So if your like me your pumped that good tv is back for the fall line up i got mostly pumped for the office but the new line up is ok at most why doesn’t 30 rock start now instead of waiting till Oct. Parks was the best one ever well out of all 7 episodes. Community seems kinda stale to me all the best parts were in the preview and either Chevy Chase is going to be annoying or slowly become funnier.

If your looking for some shows you might not have watched or did not know about here’s my picks: Sons Of  Anarchy- this is a show about biker club in Cali basically trying to control their town and its got a decent cast Katy Sigal, Ron Perelman, Charlie Hunnan(from short live Appitow show “undeclared”) and a few others, you might have to watch the first episode from season 2 which is the current season and they show everything form season one which was just released on DVD

How I met your mother- simply a comedy about a hopeless romantic telling the story to his kids about how he met their mom hence the title, good cast a lot of funny moments and even tips on dating, picking up girls, and life in general. I suggest go back and watch from the beginning.

in other things i found a web site that might save your wallet and no spam with very few pop-ups Its www.ovguide.com basically a Google search engine for movies/ tv shows/ dvds it has brand new movies and episodes, you type it in and there’s many sites with what your looking for in case you get a shitty file or not full movies etc..

well that’s it for now let me know what you think oh and by the way i don’t mean to interrupt your site but Beyonce had the best video of the year

Peace!!

love tommy boi

xoxox

Joseph Gervasi co-founder of Exhumed Films

Recently, there’s been a decline in the number of horror movies on the big screen. But Philadelphians who still love fake blood have Exhumed Films. Exhumed puts together screenings of classic horror and grind house films using 35 and 16mm prints, not DVDs. Some of the films Exhumed has screened include horror classics like Sam Raimi’s Evil Dead 2, and John Carpenter’s  The Thing.

Exhumed Films was founded in 1997 in Blackwood, NJ, by “Four jerks who sort of were friendly with each other (and) wanted to see if we could show two films at a theater,” said Joseph Gervasi, 38, Exhumed Films co-founder with  Dan Fraga, Harry Guerro, and Jesse Nelson.

“We procured these two film prints, these 35mm prints, and we figured, at worst, we’d be watching these two movies by ourselves, and at best, maybe a few people would come out,” recalled Gervasi. To the group’s surprise many people did show up to their event.

“We didn’t really have the mass penetration of the internet,” he said. “We didn’t really have that resource to get the word out.”

Exhumed Films has gone through several theaters for screenings.

“They’ve all [the theaters] just successively closed down around our feet,” said Gervasi. Exhumed Films currently calls the International House, located at 3701 Chestnut St. in Philadelphia, home.  It’s a real step-up.

According to Gervasi some of their previous venues were “dilapidated, and they had bugs and rats running around.”

Though Exhumed has a great ongoing relationship with International House, it is difficult to do monthly events there, because of the theater’s other commitments and bookings. However, Exhumed still manages to hold double features there, “about every other month or so.”

They also conduct a once-a-year, 24-hour horror marathon. Now entering its third year, the marathon allows Exhumed to showcase some of their rarest prints.  “Many of the prints come from the collection of one of the group members, Harry Guerro,” said Gervasi.

Promotional Poster for Horror Marathon made by Justin Miller/Hauntlove

Guerro is part of a network of print collectors and traders, which include people such as Quentin Tarantino and Martin Scorsese. “Whatever he doesn’t personally own, may be owned by Exhumed Films, or he would be able to trade with other people to barrow the prints to run,” continued Gervasi. The network in which Guerro does his trading allows Exhumed access to several rare prints from around the world.

Some of the films shown at the 24-hour event may never end up being screened outside the context of the marathon.  This is because of the films’ levels of obscurity. Were they to be put into one of Exhumed’s regular events, they more than likely would not be able to stand on their own merits.

“If we put them into our 24-hour show, where people don’t even know what they’re [going to be] seeing, because we never ever announce what the films are going to be… then people … wind up seeing something that they wouldn’t normally  gravitate towards.”

The reason for not allowing the audience to know in advance the titles of the films is both practical, and helps add to the fun of the occasion.

“I think if the people knew what they were seeing they would pick and choose and chart when they were going to be there,” explained Gervasi. “It creates a sense of excitement where you have no idea what you’re going to see.”

In addition to several feature length movies, there are also several shorts and trailers between films. The lack of advance knowledge also prevents the audience from missing out on some of these smaller gems.

“Hopefully you [the audience] trust us well enough to allow yourself to be surprised by what we’re going to screen to you,” continued Gervasi.

This year’s 24-hour marathon is on Oct. 24 and 25. Tickets for the event are on sale at www.exhumedfilms.com/24hrfest. Tickets are $25 each.

Though Exhumed Films does charge for their events, the founders do not take any profits. Gervasi and Nelson own a for profit side business, Diabolik DVD, which always has a stand at Exhumed screenings to sell DVDs.

Any money made by Exhumed goes into a kitty used for buying new prints and the other costs of running the films.

“When we all decide we hate each other [the members of Exhumed] and disband we’ll break up that money and we’ll have a hundred bucks each,” said Gervasi jokingly.

It’s been about two weeks now since we’ve installed and been playing Popcap’s newest hit – Plants vs Zombies! and over those weeks, many hours have been spent vigilantly growing a monster garden to defend my house (and brain) from a never ending zombie onslaught.  As with their previous hits, most recently, Peggle, Popcap has pulled through again delivering a great game that can be played in short bursts and is full of humor, clever graphics and classic Popcap-style music.

Plants vs Zombies is primarily set in your home’s back yard where you grow a garden of angry plants which assist you in fighting off the zombies using a variety of weapons including peas, butter, cabbage, watermelons, walnuts, fire, mushrooms and pumpkin shells.. to name a few.  The main adventure mode of the game encompasses 50 levels in 5 zones: Backyard, Backyard with water, Backyard night time, Backyard night time with water and your roof where the zombies make their final assault.

PvZ is a unique take on a growing genre of short-duration gaming known as a Tower Defense.  Tower Defenses (or Mauls) started as a Warcraft III custom game (similar to DotAs – see our review of DemiGod) where players build autonomous Towers, which can be anything from actual arrow-shooting towers to a recreation of a cartoon character that shoots snowballs, that shoot mindlessly at creatures that walk through them on a static path.  PvZ changes the classic TD setting by giving the player 5 rows to fill with plants and having zombies randomly spawn in any of the lanes.  There are only a few select plants that can cover multiple lanes; so building the plants in the proper order from the beginning is important in ensuring your brain’s safety.

Overall, the adventure mode took probably 4 to 5 hours to complete and was actually a little too easy to complete in my opinion.  There were only a handful of levels that I restarted due to bad placement initially and there were no levels that I outright lost where a zombie ate my brain.  I can understand the intent of designing a game mean to be played in small increments to be easier; players would be less motivated to replay a level if they only had a few minutes to play and difficult levels that go on for 5+ minutes would be undesirable.  However, for the mode hard-core gamers among us, at least giving an option to play the adventure mode on a Hard difficulty (right now, there is no difficulty selection) for a bit more of a challenge.

Along with protecting your home, one of the primary aspects of the game is collecting money (small coins that pop up on the screen from time to time) which is used to buy a wide variety of products from your neighbor, Crazy Dave, to enhance different aspects of game play.  One of the first things you can purchase are enhancements to the plants in your garden.  There are over 40 plants you can acquire, plus additional upgrades, and at the start of each level you can only 6 (or more if you buy the proper upgrade), so there is never a lack of thought that can go into the inital planning for your garden.   For a full list of plants, check out: http://jayisgames.com/walkthroughs/plants-vs-zombies Besides new plants to grow, there are various other enhancements you can buy with the coins you collect to buy items usable long beyond the adventure.

Where the game really begins to shine is once the adventure mode has been completed.  There are a slew of mini-type-games that will keep you occupied long after the adventure has ended and a great reward system to entice you to keep playing.  Once you’ve completed the adventure, you start to gain access to Puzzles, Survival Mode, Minigames and a Zen Garden (tended by a lethargic snail).  Completing these games earns money, special Zen Garden plants and trophies and will take considerably more time to complete than the initial adventure while providing a lot of entertainment and classic Popcap game references.

Overall, Plants vs Zombies is another instant classic from Popcap that I would recommend to anyone whether a fan of classic Tower Defense games or not.  They do a great job of walking you through the initial game play without providing any type of manual or instructions, and, once you have got a basic concept of the game, allow you to create massive armies of zombie battling greenery!

EPIC!

Buy Plants vs Zombies (or get the free tiral) at: http://www.popcap.com/games/pvz/

A rumor that has been floating around for probably more than a year, but has started to gain more hype, is the possibility that Apple may come out with a new iPhone with Verizon.

Stop right there.  If any of you felt your heart race after hearing of the rumor or just reading this now for the first time, welcome friends!  In an age where we want everything at the touch of a finger, the iPhone is a very handy gadget.  Most smartphones are for that matter.  (Of course the iPhone apps are one of the reasons that Apple had no real competitor other than Blackberry.)

The iPhone, even in some of our generation’s dimmest times, was still increasing sales.  With the App Store, the iPhone can be transformed into anything you want it to be really.  Being someone who is fairly attached to her laptop, I will sometimes drag it out just to check on some news or tweet or play a game.  This isn’t a pain at all, but thinking about just doing it on the iPhone, I begrudge other people’s iPhone joy.  It seems to be the perfect mini-laptop when taking a laptop out just isn’t as practical as it used to be.  In a world where netbooks are selling like mad and laptops are selling much more than desktops, the iPhone fits in well.

If in fact Verizon and Apple do come to an accord for an iPhone, this should make for a take over in the smartphone industry.  One of the key reasons that most people do not have an iPhone is AT&T.  I live in an area where the best service is Verizon and AT&T is subpar, well most other carriers are too.  Because of this, I refuse to move over to AT&T just for an iPhone, though I constantly wish I could deal with the service and just get the iPhone.

From past endeavors, Apple will rarely annouce anything quite as big as a Verizon iPhone in a huge time advance.  Because of this, I doubt that we will hear much about a contract between Verizon and Apple at WWDC which is days away kicking off on June 8th.  If anything, I would expect the iPhone to be on Verizon’s bill in 2010, most likely Fall.  The reason for this is because they did annouce that they had no intentions of changing their partnership with AT&T.

It is no secret that if Apple were to open to other carriers, they would more than double their iPhone sales at present.  Verizon is a very stable network with great reception nearly everywhere I have been with a Verizon phone, even Maine and the boondocks of Pennsylvania and New York.  However, there is a downside for Apple to go with Verizon according to research analysts Craig Moffett and Toni Sacconaghi of Bernstein Research.  Verizon would certainly highten iPhone sales but AT&T would probably lower the subsidy per phone from $450 to $350 or even $250 and that would make us Verizon iPhone cheerleaders pay more for the iPhone with Verizon, unless they lowered the margins on each phone.

Either way, it makes me excited just thinking about using an iPhone with perfect reception at my house where AT&T has yet to expand service near.  Until then, I will be patiently awaiting the grand news.

Image taken from ThatGuyWithTheGlasses.com

He Remembers It, So You Don’t Have to.

By Thomas Mates

If you still pine for the days when Saved by the Bell was still on the air and it was worth it to wake up early for Saturday morning cartoons then you have probably heard of the Nostalgia Critic, on ThatGuyWithTheGlasses.com. Every Wednesday, the Nostalgia Critic updates his site with reviews of movies and television shows most twenty-somethings grew up with. The Nostalgia Critic in real life is Chicago native Douglas Walker, 27.

Walker was a film major at NIU, Northern Illinois University. “I was actually going to go into film for a living, but the more I grew up the more I realized that I’d probably have to deal with Hollywood and I’m not really a huge fan of Hollywood,” said Walker.

After college Walker made a living doing illustration and design. He then started his career on the internet through YouTube. “I started posting these five second movies; they were like famous movies reduced down to five seconds… those seemed to catch on really big time on the YouTube community.”

From there Walker went on to create a character called the Nostalgia Critic, an angry reviewer of all things nostalgic who, “remembers it so you don’t have to.” After the Critic took off Walker was approached by Mike Michaud, who Walker knew through a friend in college. “Really the reason the site exists is because of him [Michaud].”

“He said you know if you give me time I can actually turn this into a business, like a legit business that you can actually make money off of,” recalled Walker. Though skeptical at first, Walker gave Michaud the go ahead. Michaud put together a team and built the site. He then brought Walker on and “[I’ve] been doing it ever since. I’m getting paid for it and doing pretty much what I love.”

Walker handles all of his own editing and most of the writing for his segments, though his brother Rob does help with writing for the Nostalgia Critic. In addition to the Nostalgia Critic, Walker has other characters he portrays like That Guy with The Glasses, and Chester A. Bum. Both of these characters’ sketches are mostly adlibbed by Walker.

Despite the amount of content that Walker deals with, his computer set up is relatively low tech. “I’m not a very big technical person, especially when it comes to cameras and computers, ironically.”

He uses a commercial PC with Adobe Premier to edit and Pinnacle Studio to import clips from other films, and occasionally using After Effects for very specific effects. “It does get clunky, you know, considering the amount of editing I do but for the most part it works.”

Since Walker’s reviews tend to use a lot of copyrighted material, i.e. clips from movies, the site has to keep a lawyer on standby just in case. The only real legal problems Walkers run into so far were on YouTube. “I’ve been kicked off of YouTube several times. I think the final number was about three or four.”

Walker believes his work to be covered under Fair Use and Parody/ Satire laws, but some Hollywood studios seem to disagree, though Walker’s legal problems have been limited to YouTube so far. “We do keep a lawyer on standby just in case… if anything were to come of it we’d probably, definitely make our point.”

Though Walker would be considered the star of thatguywiththeglasses.com, there are many other contributors to the site’s content such as, Lindsay Ellis; the Nostalgia Chick, Kaylyn Dicksion; Marz Girl, and Daniel Rizzo; That Aussie Guy just to name a few. “It’s not always so focused on me… I like getting more people in there.”

The sites expenses are taken care of through user donations and advertisement revenue through a partnership with Blip.tv. Blip.tv is a video hosting and distribution site for video bloggers. They encourage their users to create episodic material, like the Nostalgia Critic, as opposed to viral videos, single videos that gain widespread internet popularity.

Users of Blip can opt for advertisers to be run concurrent with the users’ videos and the revenue is split down the middle. “We’re one of their [Blip’s] number one customers. We work very well with Blip,” commented Walker on his site’s relationship with blip.tv.

For all the other people out there that would like to become an internet phenomena, Walker’s first word of advice is, “don’t.” “I’m really kind of a rare case, and a lot of it had to do with luck and having a lot of really good people behind me.” Walker then went on to advise that people should, “hone in on things that people are always going to be googling and looking up… it’s like the four p’s, patience, persistence, perseverance, and pretty much a big shit-load of luck.”

Thomas Mates can be reached at mates.thomas@gmail.com, at myspace.com/freelance_journalist215, twitter.com/tmates, and on FaceBook.

Any gamer knows that the biggest fear in an MMO is having your account hacked and all of your gear, gold and potentially characters stolen or removed.  On a daily basis we hear stories from our fellow gamers about having their accounts hacked and gear sharded and sold off.  Blizzard has made a solid effort with their authenticators that definitely do add a great second factor of authentication, but there are other (free) games that are seemingly ahead of the game with their methods of authentication, and they don’t require you to carry around a big blue key chain (or pay an additional $7).

The threat of having your account hacked is spread across all MMORPGs and attacks can range from simple brute force to complicated social engineering and clickjacking setups.  In the past, there have not been many attempts by the game developers to implement methods of preventing account theft, and it’s only been in the recent generation of MMOs that GMs have become more willing to restore “stolen” gear.  I would attribute this to the improvement in their ability to log the trafficking of goods and golds from character to character and realm to realm making it harder to fake your account being hacked in hopes to get some free lewt.

The most well known example of a game developer providing additional account security is Blizzard’s World of Warcraft Authenticator (pictured above), and it does provide a solid, two-factor, method of authentication that will effectively thwart any attempt at access to your account without the device.  However, there has been a strong effort among developers of free MMOs to provide enhanced security without any additional cost.  Below, we will profile three games, WoW and two free MMOs, and their particular methods of account security.

World Of Warcraft (Blizzard Entertainment)

Security Method: Additional Hardware

Blizzard has a lot of weight on their shoulders when it comes to ensuring account security if for no other reason than the fact that they have a huge subscriber base and every time someone’s account is hacked, they need to devote resources to researching the attack and restoring anything lost. It is, therefore, Blizzard’s best interest to promote account security and keep gold and epics on the players who earned them.  The solution they have provided is an additional piece of hardware, a key fob which produces a pseudorandom yet sequential number when a button is pressed that is entered in addition to your password.

This security model is not particularly new, individuals in the security field may be familiar with RSA SecurID tokens, CryptoCards or YubiKeys which provide either an on-demand or cycling one-time-password (OTP) that can be used for additional authentication when entered either separately or appended to the end of your normal password.  PayPal has also recently begun producing their “football” which is the same type of device, but has some security issues of it’s own that we don’t need to get into here.

The benefit of a  separate hardware device that produces a OTP is that is truly provides you with two-factor authentication.  That is to say, logging in required both someting you KNOW (your password) and something you HAVE (the authenticator) and one will not work without the other.  Multi-factor authentication is extremely strong in this situation because it bypasses any type of keystroke monitoring, be it some keylogging software or hardware on the computer you are using or someone staring over your shoulder.  It’s no problem if they are able to log your password and write down your authenticator code.  The next time someone attempts to login to your account, WoW will simply request the next token code in the cycle and deny anyone without it.

The downside to Blizzard’s authenticator is twofold – the cost and the fact that it is something else you need to carry around.  The Blizzard Store (when it’s available) lists the authenticator for about $7, which seems a reasonable price to ensure the security and longevity of your virtual life, and it is unarguably the most secure method of what we will be discussing today, but the point still stands that there is an additional cost associated with it.  Also, if you happen to lose the token or if it breaks – which has been known to happen, you are pretty much without the ability to login at all, which could theoretically cause more downtime than actually getting hacked, with how efficient Blizzard generally is when restoring accounts.

Requiem (Gravity Interactive)

Security Method: Mouse-entered PIN

Here we have the character login screen for Gravity Interactive’s free MMORPG, Requiem.  Requiem chose to go a different route than Blizzard and added additional security to the logon process by requiring a separate PIN that needs to be entered when logging into a character.  As a free MMO, they would be hard pressed to convince customers to invest any amount of money in the game, particularly for account security.

Requiem’s PINs are character specific.  Each time you make a new character on the account, you are required to create a 4-digit PIN which then has to be entered whenever you attempt to login or delete the character.  An interesting side effect of this feature is that you could have multiple people playing on the same account without having to worry about one interfering with another’s character (not that you couldn’t just make a new account for a second player as the game is free).

What makes this PIN feature truly secure is the fact that it only accepts input from a mouse click, which eliminates key logging, and each time you click on a number they all shuffle.  This would prevent a potential hacker from mapping your mouse movements and clicks – each time you enter your 4-digit PIN, you are clicking different areas of the screen.  Additionally, with the software based logon, you don’t have to worry about losing anything and not being able to connect.  Regardless of where you need to access the game, your PIN will always be available (depending on your state of mind, of course) to authenticate you.

The weakness that is inherent to any static logon information is that someone could watch/video/otherwise observe you entering your password and PIN (though, they are both displayed as *’s on screen so they would have to observe your keystrokes and mouse clicks – a privacy screen would prevent this) and then be able to log into your account and characters.  However, even having one character’s PINs found out does not totally compromise the account; each character should have a unique PIN.

Runes of Magic (Runewaker Entertainment)

(RoM actually has decent graphics, this SS was taken on a laptop at lowest settings)

Security Method: On-Screen Keyboard

The final case we will be looking at is Runes of Magic.  While they provide what I would consider the least revolutionary of the three, their effort is not to be scoffed at as it still provides key-logger-proof password entry.   When logging into your account initially and you tab down into the password entry field, an onscreen keyboard appears and you are encouraged to use a mix of the keyboard and mouse clicks to enter your password.  Using only the mouse input as opposed to a combination of both if the better route, especially if your password is something that could be easy to figure out with a few blanked out characters “p__swo_d” wouldn’t be THAT hard for a potential hacker to decipher.

As with the numbers on Requiem’s keypad, RoM’s keyboard is not in a static location on the screen, again in efforts to prevent the mapping of mouse movements and clicks to spoof a login.  Each time you go into the password field, the keyboard will appear in a different location on the screen.  Additionally, RoM required you to create a second password whenever you create characters on a new server.  However, you will only ever be prompted for this password again when trying to delete a character (which, interestingly, has a 24-hour “undo” option which will immediately restore your character).

Summary

While it would be hard to argue against Blizzard’s authenticator being the most secure of the bunch, the fact that it requires an additional investment seems unnecessary.  While I’m not opposed to having to pay for the hardware, which is really about all they’re charging, they should not alienate those who don’t want to or for whatever reason can’t get an authenticator by leaving them susceptible to key logging or social engineering attacks.  Implementing a simple, free option similar to Requiems or even just the on screen keyboard would be much appreciated and would go even further to ensure the safety of everyone’s accounts.

[View with PicLens]

]]> http://www.muchgeek.com/blog/2009/04/why-blizzard-is-losing-the-race-for-account-security-and-what-free-alternatives-are-doing-to-win/feed/ 4 http://www.muchgeek.com/blog/2009/04/review-vizio-26-hdtv-lcd-tv-from-wal-mart/ http://www.muchgeek.com/blog/2009/04/review-vizio-26-hdtv-lcd-tv-from-wal-mart/#comments Wed, 15 Apr 2009 01:24:06 +0000 MG_Brian http://www.muchgeek.com/blog/?p=160 Well, I recently visited a local “Big Box Mart” and picked myself up a new flat panel to add to my home.

With a tight wallet and a cynical eye, I did a ton of research on specs, details, reviews and price. I also have a 42″ Toshiba Regza that is a solid television, but the price point for Toshiba, Sony, LG, etc. is rather high, particularly for a secondary box.

I decided on the 26″ Vizio from Wally World for a price $367 online and around $390 in store. (The impatient side of me opted to just buy it in store rather than wait.)

To the review…
Overall this is a very nice television. The picture is quite crisp when viewed straight on or from a side angle. However, I find that when I am looking at it from a slightly lower level, like laying on the loveseat, the top of the picture appears rather darkened.

I have found it to not only work well as a second television, but also as a nice monitor for my laptop. I have the VGA cable handy along with an aux plug for my nearby Zune speaker dock. It is very simple to set up and view online video.  The auto adjust works well to properly align my monitor screen and I can clearly see everything from about 6-7 feet away.

A nice feature is that there is a button on the remote for each input so there’s no browsing through the many choices. On the flipside is a downfall for Dish customers, their remotes do not have a stored code for any Vizio products.

I have read a few complaints about the audio from the television, but I haven’t had a problem myself. This being said, I don’t use it for viewing movies or anything where I’m looking to have an engrossing experience.

Overall, I think that this is a quality product, especially for the price point. If you’re looking for a mid-size screen with a good quality picture, decent sound, and ample inputs, then this is the television for you.

For more details or to order your own, visit Wally World.

The Dirty Details:
Specification
Size: 26-in*
*Viewable: 26-in
Tuner: Integrated NTSC/ATSC/QAM HDTV Tuner

Supported TV Formats
1080i, 720p, 480p, 480i

Native Panel Resolution: 1366 x 768
Supported PC Resolutions
1366 x 768, 1024 x 768, 800 x 600

Specification
Panel Type: 26″ Diagonal*, 16:9 Wide Screen, Color TFT Active Matrix LCD
Panel Specifications: Anti-Static and hard coated surface
Pixel/Dot Pitch: 0.4215mm(H) x 0.4215mm (V)
Display Compatibility: HDTV (720p)
Signal Compatibility: 480i (SDTV), 480P (EDTV), 720P (HDTV), 1080i (HDTV)
Response Time: 8 ms
Colors: 16.2 Million
Brightness: 500 cd/m2
Contrast Ratio: 2400:1(Dynamic)
Viewable Angle: 160/150 degrees (horozontal/vertical)

Inputs
RF (F Connector for internal tuner): 1
HDMI with HDCP: 2
Analog Stereo Audio for HDMI Inputs: 1
Component YPbPr plus Stereo Audio: 1
Composite Video: 2
S-Video plus Stereo Audio: 1
Computer RGB plus Stereo Audio: 1
Service Port: 1

Outputs
Analog Audio out (RCA): 0
5.1 SPDIF Digital Optical Audio: 0
Headphone (Stereo Mini-Jack): 1

Okay, let’s just get it out of the way. This game is a straight up “Gears of War” clone in every way. But I found that’s not such a bad thing during my play through of Mr. Cent’s second foray into the world of video games.

I’m not the biggest Gears fan, but I had a fun time playing it. So I didn’t mind playing the same game again for a few hours. That’s what was key for me, this is a short game. I beat it in about 5 hours give or take and then played it through again in co-op mode for another two. Right when I started thinking “man this is starting to get old” I was put up against the final boss.

I used co-op as a means to get achievements, but this game is built for co-op. If you have someone to play with or get lucky with a public match the game starts to really shine. Although I found the difficultly to be non-existent, especially in co-op . I sense this was a choice of the developer for the more casual 50 fans. The story is forgettable at best. All you need to know is that everyone’s out to steal 50’s diamond encrusted skull and he’ll stop at nothing to get it back.

In all, if I had paid full price for this game I’d feel ripped off. This game is complete weekend rental territory.

Score: 4/5 Vitamin Waters

WiiSpray Controller

Check out what a group of German students has come up with, the WiiSpray.  This custom controller (possibly the cleanest looking I’ve seen) works with a homebrew app that allows couch artists to do their thing without worrying about getting paint on their fingers.

Created by Martin Lihs, and first detailed in his thesis at Bauhaus University, the inital concept was released back in 2007.  Since then, it has been refined to include a wider variety of backdrops to spray on and the new controller which maintains the look and feel of an actual spray can.  It even changes colors so you always know what should be coming out.

Check out the video of it in action (the stenciling is particularly awesome):

WiiSpray Teaser from Martin Lihs on Vimeo.

[via SlashGear]