Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning (the Demo)

You know what I miss? Game demos. Back in the early 90s, when I was still in my formative years as a young gamer, entering into the age where my parents would finally trust me enough to let me on their computer for hours at a time to play computer games, I loved demos. I didn't have any real money to speak of, and what I did all went to Magic cards. So I spent a lot of time playing demos. I would either get them from my PCGamer demo disc or download them on my parents' 14.4 bps modem whenever no one was using the phone. It was a great time to be a new gamer. I could see if the game captured my interest long enough for me to at least want to spend money on it. Obviously my budget was limited, but I was able to buy games occasionally. Heck, my budget was so limited that I literally could not afford to buy a game without first playing the demo, to see if I liked it.
Unfortunately, it seems that the practice of giving demos has, by and large, gone by the wayside. Heck, most of the few paltry demos that are put out these days are put out after the game has already been released! What madness is that? (No...  I'm not going to make that joke. You know which one.)
So, suddenly here's this game from EA that I'd never heard anything about called Kingdoms of Amalur. I really hadn't any interest in it, but they were doing this interesting cross-promotional thing with Mass Effect 3 for some free DLC just for playing the demo. I figured: "it's a demo and it's free DLC... Win-win, as far as I'm concerned." So I downloaded it for the free DLC, because I LOVE the Mass Effect series... and I was duly impressed.

Watchdog Self Storage

So, I guess this review will be locating myself a bit, but I've been wanting to write this review for a bit now.
I've only had to use a paid storage closet a couple of times, though I have helped plenty of other people move in/out of one. But by far the best I've used, or even seen, was Watchdog Self Storage in Springville, UT. (The picture is taken from their website.)

Validation

Every once in a while, a film comes along that is, in all seriousness, important. I don't mean that it's just really good or entertaining or groundbreaking in some way. I mean really, honestly important. These are movies that you should watch because they say something necessary or they will make you a better person. Movies like Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, The Shawshank Redemption, and The Incredibles. Validation, while short (it's under 20 minutes), is one of these films.

The Blackwell Deception

Now, I do my best not to be a fanboy, but every so often, something comes along that's so high-quality that I just can't help but get a little bit giddy over it. Wadjet Eye Games' games are like that. So of course I was excited to hear about The Blackwell Deception, the fourth game in the series. I mean, how could an adventure games enthusiast not be excited about it? I was, unfortunately, not able to buy it at the time of release, but it recently got a release on Steam and was on sale for the first week, so I picked it up right quick. Did it live up to my expectations?

Landau Eugene Murphy jr., That's Life

So I bought myself the debut album of Landau Eugene Murphy jr. In case you didn't watch it, he's the guy who won America's Got Talent last year singing crooner classics. Now, normally I don't watch "reality" shows, but I will occasionally watch AGT simply because it's usually not trying to be anything it's not and it offers such a wide variety of entertainment. So, I was watching an episode with some family when Landau came on and... I was blown away.

Hawk The Slayer

When most people think of good movies, usually they think of movies they enjoyed because of the great acting, the interesting story, or even just the cool special effects.
Then there are people like me, who love to watch terrible movies simply because they have the exact opposite of all of the above.
Why do people like me willingly submit ourselves to such torture? Why, because it's freaking hilarious, of course!
Hawk the Slayer is the epitome of bad movies. It is the Casablanca of bad movies. It is what every bad movie aspires to be. It is like the matrix in that it cannot be explained, but rather must be experienced. But I will try to explain it anyway.

The Gamers (the first one)

So, I finally got around to watching the first gamers movie. You may have noticed that I already reviewed its spiritual sequel earlier. So... I would say that it was worth watching, especially since it made me re-evaluate my opinion of Dorkness Rising. Somewhat.

You see, I still stand by my original conclusion that Dorkness Rising is a good film that approaches greatness, yet is too easy to forget. However, I now feel that I was a bit too harsh on the movie. I know I couched it all in terms of "it's not bad, but...", but I also understand that the "but" makes all the difference.
So... Let me tell you about The Gamers and how it simultaneously changed and reinforced my opinion of its sequel.