RandomStringOfWords

Tron Legacy Poster

Note: Spoilers will be announced below.  The first couple of paragraphs are spoiler free.

Easily one of my favorite movies as a kid, Tron was a movie that not only defined a generation but also began the monumental shift in the movie industry towards using computers as a tool.    Without Tron leading the way showing what could be done, many of the movies today would have never been made.

I loved the first Tron for it’s fantastical notion that computers were alive and that programs were people too..  It was great if a little heavy handed, thin in the plot department and some pretty obvious technological issues..etc..  However, even with all the originals shortcomings, I was pretty sure back then even that we’d see a sequel to the movie in short order cause it was awesome..

Set the way forward machine to 28 fricken years and finally we have something to talk about!    I had all but forgotten about Tron to be honest until 2008 or so when I saw that first comic-con shakey cellphone cam footage of the new TR2N trailer at which point I had a tron-gasm..  Then I really thought about it and I was kinda pissed it took this long to come out with a sequel, but then once I realized what they were doing there was a pretty glaring obvious reason why it took that long..

So without spoiling anything yet, I will say that the new movie is probably an 8.5 out of 10.  The visual effects were excellent, the costumes were okay, the acting was good, the plot was still pretty thin though and that might be it’s downfall..  All in all I thought it was good and about as much as they could have done with the film.   It was an entertaining movie, and well worth the viewing.

Read more…

Perpetuum Online

A while back I was trolling the intertoobs for a new game when I stumbled across Perpetuum Online;  A Hungarian borne MMO based in the distant future on a far away planet where the avatars are Mech based as are the mobs with a large skill based PVE and PVP system..  Booya!  It sounded great!

So when it came out the other day, I was one of the first to sign up.  And I have to say I’m having a good time with it, but I’m getting ahead of myself..

Now I want to give a fair description of the game, and I want to do my best to review it for its own merits, but its going to be really hard for me not to point out the similarities with Eve Online.

That is to say, its really similar in a lot of ways.. You could sum up a lot of the game by saying;  Eve Online has space ships..  Perpetuum Online has mechs..  And you’d get a pretty fair idea of how Perpetuum works.

Read more…

Black-Ops

I really do enjoy the Call of Duty franchise..  It started out as a PC shooter back in 2003 and was pretty much heralded as the game to be or beat..  They continued with expansion after expansion and broadened their horizons to other machines.   At this point the franchise spans something like 15 to 20 titles on 5 or 6 different platforms earning more than $3 billion dollars world wide, and even includes it’s own line of action figures..    However their latest offering is down right bad and they should hang their head a little..

More over, for a game that started on the PC one would think they would give it more love than they do.. At this point the PC version of the latest game is completely unplayable by a large portion of the market, myself included and some how that seems okay to them.

Read more…

FU Again er 2...

I never played the first Force Unleashed game and I sorta regretted it as I knew several folks who said it was a pretty good game..  So I was really excited when they announced a Force Unleashed 2 for the PC.    I figured that I’d finally get to try what everyone was talking about..

Well I’ve tried it..  What a piece of shit..  This is quite honestly the first game that has pissed me off in a long time..  And I mean absolutely barking at the computer, pissed off..

Read more…

I don’t normally do book reviews but this book was so good I had to make an exception..   This book is easily some of the best candy I have had in a long time, with extremely rich and deep characters that often leave you guessing as to whom the good guy or bad guy actually is..  Set in a fictional medieval time this book is a fantasy, but the fantastic elements slowly creep in over the course of the series and as such almost seems more of a historical fiction with knights, kings and what not..   Either way, George R.R. Martin has done a masterful job of creating an extremely suspenseful story full of political intrigue, action and hard core drama.

Originally released back in 1997 I some how missed this story until now..  At this point, it includes 4 books and I’m part way through the second one.. So far it appears to be a fantastic continuation of the first book beginning exactly where the first book left off as if it were one long book.. Yay!   It’s good.. It’s damn good..  The authors voice and the depth of the characters make it so..

I highly recommend it.  Clickie to Barnes and Nobles

Read more…

Napoleon Total War

I have always been a fan of the Total War franchise, but in my opinion none of them have been all that great.  Good and fun in most cases, sure.. but great?  Eh not really..  All of them have had their share of issues of which Napoleon TW shares some of them.. NTW is by far the most refined version so far and a lot of fun but, I’m not quite sure it peeks the “great” meter just yet.. I will say its pretty darn good and a lot of fun though..

Totally worth the price as it’s clear to me that Creative Assembly (the developers) are getting better at their craft but the game has one staggering short fall that it shares with all it’s siblings;  Horrible AI.

Read more…