It’s Column Time!! [Add to Queue]
So it was a pretty slow week for new releases, but over at “Add to Queue” HQ we persevere, so I wrote ‘em up anyway.
More thanks than usual to Jeremy Parish, who took time out from his “business trip” (AKA plastic surgery is cheaper in Thailand) to edit and post the columns, and create the header and thumbnail images, which I have shamelessly stolen for this post. A2Q is published by and hosted on the wonderful Gamespite.net.
Space Invaders Extreme PSP Demo
I missed this when it was first posted on PSPFanboy, but came across it today. After having played through the demo, I have to say that Space Invaders Extreme has shot way up in my “must-get” list. What an amazing game– even better than Pac-Man CE.
Play it and let me know what you think!
My First Trip to Liberty City [Grand Theft Auto IV]
I don’t really care for open world games. As I’ve discussed before, I have a real hard time with directions and I get lost easily, both in real life and in 3d games. As detailed here, I started out gaming as a lad partly to help me overcome these problems.
However, the hype behind GTA IV, particularly the trailers that made the story in the game look like it might be really good (especially for someone like me who counts Goodfellas among his favorite movies of all time), led to me picking up a copy. One of the disadvantages of working in games retail is you end up buying a lot more games than you have time to play, at least if you’re me. Also, with a game like GTA IV you want to be playing it while everyone else is so you can be part of that little moment in gaming culture. Wanting to be part of the internet conversation has led to me buying a lot of games earlier than I normally would.
So, my impressions so a far, as a GTA noob:
Please to be reading my newest column
I thought about trying to stretch and cover some of the reissues and dtv crap I mostly avoid these days, but the combination of working nonstop and the MGO beta has taken up all my time. I didn’t have a day off this weekend to focus on the column — thanks to Nintendo and their increasingly annoying habit of releasing their big name games on Sunday.
Also, you may have noticed updates slowing down on this blog — that’s not solely due to my increasing exhaustion and the fact that I want to cram in all the MGO I can while the beta is running — there are going to be some major announcements regarding this space soon.
Thanks as always to Jeremy (Gamespite.net) for editing and hosting my shabby little column.
Awesome New “Dark Knight” poster
Via the excellent FirstShowing.Net.
Hit the link for the full image. Personally, I hate that the first thing I think of when I see an image like that is “Oh no, the September 11th Sensitivity Brigade is going to be upset!”. I don’t think our whole culture needs to put the kibosh on images of buildings on fire or collapsing because of September 11th. I don’t mean to be insensitive, but if I have to live a life where I can’t watch monsters destroying buildings or the (presumably) the Joker vandalizing skyscrapers, then the terrorists have won.
Film Geek Files #2 “Beyond the Valley of the Dolls”
Contributed by Evil Dead Junkie
Film Geek Files 2. Beyond The Valley Of The Dolls
Like many people of my generation Roger Ebert has been a profound influence on my life as a film geek. I may have taught myself to love film, but Ebert taught me to be an explorer. How to mine a director’s oeuvre like a rich vein of gold, how to push myself past my comfort zones and watch films that dared to challenge me. He introduced me to filmmakers like Werner Herzog, Ozu, and Truffaut, and taught me how to truly see filmmakers that I loved like John Ford, and filmmakers who I hadn’t understood before like Altman.
My New Column Has Been Published
I’d be obliged if you were to read it. This week I champion The Orphanage, a devastating horror film from Mexico, slam One Missed Call, a pastiche of J-Horror tropes, and dismiss Cloverfield as a fun but shallow monster movie. My editor Jeremy really outdid himself with the column’s image header this week. My own column is giving me “the creeps” — but don’t let that deter you from checking it out!
Of course, the competition’s column was also published this evening. Andy and Sarcasmorator keep getting better, and of course Jeremy’s import previews are always entertaining. My only consolation is that it takes three men to make the New Game + column as good as it is. The Add to Queue column is pretty much all me. Not to discount the great work my editor does, of course.
Both Add to Queue and New Game + are hosted by and published on the essential Gamespite.net. Column image thumbnails courtesy of Jeremy Parish.
Great News! Metal Gear Online delayed.
Why is this great news? Well, over the weekend I spent about 8 hours (off and on) trying to register for a log-in for the beta. It was awful - the site was spectacularly borked. I went to sleep last night dreading today’s scheduled launch. If Konami’s web backbone was buckling under from people trying to register accounts, how was it going to react when people tried to, you know, play the game?
Well, someone at Konami must have had the same thoughts, and the launch of MGO has been delayed — but the end date has been extended, and if this has the effect of making the game experience better once it does launch, then I’m all for it.
Of course, I got up three hours early today to play before work for nothing, but I used the time to put the finishing touches on this week’s Add to Queue column and catch up on my webcomics.
“When you have insomnia…
you’re never really sleep, and you’re never really awake.”
Couldn’t sleep last night. Passed some of the time on Super Stardust HD. I like the new patch. I’ll probably get the DLC. Slept about 2 hours. Have to work about 9. Not sure I’m gonna make it.
I just want to live long enough to play Metal Gear Online.
“No, you can’t die from insomnia.”
Warren Ellis’ “FreakAngels”
“FreakAngels” is a free, weekly comic from Warren Ellis and Paul Duffield. It’s a post-apocalyptic steampunk world, and it’s up to it’s 10th weekly installment — that’s 60 pages of graphic novel content, and it’s a fun read. I’m not a big comic fan, but I am a big Warren Ellis fan, so I’ve been grooving on this for a while now.
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