FlatOut: Head On?

For my last post this month i was thinking to write about something related to halloween but then i came across a tiny bit of news, or maybe news for me (???), looks like the next game in the FlatOut franchise called Ultimate Carnage is now called Head On, and this Ultimate Carnage was meant to be Xbox 360 exclusive, but since Microsoft owns Xbox it would not hurt it if it were to be released on Microsoft`s other “console” called Windows Vista, so the game is now called Head On, i wanted to write a mini preview but with a little over 3 months before it`s release nothing is known about it except a bunch of pics, surely those pics were not made just for the heck of it, but what about promoting the game?

Wake the fuck up guys! FlatOut 2 was one of the games with the best video optimization i have seen, so that is one of the reasons i wanted to talk about this new one, because FlatOut 2 was fun and almost anyone could play it, if this next game won`t stand up to it`s predecessor standards on January 15th i will personally eject out my window and try to land myself in a fence fifty meters high.
p.s. Trick Or Treat!

Crysis and friends…

The recently released (huge) demo of Crysis with the respected hype and “Boo Hoo!” is nothing more than a mere tech show off for the few who can actually afford it. Nevertheless we can`t say that Crysis the game will be a disappointment and nobody will like it, we will have a big percent who will bow to the Eye candy graphics and then we will have the rest complaining about system requirements, even so, i admit that a few years back people used to complain about requirements of games like Far Cry and more, this is normal.
Now i will tell you what is NOT normal: Having games like Crysis with requirements that are not justified while we have the recently released Episode Two of Half-Life 2. Packed in the Orange Box with Portal (amazing game), Team Fortress, and past games from the series is THE BEST deal you can get, and will get, this year. I say that Crysis does not justify itself because we have extremely optimized games like HL Episode Two to choose over it with extraordinary story and cinematic experience and still being true to the classic FPS genre, i have a feeling, more than a feeling, that Crysis will be appreciated by those who can afford it and try to shut up those who can`t, this is already happening, because most will say “Eh, i`ll buy a new PC next year” or something, but what happens when Crysis is over-hyped on all major websites… truth is you feel kind of small. Gaming Industry/CryTek: One, Average working man saving up for a quality game/machine: Zero.

SouthPark Imaginationland 3/3 of season 11

As i did last week, and i will every week South Park is on, i will make a short preview of the upcoming kick-ass South Park episodes.
Right, so last week`s episode two of the three part episode “Imaginationland” left us with an interesting cliffhanger and with enough past episode (ManBearPig) references to laugh at all summer, i mean winter… autumn damn it!
So the Pentagon used it`s “Stargate” to blow it up as usual by sending a team led by Kurt Russell in the Imaginationland, now after Al Gore`s creature made some damage Stan ends up in Imaginationland while Kyle was left unconscious and saved miraculously by Cartman, showing a lot of emotion from his side but with the one purpose of… Kyle sucking his balls.
So finally to my point, in this episode AL Gore is back on the trail of ManBearPig, Stan stands shoulder to shoulder with Butters to fight back the evil forces of the Decepticon…err imagination, including classics like the Clones from star wars, Freddy Krueger and the most fearsome of all The Woodland Creatures imagined by Cartman himself. And last but not least Cartman will do whatever it takes to make Kyle stand up to his contract.

New Generation TV shows

TV prime time shows have been around for a long time, from comedies and raw sci-fi that was around at the peak of TV popularity to TiVO and Internet streaming, TV series were a good way to pass the time.
Today`s shows are far more complicated, with bigger budgets and with fans talking about them all over the blogosphere/websites.
So we are dealing with a new trend of shows, with lots of mysteries, science fiction and even some messiah concepts that have become quite frequent in today`s shows, probably pointing out man`s desire for the truth and his evolution over 2000 years pointing out that something is fishy, letting imagination break loose amazed us with shows like Lost, The 4400, the comic-book stylized Heroes and even re adaptations like Battlestar Galactica (much darker than the original) and the list can go on, people have a real desire for apocalyptic concepts, end of the world, conspiracies (to fit Prison Break around here) thus other shows end up cancelled or left behind. The first months of 2008 will be great with major shows coming back, i think Lost is still the most anticipated one but until then i invite you to watch the next episode of Heroes “The Line” airing tomorrow.

The Simpsons: GAME

After the 20 year wait for The Simpsons: MOVIE, Matt Groening`s animated sitcom is not standing by waiting another 20 years. The Simpsons Game will be hitting all major and portable consoles at the end of this month (Oct 30Th), yes, you heard me, CONSOLES.
That sucks, but what can we do, we can only hope that by some miracle PC users will be able to play it, anyway this game seems to be a good enough reason for some to buy the new psp or even Nintendo`s Wii.
I think we all remember Simpsons Hit`n`run game that was sort of an Grand Theft Auto parody, well this time we have epic parodies of games and other things, such as Medal Of Homer (Medal of Honor), Neverquest (Everquest) and the list can go on, from the trailers on the EA website I can say the game looks pretty fun and the graphics are perfect for this type of game.
With the movie, game and the new season 19 the Simpsons look fresh and still the longest running animated series. This makes me think of Bart`s chalkboard writing “I will not wait 20 years for another movie” in S19 episode 1 and Maggie`s first word “Sequel”.

Maybe MMOs got it all wrong…

From the first “Massive” online games to greatest time stealer of all time (you know what i`m talking about). RPGs initially provided a great platform to develop online games with more than just a couple of players online, but on the other side, at the same time we have MMOs and we have complex storyline single player games with stunning graphics, sound, voice acting and an overall movie-like experience.
STOP! Wait a second, that`s bad. I know everyone will say that it`s like i`m comparing two different genres, but i`m not, for example RPGs, we have MMORPGs boring as hell with limited motivation like being the best out of thousands/million and immersive SP RPGs with immersive storylines, gameplay and everything. For some that was not such a big deal… until now.
Looking at what MMOs we`ll be seeing in the near future the genre is becoming more gameplay and cinematic oriented, why? Because even the toughest grinders get bored, that`s why.
So we are looking at a step they should have developed earlier, i`m not saying MMOs are bad as they are, just that everything get`s old and people want adrenaline not grinding and doing the same thing over and over. Yeah WOW was a big step, but it kind of sold it`s soul for money.

Not as boring as i thought…

If you can stand Keanu Reeves in his trademark hello-i-have-the-same-face-in-every-movie-ish acting than you bought yourself a ticket to one of the most dazzling recent fantasy-romance movies.
The Lake House was released in 2006 but i have a habit of missing out on this type of movies for the eye candy ones like 300, Transformers and whatnot.
Normally i don`t like romance movies but this one has something that i found amazing since i was a kid, well, close enough.
I believe the concept of time-travel has fascinated generations from the Flintstones to the Robinsons, The Lake House deals with that concept in an impressive way, long story short whatever real-time Kate (Sandra Bullock) puts in the lake house mailbox, Alex (Reeves) gets in the past, from that, just use your imagination.
So yeah, i still think Keanu is worse than many characters in supporting roles but at least he does his job without messing up and sends out a nice message of something, we, normal bread eaters will never get. Oh and by the way, Sandra still looks OK even though she looked better in Speed or whatever movie she was in with cardboard face over here.

Tales Don`t Tell Themselves

I wanted to write about this album since summer, but it`s better now since now i can read all the reviews and what other people think about it. But what do i see when i read the reviews, this album is rated average at best.

For me it`s definitely not average, it`s one of the best musical releases this year, so the dipshit that said this is bad and only 12 yo girls will like it, well, i guess HE is part of little girls.

Funeral For A Friend is pulling it`s ass away from the average alternative/”post-hardcore” sell-out bands, this album has a THEME, a thing other bands don`t have or vaguely define as dark… or not so dark thematic.

So “Tales Don`t Tell Themselves” makes a first impression of… boredom, wich is true but after a while it gets much better, the double bass pedal is no longer used but the sound can be rather colourful and complex, i think one of the main reasons i like it is personal one and because i relate to it.

The complex songwriting, amazing vocals and guest vocals from lead singer`s “The Secret Show” band mate (female), returning home while at sea, in a cubicle in some metropolis or listening to it on an island (like i did) can bring lots of nostalgia.

Sitcom Overview: American Dad

I must bore you people (readers) with just one more entry on this category, the last one for this week at least. But make no mistake, as inocent as cartoons were at their origins (even though we all know the myths surrounding Disney) American Dad is not inocent, not for kids, and not so sure i`d show this to old people either.

American Dad is created by Seth MacFarlane the same dude that made Family Guy, well it`s obvious since we have strong connections between the two, for example instead of the sarcastic, alcoholic, talking intelectual dog Brian from Family Guy we get a 2in1, a talking semi-fascist german goldfish Klaus and an amazing character-wise alien Roger, nothing special apart from being saved from Area51 this alien has an drinking obsession, semi-genius ideas that start good and end up very bad, numerous disguises and huge history of his own.

Then we have Peter Griffins omologue Stan Smith, appart from his john doe name he is ultra-conservative republican weapons specialist CIA agent and above all that, still, he is a total moron, his actions can only be compared to Eric Carman`s at best, how he got involved with an charming woman like Francine is a mistery but that sounds like a sitcom stereotype. Like that`s not enough we get classic characters like Stan`s doughter the kind-of-hippie girl Hayley and her brother the geek with an boob obsession Steve.

American Dad has been going for 2 seaons now and it started it`s third, it`s the kind of show american patriots laugh at but prolly don`t get the inside jokes, the show`s characters are not much to talk about, references to Family Guy at every minute but still fresh and worth a watch.

SouthPark Imaginationland 2/3 of season 11

While last week episode 10 of SouthPark`s 11th season was great, this week on SouthPark we`ll get to find out what`s going on in Imaginationland the 2nd part of the 3 announced, this is i believe the longest series of multi-part episodes on SouthPark, while last season we saw two great two part episodes, starting with Cartoon Wars (my personal favourite) and conlcuding with the shocking Go God Go! where Cartman`s desire for the Nintendo Wii ends up with time travel, religious implications and conflicts on an epic scale while Ms. Garrison gets… ewww, but there`s more. So this season we get this three parter full of everything the human mind ever created while Cartman tries to find his leprechaun, we seem to get some taste of the epic in this episode while Stan and Kyle try, and by try i mean forced, to help the Pentagon. This series of 3 and one more episode will set the scene ready for the season finale wich we all hope it will be glorious, or not, since the last Emmy SouthPark won is now in a big poop as of episode 9. Oh and not to worry since SouthPark will be going 14 episodes/year for 3 more years.