Forgive me for going all AWOL, but I recently finished up with moving to a new house. Thankfully, the new house was only right down the street, but it's still a bi-otch packing things nonetheless. Just in case you were wondering where the hell I went.

I have A LOT of game to review!

New Games:

Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater

Alone In The Dark

Grand Theft Auto IV

Rainbow Six Vegas 2

Buffy The Vampire Slayer

Beyond Good And Evil

Resident Evil 2

Resident Evil: Code Veronica X

Legacy Of Kain: Soul Reaver 2

and, well, give my thoughts on Siren.

For my friends in the US, hope you had a good 4th of July.

As you may well know by now, the legendary George Carlin died of heart failure this past weekend at the age of 71. The world has lost one of its greatest.

This is particularly shocking to me as I saw him perform barely two weeks ago. I loved that Carlin was never afraid to speak his mind and basically said "**** you" to all our cultures' taboos. He shall be honored for many years to come by all his fans. Comedy will never be the same without him.

I'm sure he's giving God a good talking-to.

From time to time, I take a quick buzz through IMDb to see what my favorite actors are currently doing. Well, I discovered two awesome movies coming out: 'Alice', and 'Lincoln'.

Lincoln - (2009/2010)

By the title you can tell the movie is about who I believe to be the greatest US president: Abraham Lincoln. With the legendary Steven Spielberg behind the helm, you've got a solid foundation right there. But wait, guess who's playing Lincoln: the man himself, Liam Neeson. The only other actors I know of right now are Sally Field and Harrison Ford, who play Mrs. Lincoln and Lincoln's VP, respectively.

[American McGee's] Alice - (2009)

Well, I suppose this would be the fricking time to get my hands on the game, wouldn't it? Yes, American McGee's adaptation/sequel to Lewis Carroll's famous novels, formerly a cult hit game, is now on the way to the silver screen, after 8 years of delays and setbacks. Unlike most VG movies, the man responsible for the game is also responsible for the movie. (And besides, how many cult games get their own movies?) But now that they finally have a script in place and casting has begun, guess who got the leading role! None other than Sarah Michelle Gellar herself! We'll see if anyone else of interest joins the cast.

(Also, there have been a few rumors going around, some even from the actors themselves, that Serenity 2 is on its way to production!)

In a recent e-mail I recieved from Free Press (otherwise known for its Stop Big Media and Save The Internet campaigns) introduced me to a little schpiel the infamously stupid Bill O'Reilly went on. And here I quote the e-mail:

"Last night, Rupert Murdoch launched a laughable attack against you, the media reform movement, and journalism itself.

His on-air bully Bill O'Reilly called us "crazy" and "fascist" --- you, me, and the millions of others who want media reform. These people are "doing a lot of damage to America," O'Reilly yelled. Our crime? Calling for journalism that's more honest, just and accountable to the public."

You gotta love conservative sensationalism... Apparently its a sin to not want your media (in this case, TV news) censored. Well, it's not like anyone cares what O'Reilly has to say! That's why he's on Fox "News"!

Link to video.

Of course, then there's the blundering Glenn Beck on CNN and so on and so forth, but that's another fool for another day...

C WAT I DID THAR!?

Anyway, no this is not my idea on a new strange mash-up. This is just two reviews crammed into one blog post.

Condemned 2: Bloodshot (X360)

Condemned returns bloodier, more brutal, and a whole lot more polished than the first. The new fighting system, chock full of combos, finishing grabs, and environmental executions, is incredibly thrilling and smooth, but the auto lock on can mess you up a lot when a brawl turns into a straight-out cluster****. I'd say it is almost too deep for the gameplay. But whatever control issues you might encounter, few things relieve stress like putting a guy's skull inside an industry-strength presser and squeezing until it pops like a grape tomato (I don't know, I was plattering those yesterday...), except much bigger...and filled with bone and brain. The cut scenes, oh man, the cut scenes are BEAUTIFUL, there's just something about the lighting that make them look so damn appealing. So let's get to the story, since we all know that's most important part (contradict me, I dare you). The updated character models really help since Ethan and Rosa don't look ridiculously pudgy anymore. Ethan, though people have complaining he's now "just another stereotypical badass", he's really not. He went through hell and high water in the first game, and came out tougher and scarred because of it. The game deals with his inner demons, namely Alchohol and Acceptance, in a way that even impressed my mom, who used to be all up-in-arms just by looking at the title screen. Rosa, I must say, is likely the most dignified black character in gaming as of yet. The rest of the cast I was thoroughly impressed with. Even though, it's fairly obvious who the villain is by the second mission, I think Bloodshot's story was excellently written. Some have said it's completely ridiculous and doesn't make any sense. I enjoyed it very much, and I think it builds up quite nicely, with a great cliffhanger that has me all fidgety for Condemned 3. As Sam said, it's "just a lot to wrap your head around." The multiplayer offers plenty of stuff to fool around with, even though there's quite a case of "host advantage" and in Crime Scene mode, the balance is very, well, unbalanced.

Final Rating: 9.4

Penny Arcade Adventures: On The Rain-Slick Precipice Of Darkness: Episode One (XBLA)

Ah, now here's a good RPG! And it's funny, imagine that. Well, no ****, it's Penny Arcade. The hilarious web comic-now-turned-video game executes it's transition flawlessly. With a slick (hehe, get it) design interface all the way through, and cool, albeit short, comic-sty1e cutscenes. The turn-based battle system is really more like the ATB system from some of the Final Fantasy games. All in all, the game is short, exciting, hilarious, offensive (in a good way), epic, and, oh did I mention hilarious, all the way through. It's a little pricey at $20 but it's worth it. Oh, yeah, it is.

Final Rating: 9.8

While attempting to dig up info on the 2nd Silent Hill movie, I came across a fantastic Silent Hill fan movie, titled: Silent Hill 2: Brookhaven

If you're not familiar with SH2, the movie covers the end of the Brookhaven Hospital level.

Brighter Quality video (10 min.)

Okay, so I'm an avid reader, mainly sci-fi/fantasy, throw in a little historical fiction, ya know, that kind of stuff. So lately I've been busy reading a LOT. Of course, some of it's been some crappy "required reading" for school. But, thankfully, there's been more than a fair amount of damn good series that you've probably never heard of...

Let's start off with the Cassandra Kresnov trilogy. I've been reading for a long, long time. And I can unhesitantly say these are the best books I have ever laid my eyes upon. The Cassandra Kresnov trilogy is author Joel Shepherd's debut novels. To put it simply, it's what you'd get if tossed the Bourne books, Mass Effect, and Blade Runner (or more appropriately Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?) together.

The series consists of three books: Crossover, Breakaway, and Killswitch.

Anyways, so the story is about Cassandra Kresnov, and artificial human being created with a single purpose in mind: to fight. In a war between the two human superpowers, the Federation being the more powerful, conservative group that calls Earth the center of its government, and the League, a group of progressive thinking scientists and others unwilling to be restricted by the laws of the Federation any longer. (Think Andrew Ryan) Since the League consists of such a small population, around 500 million, (in contrast to the 11 billion of the Federation), they mass produced GIs, or androids if you must (but that's insulting). The problem was, GIs were notorious for having no capacity for lateral thinking. Cassandra, or Sandy, as she prefers, was created with the capacity for lateral thinking. So, for all things considered, she is human, just made in a different way. With the lateral thinking comes a conscience, with a conscience comes morality, with morality comes confusion, with confusion comes a choice: does she stay or does she defect? When her unit is murdered in a "training accident" Sandy decides to defect. Where does she go? To the Federation, of course.

After hopping a few planets, she winds up on Callay, in the capital city of Tanusha. And that's where the books start off.

Shepherd, for a first-time novelist especially, is amazingly gifted. He moulds some of the most interesting, realistic, sympathetic characters you will ever find. He has a knack for shifting between fast-paced action and tense political situations, with a side of deadpan humour. Shepherd's views of the future of politics is almost creepily realistic. China and India are the main superpowers on Earth, and as such, this universe is a very multiethnic one, unlike most sci-fi, which has a knack for being eurocentric.

In fact, Shepherd is writing a screenplay for the film adaptation of Crossover, so I'm frickin' excited!

So this is the first part of Read or Die! (Please, ...someone get the reference!)

Games have brought us so much in terms of technology, and developers and gamers themselves alike have both begun to really explore storytelling in games, whilst no longer taking it for granted. But how far away are we really from reaching the level of intimacy that TV and books (I'm not even gonna bother with the movie argument) accomplished centuries ago.

There are many games where certain characters are so memorable for being extremely funny or doing amazing feats, there are few instances when games have actually brought us a character we can remember for being, well, human. One of the well-traveled peaks in this area would be your almost constant companion in Half-Life 2, Alyx Vance. It has been stated many times that Alyx's sly smiles and infrequent, deadpan humour has made her one of, if not the, most respected female leads of gaming to come along. The only thing to offset her character though, is the faceless, voiceless role of Gordon. The silent protaganist may be one manner of unfolding a story and focusing the events on others, but it does absolutely nothing to advance the case of intimacy in games if Gordon is incapable of expressing his joy, his sorrow, and the strength he must get from just sitting next to Alyx. Even topping that, is the scene "Lost Love" from Fahrenheit (or, Indigo Prophecy, if you must) in which Tiffany comes by Lucas's apartment to pick up some boxes she left behind after they split. Despite the fact that nowadays, the technology would seem almost pathetic in the magnitude of what it tries to do, it manages to accomplish, what I think, is one of the most beautiful and personable scenes throughout the history of games. And with the precognition of what is to befall the couple in later events of the game, it makes it all the more touching. When Theory Of A Deadman's "Santa Monica" cues in at just the right moment, I can't help but grin and tear up.

But even Fahrenheit, in all its magnificence, cannot compare to the most touching, beautiful, and tragic love stories of all time (and yes, I have the nerve to say this undisputedly), that of Buffy and Angel (I still tear up just at the thought of it), or even the more subtle, yet still equally troubled relationship of Sandy and Ari in Killswitch (by Joel Sheperd). So, I ask you, would it be worth the industry's time for game developers to take less time working on new game mechanics, and more time surpassing the bar of intimacy and relationships set by TV, books, and movies?

Becuase I have faith that video games are capable of doing so...

I just got emailed that the Nightwish concert I was attending on May 5 got cancelled!!!

Arrgh, I just can't get a ****ing break!!!

Nightwish's latest album, Dark Passion Play, finally arrived today, and it's one of the most beautiful pieces of music I've ever heard. They've yet to disappoint. You can bet I'll be making some AMV's of their songs.

And just now I booked tickets for their 5/5 concert here in NJ! :D:D:D