Honky dory TAB

"We've already had some of the big bombshells of 2007 come out already, including the big boys like Halo 3, Heavenly Sword, and Ratchet and Clank Future: Tools of Destruction... but what's still coming down the pipeline? Guitar Hero III will be out tomorrow, and the rest of October and all of November are bringing a ton of great games out for every platform from the Xbox 360 to the Nintendo DS.

Megatonik has put together a great list, chock full of release dates and goodies, or what's left in store for the rest of this year. Chances are once these games start dropping, you're not going to have much left in your wallet for the holidays. So it's time to start figuring out where you're going to get that cash from and get your game on."

source - Joystiq

Labels: games

Plot: California is at the epicenter of a political and environmental disaster that threatens to destroy the world in this ambitious fusion of comedy, drama, dystopia science fiction, and music. In the year 2005, a nuclear attack wipes out part of the state of Texas, and three years later America is a virtual police state, with the government taking control of nearly every part of people's lives, supposedly for their own good. A German firm has found a way to generate energy using seawater, but both public and private concerns are desperate to prevent the new technology from being introduced in the gasoline-starved United States. A Marxist underground based on the West Coast is determined to bring down the federal government through violent revolution. In this midst of this chaos, we follow a number of stories that continually return to three principle characters. Boxer Santaros (Dwayne Johnson, aka The Rock) is an actor famous for his role in action films; he's trying to secure financing for a new project, but reality keeps mirroring the events in his script and he struggles to hold on to his identity following a bout with amnesia. Krysta Now (Sarah Michelle Gellar) is a porn star who is reinventing herself as a television pundit offering her views on politics, contemporary culture, and teenage sex. And Roland Taverner (Seann William Scott) is an L.A. police officer whose identity has mysteriously split in two and he struggles to track down his other half.

Lost track of it all? Thats what can be expected from Director Richard Kelly (Donnie darko). You dont get any wiser watching the trailer either which means that this is a must see movie in my book.

Check out the trailer here: http://www.apple.com/trailers/independent/southlandtales/

Ohh yes.. Its been quite a wait but soon the orange box will be mine. What is the orange box? gasp! shock! awe!

Well, the Orange Box includes the original Half Life 2 game, Episodes One and Two, Team Fortress 2, and an additional single-player game called Portal.



The game Im most exited about is Portal. I will of course play episode 2 and TF2 as well, but Ive been playing the TF2 Beta for quite some time now. But it is portal that I find the most interesting. Since its premise is so groundbreaking.

"Players must solve physical puzzles and challenges by opening portals to maneuvering objects, and themselves, through space."

Its a solve`em up type of game. No killing, no bosses, no storyline. Its just you and you gravity gun and a whole lot of puzzles. YAY!



So in two hours its go time! Then steam will opens its grip on the games and they shall pour into my hardrive and keep me awake!

Yep, I know what you're thinking, and you're right. It was 1988.



(More videos from Flight of the Conchords)

Ok.. yet another WW2 shooter from EA. Lets get it out in the start. It dosent suck. Its not a big woop either but there is a bit a fun to be had in this game. The new "feature" this time is that you start your mission from a airplane and that you drop down onto a map. Yeah, the consept is that the whole map is open so that its up to you to choose where to land and start you mission. Its a great consept but dosent really add anything to the overal game-experience. Its way better then the liniar scripting that has plauged the franchise so far but you still have a set amount of objectives to go trough. And once you get the hang of steering the parachute you quickely discover that you cannot land exactly where you want. But cudos to EA. The parachuting is a fun minigame when you die and was new enough to hook me in yet again. *throws fist in air* The game is afot EA, the game is afot...

This game is powerd by the Unreal engine and it looks good but just good. The levels are way to static and alot of seen it before scenarios. Its all very grey and brown. Like most "realistic" games nowadays. What irritates me the most is that most items in the world that you incounter is deadstuck in the scenary. The effects of books and halfbroken bookshelvs flying trough the front door after you lob a grenade in to the room is nonexistent. Instead you get some smoke that clears up within 1-2 seconds. There is the occasional nazi-helmet flying through the air after a clean shot but thats about it. Its a shame that they dident include destructible enviroments or at least the ability to knock over cover. Another thing is that enemies have a tendency of spawning right infront of you. This dosent happen alot but its noticable. The physics on the soldiers is completly bonkers. You hit a guy in the toe with your M1 Garand Rifle and the german flys over the entire level. When are they going to work with "euphoria"!

. The game also suffers from bad/lazy level designing as I could easilytry to land somewhere I wasent supposed to and just sail straight-through the map

AI is another issue. Even the enemys from delta force 1 was better then this. They arent very smart but at least they are agressive and nade-happy, resulting in alot of frantic battles. Hit detection is extremely bad here as it tok several shots before they even registred. While theirs are top-notch and can hit you from the other side of the map with any gun whatsoever. You cant sneak up on the guys either. Its impossible!. Its like they have a eye in their back or something. Also attacking them from the rooftops is pointless since the they see you as soon as you see them. Event though you only see their backs. What kind of world do we live in where you cant sneak up on a german? Your team comerades Ai is sometimes useful, but other times they don't do anything at all when fired upon and often just get in your way blocking your view. The aiming is also for some reason hard to get used to. This plus the fact that the enemy animations blend together sporadic makes it more difficult then it should be.



The new cover mechanics works best on 360 where you have the pressure sensetive thumb-buttons. On pc you dont. This dident ruin anything for me while I was playin on the pc. It just made me stick my head out more then I wanted

Sound is decent. Some of the guns have a distinct sound and really sounds powerful but most sound like a duckwhistle. Although nais at certain key spots, its become a standard and is extremely over-used. It feels almost like a parody of itself



EA has included a upgrade system for you weapons so that your weapons can be upgraded three times as you progress through the game. This will add better stabilisation or a bigger clip size. You have a certain criteria that you have to make inorder to upgrade your weapons. Like exp: 3 headshots, or 5 kills in a row. The effect is really satisfying when you get a marksman or sharpshooter commedation award. I dident really get to test this out propperly since I just knicked two german weapons and stuck with them for the whole duration of the game cause they where the most effective.

All in all, the one real reason for why I keep on playing was because of the whole arcade nostalgi of the first "mohaa" and its still here. That keept me going to the real treat in this game. The 3 last levels in this short campaign is a real throwback to the castle wolfenstein genere, as you have to fight of these minibosses. A waffen SS ubersoldat gassmask wearing guy with a mean MG3. (think the enemies in Jin-Rô and you get the idea) There was also a level thats covered with snipers which was so injoyable since it was so far out there from what you expected from EA. Same with the level where you have a huge weapons bunker that you have to wade trough. But the game itself is short. Its about 5-7 levels and took me about 6-7 hours to complete.

Its a shame that not more ideas was put into this game. It feels like a polished version of the first Medal of honor game only with updated graphics and a tacked on parachute feature to make it seem like the levels are "open" and give that sandbox feel. Since most of the objectives can only be approched from one direction, it makes the parachute feature feel redundent.

Pros: Graphics look nais. Satisfying upgrade weapons system. Wolfenstein references is always a plus =d

Cons: The genere is done to death and adding anything new to this gametype is just impossible. First half of game is a dull afair. Parachuting/open level aspect of the gameplay isent really open ended enough, short

6 / 10

Labels: Game review, games

Stand-up Rhys Darby has landed a key role in Jim Carrey’s new movie, Yes Man.



The film is an adaptation of Danny Wallace’s autobiographical book about his decision to say ‘yes’ to whatever he was asked to do. The story revolves around Jim Carrey`s character Karl who is stuck in a boring job, he’s divorced from his wife and all his mates are sick of him because he never goes out. That’s until he gets involved in the Yes Project to say “yes” to everything. Rhys Darby will play his boss

Who is Rhys Darby you might say? Well, he is a London-based New Zealander (spin the globe!) He has been in stand-up for quite some time but he landed the role on the back of the success of exellent HBO series Flight Of The Conchords thats currently airing, in which he plays Murray, the hapless manager of the New Zealand folk band trying to make it big in america

Check him out here:

Plot: When young Victor's pet dog Sparky (who stars in Victor's home-made monster movies) is hit by a car, Victor decides to bring him back to life the only way he knows how. But when the bolt-necked "monster" wreaks havoc and terror in the hearts of Victor's neighbors, he has to convince them (and his parents) that despite his appearance, Sparky's still the good loyal friend he's always been

"Is Tim Burton working on a feature length adaptation of his classic animated short "Frankenweenie"? While nothing is confirmed yet there are rumors swirling that Burton and stop-motion master Henry Selick (NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS) will reteam for a feature adaptation of Burton's 1984 Disney short. The rumors got started when Disney chairman Dick Cook was asked about the future of animation at the studio. He, of course, talked about their much bally-hooed PRINCESS AND THE FROG and then let it slip that they're working on a new stop-motion project. Ain't It Cool then got a heads up that said project was Burton and Selick working on FRANKENWEENIE. Even AICN says this is just a rumor at this point but certainly a definite possibility for the project Cook was referring to in his Q&A. Interesting that Disney would want to make a movie out of the film after they initially refused to release the short believing it was too dark for Disney audiences. Burton is currently wrapping up SWEENEY TODD while Selick directs CORALINE based on the Neil Gaiman novel."

Source: Ain't It Cool News by: Mike Sampson

Extra Tidbit: "Frankenweenie" was finally officially released by Disney as an extra on the NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS DVD.