August 7, 2010

Riskening’s “What to watch on the good ol’ boobtube” (Summer 2010 edition)

Filed under: The Misc things — DGM-payne @ 11:54 pm

Ah television, what can’t you do? Screw going outside and stay by the TV’s sweet glowing warming glow this season. Gander at our recommends to check out before the fall season sweeps in.

1.) Top Shot – In a reality competition world dominated by cooking, fashion, singing, dancing, and so on it’s a good thing to see something as refreshing as a marksmen competition on TV. You don’t have to be a gun nut of any sort to appreciate the beauty of a good shot spanning various weapons that made our history. The first season is winding down at the moment, with only a couple left to be aired, so catch up on it any which way you can if you haven’t been following it. The competition is on every Sunday night.

2.) American Pickers/Pawn Stars – Both series have returned for a second season recently and since they’re both in the same block and have related material I group them together. Both shows deal with digging up those treasures of past, and by that I mean historic and collectible vintage pieces of all sorts. To be quite honest though, I prefer Pawn Stars over American Pickers this season. Pawn Stars seems to offer much more of a variety of historic material I feel. Maybe I’m just not that into all the sign collecting, motorcycle and car stuff in Pickers but either way some really interesting things often show up on these shows. Check them out Monday nights.

3.) The Glades/The Good Guys – Two new cops shows, which would probably be enough to fill anyone’s quota. Glades has a touch of Dexter, and by that I mean it takes place in roughly the same locale. Seriously though, as far as cop shows in the solve-a-murder-every-week genre with a cocky and well played main character goes this one will keep you watching. So far in the season body parts have been pulled out of a gator, a dead body in a plane involving some bird smuggling has been investigated, and a series of murders has been solved during a badass hurricane (among other things). So it’s pretty varied too, no? The Good Guys on the other hand is a buddy cop show and the comedy that entails (as usual) starring Bradley Whitford (remember that evil douche from Billy Madison?) and Colin Hanks (I’m sure you know who he is…or atleast his father). I’m sure you can figure the rest out. Tune in on Sunday and Monday nights (respectively).

4.) Futurama – It’s back alright, and about time too! After watching many years of re-runs on Adult Swim first then later Comedy Central I must say it’s good to see this Fox show finally living a new life on TV at last. I’m sure all fans can agree that having the old voice cast back is a very good thing as well. Whether it lives up to the old seasons or not it’s still a good way to spend a Thursday night.

5.) Tosh.0 – The internet has brought us many a crazy and unusual thing and comedian Daniel Tosh is supplying us a show where internet videos are king. With this new season it just seems to be getting better and better. Between web redemptions, video breakdowns, and spoiler alerts (see last week’s on Human Centipede in particular…priceless) among other things it never ceases to supply me with near endless laughs. I can’t say that about too many shows so obviously this has become an indispensable part of my Wednesday night.

September preview –

It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia – This truly outrageous and truly funny (see above) show makes it’s return in September and I for one can’t wait for a surely awesome new season.
Dexter – Ah Dexter, why have you addicted me so? I’ll admit that I don’t even have Showtime BUT I did get hooked on watching the DVDs earlier this year and I still need to watch season 4 (which hits video release in just a mere couple of weeks now). Rest assured I will catch up completely when that DVD releases and when the new season starts next month well…I might just have to find a way to watch those episodes BEFORE the next video release (which will probably be another year from now).

What are your picks O dear viewers of the Riskening?

– DGM-payne

P.S. – I got into Starcraft 2 alot sooner than I expected, thanks to a surprise early birthday present from my brother. I only started it today but if the site becomes a ghost town again well you know what to blame it on this time…I WILL try to update. (Keep telling myself this…might work right?)

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August 1, 2010

Keep putting it off and putting it off and… (Welcome Back!)

Filed under: Site Updates,World of Video Gaming — Tags: Gears of War, Gears of War 3, Heavy Rain, Kinect, Playstation Move, Starcraft 2, Summer of Arcade — DGM-payne @ 11:58 pm

Quite frankly I’ve been meaning to make this post for atleast the past month or two (or three) but I seemed to slip away from the whole blog thing for awhile there. The site’s not going away or anything like that, I just fail to update from time to time (and sometimes unfortunately, like in this case, extended time). I would have liked to share my take on some E3 titles and updates while the event was still completely fresh but I’ll still try my best to cover some upcoming titles. On that note, let’s talk about a couple things…

First off, Xbox Live’s annual Summer of Arcade is in full swing I’m sure you’re aware by now.

I’m sure you’re also probably well aware that the price of all titles shot up to $15 this year (last year only a couple were this high) which I wasn’t too impressed about. I was interested in Limbo and the new Castlevania game from the start, the rest were rather MEH to me. I played the Limbo demo when it came out but I have yet to pick it up. Considering I haven’t paid $15 for an arcade game yet I couldn’t warrant a few hours of single player play time (even if it is grand fun) to justify it, I think I’ll wait it out for a sale. I’m still a bit on the fence about the Castlevania game even, which is coming this wednesday. It looks simply awesome because of it’s new co-op and other multiplayer but if I can’t find a good amount of friends off the bat (no pun intended) to play this with I might just wait it out also.

Voting for the fate of Carmine in Gears of War 3 = Cool. Paying $1 for the avatar shirt to vote = Not as cool.

I don’t think I have to go into this one any further…but I will note that both the videos of co-op and the new beast mode are looking pretty bomb so far. EDIT : I just learned through major nelson’s website that the proceeds go towards the charity Child’s Play so not so bad I guess.

Heard of a little thing called the Kinect?

You know, that motion control thingie for the 360 that costs about half the price of a new console. That’s right, Kinect is coming this fall for $150 and as much as I think it’s kinda neat and all I think I’ll have to pass on it for now. Maybe if I was some working class shmoe who had some money burning a hole in his pocket and was looking for a new way to entertain his family with motion controlled animals/dancing/racing etc. outside of the Wii environment I might have been interested. The only thing Kinect related that has piqued my interest so far is Child of Eden and well, since it can be normal controlled as well, I think I’ll forgoe the $150 though. Best of luck to you Microsoft, trying to get a piece of that sweet Wii market.

Next, we all know that Starcraft 2 is out now at last…yet I have not partaked of it at this posting.

Since when have PC games retailed at $60 anyways? Haven’t they always been $50 at maximum? I pray to God that the other 2 titles of the trilogy are nowhere near this price. Hey Blizzard, just because this game took you 10+ friggan years to crank out to us doesn’t give you the right to hose us. Thanks. I know I’ve said this before but the lack of LAN support still pretty much bums me out as it was a big part of my original Starcraft experience. Alas, I’ll check out the sequel soon enough.

On the PS3 front…

I was twidling my thumbs waiting for the next Heavy Rain add-on, feeling less than satisfied by the first one, when low and behold I learn that they’ve been put on complete stop in favor of development on new motion controls for the game. I was not too impressed by this move by Sony (no pun intended…alright, maybe a little), who pushed for the added controls. The Move is pretty cool and all I suppose, though I still think it looks like some fruity microphone or demented bingo dabber of some kind, but is it really worth halting all add-on content completely for some new controls? I’ll let you decide…

I’m gonna be honest, being the bastard and all that I am, I’ve been neglecting my Wii lately.

Hell, I haven’t even played the second No More Heroes OR Super Mario Galaxy 2 yet. I’m sure by the time Metroid : Other M gets here though I’ll hop back on her and show her some new lovin’.

Wrap it up!

I’ve been playing Secret Armory on Borderlands lately, thanks to the Xbox Live Deal of the Week that finally had the 2 other add-ons I still needed on sale. Before that Crackdown, which I’ve almost maxed out in gamerscore now. I’ll get in on the second one once I find a decent priced copy.

Lastly, this is also Riskening’s 100th post…which I was trying to think of grand ideas for it but isn’t my return just grand enough for ya?

We’re BACK baby!