Music, why do you enjoy what you listen to?

So this week, I would like to do an article on music (I am a digital media major, so music is probably something I should be thinking about. However, until the middle/high-school years of my life, I never really listened to music; I just didn't have anything I was really interested in. Time went on, friends introduced to me bands like System of a Down and the Offspring, and from that time on I have always loved metal music for the most part.

I guess I would say it was between my Sophomore and Senior years of high school that I found my genre I really enjoy (before then it was pretty much listening to what people said was good). Alternative/Heavy Metal is my genre of choice, I enjoy catchy riffs, loud guitars, boomy bass, and deep, angry voices (for the most part, the Offspring is still sweet).

Pic above: The album from Korn (my favorite band) that includes my favorite song (Got the Life).

So that's pretty much all for this one. What is your favorite Genre? Band? (Least favorite?) What are the reasons you enjoy what you listen to?

Need for Speed: Our obsession with fast cars.

So I just got done watching a new episode of Top Gear tonight (a show where a group of guys does crazy things with cars, old and new, usually involving pushing them to their limits.

I was never really into cars growing up, fast or slow, and I never really understood why people liked some cars so much (such as the Corvette or Ferrari). I always thought it was kinda silly, and that guys where just things to get to Point B from Point A.

Now that I am older though, and I have had some driving experience myself, things have changed. A few times on the road I have felt that sense of a need for speed, wanting to see how fast I could go (never did, especially not in my parents Honda Pilot SUV), and I can see now why people love fast cars and wanting to drive fast: its a supreme feeling of power.

A few years ago, my uncle took me out in his 78' Camaro, tuned for drag racing (the thing sounded like a jet engine) and I still remember the front end of the car being in the air for a good couple seconds why going over a hill when he gunned it. It was a scary yet amazing experience. Feeling and hearing the engine roar from 0 to 60 is something that just cannot be put into words.

Tonight's episode of Top Gear pitted one of my favorite fast cars (the Subaru Impreza) against a Dirt Bike on an off road race through the desert. The race was really neat to watch, and if I ever had the chance I know I would love to race a car like that around (though I know that's an awful idea and I'm sure I would crash).

Keeping with the trend of my blog, I suppose that's the main reason why realistic racing video games are so popular; it gives the everyday Joe like me a chance to take out that $100,000 dollar Corvette and go as fast as you can in a simulated environment (I can't wait for Forza Motorsport 4)!

Have you ever felt that sense of power behind the wheel? Ever put the petal to the medal yourself? Anyone have any other thoughts as to why we love fast cars?

Black Friday - The Bane of my Existence.

I am getting somewhat sick of video game companies doing the same thing each year: holding back all of their games until the holiday season.

I understand why they do it, but it sometimes just seems like a wasted effort.

Each year, a ton of new video games are released around the same 3 to 4 week schedule, from late October to mid November, to get in on the holiday rush. Each year, I think "Wow, so many amazing games are coming out, next year will NEVER be able to top this.

Yet sure enough, this year I'm looking at the releases coming up, and I'm like "damn it". Just listing the big titles all coming out off of the top of my head, this is what I got:

Multi-system releases:
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3
Battlefield 3
Dark Souls
Elder Scrolls: Skyrim
Batman: Arkham City
Assassin's Creed: Revelations
Ultimate Marvel vs Capcom 3

Xbox 360 releases:
Halo Combat Evolved: Anniversary Collection
Forza 4

Playstation 3 releases:
Ratchet and Clank: All 4 One
Uncharted 3 Drakes Deception

Nintendo Wii releases:
Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword
Kirby: Return to Dreamland



All of these are games I am thoroughly interested in (luckily I don't have a PS3, so I can avoid those), and each of these games look to be AAA titles, mega sellers.

Pic above: My wallet after all of these games come out.


What slightly puzzles me but also makes sense: why do all of these games come out at the same time? I know its because people spend more money around that time of year (especially with getting ready for Christmas and all of the Black Friday deals). At the same time though, why do they all want to compete with each other? Especially with Call of Duty, a series that has outsold itself year after year, with millions of copies sold on release day.

Take the recent game Dead Island. That game was not a triple A title by any means, but it came out at the beginning of September, during what I call a "big title drought", where there haven't been any big games that came out in a while. What happened? The game, why not amazing, sold like hotcakes and was hard to keep in stock at the GameStop I work at.

I guess I am just wishing that game developers would try to spread the games out more throughout the year (thank you Microsoft for allowing Gears of War 3 to come out this Tuesday!) but it's really not up to them; it's up to the publishers. And what do they only care about? Money.

America and Zombies, whats up with that?

-Trailer for the "Rezzurection" download content for Call of Duty Black Ops.

Blogger and classmate David Beirne wrote about the recently released video game "Dead Island", which in turn inspired me to write a little about zombies myself: why are they so popular?

I guess it's just another form of horror. Horror flicks have always been popular in America, and zombies are just one of the many monsters haunting those films.

Zombies have definitely not been in just film, though. Resident Evil has been a staple video game series that has been around since I was a child, and has evolved on it's own with the times. Nowadays, we got a bunch of zombie games, all with different play styles (some fast, some slow, usually having some big boss zombies thrown into the mix).

Zombies are even one of my favorite creatures in the card game "Magic: The Gathering", a trading card game based around defeating your opponent with sorcery.

I think it is fair to say that zombies may be America's most popular creature of horror at the moment. In the past it might have been aliens or vampires (definitely not vampires right now..) but for now zombies it is. What will be our next favorite creature of the night? I'm not too sure. As it is, I will accept and enjoy our zombies, in all of their shapes and sizes (I'm sure they have many great smells as well).

Texting while Driving; Dancing with Death

Today I played a short flash game on the New York Times webpage, which was created as a test for people to really see how texting while driving can and will reduce your reaction time to be able to maneuver correctly.

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2009/07/19/technology/20090719-driving-game.html

I do not think the game accurately portrayed what an actual situation of driving is even remotely like.  The game was fairly easy once you were able to switch lanes way before your car got to the correct gate, which was even easier since the gate you had to go in was color coded green.  In real life, there would be tons of cars around, and all the gates (assuming this was supposed to be like a toll booth) would look pretty similar.

While I do not think the game is accurate, it does show you the basic idea that doing something such as texting, while driving, will make you slower to react.  I myself have only ever texted once or twice while driving, and if I did, it was probably while I was stopped at a train crossing or traffic jam, as it is just too dangerous.  Just once second of looking away from the road could lead to any number of disasters, so reducing the amount of distractions you have (and a cellphone is a pretty big distraction) is what I try to do mostly (though I suppose the radio is fine, it doesn't take your eyes off the road).  Even the radio can be a problem sometimes, I don't know how some people manage to keep their hearing when the put the radio up to max volume (usually along with maximum bass) and that can be dangerous to others as well (you can't hear cops/firetrucks/ambulance trying to move people to the side).

Enough with the rambling though.  The one thing about this game that was interesting was the results.  Not the gates I missed or my slower reaction time, but that damned women.  I did not see the women (colored the same as the road as to make it more difficult).  Which made me wonder if she was off to the side, did I hit her, or what.  I don't know what happened, but there was some women I missed.  If I hadn't been texting, I'm almost sure I would have noticed her, so I gotta give the game some credit for that.  You might miss something if you text, and that could be a fatal mistake.

Anyone else play the game?  I'm interested to see what people think of it.