Geometry Wars 2: Review, sorta

Gah..there is supposed to be a 2 there. Don't make me punch you, Blogger.com! Cause I so will.

I just got the demo of Geometry Wars 2 like an hour ago from Xbox Live Arcade. I can't afford the full game just yet because I just got back from a long trip in northern MN and...hey, where are you going?

Ok, ok. So I got the demo and let me tell you: Take everything you know about Geometry Wars and throw it out the window! Because Geometry Wars 2 turns the idea of Geometry Wars...on its head!

Ok, not really, but it does tinker with the formula a little bit. First of all, the visuals are incredible. I was sitting about 3 feet in front of my 37" LCD like I always do, and my eyeballs almost fell out of my skull with that first flash of light where the ship appears in the beginning of the game. Its absolutely blindingly gorgeous to look at. After playing GW2 for 15 or 20 minutes or so I went back to the first Geometry Wars, which along with RezHD, has always been the game I whip out when my non-gamer friends come over and start hitting the peace pipe, because of the crazy visuals. And I am here to tell you that it looked like pan-fried shit compared to where I had just been.

Geometry Wars 2 has an assortment of new games modes. Only one of them is available in the demo. This game mode is called Deadline. In Deadline, you get 3 minutes to raise hell on as many tetrahedrons and rhombohedrons and...um, circles as you can in 3 mintues with unlimited lives. The nice thing about this mode is that your multipliers do not die when you do. As soon as you respawn, you can keep on building combos. Which, I would imagine would lead to some ridonkulous scoring possibilities. Seriously, check the leaderboards in like a week and you will see scores in the billions.

In addition to new enemies, another new aspect of the game is the introduction of "Geoms" which are basically these little green things that you have to drive your ship into before they vanish from the screen. They appear from the debris of your enemies, and when you pick them up, the add one point to your multiplier. No more depending on killing lots of enemies to build combos; and as I said before, no more having to stay alive to rack your score up. This is nice, however chasing those fuckers all around can lead you into some dangerous areas. Luckily, smart bombs are still intact in the Geometry Wars sequel.

I almost wished I hadn't already paid for the first Geometry Wars because this one is so amazing visually and really builds on the gameplay by adding new modes. I do not know if there are any modes in Geometry Wars 2 that mirror the original, but I almost hope there aren't so I can go back to it every now and then, with all of its antediluvian graphics withstanding. So one of you go buy that shit and do a review or something. I would like to read that. My fingers are tired now. That's what she said.

Hootie Hoo

I've hardly caught any movies for a while, but this one is crazy. Some parts of Drop Squad made me laugh, mostly it was just pretty wild though.

Basically there's a legendary group that checks up on certain people, gets them in the back a green van and takes them down to a bakery basement to fuck with their minds. It's mostly about acting selfish or just different from what you've grown up with, and although a lot of the themes are tied to race and black culture they're also universal for anyone trying to make their own and be happy with it.

I'd never heard of this before and that was kind of surprising to me once I saw who's all a part of it. I'll have to watch it again sometime to catch everything. They fit everything under an hour and a half and keeping it tight is always a positive to me when possible. There are a few parts that are debatable, mostly in an interesting way and mostly without being cheesy. I have a couple comparisons in mind but since those aren't that useful mostly I'll just leave them alone.

I also saw Super High Me which was nowhere near as conclusive a documentary as Super Size Me, but more fun to watch in general and probably worthwhile in its own way. I don't like to oversell things like movies, music or jokes for a couple reasons, especially movies because of the bigger time investment, and it wasn't perfect or anything just like everything else in the world, but Drop Squad was like an instant favorite for me.

Just. Stay. Down.

You know, whenever I post a video on here, I try to say a few words to sort of break it down for our large readership, because sometimes you need to provide some context. What's further, I think just posting videos without writing anything to back them up is just plain lazy. But then a video will come along like the one above that simply speaks for itself and doesn't require any explanation or interpretation. I don't know the why, the who, or the where of this video, and yet I don't need to. I don't want to know. All I do know is that I am pretty sure that this video is the reason that Al Gore invented the internet in the first place. Enjoy.

The Spoils of War

At last, something good has finally come of the war in Iraq: This video. Witness the carnage that takes place when US soldiers throw candy to unsupervised children in the street; and how the little fatty boom-boom rap video star throws his weight around. Yep, this video brings me to my happy place. I wish I could adopt this kid.

Not as long as since you heard new Michael though

And here he is, with Akon of all people. They seem to be taking them down quickly, but Eastern Europeans have come through again. I can't say I'll bother to keep finding working links when this one goes down.

The few Akon songs I've heard never really got me going and this isn't up my alley either, but it's still a little crazy to hear new Michael. It's not too surprising it's more like the slower softer stuff I never got into as much, because I'm sure he'd still be killing us all with hot ones if he could.

Here's a new version of Wanna Be Starting Something also with Akon that apparently came out a few months ago, it doesn't seem that necessary but I can't complain about more ama se mama sa mamamusa in the world.

Now I see there are a couple videos on Youtube even from last year claiming to be for a whole new album, I can't say I've been totally keeping up with our boy and Invincible didn't seem to go over well last time around. Anyway sorry if most of this is very old. And please feel free to weigh in. I know Munk and I are willing to wait decades for Michael to try more to explain what's in his head, and at this rate he'll probably write that book eventually. Finally, I've got memories attached to a handful of his songs but this one from a few years ago here's been heavy on me lately. Order to survive, got to learn to live with regrets...

It's been a long time, long time

We shouldn't have left you, left you without a dope beat to step to, to step to, step to, step to, step to, step to, fricky fricky.

Nah Right put up a catch-all post with a bunch of songs yesterday and this one stuck out to me, it's Bump J with Keyshia Cole, Rhymefest and Kanye. A couple of Nas's new ones have been staying with me too. I imagine if anyone's reading this and also interested in the new album, you probably already have Fried Chicken and You Can't Stop Us Now, but either way stand with this site's other two readers and let us know what you think. Fricky fricky fricky, baby girl aw.