Is your Rock Band pedal shattered like mine? Want something a little more sturdy that feels just like the real thing? Want your drums to stop sliding across the floor when you use them? Then use the real thing. I will tell you how. This project can cost you anywhere from $2 to $100 depending on what you have already and if you are willing to cannibalize your broken pedal. Do some searching online, you can probably find this stuff for pretty cheap, especially if it is used.

Materials You Will Need

- drum pedal (preferably with a base)
- kick practice pad
- magnet*
- reed relay*
- 3.5mm mono jack*
- 24 gauge copper wire*
- small project enclosure
- electrical tape
- some kind of padding (I used crumpled toilet paper, but cotton balls or whatever soft would work)

*you will not need these if you are willing to take the parts from the pedal that came with Rock Band

Tools

- Philip’s head screw driver
- Soldering iron
- Dremel, drill, or hack saw

Skip this paragraph if you going to use parts from the Rock Band foot pedal. The reed relay has four pins, the two on the sides are useless for are needs, you can been them out of the way or cut them off if you want. The two we need are on the ends. If you don’t have much experience soldering, don’t worry, this isn’t very difficult. If you don’t have ANY experience soldering, I suggest reading how to solder first. Strip about 1/4″ of wire and solder it to one pin on the relay, then the other wire to the other pin. Unscrew the sleeve of the mono jack and slide it over the wires. You should see two tiny holes on the solder points of the mono jack. Strip and loop the wire through the tiny hole and solder. Do the same for the other wire on the opposite contact on the jack. Screw back the sleeve back on the mono jack. This would be a good time to test if your connection. Plug it in to the drums, get to the song selection list and get a magnet in close proximity to the relay. If you wiring is correct the sorting of the list should change.

Next, we will mount the switch in the box. If you want to use the parts from the broken pedal, now would be the time to disassemble the pedal. Pry out the magnet if you don’t have one of you own and unscrew the flat that holds in the reed switch and remove it from the controller. Drill or cut a “U” shape into the side of the project enclosure large enough for the wire to fit through and the lid to close all the way. Then, using your padding, fill the enclosure. If you made your own switch, tie a knot in the wire near the switch so that you cannot pull the wire knot through the “U” shape cut in the box. This will stop the switch from having and stress on it. Grab your electrical tape and attach the switch the the lid of the enclosure. Close the box and screw the lid shut.

Switch Enclosure Mounted to the Foot Pedal

Now is the easy part. Attach your drum pedal to the practice pad. Finding the sweet spot is the hard part. I would suggest taping the magnet to the bottom of your pedal with electrical tape then moving around the box (lid up) the base of the pedal until you find that perfect spot where the bass hit activates just as the hammer hits the practice pad. Tape it to the base with a few pieces of electrical tape and you should be set. This should give you the most legitimate feeling of a real bass drum.

My Setup

OH SNAP!.. or should I say SNAPS?

Your Rock Band foot pedal snaps in three places. This however is only slightly upsetting, more disappointing that EA allowed and Harmonix would allow such shitty hardware to be made. Oh well, it forces me to take the initiative to make one out of a real drum bass pedal, which I wanted to try anyways.

I Am Legend came out this weekend, but that’s not the only exciting bit of news: Pay attention to the future film posters in the movie. I’ll go ahead and say there’s a Teen Titans poster in the video store. We know this is already in production, but does this further legitimize it?
The biggest news, however was a giant poster in Times Square of Superman logo superimposed over a Batman logo, like the one seen here. The best part: a date. If I recall it was 5.15.10, I’ll post the exact date when I get it. A Batman-Superman movie, or the new Justice League film? You decide.

Also apparently a new Legally Blonde, yawn.

UPDATED:  slashfilm has a clear screencap of the logo but apparently it’s not legit

“But don’t get too excited, producers are saying that the poster in the movie is a completely fictional creation. The sight gag was an addition to the film by screenwriter/producer Akiva Goldsman, who was originally attached to a Superman vs. Batman screenplay that never got produced. So calm down - there isn’t going to be a Batman vs. Superman movie just yet. A very cool easter egg indeed.”

Ah well, maybe next time.

Going in to see I Am Legend, I had mid to low expectations. I’m one of the few people that actually liked the bastard child of the book: The Omega Man (starring our buddy: Charlie Heston), but I do recognize that it wasn’t a top quality production. And now, even with it’s faults, I Am Pleased to say that I Am Legend is a great popcorn flick to catch in theaters. Pun intended.

I Am Legend is set in the not-too-distant future. During this time a man made virus has broken out, killing millions of the Earth’s population, or worse: turning them into nocturnal monsters. Arthur Neville (Smith) is the sole survivor, and the only one immune to the virus. Neville lives with his dog in New York, completely devoid of human contact and desperately searching for a cure. During the day he goes about his duties to survive; at night, Neville locks himself in his house hoping to remain hidden from the creatures of the night.

Neville (Smith) and Sam of I Am Legend

As the film progresses, we see what the affect of being the last known human has on Neville: his social decay, his love for his dog and his shellshock from the horrific events that unfolded. All Neville has to hold on to is finding a cure. The storytelling is very well done and the film does a great job of having the audience feel Neville’s anguish and desperation. In a large part Will Smith carries this role well. It won’t win him any awards, but his performance is worth the price of admission.

The story overall however, is good, but not great. Some things happen in a bit of a predictable manner and for the most part the coolest bits are watching Neville survive in this lonely future. Will Smith seems to have a history of fighting armies of CG villains. From robots, to aliens and now these hoards of infected. While the enemies never truly seem convincingly real they get the job done. Again, Smith and the dog (kudos to animal actors!) carry the show.

I Am Legend is the kind of film you’ll love in theaters, but that’s it. See it now and go with a group because even though it’s enjoyable, it’ll be easy to forget later on.

So, recently I decided to play some Mario 2 (aka Yume Kojo: Doki Doki Panic). I must say, that game is so much fun. Why do people hate it so much? Its got great catchy music and it’s so unique. When else can you pick up vegetables and throw them at things without some farmer trying to shoot you?! NEVER! The only really bad thing about it is the ending. After playing through such a hard game without using warps just to get the the end and find out it was just a dream… screw you Mario… screw you. So anyways, that’s my recent hype about Mario 2. I’m probably going to play some Mario 3 shortly… if only you could save on that game.

I saw the Golden Compass over the weekend and I don’t really have much to say about it other than I wish I knew it was a trilogy going into the movie. The ending was a let down of epic proportions, because it wasn’t an ending, it was a monologue by the main character describing what needs to be settled in the following movies. I came to realize the movie had to be in multiple parts when Daniel Craig’s character had all of five minutes of screen time. That’s not a lot of time for such a major actor. Is it just me or is anyone else sick not having any closure to their movies or video games. First it was Assassin’s Creed, then Mass Effect, and now this. It is really annoying! I feel like I am being milked for everything I have. “You like how that started didn’t you? Well you will have to pay extra for the ending later.” Oh well, they caught me hook, line, and sinker. I will have to see the sequels. The acting was good, the cg was terrific, and the setting was really great (steampunk FTW). The action sequences were also way more intense than Narnia, which I think was a snorefest.

P.S. In the movie, everyone has a soul that takes form of an animal that can speak to them. If I could have a demon of my own, it would be Wolverine. Not the giant weasel, the X-Men character. That would be bad-ass. *Snikkit*

I normally get a good kick out of Yahtzee’s reviews on Zero Punctuation even if I don’t always agree with everything he says. But, his review of Assassin’s Creed is dead on in my books (except the part about the combat, I enjoyed it). Watch, laugh, enjoy.

I have a special little place in my heart for Bioware and their games, even if they are Canadians that still can’t grasp that bacon comes in crispy strips (In Canada is a ham sandwich a BLT?). This is because they provided one of the greatest time sinks of my adolescence; Baldur’s Gate. I’m not talking about that Dark Alliance bullshit for the PS2 either, they didn’t make that. No, I am talking about the PC RPGs that I beat as virtually every class, except for the specialty classes. I even beat it as a lute playing pansy bard. I would go over to my friends house almost everyday to just get a taste of the sweet nectar that was Baldur’s Gate, even if I only got to explore one little zone of the massive map that was “The Sword Coast”. Hell, I still have it installed on my laptop to this day. I later played Neverwinter Nights, but never really got into it. Something about it just wasn’t the same.

Then in my senior year of high school a magnificent thing happened. Bioware teamed up with LucasArts to combined my two most cherished childhood pass times: Bioware RPG games and Star Wars. It was a match that could only be made in heaven. The result was the best of both worlds. Knights of the Old Republic was a quality Star Wars game (up until now if it didn’t involve flying a X-Wing it probably blew) that had a intriguing story, superb game mechanics, and open ended moral choices that Bioware was so well known for. I played the hell out of both the first and second K.O.T.O.R. (even though the second was chocked full of glitches mostly because it wasn’t actually made by Bioware). So when Bioware announced a new intellectual property for the XBOX360, Mass Effect, you damn know for sure that I was all over that. This game was surrounded by hype. It has a new Sci-Fi setting, which is extremely easy to make parallels to Star Wars (it’s not even funny). A new 3rd person shooter combat system that is, although cliché, very Gears of War feeling. And a new dialog system that was supposed to be the most fluid of any game ever. But is the game really all it was hyped up to be? That is a tall order to fill. Well allow me to delve into it for you.

Saren, the Darth Vader of Mass Effect (seriously, they are identical)

To be frank, even though it hurts me deeply, NO! It isn’t everything it was cracked up to be. What you get is a basically a prettier K.O.T.O.R. with new alien races and no lightsabers. The goal is the same, save the galaxy from total annihilation. Except instead of the Sith, you have the Geth (seriously… I didn’t even notice how similar they sounded until I just typed that) led by Saren, a rogue Spectre, who is trying to gain infinite power. Sound familiar yet? The Spectres are the protectors of “The Council” made up of the major alien races (Seriously, why don’t you just call the Spectres Jedi?). The Spectres have the freedom to do as they please and handle operations as they see fit. It is your job as the commander of the most advanced space ship in the Alliance military (humans) to stop Saren at all cost by exploring uncharted worlds to find traces of the Geth and investigate unusual activities happening throughout the galaxy.

The light side/dark side mechanic is back, but has been relabeled as Paragon/Renegade respectively. The only difference is it is not a scale. Because Renegade points don’t affect your Paragon rating, you can be the biggest dick in known space to people and be a saint to others and it not effect the opposite whatsoever. This causes making serious moral choices to seem insignificant. Max your Paragon, then go around being the supreme asshole of the universe and you will still be revered. However, this allows you to open every dialog option. While I do understand it removes the pitfall that is cookie cutter Jesus and Hellion archetypes, it causes the game to feel slightly unnatural.

The dialog is probably the biggest let down. There is nothing fancy or innovative about it at all. The options for every conversation might as well be three choices. Do I play the sympathetic stick up his ass, apathetic neutral, or colossal jackass? This is the same type of dialog that wast presented in K.O.T.O.R. arranged in a circular layout. That is not to say it is bad. Forsooth, it is anything but bad. The dialog and NPC interaction is natural and often hilarious (especially the Renegade conversations), but it isn’t revolutionary be any means.

You get three main class options. The Soldier a.k.a. the bullet spraying meat tank. The Engineer, who can hack and sabotage enemy technology. And the Adept, the Force biotic wielding mage type. The biotic can lift, throw, and freeze objects or enemies with his mind. There are also hybrid classes. I played through my first time with a soldier then moved onto the HARDCORE difficulty with an adept. I suggest playing the game with some form of a biotic user. They are way more fun. The combat becomes much more involved when you can toss your enemies around like rag dolls in real time with realistic physics. This can cause some hilarious situations, like pulling all of your enemies into an exploding container with the Singularity ability (its like a mini black hole), then shooting said container causing massive damage.

One issue I have with the combat is that your partners are complete dolts, if you decide to take cover in their predesignated position, they will stand out in the open and receive rocket after blazing rocket to the chin, making no effort to perhaps find a different spot to hide! It normally feel more like I am baby sitting than them having my back. My only other complaint is that enemy turrets and snipers will blast at you from miles away before you even remotely get a chance to spot them. Of course they are out of range of notice for your group, so they will once again stand headstrong rockets to the back of the head with no effort of retaliation.

One last complaint, and it is a big one, but a short one that I will make very clear. I loath the god damned Mako, a hover tank. I rather wring out Shaq’s shorts into my mouth after a game than drive around in that stupid ass vehicle. I love how when I am trying to blow up things with the cannon it will randomly start driving forward, sometimes driving you right off a cliff. Or how it gets stuck on everything and my entire team dies because I can’t get out of it. It is obviously attempting to play something like the Warthog in Halo, but falls flat on its face, it just isn’t fun.

The ending was kind of short (hurray cliff hangers) and lackluster. Why can’t games have real endings anymore? I play a fifteen hour game for a three minute long ending. Yeah, I am talking to you too Bioshock and Assassin’s Creed. It just feels lazy. I want to know what happens to the characters afterwards. I want to see what the ramifications of my choices are. This isn’t directed just at Mass Effect. It just seems that game designers will make open endings now even if their is only a slight hope for a sequel. I want damn closer!

Bottom line, Mass Effect is a good game, but it feels rushed, particularly if you followed the development at all over the past two years. Is it the next best thing since sliced bread? Not at all, but it is one of the better games I have played this year and certainly the best RPG. It offers great replay value and was definitely worth the sixty dollars.