So this game is frakin’ AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!! http://www.callofduty.com/
Finally an FPS that requires SKILL again!!!
After all the damn cheating that is going on in Medal of Honor and Modern Warfare 2 it is so awesome to be able to go in and frag to your heart’s content, show off yer 133t sk1llz and know that even if there is a wallhacker or aimbot in the server they will get kicked! YAY!
I didn’t even bother posting about Medal of Honor cause the cheating is almost worse than Modern Warfare 2 - I got the max level 15 in Rifleman and Spec Ops but freakin’ HATED all the aimbots that were everywhere with no help from EA on anything - plus DICE sux at writing network code - freakin’ lag from hellzorz…
*Anyway* back to Black Ops
I love all the challenges and character persistence they added into this installment of the Call of Duty series - I mean jebus there are like billions of awesome advancements in this game.
Every freakin’ bullet you fire is tracked - they keep stats on absolutely everything you do - which is great for the el1t3 of us who like to examine everything and show off. Here are some parts of the game I love the most.
DEDICATED SERVERS!!!!!!!!
High Number Frag Tracking - ya need l like 5,000 frags with the Assault Rifles etc.
They track like the last 10 games on a hit box - meaning they show you where you concentrate your shots on a paper doll - I aim for the groin too much *ouch* - lol!
The pushed the Dogs (from Call of Duty: World at War) and a few others higher on the Killstreak list so it is harder to get to
They added manned gunships so you get to PERSONALLY rain hellzorz down on your victims - wuaaaahaahaaa!!!
Being able to save your matches going back pretty far and having the ability to save them, replay them with VCR controls, and even allow you to see from all other people’s point of view - that is amazing!
lots of other stuff
BUY THE GAME! - and PLAY IT ON A PC like it is SUPPOSED to be played, not on some noob toy console system!
To quote a Blues News article “Activision announce[d] that Call of Duty: Black Ops has passed the $1 billion sales mark since the launch of the military shooter in November [2010].” This was posted on Dec 22nd 2010.
There is a reason for the skyrocketing sales - IT ROCKS!
Byl has already started yelling at me even though we just started these band review posts - he insists (which we all do agree) that we have to talk about Ronnie James Dio as one of our major influences. Ronnie James Dio Wikipedia Dio’s Official Site
Dio wasn’t just a vocalist - he was a storyteller via the power of his lyrics, a leader for others to follow in the metal industry and he was THE voice of Metal for us through our lives.
Anyone who actually sung in metal was always compared to Dio - you couldn’t help it - you’d say “oh man that dude has some pipes but he ain’t Dio” - lol
Dio also had an insane stage presence - I mean he was 5 feet 4 inches tall but he seemed like he was 6 foot 9 inches when you watched him on stage, and it wasn’t his shoes - lol - he just pulled you in and made you believe he was the King of the Universe and you’d follow him to hell itself if he asked! Screw that, actually if he asked you’d help him run a coup d’état on Satan himself!
Although he has only recently left us due to a bout with cancer he will be in our hearts forever with songs like “Rainbow in the Dark” “Don’t Talk to Strangers” “Holy Diver” and the like.
Plus even before his untimely death great bands like Tenacious D and even super powers like South Park have paid tribute - some might say they are poking fun but we all know the truth - he ruled us all.
We love you Dio and will see you throwing the horns up in the after and teaching God himself how to sing!
Okay like Holy Crap - we LOVE this band! Arch Enemy is amazing! Arch Enemy Wikipedia Official Site
And if there is anyway I can meet Angela Gossow in person, or if she ends up reading this ZOMG I’m saying that Carl (me) LOVES YOU!!!
1st off this chick is unbelievable - she does full on Death Vocals - and sounds incredible - we’ve known sooOoOooOoo many dudes that can’t pull off even a 3rd of what she can do… and she doesn’t just do “chick” death vocals (meaning higher pitched screaming) but actually can easily compete with the best of ‘em out there on low growly “man bark” vocals.
Our favorite album is Doomsday Machine from 2005 because of the tune “Nemesis” - the guitar work is shredding so hard and fast on this one with a major melodic hook - when you hear it you can’t get it out of your head.
Check them out!!! Angela, zomg… oh man…
By far the most influential band for The Devil’s Minstrels is Iron Maiden. Iron Maiden Official Site Iron Maiden Myspace Iron Maiden Wiki
Byl is a huge fan of the two guitarists (2 not 3) - he is very adamant that Iron Maiden (no matter what they think) only have 2 guitarists. Dave Murray and Adrian Smith. He does not recognize Janick Gers as an actual member although he has been sorta with the band since 1990 - lol. I mean all he does is swing his guitar around and muddy up the perfection of the other 2 guitarists. Byl hates that whole “3rd Guitarist” thing and stays firm on the original 5 members and I have to agree.
They have to be considered one of the best live performing bands in the world. I mean as of this writing they are their mid to late 50s and they still play with absolute crystal clear technical musicianship - except as I said monkey flap #6 Gers who I wonder if he even knows the tunes…
And it *has* to be said that Nicko McBrain has to be one of the most underrated metal drummers on the planet - I mean even now at the age of 58 he still pounds out the most complicated beats and just sits there like he’s having a cup of tea or something - Brits do that tea thing ya know - anyway - lol…
And lets not forget how Bruce Dickinson is able to control the largest crowds with not only his vocal performance but his incredible stage presence. Bruce is one of those few performers that makes you feel like he is performing specifically for you and your friends. He is able to get the largest crowds going completely bananas, jumping in unison, singing his lyrics to a tee and overall losing their minds in a state of pure metal euphoria.
I am personally very musically influenced by Steve Harris of Iron Maiden as most people pick out by my bass playing. And since I’m the one writing this blog I’m putting up a picture of him.
Even though to this day, for the most part, Steve refuses to get away from the “metal gallop” style of playing I truly believe I would have never picked up a bass guitar if it wasn’t for him - and I guess I would have continued on my original course and ended up an out of work trombonist in Vegas somewhere - lol? Anyway.
Our favorite album is by far Powerslave from 1984. This album opened my eyes to new ways the metal style of guitar playing can harmonize in very tight intricate layered textures - (it took me like 15 minutes to write that sentence - lol) And I didn’t even mention that somehow Bruce Dickinson is also, through sheer talent and power, able to mix himself in with those blisteringly complex guitars. But it also had proven to me without a doubt that Metal music has been horribly misunderstood by the moronic Britney Spears snicket peeker non metal head masses. I’m talking about the people who say metal is noise, unorganized and simplistic. Well they never actually listened to albums like Powerslave.
He is by far the most influential musician in my life - it might not show in our music but my life completely changed when I first heard “Don’t Break the Oath” by Mercyful Fate which was his band before he went solo in the mid 80s. Mercyful Fate Wikipedia
Some people can’t handle his high pitched falsetto voice but I’ve always said they need to SUFFAH cause this ain’t no Bee Gees - this is very often the most creepy 4 part harmony that nobody but King could pull off - and he can do it LIVE - we’ve seen him live several times and it is amazing.
Our favorite album has to be Abigail from 1987. This album (like almost all of his albums) is an epic Horror story. This one is about an unborn child wronged before birth who haunts the new inhabitants of her house.
Byl is a huge fan of virtuoso guitarist Andy LaRocque who is one of the main reasons King’s music is so unique.
So after we posted the “OUR FAVORITE METAL BANDS PRE-1990 BUT MAINLY THE 80S” blog entry we got tons of email asking us “what about this band? and what about that band?” - lol - well remember we didn’t cover really any band after the late 80s early 90s in that post - so here is the more modern list.
Again, just like the last one, this list is completely meant to be in this order.
So there it be! - And yeah we know it is weird to mix a list with mega grindcore bands like Cannibal Corpse with overly melodic metal like Dream Theater - but that’s the list, it is our list, so we list what we list - zomg LIST LIST LIST! lol
Also like the last list it also will change as time goes by and Byl say “Holy Crap Dude we forgot [insert mega awesome band here]!”
We get asked this question all the time : “Who are your favorite metal bands from about 1980 to 1990?” Well Byl will kill me if I don’t start out this section by quick listing some of the best Metal bands that were in that time period. He was majorly influenced by tons of these bands and I must say so was I. I grew up listening to these bands on cassette tapes where Byl mostly spun vinyl and I think some 8-tracks - lol.
Our list goes like this - completely meant to be in this order - Byl would kill me if I screwed this up.
We talked over the order like a zillion times before he let me post this - and I’m sure he’ll make me edit it over and over again.
Okay so I have no idea how I can possibly explain how gay Call of Duty : Modern Warfare 2 has gotten…
I mean it is bad enough that they have that stupid auto-matching crap that doesn’t allow dedicated servers so you can’t have favorite clan public servers but the cheating is ABSOLUTELY OUT OF HAND!!!!
Okay - so lemme explain simply. Without dedicated community run servers what is primary thing that is missing?!? ADMINS!!! If someone is cheating you are STUCK with them… nobody has the privileges to kick cheaters - and the cheating is RETARDED! These guys don’t even care anymore. Some of them even tag themselves with names like HATEME or IH@CKLOL or QQQQFAGQQQQ - drives me NUTZ! I just leave as soon as I see this crap going on. I don’t even bother getting all emo about it - what’s the point - I just take the loss (yeah cause it is counted against you as a loss if you leave) and do just that - leave.
I mean it is TERRIBLE now - wallhacking, proximity warnings, auto firing, aim botting - I mean what the hell kind of fun is that?!? And Hardcore mode - which is the only mode a true gamer like myself believes in is HORRIBAD!!!
I explained this to Nora and she said “well isn’t that like playing hide & seek and knowing immediately where everyone is?” - I was like holy crap I couldn’t have put it any better.
I hate to give these guys any press but watch this fragging video and you’ll see how fagtastic this is…
EPIC FAIL INFINITY WARD!!!!
Obviously I’m done with this game - I’m back to CoD4 - pwning where it counts and SKILL prevails!
OK - 1st off - HOLY FUUDKFULKUSLDFKUUUELPOOP!!!!!!!!!!!!! This game is AMAZING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
This by far is the best 1st day experience I’ve had with a game in YEARS!!! This game pulls you in and refuses to give you even a split second to breathe. The multi-player is absolutely awesome - truly tremendous - freakin’ SWEET! The environments they put you in are already addictive enough but then they added a HUGE amount of challenges, long list of titles & emblems not to mention an absolute laundry list of the best weapons in the world! Honestly my favorite part are the killstreaks rewards - and I LOVE the care-package - once you get 4 kill killstreak you get a care-package you can drop anywhere on the map - a heli quick flies in and drops off a box - a wonderful magic box that could have any of the killstreak bonuses in it for you to use - attack helicopters, predator missiles, harrier strikes, stealth bomber strikes to even an AC130 attack. Totally amazing…
So yeah I didn’t play the single player on well… any of the CoDs before cause well I’m all about pwning the noobs as you all know but this single player looks pretty good. Supposedly the action is really cool. I’ll probably try it this time.
There is a small Co-op (2 player) section that I just ended up soloing through some of it on. But it seems pretty cool - I did try it with a buddy for a few minutes one day but it was really laggy…
The only negative about the multi-player is the new auto matching system. You basically just click on what kind of match you want to play in (TDM, Dom, HQ etc) and it find a server for you to go to. It is pretty buggy and kinda weird.
But yeah I went nuts and played 6 hours straight the 1st day (yesterday) and got to level 25. I’m very proud to say in almost any match I ended up in I was the highest level.
I’ve sat and played WoW for entire days straight and not felt as dizzy and tired as I did after several hours of this game.
Ok so like whatever you can make fun of me if you want - that’s fine - I know I’m going to sound like I’m jumping on the band-wagon and well maybe I am!
But Windows 7 ROX, and Rox with Metal!!!
So me and Byl got Win7 a few days early - it officially came out today but we got it around Tuesday or so. Dude we got our boxes completely formatted with Win7 fully installed in like 30 min! It was insane!
You can do crazy cool things to it to make is super speedy! Microsnork is finally starting to get that the geekerds who use Linux so much their refrigerator runs a micro version of Ubuntu might just be right! We need custom-ability - dude I was able to literally uninstall Internet Explorer COMPLETELY from the box and just use Google Chrome - and it wasn’t a fake-out uninstall - I checked - it is totally off my box - plus a couple other things like that stupid Windows Media Center etc.
