WOWOWOW

Some thoughts..

Radiohead, wow. Thom is a god. Greenwood a genius. Stage was filled with lots of  shards that projected various colors of the rainbow, while several small video images of the band performing played in the background. They played for exactly 2 hours. I, like most folks, did not want it to end.

setlist
01 All I Need - We start a little slow, a theme throughout the night.

02 bodysnatchers - a fun track.

03 there there - Wasn't all that excited to hear this, but Greenwood made it all better.

04 reckoner - What can I say, Thom hit all the right notes.

05 the gloaming - Thom started dancing like a mad man, this was better live then I remembered from the HTTT tour.

06 morning bell - MORNING BELL, MORNING BELL.

07 nude - Easily the biggest surprise, Thom absolutely nailed this song. His voice crystal clear put the audience in a trance. One of the best songs of the show.

08 how to disappear completely - ABSOLUTELY BEAUTIFUL

09 15 step (very, very subdued. I was actually a little disappointed. Was expecting this to be a real rocker. Still double drums is always fun.

10 arpeggi - My favorite song on IR, was gimped when Johnny's Guitar stopped working. Thankfully, they stopped and replayed the end of the song to compensate.

11 idioteque - time to dance, just like all the KID A stuff, this is great Live music.

12 bulletproof - WOW!!!!!!, thank you so much for playing this instead of Fake Plastic Trees.

13 where I end and you begin - Another moment where my heart swelled.

14 airbag - You got to love anything off of OK Computer.

15 everything in its right place - Time to dance again, this track was lots of fun. Handclaps all around.

16 the national anthem - keeping with the upbeat, Thom really blew up the crowd here.

17 videotape - knew they would initially close with this. The song is still a little too simple, but sounded much more layered LIVE, then on record.

encore

18 optimistic - They're Back!!! with Optimistic? Kind of a buzz kill, but still a great rendition.

19 just - FKKING AMAZING!!!!!!

20 Faust Arp - Thom and John playing acoustic together, similar to the "sunrise" video from the WebCast. Brilliant.

21 exit music - THANK YOU VERY MUCH. Thom hit this one out of the park, full of emotion and sincerity..

22 bangers and mash - Thom beats those drums, and still sings like an angel

encore 2
23 house of cards - A bit mid tempo, but the crowd seemed really into it. Lots of folks love this song, probably a little more then I do.

24 street spirit - one of the best songs on the Bends, is still one of the best closers of all time.

10/10

After Thoughts?
Hate me, but I wanted Paranoid Android.
No Jigsaw?
T-shirts were Super Ugly. Basically lots of faded lyrics in giant multi-colored letters (In Rainbows Font).

58% The Forbidden Kingdom - Jackie Chan and Jet Li in a movie together? Brilliant, if this would been filmed about 10-15 years ago.

11% 88 Minutes - Not sure what happened here, but it looks like critics hate the new Al Pacino movie. Wait..there is a new Al Pacino movie?

What a lousy year for movies so far, I dont think even Iron Man or Indy can save 2008 at this point.

Hi..

 WTF?

Mortal Kombat 8 will have some sort of DC crossover. Why? It's also rumored that the only thing that made the MK series popular, (blood) will be removed. So sorry Marvel fanboys, you won't be able to rip out Batman's spleen and feed it to him. This call for one more WTF?.

Xmas in March:

Despite being March, Nintendo is selling consoles like it's Christmas. The console is still sold out everywhere, and people are buying their games. Lots of them. With the always popular Mario Kart franchise releasing this month, and the possible Goliath known as WiiFit launching in May will they ever be stopped? Let's hope they use this money to fix the awful online experience known as Super Smash Bros. Brawl

01. Nintendo Wii - 721,000
02. Nintendo DS - 698,000
03. PlayStation Portable - 297,000
04. Xbox 360 - 262,000
05. PlayStation 3 - 257,000
06. PlayStation 2 - 216,000

01. Super Smash Bros. Brawl (Wii) - 2,700,000
02. Rainbow Six Vegas (360) - 752,300
03. Army of Two (360) - 606,100
04. Wii Play/w Remote (Wii) - 409,800
05. God Of War: Chains Of Olympus (PSP) - 340,500
06. Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII (PSP) - 301,600
07. Guitar Hero III (Wii) - 264,100
08. MLB2K8 (360) - 237,100
09. Call Of Duty 4 (360) - 237,000
10. Army Of Two (PS3) - 224,900

Ricky Gervais in Grand Theft Auto 4 as himself

So, it looks like the original Office boss will be making an appearance in the new Grand Theft Auto game. Actually playing as himself. I'm pretty surprised considering the average 15 year old who will play it has no idea who he is. Dane Cook not available?

If you’ve already played God of War or GOW II, you can stop reading this review now, since Conan is simply a mediocre rip-off of the God Of War series that’s probably not worth your time (unless you’re utterly obsessed with seeing digital boobies, which Conan has in spades).  If you missed the God of War boat, Conan is a solid if unspectacular beat-em up game.

The story behind Conan is shallow: Conan kills lots of people in order to get his   armor back piece by piece.  Along the way, he saves a bunch of topless girls randomly chained to rocks who immediately offer you sex in exchange for saving them.  Unlike God of War, you can’t make good on their offer, nor can you kill them.  They just bend over and grab their ankles, shake their boob and stand there as Conan chops of hundred of limbs in spectacular fashion. 

The fighting system in Conan is one of its strongest suits.  There are tons of different combos for you to learn and use, and three different types of weapons which each have their own moves, one handed weapons, dual wielded weapons and two handed weapons.  In order to learn new moves, you just have to slaughter enemies and gather colored orbs.  You can spend these orbs to buy new combos, and using them produces even more orbs to help build up your arsenal of combos.  There is also a magic system which is underutilized (only 4 magic moves) and doesn’t add much to the game.

The boss fights are another strong suit of the game.  Most bosses are enormous and put up quite a fight.  Unfortunately, the overused “Press a button at the right time” events end each boss fight, but it doesn’t detract too much from the fights.  I really wish developers would figure out a new way to finish boss fights off, but creativity isn’t a strong-suit of this game as it is.

Overall, Conan is strictly for people who either haven’t played God of War or are desperate for a God of War/Heavenly Sword type beat-em up game.  Or people who really love digital boobies.

Oh and I’m going to take a page from 1up and move away from the number rating system and instead give letter grades.  For some reason 5.0/10 is so often seen as god awful instead of middle of the road.

Mahalo,

Duke 

- Sauer

PS - If you're wondering what's on it, well that's a surprise, but my Top 25 should give you a few hints.

Lots of announcements this week thanks to GDC. Let's get them out of the way.

Gears of War 2 announced, surprises no one.

What a bummer, I think it's time for Microsoft to drop that stupid download cap, and let developers free. Screw those folks without a hardrive, they are stupid, stupid people and don't deserve the yummy games.

Mariokart, WiiFit, and Wiiware this spring. The rest of the year? Dusty Wii's.

Portal 2 announced: There is a god, and he wants cake.

HD-DVD Vs Blu-Ray officially over. Hooray, now who wants to re-buy their entire DVD collection?

Smash Brothers Brawl sells more then WiiFit in Japan. Gaming not dead afterall?

 thanks pitchfork.

Ughh. and I thought last week was bad...so bad I didn't even post about it. Well no teen idols or cheap Japanese horror remakes this week. Just plain old boring crap.

57% Wild West Comedy Show:... - So, let me get this straight. This is a stand up movie about Vince Vaughn?. No clue he was actually supposed to be funny, I always assumed it was just decent screenwriters. Good for him I guess, but who would really pay to see this? Not those morons that paid to see Meet the Spartans, that's for sure.

35% Welcome Home Roscoe Jenkins - A homecoming movie starring Martin Lawrence. I'm sure there will be some zany stereotypes in this house!

07% Fool's Gold - Uh, so..um.. well.. hmm.. oh forget it. This is just doomed to be awful. When a film preview makes you want to see the movie less, you know you're in trouble. It might have been a good idea to just show a black screen with the words "Romantic Comedy with Action and Adventure!" At least then I wouldn't have to watch Kate Hudson flushing her once-interesting career down the toilet during commercial breaks. Didn't they already make this movie? Oh yeah, and that one sucked also. Time for round two. Guys, if you are going to the movies on Valentines Day, and your date wants to see this film. Just leave her there in the parking lot. Trust me it's not worth the goodnight kiss on the cheek

It's been a while since I did any music reviews. Here are two decent albums that came out this past month.

Vampire Weekend - S/T

Black Mountain - In the Future

If you were a fan of Black Mountain's thunderous Sabbath-influenced riffs on their debut, you'll find more to enjoy here. Almost a little too much to enjoy actually. While the debut album showed the band switching from stoner-rock to indie-rock, Mountain only focuses on one genre this time. Which takes away some of originality unfortunately. They also lay down a few pretentiously long tracks like the 16 minute track Bright Lights which bored me within the first 2. I couldn't help but think of the Lite Bright commercial as the words "bright light" are repeated obnoxiously. Despite these occurrences, In the Future will please many fans of retro rock and pysch-rock.

7.0

I recently read an article in EW claiming that the Sci-Fi genre was out of ideas. Remakes, rip-offs, and sequels seem to be the general consensus in Hollywood. While I agree the genre could use a good boost, I refuse to believe that the genre was "an endangered species". Originality is out there, maybe the execs are looking in the wrong place?

The narrative is extremely well written, which is complimented even more by the game's excellent voice acting. It's true. Conversations, not action or strategy, are the highlights of Mass Effect. With the help of the "dialog wheel" you'll be able to mold your adventure the way you please. Deciding to be a goody-too shoes or a complete bastard will result in much different responses. Instead of picking exactly what you'll say, the developers instead give you general suggestions to pick. This gameplay enhancement forces you to listen to your conversations. You'll believe in these characters, and will actually be interested to hear what they have to say.

So besides doing a lot of talking, Mass Effect also has one of the best Action/RPG battle systems yet. Combining the feeling of run and gun shooting, and selection based magic attacks, battles are fun and feel fresh. A better gambit system (FFXII) may have made a few custom-junkies a little happier, but would have also over complicated the situation. It turns out to be Mass Effect's second strong point, despite the game's overall low difficulty on Normal mode.

When it comes to low points, Mass Effect actually has quite a few. While the main quest is full of great locations, characters, and story. The sidequets are generally lacking in all of these things. Exploring the numerous galaxies seems impressive at first, but once you realize you'll be doing the same thing on every sidequest it's gets a little boring. You'll land on an empty planet, drive around in a tank, go to a base and kill everyone, and return to your ship. The planet's barren, the driving controls just manageable, and the bases consist of the same 4 blueprints. I guess in the future the settlers all live in similar houses? It's disappointing considering the amount of side quests present in the game. It made me wish for more main story missions (only about 4 or 5) to make up more of the play time (about 40 hours with everything, 15 without)

The game also has it's share of technical problems. Clipping, frame cuts, slowdown, glitches, all occur on a regular basis. It won't really ruin your time with the game, but it will make you wish they kept this one in the oven a little longer. In contrast, sound effects and music are top notch. Your house may shake when entering hyperspace, or when firing rockets from your tank.

It really is hard to come down on Mass Effect in the long run. Sure, it's got it's problems, but the experience is so rewarding you'll look past most of it. Luckily, the game has sold really well and a trilogy has already been talked about. It's a good thing, with the amount of hard work Bioware has done to create this galaxy, it would be a shame for it not to reach it's full potential. Here's to hoping the sequel fixes the minor issues. As of now, Mass Effect is truly the best RPG to come out this generation, and one that science fiction fans should not miss. Hollywood should take note.

VideoGame Industry Makes MAD MONEY. (Thanks to Nintendo)

The new NPD numbers are in and they are insane. This year the videogame industry scored approx. 18 Billion in revenue in the US alone. While all the console makers had a decent holiday, Nintendo stood out with the top selling consoles of the year. Over 52% of the total market. Impressive considering the Wii was almost impossible to find throughout the entire year. In a way Nintendo blew a huge oppertunity to make even more money, but they can't be too upset. Hardware and software numbers below (taken from GAMELIFE).

Hardware

    Console    December 2007    Annual 2007    Life-to-Date

•     PlayStation 2    1.1 million    3.97 million    41.12 million
•     PlayStation 3    797.6 K    2.56 million    3.25 million
•     PSP    1.06 million    3.82 million    10.47 million
•     Xbox 360    1.26 million    4.62 million    9.15 million
•     Wii    1.35 million    6.29 million    7.38 million
•     Nintendo DS    2.47 million    8.50 million    17.65 million
• YEAH, that's 2.47 million DS systems in December alone.

Top Selling Games, Annual 2007

1. 360 HALO 3     4.82 million
2. WII PLAY     4.12 million
   
3. 360 CALL OF DUTY 4: MODERN WARFARE    3.04 million
   
4. PS2 GUITAR HERO III: LEGENDS OF ROCK     2.72 million
   
5. WII SUPER MARIO GALAXY    2.52 million
   
6. NDS POKEMON DIAMOND VERSION   2.48 million
   
7. PS2 MADDEN NFL 08     1.90 million
   
8. PS2 GUITAR HERO 2     1.89 million
   
9. 360 ASSASSIN'S CREED     1.87 million
   
10. WII MARIO PARTY 8    1.82 million

Bionic Commando Remake announced!

It's a good week when one of your favorite NES games of all time gets remade for next-gen consoles. This has quickly become one of my most anticipated releases of the year. Still need convincing? Check out the trailer below..

Smash Bros. Delayed...AGAIN

It seems Nintendo fans will have to wait a little bit longer to play Smash Brothers. The new release date is March 9th (A sunday?). Thankfully, there have been more then a few positive Smash announcements this week to help heal the burn. For one, Japanese review mag Famitsu has rated Smash a perfect 40/40. A rare feat indeed. The samsh bros blog also revealed a ton of good updates this week. Including the return of Sheik (an old favorite), a new character (Captin Olimar from Pikmin) and the inclusion of stat upgrades, introducing Smash to RPG elements. The wait just seems to get harder with each update.