2011 September

The Thing Russian Trailer

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Posted under Uncategorized

This post was written by Bedlam on September 29, 2011

Trailer: Soul Man

Looks cool.

SOUL MAN™ Teaser 2 Guillaume Ivernel (Blacklight Movies) from Blacklight Movies on Vimeo.

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Posted under Animation, Movies, Trailers

This post was written by Jarrell on September 28, 2011

Last night, Fox premiered yet another science fiction show, Terra Nova. The show has a lot going for it; the main thing is that it’s produced by Stephen Spielberg. (side note: Brannon Braga is also a producer and show runner, and I won’t count this against it) The show starts out in 2149. Earth is dying due to pollution and overpopulation. Fortunately, scientist discover a rift in time leading to an alternate Earth timeline 85 million years in the past. So, we decided to save humanity by sending qualifying humans through the rift to resettle in Terra Nova.

I can tell the producers put emphasis on the production value of the show. There aren’t any standout stars so you know salaries are low. Stephen Lang might be the biggest star, but he is basically reprising his fantastic character from Avatar, with a few tweaks. I’m not going to compare the show to Avatar, because that’s not what this show is. The set is gorgeous and the effects are nice. What bothers me most is that they decided not to use well known dinosaurs. Apparently, they thought it’d be more interesting to create dinosaurs “that might have existed” as opposed to ones that we know, especially due to Mr. Spielberg’s Jurassic Park movies. I know I wasn’t the only one thinking, “I’ve never heard of that dinosaur.” It took a little will power to not get on the internet to look up these “new” dinosaurs.

For a premiere show, I thought the story was well done. Luckily, they did explain that it was a separate reality from the future they left, which easily dismissed the complaints that people like me who overly criticize time travel in movies and T.V. shows in a couple of lines. A couple of the reveals in the show, which I’m not going to spoil here, were obvious and I wish that they weren’t. My hope is that this show doesn’t turn into Lost where more questions are raised than answered, or The Event where questions are asked and answered every episode, but the story never gets developed beyond the first episode.

All in all, the show was good and worth tuning in next week. We’ll see if it has longevity.

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Posted under Reviews, Television

This post was written by Bedlam on September 27, 2011

Tags: 3 Fists, Reveiws, Television

Quick Review: Deus Ex Human Revolution

Every since I got the Xbox 360 up and running, I’ve been playing the heck out of video games. Mainly, I’ve been playing Mass Effect 2. Deus Ex: Human Revolution is the only game I’ve played that I felt like I needed to write a review. I’m not fan of pure RPGs but Human Revolution isn’t a pure RPG in my opinion.

You play Adam Jensen head of security for Serif Industries. Serif is a company that provides augmentations to individuals. There’s an explosion and your girlfriend and her research team are killed and you’re left for dead. You awaken and because of the extensive damage you suffered Serif has decided to give you augmentations to fix the physical damage. After you get back to work, your goal in the game is to find out who was behind the attack and who killed your girlfriend.

As a player you can decide what type of character Jensen will be. It isn’t as simple as choosing a class in most RPGs, but there are basically 3 types of play. You can be a Hacker, Stealth player, or you can blast your way through the game like an FPS. The best thing about this is that it lends itself to tons of replay value, which is always good for games. You don’t have to commit to anyone of these since I found myself doing a combination of Hacker and Stealth. It’s important to at least think about it because you upgrade you augmentations using Praxis points. I’ll just say that you should get the Icarus landing upgrade quickly because any fall from any height will apparently kill you.

I like the openess of the game. The augmentation system is realatively easy to understand and not that complicated, especially if you decide early how you want to play the game. The game rewards you for exploration. You can avoid conflicts and get through an entire area without ever having to put someone down. The graphics were good, and the voiceacting was passable…..except Letitia the Trash Lady. Just watch for yourself.

The only major problem deals with the boss fights. The game gives you a lot of opportunities to avoid conflict either by stealth or talking someone down. But then the developers put you in a locked room with a boss that you can’t reason with or conversate with. I thought that this would have been a perfect opportunity to show off the games’ Social Enhancement augemtation. It would have bneen cool to be able to at least have the chance to talk your way out of the fight. Players who chose to go either the stealth path or hacker path of augmentations will find all the boss fights difficult since you will be outgunned. One thing I did, which I don’t know if the developers thought of this, is that I would take hacked turretts with me whenever I could and put them in a room with enemies and let the turrent take them out. I even took a turret into the next to last boss fight and being outgunned was no longer a problem. That’s another great thing about the game; it rewards you for thinging outside of the box.

Except for the boss fights, Deus Ex Human Revolution is a great game with stunning visuals. The gameplay is nice and the artwork is good. If you have the chance to play this game you should. I would even recommend it as a purchase.