Tonight's WWE PPV, Over The Limit, features several bigtime Championship matches, I'd like to preview them at this time. First, the Divas Championship Match, featuring the Champion, Brie Bella, against her powerful challenger Kelly Kelly. Kelly has been awesome lately, she even defeated Brie's sister Nikki on RAW this past week, she's totally earned this Title shot. Of course Brie Bella is an awesome Champion, so this match will have the potential to be the Match of the Night! I imagine that we will see Awesome Kong at some point during or after the match also. Should be a super fun segment, and a real chance of the Title changing hands!
Another major Championship match tongiht will be Randy Orton defending his newly won Championship against the man he defeated for the Title, the Instant Classic, Christian! This is Christian's Rematch, and he will be going all out to try to regain his Championship that he lost after holding it only a few days. However the Viper, Randy Orton, is super tough and it's hard to imagine him losing the Title here. We'll have to wait and see, but I'm going to predict Orton wins in the end.
Finally, the Main Event of the evening, the epic and historic 'I Quit' match between John Cena and The Miz! This feud has been going on so long, The Miz came out on top at Wrestlemania, but then Cena beat him at the next PPV, so this is their Rubber Match, and what a match it is! Will John Cena say 'I Quit' for the first time ever? Or will The Miz be forced to quit, and remain no longer the World Champion? Certainly Cena has the STFU submission finisher, The Miz doesn't have a submission finisher, but even if he did it's highly unlikely that Cena would ever tap out to it. Cena is just so unbelievably tough, there's almost no way to make him say I Quit. Certainly noone has ever found a way to make him do it, so the question is, can the Miz somehow find a way? If he does, he instantly becomes an ELITE Superstar, with a unique and highly prestigious accomplishment on his resume, in addition to the fact that he would become a Two Time World Champion! So a lot to gain for the Miz tonight, but very much an uphill battle. Should be an awesome Main Event, I can't wait to find out what happens tonight!
Sunday, May 22, 2011
Friday, May 20, 2011
More Witcher 2 Impressions
As you know, I've been playing the hit new game The Witcher 2, the most anticipated game since Dragon Age 2, and a possible contender for Game of the Year. Since my early impressions, I've had the opportunity to play some more, and having done so I must say that while my initial impressions were overall positive, my subsequent impressions have been overwhelmingly positive. There's just so much to like about this huge, huge world and the fascinating characters and situations. As a fan of RPGs, this has got to be the deepest game I've played in a long, long time. It rivals the Final Fantasy series, and I would argue that it even surpasses it. I'm currently in Chapter Two, and I must say the storyline is still a fascinating mystery. I don't know what's going on, I don't know what's going to happen next, and I'm loving every minute of this game. The graphics are unbelievably awesome, the combat is incredibly difficult, which is still very frustrating at times, but better that than too easy I suppose :) . Also, I should mention that I eventually got to one of the Love Scenes, later in Chapter one. It featured Triss, and well, let's just say that I didn't know that a game could have a Love Scene that....detailed, let's say, and still have an M rating. Certainly it makes the Mass Effect Love Scene, the one that got all that controversy at the time, look SUPER tame by comparison. Ironically, since the original Mass Effect, Bioware's Love Scenes have gotten progressively more and more tame. TW2 goes VERY much in the opposite direction, and we'll have to see which one the fans like better (I would imagine the vast majority of fans will prefer TW2's version).
The Witcher 2 totally puts Dragon Age 2 to shame. I wanted, and fully expected, DA2 to be the Game of the Year, to be amazingly awesome, to follow in Dragon Age Origin's footsteps and be even better than the original. Instead, DA2 was a disappointment, and TW2 is the real deal, WAY beyond my expectations. It's so vastly far ahead of DA2 in almost every way. The graphics are much better, the combat, the storyline (some might ask, in regard to DA2, 'What storyline?'), the characters, TW2 has it all hands down. DA2 still has the edge in terms of Character Creation, no doubt TW2 would be even better if you could create your own Hero instead of using a generic one, it makes every game so much more fun when you can do that, TW2 really should have that feature. But that's about the only thing missing from this truly impressive game. That, and Shani. She's still nowhere to be seen, which is especially strange given that, again, if you played the original you actually had the chance to basicly marry her (you can buy her, or Triss, whichever one you choose, a ring, and you basicly adopt an orphan as well, so you're like one big happy family). Obviously Triss is a central figure in the game, as she should be. Shani should be equally so, instead she's like, totally gone, its very strange. But its not like the game is short on interesting characters, there are a ton! I'm enjoying the amazing exploration possibilities, the super awesome Main and Side Quests, it's just super awesome. I look forward to tons more awesome adventures as I progress in the world of The Witcher 2!
The Witcher 2 totally puts Dragon Age 2 to shame. I wanted, and fully expected, DA2 to be the Game of the Year, to be amazingly awesome, to follow in Dragon Age Origin's footsteps and be even better than the original. Instead, DA2 was a disappointment, and TW2 is the real deal, WAY beyond my expectations. It's so vastly far ahead of DA2 in almost every way. The graphics are much better, the combat, the storyline (some might ask, in regard to DA2, 'What storyline?'), the characters, TW2 has it all hands down. DA2 still has the edge in terms of Character Creation, no doubt TW2 would be even better if you could create your own Hero instead of using a generic one, it makes every game so much more fun when you can do that, TW2 really should have that feature. But that's about the only thing missing from this truly impressive game. That, and Shani. She's still nowhere to be seen, which is especially strange given that, again, if you played the original you actually had the chance to basicly marry her (you can buy her, or Triss, whichever one you choose, a ring, and you basicly adopt an orphan as well, so you're like one big happy family). Obviously Triss is a central figure in the game, as she should be. Shani should be equally so, instead she's like, totally gone, its very strange. But its not like the game is short on interesting characters, there are a ton! I'm enjoying the amazing exploration possibilities, the super awesome Main and Side Quests, it's just super awesome. I look forward to tons more awesome adventures as I progress in the world of The Witcher 2!
Thursday, May 19, 2011
Impact Preview
Tonight's episode of Impact Wrestling is coming up soon, and I'd like to talk about what we can expect, and what I hope will happen. Of course after Sting beat RVD at the PPV, we now know that it will be Sting vs Mr Anderson at Slammaversary. What an epic matchup that will be, one of the top stars of our day vs one of the top stars of all time! Definitely should be something special, and before that happens we've potentially got weeks worth of awesome promos from these two awesome Superstars! Its definitely Showtime folks!
On the Knockouts side, now that Mickie James has successfully defended her Title against Madison Rayne at the PPV, freeing Tara from her contract with Madison in the process, what's next for her? Will she possibly team up with Tara to go after the Knockouts Tag Team Gold? Or will someone step up to challenge her for her Knockouts Title? Inquiring minds want to know :) !
Of course when you talk about the Knockouts, you have to mention the #1 storyline in all of wrestling today, the fascinating and unpredictable storyline with Winter, Angelina Love, and Velvet Sky! When last we saw these powerful Superstars, we learned that Winter was, in fact, a time traveller, and that she had travelled through 'eons of time' to find her long lost love, and that person is of course Angelina. We also learned that the reason that Angelina has been in a zombie-like state recently, is because part of her mind is fighting against the part that contains her memories of her relationship with Winter, so Winter has been giving her pills to help with that. What will happen tonight, and going forward? Will Velvet steal the pills? Would that prevent Angelina from regaining her memories? Or is it truly just a matter of time until Angelina remembers everything, and fully embraces Winter once again? It's impossible to know where on earth this storyilne is headed next, we just have to watch and see!
In other interesting storyline action, I'm definitely interested to find out how Bully Ray has managed to get Tommy Dreamer to do as he commands, does he have some dirt on Tommy? And how will AJ Styles react to Bully Ray interfering in his match with Tommy Dreamer at the PPV, helping Tommy score the win? It's definitely interesting stuff, I look forward to finding out more!
Of course I would expect more Kurt Angle vs Jeff Jarrett stuff as well, gotta assume they're gonna build up to one final big match between the two at Slammaversary, presumably the last one of the feud. I don't know if we will see Chyna or Karen much anymore. After Chyna was so impressive at the PPV, you gotta figure she could stick around if she wants to, maybe have a match with Mickie even at some point. Now THAT would be an Epic match! The best womens wrestler from 10 years or so ago, vs the best womens wrestler of today and of all time! Make it happen TNA :) !
So all kinds of potential for awesomeness tonight, I'm really looking forward to tonight's episode of Impact Wrestling!
On the Knockouts side, now that Mickie James has successfully defended her Title against Madison Rayne at the PPV, freeing Tara from her contract with Madison in the process, what's next for her? Will she possibly team up with Tara to go after the Knockouts Tag Team Gold? Or will someone step up to challenge her for her Knockouts Title? Inquiring minds want to know :) !
Of course when you talk about the Knockouts, you have to mention the #1 storyline in all of wrestling today, the fascinating and unpredictable storyline with Winter, Angelina Love, and Velvet Sky! When last we saw these powerful Superstars, we learned that Winter was, in fact, a time traveller, and that she had travelled through 'eons of time' to find her long lost love, and that person is of course Angelina. We also learned that the reason that Angelina has been in a zombie-like state recently, is because part of her mind is fighting against the part that contains her memories of her relationship with Winter, so Winter has been giving her pills to help with that. What will happen tonight, and going forward? Will Velvet steal the pills? Would that prevent Angelina from regaining her memories? Or is it truly just a matter of time until Angelina remembers everything, and fully embraces Winter once again? It's impossible to know where on earth this storyilne is headed next, we just have to watch and see!
In other interesting storyline action, I'm definitely interested to find out how Bully Ray has managed to get Tommy Dreamer to do as he commands, does he have some dirt on Tommy? And how will AJ Styles react to Bully Ray interfering in his match with Tommy Dreamer at the PPV, helping Tommy score the win? It's definitely interesting stuff, I look forward to finding out more!
Of course I would expect more Kurt Angle vs Jeff Jarrett stuff as well, gotta assume they're gonna build up to one final big match between the two at Slammaversary, presumably the last one of the feud. I don't know if we will see Chyna or Karen much anymore. After Chyna was so impressive at the PPV, you gotta figure she could stick around if she wants to, maybe have a match with Mickie even at some point. Now THAT would be an Epic match! The best womens wrestler from 10 years or so ago, vs the best womens wrestler of today and of all time! Make it happen TNA :) !
So all kinds of potential for awesomeness tonight, I'm really looking forward to tonight's episode of Impact Wrestling!
The Witcher 2 Early Impressions
I must say, my early impressions of The Witcher 2 weren't really what I expected them to be. The game is far more different from the original than I expected, I know that there was some talk that they were making changes to help them one day sell a Console version, and they denied that, but it didn't take very long to come to the conclusion that the folks who surmised that were in fact entirely correct. The changes 'have' to have been made for that reason, because the game is far too different for them to have just decided to make all these changes for no reason.
First, the game plays VERY differently, for starters there is NO mouse cursor! Of course the cursor was an integral part of what made the original game so great. In its place is a more conventional, and inferior, system whereby you have to make your character stand in a certain area to see if there's anything there, such as something to pick up. It is MUCH harder now to find things that you need to pick up, especially the 'alchemy' items, because there's so much (very beautiful) scenery, flowers, bushes, etc. it's very hard to at times to tell whether a certain part contains something you can pick up or not, and you can't click on it from a distance, you have to walk over to it and see if something comes up that says you can pick it up. That is extremely annoying at first, eventually you get used to it, but obviously it would be better if things had stayed the same from the original, where you can tell from far away what's what, and you can click on it from anywhere to pick it up.
The combat is also radically changed, with no cursor that means the entire TW combat system is right out the window. The new combat system is very reminiscent of Gothic 3, for those of you who played that. In fact the game overall has a major Gothic 3 sort of feel, from the combat to the music. Of course the graphics are much nicer in TW2, which is a major plus, and for their sakes hopefully the fact that it looks so much nicer than G3 will prevent too many comparisons between the two games. The combat in TW was a combination of action based and turn based, sort of. It was highly unique stuff, and quite cool. That has been replaced by a pure hack and slash style combat, which again is extremely similar to Gothic 3's system, but it should be noted that TW2's combat is MUCH harder than G3's, and that's on 'normal' mode! There are actually two higher level modes, I can't even fathom how difficult they must be. It is extremely important to save VERY VERY often, because you're probably going to die a WHOLE lot, and it's going to be extremely frustrating. Minimize that frustration by hitting the F5 button with extreme regularity.
The single worst change from TW to TW2 is in the extremely bad language. There's just a tremendous amount of horrible language in TW2, obviously TW had a bit of bad language as well, but nothing remotely like this, its just unfathomably bad. To give you some idea, I'm still in Chapter 1, and I probably have LITERALLY heard the f word spoken more than 100 times. Its WAY WAY WAY overboard with the bad language, just no excuse for something like that. Also, on a more subjective note, you may or may not like the idea of nudity in games, and there is very little of it so far, it's not at all avoidable like in a game like Mass Effect, where you can see the love scene or not. In the very beginning of the game, your character's girlfriend/wife/whatever (its somewhat undefined) Triss is in bed with the Main Character, and she's naked. And I do mean naked. She's very attractive, surprisingly so in fact, but the fact that seeing her au natural isn't at all optional might upset some folks. Of course a strong case can be made that its a lot like a regular movie in that regard, an argument I would be sympathetic toward personally, but everybody will have their own opinion on that. The bottom line on this is that TW2 goes WAY out of its way to earn its 'M' rating, completely unnecessarily in the case of the vulgar language, far less extremely in the case of the very brief nudity, but make no mistake, you MUST be 18 or older to play this game.
Back to the graphics, they really are impressive. TW's graphics were awesome, and TW2's graphics are even moreso. Such beautiful scenery, and plenty of it. From the trees and plants and such, to the lifelike people, the VERY well designed monsters, it's truly a feast for the eyes. On the downside, the main character, who was always a generic and bland looking sort of character, really doesn't look any better at all. There's still zero customization, not only can you not play as a male or female character, you can't even customize the character's face at all. The lack of customization options, which are so well done in games like Mass Effect, Fallout, Dragon Age, and Fable, is especially unfortunate since clearly the graphics are so impressive that the character you would design could be a MILLION times better than the one you're stuck with. But certainly the other characters are very nicely done, whether you're talking about the previously mentioned Triss, or any of the other multitude of characters in the game. There's tremendous individuality and uniqueness about them, they're so well done. Hopefully eventually they'll get the message that fans like the ability to create their own character, there is so much potential there, the graphics simply blow other RPGs out of the water, it's time they let us use them to create our own character.
As I mentioned earlier, I'm still in Chapter 1, I've played quite a long time, and I feel like I may be nearing the end of the Chapter, but the story is already pretty interesting. One thing missing is that I'm still hoping to define my relationship with Triss in some way, obviously she's my character's girlfriend at a minimum, but exactly how close they are isn't something I've really had the chance to figure out or influence at all. In the original, you had the chance to basicly marry either her or one other woman in the game. So is she the one your character married by default? Certanily the other woman, Shani, is nowhere to be seen so far in the sequel, inexplicably so, which makes you wonder what the exact default nature of those relationships truly is. Also, while I've had no chance to influence my character's relationship with Triss or any other woman in the game, I've also had very little to no opportunity to influence the storyline so far either, something that was a very strong point in the original TW as well, but certainly in that one the major decisions didn't come until later also, so hopefully that will still happen in a big way.
The bottom line right now is that I'm quite impressed in certain ways, unbelievably underwhelmed/disappointed in others, but overall it's been a lot of fun, the storyline is interesting, the combat takes a LOT of getting used to but once you do its at least tolerable, and hopefully it'll only get better and better as the game goes on! In the meantime, have fun everybody! I've got some more TW2 to play :) .
First, the game plays VERY differently, for starters there is NO mouse cursor! Of course the cursor was an integral part of what made the original game so great. In its place is a more conventional, and inferior, system whereby you have to make your character stand in a certain area to see if there's anything there, such as something to pick up. It is MUCH harder now to find things that you need to pick up, especially the 'alchemy' items, because there's so much (very beautiful) scenery, flowers, bushes, etc. it's very hard to at times to tell whether a certain part contains something you can pick up or not, and you can't click on it from a distance, you have to walk over to it and see if something comes up that says you can pick it up. That is extremely annoying at first, eventually you get used to it, but obviously it would be better if things had stayed the same from the original, where you can tell from far away what's what, and you can click on it from anywhere to pick it up.
The combat is also radically changed, with no cursor that means the entire TW combat system is right out the window. The new combat system is very reminiscent of Gothic 3, for those of you who played that. In fact the game overall has a major Gothic 3 sort of feel, from the combat to the music. Of course the graphics are much nicer in TW2, which is a major plus, and for their sakes hopefully the fact that it looks so much nicer than G3 will prevent too many comparisons between the two games. The combat in TW was a combination of action based and turn based, sort of. It was highly unique stuff, and quite cool. That has been replaced by a pure hack and slash style combat, which again is extremely similar to Gothic 3's system, but it should be noted that TW2's combat is MUCH harder than G3's, and that's on 'normal' mode! There are actually two higher level modes, I can't even fathom how difficult they must be. It is extremely important to save VERY VERY often, because you're probably going to die a WHOLE lot, and it's going to be extremely frustrating. Minimize that frustration by hitting the F5 button with extreme regularity.
The single worst change from TW to TW2 is in the extremely bad language. There's just a tremendous amount of horrible language in TW2, obviously TW had a bit of bad language as well, but nothing remotely like this, its just unfathomably bad. To give you some idea, I'm still in Chapter 1, and I probably have LITERALLY heard the f word spoken more than 100 times. Its WAY WAY WAY overboard with the bad language, just no excuse for something like that. Also, on a more subjective note, you may or may not like the idea of nudity in games, and there is very little of it so far, it's not at all avoidable like in a game like Mass Effect, where you can see the love scene or not. In the very beginning of the game, your character's girlfriend/wife/whatever (its somewhat undefined) Triss is in bed with the Main Character, and she's naked. And I do mean naked. She's very attractive, surprisingly so in fact, but the fact that seeing her au natural isn't at all optional might upset some folks. Of course a strong case can be made that its a lot like a regular movie in that regard, an argument I would be sympathetic toward personally, but everybody will have their own opinion on that. The bottom line on this is that TW2 goes WAY out of its way to earn its 'M' rating, completely unnecessarily in the case of the vulgar language, far less extremely in the case of the very brief nudity, but make no mistake, you MUST be 18 or older to play this game.
Back to the graphics, they really are impressive. TW's graphics were awesome, and TW2's graphics are even moreso. Such beautiful scenery, and plenty of it. From the trees and plants and such, to the lifelike people, the VERY well designed monsters, it's truly a feast for the eyes. On the downside, the main character, who was always a generic and bland looking sort of character, really doesn't look any better at all. There's still zero customization, not only can you not play as a male or female character, you can't even customize the character's face at all. The lack of customization options, which are so well done in games like Mass Effect, Fallout, Dragon Age, and Fable, is especially unfortunate since clearly the graphics are so impressive that the character you would design could be a MILLION times better than the one you're stuck with. But certainly the other characters are very nicely done, whether you're talking about the previously mentioned Triss, or any of the other multitude of characters in the game. There's tremendous individuality and uniqueness about them, they're so well done. Hopefully eventually they'll get the message that fans like the ability to create their own character, there is so much potential there, the graphics simply blow other RPGs out of the water, it's time they let us use them to create our own character.
As I mentioned earlier, I'm still in Chapter 1, I've played quite a long time, and I feel like I may be nearing the end of the Chapter, but the story is already pretty interesting. One thing missing is that I'm still hoping to define my relationship with Triss in some way, obviously she's my character's girlfriend at a minimum, but exactly how close they are isn't something I've really had the chance to figure out or influence at all. In the original, you had the chance to basicly marry either her or one other woman in the game. So is she the one your character married by default? Certanily the other woman, Shani, is nowhere to be seen so far in the sequel, inexplicably so, which makes you wonder what the exact default nature of those relationships truly is. Also, while I've had no chance to influence my character's relationship with Triss or any other woman in the game, I've also had very little to no opportunity to influence the storyline so far either, something that was a very strong point in the original TW as well, but certainly in that one the major decisions didn't come until later also, so hopefully that will still happen in a big way.
The bottom line right now is that I'm quite impressed in certain ways, unbelievably underwhelmed/disappointed in others, but overall it's been a lot of fun, the storyline is interesting, the combat takes a LOT of getting used to but once you do its at least tolerable, and hopefully it'll only get better and better as the game goes on! In the meantime, have fun everybody! I've got some more TW2 to play :) .
Wednesday, May 18, 2011
An Important Health Comment
Here at the Gladiator Blog we cover all sorts of cool and fun things, but something happened recently and I would like to make an important comment. My dad recently had some health issues, and they deteriorated fairly quickly. Even though they had a procedure scheduled relatively quickly after he saw a doctor, it wasn't quick enough, and he ended up in the hospital, where they moved up the procedure and gave it to him well ahead of schedule. They did what they needed to do to find what was wrong, and now he's being treated for it. Hopefully, and prayerfully, this is a story that will have a happy ending. But suppose we were like other countries? Where socialized medicine results in waits of weeks if you're lucky, often months, and if you die in the meantime, well you just die. That's what would've happened to my dad, he needed help and if he hadn't gotten it, things would've been terrible. We in the USA have the greatest health care system in the world, it's true we pay a lot for it, no doubt more than we need to thanks to the current government regulations, red tape, trial lawyer frivilous lawsuits, etc. and we should always be trying to find ways to eliminate those things to keep costs down. But the bottom line is here in America we are free, we can go to any doctor we want, and if we need help now, we get help now, because we don't have socialism, we have freedom. Let's all work to make sure it stays that way. In 2012, let's all agree to only vote for candidates who support Health Care Freedom, and will pledge to overturn Obamacare. Freedom is far too precious to ever give it away.
Tuesday, May 17, 2011
Awesome RAW last night!
Last night's Monday Night RAW was awesome! We got off to a fast start, because the Champ was indeed in San Antonio! But before he could say hardly anything, he was interrupted by Ari! Alex Riley talked briefly, then first introduced a highlight video, of Miz owning Cena (a lot of pre-Wrestlemania footage there, it seemed), and then introduced the Awesome one himself! Ari and Miz made their way to the ring, where Riley continued talking, at one point taking a hilarious shot at the San Antonio Spurs. Eventually it was Cena's turn, and he totally owned Riley, before turning his attention to the Miz, noting that he saw fear on the Miz's face, and that on Sunday he would be saying I Quit. We then got a message from the Anonymous RAW General Manager, which Michael Cole read from his IPad. The GM decided that since he gave Cena the right to name the I Quit stipulation for Sunday's PPV Main Event, it was only fair that Miz get to name Cena's opponent and stipulation for RAW's Main Event. Miz spoke for the first time in the segment, to note that while he hasn't decided Cena's opponent or the stipulation yet, he assured Cena that it would in fact be Awesome! Sadly that wouldn't turn out to be true, but more on that later.
CM Punk vs Kofi Kingston figured to be a rather boring match with Kingston ultimately prevailing, but in fact the match was decent and CM Punk actually, very surprisingly, came out on top! Does this mean he's signed a new contract? You'd think so, but I haven't heard anything about that yet. In any event, after the match CM stated that he was going to do this 'his way' from now on, and that he was going to make every member of Nexus a star both individually and collectively. Good stuff!
Of course the highlight of the night once again was the awesome Kelly Kelly. Her opponent last night was Nikki Bella, the Bella Twin who isn't actually the Champion. A great back and forth match, with Kelly using some kind of unique move, similar to a rollup but cooler, to score the pinfall victory! After the match the Bellas, angry at Nikki's defeat, double teamed poor Kelly and laid her out, but of course anything a Divas match is over, you know what's going to happen! That's right, it's Awesome Kong time! Kharma's music hit, and she made her way to the ring at her usual speed. However this time, not only do the Bellas not run, but even though Kong completely ignored them, enterting the ring and slowly walking over to Kelly, one of them actually attacked Kong from behind! This of course was unfathomably dumb, as Kong dealt with her easily. She (Brie) got away before Kong could give her the Implant Buster, however her sister Nikki wasn't so lucky, she was last night's victim of Kharma's impressive finisher. After laying Nikki out, she went back over to Kelly, who was STILL hiding in the corner, unwilling or unable to flee. She looked scared, but even more than that I have to say she looked unbelievably beautiful. A fact that may not have been lost on Kong, who couldn't bring herself to attack Kelly. She towered over her, it was clear that she could do anything she wanted, but she simply played with Kelly's hair, then sort of flicked her finger at Kelly's forehead, it was really funny. Clearly she didn't want to hurt the awesome Kelly! She then left the ring, having vanquished the Bellas, and left Kelly unharmed. Is it possible that the WWE, who we know likes to borrow from TNA storyline ideas, could be borrowing from the Winter and Angelina storyline? Only time will tell!
It seems that Michael Cole has stuck his foot in his mouth, figuratively speaking, as his comments during his 'Contract Signing' segment with Jerry the King Lawler may have cost himself his side-kick! He insulted Jack Swagger, causing him to walk out on him shortly after Cole announced that his match with Lawler at the PPV would in fact be a 'Kiss My Foot' match. So the loser will be the one who kisses the winner's foot, and if indeed Cole is Swagger-less for the match, it would seem that Jerry will be the one to have his royal foot kissed, and he will get to keep his Hall of Fame Ring! Definitely a huge match this Sunday.
In other action, the two lesser Nexus members actually defeated Big Show and Kane in a non-Title match, thanks to interference from Mason Riley. Another victory for Punk and the Nexus! Punk and Riley will face Kane and Big Show for the Tag Team Gold this Sunday, at the PPV. We also learned last night that Randy Orton will be defending his Smackdown Title against Christian in a return match at the PPV also.
Finally we got to the Main Event, and the Miz revealed that the match that Cena would be having would be a No Holds Barred match, and before he could announce the opponent, Jack Swagger came out and attacked Cena from behind! Miz then announced that Swagger was Cena's opponent. Swagger dominated a large part of the match, he used a steel chair on Cena a couple times, but despite the major beating that John Cena took, he dug down deep, made the big comeback, and eventually hit the FU then made Swagger tap with the STFU. Another huge win for the Champ, John Cena! After the match the Miz 'guaranteed' that he would be announced as the World Champion after his match with Cena on Sunday, stating that he had found a way to make Cena quit that Cena had never seen before. He then attacked Cena with a pipe, but when he went to hit him a second time Cena was able to knock it out of Miz's hand, and use it on both Miz and Riley! Cena owned both men, and that was after owning Swagger! What a night for Cena, he's got a huge amount of momentum heading into the PPV! I'm curious to see if the Miz indeed does have some kind of trick up his sleeve, I guess all will be revealed on Sunday. In the meantime, a great RAW last night, it was a lot of fun, and I'm giving it two thumbs up!
CM Punk vs Kofi Kingston figured to be a rather boring match with Kingston ultimately prevailing, but in fact the match was decent and CM Punk actually, very surprisingly, came out on top! Does this mean he's signed a new contract? You'd think so, but I haven't heard anything about that yet. In any event, after the match CM stated that he was going to do this 'his way' from now on, and that he was going to make every member of Nexus a star both individually and collectively. Good stuff!
Of course the highlight of the night once again was the awesome Kelly Kelly. Her opponent last night was Nikki Bella, the Bella Twin who isn't actually the Champion. A great back and forth match, with Kelly using some kind of unique move, similar to a rollup but cooler, to score the pinfall victory! After the match the Bellas, angry at Nikki's defeat, double teamed poor Kelly and laid her out, but of course anything a Divas match is over, you know what's going to happen! That's right, it's Awesome Kong time! Kharma's music hit, and she made her way to the ring at her usual speed. However this time, not only do the Bellas not run, but even though Kong completely ignored them, enterting the ring and slowly walking over to Kelly, one of them actually attacked Kong from behind! This of course was unfathomably dumb, as Kong dealt with her easily. She (Brie) got away before Kong could give her the Implant Buster, however her sister Nikki wasn't so lucky, she was last night's victim of Kharma's impressive finisher. After laying Nikki out, she went back over to Kelly, who was STILL hiding in the corner, unwilling or unable to flee. She looked scared, but even more than that I have to say she looked unbelievably beautiful. A fact that may not have been lost on Kong, who couldn't bring herself to attack Kelly. She towered over her, it was clear that she could do anything she wanted, but she simply played with Kelly's hair, then sort of flicked her finger at Kelly's forehead, it was really funny. Clearly she didn't want to hurt the awesome Kelly! She then left the ring, having vanquished the Bellas, and left Kelly unharmed. Is it possible that the WWE, who we know likes to borrow from TNA storyline ideas, could be borrowing from the Winter and Angelina storyline? Only time will tell!
It seems that Michael Cole has stuck his foot in his mouth, figuratively speaking, as his comments during his 'Contract Signing' segment with Jerry the King Lawler may have cost himself his side-kick! He insulted Jack Swagger, causing him to walk out on him shortly after Cole announced that his match with Lawler at the PPV would in fact be a 'Kiss My Foot' match. So the loser will be the one who kisses the winner's foot, and if indeed Cole is Swagger-less for the match, it would seem that Jerry will be the one to have his royal foot kissed, and he will get to keep his Hall of Fame Ring! Definitely a huge match this Sunday.
In other action, the two lesser Nexus members actually defeated Big Show and Kane in a non-Title match, thanks to interference from Mason Riley. Another victory for Punk and the Nexus! Punk and Riley will face Kane and Big Show for the Tag Team Gold this Sunday, at the PPV. We also learned last night that Randy Orton will be defending his Smackdown Title against Christian in a return match at the PPV also.
Finally we got to the Main Event, and the Miz revealed that the match that Cena would be having would be a No Holds Barred match, and before he could announce the opponent, Jack Swagger came out and attacked Cena from behind! Miz then announced that Swagger was Cena's opponent. Swagger dominated a large part of the match, he used a steel chair on Cena a couple times, but despite the major beating that John Cena took, he dug down deep, made the big comeback, and eventually hit the FU then made Swagger tap with the STFU. Another huge win for the Champ, John Cena! After the match the Miz 'guaranteed' that he would be announced as the World Champion after his match with Cena on Sunday, stating that he had found a way to make Cena quit that Cena had never seen before. He then attacked Cena with a pipe, but when he went to hit him a second time Cena was able to knock it out of Miz's hand, and use it on both Miz and Riley! Cena owned both men, and that was after owning Swagger! What a night for Cena, he's got a huge amount of momentum heading into the PPV! I'm curious to see if the Miz indeed does have some kind of trick up his sleeve, I guess all will be revealed on Sunday. In the meantime, a great RAW last night, it was a lot of fun, and I'm giving it two thumbs up!
Monday, May 16, 2011
The Witcher 2 Preview
At last, the much anticipated Preview for the potential 2011 Game of the Year, The Witcher 2, is here! In preparation for this Preview, I actually went back and played a lot of the old game, the original, the very first Witcher game, and I have to say, that while of course there was room for improvement, it really was an awesome game, even better than I remembered. We know that the Graphics of The Witcher 2 are going to be superior to the original, they're top of the line and cutting edge, but the original's graphics were already pretty awesome!
This is just a taste of what we can expect in the sequel. I suppose this picture reveals not only the graphical strength of the game, but also, sadly, its one, glaring weakness. Particularly when you compare it to games like Fallout or Dragon Age, the one area where the game falls not just short but badly short, is in the area of Character Customization. In most modern RPGs you can create your own character, give them whatever face and gender you want, dress them up however you want. All that is entirely absent in The Witcher series, and it's a shame, as a world this incredibly detailed and deep should be explorable by a character of your own creation, one that you as a player are guaranteed to enjoy playing as, not a completely un-editable generic character that may or may not appeal to an individual gamer. For all the amazing advancements these folks have brought not just to the series but to Action-RPG gaming as a whole, this area is very sorely lacking. The excuse they give is that the character is 'based on a book', and that's why they didn't include customization. That of course is an absurd excuse, because we aren't playing a book, we're playing a game, and as a game it would be much nicer if we could decide how the character looks. The character could be the same basic person, from the same land, have the same personality, the same friends, the same missions, etc. regardless of their race/gender/clothing. So leaving this common, and very important feature, out of the game is a definite negative, no two ways about it.
Having gotten the negative out of the way, I really see nothing else but positive ahead. I mentioned the graphics, we all know that cool graphics are nice, but they aren't everything, FAR from it. It truly is the Gameplay that is where The Witcher shines, and where I believe that The Witcher 2 will shine, if indeed it is as good as it seems that it will be. Let me start right out by mentioning someething that they have Officially confirmed, and that is that not only are there 16 different Endings to the game, but there are 4 different openings! Of course that's because the strength of this game has always been its epic storylines, and more importantly your opportunity to shape them. No doubt a lot of the criticism of Dragon Age 2, released a couple months ago to very mixed reviews, was due to the fact that they inexplicably decided to go away from the very cool model of the original, of giving the player plenty of opportunities to make meaningful decisions that impact the main storyline. It can be said that DA2 is a lot closer to FF13 than DAO in that regard. The Witcher, and The Witcher 2, by contrast, are much more in line with the DAO tradition of meaningful and impactful choices and decision-making. This is what we as gamers want, we want our decisions not only to feel good at the time, but to matter down the line. That's what TW2 promises, and I look forward to seeing if they truly do deliver, as I expect they will.
Doesn't that look like a really cool forest to explore? I can't wait! I'm definitely looking forward to The Witcher 2's release, it's less than 24 hours away! Thanks to a deal that the TW2 folks made with a wesbite called 'Good Old Games', a site that is actually known for selling older games (including the original Witcher game) you can actually download the game RIGHT NOW, over 9GB worth of download, and then play the game on the 17th, and not only that, but you get 5 dollars off the regular price! That's right, 44.99 instead of 49.99, you can't beat that deal! If you haven't preordered yet, I highly reccomend you do so right away, I honestly believe there is a real potential for this game to be the 2011 Game of the Year, don't miss it!
Having gotten the negative out of the way, I really see nothing else but positive ahead. I mentioned the graphics, we all know that cool graphics are nice, but they aren't everything, FAR from it. It truly is the Gameplay that is where The Witcher shines, and where I believe that The Witcher 2 will shine, if indeed it is as good as it seems that it will be. Let me start right out by mentioning someething that they have Officially confirmed, and that is that not only are there 16 different Endings to the game, but there are 4 different openings! Of course that's because the strength of this game has always been its epic storylines, and more importantly your opportunity to shape them. No doubt a lot of the criticism of Dragon Age 2, released a couple months ago to very mixed reviews, was due to the fact that they inexplicably decided to go away from the very cool model of the original, of giving the player plenty of opportunities to make meaningful decisions that impact the main storyline. It can be said that DA2 is a lot closer to FF13 than DAO in that regard. The Witcher, and The Witcher 2, by contrast, are much more in line with the DAO tradition of meaningful and impactful choices and decision-making. This is what we as gamers want, we want our decisions not only to feel good at the time, but to matter down the line. That's what TW2 promises, and I look forward to seeing if they truly do deliver, as I expect they will.
Sunday, May 15, 2011
TNA Sacrifice Review
Tonight's TNA PPV was Fan-Tastic! It started off hot, spicy hot, with Sarita and Rosita! They weren't actually wrestling tonight, but they helped the team they were with score a victory. Then the action picked up with Jeff and Karen Jarrett coming to the ring claiming that Karen was injured and couldn't compete tonight! However Mick Foley, the Network Representative, said he had seen the 'X-Ray' that supposedly showed Karen was hurt, and that it was in fact the X-Ray of someone six and a half feet tall, and male! The gig was up, and Karen took off her ankle-brace and threw it at Mick in frustration. The match was still on!
Eventually we got to the first big match of the night, Mickie James vs Madison Rayne for the TNA Knockouts Championship, with Tara's Freedom on the line! Tara acted conflicted all night, on the one hand she had been with Madison a long time, but on the other hand she did want her freedom. At one point the ref got knocked down, and Madison went for her loaded glove, but after she put it on Tara grabbed her arm and took it off! That looked to be the end, but Madison managed to counter an attempted Mickie-D-T, so the match continued. Eventually the referee got knocked down a second time, this time when Mickie went for the Mickie-D-T, Tara came into the ring and stopped her! This led to both women trying to get Tara to attack the other. Madison at one point got on her knees and begged Tara. It seemed she had convinced her, Tara moved toward Mickie as if to attack her, but then suddenly turned and knocked Madison out, with her own loaded glove! Tara then went and revived the referee as a shocked Mickie covered for the 1 2 3 ! Your winner, and STILL Knockout Champion, the greatest womens wrestler of all time, Mickie James! She keeps her Title, and wins Tara's freedom in the process!
There were some other, less important matches, notable was Tommy Dreamer defeating AJ Styles thanks to interference from Bully Ray, and Abyss losing once again to Crimson. Abyss used to be a Main Eventer, now he's losing repeatedly to a total unknown, AND he lost a number of his teeth in a recent match with RVD, things just aren't going his way right now! Also, Beer Money retained their Tag Team Titles against Matt Hardy and Chris Harris. Finally things picked up bigtime with the penultimate match, featuring the Jarretts vs Kurt Angle and the Eighth Wonder of the World, Chyna!
The crowd was VERY hot for Chyna, chanting 'we want Chyna' the majority of the match. Of course she didn't really get involved until near the end, as the first time she tagged in Jeff Jarrett quickly escaped the ring, and didn't come back until he could wrestle Kurt instead. Finally near the end Chyna
again got tagged in, and laid into Jeff bigtime, first with a body slam and then a mighty suplex! This put Double J out of commission for a while, and allowed her to go after Karen! Karen ran for a while, but eventually Kurt was able to block her escape, allowing Chyna to have her way with her! First she gave her a splash in the corner, then hit her with a BIGTIME Pedigree! Then Chyna and Kurt put Karen and Jeff into simultaneous Ankle-Locks, with Karen tapping out and Chyna getting the win in her historic in-ring return!!
That left only the Main Event match, the World Championship match between the challenger RVD, and the Champion Sting! And what an awesome Main Event it was! Back and forth awesome in-ring action, eventually spilling outside the ring and into the crowd! At one point somebody yelled something like 'leave him alone Sting!' which I personally found quite hilarious. They battled back and forth, both men are still so awesome, this could easily have been a Wrestlemania Main Event match if these great Superstars were in the WWE, eventually they made their way back to the ring after an extended brawl outside it. Back in the ring, eventually RVD went for his 5-Star Frog Splash, but Sting managed to roll out of the way. Sting went for the Scorpion Death Drop, but it seemed that RVD Countered, however Sting went for it again and hit it cleanly, scoring the 1 2 3 and retaining his World Title!
The highlights of the night were exactly what you'd expect, Mickie's Title match with Tara's freedom on the line, the Jarrets vs Angle and Chyna (with Mick Foley showing up making things even more awesome), and the World Title match. Its hard to say which of those three matches were the best, I'm going to call it a 3 way tie, as each match could easily be called the Match of the Night! Each was so awesome in its own unique way, certainly from a pure-wrestling standpoint you'd probably give it to the World Title match, as there was so much awesomely entertaining drama involved in the other matches. From an entertainment standpoint, which is what really matters, all three were so awesome. So a bigtime night of TNA action, and super duper awesomeness! The only sad part was that, just like Thursday, no Winterlina. But there was a TON of awesomeness tonight, so I'm giving this PPV Two Thumbs Up!
Eventually we got to the first big match of the night, Mickie James vs Madison Rayne for the TNA Knockouts Championship, with Tara's Freedom on the line! Tara acted conflicted all night, on the one hand she had been with Madison a long time, but on the other hand she did want her freedom. At one point the ref got knocked down, and Madison went for her loaded glove, but after she put it on Tara grabbed her arm and took it off! That looked to be the end, but Madison managed to counter an attempted Mickie-D-T, so the match continued. Eventually the referee got knocked down a second time, this time when Mickie went for the Mickie-D-T, Tara came into the ring and stopped her! This led to both women trying to get Tara to attack the other. Madison at one point got on her knees and begged Tara. It seemed she had convinced her, Tara moved toward Mickie as if to attack her, but then suddenly turned and knocked Madison out, with her own loaded glove! Tara then went and revived the referee as a shocked Mickie covered for the 1 2 3 ! Your winner, and STILL Knockout Champion, the greatest womens wrestler of all time, Mickie James! She keeps her Title, and wins Tara's freedom in the process!
There were some other, less important matches, notable was Tommy Dreamer defeating AJ Styles thanks to interference from Bully Ray, and Abyss losing once again to Crimson. Abyss used to be a Main Eventer, now he's losing repeatedly to a total unknown, AND he lost a number of his teeth in a recent match with RVD, things just aren't going his way right now! Also, Beer Money retained their Tag Team Titles against Matt Hardy and Chris Harris. Finally things picked up bigtime with the penultimate match, featuring the Jarretts vs Kurt Angle and the Eighth Wonder of the World, Chyna!
The crowd was VERY hot for Chyna, chanting 'we want Chyna' the majority of the match. Of course she didn't really get involved until near the end, as the first time she tagged in Jeff Jarrett quickly escaped the ring, and didn't come back until he could wrestle Kurt instead. Finally near the end Chyna
again got tagged in, and laid into Jeff bigtime, first with a body slam and then a mighty suplex! This put Double J out of commission for a while, and allowed her to go after Karen! Karen ran for a while, but eventually Kurt was able to block her escape, allowing Chyna to have her way with her! First she gave her a splash in the corner, then hit her with a BIGTIME Pedigree! Then Chyna and Kurt put Karen and Jeff into simultaneous Ankle-Locks, with Karen tapping out and Chyna getting the win in her historic in-ring return!!
That left only the Main Event match, the World Championship match between the challenger RVD, and the Champion Sting! And what an awesome Main Event it was! Back and forth awesome in-ring action, eventually spilling outside the ring and into the crowd! At one point somebody yelled something like 'leave him alone Sting!' which I personally found quite hilarious. They battled back and forth, both men are still so awesome, this could easily have been a Wrestlemania Main Event match if these great Superstars were in the WWE, eventually they made their way back to the ring after an extended brawl outside it. Back in the ring, eventually RVD went for his 5-Star Frog Splash, but Sting managed to roll out of the way. Sting went for the Scorpion Death Drop, but it seemed that RVD Countered, however Sting went for it again and hit it cleanly, scoring the 1 2 3 and retaining his World Title!
The highlights of the night were exactly what you'd expect, Mickie's Title match with Tara's freedom on the line, the Jarrets vs Angle and Chyna (with Mick Foley showing up making things even more awesome), and the World Title match. Its hard to say which of those three matches were the best, I'm going to call it a 3 way tie, as each match could easily be called the Match of the Night! Each was so awesome in its own unique way, certainly from a pure-wrestling standpoint you'd probably give it to the World Title match, as there was so much awesomely entertaining drama involved in the other matches. From an entertainment standpoint, which is what really matters, all three were so awesome. So a bigtime night of TNA action, and super duper awesomeness! The only sad part was that, just like Thursday, no Winterlina. But there was a TON of awesomeness tonight, so I'm giving this PPV Two Thumbs Up!
Saturday, May 14, 2011
Major News Update
As many of you probably know, yesterday Texas Congressman Ron Paul officially announced his candidacy for President of the United States. This comes just two days after Newt Gengrich announced his own candidacy, and tonight, just minutes ago on his Fox News TV show, Former Governor Mike Huckabee announced he would NOT run. As a Christian myself, I like Mike and it's a bit sad that he isn't running, even though I wasn't actually a supporter of his, he certainly would have been better than a lot the ones who are either running or are expected to run.
The announcements are coming fast and furious now, the action is really heating up! I'm definitely looking forward to the campaign, hopefully we can get a major focus on personal liberty issues like the right to play Poker. We know that Ron Paul supports our right to play Poker when and where we choose, in 2008 he was the only major candidate in either party to do so. Will we see some progress this year? I certainly hope so,but even if Ron is once again the only one, if we can at least get some major media attention on the issue and our rights, that will be helpful.
Of course that's not the only major news out there. Tomorrow the Eastern Conference Finals begins, the Bulls vs the Heat! And of course, Game 7 in the Memphis vs OKC series! Definitely looking forward to a big Sports day tomorrow! And don't forget, I've still got my bigtime Preview for 'The Witcher 2' coming up, I've been playing the original Witcher a lot lately in preparation for the sequel's impending arrival on Tuesday, so I'll have a lot to say about that very soon! In the meantime, have fun everybody!
The announcements are coming fast and furious now, the action is really heating up! I'm definitely looking forward to the campaign, hopefully we can get a major focus on personal liberty issues like the right to play Poker. We know that Ron Paul supports our right to play Poker when and where we choose, in 2008 he was the only major candidate in either party to do so. Will we see some progress this year? I certainly hope so,but even if Ron is once again the only one, if we can at least get some major media attention on the issue and our rights, that will be helpful.
Of course that's not the only major news out there. Tomorrow the Eastern Conference Finals begins, the Bulls vs the Heat! And of course, Game 7 in the Memphis vs OKC series! Definitely looking forward to a big Sports day tomorrow! And don't forget, I've still got my bigtime Preview for 'The Witcher 2' coming up, I've been playing the original Witcher a lot lately in preparation for the sequel's impending arrival on Tuesday, so I'll have a lot to say about that very soon! In the meantime, have fun everybody!
Friday, May 13, 2011
TNA Impact Wrestling Review
Last night's episode of TNA Impact, now 'Impact Wrestling', was really awesome! I hope everybody saw it, I wrote a Preview last night but couldn't post it here due to the technical problems the site had. So much awesomeness on last night's show, I don't know where to begin! Last night the 'Network Representative' was revealed, as well as Kurt Angle's mystery female partner for Sunday's Mixed Tag match, and boy oh boy were both revelations shocking and awesome!
Let's start with the Network Representative. After weeks of wondering, finally it was revealed that the person who had been making Hulk Hogan and Immortal's life miserable, giving Sting that Title match against Jeff Hardy that led to him becoming Champion, and so much more, was none other than...epic Superstar and hardcore legend Mick Foley! Yes wrestling fans, one of the greatest Superstars of all time is BACK, and he's in charge of TNA! Or should I say....he's in charge of Impact Wrestling, because his first act upon revealing himself as the Network Representative, was change the name of the show, from TNA Impact to Impact Wrestling! Because, as Mick said repeatedly last night, it's about Wrestling. This of course isn't just a smart move, putting the word wrestling in the Title so people who like wrestling know to tune in, but its of course a not so subtle shot at the WWE, who has recently gone so far as to literally ban the word wrestling from their TV shows. For some reason the WWE doesn't want to be associated with the word wrestling (much the same way that KFC doesn't want to be associated with the words 'fried chicken', even though that's what they're famous for), so the folks at TNA decided that now was a better time than ever to be associated with the word wrestling, and they're right.
But the return of the hardcore legend, as incredible and awesome as that was, wasn't the only awesome return we witnessed last night, as Mick introduced Kurt Angle's tag team partner for Sunday's Mixed Tag match against Jeff and Karen Jarrett. That tag team partner is none other than.....the Eighth Wonder of the World, Chyna!! Can you believe it? Chyna is back, and despite all the years she's been gone, she is seriously looking better than EVER! A truly historic moment in wrestling, as both the Hardcore Legend AND the Eighth Wonder of the World make their returns to wrestling TV, and it's on Impact Wrestling! So the match is now official, it's going to be Jeff Jarrett and his wife Karen vs Kurt Angle and Chyna! I dare say that Chyna could defeat them both all by herself :) . Having the Olympic Gold Medalist as her partner makes this a very one-sided, but super fun, matchup indeed!
Of course as amazing as all that was, there is more fun to report on from last night as well. The 7 Time Women's Champion, Mickie James, was in Tag Team action with Miss Tessmacher, the up and coming Knockout, against Madison and Tara (Victoria from the WWE). Mickie and Tara started it off, but they're friends now so Tara eventually tagged in Madison, who Mickie owned for a while. Eventually Mickie tagged in Miss Tessmacher, who scored the pin with her impressive looking 'Victory Roll', and the dissention between Madison and Tara continued. We'll find out at the PPV Sunday, during Mickie and Madison's Title match, whether that dissention is real and it leads to a breakup, or whether it's all an act designed to trick Mickie and cost Mickie her Title Sunday. That's going to be very interesting to find out.
Finally, if you thought the night couldn't get any more awesome, you'd be wrong, how about a 25 Man Battle Royal awesome! How about the Battle Royal is for the #1 Contenders spot at Slammaversary, which is I think, the PPV after Sunday's PPV! That means that the winner of Sunday's PPV Main Event for the World Title, between Sting and RVD, will face the winner of the Battle Royal at the Slammaversary PPV, which I assume is the next one. It was a long and awesome Battle Royal, ultimately coming down to Bully Ray (better known as Bubba Ray, one half of the Dudley Boys Tag Team) and Mr Anderson (previously Mr Kennedy in the WWE). After some really good back and forth action, Mr Anderson eventually got the win, and FINALLY won the right to have the one on one Championship Match that he's wanted for so long!
So an epicly awesome Impact last night, sadly no Winterlina (Winter and Angelina) after last week's revelation that Winter has actually travelled through time to find Angelina, her long lost love, but that was pretty much the only thing missing from this otherwise SUPER loaded show, just amazingly awesome. The Hardcore Legend is back! The Eighth Wonder of the World is back! And they're only on Impact Wrestling, so don't miss it Sunday, and don't miss it next week! Impact Wrestling, it's Fan-Tastic!
Let's start with the Network Representative. After weeks of wondering, finally it was revealed that the person who had been making Hulk Hogan and Immortal's life miserable, giving Sting that Title match against Jeff Hardy that led to him becoming Champion, and so much more, was none other than...epic Superstar and hardcore legend Mick Foley! Yes wrestling fans, one of the greatest Superstars of all time is BACK, and he's in charge of TNA! Or should I say....he's in charge of Impact Wrestling, because his first act upon revealing himself as the Network Representative, was change the name of the show, from TNA Impact to Impact Wrestling! Because, as Mick said repeatedly last night, it's about Wrestling. This of course isn't just a smart move, putting the word wrestling in the Title so people who like wrestling know to tune in, but its of course a not so subtle shot at the WWE, who has recently gone so far as to literally ban the word wrestling from their TV shows. For some reason the WWE doesn't want to be associated with the word wrestling (much the same way that KFC doesn't want to be associated with the words 'fried chicken', even though that's what they're famous for), so the folks at TNA decided that now was a better time than ever to be associated with the word wrestling, and they're right.
But the return of the hardcore legend, as incredible and awesome as that was, wasn't the only awesome return we witnessed last night, as Mick introduced Kurt Angle's tag team partner for Sunday's Mixed Tag match against Jeff and Karen Jarrett. That tag team partner is none other than.....the Eighth Wonder of the World, Chyna!! Can you believe it? Chyna is back, and despite all the years she's been gone, she is seriously looking better than EVER! A truly historic moment in wrestling, as both the Hardcore Legend AND the Eighth Wonder of the World make their returns to wrestling TV, and it's on Impact Wrestling! So the match is now official, it's going to be Jeff Jarrett and his wife Karen vs Kurt Angle and Chyna! I dare say that Chyna could defeat them both all by herself :) . Having the Olympic Gold Medalist as her partner makes this a very one-sided, but super fun, matchup indeed!
Of course as amazing as all that was, there is more fun to report on from last night as well. The 7 Time Women's Champion, Mickie James, was in Tag Team action with Miss Tessmacher, the up and coming Knockout, against Madison and Tara (Victoria from the WWE). Mickie and Tara started it off, but they're friends now so Tara eventually tagged in Madison, who Mickie owned for a while. Eventually Mickie tagged in Miss Tessmacher, who scored the pin with her impressive looking 'Victory Roll', and the dissention between Madison and Tara continued. We'll find out at the PPV Sunday, during Mickie and Madison's Title match, whether that dissention is real and it leads to a breakup, or whether it's all an act designed to trick Mickie and cost Mickie her Title Sunday. That's going to be very interesting to find out.
Finally, if you thought the night couldn't get any more awesome, you'd be wrong, how about a 25 Man Battle Royal awesome! How about the Battle Royal is for the #1 Contenders spot at Slammaversary, which is I think, the PPV after Sunday's PPV! That means that the winner of Sunday's PPV Main Event for the World Title, between Sting and RVD, will face the winner of the Battle Royal at the Slammaversary PPV, which I assume is the next one. It was a long and awesome Battle Royal, ultimately coming down to Bully Ray (better known as Bubba Ray, one half of the Dudley Boys Tag Team) and Mr Anderson (previously Mr Kennedy in the WWE). After some really good back and forth action, Mr Anderson eventually got the win, and FINALLY won the right to have the one on one Championship Match that he's wanted for so long!
So an epicly awesome Impact last night, sadly no Winterlina (Winter and Angelina) after last week's revelation that Winter has actually travelled through time to find Angelina, her long lost love, but that was pretty much the only thing missing from this otherwise SUPER loaded show, just amazingly awesome. The Hardcore Legend is back! The Eighth Wonder of the World is back! And they're only on Impact Wrestling, so don't miss it Sunday, and don't miss it next week! Impact Wrestling, it's Fan-Tastic!
Wednesday, May 11, 2011
Big Sports Night Tonight!
Tonight we Sports fans have a really good thing going. Not only do we get Game 5 of the Miami Heat vs Boston Celtics series, a game that will feature either the Heat closing out the series, or Boston winning and then having the opportunity to tie the series at home, giving them a very real chance to advance, but in addition to that we get another classic Baseball game between two arch-rivals, the Chicago Cubs and the St Louis Cardinals!
First, to the NBA. The Heat-Celtics series has been closer than the 3-1 series score appears, Boston could very easily be up 3-1 themselves, such has been the nature of the games, they've been close, Boston generally leads at least somewhat late in the game before ultimately losing the games they lose, and it's not out of the question that they could get hot and win three straight. Of course the Heat, featuring all that incredible talent, could very easily win tonight's game at home and close out the series. They've been so impressive, as you might expect of a team containing Dwayne Wade and Labron James. Tonight's game could be really special, and I can't wait to see how it ends up!
On to the MLB, where the Cubs-Cardinals rivalry takes center stage. This is actually the second game of the series, the Cubbies working hard to lose last night's game, and did so in reasonably impressive fashion. Multiple fielding blunders helped them give up a bunch of runs, enough to overcome the impressive offensive performance they had against Cardinals Ace Chris Carpenter. 13 Hits and 4 runs against Carpenter, but Mr Kerry Wood and that legendary Cubs Defense stepped up their 'lets give it away anyway' game, and got the job done. Despite having a good bit of talent, the Cubbies are pretty bad this year, as usual, and despite the fact that the Cardinals have a lot of weaknesses themselves, notably the fact that their stars seem to be getting real old real fast, it's quite reasonable to except a Cardinal win tonight, and sweep of the series, even though the Cubbies are at home. As a Cubs fan myself, it's sad and frustrating to watch all that talent go to waste year after year, I honestly don't know how they manage to do it. Is it the coaching? Is it the sheer momentum of being perpetual losers that fosters a losing mentality year after year? Whatever it is, it sure would be nice if something could change it, but right now I don't know what that would be.
I want to close out this post with a teaser for my upcoming Preview of the amazing RPG Game due out next week, The Witcher 2. It's got the potential to be this year's Game of the Year, it looks simply amazing, everything I've not only seen but read suggests it could truly be epic. Here's just a small taste of what we have to look forward to next week when the game comes out. We play as the man in the front of that picture, Geralt, the same man who was also the star of the original The Witcher game, which was so popular when it came out some time back. I've also included a Preview Clip from Youtube as well, which features some actual gameplay from early in the game. Look forward to my Preview of The Witcher 2, I'll be posting that soon! In the meantime, feel free to comment as always, and have fun everybody!
First, to the NBA. The Heat-Celtics series has been closer than the 3-1 series score appears, Boston could very easily be up 3-1 themselves, such has been the nature of the games, they've been close, Boston generally leads at least somewhat late in the game before ultimately losing the games they lose, and it's not out of the question that they could get hot and win three straight. Of course the Heat, featuring all that incredible talent, could very easily win tonight's game at home and close out the series. They've been so impressive, as you might expect of a team containing Dwayne Wade and Labron James. Tonight's game could be really special, and I can't wait to see how it ends up!
On to the MLB, where the Cubs-Cardinals rivalry takes center stage. This is actually the second game of the series, the Cubbies working hard to lose last night's game, and did so in reasonably impressive fashion. Multiple fielding blunders helped them give up a bunch of runs, enough to overcome the impressive offensive performance they had against Cardinals Ace Chris Carpenter. 13 Hits and 4 runs against Carpenter, but Mr Kerry Wood and that legendary Cubs Defense stepped up their 'lets give it away anyway' game, and got the job done. Despite having a good bit of talent, the Cubbies are pretty bad this year, as usual, and despite the fact that the Cardinals have a lot of weaknesses themselves, notably the fact that their stars seem to be getting real old real fast, it's quite reasonable to except a Cardinal win tonight, and sweep of the series, even though the Cubbies are at home. As a Cubs fan myself, it's sad and frustrating to watch all that talent go to waste year after year, I honestly don't know how they manage to do it. Is it the coaching? Is it the sheer momentum of being perpetual losers that fosters a losing mentality year after year? Whatever it is, it sure would be nice if something could change it, but right now I don't know what that would be.
Exciting News from SirGladiator!
First let me thank all of you for tuning into my blog every day, I do my best to give you high quality entertainment, as well as informative information, and I appreciate your support. I have an announcement to make, its some good news, and some bad news, but the bad news isn't bad news for you, just me, so don't worry :) . As you know, I'm a supporter of the Rights of Poker Players, and I'm also a fan of Video Games (see my previous review of the Dragon Age 2 game, and my commentary on the loss of Poker Players Rights, both still available here on the Main Page of the Site, if you haven't already done so), and I decided to create an entire website to cover and promote those very things! Don't worry, I'll still be providing just as much high quality information here as always, especially because I really don't know how to create websites, Im just a regular person :) .
So I now own a website, and if I ever learn how to impliment my vision of super-coolness and fun on it I'll let you know. In the meantime, if anybody would like to reccomend anything for me in the comments, something to help me learn how to do a website, that'd be really swell. If I learn how to do it I won't leave any of you hanging, you'll still get plenty of updates here, AND at my new site! But again, that's not now, and it may not be anytime soon either, so rest assured that everything is going to still operate completely normally here at the Gladiator Blog! In fact, I plan on giving you an update soon on a REALLY cool game called 'The Witcher 2' that is due out next week, and appears to be amazingly awesome, super cool, and even a potential 'Game of the Year' Title. Of course there's plenty of competition for that Title, and the year is young, but trust me, while obviously I haven't played the game yet since it isn't out and all, so of course it could still suck, everything I've seen and read suggests this game is in fact the real deal, and I'm going to give you the lowdown on it really soon, so stay tuned for that! Once again a big thank you to all my friends out there, every single one of you who read my blog, you guys are awesome!
So I now own a website, and if I ever learn how to impliment my vision of super-coolness and fun on it I'll let you know. In the meantime, if anybody would like to reccomend anything for me in the comments, something to help me learn how to do a website, that'd be really swell. If I learn how to do it I won't leave any of you hanging, you'll still get plenty of updates here, AND at my new site! But again, that's not now, and it may not be anytime soon either, so rest assured that everything is going to still operate completely normally here at the Gladiator Blog! In fact, I plan on giving you an update soon on a REALLY cool game called 'The Witcher 2' that is due out next week, and appears to be amazingly awesome, super cool, and even a potential 'Game of the Year' Title. Of course there's plenty of competition for that Title, and the year is young, but trust me, while obviously I haven't played the game yet since it isn't out and all, so of course it could still suck, everything I've seen and read suggests this game is in fact the real deal, and I'm going to give you the lowdown on it really soon, so stay tuned for that! Once again a big thank you to all my friends out there, every single one of you who read my blog, you guys are awesome!
Tuesday, May 10, 2011
Monday Night Raw
Last night's edition of Monday Night Raw was only so-so. It opened with the new formerly-Smackdown wrestlers, Alberto Del Rio and Rey Mysterio, and Rey challenging Alberto to a match for the right to face John Cena for the Title. The Miz interrupted them, and said something about the two of them having a 'Taco Bell Parking Lot' match while he faced Cena. But if you thought that was a bit racist, well, you hadn't heard from former TNA Champion Ron 'The Truth' Killings yet! R Truth came down and said he wanted to 'spit some hate', and proceeded to do just that. He talked for a while, insulted the other three men, then said that 'When an angry black man (that would be him) is talking, everybody should shut up', and that he was going to be the one to face 'That lily white John Cena'. That would seem to make Miz's later comment about Rey and Del Rio being 'day laborers' pale in comparison, but maybe that depends on your perspective. Is racism really necessary here on Raw? I'd certainly like to think not. But I suppose this is following TNA's lead, as you may know they've recently introduced a group called 'Mexican America', which brings out a Mexican flag, and they say things like they're taking America back for Mexico, etc. just insanely racist and stupid stuff. It seems the WWE is taking a page out of TNA's playbook, as they have been known to do from time to time, usually on better ideas than this. However this would not be the last time on this show that the WWE steals a TNA idea, more on that shortly.
The highlight of the show came in the next segment, which featured not only the Bella Twins, one of whom is the current Womens Champion, but also the returning Kelly Kelly! She had been on Smackdown far too long, its so great that she's back on RAW. This time it was in a tag match, with Eve as her partner. After a nice little back and forth match, Kelly Kelly reversed an attempted Bella rollup for one of her own, and a 3 count victory! After the match, it was time once again for Awesome Kong to come out and flatten somebody! Once again, as last week, Kelly Kelly sat in the corner in fear as Kong, now 'Kharma' in the WWE, made her way to the ring. This time she behaved more intelligently, as after Kong got into the ring she eventually slid out of it, keeping her distance from the huge woman. The Bellas, even smarter still, simply ran away together. You guessed it, that means that tonight's victim would be Eve! She charged at Kong, only to be met with a clothesline that basicly knocked her out, while Kong chased Kelly Kelly around for a while. Of course Kelly, being about a million pounds lighter, was able to win the battle of foot-speed, and get away. That meant Kong had to settle for giving tonight's Impant-Buster to Eve, and she proceeded to do so. Another dominant performance for the Two-Time TNA Womens Champion Awesome Kong, now known as Kharma in the WWE.
Now about that 'other' idea that the WWE stole from TNA last night, and believe me it's a doozey. Michael Cole made the announcement that he was retiring from wrestling undefeated, but Jerry The King Lawler didn't want to hear that, he still wants to get Cole back in the ring! So he offered first to 'induct Cole into the Hall of Fame himself' if Cole accepts his challenge (one wonders how Jerry would have the authority to decide who gets into the Hall of Fame, especially people who obviously aren't Hall of Famers, but wait, it gets better), he also offered to put on the line....HIS HALL OF FAME RING!!!! Oh baby, you may have thought the days of Hall of Fame Ring storylines were over, but you would be WRONG! Of course the challenge was eventually accepted, and now its going to be Cole vs Lawler once again, and Jerry's Hall of Fame Ring is on the line! Any chance the WWE might actually go a step futher than TNA, and instead of simply 'suggesting' that the ring gives you Super Powers, maybe actually have lightning shoot out of it or something, special effects style? We can only hope :) .
In the Main Event, it was Miz vs Rey Mysterio vs Alberto Del Rio for the #1 Contendership. A good solid match, at the end we saw Alex Riley come down and interfere, pulling Rey off Del Rio following a 619 and top rope dive onto Del Rio, saving him from being pinned and allowing Miz to roll Rey up for a 3 count, and another shot at the Title! John Cena then came down and announced that his Title match with the Miz at the PPV would in fact be....an I Quit Match! His music played as he exited triumphantly, indeed the idea of John Cena saying I Quit does seem highly unlikely, so a HUGE advantage for Cena courtesy of this Stipulation!
So all in all a so-so episode of RAW. I thought the race stuff was in poor taste (to say the least), and I certainly didn't expect to see the WWE copying TNA so blatantly (but I guess with so many former TNA Superstars on the show it was only a matter of time), but there was still a fair amount of fun to be had last night also. Its always awesome to see Kelly Kelly in action, its so great she's back on Raw. It was good to see the Miz back in the Main Event, not just last night but at the PPV also. After all, he's the Miz, and he's Awesome! Or so I keep hearing anyway :) . Definitely looking forward to seeing him continue his feud with John Cena, and I can't wait to find out who Kharma goes after next week! No doubt Kelly Kelly will be in her sights again, can she keep escaping the extra-large woman's grasp? We'll just have to tune in and find out! Feel free to comment, or leave a question, or even both! Thanks everybody!
The highlight of the show came in the next segment, which featured not only the Bella Twins, one of whom is the current Womens Champion, but also the returning Kelly Kelly! She had been on Smackdown far too long, its so great that she's back on RAW. This time it was in a tag match, with Eve as her partner. After a nice little back and forth match, Kelly Kelly reversed an attempted Bella rollup for one of her own, and a 3 count victory! After the match, it was time once again for Awesome Kong to come out and flatten somebody! Once again, as last week, Kelly Kelly sat in the corner in fear as Kong, now 'Kharma' in the WWE, made her way to the ring. This time she behaved more intelligently, as after Kong got into the ring she eventually slid out of it, keeping her distance from the huge woman. The Bellas, even smarter still, simply ran away together. You guessed it, that means that tonight's victim would be Eve! She charged at Kong, only to be met with a clothesline that basicly knocked her out, while Kong chased Kelly Kelly around for a while. Of course Kelly, being about a million pounds lighter, was able to win the battle of foot-speed, and get away. That meant Kong had to settle for giving tonight's Impant-Buster to Eve, and she proceeded to do so. Another dominant performance for the Two-Time TNA Womens Champion Awesome Kong, now known as Kharma in the WWE.
Now about that 'other' idea that the WWE stole from TNA last night, and believe me it's a doozey. Michael Cole made the announcement that he was retiring from wrestling undefeated, but Jerry The King Lawler didn't want to hear that, he still wants to get Cole back in the ring! So he offered first to 'induct Cole into the Hall of Fame himself' if Cole accepts his challenge (one wonders how Jerry would have the authority to decide who gets into the Hall of Fame, especially people who obviously aren't Hall of Famers, but wait, it gets better), he also offered to put on the line....HIS HALL OF FAME RING!!!! Oh baby, you may have thought the days of Hall of Fame Ring storylines were over, but you would be WRONG! Of course the challenge was eventually accepted, and now its going to be Cole vs Lawler once again, and Jerry's Hall of Fame Ring is on the line! Any chance the WWE might actually go a step futher than TNA, and instead of simply 'suggesting' that the ring gives you Super Powers, maybe actually have lightning shoot out of it or something, special effects style? We can only hope :) .
In the Main Event, it was Miz vs Rey Mysterio vs Alberto Del Rio for the #1 Contendership. A good solid match, at the end we saw Alex Riley come down and interfere, pulling Rey off Del Rio following a 619 and top rope dive onto Del Rio, saving him from being pinned and allowing Miz to roll Rey up for a 3 count, and another shot at the Title! John Cena then came down and announced that his Title match with the Miz at the PPV would in fact be....an I Quit Match! His music played as he exited triumphantly, indeed the idea of John Cena saying I Quit does seem highly unlikely, so a HUGE advantage for Cena courtesy of this Stipulation!
So all in all a so-so episode of RAW. I thought the race stuff was in poor taste (to say the least), and I certainly didn't expect to see the WWE copying TNA so blatantly (but I guess with so many former TNA Superstars on the show it was only a matter of time), but there was still a fair amount of fun to be had last night also. Its always awesome to see Kelly Kelly in action, its so great she's back on Raw. It was good to see the Miz back in the Main Event, not just last night but at the PPV also. After all, he's the Miz, and he's Awesome! Or so I keep hearing anyway :) . Definitely looking forward to seeing him continue his feud with John Cena, and I can't wait to find out who Kharma goes after next week! No doubt Kelly Kelly will be in her sights again, can she keep escaping the extra-large woman's grasp? We'll just have to tune in and find out! Feel free to comment, or leave a question, or even both! Thanks everybody!
Monday, May 09, 2011
Dragon Age 2 Review
For those of us who love Gaming, especially RPGs, Dragon Age 2 was a game we anticipated for many, many months. The sequel to Bioware's most successful game of all time, Dragon Age Origins, Dragon Age 2 was expected to be even better, and even more successful, than its incredibly impressive predecessor. An upgrade to the graphics, an all new story with new characters and places to visit, etc. it was quite possible it could even be the Game of the Year! Sadly, something happened on the way to that GOTY award, something less pleasant than having to walk the Deep Roads for hours on end.
First a note about which version to play. Just like DAO before it, DA2 is definitely better on the PC, where you have access to mods, like the ones you're seeing in action in the above picture. Merrill, the Elf who is closest to the camera, has tattoos covering her face, making her much less attractive than she otherwise would've been. A mod took care of that. Hawke, the middle character in the photo (and the Main Character of the game), has a custom hair color in this photo. Finally, Isabella, the character farthest away from the camera, has a weird thing on her face, again needlessly taking away from her beauty. That too is gone here thanks to a mod. Happily, both the women in this picture (other than Hawke of course, who is the Main Character) are Romancable, Hawke can have a meaningful relationship with either one (however its worth noting that if you romance both at the same time, you don't end up choosing between them, you simply end up with Merrill by default, one of the many small mistakes DA2 makes that DAO did not).
Dragon Age 2 implemented a surprisingly large number of changes from the incredibly popular original. Some changes are unquestionably for the better, such as an improved Crafting system, and better graphics. Combat is faster paced, and the Skill Trees are updated, although they did remove certain popular Skills in an effort to 'streamline' the combat, skills such as Dual-Wielding for Warriors, and Shapeshifting for Mages. Combat is indeed streamlined, gone are the 'Finishing Moves' of DAO, Dragon Age 2 now features enemies that explode when killed, a clear step backwards for the combat. Another important change, which many see as for the better while others disagree, was adding Voice Acting for the Main Character. This of course adds a cool new element to the game, but at the expense of the wide range of dialogues choices that you had in DAO, so is this an improvement or a step in the wrong direction? That's a matter of personal taste.
Certain other changes are obviously for the worse, as they actually removed the ability to have conversations your teammates in most locations. You can talk with them in their 'home base' location, and that's it. Of course in DAO you could talk with them anywhere, and there's no reason why you shouldn't be able to in DA2 either. However the restrictions don't stop there, far from it. You can't change your teammates weapons, or even their outfit! Remember how you used to switch Leliana between a Bow and her Daggers? Isabella can use Daggers, but not a Bow, even though Rogues are allowed to use either. Likewise, Varric can use a Bow but not Daggers, it's simply absurd. Of course customizing their appearance by changing their outfits was one of the more fun aspects of the original game, and that too is simply completely gone in DA2. These changes were presumably made to make things 'simpler', and perhaps also to make the game feel more like another, less popular Bioware game, Mass Effect 2.
So a lot of changes were made to the way the game is played, some for the better, many for the worse. But how about the story, probably the single most important part of any RPG? In the above picture we have Bethany in the front, and Hawke in the back. Bethany, despite being the most attractive character in the game, was actually made Hawke's sister, and given a fairly minor role. Despite the fact that the game was marketed heavily as having a major role for Hawke's family, Bethany is the only interesting character of the three (Hawke has a brother and mother as well, both of which die no matter what you do, a pattern that would be repeated throughout the game, of your decisions having no impact whatsoever on the story. However just as inexplicably, the brother can live if you play as a Mage, but if you do that then Bethany is the one who dies no matter what you do, so in order to keep her alive you're actually not allowed to even play as a mage at all, simply unfathomable).
The 'storyline' of the game, such as it is, involves Hawke escaping Lothering, an early target of the Blight, and travelling to Kirkwall, where she (or he, if you prefer playing as a male character) spends the vast majority of the game within the city limits, slowly amassing wealth and power, but all to no real meaningful impact whatsoever. As Hawke gains in status and wealth, acquires a mansion, a servant, etc. she still is unable to actually protect her family or impact the story in any meaningful way, with the single exception of Bethany, who will live or die based on your actions. Your actions do not, however, impact the main storyline, which, aside from Hawke gaining in status by doing certain quests, centers around a 'Mages vs Templars' feud.
Spoiler alert for this paragraph: Sadly, the Mages vs Templars feud is incredibly uninteresting, because the Mages and the Templars are each mostly evil or crazy, or both. The end result is you don't much care who wins, and that's a good thing in a sense because once again, your choices don't matter anyway. Do you like the Mages? Sorry, you've got to kill the head mage anyway. Side with the templars? Too bad, you still have to kill the head templar also. And after killing both, the war simply goes on, as the game comes to an end. You've accomplished nothing, your actions were mostly meaningless, there were some interesting side-quests that are far more satisfying than the Main Storyline, but by far the best part, and the reason you should play the game, is that despite the fact that Bethany is kidnapped for a large portion of the game (and that's if you've managed to keep her alive) you can finally get her back near the end, have a moving reunion with her, then have her around for those last few battles, before walking off into the sunset with her and the rest of your crew (most of whom you probably won't care about anyway, but thats OK because the game doesn't even tell you what happens to them at the end like DAO did).
For all its flaws, Dragon Age 2 is still a lot of fun at times, and interesting things do happen occasionally. It would be nice if, like its predecessor, your choices had a real meaningful impact. Instead the main storyline plays out about the same as a typical Final Fantasy game, you watch it, you don't really influence it. That's a shame, because most Bioware games get that part not only right but VERY right, your choices typically have a huge impact on the story. Not so in Dragon Age 2, and that's too bad. But when you can make a difference, most notably in saving Bethany from the various ways she can die horribly, its incredibly satisfying, and for that reason alone I would reccomend the game. I would not reccomend paynig full price, but if you can get it for around 35 dollars or less I would say go for it, you'll have a lot of fun, just not nearly as much fun as the original.
Dragon Age 2 implemented a surprisingly large number of changes from the incredibly popular original. Some changes are unquestionably for the better, such as an improved Crafting system, and better graphics. Combat is faster paced, and the Skill Trees are updated, although they did remove certain popular Skills in an effort to 'streamline' the combat, skills such as Dual-Wielding for Warriors, and Shapeshifting for Mages. Combat is indeed streamlined, gone are the 'Finishing Moves' of DAO, Dragon Age 2 now features enemies that explode when killed, a clear step backwards for the combat. Another important change, which many see as for the better while others disagree, was adding Voice Acting for the Main Character. This of course adds a cool new element to the game, but at the expense of the wide range of dialogues choices that you had in DAO, so is this an improvement or a step in the wrong direction? That's a matter of personal taste.
Certain other changes are obviously for the worse, as they actually removed the ability to have conversations your teammates in most locations. You can talk with them in their 'home base' location, and that's it. Of course in DAO you could talk with them anywhere, and there's no reason why you shouldn't be able to in DA2 either. However the restrictions don't stop there, far from it. You can't change your teammates weapons, or even their outfit! Remember how you used to switch Leliana between a Bow and her Daggers? Isabella can use Daggers, but not a Bow, even though Rogues are allowed to use either. Likewise, Varric can use a Bow but not Daggers, it's simply absurd. Of course customizing their appearance by changing their outfits was one of the more fun aspects of the original game, and that too is simply completely gone in DA2. These changes were presumably made to make things 'simpler', and perhaps also to make the game feel more like another, less popular Bioware game, Mass Effect 2.
The 'storyline' of the game, such as it is, involves Hawke escaping Lothering, an early target of the Blight, and travelling to Kirkwall, where she (or he, if you prefer playing as a male character) spends the vast majority of the game within the city limits, slowly amassing wealth and power, but all to no real meaningful impact whatsoever. As Hawke gains in status and wealth, acquires a mansion, a servant, etc. she still is unable to actually protect her family or impact the story in any meaningful way, with the single exception of Bethany, who will live or die based on your actions. Your actions do not, however, impact the main storyline, which, aside from Hawke gaining in status by doing certain quests, centers around a 'Mages vs Templars' feud.
Spoiler alert for this paragraph: Sadly, the Mages vs Templars feud is incredibly uninteresting, because the Mages and the Templars are each mostly evil or crazy, or both. The end result is you don't much care who wins, and that's a good thing in a sense because once again, your choices don't matter anyway. Do you like the Mages? Sorry, you've got to kill the head mage anyway. Side with the templars? Too bad, you still have to kill the head templar also. And after killing both, the war simply goes on, as the game comes to an end. You've accomplished nothing, your actions were mostly meaningless, there were some interesting side-quests that are far more satisfying than the Main Storyline, but by far the best part, and the reason you should play the game, is that despite the fact that Bethany is kidnapped for a large portion of the game (and that's if you've managed to keep her alive) you can finally get her back near the end, have a moving reunion with her, then have her around for those last few battles, before walking off into the sunset with her and the rest of your crew (most of whom you probably won't care about anyway, but thats OK because the game doesn't even tell you what happens to them at the end like DAO did).
For all its flaws, Dragon Age 2 is still a lot of fun at times, and interesting things do happen occasionally. It would be nice if, like its predecessor, your choices had a real meaningful impact. Instead the main storyline plays out about the same as a typical Final Fantasy game, you watch it, you don't really influence it. That's a shame, because most Bioware games get that part not only right but VERY right, your choices typically have a huge impact on the story. Not so in Dragon Age 2, and that's too bad. But when you can make a difference, most notably in saving Bethany from the various ways she can die horribly, its incredibly satisfying, and for that reason alone I would reccomend the game. I would not reccomend paynig full price, but if you can get it for around 35 dollars or less I would say go for it, you'll have a lot of fun, just not nearly as much fun as the original.
The action is heating up!
It's been a while since my last post, a lot has happened both in general and for me personally, but now it's time to have some fun! You the fans get to have fun reading my hilariously incorrect predictions from the previous election, and then read about some of the exciting things that are happening now. Let's start by getting some bad news out of the way. As many of you know, recently there was a day now known as 'Black Friday', in which Poker websites were shut down, and scores of American Poker players were denied their basic rights as Americans, to play the game they love, Poker, on the Internet. It was an attack on American Freedom by big government, a bi-partisan attack whose groundwork was paved by Senator Frist and President Bush in 2006, and which was actually carried out by President Obama in 2011. This bi-partisan, anti-freedom agenda has resulted in many Americans losing their ability to earn a living doing a job they love, in addition to those who simply play Poker because it's fun and cool. We know that if there's one thing that Presidents Bush and Obama have in common, its a powerful ability to create policies that cost American Jobs, and this policy continues that tradition. I'll be providing more information about Poker, its status in America, and what you can do to help restore American Rights and Freedom, right here on this blog, so stay tuned for that.
On a happier note, Poker Player Rights Supporter, and Libertarian, Constitutional Champion, Congressman Ron Paul is now running for President! You may have seen his strong performance in the first GOP Debate a few days ago. That same night, a CNN Poll was released showing him performing better against President Obama than ANY other potential GOP Candidate! Another poll recently showed him closing in on the GOP leaders in the first Primary state, New Hampshire. As a man who stands up for Freedom, and isn't afraid to stand against leaders of either party when they're wrong, or stand with them when they're right, he is hated by many Washington Insiders, and loved by the People of America. As Congressman Paul continues his campaign to become President Paul, we'll have plenty of coverage right here, so please check in regularly to enjoy our updated coverage of the 2012 Presidential Campaign, and Congressman Ron Paul's major role in that campaign.
Of course I wouldn't want to sign off without mentioning something else, something fun that we all can enjoy, and of course that is Gaming! I've been playing a game recently called Dragon Age 2. It's by a company called Bioware, and as you might've guessed, its a sequel. I want to give you a review of that game, and I want to do that review justice by giving it its own post, so for now let me say that if you haven't gotten the game yet, you should try to find it on sale, once it's available at a reasonable price you should definitely get it. Its probably not worth a full price of 60 dollars, but 35 or 40? That's probably a fair deal. If you can get it even cheaper, then do so with confidence knowing you're getting a good deal! I'll explain why I feel this game is good but not as good as the original in a future post.
Thank you to everyone for reading my blog, feel free to leave a comment if you like, and if you'd like me to review a certain game feel free to request that as well, you never know, I might have played it and be able to review it too! Until next time, have fun everybody!
On a happier note, Poker Player Rights Supporter, and Libertarian, Constitutional Champion, Congressman Ron Paul is now running for President! You may have seen his strong performance in the first GOP Debate a few days ago. That same night, a CNN Poll was released showing him performing better against President Obama than ANY other potential GOP Candidate! Another poll recently showed him closing in on the GOP leaders in the first Primary state, New Hampshire. As a man who stands up for Freedom, and isn't afraid to stand against leaders of either party when they're wrong, or stand with them when they're right, he is hated by many Washington Insiders, and loved by the People of America. As Congressman Paul continues his campaign to become President Paul, we'll have plenty of coverage right here, so please check in regularly to enjoy our updated coverage of the 2012 Presidential Campaign, and Congressman Ron Paul's major role in that campaign.
Of course I wouldn't want to sign off without mentioning something else, something fun that we all can enjoy, and of course that is Gaming! I've been playing a game recently called Dragon Age 2. It's by a company called Bioware, and as you might've guessed, its a sequel. I want to give you a review of that game, and I want to do that review justice by giving it its own post, so for now let me say that if you haven't gotten the game yet, you should try to find it on sale, once it's available at a reasonable price you should definitely get it. Its probably not worth a full price of 60 dollars, but 35 or 40? That's probably a fair deal. If you can get it even cheaper, then do so with confidence knowing you're getting a good deal! I'll explain why I feel this game is good but not as good as the original in a future post.
Thank you to everyone for reading my blog, feel free to leave a comment if you like, and if you'd like me to review a certain game feel free to request that as well, you never know, I might have played it and be able to review it too! Until next time, have fun everybody!
Monday, November 01, 2010
Election Predictions!
Here we are, this is the big post, the one where your friend and mine, the Gladiator, gives you his Official 2010 Election Predictions! Let's start with the House, since the polls are showing a double digit GOP Victory, with Gallup showing a Historic 15 point GOP House Victory, so it looks like the number will be huge. How huge? Well, I thought about going Race by Race, but seriously, House races are so tough to do going by that. I can't say for certain whether, for example, Barney Frank will win re-election in his seat, but I can say for sure that he might not, and that by itself tells you what you need to know to know that its going to be a huge number for the GOP. I'm tempted to play it Conservative, but with this Historic huge wave, I'm going to throw out my Conservative Prediction of 85 seats, which is what part of me is thinking, and say it's going to be 105 seat Pickup for the GOP, because in a historic wave like this you're really much more likely to miss low than miss high, so 105 seat pickup for the GOP is what I'm projecting.
On the Senate side, we know the polls show that the GOP will fall short of winning the Senate. We also know that whenever one party wins control of the House, they always, ALWAYS, win control of the Senate, and with this historic wave in their favor the GOP will take control of the Senate. So which state's polls will turn out to be wrong? That's the question. The easiest first answer is Delaware, because in truth there's been so little polling there lately, and what little there has been has tended to indicate very strongly a huge movement up by O'Donnell. I'm going to predict that O'Donnell wins in Delaware. I'm going to say that Manchin actually wins in West Virginia, he's run VERY far to the right, he's run as a Pro-Life, Pro-Marriage, Pro-Gun, Anti-Cap and Tax candidate, and most recently he's actually been complimenting Sarah Palin. This is a man who is literally to the right of multiple Republican Senate candidates, and yet he's the Democrat, so that's why he's going to win, he embraced the Tea Party's values when the other Democrats were running against it and getting beaten.
In other races, Republicans are about to sweep a ton of other races, you're looking at Pennsylvania, Kentucky, Ohio, Missouri, Colorado, Wisconsin, North Dakota, Arkansas, Florida, Nevada, and the Republicans are going to win them all. Connecticut is tougher, we know the polls show the disgraced Democrat still leading, but will a man who was caught lying about his war record, specificly by saying that he HAD one when he actually didnt, actually win a statewide election for ANYTHING, much less a prestigious Senate position? Louisiana voters are about to re-elect a man who was caught cheating on his wife with a prostitute, so maybe the sad answer is yes. I'm predicting that Blumenthal in CT, and Vitter in LA, will win their races despite the fact that voters should be ashamed of themselves if they vote for them.
Moving further west, its so close in California and Washington State. Sweet mercy. Obviously the polls continue to give the edge to the Democrat Incumbants in these states, but here again, the wave could push the Republican challengers over the top. I'm going to predict Republican wins in both states, going against the polls, going with the wave. Staying out west, in Alaska, it appears that Sarah Palin has helped Joe Miller to a comfortable lead out there, and with that scandal hitting hard just two days before the election he should win easily. If anybody hasn't heard, some local CBS reporters in Alaska were caught on a cell-phone, Jerry Brown style, but they didn't call Joe Miller a 'whore', they were caught conspiring against him, talking about trying to find an evil sex-offender in the crowd at an upcoming Joe Miller rally, presumably to make it look like Joe Miller=the candidate of sex offenders. They also talked about possibly using facebook to say 'Joe Miller got punched at rally' or some such, it was speculation on various ways of making Joe Miller look bad, really crazy, insane stuff. If you haven't heard that audio tape you should, its yellow journalism at its most entertaining, because it was caught on tape. That scandal means that Joe Miller will likely not just win, but win by double digits.
Its worth noting that at the beginning of this cycle, the Senate races actually seemed likely to go in favor of the Democrats, as there were more Republican seats up than Democrat seats, and there were some pretty seemingly vulnerable GOP seats, particularly in New Hampshire and Missouri. Those races are blowouts in favor of the Republicans, and seats that seemed totally safe for the Democrats like North Datoka and Arkansas are just totally blowout level gone.
So overall I'm going to say the GOP picks up 12 Senate seats, 105 House seats, and its just going to be a huge night for the GOP. But whether they win 12 and 105, or only 2 and 25, its going to be a super exciting night and I hope everyone here will watch Election Night, it's going to be Super Fun!
On the Senate side, we know the polls show that the GOP will fall short of winning the Senate. We also know that whenever one party wins control of the House, they always, ALWAYS, win control of the Senate, and with this historic wave in their favor the GOP will take control of the Senate. So which state's polls will turn out to be wrong? That's the question. The easiest first answer is Delaware, because in truth there's been so little polling there lately, and what little there has been has tended to indicate very strongly a huge movement up by O'Donnell. I'm going to predict that O'Donnell wins in Delaware. I'm going to say that Manchin actually wins in West Virginia, he's run VERY far to the right, he's run as a Pro-Life, Pro-Marriage, Pro-Gun, Anti-Cap and Tax candidate, and most recently he's actually been complimenting Sarah Palin. This is a man who is literally to the right of multiple Republican Senate candidates, and yet he's the Democrat, so that's why he's going to win, he embraced the Tea Party's values when the other Democrats were running against it and getting beaten.
In other races, Republicans are about to sweep a ton of other races, you're looking at Pennsylvania, Kentucky, Ohio, Missouri, Colorado, Wisconsin, North Dakota, Arkansas, Florida, Nevada, and the Republicans are going to win them all. Connecticut is tougher, we know the polls show the disgraced Democrat still leading, but will a man who was caught lying about his war record, specificly by saying that he HAD one when he actually didnt, actually win a statewide election for ANYTHING, much less a prestigious Senate position? Louisiana voters are about to re-elect a man who was caught cheating on his wife with a prostitute, so maybe the sad answer is yes. I'm predicting that Blumenthal in CT, and Vitter in LA, will win their races despite the fact that voters should be ashamed of themselves if they vote for them.
Moving further west, its so close in California and Washington State. Sweet mercy. Obviously the polls continue to give the edge to the Democrat Incumbants in these states, but here again, the wave could push the Republican challengers over the top. I'm going to predict Republican wins in both states, going against the polls, going with the wave. Staying out west, in Alaska, it appears that Sarah Palin has helped Joe Miller to a comfortable lead out there, and with that scandal hitting hard just two days before the election he should win easily. If anybody hasn't heard, some local CBS reporters in Alaska were caught on a cell-phone, Jerry Brown style, but they didn't call Joe Miller a 'whore', they were caught conspiring against him, talking about trying to find an evil sex-offender in the crowd at an upcoming Joe Miller rally, presumably to make it look like Joe Miller=the candidate of sex offenders. They also talked about possibly using facebook to say 'Joe Miller got punched at rally' or some such, it was speculation on various ways of making Joe Miller look bad, really crazy, insane stuff. If you haven't heard that audio tape you should, its yellow journalism at its most entertaining, because it was caught on tape. That scandal means that Joe Miller will likely not just win, but win by double digits.
Its worth noting that at the beginning of this cycle, the Senate races actually seemed likely to go in favor of the Democrats, as there were more Republican seats up than Democrat seats, and there were some pretty seemingly vulnerable GOP seats, particularly in New Hampshire and Missouri. Those races are blowouts in favor of the Republicans, and seats that seemed totally safe for the Democrats like North Datoka and Arkansas are just totally blowout level gone.
So overall I'm going to say the GOP picks up 12 Senate seats, 105 House seats, and its just going to be a huge night for the GOP. But whether they win 12 and 105, or only 2 and 25, its going to be a super exciting night and I hope everyone here will watch Election Night, it's going to be Super Fun!
Sunday, October 31, 2010
Election Time is Near!
It's almost time for your friend and mine, the Gladiator, to make his bigtime Election 2010 Predictions! As you may know, I was SPOT ON nailing the 2004 Presidential Election Predictions, and hopefully I'll repeat that with my 2010 Predictions also! Right now I'd say its looking pretty good for the Republicans, but of course there's still time for me to take in last-minute data and change my mind. Some of the late data however is really trending pretty heavily in favor of the Republicans, including some House races that nobody thought Republicans had a chance in, and of course Delaware where folks had erroneously written off Christine O'Donnell, who now has cut her 'Bearded Marxist' opponent's lead to just six points in TWO different polls, and those polls are some days old now so it's entirely possible that as I write this Christine is currently in the lead.
Of course Delaware isn't the only state with the polls showing wildly different results depending on who you listen to, other such states include West Virginia, Alaska, and California. I'm going to do my best to gather all the best information that I can, and make an informed prediction that all of you, the fans, can enjoy and hopefully look at when the results are in and say 'wow, he got them all right!' :) . In the meantime, I'd like to say please remember to vote, it's Election season, it's super fun and rockin cool!
Of course Delaware isn't the only state with the polls showing wildly different results depending on who you listen to, other such states include West Virginia, Alaska, and California. I'm going to do my best to gather all the best information that I can, and make an informed prediction that all of you, the fans, can enjoy and hopefully look at when the results are in and say 'wow, he got them all right!' :) . In the meantime, I'd like to say please remember to vote, it's Election season, it's super fun and rockin cool!
Tuesday, October 26, 2010
One week to go!
With less than a week to go until Election Day, there's major league good news out of Kentucky, with a huge Democrat polling company now saying that Rand Paul is ahead by 13 points! You know if a major Democrat polling company is saying a Republican is way ahead, its safe to say he really is :) . Other polls show safe, comfortable leads for 'Mama Grizzlies' in South Carolina and New Mexico, where in each case the Republican is not only a woman but also a minority, which makes each win extra cool! These women are the future of the Republican Party, proudly endorsed by our next President, Sarah Palin, and they're going to lead their states back strong through the Obama Recession!
Things are really looking up now, no doubt you've probably heard that the polls are looking good, but what you may not know is they're looking REALLY good! I have some polling results from a new pollster who isn't getting much attention right now, because he's new and admittedly a Conservative, but he polls a THOUSAND likely voters in each poll, and he may in fact be the MOST accurate of any pollster! These little known polls reveal that in fact Election Night may be the most incredible night in a very long time! I may have more to say about th Specifics of these polls in the days ahead, but in the meantime its clear that this election is shaping up to be VERY nice, very nice indeed!
Things are really looking up now, no doubt you've probably heard that the polls are looking good, but what you may not know is they're looking REALLY good! I have some polling results from a new pollster who isn't getting much attention right now, because he's new and admittedly a Conservative, but he polls a THOUSAND likely voters in each poll, and he may in fact be the MOST accurate of any pollster! These little known polls reveal that in fact Election Night may be the most incredible night in a very long time! I may have more to say about th Specifics of these polls in the days ahead, but in the meantime its clear that this election is shaping up to be VERY nice, very nice indeed!
Thursday, September 23, 2010
Great news!
As the countdown continues toward Election Day, there's just more and more great news all the time. As you are likely aware, the Tea Party recently scored major victories in Alaska and Delaware, defeating liberal Incumbants in record-breaking turnout Primaries. What you may or may not know is that in New York a Tea Party candidate defeated his Establishment opponent soundly, and now is within single digits of his liberal opponent in the General. The Tea Party is really scoring impressive wins, across America, but just like it doesn't matter how much you study until you actually take the test, or just like it doesn't matter how much your stock is worth until you actually sell, so too the true worth of the Tea Party popularity and success will be measured in November, not before. This is why we must all continue to support our good Conservative candidates all the way up to Election Day itself. We're on course for great victories nationwide, but we can't become complacent, let's not take anything for granted. Let's keep up the great work!
Saturday, July 24, 2010
Welcome back!
It's been a while since I last posted here on my Gladiator Blog, but I'd like to take this opportunity to welcome everyone back! It's an awesome time right now, so much cool stuff going on, and I want to let everybody know that your friend and mine, SirGladiator, is back and ready to help keep everyone informed and having fun! Whether it's the world of Sports, Wrestling, Video Games, Current Events, so much to talk about, so much to learn about, so much fun to be had! So sit back, enjoy, and welcome back,to Gladiatorland! It's the Gladiator Blog, and we're here for you, the fans!
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