Call of Cthulhu video games and our city planner... What do these two things have in common?

I started this uber-humid day by driving around the downtown area trying to find the DMV station. The location of the station was smack dab in the middle of both highway AND roadway construction. So what should have been a 10 minute drive turned out to be 45 minute ride of zig-zagging back and forth and a 5 minute unwanted surprise freeway trip. Quite frustrating (yet not as frustrating as playing the Call of Cthulhu video game. More on that later.) But I eventually got to my destination with a skip in my step and a song in my heart. The song goes something like.... "Let's hunt down the city planner and his family... then we'll hog tie them and put them in the trunk of a car... and then".. errr...ummm... I know, I know. Inside voice, Zangz. Inside voice.

Well, there's lots brewin' in the genres of the fantastic, but not much actually happening as of late. So I'm sorry if this particular Blog of Geekdom seems a bit uninspired, but after I saw most of the movies I really wanted to see this summer, there's a bit of a lull here in the Vault of Geekdom. But there's still plenty to mention, so here we go....



I finally finished Far Cry: Instincts on the Xbox. I must say that for whatever reason, I enjoyed it more the second time I played it than the first. Probably because I finally got through the end of it. My only complaint is that it could have been slightly longer. Not a lot longer, just a tad. Perhaps a little more FPS action on the lava covered, nightmarish island towards the end. Another nice quality of this game was that it really moved like a movie, yet it had very few in-game video sequences. Most of those can really break up the pace of a game. Far Cry: Instincts uses them sparsely.

One real cool feature of the game is that it has it's own level editor so you can create your own multiplayer playground to eviscerate your friends in. I created my own little moon lit swamp with ancient ruins scattered about. Perhaps I'll whip up another one before I return it to my co-worker.


I wish I could say that I'm having the same great time with the Xbox's Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth. It's disappointing to stumble through a game that should have a lot going for it, only to want to toss the controller out of my window in states of red hot blind rage!!! This game should have had it all. It's produced by Bethesda, who made my favorite game, Morrowind. It takes place within the world that the father of modern day horror, H.P. Lovecraft, created. Visually it's very creepy and captures Lovecraft's dark little seaside town of Innsmith quite well.

It's just too bad that the creators decided to make it the most frustrating game I have ever played. It tries hard to be a survival horror, FPS and stealth hybrid. But, it just ends up being a game where you just keep running away and avoiding everything. Your character is supposed to be a tough as nails PI, but ends up being a wimpy, unarmed, frightened woos-bag. That's right, I've played through the first 10% of the game and the designers have yet to let the character get his hands on any type of weapon. The antagonists are armed quite well with blades and shotguns. Three stabs or three shots and you're a goner. You are forced to run, sneak and make awkward jumps (I FRELLIN' HATE AWKWARD JUMPS!!!!) to get away from the baddies who are faster, MUCH FASTER, than you. To add insult to my character's injuries, if you get either hurt or frightened too much, your controller won't respond to your commands. So if you get into a bad situation, you might as well call it a day, 'cause it's going to get even tougher. On top off all of this, the game has save points rather than being able to save anytime you want to (the way to go from a player's perspective). So, if I get killed (and I get killed in this game A LOT) I have to go way back and go through the whole crappy ordeal again.

Not to mention that fact that if you don't have any kind of walkthrough, you'll have no clue as to where to go or what to do in certain situations.

There's a big difference between playing a challenging game and playing a frustrating one. If the people at Bethesda want to do a cool FPS, horror game, they should play through Clive Barker's Undying for the PC to get pointers. Now THAT is how you fuse action, horror and survival together to make an enjoyable game. I'll keep trudging through CoC:DCotE on the ol' Xbox, but it's a sad day when I actually don't look forward to playing a game on my Xbox. Who knows, maybe if I keep torturing myself with this game I'll end up getting some form of enjoyment out of it. So, if you happen to be walking past my apartment on a nice little stroll and you suddenly get pelted with an Xbox controller, I apologize in advance.



In a couple of weeks a whole bunch of my gaming friends are making the trek to Indianapolis, IN to GenCon (big gaming convention that used to be, and should STILL be here in my hometown). Two things are keeping me from going. The fact that I'm bitter it left and feel that it has changed into something more corporate and greed driven. So I stand alone in defiance. The second reason is that I lack the funds to make the trip. If I ever get more green in the future, I may relent and head on out there one of these years. People keep murmuring about it coming back here, but I think it's more wishful thinking than anything else. Greed always seems to win out.


Speaking of conventions, the San Deigo ComicCon was last weekend and there are bushels full of news coming out of it appearing on the net.

One of the things that caught my eye was news from a panel made up of actors, writers and directors involved with a move called 300. This is based on Frank Miller's comic series which chronicles a band of 300 Spartans of ancient times and the battle of Thermopylae where they took on the overwhelming Persian army. It looks as though it's going to have a real Gladiator meets Lord of the Rings feel to the cinematogrophy. There's a real buzz coming from it. It stars former Phantom, Gerard Butler and LOTR alumni David Wenham. I guess the footage they showed the fans was the talk of the whole convention. Perhaps there is life for the silver screen post Star Wars and Rings movies.

There were also other panels that gave us geeks some reasons to look forward to upcoming releases. It looks like Marvel Comics will have oodles of movies based on their comics coming out, including Ghost Rider, Iron Man, The Avengers and Spider-Man 3. Hopefully, most of them will be on par with the first two Blade and X-Men movies and not another Fanastic 4.


Speaking of Superheros, did anyone get to check out the SciFi Channel's new reality series, Stan Lee's Who Wants to be a Superhero? An excellent premise! Get a bunch of people to create their own alter-egos as superheros, have them live in a house together and have daily challenges. Of course one gets voted off every week by Stan "The Man" Lee. Too bad the whole show is quite obviously scripted. I could go for a little more real life human drama, but I guess that died out in reality shows after the 4th season of The Real World.

I caught a bit of the show that followed it, Garth Marenghi's Dark Place. How can I describe it? It's a British comedy, it's a spoof on a supernatural hospital show and it's got a real odd sense of humor about. I must say, I like it in an odd way. I hope to catch more of it. I'm just not sure if that kind of humor can last more than one season. You'll all have to check it out for yourselves.

I'm gunna go get some grub. Again, I'm sorry there's no real "news" or substance to this week's blog. It's just another attempt of mine to pinch out one small percentage of attention in my otherwise geek-a-fied existance.

Enjoy what's left of the weekend.
Zangz.

Why do we need Gene Shallit when we have ME?

Sorry it's been a spell, but I've been pretty frellin' busy lately. But, I do have a boat-load to blog about today so let's get started. Shall we?

I've just seen a whole slew of genre based movies. Some of them current big summer block buster and others a year or so old. But, I was in a movie craze last week and got to see a bunch I'd like to mindlessly prattle on about. Remember, I'm no Gene Shallit here. But unlike Gene I don't die my overgrown facial hair to disturbing lengths, nor do I make cutesy analogies and silly sayings (Unless you count the upcoming dead hooker, vomit and creepy uncle Eddie comments). Read on, brave web traveler......

Superman Returns
Before I saw this movie I heard either wonderful reviews on it or mediocre, slightly disappointing reviews on it. The good news is that I found it rather engaging and quite enjoyable! It goes a couple steps further than simply being a homage to the original Christopher Reeve Superman movies. It truly fits in along the side of Superman I and Superman II as quality Superman movies. The effects are seamless and wonderful, the story, though a bit long in the tooth, works out well with very few plot holes and the mass majority of acting performances are very good.

When I first saw a picture of Superman actor Brandon Routh, I was slightly hesitant that he would be able to carry off the role of the world's greatest super hero. He looked a little young and seemed to have a smaller physique that you'd think "The Man of Steel" would have. But, Routh ended up winning me over in a big way. He nailed the role! He managed to keep the same attitude and cadence that Reeve captured years ago, while at the same time, making it his very own.

Both Kevin Spacey and Paker Posey do the villain schtick quite well. Although Spacey does a fine job as Lex Luthor, he still doesn't catch that sense of pure menace that Gene Hackman brought to the role back in '78. It's very close, but no cigar.

The "qualms and quibbles" I had with the movie? It was a bit long in the tooth, clocking in at nearly 3 hours. A LOT of this movie is ' set up' and prologue. They could have nipped and tucked a bit. There's also very few show down's or confrontations between Superman and the antagonists of this film. There's some great action sequences that are heart poundingly phenomenal, but when it came time for Supes to go at it with a little hand to hand ass kickery, there was seldom to nil to be found. Yawn.

All in all, this was a really enjoyable super hero film that, for me, brought a lot more to the table than X-Men:Last Stand did. Thumbs up.


War of the Worlds
I got to rent this one recently and have to admit, it wasn't bad at all. In fact, I was quite glued to the screen throughout the mass majority of this Sci-Fi thriller. This film is far more about human nature and the human condition than it is about giant, octopussian (yup... that's a word!) robotic androids taking over the earth. And it accomplishes this task without being preachy at all. On top of that, I was able to forget that Tom Cruise is this couch jumping, Xenu fearing wack-a-doo and really enjoy his performance in the film. Though, not the huge Sci-Fi epic it was advertised as being, Speilberg delivers a really good story that's worth the rental. Doubt I'd buy it, though. It's one of those movies that give you that, "Once I've seen it, I've seen it" feeling. Yet I still give it a thumbs up!


The Legend of Zorro
I may be in the minority here, but I really friggin' enjoyed the first movie, The Mask of Zorro, quite a bit. I loved the action sequences and choreography of the sword fighting. The story line was quite captivating and cleaver. On top of that you get to watch Catherine Zeta Jones for a few hours. That certainly won't make you tear your eyes out.

So when I saw there was a copy available to rent I grabbed at it for a weekend viewing. Here's what I found. Though, The Legend of Zorro is certainly an action, adventure movie that is quite engaging and entertaining, this episode seemed to drag a bit more than the last one. There's a lot of political intrigue (that is slightly on the preachy side) that slows the movie down a bit, but not to a grinding halt. There's still lots of sword play in this one, but nowhere near the amount that was in the first movie.

All performances are good although there is a slightly annoying "cute kid" in the movie. Not to fret! His role is tolleratable. Rufus Sewell is, once again, asked to portray the smarmy villain of the film and he does pretty good at it.

At the end of the day The Legend of Zorro is a fun little romp with not as much gusto as the first Zorro movie, yet it makes a fun little rental. Thumbs up, but not as high as the last Zorro flick.

Sky High
Usually I stay away from Disney produced teeny bopper tripe as though it were the bird flu. But, I had heard that if you've enjoyed comic books, you'll enjoy this little underrated gem. So, I, once again, threw my pride into the wind and went up to the rental counter with a copy of Sky High.

The premise to this film is that it takes place in a world where superheros are common and real. Many who show super gifts at a young age are sent to a high school for superhero's that is located on a floating platform high above the city (ala Nick Fury and S.H.E.I.L.D.'s hide-a-way). The story is a generic coming of age theme of how the young son of two famous superheros (Kelly Preston and Kurt Russell) finds his way and powers amongst the usual socio-political crap that most high schooler's face on a day to day basis.

My thoughts? The feel of the movie is quick and fun. There's a lot of enjoyable comic book cliche's thrown into the mix. Most of all there's a lot of actors in this movie I really dig! Kurt Russell (Big Trouble in Little China), Linda Carter (Wonder Woman), a couple of former cast memebers form Kids in the Hall and most appreciated.... BRUCE CAMPBELL.. CAMPBELL.. AMBELL.. ambell..ambell..mbell (echo mode off). Good o'l Bruce was in far more of the picture than you'd expect portraying a tough as nails gym teacher.

Final verdict: A fun movie that's surprisingly good. A great rental for the whole family. Well... most of the family. You better keep creepy uncle Eddie who smells like fish and "plays with his keys" most of the time out of the mix. Two Bruce Campbell lovin' thumbs up.


Last, but in no means least....

Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest
Out in out, the best movie I've seen so far this summer! It's an all out action, adventure, fantasy, horror picture. Right up my alley. Umm... not the alley with the dead hooker and vomit in the corner. The other alley.

Johnny Depp rocks as the lovingly sleazy Captain Jack Sparrow. His performance in this movie matches the enjoyment he brought you in the first one! He is the second best scoundrel (next to Han Solo) of movie history, in my opinion!

There's enough eye candy for you to swallow that you better get a diabetes test right after the showing. Both the special effects as well as the set production and props are all spot on and wonderful, transporting you back to the 1700's when Pirates roamed the sea. Fantastic I tell you.

Quibbles: It bothered me a bit that the movie does end on a major cliff hanger. We're not given at least one shred of closure in this one. Some critics have called this second installment to the POTC franchise as the Empire Strikes Back of the trilogy. I feel that at least at the end of Empire you were given a small shred of closure and hope. It felt like a complete chapter, where POTC:DMC ends with a "TO BE CONTINUED" feel. It's as though the first movie was book one and the second and third movies will equal out to be book two. I sort of feel there should be three equal books that are definitely intertwined, yet can each stand alone. But, it does leave me yearning for the next one not due until next summer.

There's also the fact that within the first hour, the plot is thrown at you at a ferocious pace. Then towards the last half of the movie, it tends to slow way down and drags out a bit. That's when you start feeling the full 2+ hours of the film.

But, this one will definitely sit within my DVD collection within the near future! Major thumbs up!!!!!


One for the road....

Kiss, Kiss, Bang, Bang
I didn't expect to see this film, but some friends had rented it when I was visiting them and we ended up watching it. I found it to be one of the most annoying, yet funny movies I've ever seen.

The Bad: The plot is absolutely all over the place. It is very hard to fallow at times. It has a lot of references and plot devices that only the socially elite who are immersed in the Hollywood movie world would really appreciate. Both the stars, Val Kilmer and Robert Downey Jr. talk so fast it's easy to miss what they're saying. You really don't want to miss anything they're saying because....

The Good: This movie has some of the funniest, most hysterical lines I've ever heard in a movie. You don't want to miss any of them 'cause you'll be regergatating these at the water cooler come Monday morning. Oh, and the female lead, Michelle Monaghan is pretty fantastic. Her first shot... wow. I nearly pulled an Uncle Eddie. Although the story is quite unfathomable and is all over the place, there are some incredibly clever moments here.

Definitely worth a peek, if for nothing else, some of the best lines I've heard in a movie in a long long time. Thumb up.


In other geekafying news....

I finally finished the Xbox game of X-Men: Legends. I enjoyed it as a good dose of both action RPG and team based combat. It's a good and long game. I think I clocked in a total of 51 hours playing it. I believe all RPG's should be epic and long and this game delivers! Visually its fun due to the fact that it has a cel shaded look to it reminiscent to cartoons and comic books. Unlike the movies, all the X-Men favorites are represented and you can pick and choose a group of four you want to use on each mission / level. Very cool. It is also very right on when it comes to the mythose of the X-Men. Something the movies have to start looking into. Especially after the last one!

Problems? Just a couple. There's a lot of camera stiffness in times when a full view of what is going on is direly needed. There's also the issue of the final battles and the learning curve. You do pretty fine throughout the levels, but when you fight the last boss, a mass majority of your team gets killed off very quickly. My suggestion, make sure each time you take on the huge sentinel robot make sure you have an X-Men that has some serious ranged attacks. If you have the credits, keep resuscitating that character after he/she gets killed off. Have that character continue to blast the giant sentinel over and over and over again with their ranged attacks. That's how I beat it.

I currently borrowed Xbox's Far Cry and am playing through it again since I never finished the last time. I also found a deal on the Xbox version of the game Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth based on the role playing game I run from time to time (I know, I know! Give me a flippin' date already, would you guys!). I'll let you know how that all works out.

Well, I've finished my prattling for today and am headed off to a cook out where I'll say 'Take care, but not good bye" to my friend, Carlo, whose Naval Reserve regiment is headed out to serve us in these troubles times. Please hoist a few to him and his regiment this weekend.

That's all, until next time,
"Kurt Cobain Ate my cricket's!"

Zangz.

Another Underachieving Blog Post..............

Well, here's hoping that you all had an Independence Day filled with boat loads of BBQ'd meats, lotsa beer and a plethora of explosives. And here's also hoping that the beer and explosives did not lead to anyone losing any appendages or trips to burn wards.


I still have yet to see Superman Returns. Even though a lot of the reviews are quite good, friends who've seen it are less than dazzled. I've heard the film does drag and that Superman doesn't have as much action in it as you would think. I'll have to find some time and see it for myself.

However, I will be seeing Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest this Sunday and I'll be sure to let you all know how that one came out.


I'm also growing closer to solidifying little project that's being cultivated. As I've hinted before, if this does come into fruition, I will be making a huge expansion in my already powerful media empire and one step closer to world wide domination...bwahahahah. Look at me! I'm MAD WITH POWER!!!! (screams Zangz, sitting all alone in his small, dusty one bedroom apartment wearing only his boxers while his only friend, a General Grievus action figure, looks on in despair).

Anyway, once I have something tangible and in the can, I'll make an announcement. So hold your water and be patient.


I'm so friggin' slow. I'm still plodding along with the Barb and J.C. Hende dark fantasy novel "Sister of the Dead". It's not that it's a slow moving book, it's trying to find time to read it.

I'm also still playing through X-Men: Legends on the Xbox. So far, a really fun game with one or two glitches as it were. I'll go over them here once I'm done with the game.

I also find myself, sneaking over to Roberto's house to play a little Oblivion, which is going well. I also have been going back to playing a bit of Oblivion's predecessor, Morrowind from time to time. I'm still finding quests, caves and tombs that I didn't come across the first time I played it. That's the wonderful thing about massive, open ended games. You can truly get lost in them.


Speaking of massive, open ended games, there's a game coming out in August called Saint's Row for the Xbox360. Apparently this is going to be their answer to the PS2's Grand Theft Auto series. So much so, in fact, that the play of the games are quite parrallel. You're a bad boy trying to move your way up in the gang and crime world of the virtual city of Stillwater. But unlike the GTA series, Saints Row is supposedly going to have far more customizable options when it comes to characters and cars. Plus, the graphics will be far better. We'll have to wait and see if Saints Row can steal open ended, virtual crime thunder from GTA.

Actually the '360 seems to have a couple of gems coming out that look good. Gears of War: Emergence Day, Shadow Run and Lego Star Wars II all look pretty darn fantastic. They just have start putting these games on the shelves PDQ since the Xbox360 is seriously lacking in variety of released games right now. I think I counted less than 20 titles on the store shelves the other day. After the '360's release 8 month ago, they better get crackin'


And speaking of crackin', I've got some errands to run this morning. So, until next time, I leave you with these wise words my father once told me....

"Stop touching yourself in public, damnit!"

Zangz.