Death Magnet

Last week, Metallica released Death Magnetic. Your opinion of it seems to have been determined approximately 17 years ago. That is when Metallica released their self titled or so called "Black Album." For some people, this was Metallica's sell-out album. They went from being a cult favorite to being mainstream. Nevermind that they had already multiple gold and platinum records prior to the Black Album, but no one can argue with the success of the Black Album. It has always been hip to criticize that album and everything after it, and to praise everything before it. If you are hip like that, then obviously you won't like Death Magnetic. On the other hand, if you thought the Black Album was a big improvement for Metallica, then you will love Death Magnetic.

Personally, I like the Black Album and I like Death Magnetic. It is definitely in the vein of other recently successful rockers of the 80s/90s, like U2, R.E.M., and the Red Hot Chili Peppers, in that it "channels" a lot of their classic material while still sounding modern. The guitar playing is impressive, and in many ways the whole thing felt like it had been inspired by the Guitar Hero video game (which I also love to play.) In fact Death Magnetic can be downloaded and played on the XBox 360 and Playstation 3, but unfortunately for me, not the Wii...

Unreal Guitar Hero

I love playing Guitar Hero. Whenever I feel like I am pretty good at the game, I just play with my wife Crystal and she puts me in my place. If that was not enough, I could always watch this video of Chris Chike, the greatest Guitar Hero player. Ever.

Wii Games

I got a Wii as an early Christmas gift. I have to say that after being away from gaming for almost four years, I am really impressed where things have gone. I have had as much fun playing the Wii with my family as I did playing Street Fighter on the Nintendo with my friends back in college. That is saying a lot! Here are my games so far:

Wii Sports -- Everyone has this one, and everyone has been praising it since it came out. All I can do is echo the praise you have to give Nintendo for not only coming up with this beauty, but also for packaging it with the Wii.

PBA Bowling -- My wife liked bowling so much that we picked up this game when we got the Wii. It is a harder bowling game, but not really much more fun than the bowling that came with Wii Sports. The graphics are nice though and funny characters.

Guitar Hero III -- I had never played Guitar Hero before this, and I can see why it has been such a huge success. Unlike a lot of Wii games, it is not really a great game to play with friends. That's alright, it is incredibly addictive and fun. I got so into the songs on here, that I had to buy several of them off of iTunes.

Lego Star Wars -- This game is a lot of fun. It's simply the Star Wars saga with Lego graphics. Very simple, but still cool. The best thing is getting to use the Wiimote as a light saber. I told my wife "I've been waiting for a game like this for 30 years!"

Madden 2008 -- I haven't played this much yet, as my wife bought it for me the day we were flying back from Florida. She had wanted to buy it for me for Christmas, but it was very hard to find in Florida. I have only played one game, but the controls rock! There are a lot of things you can do, but they are (surprisingly) very intuitive. I can't wait to play a Franchise or a Superstar.