Tuesday, March 2, 2010
NEWS
Supar busy the past few months with school and many projects, but I have graduated CSB. gocsb.com And will soon be using this in some of my future internet radio/podcast endeavors hopefully very soon.
Saturday, November 21, 2009
WET also known as hard boiled gaming fun.
With the holidays soon approaching and many fantastic game releases upon us, (see Modern Warfare 2, Left 4 Dead 2, and Assassin's Creed 2) I have to thank the public library system for allowing me to partake in one of the ones that may have been left to the side for most folks, that is nonetheless a quality game as well.
There was quite a bit of hype for a little while for the lead in during the "off months" of releases wherein there really wasn't much of note coming out, just everyone frothing at the mouth of potential things to come via reports from E3 and PAX. The big get for the title from the boys at Bethesda (Fallout 3) was everyone's spunky, sexy, hot badass fantasy girl Eliza Dushku. If you disagree with me on this watch a few episodes of Dollhouse, or an old episode of Buffy. She lends he vocal talents to our lead character Rubi and is joined by a very small handful of talented actors. Now to go on explaining any plot to the game almost seems a bit silly as the game pretty much is laid out as if you were in control of a crazy grindhouse/hard boiled drive-in action movie, complete with film grain effects, missing reel animatics, film burn and 1950's era advertisements for things like Chilly Dilly pickles. All that's really needed to be said is there's a badass hot girl that dual wields revolvers and hacks people to pieces with a sword from her back... now take this controller and use that button to shoot.
Its very entertaining, the control system is very simple and easy to learn and allows for you to jump right in and let the bodies start to fall and the blood to spill. It eventually becomes yet another game of how many bad guys can I knock off and chain together in one long acrobatic slo-motion sequence. There are three kind of sequences you will find yourself controlling Rubi through, a main point A to B map platform in which you kill the horde of baddies intent on shooting you, a chase sequence in which you are unable to steal a car find yourself jumping on and over traffic while gunning and hacking your way to your target, and a rage mode in which someone dares get shot and spill blood all over Rubi and she goes full out breserker rage and you try to accumulate the largest "chain-kill" possible. Once you play through the story mode, and you most definitely will, you will unlock challenges and other story mode options. Challenges are mostly run and gun target shooting races against the clock in Rubi's training area, there is a points run mode for each level of story mode as well, tho I find once the initial game play is finished the challenges and extra content loses its luster very quickly and becomes a bit repetitive and either too difficult and/or boring.
Now while the game is quite thoroughly enjoying as I said it isn't very long and once you complete the initial story mode it will quickly become fairly repetitive, so unless you're an achievement freak you'll most likely tire of it within a week or so. So final verdict big kudos for originality, style, flow, and fun, but while it does a great many things right it will not last for very long in the console of your choice. So while I would love to say go right out and make this a purchase I can't because this is easily a must play but definitely not a must buy. So find a way to pick it up and give it a run through while you're saving up the cash for the new Call of Duty, or Assassin's Creed, it'll make you feel at least like you aren't completely missing out on all the fun. (insert smile here)
There was quite a bit of hype for a little while for the lead in during the "off months" of releases wherein there really wasn't much of note coming out, just everyone frothing at the mouth of potential things to come via reports from E3 and PAX. The big get for the title from the boys at Bethesda (Fallout 3) was everyone's spunky, sexy, hot badass fantasy girl Eliza Dushku. If you disagree with me on this watch a few episodes of Dollhouse, or an old episode of Buffy. She lends he vocal talents to our lead character Rubi and is joined by a very small handful of talented actors. Now to go on explaining any plot to the game almost seems a bit silly as the game pretty much is laid out as if you were in control of a crazy grindhouse/hard boiled drive-in action movie, complete with film grain effects, missing reel animatics, film burn and 1950's era advertisements for things like Chilly Dilly pickles. All that's really needed to be said is there's a badass hot girl that dual wields revolvers and hacks people to pieces with a sword from her back... now take this controller and use that button to shoot.
Its very entertaining, the control system is very simple and easy to learn and allows for you to jump right in and let the bodies start to fall and the blood to spill. It eventually becomes yet another game of how many bad guys can I knock off and chain together in one long acrobatic slo-motion sequence. There are three kind of sequences you will find yourself controlling Rubi through, a main point A to B map platform in which you kill the horde of baddies intent on shooting you, a chase sequence in which you are unable to steal a car find yourself jumping on and over traffic while gunning and hacking your way to your target, and a rage mode in which someone dares get shot and spill blood all over Rubi and she goes full out breserker rage and you try to accumulate the largest "chain-kill" possible. Once you play through the story mode, and you most definitely will, you will unlock challenges and other story mode options. Challenges are mostly run and gun target shooting races against the clock in Rubi's training area, there is a points run mode for each level of story mode as well, tho I find once the initial game play is finished the challenges and extra content loses its luster very quickly and becomes a bit repetitive and either too difficult and/or boring.
Now while the game is quite thoroughly enjoying as I said it isn't very long and once you complete the initial story mode it will quickly become fairly repetitive, so unless you're an achievement freak you'll most likely tire of it within a week or so. So final verdict big kudos for originality, style, flow, and fun, but while it does a great many things right it will not last for very long in the console of your choice. So while I would love to say go right out and make this a purchase I can't because this is easily a must play but definitely not a must buy. So find a way to pick it up and give it a run through while you're saving up the cash for the new Call of Duty, or Assassin's Creed, it'll make you feel at least like you aren't completely missing out on all the fun. (insert smile here)
Monday, November 9, 2009
Updating because its nessicary
Lack of frequent posting does not seem to accurately portray my absence in the realm of writing as of late. I have not really had much to write about I suppose... actually that's a lie, I'm most certain that there is a fairly decent amount I have been able to write about but my innate ability to put it off to allow proper perspective, hes led to the obvious dilly dallying to make fresh idea become stale and rotted and then forgotten.
On the plus side of this I shall be starting class as of tomorrow night, so I can hopefully make better use of this with classwork and make everything as functional as I had once set out for it to be. Also on a random basis you may be able to find me playing internet Dj over at Anon Free Radio (awesomecougars.org) under the moniker Kanish.
I promise the I will be updating things here soon with actual meaningful reviews/topics. My monetary situation has left me in a tough spot for some of those. There will most definately be an Assassin's Creed 2 review, and most likely other holiday gaming releases as well but other than AC2 I cannot gaurantee any especially with my soon to be busy schedule.
So til next time... be well.
On the plus side of this I shall be starting class as of tomorrow night, so I can hopefully make better use of this with classwork and make everything as functional as I had once set out for it to be. Also on a random basis you may be able to find me playing internet Dj over at Anon Free Radio (awesomecougars.org) under the moniker Kanish.
I promise the I will be updating things here soon with actual meaningful reviews/topics. My monetary situation has left me in a tough spot for some of those. There will most definately be an Assassin's Creed 2 review, and most likely other holiday gaming releases as well but other than AC2 I cannot gaurantee any especially with my soon to be busy schedule.
So til next time... be well.
Sunday, September 20, 2009
Warning... there is more to come.
I've finally seen District 9 and just prior to that 9, yet am still figuring out the proper way to put them both to words in a format that is appealing for consumption here. In addition there are a great many other very neat things running around out there that I have yet to try/use/play/go to that I shall hopefully be able to soon. Game releases being Wet(out), new Batmans(out), Assassin's Creed 2(Nov), CoD Modern Warfare 2(Nov) are close to my top of must play 1st's list. Shortly after that follows NHL10, a bevy of racers Blur, Need for Speed: Shift, Dirt 2 are some big ones. There's is going to be a very good chance I will not be playing most of those but not for lack of trying.
Fall TV season is almost upon us again as well, with the prime time Emmy's going off tonight, following with what is going to be me trying to figure out how the hell to watch a packed Monday lineup with no dvr. I think it will be figuring out which shows aren't broadcast online and watch those as they happen. I run into the problem for Monday specifically because I think there are now about 4 shows on almost directly opposite each other. CBS runs How I Met Your Mother and Big Bang Theory opposite Heroes and Chuck(when it starts in March), which reside on NBC. I think I may actually hold off to see heroes online due to not wanting to sit thru commercials and in case I miss a bit I can go back. Not having a DVR, after using them for a bit, makes for a less than optimal viewing experience.
That's a short one for now... off to vinyl and football. take care and be well.
Fall TV season is almost upon us again as well, with the prime time Emmy's going off tonight, following with what is going to be me trying to figure out how the hell to watch a packed Monday lineup with no dvr. I think it will be figuring out which shows aren't broadcast online and watch those as they happen. I run into the problem for Monday specifically because I think there are now about 4 shows on almost directly opposite each other. CBS runs How I Met Your Mother and Big Bang Theory opposite Heroes and Chuck(when it starts in March), which reside on NBC. I think I may actually hold off to see heroes online due to not wanting to sit thru commercials and in case I miss a bit I can go back. Not having a DVR, after using them for a bit, makes for a less than optimal viewing experience.
That's a short one for now... off to vinyl and football. take care and be well.
Thursday, September 3, 2009
500 Days of Summer, Funny People
Long overdue updates but things are hectic around these parts so my normal distractions can be compounded into more delays at times, enough about me this is about the movies so lets start of with film number one shall we.
Funny People,I enjoyed quite a bit, but please do not let the film's previews into thinking it is the movie that it in reality isn't. My point being is as with most trailers they are trying to get you to see their movie in however which way they can with whatever materials thay have on hand while not trying to give away the important bits of the movie. (some are better at this than others) Right off the bat with the traliers you might be led to belive that this is going to be a non-stop laugh your ass off type of film that we've come to know from the likes of Mr. Apatow and Mr. Rogan. But in turn what we are given is not only a very funny movie, mostly with very well placed one liners in the tune of stand-ups busting each others balls constantly, with a look at how one of the bigger names of comedy, Sandler aka George Simmons, is trying to deal with his own assholeish self and the regrets he's had through his life when he's been diagnosed with a rare form of cancer. Then after it seems he's becoming comfortable in dying his last ditch effort to battle back... actually works. I think what really draws me to the movie most is not so much the laughs or the potential serious drama involved but the whole thing and how its pulled of has a great sens of realisim throughout the whole. Most people know or should know to be funny you have to be at least a little fucked up, and to be really funny, you're probaly really fucked up. Now that isn't always the case but in most it is, and it takes you on the trip inside this one's head and how he's going to attempt to figure it all out, and all along the way the time is usually going to be interesting.
500 Days of Summer is right now currently one of my favorite movies of this year. Now granted due to my financial situation I still have to get to see Inglorious Basterds, and District 9 which from what my sources are telling me will probably bump this one off the top of the pile, most likely it won't go too far. Summer is fairly similar in my mind to Funny People actually, in the way that its yet another movie of, in the case a healthy young man, trying to figure out where everything went wrong. Now big resaon number one why I love this is because most guys out there have had that "one that got away" or the one that just crushed them so hard they didn't even know how to deal. So what do you do? You sit there and relive every important moment over and over again pouring over, what you think are, all the important details desperatley searching for where it went wrong, or what it is you can change and/or fix to somehow win her back or make things right. Which is exactly how this one works. The movie starts out in its opening sequence with "This is not a love story." Which is true... sort of. Not in our classic case of boy meets girl boy woos girl and after a number of random instances thrown around by the author boy wins girl and lives happiliy ever after. Yet the whole movie is about love and the complexities that come from two very different yet at the same time very similar people and how they seek to get through it. Zooey Deschanel (Summer) and Joseph Gordon-Levitt (Tom) play off each other brilliantly throught the entire movie. Accompanied by some very entertaining sequences, I'm talking to you morning after musical sequence, and an excellently chosen soundtrack I would absolutlely urge people to see this one.
So 2 down for tonight that I probably should have seen/writting about almost a month ago now, but things happen so lets get down to final verditcs. Funny People very good but not the type of movie the traliers led it to belive but an excellent choice if it's still avail to see in theaters, on dvd but please don't wait til it gets hacked to pieces by cable TV if you see it just grab the dvd people. 500 Days of Summer you'll probably have to do some work just to find this in general even if it was 1st 2 weeks of opening but def to me a must see, something different then the usual faire of movies out there and if you've missed it I know I will most likely add this one to my DVD collection at some point but go out and see it you'll like it I'm almost sure of it.
Thats all for now... coming up on my shortlist of things to see are still Inglorious Basterds, District 9 (i know i shoulda seen it already) and coming out on shortly 9 the very intriguing animated flick (http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi2476081689/) which hopfully will be worth my 10 or 11 bucks.
Til next time.
PS if someone knows how to make 1000 bucks fast let me know please I have issues with my car. I will take donations, and if you want more reviews you can donate for those two... psst I wanna do more games : )
Funny People,I enjoyed quite a bit, but please do not let the film's previews into thinking it is the movie that it in reality isn't. My point being is as with most trailers they are trying to get you to see their movie in however which way they can with whatever materials thay have on hand while not trying to give away the important bits of the movie. (some are better at this than others) Right off the bat with the traliers you might be led to belive that this is going to be a non-stop laugh your ass off type of film that we've come to know from the likes of Mr. Apatow and Mr. Rogan. But in turn what we are given is not only a very funny movie, mostly with very well placed one liners in the tune of stand-ups busting each others balls constantly, with a look at how one of the bigger names of comedy, Sandler aka George Simmons, is trying to deal with his own assholeish self and the regrets he's had through his life when he's been diagnosed with a rare form of cancer. Then after it seems he's becoming comfortable in dying his last ditch effort to battle back... actually works. I think what really draws me to the movie most is not so much the laughs or the potential serious drama involved but the whole thing and how its pulled of has a great sens of realisim throughout the whole. Most people know or should know to be funny you have to be at least a little fucked up, and to be really funny, you're probaly really fucked up. Now that isn't always the case but in most it is, and it takes you on the trip inside this one's head and how he's going to attempt to figure it all out, and all along the way the time is usually going to be interesting.
500 Days of Summer is right now currently one of my favorite movies of this year. Now granted due to my financial situation I still have to get to see Inglorious Basterds, and District 9 which from what my sources are telling me will probably bump this one off the top of the pile, most likely it won't go too far. Summer is fairly similar in my mind to Funny People actually, in the way that its yet another movie of, in the case a healthy young man, trying to figure out where everything went wrong. Now big resaon number one why I love this is because most guys out there have had that "one that got away" or the one that just crushed them so hard they didn't even know how to deal. So what do you do? You sit there and relive every important moment over and over again pouring over, what you think are, all the important details desperatley searching for where it went wrong, or what it is you can change and/or fix to somehow win her back or make things right. Which is exactly how this one works. The movie starts out in its opening sequence with "This is not a love story." Which is true... sort of. Not in our classic case of boy meets girl boy woos girl and after a number of random instances thrown around by the author boy wins girl and lives happiliy ever after. Yet the whole movie is about love and the complexities that come from two very different yet at the same time very similar people and how they seek to get through it. Zooey Deschanel (Summer) and Joseph Gordon-Levitt (Tom) play off each other brilliantly throught the entire movie. Accompanied by some very entertaining sequences, I'm talking to you morning after musical sequence, and an excellently chosen soundtrack I would absolutlely urge people to see this one.
So 2 down for tonight that I probably should have seen/writting about almost a month ago now, but things happen so lets get down to final verditcs. Funny People very good but not the type of movie the traliers led it to belive but an excellent choice if it's still avail to see in theaters, on dvd but please don't wait til it gets hacked to pieces by cable TV if you see it just grab the dvd people. 500 Days of Summer you'll probably have to do some work just to find this in general even if it was 1st 2 weeks of opening but def to me a must see, something different then the usual faire of movies out there and if you've missed it I know I will most likely add this one to my DVD collection at some point but go out and see it you'll like it I'm almost sure of it.
Thats all for now... coming up on my shortlist of things to see are still Inglorious Basterds, District 9 (i know i shoulda seen it already) and coming out on shortly 9 the very intriguing animated flick (http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi2476081689/) which hopfully will be worth my 10 or 11 bucks.
Til next time.
PS if someone knows how to make 1000 bucks fast let me know please I have issues with my car. I will take donations, and if you want more reviews you can donate for those two... psst I wanna do more games : )
Wednesday, July 15, 2009
Quick Hits and catch up
It's been a little while, as usual it seems I can't keep a working timeframe on things these days. That means I do believe its time to catch up on some stuff.
Movies worth the time and money to see at any point in time, UP, and The Hangover.
Up was yet another wonderful journey put together by the PIXAR folks. It's one of the sweetest, funny, adorable and all around good films that anyone can go see and enjoy. Another A+ from PIXAR.
The Hangover, much like Forgetting Sarah Marshall, has quickly solidified itself into a top 10 list of my favorite funny movies ever, and thats a very tough list to crack. Zack Galifinakis steals the show at almost every moment, and the number of cameo's (from Mike Tyson to Rob Riggle and even the wedding band) are perfectly placed. I was howling through a good 80% of this movie, go see it asap.
Solid yet not as impressive as I was hoping for.
Terminator Salvation. It was an amazing hype for a movie that was not bad but not as amazing as trailers would first lead you to believe. By all means it's not horrible if you're a fan of the series it should be fine though I think most people will agree we peaked with the T-1000.
Movies I could care less about going to see ever.
G.I. Joe, Transformers Revenge of the Fallen. If you look at the trailer for G.I. Joe and don't know what its about, it just looks like a horrifyingly acted, written and just overal bad movie. It resembles only a tiny fragment of what the target audience remembers/is looking for, yet it will end up grossing millions. Then there's Transformers... I saw the trailers, read the reviews (good and bad) and there is nothing that makes me want to see this. If I want explosions en masse I'll buy fireworks or some type of explosives.
Good movies that have the potential to be amazing or movies I'm really looking forward too.
Cold Souls - Paul Giamatti http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1127877/
500 Days of Summer - Zoey Deschanel, Joseph Gordon-Leavitt http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1022603/
District 9 - Peter Jackson, The trailers put together for this are all sorts of cool.
The Hurt Locker - Not sure if I can sit through it given my history though. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0887912/
Funny People - Adam Sandler, Seth Rogan. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1201167/
Inglorious Basterds - Brad Pitt, Eli Roth, Quentin Tarentino (nuff said) http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0361748/
Lets hope the rest of the summer keeps the dissapointment low and allows some of the quality movies to stay out there over a week and not keep the massive budget stuff with no substance to boot em out. Enjoy.
Tuesday, June 9, 2009
Rachel Got Married... big deal.
The Oscars have come and gone, and this one is far past it's DVD release date, but its taken me a considerable amount of time getting around to seeing it. From what everyone was saying/raving/drooling over it I had assumed this would be a safe bet and figured it might be nice to see Anne Hathaway play a trainwreck. Turns out either everyone has really bad taste or were all hopped up on their own set of pills when they were either watching and/or talking about this one. I honestly have absolutely no clue why this was supposed to be a good movie.
I think this is a film that suffers from the "its arty so if things don't work out like everything else its still a great movie its just ARTY/visionary/ (insert stupid critic view here)" The movie has so many holes and unresolved relationship issues, undeveloped characters, and scenes that take too long to get to any important point to move the story along. There's the rehearsal dinner... a scene that after 6 people you will never hear a word from at any other point in the movie toast the bride and groom, they think its perfectly fine to go through another 5 or 6 before FINALLY getting to Kym (Anne Hathaway,) and her trainwreck of a toast. There's the non-existent love interest, that I think they had the idea about but forgot about it 1/2 way through fimling. She (Kym) ends up sleeping with the best man (also an addict at a 12 step meeting) in the first 10-15 minutes of the film, and you'd think that maybe there would be a bit more of a recurring voice as a source of advice for her, or someone that she can lean on and maybe get closer to, or any number of other ways, yet instead you go the whole movie without anything except for a flirty invitation to come visit at the end hinting that they have really been into each other for along while.
The whole movie was just frustrating and or boring me to tears or anger more than half of the time. I found myself during two sequences nearly yelling at the television to get to the goddamned point. *sigh* Ugh don't even remind me of the reception... its a 10-15 minute long scene of the families at a wedding reception with a few nervous glances of Kym looking at her mother. I get wanting to capture crazy families and awkwardness but you can do that without making me feel like I want to leave make myself dinner and come back to not having missed anything. And I'm not one of those anti-indie/artistic type films either, the two movies I'm really looking forward too coming up are probably going to be in that vein, or either just less publicised and still awesome. (500 Days of Summer and Away We Go) Its just that this one to me should have been a short film considering the amount of content you actually get from the entire 113 minutes of runtime, either that or completely re-worked because it could have been a really moving and powerful film but instead becomes a chore and worthy of "critical acclaim" because some overly pompus art haus film geeks think its deep.
Long (a very very long) ,and unnessicarily so, story short Rachel got married, Kym was a mess, and there was alot of people around for it and then everyone went home... thats it. I went in wanting to know about these people and came out still wanting to know about these people becasue there's so much more and they just made me not care anymore. Go see it if you want but I'll threaten your life if you try and make me see it, or at least make you pay me some sort of compnsation.
2 of 5 for good ideas with horrible follow through.
I think this is a film that suffers from the "its arty so if things don't work out like everything else its still a great movie its just ARTY/visionary/ (insert stupid critic view here)" The movie has so many holes and unresolved relationship issues, undeveloped characters, and scenes that take too long to get to any important point to move the story along. There's the rehearsal dinner... a scene that after 6 people you will never hear a word from at any other point in the movie toast the bride and groom, they think its perfectly fine to go through another 5 or 6 before FINALLY getting to Kym (Anne Hathaway,) and her trainwreck of a toast. There's the non-existent love interest, that I think they had the idea about but forgot about it 1/2 way through fimling. She (Kym) ends up sleeping with the best man (also an addict at a 12 step meeting) in the first 10-15 minutes of the film, and you'd think that maybe there would be a bit more of a recurring voice as a source of advice for her, or someone that she can lean on and maybe get closer to, or any number of other ways, yet instead you go the whole movie without anything except for a flirty invitation to come visit at the end hinting that they have really been into each other for along while.
The whole movie was just frustrating and or boring me to tears or anger more than half of the time. I found myself during two sequences nearly yelling at the television to get to the goddamned point. *sigh* Ugh don't even remind me of the reception... its a 10-15 minute long scene of the families at a wedding reception with a few nervous glances of Kym looking at her mother. I get wanting to capture crazy families and awkwardness but you can do that without making me feel like I want to leave make myself dinner and come back to not having missed anything. And I'm not one of those anti-indie/artistic type films either, the two movies I'm really looking forward too coming up are probably going to be in that vein, or either just less publicised and still awesome. (500 Days of Summer and Away We Go) Its just that this one to me should have been a short film considering the amount of content you actually get from the entire 113 minutes of runtime, either that or completely re-worked because it could have been a really moving and powerful film but instead becomes a chore and worthy of "critical acclaim" because some overly pompus art haus film geeks think its deep.
Long (a very very long) ,and unnessicarily so, story short Rachel got married, Kym was a mess, and there was alot of people around for it and then everyone went home... thats it. I went in wanting to know about these people and came out still wanting to know about these people becasue there's so much more and they just made me not care anymore. Go see it if you want but I'll threaten your life if you try and make me see it, or at least make you pay me some sort of compnsation.
2 of 5 for good ideas with horrible follow through.
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