Tag Archives: Reviews

The NewReview In Town

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The NewReview - thenewreview.net

The NewReview - thenewreview.net

For the past couple weeks I’ve been frequenting a new music review website. The NewReview is a site that caters to those who are into a wide array of rock music, ranging from black metal, post-hardcore, punk and an various other sub-genres. Every review is informative, straight-forward and offers a personal edge. I’m normally not one to read a lot of music reviews or frequent any specific website when I am looking for them, but The NewReview has kept me coming back. These guys know their shit. They will tell you if a song sucks and if it’s good, I’m sure Lee will tell you it will shake the dentures out of your grandma’s mouth and make your grandpa fill his Depends.

I first heard about the website via Twitter. I follow Lee on Twitter and saw that the site was up and running. So I gave it a chance and have been reading reviews since it’s launch in September. Each reviewer adds their own spin to every review that they craft. I’ve bought 3 albums thus far-with more on the way-from reading their reviews alone. I’m appreciative of the fact that I feel like each reviewer is on a more personal level with their readers, so it’s as if you had a conversation with a coworker or a friend. I have faith in their opinions and my purchases based on them have proven successful (thanks, guys!).

I often feel like some reviews you read in magazines and on sponsored websites are manufactured and can be fluffed with creative writing and vague opinions. The NewReview team doesn’t beat around the bush. Their reviews will slap you in the face like a ton of cinder blocks or cradle you like a baby, all in the same paragraph. I think I speak for everyone out there when I say that I want the whole meal, not just the wafting aroma when it comes to getting the information I seek (okay, maybe some of you might have put it a little different but you get my drift, I hope).

Who Runs The Joint?

The NewReview consists of 4 guys that all have varying tastes in the spectrum that is rock music:

  • Lee Rochester – Writer and Founder
  • Ben Westerman – Writer
  • Ryan Tallman – Writer
  • Eric Burnet – Writer

Who Designed It?

Being a web developer myself, I was really appreciative of the craftsmanship when it came to the usability and overall appearance of the website. The NewReview was designed by the talented wife of Lee Rochester and owner of the small web design company redheaddesign, Jennifer Rochester. Aside from the website offering an awesome amount of helpful features and immediately presenting the user with a list of recent reviews, the website is aesthetically pleasing and easy on the eyes when it comes to sitting down and reading a bunch of reviews at once (like myself). I often have trouble reading at length on websites but the dark interface, font faces and font size choices help this immensely. Heck, it even tames my ADD and that’s a rarity.

The NewReview has some tools that assist the user in purchasing and sampling the music being reviewed. Every tool is helpful in the decision making process of album purchases and ventures into the minds and music of new artists. There are Flash players that offer sample songs from each album, track listings, cover art, band photos, Amazon and iTunes Store links and other ways to get more information about the band being reviewed. Easily accessible and helpful.

This Concludes Our Broadcast…

The bottom line is that The NewReview is a great website if you’re looking to get some insight on your future rock album purchases. I’m helping promote this website out of personal experience and the success I’ve had with my album purchases based on the reviews I’ve read. When you have a few minutes, check it out! – TheNewReview.net

Pavarotti’s Pizza Dunnellon, FL Review

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A little while back, I decided that I wanted to make a contribution to WorstPizza.com since there were no reviews for any pizza joints in the Ocala and Dunnellon area. So I decided to write a review about my favorite pizza place, Pavarotti’s. Prior to writing my review, I read some of the existing ones on WorstPizza.com just to see what kinds of things others covered. I decided to go above and beyond and wrote about pretty much everything.

You can read my review here – Pavarotti’s Review on WorstPizza.com

Or you can read it on the jump (it’s long)!

Let me first start off by saying that the photo I’ve supplied doesn’t do this pie justice. I took a photo of the fresh, hot pizza after I was served a slice, but for some reason my G1’s camera froze up and the photo I took was never saved to memory. So to suffice, I’ve included a photo of a slice I took home.

Pavarotti’s is a little family owned place located in Dunnellon, FL and is situated in a plaza next to a Sweet Bay supermarket. It’s probably one of about 3 pizza places in town and is the best bet out of all of them, hands down. They actually recently opened up a second location in Ocala but I’ve yet to eat there. I hear business is doing great for the new location though. The restaurant has a nice atmosphere and the service is excellent. All of the staff there are very personable and genuinely friendly. Seating arrangements are comfortable and you’re almost always seated immediately (you seat yourself wherever you please). The general appearance is clean and organized. Nothing too fancy but it gets the job done. The music is a nice selection as well. When we were there we heard Bobby Darin, Bobby Vinton and some Opera. That’s not even close to my era (I was born in ‘81) but for a pizza joint, it’s a nice mix. I brought my mom along since she loves this place as well, so the music was right up her alley.

Today we had a server (Pretty sure his name was George) that I’d never had before and I would say that this was my best experience at Pavarotti’s to date. I’ve eaten there approximately 5 or 6 times, maybe more. It’s only about 8 minutes from my house. Service here is always quick and each server is attentive to your needs, which is the way it should be. Our pizza was out in about 10-15 minutes. They normally have about 2 to 3 cooks in the kitchen and all of their pies are cooked in a stone deck oven.

We ordered an 18” hand-tossed pie with half white (easy on the regatta) and the other half (mine) was pepperoni. I like to keep it simple. The crust on their hand-tossed pizza is some of the best I’ve had in this area. In fact I’d say it’s my favorite pizza crust. It’s perfectly cooked and has a nice consistency. Not too doughy but not overcooked and too crispy. The pizza stays together in your hand perfectly. It gets along well with all of the other elements of the pie. I hate crust that has dark burnt areas spread out along the bottom of the pie. Trust me, I’ve found this to be a common occurrence at a few pizza places in Florida.

The sauce and cheese are excellent as well. The sauce is spread evenly and and you’ll never have any sort of slipping and sliding when you pick up the slice. It’s sweet and tasty. You’ll always be able to taste each individual part in its own glory as you masticate (not THAT, dirty mind). The cheese has a nice taste and doesn’t resemble any sort of processed crap you might get at some other place. It’s guaranteed to compliment your toppings well and hold them in place while doing so. These guys know what they’re doing and would never risk putting some second hand cheese on their pies.

All in all there is honestly nothing I can say that got me down about this place, or ever has. The service is excellent, the pizza is excellent, the restaurant is excellent. Heck, even their soft drinks are awesome. Their Sprite is unbelievable. Some places do a crap job at mixing the syrup in the machine but this was some sort of heavenly Sprite. I think the only thing I could say about their pizza is that it can sometimes be greasy. It depends on your toppings. I got pepperoni so that’s expected.

If you’re not big into pizza, don’t fret. They also have a large dinner menu that includes baked ziti, spaghetti, lasagna, hot and cold subs, etc. Their pasta and calzones are delicious. If you dig Sicilian pizza, try their Sicilian with sliced meatballs and pepperoni. Also, if you’re big into garlic knots, this is the only place I’ve been to around here that serves them and they’re awesome.

Pavarotti’s in Dunnellon, Florida is an impressive little pizza place with a nice menu and I hope my review will get them some more business. They deserve it! I’m gonna have to give them 7 out of 8 slices on this one. I always have a pleasant experience and I love their pizza.

10 Reasons NOT to Play Wheelman

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I recently had the (dis)pleasure of purchasing Wheelman from Best Buy earlier this week because Prototype was out of stock. I bought this game on a whim. It had Vin Diesel and it looked action packed, which it is. The amount of FAIL that this game has far outweighs anything good in it though. So I’ve compiled 10 reasons why this game sucks:

  1. It has absolutely no storyline. You go around doing missions for gangs, most of which (obviously) consist of driving. But there is honestly no plausible plot WHATSOEVER. You don’t earn money, you don’t get shit. You just unlock other parts of the city (GTA IV ripoff) and you unlock a bunch of side missions that are absolutely and utterly worthless. I’ve yet to complete a single side mission and I’m nearly complete with the game.
  2. Everything in the game is completely forgettable. The music, the scenery, the characters, the story, the vehicles, the mechanics, the entire God forsaken thing. This game is a complete GTA IV knockoff. What GTA accomplished almost flawlessly, this game falls flat on its fucking face. The developers tried to make Barcelona a thriving area to interest the player, but it does nothing for the game. Granted it’s nicely rendered and designed but GTA IV had memorable landmarks. You could drive through the city so much to the point that you could travel to locations without even using the map. You could say to your friends “hey, remember that building?” and they’ll know exactly which building in the entire city that you’re referring to. GTA IV was memorable in nearly every aspect. This game is like its porn star brother who does films in his basement. The one that the parents shunned years ago due to his career choice.
  3. The driving is a jerky mess. Driving is by no means intuitive. It’s tolerable but you can’t hold the joystick to a slight degree to smooth out your turns and to stay on the road. It’s either one extreme or the other. There’s never any happy medium. It’s annoying. The end.
  4. The melee and firing mechanics vaguely resemble GTA IV (hey, imagine that) but again, they fail miserably. Fighting enemies on foot is a fucking yawn fest. Red dot after red dot on your radar, you mow enemies down with ease. They’ve never a challenge throughout the entire game. The gun assortment is nothing special either. If anything you’re grabbing the largest gun so you can get this crapfest portion of the game over faster and get back into a vehicle.
  5. The missions are annoying. Oh for the love of God, the missions. Where do I begin? The missions are simple: Get the fastest vehicle and airjack and/or destroy the target at hand. There are variations of this of course, like… nevermind. The missions drive me absolutely insane. They’re fun for a while but after you’re doing the same mission over for the 1,000th time because of how ridiculously hard or annoying they are, beating them becomes a requirement and the fun is now completely drained. You’re trying to complete it so that you can move onto the next, and probably more annoying, mission. It’s like the game designers thought of the most annoying pitfalls of previous video games and raveled them all into the missions. I’ll give you a good example: I’m on a mission right now where you have to chase this guy named Che down with your motorcycle. Che is driving a runaway subway car full of enemies and your mission is to disconnect the cars attached to the engine car that Che is driving, get in front of the final car and shoot him a billion times (in the face!!!!!) in order to stop him. Sounds fun, right? Well, it is, to a degree. While you’re trying to do all of this you’re trying to avoid going down the wrong tunnel because if you do, you’re completely fucked; trying to avoid the GIANT BOMBARDMENT of enemies firing out of the windows of the subway cars you’re trying to disconnect; dodging motorcyclists and cars in the subway that are trying to thwart your chances of disconnecting the cars and killing Che; and trying to preserve the motorcycle you’re on because having it get wrecked is the end of the line for you. *takes a breather*
  6. The side missions aren’t even worth bothering with. Seriously, if the main missions are completely annoying, why are you going to subject yourself to even more of the same shit? You don’t get anything worthwhile for completing them. Sure, you can unlock weapons caches and other things, but who the hell cars? You can pick up guns from the enemies you easily murder in melee mode during missions, so why the hell are you going to go out of your way to get the weapons caches?
  7. It’s $39.99 (as of July 2009)
  8. It’s glitchy. It’s like the Midway and Ubisoft teams had no budget for testing or quality control. I don’t even want to get in depth with this so here are some blaring examples: 1.) I was on a mission and my car was nearly at its end. So I quickly bailed while slightly moving and my car hit a set of tables with umbrellas. I got stuck between my destroyed car and umbrella and was unable to get out. Luckily an enemy came and killed me. 2.) If you’re driving really fast and you hit the Y button to jump out of your car like you would in GTA IV, sometimes Vin will just appear in a standing position where the car was and the car will continue to coast forward.
  9. Nobody can die except who the game dictates. It’s virtually impossible to kill the police and pedestrians. I mean, not that I’m some sadistic bastard, but if I plow over a police officer with a semi truck and he gets up like nothing happened, then it makes the game even more unrealistic. How does this happen? How does the company that created Mortal Kombat (one of the bloodiest games ever) make a game where nobody can die? Example: You can use car melee attacks on cop cars, destroy them and then when it shows the slow motion replay of the cop car getting demolished, you can see the cops fly out and then magically get up like nothing happened. If you try to run pedestrians over or shoot them, nothing happens. They run away and yell things in Spanish.
  10. The AI is flatout dumb. It’s horrendous. When you’re in melee mode the enemies don’t even hide. They stand in one place and fire at you or they run right at you in a blaze of glory. The AI in vehicles isn’t so bad but there’s nothing to that. Enemies in cars pull up next to you and try to shoot or ram you.

So there you have it. 10 reasons not to play Wheelman for the Xbox 360, or any console for that matter. Don’t get me wrong, the game has some fun aspects to it when you’re looking for mindless entertainment, but don’t play this game expecting some sort of indepth storyline or amazing weaponry. This game lacks in both departments, and pretty much every other department there is.