Last of the LOST

Just a fair warning before I go into this post: If you live in a small grass hut out in the woods of Montana with no phone or electricity and have yet to see the final episode of LOST, you'll not want to read this post because it is just busting at the seems with spoilers just waiting to crawl up your open cavities and lay eggs.

Also, if you've never watched even one episode, this post will make no sense to you whatsoever.

So away we go...

It's almost been a week since the final episode of the penultimate mystery-fest that was the TV series LOST aired it's final episode. Within its 6 season run it's changed its focal point a few times. It started out with a number of survivors of a plane crash stuck on a tropical island that had a few oddities about it. (Polar bears? A smoke monster?), then it switched gears into a war between the survivors and the mysterious "Others", then it was about time travel and finally it was revealed to be about one man's entrance into the afterlife.

That is a lot to shove into the minds of the million plus viewers, such as myself, who invested a heck of a lot of time into the series. But, the series succeeded in the same way crack-cocaine can hook you. It gives you a little taste of greatness then after a while it throws you for a complete loop, but you're hooked and don't want to stop.

LOST started with great character development, excellent story telling and just enough sense of mystery that it snagged a huge viewership and following.

The characters were all intriguing. Jack, the surgeon who's just trying to get home. Kate, the beauty with a mysterious past. Lock, the oddball with a strange spiritual sense about him. Hurley, the lovable guy with some pretty bad luck. Sayid, the mysterious assassin. Sawyer, the wise cracking con man. We learned about them through their interactions on the island as well as flash backs to their pre crash lives. The ensemble cast was phenomenal!

The plot itself started as a survival story, then moved on to be a fantastical mystery, then moved on to be...well.....pretty out there. The 5th season brought tales of time travel between the here and now and the '70's. Then things became even more frustratingly weirder! To say the final season of LOST was heavily driven by existentialism as well as other philosophical ideas and nods to spirituality as well as religion would be an understatement.

Many of us fans were ready to give up. It was starting to become apparent that there was not going to be any kind of brilliant M. Night Shyamaian type twist that would explain everything at the end. Too many questions were being thrown at us with very few answers being given out. Drat!

In the end, was it worth it? Well, I was glad that I stuck through to the end, but many questions still are quite unanswered. I wouldn't call it a lackluster ending to the series (like the last episode of "24" was), but the head scratching continues for me, even though the show and story are now "complete".

After having time to mull it over and discuss it with other fans here's my conclusion to how it all ended.....

Most of the series took place in our own reality. The plane crash on through to the rescue on through to the return to the island on up until the flash-sideways which is the pre-afterlife.

The pre-afterlife (purgatory?) was portrayed as modern day times with most of the main characters taking on persona's and side stories as if they'd never been in the plane crash and had never met each other before. This seemed to be a second chance world where people can redeem themselves before moving onto the last destination. With only slight hints that something may have come before, the island was never experienced by any of them in this realm.

This pre-afterlife takes place far in the future, well after the time spent on the island. Whether the characters died on the island or at some point after the events on the island, in this particular time and place all of them have died at some point. (by old age, natural causes or fates never revealed in the series) Their souls have all come here.

In the end we learn that though the TV show had an ensemble cast, the main story revolved around Jack and it is about his moving from the pre-afterlife on to his spirit's final destination.

WTF?

Though the series ended on an intellectual note (a far cry from the seemingly Sci-Fi mystery we were all introduced to at the beginning) I do have to acknowledge the thing about the show I liked the most. During their time on the island there would be flashbacks to their lives on the mainland. Each episode the flashbacks would revolve around one of the characters. Some of these story lines where written so well and with such heart there were times that I would have a lump in my throat. They helped me understand and care for the characters.

I'm still not convinced the "pay off" was fully worth the build up.

The writers of the show have said that they're going to wait for 2 years, at which point they'll have a reunion show which will reveal all the answers we fans are looking for. It has also been said that they came up with the ending of the show first and wrote the story backwards. Which poses the question, how many Amazonian toads did they lick to come up with this story?

In any case, my head now hurts and I've tapped out my amount of intellectualism for the week, if not the year.

So I'll let you dear readers try and figure it all out on your own.

Before I leave you I want to remind you that at some point this weekend we all need to remember what our past and present men and women in uniform have done for this country to allow us to blog, play video games, watch TV shows that blow our minds and just plain enjoy what freedoms we do have. Happy Memorial Day folks!

Zangz.

A moment of silence for the Man on the Silver Mountain.....

Gone but not forgotten! One of the greatest voices in all of Heavy Metal, let alone Rock 'N' Roll passed away of cancer yesterday morning. Ronnie James Dio was a class act and will be missed by many.

Ronnie James Dio
1942 - 2010


\m/ "We're all a rainbow in the dark" \m/

Short and sweet, just like RJD himself.

Zangz.

Reviews.......

Here's something I haven't done in a while. Howz-a-bout a bunch of geek-minded reviews?

First let's hit some movies and why not start with the big gun of the summer block busters...

Iron Man 2 - I loved the first one, even though it majorly focused on Robert Downey Jr's portrayal of Iron Man's alter ego, Tony Stark while Iron Man himself took a bit of a back seat. There was still enough action in it to give us fan boys something to be in a bit of awe with. Iron Man 2 pretty much continues this formula with mixed results.

You'd think the script writers had solidified the Tony Stark story enough in the first film so that we could see more of Iron Man kicking ass in the second adventure. Not so. This movie is also all about Tony Stark, thus Iron Man is seen only a few times in the film. But, Iron Man's presence is a bit more balls out action oriented than he was in the first film. Also Robert Downey Jr's portrayal of Tony Stark is just as good, if not better than it was in the first film. This makes the lack of Iron Man in this film a bit more tolerable. As flawed as Tony Stark is in this film, Downey Jr has a way to still make him very likable!

Though, a lot of the story and action is a little over the top, even for comic book superhero movies there are some great things this movie has going for it.....

- The action sequence where Iron Man teams up with Don Cheadle's War Machine to bring on the pain to a small army of fully armored robots.

- Robert Downey Jr's fun but slightly dark portrayal of Tony Stark.

- Sam Rockwell's portrayal of evil corporate yuppie genius, Justin Hammer.

- Samuel L. Jackson returns as Nick Fury with a bigger role and more is revealed on The Avengers (wait until the end of the credits, true believers!)

-Scarlett Johansson in a tight black suit!

The only disappointment I had with this movie was that the final battle with the main baddie, Micky Rourke's Vanko, was a completely anticlimactic compared the the aforementioned robot battle which takes place right before Vanko's final fight.

Some may feel that this wasn't quite as strong as the first film. I, however, enjoyed this one just as much and feel it's a solid geek-a-fied fun frackin' time! SEE TRAILER HERE!


Sherlock Homes - SEE TRAILER HERE! Since we're on a Robert Downey Jr. kick. I found this retelling of the Victorian England detective series absolutely fun as hell. It's as pulpy as hand made orange juice and that's the way I like my Sherlock Holmes. Instead of a snooty, stogy long nosed, goofy hat wearing traditional Sherlock, Downey Jr gives us a more ruff and tumble while slightly heavily medicated Holmes who has a few odd habits, but can still beat some ass quite well when in a fight.

Almost all the characters shine in this film. Jude Law as Dr. Watson is a formidable straight-man partner who tries to keep Holmes in line. The movie is almost about their relationship as best freinds as it is about the mystery. Mark Strong is the somewhat stereotypical megalomaniac villain Lord Blackwood, but still puts on a menacing act and is beginning to be one of my favorite bad guys. Kelly Reilly is Watson's fiance who's sweeter and smarter than she first seems. The only weak link in the cast is Rachel McAdams who plays the female lead. I find it more of a writing flaw than anything else. There's nothing about the character that really shines. In fact you could have put any actress in that role and it wouldn't have made it any worse or better. The character is void of anything real interesting save being the damsel in distress. This isn't as much of a flaw to ruin the movie. Her character leads us to a sinister character cloaked in shadow and mystery who we only learn very little about once the film ends. In fact the ending opens itself up for a sequel which promises to delve even deeper into the Sherlock Holmes legend. Here's hoping it comes to theaters more sooner than later! And since I'm on a Mark Strong kick.....


Kick Ass - This may sound cliche, but this adaptation of the Mark Millar comic does just that... kick ass!!! (ewww...even I got a little nauseous with that unoriginal play on words). Seriously, this movie has tons of geekosity going for it. It's a send up of comic books and a great uber-violent action flick. What happens when a few people with absolutely no superpowers who are sick of their humdrum lives decide to don superhero costumes and fight crime? That's what this movie examines in an unrealistic, yet action packed way. Mark Strong is the crime lord who's business and life are plagued with the do-gooding actions of costumed vigilantes Kick Ass (Aaron Johnson), Hit Girl (13 year old Chloe Moretz) and her father Big Daddy (Nicolas Cage).

Those of a lesser mindset may find this movie void of responsibility once the high velocity action kicks into gear. The argument being that this movie will inspire people to go out and fight crimes in real life. I found the movie to be a little too over the top and more of a homage to comic books than to be a blue print for mentally unstable people to take up arms in spandex and fight criminals.

There are some really excellent action sequences in this movie, some of which make it the price of admission alone. This will definitely be in my DVD collection. If you're a comic book and brutal action fan. This is a must see! SEE TRAILER HERE!


Terminator: Salvation - As interesting a story as this is by adding on more of a history to the whole Terminator franchise, I found it quite blase. Sure it was entertaining, but it didn't have that kick in the ass that the previous movies and TV show had. It failed to pull me in, even when "Arnie" made a "guest appearance". An ok film, but doesn't the Terminator franchise deserve more? A bit of a yawner, but worth the rental. SEE TRAILER HERE!


Let's move on to video games........

Red Faction: Guerrilla - This was a game that was under the radar of most gamers. Simply seen as just another sequel to the first person shooting Red Faction franchise it kind of got pushed aside by a lot of other top name games that came out at the same time. That is a sad shame, since this game delivers in many different ways. Fist of all, instead of it being another first person shooter, it goes a completely different direction and is presented as a third person viewed full open world action game.

The next best thing about the game is the fact that 95% of the open world is fully destructible and you can use many different weapons, vehicles and tools to do your destructive bidding. It is quite the adrenaline rush to be able to tear down an entire enemy facility with some well placed explosives and a powerful hammer!

The storyline is slightly cliched, but the fun as frell game play makes up for any cheesiness of the story line.

It is the future and you've just arrived on the planet Mars which has been colonized and terraformed. It is here where your brother seemingly works as one of the many miners who are foraging the planet for it's resources. Just after you meet up with your brother, you find out that he's joined a resistance group that is trying the topple the powerful Ultar corporation that seems to have taken over Mars. As he takes you on a mission he is gunned down by Ultar's militaristic forces, leaving you to take up his fight.

The open world is the planet mars which is divide up into different regions. Most regions are nothing more than dust and mountainous terrain which can get a bit repetitive after a while. But as the game progresses you come across greener pastures as well as snow covered mountains. All inhabited with buildings and strongholds that are just waiting to be destroyed.

It's game play is also very pro open sandbox. Meaning you can follow the missions you are sent on or play the side quests or goof around with some challenges. You get to do what you want when you want.

The developer of the the game, Volition, are also the ones who brought us the equally as fun Saints Row 1 & 2. So they know how to put together several hours of mayhem!

There are a few sticky parts that I found a little fault with. Sometimes the game throws so many bad guys at you at once it becomes frustratingly impossible to complete your task. Once I found myself completing a mission, but I still had so many adversaries on top of me I still got killed and had to start the whole mission over. Also, following the marker mapping lines that lead you where you want to go can easily lead you off track. It'll point you in a direction that will be blocked by mountain range. It's not exactly the longest open world game out there either.

But, these are small prices to pay when you look at the game as a whole. The whole time I was playing through it I was reminded of other addictive open world games. Especially Crackdown. A game I've played through 3 times now.

I'm glad I took the chance and grabbed this puppy up off of the store shelf because I had a real great time playing it.....while destroying most of the planet Mars. SEE TRAILER HERE!


Before I leave you all for a quick cigar, I'd like to throw this message out into the realms of the Internet. This goes out to all of the actresses and models out there who are wasting their time with the pretty boys, the bad boys and the jocks. Ladies... GEEKS DON'T CHEAT!

Stay vertical everybody.

Zangz.

Hey Pete....... I read the news today. Oh boy.

A God has left us. Up and gone just like the snap of a frackin' finger.

The music world is dormant with pathetic malaise as a true artist has passed. Only those of us in the know are already feeling the black, dark void that is being left here on earth.

I really hate to have to write these kind of posts and turn Zangz's Blog of Geekdom into an obituary column. Especially when it's about an artist I really truly enjoy, have admiration for and who's music made my mundane life a little more worth living.

My soul took quite a huge hit today. I was busy as hell, running around like a frackin' banshee at work. Then suddenly my freind and co-worker, Mr. Salty, came up and asked me If I heard the news. I was in the middle of a work related conversation and had to wave him off for a sec to finish off the one of many tasks I had to perform.

When I was done I walked over to him and asked, "What?"

"Dude, a legend, an innovator of Metal has passed! You haven't heard?"

I immediately thought it was Ronnie James Dio who was recently diagnosed with stomach cancer.

"No dude, Peter Steele."

My heart kinda took a nose dive. I didn't know what the hell to think. I drew a bit of a blank and didn't really comprehend the statement.

If you're an avid reader of this blog (2.5 of you) you'll know what a huge Type O Negative fan I am and how much their music means to me. Peter Steel was the main lyricist, bass player and lead vocalist for this band. Not to slag the rest of the group, but he was pretty much the alpha male of Type O.

Myself being a bit of an old fart, they were pretty much one of the very, very few bands I would still go out and venture to see live. Their music means a lot to me. Dark, heavy, brooding, melodic, controversial and clever. I've been listening to them for 15 years straight, always looking forward to the next long awaited album.

Pete was a bit of a tragic character. He had been betrayed many times by family and lovers. And he fought addiction and depression as best he could, using his gift of music as his outlet and letting us, his fans, in on the dark joke.

His twisted sense of humor saturated his lyrics and sometimes brought controversy. Both left wing and right wing zealots called him homophobic, nihilistic, sexist and satanic. But, it was always tongue and cheek.

I've seen Type O Negative many times during the years. First time I saw them they were opening for Queensryche and were given few lights and minimum staging. They somehow blew the Queens off the stage. That was back in '95.

Ever since, I've tried to make every Milwaukee date on their tours. They always hit The Rave, a haunted music club they seemed to like to play despite many artists dislike of the venue.

I must have seen them there at least 6 or 7 times. And every time was eventful. I was never disappointed. I'm pretty floored that I will not get to see Pete and the boys there, live again.

I'm also greatly saddened that I will not get to listen to fresh, new, Peter Steele laden lyrics coming from Type O Negative ever again.

The world has gotten soooo much darker with his passing, and the generic music world has no clue of it.

Good bye Pete, thanks for the twisted dark humor and music that you gave to us fans. Whether you ever realized it or not, you gave some of us something to enjoy and make our lives a little more worth living.

Here's a pretty decent remembrance from a former record company about Pete that you may want to check out. For an even better remembrance from fellow band members click here!

P.S. I hope this wasn't too man crushy for anybody.

I'm outta here with a beer in hand and a toast in the remembrance of one, Mr. Peter Steele!

"It's better to be hated for who you are than love for who you are not" - Phlogistin Verdigras.

Zangz.

I recently got slapped by a B-flick.

....And I liked it. In fact, I think I would like to be slapped around some more. A couple of good slappings upside my geek head could probably do me some good.

Now how does this all sound to you?.......

Insanely beautiful women. Explosions. Fifteen minute long cat fights. Bloodshed. Explosions. Firearms. Martial Arts. Lots of tight clothes. A water fight you wouldn't believe. Explosions.

How can these words not appeal to the male geek psyche? Well, I'll tell ya. A couple of filmakers put together a sweet little show that has all of that and more within it. I speak of a motion picture that slipped under the cracks, but has emerged triumphantly upon video.

It is the wonderment that is BITCH SLAP!

This movie will not be laden with accolades amongst critics or be heralded as a great, geek genre masterpiece along the lines of Reservoir Dogs or Pulp Fiction. There will be no best actor or actress Oscars handed out.

But what Bitch Slap does have going for it is the fact that it is a totally, in your face and unapologetically great big over the top Grade "B" action flick.

Bitch Slap is the tale of how three women (Hel, Trixie and Camero) come upon what they believe is the location of a hidden cache of "treasure" buried out in the desert. Each of them have a mysterious checkered past that are slowly revealed throughout the film.

When I first popped this bad boy into the ol' '360 I wasn't expecting too much. In fact I was expecting some horrible flick that was shot on a video camera in somebody's garage and backyard. But the production quality is pretty top notch as they make very good use of the green screen method to use as virtual sets that come out looking quite fantastic and lend to the over the top feel to the whole film.

Ok folks, here's the part of the review where I let my lonely geek-freak flag fly quite high. While in that process, I'll also be making myself quite vulnerable to restraining orders.

To put it simply, the three female leads are quite smoking hot! A fact that the producers, director and writers certainly exploited to the fullest extent. They put these girls in situations that will have the lesser man running to the bottle of Jurgens that's kept hidden behind the sofa..... in most homes....... or so I hear. Ehem.

If you're looking for a big nudity-fest, you won't find it here. Bitch Slap keeps it somewhat classy by not reverting to cheap boob shots.

Even though the movie subversively makes fun of itself for being so over the top, it still succeeds in having a bit of a twist at the ending.

Another attribute about this flick that I wanted to mention to the geek nation out there on the inter-web is that if you happen to be an old fan of the Xena or Hercules shows, you'll have a vested interest in this movie. Many familiar faces from those shows have smaller roles and cameo appearances in the movie. You'll get to see a lot of them in the documentary about the making of Bitch Slap which is in the extras section of the DVD. The documentary is just as fun, and long, as the movie itself.

Again, if you're in the mood for some outlandish action with three beautiful women in a movie that doesn't take itself too seriously, then this is a movie you'll want to take a peek at.


In other geeky endeavors....

You'll notice that this blog is a little more active than it's been throughout the winter months. It's spring and the weather is getting unseasonably warm lately and I think it's thawing me out and rejuvenating my creative juices a bit.

I'm still faring through DragonAge: Origins. It's long, epic storyline is starting to get a little weighted and I'm taking a break on it and started up Mass Effect 2, which is a little more addictive in it's game play mechanics.

After Mass Effect 2 I will either return to DragonAge or start up on Red Dead Redemption. I've also found out that both GTA4 and Borderlands has come out with added content discs for those of us that don't have access to DLC. Then Crackdown 2 comes out in July. What's a gamer to do?

And on top of all of the video gaming there's also some good old fashioned table top games going on. Both my friends Mad Mario and Roberto Del Amorte have started out new fantasy RPG campaigns that I'll be playing in. Roberto is running D&D 4th Ed. and Mario is running the Lord of the Rings RPG.

So my geek calendar is crammed full of nerdosity for the foreseeable future.

What am I listening to lately? Well, a friend at work has been introducing me to some headbanging goodness. My ears have bled to the likes of Shadows Fall, Overkill and Five Finger Death Punch. Check them out, wont you?

That's it for this post. Let the slappin' begin!

Zangz.

Bunny Stew

"Here comes Peter Cotton-Tail, Hoppin' down the Bunny Trail. Hippity Hopping, East....."

KABLAAAAAM!!!!!!

Rabbit stew for Easter Brunch, anybody? There might be a little buck-shot that you may have to pick out, but the broth is just deeeelightful.

Easter morn has arrived and it's brought me some wonderfully geeky memories of an Easter morning long past. Let's travel back in time to that particular Easter morning. Shall we?

I must have been 10 years old. It had been almost a year after I had my own religious awakening when I first viewed Star Wars up on the big screen for the first time. Within the year between Star Wars being released and the following Easter there were absolutely no Star Wars action figures put on the market.

True fact. Prior to its release the Star Wars people were promoting the fledgling Sci-Fi film at Sci-Fi conventions all over America. At the same time they were also trying very hard to market the film to toy companies for the obligatory toy line. Well, all of the toy companies rejected the toy line believing that Star Wars was going to be a fly by night flop.

By the time the movie was released and became the greatest motion picture of all time, there were still no toys in production. Once Kenner Toys saw the monetary potential and started to design the toys, it was still to late to release them to coincide with the success of the summer blockbuster. It would be a long wait until the action figures would hit the toy store shelves.

Being a huge action figure fan, I can remember wondering, "Where the hell were the Star Wars figures?" They had Star Wars pajamas, they had Star Wars bed spreads, they had Star Wars cereal, but no frackin' action figures! WTF?

After a year of waiting and wondering, that wonderful Easter morning came. My little sister and I got up an hour and a half early that morning and banged on Mom and Dad's bedroom door waking them out of their slumber. My dad instantly cursed about how early it was. Then Mom calmed him down and they got on their bath robes and we all headed down to the living room.

Of course Mom and Dad had us wait a bit before they got their coffee because back in the day anything that would annoyingly increase a kid's already out of control anticipation was something that parents constantly excelled at for whatever torturous reason.

Finally my dad opened the crazed Easter egg hunt with, "Ok, kids. Have at it."

Dizzy Lizzie and I tore the whole first floor of the house apart. My sister would always find hers first since she was younger and my parents would have to place them somewhat in plain sight for her.

Mine were a little more challenging, but after some hints and a game of "hot and cold" with my parents I'd find mine.

The first basket I found had a couple of Hot Wheels and the usual chocolate eggs, jelly beans and marshmallow candy with a few of the Easter eggs that we had painted a few nights before.

The second basket was the one with the magic in it. There amongst the fake plastic grass, next to the chocolate bunny sat a small R2-D2 action figure packaged in it's plastic cubicle with the black backboard that had a picture of the droid on it and blazed on the top of it was the Star Wars logo.

I lost my mind. I didn't even know these were on the shelves. This was years before the Internet so I had no clue. My young, action figure-lovin' mind instantly told me, "If there's one, there must be more". And when I turned the toy's packaging to the back I saw a picture of the collection of other figures you could get. JEEBUS HAS RISEN!!!

I went nuts looking for the third and last of my baskets. I finally found it wedged between a chair and the dining room hutch. I gasped when I saw a small Darth Vader looking back at me from behind the plastic packaging. The collection was officially started.

The next couple of hours were filled with Darth Vader chasing around R2 while at the same time I was downing enough sugary goodness to keep me up for weeks. Imagine my grand disappointment when I was forced to stop in the middle of all the fun a frolic to get dressed for.....church. Ugh.

During the whole hour and a half long mass I was goofed up on a sugar high that you wouldn't believe knowing that waiting for me at home were R2 and Darth to get into more wacky adventures together. It took every act of my young human will to not to explode into a sugar induced fit. But somehow I persevered and endured the long, hot, boring institution that is the Easter Morning Catholic Mass. Jeebus, preserve me!

After the mass we went over to my grandparents' house which was a very quick hop, skip and jump from our house. As we all went into the kitchen and smelled that wonderful Easter ham that Grandma was preparing, she told us that the Easter Bunny had stopped there also, but did not have time to hide the treats and that they were on the living room table.

There was one basket for each of us. In in mine was a great site to see. A C3PO and a Princess Leia action figure separated by a box of pink Peeps. I was head over heels in a state of euphoria.

I was able to run over to my house and get R2 and Vader and bring them back to the Grandparents' house so I could play with them until the Easter dinner ham was ready to be eaten. That afternoon Darth Vader captured Princess Leia and R2-D2 and C3PO had to go save her.

As months passed Luke, Han Chewie, Ben and stormtroopers joined the collection and the adventures.

That was one of the best Easter mornings I can remember having.

So here's hoping that some little geekling out there finds a Star Wars figure or two in his or her Easter basket.

Now that I've left you all with a cute story about young materialism and a reference to killing and eating the Easter Bunny on the morning of the most holy day of all holy days, I find myself needing to get hopping along myself. The family is going out for a most tasty brunch and at very nice little restaurant where the hostesses are very cute. So I'm out of here.

Coming Soon to this blog: An ode to the grand cinematic joy that is Bitch Slap!

Until next time kiddos, stay vertical! Happy Bunny Day!

Zangz.

Into the Great Wide Open....

About ten years ago I got up one morning, got into my car and drove into the downtown area. Just for the fun of it, when I spotted a police cruiser up a head of me, I floored it and rear ended him. He quickly gave chase as I blew down the road toward the lakefront. As he chased me, two other police vehicles joined him in the pursuit. As soon as I reached the lakefront, I headed directly to a cliff that overlooked the mass body of water. As the police cars tailed me, I swerved my car just in time to miss flying off of the cliff. The police cars were not that lucky. All three of them flew off of the cliff and into the lake below.

I then drove to a seedy little alley where I waited in my car for the heat to blow over. Once it did I drove to the same side of town where I started the whole original fiasco. And guess what I did then? I slammed into the back end of another police cruiser and started the whole chase all over again.

That was ten years ago. Now, guess what I did just this morning? I found myself on the planet Mars in the not too distant future where we earthlings have been colonizing the planet. I have joined a resistance group who are currently fighting against the militaristic monopoly who have taken over the planet in the name of corporatization. I planted a number of explosive charges onto one of their tanks that was assaulting a colonized suburb of Mars. While being shot at by soldiers, I ducked behind a home and set off the charges then watched as the tank blew into many different pieces. The cool thing was I could have also used a rocket launcher to do the dirty work. Or I could have used a special laser gun that disintegrates it's victims rather than zaps them. Or, I could have blown up a building and had it collapse on top of the tank. So may options.

Am I a nut-case who's already wild imagination has run amok with destructive glee?

No. Of course not. I am speaking of open world / sandbox game-play video games!

Video games were never the same as soon as they started to cater to those of us that enjoy the freedom to do whatever we want to do, when we want to do it, as we explore a vast world with tons of options and the non-linear adventures within it. My first venture into this type of game-play was Grand Theft Auto III. Though it wasn't the first of its kind, it certainly put free roaming and do anything at any time type game-play into the forefront of video games.

The crime simulation game allowed players to get in and out of cars, walk or run up streets, cary and use a variety of different weapons and create general havoc all over the fictional town of the fully realized, three dimensional Liberty City, a city that had three different huge islands where you could speed around in many different cars creating multiple methods of destruction.

The game had a whole series of main missions that you were assigned by your crime-lord bosses. You could choose to go from mission to mission to mission to come to the end of the game, or you could do a mission, then go exploring, do a mission, get yourself into a high speed chase with the police or a rival gang, do a mission, then steal a number of cars for your own private use, do a mission, shoot helicopters out of the sky with your bazooka, etc. You could go hours or even days without doing even one game mission and still feel that you were accomplishing tons of personal objectives.

I played that game for a good six months straight before I even looked at another game. That was the beginning of my obsession with games that had open world capabilities.

The GTA series begat three more games of that caliber, Vice City, San Andreas and the more recently, updated Grand Theft Auto 4.

After the popularity of these open world crime simulations, many game companies and game publishers decided to get in on the action. Within the last decade we've gotten a ton of open world / crime sim games that have included, True Crime: Street of LA, Saints Row, Saints Row 2, The Godfather, Bully , Mercenary and Scarface.

They've also tapped heavily into the fantasy role playing game genre. The Elder Scrolls series of games that originated before GTA on the home PC and then started to hit game counsels are some of my favorite games of all time! The two games that have hit the high marks are Elder Scrolls 3: Morrowind and Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion (the reason I bought a '360!)

Both these games put players in vastly huge and lavish fantasy worlds that seem to never end. Players take on a first person perspective of a character they can custom generate however they wish. Players can take on the main quest of the game or take on thousands of mini-quests or just roam around the worlds and dungeons grabbing loot and fighting creatures. You can easily play for hours upon hours without touching any of the main quests. Both games took me about six months each to play through. And I'm sure I still haven't discovered quite everything in each of the games.

That's not all. A lot of Sci-Fi games have taken on the open world theme. One of the top such games is Fallout 3, a post apocalyptic tale brought to us from the great minds at Bethesda Softworks, the wonder minds that brought us the Elder Scrolls games! It is another action role playing game that allows players to traverse across the wastelands that were once Washing DC and its suburbs. Again, features such as totally customizable characters and a huge world to discover are in play. It is every bit as good as it's Elder Scroll game predecessors!

That's not the only Sci-Fi open world game out there. There's also one of my personal favorite addictions called Crackdown. The futuristic super cop action game may not be as long and epic as most open world games should be, but it's certainly a time sucker. There's also the recently released Red Faction: Guerrilla, a very addictive game that takes place on the surface of the planet Mars. I've even temporarily put down Dragon Age: Origins to play this puppy for the last few weeks!

One pretty cool feature that is a part of open world gaming is that your character's actions help decide the outcome of the games. You can choose to play it as the good guy hero or play as a murderous villain. How you play may result in how the game ends or how other characters within the game react to you. These features really make you feel like you are a part of the world and story being told in it! That's a great attribute compared to anything a first person shooter or platformer has to offer!

Now, as wonderful as I find most of these open world games, I do find that there are a few hitches in plying them. Sometimes they can get repetitive. When designers try and create a huge vast world, they end up relying on a lot of the same scenery, just put in different patterns in different areas. This can become visually tiresome at times. Sometimes quests can be pretty repetitive also. You can only retrieve the same treasure or rescue the same prisoner so many times before you get so used to it and any surprises are thrown out the window after a while. Sometimes the areas of the huge world are separated by long and tedious load times.

But, admittedly that's nit-picking. I'm hardly tiring of open world games. I used to be heavily into first person shooters and action games. But, those games were quite linear and I found myself playing though them within 8 to 12 hours. If I'm going to be plunking down $60 per game, I'm going to want to get as much bang for my buck as possible. Economically, these are not the times to waste a chunk of change on only 12 hours of gameplay! If I find a totally immersive game where I can do anything I want in the huge world that the publishers have created and can play it beyond 6 months, I find myself quite fortunate!

Exploration is another big plus for these games. What new and exciting area, dungeon, swamp, forest, castle, ruins, city or planet can I traverse and find interesting objectives and possibly treasure in? It could be quite limitless.

What is the next big open world game I'm looking forward to? It's a western theme game brought to us from Rockstar Games, the people who brought us the Grand Theft Auto series. It is a game called Red Dead Redemption. It's release is just under two months away. If you just watched the trailer I linked to, you'll understand the excitement.

I'm hoping that open world video games don't start to get old and wear out their welcome. I'm hoping they find ways to expand and enhance the already immersive experience that they provide. How creators are going to do that, I have no clue since I'm already finding myself in five hour stints of playing and 6 months worth of playing just one game in games that are already released. It can only get better from here!

That's it for me today. I'm hoping to get more blogging done in the future. We'll see how that goes.

Until next time, stay vertical!

Zangz.

The Great Mind that is.... Alan Garner, The One Man Wolf Pack.

If you haven't seen The hangover, this post is stuffed full with spoilers. Read at your own risk!

"I'd like to say something that I've prepared tonight....Hello. How about that ride in? I guess that's why they call it Sin City. Ha, ha, ha.

You guys might not know this, but I consider myself a one man wolf pack. But, when my sister brought Doug home, I knew he was one of my own. And the wolf pack grew by one. So there were two... two of us in the wolf pack. I was alone first in the pack. And then Doug joined in later.

And six months ago when Doug introduced me to you guys, I thought, 'Wait a second! Could it be true?' And now I know for sure. I just added two more guys to my wolf pack.

Four of us wolves running around the desert together in Las Vegas, looking for strippers and cocaine. So tonight I make a toast.....Blood Brothers!"

Alan Garner as played by Zach Galifianakis
in the 2009 film, The Hangover.

Are these the words of a sad, disturbed, goofballish psychopath, or the brilliant musings of a great, misunderstood mind? I'd like to vote for the later.

It is very easy to take in the character of Alan from the comedic masterpiece film called,The Hangover, and misjudge him as simply some sort of social misfit who's oddities may seem to lean toward pure dangerous and disturbing behavior.

But, lets try and forget about the suggested court order that keeps him 200 feet away from schools and Chucky Cheese restaurants. Lets sweep under the rug of the fact that he secretly drugged his fellow bachelor party buddies with roofies.....that he thought was Ecstasy. Lets turn a cheek to his belief that "enjoying one's self" on an airplane is perfectly normal behavior. Now let's look at Alan as a man living in his own world and grabbing it by the nards.

Simply put, Alan is living life on his own terms. He's shunning the establishment while experimenting with social culture. He looks at life very simplistically and doesn't care what others think. Actually, he's quite oblivious to how we so called "normal" folk view the world around us.

His simpleton, child like behavior should be cheered on rather than feared. Heck, if most of us were judged by our child like behavior, we'd all be round up and trhown into the rubber room. How many of us that are in our 40's still play video games, still read comic books, still have boatloads of action figures in our bedrooms, still weep in the loneliness of the dark cold nights..........um............

Ya know, I better quit this whole Alan argument right here and now. Besides I had no idea where I was going to go with this post anyway. So much for a healthy free writing exercise.


On to some quick little notes of geekdom before I wrap this puppy up.

I have gotten a new / used car after a reh-tard slammed into the back end of my old car who I named Shirley. I have considered naming the new one Dita since I'd kind of like to stay with the whole sexy, counter culture iconic goth chick theme. We'll see if this sticks.

I'm still wonderfully plodding through about 4 to 5 video games and haven't even gotten to Mass Effect 2 yet. But, rest assured I'll get to it at some point.

Some of my favorite shows are in full swing on the old boob-tube. 24, Lost and Chuck are all looking pretty fab this season.

What am I currently listening to? You always seem to ask that. I just picked up "Mechanize" by the newly reformed Fear Factory. It's as heavy as a madre fracker!!! It's also has some nice doses of industrialized melody thown in there. A must have for headbangers!

I'm going to call it here, kids. I have to grab a bite then prep to go out and see my buddy, Mr. Salty, play in one of the many bands he winds up in tonight.

Until next time, god bless all of the Alan's of the world and stay vertical.

Zangz.

Starting 2010 with a HUGE BANG....and crash...and wreckage...and suckage.

First Post of the new decade!

If you will recall, in my last post of 2009 I stated, "May 2010 be a lucrative, happy, rejuvenatory, healing year for us all!"

What the hell was I thinking when I posted that?! Was I trying to temp fate? Was I teasing it, poking it with a sharp stick or perhaps daring it to frack with me as best it could?

Well dear friends, I received further proof that there truly is no god. Long story short, late last week my car of 9 years got totaled when a young, inattentive driver slammed into the back end of it while I was stopped and waiting for oncoming traffic so I could make a turn.

I guess what's most important is the fact that I got out of it pretty unscathed. I suffered only achy legs and shoulders the next day. But, who knows, with my frackin' luck I could be hemorrhaging somewhere in body right now and not even know it. I could be a goner by tomorrow morning. This could be the last post of Zangz's Blog of Geekdom that there will ever be (loud cheer of approval from the crowd).

So, sadly my car, who I named Shirley a long time ago, is no more. She's gone. I must say, I did have a slight lump in my throat as I emptied her of all of my personal effects at the tow yard. Her back end was nothing more than a indentation of crushed metal. She is now a mass of lifeless waste where at one time Shirley was my daily transportation taking me hither and yon, through hill and dale, to work, friends' houses and to Haunted Attractions during Halloween season. Her CD palyer would blast Type O Negative and Nightwish while I cruised down the highway. That's all gone now. Shirley will be missed.

After a bit of a tense period when the driver of the car who hit me took his sweet frackin' time to report and acknowledge the accident happened to his insurance firm, it looks like they'll be cutting me a check. Sadly, it won't be for what I had hoped for.

But, thanks to my Bro-In-Law who's in the automotive field, I will have a new Zangzmobile by the weekend. This one has all the modifications and accessories that made me fall in love with Shirley so much. Moon roof, electronic windows and locks, smoke screen, automatic guns in the headlights and rear end oil slick. Cool stuff like that.


The only other stuff I have to yap on about is the crazy amount of video games I have to play. Thanks to X-Mas and B-Day, I made out with a ton of games and gift cards to spend on.

So now I have Dragon Age: Origins, Sacred 2: Fallen Angel, Red Faction: Guerrilla and now Mass Effect 2 to play through. I should be good for gaming on into Summer.

Short but sweet, that's what this post shall be. So take care and watch your rear view mirrors.

Zangz.

Zangz's Best of 2009!

Last Blog Post of the Decade!

It seems that in the last blog post of every year I post something to the effect of, "Let's hope that the new year doesn't suck as much as this past year did".

But, every year seems to surpass the previous in pure crap-a-tude! This year was marred by a lot of people close to myself and my family dealing with some unfair sucker punches that life tends to deal out. Sicknesses, unemployment, bad investments, economic instability, car accidents and a whole plethora of corn filled crapolla has plagued many in our lives in '09.

So this year I'm hesitant to put down this past year and wish for a better upcoming year, because it seems to put some bad voodoo vibes out there.

Thus, the best I can come up with is this....

May 2010 be a lucrative, happy, rejuvenatory, healing year for us all!

Having said that, I do realize that not everything was totally poopville in 2009. Here are a couple of my favorite things that I either discovered or came upon this past year.....

Best Movie of 2009:

Star Trek

The newly revamped telling of the classic TV series that was directed by geek icon J.J. Abrams really put the Star Trek franchise back on the map after it was starting to disappear and dwindle into nothingness. The very clever storytelling, character development and cool as frell action sequences have more than made up for the last few Next Generation movies that Hollywood was drenning out! And bravo to Chris Pine for really capturing a cocky, young Captain James Tiberius Kirk so perfectly. You can read my review on the film HERE and you can watch the trailer for it HERE.

Best Comedy of 2009:

The Hangover

Ok, I'll admit it. There's a heck of a lot of bathroom humor in this tale of four guys going to Vegas for a bachelor party and after a drunken night of debauchery they lose the bachelor. The day after plays out like a real warped comedy mystery. There are scenes in this movie that will have you laughing out loud and then realizing what a disturbing person you must be for laughing at them. Zach Galifianakis was the stand out for me as the awkward, slightly off kilter future brother in law. The character harnesses the biggest laughs in the film with his dimwitted and a bit creepy persona (just why does he have a court order to stay far away from high school?) Check out the trailer HERE.

Best Book Read in 2009

Devil May Care
by Sabastian Faulks

I didn't read a lot this year. In fact I started about three or four different books, but only completed this one, thus, sadly, it's may favorite of the year...sigh. Actually it's not too bad and as a James Bond novel, it reads pretty fast with a lot of action in it. Faulks brings the characer of James Bond back to the cold war era to fight against another odd, megalomaniac arms dealer. Faulks adhears to a lot of the James Bond trappings that fans of the character really enjoy. Exotic locations, beautiful women and nasty villains are all handled quite capably here. And it is not a long grueling book to read through as some of John Gardner's novels were. It is quick, action packed and to the point. Though my favorite Bond novelist is still Raymond Benson, I'm hoping the Flemming estate will stick with Faulks for a few more novels. You can see a bit about it HERE.

Best Web Series

The Guild

This independent web series created by actress Felicia Day is about a group of online gamers who spend hours upon hours playing World of Warcraft. The comedy is more about their social lives (or sever lack there of) than the game itself. The episodes are short so it's a good "go to" if you've come home from a stressful day at work for a couple of hearty chuckles. Click on "The Guild" above to see episodes!

Best Haunted Attraction Visited in 2009

Hartford Jaceey's Haunted House

They've won over Terror on Rural Street for the 2nd year running. It's all about the ridicules amounts of attention to detail they put into the show.

And last, but in no means least....

Best Video Game of 2009

Borderlands

Last year Fallout 3 got the honors and this year I've been playing a heck of a lot of Fallout 3 also. But, I didn't want to be redundant and this year I was pretty addicted to Borderlands! In a nutshell, it takes place on a post apocalyptic planet called Pandora where bandits, mutants and renagades run rampant trying to find "The Vault", a hidden place with a possible alien cache of great wealth. You play one of three types of fighter classes you can pick from. From then on it's a wonderful cell shaded, open sand boxed, first person shooter that has a huge wealth of weapons and stash you can switch out and sell.

There's also a good dose of RPG character progression which adds to the already addictive amount of different fire arms that are all over the planet. It wasn't the most perfect RPG game created. Once you find "The Vault" it's not all it's cracked up to be and you find yourself up against a pretty nasty boss where you'll find the learning curve for defeating bad guys has gone through the roof. That last fight can be pretty frustrating. Once you beat the last boss, you're forced to watch the credits. Then after that you are able to go back and still play the game without any quests being given to you. You can still trudge about the world taking on bad guys and even go up against some of the minor bosses again.

Although it had over 100 side quests in addition to the main quest, the game could have been a bit longer and more epic. When you want to put an RPG video game out there, you'd better be ready to be compared to the big boys. Anyone who's played the aforementioned Fallout 3 or games like Morrowind and Oblivion have experienced truly epic games. Borderlands is kind of short in comparison. But it's addictive gameplay makes up for it. I see myself playing through the game again some point down the road. I had that much fun with it.

See gameplay HERE.

Consider that my review of Borderlands I've been promising.


I got Dragonage: Origins and Sacred 2 for X-Mas and I'll let you now how they play out. The next big game I'm looking forward to is Mass Effect 2. It comes out not too far off from my birthday, so I think I know what some birthday money is going to buy.

I'm not promising anything, but several posts back I've alluded to my Buddy Bruce providing us with a review of this past summer's DragonCon '09. Well, his computer did some serious crashing, but things are back up to normal now and he actually hopes to have it ready soon!

That's it for the posts of 2009. Remember to stay safe tonight and stay vertical.

Until next year, see ya.

Zangz.