In 2004, Midway released ‘The Suffering’ a refreshing take on the survival horror genre.  It was a lot more action focused than the Resident Evils and SIlent Hills, in which it was less about solving puzzless so much as it was about blowing away hideous creatures.  It was basically a combination of SIlent Hill and Max Pane.  Players took the role of Torque, a grim man scentenced to Death Row for the murder of his wife and children, but here was the twist – weather or not he actually committed the crimes depended on how you played the game, giving you one of three endings.  A year later, Midway followed it up with this sequel.  WHile it delivered more of the same action, it was moved to a different setting.  Players with an old save game can load up and get a different starting sequence based on how they finished teh game last time.  You fight against Blackmore and his henchmen, including dozens of new monsters, each based on real life horrors.  Once again your ending differs based on how you play the game.  Although this game’s big plot twist will seem familiar to anyone who has seen Fight club, Midway/surreal has crafted a brand of survival horror that can very well end up being America’s equivalent to Resident Evil.

1 was awesome. 2 was enjoyable, though instantly forgettable. I saw no reason not to give 3 a try!

I went into the theatre expecting a nice fun action movie and not much else. It totally delievered on that level. Living up to it’s successors Mission Impossible III is an actioned packed guaranteed good time (not an actual guarantee).

When it comes to fun explosions, car chases, people jumping from helicopters and stuff like that I’m not generally a sucker for it but in this case I was at the edge of my seat from begining to end. On top of that there’s just all sorts of fun spy stuff. Messing with cameras, costumes, scaling walls, skydiving, retinal scans and all sorts of craZy stuff. It’s like James Bond only not stupid, boring or British.

Cruise’s character, Ethan Hunt, really steps it up in this movie. So much so that I’m confident in saying Ethan Hunt could kick that pansy Jack Bauer’s ass any day of the week. Not only does he run like only Tommy seem to (very reminiscent of Minority report at times) but he jumps around, gets all blown up, shoots people, beats people up, nails a hot chick and acts super cool all the way through it. Tom is phenomenal in this movie. He’s been a real craZy freak with the Katie thing and his cult but when it gets down to it there’s one thing that distinguishes him from the likes of John Travolta and Kirsty Alley and that’s the fact that he’s a good actor. Whether it be in acting like an mental patient or in his latest movie we can always count on Cruise to put everything he’s got into a performance and that enthusiam is never more appropriate than in a movie of this tone.

The rest of the cast is also solid. Ving Rhames’s character is a nice favourite to see back. Didn’t really see any repeats with the others but the newcomers were all solid. New spy guys Larry Fishburne and Billy Crudup were interesting and well played. His love interest was smokin’ hot! Above all else the performance which really blew my mind was Philip Seymour Hoffman as villain of the week. He just came off as so mean and totally in control of every situation. He’s come a long way since stealing a kiss from Marky Mark.

One beef I had with this flick, which I understand is a problem with Abrams in Alias and that I have seen briefly in Lost, is this super annoying flash forward scene he shoves at the starting of the movie. Watching this flick was like watching Payback after having been exposed to the all too revealing trailer. I’m seeing things develop and I know exactly where the story is supposed to go but now I’m just guessing at ways in which the story will lead me there. I much prefer to just learn the story as it goes along especially when the flash forward is quite late in the movie. This wasn’t like American Beauty where it was so vague that I forget it happens until it comes back. It was just too much.

That being said I still think this was a really solid movie. A great thrill ride for people who just like getting really into a fun action movie. If you like Mission Impossible 1, Alias, Felicity or Tom Cruise you really need to check this puppy out.

PS: Tom Cruise is not gay.

Warner Brothers Interactive has released a new video of Snowblind’s forthcoming Justice League game for current-gen consoles.

Still no gameplay footage, but I’d be willing to bet the scenes are using something close to in-game models. Everything about this release seems to scream that its an X-Men Legends rip-off, but they honestly had to start making good DC comics video games sooner or later. Theres only so much Catwoman and Superman 64 we can take.

Add ‘controversial’ to Guitar Hero 2. We can’t stop arguing about it!

Anyway, IGN has a hands on preview of the E3 build of Guitar Hero 2. They only got 2 songs and had to play co-op, but they didn’t have a bad thing to say about the game.

Writer Chris Roper seems to share my enthusiasm when he closes the article:

We’re psyched to see a little more of the game at E3, which’ll hopefully show us some of its revamped single-player mode, but most of our excitement lies around two words – “War Pigs”. Oh Lord yeah.

Marvel.com has a page up describing some of their future movie plans. Among the many movies on slate for Marvel, Iron Man is one of the top of their current list to get into production. They’ve taken on Jon Favreau of Swingers and Made fame to direct the Iron Man film.

Jon Favreau To Direct Iron Man

Los Angeles, CA (April 28, 2006) – Aggressively pursuing its strategy to develop and produce a new slate of feature films, Marvel Studios – a subsidiary of Marvel Entertainment, Inc. (NYSE: MVL) – has engaged director/actor/writer Jon Favreau to direct the highly anticipated big screen adaptation of Iron Man. Additionally, the studio has tapped several screenwriters to pen scripts based on some of its marquee Super Hero franchises. The projects to which screenwriters are now attached and have officially begun development include Iron Man, Incredible Hulk, Ant Man, Captain America, Nick Fury and Thor. The announcement was made today by Avi Arad, Chairman of Marvel Studios.

Check out the page for more information on the franchises mentioned. Most of it is background stuff. The real announcement was having Favreau direct Iron Man.

Find your local comic store if you don’t know where it is already, and LOAD UP!

This is one of the best days of the year to get into comics and certainly the best day for comics fans to try something new.  Don’t miss out!  They’re FREE!

Marvel, in an unprecedented push for viral campaigning online has posted a second trailer for their hot Civil War story arc going on right now.

The new trailer features the comic shop locator info, Civil War Checklist and will be available through Marvel.com as well as Youtube.com so you can share it with friends, post it on your MySpace page, or simply just watch it over and over. To view the trailer, go to http://www.marvel.com/news/-1.413.

Its unfortunate they chose to say MySpace page instead of the more correct and more general term ‘blog’, but its nice to see a major company actually using the internet in a productive way. Without further ado, the second Civil War trailer from Marvel…

Nintendo has granted First4Figures a 3 year licensing agreement for the Metroid franchise. This coincides with the release of Metroid Prime: Hunters in Europe. Plans seem to be for several individual statues standing about 9 to 12 inches tall based on ‘original game data’.

 

For the full text of the announcement continue below.
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