Good Site Drenched in Creepiness........

I know it is rare for me to pop in here in the middle of the week with and entry as of late. But, I felt that the blog has been lacking in a feature that I rarely do around here. So I'd thought I quickly shoot in here and do another edition of......

Zangz's Blog of Geekdom's Website of the Moment:

City of Shadows

Here's a site that caters to those of us who are attracted to the creepiness of an old city that has a lot of dark history to it. This site is dedicated in educating people in the history of Victorian London, England. God knows this spooky old city has had more than it's share of serial killers, ghosts and genuinely diabolical happenings during the 1800's. This site is quite the compendium for it's dark and gruesome history.

There's another subject I'd like to quickly broach. Keep your eyes out here for a possible big announcement from the Blog of Geekdom. I may be actually moving into the 21st century and expanding upon my already pathetic and sad media empire. I've got to do a bit more research on the subject and see if it's a possibility before I make a formal statement. So stay tuned.

Zangz.

All Mysteries of the Universe Revealed RIGHT HERE, RIGHT NOW!!!!

Naw, not really, but do you see the extravagant lengths I go through to get people to read this friggin' thing. C'mon folks, throw a lonely geek a bone here. What's the worst that can happen? At the very least you'll walk away feeling a heck of a lot better about yourself.


I guess I should cheer up a bit since I did spend the entire day yesterday geekin' it up with a group of friends playing the Star Wars RPG. Our game master, Mad Mario had us rolling many a 10 and 20 sider in a gallant and successful effort to thwart off a massive attempt by the Speratists/Trade Federation to break Count Dooku out of a maximum security prison on the planet of Dantoonie. My character, a 12th level scoundrel, took out a Sith or two (of course that was well after a few other characters knocked the Sith thugs down quite a few hit points). But who's really keeping track?

It's always fun to noodle on about playing table top, pen and paper role playing games (RPG) since there's a boat load of people out there who have no clue as to what the frell I'm referring to. For those of you scratching your heads trying to figure out what I'm talking about, I'll refer you to HERE.

And yes! I'm still trying to get a date set for my game of Call of Cthulhu. It's up to the players at this point.

On to other points of interest...


I've been able to weasel out more time on the new Elder Scrolls game (Oblivion) for the Xbox360 while over at my friend's place. As I get further into it I can say that this is almost as addictive as the first...... Almost. I've said it here before and I'm going to say it again. Though, the graphics are years ahead of its predecessor, Morrowind, it is a bit lacking in the variety of landscapes that Morrowind had. This is a bit of a disappointment as one of Morrowind's high points was the visual variety in several different landscapes. But, I will admit that the game play will still keep me coming back for more.

On to the silver screen....


They're really going to attempt it! After years and years of deals, rewrites and legalities Alan Moore's Watchman is going to be making it to the big screen. How they're going to take Moore's very deep, superhero, socio-political thriller and turn it into a motion picture is beyond me.

Sure, Moore's V for Vendetta was a success at capturing the themes and messages in that graphic novel without damaging the overall story. Yet, I'm not too optimistic that Hollywood will be able to do the same for Watchmen. The story itself is deep, dark and epic. There's lots of important flashbacks, plots intertwining and character developments that work wonderfully in the book, but might be too much for a movie. They'll have to cut a lot from the graphic novel, which could easily neuter the power of the tale being told. We'll have to wait and see where this all leads.


Although no summer "blockbuster" has really smacked me up side of the head with grand delight as of yet (V for Vendetta came real close), I've have been hearing real good things about Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest. It sounds like they have captured the essence of the first film and built upon that. I've also heard that Depp rocks just as hard, if not harder, as our favorite pirate Jack Sparrow. So in a couple of weeks I may have found my favorite summer release, if not sooner....

The other movie I'm cautiously excited about is Superman Returns, which my friend Spanky is just piping at the brim to go and see. I've heard both very good things and marginally good things about this movie. If what I've heard is true and that this movie should be looked at as what Superman III should have been, then we have something to look forward to.

And on that note, I'll end this post with a bit of an interesting Geek fact: Did you know that Superman Returns actor, Brandon Routh is an admitted World of Warcraft freak and has probably spent many an hour playing the computer, on-line massive multiplayer role playing game. And he has an insanely beautiful girlfriend also. Perhaps there's hope for us after all..... NOT.

God I've fallen in love with Wikipedia!

Until next time, keep it clean, folks.
Zangz.

Whole lot o' 360 Goodness.....

Well, a few weeks ago I had a chance to really sit and play on my friend, Roberto DelAmorte's Xbox 360. Ohhhhhhh..... I needed a cigarette once I was done. Really, I'm actually toying with robbing some convenience stores to be able to purchase one.

Lemme tell you what I got to experience. I got to play a few hours of Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. I can honestly say it's the crack/cocaine of first person perspective, action based RPG's. So much so that Whitney Houston broke into my friends' home while I was playing it and tried to wrestle the cordless controller from me. But, seriously, I got to create a character, which in of itself was a myriad of insanely intricate choices. Then I played through the "tutorial" portion of the game. This involves breaking out of a castle's prison and escorting the King (voiced by Patrick Stewart) through the sewers of the city as he tries to evade a strange group of robed cultists. The tutorial is so smooth you don't even realize you're playing a tutorial. Other voice acting throughout the game is done by Lord of the Rings/GoldenEye star, Sean Bean and Wonderwoman star, Linda Carter. Pretty geek-a-fied, huh?

I also got to play a bit beyond the introduction of the main story a bit. The scenery and graphics are phenomenal, especially when viewed on a widescreen, HD TV which Roberto has (lucky bastage!). The combat is far better than it's predecessor, Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind. The one and only worry I have for this game is the fact that the landscapes don''t seem to have much difference to them as they did in Morrowind. It's all grassy, hilly landscapes. No swamps, no deserts, no odd ancient ruins and not to much variety. Hopefully, if I get more chances to play this game, I will explore more of the insanely vast world that exists in Oblivion. Maybe I'll bribe my friend Roberto into being able to play more. Or maybe I'll sell my body to creepy old men on the internet to be able to buy an Xbox 360 of my own. Hmmmm.... decisions, decisions.


I also got to play quite a bit of Quake IV. The graphics of this first person shooter are pretty spectacular. It plays like many FPS games do. This one actually had a good amount of vehicle driving which you didn't see in the other Quake games. I enjoyed it quite a bit. Lot's of carnage and uber-violence that would turn the stomachs of many of the puritanically elite. Good stuff.


Even though I've been quite impressed with what the Xbox 360 has to offer so far, I do have some concerns about where it's going. Although it's DVD compatible it isn't geared for the upcoming HD DVD or Blue Ray DVD formats. That may hurt it in the long run. There's also the point of the very limited selection of games to play on it. It's been out for at least 6 months and we have less than 20 games for it. C'mon! What's the problem? Get cracking programmers! Where's the beef?


I forgot to mention that a few weeks ago I rented the game Area 51 for the PS2 and found it to be quite disappointing. It follows the cliches of most FPS games as well as being insanely frustrating. There were a lot of cheap shots taken by the AI. I got through most of the game, but completely faltered at a particular unfair and exhaustingly aggravating boss battle.

The only upside to this game was the voice acting by both David Duchoveny (X-Files) and Marilyn Manson (devil worshiping rock star). Otherwise, it was the a complete waste.


Rumor has it that while entertaining, Superman Returns isn't anything that spectacular. Though, geek I am, I'll still go see it.


Last Friday's Dr. Who finale was quite wonderful. The show always has a wonderful way of mezmorizing you with the characters. I don't remember the original series doing that. It was sad to see the current Doctor leave us and only getting a quick glimpse and funny "new teeth" remark from the new Doctor. The guy who plays the new Doctor, David Tennant had a brief role in the last Harry Potter movie as one of Voldermort's evil henchmen. So he's got quite the geek stature.

Very sadly, the actress who plays Rose, Billie Piper, has gotten a case of the "afraid to be typecast" bug from former Dr. Who, Christopher Eccleston, and will leave the series after this upcoming 2nd season (keep in mind that we Americans are a year behind the show which is shown and produced in the UK). Quite a disappointing decision, really. Both her acting and character were not only quite fetching, but also quite enjoyable and grew on us fans.


I'm still puttering around with ideas for my next Call of Cthulhu game, but the players have stagnated on potential dates for the game. C'mon people, let's come up with a date! I'm up for anything! If The Peej can't play, we can bring in the Senior Dr. Von Baverhousen if he wishes. Just, someone, email me. God.... I can't even get my players to email me anymore. Dear god, this blog has indeed become my only home of solace. Sigh... Oh, the life of a geek constantly seeps in loneliness.

Well, I'm off to rob a liquor store. Xbox 360, here I come!

Zangz.

"Doctor X" and other dumb play on words......

It's been a few, so lets get right into it.

I finally had a chance to see X-men III: The Last Stand. I heard a lot of different opinions about this movie prior to seeing it. Much like our president, it conjured many polar opposite feelings in people. Either people absolutely disliked it or thought it was the greatest thing since sliced bread.

Me? I simply thought it was a real good action / adventure movie loosely based on the X-men comic book. And THERE'S the rub, folks. From what I can tell, if you're a die-hard fan of the comic book, you'll absolutely shat a brick if you see this movie. The writers certainly create many liberal changes that differ greatly from what has happened in the comic. I mean, if they don't kill off major characters, they take away their super powers. I could see where this would passionately annoy the frell out of those that have followed the comic and invested themselves into the story and the characters.

Though, I was a comic geek, I never really got into the X-Men. I was much more of a DC, Vertigo and independent comic book fan rather than a Marvel fan. So I warmed to the characters of the X-Men more through the movies than the comic. So the major changes didn't effect me as much as they would have the comic book shop owner from The Simpsons.

Best I can tell you is that it's not as good as the previous two movies. This is the least favorite of the three. However, if you've only seen the movies and not read the comics you may want to check it out 'cause it still provides a good action packed romp with a good dose of socially conscience message of how we need to progress as human beings and stop taking the rights away from those that are different. Other than that, watching a few hours of Halley Berry and Famke Jenssen does not suck.

I also got to see a couple of cool trailers for upcoming films. Pirates of the Caribbean: Davey Jones' Locker looks pretty friggin' amazing and is the next big one I want to check out. Then there's Superman Returns which has me slightly intrigued. If director, Brian Singer can do for Superman what he did for the first two X-Men movies, we'll have a real treat on our hands!


So, the end of the current season of Dr. Who comes on the Sci-Fi Channel in a matter of minutes. I have to say that though the production value of this series isn't exactly top notch, the writing and characters are more than enjoyable! You can't help but enjoy the characters of The Doctor and his companion, Rose. Tonight's episode will end the tenure of the current actor playing The Doctor, Christopher Eccleston. While next season will usher in the new actor in The Doctor's role, David Tennant. It's too bad that Eccleston got the ol' case of "being typecast" fear and scooted out of the show after just one season. He was quite phenomenal as the Doctor and certainly put his mark on the franchise. To bad he chickened out just as things were getting good. Silly bastage! Hopefully this Tennant character will do just as good a job next season.


So far the reality show Supergroup rocks. The main theme of the show seems to be the other musicians have to work around Sebastian Bach's temper tantrums and tirades. This week's episode will have bassist, Evan Seinfeld (possibly related to Jerry according to urban legend) bach-slapping (he he, funny play on words) Sebastian. Can't wait.

I'm finally getting up the energy to put together another game of Call of Cthulhu, a horror based RPG that takes place in H.P. Lovecraft's 1920's Cthulhu mythology. My players have been getting quite restless since it's been over a year since I last ran a game. I'm workin' on it! I'm workin' on it!

Ya know, I'm not gunna link this one up. You guys are net savy. If you don't know what the heck I'm talking about, Google it, fercrissakes!

Until next time, keep your feet in the ground, your hearts to the stars and whatever the heck else sounds incredibly cliche and cheesy.

See ya!

Zangz.