Since Filipinos in general are quite fond of American culture, it’s no surprise we’ve taken to one of their iconic pop culture icons, Archie Andrews and his merry gang from Riverdale. I, as a young teen, used to collect the single and double digest versions of the comics and read them fervently like, I imagined, every other kid in the world was doing at the time. So imagine my surprise when I learned during my 8 year stay in Sydney, Australia that almost no one there has ever read Archie comics, with some people having never even heard of it in the first place. This got me to thinking, “Why then is the popular title and its characters so endearing to Filipinos?” Read the rest of this entry »
Let’s face it, the Decepticons had way cooler names than the do goody Autobots. I mean, the name Decepticons is great in itself. So to coincide with the release of Revenge Of The Fallen (which I will see and probably not enjoy just like the first movie), here is my Top 5 list of Transformers baddies’ names. I never watched any Transformers cartoons past the 1986 movie so I only included characters that I actually know. [Note: All art taken from deviantart, click on preview for the full version: all credit goes to original artist.]
5. Bonecrusher
- wikipedia entry – Mean name, and a Constructicon to boot. He also gave Optimus a run for his money in the 2007 film albeit in the end, his head got skewered by Prime’s sword(!)
Boredom has gotten the better of me yet again. I recently decided to get my hands on MAME roms once again and renew my collection. So this time I give you the Street Fighter game sprites themselves starting with everyone’s favorite US Air Force Emo, Guile. (photo by yours truly)
note: the sprites for Street Fighter II Championship Edition are essentially the same as with World Warrior’s except that Guile’s abs are bursting in CE. Also the Loss sprite from Super Street Fighter is the exact same as with CE. I’d add the other games Guile has appeared in but well, these are the only ones I have. So, tough.
The Street Fighter cast from SNK Vs. Capcom SVC Chaos
The new Batman: Arkham Asylum game is going to be out soon and after seeing the gameplay videos I have to say I’m looking forward to this one. It seems to have gotten right most of what makes Batman cool for me. Stealth, hand-to-hand combat, high-tech gadgets, and nice atmosphere. The only gripe I have as of now with this title is that it is set in just one location, Arkham Asylum. Nothing wrong with that but imagine being able explore the whole of Gotham City, jumping from rooftop to roopftop, racing down the streets in the Batmobile. It would be a batgeek’s wet dream come true
So as the blog title suggests, I think the best game design idea for a Batman title is to have what basically boils down to a Grand Theft Auto/Batman game. Other games like Saint’s Row & Godfather have tried to rip-off GTA and that’s because if you are going to copy any game design, why not copy one of the best? Read the rest of this entry »
OK I just saw Watchmen last night. Hmmmm. Well, there are some things that just don’t translate well to the big screen and Watchmen, I have to say, is one of them. It’s a shame as it was a really good read originally. I do have an opinion though as to why the movie didn’t do it for me. Watchmen, the graphic novel, is quite heavy in exposition and back stories, see? The movie pretty much translated the book in sequential order. The film makers did not condense that many parts (the movie runs for almost 3 hours!) and it really bogged down the pace of the film. I watched it with my female cousin who does not read comic books but loved the X-Men and Batman movies and she thought Watchmen was a very boring movie.
I think what makes the comic book ‘better’ is that with comics or any printed literature for that matter, if you sort of miss a bit of the plot, all you have to do is turn back a few pages and re-read. While watching the movie, I was always thinking, “Man, if I hadn’t read the book I’d be totally lost right now.”
So yes, the Watchmen movie is not great and is just ok. In fact I would say it’s a disappointment. It’s stylish, violent, with some very good performances but do yourself a favour and read the book instead .
A few nights ago, I unbelievably experienced for the third time a ride in a taxi where the driver would fall asleep behind the wheel an uncountable number of times. To give a rough idea of what I mean let me recall the first time such an incident happened to me. It was in a cab ride home that took us through the busy, speedy roads of C-5. The taxi would jerk back n’ forth as the driver fell asleep and his foot would slip off the accelerator pedal. Sometimes we’d come to an almost complete stop much to the disapproval of the queue of cars behind us. Then once in a while when we had picked up speed again, Mr. Narcoleptic would nod off and then the taxi would proceed to swerve into another lane again much to the chagrin of the other motorists. I of course did my best to keep the driver awake and entertained by chatting to him but this hardly helped.
Some of you might be thinking, “Why the heck didn’t you just ask him to stop and then look for another cab?” To my defense, we were on C-5 and the chances of getting another cab there were quite slim. On the other hand I probably should’ve been asking myself “Would I rather wait an eternity for another taxi on the side of the road? Or would I rather stay in this coffin on wheels and die a horrible death?”
The next time I had such an experience wasn’t as bad, as this taxi driver only started nodding off a couple of times which some would say is a couple of times too many. The third on the other hand is where I drew the line. But for the first few minutes of my giving him directions to take me home, Mr. Rip Van Winkle, was pretty much falling asleep the whole trip! It got to the point where I really actually did ask him to pull over and let me out as I felt a real fear of getting into an accident albeit a very low-speed one. To top off the merry trip home he had the audacity to remark ”Hey at the speed I drive, at least you know you’re safe!”
I do feel kind of sorry for these drivers as some do have 24-hr shifts which they take on out of necessity. But I reckon as a general rule, taxi driver or not, if you’re feeling drowsy behind the wheel you should pull over & take a 5 minute break to recharge yourself. If you don’t want to do this then at the very least, don’t take on passengers and just keep the number of lives endangered to a minimum, preferably just yourself.
Ok so I stole that byline from Gamespot but it’s too damn funny. So as most might not know, as I am also one to recently discover, The Golden Raspberry Awards, better known as The Razzies, is the counterpart to the prestigious Oscars. These awards honor the worst the movie business had to offer for the year. When I hear the words “worst” and “movie” in one sentence I always think Uwe Boll. For those not in the know the German director, Boll, is responsible for making some of the worst video-game movies ever. Now that’s saying something considering Mortal Kombat is regarded as one of the best in this genre! Some have said that Mr. Boll is our generation’s Ed Wood but that would be giving the Ed Wood, ‘Worst Film Director Ever’, major discourtesy. Anyway I’m happy to report that Uwe Boll is being given the Worst Career Achievement Award at this year’s Razzies, to be held on Feb 21. And now the nominees… Read the rest of this entry »
Here is a glitchy Electro House track I finished a few months ago. Heavily influenced by Zimbardo. I played this out for the first time at the last Deep Fried (Dec 13) and it went down really well considering Electro House isn’t the genre of choice at the event. Some final tweaks are in order but here she is anyway.
Street Fighter will always be a fond part of my life. I spent many an afternoon during my early teens parked in front of a Street Fighter II arcade machine at the local mall. Anyway my affinity towards the game series and for side-by-side comparisons has resulted in the this blog entry (or entries maybe…). So here is Ryu through the ages. Read the rest of this entry »
Right after publishing my previous blog entry on fake Blu-Ray movies, I remembered what I thought to be a very valid point that a colleague of mine raised regarding piracy on the Playstation 3. He stated that Sony would actually benefit if counterfeit copies of PS3 games finally arrive. See, the biggest deterence for consumers in buying a PS3, especially here in Southeast Asia, is the absence of pirated games and only because original titles are quite expensive due to the currency exchange rate. (To earn the US$40-$60 price point of a regular PS3 game, it would take the average dollar earner around 4 hrs while someone like me would have to work 2-3 days for the same amount.) This is the reason why the Microsoft XBOX 360 console, which has had pirated games readily available for it for a while now, is outselling the PS3 in great numbers. So according to my Sony fanboy friend, once bootleg PS3 games are obtainable, folks will flock to the easily superior Sony product and PS3 consoles will be flying off the shelf.
I thought, “Wow. Brilliant. That’s a splendid and devious albeit simple business model (like Starla from Arrested Development…)”. But then I read this article on gamespot.com reporting on how Sony actually loses money on each PS3 console they produce. Bummer.
I find it simultaneously annoying and amusing that many people think Blu-Ray movies have made it into the pirated market. It’s not bad enough that the illegitimate copies now bear the Blu-Ray branding and packaging, but the vendors even insist to unassuming consumers that what they are purchasing are real Blu-Ray copies and they will be watching Blu-Ray movies on their DVD players at home. Read the rest of this entry »
Disclaimer: Forget the fact that we were out to just have drinks at a nice bar with decent music. Forget the fact that the “we” in question were a bunch of 30-somethings and would feel old no matter where we’d end up. Most of all, forget the fact that this author is a music nazi and would be chin-stroking to any tune that was being played by any given DJ that night.
Now that that’s out of the way, let me tell you about this event called Zapped!!! that was held Monday the 29th at Attica Lounge at A-Venue , Makati Avenue. Read the rest of this entry »
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Ok so I stole that byline from Gamespot but it’s too damn funny. So as most might not know, as I am also one to recently discover, The Golden Raspberry Awards, better known as The Razzies, is the counterpart to the prestigious Oscars. These awards honor the worst the movie business had to offer for the year. When I hear the words “worst” and “movie” in one sentence I always think Uwe Boll. For those not in the know the German director, Boll, is responsible for making some of the worst video-game movies ever. Now that’s saying something considering Mortal Kombat is regarded as one of the best in this genre! Some have said that Mr. Boll is our generation’s Ed Wood but that would be giving the Ed Wood, ‘Worst Film Director Ever’, major discourtesy. Anyway I’m happy to report that Uwe Boll is being given the Worst Career Achievement Award at this year’s Razzies, to be held on Feb 21. And now the nominees… 
Disclaimer: Forget the fact that we were out to just have drinks at a nice bar with decent music. Forget the fact that the “we” in question were a bunch of 30-somethings and would feel old no matter where we’d end up. Most of all, forget the fact that this author is a music nazi and would be chin-stroking to any tune that was being played by any given DJ that night.
