More JSA Here are some more shots of the various DC heroes that will be appearing on Smallville in a big ole two-hour movie. You've got Hawkman and Green Arrow having a heart-to-heart talk and also Dr. Fate and Stargirl -- who kinda looks like she was dragged along to this whole thing and isn't so happy about it.
The Mighty Thor
There's been a lot of casting news and hubub around the Thor movie lately but I'm still having some trouble getting into the idea. I mean, Thor is even a tough sell sometimes in comics when you get right down to it. Especially when he kicks it with other heroes. Like, him and Spidey hanging out? That's weird, man. Amiright? Anyway, Marvel big dog Joe Quesada is saying that Thor will redefine superhero films. Yay?
And finally… This is pretty damn funny AND makes me hungry all at once. Wonder Woman, not the secret pizza, of course. (** record scratch! **)
Awesome
If this e-mail exchange is for reals it's gold. Hey, even if it isn't, it's still damn funny.
COD: MW2 DLC = $$$
Have you played Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 yet? I haven't picked it up yet but I think that may be the next game I buy (since no one sent me a copy to review). So, yeah, no shooting up of the n00bs and whatnot. Not for a little bit, anyway. Activision should be okay until then since they sold a metric fuck-ton of them already. With that said, they're looking to launch some downloadable content in the spring that will probably sell faster than tickets to a Free Bags of Money and Blow Jobs convention.
Choice
I don't know if y'all read that reallllly long post I tossed off up here yesterday. Not the one about Power Girl's boobs but the one re: Dragon Age: Origins. In it, I talked a bit about choice in games -- moral or otherwise -- and how it's a cool and sort of evolving topic in the art of gaming. Well, here's a good article to have a look at if you're interested in pursuing the topic a little further.
And finally…
Is it wrong that: a) I find this brilliant and b) can't stop laughing at it? (Via Topless Robot)
Fight Club I like director David Fincher's work for the most part (understatement). Se7en is one of my faves. And so is Fight Club, which is now 10 years old. Crazy, huh? Here's a great essay on the film's, uh, greatness.
Comic Books
The AV Club has their best comic books of the '00s. I gotta say, no Fables or Walking Dead seems weird to me -- am I wrong, more serious comic book graphic novel readers out there? Pretty hipster choices in there, as with their best games piece, too. Sure, BioShock and Portal are great games but please don't lecture me while you're picking them, thank you. Also, Fallout 3 and Left 4 Dead = best games of 2008; do not = best games of '00s.
Ubiquitous Mass Effect 2 entry
Lots of news on this front. First, there are TWO awesome vids. The first teases the return of Tali, one of the beloved characters from the first game. If you played the original game, the video is guaranteed to make you go, "Ohhhh shit!" The second demonstrates an adept, one of the character classes from the new game. If you haven't played the original game, the video is guaranteed to make you go, "Ohhhh shit!" Moving along, there's also a story on how BioWare plans on churning out a shit-ton of DLC for Mass Effect 2. Sounds good to me considering the first game got one semi-decent DLC and one WTF? one.
Dexter
Do you like the voiceovers on Dexter? I know I do. Michael C. Hall, the dude that plays Dexter, likes 'em, too. He talks about his process for churning them out here. The best part: imagining him saying all this in his creepy/awesome Dexter voice.
Power Girl’s costume
If you look up at the top of this entry you'll see DC Comics' Power Girl. You'll also see a good portion of her boobs. Believe it or not, the pic I've chosen is tasteful among Power Girl pics. They get sort of ridiculous and even insulting sometimes. Well there's a reason, supposedly, and, short answer: it's about female empowerment. Not buying it? Neither is Comics Alliance. It's funny, I mean, I've always thought PG was sexy in that drawing-of-a-sexy-lady-in-a-comic-book kinda way, but it's pretty obvious they're leading with the boobs, no? Please stop with the patronizing explanation.
Tron You wanted a Tron video game? You got one! To me, a new video game makes more sense than a new movie, but there you go.
I’ve played about a day of Dragon Age: Origins (the game told me so) and a lot has happened in that time.
Keeping it spoiler free (because I really think you should play this game and discover what happens on your own) I’ve killed a bunch of stuff, talked (and grown) with my ever-expanding band of companions and continued slutting around the countryside of Ferelden with the hopes of stopping the major bummer of a full-on Darkspawn invasion known as a “Blight.”
It’s serious business, even with all the slutting around.
I’m sure you’re saying to yourself: “My friend, at a milestone such as this, it is time for some deep reflection upon your many long travels thus far.” (That totally sounds like you, BTW) And you’re right.
So: what have I learned so far?
Again, what with the non-spoilers thing, I can really only talk in broad strokes and generalizations – things you probably aren’t accustomed to reading anywhere at all on the Internet, so I apologize.
The main thing that starts to sink in as you play Dragon Age: Origins is dread. Deep, dark, deepening dread.
Where does it come from?
You would think it out of place in one of these epic fantasy tales of heroic deeds and elven maidens and whatnot, right? And, the thing is, for the most part, that’s what DAO is so far: a big ole ball of fantasy goodness.
My character is completely awesome. I don’t just mean that because he’s like Aragorn and the Knights of the Round Table combined -- with a little 1960s Mick Jagger thrown in for the ladies; I mean it in that I’m playing him to be an incredibly noble person, with bottomless honor and bravery and a willingness to back up all his friends no questions asked. Sure, I play it so that he basically can’t say no to rolling around with women – high born, wenches, elves alike – but he’s always honest about what’s going on. So basically, so far Dragon Age has been me and my friends going around on awesome adventures being awesome.
So why the dread?
Well, I think it seeps in there in a number of ways and on a number of levels, starting with the glorious and simple menu screen.
Let me set it up: We see two war-ravaged swords stabbed into the earth, abandoned – as storm clouds ominously churn above. The music is sad in the background. A drop of blood (almost mournfully) rolls off the guard of one of the blades. Unclear debris (bodies?) is strewn into the background. Is this the aftermath of an epic clash of armies that shakes the world? Is it one fought by a small brave band of companions, one that changes the world forever though none shall notice? Whatever has happened, it is over and it isn’t (entirely) good.
Here, watch and listen:
That’s the menu screen! What has happened here? There’s a reason they went with this one and not some sexy sorceress fire-balling a shit-ton of orcs hurlocks, right? Shoot, they could have even gone with the blood dragon Dragon Age motif (at the top of the entry) – that’s pretty sweet looking, right? But they didn’t. They went with this scene and it seems like it was for a reason.
Sure, at first, I was all like, “That’s pretty much standard fantasy code for the kickassery that is about to ensue – gimme!” But soon it felt like more. Soon, I felt the dread of impending doom and tragedy.
Maybe it was the clouds that started it. The clouds definitely can’t be a sign of anything good to come. Look at those! They’re all sepia and stormy and orange and roiling like a fire that’s going out.
Then the swords – chipped, abandoned, sad somehow. And bloody. (Keep an eye on the sword on the right for the blood drop…) It feels like they want to tell me their tale – to experience their tale – rather than just be plunder. How did they wind up here, forgotten? Who once wielded them? Was it/is it me? What happened?
Throw in the mournful tune, the plaintive lady singing – and then the build up to a pounding, ominous march that comes out of nowhere.
Dread, dudes. Dread.
And that’s just the menu screen.
Before I talk about anything grounded in the actual play of the game itself, I thought I’d draw your attention to a couple of side points related to the game that fill me with dread as well.
First off: BioWare describes the game as a “dark fantasy epic.” They don’t describe it as a “fun fantasy epic” or a “bitchin’ fantasy epic” or even an “epic fantasy saga” or anything like that. It’s their “dark fantasy epic” and they use the word “dark,” specifically.
Now, of course, they could mean that in a sort of, “it’s violent, there’s sex, people die but it ends on a heroic, happy note after it all” kinda way – but something tells me this isn’t the case.
That something is my second side point: Of all the possible (and probable) influences on the game (Tolkien, Jordan, Kay, etc.) the developers constantly reference George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire series as the main one. That says a lot.
If you haven’t read these books, and you are a fan of fantasy, you should definitely pick them up. In a nutshell, it’s an unsentimental tale of a kingdom’s fall into anarchy through treachery and court intrigue – meanwhile an impending invasion by evil demon-like beings is coming from the north. That’s a simplification, of course but you get the idea. Main characters die on a regular basis and ugly things happen all over the place. More importantly: survival often depends on one’s ability to remain in moral gray areas, manipulating others to make bold moves and suffer the consequences while you reap the rewards. Notions of honour, heroism, glory (the usual fantasy fare) get characters schooled pretty quickly – if they don’t wind up dead in a ditch first.
This brings me to my next point about the dread.
Game narrative is evolving at an incredible rate currently. I’m not going to debate about what makes it up or how it’s created and blah blah – I’ll let the usual suspects do that. What I’m talking about in relation to Dragon Age is that I’m detecting a certain form of manipulation from the narrative that may lead to some very dark things in the tale.
BioWare tells some real bangers when it comes to stories. Yes, you get the usual epic plot arc RPGs require, but you also get character arcs that are just as epic. There are romances and friendships that hang in the balance of what you choose to do. And BioWare really, really has a knack for creating interesting characters. It makes the moral choices in the game (yes, I know the morality in games is artificial and all that but for the sake of this discussion – shut it) that much harder when you’re invested in the characters.
When I played games like Fallout 3 and Oblivion, I wasn’t finding this. Sure, your choices had consequences but it all seemed arbitrary. And the characters were usually ciphers, placeholders, fonts of info I needed. They weren’t characters, really. Do something good to someone and they probably did something good for you and vice versa. The game, the NPCs, everything meant as much as you allowed it to. The storytelling was very passive, in the background. If you let it affect you, it would, otherwise you could just run around, kill things, collect stuff and finish up the quests. Or not. Whatever.
With a Dragon Age, the game actively forces you to care about what you’re doing by throwing so much character and emotional beats that you can’t help it. The “Origins” portion of the introduction is integral to this, indoctrinating you in the game’s world. It takes an active approach to engaging you, as a film or TV show might.
So, where am I going with this?
Well – again without getting all spoilery – I think I’m being played. Manipulated. Hoodwinked. Had. I keep getting a sinking feeling that one of my companions is using my admittedly 2D Sir Lancelot-style heroism for their own gains. It’s not overt. Not yet. They don’t wink at the camera or anything like that. It’s just a feeling. A feeling of dread.
I feel like the game may not reward the standard fantasy hero in the standard fantasy manner. Time will tell. Ask me how it’s going after my next 24 hours of game time.
Much has happened since last I wrote. Twelve or so hours of action, actually.
There has been tragedy, tough moral choices, sex with elven (elfin? elvish?) ladies in waiting, family strife, betrayal, sex with hookers in a brothel, conspiracies, card games, scraps with the undead, intrigue, poisoning – and battle after bloody battle.
I’ve made a bunch of enemies. I’ve made a bunch of friends. And it’s the friends that I’m more interested in. The relationships are so deep and nuanced already. I’ve had one of my friends question something I’ve done and make me feel like total shit for doing what I did. My flirtations with one woman in my party have made the other jealous. Everyone questions my choices. It’s hard being the leader of a bunch of fantasy characters. You have no idea.
Maybe I should just go back to the brothel. It’s a lot easier there.
Dragon Age: Origins
I'm at about hour 12 of my playthrough of BioWare's Dragon Age: Origins and I'm not even close to finishing the first major quest. It's got me bouncing around the world, getting attacked, jumping into bed with hookers -- and loving every minute of it. The only thing I don't like about the game is that one day -- one sad, sad day -- it will end and I will finish the game. BioWare feels my pain. Helping to postpone the heartbreak, they've announced the second DLC for the game and I'm damn happy about it.
Left 4 Dead 2
Speaking of DLC, is the recently released sequel already lining up its own content pack?
Samurai Jack
Did you like Samurai Jack? I did. It was subtle, lovingly-crafted and very, very unique. I'm glad to hear that a movie of the cartoon is on the way.
Radiohead
Magazines are in a tough place these days. Bottom line: they need to sell magazines in a time where people don't buy magazines. That means sinking low sometimes. That means you need to resort to hyperbole and ridiculousness sometimes (just ask Entertainment Weekly.) Sometimes it's letting reality stars guest "edit" the mag. Other times it's running a countdown of best films and putting something absolutely stupid as the No. 1 while leaving off obvious choices. You need to rile people up. You need to shock them. If you're Spin magazine, you go and write an article on how Radiohead sucks but we just won't admit it. Like, basically, we're all angry and shit that they never continued on their The Bends-slash-rock anthems path to being the new U2 and we just pretend we like how experimental they are -- but really, stuff like In Rainbows and any post-OK Computer albums suck. The problem with that is then this dude comes along and totally disembowels your fake argument and makes you look like hacks. And, also, this.
And finally…
Here's that Hawkman from Smallville picture again -- except bigger. I can't get enough of it. It's terrible. He looks like your friend's grandfather trying to get off a ladder because you guys are "horsing around too goddamn much" and he's going to try and stop you. Like, as soon as he gets down. Whenever that is. (No, I don't know why his grandfather is on a ladder.) Apparently it's all for an episode featuring the Justice Society. I think it's going to have Doctor Fate and Stargirl in there, too. I don't know about Stargirl, but Doctor Fate isn't going to look much better than Hawkman, I'm thinking.
No-no If you know (and love) your baseball, you'll love this. But hey, if you love funny shit, animation and great (true!) stories you will, too.
Alien Legion Alien Legion was a cool, somewhat obscure comic book graphic novel series from the late '80s, early '90s. Basically it was the foreign legion in space with aliens and humans killing shit across the galaxy. Bonus: the commanding officer was half-snake. It was an enjoyable romp that sometimes did the whole thinly-veiled allegory for contemporary issues thing but overall it was about who these people (and aliens) were before and who they became after joining the legion. And it was pretty violent. You could probably pick up a whack of issues for next to nothing, I would think. And you might want to do it quick because, according to this article, they're looking to turn it into a film/franchise. Could definitely work.
Fringe
I haven't made my love of Fringe a secret. The show's characters and world appeal to me and I don't care who knows it. It's cost me friends and family to do so (it hasn't) but that's the way it has to be -- I am a passionate man in my passions. Now Fox is hoping to attract new viewers to the show with its latest viral campaign. It uses the mysterious (and bald!) Observers and they've been turning up across various Fox properties -- even NFL football! It's all gonna culminate on this week's episode. Sounds good to me.
Hawkman, unfortunately
Sometimes staying true to a super hero's costume can be a mistake. Exhibit A: Hawkman's appearance on Smallville.
Decade NME has released their top albums of the decade. Yeah, it's a little Brit-centric and, yeah, the Strokes are number one, but it's hard to argue the majority of the choices. Well, maybe Klaxons.
And finally…
The year 2008 was a year where Fallout 3 was released (along with Fable II, GTA IV, Gears 2 and other huge titles). And, still, I think Ubisoft's Prince of Persia reboot was my favourite. Maybe not overall, but as a concept from top to bottom it was genius. One of the greatest things about it was its enigmatic ending. An ending so unique, it's inspired debates ever since. Now Destructoid elloquently opens up the debate again -- and I thank them.
