Cosplay for a Cause

This is a little "late in the game," so to speak, in regards to actually donating money towards the disaster relief for Japan. I've wanted to donate something towards this cause, but financial circumstances have kept me from doing so sooner and I am always weary about all of these people who seemingly appear from thin air, eager to take your money. Are all of these people legit? Or is their some bullshit afoot?

Anyway... I happened upon this group of Cosplayers who are selling calenders (Cosplay for a Cause) and they are donating 100% of the proceeds to the Japan Red Cross. Now why would I trust these folks over others? Well besides being more put together and being absolutely clear about where the money is going, I am a sucker for cosplay and also a sucker for helping. Selling chili? Cookies? If it is for a cause (Girl Scouts, school fund raiser, etc) and I can afford to, I'll almost always buy a few.

But back to the subject at hand here! While I don't partake in it myself (Cosplay), I do respect the time and effort these diehard fans put into making themselves look just like the characters they portray. I've seen quite a few pictures of these guys from Japan and America and there are some awesome work done.

So with all of that being said, the link to their website is located on the right side of my blog. It'll stay there until this cause ends, which doesn't appear to be anytime too soon. I think I will be buying a calender myself, just as soon as I am able to...

Armageddon!

Just spent a few hours giving this demo some play time and I had a blast with it! I'm a sucker for destructible environments and this gave me a lot of walkways, buildings, walls and a ton of stuff to take apart (as it also was with Red Faction: Guerrilla). I especially had a lot of fun with the magnetic gun, which allows you to shoot a magnet onto a surface, then you can fire a second shot and objects around the first shot will most likely be pulled towards where ever you fired the second shot.

It is freaking awesome!

The aspect I like in this game is the ability to be able to "repair" structures that you've destroyed, which gives maniacs unlike me the chance to blow shit up all over again. I swear I only took apart the demo level twice (it was honestly like 3-4 times)...

I suppose I will be on the look out for this game, whenever it is released, though the only aspect I enjoy is the breaking stuff part. As it went with the last game, I grew tired of the story and just spent my time breaking everything in sight until even that got old. Maybe this one will be better?

First Impressions: Portal 2

So after much deliberation (how could I say no to a cheap game that is almost absolutely awesome?), I ended up caving in yesterday and picking up Portal 2 became less a thought and more reality. By what little we've played of the co-op portion so far, the game is pretty damn good and some of these puzzles stumped and forced us to use our noodles to make it through these test rooms.

I think for me the biggest twist to get my head around so far was simply the teamwork building stuff. There were some rooms where both of us were apart and I had it in my head that we both needed to solve our own ways through. But when that idea falls flat, we both ended up running about and dropping in and out from portals until we're both stumped. Then usually either myself or my girlfriend will notice we can shoot across into the other player's room or something painfully obvious.  That would usually snap everything else into place and we proceed to breeze through the room.

Story-wise, I can't really say there is anything of real substance involved in the co-op portion so far. I think that stuff is more reserved for the single player part, but again I haven't seen too far into the co-op part so that could all change too.

Last thing I want to say about this game so far is this: I am actually glad I got the game now, rather then at launch. I do feel kind of bad for those who picked this up at launch and paid full price. But that's the breaks I suppose? It is like picking up the super-ultra-mega limited edition Legendary Halo: Reach bundle for a price I don't care to remember. Then to see that very same bundle sitting on the floor at BestBuy for like $70 is pretty heartbreaking.

Then again, I suppose that example isn't quite right and isn't quite the same either. I think I would definitely be pretty pissed off if that same bundle dropped down to $70 a week after release...

Anyway, back to Portal 2... It is awesome, it seems pretty fun from what I've seen so far and I can drop my dearly beloved into portals that lead to bottomless pits and the like. What? Who wouldn't do that "accidentally" every now and again?

McCool Retires?

Michelle McCool

Such a strange wave hitting through the WWE these days and the retirements are starting to rack up by the day it seems. The rumors have been going none stop that McCool would be taking part in a "Loser Leaves WWE" match against her long time cohort Layla at tonight's Extreme Rules show. But rumors being what they are, I can't say I believed it was happening until it was confirmed on Smackdown! this past Friday night.

A part of the rumors were the reasons behind why McCool was stepping away from the ring. Talk about Undertaker wanting his wife at home with up surfaced, others have speculated that she was leaving to start having kids.

Whatever the case might be, I am a little sad about her sudden "retirement" from the WWE. She is probably the only "diva" the WWE actually help to build up and actually succeeded. Sure there are other divas like Melina and... uh...

Anyway, yes there have been some other women to have some successes in the ring but I don't think any of them actually came close to what McCool did. She is one of the few female wrestlers left that actually started up from nothing and actually got to be pretty good. I suppose it does remain much easier for the WWE to simply pick up women that are already trained, rather then having to start everyone from the ground up. Then again it has been many years since any diva has had any significance to either Raw or Smackdown, so I guess it ultimately doesn't really mean or change all that much.

But at the end of all of this, personally as a fan I am sort of bummed that yet another favorite of mine is set to leave in such a short amount of time. But at least she isn't leaving because of some sort of injury or anything truly serious. And I guess that does leave the door open for a potential return somewhere down the road.