The Journey, Beyond Two Souls

How you like that mash-up?

I recently completed Beyond: Two Souls. Last month, I also beat the game Journey. I wanted to do separate reviews, but the themes in these game couldn't be more fitting.

Journey was developed by the same team that created flOw and Flower. The game starts out with what appears to be a shooting star (or a meteor) racing across the sky. The scene pans across the screen overlooking a desert landscape. It cuts to a red-overall, shrouded character, the unnamed protagonist you play, with a red scarf with gold-embroidered designs. There is no dialog in the game. All you have are subtle onscreen prompts on how to control your character.

You encounter these cloth-like materials all over the environment. They seem to be made from the same material as your character's cloak. You can "call" these things with your character's quipping noise that sounds like random staccato-ed cello notes. They gather around your character and allow it to move faster and hover about for a few seconds depending on how long your scarf has gotten.

Halloween Pumpkins

This photo was floating around earlier this year (maybe last year, too). One of my friends posted it on Facebook. Halloween is just around the corner. So I said to myself, "why not?"

Finding the right pumpkin was daunting. It would have to be small and the perfect size. White pumpkins are slightly rarer than regular orange ones. I went looking for the orange pumpkins, first. Most grocery stores sell the bigger kind and have one set price for any size. It's also harder to find the typical pumpkin look. Most of those were already taken. I found one small orange pumpkin (which had a face drawing at first I removed) and two mini white pumpkins.

LEGO Architecture 2013

Something I put together last month. It's the Seattle Space Needle and the Burj Khalifa from the LEGO Architecture series.



I'm done.

Of Supes and Spidey

Metallo: I ran Superman's face through a facial recognition scan. I found out his identity. He's Clark Kent! He works at the Daily Planet.

Lex Luthor: Yeah Metallo, we all know. Keep it to yourself.

Metallo: What? If everyone knows why isn't it public?

Lex Luthor: Because if we make him keep his job it's 8 hours less in the day he's trying to stop us.

Metallo: But we could attack him when he least suspects it!

Lex Luthor: Why, you think he's less bulletproof when he's at home in his pajamas?

-----------------------------------------

Spider-Man

Eddie Brock: JAMESON! YOU HAVE TO BELIEVE ME! PETER PARKER IS SPIDER-MAN

J. Jonah Jameson: Yeah, I know...

... What, you thought I didn't know? Kid walks in, baggy clothes and a bunch of posing shots he couldn't have possibly taken of anyone but himself? Of course it's him, But I'm not gonna tell him.

Men this day and age don't have the initiative and drive they used to. Girls break their heart, and what do they do? Post about it on their facespaces or mytwits, or whatever. And in walks a kid trying to make a difference, and some change, and you think I'm just going to pat the kid on the back? Hell no. Men crave competition, and and adversarial force to chase them on. I give the kid the works so he gives the city results. You tell a kid he's doing well, and he gets bored. A Spider-Man can't get BORED.

You, on the other hand, are what happens when everyone tells you you're gonna be great, and then it doesn't pan out. You had nowhere to go but down. And down you did. Is that thing even sanitary? You gave up after one case and got freaky with space goo? What sort of fabrege ego did you have?

I don't have to tell Parker I believe in him to get him to be a hero. You needed approval to keep yourself from going insane. Who's the real man of integrity and valor?

Now get the hell out of my office. I have tomorrow's headline to pick, and you were fired eight years ago.

I'm done.

TL;DR Movie Reviews for Winter, Spring, Summer, Some of Fall 2013

1. Hansel & Gretel - A good start for a potentially-new franchise when you cross a Grimms' fairy tale with Steampunk and dark comedy.
2. Warm Bodies - Definitely a better love story than Twilight.
3. Identity Theft - Jason Bateman in another supporting role with NOT Will Smith (ahem *Hancock*) as the lead role.
4. A Good Day to Die Hard (Die Hard 5) - It's like the "Ernie Goes To" series, except it's Bruce Willis as John McClane and he goes to Russia. Instead of hilarity ensuing, it's killing and blowing stuff up.
5. Oz: The Great and Powerful - A prequel to the Wizard of Oz with James Franco and a talking monkey.
6. The Croods - The Flinstones 3D.
7. Oblivion - Tom Cruise Promoting Scientology Part 4? 5?
8. Iron Man 3 - Marvel milk's franchise... news at 11.
9. The Great Gatsby - Leonardo DiCaprio continues being the most underrated actor ever.
10. Star Trek: Into Darkness - Benedict Cumberbatch, Klingons, Time-travelling old Spock and more lens flares.
11. Fast & Furious 6 - It's no longer about living life a quarter mile at a time. Heck, they got a tank.
12. The Hangover III - It stopped being a comedy and turned into a real kidnapping/hostage movie.
13. Now You See Me - It's like The Avengers, except with magicians... and Morgan Freeman.
14. The Internship - A great movie about Google back in 2005. A tamer version of Wedding Crashers... also in 2005.
15. Man of Steel - If Superman was done the right way with Dragonball Z fighting and the Chris Nolan/David Snyder moral-dilemma treatment.
16. This Is the End - Actually a very funny well-written comedy movie.
17. World War Z - jump-starting the shuffling/dragging vs running zombies once again.
18. Despicable Me 2 - More cuteness overload with the Minions.
19. Pacific Rim - A giant mech/robot/monster movie done well. Looks like a new franchise is born.
20. The Conjuring - You will shit your pants and have the hair on your arms standing up.
21. The Wolverine - If Wolverine was given the Christopher Nolan down-to-earth treatment and lost his powers. That's how boring this movie was. The only saving grace is the teaser for next year's X-Men movie, uniting the cast of First Class and who would come back from The Last Stand.
22. Elysium - from the director that brought you District 9. Stars MAAAAATT DAAAAAMON!!! And Jodie Foster.
23. Jobs - Ashton Kutcher has portrayed Steve Jobs pretty well. Could have used slightly better writing, though.
24. Instructions not INCLUDED - Tear jerker of a comedy drama.
25. Insidious 2 - Bigger budget and scarier than the first.
26. Gravity - Who would have thought that two people floating in space would be so intense and thought provoking?

I'm done.