Mario G's Precious Little Blog Post

Have you ever heard of Scott Pilgrim? Because it's freaking awesome. I've been meaning to write about this for the longest time now but I just didn't do it. Not even when the opportunity was there to talk about a new trailer. Which there have been 3 of! Oh well, I'm writing about it now.

Scott Pilgrim is a series of graphic novels about this guy Scott Pilgrim. He's 23 and in a band. Then he meets this chick Ramona and he has to defeat her seven evil exes. I know, you're already captivated. So then he fights them and there's character development and drama and it's filled to the brim with geeky humor. It's sweet as hell. I first heard of it when I told a friend of mine that I was trying to get into reading comics. So he recommended Scott Pilgrim and Y: The Last Man, I think. With Christmas right around the corner I gave my mom the book names and told her to buy off Amazon because it was so much cheaper. Incidentally, she buys off Amazon every year. Who knew?

I was about to read the books knowing very little of what it was like. I didn't ask anybody for any impressions and there still hadn't been any film trailers. I was going in with the mindset that there was a probability of me not liking it. Then I actually read the books. Holy crap. I fell in love instantly and read all 5 books back-to-back. They lasted me about 4 days because I was trying to savor them as I knew I'd be sad when I was finished. I was right. I finished them and a new chapter in my life had begun. As soon as I got out of winter break I told all of my friends about these incredibly funny and stylish romance/action books. Most of them would come to love it too.

Then the first film trailer was released. What a day that was. Like the books, the film is overflowing with wit and personality. It is a perfect comic-book to film transition. Maintaining the exaggerated fighting and even the flashes of text appearing mid-air for every woosh, bonk, and boom! A few weeks after that the title, cover and street date for the 6th and final book were revealed. Scott Pilgrim's Finest Hour being released July 20th was my new reason to live. With the film coming out August 13th, this was quickly becoming my summer of Pilgrim.

Hey, there's even a videogame coming out! I'm looking forward to filling in Scott's shoes and bashing in Gideon's face with 3 of my SP fan friends! The trifecta of geekiness is complete and this series has every part of it nailed down to perfection.

Scott Pilgrim is my hero and it will stay that way for the rest of my life. Or at least until something better comes along.

Authors Note: I don't understand video embeds I'm sorry!

Edit: Fixed it. Embeds now fit the page.

*sniff* That was awesome.

I saw Toy Story 3 on Saturday. Everyones tweets and facebook statuses were about how the movie was an emotion train-wreck and pretty much everyone cried. Knowing this, I thought to myself: Man, people were probably just sad because it's over and everyone got nostalgic and junk. Pssh, I'll be fine.

Nope.

I cried. I would've cried a lot more if I didn't hold it back. I always do. There's only one film I've ever seen where I was fucking having a fit. I still think it's because I was expecting a comedy but halfway through turns into the most heartfelt drama I never saw coming. Whatever, that's a different story.

So yeah, Toy Story 3 is really dark and emotional. I was laughing, I was wtf'ing and I was crying. It was a great movie. But do we really ever expect any different from Pixar? No. We don't.

It's Like I Was A Real Wizard!

Last Friday I went to the public opening for The Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Islands of Adventure. It was awesome. Except for all the lines. There was a lot of waiting. Like, 3 hours of it. And that is considering the fact that I skipped a shitload of people in the line inside of the park after the line to get into the park to get into the Harry Potter part of the park. I may have single-handedly been the person to skip the most people that day. Maybe in the history of the world. Maybe.

But oh man, when we got inside. It was incredible. The snow-covered rooftops of Hogsmeade hung over my heads and blocked out any sights from the rest of the park. It was jaw-dropping. They had the Hogwarts Express popping out of a tunnel and billowing smoke. I was so excited, I had to start doing stuff!

First, I went inside of Zonkos and Honeydukes which is to your immediate left when you enter the area. It was pretty cool, the decorations were awesome but nothing really caught my eye in that I had to stop everything to buy it. So we left. Then we saw the new entrance to what used to be Dueling Dragons, now called Dragon Challenge. The line was only a 5 minute wait, so we sprung at the opportunity. The ride was exactly the same but holy crap the stuff in the line leading up to the ride. Support Potter signs galore! The Goblet of Fire, the Triwizard cup, those egg things you have to, listen to underwater! Even the resting quarters for the Triwizard champion before their big event! I was in heaven. The ride was as awesome as always. When we got out we knew we had to do all the rides immediately.

Then there it was, hanging over the park, it was Hogwarts. We ran to the entrance and started making the line. It was about an hour but it seemed like nothing. We were inside Hogwarts! Moving staircases! Talking portraits! Dumbledores office! And the ride! Oh man, the ride... It is now and will forever be my favorite ride ever. Pretty much you're flying around the school with Harry and getting into wacky adventures. I don't want to give anything away, but the ride was scary as shit. I had so much fun the entire way through. It mixes real sets with animatronics and then moves onto huge screens to simulate flying. It was simply incredible.

Then we made an hour and a half wait to get into Ollivanders where the wand chooses you! Some lucky chick was the one chosen to have the store-keep choose her wand personally. Everyone else went into the next room and told them their birthday and was given a wand. Mine has a skull on it! The store with all the wands in it was the Owl Post. That store is directly connected to Dervish and Banges which is stuffed with clothes. I bought a tie, Gryffindor robes and a quibbler. Ran me quite a pretty penny. We couldn't wait after that. We had to eat. So off the Three Broomsticks we were! I had a huge turkey leg. I felt manly. After that we went home. I was tired from not sleeping for over 24 hours. I did miss out on the chance, however, to buy the marauders map. Ah well, next time.

As we left, Hedwig's theme danced over our heads and I felt so complete. It was the most magical experience I've had in a while.

P.S. The Butterbeer was good.

No iPhone 4 Me

So, Apples and AT&T's servers went to total shit as soon as iPhone 4 pre-orders went up. No surprise there. I just kept trying to put in my info, always ending in an error message. No biggie. I'll wait for it to tide over a bit.

Later on in the afternoon, still wouldn't work. Ok umm, I'm getting a little anxious here.

Even later on, iPhone 4 pre-orders are over and done with... n-no more iPhones?

This can't be happening! But it totally is happening! WHYYYYYYYYYYYYY?!

I'm not the only one. People all over the country have been getting screwed. Even people that went into stores had to wait for everything to processed by pen and paper. What is this shit? However, 600,000 lucky assholes are gonna get their grubby little fingers on what is rightfully mine! First, I was out of the friggin state for iPad and now they drop this bullshit one me?! I'm pissed, guys.

Then I saw a video of a guy with no arms or legs and he was happy. I have all my limbs. I should be happy too. Right? Right?

Also, I'm leaving for the Wizarding World of Harry Potter in about half an hour. Yipee! Life is good but it also sucks on a very small level.

E3: Day 2- Well. that was weird...

Certainly not as weird as Ubisoft's conference.

Let's get this out of the way. I know this is really late and I shouldn't make excuses but really, not much happened. But I just couldn't very well live with myself if I didn't see this through. Konami was the final conference. It was on Tuesday at 9 p.m. but the news got out the next day (see, I'm not that late!). I don't really get it.

Anyway, lemme break it down for ya.

There was dancing. Japanese men who can't speak english well. Dancing that is somehow more than just dancing. An extreeeeeeeeme sequel to Ninety Nine Nights with an engine that holds ONE MIRRION TWOOPS who apparently will suck you.

A new Silent Hill coming to consoles next year. Fingers crossed!

Oh, and this new 3rd person shooter called NeverDead. Your limbs fall off but you can just put 'em on again! No worries!

They also played the same trailer we already saw from the MS conference and Kojima wasn't even there.

I'm sorry this is disappointing. Here, have a picture of Miyamoto eyeballing the competition.


Well, that's it for E3. Everything else is showfloor stuff. Anything worthy of mention has already been seen. But if something really catches my attention. I'll go into more deets about it.

I hope you guys enjoyed reading this as little as I enjoyed writing it. We're all growing together here. Let's make the best of it.

E3: Day 2- Move Along, Microsoft

Sony's conference had some huge ups and downs. Seriously, it started off kinda slow, picked up and then just dragged itself to boring crap and then holy god nobody can stop them this is incredible!

I'm pretty sure everyone shit when they saw this.

PORTAL 2 FOR PS3! Not only has Gabe Newell trash-talked the PS3 so hard in the past to make this moment so savory for all the PS fanboys but he also said that it will be the best way to play Portal 2 on any console! That is some serious shit. The PS3 is also getting integrated Steam community features. The first for any console.

We also got to see the second half of the Dead Space 2 demoing. It was more focused on large-scale cinematic fights. Pretty sweet. Can't wait to see more from this game.

For a moment I thought they weren't gonna show it but right towards they end we got a new trailer for Infamous 2. Cole is looking pretty snazzy with his new haircut. Apparently, he has some new powers now. Glass? Ice? Only time will tell. From the looks of it there are going to be some huge battles this time around.

There was a new Twisted Metal demoed. Looks crazy.

Sony announced what some saw for a long time coming. There is a new premium online service on the way. It will feature early demoes and game trails. Exclusive themes, videos and more. It lands at $50 a year or $18 for 3 months. I know I'm gonna get it.

Sony definitely played the 3D card very strongly. Makes me want to get a huge 3D tv for my room now. I personally love 3D so this is great for me, but I know a lot of people hate it. All this push forward for 3D technologies must really getting some nerves.

We saw some new stuff for Move. There was this cool game called Sorcery where you take control of a young wizad and cast spells as you run around dungeons. The tracking was really impressive. Both the Move and Kinect are impressive forms of technology. And Dead Space: Extraction is confirmed to come with the Dead Space 2 Limited Edition packaging. It will work with Move and is exclusive to PS3. So no Kinect support. Buttons are probably the reason.

And then there was the PlayStation Move. Now let me tell you why the Move is better than Kinect. Microsoft is apparently riding their entire industry on this one device and is just gonna blow off what the majority of their base cares about. They have spent years building themselves up to be the ultimate platform for hardcore fans of shooter games and detailing all their online service to just give it up and make the sudden transition to wanting to be the new Nintendo. The new family console. At this point, that's probably not gonna go down. Sony made the Move with the idea of integrating it into their already existing devices and games. They have crafted original ideas, games and concepts made for the Move and have played them out favorably as well as bringing functionality back to some already released software. This increases the possible success rate for Move because there is an audience that will find practicality in it. Microsofts audience will either not be interested in something that strays away from games heavy in online competition or will already own Wiis. Microsoft just did not change anything enough for people to leave their Wii's to buy something that costs almost as much as the system and they might not even own a 360. They blatantly ripped off all the gimmicks they possibly could. And it's not like the Kintec doesn't have possibility! It has amazing tracking and voice recognition. I'm not saying the Move is an original concept either. It obviously isn't. One look at it and a Wii remote comes to mind. But they are trying to make it their own and prepare it for a new pillar of gaming in the companies future.

We did also get some mention of KH: Birth by Sleep, Patapon 3 (still gotta play 2) and a new God of War: Ghost of Sparta trailer. There's some cool stuff coming out for PSP.

We had a nice surprise appearance by Kevin Butler who made an epic speech. He spoke of how in the end it doesn't matter what you play. We all serve one god: Gaming.

Good show. Despite the slow parts with all of Sonys montages, we had some big shockers and fun reveals. Sony definitely lands 2nd in my E3 contest for now.

E3: Day 2- NINTENDO, YOU WON!

Dear lord, where to start! Nintendo has totally killed E3 so far. They opened up with the new Zelda titled The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword. The gameplay that was shown was a little unflattering, mostly due to some wireless communication issues. Think back to when the iPhone 4 wasn't loading. Yeah, it was awkward. One of the things I did notice was a much more streamlined pull-out and use of items and I was really digging the art style. It's like a cross between Twilight Princess and Wind Waker. As predicted, it also uses Wii Motion-Plus for 1:1 tracking which plays heavily into the sword, shield and other items like the crossbow and whip. More cartoonish than TP but not going as far as WW for a perfect blend of fun-to-look-at landscapes. Anyway, it's a new Zelda and I am excited.

Nintendo proceeded to get the casual junk out of the way right quick. They unveiled Wii Party-- a collection of mini-games a la Mario Party-- and Just Dance 2. Not much to say there. Oh and more Mario sports games. Looks like fun if you're into that sort of thing.

Fortunately, the rest of the show was Nintendo just unveiling awesome games. On the Wii side of things, we get a new Donkey Kong game which is going back to it's roots. Donkey Kong Country Returns. Sure, the title is iffy but damn does it look fun. Hopefully the inclusion of Diddy Kong means two player madness.

They also showed off a new Kirby game for the Wii. Kirby: Epic Yarn-- again, weird title-- is this an incredibly stylistic 2.5-D side-scroller. It's like when they first released Paper Mario on the N64. It takes advantage of string elements and warps the environments around it. Really neat stuff, you gotta see it yourself.

We finally got to see some gameplay for Epic Mickey. I was glad to find out that it is a platformer and has some side-scrolling portions too. One of the major game mechanics is being able to destroy and recreate the world around you by using pain and thinner. This plays into what is apparently the usual be the good or bad guy morality system. I hope they're not riding too heavily on that.

And finally with a release date to go with it, Metroid: Other M is coming August 31st. I've been really excited for this game and this new gameplay trailer just pushed me to the edge. It is such a sweet mix of retro style Metroid exploration elements and newer next-gen shooters and platformers. Looking forward to that.

That is an awesome line-up! I thought they were almost done but then they dropped the bomb and revealed the new 3DS! Complete with a widescreen up-top and a touch pad down be low. With the top screen featuring full-on 3D without the need of glasses. I have been really skeptical of how great 3D could be but the reaction from people who have seen it for themselves sound amazed. Also, it has an analog stick! Woot! It has a had a huge graphic overhaul falling short of what the Gamecube was possible of. Maybe even on par with-it on some instances.

Just as impressive as the system was the games being released for it. I seriously freaking lost it when Nintendo announced a new Kid Icarus game for the 3DS! I'm not sure what to gather from it except that it has so much packed into it for a portable game and looks like buckets of joy. Not to mention, Nintendo has deals with several popular developers to release new games on the 3DS including Metal Gear Solid, Professor Layton, Resident Evil and KINGDOM HEARTS! Holy crap! Such great franchises and it's going to be in this tantalizing 3D and THE GRAPHICS ARE SO GOOD NOW! It totally changes on what I can expect from a DS game. It's such a widened field for bigger and better games.

The show finished off with a goofy little video of how immersive the 3DS is by showing, Satoru Iwata and Shigeru Miyamoto getting sucked into the games and then Reggie got his face burnt off by Bowser. It was awesome and hilarious. It also effectively revealed that they have Mario, DK and Zelda games in the works for the 3DS. Also, Nintendo has contracts with certain movie publishers to display full 3D films on the new system.

I will never doubt Nintendo again. They're listening to their fans. Even right now...