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Hi there!

I have noticed that digital download of games over the “net” are becoming more available. This is true for PC gaming with the highly successful service Steam where you can buy a game, download it, and play it on any pc. No CDs, DVDs to keep track of, and a big advantage is that you do not have to have the disc in the drive to play. I use this type of service a lot on my Playstation 3 on the PSN (Playstation Network). You put some money into your “wallet” and when you see a game you like you just use the funds from your wallet to purchase it. You can download it at anytime and it is already activated.

I think on the other side of the coin, you get your shiny new disk and box which you may or may not keep. I do like the feeling that you always have the media on hand, but there have been times where the disk is scratched or you just can’t find that nostalgic old game you really want to replay. The boxes that the games come in are getting more compact and less of a waste and can store in a DVD tower, but personally I am getting tired of keeping discs.

I think the digital download age is coming about for games. It is very convenient, and, if the service or company is popular enough, you do not need to worry about it going under, etc. There are only a few downsides that I can think of off the top of my head:

• Bandwidth issues (downloading large games)
• Do you have to be connected to the service to play the game?
• Ongoing charges, if any

The only real problem I have right now for some of the games is when they are cheap (e.g. $4.95) it is too easy to just buy it without thinking about it. Then if you do that many times it could get expensive. The small inexpensive downloadable games I have recently bought for the ps3 (Super Stardust HD, PixelJunk Monsters, etc) have provided a ton of fun play. Moreover, some of these have provided more fun and play time than the $60 Blu-ray disk games.

What do you guys think?

–Andrew

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Hey there…

First of all, I just have to say that this movie wasn’t as bad as I was led to believe. Sure it’s over the top in places and a bunch of baloney as far as historical facts go… But it wasn’t THAT bad… Come on!

Roland Emmerich delivers a frivolous romp through Hollywood history for 2 hours. That’s all this is. We get cool effects. Some characters you sort of care about. And a satisfying ending. What more could you want?

Rating:

Will I be rushing out to buy this on DVD any time soon? Nope. Did I enjoy it? Yup.

Here’s the IMDB link.

This movie starred Steven Strait and Camilla Belle did fine in their roles. Not a lot of work on their part was actually required (though Strait as D’leh did have to do a lot of running in places I think). Belle as Evolet did fine as the feisty heroine.

What really was the star of this film was the sabertooth tiger. He was cool. And the mammoths weren’t bad either. You can forgive the Eric von Danniken Chariots of the Gods and Atlantis references and just take it as it is.

If you take it for what it is — light entertainment — it meets that expectation just fine. I give it 2.5/4.

Until next time… go see a movie!
–Fitz

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Hi all!

The Coen Brothers are hit and miss for me. I enjoyed the quirkiness of Fargo and O Brother, Where Art Thou… But never found my way to The Big Lebowski. Honestly, No Country for Old Men is not a script I would have ever associated with the Coens. And yet, there they are.

Rating:

This movie is about a man (played by Josh Brolin) stumbling across a drug deal gone wrong and making a poor decision. That decision haunts him and hunts him in the form of Javier Bardem, who plays a psychopath killer for hire — sort of the clean up crew for the broker of the bad drug deal. And following just a bit behind these two is Tommy Lee Jones playing a small town sheriff nearing the end of his career.

Here’s the IMDB link.

What I loved about this movie was the characters. The entire story is a what if. What if a man stumbles across a large sum of money in the middle of nowhere. Let’s take the man who finds the money, throw in a psycho, and then toss in a well-meaning Texas sheriff for good measure. Along the way we’ll encounter all of these other oddball people and see what they can add to this simmering plot.

That’s what the Coen Brothers do for scripts and movies. They create memorable characters. And you want to know what happens to these characters — even the psycho.

The cast is an amazing array of character actors:

• Josh Brolin as Llewelyn Moss (man who stumbles across the money)
• Javier Bardem as Anton Chigurh (psycho with the Dorothy Hamill hairdo)
• Tommy Lee Jones as Sheriff Ed Tom Bell (love characters with two first names)
• Woody Harrelson as Carson Wells (not to be confused with Orson Wells)
• Garret Dillahunt as Deputy Wendell (lately he’s been hunting Sarah Connor on television as a Terminator)
• Barry Corbin as Ellis (a great retired lawman stuck in the middle of nowhere)
• Stephen Root as the Man who hires Wells (he’s used to running a news radio station, but has been working hard for years)

The only bad thing I have to say about the movie is that the ending is weird. Not bad really, just weird.

We really liked this movie. Give it a sold 3/4.

–Fitz

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Hey all…

Just a quick reminder…

In honor of having my 10,000th visitor a few weeks ago, I’m holding a contest… For 1000 EntreCard credits, a review of your site and a permanent 125×125 ad on my site, submit your favorite three posts from my blog as a comment on this post (or this reminder post).

I’ll choose one submission randomly and announce the winner on this Friday, August 1, 2008! So act fast if you want in on the action!

Happy blogging!

–Fitz

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Hi all…

Had a chance to see Hancock last week and I have to say it both was and wasn’t what I was expecting. I didn’t expect to enjoy it as much as I did, but came away happily surprised by that fact.

Here’s the IMDB link.

This is a Peter Berg movie where Peter Berg seems to be on a rampage trying to prove to himself that he’s not pigeon-holed in one movie genre. I loved last year’s The Kingdom, which also paired Peter Berg and Jason Bateman (in a more serious role). Hancock has a trio of powerful, successful actors with Will Smith as John Hancock, Jason Bateman as Ray Embrey (advertising guru), and Charlize Theron as Mary, Ray’s wife.

Rating:

It starts out with Hancock causing trouble (evidently that’s what he’s been doing for years in Los Angeles. He saves Ray from being hit by a train, Ray decides that what Hancock needs is an image makeover… Thus begins the long road of redemption for Hancock…

What was intriguing to me was that Berg wove a compelling tale of loss, discovery, and redemption for Hancock. I won’t provide spoilers here (though the movie’s been out for a few weeks), but the story behind Hancock’s history was what really sold me on this movie. You don’t find out until the end how he came to be where he was or what he is, so I won’t spoil it.

The ride to discovery for the audience was fun for me. This movie had much more heart than I thought it would have. Berg and the writers (Vincent Ngo and Vince Gilligan) made the story work to their advantage, showing actual [gasp] change in Hancock’s character from where he is when the movie starts to where he is at the end.

Was this movie in the same league as Iron Man or The Dark Knight? Not for me. But I know I enjoyed it, as did my wife. There’s a lot of humor and sarcasm bound in the dialog, which we both appreciate.

One thing that I will mention. I think the advertisting campaign that Ray (Bateman) was pushing in the movie would actually be pretty cool. Yes, it’s a little over the top, but to show corporate kindness goes a long way to improving corporate image, don’t you think?

At any rate… I give this a solid 3/4. I really enjoyed the interplay between the characters and Hancock’s road to redeeming himself. Plus, it has Charlize Theron in it, who I personally think is one of the most beautiful women in the world.

What did you think?

–Fitz

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Hey all…

Sometimes I get the opportunity to review games slightly before they are released. Not often, but I’m very happy when it happens. The Princess Bride Game is based, of course, on the classic book and movie The Princess Bride. The book was written by William Goldman in 1973 and Rob Reiner turned it into a classic film in 1986, starring All your favorite characters are included - Wesley, Buttercup, Inigo, Vizzini, Fezzik, The Grandfather, Miracle Max, and all the rest…

Worldwide Biggies has made The Princess Bride Game available for download at their official site: http://www.princessbridegame.com.

The game combines simple but classic animation with a number of puzzle, arcade, and logic games featuring your favorite Princess Bride characters. Help Wesley and Buttercup around the farm, outwit Vizzini (he’s a Sicilian you know) in a Battle of Wits, and use Wesley & Buttercup together to escape the fire swamp, among others.

Amazingly enough, Worldwide Biggies got the original cast voices for the game. Mandy Patinkin, Robin Wright Penn, and Wallace Shawn. I know what you’re thinking… Inconceivable!

It has five different stages, each with its own interface and feel, including As You Wish, Battle Of The Wits, The Fire Swamp, Miracle Max and Storming The Castle.

The game is among the first to be designed by women for women, but I got a kick out of it too. It didn’t take me long to play through it, but I can see that it has a lot of replay potential. I expect my eldest daughter will love it!

Now… I have to say that I did run into some issues with the game early on. I ran out of time with the demo copy I was given and was unable to uninstall it. I enjoyed the little bit I did play, so I decided I’d go ahead and pick it up (it’s only $19.99 to download, so it’s not a big investment). But even after I bought the game, I had a ton of issues getting it registered.

That said, the nice folks at tech support for Worldwide Biggies were great. We must have exchanged about 50 e-mails before we finally got it working, but we were successful eventually. To this day I’m still not sure if it was Microsoft Vista’s fault, but I still have two copies showing up on my system… Oh well.

But even with that, I have to say that the game is a lot of fun. I especially enjoyed working with Miracle Max and the Battle of Wits!

If you have young children and you want them to engage their brains on the computer, be sure to check this out. As they say, I think it’s geared for girls to get them more involved in playing computer games.

I give this a solid 3/4 and vote it a great game for pre-teens and young teenagers.

(Plus, any time I get a chance to show my daughters classic 80s movies like The Princess Bride, I have to jump at the opportunity!)

So check out the game. Again, Worldwide Biggies has made The Princess Bride Game available for download at their official site: http://www.princessbridegame.com.

Until next time… Play a game!

–Fitz

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Hey all…

I entered a time warp this weekend as I attended my 20th high school reunion with my wife and saw tons of people from my past. Nearly every face brought back memories of lockers, classes, and goofy times in band classes (yes, I was a band geek).

It made me laugh… I only really recognized about 1/3 of the people I saw. And of those, my brain only spit out names for about 1/2 of them… So it was JUST like high school.

I was amazed by some of the folks I saw that I hadn’t seen since the 10 year reunion or even since graduation… It floored me to see how some people had changed and others hadn’t changed at all. What it is it about some people’s genes that makes them timeless?

I was also amazed by the number of people from my graduating class with older kids. Guess I started late with my wife.

And lastly I was amazed that some of those folks who got married right out of high school are STILL married! That’s a testament that sometimes you get lucky the first time and beat the odds of divorce in our country.

Anybody with any reunions this summer? How’d they go?

Back to our regularly scheduled programming tomorrow morning.

–Fitz

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Hi all…

It seems it’s time to review the last DVD for the Avatar: The Last Airbender series. I can’t believe it.

The Book 3: Fire, Volume 4 DVD has 6 episodes of Avatar:

• Chapter 16: The Southern Raiders
• Chapter 17: The Ember Island Players
• Chapter 18: Sozin’s Comet, Part 1: The Phoenix King
• Chapter 19: Sozin’s Comet, Part 2: The Old Masters
• Chapter 20: Sozin’s Comet, Part 3: Into The Inferno
• Chapter 21: Sozin’s Comet, Part 4: Avatar Aang

And I have to say that after watching all of these episodes, the series has concluded with a very satisfactory ending. The stories stay consistent and true to the character of Aang. And he and his group of friends have shown growth throughout the series. They’ve each had to deal with experiences that forced them to change, but in reality those experiences simply shows each character for who they truly are.

Aang is a gentle spirit who honors the teachings of the monks. Katara has grown into a young woman. Sokka has grown into a wily warrior. Toph has a unique view of the world as a blind Earthbender. And Zuko finally found where he belongs. The last 6 episodes are as much Zuko’s redemption as it is Aang’s.

I have to say that like my last review, I love this series. I think it’s one of the best all-round cartoons on television for kids. Lessons are mixed with humor and adventure for a great combination.

This gets a solid 4/4 from me.

I hope it is just a new beginning and not really the end…

Until next time.

–Fitz

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Image by nimboo via Flickr

Hi all…

Sad news to report. I’ve seen it in a number of places this morning. Randy Pausch has died of the pancreatic cancer that drove him to share his amazing view of the world with a global audience.

The Last Lecture is one of those books that stays with you. And I hope that many many more people get a chance to watch the video of his lecture and read his book. He will be an inspiration to those fighting cancer as well as those of us with friends or family fighting cancer.

ABC News has a great article here on Randy’s life and the impact he’s made in his far too short 47 years.

Hopefully in the next life he will have peace. Rest well Randy.

–Fitz

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Hi all…

Let me preface this review with some thoughts about John Williams. I’ve loved his music ever since seeing Star Wars in the late 1970s. Since then, I’ve probably seen 90% of the movies that John Williams has scored for Spielberg and Lucas. My two favorite soundtracks of his are Raiders of the Lost Ark and The Empire Strikes Back.

That said, this wasn’t even close to either of those classic soundtracks for me, sorry John.

The last good soundtrack I heard from JW was Revenge of the Sith. I’m not a huge fan of any of the Star Wars prequels, but that was a great soundtrack.

Rating:

So what didn’t work for me? I think it was that the whole thing hit me much like a repeat of Raiders. The themes were there, but there were no pieces that stood out distinctly. I still get chills when I hear the Map Room music. There were no chills here. In fact, I kept wanting to skip to the next track.

Perhaps it’s time for some of the other soundtrack composers to step to the fore… James Newton Howard and Howard Shore come to mind. They’ve done some amazing work in the last few films each has done.

Like I said — sorry JW. I’m only giving this 2/4. I didn’t hate it, but it didn’t do much for me either.

–Fitz

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