Exploring Stuff That Makes Life Great
E3 wouldn’t be one of the best video game conventions around if it wasn’t for the show floor. The show floor allows attendees to experience the video games they had only once heard about.
So how did this year’s show floor stack up?
Not that well. If I actually rated it, I would say F. Yes I FAILED the show floor. Most game companies had their own private showings with exclusive demos, which made the actual show floor pointless. That’s not to say there weren’t interesting games.
As Ted notes, the first Watchmen trailer went online today, and it looks fantastic. Every scene looks faithful to the original graphic novel, which is a relief… for now. Pretty much all the major heroes were seen in the trailer, from Rorshach to Ozymandias to Dr. Manhattan to everyone’s favourite, the Comedian.
But will the movie stay true to the graphic novel entirely? Watchmen is an exemplar graphic novel: it showcases all the qualities of a perfect graphic novel. It is a multi-layered, deep narrative that you can read over and over again without ever getting especially tired of it.
The way the rich art blends with the dialogue and narrative is probably what makes the novel so unique. Watchmen is a story that can only be told completely and fulfillingly in the form of a graphic novel. As Alan Moore himself noted, you read a reference in the novel and flip back a few pages to find that reference and you find out something new. You observe the artwork, the backgrounds, the symbolism, and you always learn something new about the complex and beautifully-built world of Watchmen.
The graphic novel is filled with witty juxtapositions, metaphors, hints and other clues. It expertly blends character exploration with a running story that you’ll never guess. Will the movie be able to capture all of this? Can you really make a decent movie while holding all the subliminal qualities of the novel?
Snyder already proved his mettle with 300, but 300 and Watchmen are two completely different ball games. While 300 wasn’t a bad graphic novel, it was a much easier conversion to the film format. And while the movie did introduce a side-plot I do not agree with, the mild change in style only did good. I’d wager to say that for once, in 300‘s case, the movie was more likeable than the original.
But you’d need at least 6 hours of screentime to convey all the raw information Watchmen bombards you with. There are several layers here, each conveying a deeper sense, a greater gravity to the story and its characters. To fully express them as they were in the novel would be a truly epic task to do in some two and a half hours of film. Snyder is going to have to outdo his previous work.
Also, like the comic, will the movie have hidden hints in the background? Will the movie encourage viewers to see it again and again? Most importantly of all, will it be in the same spirit? Already, I can make out that very minor shift in style from the trailer. It’s definitely good and I love the 300-style flashback scenes from Vietnam. But it is also definitely different.
Watchmen has a reputation in the world of graphic novels. The problem is, since movies are a much bigger world, will Watchmen achieve a similar status of recognition? The Dark Knight appears to have made its mark with the critics, giving comic book movies a lot of hope, but not everyone is a Christopher Nolan. Well, maybe Zack Snyder is.
While 300 magnified the original and became a success, the comic had been received similarly. Will the Watchmen movie be received with all the appreciation of the graphic novel? If it is, then it will get ratings and reviews no less than what The Dark Knight is bathing in right now. We definitely hope it does, because with better and better comic book movies (Iron Man included), the entire comic book movie industry might be in for a facelift.
This will result in higher bars for Marvel’s upcoming plethora of movies. Perhaps DC’s empty lineup will also receive some entries, such as Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, the Justice League, or of course, the Superman franchise that seems to have gone dead after Brandon Routh donned the red cape.
We shall wait and we shall see. Watchmen comes out on the 6th of March next year. Kick ass, Snyder.
Anime Fan Boy reviews Teen Titans Season 5! Now available on DVD. All 13 episodes from the Cartoon Network show with some special features. Based on DC Comic book super hero characters.
Overall don’t bother watching this show if you’re over 10 years old. Not for adults. Very young kid show.
This is the game that we play: Who’s trailer is better – the fan-made or the studio trailer!
Terminator Salvation is the fourth Terminator film. We’ve covered it before. However we now have the trailer. The fan-made trailer was made before the official trailer was released.
Warner Bros. trailer:
Fan-Made trailer
Now that you’ve seen them let us know what you think!
Continue reading “Terminator Salvation trailer”
StuffWeLike.com highlights the Sony E3 2008 Conference. Resistance 2, LittleBigPlanet, and Killzone 2 are only a handful of games shown during the conference. Sony unveiled a Massive Action Game, Playstation Network videos, and Ratchet & Clank Quest for Booty.
Let us know what you thought was the best game or software shown at the conference!
At the E3 Media & Business Summit today, Nintendo unveiled an enhancement for its iconic Wii Remote controller and new games that promise to further enrich and engage players around the world. These offerings build on Nintendo’s ongoing efforts to remove the barriers between expert and novice video game players, an approach that has been instrumental in creating a paradigm shift for the industry since the advent of the Nintendo DS portable system and the Wii home console.
“Much has been reported about the ‘expanded audience’ for games, but what’s really at play is an expanded experience,” said Cammie Dunaway, Nintendo of America’s executive vice president of Sales & Marketing. “People of all ages having fun together—whether in the same room or from remote locations—puts smiles on faces and drives millions of new players into video game entertainment.”
Wii Sports Resort is not just a simple sequel to one of the world’s most popular console games, Wii Sports. It is the first title to make use of another Nintendo advance, the Wii MotionPlus accessory, which plugs into the base of the Wii Remote controller to provide an incredibly realistic motion experience. Scheduled for release in spring 2009, Wii Sports Resort includes new game experiences such as Sword Play, Power Cruising on a water scooter and Disc Dog, along with the new Wii MotionPlus accessory and Wii Remote Jacket at no additional cost. The Wii MotionPlus enhances precision and player immersion for the Nintendo-pioneered motion-controlled gaming trend that has drawn millions of new people to the world of video games.
This holiday season, Animal Crossing: City Folk lets players move into a fun community populated by quirky animals. Players can improve their community, chat with the locals or just spend the day fishing and collecting fossils. There is also the opportunity to catch a bus into the new urban city area. Though you’ll never see other players in the city, you can connect with them in new ways using WiiConnect24, such as bidding on your friends’ items at the auction house or visiting the Happy Room Academy headquarters to see the top-rated player house. Another new feature in Animal Crossing: City Folk is the ability to visit friends’ towns and chat with one another using the new WiiSpeak microphone. The WiiSpeak microphone is sold separately at an MSRP of $29.99 and allows Internet voice chat among Wii Friends – not just from person to person but from room to room.
Wii Music makes it easy for people to jam to tunes, even if they don’t know anything about music. Wii Music transforms the Wii Remote and Nunchuk controllers into more than 60 different instruments, including a violin, steel drums, electric guitar – even a cowbell. Players strum, shake, tap and drum along to the music in a pressure-free musical playground where there are no mistakes. They can improvise on their arrangements by skipping a note – or adding 10. The music always sounds great, but it’s up to players to come up with creative arrangements that they can then send to friends and family who have Wii Music. Those Wii Friends can then put their own spin on the arrangement and send it back and forth over WiiConnect24. Wii Music will be available in the United States for the holidays.
In the portable category, Nintendo DS remains on top. Nintendo DS has sold more than 20 million units in the United States and more than 70 million worldwide. Third-party publishers continue to take advantage of that installed base. Coming this winter exclusively to the Nintendo DS is Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars, a new entry in Rockstar Games’ award-winning and hugely successful Grand Theft Auto franchise. Activision’s exclusive Guitar Hero On Tour: Decades makes its anticipated debut this fall, as does a collection of wild and wonderful critters from Electronic Arts’ Spore Creatures.
