Just a quick question about the WoW trading card game.
Hey guys, I just recently picked up my first few boosters of the WoW TCG and I gotta admit, I am a bit over my head. I wanted to know how many of you played and what was a good ratio to use as far as the different card types. Any input would be much appreciated! =D

(Off to watch Epic Movie and see just how worthwhile it is!)

Finish What You Start...

Just a little question from the Monkey about Real time strategies.

I've been looking over all of my RTS games and I was trying to come up with the best ones. I couldn't get it narrowed down so I wanted to know, what do you guys think the best RTS games are?

Finish What You Start...

I have been hitting the job market in my new location and I just so happen to make a little boo boo on an application.

I was in a video game store and I decided to fill out the application while I was talking with the guys that worked there. We were talking about the new WoW expansion and I might have applied for the wrong position.

Yes! Coming to a store near you, the Customer Service Paladin! Not only will he aide in all your buying needs but he will also smite the wicked! (Nominal Fee required for any smiting done in or around the workplace.)

Finish What You Start...

I got a chance to sit down with a shiny new PS3 and play some Madden 07 recently. I have always been a big Madden fan, I still have a copy of the first one I ever bought for Genesis back in 1993. I had high expectations for this one since it was on a system that dwarfed the previous systems I had played the Madden series on, but I was sorely disappointed.

What I found was a very sloppy game. It had a menu that in an attempt to be slick and stylish was not very user friendly. The replays and videos of your team entering and getting ready for a play were incredibly choppy, usually unable to go a second without it freezing up for a little bit. It had lost the franchise mode I had come to love and instead focused mainly on Superstar mode, which was a big disappointment.

The concept of Superstar mode itself was not bad. It's a cool to control yourself on a team and fight towards greatness. The problem with this is that there is oftentimes not much to do. I don't enjoy sitting down to a game with a controller in my hand and just watching. Since you could only control your player, that's all you really did. As a quarterback I was able to get some control but as a cornerback I lost interest very quickly. I had no control over the offense and on defense I ended up covering sides of the field that the opposing team never passed to anyway. To make this mode more frustrating, the UI was awful. Every time my QB handed off the ball to the running back he would run right into a mob of the opponent. In every game I played via superstar mode my RB only once got a gain of above three yards. It wasn't because I had a bad team either, last time I checked Tiki Barber was pretty good at running.

They tried to showcase the better look and playability of the system but that also fell short. Not only did they have choppy videos but they used terrible camera angles to show off the field. They continually used a shot that was from the entrance into the mid level seating down onto the field. The problem with this view was that it showcased how bad the audience was. I counted only three models in the entire stadium, and from that terrible camera view you could see how flat their were as well as mysterious floating pixels.

I still have hopes for the game, though not on this system. Perhaps the X-box 360 will be able to handle the graphics better or maybe the Wii innovative controller will make it as fun to play as Wii bowling. Perhaps EA having exclusives on the NFL means the end of some great games however....

Finish What You Start...

Monkey Doo here to lay down a few words on the latest South Park episode. Some of life's greatest questions will be answered within these paragraphs. Things you have always wondered like "When will it be ok to make fun of Steve Irwin?", "Do the underdog teams always triumph in those sports movies?" and "How do I get the rash to go away?" All this and more within this exciting review of South Park! (spoilers within)

This is episode 1014 of South Park and I have to admit, it is one of my favorites. Stan loses his bike and his job. Not knowing what to do he is directed to County Hall to talk to the person in charge of his impounded bike. This man is my favorite South Park character I have ever seen. He likes to pull out a record player and voice movie trailers on the spot. What's more, he has the uncanny ability to pop up just about anywhere. :) This hilarious man informs Stan that the only thing he can do to get some cash is to couch the local Pee Wee Hockey team.

The children are absolutely hilarious. Stan goes through the list, giving each of them positions to play until he gets to the goalie. This kid cracks me up too much. He says, "Coach my doctor says I am not allowed to play goalie. ...Because I have cancer." The whole group freaks out thinking that if they play on the team with him they will get cancer too. XD

The big game is approaching and the kid with cancer is placed in the hospital. His only wish is that the pee wee team can win the game. So Stan makes him that promise. The only problem is that both teams really really suck, so no one scores. It just so happens that the cancer kids fate was tied with the game, so now life and death are tied within him.

The team has another chance to save him during one of the breaks of an Avalanche vs. Redwings game. During a meeting the team answers the oh most sacred question of if it is time to make fun of Steve Irwin or not. While talking about the game one of them says "We're going down like Steve Irwin in a pool full of Manta Rays.

They show up and get a pep talk about how they can't lose because the underdog in sports films always rises to triumph. The only problem is that the other team doesn't show up. The Avalanche, being the nice team that they are, let's the pee wee's play during the third quarter of the their game. The Redwings trounce the hell out of them. One of them actually picks up a kid and begins punching him in the face. Needless to say, the pee wee's lose. The final scene is the cancer kid laying in his bed saying "No hope.... No hope...." before dying.

Funniest quote of the episode:Coach, can we please win so that my daddy won't beat me tonight?"
[I'll edit this later with some pics for ya guys. :)]

Finish What You Start...

I have not been around very much lately, I got a little wrapped up in my schooling. I recently had a revelation though, one that would set my path straight. Why am I wasting my time on all this education and things like that when I could be out playing video games? It was this startling realization that brought me here tonight to give you a little taste of a game I like to think of as one of the best RTS' ever made, Rise of Legends.

The premise of Rise of Legends is pretty simple. Long ago a spacecraft broke into three pieces (and I think I saw a fourth >.>) and crashed upon some planet. These three parts (and maybe a fourth >.>) developed into three distinct and equally bad ass nations, the Vinci, the Alin, and the Cuotl. Each of whom have really cool Master Units that you can only have one of. The game is similar in structure to most RTS' except for a few things. You are given a city, much like other games, and you build upon this city. Say you want to have a higher troop capacity, build a military district. If you cap out on how much resources you are gathering, build a merchant district. Each of the three races also has a unique district that only they can build. As you get more districts you can build palace districts to upgrade the cities size. You can go from normal city, to Large, to Great. Each time you go up you get sweeter upgrades.

The first of these cool nations is called the Vinci. They are basically Spanish Conquistadors meets steam technology. They have cool units like Gyrocopters, Clockwork men, and even a Juggernaut tank. They improve their technology by building industrial districts in their cities. These guys are my favorite so far. There is something so cool about leading an army of clumsy robot men and spiders that look like miniature versions of the one from Wild Wild West. You can also build research centers as these guys, which you can upgrade to do all sorts of nifty things. Their Master Unit is called the Land Leviathan. It basically is the huge thing from Wild Wild West. Alas, I have yet to figure out how to get this unit, if any of you can get it, send the info my way.

The next group on the list is the Alin. The Alin are almost straight out of Arabian Nights. They are a magic using desert people. These guys have some pretty crazy units, everything from giants made out of glass to soldiers that can hide in the sand and spring out for an ambush. The Alin use magic and creatures related to three things, Sand, Fire, and Glass. Glass units can be upgraded to Dark Glass, which do some really wicked things. Their special unit is the Magus District, which gives them research points and buffs their hero’s magic beefiness. The Master Unit for these guys is probable the coolest in my opinion, a huge glass dragon.

Finally the last army is the mysterious Cuotl. They are by far the oddest of the lot. Basically they still use much of the technology that was available to them when the space ship crashed, and they worship Gods…. Gods that you can actually get on the battlefield to fight for you. They use a lot of units that remind me of the Power Rangers. I feel the urge to call out beasts and then have them morph into wicked robots. Alas, this is not their Master Unit, though they do have a really cool one. It’s a big floating building called the City of Vengeance. This guys absolutely tears things apart, and he can store troops too! Instead of wealth, the Cuotl gather energy. This means their Merchant District as been replaced with a Reactor District. They also get a Holy District, which allows them to expand their land and it rewards them a free unit.

Rise of Legends is well worth the money I spent on it. I find myself losing hours upon hours playing this game. Not only is it pretty to look at, but it is the most inventive RTS I have ever played. I would recommend this for any fan of the game type, and I think it would be a worthy play for someone who is looking to get into RTS for the first time. Now I shall go and waste more time upon it!

Finish What You Start...

This summer seems to have been a bust for movies. There have been a few movies out that grabbed my attention, but even they were weak. With the summer over, I hoped to throw my chips in on The Covenant and find some sort of gem.

It was a few days ago that I saw this movie. I can honestly say that taking the 15 bucks it cost to see the flick and going and waving it in front of blind homeless people would have been much more entertaining and satisfying. The Covenant is easily one of the most boring movies I have ever seen. It is not that the movie is the worst thing since Retail, it just completely lacked what I had expected it to have.

When I sat down I was waiting for an action packed film similiar to Underworld, but there was almost none of that. It seemed like it was meant to be a plot based movie, but there was not much meat to the plot so they stretched it out as long as they could. To hide this they implemented the use of scare tactics/the gross out factor. If I hadn't gone to see the movie with someone, I would have slept through the whole thing.

I am interested in the opinions of the sorry fools who have already seen this movie. Is it just me that finds this in the movie? Has my hope that Hollywood will produce tons of high quality movies with good plot blinded me? Give me a reply or hit me up on aim at monkeydooinc.

Finish What You Start...

I found an old old gem from the tv medium. Oh the happy memories!

Ah the Superbowl, the electricity, the humiliation of the other team, the commercials. The commercials were my favorite part of the Superbowl long ago, seeing as one team was always obliterated. I recently found a chain of Super Bowl commercials linked together that I loved so much I just had to share it. Drink and be Merry!

Finish What You Start...

I wanted to get everyone's opinion on who the best video game villian who ever was.

In my opinion the best villian in existance is Arthas from Warcraft 3. He is absolutely sick in my opinion. I can not think of a game which shows the descent into darkness better, nor one that has cooler videos. The scene in which he returns to Lorderan after all that happened (not gonna spoil this shit cause you all should check out the game, if even just to see the bad ass that is Arthas) is the coolest damn thing I have ever seen in a game. Though I have to admit Archimonde from the same game is pretty bad ass, too. Man, you'd think by the way I talk that I worship the ground that Blizzard walks on. But that is absolutly ridiculous. ...I am gonna go play some more World of Warcraft.

Finish What You Start...

Sorry I haven't been posting, it's been a crazy past couple of weeks. But I'm back from Vegas and my house has internet so now I'll be back here writing mildly entertaining works that you only read so you can get candy. I feel like such a tool....

So part of what I saw in Vegas was the Star Trek: the Experience in the Hilton Hotel and Casino. I was a week short of going to the Star Trek convention but fear not, I grabbed a really interesting sounding tidbit. Apparently there is a Star Trek MMO in the works. Now this isn't gonna be your run of the mill WoW style "I am gonna hit 2 buttons and level to 60" MMO. This baby is hard freaking core. Say you chose to be an engineer, there is a HUGE interface in which you actually have to sit there and fix an engine problem by moving around a system of vents and some other stuff. According to what I have read you will not only have a crew of live people for your ship, but you will be able to take them onto land for expeditions.

There isn't too much info at this point but you can see everything they have available at here (NinJa, I can't get the stupid thing to work as a link... Fix it!! lol )

all fixed says the NinJa *poof*

Finish What You Start...