Geek Woman Speaks » Game Movies

Kokkuri – san : The Forbidden Game

geek-woman — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 14:38:41 +0000

There is a divination method popular in Japan that is similar to the Ouija board. The Kokkuri device is hand drawn each time it is used instead of using the pre-made cardboard one. Although the Ouija dangerously enters the participants into a contract with random and often deadly demons. The Kokkuri summons specific helper spirits from Shinto. The three pictograms in the word Kokkuri are Kok (狐 kitsune fox), Ku (狗 inu Dog), and Ri (狸 tanuki Badger or Japanese raccoon dog). The fox can be either a trickster or a teacher. The dog has the attribute of loyalty and the raccoon dog is a bringer of good fortune and luck. None of them is inherently evil. Like any form of fortune telling the Kokkuri format could be subverted and used to invoke something evil. That subject is the theme of manga, anime, movies.

To perform Kokkuri-san, at least three people are needed and a ten yen coin is used on the sheet of paper with the matrix of Kokkuri-san drawn out on it. Kokkuri – san contains numbers, a basic Japanese alphabet, yes, no, entrance, exit, and the torii gate of Shinto shrine.

The modern variation of this mysterious divine device is featured in popular Japanese television anime XXXHolic. The Kokkuri – san is also called Angel-sama and other names depending on the different areas in Japan. It appears in episode 3 of xxxHolic “Angel”.

Many manga and anime have had themes about kokkuri – san including the episode 4 of TV anime Bokusatsu Tenshi Dokuro-chan, Ushiro no Hyakutarou (manga), and in Ghost Hunt “FILE 6: A Prohibited Game #2″ “FILE6″ the Shibuya team discovers the popular spirit-summoning game called ‘Orikiri-sama’ this time which may have propted a suicide, and resulted in many spirits inhabiting the school.

Kokkuri-san is also the title of a Japanese horror movie that was released in 1997 in Japan it was and in America with the title Kokkuri. The movie is a subtley made suspense chiller. The film demonstrates how a slice of life can reveal an occult side of what appears to be innocent. Without a musical score and only using natural sounds, with no special effects and realistic portrayals of the supernatural, the movie is an elegant red gem.

Crank 2 The Movie that Should Be a Game

geek-woman — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 07:01:02 +0000

With the release of Crank 2: High Voltage today it’s worth mentioning that the Crank movies deserve to be video games. The movie all ready resembles GTA China Town Wars a great deal. Crank 2 starts out with a formerly dead main character who re-spawns exactly where he “died”. He finds guns that are successively larger as he navigates his way through a maze of storage containers, taking out guards from behind. It seems like GTA and a stealth game had been merged to form this movie. He jumps and runs like the guy in Infamous and recharges himself with electricity the same way. The first part of the imaginary movie game would have him looking for ways to get adrenaline. Can you imagine a game where you have to pump adrenaline to keep the character alive and one of the tasks is public sex in China Town? For a female avatar you would have Bai Ling. She is a good asian action film star and she would be a fun avatar in a video game that had a decent kung fu sword fighting engine.

Ghostbusters PS3 Review

geek-woman — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 03:23:11 +0000

Ghostbusters is an action game that was made about a movie which came out in 1984. A re-release of the movie for it’s 25 year anniversary is out on blue -ray. Regardless of the intentions, it is more than a bit weird to have a game come out 25 years later. Then as fun as it might sound to carry around a positron collider and a nuclear accelerator in a back pack, it isn’t so much in the game. After the first few times that you trap a ghost, you’ve pretty much done all there is to do. You grab the ghosts with the ray gun make a few button presses to slam the trap shut. There isn’t much of a talent to that.
You play as an anonymous rookie ghost buster. There isn’t any character creation. A simple one would have been welcome. Playing as a female Ghostbuster would have been novel, and additional ESP powers could have been added. What about Janine Melnitz the female character from the Ghostbusters franchise? She was the secretary and love interest of Dr. Egon. Having the choice to play as here would have been interesting.

Another problem is that this is yet another game where the character hops around on tip toes. The physics engine makes the avatar feel weightless and disconnected from gravity. The game comes from the Bloodrayne development team at Terminal Reality. The Infernal Engine gives the game a hoppity hop feeling to motion. The controls are very squishy and inaccurate. There are a few different weapons and upgrades but they didn’t seem to do much to improve the accuracy. It’s too bad that it isn’t set up more like a regular shooter. The levels are poorly designed. That is made worse because there doesn’t seem to be a map system. So time is lost running around trying to find where you are supposed to go.

The voice over work is done by the original actors. That’s funny, but it isn’t enough to make the game a great one. It’s fun to play along with the actors and it would make for a more engaging experience if the controls were’t so disconnected. Bill Murray’s portrayal of Dr. Peter Venkman sounds flat as if he was tired, or maybe he had a hard time imagining why anyone would buy this game 25 years after the movie was popular. At best it might be worth a rent for an evening of play.

Ghostbusters, despite being a cult classic movie like Caddy Shack, it is still just an average video game. I give Ghostbusters 7 slam traps out of 10.

WoW The Movie : It’s Real This Time

geek-woman — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 14:14:30 +0000

Over at AICN this morning they are breaking an exclusive scoup. They have confirmed that Sam Raimi is going to be directing the WORLD OF WARCRAFT movie. This is a major step in the right direction to getting the project off the ground for real. The former Xena and Hercules director will be a good match for the sword and sorcery genre. The game has an estimated built-in audience of 11 million people. It is going to be interesting to see how well the audience accepts the screen play and the execution of the huge geek favorite as a movie.

Blood: The Last Vampire (2009) : Video Game Movie Review

geek-woman — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 15:20:47 +0000

The anime series Blood + and the short film Blood the Last Vampire (2000) were very good anime. It also spun off PS2 and PSP games. The anime and manga had a deep plot and a vampire mythology that was a little more fresh than most. They used mythology and settings from ancient Egypt, Bordeaux France, Viet Nam, Okinawa, Russia and New York City making it exciting. The major conflict was the inner turmoil of Saya the half breed who was challenged to apply her humanity to her job of eliminating Chiropteran (vampires). Her sister Deva plays the part of a feral evil twin and nemesis. The operatic singing of Deva could have been made into something very spooky on the big screen. You follow the sisters through 50 episodes that are pretty suspenseful. It has some eye opening twists, one involving boy – rape by a female vampire, which is something that you wouldn’t see on American television, that’s for sure. The last ten episodes of the anime alone would have been enough to make a fantastic action movie. However the Blood: The Last Vampire (2009) live action movie did none of this. Somehow the train that is at the beginning of the film got hijacked. Suddenly there are characters that are not in the story line. They introduce a typical female in distress American summer scream type as a side kick for Saya. Instead of the silent and long suffering Hagi, and the five elegant and deadly Chevalier that surround Deva, we have a chick. They named her Alice no less. Could this have been any more trite? They did not get into the blood curse – which is the essence of Blood. They whole angle of genetics and technology is left out. The interesting government conspiracy level is never explored. That part of the story arch lifted the series up a notch to resemble something as deep as Ghost in the Shell but depth was clearly not what they went for. They even changed David’s stoic legendary role to some throw away guy named Michael. Sure re-tellings and alternate universes are understandable and make good OVA’s. The short anime film Blood the Last Vampire (2000) was far apart from the anime series Blood + where you could call that an alternate Saya. But it makes sense because each time the Queens wake up from the 30 year cocoon sleep their personality adapts to the times they are in and the people that they imprint on. Unfortunately the Blood: The Last Vampire (2009) movie is terrible. It has nothing going for it. It is embarrassing to be a Blood+ fan and see this. We would like to see something that advances anime movies into the American theaters, and more on DVD’s. But when they turn out garbage with bad acting, unkempt fight scenes that are covered up with flashy strobe lights, and have winged monsters that look like they are action figures tossed around on strings, you aren’t entertained, you just get pissed off. The animation was horrible. The directing on this film was a bandage job for all its flaws. Dark lighting was overused to cover up blunders. The movie needed a pair of Japanese or Egyptian twins with fighting skills. You mean to tell me that there aren’t two Japanese actresses or cosplayers even, who would have been up for this role? So if you are a fan of the anime please don’t go to this abortion of a film, because you will rip your hair out. This film gets 1 drop of sanitized black blood out of 10.

Good Girl Power : Nancy Drew

geek-woman — Sat, 20 Dec 2008 15:08:03 +0000

Here’s a good girl power combo for a stocking stuffer to go along with the new console or laptop that you got for your favorite gal. Emma Roberts makes an adorable faux Chanel designer / Mac geek in the movie. For young or old the appeal of Nancy Drew never wanes whether it’s in this live action movie, or the video games. New recently from this timeless franchise is the White Wolf of Icicle Creek for the Wii or PC. Enjoy all the suspenseful fun of super sleuthing that has brought up to date with great gadgets like GPS, iPhone and other product placement. Let’s face it who wouldn’t want their daughter to have a purse loaded like Nancy’s so that she can find her way out of any jam? And don’t forget to include the Band-Aids and paper clips!

Silent Hill : Homecoming PS3 Review

geek-woman — Sat, 08 Nov 2008 02:35:21 +0000

Silent Hill Homecoming is a good representation of the franchise. It has come a long way since Silent Hill 3. They have a revamped combat system which is an improvement over the PS2. The story – line is as abstruse and weird as hell as usual. The lack of readily available weapons and ammo is as frustrating as it always was. Happenstance puts Alex in an empty town, sewer, cemetery, hospital, old hotel, and churches where there aren’t many legit reasons why guns and ammo would be lying around. The elusiveness of Save points is as exasperating as ever. In short, it is as it should be. Both hardcore fans like myself who have played all the games as well as newcomers who were first introduced to the Silent Hill universe, through successful video game movie have plenty to look forward to.

However it isn’t perfect. It could be better. The controls, through revamped for Homecoming, don’t hold a melting candle stub to Resident Evil 4. I found myself wishing for the stingily given amount of ammo in RE 4 which would seem extravagant by comparison. Thankfully there are several walkthrough available online. I tried the ones on Mahalo, Wikichats and Neoseskers and found Neoseekers to be the most detailed if not the most readable for the migraine getting set. The two types of attacks which are supposedly quick with the X button and not so heavy using the Square button leave much to be desired. Opening and closing doors shouldn’t be as hard as it is. You can dance all around a door trying to find just the right spot to trigger it. I wouldn’t expect a fighting engine like Soul Calibur, but some better and more exciting moves would have been welcome considering the advance in the PS3 software and how other games have taken fighting more seriously than they seem to have in Silent Hill. Alex also has a disappointing dodge move by using the O button which does little when trying to dislodge the Swarm which are blood drinkers.

Aside from the few complaints about what it doesn’t achieve it does one thing exclusively well. It’s scary. This game has one of the best done if not the best sound track and music. Homecoming evokes a shudder reaction as you turn corners and enter darkened hallways. It isn’t just the now characteristic and much copied blood spattered hallways. Or the shambling, no-armed zombies that glow and pulsate. Not only are the partly human, flesh and tooth headed creatures disgusting, but the whole miasma of grossness is orchestrated with perfect horror timing. When bloody crap squishes down off the ceiling, or a swarm flies up at you it has the taint brought by a movie directors eye. Add to the surprise moments a DualShock controller and the combination is still freaky after all these years. There you have it. Good old Silent Hill. There’s lots of fog, rows of shuttered storefronts, tree-lined streets inexplicable bottomless pits, rising coal fire smoke and sparks and wreckage. The trade mark Silent Hill games have a slow and steady pace with a still strange atmosphere.What is different this time is that Alex Shepherd returns home to find his town of Shepherd’s Glen blanketed in fog. On the way he slips into Silent Hill in a dream, then horrifically finds that his own home town has become engulfed in a similar bizarre world. He finds his mother sitting catatonically clutching a pistol. Alex then has to go in search of his younger brother Josh. And even his little brother is acting strange. There are flashbacks that show his father chopping into a corpse too.

The monsters are nasty of course such as zombified nurses, armless creatures that blow poison gas, an inside out dog. Mannequins mated with dirty pillows romp around. The controls are still crude and the weapons are limited. The quaintness of the interface is all part of the experience. It’s frightening, inexplicable and imperfect. I give Silent Hill : Homecoming eight buxom, headless nurses out of ten.

Go See WALL_E

geek-woman — Sat, 28 Jun 2008 04:23:05 +0000

The internets are buzzing tonight while Mac fanatics get nostalgic about a little robot. Hell I’ve believed that Macs were sentient since 1993. Over at the Unoffcial Apple Blog they are mentioning that Disney-Pixar’s new movie WALL -E boots up making the old standard Mac startup sound the infamous “sosumi”.
Come to find out they report that Apple has connections with the movie. Steve Jobs is apparently the largest single shareholder of Disney-Pixar and he’s on the Disney Board of Directors.

WALL•E’s job is to wander around an abandoned Earth, pick up trash, and compact it into small blocks. However, when he finds something that he likes, he keeps it. It didn’t get past me that one of the things he likes is a 700 year old iPod that he has rigged up as part of his makeshift music system. WALL•E’s girl friend, EVE, was actually designed with the assistance of Apple Senior VP of Industrial Design Jonathan Ive, who apparently spent a day with the Pixar team in 2005 consulting on the ultra-sleek floating robot who bears a startling resemblence to my Apple Airport Router…

This movie has a very romantic and sentimental theme. It’s a perfect date movie. If you are a Mac fan, a Star Wars fan, or a Star Trek fan you will love this movie. It’s good green fun, and it has an important message delivered with just the right ammount of humor and sensitivity. Go see it and bring friends.

Kung Fu Panda Game Trailer

geek-woman — Sat, 10 May 2008 03:54:53 +0000

STOP UWEBOLL.ORG Press Release

geek-woman — Wed, 07 May 2008 17:05:30 +0000

STRIDE® GUM DECLARES ITS SUPPORT FOR STOPUWEBOLL.ORG
The Makers of Stride, The Ridiculously Long Lasting Gum®, Offer A Total of One Million Packs of Gum to Signers of the Anti-Uwe Boll Petition on the website.

May 7, 2008, Parsippany, NJ– In an effort to protect the childhood dreams of millions of video gamers everywhere, the makers of Stride gum announced today that they are launching a special campaign supporting the efforts of StopUweBoll.org in their attempt to convince famed film director Uwe Boll to stop making video game-based films. For years, Boll has piqued the ire of the gaming community by adapting many of their favorite games into universally panned films. On April 4, 2008, Boll remarked to legendary horror site FearNet that he’d consider acquiescing to his critics and abandoning making films in this genre if an online petition reached one million signatures. As of press time, the petition is just about 234,000 names, which is why Stride has decided to jump in.

“Since gamers are one of our most supportive groups, we’ve been looking for ways to return the favor,” said Gary Osifchin, Stride North American Marketing Director. “And what better way is there to get gamers’ backs than by helping them rescue their cherished videogames from the clutches of Uwe Boll?”

In an effort to help boost signings, the makers of Stride have put out a special bounty. If the petition reaches the required 1 million signatures by May 14 at 5pm EDT, each signer will receive a digital coupon* for a pack of gum, downloadable on May 23, 2008, a day that could really use some long-lasting refreshment, particularly as it will see the debut of his latest videogame-based film.

“Look, it’s nothing personal against the guy. Maybe his non videogame-based films are unbelievable! But we’ve seen such intense passion for this cause that we couldn’t help but get involved,” said Osifchin. “Let the signing continue.”

* Stride will provide a downloadable coupon (good for one pack of gum) to each petition signer that will be downloadable on May 23, 2008, if the target of one million signatures is reached between May 7 and 14, 2008. Additional details will be forthcoming.

About Stride®

Stride® The Ridiculously Long Lasting Gum® was launched in 2006 to give gum chewers a fun, unique and long-lasting chewing experience. Stride, a Cadbury Adams, USA brand comes in seven flavors – Winterblue, Spearmint, Sweet Peppermint, Forever Fruit®, Sweet Berry, Sweet Cinnamon, and new Always Mandarin™. To find out more about Stride, our friends and what the brand is up to visit STRIDEGUM.COM.

About Cadbury Adams

Headquartered in Parsippany, New Jersey, Cadbury Adams USA LLC, is the U.S. confectionery business unit of Cadbury Schweppes plc – the world’s top confectionery company (and the only confectionery company with market leading positions around the world in chewing gum, candy and chocolate categories).

The brand portfolio of Cadbury Adams USA LLC includes some of the best-loved confections in the US, including Trident®, Dentyne®, Halls®, Bubblicious®, Sour Patch®, Swedish Fish®, Chiclets®, Certs® and Stride™, The Ridiculously Long Lasting Gum™ and Green & Black’s® organic chocolate. Cadbury Adams USA “firsts” include the first vanilla pellet gum (Dentyne Ice® Vanilla Chill™), sugar free pellets with two contrasting flavors in every pack (Trident Strawberry fusion flavor), easy close envelope packaging, and the first center-filled pellet gum in the US (Trident Splash®). Trident ®Tropical Twist® was one of the first fruit flavored gums to lead the gum category. Green & Black’s organic chocolate is one of the best selling chocolates in the natural food channel. Our people create brands people love with passion, dedication and drive. For more information visit www.cadburyadams.com