The Playlist #12

My week was no different from the last. Except, instead of playing games or reading, I bought the complete season 2 and some season 3 episodes of Chuck from iTunes, and I've been watching it non-stop, trying to catch up on Monday's episode.

Anyways, here's this week's playlist.

"Tom Sawyer" by Rush

"Chuck Versus Tom Sawyer" is definitely my favorite episode of Chuck. Why? Well, in the episode, there's Missile Command, which is one of the most popular video games ever. Then there's Rush, which is one of my favorite bands. Lastly, we get to see Yvonne in her sexy Nerd Herd outfit.

"And The Hazy Sea" by Cymbals Eat Guitars

I bought this band's debut album, Why There Are Mountains, last year. But I didn't listen to it that much. Today, however, I managed to listen to the entire album while cleaning my room. Now I understand why a lot of my favorite critics listed this band in their "Top of 2009" lists. The album is really good.

"Pull Me Under" by Dream Theater

I heard one of our patient listening to this song a couple days ago. I couldn't get it off my mind ever since. So I bought Dream Theater's greatest hits. I'm not really a big fan of the band -even though, back in high school, I was surronded by DT fanboys. But I respect the skill of each member. They really are a bunch of talented musicians.

"Phantom Limb" by The Shins

I thought that I ripped all of my CDs into my iPod already. But when I searched a song by The Shins, I found out that I didn't have any of their albums on my player. I started looking for my CDs but couldn't find them anywhere in the house. I don't know where I kept them or did with them. So I was forced to buy the mp3s from Amazon, which is a bit of a bummer.

"Escape" by Brazil

Brazil came out during the early 00's and, I think, they tried to spearhead the return of 80's arena rock. Unfortunately, not a lot of people miss arena rock. So the band fell into obscurity and finally disbanded in 2007. Too bad they're gone now. Because I kinda liked them.

"Bug Eyes" by Dredg

Some of the people I know are raving over Dredg's new album, The Pariah, The Parrot, The Delusion. It's good, I agree. But it can't hold a candle against their 2005 album, Catch Without Arms. The album has just a lot of great heavy, melodic tracks, like "Bug Eyes", that I really dig.

"Creature Fear" by Bon Iver

Well, this isn't my favorite Bon Iver song. But this song was playing during Chuck and Sarah's intimate motel room scene, on the "Chuck Versus the Colonel" episode. That scene made me smile, and also a bit envious, as I kept saying: "Well done, Chuck." I wish I have my own Sarah Walker to protect me.

Well, that's it for this week.

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God Bless BioWare

One thing I love about BioWare is that always make sure to slip a bit of romance into their role-playing games. Another thing I love about them is they are starting to base their game characters on real life models (see Girls of Dragon Age @ Maxim). So now it's much more easier to admire a beautiful face in their games without feeling a little weird. Now, if someone gives me a queer eye by drooling over Miranda Lawson's virtually beautiful face, I can say: "Dude, it's Yvonne Strahovski. A real woman."

Anyways, speaking of Yvonne, here's an interview of her talking about Mass Effect 2.



Now this video is a proof that God really exist. I still can't wrap my head around it. I mean, it's a pretty girl talking about a video game. She is cute in this interview too, especially when she admitted that she find the game's structure so confusing. I can only imagine, the dialogue branches in Mass Effect 2 is massive. Though not as massive as Planescape: Torment.

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Film Review: Alice in Wonderland

Alice in Wonderland
Grade: C
Starring: Johnny Depp, Mia Wasikowska
Director: Tim Burton








When I found out that Tim Burton was making an Alice in Wonderland film, I almost died. Being a fan of the director since Edward Scissorhands, I know that the creepy and crazy wonderland of Caroll Lewis will vividly come to life in Burton's hands. His visual style -which I coined as "gothic technicolor"- is a perfect match to Lewis' colorful mad world. In addition, the movie is also under Disney and there are a lot of talents in it. So it's just normal that I would expect a lot of good things about it. Unfortunately, however, reality doesn't always align with your expectations.


But I'm not saying that Burton's Wonderland is a total disappointment. It just didn't meet my high expectations. There are a lot of good things about it. The visuals, especially, is remarkable. Burton did capture that creepy yet colorful setting of wonderland. Most of the actors also did well. Mia Wasikowska played her part innocently and beautifully. Then there's Johnny Depp who did put the mad back in the Mad Hatter.

Burton also tweaked the story a little bit, which made and killed the film for me. Unlike the 50's animation or the books, Alice is already in her late teens, going into her 20's, in Burton's revision. It actually made much more sense that way. Because a younger Alice won't be able to stand a chance against all the torment the wonderland has to offer. The downside about the storyline tweaking is that Burton ended it with a battle (the worst battle I've seen in any film) between the armies of the White Queen and the Red Queen, as if he just ran out of ideas.


All in all, I would say that Alice in Wonderland is a mediocre film. Probably one of Burton's worse film too (though Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is still the worse for me). It started pretty well, however, and the visuals will get your attention. But as you get near to the end, the story falls flatter and flatter, then goes out in a whimper. Still, if you have the extra cash, I encourage you to watch it. If you're broke, avoid it as much as you can.

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Demo Monday: Supreme Commander 2

Unlike most gamers, I don't really hold Chris Taylor in high regards. That's probably because I'm only familiar with his Dungeon Siege series, which isn't that good of a game. A member of a gaming forum that I used to frequent at said that I should play all Chris Taylor's real-time strategy games, especially Total Annihilation and Supreme Commander, if I really want to know how good of a game developer he is.

Sadly, I still haven't played any of Chris Taylor's RTS games. So when a demo of Supreme Commander 2 was made available on Steam this morning, I took the time and opportunity to download it and gave the game a go.

The demo is consisted of two parts: the tutorial and a preview of the campaign.

The tutorial part teaches the most basic things in RTS games like how to move the camera, how to move a unit and such. It's really designed to teach the greenhorns to RTS. So if you've played any RTS games, you might as well skip this one.

The campaign preview, however, is pretty thick with huge battles. I didn't expect the first mission to be so dense with action right away. I thought you'd only have a couple of units, and without a base, to disable or disrupt your enemies plans. But I was provided with a base with capabilities to produce a couple types of air and naval units, and also a research tree to upgrade my units.

As for the battles, they really are epic in this game. There were many times in the campaign that I was being attacked on multiple fronts. So I have to mass produce a lot of units and defend those areas. Sometimes, I have so many units that I have to use the map overview in order to locate all of them or to see whether they're winning their battles. The multi-tasking and micro-managing of units here is quite overwhelming. Know I now why this game is called Supreme Commander.

Supreme Commander 2 seems to be a pretty fun game, and I do crave for more. Unfortunately, Dragon Age: Awakening and Dawn of War II: Chaos Rising is also going to be released this month. So I think I'll skip this game until it goes on sale. As for Chris Taylor, looks like he won me over with this game.

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