We were going to review Pirates 3 today, and we would have done a badass job of it, too. But really, after Phill Ryu's full-on Pirates 3 rave, which is rockin' off the charts over at digg.com, what else is there to say? Bravo.
Sunday, May 27, 2007
Saturday, May 19, 2007
Welcome, All You Cinema Carnies!
Or something like that! If you've been attending the Carnival of Cinema, thanks for stopping by Fuel the Rebellion to check out my Spiderman 3 review. If you missed my earlier review of the movie 300, you can find that here.
STARCRAFT II OFFICIALLY ANNOUNCED!
As the official Blizzard site says, "Hell, it took long enough."
Per the Press release:
SEOUL, South Korea – May 19, 2007 – Blizzard Entertainment® today unveiled StarCraft® II, the sequel to its award-winning real-time strategy game StarCraft, at the 2007 Blizzard Worldwide Invitational event in Seoul, South Korea. The announcement took place inside the Olympic Gymnastics Arena, in front of thousands of attendees, who received a presentation that included a StarCraft II cinematic trailer and a gameplay demonstration by the development team.
Designed to be the ultimate competitive real-time strategy game, StarCraft II will feature the return of the Protoss, Terran, and Zerg races, overhauled and re-imagined with Blizzard's signature approach to game balance. Each race will be further distinguished from the others, with several new units and new gameplay mechanics, as well as new abilities for some of the classic StarCraft units that will be making a reappearance in the game. StarCraft II will also feature a custom 3D-graphics engine with realistic physics and the ability to render several large, highly detailed units and massive armies on-screen simultaneously.
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Wednesday, May 16, 2007
Saturday, May 12, 2007
The Perfect Gift for a Gaming Mom (plus, it's FREE!)
You know that tomorrow's Mother's Day, but you've been procrastinating, haven't you? There's only so many hours in the day, and so many games left to be played. So many levels you have to gain and bosses you have to conquer.
In other words, you don't have a present for Mom yet.
Never fear. Like a superhero soaring above the skies in primary-hued tights and a flashy cape, Fuel the Rebellion comes to the rescue!
With a little help from our old friends PopCap Games, that is.
Right now, you can get PopCap Games classic, original Bejeweled game absolutely FREE for Mom! All you have to do is click "BUY NOW" on the Bejeweled Game Page, and enter in the coupon code: "FREE4MOMS."
You're welcome. Now go kick some more zombie ass.
Friday, May 11, 2007
Sunday, May 6, 2007
Spiderman 3 Review
I won't waste your time re-capping the first two Spidermans; if you haven't seen them already I can't think why you would go see this.
There are four, that's right, FOUR basic plot lines in Spiderman 3.
First, of course, is Peter Parker's on-going romance with Mary Jane Watson, or MJ, whom he has loved since he was a kid and who finally decided to give him a shot at the end of the last movie. Naturally, the course of true love does not run smoothly, and the fact that Spiderman is enjoying some popularity at last just as MJ's career nosedives doesn't help matters.
Along comes Harry Osborne, the wealthiest kid since Richie Rich, who has been struggling with issues of abandonment ever since Spiderman killed his Dad (he thinks) and, wouldn't you know it, it turns out Spiderman is actually Peter Parker, his former best friend in the world. Talk about betrayal. (He conveniently forgets that he sniped Peter's girl, MJ, in a vulnerable moment, and went out with her until his Dad basically called her a gold-digging slut.) The knee-jerk reaction when you find out your best friend is a Dad-killing Superhero is apparently to go ballistic with pumpkin bombs and flying surfboards inherited from Dear Old Dad, aka the Green Goblin. This is a shame because there are some surprisingly touching moments recounting the two men's friendship. Of course, It's hard to believe that Peter and Harry were ever friends in the first place when you see how Harry lives compared to Peter. In fact, how Harry ever managed to end up a basically decent guy living such a spoiled life is beyond belief. 
Topher Grace makes his entrance in the third film playing Eddie Brock in plot line 3, and he does a great job over-coming the "That 70's Show" Eric Foreman geekiness. Of course, next to Toby McGuire, Ryan Seacrest looks butch, but Topher actually would make a great salesman based on this performance. He has all the mannerisms and sucking-up down pat. Eddie is a rival photographer that threatens Peter's tenuous position with Jonah Jameson's newspaper, and frankly I would give him the job. He has great people skills, ass-kissing par excellence, and he has a hot girlfriend, Gwen. But Topher is slated to turn into pure evil personified--Venom. Venom rocks in the comic strips, and he's cool here, but I'm thinking they actually chose Topher because he was one of the few people who could fit into the infected black Spiderman suit. I mean, he and Toby McGuire are the same basic body type.
And lastly, we have the convict-Dad-with-the-dying-daughter Sandman, a surprisingly sympathetic character played by, of all people, Lowell from the old Wings series. I kept expecting him to break out with a toolbox and a wrench. The Sandman, incidentally, is a lot more impressive than I thought he would be. I was looking forward to Venom far more, and the Sandman actually steals the show.
So, four plot lines, culiminating in a big bad finale with Spiderman pitted against all the bad guys. Bet you can guess what happens in the big finale scene? No? Sure you have actually watched the other two films? Come on, it's easy.
Here it is: The Bad Guys Kidnap MJ! I bet you are kicking yourself right now. I mean, that's what they ALWAYS do, right?
The big question in the finale fight scene boils down to this: will Harry overcome his feelings of betrayal and help Spiderman save the girl, or will he join Venom and Sandman in their evil quest to...well, basically, to piss Spiderman off. They don't seem to have a plan after that.
Now, I could give you some spoilers here and tell you how it all turns out. But, really, if I have to tell you what Harry chooses to do, you probably also think MJ actually could die, or the kidnappers really could triumph.
That's really not the point of the whole film, though, the suspense of wondering what happens. It's more of an homage to Spiderman/Peter Parker as the quintessential good guy, and an action-packed tip of the hat to some of the best villains in the Marvel Spiderman series.
On a scale of 1 to 5 stars, I would probably give it a 4, based on what the movie tries to do. The action is great, even if the romance with MJ takes up quite a bit of film space, the villains completely rock the movie, and Spiderman finally gets some credit.
Go get 'em, Spidey.
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Thursday, May 3, 2007
Virtual Terrorists Strike Second Life
According to Raw Story, the terrorists may be winning. At least in the virtual world of Second Life:
People controlling animated avatar members of a self-proclaimed Second Life Liberation Army (SLLA) have set off computer-code versions of atomic bombs at virtual world stores in the past six months -- with their own manifesto.
"As Linden Labs is functioning as an authoritarian government the only appropriate response is to fight," the SLLA said in a message on its website at http://secondlla.googlepages.com...
Creative dissent is welcomed in Second Life as long as it doesn't interfere with the ability of other residents to enjoy the virtual world, according to San Francisco-based Linden.
Second Life said it stopped charging a tax on items created by residents after avatars fashioned in the images of American revolutionaries recreated the Boston Tea Party in the virtual world about three years ago.
No word on what the Bush Administration intends to do about all this.
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"DEAD RISING" SHOPPING MALL RULES ('CEPT FOR THE ZOMBIES)
I've been playing a lot of Dead Rising lately, and I have to say the mall in this game is just incredible. Now, I know this isn't a "new" game, but it's eminently replayable, and I have some tips for you if you can just keep patiently reading along, but first I just want to say: why aren't more malls like this?
Sans undead, naturally.
This mall has a "leisure park," complete with lakes and bridges, right smack-dab in the middle. It's got a gym with LOTS of weights and barbells (okay, in a real gym I would like some more actual workout equipment, but you can't have everything). It has restaurants of all kinds in a Western-style food court (where you can mix interesting things up in a blender, btw. Like what, you ask? I'm getting to that).
There's even a kid's play area with a cool rocket shuttle monorail ride and neat blocks (and a crazy clown with two chainsaws, which I would leave out of the blueprints).
Little rivers of water with cascading waterfalls run along the sides of corridors (and make excellent short-cuts through the crowds of undead). Potted plants, heck, even trees inside the mall add to the scenery.
There's not one, but several bookstores, toy stores, clothes stores and sporting goods stores with everything from skateboards to bowling balls.
In short, it's an awesome mall.
The only problem is: how are they going to top this in Dead Rising, II? The game's popularity has guaranteed there will be a sequel. How can they possibly create another setting that can compare with this inter-active Utopia? That's really had me worried for a while.
Now, an airport has much of the same amenities, but people would just load onto the planes and take off to get the heck out of there when the zombies came around, so that wouldn't really be very realistic (obviously, I have no problem altering my reality to accept that scores of zombies are infesting the airport. But that people would stick around when there are planes available? Now THAT'S stretching it!).
Finally, though, I came up with the perfect setting. Yes, thank you, I am a genius. Ahem.
So here's what I thought of, and Capcom, you can thank me later: an amusement park! Told you it was genius. I'm just basking right now. Not convinced? Can't see the big picture? Let me cast some light on the black hole of your feeble brain.
In an amusement park, you can have rides, shops, carnival games (good place to insert a mini-game, Capcom!). You can even have animals if you make the amusement park a zoo. Add in show performers with flamboyant costumes (push B to change clothes! Yea!) and you have another winner. Plus, for those of us who haven't joined the legion of undead, there are ice cream stands, cotton candy machines (probably have to find sugar for those), and popcorn to eat. Junk food goodness galore.
Whew. That's a relief. I was really worried there for a while. Now I can sleep nights, knowing they have options for the sequel.
So, you stuck it out, huh? All right, here are my personal Dead Rising tips:
Mix orange juice with just about anything in a blender. Does the word "untouchable" sound good to you?
Hey, you know those people you have to save? You can give them weapons. Also food. And they get head-shot kills. Who knew?
Milk and something else in a blender is not a good combination, unless you LIKE being Zombait.
Try heating up a frying pan on the stove and THEN wielding it as a weapon.
When Frank dies, DON'T save status and quit, unless you like starting the game over every frickin' time. LOAD instead. This is an especially useful tip for those of us who saved money by buying the game used and freaked out at the ridiculous saving system before we (doh!) figured it out.
See you later (at UndeadWorld)!
---Viv
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