300

Another Frank Miller comic very faithfully adapted into a movie. I'm not sure it was the best choice for conversion, since the highlight is definitely the art, not the story, but they ended up making an entertaining film anyway. What I found interesting is that most of the elements from the movie I didn't like didn't really show up in the comic. The contrived subplot with the evil senator, the laughable sexuality, they're not there. What is there is all the interesting war imagery and clever dialogue, with it becoming apparent that the movie's greatest contribution was having Gerard Butler shout "This is Sparta!" instead of just saying it before kicking that fool into the pit. It's a very tight story, pretty different from most comics I've read.

And the focus really is the way it looks and not how it's written. As you can guess from the wide cover, it's not in the normal scope, with each page being double wide and filled with beautifully drawn and painted images. Miller can still tend to get a little lazy when he has a lot to draw in one panel, but it's mostly all really good and iconic pencil work, and Lynn Varley's colors just make it even better. It's pretty obvious that they weren't going for historical accuracy, just a visually interesting, different sort of comic book. It definitely worked well, even without Zach Snyder's cool use of slow motion.

Sin City

Remember a while ago when I said I'd read the Frank Miller comics those popular movies were based on? Yeah, well I did it. Sin City's not quite a continuous storyline, but a bunch of interconnected tales that can be pretty easily pieced together through well-placed evidence into something resembling a coherent universe. It's been collected in seven volumes, six of which are fairly meaty yarns and the other being a collection of smaller ones of various length. One of the things I really liked from the movie and which carries through into the comics, which should happen since the film was an extremely close adaptation, is the clever writing. It's a good mix of Film Noir and more contemporary style, and the dialogue is always pitch-perfect without ever having to be vulgar. Plot twists are pretty common, and they're rarely surprising, but they do enough to keep it fresh while the various hard-nosed protagonists beat the crap out of everybody they meet.

A couple of problems I did have were with the art and depiction of women. You can see from his other work that Miller knows how to draw and create good compositions, but that ability isn't always expressed here. The black and white, with splashes of color being integrated more as it goes on, is an interesting look, and makes creating some unique and very creative scenes possible. But it looks like Miller might have rushed a lot through certain parts, because the drawings themselves are often quite messy and it can be difficult to tell what's going on when people are getting killed. It just works sometimes a lot better than others. With women, I'm not complaining about the fact that nearly every female character is a stripper or prostitute and that they're all heavily sexualized and drawn like they're naked even when they aren't. Sin City is a bad place and none of the male characters are great role models either. And while he goes out of his way to draw naked women, Miller doesn't shy away from drawing naked men either. What bothers me is how boring the women are. They all look the same, with the same face and perfect body, unless their purpose is to be old and fat, and rarely have a personality as interesting as the male characters, whether they're heroes or villains. Sin City's an interesting and innovative comic, but it didn't amaze me, although I can't say how much of that is from already knowing half of the bigger stories from the movie.

Game Update 8: PSN Demos 3

They keep adding demos and I keep playing them.

The Bourne Conspiracy - I couldn't even finish the demo before I got fed up with the game. They claim it's based on the books since they couldn't get Matt Damon's likeness rights, but it's clearly a barely interactive rehash of the action scenes from the movies with poor combat.

Condemned 2: Bloodshot - Succeeds at its goal of being creepy as hell. Looks to be an interesting continuation of a story I don't know much about, and beating the crap out of psychotic freaks with blunt instruments is extremely visceral.

Dark Sector - Pretty solid shooting action, very derivative of Gears of War but the glaive makes it interesting. Boss fight was pretty bad, though.

Dragon Ball Z: Burst Limit - Really impressive anime-esque cel-shaded graphics, less impressive but still fun combat system.

echochrome - I like the style and concept quite a bit. The execution seemed a little strange, but it's probably something you get used to after playing for a while.

Haze - The gameplay didn't seem bad and the jungle setting was better than the typical stuff, and I liked that the power-up gimmick wasn't bullet time for once. Still, the game got destroyed by critics so I probably won't pursue it farther.

MLB 08: The Show - Convinced me enough to purchase my first sports game in years, although that wasn't completely the game itself's doing.

Overlord: Raising Hell - I like the idea of an action-RPG thing where you have tons of minions to do your bidding, but what they showed might have been too simplistic. It would have helped to see some normal gameplay instead of just a bunch of tutorial stuff.

Siren: Blood Curse - Fairly creepy, and decent looking for a downloadable product. Not a big horror fan, but it could be fun for people who are.

Game Update 7: E308 Game Impressions

Again, I watched a lot of stage demos on Gamespot. No conference impressions this year because they just weren't worth writing about.

Brothers in Arms: Hell's Highway - Second year in a row. Looked nice, especially the increased focus on story. Never played many tactical shooters, though.

Crysis Warhead - If it can do what the original couldn't and run at a decent level on my computer, I definitely want to check it out.

Dead Space - Creepy looking survival horror in space. Could be pretty cool.

Fallout 3 - I'm pumped for this. Bethesda's basically making Oblivion in a post-apocalyptic setting, which is all they really need to say for me to want it.

Fable 2 - I thought it looked pretty good. The amount of depth to the world is much more impressive than the combat system.

Far Cry 2 - I'm playing the original right now, but I want to get my hands on this soon - really open and dynamic shooter, could be quite interesting.

Gears of War 2 - The new level they showed looked like a fun, and they showed new features like shields, capturing enemies, and hinted at riding a Brumak, which would be great. The first Gears was a really good shooter and there's no reason the sequel won't be as entertaining.

inFAMOUS - That's the official syntax? Whatever. The idea is cool and I like Sucker Punch as a studio, but they didn't show anything in the demo that would actually compel me to try the game.

Mercenaries 2 - Another return to last year. Blowing the hell out of things in South America still looks highly entertaining.

Prince of Persia - Looks like it will be too easy, but the interesting graphics and fact that it's a new Prince of Persia game makes me still want it.

Project Origin - The sequel to FEAR has potential, although the city streets they've shown don't seem very interesting.

Ratchet and Clank: Quest for Booty - It being downloadable for 15 bucks and a direct sequel to Tools of Destruction makes it appealing to Ratchet fans, and being short and not requiring that game to play should make it appealing to people who haven't tried the series before.

Resident Evil 5 - Might be too similar to RE4, but the producer said they'll show some changes soon that might surprise us. I'd still be pleased with a nicer looking game that played like 4.

Resistance 2 - I still haven't played the original, but the level they showed look sweet if unpolished, fighting against a gigantic boss, and the trailer set the mood quite well.

Resistance: Retribution - A PSP game that fills in the gap between the two console games. I'm not into Resistance really, but I guess it didn't look bad for an early handheld shooter.

Rock Band 2 - It looks like Rock Band, and it adds a bunch more songs and will include the ability to import most of the songs from the first game (which may cost a fee). So it will be good.

Too Human - Eh. The mix of repetitive hack-and-slash RPG combat and clumsily implemented action elements make it look like a jack of all trades that will really please no one.