« September 2005 | Main | November 2005 »
October 31, 2005
Far Cry Instincts: LOST in a video game
I’m really digging the hell out of Far Cry Instincts for the Xbox. This first person shooter was out on the PC a year ago. I tried it and couldn’t get out of the water without getting shot. The Xbox version got a high metacritic score, so I took a chance and bought it.
Far Cry pushes the Xbox graphics hardware to places it’s never been before. Water has never looked better, whether it’s in the ocean, lakes, or rivers. In case you haven’t heard, FCI takes place on a tropical island near South America. You play Jack Carver, a tour boat operator who gets his one and only customer kidnapped by an unknown army that inhabits the island. Jack survives by diving underwater, and once he gathers his wits long enough to grab a few guns, you’re in a goddamn Bruckheimer movie (thankfully it’s not directed by Michael Bay). Carver’s voice is by actor Stephen Dorff; the script has him say fuck this and those fuckers and so on. The gaming press has criticized this, but I find it refreshing—it just makes me relate to Jack that much more!
The plot to FCI doesn’t seem like much at first, but it gets better as you go along. As you trek through the jungle, blowing away bad guys, certain plot elements will smack you upside the head. The game has a stealth feature, where you have incentive to sneak up on enemies before they sound an alarm. I fail at this most of them time, but I am completely suckered into the idea of being in danger on an island. It feels like the TV show LOST, rustling through the foliage, not knowing what’s up ahead. The weapons in the game are standard issue, but you can double-wield. The sniper weapon is pretty good. Much cooler are the vehicles. So far I’ve commandeered a dingy, an airboat, an ATV, and a jeep with a mini-gun. The promos show a hang-glider that I can’t wait to get to. Much, much cooler are the animal powers that Jack gets injected with—they give him this Wolverine-claw slash instant fatality move. It reminds you of the Halo sword, but I think Marvel should take note—there’s a great Wolvy game you can rip out of this.
I tried multiplayer for five minutes and kept getting killed the minute I appeared. To hell with that, right now I love the single player experience (although it does allow you to create your own maps). Far Cry Instincts is right up there with Halo and Doom 3. If you’re an Xbox shooter fan, you need to get it. For the week of 10/31/05, Best Buy has it on sale for $30. Nuff said.
Posted by Kid Flash at 12:52 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)Catwoman: Pfeifer\Woods have whipped this into shape!
One of the DC books I’m really getting to like is Catwoman. Yes, it’s sad that Ed Brubaker left, but Will Pfeifer has written some solid stories. He’s taking Catwoman down a more superhero-ish path than Brubaker. The Secret Society has shown up and Selina pretended to join their team. Issue #48 has a pretty shocking ending.
I like Pfeifer’s writing a lot; he did such a great job on H.E.R.O. It’s time he was given a major character to write. Pete Woods’ artwork on this title is just awesome. I hadn’t heard of him before this series, but he’s fantastic.
Adam Hughes is really restrained on those covers, eh? Nuff said.
Posted by Kid Flash at 12:13 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)October 28, 2005
Tales of the Zombie: The Redemption of Simon Garth
“But what breed of man or woman finds pleasure in the degradation of another human being? What manner of man could be so shallow? Alas, you are about to find out.”
I knew little of the living dead when I saw Tales of the Zombie #1 at the Book Cache in Anchorage, Alaska. All I knew was that it was from Marvel, and that the cover by Boris Vallejo was one of the most striking images I’d ever seen. A creature with albino skin, standing in a foggy graveyard, clutching the arm of a frightened woman. The Zombie in the upper left hand corner reading a Marvel mag was cute. I bought it and devoured the origin story.
Written by Steve Gerber and drawn by John Buscema (one of his most outstanding black and white art jobs, inked by Tom Palmer and Syd Shores), it was violent, graphic, and sexy. Set in New Orleans, it was the story of Simon Garth, a successful coffee harvester. A hard-driving and conservative man, Simon cared only for his daughter Donna—who liked to skinny dip in the pool when no one was watching. When the gardener Gyps catches Donna in the nude, he makes advances and is thrown off by Simon. Vowing revenge, Gyps takes Simon to a voodoo party in the bayou. He’s supposed to be a living sacrifice to the Loa.
Fortunately for Simon, the voodoo priestess happens to be his super-hot secretary, Layla. Layla cuts him loose, and he runs through the bayou. Gyps runs Simon down and fatally stabs him with the shears that Simon told him to sharpen. Gyps buries Simon in the swamp and then decides that’s not good enough. To truly suffer, Simon must become one of the walking dead!
Gyps forces Layla to perform the voodoo ritual. Simon rises from the grave, and he’s adorned with the Amulet of Damballa. Whoever holds the duplicate coin has the power to control Simon and force him to do virtually anything. It’s a fickle power, perhaps dependent on the one holding the coin. Gyps orders Simon to kidnap Donna, but Simon somehow resists the command. When Gyps drops the coin in a drunken stupor, Simon swiftly kills him in his first moment of freedom.
From there, the series progressed with two main themes. One theme dealt with Simon struggling to end his hellish existence. The other theme dealt with various people getting the coin and forcing Simon to do terrible things. Steve Gerber was the perfect writer for the series. He excelled at writing mindless creatures, allowing the supporting cast to take over most of the story. He wrote the stories from Simon’s point of view, using second person narration: “You stand in a dark, windswept field somewhere outside New Orleans, but you do not feel the chill of the blustery night breeze. You do not feel anything.”
From issue #2 until the end, the primary artist became Pablo Marcos. Marcos had a vivid style and a flair for black and white drawing that fit the series perfectly. His rendition of the Zombie resembled the paintings by Boris Vallejo. He drew shockingly voluptuous voodoo queens and other slutty women who gave themselves over the dark arts.
Tales of the Zombie was a unique series in that it actually told a complete arc across the entire ten issues Marvel published. It was probably not planned that way, but the pieces fell into place. Issue #9 had Gerber’s strongest story in the series run, “A Death Made Out Of Ticky-Tacky.” Simon had been reunited with Layla, the only person who could possibly undo his curse.
Before she can aid him, Simon is summoned by a group of swingers who now possess the coin of Damballah. They force Simon to attack a number of people that they each have a trivial disagreement with. You can feel Simon’s shame and horror building each time they abuse him.
The last victim turns out to be a “snooty secretary from Garwood,” Simon’s old company. Simon enters a dark apartment and smashes the victim in the head violently. To his horror, he discovers that it’s Layla. She tears the Amulet of Damballah from his neck, and Simon is a free man at last. With a bloodcurdling shriek, he goes after the swingers and kills them.
The last Simon Garth story in TOTZ #9 was “A Day In The Life Of A Dead Man.” It wasn’t written by Gerber, but it used all the supporting characters and plot elements from the past issues. A voodoo master helps a dying Layla to restore Simon Garth to life for twenty four hours. Simon returns to New Orleans and makes peace with his family, sells his company, and takes revenge on a voodoo lord who made Simon kill an ally.
At the end of TOTZ #9, Simon turns back into a Zombie and crawls back into the grave for a final and everlasting sleep. Someone probably resurrected him in other Marvel titles. I preferred to think of this as Simon Garth’s final redemption. Nuff said.
October 27, 2005
JSA Classified 4: Oh those glorious pre-Crisis days!
DC fans, drop what you are doing now and read JSA Classified #4. It’s important, and not just because of Power Girl’s amazon gazongas bursting out of her chest. Particularly for those of you who remember Earth-2, when we knew a Huntress who was actually the daughter of Catwoman and Batman (and showed more cleavage if you can believe it). The Robin who grew up to be an adult and take care of Gotham City. Kara, the cousin of the Golden Age Superman. I think we can see the tie-in to the last page of Infinite Crisis #1.
Gosh darn it, I love it when freakin’ third-tier characters suddenly become vital again! Click on the George Perez cover to Infinite Crisis #2 to expand it and see Kara getting swamped with memories of the good ol’ days. Nuff said.
Spider-Man The Other: What is this shit?
I really think that the current “Spider-Man: The Other” stories is a big rip-off. Three issues into the storyline and what do we know? Spider-Man is sick. He’s sick with what, they won’t tell us, but it appears to be terminal. You paid $7.50 for three issues to find out the same thing you knew in the first chapter. I don’t get it. In the old days, Spidey could do a lot of shit in three issues: defeat the Master Planner, save Aunt May, and throw a fucking ten ton machine off his back! Compared to this, Ultimate Spider-Man progresses at the speed of light. One good thing: Peter David is writing Spidey again and I’ll think he’ll be great once this cross-over is done. And I love Ringo’s art on Friendly Neighborhood. Let’s just hope Peter doesn’t grow six arms like he did in ASM 101. Nuff said.
October 26, 2005
Morbius The Living Vampire: Spider-Man’s Anti-Villain
“Only two things separate me from a true vampire…religion and remorse.”
Morbius injected the superhero world with a dash of horror when he appeared in Amazing Spider-Man 101-102. Created by Roy Thomas and Gil Kane, Morbius was an anti-villain—he didn’t really want to murder anyone. His goal wasn’t to create a super-race of vampires. He wanted to find a cure for his predicament.
The origin story that Kane and Thomas presented in ASM 102 remains vivid in my mind over 30 years later. A prize-winning chemist, Michael Morbius suffered from a terminal blood disease. He sought to turn back his illness using a serum made with the blood of vampire bats. His cure worked, but it also turned him into a vampire—luckily he was wearing a blue and red suit at the time that would go nicely with his new albino skin!
As a vampire, Morbius could fly (the excuse was that his bones were hollow), drink blood, and possessed extraordinary strength. Unlike his supernatural cousins, he didn’t die when the sun came up (although he felt weaker) and he experienced a heavy amount of guilt for those he killed. Shortly after Morbius is cured, he murders his best friend Nikos.
Morbius seemed popular enough that he made a second appearance soon afterward in Marvel Team-Up #3-4. These early appearances were all drawn by Kane, who had an affinity for the character. Kane’s costume design is beautiful simplicity. MTU 4 features Spider-Man and the early X-Men (in a unique appearance without costumes) subduing Morbius long enough for Professor X to examine him.
When Morbius broke free of the X-Men, he exploded into several different venues of the Marvel Universe. He took over the lead serial in Adventures Into Fear, starting with issue 20, lasting until the series’ cancellation with #32. The stories really aren’t very good. The highlight is issue 21, with art by Gil Kane. The rest of the issues have a rotating chair of artists and writers that continually try to pit Morbius against supernatural creatures.
Morbius made a much more notable appearance in Giant-Size Superheroes #1. This title was meant to be the first in a series of oversized (64 big pages!) comics featuring Spider-Man, Fantastic Four, and so on. It turned out to be the first and only issue (as each hero got their own Giant-Size comic) but it was a doozy to a ten year old kid. Spider-Man fought Morbius and Man-Wolf in a story drawn by Kane and written by Gerry Conway.
Morbius’ most memorable stories occurred in the black and white magazine, Vampire Tales. Without the comics code, Morbius’ attacks were bloody and uncompromising. Writer Don McGregor hit upon a formula to make Morbius an interesting and viable character, by giving him a woman named Amanda Saint to protect from a cult called DemonFire. In the first story, we see Morbius stalking Amanda. His attack is interrupted when a bunch of demonic cultists try to kidnap the girl. Morbius contents himself to feast upon them and save Amanda in the process.
McGregor wrote six Morbius stories during his tenure. Reading them again, they’re not that great, either. But the first two stories contain dynamic layouts from Rich Buckler. The first tale’s splash page is in the form of a vampire bat; the second one has a tombstone framing the panels.
Doug Moench wrote a Morbius story that I’ll never forget in Vampire Tales #10. Morbius kills almost everyone in a small town in revenge for their murder of an innocent woman. Again, nothing great, but I could never forget this cover painting.
This is one of those characters that I always remember—yet the quality in these stories is pretty awful. Morbius made an impact on me, because I always equate his vampirism to the condition of an alcoholic. Alcoholism runs in my family. Even as a kid, I always saw parallel between Morbius’ going berserk for blood with certain family members unable to stop drinking. The guilt that comes with the morning after is full of remorse, just like Morbius experienced after killing poor old Nikos. Nuff said.
October 25, 2005
Erica Durance Is Exposed and I'm Feelin' The Heat!
|
| Version 2.03 |
Ol’ Cousin Dick is back with a surgeon general warning: you can get arrested faster than Michael Jackson at Toys R Us, just by watchin’ this Thursday’s episode of Smallville. Lois Lane does some serious strippin’ by the look of it; it’s called Exposed and it sure as heck lives up to the title. I like that little minx, Erica Durance. She ain’t hurtin’ on the eyes. Can I get jail time just for thinkin’ these thoughts? I think I can in Nebraska, Georgia, Arkansas, Utah, and Texas. I’m drivin’ my rig Betsy through one of these here states, but don’t go shoutin’ it out on the CB radio.
Now why is it that the gals on the TV Superman shows are so much hotter than the movies? We used to have Margot Kidder as Lois Lane, who reminded me of Aunt Sally, and that’s not a compliment. On TV we had Teri Hatcher, who in her prime could suck the chrome off a trailer hitch. Annette O’Toole played Lana Lang in Superman III, but Stacy Haiduk made a much hotter Lana (maybe it was the leg warmers and leotards). Now that Bryan Singer’s makin’ Superman Returns, he cast Kate Bosworth as Lois. She kind of reminds me of a little pig back at home. On Smallville, Erica Durance is a much better Lois Lane. When she gets that wicked look in her eye, like she did with Aquaman, my motor starts movin’, and I don’t mean my rig Betsy, I mean my other rig, Lord Lyndon Johnson.
So who’s your favorite gal from all these here Superman shows? Ten-four until the next poll, Nuff said!
Posted by Cousin Dick at 8:14 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
October 24, 2005
SSX On Tour: Paula Abdul would love it
SSX may be my favorite game series for the consoles. Ever since it appeared alongside the Playstation 2, it’s always had a special status in my collection. The series has evolved over time: SSX Tricky had a whacked-out course like pinball machine; SSX 3 had avalanches, Uber tricks, and streaming technology that allowed a 30-minute ride down an entire mountain. With the fourth iteration, SSX: On Tour, I was slightly alarmed by the news that Larry LaPierre (the executive producer at EA) wasn’t behind this one. LaPierre is working on Need For Speed: Most Wanted and SSX in the hands of younger producers. So have the young guns ruined the franchise or saved it? After playing SSX On Tour (Xbox version) for a little over 5 hours, I’d say this edition is two steps forward and one step back (but opposites attract, according to Paula Abdul).
Here’s the good news: SSXOT has tracks that are bigger, bolder, and longer than ever. The streaming technology is used all over the place, not just in the final race, but in some of the beginning stages. The weather/environment effects are nicer this time around, with blizzards, falling trees, and races taking place at different times of the day. For the first time, you have to race around other skiers and boarders that are on the slopes. The tracks are incredibly well designed. One track features a plethora of fallen logs, rails, and wooden planks for you to grind on. All of the tracks make it easier to get air-time and perform complicated tricks to boost your meter. The amount of content in the game in incredible: medal races, slopestyle trick events, and new variations like racing the ski patrol or trying to attain as much cumulative air time as possible. There are tons of little collectible do-dads scattered everywhere: boost, money, and photo-ops. The other day I jumped upward, grinded on a helicopter rail, and received a special photo. I haven’t even tried the Skiing mode yet (have to do it with a separate character) because there’s so much for my snowboarding hot-chick to do. Compare all of this to the 8 tracks in the original SSX, and you see how far we’ve come in this generation of consoles.
So what’s not so good? A few things I need to nit-pick. Performing the Monster (aka Uber) tricks is just a matter of flicking the right joystick in any direction. This just feels dumbed down compared to learning the button moves. The producers wanted to depart from the techno and hip-hop soundtracks of past SSX titles. SSX 3 had such a great soundtrack that I actually bought the CD and still listen to it today. We get a list of rock songs, some of which are classics, others are so-so. I think the producers should have given us two or three song styles. In SSX 3, the music made me feel like I was boardin’ with a multicultural crowd from California or New York; SSXOT makes me feel like I’m hangin’ with a bunch of white Mormons from Utah. The producers of this new title also selected graphics for the menus and items that look like Beavis and Butt-Head sketching in their Pee-Chee at high school. I kind of like them all right, but they did some weird stuff with the Career menus. Instead of choosing different mountain regions, you get one big mountain with lots of venues. Each venue may contain different race styles. If you just want to race, it’s not quite clear how to progress. Still, I have to give them credit for not making me wait in the tram to travel to another site.
These are minor nits. On the whole, this is a good title. At a $40 price point, if you like SSX you will have to get it. Nuff said.
Posted by Adam Warlock at 11:14 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)October 20, 2005
Monster of Frankenstein: Marvel's Sequel To A Classic
Frankenstein’s Monster was the classic horror character that joined the Werewolf and Dracula in Marvel’s triumvirate. Monster of Frankenstein #1 was published in 1972 and took up the challenge of creating a sequel to the classic book. At the end of Shelley’s novel, the creature bade farewell to Sir Robert Walton (an explorer) in the Arctic Sea. In the beginning of MOF #1, we see his great-grandson, Robert Walton IV, finding the Monster—encased in a mountain of ice. He carves out a block surrounding the creature, takes him back to his ship, and re-tells the classic tale from Shelley’s novel to a midshipman.
The creative team was Gary Friedrich and Mike Ploog. Friedrich made a great decision to essentially adapt Shelley’s novel in the first 3 issues. Friedrich resisted the Hollywood version of the Monster and instead used Shelley’s erudite version. By issue #2, Walton IV watched in horror as his ship burned and the Monster was revived. After rescuing Walton, the Monster narrated the tale of his creation, abandonment, and pursuit of his creator.
Mike Ploog was the best choice to draw this series. He excelled not only at drawing horror characters, but his style was perfect for a period piece. His enthusiasm must have been great, because he penciled and inked four out of six issues. His cover for MOF #2, showing the monster holding his dead bride has haunted me for years. I copied it using tracing paper at junior high school and received compliments for “my work” from lots of kids who didn’t know better.
The cover was reprinted on the back of F.O.O.M. #2 (Friends Of Ol Marvel), sans cover copy and text.
Only the first six issues of this title were of high quality. The third issue ends the flashbacks as the Monster kills Frankenstein’s wife; we see the Monster’s final confrontation with his creator. Issue #4 describes how the Monster was frozen alive, after a confrontation with an Eskimo tribe.
Issue #5 takes place fully in 1898, and it points the way to an interesting direction for the series. The Monster comes across a woman tied to a crucifix, on a boat that has been set aflame. He rescues the beautiful lady and discovers that a nearby village deliberately set out to murder her. The Monster fights the villagers and takes the girl away. Later, he discovers that the girl is a werewolf—after he’s killed the creature. It’s an interesting premise that could have been fleshed out in later issues: the Monster is willful, determined to seek justice, not caring who he needs to fight. In some ways, he’s like Conan. On the other hand, he’s terribly lonely and seeking female companionship—which can never be fulfilled. It could have been further developed, but plunging sales would dictate otherwise.
MOF #6 finds Mike Ploog doing the plot and full art chores. “In Search of the Last Frankenstein” The Monster is still obsessed with getting revenge on any surviving member of the Frankensteins; he’s traveled back to the Frankenstein castle. While the story isn’t much, Ploog’s artwork shows his enthusiasm for the character and the setting. Other writers on the series kept beating this horse to death, with Frankensteins popping up everywhere for the Monster to find.
The drastic turn for the worse began when Ploog left the series and was replaced by John Buscema in issue 7. Buscema’s work was great—I can only imagine he was happy not to be drawing superheroes. We witnessed a conflict between the Monster and Dracula that had terrible consequences. A woman—the Monster’s kryptonite—turned out to be one of Dracula’s vampy hos. She tried to suck blood out of the Monster and ripped his vocal chords. The Monster was left without a voice—presumably to make him more like the movie version. We were no longer privy to the Monster’s thoughts in captions or balloons. It was a jarring change in the series’ tone.
This was a prelude to having the Monster enter the modern era (1973)—in Monsters Unleashed. Also written by Friedrich, it makes references to the early issues of MOF. John Buscema and Syd Shores did a wonderful black and white art job on the first few stories. The Monster is discovered in a circus exhibit by a couple who’ve read Walton’s diaries. The couple has a terrible relationship, but they seek to own and revive the creature for their own profit.
The woman ignites a fire at the circus, which revives the Monster. The first story had promise, but later chapters devolved into a scientist transplanting his brain into the Monster’s body. Somehow the Monster could speak after the transplant—talk about plot holes!
The color comic series perked up a bit when Val Mayerik took on the art chores. Mayerik had a style that was unique and perfect for horror stories. Marvel crippled his work by pairing Mayerik with a series of incompatible inkers. Finally, in the final issue, Mayerik inked his own work. It was a great job—I think he could have saved the series if he had done it earlier. As nice as it was, I hated the stories, even as a kid. I kept buying each issue, waiting for the Monster to regain his voice. It finally happened in issue 16, but he wasn’t nearly as cool as before. MOF was cancelled with #18 and the Monster lumbered off into the mists of Marvel limbo.
The Monster of Frankenstein was one of the least financially successful horror titles at Marvel. The first six issues of the color comic were classics, and would make for a nice limited series run today. The later stories are hokey horror fun. There’s an Essential Monster of Frankenstein that reprints all the stories I mentioned. Ploog’s detailed line drawings look even better in black and white. Nuff said.
October 19, 2005
The newest gaming demographic: old folks like me
Here we go, proof positive that old fogies play video games! I am not alone.
Business Week: Attack of the Gaming Grannies
Old Grandma Hardcore's Gaming Blog
I am not an aberration. Look at the videos of Grandma playing in her lazy-boy chair.
I think we need a study to see if video games can prevent Alzheimers.
Nuff said.
Posted by Kid Flash at 1:56 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
