Over all: I really like this game, but it is not perfect. Here is why I like it, I’ll give the good first. It’s fast paced. It’s old school. It plays just like Unreal Tournament 2k4. The same weapons with a new look. The controls are great. The sixaxis controller works really well, it might take some adjustments, it defaults to a slower smoother sensitivity, but if you want it to be twitchy like the pc version you can make it so. The graphics are indeed amazing. Not in the way we have come to expect though, this is gorgeous grime. Ut2k4 had this glassy glossy metallic look to it. This looks like they threw mud and oxidation on that and up’d the textures and bump maps. With cobble stone ground in some areas. Some of the more sci fi space maps are simply mind blowing. The good thing is that there are a lot of levels, and they vary immensely depending on the game type you are playing. To big and open to tight and claustrophobic, it is all here. The single player is decent enough and lets you get your head around the levels before going into multiplayer. I recommend playing the single player for a while honestly, I’ll explain why later in the cons. The new vehicles are amazing, The hover board adds a lot to the ctf levels. The Necris vehicles are where it is at though, The Necris Darkwalker is fracking amazing. There is another tentacle vehicle that rolls up into a ball, this is a blast as well. The aliens look awesome and intimidating. The cut scenes look great and high def. I also like the design of the new levels. This makes it a huge step up from 2k4. Below, to get the video trailer to play please click on the “Unreal Tournament III - Sinlge Player Trailer” text in the player window.

Now lets talk about what i don’t like. There is this strange future orient theme to some of levels that I don’t care for. I don’t like the gears of war meat head roided out super dumb military jock(all they need to add is a football helmet) characters that dominate the single player story, no neck Barry Bonds anyone? If mankind’s future is in the hands of these dumb jocks, please help us. They all look like they are wearing over sized futuristic moonboots as well, and does not fit well with how fast the game is, nothing that big and bulky and clumsy looking could possibly move as fast and nimble as they do. I think the art direction is way off here. Maybe it worked for gears of war, but it does not work at all here. Gears was a slow game. One good spin though, I am not stuck playing these characters in multiplayer, I can choose to play as the aliens, and then I get to shoot these dumb jocks, so there is a reward after all. This plays more like a cracked out quake. What is hurting the multiplayer more than anything is this rushed release and limited supplies. So when you get on a death match server its fine, but ctf is barren, hardly anyone playing, and the pings suck. I think this will pick up when the supplies are better and more people buy the game. After xmas things should get better. Everyone is still playing call of duty 4. This feels a little dated but I don’t care. They catered to much to the die hard unreal fans, and I think this may hurt them a little in the end. The 16 player limit is annoying. Seriously, some of those ctf maps are so huge, and only 8 people per side makes it feel like a barren wasteland with no one to fight at times. They should of slimed down the levels once they limited the player count to 16(maybe they plan on expanding the player limit later, who knows). Honestly, I think they wanted everyone to use the hover board more in these areas, so that makes sense and takes some getting used to. I am willing to bet, once the server are more active, this will not be as big of an issue. The documentation does not explain how in game voice chat works with your head set. I’m still trying to figure this out, I have read, that it is in this game. I hope it is.

So much is done right though. This plays extremely well, it’s tight and solid. The framerate is good even when a lot of stuff is going on. I recommend doing the full install, many people have reported bugs when playing it from the blueray dvd disc, so in the options do the full install, this may help relieve some of the problems from what I have read on various forums. Oh and let us not forget MOUSE AND KEYBOARD support on ps3. This is amazing. I thought I was over mouse and keyboard controls because of how used I got to the sixaxis in resistance and call of duty 4. Then I hooked up my USB mouse and keyboard, and started playing this. Oh man. I missed this control scheme so much. And playing this hd game with these controls on my 34inch trinitron xbr hd tv is a dream come true. This is what I was waiting for the whole time. I am going to demand this feature from now one in all first person shooters on the PS3. UT3 has it, now all the other fps games need to patch their games to have it as well. This is a MUST! Granted, I had to set up a tv tray to put my mouse and keyboard on, I didn’t care.. ahahha.

What sets this apart from other first person shooters? I think the warfare mode (used to be called onsalught in 2k4) is what sets it apart from the others. Ok I think the mechanics win out, and I prefer the fast game play, I get annoyed with how sluggish cod4 feels sometimes, this is the perfect cure for that. Warfare adds a lot to the team work and strategy of multiplayer fps games. You must take over nodes that connect to the enemies hq, once you have a path built and maintained and connected to the enemy hq, you can attack the hq core, once that is destroyed, your team wins. The nodes are cool. You have to guard them, and heal them with the link gun’s alt fire mode. This is my favorite multiplayer mode of all time, and what made me keep coming back to the dated unreal tournament 2004. I prefer the new version in UT3, They improved on it. This makes me very happy.

6.5 Presentation
The hd graphics rock, the art direction screwed up the humans to make them all look and sound like stupid jocks. The menus are last gen, I prefer how call of duty handles it’s online stuff. But it was cool that my buddy joined me when I thought I was playing single player campaign mode.

7.5 Visuals
This game looks ok on a 720p display. Explosions rock, the new giant vehicles rock, the bigger tanks rock. The space themed maps are amazing. The weapons look great. The textures are nice and gritty. Dystopia industrial hell look to everything. The animation is spot on as well. This is what they got right. But it looks washed and over all not as good as a lot of other stuff on the market.

4.0 Audio
This is crap. The music blows. The Audio quality sounds so compressed, the visuals look so amazing, and the sound is so crunchy and awful, there is no excuse for this. Don’t even get me started on the voice acting and dialogue, beyond awful, the way they use swear words is annoying and I usually am a fan of the crass as well, so that is really saying something. The bots swear at you and act like douche bags, and you cannot turn it off. This is so annoying.

9.7 Game Mechanics
This is old school gaming. Plays just like UT2k4. The sixaxis controls are spot on. But where this game simply pulls away when compared to other first person shooters on the ps3 is MOUSE AND KEYBOARD support. Way better controls than the sixaxis. Not kidding. Every fps should support MOUSE AND KEYBOARD on PS3. Sony needs to pressure the developers to add this to their games! This will give it the edge over any console, even the WII.

8.0 Replay
Multiplayer Capture The Flag with vehicles, there is nothing else out there like this, simply amazing. This is fast and frantic, makes other games feel like they are stuck in quicksand. Even Call of Duty 4 feels sluggish after playing this. Sony has opened up the ps3 development unlike anyone else. Epic will put out tools soon to allow users to make their own maps and graphics for this game. This game has a bright future, this is only the beginning.

7.0 Total Score.
(out of 10 / not an average)

And on my final note. I bought my ps3 because of this game, even before it came out, they announced the mouse and keyboard support, so for me, this is a system seller if you are rabid 2k4 fan like me. This is what sets the ps3 apart from the 360 as well. Mouse and Keyboard support. Finally the pc gaming experience in the living room. This is the first to deliver it. This game is not that innovative in the game play department. It feels old school, but the first to give us pc old school in the living room. That is fine by me, because unreal tournament 2004 was my favorite multiplayer fps ever made. If you loved ut2k4, then this is perfect for you. If you like call of duty 4, or graw2 or rainbow 6, this might totally throw you off. But these should not be compared, because they are totally different game experiences. The new vehicles give me enough to look past the fact that it is pretty much a retread of 2k4 with updated graphics. They changed onslaught mode to warfare mode, pretty much the same. The graphical updates on the CORES you blow up really convince you that you are damaging it, in 2k4 it was hard to tell visually, there are a lot of new details like this that refine the game above 2k4. I really like this game despite some of it’s short comings. I say this is a buy and not a rent because the user created content will be coming soon. Go buy it: Click here to buy UT3 for PS3.

After playing more, I’m adding this to the review. With mouse and keyboard control, there is no way to lower the raptors altitude, you can raise it by using the spacebar. I cannot find a key to lower it back down. I even checked the keyboard settings. No crouch control. So this totally sucks for playing those types of vehicles with mouse and keyboard. On the sixaxis you press in the analog sticks to raise and lower the raptor.. WTF.. I keep my sixaxis close. If I need to go down in the craft I just use the sixaxis for a sec. Another way is to eject and fall and hit e again to re board as your falling, cause the craft falls too. Also, your comrade soldiers have horrid AI, I mean as stupid as door nails. Ok, I forgot to mention the orbs, in warfare mode, you get these orbs that will take over a node with full health if you get it there without dying. The other soldiers always grab the orb, and then don’t deliver it. I’ve seen them with in 2 feet of the node, just standing there, or chasing after something else. More than anything i want to grab it, but they do first. Sometimes I just shoot at them for grabbing it, to bad there is no friendly fire. The most idiotic and frustrating thing i have seen in a video game for a really long long time. It fits right in with the art design, ball hog dumb jocks. Must of been how they wanted it. They had better fix this, it’s so damn annoying. Also, In the more advanced levels, it starts to slow down when there is a lot of action. Sometimes even the enemies will be napping, I mean dead still staring into oblivion, sometimes they jump to life, sometimes the just get shot and die with out reacting at all. I’m going to lower the score from an 8.6 to an 8.3 because of it. In multiplayer it’s not a big deal, but in single player campaign mode, it’s a huge deal. They had better fix these issues with a patch soon or I will be very pissed off.

Music Listened to while writing this review: Cocteau Twins - Blue Bell Knoll, Treasure, Pinkopake.

PS: The only reason call of duty 4 gets a higher score, is because the single player in cod4 is a must have experience. The art direction is better in cod4 as well. and the sound in cod4 is better too. Buy cod4 first, then this. Well, unless you prefer face paced action and mouse and keyboard, then its a no brainer, UT3 all the way.

LOL

Miyazaki is a genius. No way can disney or any other animator even come close to his brilliance. He has made many great anime movies and it was really hard for me to pick my favorite, but over all for sure, I know it’s “Spirited Away”. Please, I beg of you, only watch Studio Ghibli films in the native japanese language. Disney(disney is shit) gets crap voice actors and dumbs down the voice acting, it is the ultimate sin. Do not ever watch a Miyazaki film in english. Subtitled only! Disney ruins these films, i’m not kidding. So when you get this, turn the english off, and turn the subtitles on.

This is a very strange anime. That is what i love about it. Miyazaki always brings up nature and the environment in his movies and this is what allows me to relate to his work the most. He really cares about the earth and it shows in his films. Surreal, magical, other worldly best describes this film.

What does this film have? Cute characters that are not annoying like in american animation. An interesting and intellectual story with very cool twists. Very good animation quality. Excellent voice acting in original japanese. The cute little creatures are usually the highlights of his works. I normally hate cute stuff, but for some reason in Miyazaki’s films, I seem to really adore them.

This is one of my favorite animes. I like it way more than Akira even. Some of the scenes in this are so strange and well done it makes me feel like I am tripping or dreaming. Studio Ghibli’s films are very fantasy oriented, almost like an rpg type of story but 10 times better. I highly recommend checking this out. I give this a 5 out of 5. GO BUY IT! Click here to buy Spirited Away.

Treasure Ivo Lorelei Beatrix Persephone Pandora Amelia Aloysius Cicely Otterley Domino

If you like The Cure, Siouxsie, or anything in that vein, well this is kind of in that vein. 4ad, the label that brought us a lot of shoe gaze music, also gave us The Cocteau Twins. This music is strange and pretty with Kind of goofy(in a good way) vocals that sound alien. Elizabeth Fraser uses a mish mash of languages together to make the lyrics. Her voice is so unique and classical in this strange way. No one can really understand it. To me it is genius. The video below is for “Lorelei”, and is a fan video.

These are not the best Cocteau Twins songs, no, but to me this lp flows the best from start to finish, for that, I call it their best lp. There is this verb on everything, I don’t know how they managed it, maybe it’s just the room they recorded in but it puts this mood to the entire record. This dark mysterious kind of ambience. The songs ebb and flow like the ocean. Their musical talent is amazing. The vocals can be so light then so intense the next minute. The songs build and flow as if they were actual living beings. The Video below is for “Beatrix”, also fan made.

I love the tight drum machine sound. Punchy and mechanical rhythms. I think my favorite song on this lp is the opening track “IVO”. I love how this song rises and falls with the vocal melodies. Very magickal, The bell sounds go perfect with the melodies. The video below is for “Amelia”, its a fan video. not work safe, nudity, gore.

My Favorite tracks are: Ivo, Lorelei, Beatrix, Persephone, Amelia, Aloysius, and Domino. My second favorite track is persephone. This song is very heavy and has a more rock sound to it. I love how the vocals really fluctuate and waver. Watch the videos, and if you like this, please listen to more of their stuff, because a lot of it is really great.. The video below is for “Aloysius”.

Easily my favorite 4ad band. So relaxing, so beautiful, so elegant, and so very unique. There are not any bands making music at this level anymore. That is why I reach into the past for my reviews to show you what really influences me as an artist. This is the lp i listened to the most on my first european tour, it relaxed me before the show and got my nerves under control. Oh the power of music. Buy now! Click Here to buy Treasure! On that page you can also buy the mp3s at 256 for 8.99. good deal.

I’m getting angry, no one comments on these great bands i review. Please, if you like this, please talk about it… i would appreciate it.

To hell with Mr. miyagi. Do not think authentic kung-fu movies are like that american crap. In China they make them a lot differnt. More animated, more colorful, more action, much better acting. Well, I decided to review my favorite fictional supernatural martial arts film of all time. The Miracle Fighters. Directed by: Yuen Woo Ping. The same guy who did all the martial arts stuff for the matrix, this is something he did back in 1982. It’s old school, but man is this movie fun. Why do I recommend it? Because it’s trippy as hell. I mean this is one strange film, and for that, it gets my blessings. Subtitled only, sorry. I prefer the native tongue for the expressions in all foreign films and anime.

Yes, a magickal kung-fu movie. This movie is super cheese, but in that awesome way, you know in that 80s over the top in your face fun way. The special fx are neat for being old. The sets are great, the story is typical, but very interesting. The fight scenes are some of the best I have ever seen. The characters are fun like in that goofy anime kind of way. If any of you have seen the matrix and liked the fights in that, well thank the guy who made this film. This is his early work, and you can really see his true genius.

If you are into martial arts, like psychedelic stuff, or kung-fu movies. This is a must buy. I have watched this movie over 10 times, and i am still not sick of it. This is a cult classic for sure! Click here to buy The Miracle Fighters on DVD.

Over all: This was the first game I played on the playstation 3, at first I was not that impressed by it because I was playing it in 480i on a normal tv, but once I got 720p going, we were blown away. Todd and I played this together in split screen co-op mode. I wish more games had this. This is a typical first person shooter. Although there are a large amount of bad guys on the screen at once with no slow down, this is a real plus. The details are amazing as well. The game has this very drab look to it as well. There is no cover behind walls as in uncharted or ghost recon advanced war 2. So it is more like Doom, or Quake in over all game play. It does have that frantic fast urgent feel like unreal tournament as well. This is fine by me. I loved how panicked I felt when those bugs came after me for the first time. If you are into first person shooters, this is a must. The visuals have this grim grey look to them, but i love it. kind of like a Fincher movie. Not to mention that i love alien sci-fi stuff as well. Below, to get the video trailer to play please click on the “Resistance - UK Launch Trailer” text in the player window.

After all, this was made by the developers who also made Ratchet and Clank. So the weapons are very well done as they are in those games. I think that is what really sets this shooter apart from the others, The over all look of the game is like a WW2 shooter meets alien invasion with that Fincher(director of seven, the movie) drab look to everything. The online play is great, 40 player death match, and 16 player capture the flag. Seriously, 40 players, this is a first on a console. Another aspect of this game is ammunition management, because there seems to be a shortage of it, making you rely mostly on your stock weapons through most of the game. You can expect about 14 hours of game play in the single player mode. The enemy AI is ok, but could be better, they react to gun fire, but oblivious to grenades. This is a launch title, and still holds up even a year later. There are downloadable add ons for this game from the playstation network as well, some new multiplayer maps mostly. You can find this title used for a good price i think. So be sure and check this out if you have a ps3 and are bored.

6.0 Presentation
Most of the story is told with a slide show feel to it with still images and narration. This was fine on the ps1, not the ps2 and ps3.

8.2 Visuals
This is where the game shines, the detail, the muscles, the teeth, the environments are all at a level never seen before this game was released. The weapons fire, The boss battles. This game is pretty in that drab way.

8.0 Audio
Standard typical music. The voice acting is good however, and does make the story interesting despite the sub-par dated presentation. Gun fire and weapons sound great.

8.5 Game Mechanics
This was the game that broke my teeth on console first person shooters. It was a good thing, it taught me well. It handles great, aiming is smooth, and what i like about ps3 controls for this more than mouse and keyboard is, the screen all ways moves smoothly, it doesn’t jerk the screen around like mouse controls does.

8.0 Replay
The single player has a rewards type system, so it is cool to play through it at least 2 times. The multiplayer is great, especially the death match, which i think is the best console death match on the market, even better than call of duty 4. Capture the flag is kind weak though.

8.6 Total Score.
(out of 10 / not an average)

And on my final note. This company made two AAA titles in one year, This, and Ratchet and Clank. So we know the ps3 doesn’t have to have frame rate issues, and that it is not as hard to make games on despite some people’s lazy i’ll founded claims, BS, this company has shown what you can do and still probably hasn’t even tapped into 50% of the power under the hood of the ps3. Seriously, this company rocks and deserves money for their great efforts. You should be able to find this used at a game store or go buy it new: Click here to buy Resistance for PS3.

Music Listened to while writing this review: The Tear Garden - Tired eyes slowly burning.

Do not even bother with the movie, get the full series, it is much much better. This is my favorite mecha based anime series. I prefer it over evangelion, they are both similar, but the artwork and story is better in rahxephon. Both are great though. It has been a while since i have watched it, but i want to again. I remember the fights being very epic. There is a ton of emotion and teen angst. Plot twists. Some of the scenes are breath taking and beautiful. Blue blood anyone?

I loved how the mecha use song and sound to cause devastation. This is avery cool concept and ov course me being a musician, it especially appealed to me. I love how the main character keeps drawing the same girl over and over. The fate and destiny aspects of this are great. The story gets pretty emotionally heavy in parts.

You owe it to yourself to watch this. It is deep, great story, heavy, very pretty, amazing. I love how a lot of the characters feel alienated constantly. I can really relate to this aspect of it. I think that is why it is one of my favorite animes. I give this a 5 out of 5. GO BUY IT! Click here to buy Rahxephon the complete set.. If you can’t spare 90 bucks, rent it from netflix or something. you won’t regret it.

Too Dark Park Convulsion Tormentor Spasmolytic Rash Reflection Nature’s Revenge Shore Lined Poison Grave Wisdom T.F.W.O. Morpheus Laughing Reclamation

The bad trip. That is what this cd is to me. But this is a good thing. I listened to it on lsd a lot back in the day. It all ways made things way more intense and amazing. But it is a bad trip. The title says it all. That being said, let me proclaim, this is the best puppy record, not only that, I think this is the best industrial lp of all time. I all ways hated that label, because to me, I always saw puppy as spooky soundtrack music that you could dance to if that makes any sense. I always loved tripping to puppy, because it was like an intense movie experience. This was also the best puppy tour ever. I saw this back then, and by far, it was the best of all the tours they ever did. The stilts and hanging from the ceiling was awesome. Manson totally ripped off the stilts and used it on his shows and videos. Lucky for us, there is a lot of video to go with this era of puppy. I hope you enjoy below, most of it is not work safe. be warned. Spasmolytic video is an official puppy video.

My favorite songs are: it’s so hard to pick, for me every song on this is gold. The songs that really kick my ass are Convulsion, Tormentor, Nature’s Revenge, Shore Lined Poison, Grave Wisdom, Morpheus Laughing. I absolutely love the Spasmolytic single, the version of Spasmolytic on the single is amazing, the best drum work every in puppy, it blows me away. Pick up that single for sure on top of this. Rash reflection video below is a fan video.

Ok, for my favorite moments on this cd? I would have to say on Shore Lined Poison when the song starts to build up at about 3:20 when he screams, it builds and builds and sounds so strange like its on fire and there are chains dragging you on the ground, then when the sirens go off at about 4:03, the vocals after this are my favorite, because he sounds like he is really loosing it. Freaking out, it’s very intense. Plus it ends with a kick ass sample. I also love Nature’s Revenge. This slow depressing wavering lament for the earth. I read once that “Too Dark Park” was a story of the earth. Like the earth was a park, a peaceful place, then mankind stood up and evolved and turned it into a dark amusement park, or something like that, I read that a long time ago in some magazine interview or something. Don’t quote me. any way, very cool conceptual stuff. Nature’s Revenge video below is taken from the backdrop video of their too dark park tour. it is graphic and now work safe.

I also really love when he freaks out in Morpheus Laughing as well. This is what i loved about the old ogre, he would wig out, freak out, spaz out in this way like the world was ending, or he was on fire, or bugs were crawling all over him. To me ogre could never really sing melodies that well. What he was able to do for me is emote dark dark feelings, paranoia, strangeness, not fitting in, being a freak. I know that sounds harsh, but that is what it sounds like(harsh). Like totally freaking out on drugs. The Video below is a fan made video and is very very very not work safe or for kids! Very bloody and graphic.

Play this loud! This blows me away when turned up really really loud. There is nothing else like it. This is even unique in the puppy discography. Super Dark and EPIC. It really sounds like the soundtrack for a dark spooky park. Very electronic, and harsh, and yet very beautiful. This lp does in fact create another dimension. Be Warned. If you cannot get into distorted vocals, this might put you off. But if you don’t mind that, it is the best of it’s kind. Buy now! Click Here to buy Too Dark Park! on mp3, the whole record for $6.99 drm free at 256. Great deal. Do not hesitate, Buy this!