What Kind Of A Name Is That??

Heroes of Newerth is releasing a new Hero - Flint Beastwood, an orc who wields two double-barreled shotguns in each hand.

Really, S2 Games? Are you so, completely out of ideas for names that you would blatantly rip one from good ol' Clint Eastwood? Even the gun-toting bit seems suspiciously similar. All those Westerns, even Gran Torino. Are you sure this new hero isn't just Clint Eastwood, except twenty years younger and painted in green?

But then again, I guess it's more about the gameplay, and I should probably stop worrying about any possible copyright infringements. Honestly, if S2 Games doesn't get in trouble for the whole thing, I'd be pretty excited for the new Hero. Attack speed seems a little bit fast, and his ultimate seems strangely alike Witch Slayer's (unless I am mistaken, and that giant nuke shot isn't his ultimate.) But overall, a nice addition.

R2-D2 Phone!

Like I've said, I'm not a big Star Wars fan. But this phone... this phone looks awesome. Props to whoever at Motorola thought to make an R2-D2 edition of the Droid 2. If only someone had the smart idea to do the same with the iPhone 4, my life would be complete. (Not really, but you know what I mean.)

One Movie, Two Endings

Apparently, Return of the Jedi was supposed to have a different, more bittersweet ending than what was actually put in the movie. Han Solo was supposed to die, the Rebels were supposed to be "in tatters", and Leia supposed to struggle as a queen.

I'm not a big fan of Star Wars, so I don't see the real impact of a different ending - if I watched the movie, I'd probably accepted either ending. After all, both would've been rather cliche.

Ending 1: Everybody lives, and everything is sugar and rainbows. Happily ever after. Fairy tales anybody?

Ending 2: Han Solo dies, Luke Skywalker disappears into the horizon, the Rebels are ruined, the new queen Leia tries to keep everything under control. Seems a lot like the endings to Hollywood drama movies nowadays, no?

To me, the endings really wouldn't have mattered. But I'm sure that, had the ending used been what was originally planned, the achievements of the characters would seem less fantastic.

An Editor's Ambition

There's a man named Jeff Deck, and he is on a mission - to change as many public typos and grammatical errors in signs across America as he can find. It all started with a sign that said "No Tresspassing". Yes, with two S's.

All I gotta say is, I support you all the way man. By taking this step, you are one step closer making this country a more proper place. Good on you.

You Think YOU'RE Daughter's Going To Die Of Drug Abuse?

Courtney Love was recently interviewed by Britain's You magazine, and confesses that she fears for her daughter, Frances Bean (that's a girl's name?), who is getting $40,000 a month, on top of an all-expenses paid mansion.

Of all people to be concerned, Courtney should be the last. Sure she's the mother, and its sweet and all, but I think her own behavior would mark her as a hypocrite. A drug addict, telling her daughter to not do drugs. Huh.


But then again, their relationship was a mess to begin with. Love loses custody of her daughter in 2003 due to drugs (surprise, surprise), regains it in 2005, then loses it again 2008.


At least there's some happy ending - Love protects Bean's wish for a normal life; she says, "Frances is so beautiful, but she doesn't want to be famous. She was offered the part of Bella in the 'Twilight' movies, and Tim Burton wanted her for 'Alice in Wonderland.' But she wants to go to college: she's very good at graphic novels. Frances will be fine, it'll be fine."


Aww, that's touching. Now get that blunt out of your mouth, that needle out of your arm, and go do some push-ups or something.

What? They're Not Split Yet?

Remember that foul ball incident involving Bo and Sarah? Yeah, there was an interview of them, in which Bo confirms their continued relationship, but Sarah let slip her intentions.

I'm still wondering why they haven't broken up yet. C'mon, the guy embarassed both himself and his girlfriend on national television. How do you go on after that? Maybe they're just staying together for the press - kinda like the Falcon's Balloon Boy, but more accidental than elaborate.

Another One?

The creators of BioShock and BioShock 2 released a statement last night about another project they're working on - BioShock Infinite.

I can't think of how they could improve the formula. The original was good, the sequel... shaped up. But now they're making a third one? I know the setting is different, but I don't see how they could make the overall idea of it different. The only thing I could wonder about is what kind of creepy crawlies there are going to be this time. In Rapture, it was crazed druggy splicers. What's this game going to be? Alcoholics?

New Trailer For F.E.A.R 3!

A new CGI trailer for the upcoming action-horror game was released. Check it out!

Hey, I Have An iPhone...

OkCupid did a study recently that apparently shows some very interesting statistics: that iPhone users have more sex than other smartphone owners.

This is most likely a joke, as much as I'd like to believe it to be true. They only tested 10,000 people. In a world of 6 billion people - heck, there are 300 million in the US alone - that's an extremely small sample (less than 0.0001% around the world, less than 0.01% in America). Are you sure you didn't just interview a bunch of Apple employee's?

Chaos Rings Ain't Gonna Circle My iPad

So Square Enix took the step to port Chaos Rings over to the iPad, improving the graphics and layout, but overall leaving gameplay untouched - for good reason, I guess. IGN gave it a 9/10, and added it to the Top Apps for the iPad.

But personally, I can't see the appeal in Chaos Rings. I am a huge fan of RPG's, but from what I've heard of Chaos Rings, there is little character development - it's just one monster after another. (By all means, correct me if I'm wrong on this point - I want to find a reason to buy this game) Just because there are good graphics, doesn't mean that the gameplay will be good. After all, 8-bit games like Meat Boy still sell just as well as any other downloadable game.

Until someone gives me a good reason to press that download button, this game stays off my iPad.

Giant Block-Lettered Typo

So some poor fella just mispelled the word "school", right in front of a school. What makes it so bad is that it's painted in giant letters on the road.

I could hardly imagine what was going through this man's head when he painted it. Probably something along the lines of "*distracted**distracted**distracted*Oh shit..." At least have the word out in front of you, for god's sakes - it's only six letters. This mistake is only going to add to the whole American stereotype. I don't hate Americans; in fact we Canadians are frequent customers of the American Thrift Shop ( year old TV reruns, I'm looking at you), so I'm usually just indifferent to what America does. But this mistake... makes me sad.

Galio's League Judgement

The League Judgement of League of Legends' new champion, Galio, is now out for everyone's viewing pleasure. Check it out!

Good For You, Portugal

I'm probably just internationally ignorant, but today I found out that over the past five years, Portugal has been hard at work quitting fossil fuels. It's said that 45% of their energy source is now renewable.

That is awesome! How is no other country following in their footsteps? Portugal is by no means poor, but neither could it be considered one of the most prosperous in the world. So if they could do it, why couldn't any other country? Sure America has more land and more people, but that just means renewable energy sources on a grander scale; instead of 10 wind turbines, make 100. Instead of one hydropower dam, make five. There shouldn't be any excuses for the destruction of our planet, the pumping of tons of sewage into clean waters and gases into the atmosphere, except that the few people which power and influence have been sitting on their asses for far too long. Though global warming is heavily debated, there's no doubt that pollution is a present and immediate threat. There needs to be change, and there needs to be change now. Everybody else seems to only go for the change part. But Portugal? They've got the change now.

That's Too Much, Even For Me

Billy Mitchell has once again raised the bar, setting a new world record on the classic Donkey Kong game, beating out the last title-holder by 1,100 points. However, it took him 2 hours and 42 minutes to set that record. That's a single run of the game.

Now I'm not saying that the record is not impressive - I'd be hard pressed to admit if I could even score 1/10 of what he scores. But when you spend almost an eighth of your day on a single run of the game... it's not the most beautiful mark on your social resume. I can't imagine anyone picking up ladies in a bar by going up to them and saying, "Hey babe... I set the world record for Donkey Kong..." Yeah, no, not going to happen.

Oh, and he didn't just set the record for Donkey Kong - he spent another 4 hours setting the world record for Donkey Kong Jr. I only have three words for you, Mr. Mitchell: Get. Out. More.

Fight or Flight? Flight, Apparently.

So this screwball (hah!), instead of protecting his girlfriend, steps out of the way of a foul ball to save his own hide. You can see the original video here.

Seriously, Bo? It's a foul ball - those don't fly that fast. You said you lost it in the light? You weren't even in the way of the ball - you were two feet away, with your hands outstretched. That's not protecting your girlfriend; that's a lame excuse for protecting your girlfriend. When you've got people like this.... yeah, as Deadspin aptly puts it, Chivalry is Dead.

Someone Didn't Get The Memo...

So finally the the World Health Organization ends the H1N1 pandemic alert. I honestly don't know what they've been doing - the who Swine Flu panic has been over for months now. I didn't even remember the Swine Flu until I saw this article, but it's only now that the WHO calls off the pandemic. I can understand the need for caution, but this is excessive.

Also unfortunate is the fact that H1N1 will never go away - it has now joined the list of a myriad of other seasonal flus. Oh joy, oh rapture, more flu shots.

Why? No, seriously, why?

This kind of testing I have never heard of, but now that I have, I feel nothing but shame for the people of British Columbia for letting this go on for so long. The fact that this kind of test even exists confounds me as to what its creator was thinking. I'm also extremely surprised that this kind of thing hasn't been discovered in any other country (unless I'm so ignorant I haven't heard about any other countries, in which case I apologize). Finally, I am astonished and disappointed that this abomination of a project was found in Canada, of all places. We're supposed to be one of the most friendly countries in the world (one comedian joked that if you wore a Canadian pin to the EU, they would respect you much more than if you openly admitted you were American), and yet we had one of the most disgust and vile experiments going on right under our noses. I know not the boundaries of my influence, but if it means anything to anyone, I'm sorry this ever existed.

Westboro Baptist "Why-has-no-one-done-something-about-this-yet?" Church

Whilst reading through a friend's praise of the events surrounding Prop 8, I was reminded of a certain anti-homosexual group that really got my goat. That group is known as the Westboro Baptist Church, infamous for its zero tolerance policy towards gays (more from their point of view here. More from a rational, normal person's point of view here). They've been known to picket the funerals of American soldiers and students, supposedly in the name of God. Their reasoning for all this? That "God hates gays above all other kinds of 'sinners'", and because of America's now homosexual-friendly constitution, God now hates America. They first came into the spotlight in 1998, where they picketed the funeral of a man who was beaten to death for his sexual orientation. Since then they have picketed numerous others, during all of which they have been quoted for saying extremely hateful comments, such as "Our attitude toward what's happening with the war is [that] the Lord is punishing this evil nation for abandoning all moral imperatives that are worth a dime" and "Thanks God for dead soldiers".

All I can say is - what was God thinking when he created THESE people?

P.S. Here's a pleasant little song, courtesy of Westboro Baptist Church, to end this post:

Westboro Baptist Church ft. Johnny B. - God Hates The World

P.S. Westboro Baptist Church is based in Topeka, Kansas. To the people of Topeka: What are you doing? Stop these people before they embarrass themselves more!

The $85,000 Zergling Rush

After buying exclusive rights to StarCraft 2 in Korea, GomTV announced recently that they would host monthly tournaments, in which players have a chance to win $85,000 dollars as first prize, all the way down to a $260 prize for being in the round of 64. The total prize pool per monthly tournament is projected to be around $170,000 USD. And here I was, thinking that putting the StarCraft 2 logo on the side of an Air Korea plane was outrageous.

This is the kind of breakthrough StarCraft 2 has been waiting for. Many have criticized the game for taking such a long time to release (Development started 2003, put on hold for a year in 2005, announced in 2007, and finally released in 2010), as well as theorized that the sequel would not, in the long run, achieve as much as the original StarCraft had (as indicated by my previous post). This announcement would prove that completely wrong. In fact, this GomTV initiative is far greater than much of what StarCraft had originally achieved (SC2 games would be broadcast 5 times a week, as compared to SC's one to two times). Once again, the Koreans have shown their love for Blizzard's latest achievement, and for that, I thank them.

Welcome to the Jungle!

Greetings to whoever is reading this!

As a result of a college project, I have decided to attempt to take up blogging. Not only will this help introduce me to more news, it will give me somewhere to spend some of my time, aside from gaming and watching random YouTube videos.

To start us off, here are a few posts I had done as part of the project. You may agree, you may disagree. Either way, sit back and enjoy the mindless ramble that will probably be my blog posts.