*** Spoiler Alert ***

I saw Shooter over the weekend. Shooter is set in the USA in the present day. The main character, Bob Lee Swagger, is played by Mark Wahlberg. He was a sniper in the army until he was left for dead. He is able to escape, but now doesn’t trust anyone and he lives out in the mountains alone with his dog. Three years after being left for dead Government agents come and ask him to help protect the president. They need him to help them stop a sniper who is going to shoot the president from over a mile away. Since he is one of the 3 or 4 people in the world who can make the shot they need his help to stop the would be assassin. He reluctantly agrees to help them and proceeds to survey the potential target areas and find the most likely one. On the day of the potential attack he agrees to go along and help watch since he knows what to look for. However, instead of stopping the attack the government officials shot the man standing next to the president. He was the Prime Minister of Ethiopia. They then frame Swagger for the shooting and say he was trying to shoot the president and missed. The next half of the movie is spent with Swagger recovering from a gun shot he sustained while trying to escape after the assassination attempt, and then trying to find who framed him. Once he figures it all out he arranges a meeting with the guys that framed him because he gets some dirt on them. He then turns himself over to the FBI and proves that he did not make the assassination attempt. However, he can’t prove that they framed him so the FBI lets him go and no one is charged with the assassination. Swagger then takes matters in his own hands and kills everyone involved in framing him including a US Senator.

The end of the movie caught me off guard because there was a lot of cold blooded killing by the “hero”. I’m not use to action movies where the Justice system doesn’t work out for the good guy in the end. It was a unique ending that I’m not use to seeing. Up to that final killing spree the movie was great. There were some great shooting and explosion scenes that were really cool. There is one scene where Swagger shoots down a helicopter that was really sweet. Also, there are a couple scenes with the token hot girl that were really funny.

I’m still not sure how I feel about the ending of the movie. If I was in Swagger’s shoes I would want revenge for everything that I was put through, but I don’t think I would just go and kill everyone involved. I liked the movie over all, but the ending just left a bad taste in my mouth.

Did anyone else try out the Fatal Inertia demo? I ask because the controls did not seem to follow what the pre-game picture showed them to be. For example the picture shows the A button was thrust and the RT was strafe right, but when I hit the right trigger it was my accelerator. Anyone else have this? After spending some time and figuring out most of the controls I still had a lot of trouble with Fatal Inertia. I was thinking there would be a lot more attacking going on, but really it is a racing game with a few attacking options throw in. I was thinking it would be more on the lines of Full Auto. I spent a little while trying it out, but ultimately I could not keep the vehicle on the track and wrecked myself enough times to blow up. Once that happened I gave up and wen ton to other things.

I got my copy on the September issue, #74, of Official Xbox Magazine last night and on this month’s disc there is an exclusive demo of Beautiful Katamari. I’ve never played Katamari before so this was all new to me. At first I was not really impressed with a game where all you do is roll around and try to pick up larger and large objects, but once I got large enough to pick up a cow it got pretty funny. I can see how the simple gameplay could get really addictive as you try to get a larger and lager each time you play. The graphics had the artsy pastel style I expected from the videos and screen shots I’ve seen. The demo is only 3 minutes long, but you can play it over and over again if you want to. Personally, I think this might be a game that is better on a larger screen than on something small like the PSP since you can see more of what is around you to try and roll over. I was able to get my Katamari up to about 4 and a half meters which I realize is not super large, but I was happy with it since I was able to get the cow in there. If anyone else tries the demo let me know how large you are able to get so I have an idea of how far I need to go. I’m thinking I might end up renting Beautiful Katamari when it is released just to see how the multiplayer pans out. Playing this with a few friends over live could be a lot of fun.

I’ve been out of town for a couple weeks so I finally got around to trying out the Dynasty Warriors: Gundam demo today. It is a pretty strait forward hack-n-slash with a sci-fi setting. The graphics were ok, but nothing special. Personally, if I was looking to play a hack-n-slash I’d rather stick with Ninety Nine Nights. It has better graphics, more combos, and better camera control. The only thing that really bugged my about Dynasty Warriors: Gundam was the camera controls. I was continually struggling to keep the camera looking the direction I was fighting. At least with Ninety Nine Nights I could zoom the camera out far enough that I could see all around me. In Dynasty Warriors: Gundam I felt like I could only see a very limit section of the area around me. The demo was a good length and I had fun beating down wave after wave of enemy. I especially like the gun attack option. It is a nice addition to the normal attacks which in this game are pretty basic. I like a good hack-n-slash, but this is barely average. Personally, I’ll not be buying or renting Dynasty Warriors: Gundam, but if you’re dying for a new button masher this might hold you over until something better comes out.

Since I’ve been traveling the last couple weeks I’ve been looking for something to fulfill my gaming itch. I stumbled across WeeWar.com and it has been holding me over quite nicely. WeeWar.com is an online turn base multiplayer strategy game. Both you and up to 5 opponents battle to destroy each other’s armies. Turns have no real time limit and you get an email updating you when it is your turn. After 24 hours the other players can vote to kick you from the game for taking too long, but generally I’ve found that most people get their turn in within a couple hours. The game has simple, but clean graphics. The are only about 8 unit types to fight with and each has its own strengths and weaknesses. Part of each units stats are based on the terrain it is on and the type of unit it is attacking. There is a nice variety of maps that range in size from 1v1 to 6 player maps. The game is still in Beta and as such the site goes down for an hour or so every few days for upgrades, but the couple of times I’ve tried to take my turn and found the site site under maintenance it was back up within a couple hours. The basic game is free, but there is a pro version. To become a Pro member you have to invite 10 people to WeeWar.com. By becoming a Pro member you get access to more units and maps. I’m not sure if the game will always be like this or if the pro portion is part of the Beta process, but either way it is not really that hard to invite ten people because the game is a lot of fun. If anyone is interested in checking it out let me know your email address and I’ll send you an invite. If you’re already a member post your username in a comment and we’ll get a game going.

I received the below email today from GameFly.com.

For a limited time, we’re giving you a special opportunity to send your friends and family an entire month of GameFly service for FREE. That’s three times the length of our regular free trial, and a $22.95 value to your friends!

This special offer expires 7/31/2007, so forward this e-mail to your friends and family today.

-The GameFly Team

So, if anyone is interested in checking out GameFly this seems like a great time to do that. Personally, I’ve had nothing but great services from them. Just follow this link (here) and sign up.

After the first month if you decide to stay with GameFly don’t forget to check out BrightSpot.tv and save $10 a month on your GameFly membership.

I recently got an invite to Pownce so I thought I’d share my thoughts on it with everyone.

According to the site “Pownce is a way to send messages, files, links, and events to your friends. You’ll create a network of the people you know and then you can share stuff with all of them, just a few of them, or even just one other person.” Basically, Pownce is a lot like an instance messenger but instead of being designed for sending messages Pownce is designed for send files.

There are two components to Pownce. The website, Pownce.com, and then the software. The site and software both load very quickly. The web site has a nice amount of customization on it with 4 themes, and a lot of options for privacy and notification settings.

The software is based on Adobe’s Air. I’m not sure why they did not just use Flash. Since they did not most users are going to have to download and install an extra component, Air. I’m hoping it was for a technical reason, but who knows. Maybe the developers just wanted to try out Air. The one thing I found strange is that default install location is to you account’s application data folder. Since the software is still in the Alpha phase this is something they should easily be able to address before they release it to the public. The software does have a clean and easy to use interface, but other themes/skins for it would be cool so that I could match it the rest of my system. Not sure why they have themes for the site and not the software, but maybe that is something they will be adding. The other thing that would be nice is if I could minimize it to the system tray.

With a clean design and an easy to use interface Pownce has a lot of potential. I’m looking forward to seeing how it shapes up as they head towards a full release.

Currently, I have 6 invites so if anyone wants one leave a comment and let me know what email address to send it to I’d be glad to share them.

I came across the site InviteShare.com the other day and I’m pretty impressed with it. Basically, if you are a member of a website that only accepts new members by invitation you can trade your invites with other potential members to get invited to sites they are members of. The site uses a scoring system that keeps track of how many invites you have sent. The more invites you have sent the higher you are on the priority list when you request an invite. It is a simple and straightforward concept that works well. After sending a couple Joost invites I requested an invite to Pownce, and I received it in my email within a couple minutes. The site has a nice, clean design and it loads quickly. In addition, it does what it claims it will very quickly. So far they support over 40 different invite only sites including Joost, Pownce, Moola, WeeWar, and Demoid. If you’re looking for an invite to any of these sites you should really consider checking them out.

*** Spoiler Alert ***

So I’m out of town this week and next week and I don’t have my 360 with me. So, there will be not be a lot of gaming review the next two weeks. However, I do have a big stack of movies with me so expect to see some movie reviews. I watched Curse of the Golden Flower yesterday. It was not what I was expecting. I was thinking it was along the lines of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon with lots of great fight scenes. In reality it is a tragedy with a slow build up to the fights at the end of the movie. Even then, the fights were not one on one but large scale battles with whole armies getting slaughtered.

I was going to describe the plot, but since others have already done it so well I’m going to quote the plot synopsis from Amazon.com: China, Later Tang Dynasty, 10th Century. On the eve of the Chong Yang Festival, golden flowers fill the Imperial Palace. The Emperor (Chow Yun Fat) returns unexpectedly with his second son, Prince Jai (Jay Chou). His pretext is to celebrate the holiday with his family, but given the chilled relations between the Emperor and the ailing Empress (Gong Li), this seems disingenuous. For many years, the Empress and Crown Prince Wan (Liu Ye), her stepson, have had an illicit liaison. Feeling trapped, Prince Wan dreams of escaping the palace with his secret love Chan (Li Man), the Imperial Doctor’s daughter. Meanwhile, Prince Jai, the faithful son, grows worried over the Empress’s health and her obsession with golden chrysanthemums. The Emperor harbors equally clandestine plans; the Imperial Doctor (Ni Dahong) is the only one privy to his machinations. When the Emperor senses a looming threat, he relocates the doctor’s family from the Palace to a remote area. While they are en route, mysterious assassins attack them. Chan and her mother, Jiang Shi (Chen Jin) are forced back to the palace. Their return sets off a tumultuous sequence of dark surprises. Amid the glamour and grandeur of the festival, ugly secrets are revealed. As the Imperial Family continues its elaborate charade in a palatial setting, thousands of golden armored warriors charge the palace. Against a moonlit night, thousands of chrysanthemum blossoms are trampled as blood spills across the Imperial Palace.

Visually the movie was beautiful with lots of color and art. The first hour of the movie is a slow build up explaining little by little how the main characters got into the situation they are in and how they are interconnected. As the movie progressed I started piecing together different parts of the story only to find out that I was only partly right later on. The beauty of this movie’s plot is that you don’t see the Emperor’s plans being made, but you get to see them carried out as he defends his kingdom and palace from his sons and wife.

Even though I was looking for an action movie and got a tragedy I really enjoyed this Curse of the Golden Flower. It was great to see the plot slowly unravel for the first two thirds of the the movie and then have the last act of the movie take everything you just learned and give it a twist.

For anyone who’s ever played with me in Rainbow Six: Vegas you know that sometimes my headset acts up and my voice cuts in and out. It only happens in Rainbow Six: Vegas so I’m not sure if it is the game or my headset. To try and figure it out I picked up a Plantronics GameCom X30 on Amazon when I found them for $17 since they retail for $30.

It is an under the ear design that is much smaller than the headset included with the Xbox 360. The design can be worn in either ear with the ear bug and the mic boom rotating to fit in either ear. The sound quality was good and the volume gets plenty loud. It has built in noise canceling that helps the people on the other end hear only your voice.

Even though it has good sound quality there are a couple things I don’t like about it. First, I have to take my hands off the controller to adjust the volume and mute. Sine I tend to need to hit the mute pretty frequently I found this pretty frustrating. If I did not need to use the mute then I would probably not mind the volume/mute being in the cord, but with a 7 month old kid running around my house the mute is essential to keeping my friends from hating me. One of the things I really like about the headset included with the Xbox 360 is that I can mute it without taking my hands off the controller. The other thing I did not like about the headset was that since it is an under the ear design after about 30 minutes it started to hurt in my ear since all the weight is on the ear bud. Even though it is really light it gets uncomfortable after playing for a while.

Ultimately, after trying it for a few gaming sessions I ended up going back to the original Xbox 360 headset. This Plantronics one just was not quite what I’m looking for. It anyone has recommendations of a good headset that I can mute without taking my hands off the controller please let me know. If you’re looking for a quality headset with an under ear design this one is pretty good. I just was not for me.