Cats

I own three cats. Two boys, who are just over 1 year old, and a little girl who is about 6 months. The boys have outgrown their annoying playful stage. The stage where you cannot move any part of your body or it will get pounced on and attacked. Especially when you are under the covers. The little girl, has not. It is always interesting not knowing when a small cat is going to appear out of nowhere and attack you. It is fun, cute and annoying all at the same time. Anyone who owns cats know how amusing they can be. Each one their own individual, unique character.

Take my cat Coltrane for instance. He's the middle one. He is absolutely hilarious, even though he has no idea he is. He has many quirks, like meowing loudly at you when you enter a room for no reason whatsoever. Or being terrified at any sudden (or not so sudden) movement you might make. But his most amusing trait is the fact that he has no idea how his claws function. You'd figure, as a cat, he'd be fully aware of what to do with his claws. Not Coltrane. He has yet to master the art of retracting his claws once he sinks them into something. It is quite amusing watching him stretch and sink his claws onto the side of our bed . . . then stay stuck there for a minute or two as he tries to walk away, or jump on the bed, but he cannot because his paws are stuck in the mattress. I can watch him all day.

I walked into the room one day and saw him by the window, one of his front paws stuck on the window frame above his head - in a pretty strange angle - and him just sitting there, his arm extended over his head because he couldn't get it out. I don't know how long the poor little guy had been in that position, but it appeared like he just gave up trying to get free and decided to just sit down and wait for assistance. I couldn't stop laughing.

Good old Coltrane. I think I might have some pictures of him "stuck" on our bed. If I find them I'll post them.

Howl-O-Scream

This past Saturday I went to Busch Gardens' Howl-O-Scream. Basically their version of Halloween Horror Nights, only not as popular. It was great. For those of you who have gone to Horror Nights countless times, I recommend you mix it up this year or next and go to Howl-O-Scream.

The negative out of my trip (and it is not really a negative) is that I want to go back to the park during the day to see the actual park, since at night you can't get a real feel for it nor experience its normal attractions. The roller-coasters were open, but I paid to experience the haunted houses, not the coasters.

I did ride Shriekra and Kumba and they were fantastic. Now I definitely want to go back and ride the rest of them, since the last time I went to Busch Gardens about 23 years ago, I was a) too young to ride them and b) I don't think they even had ½ of the coasters they have now.

Calm before the storm . . .

I had some free time last night (for the first time in about a week) and I was able to sit on my couch with my controller in hand and turn on my 360, knowing that I could play for a good couple of hours (instead of the 20 minute sessions I have been having lately).

So, what to play?

I am still waiting to play my Superbowl match-up against the Redskins in Madden. But I'm in a real Anti-EA mood lately and I don't even want to put the game in my 360.

I put in GRAW and gave it a go. I have a weird thing going on with GRAW right now. I'm obsessed with playing the co-op missions . . . by myself. Without dying. I have only passed one level like this. It is hard. And once I die, after playing stealthily for 20 minutes, I get frustrated and turn it off. Which is what happened last night.

I then played a little PGR3. I already beat it, getting all silver medals, and am now going back to all the previous races and attempting to get gold or platinum medals. This game is a lot of fun, but I have a problem with it. I do not like how you have to choose what medal you are going for before the race. Each medal has a certain goal you have to meet, so why not just have the event play itself out and then depending on your results, you might get a medal, like in Gran Turismo. By having to choose only one medal you are aiming for, if you over achieve in that particular race, it is for nothing, because you don't get rewarded for achieving the next medal's criteria. If you need to finish a lap within 1:10 for a silver and you finish the lap instead in :52 seconds, which lets say is good enough for a platinum, you are screwed. You are getting your silver medal and if you want the platinum you need to "say" you are going for the platinum and do the event again. This is a very cheap way of trying to add replay value to the game. I could have a bunch of gold and even platinum medals right now from my initial play through the game, but I don't because I decided to aim for silver for a lot of the races since I was new to the game. Annoying. It is especially annoying since you don't want to say you are aiming for platinum every time, since those are incredibly tough and with the game's constant load times, trying to finish one perfect lap can be extremely frustrating. I hope PGR4 changes this system.

After PGR3, I looked at my games and I didn't really feel like playing any of them. I've beaten them all, except for Oblivion. Man, I really have to get back into Oblivion. But . . . not feeling it right now.

I played some Doom, but I can only play it in short bursts, so, after 15 minutes I am done. I played a hand of Texas Hold 'Em. Done.

Man, I'm ready for a new game. I still have Loco Roco for the PSP, but I don't really play the PSP at home. Still have Syphon Filter for it as well.

Nope, I need a new game. And believe me, they are coming in November. What is the tally up to? Gears of War, Rainbow Six: Vegas, Guitar Hero II. Those are just my definite "must-haves". Then there are many intriguing alternates. Knowing me, I might just cave in between now and November 7th (GHII) and pick up Splinter Cell: Double Agent. Pretty good review from IGN. Haven't seen any others yet.

Movies

Last Friday I decided to go to the movies. I hadn't been to the theater since Superman Returns, so my girlfriend and I decided to catch The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning. We had enjoyed the previous one (to my surprise).

The movie was bad. Well, I should clarify. It is not so much that it was bad, as that it was the exact same movie as the previous one. Seriously. The same movie. This was supposed to be the origin story of Leatherface (or so I thought) . . . but it is not. It is practically a remake of the remake. A couple of teens are cruising through the wrong part of Texas at the wrong time, crazy Sherif gets involved, they get taken to the house, some chick with tight jeans is the only one that is not captured, a couple gruesome chainsaws kills, jeans-chick ends up at the slaughter house as good old Leatherface chases her down. Movie ends. Same movie. So unoriginal. So predictable.

I'll give it props for its "look" and for its pretty impressive gore. Can't wait to see the unrated director's cut. But on the whole, huge disappointment. We should have gone to see The Departed, I hear it is great.

But while I was in the movie theater, I realized something. I hate going to the movies. That is an odd thing for me to say, because I love film. And I used to love going to the movies. But nowadays, I'll take my couch, my HDTV, surround sound, and Netflix any day.

And I have nothing against the theaters themselves, just the stupid people that go to them. The movies have become a social gathering for friends to go to and hang out instead of watching the movie they just paid $10 to see. The constant talking, idiots screaming out remarks in a pathetic attempt to be funny and feel good about their miserable lives, the sticky floors, the kids crying (in an R rated movie no less), it all adds up to a truly frustrating experience on my end.

When I go to the movies, I go to, well, watch a movie. I get there a minimum of an hour early to get tickets and seats (earlier if it is a major release) and I like to sit down in my chair with plenty of time to spare and just relax. Which brings me to one of my many pet peeves. I purposely get there early because I am very particular about where I sit in the auditorium. I like optimum seating for maxim enjoyment. Do you think I like sitting down 45 minutes early, listening to that dreadful music and reading those boring, repetitive slides? No, I get there early so that I can choose the one seat in the place that I want to sit in for the next couple of hours and take in the movie. So, this past Friday, I am sitting in my seat (and had been for a good ½ hour), the movie is about to start and the auditorium is filling up quickly. Then I get the dreaded tap on the shoulder. "Hehehe, excuse me, but do you think you could move down two seats . . . it's that we have four in our group and since we like to get to the theater 2 minutes before the show is supposed to start, there are only two seats together here, but if you move down two seats we can all sit together."

Son of a . . . .

If there is one thing I hate, it is moving from my seat (which I came early for) because some dumbasses in a large group show up late and want to sit together. Oh, you want to sit together? Then get to the fucking theater ½ an hour earlier! If not, get used to sitting apart!

Sorry, I had to get that off my chest. Just one of the many, many . . . many reason, why I just can't stand going to the theater. And none of them have to do with the outrageous prices. I'll deal with the high costs (hey, these movies nowadays cost a pretty penny to make). No, all my reasons have to do with humanity's stupidities and my inability to deal with them. Man I hate people.

Ok, rant over. Don't go see The Texans Chains Massacre: The Beginning.

Stuff

- Another week, another crappy, pathetic performance by the Dolphins. After barely defeating the Titans (and really, we didn't beat that Titans, the Titans beat themselves) the Texans looked great against us. 17-15.

Man, we're really, really bad.

Our offensive line is abysmal. I'm not blaming Culpepper for the offense's lack of productivity, he is doing all he can to prevent getting absolutely killed back there. 21 sacks in four games. That is one bad offensive line. Really bad.

It seems like none of our players are stepping up and making key plays. Plays that will lift this team out of mediocrity. Wes Welker is our only shining light right now. Give that boy a raise.

- I'm really enjoying Doom. Once I got used to the mechanics again, the game has been a blast. Pure nostalgia. Don't know how much someone who never played the original will feel about the game though.

- A week ago my profile from Madden deleted itself. It just decided to reset to 0 and all my settings and sliders were erased. I was extremely pissed off, as I was pretty happy with the way the game was playing with my sliders (aside from the interception problem I was having, but it was getting better with constant tweaks).

So I've had to basically start from scratch, trying to find my slider settings again. It has been a real drag because I am about to play the Super Bowl in my franchise (Dolphins/Redskins) and I do not want to play it until I am certain I find the sliders I had before. Because of this, Madden has been put on hold.

- After reading the glowing review of NBA 2K7 on Operation Sports, seeing all of the positive forum posts, the extremely impressive gameplay vids at Gametrailers, as well as it getting a high recommendation from my buddy Sroz39, I caved in and purchased.

Now, anyone that knows me knows that basketball is not one of my preferred sports. I know very little about basketball and I only watch it when the Heat make the playoffs. And even then it is only on occasion. Yes, I'm one of those bandwagon fans. The last thing I expected myself to do was go out and actually purchase an NBA game.

Sure enough, I am enjoying the game. I do not know what I am doing half the time, but slowly but surely it is starting to sink in. I played a match online with one of my friends and the game played flawlessly. More evidence that EA just doesn't know what the hell they are doing when it comes to online play.

I have yet to start an "Association" yet, 2K's version of a franchise. I have spent most of my time practicing in the practice mode and playing the game's 24/7 mode, in which you create a player and take him up the ranks of street courts to earn enough rep to play with big NBA stars. It is a cool mode in concept, but it is extremely flawed, shallow and poorly executed.

You have to sit through countless cinmatics of your two chump friends giving you advise, encouragement, or ridicule after every match you play. These terrible scenes cannot be skipped (why, I have no idea) and they repeat themselves way too often. Once you create you character (which was pretty fun, with lots of customizable options for appearance), you do not have a way to go back and edit his appearance or accessories. I do not want to change my facial features, but letting me edit the equipment I am wearing, getting a new tattoo or even changing my hair style would have been great. You also cannot see any of your player's attributes, you don't really "improve" or advance other than learning a few new moves from some top players every now and then, and you cannot even see any of your career stats. Again, like I said, the mode comes off as very shallow and half-assed. There is lots of potential here for a different type of Career/Create-a-player mode, but it felt like this mode got very little attention. The cinematics for example look right of the Xbox version, and look terrible. This mode has a very EA feel to it. Meaning, great ideal, terrible execution.

But, the biggest problem I have with this mode is that for some inexcusable reason you cannot change the camera angle when you are playing the game. I do not like the default camera, but you are stuck using it in this mode. Again, why they left that option out is beyond me. With this mode's many faults, I am surprised that it is where I have spent the bulk of my time, and I have played maybe only 4 or 5 actual games in Quick Game mode. I think it is because it at least is a decent mode to get used to the controls with some opposition, since practice mode only features your offense on the court.

Graphically the game is extremely polished. The presentation while playing a game is top-notch, with great replays and decent commentary. The game's animation is fantastic, with extremely fluid and realistic movements. Practically all NBA players have their signature shooting animations, which is a fantastic feature, but probably wasted on me since I wouldn't know what ½ of these players shoot like in real life. If they can do this for100+ players, I see no reason why Madden shouldn't be implementing actual QB animations for every single starting QB in 2008. Yeah right, I should hold my breath.

Anyway, the game is fun and at least has given me some interest in b-ball, to the point where I might actually watch a few regular season Heat games this year. And I'm sure I'll begin to appreciate the game even more as I pick up more of the sports' nuances.

- I also am still playing PGR3. This game is a blast. My new obsession is buying cars to fill up my garages. The game's "garage" system is absolutely fantastic. So much so that I wish every single racing game would copy it. You get a virtual garage that you can walk through and see your cars. I should say, you get virtual garages, since as you fill them up, you open up bigger ones. Few games can show off the 360's power better than a walk through one of your virtual garages. They look absolutely fantastic. The lighting, motion blur, water effects (yes, there is water), are stunning. And the car models are absolutely pristine!!! I could spend 20 minutes just walking around each of my garages, admiring my beautiful, expensive cars, and snapping pictures of them.

Oh, and the racing portion of the game is very, very good as well. :P

- I've had my ups and downs with Gears of War. Sometimes I can't wait for it to come out, the next minute I am convinced it will be nothing more than a tech demo for the Unreal III engine and the game will be extremely shallow. Right now I am at my "can't wait for it to come out" mood after watching several high-quality gameplay videos from X06. The game is looking very impressive indeed and I just cannot wait to see what it looks like on my HDTV running at 720p.

I have my fingers crossed for this one (I already have it pre-ordered, so it better be good)