Upcoming Games You may not have heard of

These are 3 upcoming games by indie developers that look like they will be very fun to play. In fact I know this to be 1/3 true because the Project Zomboid 'alpha/beta' is available and I've been playing some of the builds.

Star Command (iOS)
http://www.starcommandgame.com/

This looks like a fun casual spaceship building, space exploring, alien fighting game. I really like the graphic style (old school) and the fun attitude - kind of like Space Quest.

Project Zomboid (PC)
http://projectzomboid.com/blog/

A survival horror meets the Sims but instead of building a house you  fortify a house. Instead of keeping your Sim happy, you need to keep him/her alive. Not only do you need to gather supplies to live, but must avoid hordes of the undead while doing so.

FTL: Faster Than Light (PC)
http://www.ftlgame.com/

FTL is a spaceship simulation roguelike-like. Its aim is to recreate the atmosphere of running a spaceship exploring the galaxy (like Firefly/Star Trek/BSG etc.)

My Top 10 TV Shows – in no particular order…

10) WKRP in Cincinnati

Ran from September 18, 1978 to September 20, 1982

When I was a kid I watched more TV then I do now, in fact back then I probably watched way too much TV. With that, I still remember WKRP as being one of my favorite shows, which is saying something from the copious amounts of TV I did watch. The show stuck out because it had a great cast of characters, from nerdy Les Nessman, slimy Herb, sexy Loni, and cool Dr .Johnny Fever…and even leaving out the rest seems like I’m doing a disservice. The setting wasn't the typical household one used in most sitcoms which made it different. 

9) The Venture Bros

Ran from February 16, 2003 to ongoing

The Venture Bros has been one of the most consistent & enjoyable shows that meshes old time pulpy action shows with a nerdy-as-cool factor that suits me just fine. I can re-watch an episode and usually pick up some new small (but cool) detail and I can’t say that about the others. Each episode & season flows into one another as if each detail had been pre-planned far in advanced, although listening to the creators, they hadn’t been.

8) Breaking Bad

Ran from January 20, 2008 to ongoing (1 final season left to go)

One of the newer shows that I have thoroughly enjoyed from episode to episode. It builds on top of its self. It has a cool premise – boring, almost defeated guy gets cancer – needs to leave his family some money after he dies, cooks and sells meth. I was typing out some words to best describe the show but really I can sum it up in one – tension. The whole series is filled with tension, although it does break it up with some humor, sadness and some badass action.

Side Note on recent shows: This goes for Dexter, Walking Dead and Game of Thrones. I left Walking Dead & Game of Thrones off this list because they aren’t far into any amount of seasons. I keep this is mind because I loved the first few seasons of Dexter but the previous 2 I was kind of ‘meh’ over which takes it down a bit. So if Game of Thrones & Walking Dead can maintain their quality then maybe in a few years they would go on this list.

7) Red Dwarf

Ran from February 15 1988 to April 5 1999; Back to Earth TV movie; possible new season to come.

A British sci-fi sitcom that had one of the best casts ever put together. The premise in a nutshell: A mining ship disaster kills the entire crew except for one man – Dave Lister – who is a lazy slob. He has his bunk mate Arnold Rimmer who is dead but is back as a hologram. There’s a dude who evolved from Lister’s cat and a mechanoid Kryten – think of a less proper C3PO and finally the ships computer who has been losing his marbles over the 3 million years.  The sets are cheap but the writing and acting is top notch. Now I did get the latest TV movie Back to Earth, which sadly wasn’t very good L

6) The IT Crowd

Ran from February 3 2006 to… a season 5 had been set but cancelled…so maybe end date would be July 30 2010

A British sitcom that revolves around a couple IT workers for a big company. This is like nerd based comedy that done very clever and doesn’t try too hard – like Big Bang Theory does – at least Big Bang seems to try too hard in my opinion. The show has short season but each episode has such an impact.  The two leads Roy and Moss are perfect as smart ass IT workers. This show appeals to me because I work in the same IT role, so granted the show may not work for all people.

5) Oz

Ran from July 12, 1997 to February 23, 2003

My first experience with adult TV. I started watching Oz from the start on Showcase back when and this show was just so raw and mesmerizing that you stood up and took notice when it came on. Featuring a large cast of characters set in a maximum security prison. You got the point of views from the prisoners, and the prison staff.  It does feature a lot of violence, tension and some hard people facing off against other hard people.

4) Band of Brothers

Ran from September 9, 2001 to November 4, 2001

Technically a TV miniseries, but it’s definitely not a movie and it did run on HBO so it qualifies for favorite TV show. A well done (and expensive) World War 2 show following the lives, battles, loses and victories of Easy Company during their tour through D-Day til the end of the war. It was gritty and realistic and just had such a big impact.

3) South Park

Ran from August 13, 1997 to Currently still airing

I watched the premier episode when it debuted (at like 9:00 pm to boot) and I remember hating the show. I did stick with it and while the first few seasons were good, it was the later season when they took on more topical ..um..topics that the show excelled.

2) Mystery Science Theatre 3000

Ran from November 11 1988 to August 8 1999

…or known as MST3K, is a show about guys watching really bad movies and just making funny comments. It’s become a bit of a nerd have-to-know in recent years but back when I was flipping channels around I came across the show and just thought it was brilliant. You can still enjoy the stylings of the MST3K guys at rifftrax.com   

1) The Prisoner

Ran from September 29 1967 to February 1 1968

This was another British show but not a comedy. It’s about a secret agent who gets taken to a strange island because he has information that some shadowy people want but won’t just torture him for it. It’s a very strange show with a bizarre setting and even more bizarre characters.  There was a 2009 remake/re-imagining that was ok, but the end result wasn’t as good as the original show.

My 3 Movies Better Than the Book

Everyone keeps saying how the book is always better than the movie. Hell I assumed that in my Hunger Games movie review. Then I thought about it and no, that’s not true at all. I know from doing searches on the topic that this isn’t the case either but I’m only presenting movies where I’ve read the book and saw the movie (or at least got far enough into the book to get a feel for it).

Here some my ‘movies better than the source material) and they contain MASSIVE SPOILERS:

Kick Ass

Source material: The Comic book about a regular kid who wants to be a superhero.

Change(s) made: Most of the movie follows nicely with the comic except for one major plot point – the girlfriend. In the movie Kick Ass reveals to this chick he has a crush on. At first she’s kind of pissed, but begins to accept it and even starts falling hard for Kick Ass. In the comic when he reveals himself she gets pissed…so pissed that she gets her boyfriend Carl to punch out Kick Ass and later sends Kick Ass a picture of her blowing him…

 Why the change was better: It’s a serious letdown. It wouldn’t have been so bad if she just decided Kick Ass was a crazy person, no she had to go over the top with her disgust. It’s not even that it was NOT a happy ending, but it almost feels like salt in the wound.

The Watchmen

Source material: Every comic book nerd should have read this by now. If you haven’t AND you’re not a comic book nerd, still read it, it’s amazing.

Change(s) made: It’s all about how the movie ends. Up until that point the movie is pretty faithful to its source material and that was a major accomplishment to begin with. Both the comic and the movie end with major a major disaster that kills millions of people in an attempt to stop the United States and Russia from going to war (Nuclear war!). In the comic this is done by a careful crafted scheme of a potential alien invasion (see Giant Alien Squid). In the movie Dr. Manhattan gets the blame and even accepts the blame.

Why the change was better: People knew about Manhattan, they knew he was the only one true super powered being with the ability to cause such destruction. The cold war countries now think they have a common, all powerful, enemy that allows them to set aside their differences and focus on. In the comic some random giant alien gives that same result (set aside differences) BUT nothing is known about the alien. Human beings have no way of knowing the potential threat, if it’ll happen again, or even a way to begin to tackle the issue to prevent it (how long can the threat last?). In the movie the threat of Dr. Manhattan is well known, they know he could return at any moment (the threat could last longer) and they can begin to build a defense since they know something of his powers.

Lord of the Rings

Change(s) made: Ok I admit, I started to read the books years and years ago. It’s not an easy book to read with all the pages of description on (seemingly) trivial things and the elvish stuff.  The movie cuts a lot of this out but showing and implying. Hell even the movies are a full day of watching and it still holds my interest. Add to the overall tone some characters got cut…ok Tom whatshisface got cut and that was definitely a change for the better.

Why the change was better: It’s easy to have a picture describe something that literally took a thousand words. This may seem like a copout as a book that can describe things so that you get a clear mental image is a sign that the book has done its job well. Yet LoTR the book was just too much. Sure there’s no major plot point that I read of that was different since I didn’t finish the books, but it was that I couldn’t finish the books that makes the movie better.

Top 10 Most Underrated Movies

In no particular order I thought I'd share some of my favorite movies that haven't gotten a lot of spotlight OR they're shrugged off due to some goofy reason.

1. Dog Soldiers
One Line Summary: Group of British soldiers try to survive against a pack of werewolves.
- Good small time action/horror movie from the creator of the Descent, Doomsday & Centurion. It's tense, bloody and even has some humor.

2. Ravenous
One Line Summary: 1840's US Army coward takes on a charismatic cannibal.
- Excellent thriller with a great cast and some humor mixed with gore...but to break the pattern

3. The Adventures of Ford Fairlane
One Line Summary: Overhyped "Comedian" makes good action-comedy flick
- I love the whole concept of this movie about a Rock n Roll detective uncovering a conspiracy in the music biz.
Note: If you can track down the 4 issue comic series, do so...

4. Miracle Mile
One Line Summary: Boy meets girl, they fall for one another...on the eve of nuclear war.
- This movie has a slow burn that build into a great tense movie, very weird but very cool

5. Strange Days
One Line Summary: Weird movie about privacy & technology with a cyberpunk like undertone...one line wouldn't do it justice
- Sleazy characters doing sleazy things but overall very cool concept and great visual style.

6. S.F.W.
One Line Summary: Teenagers held hostage for 36 days in convenience store become celebrities and then try to survive the media frenzy.
- Gritty movie that has a lot of tongue-in-cheek moments

7. The Frighteners
One Line Summary: Guy who can talk to ghosts must battle a dead serial killer
- Billed as a horror-comedy but light on the horror, still it's a great movie from Peter Jackson pre-LoTR.

8. Deadly Friend
One Line Summary: Nerd brings a girl back to life using his robot smarts and science!
- Good cheesy fun, not cheesy stupid fun, but plain old cheesy fun fun...

9. Phone Booth
One Line Summary: Sleazy guy trapped in phone booth by sniper
- Excellent performance by Colin Farrell and the limited set piece makes the movie all that much better

10. FAQ about Time Travel
One Line Summary: 3 buddies navigate a time portal in their local pub
Funny, trippy and even some emotion...highly recommended.

Capitals 2011-2012 season | 5 games to go

The 2006-07 season was the last time the Capitals did not qualify for the playoffs...and this season isn't looking good with just 5 games to go.

It's doubtful we'll catch Florida for the SE division. That means we have to catch Buffalo, who just crushed the Caps last night 5-1.

The start of the season had so much potential and started so good...

we'll see how the next 5 games go but they've been playing shaky (almost all season) so it's almost at that point of no return.

a look at Akira

Back in the day, Akira was the first real exposure to anime for me, and quite the exposure! Even from that day I wasn’t big on checking out a lot of anime, in fact I can count on one finger the amount of anime I’ve watched, besides Akira. Oh, that’s Trigun btw. I did try to get through Ghost in the Shell but found it confusing and lost interest in it.

Akira was clear, yet not overly simple. It was Epic yet never felt like it was trying too hard to be grandiose. To put it in context, it’s like the Anime equivalent of The Watchmen was for comics. Well, that’s my assumption and you know what Benny Hill says about assuming. And I’m sure if any hardcore Anime fans read this fledgling blog then I’m sure I’ll get corrected – yet I’ll recommend that if there’s something I should be checking out, let’s be less troll and more helpful.

As far as the manga – I’m on Volume 2 of 6 and each volume running (roughly) 360 pages. Comparing it to the movie really isn’t fair; the movie stands on its own and is extremely well made and highly enjoyable.  The manga adds way more details, plot, subplots, and characters. 

It's the bike, chicks dig the bike

Will there be a live action version of Akira? Not being up on the anime and how the community feels, the Last Airbender didn’t make any friends…So can it be done?

The only rumors/news I’ve ever seen was that Keanu Reeves was approached, or was thought of and turned down the role of Kaneda – maybe it’s the funny first name, I don’t know. Yet, Keanu Reeves playing a 15, 16 year old street punk from Toyko…just screams Nononononono to me. To me, any live action version will just be like that over used cartoon…but just in case you didn’t see it!

Battle Royale vs Hunger Games (movie vs movie thoughts)

This comes up a lot with nerds. I figure I’ll put my two cents in since I’ve watched both now, and rewatched BR (finished like 15 minutes ago).

First off I am not into the Japanese movies, manga or anime. I’ve seen some anime and enjoyed some immensely, even though it’s literally a handful. 

I’ve only read one Japanese comic (manga) and that was Akira.

So I don’t look at BR like it’s head and shoulders better then Hunger Games. In fact I don’t look down on Hunger Games because it’s aimed at tweens and is currently popular. I can separate popular stuff from plain crap.

That said, Battle Royale is, in me opinion, better the Hunger Games. Of course both stories deal with   the same premise - teens fight to the death. Both do approach the subject differently.

BR isn’t about set up. It takes roughly 20 minutes before we start the actual games. HG takes the first hour and change to setup the games, and this is where the biggest difference comes to play.

HG is about spectacle, and it’s the setup that is key here and not the games. BR is almost all about the actual game. If you’ve read my HG review (shame on you if you didn’t) you’ll see that I really enjoyed the first half of the Hunger Games and really thought the setup was very well done. It’s that half that separates the movies from being clones. 

Oh and side note: anyone who has ever said the Hunger Games is a ripoff of Battle Royale needs to look up the Running man and the Long Walk. Oh and totally go to hell…

and side, side note: anyone who says that Hunger Games is like Twilight is brain damaged and I hate you :) no but seriously, you’re stupid and need help.

As you may get to know, I have little patience for fanboys, or fangirls. When I like something, I enjoy it, I don’t go door to door to push it on people. I don’t define myself by one property either…in fact I don’t define myself by any property. I can see the good and bad in even the most beloved of franchises of mine.

So, the reason for the Hunger Games is actually very interesting and gets respect when compared to Battle Royale. 

That said, the actual two “games” portion of the movies is one sided, hands down. Battle Royale’s games are much more exciting, realistic (hard to beleive eh) and brutal. Now I won’t take away points from HG for having cleaning or PG killing because that’s the audience. I’ll let my 10 year old watch HG, I’ll wait a few more years before I’d let her watch BR.  Oh and I’m no prude, we’ve watch some questionable for a 10 year old, but BR, to be appreciated, one needs to be a bit more mature then 10.

So overall I enjoy both movies, but have to say that Battle Royale is the better movie. Maybe better is the wrong word. I should say entertaining. 

Hunger Games Review

Just got back from seeing the movie with my wife & our 10 year old daughter. Skipping the details, it was ok. Wasn’t great and it wasn’t awful, but it did have some head scratching moments.

I present first my resume. What do I mean? I have seen Battle Royale, Running Man and even the Condemned…for that matter, I’ve even seen Surviving the Game with Ice-T. I’ve also read The Long Walk so I do know the premise very well. The Premise of humans killing humans for sport and it being a national pass time/for entertainment.

So I won’t crap all over the Hunger Games for using the premise, it’s one of those classic moral choice movies that presents a question and gives it a definite answer.

Is humans killing humans for entertainment a good idea? The answer is no.

Next I’ll say what I liked about the movie before going all negative, although it’s not all that negative, more of a shrug of the shoulders.

Oh and heavy Spoiler warning! I will spoiler everything I can get me hands on!

Oh and this is a look at the movie, I haven’t read the book, I know…the book is always better. I don’t care I’m 39, I’m not reading a tween-centric book.

First up - this isn’t Twilight. so the rumors I’ve heard (about it being another Twilight) are kind of stupid and those people are all kinds of stupid. Yes we have a potential love triangle. Yes the story involves teens. And yes, everyone seems much to pretty. The love stuff served a purpose, although they could have downplayed it more then they did, at worst they could have played it up more which would have been a bad idea. 

From a technical stand point the movie was done well. It was well acted, very well acted in fact. The Designs were very imaginative and the look moving from the run down districts to the rich Capital was handled well.

Note: My wife did mention that the Capital seemed too well off and I tend to agree, the haves and have-nots were separated by a ridiculous gap.

The camera style - the weird constant moving camera is annoying. The action scenes seemed to be shot in such a haphazard way to prevent the gore from being seen. It made sense but was still annoying. 

The first half of the movie was very enjoyable and well done. The quiet moments from meeting our heroes to the Reaping were good and the simple lifestyle goes great when we see the outlandish and lavish Capitol. This was all done great. If the actual Games had been done better this movie would have been great overall.

Yet the tournament (or Hunger games) was all very underwhelming and not because of the lack of gore, that’s fine, I can live with the rating the movie wanted. It was several things that made the actual Games lack luster. This is where all of the problems I had with the movie come from. After a great start, the movie starts to fall apart. 

The creators had done such an excellent job of setting these games up that the games had to be done properly. Yet I’ll list some of the biggest problems I had with the actual games.

1) The over the top villains from district 1 and 2. Yes they did explain how they had arrogance and were trained for this kind of battle. Yet they were too arrogant, and not overly competent when it came down to it.  This was in stark contrast to the overly good tributes who showed mercy and in Rue’s case, became a very willing ally. 

2) Besides Catniss and Peeta, Rue was the only other tribute we met for any length of time, so when they started dying/killing, you didn’t feel anything. In fact, when Rue was killed I felt nothing because she was more of a substitute for Catniss’s sister then a separate character. Even at the end, when the District 1 main prick/villain seemed to repent, it didn’t hold any weight since we only knew him as villain kid #1. The movie has 2 hours and 22 minutes and we really only got to know a couple of characters.

3) They spend a lot of time pushing the fact that the contestant must win favor to get sponsors who can provide needed items. Although we see this a couple times, it almost seems as Catniss’s mentor went seeking sponsors, and they weren’t all that forthcoming on their own. 

4) The finale. They even point out this in the movie that this is the finale…it’s being setup by the game runners. Ok, so what do they do in this tournament to have kids vs kids as some form of punishment. They send in 3rd party monster dogs. It becomes player vs monster, rather then player vs player. It removed any sense of the purpose of the games.

5) Finally the ending. In this genre, or premise of humans hunting humans for the entertainment of masses it ends in one of two main ways. The survivor is scarred for life and isn’t the same person they were. Or the hero (or heroes) bring the establishment down. The Hunger Games seems to be going in the direction of the latter, so at the end we have a vague wimpy ending where our hero doesn’t seemed bothered by the ordeal she’s just been though, and the overall villain (the President) is kind of miffed, but doesn’t seem all that bothered by the outcome…sort of just fizzles out.

So even with the issues I had, it’s still a decent movie. What is very cool is that it’s a movie about kids killing kids AND it’s made for kids! That’s pretty cool how that got pulled off. 

Would I recommend it? I don’t know, make up your own mind, I do.