Thankfully, it doesn't.
Heat implements action only in those scenes where it's truly warranted, whether it be in the film's handful of helicopter scenes (hello, great swooping movements!) or its half-dozen or so car sequences (D-BOX always does car scenes right). The film also has more than its fair share of gunshots and explosions, each of which gives a satisfying thump to the chair.
Not surprisingly, though, the most memorable scene in terms of Motion Code is also the film's most memorable scene in general: the downtown shootout after a botched bank robbery. Easily lasting 10 minutes, this scene provides an opportunity for D-BOX nirvana: explosions, gunfire, car chases, blunt collisions and all manner of audio-induced movements. It's clear that the motion engineers put a lot of work into this scene, because nearly every possible element that could have supported motion does support it. The ironic part of including all this action in a single scene, though, is that there's so much movement and thumping that it actually almost "numbs" viewers into forgetting it's there. Truly, to start taking D-BOX Motion for granted -- whether in a home-viewing environment or at the handful of theaters where motion-equipped seating is available -- is a sad thing. Yet the almost "over-stim" nature of this scene flirts with achieving just that.
On the whole the Motion Code is minimally used throughout the film, but take into consideration that the movie's nearly three hours long, so the ratio of exposition to action is particularly high. In addition, D-BOX wisely let Heat's plot unfold and characters develop without the unnecessary distraction of errant movements, using Motion Code only where it makes the most sense. As a result, Heat is an excellent film that makes excellent use of D-BOX support, but it's not necessarily "The One" title you're going to use to showcase the technology. Its best scene is almost overwhelming, while the rest of it provides a perfect complement to the film without going overboard. Experiencing Heat with D-BOX in full force is still a very fun experience, but considering that Motion Code "gawkers" are probably more interested in fast-paced action than deep exposition, Heat isn't the best option for showing off the system to your friends.
-- Jonas Allen
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An Xbox Live Gold account will be required to access these features. However, for a three-day period (Nov. 20-23), Xbox Live Silver members will be able to enjoy XBL Gold features for free, including Facebook, Twitter and Last.fm.
So, what are the specifics? Glad you asked:
According to this article in the Wall Street Journal, "Apple has made clear that it intends to go after Nintendo's turf. At a media event in early September, Phil Schiller, Apple's head of marketing, said dedicated gaming devices like Nintendo's DS and Sony Corp.'s PlayStation Portable 'seemed so cool' at first but now 'don't stack up' to the iPod Touch or iPhone.
"...But [Nintendo] hasn't been immune to the recent competition from cellphone games and an industry-wide slump. Last month, Nintendo reported a 52% drop in profit for the first half of its fiscal year, which ends in March, as sales of its Wii console and DS gadgets cooled. It also predicted its annual profit would fall for the first time in six years. ... [Meanwhile,] Research firm DFC Intelligence says growth for dedicated game machines like the DS and PSP has peaked and Apple products will drive the portable game market over the next five years. Revenue from iPhone and iPod Touch games, according to DFC, is expected to rise from $46 million in 2008 to more than $2.8 billion in 2014. Meanwhile software revenue from dedicated gaming devices is expected to shrink 27% to $6.3 billion in the same period."
There's a lot more info at the Wall Street Journal link, so I'd encourage you to check it out. But long story short: if Nintendo isn't afraid of Apple, it should be.
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This free giveaway is possible due to the generous support of Coke Zero, which is also offering a free download of the Coke Zero Dodge Viper SRT10 on My Coke Rewards (here's the link) and $10 off the retail game if you don't win this contest (check it out here). The Coke Zero Dodge Viper has improved speed, acceleration, handling and braking compared to the regular Dodge Viper featured in the game, and it's available to use in both the Online and Time Attack modes. Want to see it in action? Check it out here on Youtube: see the Coke Zero Dodge Viper in action.
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Once you've entered the contest, make sure to check out the Web sites below, too. After all, if you're trying to win Fight Club on Blu-ray, you're probably pretty excited about the film, so you'll likely dig these sites.
The goal of Project Mayhem is to spread the Fight Club ethos - to take the sad man in the office and turn him into a proud beast living a raw, simple primacy. After going to this Web site, log into Facebook and see your personal information, including your name, pictures, location, etc. pulled into a personalized Mayhem. Within seconds, you can see yourself and your life inside the world of Fight Club.
Meanwhile, The Fight Club Experience is the ultimate fan aggregator. Similar to Fight Club, the widget plays off the theme of mob mentality and collects/houses all the relevant Fight Club information happening around the Web -- in real time -- into one stream of consciousness. This includes Twitter, Flickr, DVD reviews and quotes, Facebook and YouTube. In addition to the constantly updated content, the users can also view movie clips and learn the rules of the Fight Club.
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The pocket BLU app, designed for iPhone and iPod Touch and available for free from the App Store, uses the device's WiFi connection to work seamlessly with a network-connected Blu-ray player. Upon connecting with the Blu-ray player, it offers an advanced remote control for playback, a Video Timeline (if the device is oriented to landscape), exclusive Mobile-To-Go content on the Blu-ray Disc, and a Pop-Up Keyboard that lets users chat online with friends while watching the movie.
The other new technology, social BLU, allows users to easily sign on with their Facebook and Twitter login information and enjoy a variety of connected Blu-ray features with their friends. Users can update their Facebook and Twitter profile statuses via BD-Live, and with the click of a button rate the movie, send messages and (on future releases) be able to share film-related user-generated content with their friends via their social networking pages.
The pocket BLU app will debut this holiday season on the Blu-ray editions of Bruno (November 17), Funny People (November 24), Public Enemies (December 8), Inglourious Basterds (December 15), American Pie Presents: The Book of Love (December 22) and 9 (December 29). The social BLU technology will debut on American Pie Presents: The Book of Love.
Additionally, Universal announced it will unveil an all-new redesign of its BD-Live Center on Funny People, which makes the dynamic content on the multimedia portal easier to access, more engaging, and easier to use. On future releases, Universal will deliver additional new features based on these platforms.
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FoxPop is a downloadable app that "listens" and syncs within seconds to an exact moment in a movie using real-time audio recognition technology. As events pass in the timeline of the film, facts and trivia automatically "pop-up" on the iPhone or computer, offering viewers new information each time they watch a movie. Whether it's an actor on the screen, an exotic location, or a catchy song, FoxPop instantly provides everything viewers want to know about the scene.
Additional application features include the ability for fans to share and chat with friends while watching a film via social networks such as Facebook and Twitter. A collapsible dashboard provides people with a large space to see information about the characters, places and trivia related to the film.
The FoxPop feature is making its debut with Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian. It will work with Blu-ray Disc and DVD versions of the film -- but since you probably own a PS3 if you're visiting this site, it's safe to say you'll want to get the Blu-ray version.
FoxPop is a joint effort of Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment, Spot411 and The Cimarron Group.
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On the hardware front, home console sales are expected to decrease by 10% over last year for the month of October, with all platforms except the PlayStation 3 posting year-over-year declines. It's worth noting, however, that even though the Wii will report fewer sales than last year, it still sold more units than any other console in October.
Software sales for October 2009 will come in at $620 million, an 11% decrease over last year. However, unit sales are only down by 6%, so the overall revenue decrease is expected to be the result of lower average selling prices.
Additionally, EEDAR predicted that the New Super Mario Bros. for the Nintendo Wii will be one of the top titles this holiday season. While in the short-term the Xbox 360 version of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 may surpass New Super Mario Bros, in the long-term New Super Mario Bros will easily become the best selling title released in 2009 with expected lifetime sales exceeding 15 million units worldwide.
Uncharted 2: Among Thieves is expected to be the top-selling game for the month of October 2009, with more than 600,000 units sold. If sales trends continue through the holidays, Uncharted 2: Among Thieves will only be the third first-party title on the PlayStation 3 to sell over 1 million units domestically.
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In addition, starting today (Nov. 10), nearly 80 full-length Disney movies are on the PSN video store or will be there in the next few days. Of those 80 films, 60 of them will be available in in high definition, including A Bug's Life, Cars, Ratatouille, WALL-E and Monsters, Inc.
Monsters, Inc. is also available now on Blu-ray Disc, as is UP -- which is launching on PSN the same day as the film's Blu-ray release. UP is available to own for $14.99 in standard definition and for $19.99 in HD.
The other Disney films are already available for rent, with prices ranging from $2.99 to $5.99. Today's just the first time they're available for purchase.
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The weapons with which players dispatch consumables vary from food dehydrators to choppers to vacuum-like suckers, each of which can be upgraded multiple times after earning the required number of points. These upgrades are handy in later levels, where enemies are stronger, but they also encourage replayability of earlier levels, which always remain available to try and find more hidden items. This open-ended structure isn't just for going back, though; players can also play any the five levels within a "chapter" in any order they wish. The order in which they're played has literally no effect on the outcome, but the pseudo-freedom is a nice touch for the five to eight year-olds for whom Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs is designed.
Will adults enjoy Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs? Well, parents can blow each level in about seven minutes, so the challenge won't be there. But watching the kids laugh out loud as they work through waves of cheeseburgers and hack gummy bears is a blast, and it's obvious the kids enjoy the experience too. Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs won't likely win any Oscars, and its videogame counterpart isn't likely to top any Game of the Year lists either. Not if compared to adult-minded games, that is. But for kid-focused entertainment and the knowledge that a movie-based game is actually well executed, it's hard to top these meatballs.
-- Jonas Allen
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OK, so it's not scathing or even a retail bitch slap, but it definitely squashes any rumors of endorsed pre-sales from the retail channel. If you've heard of someone playing Modern Warfare 2 before its official ship date, the person is either lying through his/her teeth or works at a store and has opened the package all secret-like. Either way, Activision has not supported pre-sales of Modern Warfare 2. You'll just have to wait until midnight like the rest of us.
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Eddie Riggs, the main character in Brutal Legend, has all manner of attacks and special moves available to him, from melee to distance to some that border on magic. He has a roadster-like car to traverse the massive semi-open world. There are "mini-games" spread throughout that world including races and save-the-dude type missions. But amid all the options, I couldn't help but feel as though I'd played this game before, and in about 15 different flavors. Whereas Schafer's previous games have had a laser-like focus on a few gameplay elements that help advance the story, Brutal Legend's focus seems to be on its characters and cast -- which epitomize and caricature hard rock -- while dozens of gameplay elements were thrown in just for the sake of providing variety.
For instance, the game world in Brutal Legend is absolutely huge, but driving from primary mission to primary mission feels tedious and really takes away from the need/desire/demand to always be in the The Energy RC-Micro home theater system delivered the sound for this review.action. The various power-ups players have at their disposal -- including a gameplay mechanic by which players enter a 10-second Guitar Hero-like mini-game to activate special powers -- seem far too numerous and lack relevance half the time. Then there are the RTS elements, which are so poorly executed that it makes you wonder why Double Fine put so much focus on them in the game at all. Really, it's like the development team got so caught up in having more content-per-pound in Brutal Legend that they just threw things in for the sake of a feature set. Sure, there's plenty of stuff to do in Brutal Legend. Yes, it's all based religiously on the world of hard rock. Of course, Jack Black brings some one-liners that'll make you laugh out loud at times. But put it all together, and the game's pretty vanilla. You've played it all before, just in a different wrapper.
Other "me too" games -- and let's face it, that's largely what Brutal Legend is in terms of gameplay -- overcome this feeling through the charm of their characters. But "charm" requires the characters to resonate with gamers on a different (more emotional?) level that goes beyond just "that's original, and it fits within the confines of the game concept." Brutal Legend has all the pieces, and in fact it might even have too many, but none of them seem to jive, and the ones that matter most -- the characters -- completely fail to connect with players on any level deeper than a one-off joke. As a result, all those pieces that fill the world and gameplay of Brutal Legend fall flat.
It'd be too harsh to say Brutal Legend falls flat, because the game's not exactly a stinker. But the whole in this case actually isn't greater than the sum of its parts, leaving Brutal Legend to feel like nothing more than an "average" game. By any other standard, that's fine, but for Tim Schafer and the team at Double Fine, I expected a more. In two words, I expected "charm" and "cohesion." The characters are there, the consistency is there and the original concept is there. But the "personal" connection and charm that endeared me and thousands of other gamers to titles like Psychonauts is not there, and the individual gameplay elements just aren't executed well enough or seamlessly enough to really compel you to keep going. Unless you're absolutely die-hard about hard rock and heavy metal, Brutal Legend is one game you can relegate to a rental.
-- Jonas Allen
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OK, maybe not. But still, the story in Ratchet & Clank Future: A Crack in Time is being billed as the series' most epic to date. There's also a slew of new gameplay elements such as time-based play, and as always there's a nice dose of outlandish weapons.
Undoubtedly you'll want to get your hands on this new PS3 game, so we're giving away a free retail version of Ratchet & Clank Future: A Crack in Time in this contest. To enter for your chance to win, simply complete and submit the entry form below by 11:59pm PST on Dec. 14, 2009. Site registration is not required. Anyone worldwide 18 years old or older can enter once per day per email address. Winners will be randomly chosen. Odds of winning vary based on the number of entries received, and you can increase your chances of winning by coming back to enter every day. Good luck.
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In this latest game giveaway, we're sending one lucky winner home with their very own copy of MotorStorm: Arctic Edge for PS2. To enter for your chance to win, simply complete and submit the entry form below by 11:59pm PST on Dec. 13, 2009. Site registration is not required. Anyone worldwide 18 years old or older can enter once per day per email address. Winners will be randomly chosen. Odds of winning vary based on the number of entries received, and you can increase your chances of winning by coming back to enter every day. Good luck.
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No matter, we know you'll want what we're giving away in this latest game contest: one brand-new retail copy of Space Invaders Extreme 2 for Nintendo DS. To enter for your chance to win, simply complete and submit the entry form below by 11:59pm PST on Dec. 12, 2009. Site registration is not required. Anyone worldwide 18 years old or older can enter once per day per email address. Winners will be randomly chosen. Odds of winning vary based on the number of entries received, and you can increase your chances of winning by coming back to enter every day. Good luck.
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