A Gamer's Opinion

Quake 4 -- Completely satisying

2006-01-06T20:10:00.000-08:00

I have just finished the first good traditional shooter since Serious Sam and
Return to Castle Wolfenstein. There's nothing wrong with the latest Quake besides the frequent crashes suffered by many folks who play the game. There are patches out for that problem now, but I still had problems playing without being ripped out of the game by errors. That aside, Quake 4 is everything It should be.
Throughout the game you are mostly by yourself, but you meet marines that help you out and move the game along. There are technicians and medics who heal and repair your armor and the techs have the added bonus of upgrading your weapons with new functions and capabilities.
Most of the weapons that appeared in Quake 2 return in Quake 4. Each one is useful in it's own way and doesn't become a bench warmer in your arsenal. I was overjoyed to see the grenade launcher again, a weapon that is tossed out or used a side feature in other shooters. Your need for a flashlight demands that you lurk through Strog territory with the machine gun which you pick up early in the game. Fortunately, it's a good weapon for all situations and I didn't mind having to use it as my flashlight. The BFG 10k is gone and in it's place is the Dark Matter gun which is like a black hole launcher (very cool).
The enemy AI wasn't so impressive, not that it had to be with the sheer brute force it had at its disposal. All your foes tend to use ambushes and numbers against you. Most of them take more than two shotgun shots to put down and require back-peddling to handle. I'm rather tired of the familiar Nazis I have to face in the large number of WWII shooters I play so the large and nail gun toting Strog are refreshing. There is some vehicle ridin' bits but they aren't particularly fun or unique, kinda weak.
I loved Quake 4 for the nostalgia of playing a Quake game. There's too few shooters that make every weapon vital and each baddy fun to fight. Even less with the fantastic Doom 3 spooky lighting and gore.

Tourette's Guy link

2005-11-28T09:05:00.000-08:00

It's argued whether or not this guy actually has Tourette's syndrome and these videos are all staged, but it's damn funny either way.

Just to warn you (in case his name didn't clue you in), this guy cusses... a lot.
http://www.tourettesguy.com/videos.htm

Solitaire

2005-11-15T08:32:00.000-08:00

Entertainment's last resort

Where are the action movies of yesterday?

2005-11-13T17:47:00.004-08:00

I saw Doom The Movie last week and that's the question I've had in my head for this past week. What happened? Movies seem worse now when they try to explain sci-fi bullshit science and try to make it believable. Would we complain if they just left it up to us to figure it out? We didn't mind in 79' with Star Wars. Lightsaber? Oh, it must be a highly concentrated laser beam. No one tells us what that is, we just accept the damn thing. The action hero of the 80's, that's what I'm missing. Predator ruled. Arnold Schwarzenegger VS an ugly alien in a battle of wits and fists. Holy shit that was pure genius! I want them to make Terminator VS Predator with no backstory whatsoever. Just have terminators walking around with chain guns led by Jesse Ventura and then Predator dropships deposit hunters into the scene. The boring human resistance dies or runs away. Do away with them however you will. Then just let the film go from there with Predators and Terminators clobbering each other because they want to. I don't pay money to have it explained to me why it would be logical to have a Predator ziggurat under the ice of Antartica. Fucking blow thousands of bugs up God damn it!
As Homer Simpson once said: "When did America stop rooting for the guy with the acid gun?"

X-Box 360 - Excited? Don't be.

2005-11-13T17:38:00.000-08:00

Just tried out the $399 console out and asked myself why the companies are coming out with a new generation of console with such a small leap in technology. You can throw tech lingo and numbers of gigs at me all day and I won't understand until I get my hands on a machine. Pheh. Remember the N64 and have you seen the Gamecube today? Big jump right? But this just looked like all the games on X-Box are available for high-end pc's. The graphics have gotten shinier, but I don't wanna spend four hundred bucks for more X-Box games that still play the same (The conroller is now white, nothing else really new besides the X button that connects to the system or whatever its supposed to do, who cares?) I'd be happy with just more new games for the current generation for another four years until someone comes out with somethign REALLY special. Like a fourth dimension.

Has it occurred to anyone that we may be the Klingons of the our galaxy?

2005-10-27T18:33:00.000-07:00

Considering how much farther advanced out military applications (all nations, not just our own) than anything else we make, you have to admit, we LOVE war.

"HEY! MY HILL!" "NO! MINE!" *Guy A kills guy B* "MY HILL!" "......." Problem solved.
The swift results of violent action evolved faster than our ability to negotiate peacefully.

And when we look at the rest of history war is the founder of almost all nations and the mother of invention. The trebuchet is one impressive piece of engineering, and much more fun to use than an architecturally inspiring and dumbfounding structure of a non-military nature. At least my inner ape says so. All those neat steels and plastics and rubber materials come from solving a problem from a war-time scenario.

Now I'm not preaching war and I'm not saying war is a good thing. I'm saying it's in our nature to dish out pain and like it, especially if it gets us what we want from stubborn opponents. Not everybody's like that right away, but I believe I can safely say when it comes to a heated argument (we all have 'em) we deep down would like to just smash some face. Ethics stops us from doing that all the time because a lot of us feel bad afterwards and its also not gonna get us what we want most of the time, but we still wanna. We even play games based on the most nightmarish events that could possibly happen to us. I'm pretty sure no war vets play Battlefield 1942 and say, "Aw, yeah! I pwned teh n00bs with my mad kamikaze skillz! W00T!" "Look at them run!" "ROFLMAO! I RAN MY FLACK TRACK INTO MY OWN BARRACKS AND BLEW UP! THEY'RE ALL ON FIRE! FRIENDLY FIRE! LOL!"

So Star Trek is even fonier when it designates the human race as the diplomats of the galaxy, tip-toeing around traditions and treaties and trying to understand alien cultures. It would be more realistic to place us right next to our battle brothers, the Klingons, bellowing "KAPLAH!"

Mortal Kombat Deception -- This old dog needs to be put down

2005-10-03T19:41:00.000-07:00

I'm not a big fan of the Mortal Kombat series so I'm somewhat set up to not like this game in the first place. Mortal Kombat has a legacy of crappy games that it's die hard fans gobble up and then scream for more. I honestly can't see why. The funny buckets of blood and brutal fatalities are fun to do for ten minutes, but the inferior fighting engine just yanks the fun right away. Unlike EVERY OTHER successful fighting game, MK decides to stick with a very strict system of lengthy combos that just widdle down the health bar. Grab moves were never a big part of MK and still are a huge minority. The combos themselves are difficult and none too impressive, unless you are amazed by a flying body getting smacked in the legs eight times. Special moves like fireballs and teleporting are just for show and tend to leave you wide open for the unforgiving AI. I felt like my character was made of wood and could only make one motion at a time and then stick in that position longer than I'd like. There is no fluid motion whatsoever. It's like controlling a robot filled with jam. The boss is still not fun to fight. Super Smash Bros. has a better fighting engine.
MK Deception has some interesting game modes like Kombat Chess and a puzzle mode. Kombat chess is like Archon which makes for some interesting strategy, but you can still not how to play Archon or chess and still win if you're the better MK fighter. Puzzle mode is a variant of Tetris which isn't fun to play. Yeah, Midway found a way to ruin Tetris.
The final line is MK sucks and always has. The reason it's alive today are all the old fans who can't get enough of the gory fun. I hate this game with a passion. Only MK fans should buy this, there is no other reason to buy this game unless you're a slave to Midway's crap fighter.

Corpse Bride -- God damn it Tim Burton

2005-10-03T19:19:00.000-07:00

Tim Burton's "The Nightmare Before Christmas" was a likeable film just like "Edward Scissor Hands" and "Beetle Juice." Today, a Tim Burton film guarantees a waste of two hours and five bucks. "Monkey Bone" was the last Burton film I saw and... yeachhh! But now he's doing the stop-motion animation again! Surely it will be the redeeming work, the savior of noir Hot Topic shoppers. Miss.
The issue with Corpse Bride is that it's... boring. If I'm a kid and want to see a PG movie, I get a long, drab movie about a loser and a small population of singing zombies and greedy parents. If I'm an adult who remembers "The Nightmare Before Christmas" I'm sorely disappointed with how inferior this movie was and how unfunny it was.
The plot basically follows another Johnny Depp (This time his name is Victor) who is forced into an arranged marriage, which isn't so bad since he likes the girl. He just can't get his wedding vows down. Then he accidentally marries a corpse and that means he gets pulled into the netherworld for some reason. The world of the dead is, for some reason, really small and just contains the dead of the nearby area of Victor's village. That and Napoleon. Then there's trouble at home with his betrothed who is targeted by some lame, lame villain who nobody would love to hate.
There's no fun in this movie. No good jokes, no good scenes, no exceptional acting. No one is impressed except Hot Topic shoppers. It wasn't terrible, but it wasn't good. Also, nobody likes singing in their movies anymore unless it's a movie about singing. It's all filler anyways so come up with a better script next time, although there shouldn't be a next time.

Land of The Dead -- Just another zombie movie

2005-07-08T14:20:00.000-07:00

All the hype about this movie led me to expect something different. The world is overrun with zombies ,or 'Stenches', who appear to be trying to act out their former roles when they were alive. This imitation behavior leads to more learning and lifts the zombies to the intelligence level of cannibalistic mongoloid cavemen.
Despite all these new features in a zombie movie it does nothing to make this feel like a different zombie flick. Now this is probably a good thing as it could have really sucked with all these elements, but I was still looking forward to a real change in the zombie genre. All you really end up with is a Mad Max or Tank Girl movie with not so dumb zombies in it. There's a big Tank called Dead Reckoning (which looks a lot like the souped-up trucks in the Dawn of The Dead remake) that gets plenty of screen time blasting zombies with chain guns and launching sky flowers to distract zombies. Plenty of dismemberment and people getting eaten alive which goes without saying of course.
The acting isn't fantastic but it doesn't suck too bad either. The ending is pretty open with no certain consequences, just the idea that life and undead life goes on.
This is a move for zombie fans who just want more zombie gore. Anyone expecting anything new will feel somewhat disappointed.

DefJam Fight for New York -- WWF and rappers, a surprising success

2005-07-01T22:18:00.000-07:00

This game has been out for two years and didn't blip on my radar until I sampled the first game Def Jam Vendetta. The sequel improves on it 100% with a character builder for story mode and a huge selection of fighters, most of whom are real live rappers that you can unlock and play as in different game modes. The fighting system is reminiscent of WWF wrestling but much deeper and it doesn't just focus on wrestling but also landing combos on your opponent with a variety of punches and kicks.
What really makes Def Jam unique is that this is a fighting game with an actual story for its story mode that you can follow without reading any history from the manual. The story isn't fantastic, but it's entertaining and provides the setting for underground fighting rings in New York. The music is from the artists who are portrayed in the game: Snoop Dog, Redman, Ludacris, and even some oldies like Flava Flav. Needless to say the music fits the game.
The arenas you fight in can be fully utilized to turn the tables on your opponent. Smash him into a wall and then kick him against it repeatedly, jump off rope posts or steel supports to perform flying attacks, or even throw your opponent against his own Hummer's windshield. Another element in the ring is the audience. They provide you with weapons such as bottles, wrenches, pool sticks, pipes and a lot of other miscellaneous crap. The crows will also hold your opponent for you to perform a tag attack or just plain beat him up with stuff. The game is a little difficult at first but when you get used to the unusual controls and fighting style the game becomes almost repetitive and easy until you reach the far end of the game.
I'm not a big rap fan but that didn't stop me from enjoying this innovative fighting game. Grab this one.

War of The Worlds -- Now includes patriotic agenda!

2005-07-01T21:40:00.000-07:00

Think of this movie as Saving Private Ryan mixed with Jaws. Spielberg uses his war movie experience to create a realistic and tense feeling as alien tripods vaporize the populace of every major city in the world. There are also the brief horrifying moments of surprise and imminent doom.
Tom Cruise manages to not annoy by being an action hero. He instead comes through as he should; a crappy weekend dad named Ray who just wants to survive invasion with his whiney kids intact. Tim Robbins plays the same guy he did in Mystic River and the same thing happens to him, he goes nuts and gets killed for it. The use of extras was excellent. Humans behaved as they usually do in rare and dangerous events. People panic, gather in large and easy-to-wipe-out groups, become mindlessly selfish, and generally do stupid and mindless acts of blind terror.
What was different about this update to War of The Worlds was that instead of just showing us invasion, Spielberg shows us phase two of the Martians plan for dominating earth.

*Spoiler Alert* We knew about blowing up cities, but we didn't know they had any interests with us personally. We learn that the Martians (tripedal ripoffs of the aliens from Independence Day) will attempt to terraform Earth by planting vines from Mars and fertilizing it with our blood. The process includes getting picked out of a basket and having a tentacle stab you with a hollow needle and sucking out your blood which gets sprayed out of the tripods vents. It was and awesome scene. I can't think of a better way of owning the predominant race of a planet you're conquering.

So if you're going to watch this movie for fun's sake and not think about it, by all means enjoy yourself. Those of you who analyze the films you see, I have annoying news.

First off, the patriotic agenda. There are several scenes that seem to symbolize that it wasn't just germs that save Earth, but the spirit of freedom living in each and every American.
When Tom runs out of his house to check out the thunder storm you see that every house on his side of the street all have American flags waving from them. Another scenes features the Minute Man statue in Boston with decaying Mars vines all over it, but the rest of the city has healthy Mars plants. This may or may not annoy you, but come on, the world is in peril, not just the USA.

Someone in the movie mentions the theory that these machines were put on earth millions of years ago so that when the plans were finished the Martians could begin their invasion. Why the hell wouldn't they invade when there was practically zero resistance on earth those million years ago?

*Spoiler Alert* Somehow Robby, Ray's son, manages to survive a front line dissolving of American tanks and makes it Grandma's house in Boston. And Grandma's house in a trashed Boston is untouched and everyone is fine. WTF!? Did we just step into a fairy tale just a little bit? They didn't even kill off the rich step-dad.

This movie is in no way smart, it's just an above par action movie that's fun to see but frustrating to think about.

Star Wars Episode III -- George Lucas' first comedy

2005-05-29T09:02:00.000-07:00

I didn't have high expectations for the final prequal to the Star Wars trilogy and that was a good thing. It hurt less to hear Anakin and Padamei talk about their... feelings. Ugh. I think George Lucas gave up and decided to make a comedy out of his last film because I haven't laughed harder at any other episode.

Some memorable quotes:

*Obi Wan and Anakin run down a corridor in an enemy space ship when a shield blocks their way*

Obi Wan: "What's this? This shouldn't be happening, we're smarter than this! What do you suggest we do?"

Anakin: "I suggest patience."

*General Grievous and Anakin send some zingers at each other*

Grievous: "From your reputation I had assumed you would be much... older."

Anakin: "From your reputation I would expect you to be much taller." OOOOO! Would you like some lotion for that BURN?

There's more where that came from. The entire movie is filled with dribble that will bring tears to your eyes, laughing.
We find out why the Emperor looks so pale and wrinkly, and it's not because he's old. Also, another funny joke is Jar Jar shows up ONCE in the entire movie in a funeral march for Padme and he doesn't say a damn thing. It seems Star Wars fans weren't the only people annoyed with Jar Jar, the entire cast of Star Wars has forgotten he even exists and don't mention him at all. Which is great.

*Spoiler Alert* Possibly the funniest moment in this great sci-fi comedy is the scene where Anakin and Obi Wan are duking it out on a lava flow. Obi jumps on to nearby ground and looks down on Anakin and proclaims "You can not win Anakin, I have the high ground." To which Anakin responded, "You have no idea how much my powers have grown!" Anakin then demonstrates just how powerful he has become by front flipping in Obi Wan's direction and, in mid air, gets three of his limbs cut off. BWAHAHAHAHAHA! And then his stumpy self starts sliding near the lava and sets on fire. Then he starts screaming and Obi Wan tells him off and walks away. This explains why the lightsaber duels in the old Trilogy aren't so fancy and elaborate. Vader fights stiffly because he's a robot and Luke learns his stuff from the worst, Obi Wan Kenobi.

What's amazing is that even when Anakin has become Darth Vader, he's still sappy. He cries ALL THE TIME. After he kills the seperatist leaders he looks at lava and cries. I won't mention all the crying done with Padme although he ends up force choking her which amused me immensely. That's why he gets a mask. Lord Sidious didn't care how ugly he got, he still showed his face. Darth Maul was ugly and he didn't care. Vader gets a mask because he cries too much and no one wants to see a Sith Lord cry. And when he finds out Padamei is dead he goes, "NOOOOOOOOOOO!" with his elbows touching his waist and arms spread out from that position, tilting backwards.

Yoda has a fight with Lord Sidious. His Kermit the frog tactics just couldn't stand up to Sidious going ape wizard shit on him with lightning and flinging objects. And Chewbacca makes an appearance. He doesn't do much. He didn't have to be in the film, but was there anyways just to say "GROWLLLUUUUR!"

Go ahead and watch this. Episode III is fun to watch no matter how corny it can get, and heck, it's Star Wars.

Yogurt says: "Space Balls The Prequal!"

2005-05-26T15:47:00.000-07:00

Mel Brooks has to make a prequal to Space Balls now and make it even more scathing than the original. It would probably not turn out as well as the original. Perfect.

Link to pointless waste of time

2005-05-24T17:39:00.000-07:00

www.pointlesswasteoftime.com

The Hitchhiker's Guide to The Galaxy -- Douglas Adams is spinning in his grave

2005-05-18T19:11:00.001-07:00

We all know book to movie projects can suck. Some are good though. The Lord of The Rings, Harry Potter, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (not that new monstrosity headed to theatres) and others I forget to mention. But God............ DAMN it did they screw up with The Guide. There's a love interest (the book didn't focus on love more than it needed to), the Vogons are turned into villains instead of just a miserable race of bad poetry writing slug people, and Zaphod Beeblebrox gets butchered in mind and body. The crazy and cool Zaphod is transformed into this over energetic Texan with a hidden third arm and a poorly placed second head (It's in his neck). It's almost as if the producers lacked the funds to animate the head during the entire movie... Ford is played by some guy, or at least that's how this guy came off as trying to pretend he was capable of playing Ford. He just sucked. Okay, look. I just looked the guy up and it turns out he's Mos Def. "Regarded as one of hip-hop's most introspective and insightful artists," (imbd.com). Jesus Christ, so they pick a rapper to play Ford Prefect? WTF?

"Hey, let's get Mos Def to play Ford Prefect!"
"Awesome idea Dick. While we're going out of our way to pick music artists to play high brow comedy characters let's get Ice-T to play Zaphod!"
"And then we can get Tom Waits to be Arthur Dent!"
"Rockin'!"

Of course this sci-fi humor classic is ruined by the physical humor that dominates the film. Any good lines from the book are gone. But boy oh boy, do people smack into stuff. Har har, shovels in faces and the ol' "Gimme a hand" and then the guy ends up getting a hand, literally. Trillian and Marvin manage to come through and not suck. Marvin was used well. Especially when he gets the Point of View Gun.

I say to everyone, avoid this movie. Be you fan or newcomer, neither of you will appreciate this film.

Kung Fu Hustle -- Stephen Chow's masterpeice

2005-04-28T16:56:00.000-07:00

Anyone who's seen Shaolin Soccer can guess what this new Stephen Chow film will be like. I'm here to tell all you guys that you have no idea how hillariously amazing this movie is. Right away there's action and it keeps on building up and getting better. Amazing special effects (kinda look fake, but it's still cool) out do Shaolin Soccer's incredible soccer goals. Kung Fu Hustle never stops being funny whether the Landlady beats the crap out of her casanova husband or Stephen Chow stomps toes into concrete. There's really no serious moments whatsoever, even with the love interest. She keeps getting mugged by the man she loves, but can't get him to recognize her because she's a mute. This is the most fun movie I've seen in recent memory.

Star Wars Kid the video game

2005-04-20T17:37:00.000-07:00

Most people already know about this internet phenomenon just like you've probably already seen that Numa Numa guy on his webcam. If you haven't had the pleasure of seeing the Star Wars Kid, here's a link: http://www.screamingpickle.com/members/StarWarsKid/

I think a video game should be made where you get to be the Star Wars Kid. It doesn't have to be Star Wars. This guy would make a great bonus Soul Calibur character, huffing and puffing as he strains to twirl his golf ball retriever in random archs. Or a beat 'em up like Dynasty Warriors or any new LOTR game.

Star Wars Republic Commandos -- Screw S.O.C.O.M.

2005-04-20T17:17:00.000-07:00

It's very hard to make a tactical FPS that all gamers can enjoy and not just the Tom Clancey novel fans. Republic Commandos and Brute Force are good examples of tactical shooters that don't require you to worry too much about other squad members so that the game dosn't become an explosive chess match. What's impressive about Commandos is the attention to detail to the Star Wars universe and real life commando tactics. When you issue a command you also communicate the message with hand signals.
Commanding your squad is easy. Simply hold down one button and choose a direction on your D-pad. 'Search and destroy', 'form up', 'hold position', and 'cancel command'. Nothing too complitcated and it's easy to learn fast. You can also command your squad members to take up positions behind cover and use certain types of weapons to fire from tht position with. You can also command them to blow up stuff, use turrets, and even a cool door breach maneuver which consist of one commando placing a charge on the lock and the other two taking cover just beside the door and when it opens one of them tosses in a grenade.
The real beauty is that you don't need to command your squad all the time. They can choose what weapons to use and take cover all by themselves. Best team AI ever. Your squad also consists of unique personalities which keep the game from being to monotonous. While you move from battle to battle your squad complains of losing count of kills or accusing one another of blowing that crate up 'just because you like doing it'.
The game is a pretty decent length and has a decent diffuculty level to it. You're not going to breeze through this one.

The Amityville Horror -- This would have sold better during Halloween

2005-04-19T18:30:00.000-07:00

Right, the oldest horror genre ever: the haunted house. It even involves tortured Indians for Christ's sake. And here you have it, a remake that was worth making and seeing right? Wrong.
Nobody dies, except for the original family that was murdered, but nobody cares about them. Well, a dog dies. Scared? Apparently it was thought that putting a child in dangerous situations that don't necessarily have to happen in a horror movie was good enough. You can watch that on the Lifetime channel. There are some cheap 'BOO! OMG! A GHOST!' scenes that will get a jump out of you, maybe. It's like M. Night Shyamalan's The Village. You were scared for nothing. While in Amityville there was a certified threat, (a possessed stepdad, YIKES!) how scary can he be? You could get the same thing from a drunk and crack smoking stepdad, why go the extra step and make the house move furniture? The house itself poses little threat to anyone. It can lock doors and shut windows, that's about it. It can shoot flys out of vents too, but only if you're stupid enough to look into the vent whispering to you. The sympathetic ghost of the murdered little girl caused more trouble than the evil house and possessed stepdad combined.
The acting isn't bad at all, and for a horror movie this one does its job to make you jump here and there, but there are better movies. Go watch Exorcist: Beginnings.

Sahara -- Six months from now nobody will remember this film

2005-04-17T08:59:00.000-07:00

I never saw National Treasure because I knew it would be like this film, an instantly forgettable treasure hunter film with white people placed in an exotic location devoid of white people. Of course these are over powered characters with Navy Seal training which seems to give you a knowledge of how EVERYTHING works and allows you to know exacly what the bad guy is planning a few thriling seconds before it happens. This is one of those "shut the hell up and enjoy yourself for a standard two and a half hours" film.
The movie is fun once you turn your brain off and start putting away some Sour Jacks. Everything has to be done to the extreme: "Oh my God! There's a helicopter chasing us!" "Shoot the pilot!" "NO! It's too SUBTLE! Throw all of the dynamite on the road and I'll shoot it so we can create a smoke screen!" **spoiler alert** "Holy crap! We just uncovered that Confederate iron clad battle ship we were looking for!" "Hey, I got a crazy idea. Let's use that one hundred and fifty year old cannon to take out the African Warlord in the helicopter becuase we know how to use it!"
Yeah, stuff like that and more stuff you've seen. Like a knife fight in a hazordous setting.
Speed boat shoot outs. "What did you do?" "I shot a guy with a flare gun." "Cool." That's an actual quote.
If your a fan of this abused genre, enjoy. As for me, I'm going to wash my brain out with Indiana Jones.

Sin City -- Max Payne meets Kill Bill meets Marvel

2005-04-17T08:24:00.000-07:00

So far this is my favorite movie of the year and will probably hold it's place as a personal #1. Sin City seems to take place during the 1950's according to all the coach jackets and old fashioned police cars, but there are cell phones. Sin City dosn't have a main plot, but is made up of short tales of urban legends and each one is bloodier than Kill Bill and potentially more disgusting than the 90's remake of The Fly. This film is NOT for those who feel for the characters pain, you do not want to feel their kind of pain.
The characters featured range from a retiring cop to a freakishly strong pill-popper and all seem to go through hell for 'the dames'. Every body talks in their head in a dark poetic manner, just like a comic book hero should.
The forces of the underworld in Sin City are not exactly what you'd expect. The prostitute mafia facing off against some mob boss' goons is something new to me. The corrupt plice force of the city employs IRA mercenaries. Also, their is a preist who employs a canabalistic Elijah Wood.
Very cool.
Again, the level of violence is amazing and the movie never seems to stop pulsing glowing, white blood on the silver screen. Several penises are damaged, and their close neighbors as well. Hands are eaten, cut off, blown off. People get hurt. All the time. Everybody. Instead of people acting I was probably watching very convincing plasma filled puppets beating the crap out of each other.
Sin City is either a movie you like or don't like. Did you like Kill Bill? If so you will like this slightly more ridiculous noir film.

Alien VS Predator -- REVIEW Flash movie presentation

2005-04-15T20:21:00.000-07:00

I feel to lazy to write up a review for this one right now, here's a fun flash that has a pretty solid recap of the movie and some good points.

http://newgrounds.com/portal/view/231099

Freedom Force VS The Third Reich -- Tragically destined for the bargain bin

2005-04-09T14:38:00.000-07:00

Freedom Force is a strategy RPG based in the world of silver age comic books. You control squads of four super heros charged with the power of Energy X and fight crime. Complete with corny one-liners and funny costumes , Irrational set the mood for the 1960's super hero. Freedom Force VS The Third Reich continues a year later after the events of the first game. You start out with four familiar heros but start recruiting new heros and some old freinds rejoin your team as the story goes on. New heros like Green Genie and Tombstone introduce some new strategies like taking direct control over ANY enemy and making him stand still while you use the rest of your heros to beat the crap out of him. Or you can change him into a flower pot and throw it far away. Good times, good times.
I can't really call this a sequal. Graphics, sound, design are all unchanged. The story follows the same formula as its predecessor. You do battle the Third Reich but there is also an underlying problem that reveals itself just when the day seems saved.
If you've played Freedom Force and liked it then you will enjoy this one as well. If your new to the Freedom Force universe you will want to play the first game so you can undersatnd what's going on in the second.

The secret to a great movie/game: Likeable Antagonists

2005-04-02T17:00:00.000-08:00

The dull and sun shiney days of Disney villains are over! No more dumb henchmen who foil their own lame ass master's plans! Today's movie and game consumers crave something more than some cruel moron! We want characters like Sephiroth from FF VII and Bill from Kill Bill! Hell, any antagonist from Kill Bill would fit the bill. I'm talking about smart and cunning bad guys who reak evil and dont slip on bananna peels unless it's part of a really cool plan to destroy the world. Nobody liked Daredevil for its villains, or at all come to think of it. They all sucked. In Hell Boy the villains were all for shit except that demon that kept multiplying every time it died. The fight scene in the subway ruled!
Observing a story from the hero's point of view is done and done. Let's try with the bad guy and let him win a few rounds of 'conquer the universe' just to even the score. Wouldn't it be cool to win everything instead of just the girl and the warm feeling of a good deed done for once? When the game ends and the credits roll, I want to see my bad ass castle overlooking a burning city and my armies marching on dead peasants. Then I laugh for a good while and eat some grapes. The end. That would rule...

MechAssault: Lone Wolf -- Best five hours I've had blasting Mechs

2005-03-26T09:09:00.000-08:00

MechAssault does its job in that it out does its predecessor and is even more fun to play. The sound is better as well as the look of the game. An exploding mech was never so spectacular. The first time I blew one up I thought I'd created a black hole. All the mechs are back as well as some new ones. Flamethrowers have also been introduced for all those melee combat fans. You get to climb out of your mech on a whim and hop into the new battle armor, tanks, and the VETOL, a flying vehicle transport. There's a new neuro hack feature that allows you to hack consoles and mechs (in you battle armor) by playing Simon with your controller.
Also new in MechAssault are boss fights with big mechs you don't get to pilot. Both are fun and fairly challenging. The final boss is reminiscent of Quake 2 and makes for a frantic and fast paced battle. My personal favorite boss fight in recent memory.
There are only two issues that I have with the game.
The game is five hours long. That's not $50 worth of gameplay goddammit! The game features a great online mode called Conquest and that's what I think is supposed to be the reason to get this game, but I don't have X-Box Live dammit! I want to play more MechAssault!
The other prolem is the music. Korn and Poppa Roach made the music for this game and while sets the mood for blowing stuff up, I hate Korn's lyrics. All those guys ever sing about is self inflicted pain and self loathing. Sing about kicking the others guy's ass!
Those are the only problems I have with Lone Wolf. MechAssault is better than ever and makes for fun multiplayer.

Online Gaming killed Game Length! YOU BASTARDS!

2005-03-26T07:50:00.000-08:00

I don't know if developers are just getting lazier or if deadlines are responsible, but games are shrinking and it's pissing me off. I beat MechAssault: Lone Wolf in 5 hours on a friday night. It was supposed to be brand-fucking-new and now it's officially used. This is the most absurd game length I've ever seen, but it was a close race. Warhammer 40k: Dawn of War is an RTS with FOUR races but only ONE eleven-mission campaign. Ten hours. Call of Duty can be beaten in a day,but it takes that long from all the dying.
I was certain game developers were aware that gamers tend to play games longer than people who play games once in a while in half hour sessions. We are not getting our fifty dollars worth in game length, and it's all online gaming's fault. Online gaming is huge. It makes Everquest money and now Blizzard has followed suit with World of Warccraft. Half-Life has a bunch of mods that see millions of players fragging each other over and over again. I love online gaming too, but I'm missing single player games like Freedom Force or Half-Life that last a long time and make you love every minute of it. I feel that the industry is slowly moving towards the online experience and away from stories played out by the individual gamer.
Yes, there are still games that focus on single player gameplay. Farcry,
Half-Life 2, Halo 2, and there are plenty of RPG's out there that are not massively multiplayer, but I keep buying great games full of potential that end way too soon and seem to insist that I should play online.

Robots--No Shrek 2, but thank God it's no Ice Age

2005-03-25T20:54:00.000-08:00

Dreamworks makes another computer generated movie and it scores just below Shrek 2. Great for the kiddies and tolerable to anyone above 12 and even funny at times. Awesome city ackgrounds with all these weird and cool devices and junky vehicles that you wind up or act like a slinky. The plot is the old ,"I'm going to the big city to make mom and pop proud!" and then pow, reality bites the poor guy in the shiny, metal ass. Fortunately, Robin Williams' character is there to help the poor guy out by annoying the living shit out of him and then stealing his leg. There's a funny armpit noises scene and a cool sequence of dominos falling over.
Roy (main character) makes some friends, confronts big business, and leads a rebellion against both the underworld and overlord of Robot City with the help of his bright and colorful freinds. Dreamworks also includes another dark Tom Waits song which is just as appropriate as it was in The Poison Apple pub in Shrek 2. Tom Waits rules. Robots is okay. Not bad, not too good, it's a kid movie, but if you're the one taking the kids you'll enjoy the movie some as well.

Alien VS Predator 2 -- Online psychology

2005-03-21T15:24:00.000-08:00

Before I get into the psychology, let me just say this is an awesome game that fulfills everyone's wish to take on the role as the Alien or Predator as they are portrayed in their respecting films. Or be a marine and piss yourself.

Now I will talk about the online psychology I experience and see others demonstrate.

In online gaming there's this mindset that's pretty common:

"Hell yeah! Pwned!" This is said/typed all over America in games of Counterstrike, Tribes, Unreal, Team Fortress Classic, and so on. But there isn't really any other game out there that allows you to switch classes and species at the same time.

The mindsets of the Alien, Predator, and Marine are very different. Observe:

Alien: "Seek out, destroy. Don't care about dying, keep going!" Players taking on the role as Alien are all out offensive and (although they can be sneaky) tend to carelessly slither across maps looking for something to bite. I just recently experienced a berserk moment when 2 aliens having trouble killing a bunny-hopping marine are joined by five more. The marine goes down, but aliens keep scratching at his corpse, removing the head, an arm and a leg. I was one of the first two aliens and we didn't fail to notice the marine had died, but were aggravated by his stubborn will to live and vented our rage on his corpse. How's that for playing out your role?

Marine: "Aw nuts, what was that!? Is that a rock? I hope that's a rock... SOMTHING MOVED! BLAMBLAMBLAMBLAMBLAM!" I'm not terrified when I play as a marine, but I'm a lot more cautious. I'm slower and have no special abilities other than a good selection of weaponry and plenty of ammo and armor. I hide behind doors and obstacles, pause to check my motion scanner and listen for growling.

Predator: "Heheheheh, bet he's wondering where his head went." The Predator role is that of a sneaky and careful hunter. These guys tend to be pretty cocky and like sniping. I don't like playing Predator because I don't like playing with equipment that demands careful and skillful use. A lot of Predator weapons demand careful aim and patience, but every kill is rewarding.

Constantine -- Meh...

2005-03-06T14:00:00.000-08:00

Constantine was ok, I have no real complaints about this movie except one. I don't know if it was the theatre speakers set on low, but throught the entire movie it seems everybody is whispering. I could hardly make out what people were talking about! "Psst! Pssst pssst. Demons are mumble mumble... AIEEEE!" Yeah, the movie was even more thrilling because I didn't know what was going on. Something about Satan's son wanting to enter our plane of existence and Gabriel helping him out. Satan was the only likeable character in the whole movie in that he was a beleivable Satan and not annoying like that guy in Legend. Keanu tries to act like The Matrix Reloaded and Revolution never happened and he's still cool. He flips off demons and calls them assholes. What a tough guy. He also never stops smoking, ever. Every scene had someone get wet, drenched, or drowned. The suporting actress (don't know her name, but she's not important and I'll be damned if I see her in another film that isn't shit) has two seperate scenes where she gets drenched in a thin white shirt, revealing her o so sexy black bra. Great, that's why I came to see this movie, wet t-tshirt contest with one contestant.

I really only like the end of the film, where Gabriel (supposedly female, hard to tell due to incredibly flat chest) makes the big mistake of attacking Satan. I've never felt so strongly that anybody was as FUCKED as she was. And boy, was she ever fucked.

Constantine knows some cool Excorcism tricks like holding a cat in your lap with your feet in a bucket of water in order to go to hell. Then he goes all out Hellsing with some sort of golder crucifix gun and his snotty sidekick with blessed shotgun slugs.

This movie is alright if you're too scared to watch Exorcist Beginnings and want to claim to have seen a scary movie, but its not scary. Its a cheap action flick with crappy cg scenes (Hellsing did it better) and has Keanu Reeves in it so people will actually come to see it. I watched it because it's my duty to find out whether a movie is crap or not, and I wasn't about to sit through Boogey Man or
Hide and Seek.

How to Destroy America -- FF7 Tamagachi

2005-02-23T12:18:00.000-08:00

During the brief digital pet craze in America, Tamagachi was the leading factor of school detentions. You had to take care of those things 24/7 at work, in school, even at night. Probably the most inconvenient fad ever.

Final Fantasy is the longest and best RPG I've ever played. Very addicting, soaking up entire weekends for five months.

Now what if you combined the two and sold it to American consumers? Not only would you have to take care of your characters 24/7, but you would also be compelled to progress a near endless story line and possibly die in a fight. Then you would have to start over and hatch Cloud from your egg and raise him back up to fighting form! The older and disinterested working class and business owners would eventually die off, leaving only the young and addicted. American economic progress would grind down to a halt, effectively crippling the nation and rendering it vulnerable for invasion.

The only other thing that could possibly be worse would be Everquest for Gameboy DS with free subscriptions.

Why can't popular critics be honest?

2005-02-22T17:42:00.000-08:00

Every time a movie comes out, and it dosn't matter what kind, you get these kiss ass critics to write down a short quote that says "Breathtaking...," or "It's an 'edge of your seat' thriller," or even, "Hilarious and funny." We've heard all of these. The last one boils my blood because funny and hilarious are the same thing.

Here's what movie posters with those reviews on 'em should look like:

Team America Speech -- The three kinds of people in the world today

2005-02-22T17:36:00.000-08:00

I love the infamous speech from Team America. It's right and there's no one who can disagree with it. It describes the three kinds of people in the world and how they work together.

"Pussies don't like dicks because pussies get fucked by dicks. But dicks also fuck assholes. Assholes that just want to shit on everything. Pussies may think they can deal with assholes their way. But the only thing that can fuck a asshole is a dick, with some balls. The problem with dicks is they fuck too much or fuck when it isn't appropriate. And it takes a pussy to show them that. But sometimes pussies can be so full of shit that they become assholes themselves. Because pussies are only an inch and a half away from assholes. I don't know much about this crazy, crazy world, but I do know this. If you don't let us fuck this asshole we're going to have our dicks and pussies all covered in shit."

Robots, Mokeys, Ninjas, and Pirates: An interesting concept from my dad

2005-02-20T10:20:00.000-08:00

http://www.viciouscyclone.com/Adz/Ad003.html

Someone pointed out to me the other day that geeks seem to love three things: robots, monkeys, and pirates. I agreed, but now I'm thinking there's a fourth: ninjas.

Pirates, robots, monkeys, ninjas. Now THERE is a movie concept. It almost doesn't matter what they do. Just put all four in there and it's sure to be great to watch. Same team? Four different teams? Various alliances? Or just getting through daily life. I'd watch 'em all. I'd love it if someone researched all the best movies of each kind, and *especially* pointed out ones where they appear in combination.

That Johnny Depp movie was a great pirate movie. But there were no robots or monkeys or ninjas. It has zombie pirates, which was pretty cool. Zombies are contenders for fifth place. And zombie *pirates* well, that's pretty cool. But zombies all on their own can't compete with The Big Four.

Why is that there are so many zombie movies, and hardly any monkey movies? Monkeys rock! Maybe it's because zombies have this one compelling urge, this drive. And monkeys just want to eat and sleep and do flips. So monkeys can't be by themselves in a movie. They are great supporting characters for somebody else who has DRIVE. Like say, a pirate or a robot or a ninja.

I'm thinking the ninjas are jealous because they think everyone likes pirates and monkeys and robots better.
Pirates probably have the same complex.
Monkeys are just glad to be alive, and GIVE ME THAT FRUIT!
Robots want to make more robots. Or something. They are compelled do to stuff by their programming. They're pissed that they can't overcome their programming with will power.

Pirates and ninjas have like, a job.
Robots are always getting put to work somewhere.
Monkeys just hang out all the time.

Yes, yes. Definitely good material here.

Let's get writing! Movie script! The time is right!

Link to The Best Web Page In The Universe

2005-02-13T19:37:00.000-08:00

http://maddox.xmission.com/

Star Trek -- Advanced Christmas Light Technology

2005-02-04T18:01:00.000-08:00

If you've ever seen any episode of Star Trek, you know they must have a hell of a time replacing lightbulbs from fights.
"OMFG! WE JUST GOT HIT BY GREEN DOTS!" *FZZT* "ARGH! The one lightbulb that powers our 'sensors' just exploded! Replace it! EAT PEN LASER KLINGON! ALRIGHT! THEIR HULL IS FILLING UP WITH DARK! We must have hit their blue tube filled with lots of christmas lights that flash on and off! Replacing those is gonna be a bitch!"
"SIR! WE'VE LOST LIGHTBULBS 209 THROUGH 550 ON DECK 12! OUR ENGINEERS CAN'T SEE!"
"Send a team down there with flashing garage door openers. That's got to do something!"
"AIGH! ROCKS JUST EXPLODED OUT OF MY CONSOLE!"
"TELL OUR ONE MEDICAL OFFICER TO BRING UP A HEALING FLASHLIGHT BEAM!"

And how about those diplomatic mishaps?
"God damn it! How was I supposed to know looking at the ridge of her nose was offensive? Every damn thing that isn't human has some kinda weird bump or wrinkle on its forehead!"
"Gee Cap'n, I dunno how you're going to get outta this one. Looks like you have to do another one of those ritual honor duals with weird ice picks with lots of rules but their seems to be a big, glaring loop hole we can exploit so nobody has to die, at least nobody human."
"Really? What do I have to do?"
"All you have to do is cut off your opponents left testicle and eat it. They consider this taking away a warriors honor and adding it to your own. They won't be offended and we can continue freindly trade between our planets! I don't know how I could live without green love slaves."

Movie Concept -- The Cool Factor

2005-01-22T13:59:00.000-08:00

In most action movies I've noticed a certain element in characters that keeps repeating itself.
I call it the Cool Factor. The Cool Factor determines how powerful someone is and how long they are likely to last in the movie. Characters with a high coolness are powerful and usually last for the majority of the film. However, coolness comes with a cost. Cool* characters sacrifice intelligence and common sense for strength and skill. Characters who are too cool are usually too stupid to survive the film (most villains). Lame and uncool characters usually have more common sense and knowledge than the cool ones. These characters also usually do not survive becuase they lack the cool to defend themselves and require cool characters to defend them. Thusly the hero and sidekick. Examples of such pairings are: The Tick and Arthur, Blade and Abraham, Hell Boy and John Myers. Such parings are usually unbeatable as the combined intelligence and coolness beats most opponents.
Another element of the Cool Factor are the characters who I call "cool ninjas". Not ninja ninjas. Ninjas, like the ones in Elektra, are so cool that they're realy stupid and in one scene they all crashed through windows in the same small room without even looking inside. They all died in a fiery explosion from a leaky gas oven lit up by a candle. A little caution would have saved the mission. Cool ninjas are those characters who are deceptively uncool, but will wow the shit out of you with their unveiled coolness. Yoda, Gandalf the Gray, Stick, and Su Hua-Chi from
Drunken Master are all masters at disguising their cool. These characters have the added bonus of actual brain power to go with their cool, making them demi gods. Cool ninjas tend to train cool characters, even though they can't seem to teach them anything that dosn't involve kicking ass.

Elektra -- Crap

2005-01-22T13:27:00.000-08:00

I should have known after Daredevil this was crap, but I went and saw it anyways. The movie is about Elektra (Jennifer Garner) after her experiences in New York with Daredevil (Ben Affleck). Revived by the mystical and blind Stick (Terence Stamp) Elektra becomes an asassin and accepts a job that places her on an island with Mark Miller (Goran Visnjic) and his thirteen year old daughter Abby (Kirsten Prout). The background is that there's been a war between the forces of good and evil for centuries and now both sides are looking for the "Treasure", a person with unique and powerful abilities. *SPOILER* The Treasure turns out to be the annoying 13 year old american girl Abby. So many times in the movie I just wanted to step into the scene and strangle her so she'd shut up! For being a martial arts prodegy, she was exceedingly gabby and weak. All she could do was sling this bracelet around and beat up non-main characters. Elektra succeeded in pissing me off as well. Throughout the movie she's constantly whipping her sigh's in the same circular motion like she's hot shit. And when people se her want to say hi, she appears behind them in a flash like she's showing off. The forces of evil are headed by a Japanese council (those evil Japs!) that sends super stupid ninjas and assassins to kill Elektra and Abby. They're stupid in that one of them smashes a tree half with a branch, and while it's falling the baddy seems to forget about it (even with all the noise its making) and pursues Abby. Squished.
Yeah, this movie sucked, and is another reminder that the Marvel movies are merely a fad for Hollywood's lack of imagination these days. Go see House of Flying Daggers.

Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War -- Almost good

2005-01-15T08:50:00.000-08:00

Dawn of War could have been so much better than it was. It was like
Relic Entertainment got bored after making a single campaign of eleven missions and decided to ship it off so they wouldn't have to finish the rest of the over-acted story. For fifty bucks plus tax you get eleven missions and multiplayer.

Hey, Relic, let us look at other, better RTS games and learn a little. Blizzard brought us Warcraft and Starcraft with each giving a seperate campaign for EACH race. Not just the Humans, but the Protoss, Zerg, Orcs, Undead,and Night Elves all had their own campaigns with around ten missons each or more. Also, Westwood gave us Command and Conquer, each game letting us play all the forces. HOW COULD YOU NOT FOLLOW THEIR EXAMPLE?!

The one campaign you play on Dawn of War is easy, very easy, and can be beaten in about nine hours. So this new game lasted three days for me, and now it's done? Ah, but there is the skirmish and multiplayer, which I suppose Relic thought would make up for its laziness. It dosn't. Skirmish has many uninteresting game modes which you've had plenty of practice of in the campaign. The multiplayer is fine, but really is just a contest of who can play faster and create the bigger army and crush everyone else. No strategy required. There is tons of micro management in equipping and reinforcing infantry squads, upgrading all kinds of weaponry and abilities, and improving structures. Thankfully, the resource system is very simple and requires almost no worrying about. In maps there are several capture points that, when captured, give you points to buy things with. You receive a constant flow of "requisition" from these points so long as they are yours. The other resource is power which is handled by building structures (they all have different names so I'll call them power plants) that dish out power. Power dosn't power anything, It's just a secondary resource that's required to buy bigger units.

Dawn of War has four races: Space Marines (campaign race), Orks, Eldar, and the forces of Chaos (evil space marines). Each race is unique and fun to play, but all primarily focus on the same thing: make the biggest army. Unless you are the
Space Marines, then all you need is three squads and you can wipe out hordes of Orks easily and many more Eldar just as easily.

The game does a good job with the maps. Urban fights are crater ridden and filled with bombed out gothic churches and... well, it's all gothic but it looks great! The terrain always looks great, whether it's a jungle or snowy mountains.

The sound is okay, terrible over-acting (except for the cockney Orks) from responding units that have to tell whole scriptures from the Imperial Codex or the mythology of the Eldar.

This could have been a way better game if it had include more missions for those people who don't like the multiplayer, or at least it would be worth the fifty bucks you paid for it.

Serious Sam -- Under rated, but not out gunned

2005-01-08T21:07:00.000-08:00

About three years ago a shooter came out that simplified and enhanced the FPS experience. Serious Sam: The First Encounter, a shooter of gargantuan proportions, is probably the most fun and least complicated shooter I have ever seen.
The story is meaningless so I won't go into it, all you have to know is that Earth is in trouble and Sam 'Serious' Stone is sent into the ancient past to stop the trouble from ever starting.
During the first levels, you may think this is a very retro shooter, using the same level design concepts Quake and Doom used. Randomly placed monsters and secret passages. Once you get passed the warm-up and face the first large arena rooms, then the true nature of this game shows itself. You use very large and well supplied guns to blast away about, oh, 500 beasties of varied appearances and roles in combat in huge arenas in and outdoors. The fast paced action of the game is non-stop and with plenty of monsters lunging out at you from unchecked corners and trap doors.
Your weapons are largely huge and rapid firing with the exception of shotguns and pistols. During the game you use things like a quad laser cannon, minigun, rapid firing rocket launcher, and an even a cannon that fires a single iron ball that rolls right over/through large numbers of foes.
The levels all take place in ancient Egypt and all over Egypt. Almost all of the maps are massive, jam packed with mutants and aliens and fitting several arenas within. All are beautiful and fun to explore.
Serious Sam has a nice sense of humor throughout its length, most of it coming from Sam's one liners.
While Serious Sam really dosn't bring anything new to the table it still has plenty to offer and isn't as short as games appear to be these days. Hours of amazed entertainment come out of playing this alone, but
cooperating in these levels with up to sixteen freinds is unbeleivably fun.

Prince of Persia -- AW, DAMMIT! NOT AGAIN!

2005-01-03T18:43:00.000-08:00

Prince of Persia: The Warrior Within is what happens when you take those annoying jumping puzzles from other games (like shooters, ugh!) and put some creativity into them. Dash across walls over great gaping pits in the floor, roll under traps, run up walls, jump from pillar to pillar, and much much more. The drawback to all these neat acrobatics is that you will mess up in a series of death defying jumps and die MANY, MANY times. The game's length is probably shorter than it seems, but all the retrying and dying makes it longer.
What makes this game playable are the time controlling abilites the Prince can use to survive messing up over a spike pit. The #1 useful ability being Recall, which allows you to do over the last ten seconds of your life. So if you mess up once, die and then try, die, and try again.
The only reason I found to play this game all the way through was the fun fighting system. The Prince is just as acrobatic in combat as he is in maneuvering through the palace. Throwing your foes into each other, walls,and spike pits is very satyisfying, but not as satisfying as stealing an opponents weapon and cutting off his head with it in a smooth combo of moves. The Prince can also jump off walls or swing around pillars to fend off multiple opponents.
This game is not about sound or graphics but does a fair job in both departments.
If you're looking for a different game and don't mind tedious do overs, this is a great game to play.

Halo 2 -- More of the same

2005-01-01T22:53:00.000-08:00

I liked the first Halo. It was the best shooter around at the time, excluding Counter Strike. A few years later and Halo 2 comes out after several push backs. You'd think Ubisoft had had enough time to come out with a true sequal but instead they bring to you a large expansion pack.

Ubisoft has given us some new enemies like drones and brutes. Drones (in essence) are flying grunts and brutes are tougher elites that go berserk. I enjoyed the addition of the drones but the brutes seemed tacked on to serve the story line. They and the Elites are fighting for the favor of the Heiarchy. This gives the player someone to shoot as an Elite when the game shifts from Cheif's point of view.

Weapons have seen a lot of editing and additions, most of which for the worse if you ask me.
The assault rifle has been renamed "submachine gun" and in the rifle department now lies the Battle Rifle. It has burst fire and zoom, which is great for multiplayer but really sucks in the actual game. I use it to kill grunts until I find a plasma rifle (unchanged). The pistol has gone to hell with no zoom, looooooower damage, and it's hard to find. Many more addtions to the weapons lineup are uninteresting, temporarily satisfying, or just plane unnecessary.

The story line is about as interesting as the previous and is no more humorous.

Halo 2 does deliver with visuals from better looking models (freind and foe) to terrain ranging from a middle-eastern city to ancient ruins on another Halo.

I enjoyed Halo 2 the first time I played it through, but that was about it. I felt like I had played it before. Halo 2 is an above average shooter, but does not raise the bar as its predecessor.

Half-Life 2 -- The Anti-Halo

2005-01-01T22:29:00.000-08:00

So everybody talks about the big ol' Halo 2. I never hear about Half-Life 2 no matter what gamer I talk to. Here's why that pisses me off. HL 2 delivers more as a sequal, has better story writing, better graphics, and holds the doorway to the best on-line gaming to date! HL 2 is an amazing game.
This is the first game where I could say the sound was 10 out of 10. Grenades make great echoing *poom* sounds and the shotgun never sounded more satyifying. Every weapon has its own purpose and is not interchangable with any other.
You actually care what happens to your freinds. The characters are extremely well developed and compelling. Great, great voice acting.
Visually this game conquers all. Beaches, rivers in the country side, dark nightmarish alleys and sewers, all are beautifully rendered and set the mood as if you were at the site.
HL 2 takes full advantage of physics in giving you problems to solve, weapons to propel at your foes, and cover you can move with you.
My only complaint is long loading times passing in between areas.
If you're going to play game and enjoy every damn minute of it, might as well make it this one.

Greetings

2005-01-01T13:21:00.000-08:00

Welcome to my blog! Here you will find my own personal reviews of games and movies. If you're looking for huge range of titles, you'll probably need to check another site. I only review the stuff I have and hope to turn you on to some of them.