X-Box's answer to the Wii (and more!)

It looks like XBox is getting in competition with the Wii for active video games, with this video(click on the "Featured Video" towards the bottom right). And if it works the way it is portrayed in this video, then it will be taking a hot steamy dump on the Wii. That skateboarding game could be amazing.

Speaking of Video Games, I've been playing UFC Undisputed 2009 for my PS3 pretty frequently over the past two weeks, and I'm finally ready to tell the world my two cents: Like most fighting games, its always better when you're playing another human, but in this game it is a million times better. The career mode is pretty cool, it takes about halfway through the career mode until you really can figure out how you're supposed to be playing the game, and then from there on out the game is awesome. Whats cool is that the UFC forces you to retired 'when your contract is up' but what really that means is that you have about 30 fights in your carrer, which is kind of cool because you cant just string out your career because most guys don't really fight past the 30 fight mark. It is fun to take the game online and fight other people, because this game allows people to have so many different styles of fighting, however there are some downsides to the online aspect of the game. Unlike EA Sports games, the online menus are terrible. You pretty much have to play a quick match and play a random opponent. If you're struggling at the game and looking to get better you can't seek out people with bad records and fight them and if you're really good and looking for good competition you can't seek out highly ranked players. The quick match tends to do a decent job in hooking you up with similar competition, but about every fourth fight is against someone who is either terrible or incredible. If the menus were better, then the whole online experience would be a hell of a lot better. Overall, I am enjoying this game, and am having a whole lot of fun knocking the snot out of people and then taking them to the ground to tap them out. Get this game if you're into fighting games.

And while I'm here... people are pissed at LeBron for not shaking the hands of the Orlando Magic after they lost. My initial thought? Whatever, he's pissed. They were the one seed, lost only a few games at home in the regular season, and lost in the playoffs to an overrated Magic team. I'd be mad if I was LeBron too... guy dropped over 30 points consistantly in the playoffs only to have his team fall apart around him, or as I like to say it, depend too much on him. Up until this afternoon I didn't really care too much, until SportsCenter did a mini segment on it and Barry Melrose made the following point: He shook hands with teams after his team won, he talked to the media after his team one, but he can't do these things after they lose? Be consistant. Sure the NBA isn't like the NHL where the end of playoff series handshake is a tradition, and it isn't like MLB where the winning team celebrates on the field while the losing team stays in their dugout and walks down to the locker room. One way or another, stay consistant with what you do, and LeBron did not do that. A player of his calaber and level is going to be judged upon these things, and he needs know that and get his act together. I'm not saying he should be shaking hands, or shouldn't be, but he needs to make up his mind and stick to it. One way or another, I'm happy the Cav's are not in the finals... I was rooting for the Nuggets and the Magic pretty much based on the fact that those Most Valuable Puppet commercials were made before the Finals even started, and because the NBA would be so upset based on the fact that the Finals ratings would drop as low as the NHL Finals. As far as who I'm rooting for in the NBA Finals... I wouldn't say I'm rooting for the Magic to win, I'm just rooting for the Lakers to not win... so I guess go Magic?

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Movie Review: Terminator Salvation

Been a while since I've posted, and I apologize people! I've been a bit busier than I normally am and unfortunately this blog had to go onto the back burner. Sorry out there. However one of the things I did this past week was see Terminator: Salvation, and let me tell you: Save your money.

I am a big fan of The Terminator and its sequel, Terminator 2. Terminator 3 was a bit of a stretch, it was cool for there for be another Terminator movie made, however losing James Cameron as the director was a bit of a let down and clearly the series took a punch to the stomach over it. By no means was Terminator 3 bad, if anything it was cool to actually see SkyNet take over and to actually see the machines rise up into power and Judgement Day arriving. The only thing that the series lacked was a movie where the war is happening, and that's what Salvation was... or so I thought it was going to be.

I walked into this movie expecting it to be two hours of things blowing up, multiple awesome battle scenes, plot expansion, and just overall badass-ness. When the credits rolled, I felt unsatisfied. Even though I had heard some reviews on the radio and television, and read some reviews in the papers and online, all of which said that the movie was garbage, I still had hope that maybe this movie would actually be good.

But I was wrong. Honestly, nothing essential happened in this movie. Nothing at all. All two hours of this movie could have been explained in the next movie in a 5 minute conversation between the characters. There was a cool scene here and there, but there was not one scene in the movie in which chills were sent up my spine or that I just sat back and said "wow that was fucking awesome." (See: Matrix Reloaded; Scene that takes place on the highway). And to make matters even worse, is that Christian Bale is one of the worst actors of the current wave of actors. He sucks, especally in this movie. Personally, I think he is the worst actor that has ever played Batman. There is so much talent out there in Hollywood, and this clown somehow gets selected to be Bruce Wayne and John Connor. Something is wrong with Hollywood. ANYONE could play Bruce Wayne and not mess it up, other than Christian Bale. Thank god that Heath Leger was in The Dark Knight otherwise it would be one of the worst movies of all time.


But back to Salvation. The main reason I was overly upset about this movie was that I was expecting an awesome battle between humans and machines, which just never happened. I wanted just ONE scene in the movie to be worthy of pushing this movie to the next level. And it just didn't happen, unfortunately. If you want to watch a movie where Christian Bale walks around pretending hes a badass and doing that growl/whisper/yell voice which happens to be the only voice he is capable of acting in, then go see this movie. But otherwise, save your money. The economy is too bad to throw away ten dollars for this movie, throw it in your gas tank.

I give it a two out of five.

It may have been a three out of five if there were able to incorporate this into it though:


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Quick thoughts

The season finale of 24 on FOX this past week was very satisfying, especially after how bad the finale of the previous season of it was. But as usual this season had it all, explosions, car chases, multiple plot twists, and even the return of a former main character that was supposedly dead. It was interesting, however fairly predictable to see Renee become the by the book girl in the beginning of the season only to have Jacks style of just straight up getting things done become her mind set. Predictable, but still pretty cool. The whole open ended ending where you don't know if Jack will die from the disease or not depending on how it goes when the stem cells are extracted from Kim and inserted into Jack, would have been suspenseful if we didn't already know that 24 was signed on for an eighth season. Oops. The only thing that I didn't like about the ending of this season was how Renee handcuffed up Janeane Garofalo(how did she get casted onto 24... does anybody out there like her in this show?) and went in Jack Bauer style to get the necessessary information from the coach in Remember the Titans whos name is not Denzel Washington. One way or another, I'm looking forward to the next season of the show because Jack Bauer is awesome. Jack Bauer would beat The Undertaker at Wrestlemania.


Thank God that David Ortiz finally hit a home run this season. Sure he hasn't done that much since that home run on Wednesday, but having the monkey off of his back must be such a great feeling for Papi. And speaking of home runs for the Sox, whats up Varitek? Guy goes from having a terrible season behind the plate to already hitting eight tall jacks this season. Steroids anyone? I sure hope not, but I would not be surprised somewhere down the road. Whatever, they all do it now a days, which is disappointing. But great job Sox, taking care of and sweeping the Blue Jays this week!


Big week for the UFC. They release their most awaited video game ever in UFC Undisputed 2009 and have a pay-per-view event this weekend. I picked up the game this week, opting to buy the PS3 version over the XBox 360 version, in a decision that is trying to make me use the PS3 more because I've had it for close to a year and it is the second game I own for the system. I will write a review in about a week because I need to get more use out of the game to write a good review, but so far it is really fun to play.

Evans knocking out the Huntington Beach Bad Boy

As for the PPV, the two main fights this weekend are Matt Serra vs. Matt Hughes and Rashad Evans vs. Lyoto Machida. I am going to be pulling for Huges and Evans. The Hughes vs. Serra fight should be awesome because these two guys just absolutely hate one another. Unfortunately, Hughes career has seen better days, but in his prime he is a top 10 Light Heavyweight UFC fighter of all time. People like Serra because he was big in the season that he won of The Ultimate Fighter. I still like to think in my mind that he did not win that season and that Shonie Carter won because he was the reason that that season was awesome. The Evans vs. Machida fight should be interesting. Anytime you have a challenger that has an undefeated record it can be pretty exciting. I have never seen Machida fight though, and from what has been written about him says that he is a boring fighter due to his style of Karate. But I am looking forward to this fight because I don't think I've ever seen a guy fighting straight up Karate style in the octagon. And you know that if Evans gets a window he will land a strike for the ages.


Anywho, I hope everyone has a safe and fun Memorial Day Weekend. I know I will. As mentioned, I will be watching the PPV for UFC 98 and will be attending the NCAA College Lacrosse National Championship game on Monday. But amidst all this great sporting events, it is important to remember what this day is all about: Thank you to every single solider who has ever served for the Stars and Stripes. We salute you.



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Oh well

For the first time in the history of the Boston Celtics, they lost a playoff series while leading 3-2. It was bound to happen eventually, right? One way or another it is definitely frustrating. As if last years playoffs wern't stressful enough having the first two rounds go to game 7, while the Cav's took the C's to game 6, and the Lakers took the C's to game 6... Only for the C's to go to two game 7's in this years playoffs. So stressful as a fan, however this post-season was pretty stressful too.

As the last couple days of the season winded down, the C's kept saying that Kevin Garnett would be back for the last couple games of the season, then we were told he would be there for the last game of the season, then we were told he would be there for the playoffs, then we were told that maybe in the late rounds of the playoffs, then it was confirmed that we wouldn't see him until next year. It's no secret that not having KG in the line up takes a very important cog out of the machine that is the Celtics.

Possession after possession, watching this years playoffs compared to last seasons were so tense. Wondering if Perkins, Powe, Scal and Big Baby could fill the big shoes that KG left out there (note how I left Mikki Moore out of this), and then only to have Powe tear his ACL immediately in the playoffs. Great. But Perk played great, and Big Baby shined when he needed to shine, same with Scal. Seeing Big Baby play well was promising for next season, however not having KG out there really hurt us, especially on defense. But on the same wavelength of not having KG, not being able to re-sign James Posey really showed its true colors last night. Sure Rondo played out of his mind this post season, but Posey was a big peice of the championship equation. Not to sound overly pesimistic, but going into this postseason, it was pretty easy to realize that this wasn't the year for the Celtics. At least we don't have to watch them get killed by the Cav's.


Oh well.

Rough Game 7's for both the C's and the B's.

Now it is time to fully focus on the Red Sox, I 'spose.

I just hope that when it was all said and done, that the Celtics wern't out partying the night before game 7 with McLovin. Since when did he become the #1 Celtics Fan?

(Peirce, Perk and Pruitt with McLovin)

And while we're on the subject of Celtic Fans... why was Boston's own WWE Superstar John Cena sitting at game 6 of the Magic vs. Celtics series wearing this:

I'm disappointed in you, Mr. Cena

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Streak for the Cash: A Day for the Ages

ESPN.com has a game on it called "Streak for the Cash." I've been playing it for about three months or so now, and its great. I don't like to gamble at all, I can find better ways to spend my money. But streak for the cash is pretty much like gambling without the money, and as lame as that actually sounds, I like it a lot and it can be pretty exciting. What it is, is a set of about 12-15 games per day where you choose between two options, and try to successfully pick a series of correct picks. It sounds relatively easy, however it can be pretty tricky. There are all sorts of games to choose from and it is not just pick the winner, there are times where there are options of what I like to call "gimmick picks" such as:

MLB, Red Sox at Mariners, Which side will record a higher total? Jon Lester Strikeouts, or Seattle Mariners hits off of Lester

-or-

NCAA Women's Softball, San Diego State at Arizona State, how many Total Runs will be scored? 9 Runs or fewer, or 10 Runs or more.

These are the games that really make streak for the cash interesting, because you're not picking the outcome of the game, you're picking on basically a game within the game. Now, what is really cool about streak for the cash, is that you can pick multiple games in one day, however you have to do it chronologically and you cannot pick the next game until the game you've picked is over, so thats where a lot of strategy comes in to play. It is possible, but very rare, to get four correct picks in on one day, and thats what happened to me yesterday.

I was riding a one game winning streak going into yesterday after successfully picking the aforementioned Softball game correctly (having picked "9 or fewer" and 5 runs plating during the game) so things were already good. All the games for Friday were done and it allows you to pick the next days games when that occurs, so looking at the first game on the list was:

8:53 AM - PGA Texas Open 3rd Rnd (San Antonio): Which player will card a LOWER FRONT 9 SCORE? (9 holes): Jonathan Kaye or Charlie Wi.

Now, I tend to stay away from things like golf, soccer, cricket (yes, there are times where there are cricket games on this) and sports that I don't know anything about or whatever when I have a decent streak going, but when I have only a streak of one I go for it because its not that big of a deal when its over, and seeing that the next pick was a UEFA soccer game starting at 10:00 am, which is something I know absolutely nothing about, I went for Jonathan Kaye, and he shot a 31 while Wi shot a 32. Streak is at 2.

(Molly Qerim tells you what she will be picking today)

The next game on the dockett that I went for was:

1:05 PM - Who will WIN this matchup? Astros (Oswalt) at Cubs (Wells).

Cubs have been playing well, Oswalt has not been playing well. I go with the Cubbies. They win 5-4. Streak is at 3, 2 correct picks on the day.

Then went back to the list and went after the matchup of the day:

6:15 PM - 134th Preakness Stakes: Where will Rachel Alexandra finish? First or second, or Third or worse.

Now I don't know anything about horse racing, which would mean that this would be something where I would stay away from however every analist in the world took Rachel Alexandra to win the race, so I went for it and picked 'First or second.' Also what made this pick appealing, was that the race takes approx 2 minutes to run, so picking this game meant that I could easily choose a game 10 minutes after the race when the site updated. Rachel Alexandra holds off Mine That Bird and wins the Preakness. Streak is at 4, 3 correct picks on the day.

Knowing I would be going out last night, and due to the times that the games that were left on the day to start, I knew I would only have one game left to pick on the evening, and being on such a hotstreak on the day I had to pick another game. My options were three straight up MLB games, a MLS game, and a gimmock MLB game. I wanted to stay away from the gimmock game (which was which team will win by more runs: Cincy who was playing at San Diego, or the Red Sox who were playing at Seattle) and i definitely wanted to stay way from the MLS game, and what ended up catching my eye was:

7:05 PM - Who will WIN this matchup? (Game TWO of doubleheader): Phillies (Carpenter) @ Nationals (Cabrera).

The Natinals are terrible this year. I didn't even check to see who won game 1 of the doubleheader (turns out it was the Phillies winning 8-5) and went with this no brainer and choose the Phillies. They win 7-5, Streak at 5, 4 correct picks on the day.

It was a day like that which made me wonder if I should actually start to gamble because I had such a good go at it, but then just like that, it was all gone. Before I went to bed last night I checked out the docket for today's games and picked the 8:30 AM game of:

PGA Texas Open (San Antonio): Who will have the LOWER TOTAL SCORE THROUGH THREE COMPLETED ROUNDS? Paul Goydos, or Justin Leonard.

I went with Leonard, and Goydos beat him by one stroke. I probably should have stayed away from it, due to the fact that a streak of 5 is my personal best, but the itch for getting a big streak was there and I went for it. It put me back on Earth and made me remeber why I don't actually gamble. Streak for the Cash keeps track of your overall record, and I'm 28-27-0 as of this pick. Yup, I wouldn't be raking in the cash. Only cash I'll be raking in is if I go on a mircale streak with this, and that likely won't happen.

Oh well, its fun either way. Lets just hope that Torquay United beats Cambridge United and I'll be right back in it...

(also, what's nice is if you want you can watch as Molly Qirem makes her daily video of what she is picking, and I will boldly say that she is one of the most underrated sportscasters out there, sure she isnt Erin Andrews hot, but Qerim is as velouptious as they come.)

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How To Ruin What Could Have Been A Great TV Show

As mentioned in the Star Trek post, I was a big fan of X-Men when I was younger. People with powers was cool to me. Cyclops shooting that red ray out of his eye, Gambit being able to throw inflamed playing cards, Storm controlling the weather and on and on and on. I turned to the show Heroes this past winter because of the show being available to be watched instantaneously with Netflix(which I stream to my Xbox 360 and is awesome by the way) and figured I'd enjoy it due to how it has a lot of similarities with X-Men.

My initial thoughts on Heroes were that it was a great TV show. Looking back, this was partially because of the fact that it was a new show and the first several episodes were about watching not only the life of these characters and learning about them, but watching them learn about their abilities and how to use them. It was really cool to see all the characters come together and follow the plot that Issac Mendez had painted, as he could see the future through the pictures he painted, and watching Sylar gain powers from other people with abilities. However, I did say at the end of season one that I was a little disappointed with the ending because I was waiting for there to be an epic fight where all the guys would be using their powers and things would be exploding and all sorts of entertaining stuff... but it didn't happen.

From there it all went downhill, however it went down gradually. But it wasn't until this season where I started asking myself "Why am I still watching this show?" Nathan Petrelli was a terrible bad guy. We watched the real bad guy drive around with some kid across the country in a station wagon for far too many episodes only to have a meaningless encounter with his father, watch Hiro and Ando bicker back and fourth like they're married, watch Daphne die withouth much of a fight by Matt Parkman and in the meantime watch Parkman get back with his ugly ex-wife, see that Denko guy go from the good guy to the bad guy like 10 times in as many episodes, and now that I actually started to catch back onto the Nathan Petrelli character they killed him off only to now have Sylar be shapeshifted into the form of Nathan and he mentally thinks that he is him? Come on, now even for a show that features people with superpowers, even that is a stretch. One way or another this show had a lot of potential, but the writers let it get away from them and everything just got way too out of control, it even got to a point where the writers neglected to remember about powers that Sylar had obtained (remember the super-sonic hearing that he had? Also how he had the human lie detector ability? What ever happened to those?).

Also, why did they get rid of Kristen Bell? She is a smokin hottie and the show was only better with her on it. Her character was actually kid of cool, too. And personally I think Hayden Panettiere is a lot hotter than people give her credit for, but apparently people in Hollywood actually dislike her, or so i've read(if anything click that past link for a hilarious picture of her looking like she might eat a baby). One way or another the last thing a show that is going downhill needs is to get rid of the eye candy. They even got rid of the THIRD(which was another rediculious part of the show) character that Ali Later played, and she added to that eye candy.

But when everything was said it done, it is all for not. There is no chance I will continue to watch Heroes when the new season comes out next year. I've been meaning to get into Rescue Me and dropping this show opens up a great opportunity to start it. One of the main taglines of heroes was "Save the Cheerleader, Save the World." Well, my advice to you is "Save your time, go watch something else."

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BIG NIGHT FOR BOSTON, LETS GET IT DONE GUYS!!!

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Summer Movies

I rarely get excited for movies. However, I love movies. I'd say at MOST per year I am really excited about 5 movies, especially when the cost of a movie ticket is close to $10 dollars. This summer alone so far, I'm excited for at least 4. Star Trek, X-Men: Wolverine, Transformers 2, and Terminator Salvation. After hearing the reviews for X-Men, I'll wait for the DVD from Netflix. Normally I would not be interested in that movie, but I loved X-Men as a child. I've heard that its just god awful though, so I'll just wait. I've been waiting for Transformers 2 for a while. Transformers 1 was to me a great movie. Sure Shia LaBeouf ruins every movie hes ever in because he is just a terrible actor, but honestly the character he plays, Sam Witwicky, would be butchered by any person who tried to play that role. Also, I realize that it wasn't the best movie ever, however it was just a bad ass Michael Bay movie where things blow up. Like X-Men, I loved Transformers as a child. Bumblebee was my favorite, and I'm not embarrased to admit it. And plus... Megan Fox anyone?!?! Sure I don't expect Transformers 2 to have a great plot and such, but I look for it to be entertaining... and plus, Megan Fox. Terminator Salvation should be great too. Personally, I am not a big fan of Christain Bale in the first place, and I think he is a bad Batman. However, Terminator 1 is such a great movie, and the sequels got worse and worse, however they were not terrible. But this is what we wanted to see: The war... and now its here. Tack on the fact that special effects now a days are absolutely insane and that should be factored into why this will likely be the best movie of the summer. I cannot wait for it. On a different wave length, I took an interest into the movie Star Trek. I have zero interest in the television show, and pretty much zero interest about anything that has to do with all things Star Trek in the first place, however the movie looked bad ass, and quite frankly, it was.

I saw Star Trek last weekend with my beautiful girlfriend. Sure that may seem odd, however she actually is a Star Trek fan, based off of the fact that her dad was a big fan of the series and it was just something that dended to be watched in her house. She isn't die hard, however she enjoys it. So anyways, I went into the movie without knowing anything about Star Trek except the gang sign that all the Trekkies throw up at one another. The movie did a good job catering to the fan and to the non-fan of the series. I thought the movie was very well done and very well put together, and most importantly it was not hard to follow. Sure as the movie progressed I had a few minor questions but after all was said and done everything was answered. I knew that the Star Trek world is pretty elaborate and honestly expected the movie to be a bit more elaborate that it was, and so I tried to focus pretty hard on details like the names, the planets, the species, and some other stuff, however honestly you don't have to which is really nice. After exiting the theater, I was talking with my girlfriend about how she liked it and she felt the same way. She loved the movie, and she said that the movie was full of a bunch of nostalgic quotes and symbolism that would go over the head of a non-fan like myself, but make a fan smile from ear to ear. This movie was very good, and I give it a 4 out of 5.

Stay tuned throughout the summer for my reviews on Transformers 2, Terminator Salvation, and probably more like Angels and Demons(the girlfriend really wants to see that one).

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On a side note, WAY TO GO BOSTON. Another day where the Celtics, Bruins and Red Sox all play, another day where they all win. The biggest win of them by far being the B's as they were able to escape elimination against Carolina last night, followed by the big come from behind win by the C's to take control of the series and lead 3-2. Also any win on the West Coast for the Sox is a big win, they tend to play pretty poorly in the pacific time zone. Lets keep up the good work, gentlemen.

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and last but not least...WTF?