Musical Musing: Batman the Animated Series

By the time you read this, Batman: Arkham Asylum should be available in stores everywhere. While you’re busy pondering on whether to purchase the Collector’s Edition (for a plastic Batarang you can’t even take out of the stand? Pass), or for you multi-console owners deciding between the PS3 and 360 versions (PS3 for me, can’t ignore those Joker levels), I thought I’d take the time to give you guys a little gift.

The fantastic score to the fantastic animated series. You can grab both parts here and here. For you 360 buyers, feel free to use this as a custom soundtrack. The music from “The Last Laugh” is particularly awesome. I hope a second volume will be released one day, since there’s still a ton of excellent music they can take from the show (Clayface theme!).

Dissidia is also being released at this time, but I’ve said enough about that game. It’s unfortunate that many of the characters I hoped to see won’t be showing up, but it’s still something to look forward to.

Oh, and uh…kudos to Paul WS Anderson for marrying his fanfiction character, which he has shoehorned into his Resident Evil movies and given X-Men/Matrix superpowers to fight some of our favorite videogame monsters (Oh, Nemesis…). I’m sure the two of them will continue to provide us with terrible movie adaptions of our favorite RE games. Can’t wait to see them ruin Leon and Resident Evil 4 next.

Delicious Deals: Batman: Arkham Asylum

Well, I certainly saw this coming: As Batman’s release loomed closer and closer, I find myself more and more tempted to purchase it, despite a limited amount of funds, a pre-commited decision to purchasing Dissidia: Final Fantasy, and the hopes that one of my regular website gigs would succeed in securing me a copy for review. Try as they might, the good folks in said websites haven’t been able to make the latter happen.

So then comes Toys ‘R Us’s incredibly tantalizing deal: Purchase Batman at their store on Tuesday, and they’ll give you a free $20 gift card. Even better, if you’re a reward member, you’ll get a $30 gift card should you stop by in the hours of 10am-2pm.

Seeing how becoming a TRU Reward member is incredibly easy and free (and can be done online as well), pulling this off means I can grab Dissidia for a mere $10. It’s a hard deal to pass up, which is why I most likely won’t. For any Bat-fans out there, neither should you.

The other day I received my Ebay purchased Wireless Headset for the Xbox 360, as the packaged mic had been reaching its last legs. The headset is a definite improvement, with all my friends coming across crystal clear, and I assume the controller will benefit as well with a longer battery life without the mic plugged in (but don’t quote me on that). If you can find it cheap like I did ($35), I definitely suggest it.

An even better deal that same day was finding a used Wireless PC Receiver for the 360 controller at my local Play N’ Trade, only $15. I’d been using Xpadder along with a Logitech Cordless Rumblepad 2 controller for my PC gaming needs, but you can’t beat using the 360 controller on games that support it. In addition to better analog control, the controller features vibration feedback (something Xpadder couldn’t emulate). The headset can work with the receiver as well, although it seems to only work correctly on Games for Windows; I’ve tried the headset on Left 4 Dead, but it outputs both voice chat and the game’s audio, effectively turning it into a mono headphone. In any event, I’m now left with a tough decision on making future purchases on PC rather than the 360, as I can now emulate the experience on PC, with the addition of improved graphics and framerate. I tried the Resident Evil 5 PC benchmark, and the visual difference is ridiculous, not to mention frustrating. Aside from The Orange Box, I’m not a fan of purchasing the same game twice.

It doesn’t help that Batman’s been delayed on PC to ensure it’ll be the best version by far. Since when was it impossible on consoles to include realtime fog, cloth, and broken tiles?

Retroactive Reviews: Shadow Complex

I’ve got a little late-night treat for you guys. I was supposed to have my review of Shadow Complex ready next week, but I decided to follow suit with every other reviewer and have my thoughts ready just before the game’s launch. I was privileged enough to experience this wonderful game a week before the general public, so I felt it was only fair that I have my review out at the precise moment of its impeding release.

Take it from me as a gamer, this is a title you don’t want to miss out on.

Also, take it from me as a movie fan not to miss out on District 9 either, which I watched the other day. Amazing how despite having a quarter of the budget of Transformers 2, the CGI and aliens were far more believable than in this movie than in the former. An excellent sci-fi romp that will bring about a variety of emotions from you, it deserves all the praise it’s getting, and I can’t wait for the inevitable sequel.

Ironic that I can say the same thing about Shadow Complex here. I can only hope Epic doesn’t pull a Gears 2 here.

Shadow Complex

Retroactive Reviews: Turtles in Time Re-Shelled, KoF XII

Had Wingman been the defining multiplayer feature of Gears of War 2, I would have given the game a much, much lower score. By far the worst mode in the game, Wingman seems to be a meeting ground for every asshole on Xbox Live to congregate. Carrying the bulk of glitches, host lag and other exploits, it’s practically impossible to win a match without resorting to such dirty tricks. I should know, as I spent the last three days and several wasted hours frantically trying to win a single match in order to acquire the achievement. You know a multiplayer mode is bullcrap when you’re the last guy standing in a round, but still lose the match because the other guy achieved a higher score before getting his comeuppance. I’m only thankful that I finally got that achievement, and that I’ll never have to suffer playing this terrible mode again. I still can’t rest easy knowing that Epic continues to make big bucks while millions of idiots continue to play through Gears 2’s broken multiplayer.

Ironic, then, that at the peak of my Epic hate is also the moment they send me a review code for Shadow Complex, a week before its official release. I’ve been continuously receiving some uplifting hate-mail from my friend’s list over this privilege, and it only took an hour of playing to see why: This game is, in a word, spectacular, and is a prime candidate for Game of the Year. I could go on about what makes Shadow Complex so great, but that’s what the review is for. All I’ll say at this point is that you most certainly must purchase it the moment it’s available.

I’ve also been given a review code for Trials HD, which I still haven’t tried, but heard great things about (including that it’s frustrating, but the good kind of frustrating). I also traded a spare Splosion Man code for Marvel vs Capcom 2, thus rounding out the Summer of Xbox Live Arcade, and should entitle me to 800 MS points as part of their promotion.

In the meantime, I’ve got a couple more reviews for you today. Enjoy.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Turtles in Time Re-Shelled

The King of Fighters XII

Retroactive Reviews: Gears of War 2 All Fronts, Trine, Crimson Gem Saga, The Munchables

I managed to catch G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra last weekend, and came out highly entertained. To echo what other critics have said, the movie doesn’t try to focus on looking cool and lure in different demographs (ala Transformers), but spends more time on being cool and giving the fans what they want. It’s a big dumb summer action movie, but the difference here is that it knows it’s a big dumb summer action movie, and decides to run with it. The movie is very faithful to the original cartoon, only jacked up with a lot more explosions, cool hi-tech weapons, and some good old ultraviolence (it even features an exploding head, not something you see often in a PG-13 film).

Despite many people predicting that Snake-Eyes would be the show stealer (and unsurprisingly, he does kick ass), my pick has to go to Storm Shadow, who had more ninja screentime and never once took a break from kicking ass. Second choice goes to Cobra Commander, who despite having a different role than he did in the comic or cartoon (even fans of camp value must agree that a used car salesman going postal isn’t the coolest bad guy origin story out there. As for the cartoon….well let’s hope we never have to hear “Cobra-La” mentioned again) is every bit the manipulative, scheming snake that represents one of the alltime greatest villains, and whose third act schemes make the wait for G.I. Joe 2 a long one.

Got another batch of reviews ready, including one I did a month ago but forgot to link (Crimson Gem Saga). This week I plan to have Turtles in Time: Re-Shelled up, and I’ve got yet another game to add to the pile (Splosion Man). I can only hope I’ll have the opportunity to review Batman: Arkham Asylum, which won me over in last week’s demo for flawlessly nailing down the Batman feel and setting.

Trine (PC)

Gears of War 2: All Fronts (Xbox 360)

The Munchables (Wii)

Crimson Gem Saga (PSP)

Retroactive Reviews: Point Lookout, Monkey Island SE, and Cogs

Now and again, I get these sudden urges to watch, read, or play something with a pure horror theme. I’m a huge fan by nature of horror, even if I rarely experience anything spine-tingling these days. Recently I’ve been entertained by campy horror such as Left 4 Dead and Drag Me To Hell, but I want to experience the cold chill that only real horror such as Silent Hill can provide (and even its latest game failed to truly terrify).

It was yesterday that I was made aware of an Indie film called Paranormal Activity, a film that has been toted by many as “the scariest movie since The Exorcist”. Even in a world of overhype, that’s a pretty prestigious claim. I’m also admittedly a fan of the mockumentary style of horror films, which was made famous with The Blair Witch Project (yes, I liked it, and I still do); low budget shaky cams is the way to go, since you don’t have to be distracted by mood destroying cliches such as bad monster CG or loud, intrusive music. Cloverfield and [REC] were both very entertaining, so I’m certainly interested in Paranormal Activity.

Well, there’s the problem: it’s not available anywhere. The movie was picked up by Dreamworks, and they’ve been sitting on the license while they work on an American remake. This trend of taking an existing horror movie and Hollywooding it up is pretty sickening. [REC], Let The Right One In, and now this. The originals were perfectly fine on their own, and the remakes usually end up inferior in comparison. The Ring seems to be the only Hollywooded movie to get it right, with better effects and a less boring middle portion.

The rumored release for PA is November 2009, which probably means that Dreamworks will work to get its own version out by Halloween. The sooner they chug that out, the better, since it means we can experience the original and see if it lives up to the hype.

On the gaming side of horror, I’ve decided to focus on Fatal Frame II, one of several titles I’ve purchased but ultimately left on the back-burner. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a great horror game, but it’s also a really slow-paced one (it doesn’t help that the main sister walks as slow as her handicapped sister); the quiet moments in the dark rooms certainly lead to a never-ending tension, but it also leaves me rather sleepy. It also didn’t help that my saved data was deleted thanks to a shoddy third party card. Nevertheless, I’m going to commit to this game and see it to the end. Until Silent Hill: Shattered Memories comes out, I don’t have any other alternatives.

Now for the reviews: I’ve submitted four reviews last week, three of which are up for reading. I also received King of Fighters XII in the mail today, though unfortunately I was misinformed, as it’s a 360 copy instead of a PS3 one. I don’t know how much of my review will be affected by the terrible 360 d-pad, but that Tekken 6 arcade stick bundle can’t come soon enough. I also received a PSN code for Shatter, a title I wasn’t made aware of, but ended up a pleasant surprise as an addictive puzzle game. Expect a review sometime next week.

Meanwhile, enjoy the next three of my summer reviews.

The Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition (PC)

Fallout 3: Point Lookout (Xbox 360)

Cogs (PC)