The Forgotten Sands, Split/Second and Highlander: The Series

I promised a quick review thingy about the last week so here it is.

First: Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands
I picked this one up on release day and proceeded to play the shit out of it for the next three days, and then I reached the end and completed it. So yea it is a relatively short game and there are some shortcomings, but overall it was an enjoyable experience and a pretty good story. I'm not convinced it's worth a $60 purchase though, so if you feel like trying it out, I'd recommend renting it or perhaps just waiting until the price drops to Platinum Hits price ranges.

Second: Split/Second
After completing Prince I decided to go ahead and burn some cash on this "adrenaline fueled" racer. It's been a lot of fun so far, I'm still working my way through the episodes (of which there are twelve), but it's something I keep going back to on a daily basis. I'm not sure how much lasting appeal it will have after the last episode gets knocked out, but I may dabble in the multiplayer for a time too. If you enjoyed Burnout Revenge, then you'll probably enjoy this one, but a word of warning - buy a console version, do not buy it on the PC - from what I understand the port is very poorly done.

Third: Highlander: The Series
I discovered that this is actually available on Netflix via Instant Streaming. So I've been working my way through season 1 and 2 (it also appears that season 3 is on there too). I'd forgotten quite how cheesy the show can be (and it's true that there are some pretty poor episodes), but on the whole its fairly entertaining and I very much enjoy recapping some of the events I'd forgotten about. Especially the season 2 opener that introduced Joe Dawson.

Neglect

Just occurred to me that I have not updated Undead Geek in an entire week. Shame on me. I'll dispense with the grovelling and get down to an explanation. I'm attempting to successfully complete two course over the summer term. That's actually a little more taxing than it sounds as (collectively) that's 32 weeks of coursework crammed into 20 weeks (10 weeks x2 classes). Summer term started last week and I've been fairly mowed down by the degree of stuff I have to complete in such a short period of time. I will attempt to post a minimum of 5 updates this week in addition to my coursework, but I make no promises.

Check back later - I really do want to do a kind of summary, wrap up, type thing of some of the recent stuff I've been looking into to make up for the gap.

Quick shout out for Soul Hunter

I finished up the Black Library novel Soul Hunter by Aaron Dembski-Bowden last week, just want to take a moment to shower some praise. For those unfamiliar BL is the official publisher of Games Workshop related media. For those who don't know who Games Workshop is, sorry... I can't help you :)

Anyway Soul Hunter represents the first novel dedicated to the Night Lords traitor legion since Lord of the Night (widely regarded as one of the BL classics), so suffice to say it had big shoes to fill. Plus Aaron is a new author with BL, the only previous work published in a novel was a short story appearing in Heroes of the Space Marines. Well despite all that, Soul Hunter was a terrific read. The main character was equally as imposing (and more importantly interesting) as the lead from Lord of the Night, the action is tense and exciting and the plot is so full of intrigue and questionable loyalties that you're never really sure how it's all going to end. All in all a very well put together package, more than worth the low-low purchase price of $8.99.

For fans of 40K fiction, fans of the Night Lords, or simply fans of a good thriller - Soul Hunter is a must have. Aaron has cemented himself as a great new talent at BL as far as I'm concerned, in fact I've already moved onto his other work Helsreach. As an added bonus for folks who've read Lord of the Night, Soul Hunter drops some nice hooks and easter-eggs back to that novel, so watch out for those.

Split / Second and a bunch of other games...

I was trying to settle on two, just two games that are released tomorrow. The dilemma I face is that Forgotten Sands, Red Dead Redemption and Split / Second are all released on May 18th. I simply cannot justify buying all three, not only would that be a tremendous amount of money to drop on a single day, but I would not have time to play all three anyway. So I figured I'd pick up Sands tomorrow and then get Red Dead a week or two later, skipping Split / Second entirely.

Well I played the demo for Split / Second and I'm more than slightly hooked on it. Not to mention the fact that it has been getting a lot of pretty good press in the reviews (IGN, Gamespot and Ars Technica are all giving it a positive thumbs up). Ars review is available here. So now I am faced with picking up Forgotten Sands tomorrow, snagging Split / Second a week or two later, buying a copy of Red Dead further out (perhaps a month or more) and cramming in Alpha Protocol somewhere in-between.

Damn May/June is busy on the game front. Which is nice and all, but I'm enrolled in two summer classes that I expect to be pretty intense (what with 16 weeks of work crammed into 10). Thus I foresee some tough calls in the time management department in the coming months.

The Adjustment Bureau, looks interesting

I'm something of a fan of Matt Damon. It's true that I did arrive at Good Will Hunting late, but that movie kinda got me hooked on the actor. Since then I've enjoyed the Bourne movies, the Ocean movies and the recent Green Zone. So with that in mind, when I came across a trailer for The Adjustment Bureau I was somewhat intrigued. As an added bonus it seems Terrance Stamp has a role in the movie, and anyone familiar with the classic "Kneel Before Zod!!" should have a fair amount of nostalgia for the actor too. Anyway, here's the trailer:

Weep for the end is near....

As of 10:00 p.m. eastern standard time on May 10th 2010 MacGruber has a 100% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Something horrible is happening to the universe, the four horsemen will march. How the fuck does this happen? Now I know the movie ain't out yet, and there is no 'consensus' on RT at this time, but still.. there are seven (fucking seven) reviews up already - and they are all positive. Are these folks smoking something, and if so where can I get some - cause it must be some powerful shit.

Anyway - just to prove I am not having some kind of psychotic episode, here is the actual screen-shot of the offending RT page, for your consideration.

The American, Why had I not heard of this?

It's no secret that I'm a fan of George Clooney, the man is one of the best actors on screen today (at least I think he is). So I'm curious as to how it is that I didn't know about a new movie that he's starring in called The American. The trailer leaves me both wanting to see the movie, and worried that it might not deliver. It doesn't give too much away about whats going on, but it also looks like it could be a slow burn. Granted that isn't necessarily a bad thing, but it is a lot harder to execute successfully than the good old fashioned action fest. Well, as a fan of Clooney, I really hope this one is good - looks like it has potential. In any case, the full trailer appears below, check it out for yourself:

Starcraft 2 Dated

I'm well behind the time with this, as is so often the case, but I just felt the need to broadcast it anyway. The official release date for Starcraft 2 has been announced by Blizzard as July 27th. In addition it appears to be a worldwide release, so mark your calendars now folks, and start saving too as the prices are a little higher than average. The standard edition is going to run you back $60 (US) and if you feel the need to splurge for the super tiger dragon edition, then you're gonna need to scrounge together $100 (US). While $100 for a game seems a tad steep, I have to admit that I'm seriously considering the collectors edition, granted most of the stuff they packaged in there is shit, but the art book and the soundtrack actually look pretty good.

Yeah it's true that I could probably just pick up those two items on eBay or some-such, but the prices will undoubtedly be hiked through the roof.