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Rapid Fire #1

rapid-fire (rap′id fīr′)

adjective

done, delivered, proceeding, or carried on swiftly and sharply

passchendaele Finally, a world war movie that shows the Canadian point of view. A powerful film about the sacrifice made by Canadian soldiers during World War I. Written by and starring Paul Gross (of Due South fame), who based the story on war stories shared by his grandfather who fought at Passchendaele.

It could have used a little less romance and a little more action, but regardless its still a very enjoyable film.

I rate it a 7 out of 10.

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lost This 5th season of Lost is starting off on the right foot. The 3rd and 4th season sometimes seemed to lack direction but the ship has been steered back on course. Inhabitants of the island are now travelling back and forth through time, having an adverse effect on some of the survivors. Some members of the Oceanic Six realize that they have to find a way back to the island. That their destiny is to be on the island and not back with regular civilisation.

The best season since season 2. If you stopped watching in the last couple of years, do yourself a favor and start watching this show again. Its the best show on television.

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clouston-cory Craig Hartsburgh was fired from the head coach position of the Ottawa Senators earlier this week after a big loss against the Washington Capitals. He was replaced by Cory Clouston, the head coach of the Sens’ farm team in Binghamton. Though I feel the problems are a lot deeper than the coaching, it was obvious that Hartsburgh could not find a way to inspire his players. He was a good coach, just not for this team at this time. His defensive minded system did not gel with the offensively-built Senators. I’m reserving judgement on Clouston until he’s had 5-6 games under his belt, but so far the team is playing with a lot more passion and heart. Lets just hope they keep it up.

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wrathofthelichking A couple of weeks ago I received an email from Blizzard offering me a free 10 day trial of the World of Warcraft expansion Wrath of the Lich King. This offer couldn’t have come at a better time. I was already itching to try it, and having given up smoking I wanted to do something to occupy my time. It was great to catch up with people in the game that I had last spoken to over a year ago when I quit playing.

So far this expansion is more fun to play than the previous expansion Burning Crusades. There’s less grinding, more quests, more variety and just more fun.  Much to my wife’s dismay, once my free 10 day trial was over I continued to play but just as a ‘casual’. There’s no way I’m going to be a raider again, as that requires a huge timesink that I do not have or which to give.

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Quit Smoking I’m on day 14 of quitting smoking. The cravings still come and go, but less often and with less intensity. Every day I’m breaking more habits where I smoked in certain situations. It hasn’t been easy, but at this point I figure that there’s no point to have suffered for these 2 weeks and take up smoking again.

Now I’m just a little worried of what will happen when I stop taking the Champix. I’ve read some horror stories that the cravings come back bigtime once you stop the pills. I guess I’ll find out in a few weeks.

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andre cornellier Last week the OC Transpo strike that’s paralyzed the city since early December finally came to an end. Both the city and the union agreed to go to binding arbitration. Funny how they both agree to that just as the Federal government was ready to introduce a back to work bill and just before Obama’s visit to our capital. By going to arbitration both sides save face and can state that they didn’t give in to their demands.

Buses are expected to start hitting the streets this weekend, but isn’t expected to be running at full capacity until April or May.

Lets just hope that we don’t have to go through this again in a couple of years when the new contract will be up.

Luc "Sandman" G.
Games Hockey

NHL 09 Patch Coming In Early November

A patch for NHL09 has already been deployed for PS3 owners in Europe and will be released for XBox360 and other PS3 owners within the first couple of weeks of November, according to David Littman of EA Sports.

Along with fixing the dirty disc error that I reported in an earlier blog post, there are a multitude of other bug fixes and authenticity fixes that will come our way. The gameplay is getting some major refinement to increase the level of authenticity in the game, as well as making the EA Sports Hockey League more interesting and fun. There’s no word regarding fixing the Hockey League issues regarding joining games, but lets hope that this gets rectified as well. The fixes and improvements are, in no particular order:

  • The jersey on the EASHL side select screen is more visible than the team logo. This will make it easier for people to see when jersey colors clash.
  • Deking controls normal when shooting downscreen with “Always Up” controls
  • Checking has been tuned so you will see less big hits from guys that aren’t traditionally known for hitting
  • Less CPU AI one-timers
  • Increased the height of dump ins, for a better dump and chase game.
  • No more goals from flip dumps
  • Better CPU AI logic near offensive blueline so they don’t go off-sides as much
  • CPU goalie will not drag the puck back toward himself in a shootout
  • Fixed the goals from outside shots that people are scoring. Reduced shot accuracy when on the rush and when turning quickly, and from far out. You will now have to be more conservative when shooting on the rush. If you aim all the way to the left or right, your shot will go wide a lot more. Try aiming more towards the middle to hit the net from outside. This fixes the cross goal where you shoot back the other way, and the goal that goes in with the “curve” animation, and a few others. There’s a reason NHL players don’t shoot from outside on the rush very often. Dumping or trying to set up is a better play unless you have an odd-man situation.
  • Reduced the time it took to get control of the goalie by 1/3.
  • When line changes are set to auto, and a user changes lines/defense manually between whistles, the line/defensive pair you asked for will come out (or stay out).
  • If you have line changes off in Be a Pro, line change player chatter will be turned off.
  • When using a defenseman in BAP, BAP player won’t get stuck on the bench and will be able to call for change
  • The EASHL will now go to continuous 5v5 overtime until one team scores. This way nobody has to sit out, and you get to decide who wins (this is now just like the NHL Play-offs)
  • The proper own-goal cut scene will be shown where the player who scored on himself is upset.
  • All cut scenes should now show players sitting in their respective team’s bench.
  • Increase AI team aggressiveness and the likelihood of them getting called for a penalty on an infraction.
  • If Vision Control is pressed, you do not throw a hit when in front of the attacking net. This helps with rebound shots.
  • Increase the likelihood of a penalty if the stick hits the body during a stick lift.
  • Reduce the accuracy of shots for penalty shots and shootouts. Aiming for just inside the post is a lot tougher now

Thanks to my friend Twister65 for pointing out information on this patch release.

Luc "Sandman" G.
Games Hockey

EA NHL09 Dirty Disc Problem

There’s an issue being experienced by quite a few owners of Electonic Arts’ NHL 09 game for the XBox 360. I am one of the unlucky ones who was hit by this bug.

I’ve been playing NHL09 since the day of release. I’ve really been enjoying the new Be A Pro gameplay. Last night I go to load up the game and to my dismay an error popped up on the screen stating “The disc is unreadable. Clean the disc with a soft cloth”. I found this really strange as the game was still in the drive from when I played it the night before. It as also strange that it was at not at a point in the game where the disc spins up to load anything. How can it report a dirty disc error when its not even trying to load off the disc? I popped out the disc, inspected it and saw absolutely no traces of dirt, dust, scratches or fingerprints. I re-inserted, the game loaded up to the point where I selected the type of game I wanted to play and boom, the error re-appeared. I ejected the disc once again, re-inspected it, and tried again… and again.. and again. I must have tried a dozen times without any changes. I even tried wiping the disc down a couple of times in case it was something I wasn’t seeing. No cigar. This morning I even picked up a disc cleaner from the local Future Shop but alas, it would not fix the dirty disc error message.

I decided to google the error specifically for NHL 09 (NHL 09 dirty disc) and after a few minutes of digging around I found some rather interesting information on a burried EA news release. It appears that the DRM for the game is causing this exact issue for some players, and that the fix is to clear the cache on the hard drive.

I followed the instructions (listed below) and hooray!, the game loaded an played flawlessly. Was I glad to hear that I wasn’t alone with this problem and that I didn’t have a defective disc on my hands.EA claims it will fix this issue on an upcoming patch but until then there’s a work around. Follow these steps to clear your XBox 360 cache:

  • Turn on your Xbox 360 with no disc in the drive so you get the dashboard.
  • Go to the hardware blade (last blade) and select memory.
  • Select your hard drive and press Y to access to device manager
  • Press the following buttons in order: X,X,LB,RB,X,X. This will clear your memory cache.
  • Once its completed, insert your NHL09 disc and play away!
Luc "Sandman" G.
Games

Gaming Overload

Over the last week, 3 games that I’ve been looking forward to were finally released. I’ve managed to play all 3, but that also means that I haven’t been able to dedicate a whole lot of time to 1 specific game. This is the reason why I’m going to give 3 quick reviews of what I think of the games so far.

Spore. The mention of this game has had gamers salivating for years since the game was first announced. DRM notwithstanding, Spore has been worth the wait.

The game itself is separated into 4 stages, and each stage is a completely different game from the last. In the first stage, you start off as a single cell organism swimming in a proverbial primordial ooze. Depending on whether you selected herbivore or carnivore, you go around eating the appropriate food and search for tokens that will give you various abilities, such as tendrils to swim faster and offensive and defensive mechanisms. As you eat and grow, you finally make it to a multi cell organism that turns into a mammal.

The second phase of the game starts off by your creature moving from a water based creature to a land based one. There you hunt, eat and mate. When attacking other species or befriending them, you can gain parts of their DNA which allows you to evolve different aspects; how you look, more offensive and defensive capabilities, etc… Playing this stage is more fun than I’m making it sound. You do this until you evolve into the next stage of the game.

After evolving in the 2nd phase, you finally get to the tribal stage. Your species has developed language and culture and has formed a tribe. This stage of the game plays more like an RTS (Real Time Strategy game), where you have to gather food and supplies. You also attack other tribes or befriend them. Once you’ve conquered and/or befriended the continent you move to being a more advanced civilization, where you create cities, vehicles and weapons. Your goal is similar, as you have to befriend or invade other cities on the planet, until you control it all.

The space stage of the game is completely different from the previous 3 stages. As an intergalactic traveller, you are given quests to follow. You have to befriend other intergalactic species, mine for spice, set up colonies and of course defend yourself against enemies. This part of the game plays like a combination of an RTS and RPG.

Spore is very fun to play and slightly addictive. You can spend hours in the creator portion of the game, creating the look of your creatures, different vehicles and housing. Time also flies by as you set out to first grow your creature, then grow your civilisation. Its been worth the long wait for this game to come out.

I give Spore an 8 out of 10.

Last week also saw the release of 2 of the yearly NHL games, EA’s NHL09 and TakeTwo’s NHL2K9. After trying both demos that had been released a few weeks earlier, I decided on EA’s NHL 09 as my game of choice.

This year’s version of EA’s NHL game includes some new features that intrigued me and the reasons I chose this game over NHL2K9. As a player, you can now lift your opponent’s stick, and as a defensive move you can also sweep your stick in an arc on the ice to try and poke the puck away.

Though those new features are interesting, the one that intrigued me the most was Be A Pro. You start off creating your player and join an AHL team. Game after game, you evolve as a player in the American Hockey League. Once you’ve become good enough, you get the call from the associated NHL team.

I will admit that for me, learning the new controls has been a steep learning curve. I’ve been playing NHL2K7 for the last couple of years, and previous to that I played NHL04 and NHL05 on the original X-Box. All these games use the A/B/X/Y buttons to shoot and pass, whereas NHL09 uses the right thumbstick and the triggers/bumpers to do the same. This feature was first introduced in NHL07, so for those who have been playing the Electronic Arts version for the last couple of years will be familiar with the controls. Regardless, I’m having a great time playing this game.

I give NHL09 a 7 out of 10

7stars

This passed Sunday saw the release of the much anticipated sequel to Rock Band. This is not just a disc of new songs (84 of ’em), Rock Band 2 includes features that fans have been asking for. The Band World Tour now allows players to use downloaded songs instead of being limited to songs on the game disc. It also allows users to form a band over X-Box Live instead of being limited to local players. A drum trainer now allows fans of the peripheral to hone in their drumming skills. A new Battle of the Bands feature allows you to compete against other bands. Gamers with families will enjoy the new “no fail” mode, where a player and song will not fail. This is great for gamers with small children and/or significant others who aren’t gamers. It allows families to have fun together without having to worry about failing a song in the middle of it.

I give Rock Band 2 an 8 out of 10

Luc "Sandman" G.
Comics Games Movies

Rock Band, Iron Man and Two Stoners

The moment I’ve been waiting for the last few months finally arrived this weekend. I finally managed to get my hands on Rock Band for the 360! I haven’t gotten to play much due to other things going on, but so far I absolutely love the game. This game allows me to do something that I’ve wanted to do for a long time, which is to play the drums.

Playing drums is a curiosity that I’ve carried with me since my teenage years and I have yet to fulfill that dream. Growing up, my parents wanted nothing to do with bringing in some loud drums into the house. When I moved out, I lived in an apartment for 10 or so years, so having a drumset was out of the picture. Now that I have a house drums may be possible, but not now. So this game allows me to fulfill this dream a little bit.

I’ve also tried the vocal/mic portion of the game and its a real hoot. Trying to vocally hit the right notes can be a little troublesome sometimes, especially if you don’t know the song. Its still lotsa fun. I haven’t tried the guitar/bass yet, as I’ve played plenty of Guitar Hero III and I was busy tasting something new. I’m sure I’ll get around to trying them soon.

I give Rock Star 9 out of 10. 9stars

I managed to catch 2 movies at the theater in the last couple of weeks. It had been a while. I think the last movie I saw in theaters was Walk Hard over the Christmas break. Being an avid comic book reader, I was excited to see this movie. Though I’ve never read the Iron Man comic book, I did read some Avengers. Iron Man also has had tons of ‘cameo’ appearances in other comic books, so I was fully aware of his story.

This movie was pure fun! The story is fun and interesting without being over the top. Unlike previous Marvel movies, both the hero and the villain are ‘mere’ humans, not beings with super powers or mutants. Even though this is pure fantasy, it did bring the story to a more down to earth level. The acting in this flick was very very good, especially Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark/Iron Man. As much as his real life has been one disaster after another, this man can really act.

If you haven’t seen it yet, do yourself a favour and catch this flick. Just make sure you stay until the final credits have scrolled by for a little easter egg (and hopefully a sneak peak of what’s to come next!).

I give Iron Man 9 out of 10. 9stars

Last night my fiancee and I finally managed to go see the second Harold and Kumar movie, Harold and Kumar: Escape From Guantanamo Bay. This sequel, like most sequels, wasn’t as funny as the original. Like the original, the story revolves around these 2 stoners on a quest, walking into many situations which deter them from that quest. This time around, Harold and Kumar are trying to make their way to Amsterdam so that Harold can meet up with Maria, the girl we saw him confess his attraction to at the end of the first movie.

A funny situation on the plane derails those plans, as the main characters are labeled as terrorists and sent to Guantanamo Bay prison. They manage to escape and make their way back to the U.S., where they embark on another adventure to clear their names (and make their way to Amsterdam). Along the way Kumar hooks up with the love of his life, which in itself brings its own sub-story.

Though this movie has its funny moments, and you get to know more about the 2 stoners, its not as funny as the first movie. That would be a hard feat to accomplish, as the first movie was an instant classic and a breath of fresh air for comedies. This doesn’t mean the sequel is not funny, but its not as funny. The best bits in the movie revolve around Neil Patrick Harris who returns as himself, but drugged out and heterosexual.

Its still worth catching this flick if you can. Its been out for a while and may be out of distribution in some markets. If thats the case, do yourself a favour and rent this baby when it comes out on DVD.

I give Harold and Kumar: Escape From Guantanamo Bay 6 out of 10. 6stars

Luc "Sandman" G.

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