As I said before in my Monkey Island post, I’ve become quite infatuated with the whole point-and-click adventure style games. My latest foray into the genre was Machinarium. It’s a very stylistic and features no actual dialogue. Instead the whole story is conveyed through a series of animated thought and speech bubbles. Besides these two features though not much else is too different from the norm of the genre.

Overall I had quite some fun with this game. The story was engaging, the puzzles were challenging, and the entire game just reeked of all the care and love that went into the game. Speaking of which, this is an indie game developed by Amanita Design for a mere $1000. I was so amazed at the quality of art and sound that I would have sworn it was made for much more. Quality job. If you’re looking for a fun little treat, head over to their main site where you can play a short demo and even purchase if you feel so inclined. And I hope you do because it’s a superb game that deserves to be played by everyone. (more…)

Since arriving here in Ohio I’ve had the pleasure of attending two concerts already. The first band we saw was Sea Wolf with Sara Lov and Port O’Brien opening. I’d say that these bands were right up my alley. They were all pretty much indie folk bands with a fun by very mellow feel to them. The night started with Sara Lov playing a few of her songs. Not being able to bring her band with her, she recorded all their stuff on an LP which she played back during the show. It was actually pretty cool and kinda cute. Overall she had some pretty nice songs. Reminded me a bit of a mellowed out Regina Spektor. Second up was Port O’Brien who I think had the best stage presence of the three. On the other hand they were definitely the most disorganized and ill prepared. Most of their songs weren’t really my style but the last song of theirs was definitely the best of the night. Had some audience participation which involved banging some pots and lids. Tried listening to the same song a few days later, but it was totally different from the live version which bummed me out. The main act, Sea Wolf, was pretty cool. Definite props for having a cute Asian chick playing the piano and cello. In the end though they were a bit too mellow for my tastes. Still had a blast at the concert though.

At the second concert was Pepper with Iration and illScarlet. Now these guys were in a totally different side of the music world that I usually don’t listen to. They’re more or less a mix between reggae, ska, and rock so I pretty much didn’t know what to expect. The night started with Iration and can’t say I really liked them. In the end all their songs sounded pretty much the same. Next up was illScarlet from Canada! Definitely my favorite band of the night. Pretty nice stage presence and their songs were really fun. Could see myself listening to them in the future. And finally Pepper. That is where things got a little wild. They’re definitely great at revving up the crowd cause everyone was going crazy. They’ve also got some awesome stage presence. Was a blast just seeing them up there. Probably wouldn’t see them again, but it was fun for the night. Overall their songs were okay with just one sticking in my head.

So yeah. Hope this is just a glance at things to come. OK Go is going to be in town next month so I’m hoping to check them out. Definitely hoping some of my favorite bands will stop in. That’d definitely make my day. (more…)

One of the positives about living on a college campus is meeting people with totally different personalities and tastes. Case in point my roommates still constantly play the Nintendo 64. Now I loved the N64 back in the day but once the Gamecube and Xbox came out I pretty much tossed it to the way side. So imagine my surprise when my roommates break out the two-generation old console and start challenging me to some games. Now I was pretty decent at Super Smash Bros. and Goldeneye a decade ago, but now my skills have pretty much all but disappeared. So while I try to rekindle the touch, I’ll just keep getting my ass handed to me.

On the other hand there’s the Mario Party series that began on the N64. Luckily this is a game that doesn’t need much skill meaning anyone can pick this game up and have a shot at winning. And since I was never big into party games, that was pretty much the boat I was in. For those that don’t know, Mario Party is pretty much a board game set in the Mario universe. It’s basically a race to see who can get the most Stars before time runs out. Now this may sound boring if not for the fact of the minigames. Sure they’re pretty much everywhere now but Mario Party was one of the first to introduce this new mechanic and are by far one of the best at making them. So over the past two weeks we’ve been playing it quite a bit and I’m glad to say I’m having a blast with it. Sure I don’t always win but just playing it is always fun. May have to look into getting it in the future for the Wii. (more…)

Started off today feeling like I had another website redesign in me. So I sat down, looked at various webdesign sites, got a good image in my head, and pulled up Photoshop and Notepad++. Then after moving my mouse around for a few seconds, I said screw it. I’m mostly happy with my current design and well I just felt lazy. So instead I decided that I’d finally set about sprucing up the site finishing what I didn’t before. Mainly the Comments section needed major rework. It was basically just an ugly list and nothing more. Changed some fonts, alignments, and colors and voila! Not too bad if I say so myself. I’ll still improve it as I see fit later on but at least it flows with the site much better now. Also changed some of the various fonts around the site as well. Also tried to come up with a better header image, but nothing really stuck for me. I’d like a nice little logo involving my initials but it’s a tad hard to do something fun with ‘c’ and ‘m.’ Or maybe I’m just not thinking hard enough. Then I also tossed in a Twitter updater for good measure. So hopefully with this entry a twitter post will come. And like I said before, I’ll probably keep adjusting and tweaking as time goes on till I get to something I’m comfortable with. (more…)