Comic-con, The Dark Knight, and the many more awesome things of July
Archive note: This post was originally published on GameSpot by ThumbsUpMaster on August 1, 2008. It is preserved as part of the ThumbsUpMaster GameSpot Blog Archive.
Image/media note: the original GameSpot post appears to have included images, embeds, or visual spacing. Add recovered screenshots or replacement images here if available.
Readable Archive Version
July this year was awesome. I don't even know where to begin. So many awesome things happened, I forgot all about blogging, GameSpot, YouTube, a bit about video-games… it was just a blast.
Click for short review[spoiler] Let's see, I guess I'll start out with the movie, Hancock. I mentioned I was going to watch it last blog but never wrote a review the following day like I intended to. In short, it's on okay movie. It's not all that terrible like what some critics said on some review sites. My only complaints are sloppy camera work on some scenes, the intro to the movie looking like it was done in Windows Movie Maker, and the plot sorta juggling throughout the movie. But all in all, it was a good movie. Some parts made me lol. I didn't regret watching it. I give Hancock 7 thumbs ups out of 10. [/spoiler]
Click for short review[spoiler] A couple weeks later, my friends and I watched The Dark Knight on the opening day, July 18th. First, let me say, I have never watched a Batman movie before The Dark Knight and I'm not much of a movie person. I didn't watch any trailers or commercials, just saw a few pictures here and there at some internet forums. I walked into the theatre with an open mind, a large coke, and chocolate raisinets.
About 2.5 hours later, I walked out in complete awe. The Dark Knight was one of my best movie experiences ever. I'm sorry if I'm sounding like the broken record of everyone on the internet who watched The Dark Knight but it's the damn truth. The Dark Knight is the summer blockbuster hit that I'd recommended to anyone with a pair of eyes and ears.
It's no joke that The Joker was about as charismatic as Batman himself. Batman owned, don't get me wrong. The best comparison I can think of is Light vs L in Death Note, lol. I wanted Batman to beat the **** out of The Joker and save Gotham but another side of me wanted The Joker to come out of nowhere and do something that would either make me laugh or cringe with excitement. The Joker himself reminded me of Jigsaw from the Saw movies with his social experiments and manipulation.
To sum it all up, The Dark Night was awesome from the beginning to finish. The acting was great, some of the scenes had me at the edge of my seat, and the action was top-notch. The Joker was hilariously insane, I don't think anyone else can take Ledger's place. I give The Dark Knight 9.5 thumbs ups out of 10. [/spoiler]
July 24th was the opening of the San Diego Comic-Con. Parking was a pain. Waiting in line was a pain. Walking was a pain… but it was all worth the experience.
Click to hear I did to pass the time at Comic-con[spoiler] To fight some boredom, I played a passing out flyers game with my friend to pass the time. The rules are simple. You recieve a flyer from some annoying person and pass the flyer along to another random person.You could also say it was a social experiment. If you gather enough flyers, you can start waving them around and people will actually grab one from your hand. I managed to trade fliers with another annoying person, give a flier to a side-show freak, and hand a flier to a secruity guard. It was **** hilarious. [/spoiler]
The booths are what made Comic-Con though. The Capcom booth had Street Fighter IV, Megaman 9, and best of all, Phoenix Wright merch! Here's some of the stuff I bought:
Click for pics.[spoiler]
Phoenix Wright Chibi Plushy. Objection!
Phoenix Wright DS stylus pen, wrist-strap, and key-chain.
My DS looks even more awesome now.
Apollo Justice key-chain.
Some free **** includes:
Glowy pen thing
Suare-Enix fan fan (clever). Sadly, there was no Chrono Trigger merch.
Pure Pwnage Stickers
God of War keychain
Dr. Tran flier
Other free **** in my corner. [/spoiler]
Some random stuff (Resident Evil 5 spoiler, maybe):[spoiler]
– The G4 booth was riduled with a crowd of G4 fanboys trying to grab Kevin and Olivia's leg.
– People still play and trade Pokemon cards.
– No announcements for a new Ace Attorney game has been said to the Capcom marketing staff.
– Capcom marketing staff also said Jill will be in Resident Evil 5 (thanks to Jamaican Mon for that info!)
– Castlevania Judgement is a fighting game… but isn't a fighting game at the same time.
– Silent Hill 5 looks the same and will play the same on the PS3 and 360.
– Megaman 9 plays exactly like the Megaman games on the NES, which is a good thing.
– I recorded two videos at the Mega64 booth. The first video is showcasing their Wheel of Mystery. The second video is a short interview about Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts.
– The Xbox booth knew nothing about Banjo-Kazooie Nuts & Bolts.
– The food was expensive.
– No Maddox.
– I met the guy who voiced of Niko Bellic, Micahel Hollick .
His autograph. Awesome.
There was a raffle (which I obviously lost) Mr. Hollick was hosting. You write your name and e-mail address on a small piece of paper, put it in a jar, and the person chosen will be able to request a 60 second (I think it was) clip from Hollick of him saying whatever you want him to say with Niko's voice. His actual voice is completely different by the way.
I couldn't get him to say **** off, Roman" in my camera for obvious reasons but I did have an interesting conversation.
JO: So, do you hate Roman?
Hollick in Niko's voice: No, I love Roman, he's my cousin but Vlad is an annoying ****!
JO: Hahaha… I was recording that….
Hollick: *shocked face*
JO: … not really. hahaha.
Hollick: Hahaha, evil.
– The line for the Saw V trailer premiere was really long. I'm not ****' kidding. The line extended to the sidewalk outside the building. It was not worth the waiting for… good thing I didn't. I watched it at YouTube the following week. [/spoiler]
Click to hear what I did when I got back[spoiler] And that's pretty much what went down. After a long walk back to the car and a ride back home, my friends and I stayed up and watched some pastor named Kerney Thomas scream "GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOD" and "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOW" on BET for about 3 hours.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V8KxXHibv6A
What an awesome day. [/spoiler]
Click for E3 and video-game impressions[spoiler] As for video games… Microsoft's E3 press conference was amazing. The new Nuts & Bolts trailer was okay but the announcement of the original Banjo-Kazooie appearing on Xbox Live Arcade was my highlight of E3. FFX13 being ported to the 360 was really unexpected but I was never interested in Final Fantasy and never owned any of the 20+ Final Fantasy games. Sue me.
Soon after, I bought Soul Calibur and Ikaruga for the Xbox Live Arcade, Patapon (PSP), Echochrome (PSP), Gitaroo Man Lives (PSP), Korg (DS) Ico (PS2), and Silent Hill 3 (PS2). I should be getting Okami (PS2) soon. [/spoiler]
Ugh… I'm getting tired of writing this blog… well, I watched the Truman Show and I give it 10 thumbs up out of 10. Wow, that was short. I might write a review later. Maybe I won't. Oh well.
I hope the rest of you have an awesome summer!
/end blog
Original GameSpot Version
July this year was awesome. I don't even know where to begin. So many awesome things happened, I forgot all about blogging, GameSpot, YouTube, a bit about video-games... it was just a blast. Click for short review[spoiler] Let's see, I guess I'll start out with the movie, Hancock. I mentioned I was going to watch it last blog but never wrote a review the following day like I intended to. In short, it's on okay movie. It's not all that terrible like what some critics said on some review sites. My only complaints are sloppy camera work on some scenes, the intro to the movie looking like it was done in Windows Movie Maker, and the plot sorta juggling throughout the movie. But all in all, it was a good movie. Some parts made me lol. I didn't regret watching it. I give Hancock 7 thumbs ups out of 10. [/spoiler] Click for short review[spoiler] A couple weeks later, my friends and I watched The Dark Knight on the opening day, July 18th. First, let me say, I have never watched a Batman movie before The Dark Knight and I'm not much of a movie person. I didn't watch any trailers or commercials, just saw a few pictures here and there at some internet forums. I walked into the theatre with an open mind, a large coke, and chocolate raisinets. About 2.5 hours later, I walked out in complete awe. The Dark Knight was one of my best movie experiences ever. I'm sorry if I'm sounding like the broken record of everyone on the internet who watched The Dark Knight but it's the damn truth. The Dark Knight is the summer blockbuster hit that I'd recommended to anyone with a pair of eyes and ears. It's no joke that The Joker was about as charismatic as Batman himself. Batman owned, don't get me wrong. The best comparison I can think of is Light vs L in Death Note, lol. I wanted Batman to beat the **** out of The Joker and save Gotham but another side of me wanted The Joker to come out of nowhere and do something that would either make me laugh or cringe with excitement. The Joker himself reminded me of Jigsaw from the Saw movies with his social experiments and manipulation. To sum it all up, The Dark Night was awesome from the beginning to finish. The acting was great, some of the scenes had me at the edge of my seat, and the action was top-notch. The Joker was hilariously insane, I don't think anyone else can take Ledger's place. I give The Dark Knight 9.5 thumbs ups out of 10. [/spoiler] July 24th was the opening of the San Diego Comic-Con. Parking was a pain. Waiting in line was a pain. Walking was a pain... but it was all worth the experience. Click to hear I did to pass the time at Comic-con[spoiler] To fight some boredom, I played a passing out flyers game with my friend to pass the time. The rules are simple. You recieve a flyer from some annoying person and pass the flyer along to another random person.You could also say it was a social experiment. If you gather enough flyers, you can start waving them around and people will actually grab one from your hand. I managed to trade fliers with another annoying person, give a flier to a side-show freak, and hand a flier to a secruity guard. It was **** hilarious. [/spoiler] The booths are what made Comic-Con though. The Capcom booth had Street Fighter IV, Megaman 9, and best of all, Phoenix Wright merch! Here's some of the stuff I bought: Click for pics.[spoiler] Phoenix Wright Chibi Plushy. Objection! Phoenix Wright DS stylus pen, wrist-strap, and key-chain. My DS looks even more awesome now. Apollo Justice key-chain. Some free **** includes: Glowy pen thing Suare-Enix fan fan (clever). Sadly, there was no Chrono Trigger merch. Pure Pwnage Stickers God of War keychain Dr. Tran flier Other free **** in my corner. [/spoiler] Some random stuff (Resident Evil 5 spoiler, maybe):[spoiler] - The G4 booth was riduled with a crowd of G4 fanboys trying to grab Kevin and Olivia's leg. - People still play and trade Pokemon cards. - No announcements for a new Ace Attorney game has been said to the Capcom marketing staff. - Capcom marketing staff also said Jill will be in Resident Evil 5 (thanks to Jamaican Mon for that info!) - Castlevania Judgement is a fighting game... but isn't a fighting game at the same time. - Silent Hill 5 looks the same and will play the same on the PS3 and 360. - Megaman 9 plays exactly like the Megaman games on the NES, which is a good thing. - I recorded two videos at the Mega64 booth. The first video is showcasing their Wheel of Mystery. The second video is a short interview about Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts. - The Xbox booth knew nothing about Banjo-Kazooie Nuts & Bolts. - The food was expensive. - No Maddox. - I met the guy who voiced of Niko Bellic, Micahel Hollick . His autograph. Awesome. There was a raffle (which I obviously lost) Mr. Hollick was hosting. You write your name and e-mail address on a small piece of paper, put it in a jar, and the person chosen will be able to request a 60 second (I think it was) clip from Hollick of him saying whatever you want him to say with Niko's voice. His actual voice is completely different by the way. I couldn't get him to say **** off, Roman" in my camera for obvious reasons but I did have an interesting conversation. JO: So, do you hate Roman? Hollick in Niko's voice: No, I love Roman, he's my cousin but Vlad is an annoying ****! JO: Hahaha... I was recording that.... Hollick: *shocked face* JO: ... not really. hahaha. Hollick: Hahaha, evil. - The line for the Saw V trailer premiere was really long. I'm not ****' kidding. The line extended to the sidewalk outside the building. It was not worth the waiting for... good thing I didn't. I watched it at YouTube the following week. [/spoiler] Click to hear what I did when I got back[spoiler] And that's pretty much what went down. After a long walk back to the car and a ride back home, my friends and I stayed up and watched some pastor named Kerney Thomas scream "GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOD" and "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOW" on BET for about 3 hours. What an awesome day. [/spoiler] Click for E3 and video-game impressions[spoiler] As for video games... Microsoft's E3 press conference was amazing. The new Nuts & Bolts trailer was okay but the announcement of the original Banjo-Kazooie appearing on Xbox Live Arcade was my highlight of E3. FFX13 being ported to the 360 was really unexpected but I was never interested in Final Fantasy and never owned any of the 20+ Final Fantasy games. Sue me. Soon after, I bought Soul Calibur and Ikaruga for the Xbox Live Arcade, Patapon (PSP), Echochrome (PSP), Gitaroo Man Lives (PSP), Korg (DS) Ico (PS2), and Silent Hill 3 (PS2). I should be getting Okami (PS2) soon. [/spoiler] Ugh... I'm getting tired of writing this blog... well, I watched the Truman Show and I give it 10 thumbs up out of 10. Wow, that was short. I might write a review later. Maybe I won't. Oh well. I hope the rest of you have an awesome summer! /end blog