First thing I will say is that the movie Zombie has changed significantly since the old “* of the Dead” series.  No longer it seems do we have “Undead” but now everyone is infected, either by a sickness or a parasite.  I believe this was done because it’s hard to mix action with slow shambling “Brains!” So Hollywood and Game developers use “infections” to give their “Zombies” intelligence and “Left 4 Dead” world class sprinter, curb stomp doctorates.  Traditionalist may frown upon this but one awesome thing that infections bring to the table is mutations.  Well enough about that, its movie time.

–The Crazies: Summary–

The movie begins by providing the township’s name(rural area outside Cedar Rapids) and the population count.  Anyone who has seen a movie that starts this way pretty much know that the entire population will die.  In this rural farm area a military carrier plane crashes in a swamp which just so happens to be connected to the town’s fresh water supply.  The plane was carrying a Biological Weapon and thus anyone who drinks the water turns “Crazy” and commits very heinous, violent acts on anyone in their path.  Military comes in, things don’t get better, and then its Raccoon City all over again.

–Liked–

I love zombie movies and zombie games.  Must be the geek in me.  The progression of the virus was displayed rather well.  One Crazy was locked in a jail cell and you get many shots of his body deteriorating and large dark veins all over his extremities.  My favorite character is the deputy who is very trigger happy and accurate with a rifle.  He has an attitude of “Do it once do it right.”  The special effects are great and the rural town is comprised of your hill billy Tinseltown stereotype.

–Dis-liked–

There were not enough “Zombies” shown in the movie.  You only got to see maybe a hand full of Crazies.  The army was so trigger happy that they killed many people before they went Crazy.  Other than that I thoroughly enjoyed the movie.  It was of sufficiently length and I felt satisfied.  Another problem though which is not a picture problem is my theater (The Grand) only screened this film in one auditorium.  Is this film low budget or not expected to do well.  The studios should put more emphasis on this flick.  I am greatly eager for a sequel.

–Conclusion–

The movie accurately sets itself up for a sequel.  The two survivors escape the nuclear blast and in the end you see them walking towards a city scape.  The camera then zooms out all spy satellite like and then text appears saying “Cedar Rapids, population 100,000+, begin Quarantine procedures” not word for word but you get my drift.  Hopefully the sequel has tons of zombies and few people who are immune and left for dead by the military. If you like zombies go see it.

–PS: Valve–

The movies “Quarantine” and “The Crazies” both set the stage to be a prequel to a movie that I think we all want.  Valve, “We want(I WANT) a Left 4 Dead movie”

Why Aggregate Your Information? Ultimately, this is an easy means of sharing your online activity with friends and followers from other services. For instance, people are posting videos all the time on Facebook from YouTube. You can easily make this a minimal task by installing the YouTube application on Facebook. What does this mean? Well, now every time you ‘heart’ or upload a YouTube video, it will automatically be posted to your Facebook account. This in just one example of how this would work. And there are plenty of Facebook applications that cover almost every service imaginable.

Post Once, Post Everywhere. Twitter is probably one of be best examples of a service that other services consume. What’s so great about this. Post once, post everywhere. For instance, when I make one Twitter post, that same post goes to Facebook, Friendfeed, and my website. By having one place to post, it allows me to update various sites, while only having to worry about just one. This is good because it allows you to give updates to friends/followers who may use only one network.

Ways To Aggregate. Many of the social networks allow you to aggregate data from external services such as Twitter, YouTube, Flickr, or your blog. Here’s a few.

• Facebook Applications
• Friendfeed Services
• MySpace Applications

Privacy Implications. Some would prefer not to do things like this over privacy concerns. Point taken. But I live under the assumption that almost anything I do on the internet is not private anyway, so this doesn’t bother me in the least. Bottom line is, if you post anything on the internet, automatically assume anyone can see it and act accordingly. This also applies to mobile applications that provide location based tagging. This rule should judge all you internet activity anyway.

A few years back a friend of mine discovered their parents were on Facebook. If you could have seen the look on his face and the panic as he feverishly scrambled to remove any inappropriate things from his page. On another note, I really didn’t have to worry about that when I discovered my parent were on Facebook. I accepted the friend request without a hitch. I repeat, when posting on the internet, assume everyone can see everything!

Stalkers? Okay, we just talked about privacy concerns when posting information, and we know that you should only post things you feel comfortable with other people knowing. But what about the aggregation of this information in one place and stalker (or noisy people)? A dreamland for a stalker right? Here are a few rules for keeping would be stalkers at bay.

1. Only aggregate more general data publicly.
2. Reserve more public information for certain networks.
3. Check public versus private setting for each network.
4. Keep more sensitive information within a particular network and don’t aggregate.
5. Since friends and followers can instantly see your information, only friend or follow people you trust.

Final Thoughts. Don’t be afraid to embrace social networks and get connected. Ultimately, this is a great way to stay in touch with friend that you may have never had the chance to before. Once again, embrace technology, but also follow my number one rule for posting things on the internet. Stay connected!

Bioshock 2 puts you back in the decaying arms of Rapture, the underwater distopia created to be the perfect city free of  God and Country.  As in the original, Rapture is as much a character in the game as anything else and its Steam-Punk inspired art and settings are still completely intact.  All of the standard enemies from the original are present and the weapons and plasmids are still in place.  So, if we had a check list for things that MUST be include in a Bioshock game, Settting and Atmosphere, would be checked immediately. Since 2K Marin was responsible for the PS3 port of Bioshock, they understood how to make the game look and feel like Rapture.

I stress this aspect of the review because most of my preconceived notions about Bioshock 2 were but to bed almost as soon as a started my first save file.  Its easy to get so caught up in remembering the story, twists and the “would you kindly..” of Bioshock 1, that the feeling you get exploring the lush, and spooky art-deco environments is all but forgotten.  Many improvements have been made to the actual gameplay, (like you would expect from a sequel) but from the onset of the single player campaign its obvious that you are playing a Bioshock game.

What has changed?  Well, Bioshock 2 is a bit more of a shooter than the first game.  All the weapons are easier and more comfortable to aim.  They do the right amount of damage and are actually fun to use.  The wrench has been replaced by a drill (since you play as a big daddy) and melee attacks, which are still effective cannot be your only form of attack, like they could in Bioshock 1.  Plasmids and guns can now be dual-wielded which really seems like a feature the first game should have had.   The improvements made to the gameplay are really a measure that brings the game closer to par for overall experience.

The story picks up eight years after the original game, but that is really a negligible number, the only things you need to know about the first game are: what is rapture, who is Andrew Ryan, and Andrew Ryan is dead.    With that knowledge Bioshock 2 should make sense.  What this game explores, is the creation of Big Daddies and Little Sisters.  The main characters are Subject Delta the protagonist, Sophia Lamb the antagonist, Sinclair your guide, and Eleanor the teenaged former little sister and daughter of Sophia Lamb.  I’m not going to give away the plot points, but I will say that the game’s story leans heavily on the social philosophies of both Andrew Ryan and Sophia Lamb.  Most of the story is told through audio logs and many of the secondary characters you meet are directly tied to Ryan or Lamb.  The story isn’t bad for a normal game but for a Bioshock game its significantly weaker than the previous one.

The identity of Subject Delta is never directly revealed during the game, although several audio diaries hint at a few things.  2K did a good job of segregating this story from its predecessor.  Instead of trying to bolt an unnatural side story on to the Jack Ryan tale, Bioshock 2 helps establish the series as a “Tales of Rapture” venue.

Visually Bioshock 2 is one of the most beutiful games I have played in a long time.  The Unreal Engine’s age is obviously not getting the way of the developers.  The underwater sequences, while boring, are especially stunning.  Because of the dark nature of the landscapes, the lighting effects help hide any low res environments and heighten the sense of immersion.

With all of that said, is Bioshock 2 good?  Yes, very few things are off putting about the title.  Probably the most egregious problem is the inability to visit previous parts of the game.  Many of the achievements are collection based, so if you miss something in an earlier level, there needs to be a way to return to that level and retrieve it.  Otherwise, players will need an FAQ and/or player’s guide next to them,  or multiple play-throughs will be required.

The multiplayer aspect of Bioshock 2 warrants mention, but it doesn’t break any barriers down that other other shooters haven’t tried.  It works, I came across a few buggy connection issues with players, but its a completely competent multiplayer shooter.  Much like the multiplayer in Uncharted, it maybe good, but I really don’t want to play it.  Anyone like myself, a player that has little experience with competitive shooters, will have a really high barrier of entry, and will most likely stop playing very shortly after starting.

I like what 2K did with Bioshock 2. Was it necessary? Probably not.  Will I play Bioshock 3?  You bet.  Am I calling a moratorium on multiplayer modes?  Definitely!

Verdict: Atmosphere, Atmosphere, Beetlejuice…er…I mean…Atmosphere

Left 4 Dead is not dead yet.  I mean Left 4 Dead part one.  Valve at the X10 event announced new DLC for Left 4 Dead 2 and hard to believe Left 4 Dead 1.  Check out the Gametrailers video below.

Yes, the age old browser war continues to rage on, and to no surprise, Mozilla Firefox and Microsoft Internet Explorer continue to dominate the charts. Back on December 11th, 2008, a new player entered the game, Google Chrome. Okay, I’m sure your first reaction to the news on Google doing a browser was much like mine, “Really”? But it seems the move by Google was far from half hazard. Over the past year they have slowly moved up in market share and offered a product that is considered superior by many of the industry’s prominent tech heads.

That being said, this article is less about market share, and more about the coolness of Google Chrome. What are a few of the features of Google Chrome?

Speed. Google Chrome is arguably one of the fastest browsers around. And while fast is a relative term, most tech journalist agree that Google Chrome is hands down the fastest browser. What makes Google Chrome so fast? Well, according to the Chromium Blog, the three things that make Chrome faster are DNS pre-resolution, JavaScript rendering, and Dom binding.

Built-In Bookmark Syncing. For the multiple computer user, this is a must. And although there are various plug-ins out there for different browsers that can accomplish the same task, it just feels nice to have it built in and linked to your google account.

The Google Ecosystem. According to Carl, Google is SkyNet, but I must say there is something cool about staying within the google ecosystem. What are some of the advantages of this. Well, first off, you are almost ensured that all Google product will work excellent within Google Chrome. Expect Gmail to load faster and YouTube to load without the slightest hitch. I would equate this advantage to using all Apple products on an Apple computer, or using all Microsoft products on a Windows machine. You know it just works and should work well.

Final Thoughts. As much as I love Google Chrome as a browser, let’s be real. The more you use the internet, the more Google benefits. The notion of a browser from Google is purely a self-serving one, but also a good one for the end user. Why? Google wants you to enjoy your experience on the web. So you can use the web more, view more advertisements, which ultimately will make Google more money. An excellent business proposition. Also, the Google Chrome browser is nothing more than the precursor to the Google Chrome desktop operating system, that should be out later this year. So my suggestion. Get Google Chrome. Be Happy. The moment they start making androids, I’m out…

More about Chrome OS…

- Round2 -

The packaging has not changed so it may be difficult to find the re-calibrated model. The sole difference is that the new packaging now advertises complete compatibility with the Nintendo Wii Motion Plus accessory.  You can also see from a side view that a dongle is now included with the Crossfire Pistol.  On first inspection of this attachment I immediately thought that this is responsible for correcting the previous sensitivity issues, however I have deduced (after testing it with the old pistol) that its sole purpose is to correct the orientation of the Wii Motion Plus.  Speaker volume (adjustable on the home men) is still significantly higher than the Nintendo Wii Remote and the blue lights are bright enough to help you find your keys in the dark. Two small noticeable hitches but not great enough to knock any points off this device.  The overall design of this accessory has not changed at all.  In my previous review I covered the aesthetics of this gun, so for now I will skip that part.  For this review I am solely speaking  on its performance.

- Performance-

This was where the device failed miserably in its previous incarnation.  With the correction of the sensitivity issue I rescind all previous statements on this matter.  This gun now performs remarkably.  Its actually somewhat more stable than Nintendo’s first-party option.  When holding my hand as steady as possible I would normally notice some motion/shakes translated to the screen.  However, the Penguin United Crossfire Pistol’s motion looks like it is mounted on tripod (Perfect for Sniping).

The first game I played was “Wii Sports Resort” to give the motion plus functionality a test run.  I connected a nunchuk and fired up the bow and arrow mini game.  Aside from holding a pistol grip it actually felt somewhat more natural than holding the Wii remote vertical.  I played a couple of expert levels and beat my previous high score immediately.  Next, to see how well all hand orientations were translated I played sky diving.  I must say the game was more comfortable holding the Crossfire as opposed to holding the Wii remote flat.  My Mii leaned and plummeted with grace.  Definitely a joy.  I tested my backhand with table tennis and was still perfectly able to have my patented back spin translated on the big screen.  Finally, my favorite game on the Resort: Sword Play or what I have now dubbed “Pistol Whip Trainer”.  Since the Crossfire’s natural orientation resembles that of a flat Wii-mote it becomes  more of an extension of your arm as opposed to a two handed baton or whatever it is the Mii’s are swinging.  Your  swings are fully translated to every degree.  Over head slashes, horizontal, diagonal, even stabs are picked up perfectly.  Thanks to this peripheral I learned something I did not know the game recognized.  I struck one Mii with a jumping slashing Shin-Sho-Pistol-Ken (True Rising Pistol Fist) and hit the Mii with enough force that it not only did a back from the impact but also took out the two Mii’s that it landed on.  I was pistol whipping machine.

Next I played Metroid Pime 3: Corruption and immediately checked for the speaker issues.  It appears they have been corrected as such audio cues were successfully played from the speaker.  However their is still a low hissing/hum coming from the speaker.  Its loud enough to be noticeable but not enough to be distracting.  Metroid played well with on screen gestures translated well and pointer accuracy pretty steady.  For a game such as this you will definitely use your nunchuk hand to reach the other buttons on the pistol to activate visors and weapons which can be problem is heated battle but is somewhat more close to what Samus does in her idle animations. You get used to it.

-Conclusion-

The Penguin United: Wii Crossfire Pistol can be purchased at Buy.com Marketplace 0r directly from Penguin United.  Is it worth the money?  That’s a “ten-fo” good buddy.  As of writing this there is no other Wii Gun (Literally) or Wii Gun Shell that compares.  If you are an arcade light gun game fan and first-person shooter fan with a Wii and are looking for just a tad bit more immersion, then the Wii Crossfire Pistol is a logical sound investment.  Now we just need to Sega, Konami, etc to get to work porting the old light gun arcade games to Wii and Virtual Console.

Ok, where do I start? Its another DS Zelda game. Like Phantom Hourglass, the entire game is controlled via stylus. Link is guided via touch screen and tapping on enemies and/or slashing the screen elicits attacks and actions. All of these mechanics work really well with very few buggy touch controls. The graphics are Cell-shaded much like the graphics in the Gamecube title the Windwaker, and like in almost every Zelda game you take control of “Link” before he gets his trademark green costume. Now, with that out of the way, everyone that has ever played a Zelda game knows the formula.
1. Go into a dungeon
2. Find item/weapon in dungeon.
3. Use new item/weapon to defeat the dungeon boss.
4. Rinse and repeat in next dungeon, repeat until game is complete.

Spirit Tracks doesn’t stray from this formula. In fact, if anything, the formula is even more pronounced through the layout of the map. Many of the weapons that have been staples of the series are here (I.E. Bow and Arrows, Boomerang, and Grappling Hook) and each Dungeon is full of familiar keys and buttons to use and press.

So what makes Spirit Tracks good? Well, a few things. The entire game is played with Zelda at your side. She’s a ghost whose body has been stolen by the main antagonist Malladus. The story is good but not interesting enough to cover here in the review. Most of the time Zelda only pops out during cutscenes and character conversations but during certain dungeons Zelda has the ability to possess a guard, granting you the ability to control two different characters. This adds a new level of depth to many of the puzzles and towards the end of the game can really put a strain on the old noodle.

Spirit Tracks’ boss battle are memorable and plentiful and the story has a nice pace that will easily keep your attention. The gimmick of the train is hard to get over, and almost doesn’t make sense in the context of the world. Actually the train is more of a footnote than anything. Only two train sequences were difficult enough to add depth to the game and the mechanic of using a vehicle to travel throughout the land had already been done better in the Phantom Hourglass (when it was a boat).

My only real issue with Spirit Tracks is its length. Its one of, if not the longest DS game I have ever played, but the way the map and story are structured, towards the end, the game lingers. Much like Okami, the final showdown seemed like an endless gauntlet of boss battles that added little to the overall experience. After dying on the final boss I put the game down for 48 hours and tried again only to find that it wasn’t the final boss and that the game had 4-5 additional sequences. These sequences were fun, but wildly unnecessary. I found myself hoping that the game was over when I finally finished off Malladus.

Long games are great, but they should never last longer than the game is interesting. I promise you, there is a large portion of Spirit Tracks owners who will play more than a majority of the game and simply stop before the end. However this is a small detail in a game that is an overall improvement over its predecessor, mainly because the hub dungeon isn’t excruciating like it was in Phantom Hourglass. I’m looking at you Temple of The Ocean King.

If you want to get your monies worth out of a DS game or if you have a Zelda itch you need to scratch, I highly recommend you grab this title for your DS. If you are new to the Zelda franchise, this title, while very representative of classic Zelda structure, will not truly immerse you in the world of Hyrule. Luckily, for that, we have this.

Verdict: Ignore the Sidequests

2K games hosted a conference call today to outline pre-release details on one of the most anticipated games of the quarter, Bioshock 2. Discussed on the call are Big Daddies, Big Sisters, plasmids, setting, story direction, improvements over the original, literary influences, single and multiplayer details and much much more. There’s more than enough raw info directly from the developers to wet your appetite for your next rendezvous in Rapture. The entire call can be heard at the bottom of the post.

On the the Call:
Jordan Thomas – Creative Director, 2K Marin
Zak McClendon – Lead Designer, 2K Marin
Hogarth De La Plante – Lead Environment Artist, 2K Marin
Mat Tremblay – MP Art Director, Digital Extremes
Jesse Attard – MP Lead Programmer, Digital Extremes

Enjoy.

After years of lackluster 3D platforming mis-adventures Sonic is going back to his roots, but really how far back is he going? Sonic has had 2D adventures on GBA, PSP and DS. They aren’t even that old. The most recent two were released in 2007. If anything this looks to be Sonic Team giving up and going back to what they are good at.

Sonic the Hedgehog 4 Episode 1 will be downloadable on the PSN, Wiiware and Xbox Live Arcade later this year. Presumably, if this one does well, more episodes are to come.

Welcome to YouTube! Which may be the biggest and best free music store on the planet. How is this possible? If you’re a regular listener of the Techpedition Podcast (I’m assuming that’s all of you), then you would know that for Tech Tip Of The Week Episode 28, I suggested using KeepVid to save YouTube videos. Well, it doesn’t just stop with video. There are also many sites that allow you to capture YouTube audio in MP3 format, simply by plugging in the URL of your favorite video! As you would expect, most conversion sites are ad-ridden and give you that not-so-safe vibe, but there are a few exceptions. The one I use and find to be particularly trustworthy is Dirpy. Conversion is trivial.

1. Visit YouTube and copy the URL of your favorite video.
   
2. Go to Dirpy, paste your URL, and click the ‘Dirpy!’ button.
   
3. From here you are presented with filename and trans-coding options. Unless your tech savvy, just click the ‘Download’ button. (Note: Look a little further down the page. Dirpy also does video downloads too!)
   
4. Listen. Enjoy.

Disclaimer: Certain audio tracks on YouTube are under copyright and unlawful usage may be subject to legal action.

Pretty sure I am late with this post but I will share it anyway.  The official site (Japanese) for “Metroid: Other M” is live.  Not much info provided but even those without the ability to read the characters can make out2010.  For those who visit the site you will be treated to the image above and some very somber music(tear).  This Metroid will definitely be deep in Samus’s back story(tear).  I can feel it in my bones(sniffle).

USB flash drives, also called thumb drives, have been around since the early 2000’s. Prior to that, we found ourselves hauling around floppies. (Anyone remember ZIP drives?) Over the years, floppies have all but gone the way of the dinosaur, and for most college students and information technology professionals, thumb drives seem to be the media of choice. Well, those days are numbered.

Embrace The Cloud

If you didn’t know already, we are in the midst of a connected society. Yes, it’s true people, the cloud is here to stay. And while some fear the notion of storing all their information online or only being able to access their applications via the web, most of the preconceptions and horror of net-based computing have all but faded. Long story short, the cloud is here, embrace it.

Lose The Thumb Drive, Enter Google Docs

Okay, let’s be clear. Google Docs has been an online office document edit/storage service for quite some time now. Google Docs has always allowed you to upload office documents, but up until now these documents were converted to their Google Docs format, allowing you to edit, save, and download the documents online. So nothing new there. But what is new is that Google Docs is now allowing the upload of non-office document types, and giving you the option to not convert uploaded office documents.

What this means? Fairly Simple. Google Docs, along with other online storage services, are making the use of thumb drives obsolete. Even more so, now everyone with a Gmail account now has access to online storage. And upload couldn’t be easier. Click the upload button from the Docs homepage, choose your file, hit start upload, and your on your way.

Not Without Drawbacks

As with most online storage applications/sites, unfortunately their are limitations. No exception here with Google Docs. There is a 1GB limit for non Google Doc files.

Also, embracing the cloud means just that. You have to be online. For most, this will never be a problem. Honestly, when are you ever at a computer and not online? Hardly never.

Conclusion

In closing, this is where everything is going and I don’t see this train stopping no time soon. My advice? Get connected, embrace the cloud, and leave the extra hardware at home.

Become James Cameron with cheap 3D camera. Trade-In your digital games. Reboot city. Apple on the eve of debuting the next big thing. Sega continues to whore their ultimate collection. Will OnLive live? Tetris 100 million phone downloads. Project Needlemouse, and new NBA JAM on the horizon? We’ve been playing a lot of games this week. Notably Halo 3: NoDST and Carl BOUGHT A GAM3 WITH ZOMB1ES!!!1. Oh, I MAED A GAM3 WITH ZOMB1ES!!!1 wins the Techpedition video game music of the week award!

A lot has been said about the use of 3D in the film.  Personally I was not a fan of the 3D.  While it wasn’t gimmicky, it didn’t stand out as a necessity either.  For most of the movie I forgot I was watching it in 3D.  If anything, Avatar proved that without the gimmicks, 3D is disposable.  In fact, my eyes kinda started to hurt while watching.

I am willing to accept that the biggest draw with Avatar is its lush setting and imaginative characters (the Na’vi).  The planet of Pandora is so immersive that despite the predictable plot and characters, you still care about what will happen next.  The design is something that has almost taken a life of its own outside of the film.  I actually think that Avatar has invented a new kind of nerd, and its kinda creepy.  I enjoyed the movie and will wholeheartedly recommend it friends, but I don’t see myself watching it more than one or two additional times.  Support groups and crazed Star Wars like fans for this movie have me really worried about the topic that I am tackling next.

Warning: This area will probably contain spoilers.  The underlying story of Avatar can be summed up as an allegory to what the earth is going through with global warming and climate change.  The Na’vi people, who live in the what is essentially a rainforest, are being chased out by an evil corporation, so they can tear it down and mine its soil.  So there, I spoiled it, the humans are the bad guys.  Its alluded to in the movie that the humans had destroyed their planet (I believe earth was referred to as “dying”) and need Pandora’s resources.  This bothers me on multiple levels.

First off, there is no need for that to be mentioned in the movie.  It adds nothing to the story and only helps to remove the thinly veiled agenda that the movie is pushing.  During most of the film the human characters, at least the ones not participating in the resistance, were putridly one-sided, with the most egregious being Col. Miles Quaritch.

He plays a wicked Gargamel and portrays the humans as the black to the Na’vi’s white.  Adding the dying earth subplot turned the bad human characters in to part of the bad human species. Once the humans are designated a “bad” species it forces actual humans (the audience) to reflect on themselves and how they are interacting with the earth.  Had they left the corporation as soley a greedy money hungry character, the “go green” ideals would still be there, they would just seem a bit more subtle.

Secondly, I find it disturbing that a work of high fiction is being used to push a real issue here, and its getting away with it.  As I watched Avatar I almost felt like it was trying to trick me into caring about the environment.  By portraying the Na’vi as an almost flawless species, with all of their actions being justified by cause and effect, they play an excellent victim in the “don’t cut down the rainforest” debate.  I was very surprised to see that a Co-Producer credit wasn’t given to Al Gore.  If you want to push an agenda, just push it, just don’t shit in my cereal and expect me not to notice.

Before you say it, no, I’m not trying to push an agenda.  I just don’t like it when entertainment is used in devious and often nefarious ways.  If I want news I’ll watch CNN, please just keep your hands off my movies.  Crazed love for a franchise can make a person do strange things (anyone that has seen my TMNT collection knows I’m not lying), I just hope that people are smart enough to make their political and environmental decisions on actual facts rather than a movie with 9 foot tall smurfs.

With that out of the way, Avatar was good and actually needed all of its almost 3 hour length to tell a compelling story.  Is better than The Dark Knight?  I think not.

Wal-Mart could become your next internet service provider (remember Wal-Mart Connect anyone?). Google Docs is becoming a place to store and share your files. Reggie is right about Mario Bros. vs. Modern Warfare. More app stores than you can shake a stick at. Netflix is finally on Wii. Spider-Man 4 is no more. The cast is showing animated movie love. We take a second look at District 9. Finally, is Assassin Creed multiplayer a good idea?

What’s next, a multiplayer God of War or maybe a team death match in Half Life?  I don’t think the game mechanics of Braid have been exploited in a multiplayer fashion yet, maybe that would work.  Hurry Sony, it’s not too late to put multiplayer in The Last Guardian!

I don’t care what Ubisoft does with the multiplayer; I don’t want to play a multiplayer Assassin’s Creed!  Are they scared that they aren’t going to sell enough copies?  Wrong, they just announced that the second game has sold 6 million copies worldwide with another 3 million projected this quarter.  I don’t mean to sound like a whiny gamer but I honestly think that it has gone too far.

Multiplayer, at least in most cases, can only be enjoyed by people that sink 100s of hours in to a game and learn all of its quirks.  There are only so many gamers who like that kind of gameplay and by adding more and more games to choose from only two things can happen.  1. Players will abandon the multiplayer modes in most games and flock to the popular one (this renders all of the hard work done by the developers useless)  2. The multiplayer scene in all games will be stretched so thin that each game will only have a handful of decent players.

I say if you are going to make a multiplayer game go all out like MAG.  The days of tacked on deathmatch modes is over, both single player fans and multiplayer deserve better.

In other news, I highly recommend Assassin’s Creed 2.  It’s one of the most fulfilling gaming experiences in years and the ending is magnificent.

Google’s master plan unfolds. See Techpedition Comic 001. Halo on PS3 via Blu-Ray Legends release. Skype in televisions, what about a 360 software update? Xbox 360 Game Room a Playstation Home knock-off. Netflix delays Warner Brother releases. T-Mobile finally has good phones. Re-create your favorite movie scenes with Yoostar. Left 4 Dead in 8 bit goodness. Avatar triumphs all and Sherlock Holmes is better than expected. New Super Mario Bros channels the old school roots. Audiosurf proves to be fun and relaxing. And M.A.G. makes you climb the corporate ladder.

Yay for AIR ULTRAS

Return of the Ryu Shin-Sho-Ryu-Ken with Pretty Hippos

I think it is worth $40.  Please $30 on Steam.  Day ONE purchase.

Ratchet and Clank Future: Tools of Destruction

As Ratchet’s PS3 debut and most technically ambitious title to date, Tools of Destruction does a few things that have not been attempted in previous installments of the franchise. Luckily these differences don’t change what it is to be a Ratchet game. Most of what is new is piled on top of the already perfected formula.

Where the previous games focused on tight combat and carefully crafted weapon design, TOD adds a new focus on set pieces. With the added PS3 processing power, Ratchet (the character) has never looked. His rudimentary character design easily interacts with enormous and plentiful highly polygonal enemies and never once sacrifices the solid 60 FPS.  At times, It almost seems as if Insomniac is trying to distract you with the amazing visuals happening behind you. Vibrant colors and lush environments help prove that Ratchet and his sidekick can take advantage of this current generation.

Another thing that is new to the series is continuity. The previous 4 games were held together with character inclusion alone. The stories were all solid but they had no common enemy, no common story threads and other than weapons and gameplay, nothing carried over to the sequels. Tools of Destruction very quickly establishes that story is paramount in this generation.

Ratchet is a Lombax and always has been, however while it’s been established that there are no other Lombaxes in the galaxy, the story as to why, has not been revealed. Tools of Destruction tackles this loose end head on. This leads to the most emotional RAC game to date. Yes, the trademark tongue and cheek humor is still there, but there is more of a serious undertone than in any other previous installment. I don’t want to give away any plot points, but let’s just say there’s a big cliff hanger that I’m sure will be resolved in Quest for Booty and A Crack in Time.

As for the gameplay in TOD, if you have played previous games, then you will get the gist. Its a platformer with a heavy focus on over the top weapons and frantic twitch based gameplay. Much of the combat is dodge based, with alot of the weapons auto aiming.  Even with auto aim, it can get rather tough at parts. Each weapon upgrades 4 times in addition to the incremental improvements that can be purchased. Devices have been added to the roster this time around, but they don’t seem to be too integral to the combat.

Some of these devices like the Groovetron (a disco ball that causes large groups of enemies to dance) and the Leech Bomb (a bomb that sucks life out of the enemy and gives it to Ratchet) are useful, but since they have to be selected like a weapon, they really slow down the action of the sequences. A dedicated device button would have been handy. That way the the game changing devices can be dropped on the fly.  Also, with the addition of devices the weapon select menus are getting really crowded. This needs some tweaking before the sequel.

Finally, with this title being released in 2007 at the height of the rhythm game craze, TOD couldn’t omit some sort of rhythm aspect. While not as egregious as the one found in Secret Agent Clank (I’ll get to that in a moment) the pirate dancing sequences should have been axed before going gold…I’m just saying.

For a a Ratchet game, its solid and beautiful. For a PS3 game, its light yet satisfying. Unless you have a some sort of ill will towards 3D platforming, and since this game can be purchased for $17.00 on Amazon, if you own a PS3, you really don’t have a reason not to buy Ratchet and Clank Future: Tools of Destruction.

Verdict: Groovy

Secret Agent Clank

As for the PSP, Ratchet has already had one successful title in Ratchet and Clank Size Matters.  It successfully shrank the RAC experience onto a handheld.  However, like the criticism of many PSP games, it didn’t bring anything portable to the formula.  It was so much like the PS2 titles, it was subsequently ported to the PS2.  Secret Agent Clank, while technically a spin-off, takes almost all of its game play techniques from other Ratchet games.

Clank has taken on a secret agent persona before, but it has never played as major of a role as it does here.  The biggest addition to the formula is stealth gameplay.  I use that term very lightly in that most the game is action based and the stealth is dumbed down to a series of quick time events.  Many sequences in the game would have been much easier had Clank been able to just fight through the enemies rather than sneak around them.

Ratchet fans need not worry, he is still a big part of the game, as he has been imprisoned and must fight a series of inmates in a formulaic wave after wave (Battle Arena) fashion.  The Ratchet sequences are the hardest parts of the game, but the difficulty feels very artificial.  Its nice to see Ratchet, but the execution of his sequences would have been better if they were either omitted (or given to Clank) or more fleshed out as playable levels.  The Battle Arena aspect of the Ratchet series was played out in Deadlocked and isn’t welcome in the Clank-centric spin-off.

The overwhelming high points are the Captain Qwark levels.  Qwark is being followed by a writer and attempting to describing his past heroic adventures as to be included in a documentary.  As he describes the stories, you play through them.  In true Qwark fashion, he embellishes a little a lot and the levels end up being bizarre off the cuff hilarious feats of impossible and absurd heroism.  Qwark is the narrorator of his own past and each of these levels had me laughing out loud. It is about time for a Captain Qwark spin off game.

The absolute worse part of Secret Agent Clank are its rhythm sections.  Clank is given tasks where rhythm is completely arbitrary, yet the developers chose to solve these story problems with terribly timed and executed rhythm game mechanics.  These timed guitar hero like button combos are applied in a tacky almost cringe worthy fashion.  This is a blatant cheap cash in of the “hot trend” in games of the time and will stand a blemish on the Ratchet franchise for years.  Luckily it only comes up 3-4 unbearable times.

Overall Secret Agent Clank is pretty good and surprising hard.  I had to play numerous parts upwards of 6-8 times.  It’s hard to recommend this title to anyone that doesn’t already have an affinity for the RAC games, so I say casual fans need to stay away.  Oh, and Secret Agent Clank has also been ported to the PS2 as well.

Verdict: Next Game – Super Hero Quark

While I am not a fan of the 360 and don’t have one of my own I would love to see this franchise brought back to life.  Especially with the idea of using the motion tracking. While I was in Seattle back in 01-02 I got the chance to play a version of Tekken 3 that was set up to use motion tracking as the command inputs. It was a very interesting experience. The controls were not as responsive as you would have wanted for that kind of game, but it did show promise. I’m a king player so trying to do his multi-links was very hard. But with the motion controls on the Wii for Dragonball z Tenkaichi 3 being so responsive and fun I think that we can now play those type of games. Now granted there is a lot of room for some serious problems. With the NATAL supposed to be a “controller free” interface how you would pull of moves could be scary. Having played fighting games with hands free motion control interfaces some inputs are hard to do. Dragonpunch and fireball inputs are especially hard to do. But like I said this was back in 01-02. So there has been plenty of time to refine how you would do these.

Only time will be able to tell. Hopefully if this comes to fruition we will have a great way to play fighting games that will truly pull us into the experience. But my thought is that RULE #1 will be CARDIO, CARDIO, CARDIO.

9. Bioshock
I have gushed about Bioshock before, and with good reason. Bioshock’s gameplay may not be perfect, but what it lacks is more than made up for in the story, atmosphere, and characters. To this day, Bioshock’s plot twist is something that I refuse to spoil for anyone and it holds the distinction of being one of the games I simply could not put down.

8. Metroid Prime Trilogy
I know that put the “trilogy” on this list is a kinda cheating, but I felt that I had to put one of the Prime games on the list, so why not make it the best package. My purchase of Metroid Prime was done as “why not” purchase. The game was $4.99 and I had run out of games to play. I wasn’t playing FPSs and I wasn’t too familiar with Metroid. By the time I was done, I found myself wanting to play more FPSs and being disappointed with many that I would pick up and play later.  As good as the original Gamecube titles were, I highly recommend you pick up the full proper experience and grab the Trilogy. The point and shot controls are near perfect and you get all three fantastic games.

7. Uncharted 2: Among Thieves
Uncharted 2 is the newest game on my list, but its no less deserving than any other. By blending cinema quality cut scenes with an extremely solid single player campaign, Uncharted creates an experience that is more like an interactive movie than a video game. Its big in scale, with action set pieces that Indiana Jones, John McClane and Jason Bourne would kill for. So far its one of the only games that has proven that the PS3 has significantly more horsepower than its competitors.

6. Super Mario Galaxy
As almost a joke, the idea of Super Mario Galaxy, seemed ludicrous. It was almost like Miyamoto said, “we’re out of ideas, let’s send his ass to space.” What came of this decision is the most engaging Mario adventure since Super Mario 64. Adding almost a 4th dimension to the adventure, Galaxy’s puzzles and gameplay mechanics are truly revolutionary and left me blown away.

5. Shadow of the Colossus
Team Ico’s second outing on the PS2, was one of the most interesting games ever released and truly a marvel for its time period.  Released towards the end of the PS2’s hey day Shadow, threw all gaming conventions out the window and gave players exactly what they wanted, Boss Fights. As simply a series of elaborately well orchestrated puzzle-like boss fights your character, Wander, must find the weakness of each colossus in the game and exploit it to defeat it. This combined with a brilliant art style and hauntingly vague story makes Shadow an absolute must-play on the PS2.

4. The Orange Box
Again, I’m kind of cheating by putting The Orange Box in this list, but its inclusion is more of a symbol for the roll that Value has had in gaming since the turn of the century. With the release nearly half a dozen critically acclaimed and eqaully fantatic games (many of which are included in The Orange Box) Valve has cemented themselves as one of the few publishers that can find success on the PC, and with the advent of Steam, Valve has revolutionize digital distribution and helped numerous smaller developers become overnight hits. Oh, and on top of that, The Orange Box is hands down the Best Deal in Gaming History.

3. Super Smash Bros. Melee
Two Smash Bros games were released in the past ten years, but only one kept my attention for a solid five of those, and that would be Melee. Melee is easily one of the most balanced fighting games to ever be released and its equally as exciting as it is pure fan service. Even if you are not that good at it, buying SSBM is still a good idea for all Nintendo-philes.

2. Lumines 2
Not since Dr. Mario, and Tetris has a pure puzzle game been so effective at destroying my time. Lumines 2 improved on much of the problems that Lumines had and took the puzzle genre on a much needed acid trip. Its deceptively simple gameplay, mixed with music and atmosphere creates an experience that even after sinking 60+ hours into it I regret not having played more. To this day Lumines 2 is the only PSP game I take on every single road trip.

1. Rock Band 2
What can I say about Harmonix and Rock Band 2 that I haven’t already said. As the creators of Guitar Hero and Karaoke Revolution, Harmonix had already established themselves as the leading rhythm game developer, but Rock Band and its infinitely improved sequel combined everything they have learned and brought the genre to levels not previously seen. So much so, that even with RB2 being over a year old, their competitors, with 6 games released since RB2, haven’t even come close to eclipsing the sheer quality of the Rock Band product.

I know that the last one there was pretty predictable, but again, this is my list. I encourage anyone else to share their 10 below and lets start a new decade with some strong titles. Tony Hawk Ride, we’ll try to forget about you…okay.

Back at e3 in June, Sergio and I attended the Ubisoft media briefing. We were both shocked when James Cameron walked onto the stage to talk about the Avatar video game. He also talked a bit about the movie that was released yesterday. Until then the movie was totally not on my radar. The only thing that I cared about was that it ripped off the name of a popular Nickelodeon cartoon.

On the contrary, this movie has been in the works since before Titanic was released. James told us that when he brought the concept to producers, they said that there was no way that it could be done.

That was then, this is now.

The first thing you need to know about this movie is that it is a visual masterpiece. Suspension of belief aside, I have never witnessed more remarkable 3D animation. Everything is seamless. The Na’vi people have a level of expression that makes Jar-jar Binks and his friends look like Saturday morning cartoons. It’s freakish.

Each of the Dreamwalkers have a resemblance to their human controllers, and the level of expression is truly something to behold. Pandora’s lifeforms come to life in a way that makes you forget that 90% of what you are watching was pooped out of a computer.

The bad thing is that I don’t know if I will be buying this movie on DVD (or Bluray, for that matter…) because of the 3D technology. The glasses are definitely not a gimmick. 3D adds another element to the immersion and I want to encourage you to watch the movie in 3D if you can. You will not regret it. This movie definitely is going to be experienced best in the theater.

There’s the obvious space-opera backdrop (with the whole thing being on an alien planet) and there are even nods to anime like Evangelion (I couldn’t help but think about sync ratios when he jumped inside of the Avatar control system for the first time). You have space marines, which sort of gives things a Halo vibe. In fact, I’m quite sure after watching this movie that Halo can be done justice in the theater.

Speaking of games: I haven’t played the Avatar game, but there could be some amazing games made in this universe.

The thing I like most about this movie is that it never forgets that it is a movie. What I mean is that with all the special effects, they never get in the way of things. They are simply a backdrop for a compelling story. And even with that, you’ve seen this story before. It can be seen as technology vs. nature or capitalism vs. communism. You’ve seen similar plots in movies like Ferngully…heck, it even resembles The Last Samurai on some levels. However, the complete package together brings us something new and unique.

I don’t really want to get into any more detail, just know that if you love watching movies this is something you can appreciate. If you are a syfy sci-fi fan, this movie is something you can REALLY appreciate.

I think we have a new epic on our hands.

I found, despite desperately not wanting to, a lot wrong with the beloved title both objectively and subjectively.  It does some things well, but the 94 it holds on Metacritic was kind of shocking after playing through the entire campaign. I will spare you the rundown of the story since I wouldn’t dream of giving away the ending to a story that’s barely intelligible in the first place.  It follows all of the boiler plate rules for a sci-fi shooter.  Everything from the character design to vehicles to plot and settings reek of B-quality sci-fi game stench.  Nothing in the lore is really explained nor is interesting.  The story is told in the style of “if it shoots at you, shoot back” and the macho gang of characters might as well be WWE wrestlers in costume.

Speaking of character design, Gears has a real problem with all the characters looking the same from a far.  About a dozen times during the game I was taken out by what I thought was my partner only to find out it was an enemy.  Everything, short of a few small throwaway enemies, has the same build (the build of the Thing from The Fantastic Four).  I get the feeling that all of the characters sat on the design table a bit too long and could have used a bit of scaling back.

The dialog sounds much like something you hear on a middle school playground with the swears sounding too forced and the script not being clever enough to be considered mature.  These characters might as well be talking with their penises.  When the story plays out in the end, I really wasn’t sure what I had just accomplished.  What I’m really trying to say is that the narrative is laughable and that it is only compounded by the ridiculousness of the characters.  The enemies have even less personality and the final boss you fight has a name that isn’t given to you until right before the fight, nor are you informed of the importance of the character you are killing, nor that it’s the final freaking boss.

This brings me to length.  Gears of War is five chapters long.  That’s it, only five chapters.  Each one can be completes in about 45 minutes if you haul ass.  That puts the length of your single player experience at 3-4 hours, give or take, considering your skill level.  Sure, you can go back and play through on co-op and on a higher difficulty level, but what it comes down to is five chapters.  Maybe Epic though that if they make the game super hard, they don’t have to make it super long.

Speaking of Hard, yeah Gears is hard.  Usually I can hang in pretty well on the normal setting of games, but apparently Gears’ normal setting is actually its casual (or easiest setting).  I was getting my ass handed to me very quickly on Hardcore, partially due to your character only being able take like 3-5 shots before you go down and partially due to the clumsy control scheme.  Being a third person shooter whose camera and control scheme is modeled after Resident Evil 4, doesn’t really have any benefits here.  About half way through, it became very apparent that the only reason the game is 3^rd person, is so you can hide behind shit.  It’s done as a way to exploit the much hyped “cover” mechanic.

I like the cover mechanic, but everything else is slow and unresponsive.  When I want to duck, I dive, when I want to shoot lefty I shoot righty and god forbid I need to pull out my chainsaw quickly.  With the enemies killing you within seconds, getting a chainsaw melee kill is nearly impossible at times.  And why is there not a dedicated grenade button, and why do I have to choose it like it’s a gun?  This slows the pace of the game down and has you fumbling with the accuracy of the 360’s D-pad.  Here’s a suggestion Epic, get rid of the visible arch and flight path of grenades and replace it with a one button grenade throw, you can thank me later.

I found Gears to be really glitchy, I had to restart from the last check point a few times because I got caught behind a door that wasn’t supposed to be open yet.  This may not be representative of the entire experience, but I died a lot of times without ever knowing what killed me…needless to say, infuriating.

Finally my last Gears of War complaint is directed towards the weapons, most specifically the Lancer.  As stated before, this gun has a chainsaw on it.  That’s a great idea, but if it doesn’t respond half the time you press the chain saw button it doesn’t do you any good.  On top of that, the weapons in general just feel weak.  Epic definitely needs a new sound department.  I have stepped on bubble wrap with better pop than these guns.  Even in the cut scenes when you see Marcus and co shooting them with one hand from behind cover, it looks like they are shooting water guns.  Then again I think water guns might have more kick.  Kick is artificially added when using the gun, but both the feel and effect of many of the guns are puny.  You would think the Gears army would have come up with better weaponry, since the current weapons don’t take the enemies down in one shot.  Except the shotgun, the shot gun is awesome, but if you ever let an enemy get close enough to you to use it then you are already dead.

Gears isn’t all bad, graphically, it’s stunning especially when you get later in the game. However, most of the landscapes are super flat.  The entire campaign has a good sense of action and I’m sure that translates well into the competitive multiplayer.  The faults that Gears brings to the table are so great that don’t see how it’s a triple A title.  In a world with an almost infinite number of shooters you could play, I don’t recommend Gears (at least for the single player).  A lot of the control and balancing problems with single player would still be present in the multiplayer, but I really don’t see how the multiplayer can make up this kind of deficit in quality.

Verdict: Play Something Else

Seriously, you have no idea how pumped I am for this game.

If you are interested you can go here to sign up.

So…Android has been out for little more than a year. Development has matured, and the handsets have gained traction. Motorola has even come up with the snazzy ‘droid’ moniker and is attacking the iPhone head on.

And Google decides to drop the bomb.

I’ve seen it a million times in the movies. Scientist dudes develop cool product, then evil guy kills them all…

I will admit, I had a feeling that they would come out with their own handset eventually, but the timing on this just seems to piss in every other handset maker’s pond. It would be the same as if Microsoft came out with their own handset. After all, why would anyone in their right mind purchase a handset from another manufacturer? Shouldn’t Google know their OS better than anyone?

The other big betrayal here is that I hear that this thing is gonna drop completely unlocked. You can bet your blackberry it will be competitively priced too, if not free. Google could easily subsidize the cost with ad revenue. That seems to be their specialty, after all.

I wouldn’t worry too much about this as a consumer, it seems to be win for us.

I’ll be back next week!

Some of which were pretty huge; like Batman Arkham Asylum 2, Star Wars: the Force Unleashed 2, Spec Ops: The Line and a new True Crime game. They also had the first tailors of previously announced titles such as Halo: Reach, Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands, Crackdown 2, Tron Evolution, and Medal of Honor, but anyone with half a brain knows what I’m excited about.  Harmonix has finally piped up and announced what their next project is: Green Day: Rock Band.

Some of you might recall that I predicted this months ago before the first Green Day DLC was announced, then after more DLC was announced and we still didn’t have any of their ginormous hits, in my mind, is was confirmed.  A one minute video during the ceremony announced the title.  Now, we just have to wait.

So, what does this mean for a proper Rock Band 3?  I don’t know.  This year saw two Rock Band titles, so maybe next year will see two as well.  In addition, my original question still stands, will GD:RB be Rated M.  Much of Green Day’s catalog has many wordy dirds in it.  This title could be a wonderful start for the Mature rated music games.

I don’t know if HMX could have chosen a better band from this generation to spotlight.

Update: Harmonix has confirmed that all songs from Green Day: Rock Band will be exportable into your greater Rock Band library.

For those of you that missed it, here’s the announcement video.

Amazon’s buy dvd, get instant digital copy: Buy, Watch, Cancel? Pandora in cars. Ustream to iphone… Why won’t United States camera manufacturer’s put a camera on the front. LG projector attachment. Affordable but low-res slow-motion. NPD Numbers. Sega Genesis for twenty-five bucks, with lots of tech in the box. Turtles Forever has plenty of fan service. Carl watches SF4 and plays TF2: Soldiers v. Demoman. Zelda Spirt Tracks stay true to form, and Sergio talks 1 v. 100. Home-wide synced audio with Airfoil, and USB power outlet hack. Lala has a different twist on streaming music. Finally, Danzo from Naruto and his all seeing arm.

–Here Goes–

New Moon is a movie that definitely is meant to cater only to young women.  I do not even believe that ‘mature’ women would enjoy this movie.  It is portrayed in such a way that it is immature and frightening at the same time.  I know women say men only like action and explosions but I can assure you that I can pay attention to a story.  Story is supposed to give you some character building so that you can form a sort of bond with the on screen protagonist.  The only thing this movie developed for me was a great hate for the main character, Bella Swan.  She is the epitome of a young woman who just does not understand how ignorant of life she is.  At some points in the movie I felt like the father should have just had her committed to an asylum. (Late night Dream Screaming)  What scared me the most however is that there are many young women out in the world who can identify with this character.  I hope my future female offspring does not turn out like this.

Moving on to what I as a man look for in a movie, THE ACTION.  The movie is about two hours and ten minutes and contains about three to five action scenes, some so short not sure you could count them.  Each scene is specially made to cater to its viewership, which are hormonal young women.  Sure the wolf animations are superb but they do not make up for how short the scenes are and that they really are just scenes of estrous fantasy.

Scene one has a female vampire (big character in series and in the first movie, forgot her name) being chased by the wolf pack.  It is pretty much a girls fantasy to be pursued by a multitude of naked men.  She gives an old man a heart attack and gets away.  Our first display of super speed portrayed in high frames per seconds Super Slow-Mo.

Action scene 2 is a big disappointment, Bella is approached by a Jamaican vampire from movie one who is going to kill her for the female vampire from part one but to the rescue comes the wolf pack.  We get maybe one or two punches and then they begin chase leaving the camera man to follow Bella.  This could have been a good chance to see what the vampires and wolves could do but all we get is Jacob saying yeah we killed that vampire and look how perky my nipples are.

We now get a scene where Bella approaches the wolf pack and slaps one of the guys because she thinks they made Jacob a wolf.  Well the werewolves in this movie are not full moon types, they are the “Don’t Make Me Angry” type.  Well he changes and then Jacob changes and they tussle for about three seconds before we are forced to follow Bella again to the alpha male’s home where you see he lost his temper once and scarred his wife’s face.  Then Jacob and the other wolf guy stroll in as if they just finished playing one on one basketball and all is well.  Another missed opportunity to display some supernatural action.

Now lets go to Italy where you finally get to see Edward take off ‘his’ shirt (although the wolf pack group never had a shirt on to take off) and twinkle twilight with his ‘emo’ expressionless facade amidst a parade of Vatican attired parishioners.  Thankfully this does not last long as they are then escorted to the old vampire group (Vulturi-They eat people) where **SPOILER** (who cares)  Dakota Fanning makes her appearance.  She has the ability to cause you pain just by saying it.  I guess that can be related to women saying words hurt more than actions.  We get a fight scene here cause the old vampires want to kill Bella and Edward protects her by getting his ass handed to him in a Super Slow-Mo fight meant to symbolize super fast movement. (to much Matrix) Well, to the rescue comes Bella willing to sacrifice herself for the boy(though he is over a hundred years old,  what is it with women and older men, that is statutory, her father is the police. </rant>)  she loves.  See this is why I hate this character, she is only eighteen years old and is ready to die for her first love, such ignorance and immaturity.  Please young women do not be this girl.  Live a little, experience life.  You are only eighteen.  I assure you this is “NOT” it.  Sorry M J.

And final scene; it looks like we might get some action.  Edward and Jacob look like they are gonna square off.  All the girls in the theater are squealing, thankfully Jacobs goes wolf so I no longer have to see so much man skin.  But Bella steps in, tells Jacob she would choose Edward over him and he leaves.  No action.  Then the words “Mary Me”, ROLL CREDITS.

The "300" diet works kiddies

Well If you made it this far then you definitely love a good rant.  I did a lot of complaining about this movie but this movie was not made for me.  But if you are gonna make a movie that a large group of people, outside your regular audience, are gonna be dragged to watch then please give throw us a bone.  For me, watching this movie is probably equivalent to a woman who does not like action movies being forced watching “Shoot’em Up” (Great Man movie by the Way, Sex scene with Ninjas, “giggidy”).  To sum this movie up.  It is a cash in.  The writers, producers, and directors know where the money is.  It’s in the pockets of horny, hormonal young women and the guys they drag with them who are hoping for a happy ending of their own.  I still wonder though,  my girlfriend says the last book is chock full of very vivid gratuitous sex scenes.  Hmm, sounds more interesting by the minute, but how are they gonna get a PG-13 rating this time and stay true to the book.  Well they have years to figure it out, and will probably do them like the action scenes in new moon, make them three seconds each.

If you take Lego Rock Band for face value, it seems kinda dumb.  Lego has nothing to do with music and definitely nothing to due with rhythm games.  When you break down the elements in the actual product its easier to see the motivation behind the crossover and even the novelty of it’s existence.  However, with Travelers Tales doing most of the interface development, many of the mistakes that were corrected by Rock Band 2 (the best rhythm game to date) pop back up and with the family friendly direction a whole slew of new problems pop up as well.

LRB plays exactly like other Rock Band games; everything from overdrive, to guitar solos, to the x6 bass multiplier are all present. Rock Band veterans will know exactly what they’re doing.  What has changed are the set pieces, characters and story progression.  All characters in the game are Lego, and the notes falling down the track are Lego bricks.

Instead of earning cash, you earn studs, and rather than dying if you fail a song, you loose studs and are allowed to continue playing.  While the characters and backgrounds are all Lego, the lighting effects and general tone of the performances still carries a mood like that of Rock Band.  Graphically I would say that LRB is a perfect mixture of the two properties and one of the things that Travelers Tales got right.

Included in the story mode are the opportunity to play as Lego-fied versions of Queen, David Bowie, Iggy Pop, and Blur. With none of these characters having too much of a signature look, its hard to justify their inclusion. Artists that really would have benefited from the Lego-fication would have been Elton John, Kiss, Slipknot, Gwar, Michael Jackson, or even Devo. As it stands, Lego Iggy just looks like a custom character made in the character creator.

The song list is okay, and doesn’t stray as far from the base Rock genre as Band Hero, but still contains a number of songs that I’m not sure will appeal to the its target audience.  The following songs have a pretty wide appeal to them, but alot of the soundtrack is filler:

“Crocodile Rock” – Elton John
“Dig” – Incubus
“Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic” - The Police
“The Final Countdown” – Europe
“Fire” – The Jimi Hendrix Experience
“Free Fallin’” – Tom Petty
“Ghostbusters” – Ray Parker Jr.
“Girls & Boys” – Good Charlotte
“I Want You Back” – Jackson 5
“Kung Fu Fighting” – Carl Douglas
“Let’s Dance” – David Bowie
“Life is a Highway” – Rascal Flatts
“So What” – Pink
“Song 2″ – Blur
“Summer of ‘69″ – Bryan Adams
“Swing, Swing” – All-American Rejects The All-American Rejects
“Two Princes” – Spin Doctors
“We Are the Champions” – Queen
“We Will Rock You” – Queen
“Word Up!” – Korn
“You Give Love a Bad Name” – Bon Jovi

That’s only 21 top shelf songs, and with only 45 songs…that’s right 45 songs…there’s no room for filler. Putting bands like Lostprophets, Kaiser Chiefs, and Vampire Weekend next Queen, makes it easy to see the holes in the soundtrack. The good news is that all of the songs are exportable to your larger Rock Band library (I can finally play the Bon Jovi trifecta in the same game). The bad news is that it costs an additional $10 to do so. This kinda makes sense since the game retails for only $50 but I’m not sure the casual fans will take this into account.

My biggest problem with the whole music library is the severely truncated amount of DLC that is currently playable in LRB. My Rock Band 2 music library is up to 550 songs and of those, only 237 are playable in Lego Rock Band. This is a terrible percentage. Technically there is no reason why all DLC songs can’t be played in LRB and the warning at the beginning of the game stating that “downloaded content is not rated by the ESRB” keeps them from getting sued.

The choice to pick and choose compatibility is solely based on how “family friendly” the songs supposedly are. I’m sure its all done to ensure that they are granted the status of “Family Game” in the Xbox 360 Library. It’s called perpetual advertising. It also slightly breaks the game. On the flip side, one of the first songs Band Hero asked me to purchase was “The Beautiful People” by Marilyn Manson…….hmmmm.

With all of that said, LRB still looks like a pretty enticing package that’s pretty light on content, but wait I haven’t gotten to the structure of the career mode. First, there is no online play at all and I’m sure that’s also an attempt to get the the green family game dot on the packaging. Who knows what the crazy restrictions are in place for that.

A lot of the streamlining that was added to Rock Band 2’s menus is gone and rather than having a quick way to reach your destination in the career, all songs are spread across 9 or so vehicles that you have to scroll through each time you load the career. Something as simple as a mechanic that remembers where you were last would have greatly helped.

The load times in LRB seem longer than your standard Rock Game and many of the menus don’t make it clear how to get to your desired section of the game. This leaves you surfing back and forth with double and triple times the load. Each vehicle gives you access to about 3-4 new songs to play and about eight setlists that unlike Rock Band 2 have little personality. Luckily, I have a decent amount of DLC to play through, otherwise I would have had to play every song like 5 times to finish the career.

I don’t fault LRB for not having online play, and I don’t have a problem with it bringing little (if anything) of value to the game play, but its DLC filter, and patchy abbreviated setlist combined with an almost unfinished vibe to the structure makes me really want a proper Rock Band 3.

If you are looking for a quick 720 Achievement points Lego Rock Band is the way to go and the Lego Charm never lets you down. I say the cheaper you can grab this one the better. Remember to buy it new because the download code on the inside can only be used once.

Verdict: A Few Bricks Short of a Bionicle

For anyone who doesn’t know anything about this game. It is a 3rd person run”n”gun game. Set with a video filter to give it a old Drive-in theater look and feel this game is basically a chance to play a game that is in the same style as DESPERADO with Antonio Banderas. Not that that is a bad thing by any means. The story is your standard cheesy stylish action shooter movie far. Actress Eliza Dushku voices the role of Ruby. Our female “Desperado”. I have to admit for the amount of hype that I heard about her doing this project I thought the performance would be much better. I’m a Dushku fan, but Ruby doesn’t say much, preferring her guns and sword to do the talking. With the standard cheesy one liners thrown in during the combat. Which for me personally I found annoying.

Aside from the standard run’n'gun gameplay there quite a bit of platforming going on in this game. Some of which had me reminiscing the PS2 Prince of Persia days. In the gunplay Ruby has many acrobatic moves at her disposal. All of which will activate the “bullet time” . Whether your jumping through the air, vaulting off a enemy, or sliding on the floor. Which of course is how your going to be doing 99.9% of the time your killing bad guys. While in the “BT” Ruby will dual wield her weapons. Which you start with standard pistols and then acquire shotguns, sub-machine, and crossbows with explosive arrows. One arm will auto lock and the other is controlled by you so you can shoot at two simultaneously. For the most part Ruby controls fairly well. But the aiming is not a smooth as I would prefer. With the smoothest controls are during “BT” which isn’t too bad except during the sequences where you are riding on top of a car during the car chase sequences. Which with the choppy aiming can get your killed quickly. The ability to trigger the “BT” while stationary on a car roof would have helped alot. Boss battles are mainly quick timed events. Which work with the feel of the world they are going with.

Visually this game takes a very stylized direction. Everything is set up like the shoot’em’up movies we all love. With a filter that gives it that cheep film feeling. Or a film that has been run through the projector way to many times. Luckily you can turn the filter off. I point this out since a few people noted it made them a little motion sick. I’m not going into the graphics. Since on the PS3/360 there is a standard all games must hit. If I do comment on graphics they will be really awesome, or really sucking.

Audio wise think the cheesy movie music meant to pump you up during the action and your there. Ruby has one liners she throws out during combat. Some cool, some funny, but most just really stinky cheese.

For anyone interested in this game I call this one a rental. Or wait until it’s at least at $20 used. There are a lot of places where you will have fun. With a few places where your going to have to pause the game because it will make you bust out laughing with the randomness. Re-playability was pretty low to me. While I do recommend you play through this game if your a fan of 3rd person shoot’em’ups and cheesy movies of the same genre, The facts still stand. While not deserving the bashing it got it’s not the greatest thing in the world. A bit more time tweeking and some more focus work would have done wonders. Also for the amount of  A list cast they got to do the voices there should have been quite a bit more story. For me if there isn’t a lot of story why waste the money getting Eliza Dushku, Alan Cumming, and Malcom McDowell when your not really going to utilize their talents. You could have took that money and poured it into more polish.

This one ranks a 3.5 out of 5

With the recent buyout of the Turtles franchise by Nickelodeon, and Viacom, everyone knows that big changes are on the way for the green machine However, 4Kids still had one masterpiece to pump out before signing off.  Forever stars the 2K3 TMNT in their present universe.  Very quickly they find that out of nowhere 4 additional Turtles pop up and upon further investigation its discovered that these extra turtles are from a different dimension.  In fact they are the turtles that starred in the original Murakami-Wolf-Swenson cartoon turtles, or for you non-fans, “the turtles from the 80’s”.

The old TMNTs are animated pretty accurately and bare a very distinct visual difference from their 2K3 counterparts.  The original voice actors are absent and the cartoon-ness of the characters is overly played-up, but for all intents and purposes these are the Turtles you remember.  Their not perfect, but they are close enough to get the nostalgia juices flowing.

It is also found that not only have the old-school turtles been transported there but so have their evil counterparts, The Shredder, Krang, Bebop, Rocksteady and the Technodrome.  After some interesting and mindblowing introductions the story gets churning and secondary characters are introduced.  Everyone from the old school April, and Splinter, to Hun, Casey, Karai and the two rarely mentioned mutants from The Secret of the Ooze Tokka and Rahzar make appearances in the film.

The primary antagonist is The Shredder from the 2K3 show, which is a good choice seeing as he is really the only villain the Turtles have ever had that would still seem like a threat by today’s standards.  He’s cunning, crazy and absolutely vicious.  I’m not going to spoil the plot, but the movie does assume that you know a nice chunk of knowledge about the respective shows from which the characters are taken.  By the end of the story, the multiverse of Turtles is revealed, in what might be the most amazing sequence to ever appear in a TMNT property (you’ll know it when you see it) and the Turtles Prime are introduced.  If I go any farther, there too much will be given away.  Let me just say that a significant amount of act three is set in a black & white dimension.

As a stand alone film, non-fans of the series will not be able to see the care put into the production.  It will just look like a generic Turtles movie.  However, to the hardcore turtles fan, this piece of film will resonate deep within their psyche.  By touching almost every aspect of the history,  Forever blatantly ignores the common/casual Saturday morning cartoon viewer and caters to an audience that rarely gets this type of attention.  Jokes that call back to the old show are plentiful, and some lines of dialog are pulled directly from the independently released Mirage comic books.  The plot makes enough sense to hold the film together and the plethora of characters is well balanced.

As a huge fan of all of the source material, its very hard to find a flaw in a movie that was basically created specifically for me.  If you only have a passing interest in the TMNT or are not familiar with the source material then you may want to stay away.  Taking Turtles Forever for exactly what it is (fan service) then I am very confident in saying that this film is perfect and a fantastic way to close the book on the first 25 years of the TMNT.

Verdict:  Homework Maybe Required

It should be noted that this still does not have a DVD release date, and from what I understand not even a concrete DVD publishing deal.  With Nick in charge now, I don’t see how this would not eventually hit DVD, but I don’t think it will happen before the all important Christmas Holiday, but I could be wrong.  In the meantime, the movie will be chopped up and sired over the next three weeks on the CW’s 4kidsTV segments and will be availble to stream via the 4kids website later this year.

Check out the trailer below (warning possible spoilers)

Just like in L4D there are 4 survivors and you use them to kill a seemingly endless numbers of zombies in an effort to get rescued from the infected city. The core game of L4D hasn’t changed at all. You still must stay with your group and work you way through hoards of regular and special infected, helping each other along the way. It’s still a huge co-op experience that bring laughs, scares and controller launching frustration. Luckily Valve knew that they created a great core for a deep game. They just failed to provide the “deep”, the first time around.

Some of the new features in L4D2 (wow, that abbreviation looks like R2D2’s cousin) add to the ferocity of the campaigns and other features simply make it harder, but absolutely everything has been tweaked in some way. Their are 2 new modes, 4 new survivors, 3 new special infected zombies, new uncommon infected, and last but certainly not least, melee weapons. All of these, I will get to in a moment.

L4D2 is set in south specifically Georgia and Louisiana and the set design makes it very clear where you are. Everything from the bayou, to the cemeteries full of mausoleums, to the balconies in the french quarter, Valve did their research and decided to make the areas of the game as much of a character as the characters themselves. Why is it set in the south? Who knows. It’s nice, but a little confusing.

The four new characters add to the feel of the game, or at least two of them do. Of the four, (Ellis, Nate, Rochelle, and Coach) the obvious personalities are Ellis and Coach. The voice acting and casting put into these two characters is wonderful and brings the characters to life. Ellis, a good ole’ boy that many would call a redneck, is especially chatty and exceptionally funny. The character usually isn’t trying too hard to be funny, but rather his character is inherently funny. When standing in safe rooms between chapters, Ellis will get to chatting and well…let me just say that living my entire life in the south, I have met many people exactly like Ellis and its nice to see this character get his time to look ridiculous.

The three new Special Infected Zombies add more of what you’d expect from the special zombies. The Jockey leaps onto a survivors head and steers them away from the group and potentially into danger. The Charger has a giant arm that he uses pummel survivors. The charger can bowl through all four players if they are positioned properly and chooses one of them to simply stop and wail upon. The Spitter does just that, spit. She spits toxic green acid that eats away at the player’s energy surprisingly quick. These three are added to the existing four specials to round out a really strong zombie cast. The uncommon infected are worth mentioning, but not worth dwelling upon. They each have a very small special ability that may make them harder to kill, but they still are pretty easy to lay waste to.

The biggest and most game changing addition is Melee weapons. A gaggle of items can be picked up and swung at the thousands of Zombies hoarding you. Chainsaws, baseball bats, frying pans and crow bars (a la Dr. Freeman) are just a few of the items that can be used to bludgeon the undead. This is fun but also adds some balancing issues to the gameplay. Rather than laying waste to zombie nearby with a shotgun, now it’s easier and faster to just run through the hoard with a melee weapon swinging away. It felt a bit like Bioshock, when I realized that I only needed to pull my gun out when facing a special infected. This doesn’t take away the fun factor, it just unbalances the game.

As the for the game itself, Left 4 Dead 2 is significantly harder than it’s predecessor. Its partially due to the sheer amount of zombies coming your way and the frequency of the special infected, but is more due to the tasks you must complete while fighting the hoard. One particularly hard area has the survivors collecting gas cans to fill up a stock car that which they drive to safety. The catch is that the cans are located on three different stories of a mall. I found on the normal difficulty, that this stage takes a level of cooperation in which the human race is not prepared.

Also adding to the difficulty, is the spitter. The other new special infected zombies are clever and deadly, yet still reasonable. The spitter’s spit has the capability to not only incapacitate a survivor in 3-5 seconds, but also drains their life, leaving you pretty much useless after being revived. The spitter is especially deadly if you are being hoarded by 10-15 regular infected. Since you can’t move until the normals are killed, the spitter has free reign to take you out almost instantly. This gets annoying really quickly.

Visually, many things have been upgraded since L4D last year. The zombie’s fall apart much more realistically and the textures all look more detailed, but the biggest change is the addition of smoke, fog and rain. The campaign “Hard Rain” is the best example of this. During “Hard Rain” the survivors have to work their way through a torrential downpour (probably a Katrina reference, since the area gets terribly flooded during the rain) that captures the actual feeling of a vicious southern thunderstorm. This is easily the scariest part of L4D2, definitely the most realistic and possibly the most impressive.

The previous game’s modes are all present in L4D2, single player, online campaign, survival, and versus. Very little has changed in these areas, but two distinct modes have been added, Realism and Scavenge. Scavenge is a mode that tasks the survivors with collecting gas cans to power a central generator, with each can adding seconds to a clock ticking to zero. During this time, a second team of four players plays as the special infected to prevent them from gathering the cans. After each round the players swap spot and play again, with the goal being to scavenge the most cans. This mode plays much like versus mode, but can be completed much quicker and is more objective based. L4D needed a mode that is a quick pick up and play option, and this mode feeds the need.

Realism can be applied to any other game mode, and what it does is make the violence and recovery abilities a bit more realistic. In Realism mode, dead survivors can’t be revived with a defibrillator and don’t show back up halfway through the campaign. I’m sure there are some L4D players that were starving for a more difficult experience, but I am not one of them and I will not be playing in realism mode any more.

L4D2 is the logical next step for the franchise, that is argueably more like 4-5 steps farther than the original went. Anyone boycotting the sequel on the basis that the original was not supported adequately, and that L4D2 could have just been DLC, is not doing the new game justice and doesn’t realize just what they are missing. If you can look past the few balancing and difficulty issues, you will find that L4D2 is a more robust game than last year’s edition, and that this time $60 isn’t unreasonable.

Ok Valve, now get to work on Half Life: Episode 3.

Verdict: Prepare to die…alot!

“It’s the most wonderful time; of the Year.”

That’s right.  It’s that time of the year again.  The encroaching moment when the retail industry can finally start using black ink for their financial reports instead of red ink.  Yes, you heard right,  Black Friday gets its name from the fact that most retailers operate at a loss (financial reports in red ink) all year until the “Seasons of Giving” arrive, and people “burn” that money, thus helping most stores make over 60% of their fiscal year profits in a single month.

As always, with this time of the year, companies make their black Friday ads and try to hide them until the Monday of the week of Thanksgiving.  Well thanks to the internet we can all get early access to all those wonderful ads and build a plan of attack, well before the grandmas who have been doing this for over half a century.  I am not gonna tell you which site to check for these ads.  You may already have your own favorite.  Below are some things I might be buying.  Thanks to www.bfads.net for the info (my source).

Here are my Top 11: (In no specific order)

Left 4 Dead 2 $29 (Gamestop)

32in LCD 720p $244 (Walmart)

Laptop  15.6in 2gb Ram  $198 (Walmart)

Blu-ray Player with Netflix Streaming $99 (BestBuy)

Dremel Tool with free Detailers $44 (Home Depot)

Heath Ledger Joker Graphic hoodie size 3x $7 (Walmart)

8 in Digital Photo Frame 512mb built in mem $29 (Walmart)

Blu-ray player Magnavox $79 (Walmart)

17 in Laptop $398 (Walmart)

Over 30 Blu-ray movies $10 each (Walmart)

50in 720p Plasma $598 (Walmart)

Oldboy, Oldboy, Oldboy. Yours is a twisted tale. One which can sicken the faint of heart, but bring so much joy to those with passion for a gut-wrenching, suspense filled tale. Oldboy is a winding road of discovery, spattered with action, which eventually brings protagonist, Dae-su, to the realization that is every bit as disturbing as anything I have ever seen or heard.

Background. Oldboy, a Korean film directed by Park Chan-wook, was released in 2003 and is a loosely based film adaptation of a Japanese manga of the same name.

Plot. Oh Dae-su, a Korean businessman, husband, and father finds himself kidnapped and placed in a holding jail that appears to look like a run down hotel room with no access to the outside world other than a television set. After days of yelling and trying to get someone to give him some sort of explanation, he gives up and begins watching his television. Soon after, he learns that his wife has been murdered and that he is the number one suspect. Days turn into weeks, weeks to months, and months to years. The notion that he as been imprisoned for no apparent reason torments him and he often times loses his sanity. Thinking that at some point he may have the chance to escape from this living hell and ensue revenge on his captor’s, he trains feverishly. After 15 long years he is released with no explanation, rhyme or reason. Dae-su begins a quest to find his captors and figure out the reason why he has been imprisoned for the last fifteen years of his life.

The Good. Nothing in Oldboy is taken lightly. The extremeness of the plot and action is the hook. This film will easily have you running the gamut of human emotions. That being said, this movie is also extremely well paced. I often have problems with most action-suspense movies because they contain way too many dead spots, or don’t offer up enough story to keep me glued. This movie has a great balance of action, suspense, and reveals that will keep you on edge and guessing throughout. Ultimately the story is not as complex as it seems, but the mayhem that is distributed to reveal this perceived complexity, is all too appealing.

The Bad. The only bad thing I can see here is the sickness of the plot. Although this is also one of the movie’s strong points. So I don’t know if I can really say if it’s a bad thing. I will say that most people won’t find the scenarios that this movie reveals socially acceptable. But with most movies, how often do we really find the plot socially acceptable? I can’t really go into further explanation here, you just really have to see the movie.

If you read my last review for District B13, then you know I’m strongly opposed to reading subtitles. Fortunately the Netflix version of this movie does offer up an English dubbed audio track. Good that it’s there, but kind of disappointing that it’s poorly done. At first I felt like I was watching an old kungfu movie. Good thing is, as the movie goes on, you barely notice. But as I stated in my last review pertaining to subtitles, I can’t demerit the film for this (albeit the localization staff stands to lose a few points).

Conclusion. All in all, this is a great movie. I absolutely loved it. Because of the plot, I would think that this is not for everyone. But if you love action and have a tooth for good suspense, then this is definitely the movie for you.

Also, there have been rumors of an American-made adaptation of the original Japanese manga for quite some time. Supposedly Steven Spielberg was to head up the project, with Will Smith portraying the role of Dae-su. Seems the US version of the film has been tied up due to legal litigation as explained by AnimeNewsNetwork. Seems the manga publishers and the film makers are at odds over selling movie rights. As of right now, the project is reported to be dead.

Verdict: Must See

My main problem with their previous release, despite the fact that it wasn’t really remastered (how do you remaster betamax tapes?) was that they chopped off some of the top and bottom of the original framed animation to make it wide screen. That is a no-no for any film-buff (you wouldn’t buy a full screen movie for this same reason -you aren’t seeing the whole picture as it was intended).

Nevertheless, FUNimation passed this release off as DBZ as it was meant to be seen. Fanboys cried foul and the casual fan apparently didn’t care less (the orange bricks sold like gangbusters).

Fast-forward to November 17th, and the elusive Dragon Box is available in America!

What is a Dragon Box, you ask? Well, while FUNimation was pimping their gimped DBZ release, Toei Animation (the folks who animated DBZ…try to keep up!) pulled their film masters (yeah, ACTUAL masters) out of cold storage and cleaned them up for a DVD master. They cleaned the glue and grime off of the film and re-framed the shots. However, they released DBZ in two separate (expensive) sets. Really, these sets were like $1,200 each. The price, not to mention the fact that they had no dub subtitles meant that the American DBZ fan was out of luck…

…Until now.

Now, to be fair, I’m sure the fact that the previous DBZ set sold like crack enabled FUNi to acquire this gem, so from now on we’ll just let bygones be bygones.

Enough back story…on to the set:

This thing is a real beauty. Emulated after the original Japanese Dragon Boxes, this one retains all the aesthetics. The boxes are smaller (literally, and in episode count) and they are broken down into consumer-friendly (read: cheaper) volumes. The first one stretches from episode 1 to 42 (that means it goes a little bit into the Namek Saga).

Picture quality is great. You may notice grain, but it’s meant to be there. It shows the film’s subtle nuances and displays every detail that FUNimation’s photoshop filters blurred out of the previous release.

Sound is as good as it can be. The only Japanese track that exists for DBZ  is in mono, so there’s no overcoming that. The English dub is included with the original Japanese score and a 5.1 mix. Complaints about character casting aside, it makes the Japanese track sound like poop (I still rock it for nostalgia though!).

We are also treated to a Dragon Book that includes episode summaries, character descriptions, and various other pieces of artwork and information. The actual DVD menus are no-frills, and I wouldn’t have it any other way.

All in all, this is an excellent release. There should be seven releases to coincide with the seven Dragon Balls, and I will be purchasing every one. As the insert packaged with the set proclaims, “this isn’t an addition to your archive, this IS your archive.” If you are a fan of DBZ, even at $79.98, this is a no-brainer. If you bought that orange brick crap, ebay it and grab this asap. Short of re-drawing the entire series, it doesn’t get any better than this.

Recommended

Background. District B13 is a 2004 French film, which is widely known for it’s numerous parkour sequences, which were said to be done without any wire or computer effects. Parkour, as stated by Wikipedia, is the physical discipline of French origin in which participants run along a route, attempting to negotiate obstacles in the most efficient way possible, as if moving in an emergency situation, using skills such as jumping and climbing, or the more specific parkour moves. Mirror’s Edge, eat your heart out!

Plot. In 2010 B13, a slum in the suburbs of Paris is riddled with violence and mayhem and eventually a wall is constructed to contain this area. Soon after schools close, there is little to no law enforcement, and all hope is lost. One person, Leito, stands against the terror and soon finds himself on the bad side of the drug lord Taha. Taha kidnaps Leito’s sister, Lola, and after an unsuccessful rescue attempt, Leito finds himself on the wrong side of the few, crooked cops left in B13. Meanwhile an experimental bomb is stolen and taken into District B13. In an effort to retrieve the missing weapon, a hotshot undercover officer, Damien Tomaso, teams up with the detained Leito in an attempt to rescue Leito’s sister, and take back the weapon.

Main Characters. Leito, the main protagonist, is a streetwise acrobatic resident of B13 who knows the distinct like the back of his hand, and is the one shining light of B13. His character is portrayed by David Belle, who is largely credited as the founder of parkour.

Capt. Damien Tomaso is a star undercover officer who firmly believes and lives by the law. His character is portrayed by Cyril Raffaelli, who is a martial artist and stuntman, and is credited with parkour coordinator on the latest Incredible Hulk film.

The Good. Okay, no need to beat around the bush on this one. This movie is entirely about the action. It makes you appreciate the art of seeing the human body at it’s best. Simply put, Cyril Raffaelli and David Belle are awesome. And although the storyline isn’t the deepest around (and often times predictable), the movie does offer up a plot twist at the end which will keep you on edge through the closing minutes.

The Bad. Subtitles, I hate subtitles. There may be an English dubbed version of this film out there, but the one and only reason I saw this movie, was because it was on Netflix instant streaming. Unfortunately, it was just subtitled, which took me away from all the great action. Says a lot that I still love this movie, even though I had to read the entire time. I can’t fault the movie for that, but it was still annoying. Also, why give a date in a movie? 2010? Really? This movie makes the mistake of giving itself a date of 2010 as the future when it’s really not needed. They could have easily said, “In the not too distinct future”. By giving a date, they age the movie. It was made in 2004, and seeing that it’s 2009 right now, it just seems silly and very unnecessary to give the date in the film. It only adds unnecessary age to the film, which, if it wasn’t for them mentioning the date, I would have thought it was just made.

Conclusion. This movie has more action than you can shake a stick at. Great stunts, great fighting, with an okay storyline. What more do you want? As fore mentioned it’s available for instant streaming via Netflix. So if you can stomach reading subtitles, it’s a go. Next up, Oldboy!

Verdict: Must See

Band Hero PS3 Review

Band Hero is a potentially interesting take on the Guitar Hero franchise with a different paint job and musical focus. At first glance it may seem like the entire game has been overhauled, when it fact, the changes are primarily cosmetic.

Its good to see that all of the benefits added in Guitar Hero 5 are present in Band Hero.From the Instrument challenges to the party play, each mode in GH5 is faithfully copied and coated with bright glossy colors to be consumed by the masses. However, the problems with Band Hero don’t lie with the features that it HAS, but more with the features that it doesn’t have.

With shift to “Pop” music, a term I use loosely (I’ll get to that later), Band Hero has to deal with the tracks found in traditional “Pop” music. Typically, Pop music isn’t heavy on the guitars, and maybe be made entirely of synth music. However, Band Hero chooses to ignore the genre change and simply finds Guitar centric Pop music. This works most of the time, but when you have a huge install base that has already played hundreds if not thousands of guitar songs; unless your setlist is strong the gameplay will get tired quickly.

Take the song “Wannabe” by the Spice Girls. It is a great Pop song and choosing it communicates that you as a developer are serious about making the game different from GH games. The song has multiple vocal tracks and singers, and the game supports up to four mics. However, all 4 mics are singing the exact same tracks. Now, I’m not suggesting that Band Hero copy The Beatles: Rock Band exactly, I’m just saying that not acknowledging the extra singers defeats the purpose of including a pop song.

What I would like to see out of future Band Hero games (assuming they get made) is the genre to be embraced wholeheartly. I want to see Nsync, BackStreet Boys, Madonna, Michael Jackson, Hip-Hop, R&B, Disco, Funk, and maybe even DJ controller capability. Don’t get me wrong, I am digging the setlist, and like GH5, the new features work fantastically but if Activision and Red Octane are determined to create a “New Franchise” they need to make a new game, not a skin for an old one. In fact, many of the GH5 features feel more at home in Band Hero, than they did in GH5.
Speaking of the setlist, for every great song choice there is an equally bizarre choice to go with it. The brilliant song choices include:
Devo – “Whip It”
The Go-Go’s – “Our Lips Are Sealed”
The Jackson 5 – “ABC”
Marvin Gaye – “I Heard It Through The Grapevine”
N.E.R.D. – “Rockstar”
Styx – “Mr. Roboto”
Village People – “YMCA”
Don McLean – “American Pie”
Culture Club – “Do You Really Want to Hurt Me”
Ben Harper and the Innocent Criminals – “Steal My Kisses”
The Go-Go’s – “Our Lips Are Sealed”
Janet Jackson – “Black Cat”
KT Tunstall – “Black Horses & The Cherry Tree”
Taylor Swift – “Love Story” & “You Belong to Me”
The Turtles – “Happy Together”
Duran Duran – “Rio”
David Bowie – “Let’s Dance”
Carl Douglas – “Kung Fu Fighting”
Katrina and The Waves – “Walking On Sunshine”
Mighty Mighty Bosstones – “Impression That I Get”
All of these songs are fairly well known and would appeal to an extremely large audience. On the flipside, Band Hero has a decent number of tracks that your average person is not going to care about and a whole pile of songs that SHOULD have been in a Guitar Hero game and in the case of All-American Rejects “Dirty Little Secret”, HAS already been in a GH game.

Here’s my list of questionably included tracks.
The Kooks – “Naïve”
The Last Goodnight – “Pictures of You”
The Bravery – “Believe”
Boys Like Girls – “The Great Escape”
Cold War Kids – “Hang Me Up To Dry”
Counting Crows – “Angels of the Silences” (Omitting “Mr. Jones” in place of this song should be a crime)
The Airborne Toxic Event – “Gasoline”
Alphabeat – “Fascination”
Aly and AJ – “Like Whoa”
Angels & Airwaves – “The Adventure”
OK Go – “A Million Ways”
Papa Roach – “Lifeline”
Parachute – “Back Again”
Robbie Williams and Kylie Minogue – “Kids”
Santigold – “L.E.S. Artistes”
Snow Patrol – “Take Back the City”
Many of the other songs ride the line between Rock and Pop, and if the line between GH and BH wasn’t blurred enough, to make even muddier, you can use your imported songs from Guitar Hero: World Tour (included downloaded content), Smash Hits, and GH5 (Band Hero tracks are also exportable to GH5). This is a great feature pioneered by Harmonix with Rock Band, that continues to benefit the party player, but the inability to export the majority from World Tour and Smash Hits, still has a dampening effect on the whole experience.

So, I suggest you look at the entire setlist, before any purchase decisions are made, and if you like the songs, buy it. Or if you somehow haven’t managed to pick up a GH Drum kit, pick up Band Hero for the hardware since no other new GH game has a full band set packaged with it this year. Nothing gameplay-wise is going to surprise you since the Guitar Hero formula is a known quantity, oh, and just in case you were wondering the lag calibration is still boned.
Verdict: Research First

On DS, Band Hero is a very different game. Let’s take a look at it.

Band Hero DS Review

Vicarious Visions, has been developing Guitar Hero Games for Wii and DS for years, to positive reviews. Guitar Hero: On Tour is their flagship DS title that has sold pretty well and included the strange yet equally awesome Guitar Grip. If you have never played GH for the DS you are really missing out.

Its enough like its console counterparts to be familiar, but bit more abstract and off-the-wall. Outside of the hand cramps caused by Guitar Grip use, the On Tour Series has been a pretty solid series of DS games. But this isn’t an On Tour review, now is it?

Band Hero for the DS picks up the idea of On Tour and gives it the full band treatment. Band Hero comes bundled, with the game, the Guitar Grip and the brand new Drum Grip. It’s much like a Wii remote jacket, with little drum pads that sit over the d-pad and face buttons.

Its really a cosmetic cover, and I’m sure the game can be played without it (unlike the Guitar Grip). Its inclusion has more of a symbolic significance. It symbolizes the full band and proves that Vicarious Visions is serious about bringing the console experience to a handheld, which brings me to my next point.

Band Hero DS has pitch recognition, meaning you can sing into the tiny DS microphone and participate without any ad-ons . Singing into my DS and seeing it register on the note chart was mind-blowing and I realized that the amount of game packed into this single cart was staggering. So, with the addition of vocals and drums, the standard band setup is complete. As you would assume, four DSs can be linked wirelessly to play songs together a-la Band Hero on PS3, WIi, & Xbox 360.

A small but welcomed addition to the game is the Stage Stunt Minigames. They pop up to perform during songs and are activated like star power. They are completely optional and can provide a welcomed break when working through a torturously hard track. These minigames include things like giving fans high fives with the stylus, or using the stylus to guide a crowd surfer through the crowd. They come at you lighting quick much like Warioware and help to break up the gameplay.

However, everything’s not all peaches and Jelly Beans. The game comes with all songs already unlocked and instead of having a Career Mode and a Quick Play mode; it only has a Play mode. All playing is done to open achievement-like unlockables. This setup prevents the player from getting too attached to completing the game and makes it feel a bit shallow, even though its not.

Also, the wireless play that is available isn’t single cart, so any body that buys Band Hero in the bundle (which currently it’s only available in a bundle) will never need to actually use all the instruments simultaneously. If four kids show up with their DSs, each with a copy of Band Hero, they will have several extra instruments sitting around. This is a minor issue to say the least, but it going to be harder to get your friends on board with buying the game if you are never able to play multiplayer (since you only have a single cart). If anything it would have been smart to include dummy carts that you put into the drone DSs that only included enough of the game to boot and play wireless multiplayer.

The pitch detection stands out as being a bit janky. It works well enough, but its obvious the DS mic was not designed for this kind of use. It took me a few tries before I found the right angle to hold the DS for optimal mic pick-up. The song choice is a bit more on the same page than its console counterparts, with Visions deciding to take a more Pop-Rock stance on song selection. There are very few duds in 30 the set-list. Band Hero DS is tough, probably one of the toughest rhythm games I’ve ever played, second only to Elite Beat Agents, and the Drum parts are punishingly difficult.
If you are looking for a decent portable rhythm game Band Hero is definitely the way to go, but just remember that you will definitely look like an idiot playing it in public.

Verdict: Surprisingly Awesome