A Day in the Life of Liberty City (Beaten the game!!!)

Earlier today, I finally beaten the story in GTA4 and it felt really good doing the Revenge ending (no spoilers). So now I'm at 78ish precent after playing for 45 hours. I didn't really care about trying to beat it in less than 30 hours for 30 achievement points. Now I can play multiplayer without worrying about beating the story (I'll play it for a week). I still expect myself to do more of the side missions like car thefts and most wanted as well as find as many pigeons and stunt jumps as I can. Next week, might be my review for the game before Ninja Gaiden 2's release, so wait till then for that.

A pic from the Chun-Li Street Fighter Movie

Here's a pic of Kristen Kreuk as Chun-Li in the new Street Fighter movie. Who knows if the producers / directors are going to make Chun-Li faithful to the games, but likely they are not. Will we see the signature hair and big thighs Chun-Li is known for? I won't mind checking this one if it is any good.

Soul Calibur IV Direct-Feed Footage

This is like the first direct-feed footage I seen for Soul Calibur IV and one thing I instantly annoyed is that Namco needs to fix the health meter displays a little bit. They seem kind of bland to me, but I'll probably get over it if they don't change it. Other than that, the gameplay is pretty SC with the increased boobage that message boards have complained about with the majority of the female characters. This footage at least shows one of the new characters, Hilde, in action as well as Raphael, Sophitia, and Voldo. I still have high hopes that SC4 will be way better than 3 being back to what was great in 2 and even the first one on Dreamcast (which is still coming to XBLA).

Another Capcom crossover fighter, but not what u think..

Famitsu has revealed a new Capcom crossover fighting game, but it is not the Marvel vs. Capcom 3 we have been waiting for throughout this decade. Instead, Capcom stars will face off with characters from Tatsunoko like Gatchaman and others I don't know. For Capcom, only Ryu, Chun-Li, and Servbot (from the background) have been revealed. According to the first pics, the gameplay might be reminiscent of the Marvel vs. Capcom games with tag team fighting / assists plus super moves as seen in Ryu's Shinku Hadoken. I won't mind another Capcom crossover with Marvel and SNK done already (Mortal Kombat vs. DC out this year), so I'm curious how this one will turn out (That Sammy vs. Capcom game never happened and that Namco X Capcom was a decent Japan-only RPG) even though it may not make it here in the States because the Tatsunoko franchises are not known here.

Music Roundup for 5/21/08

This week is a biggie for the Music Roundup with three albums and more.

I'll start off with a highly anticipated album of mine for the year, which is Usher's Here I Stand. This one is out next week and for Usher, how can he really top his last album, Confessions? That is something tough to pull off especially and his new one is not as good as his previous hit album with all those banging hits from "Yeah," "Burn," and "Confessions Part II." Even though it is not Usher's best, it is still pretty good. Of course, his current hit single, "Love in This Club," is the jam these days and the remix, or Part II, featuring Beyonce and Lil' Wayne is actually better even though I don't know what is the big deal with Weezy and why everyone likes him. I'm currently a fan of the up-tempo stuff in Here I Stand with "This Ain't Sex," "Moving Mountains," "What's Your Name" featuring Will.I.Am, "Best Thing" with the Jiggaman, "Before I Met You," and "What's A Man to Do." I'm not so much on the slow songs yet, but "His Mistakes" is the decent one I like so far. Usher's latest album would likely not have the same success Confessions had with that platinum debut, but it is still pretty good to check this out and not as disappointing as others expected.

Next up this week is We Sing, We Dance, We Steal Things by Jason Mraz. Sure, his first two albums had that mainstream appeal, but it is more Jason Mraz and that's fine by me. This is just a chill album to blast because of his style of sound still staying the same. Even though I listened to this one once so far, it is also a recommendable album to check out.

Lastly is Death Cab for Cutie's Narrow Stairs and it has received numerous critical praise. The album definitely lives up to all that praise being more Death Cab with their style of rock. This also is worth a download or purchase.

That's it for the Music Roundup and next month is going to be nuts with albums from Coldplay, Ne-Yo, and N.E.R.D. out at that time, so maybe music will be good again...

Let's do the Warrior Pose!!! (I caved in for Wii Fit)

So I bought Wii Fit today at my nearest GameStop (didn't pre-order it) and let's just say I fell into the mainstream hype. Yeah, this thing is selling bonkers right now at the United States and we have to wait till probably next week for Nintendo to give out sales numbers, which is likely in the millions if they shipped out a lot of them even though there were rumored shortages. With all that coverage in talk shows, advertising in buses, and the above average reviews from some sites, Wii Fit is not that bad.

Keep in mind I only played it for a hour, so I had to try at least one of each activity. So far, I'm digging the strength exercises and yoga for now rather than the mini-games. It does suck I have to play more and more of these activities to unlock the other stuff as in Wii Play, but it seems better this time with the Balance Board. At first, I was skeptical that this thing would work, but it surprisingly does and it is pretty accurate with the balance obviously (I don't know about BMI and weight yet). Sure, you can BS the exercises to a certain point and they do a good job of keeping stats for everything u have done so far. Of course, I don't want to reveal my stats such as BMI and other things, but it does want to motivate u to keep doing this on a consistent basis. I'm not a fan of the mini-games yet since I suck with them and the aerobics, but it does put the Balance Board to good use other than the yoga.

Personally, when I bought Wii Fit, it felt like an impulse buy because of all the mainstream hype and the fact being a first-party game on the Wii. I'm not sure if trading three 360 games (Orange Box, Mass Effect, and DMC4) seemed worth it for this one, but I do see the potential in the Balance Board being a special peripheral while alpha-moms go crazy buying this today and the rest of the week. A review might happen for this one next month since I have to beat GTA4 first (Assault Heroes 2 review is still pending too), if I do write one, expect it before Ninja Gaiden 2's release.

Oh I love Europe!! (This Week's Rock Band DLC Impressions)

Keep in mind I only bought six of the nine songs that are out this week for Rock Band, which are European exclusive tracks slated for the Euro version of the game, but available as DLC here at the States. Here's the rundown of my top 5 picks.... (Only Guitar mostly)

My #1 pick this week is obviously "Hysteria" by Muse because this song is just awesome and the Rock Band charts did live up to its greatness. All instruments provide great fun while playing this song, but good luck on bass, because it is hard (hence the video below) but very fun. I won't mind doing this on vocals since Muse has become one of my favorite bands now. We'll see about that....

My #2 pick is "Rock 'n' Roll Star" by Oasis (chart above) because well it is Oasis for crying out loud. Another great song for RB on guitar especially the final solo that I didn't expect.

My #3 pick this week is quite surprising, which is "New Wave" by Pleymo (chart below). I bought this because this is quite unique to have on Rock Band and Pleymo is like the French version of Limp Bizkit. For vocals, good luck on this one trying to rap this one out.

Juli's "Perfekte Welle" is my #4 pick this week because a female is signing it and I won't mind another one of these songs. Guitar is pretty easy for this one, so buy it for the vocals. It is kind of a chill song to play anyway.

#5 this week is Blur's "Beetlebum" which is a cover, a rarity these days on Rock Band, but it is a Blur song so I bought it. This is also the easiest song on guitar this week as well. Getting Blur on Rock Band reminds me for Harmonix to get their obvious hit "Song 2" soon (music video below to remind u and I don't care if it is only two minutes long). 

Since this post is getting way long with all those YouTube videos, I'll leave out the last song I bought, "Countdown to Insanity" by H-Block X, to be searched elsewhere. That's my top 5 picks for DLC this week for Rock Band and buy Muse's "Hysteria" as soon as possible.