Today’s daily entertainment is another game from Hallpass (link). It’s easily my favorite flash game site, since it has relatively decent sorting (unlike most) and that nifty little summary thing when you scroll over a game’s preview image.

The game today is Hedgehog Launch (link). The first thing you’ll notice about this game is that it has pretty graphics, which is nice to see in a Flash game, even though it’s only intended to hold your attention for about a half an hour. (read more)

As I was hitting the usual point in my day when I find out that I have absolutely nothing to do, I searched my usual emergency entertainment sites to try to find something that would entertain me long enough for me to find something else I wanted to do.
Today, it was Bomb a Bomb (hyperlink), a relatively simple flash game on Hallpass.
The idea of the game is simple. If you’ve played a lot of arcade-ish games before, you’ve seen this game concept before. The basic objective is to hit the minimum number of bombs on the screen with a series of directional explosions that all move in a set direction. For example, hitting a regular bomb creates a little fireball explosion directly up, directly left, directly right, and directly down. Eventually, there are other bombs introduced that create diagonal fireballs and such. (read more)

A Nintendo Power cover was recently leaked (and trust me, despite all attempts to prove it for a fake photoshopped cover, it is indeed real), that shows Sonic with a SWORD and ARMOR on his right arm. Everyone looks at this and simply laughs. Sega is already working on Unleashed, and Bioware is working on RPG, why would another game even need to be released? Well, there are reasons, poor ones at that, but honestly, all Sega is doing is bringing a chainsaw to the dead body that is the Sonic games. (read more)

Lab Rats is a new BBC show which started a little over a week ago in the middle of BBC2’s “Thursdays Are Funny” evening schedule. I actually had reasonably high hopes for the show, as it sits on the schedule after Mock The Week, which is possibly the funniest thing on television right now, and before the superb Still Game. I was hoping that it’d fit into the slot between the shows to create a superb evening of solid comedy. The trailer put the show in good light, and I was somewhat looking forward to it, thinking that it’d replace the now-finished Big Bang Theory as my source of nerd-based comedy each week.

As you’ve probably guessed by now, it didn’t do that at all. There’s only been two episodes out of the six-episode series so far, but as of yet it’s pretty dire. If it was any worse it’d be so bad that it’d actually be funny, but unfortunately it’s stopped just short of that mark in the zone where it is actually just rubbish.
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It’s hard to deny that the PS3 has certainly caused quite a ruckus amongst the gaming community. Comic strips have been made entirely to criticize it, YouTube videos have been made centered around Kaz Hirai’s unfortunate “five-hundred and ninety-nine US dollars” statement, and the backlash from developers and gamers alike has sounded loudly throughout the market. People are dissatisfied with Sony. They’ve taken every wrong step that’s been possible to take when marketing their console. They’ve had terrible, embarrassing advertisements. In the promotion they did get right, they focused on the Blu-Ray part of the console, completely disregarding the fact that people were looking for good games, not for some fancy-ass new type of DVD. They’ve refused price cuts, they’ve bored us to death with presentations full of nothing… (read more)

I remember the good old days when I used to go to the video store nearly every week to rent Mario Party and play the game hours on end. Being as obsessive as I am about board games, it really was the perfect video game for me. It was the first and only video game that injured me. However, pain was an important part of Mario Party. Rotating that control stick at intense speeds was unlike anything else I had ever experienced in a video game. Finally pulling the opposing team to their doom in the mini-game Tug o’ War gave me a sweet sense of satisfaction and I only craved more. I remember when I beat Mario Party completely and seeing all the characters jumping up and down excitedly on a giant star accompanied by the words “We are the Super Stars!” literally gave me chills. I had felt like I truly accomplished something. Those were the days. (read more)

General Information:

* Developer: Konami
* Publisher: Konami
* Genre: Action/Adventure
* Released: December 5, 2006
* Multiplayer: 1-4 players
* ESRB Rating: Teen

Story

The story of Portrait of Ruin (PoR) is based in the year 1944. With the Second World War in full swing countless lives are lost to the war and tortured souls are roaming the Earth. The evil and hatred of the lost souls has led to the rise of Dracula’s castle once again. (read more)

On June 26th, 2008, Alex and I attended Matthew Good, live at the Orpheum Theater in Vancouver. The venue itself was definitely different from others I’d been to for shows. Not only was it a maze (which took us a considerable amount of time to navigate through and find the merch and food), but it was also complete with naked women painted on the ceiling. The whole place just had a formal feel to it. I’d actually been there once before for my brother’s graduation. The sound was superb, though. Seats weren’t fantastic, but nothing to complain about.
The opening band, The Spades, were quite peculiar. Their sound varied quite a bit, and half of it I loved, half of it I hated. They literally seemed to alternate amazing and bad songs. They began their set with, “are you ready for the country?” and their first song was a pretty big letdown, but their second song made up for it. Their drummer was definitely entertaining. When he would get really into it, the whole venue would literally shake and there would be this deafening thunder. It was fantastic. The bassist was just very Irish, and the guitarist kept moving in a way that resembled horses neighing on their hind legs. Very country, in general. (read more)

Nas said “hip-hop died this morning. And now she’s dead”. Is it really? I tend to agree.

Let’s face it - we all cringe when the radio turns to that overplayed, nonsensical rap song that everyone seems to like. The beat is catchy, and the lyrics and themes really catch you. Too much hip-hop/rap these days focuses on topics that at one time in the genre, were considered rare. Sex, money, etc are all prevailing. And then there are those songs that don’t even have a distinguishable topic at all. These are the songs that are slowly killing the genre that was once valued as revolutionary.
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This week, I’ve decided to feature a slightly more famous artist. Well, you should know her under a different band, anyway. Emily Haines is both the vocalist and the poster child for hip rockers Metric, whose music has been featured on Grey’s Anatomy twice with “Monster Hospital” and “The Police and the Private”. Unlike many solo projects from members of popular bands, however, Emily Haines’s solo work, with a different band and under the name Emily Haines & the Soft Skeleton, deviates quite a bit from Metric’s high-octane pop punch formula. (read more)