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Movies & TV / Re: Rate the last movie you've seen

« on: February 13, 2011, 11:15:21 PM »

It had nothing to do with the Mexican-ness of the movie. In fact, I stated in my last post exactly why I thought the movie was merely okay. As an action movie, it's not that great. I tend to enjoy movies more based on my expectations of them. I thought the action scenes were generally weaker than what Robert Rodriguez has done before. They weren't terribly inventive. This is the same guy that gave Johnny Depp a fake 3rd arm and had him kill 2 guys.... without eyes.

Kingdom of Heaven Director's Cut
I actually liked the theatrical cut for what it was. This version is significantly better because they reinserted very extremely minor things like character development, motives and exposition. Eva Green's character, Sybilla, actually made sense with her added scenes. Same with Liam Neeson's character, Godfrey, who was in the original for roughly 5 minutes. At the same time, the movie is now like 3 hours long. I won't be watching this again for a while.

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Movies & TV / Re: Rate the last movie you've seen

« on: February 12, 2011, 06:17:20 PM »

Machete
It was okay, not Robert Rodriguez's best by a long shot.  I remember someone here saying that this was the movie I was looking for if I wanted pure screen mayhem after my disappointment with The Expendables. Yes and no. It was more absurd than The Expendables but still lacking. The first scene was the best one of the movie which was a shame. The last fight was a total let down. As hot as Jessica Alba is, she's still a terribly actress. I'm glad Danny Trejo finally got a starring role though. He's one of those "movie guys" who just pops up in tons of films for usually small or bit parts so it's nice to see him headlining a movie.

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Movies & TV / Re: Rate the last movie you've seen

« on: February 05, 2011, 02:20:26 AM »

Precious: Based on the Novel "Push" by Sapphire
Phenomenal acting, especially by Mo'Nique. I never thought I'd say that. She was a comedienne I didn't think was funny in the slightest and starred in movies like Phat Girlz (think about the spelling of that title for more than 7 seconds and you won't remember the next 2 days) and Welcome Home Roscoe Jenkins, but she totally killed it in this movie. She won the Best Supporting Actress Oscar for this. I don't know or care who else was nominated.

Anyway, I had 2 problems with this movie though the filmmakers are only really responsible for one. First, this novel "Push" by Sapphire should have been renamed "Kill Yourself: Based on One of the Most Depressing Novels Ever Written." Claireece Precious Jones begins the film 16 years old, illiterate, physically and verbally abused by her mother, parent to a child with Down's Syndrome, preggo with a second child... oh, and her father raped repeatedly since she was 3 and is the father of her 2 children. Also, the filmmakers cut out the part in the novel where Claireece's mother forces Claireece to give her oral sex. Apparently, that was deemed too much. What. The. ****.

Second, there's too much voice over. I got the feeling that screenwriter Geoffrey S. Fletcher just couldn't let go of some of Sapphire's best lines which work in prose but felt forced in the film. They're nicely written lines. However, voice over does make the movie suffer. Not all movies with voice over narration suffer from it. Or maybe they just need to be narrated by Morgan Freeman in order to work. That's a joke though honestly, I thought it worked in Shawshank Redemption and Million Dollar Baby.

Overall, I liked it. Probably won't ever watch it again, but I'd recommend seeing it once.

Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World
I liked it. Pretty funny and the fight scenes were cool. I loved all the videogame references. Mary Elizabeth Winstead is totally hot. I was surprised that Nintendo let them use some Zelda sound effects/music considering they recently cockblocked the Justin Beiber movie from using the Mario theme. I guess that makes sense. Scott Pilgrim is a pretty decent film for what it was while Justin Beiber is a total abortion of pop culture and America's taste in music. Anyway, Michael Cera plays every character exactly the same way: as Michael Cera. Even if he was told to be something entirely different, he'd still play the role as nervous, socially awkward and mumbly Michael Cera. To his credit, it worked in this movie.

These Girls
It starred Caroline Dhavernas. She was the lead in my favorite show of all time, Wonderfalls. This movie wasn't terrible, but not great. Also had very heavy voice over narration and it didn't work here. Show don't tell. Things that should be given and shown through dialogue or action is just plainly told. Bah. That's the first thing they teach you in any writing class. This movie was also made in Canada so we can just blame it on that.

7879

Nintendo Gaming / Re: Nintendo 3DS Discussion

« on: February 04, 2011, 05:16:05 PM »

Really? I stand corrected again. I just remember getting the GBC as a gift with Zelda DX for my birthday so I must have assumed it was a launch or near launch game.

I just checked wikipedia. In North America, GBC came out on November 18, 1998. Link's Awakening DX came out December 1, 1998. Launch window, close enough. On a side note, I was so pissed when GBC was announced at E3. I had just bought a Gameboy Pocket that February. C-c-c-combo breaker.

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General Gaming / Re: PSP2 - It's coming and it's called Next Generation Portable (NGP)

« on: February 04, 2011, 02:27:05 AM »

Even the PS3 ports could use lots of compression and get the size down. Games will be really expensive if they need to shop on 4 or 8GB cards. PS3 games cost $60 already and that is with a disc that cost $1. How much do you think NGP games will cost putting the same game on a extra proprietary card that cost $5-$10 each?

Probably $50-$60 depending on what the MSRP for NGP games ends up being. I don't think the storage format is going to change anything price wise. Besides a few exceptions (I distinctly remember Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire being $80 at one point and my mom, understandably appalled beyond belief in hindsight, refusing to buy it for me), most N64 games were $50, the same as most PS1 games, despite the price disparity between cartridges and CDs which was something like $20 vs. $1 respectively. Additionally, not all games are created equal but, for the most part, they all sell for the same MSRP. They aren't sold on perceived worth though, to be fair, how impossible would that be to determine? That's why standard suggested retail prices exist.

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Nintendo Gaming / Re: Who's still buying a 3DS at launch?

« on: February 01, 2011, 11:39:09 PM »

I mean, what the hell? Why put it there if you're just going to pull it out later on anyway?

That's what she said.

Seriously though, I'm not sure Sony or Nintendo planned on pulling features. I don't think they're just fucking with people. It usually makes sense from a business standpoint. I'm not saying it's fair/unfair (let's not go there, please), but clearly there's a reason and I'd assume 9 times out of 10, it's based on profits. Additionally, I wouldn't lump DSi in with PS3 in this case because Nintendo didn't stop selling DS Lite. In fact, you can still buy one today. And unlike Sony, Nintendo didn't retroactively remove features. The option is still there though I suppose, ideally, DSi could have just had a GBA slot and avoided this. Still, I think Nintendo wanted to make a clear distinction between the 2 systems. The main draw for DSi is access to DSiWare. The drawbacks are obviously no GBA support and incompatibility with less than 1% of DS software, basically just Guitar Hero and the random Japan-only slide controller that supported 1.13 games. Those are limitations Nintendo could live with having and obviously didn't mind. Nintendo has to abandon legacy support at some point. No matter when Nintendo does it, someone somewhere is going to be upset about it.

Anyway, to bring this sort of back on topic, the only thing Nintendo can realistically remove is DS support. I guess that's still a possibility though I'm not sure how DS games work on 3DS, emulation or otherwise. Since I still own a DSi and my brother has my old DS Lite and I plan on selling neither, I wouldn't be too heartbroken if Nintendo lamely removed DS support in a future 3DS model. Not ideal because I like the perceived value of backwards compatibility that I probably wouldn't take advantage of ever, but it wouldn't affect my decision to buy a revision. Given the choice, I'd buy the revision if it improves upon the current hardware even at the expense of previous hardware support.

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Nintendo Gaming / Re: Who's still buying a 3DS at launch?

« on: February 01, 2011, 04:54:28 PM »

I can wait for a revision, but if some really awesome games come out, I may reconsider. Currently, the only game I care about on 3DS is Resident Evil Revelations. 2D Metroid or a NSMB based on SMB3 could convince me otherwise.

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TalkBack / Re: Super Mario Bros. 3DS Game Hinted in Iwata Asks

« on: February 01, 2011, 04:48:42 PM »

i would love to see them use Super Mario 2 as the template. I think subcon is a rich universe that hasn't been tapped

Super Mario Bros. 2: A Game by Christopher Nolan

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General Chat / Re: Verizon phones

« on: February 01, 2011, 12:09:35 AM »

Anyone have an opinion of the Atrix? It looks pretty sweet from what specs I can gather and it's moderately priced when subsidized (a buck fifty).

About the only fun thing I can do at work is browse tech websites since IT hasn't blocked most of the big ones. I read about phones all the time though I'm no expert. The Atrix got a lot of buzz at CES, mostly because it can dock to a computer or laptop shell. That's cool and all, but maybe a little ahead of its time. I'd probably never use any of that, but that's probably the direction we're heading in. Phones need faster processors and faster memory and an OS that's specifically built for that. The Motorola Atrix 4G oddly runs Android 2.2 (Froyo) which came out mid-2010. Android 2.3 (Gingerbread) came out in recently so I find it strange that a major brand new yet to be released phone, especially one boasting a dual-core Tegra 2, would be running an older version of Android. I think Android 3.0 (Honeycomb) is coming within the next few months. Hopefully, Atrix ships with Android 2.3.

7885

TalkBack / Re: Games We Want On Virtual Console Handheld

« on: January 31, 2011, 10:45:57 PM »

Sword of Mana might be the only pre-DS/PSP handheld game I wanted but missed out on (Star Ocean: Second Evolution is currently impossible to find in stores around me). I don't know what happened there either. Maybe the original GBC Shantae too, but with Risky's Revenge, I don't feel too bad about missing the GBC one. I was more retroactively upset for missing out because I didn't hear about it until years after when a GBA sequel was almost going to happen then didn't.

I had my chance at getting Golden Sun: The Lost Age last year for like $5 and I passed on it. I liked the first one, just not enough to play through the sequel.

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Nintendo Gaming / Re: Kirby Wii & Pandora's Tower Announced Today - Nintendo Investors Meeting

« on: January 31, 2011, 06:40:59 PM »

Kirby's Epic Yarn sure did look nice, but it was hardly a Kirby game. That's not necessarily a bad thing. I wish Nintendo would use these radical art departures (i.e. Epic Yarn, The Wind Waker) and just make completely new IPs without the confines and expectations of the series the art styles end up assigned to. This new Kirby game looks great.

I'm curious to hear more info on Pandora's Tower. The character design looks anime-ish. I'm digging the music.

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General Gaming / Re: PSP2 - It's coming and it's called Next Generation Portable (NGP)

« on: January 31, 2011, 05:35:26 PM »

PlayMobileStation

PMS? S.E.X. Play and PMS. Nice!

PlayNextStation = PNS

7888

Nintendo Gaming / Re: Nintendo 3DS Discussion

« on: January 31, 2011, 05:33:13 PM »

I was playing with my DSi the other day and I really like the form factor. It's simple, minimalistic, and the matte finish is a much better choice than the glossy outer shell of the DS Lite. There's really no way to make the DSi any more compact than it already is. Besides potentially cutting some depth (the space above the top screen and below the bottoms screen), the 3DS is pretty compact. I'm not sure a Lite version is even necessary. If anything, I think a revision similar to the backlit GBA is more likely where it looks the same aesthetically but some of the insides have been changed for the better. Obviously, with time, the chipset can be made smaller and more energy efficient and with that extra space a larger battery could even be put in, further improving battery life.

Additionally (and less likely), Nintendo could skip the Lite stage and go right for a DSi-esque revision with bumped up specs. In my little dream world, I would hope for larger higher-res screens with the extra RAM and processing power used to take advantage of said screens instead of just larger screens at the same resolution like DSi and DSi XL. I'm not suggesting 3DSi (for lack of a better name) specific titles. Rather, games could run a 3DSi-mode for sharper visuals. Better screens would also call for better camera and a larger form factor would allow for a much large battery. This could also bridge a graphics disparity between 3DS and NGP. Wishful thinking, but it's fun to think about. I would totally buy this version, no question.

7889

General Gaming / Re: PSP2 - It's coming and it's called Next Generation Portable (NGP)

« on: January 30, 2011, 05:08:12 PM »

If you asked anyone in 2004 if there would ever be a bigger name in portable gaming than Gameboy, you'd hear "No" every time. Nintendo branded their so-called third pillar "DS" to preserve the Gameboy name had DS failed to catch on. I doubt Nintendo even knew what they had on their hands. DS ended up being the next Gameboy AND something completely its own.

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Nintendo Gaming / Re: Nintendo 3DS Discussion

« on: January 30, 2011, 12:30:48 AM »

Me neither. While I think it affects demand, there are still more than enough people who want a 3DS and are willing to pay a premium for one. Each shipment of 3DS will probably consistently sell out for the rest of the year since it takes months to increase production. The difference is that most people who want one before the holiday season will most likely be able to get one at some point this year without having to resort to price gouging sellers on ebay. I don't think it'll be like the Wii at all where even over a year past launch people were having trouble finding one.

7891

General Gaming / Re: PSP2 - It's coming and it's called Next Generation Portable (NGP)

« on: January 29, 2011, 08:49:52 AM »

What advantage does Sony get by using a screen that costs, let's say, twice as much?

Sony has invested millions on OLED research and development and costs aren't expected to drop to/below regular LCD levels for something like 5 years. Think along the lines of their insistence on employing Blu Ray instead of standard DVDs in PS3. It's a trojan horse. Sony is getting the technology out there, into people's hands and homes. The more common the tech is, the faster the price drops and the faster profits are made and costs recouped.

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General Gaming / Re: PSP2 - It's coming and it's called Next Generation Portable (NGP)

« on: January 29, 2011, 02:46:33 AM »

The "PS3 Games on the Go" stuff intrigues me.  My thought is that there doesn't seem to be a whole lot stopping Activision from taking, say, Modern Warfare 3 and making a PS3 build of it, and then taking the same code and putting it on NGP.  Think about that...they would probably just have to tweak the engine a bit, optimize it, and voila.  But you're playing the same game.  That's unprecedented.  I think it'd be awesome to sit around at lunch, find a Wi-Fi hotspot, and grind some XP using the same character and account that's on your PS3.

That sounds great on paper but I wonder how many people are willing to buy the same game just to grind some experience points. I doubt anyone would buy NGP specifically for that. Assuming they already had the hardware, I think the vast majority of people would only buy one copy and most people in that group would buy it on PS3 anyway.

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Nintendo Gaming / Re: Nintendo 3DS Discussion

« on: January 28, 2011, 06:12:49 PM »

According to the latest Iwata Asks, Nintendo has no "short term plans" for a 3DS Lite. Lulz. I guess that depends on one's definition of "short term." I wish Nintendo would just say nothing rather than assume anyone is gullible enough to believe everything they say. Obviously, they aren't going to admit a better, smaller, hornier, and more efficient version of hardware that isn't even out anywhere yet is on the way. They could always go the XL route too. "It doesn't get any better than this, folks. Please buy now." Q4 2012 is probably a good bet for a revision.

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General Gaming / Re: PSP2 - It's coming and it's called Next Generation Portable (NGP)

« on: January 28, 2011, 06:03:05 PM »

I predict $299.99 for the WiFi only model. Smartphones with dual core processors have just started rolling out recently. Sony will take a loss to stay competitive, but I don't think it'll be a heavy loss.

I'm seeing a lot of hardcore gamer types coming out of the woodwork to shoot their loads over NGP. Bitch, please. Most of these guys aren't going to play let alone buy NGP to play Call of Duty when it's on PS3. NGP appeals primarily to the small subset of hardcore gamers who are willing to buy extra hardware for certain exclusives. If that wasn't true, PSP would have raped and murdered DS.

Since it is always funny to laugh at Pachter's "predictions"

I believe less than 2 months ago he said PSP2 was "dead on arrival." Would someone please pay me a 6 figure income to just make **** up all the time?

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General Gaming / Re: PSP2 - It's coming and it's called Next Generation Portable (NGP)

« on: January 28, 2011, 12:52:56 PM »

Apparently, development duties for Uncharted NGP are being handled by Sony Bend Studios, responsible for the Syphon Filter Series, Resistance PSP... and Bubsy 3D. I would have been more excited if Ready at Dawn was in charge of it. I'd assume Naughty Dog is involved to some degree, similar to how Sony Santa Monica contributed to Chains of Olympus and Ghost of Sparta.

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General Gaming / Re: PSP2 - It's coming and it's called Next Generation Portable (NGP)

« on: January 27, 2011, 06:09:24 PM »

I think all those things were taken into consideration with DS. Despite a complete lack of foresight in the console market, Nintendo saw that the handheld market was in danger of becoming obsolete so they took it upon themselves to make it more than a portable console.

Sony, on the other hand, still hasn't figured that out. NGP is first a foremost a portable PS3 to them. Their best chance was to out-innovate Nintendo and the trackpad was the best they could do. While nice and all, that's not going to get it done. Additionally, they probably didn't expect 3DS hardware to be so powerful. Nintendo is in an excellent position. 3DS is getting tons of support and positive buzz despite the hefty price tag and battery concerns. On top of that, even if Sony attempts to take a huge loss and launch at or around the same price, Nintendo has the option of dropping the price AND still making a profit. Nintendo is showing how much they understand the market. The only thing Sony seems to have learned is that UMD sucks.

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General Gaming / Re: PSP2 - It's coming and it's called Next Generation Portable (NGP)

« on: January 27, 2011, 05:33:20 PM »

Sony tried the "taking all comers" approach with PS3 and ended up stripping the system of features later. NGP is a technical beast, but Sony completely missed the point again. The brilliance of the DS was Nintendo really pushed the idea that there were games that couldn't be done the same way on a home console. Even with the touchscreen and touchpad, Sony is still touting NGP primarily as a portable PS3 which is discouraging and likely why they'll remain a distant second to 3DS. It may be more powerful than 3DS, but 3DS is still packing impressive specs. What's really going to hurt Sony is that 3DS is going to be the lead handheld for most 3rd party companies and no quad core processor or 5 inch screen is going to change that. It totally sucks (for Sony; not, you know, for gamers) that Nintendo has been actively courting 3rd parties for big releases. Sony hasn't really done anything here that convinces anyone that NGP is a better choice than 3DS.

Still, I will likely buy a NGP at some point, after a revision and price drop, as I'm sure there will be games I'll want on the platform though I'll always wish they'd just come out on PS3. However, I have no intention of starting a game on PS3 and taking it with me on NGP and transferring my progress over. I leave my apartment so I can do things other than play videogames. Not to mention I have a sneaking suspicion that such a feature would require buying 2 versions of the same game.

Hmmm... I don't see "jailbroken" as a feature. I guess they'll add it later.

I'm quoting you because I believe you deserve credit for these lulz.

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General Gaming / Re: PSP2 - It's coming and we know it

« on: January 27, 2011, 01:56:35 AM »

That looks very large. Like 3DS, price and battery life are looking like the big hurdles here. I'm sure at some point I'll get one, but I can wait.

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General Gaming / Re: PSP2 - It's coming and we know it

« on: January 26, 2011, 06:41:35 PM »

I was reading about this on Ars Technica and someone pointed out:

Sony Ericsson Xperia Play = S.E.X. Play

Nice, Sony. Classy.

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Nintendo Gaming / Re: Dead Space Extraction

« on: January 25, 2011, 11:15:00 PM »

Ehh, it's a free game that comes with an apparently awesome game. I'm very tempted to buy Dead Space 2 even though I wasn't a terribly big fan of the first one (admittedly, I never finished it). Then again, I didn't particularly like Uncharted: Drake's Fortune, but I LOVED Uncharted 2.