4 ) DC Universe Online

3 ) Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3

2 ) Rocksmith

1 ) Saints Row: The Third

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)

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!

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!

Laser-guided drone missile strike
This would be in the form of a laser sight on your weapon. You would activate it and point the laser to where you wanted the drone to strike. I would like this to take the place of the remote R/C car that Black Ops uses. Advantages are that it’s quick to use and you wouldn’t be left vulnerable while controlling the missile strike. The fact that you must stay within sight of your target would help balance the perk.

Stealth chopper
Like the stealth choppers we’ve heard about in the Osama Bin Laden raid, these choppers would not be detectable on the radar. Either they would not show up or your radar would be scrambled when they were flying over. The advantages to the scrambled radar are that it would balance out those players that use scrambler, a mostly unused perk.

New Perks:

Short fuse/defuse kit
When planting the bomb the timer is shortened by 10 seconds, 20 for pro. On the defending team defusing the bomb would be faster.

New Features:

Pro kill streaks
Just like having pro perks, if you meet set requirements for your kill streak you can unlock the pro version. The pro kill streak would only offer a slight advantage to its non-pro counterpart. For example, your UAV may stay up for an extra 30 seconds, you could get two predator missiles or it could take an extra rocket to take down your Chopper Gunner / AC-130.

Hardcore versions of every game type
Many people complain about the lack of stopping power in Black Ops. I thought it was a good idea to remove it. In response to the lack of Stopping Power, you should be able to play every game type in Hardcore mode.

More Prestige
I think that Black Ops got it right with the level 50 mark as the top. The worst part of the online leveling is when it stops. I don’t understand why it can’t be infinite, other than the fact that eventually you’ll run out of symbols.

More Customization
Black Ops did a great thing with the emblem editor. I’d like to see this continue and even go as far as being able to customize the look of your gun by editing your own camouflage, and change up what your character looks like.

New Stats:

Partial game win/loss separated from full game win/loss
This idea isn’t really mine but I really like it. As a player, I’m not too concerned with my kill to death ratio but more with if I win the objective. Even if this a Call of Duty Elite stat, I would really enjoy it.

Remove the following:

Last Stand
When you’re dead you’re dead. I understand the advantages for the perk in a game like Search & Destroy but for the most part it’s just an annoying after-thought.

One Man Army
There wasn’t any One Man Army perk in Black Ops which was a good thing and I’d like to see that continue with MW3.

I’ve built a computer and have since gotten sucked into the black hole of endless video games. Before building this computer I had an old Dell laptop that could barely run flash games before crashing. Suddenly having the availability to play any and all Steam games has really taken a hold of me. Recently there was the Steam Summer Sale which only made things worse. In the sale I picked up all of those “I’ll play someday” games for super cheap and have been playing nonstop. Just Cause 2 has taken up most of my time. Its GTA meets Bionic Commando, how can you go wrong? I’ve also been playing a lot of Portal2, Batman: Arkham Asylum and Borderlands.

I also got a nook on the 4th of July and have been reading more than ever. I really enjoy it and find myself reading during breaks at work (and even creating some extra breaks) to help get through the day. I’ve started a new page, with the link up at the top of the site where you can see all the books I’ve read by month. There’s even an email address there where you can send book suggestions.

Going into this comic I was a little worried that I just wouldn’t get it. I’ve never heard of the podcast Geek Syndicate before and thought there’d be too many inside jokes that as a non-listener I just wouldn’t get. Thinking ahead, Harold made all of the strips stand alongside the podcast, making it very accessible for anyone.

In case you’re still unsure about buying this, all profit from the collection goes to Heifer International. They are a charity dedicated to ending hunger and poverty. I understand though that we’re in a recession and $3.00 can buy a lot of McNuggets, I still suggest you head over to www.GeekSyndicateComic.com and read the strips for free. Then once you’re hooked, reconsider buying the collection.

5/5

The festivities really started Thursday night, when we went to see Titus Andronicus at the First Unitarian Church, but then again I’ve just posted a review of that concert so we’ll skip ahead to Friday. After sleeping in, I packed up and we headed out to gas up the car, go to the liquor store and grab some lunch. We ended up on the road around one with the earliest check-in time at the hotel at 3. It’s a long drive down the NJ Turnpike, then across to the PA turnpike and then a quick journey on local highways before we arrived at the Crowne Plaza hotel in Wyomissing, PA. I was a little nervous that my reservation would end up lost, as I had made it more than a year in advance, but everything checked out and we went to our room.

In years past, Stev and I would share a room at the Days Inn which is across the street. This year the stars aligned where the Crowne Plaza was actually cheaper by a dollar or two per night. The Crowne Plaza is much better than the Days Inn, for one their showerheads actually are at my head and not the middle of my chest. You don’t have to take a sketchy elevator to get anywhere and it doesn’t smell like smoke no matter where you are. Not to mention that the Crowne has a pool and gym! Once we get to our room it’s like a scene straight out of dumb and dumber with us jumping on the bed and checking out the mini bar.

After we get settled in, I go out to the car and grab all of my comics that I’m giving away this year. On the way back in I see Chad and he helps direct me to Ian and Raff’s room. I go and say hello to them and give them first dibs on anything I’m getting rid of. After they go through everything, I head back to my room and grab Jess so we can get to Third & Spruce before the crowd.

Third & Spruce is a great bar, they have decent food and decent prices. They’ve also got a pretty big selection of beers on tap, which is always good. The nice thing about Third & Spruce on Friday night is it’s a giant ice breaker. If it’s your first time, like Jess, you get to see people out of a convention atmosphere and just talk to them. For a big group of nerds and geeks that all have their own level of social anxiety, this helps a lot. We stayed at the bar from 7 to about 11, sitting at the corner table which ensured that anyone coming in would stop by and say hello. We had lots of fun drinking, chatting about geek things and watching the Phillies beat the Mets 10-3! Okay, maybe I was having fun watching the Phillies beat the Mets.

Saturday morning, bright and early we wake up and head out to Shady Maple Smorgasbord. Shady Maple is in Amish country and it’s an all you can eat buffet. This is some of the best food you can get and there’s a lot of it! Ian, Raff, Chad, Harold, Jess and myself grab a table and go to town. They have an omelet station, waffle/pancake station and over 200 feet of buffets. They also have local root beer and slurpees you can drink for breakfast! After a very filling breakfast, we head over to the convention center.

This year there were two conventions happening at the same time, our comic book convention and a gun show. It was an interesting mix of vehicles in the parking lot. There would be the pickup truck with a gun rack in the back parked next to a tiny hybrid car with star wars bumper stickers. I can only wonder what the pickup truck driver was thinking as he walked past the guy with a storm trooper mask on.

The convention itself was a lot bigger than the past two years. I was told beforehand that they had sold out of table space for the first time so I was expecting to be crowded in, but the floor plan had a great flow to it. All of my favorite creators were there like Harold Jennett, Dave Wachter, Shawn Pryor, Mike Imboden, Tony Moore, Jeremy Bastian and Robert Atkins and I got to meet and discover a whole bunch more!

I don’t go to the SuperShow for back issues, in fact our first stop was to drop off the big box of loose comics I had collected over the past year at the Crap Comics Trade-A-Thon booth. It’s great idea for people to get rid of stuff that they didn’t like or just don’t need and there is a very loose ‘bring one take one’ rule to the table. After dropping off my box, we decided to walk around and take in everything. I’ll go over all of our loot later at the end of the recap along with photos.

Around noon we were out of cash and tired, so we went to the nearby Wawa for the ATM and then back to the hotel. Jess went down to the gym to work out and I decided a nap would be better. After about an hour we both headed down to the pool to check it out. Unfortunately for us though, the pool was freezing. Jess decided to take a nap and I read some of the comics I picked up that morning.

We got back to the con around 3pm and wandered around, looking at different booths until the CGS episode recording started. Over the years the episode recording has become less and less about comics and more like an award show. I won’t spoil any of the surprises, you can listen to the episode when it comes out but it was a lot of fun. Also, instead of having Paul sing his SuperShow song during the recording everyone was going back to Third & Spruce for a mini concert and karaoke.

Jess and I ran back to the hotel, put all of our stuff down and got ready for the night. I had noticed last year on my way back from Third & Spruce that there is a record store around the corner. We are both vinyl collector nerds so we decided to check out Vertigo Vinyl before heading over for the festivities. It’s a nice place, on the small side but it had some good finds before we went through it. We were also lucky enough to get back to Third & Spruce and reclaim the same table from the night before.

Dinner was good, service was a bit lacking from Friday into Saturday night. I’m not sure why that is, as it happened last year as well. We were also tired which could have made things seem longer. The karaoke was a bunch of fun with highlights including Raff singing “On a Boat”, Brad Milo singing “Humpty Dance” and Ian’s awesome take on “Sex & Candy”. Before you knew it, the concert was starting with Kirby Krackle. Next came some awesome beats by Super Ugly and then… well something by H2Awesome. The concert ended with Paul and Brad (now calling themselves 10 strings of rage) singing a new SuperShow song. The place was packed and from where I was there were too many side conversations for me to hear much of the song. I’m hoping that it was recorded for the CGS episode.

After Paul finished, we booked it back to the hotel. Jess was wiped out and I was getting excited to record an episode of Comic Timing with Ian, Raff, Chad and whoever else was going to show up. Much to I think everyone but Ian’s surprise there was a huge turnout! Julian Lytle, Shawn Pryor, Martheus Wade, Jon Carroll and Dean Stahl were all showed up and were ready to party. You guys are going to love this episode of Comic Timing if your sense of humor is anything like mine. I don’t think I’ve laughed so hard ever before. It was a lot of fun and I was really happy to be a part of it. The recording lasted for about two hours then I was off to bed for the next morning.

Waking up on Sunday was hard to do. Somehow we managed to wake up, shower, change, pack and checkout all within the span of about 45 minutes. We were going to meet up with Chad, Ian and Raff for breakfast at the IHOP before going to the last day of the con. As it turns out we ended up waiting in the lobby for about 40 minutes because everyone had trouble getting up. By the time we made it to IHOP there was already at 30 minute wait and we were starving. We then went to another place, which was closed before ending up at Old Country Buffet. Generally there isn’t anything wrong with Old Country Buffet, but the day before we had Shady Maple and that’s like comparing a steak to a hamburger. We still managed to have fun and made it to the con pretty early.

Sunday is the day where most of my impulse buys happen. I tend to walk around slowly and look everything over on Saturday, only picking up what I’ve pre-ordered. We got a bunch of cool stuff and hung around, mostly tailing Ian as he was getting his Comic Timing interviews done. Finally we went over to the Quick Draw panel and got some good seats. This was the most fun I’ve had at a convention panel, and also my first real Quick Draw type of event. It consisted of 10 artists, put on two teams and they had an ever-shrinking amount of time to draw whatever subject the moderator told them. You really get to see their creative side and how they construct a sketch. I was watching closely because I have wanted to improve my sketches for some time now.

After the panel was over, Jess and I hung around and picked up one last commission, said our goodbyes and then went back to New Jersey. I had a great time, full of food, fun, friends and comics. What more could you ask for?

Let’s get down to the loot! Here’s what I got:

I brought my copy of Cursed Pirate Girl for Jeremy Bastian to sign.

FUBAR mega pack (includes ammo bag, buttons, book w/ sketches and two target posters)

Billy & the Bongers – Bootleg

Mercury & the Murd volume 2 w/ trading cards

Hey, Wait… by Jason

Cable quick sketch by Fred Chao (won during the panel)

Action Lab Shirt, Fracture #1 & button

Dutchy Digest #5 and FCBD issue 2010

In His Likeness book 1 & 2 and window decal

The Karate Kid Collection (movies 1 through 4)

Super Ugly Fun Pack

Plastic Farm issues 1 through 12

Dead Kennedys – Plastic Surgery Disasters vinyl

Morrissey – Suadehead vinyl

Jess got the following:

Tricked

The Eternal Smile

Wondermark Trade

Lotso Huggin Bear throwing cats by Harold Jennett

Little Mermaid by Halle Jennett

Harley Quinn quick sketch by Chris Moreno

I picked up the following for my sister:

Katie Cook sketch of Gus the Pug sitting in his pink chair

TARDIS pin, River Song postcard

Tools of the Trade Doctor Who shirt

Decemberists – The Tain / 5 Songs vinyl

From the basement, I quickly forgot about all the commotion coming from upstairs. It was a mix of excitement, the overbearing heat and the distraction of flipping through old vinyl to discover that one gem that I didn’t know I desperately needed until I saw. Soon enough the show was starting and we were ready to rock out, after all this was the grand start to my vacation!

The first band was Frost Watson. I don’t really know anything about them, they were pretty good and played the type of punk rock that makes you think of The Offspring with all the OOOOOOooo’s and Yeah’s. I ended up grabbing their CD because I wanted to give them another listen and it turned out to be pretty cheap.

Next up was Dinowalrus, a Brooklyn based “psychedelic synth-punk” band. I’ll be honest with you, I didn’t really like their set. Looking up their information on the internet, I dig their visual art style so I’m bound to give them a second chance but they’ve got a bad first impression on me. It was during Dinowalrus’ set that I went back to the merch table and grabbed the Frost Watson CD, getting back just in time to hear the end of their last song. Perfect timing!

Finally Titus Andronicus took the stage. By this point the place was a sweat box, the crowd was half-deaf thanks to the two opening bands playing at volume 11 and also pretty buzzed. People had been sneaking in bottles of beer in their backpacks to the concert and I was jealous! Titus shot out of the gate with “Future Part III: Escape From No Future” and the whole place turned into one giant mosh pit. Unfortunately for the band, Patrick broke a guitar string and it plagued the rest of the set. Borrowing a guitar from Dinowalrus, everything’s back on track. Wrong, turns out that Dinowalrus tunes their guitar very strangly, which you can’t really make out in live shows because everything is very muddy and loud. Not a good first impression at all. Despite the constant tuning issues, Titus put on a great set. We were even lucky enough to hear a new tune as well as all the songs you’d want to hear going into their concert. They even played a cover of the Sham 69 song “If the Kids are United”.

If you’ve never been to a Titus Andronicus concert, I really recommend going. I’m excited to see them again when they are supporting Okkervil River on June 3^rd. My word of advice though is to bring ear plugs, especially if you don’t go to many concerts. I had forgot that the first time I saw Titus Andronicus I thought I went deaf until thinking I went deaf after this past concert.