There are two types of people in this world. Creationists and people with brains.
Recently, I happened to be making use of public transport ( I’d say it was for carbon footprint reasons, but then I’d have to hate myself ) only to find myself face to face with this snippet of christian advertising. I know some would call it a ‘message’ or even ‘guidance’ but it is simply trying to sell the christian product to the masses. Jesus and god are the worlds most recognisable and popular brand names. Coca-Cola are only kidding themselves.
But I digress. As an atheist I didn’t find this poster offensive ( I mean, we all had imaginary friends at some point, right? ) I simply found it insulting to my intelligence. So I took it upon myself to get in touch with the bus company’s feedback department and find out what their stance is on this sort of thing. Does christian advertising get priority? Do they feel it may be inappropriate to promote false hope? Would they be so willing to advertise other religions? And if not, why is one religion deemed more suitable than others for public transport. I’ll let you know whats said as soon as I get any response! And if they need a replacement poster, I have one ready and waiting right here.
Dave
Final Fantasy 13 just got announced for XBOX 360
Not only is this quite monumental for the series, but it goes to show how divided the current hardware market really is. Apparently Japan isn’t getting a 360 version, no surprises there, but Square Enix clearly feel that a PS3-only release would hinder International sales of the title. Fanboys may be screaming “OMG! They sold out!” as they cry into their Blu-ray drives, but by that logic Square already sold out, in the mid nineties…to Sony.
Let’s be honest, the PS3 has had a bumpy ride since the day it was released. At the beginning the price was way too high, the games weren’t all that great (bar a few like Resistance) and one of the main reasons to buy the system (major exclusives) seemed to be dying a death. Series’ such as Grand Theft Auto, Devil May Cry and Virtua Fighter have all gone to 360 with near identical graphics, leaving only two big hitters left for Sony - Metal Gear Solid and Final Fantasy. However MGS already has this tradition of re-releasing with some added extra bonus features on other consoles, and I wouldn’t be surprised if we see MGS4:SubstantialSubstance on 360 some time soon.
And so now the PS3 doesn’t really have much left to tempt me. Home? Free online? Built-in Wireless? I suppose I could buy all my dvd’s again in High Definition. Okay, apart from Final Fantasy I did have one other definite reason to buy the big shiny black box. It meant I could pack away my noisy old temperamental PS2 and play a lot of the PS2 games that I haven’t had time to play yet, only with up-scaled graphics - but then they went and dropped backwards compatibility from the console.
Having said all that I’ll still probably end up getting a PS3 sometime in the future, I love video games too much not to plus there actually are some great exclusives for the system. Home does also genuinely excite me, however I just can’t see myself handing over the cash any time soon and whatever way you look at it, losing Final Fantasy is another direct hit to an already shaky PlayStation Empire. Here’s hoping Sony have a lot of earth shattering announcements at their E3 Conference this week and that Home lives up to the hype.
Chris.
Video Games July 15th 2008
Here’s the thing, there was a small disagreement about characterisation in MGS4 between David Hayter (Snake) and Hideo Kojima that was apparently blown out of all proportion, and as we all know, news travels fast over the glorious interweb. So, under the codename “uberdave” Solid Snake used his own IMDB page as a catalyst to remind the entire Internet not to take half of the Internet seriously.
Colonel : Snake, I read on the Internet that you had a fight with Hideo Kojima about some stuff.
Snake : Damn it Colonel!
Fair enough, but stealth is very important. Instead of using IMDB he should’ve secretly gotten his message across by Codec, frequency 106.66, because the Codec’s receiver directly stimulates the small bones of your ear, making it inaudible to anyone around you.
Chris
I had all these really witty titles thought out in my head for this particular post concerning the new Will Smith superhero flick. Because I’ve never been that fond of Smiths work. The problem is, when I came up with said titles, I hadnt actually seen the movie.
Now that I have seen it I’m faced with a dilema. You see, Hancock is good. Not great or even totally awesomely good, but its at least 50% good. Its almost as if its two different movies stapled together in the middle.
The basic premise is this. John Hancock ( Will Smith ) is an unhappy, alcoholic superhero who is living in his own world. He has saved numerous lives in LA over the years, but in doing so has caused widespread property damage costing the city millions of dollars. The public has had enough of Hancock, and want him to either stop or move to another city. One day, Hancock saves Ray Embrey ( Jason Bateman ), a public-relations spokesperson whose attempts to market his world-changing “All-Heart” charity aren’t gaining traction, from being run over by a train. Ray feels he owes Hancock his life, and he makes it his mission to change Hancock’s public image for the better.
Smith plays the grumpy, drunk Hancock so well that he’s actually a very likeable and endearing guy. The cleaned up version is still a bit of a departure from Smiths usual roles, but you can start to see some of the old Big Willie Stylee ( I hated typing that ) creeping through. Its around this time that Ray’s wife Mary ( played by Charlize Theron ) starts to come into the storyline in a much bigger, and unexpected, way. Which isnt a totaly bad thing as it tries to set up a backstory and offer some explination as to who Hancock is and where he came from. The thing is, it all seemed a little too thrown together. I would have been much happier sitting through the whole 90 minutes watching the flawed Hancock trying to deal with his situation while still doing his best to save the city.
All in all, the director ( Peter Berg - The Rundown, The Kingdom ) did a pretty decent job on this. Its funny, has the odd thoughtful moment here and there, and is certainly action packed. The acting really cant be faulted and it looks rather good with top notch special effects. It has also been left wide open for the sequels to come pouring in. If only they didnt want Hancock to change. I say we need more dirty, angry, washed up drunks as superheros!
Will Smith is Hancock. They got it half right.
Dave
