I live near a hill where the forest is still lush and green.
Yes, the best time to be a gamer, Fall – Winter 2009 brings forth so many amazing games.
Game on! I mean Video Game on.. not that gambling game on. Trust me gambling is not cool.
As always click on the image for full sized goodness.
The Play offs have started.
The last hockey game I bought for full price was Wayne Gretzky’s 3D Hockey for the N64, since then I haven’t really fallen in love with any new hockey games. Sure, I’ve played my share but nothing has captured the frenzy of the old hockey games and has left me wondering if maybe my expectations are a bit too high. No, I haven’t been under a rock or anything, I’ve played and kept up to date on the newer NHL games but nothing has really stood out enough for me to merit a purchase.
When talks were brewing about NHL 2K10 utilizing the Wii Motion Plus accessory I was really excited to see how evolutionary this title might turn out to be. This excitement was due to the fact that the last sports title I played that utilized the Motion Plus was the excellent Tiger Woods 10. In the end it’s the actual utilization of this little gizmo that will either make or break this title.
So does NHL 2k10 have what it takes? READ MORE »
andPOP got the opportunity to try out 2K Sports’ latest hockey title, NHL 2K10. We had the chance to play the game and talk with the developers.
Primed Perfection
Developer Retro Studios has my heart, what they have managed to create over the last 7 years is nothing short of the most influential and loved series to ever grace any console.
On my list of favorite games 2002’s Metroid Prime for the GameCube ranks the highest, simply put I love this title.
Till this day I am astonished at how a once unknown developer has taken such a beloved franchise and moved it into the third dimension whilst maintaining the classic series feel and essence. Very few games can match the sheer mood and ambiance that the Metroid Prime series is known for.
When I found out that the entire Prime series was coming to the Wii on one disc I just couldn’t believe Retro studios was going jam pack all that awesome sauce into one piece of media. READ MORE »
Elementary my dear.
After almost a year and then some we finally get another Layton game in our grubby little hands. It’s sort of funny as I mentioned in the preview that Japan is on its 4th title and the series is fairly popular there and here is hoping it catches steam in North America. The title is developed by Level 5 who have been handling this small franchise called DRAGON QUEST. The thing that strikes me about The Professor Layton series is how it can be called a true successor to old-school point and click adventure games. Almost every artistic scenery is littered with interactive madness, whether it’s coins that need to be uncovered, a scene to be analyzed or your traditional brain teaser that needs to be solved. Combine the fact that the game follows a very well told story which runs at a decent 12 hours with over 150 puzzles and you have a solid title that is a must buy for gamers of any age group but especially those nostalgic for the old school adventure games. READ MORE »
Just when I thought Ryan Gosling couldn’t get any sexier. Well, he’s in a band now. Not just any band – a duo with his best friend (and sister’s ex-boyfriend) Zach Shields called Dead Man’s Bones featuring, throughout the entire album, the Silverdale Conservatory Children’s Choir.
The result: songs with titles like “My Body is a Zombie for You” (the chorus of which is shouted by the aforementioned children), set to ominous piano-folk and the Roy Orbison-esque voice of Gosling. The mood is something like the Billy the Kid scene from I’m Not There, and if that reference is too obscure, let’s just call it Halloween. In the video for the band’s first single, “In the Room Where You Sleep”, the choir is outfitted in an array of costumes from skeleton to pirate to ghost.
Gosling has clearly gotten into character yet again – he and Shields created their own label, Werewolf Heart, that will release the debut Never Let a Lack of Talent Get You Down this summer. (Werewolf Heart has also taken on upcoming releases from Ima Robot and The Goat.) And just this week, Dead Man’s Bones announced plans for a North American tour in October, with stops in Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver, and will include a local talent show before each performance.
At points, “The Time Traveler’s Wife” sheds new light into the romantic drama genre. But at others, it just gets old and fails the test of time.
The film – based on the hit novel by Audrey Niffenegger of the same title – revolves around Henry DeTamble (played by Eric Bana), a Chicago librarian with “Chrono Displacement” disorder, a condition which allows him to randomly disappear into both the past and the future without warning (otherwise known as time traveling). He tries to build a life with the woman of his dreams, a young artist named Clare Abshire (Rachel McAdams), but their relationship is tested when the couple is forced to part ways for long periods of time due to his condition.
We first meet Henry as a little kid who’s assured by an older version of himself, after going through a car accident that everything is going to “be okay.” Fast forward a few decades later and a 30 something Henry is greeted by Clare whose known him since the age of six – the problem is, he doesn’t have a clue who she is.
If you go into “Bandslam” with very low expectations, you’ll be pleasantly surprised that this PG movie isn’t half bad. In fact, there’s some great lines, characters and story arches (for a Disney-style movie).
The key word here is Disney-style because Bandslam is definitely a step up from its Disney Channel predecessors. And don’t let Mickey Mouse alumna Alyson Michalka (“Phil of the Future”) and Vanessa Hudgens (“High School Musical”) discourage you from seeing this movie because tween, tween parents and everyone in between can take something out of “Bandslam” (including a lesson by Michalka’s character on how to kiss).
Hudgens plays Sa5m (the five is silent and no, I’m not kidding). Sa5m’s a high school misfit with an artistic personality, who speaks slowly and with little tone because she used to stutter as kid. Charlotte (played by Michalka) is her complete polar opposite. The former blond cheerleader (who has her own wikipedia page) ditches pom poms for music during her senior year.
Note: If you’re already interested in seeing District 9 - you know the setup, you’ve seen the posters – go see it. Like all good stories, the best way to experience it is to know nothing about it going in. A word to the squeamish, however – this is a Peter Jackson production by the man who directed The Frighteners and the icky spider-pit sequence in King Kong, not the man who directed Heavenly Creatures or Lord of the Rings.
When we first meet Wikus Van der Merwe, we don’t really notice him; he’s one of many talking heads in the faux documentary that opens District 9, and he isn’t important. Others explain that in the 1980s an alien mothership appeared suddenly over Johannesburg, and that, after nothing happened (by all appearances, there was nothing to keep this ship from torching South Africa like the aliens in Independence Day) humans broke in and discovered a sickly race of alien refugees whose ship had literally run out of gas. Wikus (newcomer Sharlto Copley) is a cubicle drone tasked by MNU, the corporation that has kept the refugees under (debatable) control, to lead a team that will hand the aliens eviction notices, lending a sense of legitimacy to their forced extraction from District 9, the slums in which they currently reside, to District 10, which is more of a concentration camp. In his opening scenes, Wikus comes across as an officious bureaucrat who in any other movie would be the first to go, in a spectacular and probably funny manner. That appearance is crucial, because it means his ultimate role in the story is as much a surprise to the audience as it is to him. I can’t say that if Hitchcock made an alien invasion film Wikus would have been his protagonist, but I do think he would have been proud.
If “Paper Heart” doesn’t find a way into your heart, then you may just have the same problem Charlyne Yi has in the movie: the inability to understand love.
In this mockumentary that mixes reality with fiction, Yi goes on a quest across the United States to try and figure out this crazy little thing called love (but of course, with an abundance of awkward humour along the way).
The film kicks off with Yi in the midst of Las Vegas, approaching strangers and asking them about love. This continues throughout the entire movie as she goes from state to state trying to figure out what love feels like, and it seems like it’s something everyone from bikers to little kids, novelists, divorce lawyers and celebrities have a say in.
This is the premise of “Paper Heart,” a film Yi co-wrote, executive produced and stars in. However, the movie isn’t just about Yi interviewing Americans about love. See, the cameras don’t just follow Yi during her interviews, they’re supposedly rolling around the clock, including a party where she meets Canadian funnyman Michael Cera (who like Yi, plays himself in this movie).
This really shakes up the film as now her quest to find love reaches a new personal and urgent level. As usual, Michael Cera plays the same uncomfortable character he always does, but he’s clearly great at it so I’m not one to complain. However, this time he’s been paired up with someone equally (if not more) socially inept: Yi. Together they create unconventional movie magic moments (which is really refreshing) and will definitely have you laughing.
