I just watched the 2006 movie Crank.

While i saw this a few years ago i was way to "under the influence" to remember anything but the fact its the greatest movie ever.

Till now ive been trying to work out what actual movie it was.

Watch it.

Tell me this isnt the best Video Game influenced movie ever. At least there is one of a plethora of bad attempts, albeit not actually based on a game officially.

If you haveent yet witnessed it, i cannot recommend it enough.

Just to confirm to me im not tripping on the video games angle wikipedia had this. (sure its wikipedia but its enough for me to prove im not tripping.)

--------------------------------

The film's plot and action are reminiscent of video games, and the film makes frequent references to video arcade games. The opening credits feature 1980s-$tyle video game graphics and include an arcade-$tyle highscore screen, with the first four entries being FUC, YOU, ASS, HOL in that order. After the end credits, a video game sequence shows Chev running around and shooting gangsters, then dying in the street. A blinking message then reads, "Insert coin to continue. (press 5)," "5" is the default key used to insert coins in the MAME emulator. Various scenes in the film show images or characters from the video game Berzerk, a ****c arcade game with the grim reputation as one of the few games where a person has died from heart problems while playing it. When Verona gets the final call from Chev about where to meet, it can be seen that the guy sitting next to him is playing Berzerk. Amy Smart's character Eve believes Chev to be a video game programmer before he confesses that he is a hitman.

Film critic Brian Orndorf from FilmJerk.com called Crank "The latest stab by Hollywood to cash in on the violent video game craze".[2]

---------------------------------

anyone for a rockstar energy drink?

While browsing the local newsagent on friday i noticed this magazine.

The first addition of a new Australian non-official xbox 360 magazine. Not something I would ussually buy except it contained the worlds first review of GTA4, as claimed on the cover.

Thats all well and good probably worth the purchase for that, but it was these that made the deal.

GTA 4 playing cards! How awesome is that. Click for a better look.

GTA 4 A2 size, double sided poster! Pretty sweet.

Definitely the coolest things I have gotten packaged with a magazine. The cards are just awesome, generally showing pics of Niko in action and landscapes of liberty city.

The reviewer states the game is beyond multimedia, its mega-media.

As far as the review score it is a 10/10 although from whats written the reviewer would have given it higher if he could of. The summary:

"There are no ifs or buts; GTA IV has to be experienced by absolutely everyone (er, unless you're under the age of 15). It's undoubtedly the biggest game of 2008, the biggest game of the decade, even, and a truly momentus achievement in the history of entertainment. This game is as essential as oxygen."

I guess this might have been more groundbreaking news if i'd bothered to post before the ign review but, eh. The playing cards are cool.

On the flip side.

This article attacking GTA 4 before its even out.

http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,23601350-2,00.html

My comment, unfortunately unlikely to get through the people publishing the comments. I encourage anyone who feels stronlgly enough to leave a comment of some type, the game industry is just going to keep copping this bull until people are more educated on the medium.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Research ... indicates there's quite a distinct correlation showing up between exposure to violence in media and increases in violent attitudes and behaviours in young people," she said. WHAT research? in fact plenty of research shows quite the opposite.

Why attack the developers (rockstar) on this?Has anyone attacked quentin tarantino for making voilent movies? What about the guys that made SAW? They get nothing but praise.

Why show the games sales for 2006? the total revenue for 2007 would be at least a 3rd more. The main focus of this article should be the fact that the game didnt get an R rating because our ancient system has no rating for it. The whole world is laughing at us on this one. As a 24 year old im disgusted my media must be filtered in this way by the government.

Stop trying to rile up uneducated 30 to 50 year olds with no education on the medium, with this disgustingly biased and uneducative reporting. Trying to spin people into panic for your own agenda. Ok try and spin that "it needs to be kept from our kids" The average gamer has recently been unveiled as being 27. Whats the difference between this and an M rated movie, which even has the luxury to be exposed to kids on television. By having no R rating the game is even more likely to get to kids.

An Education campaign needs to be started to address this issue to educate parents about PARENTING, there is to much ignorance to a new medium and to much scare mongering. Much the same as has been repeated in the past many times. (Elvis, Rock and Roll, Kiss)

This game is likely going to break records in the entertainment sales over any movie, music or game before it, Its a fast growing medium, now capable of portraying stories in moving and emotional ways and needs to be treated with some respect, as its not going away. Frankly im disgusted and embarrased for the country, for the fact that the developers who have made whats being called the game of the decade, had to release a modified version than that of the rest of the world.

I havent posted in a bit, ive been a little busier than my usual busy-ness, though a recent comment in a GIANTBOMB.com comments section seems to constitute enough words and opinion to justify a small post. The rant is in discussion of a post by Jeff Gerstmann asking whether people care much for Unreal Tournament 3 anymore, and whether the lack of modding on the system will hurt it. Not a subject I am particularly red hot for, though the throng of uneducated and elitist comments spurred me to give my two cents (as you do). Slightly edited (make that heavily, I couldnt stop) and expanded on to make a better Blog Post, (although its still kind of directed towards the fellow commenters.)

Firstly, to the people unable to understand from a technical standpoint. To open up mods in a PC format on the 360 would give free reign to homebrew on the system, Microsoft will do things their way, as they would be smart to for the security of the system.

Secondly, People are making the cla$$ic mistake of making predictions based only on what the hardcore will want.

With the shooter genre now grown (with thanks from Halo and Cod) to involve an audience know much (much) bigger and broader than the hardcore shooter fans of yesteryear (with the sales numbers between those games in particular, now a massive percentage of gamers.) , I cant see that the average console gamer will be affected, or even know or care on what they might be missing out on. Is Microsoft releasing "some of the best mods" as a package such a bad thing? Finding a game with a decent amount of people playing it is the main plus. As long as there is plenty of content in the first place, it shouldnt be an issue.

You can whine that its just not the same as PC, but isnt that the point? buy it for PC.

Its as bad as still whining about useing a controller over a mouse. YES it is different, but i think recent shooters (Call of duty in particular, the game following more cla$$ic shooter behaviour than Halo) have shown that its just as fun and intuitive (if not more so) with the controller. Half the issue you PC Elitists are having is that you started on a mouse and you have an inability to accept change. I had to show my uncle to play cod2 on the pc after he was initiated to the fps via halo, he had a hell of a time trying to pick it up. Seriously the letters AWSD werent exactly crafted with ergonomic shooting in mind, not to mention trying to find FGER the space, ctrl, and alt keys, simultaneously. Dam PC Hermits. Your like a bunch of old men.

I predict this game to probably do better on the 360 than the PC and the PS3, mainly due to xbox360 dominance in the online (and shooter) field, this console is where their target audience now reside. People who want to play online shooters are people who own the X360 or a PC that was probably upgraded with a Grafx card at some stage. Or both as I do. More and more am i turning in preference to my Xbox to play shooters, the so called dominance of the mouse being now a moot point (RTS is the last bastion, but for how long?). Basically anything made by valve being the exception, but those are games specifically made for the PC, unlike the slew of titles (including UT) built from the ground up to work well on console.

I had a choice for COD4 and I have a choice for this game, and that choice is console.

I just read here. http://au.xbox360.ign.com/articles/859/859265p1.html

edit: also here http://kotaku.com/367283/miller-barlog-working-on-mad-max-game

That a Mad Max game is in development.

As a big fan of Mad Max im excited, especially as this is apparently in collaboration with God of War 2 director Cory Barlog, it will be based on the movie "Mad Max: Fury Road" that they intended to make in 2003 before it was put on hold due to the iraq war. (crashing of the US dollar to the Australian etc. George Miller moved on to Happy Feet instead.)

Apparently Mel Gibson will not be involved In the movie or the Game (as he was originally in 2003), George Miller stating age as a reason. He also states the game will be focused on before he starts on the movie, then to coincide with it when the movie releases. Its described as an Action Adventure.

I am excited. What about you guys?

What would you like to see in the game?

Im all for some old school mad max driving sequences! I also cant imagine the game without some sort of shooting mechanic, probably third person. Heres hoping for a decent movie game crossover.

I had never played a Devil May Cry game until yesterday when I finished the latest itiration. After doing so i feel quite regretful I havent had a taste of this franchise before, as for the most part it is awesome.

Going into this I expected some girly stereotypical japanese characters, with some of the typically strange transition in dialogue and humour, which always grates on me. Well thankfully all of those conceptions were smashed, I guess I forgot that Capcom make this game, possibly the most successful eastern company to make games which translate well to western audiences.

The first half of the game I had a great time playing as Nero, the combat is no question the biggest strength of the game, although I was suprised when I was engaged by the excellent cut scenes and decent enough story. sty1e makes up 90% of this game, and I didnt find that to be a bad thing at all. Nero and Dante surpass cool and its fun to be them.

DMC4 does have its issues, and I can see them for some people being deal breakers. The game seemed intent to discourage me from enjoying it and it almost succeeded, with me close to not bothering to finish the last half. The problems come in the form of level design, Its not always obvious where you should go, and there is endless backtracking to the point where you arent always sure where you should backtrack to. Halfway through the game you swap from Nero to Dante, to then spend the entire last half of the game backtracking the progress you made in the first half. Unfortunately this backtracking starts out in the most frustrating maze-like level of the game.

This is where I almost didnt pick the controller back up, after the thirteenth time falling into a pit for going in the wrong direction in the maze. This and the added stress involved of having Dante and his fifteen hundred different sword sty1es put on me without much explanation. I guess for the seasoned Devil May Cryer having the accumulated sty1es from the previous three titles is expected and comfortable, but for me it all seemed a bit much. I couldnt really work out the practicality of 4 different sty1es that seemed more or less the same. I didnt feel I could play Dante optimally and this depressed me, I missed Nero's Devil arm.

Fortunately I had a look at a walkthrough to figure out why I wasnt advancing through the level, picked up the controller and marched on. Im damn glad I did because after this stupid level, the game picks up exponentially to the end, with the discovery of the coolest weapons so far I really enjoyed playing as Dante, by the end probably preffering him to Nero.

The game is dam awesome despite these issues, if you havent given it a go I thoroughly reccommend it. Im giving it an 8.

Speaking of games that seem to be intent on keeping me from enjoying their awesomness.

Mass Effect DLC content is here. Unfortunately due to the fact that the DLC cannot be played post game, Im still not quite developed enough with my third character to get to it yet. It seems im a little bit stuck as well, due to the fact im at one of the ridiculously hard and frustrating boss battles playing on the insanity difficulty. The worst part is I think it might not be actually possible to kill a Geth Colossus or whatever it is, on foot with my current party. It just seems to regenerate faster than I can chip away at it, its really depressing.

Im stuck in somewhat of a quandry as to whether I should bring the difficulty slider down in order to advance to the DLC, thus forfeiting 50 Achievement points I will get when finishing the game again. When did achievement points start controlling my gaming? Is it ridiculous to do this to myself for 50 measly points?

I dont know... Im angry, and for the moment am going to blame Bioware for making their content non-post game, It is almost unforgivable to not allow the gamer to finish doing all the exploring elements after finishing the main story.

What do you guys think I should do?

The much anticipated Jeff Gerstmann, Ryan Davis, Alex Navarro? website has just been sprung!

This is the future.

www.giantbomb.com

Im super stoked this was able to happen. Their first video is up "How to build a bomb", i noticed it has already had 37000 something views. Plus first impressions for Army of Two, and a review for Burnout and Poker Smash.

Im pretty excited for this, what about you guys?

Alright! More Downloadable content for Guitar Hero 3!

The Modern Metal Pack!

Though i wouldnt c1assify any of these bands as Metal. I guess if they released any real Metal the pop listening plebs wouldnt be up for it.

After a quick once over on Medium difficulty. Im glad I made the purchase, they all play pretty well, though i think im ready to move up to Hard difficulty, these all rate about halfway in the Medium gradient.

Deftones - Hole in the Earth : Pretty simple and linear, mainly made up of pretty easy chord changes. Like a way easier version of cherub rock.

Avenged Sevenfold - Almost Easy : Pretty fun, follows basic song structure, chords and riffs, with a few pretty easy solos thrown in. I found the difficulty to be almost Easy instead of Medium (pun intended). I will have to give this one a go on Hard for a Challenge.

Thrice - The Arsonist : Probably the most challenging of the three, and probably the funnest to play, follows a basic structure, but about 2/3 rds through starts to change it up a bit to a big end. Which was suprising because I like the other songs alot and i'd never heard this particular song.. Its a great song tho, I stopped listening to Thrice a while ago, but after hearing this I might give some of their new stuff a crack.

Put me down as a fan for this pack, 3 great picks in my opinion. Finally some music more up my alley! With this releasing so soon after the No Doubt it gives me some confidence in GH3 DLC. Maybe we will see a larger amount of higher quality content released in the future?

No Doubt Pack

The "no doubt" downloadable content for guitar hero 3 is excellent. The choice of songs are good and are translated perfectly, at least on the medium difficulty that i played them at. Dont speak is pretty mellow, Sunday Morning linear and satisfying, and Excuse Me Mr is a bit more sporadic and frantic for a challenge. If they released packs like this every week, or at least every couple of weeks I would be snapping them up. Sunday morning is probably my favourite of all the songs in the entire game.

Wiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii!!!!!!!

So I went to Perth this weekend for the Soundwave festival (on the monday holiday). Killswitch Engage was definitely the highlight, though Offspring were suprisingly good for the fact they played their old songs. So while in Perth staying with my mate, he happened to have a Wii borrowed from a mate of his. I had my first Wii experience.

Its more or less exactly what I expected, Wii sports etc is probably a little shallower than I thought it would be. Between my mate and I, the best time was definitely had with Rockstars Table Tennis, followed by Mario Galaxy.

Table tennis translates so well to the motion controls that it becomes something close enough to table tennis to be almost as entertaining. My arm still hurts, and i work in Metal Fabrication. I guess thats the cool thing, when im hitting the ball, im casually hitting for regular shots and swinging my arm as hard as i can for the power shots, I know i dont need to, but its more fun. Same with the wii boxing, although there doesnt seem to be enough to that game that it isnt just a competition to throw your arms back and forth faster. A version of fightnight would be awesome.

Mario is mario, Im a Sega kid but i cant deny the game the credit its deserves for level design, because that alone kept two grown men entertained for 3 hours, especially since one of us does nothing but collect stars, knock giant green plants and make Mario jump at exactly the moment Player ONE doesnt want him to.

So now ive played a Wii, and I gotta say although it was great fun, Im quite content to never play one again. Its basically a cooler Gamecube, in an age of next generation depth of gameplay and effects. The perfect console for children aged 3 to 13, and a fun distraction for the family during Christmas, or for you Americans a thanksgiving or something. Kids stand up to play it, they are moving, its improving their spatial awareness, physical coordination, logical thinking, princess saving skills. I couldnt recommend it more to adults concerned with their kids sitting on their ass, as i would be if I was a parent.

Its worth pointing out that if my mates 360 hadnt suffered the red rings of death the day i arrived, we would of probably spent 15 minutes on the wii and the rest of the time playing Halo 3 and Guitar Hero. I found my mates attitude to the Wii interesting, as far as hes concerned its a kids system (which it is), and he doesnt see how an adult could play one in a non social - party situation. I was a little more interested, being a more hardcore gamer, but generally concur with his assessment. Mario is cool and all. When your aged 3-15. I find the idea of an adult male finishing the game - solo pretty depressing.

p.s. The God of War PSP would look way better if it was black, with a red kratos. Then i would be forced to buy it.

Just a quick warning, im going to come off a little bit angry here, but please see it through to the end.

Thank you Sony for continuing to show no respect to the countries which show you the most support over the competition Once again the sony customers in the Europe and Australia get the second rate deal, with the higher cost (at least in Australia, I cant vouch for Europe).

Many of you may have seen the recently revealed MGS PS3 package, sporting MGS, 80 gig and a Dual Shock 3. Cool huh?

Well according to Kotaku, The PAL territories have this to look forward to.

Two separate bundles, both 40 gig, The first containing Gran Turismo PROLOGUE (which isnt even a freaking game its a glorified demo they make you typically pay for.) The second containing three blu ray movies, Casino Royale, Spiderman 3 and 300 (For Europe, i cannot confirm its the same movies for AUS). Which is ok, 2 good movies and 1 half decent, thats fine, all will look awesome in HD. But wait, whats this? They will ship with SIXAXIS CONTROLLERS. WTF. No Dualshock?

Is it not bad enough the console didnt ship with them after we were LIED to that the motion sensing technology was incompatible. What is it a year from launch? and they are still bundling them. "Well i guess some sucker has to pay for our mistakes", and those suckers once again are the PAL territories.

The arrogance sony have displayed in this generation of console wars has repeatedly blown me away, but seeing this after seeing the North American deal, they have undone the reputation they were slowly repairing for me.

Just for the Americans reading this, i would like to communicate some cost difference.

The latest Bundle deal i saw, featuring three blu ray movies umm either 20 or 40 gig model not sure. $699 Aus. At the time of writing this, according to currency conversion site XE.com that equates to $654 USD.

Unbelievably, despite cost and lack of games PS3 sales are somewhere in the vicinity of the Xbox360 here. Generally it seems due to ingrained brand loyalty, which i've witnessed first hand among my friends and my dam brother, who everytime i try and explain some logical reasons his ends would be served better by a 360, he interprets it as a "My Consoles Is Better Argument", Sony brand loyal to the end. It doesnt seem to matter how much they might feel like pissing on him.

I guess by now this is starting to look like some sort of anti Sony - 360 fanboy rant, but this opinon has come from observation, not blind loyalty. Im judging things from what i've been presented. Heres a quick run down of the sony products i own:

Playstation

Playstation 2

Sony Bravia LCD

Sony car amplifier, speakers, head unit.

Sony PSP

All excellent products which I have enjoyed immensely, they were bought because they are the best in their field. (except the sony car speakers, but they were a good price)

I want to buy a Playstation 3, I want to hook it up to my Bravia, I want to use remote play with my PSP, I want to plug it into the Sony surround package i will probably own soon, I want to play Little Big Planet, MGS4, Final Fantasy. But I wont spend more money and get the same than i will in 6 - 12 months, and frankly i feel like i can wait, I honestly feel im getting twice the gaming on 360. Why arent you making the sell Sony?

A quick btw. THANK YOU PLAYSTATION STORE for sending me an email telling me the God Of War demo was available to download, only for me to click the link and get told i dont meet the criteria because i am Australian. Honestly the layout of these sites (there are like 4 different sites?), are confusing and unhelpful. Get it together please.

I apoligise if you are a diehard PS3 fan and you've taken this all the wrong way but please try and remember im on your side. I just want to see Sony do well and treat the country that has been so good to them with a little respect, i dont think they deserve to be where they are now from what they have demonstrated thus far. Am i wrong?

Comment and Opinions are encouraged.