The epic quest begins. Finally...

After a seemingly endless amount of delays, South Park: The Stick of Truth, arguably the last really big last gen exclusive you'll see, is FINALLY out for PS3 and 360. Of course after all the delays and hype, the real question is: Is it actually any good? I'd say if you are looking for a deep involved rpg on the same level of games like Fallout: New Vegas, this might not be it. If you are looking for a hilariously accurate representation of South Park wrapped in a light fun rpg system this'll be right up your alley. I'm several hours in enjoying the hell out of it and I'm really more of a casual fan of show, occasionally watching it on Hulu. I hadn't even seen the trilogy of episodes that lead into the game until about a week ago (which were great). I'm not a huge fan of gross out humor and I've heard there's plenty. But there also plenty of brilliant subtle things about kids playing fantasy and rpg tropes that have continuously made me laugh along with not particularly deep but well-balanced fund battles against elves, rats, hobos and Mongolians. Bottom line if you even remotely enjoy South Park, you should have no hesitation in picking up this wonderful bit of fan service. And it's not bad as a fun little rpg either.

You can check out the trailer here for the newly revealed Batman: Arkham Knights trailer. I own Origins, but have barely played it, it just hasn't really grabbed m. But all the new info on this supposedly final installment (I can virtually guarantee it's not the last "Batman" game, probably the last one with the name "Arkham" though) is really positive such as that there is no forced awful multi-player and that it's being developed only for next-gen consoles means no compromises to make it a similar experience on last-gen consoles. This actually might make me interested enough to get through Origins and finally gives me a next-gen solo title to look forward to besides The Order: 1886.

That's really all for today, I should get another post up in the next couple of days, most likely a gamer cinema.

Gamer Cinema: Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life

I think most people are aware that there was a really awful Tomb Raider movie starring Angelina Jolie back in 2001. And of course the amazing thing about it is the idea seemed like a no-brainer. It didn't have to be Oscar-worthy material. Just a hot girl shooting thugs and discovering treasure. It could've been Indiana Jones with a woman without much effort. Instead, it wasn't even National Treasure with a woman because it managed to be just to dumb and filled with horrible action sequences. Not really Angelina Jolie's fault as she played the role fine but it was still an awful film.

So yeah even though that flopped clearly those behind the film felt something was salvageable as they made a sequel titled the Cradle of Life (and apparently there were plans to go ahead with a third but Jolie didn't want to do the role anymore). The storyline itself is perfectly fine-Croft trots the globe looking for the "Cradle of Life" which is where all civilization began before an evil industrialist who is also looking for it because Pandora's Box is there and it has a plague he wants to unleash (seemingly for financial gain?). Anyways it's a throwaway excuse of a plot but for a film like this that's just fine.

And that's pretty much what this film is. Just fine. That it isn't a complete pile of garbage automatically makes it one of the better films based on a video game out there. The action sequences are perfectly functional if a little underwhelming, Jolie was still good as a real life Croft. It's the kind of perfectly competent yet forgettable action fare you often see on straight to video releases these days. Would I recommend it? Only in a sort of if there's aboslutely nothing else on and you are too lazy to grab the remote/controller and look for something else kind of way. But at least it wasn't extremely painful to sit through like any of Uwe Boll's cinematic efforts.

That's all for today, definitely look for a post about South Park: Stick of Truth in the next couple of days...