Mon 25 Aug 2008
I got a free ticket to see Star Wars: The Clone Wars from work on the premiere night. Everyone pretty much knew beforehand that the movie sucked but I figured if I went in with low expectations, I would enjoy it anyway. Sadly I was mistaken.
It’s a shame since I really loved the cartoons and was looking forward to the made for TV 3D equivalent. Still, it wasn’t all bad, the character models were really nice, especially Count Dooku, and I suppose it was … err… colorful?
With Iron Man holding the banner for Marvel and Dark Knight (or Joker, really) leading the way for DC, the question has to be asked, who makes the best comic-related movies?
A couple of weeks ago, I took my two youngest brothers and my youngest sister to see Wall-E. I’m a huge Pixar and so I expected the best! Dreamworks might make funny 3D animations but, in my humble opinion, they’re not generally instant classics like Pixar’s work. We were at a premiere in a packed and age-diverse theater filled with excited people. The lights went out, the movies started, and about 90 minutes later the credits rolled. During those 90 minutes I was treated to a wonderful story and an epic feat!
With the announcements that the PS3 versions of
When Kotaku first revealed that Capcom wanted to
When I heard the news that the new Iron Man movie was actually pretty good, I have to say that I took it with a grain of salt. To be honest, I don’t think much of the recent Marvel movies. Sure, they’re pretty much all better than Superman Returns, but none so far have been as good as Batman Begins (with the possible exception of the second X-Men movie). Coming from me, it might sound strange since I’m a huge comic book fan and movie enthusiast, but I started to believe that non-Batman comics and movies should not cross paths again. At least not when Hollywood is involved.
Since MP3’s, WinAmp, Napster, iPods and the like, the Music industry has been in trouble. Fewer people are buying Music CDs and more are downloading songs and albums. The Recording Industry sees declining revenues year in and year out. They’re also not the only ones complaining. Both the PC and Console game markets are seeing declines in sales due to pirating. The movie industry is trying to crack down on the number of illegal movie downloads to no avail.
I can’t say that I went into this movie with very high expectations. Quite the contrary, I’m actually very wary of movies with a lot of hype and mystery surrounding them. Still, I did watch Cloverfield with an open mind. Maybe that’s why I wasn’t as disappointed as most. Yup, in general, most people I spoke to were disappointed.
To make the claim that any game is “the Future of Gaming” is a bold move, I admit, but if you’ve played Valve’s Portal than I’m sure you’ll agree that the industry will (or at least should) head in this direction. Sure, Portal hasn’t made any hardware innovations such as rumble support, online play, or motion/touch controls did. Sure, it’s not even a new genre as much as a new spin on several pre-existing genres. It’s true that every element, except for the actual portal game mechanic, has existed in games before. But that, my friends, is not why Portal is the Future of Gaming. It is so because it does offer something which we haven’t seen in the video-game industry in a long time … hope.