Mosherpit Zombie Blog

Supernatural

noreply@blogger.com (Worsel) — Fri, 09 May 2008 02:09:00 +0000

Supernatural is such a great show. Too bad we only have one episode left for the season. Damn the writer's strike. I'm going to have to rent the earlier seasons to get my fix.

Good comic book haul yesterday. The new issue of The Boys didn't disappoint and is one of the funnier and cruder books on the market but I love it so. Nova kicked quite a bit of ass as well and everyone should be reading that. Props to Buffy and Angel as well.

Got some worklights to help with my custom figure pics and also creation, as it gives me more light to see what the hell I'm doing at night. Hopefully I can finish one off this weekend, but that's looking unlikely as I'll be hellishly busy. Hellaciously even.

Cloverfield

noreply@blogger.com (Worsel) — Sun, 04 May 2008 15:40:00 +0000

I just finally got around to seeing Cloverfield, the shaky-cam monster movie from JJ Abrams that was released in January. I'm glad I waited. I would have been quite annoyed if I had to spend 20 bucks on this movie. The quick synopsis is that while celebrating a friend's imminent departure for Japan (hur hur Japan hur hur Godzilla), a monster attacks the city and some of the friends try to find their way out of the city while one of them records it with a video camera. You're in for a lot of shaky cam action and not being able to see the monster a whit through the entire film, though you do get plenty of dark scenes and slight glimpses of what might be the creature. There's not much in the answering of what or why during the film, as it's purely from the viewpoint of the survivors. Unfortunately, they're not worth caring about and don't really draw much interest save for the shots they try to get of the monster.

JJ Abrams had said he wanted to create an iconic monster and an insane experience. He and the director fail at both, as it's hardly possible to create an icon that you never get a clear glimpse of, unless you go to the Hasbrotoyshop.com site where they have a picture so you can see what the hell the point of the movie was. Also, shaky camera work doesn't really translate into insane. It mainly just gives people vertigo and annoys them. I was fairly annoyed at the first several minutes of it and it didn't get much better from there. Apparently there's a sequel in the works too, so we might see more badly shot footage from the same night. Yeehaa.

I understand what they were trying to do, focusing on the surivors rather than the scientists and army men deployed. It wasn't handled in an effective way, though, and that hurt the film. You can focus on survivors and not rely on the shaky cam technique. For a movie that does this, look at The Host, a brilliant Korean monster movie. In that film, a man's daughter is taken by a monster that appears and rampages all in the first several minutes. The family is torn and the focus of the film is on them as they try to find the monster and the daughter while she in turn tries to escape from the monster's clutches.

All in all, if you're looking for a great monster movie, you'll have to look elsewhere, as the monster in this film, even at the big reveal at the end, is almost nonexistent. It lacks the dynamic power of a Godzilla film and the shock of an appearance of the creature as well. People don't go to see monster films because of the characters. They want to see a good and scary monster. The characters are there to help the film along. In Cloverfield, neither happens and in the end, you're glad it's only an hour and half you spent on it all.

Adam Hughes

noreply@blogger.com (Worsel) — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 02:23:00 +0000

The Women of DC print that he did.

Simply beautiful.

New York Comic Con Report

noreply@blogger.com (Worsel) — Sat, 26 Apr 2008 14:07:00 +0000

For the third year in a row I have attended the New York Comic Con at the Javits Center in NYC and for the third year in a row I am impressed. From humble beginnings a brief time ago, the show has grown into a giant force on the convention front. This year, however, I was not going it alone as my friend Dave was there for his first foray into NYCC territory.

We woke up before 6am so we could get out of the house by 630 to catch a 730 train from Aberdeen. From Penn Station, we walked our way down the few quick blocks to the Javits Center. Things were immediately looking up for us as the line that was wrapping around the building and stretching down the street from last year was nowhere to be seen. Quickly, I went in to the registration disk to get my ticket as it was never delivered to my residence. Then we got into the line. It was much better this year, as they used part of the Javits Center 3rd floor to snake the line around. When we got there, the line was about half the room. By the time we exited, it was spilling out onto the street, I presume. Much more comfortable than standing outside though it was an beautiful day out in April this year, as opposed to the biting chill of February from previous years and next year.

We were in line for about an hour, most of that being prior to the show actually opening. We were entertained by people dressed as Boba Fett, Storm Troopers, Belly Dancers and really stupid Jedi. Then our wave came up and we were released onto the show floor.

The enormity of the show is apparent from the first step you take into the hall. Stretching out from wall to wall are exhibitors and dealers with the booths already showing early signs of being mobbed by those who entered before us. Dave and I had a specific agenda and we made a beeline through these displays to artists alley, where you can get signatures and sketches from comic creators. We each had lists of who we wanted to see and by getting there early we avoided longer lines where we could.

Artist's Alley at NYCC is roughly three times the size of the one at WWP and probably twice the size of last year's NYCC. It's organized into rows that you can stroll up and down until you see who you want. I had a pretty small list of who I wanted to see. I got a signature from Darwyn Cooke (New Frontier) later on in the day, since his line was long early on; a signature and print of Power Girl from Amanda Connor (JSA Classified); a sketch of Starwoman by Todd Nauck
(Young Justice); an issue of Young Justice signed by Peter David and eventually a copy of Green Lantern signed by Ivan Reis. I picked up a couple of other prints as well but these were the highlights. Dave got quite a few more but that man is a machine when it comes down to Artist's Alley.

One of the highest points of the Artist's Alley was meeting Christina Strain (Runaways, Spiderman Loves Mary Jane). In addition to being a talented colorist and artist, Christina is also getting married to my old college roommate. She took the time out to talk to us several times during the day and signed our comics to boot. She's great and it's good to see her getting lots of work like World War Hulk. Runaways is always a highlight of my pull list so it'll be nice
to see it coming out more frequently soon. If you're at a con that Christina attends, go see her. She's absolutely awesome and has plenty of fantastic prints to buy. I picked up one of Molly to hang in Cassandra's room.

After Artist's Alley, Dave and I hit up the dealers. In particular, we were looking for the cheap backissue bins and half-priced trades. We found plenty. I'm about eight issues away from completing my Starman run after this con and Dave filled up a few gaps in his list too. There were quite a few more dealers than last time and we barely scraped the surface in the brief time we were there.

Once we had our fill of comic book shopping several hours later, we decided to try and check out the rests of the booths in the exhibitors section. The booths were pretty nice and DC and Marvel had amazing spreads and quite a few crazy lines too. We didn't get too deep into those. The guys from Shocker Toys were there again and had some of the Indie Spotlight line for showing off and they look great. I can't wait to see these in stores, especially the next run with
the Tick. I visited the Koch Vision booth to pick up the exclusive Galaxy Rangers badge, a show I barely remember as a kid but I wanted the badge for a Starman outfit. :)

We went between the sections quite a bit until we deemed it was time to take the train home around 430 or so. Dave and I were pretty tired at that point and we had spent all that we wanted to and seen all that we felt like seeing. Dave approved of his first NYCC con and can't wait until next year.

All in all, the NYCC is a great new convention that has had it's growing pains but seems to be taking it in stride. They have a lot of support from the creators and companies involved and I've heard it described as almost as big or at least a big as SDCC, which is pretty damn cool. It's close, it's relatively cheap with a ticket and train ride and there is plenty to see and do.

The only down side is that it does get rather packed and I think they almost need to start monitoring the selling and amount of people on the floor or get more space for people to manuever, which they could do by opening up the hall we were initially waiting in and moving the line back outside. Not the best solution but it's all I got right now. I wouldn't mind seeing more dealers too but that might just be a logistics/pricing problem to get to the city. The food
lines were pretty crazy, so Dave and I didn't eat until we got home. We avoided this in Philly by going to one of the many eateries in the area to get a decent meal for the price of a terrible sandwich in the convention hall. I'm not familiar with any such solutions with the NYCC but I'm not sure you'd want to leave the floor either if there's a line to get in.

It's well worth going back to and I can't wait until next year. Or maybe Philly. I'm feeling the Con burn now.

Soranik Natu Custom Figure

noreply@blogger.com (Worsel) — Sun, 06 Apr 2008 14:35:00 +0000

I finished off another custom. About damn time, I know. This one is based off of the Green Lantern Corps comic and the character Soranik Natu. I've had her "almost done" for awhile now but I finally sealed her and put the ring on her finger, which looks alright but nothing outstanding, which is why I didn't photograph it. She's the first entry in my Ladies of the Green Lantern Corps series, which I'm doing because DC Direct doesn't really give us much in the way of female GLs at all.

Check out the recipe and more over in Custom Corner.

In the Hood

noreply@blogger.com (Worsel) — Sun, 30 Mar 2008 18:03:00 +0000

No, not a hoodie, or even my home, though I'm in both right now. What I mean this time is parenthood. Yes, I had been expecting for the nine allotted months and now I'm the proud parent of a beautiful baby girl, Cassanda Anne Mosher. She was born on March 18, 2008 and it feels like it's been a month since then, but we're reallly just past the first full week with her in our lives and I must say, it's been great.

Being a dad means my routine has changed quite a bit. Now I can't just come home and play video games and eat dinner. No, the baby has injected herself into this routine so now I come home, hold the baby and play video games, hold the baby and eat dinner and hold the baby and go to sleep. She's fantastic so far but I keep kicking her butt in Smash Bros. Brawl. I'll enjoy that whilst I can, since she'll probably be awesome at it by the time she's 1.

Ginkers Youtube Clip #2

noreply@blogger.com (Worsel) — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 02:38:00 +0000

It took me long enough but I finally cut together a bunch of clips from the first Ginkers interview that was done. There was a ton of footage, both pre-interview and during for me to go through and render. I think I'm going to have to capture any more footage in dv for now, since the hdv is quite a cpu hog and takes forever to edit. I feel bad that it took me so long to get this one together.

It's a little different paced than the previous video. Herman was a more concise speaker whereas Scott was more verbose and trailed you along in his story and hit you with the punchline like any good comedian. He was quite the interview and you have to realize that of these 5 minutes, I left about an hour and a half out, most of which was pretty damn good stuff. I can't wait to see it all incorporated into the bigger picture. In the meantime, enjoy the show and don't forget to click the side link to Rucksack Films and show the guys some love for letting a slacker like me play with a camera and a computer on their film.

While the audio from my onboard mic isn't the best and I was still learning the ins and outs of the camera, it's serviceable and I couldn't ask for better from my equipment. Our sound guy Bill will be cleaning it up for the film so it'll be pristine. The background music is by Dragonforce, and fits since I needed something driving and long to move everything along. Well, I probably didn't but I love music so I can't help it.

Prison a Go-Go

noreply@blogger.com (Worsel) — Sun, 09 Mar 2008 04:59:00 +0000

No, it's not about putting politicians from the 60s into jail, instead it's a send up of women in prison movies, and to be honest, it's not all that good. What I thought was going to be a decent spoof of the flicks, turned out to be a low budget conglomeration of the aforementioned prison movies, slacker movies and Rhonda Shear. And no, she doesn't get naked.

The premise of the film is about a girl who is looking for her sister who was kidnapped from their home and dragged into a secret labratory of a crazy doctor, which happens to be on the grounds of the prison in the Phillipines. To save her sister, the girl gets arrested and then is brought into the sordid world of WIP films and shower scenes. For those interested in the latter, there's a countdown clock that tells you when the next one is going to be.

While it's not a slick film, it does have its entertaining moments and despite some trepidation during the first ten minutes, I stuck it out and got some enjoyable performances out of Mary Woronov, Lloyd Kaufman and the rest of the cast. There is nudity, but it's nothing to write home about and there's also kung fu, which is decent for such a low budget flick. If you like the absurd and almost horrible, this is a good film for you. Also, there are some zombies in it in a brief role but they do well.

Roll Em Up

noreply@blogger.com (Worsel) — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 03:27:00 +0000

We lost a great innovator in the realm of tabletop RPGs this week in the form of Gary Gygax. Gary pretty much was the godfather of tabletop gaming with the creation of Dungeons and Dragons and a myriad of modules and novels to boot. I've never met the man and never will now, but I owe him a great debt being a geek who found a second life in the games he made up. Many a fond Saturday were spent with friends during my youth rolling our dice and playing heroic characters fighting nefarious villains, graduating from the world of D&D to AD&D and then Call of Cthulhu, Star Wars, Vampire and other role-playing games. Ever since my brother got the red box basic set when we were 11 or 12, it was game on and we were having the times of our lives. Everyone I've played with I've considered a friend, and I have memories of all of the adventuring parties that were willing to have me.

They were fun times and I wouldn't trade them for the world. Indirectly, Gary taught me acting, storytelling and how to have a good time using my imagination and some dice and a few buddies and beers. For that, I will always be thankful. I may not have the time anymore to get a group together and crawl through a dungeon, but I know I will eventually, and I look forward to teaching my child how to play in the world Gary Gygax created. It'll be 2nd edition, since that's what I remember the most, and we'll break out our six sided dice and roll for stats, gear and eventually and most importantly, initiative.

Rest in peace Gary.

Turistas

noreply@blogger.com (Worsel) — Sun, 02 Mar 2008 21:50:00 +0000

Just finished watching Turistas, thanks to it being lent to me by Jorge, and I'd thought I'd weigh in on it. It was released around the same time as Hostel, and the two draw comparisons but by far, they are different films. Hostel has tourists travelling to a remote area where they are then tortured to death. In Turistas, the hapless supects are waylaid by accident wherein the plot of organ harvesting natives occurs. The film is a good one, and relies more on suspense than gore to provide its thrills. The cast is likeable enough and it's a shame when they get offed but it keeps you entertained until the end. Definitely worth a rental if you're looking for something to keep you homebound instead of travelling abroad.

Painting Fun

noreply@blogger.com (Worsel) — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 01:59:00 +0000

Nothing to show right now, but I just wanted to say that it really pays to use a good primer. I used a different brand that claimed to be better than Gesso on a project I'm doing and let me just tell you that it did not perform as advertised. You can sand it, sure, but painting over it is a supreme bitch compared to the one coat coverage of Gesso. God I love that stuff. I might go sniff some right now.

Two Customs of Kyle

noreply@blogger.com (Worsel) — Sat, 09 Feb 2008 19:57:00 +0000

I managed to finish two more customs this weekend. I might have one more as well if things go alright with it. For now, we have Kyle Rayner as Parallax and Ion, the former in JLU figure format and the other in Ed McGuinness style. I hope you enjoy them as much as I did making them. Visit Custom Corner for more information and recipes.

Review: No More Heroes

noreply@blogger.com (Worsel) — Sat, 09 Feb 2008 16:40:00 +0000

You may have seen a new game for the Wii on the shelves entitled No More Heroes and wondered what it was all about. It's about $50 dollars of pure awesome action fun. It's about a man named Travis Touchdown who wins a beam sword on an online auction and then enters the world of ranked assassins in a quest to be number one. That alone sounds interesting but what really sets the game apart from sandbox violence games like GTA is the execution of it all.

The graphics are done in a cell shaded style, more reminiscent of Viewtiful Joe than Killer7 but realistic instead of cartoony. Adding to this is the complete punk rock and anime fan style that permeates the game. Travis wears a leather jacket and tons of pop culture t-shirts and buys wrestling videos in his spare time to learn new movies. While I haven't found that many jackets yet, there are a metric fuckton of t-shirts that you can buy or find as you cruise around the fictional town of Santa Destroy on a souped up motorcycle. Every villain you fight has their own particular style to counter yours and most of them are pretty over the top. The framerate is constant and the flow of blood and coins as you scrap your way to the top never relents when you begin a mission until right before the boss.

Gameplay is fantastic. Instead of the sandbox world you can play in and have more fun than the missions themselves, in NMH, the world makes you want to do the missions, as it is fairly spartan save for a few locations. I rather enjoyed this as everything you can find in the overworld to do is fun and increases your stash or powers. In between missions, you earn money by doing part time jobs like mowing lawns and filling up cars with gas, which could sound boring but it's fairly fun. After that, you get assasination missions for smaller targets to earn extra loot. You don't have to do many of these if you want to just go from mission to mission to progress the story, but the game makes it fun and several of the powers you can buy and earn are fairly helpful and will make the game that much easier for you.

In the overworld, you do the usual running around but you lack any fighting controls as there is nothing for you to fight. Once you get into a sub-mission or a ranked mission, you can start killing stuff. Most of this is handled with the A and B buttons on the Wiimote. Also determined by the Wiimote is the stance you take. If you hold it high, your stance is high and if you hold it low, your stance is low. This goes for sword hits, stunning kicks and blocks as well. Once you engage an enemy, you can lock on with the Z button and dodge with the control pad. When you hit them, you have several options. If you use the sword solely, you'll get a deathblow message when they're out of life and then you create an arterial spray. If you use a stun, you can perform a wrestling move with the Wiimote and nunchuk. These are fairly easy to do and you get on screen prompts so you know what move you have to do, taking some of the onus off of you.

I'm only ranked 7 out of 10 now and still working my way to number 1, but it's a great game and if you don't mind the violence, it's well worth picking up. Unlike the GTA games, I'd say the violence isn't gratuitous but instead a necssary part of the story. Travis lives in a world fueled by kung fu and wrestling movies and video games and this is what the game reflects. It's not as arty as Killer7, but much easier to digest and a more complete work of art.

Neon Maniacs

noreply@blogger.com (Worsel) — Sun, 03 Feb 2008 04:53:00 +0000

I don't know how this one happened to find its way onto my Netflix list, but I'm glad it did. Neon Maniacs is a gem of an 80s movie about killer monsters that live underneath the Golden Gate Bridge but only recently and start slaughtering people. As usual, it's up to a bunch of teens to try and convince the authorities that they aren't making shit up and that there really are things that go bump in the night and they look and act like they might be based on some deranged GI Joe figures. Apparently there are twelve of them but you only realy see the same handful again and again and nobody knows where they came from, just that they kill shit dead.

It starts out benignly enough, with a bunch of teens partying in the park and they start to frolic as teens are wont to do and one of them even gets a bj from chick with a mullet, the lucky devil. They don't seem to notice the Neon Maniacs, who in additon to being ninjas aren't even neon, as they sneak up on the teens and murder them. Of course a few decide to try and fight back but that ends quickly and before the last girl can be killed, the maniacs are driven off by thunder. The cops don't believe the girl's story and they send her home where she's alone and stalked by one of the maniacs that looks like a goofy-ass caveman. Nothing happens from that even though she's going for a night swim to ease her mind. Yes, because after seeing all your friends murdered, a nice swim is a great way to cap off the night. I think I would have had the cops lock my ass up or post a guard or something. Maybe stay over a friend's house. Anything to not be alone and also to build up the body count.

Anyway, the girl is not alone in her quest to convince people that weird stuff is happening as the grocer's son and an amateur film director girl discover the truth as well as their paths intertwine in a pretty bizarre movie. It's worth seeing for the maniacs, who have some decent makeup though their personalities are basically based on their weapons. There's Tonto, the Village People reject; Samurai, the...well...samurai; Ropeman, who uses a noose; Surgeon, who carries a doctor's bag and several more. This movie has also captured my heart for having a costume dance/battle of the bands where a man dressed as Mr. Miracle appears. That's a pretty odd choice and I did a double-take. In terms of superheroes appearing in a movie, that was quite a surprise.

There's almost nil on the nudity, some decent gore and good makeup effects and the acting isn't too stilted so it does hold it's head above some of the lesser entries in the 80s horror field. If you can find it, check it out. I don't think you'll be disappointed if you go in with low expectations. Just be warned--I think they stole the score from Moonlighting as it has little to do with a horror movie unless it was staged in an Eddie Murphy video.

Little Update

noreply@blogger.com (Worsel) — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 02:40:00 +0000

Got another shoot on Saturday. I can't wait. It's been fun so far and each Ginker we interview has some interesting stories. I just have to pick up some tapes and such first. Might order me a wide angle lens too. I've been jonesing for one though a telephoto would help more, I reckon.

New comics today as well. Some decent stuff in addition to the stuff I missed last week. JSA Classified had a good Hourman story. GL was decent with the Alpha Lanterns though I'm annoyed that they took one of my favorite new lanterns, Kraken, and turned her into one. I'm not a fan of the half-robot GLs that they have become. Maybe if I seem them in more detail I'll like them but their oath is pretty stupid. I wish everyone would stop using the GL title as an excuse for bad poetry. It's just as bad as the Sinestro Corps oath, so be warned.

Edit: Got the name wrong again. It's Kraken, not Raker. Guess she's not really my new fave. :)

Ginkers Youtube Clip

noreply@blogger.com (Worsel) — Tue, 22 Jan 2008 03:44:00 +0000

Hi all. Here's a little project that I've been working on and promising in previous posts. It's the first clip from all the shooting I've been doing for Rob. Nerfherder supplied the music. Enjoy.

Striking Features

noreply@blogger.com (Worsel) — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 02:43:00 +0000

The writer's strike is turning out to be a good thing for me. No, not because I'm a scab, but because without all the quality tv that I usually watch, I'm actually finding free time to finish some models that I've been working on, or at least come close to finish them. Right now I'm just about done with Parallax (who I started in August) and Ion and Soranik Natu, who I started last month. Once they're done, I'll either finish or toss the shitty Power Girl I was working on (which I'm hoping to save with a decapitation) and then finish the Havoc and Mechagoatman so I can work on a video I've been telling everyone I'm going to do. Keep your eyes peeled here for pictures and ramblings.

Write Up

noreply@blogger.com (Worsel) — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 01:14:00 +0000

Rob gots himself a write up in the Asbury Park Press about the movie. For those about to rock and who don't have a copy of the Friday Jersey Alive! section, I have scanned it in for you. Like so many other things, just click it to enlarge.

God this is going to give me a lot of white space to fill up. Maybe I'll do a little dance. Beware.

Day 2

noreply@blogger.com (Worsel) — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 00:25:00 +0000

Another day of shooting, this one rather brief and stripped down, occurred between 12 and 1 today in Beachwood. It was just Rob, me, the subject and a camera. I think it went well and this guy has some great stories to tell about the scene and Ginkerdom in general. I think the footage looks good but I still have to check it to make sure all the levels are fine. Cloudy day so that made things fairly easy, lighting-wise though I'll have to invest in some black posterboard or foamcore to get negative light, in addition to some reflectors for later outdoor shoots to make things easier on us. Good day overall.

Day 1

noreply@blogger.com (Worsel) — Wed, 09 Jan 2008 03:01:00 +0000

Ok, so it's a few days past but on Saturday we officially had our first day of shooting on the Ginker documentary as helmed by Rob Thorpe, our director and captain. It was a fun shoot. We rallied at 3:30pm to meet and get ready for a magic hour shoot and headed out to the river down the street in Keyport to get some good footage. I was on second camera, a Canon HV20, while Matt was the man with the XL-1. His camera is a prosumer model where I'm at a consumer level but HD and we both got some excellent footage. I'm a little disappointed with about a minute of it where it's pretty grainy due to the light issue discussed in a previous post but there are plenty of useable shots. I was making due with a ghetto steadicam rig too, which is basically a folded up tripod, so it's not even a real ghetto steadicam but it helped even out a few of the shots.

Later on, after dinner and a drink, we headed to our next location but it started raining out so the interview had to be conducted indoors at a friend's house since every other location we tried didn't work out for various reasons. I wish we could have gotten the pizza place since it would have been sweet. I think for a future shoot we should try for one since the neon lights in their windows give off a cool glow. Regardless, the interview went great and the subject was quite lively and I think we got some goodly results for a first shoot. Check out the Rucksack Films myspace page for more info.

I'm going to try and post some of the outdoor shots on Vimeo to check out later if the render I'm working on ever finishes and if it's ok with Rob.

HV20 Fun

noreply@blogger.com (Worsel) — Wed, 09 Jan 2008 02:50:00 +0000

Unfortunately, no video, but I found out a cool trick while surfing online. Apparently I can turn off the gain while shooting so I can get better shadows and night shots. On the down side, this requires a lot of light, or at least more than a regular room bulb. That's still pretty cool though. I might have been able to use that trick on Saturday. I have one minute or so of footage that is a great shot but isn't that great quality-wise thanks to the gain. There was little light though since it was an outside night shoot so I'd probably be screwed either way but I'd rather be screwed without the grain.

Also, HD video is a processor hog. :)

Super Swing Golf 2

noreply@blogger.com (Worsel) — Sun, 06 Jan 2008 20:48:00 +0000

Fore. It's golfing season again, at least indoors on the Wii with Super Swing Golf Season 2. If you like the first game, it's a lot more of the same great golf action but with some improvements. You can skip the computer's turn so the rounds move faster, you can unlock costumes by collecting coins, rather than performing esoteric tasks in a specific way and the load times are a lot better as well. The tour mode is particularly fun as it's set up like a game board that you progress by playing golf matches or mini-games. The difficulty seems to be ramped fairly well so you won't be going crazy like in the first one against a computer that chips in a shot from 50 yards to get an eagle.

The characters are the same as the previous iteration though they have new costumes and there are more items and clubs to choose from. I'm only a little way in but I'm enjoying the game quite a bit as the title isn't one that I play rabidly, but go to about once a day for my golf fix so I'm not killing a ton of time. Well worth picking up if you like golf tempered with anime style characters and a few power shots to cut down on the dryness of realistic golf.

Happy New Year

noreply@blogger.com (Worsel) — Tue, 01 Jan 2008 18:02:00 +0000

It's 2008 and time for some new reviews. The first up is I Am Legend. There may be some spoilers, so be warned.

I went to see this Sunday and was actually fairly disappointed in it. It's a decent flick but it doesn't really follow the book save for bits and pieces, which isn't a bad thing, but the things they didn't keep makes you wonder why they kept the name at all.

The plot centers around Robert Neville, a virologist and colonel who seems to be the last man alive in NYC, much less the word. Seems a virus wiped out the world and he's trying to find a cure for it, though he himself is immune. It's basically in case he finds any survivors who somehow dodged the bullet like himself, which would mean they are immune and not needing the cure, but maybe for future generations born without the immunity. You know, for posterity and such. Anyhow, he spends his days working out and in his lab and cruising for food and dvds. By night, well, you don't really know unless you read the book or saw a spoiler, but he basically hides from somethings that go bump in the night.

Vampires are those things, well, kinda. You don't really get the idea that they're vampires and you don't really see them do any feeding but since there's not much around to hunt, you can't really knock them for that. The thing is, in the book, the vampires are basically humans who come out at night and who are a little more savage and hate the light, but they're not a great deviation from a human being. The vamps in this movie look like a cross between the infected from 28 Days Later and the shit from Van Helsing. Scary, but with crappy CGI and the whole monster aspect removes one of the key points of the book, especially the ending.

When the third act of the film starts, you think it's the second and then it's a breakneck rush to an ending that feels tacked on. Will Smith is great throughout and it's a shame that the movie falls apart at this point. A lot of that comes from the decision to make the vampires superhuman. So a virus does this? Really, does it give them super muscles and bone structure so that they can scale fucking buildings in a single bound? It doesn't really make sense but provides some scares.

Overall, I think The Last Man on Earth stands as a better adaptation of Richard Matheson's novel and this movies stands as a good remake of the Omega Man. Worth checking out but for god sakes read the book so you can see what the hell I'm talking about. Also, watch 28 Days Later, since it provides a fun spin on the book, even though it's not based on it, and for what this movie might have been.

Godzilla: Unleashed

noreply@blogger.com (Worsel) — Sun, 30 Dec 2007 05:02:00 +0000

Man, it's an unfair review that Nintendo Power gave this gem for the Wii. It contains all the monster on monster action that you might need and diplays it with great graphics to boot. I'm only partly into playing, having beaten it once as Godzilla, and I love it. The play (once I understood the motions) is a nice evolution from the previous iterations on the Gamecube and the PS2. The graphics as such are also improved, as is the user interface from the previous game. You start the game with a few monsters, but as you progress you can unlock more for use to buy in the store. That's the only downside for me as you really have to earn up a ton of credits to buy everything. On the bright side, this encourages multiple playthroughs where you can find more secrets and monsters.

The game is broken up into stages where you fight monsters, but unlike previous games where you basically progressed through the roster by defeating foes, you have several options here. Since the world is being taken over by crystals, you can usually destroy several of them on the stage to win if you don't want to fight a friend or you're in dire straits. Don't let this dismay you, as quite a few of the levels are outright monster mayhem where you must KO your foe to win. Sometimes there are several foes and sometimes you even get an ally to help you out.

All of you favorite monsters and them some are here, though some are exclusive to different consoles. One of these days they'll stop that crap and give us all the monsters in a game for whatever system we desire. One of these days. I'll espouse more as I unlock more, but so far it's a solid purchase and worth playing if you're a fan of Godzilla or giant monsters in general.

Merry Christmas

noreply@blogger.com (Worsel) — Mon, 24 Dec 2007 15:44:00 +0000

Hi everyone. Here's an easy custom in honor of the holidays. You may be familiar with my prediliction for giant monsters and how I've put King Kong on the tree in the past. Well now he fits the season. Enjoy and have yourselves a safe and happy holiday and get plastered.