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[King of Paradise]

Thee Stranger

Hey, Notte. I'm on vacation too! Enjoy yours; mine is about to end. I just got back in from NYC Thursday night, and since I got back, I've been sitting on my a** and playing a lot of videogames. Particularly of the Wii variety.

First up, Mushroom Men: The Spore Wars. I'm really diggin' this game. It's a relatively simple platformer, but its unique imagery, bizarreness, and offbeat humor really sell the whole package for me. It also helps that I'm a huge fan of Primus, and Les Claypool does the soundtrack. It's nothing groundbreaking as far as platformers go, but it's still a good time nonetheless. And how many games let you play as a sentient, radiated mushroom tribesmen? Exactly.

Next up, Muramasa: The Demon Blade. I'm not very far into this one at all yet, but I have to say, it is one of the most visually beautiful games I have ever laid eyes upon. And that's saying something for the Wii. It's a side-scrolling hack & slash game with RPG elements. So far, it's simplistic and fun. I'll have more to say about this one later. I plan on diving back into it tomorrow. But if you have a Wii, I definitely recommend picking it up. For the visual eye candy if nothing else.

Which brings me to Deadly Creatures. Now this game is badass so far. Games like this are supposed to be what the Wii is all about. It is truly unique, and makes really good use of the motion controls. Has anyone else here played this? I've never played anything like it before. I'm glad I took the guy at Gamestop's recommendation. I'd never heard of it, and the cover looks so generic I would have never even given it a second look, dismissing as some sort of sloppy insect fighting game shovelware thing. I couldn't have been further from the truth. This game oozes (with an actually kinda creepy) atmosphere and totally immerses you into the insects' world-perspective, and the storyline is pretty intriguing so far too. Also, it's got some pretty damn nice graphics by Wii standards. If you don't have this one, definitely recommend it. It's a shame that games like this will often slip under the radar. With all the hype surrounding the big titles, or the "sacred cows", if you will, s**t like this won't get the attention it really deserves. Because, ya know... people are spoon-fed.

Anyway, and this why I love the Wii. I got 3 pretty frikkin' cool games for dirt-a** cheap.

Don't want to get The Spore Wars, Muramasa isn't my type of game, but Deadly Creatures has been on my radar for a while now. I just haven't gotten around to picking it up yet.  

[Biohazard EXTREME]

So, I just watched Manhunter, which, if you don't know, is the original adaptation of the book Red Dragon, made in 1986. Now, while I haven't read the book itself, I have seen the 2002 remake Red Dragon, and here's my comparison:

Overall I liked Red Dragon better. There are three main reasons, with many other ones to boot. The two main reasons are Anthony Hopkins and Edward Norton. I love both those actors, and the little cameos don't hurt, such as Ken Leung (Miles frm Lost). The other reason is the plot, but I'll get to that later.
The acting is better in Red Dragon, especially from Emily Watson who played the blind girl Reba McClane. Watson did an amazing job at portraying a blind person. And although her Manhunter counterpart Jan Allen did adequately, it wasn't amazing.
Anthony Hopkins, of course, IS Hannibal, you can't think of the character without thinking of Hopkins, but I gotta say, the way Brian Cox portrayed Hannibal in Manhunter was actually really good, and very enjoyable, non the less.
Same with the main character, Will Graham. Edward Norton is a brilliant actor and frankly, one of my favorites, and did a terriffic job at portraying Graham. Still, I was pleasantly surprised to see in Manhunter, Graham was portrayed by none other than William Petersen of CSI. So it was also very enjoyable on both ends.
The action is where Manhunter slipped. And I don't just mean because it's the 80's, and cinematography wasn't as good back then, but there were actually parts where some frames were missing. Like, the character goes to draw his gun, and it's like they jump cut a few frames, and the gun is already in his hand. Which I thought was odd, but I guess maybe there was damage to the film or something. Either way, it kinda cheapened the experience.
Now the plot. Although I was surprised to see that both films have quite a bit of dialogue almost word for word the same (I'm assuming taken right from the book), somehow Red Dragon is only five minutes longer than Manhunter, but manages to squeeze in a lot more plot into it.
There were a few scenes in Red Dragon that were not in Manhunter. And even if you didn't see Red Dragon, the fact that Manhunter had those scenes missing caused some other scenes in it to be pointless, and there's a lot less character development on behalf of the killer. In Red Dragon, there are more scenes with the killer, and you actually get to learn quite a bit about his past, and even connect with him. This is absent from Manhunter.
The biggest difference, by far though is the beginning and the ending. Red Dragon plays to the Hannibal franchise a lot more, so at the end, it leads right into Silence of the Lambs, and at the beginning, you actually see Hannibal before he was imprisoned.
Another major part that was missing from Manhunter is the ending, which is quite different, and not as impactful in Manhunter.
So, somehow, Red Dragon managed to squeeze a lot more of the story into less time. Which is probably the biggest factor of why I liked it better.

Nevertheless, Manhunter is an interesting film. And it's fun to see the very first Hannibal movie ever, as an actual prequel to Silence of the Lambs, and not a prequel that was made afterwards.

Here's an interesting bit of trivia. In Silence of the Lambs, Red Dragon and Hannibal, one of the doctors at Hannibal's Clinic, Barney is played by Frankie Faison. Faison actually makes a cameo in Manhunter as one of the police officers, in a very minor scene. I thought that was interesting.  

[King of Paradise]

Actually, I didn't really like Enchanted, and I'm not a Hannibal fan...

But I do love the Ghostbusters video game that I finally picked up. So fun. This game was actually one of the reasons I was most excited that I got a PS3.  

[Biohazard EXTREME]

Yeah, Ghostbusters kicked a**. The only problem I had with it was that the main character looked way too much like Ray. I mean, they wanted to make an original main character to be a fairly "average" person that anyone can relate to, and they based his appearance on one of the guys at the developer studio, but still... He looks like a younger version of Ray, which almost makes him TOO generic looking. And since he's a silent hero, he has no dialogue to make him a distinct character of his own.
Still a kick a** game, though.  

[King of Paradise]

Biohazard EXTREME

Yeah, Ghostbusters kicked a**. The only problem I had with it was that the main character looked way too much like Ray. I mean, they wanted to make an original main character to be a fairly "average" person that anyone can relate to, and they based his appearance on one of the guys at the developer studio, but still... He looks like a younger version of Ray, which almost makes him TOO generic looking. And since he's a silent hero, he has no dialogue to make him a distinct character of his own.
Still a kick a** game, though.

The fact that he doesn't speak does take you out of the experience. I mean, how is that even possible?

But my only beef with the game is that whenever you die, you have to frikkin' wait twenty plus seconds for it to load back up, and then you have to re-do everything if you weren't at a checkpoint. Bull!  

[Biohazard EXTREME]

Well, Gordon Freeman doesn't speak either, neither does the protagonist of Bioshock... I dunno where I'm going with that, I never got into Half-Life, and Bioshock didn't draw me in. So yeah... Silent Heroes suck. But as far as silent hero games go, I still think Ghostbusters is one of the best pulled of out there. The other characters' dialogue makes up for it plenty.
But still, it's pointless. I would've been just as happy if they simply put me into the shoes of one of the main 4 ghostbusters and played as one of them. Either by choice, or depending on the scene.  

[MadamTarantula]

Happy valentines day to all of you! biggrin  

[il Kaori li]

~Happy Love Day~
heart

 

[Biohazard EXTREME]

Yes, happy Jill day.
I'm gonna rent a hotel room with a heart tub, then cook chili in it. Then I'll take that chilly down to a soup kitchen, and that's where it's gonna get sexy!  

[Biohazard EXTREME]

Burns away with the first daylight... That sounds about right. You pick up a girl and have a wild, magical night. But as daylight rolls in, she gotta go!  

[Javanomicron]

Bah, v-day. Thank goodness it's over with.  

[Biohazard EXTREME]

Well, if it's her place, then yeah, me. Haha.

Yeah, I played the Demo, it kicked major a**. I can't wait til the game comes out. Of course, my PS3's disc drive is out of comission, so I'm gonna have to go to my friend's place to play it and make a weekend of it. But still, I can't wait! My most anticipated original title for the PS3 yet.