Posted in: Brain Blasters by David Annandale on April 5th, 2008
Severed hand films. Gotta love 'em. Not because they're necessarily good, as such. The ones that have been (the various versions of The Hands of Orlac, or The Beast with Five Fingers) have been, ultimately, psychological thrillers. There have been honest-to-god crawling hands, of course, in wonders such as Evil Dead 2: Dead By Dawn, but Bruce Campbell's misbehaving limb was a supporting character, rather than the central menace. But I return to my initial statement. Even if the film isn't that good (or good at all), you have to love it for the crawling hand.
Posted in: Dare to Play the Game, News and Opinions by Michael Durr on April 2nd, 2008
The Failure of Wii Online, Blizzards starts up the Sue wagon, and the British offering cash for lies? - Welcome to the column that promises to stick to the truth except when it comes to whether or not Silent Hill still makes us wet the bed at night known as Dare to Play the Game.
Welcome to another edition of Dare to Play the Game. After bludgeoning people with my Bloody Brass Knuckles all week in WoW, this fist weapon is here to stay for now in my 34th level Troll Rogue's arsenal. I find this to be the case because simply there aren't a lot of appealing blues at my level to begin with. My mining skill is just 4 away from mithril & my blacksmithing skill is progressing too. I finished part 2 of the Barbaric BS quest chain which basically forced me to mine a beep load of copper and tin to make bronze. Burnt me out a little bit to be honest, but since it is a horde only quest chain; I feel it is important to complete. My dwarf priest is cruising along at 16th level and apparently is developing into one powerful holy guy. I grouped with an 18th level rogue and a 19th level hunter over the weekend and found myself serving double duty as healer and dealing the most damage. I'm going the discipline route as well and not shadow which would make me a much more severe damage dealer (but still not a tank). That just shouldn't be, at least they were holding aggro for the most part. Of course I broke off from the group once we completed a few quests and got owned 15 minutes later by a mob of Gnolls. *sigh* Gnoll paws.
Posted in: Brain Blasters by David Annandale on March 28th, 2008
Let’s consider today’s exercise a companion piece to my colleague’s excellent Dare to Play the Game column. That’s by way of saying to that I’m going to risk slightly poaching on his turf by considering a tangentially game-related topic.
I’m probably not going too far out on a limb to assume that just about anyone with access to an Xbox 360 or a sufficiently powerful PC played Bioshock at some point in the last year. Among its many qualities, Bioshock is one of the best-written games to have come down the pike, and one of its not-inconsiderable delights is the dialogue it engages with the ideas of Ayn Rand. Specifically, it is her magnum opus Atlas Shrugged that provides most of the game’s philosophical fodder. Anyone with the time to slog through the book’s utterly lunatic thousand-plus pages will surely find their appreciation of the game increased (and this is one of those rare cases where the writing, characterization and ideas of a game are consistently better than the work of literature it is bouncing off). And the book is so insane that is has an absolutely compulsive, Biggest Train Wreck Ever appeal. But let’s pretend you don’t have that much of your life to give up to an experience that can best be described as the philosophical equivalent of high camp. There is a more time-efficient alternative.
Posted in: Dare to Play the Game, News and Opinions by Michael Durr on March 26th, 2008
Rainbow Six Vegas 2 bugs, No Waggle in the Rock Band Wii and Powerball action - Welcome to the column that keeps scratching even when it should have stopped a long time ago known as Dare to Play the Game.
Welcome to another edition of Dare to Play the Game. Yes it's World of Warcraft corner with your host, IAMMurloc. Or rather Kedrix (I know Sarah would appreciate that). Up to 33 on my Troll Rogue, 14 on my Dwarf Priest. I'm not sure what I did for most of the week with my characters to be honest. (Because I was going back and forth between WoW and Rainbow Six Vegas 2) But my highlight actually happened when the patch 2.4 hit. More importantly it hit the status of an item I had been holding in my bank for merely cosmetic purposes. Bloody Brass Knuckles which is actually a white item and to be honest, nothing more than "Oooooo, cool". It drops off Vishas in Scarlet Monastery. It's been changed to a superior item or more importantly, a blue with stats. The DPS has increased significantly (making it better than my sword I have currently equipped) and adding a whopping +8 strength. Let the bludgeoning commence!
Posted in: Brain Blasters by David Annandale on March 21st, 2008
Time to praise another journeyman performer, another unsung hero of the heterodox film scene. Today: Robert A. Silverman. He’s been kicking around the scene for ages, popping up in everything from Prom Night to Waterworld to Jason X. But his most memorable work consists of the sterling character turns he has done for David Cronenberg.
Silverman has been appearing in Cronenberg’s world since Rabid (1977), where he is an unconcerned hospital roommate to Marilyn Chambers’ first contaminated victim. His role is short, but is one of the rare genuinely comic moments in a very black film, and Silverman would continue to bring a dash of off-kilter humour to his roles for Cronenberg.
Posted in: Dare to Play the Game, News and Opinions by Michael Durr on March 19th, 2008
Multiple Games in MMO's, No More Pro Gaming and Games are Pron - Welcome to the column that thinks Wussy and Nambi Pambi should be submitted as new ratings for the ESRB known as Dare to Play the Game.
Welcome to another edition of Dare to Play the Game. World of Warcraft, oh how I find thee to confound me. Up to 32 on the Troll Rogue, 12 on the Dwarf Priest. Lantanador, the Rogue is up to a pretty nice 125 gold and I still have purple pants. I make mention of this because my girlfriend Sarah torments me that I still have purple pants (which are a high teen level blue item). I do have new pants at 33, but until I hit that level, she will continue to poke fun at me for having noobie gear. As for my response besides "Ah, blow me" (We won't get into the response to the response), it's about stats I guess. I'm having a hard time finding something better. I don't run a lot of instances (though I did go through a couple this past weekend), so I don't get a lot of blues, especially ones appropriate to my level. Not much of an excuse, I know. The priest is excelling in tailoring and enchanting despite the questing being kept to a minimum. At a level 12, I'm making items that are in the neighborhood of level 15-16 items. At this pace, I'll be well-prepared for later levels.
Posted in: Brain Blasters by David Annandale on March 14th, 2008
So last week, I looked at Universal’s latest collection of their vintage SF movies, a set unfortunately limited to a Best Buy exclusive. We have another one of those today: the Universal Horror Classic Movie Archive. It, too, can be tracked down pretty easily through the Amazon marketplace.
Back in the mid-90s was when the films on all of these collections were first showing up in a home video format. It was a great time for collectors (barring that chilling moment when, for a little while, the only version of the original Dracula available was the one with the new Philip Glass score). Now, there are only so many films from that era (30s and 40s for horror, 50s for SF) that legitimately qualify as classics, so more and more B-level pictures followed in the wake of their more famous brethren. There is nothing wrong with this, as the opportunity finally came for many of us to see these things for the first time, and minor gems would inevitably crop up.
Posted in: Dare to Play the Game, News and Opinions by Michael Durr on March 12th, 2008
Sex, Nudity and more things that we wish involved Morgan Webb but doesn't - Welcome to the column that polled five hundred people about their bedroom gaming habits and realized that A)They have to change their sheets often and B)They have to install a bicycle pump by the bed known as Dare to Play the Game.
Welcome to another edition of Dare to Play the Game. World of Warcraft, I am up to 30 with my Troll Rogue. As mentioned, I also started a Dwarf Priest named Talloween on the Shadow Council server. He is currently level 10 and is a tough but fun character to play. I'm not used to the spell caster types and I have to adjust my playing style to compensate. I am exploring his professions of enchanting and tailoring which are quite the experience. I even took up fishing just to make it a totally different character for me. Of course on the 2nd fish pull, I got a mana potion. I'm surprised it wasn't a boot or an old tire. My girlfriend is helping me a lot with this character which is good. I've done all the leveling myself but she's helped by sending me low level items to disenchant and linen cloth to help my tailoring skills. Plus it is something we can do together which is why I took up WoW in the first place. I like playing with her and sharing the time together. Sometimes it's simply just asking how much to put something in the auction house for. Sometimes it's a difficult quest. But we work well off each other and it's very fortunate and nice to have.
Posted in: Brain Blasters by David Annandale on March 8th, 2008
A while back, I nattered on about The Classic Sci-Fi Ultimate Collection, a Best Buy exclusive from Universal of films long overdue for DVD release. That collection ranged from the top-flight classic (The Incredible Shrinking Man) to the mid-level classic (Tarantula, the official Second Best Big Bug Movie after Them!) to the unsung gem (The Monolith Monsters) to the middling programmers (The Mole People and Monster on the Campus). Today, Volume 2. It’s another Best Buy exclusive, but can still be found quite easily being resold on Amazon.
The first volume was an eclectic mix, as far as quality was concerned. The second one is a bit more consistent, but that doesn’t mean these are the best of the best. Far from it. On offer here: Dr. Cyclops (1940), Cult of the Cobra (1955), The Land Unknown (1957), The Deadly Mantis (1957) and The Leech Woman (1959). We’re talking the B-list players here, people. The most highly regarded of this bunch is Dr. Cyclops, wherein Albert Dekker shrinks human beings to doll size. Fine mad doctor stuff, and the first SF/horror film to appear in full Technicolor. The FX are pretty solid too. It’s a little odd to find the film, very much a 40s effort, grouped with lesser 50s works, but hey, here it is on disc, so who am I to complain?
Posted in: Dare to Play the Game, News and Opinions by Michael Durr on March 5th, 2008
Jack wants to help takeover Take 2, Blu-Ray just not enough and Team Fortress 2 DLC for free - Welcome to the column that can't be any worse than playing video games with a dvd remote known as Dare to Play the Game.
Welcome to another edition of Dare to Play the Game. In the land of WoW, I am now a level 28 Troll Rogue who is building the big rep so he can get his horse. The undead one. Up to Honored now and spending sometime in the Tarren Mill getting undercity rep and some decent experience. Got both my lockpicking & cooking to 125 which has helped me considerably. During the weekend, I actually picked a couple of locks for other people in game. The 125 cooking let me finally learn expert cooking which took me on the long journey to Desolace and buy an expert cookbook. Currently, I'm still farming big bear steak in Tarren Mill since it's so easy over there but now I have the option to move up to other recipes when I'm through with that. I've also contemplated creating a Dwarf Priest on my girlfriend's server just so 1)I can see what the alliance side is like and 2)get the benefit of my g/f's two high level characters. I'm not looking to power level because my main will still be my lonely rogue but I just want some variety and make the fact that I play with my g/f (albeit on the same account) more meaningful.
