Hey folks, Hatlicks here.
Sorry about the late update, I realize it's Tuesday (Early morning) and I'm sorry for not updating eariler yesterday. (Not that any of you really care/look for my blog actively.)
So this weekend, I picked up a few things at the local bookstore because its going out of business.
Well, first of all, it's rather upsetting that it's going out of business. Its been there since I moved here 10 years ago, and I think it had been there longer before that. I guess the town's just changing so it was only a matter f time.
Anyhoo, I picked up the first few volumes of One Piece. I know that right of the bat, you're thinking of the horrid 4kids rendition that graced the airwaves and Cartoon Network a few years back. Apparently, One Piece is actually a cool story? WHAAAA?!??!? I was confused as well. No lollipops, no waterguns. Just pirates and one comically stretchy little kid. I can honestly say that I am looking foward to reading this.
More importantly, I picked up the volumes of Shaman King that I didn't have before.
Before the weekend, I had the first 8 volumes of Shaman King, and had an absurdly hard time finding 9 and 10. I don't know why! It was like every store within reasonable distance didn't want to stock them for some reason, so I ended up raging everytime I'd walk into a store and eventually stopped reading them. With Hastings (the bookstore I refered to) going out of business however, this opened whole new opprotunities when I realized they had the whole series for chump change. The whole series... except 9 and 10... >_>
Reguardless, I bought them, and then drove an absurd distance downtown to Dragon's Lair and bought them, so now I can read them happily and peacefully. That being said... God, I LOVE Shaman King! Its so excellent! Yoh is so cool, and Amidamaru is the epitome of badassery. Also, how can anyone resist the ghost's little chibi form right before integration. Gotta love the Japanese.
The final piece of the weekend is the "Street Fighter World Warrior Encyclopedia."
Its the coolest piece of nerd gear I've got... including my Zelda belt buckle. I guess I've got some unnatural obsession with Street Fighter, but I think I'm in love with this game, and reading every little detail about the characters is like the greatest of drugs to me. I mean, what the hell would I do without knowing that Charlie Nash likes justice and scotch? I mean Jesus, he's like a fusion of batman and Ron Burgandy (And almost as classy too!)
Momentai, friends.
-Hatlicks
P.S. Sorry this week was kinda lame. I've got alot on my mind, and I'm sorting it out, so expect a better one next week.
Monday, September 20, 2010
Monday, September 13, 2010
Sherlock Holmes, Vikings and The Joys of being an Amateur Starcraft Player
Howdy guys, Hatlicks here!
(Just incase you were wondering, I'm going to start consistantly updating on Mondays.)
Okay, so this weekend I finally saw Guy Ritchie's Sherlock Holmes.
Alright, I know it's late, but I was putting it off because I had no idea how it was going to be. I mean, I really like Jude Law, and who DOESN'T like Robert Downey Jr. but come on, how could they do a remake of Sherlock Holmes when there have been so many classic representations already spawned?
I was very clearly wrong.
This rendition was soooooo much closer to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes and I loved seeing the Edgy cocaine-using-best-friend-insulting-obsessive-asshole-Sherlock Holmes. (Best of all, he didn't wear that stupid deerstalker cap, and he never uttered "Elementary my dear Watson.)
For any of you who still haven't seen it after almost a year, I command you with all my blogly power to watch it ASAP.
Next up, I'd like to point out that even with all the stupid cliches that have come to represent vikings and norse culture, they're still extremely awesome now only for being powerful warriors but also TOTALLY badass explorers, sailors and craftsmen. Now perhaps you guys have a different idea of awesome, but I've been getting rocked pretty hard by a Viking Folk-Metal band called Týr that is absolutely (If you'll pardon my French) fucking awesome. Now, the only wall I've reached in the persuit of my viking metal is that when I listen to new bands, I hear the insturmental parts of their songs and they are pleasing to me. The only problem is that as soon as their vocalists (More like Choke-alists!) start wailing and screaming, I'm filled with the almost-unavoidable urge to gouge my eyes out.
I have literally no idea where these bands got the idea to take songs about viking culture (Some of which ate actually tratitional songs) and then make them insufferably bad. Remember guys, screaming isn't music no matter which genre it's in...
Alrighty. For the final piece on this week's agenda, I'm starting a strategy topic about some of the adventures I've had in the wonderful world of Starcraft II, and a few of my favorite strategies to pull on Bronze League noobies that are almost guaranteed to work.
Blizzard Entertainment's newest installment in the Starcraft series is absolutely fantastic. Literally everything about it is a worthy successor to the greatest RTS (real time strategy game) of all time (Starcraft, of course.) from the Single-Player Campaign to the online Multiplayer, and I HIGHLY recomend it to any gamer from the amateur (like me!) to the professional Korean Starcraft player with 800 APM (actions per minute) who probably doesn't need the recomendation from some no-life blogger (like me!)
Now, after my long time playing Starcraft and my brief stint getting trounced on the Starcraft II Beta, I went into the game thinking I was hot shit. Now if you're like me, you'll want to see the action as much as possible, and I cannot stress how important it is to not consistantly watch the actual battles progress. As always with any RTS, your main focus should be your economy and troop production, because they are vitally important to your success as a player. (They're also vital to not wanting to kill yourself out of sheer frustration when you get hit by a wall of units from your opponent.)
I don't want to get too deep into the theory of this game, because quite frankly, I suck at it. So instead, I'll talk about some of my favorite Zerg units (Sorry, that's all I've got time for this week), the bronze-league level strategies you'll use them to counter, and how to use them in a way that will make your opponents want to leave the game. (You would seriously be surprised how often that happens.)
Of the three playable races, my favorite is by far the Zerg. They're cheap, nasty (Seriously, they're gross.) and very powerful if used correctly. Utilizing horde of anamalistic tricks and traits in combat, the Zerg are easily the least technologically advanced race in the Starcraft universe.
The first, and probably most important of all the Zerg units I'm discussing today is definately the Queen. The Queen (As far as story goes) plays a limited command roll in controlling Zerg nesting sites, but in reality, what you'll use her for is barfing massive ammounts of larvae (Yeah, you read that correctly.) onto your hatcheries so you can produce hordes of inexpensive units to quickly outnumber your opponents. For a unit that functions as an early defender against rushes, the queen is basically useless in combat, and it's for this reason that I recomend using her to pump out as many units that ARE helpful for defense as possible. Another use for the queen is the expansion of creep (A disgusting slimey shit that Zerg structures need to be built on) which can actually prove problematic to any other race trying to expand, as well as providing your units with increased movespeed and life regeneration.
An absolute MUST for playing in Bronze League is the Overseer. I can't say that these flying buggers are exciting, but I can say that they'll be useful for countering many of the cheesy strategies that other bronze league players will try to pull. The most useful trait of the Overseer is that it is a detector, which successsfully counters your opponents attempts to rush you with invisible units. (Such as Banshees [For Terran] or Dark Templar [For Protoss]) Apart from a few useful (albeit disgusting) skills (like literally shitting out creep), the Overseer isn't very useful for a lot (that I can tell) except providing the role of an excellent scout.
Now, for my absolute favorite unit. The Baneling.
Banelings are goddamned NASTY. They are vermin, filled with massive ammounts of chemically volatile pus and liquids that explode on contact with units and buildings causing heavy damage in a wide area of effect.
These pesky little sappers can be used to counter the most common of Terran strategies and several Protoss ones. What one tends to see in Bronze League is an abundance of turtles. (and no I'm not talking about those cute little anphibious beasts) Turtling is a technique where players will wall off entrances to their bases with defensive structures, (or just any structure for that matter.) and mass units until a time when they feel aptly prepaired to deal with any threat. An obvious downside to this is that it is extremely hard to expand while using this technique, and that's where banelings come in. Banelings can lie burrowed around nearby mineral deposits waiting for enemy workers to come in and attempt to build. OR, Banelings can be used to smash through your enemy's defenses creating holes for your faster units to reach the delicate structures within a base. Banelings are also hellish to small clusters of light units, allowing them to break up groups of marines, zealots and zerglings at any stage of the game. While they are a valuble unit, they shouldn't be relied upon for terribly long. The baneling's strength is in harrassing your opponent while you build up a substantial ammount of stronger more versatile troops (like Hydralisks) before you go in for the kill.
I might do some more Starcraft strategy in the future, but for next week, probably not. I hope you guys enjoyed that, but if you didn't, tell me what you would enjoy reading about for the future.
Momentai, friends!
-Hatlicks
(Just incase you were wondering, I'm going to start consistantly updating on Mondays.)
Okay, so this weekend I finally saw Guy Ritchie's Sherlock Holmes.
Alright, I know it's late, but I was putting it off because I had no idea how it was going to be. I mean, I really like Jude Law, and who DOESN'T like Robert Downey Jr. but come on, how could they do a remake of Sherlock Holmes when there have been so many classic representations already spawned?
I was very clearly wrong.
This rendition was soooooo much closer to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes and I loved seeing the Edgy cocaine-using-best-friend-insulting-obsessive-asshole-Sherlock Holmes. (Best of all, he didn't wear that stupid deerstalker cap, and he never uttered "Elementary my dear Watson.)
For any of you who still haven't seen it after almost a year, I command you with all my blogly power to watch it ASAP.
Next up, I'd like to point out that even with all the stupid cliches that have come to represent vikings and norse culture, they're still extremely awesome now only for being powerful warriors but also TOTALLY badass explorers, sailors and craftsmen. Now perhaps you guys have a different idea of awesome, but I've been getting rocked pretty hard by a Viking Folk-Metal band called Týr that is absolutely (If you'll pardon my French) fucking awesome. Now, the only wall I've reached in the persuit of my viking metal is that when I listen to new bands, I hear the insturmental parts of their songs and they are pleasing to me. The only problem is that as soon as their vocalists (More like Choke-alists!) start wailing and screaming, I'm filled with the almost-unavoidable urge to gouge my eyes out.
I have literally no idea where these bands got the idea to take songs about viking culture (Some of which ate actually tratitional songs) and then make them insufferably bad. Remember guys, screaming isn't music no matter which genre it's in...
Alrighty. For the final piece on this week's agenda, I'm starting a strategy topic about some of the adventures I've had in the wonderful world of Starcraft II, and a few of my favorite strategies to pull on Bronze League noobies that are almost guaranteed to work.
Blizzard Entertainment's newest installment in the Starcraft series is absolutely fantastic. Literally everything about it is a worthy successor to the greatest RTS (real time strategy game) of all time (Starcraft, of course.) from the Single-Player Campaign to the online Multiplayer, and I HIGHLY recomend it to any gamer from the amateur (like me!) to the professional Korean Starcraft player with 800 APM (actions per minute) who probably doesn't need the recomendation from some no-life blogger (like me!)
Now, after my long time playing Starcraft and my brief stint getting trounced on the Starcraft II Beta, I went into the game thinking I was hot shit. Now if you're like me, you'll want to see the action as much as possible, and I cannot stress how important it is to not consistantly watch the actual battles progress. As always with any RTS, your main focus should be your economy and troop production, because they are vitally important to your success as a player. (They're also vital to not wanting to kill yourself out of sheer frustration when you get hit by a wall of units from your opponent.)
I don't want to get too deep into the theory of this game, because quite frankly, I suck at it. So instead, I'll talk about some of my favorite Zerg units (Sorry, that's all I've got time for this week), the bronze-league level strategies you'll use them to counter, and how to use them in a way that will make your opponents want to leave the game. (You would seriously be surprised how often that happens.)
Of the three playable races, my favorite is by far the Zerg. They're cheap, nasty (Seriously, they're gross.) and very powerful if used correctly. Utilizing horde of anamalistic tricks and traits in combat, the Zerg are easily the least technologically advanced race in the Starcraft universe.
The first, and probably most important of all the Zerg units I'm discussing today is definately the Queen. The Queen (As far as story goes) plays a limited command roll in controlling Zerg nesting sites, but in reality, what you'll use her for is barfing massive ammounts of larvae (Yeah, you read that correctly.) onto your hatcheries so you can produce hordes of inexpensive units to quickly outnumber your opponents. For a unit that functions as an early defender against rushes, the queen is basically useless in combat, and it's for this reason that I recomend using her to pump out as many units that ARE helpful for defense as possible. Another use for the queen is the expansion of creep (A disgusting slimey shit that Zerg structures need to be built on) which can actually prove problematic to any other race trying to expand, as well as providing your units with increased movespeed and life regeneration.
An absolute MUST for playing in Bronze League is the Overseer. I can't say that these flying buggers are exciting, but I can say that they'll be useful for countering many of the cheesy strategies that other bronze league players will try to pull. The most useful trait of the Overseer is that it is a detector, which successsfully counters your opponents attempts to rush you with invisible units. (Such as Banshees [For Terran] or Dark Templar [For Protoss]) Apart from a few useful (albeit disgusting) skills (like literally shitting out creep), the Overseer isn't very useful for a lot (that I can tell) except providing the role of an excellent scout.
Now, for my absolute favorite unit. The Baneling.
Banelings are goddamned NASTY. They are vermin, filled with massive ammounts of chemically volatile pus and liquids that explode on contact with units and buildings causing heavy damage in a wide area of effect.
These pesky little sappers can be used to counter the most common of Terran strategies and several Protoss ones. What one tends to see in Bronze League is an abundance of turtles. (and no I'm not talking about those cute little anphibious beasts) Turtling is a technique where players will wall off entrances to their bases with defensive structures, (or just any structure for that matter.) and mass units until a time when they feel aptly prepaired to deal with any threat. An obvious downside to this is that it is extremely hard to expand while using this technique, and that's where banelings come in. Banelings can lie burrowed around nearby mineral deposits waiting for enemy workers to come in and attempt to build. OR, Banelings can be used to smash through your enemy's defenses creating holes for your faster units to reach the delicate structures within a base. Banelings are also hellish to small clusters of light units, allowing them to break up groups of marines, zealots and zerglings at any stage of the game. While they are a valuble unit, they shouldn't be relied upon for terribly long. The baneling's strength is in harrassing your opponent while you build up a substantial ammount of stronger more versatile troops (like Hydralisks) before you go in for the kill.
I might do some more Starcraft strategy in the future, but for next week, probably not. I hope you guys enjoyed that, but if you didn't, tell me what you would enjoy reading about for the future.
Momentai, friends!
-Hatlicks
Friday, September 10, 2010
Poetry for the Poisoned: Review
Hatlicks here!
(Now, before I get into the depth of my first blog I want to mention that this is literally the first blog I have ever created, so please. If you've got any tips for formatting/content/whatevs feel free to drop a few comments.)
So, I've been pretty hyped up for the new Kamelot album for the past few weeks.
For those of you who don't know, Kamelot is a FANTASTIC power/progressive metal band out of Tampa, Florida. (You should all check them out, actually.)
Now, being the avid fan that I am, I couldn't wait for the American release date, (which is an annoying long time after the Japanese release, and about four days after the European release.) so I ended up scavenging most of the tracks on Youtube to scope it out before buying it.
First thing I noticed:
Every Kamelot album I've heard starts off with a BANG. (Rule the World on Ghost Opera, Center of the Universe on Epica, March of Mephisto on The Black Halo) I've noticed that was mysteriously absent on Poetry for the Poisoned.
This album (or what I've heard of it, atleast) feels tired. (Granted that could be the horrible quality that Youtube offers for soundfiles, so I'll try to save my final judgement until I actually hear my personal copy.) Musically though, it just seems like they're running out of ideas.
For example:
The first track "The Great Pandemonium" has that same kind of (what makes me think of an) industrial feel as some of the tracks on their previous album Ghost Opera (The Human Stain, etc.) On their album The Black Halo, they had a track similar to this one (March of Mephisto) and it really seems to me that they wanted to bring back some of the success they had with that song (which might have been a good idea if they had gotten the same "singer" to do it.)
Well for whatever reason, they didn't get Shagrath, and the growls that pretty much made March of Mephisto a success, (for me atleast) have little to no effect on "The Great Pandemonium" (other than being annoying to anyone trying to hear Khan's beautiful voice.)
Another track I had troubles listening to was "The Zodiac."
Now, the instrumental part of the song is decent. The big issue I have is once again the guest vocalist.
Perhaps it's just that I'm a purist when it comes to vocalists (I prefer that a band's singer is the one who is singing [except in the case of backing vocals] at all times.) but I think that the singer featured (while he does have a pretty cool voice) just clashes with Khan's voice at times when they are singing in unison.
However, to be fair, when they do the call and answer part of the song, it sounds absolutely brilliant.
Now that I've gotten the negative part of my review out of the way, I'll move on to some things I really enjoyed about it. The title track (which is actually split into four segments) is absolutely epic. It's got all of the things that I love about Kamelot. The music is fantastic. Khan's vocals are brilliant. Everything flows almost perfectly from segment to segment.
Another major thing I was absolutely tickled to hear was Simone Simons making yet another appearence.
On Poetry for the Poisoned, she sings on "House on a Hill" and on Parts II and III of "Poetry for the Poisoned." She and Khan's voices have this chemestry that really just explodes, and that's no exception on the new album.
All that being said, I think the album is decent. Unfortunately, that's all it manages to be.
As a long time fan of the band, I'll definately purchase the album (out of loyalty if nothing else.) but any up-and-coming fans however, will probably want to stick with their older material. (Karma, Epica, The Black Halo.) All of which is spectacular.
Momentai, friends.
- Hatlicks.
(Now, before I get into the depth of my first blog I want to mention that this is literally the first blog I have ever created, so please. If you've got any tips for formatting/content/whatevs feel free to drop a few comments.)
So, I've been pretty hyped up for the new Kamelot album for the past few weeks.
For those of you who don't know, Kamelot is a FANTASTIC power/progressive metal band out of Tampa, Florida. (You should all check them out, actually.)
Now, being the avid fan that I am, I couldn't wait for the American release date, (which is an annoying long time after the Japanese release, and about four days after the European release.) so I ended up scavenging most of the tracks on Youtube to scope it out before buying it.
First thing I noticed:
Every Kamelot album I've heard starts off with a BANG. (Rule the World on Ghost Opera, Center of the Universe on Epica, March of Mephisto on The Black Halo) I've noticed that was mysteriously absent on Poetry for the Poisoned.
This album (or what I've heard of it, atleast) feels tired. (Granted that could be the horrible quality that Youtube offers for soundfiles, so I'll try to save my final judgement until I actually hear my personal copy.) Musically though, it just seems like they're running out of ideas.
For example:
The first track "The Great Pandemonium" has that same kind of (what makes me think of an) industrial feel as some of the tracks on their previous album Ghost Opera (The Human Stain, etc.) On their album The Black Halo, they had a track similar to this one (March of Mephisto) and it really seems to me that they wanted to bring back some of the success they had with that song (which might have been a good idea if they had gotten the same "singer" to do it.)
Well for whatever reason, they didn't get Shagrath, and the growls that pretty much made March of Mephisto a success, (for me atleast) have little to no effect on "The Great Pandemonium" (other than being annoying to anyone trying to hear Khan's beautiful voice.)
Another track I had troubles listening to was "The Zodiac."
Now, the instrumental part of the song is decent. The big issue I have is once again the guest vocalist.
Perhaps it's just that I'm a purist when it comes to vocalists (I prefer that a band's singer is the one who is singing [except in the case of backing vocals] at all times.) but I think that the singer featured (while he does have a pretty cool voice) just clashes with Khan's voice at times when they are singing in unison.
However, to be fair, when they do the call and answer part of the song, it sounds absolutely brilliant.
Now that I've gotten the negative part of my review out of the way, I'll move on to some things I really enjoyed about it. The title track (which is actually split into four segments) is absolutely epic. It's got all of the things that I love about Kamelot. The music is fantastic. Khan's vocals are brilliant. Everything flows almost perfectly from segment to segment.
Another major thing I was absolutely tickled to hear was Simone Simons making yet another appearence.
On Poetry for the Poisoned, she sings on "House on a Hill" and on Parts II and III of "Poetry for the Poisoned." She and Khan's voices have this chemestry that really just explodes, and that's no exception on the new album.
All that being said, I think the album is decent. Unfortunately, that's all it manages to be.
As a long time fan of the band, I'll definately purchase the album (out of loyalty if nothing else.) but any up-and-coming fans however, will probably want to stick with their older material. (Karma, Epica, The Black Halo.) All of which is spectacular.
Momentai, friends.
- Hatlicks.
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