Geeksquisite Question of the Day #83: 10/3/09

This question came to me when continuing the list of Halloween themed questions.

Question #82: Whats your favorite space horror film?

If you'd like to submit a question just send an e-mail to geeksquisite@gmail.com with the subject line "Question of the Day".

Feel free to leave your answers in the comment section, thank you.

New Rock Band DLC

YES YES YES YES YES

Finally, Rock Band will be adding more Queen to it's list of bands. This is long overdue, and now I have a reason to pick up Rock Band 2 more than once every two weeks.

Thank you 1UP for the....heads up lol

No pricing but here are the songs

"Another One Bites the Dust"
"Crazy Little Thing Called Love"
"One Vision"
"Fat Bottomed Girls"
"I Want It All"
"I Want to Break Free"
"Killer Queen"
"Somebody to Love"
"Tie Your Mother Down"
"Under Pressure"

Some crazy fan of mine wanted me to inform you they come out October 20th, and thy word has been spoken. Good day :D

Trine PC Review

I recently had the chance to sit down and play through Trine with my friend Matt. We played on the PC, an Xbox 360 controller in his hand, and a keyboard at mine. Let me tell you, it was a great experience.

Trine is a game much like The Lost Vikings in that they give you three different characters to control. You can play single player, or you can have one or two more guys join in for co-op action. It's also a lot like LittleBigPlanet in terms of how the platforming feels, which I think is a good thing... Not to mention the difficulty of the platforming feels very old-school, and in fact, me and Matt spent an hour trying to master the final level.

The story is pretty generic, and at times, me and Matt were both jokingly comparing it to Lord of the Rings. However, it still gets the job done and gives you an excuse to go through the levels, not to mention it does flesh out the characters probobly the best I've seen any platformer do before. Even if they are just generic stereotypical characters.

However, let's not just sit here and compare it to other game and movies... Trine has some individuality as well. First and foremost, this is probobly the best looking side-scrolling game I've ever seen. A lot of developers try to bring things into 3D while keeping the 2D gameplay roots, but they usually end up creating some uninspiring visuals. Trine Proves you can do both, and do both well.

But enough about graphics, let's talk about gameplay. Each character plays differently, and has their own unique abilities, and you can switch between them at will. Not only that, but each character has their own little skill tree, much like Diablo. The size of the tree complements the length of the game, and you're not left feeling you missed anything by the end.

Let's go over each characters specific abilities now... The Barbarian can do various sword attacks, and also gets some charge moves, this is your main melee combat guy. The Thief has arrows, and also a grappling hook which is useful for getting places other characters can't reach. The wizard can draw lines and shapes to make various platforms, as well as move them around, and other objects in the world, simply by clicking and dragging, in fact he can't attack at all, in order to kill an enemy, you have to drop something on their head. On the controller it's made slightly more difficult using the stick and the A-button, making the keyboard the ideal way to use the wizard. All of the other characters seem to play better on a controller, however, making it kind of confusing what platform they were focusing on.

This didn't turn out to be too much of an issue, since Matt tended to stick with the barbarian or the thief, and I stuck with the wizard or the barbarian mostly. In fact, the character switching in two players lends itself to the puzzle solving as well, and you can solve puzzles differently than you would have to in single player. I think this works to the game's benefit and makes you want to go through the game multiple times with multiple players.

Overall, Trine is a fun charming little game with some old-school difficulty to it, and some cool new features that I haven't seen before, such as the wizard's box drawing abilities. The execution is solid, and while the story leaves something to be desired, I still had lots of fun with it and it's definitely worth checking out for anybody who enjoys platformers or action RPGs.

I give Trine a 4 out of 5.

Final Fantasy XIII Trailer Dubbed

I know, I know, this is the third time we've posted this video but I swear it isn't my fault. First Square Enix released the trailer with no english translation, then a english sub version, and now finally an English dub. Not must to say since you've all pretty much have seen this footage 3 times. All I can say is that the dubbing is quite good and probably the best i've heard for a JRPG possibly ever. Enjoy!

Video Games | Final Fantasy XIII | TGS 09: Official US Trailer

XBox 360 | Playstation 3 | Nintendo Wii

5 minutes of 2012..............OMFG!!!!

Look can we get this out of the way, the movie will have terrible acting (Cusack is exempt from being anything less than awesome in everything), and unbelievably convoluted and contrived plot. But and there is a big ass but, this film is going to be just EPIC in all measures of the word. I think critics, filmmakers, and fanboy 15 year olds can be extremely snotty and elitist but I know one thing for a fact. That is that I have a lot more fun at the movies then they do. I work on films all the time and yes I love a good ole' fashioned drama like anyone else but I also like to see things explode. These movies are far and inbetween, if you think about it we must have 1,000 movies a year between dramas and comedies and only a handful of big sci-fi and adventure movies. We hear about them all the time simply because they have gigantic marketing budgets so everyone hears about them constantly. They are by far though the minority of films that exist. So while they might not be remembered 50 years from now I'm more then willing to indulge in some fun with friends a bag of popcorn and some MST3K action for 2 hours. I'm so sorry that it's not a "real film" if I don't cry 5 times throughout it.

Geeksquisite Question of the Day #82: 10/1/09

This question came to me when thinking up some Halloween themed questions for this month.

Question #82: What is your favorite movie monster?

If you'd like to submit a question just send an e-mail to geeksquisite@gmail.com with the subject line "Question of the Day".

Feel free to leave your answers in the comment section, thank you.

Dead Space 2 coming?

It's recently been revealed that Visceral Games has posted a job listing on LinkedIn. Here's a few excerpts from the post:

Seeking a highly motivated Lead combat designer for the Dead Space franchise on Xbox360 and PS3. This is a major opportunity to contribute creatively to an exciting new franchise.

The previous installment in the Dead Space franchise received numerous awards for gameplay, visuals, and sound design, and the same core team is in place to create an even better follow up.

So... does this mean Dead Space 2 is coming? Well, not officially... but I'm guessing we'll be seeing something that's a much more authentic then that OTHER Dead Space Sequel.

Looking forward to seeing the game in action, which probobly won't be very long if they're using the framework from the first game. I am interested in seeing where they take the sequel, though.

What's better than Watching House and Playing Left 4 Dead...

...Hoping this becomes an actual episode of the show.

AVATAR The Game: Story and Features

Alright so AVATAR The Game isn't an MMO? DID I MISS A MEMO, like what the hell. I remember for the last year are so up until about this summer that it was going to be an MMO. Now according to this video it's a 15 hour campaign where you play humans for a shooter for like 7 hours and as a Na'vi in a more melee focused campaign. Now I'm not saying thats bad in fact the game looks pretty dam good and I really do like Ubisoft. On top of that they've been working on this for 2 1/2 years unlike most movie games where you only have 10-14 months. Still when the hell did this become a third-person single player game and not an MMO. Seriuosly how did I miss that?

Video Games | Avatar | TGS 09: Story and Features Overview

XBox 360 | Playstation 3 | Nintendo Wii

Geeksquisite Question of the Day #81: 9/30/09

This question came to me when getting out of my silent film course. Just watched the the cabinet of doctor caligari this morning.

Question #81: Have you ever watched a silent feature film? (and Wall-E doesn't count)


If you'd like to submit a question just send an e-mail to geeksquisite@gmail.com with the subject line "Question of the Day".

Feel free to leave your answers in the comment section, thank you.

TGS 09: Final Fantasy XIII Japanese Trailer now with subtitles

Yo we already posted this vid so I'm not really gonna comment on it but hey now it has english subtitles for us not Japanese speeching gents so enjoy.

FFXIII Japanese TGS Trailer

Video Games | Final Fantasy XIII | TGS 09: Subtitled Japanese Trailer

XBox 360 | Playstation 3 | Nintendo Wii

Geeksquisite Question of the Day #80: 9/29/09

This question came to me when once more lacking brilliant question ideas.

Question #80: Ever see a trailer for a movie that let you down once you saw the movie?


If you'd like to submit a question just send an e-mail to geeksquisite@gmail.com with the subject line "Question of the Day".

Feel free to leave your answers in the comment section, thank you.

Halo 3: ODST Review

After a long, tedious week I managed to beat the campaign at the very last minute. Since I am one of the only owners of this game for Geeksquisite I thought it would be appropriate to share my thoughts on the game.

Campaign: Many have said this campaign was short, but it isn't as short as it seems. it's a good 5 hours if you play it on Normal, but I found it hilarious how most considered it short and finished it quick; but on easy. To me that is unrealistic and because most will play it on Heroic, it will be enough to satisfy Halo fans. You really become aware of how vunerable you are, it feels close to Halo: Combat Evolved in terms of health and shields(No Sexy AI voice included). The cutscenes are numerous, some being unnecessary, others being fun to watch several times with buddies of mine in Co Op. However one gripe I had was the flashbacks the Rookie had to find, you basically went back and forth in the city. Stupid. The city is also pretty dark alot of the time, but in the buildings it's annoyingly dark and not even the nightvision in the visor helps enough. So at times you are groping to find your way in the buildings, as for the Visor feature it's pretty cool but OH MY GOD does it have to run the tutorial every time you start at the beginning. You can't end the tutorial right away, that was so annoying. Overall the campaign was nicely varied in terms of combat and "missions", it showed a good amount of what marines have to do since Master Chief isn't around.

Maps: Yeah I had them all already except for the three specifically in ODST, they're nothing to go crazy over. Longshore is a medium to large map that's designed pretty badly to be honest, it's too easy to navigate the whole map in 2 minutes. Citadel is slightly better than my low expectations of it, could be real fun for juggernaut if there are enough nooks and crannies to hide in. Heretic is a carbon copy of Midship, which is good because that map was good, it's just graphically updated. The Maps don't really add any value.

Firefight: Easily the best part of ODST, I spent 3 hours trying to stay alive with two friends of mine. You really start to engage in guerilla warfare when your ammo starts to run out, and you do run out of ammo before like level 3. The Drones are your worst enemy, not only are they able to pick you up (i'm serious, they do) but they also have a variation of themselves in red with shields. The ones with shields are the priority to take down, you can't let them surround you. The Firefight maps are pretty big, some are bigger than the multiplayer maps (Why is that?)and it's a real challenge to fight with melees when your weapons really run out of ammo. The bonus rounds where grunts are the only enemies is frustrating as hell, because it becomes a plasma grenade acid rain shower, those grunts are suicidal almost 70 percent of the time normally. But they are next to impossible to score more than 20 of them before you get stuck, although the worst enemies to fight are invunerable brutes with hammers and fuel rod guns. The crazy part is sometimes those come in threes, that's right three invunerable Brutes with hammers and fuel rod guns. Your going to lose a couple of lives.

Overall Halo ODST will stand alone, it's worth the buy for what it has. But if you need a reason to buy it, buy it for firefight. It's tons better than Horde Mode and I am unsure if Halo Reach will have it. If it does, it's still a more fun challenge to do it as an ODST.

You know you want the Beta Code, I can't wait for that.

This game gets a 4 out of 5 from me.

Geek Gadgets: THE USB MISSILE LAUNCHER!

How many times have you walked into your room, and something just didn’t feel right? You look at your computer and you think “I know that page wasn’t there when I left.” You then conclude you are just being paranoid and jump on your computer. WELL FEAR NO MORE! I have found a nice little toy off blokeystuff.au. It is a “missile launcher,” which I have seen around the internet before, but this one has an added little fun effect… a webcam!

This toy definitely goes down as one of those things I never thought I would need (and still really don’t). It works either on the computer it is attached to, or remotely. I assume someone thought it would be a good idea to make a personal webcam that shoots at where it is looking, and can be accessed from around the globe. (Imagine if you finally got that girl to bed and your buddy from down the street logs on and decides this would be a HILARIOUS time to shoot you/her, because you [stupidly] left the damn thing on) Honestly, I do not see a purpose.

I can see the fun factor something like this would initially have, just… I cannot see someone actually using it for a long time. It would be a good thing to use some of that freeware security software that can follow something that is moving (I’m sure the program has an “Autofire” option).

The missile launcher does not take a lot of space, and can be operated on a run of the mill computer. The website doesn’t disclose the resolution of the camera, so I really cannot say if the $78 price tag is justified. If you are interested you can hit up their website: http://www.blokeystuff.com.au/Product.php?bar=872888008283 and find out yourself.

3D custom and perscription glasses coming this Fall

Alright guys it was reported by Variety and I found it through Marketsaw that Technicolor will be starting to make custom made 3d glasses for movies. The glasses are reportedly going to be available before Avatar hits the theaters this december. This is huge and I and everyone else saw this coming for a while now. Everyone knows the glasses are a bit clumsy with their one size fits all feel. So this is great especially when so many movies are going to be coming in 3D. While thats all great the HUGE part of this announcement is that they will also be selling perscription versions of the glasses for people who already wear glasses. Anyone who wears glasses (I Do) knows that wearing both glasses has always been an inconvience we just had to deal with. No longer though and it has been reported that the glasses will be able to double as sunglasses by changing the angle of polarity (no clue how that works). Of course perscription glasses for anyone cost a pretty penny and with this new 3D tech in them, this won't be a purchase for everyone but for me it's a must get.

Variety

Marketsaw

TGS 09: Epic New Final Fantasy XIII Japanese Trailer

Just watched this pretty epic 7 minute FFXIII trailer and while I didn't understand a single fucking word they were saying I couldn't help but be captivated by the whole presentation. This felt a lot like a story trailer but since I don't speak japansese and it isn't subtitled the visuals is all I can go on. Oh and did I forget to mention there is a decsent amount of gameplay footage in there to. The game comes out December 17th in Japan but probably won't hit the US and Europe until like May or June. Which isn't that bad because considering I will probably sink a ton of hours into the game it would be a good idea for me to not have to worry about classes while playing Final Fantasy XIII. So go now and enjoy the beauty that is FFXIII.

Video Games Final Fantasy XIII TGS 09: Japanese Trailer

XBox 360 Playstation 3 Nintendo Wii

Nightmare on Elm Street 2010 Trailer

I've been pretty hit or miss with Michael Bay's horror remakes. I really enjoyed the first Texas Chainsaw Massacre they did with Jessica Biel but the sequel was unwatchable. Then there was Friday the 13th last year and I just couldn't really get behind it and found it to be a waste of time. Now we finally get a trailer for Nightmare on Elm Street and I think it looks pretty dam good. The casting is just inspired having Jackey Earl Haley (Rorscach) take over Rober Englunds shoes whose been playign Freddy Krueger for the last 20 years. While it's a bit weird to see someone else play the iconic role this looks really promising.The movie is coming to a theater near you April.30,2010 enjoy!

Geeksquisite Question of the Day #79: 9/28/09

This question came to me when being really confused about what to put up for the question of the day. So i looked over to this girl in the computer lab i'm currently sitting in at my school and see a western literature book beside her. So there you go, now you see all the care and prep that goes into these quuestion.

Question #79: Favorite Author?


If you'd like to submit a question just send an e-mail to geeksquisite@gmail.com with the subject line "Question of the Day".

Feel free to leave your answers in the comment section, thank you.

Titan Maximum Premires on Adult Swim

Last night I got a chance to watch the first episode of Titan Maximum, the new show from the same guys who created Robot Chicken. Titan Maximum is a spoof on various giant robot anime, and it's done in the same stop-motion style that robot chicken was done in.

The story revolves around the pilots of 5 space ships that form into Titan Maximum when activated together, much in the style of Voltron. But Voltron isn't the only reference I noticed... there were also a few references to Evangelion. In the beginning, everything starts out like your standard generic mecha anime, but the show really gets going when we find out the opening sequence is only a roleplay by some kids with action figures, and that the real titan maximum crew are wash up deadbeats. I like this change, it makes it feel a little more mature, and actually makes things funnier, when we learn about the pilots' real-life personalities.

The story is nice, but the best part about the show is how it combines all of the anime spoofs it sets forth with the same Robot Chicken style humor we've come to know and love, and it does it all without sacrificing plot development or pacing. I'm definitely looking forward to the second episode, and the rest of the series. Titan Maximum currently airs at 11:30pm every sunday. Check it out if you haven't already.

Geeksquisite Question of the Day #78: 9/27/09

This question came to me thinking how I've been redoing my bedroom and basement.

Question #78: What's the coolest thing in your room/Geek Space?

If you'd like to submit a question just send an e-mail to geeksquisite@gmail.com with the subject line "Question of the Day".

Feel free to leave your answers in the comment section, thank you.

A new way to enjoy Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody

I don't know what drives me more crazy, the effort involved to do this, the flux of computer sounds, or the fact that it's a great remix.

Found it at Cinemassacre

Misery Review

I've slowly realized my liking for Stephen King novel to movie adaptions such as Christine, Shawshank Redemption, The Green Mile, Mist, Children of the Corn, ironic I haven't read his novels. So heres comes Misery, a pretty old movie that ranks very high critically.

*SPOILERS AHEAD*

I thought this movie was brillantly directed by Reiner, because even though we know Annie Wilkes is crazy, the movie makes you feel sympathetic about her. This is no doubt one of Kathy Bates finest moments of acting, but she somehow made me feel sorry for her as James Caan's character Paul Sheldon was being held prisoner. Making me feel sorry for the captor felt so wrong, and yet Annie Wilkes seemed like a desperate fan wishing for a happy ending.

What makes the movie unforgettable is the scene where she "makes sure" Paul Sheldon can't leave her, she decides to break his leg. Watching that happen made me cringe, no this wasn't simply Annie hammering his leg. She took her sweet time doing so by putting a board between his legs and hitting his left foot to the right. When that happened, I bugged out, oh my god that looked painful. I know it's not really happening, but it rendered me speechless.

It's so interesting that during the second half of the movie, Paul and Annie seem to bond. No, Paul clearly wants to get away from crazy Annie. But he realizes he has to appear content and submissive to her, and it seems they bond through the books that he wrote. Once again, having me feel okay with the situation during the movie even though Paul is a prisoner is infuriating and amazing at the same time. I've heard so many things about people falling for their captors, but this movie made that seem so true. I kept thinking how I would feel in that situation, and personally I probably would have been more frantic and hysterical. Haha.

Misery is a creepy movie, a memorable movie that is paced and timely executed so good. However, I will give it a 4 out of 5. I've been giving too many high scores but this one deserves a 4 for taunting me with the relationship between Annie and Paul that is so wrong but somehow had good moments where they bonded. It's so inconceivable, but it worked so well due to Kathy Bates.