The Georealm

So I finally beat Conan for the 360. It was actually pretty good. I had a lot of fun playing it. The game play was kinda off and on when it came to a few things, but I played on the hard difficulty to get the special bonus gamer points, so I cant bitch much about it being hard. The fighting style was much like the old Onimusha, or you can relate it to God of War, but a bit slower. It was significantly faster than Viking, so if you played/liked it you will enjoy Conan.

I thought the story line was a bit whack, but then again who cares… just a game. Turns out Conan was going to raid some temple, and he released some big dog wizard who steals and imbues his armor with some magic powers and gives it out to various creatures. In turn you run around killing these guys and getting your armor back with the help of some Amazon woman. You save naked women along the way and smash up various bad guys from Spartans, to Egyptians.

The thing I liked the most about the game was the actual build of Conan. You had different weapon options, and the environment provided plenty of interactive weaponry. You could use a single weapon, a weapon and shield, a two handed weapon, or two weapons. This was pretty cool, as you had to learn the weaknesses of each type of enemy and try to utilize your skills against them. You got experience for each skill as you used it, and up on master some of them gave you bonuses for a successful completion of that skill. That turned out to be pretty handy when you were low on life, and you could do a back breaker or shield smash to get some life orbs out of a baddie.

All in all pretty cool, and I enjoyed it. I would say if you like hack and slash games this is a good one to pick up cheap at the local game store. Think I payed about $10 for it.

Alrighty, to keep things simple a good friend of mine writes over at http://www.bonesnap.com and he covers just about everything that has to do with COD4.

But I just wanted to blurb about it and say that I was actively using my XBox live membership again and playing online. I was probably the one pissing everyone on my team off because its been forever since I played and I suck pretty bad once again.

On to COD5. I really don’t have much to say about COD5. If you haven’t caught on yet I’m talking about Call of Duty 5: World at War. Take COD4, remove the awesome weapons, take away the interesting story line, dumb down the lighting and graphics, add in a few glitches, and BAM you got COD5.

Set during the world war, you don’t have too many cool guns. Just the boring shit they used back then. The game play was chaotic, but once you beat (by reading my relentless glitch post and getting past that…) it you got the actually fun shit. Nazi Zombie mode and the full campaign in split screen co-op. The split screen co-op was the reason I got the game so my wife and I can play together, but you can only start up to where you have left off on single player, and you cant get Nazi Zombie mode beating the game in co-op. Needless to say I took a few days to beat the bitch and we played it for a few more days and quit. Now and again we break out and play a 2 player Nazi Zombie, but back to COD4 for me.

If you like the game style, COD5 wasn’t a complete waste of money, especially since I caught it on sale for like $25 a month or two after it came out (Thank you best buy marketing screw up number 2! The first was a whole season of Avatar for $11). I would recommend this one to the gamers who like the style, but please do not expect it to bring you into the style. If I hadn’t fallen in love with COD4 I would have ditched COD5 at the curb side and moved on with my RPG style games.

I know this is a chain, but it’s not too common around my parts so I wanted to go ahead and write about my experience. Here are the physical specs:
401 Central Expressway S.
Allen Texas
972-727-1614

I must admit I had to change my mindset once I got there, as I didn’t realize that this place was a “fine dining” type of place. In other words the same shit the other guys offer, they offer with more fancy display and more money on the tab. Down to the details.

The food was pretty good. I ordered a beer, and the “Taste of Louisiana” to start. The beer was of course Dos XX and even they couldn’t screw that up. The ToL included fried shrimp, fried calamari, and fried gator. This was not too bad. The gator seasoning was pretty plain, no flavor to it at all, but all around pretty good. I ordered a salad as well that was a typical greens salad, nothing special.

Our meals included the shrimp scampi for my wife, and I got the chicken breaux. This was not the best part of the experience. My food was very plain and served at room temperature. The meat was pretty good, but chicken is chicken even with a $16 price tag. Not impressed. My wife’s scampi was served on a bed of noodles and looked very tasty, but she almost couldn’t eat it. The scampi was so spicey even I couldn’t stomach very much of it, and I can pack the heat away. She picked at it for a bit, but neither of us ate very much of it.

We took a look at the dessert platter, but nothing looked worth a damn so we called it a night and went to cold stone.

As an overview, the service was funny. We had like 3 waiters all night. No one had any clue what anyone else was doing, but it felt good to just have someone want to help you no matter what. It was a cool atmosphere with nice looking things around the shop. The amount of food we got from start to finish was pretty dismal. I ate all of mine and left hungry. The appetizer was good if you looked past the bland gator. All in all I personally will never be back, but if your looking to treat yourself or your better half it was an experience. Just not one I require.

Ahh back to the good stuff. Here is another restaurant review.

My wife and I moved to the downtown Plano area about 1 year ago, and we just now got around to actually going down there to check the little “inner city, city” out. There are a few eateries, but the one that perked our interest this whole time was “The Fillmore Pub”. A small Irish pub built right off the Dart rail on 15th street. Here are the actual specs:
1004 E. 15th St
Plano, Tx
972-423-2400
http://thefillmorepub.com.dnnmax.com/

We stopped back one afternoon for lunch. The atmosphere was very much like a pub. You walk in, and sit where you want, and the servers make their rounds to everyone. We decided to try something familiar to start with so I got the good ole cheese burger, and my wife got the hot ham and swiss.

My burger was delish. The meat was cooked with a great flame flavor, and the cheese melted right in. It was served plain on a bun with Mayo and the other goodies on the side, so I could load it up how I saw fit. This is actually my most favorite way of presentation, as if they put it together for you its screwed up one way or another. Too much tomato, too little onion.. you know. Anyway. The burger was perfect. The fries were not up my alley. They were not fried crispy fries… they looked like they had been baked until brown, then soggied with some grease. My wife liked em.. me not so much.

My wife’s hot ham and swiss was very plain and unimpressive. The meat had very little flavor, but it was the most flavorful thing on the plate. The cheese was fine, but since the bread tasted like flour, it didn’t mesh well. Now granted she did forego the spicy mustard that was supposed to be on there, so maybe we missed out, but we actually left that on the plate and didn’t take it with us (not something I usually allow).

All in all it was a cool experience. I’m sure it would be great to get some guys together and just go hang out up there. Great atmosphere, good service, and the food wasn’t uneatable. I’m sure I will return, just not any time soon.

Enjoy!

Ok, so everyone has the new Call of Duty 5: World at War. If you dont.. its OK, but I still hold COD 4 far superior. Now the cool thing about the new one? Once you beat the game you can play Nazi Zombie mode… Freakin amazing. But on to the purpose of this post…
If there are any of you out there half as pissed about that stupid bug on COD 5 regarding the Relentless quest where you get to the very end then it just hangs there… ok turns out that freakin Polonsky is stuck somewhere on the map… to fix it? Grab some grenades and go find him. Use the grenades to force him to break free of where ever he is stuck at, then follow him back to the ralley point in the artillery bunker. Quest over and on to the next horrindously difficult quest (if your not playing recruit/regular).. Enjoy and YAY for getting past it…

This one was actually a pain to get to and out of but here are the location details.
http://www.tijuanalatingrill.com/
9320 Dallas Parkway
Frisco Tx 75034
214-628-5701
Their brochure says “Just North of the corner at Main Street and The Tollway”
Open Daily 11A - to close… w/etf that is…

Story goes that we were going for my mother-in-laws birthday celebration at the end of her “week” of birthday. We get there about 10 minutes after the main section of the party and order a few waters. My wife got her water, but I got the luxury of waiting 20 minutes for one. If you know anything about me, I drink about 1/2 gallon of water with my eat-out meals… I wasn’t happy. We get there and its special drink night and its $5 PITCHERs of beer and house margaritas. Very nice special. On to the details!

First off the service portion of this post is easy. The service was just HORRIBLE. The worst service I have seen someone, let alone a large well paying party, get. I don’t think anyone was not pissed that they added the 18% tip to the ticket. That jerkoff wasn’t worth 10%. He rarely showed up to help, we got other people to get refills, and it was just embarrassing.

Next lets talk about the food. This section will be quite long as I want to cover each meal we had that night. Starting off with the Tijuana Caesar which I was told was the best Caesar salad this individual has had in a long time so good props there. He also ordered the Caldo de Pollo soup which he said was not good at all. I’m pretty sure he left most of it there when we left. I ordered the chicken Chimichanga which was pretty good, but nothing special. Another beef Chimichanga was ordered and left with the same review. About what you would consider from a Chimichanga but nothing special. Good flavorful meat, but the toppings could use work. Next we move on to the Red Snapper. A $17 plate, and the review was it was horrible. He sent it back to the kitchen and didn’t even want anything. It was raw and cold from what I was told. Not a good review in my book. Another person ordered the Three Cheese Chile Relleno which to her surprise came with shrimp. She said it was very flavorful, and delicious. Another gentleman ordered the Chalupa’s and he said it was very tasty.

And on to the “Signature Dish” and “House Specials” one of the ladies got the Brazilian Boneless Short Ribs which was very good and tender. One of the ladies ordered the Steak Veracruz, a $19 plate, which didn’t arrive until 15 minutes AFTER the rest of the food was delivered. There seems to be a trend here. DONT ORDER THE EXPENSIVE SHIT lol. She said it was nasty after she got it anyway. No flavor in a steak? They need a new cook.

Lastly the basics. Sandwiches, burritoes, and appetizers. My wife ordered the Cuban Sandwich, which was ok, but I’ve had better. It was very dry and the meat was not very good quality. She said she would not order it again. Her cousin ordered the “Torta Jamon” which is a fancy ham and cheese sandwich that was really good. Moist meat, good veggies, and really good bread. There was only one burrito ordered was the “Ropa Vieja Burrito” which got a great review from one of the guys with us. He said it was very flavorful and the meat was exceptional. And finally lets go over what we started with! Our starters were the “Mariquitas” or Plantain chips and fancy sauce, Chipotle Meatballs, or meatballs in nasty sauce, Guacamole, or DELICIOUS green stuff, and Chicos Tacos or variety of crispy rolls and more yummy sauces.

Ok, so that’s enough. More or less I was VERY unimpressed and I will never return but the overall was about a 50/50. I will give them a 3 out of 5 presuming any other visit would not have the mass amount of downfalls we experienced.

Here’s a little info about this place.
No website (but I offered to build them one lol)
1104 W Parker Suite 600
Plano Tx 75075
Tel: 972-312-1841
They have been around for 6 months. This is the only one around from what she told me.

Alright and about my experience lets start with the food. I ordered the burrito meal and my wife ordered her usual Mexican plate, the enchiladas. I tried both of them and neither of them had what I would consider “flavor”. They were both very plain. I think the enchiladas at Taco Bueno have better flavor.

Next lets talk about the service. The gentleman that was taking care of us was very nice, and he kept us happy. I didn’t run into an empty cup, and the food was out very quickly.

Finally the price. The food was pretty expensive. We got out of there the two of us about 20% more than I would expect at that “quality” of restaurant.

More or less this isn’t somewhere I will be returning to. It took us a while to break away and finally go after seeing it up, but I am unimpressed. When we were there, there was a man sleeping in a booth across the restaurant from us. It was quite funny. I give the overall experience a 2 out of 5. Go if you want, but I have better recommendations (hopefully my honesty doesn’t cost me the website deal, but I don’t think she liked what I was gonna charge for it anyway…).

I just recently finished the the XBox 360 version of Kingdom Under Fire: Circle of Doom. It was pretty good, but honestly not nearly as good as the XBox version was. The XBox Kingdom Under Fire and Lineage were very similar in this “realm” of video games. I would call this “realm” massive hack & slash. This new one is still a massive hack and slash but here are some big differences.

First off the maps and “flow” of the game are much different. In the old one you would do quests, where you would go to very large maps and run around it until you finish what you needed to do. On the new one you simply run from area to area in different “regions” to get to the end of the game. The quests and skills actually lead you back and forth between regions needlessly, but as a game it wasn’t horrible.

Next the characters and controls. Same characters of course, as with every KUF lol. I did just 1 this time as I am so far behind on my games I cannot play the same maps OVER and OVER much like Diablo 2 just using different characters. The controls are much different than the XBox as well. In the old one you would be able to do series attacks and special moves by collecting some points from dead folk, but now you run off SP. The SP controls everything, so the more you have the more you can do attack wise, but no impressive special moves or combos. In a hack and slash that is a bad thing… I beat the game fully unimpressed.

Finally the skills. I dont recall any skills in the XBox version, but this one allows you to learn skills as you go. You pick your skill then you have to go kill specific things to get it. Then you can use it. Also extremely unimpressive. I used dash so I could get through the maps faster, and heal cause you had a limit to the number of pots you could carry. The attack skills sucked and used so much SP you could use em for about .25 second. Not very handy.

As I said it was worth playing, and it has a nice co-op feature for 360 to 360 play (no hotseat sorry). I got it clearance at Target for about $19 if I remember correctly. I give it a 2 out of 5.

Warning… This is a long one….
I have to start this by saying that I love this place. It has great food, and the first time I went I got great service, so please do not let this story deter you from going there. Also I want to mention that I have contacted the owner about the happenings of this story, so hopefully by time you get there the major problems are already resolved. I highly recommend this place so please take this as a story.
So I go in to get me some yummy ass pizza and some Chicago style hot dogs (even though I am not convinced it’s the same Vienna I had in Chicago). We get there shortly before 7. Let’s just say 6:55pm to give a time line. We sit down and within a few minutes have the waitress at our table taking the order.
We order a few waters and since we do not know exactly what we are getting on the pizza (or size for that matter) she goes to get our water. A few minutes later she comes over sits our water down and starts to take the order. Now when she set the water down I must admit I did hear something, but due to the nail salon fumes from next door my brain didn’t put 2 and 2 together properly. I tell her the order (the Couple of Chicago dogs, and a 12″ pepperoni and sausage pizza), and I reach over to pick up my water for a drink and the bottom ring of this quart mason jar stays on the table. The whole glass of freezing water pours all over the table and my lap. Someone decided to take the glass out of the hot ass washer and pour freezing water into it. It was a nice trick to get it to wait to crack AFTER she put it down. (I would have had to laugh my ass off if it blew up in her hand) That’s the first step. At this point I am still calm cool and collect, just getting very hungry (I don’t do well with a low blood sugar).
The next thing is she gets it cleaned up and brings me a new glass that just so happens to have a huge crack down the side of it. Finally I bestow my knowledge of “quit putting freezing water in hot ass cups” to her and she goes back and spreads the word. I get my 3rd glass of water, 100% crack free. (She checked she said)
Time rolls by and waiting for pizza is not a short wait, but we are still cool. A guy walks in and it’s pretty clear he has no intention of buying a pizza. He walks over to the enclosed area at the bathrooms to meet with the waitress. I’m not going to make risky accusations here, but if you saw this situation (and the ones further in this post) then you could probably put 2 and 2 together for that… Another guy walks in to meet up, they take care of business and the 2 gents leave…
Times still going and I run out of water (my biggest pet peeve at a restaurant). Waitress disappears for 15 minutes. When she returns is about 7:30pm and she has the pizza only. I’m cool w/ that it’s hot, she’s holding plates, and no hands for my dogs. She takes note of my water, and leaves. Takes the order of another table and goes to the back. Gone for another 10 minutes. Comes back and I’m like.. My hotdogs? She passes on an apology and goes to put in the order. This is where my anger starts to rise. It just grows at a constant rate until I finally get my dogs.
While waiting I ask for water, and ranch so I can partake in Pizza (despite my desire to eat the dogs first to enjoy the Chicagoy goodness). About this time another gent and his lady walk in and at least this time the guy goes to buy a soda while the lady hits the “private” area by the bathrooms. The waitress just so happens to be in the area so, use your imagination. The couple leaves and another guy walks in and takes a seat over in the corner with solid recognition to the waitress. He sits there for a while.
After about 5 more minutes I get my water and ranch and gorge down a slice of the yummy pizza. At 7:47pm I finally get my dogs and partake in the deliciousness. At this point the guy who walked in and sat down goes over to the private area and actually stands at the door to the kitchen. After a brief “run-in” with the waitress they go their separate ways with hands in pockets and get back to their respective duties. By this time I am furious and I laugh and make fun of the whole situation with my wife with dire sarcasm.
At 8:00 we request a box for the last 2 slices of pizza. She brings me the check about 5 minutes later, and about 5 minutes AFTER THAT my pissed off wife goes to get the box so we can leave. 8:10 we depart.
Some side notes… After all this fiasco the waitress did take $2 cash out of her pocket (I guess) and put it towards our bill. The best thing she could have done I guess, as I would not have accepted a meal on the house. I like this place and would expect to pay. Take what you will from the story, but again the food is absolutely delish and I still recommend them. It was the high level of disruptions that made me want to write this, as it makes a good story, but I am in no way trying to bring bad press to them.
I hope you enjoy, and maybe I will see you there.

So running here with more ideas for posts I decided I would do a brief overview of some of the bands I’ve come across.  To tell you the truth I am the wrong person to be doing this because my wife has a VASTLY larger experience in the area, but here is what I think of the ones I’ve been exposed to:

*Forewarning I am bias for nu-metal :-)*

Slipknot:  Great band back with Iowa and Slipknot, but not so fond of the newest albums.  1 to 3 tracks from each that were worth it.  New Album not so worth it, a few good tracks as usual. 

Stonesour: Corey Taylor form Slipknot, and I love it.  Very good band thus far.

Marilyn Manson: Very on and offey.  He has maybe 4 tracks per CD that are worth it, so he is what I consider a hit or misser.  Pretty good to listen to though.

Busta Rymes:  I dunno, somethin about his music that sounds really good. 

LL Cool J:  Horrible to tell you the truth but I’m addicted to Headsprung LOL.

KoRn:  One of my all time favorites, not 100% perfect but damn close to 99%.  They are great for any genre lover, so check em out.

Mudvayne:  Another one of my favorites.  The only CD worth a damn is The End of All Things to Come.  Perfect album, but that’s about it.  At the time of this writing they are due for a new CD so I should have a post on it when it comes out.

Static-X:  Another Oldie is goldy, but new blew… Back in the day up to about Shadow Zone Static-X was awesome.  Last 2 albums were very questionable.. I would recommend both Machine, and Wisconson Death Trip.  Very Good CDs.

System of a Down / Serj Tankian:  I know Serj is doing his own thing, but I will review them both the same.  They are about 60/40 split on good vs bad.   Good odds to pick up a CD and listen to it.  I would recommend Toxicity or Serj’s solo album. They are both very political and have hidden messages so pay attention :-D.

Otep: My angry beautiful never-to-be love… Otep is about 100% raw emotion and when you just need to kill something (internally) this is the best way to do it… Love her, and the raw sound will drive to the core. 

Fair To Midland: These guys are the best new band I have ever heard.  PHENOMINAL.  Get their album Fables of a Mayfly or check em out here:  http://www.fairtomidland.com/

If you go to the music page the code is “reached a mile high” the hidden track is awesome. They are political as well, and they are produced by Serj from SOAD.

Disturbed:  This is one of my favorite “rock” style bands.  They are very standard in their ways, but is sounds really good.  Ten Thousand Fists is an album everyone should own. 

Just to make it known there are a few things that I absolutely hate in the music world.  Salsa music will literally give me a head ache, along with Steely Dan.  AHHH!!!  Last and most definitely least my 2 sheer passion (meaning I could listen to them, but I simply REFUSE to) for hatred bands:  Coldplay and Deftones.

In closing let me explain my problem with music.  I do not hear each part.  I have listened to a lot of these bands 1000s of times and I can’t tell you the lyrics of most of the songs, because that’s not what I hear.  I hear music as a whole.  I don’t judge the guitar, the bass, the drums, or the lyrics.  I judge it as a whole.  Some bands have 1 horrible part but the rest is awesome, and to me it sounds horrible.  Some bands have multiple bad parts, but as a whole it sounds good.  You’ll never figure it out so just enjoy the time wasted reading this post lol.

Later…