Just Cause 2 - Guns, Drugs, Explosions.... etc

I pulled the trigger on Just Cause 2 over the weekend, it was a bit of a gamble seeing as how I hadn't even played the demo, but honestly I could not be happier with this game.

It's a sandbox title so naturally the plot isn't all that exciting, in fact its fairly vanilla. The real treat of this game though is in the absolute over the top hyperactive physics engine on display. Shoot out a tire in a chasing jeep in this game and it wont swerve to the side or slow to a stop - no it will flip and launch itself 30 feet in the air, plummet into the ground and explode. That, in of itself, pretty much sums up why I love this game so much, it's like living an episode of The A Team.

It's available on pretty much every major platform out there so I highly encourage you to check out the demo at least - you will not be disappointed (well if you like blowing shit up at least).

Finally let me leave you with some BASE Jumping goodness:

More Captain America Hype

Once again I have to give credit to Rob at TR for posting this:

Now I know this is completely unofficial, but still that is some pretty impressive editing there. I'm fairly sure thats a Fantastic Four still under there, but I could be wrong. Regardless, great job to whoever took the time to put this together. Once can only hope the official poster looks as good.

Another Cheapshot at Apple

Saw this hilarity over at bbspot earlier today. If you're afraid to click the random links I post here (well done you are learning!!) let me summarize. Basically the whole thing begins with a question "should I buy an iPad?" Now speaking for me personally I already know the answer to that question, but I can see how the average consumer might be undecided. Apple products are shiny afterall and those crazy people out there are mysteriously attracted to shiny, so to help you out the friendly guys over at bbspot have developed a flow chart:

With the help of this handy guide, you can figure out if you should buy an iPad in less than a minute. For those of you who think a whole minute of their life would be wasted on this question, remember you could save a cubic-fuck-load of money as a result. :)

Evans is the First Avenger!!

Saw on Yahoo today that Chris Evans is now officially Captain America - and has in fact singed on for something ridiculous like 9 movies. Now again I'll reiterate that while he may not have been my first choice for the role, he's not Channing Tatum!!

I would say some more on this development, but instead let me direct you to Rob's post on the topic over on TR!

Captain America: Who Will Wield the Shield?

It's not really news at this point, I'm about a week late to the game with this one, but Chris Evans has been offered the role of Captain America in the new First Avenger movie. In a strange twist though, the actor did not immediatly jump on the role and is instead 'thinking about it.' Well as Sci Fi Wire reported he is somewhat commited to another flick, but to paraphrase a famous Ghostbuster:

If someone asks you if you're a God you want to play Captain America... You say YES!!

Well to be fair, Evans wouldn't be my first choice. My first choice of actor to play Cap would be Mark Valley (he's even a West Point grad so you know he'd do the part justice). My support of Evans stems from the fact that TR has just cited that the final three being considered for the part are as follows:

1. Chris Evans
2. Sebastian Stan (apparently he's on that show Gossip Girl)
3. Channing Tatum

There you have it folks, Tatum is in the running for Cap. If that's not enough to get you to endorse Evans then I don't know what is. Don't leave us with Tatum, we're begging you Chris.... Take the part already!!!

RTS Games: The Best and the Worst

In the last couple of weeks I have picked up two new RTS games. Well to be a little more accurate I picked up the latest releases in a couple of well established RTS franchises: Dawn of War 2: Chaos Rising and Command and Conquer 4: Tiberian Twilight.

These games illustrate perfectly the two ends of the current RTS spectrum, from entertaining gameplay to plodding methodical and poorly implemented trash. Dawn of War 2: Chaos Rising adds another satisfying chapter to the Dawn of War series, even going so far as to allow you to import your character from Dawn of War 2. Command and Conquer 4 (lauded as the conclusion to the tiberium universe and 15 years of story) is sadly disappointing across the board. There has been much debate online about the removal of base building and resource gathering in favour of small scale battles with artificially imposed unit limits. Well perhaps debate is the wrong word, most gamers agree that this was a huge mistake on the part of the developers.

I did play in the beta of C&C 4 and thought it was a interesting idea. The beta was multiplayer only though, and didnt even give you the chance to try out skirmish mode against the AI. As a result I had no prior indication of how the single player missions would handle the drastically redesigned format. Well now I have my answer, the new format is a dire choice for the single player campaign. The devs were talking up the vast options we would have in approaching each of the missions, how they didn't code in solutions, just objectives that we  could tackle in new and inventive ways. Well I call bullshit!! I finished the Nod campaign yesterday - yes you read that right I completed an entire campaign less than 24 hours after buying the game - and I can say that in almost every instance, there was only one way to win (and it usually involved the selection of a particular battle class). The entire campaign comprised of around 7 missions, which is pathetic for the grand conclusion to the Tiberium saga that has lasted 15 fucking years. Add to that the fact that most of the missions can be completed in a half hour at most (really 15-20 minutes should be enough in most cases).

Now Gamespot tells me that the real value of C&C 4 is in its multiplayer aspect. Well I played through a bunch of that in beta and while it was fun to muck about with for an evening, I don't personally see much longevity in it. There are only so many times you can run around in circles capturing nodes, losing nodes and capturing nodes again before it becomes stale. Add to that the fact that the community is (just as in previous C&C games) dominated by the hardcore fanatics, those people who are kind enough to curse you out if you haven't won the game in less than 5 minutes.

So to summarize C&C 4 delivers a lukewarm, vanilla single player experience and a repetitive multiplayer experience dominated by pricks and assholes alike. Well you have a winning strategy there EA (not to mention another example of 'always on' internet DRM).

Alternatively Dawn of War offers a rich RPG/RTS that really draws you into your character (you build your hero your way and thus you feel more invested in him as opposed the faceless commander of C&C). Additionally the missions are kept fresh in DoW as the maps are varied and the textures are diverse. Sure when you get down to every mission really amounts to kill everything else, but the story is solid and plot moves along nicely. In C&C it feels like the story is being dragged kicking and screaming behind a truck to get to its - lets face it - preposterous conclusion.Finally DoW offers a far variety in its multiplayer via the Last Stand mode, where you face off against a horde of enemies with other hero characters. This offers a nice alternative to the tried and true capture and hold style gameplay that I find rather uninteresting.


Overall it's just really sad to see the franchise that essentially solidified RTS gameplay fall so far from grace. I still own all the old C&C titles and even fire up the first game every now and then. I have very fond memories of the old style C&C, but then perhaps that's why I find the new gameplay style so pathetically drab. I know Tiberian Twilight is the end of the Kane saga, but if they do release another game in the Tiberium universe, I believe I will skip it - in fact given the poor quality of this title I think it will be the last C&C game I ever buy. Looking forward to the next Dawn of War title though, that should be fun!!

The Boondock Saints 2, On DVD Today!!

Title says it all, terrific movie on DVD today. Buy it quick and watch it over and over again. Troy Duffy took his time, but the results were well worth the wait. Will be taking a look at the directors commentary soon, which should be awesome as the cast apparently give their perspectives too.

Oh and on another topic, there was a fairly interesting trailer on the DVD for a new Michael Caine flick called Harry Brown. Trailer posted below:

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Fairly pedestrian revenge story, but looks interesting all the same. Good to see Michael Caine returning to form - almost reminds me of the Get Carter days (which is a good thing).

New Iron Man 2 Trailer

WOW! I did not think anything could have been cooler than the first trailer they released for this movie. It appears that I was wrong. The highlight of this for me, near the end of the trailer when we see Tony with what appears to be a portable version of the Iron Man suit - Sweet!

Anyway here's the trailer in all its glory... enjoy!

The movie reviews have dried up a tad..

My other blog, Fifth Row Seat, which features movie reviews has been a little stagnant recently. I am painfully aware of this fact, and do feel just a smidgen of guilt. Fact is I really haven't seen all that many movies recently as:

• There really aren't all that many movies out right now that I want to see (The current box office top 10 is especially dire)
• Friday (movie day) has been interupted recently by other duties, such as couresework and marathon games of Civ 4

 I have, over the course of the last month, seen both Daybreakers and From Paris With Love, but simply haven't had the time or inclination to write up reviews as of yet. This is no reflection on either movie, and in fact has more to do with that fact I am currently on my fifth play through of Mass Effect 2 and I recently purchased Bioshock 2 (and am still working through the single player story).

I do plan on getting to those reviews in a fairly timely manner, but with Dawn of War 2: Chaos Rising and Command & Conquer 4: Tiberium Twilight on the horizon, it may take some time. So to sum up, I have not abandoned Fifth Row Seat, and I will continue to post reviews as time permits.

Well played Amazon, Well played indeed!

I had made a mental note as to the release date of Secret Warriors Volume 2 so I could snap it up in a timely fashion. Well Amazon.com is generally the cheapest place for such things, certianly cheaper than buying it from a brick and mortar store anyway. So over the weekend I decided to go ahead and purchase it (along with a couple of novels to bring my total $ value into the 'free shipping' range).

To that end, I fired up my browser, navigated to Amazon.com and typed "Secret Warriors Vol 2" into the handy little search bar. The following are the genuine results I was presented with, no editing of the image has been done, other than cropping and blanking out my account name:

Now, lets take a look at these results.

1. This is the item I was looking for "Secret Warriors, Vol 2"
2. Has the term "Vol 2" in it and is related to my search in terms of genre and publisher, fair game.
3. Unrelated to what I wanted, but has the word "Warriors" in it so I guess I can't argue the point.
4. Now here is where things get interesting. "10 Erotic Films Volume 1"... Try as I might, I simply cannot see how this relates to the search terms I entered.

Now I should point out that while I am not entirely opposed to the erotic movie collection, I do still have to ask why Amazon felt the need to add it to this particular query. One of these things is not like the others, so to speak. Anyway I just found it highly amusing, it brightened up an otherwise mundane Sunday, and so I figured it was worth sharing.