Today we saw the launch of Google Chrome, Google's attempt to get into the browser competition. With IE in the lead, with Firefox gaining all the time, Google's got some work ahead of them. They really have to introduce something really new and unique if they want to get noticed. Do they do that? Well, I've tried it out and here's what I think.

First thing I liked was that it imported everything from Firefox. Bookmarks, passwords, even history was instantly available when I first launched the browser. The only thing that was noticeably missing were my extensions. My many beautiful extensions! Where was Greasemonkey? Where's AdBlock Plus? InFormEnter? All gone, and my browsing experience suffered for it.

Next, and this is getting nitpicky, but the scrolling was not smooth. In Firefox, scrolling down the page was smooth like butter. IE, however, not so much. And Chrome seems to be following IE's footsteps. Jerky scrolling, couldn't really read the text as the page went down, it really annoyed me. Also, the tabs at the top of the screen wasn't a favorite feature of mine, seeing it where it is in Firefox is what I'm used to. The File/Edit/Etc. bar goes on top.

The task manager is kinda cool, but all it really is is a glorified tab manager with a few extras thrown in. In the end, if a Java or Flash applet running in one of my tabs freezing my browser, I doubt it's possible for me to open up the task manager and close that process. Didn't get to try that though.

The one feature I liked, and wish Firefox would adopt was a mode called Incognito. Basically, it's a new window that saves nothing. No history, no cookies, no nothing. You could browse anything and leave no trace. Not that I need to hide anything... but I can see it being useful. So come on Mozilla, put this feature in the next FF update!

Anyways, basically I was not impressed with Google's Chrome, and I won't be switching anytime soon. There's probably some new features that I missed, but I'm not motivated enough to want to go back and check them out. A lack of new features really dissappoints, and Google's got some work to do if they want to catch up to the browser giants.

Posted by Chris at 4:43 PM | Permalink | Comments |

Ok, confession time. I've kinda gotten bored with this blog. I just can't find the motivation or the desire to post anything here. I don't get much readership, and the design is getting old. So, I'm going to be working on a revitalization!

That's right, instead of posting the boring stuff I do every day, I'm going to post more interesting stuff. Like game reviews, cool internet finds, or opinions and stuff. Might even try a redesign, but that won't be soon. Gonna basically try get stuff on Digg and try to get this blog up and running again.

So, starting next post, new style of posting and we'll see where this leads me. Too bad no one reads this now, but hopefully that changes soon.

Posted by Chris at 10:35 AM | Permalink | Comments |

Wow, it's been a while. Thing's have happened.

• California was awesome. USC seems like the college to go to.
• Played some games, beat some games.
• Read 1984. Interesting read.
• Streetlight Manifesto's coming to town WOOWOO.
• Other stuff that I forget.

School's starting soon. Flogging Molly show tonight. Will try to update this more. Peace.

Posted by Chris at 2:10 PM | Permalink | Comments |

Tomorrow morning I'll be leaving to Los Angeles for some vacation time and to look at some colleges. I'll be there until Tuesday. While I'm there, I'll also be attending Joystiq's E3 afterparty, so should be good times.

Also, apparently the Mighty Mighty Bosstones are doing a show there, might try to get my parents to take me to that. That would be so freaking awesome.

Anyways, tonight's Dropkick Murphy's. Hopefully I'm not too tired for the flight in the morning.

Posted by Chris at 2:28 PM | Permalink | Comments |

So I watched a live stream of Microsoft's press conference today. Overall, I was disappointed because I didn't get to see anything new.

First off, I'm not too fond of the redesigned dashboard. I liked the old one; sure it could have used a bit of sprucing up, but this new one seems too simple. Too casual, if you know what I mean, like something the Wii would do. The Wii is my fun, casual console, the Xbox 360 is my hardcore console. Don't mix them. The avatars are basically a Mii ripoff, but I do like that they take it to a whole new level than Nintendo did. A lot of stuff that was revealed today shows that Microsoft is really trying to target a more casual market, like Nintendo. The Primetime thing doesn't really excite me too much, neither does the party system.

All the games that were announced were either sequels, or just rehashes of other games. Gears of War 2, another Final Fantasy, Fable 2, another Banjo-Kazooie, the list goes on. As far as rehashes, Lips is just Sony's Singstar, Scene-it is just Buzz for the PS2, and You're In The Movies is just the Eye-toy. The problem I'm having is that Microsoft isn't innovating, just rehashing. Come on, I want to see some new stuff.

Things that did excite me are the Portal sequel for the Xbox Live Marketplace and the DLC for GTAIV. Other than that, Microsoft's presentation was underwhelming. Tomorrow is Nintendo's conference, so I will definately be watching that. Hoping for some really cool news, like a new Animal Crossing or Zelda, and some other surprises.

Posted by Chris at 3:59 PM | Permalink | Comments |

Sorry it took so long, but here it is. Suburban Legends was pretty much how I expected them to be, not so great. Mostly because I didn't know any of their songs, except for the opener and closer. But those songs were awesome. At least there wasn't any Disney covers, but the dancing was.

Big D was amazing like I expected them to be. Set list was a bit too short for my liking though. And Goldfinger and Less Than Jake were both awesome too. Fantastic show. My hat even survived the night, including much skanking and 3 crowd surfs. I got major leg cramps though, especially when I crowd surfed during "Superman" (my favorite song by the way). Could barely walk, let alone skank.

Less Than Jake had a sign by their merch table saying "Meet LTJ at 7:55". So when the time came, I got up in line. Everyone wanted their stuff signed, but I just wanted to meet the band. So I went through and shook hands with everyone in the band. They didn't get it at first that I didn't want anything signed, in fact two guys didn't even notice me at first. But they like my hat, and I feel that I truly met Less Than Jake.

So that's all I can remember. Awesome show, too bad another like it will probably never come back through Omaha. Next week is a lot of stuff, including Dropkick Murphy's concert, a tirp to LA California, and Joystiq After Party in Santa Monica. Busy busy.

Posted by Chris at 9:39 PM | Permalink | Comments |

Tomorrow night will be one of the better shows of the year to grace Omaha. Goldfinger. Less Than Jake. Bid D and the Kids Table. Suburban Legends. A great ska lineup, believe me when I say that shows like this rarely come through the midwest. I've been excited for this for a long time. So here's what I expect of the show. And afterwards, I might write a bit on how it met my expectations.

First off, I'm not really expecting to enjoy Suburban Legends. They're extremely poppy, and even have syncronized dance moves. They do Disney covers. And their last album was bad. Rump Shaker was the only album that I like by them, and I don't expect them to do many of those songs live, so I will probably not enjoy the Suburban Legends part.

I'm super excited about Bid D. They are like legends in the ska universe. There is tons of songs by them that I love, and will be lucky to even hear half of them. Plenty of skanking expected, this will probably be a highlight.

Goldfinger will be good at some parts (mostly the ska parts), but the punk bits will probably be not so great. I love Superman, and other ska-ish songs, so it should be pretty good, who knows.

Less Than Jake will also be awesome. Last time I saw them, I was too tired to enjoy it. But this time I will be ready. I've been listening to all the songs on their set list, so this time I will be prepared. I won't sit this one out this time.

So there it is, me telling the future. Come back next time to see if I was right.

Posted by Chris at 7:43 PM | Permalink | Comments |

Summer yeah. Got me an Xbox360. Beat GTAIV and Phoenix Wright 3. Starting Metal Gear Solid 2 and Halo 3. Lots of games to play.

Two days ago, I found the answers to a mystery that has been on my mind for a while. I have this dent in my skull, you see. It's not really visible, but you can definately feel it. Anyways, I asked my mom where it came from. She said that when I was born, she had a C-section, and the scalpel actually went into my head. That's right, a sharp blade punctured my baby head. Now all I have left of that incident is this dent in my skull. So who knows what kind of damage was caused that day, or maybe something good happened. Who knows?

Weeks left until Less Than Jake/Goldfinger/Big D concert. Also, Flogging Molly, the Flobots, Dropkick Murphy's, and the Briggs are coming to town as well. Who knew that this summer would be a good one for concerts?

Posted by Chris at 2:48 PM | Permalink | Comments |

This is a review that I wrote for another website of Less Than Jake's new album "GNV FLA". It looks like it might be a while before the other site posts it, but if they don't publish, I'm not letting it go to waste, so here it is.

Less Than Jake is not a band for everyone. Opinions vary from person to person, and there’s no doubt a strong fan base and a strong hate base. Let me start off by saying that I’m a mix of both. I love the entire album of “Hello Rockview”, I consider it my favorite album. But all the rest of their stuff is not so great.

They’ve joined major labels in the past, and the result is crap like “ In with the Out Crowd”. More pop and less ska is a losing formula for this band. But now they’ve started their own label (Sleep It Off Records) and they’re putting the control back in their own hands. And that’s a very good thing.

Since their last album, GNV FLA is a refreshing look at Less Than Jake. I think the band realized that the people want the ska, and this album takes Less Than Jake back to the traditional ska-punk sound. Catchy horns and solid riffs throughout this album gives you more tunes to skank to at a LTJ show. Less Than Jake returns to a winning formula with this album: upbeat songs + lots of ska + some punk = a solid album.

Now, you may be wondering if this album is the latest tourist campaign from a town in Florida. The album is named after Gainesville, Florida, and a good portion of the songs on the album are also about this city. “Does the Lion City Still Roar?” is probably the first song you’ve heard off this album, yet it’s weird that they used this as a single because it’s definitely not one of the best songs on the album. “Abandon Ship” and “Conviction Notice” are two songs that would have maybe been a better pick, because they are a lot more upbeat. That being said, there are quite a lot of upbeat songs on this album, which is always a good thing.

The only really bad song on this album is “The Life Of The Party Has Left The Building”. It’s not really a song, more like a minute’s worth of distorted music and probably could have been left off the album. It’s like they said, “Hey, we have 13 songs, but we want 14, quickly make a song and throw it in there!” Other than that, most of the songs are pretty decent, and have some great sing-a-long parts and stuff like that. The problem with this album is that not too much stands out, and this album probably won’t be considered the next ska masterpiece. But after I’ve listened to it a couple more times, I’ll probably enjoy it more (that’s how I got to like Streetlight Manifesto).

When I started listening to this album, all I was hoping for was another “Hello Rockview”. GNV FLA isn’t quite that, but it’s definitely a giant step into the right direction. To sum is all up, my friend Cameron says it best, “This is definitely the kind of sound LTJ should be going for, but nothing really stands out here.”

Labels: Music Review

Posted by Chris at 2:18 PM | Permalink | Comments |

OK, here's my quick review of the first episode of Penny Arcade's new game, On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness. First off, let me say that I have only played this game for about half an hour. That's all I really needed/wanted to play. Needless to say, I did not enjoy this game. At all. And here's why.

Firstly, there are a lot of shortcuts taken in the game. Cutscenes are just static images moving across the screen. There's very little effort put into these, and they seem cheap. Secondly, no voice-overs (except for the extremely unfunny British guy that slowly introduces you to the game). For witty dialogue, you have to read the tiny text coming from the not-moving images of people's faces. Then once you get to the graphics, they suck. Some of the worst 3D imaging work ever seems to have been done in this game. It's pixelated, and not stylized at all. It looks like crap most of the time. Seriously, a little effort would have been good.

Then the combat system is so boring and stupid. Turn based combat is pretty much never good to me (with the exception of the Pokemon games). Click a button and it's all done for you. It was not immersive nor interesting enough to make me enjoy the combat system.

Now, I like to play the Sam and Max games, and since they're both episodic games, I can't help but compare the two. Sam and Max is everything the Penny Arcade game isn't: funny, fun, looks good, has a decent story line, and controls well. While I will keep playing the new Sam and Max games, I will not be playing any of the new Penny Arcade episodes (unless it drastically changes).

Super-Penny Arcade fans will like this, as will turn-based combat fans. Unfortunately, I really didn't enjoy this game, or the short amount of time I played it. The gameplay was boring, the graphics lazy, and the music forgettable. In the end, most of the game seemed like a chore, and I didn't think it was worth my time to play the rest of it.

Labels: game review

Posted by Chris at 7:34 PM | Permalink | Comments |