My favorite thing on Twitter ever

I keep meaning to post this, and I figured it's high time.

Patrick Weekes is one of the writers on Mass Effect.
Jennifer Hale did the voice of the female Shepard.
I am Baron von Chop.
Mark Meer did the voice of the male Shepard.

Star Wars: The Force Unleashed is better than you'd expect

The game's marketing pushed the physics engine, and how enemy characters react to being tossed around.

** Contains Some Minor Spoilers **

Star Wars: the Force Unleashed is a fairly old game, having originally been released for the XBox 360 in 2008 and the PC in 2009. I had heard mixed things about it, so I never bothered picking it up until this past Star Wars Day (May the Fourth be with you), when all the Star Wars games on Steam were on sale. It was only a few dollars, so I grabbed it. I was pleasantly surprised by what I found: the gameplay was quite fun, and the narrative, while not great, at least made an effort to tell a new, interesting story.

Brütal Legend: A review with many images

Prepare yourself for a world of heavy metal

I have many reasons to love Double Fine Entertainment: They made Psychonauts, one of the best and most unique 3D platformers I've ever played. They're a Bay Area company, so they're local boys. They are run by the immensely likable Tim Schafer, and they used to (but no longer) employ Scott Campbell (and Scott C did a large chunk of the concept art for Brütal Legend). I recently added one more reason to like them: they made Brütal Legend, a game that allowed me to spend more than 20 hours exploring, fighting in, and ultimately saving a heavy metal world.

Brütal Legend is famous for a very mixed reception at its launch. Commercially, the game was a failure, and it led to Double Fine shifting their focus from AAA titles to smaller, less expensive projects. Gamers didn't know what to make of the hybrid tactical/action game, which combined elements of Real-Time Strategy, open-world exploration, and hack-and-slash fighting.

I had the (somewhat dubious) advantage of waiting several years before playing the game because it took that long for a PC port to come out, but that meant that I had a good idea of what I was getting myself into. I played Brütal Legend on its own terms, and I found myself loving almost everything about it. It's not a perfect game, but it's so relevant to my interests that I don't even care.

(Brütal Legend has such a cool-looking world that this review called for a lot of images, some of which are a little spoilery but presented without context.)

There's no paper in Star Wars, and 4 other things I am glad Star Wars lacks

Image from the datapad entry on Wookieepedia

Star Wars fans know that one of the rules of the setting is that there is no paper in Star Wars. Star Wars may take place "a long time ago," but it's full of spaceships and blasters, so it makes sense that people wouldn't still rely on chopping down trees, mashing them up, pressing the paste flat, and smearing ink over it to convey messages. Instead, characters in Star Wars use datapads to record and transmit information. If characters absolutely have to jot something down, they use flimsiplast, which is basically "space paper."

Though the lack of paper in Star Wars is hardly vital to the setting, it got me thinking about the other things that I am glad Star Wars doesn't have. As it turns out, most of the things on my list exist in Star Trek but not in Star Wars. I love Star Trek, too, but these differences help the two great franchises "feel" different, with Star Trek being more science fiction and Star Wars being more space fantasy.

Thoughts on the upcoming Superman and Batman movie

Apparently a new movie featuring both Superman and Batman is in the works, according to an announcement made at Comic-Con. When I first heard the news, I had a brief moment of excitement, and then boredom set in almost immediately. I thought the recent Dark Knight trilogy was okay but seriously overrated, Superman Returns was just bad, and I haven't bothered to see Man of Steel yet. But I've had some time to think about it, and I think that a crossover movie might actually be pretty cool, depending on what direction they take it.

This post contains spoilers for the Dark Knight trilogy. Coming right up, in fact.

I saw Pacific Rim and it was amazing (spoiler free)

I was totally looking forward to seeing Pacific Rim. Pacific Rim promised giant robots fighting giant monsters, with the budget and the creative direction that such an awesome premise deserves. I watched it with my wife, who was at least as excited to see it as I was, which is really saying something. But since we had built up the movie to such a ridiculous degree, could it possibly live up to our expectations?

The answer is a 25-story-tall "YES."

Pacific Rim looks amazing and I can't wait to see it

I have been geeking out about the upcoming movie Pacific Rim ever since I first heard of it If you haven't yet, you owe it to yourself (and your inner 12-year-old) to watch some of the Pacific Rim trailers on Apple's iTunes Movie Trailers site. Pacific Rim features giant robots fighting to save the world from giant monsters, and it is directed by Guillermo del Toro, so you know those giant robots and monsters will look great. Best of all, Pacific Rim comes out this week!

With the movie so close to release, my geek-out level is approaching dangerous levels, so I thought it might help stabilize my inner fanboy to talk about my expectations. To keep things simple, I will use an approach that my 12-year-old self would have approved of, and split my thoughts into things that are awesome and things that are dumb.