Posted by Rob on March 28, 2011 – 4:53 pm
Filed under Books
Tagged as big bad bob, bigbadbob, Books, christopher paloni, eragon, fantasy, fantasy book review, inheritance trilogy, library, n.k. jeminsin, the hundred thousand kingdoms
I was in the need for a new book series, so I checked out Fantasy Book Review to see what topped their rankings. A series referred to as “The Inheritance Trilogy” by N.K. Jeminsin caught my eye, and t sounded pretty interesting. I ran down to my local library and picked up the first book in the series, The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms.
I was a bit confused by it at first, since I’ve been reading Christopher Paloni’s “Inheritance” series since Eragon came out, and am still waiting for the final book in the series (which comes out this November, I believe.) I just started reading the book, so I don’t want to say too much yet. Once I get a little more into it I’ll update this with a very rough synopsis of what the book is about. Or just click on the above link to check out Jeminsin’s official website.
Posted by Rob on March 26, 2011 – 7:46 pm
Filed under Video Games
Tagged as 360, amazon, big bad bob, bigbadbob, caw, dx, path of champions, paul bearer, PlayStation 3, PS3, randy orton, undertaker, wwe, wwe allstars, xbox
One of the game modes in the upcoming WWE Allstars game is “Path of Champions”, in which you will be able to challenge either the Undertaker, Randy Orton, or DX. You will have to fight your way through ten matches, all culminating in the final battle with your chosen opponent. Each Path of Champions storyline is opened by a vignette with that super star, and the Undertaker/Paul Bearer intro is just popping with classic greatness. Take a look at the video, which is voiced by Taker and Bearer themselves:
I think it’s safe to say that when this game arrives on Tuesday from Amazon, the first thing I’m going to do is create a BigBadBob CAW and then dive right in to challenge the Undertaker.
Posted by Rob on March 23, 2011 – 4:51 pm
Filed under Video Games
Tagged as acrobat, big bad bob, big man, bigbadbob, brawler, bret hart, demo, grappler, thq, triple h, wwe, wwe allstars
We’ve seen the brawlers, the acrobats, and the big man…so the only class left is the grapplers! THQ has released the match/commentary combo on the grappler class, which pits Bret Hart against Triple H. Check it out here:
The grappler class looks pretty sweet with those chain grapples. Within the first seconds of the match, Hart gives Triple H a neckbreaker into a backbreaker into a another backbreaker…all without ever letting go! And that combo took out quite a chunk of Triple H’s health. One of the developers mentions that the grappler class is one of the more hardcore classes and takes a lot of getting used to in order to successfully chain those grapples together. He even mentioned at one point that there is a potential to chain six to seven grapples in one combo! That’s nuts!!!
I really wish they had included the grappler class in the demo, since this is the class I am looking forward to checking out the most. I can’t wait for next week to start exploring the full potential of all the wrestlers and classes.
Posted by Rob on March 23, 2011 – 3:20 pm
Don’t expect to see me around at night anymore, since I started my early morning job. I’ll be going in at 4AM, so I’ll probably be trying to go to bed around 9ish at night from now on. While that kind of sucks, I am looking forward to getting out early and having the rest of the day to do whatever needs to be done around the house as well. Also, since I’m sleeping earlier, I’ll be getting my gaming done during the day from now on.
The worst part is that even though April is approaching, there’s still some snow showers…including the one that’s hitting tonight. I’m not looking forward to making the 30-minute commute on highways at 3:30am that haven’t been plowed yet…
Posted by Rob on March 22, 2011 – 11:03 am
Filed under Video Games
Tagged as 360, amazon, big bad bob, bigbadbob, demo, marvel vs. capcom, mortal kombat, mysterio, PlayStation 3, PS3, PSN, Sony, street fighter, thq, ultimate warrior, wwe, wwe allstars, xbla, xbox
It’s almost here…only seven days to go until the release of THQ’s WWE Allstars video game. Today THQ released a demo on XBLA (and later tonight via PSN) that allowed players to check out a singles match as either Ultimate Warrior or Rey Mysterio. Since I hate Mysterio with a passion, I selected Ultimate Warrior and took Mysterio to school. I should note that I downloaded the 360 version because I didn’t feel like waiting for some random time tonight whenever Sony decided to update PSN.
Since it’s a different style of game, the controls are nothing like SvR’s, and I was hoping that the demo would come with a tutorial of sorts, which it does not. So there was a lot of guess work as I punched, kicked, and slammed Mysterio around. The first match went back and forth, and eventually Mysterio was able to squeak a win from me after hitting the 619. The second match I did better, and was able to give him a Gorilla Pres Slam for the win.
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Posted by Rob on March 22, 2011 – 8:10 am
Imagine that you are suddenly trapped in the small town you grew up in, where not only is it hard to leave it behind, but now it’s downright impossible. That’s what happens to the residents of the town of Chester’s Mill when a dome, with the exact shape of the town’s borders, drops over them. The dome is impenetrable, and no one on the inside or the outside can get through, not even commercial airplanes or U.S. cruise missiles. The town has enough supplies to last quite some time, but things are happening inside that make these resources limited.
“Big Jim” Rennie, the main antagonist of the book, is by far not only my favorite, but also the most developed. He’s not my favorite because I like him, but because one loves to hate him. His small town, friendly exterior only masks the ridiculous greed and insanity that is bottled within, and as he begins to consolidate his power within the town, you can’t help but hate despise him every step of the way. His son, Junior, is possibly even easier to hate due to his issues, but the overall character is not as developed as his father. You will find yourself cheering on the other characters in the book as they realize what is going on and attempt to stop Big Jim’s grab for power while trying to determine how to bring the Dome down. Along the way, many of the characters are killed off, and in the end there are less than thirty survivors by the time the Dome is finally lifted. Read More »
Posted by Rob on March 20, 2011 – 9:02 pm
Filed under Video Games
Tagged as 360, big bad bob, bigbadbob, dlc, honky tonk man, PlayStation 3, PS3, smackdown vs raw, wwe, wwe allstars, xbox
I previously reported on the roster for WWE Allstars, which contained the full game roster plus the first batch of DLC. THQ today revealed that at some time in April, there will be an additional wrestler available as free DLC. Speculation ran wild, and I heard rumors that it was Goldust, Rick Rude, Diesel, Rick Flair, JBL, and others. In the end, THQ announced that it was the Honky Tonk Man. THQ had a Facebook app going (which I did not participate in), and if the app got enough fans or likes or something like that, THQ promised to give fans an additional character.
While Honky Tonk Man is not who I preferred, a free character with more moves is going to be a welcome bonus to this game. Unlike Smackdown vs. Raw, I see myself playing with all the wrestlers in the game, since it is a fighting game. I sure hope they keep pumping out more DLC characters!
Posted by Rob on March 20, 2011 – 3:17 pm
Once I saw the trailer, I knew that I wanted to see Battle: Los Angeles in the theaters. It was one of those movies that appeared to be “epic”, in that it had to be seen in a theater, and it reminded me of Independence Day. Heck, I’m a sucker for most alien invasion films. The trick was convincing Shell to go with me, and in the end she agreed. So despite the bad critic reviews it received (which I ignore anyway) we headed to the local theater to check the movie out.
Battle Los Angeles is a very fast-paced film which focuses on a group of Marines during an alien invasion of the city of Los Angeles. Like Independence Day, it is a global invasion, and there are alien drop zones at twenty world cities, but the movie concentrates on Los Angeles. The group of Marines endure heavy casualities, amongst themselves and civilians they are escorting, as they try and fight their way through the ruins of Los Angeles in an attempt to get to a military safe zone. Eventually the remainder of the squad find the “mother ship” and attempt one last strike to take it down, in the hopes that with its destruction, the other alien forces will be lost (also like Independence Day.)
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Posted by Rob on March 19, 2011 – 12:08 pm
Filed under Books, History
Tagged as big bad bob, bigbadbob, borders, History, jamie doran, nasa, oneonta, piers bizony, research paper, Soviet Union, space, starman, stumble, yuri gagarin
Thanks to the wonders of Stumble Upon, I happened across an article previewing an upcoming book titled Starman. I was immediately interested in it since the Soviet space program is one of my “areas of expertise”. When I was studying History at SUNY Oneonta, I developed an interest in Soviet history. Then when it came time for me to write up my senior independent research paper, I chose to study the Soviet space program. Eventually I learned of Yuri Gagarin, a Soviet cosmonaut who was the first man in space.
I decided to further research Gagarin and the Soviet space program, and eventually developed a thesis for my paper which was titled “Gagarin: A Tragedy for the Free World.” My paper studied the American response to Gagarin’s flight, and then I argued that Gagarin’s flight basically lit a fire under NASA and thus enabled the U.S. to beat the U.S.S.R. in the race to the Moon. It was forty-eight pages of facts taken from newspaper and magazine articles, government letters, Congressional records, Gallop polls, and more. I was really proud of the end paper, and my paper not only won second place in the History department, but when I graduated I also received a special commendation certificate for my dedication to the study of History based on my paper. Read More »
Posted by Rob on March 18, 2011 – 4:11 pm
Filed under TV Shows
Tagged as big bad bob, bigbadbob, comedy central, donald trump, greg giraldo, jeff ross, larry king, lisa lampanelli, mike sorrentino, President, roast, snoop dogg, the situation
On Tuesday I was able to catch the Comedy Central Roast of Donald Trump, and it was a pretty good one. There were some decent roasters, ranging from the usual suspects of Jeff Ross, Lisa Lampanelli, and Gilbert Gottfried to some unexpected ones such as Larry King and Snoop Dogg (though I think Snoop Dogg was on a previous roast as well.)
Most of the comics were great…with one major exception. For whatever reason, Comedy Central made the stupid, bone-head decision to include Michael Sorrentino, better known as “The Situation” from MTV’s Jersey Shore program, as one of the roasters. As the roasters in front of him mocked him, The Situation would just make these doofy faces and just had the body language of an incompetent moron. Then when it was his turn, man did he make a fool of himself. His jokes were mainly comparing the other roasters to himself, and how much “cooler” he was than them. No one laughed, and if you did happen to hear a faint laugh coming from the audience, it was one of those uncomfortable laughs that people will sometimes do in awkward situations. The Situation appeared to take no heed of this and kept on trucking, only making matters worse. Eventually, to my delight, he was actually booed, and Jeff Ross went up to attempt to salvage what he could. Unfortunately, The Situation seemed to not realize what was going on, and acted as if he was the best roaster on the stage. It was an embarrassment not only for him, but for Comedy Central itself. I really don’t know who’s dodo-brained idea it was to allow this joke of a man (who couldn’t tell a joke if his life depended on it) to share the stage with distinguished comics, but I hope the culprit’s head will roll. Check out a portion of his failure here:
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Posted by Rob on March 18, 2011 – 12:19 pm
Filed under Video Games
Tagged as acrobat, big bad bob, big man, bigbadbob, brawler, grappler, roddy piper, sheamus, thq, wwe, wwe allstars
THQ released another class match today, this time focusing on the Brawlers. The two wrestlers are Sheamus and Roddy Piper, and it’s a pretty back and forth match. As usual, there is developer commentary to go along with the match. Check out the match here:
The Brawler wrestlers look like they a pretty quick and easy to play class as their continuous strikes constantly pummel their opponents. With similar matches shown for the Acrobat and Big Man classes, the only one left is the Grapplers…and that’s one that I’m pretty excited to see. I’m sure they will be releasing that video sometime next week.
Posted by Rob on March 17, 2011 – 3:38 pm
Filed under Video Games
Tagged as 360, big bad bob, bigbadbob, cage, demo, eddie guerrero, mysterio, PlayStation 3, PS3, smackdown vs raw, svr, thq, ultimate warrior, wwe, wwe allstars, xbox
The past two weeks THQ has been releasing matches showcasing the wrestler classes. Last week they did something different, and instead talked their way through a steel cage match between Eddie Guerrero and Rey Mysterio. Here’s the match:
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Posted by Rob on March 17, 2011 – 1:28 pm
Filed under Video Games
Tagged as 360, achievements, big bad bob, bigbadbob, dc universe online, john cena, platinum, PlayStation 3, PS3, thq, triple h, trophies, ultimate warrior, wwe, wwe allstars, xbox
THQ has revealed the Achievements for WWE Allstars, as well as their achievement point value. Unfortunately, they did not reveal which of these would be which trophies, so I don’t know which are bronze, silver, or gold. Still, here’s the list:
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Posted by Rob on March 17, 2011 – 1:18 pm
Three weeks ago I put in an application at a local retailer for an early morning stocker position. While out in Vegas, the manager gave me a call and offered me the job. I went in today for the drug test, so once that clears I’ll be ready to start…probably early next week.
Seeing how I could not land a job teaching or anything like that, I had resolved to looking for a retail job so I could start bringing in a steady income and get out of the house. The job is going to be some early hours, having me go in at 4am until 11am during the week. One of the other reasons I took the job was because it was guaranteed weekends off, which is something I definitely wanted. I’m looking forward to getting some more cash in my pocket!
Posted by Rob on March 17, 2011 – 12:47 am
Filed under My Personal Life
Tagged as albany, big bad bob, bigbadbob, call of duty: black ops, casino, competitive, family, flying, FPS, henderson, job, las vegas, lucilles, multiplayer, online, PlayStation 3, PS3, raising canes, sonics, southwest, st. patricks day, the strip, the yard house, ufc, ufc 2009, ufc 2010, vegas, work
It’s been a very busy, yet relaxing, couple of days, as I have been visiting with the in-laws in Las Vegas, NV (well, technically Henderson, NV, but it’s pretty damn close to Vegas.) Both of Shell’s sisters live out there so we don’t really get to see them too often…the last time we were out there was almost two years ago. So we decided to take a bit of a break and head out there for a five day weekend. We left from Albany on Wednesday at 11:55 EST and arrived at 2:20ish PST (thanks to Southwest it was a direct flight), so what was a five and a half hour flight technically got us to Vegas in under three hours.
Since this was more of a visiting family trip, we didn’t really hit the Strip. Shell and I did head down on Tuesday for a little while and checked out some of the casinos and what not. So while there wasn’t any gambling, there was a lot of good eating, as we went out for every lunch and almost every dinner. Some of the highlights included Sonic’s (I really wish one would open up near Albany…the closest one to us is in Kingston), Lucilles, The Yard House (which had quite a large collection of beers on tap…I went for the Spaten Oktoberfest), Raising Cane’s, and many more. Read More »
Posted by Rob on March 11, 2011 – 11:54 am
I love living relatively close to Boston, especially since it made it so easy for me to get to the first PAX East last year. I was hoping to go this year, but money and RL doused those plans. Instead, I’ll be in Las Vegas this weekend visiting family. I hope everyone has a blast at PAX East 2011!
Posted by Rob on March 10, 2011 – 11:37 pm
I had just finished writing up a short piece on the new Mortal Kombat demo, and I went to wake Shell up off the couch.
“Come on babes, let’s get ready for bed.”
“Is it ready yet?”
“…no…”
“Then I don’t need it yet.”
I was pretty tired and wanted to read for a bit before I fell asleep, so I pushed her to get up again.
“Let’s get ready for bed.”
“It doesn’t need to do this…”
She then got up and went to bed.
Posted by Rob on March 10, 2011 – 11:29 pm
Filed under Video Games
Tagged as 360, big bad bob, bigbadbob, demo, fighting, finisher, gamefly, goro, marvel vs. capcom, mk, mortal kombat, mvc, PlayStation 3, playstation plus, ps+, PS3, scorpion, sf, shaolin monks, street fighter, sub zero, x ray, xbox
If you were to ask me what fighting game franchise was the most important to the genre, I would say both Mortal Kombat and Street Fighter. I grew up with both, and to me, they are both equally important and have paved the way for what fighting games are to this day. Growing up, while I played both, I heavily preferred Street Fighter to Mortal Kombat. The realism and the gore of MK just couldn’t compete with the bright, quick, and flashy gameplay of SF II, so while I would play MK if at a friend’s house, I actually owned SF II.
The MK franchise has done a lot to try and keep itself fresh over the years. MK eventually left the realm of a 2D side-scrolling world and the arenas began to be 3D, in that you could run about a circular arena. Weapons were also eventually brought in to try and liven things up. One of my favorite MK games isn’t even a fighting game, but the awesome co-op beat em’ up Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks. Then MK looked at the success of the cross over franchise Marvel vs. Capcom, and decided to do a similar cross over in Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe. That game didn’t do well at all, as it took the violence that the MK series is known for and toned it down to such a degree that the game, while an awesome premise, just couldn’t deliver like the MvC series can.
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Posted by Rob on March 10, 2011 – 8:59 pm
Filed under Video Games
Tagged as 360, acrobat, andre the giant, big bad bob, big man, bigbadbob, caw, kane, PlayStation 3, PS3, thq, wwe allstars, xbox
Last week THQ shared a match with developer commentary to show off the acrobat class in WWE Allstars. This week they released another video, this one focusing on the “Big Man” class. The match features Kane (masked, which is the best Kane ever) vs. Andre the Giant (old school with a fro.) Here’s the match:
This match was a bit disappointed compared to the acrobat one. Not only was it two minutes shorter, but the player controlling Kane simply dominated Andre, so there wasn’t a good back and forth between the two characters. However, there was some pretty cool stuff. First off, I simply loved when Kane kicked Andre right out of the ring…that was ridiculous! It was also sweet to finally see the weapons in use, even though it has been confirmed for some time. All in all, the acrobat class was a lot more impressive than the Big Man class. Maybe one of the reasons the match was shorter was because the Big Man class is so powerful and causes a lot more damage…that will probably lead to shorter matches when they are involved.
As of right now, I think my CAW, BigBadBob, will be a grappler, so I can’t wait to see that match type revealed in the coming weeks.
Posted by Rob on March 9, 2011 – 11:51 pm
Filed under Randomness
Tagged as aaa, agent, applebees, auto, battery, big bad bob, bigbadbob, car, dead, jump, jump start, middle east, repairman, salesman, server, tip, triple a, vehicle
I went outside this morning to get the car warmed up and the ice melted off before heading to the grocery store. I was shocked to find that the battery had died, as the car wouldn’t turn on, the headlights would light up, and the locks on the door couldn’t be opened manually. Seeing how I bought the car new in 2004 and never replaced the battery, I figured that after six and a half years it was past it’s time for sure. I jumped online to double check that AAA would come out to do a jump start, and I think I googled something like “will AAA jump your battery.” What came up surprised me, as it was a bunch of different websites with people complaining about the “scam” that AAA would pull in that they would offer to install a cruddy battery right there, but the battery would be an inferior product. So after scraping the ice off the hood, I gave AAA a call to come give me a jump so that I could drive down to an auto store and get a new battery (I didn’t like what I heard about the AAA battery replacement.)
When I first called, I apparently called the wrong number, as the AAA agent I contacted did not service my area. After figuring out that part, he gave me the number for my local AAA station. This guy was a lot better, and told me that a repairman would be there in an hour. I figured I would take a shower, and about five minutes after getting out (about twenty minutes after I hung up with the AAA guy on the phone), I got a call telling me the repairman would be there momentarily. I quickly ran about getting dressed, and by the time I pulled my sweater on and grabbed my keys I saw the AAA truck next to my car in the parking lot, and I ran down to meet him as he was calling me from his cell phone. Read More »
