JsARCLIGHT

A guy at work just showed me the "end game" screens from Doom 1 and 2 and I stand corrected that indeed they do say you were in "hell" and that you "beat hell" only to return to earth to find it taken over.

The shareware version of Doom 1 kills you after you beat the first boss... so you can't go on to the next level... but the real version of the game just starts the next level. My point was that despite all the imagery I don't think they ever come right out in the first Doom game and call the "other side" "hell".

And my original point was that to hollywood it is irrelevant. The "movie" to them is simply someone else's take on the story of Doom. Why was the Resident Evil movie not about Chris Redfield and Jill Valentine fighting in an old mansion? Because it was some hollywood corn-hole's "revisioning" of Resident Evil, his "take" on it. Same thing goes for every other video game movie that has been made... they never match what actually happens in the game. Just look at Mario Brothers the movie... ugh. Hollywood, to the people there, is about artistic expression and personal vision... even if it is just porno or mindless shooter movies. They pride themselves on taking a good starting idea and totally screwing it up into something they think "speaks". Just look at all the good books that became terrible movies, all the great comics that became horrid movies... the old rule still stands: if you want something done right do it yourself. And until the original makers of games themselves turn to moviemaking the movie adaptations of games will be just that, someone else's adaptation. I believe that is why games today like GTA have become almost cinematic in their presentation... the game makers are blurring the line between cinema and game. Think just how screwed up a movie about Vice City would be. As I originally said, I'd go see this movie if it was free and I had time to kill but even if it was a fanboy wet dream of exact representation I'd still avoid it. I played the game and thus I "lived" the movie... no need to go back and watch someone else's thoughts on the subject.

That is Doom 3 though. Doom 3 is a completely "different" game with a different story than Doom 1 and 2. Doom 3 is built on the evloved lore of the first two games. Doom 1 was just this simple shooter with a cut and paste story to hold the game together.

From what I recall I don't think ID ever came right out and actually said the bad guys were from hell. Sure it's implied with their demonic nature, all the demonic symbols and imagery but if I recall correctly the "story" of Doom all they really said was "... something evil came out of the gateways...". Seeing as there is no actual dialogue in the game it was the players that came to the conclusion that the baddies were "from hell" and that they were "demons". The closest they ever got was the name of one character, the boss from the end of the first world in Doom 1 the "Baron of Hell". I'm finding myself agreeing with Agent ONE on this that the whole concept that these baddies are "from hell" is not neccessary. Look at movies like Virus and Hardware (yes yes I know bad examples) but both of those movies had icky biomechanical critters that you could call "demonic" yet there was no direct connection to anything "hell" related. I think AO's point is that as long as the baddies are grizzly and ghoulish, the hero hard-boiled and trigger happy and the general "gist" of the concept: one man versus the horde is kept then the "Spirit" of Doom remains.

I would think that a "sequel", be it a traditional linear sequel (AvP 2) or offshoot (Aliens vs. Predator vs. Soupey Sales) is... as they put it in Hollywood... "natural" at this point. I think the only way this movie would have never spawned a sequel is if it had just totally tanked. And the sad thing is that even in today's world nothing totally tanks anymore. My two favorite examples of things that by all accounts totally tanked and took their makers down with them are Final Fantasy Spirits Within and Gigli. Both completely tanked at the box office... I mean, they went down with all hands tanked. Ishtar level tanked. Yet for some stupid reason they both made more money in the aftermarket DVD sales and rental arena. Truth be told it was still not enough in either case to save the movies but in the case of FF:SW it has had not one but two DVD releases and rental releases... add those numbers together and that $100+ million box office loss starts to vanish fast. I think the chance to kill AvP was when it was in the theaters... and it did not happen. A sequel will most likely be coming soon to my (and other's) dismay. In the end, like it or hate it AvP is just another straw in the hay square of modern Hollywood business practices: release a sub-par movie focused on a target audience with disposable income and very low expectations and make just enough money to keep the studio afloat. That is the blessing and curse of the media of movies, as the viewers get too old to "like" the tripe another generation of dumb kids with money in their pockets shows up to take their place. We are the older people now, we demand more from our entertainment... but the young turks that took our spot don't just like we did then. The cycle continues. Us bitching about how we hated the movie is expected... as is the sequel that we will bitch and moan about even more. In 1984 Aliens was for us... this is 2004, AvP is for them.

In all truth the movie still made back it's production budget... it's the DVD sales that will return the marketing budget as is usually the case for movies like this. DVD sales are always thought of as the "recoup" period of many film's releases... they "automatically" sell a certain number of copies to the rental places and mass retailers. If anything AvP is another glorious example of "Break Even Syndrome" that Hollywood has come to embrace. They make films today basically to "break even" when all the cards are down. Break even movies keep everyone employed and keep the cameras rolling and the lights hot. They buy that tenth Mercades on the blockbusters success or failure.

If you ask me (which no one actually did ) Doom is a victim of yet another Hollywood boardroom brainstorming session. They had 10+ years to make this movie, as fanboys would say, the "right" way but they did not. They sat on the license. For what reason we may never know for sure, it could have been they were shy about the violence level... they might not have had a workable marketing plan for the movie... or today's catch-all excuse: they did not want to "offend" anyone. My guess is that someone made the call that a Doom movie was too far behind the fad in the mid nineties... they missed their window of opportunity then and just back burnered it. Because after all, in a world of fanboy logic nothing ever "leaves" it just becomes "classic" but to the rest of america if it is not in their face 24/7 they forget about it and move on to the next best thing. Doom came and went. No one cared anymore. Then all of a sudden you have all the Resident Evil hubbub again with the movies coming out. The first did well enough to have a sequel and my guess is people noticed this. Then all of a sudden GOONK! Doom 3 comes out. Doom is suddenly marketable and relevant again. They break out the old license they still hold, shred the old scripts which most likely had some sort of bizzare Trent Reznor early '90s grunge dank and dark pre-SE7EN feel to them and replace them with something more "contemporary". I for one will not be in line to see it but then again for all intensive purposes this movie is not being aimed at me, the original Doom fan... it is being aimed at the pre-teen and teen slasher flick audiences of today. You know, the people with more money than brains and a ravenous need for entertainment.

Seeing as this movie is officially "out" of theatrical release now we can look at it's box office numbers and get a clearer picture of it's success/failure. Here's the data to date: Total US Gross: $80,281,096 Production Budget (est.): $70,000,000 Worldwide Gross: $102,481,096 So the movie did actually make money. Not gobs and gobs but in a business like Hollyweird when you can loose the farm or buy hundreds of farms just on the stake of one movie this one did better than break even. As for it's DVD release just like M. Night Shaymalan's "Village" it was pushed back into January, fearing holiday cometition with the other big name DVD releases. Word on the street is it was a Pimp named Silky... oh wait... went into Huggy bear mode there again. Release date is January 25, 2005 on DVD.

As far as I know there is only one "script" and "release" of boot Zero DVD right now... they all are garbled engrish in the subs and you are much better off with the DL'ed ones which actually do vary between similair crap and quite good subs. Kevin Lam at Valk Exchange is the supplier I'd recommend. He is top notch and is more "your own backyard" than some unknown on eBay. Support the local boys first is my motto and Kev's great service will keep you coming back.

FX is the "maker" of the Perfect Edition. When we say the "FX Edition" we mean "Perfect Edition". As for future releases of Zero pretty much all of the "DVDs" out there macross wise (outside of a handful) are bootlegs. Boots by their nature are cheap (in material and quality) so a "better" Zero is a nebulous thing. Someone could actually hire someone who understands the english language to retranslate and resub Zero for the bootleggers and then re-release it with subs that make sense... but that rarely if ever happens. Most of the time the bootleggers just rip the same old cut they have on different discs with different art. The only other option is to hold out hope for an R1 release.

The problem with lists is they are all opinion... and everyone has a different opinion. If it was me making the list it would be all anime from the '80s and '70s (stuff that was around when I "got into" anime). But that is me. I think the only list that people would not bark "crap!" at would be a sales figure list with the top selling animes of all time. ... of course those numbers would be hard to come by as tracking sales data over the decades is almost impossible in some cases.

I'm also running a HiDef setup with a Samsung "upconvert" DVD player. Get the FX version it is the cleanest out there of the boots, very little picture degridation but you can still see some. I still hold out hope for a R1 release with a better bitrate...

Wow, I had no clue people were so obsessed with the codpiece. If anyone cares my usage of "codpiece" was not vernacular but desciptive in the means that the groin armor section of a Gundam really, really resembles a middle ages european codpiece... which is a piece of clothing and not a piece of anatomy. Perhaps in today's world of pac man and dan fogelburg the kiddies have turned that word into a slang term meaning "wang" or "doodle" but to most people a codpiece is an olde tyme garment that is basically what men had before the coming of the zipper. This lovely site tells a nice yarn about the codpiece: Click me So basically a codpiece is not the acutial unit itself but something that keeps people from seeing your unit. To quote Maurice Chaves from GTA: Vice City: "When I go to buy a transmission or an airconditioning filter I don't want to have to look at your money maker, amigo."

I guess some folks don't "get it" then because I keep hearing guys in the office complain about the "puzzles" in HL2.

While I can't call myself a "Dimebag" fan I have to admit it was pretty darn low for a fan to jump up and "Lennon" him right there on stage. If there is any justice heads will roll over this... I'm predicting lawsuits against the club for not screening the patrons. Not necessarily from Dimebag's people but from the families of the four other dead folks. And drug user or not no one deserves to be dropped while onstage doing something that brings joy to others. If he was robbing a liquor store while doped up on goofballs and shot a grandma then yes he deserved it but this Dimebag guy was just doing something he liked for people who liked him... and he got killed. Low. Very low. I'm glad the perp is DOA. I also think this will firestorm the club on concert circuit into mandatory door checks. I get the impression it was only certain artists or venues that did checks at their own discression before but now there is a precident... and proof that any locale can have trouble start.

Question from someone who doesn't know: Why was there not some form of door security in place? You hear all the time of rap concerts having screeners wanding people at the door, checking for weapons... I assume this happens at more than just rap shows. Then again all the concerts and clubs I go to are not as... "hardcore"... as those. Seems rather shortsighted of the management to not have screenings at the door. Perhaps this will indicate to people how it's "not just those darn rappers" that people need to worry about. Also I'm shocked that it took the arival of a cop to put an end to this... also shows how ill equipped concert security is to deal with a "real" situation. Then again they are usually pitted against drunks and rowdy college boys. What sort of world are we living in where people feel the need to kill musicians?

I thought it was just one of those Microman "blanks" with a gundam head and codpiece on.

Being over 30, having no family in town other than my wife and neither of us believing in the commericalism of the holiday season my predictions for my christmas haul are: jack and squat... and jack left town. I plan to buy myself a few things in the next few weeks though... I guess you could call those christmas presents.

I also don't see how Gordon Freeman puts people off... I mean, other than the box art and a few times in the manual you never see his face again. Just because you are "looking through his eyes" does not make the player a "dork" in any way shape or form... (donning the shirt in the collector's edition box on the other hand... ding ding ding ding! DORK) In the course of the game you do everything that you do in a FPS but not anything "dorky". It's not like the game is a FPSS (First Person Science Sim) where you are mixing chemicals in a lab and contemplating theory... you are blowing the crap out of things. One thing I can say has "put off" a few people I know from playing HL2 is the implied "headiness" the game has generated. Somehow there is this buzz that the game has tons of puzzles that are far too hard... I have no clue who started that one. Sure it requires some nonlinear thinking but what kind of computer game player out there can't think outside the freaking box for ten seconds? As for valve's requiring an internet connection I have my own feelings on the subject. I see it as an intrusion. I know Windows intrudes on me as does all the spyware and other crap I have to keep cleaning off my system... my thoughts are that if I buy a hard copy of a game at a brick and mortar store it is nobody's business but my own who knows I play it. To me, I am paying for the right to privacy... but alas big business and big government see it other ways. It's not paranoia after all if they really are out to get you.

Oh wow it is the Agent ONEdam. Come to think of it I believe Agent ONE has posted pics of himself balancing on his codpiece as well.

That one was NIB sealed DS that sold to an international bidder so take that number with a grain of salt. I have only seen two used open DSes sell on eBay and both sold for under retail. I've also seen another one for sale open/used with Mario on another site that sold for about $150. Used game systems drop in value like a used car... unless you find a totally crazy buyer. Either way I'll most likely dump it on eBay later and I'm expecting to have lost money on it, perhaps as much as 25% when the chips are down. Unless someone makes me an offer... Now back to the MGS3 discussion.

Heh, Just thought I'd offer up that DS... I pretty much think people who get that doll will part with an arm before they give it up. ... and getting rid of this DS for a decent recoup will be hard. These things loose value like a pinto off the lot from what I've seen. I guess to eBay it goes like all the other garbage... I mean... "collectables".

The doll in question is the MGS3 Solid Snake made by Medicom. Supposedly it is limited to 1000 pieces and I have seen it pre-selling at some stores for as low as $188 and as high as $250. As for the DS I found one in stock at a local Best Buy (turns out they were hiding them under the counters without letting people know they actually had them, you had to track down a blueshirt and ask). I bought it on a whim along with Mario DS. Needless to say it wore out it's welcome fast. The thing is all gimmick and very "been there done that" when the gimmick of the touch screen wears off. But that is another topic all together. This is the Snake doll of which I speak:

My wife really likes the game and... well... I still have not really played it that much. And once again our hobby of collecting military dolls bleeds over into something she likes again. Anyone have one of those rare Medicom Solid Snake MGS3 dolls yet? She is contemplating getting one but I told her to hold off until we see someone with one talk about it. $200 is pretty steep for a military doll and I'd like to know if it is worth the ducats before dumping them down another video game doll. She likes her Konami/Yamato MGS dolls so this one hopefully will be similair if not better... but those are $20 each and this one is ten times that. Exclusivity has it's price I guess. (on another note if anyone actually has one of these and wants to sell it or trade for it let me know. We have a brand new Nintendo DS with mario that we are going to trade soon if anyone is interested)