Assassin's Creed Impressions

Should I even start with unadulterated loathing I am feeling for Best Buy's new video game policy? What should have been a 3 minute stay at the store turned into 20 minutes and 5 different people helping to get one freaking game. I won't even go into Junior Miss Low IQ who was looking at my ID for 30 seconds making sure I was over 17. The lack of a big red line saying UNDER 21 on my license should have been a giveaway, or maybe the fact that I'm 23 and came in a shirt and tie would have been another clue. Anyways...

I purchased the $70 special edition mainly because I wanted to Penny-Arcade comic that was in it and I also got a little action figure of the game's protagonist Altair, a bonus disc with videos I have no time to watch and a nifty tin case which will soon hold evidence I am eager to get rid of.

So apparently I have friends on PSN now, I'm not sure who they are but they see I have an eye toy and want to be my friend, that's kinda creepy now that I think about it...

Ok I started the game and was treated to a mind-frak of a sequence that points out the big twist in the game which is that its all sci-fi and stuff. This also introduces us to Kristen Bell's character who looks like Kristen Bell, acts like Veronica Mars, and has creepy creepy eyes. Aside from that the visuals are freaking sweet, but with that said they don't blow your mind, perhaps we're already jaded on this generation's visuals but still the facial animations are fine and the actual animations of Altair are amazing especially as he's running through the city streets. Speaking of which while I only played the game for a bit over an hour I found myself really enjoying the "free running" feature in which you can pretty much go anywhere and climb anything.

The combat is smooth if nothing to right home about but I'm still early in so I'll give it time to really catch me. See that's the problem so far, I haven't been pulled into the game yet. The story is interesting the visuals are nice, the control and gameplay is solid. I'm just waiting for that "Wow!" factor. Soon I hope...

OMG I H8 U!

Wired has posted an article about the frequency that teens are texting each other thoughts and messages they wouldn't dare say out loud:

More than four in 10 teens, or 43 percent, who instant message use it for things they wouldn't say in person, according to an Associated Press-AOL poll released Thursday. Twenty-two percent use IMs to ask people out on dates or accept them,and 13 percent use them to break up.

Call me old fashioned but if someone is going to tell me that they may have given my Chlamydia, I'd prefer they didn't use AIM or txt messages. Be considerate and use E-mail!

Nothing I love more than a chick with a gun!

Check out this poster for the upcoming Sarah Connor Chronicles. Check out tv addict for more! With the strike going on this show is looking to be a welcome addition to our waning schedules!

Kiss is Pissed

engadget has posted a story about Gene Simmons of Kiss Fame's views on file sharing (He's not a fan)

"Every freshly-scrubbed little kid's face should have been sued off the face of the earth."

Oh Gene, sadly you're pretty much a has been with a crappy reality show on cable so I don't think anyone is looking to download any of your music for free...or pay...or if they got paid to.

Remember when musicians used to be about the music? I don't remember either but my grandpa said it used to be that way, then again he likes his scotch. My point is that musicians and record companies are pissed that people have found a way to enjoy music without funneling a growing amount of change into the already deep pockets of these prats. I know they need to get paid and all that shit, so maybe they should follow Radiohead's lead. Who knows, maybe people will still pay money for a Kiss album, weirder things have happened.

WoW, that's a lot of people!

Kotaku is reporting that the population of Azeroth, the game world of World of Warcraft has reached 9.3 Million people! I tried the game for a few months as well as Final Fantasy XI for the same time period and I prefer the latter, though I'm playing neither of them right now because I simply don't have the 30-plus hours a week needed to really thrive in that community. Still though, congrats to the people at Blizzard who are raking in quite a bit of cash!

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Web 2.0 Leads to Hacking 2.0

Macworld is reporting that with the advent of Web 2.0 tools comes the creation of viruses and malware built upon these new applications. The report suggests that with the new technologies not so friendly hackers will be able to take malicious software to a whole new level of attack power. So Web 2.0 give Hackers a +4 to their base attack skill...sweet

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