Fresh Thoughts

I was Tumblin before it was cool to Tumbl. Everyday I’m Tumblin.

I love the comic book universe.  I love everything about it.  The bad part is that I never really had comic books when I was younger or even older.  I’ve only had access to the comic book universe through television and movies.

My Green Lantern experience is about as shallow as you can get.  I knew of Hal Jordan, but never really saw anything with the character of Hal Jordan in it.  My true GL experience lies with John Stewart (Not The Daily Show Jon Stewart).  Justice League Unlimited from the amazing producer Bruce Timm is what I know of most of the heroes on the big screen in the DC world.  Going back a few years you also have Batman: The Animated Series and The Adventures of Superman.  All television programs.

I had some expectations with Green Lantern coming in to watch the newly released movie today.  I got into the Geoff Johns thrill ride of Blackest Night/Brightest Day.  That Hal Jordan is what I was expecting to see in this movie.  And I think it almost happened.

Ryan Reynolds is always going to be, Ryan Reynolds.  He is typecast because he instantly gets people in those seats to watch a movie.  We know this because he can play two different superheroes from two different worlds and be the same guy.  The same principal goes for Chris Evans.  Two different stories and I’m guessing the same acting.

Blake Lively looks like the right girl for Carol Ferris with the little I know of Carol Ferris.  I just don’t know if she really acted the part well enough.  I bought into it nevertheless.  Mark Strong was by far the exact idea I had for Sinestro.  Strong with the corps, but agressive and showing a hidden fear little by little.  I could have done without the scientist character that had part of Parallax in him.  Just felt forced.

The biggest disappointment was Amanda Waller.  Angela Bassett wasn’t my first choice, but she might end up playing the part.  I know where she fits in the DC universe from my experience with her, but I don’t know how that translates in this story.  I don’t know if she’s just starting with the government or is mid-career?  Amanda Waller and Batman have the best interactions and I think DC should have introduced them first instead of here with GL.

Overall I feel the movie was better than what the critics are saying.  It wasn’t as much of a kid movie as it has been said.  I think it really comes down to your previous experience with GL.  It was fun, inviting to the GL universe, a good platform to create more movies from and it followed the Marvel formula.  I think it’s a watch in the theaters movie.  

Lastly, I feel Ryan Reynolds would have been a better Kyle Rayner, but I’m sure they are gonna use Andrew Garfield for that.  He does have the Twilight hair… have you seen the pics from Spider-man? Geesh.

So after more than a year from updating this thing, I think I’m going to bring it back up to speed.  This is a blog about my gaming experience.  I love playing video games.  Certain video games.  I like to talk about said games, but it’s hard to find the right medium.  I’m back to ranting and raving about things you could probably care less about.  And I’m ok with that.

My multiplayer gaming fix has been a light lately with the wealth of decent to good online experiences out there. I found myself recently stuck on Battlefield: Bad Company 2. The game just grew on me. DICE’s Frostbite engine is definitely one of the most beautiful accomplishments in recent gaming. I just wish EA would use it for more than just the Battlefield series.

The online experience of BC2 is pretty solid. You’re part of up to a 4-man squad and there are up to three squads per team. The balance of the size of the maps to players on the map was very well thought out. You aren’t stuck at the spawn dying too often and you can advance even without a vehicle in a decent amount of time. I haven’t had a good chance to experience a clan match style game since you’re thrown in with mostly strangers who don’t care about the outcome.

It’s a solid experience overall and a pretty good storyline in the campaign as well. My only complaint would be the spotting system. I’m consistently having to take my thumb off the left thumbstick to press the back button to call out that I see an enemy. It helps with longer distance scouting (as they do reward with the Recon Class), but other than that it’s essentially worthless. I’m not really sure how to adjust it or change it, but it does seem very difficult to work properly.

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Moving on to my latest craze. Blur. Bizarre Creations newest racer in development for release in a just a few months. I really stumbled upon it because I haven’t heard anything about it except for the ton of Multiplayer codes going out with the media. I downloaded it and jumped into the game and I’ve had a hard time getting away from it.

It’s core gameplay is extremely addicting. If you’re a Mario Kart or Burnout fan, you will love this game. With Bizarre’s PGR experience, the racing itself is just pure fun and balanced well. You’d think things would getting a little hairy when you add in power-ups to the equation, but they definitely have spent a lot of time testing and balancing those as well. It’s fast paced, gritty, intense, and just so much fun. Your heart pounds with each turn you take hoping you won’t see someone in your rear view ready to take you down with a Shunt or Bolt.

The only complaint I’d have here so far is that I have spent some time at the back of the pack and it can be very difficult to get back to the top. Most of the races are only about 3-4 minutes long, which means only a few laps and essentially a sprint style race. It would be tough to balance, but somehow giving the back of the pack an edge to get them back in the race would help some of the players who consistently struggle.

Overall, it’s a great online experience. You get into a lobby quick, vote for what you want, make some changes to your ride and mods, and then you’re racing. Most of the players online right now aren’t too douchebaggy, so you do get a solid race mostly. I’d definitely recommend a purchase on this.

So I posted before (see below) about how Halo: Reach will be the biggest failure in video games for me.  The Halo: Reach Multiplayer Trailer has been released (shown in this post).  I have mixed feelings about it.  Some things I like, some things I’m still not sure about.  I’ve played a lot of Halo in my day and the idea of stealing from other games that have had these great new innovations to gameplay just doesn’t suit Halo right.

Halo wasn’t an innovation in the FPS.  It just brought the FPS to the console the right way.  It was pretty basic and simple.  Why is there this need to add or create new parts of the game? Those new parts of the game and additions just ruin the experience because Bungie can’t balance it all right.

The most promising thing I can see from Halo: Reach is that in the multiplayer section it appears they are actually going to stay true to the core story of The Fall of Reach.  For example, Spartans only fight each other in a “Deathmatch” game and Elites are only playable in a objective-type “Invasion” gametype.  That concept I love.  It does two things; keeps the original fun that Halo was (Red v Blue Deathmatch) and actually shows that Bungie/343 wants to stay true to the story.  As opposed to ignoring the story and just blowing out the multiplayer to anything they can think.

I’m still not sold with Reach, but as usual Bungie is creating a buzz around the game that I enjoy.  As I’ve always said, the partnership that Microsoft and Bungie have with marketing is unmatched if only by Microsoft and Epic Games.  Marketing doesn’t always sell the game.  Word of mouth does a lot as well.  I can say as for now I’m not going to be in line on launch night.

I figure I’ll start off with a post about something that I have a huge interest in: video games. Halo for me was my social gaming fix. I’d grab my Xbox and take it everywhere

I went and played until 4 or 5 in the morning. Things changed when Halo 3 came out. Most of the Bungie team changed from their work on Halo: CE and Halo 2. When Halo 3 was about to launch, I was extremely impressed with their marketing and thought the game would be exactly what we were looking for in the next console generation of Halo.

Halo 3 killed the video game portion of the universe for me. The universe and the concept have definitely kept me intrigued, but what Bungie has done with the actual FPS that we all know and love is just terrible work. The gameplay is sucked up in this weird game of chance.  The precision and quick decision-making that was Halo: CE and Halo 2 died.

The reason I say that Halo: Reach will fail for me is simple. For Halo: Reach, Bungie will try something new that just won’t appeal to the hardcore Halo crowd in an attempt to lure people like me back into that universe. They did it with Halo Wars and with Halo 3: ODST. The proof is clear: Halo Wars is now a $19.99 title (no other Halo game has gone this low this fast, where Halo: CE is still at $29.99 in most stores), and Halo 3:

ODST just isn’t being played by the hardcore fans anymore. Barely making a showing in the Xbox LIVE Top Ten.

ODST showed that Bungie is looking to expand the universe of Halo games by catering to what Xbox gamers have found fun or interesting in a different IP. Instead of trying new ideas on their own for games, they steal ideas like Gears of War’s Horde Mode or Call of Duty: Modern Warfare’s class-based multiplayer system (Halo: Reach is rumored to have this).  And let’s not even mention equipment on Halo 3…

Halo: CE was an innovator for the FPS on a console. Where has that creativity gone?

Halo: Reach will not be appealing to me because we all know Bungie will use the same game engine (which I still don’t think it’s THAT great) and it will add features that just won’t jive.  Additionally, it’ll take them way too long to update things to make their multiplayer gameplay work the way the new style should.

If you’re a fanboy and have a hard time taking this in, I’m sorry. Other game developers have stepped up and given a much better product when Bungie could have make their move and stayed in the lead. Now they just stay in the lead on Xbox LIVE because their average fan age is 12 and their parents buy them anything and everything they want.