Yup, I'm still alive. Just thought everyone might want to know that.
And yeah, I'm still playing Pokemon. If anybody's keeping score, I just caught Dialga. It was mega-awesome.
Well, that was it. I'll emerge again when Pokemon releases its death-grip on my free time.
So guess what I got today . . ?
What am I to do, too much Pokemoning to be had!
I do not go to the theatre very often. Very rarely will a movie trailer compel me to watch it on the big screen. When I first saw the TV spot for Grindhouse, I knew I had to go watch it. End of story.
Or so I thought. I did a little research on the actual grindhouses of yore prior to watching the movie. I found their history to be rich and heartwarming, stories of young enterprising men looking to make a name for themselves by displaying snuff films to shocked moviegoers, exploiting everything from ethnicity to the fairer sex in the name of a quick and less-than-honest buck. The 70's were a wonderful time and no one was the wiser when it came to cheap entertainment. Women captured and tortured in foreign countries, women behind bars, women attacked by monstous beasts with an unhealthy fixation on large breasts, women in . . . well I guess any movie with sexy girls in distressing situations and varying degrees of nakedness could qualify. Oh and the gore. Blood gushing from every place imaginable, limbs severed, new orifices created. Luckily everyone was too high at the time to ponder the situation and perhaps entertain the notion that what they were watching was crap. At least it was good crap.
Fast forward to 2007, and we find our old buddies Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino looking to deliver us from these horrific days of political correctness and give us the gift of Grindhouse. Okay, so maybe they were never our buddies, but they are each other's buddy (I think, perhaps they hate each other just as they seem to harbor ill-will towards every other human being on the planet). Using their [sleazy] childhood memories of those films as muses to draw inspiration from, they have single-[or double-] handedly created two films that seek to unsettle and question the most poignant moral question ever presented to date: Is murder cool as long as there are boobies? Yes, in fact, it is.
Rodriguez gets us started with the first half of the Grindhouse double-feature, Planet Terror. If you ever thought that mercenaries funding a castrating-happy terrorist from the middle east to create a mutagenic gas that infects a small Texas town and causes everyone to go batsh*t crazy doesn't sound like fun, then think again. I won't delve into any more specifics, but the movie is uproarious in every sense, from the premise to the characters to the fact that cars seem to blow up for no apparent reason whatsoever. Plus it stars a chick with a gun for a leg. How awesome is that?
Then we move over to Death Proof, and by then for better or worse we have obviously moved into Tarantinoville. Expect long expository scenes which seem to do nothing for the plot except delay the conclusion and prove to the audience that the characters have way too much time on their hands. But all joking aside, Tarantino knows how to draw in the audience and jerk them around in a moments notice, as he does with the ever-so-creepy Stuntman Mike and his death-proof automobile which he uses too wreak havok on nublie hotties around town. This movie has what I consider to be one of the best payoffs for a film ending ever, so much so that even as to movie comes to a screeching halt (literally) you wont mind that it finishes so abruptly. Just like that Tarantino makes another film that we'll be quoting for the next 10 years.
Grindhouse avoids classification; it manages to be comedy, horror, action, parody, and tribute all at once. Most importantly it's an homage to the campy entertainment culture of days past, a fun little experiment and perhaps nothing more. The movie won't win any awards (after all it is a snuff film), but it oozes style out the ying-yang and promptly kicks it's audience in the nads. It even sports fake trailers between features for coming attractions to said grindhouse, including one the has probably scarred me for life ("Thanksgiving"). These trailes are excellent mock-ups and unimaginably funny, so much so that you could see yourself paying money to watch them.
If anything, Grindhouse must be experienced on the big screen; to watch it in any other medium would be an insult to the directors' creative vision. It's not for everybody, but if you lack class and sofistication odds are you'll like it. So leave the girlfriend at home, grab a bunch of the guys, and go spend 3 hours yelling obcenities at the movie screen . . . it might be the most fun you've had at the theatre in a while.
I just recently read an article from the boys over at IGN. They have a new column that will go up every Thursday called "Take Five", where they proceed to have a no-holds barred interview with a developer of note, so long as the interview spans no longer than five questions. Seeing as how the interviews are conducted by Casamassina's camp on the Wii channel, most of the questions center around development for Nintendo's new console.
It just so happens that this week we have the
privilege of reading an interview with Julian Eggebrecht of Factor 5 notoriety, who served as the director and lead designer for the Star Wars: Rogue Squadron series. This is of particular interest to myself because I consider Rogue Squadron II to be one of the most solid games in the Gamecube repertoire, as well as one the prime examples of what the console was capable of in terms of technical prowess. It should also be noted that this game was a launch title for the Gamecube, with few games ever achieving the same level of polish, even late in that generation's life cycle. In short: when Eggebrecht speaks, I listen.
IGN's inquiry is fairly standard fare, including questions about the challenges of developing games for the current generation of consoles and Eggebrecht's level of interest in devloping for the Wii (good news: high!), as well as other things. But the final question is what really got my attention, when he was asked if devolpers were being sloppy in concern to the Wii's first cycle of titles. He flatly respoded that yes, Wii developers have so far dissapointed him in the graphical arena. He goes on to explain some simple forms of graphical trickery that could easily be implimented in most of the games to improve thier appearance, with minimal effort and expense to developers.
He's right. Look, I buy into Nintendo's "graphics don't matter" argument as much as the next guy, perhaps even more so. What I find inexcusable is the apparent lack of attention to detail that some of these games are showing. I mean, c'mon! Just because Nintendo said we have reached the saturation point does not give everyone a GET OUT OF JAIL FREE card when it comes to being sloppy. The Gamecube gave us visual masterpieces in the form of two Rogue Squadron games, two Metroid games, and three Resident Evil games - including a little gem called Resident Evil 4. I have yet to see anything that comes close to these on the Wii, which is surprising since it is essentially the Gamecube architecture on steroids.
Don't get me wrong, gameplay is primo. Some cool stuff has been done with the Wiimote so far and I'm sure it'll just get better along the way. We must also understand though, that sometimes visuals go the extra step in furthering your immersion into a game, thereby improving gameplay. We can do better than this. I can't wait for Factor 5's next Wii game, and hopefully Mr. Eggebrecht will finally be able to show us what our little consoles are capable of.
So please tell me I'm not alone on this, but why is it that I cannot walk into a [insert electronics retailer here] and fail to exit with a purchased Wiimote and/or Nunchuk?
:D Welcome to Bob's Game Bin, how can I help you today?
:| Hey, got any Wii remotes?
:D No, but we got plenty of classic controllers. Would you like one?
:| . . .
:D Well?
:evil: *strangles Bob's Game Bin employee*
Of course I know it's not his fault, but he deserved it. After they proceed to remove me from the premises I will continue to search for said apparatus, but the very notion that I have to look is ludicrous at this point. It has been roughly 3 months since Wii launched, or for perspective's sake a quarter of a year, and I cannot yet find that which Nintendo touts so highly. The Wiimote is the crux of the "Wii Idea", wouldn't it make sense that Nintendo would already have done everything possible to put one of these things in the hands of every gamer within one of their largest markets? Console shortages I can sort of understand at this point, but the controller? What if sombody's only controller breaks? What about people showing the nihilistic fun Wii can provide by having people engage in multiplayer games to their hearts content? Party in a box indeed.
The other day I was watching television with my father when he turned to me and asked if I remembered the when we met the person who happened to be on the screen at the time. I looked at him in surprise and responded that, in fact, I had no recollection of the event (which took place two years ago). Did I speak with him or shake his hand at least? My father ascertained that yes I had, on both counts. Then he merely smiled and returned to watching the program. I, on the other hand, was devastated.
This is not the first time this has happened to me. More often than not I see people around me enjoying shared memories of the past that for some reason I cannot seem to gather. Dates of important events, stories I was told in great detail, names and faces of childhood friends . . . all completely gone. My brothers constantly call me on this, generally becoming annoyed with my brain's laziness. Even when I believe I remember something quite vividly, it turns out that the memory is flawed and I am usually corrected on the matter. Somehow my mind prefers to confabulate my remembrances, "Memento"-style. I can't even be sure I could accurately outline the plot of that movie despite how I was impressed with its depth and ideas (although I will admit that's a difficult movie to follow, anyway).
I refuse to believe I have any sort of attention deficit, seeing as how I can be a pretty focused individual if something really interests me. That's not to say I haven't ruled it out though. I tend to jump from project to project, constantly juggling many ideas at once. Or I also have the aggravating habit of placing an object down and not being capable of locating it a minute later, backtracking until my eyes happen upon it by chance. It may have something to do with the invasive thoughts that constantly bounce around in my head. But if I can hold on to those ideas for so long, then I must have a memory sticking problem, right?
It fills me with a pain you cannot believe, constantly being denied memories by the fog that permeates my mind. I must find some sort of solution; a way to restructure my thought process so as to defeat this problem. Sometimes I relish the musing that I might be able break down that barrier and murky fog will be lifted, giving me a mental clarity that I have yet to experience. Most people lament the fact that when their hard drive crashes, they have lost a wealth of data that they have spent hours upon days collecting. What of that information one doesn't even know he could retrieve in the first place? What of those years spent on forming "self", if those are lost then who are you? Are we merely a manifestation of our experiences past? By that logic I am but half a being.
At this moment I am incapable of remembering who that person was on the television, and my father just told me less than a week ago. Damn it, not again.
As the Wii launch draws ever closer, I have started to seriously consider what games to pick up on launch day. Sure, I know I'll have Wii Sports (pack-in!), and Zelda is a given, but what about the third party titles? There's a healthy dose of Ubisoft in the lineup, and even Madden 07 is an option despite the fact that I don't really play sports games. But one has managed to catch my eye beyond the others: Marvel: Ultimate Alliance.
"Oscar . . . A PORT?!? This is what has you excited?"
Yessiree, that's the one. Even though I have yet to finish it, X-Men Legends is arguably my favorite button masher for the GameCube. My brothers and I have spent countless hours pulverizing baddies with our rag-tag group of mutants, and I know this game is played best when all four controller slots are filled. So although my wallet will be hurtin' after I buy three extra wiimotes and nunchucks, it will most defintely be worth it. After all I get to use Spiderman, so now I can beat villians to a pulp and have touching off-color remarks all at once.
Yeah, Trauma Center: Second Opinion was a close second, but I went in favor of Marvel after I considered the extra money I would have to pay for another controller after I hurl it at Trauma Center in sheer anger. Of course, my original third party pick isn't a launch title, so I will wait patiently until the day that glorious game is released.
After months of searching for it, Beyond Good and Evil for the Gamecube is finally in my possession. Wait, you say you've seen used PS2 and Xbox copies on store shelves for a while, so you fail to see my plight? Look at my collection and you'll see why.
Oh, you noticed that I buy PC games too. Why not for the PC then? Well, call me difficult but I prefer my action-adventure on game platforms (a lot of people have been telling me that the button mapping for this one on the 'cube was excellent), plus its rarity drew me to it.
Ok . . . so I know I'm rambling, but this is seriously awesome. Haven't tried it out yet but I will later tonight when I have more than 15 minutes.
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