A Big Red Dude, a Few Games, and The Cookie Blog

Good morrow dear readers, I have much to say. First of all, I've started a new blog with several of my good friends that is entirely focused on cookies. The work is primarily done by resident food connoisseur Scott, but I'm planning to do quite a bit of guest posting. For now, head on over to A Lot of Cookies for a few posts on some delicious chocolate chip cookies from a local bakery.


Last Friday I was able to attend a showing of Hellboy II: The Golden Army. Essentially the film provides incredible fan service to Hellboy fans everywhere with a superb recreation of the dark humor from the comic. The story is fantastic, well written, and fast paced. The characters are immensely charming and provide great entertainment. Guillermo del Toro, the visionary director behind Pan's Labyrinth, uses the film as a giant playground for his imagination, with the Troll market scene standing out as one of the most novel sequences put to film since that vibrant saloon on Tatooine where we became acquainted with Luke, Han, and Obi Wan. I very much enjoyed this film with its droll humor and sarcastic tone. Ron Perlman has a sharp wit and a great presence on screen as the charismatic lead character. The supporting cast is nearly as good and really makes the film come together as something special. I highly recommend Hellboy II, especially if you like superhero movies, comic books, or just anything nerdy in general. Check it out.

I've also finished a few games that I'd like to comment on. After finishing Metal Gear Solid 4, I feel that I need to revise my initial impressions. While the plot is fairly interesting, the cutscenes just became too much to bear. I finished the game in 21 hours, and all joking aside, the cutscenes comprised at least 15 hours of that time. The gameplay is very tight, but not good enough to justify the insanely long and gratuitous cutscenes. Unless you are a huge Metal Gear fan, I would imagine that you will not enjoy this game very much. The story is incredibly confusing and absurd, and really is not worth following unless you've been following along for years.

Just to give you some perspective on how massive the story truly is, I'd like to describe the Metal Gear Solid Encyclopedia. A week or so after release, this enormous game add on appeared on the PSN. The Metal Gear Solid Encyclopedia is essentially Wikipedia for MGS. It is a 73 MB download comprised of mostly text. Do you have any idea how much raw information that is? I spent 3 hours reading article after article and made it through maybe 5% of the content. The time investment required to understand the story is simply mindblowing, so if you're looking for some quick, passive entertainment, this is not the right game. After finishing MGS4 and having some time to reflect on it, I'd give it a respectable 8.0/10. I would however, not recommend that you not play it if you're not already familiar with the world of Metal Gear and Hideo Kojima's outrageous eccentricities.

I also played Battlefield: Bad Company for the Xbox 360. The guys at DICE are very talented indeed, making some of the best multiplayer shooters out there, with the Battlfield series earning millions of fans worldwide. It's for good reason too- Battlefield features a very hectic and thrilling multiplayer mode. The explosions and effects of the brand new Frostbite engine are superb and make the game feel incredibly immersive. Unfortunately, there are a few drawbacks to the game. First of all, the game sets out to be funny while at the same time throwing players into an intense war zone. The humor really brings you out of the experience- you are supposed to be engaged in a pulse-pounding thrillride while all of your supporting players crack juvnile jokes? I think not. In addition, the single player campaign has a weak and rather mediocre story. I found it to be aggressively average and was not particularly impressed. The game as a whole also has a slightly poor aiming and control scheme. It's very difficult to say how exactly this feels, but if you play BF:BC side by side with Call of Duty 4 or Halo 3, you will know what I mean. These AAA shooters just have tighter gameplay and smoother aiming. I'm also very critical of the damage system. It takes an incredible amount of direct hits to kill someone and the damage is not at all realistic. By my count, it takes roughly 5 headshots to kill someone with a full machine gun. This is simply unacceptable. This game does not claim to be Halo, which acknowledges that players have thick armor and shields. I am somehow supposed to believe that a .45 caliber machine gun round to the bare skull of an ordinary man from 3 meters does almost nothing? Please. If you are looking for a good millitary shooter, just play Call of Duty 4 instead. I give BF:BC a 7.0/10.


Finally, I'll give a quick review of Unreal Tournament III. UT is the king of classic 90's twitch shooters, offering incredibly fast paced gameplay. The gore level is way over the top, with most weapons causing other players to explode into chunks of meat. If you don't like incredibly fast paced, twitchy, and violent gameplay, this game is not for you. If you're into Quake, Unreal, or TimeSplitters, this game is for you. UT III is the pinnacle of twitch gameplay, and I've been having a great time with this game. Not only are multiplayer matches fun, but bot AI is amazing. The programmers that worked on the AI should all be given raises for their incredible AI. The medium level bots are good, but the higher level bots really are something to behold. I highly recommend this game and give it an 8.5/10.

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Some Indie Films and a Bit about Spain

Greetings dear readers, it has been some time since we've had a chat. For the most part, I've been either working or up north in Door County where, tragically, we have no internet. I know what you are thinking, and no, I don't know how I made it either. At any rate, I have returned.

Euro 2008 finished with an epic 1-0 match with Spain defeating Germany. Fernando "El Nino" Torres scored for Spain in the 33rd minute with a superb individual effort. He finished with poise and class after a 40 yard run on the ball- it was simply sensational. Spain was finally able banish their curse and succeed in the late rounds of a major tournament after years of repeated failure. For their part, Germany did not play a very classy match, with several intentional fouls and all around poor play. Spain indeed deserved to win the match, with outstanding play by Casillas, Torres, Fabregas, and Ramos. I tip my hat to the Spanish squad for a memorable Euro 2008 campaign.

Spain had a bit more luck with their athletes after Rafa Nadal won the Wimbledon Final over Roger Federer. I believe I've said before that I've just watched "the finest match ever" but I must say that this one tops them all. The match lasted for 4 Hours and 48 Minutes, the longest Wimbledon Final ever. Nadal triumphed as the sun was setting and the light was fading just seconds past 9:15 PM. The final score of 6-4, 6-4, 6-7, 6-7, 9-7 is just a testament to how close in skill these two players are. The match consisted of one amazing shot after another, with each man looking nigh superhuman at several key moments. After the match, both players were pure class, congratulating one another, exchanging hugs, and behaving like true gentlemen. Federer was gracious in defeat, praising Nadal's outstanding play and shot making, while Nadal was utterly humble in his victory, freely admitting that Federer was a great champion and a master of his craft. I give credit to both of these men for their grace, class, passion, and fierce competitive spirit. In the words of John McEnroe, "If this doesn't get people excited about our great sport, I don't know what will."

I've also been to the movies quite a few times over the past few weeks. I saw WALL-E on opening day at the UltraScreen at about 10:00 PM. Thankfully we avoided all the kiddies and had a pretty good crowd. The film was so brilliant that I was back in the same theater just after noon on the very next day for a repeat viewing. There is not too much to say about WALL-E because you already know what's coming. Pixar has a reputation for making high quality films, and they have never really faltered. Just as with previous films, the animation is at the top of its class. The first bit of the film is set on Earth far in the future, when it has become overrun with garbage. The animation in this bit of the film is simply mindblowing, with thousands upon thousands of objects all flawlessly rendered and detailed. I simply do not know how the animators at Pixar were able to pull this off, but they have never ceased to amaze me. The film is very short on dialog, but again, Pixar is simply masterful at saying a lot without... saying a lot. The story is top notch, the characters are loveable and endearing, the animation is stellar, and WALL-E is one of the top 3 films of the year period. If you haven't seen it, I encourage you to do so at your earliest convenience.


Timur Bekmambetov, the visionary director behind Night Watch and Day Watch, has finally directed his first English language film, Wanted. American audiences who are not into indie films (Night/Day Watch are really out there and completely in Russian) will finally get a taste of Bekmambetov's unique imagination in a wide release film. James McAvoy gives a believable and compelling performance as mild mannered Wesley Gibson. Wesley leads a rather pitiful existence with a girlfriend that cheats on him with his best friend, a low-level job, and a boss that repeatedly emasculates him. Oh, and he's broke. And he sufferes from debilitating anxiety. Essentially, his life sucks. Suddenly, Angelina Jolie (codename "Fox") breaks into the scene with her massive lips flappin' in the wind and tells Wesley that he is the to succeed his recently deceased father in The Fraternity, a secret group of assassins who maintain order in the world by killing people. (Ironic much?) It's hard to talk much about the rest of the film without spoiling the plot, so I won't. If you enjoy lots of insane action, car chases, gun play, knife battles, and gratuitous gore, this movie is for you. If not, you may wish to pass. This was the perfect summer film and is easily entertaining enough to be worth your $9.

Next up is Jellyfish, a little known film from Israel. The film is a whimsical slice-of-life affair, following the lives of three women in present day Israel. Although there is little to criticize about the quality of the film and the depth of the characters, this film does not make a whole lot of sesne. Perhaps I'll understand it better if I watch it a few more times, but after Claire and I left the theater, we essentially stared at one another dumbfounded. Either we clearly missed something crucial or this film is flat out hard to understand. If you're interested in an offbeat comedy about rather ordinary people, check this one out. Then send me a message and explain what was going on.

Finally, I just got out of Mongol a few hours ago and it's fresh in my mind. Mongol chronicles the rise of Genghis Khan, the legendary Mongolian emperor who ruled over the largest contiguous empire in human history. Covering an area of 33 million km (^2), the Mongolian Empire was home to over 100 million people. Just to put those numbers in perspective, that is 22% of the total landmass on earth and approximately 30% of the world population.

Mongol is a deep and engaging look at the early life of Genghis Khan and provides a fascinating backstory for one of history's greatest rulers. The film itself is wonderfully shot, with excellent camera work and cinematography. Mongol is an epic unlike any other, putting many recent Hollywood blockbusters to shame. The film is as historically accurate as it possibly can be (there is little writting information about the life of the great Khan) and it is still an thrilling story. This is a testament to how extraordinary man Genghis Khan truly was. Although the film is in Mongolian, I highly recommend this excellent historical epic.

"42 is The Answer to Life, the Universe, and Everything. "

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