Monday, March 19, 2007

DVD Review ( Friends: Season 8 )

Friends has had some rocky seasons the past few years, but they have slowly but surely been getting better. Let's see how season 8 turns out.

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[*] Indicates a "Season Great"

The One After "I Do": 4.25/5 Everyone finds out that Rachel is really the one that is pregnant, but no one knows the father yet; Ross tries to impress one of Monica's co-workers.

[*]The One With The Red Sweater: 4.5/5 Ross and Chandler attend another wedding and take fake pictures at another person's wedding; Joey finds a red sweater, and Phoebe may think it's Tag's, Rachel's assistant.

[*]The One Where Rachel Tells: 4.5/5 Rachel tells everyone that Ross is the father of her baby; Monica and Chandler get jealous when another honeymoon couple gets everything before they do.

[*]The One With The Videotape: 5/5 Ross and Rachel argue who came onto who the night Ross knocked her up; Everyone finds out by a line Joey started that Rachel came onto Ross first; Chandler and Monica get a fake number from the couple at the honeymoon.

[*]The One With Rachel's Date: 4.75/5 Phoebe dates a guy that she wants to dump the same day Monica wants to fire him; Ross finds out Chandler's been called Toby by a co-worker for 5 years; Joey gets Rachel a date with one of his co-stars.

[*]The One With The Halloween Party: 5/5 At Monica's Halloween party, Joey dresses up like Chandler, and Chandler dressed up with a rabbit. Ross comes as "Spudnik", and Chandler and Ross arm wrestly to see is stronger; Phoebe meet's Ursula's fiance and finds out she's lied to him about nearly everything.

[*]The One With The Stain: 4.5/5 Rachel wants to get an apartment in Ross's building, but she finds out that the lady in the apartment that she thought was dead is still alive; Chandler hires a made, and Monica thinks that she is stealing her clothes; Phoebe reminds Eric, Ursula's fiance, too much of Ursula.

[*]The One With The Stripper: 4.5/5 Chandler finds out Monica had a bachelorette party, so she gives him one, not knowing the "stripper" she hired was actually a hooker. Rachel tells her dad that she's pregnant, but he's furious when he finds out she's not marrying Ross, so he confronts Ross personally.

[*]The One With The Rumor: 5/5 Monica invites a friend from high school to her Thanksgiving dinner; Joey vows to eat an entire turkey; Phoebe and Chandler pretend to watch football to avoid helping out. ( Guest starring: Brad Pitt )

[*]The One With The Boots: 4.5/5 Monica buys very expensive boots and promises Chandler to wear them all the time. After a while they are killing Monica's feet but she doesn't tell it to Chandler.

The One With Ross's Step Forward: 4/5 Ross freaks out when Mona wants to send out joint Christmas cards and wants to have "the talk". Chandler tries to get out of spending time with his boss.

[*]The One Where Joey Dates Rachel: 5/5 Now that Rachel can't go on dates anymore due her pregnancy Joey decides to take her on a date. Monica and Chandler get a Ms. Pacman arcade game for a wedding present; Ross is late for his classes.

[*]The One Where Chandler Takes A Bath: 5/5 Monica turns Chandler on to the concept of a bath to relax. Rachel and Ross learn the baby's sex (a girl). Everybody finds out about Joey's feelings for Rachel.

The One With The Secret Closet: 4.25/5 Chandler becomes obsessed with finding out what is behind the door of Monica's secret closet. Phoebe feels betrayed when she discovers Monica has been using a different massage therapist.

[*] The One With The Birthing Video: 4.5/5 Phoebe gives a birthing video to Rachel. Monica, Rachel and Chandler freak out when they watch it.

[*] The One Where Joey Tells Rachel: 4.5/5 Joey confesses his love for Rachel, but Rachel politely and lovingly turns him down.

The One With The Tea Leaves: 4.25/5 Phoebe determines through tea leaves that she'll soon meet the man of her dreams.

[*] The One In Massapequa: 4.5/5 Monica writes a speech for her parent's 35th wedding anniversary. Phoebe dates Parker (Alec Baldwin), who's very enthusiastic about everything.

[*] The One With Joey's Interview: 4.5/5 Joey prepares for an interview with Soap Opera Digest, although he's afraid of appearing stupid, so he enlists his friends to make sure things go well.

[*]The One With The Baby Shower: 5/5 Phoebe and Monica prepare for Rachel's baby shower and forget to invite Rachel's mother. Joey auditions for a job as a game show host.

[*]The One With The Cooking Class: 4.5/5 Monica's cooking skills get a bad review in The Post. After confronting the critic who wrote it, she decides to join a cooking class, with Joey in tow.

[*]The One Where Rachel Is Late: 4.75/5 Joey invites Chandler to his movies premiere but Chandler falls asleep during it. Monica and Phoebe bet on when Rachel's baby will come. Rachel's water breaks.

The One Where Rachel Has A Baby (Pt. 1): 4.25/5 Monica and Chandler decide to have a baby; Rachel and Ross get a non-private room at the hospital.

[*]The One Where Rachel Has A Baby (Pt. 2): 4.75/5 Rachel delivers her baby after 47 hours of labor and names it Emma; Joey accidentally proposes to Rachel and she out of nowhere says yes.

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Friends: Season 8 is a good one. While there are a few forgetable episodes, several of them are absolutely fantastic. The One Where Joey Dates Rachel, The One Where Chandler Takes A Bath, and The One With The Baby Shower are freakin' great episodes. Season 8 is one of the better seasons of Friend's, BUT, not the best.

4.75/5

Game Review ( Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles - 360 Arcade )

Graphics: 4/5 For coming out in 1989, the game really doesn't look all that bad. Sure the game looks really cheesy and the animation and movements aren't realistic, but give the game a break. It looks pretty good, even 18 years later.

Sound: 4.25/5 To be honest, I don't really pay all that much attention to the sound in this game. But the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles theme song is so good, it deserves a decent rating.

Control: 3.75/5 A little bland and simple - and that isn't neccesarily a good or bad thing in some cases, but for this game, it isn't good. All you do is move with the analog stick, and press A to jump, and X to attack, or B+X at the same time to do your "special attack", which can be done at any time, as long as you want. I recommend using it, because your opponents will die a lot faster.

Fun: 3.5/5 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is what it is - a fun game to run through a couple times, and then forget about. There is co-op mode, and co-op achievements, but that's all there really is. There's leader boards too, but whoop-de-doo. This game is really only for someone who remembers playing it back in the day or has any interest in the Ninja Turtles. If you don't, and you're an achievement whore, this game still isn't for you. This game is not easy to get achievements for. Overall, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is really just a game to bring back memories at the arcade.

Achievement Difficulty: 9/10

I've only had this game for 2 days, but even so, the achievements are always going to be hard. Achievements that ask you to not get burned by a flame thrower by a boss, frozen by a trap, and not getting turned into a normal turtle while facing Shredder are all difficult. Unless you play the game twice through on co-op and let your buddy get it the one time, and have him let you get them the second time, it will be very hard to get the achievements in this game, since you can't skip certain chapters to play certain bosses. I'd say that someone who devotes about an hour to the game will only get about 30-50 achievement points - and a person playing without co-op may only get about 30-50 if they play the game several times through. ( The game only takes maybe 30-45 minutes to beat )

3.5/5

1 Year Anniversary! ( March 19th 2006 - March 19th 2007 )

Well, it's already been a year. Over 200 reviews in one year. It hasn't been much of anything. Of course, I first started copying my Amazon.com reviews over to this website, but then I gave up on Amazon.com and started posting everything right here. After this one year I have gotten new stuff. Got rid of my PSP and DS, but recently got another new DS Lite, had to get a new PS2 because my old one broke, I got an Xbox 360 on July 24th, and I also got a Nintendo Wii on December 2nd. From this year, to next year, there will be many more reviews - unless I die or something. Anyways, thanks to anyone who actually likes or even looks at my blog. Call me whatever you want: [GGR], [TBR], or [MBR], but it's the one year anniversary. Also, I'm changing my name now and forever this time, and just calling this blog [47]. The tag will from now on be:

www.47reviews.blogspot.com

Thanks again.

[MBR]

Saturday, March 17, 2007

DVD Review: Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story

In Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story, Peter LaFleur ( Vince Vaughn ) has to find a way to earn $50,000 in only a month or he'll lose his gym, Average Joes. Glo Gordon ( Stephen Root ) tells Peter that they should enter a dodgeball tournament, seeing as how the grand prize is $50,000. Peter and his friends enter the dodgeball tournament and win their first game, only because one of the opposing players used anibolic steroids, and tested positive for beaver tranquilizer. At a celebration party, White Goodman ( Ben Stiller ) from Globo-Gym ( The gym that plans to take over Peter's gym ) intimidates Peter and his players by showing off Fran Stella Noskovich Der Vinivisckvy, the best female dodgeball player in the world. Afterwards, Patches O'Hoolihan, ( Rip Torn ) a former professional dodgeball player, offers to help out Peter and his team by teaching them how to play the game. With the five D's of dodgeball: Dodge, Duck, Dip, Dive, and... Dodge, Peter and his team enter the tournament in Las Vegas. While about to enter the finals, Peter thinks about quitting out, until being motivated by Lance Armstrong, who tells him that he thinks he and his team can win. ( End of the movie spoiler ) Peter regroups with his team, and manage to make it to sudden death. Peter and White face off against eachother, and Peter wins. In a former deal that Peter made accepting $100,000, he bet that his team would win. Making his total earnings for the game $5,000,000. Peter LaFleur takes over Globo-Gym, while White Goodman gains back his weight he once lost.

Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story is probably one of the best comedies I have ever seen. Not only is it an original movie, it has great actors that offer really great jokes, and the story is good too. The only flaw with this movie is that there aren't really enough scenes of dodgeball - only at the end do you see a lot. Vince Vaughn and Ben Stiller are comedic geniuses in this movie, and it is definitely the best movie I've seen from either of them. Dodgeball won't dissapoint anyone who likes comedy movies - it's a lot of fun to watch more than once.

5/5

DVD Review ( Seinfeld: Volume 6 )

So it's been awhile since I've reviewed Seinfeld on DVD, so here is my review of the most recent volume released. ( It came out back in November of 2006 )

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[*] Indicates a " Season Great "

The Engagement: 4.25/5 Elaine has trouble sleeping because of a dog and has Newman and Kramer help her with the situation; George gets back with Susan and gets engaged.

The Postponement: 4.25/5 George decides he wants to postpone the engagement; Kramer and Jerry go in to see a movie, and Kramer brings in a Cafe Latte. Kramer burns him self, and tries to sue the place he bought it from.

[*]The Maestro: 4.5/5 George helps out a security guard at Susan's uncle's store; Kramer gets a settlement that lets him have a free coffee from anywhere he got his Cafe Latte before; Jerry asks about a house in Tuscany.

[*]The Wink: 4.5/5 George gets grapefruit in his eyes, and his winks get misinterpreted; Kramer promises a sick boy in the hospital that Paul O'Neil would hit 2 homeruns just for him to get back a brithday card he sold.

[*]The Hot Tub: 4.5/5 Kramer gets a hot tub in his apartment; Elaine let's a marathon runner stay in her apartment who missed the Olympics the year before from over sleeping.

[*]The Soup Nazi: 4.75/5 George and Elaine are bothered with how Jerry and his girlfriend act around them; Elaine gets banned from the Soup Nazi's kitchen for a year; George makes a mistake by asking for bread; A couple of faggots steal the armoire Kramer is trying to protect for Elaine.

The Secret Code: 4.25/5 George refuses to tell Susan his secret code for his bank account; Elaine dates an amnesiac; Kramer takes a ride on a firetruck.

The Pool Guy: 4.25/5 Jerry meets a "pool guy" and can't get rid of him; Kramer's number is the same as the Moviefone number, and starts giving out movie times.

[*]The Sponge: 4.5/5 Elaine buys a lot of sponges, but still doesn't know who she thinks is "spongeworthy".; Kramer doesn't want to wear an AIDs ribbon.

[*]The Gum: 5/5 Lloyd Braun brings back some gum from a Chinese market that he has everyone try; Elaine accidently "reaveals herself" to Lloyd. Jerry tells Lloyd he wears glasses, so has to wear obnoxiously big ones that he can't see through.

[*]The Rye: 4.75/5 Elaine dates a saxophonist and makes the mistake of saying they are "hot and heavy"; Kramer gives a horse Beef-a-Reeno, which makes Susan's parents want to get off a very short lived horse ride.

The Caddy: 4.25/5 Kramer gets a caddy for golf tips, and life tips; George leaves his car at work, having his employeers thinking he's working overtime.

[*]The Seven: 4.5/5 Kramer heals Elaine's back after she pulled it trying to get a bike off the rack, and Kramer wants the bike for his duty; George get's mad when someone steals the name he wanted to use for his own child - Seven; Jerry's girlfriend always wears the same dress.

The Cadillac: 4/5 Morty Seinfeld gets impeached for the marble rye incident in New York that Jerry caused; Susan thinks Elaine is having an affair with George; George gets obsessed with Marisa Tomei.

The Shower Head: 4.25/5 Elaine is tested positive for Opium; Kramer and Jerry hate the new shower heads installed in their apartments; Jerry's upset to find out his parents are going to be staying in New York.

[*]The Doll: 4.75/5 Frank turns George's room into a billiards room and plays with Kramer; George is disturbed by a doll that Susan has that looks just like his mom; Jerry is amazed over a new tooth brush.

The Friars Club: 4.25/5 Kramer takes in sleeping patterns like Da Vinci; Mr. Peterman hires a deaf man. ( Played by Rob Schneider ) Elaine has to take in work that the deaf man acts that he can't hear; Jerry loses a jacket from the Friar's Club.

The Wig Master: 4.25/5 George get's an unwanted house guest that is a "Wig Master"; George finds a condom in his car; Kramer looks like a pimp.

[*]The Calzone: 5/5 George gets Mr. Steinbrenner hooked on calzones; Kramer starts baking his clothes for warmth; Elaine gets mad at her "boyfriend" for never actually asking her out.

[*]The Bottle Deposit: 4.75/5 Kramer and Newman find a plan to try to be able to get to Michigan for a bottle deposit without losing a lot of money on gas; George is sent to a crazy house by Steinbrenner.

[*]The Wait Out: 4.5/5 Jerry and Elaine try to move in and get dates with a couple that just broke up; Kramer has trouble getting out of his pants.

[*]The Invitations: 4.5/5 Jerry proposes to a woman he thinks is the one for him; Kramer tries to get $100 by a bank's hello rule flaw; George wants to get out of his relationship with Susan; Susan dies from licking toxic glue on wedding invitations.

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Seinfeld: Volume 6 is a kind of dissapointing season. While it does have some real classics such as The Calzone, The Soup Nazi, and The Gum, a lot of the episodes are pretty filler. There aren't many memorable moments from this season, but there are some. Seinfeld: Volume 6 has some great extras and stuff, but there are better seasons. Still, this is a great buy, as it does have some really good episodes.

4.5/5

Wednesday, March 07, 2007

Game Review ( MLB 2K7 - 360 )

Graphics: 4.5/5 Although the players look fantastic, ( for the most part ) some are just flat out ugly to look at. The Detroit Tigers have a lot of players that look like the real thing, but one example of one that doesn't is Magglio Ordonez. He has short hair, which that alone makes him look like a completely different person, and his face also looks melted in a way - it looks virtually nothing like him. On another subject, the stadiums look pretty decent. Sightly fields like Yankee Stadium, Fenway Park, and Comerica Park all look pretty good - Comerica especially. Now for the audience - Ugly. Compared to games on past consoles, they look really good - they're all in real life animation, but every three people have the same movement and usually look exactly the same. So if one player with a red shirt crosses his arms, the guy sitting two seats next to him that looks like his twin brother does the same. The weather and game clock in this game is screwy as well. When it rains in game, it will often be blue skies, and the rain causes nothing but a distraction. Jersey's don't get wet, and neither does the field, so all you see is a line of grey going down your screen randomly at times. Also, a small thing I noticed, is that for Detroit Tiger's home games, it says it's in central time, when Detroit is in the eastern time zone. And one last thing. Hypothetically, if you were the New York Yankees playing the Boston Red Sox in the bottom of the ninth inning at Fenway Park with the game tied and hit a grand slam over the fence via Jason Giambi, the crowd wouldn't be phased. They don't jump up, they remain seated. Also, the players don't really get all that excited. It's just the little things that count.

Sound: 3.75/5 The sound is nothing fantastic or unique. I'd say 40% or so of what I hear from this game is from past versions of the game. MLB 2K5, for instance, had a LOT of the lines that are in this game. The exact same ones, too, and it's pretty annoying. Other than that, there's not much to talk about. The bats crack at the sound of the homerun, the crowd cheers non-stop with no real uproar at any time. Like I pretty much said, if you were to win the World Series, the fans would still be at their normal constant sound, and the players wouldn't do anything fantastically interesting at all. It's almost like no one in the stands is watching the game. There is a soundtrack in this game, with songs from Sublime, 311, Nirvana, Wolfmother, and several more bands, but that's nothing new. The sound is just average.

Control: 3.75/5 Everyone that played MLB 2K6 for the 360 knew the game was messed up control-wise, and everyone wanted MLB 2K7 to control better. Well, it does and doesn't. Here comes the big reason why it doesn't control all that well. When you are running the bases, there will be times where your player on a base will stop in the middle of the base path and not run acting like he doesn't know the ball will be in or not, when it already is in play. The new control bat stick feature is also kind of weird. It's unique, but doesn't function perfectly. Basically, you pull back on the right stick and let go for a contact swing, and pull back and push forward for a power swing. Thing is, you can't exactly hit the ball where you want it to go all the time like the game claims you can. Anothing thing is when you try to rob a player of a homerun. If the ball is able to be caught, you can TRY to steal the homerun by running up to the wall, but often when you try this, your player dives face first into the wall instead of doing what you want. This is really frustrating, and it most likely will follow by several controller whippings to the ground. Another new thing this year is that your catcher will give you signs with his mit with what pitch to throw, and in what spot. Since you will likely give up a lot of homeruns because of this, and/or pitch a lot of balls, it will make the game take longer to finish, and/or make you want to stab your catcher. I'm sure there are more little things to talk about, but none that I can think of right now.

Fun: 4.25/5 MLB 2K7 is definitely a solid game. The players have phenomenal graphics, and the game plays much better than MLB 2K6 in virtually every way. A new menu thing that you use when playing franchise mode is also awesome. It has a stat-tracker at the bottom of the screen, and it also shows stats, news, and everything else from around the league, all in one menu. It's really a great addition, and it should be used by ALL 2K games in the future. There is also online play, where you can have quick plays, tournaments, and online franchises. Roster updates are also most likely to show up, too. While MLB 2K7 is fun, it has its problems. The controls are pretty bad, the sound is re-used from past seasons, and the remarkable come back games that resemble those of the 2006 Tigers that happen nearly every time you're winning at all are just hugely unrealistic. MLB 2K7 may not be loved by every baseball fan, but it's your only choice if you have an Xbox 360. I think that if you like baseball or baseball games, you will like this game. Let's just hope the bugs can be fixed next year - at least a few.

Achievement Difficulty: 7/10

A lot of these achievements are pretty tough. Finish a perfect game on Pro difficulty or higher, 5 hit game with, steal six bases in a game, steal home plate, hit a single, double, triple, and a homerun in the same game with the same player ( Called "The Cycle" ... very hard to do in real life too ), 3 homeruns with one player in a game, and others, are all very difficult if done legitamately without doing some kind of cheap achievement point desperation act. Some achievements are easy, though. You can squeeze even 100 points out of this game with little to no effort.

4.25/5

Monday, March 05, 2007

Game Review ( Crackdown - 360 )

Graphics: 4.25/5 Up close, Crackdown doesn't look good away from the character models, but from afar when on a high roof, the game looks stunning. The water looks fantastically real, ( although when you jump in it, nothing happens ) and the buildings look unique and noticable from each city. The graphics are pretty strange, to be honest. The character models are cel-shaded, but the surrounding world isn't 100% cel-shaded - it's hard to describe. The explosions in this game are also AWESOME to look at, and the rag-doll physics are also a great addition.

Sound: 4/5 The radio in cars is full of boring music for the most part, but the explosions sound super cool, and your agency-talk-dude features some nice voice overs, albeit repetetive lines are looped over and over again. He will constantly tell you even through to the end of the game how to do things you learned the second you started the game. "There's a rooftop race near-by, agent. Finish the race to gain agility points, et cedra.

Control: 4.5/5 Everything is up to you. You do what you want, and for the most part, you can. When you jump onto window ledges, your agent USUALLY grabs on, and if not, he'll fall to the ground. Camera angles are also frustrating at times, too. But the lock on aim is almost flawless, although it does make the game quite a bit easier, but the fluid controls make this game shine.

Fun: 4.25/5 At first, Crackdown seems like nothing more than a GTA rip-off, but quickly you'll find out as your skills increase ( one of the best things in the game - gain experience in different categories like driving, firearms, explosives, agility, and strength, and you will gain experience to get better at driving, aiming, blowing stuff up, running and jumping, and lifting heavier objects. ) the game gets better and better. Although this game has its flaws - and several of them. The game is pretty easy to beat, and you will get your skills up within just 2 days if you play a lot. The bosses aren't tough to beat either, for the most part, and the online play is limited. Sure, there's Co-Op, but with only one other person, and it lags - a lot. Online play would be awesome if it was an MMO explosion fest, or something in the like. Crackdown will be bought by probably 90% of people for the Halo 3 Beta, but it's good enough that people that don't even give a shit about Halo will try this game. ( like me. ) So Crackdown, with some flaws, is a worthy visit for anybody looking for another fun sand-box game - or any achievement whore.

Achievement Difficulty: 5/10

I got 24 of the games achievements in the first 2 days. And a lot of the achievements are easier to get as soon as you get 4-stars in every class. So really, the only tough achievements are finding the 300 orbs, getting the 500 agility orbs, and getting through the stunt rings. Other than that, the game for anyone willing to put a few days into it will get about 300-500 achievement points.

4.25/5