PSN Restored!

Last night the Playstation Network restoration process began. It was first restored in California and some of the states on the eastern seaboard around 6:00pm PST. By this morning it was restored in all of America, as well as Canada. They are starting by restoring just the online gaming and friends list capabilities, but in the coming days they hope to bring back the rest of the services, including the Playstation store, as well as a new "Welcome Back" program that is supposed to give all members a free month of Playstation Plus, and some unrevealed peks as well. It was 24 days while the PSN was shut off, during that period I'm sure that global productivity rates skyrocketed, but now gamers can rest in peace knowing that their beloved service has returned.

Thor Movie Review

Over the weekend  I saw the highly anticipated movie from Marvel Studios, Thor. It stars Chris Hensworth who does quite a good job of portraying the classic comic book character Thor. The general plot is that the king to be, Thor is cast out of the Realm of Asgard by his father who is the current king of the realm, for his obsessive ignorance. Thor winds up on earth along with his Hammer, which if he is able to grasp will return his powers. The problem is that the hammer is firmly stuck in the ground, and no one can remove it. The movie basically consists of Thor trying to figure out how to get this Hammer out of the ground and retain his powers, all the while the film frequently cuts back to Asgard, where the villain to the upcoming Avengers movie is indirectly being revealed. From a technical standpoint, this movie does really impress. Unfortunately the scenes in Asgard do come across as rather corny and don't really interest you in Thor's back story in this Alternate realm. The story on a whole is a little bland, as I mentioned before it mostly consists of many people fighting to get this hammer. Thor does end up developing a love interest with a scientist on earth, who is played by Natalie Portman. They attempted to add a deeper element to the story with the Asgard aspect of the film, but honestly it comes across as rather uninteresting. My other gripe with this movie is that you really didn't get to see much of Thor actually in Action, due to the fact that he is without his hammer for most of the movie. From a technical standpoint, this movie is rather stunning. The scenes in Asgard, albeit boring, were very pretty to look at, and the action scenes are quite amazing, and thrilling. All and all Thor was a decent movie that had exciting action and an ok story, It also gives a little back story to the upcoming Avengers movie. Overall I give it 7/10.

8-core Intel Processor leaked

Today an unreleased Intel 8 core Sandy Bridge processor was posted to eBay and taken down shortly afterward. It was priced at a hefty $1359.99. Is this a look into the future of computer processing, or just a lame fake. If this is real, it's crazy. It's common knowledge that a quad-core i5 works very well for gaming, so this just begs to ask, is this a little unreasonable? Does the world really need this much processing power? And is the $1359.99 price tag justifiable? For that much money, you can build an extremely impressive PC. Nonetheless I'm sure there are enthusiasts that would be rushing out to buy it no matter what the price is. 

Election 2011

Well it's official, the The Harper Government, for the first time, has won the majority, at the time of writing this, they have 167 seats. The NDP's however have formed the official opposition with 103 seats, for the first time in their lifespan. A majority government is a good thing for Canada at this time, it allows Harper to "put his money where his mouth is" per-say, and we will see if he can deliver on his promise to be able to get Canada out of the financial slump they have been in, now that he has the majority. If he hadn't won the majority in this election, and NDP was still the opposition, It would have been very difficult for the two parties to come to agreements on any bills, an would ultimately result in very little getting done.

Top 10 Most Anticipated Games

10. Brink - The team based shooter by Splash Damage and Bethesda is coming out in a week, and really looks to impress. The deep character customization, and RPG like elements paired with the SMART movement system should make for a fun and innovative shooter.

9. L.A. Noire - Rockstar's next game looks like nothing the game industry has ever seen before. It's an extremely non-linear game where you play as a detective, and you investigate suspects and make your own conclusions on cases based on these interviews. You have to read facial ques and listen carefully to the speech of the suspects you are investigating, to draw conclusions as to whether they are lying or telling the truth. Pair this with third person gunplay, and hand to hand combat mechanics, and you have yourself a very promising game.

8. Max Payne 3 - Not much is known about this game, but if it's anything like the last two, It will be great.









7.  Battlefield 3 - Battlefield is a tried and true shooter franchise, and the next installment looks great. From what has been released about the game, the visuals are stunning and the Frostbite engine is looking better than ever. The main draw of Battlefield is the multiplayer. We haven't seen too much on the multiplayer yet, but you can bet it will be good, along with the rest of the game.

6. Star Wars: The Old Republic - Now I'm usually not one for MMO's, but BioWare's Latest looks to be something special. With multiple planets to explore, and vehicular space combat, as well as all the tried and true MMO mechanics we have come to know and love, The Old Republic looks to be great.

 5. Metal Gear Solid: Rising - A game no one knows much about, other than it's a Metal Gear Solid with Raiden as the main character. Given those attributes alone, the game is bound to be awesome. Being the huge metal gear solid fan that I am, this is a no brainer.

4. Doom 4 - We have seen next to nothing on this game, but iD software is one of the best game developers on the planet, and have been taking their sweet time with the follow up to Doom 3, so I don't doubt the greatness of this game for a second.

3. Batman Arkham City - 2009's smash hit Arkham Asylum was widely regarded as the best super hero game of all time, and rightly so. The second one looks to do much of the same, but in a much larger environment. And you can't go wrong with that formula.

2. Rage - Another game from iD softaware making the list, and it shouldn't surprise you. It looks like a mix of a little bit of Fallout, a little bit of borderlands, and a lot of content that make it uniquely its own. It's a Post Apocalyptic FPS RPG game, that alows for vehicular travel across the world. I have high hopes for this game, and it looks to meet them.

1. Uncharted 3 - Uncharted 2 is in my opinion, the best game of this console generation, and one of the best of all time. Uncharted 3 looks to improve upon its predecessor in all categories, and looks like it will. The graphics look even better then the second, and the action packed story looks to be as epic as ever. Uncharted 3 is the number 1 game on this list for a reason, it's going to be great.

TV Show Reccomendation - It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia

It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia is one of the funniest shows on TV today. It's dark humor and controversial plot lines are some of the best you're ever going to find. The basic plot is: three guys, Mac, Charlie, and Dennis run a dive bar in south Philadelphia along with Dennis' sister Dee as a bartender ( in the second season Dennis and Dee's dad becomes the fourth owner of the bar.) The show basically consists of the group's hilariously terrible antics, such as picking up women at an abortion rally, pretending to be crippled to get the sympathy of others, forming a crack addiction to qualify for welfare and generally screwing each other over for personal gain. The cast member have such great chemistry, and the writing is superbly clever. I recommend the show to anyone who enjoys great comedy and isn't offended easily.

Portal 2 Review

Portal 2 is a first person puzzle game that involves a futuristic gun that shoots two separate portals that allow for transportation between the two of them. It runs on Valve's Source engine, which allows for some intriguing physics based gameplay.

The first Portal was a cult success with its inclusion in The Orange Box, but was only a 3-4 hour game. The sequel returns with a full fledged campaign, and a new and exciting co-op mode which allows you to play through an entirely separate campaign with a friend, which requires teamwork and communication to complete objectives. 

Portal 2 introduces several new puzzle mechanics such as, light bridges, propulsion and repulsion gel, tractor beams and much more, which creates fresh and exciting gameplay. These new mechanics also allow for much more elaborate and difficult puzzle design, which is where Portal really shines. Unlike a lot of modern games, Portal 2 really requires you to think. Some puzzles you will be able to breeze through in no time at all, but others could have you stumped upwards of 30 minutes. Albeit the difficult puzzle design, Portal 2 rarely leaves you frustrated, and when you do succeed in solving a puzzle that has been stumping you for quite some time, the level of satisfaction that results is something you just don't achieve with many other games.

The only drawback of the game is the lacking visuals due to an outdated enginge. But the unique gameplay and great puzzle design, along with the hilariously dry humor that Valve is know for, really sets Portal 2 apart from other games. Portal 2 earns itself a 9/10