There are definitely some similarities. Both are puzzle RPGS, so you complete puzzles to battle opponents and succeed at other quests. There are multiple puzzle types for competing different tasks. The gems you clear in the puzzles provides you with magic/mana to attack your opponent. You play a single character, with the option to pick up NPC party members throughout the game. There is a main plotline, with significant quests, and side quests to keep you busy. Depending on your choices of action, you may not be able to do certain quests or the game may end differently. You can purchase or create items to aid you in the game.

Pretty standard. I found it interesting because I like puzzle games. I was hoping these would get me into more complex games (RPGs) so I bought them both. There’s a few differences, though. Challenge of the Warlords is set in the traditional fantasy world with people and trolls and orcs, etc. Galactrix, if you couldn’t tell by the name, has a science fiction theme. They’re both pretty cliche in their own ways but I did find Galactrix slightly more appealing, for whatever reason.

Additionally, you outfit your character with items such as armor and weapons in Challenge of the Warlords, whereas you choose a ship and outfit it with weapons and tools in Galactrix. Again, I preferred the Galactrix method, if only because it’s simpler. Your ship can only handle so much weaponry, CPU and engine technology at once (it varies between ships). I understood that easily and enjoyed working within those confines. If you prefer RPGs over puzzles, then you may just like Challenge of the Warlords more, instead. There are no limits regarding certain “energies,” you have more options when you choose items. I personally felt like I had more opportunities to mess up my character because of this.

Another big difference is the puzzle playing boards. Challenge of the Warlords boasts a square board with grids containing circular gems, not unlike Bewjeweled. The playing board is round in Galactrix and the pieces, hexagonal. Both games require you to match 3 same-coloured gems to clear them from the board. The gems can add to your mana/Energy, experience/Intel, health/shields, money (in Challenge) or Psi Points (in Galactrix). There are also bomb pieces that inflict damage upon your opponent. Each skill or weapon equipped requires a specific configuration of gems to use. For example, you may need 7 red gems and 8 yellows to use a specific gem.

But if you play the puzzles and plan to rely on luck, you’ll probably start losing quickly. The puzzles do require skill and you have to think ahead several turns. You do not simply want to make the easier move. For example, when you get 4-of-a-kind or more, you earn bonuses such has extra gems or turns. You can earn more gems by starting a chain reaction and longer reactions may earn you additional turns.

Psi Points are unique to Galactrix. When you unlock the points (by completing side quests), you have the ability to use them against potential opponents. For example, if a pirate ship wants to attack, you can avoid the battle by using the skill. It’s interesting. I happened to notice that the game frequently froze when I used Psi skills, however.

Challenge of the Warlords offers you the option to capture your opponents and learn their skills (there exists a comparable feature to learn schematics of an enemy’s weapons in Galactrix). You may even use certain enemies as a mount and gain their skills. Additionally, you can train these mounts by beating them in times battles on the puzzle screen. In fact, each game offers some side puzzles that I enjoyed. However, those side puzzles tend to be more necessary to complete the game in Galactrix. Some players might find this annoying. I can see both sides.

In order to participate in any of those additional puzzles in Challenge of the Warlords, you must enter your citadel. You can only do this if you have successfully attacked the city you’re in. Otherwise, you have to go to the nearest city that you attacked to access the citadel. There isn’t anything really comparable to this in Galaxtrix. It’s interesting but kind of requires you to siege cities if you wish to be able to make items or train your mount at any given time.

There are more differences between the games but, for the sake of length, I’ll start to wrap this up. I have several major complaints about both games. The gems are so small in Challenge of the Warlords that I often wound up touching the wrong one with the stylus. Because it happened so quickly, I’d lose a turn for making an incorrect move. My major complaint in Galactrix is that the puzzles take a long time. There’s this little animation whenever you clear gems from the screen that adds just fractions of a second to each turn. They really add up, however. Some people prefer this because the matches can be over so quickly in Challenge of the Warlords that you might as well not even play it. Lastly, there are a ridiculous number of save and load screens in Galactrix, which also adds to the time you spend sitting around bored

In fact, a lot of my complaints about both of these games seem to center around the fact that there is a happy medium that both somehow miss. The games go too quickly in Challenge of the Warlords but too slowly in Galactrix. Different puzzles types aren’t as accessible as they could be in Challenge of the Warlords but the frequency becomes an annoying in Galactrix.

Ultimately, I enjoyed the game play of Galactrix better but I enjoyed the ending of the other. I found myself skipping through some of the interactions in the game, so I actually made a decision that ended the game without my realization in Galactrix. The plot had fewer options in Challenge of the Warlords so I easily knew where to go and what to do and why (to defeat the boss). It’s a shame because I feel like the plot of Galactrix was slightly more interesting.

Neither Puzzle Quest game was perfect but neither was horrible, either (foreshadowing: they’re both amazing compared to II’s other title: Puzzle Chronicles). You can bet I’ll eventually pick up Puzzle Quest 2. Indeed, as soon as I publish this, I’m going to check out the new website.

The Connecticut Sun Practice Before the Game

The Silver Stars are the local WNBA team so we headed to the AT&T Center right here in San Antonio. Now, I’d never been to any professional sport before so this was a really neat opportunity that I wasn’t about to pass up. We had no trouble grabbing tickets from will-call and there was a purse check on the way in but it was pretty lacks, otherwise. I was pretty “star”struck with the venue itself. It was big. And there was lots of screens and marquees and colours, inside.

When we got to our seats, there were already encouraging signs printed for the audience to hold–as well as some super long balloons. Ryan enjoyed playing with the balloons, as did all the kids at the show. This was definitely a family event and it was great. It didn’t have an aggressive or violent feel like some sports do. In fact, Ryan made a comment about how he saw one of the players attempt a shot but miss. She was smiling the whole time! I noticed that the teams, who were obviously competing against each other, seemed to work together in a way, too.

The mascot was great at interesting with everyone

Now, basketball is one of those games that is just easy to understand. Even if I hadn’t played in fifth grade (I know, it’s a hilarious idea!), it’s so easy to understand the rules. The game started with the Sun playing on the side of the court that was closest to us so we got to see them practicing beforehand. They switched halfway through, though! One thing I noticed, was that the Silver Stars were great at passing. Sometimes a player on the other team seemed to want to do everything. I’m sure that the cooperation of the Stars is part of the reason they won!

I paid special attention to Becky Hammon who was listed in the “program” as a nominee for the Excellence in Sports Performance Yearly Award from ESPN. She played pretty much the whole game, if I remember correctly. It’s also interesting because she’s “only” 5’6″ (I checked online afterward). Some of the players are easily a foot taller than I am! LOL

Aside from the game, which was fast paced and enjoyable, we stopped to grab food from the venue and get some merch. I picked up a pink shirt for my sister. In between the quarters, they had lots of activities with The Fox. At one point, he challenged the ESPN camera man to copy a trampoline/slam dunk he’d just done. The guy accepted and did it easily. A couple members of the audience were picked to play some parachute catching game and it was fun to watch them fall from the ceiling. The sponsors held a bunch of little cell phone texting games, too. I think I won a soda from the local gas station chain but my phone sucks so it wasn’t awesome enough for me to go through the hassle to redeem it.

Two audience members competed to catch the most parachuts

The whole thing was a little out of my comfort zone but I’m so glad I got the opportunity. Ryan is even considering going to another game in the future which is hilarious because he totally resisted against going in the first place. He thanks me later!

If you’re at all interested, I totally encourage you to go and bring your family! I have a promotional code for discounted WNBA Tickets for my readers when they purchase online: WNBABLOG. I also believe One2One Network and the WNBA are offering opportunities like this to bloggers in other areas so don’t hesitate to sign up yourself!

More pictures after the cut!
]]> http://reviewsbycole.com/2010/07/a-night-with-the-silver-stars/feed/ 0 http://reviewsbycole.com/2010/07/venus-embrace/ http://reviewsbycole.com/2010/07/venus-embrace/#comments Fri, 16 Jul 2010 09:45:38 +0000 Cole http://reviewsbycole.com/?p=1467 I got a Venus Embrace razor replacement in my newest pack of Venus Divine razors. It’s a pretty blatant advertising scheme. The manufacturer gives you on of the “better” models with the more inferior ones in hopes that you’ll get hooked and, the next time you visit the store, will purchase the more expensive one. Nice try Gillette, but it didn’t work.

I love that they keep making razor blades that fit on any Venus handle you have, though. I’ve only had 2 or 3 handles in the last.. 8 years. It’s the same with Venus Embrace so I used the handle I already had and put it on in the same way.

But the similarities end there. Venus Embrace is much larger than the previous Venus blades (regular and Divine) in both width and height. This occurs for a couple reasons. Embrace has an extra blade and the whole head is surrounded by a “ribbon of moisture.” It’s sort of like a mini Intuition but, thankfully, not that large.

Still, it’s large enough that it threw me off. With practice, I’m sure I’d get used to it but because I was used to the smaller blades, I found myself using the Embrace at the wrong angle more than once. This resulted in definite discomfort as the razor scraped against my skin in a weird way. And I’m not sure that the extra blade made much of a difference.

And the moisture ribbon was just annoying. It honestly felt more like plastic than anything else. Like any other Venus razor, it would offer some moisture for the first thirty seconds of shaving, then I would need to add shaving gel to help the razor glide. This same thing occurred the first two or three times I used the razor blade, because the strip would be able to soak up water as my razor sat in the shower unused. But after the first few uses, the moisturizing ribbon just seemed to quit working.

The other complaint I have is that the added size from the moisture ribbon makes it hard to get into all those little nooks and crannies when you’re shaving. Maybe not a problem with legs or the underarm area but it becomes more difficult around the bikini line and intimate areas because the edge of the blade is about .5 centimeters in from the edge of the head of the razor. It makes it that much harder to get the details.

I switched back to a Venus Divine cartridge before I really needed to because I was sick of hurting myself with the Embrace and it was just too bulky for my liking. It seems like other Venus customers agree because both the original and Venus Divine are higher rated on Gillette’s site for its Venus razors.

There, I said it.

It does not look like bacon. Instead of the precooked strips you get in most packages that are marked as “microwavable.” Nor does it look like raw bacon you get in regular packages. It looks like some meat that is processed to resemble raw bacon but.. is not.

It doesn’t cook like bacon. You don’t throw individual strips in a pan to fry or on a plate to microwave. 4 strips come in these plastic bags with a weird, fabricy towel thing. To soak up grease, I guess. It doesn’t work. The bag expands as you microwave it and the “bacon” takes on a slightly more bacon-like appearance. Almost, but not quite.

The thing I love about bacon is its taste. And smell. A smell that evokes your tastebuds to reminisce. But this product does not smell or taste like bacon. It does not hit the spot. Let me tell you, when you’re eating bacon, you do so because it hits the spot. Not for its nutritious value.

Nice try Hormel. Well, not really. Not a very nice try at all. And I don’t like being tricked, either! Microwave Ready Bacon. Pfft!

I’ve had the same bottle in the bathroom for nearly a month and it’s just about out. The soap leaves my hands feeling soft as well as smelling good. The large, foaming pump is easy to use and all of Bath and Body Works’ soap is anti-bacterial. Furthermore, the translucent, light pink of the liquid in the bottle is attractive, too.

It’s not my favourite scent (that used to be the black raspberry vanilla but they changed the scent) but I’d be pleased to stumble upon Caribbean Escape in someone else’s home and I enjoy using it in mine.

Laura approaches the book as though she’s on her radio show. It’s casual, conversational and involves enough slang to make anyone who appreciate the English language want to use the book as a weapon. Laura also has strong moral beliefs (despite those nude photos of her on the internet) and this comes through strong in her writing.

Ten Stupid Things.. is actually a book she wrote in response to reader’s who wanted a male counterpart to Ten Stupid Things Women Do to Mess Up Their Lives. She’s equal opportunity–sort of. It doesn’t take long for the reader to realize that Dr. Laura hates feminism and anyone who backs it. At times, it seems she blames all the ails on the world on feminism and while I generally think that feminism is a good thing, there are some points she makes that sorta, kinda make sense at times.

Aside from her anti-feminist beliefs, Dr. Laura has produced an interesting book in Ten Stupid Things. She split the book into 10 areas in a man’s life in which he might make a mistake, which includes but isn’t limited to: independence, strength, marriage, parenting, sex and boyishness. When reading, I noticed that her main complaints stemmed from men acting too manly or not manly enough. It’s definitely a running trend in this book.

Dr. Laura solicited advice for this book from her readers and listeners and she includes their “top 10″ lists as well as emails through-out the book. There is a strong sense of doing what is right, taking responsibility for your actions and being an adult. I can stand by all those things even if Dr. Laura and I might not always agree on the details.

Dr. Laura’s approach is very straight forward, however. I can see how many people would be offended by this and if you’re trying to help the man in your life stop doing stupid things, it might be easier to take a more indirect route than handing him this book–or not.

Yet, if you’re an open-minded man you might find yourself nodding and agreeing as you read along or seeing the mistakes you’ve made along the way. You might take some of Dr. Laura’s advice to become a better man, if you’re so inclined. You might be shocked to learn that some of the things you’ve done are considered “stupid” by some. Maybe.

Dr. Laura doesn’t use this book as a forum to rage on men, however. You might be surprised to read her praise for the men who have finally “got it” or the men who learned from the mistakes of their fathers and other men in their lives. Yet, Ten Stupid Things Men Do to Mess Up Their Lives is not the best book I’ve ever read, even it was sometimes entertaining or enlightening. Luckily, you can find it pretty cheap at used book stores, if you’re interested. I got mine for less than $5.

I prefer Elance by far. The site is better designed on the whole; it looks more professional. I was able to easily browse for projects when I wanted. The only thing I didn’t like is that free accounts only get so many credits, which you can use to bid on the work projects. I believe I got 10 credits a month so I had to make sure I was bidding on the 10 most profitable/enjoyable/realistic projects for myself. That is definitely limiting and some projects can even cost more than one credit.

Freelancer (formerly Get a Freelancer) has a much higher limit. Mine was something like 50 so I was putting in quite a few more bids. Freelancer was also easy to search. I liked their keyword suggestions, something that Elance does not have. If you’re looking for article work, like I was, you can easily click “articles” or “article” from the list and see applicable topics. Both sites group work by category as well. Freelancer’s project list is a little messier, design-wise. While both allow you to view extra details about the projects, Elance has a “watch list” where you can save things that you might be considering but arent’ so sure about.

I also have to say that the quality of work on Freelancer isn’t as desirable for a couple reasons. There’s a lot of reselling. There’s also a lot of people looking to get you to do ridiculous amounts of bulk work. Many of the sellers do not have a strong grasp of English and it’s obvious that some sellers have multiple accounts and/or are posting similar projects over and over. It’s quite confusing but even after you get your head around it, you’ll see the going rates on Freelancer are, quite honestly, ridiculously lower than those on Elance. I’ve noticed some of the same projects being posted on both sites. While I typically ask for $5 per 500 word article and that has been acceptable on Elance, some sellers on Freelancer ask for $.25 per same 500 word article. Um, what? I think not.

The attitudes of sellers on Freelancer are frustrating as well. There’s a lot of “This is how much I’m going to pay and you’re an idiot if you bid over it” kind of thing, as if buyers are wasting their precious time. Well, I kind of feel like these unreasonable offers are wasting my time when I have to stop to read whether it’s work applying for or not. But a lot of people do apply for these projects so I think Freelancer may cater more to people who do not fluently speak/type English or cannot find work on Elance.

These attitudes spill over into many communications. I find my conversations have generally been terse, unhelpful and sellers are unrealistically pushy. How soon do you think I’m going to complete an article if you’re paying me .0005 cents per word?

It’s easy enough to big for articles on either site. Elance has a slightly more efficiently system. You can bid, send a message and upload attachments of previous work on one page. Freelancer allows you to bid and send a message but you have to use the inbox system for sending attachments. I’d think that would become quite confusing for sellers. The inbox is confusing enough for me. It’s really impaired. You can’t even delete messages. Messages are simply there forever.

That’s also the case for projects. Whether I bid and win, the project is canceled or I lose, all my bids stay in my list forever. There’s no reason for bids I didn’t win to remain in that list and once I finish a project, I want the ability to close/archive it. If I want to access it for reference or something, that’s great but I like being able to differentiate between other projects.

Elance really has a leg up on Freelancer when it comes to project management, though. You can set milestones, send status reports and each project has a message board for buyers and sellers to communicate. Elance also lets you do projects that are based on hourly rates and you can manage that on site, too. Each project has its own “work room” so you can easily do this all in one place.

Freelancer is just much more messy. Maybe that’s why so many sellers take their business off site. The problem is, the fees are automatically (10% for free members whereas Elance will take 6% maximum) taken out of any project you accept but if something happens like, say.. you accept a bid but the seller winds up inviting you to some completely different site and you don’t want to do that but the account is obviously abandoned, you’ve paid for a project you won’t be able to do. Yea, that totally happened to me. Plus, doing things off site seems a bit.. not exactly legit to me and I don’t like it much. Unfortunately, Freelancer has a whole lot more underhandedness and sneakyness going on.

I’ve completed some projects where the seller paid through Paypal. This is interesting because, ultimately, Freelancer will send your money to PayPal but you need to have accumulated at least $30 and pay a $1 fee for withdrawing. I certainly don’t mind bypassing these steps but this method keeps the projects open forever so you can’t leave feedback. Therefore, feedback isn’t really important on Freelancer. Remember when I said it’s obvious some people have multiple accounts to get more action? On the contrary, feedback and history is much more important on Elancer and you can feel a little better about the people you work with. At least, I did.

Elance also pays through Paypal (or by check or several other methods) and there is a minimum of $35, I believe with a 2.75% fee. Depending upon how much you withdraw, it is almost always a better deal than Freelancer’s PayPal option.

Both sites have options where you can increase your number of bids and decrease money withdrawal fees for a small price. I did this once with Freelancer, over a year ago, but I’m not sure it’s worth it unless you’re really consistent with your work.

It’s important to remember, however, that there is all sorts of work to be found. I have only written articles. You might be a programmer or data entry person and your experience may vary greatly depending upon your expertise.

So the viewer watched ordinary Dave become something a little.. super-ordinary and the drama, violence and comedy that ensues is definitely extraordinary. Kick Ass (his superhero name) becomes a phenomenon to the local townspeople all the while the unsuspecting kid makes himself some real enemies (and friends as well).

Kick Ass is more than a little cheesy and overdone–on purpose–and it works! It’s over the top and comical but still spreads some moral messages (like how fatherhood involvement can help or hinder a child) but it’s mostly a pleasant distraction from real life. Coincidentally, one could say the same about Dave’s superhero activities.

I agree with the IMDb use who says:

It’s Superbad meets Kill Bill.

Many of the faces in Kick Ass are those I did not recognize. Aaron Johnson is incredibly believable as Dave/Kick Ass and I’m sure his average not-so-good looks aid in this. Chloe Grace Moretz plays a young girl who can hold her own and I love that she was not super-sexualized. Her character is ridiculously strong and it’s great to see females portrayed in such a way (even if it’s only because of her father’s obsession).

Nicolas Cage plays Moretz’s eccentric father, a character which is both endearing and creepy. He fits the bill. Christopher Mintz-Plasse also lends his talents to an interesting role. You may remember him from movies such as Superbad; although, he looks as awkward as ever in Kick Ass and, as a viewer, this makes me sympathize for the actor instead of pay attention to the character.

Fans of comic books, superheroes, teen dramas, action and/or comedy will probably enjoy Kick Ass. We got an especially unique experience because we went to a unique theatre. They played “pre-game” entertainment in the form of real trailers for similar movies over the years.

I probably wouldn’t buy Kick Ass or watch it many more times but it was enjoyable, nonetheless.

Specifically speaking, I received a copy of One eskimO’s self titled album. Before this opportunity, I was not familiar with the group; although, you may have been because my reliable sources tell me that one of the tracks on the album–”Kandi”–was already a hit on adult rock stations well before I was listening to it on my CD player. They were on Ellen in March and toured last year with Tori Amos.

I inquired about this review because the group was compared to a couple other artists I like–namely, Massive Attack and Owl City. I wouldn’t say I am a die hard “indie rock” fan but I like unique, electronic-inspired pop and this four-man-band delivers that. I’ve listened to the CD a couple times through, now. I had to resist going straight to “Kandi,” the song which everyone already loves.

My general impression of One Eskimo is positive but not raving. The sound is rather low key, perfect for playing on the background or maybe on a car trip. There are definitely a few songs which I like better (“Givin Up” and “Chosen One”). Yet, most of the songs are so mellow that there’s not a lot of lead up. I guess I’m just a fan of pop “hooks” which pull you in, so I didn’t get into every song because of this lack. A lot of the music reminds me of mellow B-sides that other artists may have released; it’s almost more like supporting music than the main course.

The other thing I’ve noticed is that the mellow sounds are sometimes a bit depressing. It has a lot to do with my current situation, of course, but nothing on One eskimO’s album is fast and/or uplifting enough to cheer me up. It doesn’t mean I don’t enjoy it, just that now it not the best time for me to enjoy it. The music invokes a lot of feeling; it almost paints scenes in my mind. Unfortunately, the low-key feel and lyrics don’t always paint bright scenes.

I do, however, enjoy the acoustic-electronic-jazzy-pop thing One eskimO has going on. I love jazz-influenced pop.

There’s no doubt that One eskimO is a talented group. I’m sure they’ll continue to see success. I think I just need to be in a more stable place in my life to enjoy them without sobbing.

You can check out One Eskimo for yourself on their MySpace page or official website.