Kung-Fu Circus - Geek Culture, News & Art.

Flat Life - Animated Pilot Episode

2777-01-01T00:00:00.000-05:00

NOTE: Changed post date to keep at the top of the blog for the foreseeable future.

Here is the You Tube version -

You can see the Google Video version here.

My Top 10 Games of 2011

2012-01-04T11:51:00.000-05:00

It's been a while since I posted, but I thought this should go up. We are at work still on our secret project. Hopefully things will move a little faster this year.

I stole this from IGN ;)

In reverse order with comment:-

10. F.E.A.R. 3

My favorite FPS of the year. Steals the spot from Crysis 2 because I hated the later mission in C2, fighting the aliens was more frustrating than fun and killed an otherwise excellent game. Fear 3 is second most overlooked or unfairly criticized game of the year in my opinion (see #3 for the most). For me this is actually the best entry in the series, surpassing the flaws of the first games while maintaining what made them great. Which was the unique slow time combat and smart AI. Excellent single player combat with much more variety than past games and other FPS's, great co-op and a unique, varied and superb multiplayer. Also the ability to replay the whole game as the brother (or play as him in co-op), with different skills including the ability to possess enemies and you really have 2 games in one. Add to the mix the fact that the missions are separated into chapters that encourage repeat play for improved performance and you have a game that really suits my tastes.

9. Dead Island

I am an RPG fan (as this list will attest). I am also a big fan of Zombie games. So when you take Fallout and breed it with Left 4 Dead you have immediately gotten my interest. While the game was a bit rough around the edges in places and the later area's less interesting than the early ones (due to being too confined), the fact remains that this game is superb in single and co-op and above all the best zombie game of the year. Also nailing first person melee combat with the "analogue controls" is quite a feat, even if they had it turned off by default and had it hid away in the options.

8. LA Noire

After the facial animations of this game every other game seems stiff and unrealistic. I love me an adventure game and am partial to a good procedural. While the post homicide missions trial off a little, the game is such a unique experience that it really stands out as a truly great game. And one I know I will return to over the years.

7. Driver: San Francisco

Finally reflections rewards the patience of fans of the original game and delivers a worthy sequel. The car handling is dead on perfect for me and recreates classic car chase movies with ease. The bizarre body hopping storyline actually adds to the game with a great new mechanic that is so out of left field that it is shocking that it works while not betraying the series roots at the same time. I am however disappointed that the original Survival Mode did not make the cut, and that the Film Director mode is a little janky and limited when compared to the first game.

6. Dark Souls

Intensely punishing and immensely rewarding. A game I could play for years. A perfect blend of Zelda-like exploration and sublime combat. My only complaint is that I simply don't have the time to play it to the degree it deserves, and that it does require a little more grinding than I would like.

5. Saints Row the Third

What the hell is this doing on my list? A dark horse! While I was fond of the first game as the first open world GTA-like game on next gen consoles. I never played more than an hour of the second and my patience with the series' sophomoric humour was pretty much worn thin. However my disappointment at how dry the world of GTAIV had become, and by extension the lack of zany fun of GTA 3 and Vice City in that game did lead me to want to give SR3 a shot. And boy am I glad that I did because this game is INSANE. The humour that just did not quite work in the last games is spot on here. Everything is taken to such and extreme and is so self aware that it works. The whole game is turned up to 11 from start to finish (not that I have had time to finish it yet). It is quite honestly the most fun I have had playing an open world "GTA-like" game since Vice City. Funny as hell and crazier as shit. Playing it is almost like dropping acid, you can barely believe what is happening on screen moment to moment. And like I said, so self aware and self mocking that it is brilliant. To quote the game "Ultra-post-modernism... I LOVE IT!".

4. Deus Ex: Human Revolution

The closest thing to come out this year to the greatest game ever made, Mass Effect 2 (unless you count the release of Mass Effect 2 on PS3). I love the art style of DE, the combat is spot on and the stealth is as good as any stealth game I can think of. The openness with which you can approach any given situation is brilliant. My biggest problems with DEHR are the areas where it falls short of Mass Effect 2. The lack of real character development, the lack of any feeling of connection with other characters, the very limited effect your choices actually have on the world, the boss battles were just not good and the different endings boiling down the a simple selection of 5 choices is very disappointing. But all those issue's (besides the boss battles and final choice) are not so much large faults of the game as they are area's where it fails to equal the quality of Mass Effect 2. Everything else about the game is better than other games and more suited to my tastes. And the simple fact is that I had more fun playing this game than all but 3 other games this year.

3. Dragon Age 2

This one bares mixed feelings for me. In many ways Dragon Age 2 is inferior to its predecessor. The scope of the story is much smaller, the reusing of the same areas over and over is almost unforgivable and overall in comparison to the first game it feels kinda rushed. All reasons this game took a lot of flak in the press. However I feel like concentrating on it's flaws does a great disservice to how much is great about this game. To start with in true Bioware fashion the characters are so incredibly charming that I just loved every second of the 70+ hours I spent playing this game. Also the combat is massively improved over the first game. Nobody does relationships like Bioware, and by the end of the game I was completely smitten by Merrill the naive blood magic using Elf. The games narrator, Varric the dwarf with a knack for storytelling and exaggeration is one of the greatest video game characters of all time. The superb way Bioware develops character relationships with dialogue meant that by the end of the game I really felt a kinship with these characters. Really felt like I knew them and cared for them. Even more so than the first Dragon Age and possibly more so than Mass Effect 2 too. And all flaws aside, that is a massive achievement.

2. Portal 2

Sheer and utter brilliance in every aspect. The funniest game of the year, the smartest game of the year and the most unique game of the year. I love a good puzzle game, but there are so few truly great ones. Portal 2 is not only a great puzzle game, but a great action game, a great story driven sci-fi game and a great co-op game to boot. The impeccable voice acting from Steve Merchant, J. K. Simmons and Ellan McLain really is the icing that completes this cake (pun intended). Also I would go as far as to say this is the ONLY "perfect" game on my list. It simply has no flaws at all. None.

1. The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

Immense in scale, sublime in execution. No other game transports you to another world and then lets you just do what you want. You can get lost in the world of Skyrim for weeks. Every nook and cranny is so lovingly modelled that exploring is a zen like experience. Or it would be were the world not filled with horrible things that want to kill you. The combat while not perfect is vastly improved over past entries and good enough to really enjoy the character build you create. The way the game has been designed so that it gently nudges you towards the good stuff that you may have missed in ways that are so seamless and the strings are so invisible that it feels like magic. Every "side" quest is as well crafted as any other games "main quests" And I put those in quotation marks because Skyrim is not a game about completing the main quest and doing some side quests along the way. It is a true D&D style RPGm you create a characters and the LIVE in this world. What are considered "main" and what is "side" quests is irrelevant. They are just experiences for you character to have in this world. So much so that when the "main" quest ends the game continues just the same way it does when you complete a "side" quest. You simply don't play Skyrim to "complete" it, you play it to experience it.

That list again.

Skyrim
Portal 2
Dragon Age 2
Deus Ex Human Revolution
Saints Row the Third
Dark Souls
Driver SF
LA Noire
Dead Island
Fear 3

Honorable mentions

Goldeneye Reloaded
Back to the Future: The Game
Dead Rising 2: Off the Record
Earth Defense Force: Insect Armageddon

Games of 2011 that might deserve to be on my list but I never actually played. Hopefully I will get to most of them in 2012. These are written in order of how much I want to play them

The Witcher 2
Shadows of the Damned
Amnesia: The Dark Descent
Uncharted 3
Gears of War 3
Resistance 3
Catherine
Rage
Orc’s Must Die
Warhammer: Space Marine
Batman Arkham City
Dead Space 2
Bulletstorm

Holy Fuck!

2011-04-04T16:00:00.000-04:00

Is that what I think it is? The final Flat Life strip? Concluding the Spaced Out story arc and probably the final strip ever?

Yes, and to be honest Dan sent me this months ago and I kept forgetting about it. My bad.

Thanks for reading and I hope you all enjoyed despite the sometimes very long delays between strips. We hope to announce some exciting new projects at some point in the future.

Peace

Lost - The ending that failed.

2010-05-26T14:07:00.007-04:00

As I am sure you are all aware Lost aired it's final episode this week. There have been many mixed reactions, and I feel the need to vent my own disappointments.

Before I start I do not want to waste time debating what the ending was supposed to mean. I stumbled upon this explanation from someone claiming to be a member of Bad Robot (the production company that made the show). And from my own knowledge of the show I am in no doubt the person writing it was someone with direct knowledge of the creators/writers intent. So before reading the rest of my post I suggest you read this -

http://forums.cgsociety.org/showpost.php?p=6529463&postcount=3036

After reading this, I felt a little better about the ending. While it didn't actually explain anything plot related that I did not already understand, it did clarify that the ending was intended from the start and that it was not supposed to be as religious in nature as it came off. Before then I had the distinct feeling they just created a get-out-of-answering-the-big-questions ending while half-way through writing the last season.

Because let's face it, the limbo-alt-verse meet up ending could have taken place at the end of season one. Or it could have been the ending to 20 other shows (Quantum Leap, Twin Peaks, The X-Files etc.), it essentially had no relevance to any of the events that took place on the island. The fact that these characters meet up again in the after-life really has nothing to do with the island. Like AT ALL!

It also served to undermine a whole bunch of previous plot elements that now appear to have been red-herrings.

What it did serve to do was give the audience some closure, on the characters at least. Something that The Sopranos failed to do for example.

However it does not change that the show failed to deliver on the core reason most of us were watching, answers to the mysteries! Now I don't care what the writers say about it being the show actually being "all about the characters", because I'm sorry that is bullshit and we all know it! We were not tuning in each week to find out if Kate chose Jack or Sawyer or any other soap opera-esque character development for that matter. We were tuning in to find out what the island was, what the hatch was, what the numbers were all about etc. etc. Sure I cared for these characters, but I was watching the show for the mysterious. And I have little doubt that is why everyone at least started watching the show. Our next day "water-cooler" discussions about the last nights episode were not about character development, but island mysteries.

And for the main question, "what is the island?". They never even attempted to answer it. So it "maintains the balance of good and evil in the world" "someone from Bad Robot" says, AND HOW THE FUCK DOES IT DO THAT?! AND MORE IMPORTANTLY WHY!?!?!? Keeping a plug in a hole is hardly a sufficient method of maintaining the balance of good/evil!

And of course the other (and probably bigger) major failure for me was the needlessly over done Judea-Christian religious over-tones of the last scene. Making the non-denominational church MORE non-denominational would have helped, or not even having it in a church at all. That alone pretty much guaranteed the disappointment of all science-fiction fans and non-christians. It's clear to me that they meant to transcend any particular religion, but the church was far too Christian looking. Especially with the angels standing at each side of the doors of light.

Regarding that scene this is what "Someone from Bad Robot" had to say about the writers intent :-

"The conceit that the writers created, basing it off these religious philosophies*, was that as a group, the Lostaways subconsciously created this "sideways" world where they exist in purgatory until they are "awakened" and find one another. Once they all find one another, they can then move on and move forward. In essence, this is the show's concept of the afterlife. According to the show, everyone creates their own "Sideways" purgatory with their "soulmates" throughout their lives and exist there until they all move on together. That's a beautiful notion. Even if you aren't religious or even spirtual, the idea that we live AND die together is deeply profound and moving."

* This speaks to the biggest issue I take with the ending. Elsewhere he says the show was ultimately about science Vs faith and that faith won. However philosophy even a religious one (see Buddhism and Taoism, most other religious don't have a philosophy, they have dogma's) is based on logic and therefore falls to the side of science. So if the whole shows main intent is to explore philosophical ideas (one of the main reasons I loved the show by the way) it is a betrayal to that intent to decide faith beats science. Because faith (in the context of a battle with science at least) is believing without evidence or in the face of contradictory evidence. Which is the opposite of philosophy.

Let's take a look at the dictionary definition of "philosophy" -

philosophy

the study of the fundamental nature of knowledge, reality, and existence, esp. when considered as an academic discipline.

The definition is almost identical to the definition of science itself! The only difference with philosophy and science is science seeks knowledge via the material world through experimentation and philosophy seeks to understand through logic and intelectual analysis. But both seek truth from direct knowledge! In truth the whole Science VS. Faith is actually Science/Philosophy Vs. Faith.

It seems to me that the show writers failed to actually explore and/or understand philosophy itself.

While it's true that often people misuse the word in the context of religion, (ie. a Christian might say "my religious philosophy is derived from the ten commandments"), the fact remains that true philosophy is derived from what we can KNOW and what can be derived from intelectual analysis. Which is of course antithetical to FAITH.

The question of Science/philosophy Vs Faith (or knowledge vs faith as a more accurate description) is far too often muddled up with a false belief that those that choose Science cannot have chosen a spiritual answer. I take great issue with this as a science loving Buddhist. However I will defer to another great man of science to make my point on this, Albert Einstein -

Buddhism has the characteristics of what would be expected in a cosmic religion for the future: It transcends a personal God, avoids dogmas and theology; it covers both the natural and the spiritual, and it is based on a religious sense aspiring from the experience of all things, natural and spiritual, as a meaningful unity.

and:

The religion of the future will be a cosmic religion. It should transcend personal God and avoid dogma and theology. Covering both the natural and the spiritual, it should be based on a religious sense arising from the experience of all things natural and spiritual as a meaningful unity. Buddhism answers this description. If there is any religion that could cope with modern scientific needs it would be Buddhism.

So the final message of the show seems to be one that I passionately disagree with, that is that the ultimate questions can never be answered. In my opinion that is a defeatist attitude of those that have given up the search. If philosophy proves anything, it is that the answers to the ultimate questions are always within our grasps, although when we are finally able wrap our minds around them, trying to explain them to others can be akin to trying to hold onto water with your fist. In this regards Lost can almost be forgiven in it's inability to resolve the greatest ideas from philosophy. However I feel they really didn't try with the ending they gave us.

In the end I still like the show, and I enjoyed the ride, and for the most part the show explored philosophical ideas in a manner that was true to the ideals of philosophy, it avoided religious dogma and engaged people in questions that few shows succeed to even approach. But in my opinion the ending was bumbled in such a manner that it betrayed the ideals the show seemed to hold onto for so long. And that is why I feel the ending was not only a let down, but ultimately a failure.

-----------------

This is also good article going over some of the major plot holes and clears up some of what was answered to a certain degree and what wasn't -

http://screenrant.com/lost-finale-explanation-kofi-61464/all/1/

Perspective - The pale blue dot

2010-04-12T10:46:00.002-04:00

UPDATED: Fixed the link as it was removed for some reason. Also added a second great video I found. Seriously you MUST watch these!

Take a few minutes to watch this beautiful and enlightening ode to our planet by Carl Sagan (video by David Fu). You will not regret it, I promise!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2pfwY2TNehw

And a great follow up I found, more from Carl Sagan on our planet and species -

EARTH: The Pale Blue Dot from Michael Marantz on Vimeo.

http://vimeo.com/2822787

Marvelman / Miracleman comes back to print!

2010-03-25T11:45:00.001-04:00

Great news for comic fans. One of arguabley the greatest comics ever written is finally coming back to print after years of legal battles!

Unavailable in print since 1994 the Alan Moore run of Miracleman/Marvelman is without doubt among the list of must read comics. Introducing many of the themes that he would later use in the classic Watchmen books, MM is a post-modern masterpiece and I strongly recommend everyone interested in this art form go pick up the Alan Moore written issue's which will hopefully be released as a TPB soon. Sounds like they will also be released as single issue's in the new on-going series.

From Marvel's press release.

Marvel is proud to announce the return of Marvelman to shelves everywhere with the release of Marvelman Classic Primer #1 in June! Who is the mysterious Marvelman? And just why is he one of the most enduring super heroes of all time? The answers arrives in this commemorative one-shot featuring interviews with creator Mick Anglo, superstar Neil Gaiman and more who contributed to this character's history over the years! [...] Then, in July, thrill to the debut of Marvelman Family's Finest #1, a new ongoing series reprinting Marvelman's greatest adventures for the first time in the US! Plus, no comics fan can miss Marvelman Classic Vol.1 Premiere HC, reprinting Marvelman's earliest adventures in chronological order!

Source io9.com

Perfect Dark XBLA

2010-03-25T11:07:00.003-04:00

If you are not already aware, Perfect Dark was released for Xbox Live Arcade last week. An HD remake of the Nintendo 64 game and sequel to the beloved Goldeneye 64 (minus James Bond of course) and without a doubt one of the greatest games of all time.

If you like First Person Shooters, you NEED to buy this game! At only 800MP ($10) this game is a steal, the amount of content in Perfect dark would make any and all current $60 releases blush with embarrassment!

Seriously I can not recommend this game enough, fantastic single player, great online/offline co-op, awesome online multiplayer. Quite honestly it's probably the best shooter ever made! Forget Halo and Call of Duty, Perfect Dark is back to take back it's crown!

Well, what are you waiting for? GO BUY IT NOW!

Robin Hood Tax

2010-03-15T12:10:00.001-04:00

A tiny tax on bankers that would give billions to tackle poverty and climate change, here and abroad.

This tax on banks – not you or I - has the power to raise hundreds of billions every year. It could give a vital boost to the NHS, our schools, and the fight against child poverty in the UK – as well as tackling poverty and climate change around the world.

Brilliant! We need to get this in the US too!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qYtNwmXKIvM

http://www.thenation.com/blogs/actnow/529457/the_robin_hood_tax

RIP: Corey Haim

2010-03-10T10:43:00.003-05:00

What a damn shame, Corey was well overdue a comeback! It took a while but I think it was not casting him in The Lost Boys 2 that killed him! Well except he eventually did get his kinda lame, kinda cool The Lost Boys 2 cameo. But I highly doubt it's what he wanted, but to be fair that crappy straight to DVD sequel wasn't what anyone wanted.

"I am so dead they're going to have to bury me twice."
Quote from License To Drive

Rest in Peace Corey, I was always routing for you and Feldman to have a real comeback. Maybe Feldman will get his chance now your gone. Who know's maybe Tarantino will cast him in his next movie, that seems to work for everyone else.

Links: -

Corey finds out he's not in The Lost Boys 2 -
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2dwyipBBlxw&feature=player_embedded

The Lost Boys 2 cameo -
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C7qidu3OF-Q

Debunk the Junk - Save the internet

2010-03-04T14:59:00.001-05:00

Protect Your Internet Rights!!!

http://www.savetheinternet.com/fcc-comments

Health Care Costs Around The World

2010-03-01T20:28:00.000-05:00

http://www.visualeconomics.com/healthcare-costs-around-the-world_2010-03-01/

Defendor

2010-02-16T16:03:00.002-05:00

Woody Harrelson's new movie. Looks pretty ace.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dEz8jWbPzdY

The 5 Most Widely Believed WWII Facts (That Are Bullshit)

2010-02-12T18:14:00.000-05:00

Great article. Number 1 has a soft spot in my heart :-D

The 5 Most Widely Believed WWII Facts (That Are Bullshit)

Unintentionally Hilarious Political Signs

2010-02-11T04:19:00.000-05:00

Obviously it's not a coincidence that these are all from right wingers.

30 Unintentionally Hilarious Political Signs

This one is good.

2 out of 3 signs spelt incorrectly? Check. Confederacy flag just in case anyone couldn't figure out this was the property of a redneck? Check!

Obama to Republican's "Here, I believe this is your ass"

2010-01-29T23:08:00.000-05:00

While I have my issue's with some of Obama's policies so far (especially his economic appointments). I do love it when somebody hands the shameless Republicans their asses. Especially when it's calling them out on their lies. So it's especially awesome when the president himself destroys a room full of them in open debate! Must see!

Obama Goes To GOP Lions' Den -- And Mauls The Lions

News report on Q&A -

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Full video of Q&A -

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

The best democracy money can buy!

2010-01-26T14:56:00.001-05:00

"The Supreme Court ruled [last week] against restrictions on corporations' spending to influence election outcomes."

The basis of this ruling? Corporations should be afforded the same rights as individuals! Great, well when they break the law we should throw the corporation in prison rather than the individuals within the corporation! This is insanity!

This has got to be the most under reported story of the year so far. The supreme court just handed over US Democracy to the highest bidder. This could be the straw that broke the camel's back. This is such an important moment that unless reversed (and I don't know how) future generations will look back and say this was the moment America resigned to fascism (a corporatist political and economic system) and the American Dream died.

This is a few days old (Jan 21st), but I have literary been so upset about this that I could not bring myself to write this up.

Here is Keith Olberman's Special Comment on this. Unfortunately his assessment is accurate -

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UkbMM7bki88&feature=player_embedded

More articles on this that are worth reading -

Free Speech for People! - What did the Supreme Court just do to our democracy?

NYT: The Court’s Blow to Democracy

Feingold Fears "Lawless" Court Ruling on Corporate Campaigning

Dolphins: Second smartest animals?

2010-01-24T08:27:00.000-05:00

I thought this was already common knowledge. Anyway, interesting read -

Discovery News

POPULISM - F**K YEAH! About time Obama!

2010-01-21T15:44:00.000-05:00

Obama turns to populism!

This is what we voted you in for, this is what the people want. You better mean it this time or the Democrats will get slaughtered in upcoming elections.

Clinton nailed it when he said:-
"people would rather be with someone who is strong and wrong than weak and right."

New rule, be right AND strong!

Obama's problem right now is not that the right hate him (they always hated him regardless what he does), but that the independents and progressives that elected feel the administration's policies have been for Wall Street and Insurance Companies over the people so far, which is the opposite of what has been promised. That and the they spent so much time watering down bills to get bi-partisan support that the end bill's were useless and still the Republicans voted against them.

Another must read analysis of the Democrats failure's -
Senate staffer talks about recent loss

I think Arianna Huffington nailed it here too -
How Massachusetts Can Turn Out to Be a Blessing for Democrats

Rishloo - Progressive rock masterpiece?

2010-01-20T11:35:00.001-05:00

I have been evangelising this band ever since I stumbled across them on Last.fm. And I feel like I should share them here too. If you like progressive rock bands like Pink Floyd, Tool & Porcupine Tree you owe it to yourself to check this great band out.

This is the first track from the 3rd album -

And here is the first two tracks from the second album -

Spider-man 4: A mercy killing?

2010-01-19T11:57:00.004-05:00

If the information in this article is correct then maybe the death of Spider-man 4 was for the best.

"Raimi wanted to end the movie exactly the same as Spider-Man 2. With Tobey quitting his Spider-Man job Yet Again. He breaks up with Mary Jane and falls in love with a new woman — who turns out to be the Vulture's daughter. After Spidey kills the Vulture, she dumps him, and he's so depressed, he quits being Spidey again. I think we can all let out a collective sigh that this film didn't go through."

Source - io9.com

Oh crap, that sounds horrible! Now I am a HUGE fan of the first 3 Spidey Movies*, and think Sam Raimi did an amazingly faithful job of bringing the comics to life. And I mainly blame the flaws of Spider-man 3 (plot holes and ret-cons) on the studio and the unrealistic deadlines placed on Raimi. But if this is true then it sounds like Raimi was going off the rails with Spidey 4 and we should be releaved he was stopped. Also sounds like Raimi probably was at fault for the horrible "Sandman really killed Uncle Ben" plot in Spidey 3, although I think it was handled very well, it was a bad idea and undermines how great those scenes are in the first movie (and how faithful they are to the comic).

Or this could be BS put out to help convince the fans that losing Raimi might not be the worst thing that could happen to the series (that would be casting the dude from Twighlight as Peter). Either way, really unhappy the new movie is a reboot, unhappy it's set in high school (less than 2 years of Spidey's 40 years history was him in high school!). And most of all I am unhappy at losing Tobey Maguire, not sure how anyone can fill his shoes. He really was so perfect as Peter Parker, and a fantastic actor. My favourite parts of Spidey 3 were his "evil Peter", especially the street dancing.

* See my original thoughts on Spidey 3 - Here and Here

Why is the news media comfortable with lying about science?

2010-01-18T10:51:00.002-05:00

This article asks a pretty important question. If we are to survive as a species and to create a better world, we are going to need to start respecting and understanding science to a higher degree.

Why is the news media comfortable with lying about science?

Getting pretty sick of having to explain to people how science works in order to defend against anti-science beliefs. Especially when they have usually never even read a scientific paper and have no clue how the scientific method works.

Steps of the Scientific Method
Wikipedia: The Scientific Method

The scientific method is unbiased to any point of view and the scientific community is something we should be very proud of as a society. The very fact that any scientist can make a name for themselves by disproving commonly accepted beliefs in science keeps the whole discipline honest. Unlike other area's, there is no benefit to following the accepted doctrine (other than the scientific method itself).

First new strip of 2010

2010-01-15T15:40:00.000-05:00

We finally got the latest strip up. Only 3 more to the end of this story arc and then it won't be too long before we start revealing something from our secret project.

Flat Life - Jan 15th, 2010

Doomsday Clock moves backwards for first time ever!

2010-01-15T11:24:00.004-05:00

A rare peice of good news. The doomsday clock (heavily featured in the Watchmen book and movie) maintained by the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists to represent how close the human race is to potential "catastrophic destruction" from global nuclear war, climate-change, or other life sciences that could inflicted irrevocable harm.

Those scientists decided yesterday that "For the first time since atomic bombs were dropped in 1945, leaders of nuclear weapons states are cooperating to vastly reduce their arsenals and secure all nuclear bomb-making material,". "And for the first time ever, industrialized and developing countries alike are pledging to limit climate-changing gas emissions that could render our planet nearly uninhabitable."

Very cool. I hope the assessment that we have taken a rare step in the right direction towards a more peaceful world is accurate.

SOURCE

Indiana Jones 5

2009-09-15T12:58:00.003-04:00

Awesome news from Ain't it Cool, Harrison Ford is on board for a new Indiana Jones movie!

http://www.aintitcool.com/node/42356

As someone that LOVED Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, this is great news!

New comic

2009-07-15T16:46:00.001-04:00

We are looking to wrap up this story arc over the next few weeks and move more attention to our secret project.

So expect the final comics over the next few weeks.

Perfect Dark N64 comparrison shots

2009-06-07T20:46:00.004-04:00

jotokun over at Gamefaqs posted these great comparison shots from Perfect Dark on the Nintendo 54. Really shows what a great job they are doing on the XBLA upgrade.

Perfect Dark XBLA - Screenshots and XBLA confirmed!

2009-06-06T15:50:00.005-04:00

Take a look at these delicious screens from the port of Perfect Dark to XBLA! Looks like it's getting a full graphical upgrade. New higher definition textures and upgraded polygons on guns characters. Very impressive. Also the confirmation of online is great news. Can't wait to play co-op and counter-op over Xbox Live!

SOURCE: Xbox.com

Perfect Dark - New Joanna Dark render

2009-06-04T13:12:00.004-04:00

Check out this new render of Joanna Dark from the new XBLA version of Perfect Dark. It's no secret I am a HUGE Perfect Dark fan and this makes me very happy. Although she should have red hair.

The fact they did brand new renders of Joanna make me think they are putting some real effort into upgrading the graphics in this port. It is conformed that it will be running at 1080p, which is to be expected.

The ports of Banjo didn't have brand new renders and were just high resolution ports. Which would be fine. But I am hoping the Perfect Dark port has as much effort put into it as the abandoned Goldeneye port.

For reference here is a screen from the abandoned Goldeneye port:-

And one showing the upgrade cut into the original:-

Behind the scenes of Monkey Island : Special Edition! With Ron Gilbert.

2009-06-03T10:14:00.002-04:00

E3 2009 - Awesome news from the biggest event in video games!

2009-06-03T09:25:00.003-04:00

Well I don't know about you but so far I have been very happy with the news from E3. Remakes of two of my favourite games of all time and lot's of great new games coming soon.

Perfect Dark is coming to XBLA in glorious high definition and I can only imagine with full support for online co-op and multiplayer! No screens or footage yet but I'll post when there is, there is a free (and awesome) theme on XBL though!

Also The Secret of Monkey Island : Special Edition was announced for XBLA. A high definition remake of the first episode of the classic Monkey Island series from Lucasarts, probably the greatest point-and-click adventures ever made.

And to top it off, a true sequel to the Monkey Island series on the form of an episodic game from Telltale Games (ex-Lucasarts and includes many ex-Monkey Island creators) who brought us Sam and Max Seasons 1 & 2. Monkey Island games have always been presented as multipart stories anyway so this is a perfect fit!

Watchmen

2009-03-12T11:26:00.004-04:00

The movie has been out almost a week now, and has met mixed reviews. My personal feelings are that the movie was a fantastic adaptation of a masterpiece, and that it's depth may have been lost on many first time viewers. For me the consensus on "Rotten Tomatoes" is pretty accurate -

"Gritty and visually striking, Watchmen is a faithful adaptation of Alan Moore's graphic novel, but its complex narrative structure may make it difficult for it to appeal to viewers not already familiar with the source material."

And those that claim to be fans of the graphic novel that were unhappy with the film? Well as far as I am concerned they are nothing less than jaded assoles. How could we have dared to have asked for a more faithful adaptation? This is a better Watchmen movie that anyone could have expected! I can not give Zack Synder (and all that were involved) enough praise for bringing this the graphic novel to life. I am one very happy Alan Moore fan.

I beg you all to read (and digg) this open letter from screenwriter David Hayter.

New strip

2009-02-16T11:11:00.001-05:00

You may have notice our first new strip in a while went up today. We hope to finish this story arc in 2009 :-D

We will have more news on the secret project soon. Stay tuned.

New Secret Project

2009-02-06T16:11:00.001-05:00

The new strip will be online in a few days.

We are working on a very exciting secret project right now. And we look forward to unveiling it in the near future. I wish I could tell you more, watch this space!

RIP - EGM & 1up

2009-01-07T10:05:00.002-05:00

Very sad news for fans of video game journalism yesterday -

http://www.joystiq.com/2009/01/06/assessing-the-damage-at-1up/

UGO has purchased the 1up network fired most of the staff, closed down EGM and all 1up podcasts.

As a long time EGM subscriber, and huge fan of everything 1up. This news is like loosing a friend. Good luck to all those that lost their jobs. And to UGO, go FUCK yourself!

Happy Holidays to all!

2008-12-24T09:07:00.003-05:00

Merry x-mas, happy new year, happy hunnikah or whatever else your fairy tale of choice offers up as an excuse for a celebration at this time of year.

We have been away for a while and I keep promising new strips. They are coming. Look out for one over the next week and then we'll try to get to a semi-regular schedule again.

On another note Phantasy Star Zero comes out for the Nintendo DS tomorrow. As anyone who reads the comic will know, I am a HUGE fan of Phantasy Star Online from back in the Dreamcast days and I am lucky to have already played PSZero and can confirm that it is FANTASTIC. Unfortunatly it is all in Japanese (English version has not been dated yet), but for anyone that loved PSO I can confirm that PSZero is a return to almost everything that made PSO the greatest game of all time. But now it's portable!

I predict future generations will celebrate tomorrow for years to come, marking the day of release. Possiby exchanging gifts or decorating there houses with bright lights, hanging large "Phantasy" Stars on walls and tree's. It will be bigger than Jesus.

Why no updates?

2008-08-26T16:51:00.004-04:00

Sorry folks, my wife and I had our first child (a son) in April and since then it's been hard to find the time for the site. Priorities change when your a parent. We do intend to keep the site going though.

Stay tuned...

Gillian Anderson in Mass Effect

2008-03-10T10:15:00.004-04:00

When I first got outstanding sci-fi gaming masterpiece Mass Effect, I spent over an hour creating my perfect Gillian Anderson based character for the game. Unfortunately I had no idea how good she was going to turn out and never thought to record the creation settings.

Being quite content with my creation I uploaded some videos of her on YouTube -

However I then received multiple requests for the settings which further agitated my regret that I never thought to make a record of them. But I promised to try and recreate her and share the settings with those that requested them. But my first few attempts were horrible, she was close but had some hideous defects, like a broken nose.

With the new downloadable content being released today I decided to try again, and after about 2 hours (longer than the original creation I may add) of creating, recording settings, playing, making notes of facial errors, recreating and making the appropriate changes. I finally got her REALLY close to the original. Thanks to the fantastic depth of the Mass Effect character creation engine it is pretty much impossible to recreate her exactly. But this one is pretty close to my original Gillian Shepard.

For this second play through I will be playing on the hardcore difficulty setting and trying out the soldier class as apposed to my original vanguard. The game is well worth several play throughs, game of the year in my books.

If anyone else would like to create a Gillian Anderson-a-like character for Mass Effect, I have uploaded the settings here -

New strip approaching!

2008-02-19T13:38:00.000-05:00

Yeah I know, slack as fuck. Blame me, Dan finished this strip about a month ago and I keep forgetting to put it up. We have a new project non-comic related that is part of the problem.

The other part of the problem with these delays are the fact that I am about to become a father, and I have started playing Phantasy Star Universe again.

I'll try and get the strip back to a regular schedule soon. Maybe monthly. Although I think most readers gave up checking for new strips months ago. lol.

Expeact the new strip tomorrow, it's almost done. Off to see the Foo Fighters at Madison Square Garden tonight :-D

PLEASE VOTE for Flat Life in the Eyeskream awards!

2008-01-04T10:07:00.001-05:00

This year and for the first time in Eyeskream history we will ask you, the numerous fans of the Eyeskream webcomics, to vote for what you consider are the best in the following categories:

- Best Eyeskream Webcomic
- Best Eyeskream Webcomic Writter
- Best Eyeskream Webcomic Artist
- Best Eyeskream Webcomic Website Design
- Most Improved Eyeskream Webcomic Art

There is also one other category where I the Eyeskream manager will choose one of our members for:

- Most Involved Eyeskream Member

You have up to the 31 January to cast your vote. And around the first week of February we will announce the winners.

VOTE HERE

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull - Drew Struzan Poster!

2007-12-11T11:33:00.000-05:00

The new Drew Struzan poster for Indiana Jones 4 has been released at indianajones.com.

Head over there and grab it now. Or grab one of these desktop wallpapers I knocked up for myself :)

Indiana Jones Crystal Skull Wallpaper 1280x800 Design 1

Indiana Jones Crystal Skull Wallpaper 1280x800 Design 2

Indiana Jones Crystal Skull Wallpaper 1280x800 Design 3

Temporary down time is over

2007-12-05T11:41:00.000-05:00

We had some server problems that are fully resolved now. And we also managed to get the latest strip up too, enjoy.

Words of wisdom

2007-11-09T11:16:00.001-05:00

From the greatest comedian that ever lived.

New Comic? Update

2007-11-09T09:58:00.001-05:00

We have had the next two comics done for a while but Dan's computer has died again. We will do our best to get this fixed and new comics up as soon as possible. May take another week though at this rate.

Anyway here is a fun link for those with a free mind - The Skeptic's Annotated Bible

Bible quote of the day -

"Suppose ye that I am come to give peace on earth? I tell you, Nay; but rather division.--"
Luke 12:51

Bible quote of the day

2007-10-04T14:41:00.000-04:00

If your brother, the son of your father or of your mother, or your son or daughter, or the spouse whom you embrace, or your most intimate friend, tries to secretly seduce you, saying, "Let us go and serve other gods," unknown to you or your ancestors before you, gods of the peoples surrounding you, whether near you or far away, anywhere throughout the world, you must not consent, you must not listen to him; you must show him no pity, you must not spare him or conceal his guilt. No, you must kill him, your hand must strike the first blow in putting him to death and the hands of the rest of the people following. You must stone him to death, since he has tried to divert you from Yahweh your God' (Deuteronomy 13:7-11)

SWAP WEEK part 2

2007-10-04T11:59:00.000-04:00

I just uploaded the strip that we did for www.suspiciousmindscomic.com

If a new comic has been uploaded since then, you can see it here.

Enjoy

Koo-sin-ich Re-mix

2007-10-04T10:10:00.000-04:00

Oh no he's talking about politics again. Sorry but it has to be done. It's so strange to find an honest politicians it's worth getting excited about.

First you should read these great comics - Comic1- Comic2 - Comic3 - Comic4 - Comic5 - Comic6 - Comic7 - from towncalleddobson.com about Dennis Kucinich. Then you should watch this groovy ad -

After that you should go help Dennis win the primary (if you are in the USA that is). If you are outside the US, then you should cheer Dennis on from the sidelines (or help promote him on the web, on sites like digg.com).

SWAP WEEK

2007-09-24T10:58:00.000-04:00

This week is SWAP WEEK, the annual Eyeskream.com event in which web comic creators (and members of eyeskream) secretly do a guest strip for another member. Check out the sweet guest strip for Flat Life above.

And the coolest thing about this event is that you can win a free “commissioned” drawing from the participating Eyeskream member of your choice! All you have to do is head over to the eyeskream swap week page and check out all the guest strips, then take a guess at who created each guest comic! FUN!

You have up to the 30 September to submit your answers. The winner will be announced here on the 1st of October.

Wake Up! - Zeitgiest

2007-08-23T12:12:00.001-04:00

What does Christianity, 911 and the Federal Reserve all have in common?...

I strongly suggest you watch this amazing documentary. Any documentary that ends with the words of Bill Hicks is a must see. I was going to post this before I even got to the end of it but as soon as they used this quote from Bill, it was a no brainer.

"A choice, right now, between fear and love. The eyes of fear want you to put bigger locks on your doors, buy guns, close yourself off. The eyes of love instead see all of us as one."

Also you may want to skip the first 7 minutes as it is all intro music. It's good, but way too long.

And if you like that, you may like this one too.

Metal Gear Portable Ops - $20 at Gamestop this weekend!

2007-08-17T13:11:00.000-04:00

MGS:PO probably the greatest game on PSP (or any portable for that matter), is only $20 this weekend (in the USA) at Gamestop!

I just finished this game last weekend and loved every minute of the 20+ hours I have logged in it. It also has a great online multi-player mode. And since it bridges the story from MGS 3 and MGS 4, it's a great purchase for those excited to play MGS 4 next year.

Plus it has a cool looking add-on called Portable Ops Plus coming out soon that requires the original game.

Better late than never?

2007-08-13T16:21:00.001-04:00

Long time since we uploaded a comic (why? See the animated pilot above!), but here is the new one.

Expect another in the next 2 weeks :-D

Getting all political up on your ass.

2007-08-07T12:04:00.000-04:00

Possibly the only candidate running in the US presidential race with integrity and consistency in his policy.

MORE KUCINICH VIDEOS

Monkey Island in a few minutes!

2007-08-06T11:15:00.000-04:00

This is brilliant!

The comic should be up soon, It's been a hectic week.

You Tube Plethora

2007-07-30T09:13:00.000-04:00

Here are some great You Tube clips that Dan sent me. The first one is a must see.

And for the icing on the cake, here is a clip from the fantastically absurd Evil Dead The Musical (which I saw opening night in NY :-D )

Indy is BACK

2007-07-24T16:33:00.000-04:00

Dan sent me this a week ago and I forgot to post it for those that haven't seen it yet. Best part? George Lucas wearing a "Han Shot First" T-shirt, classic!'

The new strip is coming soon.

INDY ARRIVES VIDEO CLIP

PlayStation 3 Games?

2007-07-20T09:56:00.000-04:00

So the PlayStation 3 has finally had a price cut, although they have announced that it may only be available at the reduced price of $499 (yes that's reduced!) while stocks last on the 60GB model (a 80GB model at $599 will replace it). I know some of you are Still wondering if it worth getting one while they are $100 less, so I am here to convince you that the PS3 is finally a solid purchase. Except in Europe where there has been no price cut, sorry lads it's probably still not worth it there :(

Of course non of this matters to me because I purchased mine 2 weeks before the price cut! D'OH! But I got the no longer available 20GB model at $399, which lacks functions I don't care about so I'm still OK with my purchase.

So many of you will be saying, "but aren't there no games on the PS3 to warrant a $500 price tag?", well it's true that for the first year of it's life the PlayStation 3 has had very few great games worth playing, and most of the ones that were great already appeared on the 360. But I assure you, during the next year there are more than enough great games to convince you the PS3 is more than a great Blu-Ray player. So let's take a look at my picks along with there estimated release dates.

LAIR - 8/14/06

Essentially Star Wars Rogue Leader with dragons and knights, created made by the same people that made Rogue Leader. This game may be one of the best looking games out between now and MGS4.

John Woo presents Stranglehold - 8/20/07

Yes this one is coming to the 360 too, but the PS3 version may be the better choice as it comes with the John Woo/Chow Yun Fat classic movie (of which the game is a sequel) Hardboiled on the disk as a full HD Blu-Ray movie! How freaking sweet is that!

Warhawk - 8/28/07

32 player online battles, described as battlefield for the Halo crowd but with cooler vehicles. Looks like after Halo 3 and Team Fortress, this could be the best online shooter this year. Best of all this will be a PSN downloadable title meaning the cost can be shared between friends!

Oh and did I mention that it looks pretty nice too?

Heavenly Sword - 9/28/07

Affectionately called Goddess of War, Heavenly Sword combines all the thrills of games like Ninja Gaiden and God of War with hot chicks and gorgeous graphics. A demo will be hitting the PSN (PlayStation Network) in the next few weeks!

Haze - 11/20/07
From (some of) the creators of Goldeneye and (all of the creators) of Timesplitters. This futuristic FPS features 4 player co-op and a kick ass story. I have high hoes for this. It will be coming to the 360, but probably 6 months later (it doesn't even have a release date on 360 yet).

Uncharted: Drake's Fortune - 11/28/07

Cross Tomb Raider with Far Cry, Gears of War and Prince of Persia and what you get is this jungle adventure with plenty of action game, looks like a must play!

And that's all THIS year. And don't forget HOME is less than 8 weeks away!

Then in January or February next year we have what may be the greatest game of all time Metal Gear Solid 4! Which may eventually come to 360, but I doubt it will be within 12 months and I doubt that it will run as well on the 360 hardware as it was designed for the PS3. Even MGS2 didn't run as well on the Xbox as it did on the PS2 due to being designed for the PS2 hardware.

Also here are just some of the games coming out in 2009 -

Little Big Planet - Create your own levels and play with friends! This game looks AMAZING! Check it out NOW!

Unreal Tournament 3 - Built with the new special PS3 supported Unreal Engine, Epic Games claim this will be the first time the PS3's cell processor is made to sweat. Epic say it already looks better than Gears of War did at this stage of development and the PS3 version is not only the lead version but will feature exclusive support for custom mods (created on the PC).

The Agency - Syphon Filter meets Perfect Dark Zero meets an MMO. One of the games I am most looking forward to on any system.

Heist - A wicked looking bank robbery simulator! This is one to keep an eye on for sure, it's already looking pretty sexy.

Killzone 2 - I presume you have seen the real trailer for this from E3 by now, if not download from the PSN or check it out, although I highly suggest you find a HD version if you really want to see how great it looks.

Folklore - Like Fable on acid, looks pretty cool to me.

White Knight Story - A cool looking Japanese RPG that takes place in England. The battle system looks good but I'm not sold yet. Lot of hype for this game among RPG fans. Check out the video and preview for more info.

So while the PS3 had a pretty crappy first year, the next 6 months are looking pretty fantastic, easily as good as the 6 months the 360 has ahead of it. I think if I had none of the new systems I would still go with the 360, but I would pick a PlayStation 3 over the Wii at this point (although I'm loving RE4 Wii Edition). But it's a great year to be a gamer.

EDIT: Found this amazing list of upcoming exclusives for PS3, put together by "Stunt" over at www.ps3forums.com . Click here to view.

The Flat Life Animated Pilot Episode!

2007-06-29T12:06:00.000-04:00

As promised, enjoy -

Download the movie here.

You may need WINRAR and the latest Quicktime if you don't already have them.

A Google Video and You Tube version will be up on Monday.

We will be taking a short break after the intense amount of work that went into this, but regular strip schedule will resume shortly. Expect a new comic within the next 14 days.

Download not working? Alternative download link here.

SAVE THIS PODCAST!

2007-06-28T12:22:00.000-04:00

One of the greatest webcasts around may possibly be going away, do me a favour and spend 20 seconds to sign this petition.

And then go listen to the funniest cast on the net.

Oh and the Flat Life Pilot will be online within the next few days! It's all done! So we will get a new comic up some time next week too. Woot!

Flat Life Pilot coming within DAYS!

2007-06-26T09:07:00.000-04:00

We are VERY close to finishing our Flat Life pilot for submission to the New York TV Festival, and shorly after that I will be posting it here! wooot!

Also I just got a 20GB PS3 for $399. Bargain since I have no use for Wi-Fi (have a router and the PS3 is sat by my modem) and I am going to upgrade the HDD to 160GB!

Add me to your friends list -

Star Wars - New Animated TV show

2007-06-06T10:31:00.000-04:00

Our animated pilot is coming along nicely, we can't wait to show you how cool it is. But speaking of awesome animated TV shows... HOLY FUCK you seen this? Looks AMAZING!

Most Super Hero Hype readers are smart!

2007-05-10T16:58:00.000-04:00

Take a look at this poll on Super Hero Hype, which is a fantastic website for anyone interested in movies based on comics and cartoons.

Looks like most of the readers are on the same page as me when it comes to Spider-man 3. 21% of 13,000 people gave the movie a solid 8 out of 10! Although I think the 19% that gave it 10 out of 10 are a little too blind to it's slight flaws.

So ignore the vocal minority ripping on the movie, remember a lot of fools didn't like Spider-man 2 either, MORONS! :)

Source: Super Hero Hype

The Geek shall inherit the Earth!

2007-05-10T15:38:00.000-04:00

Because we are smarter! The link below is a interesting article regarding the large amount of "geeks" that are atheists, it makes some good points. However it starts with this flawed sentence -

"‘Geek’ brings to mind a long list of traits- Glasses, obsession with science, a high IQ."

I think he means a "nerd", the word geek can often be attributed to those characteristics but is more likely to be associated with these traits - video-game t-shirt, obsession with Science-Fiction/video games/fantasy (or any combination of the three) and a higher than average IQ.

Also you need to overlook that the article fails to acknowledge that many of the "geeks" in question are probably agnostic and not atheists. For instance Einstein was not a believer in either the Jewish or Christian god, but he also said this -

"I believe in Spinoza's God who reveals himself in the orderly harmony of what exists, not in a God who concerns himself with fates and actions of human beings."

Now that is agnosticism not atheism.

But if you over look the writers confusion with the words "geek", "nerd", "atheist" and "agnostic" and presume the writers are neither smart enough to be geeks or nerds (because they would be smart enough to know the difference); then this is... wait a second this article sucks! :)

THE LINK

George Lucas Announces Two More Star Wars Movies

2007-05-10T13:15:00.000-04:00

Don't get too excited, they are just TV movies -

We absolutely knew that George Lucas was not done with the Star Wars universe. The Star Wars creator revealed to Fox News that he will make two more live-action Star Wars films.

“But they won’t have members of the Skywalker family as characters,” he said. “They will be other people of that milieu.”The two “extra” movies will probably be one hour in length and made for television.

At the one hour length, what will differentiate the upcoming hour-long live-action Star Wars television series from the films? Wouldn’t it be a good idea to make them a bit longer?

Source: Slash Film

The final Spider-Man 3 review!

2007-05-08T15:23:00.002-04:00

After two long posts, two viewings and two days to digest, here is my final review of Spider-Man 3.

DISCLAIMER: This following is one man's opinions. One very important man, ME! You are of course entirely entitled to your own opinion. However, if your opinion is that you don't like Spider-Man or wish to jump on a "let's all hate the new movie" bandwagon. Then this man's opinion is that you can kindly go to hell.

Sam Raimi probably wasn't the most obvious choice to direct a super-hero movie. Known for B-movie classics like the Evil Dead trilogy he would probably be one of the last people you would think of to helm such a huge project. And let's face it, screwing up the Spider-Man movies seemed like something that was inevitable, especially if you had heard some of the casting choices James Cameron (who was previously tied to the project) had put out there. The premise was just too hard to translate, and it's not like there were any really great super-hero movies to take cues from when making a movie of this type. Sure Tim Burton's Batman was good, and the original Superman movies had some charm (but lacked super-villains) but neither of them had been completely successful in capturing the comic books from which they were based.

I'm sure most people expected the first Spider-Man movie to be average at best. But Spider-Man 1 wasn't average was it, it was freaking awesome! Sam Raimi not only was a fan of the comic book, but he actually understood the characters. Amazingly he was able to bring them to life on screen in a way that seemed impossible, with the help of some fantastic casting of course. Tobey Maguire was the perfect Peter Parker. I was so afraid that the movie Peter Parker would be too much of a classic hero. But thanks to Sam and Tobey he's just like the Peter from the early comic book. A nerd and a dork, but Tobey sells both the lovableness and heroism that seemed impossible to translate onto the big screen. The only thing I didn't like about Spider-Man 1 was the Power Ranger style Green Goblin outfit. But that was such a small issue I let it go before the movie even came out.

Spider-Man 2 took everything that was great about the first movie and improved upon it. For me Spider-Man 2 is one of the greatest movies of all time. It hits all the right chords, humour, morality, excitement, characters that I not only identify with but truly care for and the action was everything it should have been. These scenes were the realisation of things that I had dreamt about since I was a small child. In fact my earliest memory is my mother buying me a stuffed Spider-Man from an outdoor market at the age of 3, a toy that I still own to this day. On a side note, the recent release of Spider-Man 2.1 is the cream on this cake, a cut that besides one scene (the new slightly inferior elevator scene) improves on the original with 8 minutes of additional material.

Which brings me to the final movie in the Spider-Man trilogy. Going into this movie it seemed that it was not possible for it surpass the perfection of Spider-Man 2, and I can safely say with remorse that it does not. However let me be clear from the start that Spider-Man 3 is still a great movie. And in my opinion, still one of the greatest super-hero movies ever brought to the big screen (it doesn't have huge competition). But with that said it does not reach the heights of it's predecessors.

I am going to presume that anyone reading this is either already aware of the basic story of the the movie or has already seen it, but either way be prepared for no plot explanation but some spoilers.

Although many will want to concentrate on the maybe 7.52% (that's an estimation) of this movie that isn't very good, it really should be noted that the largest portion of this movie is truly great. The movie is funnier than the previous two (something some people didn't like) and the finality of the 3 part morality tale that Sam Raimi has woven (with the help of many other great people) really does deserve some serious applause. The first movie gave us a tale about power and responsibility, the second sacrifice for the greater good and the third forgiveness. This is a very important point because the reason the Spider-Man movies are so far above all other Super-hero movies is because of these themes. The Spider-Man character has been so popular because he deals with the human condition and the struggle between right and wrong without invoking fairy tales or framing things in black and white ideology. And more importantly Peter Parker has to contend with the most important aspect of these struggles, dealing with normal day to day life. He is the everyman, who feels that the world is sometimes against him but allows his overwhelming belief in right and wrong to guide him through all his choices, no matter how hard those choices are.

These core element all remain in Spider-Man 3, and the story of Peter's journey to the dark side and back again is something that we can all identify with on a more basic level. In fact everything that you loved about the first two is also in this movie, that is except a fully coherent villain story. You see as great as Peter's story is, the movie suffers from too many coincidences in order to tell the story, and these are almost all in the villain storylines. These are not so bad on there own but coupled with a few clunky scenes designed to move the story to it's conclusion and you have a movie that stutters where it should soar. Now many of these issues can be overlooked by the fact that you are watching a movie about a guy that gets super powers from a genetically enhanced spider. And many of them were actually lifted directly from the pages of the comic book. But the first two movies did not make these mistakes and if the offending scenes had just a little foreshadowing they would have worked much better than they actually did.

Although when aiming any criticisms at this movie something that should not be overlooked or passed on to Sam Raimi is the problems with the music by Christopher Young, in place of Danny Elfman. For me Christopher Young failed to hit the right emotional marks with his music. Many of the pieces were fine in and of themselves, the melancholy stuff was great for instance. But whenever the music went into hero or villain mode it just wasn't as subtle as Elfman's work and felt more jarring than I think they should have been. It just never invokes the goosebumps that Elfman's soundtrack did for me. Add to this some horrible musical transitions and you leave the audience feeling that the movie was paced badly, which for the most part it was not.

There is also one scene that just felt really so forced and clumsy, the butlers speech with Harry. For those that have seen the movie, I have no doubt you are now saying "god yes". For those that haven't you will soon be saying "oh god no" at the scene when you do see it. That single scene is Raimi's worst work in a movie, in my opinion.

However as I say it is far easier to nit pick than it is to convey all the wonderful things in this movie. J. Jonah Jameson has some of his greatest scenes of the three movies and my favourite line of his, "Miss Brant! That wasn't the position I hired you for!".

The evil Peter Parker is hilarious as his dork turned smooth ends up being dorkier than normal Peter was. I loved every moment of the evil Peter scenes except maybe the jazz bar part, that was a little too "The Mask" for me.

The Sandman looked incredible, and I while I have a big problem with the retcon of being Uncle Ben's killer, I do think it was handled well and certainly not as bad as some of the retcon stuff done in the comics. Topher Grace was great, very funny as the moral free jerk, the ying to Peter's yang as it were. And as a Spider-Man fan that thinks Venom is good but overrated, I thought this movie had the perfect amount of that character in it. Neither villain felt fully developed but this is a movie about Peter Parker, Mary Jane, Harry Osborn and more than anything else forgiveness.

Both times I saw the movie the audience was full of people laughing out loud throughout and more importantly crying (and all in the right places), including fully grow men (and not just me). Which just goes to show how well these movies are made, how many other Super-hero movies can bring people to tears? Batman and Robin doesn't count.

Overall I give the movie a B+.

So as someone who is a huge fan and hasn't missed a core issue of Spider-Man in over 10 years (and have read many more than that), I am very protective of the franchise. And I think these movies are very faithful to the comic books, especially in the area's that matter the most to me. And I can safely say that I am very happy with the Spider-Man trilogy. It exceeded any expectation that I dared to have. I can only hope that 4, 5 and 6 are of a similar quality. I really hope that the entire cast and more importantly Sam Raimi sticks around for the rest of this journey.

Spider-man 3 - First thoughts

2007-05-05T12:55:00.002-04:00

Hmm, it seems I am going to need a little more time before I post my full review. The whole experience was a little bittersweet and I'm feeling a little too emotional about it right now (yes I'm that big of a Spider-man fan). I'll post a real review after I see it a second time on Sunday.

*** SPOILERS ***
There were so many great things about Spider-man 3, moments where it shone with the brilliance of the first two, and moments were it even outshone it's earlier efforts. However there were 3 area's where the film suffered a lot, first the pacing felt off in many area's. The music inspired by Danny Elfman but composed by Christopher Young didn't hit the same emotional beats and wasn't as subtle as the previous movies (although this was the least of the flaws but probably effected the overall film more than most people noticed).

But the biggest problem with the movie was the plot devices. Not the story, the story of Peters journey to and back from the dark side was great. But the methods of getting there were not. Amnesia as a plot device? God no. Sandman is now Ben's killer? Ick! Mary Jane breaks up with Peter because Harry says he'll kill him otherwise? Uh!? She knows he's Spider-man, he can take care of himself! The butlers horrible speech with Harry to convince us Harry would start to believe that Peter didn't kill his father was so forced to move the plot along that it was like watching Batman Forever, horrible. And the worst offender of all was the dance/piano/nightclub/revenge on MJ scene. A scene so over the top cheesy that it could have been right out of The Mask.

However overall the movie was great, a deeply flawed masterpeice. I feel quite strongly that Sam Raimi didn't have enough time to edit this movie into the version it needed to be, I think 10-20 minutes could have been cut out and the pacing could have been much improved. However this movie had a set release date as soon as Spider-man 2 was finished and was probably taken from Sam long before he was happy with the cut.

The biggest obstacle in the way of judging Spider-man 3 is how perfect Spider-man 2 is. I think Spider-man 2 is my favourite movie of all time. That is how perfect I think it is. Even better than the original Star wars movies and Indiana Jones. so SM3 had a LOT to live up to. And it failed to reach the heights of the past movies.

However allow me to return to my previous statement, the movie was full of great moments and scenes. and overall it was a very fun movie. Far more fun than Batman Begins, a movie that I thought was hugely over-rated, but judged by many to be the best super-hero movie after SM2. The action in Spider-man 3 is worth ten Batman Begins, the characters and casting was fantastic. Bryce Dallas was no Katie Holmes (Katie was horribly cast IMHO). The movie was very funny and the characters lovable in every way. Like I said it was very bittersweet.

OK these first thoughts have almost become a review, so I will stop now. After I see it a second time I will post a full and detailed analysis of the movie. For now I recommend it strongly, but don't expected this Spider-man to be quite as amazing as the one you have seen in the past.

Spider-man 3! AT LAST!

2007-05-03T22:05:00.001-04:00

Tomorrow, is the day. Finally the release of what will undoubtedly be the greatest movie of all time!

The world will be changed forever, finally all that groovy shit John Lennon sang about in "imagine" will become a reality, peace on earth my friends!

You think I'm exaggerating? Over hyping maybe? Well screw you!

I know some of you may think that Pirates 3 or Shrek 3 will outsell Spider-man 3 then let me just say for the record, fuck those movies, and fuck you!

Now I have nothing against Shrek 3, but Pirates of the Caribbean 2 was fricking atrocious! And anyone who goes to see 3 is a god damn moron! Unless your going just so you can take a small child that doesn't know any better, I'll forgive that. That is as long as you have already seen Spider-man 3.

I'm dead, fucking serious!

Not really, but Spidey 3 is going to be awesome! I'll post a decent size review either over the weekend or Monday. I'm also getting the game for 360 and Wii, it looks pretty great. I think the 360 version will be the best, but the Wii version looks pretty interesting, I'll post thoughts on those too.

On the topic of Flat Life, the animation is coming on really nicely. I'll try and post some preview images next week.

peace

UPDATE - EXCITING NEWS / HIATUS

2007-04-23T15:16:00.000-04:00

As mentioned in a previous post, the comic is finished. It justs needs to be coloured. Here's the bad news, it may be some weeks before we actually post it, why? Well that's the good news...

Myself and Dan have decided to enter a Flat Life animated short into this -

http://www.newyorktelevisionfestival.com/2007_contests_xbox.htm

So you can look forward to a fully animated 5-7 minute animated episode of Flat Life in the future! Unfortunately this will be a huge undertaking in order to finish before the deadline, so the comic will have to be put on temporary hiatus until the animation is finished.

I will continue to post on the blog and try and get the next comic up soon. Also if we can find time we may post some black and white strips or work in progress artwork from the animation to keep you entertained during the down time. Subscribe to the RSS feed to keep yourself in the loop!

A moment for mourning

2007-04-18T09:17:00.000-04:00

I have little doubt that the tragedy at Virginia Tech in the US on Monday effects all of us. How something so senseless happens is disturbing. I only hope that a serious effort to look into the causes of these events and hopefully prevent them in future is partaken.

Hopefully the issue of gun control can be discussed seriously, as there surely can be little doubt that if the United States had the level of gun control that all other first world countries share, this tragedy would probably have been on a lesser scale.

That is not to say that guns are to blame for what happened. But neither is rock music or video games. What is to blame? Well I fear that is a question that requires too much real thought for the mainstream media in the USA to discuss. And I have no doubt the usual suspects will be brought out so we can all point fingers. Although Marilyn Manson hasn't put a new album out in a while. But maybe "blame" is the wrong word. Maybe responsibility would be more apt, maybe we need to decide how we all are responsible rather than who to blame. Or at least how we can be responsible in helping prevent it from happening again.

My condolences to the family's and friends of those that are no longer with us, I am deeply sorry for you loss.

Nerdcore holla

2007-04-17T11:08:00.000-04:00

I recently got the chance to see "nerdcore" rappers MC Frontalot and MC Lars play together in NJ. Pretty cool show. For those that don't know "Nerdcore" is the ironic juxtaposition of two very disparate cultures, namely hip-hop and nerd/geek culture.

I highly recommend you all go check out some "laptop rap" (as MC Lars calls it) or"nerdcore" especially the two aforementioned artists. You can download a bunch of free music from each of their websites.

I was also fortunate to meet both MC Lars and MC Frontalot, they seemed like cool dudes. Upon purchasing his CD, Lars gave me a "mix tape" CD with some other cool music on it. As well as some new stuff of his own it had a really cool female rapper who calls herself KFLAY. Check the link on her name, for more free music to check out.

SNAFU - We are back!

2007-04-16T09:31:00.000-04:00

So after days of server issues (read: my hosting guy messed up my FTP and was too busy to fix it) we have moved over to the far more reliable Eyeskream servers! Yay for Eyeskream!

The new comic is done but we haven't finished colouring it yet. Been a very busy few weeks, Dans been away and the new home has eaten in to my spare time. But expect the new strip up within the week.

I also have some other exciting projects in the works, including short animations and a webcast!

Telemarketers Beware!

2007-03-28T14:14:00.000-04:00

Don't you hate telemarketers? We all wish we could get this kind of revenge. Believe me, you just HAVE to listen to this, FUNNY AS SHIT!

SCHEDULE UPDATE

2007-03-25T13:00:00.000-04:00

I just wanted to post a quick update to let readers know why there has been a delay in updates this past week.

I just purchased and moved into my first home this weekend and that has pretty much taken away all my spare time. This week will also be a little hectic as I have a lot of unpacking left to do but I will try and post blog updates during the week and I do hope to have a new comic up early next week.

NOTE: Post dated this for the future to keep people in the loop as I post blog updates.

Lowest of the fucking low!

2007-03-22T09:54:00.001-04:00

This shit boils my blood, so let me start off by saying, FUCK CARLOS MENCIA and FUCK DENNIS LEARY. Pair of theiving no talent fucks that steal from much better comedians.

This video of Joe Rogan calling Carlos Mencia out for being a plagiarists piece of shit is classic.

More comedians need to call these fuckers out. As a huge fan of the greatest comedian to ever live (William Melvin Hicks aka Bill Hicks) I get an uncontrollable urge to punch Dennis Leary in the face ever time I see the talentless fucking piece of shit hack. Stealing from a far more talented person is bad enough but then filling a TV special full of the stolen material is just fucking disgusting. Take a look at this to see what I am talking about -

It wouldn't be so bad but he steals the jokes and then wraps them in his own selfish arrogant ego and removes the beautiful essence and intelligent philosophies that were Bill's theme. The overall message of hope and love is gone in the way Leary performs Bill's material. Leary has also been (justifiably) accused of basing his entire on stage persona on Bill's, however elements of Leary's own arrogant self-centered persona that doesn't give a shit about anyone but himself, instead promotes a very undesirable way of looking at the world.

And worse of all Leary used the "No Cure for Cancer" special (full of Bills material) as a springboard to fame while Bill tragically died of cancer.

However Bill Hicks continues to sell more albums every year and his legacy as a one of the greatest comedians has been honoured many times. In a 2005 poll to find The Comedian's Comedian, fellow comedians and comedy insiders voted Hicks amongst the top 20 "Greatest Comedy Acts Ever" at number thirteen. Likewise, in "Comedy Central Presents: 100 Greatest Stand-ups of All Time" (2004), Hicks was ranked at number nineteen. While the hack Dennis Leary shamefully appears at number 50 (but at least he was many places underneath Bill).

On the 25th of February 2004, British MP Stepehen Pound tabled an early day motion titled "Anniversary of the Death of Bill Hicks" (EDM 678 of the 2003-04 session), the text of which was as follows:

That this House notes with sadness the 10th anniversary of the death of Bill Hicks, on 26th February 1994, at the age of 32; recalls his assertion that his words would be a bullet in the heart of consumerism, capitalism and the American Dream; and mourns the passing of one of the few people who may be mentioned as being worth of inclusion with Lenny Bruce in any list of unflinching and painfully honest political philosophers.^[7]

Tips For Spielberg and Lucas As They Embark On 'Indy 4'

2007-03-21T15:06:00.000-04:00

Found this interesting article on preventing and/or correcting any possible mistakes in making Indiana Jones 4. As huge Indiana Jones fan I am pretty excited about this movie (I consider the first three among the greatest movies of all time), despite feeling deep down that at best it will never recapture the magic of the first 3 movies, and at worst it will cheapen the franchise.

But hey it will at least encourage some more Indiana Jones video games! Which have been more consistent than Star Wars games for quality (except a few of the really early ones). I was really surprised we didn't see a quick follow up to the Emperors Tomb game. That was easily one of the best games on the Xbox in my (slightly biased Indiana Jones loving) opinion. Can't wait to play through Indiana Jones' greatest Adventures on the Wii Virtual Console for probablt the 5th time when it is finally released (probably around the same time as the movie).

But as for this blog, I have to agree with most of this guys suggestions but his comment about Spider-man 1 being boring is about as close to blasphemy as a statement can get for me.

Tips For Spielberg and Lucas As They Embark On 'Indy 4'

Lucas on Star Wars TV SHOWS!

2007-03-19T13:45:00.000-04:00

I pretty much stole all of this text from here ;)

George Lucas was recently a featured guest at the Paley Festival at the Museum of Television & Radio last weekend. During the discussion, which focused on Lucas' past involvement in television through the acclaimed Young Indiana Jones series, talk inevitably turned to the future of Star Wars on television. Lucas briefly described the forthcoming computer-animated Clone Wars series, and the distant live action Star Wars series.

To hear what was said about these projects, click the link.

THE LINK

Sony PS3's HOME - Update

2007-03-07T16:04:00.000-05:00

Check out this video showing off Sony's new HOME for PS3. I love the "infinitely more exciting than whats on offer on other consoles" dig, funny thing is she may be right.

STOP PRESS: Sony do something RIGHT! (TWICE!)

2007-03-07T14:06:00.000-05:00

In news that is sure to rock the gaming industry Sony have unveiled their plans to bring a new feature to the PS3 online network. "Home" is a feature that combines Second Life with the Nintendo Wii's "Mii's" and the Xbox 360's achievements.

Everything I read about this feature is fantastic, sounds like it may be the killer-app that Sony need to make the PS3 a must own console. Unfortunately it is not due out until fall but it looks well worth the wait. Here is some info nuggets I stole directly from C|Net News.com.

Essentially, Home is a 3D, avatar-based social environment available for free to users of the PlayStation 3 network. The idea is to give users a way to connect in a multimedia space and interact with the various forms of media available on the PS3.

Home will be a free download. It will go into a large-scale beta in April and will launch publicly this fall.

While Home has some innovative features--most notably the ability to watch high-definition quality video available through the PS3 network--it's strongly reminiscent of virtual worlds like Second Life, only deeply scaled back.

Home participants will be able to meet other members, most likely in a main public area known as the "Central Lobby," and communicate through text, audio or video chatting. They will also be able to pipe in--either in public or private theaters--the latest movies or TV shows available through the PS3 network, as well as their own user-created videos.

Further, users will be able to infinitely customize their avatars. And each member will be given a small (and free) private space, somewhat like an apartment, that they can customize per their own tastes.

Harrison told CNET News.com that while users will be able to design their own clothing and avatars, as well as other content--be it furniture, vehicles or the like--Sony will moderate anything meant for public spaces, most likely to ensure that Home remains a family-friendly space. Content meant for private spaces will not be moderated, he added.

"We've been working on Home for about two-and-a-half years," he said. "So we're absolutely aware of other avatar-based (environments), but we're taking a different approach."

He did say users would be able to create some forms of their own content, though he did not specify what kinds. He did indicated that, like in Second Life, There.com and other virtual worlds, users would be able to conduct transactions in exchange for some form of payment.

And while it's evident Sony doesn't expect Home to be a major cash cow, there are some potential revenue sources.

Those, Harrison said, would include sales of in-world goods; in-world advertising (Home allows for high-quality, realistic advertising); and business-to-business services like sponsorship opportunities.

Sony also announced a game called LittleBigPlanet, which is a "user designed playground". A create-your-own-platformer tool of sorts. Looks freaking awesome too! Two peices of great news from Sony regarding the PS3 in the same day! Shocking! Check out the LittleBigPlanet video below and prepare to drool.

Originally found on the fantastic video game blog Kotaku.

Worms hits Xbox Live Arcade

2007-03-07T09:59:00.000-05:00

One of the greatest multi-player games of all time found a new home today. Worms is a perfect fit for Xbox Live Arcade and with the promise of downloadable content coming soon to expand the game further, this is easily the best addition to the service so far in my opinion.

Well that is until the greatest football game of all time hits later this year, what game is that? Well it can only be the definitive Sensible World of Soccer! Incidentally both of these games originated on the Commodore Amiga 500 home computer, home of my favourite game of all time, It Came From the Desert!

While I'm on the subject of I.C.F.T.D., it can be downloaded for free from the Cinemaware site, shame it's the inferior PC version. They also offer the Amiga 500 disk images but it would require some patience and an Amiga emulator to get it running.

Comparison images here, PC / Amiga. There was also a Megadrive/Genesis version, but was a completely different game (and it was shit).

Free New Music - ASH

2007-03-05T11:29:00.000-05:00

An old favourite of mine, Ash are about to release a new album. And in a move that has become the norm for bands these days, Ash have released a track from the album for free via the 'tinernet.

They also shot a studio video while recording, which I am attaching for your viewing pleasure.

Head over to the link below to download a high quality MP3 of the awesome new track from the Northern Irish lads.

Free new Ash song!

Dog dates hags

2007-03-02T14:33:00.000-05:00

The only thing that isn't funny about this video is that there are people that actually believe every word of the crazy bullshit. Luckily this is just a spoof.

Thanks to the awesome TTN webcast for featuring this.

Flat Life Vista has launched!

2007-02-28T19:55:00.000-05:00

Welcome to Flat Life 2.0. As you can see there has been a lot of changes in the update. First of all the blog is now separate from the comic, so I will no longer just post a message when I upload the latest comic. The blog will now be where I post anything that I think is cool or interesting for our readers along with my thoughts.

I have also added an ATOM and RSS feed, you can subscribe to this to be kept in the know on whenever the latest comic is online and whenever we post anything on the blog. Also for the time being the forum is no longer being used and in it's place you have the ability to comment on any and all blog posts.

We will try and update with a new comic each week but it will sometimes be one every two weeks. Also I have to head back to my native land (England) on business some time this month so there will probably be no new comics during those two weeks, but I'll try and keep posting on the blog at the very least.

Feel free to give us feedback via the comments!

NOTE: This post has been set to a future date to keep it at the top of blog until the 28th.

New strip - Goat Sucker!

2007-02-28T15:43:00.000-05:00

Damn this one is a long one! They get longer every week! Hope you all enjoy. Leave feedback in the comments. Thanks!

Spider-man 3: The game: The website

2007-02-27T08:45:00.000-05:00

EDIT: They moved the banner, so they loose the link :)

I'm posting this because the new spidey game looks fantastic, and because by posting it I'm entered into a Spider-man 3 contest.

I think if you click it you may even enhance my chances of winning. Go on, you know you want to :)

Webcast of the week : 1UP YOURS!

2007-02-26T15:26:00.000-05:00

I have said it before on this site and I'll say it again, the 1UP Yours webcast is by far the greatest gaming centric webcast in existence.

With a combined cast of EGM, 1UP.com and other 1UP network writers, 1Up Yours offers some of the most entertaining and educational discussions to be found regarding the video game industry.

They have an outstanding cast of personalities that clash in all the right ways. They have the best line up of guests of any video game based webcast. I find that they actually talk about video game topics that I care about. They take the industry seriously and light hearted at the same time.

If this sounds like a love letter to 1UP Yours, that's because it is. I love you guys :-D

Visit the 1UP Yours Homepage

The homemade Perfect Dark Zero robot!

2007-02-22T14:30:00.000-05:00

Another story stolen from Kotaku (although they stole it from MAKE:blog).

In true Joanna Dark fashion a gentleman named David Harr has built the automated Xbox 360 button masher, specifically to get Perfect Dark Zero's "two most tedious achievements: 1000 Death Match Games and 1000 Dark Ops Games worth 30 gamer points each (60 total)".

David had this to say -

"Both of these Achievements were successfully obtained by the xBot without having to sit there and push buttons for 40-50 some-odd hours. While it's running its course, nothing needs to be touched. Except for the occasional checking if I got my points.
Why, you may ask, did I build such a thing? Because I can!"

Pretty cool as these achievements are hard as hell to get, but I intend to get them without a robot cheat, even if it takes me years! Any excuse to keep playing Perfect Dark Zero!

Free Grand Theft Auto for everyone!

2007-02-21T15:08:00.000-05:00

The GTA games have pretty much been played by everyone these days. But I'm sure there is a decent amount of you that missed out on the first 2 classics (or only played the inferior Playstation versions). Or maybe you just fancy going back and playing these classics again?

Well your all in luck, because those awesome Scottish dudes at Rockstar North are giving away these classics for FREE! Now as Crecente at Kotaku notes this may be old news to some, but I think that for those that didn't know, this is pretty fricking awesome!

Also a note from informs us that these version have been modified so that they run on most newer PC's! Which is awesome because you don't need a fast PC for these classics!

Source: Kotaku

Rockstar Classics

Spider-man 3 The game of the movie of the comic

2007-02-16T12:51:00.000-05:00

Who's excited about the Spider-man 3 movie? Everyone? Thought so. Well many of you may have forgot that there is also a game set to be released along side what may be the greatest super-hero movie ever!

Spider-man 2 was a great game, Ultimate Spider-man was even better, and I expect the Spider-man 3 game to surpass the previous games. I just hope the swinging mechanism is more like the Ultimate version than the Spider-man 2 game. I'm sure some will disagree with me on this as it was a slightly controversial issue when Ultimate was released, but I found that once I got used to the Ultimate Spider-man controls I was unable to return to Spider-man 2 and enjoy swinging.

I think many people just didn't figure out the trick, which was to press the climb web button just before letting go of the web at the apex of the swing. Until figuring that out I tended to find it hard to get any height while swinging.

I would much prefer a Spider-man game set in the "616" universe (that's the regular comic to you non-insiders). Although a game based on the movie is better than the horrible Ultimate universe (sorry I never forgave the terrible Gwen Stacy death story).

Anyway head over to Gamespot UK for the scoop!

Perfect Dark, Old and New

2007-02-14T13:27:00.000-05:00

Have I ever mentioned that I love the Perfect Dark games? Check out this classic Nintendo 64 commercial for one of the greatest first person shooters ever created (suck it Halo!).

Also here is a developer walkthrough for the Half-Life 2 mod "Perfect Dark Source" -

SOS SEGA : SAVE OUR SONIC!

2007-02-14T11:37:00.000-05:00

Being a big fan of the last two Sonic Adventure games it felt tragic to play Sonic's latest 360 outing. The game was by any stretch of the imagination, bad. It was horrible in fact. Many (including myself) have high hopes for the upcoming Wii exclusive Sonic and the Secret Rings, which so far is looking promising. And for those out of the loop, the DS Sonic Rush was a slice of greatness.

But there is little doubt that the franchise is in dire need of fixing. And the always awesome 1UP network has posted a great article titled "Hit Reset : Sonic the Hedeghog - How Sega can save Sonic the Hedeghog". They have laid out "a simple four-step plan to help Sonic speed his way back into our hearts." And I have to agree 100% with everything they say.

Head over there now for the scoop!

New strip - The great escape

2007-02-14T09:41:00.000-05:00

Happy valentines day all!

This strip ended up much longer than we expected, but we did get them locked up and escaped in one strip, so it had to take a few panels. Hope you all enjoy.

Perfect Dark - Source

2007-02-12T15:37:00.000-05:00

I should have the latest comic online tonight. But meanwhile -

I'm sure I have mentioned before that I am a huge fan of Perfect Dark. Both the original and Zero hold a place in my best of list. So after I recently snagged myself a Nintendo 64 with the original Perfect Dark (for $30 on eBay) I came across this fantastic looking Half-Life (another favourite of mine) mod for Perfect Dark.

Check out a preview video here.

The playable beta is out now and from the looks of it, it's well worth checking out. I know I will as soon as I have my laptop (my current PC would run this like shit).

Again I'll use my usual lazy trick of copy/pasting more detail directly from the site in question -

[Perfect Dark : Source] is the result of a common passion... Player yesterday, creator tomorrow... The concept of this game is the dream of all fanatic players... We are making this MOD for our pleasure... And undoubtedly for yours! !

I know some fans of Perfect Dark were disappointed with the sequel (blind fools all of them). For them Perfect Dark : Source may be just what the doctor ordered. I look forward to checking thos out but I personally feel that Perfect Dark Zero is pretty close to being perfect (a few minor bugs aside).

Head over to the site for more info!

Broken Pixels Episode 6

2007-02-09T14:07:00.000-05:00

Woot! A new episode of the hilarious 1up produced show that combines jaded journalists with alcohol and bad games has been released. Haven't even watched it myself yet but I had to post it right away! This one features Total Recall and Spice World!

,

Monkey Island : The Lost Years

2007-02-08T18:08:00.000-05:00

If you have never played a Monkey Island game, then you haven't lived. I suggest you search out all four classics right away. For those of you that know the joy that is The Secret of Monkey Island you will probably be interested to know that some fans are working on a very exciting looking project know as Monkey Island : The Lost Years. I'll let the creators blurb explain more -

"MI -TLY is a non-commercial Monkey Island - inspired game, using all original art and music. This game is not intended to be "the next Monkey Island". Instead, we break off from the official series and go our own way. Untill Lucasarts sees the light and starts working on the official sequel(s), we hope this game will keep some of the MANY MI-fans out there interested in the series."

Looks pretty promising to me, head over to the site and check out it's progress.

There is also a second Monkey Island fan game know as The darkness of Monkey Island, but as all the information seems to be in (EDIT) Italian I don't know much about it. Looks great though.

On a side note there is a great looking Indiana Jones fan made game in the works. Head over to the site out check out the playable demo.

I think all of them are being made with Chris Jones' amazing Adventure game Studio.

It's great to see the classic adventure games being kept alive by these very talented fans. There was also a fan made complete graphical overhaul of the classic Maniac Mansion released a while ago. Great work folks!

Podcast Webcast of the week!

2007-02-07T10:28:00.000-05:00

Welcome to a new feature at Flat Life, "~~Podcast~~ Webcast of the Week" will feature my pick for best ~~podcast~~ webcast each week. I was torn between this and the 1UP Yours podcast as my first pick. I decided on this because I have plugged 1UP yours many times in the past and it is already a popular show. But I am sure many of you haven't heard of this great show. Sure it's not a geek centric show but sometimes thats a nice change from the majority of shows I listen to.

TTN is exactly what it says on the box, all talk (with some jamming in part 2) and mostly nonsense. There are no specific themes here (except the regular Dubya bashing in part 3) just good humour from two very likable guys. If your looking for a something entertaining to listen to at work or on the journey I strongly recommend you check out TTN. It comes in 3 parts (usually 30/45 minutes each) every week, and is in my opinion a great addition to anyone's playlist!

Here's the description of the show from Yahoo podcasts -

"Jon and Scott discuss any topic that comes to mind and attempt to point out stupidity in America and around the globe. Being almost not stupid themselves, they are highly qualified to provide commentary on topics that range from evolution to boobs to goat's ass to the commander and chief of stupidity, George Dubya Bush."

A big thanks to Flat Life reader Orochi for introducing me to TTN.

VISIT THE TOTAL TALK NONSENSE SITE

Unreleased Perfect Dark Zero and more

2007-02-06T09:31:00.000-05:00

Despite the lukewarm reception from critics, I was and remain a big fan of Perfect Dark Zero. In fact I think it is probably my favourite first-person-shooter (with Dues Ex: Invisible War right behind it). So getting a chance to see the game in some of it's beta stages is exciting to me. I think the above image is gorgeous, in fact I think Joanna looks even cooler in that shot than she did in the final version. More unseen Perfect Dark here. And here.

And for all of you that thought PDZ was bad, well let me just say that I hate you and every fiber of your being. But no hard feelings, OK?

Unseen64 is a foreign website (don't worry it's easy to navigate) that collects a variety of screenshots for unreleased games and released games looking very different from the final versions. Want to see Metal Gear Solid on the Saturn? Or The abandoned Resident Evil 1.5? Or even the Gamecube version of Too Human! They have these and many more over at Unseen64.

I'm going to credit Kotaku for directing me there this morning although I have come across this site in the past. But since Kotaku rocks I'm happy to plug them.

Now if you'll excuse me I have to go start a letter writing campaign for Perfect Dark Zero 2.

Crazy GTA : San Andreas stunts

2007-02-05T09:18:00.000-05:00

This is some impressive stunt work. Whenever I attempt to ride the bikes at high speed the only stunts I usually pull off are the ones that see me flying over my handlebars.

Is Vista right for you?

2007-02-05T09:02:00.000-05:00

Thinking of upgrading to Vista but your still unsure? Want to know what Vista is going to do for you other than look like OSX and downsize your bank account by a few hundred dollars? 1UP.com has some answers for you -

"M

icrosoft's new baby, Windows Vista, has a huge competitor--one that's stable, relatively secure, installed in hundreds of millions of homes, and (ahem) works flawlessly with every piece of hardware and software currently available. Its name? Windows XP.

So why even consider buying into Vista, let alone one of the five flavors of Microsoft's next operating system?"

READ ON

Broken Pixels

2007-02-04T21:47:00.000-05:00

Ok just so you know intend to post more than video links in the future. But so far these were the only things I have found that I wanted to post.

If you don't already watch the 1UP show, then let me tell you that it is probably the best video game show ever created. Head over to 1UP.com to see what your missing. This isn't the 1up show but it's created by the same people. Broken Pixels is an hilarious look at some of the worst games out there. This episodes candidates are Wii's Red Steel and Necro-Nesia. A must see in my books -

Wii - Hold On Tight

2007-02-04T19:55:00.000-05:00

This fan made Wii commercials is excellent.

I doubt Nintendo would embrace a marketing campaign that suggests that the Wii may break your TV though.

Conan O'Brien Vs Serena Williams

2007-02-02T08:53:00.000-05:00

I love Conan, that funny looking red head is king of late night talk shows for me (everyone else sucks!). Check him out handing Serena Williams her ass at Wii Tennis. How can someone so good at real tennis suck so hard at Wii tennis?

Also I noticed they weren't wearing their wrist straps, they could have killed someone! It's lucky Serena wasn't serving!

Bruce Campbell - He has it!

2007-01-29T18:05:00.000-05:00

Check out this Bruce Campbell commercial.

Hail to the king baby!