Today, I was at my nieces birthday party at Island Burgers. (yummy)  When I glaced over at their TVs, I saw another commercial for KGB.

The commercial got me wondering.  “How good is this service?” So, I decided to try it out.

and the winner is……..?

REDDIT for “ease of use.” Congratulations reddit.  You’re easier to use than Digg.

Wrestling games are pretty formulaic: place two popular pro-wrestling stars and watch them pummel each other senseless until someone falls over. Admittedly, that’s probably why I haven’t really played a new wrestling game since WWE SmackDown! Shut Your Mouth. (Also, I liked the title.)

However, when I realized that this year marked the 25th anniversary of Wrestlemania, my curiosity got the better of me. Naturally, when I heard of WWE Legends of Wrestlemania, I felt an obligation to check it out. I was very excited to see classic wrestlers like Hulk Hogan, Andre the Giant, and Bret “The Hit Man” Hart, along with Stone Cold, Shawn Michaels, Triple H, and The Rock to round out the roster. However, I ended up being slightly disappointed by the game.

First off, the graphics weren’t half bad. While the character models are pretty well-animated, there are some characters (here’s looking at you, Hulk Hogan) that look a bit deformed. I also find it hard to believe that after so many years, the crowd still looks like pieces of cardboard. You’d think that after massive improvements in graphics technology, we’d get something a bit more realistic and a bit less stiff and wooden. Last I checked, this wasn’t a George Lucas film.

The gameplay is where the game’s flaws really become apparent. Unlike THQ and YUKE’s WWE SmackDown! series, Legends of Wrestlemania takes a more simplistic approach. It attempts to differentiate itself from SmackDown vs. Raw 2009 and earlier entries in the SmackDown! series by introducing a new move system. The button layout only makes use of four total buttons, not counting the D-Pad or Joystick. Additionally, each player is equipped with a “Chain Meter,” a gauge that increases with every successive attack.

So where’s the button variation? Where’s the fun in stringing together attacks if they all look the same? Here’s an inside scoop. I’ve found a move set that will guarantee a win every match: punch, punch, punch, punch, knock-down, pick up, grapple, pick up, strong grapple, punch, punch, punch, grapple, pin. It may seem like a shallow reason to not like a game, but the fun of a wrestling game comes from being able to execute your favorite character’s signature moves. A few chain attacks mix things up a bit, forcing you to input a specific sequence of buttons at just the right in order to execute certain moves. However, that is not enough to spice up gameplay.

However, it seems the game’s true intent lies less in gameplay innovation and more along the lines of wrestling nostalgia. The appeal is not the length but the matches themselves. The game takes important Wrestlemania events and recreates them. ReLive mode, quite simply, places you in the middle of an important match, letting you be part of history. ReWrite mode, on the other hand, allows the player to change the outcome of a match, changing Wrestlemania. Ever wish that Jake “The Snake” Roberts had won the Intercontinental title from the Honky Tonk Man at Wrestlemania III? Go for it. ReDefine changes the match itself, changing the match type as well as letting you choose who will win. For example, the Intercontinental Title match between Brett Hart and “Rowdy” Roddy Piper at Wrestlemania VIII is now a submission match. However, changing the type of match is not as exciting as one would think, so ReDefine falls a little flat in comparison to the first two.

In addition, each Wrestlemania Tour match has specific objectives that you can choose to complete in order to receive medals, awarding you with new costumes and game modes. However, they’re not mandatory to the game experience, except in ReLive, where the objectives are based on things that actually happened in the real life match ups.

Finally, like any sports games these days, you have your Create-a-Wrestler mode (Create-a-Legend in this case). However, with the arbitrary move set, the only thing that really matters is appearance, given that powerful moves don’t really matter here. Once you’ve created your Legend, you can play through “Legend Killer,” which pits your legend against a group of 10 legends in typical fighting game-survival mode style. Battling through Legend Killer allows you to unlock more tier-lists to battle through, as well as giving you more items to improve your legend. However, with the limited move sets, it tends to get old really quick.

WWE Legends of Wrestlemania doesn’t really bring anything new to the table in terms of wrestling games. Aside from the nostalgic aspect of the game, it doesn’t really offer much to players, especially those who know very little about wrestling history. As it focuses on Wrestlemania matches before the year 2000, I can only really recommend this to you hardcore wrestling fans out there, eager to relive the glory days. Unless you’re a hardcore fan that knows everything about Wrestlemania since 1985, you’d be better off playing something more along the lines of WWE SmackDown vs. Raw 2009.

This is the first time I’m seeing this.  An idea so simple, yet super creative.  I don’t think I can do something like this.  Well, I could try, but stick figures might not have the same creative effect. =P

 

After looking at all of these photos, you’d think there would be an anime version of A-Ha’s “Take on me.”

[source]

Not everybody can ride in the Millennium Falcon, but with a little paint, you can pretend you can. Sort of. Or something like that:

More Star Wars inspired vehicles can be found here. Thanks for the tip, Pete!

According to Kotaku, Gamestop may be in violation of Federal Trade Commission regulations for its practice of selling played games at full MSRP price. For those that are not aware, Gamestop employees are allowed to check-out products as a sort of free 4-day rental, which includes new, unopened games. Games that are checked-out are usually returned and sold for the full price of the new game, as opposed to the used price, which might be deemed by the FTC as a deceptive marketing practice.

For more on this story, visit Kotaku.

Genres: Drama, Romance

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Set in modern-day Rome, a young girl named Nicoletta seeks out a small restaurant near the heart of the city.  When she finds the Casetta dell’Orso, she becomes wrapped up in its mystique… not to mention the gentlemen that work at the establishment.  Her original goal of outing her mother, who abandoned her as a child, to her new husband falls to the wayside.

In a quick aside, her mother begs her not to tell him, as he said he would not marry a woman who has been divorced before.  In exchange, Nicoletta is given an apartment in Rome to use until she departs.  It is important to know that the two no longer consider each other family, for their own reasons.  Nicoletta falls into the role of a daughter of a friend to keep this secret.

One of the waiters, an older man named Claudio, catches Nicoletta’s eye and she begins to obsess over him.  Not knowing if it is love she is feeling, she is determined to test her feelings for him.  In an uncomfortable moment, interrupted by her mother’s entrance, she mounts him while sitting on a chair in her apartment.  After a strained discussion with her mother, Nicoletta decides that she needs to find her purpose in life and joins the restaurant as a chef.

This series is definitely not one I would have interest in on its own accord; a romantic drama featuring older men, etc…  BUT the characters have a depth that has only been scratched in the first two episodes.  This series has a few good things going for it, it will be interesting to see where it ends up.

Overall Hook Rating: B

Here are 3 new Star Trek clips to keep your mouth watering until May 7, 2009 11:45pm. (That’s when the doors to your local IMAX theater opens.)

Sometimes a guy will man up and try to escape the Friend Zone. And usually, this guy flawlessly fails. Here is a small set of guidelines to follow upon being rejected:

1. Don’t hold a grudge.
Generally, it’s a terrible idea to feel animosity towards someone for not returning emotional feelings. For example, do not fucking watch her web show and act like a stupid little 5’3” bitch in the chat room. Holding a grudge will just push her further away, and you’ll never be able to re-establish your friendship.

2. Don’t try to be friends immediately.
It’s not going to work. Don’t ask me why. It just won’t. Just let the emotions settle down for a little bit. If she doesn’t think you guys should talk anymore, don’t push against it. You need to (seemingly) get over her before you can be friends again.

3. Don’t dwell on her.
Rejection doesn’t mean the end of the world. I know that she seemed like she would be a perfect girlfriend for you. However, you won’t be able to find out how many more perfect-er girls are out there if you spend all of your time crying about her.

4. Don’t try to get through to her through people close to her.
Since you guys aren’t talking to each other anymore, you become best friends with her little brother? Don’t do that. It’s so fucking awkward.

5. Don’t worry about it.
A relationship is impossible unless there’s a spark coming from both ways. It’s unfortunate that she didn’t feel the spark, but that’s just the way it is sometimes. It doesn’t mean that you’re an unattractive person, it just means that she didn’t see you in that kind of light. Chin up, soldier.

Can a two-year-old perform Zanfief’s double suplex in Street Fighter 2 Turbo HD Remix with a little button mashing?

Ubisoft released a teaser for Assassin’s Creed 2 this past Monday. However, aside from that teaser (which gives no hint at all as to what we might see in this new installment of the franchise), no other information has been released. The Assassin’s Creed website shows the teaser as well, along with some backwards writing at the end that looks suspiciously like “Game Informer 4/16/09.” Only time will tell if Ubisoft will release any more information in the near future, though the “Game Informer” message makes it highly likely that we’ll see something develop within the next week.

The teaser can be found here, at the Assassin’s Creed website or the youtube link below.