Screw books, how could I forget about games?

Being summer, especially right before the expansion, WoW is getting a bit boring – almost chore-like – with nobody raiding and nobody to talk to. For those who are unfamiliar with the phenomenon, when an expansion is released everybody’s equipment goes to waste, no matter how awesome. So raiding 10 hours per week (or more) for the ‘big boy gear’ is futile, as it will be replaced in the first few levels of the expansion. And with everybody doing other stuff for the summer, the servers are pretty barren. Fortunately that means I don’t need to split my time as much between WoW and other forms of digital entertainment. Unfortunately, it reminds me I have so many games that I haven’t yet beaten.

The first game that needs a shout-out is Bionic Commando: Rearmed. It’s cheap, easily accessible, and challenging. It’s also visually pleasing, which isn’t a very common thing for me to say about 3d side scrolling games, especially remakes. Grin (the developers) did an awesome job giving the gameplay and visuals a hefty update, while keeping them reminiscent of the original. My hat goes off to you!

I gotta give some love to Harmonix and MTV Games for releasing so many awesome songs for Rock Band (and the upcoming sequel), and not missing a single week of DLC since the release of the game. Not only that, they are making DLC and disc songs available and the original instruments usable in the sequel! Sofa King Awesome! They really know how to take care of their customers.

I picked up Folklore a while ago and never finished it. It’s an action-RPG with a unique method (or methods, in this case) of telling the story, and beautiful flashy effects. I didn’t finish it ’cause I picked up Burnout, a fun arcadey racing/crashing game, shortly thereafter. Before that, I played half of a great golf game from the Hot Shots series, and a Tower Defense type game that I picked up cheapish on PSN.

Combine all these with Resistance, which was given to me for my birthday, a few neglected Wii games from waaay back, and a few games coming out in the fall that really make me happy in the pants area… I think I need to take a few weeks off and shut myself in my basement to get caught up.

The couch futon will be very convenient for that.

Pineapple Express is another one from the Apatow/Rogen crew, and it’s my favorite yet. Gone are the romantic undertones of their other movies, but they kept up the humor. Bravo!

Batman needn’t be mentioned here but I’ll do it anyway. It’s easily the best comic movie to date, and one of the better movies overall in recent history. You’re doing the movie a disservice if you don’t see it in IMAX, and yourself a disservice if you don’t see it at all. It’s a masterpiece.

Step Brothers was meh. Watch it if you like Will Farrell or his crazy persona movies. I like ‘em enough so I got a kick out of it, but it’s really, really dumb. Rent it and turn off your brain.

Presidents of the United States of America put out a new CD a few months ago. I was listening to Pandora and I heard a song I didn’t recognize from them. So’s I opened up their webpage and saw their new CD on the front page. Kick ass! I picked it up and it’s very awesome. Highly recommended.

The Police rank up there in my top ten favorite bands. When I heard they were coming to the DTE, and I heard that my folks got us a set of tickets, I was ecstatic. They played an awesome set, and came back for two encores for a total of 2.5 hours. I’m sad they didn’t play Canary In A Coal Mine, but I can’t have everything. Elvis Costello was the opening act – he was pretty darn good too.

Books are still for suckers and I still avoid them like the plague (mostly ’cause I can’t read) but I needed another form of media so I could make that played out Wizard of Oz reference.

Want to see a magic trick?

I went to the dentist a few weeks ago to get a crown put on one of my teeth (where the old filling was wearing out) thinking it would be a two visit shindig – one to get the old tooth ground down, and one to put the new crown on. The grinding-down visit was fairly uneventful despite the Novocaine not having enough effect. So I grit my teeth (figuratively) and dealt with the pain.

A few weeks later, they received the new crown and called me in. When I got there, they put the tooth on and told me to bite down on a piece of cotton so they could make sure it fits properly. *POP* The crown chipped, of course. So they told me they’re going to repair it and call me in again when it’s fixed.

And so they do. Same spiel – sat down and bit down on the cotton. *POP* again! So then they told me they’re going to completely redo the tooth instead of just repair it, then call me in when it’s done.

Today I went in and tried out the new tooth. So I bit down on the cotton softly at first. No pop. A bit harder, still no pop. Third try’s a charm, I guess. Hopefully it stays that way.

I have a few other topics I’ll be writing about, movies, games, concerts, traffic stuff, etc. So there probably won’t be such a big drought as there has been recently. Hopefully.