After it had been in (and gone from) the back of my mind for some time, I have finally managed to see “Bubba Ho-Tep”. It’s a comedy, a film about old age, and it’s all good. And it’s got Bruce Campbell as Elvis in it.
Recommended (although the whole premise sounds majorly weird and confusing).
Picked up “The Twin Snakes” and “Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow” on Friday. Been mostly playing SC:PT as that had me dying slightly less often (or more accurately it took longer to get from the last checkpoint to the place where I usually died so that subconsciously it felt like I was dying less), but TTS also looks nice and still retains most of its slickness.
I haven’t gotten around to trying SC:PT online, which supposedly is very good (in spite of the glaring quickmatch bug).
I have been (or more precisely: I currently am) catching up on anime (at the cost of Ninja Gaiden) and so far have gotten to the current episodes of “Naruto” and “Full Metal Alchemist”. Both rock, but in rather different ways. “Naruto” is simply good entertainment (massive build-up but also a good pay-off (e.g. the Hokage fight)), whereas “Full Metal Alchemist” is for a slightly older audience and seems surprisingly coherent and has plenty of shock-value.
I have been playing quite a bit of “Fire Emblem” over the weekend, and have finished chapter 9. It is a very nice game (if you enjoy this sort of strategy/RPG cross-over), and somehow seems much more interesting to play than “Final Fantasy Tactics Advance”.
Ninja Gaiden rocks. It’s not too easy, but as I’m making steady progress it seems fine so far. Now it just needs to come out in Europe soon and preferably uncensored. Did I mention I modded my XBox? :p
Project Gotham Racing 2 (PGR 2) looks very nifty and plays just as good. It’s the first time in a racer (only having played even less realistic ones like Burnout 2 or Need for Speed: Underground) I’ve gotten a rush driving with high speed at a sharp corner, braking at the last second and managing to slide around it. It’s also the first game that made me understand how brakes could ever be a problem in racing… 😉 The amount of licensed cars in the game is also very high, so that chances are that you’ll find a car you like. Whether you like driving it is another story.
Top Spin is a very nice tennis game. Excellent graphics (and sound, too). In general (for all of the games) the 5.1 sound is awesome! I very much recommend the digital sound hookup (although I had to to a lot of fiddling to get Composite-video from the RGB-Scart cable (couldn’t get S-Video to work)). The only thing I wish they improved in Top Spin is to shorten the loading times and to “smoothen” the very digital movement animation for the replays (i.e. for replays fit some sort of spline through the points where the characters are moving as it is very evident when a human player changes direction).