Adam's Blog

Alice in Wonderland

Adam — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 17:45:03 +0000

The highly anticipated remake of the classic, Alice in Wonderland, was released this past Friday. When I was younger, this was always my absolute favorite story to read because it opens up your imagination to almost anything. It was definitely interesting to hear that Tim Burton was taking on this movie because he is an excellent film maker with a strange and different (in a good way) style of making movies. On Saturday, I was able to go see the movie with my friends and I absolutely LOVED it. The acting was magnificent, especially by Johnny Depp (The Mad Hatter), and it followed the story as I remember it quite well. It may not have given much background about the story, but do you seriously need it? I mean, if you have never read or heard even part of the story of Alice in Wonderland, then you must live under a rock. The animations and the detail put into the movie was phenomenal, and in my opinion, blows Avatar out of the water. I strongly suggest anyone to see this movie, especially if you grew up loving this story. Tim Burton, continue doing what you do because this was probably one of your best movies to date. Nothing can beat the Nightmare Before Christmas, though.

Thoughts on Activision/Infinity Ward Ordeal

Adam — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 22:19:13 +0000

Most of you have probably heard about the controversy about the former heads of Modern Warfare 2 at Infinity Ward, Jason West and Vince Zampella, who were fired this past Tuesday. One of the first things I thought was, “What the hell is Activision’s problem?” Those 2 guys are the reason they made nearly $1 billion on Modern Warfare 2 and now they are gone. Yesterday or the day before they released that Jason West and Vince Zampella are now suing Activision for allegedly terminating them wrongfully and for a breach of contract. I have also heard that they are suing them for the royalties they did not receive from the game sales, $36 million. Either way, I think what Activision did is wrong and as much as Infinity Ward can tick me off, I am rooting for both Jason West and Vince Zampella because they definitely deserve their money for making such a successful game.

Portal

Adam — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 00:15:14 +0000

A few years back, a very popular gaming company named Valve created one of the best physics-like game named Portal. They are also the same people who created the legendary Half-Life Series along with the very addicting Team Fortress 2. Portal is a physics game where you go through what seems like endless chambers trying to move to the next elevator. You get a gun called the Portal gun in which you can shoot 2 kinds of portals to enter in another dimension to get across the map. It is kind of hard to explain how it works, but I especially encourage you to check it out. I got it with the Orange Box for Xbox 360 and it is only $20. Also, you won’t get this until you get to the end of the game: The cake is a lie!

Nintendo World Summit

Adam — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 03:25:45 +0000

On Wednesday, February 24th, Nintendo had their World Summit conference where they announced and talked about all kinds of new stuff. From what I have seen, this is going to be a pretty good year for Nintendo. All kinds of juicy news came from the World Summit, such as release dates, gameplay videos, and even a new DS. First off, Nintendo introduced a new DS, the DSi XL which is basically an oversized DSi. Personally, I think they are making way to many versions of the DS and this is just getting a little too much overboard. Some of the big announcements were 2 release dates for major titles releasing for the Wii this year, Super Mario Galaxy 2 and Metroid: Other M. Super Mario Galaxy 2 will be released on May 23 and Metroid: Other M will be released on June 27. Along with those announcements, Nintendo also released some gameplay from Metroid: Other M and Super Mario Galaxy 2 that look absolutely stunning. Since I got my Xbox 360 for Christmas, I haven’t played my Wii as much, but this is going to bring me back to playing a little more and I am looking forward to the what Nintendo has to throw at us this year.

WeatherBug iPhone App

Adam — Sun, 21 Feb 2010 17:24:54 +0000

All of us that have the iPhone that we already have a weather app installed by default, which is powered by Yahoo. However, for some of us that app is not detailed enough. Fear not, there is a better solution! WeatherBug is a great weather application that allows you to see the daily or weekly forecast, but also current conditions radar maps, videos, and live cameras. One of the good things about the weekly forecast is that, unlike the default iPhone app, it goes into detail about the forecast, not just showing an icon. While viewing the current conditions part, it has the current temperature (Celsius or Fahrenheit), the wind speed, wind chill, humidity, dew point, etc. There are two versions of this, a free one and the elite version for $0.99. I honestly do not know the difference between the two, but I got the elite one. For those of you looking for a more detailed weather app for the iPhone, here is your solution and I hope you like it.

Google Buzz

Adam — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 18:16:38 +0000

Last week, Google announced their part of the social networking world with Google Buzz. This is a service that operates like Twitter where you are able to post a status message, except it doesn’t look like there is any limit to how many characters there are in the message. Not only can you post regular messages, you can also sync it with other Google services, such as Picasa, Reader, etc. However, there are a few things that it needs to get for me to use it more. First of all, it needs a Ping.FM support. Secondly, it needs its own page, outside of Gmail, with a better UI and more customizable settings. Lastly, it needs an official iPhone app other then the mobile site. Other than that, I think it is a good start and this has a lot of potential and I urge anyone that uses Google and its services to test it out at least for a few days.

Xbox 360

Adam — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 22:06:35 +0000

I have been having my Xbox 360 since December and I have absolutely loved the experience thus far. I have the Xbox 360 Elite with the 120 GB Hard Drive and a subscription to Xbox Live Gold. The first thing that I liked about the Xbox 360, is the nice dashboard. It is easy to navigate through and use. Also, the avatars you can create for your character are a lot better than the Mii’s you can create with the Wii (sorry Nintendo). The Xbox Live marketplace has a good selection of games and avatar accessories. The ability to use Last.FM, Twitter, Netflix and Facebook is really nice too. The one thing I do not like is the inability to sync music from the Mac. Yes, this is Microsoft we’re talking about, but just about anyone could buy this system and it would be nice to add a feature for this. If you are going to get an Xbox 360, Xbox Live is an absolute must. With XBL, the experience you have for the Xbox 360 is so much better than without it. I have to congratulate Microsoft on actually doing something right and hope they continue doing a good job with it.

Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare

Adam — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 15:56:54 +0000

The first time I really got into Call of Duty was when I started playing on a server with a few friends around May of last year. I was on a laptop running Windows playing Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare at the time, but now I am finally reliving the memories on the Xbox 360 version of the game. Comparing to the latest game in the series, Modern Warfare 2, there are a bunch of changes, some little and some big. First off are the maps in Modern Warfare. I absolutely love the maps in Modern Warfare because they are not so big and not so small. The menu in Call of Duty 4, in my opinion, is a little uglier and more cluttered than the one on Modern Warfare 2. One of the thing I do miss from Call of Duty 4 that isn’t in Modern Warfare 2 is some of the guns I used take longer to get. That isn’t a bad thing, per say, but it was nice to have my favorite guns at an earlier level. The multiplayer was definitely more stable and not as full of hacks as Modern Warfare 2 has at this point in time. All in all, this game is a really good game and definitely something to play around with if you have been stuck on Modern Warfare 2 these past few months.

Apple iPad

Adam — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 23:27:11 +0000

At last week’s Apple Media Event, the company finally revealed the tablet PC that has been rumored for a very long time. Out of all the names, they picked the name that I was least expecting, the iPad. There will be 2 versions released, one of them will be a Wifi Only version and a Wifi and 3G version. The Wifi version, set to release in March, will only be able to connect to the internet from a Wifi connection and will be sold in 16, 32 and 64 GB models. The Wifi and 3G version will not only be able to connect to Wifi, but also to AT&T’s 3G network. It will also be sold in 16, 32 and 64 GB models and is set for release in April. The device itself looks like a really cool device, but I think too much was expected from it. Yes, I know Apple is a great company and a lot is expected from them, but it was way over hyped. One of the major let downs, in my opinion is also one of the let downs about the iPhone: limited network connectivity. The only 3G company that it can connect to is AT&T’s which we all know as one of the worst mobile carrier companies in the world. One of the main things I would like to see in the future as well as with the iPhone would be more carrier options. I do plan to buy one, but probably not a first generation model.

AppZapper

Adam — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 22:43:00 +0000

If you have ever been on a Mac, then you know that getting rid of applications is very easy. All you do is drag an application into the trash and empty it. However, did you know that almost every application leaves behind some files from that deleted application. Well instead of digging through your Mac for the extra files, why not let another application do it for you? Well, your in luck because AppZapper does just that. On top of having a very nice and simple interface, AppZapper is basically an application where you drag an app or search for an app via its interface and zap the application AND the extra files to the trash. There are 2 options of deleting files: dragging then application into it or using the interface to search through applications, preference panes, etc. AppZapper has a really stable and well designed interface. On another note, it makes a zap noise when you delete an application and its files. I would strongly suggest it to any Mac user, but one of the let downs about it is that it costs $12.95, but it is worth the investment if you don’t want to spend a lot of your time looking for files all over your Mac.