Left 4 Dead 2 Hopes

I've been excited for Left 4 Dead 2, there I said it angry L4D fans :)

I only bought Left 4 Dead a month ago, and I might sell my first one after getting the second one. And I don't care, Left 4 Dead is just simply that good.

Now while I enjoy Left 4 Dead immensely, i'm focusing on the future of the sequel. From trailers, extended demos and the like, it looks good. New weapons, maps, zombie types, and characters. All good stuff, but there are a few things i'm hoping will or will not happen.

For one thing the blood looked a lot more like ketchup, not a big deal but that will seem a bit cheezy. Maybe they'll fix that.

A more forward hope is that they lower the respawn time when your on the zombie team, 30 seconds IS too long. trim it down to 20 seconds, and it will save a lot of frustration for gamers.

Lastly, It'd be kinda cool to have the four survivors fight zombies while DRIVING through town. You can shoot, whack as you pass and in the driver's case, ram them.

Those are my hopes, can't wait to see what else the game will have.

Tech Impressions: Great Security Programs

I know that most people do not want to spend a whole bunch of money just to protect their PC’s. What some don’t know is that you can get good protections programs for free. I have chosen some of my top favorites to talk about and to suggest.

Anti-Virus & Firewall: Yes I know I said free but I do highly recommend this program, it is worth the money. For my anti-virus and firewall I use ZoneAlarm Internet Security Suite. It has some of the best protection for a good price which happens to be $50 for protection of 3 PC’s (Just look at ads in the newspaper such as Fry’s Electronics, I bought mine for $20 after rebates and all of that). With it you get a 2-Way Firewall, Anti-Virus, Anti-Spyware, ID Theft Protection and more.

Interested? Visit: http://www.zonealarm.com/security/en-us/zonealarm-computer-security-suite.htm

Anti-Malware and Cleanup: Ad-Aware is a great program, and it has its free version also which I use. It is great at detecting things that sometimes ZoneAlarm does not. It helps fine Malware and rootkits. When it finds something, it does its best to remove and clean it. When scanning it also does a great job on picking up tracking cookies and removing them by cleaning it means it removes ALL traces of the infection. I again highly recommend getting this program.

Interested? Visit: http://www.lavasoft.com/products/ad_aware_free.php

NOTE: Ad-Aware (above) and Spybot Search & Destory (below) do conflict a little bit. This has been taken from the Safer-Networking website: “If you have the AdAware option to scan inside archives enabled, AdAware may find files in the Spybot-S&D folder. Spybot-S&D does not contain any spyware, but it creates backups of everything you fix (until you remove those backups from the Recovery list), and AdAware complains about these backups. You can safely ignore these backups found by AdAware.”

Anti-Spyware: Spybot Search & Destory is amazing at picking up spyware that the other programs did not find. It picks up almost everything. When scanning it does not take up a lot of processing power so you can go about and do other things while it runs in the background. When it cleans something, it makes a backup of that file. Overall I do think the program needs a little more to it, but its good at what it does just now.

Interested? Visit: http://www.safer-networking.org/en/spybotsd/index.html

Hard Drive Clean up: Last but not least CCleaner is what I use to throw out old temporary internet files, downloads, cookies, history, etc.. Not only does it do that but it has options to clear out logs and things set by Windows that you may not know about. It lets you analyze all that it will clean before you jump right into cleaning, just so you know all your files are safe. I highly recommend that you run this at least once a month.

Interested? Visit: http://www.ccleaner.com/

Gamestop unveils Halo ODST Exclusive

Gamestop Offer

Gamestop is offering a nice package for those pre-ordering Halo ODST to order from them, in return you will get a controller, a code to play Sgt. Johnson in firefight, the game and the beta code. Wait....PLAY SGT. JOHNSON IN ODST!

This will probably appeal to many hardcore Halo fans, I am one of those people. But to put this in an economic perspective the price tag for this pre-order is a 100 bucks. People are already up in arms about the price of Halo ODST at 60-65 dollars, getting a code for the Reach multiplayer beta was a nice "cushion" among other things to make people believe it's worth full retail. And I won't be stopped by price to get ODST, but the Gamestop deal I'm probably going to pass.

I have three controllers, and while I could use a fourth controller while making machinima, I'll pass. Being able to playing Sgt. Johnson makes me envious nonetheless, but the killer for me is that Project Natal is replacing the controller for about 30 percent of your controllers functions. Only time will tell if it replaces a handheld controller more, but with the rumors of a new console as well I'm not in the mood to hold four controllers for a possibly obsolete console.

But should anyone take this deal, its a sweet deal to be sure. The controller looks sick :D, and being able to play Johnson is pretty awesome. It's kinda funny though, because I kept talking to Rob saying "where does he fit into ODST?" since ODST's trailer clearly shows it takes place after Regret left Earth in Halo 2. And Johnson went with the chief after Regret, but since this is in firefight it makes sense now. But to be able to play only in firefight? meh it's not much for me.

So since an Xbox controller costs about 40 bucks, and this one is special. Your not really paying for the Sgt. Johnson extra, so it's a nice deal. It's not for me, but if you don't have more than two controllers, I recommend it.

Natal May Be More Than You Bargained For

Link

"On this week's Listen Up podcast we discussed Natal, and David Ellis and I talked about what we've been hearing regarding the new technology -- and how it's actually the cornerstone of Microsoft's next evolution of the Xbox. Microsoft will not only release Natal as an add-on for the Xbox 360, it will come standard with the next Xbox console.

Yes, there will be a new Xbox console next fall."

Okay, first of all this is a rumor. BUT if its true, then Fall 2010 will bring us a new Xbox console. At first, I cried outrage and got mad..then I started thinking a Fall 2010 console would be a GOOD IDEA. Let's face it, the Xbox 360 won't be a classic collectors item with the RROD pains it gave us. But now it seems stupid to buy Natal in the spring when you can just wait till the new console comes out.
Once again, this is rumour right now. But i'm thinking its probably true, because Natal looks nothing like the Xbox 360, gaming peripherals USUALLY mimic their console's color and style. Natal didn't, so im better this will be confirmed later on.

The fact that I believe that a new console will come, I'm going to wonder what the price will be. Xbox is REALLY coming early with a new console, it will be a while before the others make a new one. And if they don't they will very likely price cut now, so if the new Xbox is around 400 dollars I'd probably go for it.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer Remake News

 If anyone is a Buffy fan they probably heard the news that a remake of the movie was happening with the original directors.

Well, apparently they tried to ask Joss Whedon for his help in response to criticism by fans that they would remake it without him. And he pretty much said no.

Remakes have never interested me, unless I don't like the original. I'm not a Buffy fan either, but from what i've heard the original movie didn't do so well. So they remake the movie with the original movie's directors, but leave out Whedon?!

And then under public pressure decide to ask him, and he says no. They should never have moved forward with this movie if they were going to consider asking Whedon in the first place. And seriously, if the movie bombed why stick with the directors?

If this movie happens, I guarantee it'll do worse than any movie in history. This kind of movie is for fans, and if alot of the fans refuse to honor this remake, why do it? 

Wii Price Drop?

LINK

"Wii supply has finally exceeded demand, so we expect hardware sales to show year-over-year decreases for the first half of 2009," predicts Pachter, continuing, "In order to hit its full-year Wii shipment forecast, we expect Nintendo to cut the price of the Wii before [the] holiday, likely to $199.99." -Michael Pachter

Smart move in my opinion. But it's too late for me. This year at E3 I learned the differences between the systems, and even though I want a PS3 like I never did before, it's different with Nintendo. Nintendo showed some good games, but i'm starting to notice how when they announced the new Dead Space game I was envious, then realized most games have to be butchered to get on the Wii. And I realize, Nintendo doesn't allow alot of creativity with their 1999 graphics and soon-to-be obsolete motion technology. I'm done with Nintendo, I'm even junking my DS on ebay because of the gameplay being short lived. 

Also, Sony and Microsoft have alot more to offer. Nintendo is really becoming the console for little kids, and as much as I love my NES. They aren't what they used to be. 

They Still Make Fishing Rod Controllers?

So, I was reading the most recent issue of the Official Xbox Magazine, and I saw an article about this new fishing game coming out called "The Strike". I normally would just ignore it, and move on to the next page, but they had a screenshot of a fishing controller! The same screenshot right here, actually.

You wouldn't think a fishing game would work nowadays, and I'm still skeptical if it would or not. They say it plays much like Tiger Woods, in that you hold down the trigger, whip the rod back, whip it forward and release in the green zone. The game boasts realistic physics, 111 different lures, types of lines, and rods, not to mention tournaments, and 10 different lakes based on real-world locations.

The article in the magazine says the controller features everything you'd expect a fishing rod controller to have. An accelerometer (much like the iPhone), force feedback, with a certain amount of resistance to simulate the fish pulling away, and, of course, a reel. On another note, I think it's pretty funny that they made the thing look like it does, it almost looks like some sort of S&M toy. Honestly, it seems like the controller would make the game, and without it, you'd just be playing a bunch of crap.

I'm most likely not going to pick it up, but that's just cause I'm not the target audience for this type of game. I feel like there's still people out there who wants to play this type of game. If you're really into sports games, or just fishing in general, than "The Strike" might be the game for you.

A mistake Nintendo must avoid

Link

Nintendo simply says they are unconcerned with the competition in motion technology from Sony and Microsoft. This may cause them problems. 

It's one thing for them to wave off challenges to their gaming empire, but it's another thing to act as though they arrived in the technology first. Sony, and to a larger extent Microsoft, are catching up in motion technology. Despite being a bit of a fanboy, Microsoft really has the world abuzz about Natal. Simply because you need nothing to use it, Rob's post about it being on Jummy Fallon adds to the hype.

Nintendo should worry about their technology such as Wii Fit and the Wiimote since Microsoft is especially aiming to make "physical" motion peripherals a thing of the past. Nintendo would like to avoid looking like it follows the crowd, it's avoided following the crowd for a very long time. But it just might have to if they want the Wii to succeed.

Currently the Wii balanced itself at E3 by offering long awaited sequels to their Famous titles and extended game libraries like Dead Space. But at the same time they were overshadowed by Sonys more recognized, polished, artistic, and awaited sequels and new projects. Nintendo has a casual gaming style, which can't fight Sony.

And Natal from Microsoft beat their Wiimotes into novelties from the views of gamers. Lets hope Nintendo does not sit and proudly name off their past achievements, and decides to play ball with what the other two have to offer.

Geeksquisite Gaming Diary 6/11/09: TMNT

Ed dissects TMNT for it's flaws.

Game Review: Mirror's Edge

Mirror's Edge came out in the fall of 2008 to mixed reviews. Some considered it revolutionary and some thought it was shallow and unfinished. At the time all I had played was the demo and was pretty public about my dislike for the game simply based on that demo. Flash forward 7 months and I found myself staring at the game in Best Buy. the game was marked down to 30 bucks, so I thought to myself "Why not?". I brought the game home and played all the way through it. so here are my thoughts on the first-person free running game Mirror's Edge.

Let me get the story out of the way by saying, "What just happened?". All I can tell you is that Faith's sister gets kidnapped or something by this organization that wants the runners to stop making deliveries or something along those lines. Faith must then go through buildings and jump rooftops to save her? Look the story here is a waste and is just there to give some reason to why the game plays the way it does. Honestly they could have just given me the levels and withheld the absurd story. The cut scenes in this game are just laughable and really make the package as a whole feel a bit cheap.

Lucky for Mirror's Edge the game succeeds because of it's excellent level traversal. When you're moving forward with full momentum the game is excellent. At first the controls seemed hard to understand, which is why I hated the demo. Once I had a little more time then the demo, I was able to fully understand the controls and everything came very easy to me. The challenge came from being able to perfect the tools they give you. I've never been a time trials guy, but with Mirror's Edge I kept finding myself wanting to get the fastest time and smoothest play through I could get. There were two occasions where I was frustrated with how to get through a portion of a level. Some times the areas are not well enough explained and can be hard to figure out. I couldn't imagine playing this game the first time through without keeping the red indicator on to show you the way.

While the game succeeds when it's full speed ahead it fails miserably when it tries to be anything else. The combat is completely broken, they try to add depth by having counters and timed events to over take the enemy but it's all very clumsy. The moves they offer never seem to combo as smoothly as I would like.

Mirror's Edge is a game that does one thing practically perfect and a bunch of smaller things very clumsily. Luckily the majority of the game and the fun come from the free running aspect of the game which is executed brilliantly. All in all Mirror's Edge is a good game that has great potential.

4 out of 5

Geeksquisite Gaming Diary 06/11/2009: Megaman 2

So, I continue my quest to beat Megaman 2 on the NES, however... it proves to be tougher than I thought.

Project Natal on Jimmy Fallon

So, I was surfing around the web when I found this video where Kudo Tsunoda was showing off Project Natal on the Late Night Show with Jimmy Fallon. Now, I found this pretty odd, seeing as how E3 stuff is never usually shown anywhere else in the mainstream media, but I also found it pretty intriguing to see what the mainstream would think.

CLICK HERE to watch the video at Hulu.

Now, the first game they showed was Ricochet, and it was pretty much what we saw at E3. Of course, after Kudo showed off how it worked, we had Jimmy Fallon and his crew jump in and try playing it. After seeing how responsive Natal was on the E3 stage, it's no surprise that it was just as responsive even when Kudo wasn't at the helm.

So, that was cool, getting to see Jimmy Fallon and friends jump around going crazy, hitting a bunch of balls. Pretty funny, really... but, the next thing was extremely exciting. The next game they showed off for Project Natal was Burnout. No, not a new Burnout game... that's right, they showed Burnout Paradise!

Now, THIS got me excited, especially after seeing how well it worked! One foot would be used for the gas, and depending on where it was, you could use it for the brakes too, then you would just hold your hands up like a steering wheel, and steer left or right. The controls seemed very responsive, but I'm not sure if it would be just as good as playing the game with a controller, I'll have to pick it up sometime and see for myself.

This kind of backwards re-tooling of game controls using Natal seems like a great idea, and I hope more companies look into doing something like this for their previous games. However, Criterion has been keeping Burnout Paradise alive with DLC for a while now, and I'm pretty sure there's still more DLC to come out, so it seems only logical that they'd upgrade it to support Natal controls. I'm kind of doubtful this would happen for something like Halo 3 or GTAIV, or even how well it could work for those type of games, but I guess we'll just have to wait and see what the developers do with it.

Tech News: iPhone 3.0 update

The new iPhone update has everything that everybody wanted when the iPhone and iPod touch first came out. Since the iPhone first came out I have heard so many complaints about not able to send pictures in text messages. Well its finally here. There are tons of new features in the new OS that everybody has been waiting for. As always iPhone users will get it for free but iPod touch users (like myself) will have to pay $9.95.

With the new OS on its way, Apple has also released a new iPhone, the iPhone 3G S. Apple has made several new improvements such as: 2x faster, built-in video camera, Voice control, Compass, Spotlight Search, and MMS. The new iPhone 3G S is priced at $199 and the old iPhone 3G will be brought down to $99!

Some of the new OS features:

Cut, Copy & Paste

Landscape Keyboard

MMS

Spotlight Search

Voice Memos

Internet Tethering

Stereo Bluetooth

Sync Notes

Parental Controls

Shake to Shuffle

New Languages

MobileMe Find My iPhone and Remote Wipe

And much much more..

iPhone 3G S and iPhone 3.0 OS release date: June 17th, 2009

Movie Review: Gran Torino

I've been a Clint Eastwood fan for quite a while now, both of his old and his new work. When he first started directing, I was a bit skeptical how well he could do, since at the time I thought he was only a great actor, but I think we all know that he's proven himself time and time again, and "Gran Torino" is no exception.

The movie tells a story of Walter Kowalski, a weathered old war veteran played by Clint Eastwood who lives in the same neighborhood he did years ago. The neighborhood has changed for the worse over the years, and he find himself surrounded by gangs, hoodlums, and foreigners... none of which he's particularly fond of.

Walt is a very old-fashioned kind of guy, and while his character came off as very unlikeable at first I thought later on I seemed to have a lot more respect for him. I think part of his character is due to Clint Eastwood being such a great actor, but part of it is just due to the high quality of the writing, which would also be thanks to Mr. Eastwood.

Overall, Clint Eastwood really makes this movie shine. His writing, his acting, the story, all of that is perfect. The only thing that brings the quality of the movie down a bit for me is the quality of the acting from some of the other actors. Now, it's not horrible, but it's not amazing, and it stands out next to Eastwood's amazing performance. That's not to say all of the other actors were bad, the actress who played the Korean girl who lived next door did an amazing job, and she also became a very likable character.

The movie doesn't take any major twists, but it does have a dramatic climax, and when that happens, you really feel like you've connected with those characters, and it just makes all of the drama better. That's not to say the movie has a strictly dramatic feel, there are also some spices of comedy in there to lighten the mood, and it also helps the character development.

Overall, Gran Torino is a film that takes a chance, does something original, and takes us away from the bland drama that populates a large majority of the theater screens today. It's not so original that it alienates everybody by being too weird, but it's just original enough to tell a story that hasn't been told before, and tells it with great cinematography, and overall solid acting (with the exception of Eastwood, of course). I give Gran Torino 5 out of 5 stars.

Tech Review: Pocket God (iPhone App)

Welcome to the Island of Oog! Ever wanted to be god? Kill people, help them, watch how they live, or make them do what you want? Well you can do almost that with Pocket God. You can control up to six islanders at a time and make them do what ever you want such as move them, make them dance, give them food to eat, or launch them into a volcano. Also you can create conditions to kill them such as lightning hitting them, drop a rock on top of them, drop them in water or even let them fish in the shark infested water. Also each of the islanders has a name and a history. In the history you will find their name, their mood and how many sacrifices they have.

This game is very entertaning. Every now and then they come out with a new episode which has even more then the last. I suggest getting this game because it is very fun, and it helps to kill small people when they can't do anything about it when your mad. :)

Game Rating: 5/5

Buy it today!: http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftware?id=301387274&mt=8

Id's Doom just got reawakened

What's that you say? well apparently Id likes the Apple market for downloadable games and has decided to release Doom on it next week. Titled as Doom Resurrection.

LINK

It's crazy how Apple has unconsciously moved into the gaming territory, some have even said Apple will be part of the gaming world someday. Fat Chance.

That's cool that people can play Doom on their Itouch or Iphone, but I have to say doing it touchscreen seems...boring. There's probably no skill aiming, its not like with a controller where you have to guide your aim. And home consoles can obviously outstrip the Apple products with better graphics and more content.

So this is good news but the Apples "capabilities" will always be limited, and Apple failed when they tried to enter the console wars back in the 80's.

Futurama is back!

LINK

You just can't stop Futurama. A day after news broke that the show looked to be coming back, Comedy Central has made it official, announcing they have picked up the series for an impressive 26 new episodes – thirteen more than originally expected. 

This is great for me, I liked Futurama. Coming from the same minds and animation studios that brought us the Simpsons, this will be a great victory for fans like myself. In recent years the Simpsons have become stale to me, and Futurama appears to be a great successor to the Simpsons crowd. 

26 episodes is ALOT, and the four direct to DVD movies didn't really count. Granted be, I had not seen them since I thought it would be the end of Futurama and I could pick them up whenever I wanted. But now that we have Futurama coming back, I have to start watching it every time its on. It's also funny that IGN touched on how Futurama is becoming a mirror image Family Guy story of being resurrected by fans. I agree, but unlike Family Guy which I don't like and still don't understand why it seems to be liked so much, Futurama will be a blast. 

Ever since the movie continuation of Firefly with Serenity, fans seems to have more power to get what they want. I'm kinda tired of people thinking Family Guy was the first fan outcry to bring back the show, because Firefly's movie adaption is a bigger victory for fans :P (and it happened before Family Guy)

Funny that IGN says Fox might air the episodes before Comedy Central, I'm getting tired of Fox's dumb moves and backstabbing. Drive, Firefly, Watchmen, Futurama, Family Guy, geez they really mess things up. 

Can't wait for Futurama :D

Geeksquisite Gaming Diary 6/9/09: Star Wars

Ed share's his thoughts on Star Wars from the Nintendo Entertainment System. ITS ADVENTURE OF LINK, NOT LINKS AWAKENING GAHHH I KNOW T_T

Green Lantern Trailer

This fanmade trailer is just awesome. Shortest post I will ever make but watch this, even if you don't know what Green Lantern is.

Movie Review: Up

It's hard for me to not be biased towards Pixar. For the past 14 years they've given s 10 of the best films of the modern era. If you asked me to rank their films I might just have a panic attack out of indecision. Pixar was the company I dreamed of working for when i was younger and was my first step into pursuing film as a profession. So with that, let the Pixar love rain down, preferably not at the sake of an angry cloud.

With Up Pete Doctor returned to the directors chair for the first time since 2001's Monster Inc. which I remember believing was Pixar's weakest film to date. Of course when I call a Pixar film weak what I actually mean is "it was slightly short of great". Up had a big wall to climb coming after Wall-E witch many critics believe to be the best animated feature the company has made. With such pressure was Up able to live up to such standards? Yes!

It might seem cliche by now to describe a Pixar film like this but the first 20 minutes of this film really are magical. Going into the film many didn't think it would take the same risk as Wall-E but Up does. The first 20 minutes of the film are almost silent after the introduction to a young Carl and Ellie. In most films montages are used to shorten the length of a film and feels like a crutch. Here it's used to communicate an entire life and conveys every major emotion that a couple could go through in a lifetime. The montage as well as the film can be incredibly funny but very dark at the same time. This might just be the funniest and darkest Pixar film yet. While the rest of the film works much like Wall-E the film suffered just a bit from such a stellar start.

The story is all about getting to "Paradise Falls" so that Carl can make Ellie and his dream come true of going on an adventure. Along the way Carl gets teamed up with a boy scout named Russell, a talking dog, and a giant bird. They all have great moments and their own story lines which help to support the main themes around Carl's story. The weak point of the film comes from the films villain Charles Muntz whose motivations never seem quite believable. I think the idea behind his obsession with capturing the bird was made to be a parallel to Carl's obsession with Paradise Falls. I don't think it was ever fleshed out enough though to feel tangible like Carl's.

Every year I look foward to seeing if the lates Pixar film can hold up to the ever growing library and every year they succeed. up was a magical film and a wonderful vision of what it's like to be a human being. I'd like to mention the short in front of the film "Partly Cloudy" it was hilarious and every bit as good as Up itself. So what are you waiting for, Pixar is back so get off your butt and go see the film and let us know what you thought.

Rating 5 out of 5

So, I bought a PS3.

Well, that title tells you basically all you need to know, but let me just re-iterate. I, Robert Battersby, a long-time Xbox user, and somebody who has never owned a Sony console until just a month ago when I bought a PS2, has now done the unthinkable and purchaced a PS3!

This may seem crazy to many long-time listeners of the podcast, or fans of my youtube videos, and some of you may not even believe me. Well, if the above photo isn't proof enough, I've also made an unboxing video for your viewing pleasure.

With the PS3, I also ordered Killzone 2, which has yet to come in the mail. Also, I realized that the PS3 doesn't come with any HD wires... Let me just say something to all console manufacturers, if you're going to make an HD console, have it come with some damn HD cables!! If not HDMI, at least RGB component!

Putting that aside, a lot of you may be wondering why I bought one. Well, after E3, I was so impressed by the lineup of games they had coming out, and thinking back to all of the exclusive titles that had already came out, it seemed like a no brainer. Exclusive titles like Killzone 2, Uncharted, LittleBigPlanet, MGS4, Valkyria Chronicles, and you can't forget about all of the great downloadable games!

Overall, I'm really excited for the future of the PS3, and I'm glad that I finally own all of the consoles for this generation.

Tech Review: Gravity Shmavity (iPhone app)

"The classic love story of a baroque scientist, a bushel of apples, and the addictive, quirky game that brought them together.

This stylish game will have you tilting and tapping your way through 30 challenges that bend the laws of physics. Rotate your screen to alter the direction of gravity while a whole host of hazards and power ups make things very interesting indeed.

Make use of the touch screen, as well as the accelerometer for tilit recognition. Also features remixed classical music, a silly and irreverent sense of humor, and more "awesome" than you can shake a stick at."

Taken from Apple Store.

When I first saw this game, I thought it would be a little boring... Well I was so wrong! I played the first challenge and could not stop! I was tilting my iPod touch all over. The main goal of this game is to bounce apples off Newton's head to gain points. At first, thats all you have to do, nice and easy. But as you progress it starts to get harder with flying arrows, bombs, reverse gravity and more.

Game Rating: 5/5

App Store Rating: 5/5

Buy it today!: http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewArtist?id=309668193

Or, Try the Lite version:http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftware?id=311410771&mt=8

Geeksquisite Episode 32: Game Edition: E3 2009 awards.. It's Over

Episode 32 Game Edition: E3 2009 Awards.. It's Over

We have a long discussion about 1vs100 and a bunch of other new and old games we've been playing. Also we have the E3 2009 Awards. Woot!! so with this episode we conclude our coverage of E3 thanks everyone, it's been fun.

11 year old Genius states his view about gaming...

"I feel it's a waste of time playing video games because it's not helping humanity in any way." 

THREAD

Intelligence of people is subjective, I wave off compliments about me being intelligent sometimes. This kid definitely is intelligent for working so hard at a young age. But video games being a waste, because they don't help humanity? I guess that's one area he's completely naieve in, i'm sure idiolizers of such smart kids will hate me for saying that. But gaming helped my life.

I am a smart kid in certain areas, I'm usually too modest as some say. But does this kid know more than me about video games. I am a 21 year old gamer who got into one of the top 50 colleges in the United States. And this is my reaction to his "revered" comments on gaming in light of his advancement:

For an 11 year old Genius, I 100% guarantee he's naieve about gaming. It's one thing to form an opinion with all the knowledge he acquired, but he's stating an absolute opinion in the sense that he is correct unquestioningly. Such a bold statement is a sign of arrogance, ignorance, and subjectively incorrect. This kid is hardwired to succeed in life, great, but if he thinks he knows more than devout gamers he is one sided and mistaken. No doubt he is intelligent, but I will not endow respect upon this child who has not aged with wisdom and states such premature opinions. He's not even old enough to touch the core of gaming yet, he is naieve by law preventing him from the gaming pleasures available to my age group. He hasn't lived long enough to understand the world, and likely hasn't had hands on experience of gaming to back up his opinion.

Dragonball Evolution sequel to come

LINK

As much as most fans will hate this, Dragonball Evolution has a confirmed sequel coming. 

I had hoped the first movie would be good, but the consensus is that it sucks. And with the recession I wasn't about to waste my money on movies like this one, i've never cared what someone else thinks about this movie. But if the reviews are bad, i'll wait till it's on TV and I can watch without supporting negative movies like this. 

Having said that, I was under the impression that the movie's budget was 100 million dollars and only made a combined 55 million in box office revenue. So I knew this movie was done for. Um apparently not because now it gets a sequel, yes the advertising for this movie was next to non existent but apparently from the mostly unknown acting crew the movie didn't cost alot to make. I guess that's true, and makes sense considering the cheeziness in the trailer. 

Chatwin and Marsters actually want 7 dragonball movies, I don't. If they want to fund the movie themselves, go right ahead. But I gotta say, for how much the first movie apparently sucks, get a new director who is more known. MAYBE they could make it better, but as is, the crew for Dragonball Evolution failed IMO. 

No matter what, this news sucks. 

Geeksquisite Gaming Diary 06/08/2009: Megaman 2

So, I've been playing a bit of Megaman 2. This is my first time playing through any of the real classic megaman games, I give you my thoughts on it so far.

What is with the flaming around Michael Bay?

Recently on IGN I found THIS article with Shia defending Michael Bay's style of filmmaking. 

Seriously, I'm getting tired of this. Michael Bay is a filmmaker, you take the plunge to specifically see his movies, or more recently you are a Transformer fan who wants to see a live action movie sequel. Michael Bay is in no way, shape or form the best director out there. 

But his success, his HUGE success with the first Transformers movie has got movie purists in a twist of hate towards him. Alot of the time these fans talk about vision, and the fact that Michael Bay likes to blow stuff up and have hot women. Oh, so we're cave men then?  *sigh* I can understand the hatred towards Friedburg and Seltzer's terrible movie parodies. I can even tolerate criticism of people like Uwe Boll who is an idiot for not taking criticism.

Michael Bay is none of these, his vision is not subdued in fear of his critics and he doesn't pour over his negative critics to discredit them. Transformers just worked for him because it was originally for kids and was adapted for all levels of people while staying true to the original series. Michael Bay is good in my book because he's not trying to be something he's not, under the executive producing guidance of Steven Speilberg and his growing record of movies, things changed for Bay. 

Blowing stuff up and his taste for action melds well for Transformers, Michael Bay hasn't made enough movies to be a visionary on the scale of names like James Cameron, or Speilberg. But he made a very enjoyable Transformers movie that wasn't all jokes, it glorified the transformers. The upcoming sequel is supposedly more darker with Michael Bay signatures, and you could be seeing worse movies than his. Trust me.

No, Michael Bay isn't one of my favorite directors by any stretch. He just happens to do Transformer's adaption well. 

A Day that earned the Geeksquisite Stamp :)

While at a car show today (OOOWW MY SUNBURN!), there was a swap meet down the road. So of course I was curious if they had classic gaming gear for me to grab. I went through so many vendors and say nothing besides PS2 stuff, which didn't interest me. So we go farther into the swap meet until a friend of mine who came with his dad (Jeff) told me he saw NES stuff way back. It was nice of him to show me where it is. 

I only grabbed a few games thinking they were a few bucks a piece, Zelda II: The Adventure of Link which looked beautiful in its Gold Cartridge. Why did only Zelda games get a gold cartridge, I know some other's did but Zelda was the only series approved on NES to have them. Whatever the reason, I feel like i'm holding a rare jewel. I also grabbed Wild Gunman and Star Wars, those games were random choices, nothing else among the 35 or so games caught my eye. Star Wars seems better than I thought, idk why I bought Wild Gunman when I don't have an NES Zapper right now >_<. 

Oh wait thats right, they were a dollar each. Yes, I paid three bucks for them all. Great Deal eh? And I know you might be thinking, why not buy every single one and sell the ones you don't like? Believe it or not, I didn't see the point. I'm a collector, i'm not much of the business type. I've got too much stuff to throw away from my house as is. 

O man, I was worried they wouldn't work. You never know, they all required a bit of blowing. Star Wars I got working first, Wild Gunman was easier, but Zelda 2 was a BIG Pain. Because i'm lazy I used my shirt at that moment to wipe clean the connection piece sticking out of the NES game. It cut two holes in my shirt! Fail. Then my sister's Boyfriend who's an avid Nintendo Fan tried to make it work, and he did.

Funny thing, the back of the Zelda game indicates it has an internal battery. Does the battery get charged by it being in the NES? Interesting idea about technology and it makes sense since it could have had a boost being inserted and removed out of the NES so much. Also, because it saves games, the cartridge says to HOLD select while turning off the NES.

Anyway, i'll be playing these over the next few days. So look for gaming diary entries soon :)