I honestly thought this week was going to be drek. In an earlier episode, they showed the Amulet of Isis, and I knew they were going to go ‘there’: That absolutely terrible Saturday morning show ‘The Mighty Isis’. They were going to do a show on it… and I knew they were going to have Lois wear it and become Isis. That is the exact kind of crappy idea that ruined most of the previous season’s pacing and tone. Dumb filler episodes.

However… They pulled it off and made it one of the most memorable episodes in the series.

This is a comic book show, so outlandish ideas are par for the course. The good news is they did it with seriousness and a good dose of the actual Isis mythology, which tied into the character development with each of the principles of the show.

Oliver, Tess, Clark and Lois: each one is traveling in their own story arc about managing great love with personal fulfillment and growth… and in the case of Tess (and Alexander, the child clone of Lex Luther)…redemption.

Oh, and the ending was just about as good as it gets.

This, the last season of Smallville… is damn good.

Smallville has finally become a show that is worth looking forward to every week, instead of dreading. Anyone who knows me knows that I am a Superman fan. As such, Smallville has always been a guilty habit for me, and quite frankly… the show has sucked for the most part… always tantilizing my fanboy nature with the potential of the source material, yet 9 times out of 10 giving me crap.

But this final season appears to be all about living up to the legend.

Supernatural is also back, but I’m not really sure why. There seems to be little point in the series. Don’t get me wrong, I love the show and don’t necessarily want it to end… but they have yet to justify why a new season is warranted after last seasons powerful ending. Also, there is very little of the Winchester vibe that made the show for me. Sam and Dean are simply not themselves and are not particularly interesting.

A new show that has me hooked is HBO’s Boardwalk Empire. IMO, it is a superior bit of entertainment and should be pursued if you have the premium channels.

Boardwalk Empire is an American television series from premium cable network HBO, set in Atlantic City, New Jersey, during the Prohibition era. Starring Steve Buscemi, the show is adapted from Nelson Johnson’s book, Boardwalk Empire: The Birth, High Times, and Corruption of Atlantic City by Emmy Award-winning screenwriter and producer Terence Winter of The Sopranos.^[1]

If you have balls, you need to see this movie. It’s not a fine piece of filmmaking by any means, but it does kick ass in ways movies have not kicked ass in a long time.

Hollywood has made “Action Stars” a laughing matter. Matt Damon… as an action star? Really? Please! I dismiss your nancy boy affectations. And whats-his-name? In the Avatar movie… and also the T4 flick… and clash of the titans…? What the hell it that guy’s name? Sorry… he’s a poser.  Mickey Rourke would wipe his ass with that guy.

Say what you want, but Sly Stallone KNOWS what makes an awesome action movie.  It’s isn’t CGI (this movie has none)… it isn’t over the top machines. It’s big bad ass f***ers with guns and knives carving up the bad guys with laser precision.

Oh, I’m sorry… does that offend? Knife throw in the neck!!!

Opps, does that seem too violent? Automatic Shotgun cuts you in two!!!

Yes… BAD ASS is the best description for it.

There was this scene, and my 6 year old boy walked in on it… had the big goose water plane dive bombing with machine guns blasting bad dudes on the ground…ending their existence with a fiery explosion. My son shouts out “AWESOME!!!”. He gets it, my boy.

Except for the uncharacteristically long winded inner monologue, it’s a fine bit of entertainment.

CITY OF SCARS
Uploaded by Batinthesun. – Full seasons and entire episodes online.

For those of you out there who remember the first generation of Cryptic Studio’s Super Hero gaming experience, City of Heroes, know that while Millennium City is still there, it was once again destroyed and rebuilt in the story line.  Result: Atari gets a brand new city and server configuration, and we don’t have to worry about that whole City of Heroes/City of Villain thing.  Champions gets to wipe the board of the rigid architecture of the “City” but gets to keep the back story.

Death penalties, XP debt, rigid character structure, permanent team rolls, and fixed avatar all get blown away.  The designers of Champions have given the paying customer maximum value for their buck: a video game with no down time.  Fluid character specialization and appearance modification allow the user full dominion over their digital representation in the cyber world.  What is the catch?  All the player has to invest is time (or pay farmer cash under the table for digital cred).  In Champions your Champion has millions of possibilities to fit your needs or style.  Do you have a regular gaming crew that would benefit from a division of labor?  Are you a loaner that needs to be able to handle it all?  Are you a guild member who out logs your mates?  No problem.  Champions gives you the ability to make 3 tunes for the price of one by having balance options and gear sets that cater to the players needs.  Find yourself under or over specialized?  No problem.  Get over to the trainer and change you powers, traits, or stats.  Cryptic has found the winning formula: give the customer freedom to play the game however they like, and then get out of the way.

Champions Online is a big shot of adrenaline into the heart of any comic book junky.  What is the purpose of a video game?  Is the video game supposed to educate?   Is the video game supposed to inform?  To instruct?  No.  The video game is to entertain.  It is to flood the brain with high levels of Dopamine; to make the user drunk with the satisfaction of the easy money of quick reward and intense action.  For all the blathering the RPG crowd has about “suspension of reality” and “getting in character” the MMO geeks forget the abject reason they log on for in the first place: stimulation.

Here’s a snippet…

Lok1: Why is combat so important in STO? Why does it happen frequently?

Al Rivera: There are several reasons. We wanted to build an exciting game that appealed to Trek fans and non-Trek fans (let’s call them future Trek fans) alike. The epic space battles from Wrath of Khan to the Dominion War of Deep Space 9 offered great gameplay potential. We wanted to create something exciting, unique, and decisively Trek – and the tall combat mechanics of Star Trek offered an abundance of all 3. But combat is not the only option is STO. There are plenty of exploration, research, gathering and humanitarian opportunities throughout the STO universe.

-Drexel-: How will the use of our weapon systems and abilities be limited during combat?

That’s a pretty big question, so let’s focus on the basics. There are 4 power systems – Weapons, Shields, Engines and Auxiliary. During combat you will need to manage power between these 4 systems, which will modify one system at the expense of another. Your ship has a several weapons slots where you can equip weapons like beam arrays, cannons, torpedoes and mines. Your weapons and some abilities have limited firing arcs – for instance phaser arrays have a 250 degree firing arc, while cannons have a 45 degree firing arc. Many weapons can be fired at once, but firing too many energy weapons will drain your weapon power. Some weapons, like torpedoes have individual cool-down timers as well as linked cool-down timers, as are many Bridge Officer abilities.

I’m cutting Fallen Earth a lot of technical slack as it is an indie game that is working to get it’s act together and offer something new and unique.

Creating the Character

The character creator was similar to that of Guild Wars, but with a bit more refinement to each options.  Generally speaking, I was able to make my character distinct and personal… which is all anyone can ask for.

Tutorial

I found it to be very intriguing and entertaining. It threw me into the game world and did so  in a very well made environment (the bowels of Hoover Dam).

The combat was similar to that of Hellgate London… a mix of FPS and RPG. Entertaining… but not deep. Again… this is just the tutorial. I expect ore details when other elements, such as crafting, mutations and level abilities are added to the tactical mix.

The “mount” I was able to use was a ATV and it was well done, IMO. Excellent responses, but more of an arcade type of physics than “realism” or simulation.
Starter Zone

After the tutorial, I picked my starter city and got some exploration in. The graphics look a few years old, but the game world design is well done. It’s not the magnificently rendered desolation of Fallout 3…but it is it’s little brother. I kind of reminds me of Star Wars Galaxy, but with vastly superior terrain designs.

I enjoyed the experience enough to want to learn more about what lies ahead so I can give it more than a glancing appraisal. I’ll comb the forums for some directions, because my newb gear is no where near as fun as the tutorial stuff… and I want to approach this wold well-healed.

Note: Technically speaking, the game has some obvious glitches and graphic anomalies. There was occasional rubber-banding of mobs that broke immersion. I’ve also heard reports of patching troubles. I had to download hours of content before getting started, so I can understand the frustration if you did so… and found you had to do it again because of some unreported installation failure after the fact.

The premise is simple: A young day trader buys a video camera to try and record “paranormal activity” that is graduate student girlfriend has been telling him about. He zealously records conversations about these events, taking the whole thing as a bit of light adventure. His girlfriend is more serious about it as these events scare her and she ultimate just wants them to stop. The main story takes place in these video clips, as well as the very stirring and effective nighttime shots where the camera is left on overnight to monitor them while they sleep… and the activities predominantly occur. As the couple give more attention to the activities, they intensify into oppression.

Comparisons to The Blair Witch Project are apt, in that the film reports to be video evidence that was found by authorities after the fact of the events. The entire film is presented as an archive of real recordings, and for the most part…does a good job in maintaining that level of immersion. While watching the film, I never think of script, direction or acting. It’s very organic and I think most people would view it as if it were made live and with real people who are experiencing he plot, not re-enacting it.

The movie starts out slow, but once we begin with the “Activity”…it becomes engrossing. This is a movie that uses sound… and the absence of sound, most effectively. I found the film to be quite chilling…literally, hair raising. The bedroom scenes are absolutely immersive… you really get into the vulnerability of sleeping people…especially with an unknown menace lurking in the darkness.

Regardless of the chills, Paranormal Activity is not a perfect film. A very regrettable scene with a Ouija board was an odd man out. When you see it, you will know what I mean. The beginning is slower than I think warranted, and the whole feels slightly out of pace. The male lead comes off as kind of a douche-bag… but I think the role called for it. Even so, he was at times unpleasant to watch. The ending was acceptable and even appropriate… but somehow I am not satisfied with it.   I do admit it is a better ending than Blair Witch.

I think this is a great flick to see with the significant other…  it is scary and leaves you unsettle, much like the end of The Ring. I was most definitely aware of  every sound my house made that night… that has to count for something.