderlands with the the Amazon credit I got. In the following weeks I'll be milking Brutal Legend, DJ Hero, and Lego Rock Band for all their worth.

I mean who are you people with your mountains of gaming goodness? Are you geniuses? Sons and daughters of wealthy bachelors or bachelorettes? Can I have their numbers? Am I doing it wrong?

....don't answer that last one.

Also: Gamefly, how is it?

Okay so here's the deal. If you have read any of my comments regarding anything about buying anything (or more specifically the evil PSPgo) then you would know that I have a very teeny tiny income. It's pretty ridiculous and can barely sustain a healthy gaming diet. Plus, I won't lie, about 70% of that goes toward Rock Band DLC. Don't hate.

But Rocktober is looking like a good month for me. Brutal Legend, the Abbey Road DLC, and DJ Hero are all looking well within my budget. But of course typical me can't save up money without toying with temptation and my biggest stumbling block on the road to fiscal prosperity has been and always will be Craigslist.

Recently while looking for a DS with which to Scribblenaut all over I stumbled upon a chap selling a 20GB PS3 (the model with BC) for $150. Fuckin' sweet. I was planning on getting a white Slim with controllers Q1 next year from Colorware but I'd be lying if I didn't say it would kick ass to have one of the few PS3s with BC. It's not like it's that big of a deal for me, not at all, but it would certainly kick ass and buying it for $150 and then sending it to Colorware to get it painted would be WAY cheaper than the $800 for a white Slim with four white controllers that I was gonna buy before (DON'T CRITICIZE MY SPENDING!).

Problem is if I buy this thing than there goes my entire Rocktober which wold suck for obvious reasons. I'm finally making enough to buy games day one and it rocks but dude that PS3 is looking mighty sweet.

Should I sacrifice my Rocktober dreams for a PS3 or just hope another one comes along and, ya know, quit spazzing out?

The brain is typically used for thinking. Or so I'm told. Mine basically acts as a round the clock porn projector that occasionally takes a break to advertise to me the To Do list of that day. However whilst taking a break I happened to stumble across a tiny nugget of a thought and I figured since I have been so deeply steeped in the DToid community lately (as steeped as prowling around on the front page can be) I would share with you my thoughts. Specifically on how the internet changes us and how these effects are good, bad, and we need, yes need, to feel these affects.

How does it change us?

Simple. It maks us feel empowered. Somehow the anamoly of anonymity makes the user feel as if he or she can do, say, or be anything. It's a strange affect that one can argue is exclusive to the faceless universe of the internet. If you were a anonymous person walking into a grocery store would you go to the cashier, call her a cunt, and run out? I would hope not because then I would have to report you to your local insane asylum. But the internet is different and not always in a negative way. Sometimes the anonymity allows us to learn from those who normally wouldn't accept us. But I'm getting ahead of myself.

In short the internet makes us feel like we've stepped into a whole new world where no one knows you, where you can develop your own persona in your own community of your choice, and to the gamer who chases the thrill of escapism this is especially captivating.

The negative:

I want to get this out of the way because I'm probably not preaching any new commandments here. Power produces pimpled douchebags. This has been true since forever. Since long before the internet. Truth be told we all probably had a little bit of troll in us at one time or another even without the internet. But we contained ourselves like the good little social servants we were. With the internet however trolling tweens (and would you believe it even trolling adults) use the power of anonymity for evil.

With the power of anonymity any old dickwad can swoosh in, stomp all over your good time pie, and swoosh out with at most a temporary ban until he finds a workaround. The ironic part is, being an ex-Xbox fanboy and mad hatter of a troll myself back in my early teen years, when most trolls receive a swift banning or just plain disapproval from the community the majority of them come back under new IDs and assume completely logical and likable personas. I know. I've done it, I've seen it done, I know how it works and trust me you think you're getting nowhere by pissing on trolls but it's just a game and like any other game when they're done playing it's back to reality.

Yes Gene Eric may very well be another totally likable dude around here. Believe me or not I don't care but I shit you not good people it wouldn't surprise me at all.

That's the negative of the internet. It's not trolls or fanboys or even disruptive dickbags (that is to say a bag of dicks being thrown and disrupting everything). It's the paranoia that can often follow after a bit of experience with these asshats. We've seen it done with our very own Jim Sterling who tries to give his own fair assumption of all the shiznit he sees in the industry and is blasted time and time again by these people who so often believe everything on the internet has some hidden motive to bend over and take a shit on their dreams. And out of paranoia you get trolls, fanboys, dickbags, who blindly follow their weapon of choice and attack even the smallest threat or possible threat.

The last negative I want to dwell on is just how easy it is to forget your place on the internet. This is one I think we talk less about. If you were face to face with, oh let's see, Steve Jobs let's say; I can't honestly believe you would say to Steve Job's face what you might say to him on the internet if you didn't like him. Or we could take a universally panned figure like Bobby Kotick. I know you're getting all hot and bothered already. Down boy. Shut up and listen. Bobby Kotick is a successful motherfucker. I'm not saying you wouldn't tell Kotick to fuck off but I'm certainly sure you wouldn't put it in those exact words. At least not if you didn't wanted to be sent to the aforementioned insane asylum. I remember telling myself I fucking hated Jessica Simpson and if I met her it wouldn't phase me in the slightest. Then I met her and wouldn't you know there is more to Jessica Simpson then being a famous-for-no-reason retardo. I knew from the moment I shook her hand I wasn't about to tell this lady to fuck off. Maybe give her some career advice, tell her I didn't dig her style, why, that sorta shit, hell we even had a mini-argument but nothing as intense as fuck off came to mind. She was the bitch on the magazines and tv, she had done something, whether it was give great head or whatever it was, to get where she was and I wasn't about to try and outdo that with some hate speech.

Here in this dilated tapestry we forget our place in the real world and it can slightly skew our view of reality. I'm not saying success equals superiority but surely my friends success doth equal respect, no?

The positive:

Whew. Okay lemme go get a glass of birch beer. Ahh, okay I'm chill now.

I wanted to put the positive second to reward you for putting up with the obvious and infuriating negatives. The first major positive is something the DToid community has in buckets: community. The internet provides a sense of community that can almost be touched or even tasted (for the record it taste like a glazed German doughnut and a thousand dollar latte). I coulda sworn during pre-PAX and PAX...and post-PAX....and then post-post-PAX...somebody somewhere was shedding a tear of joy. Here in the intrawebz we take our newly formed or merely refined selves and we bask in a sea of ideas and opinions and these idea and opinions stitch us all together. Having a community purely formed around that fact and not social status or looks or whatever is really only something that can exist on the internet. If you have a strong opinion or strong ideas (oh and put those ideas to work) you have a strong say here. If Jim didn't have such a loud voice and a strong way of putting his thoughts on this blog would you really care nearly as much? No. If Colette didn't have such awesome contest ideas she'd probably just blend in. And it extends to the community too. When I read the comments I can tell, usually by avatar, who can put up a worthwhile read of three pargraphs or not. And it's not based on education or even similar interest to some extent like your typical schoolyard community. It's based on the strength of your opinionations.

The communities on the internetz, especially here and especially to the gamer trying to explore diferent parts of himself through artfully crafted characters, tales, and scenarios, are the kind that can only exist through the power of anonymity.

And finally, anonymity, given to us by the power of whatever the hell the internet really is, allows us to talk. We can speak our minds about whatever without fear of any radical judgment or any dangerous consequence (well there's the extreme like don't come here and give us some terrorist plot in detail). I betchu there are a ton of people on here who are strong opinionators but not really loud speakers. People who, if put in a room to assess a situation with a group of friends, would form a strong opinion but wouldn't be very vocal. I'm that way sometimes. I just don't talk unless I really think I have too. I just don't really care too much. But here on the internet for some reason I feel loosened up. I feel like I can write pages worth of an opinion for an incredibly inactive blog that will be appreciated by like 3 people and still say I did something with an hour of my day that I'm proud of. Will it change the world? I don't give a damn. I'm anonymous, I'm nobody, it doesn't matter, it's not history, hell it's not even a footnote to a footnote of history. The same feeling of invisibility trolls appreciate to piss all over the yard is the same thing that strengthen some of the greatest opinionators and defenders an internet community might have ever seen.

We can learn from these people, argue with these people, and at the end of the day hopefully feel like we actually did something with our time and not just sitting around punching buttons.

Why are these affects important?

Because it's safe to assume that at that moment in time that either a positive or a negative affects you that is who you really are or maybe who you aspire to be. I aspire to be a wise ass who talks a lot but still has something to say and quite frankly fucking loves his tunes. Is that who I am? Not really. I do love my tunes quite fucking much but I don't talk very much unless I'm comfortable and I'm certainly not a wise ass. Shit I'm more of a pussy than anybody here. Trust me. But in my head this version of me, Xzyliac, is what I want to sound like and who I like to think I sound like at the point in time when I click "Add Comment." We need that. We need some sort of release like that.

The communal release isn't new either. Before the internet we wrote opinionated letters to the newspapers under assumed identities to let out that alter ego. David Bowie creates fantastical characters for the songs he write, Jack Nicholson takes on a variety of roles to explore himself, and Howard Stern does, well, whatever the fuck Howard Stern does. He's on the radio so I'm assuming he lets out a fair share of himself that he'd never replicate on the street. And of course there are diaries for peronal true persona release and even politics are, by nature, an attempt to sell who you want to be and disregarding who you are.

Focusing on the internet however hese effects are important because the power granted to you, is the power to be yourself, as pure or fiction as you'd like.

In the internetz you can fly!!!1!11!

Also: Yay new banner!

I know I'm not the coolest kid on the block but I try. So when I came across a Rock Band 2 forum post today with a NXE snapshot featuring an ad for a Metallica album in Rock Band I thought I was cool. That is until a certain forumite said it was weeks old. Well it's news to me dammit so here it goes!



Also, another interesting bit of news is a staff member over at ScoreHero posted a discovery in the .bin file of this weeks DLC. He revealed the song King Nothing from the album Loaded was in the file. Interesting, no?

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"Just did my weekly check of the spa.bin (translation file) in the DLC files, and it looks like an extra one showed up in there this week - "King Nothing", which is a Metallica song from their Load album.

Here's a youtube link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t3m4cypxU2I

This one's especially interesting to me because I didn't think there was any way we'd ever get more Metallica in RB, especially after Enter Sandman didn't make the jump to RB2.

Anyway, you know the drill, don't take it as official until properly announced, but being in the translation file has generally been a good sign in the past." - Deimos of ScoreHero

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Now I am NO Metallica fan (hate 'em) but I do find it interesting that Load could be in RB. I mean One, Death Magnetic, and Trapped Under Ice are all featured in GH (plus the spin-off) and Battery and Enter Sandman both are in RB and now Load? They're very antsy to get into the game (no pun intended).

Harmonix is not the best when it comes to Achievements. I don't know if they just don't care or if they try to make them accessible (unlike GHIII I mean Jesus) but they certainly won't be shaking any ground.

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We Salute You! --- 20
5-Star all the songs on AC/DC LIVE: Rock Band Track Pack on any difficulty.

ALLLLLLLL Night Long! --- 30
Play through every song on AC/DC LIVE in one session.

Fifteen Million Fingers --- 30
Score 100% notes hit during a Guitar Solo on Expert.

Let There Be DRUMS! --- 25
Score 100% notes hit as a drummer on Expert.

Oi! Oi! Oi! --- 20
Score 100% notes hit as a bassist, upstrums only, on Expert.

Number One With a Bullet --- 25
Score a 100% rating as a vocalist on Expert.

Yeah, Yeah You Shook Me! --- 20
5-Star "You Shook Me All Night Long" on Vocals or Guitar.

Done Dirt Cheap --- 20
5-Star "Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap" on Drums or Vocals.

Broke the Limit, We Hit the Town --- 20
5-Star on "Thunderstruck" with Guitar or Drums.

Watch Me Explode! --- 20
5-Star "T.N.T." on Bass or Drums.

Secret Achievement --- 10
Continue playing to unlock this secret achievement.

Secret Achievement --- 10
Continue playing to unlock this secret achievement.

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Pretty standard stuff.