I have not had a chance to check out the new Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen movie yet, but I have to say that I’ve read one of the funniest reviews of the movie yet. Rob, from “Topless Robot” comes off the top rope on the newest installment and has an interesting way of doing it. I have to warn you that it is full of colorful language (to say the least) and spoilers but if you can handle that, it’s worth the read. Check out a sample below:
So it's not as bad as shitting your pants? Marginally. I honestly had to make a pro and con list to figure it out.
Why on earth would anyone make a film about giant robots but have myriad scenes of some random douchebag's first day of college? I don't have the faintest clue.
So the most interesting part of the new Blackberry Storm isn’t the new OS, media player, or the email capabilities. Nope, it’s the simple clicking screen! Now I understand that new frills tend to excite the gadget nerd in all of us, but having had a chance to play with the new Storm, I’m a little disappointed. If this is the best part of RIM’s new toy, then we have an issue, a big one. One thing that I couldn’t get past is the clicking part; yes it gives you a nice feel for typing but it doesn’t make it any more accurate. I found myself correcting mistypes even more than the iPhone because the keys only light up blue behind my fingers, and not rising up to confirm my selection like the iPhone. I could click and feel good about it all day, but if I’m selecting the wrong letters, that defeats the point.
Now I’m sure that with enough practice I or anyone else will get use to the big button clicking, it’s just not my cup of tea. But if you’re interested in seeing how the no so magical clicking works, the guys at PhoneWreck were kind enough to pull the panties down on a new Blackberry Storm and show you what they found. They also show you the Qualcomm MSM7600 processor, which seems to be the culprit of the sluggish OS that has plagued the Storm.
With all the hype that’s surrounding the Storm, Blackberry’s new flagship touchscreen. I have to admit that I want to get my hands on one just to test drive the device. Without checking it out, I’m still sure that it doesn’t measure up to the iPhone and its overall appeal, but I know that Blackberry put together a pretty solid handheld. Well the guys at Gizmodo did get a chance to fondle one, and the results might surprise you about this smartphone. Some of the strongest features of the Storm that Blackberry talks about might actually be its weakest points.
For me, no Wi-Fi in the device is a deal breaker, but there are other quirks that might bother you.
Come November 19th the new UI redesign for Xbox 360 will officially hit the consoles, and judging by some of the early reactions, it’s going to be an ass kicker. Gone is the blade system which in my opinion was ok, but certainly lacked style or substance. The UI has a smoother scrolling feature and will allow you to build your own avatar. But the biggest feature for me is the Netflix streaming that will let you download and watch standard and high definition movies. Netflix says that they already have 300 HD movies available, which is far from all the movies that they have in their inventory, but it will grow from there. This feature alone should make people run to pick up an Xbox 360 this holiday season. Our friends at Crunchgear got a chance to test drive the new UI, and were kind enough to provide video.
It's so amazing how we are being flooded with new browsers to choose from. The major players are introducing newer versions of their former applications like IE 8, Opera, Firefox 3, and Safari. But Google has entered the fray with their new browser named "Chrome". Now if you've used any of the former browsers you'll notice may of the same features in "Chrome", and it seems that they've taken the best of what other browsers do and made a top notch application. Check out some of the features below:
Incognito Mode - Or Porn Mode as it's known by most people. It allows you to visit web sites but leave no trace in your browser history or in cookies.
Smart Address Bar - Combines google search bar and the address bar and gives you a comprehensive search feature that's a little better than the version in Firefox 3.
Tab detachment/attachment - Which allows you to rip a tab from the parent browser and open it as a stand alone, and return it without any loss of data.
Session Separation - This is my favorite feature! If you've opened many tabs in Firefox or IE*** and you open task manager, you'll notice that each session ties up more and more of your system's memory. If you close the session, the memory is still tied up until you close FF or IE completely. Chrome runs each tab session separate, allowing the memory to be returned once you close a tab without having to close the browser altogether.
Google Chrome is a nice start and I'm sure that it will get better and better as each version is released.
I rarely take the time to write movie reviews especially on this blog mainly because I feel it’s redundant.Most people have already read or heard reviews about a movie, and adding my opinion isn’t going to help you decide if you want to see it or not. But I’m breaking form this one time because some movies crosses onto our geek side and shines like no other movie of its kind. Batman: The Dark Knight is such a movie.
As much as I loved Batman Begins, The Dark Knight takes Batman to another level. Most comic book movies are poo pooed by most critics and The Academy of Motion Picture, but this film simply cannot be ignored by them.The movie has a brilliant cast of power houses such as Christian Bale, Morgan Freeman, Gary Oldman , Michael Caine, and Aaron Eckhart. But as I’m sure you’ve all heard, the film is owned by Heath Ledger’s rendition of the Joker, and he is masterful. Ledger somehow manages to convey the creepiness, lunacy, and bizarre humor of the Joker like no other actor before him. He is not over the top in his portrayal of the evil clown prince, he is very brilliant in how he deliveries his insanity so subtlety. The only other character that I can compare him to is Hannibal Lecter, with Ledger delivering a performance that is worthy of an Oscar (and not because of a sympathy vote).
Of course when you think of Batman, you think of cool gadgets. But the one thing that I loved about this version of Batman is that the gadgets are not just for show. They’re actually practical and necessary for the movie to move forward. As strange as this may sound, this is the most realistic comic book movie that I’ve ever seen. And what I mean by this is that the film doesn’t ask you to suspend your disbelief very much. The CGI in this movie is not over done, or unneeded to tell the story. And it asks the question in a very realistic way: could a brilliantly twisted sociopath inflict this type of death and chaos upon a city?
Each one of the characters in the movie is used to move the film forward. So many times we see romances forced into a film simply to give the main character depth, but this isn’t the case here. Maggie Gyllenhaal who plays Assistant District Attorney Rachel Dawes is a necessary cog in the wheel of this movie, as is Aaron Eckhart’s portrayal of Harvey Dent. The love triangle that exists between these characters and Bruce Wayne is formidable because of the decisions (and choices) that are made by them.
The Dark Knight asks us to examine the moral choices that we would make in similar positions, and some of the answers that you might come up with might scare you.The Dark Knight stands not as a comic book film, but just as a fantastically written and acted movie that should be considered for best movie of the year.It has set the bar so high for any other film of its kind that I’m not sure that it can be reached. It is the film that all other comic book movies will forever (and unfairly) be compared to. It is the film that fans of Batman and of movies in general were truly hoping for, but up until now had never seen.
With the new Batman: The Dark Knight movie just around the corner, some reviews have already started to come through. And I have to say that I have not heard one bad one at all, with some calling for an Oscar for Heath Ledger’s role as the Joker. Richard Roeper from Ebert & Roeper called it the greatest super hero film ever made, and Ledger’s performance the best in over a decade. Check out what Massawyrm from ‘Ain’t it Cool’ news had to say about the film:
“This film is brilliant and has no equal in the realm of comic book movies. It is a film so good that I almost don’t want to see a third because I know there is almost no way it could live up to its predecessor. It will give children nightmares and redefine the way we look at The Joker, the Batman and comic book movies in general. This is the Godfather of superhero movies. The Empire Strikes Back. It is a film that may never find an equal, a film that will have you staring jaw agape with your hand planted in front of your face in disbelief at how far it is ready to go. It is what we always thought a Batman film could be, but never seemed to happen. Yes. It is the real deal. It is the greatest Batman story ever told.”
Clearly this is going to be great, and I don’t think I’ve been this excited about a movie in a long time. I’ve already got my IMAX theater tickets, and I can’t wait.
Those lucky bastards at Gizmodo got their hands on a 3G iphone, and had a chance to give a brief review of sorts. Check it out:
"In my hand, the 3G iPhone is lighter, fits better, and noticeably thinner feeling as it doesn't have the same squarish shape. (You won't notice that it is thicker at all.) I made a call with it, side by side with my 1st generation iPhone, and the reception is noticeably better as well." more>>
Oh, boy... This was just what I was afraid of about this movie. When I heard that they were making another Indiana Jones movie, I feared that they would not be able to recapture the magic of the previous movies. Well early reports are starting to confirm those fears, in the worst way. From the guys at aintitcool.com:
"This reminds me of waiting for the first of the last three Star Wars movies: you wait for years and years for a new movie to come out and then, when it finally arrives, not only does it fail to live up to expectations, it clouds your view of the originals because it's so bad."
Wow!!! Not good!
But I love George Lucas's respond: "You're not going to get a lot of accolades doing a movie like this. All you can do is lose."
Funny thing is, the trailers that are out didn't make me excited to go check it out. Usually the best parts of the movie make it to the trailers, and that's not good news if this is the case. I somehow think that Steve and George just took a little to long to put this movie together, and I would hate to see this franchise go out like that.
This guy is the absolute best reviewer of video games that I've ever heard. It has a little language, so be careful. Check out the review of Call of Duty 4.
In light of Blu-Ray putting a boot to the throat of HD DVD in the last month, It seemed like now was a good time to pick up a PS3. So after careful consideration, I did just that. So what does that mean to a guy who has loved his Xbox 360 for quite some time now?
Absolutely nothing.
It made perfect sense to buy the PS3 considering the ability to download firmware upgrades for the Blu-Ray player. And perhaps Sony will get themselves off the mat, so far as games go this year. But I have to say a few things about the PS3, so far as likes and dislikes.
Likes: The set up was pretty painless, compared to the hoop jumping that I went through with the Xbox 360. I have to say that most of it was brought on myself because I didn't like Microsoft juicing me for $100 just to get a wireless adapter. So I picked up a wireless game adapter for a third of the price, and it required me to contact linksys for one part of the setup and Microsoft for the rest, and to this day it's still hit or miss connecting to my network. The PS3 right out of the box was able to pick up my network, connect, and download all updates needed. Now I have a Sony 5.1 home theater system that I wanted the Blu-Ray to come through it, but I wanted the picture to come straight from the HDMI connection. The PS3 was able to detect both connections that I made with the HDMI cable and the audio component cables to the theater without any trouble. And I have to say that I have a 720p/1080i set, so I can't fully take advantage of the picture quality that the PS3 has to offer, but the Blu-Ray movie of Spiderman 3 looks incredible even on my HDTV. And one thing that Xbox cannot touch, how quiet the unit is compared to the 360.
Dislikes: Being use to the Xbox 360 controllers, it feels weird going back to a smaller controller. I would think that Sony would've redesigned these, considering how solid the Xbox 360 controller feels. The PS3 network compared to the Xbox Live is an absolute joke, there is just not a good interface with other PS3 users, nor enough games to play, and having to come out of a game to talk to who you're playing with is just dumb. And someone explain why headsets didn't come with this? Granted the PS3 network is free compared to $50 a year charge for Xbox Live, but it seems that you get what you pay for, that's for sure. Xbox Live is very much the winner in this arena, and it's not even close. The number 1 dislike is plain and simple, not enough or any really good games yet. Now that might change this year (I hope), but right now the Xbox 360 is the place to go for games. And until that changes, I'll be using my PS3 mainly for Blu-Ray movies.
I thought that this was an interesting article from VALLYWAG.COM about David Pogue and advance gadget reviews. David Pogue is a gadget reviewer for the New York Times, and I've found his stuff pretty dead-on. But he brings up some interesting points about how it is in the companies best interest to provide the reviewer with carefully doled out "review units" that may work better than what the average consumer may get. The store bought unit may not live up to the unit that the reviewer is working with.
The only problem though is that a reviewer can't provide the necessary review that consumers need in a timely manner, if they have to wait for the product like everyone else. Case in point is a Pogue review of a overseas phone calling service that had super-low rates, which was what sold him, but was four times higher when the service went live.
Bravo to David Pogue for setting the record straight, and warning consumers about advanced reviews, which is the lifeblood of his work. He is to be commended for writing another article about how he was tricked into providing a review that wouldn't be accurate to the consumer. It is worth the read.
Attack of the show had a chance to play with 'Alienware's new Area-51 m9750 Gaming Notebook. And if you didn't get a chance to see it, check it out here.
It's pretty sweet!!!
I need to start saving now, or sell my kid!!! (I'm kidding)
So after all the hype and major media blitz that Halo 3 has beat us over the head with for the last 3 months, the game was finally in my hands. I fired up the Xbox 360 and sat down to see what all the craziness was all about. Since I've only had the game 1 day, this is my short review of Halo 3. Now mind you that I've only played the first Halo, and I'm certainly not the fanboy that some of the Halo heads I've run into are. So I'm approaching this as a regular guy who just loves video games.
The beginning of the game gives you a short little back ground of the story up to now, which is a nice touch. But the first thing that just jumps out at me is the graphics. It's on par with most games that I've played on the computer, and that's no small feat. The controls are simple to use and very similar to Ghost Reacon 2 or Gears of War, so the learning curve isn't very big. The flow of the game is absolutely fantastic, and seamless. The game play draws you in and doesn't let go, so much that I had a hard time putting this game down. The AI is brilliant, with many of the enemies no only reacting to things that I did, but was changing their strategy. I haven't had a chance to play the on-line mode yet, but if it's as good as what I've seen so far of this game, I will be playing this for a long while.
Bravo Microsoft, so far, you've done something right for a change.
This is classic. I don't know which idiot at Sony signed off on this, but I think they just guaranteed at least a 5-10% lower score on any review from gaming sites for the next few months.
This just in from IGN: "After the media lashing Lair received last week, Sony seems to think reviewers could use some help coming to grips with the motion-controlled dragon game. A "Lair Reviewer's Guide" just arrived in our mailbox, and is chock full of helpful information that Sony hopes will give critics a better understanding of how the game should be played.A forward written by the President of developer Factor 5, Julian Eggebrecht, reads, "Open your mind and hands for something very different!" One of the most common criticisms of the game has been that the motion controls are frustrating, and there is no option to use a more traditional control scheme. Eggebrecht recently theorized that game journalists are generally hardcore gamers who simply don't like motion controls.
If only Greg had the Reviewer's Guide when he wrote his review.The Guide is elaborately illustrated with detailed facts on Lair's story, characters, and dragons. Six of the 21 pages are devoted to the game's controls.It is common for review copies of a game to come with a fact sheet, but this is the first time we've seen an extensive Reviewer's Guide packed with artwork and gameplay advice."
Are you kidding me? Who are the chuckleheads at Sony that consistently do this dumb shit week after week.
Thanks to Action Trip and IGN for this great nugget of info.
Update: Here's a video review of the game. Hmm...seems like control is not the only problem.
I thought this was particularly funny since I had been reading the reviews and made the post earlier about the mostly horrible reviews for Lair for PS3. Just think about all the times in the past when you've seen ads in magazines with all these great review quotes, then you look at the review and it gives it a failing grade. Gotta love spin doctoring.
Well, hopefull PS3 fanboys can find another title to rally around. Most of the reviews of Lair for PS3 have been disappointing, with one exception. Play Magazine (a publication I actually enjoy) gave it a 90, but the average so far is 58 out of 100. Gamespot gave it a 4.5 out of 10, and the normal range is from 40 to 75. So far almost everyone says the controls suck and the gameplay is lacking, but that the visuals are outstanding. One review mentioned that the company that made it (Factor 5) should make movies instead. Ouch. But if it gets us a better Final Fantasy movie, then sign them up.
Well, I hope Heavenly Sword is better, because I really still need a reason to get a PS3
After seeing all the reviews for Bioshock, gonna try the demo this week, I think I might have to get this game. I'm not really into shooters per say, I did enjoy Halo and Halo 2, this title really intrigues me. So far, I think the lowest I've seen it get is a 9 out of 10. Except for one.. The website Sony Defense Force decided to give it a fair and un-biased review. Ok. I couldn't even type that with a straight face, let alone say or believe it. Here's what they had to say.
After many months of anticipation I finally got my copy of Bioshock and played through it over the past few days. There are many things to like about Bioshock such as the graphics (not animation), parts of the story and the water effects. That’s about where the good stuff ends. First let me say how excited I was for the game after playing the demo on the 360. While the animation seemed stiff and you could tell the 360 was being pushed too hard it still looked like it had a lot of potential. So imagine my disappointment when I got the final version only to find none of the animation hitches, shooting glitches and AI was cleaned up. I also wonder how much better the graphics would’ve been had they not been compressed to fit on a DVD. Now I do not fault the developers for this, they only had so much system power to work with so maybe this will all be addressed with the PS3 version when it comes out. To conclude, let this game cook in the oven just a little bit longer and wait for the superior PS3 version. Cleaned up textures, animations, AI, extra weapons, Home space, standard HDD and Blu-ray will make this flawed game into a perfect gem. SDF Score: 5/10
As you can imagine they got flamed pretty bad in their comments after this review.
Update: The PC demo should be should be available this evening.
Mike Korbrin from Crunchgear had a chance to review the new Journi portable iPod speaker from Griffin. The Journi is one of the best looking ipod speaker systems that I've seen, but how does it sound?
