Kinect Vs. Move

Whether you like it or not, motion gaming is the next big thing in video games. Both Microsoft and Sony spent large sums of money developing these devices, but which one is better? Im going to keep this short and simple, so the answer is Kinect and here's why. Sony took the safe route and basically copied the Wii. There's nothing revolutionary about it, and it's the same thing that we've seen for the past 6 years. Kinect is new, and it opens the door for new ideas. I can see the Kinect as being an extension of the controller in many new games such as Forza 4, Ghost Recon, and Mass Effect 3. Im sure most of you have seen the E3 press conference where kinect can control your view and Forza, give commands in Mass Effect, and control the gun customization menu in Ghost Recon. I think Microsoft has only scratched the surface with what they can do with Kinect, so i look forward to seeing how developers use the technology in the future.

Gaming headphones. Are they worth it?

I've been seeing a lot of threads asking if gaming headphones were worth it, and nobody could give a solid answer. Hopefully this post will clear up a few things.

If you're not an "MLG pro" gamer, there's no need for you to spend $150+ on headphones, period. It's just not worth it. There's plenty of good headphones that will improve the average gamers K/D without costing a lot of money.

Im sure you've all heard people call Turtle Beach or Trittons crap, but the truth is that they're both good gaming headphones for the average stay at home gamer. Sure the Astro A40's might be the best on the market, but they're not worth $250 if you're just a person who plays Call of Duty or Battflield at home. I picked up a $45 Turtle Beach x11, and they work great. Although they're technically stereo headphones, i still manage to hear exactly where people are. I lost track of how many times they've saved my life, and i can't even begin to explain how much they will improve your game. This large improvement is coming from a $45 pair of headphones. You would have to be crazy (or you just have money to blow) to buy $250 Astro's if, and only if, you don't go to MLG tournaments.

The bottom line is that you don't need to go overboard with the amount of money you spend. Both Turtle Beach and Tritton offer great affordable headphones that will improve your game.

Benny Benassi Electroman Album

I just recently bought Benny Benassi's somewhat new album, Electroman, so why not make a review about it? The album was available for download on June 7th, so it is still relatively new. First let me give you the song list:
1. Good Girl
2. Rather Be feat. Shanell
3. Spaceship feat. Kelis, apl.de.ap, and Jean-Baptiste
4. Beautiful People Chris Brown & Benny Benassi
5. My House feat. Jean – Baptiste
6. House Music
7. Cinema feat. Gary Go
8. Electroman feat. T-Pain
9. Automatic B
10. Control feat. Gary Go
11. Leave This Club Alone feat. Dhany
12. Close to Me feat. Gary Go
13. Cinema feat Gary Go (Skrillex remix)
14. All The Way (Live) feat. Ying Yang Twins
–Deluxe Version—
14 tracks listed above, plus the following bonus content, exclusive to iTunes only
1. Put It On Me feat Pitbull
2. Electroman feat. T-Pain (John Dahlbäck Instrumental)
3. Dub Rain (previously unreleased)
4. Spaceship feat. Kelis, apl.de.ap & Jean-Baptiste (video)
5. Cinema feat. Gary Go (video)

First let me talk about the worst songs in the track because i feel that the criticism part is the most important part of the post. The album is filled with good songs that are plagued with crappy lyrics. Benny Benassi needs to realize that his songs are good enough to sell without some garbage artist vomiting on his tracks. Lets go down the list of songs ruined by lyrics, shall we?

• First we have "Rather Be" feat. Shannel. The vocals in this song actually isn't too bad when the song is building up, but why does she have to sing throughout the entire damn song? Drop some heavier bass after the build up and cut the vocals.
• Next we have "Space Ship" feat. Kelis, apl.de.ap & Jean-Baptiste. Not all of the vocals are bad, but it's almost laughable when apl.de.ap is saying "jump in the space ship. take off!" Once again i think Benny Bennasi was trying to create a pop top 40 song when it's not.
• Next up is "Beautiful People" feat. Chris Brown. Not much to say about it other than it's another great song ruined by autotune shit.
• "Electroman" feat. T-Pain wasn't absolute garbage, but T-Pain somewhat ruins the song. Luckily there's and instrumental version which I'll talk about later

So lets talk about some of the best songs on the track. We'll start off with Electroman feat. T-Pain since it is the name of the album.... It actually wasn't toooo bad which is surprising since im not much of a T-Pain fan, but if you cant stand T-Pain, you're in luck. The deluxe version of the album comes with an instrumental version.

The next great song Cinema. The Skrillex remix  and the original are both amazing. Do the Skrillex remix some justice and listen to it with a proper sound system or headphones because the bass is absolutely amazing.

Every other song was just ok. Im not normally the one to complain about mainstream top 40, but i've never seen an electro artist make an entire album of top 40 crap. Even David Guetta isn't this bad.

My somewhat of a hobby

Back when i was around 15 i was outside playing with my friend. We were getting bored, so he asked if i wanted to race my golf cart against his new RC car. I wasn't really expecting much of a challenge since the golf cart was relatively fast, and most rc cars that i saw at the time had a top speed of around 5 mph (8 kph). I get into my golf cart, and he turns on his rc car. When the race started the rc car took off, and to my surprise his car was already at the end of the street by the time i managed to get past my neighbors lawn. That was my introduction to hobby grade rc cars/planes. These cars can reach speeds of 65+ mph (104kph), go off road, and take 10+ ft (3 meter) jumps. The larger monster trucks can reach 45+ mph (im tired of converting to metric) and take 15+ ft jumps. The things are a blast to mess around with when you're bored. You might even have a local hobby store with an offroad and on road track where you can join tournaments and race other people.

Although im getting older and i don't take the cars out as often, i still find myself taking them out every once in a while to play with. I would highly recommend checking these out if you're bored and you have a few dollars laying around.

PC vs. Console Gaming

Here's a topic that i've been thinking about for a while. What gives a better gaming experience? Consoles or PCs? I always see people debating over which is better, so i'll give my personal opinion on the matter.

In my opinion, there isn't a definite answer to this since everyone has there own personal preferences. The PC is without a doubt a superior GAMING platform. The hardware is better, you can upgrade the hardware, and the games will look better because of this. This extra performance does come at a price. The price for a gaming computer that will last a few years is about $800, so expect to make a large initial investment if you decide to take the PC route. The overall price of PC vs. Console in the long run is debatable, and the only thing im going to say is that the prices in the long run might be a lot closer than you expected due to game prices, online fee's, replacements, etc. 

From my experience, the console is a better SOCIAL gaming platform.  People that you know at school or work will be more likely to own a console compared to a gaming computer, therefore you'll be able to play with more of your friends. Things like private chat, party chat, and friends list are all made easier on the console. This isn't a PS3 vs. 360 post, but i think that the 360 exceeds very will in the social aspect. Sure the games on a console won't look as good as a PC, but consoles do provide a better social experience and i think Microsoft and Sony executives know this. I'll use Microsoft for this example. The 360 started off as a gaming platform for the hardcore gamers. There was a lot of focus on games such as Gears of War and Halo, and there was very little focus on casual games. As the 360 got further into its life and the PC started to pull away with the hardcore crowd (due to better hardware), Microsoft started to focus heavily on the social aspect. They introduced cross game party chat, video party's, netflix, twitter, facebook, kinect, youtube, ESPN, etc.

In conclusion, it's all up to you. Would you rather have a better looking game, or the ease of playing and talking to your friends?

Sprint finally getting some good phones

In case some of you haven't heard, Sprint is finally getting some great new phones to catch back up with the other carriers. If you're a Sprint customer like me, you know that Sprints smart phone selection is limited when compared to carriers such as AT&T, Verizon, and even T-Mobile.

Sprint has the HTC Evo, Nexus S, Samsung Epic, and the less powerful Evo Shift. Every other phone lacks common smart phone features such as 4G and/or mobile hotspot. Verizon has phones such as the iPhone 4, Droid Incredible 2, HTC Thunderbolt, Droid Charge, Droid X2, Sony Xperia, and the HTC Trophy. Im not even going to list every phone that AT&T and T-Mobile has because im sure you get the point. Luckily a few great phones will be coming to Sprint this summer.

The first phone is the Evo 3D. The Evo 3D will feature a 4.3" 540 x 960 pixel S-LED screen that can show images and videos in 3D. The phone is extremely powerful with a 1200MHz dual core snapdragon CPU and 1GB of RAM. The expected release date is June 24th, so sprint customers looking for an upgrade should definitely check this out.

The next phone is the Motorola Photon. This phone features a 4.3" 540 x 960 pixel screen, but it cannot show 3D video like the Evo 3D. This phone is also extremely powerful with a 1000MHz dual core NVIDIA Tegra 2 CPU and 1GB of RAM. The expected release date is sometime in July, so keep an eye out for this phone.

I only briefly reviewed the specs of these phones, so check out http://www.phonearena.com for a full list of specs. Those are the only 2 phones that have confirmed specs, but other phones such as the Samsung Within, HTC Kingdom, HTC Mazaa, and the Motorola Atrix may be coming out sometime this summer.

Can South Park be nearing an end?

Speculation about South Park has arisen again after it's latest episode, "You're Getting Old", aired. Stan's parents, Sharon and Randy, begin arguing in the final moments of the episode. Randy and Sharon say that they have been unhappy for a long time and things aren't like what they used to be. They ask how much longer they can continue doing the same stuff week after week. They also state that every week they tell the same story in a different way, and it's becoming more and more ridiculous. Randy then begins to say that he's afraid he doesn't have a lot of time left. Do you think this was an unofficial statement that the end of South Park is near? It would explain why South Park has been explaining some of its mysteries such as who Cartmans dad actually is, and how Kenny comes back to life. Watch the newest episode at southparkstudios.com