Sideshow & Syrana

I finished Mass Effect 2 on Sunday night. It was an amazing ride and Bioware created an amazing game full of epic moments and a great story.

This game was started from my Mass Effect 1 savegame using the import feature, so all of my major decisions from the first game were copied over. I did change my class-type (not sure what it was) and also my face. I thought my last customized Shepard looked kind of odd, so I wanted to make him look more normal.

Since ME1 has been out for years, I can talk about some of my major decisions from that game that I carried over (that I can remember.) I know that when the decision came to kill Wrex, I chose to let him live. Also, when the decision came to save either Ashley or Kaidan, I chose to save Ashley and sacrificed Kaidan. I chose this partly due to not using Kaidan as much and the fact that my Shepard was a bit “interested” in Ms. Williams. I also let the Rachni queen live instead of killing her.

The rest of this post contains major Mass Effect 2 spoilers! Please do not continue if you’re still playing, unless you don’t care about seeing major plot points. I wanted to post my outcome and decisions for others to compare since it seems like there are dozens of possible outcomes.

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Image courtesy of Robbert van der Steeg @ Flickr

You ever notice how weird time is? The amount of time in a day is the same… every day.  But some days time seems to drag and other days it flies by.

I definitely find this crazy “fast flying” time to be the case when I take vacation days.  Especially those vacation days where you don’t actually leave the house.

I had some time off over this last week, and I had all these plans of things to do during that time.

All these things I wanted to tackle could be boiled down to 3 main categories:

1. Spend time with Sideshow
2. Play games
3. Write blog posts and maybe get a bit ahead of myself!

…I can tell you 2 outta 3 ain’t bad.

Of course I got to spend time with Sideshow.  Besides it being our birthday, we like to … well, play games together. (continue reading…)

So, we finally did it. We finally tackled Rock Band 2’s Endless Setlist 2 with our virtual band, “We Have Heads.” 84 straight songs with no stopping (except some pause breaks, cuz we’re gettin’ old.) I was completely insane and did the whole thing on Drums on Hard. Syrana was just as crazy and did it on Vocals on Hard. So, I can’t walk or raise my arms and she has no voice. We’re probably the saddest couple in the world. We should join the circus. But, we had to do it since Syrana said she would. (continue reading…)

On Friday, October 30th, after work, Sideshow and I decided to get some Rock Band time in.  First we checked to see what battles were available and saw there was a Halloween Battle!

The songs We Have Heads performed:

Dragula by Rob Zombie

Date with the Night by Yeah Yeah Yeahs

Afterlife by Avenged Sevenfold

Sideshow was on drums while I was on vocals.  Both of us were on the hard difficulty.  Now, to hit the top on the battle leaderboards, you pretty much need a full 4 piece band on expert.  So you can imagine our surprise when we saw:

And no, I’m not going to mention that we were the only ones to complete the battle within the first hour it went live.  >.>

I thought I’d give an update on my gaming and an overview of my play-style.

Sideshow is currently at 80 and has been there for many months now. In all honesty, he’s probably as far as he needs to be. He has a few Naxx pieces, some PvP pieces, etc. I have no interest in getting him fully top-tier geared. That’s not how I play. I drop in to enjoy my free time with whatever I feel like doing at the time. I usually do a few dailies, hit up a few battlegrounds, and maybe run some stuff with guildies. I may start PuGing more when the dungeon changes come out in 3.3. It’s not the act of raiding that I don’t enjoy. (continue reading…)

With today’s release of the video game Brütal Legend (which I will buy soon) I decided to check out the soundtrack and I was amazed at how long and brutal it was. In honor of this nod to metal, I wanted to allow everyone to listen to every song on this soundtrack to see what a great job they did creating it.

It plays as a kick-ass path through some of the great metal of the past and present from Black Sabbath to Dethkolk to Megadeth. Continue on to see every song on the soundtrack and a link to listen to it. Be warned: It’s brutal. (continue reading…)

So… we don’t have any “fresh off the cam” videos to share, but this one has not been featured on the blog yet.  I love Metallica, but please… a fair warning… the lyrics get a little butchered.  But! It’s all in classic BBV style that is still good, wholesome fun.

Also, it is one of the first.  I think I’ve presented the videos in a backwards progression… this is back when we had worse lighting issues (we’re amateurs, what can I say?), the voxman was not very loose in front of the camera, and Sideshow is in it!

We were going to make a new video the other weekend; however, Sideshow couldn’t find the charger for the video camera and it was dead.  D. E. A. D.

I really can’t begin to describe what you are about to see.  This video is the crown jewel, the cream of the crop, the best of the best of the Rock Band videos we have with our good ol’ friend here.

I seriously thought I was going to die laughing and almost had to leave the house.  You might even be able to hear me laughing and gasping for breath.

The best stuff of this video is actually near the end, that’s where you will hear the murloc.

Watch… if you dare! /cackle /giggle /choke

Our third post ever (well, Sideshow’s second post, the site’s third post) featured a video of a friend that plays Rock Band with us.  Today, I’d like to share another one of these gems with you all.  We have too much fun making these, I think.  Although, it’s been quite a few months since we’ve made one.  We’re about due.

And, yes, ladies, we know him in real life.  I could hook ya up. *waggles eyebrows*

I thought I’d make an appearance today by putting up my review of Guitar Hero: Metallica. It merges two of my favorite things, Metallica and video games. I was a bit skeptical at first. I was not very impressed with the Guitar Hero: World Tour release. They seemed to decide to do everything different from Rock Band, who almost perfected that style of game. The song selection in GH:WT was a bit weak and some songs were really boring to play as a band.

Obviously, the song selection on Metallica is not weak. As said in a few reviews that I’ve read, they really did a good job at converting the song into the video game instrumentation. The songs are fun to play on every instrument and can be extremely challenging, too (I’m looking at you Dyers’ Eve.) All Metallica fans will find something they like from Kill ‘Em All to Death Magnetic.

If you’re a long-time Metallica fan, you will notice the extreme detail that Neversoft went into to bring Metallica to the game. Details like James’ movements while singing or the stage setups and locations. I see something new every time I play.

Like Samodean at Hardcore Casual said in his review, “They’ve changed the advancement system. Now you unlock new venues and songs based upon how many stars you’ve earned. So, if you can’t get past Disposable Heroes, just move on.” It’s a nice touch and it lets you get to the songs you want to play even faster instead of requiring you to finish up every song in order. Even some of the other songs on the disc were fun to play and I’ve found some newer music that is really good. Like lesser known bands to most people such as Kyuss, The Sword, Corrosion of Conformity, and Samhain.

If you’re a Rock Band fan or a Guitar Hero fan or even just a metal fan, I’d definitely recommend this game. It’s fun from novice to expert and you’ll get to interact with some great music from the last 25+ years.

Verdict: BUY