Posted in: Dare to Play the Game, News and Opinions by Michael Durr on June 25th, 2008
PS2 Edutainment, Disney goes Rockband without the Band and the Beginning of the End? - Welcome to the column that knows the end is near when it's mentioned in the mainstream press as informative & witty known as Dare to Play the Game.
Welcome to another edition of Dare to Play the Game. I don't feel like crap anymore. Unfortunately, now my girlfriend feels like crap. So that means I'm feeling like crap by proxy I suppose. WoW update: 48/22/18 and I will be sick of Blacksmithing quests very soon. A man should not have to mine this many mithril bars in one sitting . One hundred and twenty bars of mithril (not to mention 40 bars of iron, 5 bars of truesilver & 4 citrine) to get 3 lousy blacksmithing recipes. Well they aren't lousy, but I'm not sure they are worth the effort either. My question is what the heck are they doing with the mithril bars? The quests are given in Stranglethorn Vale which is one of the worst places to mine (I've done most of my mining in a combination of Hinterlands & Thousand Needles). If this was a regular person and not a NPC, I would think I'm bankrolling his blacksmithing skill. I mean if all I had to do was handout three recipes and get in return hundreds of bars and entry trinkets, I would be one rich mofo.
Posted in: Dare to Play the Game, News and Opinions by Michael Durr on June 18th, 2008
Postal wins an award, 360 Avatars all gassed up and ready to go, and a brand new TV Gaming Competition Show? - Welcome to the column that got dressed an hour early but realized it has no place to go known as Dare to Play the Game.
Welcome to another edition of Dare to Play the Game. I feel like crap. Actually I'm getting better, because a day or so ago I felt like absolute crap. It's kinda different and usually doesn't involve vodka. I stayed home from work on Monday and spent a good portion of that time either getting rest or playing World of Warcraft with my trolly troll and working on a blacksmithing quest. Cause I soooo love blacksmithing quests *insert sarcasm flag here*. But it helps your skill, it really does. I also did the unthinkable. I pvp'ed. Yes, for many months I had openly discussed the bad taste of pvp and refused to do it. So I did it, and while I take back some of my comments that weren't too kind, I'm still not in love with it. I took a 46 into a battleground dominated by mostly 48 and 49's (and were much better pvp'ers than I was) and got my troll tuccus handed to me for the most part. So it was entertaining, I learned a lot about the battleground (Warsong Gulch) and will continue to play it in spurts. Just don't expect me to join a pvp server or start talking about leeeet pvp gear. It's not going to happen. And don't expect me to do Arena either. That's all I need is my tuccus handed to me and people actually notice that I don't know what I'm doing.
Posted in: Dare to Play the Game, News and Opinions by Michael Durr on June 11th, 2008
LucasArts putting on the halter, Wii wanting to go steady with HDD, and Blu-Ray & Xbox 360 tying the knot? - Welcome to the column that got married once but forgot to read the fine print about descending into the pits of hell known as Dare to Play the Game.
Welcome to another edition of Dare to Play the Game. So at some point last week, you were probably wondering where the heck is your favorite video game columnist. The truth is I don't know where Adam Sessler is and he won't return my messages (something about me and Morgan sitting in a tree). As for me, I was in Las Vegas, Nevada. Internet for tourists in Las Vegas, NV sucks. Why is that? Because they charge, $13.99 a freaking day. My conference did have it for free, but it moved like a 300 baud modem. (For the kids at home, that is like your dad asking you to walk to the liquor store on the other side of the county line and back with a bottle of JD stopping for every hobo that asks for a sip). So there was no decent way I could have got a column out last week. I wanted to, but alas the internet connection (not to be confused with vegas showgirls) wouldn't let me. But I am back, somewhat refreshed and ready to provide a winning column to you. Okay, 1 out of 3 ain't bad. I really should get a secretary for these things.
Posted in: Brain Blasters by David Annandale on June 6th, 2008
Airport 1975 is the most famously bad of the franchise. It’s the one that gets all the attention. But in fairness, The Concorde: Airport ‘79 should not be ignored. Let’s give it a moment in the spotlight, shall we? Yes, let’s, if for no other reason that George Kennedy’s Joe Patroni character finally moves to centre stage.
The plot arguably outdoes the underwater-plane gambit of the previous film. The Concorde is in the middle of a goodwill flight in the lead-up to the Moscow Olympics. (So already history was about to blindside the movie, but never mind, carry on.) This particular plane has just been purchased by an American company, and Kennedy, whose character has mysteriously morphed from engineer to executive and now to pilot, is going to be at the helm, along with French pilot Alain Delon. The latter is romantically involved with flight attendant Sylvia (Emmanuelle) Kristel. Their relationship is undergoing some rather vaguely defined problems. Anyway, the big problems concern another relationship. News anchor Susan Blakely has just come by evidence that her beau, tycoon Robert Wagner, has been involved in all sorts of illegal arms sales and other skullduggery. Being an idiot, however, Blakely doesn’t blow the whistle immediately. Wagner decides to take care of the problem by downing the Concorde. What follows bears more than passing resemblance to Wile E. Coyote’s repeated attempts to exterminate the Road Runner. Only less realistic.
Posted in: Brain Blasters by David Annandale on May 30th, 2008
Last week: the lovably pathetic spectacle that was Airport 1975. This week: Airport ‘77. “Bigger and more exciting than Airport 1975!” boasted the trailer. And for once, the publicity was right. That doesn’t mean the film is good, as such. But it does represent an interesting exception to the law of diminishing returns when it comes to franchises. Three movies in, and we encounter as close to a high point as the franchise is going to get.
The premise is, unsurprisingly, ludicrous, but it is ludicrous in an engaging fashion, and in its naivete is the sort of thing that might have appealed to the Surrealists. Multi-millionaire Jimmy Stewart is Giving Back To Society by putting his priceless art collection on public display... in his private and apparently rather inaccessible home. But hey, it’s the thought that counts. Anyway, he’s flying his collection and an assortment of guests to the opening on his private 747, a plane redesigned to serve as a flying hotel/conference hall. What this means is that the passenger compartment looks like a cocktail lounge, complete with grand piano (which was presumably installed there by the same method ships are placed in bottles). This is a useful (if ridiculous) conceit, because it means that rather than have a bunch of anonymous passengers with a few singled out for attention, now every passenger is an actual character, no matter how thinly sketched in.
Posted in: Dare to Play the Game, News and Opinions by Michael Durr on May 28th, 2008
Bright Colors, Glam Rockers Sell Big on Rock Band & I'm going to Vegas babie! - Welcome to the column that is so proud it made a hundred postings that it just might consider blowing the paycheck on Morgan Webb and blow known as Dare to Play the Game.
Welcome to another edition of Dare to Play the Game. Believe it or not, I'm not starting with World of Warcraft in this column (that's the second paragraph). No sir, the column has reached a milestone, 100 posts. Almost two years, I have worked my nails to the bone to provide refreshing points of view and talented humor. Or perhaps a whole mess of sarcasm. I do however have some people to thank for their efforts. Cause without them, I might not have had that chance. First, (why all of the sudden do I feel like I should thank the academy?), I would like to thank Jeremy for giving me the chance to actually write a game column on a dvd website. Whether he regrets it now or is raking in the cash, who is to say. Second, I would like to thank the dozens who actually read the column (or is it a dozen?). Without you, well without you, I probably would have found something else to do by now like review gay mini-series on the Here! Network & Wrestling DVD's. Crap, I already do that? Sheeeeeet, nevermind. Lastly, I would like to thank my girlfriend Sarah, my love and my biggest supporter. She's read my work, promoted it and even gave me tips from time to time on how to improve it. I'm not sure how she puts up with me, but she does it with a smile and seems to appreciate everything I do.
Posted in: Brain Blasters by David Annandale on May 26th, 2008
So, last time, we examined Airport, which I see as something of a proto-disaster film. While it is in many ways the fountainhead of the 70s cycle, the disaster itself is a third act development. The same is not true of its follow-up: Airport 1975 (1974). This flick emerged at the height of the disaster movie craze (the same year as Earthquake and The Towering Inferno). There's no ambiguity here. It's all about its disaster. It's also quite rightly featured in a little tome entitled The 50 Worst Movies of All Time.
There are two forms of mangled wreckage here. One is relatively minor, and that's the damage the film's 747 suffers when Dana Andrews suffers a heart attack and slams his private plane into the cockpit of the jet. The other is decidedly major, and that's to the careers and dignity of the cast. Showing up for the violation are Charlton Heston, Karen Black, Linda Blair, Myrna Loy, Sid Caesar, Erik Estrada, Gloria Swanson (her last film), Helen Reddy and, it goes without saying, George Kennedy.
Posted in: Dare to Play the Game, News and Opinions by Michael Durr on May 21st, 2008
Plagiarism in Video Games, Penny Arcade, & The Never Ending EA Offer - Welcome to the column that copies itself weekly with jokes that were relevant twenty years ago known as Dare to Play the Game.
Welcome to another edition of Dare to Play the Game. 43&22. Well, as some of you might remember, I had a goal for World Of Warcraft and my level 43 Troll Rogue last week. Actually two of them, one was with lockpicking and one involved cooking. My lockpicking skill was in the 160's and needed to be raised to 175 to compensate for the level 40 junkboxes I was starting to get. Once I understood my options, (which wasn't many) I traveled to Desolace and spent a lot of time underwater trying to find footlockers. After about an hour exploring and fighting a lot of nagas I was ready to give up. Then I found one, and found another and before I knew it, I hit the magical 175. I promptly got the heck out of the water and went to my second goal: cooking.
Posted in: Brain Blasters by David Annandale on May 17th, 2008
Recently, I've had occasion to go back and revisit the Airport franchise. The 70s disaster movie arguably came into being with the first film (though the first pure disaster film of that era is more properly The Poseidon Adventure). If the peak of that cycle of cinematic carnage was Irwin Allen's The Towering Inferno, and its spectacularly lovable nadir is Allen's The Swarm, the Airport movies fell somewhere between the two. The best are the first (Airport itself) and third (Airport '77). The other two – Airport 1975 and The Concorde: Airport '79 – approach The Swarm's level of cosmic ineptitude.
Today, let's get back to the roots with Airport. As mentioned above, it is not, strictly speaking, a disaster movie in the same sense that the rest of the franchise entries are. Sure, there's a bomber aboard the plane piloted by Dean Martin, but the threat doesn't surface until relatively late in the film, and is but one of many intertwining storylines. The sequels would move the catastrophe very much to the centre of the action.
Posted in: Dare to Play the Game, News and Opinions by Michael Durr on May 14th, 2008
Adult Gaming, WiiWare, & The Death Knight class unveiled - Welcome to the column that discovered it was an adult one day back in 1996 and has not been heard from since known as Dare to Play the Game.
Welcome to another edition of Dare to Play the Game. 42&22. I unfortunately did not get to play my dwarf priest, except past a couple of quick quests and leveling some of my cooking & fishing. I honestly expected a slowdown with my Troll Rogue in WoW once I hit 40. Quite the opposite I guess. The game seems to get more interesting once you pass the magic mount level. My mining and blacksmithing are well over 200 (228 and 208 respectively) and my skills make me a major DPS force to any party. I even played as the main DPS for a group in Scarlet Monastery over the weekend and we did quite well. My only weak point as I consider it is my lockpicking. I'm currently at 166. I just started picking level 40 mobs that drop junkboxes that require 175. So needless to say, I need to be about 10 points higher. This weekend coming up, my focus will be on lockpicking (up to said level) and cooking. Cooking is at 223 and I hear Gadgetzan calling my name. You want Giant Eggs, Zesty Clam Meat and Alterac Swiss? Me got 'em mon!
