*QUICK THOUGHT* Borderlands.......Where the Fuck was I?

The past few months I have been reading on this game Borderlands 2 and I noticed that most of the people on the video game forum I venture to were getting super hyped about this game.  Now, this does not come to a surprise to me since most of the video game podcasts I listed to also praised the first game.  I still let this game fly under my radar despite all the praise I heard.  Maybe, it was the fact that I looked at the game like a general shooter so I overlooked this gem.

With the release of Borderlands 2, Playstation Network offered the first game for free in September and I finally gave it a shot.  Wow, where the fuck was I?  This game is probly one of the most fun games I have ever played, yet I can still see the flaws.  It is basically a shooter/RPG/Dungeon Crawler.  It really has a weak story that you could give a shit about, but it has thousands and thousands of different guns.  It is also violent which I like.  I also gives you the ability to customize you character with it's skill tree.

I played as a commando which drops a turret as his special ability.  I felt that was a good pick for someone that soloed that game like myself.  It also has online co-op which I didn't try because of the age of the game. I also did not want to play with people that were higher levels, and most importantly I didn't want people stealing my loot.

 The whole time I was playing though I came to this thought.  THIS GAME IS MADE FOR PEOPLE THAT PLAY NOTHING BUT CALL OF DUTY.  Its has a leveling system and challenges just like COD. I highly recommend it to anymore who love that game that may want to extend their horizons.  I am personally excited to play the second game down the road after I work on this backlog, but there are about another 6-8 games I want to add to my collection before the end of the year so it will be difficult.

NFL Replacement Refs

NFL Replacement Refs

As I am writing this blog we are wrapping up week 4 in the NFL.  Before the season started there were some issues with the NFL referees and the League itself.  Basically, there was a disagreement between the ways that refs can be graded, retirement pension, and other bullshit I am sure.  So, the refs striked/ got locked out and the NFL brought in some back ups.

Now, looking at these dudes in uniform, they look like refs, but they are as unqualified as they come.  I remember seeing the bio of one of the refs and he was working as a banker before the NFL called him up.  I was laughing my ass off at that shit!  I was thinking "Fuck!  I'd quit my job to go ref the NFL.  That would being fucking sick."  Those lucky motherfuckers.

Now watching them actually try to ref was the best.  These dudes were as blind as bats.  I have never seem more holding ever.  They also cracked me up because on plays like pass interference, they would almost wait for the crowds reaction before a flag was thrown.  It was hilarious.  They let the play go by, crowd starts booing or whatever, and they are like "Oh, you want a flag, well here you go!  Now, shut the fuck up."  It was almost like as if they were the referees from the Buffalo Wild Wing commercials.

The reason I liked them was the fights.  NFL was fucking cool as shit the first 3 weeks especially when two teams that hate each other played.  Don't get me wrong fighting with full pads on is pointless, but it is still entertaining.  Especially, when you have a team like the Rams that are kinda scrappy in situations like this and the teams they play against cry about it later (*cough* *cough* RG3).  It was almost like we had hockey goons on the field.

Now everyone saw and heard about the Monday night game between Seattle and Green bay that ended it all.  Yeah GB was robbed but at least it benefited pretty much everyone in the league.  I mean there were something along the lines of 700,000 voice mails left at the office of the NFL that night into Tuesday morning.  People were fucking pissed.  I am sure that there were some Seahawk fans too leaving messages on how they love that shit to be fair though.

Come Thursday During the Baltimore/Cleveland game the regular refs were back.  NFL realized that they have billions of dollars and can afford to pay the motherfuckers and they should be paid.  Those guys can see shit that we can see.  I saw them call a hold on a dude who held for half a second...it was ridiculous.  I also notice that players are still in "argue with the ref" mode too.  The real refs just look at them and say "get the fuck out of my face you big motherfucker.  Do I need to show you how to block properly?"  It's pretty funny to be honest.

Moral of story:  If you have money, especially BILLIONS, pay your employees.  Either way NFL was entertaining, unless you're a Packers fan.

Dead Space 1 and 2(**Contains Spoilers**)

I remember back in the day when Dead Space was announced back in 2007.  My first though was, "this is one generic as fuck title."  Slowly more and more info started to come forward about the game before a trailer was revealed at E3 2008.  I remember seeing the first screen shots of the monsters which are called Necromorphs in a developer diary and I was just disgusted at what I was looking at.  At the same time it was really intriguing me as well.  Finally at E3 2008, I saw the trailer below.  That is when I decided I have to play this game.

Now, Dead Space was released in October of 2008.  I actually had Gamefly at the time, so I got to play it that way.  Dead Space takes place in the year 2414 you are aboard a spaceship called the USG Kellion going to investigate a distress signal sent by a mining ship called the USG Ishimura.  The Ishimura is known a "planet cracker" that mines planets from space.  I remember seeing it for the first time in the game and it was just completely lifeless floating in orbit.  You play the game as Isaac Clark who is a maintenance man, a fucking bad ass one at that too.  Basically as Issac, you go across this vast spaceship doing missions in order to get the shit up and running again.

As Isaac moves through the ships he discovered various text and audio logs on what happened in the Ishimura.  It turns out the the crew of the Ishimura found an artifact called "The Marker." The thing that I really enjoy about Dead Space is the religious tones of the game.  The Marker is actually a a religious relic for the Unitoligist which is some kind of cult religion that it referred to a lot in the game.  This eventually makes everyone hallucinate and go crazy and everyone eventually kills one another.  Now, the real fucked up thing is that the marker contains an alien virus that feasts on copses and turns them into Necromorphs.

Now, I don't want to go too much detail on that plot and what happens, but you should play this game.  It's so fucking bad ass and scary as shit.  I feel this game is basically Resident Evil meets Event Horizon.  Another thing that is great about the game is the sound.  If you have a bad ass surround sound system or pair of headphones crank it up!  The sounds of the ship creaking, the eerie weird whispers of your name, and the sounds of thinks crawling in the pipes will make you tense up.

Finally, the other thing I like about this game is the combat.  Yes it is a shooter, but there is a way to taking down the enemies, which is dismembering them.  Since you are on a mining ship, Isaac must you mining tools to face his enemies.  These tools cut limbs off.  You also have the a kinesis ability, as well as a stasis ability.  You use these hand-in-hand when fighting enemies and solving environmental puzzles.

So now that all that bullshit is spoke of, I can fast forward to a couple of weeks ago when I started playing Dead Space 2, which came out in the beginning for 2011.  I was going to wait to play this game around Halloween, but I was so pumped to play it, I just couldn't wait.  Katie was also pretty stoked to watch me play it because she likes scary shit.

Dead Space 2 takes place three years after the events of Dead Space,  You are Issac once again, and you wake up from a coma.  This time you are just basically thrown right into the fire.  You are on a space station (which is more like a city) called Sprawl which is located of Titan, one of Saturn's moons.  Within minutes of the beginning of the game you are encountering Necromorphs as you begin moving your way through the space station.

Now, I started playing this game, and I knew Katie would love it because she likes scary shit.  Before I knew it she was screaming and jumping and making me fucking nervous.  She seemed to enjoy if for the most part because I explained to her the back story and she though the sound was scary as hell.  Sorry to get side-tracked.


Eventually after escaping the mental ward you are contacted by a woman named Daina Le Guin who fills you in on what happened on the Sprawl.  You learn that they rebuilt the marker and that is is located in the government section of the space station.  You eventually fight your way through the city while having hallucinations of your dead wife Nicole who constantly fucks with you.  As far as combat it's still basically the same thing, except I feel this game is more action than horror unlike the first game where the roles were reversed.

I also liked the fact that they made some cool references to pop culture.  for instance you get a trophy or achievement when you kill these Necromorphs that resemble Velociraptors.  It is named after a quote from Jurassic Park.  I also like the fact that is filled some story plots to "what happened to this and that?"  It didn't leave you in the dark.

Bottom line, if you play video games, you  should play both these games.  Yes, they have anime movies that tells the story, but it doesn't even do the game justice.  I am personally excited to play Dead Space 3 when it releases in February, so I am sure I will talk about it in my blog in the future.