I'm sure by this point the majority of you out there have already seen The Dark Knight at least once. Myself, I've seen it 3 times, and I plan on seeing it at least 4 more times when it reaches my local cinema. I'll talk very shortly about my thoughts on the film.
The movie really is amazing. Heath Ledger is the Joker. Aaron Eckhart is Two-Face. Gary Oldman is Jim Gordon. Christian Bale plays Batman. The Batman voice isn't as over-act"y" as it was in Batman Begins, but it's still kind of bad. Just look at the scene when he says, "I'm not wearing hockey pads." He sounds like he is trying to yell with a bad case of laryngitis. Overall, the movie really is solid. It is one of the best superhero movies I've seen, and one of the better crime dramas I've ever seen. If for some reason you haven't seen it, well, you can't be alive so there's no point in talking to you then.
I think The Dark Knight is going to make people forget about some really great other movies this year. The Incredible Hulk was a great film, to me. I thought it was on par with Iron Man, and better in some ways. The problem is that, with The Dark Knight, most people are going to forget about The Incredible Hulk, especially since it was right after Iron Man as well.
The other big movie I think might get pushed to the wayside is Wall*E. Wall*E is just so endearing, charming, and a great piece of cinematic art. I found myself laughing, crying, and cheering along with the movie. It was really breathtaking, and it just proves that Pixar can do no wrong (What's that about Cars? I've never heard of such a film. It's like all these people trying to tell me about some movie called Batman and Robin. Something about Bat Nipples. Very frightening).
Overall, yes, The Dark Knight was amazing. It showed that a movie based on a comic book franchise can have depth, evoke emotion, and really pull the viewer in, even if they haven't read the entire back catalog of comic book stories related to the character. Just don't let it make you forget about all the other movies that have come out, or are yet to come out, this year.
Friday, August 1, 2008
Sunday, June 22, 2008
Carlin
I just got the news in this very early hour of the morning that George Carlin died yesterday, on June 22. He went in to the hospital complaining of chest pains and died of heart failure. This really is one of the saddest days in a long time for comedy. The only other time I could remember being this upset was when Richard Pryor passed away. George Carlin really was one of the last great comedians we had left.
I'm assuming that everyone has at least heard of George Carlin, but if you haven't, do yourself a favor and just listen to some of his stuff they have up on youtube. He was like no other, and he will never be forgotten.
Joe bless you, George Carlin. Joe bless.
I'm assuming that everyone has at least heard of George Carlin, but if you haven't, do yourself a favor and just listen to some of his stuff they have up on youtube. He was like no other, and he will never be forgotten.
Joe bless you, George Carlin. Joe bless.
Thursday, June 19, 2008
More on Spore and Life in General
OK, I know I just talked a lot about Spore in my previous post, but I just gotta say a little bit more on it. I now have the full version of the Creature Creator, and it adds a lot to the creation process. You now have access to carnivore only mouths, although herbivore mouths are missing from the set. You also get to have full-on human hands and feet, as well as a few new cool looking weapons and such.
HOWEVER. My big beef with the Creature Creator. The price. $10 is not a whole lot of money, I know. However, when you pay for the Creature Creator, you do not have access to the full creature creator, as promised. We were told that, for those who only wanted the Creator Creature part, or for those who couldn't wait until September for the game, that you could buy the full Creature Creator aspect of the game. You pay the $10, and it's still not the full game. Bullshit.
I have gotten to spend some good time with Grand Theft Auto IV, and I'm very impressed. Or rather, I would be impressed if all the supposed "new" gameplay elements hadn't been done before. Does anyone remember a little game called Saints Row? If not, here is a quick rundown. Saints Row was a GTA/sandbox game that came out early on in the life of the Xbox 360. It offered all the best parts of the GTA franchise, and so much more. Pretty much everything you had ever wanted in a GTA game, was in Saints Row.
Now, let's look at the parts of GTA IV that have been changed. The cell phone. GTA IV seems to focus quite a bit on the cell phone. You can call contacts to get missions, arrange meetings, and so forth. The phone is also how you put in cheat codes. Just dial a number and you have weapons, or body armor, or a car. And it even remembers the cheats for you in a nice little menu. How lovely. Saints Row already did it. In Saints Row, when a new mission was available, they would call you and tell you to meet them to begin the next mission. They also had you dial in cheats, and would remember them in a handy cheat menu on the phone. How lovely, again.
The retooled gunfight system. In GTA IV, you can now free aim or choose to auto-target different people. Also, you can aim wherever you want while driving as well. Once again, Saints Row did all of this already.
Cars. While driving, if you hit an oncoming car while going very fast, or if you smash into a wall, you will fly through the windshield, taking damage. Back in Saints Row, you could smash through your windshield in a crash, taking damage.
GTA IV now has online multiplayer. Saints Row had online multiplayer.
I think you get my point. But don't get my wrong, I like GTA IV. It's a very beautiful game, and it's well made. Most importantly, it's fun. I just can't help but feel like this has all been done before, and Rockstar saw how well it worked, so they took all the good ideas and wrapped it in Liberty City.
HOWEVER. My big beef with the Creature Creator. The price. $10 is not a whole lot of money, I know. However, when you pay for the Creature Creator, you do not have access to the full creature creator, as promised. We were told that, for those who only wanted the Creator Creature part, or for those who couldn't wait until September for the game, that you could buy the full Creature Creator aspect of the game. You pay the $10, and it's still not the full game. Bullshit.
I have gotten to spend some good time with Grand Theft Auto IV, and I'm very impressed. Or rather, I would be impressed if all the supposed "new" gameplay elements hadn't been done before. Does anyone remember a little game called Saints Row? If not, here is a quick rundown. Saints Row was a GTA/sandbox game that came out early on in the life of the Xbox 360. It offered all the best parts of the GTA franchise, and so much more. Pretty much everything you had ever wanted in a GTA game, was in Saints Row.
Now, let's look at the parts of GTA IV that have been changed. The cell phone. GTA IV seems to focus quite a bit on the cell phone. You can call contacts to get missions, arrange meetings, and so forth. The phone is also how you put in cheat codes. Just dial a number and you have weapons, or body armor, or a car. And it even remembers the cheats for you in a nice little menu. How lovely. Saints Row already did it. In Saints Row, when a new mission was available, they would call you and tell you to meet them to begin the next mission. They also had you dial in cheats, and would remember them in a handy cheat menu on the phone. How lovely, again.
The retooled gunfight system. In GTA IV, you can now free aim or choose to auto-target different people. Also, you can aim wherever you want while driving as well. Once again, Saints Row did all of this already.
Cars. While driving, if you hit an oncoming car while going very fast, or if you smash into a wall, you will fly through the windshield, taking damage. Back in Saints Row, you could smash through your windshield in a crash, taking damage.
GTA IV now has online multiplayer. Saints Row had online multiplayer.
I think you get my point. But don't get my wrong, I like GTA IV. It's a very beautiful game, and it's well made. Most importantly, it's fun. I just can't help but feel like this has all been done before, and Rockstar saw how well it worked, so they took all the good ideas and wrapped it in Liberty City.
Monday, June 16, 2008
Thoughts on Spore Demo
So I recently acquired the demo for the Creature Creator for the upcoming PC game Spore. For those of you not in the know, Spore is a game that basically combines a lot of different games into a giant, life simulation game. You start out in the primordial ooze as a simple, tiny organism consuming single-celled organisms to evolve, and eventually you create a creature that crawls out of the water and continues to evolve. The game evolves into a Civilization-type city building game, then you gain access to a space ship, where the game becomes a sandbox game, where you can explore the galaxy.
The Creature Creator aspect of the game is being released this Tuesday, a full 3 months ahead of the full game release, in order to satiate gamers hunger for Spore content. Also, it is a blatant cash grab, since the Creature Creator will sell for about $10 and offers no discount for when you purchase the full game. However, this isn't about that, but about the semi-game itself.
It is really amazing. You hear the people working on a game talk about how great it is, but they don't always deliver on the actual content (I'm looking at you, Peter Molyneux and John Romero). However, Will Wright really is right on when he says you are limited only by your imagination. If you can think it, you can make it, as long as you have the patience depending on complexity. You start with basically a lump of clay with a spine. You can make the basic lump longer or shorter, and make each section bigger or smaller. Then, you can add on any number of arms, legs, eyes, "weapons", and such. Even though the demo only contains about 1/3 of the parts of the full Creature Creator, there is a lot to work with there. I had to create about 20 some creatures before I started to feel like I was running out of options.
There are very few limitations on what you can and cannot do. There is what is called a complexity meter, which tells you how complex the creature is. Once it reaches the max, it becomes too complex to be able to operate, and you have to remove some parts before you can place more. I've tried to make creatures with insane amounts of parts just to test the limits, and none of them look like anything you would really want to create.
Overall, I'm really excited about this game all over again. I can't wait to get the full Creature Creator on Tuesday, and I'm even more excited about getting Spore in September. If you weren't too sure of what to think about Spore before, trust me, just download the Creature Creator and it will most likely rest any doubts you had.
Thanks for reading everyone.
Han Offa Primoris
The Creature Creator aspect of the game is being released this Tuesday, a full 3 months ahead of the full game release, in order to satiate gamers hunger for Spore content. Also, it is a blatant cash grab, since the Creature Creator will sell for about $10 and offers no discount for when you purchase the full game. However, this isn't about that, but about the semi-game itself.
It is really amazing. You hear the people working on a game talk about how great it is, but they don't always deliver on the actual content (I'm looking at you, Peter Molyneux and John Romero). However, Will Wright really is right on when he says you are limited only by your imagination. If you can think it, you can make it, as long as you have the patience depending on complexity. You start with basically a lump of clay with a spine. You can make the basic lump longer or shorter, and make each section bigger or smaller. Then, you can add on any number of arms, legs, eyes, "weapons", and such. Even though the demo only contains about 1/3 of the parts of the full Creature Creator, there is a lot to work with there. I had to create about 20 some creatures before I started to feel like I was running out of options.
There are very few limitations on what you can and cannot do. There is what is called a complexity meter, which tells you how complex the creature is. Once it reaches the max, it becomes too complex to be able to operate, and you have to remove some parts before you can place more. I've tried to make creatures with insane amounts of parts just to test the limits, and none of them look like anything you would really want to create.
Overall, I'm really excited about this game all over again. I can't wait to get the full Creature Creator on Tuesday, and I'm even more excited about getting Spore in September. If you weren't too sure of what to think about Spore before, trust me, just download the Creature Creator and it will most likely rest any doubts you had.
Thanks for reading everyone.
Han Offa Primoris
Sunday, June 15, 2008
It Has Begun
So, hi there. My name is Chris, and I'm a geek. I really love video games, movies, and pretty much anything your average geek enjoys. I also really like talking about these things, so I figured I should put some of my opinions out there for anyone who cares to read them. No one probably will, but it's ok. So what commences from here on out is my basic opinion on movies I've seen or want to see, games I've played or want to play, and all that kinds of stuff. So without further adieu, here is my blog.
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