Sunday, May 16, 2010

Game Review (Stick Skater - iPhone App)

Graphics: 3/5 Completely simple, but the game runs smooth.

Sound: 3.5/5 Pretty good for a low-budget looking game. The sounds get a little irritating after awhile, but as usual, you can listen to your music while playing.

Control: 3.5/5 Almost too simple. There are two options - one that allows you to press a button to do a random trick, or one that allows you to flick in a certain position to do a specific trick. This makes it simple for any one of any age to play.

Fun: 3/5 Stick Skater is decent, but it won't keep you entertained for long. It's a buck, and that's all it's worth - if that. The game is redundant, plain, and simple.

3/5

Wednesday, May 12, 2010

Food Review (Lean Cuisines)

So, you're looking to lose weight ... or maybe just find some new frozen meals. In this - hopefully brief - post, I'll rate the Lean Cuisines I have had.

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Alfredo Pasta with Chicken & Broccoli: 3.75/5 As with any other Lean Cuisines I'll be reviewing, lacks a strong flavor. Cheese is of course quite fattening, and the alfredo sauce here doesn't have a LOT of flavor. The vegetables are nice and the noodles are good, but you only get about 2 or 3 decent sized chunks of chicken, and a somewhat bland tasting sauce.

Baja-Style Chicken Quesadilla: 4.5/5 It's a new one, and a good one. The only thing upsetting about this thing is the fact that it doesn't last long at all. It's one of the smaller Lean Cuisines, but I'm telling you the only downside is the size.

Cheese Ravioli: 3.5/5 First time I had it, I really liked it. Each time I've had it afterwards, I've grown to like it less and less... the cheese just... doesn't taste very good. The sauce is great, don't get me wrong, but that cheese... ehh. It should also be known that from what I can tell, this has the lowest amount of calories of all the Lean Cuisines at 220.

Chicken Carbonara: 4.5/5 One of the first Lean Cuisines I had, the Chicken Carbonara is delicious. Good chicken, even better sauce. Definitely one of my favorites.

Chicken Enchilada Suiza: 5/5 Has to be my favorite of them all. The official website has this given a 3/5 rating, which I think is pretty unbelievable. The chicken in the enchilada, the sauce, the rice... everything's perfect. As with the quesadilla, the only problem here is the size. I wish there was MORE!

Chicken Parmesean: 4.5/5 The box lies as far as the amount of cheese on the chicken - there is quite literally none to be seen after cooking - but the chicken tastes good, the noodles and sauce are basically perfect. Impossible to not recommend this one.

Chicken Philly Flatbread Melt: 4.5/5 What can be said? Good chicken and cheese, but the peppers really make this stand out. More calories than most Lean Cuisines, but it really is worth it.

Grilled Chicken Caesar: 2.75/5 It's edible, but one of my least favorite Lean Cuisine varieties... it's just about flavorless. The chicken has a decent flavor, but there are some disgusting looking pieces in there, and... this is just overall pretty bland.

Lemon Chicken: 3/5 The sauce is pretty decent, but the rice isn't very good, and the chicken that you get is two VERY small patties that taste processed up the ass. It's not my favorite thing in the world - it's far from it - but it's not the absolute worst Lean Cuisine out there.

Sante Fe Style Rice and Beans: 5/5 One of very few vegetarian Lean Cuisine options, but even ones with meat don't get much better than this. It tastes quite similar to the Chicken Enchilada Suiza one - minus the chicken enchilada. Completely nomnomnom.

Sesame Chicken: 4.5/5 Not a LOT of flavor, but enough. I would probably give this a 5 if it weren't for the fact that I've had this a couple times where the chicken has had... bones, or so it seems, in it. Okay, that sounds disgusting. REALLY disgusting. But yeah. yo uneed to try this if you haven't yet.

Steak Tips Portabello: 4.5/5 The steak tips are tender and delicious, and the broccoli ends up perfectly steamed after being cooked. I add just a bit of salt to the broccoli, but this is just another really, really good Lean Cuisine.

Sweet and Sour Chicken: 4/5 I hadn't had sweet and sour chicken before this dish, but I must say, I am a fan. I don't like pineapple, so that turned me off a bit, but the sweet. The sour. The taste. Very unique and I like it quite a bit.

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That was just a review of one-tenth of all the Lean Cuisines currently available. In case you don't want to look, that makes for a total of 120 out there. About 80% or more of the ones I have had I'd try again, and most of these I highly recommend. Lean Cuisines aren't cheap, or largely portioned, so I'll just say if you do decide to eat them, do it slowly. That way it feels like you're eating more than you actually are.

Friday, May 07, 2010

Album Review (The Outsiders by NEEDTOBREATHE)

This kind of music isn't generally my thing, but NEEDTOBREATHE's Bear Rinehart has a ridiculous voice that almost reminds me a bit of the singer from Kings of Leon. Thing is, I find that Bear has better range. The Outsiders has some ridiculously catchy fun-to-sing songs while still having a good number of slower tracks as well. I basically like every song on this album a lot with a few exceptions. "Stones Under Rushing Water" and "Let Us Love" are decent, but are clearly the weak tracks in my opinion. I didn't care much for NEEDTOBREATHE much at all at first, but 214 listens later, they're my 9th most listened-to band on Last.FM.

4.5/5

Thursday, May 06, 2010

Food Review (Double Down from KFC)

Apparently the Double Down came out last year in Rhode Island and Nebraska... why? I have no idea why such random ass states. Anyways, it came out recently nationwide and I had one like... 3 minutes ago. Basically, it's called the Double Down because it's two pieces of bacon, two pieces of cheese, Colonel's Sauce, [Cum?] and two pieces of original recipe or grilled chicken. (your choice) Like probably 80% or more of people, I got the original recipe. The thing costs five bucks so I was expecting something epic. You know what? I was disappointed... for a few reasons. First of all, the thing is pretty small. The cheese was hanging off the sides, and wasn't even melted... bummer. As for the taste, all you really taste is chicken. I found the cheese to be pretty much tasteless. The bacon was pretty decent, but the two little pieces you get go away in a bite each. The Colonel's Sauce [Cum?] is pretty good, I would probably ask for extra sauce if I were to get this again. Overall, the Double Down is... decent. $7 for the sandwich, a 16 oz. drink, and a side of potato wedges. Pretty expensive, but it's worth a try. The chicken is of course good, but that's almost all you really taste. I might get this again, but not in the near future.

+ Cool idea. The bacon and sauce are nice additions.
- Cheese is pointless, bacon sort of is too. Price is too high. Greasy as all hell.

3.5/5

[By the way, the original recipe variation of the Double Down has 540 calories - the same amount as a McDonald's Big Mac.]

Food Review (Filet 'o Fish from McDonalds)

Now, I don't normally review 'regular' items from fast food menus, but I figured this one is worthy since I had my very first Filet 'o Fish yesterday. Not being a very big seafood fan at all, I was very skeptical... but I wanted to try something different... and so I did.

First impression was, "Shit, this thing's tiny." I don't remember what the cost was, but I know that normally, they're pretty expensive. I took off the top bun and took a whiff. It smelled pretty fishy. There was half a slice of American cheese underneath the filet, and a nice glob of relishy tartar sauce.

I took a bite. The smell is a lot stronger than the taste is, I can say that. Personally, not being a fan of fish, I didn't care for it - that's not to say I hated it - but the relish-tartar sauce concoction really made the sandwich. The bun was also soft and had a hint of sweetness to it. The American cheese, other than seeing it was there, did nothing for me. I didn't taste it at all.

The Filet 'o Fish from McDonalds isn't a very big sandwich at all, yet still weighs in at - I believe - 380 calories. If you like fish, you probably won't care for this too much because it doesn't taste very fishy. If you don't like fish, you'll probably find it quite edible, mainly because of the sauce, but might not buy it again.

3.5/5

+ Sauce!
- Price, size. Just not a good value.