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The Finest Hour : Review for Scott Pilgrim vs. The World the game

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Everyone is all caught up in the mania that is Scott Pilgrim’s precious little life. Ubisoft is one of many at the forefront leading the march with the release of the game Scott Pilgrim vs. The World. PS3 gamers got a 2 week head start since their version release coincided with the release of the movie. The game only just dropped on the Xbox Live Arcade and I’ve been dying to give it a go to witness the magic for myself.



The game loosely follows the story of the comic and puts you in the shoes of Scott, Ramona Flowers, the object of his affection and Sex Bob-omb band mates Stephen Stills and Kim Pine. The game features 4 player co-op. In the comic, Scott has to fight for Ramona’s love against the league of her evil exes. Each fight brings forward a new opponent and challenge for you to take down!



The game falls under the classic side-scrolling action beat ‘em up formula. Each character features their own list of moves which you unlock as you level that character. You gain experience by (you guessed it) taking fools to school. In true beat ‘em up fashion, the players have to fight their way through legions of baddies to reach the next big fight. The combat is deep enough that it keeps you on your toes and forces you to vary your attacks to keep defeating enemies.



Each character also gets two special attacks, one featuring Knives Chau, Scott’s high school aged ex-girlfriend where her actions differ by which character summons her. Every enemy you fight and defeat drops money, which can be used to purchase items from one of the many stores in the game. There you can purchase food, specialty items to boost your stats or even lend some dough to a friend in need.



The game is a super stylish old-school wonderland. The colors are super vibrant and in your face. The levels are packed to the brim with tiny details, including weapons ranging from bricks to bamboo branches, barstools to broomsticks and swords to skateboards. Basically, if isn’t tied down to something, it’s fair game. If you’re familiar with the comic, you’ll see tons of familiar faces and in-jokes plastered all over the place and it shows a nice attention to detail by the people responsible for making the game.



To add the old school allure, the game features sounds straight out of some older titles to add authenticity. The soundtrack is done by NYC chippunk band Anamanaguchi. The music is hyperactive, wild and above all emanates nostalgic It fits like a frighteningly tight glove and gives the game style for miles.



The game especially shines when more players are brought into the picture. It’s a true co-op experience that rewards you for playing with friends with team up attacks and bonus damage. The game, however, is local multiplayer only. It takes zero advantage of Xbox Live, which is the biggest con of the entire game. Other than the lack of online multiplayer on a console which practically begs for the online experience, Scott Pilgrim vs. The World is a very fun, challenging and stylish game. It looks great, features fantastic gameplay and is a total treat for game enthusiasts and fans of the graphic novels alike. Check it out today, it’s totally worth the 800 Microsoft points.

Well That's News To Me : Polish Movie Posters

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If you’re anything like me, you don’t often think of the way movies are advertised in other countries. I guess I can thank Cracked.com for the new fascination that is currently occupying my morning. I read their article entitled “15 grossly misleading Movie Posters”. One thing I noticed right away was that most of the bizarre and thematically misleading posters came from Eastern Europe, pre-dominantly Poland. The posters seem mostly ironic, misleading, and some even extremely macabre. If there is any true rhyme or reason to the artistic styles displayed I certainly have yet to figure it out. The designs are nothing you’d ever see from a modern American movie studio. Just for comparisons sake, check out the American release poster for Alien:

This poster features imagery completely related to the movie and the general vibe of the film

Now here is the Polish poster for Alien.




It looks completely irrelevant to the movie, but it introduces a highly stylized, morbid surrealism. While incredibly misleading, the imagination and vivid imagery behind the Polish version shines through tenfold. After browsing a bunch of them, I have compiled my favorite and want to share a few with you guys.

Short blog today, but I’m sure you’d rather look at awesome pictures rather than what I have to say!


Ghostbusters (only Czech poster in the group)



Weekend At Bernie's


Apocalypse Now


Gremlins


Aliens


The Shining


Romancing the Stone


The Empire Strikes Back


Raiders of the Lost Ark


Sex & The City



Dying to see more? Check out these great sites I found
http://wellmedicated.com/inspiration/50-incredible-film-posters-from-poland/
http://www.poster.com.pl/movie-us2.htm
http://www.agrayspace.com/posters/

Attack of the Lackluster Game Manuals

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View "Ultimate Annoyance" larger Here
View "Mediocre Warfare" larger Here
View "Guitar Zero" larger Here
*These Covers don't represent the way I feel about each game

Ladies and gents, there is an epidemic invading games across all platforms. Nowadays, most games are released with sub-par manuals. There was a point in time where the game manual was one of the most important pieces included in a game’s packaging. They were an integral part in learning how to play the game, especially in a time where game studios didn’t put much stake into on-screen tutorials. Now games spend the first 15 to 30 minutes teaching the player how the game works while putting them immediately into action. In my personal experience, game guides were most important during the Super Nintendo/Sega Genesis era when consoles began using controllers with more buttons and better games were being released. (click on image for full size)

Every page of these books were dedicated to teaching you the barebones of games, and did it with style.



Nowadays, the games are much bigger and more complex. Most companies disregard their game manuals; completely ruining what once was an essential element of the game packaging. When looking at my xbox 360 and Wii collections, more often than not I am met with poorly produced, thin, boring, forgettable game manuals. To put it simply, they're extremely vanilla. It has gotten to the point where I don‘t even think to look at the book whatsoever. EA and Activision, two bigwig gaming companies, are particularly guilty of this. There isn’t a single game I’ve bought from them in the past 3 or 4 years which hasn’t provided a manual that's more than 30 plain, black & white pages of under-produced nonsense. (Click on the Image for full size)


Pages out of Call of Duty 4, one of the most played games on xbox live)

It’s really disheartening to see a lack of effort in order to save a few bucks. So much effort is put into making these games and then the studios cheap out on producing a decent book to complete the package.



That’s not to say all companies are slacking when it comes to producing a top notch book. Nintendo first-party games always include quality books which feature great design, tons of color and provide text written in English, Spanish and French. The effort Nintendo puts into their game manuals is admirable and to me help them a standout among modern game publishers.



Recently, Ubisoft has announced an attempt to be less wasteful by completely eliminating printed game manuals from all their releases;
“[…]replacing them with an in-game digital manual for all titles on PlayStation 3 (PS3) system and Xbox 360 video game and entertainment system from Microsoft. The program, the first initiative of its kind in the video game industry, launches worldwide with Shaun White Skateboarding this holiday 2010” (full article can be read here).

I get the feeling the main objective of this move is to cut costs of game manual production; being eco-friendly becomes an excellent PR-friendly bonus. Some have said that it "just shows people how much trouble Ubisoft is in." Considering Just Dance is currently one of the best selling 3rd party Wii games, with over 2 million copies sold before the end of 2009, I'd have to disagree (http://wii.ign.com/articles/108/1081134p1.html). I think it's safe to say they’re doing pretty well for themselves.



In the end I believe most, if not all, companies will go the route of Ubisoft and stop producing printed manuals altogether. Even after everything I’ve said about the lack of effort from game companies and missing quality books, I’d rather have the companies that I pump hundreds of dollars into every year do something to help the environment. Especially if the books they bother to print are going to be complete bullshit. Go big or go home, folks. Better to go home than waste paper.

Back in the game

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Hey everyone. It's been quite a while since I've had any updates worth writing about so I took a couple months on the back burner. In the mean time, completed Mass Effect, twice. Hopefully going for the insane playthrough sometime soon. It's just retarded difficult. Something tells me I wouldn't have it any other way. I have a couple of things to share. First on the Agenda, me and my friend David and making a new Skate 2 skate vid. If you actually read this blog, I'm sure you remember the first Skate 2 video I did. We're throwing around ideas and filming in game lines while we go out and actually film some real skateboarding. It's been a couple of years since the last time I filmed... well, anything of that nature. So I'm pretty pumped on it. In preparation for this upcoming vid, I've put together a short preview vid.



It features gameplay from David and I.Strictly TPR crew. Even the music is done by my good friend, Katiah. Speaking of Katiah's music, he recently put his first Mixtape online for free download. It features a bunch of good songs and is completely free. What have you got to lose?

Click the artwork to download the mixtape


I've also been doing a lot of digital artwork. I'll share some of that too.

Click on the thumbnail to see the larger versions










Every Picture leads back to my DeviantArt account, check it out if you haven't before. I think this is a pretty good place to end it. Stay Classy, folks

So, Let's give it up for the New Year!

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What I'm playing!


Happy New Year!! How did you all spend your new years eve? Hope it went well.


The other day, I was browsing and an article came up about a presumed line of Star Wars Adidas collaboration sneakers. Buncha cool looking ones, some not so much. Here are my favorites:








The rest of the line can be viewed at http://www.forkparty.com/star-wars-adidas-shoes/


It made me think about similar geek items I've seen. I'm sure most people are now familiar with the Back to the future hyperdunks, aka the Air McFly's :






Nowadays, you see many Star Wars Inspired designs coming from all kinds of companies. Ecko released a huge line of Star Wars clothing



Some designer even took a flip approach and made a Ecko inspired Star Wars logo



New Era, no stranger to Geeky hatseven got in on the action with a whole slew of Star Wars Caps.




Star Wars isn't the only fan favorite getting in on the action. Official and custom non-official products for all kinds of popular series have popped up.


Custom Akuma kicks



Decepticons Soundwave and Megatron get their own kicks courtesy of Nike

Here are some random Geek inspired skate board designs



Santa Cruz USB stick! sick.


Alright that's all I got for now. I have a few ideas brewing to make this a great 2010 and and a strong blogging year!
Peace, Marcus AKA

Multitude's Day Out

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Sup y'all. Multitude is doing a bunch of cool new stuff lately and I thought I'd take a second to post all of this stuff in one place so you folks who read this can check it out. I'm lookin at you, New York Skaters.

Click on the image to view the enlarged versions:


Best Trick the day after Halloween. Got a bunch great sponsers and Multitude will be there giving away stickers and stuff like that




Online Contest. Submit your pictures and short lines to try and get some Multitude Gear!
You know what they say, without footage, it's fiction.


Multitude is also hosting a best trick contest and Team Demo at the Lower East Side Park On Saturday, November 7th. Sign up for the contest or watch the demo. Either way, come down and have a good time with Team Multitude!







Come and check it out and enjoy NYC Skateboarding, y'all.

 
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