BLOCKBUSTER Closing?!

  It looks like Blockbuster will be closing it's doors in January 2014, as well it's DVD mail distribution. This is some rough news, especially for those who still like to go rent physical movies instead of using digital distribution such as Netflix. According to DISH, they will be retaining the licensing rights, for possible digital distribution. Places like Blockbuster, and especially the local video rental places, have a special place in my heart. Growing up there were three places my father used to take me, that have always felt like a constant in my life, going to the movie theater, going to hockey games, and going to the video rental store.

  Now that Blockbuster is officially closing it's doors, this marks a true end to the experience of walking in and seeing wall to wall movies to choose from. Some of you may be too young to really remember the local movie rental stores, those usually went out of business because of the Blockbusters, and other big movie rental places out there. I can't remember how many times I'd force my dad to rent movies like The Goonies, and Star Wars, at our local movie rental store. Those are some great memories to have, and we are now at this point in society, our future children wont have that experience.

  At an end of an era, I give a toast to the good old movie rental store, and have a drink for them.

Earn to Die Mobile Game Review

  I've been talking a lot about zombies in my past few posts so I thought it would be a good idea to change the pace of things, and write a review on another zombie based game, Earn To Die. I actually discovered this gave because one of my buddies was playing an web based version of it online.I started with that, and it was fun enough for me to actually find the Earn To Die mobile game for iPhone.

  Earn to Die was developed by Toffee Games, and published by notDOPPLER. The whole premise of the game is to modify your vehicle and get as far as possible through hordes of zombies. The farther you go, the more money you get to modify your vehicle. Different mods help you get farther in different ways. You can buy more gas, add spikes to your bumper to make it easier to get through zombies, to adding a jet engine to give you speed boosts. As you play through the game, you also get to purchase bigger better, and faster vehicles, which you can also modify.

  After you get through every level of Earn To Die, you open up two other sections to the mobile app. There is a Halloween play through, where you drive through each level, and you try to destroy all the pumpkins placed on the map. The other section has you do speed runs through different levels using a specific vehicle, but any of the mods you want to you within a specific price range, and you can try to beat records anyone else has gotten online.

  Overall Earn To Die, is a fun game to play, when you have a little bit of time here, or there. It does lend itself to some replay value with the new sections that open up, especially for those who enjoy the competitive edge to a game. I give it a 3.5 out of 5. For those who'd like to see a trailer to the game here's the video below.

 

Top 5 Things with ZOMBIES!

  Well today is Halloween, and it only make sense to talk something horror based. As many of you know I enjoy most things zombies. We've actually talked about this on a previous podcast. This list is going to include movies, games, ans whatever else I feel like. These aren't really in any real order, but if you like zombies, and you haven't seen, and or tried these, it's worth while to check out. Remember that this is just my opinion on things I've viewed, experienced, and/or played. Leave a comment, or e-mail me with your Top 5 Zombie Things.

  1. All films George A. Romero has directed.
George Romero is the grandfather of the modern day zombie. He's he reason we have pretty much all great zombie things. I would suggest starting with Night of the Living Dead, and going on from there.

  2. The Walking Dead Comics
If you like the TV show, you'll enjoy the comics. Things get even more intense, and crazy in those.

  3. The Walking Dead TV Show on AMC
I actually tried to start a Zombie based TV show before walking dead came out because I wanted one to exist. I couldn't be happier with having one now, and with a great story to it.

  4. Munchkin Zombies
Many of you may never have heard of this game. It's a table top game definitely worth playing. This is an offshoot of the original game Munchkin, but still made by the same company.

  5. Left 4 Dead 2
I was having trouble choosing number 5, and I figured I should choose a video game. I've only played a few zombie based video games, so my exposure is limited. I enjoyed playing Left 4 Dead, and Left 4 Dead 2 online with my cousin, more than the few other zombie games I've played. If you haven't played it, check it out.

  Well that's my top 5 things with Zombies. This list tends to continually change due to my love of zombies, and how I'm feeling that day. Feel free to comment, and send me an e-mail with you top 5 zombie things.

Plants Vs. Zombies 2 It's About Time

  Plants Vs. Zombies 2, who would have thought that they would make a sequel to the ridiculously addictive game, Plants Vs. Zombies. The second one is the first game and more. I've been playing Plants Vs. Zombies 2 for the past couple days on my iPhone 5, and I felt the need to do a little review on it. I haven't played completely through the game yet but these are my thoughts thus far, at the very least.

  As I said above I've been playing it for the past couple days, and they've made a few changes between this one and the first one. The first one was pretty straight forward, and fun. Well in the second one you travel through time with Dave (the guy with the pot on his head), to find Dave's taco, so he can eat it again. Yes I said "again". It's actually quite entertaining how they go about the story. The actual title of the game is Plants Vs. Zombies 2 It's About Time. Basically you travel through time fighting zombies in different eras. You start off in present time, then you go back to Ancient Egypt, and you move from there.

  There are the basic similarities, you plant different plants to either get more sun rays, or to fight zombies. The biggest differences I've found so far, other than the time traveling thing, are that there are new plants to play with, and now there are different power ups. The first one you'll see is the plant food, that boosts the rate of fire for the different plants. The next biggest difference I noticed was that now the user can interact, and fight the zombies with different abilities. One is the pinch, you literally pinch the screen to kill zombies. The second is the throw ability, you toss them off the screen. You swipe across the zombie, and it kicks them in the air, you swipe again and it throws them off the screen. The third is the zap ability, once you activate it you just swipe across the screen where the zombies are, and it zaps them into dust. It's quite entertaining to do all of these.

Overall I'm enjoying the game, and suggest it to anyone who played the first one. As I play on in the game, and if I notice any other big things about the game, I'll do another post about it.

Walking Dead Vs. Walking Dead

  A co-worker let me borrow The Walking Dead comics recently. I was actually surprised about a lot of the differences between the two. Even though I'm still reading some of the ones I'm borrowing, I thought it would be fun to write up some of the differences I noticed between the comic and the show. Fair warning, if you haven't watched the show, or read the comics there will be some spoilers. I'm not going to get too deep into this only because there are so many differences, I could go on for a while.

   I've started my Walking Dead experience with the TV show on AMC. Which I believe was one of the best things to ever happen to television. This will give you my reference point for this post.

  The first thing I realized was that both story lines follow similar almost parallel timelines which cross with certain points here and there. I already had an idea of this just from things I've heard from different places, but you really can't completely understand until you've experienced both.

  The next thing I noticed was how Andrea, and Dale ended up being an item in the comic, where in the show Andrea basically looks at Dale more like a father figure. Actually they become the adoptive parents for a couple kids that aren't in the show. It really is interesting the differences between the two characters, and how they look at each other. One similarity between Andrea in the comic and the show is that she does end up becoming a pretty good shot with a gun.

  The third thing is that Carol, as far as I have read up to, hasn't lost Sophie yet and she end up hitting on Rick, and Lori Grimes. She even tried to convince Lori that they all should be married together. But all of this came after her and Tyrone didn't work out. Oh and yeah Carol and Tyrone had a thing going for a short time.

  The difference between the Governor in the comic and the show is similar as to how the timeline situation. In the comic he's a lot more ruthless, and barbaric than he is in the show. In the show he's no saint either, but he doesn't seem to start off as a murdering rapist, where in the comic, you find this out very quickly.

  The last difference I feel the need to say something about is the fact that Daryl from the show, isn't in the comic at all. At this point in the game I feel like it's common knowledge, and there really isn't any need to bring him up, but I know there are people out there who will say something if I don't bring him up. He is quite an important character in the series, and I happen to like his character.

  There are so many things that are different between the two. As I stated above, I could go on, and on. There are certain key details I've avoided talking about because I don't want to give away to many spoilers. I honestly enjoy both the comic and the TV show. I know many people are taking side, I for one can't, I enjoy zombies to much.

Star Trek Into Darkness

  I picked up Star Trek Into Darkness when it came out, and I finally had a chance to watch it. It took a lot for me to avoid any spoilers from the point if was released into theaters. This was probably one of the most successful times I've had of avoiding any spoilers about a movie. I have to say, it was pretty hard to try not to look anything up about the flick during this time, and I even avoided looking at the back of the Blu-Ray. Yeah, that's some devotion. So my first viewing of Star Trek Into Darkness really was a completely untainted, and spoil free experience.

  Now that I'm done beating the dead horse about how I was able to avoid spoilers here's a brief description of the movie from IMDB.com: When the crew of the Enterprise is called back home, they find an unstoppable force of terror from within their own organization has detonated the fleet and everything it stands for, leaving our world in a state of crisis. With a personal score to settle, Captain Kirk leads a manhunt to a war-zone world to capture a one man weapon of mass destruction. As our heroes are propelled into an epic chess game of life and death, love will be challenged, friendships will be torn apart, and sacrifices must be made for the only family Kirk has left: his crew. 

  Star Trek Into Darkness was an action packed ride of Sci-Fi and Awesome! I really enjoyed it, if you couldn't tell. J. J. Abrams' alternate time universe really has come to be something that makes me want more. He really does keep the Star Trek fans happy, while appealing to audiences Star Trek has never had before.

  At this point in the game, I'm not going to worry too much about having spoilers in my review. Anyone who's familiar with Star Trek the Original Series, and Star Trek II: The Wrath of Kahn could see the references to these throughout the film. The best one in my opinion was the scene where Jim Kirk died, which references the iconic scene in the original movie where Spock was the one who originally died in the main timeline. In my opinion both scenes where the hardest scenes to watch in Star Trek history. Another little reference that I got a kick out of was having the Tribble in the lab that Dr. Mcoy was experimenting Kahn's blood with. This of course references the Trouble with Tribbles episode in the original series.

  Another cool little added bonus was when we got to see the Klingons. I really liked the helmets that they wore, but the actual klingons ended up reminding me of the alien from Enemy Mine, Jeriba "Jerry" Shigan, played by Louis Gossett Jr.

  Overall, I give Star Trek Into Darkness a 5 out of 5. I really enjoyed it, and I was giddy the entire time I watched it with all the references. The story itself kept you sucked into the movie. It's definitely work checking out, especially if you're a Star Trek fan.

Oblivion Review

  I had a chance to finally see Oblivion. Actually it was John's post that gave me the push to see it now that it's on Blu-Ray. It was quite a convincing post, considering how he looks at it.

  Here is a brief synopsis of Oblivion from IMDB.com: One of the few remaining drone repairmen assigned to Earth, its surface devastated after decades of war with the alien Scavs, discovers a crashed spacecraft with contents that bring into question everything he believed about the war, and may even put the fate of mankind in his hands.

  Oblivion is a Sci-fi/Action flick which takes you for a mental ride. The movie pulls you along, and hits you with something new as you get deeper into the rabbit hole. Honestly I believe the reason why I enjoyed Oblivion as much as I did was because it made you think. I would describe it as this years version of 2001 A Space Odyssey. At leas at the moment that's the closest film I could compare it to, but that still isn't a good comparison.

  Overall I give Oblivion a 4 out of 5. I enjoyed the ride every moment of the movie, but I still felt like some things were spoon fed to me that didn't really need to be. It's a good flick and worth at least one view.