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Jason Statham, what have you done?

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I don’t comment on Uwe Bolle movies here because a) they universally suck and b) I don’t hate myself enough to watch any of them. Unfortunately, his movie In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale (based on the overrated PC game Dungeon Siege) stars man crush #1, Jason Statham, which all but obligates me to suffer through the movie.

I have been avoiding any news or previews of the movie because I already know what I’m in for. It’s going to HORRIBLE. The movie looks like it will have a lot of star power (seriously!) so it going to crash and burn but good.

Anyway, if you hate yourself as much as I do, you can watch the trailer for the movie here. It takes a few minutes to download, but trust me, it’s not worth it. (via Dethroner)

Dungeon Siege

The Landlord

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I usually don’t post videos here, but this was too funny not to post. Sorry about the auto-start, I can’t seem to turn it off. The language gets borderline NSFW-ish. Just turn it down. Don’t want to get anyone in trouble!

The Landlord

(I took the embedded video out because I got tired of it constantly reloading and auto-playing. Go watch it if you haven’t seen it yet. It’s still hilarious.)

I love Will Ferrell

Breaking out again?

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I wanted to post this Monday after the season finale of Prison Break, but the Ohio State/Florida game was on (and didn’t end well) so I never got around to commenting on the last episode of my (currently) favorite show. (Spoiler Warning)

So for my fellow Prison Break fans, what did you think? The finale certainly left quite a few storylines wide open. What happened to Kellerman? Was he gunned down in the back of the police van, or were his escorts? Is Sucre going to buy the farm on a Panamanian street corner? And what’s the deal with the crazy old man and Sona? Is there something more to Michael than meets the eye? My theory? He’s some kind of super-soldier genetically enhanced by the government, and the whole frame-job of his brother was to get his training kick started. Far fetched? Of course. But things certainly got wierd in this last episode.

And who else will be in Sona with Scofield? It’s obvious that Mahone is in there. Bellick, too, right? I’m assuming Bagwell will find his way in there somehow, and will hopefully meet an ignominious end. I think his time has finally come.

So it looks like we’ll be breaking out of prison again in the fall. I can’t wait!

Prison Break

Comic watch – Get Fuzzy

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(This is a new (hopefully regular) feature here at buttonmashing.com, where I find comic strips in the dead-tree newspaper desperately trying be relevant by making pop culture references by referring to video games. I’m not trying to be a “Comics Curmudgeon” (one of my favorite sites) but I still have to point it out when I come across it.)

As the inaugural edition of the Comic Watch, it pains me that I have to single out Get Fuzzy, which is one of the comics I geniunely enjoy, but today’s comic wasn’t one of them:

Get Fuzzy

Surprisingly, the “girls don’t play video games” or “guys who play video games don’t have girlfriends” and “video gamers are lazy” are topics usually ignored by most comics attempting to use video games as punch lines. It’s usually “look how violent little Jimmy is becoming since he started playing that Atari Video-Machine 9000!” So in that sense, GF is going off the beaten path, but it’s still unfunny. Haha! Rob hates girls AND exercise because he loves video games! What a nerd!

It also bothers me that Satchel is bagging on Rob like this. Usually they’re pals that support each other’s quirks, not point them out like the sore thumbs that they may or may not be. But that’s neither here nor there.

As you’ll see, most comics don’t “get it.” A few do (Bill Amend comes to mind) but I feel a responsibility to call them out when they don’t. Consider yourself warned!

(And seriously, if you love to hate (or hate yourself because you love) the daily comics found in your paper, you have to read Comics Curmudgeon)

Decisions, decisions.

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So I’m faced with a TV viewing dilemma: Today is the season premier of Heroes, the surprise hit show for NBC. I thoroughly enjoyed the first season of Heroes and have looked forward to the new season. Barring a few “huh?” moments (Hiro fighting a T-Rex? Huh?), Heroes is very enjoyable. The problem? It’s scheduled to go right up against 24. I have a long standing relationship with 24, something I don’t want to end yet. Despite my initial reservations for this season, 24 and I have a history together that cannot be ignored. So now I have to decide if I stick with the old stand-by or jump ship and shack up with the new flavor of the month. What should I do? Please note that “TiVo one and watch the other” is not the answer I’m looking for, for two reasons. One, I don’t have a DVR and refuse to record one of these shows on the VCR. It’s HD or nothing, baby! Two, I’m actually trying to cut down on TV viewing, so I’m thinning my watching schedule. Lost is already very close to being cut in favor of playing basketball Wednesday evenings. I just don’t know what to cut between 24 and Heroes. Decisions, decisions.

I guess another option is to watch Heroes on another channel. Doesn’t the Sci-Fi channel usually rebroadcast Heroes episodes a week or two later? That would mean no HD heroes, which really isn’t acceptable.

Regardless of what happens, I’m pumped about Prison Break starting up again tonight. No schedule conflicts there!

I’m pretty sure the audiences of 24 and Heroes are pretty similar, and I know a bunch of you guys watch both. What are you’re plans for this scheduling conundrum?

Questions for you 24 junkies

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24tv.jpgOkay, fellow 24 junkies, I’ve had a chance to digest the four-hour season premier of 24. (If you were wondering, yes, 24 kicks some serious butt in HD). So far, I have mixed feelings about the way this season has started. There are some things I like and some things I have a problem with. I do, however, have a few questions (– SPOILER ALERT –):

How did Wayne Palmer become President that fast? I thought he had no interest in serving in office? Maybe I missed something.

And what about his sister? Years have elapsed in the “24 Universe,” yet there was never a mention (that I can remember) of a sister. Sounds Star Wars-esque.

Where are Aaron Pierce and Mike Novick? We all know that Jack and Aaron are the only ones that will survive the apocalypse. Curtis is obvious proof of that. Jack and Aaron are like cockroaches. They can survive fricken nuclear winter. So where is Agent Pierce?

Speaking of Curtis, Holy Crap on Stilts! Who saw that coming?! I thought Curtis was, like, a Jack Junior or something. Mrs. buttonMasher was very disappointed to see Curtis buy the farm so early.

I’m not as steeped in 24 Lore as some of you may be, so if you can enlighten me, I’d appreciate it.

Drinking the podcast Kool-Aid

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podcast icon.jpegInitially, when podcasts where starting to gain traction with geeks (almost always early-adopters) I ignored them. Why would I want to dedicate time to concentrate listening to someone prattle on about their opinions? I like to read other people’s opinions (blogs), but actually downloading someone’s “show” and spend free-time listening to it? Didn’t seem like the best use of my time.

Then I decided (months later) to give it a try. I downloaded a few podcasts and started listening. I realized that I could listen to them at work and still concentrate at the task at hand. I’d listen closely when I heard something of interest, then tune it out when I wasn’t interested. I could also listen to them in the car when there wasn’t anything on the radio. Next thing I knew, I had subscribed to dozens of podcasts and decided this would be a good blog discussion (very meta of me, I know).

So over the next week or two I’ll be sprinkling in a handful of podcast-related posts in with the other Buttonmashing.com fare. Feel free to ignore them (as I did) if that’s not your thing, but hopefully I can interest a few of you to start drinking the Kool-Aid.

I eventually plan to review as many podcasts as I can, but I’m finding that to be a daunting task. In the meantime, I also would like to know what, if any, podcasts you guys listen to. I listen to a lot of the popular ones (1UP Yours, Gaming Steve, Major Nelson, the CAGCast) but I also listen to a few that might not be as popular. I’m interested in hearing what you guys listen to, maybe I’ll find a few that I’ve skipped or have slipped under the radar.

HDTV advice sought

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Buttonmashing friend Bobster asked me for advice on getting a small HDTV that he can use as a dedicated Xbox 360 display. He wanted to keep it under $400 and wanted at least above average image quality. He asked me if I had any suggestions.

I’ve been researching HDTVs for a while now, but I’ve been looking at larger TVs, out of the range Bobster is looking at. Right off the bat I would recommend a Samsung LCD. I think a 23″ Samsung LCD (like this one) would fit the bill perfectly, but the cheapest I found was $569 at Amazon.com. I found this 23″ LCD TV by Olevia on sale locally at HHGregg for $399. I’ve heard good things about Olevia TVs and feel confident that it would be a solid 360 display.

But before I give Bobster my final recommendations, I wanted to ask my fellow Buttonmashers if they have any recommendations or experiences with HDTVs that fall in this price range (or experience with Oleviea TVs).

Any suggestions or comments are greatly appreciated.

OK Go – Oh No

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ok go - oh no.jpg

I don’t mention music a lot on this site unless it’s in the context of game music (which I love) but once and a while an album comes along that just has to be mentioned. As you can tell from my recent last.fm track list, I’ve been listening to a certain album in particular. Indulge me for a few moments to tell you how unbelieveably good the new OK Go album is, Oh No.

I’m sure most of you will have seen the famous OK Go “Treadmill” video. “Here It Goes Again” is a great track, but definitely not the best on the album. Oh No really doesn’t have a bad track. Top to bottom, Oh No is one of the best albums I’ve heard. OK Go’s distinct “alterna-pop” sound is unmistakable and a lot of fun to listen to.

Oh No starts with a great opening track, “Invincible”. The next two, “Do What You Want” and “Here It Goes Again” are two more fantastic songs. While “Invincible” is an excellent track, I think my favorite song on the album is “Oh Lately It’s So Quiet”. It’s an extremely smooth song with OK Go’s signature sound. The rest of the tracks aren’t simply filler, either. “Television, Television” has one of the best lines on the album — “You cannot fight the television.” I love it.

Actually, now that I think about it, this review isn’t completely unrelated to gaming. The first time I heard an OK Go song was on the “EA Trax” for Madden 2003, which included OK Go’s “Get over it” (another excellent song). I went out and bought their first album, OK Go, and have been a fan ever since. I highly recommend OK Go’s newest offering. I picked it up on iTunes for $6.93, an absolute steal (iTunes Link). Go forth and purchase this musical wonder.