Let's knock Star Trek out of the way. It's been a week of filming for ST XI and the only news we get so far is casting choices. Kirk's dad, George, will be played by a 24 years old Chris Hemsworth. He ain't played in anything I heard of except the TV show "Martial Law", where he played a kid. This makes Kirk's father younger than Kirk. Presumable Kirk's mom will be cast around this age, and can explain why Spock's mom is so young. Odds are we're getting flashbacks, ruining my idea for Kirk's Enterprise launch ceremony. So if we get a Spock that looks the age of Leonard Nimoy, then Spock is in the TNG era (remember, Spock has been hanging out with the Romulans since season 5 of TNG). If this isn't a Flashback oriented movie then maybe, like ST: Generations, its being told in two parts across two generations. And, a new bad guy has been chosen, the lucky actor being Clifton Collins Jr. He is possibly better know by geeks as a voice in GTA: San Andreas (Cesar Vialpando, you sister's boyfriend) and The Replacement Killers. Check out imdb to see what else he's done.
BioWare's new brainchild, Mass Effect, is nearing release and I found new footage, here and here. This reminds me of Gears of War, which took some time to get used to having played much Halo in my past. I love the look of the worlds and technology but I'm not into the squad thing, as much. I like my FPS or TPS solo so I can be the hero. Plus your teammates rarely do you any favors, and more often than not, flag your fire then yell at you for shooting them. I like how Half-Life 2 dealt with this be not letting you shot anyone but the enemy. Mass Effect isn't GTA, so there's no excuse why games still let you shoot your teammates when that doesn't alter or effect the story in any way (and usually breaks the "reality" of the game). I especially hated in Colony Wars when you shot your wingman, you were suddenly targeted as the enemy and everyone fires at you. It's not my fault my wingman is between me and my enemy when all sorts of things are shooting at me from every direction. So why punish me for being unable to tell my environment from digital mush. WTF?
Portal, of Orange Box fame, has had many more interesting words aimed at it. Portal, as I've mentioned before, is brilliant. To further my thoughts on this game I want to explain why "who you are" makes this game good. Whoever you are in life, when you play Portal, that is who you are. Sure, when you can actually see yourself you are a girl trapped in a puzzle, but she doesn't talk, act, or do anything that isn't you. So, basically, she's your avatar. Of course there are limits to what you can do, that's called gameplay. It's a simulation of what you would do in the same situation. I might have cried a little bit first, then moved on with the puzzle, but the point is you aren't pretending to be a bounty hunter or plumber or something that's integral to the universe. This reminds me of Myst. You are you in Myst too. Whereas Myst was a still-life puzzle game, your mind filled in the blanks. It even made the moments of action that much more impressive. For some reason when Myst made the jump to full 3-D interactive it lost some charm, and lots of fans. Portal certainly works where Myst failed without you needing to be a member of mensa. It took me many 6-packs of Zima to even get half of Myst's puzzles. I never even bothered with the sequels.
Watching Attack Of The Show (AOTS) today they mentioned an internet TV viewing site called Miro. I don't know enough about it yet to report on it, but give me time. Also, what happens when video game geeks are in charge of halftime during a football game? This video from YouTube is the answer. Tomorrow Guitar Hero III will be mine if I can find a copy for X360. Best Buy was sold out today, as is their website. I'll persevere. Then I can get this guitar "Itch" out of me so I can get Rock Band next week. I'm excited to try World Tour. Dibs on drums. See you next broadcast.
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