PixlBit

Well Happy Friday good people of the Pixlbit Community! The weekend begins in a couple of hours, and I know you folks are ready to enjoy the warm weather and maybe take in some video games. So for today’s Quick Hits blog I thought I’d go over some of the stuff I watched this past week, and my thoughts about them. Just a little warning that there will be spoilers so if you watch the same shows I do, and haven’t seen this week’s you might want to skip it. Because of this I decided to switch up the layout and have my pickups first, and then my stuff I watched at the end so it is easier for you good folks to skip it. Sound good? Well good, let’s get this started!

 

Pickups

Games

So last week while picking up lunch at Pizza Hut, I decided to stop at the GameStop store next to it. I wasn’t going to pick anything up, I wanted to just look around, check out if they have the couple of games I want, and just see if anything new popped up since my last visit (around two weeks ago maybe?) After spending a couple of minutes I left with

 

I think this was the last Medal of Honor game I didn’t own. Back in the old Playstation days I enjoyed the first two Medal of Honor games, and I didn’t get dizzy with those games, which were a plus. I own COD Modern Warefare 2 on PS3, but it was a couple of bucks, I figured I’d play it again on the 360.

 

GameStop puts opened used games in sealed bags now. This is a first for me

This game dropped in price, and the GameStop employee mentioned that it was a completely different game than the Vita version. I played a little bit of it so far and it feels like Arkham City. I actually got back into the Vita version, and I’ll probably play a bit more of the PS3 version this weekend. The one thing I am wondering about is the shared trophies between the PS3 and Vita. Blacklist has its own set of trophies while this game had the badges for both PS3 and Vita. I’ll probably look this up later on.

 

My Toys R Us pickup

 

Yes I went back, spent the $3 and bought Disney Jonas. Oh the hilarity.

 

I found these at the local charity run thrift store

 

They are nothing too exciting but they are X-Box games I don’t have or ever played. While checking out the employee wondered why they were $1.99 but then she saw the GameStop price and “oh that’s why”. She said they don’t make the X-Box games anymore and that they should raise the price. I countered with “you could but you won’t move them.” It sounded a bit snarky, but they have a 360 Madden 06 that has been sitting on a shelf at $8 for almost a year.

 

In some digital game goodness on the 360 I bought two games that were under $5

 

I can’t find original Crackdown in the wild, so when I saw this last night, it was a must buy just so I can play the storyline from the beginning. I enjoyed FPW on the PS2, and I wanted to see if it was just as good on the 360.

 

For some Android gaming I saw this game last night in the Google Play Store

 

It’s a slower version of Simpsons Tapped Out, and has the Family Guy humor. So far I am at level 4 which isn’t bad, and hopefully the game speeds up a bit. I’ll talk more about it on my next blog.

 

Music

My neighborhood had a garage sale day last weekend. I spent the better part of the morning zig zagging through the streets checking out the stuff that was on sale. It was an hour and a half of looking at baby clothes, generic Lego, and one guy had car parts. One of the last sales was an estate sale, which I’ve never been to so I checked it out, and found this album for $2

 

 I now have a CD quality copy of Duel of the Fates.

 

My thrift store vinyl

 

It was slim pickings this week, but someone unloaded a bunch of country albums. I wasn’t a fan so I didn’t buy any of those albums. I didn’t have this version of the Sound of Music soundtrack, and I added a new Christmas album.

 

Others

While roaming around a Target I rarely visit, I spot one of the headphones I was thinking about buying a couple of years ago, but passed on when I bought my Sennheiser’s. I decided to check out it out because the red clearance sticker was on the box

 

For $45 bucks I thought it was a good buy. They are fun stylish on ear headphones with good sound. They’re not for audiophiles because they are a bit bass heavy. I spent some time with them listening to them on my iPod with a Fiio amp and they sound fine. In terms of everyday use, I would stick with my current rotation, but I really like using these headphones with my Vita while gaming.

As for the build I like the concept of everything is replaceable on the headphones. The cups detach from the headband, and cables can also be swapped out. The version I got are the Michael Phelps USA model, and the color isn’t loud.

If you like electronic, and rap music, and are on a budget you might give these a look especially if you can find them for $45. They are a much better option than stock headphones.

 

Ok Pixlbit that is the end of my Pickups. The next section of Quick Hits is about the TV Shows Game of Thrones, MTV’s The Challenge Free Agents, and Marvel’s Agents of SHIELD, as well as my thoughts about the movie Man of Steel. There will most likely be spoilers so if you skip this section, no hard feelings, have a good weekend, and we’ll catch up on Monday.

 

 

 

 

Stuff Chris Watched

 

TV

Game of Thrones: New season started last Sunday night, and it picked up right after last season. We got caught up with most of the main characters, and I think we will see the missing characters this week. We were also introduced to some new folks from House Martell, which also hate the Lannisters. Speaking of Lannisters

 

Tywin Lannister is easily my favorite character. Since I proclaimed him my favorite character I hope he doesn’t get killed off this season...I really need to finish the second book.

 

Marvel’s Agents of SHIELD: When ABC was teasing that everything is going to change on SHIELD I thought it was just the same BS to drum up more viewers but damn they weren’t kidding. SHIELD is connected to the Avengers Storyline, but it always felt like it was a minor branch off the main body, but after hearing some major spoilers from my friend who saw Captain America Winter Soldier, I am impressed what is happening in this universe. The way the writers incorporated the events in the film into the show is brilliant. It’s almost like watching what happened in real time. Having the Hydra storyline end this season, makes it must watch, and now I’m wondering if any of the characters from the show will be in Avengers 2.

 

One of the characters on SHIELD changed their avatar right after the show ended to show their allegiance to Hydra.

 

 

The Challenge: The Challenge is back! The first episode was good because there is a good mix of new and returning competitors and having a everyone is out for themselves setup should be interesting. The new twist to being voted into The Elimination event is each member of the losing group has to flip over block. If your block is blank, you are safe for that week, if you have a skull and crossbones you have to go into the Elimination event against the person who was voted into it by the rest of the competitors.

The games look the same, but having this twist makes it interesting because if you are part of the losing group, you’re not safe.

 

Movies

 

HBO started airing Man of Steel, and since I refused to watch it originally (I didn’t care for Superman Returns and I’m a Batman fan). Since this movie was going to be aired repeatedly I figured I’d watch the premier so I have an idea of what scenes I want to catch again during the later showings (kind of like how last week I timed watching the good scenes from Varsity Blues while catching the big scenes from the Game of Thrones marathon. Think of it like a Red Zone for regular shows). My initial thoughts were that Man of Steel is really good. A little too much Lens Flares for me cough Star Trek Reboot cough.

 

When Superman’s fathers popped up I had a bunch of  “Hey Gladiator is his father/When are they going to make a baseball diamond on their farm” comments. I thought I was funny.

Also during the movie a lot of similarities between MoS and Matrix started appearing. Of course since there was this connection they also shared some of the same people

 

This guy from the last two Matrix movies and of course

 

I was waiting for him to hand Superman the red pill so he could see how deep the rabbit hole goes.

 

I also thought Amy Adams was a great Lois Lane. I thought her character was likeable and believeable. Her performance as Lois was easily my favorite between her, Margot Kidder, and Kate Bosworth. Of course during the movie it kinda bugged me that she kept yelling “Clark” while he was in Superman mode. Yeah let’s tell the world who he is. The scene where she kisses Superman she has a line which reminded me of this scene from Speed

 

And since I thought there was some Matrix similarities, Speed had this guy in the film

 

Going to back to MoS, I’m excited about the Superman/Batman movie now, but I’m still hoping Batman doesn’t have a Boston accent and blurt out a “Wicked Awesome”.

 

 

 

 

Well Pixlbit, I think it’s time we end this edition of Quick Hits. My weekend has started, I’m ready to tackle some new games, and update my iPod. Have a good weekend

 

That’s all for now, more later!

-Chris