I saw Cloverfield today. (Note: I'll try to keep out any spoilers, but you have been warned). I went into the movie with slightly low expectations, knowing that it wouldn't meet its hype. Fortunately, because I went in not expecting much, I came out pretty happy. The movie was decent. It wasn't amazing and lacked an original story and character development, but it was entertaining to say the least. Now that I saw the movie, I'm not at all surprised at how Cloverfield's antagonist was kept such a secret: simply because there isn't a secret. It's something that was entirely expected.

I thought the whole use of the hand camera thing might be annoying, but in fact, it wasn't really. It worked out well, and they used the gimmick nicely using flashbacks (because he accidentally recorded over an old tape). This provided some backstory, but nothing significant enough to make the movie good in terms of storyline. The simple fact is is that it's a monster movie--nothing more, nothing less. My suggestion to you (if you haven't seen it yet) is to do what I did and go in with slightly low expectations. A lot of people seemed disappointed with the ending, but honestly, without giving too much away, how else would it end? Giving it a sad ending or a happy ending, people would have been disappointed regardless. I think many people felt there wasn't enough closure, but I figure any more tacked on to the end would be pointless and just detract from the movie. God knows they'll make a prequel and a videogame for this movie.

 In something totally unrelated, I've been playing a ton of Call of Duty 4 on PC, and I must say, it's like 100x better on PC than on Xbox 360. It's better in pretty much every aspect. I've also been playing quite a bit of Team Fortress 2 on PC, which is like 200x better than its 360 counterpart. I've played a bit of Garry's Mod 10 lately too. They just updated it and now it includes a whole bunch of new stuff and it runs on the updated Source engine (from Orange Box).

The only Xbox 360 game that I've been playing on and off recently is Rock Band. With me being a big Oasis and Smashing Pumpkins fan, I'm looking forward to the downloadable content that was recently announced:

Week of Jan. 22: Oasis Pack (440 MS points/ $5.50)

• Don't Look Back in Anger (160 MS points/ $2)


• Live Forever (160 MS points/ $2)


• Wonderwall (160 MS Points / $2)

• Siva - Smashing Pumpkins (160 MS points/ $2)


• Working Man - Rush *Cover* (160 MS points/ $2)


• Ten Speed (Of God's Blood and Burial) - Coheed and Cambria *Cover* (160 MS Points / $2)

According to the vice president of MTV Games, over 2.5 million Rock Band DLC tracks have been downloaded, and there are over 200 tracks in the pipeline for 2008.

I have ordered some of the parts for the new PC I will be building. So far, I have 4GB of RAM, a CD/DVD drive/burner and a 700W power supply. I'll probably be ordering the motherboard, video card , processor and hard drive over the course of the next couple weeks. I also will probably need to get another sound card as well, and I'll have to pick up Windows Vista Home Premium. The video card I'm getting comes with Crysis, so I'm looking forward to running that on high settings. Depending on the price difference, I may use EVGA's "step up" program to upgrade to the 9800 once it releases around March.

Anyways, that's all I have for now. 

It's been a long time since my last blog entry. We've been hard at work tweaking the new GS and adding new features. The latest of which (and probably the coolest) is the brand new video section. Check it out by clicking here or just click the "Videos" link above in the menu.

Also, I got that Samsung LCD display I was talking about a while ago (the 226BW). All I have to say is that it's great. If you're looking for a good monitor, look no further. It has amazing picture, resolution and not to mention it's 22''. I hooked up my old monitor as well, so now I have a dual-monitor setup, which is really nice. I still want to try hooking up my Xbox 360 to the new monitor just for kicks.

I've been playing Mass Effect quite a bit lately (actually on-and-off since I don't have a lot of time to even play) . I'm getting pretty close to beating it. I'm on the last level I think. The game was good, but to be honest, I was expecting a little more.

I downloaded the Halo 3 Heroic Map Pack today and I'm somewhat disappointed. Not only were the maps a little on the expensive side (800 MS Points to be exact), but they were kind of mediocre. Standoff was the only one that really stood out to me. It's a great map. Foundry is okay, but I guess it will only show its true value once people start getting creative with it in the Forge. Rats Nest, on the other hand, pretty much sucks, and it's quickly becoming apparent throughout the Halo 3 community. If you don't feel like shelling out the 800 Points, you can wait until this Spring to download them for free. Bungie also made clear that this is around the time that the next map pack would release.

I'm also planning on upgrading my PC pretty soon. I made a list of my current specs and of the stuff that I plan on upgrading to in the forum. Check it out here. I'm planning on getting the new 8800GTS that NVIDIA just dropped. I might even SLI a couple down the road. I'll also be picking up a quad core to go along with that. Crysis, here I come!