Total & Complete BS

I'm going on record right now as stating that Penn & Teller's Bullshit! should be mandatory viewing for its no holds barred approach to issues. It figures that the best investigative journalism I've seen in my lifetime would be from a couple of Vegas performers. Penn & Teller bascially investigate and take a very critical look at a bunch of controversial topics. They do take some easy potshots at easy issues (exercise-anybody who actually bothered to pay any attention in high school knows that your body is based a lot more on genetics and no amount of exercise will change that, the hypocracy of the drug war, most of that new age crap), but they also rip apart what most people would consider sacred cows like PETA, Recycling, 12-step programs and even the Bible. It's essentially what soft news shows like 60 minutes & Nightline should be, they hold these jackasses feet to the flames and don't let them off easy in any sort of way (heck, most of the time, they don't even need to push, these idiots normally hang themselves if allowed to talk long enough). The first two seasons are available on DVD right now (and it's on Showtime if you have that channel available). Go rent it or put in your queue and strap everyone you know into a chair and make them watch. Again, this should be MANDATORY viewing for all Americans.

Speaking of total & complete BS, tonight is Oscar night, and no, I'm not watching the ceremony. The oscars are just like any other awards show-Deserving movies & people get snubbed and awards are NEVER given because someone deserves it. They are given usually either because they are long overdue, because it makes a statement or because the academy was split so someone who doesn't deserve it won.

Several big videogame titles are releasing in the coming weeks, most notably Star Wars: Republic Commando & Devil May Cry 3. DMC3 is supposedly a huge turnaround for the series which slumped horribly in its sophmore effort. Its also supposed to make Ninja Gaiden (which is arguably the hardest game of this console generation) look likes child's play, which means I'll play, but most likely not buy. I like a challenge, but there's a difference between a challenge and sheer insanity that will make you scream and break stuff (which Ninja Gaiden made me do on a regular basis before I wisely got rid of it).
Republic Commando seems to be missing the things that most cool Star Wars games have-Jedis or Starships. But advance reports & reviews say it's a pretty solid squad shooter. I'll hopefully get my hands on both this week. Till next time...

One last chance...

The only movie of any note opening this weekend is Cursed, and while I swore I would never pay to see another horror film after so many dissapointing films the last few years, there are a couple of key factors that may get me interested enogu hto check it out-First it's from the uber horror team of Wes Craven & Kevin Williamson, who know how to make some damn entertaining horror flicks. Second, it stars Christina Ricci, who I've had a major crush on since she was Wednesday in the hilariously dark Addams family movies, so I'll see just about anything with her (yes, even the horrid That Darn Cat), but it's also been tamed down to a demographic friendly PG-13 and has had numerous reshoots, rewrites and recasting, so I may wait for some sort of consensus that it's at least watchable before wasting my money on it.

The other "film" opening this weekend is the latest example of great older actors that are wasting their talent on complete garbage-Man of the House. Tommy Lee Jones, one of the best hardasses in the history of film, plays an FBI agent who is protecting dimwitted cheerleaders that witnessed a murder. I have to wonder what major medication Jones was on to accept this film, especially since it seems somewhat similar to another horrible looking film-Vin Diesel's "The Pacifier". A least "Be Cool" will be out next week.

I picked up the latest OXM (Official Xbox Magazine) yesterday since it had a few playable demos I was interested in. Namely Unreal Championship 2, which manages to be one of the most original shooters in years by pretty seamlessly blending melee combat with chaotic FPS action. A lot of people are comparing it to Halo 2 and they really shouldn't because it's an entirely different beast. It's faster, more chaotic and looser with anything that you could definie as reality. It's also a ton of fun, spent many hours on it last night. Too bad it's still two months until the actual game comes out (I'm gonna be busy in April between that, Doom 3, Jade Empire and Wrestlemania 21 if it actually turns out to be good).

There is no Spoon...

Alright, I did see Constantine yesterday, and it wasn't great (essentially a lot of things just happened without much explanation and nobody had their A-game going on in terms of acting (hell, saying they had their B-game on might be stretching it), but it showed enough interesting ideas and promise that I see good sequel potential.

I finally took the plunge and bought a full year of xbox live so if anybody who bothers to read also has it (or have friends who are looking for people to play with) look for Eradicator30 on Crimson Skies, Halo 2 & Phantasy Star Online. I haven't played since the Dreamcast days, and was sort of reluctant to get back into something that ate up so much of my time, but the xbox service makes it incredibly easy to just play a quick pickup game, and it'll actually probably save me money in the long run, since I'll be too busy playing online to spend money on any new games, no onto to blow up more guys in halo 2....

We don't need no water let the motherfucker burn

So apparently there's been a major recall on some 14 million xboxes because a fairly minute percentage may overheat & start a fire if just left plugged in. Now, I'd like to state for the record that I've had my xbox since launch day, have always left it plugged in unless going on a trip or moving, and it's never caused me any trouble. Recalls & advisory warnings can be serious & should be taken as such, but honestly most of the time they are minor problems in a small percentage that only occur if someone isn't using it properly in the first place, but I don't blame any company for covering their asses so some dumbass doesn't sue because the product wasn't idiot-proof.

I finally caught American Dad on Cartoon Network(I really wish they'd let you order cable channels a la carte or something, I really only watch about 10 channels out all the ones I have available) last night, this is the highly touted new show from the creator of Family Guy, Seth Macfarlane. It's about a paranoid CIA agent who has a wife, 2 kids, a talking goldfish that openly lusts after his wife and an alien who has a weight problem. Just your typical American Family. From what I understand, the show hasn't really started yet (it's supposed to start on Fox sometime soon), but the pilot has been popping up repeatedly in order to push the show. It took me awhile to warm to Family Guy & I still don't think any show can match the first 10 years of The Simpsons (if only they had stopped after 10), but it's off to a promising start, and I'll be looking foward to it, which means Fox, geniuses that they are, will put in an obscure timeslot, barely advertise it, and yank it off the air before it even has a chance to find an audience like they've done with almost everything else. You gotta wonder why they were willing to let 24 grow into the phenom it's become when it didn't start out so hot either but let so many other brilliant shows fall by the wayside with no effort (namely Firefly & Andy Richter Controls the Universe, but it's a LONG list). Course, Fox isn't the only culprit, NBC buried Boomtown, ABC never gave Clerks The Animated Series a shot. And apparently if Michael Eisner had his way, we never would've gotten to watch Lost or Desperate Housewives because he considered both shows trash. Just makes you wonder what qualifications these programming & studio execs actually have since they continually approve so much crap and let the actual gems wither & fade away.

Now onto movies: the only thing of note opening this weekend is Constantine, the latest comic book turned movie, starring who many people consider one of this generation's worst actors, Keanu Reeves. I'm sort of puzzled by that. Sure, he's had some fairly crappy films, but he's been in some damn good films over the years as well-Bill & Ted, Devil's Advocate, Hardball, Speed, Matrix (just the first one). Constatine looks like another solid film IMHO, I'll let you know when I see it tommorow.

This segment brought to you by....

So to start off, I did actually beat Suikoden IV early Sunday night thanks to the tried and true method of power leveling my choice guys for the final battle. This does technically leave me with an rpg void, which is dangerous with Xenosaga Episode II coming out tommorow (I even put a down payment on it when I trade in Suikoden just in case, but I'll be taking it off), but I wsiely decided to spend my money on The first volume of Batman: The Animated series instead (all the batman animated shows rock, they should come out with some mega collection considering there's around 10 of them). I've also virtually ignored Resident Evil 4 for the last two weeks, so that'll hopefully keep me busy for awhile.

And finally getting into the meat of today's topic-Ads in videogames. Ads in videogames have been around longer than most people think (anybody remember Global Gladiators? great little game back in the 16-bit era that was pretty much a massive McDonald's ad, and I've lost count of how many games were horrid ads back in the Atari days because even cereal companies made videogames back then), in fact, many games are still nothing more than poorly developed ads for toys, movies or cartoon shows, but one game in particular is getting gamers cheesed off-The latest Need for Speed title from EA. Mainly because not only is the game littered with ads for companies that have little if nothing to do with cars (i.e. Burger King), but also because EA is the world's biggest publisher and it seems like a move strictly motivated to make even more money off an already top selling franchise rather than a sacrifice a little integrity so a quality game can get made. In all honesty, I could care less if every sword in my next rpg has a brand name on it, as long as it doesn't interfere with the gameplay. Much as I don't like EA, they (and most other established, credible companies) are smart enough to realize if they flood a game with ads and no gameplay, it will have repercussions in the bottom line where it will hurt them the most. Besides, extra cash flow will probably allow for them to do more experimental & edgy titles and take risks on things such as Oddworld: Outlaw (which based on the lackluster sales of previous Oddworld games, I'm suprised anybody would publish, not to mention those great games had many ads for Sobe placed throughout the earlier games). So, in the end, I honestly don't think us gamers have much to worry about...

Mini Review Smorgasboard

ok, the website has been down for awhile and for the last couple of weeks I've been talking mainly about what movies I don't want to see, so I thought I'd start off with some quick reviews of the movies I have seen recently, starting with:

In Good Company: Excellent comedy and commentary on the buisness world and ludicrousness of corporate mergers. Dennis Quaid & Topher Grace have suprisingly good chemistry on screen and they are really what drives the story along with a good performance from Scarlett Johannsen as well.

The Aviator: A great example of how people like Howard Hughes constantly straddled the line between genius and insanity on a near daily basis, and Dicaprio brings it across brillaintly. Also one of the few Alan Alda performances over the last last decade that didn't make me sleepy.

Hitch: Yes, it's a predictable and formulaic romantic comedy, but what romantic comedy isn't? What makes this one of those rare ones that work is two key things: We believe and like Will Smith & Eva Mendes as a couple. They fit and make sense (and you aren't really wondering why one is putting up with the other like so many mismatched romantic couples). And secondly, Will Smith & Kevin James are incredibly funny together, as every scene they are in is pretty much an absolute riot.

Million Dollar Baby: I just finally saw this today, and it seriously ranks as one of the better films of 2004. What could've been a cliched effort about a female Rocky instead makes belivable, real characters you feel for, a great and (mostly) uplifting story, and incredible perfomances from the power trio of Swank, Freeman & Eastwood. The only thing that deflated it a bit for me is the rather shocking ending was spoiled for me awhile ago, so I won't say anything about it here, but it's deifnitely the kind of movie everyone should see.

On the videogame front, I am literally at the end of Suikoden IV, the last save before the final boss, unfotunately it may be awhile before I beat it just because this is a rather cheap boss who unleashes not only extremely powerful spells that majorly damage your entire party, but a cheap ass sleep spell that ALWAYS works. There are few things I hate more than cheap ass spells in rpgs there are no defense against, it's a cheap trick to desperatley try and stretch out the length, rather than let the game flow more naturally and organicly. If I am able to trounce standard enemies in the final dungeon of an rpg, than the boss should be a challenge, but not nearly impossible, which is less & less the case but still annoyingly pops up every now and again.

And finally, the next big rpg in the Xenosaga series comes out tuesday, and while just about any rpg gets me interested, this will definitely be a rent first. The Xenosaga story is scaringly similar to the Star Wars story. While the original, Xenogears, which took place after the newer games in the series (I believe 3 more games are planned which will make it six episodes just like Star Wars as well) is a revered rpg classic. The new Episode One was a huge letdown with an overdone blah story that made little sense a spurious connections to the previous game (sound familiar yet?), now Episode II is coming out, and while the creators claim all the problems have been addressed with much shorter and more relevant cut scenes, revamped battle engine and even new more realistic graphics, reviewers seem to be saying only the hardcore (and somewhat in denial) fans will enjoy this dissapointing entry as well (hey, just like Episode II of Star Wars!), oh well, maybe episode three will finally turn the franchise around (that goes for both Star Wars & Xenosaga)...

Sounds like something out of Dilbert

"This is the design that we came up with. There may be people that complain about its usability, but that's something which users and game software developers will have to adapt to. I didn't want the PSP's LCD screen to become any smaller than this, nor did I want its machine body to become any larger.

"The button's location is [architectured] on purpose, it's according to specifications. This is something that we've created, and this is our specification. There was a clear purpose to it, and it wasn't a mistake."

This is a direct quote from SCE president Ken Kutaragi, responding to various reported design flaws with the PSP, Sony's portable that will be on American shores next month. I'd like to also note that it's going to be available here only in a dissapointingly high $250 bundle package, and while I would never reccomend cheap third party alternatives (they tend to outright cripple if not destroy your system of choice), it'd be nice to have the option if you wanted to save a few bucks. You know, when people complained about the xbox's massive controllers, they came out with new smaller ones, when people complained about the N-Gage's ridiculous way to insert games (you'd have to remove the battery pack every single time and put it back again), they came out with a new model that solved the issue. But not Sony, they say deal with it. Good way to burn your loyal customers and continuing the Sony tradition of crappy hardware.

Taking it like a grown up.

Apparently Rob Schneider has finally taken decided he's taken enough abuse from critics continually questioning why he has a career, as rather than take the high road, he bothered to take out a FULL PAGE ad in the Hollywood Reporter, blasting one critic in particular, and basically whining that his buddies will get him in the parking lot after 5th period. How fucking childish is this? Now personally, I consider Schnieder an incredibly unfunny hack that only has a career because Adam Sandler (who has limited talent, but is generally smart about the roles he picks) is a good buddy of his, but that has nothing to do with him as a person, Schneider is taking this whole thing to a personal level. Facing harsh criticsim is a big part of your job Mr. Schneider, EVERYONE in your profession and several others have to put up with it (especially with movies like The Animal & Deuce Bigalow in your resume). Most just laugh it off or completely ignore it(and with the amount of money you make, they should), you'd be best off doing the same, rather than making yourself sound like an insecure bully who needs to yell and threaten anytime someone dares to question him.

Boldly Going where many series have gone before...

It's official, Enterprise, the sole remaining Star Trek series, is being cancelled, without any replacements planned anytime soon (and no upcoming movies either). This will be the first time in nearly 20 years Trekkies will have nothing to watch. I've never been a huge Trek fan myself (I always thought Babylon 5 was superior and my favorite trek series: Deep Space 9, never got its due), but it's sort of sad to see such a formerly strong franchise with such potential limp off into the land of cancellation rather than go out with a bang. Granted, it's very likely we'll see some form of Gene Rodenberry's seminal vision sometime in the future, but after a couple of fairly mediocre films and abysmally awful shows (especially Voyager, the previous show), you've got to wonder if it'll ever be back in form or if anyone will care anymore. Oh well, there's still Andromeda....

And in the land of dumbass petty studio decisions, apparently the people at Fox studios are pissed off that Bryan Singer not only abandoned the X-Men franchise to direct the new Superman movie for Warner Bros, but he's also recruting X-Men stars to be in the film, such as James Marsden, Famke Jensen, and reportedly pursuing other cast members as well. It should be noted that while the new Superman film has a director, script and most of the roles cast already, the latest X-men film has no director or script or definite stars attached, but is planned to start shooting around the same time, which obviously would create scheduling conflicts, and Fox is going on the offensive, essentially telling anyone who signs up for the Superman film will not be in the next X-men film. What a brilliant way to totally destroy the series. Maybe if the more established actors of the X-men franchise take a stand (Hugh Jackman, Patrick Stewart), Fox will realize it would be smart to at least not make any decisions until they actually have a definitive direcotr and script chosen, and quite possibly play nice with the actors because the one thing fans hate is changing in actor that has already grown into the role and been accepted.

Ok, maybe world domination ain't so bad...

I spent most of my freetime this weekend playing Oddworld: Stranger for Xbox. It is published by EA, who I'm expecting will be competing with the likes of Ted Turner and Rupert Murdoch in order to own every inch of the universe any day now, but if the results are excellent games like this, I may not mind. It's developed by Oddworld Inhabitants, who have brought us quirky, original and hilarious platformers the last few years (unfortunately, they have all been criminally ignored by the average gamer), but Stranger is mostly an FPS with a bit of third person actioner thrown in. It's sort of like an outerspace western, but what really sets it apart is that your ammo is actually living creatures that act as all different kinds of ammo, allowing for a very cool variety of strategies for all kinds of players. The only minus is that it's one player, as I think co-op and a mode of bounty hunters vs. outlaws would've been cool. If EA allows more great edgy titles like this to be developed under their banner, that would go a LONG way towards regaining some credibility in the gaming community.

One scary side note, I noticed that EA's deal with the NFL includes the option to do "other" games aside from the already established franchises like Madden & Street. Now, while this is most likely referring to a highly rumored management-themed title, this could lead to other bad idea to milk the franchise dry, like action games starring popular players like Terrel Owens. You think it won't happen? Just remember Michael Jordan: Chaos in the Windy City and Shaq Fu.

On the movie side, the only things opening this week are Boogeyman (what the hell is it with all the bad horror movies this month? Why didn't they release them in October?), another horrible looking horror film with some guy from the WB whose name I can't remember. Then there's "The Wedding Date". Now, I love a GOOD romantic comedy, and Debra Messing is one of the funnier actresses out there, but this just screams bad rip off of My Best Friend's Wedding combined with a bad rip off of Pretty Woman, just with a male gigolo. Looks like another weekend of watching movies at home....

Finally someone has the right idea!

So, apparently in some small Australian state they are proposing that not only should there be regulations on the ridiculous overpricing of snacks & beverages at movie theatres, but that people should be allowed by law to bring in other food. Now normally, I'm not stupid enough to buy anything at the theater (although I did buy a ridiculously overpriced box of dots when I went to see Elektra because I was starving and didn't have time to run out and grab something from a nearby place), but the price of snacks in theatres is really getting ridiculous (plus they need to offer a wider variety of food in my opinion, although some offer stuff like pizza, salads and sandwiches, most have they same small offering of popcorn, bad hotdogs and overpriced small candy). I luckily live in a small town and normally catch a bargain matinee for about 5 bucks, but add even a small soda and one of the cheaper snacks and it quickly becomes 10 or more. The biggest ripoff is the nachos. Nachos are essentially my favorite food to eat at any kind of entertainment (if they offered good nachos at the ballet, I'd probably go all the time), but theater nachos are generally a complete rip off. They offer very small bags of chips you have to open yourself and a small little container of cheese, and if you want extra, they charge you something like a $1.50 more. I understand that they make the most profit from their snacks, not movies, but maybe something in their buisness model needs to change because pretty soon nobody's gonna have the money to spend on it anymore (but us americans are slow to catch on to these kinds of trends that involve any kind of common sense, so maybe not).

So, as I stated previously, two horrible-looking horror films are opening up this weekend, and I don't really intend on seeing either of them. First up is Alone in The Dark, with Christian Slater and Tara Reid. I don't know how, but somewhere along the line Slater became the poor man's Kevin Bacon, even though he's a pretty good actor, and now he gets shlock like this. It's based on the series that actually started the whole survival horror genre, but has been not only irrelevant but dead since the Resident Evil series of games came along and really defined the genre. Not only does this look nothing like the series it's based on (did we learn nothing from the Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within?, I guess not, because they are also doing a movie based on the Doom games that is already reportedly going to have very little to do with the games), but it also stars talentless blonde Tara Reid. Reid's a hottie with several great magazine layouts to her name, but I rarely have seen an "actress" with so little talent that seems to continually get movie roles (maybe she's a poor man's Elisa Cuthbert?). On top of that, it's directed by Uwe Boll, who did the abominable House of the Dead film and is determined to ruin several other video game films that he has snapped up the rights to because unfortunately he knows how to make a movie so cheaply that it'll make a profit from the opening weekend alone before word of mouth really gets out.

And then there's Hide & Seek, starring previously distinguished actors Robert Deniro & Dakota Fanning. Deniro's been slumming it for awhile with his awful sequels to mildly amusing comedies, but the cheesy horror genre represents a new low and I bet at this point, Fanning will take any high profile job she can get, regardless of the fact that she's the best child actor in a couple of decades. I've always liked the idea of evil kids (one of the few horror films I actually enjoyed was The Omen), but this is going to be another one filled with cheap scares, big plot holes and an incomprehensible "twist" ending like every horror movie in the last decade or so. I seriously think the last horror film I enjoyed on any level was "Scream 3" and that whole trilogy was more of a campy comedy with slasher level violence than an actual horror film. Next week is not looking too good either, but there are a couple of promising films on the horizon, namely Constantine with Keanu Reeves and March looks somewhat interesting.

On the videogame front, Oddworld: Stranger came out this week for Xbox. I'll hopefully be able to rent it tommorow, even though the bastards known as EA are publishing it, the Oddworld games have always been very creative and entertaining while managing to make good social commentary, and this one looks to continue that tradition while taking the series in a fresh direction.
Then there's Playboy: The Mansion for Xbox & PS2. You get to live out every man's fantasy and be Hugh Hefner. Unfortunately, you don't get to just hang around the grotto and sleep with several girlfriends. You have to also run Playboy magazine, which means getting key interviews and knowing trends of the public so you can actually make money. Now if this all comes together it sounds like a pretty good idea, but my guess is they didn't put much thought into it and are just going to sell it on the Playboy name alone.

And that's pretty much it for now. I know Johnny Carson passed away this weekend. Everything that could be said has been said about the man who defined late night, so I'll just end with a fond farewell to the consumate entertainer who we invited into our room for 30 years. Goodbye Johnny and hope you are giving them one hell of a show up there...

na na na na, na na na na, hey hey hey, GOODBYE!!!!!

Finally that spineless dipshit Michael Powell has announced he's resigning from the FCC. Maybe the next chairman will tell parents to take some fucking responsibility and be their own children's censor(that's probably just wishful thinking). I just find it incredibly ridiculous that the two biggest "scandals" were about a little nudity during a football game(let's not even got started on how much BS they put Howard Stern through). Not that I don't enjoy football (long suffering Chargers fan in fact), but it is a sport that celebrates violence, mostly sponsored by sex & alcohol. I hardly think a little nudity (especially the very amusing Desperate Housewives skit) is something we should be so shocked by, and it has had far reaching implications thanks to people who not only refuse to take any sort of responsibilty, but also have no real life.

On a side note, I saw Assault on Precinct 13 today, I'll have a full review up at the site tommorow, but in essence it was a ugly and violent remake with little in the way of redeeming values. And since the only things opening in the next couple of weeks are crappy-looking horror films(Alone in the Dark, Hide & Seek and Boogeyman), this is probably the last movie I'll be reviewing for a little while. Or maybe I'll catch up on films like Aviator if they are still playing...

The price is wrong

All right, can somebody explain to me the reasoning behind why the price for DVD TV shows is all over the map? I love picking up TV shows on dvd, it's a great way to catch any episode of any TV show, anytime you want (currently my collection is Angel Seasons 1-4, Buffy seasons 1-7, Hercules: The Legendary Journeys seasons 1-3 & Simpsons seasons 1-5). Most of the sets I buy are around $45 and I've never paid more than $60 for any one season of any show. So then can someone explain why some sets are around that price and others are anywhere from $80-$150 dollars? Law & Order, Sopranos, Six Feet Under, The Wire, any of the Star Trek Shows, Babylon 5 and many others fall in this ridiculous price range. There aren't any big extras to justify this and in the case of cable shows you are getting far less bang for your buck because they usually have a max of thirteen episodes as oppossed to most network shows where you get anywhere between 18-26 episodes. There's just no reasoning behind this whatsoever aside from some assholes in marketing decided to see just how high a price they can get away with. Oh well, time to go scour ebay...

The first step is admitting you have a problem...

I have something to confess, even though I gave Suikoden IV a rather mediocre score of 6.5, I fully intend to beat it (mainly because there are no other rpgs I'm interested in out now or coming anytime soon). Let this be a lesson in following your instincts, becasue my gut was telling me it was a bad idea to open my pre-ordered copy. This is unfortunately not this first time I have done this with an rpg (I've lost count of how many hours I wasted on complete crap like Beyond the Beyond just because there wasn't anything else out there). Granted, if it becomes too frustrating or tedious, I will trade it in, but since I've already got 12 hours invested, I don't see that happening.

In other news, I don't mention TV too much (mainly because I haven't had cable for months now), but I did catch a bit of the Golden Globes last night (mainly during commercial breaks of Family Guy, that show gets funnier each time I watch it), honestly the only highlight was Robin Williams acceptance speech of his long overdue Cecil B. Demille award. Otherwise it was yet another bunch of awards given to people and films for reasons other than being the most qualified like every other pointless "let's kiss our own asses" awards show out there. Just the fact that neither Napolean Dynamite or Garden State were nominated for anything is proof of that.

Assault on Precinct 13 comes out on Wed. I haven't seen the John Carpenter original, but my guess is this won't be a good remake considering they released it in the dead month of January.
There's seriously nothing remotely interesting out till Hitch on Feb. 11th (Will Smith's first romantic comedy, and it actually looks funny).

All right, I'm off for some more banal seafaring expeditions......

Ed Asner is one tough SOB

One of the more interesting things about the Knights of the Old Republic series is that both games have Ed Asner voicing the no-nonsense cynical Jedi Master Vrook. Even if you are the most evil Jedi in the known universe, you never get to see just how suprsingly strong he is in the first game, but in the second, if you are evil, your main goal is to eliminate all existing Jedi so you get to fight him, which I got to do this past weekend finishing off KOTOR II as a dark side Jedi. And much like Master Yoda, this old and feeble-looking man whooped my ass many a time. Ed Asner is officially the toughest RPG boss I've fought in years, cause I rarely die more than once at any boss in an rpg, and it took me a good 10 tries to finally kill the bastard (although the fact that I was a Sith Lord didn't help, it's one of those classes where you are really weak until you get into the higher levels and then can lay waste to tons of enemies with your almost unlimited spell power).

On the movie front, Elektra opens this weekend, and while Jennifer Garner's forte is kicking ass in really tight outfits, there's plenty of warning signs that this will be a bad film. The first being that it's a spinoff of Daredevil, which was fairly mediocre, but what really scares me is the line they use in most of the TV ads: "From the forces that brought you X-men". Yeah, they brought us X-men. They also brought crap like incredible Hulk. And it's not like any of the geniuses invovled in making the good comic book films worked on this, i.e. Bryan Singer (X-men), Guillermo Del Toro (Blade & Hellboy) or Sam Raimi(Spider-Man). That's hollywood speak for no one worth anything wanted to touch this crap with a ten foot pole. it's the same thing when they say it's from a producer of a hit film or a director who had a great film years ago but hasn't done anything noteworthy since. It's not necessarily a sure sign of doom, but it's something to be weary of before you lay down your money on a complete waste on time.
On the other hand, there's Coach Carter with Samuel L. Jackson, which just seems like a guaraunteed waste of time. I mean really, how many more fucking movies do we need about a teacher/coach who teaches a bunch of unruly inner city kids about improving their life? I can tell it's gonna be a rough couple months ahead for movie goers like myself.

VIVE LA FRANCE!!!

Granted, I'm about as fond of the French as most Americans, but in case you haven't heard, in EA's latest attempt to homogenize the gaming industry, they have bought a rather large share of French-based game company Ubisoft and reportedly ready to attempt a hostile takeover. In case the name doesn't ring a bell, they've made some of the more brillaint titles over the past few years, namely the Rayman & Prince of Persia games as well as cash cow Tom Clancy titles. Luckily, the French government wants to pitch in to stop the takeover, as well as Vivendi Universal (although that may be just as bad) . It is readily apparent that EA is trying to be the one and only big dog in the gaming industry as they literally own football and tried to strike exclusive deals with every other major sport. They are also intent on running their properties into the ground as they apparently are planning to release LOTR titles on a yearly basis, alternating between the action and rpg format. I'm gonna publicly say now that I will never buy another EA game as long as they are pulling crap like this. Granted, I haven't been a huge supporter of theirs for years, but I at least used to respect that they normally put out quality titles despite some questionable buisness decisions. But it's clear EA is just becoming bad for the game industry. If EA and big companies like them snatch up everybody smaller, the bottom line will matter a lot more than innovation, and that will kill the game industry. It's happening right now in Japan, gaming's mecca. They are suffering a gaming recession from releasing way too many "safe" and mediocre mainstream titles. It may not be too long before we see it on these shores.

On the brighter side of gaming news, the first couple months of the new year are normally pretty sparse, but we have a few promising titles coming out next week. First up Suikoden IV for the RPG nut in me. In case you aren't familiar with that one, the entire series revolves around a hero gathering the 108 stars of destiny in order to save the kingdom (that's right, you gather up 107 other people, though not all fight in your party). I've loved every game in the series so far, but the reviews for this new one haven't been too kind. I don't get skittish about one or two reviews, but several mags have all come out and said it's average at best, and when lots of people are saying the same bad things about a product, you tend to listen. Oh well, I'm sure I'll enjoy it enough to keep me busy until next month when Xenosaga II comes out (which I'll talk about more when that when it gets closer to release).
Then there is Mercenaries, which I honestly don't have much personal interest in, but it sounds like a fun filled with mayhem game. It really does look like a game where all you do is blow shit up, but as long as that's done well, it can be an incredibly fun time.
And on the Gamecube front, there's Resident Evil 4(although it's really like RE40 with all the spinoffs and remakes in typical Capcom fashion). I haven't really enjoyed a survival horror game since Resident Evil: Code Veronica on the Dreamcast, but this one seems to be finally doing something different. No more limited saves, tons more ammo and this one is actually suppossed to be scary (although I've heard that a lot before). Unfortunately, the awful control scheme reportedly has not been changed, but maybe it'll work betterwith the new setup.

Finally, on the movie front, the only thing actually opening this weekend is White Noise, which is yet another awful-looking horror film(and after the Grudge, I'm not paying to see another one ever again), so I will most likely play catch-up and see either The Aviator or Life Aquatic, possibly both if I have the time. Video-wise, I HIGHLY reccomend both Garden State and Napolean Dynamite, both excellent films out now. And if you're looking for a little something different, I also just watched an excellent Asian film this week called Infernal Affairs, about two moles, one in a gang and one in the police force.
That's it for now, but one of my many new year's resolutions is to update this damn blog more often, so I'll try for at least twice a week but I guarauntee at least once a week.

All I want for Xmas....

IS A SYSTEM THAT CAN PLAY ITS OWN FUCKING GAMES!!!! Ok, here's the story, after whizzing through the light side of KOTOR II in a mere 2 and a half days (although it's an amazing game I plan to go through it several more times), I decided to treat myself to Working Designs latest treat, Growlanser Generations for the PS2. Working Designs is responsible for bringing some of my favorite rpgs of all time over here (namely the Lunar series), so I was expecting a great experience. What happened? Blue fucking discs, that's what. Sony is notorious for fairly crappy hardware, but the kicker is that a lot of early games don't play on the older PS2s because they are cd-based (which have a blue/purplish underside) rather than dvd-based. Now what possessed working designs to release their collection on this format when they know it would cause problems for a fairly good percentage of PS2 owners is beyond me, but the real fault lies with Sony. Since I bought mine only a few months after release, it's far past warranty, so Sony won't replace/fix it for free (and don't even get me started on trying to play most dvds on the damn thing). I tried cleaning the discs, the system, and I even took my ps2 apart trying a "gauraunteed to work" trick that was on the G4techtv website, and all that led to was a couple of hours of setting it right just so it would play normal games again. PS2 is the pretty much the only system in history I'm aware of where games made specifically for it have a serious possibility of not working because a company deicided to use a particualr format that's suppossed to work on it's anyways. This pretty much ensures I won't be first in line for a PS3 since it's bound to have some horrible technical issues such as this.

The waiting is the hardest part...

So, I finally beat Shadow Hearts: Covenant last night. The last boss wasn't much of a challenge (what is it with games and final bosses either being a sinch or nearly impossible?) and the ending was very weird (something like the heroine travels back in time and actually is the hero's mother and the hero travels back in time to meet his lost love again for the first time so they can start anew). I still highly reccomend it as a good under the radar purchase (although buying the original first will help clear up much of the plot, hell I beat the first one but it was awhile ago and my memory is pretty fuzzy about it, so I was still lost at some points). But what this mainly creates is a problem. I'm an rpg nut and I pretty much always need to have one I haven't beaten handy. I have money down on Knights of the Old Republic II, but that isn't out for a few more weeks, leaving me with a pretty big void and several interesting options. There's Baten Kaitos, which looks sort of interesting but has a card based battle system and I loathe those.
Then there's Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne. This is one of those very weird titles from Japan that somehow makes it's way to our shores, but it's got a fairly interesting hook: You can't save the world, it ends ten minutes into the game apparently. You are instead integral in the rebuilding and you recruit demons to help you in your cause by negotiating with them in battle. It's sort of like Pokemon with an extremely twisted dark side. But it also has that hint of being way too Japanese for any but the truly hardcore to get into.
Then there's also Growlanser Generations. This is the LONG time coming latest release from Working Designs (note that their last rpg port was for the PS one) this is two games in one and looks to have some strong battle roots, but the last WD releases haven't exactly been quality (namely the horrific Arc The Lad Collection), although since all they really do is translate and publish, I shouldn't hang it on them, just question their judgement in brigning it over here.

Of course, I still haven't beaten Halo 2 or Ratchet & Clank: Up Your Arsenal yet, I may decide to do the reasonable thing and beat at least one of those before getting anything else (note that if I concentrate on one in particular, I'll probably have it beat by this weekend, so that may not matter much).

And on another note, the Nintendo DS finally relases next week. I'm not buying it, and I don't really plan to. Same goes for Sony's upcoming PSP portable system. Has anybody seriously looked at the release list for either of these systems? It's either kiddy crap or downgraded versions of stuff we can already buy on consoles (and don't even get me started on what a horrible idea a card-based Metal Gear game is) And while the DS' dual-screen setup is an interesting idea, I haven't seen any real inventive uses for it, even from Nintendo. Of course, I also said that I wasn't planning on getting the game boy, the super nes (diehard genesis fan at the time), the ps, the xbox, the ps2..........

Dear God Do I hate EA

You know, I've never really liked Electonic Arts. They can pretty much be noted as the company that started the idea of yearly updates of games with at best minor improvements (see all their series for example, but especially sports). And they never really supported Sega after the Genesis, which is definitely a big factor in why Sega isn't a contender in the console wars anymore (although to be fair it's just one in a long line of factors that were mostly Sega's fault). But I at least used to respect them because they usually put out some quality software.
Apparently, EA, the biggest publisher in the U.S., is getting sued for having almost sweat shop like conditions in their workplace. Now, I'm not nieve. I know that putting a game together takes a whole lot of dedication and man hours, more than most people would really be willing to commit. But what EA is doing is pretty much illegal, not much mention extremely disrespectful to those people who make the big wigs at the top so rich. And while it's unfortunately not a uncommon occurance, EA as the big dog on these shores should really be the one to step up and show that it actually gives a rat's ass about their hardest-working employees.

On a side note, I don't pay a whole lot of attention to music, but I noticed that Britney Spears just released a "Greatest Hits" album. I'm not judging on quality, but I really think you should be in the industry at least a couple of decades in order to have the right to release a greatest hits album, less other similar artists who not only suck that haven't even been around that long follow suit.

It's raining games! Hallelujah?

It's been a few days, my only excuse is that between the games coming out this week, Shadowhearts & Ratchet & Clank: Up Your Arsenal (which is my early pick for best PS2 game of the year), and planning for the big release of Halo 2 has taken up plenty of my time.

A quick movie note: Since the Incredibles is out this weekend, I thought I'd check out director Brad Bird's previous animated effort: The Iron Giant. I can easily say that this is one of the best animated films I have ever seen. Anybody who is a fan of animation or great 1950s style adventure movies should check it out, it's a great underrated classic.

Ok, so november has started, and with it a huge avalanche of high profile (if not high quality) games are coming. This week alone Up Your Arsenal, Raw vs. Smackdown & Lord of The Rings: The Third Age are out. In the next 25 days we have Halo 2, Jak III, Metal Gear Solid 3, Goldeneye :Rogue Agent, Prince of Persia 2, Blinx 2, Baten Kaitos, Viewtiful Joe 2, Metroid Prime 2, Killzone and Call of Duty: Finest Hour. And those are just the major titles. Even if you have the money, who has time to play more than a couple of these? (I'm personally just sticking to Up Your Arsenal & Halo 2 this month, maybe if I have any time Prince of Persia 2). This many titles packed into such a short time span is sure to make many deserving games not get noticed by the public. I know christmas is the big release season, but most gamers aren't little kids who depend on santa for their games anymore. They have jobs and can afford games on their own, so the game industry should really take a cue from the movie industry and spread the releases out more throughout the year. It puts less pressure on companies, allows titles to grow an audience andmore importantly, gives gamers a chance to discover and be able to afford them. Just some food for thought.