Category Archives: Phokal

I just saw: Zombieland

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Zombieland Kingpin Poster

Zombieland is a good zombie comedy with a bit more gore than Shaun of the Dead. Woody Harrelson makes a great fearless zombie killing machine. It is just plain fun and believable to watch him slaughter the undead and deliver one-liners. Several running gags, a surprise cameo, and “the little things” can bring a smile to your face even with certain death and violence around the corner.

The movie’s logic is not altogether sound, but if you can forgive this in any other Zombie film you can forgive it here. A small group of humans band together to survive the apocalypse, narrated by one of the cast: a shut-in scared of germs, heights, etc. His paranoia teamed with Woody Harrelson’s temper and violence makes them the perfect odd couple to tackle the dangerous landscape. Throw in a couple more to the cast including the girl from Little Miss Sunshine and you have a fun band of humans to observe.

I’d recommended Zombieland to zombie and horror fans who can stand the gore of the Dawn of the Dead remakes, but for them to go in expecting a more light-hearted and comedic take on the downfall of mankind.

Flag collectiong. FFFFFFFUUUUU-

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I liked Assassin’s Creed.  I posted my impressions upon beating it.  I do note, however, I left out a very large point in that article.  I hated the flag collecting.

There are 100 flags in each city.  Completely optional to gameplay, completely required to get some Gamerscore.  I had the guide.  I used the checklist.  I waited until near the end of the game to go around and collect them all so I’d be familiar with controls and have all the powers necessary to get them.

And I failed.

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I finally read: Astonishing X-men

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astonishing x-men 2 cover

Joss Whedon’s Astonishing X-men is, overall, a good comic.  Yup, that guy (Buffy and Firefly).

The strength of the comic is easily the characterization and realization of each of the X-men as a personality and a person.  From Beast’s struggle with the inner-creature, to Cyclops actually being charismatic and cool enough for anyone to follow, to Wolverine’s love of beer: each X-men is interesting on their own and in any interactions they have with each other.

Sadly, the same cannot be said for the overall plot and villains.  Both are pretty weak.  There are a few main story arcs throughout and none of them are noteworthy.

That doesn’t matter as much.  The bulk of the book is about the charming cast’s journey and their dialog with each other; the plot and villains are just something the characters can talk about.

The point that sold me on the series: a friend told me that it made Cyclops cool.

I called bullshit.  There is no way anyone could do that.

Joss Whedon can.

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Free Halo ODST Premium Theme

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Look what ckonze found over at Cheapassgamer: a Halo ODST premium theme for the xbox 360.  Currently marked as Free for gold members.  I’d recommend logging in and adding it to your download queue in case a price is added later.

http://marketplace.xbox.com/en-US/games/media/66acd000-77fe-1000-9115-d8024d530877/

Though, in reality, most if not all of these Premium Themes should be free.  And the bottom part of the interface should be optionally transparent to allow for more custom themes and wallpapers.

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I finally beat: Prince of Persia

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prince_of_persia__prodigy_artwork_p

Prince of Persia has been available since last Holiday season, and I only just got around to finally finishing it.  The PoP series was my favorite series of last generation; so why didn’t I beat this one in 1 week instead of 1 year?

Every couple of weeks I’d play for 30 minutes and complete a single section; then turn it off.  Very casual play.  Every time a boss is defeated, the game then tasks the player with collecting dozens of little light orbs to unlock the next hostile area and boss fight.  Since this is about as boring as it sounds, I’d save and quit.  Next time I’d boot up, I’d be forced to collect a bunch of light seeds.  I’d collect a few in an area and eventually quit.  After a few sessions I would finally have enough to continue on and fight the next boss.  Once done, the process would repeat itself.

It’s not that the collection itself was poorly done; despite the occasional glitch throwing you to your death, the platforming was solid.

It was simply repetative enough that it was not fun.  Many people had this complaint for Assassin’s Creed.  But while Assassin’s Creeds repetativeness could be negated by hopping around and assassinating guards and playing around in a sandbox environment, in Prince of Persia you are left to leap around and collect more Light Seeds.

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Shank to bring back action and chainsaws

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From Klei Entertainment (guys who made Eets), they just revealed Shank at PAX09.  Here’s the first trailer.  This game looks very fun.  Will probably be available for PC, and maybe XBLA and PSN (cross your fingers).

Hello. Are you calling because you want internet? If so, please say "Yes". I'm sorry, I didn't understand. You can also say "Bend me over and give me internet."

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NoInternetModem

Until yesterday, I had no internet since I moved into my new apartment more than a month ago.  Here’s how it began:

At first I tried to simply move my TDS DSL from my last apartment to my current one.  I had been out of my 2 year contract a few months.  My friends had complained about slow speed, but I always figured they were just a bit demanding.  I was stuck paying $80/mo, but I was out of contract.  TDS requires 2 year contracts.  I called to see what promos they had and what they’d offer me.

Apparently, they had restructured their plans a year or two ago, didn’t offer my plan anymore, and downgraded my service without telling me to 1Mb/s.  While still charging me the original $80/mo.

I was a tad upset about this, but I didn’t want to go with Charter as I’ve had problems with them in the past.  So I was left with no alternatives, and offered them to make me a deal.  They did: $45 for a 5meg plan (-$10 discount + waived install fees,…which didn’t matter since I had the modem already).  We set up to cancel and move my service the day I moved.  I had to be at my apartment from 1-5pm that weekday to greet the installer.

Two weeks later on the appointed day, after I had asked off of work, I call back to inform them my new apartment’s doorbell doesn’t work so they would have to call me Cell phone (not my TDS phone, which I had no phone connected to, only the dsl modem).

They told me they had canceled that appointment: hadn’t I been called?  Also, they had continued to charge me $80/mo and service to my old place, since my new move order had never gone through.  It would also take a few weeks to schedule another install, and they would not offer any further discount since they were at their max ($10 off a month).  It was also revealed the discount was only for the first year out of the two I would be contractually bound (when originally I was told it was a total discount).

I canceled my TDS account at this point.

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Trine still coming to PSN and 360

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A while ago, I mentioned how good Trine looks.  The PC version came out at $30 and only supports hotseat coop.  So I waited for the PS3 or Xbox versions to be available only to find them delayed.  Then, no mention of the 360 version at all.

http://www.1up.com/do/newsStory?cId=3175872

It’s still coming, perhaps a bit later than the PSN version (which is currently in Q&A).  I played the PC demo single player and was impressed.  Coop is probably even more enjoyable.

Epic Rating for Brutal Legend

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This is the official ESRB rating for Brutal Legend. With hope, it will appear on the back of the box, right next to the ‘M’.

Brütal Legend

Platform: Xbox 360, PlayStation 3

Rating: Mature

Content descriptors: Blood and Gore, Intense Violence, Partial Nudity, Strong Language, Suggestive Themes

Rating summary: This is an action adventure/role-playing game that tells the story of Eddie Riggs, a roadie who is transported to a mythical world of heavy metal rock. Eddie is armed with a guitar and a double-headed axe, which players can use to slash and dismember enemies. Players can also perform “face-melting solos” (literally melting enemies’ faces), meet humanoid creatures dressed like dominatrixes and brandishing whips, and liberate an army of rockers from a life of oppression. Although the storyline is often irreverent and whimsical, the depictions of violence are somewhat intense: Undead humanoids are dismembered with an axe (sometimes in slow-motion); a “Steel-Quilled Blade” causes human enemies to explode into gibs that rain down; machine guns, missile launchers, and sub woofers can be used to kill druids and other fantastical creatures. Eddie can also run over dozens of enemies with his hot rod, resulting in blood effects and more heads and limbs getting chopped off. During the course of the game, characters sometimes engage in suggestive dialogue intended for comedic effect (e.g., “Maybe with all your feedback, you guys could just blow me over the gorge” and “Playtime’s over. Now let’s get back to the orgy”). Players will also encounter “Skull Rakers” clad in bondage gear and amazon-like warriors dressed in leather outfits that partially reveal buttocks and breasts. Strong profanity (e.g., “f*ck,” “sh*t,” and “d*ck”) can be heard in the dialogue.

I’ve got this pre-ordered.  It’s going to rock.

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Hey. This guy hates drm, too.

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I agree with most of this article.

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/columns/experienced-points/6452-Experienced-Points-Online-Activation-Is-a-Ripoff

  • Steam is pretty awesome, but eventually any server will have to shut down.
  • I can’t imagine any modern publisher supporting any of the retro games I still wish to play.
  • Pirates don’t have to deal with any of this.

Solution-wise: there will always be pirate cracks out there to try and enjoy these games long after their activation servers have gone down.  There may even be distros like GoG.com or Steam’s recent revival of indie and old games.  But the point is: I shouldn’t have to crack or rebuy the game in order to play it.  As the author puts it: All of my old cd based games like Baldur’s Gate that don’t require an online activation will always work.  Throw together a VM or old computer, and you are good to go.  Fans make patches to get games installed and running on modern systems.

What we buy today may not.