Generic Thursday blog post

Dragon Age: Origins
Man, I have a buttload of games to review. First off and for the record: That's not a complaint. It is the truth, though. I have six games I'm at varying stages of playing that all should get reviewed soon-ish (if not already). Shoot, I still have to get deep enough into NHL 10 to start forming some opinions and when did that come out? Like, months ago, it seems (it wasn't.) It's sad. And the worst of it? After Nov. 3, I'm pretty much just playing Dragon Age: Origins. Bioware continues to tease some amazing details like this social network-style element the game uses. Also, this reviewer has outlined the use of sex (which is pretty frequent) in the game. My favorite tidbit from that is that the sex becomes an element "around the 60 hour mark" of the game. Awesome.

Uncharted
Nolan North, game voice actor extraordinaire has dropped that Hugh Jackman is everyone's fave pick to play Nathan Drake in a big screen adaptation of Uncharted. I guess that works. I like Jackman, a lot actually, but him as Drake isn't a slam dunk for me. Nope, it isn't.  After recently playing all of Uncharted 2 and revisiting a bit of the original for comparitive purposes (yes, I'm just that thorough), I was feeling Bradley Cooper as Nathan for some reason. He sort of has that cocky-wry thing going, he would probably put a lot more into the franchise than someone who already has one going, and, he really sounds like North/Drake. Then again, maybe Drake needs the Indiana Jones style weight that someone like Jackman has. I don't know. It's probably best that I don't cast giant Hollywood adaptations of video games for a living, isn't it?

Alien prequel
Ridley Scott is doing a prequel to Alien. Whether or not you think that's a good idea, it's happening. Hey, it's better than Brett Ratner doing it or who-have-you, but still, yeah, there's going to be some nervousness there for all of us out here. Scott has started to drop some details about his idea -- well, very vague ones, anyway. Mainly about when the film would take place in relation to the original.

Avatar
Here is the first, full Avatar trailer. So, what did you think? It looks rather plush, doesn't it? To me, it also looks like it will be kinda bad and here's why: the dialogue/story we're allowed to see. It just all seems a tad too simple, doesn't it? Shouldn't a futuristic tale of morality have some complex moral choices in it? Then there's the (possibly ridiculous) Braveheart-slash-St. Crispen's Day speech that all epic films seem to have and all I could say was: Wow. As in: Wow, that's bad. My dad and I were talking about the movie at Thanksgiving and he was like, "If they can put people's consciousness into another entity, why don't they have the technology to repair the guy's body?" The trailer sort of hints that maybe there's a reason, but still, I'm really getting the no feeling from this one.

24
Do you still watch this? I don't.

And finally...
Networks keep giving science fiction shows the green light. There are a bunch out there in TV land. Some are great. Some are just good. Some are Stargate. Regardless, networks have a tendency to kick science fiction shows in their special parts any chance they can get. Moving them around. Putting them on hiatus. Reducing their budgets. Etc. Well, it's about time they stopped. And figures that as soon as I get into Fringe, it's now considered a bubble show. Face palm.

Same meh, different pile

Conan
Did you know they're making a new Conan movie? Yep. They are. Want some details? You're welcome.

Marvel Ultimate Alliance
Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 is a dumb game. But Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 is also a dumb game that is awesome. Sort of. Read my review.

True Grit
The Coen brothers are re-doing True Grit -- you know, the western that John Wayne won an Oscar for? In the role of Rooster Cogburn, they're thinking Jeff Bridges, Nice, right? Now word is they're adding Matt Damon and Josh Brolin to the mix, too.

Avatar… stolen?
There are murmurings going around that the idea/story for James Cameron's upcoming 3D orgy Avatar may have been "borrowed" from a late 1950s science fiction short story by Poul Anderson. Based on that painting for the story, I'm thinking it's no coincidence -- but that's just me.

BioShock 2
In many ways 2007's BioShock changed the face of gaming. Ideas about the way games are played, designed, conceived and written -- on top of art directed -- were pushed to the limits. So it's kinda strange to look at this trailer for the sequel. Sure, it's amazing looking and awesome but it looks sort of like gaming has changed the face of BioShock, doesn't it? Instead of atmosphere and fear, you're getting a high octane first-person shooter feel. Is that BioShock? When you factor in that the game is going to push a multiplayer component and that original writer Susan O'Connor isn't onboard, I have some reservations.

Action figures
I've never been huge into the action figure thing, Star Wars or otherwise. Although, I have an original C3P0 hanging out on my bookcase right at this very moment. Still, I enjoy a good list and if it happens to be about Star Wars action figures and some of the most embarassingly collectible examples, then so be it!

Evil
Another good list. This one documents some truly evil entities in science fiction. Although, Galactus? Isn't that like calling a shark or lion evil? Doesn't he serve some kind of culling purpose or is he just into destroying things? I thought he needs to eat planets to survive? If that's wrong then I don't want to be right.

The Who: Rock Band
On top of all the other Beatles-related awesomeness Beatles: Rock Band has unleashed on the world, it's success is just going to open the floodgates on other, similar projects for bands that approach the Fab Four's stature. There have been murmurs from Pink Floyd and U2 on the subject but it looks like the first follow-up may be from The Who. And to this I say: FUCK YA!

Assassin’s Creed
Ubisoft is pretty damned serious about Assassin's Creed 2. How serious? So serious, they bought Hybride Technologies, the digital post-production studio behind 300 and Sin City and got them to make a bunch of background shizz for the game. Shizz like this short film called Lineage. On top of that, Ubi is dropping more hints of what they're thinking for Assassin's Creed 3. If you remember, a couple of weeks ago they mentioned a World War II-plagued Europe as a possible setting, with a female assassin as the protagonist. This week, it's either Medieval Europe or feudal Japan. No word on if they're still considering the lady assassin. I like the feudal Japan idea. That means ninjas and, knowing Ubi, it'll mean meticulously researched and realistic ninjas -- which could be really, really cool. I guess all the brainstorming is sort of showing how limitless the franchise could be.

And finally…
I linked to this before on the old blog, but it popped up again today and I just had to go there again. Cracks my shit up every time.

My alternate career

In a parallel universe, I am an art director for a 1960s science fiction publishing company. It's like Mad Men, just with geeks writing about giant sentient star vessels that have forgotten they're sentient and it's up to the society that has evolved inside them to figure this out. Or something. Maybe add a giant star vagina and you've got a Hugo award.

Anyway, you can try and design your own (awesome) sci-fi and fantasy books with this fun little trick:

1 – Go to “Behind the Name”. Hit “Generate a Name!” or click here

The first name you get is your author name.

2 – Go to “Fantasy Novel Title Generator”

or click here

This is the title of your book.

3 – Go to Photobucket and click on “surreal art” or click here

Add the two numbers of your age together (ex. 2 + 7 = 9). Go to that page of results. The fourth picture, no matter what it is, is your cover.

Above are some I've done. Looks like it's right from that sweet spot in the '60s where everyone was so jazzed about having sex more than once a year and taking LSD that didn't make you scared of pencils that art looked like someone painted with their nightmares. I don't know what that means, but it sounds about right. Try some yourself. If you send 'em to me here I might just put 'em up.