Monthly Archives: April 2010

Jonah Hex

Posted by on April 30, 2010 No comments

It’s now secret that I am a comic book fan.  (Fan is probably an understatement)  I love the super hero comics and even some of the Sci fi type comics.  The one odd ball in my current pull list is Jonah Hex.  I don’t know what it is about Jonah Hex as a comic but it really appealed to me.  For those that don’t know, Jonah Hex is an Old West style spaghetti western type comic.  The character of Hex is a Bounty Hunter who used to fight in the civil war.  He was raised by Indians and is a tough as nails, hard to kill bad ass.  Imagine Batman in the old west (with no money and a scared up face).  Hex has no powers and no reservations on who should live or die, as long as he gets paid.  The comic is gritty and real(ish, it is a comic after all.)  That’s the main draw for me.  Simpler time where the line between black and white was much thinner, and there were no real politics to how Hex handled situations, and no hidden motives.  So two years ago I heard they were planning a Jonah Hex movie.  I was elated!  The story could have been pulled from any of the great runs of the comic and been amazing.

Skip ahead to the present.  Many announcements were made about the movie.  Josh Brolin was cast as the lead and I thought “Yeah, I can see that”.  Even him talking about the makeup and the limitations of doing the Eye and the Lip skin flap, and how they had to fall back on how it looks now because it was the most feasible, it’s all understandable.  I groaned when I heard Megan Fox was cast.  (Personally I think as long as she shuts up she is ok.)  I secretly wished she would be cast as Tallulah Black.  (Tallulah ended up as another severely scarred up Bounty Hunter.)

So now we have the trailer launched.  I see the story they are going for and I am thinking……WTF?!?!  Take a look for yourself:

Seriously.  Hex is not “Supernatural”.  He has no powers.  He got his scared up face from the Apache Indians!  Why did they think they needed to go with some strange powers just because it’s a comic book movie?!?  Look at 3:10 to Yuma.  It was a great Western movie with a bad ass and it worked!  That should be the same recipe for Jonah Hex!  I know I will still go and see the movie because I want to see more comics made into movies but I reserve the right to be upset about the changes to a beloved character.

Sigh

Bob and Steve Ride Again

Posted by on April 29, 2010 1 comment

When America needs a hero, when Freedom stands alone, Americas top agents will defend our liberty from those who wish us harm.  Let is join Special Agent Bob and Secret Agent Steve, two of the finest official unofficial splinter cells.

That’s right, Splinter Cell is back and it’s awesome.  (Sometimes I wonder if I use the word awesome too much…hmmm)  Splinter Cell Conviction came out this month and I finally got around to focusing on it.  (it’s been a rough few weeks with travel and such)  I managed to finish the outstanding single player campaign last night and was very impressed with the story.  The story for this episode of “Sam Fisher kills everyone” is that Sam discovers that his Daughter is still alive and vows to do anything it takes to get her back!  Oh and something about saving the President and such too.  For the first time in a SC story I felt genuinely involved in the story!  There was an actual level of attachment where I cared about the characters that I haven’t gotten in other SC games.  Most of them before just seemed like puzzle games where I can see how I can get from one side of the map to the other without killing anyone or annihilating everyone.  So this was a nice change of pace.  Finishing up the single player game meant that I unlocked all the weapons I would need for Multi-player.

Before I get into Multi-player, I feel I should mention the Bob and Steve thing. So a few years ago a couple of guys did a little machinima called “Splinter Cell Co-Op Theater” and the stars were Bob and Steve.

There are actually 11 total episodes and they are hilarious.  So, when I heard that Splinter Cell Conviction would have Co-Op multi-player, I talked with my friend Lee and we decided that it was game on for Bob and Steve.  Not so much with the making of Videos and such, but honestly, that’s how we play.  If you watch these videos you will see EXACTLY how Lee and I play SC.  Last night was a great example.  We joined up to start working on the Co-Op campaign and ended nearly in tears as we tried to extract on the helicopter.  (GET DOWN HERE AND REVIVE ME YOU BASTARD!!  NO I Do NOT want to Jump over the RAIL!)

I will work on getting to more of the other side stuff like Deniable Ops and such, but in the meantime, Splinter Cell Conviction gets an 8 Donald Sutherland’s out of 10.  (watch episode 11)

Las Vegas and Kick Ass

Posted by on April 21, 2010 No comments

So I haven’t posted much this last week because I am in Las Vegas for a Microsoft conference. I love traveling because it gives me the chance to scope out what gadgets other people are using for their trips. Personally I am traveling kind of gadget lite with only my laptop and my Droid, but I love walking through the airport or even around the conference floor and seeing what phones, readers, and laptops people are using. Amazingly enough. I have only seen a grand total of 2 iPads! Guess people haven’t jumped on the bandwaggon just yet. Also got to see 1 Nook e-reader out in the wild. Now this may be just because I am at a MS conference but the primary phone has been the blackberry, followed by the iPhone, an then a mix of Droid and WinMo phones.

But anyways, enough with the geeking out, I am really enjoying the conference and learning a ton more about server management. I also am taking this trip to Vegas much lighter that others because I am getting to the point where it’s not about sight seeing and more about relaxing.

Speaking of relaxing, I took a break last night and went to see Kick Ass. For those of you without a TV or internet (how are You reading this?) Kick Ass is a new superhero movie about an real life version of a comic book hero. Instead of super powers or mass ammounts of money it’s just a guy who wants to help people. It is very based in reality and amazingly graphic. I highly reccomend that You pay attention to the rating on this one as it is not for kids at all. Personally I thought it was amazing. It will certainly set the bar for upcoming superhero movies and center them in reality. Given that I am writing this on my Droid I don’t want to go into too much detail but I will say Go See It! Hopefully there won’t be too many copy cats that get themselves killed. Remember kids, don’t try this at home!

Battlefield: Bad Company 2

Posted by on April 8, 2010 3 comments

Marlow, Haggard, Sweetwater, and Sarge all return for the sequel to the Battlefield Bad Company line of games. I just finished the single play campaign for BC2, and am in the midst of the multi-player side.  The multi-player will no doubt be occupying many many hours of my gaming time, especially since I have such good friends to play with.  That’s what this game is really all about.  The multi-player aspect of BC2 is designed around you and your friends, not you and 16 of those random people you meet up with in game.  You and your friends start a squad and go to town!  But more on that in a moment.

As I said I finished up with the mingle player “multi-player tutorial” campaign.  Well, that’s what it felt like at least.  With BC1 the game was build with both the single play and the multi-play worked in.  The campaign was rich and well written, with some good funny bits and a solid story.  BC2’s single play is just hollow.  It felt like I was just being walked through and shown all the different things I would be able to use in the multi-player area….”Here is how to drive a tank”….”here is how to use the UAV”…etc.  The writing and dialogue didn’t even pick up to a serious pace until the last chapter.  Also, the collectibles were laughable.  In the first game you were searching for certain guns and gold chests…because they tied into the story.  The second one it’s like “You may run across these blinky chests and a few guns along the way, blow up the chests and take the guns…..if you want”  I was very very very disappointed.  Not even the constant Modern Warfare 2 bashing helped with that.  (Ok, maybe it helped a little.)

Now, to switch gears, the Multi-player is amazing.  Yeah, I said it, Amazing!  I have one word for it….Destructible!!  Everything is!  I love that I can take down an entire building if I don’t like someone on the top of that tower…Boom, no more tower.  Currently I believe I am level 4 (spent most of the time playing single player) and I have found that when you play as a medic, they just hand you points.  You get points for dropping a med kit, reviving players, oh and for that whole killing people thing.  I highly suggest if you are just starting out, run as a medic for the first few levels!

So here I am, torn, because I really feel that, as a multi-player game, this game is outstanding.  But I bought it because I really loved the Single player game from the first one, and that fell short.  Well, honest opinion….buy it.  It’s damn fun to play online.  If you are looking for a game that you and your friends will enjoy for hours on end, this is it.  Sorry if I am not going in depth on any one aspect specifically, but I don’t want to spoil anything of the game, but seriously, you know what you need to about the game, go buy it, run through the single player campaign first so you know what to do in multi-player, and enjoy!

Trying to resist.

Posted by on April 4, 2010 No comments

So back in January we saw the announcement of the iPad and now the time of the tablet is upon us.  I wrote up a small preview back when it was announced and mentioned a few of the issues I have with the device.  Mostly it came down to some of it’s capability and it’s price, two things that I still hold as the primary reasons for holding off on buying one.  The problem is that there are so many reasons to check one out.

Let me explain.  I have a Droid, and before that I had a Blackberry Storm.  I am on the Verizon network and have no plans to change that anytime soon.  My phone plays music and runs apps and plays videos just finr so the things I would use an iPod for are all covered…..except the litany of custom iPhone and iPod apps that are available.  It would appear that since Apple was first to really grasp the App market mentality that many of the primary developers have embraced that as the high visability area to produce their applications.  Due to this, most of the more utilitarian and high quality apps are produced for that platform.  Not to say that there are not any good apps for the Android market, there are, but they are still playing catch up.

Because of this, I have been kind of yearning for the ability to make use of some of these apps.  Until now, the only way to acomplish this has been via the iPod.  Andrew has an iPod and I have toyed around with his for a while, but it would be wrong of me to monopolize it.  So, that means my option has been go out at buy myself an iPod touch.  But again, my phone does more of that and so getting yet another small touch screen device for only a little functionality doesn’t seem like a wise use of funds.

Enter the iPad.  So over the last 4 months there has been a lot of talk about what the iPad will be able to do, as well as an ongoing war between Apple and Adobe over Flash.  (FYI, for those interesting, I am in the Flash camp.  It’s damn hard to do things on the Internet without flash.) Other things that have gone on are all about showing how many new and cool things the iPad can do.  From Specific games designed for the larger screen to the ability to stream Netflix Watch now movies.  (Which personally, I think is huge.) So now we have a device that is 1/2 way between a netbook and a iPod, that has full access to all the apps available to the iPod and iPhone crowd.

Gizmodo has a great set of articles that covers why you should, and shouldn’t get the iPad.  I am still riding the “Not gonna get one” side of the fence, but from what I have seen as of late, it’s becoming increasingly difficult.  The biggest issue, of course, is still the price.  I can’t see dropping $500 on something like that just yet.  I also have a feeling that we may see a price drop within the first few months.  I have changed my original estimate of $300, to a good solid $400 for something of this worth.  So a simple $100 price drop on it would totally entice me to buy it.  It is just still too early to jump on the bandwagon and grab one.

But the gadget guy in my is screaming in the back of my head.  It’s gonna be a long month or two.