The Chronic Consumer

I usually don’t play video games aimed at adults, as anything featuring Mario is more my speed. But recently my husband convinced me to try Heavy Rain for PS3, since I love mysteries and police procedurals. I did try it, and though I wanted to like the game, I just couldn’t.

Heavy Rain is basically a Choose Your Own Adventure book (remember those) that plays out on the PS3. As with Choose Your Own Adventure, you occasionally come to proverbial forks in the road during this game, and the choices you make can have an impact on how the game ends. These real choices are few and far between, however. Most of the time, the game is so rigid that you go down the same road no matter which choice you make.

The main story is that there’s a serial killer, known as the Origami Killer, on the loose. The Origami Killer snatches kids and then holds them in a storm drain during the heaviest rainfalls of the year so that they’ll drown if someone doesn’t reach them in time.

As the player, your job is to track down clues and rescue Shaun Mars before he drowns. During gameplay, you can control one of four characters: Ethan, Shaun’s dad; Madison Paige, an insomniac who runs into Ethan at a motel; Scott Shelby, a private eye; and Norman Jayden, an FBI profiler sent to help local police with the case. Usually, controlling the characters simply means choosing a specific approach to take during questioning a suspect (aggressive, sympathetic, etc.) or pushing the controller buttons a certain way to do things like start a car, sit down in a chair, etc.

The storyline was frustrating at best. You don’t really have control over where the investigation goes, so you can’t direct your characters to go talk to a certain suspect or check out a certain scene if you think it’s important. In fact (minor spoiler ahead), I don’t think Norman Jayden generated a single usable lead, so what was the effing point of his character???

Also, just when the game gets interesting, there will inevitably be long, drawn out cut-scenes that slow the action down to a crawl. Plus, there are several places where you’re forced to do mundane things like brush your teeth or make a pan of scrambled eggs just because. These things don’t add to the “reality” of the game; they just slowed it way down!

I won’t get into the solution here because I don’t want to ruin the game for those who haven’t played it yet. But let’s just say that there were way too many plot holes that were never explained. For instance, you’ll wonder how the killer killed a certain person when the killer was never alone with the victim to begin with!!! Also, you’ll wonder when the killer had time to send Ethan on his 5 missions and monitor Ethan’s progress.

The bottom line is that Heavy Rain could have been a very good — or even great — game, but it falls well short. Some parts of it were fun and interesting, but on the whole, I wouldn’t recommend this title. There are too many slow spots, too many inconsistencies in the “plot”, and too many other minor annoyances that build up by the time you reach the end. Oh, and the voice acting is absolutely TERRIBLE!!! Save your money and don’t buy this one!

My 7-year-old son is at an age now where he’s almost always playing outside with other kids in the neighborhood. He’s not allowed to wander too far away, of course, but still, he does get on his bike and play out of sight of the house. After getting tired of roaming around trying to track him down to come in for lunch or dinner, I decided to buy a couple of walkie talkies for us to use.

I went with a mid-range Kenwood model that has a stated range of 1.5 miles. But I learned during the research stage that this range applies only to wide open areas like on a ski slope or a big lake. In and around the neighborhood, the range is closer to half a mile — which is still sufficient for our purposes.

These Kenwood walkie talkies are actually pretty good. They cost around $90 each, and work perfectly for putting me in direct touch with my son when he’s out of sight. They are easy to operate, compact, and durable. My son has already dropped his a couple of times (once while running), and the thing still works. It’s scratched up a bit, but it still works perfectly.

I love using these walkie talkies to monitor my son when he’s playing outside. I know they’re not a substitute for adult supervision, but since I can’t be with him 24/7, it’s good to know I can at least call him when needed — all without the contracts and headaches of a cell phone!

I’ve had my M*A*S*H: Martinis and Medicine DVD box set for just over a week now, and since I’ve watched something from it every day, I think I’ve seen enough to write a review. Obviously, I won’t touch on everything here, but I’ll try to cover the important stuff.

First, I was disappointed by how the discs are stored. They come in a binder type thing with cardboard sleeves that fold in and out. It’s a tight fit for the discs in the cardboard slots, and many of them were already scratched when I received the set!! So far it doesn’t seem as though the playability is affected by these scratches, but it’s not a good feeling to see a $100 collection arrive in this condition.

Second, the binder thing comes with a clipboard glued to the inside cover. The clipboard just says “4077″ on it and is meant to hold the little guidebook of disc contents that comes with the set. It would have been nice if this clipboard was removable so I could use it for other things, but oh well.

I like how the bonus features are on their own DVDs because they’re obviously easy to find that way. It’s tougher when the extras are scattered on individual DVDs throughout a set, so I wish all collections were organized this way. The features include cast interviews, bloopers, public service announcements, a “Just the FAQs” interactive game, behind-the-scenes on the last day of filming, and more. These are definitely worth having!

As for the audio/visual quality of the episodes themselves… I think these DVDs are pretty darn good, considering how old the source material is. I’ve had zero problems so far.

Overall, I think the M*A*S*H: Martinis and Medicine DVD box set is a wonderful addition to my DVD collection. I only paid $99 for the set, which was like 50% off the regular price, and I feel that I got a terrific deal here. If you can get this set at a comparable price, I say go for it!

It might be a little early yet, but I know my little cousin is already excited about his upcoming high school graduation in June 2010. One of my Christmas presents to him this year was a very nice set of personalized photo graduation announcements and invitations similar to the ones shown in this picture. Well, actually, I just pre-ordered the announcements, and gave him a gift card that he can redeem later on once he chooses a photo he likes and gets the details for his graduation and party dates.

I didn’t attend my high school graduation because I decided I was “too cool” for the ceremony. Joke’s on me, though, because I kinda feel like I missed out. At least I know my cousin won’t end up the same way!

I used to use Norton Internet Security, but that software bogged down my computer so damn much that I finally got sick of it and went with the free version of AVG. Unfortunately, I didn’t realize AVG was just an antivirus program and didn’t come with a firewall as well. Two nasty trojans and a complete Windows reinstall later, I decided to pony up for Kaspersky Internet Security 2010.

I did a bit of research before investing in Internet Security software, and liked what I read about Kaspersky. It comes with a ton of great features, including everything you’d expect from a top-notch security system: a Safe Mode/Sandbox for certain programs, bad URL/phishing protection (which has already stopped me from going to three questionable sites), and a protected area for my most important files and folders. In addition, Kaspersky has a virtual keyboard that I can use to type in passwords more securely. The keyboard shortcut is right at the top of my Firefox browser and is easy to click on and use no matter which site I go to. I love it!

So far, I think Kaspersky is a terrific program. It is very unobtrusive and runs in the background most of the time. Plus, it doesn’t hog system resources like Norton. The program does go a little crazy with alerts sometimes, but those can easily be disabled, which I’ve done.

Bottom line: I think Kaspersky Internet Security 2010 is an excellent antivirus, firewall, and all-around internet security program. The license was a bit expensive at $60 per year (I paid for 2 years up front, so I spent $120 on this), but honestly, it’s proving to be worth the dough. Highly recommended!

I have finally ordered the complete M*A*S*H series on DVD! Checking back through my old posts, I found this one from 2007, indicating that I wanted the set. At the time, it cost $169.99, which I thought was too high. I added the item to my Amazon Wish List, and was notified that the price dropped all the way down to $99.99!!! Of course I wasn’t about to pass that deal up! I can’t wait to start watching these DVDs. I remember M*A*S*H from when I was a kid, but I know I didn’t understand a majority of the humor. Oooh, this is gonna be good!!!

Since I’m trying to keep my outdoor workout routine going even during the winter, I’ve been stocking up on various Under Armour products to help me stay warm. My latest purchase was this pair of Under Armour Liner Gloves.

The gloves are part of the Cold Gear line and can either be worn by themselves or below another pair of gloves. They’re made from the same “high warmth” fabric that all Cold Gear products are famous for, and feature reflective logos on the outside for a measure of safety. In addition, the inside area has grippy/sticky UA logos to make it easier to pick things up even with the gloves on.

I’ve worn these gloves a couple of times already, and to be honest, I’m a bit disappointed with them. Even when worn under another pair of non-UA Thinsulate gloves, my hands — especially my fingers — still felt pretty cold. I expected more out of the UA brand and out of a pair of gloves that cost close to $30.

Overall, I wouldn’t recommend these for really cold weather. I think they would be fine for late fall or perhaps even early winter, but not when temperatures dip down into the 40s or 30s.

As you can probably tell from past posts, I tend to buy a lot of sports and college gear featuring logos from my favorite teams or schools. One of the things I noticed about sweatshirts carrying the University of Missouri logo is that they tend to look cheap because the graphics are usually just screenprinted on the material. I wanted something sewn, and found a place that offered custom sewn sweatshirts like the one in the picture. I was hoping for something great, but my expectations were not met. This is mostly my own fault, but still… a $45 mistake is hard to take!

The first problem with this sweatshirt is that it’s gray with black lettering. I chose this color scheme, so this shortcoming is all on me. Mizzou’s colors are gold and black, which is what I should have gone with. As things are, this sweatshirt doesn’t look related to the school at all because the gray doesn’t appear in Mizzou’s palette. Oh, well.

The second problem I have is with the lettering. This is not my fault. I think the letters look far too narrow/skinny for this type of sweatshirt. In the pictures on the website I ordered from, the lettering was completely different. The sample letters were wide and squat, and looked perfect on a plain sweatshirt. I was not pleased to see this skinny lettering. I probably should have complained to the shop, but what would they have done? I doubt they would have given me a brand new one.

And the third problem I have is with the sweatshirt itself. It’s a Hanes Ultimate Collection sweatshirt with a ribbed waistline and cuffs. Trouble is, the waistline is too tight! It’s not constricting or anything, but it doesn’t stay put and constantly rides up. It’s annoying as hell — and yes, I’ve pulled the thing over my bent-up knees in an effort to loosen the elastic. It hasn’t worked so far.

Overall, I have to say that I’m pretty disappointed with this sweatshirt. When I ordered it, I envisioned it becoming a winter wardrobe staple, something that I would wear constantly. As it is though, the sweatshirt is just crammed into my bottom drawer and rarely sees the light of day.