Comics, Games, Movies & More

In the beginning there was Guitar Hero. After a sequel Rock Band was born. It added two important things to the Guitar Hero series; full band experience and competition. Along the way a few bastards were born, games that wanted to be Heroes, but just couldn’t live up to it. ShredMaster I’m talking about you.

Now that guitar based music games have been beaten to death, Activison has moved on to something new. Something called Dj Hero (official site). As the title describes you take the roll of a Dj. News Djs are equipped with a turntable, original mixes and pixilated rave girls. I was only able to play a demo of it, but what a demo it was.

The game obviously plays similar to the other Hero games. The turntable has three buttons green, red and blue. To the side there is the cross-fader, which i personally think is the hardest part of the game-play. The turntable actually turns and is also incorporated in the game-play. If you have played Beatmainia than you have effectively played Dj Hero. The concepts are the same, but Dj Hero is noob friendly.

For veterans of rhythm games the learning curve may be about 30 minutes to an hour. For those who aren’t so talented be prepared to give up you social life for a day.

From the demo I played Dj Hero is looking pretty good. The mixes are fun a play, and are pretty awesome to listen to. I’m not a Dj, so i can’t tell how authentic the experience is, but there were actually Djs in the development process. The game is going to be hard at first, but after a few days everyone should have the hang of it.

Dj Hero is a relatively fresh concept. I’m glad they are stepping away from the guitar games and doing something new.

Game Crazy’s all of over Arizona are gearing up for a dark few weeks. It has been made official that Movie Gallery Inc., Game Crazy’s mother corporation, is going to be closing down the majority of Game Crazy’s in Arizona. After the liquidation sales no more than ten Game Crazy’s will be left in Arizona.

This is terrible news; however it’s not all bad. Liquidation sales mean everything has to go. For bargain buyers Christmas has come a couple months early. Starting in a week or so the closing stores will have their entire stock 30% off. In the following weeks the discount will increase to 40%, 50% and possibly 75%.

The unfortunate stores are receiving old titles while shipping newer titles out. Their inventory will contain massive amounts of older titles, especially PS2 games. If you are still sporting Sony’s little guy these sales will have something for you. Expect to see lots of Game Boy Advanced games, Psp and Ds games also.

The sale is all fine and well, but the disaster does not go unnoted. Stores are closing, meaning Game Crazy is not making enough money. If they are having such a bad year, what are the projections for next year? With less than ten stores still open at the end of this year Game Stop is going to have Game Crazy severely out numbered. I don’t expect to see another buy-out like the case of EB Games, but future is not looking too good for Game Crazy, or Movie Gallery as a whole.

So yesterday was a pretty good day for me. Went to school. Went to work. Oh, and i checked out Halo3: ODST.(Amazing live-action trailer)

ODST’s single player is a step up from the previous three. It is refreshing to play as someone besides Master Chief, or the Arbiter. ODSTs, Orbital Drop Shock Trooper, are more mortal than the Chief and you’ll notice that early on. In Halo 3 taking down a wave of Grunts and Brutes was child’s play. You had your battle rifle and favorite second weapon and went to town. In Halo3: ODST you hope you have enough ammo in your pistol; you pray that you have a sniper rifle; and you take things slow. If you can always keep a sniper rifle handy. From what i saw the story seems to have much to offer. I have hopes for plot, unlike the confounding Halo storyline.

People have talked about how big the free roaming section of the game is, but experiencing it is beyond words. There is nothing like walking down a desolate street and turning a corner to find Covenant ready to kill you. Another interesting thing is that scenarios don’t reset if you run away. After you retreat to get health packs and weapons don’t be surprised if the Covenant has moved on.

Halo3: ODST is a great game. I can’t wait to own it in a few days. Tommrow i should have some offscreen photos so check em out.

When I first saw the trailer for 9 I thought, “Wow! It’s Little Big Planet with Coheed & Cambria in the background!” Seeing little Sack Boys fighting robotic-animal-beast with Welcome Home in the background was more then enough to get me interested. Soon after the trailer I found Director Shane Ackes’s short film of the same name. The feature is based on his original short film of the same name.

The movie takes place in the near future, when machines have won the war against humans. Imagine the scenes from Meet the Robinson where the Helping Hat changed the future. Now imagine instead of the humans running and screaming they are all on the ground dead. That is the world of 9.

The movie starts with the hero of the film, #9 (voiced by Elijah Wood), awaking. Once he awakens 9 quickly gets a feel for the world. He meets another Sack Boy called #2 (voiced by Martin Landau). Soon after they meet #2 is captured by a Beast, robotic-animal monster. With #2 gone #9 is alone in the world again.

#9 rather quickly finds the resolve to rescue his new friend. Along the way he meets others like him. #1 (voiced by Christopher Plummer) the groups makeshift leader; #3 and #4 mute twins that specialize is archiving; #5 (voiced by John Reilly) cowardly medic; #6 (voiced by Crispin Glover) troubled artist; #7 (voiced by Jennifer Connelly) the lone warrior; and #8 (voiced by Fred Tatasciore) the muscle. The adventure to rescue #2 becomes much more. They discover the secrets of their creation and the key to a peaceful future.

The atmosphere of 9 dark and the animation fits it beautifully. Post-apocalyptic has been done over and over, but seeing it in 9 is a little different. There is scene where #8 nonchalantly sits on a dismembered hand, or when #9 simply walks by a corpse. The casual manner they have about the human carnage is eerie and interesting. The action sequences in 9 are a treat. You get to watch little Sack boys fighting robotic-animal monsters. Despite how good 9 looks it can’t make up for its lack of substance.

There is not much going on in 9 plot-wise. The plot is painfully straightforward, and the characters don’t have a chance to develop. The movie is only a bit over an hour so the characters don’t really change from their earlier descriptions. There are a few exceptions #5 does rise the occasion and help the team. #9 does change, but he takes a rapid route on generic sc-fi protagonist archetype. The plot is as straightforward as the characters. They set out to do something. They accomplish it. They get chased. They fight back. The movie ends.

If you have some free time I would recommend going to see 9. The movie may not do much, but it is a delight to watch. The battle scenes are epic, and almost make up for lack of story.

Disney is in the process of buying out Marvel. This 4 billion dollar deal will undoubtedly change the way Marvel brands are distributed, but what about one Square Enix/Disney franchise. Click here for the full story on the Disney/Marvel deal.

Kingdom Hearts is a combination of Square Enix story telling filled with Disney Magic. It brings Disney characters like Aladdin, Alice, Tarzan and Mulan together with Square Enix characters such as Aaron, Squall, and Arieth to make a crossover of epic proportions. Since Disney will acquire over 5000 Marvel characters could this mean Sora, Goofy and Donald will get some super hero aid?

Seeing Sora fighting alongside heroes like Spiderman, Iron Man or Captain America would be an amazing surprise for fans of the franchise. My hopes for the next installment in Kingdom Hearts have escalated to a new level due to this news.

Dissidia: Final Fantasy was released Wednesday, Aug. 21st. Dissidia is a major Final Fantasy crossover, bringing heroes and villains from the first ten proper Final Fantasy games. From the Warrior of Light to Jecht everyone is here, and everyone is down for a fight. The game play is fun, the voice acting is neither here nor there and the soundtrack is amazing. Dissidia does so many things right, but only one thing wrong.

Dissidia lacks one thing that all fighting games should have; online multiplayer. It does however support ad hoc, Psp’s wifi network. For he fortunate this won’t seem like a problem at fight. A close group of friends is enough to keep a good fighting game active. For the unfortunate this problem will become noticeable faster.

Dissidia’s Quick Battle mode is a great alternative for those who don’t have anyone to play against. Players fight against a character of their choosing. It is challenging and entertaining, but lacks the human interaction.

In Dissidia’s defense online multiplayer is still out of reach for most Psp games. The lack of online multiplayer won’t stop fans from purchasing the game. Playing Dissidia online may be a pipe dream, but so was playing Pokemon online. Hopefully in the next installment, if they make another one, online multiplayer will be standard. Dissidia’s lack of online multiplayer is no reason to skip the purchase. It is however a good reason to make new friends.

Will you aid Cosmos or follow Chaos?

Street Fighter IV was able to raise an enormous amount of hype for the Street Fighter franchise. Riding on that hype was the movie Street Fighter:Legend of Chun-Li. Instead popularizing Street Fighter, this movie brought that hype crashing down.

A good live-action Street Fighter movie. That is the dream of many fans, but twice now have those dreams been dashed. The first time was back in 1994 when Jean-Claude Van Damme took the stage as Guile. The movie bad, but at least it was cheesy about it so kids could get enjoyment from it.

Street Fighter: Legend of Chun-Li is a bad movie, and to make it worse it was a serious movie. Kristin Kreuk, who is not a martial artist, leads the movie as Chun-Li. This is the second mistake of the movie, the first being not going strait to DVD. Kristin Kreuk is not a bad actress, but that is not the problem. She is playing Chun-Li, a martial artist, which Kreuk is not. This means wires, and mediocre fight scenes. A Street Fighter movie should not partake in wires and mediocre fight scenes.

Despite the vast amounts of bad this movie had, it did have a bit of good. Michael

Clarke Duncan is the only saving grace of Street Fighte: Legend of Chun-Li. He plays a great Balrog. Balrog is a pretty simple character. All Balrog does is punch people and act badass, and Duncan does both so well.

If you are looking for a good movie skip Street Fighter, and go strait for Watchmen. If you are slighty masochist then Street Fighter: Legend of Chun-Li is right up your alley

Australia is conservative when it comes to games. The country has set bans on Grand Theft Auto, Manhunt and even Blitz: The League. They have banned so many games over the years, but Australia is not done yet. Now Australia is turning their eyes towards MMOs, massively-multilayer- online game. The country wants to make it illegal to sell any unrated MMO game.

This makes little to no sense for many of reasons. The first thing is that most MMOs are not mature games. The content alone does not welcome anything more then a T, teen, rating. The problem begins with community. The people who play MMOs are the ones that warp the rating system. People are what add the language and sexual content to the game. This is the reason why MMOs have gone unrated for so long. Its not possible for the ESRB to rate a game passed on the communit instead of content.

How does Australia plan on rating a games in which the content varies from day to day? I don’t have a clue, but i do know that this ban is hurting the developers on World of Warcraft. Blizzard is losing a nation full of subscribers thanks to the ban. I am not a fan of Blizzard, but i do have respect for the company. What Australia is doing is causing ripples in a perfectly calm ocean.For more information of the original article visit GameSpy.com

I hope this trend does not spread. A world without online gaming is no better than a boxed jigsaw puzzle

Today is Monday, January 26th and that means a few things. Thousands are suffering from Monday Syndrome, hundreds of high school students have ditched school, and Phoenix Comicon is now over. It was a great convention filled with guest appearances, competitions, comics, games, anime and much more. Now that its over, and all the costumes are put away it time for a review.

The layout of the event was great. It required lots walking, but if they did it any other way it would have been too cramped. The comic and game sections were in two different building and for good reason. Separating the two areas gave people ample space to enjoy the outside. Games were played on the grass and people rolled downed hills enjoying the day. Some families even picnicked outside enjoying the weather and the numerous cosplayers.

The game room was perpetually packed. The had a number of games for everyone to play. Including: Street Fight 3: Third Strike, Street Fight 2: H.D Remix, Marvel v. Capcom 2, Super Smash Brothers Brawl, Rock Band 2 and Guitar Hero World Tour. On Sunday they even brought in Street Fighter 4, which doesn’t come out till February 17, and Deadly Creatures, a game that is being developed here in Arizona for the Wii. In one of the larger rooms they even held a rave. People were free to have their fill of raving from 7:30- 12:00 a.m on Thursday through Saturday. On Sunday in the same room they held an auction for assorted artworks. They sold for a rang of prices. Many sold for around 30 dollars and some even reached over 100 dollars.

They had a number of tournaments throughout the weekend. The Rock Band tournament was especially fun. the tournament was a two stage compaction. About 18 bands entered and from that 18 only 5 would enter thee final round. My friends and I rocked the audience with our performance of Almost Easy, by Avenenged Seven Fold, and Anyway You Want it by Journey. We ended taking third place. The first place band was 60 19 and they were the lucky winners of 100 dollars. We quickly recovered from our disappointing defeat, because Phoenix Comicon is too much fun for anyone to be sad.

Another good part of Comicon was the Vender Hall. If you went to Comicon to spend money there is no doubt you spent a considerable amount of time there. Atomic Comics had the biggest display in that area. Almost all of there comics were 10% off and some figures reached up to 40% off. Sadly, i was too late to get my hands on the comics i was looking for. A number of other stores displayed their wares. The most expensive thing i saw was a simple, or at least i thought it was, cover for the grafic novel We3. The vender told be is cost in the thousands of dollars. At that point i walked away baffled.

Besides the discounts there was a fair bit of over priced candy. A box of Pocky went for 3.99 and Hi-Chu was about 2.50. There are about three options in regards to food an conventions. Bring your own. Bring a considerable amount of money and live off candy or be smart about it and lunch at a near by restaurant.

This convention also had a number of panels. A few for fun and some a bit more serious and educational. I did venture into a few including Asians in America and Writing an Epic Story.

Asians in America was a real fun and funny panel. It was a simple Q and A style panel. The panel consisted of five young Asian-Americans. They were led by popular cosplayer who goes by Gackto. The questions ranged from serious to Family Guy references. It was a fun hour full of jokes and constant laughter.

Writing an epic story featured three fantasy authors. Keven Anderson, author of the Dune series. James Owen, author and illustrator of Chronicles of the Imaginarium Geographica. They gave tips on writing an epic story for all who were willing to listen. They gave their opinions on questions from the audience, but they never took themselves too seriously. They laughed a joked together about certain aspects of the genera. They were also very livid about there personal pet peeves of the genre

A number of people made guest appearances. Lou Ferrigno, Hulk, form The Incredible Hulk tv series and Peter Mayhew, Chewbacca, from Star Wars just to name a few.

Phoenix Cactus Comicon was the source of one of my best weekends in a long time, and I don’t think I’ll ever forget my first convention. The next convetion in Arizona is Anizona in early April. Hope to see you there so you can experience a convention first hand.

“Epic”

‘nough said