Mass Effect 2 review!

This is going to be a semi-serious post about my opinion of this game which I have been playing for 12 hours over the past 4 days. And no I have not beaten it yet but I'm pretty far along the story. Have fun reading(or not for you crazy people who don't care about ME2)

The first Mass Effect was an amazing game. It had a deep and very interesting story, a pretty fun gameplay and cool graphics, but it also had issues. Well, 2 years later Mass Effect 2 came with a major bang, ready to kick ass of any game that tries to oppose the awesome streaming from it. If your anxious and really don't want to waste your time with me talking how awesome this game is, I will tell you right now, this game is freakin' amazing.

Presentation: ME2 is simply breath taking. It's so well done that you won't notice the change from CG to the game engine cutscenes. Some of the space stations looks amazing. The world is really detailed too. There is lot of objects and textures, that just give the game a realism feel the same way Avatar did. The character models are way more detailed than the ones in the first game, and animations are simply superb. And shock, no more elevators, they have been replaced with surprisingly interesting loading screens. All of the problems of the first game in the technical department are fixed. And thank God to that.

Gameplay: ME2's gameplay has changed a lot from it's prequel. The RPG and TPS(third-person shooter) aspects have been separated by missions so your either running around town or fighting. Luckily the dev team managed to do this without breaking the flow of the game though, it just lets me know if I should be searching for enemies to kill or searching for npcs to talk to. Overall the combat is much improved as well as the dialog. Overall the gameplay of the game comes across very strong though there are some flaws. I found that there weren't enough skills as each of the 6 classes gets only 4 skills + a stat boost skill + and customisable skill depending on which party members you make loyal to you. Each party member brings new skills to add to that but overall I didn't like the system that much. Also, levels were far and few between leaving me with a feeling of lack of progress and gain from killing enemies although I did enjoy the research system which you can use minerals to gain improvements to your weapons, armor, ship, as well as some other things.

Overall the game turned out very different than the original but still extremely fun. best game I've played in a while. 9.5/10 if you want a number rating

I'mma Firin' Mah Post - BLOOOG!

Because I don't have enough self-control to refrain from making that the title. As the self-proclaimed "most random person on the blog," it is my prerogative to make surprise puns.

Anyway, back to what I was talking about, or something. Today's anime/manga rant is about Excel Saga. This is a comedy anime that pokes fun at the rest of the anime genre as well as the apparent fact that the producers made up the plot as they went along. The main character actually dies in the first five minutes, and from that point the show continues on a great fermata of randomness and slapstick comedy (except in episode 24), which in my opinion is something you should all watch just because of how much win it has. It also has some fail, but enough lol to compensate for that.

On another note, I've been told that I should only post twice a week to ameliorate the so-called "problem" of the ten of us posting too often. Meh. So if I decide to adhere to that proclamation, I should have plenty of time before my next post to think of something really entertaining to say. In the meantime, uh,

...nevermind. I'll just go hide somewhere and think about stuffs.

OOH ooh I almost forgot to put in a random link to SPARTA! Because that's what this is.

"Kirk to Enterprise. I'm bringing a visitor aboard."

I, teh Nerd, apologize for my lack of non-absence. (Double negative ftw!) I do not get much time to spend in other-than-homework related activities whilst existing in my abode, and shall therefore attempt to post various stoofs during the school day. Most probably during lunch.

The title of this post is meant to bring attention to the fact that we have had our first two visitors from somewhere other than the nearby Georgia area, namely, North Carolina and Florida! ^_^

Anyways, on a completely different topic... Bobobo-Bo bo-bobo is an amazing manga!! This is by far the best part of the manga so far. Crossovers for the win!!! If anyone can stand the randomosity and flat-out insanity of this manga, they'l find it absolutely hilarious. =P

Again on a completely different topic... I've been playing Chip's Challenge recently! My family played it a long time ago (my mom was amazing at it, lol) and it's by far the coolest 8-Bit PC Puzzle/Action game ever. Not that I know any other 8-Bit PC Puzzle/Action games. -_-' You can download it for free from practically any game site, just Google it, it's totally worth it. B)

On another completely different topic, we plan to start posting more interesting not-random-facts-about-us posts here. As you can see we're already beginning to reference games, comics, books, music and stuff that we enjoy or are creating ourselves. I plan on starting a voting system, or a competition, or a group writing effort or something on here.

And on a final completely different topic, I'm done for the night! Read you all later,

~Alex, teh Nerd of the Blog

When you're downloading Mozilla Firefox... You're downloading communism!

So, in case you can't judge by the title, I'm going to do a quick review of all the Major internet browsers; they will be in order from the worst to the best. So, without any further ado, let's get started!

Internet Explorer: I have 1 word that sums up this browser: terrible. It's the slowest of pretty much all of the modern web browsers. Not to mention, that when you want to install an add-on, you have to download an install file, and go through the installation wizard. WHY DO YOU NEED TO DO THAT? It baffles me that all the other browsers don't do this, but Internet Explorer seems to be a rebel. In addition, the 64-bit IE isn't compatible with flash. LAME!! If you have any sense whatsoever, you will not use this browser (unless you are forced to).

Opera: This browser is okay. It's not great, not bad, just okay. It's pretty fast, but when you open a new tab, it takes you to it. What if I just wanted to open a couple tabs to look at them individually? Solid browser, but they are better ones out there.

Safari: Apple's signature browser, this browser is solid. I have absolutely no problems with it: it's fast, it's reliable, and it's good. I'd recommend it.

Firefox: This browser is basically Safari with more customizability... A LOT MORE. I've never seen a browser with more ways to customize it than Firefox. There are so many add-ons that do so many things. I would highly suggest it.

Google Chrome: The biggest and baddest of the browsers, Chrome is by far the fastest browser that you can use. It also has some customizability (not quite as much as Firefox). It's also really nice to be able to drag tabs into separate windows. I would recommend using this as your default browser: It's awesome.

That's it for now!

ACRONYM of the Blog

After you read this, read Tim's post because it's good.

What the title says.

Now that that's over with, I feel compelled to keep up the insane pace at which this blog is getting updated and rant about something. So I shall rant about something.

Now that I've sat here for a few hours (okay, just a few seconds) blankly staring at the computer screen, I've been auto-logged out. Just kidding. What has happened is that I've stalled long enough to think of the actual thing about which I wish to rant.

I learned recently that James Cameron is going to make the Battle Angel Alita movie! The title is set to be "Battle Angel" and encompasses the first few chapters or so of the manga. If you aren't familiar with this manga, go look it up on Manga Fox. It's basically about a time in the far future after a war has screwed up human civilization and there is a city called Tiphares, which is suspended by a huge column that extends off somewhere ineffable in the heavens and presumably attaches to something. Below the city is a giant pile of garbage, off of which the people living on the ground live. They have build a sort of city of their own around it called "the Scrapyard." One of its inhabitants is a Frankenstein-like mad scientist dude who has a hobby of trawling the garbage pile for cyborg parts, and he scores one day when he finds a living human head attached to some sort of portable life support. The head is apparently that of a girl who had lived 300 years before and due to extended suspended animation has forgotten most of her past life. (This is of course the author's excuse for not adequately exploring her history, lol.) What she does remember is how to be a super awesome cyborg warrior girl, and the story develops from there.
All in all it's a much more original plot than Avatar, and given how good James Cameron made that movie, this one is sure to be made of a high proportion of pwn. At least, it better be! I loved this manga.

Tags: those little rectangular paper doohickeys you find on presents and forget to read before opening them so you end up accidentally opening up the leopard-print lingerie your mom was supposed to get. Also the stuff you'll find in the little box down there next to this post.



So tell me, did you scroll up to see if I actually used proper hypothetical HTML syntax and wrote "" up at the top? If so, you are a nerd and should hang out with us more.

'Cute Factor'

Today during robotics, I decided to venture forth and display to our sponsor my efforts to get our team into Lockheed Martin for a plant tour, with maybe some extra awesome stuff thrown in for good measure that I won't talk about now so as not to get up the hopes of any robotics members who may be reading this. ANYway, I told him my plan, he said it was very nice, very fun-sounding, and very improbable, considering that Lockheed has turned us down every other time we've asked. Now, I have some... connections... that I could use to our advantage, but then Aaron (not sure which form he was in, you'd have to ask him) suggested a plan that I think will work much better.

According to him, I have what some refer to as the 'cute factor', that immaterial quality some people have that is seemingly indescribable. The sort of thing that makes Japanese fangirls go 'squeeee!' every time they see it. If you're still not sure what I'm taking about, go to Daily Squee, they will educate you. Anyways, being the logical, rational person that I am, I asked him what he was smoking, as I am about as squee-inducing as a head of freezer-burned cabbage. He proceeded to note that compared to my backpack, I am a chibi, and that chibis ALWAYS have the cute factor. I'm forced to agree with him.

Now folks, maybe you don't know anything about my backpack. My backpack is HUGE. It'll carry three textbooks, five 1-inch binders, five spiral-bound notebooks, a lunchbox, and a clarinet case, and still have room to spare. In that spare room, I hold 8 small European countries (Montenegro's for sale, if anybody wants it), a spare backpack frame (in case the one attached to it now breaks), three or four tactical nukes (y'know, just in case), and the soul of James Doohan.

Anywho, all of this to say, because I apparently have many much more cute factor than our sponsor, I should be the one to try and negotiate the tour. I say we should take a vote on this: if you think I should try and use my 'connections' (five or six Lockheed employees that would probably be willing to help), mark this as 'funny'. If you think Aaron's idea will work better, mark it as 'awesome'. If you just like voting about things for no apparent reason, mark 'makes no sense'... mainly because it doesn't. :P

That's all I got for now.

[insert something witty here],
Tim


On a little side note, I need suggestions for a good signature closer. You know, something like 'Rock on', 'Because I Can', things like that (both of which are good, but already taken). If you have one, put it down as a comment. Thanks!

How To Recognize Different Types Of Music From Quite A Long Way Away

I felt the need to share this wonderful song with the world today. This famous piece of music is known as "Faerie's Aire and Death Waltz" (from "A Tribute to Zdenko G. Fibich") composed by John Stump. I must say that this is one of my favorite scores of all time for reasons which will become obvious when you look at it more closely. I particularly enjoy the rigatoni section.

Non-musicians will understand this as well, so don't be scared.

~Minister of Silly Posts

I can haz viewerz?

Sooo, yeah. I'm the newest addition to this blog (slightly newer than John Hicks, who was added slightly before me, but no one cares about him anyway =P). I suppose that I should introduce myself now. I'm Jonathan; not Jonathan DAVIS, but Jonathan THOMAS (yes, there is in fact a difference). I don't know how we're going to avoid the confusion, but we'll try.

For starters, I like video games: a lot. I also enjoy technology, The Internet (Yes, "The Internet"), manga/anime (TOTALLY DIFFERENT!!!), music, and video games. Specifically on The Internet, I read webcomics (xkcd and Cyanide and Happiness), read random blogs (Failblog, Failbooking, icanhazcheezeburger, FML to name a few), watch random videos (Youtube), play online games (typically Armorgames), and miscellaneous other things. The manga that I currently read are Fullmetal Alchemist, One Piece, Bleach, Naruto, and Hunter x Hunter. As for video games, there are too many to list (literally).

Since we seem to be narcissists on this blog by giving ourselves titles, I'll go ahead and join in! I shall now be know as "A Condescending Reckless Overly-Used Nonsensical Yawning Man", but you may call me "ACRONYM blog".

That sums up this post. You can look forward (or fart in the general direction) of my future blog posts!

'ello everybody and welcome to another episode of *insert cool title here*

Ok fine, so there haven't been any episodes of *insert cool title here* yet but there will be, oh, there will be. I'm the 'newguy' John, I'm known for terrible spelling, playing too many video games, general slacking, and not actually being in magnet. It looks like I'm supposed to have a cool nickname so I think I'll take Sir Awesome of awesomeville, no scratch that, it sounds too stuck up, let's just go with Lord of the Blog...yes Lord of the Blog it is.

Let's see, now that all thats out of the way now onto to juicy bit. Everyone, I am a really really big geek who has too much knowlege about my interests. Many of my interests are electronic related such as video games and anime but I also like tabletop, mainly warhammer 40k. On to my current addictions; chuck, dr. who, mass effect 2, team fortress 2, aion, and killing floor.

This guy is totally mental.

Konnichiha!

The first thing I shall tell you about me is that I don't speak Japanese. That said, I'm working on learning Japanese online, so perhaps someday in the hear future I will actually be able to say more than one word and have them be makin' sense.

Anyway, I'm Aaron. I go by one name. Sometimes I switch between some of my personalities, such as my vampire self (Aaron), my electric elemental-ish self (Aaron), and my invisible self (also Aaron). You may call me... Tim. But I advise you call me Aaron since there's someone else contributing to this blog named Tim.

With all due humility, I might be the most random person on this blog. Then again, I might be the most normal. It depends on your perspective and whether I actually thought about it before blurting out this part of the post. For evidence I refer you to the Omegle chat logs I imagine you may someday be lucky enough to have me show you. I can be very disturbing when I put my mind to it. Why so serious?

For the fourth paragraph, I shall start with an introductory sentence. Then I explain what I am doing next. If you don't believe me, I have included a supporting sentence to bolster my claim that this fourth paragraph is actually a paragraph, is the fourth, and contains most of the usual paragraphy guts that make a paragraph a paragraph. It even has a concluding sentence with an exclamation mark!


I shall now shut up so I don't swell up from my own over-nurtured randomocity.

Title Spotting

I have now decided that, as we are all picking titles, I shall be the Minister of Silly Posts. I will probably post several serious and possibly ranting notes intermittently, but humor is much more fun (and I need a reason to make Monty Python references).

Tonight on "It's The Mind" - more music (Styx):
Show Me The Way
Rockin' The Paradise
The Grand Illusion
Lady
Crystal Ball
Blue Collar Man

I could go on with that list forever seeing as Styx is my favorite band.

~The Minister of Silly Posts

Never tell me the odds

So, I'm gonna start talking about Renegades of Flame, the turn-based strategy game Jonathan, Jonathan(JT) and I are working on.

It's based first off the Fire Emblem game style. For those of you who have never played Fire Emblem, it's amazing. So far we have the Anger theme and possibly the main theme. We have some of the character names and classes, the entire class system and the first level planned. The interface is simple and can start a new game. The level plays out the initial talking but the map has not been started yet. we have great ideas, we're just lazy. And yes, I know the odds of this becoming known is low, but refer to the title.

And since everyone has apparently chosen a name, I shall be the Doctor. When the blog breaks, I make it better. And maybe some Doctor Who is involved.

This blog is gonna be "Outstanding..."

Comment if you get the post title reference. O_O

O hai. So, um, since we're all making introductions here like we're starting some sort of combined group-effort blog or something... -lulz- ... sup? =P

I'm Alex. I go by many names. You may call me... Alex. I have many selves, kind of like personalities except they're actually physical, not just mental. Normally I'm the guy that's immune to all forms of internal bodily harm including pneumonia, ulcers, cancer, and AIDS. Yeah, I'm immune to AIDS. Go figure. o_O In exchange I have a never-ending cold. Occasionally, though, I switch out for my clinically insane self (very different from personally insane), my vampire self (Who has no name), my generic fantasy self (Toro Harfang), my Rain Elementalist self (Erran Kayjeth), my superhero self (TurboNerd), or my robot self (X37V). B)

I like math the way Fighter likes swords. I like reading. I dislike analyzing what I read. I like school. I dislike homework. I lovelovelove rain. Rain is my Energy Potion. ^_^ I have tons of fun making games references and movie references and cutting apart movie scenes to tie them in with each other. The three things that get me hyper are how late it is at night, how many friends I'm hanging out with, and how much sugar I've had. @_@

And I be outta here. Talk at ya later. =)

~Alex; now the official Nerd of the Blog

And Now For Something Not Entirely Different

Buongiorno! Jaclyn D'Avanzo speaking...er, typing. Unlike Jonathan, I have no official blog title. Feel free to suggest a few if any spring to mind.

I must warn you of four things before I continue 1) I will be referencing Monty Python and sporadically other things 2) I am Italian, but I don't speak it fluently (yet) 3) I write like a British person according to most (long words, odd word order and such), and 4) I am also Irish and a writer, so I can go on talking about not very much for quite a long time.

Now for a bit about me. I am, thus far, the only female writing on this blog. I have a feeling a bit of confusion might come about later if you didn't know that. I have been in marching band for four years and that fact will periodically resurface in my posts I'm sure. I'm a complete band/music geek, and I play the flute, piccolo and sing (soprano, alto and a bit of tenor). Apart from that, I'm interested in most everything - applied and theoretical sciences, art (mostly of the pencil-and-paper variety), writing, anything humorous and, apparently, parenthetical comments. I am constantly reading fantasy books, listening to music or watching various TV shows (Star Trek, M*A*S*H, The Big Bang Theory, Doctor Who, House and Burn Notice among others, SIDE NOTE: don't expect me to know a large amount of useless facts about any but the 2nd and 3rd of these due to the fact that I have little time to actually watch them). My alternate hobby is arguing with people (when I know what I'm talking about of course). I like confusing people with logic, scientific facts and a varied vocabulary. It’s extremely entertaining.

I live for music. I like most everything from classical to classic rock to jazz to hip hop. There is probably one single song from each genre that I like or would like if I knew about it (but there are always exceptions). Obviously, there are some genres I like a good deal more than others and there are some that I refuse to listen to at all with the exception of that single song I like. This being said, I shall leave you with a few songs to acquaint yourself with. In honor of a blog of randomness: a taste of DR. DEMENTO:
Fish Heads (no specified artist)
Hello Mudduh, Hello Fadduh - Allan Sherman
Nuttin' For Christmas - Stan Freberg
May The Bird Of Paradise Fly Up Your Nose - Little Jimmy Dickens
They're Coming To Take Me Away Ha Ha (no specified artist, but be sure to look for the Dr. Demento version)

If there's anything else anyone wants to know, I can post that too. As it is, I'm at a loss for what else to say that someone might actually bother to read.

Aerial Recon Online

Well, I might as well introduce myself. The name's Tim Fisher: part-time gamer, Star Wars expert, military enthusiast, Civil Air Patrol member, robotics design extraordinaire. I consider myself well-versed in fantasy webcomics (such as 8-Bit Theater, Looking For Group and Dominic Deegan), and shall quote them quite often. I am between 13 and 19 years old, and I attend the same high school as Dominic, Jaclyn, and Alex.

I unfortunately don't watch a whole lot of TV, so my blog posts will be mostly related to certain aspects of gaming (mostly real-time strategy), randomness happening at school, and the occasional rant about how Congress is crippling the military. Since we seem to be giving ourselves titles now, I hereby appoint myself Defender of the Blog. No, it doesn't make sense, because you can't actually attack something that exists in cyberspace. No, everyone else hasn't done it yet, so there's no real precedent for me to follow. Yes, I'm still doing it anyway. ^_^

I know I said this was an intro, but I figure I might as well piggy-back some real content onto it as well. Pokemon Platinum has ENTIRELY too many legendary pokemon. I haven't even reached the Elite Four yet (yeah, I'm slow), and I've already met 6 legendaries! And after I finish beating up on Cynthia, there are at least another 12 I'll have the opportunity to get in this game ALONE, plus another six I can import from Hoenn, and one more I can get in Platinum after I have some of those. What ever happened to the good old days, when you had to make your team mostly out of pokemon you caught in the wild? *sigh*

Aaaaaand... I seem to have run out of stuff to talk about for now. Gimme a shout if there's anything you guys (our faithful, currently non-existent readers) want me to talk about.

-Tim

A New Post!

Hello, and welcome to the Blog of Crazy Random Happenstances! Before I go any further yes, I stole that from Dr. Horrible. Props to them for making the awesome phrase which we have decided to use. Aaaaaaaaaaaaanyways, this blog is devoted to randomness. Not just any randomness though, calculated randomness.

Anyways, introductions! I am Dominic Napolitano, a 17 year-old senior in high school. I am a severe video game addict and a video game programmer.... kinda. I started one and am still in the middle of making it. I also ramble incessantly. I also love Doctor who and willl frequently quote it. This should be fun.

A couple of my friends(and me) decided, "hey! we have nothing better to do. let's make a random blog!" so we did. It will be made for news of video games, TV shows, whatever we do and see, can show up here.

So, more of my fellow Blog members should be up shortly, so let's get this started!

Allons-y!