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Red Faction: Armageddon

I played Red Faction back in 2001 when it first came out and enjoyed the heck out of it.   It was the very first game to come out with the Geo-Mod game engine which allowed for massive destruction of the game models and levels.   The game itself was otherwise unremarkable, but the fact that you could destroy everything made it awesome.

I find it funny that one little thing like that can make or break a game entirely, and the massively destructable nature of the Red Faction games entirely “makes” these titles.

Red Faction II was one of those games that came out only a year or so later but it managed to skip my notice and the series sorta fell off my radar.

The other day I picked up the latest in the franchise; Red Faction: Armageddon.   And I’m glad to say that it’s up to the original games standards in all ways .. to include the shortcomings..

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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.

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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..

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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

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Splintercell Conviction

I really like a good first person shooter..  But most FPS games these days aren’t about thinking or planning your way out, they are just run and gun, “zerg-fests” where you run in shoot a few.. die, respawn, run in shoot a few, die, respawn.. wash, rinse, repeat..  Boring..

The new Splintercell game isn’t this..  I would call it more of a first person sneaker.  In that it’s entirely conceivable to play through large swaths of the game without firing a shot, and that’s just cool..

As with any game it has it’s ups and downs, but over all its up and I think UBISoft has set themselves up with a game that they can kick out a lot of downloadable content for, if they leverage this correctly..

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Star Trek Online Review

Firstly I want to say that I personally think it’s extremely hard to judge a game entirely by the first 15 levels.. Any MMO to date that one cares to name changes drastically as you play across the level range and to judge that game by the first couple levels is simply foolish. You haven’t experienced the whole of the game.. So I’m going to post my review about it, but I want you to keep in mind that there are going to be a lot of things I simply haven’t done yet..

Also, there are a lot of people on the forums bashing the game for one reason or another, some reasons are valid, some aren’t. I would argue that most of those people really haven’t truly experienced the game in its fullest, but at the same time I will concede the point that if it doesn’t appeal to them early on, it may not later either and that they should just move on without the flames.

What you’re not seeing on the forums is the influx of praise or posts by people who are largely happy, not because they don’t exist but rather because the complainers are typically a lot more vocal minority.. People that complain loudly are typically those people who think they are righteous and have entitlement issues..  They are “right and by god you’re gonna know my opinion..”

So with that — here’s my righteous opinion on the the first 15 levels of fed play and the first 12 or so of Klingon.. I only really have 2 major complaints.

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