The Lost Files - The crossover spin-offs continue
Friday, August 04, 2006

It seems Lost has proved so popular it now has a second (yes second) spin off crossover special! This time John Locke is joined by FBI special agents Fox Mulder and Dana Scully in an attempt to unearth the deep, shady and supernatural past of the Dharma Initiative; the truth is out there. This was cannot be missed, even if just to watch that dreamy fantastic Mulder one more time. Airs October 27th, possibly.

Labels: TV

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Veronica Mars, a PSP, a Pirate and some Robots
Thursday, July 20, 2006

Wow it's a hot July day here in Bristol, England. Chances are today will be the hottest July day we have seen for thirty years or so. I have just completed my previously postponed phone interview (which went well) and cut the garden's grass. It's now time to chill out at the PC with a cold beer; time to write something for this blog!

Let's see, I have a few topics to discuss. Firstly my Veronica Mars Season 1 DVD box set arrived in the post, hoorah. I decided to import it from America rather than wait for a toned down featureless region 2 release ("America, America…" – Styx are singing, as if it's some sort of holy land). Well it arrived today, via Germany. My dilemma came in the fact that the DVDs are region 1, NTSC; generally incompatible with all region 2 DVD players, such is my understanding. Well I decided to test them out, planning to rip some region free backups to use with my PC. Upon PC insertion the DVD loaded and played, no region blocking problems. That's odd, so I tried it on the region 2 PAL but NTSC compatible DVD player downstairs, this also worked beautifully. The final and most important test, does it play on the overly secure *will not play copied DVDs* Playstation 2. And yes it did, admittedly it failed on picture quality because it is not NTSC compatible but overall my experiments were a success. So is this Veronica Mars box set meant to be region free? Did they kindly realize that a LOT of Europeans will be importing this after downloading it on the internet? Is it a perfect looking pirate copy? I think and hope not. Such revelations make me a happier boy.

Lot number 2 is a Sony Playstation Portable (PSP). Joystiq is running an article on the PSP and how the DS is seriously killing it. It seems there are no solid PSP titles I really want, potentials yes, but nothing solid. And I hate playing the ones I do have, mainly because I get so impatient waiting for them to load (e.g. GTA, Burnout). The one game I do play and often is Pro Evolution Soccer 2005. The PSP has the potential to be brilliant but Sony has stifled it. These days I only use my PSP for watching movies and TV episodes on the train. Long ago are the days I dreamt of owning a PSP so I could play GTA on the move anywhere anytime, play Sonic 2 emulated on the bus, listen to radio streams using the WiFi on campus et al. Yes I can do all of these things but it takes so long to start them up it's just not worth it, most of the time I can't be bothered. A quick 5 minute game turns into 2 minutes of waiting and then it's pointless. I'd rather read my book or listen to my iPod.

Some complaints of mine:

1. VERY few games support online play! What's the point in Bomberman PSP if it won't play online? I only know one other person with a PSP so the chances of me playing its brilliantly sublime multiplayer are slim.

2. Where are the simple fun games? I want to play Crash Bandicoot on the move (not a shit racer), I want a new 2D sonic game (not a shit 3D racing one), where are the original titles? What's with all the shit racing games?

3. Why does the screen stay on when playing Music!? (Seriously that's just dumb... and they make the album art tiny also). Why can't I play my music during my games? Custom soundtracks are not a new thing - the games that do support them don't even allow mp3s... you have to rip them from your owned CDs. The headphones that Sony provide you with are also shit.

4. Open up some sort of development APIs so that we can use the PSP with the applications we want! Why all this Gestapo crap when it comes to firmware security? What's the big deal? Tighten UMD security and open up the firmware a little for us. Provide some sort of official line which developers can take to provide their own legit PSP applications, for free.

5. The screen is so reflective and shiny I can never see anything on it, even on the highest brightness setting. Only when in the dark does playing become comfortable. When speeding along in a train on a sunny day all I can see is the reflection of my green T-shirt.

Maybe downloadable PS1 games will be its redeemer, yet I am sure they will be coupled with crazy load times. I'd give anything for a cheap opportunity to play FFVII on the move… but I'm sure I will be let down once more. Maybe I should purchase a DS Lite. My main gripe with the DS was its ugliness, size, inability to play videos and the touch screen stylus; thusly I bought a PSP. However the Lite has addressed many of these issues and now I find myself envying those that have the new Mario, Mario Kart, Sonic DS and all the other great and fun portable games which do not suffer appalling load times. PSP = Potential, that is all. Rant Over.

Lot number 3 concerns Hollywood action movies. ("Woo" – Devin Townsend's Idom roars). Two fantastical disappointments I have watched in the past few days. "Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the ill fated poorly thought out over the top sequel" and "I, Robot". Admittedly it is impossible for Depp and co. to live up to the phenomenal amount of hype surrounding this inevitable blockbuster but this sequel just doesn't cut it as a good movie, yet alone a great one. The plot is messy; the scenes attempt to court a slapstick aura with witty dialogue in a fantastical action packed supernatural pirate world, a la the original. But it fails, at least in my opinion. The stories are uninteresting; Jack Sparrow is criminally underused; there is no sense of voyage – we can go from a to b just like this which in essence defies the point (it's very much all over the place); the great musician yet underappreciated genius of anthem producer extraordinaire Klaus Badelt has been sacrificed for the big name orchestral star Hans Zimmer. Admittedly Hans is great in most of his films but he really didn't suit the Pirates subject, he pillaged the original theme and overly orchestrated the entire movie to generate some sort of pseudo-epic. I doubt the third film will be a threat to the original either, though of course, it will make millions.

Alex Proyas' "I,Robot" is a tiny little gold nugget surrounded by multiple layers of crap. The gold nugget lies in the miniature philosophical elements that make up the film, clearly lifted from the novel, these tidbits are brilliant though of course should not be accredited to the filmmakers. Two films run side by side in I, Robot. The well thought out, philosophical and interesting world of Asimov and the poorly conceived, dreary computer graphics fest that is Proyas' vision. It's almost as if the film alternated between scenes from a butchered Asimov script and scenes from an unbelievable Proyas action plot; at times you can almost see the physical divide between the two conflicting thought processes. Like oil and water; oil is power and action, water is refreshing and invigorating, upon mixing you yield an unmixable mess that is no use to anyone. The only redeeming feature for I, Robot is Will Smith who somehow makes the film a watch-able and enjoyable experience. He makes Proyas' mess look good, I loved him, he was great – without Smith this would just be one giant waste of time.

Now all I have to watch is Superman Returns!
Over and out.

Labels: Gaming, Movie, TV

My favourite crossover!
Friday, July 07, 2006

Labels: TV

Im Lost on an island with Veronica Mars, what delight!
Sunday, October 09, 2005

I'm quite enjoying just sitting at my computer listening to music, so rather than do nothing productive I have decided to make another blog entry. I have no idea why at the start of each diary-esque entry I must justify myself. Maybe I should take an introspective look at the real me instead; give the ol' cogs a tweak and come out better on the other side.

Lost

Season one of Lost premiered on channel 4 over the summer. My hectic schedule and profound wisdom led me to miss the first four terrestrially aired episodes. I saw clips and heard quotes involving beasts, an island and a guy named Jack; I wrote it off as a Lord of the Flies mimic. When I found all my housemates gathered on the sofas in the dark, faces like those of mannequins as they sat wide eyed in front of our old 14" watching episode six I realised that this was not necessarily the tame US import we so often receive. Through the wonders of the internet I acquired the older episodes and played catch up.  This new show was actually interesting, original and entertaining, not to mention an adeptly named character based upon the great "Tabula Rasa" philosopher John Locke. Flashing credits also revealed to me some member of the old Buffy team working on the project which essentially rooted some sort of faith in this show.

In my house of 7 we all have highly varied and diverse tastes, we like different music, films and styles and it is very rare to find something we all equally enjoy (aside from fajitas); Lost is one of those rare things. Each of us seems to draw different inspirations and pleasure from the ongoing instalments and our opinions differ dramatically as to our favourite incidents and whether or not an episode constitutes as good. The absurdity of having a similar television line-up for six months and having to watch a show consistently for half of a year has escaped the American audiences. The mere thought of waiting a massive twenty weeks until the season finale filled our house with terror—our attention spans would drift, we would stray away and good heaven's, we may (all) have to pay for a TV license. Thus we came to a collective decision: I must download all the episodes immediately and watch them as soon as we can. Once again the internet has come through for us, yet organising 7 people to all be in the same place at once when term has started and we all have significant responsibilities and other plans proves extremely difficult. Alas we have only traversed up to "In Translation", episode 17. But we'll get there, oh yes we will and then we can move onto season 2 and start the process all over.

Veronica Mars

Ah yes, the other great American television show I have grown addicted to. This time it is without the support of my housemates or terrestrial television. This show was forcibly inserted into my face via the V-mars goons at Something Awful who felt it their need to advertise through avatars and banners. The intrigue finally got to me at the end of August and I asked the internet ever so nicely to kindly place a copy of UPN's pilot episode into My Documents; and that it did. Thanks Internet. Veronica Mars is one of those shows you can casually watch 10 episodes of without having to stop for water, and after a week I had practically finished. Who killed Lilly Kane? Who attacked Veronica at that party? Why is Logan such an asshole and how does he still manage to be so awesome? All of these could be essay titles for media studies students who have chosen to do something highly practical and academic with their time.  They also pertain to the most brilliant and evolving storyline of this great genre breaking teen adventure. The blurb for Veronica Mars makes it sound so incongruous that when described to people it actively turns them away: "A teen girl investigates school mysteries and deals with being a high school outcast while looking for clues as to the murderer of her former best friend in a stereotypical Californian poor vs. rich sunshine city." Yet the characters you would ordinarily expect to be wooden cut-outs: the bully, the drop out, the boyfriend, the father and the bitches all break the boundaries of traditional teen sitcoms, they have issues and they have background stories that aren't stolen from a soap opera brainstorming session.

Herein lies my true Buffy replacement: it makes my laugh, it makes me cry and it is original. I can only hope that season 2 lives up to the ever growing internet fandom that is spreading consistently through word of mouth. UPN does not advertise this show, it had a poor slot in last years schedule and in the UK it is only just starting to air on cable only Living TV yet somehow the season 2 premiere which was pitched in direct competition with season 2 of Lost still managed to draw in over 3.3 million viewers: UPN's highest ever (apparently).

So that's that, after going for a year without television two new fantastic shows have just dropped into my lap.

Labels: TV