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Best Movies of 2008
2008 has come to an end, and you may have gone to the movies around 5 times this year if you are an average American citizen. I know for myself that I have been a few more times than that and something gives me the feeling most people have been to more than that as well, but the national average still stands a 5 movies a year.
Throughout this year there have been many good movie releases; some were noted for their excellent screen play, some were noted for good special effects and so on, but I rank movies just as how good they are in general.
Starting with The Bucket List, released January 11 starring Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman, is the story of two dying men who want to get some things done before they “Kick the bucket.” Jack Nicholson’s character, Edward Cole, is the owner of a large hospital and uses large sums of money to take him and Carter Chambers (Morgan Freeman) on the adventure of their lives. They do things from racing cars on a track to sitting atop the pyramids of Gaza.
Iron Man, released May 2, this film, starring Robert Downey, Jr. was one of the best movies of the year, no doubt. The good special effects, cameo comedy, and realistic romanticism pushed this movie to the top of the list. The basic plot line is, a man is captured by terrorists, he makes an “Iron Man” to escape. He escapes and refines his “Iron Man Suit” idea. Another man steals the plans, and the other man tries to rule the world.
Get Smart, released June 20 starred Steve Carell and Anne Hathaway as undercover agents in a company called “Control”. Control is trying to take down “Chaos” in this comic James Bond-like film. Steve Carell lives up to his comic ability 
(as shown in The Office) and makes this movie one of the funniest movies to release this year.
The only cartoon movie to make this list, WALL-E was released June 27. It was the classic telling of a robot who discovers love. Though slightly on the younger side, WALL-E is fun for all ages and the wonderful music scores help emotion and suspense move the word-less plot along.
Perhaps the best movie of the year, The Dark Knight, released July 18, starring
Christian Bale, opposed by Heath Ledger (The Joker) was a must see. The movie grossed just under 1 billion dollars in the box office, making it one of the largest grossing movies of all time. Though its predecessor, Batman Begins, was not nearly as large a hit.
Eagle Eye – released September 26 – starring Shia LaBeouf. This movie is an action movie about a man named Jerry who is running from the program “Eagle Eye” who mysteriously sees everything he does and is able to predict what he can do to avoid complete destruction while running from the FBI because of the terrorist equipment that was placed in his aparment by and unknown party. This movie is non-stop action and is very entertaining.
Lastly, Yes Man, released December 19, starred Jim Carey as the first new Jim Carey starred movie in over a year. In the movie, Carey is forced to say “Yes” to every question asked of him, no matter how ridiculous. This opens for funny opportunities as well as helping the main character find true love. This movie is the comedy must see of the year.
I may have missed a movie or two on this list, as I have not been able to go and see the movies that closed out the year, such as Valkyrie, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Seven Pounds and The Spirit.
Need for Speed: Undercover on the Wii
This game was just the step up from NFS: Carbon that the public was looking for. If you are sitting at your computer and asking, “Why is the public looking for something similar to Carbon?” then you obviously are not part of the public trend that is the Need For Speed series.
From high speed pursuit to high speed racing, NFS: Undercover is the high speed thrill ride it should be. The one advance from NFS: Prostreet is the return of Free Roam. If you are asking what free roam is, you probably should go play one of these games. Free Roam is one of the greatest racing game inventions since the taco car from Top Gear Overdrive for the N64.
The basic idea of Free Roam is you get into a really fast car. That car is unable to be destroyed. You are now unleashed on a city. Sounds fun, right? Prostreet lacked this very intuitive feature from Carbon which has been upgraded in Undercover. The main upgrade is the three cities connected by highway. Although the cities are small, the tri-city of Undercover gives a feel of a realistic city.
The graphics of Undercover aren’t bad, but aren’t the greatest either. The main problem isn’t how good the cars look, its the physics behind those cars. If your car hits something, that something goes flying, and you do nothing. However, there are certain things that, if you hit them, you stop instantly and they do nothing. I suppose there can be some serious drawbacks to playing the Wii version of the game as opposed to the 360 or PS3 versions.
Overall, I would rate Undercover quite highly, with a good ending and reasonable plot line to keep me entertained for the 10-some-odd hours it took me to complete the game.
Final Fantasy Crisis Core – The Gem Among Common Stones
Final Fantasy Crisis Core is a PSP game that shines out around the others. The PSP is notorious for short games that don’t seem to stand up to the PS2 as they were supposed to do. Crisis Core is an exception to that rule.
The basic storyline of Crisis Core is to show where the characters Zack, Cloud, Sephiroth, and some others, originated from. Many characters recognized even by gamers who don’t enjoy RPG’s include Cloud and Yuffie as they were both featured in popular Final Fantasy franchises and even games not related directly to the Final Fantasy line.
Crisis Core is the story of Soldier Class 2 Zach, who eventually grows to Soldier Class 1. A Class 1 Soldier deserts the Soldier company and many follow him, including Zach’s mentor, Angeal. Zach is pulled into the conflict quickly, as Soldier’s ranks are diminishing and you are put in control of the character.
The battle style of the game is different from traditional Final Fantasy games. You are put into the action. Though you still choose what attack to do, you are pressured to make that attack quickly as action is the method of choice for fighting. You fight using a sword and have magical proporties as well as an ability to use special sword techinques. This fighting style is much more silimar to the Kingdom Hearts style of battle. The woman who says “Activating Combat Mode” at the beginning of every battle is very annoying though.
The game is lacking one major element; however, this element has been lacking in nearly every Final Fantasy game: Multiplayer. This game would pull off multiplayer more effectivly than others due to its action battle style. One nice feature that continues to reappear in RPG games is the option to start over with continued stats. The game is also very long, taking me about 16 hours to complete, a very long running time for a PSP game.
Bottom line, this is an excellent game, if you have a PSP I highly recommend checking it out.
Bob’s Game – 15,000 Hours of Work for a DS Game
Bob’s game is a new game to come out for the Nintendo DS sometime in the next year hopefully. Robert Pellini has spent 15,000 hours on his game, all done on his home computer with C++. He plans to find a publisher and send the game through to stores near you sometime in 2009 if a publisher can be found.
The basic concept behind the game is “Who Is Yuu?” Yuu is your character. You control the sprite and do different puzzles and other interactions around a fairly large city.
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Robert explains the game on his site, quoted below:
Hello.
My name is Bob, age 25.This is my game for Nintendo DS, a 20-hour-long retail-size,
retail-quality adventure title by a single human being-
the largest game ever made by one person.“bob’s game” is a simple 2D adventure game, with focus on
story, puzzles, item collection, and communication instead
of repetitive battles with palette-swapped enemies.Many characters (over 200 completely unique characters!)
have deep personalities that evolve, and many things
depend on the in-game time, day and weather.
It’s the game I wanted to play when I was younger,
a vision I’ve been following since then.
Google Chrome – The New Look of Future Browsing?
Could Google’s attempt at an internet browser be a huge success, or just a flop? Google released Google Chrome on September 2nd and they are making some pretty big claims about their new browser. I’ll start first with the mechanics behind the browser.
Chrome uses a different method behind it’s tab system. Instead of opening each tab under the same process, and lagging the computer as well as consuming memory, some of which cannot be reused until you restart, Chrome opens each tab in a new process. In this way, if one tab goes faulty, the whole browser doesn’t crash, just the tab. If you prefer to use tabs over windows, this is the browser for you. If you prefer to use windows over tabs, this is the browser for you. It’s unique drag and drop design allows you to separate tabs into windows, and windows back into tabs again. This is all done at a quick speed, and there is no lag time involved.
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Monster Hunter Freedom 2 Review – Still No Online?
Monster Hunter Freedom 2 is a PSP exclusive MMO style “free roaming” killing game, released in late August of 2007. After almost a year of being on the market, the game is beginning to gain hype in the United States. Known in Japan as Monster Hunter Portable 2G, the series is extremely popular, and had no trouble selling two million copies of the game. The basic gameplay of MHF2 is quest based. You choose a quest from a list according to your skill level, then you are sent on that quest, and cannot return to the village or leave the area of that quest until you have fulfilled certain requirements, such as killing a monster, gathering specific materials, or killing an amount of monsters. You will then be allowed to return to the village to restock and upgrade armor and weapons with materials you obtained on your quests. For those people who enjoy griding to get that special weapon, or full armor set, this is a game for you.
Unfortunately, this game did not take advantage of its greatest potential, online play. Though this protects those newer players who may not have the kind of armor and abilities that other more experienced players may have, this decreased game appeal greatly. Adhoc (system to system) play is possible, allowing players to play quests with nearby friends who also happen to own MHF2, but the lack of online play throughout the world is a real drawback.
Monster Hunter Freedom 2 takes advantage of the PSP’s control and graphic capabilities. There are many things you can walk though, or stand inside that you shouldn’t be able to, but the massive size of the game makes these drawbacks acceptable. The controls take some getting used to, and at the beginning you may find things sneaking up on you due to no dual joysticks on the PSP, which reduces your ability to use the camera effectively, but after a few hours, this camera problem will be replaced by habitual scanning of areas. The controls also take a bit getting used to, but after they are mastered, they are actually well done for a PSP game.
Monster Hunter has always lacked a storyline, and Freedom 2 does not cure this problem. There is no storyline at all really. You lead the life of an average hunter, who goes on quests for people in the village you call your home. These quests range from getting herbs for some old lady, or killing a huge dragon for some coward who can’t do the job himself.
The grinding of the game can get old, but the sheer depth of the game is enough to keep fans occupied for hundreds of hours. If you enjoy MMOs this is a good game to play in the car, or if you are just bored and want to kill monsters. If you have a PSP I would recommend picking this game up, you will get plenty of play for your pay.
Screenshots of the game:
Bowman 2 Lets You Arrow Your Friends
I pulled up Addicting Games today and while looking for something to do, I rediscovered Bowman 2.
Bowman 2 is a well-made flash game in which the player’s job is to kill the other player without moving. You use the mouse to create an angle with the bowman’s arm and bow, and then let go and fire. It usually take about 3 hits to take down an opponent, or 1 hit in the heart or head.
There are multiple modes for Bowman 2 in addition to the original Bowman. There is a target practice in which the player shoots at a non-moving target. There is also Bird Hunter for those people who want to shoot at moving targets of different sizes.
While playing single or multiplayer, there are new editable features. You are able to create a wall between the two opponents, and change wind speed. These allow for a slightly more difficult game.
Though slightly on the easier side, Bowman 2 is an improvement over the original, and is great if you have another person breathing down your neck who wants to take a turn on the computer. Just tell them, “Hey! Lets play Bowman 2!” and maybe you can buy yourself a little more time in that comfy computer chair.
Line Rider 2 Beta- A Flash Game to Remember
Line Rider 2 Beta is a flash game that you find yourself playing again and again. The objective of the game is prevent the little man on the sled from falling off of the lines you draw for him to ride along. Want him to fall straight down at 356 MPH? Go for it. Want him to fly off of gravity defying loops? You can do that too.
Line Rider 2 has many advantages over the old version. The most obvious addition is the eraser tool. It allows you to erase lines if they happen to make your character fall off his sled. He is very fragile, and will fall off sometimes at the slightest bump. Which brings me to one of the next additions, the sled rider is now harder to throw off of his sled, allowing people with no previous experience in the Line Rider Beta game to be able to pull off cool tricks with ease. You now also have the ability to draw scenery lines. These little lines are lines that the sled will not touch. He only passes though them, as they are used to add a background to your track. If your sled was not going fast enough, then another useful addition is the acceleration lines. These increase the speed of the sled dramatically. They let the user make line rider go up 45 degree angles, but if you get him going up much further than that with only acceleration lines and no natural propulsion, then you will find him flipping backwards over himself. Another new tool in Line Rider 2 is the flag tool. When you are creating a longer track, then you can use the flag tool to change the point at which line rider will start. This saves time, because you don’t have to wait for your character to travel the entire length of the track when you are testing new additions to your track. The magnifying glass tool is another useful addition to Line Rider. It assists you in finding the pesky problem areas. The new additions make Line Rider 2 far better than Line Rider Beta in terms of ease and entertainment.
Now that Line Rider 2 has been out for a while, fans are awaiting the new Line Rider game, and some may be surprised to hear that the popular pc game is coming to Nintendo Wii and the Nintendo DS in the form of Line Rider 2 Unbound. Line Rider fans are excited about what is to come in Line Rider 2 Unbound. It adds the element of art, which allowing you to create amazing tracks.
All in all, if you are looking for a challenge, give Line Rider Beta a chance, but if you just want to take the time to create an amazing track with a slightly easier interface, play some Line Rider 2 Beta.
A Book That Will Slip Under Your Skin
Ted Dekker’s Skin is the story of Wendy, a young adult who has escaped from a cult. Her family abused her, and she now has trouble with men. She is unable to touch them, and has trouble talking to them at all, due to her horrid childhood experiences. Now Wendy is on a trip to meet up with her long lost mother, but is side tracked in a freak storm. After she barely escapes crashing into a truck in the middle of the highway, she picks up a woman, who has passed out after having been bitten by a poisonous snake, and also picks up her brother. She invites the siblings into her car and they drive toward Summerville, a small town five miles away from the highway. She gets trapped in Summerville with Colt, a cop from L.A. who moved to Summerville to calm down his rough life, and Pinkus, a hardcore gamer, who was to enter a tournament in L.A. Wendy and her friends then have to survive not only a F6 tornado, but a lunatic killer by the name of Red.
Skin is edge of your seat entertainment. It will keep you turning pages hour after hour, and you will be unable to put down the book until you have finished. Again Ted Dekker delivers with a killer thriller with its own personal twist on good vs. evil. Get to your local library and pick up your copy today, or buy it now.
Hell of Sand – A Good Time-Wasting Flash Game
Hell of Sand is a flash game located at Andy’s Life. Though Andy’s Life should not be your one stop for flash games, I would highly recommend that you check out Hell of Sand. Actually, the game has almost no point other than to have fun and waste time. You set the rules, you set the conditions, and you have more fun. You can create pictures, and do things such as creating large explosions and seeing which kinds of substances explode, or melt, or do other things in relations to the plant, the fire, and the water. Everything is shaped to be like sand, but most substances follow realistic patterns, such as gunpowder exploding and plants flourishing under water.
If you are one of those people who have to have some kind of goal to meet, then this is not the game for you, but if all you want to do is make something that you can enjoy for a while and then delete, or you just need to blow 10 minutes and don’t want to get too deeply involved in a good flash game, play Hell of Sand. If you need to meet some kind of requirements, then go play something else like The Last Stand 2, otherwise Hell of Sand is your game.