Posted in: Disc Reviews by Michael Durr on June 29th, 2009
Transformers are something near and dear to my heart. I grew up with them, watched all of the episodes, read many of the comics and watched the animated movie more times than I care to think about. When the original Rhino DVD set came out a few years back, I bought all of the volumes despite the hardship that roughly $50 a volume would cost me. Now, with the 25th anniversary of Transformers upon us, Shout Factory has gained the rights to the series and has re-released the first season to coincide with the release of the second live-action film. Is this simply an attempt to cash in on the mega movie hit of the summer? We shall see.
Posted in: Dare to Play the Game, News and Opinions by Michael Durr on June 24th, 2009
360 Dashboard Speed, Moore vs Obama & Digital Downloads or Bust? - Welcome to the column that dares to cross the line but quietly goes back behind it afterwards known as Dare to Play the Game.
Cellfactor off Xbox Live was my main addiction this weekend. I have gained 115 achievement points and only three achievements stand in my way.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Michael Durr on June 23rd, 2009
Racism seems to be one of those words that people like to throw around without a care to meaning or the concept of right and wrong. Many groups of people like to throw around this word for a variety of reasons but mostly to benefit themselves and not help the greater good. Spinning into Butter takes on the task of a white Dean of Students named Sarah Daniels who must examine her own beliefs when a black student named Simon finds racist notes that read “Little Black Sambo” and the aftermath that soon follows. It sounds like the premise for a rather simplistic race relations movie. However, what really comes next is something far different and has a couple of twists to boot.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Michael Durr on June 17th, 2009
U2 was formed in 1976. Back then they were just teenagers figuring out how to play their instruments. But by the mid-80’s, they were one of the best bands in the world. Currently, they have sold more than 145 million albums worldwide and have won 22 Grammy awards. Rolling Stone has them listed as #22 in the greatest artists of all time. They appear frequently at the head of many human rights causes promoting social justice like Bono’s DATA (Debt, AIDS, Trade in Africa) campaign.
Posted in: Dare to Play the Game, News and Opinions by Michael Durr on June 17th, 2009
Rock Band goes Country Tracklist, Ronnie James Dio Dropped & No Van Hagar? - Welcome to the column that sings for their dinner and any other meal too just to keep from paying known as Dare to Play the Game.
My two Arcade reviews for Wolfenstein 3d and Cellfactor: Psychokinetic Wars were posted this past weekend. In such, I played a lot of those two games.
Posted in: Game Reviews by Michael Durr on June 15th, 2009
It was the summer of 1993, this little review writer was on his way to college for the first time. Among the many things I took to college with me, one of them was a computer. The computer was top of the line at the time; a 486-33mhz processor chip and an 170 meg hard drive. I said meg. Windows 3.1/Dos 6.22 was the OS combination and it had one game on it besides Solitaire. A shareware copy of Wolfenstein 3d. The game had actually been already out for a year but it was a popular game and on my pc as included software.
Posted in: Game Reviews by Michael Durr on June 13th, 2009
The original Cellfactor was actually a technical demo published back in 2006 by Immersion Games. It was made for the Ageia Physx series of cards which later became a part of NVidia. This demo showed off things we in the first person shooter community took for granted, barrels and boxes. Barrels and boxes have long been staples in games for doing absolutely nothing but existing (occasionally a barrel might explode but that’s it). Thru this demo, your character could use his psychic powers to throw the items and watch as they interact with the environment.
Posted in: Dare to Play the Game, News and Opinions by Michael Durr on June 10th, 2009
More Project Natal, EA Fight Night MMA Year Rotation & Should Apple iPhone Games be Rated? - Welcome to the column that would be interested in a hands-only controlled game if they knew where their hands had been known as Dare to Play the Game.
A funny thing happened to me with NHL 2k9 this week, I didn’t play it. Yes, it involved World of Warcraft and yes I am ashamed.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Michael Durr on June 3rd, 2009
Sword and Sandal films have been around since the early 1900’s and under the broad definition, Ben Hur was the first way back in 1907. However, under the more accepted narrow definition, this referred to Italian films that were based on loose plots around Greek mythology with giant muscle men and low budgets. The popular Sword and Sandal era was a period of roughly 10 years from 1957-1964 and started with the world-wide release of Hercules in 1957.. It kinda died out once the spaghetti westerns came around (giving Italian directors something else to do). Muscle Madness provides us with five films representative of the era including the likes of Steve Reeves, Alan Steel and Mark Forest. Let the cheesefest begin!
Posted in: Dare to Play the Game, News and Opinions by Michael Durr on June 3rd, 2009
Halo 3 ODST, Project Natal & Facebook on Xbox Live? - Welcome to the column that would have gone to E3 if the show organizers didn’t do background checks for booth girl stalking known as Dare to Play the Game.
Many video game columnists are currently at E3 getting all giddy over the latest announcements and acting important like somebody is supposed to be impressed with their credentials by being at this event.
