Killzone 2, the Call of Duty series, and FPS's in general

I've never been a huge fan of FPS's. My general attitude towards FPS's is that all I really need is to find the best one and pop that in once in awhile for some cathartic murder of strangers.

Game of Thrones: Season 1, Episode 10

"How long do I have to look?"

"Fire and Blood"
So the axe dropped last episode, changing everything. The season finale deals with the aftermath, and sets the stage for what we'll see next year.

spoilers below the cut...

Animated Movies of my Adulthood

So this is more of a commentary than the semi-comprehensive list I did for the first part.

From time-to-time, someone from my generation laments that the current generation doesn't know the joy of Saturday morning cartoons. And I agree, their lives are so empty, trying to fill that void with four nickelodeons, two cartoon networks, a third disney channel launching in 2012, ABC Family, The Hub, streaming video, Redboxes on every corner, and a staggering number of animated movies.

Animated Movies of My Childhood, Part II

And we start the second half with the pinnacle of my childhood:

Animated Movies of my Childhood: Part I

The wealth of animated movies today inspired me to to a comparison to my own childhood. I decided to go back through my childhood and list the best movies of each year from 1974 (when I was born) forward. A picture of the 80's from one child's eyes. It ended up being a shorter list than I thought, because...



1970's: There's not shit here. I knew there weren't as many animated movies being made when I was a kid, but I didn't realize it was this bad. No wonder Charlotte's Web, which was released the year before I was born, is such a beloved classic. The other movies from the late 70's include the Hobbit/Lord of the Rings animated movies which I always thought were vastly overrated, and Hanna Barbara crap. I hated Hanna Barbara. I feel obliged to mention that Disney's The Rescuers which was released in 1977... but that one sorta slipped by me. I've still never seen it. This is depressing, let's move onto the 80's.

South Park, season 15 part one

So South Park is on its midseason break. Here's the thing about South Park: in my opinion, is that out of its fourteen annual eipsodes, you have three or four that are brilliant, probably about two or three that are crap, and the rest is just kind of "there"... average episodes. It keeps me watching because it tends to be topical, and I appreciate the insights of the creators.


sorta spoilerish...

Assassin's Creed/ Assassin's Creed 2

So two or three months ago, I was invited over to try out the multi-player for Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood. It was a weird bit of multiplayer in that the objective is to walk around in crowds of people and try to go unnoticed until you find your target player and stick a knife in his eye. And I said, "OMG, I want to jam knives in skullz every day!"

But wait... I have borderline obsessive-compulsive rules about this type of thing.... I have to play AC 1 and 2 before buying brotherhood, and it also gives time for the price to go down because I'm a cheap bastard...

Game of Thrones: Season 1, Episode 9

"If the day should ever come when your lord father had to choose between honor on one hand and family on the other, what would he do?"

"Baelor"
spoilers below the cut

Brutal Legend

Ever feel like you were born in the wrong time - like you should have been born earlier, when the music was... real?
Like the seventies?
No. Earlier... like the early seventies. 

Repost of a review i posted awhile back on another website...

Doctor Who - Season 6, part one.

"I'm being extremely clever up here, and there's noone to stand around looking impressed! What's the point in having you all?"

Woah... from the first episode, it's clear they're not messing around this season. And as I was doing my first review, I realized they were doing the split-season thing and were already finishing up the spring run, so I'm doing a combined review.

 Oh, River insists that I warn you that there are spoilers below the cut...

Fable 2

Having temporary access to an Xbox 360, I decided I should take advantage of it to play some of the more appealing exclusive franchises: Halo, Gears of War, Left 4 Dead, and Fable.

A Game of Thrones - Season 1, Episode 8

"Tell Lord Tywin winter is coming for him. Twenty thousand northerners marching south to find out if he really does sh*t gold."

"The Pointy End"
spoilers under the cut

Green Lantern: A History

I used to read a lot of comic books when I was a kid... and while Marvel books may have been cooler, I was more drawn to the characters of DC... my favorite being Green Lantern. As I hit my twenties, it was the period when DC running sensational stories.... Superman killed, Batman's back broken, and Green Lantern turned evil. There was plenty of other stuff going on in my life, so I more or less drifted away. A few years back, I had to squeeze my life into the back of a pickup to move a few states a way, so I had to jettison most of my comic books. Goodbye Batman, farewell Spidey, happy trails Groo.

But I made room for the Green Lanterns and Justice Leagues. These were my favorites. And so on the precipice of the new movie, which could make him a star or could make him a joke, I decided to write up a history in tribute to my favorite childhood heroes.

The A-Team (2010)

In 1972, a crack commando unit was sent to prison by a miliatry court for a crime they didn't commit. These men promptly escaped from a maximum security stockade to the Los Angeles underground. Today, still wanted by the government, they survive as soldiers of fortune. If you have a problem, if no one else can help, and if you can find them, maybe you can hire... The A-Team.

For those not aware of the pedigree, The A-Team was an TV action series that debuted in 1983. It revolved around a team of four special forces guys who each week would hire themselves out to some to some family trying to save their home or their farm or whatever from some corrupt guys trying to run them out.

A Game of Thrones - Season 1, Episode 7

"A king does not need a chair to sit upon. He only needs a horse."

Episode 7: "You Win or You Die"
I think it was last episode that I mentioned that there was something that bugged me about Littlefinger that I would come back to later, and now's the appropriate time. Spoilers below the cut...

Machete

"You just f**ked with the wrong Mexican."

In the early eighties there was just a three-score movie rating system: G, PG,and R. It was a pretty big divide between the latter two, and the result was that anything less than an R-rating for an action movie was the kiss of death.

Waterworld

"Nothing's free in Waterworld."

At the time it was released, Waterworld was the most expensive film ever made, and as of today, still ranks #7 when adjusted for inflation. It is considered one of Hollywood's biggest flops (although it actually did turn a profit worldwide), which is a shame, because it probably discouraged a lot of people from watching it, and it isn't half bad.

Daleks take a break....

"The children of time are moving against us, but everything is falling into place."

I just commented a couple of days ago that I thought they should give the Daleks a rest for awhile. And according to Slashdot, wishes do come true. Showrunner Steven Moffat has confirmed that the Daleks are taking a break. When a portion of the fanbase cried out, however, he clarified it was just for this season. I would have gone for two seasons myself, but this will do.

The DC Universe reboot

So the big news in the comic book world yesterday was the DC comics was 1) rebooting all its books at #1, and 2) going to make all of its comic books available for digital download the same day it becomes available in print.

I know this makes me a blasphemer among comic nerds, but I've thought for ages that characters should be rebooted every ten or twenty years. Let me explain why...

About two years ago in the world of Batman, Bruce Wayne was presumed dead, and the new Batman became Dick Grayson (the former Robin). His chief rival was Red Hood, aka Jason Todd... the SECOND former Robin, who was presumed dead and recently returned with huge grudge. So the original Robin, now Batman, selected Bruce Wayne's son, Damian, to become the new (fifth) Robin. Tim Drake (the third Robin) was miffed to no longer be part of the dynamic duo, so he redubbed himself Red Robin, and went off in search for Bruce Wayne whom he had a hunch was still alive. Did I leave a Robin out? Oh, yeah... Stephanie Brown.. briefly the fourth Robin before being killed in action... but she got better and is now operating as Batgirl.

Yes, Gotham City has a Robin infestation. Get my pellet gun.

I truly don't know what the state of Gotham City is now, but the reality is that the books I got my hands on were actually pretty good. The team of Dick Grayson and Damian Wayne was pretty interesting to me, because I liked the reverse dynamic of Robin being the darker one of the pair, being that Damian was raised to be an assassin, and Batman trying to lighten the kid up. 

The point that I've spent way too long getting to is that continuity just gets too convoluted as time goes on. I think it does more to hinder storytelling that help it. Complete reboot sits better with me than retcon, which has turned the history of many DC characters into an absurd mess. Dead characters can stay dead, at least until the next reboot. And less baggage in general if, say, I just saw the Green Lantern movie and want to pick up a book for the first time.

And a new digital era is a great way to do it. The biggest reason I don't more consistently follow comics is how expensive they've gotten.... they haven't announced pricing yet, but I'm hopeful that it will be something like a dollar a book. Or let me subscribe to the entire line for $20. And maybe books that don't do enough sales to stay in print can still continue digitally.

On the other hand... I'm tired of origin stories. The first month there will be 52 first issues. If it's 52 origin stories, this may kill my interest before it even begins.

There is one thing I hope they do...and that is, at least for the time being... let the current universe live. DC has 52 universes, after all. Why not just say that universe continues on, while shifting the focus to new universes?