Top 5 Games You Need To Be Playing This Fall

It's that time of year again! It's time to kiss your cash goodbye if you're a gamer. Your wallet will be sad, but your fingers will be happy when you're hitting those buttons on your controller. Quite a few good games have been pushed back to later release dates. That's actually a good thing. Here is a list of the top 5 games you need to own/rent before the end of the year.

1) FALLOUT NEW VEGAS (If you're a FALLOUT 3 junkie like I am you've probably already pre-ordered this. If you haven't then what the hell are you waiting for? Get your ass over to Amazon.com right now!)

2) Fable 3 (Fable 2 was definitely a top notch game. I expect an even better sequel this time around. I'm sure Peter Molyneux and Lionhead Studios will deliver a triple a title worth owning.)

3) Call of Duty: Black Ops (Sure it's not Infinity Ward this time around, but I'm sure Treyarch will be releasing a great multiplayer experience. Besides that I've seen some gameplay videos and it looks like a hell of a lot of fun. It's going to have to be to get people like me to stop playing Halo Reach or even Modern Warfare 2.

4)Medal Of Honor (Yep another modern day shooter! I'm a sucker for shooters what can I say?)

5) Rock Band 3/ Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood (I couldn't make up my mind here. It's the third Rock band game. It's the third Assassin's Creed game. I must admit that I did get a little tired of AC, but I'm curious to see what changes will be added as well as what the multiplayer mode will be like. Rock Band 3 will include keyboards this time around. While I'm not thrilled about that I do like the track list a lot. In my opinion it's better than the two games before it as far as songs go.

Music You Should Be Listening To In rOCTOBER

It's my favorite time of the year. Summer is gone. Thank You!!! Everyone who digs metal or hard rock should be cranking evil heavy metal or at least creepy tunes. Not that it all needs to be creepy. Some of it is just kinda fun Halloween stuff. Now let me suggest some appropriate rOctober music.

1) Alice Cooper! Just about anything Alice has released will do, but there are some choices that are better than others. Welcome To My Nightmare is a good place to start. I'd rather pinpoint specific songs though. You can't go wrong with songs like Dead Babies, I Love The Dead, Ballad Of Dwight Fry, Welcome To My Nightmare, This House Is Haunted, and many more.

2) King Diamond (All of it really. It's King's specialty. I prefer THEM to all of his albums though. Not much is creepier than old people. Just ask G-G-Grandmaaaaaaaa!)

3) Misfits (Lots of good stuff from the Danzig era. Songs like Die Die My Darling, Horror Business, London Dungeon, Ghouls Night Out, Skulls, Mommy, Can I Go Out And Kill Tonight?, and Death Comes Ripping should get anyone into the mood for Halloween.

4) Wednesday 13 (Transylvania 90210: Songs of Death, Dying, and the Dead was my first introduction to Wednesday 13. I'll sum up their sound like this: Take Alice Cooper, Rob Zombie, Marilyn Manson, Misfits catchiness, and throw it all in a blender. Wednesday 13 is what you get, and this album rules.

5) Rob Zombie (Hellbilly Deluxe is a great album to play in rOctober. It's catchy as hell and the songs reek of every b horror movies Rob has ever seen.

6) Obituary ( Cause Of Death and Slowly We Rot are both great albums for this time of year. COD also happens to be my favorite Death Metal album ever.

7) Manimals (Horrorcore is a fine Halloween time album. Search out this album.

8) Bronx Casket Co. (This is DD Verni's side band when he's not tearing it up in Overkill on bass. I recommend the following songs: Little Dead Girl, Sherimoon, Bleed With Me, Mortician's Lullaby, Sewing the Dead, Dead For The Moment, Creeperia, Who Lives Forever, and their cover of Metallica's Jump In The Fire.

9) Helloween ( You gotta listen to Halloween. AAAAAHHHHHHHH IT'S HALLLLLLOOOOWEEEEEN!

10) Mike Oldfield (Tubular Bells anyone? You couldn't get me to listen to this one in my basement in the dark for any amount of money.

11) B.O.C. (Don't Fear The Reaper. It's a classic. It's still got this underlying creepy factor to it.

12) Dokken ( Dream Warriors. I always associate this one with this time of year. Well that and Freddy Kruger

13) E.L.O. ( Fire On High. That may seem like an odd choice, but give it a listen alone in the dark.

14) Black Sabbath (They have a few like Black Sabbath, Electric Funeral, and Sabbath Bloody Sabbath. Black Sabbath the song takes the prize though. It's creepy!

Part 2 coming soon....

Holy Crap It's Been A Year!

No updates to speak of for over a year. The sad part is not much has really happened in a year. It's groundhog day every day in my life. Wake up. Get on treadmill for 30 minutes. Take shower. Go to work. Come home. Play video games. Go to bed. Repeat for 5 days. On the weekends I do the same minus the work part.

Obviously a lot of video games have been played over a one year span, but I won't bore you with all of them. Halo Reach has been dominating my Xbox 360 for the past few weeks. Bungie has finally made a multiplayer mode that I am good at. Halo Reach goes out the window as soon as FALLOUT NEW VEGAS arrives. That is definite.

As far as my listening habits go...I still listen to most of the same old stuff. I've decided that there will never be any great new metal bands. There are some decent new bands, but nothing I'm going to waste my time on. I'm still cranking all of the old thrash metal and some death metal here and there. I really don't listen to death metal like I used to though. I'm also listening to lots of 80's tunes as usual. I still say one of the best bands outside of metal is The Hold Steady, but even they have let me down with their last two albums.

I just turned 38 last month. I'm having my mid life crisis now. That started when I decided to take another mirror and use it to look at the back of my head before shaving it which I've been doing every four days. I have a big bald spot shaped like the number 8 back there. Yeah, I don't deal well with physical changes that make me feel older, so I had a day of depression over that one. Still trying to deal with it all. Not trying to be overly dramatic here. It's just how I am when it comes to aging.

It's hard to believe that I've been online since the spring of 1999. It all started with good old Webtv. I used to get on various discussion groups and flame people constantly. If I could go back in time and smack myself...well I probably wouldn't. I still have a few issues online with people I don't like. Not nearly as many as I did 8-11 years ago, but still I do.

I may just start this whole blogging thing again if I can actually come up with interesting tidbits. So far I'm not off to a good start. I guess the reason I stopped was because I stopped having fun doing it. Facebook may have also had something to do with my stopping of the blog. Facebook is evil. I'm back now bitches! So the two people reading this...you've been warned.

Vacation Time Again...Various Crap On My Mind

I'm off for ten days. I still have one more week of vacation after this one that I'm taking the week before Christmas. I plan on doing the usual crap for the most part. I'm sure I'll make a trip to the movie theater at least once if not twice. Zombie land looks promising. I may even end up seeing Surrogates with Bruce Willis. Last week I went with the fam to see Pandorum. Didn't really like it. It was barely ok. Besides movies I also plan on finishing the Halo ODST campaign as well as playing a bunch of firefight with friends online. Speaking of video games I got a chance to play the Brutal legend demo. Loved it! It's a day one purchase. Can't wait to hear all of the podcasts I listen to talk about this game so I can roll my eyes when they start talking about metal in general. I always cringe when gaming podcasts start talking about music because they generally have no idea what they're talking about. Stick to talking about video games, PLEASE! Once the conversation goes to bands and songs from rock band or guitar hero it becomes clear how little most gamers know about music. I find myself correcting them out loud. Yes, I realize I sound like an ass saying that, but I know a shit ton about music in general. End of rant.

The NHL season starts tonight! The Dallas Stars play their first game tomorrow at home against Nashville. Can't wait!!! GO STARS!!!

Some games that I'm buying on day one.
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Uncharted 2 (PS3) Oct 13th
Brutal Legend (360) Oct 13th
Borderlands (360) Oct 20th
Forza 3 (360) Oct 27th
COD Modern Warfare 2 (360) Nov 10th
Assassins Creed 2 (360) Nov 17th
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The next Rock Band game really should be KISS Rock Band! I want it, and I can't imagine KISS not having their own music game at some point. Especially if Gene $immon$ has anything to do with it.

Halo 3: ODST

I haven't been excited about this game. For some reason I finally became a bit interested in it. The main reason is probably because all of the people on my friends list will be playing it. I know I'll feel like I'm missing out if I'm not playing it as well. Today I broke down and pre-ordered it from Best Buy. I'll be headed to Best Buy to stand in line in about 25 minutes. When I went earlier today around 7:30 there were already two chuckleheads waiting in line sitting in comfy lawn chairs. I asked them how long they thought the line would be. Their response was we don't know that's why we're in line right now. I expect the line across the street at Game Stop to be much longer. I say that because I remember the line at Game Stop the night Halo 3 was released. To say it was a long line would be an understatement.

Honestly I'm expecting a really good game. Thus far I've seen a ton of great reviews, so I basically have to buy it.

Californication Rocks!

No, I'm not talking about that terrible Red Hot Chili Peppers song. I'm talking about the incredibly awesome show on Showtime starring David Duchovny. Holy shit is this a great show. I'm just now discovering it thanks to Netflix instant streaming on my Xbox 360. I don't have any of the the premium movie channels on Directv because it's a waste of money for me. I'm only two episodes in, but if the first two shows are any indication of how good this show is then count me in as a fan. I found myself laughing out loud several times. I also enjoyed the eye candy. Quite a few super hot naked women in the episodes I watched. Wow! Definitely a show for men. The world need more shows like this one! If you have a penis you need to watch this show.

It's been awhile...

Man, it's September already? I haven't blogged since August. I'm neglecting my blog. I suck!

My latest addiction is Mafia Wars on Facebook. Never thought I'd get sucked into a game like this, but holy shit it's addictive as hell. A friend of mine requested that I start playing and be a part of his mafia, so I decided to give it a try. If anyone reading this besides Phil is playing let me know and send me a request to join your mafia.

I'm soooooo glad school has started again. My daughter just started high school, so she's out of my hair (does that work even though I'm bald?) and not driving me insane in the early hours of the morning.

I picked up The Beatles Rock Band. Great game IF you are a fan of the band, and I am. I was raised on their music from birth. My parents listened to The Beatles on 8 track and vinyl all of the time. It's part of my dna. I'm having fun singing all of the songs and watching the beautiful visuals. Definitely a 9/10.

I've been watching a couple of tv shows. Lately I'm addicted to Wife Swap for some reason. I love watching two totally opposite families have to deal with one another or at least a new mom. I've also been watching Hell's Kitchen. I've been watching this since season one though. This has been a really funny/good season though. Gordon Ramsey is the man. The guy cracks me up. Can't wait for the new season of House. It starts on the 21st...which id my birthday.

Speaking of my birthday...I'm having a cavity filled that day. Yippee!