Continue reading »]]> According to a story released yesterday by the folks over at IGN, the highly anticipated title has been removed from GameStop’s pre-order database. Ubisoft revealed Patriots at 2011′s E3 event but has said very little regarding the title since. While there is no definite word about a cancellation of the title completely, this latest development is surely a cause for alarm to those that were anticipating its eventual release. Hopefully we will hear more about this around the time of E3 in June. As a longtime fan of the series, I remain optimistic that the title will be released sometime down the line and I’m very disappointed by these latest developments.

Source: IGN

Continue reading »]]> Around this time last year I posted an article entitled The Evolution of Social Gaming. Within the article, I discussed the increasing number of live streaming platforms that have finally adopted a formula to cater to the growing desire for gameplay and video game related content amongst it’s users. While I’m not going to spend time restating the points made within the original article, I will say that this trend is definitely increasing.

A few months ago, Sony held a press conference to announce the highly anticipated debut of their flagship gaming console, the Playstation 4. Most of the presentation was focused on the hardware, graphic capabilities as well as the software. This was to the delight of many of the fans myself included that attended the presentation via Ustream. However, the part of the presentation that I personally found most interesting didn’t involve any of the above listed criteria.

Sony displayed yet another facet of their innovation prowess by introducing the ability to stream your gameplay from within the console itself and share it among the people on your friends list. This feature is said to allow your friends to assist you through the tougher sections of whatever game you might be playing or to show off that incredible feat you just pulled off in real-time, seemingly without the need of capture cards and other devices required by today’s consoles.

Whether these features will be adequately handled on whatever streaming platform they choose to proceed with (as of this writing, they have an exclusive partnership with Ustream) will remain to be seen. With the presentation of the next incarnation of the Xbox looming over the horizon, things are only destined to get better from here.

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First of all, let me preface this review by saying that i initially had no interest in picking up this game. The last experience that I’d had with the Army of Two franchise was with it’s initial release. I found that one to be very heavy with the controls and honestly an overall less than stellar experience, at least for me. However, after seeing the numerous commercial trailers and actually getting my hand on the game at a friend’s house, I became an immediate fan. The controls are much more fluid than they’d been in the previous versions. Almost reminiscent of the scheme of Gears of War or Spec Ops: The Line.

This installment of the Army of Two franchise is a solid play through albeit very short. The campaign itself is about 5 to 5.5 hours in overall playtime. It features a well paced yet somewhat linear storyline. You play the game as Alpha (or Bravo if your running co-op with a friend) two brand new recruits into the TWO. Your first mission within the organization is to infiltrate a very lethal mexican drug cartel that is trying to use their brute force and tactics to assert their dominance by taking the mayor hostage following a planned ambush.

While the campaign itself is worth playing through, this is definitely a game that would benefit from an actual multiplayer mode. With the exception of unlocking the extra difficult insane mode, and the overkiller contacts missions, the replay value for this is somewhat considerably low with the omission of a bona fide multiplayer experience.  With that being said, I’d recommend at least giving this game a shot on a rental basis unless you are a hardcore fan of the series. It definitely was a welcome break from the Call of Duty shooters for a while

Continue reading »]]> Shortly after my last post, I put out the invitation to anyone that wanted to share their prospective on how music has changed them, or changed as a whole. A friend of mine requested an open forum to post his opinion, which of course I will gladly grant him. Please read and enjoy

What have we done…….

Music is supposed to be a gateway to ones soul……. Or at least it was back in the day…
Music in this day and age isn’t the same. This generation has no idea what good music is. Please be aware that these are my views and this is solely based on opinion and hopefully won’t be reflected in a malicious way towards anyone or anything. Just plain opinion here.

When I was a child, I can remember listening to Michael Jackson, Whitney Houston, Mariah Carey, Isley Brothers, Earth, Wind & Fire, among others. These artists had their souls in their music. These performers where special, in their own right of course. These were the great pop artists. Of course there was more exceptional artist of their time. Hell, even rap had great artists…. Now even though I never really listened to rap and r&b, I still considered the following people as the exceptional artists of their time. Such rappers like Ice Cube, Method Man, Redman, Ol’ Dirty Bastard, Coolio, Nas, Puff Daddy (Sean Combs. I’m not going to dive into the different monikers. It’s just pointless), Biggie Smalls, Tupac among others. As for the R&B artists, even though this one artist is still producing hits and what not it’s not the same. Usher when he started out was phenomenal. He was the heart throb for all women not just teenage girls. Then you had Boyz II Men, Ginuwine, D’Angelo, etc. With the exception of Usher, these groups or artists have disappeared and it’s sad. They really had talent. Now in the world of rock music, alot of greats have been seen since my childhood. These groups included Black Sabbath, Ozzy Osbourne, Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, SLAYER, Metallica, among the various others. Now in the 90s, metal evolved into a lot of different sub-genres. Nu-metal was born along with the makings of bands like Slipknot, Korn, Limp Bizkit, Nonpoint, Kittie, Disturbed, etc. Now in the course of time, these Nu-Metal bands have evolved through the years. Some good and some bad. I will not mention the 1 band that was at their game in the 90s and have completely made a u turn and have lost it, since a few people might know of this band already.

Now that I’m of course older and no longer a child, my taste of music evolved as did the music I listened to. I have grown rather attached to the music of Broadway musicals since I hail from New York. I have a huge collection of these soundtracks which include the soundtracks of CATS, Les Miserable, The Phantom of the Opera, Rock of Ages, and the Lion King. Call me a wimp, I honestly don’t care. I’m in tune with my music. But that’s going off topic. Now the music in the age that it is in now is horrible. Incredibly awful. The world of rap and r&b are being taking over by these kids who think they have skills when its only auto tune. For instance, Justin Beiber does not have talent at all, but because he has sex appeal to these teenage girls he is an idol. He claims “ that he will be better the Michael Jackson when he reaches 20”, the nerve of this kid! Seriously Michael Jackson and the Jackson 5 have been around for years. Music isn’t supposed to be a competition. In rap, the artists that they have now, I can honestly say I have no idea what they are singing about. In the good old days rappers spoke of meaning and purpose and loyalty to ones cliq. Nowadays they talk about weed and “bitches and hoes” and they belittle each other. Even in the past the “N” word was used but again that’s a different matter entirely and I again won’t go there. As for the world of metal and rock and roll, they have evolved somewhat in music the music has more feeling and more meaning. It’s really hard to explain it. But the metal pioneers who still are making music are glad to share the stage and pass the torch down to the new acts.

Again this is solely my opinion on this matter. I myself own an underground music and arts label so this has no meaning against the Askew Effect. I just asked my good friend, Mr. Eugene Askew Jr. if I could write a little blog for how I feel this world of music has or has not evolved from the years of when I was younger.

So thank you my friend for allowing me to share my opinion.

Yours truly,

The metal head known as Spikes

Continue reading »]]> This is where the story gets really hard for me to write. Simply because I’m still developing in this particular music stage of my life. Over the last few years or so, my genre choices went from one spectrum to the next, even more so than before. Yet another new circle of friends came into the picture as I started venturing to anime conventions on a yearly basis at the start of 2010. (see “Journey into the Land of Otaku“) That was when I discovered the Japanese Rock scene. While there i got a brief glimpse into what the music was, and while it was an entirely foreign language to me lyrically, the melody of the songs were universal.I went home feeling a sense of belonging after the Friday night concert. up until that point and even at times after, I felt like I was an outsider in the anime community. It was always the music that made everything fit. and for that moment, it was what mattered.

Through the convention, I was introduced to an online J-rock community, that I never knew had existed before. I’d seen flyers and ads in the paper for Japanese artists playing local shows but had no idea who they were until now. Sadly, the timing in which I found this particular community was toward the end of their radio show run. It wasn’t until almost a year later that I finally caught up with them again. During this time, they were promoting a band by the name of Rose Noire. There was something about the band’s sound i found to be refreshing. They are both classically trained musicians that play the violin. At least that was the case for the first song I’d heard, Dual Evil.

As you can tell by the video, there’s nothing i can say about this band that I feel would do them justice. After that song, I was introduced to several other bands during various broadcasts. Such as, Girugamesh, Exist Trace, D’espair’s Ray and most recently,Kagrra, Heidi. and The Sound Bee HD.

While I personally wouldn’t feel right calling myself a VK fan yet, I will say that I’m enjoying the current directions that my musical compass has taken me over the years.Even more so, the people I’ve met along the way. I hope you’ve enjoyed this brief look into my journey. May it inspire you to look up and give a band a shot that you otherwise wouldn’t have done so previously, If it does, please share your experiences with me, as well as any bands you might recommend that we can experience together. After all, that’s what the music is about, right?

Continue reading »]]> Upon further developing a fandom for Sublime, I had discovered that the lead singer, Bradley, had died just before their self titled album had come out. Even though I had an extremely short history with the band, i was maybe a month or two in at the time, hearing this saddened me greatly. The fact of knowing that everything the band wanted to achieve in terms of ultimate success, he would never get to experience any of it. The band would later reform under a few different incarnations, but it was the original group that had that “spark” with me.

Taken during the concert in DC Jan 2009

The news piece they were running on the band was how a lot of their die hard fans at the time were accusing them of selling out and changing their image. I personally feel that a lot of the flack they received was unwarranted, even today. While I admit, I really love their older material from Kill em All to the self titled “black album”, I have a soft spot in my heart for the Load/Reload era from which I started. Say what you will, but the music is and will always be timeless.

Fast forward to post high school, I believe, that during this time I was once again trying to find my identity. My choices in music reflected that. I’d began listening to a lot of heavier and more gothic material. Specifically bands such as Lamb of God, Lacuna Coil, Cradle of Filth and so on. I was going through a dark phase at this point as I was once again adjusting to life somewhat, away from the people I considered to be close friends. All while making that transition to find new ones. As time went on, I branched out further into the gothic/death metal scene and began listening to metal from various other countries for a number of years. Needless to say, by this point my iPod was a conglomeration of music that should potentially never go together.

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That has been the pressing question on my mind. In the midst of all of the healing and processing of recent events, music has been the heaviest form of comfort besides the circle of friends I have. Throughout the years, my musical tastes have always varied. I’ve gone from “old school” 90′s hip hop and rap, to pop, country,metal,techno, and even classical music from time to time.

Most of my early music culture came from my mom. She was a huge fan of artists like Kenny G, Gloria Estefan, George Michael and Madonna. We were so close in my youth, and even still so now. I find myself often going through my collection and finding songs that would remind me of our times together back then. It often was a reminder that even though we were struggling financially, and often physically in my case, that there were ways to make the best of every situation.

Eventually, I took that musical foundation and would expand my horizons amongst my pre-teen years. I was among the kids who would turn on the radio for hours going up and down station dials at random until I found something that caught my attention. During this time, the big pop music explosion of the late 90′s hadn’t yet hit it’s full peak.  Bands like Hanson, Backstreet Boys and N*Sync were all being played on smaller radio stations across the county at the time. Having grown somewhat tired of the standard fare of the local hip hop stations, who at the time seemed to be playing the same set list among the two big competing channels, I ended up enjoying the variety the pop stations offered at the time. Being that I was having a difficult time making friends, due to various different circumstances, the radio was always a constant throughout my life, as cliche as this will sound, it was my compass.

Upon entering middle school in late 1995, I began finally settling into a new environment after having moved so often during my elementary school days. It was around this time that I also discovered my infatuation for alternative music. I began hearing snippets of songs from bands like Alice In Chains, Sneaker Pimps, Marcy’s Playground and a local favorite at the time, Jimmie’s Chicken Shack. Alot of my change during his time was influenced by not only once again looking for something new, but also by the new groups of friends I’d made during that time. Most of the music I was getting around then came from various mix tapes my friends would make me from stuff within their collection.

One band who I immediately took a huge liking to was Sublime. I was at a friends house, and during one of our normal “up way too damn late for even a normal teenager” moments, we turned on MTV. It was an alternative rock block consisting of Bjork, 311, Beck, Blur, and lastly, Santeria. It was that song that was stuck in my head and would set the tone for the rest of my visit. He had the album the song was featured on, and was thoroughly surprised I’d never heard of it or the band before, so the next day we spent the morning listening to Sublime’s self titled album…at least twice. I recorded a cassette of the CD and took it home to listen to at least a few more times that week. I would eventually get my own copy of the album and later their entire discography. Little did I know then, how much this band would influence later music choices in my life.

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I wrote this on Sunday, and really have been battling the idea of sharing it, publicly. I have always tried to keep my content as real an honest as possible with my readers, That means even sharing my most vulnerable moments from time to time. And because my grandmother has ALWAYS been a devout, staunch supporter of anything I’ve done, it’s only fair that I post this in honor of her here…

It’s almost been 24 hours, since you went away. And I still remember the last time i saw your face. I bent down to kiss your frail cheek. I left with the same phrase We’ve always said “I love you and I will see you soon”. Ir’s things, like time we always take for granted. Truthfully, i refuse to believe you’re gone. For in my heart and mind, I will always remember you as that last visage I saw before walking out of that door. As i frantically type this as I envision me running back to your side, to grab that one last kiss. i’m sorry I was unable to keep my promise. I only hope that i’ve made, and will continue to make you proud of me in your absence. As I look ahead to what the future will hold for me and the family, I feel your loving embrace around me. I do not weep for you, and the fact that you’re gone, i fight back tears for the fact that we weren’t ready to say goodbye. i know you’re no longer suffering, and it’d be selfish for me to want to keep you here. That chill up my spine and the comforting in my heart serves to prove to me you never left. So in closing as I’ll keep this short and sweet, I’ll see you again soon and I will ALWAYS love you

!

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Freedom isn’t what you do with what’s been done to you, it’s when you take back what’s been taken from you!

Never before has such a quote spoken volumes to me than this. Why you ask?, well, as you may well know , for years I was an aspiring poet and writer and always yearned for sharing my work with others. Most have received it well, some more so than others. That fact has gotten me in trouble a few times, but I digress as that’s not the nature of this post. There was once a well-known site that my friends have been known to frequent and share their pieces with others in hopes of getting them critiqued, and most of all shared with a wider audience than their smaller circles.

This site had been known for holding nationwide poetry “contests” where a panel of would be judges “critiqued” your work on a scale and determined whether or not it was worthy of being “published” in an anthological collection of select poets all over the country. Along with such an incentive there were also the opportunities to eventually win cash prizes for your work, and be recognized by your peers as a bona fide published author. Sounds great right?? Just wait…

After a few weeks of debating whether or not I was “good enough” to be up for consideration, and after slight prodding from a few friends, I decided to give it a shot. “What’s the worst that could happen?”, I thought to myself . After choosing what I thought to be my best piece at the time, I anxiously danced around the submit button with my mouse. Carefully making sure that any errors in spelling and punctuation were fixed and polished. Polished as well as my then Sophomoric High School education would allow anyway. I submitted the piece to be judged. Expecting nothing to come of it, short of a few (not so) constructive reviews this was after all, the internet.

After a few weeks of checking, I’d long since forgotten about it. That was until one day, my mom handed me an envelope addressed to me from the website, with a typed “proof” of the words I’d sent in about a month prior with an acceptance letter. It goes without saying that I, along with my mom were elated that I seemingly was of a small group of thousands and thousands of submissions to be selected to be enshrined in this collective of poets. This was also around the timeframe that I was featured among the group of authors at my school to be selected for our annual literary magazine for the school. So in that month, I was being featured in two separate publications, and will have gotten WAY more exposure than I ever expected (or wanted) for what I considered to be a hobby.

We were given the option to purchase a copy of the national book for a price of 60 dollars. A fee of which my mom happily paid without question. It was to be something i was going to have that I could cherish for the rest of my life. In her mind, it was a small price to pay to see the smile on my face that hadn’t been there since I was a child.

Fast forward about 5 years, after our house was broken into and various valuable possessions of mine were stolen, including my class ring, cap and gown and numerous other irreplaceable high school items. We decided it wasn’t safe to return to the apartment since I had already moved out by this point and my mom was by herself. I’d long since stopped writing poetry and moved onto other facets in my life, but the desire to one day publish my own book of my poetry was always in my mind. I often came across the files of written material on various hard drives I’ve had, with no direction of what to do with them.

That was until last week. During a discussion with a friend of mine who I’ve just recently gotten to know outside of a group chat that we frequent on Friday nights. We’d spent some time talking about various writing projects and the desire to have them published. It wasn’t until then, that I really looked at my material in a different, less critical light. I’d begun revising and editing pieces to make them more poise, and to better reflect the emotion I had been trying to get across. During this process, I was reminded of the website of which i first had works published.

I typed in the address to this particular site, only to find out the site itself was completely different and nowhere near what it used to be. After doing a numerous amount of google searches, my heart began to sink more with each click of various scam reports and various other negative reviews. Turns out, the once crowning achievement of my youth, the one thing that I had to say I was a legitimately published writer, was nothing more than a complete fallacy! I had essentially lined the pockets of these faceless names along with countless others before and after me. These people sold us our dreams, and we bought in. You heartless bastards will likely never see or read this, much less even care that I’m posting this, but as quickly as I was to thank you with hard-earned money years ago, I now condemn the very existence you’ve had in my life. May your site rot in the immense depths of whatever hell it was spawned from.

As much as i hate you, you nameless faceless monsters, I thank you. If it wasn’t for your letter, I might have stopped writing. Much longer than when i actually hung up my pen from that aspect of my life. I can now say that in a few short months, I will be a legitimate published writer, not because of you, in spite of you! This is the declaration of MY FREEDOM!

Continue reading »]]> As Fixer celebrates their first year in existence, they are quickly approaching the end of their initial story arc. Many of the readers have grown to love and at times hate the characters along the way.

While the fan support for the project has been steady, the creators have essentially hit a crossroad within their project. They’ve reluctantly have decided to put their story on hold upon the conclusion of Chapter 13, “Le Ciel”. This does not mean that Fixer will be going away. The duo feels that their efforts this year woud be much better suited in touring events and trying to get the word out about the project. Roger and Danny aim to hit as many anime and comic related conventions as they can within the coming months, which has prompted them to once again start up another IndieGoGo campaign. For anyone who has yet to check out Fixer and you are curious as to what the story is about, check out the video below.

Information for the supporter campaign can be found here
To catch up on the story click here