For those of you who’ve finished Half Life 2, but are still looking for more on the story behind the story as it were, take a look at the Half Life Saga Story Guide.
Category: Entertainment
Incredibles trivia
Towards the end of The Incredibles, there are two old guys that looked damned familiar, yet I couldn’t figure out for the life of me who they were.
Now I know. They were Frank and Ollie, two of Disney’s pioneering animators.
Welcome back, Doctor Freeman
Thanks to a convenient birthday a mere week after the release date, I now have a copy of the highly anticipated PC game Half Life 2. Since this was a birthday gift and because the local Microcenter was having a sale on the game, I ended up with the retail boxed version of the game, versus the direct-download from Valve.
While I’m enjoying the game, I can barely imagine how frustrating the installation of the retail boxed game for the average Joe End-User. The box comes with a bunch of CD-Roms and absolutely nothing else, other than an advert for ATI video cards. No manual or even a slip of paper explaining the download and unlocking procedures that will accompany the game install.
The average person must have been dumbfounded to put the disc in and be greeted with a message saying that the install would take up to 60 minutes for the files to be unpacked, followed by another twenty-minute wait for them to be checked, thanks to the online registration and downloadable content system that is Steam.
If I was a reviewer for the game, I’d have to give three seperate scores at the end of the review. The Game Itself: 9/10. Steam: 8/10. Retail Box Set: 3/10.
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory redux
I’ve noticed some complaints surfacing about the upcoming Tim Burton film based on one of my childhood favorites:
While I too love the original (came out the year I was born), some of the best parts were the hints of something darker just under the surface. From the simple things like “Candy is dandy, but liqour is quicker” to the more complex psychosis of the boat ride.
So I’m hoping that Tim Burton and Depp will inject just a touch more of that, while still keeping the innocence intact. Kind of an inverse of the angst vs innocence they brought to Edward Scissorhands.
Burton hasn’t quite been on top of his game lately, but I’m still hopeful that the earlier magic of his work like Nightmare Before Christmas can make a return.
It’ll be interesting to see if they update Mike TV any. The vices of the others are relatively timeless, but his television obsession seems slightly out of date in a world of videogames and the internet. Not that you couldn’t just expand it to include those, mind you.
Daleks Revealed (New Doctor Who)
Photos taken of the infamous mechanical villians from the set of what will be the 6th episode of the BBC’s new Doctor Who series:
No word on whether this will be the only design, or truth of rumors of an evolution of the design appearing in the same story. However, the above version, at least, hovers, rather than rolls along.