Summer Happenings, Part Two

Welp, I'm about two months into summer break, with around a month left. For those wondering what this med student's been up to with his last summer, this is your lucky day.

On the video game front, I've already mentioned a few games I'd been working through. I'm still randomly playing Guitar Hero 2. Fact: while I can play some games better drunk (Madden, pool), Guitar Hero is not one of those games. Fact #2: Free Bird on expert is insane. Even when sober. Even when co-oping with someone a little better than me (I've beaten ~83% of expert).

I already talked a bit about Call of Duty. After beating that, Kameo was next. Kameo was an entertaining 20 hourish game. It reminded me a lot of Zelda: the overall gameplay included a little stategery, puzzles, more involved combat (vs. Zelda), and saving a world from something/someone. The only gripe I have involves switching between characters. You're given four buttons with which to do this (for ten characters). Clicking on the thumbsticks could've made these same buttons assignable to the other characters.

Splinter Cell: Double Agent has all the stuff that I love from the other Splinter Cells, with a bit of a twist. There's still the straight-up sneaking around and being a ninja. The difference in DA: you're a double agent with both the NSA and a criminal organization. The new thing: when you're working inside the enemy's base, you're given a time limit. Within this time you have to pick between both the NSA's and criminals' missions. If you don't complete objectives, someone ends up getting pissed off. Nobody likes having the NSA and/or organized crime pissed off at them. Overall, it's what I'd expect out of Splinter Cell and I liked what they did with the double agent twist.

In the "Up & Coming" department, the only games I'm really waiting on are Halo 3 and Guitar Hero 3. Then again, I haven't been following the gaming scene as much as back in the day. It's probably better off anyway, this kid's a bit short on cash.

With this being one of the bigger movie summers in awhile, I was bound to catch at least a few. First up's Ocean's Thirteen. The movie was all right. The planning stage for the heist consumes a lot of the movie and has its share of slow moments. This is true for the other two movies, but it was really noticeable to me in this one. When the actual heist comes around it gets interesting, but overall I still like the first Ocean's the best.

Next up is Die Hard. Straight up, I liked the movie. If you're looking for something where you can turn your brain off and be entertained, look no further. The story is passable and holds all the action together well enough. Speaking of action, you'll definitely get a lot of it in Die Hard. It's kind of like the Bad Boys movies, with a little less humor and a little more action. I haven't seen the other three Die Hards in a while, but this one would probably top the list. Only downside is no yippee-ki-yay, but I guess you can't win them all.

Knocked Up features Dr. Izzie Stevens from Grey's fame. Not that I'm any professional judge of acting, but I think she does a pretty good job. Paul Rudd's also in it. I don't know if it's him or his characters, but I seem to like his stuff as of late. I'd been hearing that the movie was one of the funniest they'd seen. I don't know if I'd claim that. I'd save such a title for something like Wedding Crashers. Having said that, the movie was better than I thought it was going to be. And yes, it was pretty funny at times. Although, once the last fifth or so of the movie rolled around it was starting to lose its funny moments.

Evan Almighty is the last contestant on tonight's show. Steve Carrell basically carries the movie, IMO. All of the comedy in the movie comes from him. Even with this, there wasn't as much when compared to Bruce Almighty. Sounds like a pretty negative review, but I still liked the movie. Just not anything spectacular. Not too much else to be said.

In the movie edition of Illinaisa's "Up & Coming," I'm waiting on Harry Potter, Rush Hour 3, and Bourne Ultimatum. As for movies that I still wanna see, they'd be Spiderman 3, Pirates 3, Ratatouille, and Shrek 3. Yay for spending money :D Maybe I should've/will still work a bit this summer.