Scrivener

That's BS. I hope Marvel crashes and burns. Any time you give people freedom to create any superhero they want... why don't they just lay claim to the superhero ideal and be done with it. What a joke.

Muahahahahahahahahahahahaha!

quote:Originally posted by Carl Burning: Wow, I had no idea EA was a sweatshop until I read that article. I somehow have a feeling ill end up being shafted like that some day... I knew exactly what they were... and are. Most big game companies are like that. Whatever can put another $10 in their pockets.

MINI SPOILER . . . . . . . . . . . Sweet - you get the Covenant's POV this time around. Helps flesh out the universe a little without having to read the books. Instant +1 to final score. . . . . . . . . . . . . End Spoiler

I bought it for one reason: COOPERATIVE MULTIPLAYER Basically, anything that has coop, I will buy. That makes it all worthwhile. Unlike most people out there, I just don't think Halo 2 equates the second coming of Christ. It's not bad or anything - it's just a game that has to be played with a friend. That's why I have consoles - for the multiplayer. The social element really changes everything. [ 11-09-2004, 06:20 PM: Message edited by: Scrivener ]

So far all I can say is *yawn*. Good thing I had it paid off a long time ago or I might feel I was out $50. I could attribute 50% of this to not having a keyboard/mouse. I don't like FPS games on console controllers - and my TV is small (19")... and the grapics just - they're not what I had expected. Spoiled by computer games? Yeah, I think so. The 'greatest' console game of all time (IMHO that honor belongs to Ninja Gaiden XB, but we'll just go off the ad campaign byline) really dosn't impress me that much. So far, though - it seems like Bungie has nixed the gross repetition that made Halo so annoying (Ie, artificially lengthening the game by repeating levels). That is good news, at least. But then, I didn't care for the first Halo either. I think Half Life 2, Vampire Bloodlines, and Moment of Silence are more my cup o tea. Now back the Morrowind Online - er, I mean EverQuest 2.

Longest Journey fans, this is a great month for us. First of all - Myst 4 is out, and it surpasses all expectations. While it uses the node based style of it's earlier predecessors (read: Not URU or RealMYST) - everything is sharp, stunning, and totally ANIMATED in 360 degreees. There's also an awesome depth-of-field focus effect to give it that little bit of added realism. Best of all, there are plenty of characters to actually interact with. Yes, it has more in common with Journeyman Project than anything else. This is great great stuff. Second, and the bigger topic of this thread, is the new adventure from german developer House of Tales (the germans do all the great games. Damn their antiviolence laws!). The games is called 'The Moment of Silence' and really brings back memories from The Longest Journey - but with more Deus Ex-like subject matter. Currently there's no planned US release (Americans pretty much only like lousy me-too shooters), but you can either order your UK import from GoGamer (starts shipping tomorrow, the 8th) or download the english demo from 3DGamers.com. It's only achilles heel is that it suffer from lack of feedback. That is, when you are on the right track - the character tells you so. Seasoned adventure gamers probably wont notice - since you will be able to quickly formulate scenario solutions - and just explore/experiment a bit to solve them. I was able to puzzle through the (fantastic) demo in about 3 hours... and that's constantly making some kind of progress. The voice acting is decent, if not as unbelievably fantastic as TLJ - and you quickly begin to accept the characters as real people with real quirks. Even moreso when you start to get bits of story info. And I guarantee that by the end of the demo you will desperately want to know what happens next. Between Myst4 and Moment of Silence, November is Nirvanna for gamers who love problem solving and fantastic stories. What are you waiting for? Go get the demos!

Wow. This movie was way more mature than even I would have guessed. Sort of along the lines of the Indiana Jones movies with Bond overtones. There were a few bits of slightly excessive goofiness (slightly because it teetered on the razors edge), and for that I dock it a point and a half. For the most part though, this was some friggin fantastic grade-A cinema... like a family version of The Watchmen (as if such a thing could exist). Now - if only Pixar would abandon this impending crapfest disaster of a film, 'Cars,' and get cracking on The Incredibles 2. Yeah - Cars looks really really really bad. And who wants to sit through an hour and a half Chevron commercial? 8.5/10 P.S. As usual, you will have to tolerate a 5 minute torture session before the movie begins - a god-aweful crapsmear of a shortfilm called 'Boundin'. *sigh* Pixar, please stop. And give us more movies about PEOPLE. P.S.S. Iron Giant SE comes to DVD this month! W00t! If you havn't seen that, now is the perfect time to pick it up. Animation at its best.

Meh.

Following in the footsteps of the nazilike RIAA regime, the MPAA has vowed to start suing kids who download movies from the internet. No, they are not stepping up security or attempts to catch those who illegally film or sell the movies - but rather they will ruin the lives of kids and college students over $7.50 and a crap-for-quality wmv file. There is no indication whatsoever that online movie piracy is hurting the film industry AT ALL. Many a time have I downloaded a movie only to watch 15mins, to decide it was worth seeing at the theatre. Downloads are grainy, washed out, and extremely low quality - which usually forces people to get out and see it anyway. I'm not arguing that piracy is good - because its not. But these guys are going after the wrong people, and with no good reason. Take LOTR: The Two Towers - one of the most profitable and successful movies of all time - and also the single most downloaded movie of all time. If they really want to decrease internet piracy: 1) Get DVDs out faster. Most studios sit on a movie for 9 months while they 'evaluate the market' to decide if it will even get a DVD release. 2) Work with theatres to keep admission under $10 for good. When Early Bird tickets were still $5.25 I saw twice as many movies at the theatre each week. Early Bird tix are now $7.50, compliments of increased reel lease costs. 3) Start putting together trailers that don't lie. Also start an internet "First 15 minutes" campaign. I'm sure Apple will be glad to help with that. 4) STOP SUING KIDS AND COLLEGE STUDENTS. When I pay $30+ a WEEK for movies (Theatre, rentals, purchases, netflix), I expect you to stay off my case over the occassional download. I spend more on movies than car insurance. What a joke.

I'm starting to lose interest. I miss the small personal stories that made TNG so great. The politics, relationships, and moral dilemmas seem to be sadly absent or in short supply. Enterprise season 1 seemed to be getting it right, then they suddenly switched to "Saving the universe every week" mode in Season 2 & 3. Meh.

Ok, so I just got back from the show. I'm actually pretty impressed. The film tells a very good story - many kudos to first time writer/director James Wan. It may even be safe for you SC, it's a little more tame than Seven I think. As per the norm, critique points are as follows: 1) The two main actors are pretty mediocre in the majority of the 'room' sequences. But it could have been much worse - at least they did a very passable job. 2) Slightly too much exposition in the end montage. Most movies blow it - giving either too much or too little information at the end. SAW errs in the same way The Ring did - it should have let you figure it out yourself without the 'punchline' montage. 3) I thought this was supposed to really push the R rating. Maybe I've become spoiled by the advent of unrated DVDs - but I was expecting way more gore than I got. It's not even close to the level of Dawn of the Dead (which I wasn't very keen on despite all the impressive gore). Basically, the camera cuts away from or speeds past anything really shocking/interesting. This transgression could be forgiven if there is an Unrated DVD release in the near future. Oh yeah, and we got to see the trailer for Rob Zombies 'The Devil's Rejects'... aka, House of 1000 Corpses 2. I just about jumped out of my seat cheering when Sid Haig showed his ugly Captain Spalding clown face. Obviously, the rest of the crowd wasn't horror-savvy enough to know what they were seeing, as I was cheering alone (wouldn't have been that way if I had gone Friday, I can garauntee it). Can't wait for that one to come out in theatres - or for my House of 1000 Director's Cut. Nevertheless, I definately got my moneys worth tonight. 8/10

quote:Originally posted by Supreme Cmdr: I thought they said this movie had gore in it? Thats why it dropped off my radar. Yeah, that's what I thought - that it was supposed to really push the R rating. Well I'll find out in about another hour. Hope it's at least somewhat disturbing.

What other movies would you compare it to? I hope it's disturbing - I havn't had a good disturb-scare in a while.

So I just drove out to the local indy theatre to see The Machinist. So far I've absolutely loved everything Christian Bale has been in - American Psycho, Reign of Fire, Equilibreum... etc. Now here's the quick hit: while The Machinist is a pretty good movie, the last 15 minutes are pretty weak. It's like the movie keeps building up to this super-dramatic climax, but instead of giving you a shocking revelation - it just sort of fizzles out with an "eh, that's what I figured" too-obvious-for-it's-own-good ending. It's especially frustrating because things start to get really crazy to the point of being nearly overwhelming. Then the movie throws you a "haha, I tricked you" curve ball, and goes for the least interesting end scenario that one might think of. Not to mention this kind of full-exposition ending means that it's not the kind of movie that would lend itself to repeated viewings. Once you get it - it's over - and there's nothing more to get out of it. That said, it's worth seeing at least once. Especially if you're into Fight Club, Memento, Jacob's Ladder - or other similar hallucinatory movies. If there's one thing Machinist does really really well - it's conveying that wierd insanity that happens when you don't sleep for a long time (I've been there, I know how it feels). 7/10 Tomorrow: Primer and SAW.

+Bill 'the Butcher' Cutting - Daniel Day-Lewis, Gangs of New York +The Duke - Richard Roxburg, Moulin Rouge +Ming the Merciless - Max von Sydow, Flash Gordon 1980

Mmmm, Darklands. There's one I havn't thought about in years. *blows dust off of a black box* Funny thing is - I still play Daggerfall to this very day. Years and years of gaming, and it's still fresh and fun even today. Oh, the stories I've lived thanks to that game. And the world and it's cultures were so rich that it would make Tolkien proud. I hope that Oblivion captures just some of that glory. As great as the Gothic games are - I still dream of a truely open-ended RPG world. Oh man, now I wanna play DF some more. See you guys next week EDIT: This thread has led to a long series of reminiscences. Old games ruled. The days when just getting the games to RUN was part of the fun (I remember the rejoicing when my soundblaster settings would finally work). All those fond memories - it makes me feel sad. Games today just don't try to give you the 'experiences' that old games strived for.

quote:Originally posted by echo: I was thinking they were dead too, and sort of living out something they really wanted. As for the dead people on the plane, they are still alive. Like the black lady said when the "Party of 5 guy" was giving her his condolences and she said he's not dead. Doesn't explain the polar bear though. Wow, that sorta makes sense. "What makes you think they're dead?" Good job, Echo. As for the polar bear - the boy was reading a comic about it just a before it happened... What I don't understand is why they didn't keep it to eat. Maybe they were still assuming they'd be rescued.

quote:Originally posted by jamotto: quote:Originally posted by Wolferz: You are only a Star Trek geek if you know what LCARS stands for..... Library Computer Access and Retrieval System Heh, you beat me to it. I have to admit... I am VERY tempted to try it out. Fortunately for me, I have a friend who is 10x the Star Trek geek that I am - so I'll let him play with it first

Wow, it looks like they're actually going back to what made the older Elder Scrolls games so great. While Morrowind provided me many hours of amusement, it was ultimately a big let down - especially as compared to Daggerfall. Funny that a game released in 1995 remains the most full-featured RPG of all time. And they said there will be lots of blood. Bethesda - thank you for that.

Yes, the casket was empty. Now keep in mind that there are a virtually unlimmited number of religious views on afterlife and death. I havn't really been able to peg any specific one to LOST (yet) but then it could have invented it's own as well - as many other movies in past have. Maybe the island is some kind of stopover point. The question isn't "are the others double dead" but "what is so special about the 'living' that they havn't moved on yet?" It seems to make sense - and the way the show is constructed only seems to confirm that. But then again - maybe they are just stranded on an, ahem, magical island. IMO, that would be the stupid way out, and I think the writers are beyond doing something that obviously silly. And you also have to account for the name of the show - which, and especially in instances like this, has multiple meanings.

I think I have it figured out... they're all dead... and the island is some kind of afterlife. Some level of hell. They're LOST SOULS. That would explain the flashbacks... and also the crazy invisible monster thingie. Not to mention the not-quite-dead father... Just a hunch.

Oh man, I just lost it again. This sucks. Talk about outrageously bad luck - you'd think my life is a freaking Lampoon movie Why do I keep finding myself in situations that you wouldn't even see on TV because of how ridiculously unbelievable they are. Maybe I'm the reincarnation of Hitler and Karma is coming to bite me in the ass? Sheesh. UPDATE: Whew, the interview went really well I think (despite feeling terribly ill). *crosses fingers* Thanks for all the prayers and thoughts. I should hear yay or nay in about another week. [ 10-20-2004, 02:31 PM: Message edited by: Scrivener ]

quote:Originally posted by Supreme Cmdr: Wal-Mart are complete bastards. You have NO idea what they put game publishers through. They are a classic example of corporate America gone wrong. Actually, I have pretty good idea. I don't understand how they havn't been shut down yet. And people think Microsoft is anticompetitive and monopolistic. If they are allowed to continue like this, in 15 years the only retail chain left will be WalMart.

So I decided not to go to school today - with the rain+accidents, I wasn't keen to sitting on the freeway for 3 hours to get to school. Wow, I just threw up, while typing this. Out of nowhere. I was, like 100% A-Ok peachy keen one instant then all of a sudden I felt really ill, had to run to the bathroom. Aw man, this is not good... and I still feel pretty good. That's BIZARRE, I havn't ralphed since I was, like, 9. So anyway, I just got a phone call from the Sony Recruiter giving me a heads up that the guy in charge wants another interview with me later this afternoon. W00t! If I understood the last interview correctly, this means I'm pretty much hired. Oh man, I hope that phantom sickness thing just now was just a freak accident. I don't need that today.