Sucker Punch (2011): a feminist masterpiece that men hate – (9/10)

sucker punchAt the end of this movie, the dude behind me said four times “Is no one else in this theatre confused?”. Perhaps to the poor girl sitting next to him? He spaced these outbursts out, as if he’d gone blind and deaf with his idiocy, and was hoping a bro’ could throw him a lifeline. As if he hoped other redneck idjits would rise up and join torches to burn the puzzle outta this town. I turned to my girlfriend and loudly growled “I think someone in this theatre is actually confused.” (He got up and left).

Then the two dipshits in front of me whipped out their cell phones (slash: flashlights) and tried to distract me from the STILL GOING ON work of art on the screen. The film’s end credits contain an entire original dance sequence and musical number, showing you an entire epic scene that was hinted at but never shown during the main story. They are a stylized PART OF THE MOVIE. But everyone was up and walking out, or checking in with their facebook. I leaned in and read their texting over their shoulders and blew on their hair. I whipped out my phone and shined it in the sides of their faces (but this just elicited a minor confused looks). They struck me as this weird alien species, masquerading as men, who missed class the day “how to watch a movie” was explained.

This was a great movie, and a lot of people don’t deserve it. Continue reading “Sucker Punch (2011): a feminist masterpiece that men hate – (9/10)”

Review: Kirby’s Epic Yarn (stitch free)

Over at The Escapist, I dug Ben “Yahtzee” Croshaw’s latest hate-filled Zero Punctuation review of Kirby’s Epic Yarn (just now released in Australia, apparently). This is the first game in a long time that I wished I could return for a full refund. So here is my response to his review (dumped in his forums, amidst hundreds of random pithy one liners and crap-comments): Continue reading “Review: Kirby’s Epic Yarn (stitch free)”

The lure/illusion of short time investments (re: game play)

Just commented on Christian Nutt’s feature at gamasutra : The Rise Of Dragon Age II.
I’ve been saying for years that “I’m just not an RPG guy” (though it seems I’ll avidly play every other genre). I think of it as a question of time : when I hear a game has more than 30 hours of gameplay – I hesitate to buy it. Because I know I won’t be experiencing everything it has to offer. (would you buy a DVD/Bluray if you knew some parts of the feature would be omitted?) Continue reading “The lure/illusion of short time investments (re: game play)”

Marketing Concepts: the Calculated Climate Change of Bulletstorm

After reading Andrew Vanden Bossche’s High Aspirations for High Scores article on Gamasutra, I’m really surprised at all the ways Bulletstorm’s “Echoes mode” demo failed to hold my hand, and found it to be a major stumbling block in the game’s otherwise stellar promotion.

Would like to try and dissect the marketing experience so far, here: Continue reading “Marketing Concepts: the Calculated Climate Change of Bulletstorm”

PreJudging Upcoming movies: Batman3, The Hobbit… and hot chicks in insane asylums!

Here is some unnecessary fan boy ranting about upcoming movies. In response to MovieBob’s blog post on The Escapist. I was pleased to try and counter the writer’s rampant pessimism (it’s like a mirror!) with some weird sardonic optimism. But then I felt the need to follow up. With nasty pessimism. wtf? I don’t know why I always end up getting so negative about things I enjoy (or expect to enjoy!). but. I spent some time writing it. so i feel the need to preserve it. in all it’s creative uglies: Continue reading “PreJudging Upcoming movies: Batman3, The Hobbit… and hot chicks in insane asylums!”

Game Dev Story : emperor’s new clothes? crippled tamagotchi?

(this was posted initially as a response to gamasutra’s best iOS games of 2010)
I’ve heard nothing but praise for Game Dev Story (GDS), but disagree heartily.

Isn’t it more like some sort of simple limited tamagotchi than a real game? (is there a better term? “micro simulation with minimal input allowed”?) Continue reading “Game Dev Story : emperor’s new clothes? crippled tamagotchi?”

Tron Legacy – not for snobby idioticritics

(Update: my comment, below, led to me being banned from io9.com sooo. fuck.)

Just wrote my angry retort to all the haters of the world. Focusing on Charlie Jane Anders at io9, who I actually dig as a contributor.
looks like my account there may not post my retort (they’ve disabled facebook logins, and looks like my direct login was disabled/deleted?).

anywho. In response to this rather lame review, here are some more ranting thoughts on the movie: Continue reading “Tron Legacy – not for snobby idioticritics”

Rock Band 3 changes everything with Pro mode.

I bought the keytar RockBand3 bundle. I bought the cymbals to upgrade my beatle’s Ringo drum kit. I have three mics (but only one mic stand). I have the old original rockband guitar (plus the original red PS2 guitar hero[GH] guitar, white xbox GH2 guitar, wireless black gibson GH guitar). I’ve purchased almost every Harmonix game (but stopped buying GH titles after the Aerosmith tie in).

Last night I received my madcatz “Mustang pro guitar” and played with it for a couple hours. BLEW MY FUCKING MIND. I couldn’t be more excited about the music game genre right now.
So here are my ranting comments, in response to a Gamasutra article about why music games are over. SIGH) Continue reading “Rock Band 3 changes everything with Pro mode.”