KISS R&R HOF News and More

So a week ago today, I happened to be listening to Eddie Trunks Friday Night Radio show in New York that I stream off of iHeartRadio like I usually do on Friday nights because I simply have nothing better to do at 11 and so on, so why not discover lost material from great bands, new music from new bands, and of course enjoy the classics as always that he's spinning up! I happened to notice that right before the show started, he stated that Ace Frehley had personally contacted him and he wanted to make an announcement about the Hall of Fame and what the current plans were for character's in makeup for the night of April 10th, 2014. It was noted that he would be calling in at the end of the show. His show ends at 1 in the morning here in good ole' Central Illinois.

After making it all the way to the end of the show, In summary, Ace called in and dropped the news. The original four members of Kiss wouldn't be reuniting in any way to play a song or two. Paul and Gene don't want anything to do with it, and even they aren't playing. There won't be any form of a Kiss performance at the ceremony. 

So, at the time, I definitely didn't take that very well. It was highly disappointing, and really I could think was how could this happen, Paul and Gene's ego's have got the best of them! All they care about is their money, and though they claim to be "for the fans," how is this "for the fans?" I made a good decision not posting about it immediately. After a week to let it sink in, I understand it now. 

The current version of Kiss is currently represented by Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley. The two head honcho's, and founders of the band. And then you have Eric Singer and Tommy Thayer in their own right have been affiliated with the band whether it's management or actually performing. They have been involved with the band for decades now. Kiss has become a business model, and these 4 men have been developing this concept for 12-13 years now. Having a straight up reunion with the original four men would really hurt this concept, and If I was in their position I would have done the same. What their doing is smart business, and believe me when I say that this band is eventually going to keep running without Gene and Paul when they can't go out and do what they do best anymore. 

After some interpretation, it really is the best choice, and Paul Stanley even went out of his way to say that no version of the band would be playing. Another great decision. In a band, with so many different era's and lineup changes, you seriously can't please ALL of your fans. You simply can't, and they recognize that, which is amazing to see. Honestly, if they were to go out there and play with current lineup, I really don't know how the crowd would react to that. That could get very dicey. 

To move on to other topics, the Samsung Galaxy S5 was unveiled this week at MWC (Mobile World Congress) in Barcelona. New processor, Better Camera, finger-print scanner, and even a heart rate scanner. Such innovation, much wow. (insert sarcasm)

In closing, sometime in the near future I'll have something about how awesome the new WWE Network is, I just want more time with it before I start critiquing it. It's also harder since wrestling isn't what you would call "cool" anymore and there's not much of an audience for it, at least for most people that I know around here.

Thanks for reading! And if your having a rough week, here's a pug dressed as a Wampa just to make your day a little better. (insert cheap Star Wars reference)

This Week in Review - Feb 9-16

I'm quite aware that I have neglected this for the past couple of weeks, it's been a wild ride juggling the things that life throws out you with school, work, and preparing for the future being a senior in high school. There hasn't been much gaming to go with that at all either so I don't have to much to talk about there, but hey the Olympics in Sochi are in full swing!

Grand Theft Auto 5 and Online received a new valentines day update that definitely went on the make the day what it was. Granted, it added a new 1920's prohibition era' Tommy gun into the mix and a new car, it was just enough to save the day for the lonely hearts here in the U.S. This also added 10 new online jobs that I've hardly dabbled into, but from what I experienced I liked what I saw and had a good time with it.

We're coming up on about the week or so mark for the launch of the WWE Network, for which in my mind, almost kills Netflix for me. At least for now, since I don't have any shows that I've really invested in lately. I've been reading that there even going to air the Hall of Fame ceremony live on the Network the night before 'Mania. This just keeps getting better.

I read about a new interview with Paul Stanley regarding the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. He's seemed to change his tone slightly, but as expected he didn't dish on any plans really, but honestly I feel like they have something up there sleeve if they are focusing that much on "making the fans happy." He said he wasn't honored whatsoever to be included in the Rock Hall, and it isn't important to him. He says they have no credibility and the only reason they have made it to where they are now is because of their name, and that it's just a private group of voters in a self-appointed board. I can't help but agree with what he's saying here. I can't even take them seriously, but it's cool to see fan-campaigning really come into fruition and give these guys the recognition they deserve, which they should have received so long ago.

That's really all I have, I just felt like I needed to update with something, because it's been a while. I hope the new "giffed out" format isn't too cheesy or gimmicky, just wanted to do something a little different, hopefully make the day go a little better for whoever's reading this. In closing, I unfortunately don't have any crazy off-the-wall PS4 game footage this week. Shame on me, but hey AC/DC and Van Halen pretty much confirmed they are working on new music and tours. Not even going to bother speculating on a time frame or anything but one things for sure is that AC/DC wants to do shows again. It's been about 4-5 years so maybe Angus Young needs to pay off his 40,000+ sq. feet house that he bought in Sydney, Australia after the Black Ice tour. Either way, it's a win for rock fans!

My first go-round with Outlast on PS4

This week, Sony's latest Playstation Plus offering on the PS4 is a brand new game called Outlast. (Actually released on Steam back in September, but finally making its way to console now per my ongoing research.) Granted the PS4's library is just a sliver of the offering that the last generation of console's provide's us, really anything that's coming to the PS4 right now is a pretty big deal! Not discounting the quality of any the titles available, in fact there are numerous great games to delve into on the PS4 right now already. Anyways, back to Outlast. This game is described as a "first-person survival horror experience." Just saying that on the description of a next-gen console title, the first of it's kind, really gets your interest going.

In summary, I've only progressed through the first real mission. Don't let the whole "survival horror experience" fool you here. This isn't your typical guns-blazing at zombies to get the most points and upgrading weapons and equipment only to cause more destruction. There literally is no combat whatsoever besides the cut scenes when the character pushes enemies away. Your character can practically climb, vault, jump, slide, and crawl his way pretty much anywhere. In the first mission itself pretty much all of those tactics were put into good use.  Also, another x-factor into this game is that your equipped with a video camera that has night vision, given the setting has many dark places you must encounter. You also have to worry about finding batteries around the map to keep your camera functioning, at menial task that quickly becomes tedious and my only real main gripe about this game.

Setting wise, there isn't too much to it, which is ok! It's basically set in a Psychiatric hospital on the top of a mountain in the middle of nowhere, that's been overrun by either zombies or some other type of creatures, (how original eh?), something that will probably be elaborated on more as I progress. Pretty simple, but this game already takes great use of the PS4's hardware capabilities and the attention to detail on this game is superb, and that's putting it lightly, In the beginning of the game you are still outside and still see the night sky building as the sun has already set and it's darkening outside. I caught myself just staring at sky for about five minutes. Not afraid to admit that.

So my overall take is that, although I haven't really invested too much time into this genre of games, I was quickly mentally and emotionally enamored into this game. Every time something would happen (trying to keep it spoiler free for the most part) I would literally jump and have a mini heart attack. I seriously can't think I've ever had that happen to me so many times in a game. (Sorry Dead Space). You really can't compare this game to any other really, and for it being a free PS Plus exclusive, you can't go wrong with downloading this.

Outlast is truly a gaming experience like I've never had before, and if this is a foreshadowing of what creativity may come of this next-generation of consoles, then us consumers are really in luck. You can't go wrong with Sony and Microsoft competition.

In the meantime, I had quite the laugh at Blacklight: Retribution, a free to play title on the PS4.