When I was asked to write a weekly column for Suicide Girls, my immediate questions was, “About what?” Because, truly, I didn’t know what the fuck anyone reading this would want to hear from me.
“Anything,” they said.
Well, alright. But I’m pretty sure they didn’t mean How to Make and/or Buy Weapons Grade Narcotics: A Guide In Multiple Parts, which is what I wanted to write about. But court sucks, and you know it. So instead, I’m calling this “Things I Like That You Might Like Too.” It’s exactly what it says it is.
Whether you started out playing “Smoke on the Water” using three buttons or if you could 100% “Through Fire and Flame,” the Guitar Hero franchise holds a special place in the heart of the gaming community. That place is now held in memoriam, since last week Activision Blizzard pulled the plug on the groundbreaking series.
While Guitar Hero was not the first format to introduce musical play, it brought the genre up to the forefront of gaming. The first Guitar Hero game gained a lot of attention. Gamers put away their first-person-shooters and real-time-strategy games, instead turning their game nights into miniature rock concerts. After Red Octane (who owned the rights to Guitar Hero) was bought by Activision, Harmonix (who had actually developed the original game) subsequently released their rival Rock Band format, which created some hard competition for the Guitar Hero franchise.
I thought I’d review some games for the iPhone/iPod Touch. For those who don’t have one, never fear! Two of the games are also available online for free.
Generally, I’m the first person to lecherously nod and mumble “breast physics” when a new game like Soul Caliber comes out – which means I’m the last person to be leading the charge at the feminist forefront that is “hardcore girl gaming.” I have thoroughly entrenched myself in the male-gaming mindset: I want my explosions epic, my ladies sexy, and my multi-players noob-free.
However, every once in a while someone emails me just the right words to make me turn into the feminist Hulk, “Bob SMASH!”
Casual games are often looked down upon in the video gaming community. (For a definition of casual games, check wiki.) But I reject the idea that casual gaming somehow makes a person a less serious gamer or that it is inherently silly. I think one would be hard pressed to refuse to admit that occasionally it’s fun to play something that is entertaining and engrossing but that doesn’t require big time/strategy investments. To that end, I check Big Fish Games and Jay is Games daily to see if there is anything new I want to try out. Here are the top four casual games that I’ve been playing recently, and that I highly recommend.
The time warp has flipped and landed The Rocky Horror Picture Show at its 35th anniversary. Marking three and a half decades as the premier cult classic, the “sweet transvestites from Transsexual, Transylvania” are celebrating by invading your homes. Comic-Con 2010 brought the announcement that Glee would be doing a RHPS episode (which is set to air on Oct 26th), and now it has been confirmed that Dr. Frank-N-Furter & Co. will also be taking over your games console with a Guitar Hero track pack.
The film industry has finally decided to put both feet in on the 3-D bandwagon and as a result cinemas have been overrun by glasses-required films in 2010. According to The Illustrated 3D Movie List over 40 movie titles have will be released in 3-D this year. While animated films have primarily dominated the 3-D market over the past decade, live action movies make up almost half of the 3-D films released this past year.
For most of these movies 3-D filming seems to be a gimmick to get more people in seats. Unfortunately many of the movies using 3-D effect don’t really need them. Resident Evil 3D, Saw 3D, and Jackass 3D are all examples of movies that had no good use for 3-D in their execution. I am confident that you won’t miss any gory moments or idiotic stunts if you see the movie in 2-D. Killing zombies is always good but Resident Evil has beaten its franchise to death and not even 3-D can save it.
These movies are only utilizing 3-D imaging as a sales gimmick; and we may soon see many more live action films that are shot in 3-D primarily to sell tickets rather than being motivated by more legitimate artistic reasons. Large film companies are starting to make a wholesale changeover to 3-D. Warner Bros will be releasing most of their movies in 3-D from now on; All future DC superhero movies produced by Warner Bros will be in 3-D, as will all of their tent pole movies.
