Rust

Well this weekend after my League of legends binge I decided to look for another game to fill my very short attention span. I vaguely remembered a long time back a lot of hype surrounding a game called Rust. I didn’t really remember much about it, but I decided to Google it and see what it was and if it was still around. Lo and behold it was and I quickly downloaded the tech demo. So was it any fun? Keep reading to find out.

                If Man v. Wild was turned into a video game minus the dangerous elements with packs of half naked bloodthirsty men with rocks chasing after you, Rust would be it. The premise of rust is that a unknown event has occurred that has turned the world into shambles. Your start off as a naked man, armed only with your trusty rock, a few torches, bandages, and a few pieces of wood. Your only goal is to survive using these tools to gather materials and create better tools that can lead you to creating shelter and finding food. But you are always at danger, with hordes of radiated animals just waiting to kill you at a moment’s notice. And if that wasn’t bad enough, you have to deal with other players who can either help you survive or shoot you in the face and put u back 2 hours of work.

                If you’re familiar with Minecraft, Rust shares many traits. With its intricate crafting system that is akin to Minecraft, a veteran of the game will immediately feel at home. But unlike minecraft, Rust is more of a simulator, with death always close to your, be it a wild animal or hunger, you will find yourself dying many times in the first few hours of your adventure. But don’t get discouraged, as death is merely a setback.

                Funnily enough, the one major flaw of Rust is also the one major benefit, this being the player base. While many players are nice enough to leave new players alone as they have nothing of value to get, many will disregard that and shoot anyone they see on sight. This makes it frustrating for new players to just spawn in and die within seconds of spawning in.

                Rust is a unique game that sets itself apart from others like it. If you’re looking for a fun survival simulator, I would recommend checking it out.

League of Legends

This week I decided to go and look for a new game to play. It was my surprise when I noticed an ad for the popular game league of legends on the side of my screen. It looked interesting enough, so I decided to click on it. As I am writing this I have already put in at least 10 hours in this fun game. But what makes it so fun? Read more to find out.

                League of legends is a MOBA game, and is the world’s most popular MOBA style game. For those of you who don’t know, a MOBA is a style of game that has you in a 3^rd person view, always above the character you’re controlling. League follows through with this system and perfects it with its 130+ champions to pick from. Each champion that is available to you is unique, with every one of them having their own special skills and abilities. Each champion has 4 abilities, 3 regular ones and one final super powerful ability that defines that specific champion. Examples of this include cannon balls falling from the sky and a giant death rocket. This allows for good variation among different players and play styles.  

                League of legends is based on a F2P system, where a player can earn champions through playing games and spending their points on them, or by buying them with cash. Everything that you can unlock in the game can be bought with the in game money except for skins, which only alter how the champion you’re playing as looks and some of your ability animations. This allows for a dedicated player who enjoys playing a lot to be rewarded and not feel at a major disadvantage to those who decided to spend real money on the game.

                Each week the game gets a balance patch that fixes up bugs and makes any champions that seem too good less strong. This helps to keep the game fresh and fun. Along with this update, the game offers up a selection of 8 randomly chosen champions that anybody can play for free that week. This allows for new players to get a good feel for what they like to play.

                League of legends is a great game with endless amount of enjoyment. With its varied champions and overall uniqueness, League of legends is a game I will be playing for a long time to come.

Banished

Banished is a strategy game based on building and maintaining a steady population while continuing to have your village grow and prosper. With influences from SimCity both on the strategy genre and on gaming in general, has immensely helped to create this game. Banished is the latest in that line, elaborating on the intricate, small-scale design of recent games like Tropico and creating something unique in the process of creating your very own settlement.

 Banished is a series of small goals that can be played in a never ending loop. Every game starts in the spring, and before winter hits, you need to get enough firewood, gather a decent supply of food, and build some houses to keep your citizens from freezing to death. Just getting enough food is tough, because you rarely have enough time or free land to get a proper set of crops growing. Instead, you'll be chopping down as many trees as you can before getting a fishery going in a nearby lake or river. Then you hunker down and hope nobody dies. Banished also has a number of natural disasters that could strike your settlement. They serve as a kind of random "boss fight" in the sense that they will often test one aspect of your infrastructure. Diseases test the health of your population, fires test your city planning, and tornadoes test your ability to rapidly rebuild before winter comes again.

 If you're reading this, it's safe to say you have a computer or cell phone. But what if you didn't? What if you were forced out of your home as you know it, to live in the wilderness? How do you think you'd survive? Banished asks those questions, opening with a dozen or so outcasts looking to create a new life in the wilderness. It's a humble setup, but the game is masterfully constructed with dozens of interlocking mechanics to make the start the perfect foundation for an emergent prosperous new settlement where ever, with whatever you can imagine.

Team Fortress 2

Lately I’ve been looking for a game to fill the first person shooter void that call of duty just hasn’t been filling as of late.  In my search I happened to stumble upon a game known as Team Fortress 2. Not only has this game passed my expectations, it has succeeded it in almost every way and become one of my top 10 games of all time

Team fortress 2 is a different game compared to other first person shooters such as COD and Battlefield. Instead of picking you guns and changing your equipment, you can choose between 9 different classes that each have their own special talent. Each class plays radically different, and each is good for its own special situation. Have a lot of enemy players that like to group up? The Pyro can do the job easily burning his enemies down with his flamethrower. Playing on a map with long viewpoints and chokeholds? Snipers the best pick for racking up some headshots. This is where the game exceeds the most, with the different classes proving to be fun and challenging in their own special way.

One of the other features that separate’s this game from other shooters is the weapons and maps. Most first person shooters have a somewhat limited selection of guns and maps, but this is where tf2 really shines. Since the game is developed on steam (The Facebook of the gaming community), people from all around the world can put forth their ideas for new guns and maps.  Talented animators can then put time and effort into making those guns and maps come true, and if the ideas are original and good enough, the game developers will put those items in the game. This is beneficial because it bands the gaming community and the game creators together more, and makes it a better experience for everyone.  This also keeps the game fresh, with new guns and maps constantly being added to keep the game modern and up to date. They also do special events around holidays and events that turn tf2 into an almost completely different game for that time.

It turns out looking for a new game to play proved to be quite beneficial, with Team Fortress 2 becoming one of my favorite games I’ve played yet. If you want to get out of the mainstream rut of COD and Battlefield, Tf2 is the perfect game to start with. 

Gamestop

For anybody who has played games even somewhat regularly, they know of a little store called GameStop. For those of you who don’t know, GameStop is a store where you can buy and sell video games. This may sound like a great idea for any non gamers or people just starting to play. But for anyone who has even a slight clue on what’s going on, GameStop isn’t the end all be all for games. So should you just cash in your games for quick and easy money or is it worth your time to set up craigslist articles and wait for more money.

                The premise of GameStop is simple. Anytime you complete a game or get bored with it, you take it on down to your nearest GameStop and sell it quick and easy for a fair price. Or at least that’s what they want you to think. What really happens is almost a rip off. Now I know that the company needs to make money but really, 8 dollars for a game that came out only 2 months ago is absurd. Now I know that you’re thinking, “Oh but since they buy it for cheap they must sell it for cheap too right?” Wrong. They not only undercut you, but they also put it on shelves for a price higher than most of us feel right paying for it.

                Now unlike driving down to you’re nearest GameStop to dump off any unwanted games, another way you could get a good deal is putting them up on craigslist. Craigslist is a website where you can post ads for buying or selling things in your city or town.  This works especially well for games, as it achieves a happy medium for both the buyers and sellers. The sellers end up getting more cash than just selling it straight to GameStop, while the buyers get a better deal buying straight from you rather then GameStop.

                So in the end it’s really up to you. If you’re looking to just dump some games off real quick and get some extra spending money, go ahead and sell them to GameStop. But if you were looking into a more long term investment, spending time to go and set up a craigslist ad will prove more beneficial for you and your buyer in the long run, and will keep your pockets full and your buyer happy.

                                    

Is 3d worth the extra money?

So we've all gone to the movies and have seen that that for only a few dollars more, you could go see your movie in 3D. But is it worth it just to watch a few things pop out of you or should you save those 5 dollars and just catch another movie with the money you saved.

                3D as we know and love it is the visual wizardry of having objects or debris popping right out in our face for our entertainment. It was most popular in the early 2000’s with almost every movie coming out at that time being in 3D and boasting how great it was. I myself like 3D to some extent, but never enough to justify paying the extra amount.  The way I saw it is that while you might enjoy the movie a little bit more, the 3D really detracts from the other points of the movie, and could leave you dazzled but clueless to what’s really going on.  But the worst part of the whole experience is those damn glasses. Now these days the glasses are made of a hard plastic, almost like a pair of sunglasses, back in the day your standard issue 3D glasses were made of cheap cardboard and little red and blue pieces of plastic. they wouldn't stick on your face no matter how you put them on; they were uncomfortable and distracted me more than the movie itself.

                Now 3D isn’t all that bad, with the added visual element that it brings to table can improve a movie greatly, but only very specific movies. A good example of this being that new 300 movie that I actually shelled out the extra cash to go see it in 3d.  I talked to a few of my friends who didn’t see it in 3D and they said that it would have improved the visuals and thus, improved the movie.

                So is it worth the extra cash to go and see movies in 3D. My verdict is maybe. Like I said it really depends on the movie with films with very vivid and colorful graphics such as the 300 movies working best with 3D, but other more serious films such as the last few harry potters having 3D being more of a negative impact to it. So the next time you are at the movie theaters, put some though into it before you pay the extra to see it in 3D.

Divergent review

So this weekend I decided to go out and catch another movie. I decided to go see Divergent as I read the book awhile back and wanted to see if the movie was true to the book.  Unfortunately the movie did not meet my expectations in the long run, and proved to be a disappointment for me in the end with it cutting many parts in the book and slowing many scenes down to almost a stop.

Divergent is a movie akin to the hunger games with a strong female lead in the main role. The plot is that society is split into 5 different factions, with each of them being different and consisting of people with the same personalities (Bravery, intelligence).  The film starts with our main character that is known as Beatrice. She lives in the faction abnegation that runs the government. But every year, the government gathers all of the 16 year olds together to determine what faction they best fit in with. But Beatrice has aspects of each of the factions shown in her test, and she is labeled as divergent. This is very dangerous for her as divergent means she can think on her own and poses a threat to the government. With this in mind, she quickly chooses to join the faction known as dauntless and starts her training; with the fact of her being divergent nestled deep in her mind.  She begins to start her training to join her faction, when she meets four, her main love interest. As their relationship begins to form,

Divergent was a book I quite enjoyed, with its new take on a dystopian society proving to being interesting and kept me reading from cover to cover. But unfortunately, the book puts the movie to shame with its slow nature and boring characters doing nothing for it. The age difference between the two leads was also a letdown, albeit a creepy one, with our heroine looking young enough but having our main love interest four being 24 leaving an almost 8 year time gap. The visuals were good and portrayed the book and the setting well, but they couldn’t help the movies slow nature and overall boring feeling it brings to the table. My suggesting is that if you wanted to see a movie with a strong female lead akin the hunger games, check this one out if you want, but any readers of the book will be disappointed and wanting their money back.

Justin Beiber out of control?

Celebrities seem to always make the news in some way or another, so I doesn’t surprise me that Justin Beiber has popped up in the news again for supposedly cheating on Selena Gomez. This sint the first time he has popped up the year and certainly won’t be the last. But when is enough for the young pop star, and when will he finally do something do arrogant or stupid enough for him to realize he is not invincible?

Justin Beiber has had his name in the papers for some time now, so I shouldn’t surprise you when you see it there again. But lately, he isn’t known for his singing talent, more his selfish attitude and ignorance. Just recently he has been accused of cheating on his on again off again girlfriend Selena Gomez. Now many of you may remember him drag racing in his car while drunk while still a minor. These events are becoming more and more popular, with Beiber also being accused of ruining his neighbor’s house by throwing eggs at it, visiting multiple brothels while on tour, and .  

I believe that Beiber will step over the line many times more before he finally wises up and stops. Many on his fans say that he is just going through a phase of some sort, and that he will mature and grown out of it eventually.  I believe that this might not ever happen, as I think that Justin will keep on doing his stunts until something major happens to him. I don’t think he knows the damage that these little stunts are doing to him, as even his fans are losing hope. I don’t know what, but I think that he will be doing one of his little stunts again, and then he will hurt someone else or hurt himself. Only then will he realize that his fame does not make him invincible.

These stunts have to end, whether it is throwing eggs or drag racing. Justin is 20 and the things he is taking part in are extremely immature. He needs to know when enough is enough and to not take his fame and wave it around like he is doing now.  Come on Justin, grow up.

                

Minecraft Review

Today I will review a game that has changed the way video games have been looked at. It has broken several records and is still one of the most immensely popular games on the market right now with it being released on almost every video game console and app store to date. Videos made about this game garner millions of views on YouTube, with it being one of the most popular games posted on their site, right up there with Call of duty. But what game may this be and why is it so popular?

The game I was talking about is called Minecraft. Even if you aren’t very video game savvy, theres a chance that you will have heard about or seen stuff about Minecraft.  For those of you who don’t know, Minecraft is a game released back in 2009 by a Swedish developer named Markus Persson, who created the game after playing a few other games. He liked the look and feel of them and decided to try and make his own game, based on what he liked from the other games. And thus Minecraft was born.

But let me begin to talk about the game play. You start with nothing in a randomly-generated world made of many different types of blocks, filled with multiple types of blocks, as well as wildlife like sheep, pigs, cows, and squids with no tools or shelter. At nighttime, monsters such as zombies, skeleton archers, and the rage inducing Creepers come out to try and kill you. Your goal is to build shelter, craft tools, find food and survive long enough to delve deep into the surface to claim valuable minerals such as diamond and emeralds to help you progress. Shelter keeps the monsters away from you, while food allows you to regenerate lost health, and keeps you from starving to death.

The presentation of the game shows that graphics don’t always make a game great. The blocky graphics look as if they came 20 years late to the video game party, but they have a unique charm, and Minecraft’s simple yet sweet graphics has become the most recognizable aspect of the game. It’s also a key part of the game play, as the entire game revolves around destroying blocks of the environment, collecting the raw materials that drop from the blocks, and using them to build something anything that your heart desires, whether it be a giant castle or a sleek modern home with chairs and a aquarium built right inside.

Another major part of Minecraft is its multiplayer. You can make your own personal server inside of the game, where other players can join you and help build. People from anywhere in the world can connect with you and share in some great moments. Servers also have the ability to install mod’s, which can do anything from change the look of the blocks around you, to adding in 100’s of new features such as new animals wandering around the world, to new items to spruce up the game play. There are even mod’s that change Minecraft completely into whole different genres, akin to an RPG or a FPS.

I personally have played a lot of games in my spare time, and I have never had the same experience with a game as I have with Minecraft. There’s just something special about it that I can’t pinpoint. If you own a computer, Xbox, or even have access to an app store, I cannot recommend highly enough buying this game right away before another update where it’s even changing price will go up.

Transcendence Review

This weekend I decided it had been far too long since I have gone out and seen a movie. So I decided to go out and see the movie transcendence.  While the movie does start out somewhat slowly and doesn’t pick up much speed until the climax, the ending is well done and the movie finishes on a high note.

The movie starts off slowly like I said, with our main character names Will (Played by Johnny Depp) is working on creating a computer that has life of its own. But unfortunately, he is shot by a terrorist and is severely wounded before he could finish his project. Dying, his wife Evelyn brings him to his computer he has been working on and uploads his mind to the computer to stop him dying.  He then requests to be connected to the internet to gain more power and knowledge.  Her friend objects to this however, but she still manages to connect him to the internet.  After this, her friend gets abducted by the terrorists and taken to their headquarters.  They question him about his involvement and force him to join their side. While this was happening, will was using his power to build himself a little town for him and Evelyn on the outskirts of a town in the desert. But after he build the town, the government intervenes and shows up with an FBI agent and a Scientist (Played to Morgan Freeman). They are then tasked with choosing to have all of our modern technology destroyed by will, or for them to suffer transcendence.

Now that I have given you a little look into the movie, I am going to go over the ups and downs of it all. I thought that the movie tried to convey a suspenseful feel throughout, which it accomplished in some places and failed to work in others. I also thought that the movie was way to slow in the beginning, and didn’t really focus on the characters as much as I would have liked to. Even though everybody was devastated that will was shot with the poison bullet, it didn’t faze me at all considering that they didn’t really build up and tension or back-story for him. But for all the negatives the film has, it redeems itself somewhat by wrapping up very well with a good ending and climax that really made me think. I think that you should see this movie only if you were looking for a movie that will make you think and not something action packed with explosions every 5 seconds. 

How to not get scammed on EBay

So about a week ago I was on eBay just doing some window-shopping when I came across a particular item. This item was a complete DVD box set of all of Quentin Tarintino’s movies. I have seen this before on websites priced at around 150$ dollars. So I was pretty astonished when I saw it up for only 20$. I immediately bought it and waited for a confirmation Email. That email did not arrive. Just yesterday I was on my email when I noticed I got one from Ebay. I opened it up to see that customer service had told me that the account I bought the item from was a fake Chinese account that took my money then disbanded the account. At first I was amazed that I could have fallen to such a stupid scam and how ignorant I must have been. But after thinking for awhile, I decided to help you guys out and make a few tips for you to prevent falling into the same situation I was in.   

Tip 1. The very first step you should take is to check the persons username. I know this may sound a little weird, but sometimes you can tell if the account was made with a bot or a person if you just read their username. Then, check the approval rating of the person you are buying from. Most of the time if it’s below even 75%, the person is a scammer or fake and you should generally just walk away to prevent being scammed. Then after you’ve cleared that, make sure that you check out all of the other items the seller has been selling and check the feedback. If all seems positive, then continue down to step 2.

Tip 2. After you have checked their history and background, send them a message. Most people don’t know that you can communicate with people through eBay, and it saves a lot of hassle. Before you buy your item, make sure to establish even a brief contact with the other person to make sure that they are indeed human and not some robot in China.

Tip 3.  Even if you have received a message back from the person, check the items they have sold and search for things like that item. If you see other usernames that pop up selling the same or similar item with almost identical usernames, you know that they are all bots and you should stay away.

So the next time you are surfing EBay in looks of a great deal on some new shoes or a game, make sure you do your homework first unless you want to end up 20$ short with nothing to show.

           

Iphone C vs S

Corresponding with a recent blog of mine of a cell phone nature, I decided to take the two most recent Iphone’s and compare them and see which is the better buy and which one I would choose.

When you look at the two phones, they look almost identical in height. This can’t be said for their weight and overall appearance is quite different.  The Iphone s is made of metal with a significant weight advantage over the Iphone C, which is made of some sort for pseudo plastic. They both have the same strong feeling that all the iphones have, albeit the c is just lighter. Another major new feature that the Iphone s has over its brother is its fingerprint unlocking technology. For those of you who don’t know, the new Iphone has the ability to unlock itself with only your thumbprint and only yours. But this feature shouldn’t persuade you from not considering the Iphone c.

Now I personally don’t own either of these phones, but I have talked to and inquired about them to friends who own them. They said that the battery life on them is about the same as past iphones, so they both finish at the same place there.  They both run the same software, albeit the s tends to improve on the c in many ways such as a slightly better camera (From what I could tell). In almost every way it seems like the Iphone edges out its cheaper brother in almost every category.

Now a good reason many may see in picking the c over the s, even in its inferiority, is its around $100 less cost. Personally, I think that even thought $100 may seem like quite a lot of money, in reality it really isn’t. I think that if you for sure wanted to pick up one of the new iphones, you should go for the more overall better one, even if you are paying slightly more for it. This will not only guarantee you a good phone that will last you a much longer time, you will soon come to find out that the benefits will soon outweigh the downsides of spending the extra cash.

With cellphones being all the rage now a days, having the best one is always the right decision. From what ive looked into, it seems that if you wanted to buy an Iphone, the best bet would be to buy the S. Even though its much more expensive then the C, it boasts better camera quality, a more durable feel, and a all around more stable feel and design that will long outlast the C.

               

Sequels and Reboots

Recently, the word sequel has become more and more relevant, with almost every movie being released today being a sequel of a movie or a reboot of an old movie. But does making a sequel to a good movie help or hurt the series as a whole.

In today’s era of movie making, it seems like almost every movies that comes out is either a follow up to a successful movie or a reboot to a classic film. But it seems like the sequel always fairs much worse than its predecessor, with it almost always getting a lower score from fans and critics alike. The only reason company’s release a sequel or pre sequel is because the first movie was well received and the producers wanted to cash in on hopeful movie goers. This plan works well too often, with the sequels often bringing in a lot of profit, which just starts the cycle over again. Unfortunately, the producers are not the ones to blame; they are just trying to make a profit, it is the consumers that pay to go see these sequels that are the ones at fault.

Now I’m not saying that every sequel made was a failure, with the Lord of the Rings sequels actually getting better than the last. I’m just saying that companies that cash in on a successful movie just for a quick buck is bad. This also occurs to some extent with reboots of movies. Reboots are becoming more and more popular, with many newer versions of classics such as Robo Cop and Total Recall. These aren’t given the same treatment as the “cash in while still popular” sequels are, these can sometimes be very good. But instead of sticking to what made the original movie so good, they tend to deviate from the path and try to change source material long standing fans have cherished and loved. Although sometimes this strategy pays off, most of the time this flops with fans and critics alike.

My outcry is not aimed at movie producers or directors, but at you, the movie goer. You are the reason that these company’s keep producing these movies. If you never went and saw these terrible movies, they wouldn’t make any money off of them, and they would stop being produced. So the next time you see a movie coming out that looks even little questionable, read a review and save yourself the 10$.

Flappy bird

Apps are becoming the most popular video games available on the market today, with the ease of accessibility for anyone with a Smartphone, to their much less then retail costs. But one app has risen from its competitors to become the next smash hit.  This app is known as Flappy bird and it has become an over the night sensation with it gaining hundreds of thousands of downloads and reviews.

Flappy bird is a simple game with a simple concept. You control a bird in its journey to flap its way to victory by going through many pipes. Unfortunately for him, it seems that he can never reach his destination, with no end in sight. Every time you tap on him, he jumps upward abruptly, and you have to guide him through until you inevitably hit an obstacle and fall to the ground. Your score is recorded and then you start again. And again. And again.  Somehow this simple concept has captivated millions of people including me with is simplistic yet addicting game play. Normally I would talk about its story or great cast of characters, but this is the entire game, just you vs. all of your friends to see who can get through the most pipes.

Now you wouldn’t think that a game this simple would gain so much popularity in such a short time. Well you like many other people would be wrong. While I did say that the game was addicting I did not say it was fun, because honestly I don’t find it that enjoyable. There are 2 types of people when it comes to flappy bird, those who excel at the game, and those who don’t. If you can get the right rhythm you can get through upwards of 100 pipes without even breaking a sweat.  But as soon as you learn the pattern, the game becomes repetitive, with you finishing each game with an incredibly low score below 10, or finishing where you almost always finish. Sure you may be able to get one or two higher than before but does it really matter? Then there are the people who are never able to get that rhythm down and always seem to never make it past 20. If you fall into this category, there’s a high chance that you have lobbed your phone across the room in anger after losing.  But fear not, you’re not alone in this craze. There have been multiple videos of people throwing, breaking, or even smashing their phones with a hammer because of this game.

But like every good story, the flappy bird tale has come to a bitter end. With the creator of the game recieivng many death threats and horrible things written to him, he decided to stay away from the drama and close the game. As of now you can no longer get flappy birds, and you can only play it if u have already downloaded it.

Terraria review

I reviewed a game called Minecraft, which I can’t praise enough.  But there is another game that falls into the same category, and I figure it was about time for me to give it the down low. This time around the game is called Terraria, and while it may seem akin to Minecraft, I can assure you that both are very unique and very fun to play.

                Terraria was released on pc in 2011 by the developer Re-Logic. The game is a 2d platformer of sorts, with you being put in control of your character. When you load up your world, you are put in a randomly generated world that nobody will or has ever seen before. You are then paired up with a guide who teaches you some basic facts or crafting recipes about how to survive in this new world.  You are then to do as you please. You can dig into the earth and harvest dozens of materials to make better equipment, make a bow and go hunt down the creatures that plague your land, or make a house out of dirt and start a bunny farm. There are no set goals for what you need to accomplish, although you will need to kill a few bosses to unlock some of the later material. This is what I like about these types of games, the freedom of being able to do whatever you like, whenever you like.  This makes the gameplay not feel too rushed and really lets me enjoy the game.

                Now unlike Minecraft, Terraria has some achievements you can stride for, whether it be kill a gigantic eyeball in the hopes it drops the item you need so you can craft a weapon and fight the next boss. After you kill 3-4 bosses, you can descend to hell and fight a moving wall of flesh. If you manage to emerge victoriously, the game drastically changes, with hundreds of new enemies to fight and treasure to discover. This is one major advantage this game has over Minecraft. Even if you have beaten the game, there are still hundreds of hours of content left for you to discover. I personally have spent 126 hours in Terraria and I’m still discovering new enemies or finding new items. This alone makes the game feel compelling to play through and makes this game that much better.

                But as always this game has its issues. Playing with your friends is one of the best things you can do with this type of game. But unfortunately, it is excruciatingly hard to set up a server to play with your friends. The game also has a fair amount of glitches in it as well, with some major ones that can corrupt your save data and delete your world and all of your items in it. This alone shows signs of concern, as the game isn’t being as rapidly patched as I hoped.

                Terraria came in the time of other smash hits like Minecraft and Rust. You would think that it would fade into nonexistence after being compared to other games. But Terraria stuck out and carved its own place in the very saturated video game empire, a spot it won’t give up anytim

Are Cellphones Becoming our 3rd Limb?

Are cellphone playing too large of a role in teenager’s lives? With new technology constantly popping up in the market, cellphones keep getting better and better, with a single device replacing an mp3 player, game system, watch, and alarm clock just to name a few. But with all of this new technology available to teenagers these days, when will we see that cellphones are just a device, not another limb.

         

   As a teenager I am almost constantly on my phone, with it filling almost all of the down time at school throughout the day. I use it to text, play games, as a clock, watch a movie, and to do about anything I could think of. It keeps me linked to the world and updated on any recent events. It can start or finish a chapter in my life with a single button press, and is almost a 3^rd arm for me and almost any other teenager. Just to think that 20 years ago, id need at least 4 different things in my pocket just to do the same things my IPhone does. But when is your dependence on your cellphone enough?

         

   Now personally I don’t have this issue, but I know people who spend an extreme amount of time on their cellphones. Many people will almost neglect their lives outside of their cellphones, with the cellphone almost becoming their real life for them. They will get lost in a world of twitter and Facebook, so much so that they will not pay attention to anything, and will have a negative impact on their lives as a whole.

Many teenagers now also put too much into their cell phones. So much so that if you managed to lose yours, you could lose a lot of valuable information to anyone who just manages to find it or pick it up. Sure you might have a lock on it, but if they were determined enough, they could find a way to unlock it for themselves. Then if they manage to get the phone unlocked, they have access to everything, including all of your pictures, texts, contacts, etc. These can get really personal and can lead to a fate similar to identity theft. Most teenagers think that a simple lock will keep their phone safe from falling into the wrong hands, so they will gladly store valuable information on it.

Modern cellphones were meant to be a luxury, something that allows you to do many things on without having to switch devices or carry around 30 things in your pocket. But now more than ever, cellphones are becoming less of a luxury and more of a necessity. 

Ronin 47

Why are time honored actors constantly creating worse and worse box office hits, such as Ronin 47 and Arnolds new movie, The Last Stand?

It has been awhile since I have seen my last movie, so I thought that I should venture to the movie theater and see what’s new.  I had seen trailers advertising the new Keanu reeves movie, 47 ronin recently, so I thought that I should go and watch it. But how does this stack up to his older movies that were oh so good?

The movie is loosely based on an old Japanese story about a king who was shamed by another ruler, and forced to kill himself to redeem his honor.  When the king died, his samurais became ronin which kind of make them freelance samurais. They all banded together and took revenge on the “bad” king to reclaim their honor. And this is where the similarities end with the original tale and the movie. Keanu plays Kai, an outcast born of white descent that was found in a forest by the king Ashono and taken back to his land. There, he was raised like his son, although he was always treated differently by the villagers because of his race.

Fast forwarding to his adult years, Kai still lives as an outcast of society, living in the outskirts of town. He is perked up by the fact that the famous shogun is coming to his village to host a tournament between samurai against villages.   Panic strikes as Kai has to don the samurai gear, while breaking his code, because the fighter for his village was bewitched by Lord Kiras mistress. Lord Kira is the leader of an opposing town and wants to win the tournament and steal the heart of Ashonos daughter. Kai fights well, but is beaten by his opponent, who also knocks off his mask to reveal his face. He is brutally beaten, while lord Kira reigns victorious. Later that same night he sends his mistress once again to bewitch the king into thinking that Kira was attacking his daughter. He runs into his room and almost kills him before the guards find them. Ashono is punished by having to kill himself, and the kingdom falls into ruins by lord Kiras hand.

This is where I’m going to stop the review so I don’t spoil it for any of you. I enjoyed the movie greatly and hope that you will as well. The actors take their roles quite seriously, and it shows with great performances.  The story is action packed and seems to always have something interesting going on. The CG is pretty good, with it being used in many scenes to really make them stand out.  Overall I think that Reeves shines in his role and that this movie is a definite must see.

Evil Apples

Can converting a family board game loved by all to a dirty hilarious copy pay off?

I’m sure that everyone has played the popular game known as apples to apples. For a quick summary of the game, you and 3 friends each get an assortment of cards with a random word or person on them, ranging from anything from George Washington to your boss. The judge then picks from a special pile of cards that have a defining word on them such as annoying or really funny. The players then choose a card from their hand and put it down. The winner is whoever put down the card that the judge picks as the funniest or cleverest.

Now evil apples are like apples to apples dirty cousin who lives in a bad part of town and is constantly in and out of jail. Evil apples are only available on the app store, and are not available in stores like apples to apples. Unlike the family friendly version before, evil apples changes it style to appeal to a more adult/teenager crowd. The premise of the games are similar, with evil apples throwing out the one defining word cards, and changing to a sentence format, such as “The mad scientist knew his creation was a monster, but foolishly hoped________would one day be accepted and loved by man”. There the players would pick from their cards what they think would be the best and submit them. Like before, the judge would pick his or her favorite card, points would be rewarded, and then the next round gets underway.

Now as I said before, evil apples is different in that it’s aimed at a more mature crowd, with it including more mature words such as “All the prostitutes in Detriot” or “Ronald McDonalds nipple”.  Now I can’t speak for any of you who are over the age of 30, but my friends and I find this highly enjoyable.  Yes it’s immature and petty, but it can lead to some seriously funny moments between you and your friends. And it’s not just limited to people you know. When you host a game, anybody can join it and play with you, so you don’t have to wait long for your games to fill up.

Although this app has good upsides, it has its downsides. You need to be connected to wifi while playing this game; otherwise it will drain your battery like no tomorrow. I have had the wifi drop and switch to 3g before, and my phone would lose 10% of its battery in 15 minutes of me playing the game. Another downside with this game is its difficulty locating your friends to play with. The game uses twitter and Facebook to send out messages to people you want to play with. This method isn’t as useful as you would think, with people receiving the messages way to late or not even getting one at all.

                Evil apples quite a fun game to play with your friends, with its entertaining game play for you and your friends to all get involved with.

Rick and Morty

Are animated T.V shows slowly starting to take the crown off of live actions shows head?

Rick and Morty is the first show to come from Dan Harmon in a long time. It has been airing on Adult Swim recently, and the hype is here, but is Rick and Morty worth getting excited about. With most of the games or shows that I review, something about this makes it stick out above the rest, which Rick and Morty do excellenty.

The story revolves around the mad scientist Rick who brings his companion in his adventures along with him, who just so happens to be his grandson Morty an awkward teenager who is bullied by Rick into coming with him in his outlandish endeavour with the constant promise of a hot girl or something really cool. It seems that Morty online comes on these adventure because Rick appears to be his only friend. His relations with his family are good, although his family’s relationship with each other is strained. Jerry, his dad, got his mother Beth pregnant at 17, something that his mother regrets. He also has a older sister who goes to his same school. Unlike the awkward Morty, Summer fits right in as a typical American girl, with her incessant texting, talking to friends, and dating. Rick and Morty’ s relationship is definitely strange, but it’s enjoyable  to watch and gets many laughs.

Rick and morty has a very eye catching art style, boasting a clean, simple style reminiscent of shows like adventure time. The episodes are always interesting, like the episode where Rick and Morty are running through customs in a different universe, dodging alien travelers and gun wielding bugs. Each episode has many plots going about at all times, and in the end, they all meet up together to make each story feel unique and interesting. No two episodes feel alike, each with its own unique cast of characters and wacky scenarios. For example one episode takes place inside a hobo’s body, where rick has built a theme park based on the body, while the next focuses on Rick and Morty incepting into his teachers dreams to give Morty an A in math.

Rick and Morty comes about in the time of the other legends such as Family guy and The Simpsons. And for it to stand out among them takes a great amount of effort and uniqueness that only this show can pull off. It is written so perfectly, that they can switch from funny or crazy topics and events to much more serious issues such as rape and death of a loved one. Most shows today can’t pull these off because they don’t have enough seriousness to, while rick and morty plays the perfect balance to pull off both sides of the spectrum.

Rick and morty is leading the charge to become the next hit such as Family guy and The Simpsons. With its witty and funny dialogue, fun visuals, and great storytelling, I predict that Rick and Morty are here to stay. I highly suggest you give the show a watch.

TEST

Rick and Morty is the first show to come from Dan Harmon in a long time. It has been airing on Adult Swim recently, and the hype is here, but is Rick and Morty worth getting excited about. With most of the games or shows that I review, something about this makes it stick out above the rest, which Rick and Morty do excellenty.

The story revolves around the mad scientist Rick who brings his companion in his adventures along with him, who just so happens to be his grandson Morty an awkward teenager who is bullied by Rick into coming with him in his outlandish endeavour with the constant promise of a hot girl or something really cool. It seems that Morty online comes on these adventure because Rick appears to be his only friend. His relations with his family are good, although his family’s relationship with each other is strained. Jerry, his dad, got his mother Beth pregnant at 17, something that his mother regrets. He also has a older sister who goes to his same school. Unlike the awkward Morty, Summer fits right in as a typical American girl, with her incessant texting, talking to friends, and dating. Rick and Morty’ s relationship is definitely strange, but it’s enjoyable  to watch and gets many laughs.

Rick and morty has a very eye catching art style, boasting a clean, simple style reminiscent of shows like adventure time. The episodes are always interesting, like the episode where Rick and Morty are running through customs in a different universe, dodging alien travelers and gun wielding bugs. Each episode has many plots going about at all times, and in the end, they all meet up together to make each story feel unique and interesting. No two episodes feel alike, each with its own unique cast of characters and wacky scenarios. For example one episode takes place inside a hobo’s body, where rick has built a theme park based on the body, while the next focuses on Rick and Morty incepting into his teachers dreams to give Morty an A in math.

Rick and Morty comes about in the time of the other legends such as Family guy and The Simpsons. And for it to stand out among them takes a great amount of effort and uniqueness that only this show can pull off. It is written so perfectly, that they can switch from funny or crazy topics and events to much more serious issues such as rape and death of a loved one. Most shows today can’t pull these off because they don’t have enough seriousness to, while rick and morty plays the perfect balance to pull off both sides of the spectrum.

Rick and morty is leading the charge to become the next hit such as Family guy and The Simpsons. With its witty and funny dialogue, fun visuals, and great storytelling, I predict that Rick and Morty are here to stay. I highly suggest you give the show a watch.

Book to Movies

With many movies that are coming out recently stemming from books such as the Hunger Games, The Hobbit and Divergent, it would seem that all the audiences around the world want is movies based on their beloved books. But how did the subject of book to movies become so popular in today’s society, when it seems like the last thing we want to do is read?

            In light of today’s technological advancements, books are not going away without a fight. Many popular series generate hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue, with authors such as Suzanne Collins and J.K Rowling becoming almost as famous as Hollywood stars. Any time a popular book comes out it would seem like all of the books fans want is a movie adaptation. And many times they get that with a large chunk of all movies coming out in this generation having its base in a book or work of literature. Some of these movies perform somewhat bland, with them slowly falling away in a sea of forgetfulness, while others such as the Hunger Games and the Hobbit, climbing to worldwide fame and praise.

              What perplexes me is the audience’s reaction after seeing a movie based on their loved book. I’m sure that you have heard the saying “It was all right, but the book was way better”. When asked what they could do to change it and make it better the most common response is usually “They forgot so and so” or “They left out these three details that TOTALLY destroyed the storyline….”. Now while I understand why these parts were left out most of the time, I do agree that sometimes the movie strays a little too far away from the source material. But the big issue is that many people just assume that the movie is going to be a complete word for word retelling of the book, just on a screen with pictures. What they don’t understand is that if movies would do such a thing, it would result in 5-6 hour long movies that would take hundreds of millions more to produce, and would also take up many more months to complete. The Harry potter production took about a 4 years of off again filming, but if I were to follow the books monumental size, it would have probably added at least a year, maybe even two. It bothers me that all people do is whine about when their book is going to be made into a movie, only to complain about it when it finally does.