Shouting Grounds

“Behold, the atheists nightmare!”…WTF???

Could this be why the terrorists hate us?

Or maybe THIS is why the terrorists hate us…(1:00 is when it starts to get good and around 1:30 is my favorite part)

Or it could just be this…

From Geekologie:

“Hailing all the way from Thailand, this commercial was made for Sylvania by ad agency JEH United and has it all — a picnicking family, ghosts, a guy who may or may not be a member of the Blue Man Group, and a transvestite. Advertising people, take note: this is how you sell freakin’ products.”

This is one of the coolest f’in commercials I’ve ever seen!

I laughed. I cried. I pee’d my pants a little.

Video removed due to the fact I started feeling bad about it, the more and more I watched it.

Okay this should make up for it:

Part I

Part II

For those not in the know, Oliver Stone is currently making a biopic about George Walker Bush, our current Commander-in-Chief, and 43rd President of the United States of America.

I can’t wait for this fucking movie to be released! Josh Brolin, playing the title lead, TOTALLY looks the part. I’ll post some pics below as well as the official movie poster which was released today! You can also check out the IMDB page here for a cast listing.

Movie Poster:

Pics:

Anyone who has ever seen Lost Highway already knows David Lynch has a pretty wack-a-doo mind. As such, the video below should come as no surprise.

The reason you fine and upstanding people get to see it here today is because I find it simultaneously awesome and disturbing, and in my world that makes it newsworthy.

Chuckle, chuckle ya’ll.

Okay this is some seriously sick shit here. Apparently Tom Cruise opened a website completely ode to himself today! It’s literally a bunch of shit flash animations and pictures showcasing the films he’s starred in and the “achievements” he’s made in his life! Not a single mention of Scien”crazy”ology or even his wife or daughter! It’s a 100% about him!

Okay who on this planet seriously doesn’t know who the fuck Tom Cruise is? You’d have to live in a 3rd world country with no access to virtually anything for you entire life! And if that is you, then you don’t give a shit about Tom Cruise anyway! And if you do live in the “developed” world then you know who the fuck he is already so this site serves ZERO capacity in that regard!

When it comes right down to it, this site is nothing more that a serious ego stroke for this punter!! Anyone who thought this guy wasn’t LONG off the reservation already should be thoroughly convinced now!

Tomcruise.com

Prologue: My Hate for Sony

It was March 24th 2005. PSP launch day. Initially, when the PSP had been announced I was fairly excited. Finally, it seemed, a company was bringing to market a handheld media/gaming device that was geared toward the more mature, adult, crowd. It was going to have built in Wi-Fi, which meant internet access, and a high resolution widescreen display for both gaming and video playback. It also helped that it looked fuckin’ sweet!

As time went on and more was revealed I found myself becoming more and more hopeful about the device. For some time I had been wanting a device small enough to fit in my pocket
but versatile enough to allow me to watch movies, play games, surf the net, e-mail, IM, blah, blah, blah. Basically the Holy Grail of personal media and communication devices. Over time, in my head, I began building up the PSP into this device.

The good news was I was able to catch myself doing this before it actually came out and as a result I was able to apply some reason and talk myself down to a point where I decided against purchasing it on initial release. The bad news was both MJS and JT decided to buy one at launch, and the temptation to take advantage of the Wi-Fi network play between devices became too much to overcome. Hence I found myself in line at Best Buy on launch day and presently thereafter the owner of a shiny new PSP.

To say I was disappointed would be putting it mildly. Of the games shipped at launch 95% where bullshit and the other 5% just couldn’t fill the gap. But what really pissed me off were the overpriced UMD movies, lack of web browser, difficulty in video playback, and Sony’s total lack of any kind of online infrastructure.

As time went on and things didn’t improve I grew more and more bitter. Finally they released the web browser and anyone who used it, instantly knew how big of a piece of shit it was. For me it was the final straw and I ended up selling the unit to a co-worker in disgust, cursing Sony and vowing to never fall into their vaporware trap again.

Fast-forward to the launch of the PS3. With the difficulties it suffered (news of developers not really liking it, disappointing initial sales, only one or two good games available at launch, and the reversal of the EMOTION engine in the 40GB version) it was easy for me to build it into the PSP all over again in my mind. I instantly saw it as more bullshit from Sony that could have been a good product but instead will get short-changed and mismanaged into hell.

Despite all this the PS3 did have one major, and possibly redeeming, factor however. It had a Blu-Ray player! Now this was before Sony had won the HD format war and HD-DVD was still a viable alternative so it wasn’t a 100% lock for the PS3 but in my mind it was the most compelling reason the console had at that point to buy it. Alas, however, I was stubborn as ever and vowed I wouldn’t buy one solely on the grounds it was a Sony product.

The format war ended (rather abruptly) and literally overnight HD-DVD was dead and Blu-Ray stood victorious on the field of battle. The die was cast and the decision on what type of HD player we’d all be buying had been made for us.

A short time later JT posted an article on this very site asking the following question; Now that the format war was over does it, in fact, make sense to buy a PS3 given that not only can it be used a Blu-Ray player but also play next-gen level games? My response was immediate: Don’t buy it! We sparred some and MJS stepped into the ring pointing out the simple logic in JT’s argument that if one was going to buy a Blu-Ray player a PS3 would make the most sense since its price was in line with stand-alone players and it had the added advantage of being a gaming console. But again I was stubborn and wouldn’t relent! It was a Sony product so it was the devil!!

So I began looking into Blu-Ray players and found that the majority of reviews did in fact confirm the PS3 was the best player currently on the market. No really a surprising bit of news I suppose since it is a Sony device after all. I found myself giving it more and more thought and before long I started questioning my real motives for hating it. Of course I knew it all came down to the sour taste the PSP had left in my mouth. I knew I was being unreasonable and operating off emotion more than anything.

So finally one night I just made the choice. I knew I was going to get a Blu-Ray player sooner or later. I had the HD television already and the Comcast HD service had, by now, spoiled me on the quality. So I was at a crossroads: I could either keep my unreasonable dislike toward Sony, buy a stand-alone player for the same price as the PS3 (screwing myself out of the value it offered), or I could drop the bullshit “hate act” and make my choice based on reason. So I got the PS3. Yes it made me nervous and yeah I feel like I’m going out on a limb but I’m hoping in the end I can find some happiness with the device and maybe even put some of my ill-will towards Sony to rest.

Part I: Un-boxing

I got home, picked up the package from the apt. office, got it inside and opened it up. Everything that I ordered is there, thank God! Good job Newegg! My order consisted of the 40GB PS3 unit, 6ft. HDMI cable, and the Sony Bluetooth Blu-Ray remote, all of which I unpacked carefully. Call of Duty 4 had already shown up a day earlier and on the way home I had stopped at the local Best Buy and picked up 300 and Burnout Paradise.

Upon opening the console box I was presently surprised to find I had gotten the Spiderman 3 version. I suppose it’s no biggie really but when I ordered it online it didn’t say anything about the movie coming with it so it was a nice bonus since I wasn’t expecting it.

Upon unpacking the cables I must say I was fairly disappointed to find only a composite video cable included. I was already aware that I would have to provide my own HDMI cable but for the $399 cost of the unit you would think Sony could, at the very least, include a component cable.

The actual unit itself is fairly large, heavy, and sports a glossy black finish that begs to be covered with dust and fingerprints. The form factor of the box doesn’t really lend itself to fitting into a home entertainment setup but for my needs it integrates itself into my simple TV stand just fine.

Part II: Hardware Setup

In terms of actual hardware setup the cable connections were easy to make, though I couldn’t help but think a longer USB cable for the controller would have been nice. The touch sensitive power button is slightly strange to use but works fairly well. All in all I was able to get the unit hooked up and turned on in less than 5 minutes.

I’ll also mention that during no time while I was performing the actions in this review did the console ever reach a heat level I was uncomfortable with. It seems pretty well ventilated and I checked it frequently while playing games and movies. Yes, it heats up, but as I said it feels like the right amount of heat given the components in the console.

Part III: Online Setup and First Experience

First things first, get the controller connected and working. Even though the controller is wireless you have to use the USB cable to get things going initially. This involved nothing more than pressing the “PS” button on the controller and in a matter of seconds I was good to go.

After viewing the initial start-up screen the system began the auto detection of the HDMI input followed by the internet connection settings and I’m pleased to say both these stages completed without a hitch. A few brief seconds later I was asked to create a user profile and this is where I ran into my first annoyance, in the form of Sony’s decision to use the same telephone style keypad from the PSP for text entry. Yes, it’s functional, and for the PSP it’s fine, but c’mon guys this is a $400 dollar “complete home entertainment system” as you tout it. You can take the time to come up with a full-size onscreen keyboard.

A few steps later and the XMB dashboard loads smoothly while playing a nice clip of soothing classical music. XMB looks nice and runs smooth! There’s a SHITLOAD of options available. It’s going to take some time to go through them all so I decided to press on with other things.

I decided to load a custom background for XMB. To this end I copied a few images from my PC into a USB flash drive and plugged it into the PS3. While the flash drive itself blinked with activity, there was no action on the PS3 to indicate it had detected the drive. Finally I decided to navigate to the Photo section and was relieved to find the flash drive listed there. Still it would be nice if upon connecting a drive the system could give some indication of detection and perhaps prompt to display the contents of the device. Upon accessing the drive I discovered another little quirk when the system performed an “auto-scan” yet failed to find any pictures. To first get around this I moved the images out of the directory they were in to the root of the drive. Despite this change a second scan still came up empty. The final solution was to access the advanced options for the drive and choose the “view all” option which finally got the contents of the drive to load. After that it correctly picked up the images and I was able to view them and use the options to set the one I wanted as the XMB background pretty easily.

On a whim I decided to pop in a CD-R disc that contained some MPEG-4 encoded video clips. I was pleased to find that in this case I simply had to access the disc and it immediately displayed the clips. I was able to playback each one easily and they looked pretty good. I tried a few other clips that were encoded in MPEG-2 and was pleased to find the system played them fine. I’ll have to test more codec’s in the future (Divx) but my initial reaction thus far is thumbs up.

I decided to get some online action going next. First, things first, had to perform a software update. The update was largely automated once I chose it from the XMB menu and took about 5 minutes to download on my cable broadband connection. Another 5 minutes for the system to install it and I was good to go. Creating an online profile was pretty smooth and I was able to breathe a slight sigh of relief as here a full-size onscreen keyboard it used. This makes the frequent text entry go MUCH faster. The biggest gripe I had with the online sign-up option was the lack of graphic avatars to choose from. There’s a total of 22 pages with something like 8 avatars per page, which sounds like a good amount but most of them are fruity, bubbly things that won’t appeal to you unless you’re either a.) a 15yr. old girl or b.) a Japanese male. In the end I wound up choosing an 8 ball. Meh. All-in-all the online sign-up process took around 7-8 minutes.

After signing up I was unceremoniously dumped back to the XMB menu. It wasn’t really clear what had changed, if anything, now that I logged online. Some sort of dialogue box giving a brief run down of online options would have been nice here.

Presently I made my way to the Playstation online store. I had read previously that the entire store was getting an overhaul soon and it’s apparent from the moment the main screen loads it’s MUCH needed. The store is basically a quick and dirty adaptation of the Playstation website and as such doesn’t really suit itself to navigation using the PS3 gaming controller. The main problem is the navigation, specifically the annoying fact that the standard buttons you use to navigate XMB, and thus become familiar with, work with unintended results inside the store. For example normally the “O” button would take you back a step when navigating XMB. However pressing “O” while inside the store prompts you to exit the store entirely instead of taking you back a page as you might expect. Bleh!

My first download was the GTA IV trailer. When choosing a video to download it’s nice that it shows you how much free space you have on your hard drive, but it doesn’t show you the actual size of the video itself until AFTER the download starts! It would be nice if it showed that info before the download begins! Another gripe is the fact the trailer was only available in 720p. Maybe I’m nitpicking but one of the big draws of the PS3 is its ability to do 1080p. In my opinion all downloadable video content should be available in this format.
After the download was completed I found myself once again confused and disappointed as I wasn’t presented with any option to play the video! In fact, I had to exit the entire store and navigate to the video section in XMB to find the video. Another small inconvenience, yes, but an inconvenience nevertheless. The video itself ran smoothly and looked good. Can’t wait for the game! It looks like a shitload of fun!

I briefly poked around the options for the video itself and discovered it allows you to add some meta-data to the file in order to group it into an album. Probably an option I personally won’t use much but it’s a nice thing to have for those that may have lots of files.
Back in the online store I decided to check out the free wallpapers and was disappointed to find only 3 pages of content, all of which, had to do with games. Bah! Good thing you can make your own wallpaper! The video trailer section is equally shallow (3 pages) and doesn’t even have the latest trailers. Its possible what’s here are trailers for only Sony movies, which wouldn’t surprise me. On the plus side the trailers do offer a choice between 720 and 1080 video resolutions. There is also a section for Blu-Ray movie trailers (trailers of movies already on Blu-Ray disc) but in all honesty I have NO desire to watch any these videos.

Rounding out the store is the Game Demo section which from my brief foray into it looking promising. As I was anxious to move on to other things, I didn’t hang around here long and download any demos, but once I do I’ll post an update with my thoughts.

Part IV: Games

I purchased Call of Duty 4 to go with the console and later, once it arrived, picked up Burnout Paradise. One of the things I noticed about the games was not all of them support 1080p. On the back of the each game case you can find a list of what resolutions are supported. For CoD 4 both 720p and 1080p are listed with Burnout only supporting 720p.

I decided to try CoD first and after sliding in the disc I was presented with a message informing me the game had to be updated! Bah! The good news is the update only took about a minute to download and install so I wasn’t that bad. After the update the game loaded and here were I began to scratch my head. As I mentioned earlier the game says it supports 1080p on the box and the Activision and copyright screens are, in fact, displayed in 1080p. However when the opening cut scenes and game menu load they are only at 720p. Firing up the actual game itself also shows it’s only running at 720p. There’s no option in the game menu pertaining to resolution so I’m a bit confused as to exactly what’s going on. Not really wanting to spend the time to figure it out just then I decided to put the issue aside and simply get some game play in.

The game itself looks beautiful and runs very well! Without going into excessive detail concerning the actual game content (I hope to do a full CoD 4 review in the near future) I will say the game is pretty KICK ASS! I’ve only played the first 5 or 6 missions but already it’s been the most engaging game play I’ve enjoyed since the Half-Life franchise and on some levels surpasses it! Anyone who’s a fan of FPS games and hasn’t played this game is really missing out! It’s available for PC, Xbox 360 and PS3 so pick it up if you haven’t already!

Next I popped in Burnout which loaded right up without requiring any sort of update. As I stated above Burnout runs at 720p and looks really good! Even though this version doesn’t have the “Crash Breaker” mode, found in previous games of the franchise, the city is now completely open ended (similar to Need for Speed: Most Wanted) and very big! The makers of the game have preserved all the fun and high speed action in the actual races and the graphics look better than ever!

So other than the quandary with the display resolutions (which hopefully I can figure out) I was overall pleased with the look and feel of the games.

Part V: Blu-Ray Movies

As I mentioned earlier the console came with Spiderman 3 and I picked up 300 separately once everything arrived. I also ordered the Sony Bluetooth Remote to hopefully help ease playback operations.

I decided to try out 300 first and after sliding in the disc it only took a few seconds to load up and begin playing. I have to say I wasn’t particularly blown away with the video quality and in some spots I could actually see some graininess. Don’t get me wrong it looked HD quality but I suppose I was expecting a somewhat better look from a movie like 300 in full HD. Despite this I ended up watching half the film and still enjoyed it. For comparison I tried Spiderman 3 next which, indeed, looked better than 300 and much closer to what I expect from a Blu-Ray movie.

For its part, the Bluetooth remote works very well and is pretty snappy in terms of response time. The setup of the remote was also pretty easy with the only step involving registering it with the console. This is accomplished via a wizard in the XMB options that makes connecting and managing Bluetooth devices a breeze.

Overall so far Blu-Ray to me seems like just another format. Granted it looks much better but I think I’ll need to watch some more movies and explore some disc features before I begin to really appreciate it. The good news is, though, I’ll now be able to provide reviews of Blu-Ray movies!

Part VI: Conclusion

Keeping in mind these are only my initial impressions of the console I will say, so far, I’m fairly pleased with it. While there’s some software quirks and functionality I’d like to see worked out and improved and the online store needs a MAJOR overhaul (which as I mentioned will be happening soon) and I still have a concern over whether or not it’s worth the price I paid I’m going to try and remain hopeful (if slightly cautious) for the PS3’s future.

I plan on providing more updates and insights as time goes on and I use the system more and learn it’s “in’s and out’s”. Stay tuned!

That’s right kiddies Monty Oum (creator of Haliod) is at it again this time with the follow up sequel to Dead Fantasy, pitting the super sassy woman of Dead or Alive against those of Final Fantasy. If you though episode I was full of action wait until you see the shit that happens this time around. Oum throws in everything but the kitchen sink. My favorite bit is the Drunken Boxing from Tifa on the FF squad. All in all tho another very satisfying vid from Mr. Oum.

Oh yeah P.S. – Apparently there are 5 more vids to come in this series. Can’t fuckin wait. Also if you haven’t already seen it, check out part 1 here.

I Think I Love My Wife

Having nothing to watch last night I found myself flipping through HBO’s OnDemand offerings when I came across the recent Chris Rock movie “I Think I Love My Wife“. Rock, who wrote, directed, and produced the film plays a bored married man who spends his days fantasizing about sex with other woman and his nights being denied sex by his wife. This all changes however with the arrival of Nikki (played by Kerry Washington), the sassy, super-sexy, ex-girlfriend of one of Rock’s old college buddies.

The Good:

• Kerry Washington is HAWT. Need more proof? Watch She Hate Me.
• There are certain scenes in the movie where Rock literally shifts into stand-up mode and begins delivering jokes as if he were on stage at the Apollo. These moments are actually quite funny.

The Bad:

• The Movie as a whole. The acting is nothing to write home about, the plot is forced and awkward, and the characters have ZERO chemistry.

The Ugly:

• Rocks acting is as bad as it ever was. At this point I think it’s safe to say the man simply doesn’t belong in front of the camera unless he’s performing stand-up.

The Verdict

Don’t rent, don’t buy. Keep your distance.

Arousal Scale – Redscape for “I Think I Love My Wife” – Snapped Clean Off

Okay first things first. Frank Darabont’s “The Mist” is fucking terrifying! This movie is what Cloverfield (see review) should have been!

The film is an adaptation of the Stephen King novel of the same name and the 3rd movie based in King’s source material that Darabont has directed. Perhaps you’ve heard of the other two: The Shawshank Redemption and The Green Mile. As in his previous two endeavors, Darabont does not disappoint here.

The basics of the plot are simple. In the wake of a particularly violent storm a mysterious mist appears and engulfs a small New England community. Certain residents find themselves trapped in a supermarket due to “something” in the mist which kills anyone who travels more than a few feet outside the store. Inside the store we are introduced to what appears to be the normal hodge-podge of stereotypical characters that frequently inhabit movies of the horror genre. However while some of these characters do indeed behave in the typical wooden and predictable manner you would expect, the ones that matter actually manage to bring a surprising degree of complexity and humanity to the roles.

Speaking of roles I’m not sure if I’ve ever seen Thomas Jane better! I think I can honestly say his performance here eclipsed those he turned in for Deep Blue Sea, The Punisher, and even 61*. His character, David Drayton, is the closest thing to a hero in the film however Jane plays it low key and subtle and through this we see that this is a just man trying to survive. In fact at times some of the choices and decisions he makes are startlingly selfish and go directly against what a “hero” in such a film would do.

As for the monsters themselves they are where the build up comes in to play. At first we see a tentacle here or hear a loud bang or rattle there. Soon we see all manner of creatures out in the fringes of the mist and there is a particular scene I would advise anyone with a fear of spiders to cover their eyes during.

If the movie has a downside it’s the blatant usage of some of the characters as nothing more than a plot device. Andre Braugher’s role as, Brent Norton, the out of town, New York, asshole lawyer is a perfect example. It’s a shame too because I normally like Braugher. Not this time around however.

Overall I found the film to be enjoyable and riveting. Without giving anything away I will warn you, however, that the ending of this movie is pretty hardcore. Not so much from a blood and guts standpoint but more from a psychological perspective. Still I encourage everyone to check it out. Definitely rent worthy and if you’re a horror movie buff it’s a buy for sure!

Arousal Scale – Redscape for “The Mist” – Stone Cold Rock Hard

First look at Snake-Eyes from next years live action G.I. Joe movie. Looks pretty f’in good to me. He’s being played by Ray Park, the same guy who was Darth Maul. I can’t wait to see him in action. Stephen Sommers, the director, has already indicated he’s going for the feel of the original Snake-Eyes so the character will be mute and a lone wolf type. He’ll use both his sword and guns when fighting! I’m hoping for something similar to the Gun Kata from Equilibrium but with some sick swordsmanship thrown in!

Also for all you Cobra fans Storm Shadow will also be in the film. I’m sure we’ll get to see at least 1 or 2 epic confrontations between the two!

The original USA Today article can be found here.

**UPDATE**

Came across another image! This time with the sword and the gun! Ultra high res version can be seen here.