Took my son and a buddy of his to see it on Friday.  I was pleasantly surprised it wasn’t too packed (at all).  I hate crowded theaters, although for young kids, that’s kinda the fun of it.  As far as the movie goes, it was good.  Lots of action from start to finish, and I was glad to see that they didn’t water down the fighting too much.  While I don’t want my son to see lots of blood and gore, even though it’s a fantasy movie, I do like it that the war scenes actually showed some soldiers getting wounded or killed.   I know, sounds kind of crazy, but I think even with video games and such, it’s important to remember that in real life, shooting & war is pretty ugly.  Anyway, about the movie:  the animation is great, and like Beowulf, there were a couple of times where I forgot I was watching an animated movie.  A great addition to the Star Wars stories for the 8-15 yr old crowd (not that 45 yr old dudes like me can’t enjoy it).

I saw this game in a comic-book ad, and since I’m a fan of norse mythology, like 3rd person medieval-type games, I bought it.  I read a bad review of it on some game site, but in my opinion, it’s been a really good game.  I’m far from done with it, but the basic jist is you are a warrior trying to reclaim land from the evil “Legion.”  You have to sneak into enemy camps, caves, etc, find mystic amulets for controlling dragons, and then fight big battles when you’ve recruited enough armymen.  The AI is pretty amazing, cuz’ if enemy soldiers spot you in the wrong place, you’re done.   If you like God of War or Conan, you could do much worse than this game.

I’m anxiously awaiting this game, and that comes from someone who, I don’t think, has bought a full-priced game ever.  (I like to wait for the used ones and the cut prices).  This one, tho’, I may make an exception for.  Sounds like it’s got 2 things I love, sci-fi and Norse mythology.

Too Cool!

*update*

I downloaded the preview last night, and my son’s playing it right now (as usual, he’s already better than me).

Took me awhile to get used to the weapon deployment, but other than that, it is a really cool amalgamation of mythology and futuristic sci-fi.

yes I am.  Bought a PS3 today.  So gaming for the next couple of years is all set, at least for my household.  It was pretty funny when my son and I were setting up the PS3, it asked “what other gaming systems do you own?”

We checked every one, except the original Xbox.  Yeah, we have a Wii, Xbox 360, DS lite, PSP, Gameboy Advance, and now a PS3.  Along with 2 laptops, 2 Windows desktops, and a Linux machine.

I’m not bragging.  Actually it’s slightly embarrassing.

Oh well, some guys are into boating.  Hunting.  or cars.  Me, I’m a technology slut (as my wife calls me).  That would have been a great name for a website, or this blog. 

Any way, we got the MGS4 bundle, and it’s cool.  Yeah, I know that the price is gonna get cut soon.  The problem is, I wanted to make sure that it was backward-compatible with our PS2 games (oh yeah, forgot, we have one of those too.  :)  From what I’ve read, the new 80 gb models will NOT be backward-compatible.  I think Sony is going to be ending the PS2 platform, and that’s one way to hasten it. Makes sense, as the PS2 hardware just won’t be able to handle the new games.  So far, my impression is pretty positive.  Games look absolutely great, even the old PS2 ones.  Everyone looks at the price, but when you just figure in the wireless connectivity that comes built in, then I remember paying $100 for a wireless adapter for the Xbox360, well, right there you have about the same price.  The interface is OK, and I like the skins better on the PS3 than the xbox.  You can actually see them.  It is pretty obvious that Sony designed this console to be pretty forward-thinking, and I do think that it is just hitting it’s stride.  I can’t really say which system I like better, I’m glad I have both!  The countdown to GOD of WAR III begins!

Gonna go see it soon, now that the first weekend is over (I hate crowded theaters).  For the heck of it, I watched the original tonight with my son.  It really was well-done, especially if you’ve read the comic.  Comics have really taken over the movieplex, and that’s a good thing.

I see sony is gonna drop the price of the PS3, and I’m interested.  I like the idea of getting the blu-ray player with it.  Don’t know if I can wait for the price drop, since it looks like the price drop also means the new ones won’t be backward-compatible, and that’s a biggie for me.  God of War 1 & II would look good on my big screen.

On the gaming note, I finally started playing Viking, an Xbox360 game.  After reading a couple of reviews, I wasn’t expecting too much (bought it on sale for 30 bucks), but I really like it.  It is amazing some of the stuff you can do.  I’m finding more and more of the critics reviews don’t go with what I end up liking.  Maybe it’s because I’m no expert at gaming.   Or maybe because the technology is so much more amazing than what people give credit for……to think of the processing power these machines have…..wow.

yeah, I probably am a bit….but no, the title refers to the band.  I’m a latecomer to them, although I remember when “Stupify” was going around from their first album.  For some strange reason, I never checked them out.  As I was concurrently bemoaning the lack of any “good” metal bands around anymore, y’know, bands that could measure up to judas priest, OLD aerosmith, KISS, Sabbath, etc.  Then, for some odd reason, I listened to some tracks from their latest album (at the time), and I literally couldn’t believe how good they were.  Not all the “screamo” crap that passes for metal these days, they could actually carry a tune and had some melody to their music!  OH happy day!

great album

Gonna take my son and his buddy to see The Incredible Hulk today.  I’m not expecting much, but hey, as a long time marvel fan, it’s pretty cool to see the comics I read on the big screen.  I was never much of a Hulk fan, like Superman, he’s a bit too powerful for me, especially today.  My tastes as a kid ran to Spider-Man, X-Men, and Thor,

I’ve been looking for a game for my xbox, and I think I’m gonna get an old one, Soul-Caliber II.  It’s cheap, (if i can find it) and it looks like something my son and I can enjoy together.  I’m not too paranoid about him playing video games, but I do draw the line at some of the hyper-realistic games like Call of Duty.  I think it’s a lot better for him to play the fantasy-type games.  Even God of War is ok with me.  Heck I was reading that mythology stuff when I was his age, and probably much worse stuff

Picked up the new PSP with the God of War theme.  It’s cool.  After seeing some of my students demonstrate the PSP, I thought, “hey, I think I would really like one of those.”  Since God of War is my fav video game, I waited until it came out this past week.  Very pleased with it.  Chains of Olympus, the latest edition of the GOW franchise, is pretty cool so far.  I wasn’t sure I would like playing a game like this on a small screen, but the game designers have really outdone themselves.  I put a few videos and some music on it, although that process is not for a newbie.  My only complaint is it didn’t come with any removable memory, which meant you couldn’t save anything until you got some.  I know, a minor complaint, but I would rather have had some memory than the “Superbad” movie that came with it.  Speaking of that, Sony should have bundled the movie “300″ with this package.  Now that would have been cool!

I suppose this goes to every warmonger, but it seems especially fitting for bush and his lackeys:

Dogs of war and men of hate

With no cause, we don’t discriminate

Discovery is to be disowned

Our currency is flesh and bone

Hell opened up and put on sale

Gather ’round and haggle

For hard cash, we will lie and deceive

Even our masters don’t know the web we weave

One world, it’s a battleground

One world, and we will smash it down

One world … One world

Invisible transfers, long distance calls,

Hollow laughter in marble halls

Steps have been taken, a silent uproar

Has unleashed the dogs of war

You can’t stop what has begun

Signed, sealed, they deliver oblivion

We all have a dark side, to say the least

And dealing in death is the nature of the beast

One world, it’s a battleground

One world, and we will smash it down

One world … One world

The dogs of war don’t negotiate

The dogs of war won’t capitulate,

They will take and you will give,

And you must die so that they may live

You can knock at any door,

But wherever you go, you know they’ve

been there before

Well winners can lose and things can get strained

But whatever you change, you know the dogs remain.

One world, it’s a battleground

One world, and we will smash it down

One world … One world

Pink Floyd The Dogs Of War

Time to wrap up another great school year.  I made a little video to show kids some of the things we do in class (since our counselors really have no clue, not that they should have,they’ve never taken this cool of a class!)