Evolution 2009 Starts Today

At 9:00 PST the biggest fighting game tournament in the country (some say even the world) begins. The 2009 Evolution Championship Series is a fighting game tournament full of tradition, featuring the worlds greatest fighters in various fighting games. Held at the Rio in Las Vegas, this three day tournament will put the best against the best, with fighting game superstars like SoCal's Alex Valle, East Coast's Justin Wong, and the ever-so-feared Daigo flying in from Japan.

This past year, the fighting game scene has witnessed quite a few changes to their community. Unlike other games such as Starcraft, Halo, and CounterStrike, the fighting game community never acquired that widespread attention to qualify as an official eSport. The community has been known to hold their own in a sort of wild west fashion, organizing their own tournaments and keeping the community afloat with Youtube videos and the pure love of the game, all without the need for sponsorships and professional companies like MLG or WCG.

But with the release of Street Fighter 4, the scene was exposed to a sort of rebirth. Just as the number of competitors and popularity of the games was falling, SF4 brought with it a resurgence, filling the community with a strong sense of pride, along with a brand new feeling of hunger with everyone wanting to prove that they're the best once again. The pure popularity of SF4 gave the fighting game community a ton of exposure, bringing in both old school SF2 players as well as a younger generation of fighting game enthusiasts.

After a years worth of tournaments, the one tournament that everyone has been preparing for starts today. Some competitors are students at school who play fighting games as a hobby, some are 30 year old Street Fighter veterans who have been playing their whole lives. Some have dropped everything else in their lives and have become professional players, and some don't even compete; they just have a love for the community.

At Evo this year, the headlining game is Street Fighter 4 which boasts over 1040 entrants. Other featured games are HDRemix, 3rd Strike, Guilty Gear XX: Accent Core, Marvel Vs. Capcom 2, and Soul Calibur IV. There is also a community sponsored Brawl tournament on the side, and kiosks featuring new games like BlazBlue, Tatsunoko Vs. Capcom, and Tekken 6. This is also the first year that Evo will be hosting a proper live stream, featuring coverage across all three days, with the finals for all of the games on Sunday. The live stream can be viewed at http://evo2k.com/live/ and starts Friday at 10:00 PST.

For those interested in the history of the fighting game community, check out these pieces:

- I Got Next started out as a students final project at art school, but quickly grew into a much bigger fighting game documentary. Ian Cofino traveled across the country and made a movie highlighting the Street Fighter 4 hype, with a focus on the growing rivalry between the East Coast and West Coast. You can view the short cut of the film at http://www.igotnextmovie.com/

- Over at All Is Fighter (www.allisfighter.com), writer DJcream wrote up an incredibly strong piece entitled the Dawn of Evolution, highlighting the history of the Evolution fighting game tournament. Armed with a ton of history and video clips, the piece is a great overview on the fighting game scene, and is a must read for any fan. Check it out here.

- And last but not least, the closest thing the Condo has to competitive gaming, our very own Jeff and Keng in a teams match at a San Diego tournament.

To play tonight: Street Fighter IV

Today Street Fighter IV was officially released. Thinking about studying tonight? Forget it, pick up your sticks and I'll see you on .... Playstation Network (ohhhhhh noooooo)

Spike 2008 Video Game Awards Results

Last night Spike TV aired their annual Video Game Awards show, an incredibly ridiculous show which featured tons of gorgeous women, a few bands, and a fat guy on a Segway. Doesn't sound too bad on paper, but if you watched the show you know what I'm talking about.

The game of the year went to Grand Theft Auto IV, while Studio of the Year went to Media Molecule, the force behind PS3 exclusive LittleBigPlanet. I generally agree with most of the winners, but I would have definitely put Brawl above Soul Calibur IV for best fighting game. Here's the full list of award winners.

GAME OF THE YEAR

Grand Theft Auto IV

CONSOLE WINNERS

Best Xbox 360 Game: Gears of War 2
Best PS3 Game: LittleBigPlanet
Best PC Game: Left 4 Dead
Best Wii Game: Boom Blox
Best Handheld Game: Professor Layton and the Curious Village

GENRE WINNERS

Best Individual Sports Game: Shaun White Snowboarding
Best Fighting Game: Soul Calibur IV
Best RPG: Fallout 3
Best Shooter: Gears of War 2
Best Team Sports Game: NHL 09
Best Action Adventure Game: Grand Theft Auto IV
Best Driving Game: Burnout Paradise
Best Music Game: Rock Band 2
Best Game Based on a Movie or TV Show: LEGO Indiana Jones

AND THE REST

Studio of the Year: Media Molecule
Best Multi-Player Game: Left 4 Dead
Best Independent Game: World of Goo
Big Name in the Game (Female): Jenny McCarthy
Big Name in the Game (Male): Kiefer Sutherland
Best Performance by a Human (Female): Debbie Mae West
Best Performance by a Human (Male): Michael Hollick
Best Original Score: Metal Gear Solid 4
Best Soundtrack: Rock Band 2
Best Graphics: Metal Gear Solid 4

[Source: Spike VGAs: Here Are Your Spike Video Game Awards Winners @ Kotaku]

Happy First Birthday Coolkids

Exactly one year ago, four men with a hunger for writing and wittiness banned together to give the internet a piece of their minds. ADONIS, Just Ray, Nazer, and CommanderCacho started the blog entitled, The Coolest Kids In The Room, a no standard, no guideline, no shit place to express opinions. We've dealt with everything from frozen food to politics, with each individual contributing their own special blend of herbs and spices. Readers everywhere have raved about the massive overflow of content on the blog each day, and we've received oodles and oodles of fan mail, something we're all extremely proud of. Lets take a look at some data.


As you can see from the line graph above, we started out incredibly strong, with nearly a post a day. In March we peaked with a record of 41 posts, a most impressive accomplishment for bloggers everywhere. In the later months we drop a bit, and in September we only had a total of 7 posts. But that's okay because...


Over the months our coolness has increased exponentially. In the form of Rock Band multipliers, we've reached a 2048x multiplier of coolness, which in my book is pretty incredible.

So over the course of a year we've totaled 246 posts, and we're still going strong crawling along. We've gone through a slew of cosmetic changes, and our layouts are only improving over time. So thanks for the year guys, lets keep it going. And now for a more traditional entry.

School has been keeping me pretty busy. I'm finally diving deeper into the Film Scoring major, and that includes a LOT of writing (music) as well as learning applications on the computer. I'm surrounded by peers who love film and film music, and I have to say that I've heard some of the greatest music I've ever heard in my life this semester, not only from my peers but even from doing more in-depth research on some of my favorite scores. Projects range from scoring short scenes and doing analysis papers to sitting at a desk and just spilling whatever it is inside of our brains onto paper and hoping brilliant music comes out. It's incredibly difficult and daunting, but its seriously so much fun. For one of my classes, we have to make a mock up (a digital representation) of a minute or so of E.T. Digitally punching in notes for woodwinds, strings, brass, percussion, and so on. It's all really cool, and I'm definitely looking forward to my future semesters to just get more information and to get more work done.

I've also been one of the people at Berklee increasing awareness of Video Game music as a valid genre. The themes of video game music stick in peoples brains forever, and like film, it's an incredibly important component. A guest speaker came, and he stated that some people play WoW for nearly 30 hours a week. As they're playing they listen to music and sound effects in the game for 30 hours. Even for a favorite record, you probably don't listen to that for 30 hours a week, so that's all pretty interesting. I've been working with a few people on audio integration in games, and some of us have been talking to professionals about the importance of music, as well as technical aspects of it all. It's all pretty nerdy shit, but I'm pretty optimistic that by the time I graduate I'll have a good idea on music production in games.

I'm also part of Berklee's video game club band. It's a group of 7 of us, and we make all of our own arrangements. In March we're going to SF to play at the Game Developers Conference, so hopefully there we can get ourselves out there as composers, and meet a bunch of bigger names.

I've been following TV as usual. Pushing Daisies canceled, My Own Worst Enemy canceled, Dirty Sexy Money canceled, all unfortunate events. Heroes is trash, and if you disagree we can argue about it, but I continue to watch because I want it to get better. Bryan Fuller, who worked on Daisies, was a former writer on Heroes, so he's coming back there to help the show out, so hopefully it gets better in Volume 4. This weeks 30 Rock was probably one of the funniest episodes I have ever seen. Some of the shows that have been consistently awesome are Dexter and Chuck, I look forward to them every week.

So I'll be home Friday the 19th at like 9:30PM. Can't wait to see everyone again, get some mexican food, and just chill out. I could probably go on forever, but this seems like a good place to stop. Time to make some food, PEACE

Video Games LIVE!

I just got back from the Video Games Live concert in Boston. For those who don't know, they take classic video game favorites and orchestrate the music for large orchestra and choir. While playing the music they have video clips of the songs playing in the background, as well as a bit of audience interactivity and crazy laser action.

They played the staples of the industry like Mario, Zelda, and Metroid, but they also threw in a couple of really cool arrangements. Some of my personal favorites were the music to Bioshock, World of Warcraft, and Starcraft II, but if you're a gamer there was plenty for everyone.

The man behind the operation, Tommy Tallarico, is actually one of the most important video game composers in the industry. He started out a long time ago, composing the music for the first Prince of Persia game, and then exploding from there to do the music to huge AAA titles like God of War. He is a Massachusetts native, and earlier in the week he actually came to Berklee to speak about how he got into the industry and the current trends. It was an incredibly informative presentation, and it was just cool to see someone that is so high up on the video game ladder, talk to us about how he paved his way into the industry.

The interactive sections of the concert were awesome. They had a whole Gutiar Hero thing where a contest winner got to play a song from Guitar Hero while the musicians backed him, Ralph Baer, the original creator of PONG, got to play pong on stage with a random audience member while the orchestra played little bits. They pulled a member from the audience, and then gave him a shirt and a controller, and he got to play Space Invaders on the big screen, except he was the ship, so he had to run around while shooting down the ships as the musicians played. It was all pretty incredible. We even got to see Martin Leung, the guy who plays the video game music blindfolded on Youtube, play Final Fantasy music live for us, which was pretty amazing.

In the end it was a night spent with a bunch of peers, eating and drinking, and seeing a really cool concert. Time well spent.

Quick Catch Up

To: Adonis, Lance, Ray
From: Nazer

So I just got my absentee ballot in the mail. It came in a big ass envelope full of reading material as well as the actual ballot. I wish I knew more about the city council candidates and such (I don't get to see all the commercials for these guys, but I do get to see all the negative ads about New England council officials), but I guess it's time to do some homework. It's pretty unreal looking at this stuff, finally voting in a presidential election, just another sign that we've come a long way from sitting inside with nothing to worry about except who we want to main in Smash (oh wait we still do that).

In other news school keeps me pretty busy. Midterm week isn't as heavy as one might think, but writing four parallel lines with proper counterpoint in the form of a fugue isn't exactly everyday material. I love my film classes. We're finally getting to write music to picture, and we do a lot of analysis on film music, really informative. A couple weeks ago Joey Newman, a Berklee grad, came to talk about his experiences so far in LA. He was nominated for an Emmy for his music on "Little People, Big World" and he talked about TV a lot, which was a nice change from looking at film all the time. I've also been dealing a bit with the integration of music into video games, and Berklee actually hired a guy and created classes just this semester for this industry, I can't wait to take some of them.

I spend my free time playing video games and watching television and movies. The Mad Men season finale was a couple of days ago which was really good, and if anyone has been keeping up with Dexter this past weeks episode was seriously insane. My favorite shows of the moment are Pushing Daisies (which is on the verge of cancellation, WATCH THIS SHOW TELL YOUR FRIENDS), Chuck, and Fringe, but I've been watching literally everything else (except the CBS shows), and lots of shows are getting really good as well. 30 Rock premieres this Thursday, can't wait for that, and Top Chef comes in a couple of weeks, so that's just another hour and a half to add to my dedicated TV watching time.

I got Guitar Hero World Tour over the weekend. It's a fun game, and I've only played the guitar stuff, but it EPIC FAILS in comparison to Rock Band. The band interface is terrible, and the worst part is that if one person fails, everyone else fails, so you can't like save your band members or anything, but I'll put up a more in depth look at that later. Fable II was cool, and Gears of War 2 comes out next week, and I want to get a Gamefly account so I can play some of the games I don't want to spend $60 dollars for.

So that sort of sums it up. School, media, drinks, oh and I cook a lot now too, trying to learn and perfect my Moms recipes and stuff, so yeah I guess I'm keeping busy. Till next time.

(Oh and Super Street Fighter 2 HD Remix is supposed to come out before the end of this year, and then Street Fighter IV this winter, hella excited)

Mila Kunis Is Awesome

Not to detract from the recent string of serious political posts, but this was just too cool. In her interview on Jimmy Kimmel promoting the movie Max Payne, they go into a tangent about how she plays the oh so dreaded World of Warcraft.

She talks about Vent, being a Mage, being in a Guild, going on raids, the expansion packs, and more. Beautiful woman play video games too, so take this one small moment to be proud and embrace your inner gamer.

A Fan Tribute

So I've been on hiatus for approximately 2 months – With school (sleeping in) and work (video games) taking up so much of my time this summer, I’ve found it increasingly difficult to find room in my schedule to post regularly.

Just recently however, I’ve come across some encouraging words that I feel has finally put this bad habit of mine to an end. I’ve also come to realize that 1) I've been leaving my fellow cool kids, Nazer, Ray and Lance hanging, 2) We’ve collectively passed the 200th-post mark, with no reason to stop, and 3) I feel obligated to balance the flow of Rock Band/Fake Instrument related posts with my incredibly dumb ideas.

The real inspiration though, that drives me to start writing again, actually comes in the form of a simple email.

If you’ve noticed on the sidebar, as part of our lame attempt to make this site appear authentic, coolkidsroom surprisingly maintains an email account (coolkidsroom.blog@gmail.com) in case anyone wants to give us some feedback. As I was going through the usually spam and junk mail, I was amazed to find an email that was personally addressed to us.

Anyways, I’d thought I share it with everyone.

Subject: Your #1 Fan!!
From: “Adam Banks” gangstertothemax@hotmail.com
Date: Wed, July 30, 2008 10:29 pm
To: coolkidsroom.blog@gmail.com
Priority: Normal

Dear CommanderCacho, Nazer, Just Ray, and Adonis, aka the Coolest Kids in the Room!!!!!11

Hi, my name’s Adam and I’m from Minneapolis, Minnesota. I know you guys don’t know me, but I have to say, me and my buddies love your site! I’ve only found Cool Kids Room maybe a month ago, but ever since then I’ve read every single post in the archives up till now!! Probably the most hilarious, clever, yet insightful blog I’ve ever read.

You guys are probably wondering how I came across coolkidsroom. It actually happened by accident, and in a really odd way. Well, I guess me and my buddies were bored one day so we decided to have fun with Google and just search for the most randomest things we could think of and see the results.

In one of our searches, we typed in the words, FATASS, MUSIC, VIDEO GAMES, NERD, BONER, SADAM HUSSEIN, and then we threw in BUKKAKE just for fun.

But then, after hitting ‘search’, we were all confused when your guys’ site came up. Still, after looking through it for a bit, we were hooked! A lucky string of words or not, I’m glad we found this blog. Keep up the good work!!

Your #1 Fan,
Adam Banks

P.S. – I’m just curious, but is that guy “Lance” whos mentioned a lot.. is that actually CommanderCacho?? Either way, I sure wish you guys posted more pictures of him :D

Thanks Adam, this post is dedicated to you and your buddies up in Minneapolis, Minnesota. It's people like you who inspire me to write, and in turn, start posting again. Even if you did come across us by accident, it makes me proud to know that we're able to make a positive impact to kids half-way across the country. And of course, here’s a pic of that mysterious “Lance” guy, just for you.



Enjoy!

Comic-Con 08: Wrap Up

This years Comic-Con was just as exciting as the previous years. I got to see a bunch of famous faces, listen to industry professionals speak about the love for their art, get sneak peaks on many of my favorite entertainment franchises, and much more.

The show floor had a bit of a change in their layout. They stuck all of the video game companies to one wall which created a lot more space in the middle to walk around, but it was still as hectic as ever. There were some awesome costumes, and some that were seriously hideous (do we really need more overweight people dressed as Superman?), but it all just adds to the fun of the event.

All of the panels I attended were entertaining, but what surprised me were the panels that I didn't actually plan to attend. For example when waiting for the Halo Wars panel we got to hear Stan Lee talk about his love for the comic book and super heroes in general. One comment that was made was that the world really does need super heroes. Kids need something or someone to look up to, otherwise they're left watching Hannah Montana and shit. There was also a lot of talk on how super hero movies are taking on a more serious tone, and by doing so they bring in a much wider audience. Dark Knight shattered tons of box office records, and being a super hero fan isn't seen as geeky or nerdy as it once was, but you probably won't see people sporting their Booster Gold shirts just yet.

At the end of the day Comic-Con is still a bunch of nerds standing in long ass lines to see what they could see online in a couple of days. Coupled with the bad smell and everyones sweat really makes me wonder why I keep coming back, but it's because I'm a fan, and Comic-Con does dedicate to its fans. I loved sitting there while watching the Watchmen footage. I loved getting my hands on Street Fighter IV before anyone else. I loved cheering and laughing during the Kevin Smith panel. I loved seeing my favorite actors on Pushing Daisies answer questions about one of my favorite shows, and so on. It's the one place where your geek flag can fly and people praise it, so you'll see me there again next year.

Oh, and this is post number 200, congrats guys, we're still here (kind of)

Comic-Con 08: You're Obviously Not From San Diego

As we made our way from the parking structure to the convention center, Jordan, Floyd, and I were suddenly surrounded by faces unfamiliar. Comic book nerds, fans dedicated to certain television shows, press people, and so on. After retrieving our badges we had to wait till 6:00 for the doors to open, so we decided to grab a bite and a huge ass beer until then.

At 6:00 we headed to the convention center only to find a large crowd huddled behind some velvet ropes and security guards. One staffer announced "you guys have to go through the upper level to get in," and an old school, pitch fork style (cept it was lightsabers) mob quickly rushed up the escalators. One brave soul ran through the velvet rope, and herds of nerds bum rushed the convention center like a scene from 300. In no time we were on the show floor, rushing around the booths grabbing as much free trash as possible.

When the atmosphere cooled down a bit, we got to see a bunch of cool stuff. The layout in my opinion is much nicer this year with vendors for large toy companies having their own booths, video game companies all packed into one aisle, and so on. We got to play Super Street Fighter II HD Remix while waiting in line to get our hands on STREET FIGHTER IV! I kicked Floyds ass twice before we had to leave, and we were given awesome Ryu headbands for trying out the game. We also saw people make fools of themselves on SingStar, a giant ass TV with a LittleBigPlanet demo, and got my hands on Konami's supposed next big hit, Rock Revolution, but didn't actually play. It looked like shit.

After stuffing our faces with big macs we headed home to prepare for the days to come. Thursday isn't the biggest day, but it will most definitely be crowded. More in the days to come.

Rock Band 2 is coming, I'm picking sides early

Kotaku led me to the announcement of Rock Band 2 at IGN earlier today. The surprising sequel will go toe to toe with Guitar Hero: World Tour.

I know Nazer and I have drooled over Guitar Hero's impressive new guitar and drum peripherals but the battle lines have been drawn and if I'm dropping two bills on another bundle of fake instruments, it's going to be Rock Band again. Here's why:

1) New, *promised* better instruments
2) New, *promised* awesome setlist
3) Transferable downloaded songs

The last one is key. Everyone knows I've spent a shitload of money downloading new songs for Rock Band and having full confidence that those mostly awesome songs will work with later versions of the game is a relief.

Little things like this go along way in judging how I feel about a company's product. Activision, the publishers of Guitar Hero, loves to do little weasel things to gouge money out of consumers like charging full price for discs that offer little more than mere add-on content (Guitar Hero 80's, Guitar Hero Aerosmith, you get the idea), and cockblocking guitar compatibility with Rock Band.

The first two reasons I listed have yet to be proven true, and I can't say I can completely rule out going the other way even though it seems that way. The new Guitar Hero drums and guitar both look great and we'll learn in a few weeks if Harmonix/EA can come through on their promised hardware/setlist improvements.

Another gripe I have is that it looks like the Xbox 360 version will come out before the PS3 version, another case of a multiplatform game having perks on the 360. I will read all of your PS3-bashing comments while I watch my blu-ray of The Golden Compass.

If anything, this fall will be an interesting season for fake musicians everywhere, but if you're gonna rock out at 198, it will probably be on some form of Rock Band.

Into The Depths Of Hell We Go, Again

For those who have been following Blizzards icy, crystalized image for the past few days, this morning they officially announced one of the most anticipated games in gaming history, rivaling the hype of even the previously announced StarCraft II, Diablo III. The Diablo III website has a bunch of content, featuring a 19 minute gameplay video and a teaser trailer that has everyone from Tristram to Hell shaking in their sleep. Looks like it's time to start thinking about that high end PC I've always wanted, so get your SoJs and prepare for a long ass wait till release day.

Liv Tyler Is Awesome

DS is cool too

Guitar Hero: World Tour looks....impressive

Okay, I'll be the first to tell you that in my opinion the Guitar Hero franchise has lost its uniqueness and flair since Harmonix sold it and started up Rock Band, but honestly this drum trailer looks pretty amazing. While I've never enjoyed the note patterns that Guitar Hero III placed on their games, they've always had awesome song choices, and if World Tour can continue their top notch song picks (blink182 dammit!) I might be driven enough to pick this up. Priced at nearly $200 retail, only time will tell if Guitar Hero can knock out the leader in four person fake musician madness.

Because I don't have enough fake drumsets at my apt

Taking a page out of the playbook of the rival Rock Band series (ok, more like blatantly copying), the next Guitar Hero game will add vocals and drums to the fray. As a die-hard Rock Band fan, this really irks me. Harmonix, the developer of Rock Band and the original Guitar Hero games, have always been in favor of an open hardware standard, supporting the notion that you could use your RB guitar for GH, and vice versa.

Activision on the otherhand has made it their goal in life to COCKBLOCK any such intentions, first by blocking PS3 Guitar Hero guitar compatibility, and now by changing their drum configuration so that it will in no way be compatible with Rock Band.

Look, adding cymbals is pretty cool (it would've been cooler if they added a dedicated hi-hat, meaning 7 "drums" total) but I seriously doubt the viability of a plan that will ask millions of people who already shelled out almost $200 for a fake instrument bundle to do the same when their new game comes out.

Another thing that has bothered me (and I think that both sides are guilty of this) has been the constant attempt by Activision (GH publisher), and Rock Band publisher EA/MTV Games to secure "exclusive" artists, ie: paying bands to only have songs on their respective game. So that means this week I don't get to play that dope Muse pack coming to Guitar Hero, nor will I get any play from that Aerosmoth GH disc coming later.

In the meantime, I will enjoy my exclusive Boston pack and continue to hope that one day we can all rock out united, in peace

Credit: Kotaku and Game Informer

More GTA Stuff

(I know, not the most creative title, but more headlines like "Grand Theft News" and such don't seem so appealing either.)

So I was watching the CNN Daily Podcast for April 30th, and one of the stories was a man who maced two store clerks and robbed a Gamestop, stealing the almighty Grand Theft Auto IV in the process. Images of the Gamestop were shown, and I thought to myself, "damn, that looks a lot like Mira Mesa," and, you guessed it, it was! Hardcore indeed.

[Source: San Diego 10 News]

In other GTA related news, a man was stabbed while waiting in line for GTA. Now in video game related violence I usually take the opposing side of the media, generally saying that their claims are foolish and that no, the man did not do said crime because of a video game, but I'm going to have to make an exception on this one.

[Source: BBC News]


I've only played a bit of the game so far because I have finals this week and next, but damn, I must say that this shit is damn entertaining. Only a little more than a week to go...must stay focused...

Some game got released today

As Nazer mentioned during the weekend, Grand Theft Auto IV comes out today.

Receiving GLOWING reviews and the most perfect scores I've seen since I landed that triple axel during my ice-skating days, I guess I will have to eventually buy this game and actively take part in every Informatics students conversation not having to do with Java or MySQL.

Entertainment Buzz: Cars, Guns, and Scarlett Johansson?

- Earlier this week Steroyd Floyd linked me to the exclusive music video for the upcoming Speed Racer film by those dudes that made the Matrix. The song is a play off the memorable Speed Racer main title entitled "Go Speed Racer Go" performed by Ali Dee and the Deekompressors. The video is a trip in itself, but watch it and see what you think. And if you make it all the way to the end, then you have balls. And what's with the Japanese and Mexican verses?

- So Scarlett Johansson has an album coming out soon entitled Anywhere I Lay My Head, featuring a bunch of Tom Waits covers. Her single is called "Falling Down," but the real question is, does anyone really care?

[Source: People.com]


- The release of the highly anticipated Grand Theft Auto IV is only a couple of days away, and gamers everywhere are going BaLlZ to teh WaLLz over this shit. I've never been a huge GTA fan, probably because I never actually owned a PS2 until Guitar Hero (hey all I played was Smash and dota for like 6 years), and the thought of stealing a car and running people over with it wasn't exactly my idea of the coolest thing ever, but I must say that I am pretty excited for this game. The trailer itself makes me wanna jump in and play, and then the inclusion of online multiplayer elements is really intriguing. And yeah I'm getting it for 360 because I want it at release and I want achievements (+1 for Mira Mesa, bunch of 360 owners).

Taking It Easy

To: Lance, Ray, Adonis
From: Nazer

12:33 on a Saturday afternoon. The sun is shining outside and it looks ridiculously nice, but I know when I step out it's going to be windy as hell. On my desk are leftover Heineken bottles and Mcdonalds napkins, crumpled receipts and magazine advertisements, and more, lets just call it unorganized chaos.

School has been cool, well let me say this again, school is always cool, just some weeks are better than others. I don't think I'm alone in this, but eventually you hit a point in your studies where you feel like you're comfortable with the material, then you read a few more pages of a book and your world suddenly expands and you realize how much you actually don't know; a vicious, repetitive cycle. With only 3 more weeks left and finals I'm just going to stick it out and hope for the best results.

I watched the Padres lose to the Giants, watched "Psycho" (1960) for my History of Film Music class, watched The Office and 30 Rock, and played Portal and Mass Effect on 360. The last page of Entertainment Weekly was entitled Videogame Lunacy by Stephen King, and he talked about the generalizations given to video games as a sort of "evil" in the world. He makes note to say that he isn't a gamer, but he understands when people in this industry lash out because of the comments that are directly associated with them. He talked about a Massachusetts law that's currently in review stating that kids won't be able to purchase Mature rated games until they're 18, but states that the same child can go watch Hostel II at age 17. He also commented on the fact that it is so easy for a reporter to say that video games cause things like school shootings, but what ignorant adult let their kids get their hands on guns in the first place. This is a topic I find interesting because I consider myself a gamer, and I'm not in favor of the stereotypes placed behind them.

So what's planned for the day? Maybe some practicing, getting some school work done, maybe playing some video games or watching a movie, and then another night of hanging out, typical saturday, but we'll see. Take it easy folks.

The Balancing Act

To: Adonis, Lance, Ray
From: Nazer

It's saturday morning. Immediately after waking up, my hand takes on the role of a zombie and reaches for the Apple remote on my dresser. From there I bring up Lupe Fiasco's "The Cool" and listen as I contemplate actually getting up from my 9 hour slumber. 3 hours later I wake up, go to my computer and get lost in the typical daily computer activities: reading email, checking AIM messages, slickdeals, myspace, facebook, kotaku, deadspin, sartorialist, and so on.

The clock on my computer reads 2:00PM, and for whatever reason double cheeseburgers sound good, so I take a shower, fix up my Netflix envelopes and head to McDonalds. On the way I decide on what I want to watch while I eat. Some Battlestar Galactica in preparation for the Season 4 premiere in April? Maybe crack the shell and start AMCs Breaking Bad. Possibly do the ultimate fatty activity (which isn't very uncommon) of watching Anthony Bourdain's: No Reservations while stuffing my face with meat and cheese.

After returning to my dorm room I decide on continuing my journey with the Panthers football team with Friday Night Lights. Tim Riggins reunites with his brother Billy and they steal three thousand dollars from drug dealers while Smash gets arrested for assault. 3:00PM and I turn on my Xbox to finish some of those Portal levels that I couldn't beat last night, but before that I listen to the CNN Daily podcast. A plane in Houston lost its wheels when it landed, but thankfully no one was hurt.

5:00PM and I pick up the Entertainment Weekly magazine which features a Spring TV Preview, with stories on Desperate Housewives, House, Grey's, the almighty 30 Rock and more. Panic at the Disco's latest album "Pretty Odd" plays in the background while I read about Hulu.com, a sort of professional Youtube featuring television shows and movies streaming free on the web, but like ABC.com and others they feature 15 to 30 second ads in the middle of them.

The last page of each issue has a story written by an industry professional, and this issue had a piece by Diablo Cody where she talks about her time in Vancouver filming in a new movie. She talks about the similarities between her hotel and a showbiz-infested summer camp, and now here I am writing on the blog.

Seems like a pretty busy Saturday doesn't it? Television, music, video games, magazines, news, and I haven't even watched this copy of La Vie En Rose that I rented yet. It's apparent that my life has been consumed by the world of media driven entertainment, and to be brutally honest, I'm loving every moment.