Bernie Mac DIes At Age 50

CHICAGO — Bernie Mac, the actor and comedian who teamed up in the casino heist caper "Ocean's Eleven" and gained a prestigious Peabody Award for his sitcom "The Bernie Mac Show," died Saturday at age 50.

"Actor/comedian Bernie Mac passed away this morning from complications due to pneumonia in a Chicago area hospital," his publicist, Danica Smith, said in a statement from Los Angeles.

The comedian suffered from sarcoidosis, an inflammatory lung disease that produces tiny lumps of cells in the body's organs, but had said the condition went into remission in 2005. He recently was hospitalized and treated for pneumonia, which his publicist said was not related to the disease.

Recently, Mac's brand of comedy caught him flack when he was heckled during a surprise appearance at a July fundraiser for Democratic presidential candidate and fellow Chicagoan Barack Obama.

Toward the end of a 10-minute standup routine, Mac joked about menopause, sexual infidelity and promiscuity, and used occasional crude language. The performance earned him a rebuke from Obama's campaign.

But despite controversy or difficulties, in his words, Mac was always a performer.

"Wherever I am, I have to play," he said in 2002. "I have to put on a good show."

Mac worked his way to Hollywood success from an impoverished upbringing on Chicago's South Side. He began doing standup as a child, and his film career started with a small role as a club doorman in the Damon Wayans comedy "Mo' Money" in 1992. In 1996, he appeared in the Spike Lee drama "Get on the Bus."

He was one of "The Original Kings of Comedy" in the 2000 documentary of that title that brought a new generation of black standup comedy stars to a wider audience.

"The majority of his core fan base will remember that when they paid their money to see Bernie Mac ... he gave them their money's worth," Steve Harvey, one of his co-stars in "Original Kings," told CNN on Saturday.

Mac went on to star in the hugely popular "Ocean's Eleven" franchise with Brad Pitt and George Clooney.

His turn with Ashton Kutcher in 2005's "Guess Who" topped the box office. It was a comedy remake of the ****c Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn drama "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner?" — with Mac as the black dad who's shocked that his daughter is marrying a white man.

Mac also had starring roles in "Bad Santa," "Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle" and "Transformers."

In the late 1990s, he had a recurring role in "Moesha," the UPN network comedy starring pop star Brandy.

The comedian drew critical and popular acclaim with his Fox television series "The Bernie Mac Show," which aired more than 100 episodes from 2001 to 2006.

The series about a man's adventures raising his sister's three children, won a Peabody Award in 2002. At the time, judges wrote they chose the sitcom for transcending "race and ****while lifting viewers with laughter, compassion — and cool."

In real life, he was very much like his character on that series, his daughter, Je'niece Childress, told The Associated Press on Saturday.

"He was the king of his household," Childress said in Chicago, describing Mac as "a loving grandfather" to her daughter, his only grandchild.

"The Bernie Mac Show" garnered Golden Globe and Emmy nominations for Mac.

"But television handcuffs you, man," he said in a 2001 Associated Press interview. "Now everyone telling me what I CAN'T do, what I CAN say, what I SHOULD do, and asking, `Are blacks gonna be mad at you? Are whites gonna accept you?'"

He also was nominated for a Grammy award for best comedy album in 2001 along with his "The Original Kings of Comedy" co-stars, Harvey, D.L. Hughley and Cedric The Entertainer.

Chicago music producer Carolyn Albritton said she was Bernie Mac's first manager, having met him in 1991 at Chicago's Cotton Club where she hosted an open-mike night. He was an immediate hit, Albritton said Saturday, and he asked her to help guide his career.

"From very early on I thought he was destined for success," Albritton said. "He never lost track of where he came from, and he'd often use real life experiences, his family, his friends, in his routine. After he made it, he stayed a very humble man. His family was the most important thing in the world to him."

In 2007, Mac told David Letterman on CBS' "Late Show" that he planned to retire soon.

"I'm going to still do my producing, my films, but I want to enjoy my life a little bit," Mac told Letterman. "I missed a lot of things, you know. I was a street performer for two years. I went into clubs in 1977."

Mac was born Bernard Jeffrey McCullough on Oct. 5, 1957, in Chicago. He grew up on the city's South Side, living with his mother and grandparents. His grandfather was the deacon of a Baptist church.

In his 2004 memoir, "Maybe You Never Cry Again," Mac wrote about having a poor childhood — eating bologna for dinner — and a strict, no-nonsense upbringing.

"I came from a place where there wasn't a lot of joy," Mac told the AP in 2001. "I decided to try to make other people laugh when there wasn't a lot of things to laugh about."

Mac's mother died of cancer when he was 16. In his book, Mac said she was a support for him and told him he would surprise everyone when he grew up.

"Woman believed in me," he wrote. "She believed in me long before I believed."

Well, Summer's almost to a close. Depressing, I know. But I think I spent this Summer quite well. I did several things this Summer that I won't forget for a long time. My Summer started slow, and pretty much stayed that way until I saw Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. While it certainly didn't reach up to the heights of the first three, it was still a good movie in it's own right. I enjoyed it until they started talking about aliens. Why the hell are there aliens in it? IT was just a mediocre plot twist in an otherwise amazing movie.

And then I went and spent a week with my grandmother. We went and saw these guys. I thought they were really good. For those who don't know, they are a tribute band to ABBA, which was, if I am not mistaken, a disco band from I think the 80's (might be the 70's). The songs were wildly entertaining, and the whole thing was just a blast.

Then my summer slowed down again, and I found myself just waking up and flipping through the channels (great! a whole segment of my summer wasted) when I could've gotten out and done something. I'm pretty much kicking myself for just sitting around for that half a month. Anyway...Then we went and saw that country concert at LP Field. It was alright. Most of it was boring except for a couple of people (Sammy Hagar was the best part). But you know what the saddest part of my summer is? I still have to go see The Dark Knight . It's my goal to see it before school starts back in one week...

And finally, after two more weeks, band camp started. Woo! Finally, a chance to hang around with some people and get off my ass for two weeks. Nothing much to talk about except that the second Monday was retardedly humid. And finally, there was DCI. I love DCI. This year, I thought that it was a tie between Phantom Regiment and The Cavaliers for the best show. Hell, at least the damn Cadets didn't win this year with their damn talking show.

Bah! Any way. We've reached the End of the Line. Summer is winding down, and soon we'll all be back to sitting on our asses for eight hours a day, listening to batty teachers rattle on and on about crap. So. What did you guys do for your summer?

I loved the first Assassin's Creed. Over all, it was a very well presented game, but it had some tiny (and some not so tiny) issues that stopped me from having as much fun as I should have. I have six things that must, at all costs, be fixed in the sequel if I am to buy it before it hits the bargain bin.

1) MORE ASSASSINATIONS!

In the Assassin's Creed, my favorite parts were the assassinations. As it was, I got the game (for $59.99, exactly four hours before the price dropped to $29.99) because of what the game proposed on the front and the back. ASSASSIN'S Creed. The assassinations themselves were what made me play the game, but there weren't enough of them. Out of the ten - twelve hours of gameplay, only about two were assassinations. For the entire game, the assassinations themselves were broken up by mindless, repetitive tasks that detracted from the gameplay.

2) Less Talky, More Die...y

In Assassin's Creed, the targets never figured out when to shut up. The scenes and stuff before I move in on the kill were really cool, and, most of the time, really made me want to kill the heartless bastard. Then I go and knife him in the back of the neck (or the front or side, I'm not partial to one as long as the guy DIES) he still finds the strength to rattle on for ten minutes about stuff that is somewhat interesting, but, at the same time, stuff that I don't care about. Yes, there are a couple of sentences that are really imperative to the story, but they're disguised by nine minutes of useless crap. I was listening to one, and, about half way through, I expected him to talk about his day: Well, I got up this morning and had a piece of toast, then I brushed my teeth... blah blah blah. I was getting ready to yell at the TV SHUT UP!, and then it ended.

3) Better Required Missions

What was there for the required missions: Stealth kill guards (Fun) Collect Flags Within Set Time Limit (NOT Fun) Pickpocket, Eavesdrop, Beat Up Informants (In the Middle).
Stealth Killing x amount of guards in x amount of minutes without getting caught is fun. We need more of that! Unfortunately, you only got to do this ONCE per assassination. Collecting the flags was bad. Who the **** put the flags up there anyway? And why is there a time limit? What could this POSSIBLY reveal? Pickpocketing and Beating up informants, I could do those a couple of times before I get tired. Eavesdropping, however, is dull and broken. How can Altair possible hear two people over the roar of the crowd, especially from across the damn courtyard?

4) More (and better) Side Stuff

Fighting thugs to protect the damsels in distress was fun! But there wasn't enough of it. Side stuff involved fighting thugs, scaling viewpoints, and collecting "hidden" flags (usually out in the open, but colored the same as the sand/walls, of course)We've already established that fighting thugs was fun! Scaling the view-points are cool too, but flag collecting is stupid. Instead of collecting these stupid flags, maybe we could get optional assassination contracts. That would kick so much ass!

5) Improve the Gameplay Mechanics & the World Itself

The big open world was great, and full of detail, yet, at the same time, it still felt closed off by loading screens and what-not. Not only that, but despite the huge crowds in the city, the cities felt empty because there wasn't much to do. Fighting the thugs was FUN! Maybe if you go down a side street or alley you stumble on a group of them hanging out or something! And kill them! On top of that, the fighting system is broken, at best. Getting in a fight with a large group of guards was fun, until I realized that only two or three would attack me at once. The others just stood around barking at me in different languages. Also, why can't Altair swim? This reminds me of GTA: Vice City. I had a brilliant idea on how to escape the police: I'd swim under a bridge! Then I hit the water, and drowned! Idea wasted. I had a brilliant idea on how to escape the guards (or at least slow them down) (see the similarities) by swimming around the harbor area, but no, I drowned. Idea wasted. What kind of serious assassin can't ****ing swim? And finally, the saving system needs to be addressed. In a big open world game, there needs to be a save anywhere option. I grew tired of having to complete a side quest or something just to save the game.

6) Stealth Kills >>> Blade Kills, and Should be Rewarded as Such

In Assassin's Creed, the assassinations were the best part about the game, we've already stated that, but it doesn't hurt to refresh out minds a little. Now then: There were two ways of doing an assassination. Fighting, and Assassinating. The one thing that hindered Assassin's Creed to the point of disgust was that you weren't rewarded for Stealth Killing a target. I do feel that, since a lot of the stealth kills were really hard to pull off, we should be rewarded for them. As it is, we get the sam thing we get as if we fought him outright: Pat on the Back, Good Job, now get the hell outta there!...Ten minute load...Good job. Here's a sword/more knives/WHATEVER!. I'm not saying give us better weapons, but I'm saying that it could unlock some cool stuff. Maybe if you stealth killed like all the targets or something, you could get a secret weapon, like a cross bow or something. How cool would that be?

As you can see, those are the six things that are a must to fix for Assassin's Creed 2. If they fix those, they'll have one of the best games this gen, easily. Thank you for your timeand patience.

Kenaue, OUT!

So far, I've liked the PSN Store updates we've gotten for the past couple of weeks. Plenty of demos, plenty of good add-ons, and plenty of videos. I'm glad we're getting the Hot Shots demo, it's a fantastic game, but I have two questions:

1) How come it took so long? Didn't Europe get it months ago?

2) Are we going to get more PS1 games on PSN? I look at the Japanese store, I get excited. I look at the US store, and I cry. I look at the Europe store, and I feel sorry for them.

All I'm saying is this:

You have a good, solid online network that brings players together from around the world, I want to ask this:

Can you unify it? Make ever PS Store the same. What Japan gets, both NA and Europe gets. What we get, both Europe and Japan gets. What Europe gets, Japan and NA gets. What I'm saying is that PSN has the potential to be the best thing out there, but the one thing holding it back is store content. Like I said earlier, what's there already is nice, but each regions store is severely different in terms of content, or in terms of when two different stores get said content.

Damn Gamestop. They've had my buissiness for a good five or so years. I've taken advantage of price drops and trade-in specials. I love both Gamestop and Gamecrazy, dut Gamecrazy doesn't excite me much. Gamestop has a much bigger selection, whtehr it be at a new store or one that's ten years old. For instance: I walked into Gamestop today to pick up my beta code for Metal Gear Online (I pre-orded the game back in February) and to switch my pre-order to the Limited Edition version of the game. I look over on the PS2 shelf, and lo and behold! A game I have been searching for for ages: a relatively new copy of ICO. Price: More than I had with me. I shop there for selection, not prices...

Any way, I went up to the counter and pulled out my receipt for the MGS4 pre-order, and say that I got a call about the pre-order bonus (the MGO Beta Code and the MGS Saga 2.0 Disk). The dude takes my receipt, types the needed information in, and looks up and says," You have no pre-orders listed in our system." My jaw dropped. I hadn't been in a game store since the day I pre-ordered the game itself, and the receipt was proof that I DID pre-order it. I stood in there for an hour while they scoured the system (one good thing DID come about though, they are having a deal on used movies right now, buy two used movies and get two of equal or lesser value free. I got October Sky and Monty Python and the Holy Grail for 9.99 each and got two 4.99 movies free). After that hour, they decide, what the hell. ou have the receipt, so they gave me the disk. I was pissed off that I had to sit there for an hour waiting for them to do something, as I CLEARLY had it ordered and had a right to the pre-order bonus itself. As of now though, after I fill my two pre-orders (HAZE and MGS4) I may be done with Gamestop forever.

What do gamers care more about? Graphics? Or Gameplay?

Have you ever asked yourself: What's more important in a video game? Is it the over the top, awesome, 3-D graphics that make you purchase a game? Or do you purchase a game due to astounding gameplay? Or a little of both? I am going to attempt to go into the minds of gamers every where over the next few minutes of your time with this article:

Gameplay or Graphics: The Ultimate Question

So what makes a game? Does it have to have superior ultra sharp graphics as in picture A, or ultra tight gameplay as in Picture B?

Picture A. LAIR for the Playstation 3 Entertainment System. This game features crisp, ultra-sharp, high resolution graphics, but is severely lacking in the gameplay department, or so says some reviewers.

Picture B. Kingdom Hearts for the Playstation 2 Computer Entertainment System. This game focuses more on great, addictive gameplay than nice graphics. As you can see, the graphics are bland and uninteresting.

Based on those pictures, I am far more inclined to go for LAIR as opposed to Kingdom Hearts. Games like LAIR have trailers and screenshots that show apparent awesome gameplay AND graphics, but usually only have one of those factors. However, while LAIR does draw my eye with the dragons, it is the subtleness of the Kingdom Hearts shot that gets my attention. WTF is going on? I want to find out, so I'll play it. To my surprise, the gameplay was excellent, as it should be coming from Squaresoft. After playing both titles, I have come to the conclusion that LAIR, while absolutely stunning, and the best looking game this generation, doesn't satisfy as much as the overly simplistic, yet highly addictive gameplay of the Kingdom Hearts.

However, there are also games that balance graphics and gameplay (see Picture C, D, and E), but they tend to lean a decent amount more towards gameplay. With these games, the graphics draw my attention heavily, I tend to wonder that they just left half-assed gameplay for the other assets of the game. About 33% of the time, I am wrong, like I was with Final Fantasy XII and Jak X: Combat Racing (both available on the Playstation 2 Computer Entertainment system for $19.99)

Picture C. Final Fantasy XII for the Playstation 2 Computer Entertainment System. This is just your typical boss monster. Another day in the life of a future sky pirate!

Picture D. Gears of War for the Xbox 360 Computer Entertainment System. DAYUMMM!!! YOU GOT PWNEDDDDD!!!

Picture E. The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess for the Nintendo Wii Computer Entertainment System. IIIIIIIII'TS WOLFTASTIC!

Those three games above are some of the three best games on the market today, but what about when you're buying for a portable system, such as the DS or PSP. Obviously some other standards will come into play. On the road, playability will have more importance over graphics. There are some portable games that suck at both (see picture F) and some games that excel at both (see Picture G). Then there are some games with horrible graphics, but amazing gameplay and vice-versa (see pictures H, I).

Picture F. Final Fantasy II for the Playstation Portable Computer Entertainment System. Can someone say: Me no speaka Englashh!!!

Picture G. Monster Hunter Freedom 2nd for the Playstation 2 Computer Entertainment System. Someone's gonna get paid tonight!

Picture H. Pokemon Diamond for the Nintendo Developer's System (DS). USE MIRROR MOVE! I COMMAND YOU!!! ARGGGH! You get no supper tonight!!!

Picture I. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix for the Playstation Portable Computer Entertainment System. Anyone who plays this game should be shot, burned, and shot again.

The At Worlds End demo on the Xbox Live Marketplace is freaking amazing. It reminds me a lot of Kingdom Hearts in the gameplay and design. I can't wait to pick up this game.