US Open Recap, New Consoles, ODST?

Del Potro? Really? The twenty year old argentine defeated the world number one and the 5 time reigning champion in 5 sets, one of the greatest upsets in history. In the semifinals, both Federer and Del Potro won in straight sets against their opponents. So maybe I was completely wrong. Maybe I'll do better next time.

BOOM. New Halo game comes out. I haven't been following following Halo because of one reason- Xbox 360s are too expensive. Now that they cut the price of the Elite to $299 and the price of the Arcade to $199, they are MUCH more affordable this holiday season. The Xbox 360's main competitor also lowered the price of their console. Sony discontinued their PS3 and released a PS3 Slim- A much lighter and smaller version of their old PS3 Fat. That sounded like a good deal, and it was about to be ahard choice for me to choose which one to buy. Until I heard that the PS3 had no backward compatibility to older PS2 games, knocking out almost all of their game library. So go and buy yourself an Xbox 360. Cheaper. Better looking. Better game library. What's not to like? Also, the Nintendo Wii got its first price cut. EVER. the price dropped 20% to $199. There was also a new iPod Touch with the Graphics, Speed, and RAM improvement of the iPhone 3G[S] released back in June (or July. Don't remember). Everything is cut and vamped up to try and sell for Holiday season during this recession.

Back to Hal0. The new Halo game is called Halo 3 ODST, which supposedly takes place between Halo 2 and Halo 3. This time around, you will not be Master Chief, but the Rookie. Because of that change, you no longer have Master Chief's speed, power, and most importantly, Energy Shield. This makes the gameplay of the game much different from before. Instead, when you get hit, you will lose stamina, which regenerates by walking (and not getting hit). If you run out of stamina, then you will permanently get damaged, which can only be healed by find life packs. The campaign is short compared to other Halo games, at only over 3 hours. The thing that I like most about ODST is their multiplayer, which they have improved greatly. In addition to the Halo 3 maps, there are the three map packs (Heroic, Legendary, and Mythic), and three new maps. There is also a new multiplayer mode called Firefight, where you try to defeat waves of enemies as they come in. It's your choice to think whether it's a good deal or not. Does the multiplayer make up for the lacking campaign? Is it really worth sixty bucks? I don't know.

US Open

The US Open, a tennis Grand Slam, is almost coming to an end. Many people are attempting to defeat Roger Federer, the 5 time champion in Flushing Meadows. So far, the match between [3] Nadal and [11] Gonzalez has not finished due to continuous rain delays. As for the other Quarterfinal matches, I predicted two out of the three completed matches right. Federer d. Soderling, Del Potro d. Cilic. My only error was that I thought that Verdasco would defeat Djokovic. As for the Nadal match, I am with the Majority of the crowd, predicting Nadal wins in straight sets.

Saying Nadal wins (which he probably will), the Semifinal matchups will be [1] Federer vs. [4] Djokovic, and [6] Del Potro vs. [3] Nadal. The [2] seed, Andy Murray, was eliminated by Marin Cilic earlier in the tournament. The same can be said for the [5] seed, Andy Roddick, who lost to 6'9" giant John Isner. I predict Federer, 4 set win over Djokovic, and Nadal 5 set win over Del Potro. Good luck to all of the players in the Big Apple!

The Blueprint III

Haha. I'm sure many of you have heard that hip-hop legend Jay-Z has released his eleventh album, The Blueprint III. The Blueprint III, in my perspective, is a decent album by a legendary artist. His name on the front is the reason hes gonna sell a million in 2 or 3 weeks. Jay-Z is probably the richest rapper alive, worth over 300 million dollars.

The first two singles off the album were pretty good. The second, Run This Town (Feat. Rihanna & Kanye West), has so far topped out at number three on the Billboard Hot 100. That makes it Jay-Z's most successful single to date, edging out 03' Bonnie and Clyde, and Dirt Off Your Shoulder, which reached seeds four and five, respectively.