Sounded Good On Paper

9 ) Megafaun – Megafaun (September 20, 2011)

8 ) Jay Z and Kanye West – Watch The Throne (August 8, 2011)

7 ) Foo Fighters – Wasting Light (April 12, 2011)

6 ) Girls – Father, Son, Holy Ghost (September 13, 2011)

5 ) The Decemberists – The Kings Is Dead (January 14, 2011)

4 ) Tom Waits – Bad As Me (October 21, 2011)

3 ) Okkervil River – I Am Very Far (May 10, 2011)

2 ) The Mountain Goats – All Eternals Deck (March 29, 2011)

1 ) Andrew Jackson Jihad – Knife Man (September 20, 2011)

2011:
January 25th The Decemberists @ Beacon Theater in New York City
Febuary 16th Les Savy Fav @ Bowery Ballroom in New York City
March 28th The Mountain Goats @ Bowery Ballroom in New York City LINK
March 29th The Mountain Goats @ Bowery Ballroom in New York City LINK
March 30th The Mountain Goats @ Bowery Ballroom in New York City LINK
April 2nd LCD Soundsystem FINAL SHOW @ Madison Square Garden in New York City LINK
April 3rd Wild Pig Comic Convention @ Holiday Inn in Somerset, NJ LINK
April 6th Phillies vs New York Mets @ Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia
April 11th Dr Who Premire at the Village Theater in New York City
April 15th The Mountain Goats @ Theatre of the Living Arts in Philadelphia, PA
April 18th Phillies vs Milwaukee Brewers @ Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia
April 28th Titus Andronicus @ First Unitarian Church in Philadelphia LINK
April 30th to May 1st Comic Geek Speak Super Show @ Reading Expo Center in Reading, PA
May 4th Phillies vs Washington Nationals @ Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia
May 20th Phillies vs Texas Rangers @ Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia
May 26th Phillies vs Cincinnati Reds @ Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia
June 3rd Okkervil River / Titus Andronicus @ Trocadero in Philadelphia
June 7th Okkervil River / Titus Andronicus @ Terminal 5 in New York City
June 9th Phillies vs Chicago Cubs @ Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia
June 15th Phillies vs Florida Marlins @ Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia
July 8th Phillies vs Atlanta Braves @ Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia
July 16th Titus Andronicus @ South Street Seaport in New York City
July 25th Phillies vs San Diego Padres @ Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia
July 28th Phillies vs San Francisco Giants @ Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia
August 17th Phillies vs Arizona Diamondbacks @ Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia
August 23rd Phillies vs New York Mets @ Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia
September 6th Phillies vs Atlanta Braves @ Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia
September 9th Flaming Lips @ Quicksilver Pro Fest in Long Beach, NY
September 19th Phillies vs St Louis Cardinals @ Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia
September 22nd Phillies vs Washington Nationals @ Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia
September 24th Riot Fest East @ Festival Pier in Philadelphia
October 7th Jens Leckman @ Music Hall of Williamsburg in NYC
October 29th Danzig Legacy @ Hammerstein Ballroom in NYC
December 9th Weakerthans @ Bowery Ballroom in NYC

Well it happened, I’ve gone from a complete Marvel Zombie to being all about the new DCU. How did this happen so suddenly? Well for one my decision to move from floppy comics to the comixology app made it easier to get that next fix wherever I was and the other thing you may have heard about.

Back in September, DC relaunched 52 comics starting with new number ones and brand new jumping on points. I decided to give it a shot, picking up a few comics that seemed interesting. Now I’m up to about a dozen titles and really having fun. In addition to that, the video game DC Universe Online was recently changed to free-to-play. Why not give it a shot if you’ve got the extra 11 or so gigabytes free on your hard drive. The intro movie is worth the space for sure.

And that’s a short update on why I’ve been obsessing over DC comics recently. Oh and don’t get me started on their Blackest Friday sale, I feel like this is going to get more expensive than Steam!

Yesterday on my lunch break I picked up Gears of War 3. I hated Gears of War 2 and almost gave up playing multiplayer games entirely because of the terrible experience. I decided to try the game based on this review and because my buddy Mike was really excited about playing.

My first reaction as I sat in my cubicle and opened the package was disappointment. Inside the box you’ll get the game disc, a sheet with 3 static clings and the game manual. I was looking forward to pouring through this document in the spare moments throughout the rest of the day until I got home and could play. Unfortunately for me, the game manual was a whopping two pages long.

Finally I got home and had a chance to play the game. Right from the beginning you can tell that this is an experience to be shared, as you’re automatically dumped into a game lobby. Since I had some time to kill before Mike got home, I looked through the menus and saw that they offer a video summarizing the first two games for newcomers. Its small touches like that that I really enjoy. After catching up on the story so far I loaded into the campaign mode, on easy, so I could figure out how the controls and cover mechanics worked before Mike signed online.

I got through the first half of Act 1 before breaking for dinner and I was very pleased. The controls seem natural to someone that plays Call of Duty almost exclusively. I didn’t find myself getting stuck to the walls, which was one of my major problems with Gears 2. Everything felt fluid. Gears definitely has its own rhythm and once you get in tune with it the game really opens up. This isn’t a game you’ll want to rush through; it’ll frustrate the hell out of you. The characters move at their own pace and there’s way too much beautiful scenery and creepy monsters to check out.

After dinner I had a couple minutes before Mike was going to sign on so I hopped into the dreaded multiplayer team death match. The combination of always getting stuck on the walls and the massive amounts of lag switching instant deaths I received in Gears 2, I was not looking forward to this moment. To my relief, I had no problems getting into games or any issues with people abusing the lag. The movement was just as fluid as in the single player and I actually ended 3 out of the 4 games with a positive kill/death ratio.

Finally Mike signed online and we were all set to play some cooperative campaign mode. Mike is a Gears veteran, so we started in Hardcore mode, the hardest mode available when you first start out. He was stuck watching me play through the first parts of the game until I met up with his character. I had a fun time goofing around with him in the ship before the action started. Once the action started it was brutal. I must have set a world record for the most amount of getting downed in a minute. There was a period of time when this monster kept hurling flaming boulders at me and knocking me down. A computer controlled teammate that was apparently assigned to just keeping me alive would revive me in just enough time for me to get hit in the face with the boulder again. It was pretty hilarious and with the only penalty of being killed means you start at the last checkpoint we weren’t too worried about my lack of skill in the game. There was one point that tested my nerves, we kept getting killed at this one point and it was right before a cut scene where you had to choose which path to take. This meant that we had to watch our characters climb down a ladder about 10 times until we finally passed that area. Thankfully Mike kept me in check by reminding me it’s just a game when I was on the verge of rage quitting.

Check back next week for my review of additional play modes like the Horde mode!