Video Game Heaven 2011. . . ya, it rhyes

It seems that September is the happening month in the video gaming world, what with all the highly anticipated releases. Games which have already been released include:

Dead Island - 

Dead Island is/was (was being that it is already out) one of the most anticipated zombie games of this century.  It has everything any zombie fan might want, Romero zombies, infected zombies, and special zombies too. Not only that, but you get to craft weapons, make life/death decisions (which shows others where your humanity lies), and there is possibility of escape at the end, and as most zombie lovers know, that isn't always an option. This plus the BEAUTIFUL graphics and smooth gameplay, along with the RPG quest element makes this one of my top 5 games that I need to get this year (sadly, I did not pre-order this game, so here's hoping to it being a gift to myself in the near future).

 Space Marine -

I have always been a big fan of the Warhammer universe, be it the original Warhammer or Warhammer 40,000 (40K to those who really know it). Though I was not an avid table top gamer or figurine collector, the novelizations of the history of the universe as well as the video games that have been created in the past (Dawn of War, Dawn of War: Winter Assault, and so on) were all personal favorites of mine. From the footage I've seen,the visuals look really great, and it's got my favorite play style, run the hell in and kill everything. The story, for those who don't know it, is that the Orks are invading a forge world in the hopes of gaining technology from the imperium of mankind. Along the way, you will fight them, along with the eternal enemies of the Space Marines, the Chaos Space Marines. This, luckily I had the foresight to pre-order this game, so I hope to get my hands on it very soon.

Gears of War 3 -
I began playing this series when it first came out, Holiday Season 2005. I didn't have an Xbox360 at the time, it was my friend Charles who allowed me to play with him, and it truly was a great independent title, and it has come to define the Xbox360. This is the final installment in the trilogy, but it looks to be the best one yet, Epic is really bringing out the best they have, and luckily I got the pre-order in on this one.






These aren't the only titles, I just can't think of anything else right now, and these were at the forefront of my mind. The only other thing I can think of is League of Legends's Dominion, which I have tried, and it is quite a fast paced and fun game. Here's my statement, feel free to modify and comment.

Movie Review: Green Lantern

Alright, so, went to see Green Lantern tonight, and thought it was pretty decent. With the movie theater offering prices as low as $1.50 for tickets, you'd be crazy to pass the opportunity to see a movie. I, being the movie enthusiast that I am, will go see any movie that I might have even the slightest bit of interest in, even when the prices were $10.00 a pop back home. That kind of mentality really hasn't let me down, because it never hurts to try something new. . . unless it's Skyline (*uahsdhghdg*, sorry, that was me vomiting from how bad that movie was). So anyway, I guess I will give you a generic synopsis of it from some other website (I am far to lazy to write my own unless I am REALLY into the movie) and a Pros/Cons list of how I personally felt about the movie.

Synopsis 

A cocky test pilot, Hal Jordan (Ryan Reynolds ), acquires superhuman powers when he is chosen by "the Ring", the willpower-fed source of power, of the Green Lantern Intergalactic Corps. He, reluctantly at first, takes on the challenges these superheroes face. Putting his self-doubts aside, and spurred on by his sense of duty and love for his beautiful, intellectually equal, colleague, Carol Ferris (Blake Lively), he is soon called to defend mankind from Parallax, a super-powerful being who feeds on fear. He is the universe's last chance, as many Lanterns have been killed and the Corps is weakened. And he might just be the right Lantern for the job of keeping the world safe from harm. Based on the characters of DC Comics series "Green Lantern".

Pros/Cons List

Pros

• Good visuals, I really thought the CGI graphics were quite fluid and worked well. It was no Avatar, but hey, they were pretty good.
• Good plot from my perspective. I'm sure there are quite a few comic readers and others who would like to disagree with me, and that is completely fine. If I were in their. shoes, and the plot really wasn't what it should have been, then I too would rage against my general "good plot" comment, but as an uninformed onlooker, it looked pretty solid on the basic knowledge of the Green Lantern universe.
• Good female counter part to Ryan Renyolds. . . every good comic book movie needs a good love story/connection and there was definitely some spark between Hal Jordan (Reynolds) and Carol Ferris (Blake Lively)

Cons

• The villans were short lived and easily dealt with. You never want it to be TOO easy for the good guys, they have to struggle a little before they get to their full potential. I didn't really feel that with Hal, it was more like his self-doubt that kept him back, which can be spun to look good, but it just doesn't seem like it got pulled off that well.
• I felt that the movie lacked a deeper connection between Hal and the other lanterns. Sure, he made a couple of friends when he got there, but they kind of just got dropped, and a connection never really developed between them.
• The lulls in the action sequences were very frustrating, at one point Hal would be battling somebody, then he'd be talking to Carol for a while. I just thought this was frustrating, and this seems to be a deal breaker for me in most movies (freaking Bay and his Transformers 3, don't EVEN get me started), but I also downed a NOS before I went in to see the movie, so that may have altered my view of the movie a little.

A key tip for seeing the movie, MAKE SURE YOU STAY AFTER THE PRELIMINARY CREDITS. Like most comic book movies, there is a little tid bit right at the end of the preliminary credits that teases, nay ensures that a sequel will hit theaters should the movie due well in the box offices, dvd/blue ray retail,  and miscellaneous other  retail areas. I won't say anything other than that it has to do with the yellow ring forged in the movie (and I can tell you comic fan boys and girls will go crazy over it).

So anyway, there's my movie "review" of Green Lantern. Just a brief info bit and my reflections on it.

Hobbit Day

For those of you who didn't know, today, the 21st of September, is the official day of Hobbitry. Being a long time fan of Lord of the Rings, it came as a surprise to me that Lord of the Rings has its own day of the year, represented by Hobbit day. My history with Lord of the Rings began when I was in 5th grade beginning my insurgence into higher readings. As I have a penchant for fantasy novels, my mother (also a Lord of the Rings fanatic) recommended the books, and that I begin with 'The Hobbit'. After its completion, I knew that I had found one of my favorite series to have been created yet. The addition of the movies only a few years later only made me that much more of an avid fan. To this day, Lord of the Rings, along with a numerous list of fantasy, science fiction genre novels and series, continues to be on the top of my list. I am counting down the days until the completion of the first part of the Hobbit movie (December 14th, 2012), and I can assure you I will be there for a midnight opening (HOPEFULLY!!!!!). Until then, I will satisfy myself with other great tid bits in the Science Fiction, Fantasy world. Once I get my Xbox within the ensuing weeks, I hope to begin the game Space Marine, set in the Warhammer 40K universe (yet another universe I have delved into).