Tag Archive: ray carsillo


Smooth as Velvet

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April 19, 2010

Originally Published: May 14, 2009, on 1050ESPN.com (now ESPNNewYork.com) and Lundberg.me

I admit that I have never been a fan of World War II or other historically based games. I felt that it limited the imagination of the player and the developers because at the end of the day, no matter what happens in the game, we know the outcome of the war. Sure, these specific era based shooters are great and the gameplay and graphics usually try to make up for the lack of originality, but I usually can walk away from the game without finishing it and not really care because in my mind, I still know the ending.

That leads us into today’s review. In Velvet Assassin you play as a female British secret agent during World War II with the gameplay revolving around your lurking in the shadows and undermining the Nazi regime in 1943-1944 Western Europe. I had heard rumors about this game in the later part of 2008 and then saw a demo at NY ComicCon and my interest was immediately piqued: A semi-original storyline (it’s based off a real-life WWII British agent) that didn’t revolve around troop movements and taking out tanks with bazooka launchers. It dealt with the grittier, darker side of war; sneaking cyanide capsules to captured double agents, infiltrating enemy strongholds and single-handedly sabotaging their oil lines or railways, and assassinating high-ranking officials in the middle of the night.

The great thing about this game is that it emphasizes stealth more than anything and it is rare to a see a game do this nowadays. Yes, the Metal Gear series has stealth elements as a strong part of the game, but then again you could hide in a crappy cardboard box and had a wealth of weapons and devices at any moment to help dispatch your enemies. At no time during this game do you have more than three weapons, one of which is your ever-present knife, to remind you that the best kill is the one that doesn’t make a sound (aside from the satisfying noise of your defeated foe gurgling on his own blood). The gameplay was a nice changeup from the run-and-gun style of most of today’s games.

While the game makes you think and work to succeed in ways that most games don’t anymore, the story engrosses you in the character with what has always been a limited subject matter for originality. Firstly, the female lead, Violette Summer (almost sounds like violent summer, any irony there?), is an attention grabber just due to the lack of female leads in games. Add in that she is one of the main weapons for the British on the frontlines doing the unthinkable and you’ve already got me hooked. But that wasn’t enough for SouthPeak Games. To add on top of it, the entire game is her memories of the war while she is in a coma from injuries that are explained as you progress. This also ties into one of the more interesting aspects of the gameplay. You can collect morphine over the course of most levels that represent an increase of her real-life dosage to help slow things down for her and make her dreams less strenuous (and less difficult for you).

Along with the great gameplay and plot, the game is graphically beautiful. From lurking in the shadows of ancient European cathedrals to trudging through the sewers of French ghettos, the visuals are superb. And the shadows are so critical to the entire game as you cross in front of floodlights and watch your silhouette raise the attention of the dozing off guards, or knock the lights out to bathe a room in obsidian safety.

Include a haunting soundtrack and you can actually feel your blood begin to race from the tension, as if you were in the shoes of the heroine, as you know that the wrong move could alert the enemy to your position and almost assuredly forfeit your life. The atmosphere that was created with so little and the clandestine nature of the game leaves you breathless like when you stare directly into the vapid eyes of the gasmask of a flame-trooper while he patrols right by you.

Time-accurate weaponry and locales, stunning graphics, and powerful atmospheric elements that stay with you well after you turn your XBOX360 off, makes this game a great stealth experience. If you’re tired of the usual run-and-gun and looking for a little more strategy from your shooters, this is a must have. Velvet Assassin is out now for XBOX360 and the PC.

Ratings are based on a scale of 1 to 10 with 10 being the highest.

Graphics: 8.5: Although beautiful, the game is mostly spent in the dark so I can’t give it a perfect score. The lighting effects are top of the line though. Along with some very smooth NPCs (Non-playable characters), this game is not going to disappoint you visually.

Audio: 10.0: There purposely isn’t a lot of music to help immerse you in the experience of being this character and to stress the stealth aspects of the game. The music that is there is moving and sets the mood beautifully. Along with great voice acting by all involved (even if most of it is in a foreign language with subtitles, you could still feel the emotions of the characters) and Melinda Cohen who plays Violette (and doubles as the physical basis for Violette very nicely as well) does a brilliant job.

Plot/Plot Development: 7.0: It is another game based off of real-life events so you still know the historical outcome, but it is a story that hasn’t been told in a WWII game before and super-spies always play better to me than Saving Private Ryan rip-offs. This is more along the lines of Splinter Cell or No One Lives Forever, minus the fictional megalomaniac villains and replacing it with one of the original, real-life megalomaniac villains. This is one of the best stories for a game that you know the ending to that has come out in a long time.

Gameplay: 9.0: Difficult (at least on the hard difficulty I played on) but addictive, this game will keep you entertained for a solid 10-15 hours (I beat it in 11), and for this, that is the perfect length of time. The game is so engrossing that any longer and you would probably start speaking German and lurking in the shadows on your way to work in the morning.

Replay Value: 3.0: There are some interesting WWII inspired collectibles throughout the levels, but aside from that there just isn’t enough to bring you back for a second playthrough once you beat this. Great game, but definitely a one and done.

Overall: 8.0 (not an average): I thoroughly enjoyed Velvet Assassin as it was a nice alternative to all the run-and-gun shooters that usually permeate the market. Although it didn’t have enough to bring me back for more, and the last level was frustrating because it deviated from the stealth theme of the rest of the game, the game as a whole is engrossing and deserves a look from any shooter fan.

Also, I just want to include a special shout-out to Jino Song of Video Game World at 58 Broad St. in Bloomfield, NJ, 07003. Jino was kind enough, for a nominal fee, to fix my XBOX360 after I burned the lens out (it’s what I get for playing games for 10-12 hours a day) in just 24 hours. No hassle, no six week wait for Microsoft to replace my system, just a single day. Without Jino’s help, this review, and any game reviews coming in the next couple of months, would not be. If you have an XBOX360 that is giving you problems or are tired of the lack of personality you usually get from the big chain stores like Best Buy or GameStop, check out Jino’s shop and tell him that Ray Carsillo sent you.

-Ray Carsillo

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A New First for the Final Frontier

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Originally Published: May 11, 2009, on 1050ESPN.com (now ESPNNewYork.com)

Capitalizing on the great space race between the USA and the USSR of the 1960s, Star Trek dared to go where no other TV show had gone before with the promise of exploring fantastic new worlds and providing unique challenges for the men and women aboard the USS Enterprise…or something along those lines.

Now, more than 40 years, several TV spinoffs, and 10 full-length feature films later, Director/Producer J.J. Abrams (Mission Impossible III, TV’s Lost, Fringe, and Alias) has taken it upon himself to reinvent and retool that original concept and serve it piping hot for a brand new generation of would-be trekkies.

Star Trek looks back at how the crew of the USS Enterprise came to congeal into a legendary unit back at the space academy. With most of the original cast being in their 70s, an entirely new cast, headed by Zachary Quinto (TV’s Heroes) as Spock, was called into action and everyone delivers spot on performances of the characters that the diehards have to come to know and love and that the newcomers will easily learn to.

Karl Urban (Lord of the Rings 2 and 3, Bourne Supremacy) as “Bones” McCoy and Simon Pegg (Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz) as Scotty were both beyond brilliant in their roles. John Cho (Harold and Kumar 1 and 2) worked well as a very green-behind-the-ears Mr. Sulu with the only real question coming from Chris Pine (Princess Diaries 2) who plays Captain Kirk. Many have criticized his performance, but I thought he had done a great job, taking beating after beating, just like William Shatner did, but always finding a way to come through in the end for himself and his crew. Also, the way Kirk’s promiscuousness was played up was perfect. The only real question about his performance is did anyone really expect him…to…talk…like this? Cut the kid some slack.

With the cast in place, the biggest question next fell towards the plot about how to re-launch a series that has had such success over the years simply building on top of everything that had come before it. When working with a mind like J.J. Abrams, why am I not surprised that he found an interesting loophole when dealing with a re-launch. Stealing a plot line from many of Marvel Comics’ most famous story arcs, he decided to create an alternate universe.

I know, your initial kneejerk reaction is this is a horrible idea, but the way it was explained as a major plot point to the story, with a time and space travelling Leonard Nimoy as “Spock Prime”, was actually quite brilliant because it gives them the freedom for future movies to make whatever changes they want and not have to worry about die-hard fanboys crucifying each movie in online forums because it doesn’t affect the original Star Trek whatsoever. If they can get past the whole parallel universe aspect, of course, which they should because in essence it fits in with the entire idea of Star Trek: Unknown worlds and dimensions and things beyond human comprehension until you actually come face to face with it.

With this being a different universe, the origins for everyone are slightly tweaked. Kirk’s father dies in space when he is just an infant, the planet Vulcan is destroyed a la Death Star style from another famous space opera series, an interesting on-going relationship between Spock and Nyota Uhura, played by Zoe Saldana (Pirates of the Caribbean), and the enemy, a Romulan simply referred to as Captain Nero, (played surprisingly well by Eric Bana; probably because you don’t realize who it is until the end credits because of all his make-up) comes from a different future, just like “Spock Prime”.

If you take a look at these differences though and embrace them instead of being steadfastly entrenched in the old ways, then it boils down to the same basics of what made Star Trek great to begin with. Amazing visual effects, awesome weapons, strong sci-fi action with a bit of humor mixed in with a few far-fetched plot points that are made to work under the guise of some expanded branch of new science, and characters that pull you into the story from the very beginning, and you’ve got a perfect modern variation on what Star Trek should be. With the differences being explained with a major plot point of the movie, there is no way you can walk away from this not being happy with the way it turned out. If anything, it can’t be called a re-launch because it serves as a completely new adventure, tying in the old with the new, and allows for the new series to take off with only slight variations on the same great characters and leaves the memories of the old ones perfectly intact.

Star Trek will continue to live long and is definitely prospering ($76.5 million in the opening weekend) and gets 4 out of 5.

-Ray Carsillo

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Adamantium Abound!

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Originally Published: May 6, 2009, on 1050ESPN.com (now ESPNNewYork.com) and Lundberg.me

This year’s summer blockbuster movie season is geared more towards geeks than any other in recent memory: G.I. JOE in August, Transformers 2 in June, and Terminator: Salvation and Star Trek later in May. Of course, most have corresponding video games as well so our first double review, to kick off the summer blockbuster season with a feral roar, is X-Men Origins: Wolverine. To hear my initial movie review on The Seth Everett Show this past Friday, you can
CLICK HERE!

Be sure to tune in to Seth’s show every weeknight from 7PM-10PM right here on 1050 ESPN and be listening this Friday when Seth and I talk about Star Trek.

Now that the obligatory plug has been sufficed, on with the review. Geeks have been salivating for years since this movie was announced as Wolverine is the most popular comic character in history (as per Wizard magazine last year). Would the movie live up to the unparalleled hype? What changes would be made to the story to fit the original trilogy?

Well, after seeing the movie, I can decree that this was easily the biggest disappointment to start the movie season in a long time. Classic characters like Deadpool and the Blob were destroyed and the unnecessary need to tie every character in with each other was annoying and inaccurate to the original stories. And if there was one more shot of Wolverine screaming at the sky a la Shatner from the original Star Trek, Gene Roddenberry would have crawled out of his grave and sued for copyright infringement. The basics of the original plot were there, but the discrepancies were abundant.

Young James Howlett was a sickly Canadian from a well-to-do family who saw his father slaughtered and his mutant power emerged from the trauma. In this movie, it also wielded the first change in the story as a young Victor Creed was revealed as Howlett’s half brother. Immediately I knew bad things were coming for this movie.

After an entertaining montage of Howlett and Creed over the years through war after war and how their mutant abilities served them over and over again in bloody combat, the mutants were imprisoned in Vietnam after failing to obey orders.

Freed by Col. William Stryker after James and Victor’s healing factors allowed them to survive a firing squad, they were offered them a deal they couldn’t refuse and the events were set in motion that would change mutant history.

James and Victor join Team X along with fellow mutants Wade Wilson (later Deadpool), Fred Dukes (known in the comics as Blob), John Wraith, Bradley (known in the comics as Bolt), and Agent Zero (better known as Maverick), a group of military trained mutants that handle missions that only their special talents could pull off. After some misgivings on an African mission, James, now called Wolverine, leaves Team X, much to the dismay of Victor, now Sabertooth.

Team X also had the second obvious inaccuracy as Bradley is never given his codename and Maverick was depicted as Agent Zero and an Asian dude. In the comics, he was only Agent Zero after being brainwashed and he was as German as a blitzkrieg. Christoph Nord doesn’t sound very Asian to me. I’ll let that slide and remain more furious over the Agent Zero codename.

After leaving Team X, Wolverine goes off to marry a Native American woman named Silver Fox and become a lumberjack. Sabertooth kills Silver Fox in cold blood to, supposedly, try to force Wolverine to embrace his feral side. This is a self-explanatory sequence and was relatively accurate to the comics.

The next big disappointment in the movie though came with the ENTIRE Weapon X sequence. Wolverine doesn’t have his memories erased here like in the comics, he doesn’t kill anyone when he escapes, (him going “berserk” in the comics is an understatement and one of comics’ most classic moments) and the entire sequence seems as a weak plot tool to give him the adamantium and give a gratuitous butt shot to Hugh Jackman instead of the major character changing moment it was in the comics. This lack of respect to the character and the blasphemy of changing a major portion of his history turned my stomach.

Then the story begins to really get ridiculous (even more so for a comics movie). He kills Agent Zero, which is a major no-no if it wasn’t done in the comics (and it wasn’t) and then tracks down Wraith for help. In order to get the info he is looking for, Wraith tells Wolverine he will have to beat it out of Fred Dukes. Only after a misunderstanding is Dukes even referred to as Blob, which in and of itself made me just shake my head in disbelief, but then they explained this as an eating disorder. In the comics, Blob was always a big guy who was proud of his bulk and had a secondary mutation to make him even more massive. This cheesy write off of his appearance made me feel like they were trying to be politically correct or trying to say “Come on fat people! You can fight back just like Fred Dukes!” This turn of events was beyond depressing because what would have been an epic battle in the comics was anti-climatic in the movie as it was in a boxing ring in the hopes of helping Dukes shed a few pounds. Gym trainers everywhere rejoiced.

The lead that Blob gives to Wolverine an hour and fifteen minutes into the movie was that a mutant named Gambit knows where to find Sabertooth. FINALLY. Aside from Deadpool and Blob, Gambit was a mutant that fans were clamoring to see on the big screen and this was one of the few times it did not disappoint in terms of the character. However, the way he was used in the plot, again this movie falls short. Instead of a major battle or drawn out exposition, he is simply another tool used to further a mediocre script.

Gambit leads Wolverine to “The Island”, the secret facility where Sabertooth is, before conveniently disappearing during the climax of the movie. At “The Island”, we find Stryker, Sabertooth, and Silver Fox (who faked her death) are all working together to round up mutants to allow Stryker to do tests for his most insane experiment yet, Deadpool. After stealing the opening scenes, you hoped to see Ryan Reynolds as the disfigured “Merc with a Mouth” in the red suit. Instead, his mouth is removed by Stryker so he could be the perfect weapon and the worst depiction over the character’s 20-year history. Deadpool is given several mutants’ powers, including Cyclops’, which again, was nothing more than a flashy special effect and simply another way to tie everyone in the entire X-Men universe together, and ultimately is the undoing of Stryker.

Before he gets away though, Stryker shoots an adamantium bullet through Wolverine’s skull to destroy his memory. (Since when has Wolverine been a vampire or werewolf?) With his memory destroyed, he only knows his name due to his dog tags that say “Logan” on one side and “Wolverine” on the other.

The action sequences were great. I’m not taking away from the pure action that the movie had and the acting from all involved was amazing. Liev Schriebrer did the character of Sabertooth credit and Hugh Jackman was great as Wolverine as usual. Everyone involved did really well considering it looks like the script writer was fired after the first 30 minutes of the movie and a kindergartener was hired in his place.

Professor Xavier, Cyclops, and Emma Frost all making cameos was beyond ridiculous and having Silver Fox conspire against Wolverine and work willingly with Stryker because Emma is supposed to be Silver Fox’s sister doesn’t make any sense and is beyond comic continuity comprehension.

The movie did mostly keep with the continuity of the original trilogy, but this is right on X-Men 3‘s level of competency in terms of justice to the comics. It gave people a lot of what they wanted to see, but in the entirely wrong context and it destroyed the spirit of the characters from the original comics.

X-Men Origins: Wolverine kicks off the summer movie season to a disappointing 2 out of 5.

When a movie is as bad as X-Men Origins: Wolverine, you don’t expect much from the game, but the corresponding video game was actually good, borderline great.

The same basic storyline from the movie serves as the plot here except the entire game is told in flashback as if from Wolverine’s memories. The only problem with this is that if he lost his memories at the end of the flashback, then how can he remember the story to tell it?

Aside from this obvious flaw, the video game is chock full of action and goes far more in-depth with the Weapon X program than the movie. Along with this, a few continuity surprises along the way make this game a far superior product to the movie.

The game is graphically beautiful. Wolverine takes real-time damage and heals as he runs around. You can see straight down to his skeleton and Activision even took the time to make sure that in the flashbacks to Africa he doesn’t have adamantium claws. At least they follow that part of the continuity and wait till he actually receives the adamantium at Alkali Lake.

The beautiful graphics and bountiful amount of enemies for Wolverine to rip to shreds does cause some lag in the gameplay though, but aside from this and the overly linear levels, the game is as technically sound as it can be. With hundreds of ways to tear your enemies apart, you truly feel like your character is a living weapon.

The music is taken straight from the movie and having Hugh Jackman, Liev Schrieber, and Will I Am reprise their movie roles for the game was superb and anything less would never have worked. No Ryan Reynolds though meant not having any Deadpool until the final confrontation and this was a bit disappointing because I was really looking forward to his original wit, but I blame this more on the movie script writing (or lack there of).

The addition of the right characters from Wolverine’s past into the game that weren’t in the movie and some of the best battles in recent gaming history, including a battle with Wolverine taking on a full-sized 50ft. Sentinel (yes, Sentinels were worked into the video game story and it made more sense than anything from the movie), and you have one of the best action gaming experiences out there if you can look past the sub-par movie plot at its heart.

Ratings are based on a scale of 1 to 10 with 10 being the highest.

Graphics: 9.0: Aside from a few glitches, this game is beautiful. From the lush jungles of Africa to the frozen shores of Alkali Lake, to Wolverine’s real-time battle damage and tearing enemies to shreds, this game is gorgeous.

Audio: 8.5: There is nothing too special in terms of sound. Great voice acting from all those involved, especially the three big stars from the film and proper sound effects whenever necessary. Just hearing the SNIKT! of Wolverine’s claws though in a video game is enough to bump up the score.

Plot/Plot Development: 5.0: I expressed my displeasure with the plot in the movie review and do not need to compound my frustration by repeating myself here. The game does slightly better than the movie because of additions made by Activision in order to flesh the game out some.

Gameplay: 8.0: Glitchy at times due to the amount of enemies and detailed surroundings on screen at one time, but everything else came out solid. The fighting mechanics and physics were effective and I enjoyed the fact that the game had friendly fire so that some enemies could take each other out if they missed you. A little more open-endedness would have been appreciated, but I can’t fault Activision too much for making it as linear as they did.

Replay Value: 5.0: The game really falters here because after you beat it once, there just isn’t enough to bring you back for more. You could try to find extra collectibles to unlock classic costumes or max out Wolverine’s stats, but after that, the game is over and this will end up probably sitting on your shelf until the next movie comes out and you need a refresher.

Overall: 8.5 (not an average): Epic boss battles, great gameplay, and classic comic characters brought to life is enough to warrant a buy from this game more than a ticket to see the movie. A lack of replay value and the proper comic plot knocks some points off, but at the end of the day you still feel like Wolverine and it feels good to be the best there is at what you do, even if it isn’t very nice.

-Ray Carsillo

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Turtle Power!

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Originally Published: May 2, 2009, on 1050ESPN.com (now ESPNNewYork.com)

Twenty-five years ago, as a spoof, two comic book guys got together and changed the fate of the comic medium for all time. With elements of Ronin, Daredevil, and the X-Men, Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird created four teenaged mutant turtles that just so happened to have an affinity for pizza and ninjitsu.

If you haven’t figured it out yet, then welcome to reality and how comfortable was the rock you’ve been living under? I speak of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, one of the most successful character franchises EVER.

The Turtles have since transcended from their modest beginnings to TV, movies, action figures, video games, music, and every other popular form of media you can think of. After 25 years of dominating every one of those mediums at one point or another, we were given a chance to look back and celebrate everything these four lean, green, fighting machines have given to us.

On April 23, 2009, in New York City, it was officially the Heroes in a Half-Shell’s day and we had a chance to follow them across the city as they spread the word about their turning 25.

It began at the Empire State Building with the Turtles’ flipping the switch to light the building green and ended in Tribeca with a special screening of their original live-action blockbuster movie from 1990.

Along the way, we caught up with some special guests and got some amazing news, that you can see below, as we documented a TMNT major announcement at their press conference at the Empire State Building. We then followed up with Mirage Studios’ CEO Gary Richardson and the director of the original TMNT live-action feature film, Steve Barron, to get their thoughts on the announcement and the day’s events.

After the amazing news at the Empire State Building, we needed a pizza break before we headed over to Tribeca where we got to explore the conversion of the party van into a mobile museum including trailers of TMNT Smash-Up, the new Turtles fighting game coming out this year, and the original cartoon’s Seasons 7 and 8 that are coming to DVD later this year as well.

We then had a chance to talk about the newly announced movie and the scope of TMNT25 with some of the fans, Ernie Reyes Jr. (Keno in TMNT II: Secret of the Ooze),TMNT co-creator Kevin Eastman, and the producers of TMNT V (tentative title), due out 2011, Galen Walker and Scott Mednick.

CLICK HERE to check out my YouTube page to check out the entire interviews with Gary Richardson, Steve Barron, Kevin Eastman, Ernie Reyes Jr., Galen Walker, and Scott Mednick. The full interviews include EXCLUSIVE details about the new TMNT video game coming out later this year, TMNT Smash-Up, and TMNT V‘s plot.

It was an amazing day for TMNT fans, old and new alike, as the news of a new movie clearly stirred great emotion from all the fans as it spread like wildfire through the crowd. The anticipation now begins to mount as the 25th Anniversary Shell-ebration of TMNT is only just starting.

With two new DVDs of the classic cartoon coming out, a revamped version of the classic TMNT IV: Turtles in Time video game coming to XBOX Live in June, a completely brand-new game, TMNT Smash-Up, coming out later this year for Wii (later to be ported to other systems), and a new live-action feature film due out in 2011, it is clear that the Turtles are only just getting started.

Here is to TMNT’s next 25 years being as glorious as the 25 they have already given us as we celebrated not only the past on this day in New York, but the future of this ground-breaking franchise as well. GO NINJA, GO NINJA, GO!

(I made a funny! Hahaha)

-Ray Carsillo

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The Coldest Summer in Gears History

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April 18, 2010

Originally Published: April 27, 2009, on 1050ESPN.com (now ESPNNewYork.com)

We’re getting close to the summer push for video games when blockbuster after blockbuster will be dropping for the next two months. With the tough economy, not everyone is going to have the chance to drop all that money on the plethora of hits coming out in the next 60 days, though. So you’ll see people maybe get a game or two, but they’ll need more. Well, for those penny-pinchers out there I have been given a solution.

More maps from Gears of War 2!

Now, everyone knows I play a lot of games (I’ve beaten 70 over the past 8 months) over many different genres (fighting, first- or third-person shooters, RTS, RPG, adventure, racing, etc., etc.), but I keep coming back to Gears of War 2 because it is rare nowadays that a game will have the lasting power and deliver the multiplayer mayhem most of us crave like this game.

On top of this, the brilliant minds at Epic Games like to keep things fresh for all its die-hard and casual fans alike and at an affordable price. For only 800 Microsoft points (roughly eight to ten American dollars) you can purchase four brand new multiplayer maps that bring the pain like no others have so far.

Included with the download of the four new maps are nine brand new achievements you can unlock, worth 250 Gamerscore points, as well.

This map pack will have you washing off that Lancer Chainsaw Rifle with Locust blood in no time. I just don’t recommend you eat the red snow…

That reminds me of a critical detail. It’s called the Snowblind Map Pack. That’s right. Soon it may be warm enough to cook eggs on the city sidewalks outside, but inside it’ll be nice and frosty as the new map pack has a wintery theme to help keep you Gearheads cooled off.

The first map included in the new map pack is Fuel Depot. Gear veterans will know that Fuel Depot was an original map in Gears 1, but this time it is blanketed in freshly fallen snow to give the all-time classic a revamped look. Add in Gears 2‘s Guardian mode and heavy weapons and suddenly this familiar map gets an entirely new twist as you re-familiarize yourself with its open and unforgiving sections to the lovely sound of Gatling gun bullets whizzing by your frostbitten face.

The first brand new map we’ll look at is Courtyard. What once was a hustling and bustling metropolis’ civic center is now an arid kill zone with clear lines of sight for whatever team can maintain the elevated sniper’s nest. There is a boiler room though that you can take refuge in and regroup with some grenades/proximity mines should your team lose or fail to grab control of the nest in the onset of the battle. It’s a great map for every mode of play; I found Courtyard to be a particular favorite of mine for Annex or Submission matches.

The next new map is Grindyard. Once used to recycle scrap metal during the more industrial days of Sera’s history, Grindyard has a gutted main office that could act as a guard tower if your team can fortify it first. Some of my best Execution battles have been won and lost in the walkway leading to the top of the tower where there is usually a heavy weapon waiting for you to dole out punishment from high above. If you can’t get the tower, you can try to snipe off opposing team members from two corner offices that are well fortified from enemy fire, but watch your back! There are two ways in and out of the lower offices, unlike the tower office, making it much easier for a less organized team to be picked off from behind. This map is a spectacular arena for Guardian or Warzone game modes.

It’s hard to pick favorites, but this last map would probably be the one I choose out of the new map pack. Under Hill is a scene that many people who have to drive into New York City everyday would appreciate. Snowbound tunnels and tollbooths set the scene here as wrecked cars provide cover as you attempt to reach the top of the paved helix for some prime weaponry. Often higher ground gives you a tactical advantage, but that’s not always so here. The top of the helix is wide open and accessible from two lanes whereas you could always fortify yourself near the bottom inside a garage with an impenetrable steel door and wait to mow down enemies foolish enough to stumble through the narrow rear walkway. Also easily fortifiable are the two far corridors on either side of the garage that always have grenades/proximity mines ready to help you defend it from enemies. While wider than the garage and with much more cover, with the help of some well placed mines, the corridors could easily be a deathtrap for anyone brave enough to wander in by himself. Under Hill is a great map for King of the Hill and Annex matches.

This map pack is a must have download for any Gearhead. If you’re a more casual gamer and you’re looking for some fresh gameplay and are a little strapped for cash in the coming months, a new map pack might be just the thing you need to keep yourself satiated until that tax return check arrives. Gears of War 2’s Snowblind Map Pack is downloadable now on XBOX Live.

-Ray Carsillo

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Man vs. Machine. vs. Mutant

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Originally published: April, 24, 2009, on 1050ESPN.com (now ESPNNewYork.com) and Lundberg.me

Hundreds of years in the future, the wars of man will unearth an unholy relic that could spell the doom of the human race. At least that is according to the new Sci-Fi Action movie Mutant Chronicles.

The political boundaries of the world in Mutant Chronicles have merged over the centuries into four main industrial super powers, two in the east, one in central/western Europe, and the Americas. A thousand years before, an evil alien device that turned humans into nearly unstoppable humanoid zombie killing machines (say that five times fast) had crash-landed on the planet and only by the different peoples banding together was the machine banished far below the earth and sealed away.

As the four feuding super powers continue to struggle over control of the planet, the seal has been broken and only an elite force, composed of representatives from all over the world, can silence this ancient evil once again.

The movie stars Tom Jane as Major Mitch Hunter, one of the leaders of the group selected to attempt to infiltrate the abominable alien machine, and Ron Perlman as Brother Samuel, the head of the religious group entrusted to uphold the legacy of the original collective that sealed away the alien device.

I had a chance to catch up with Ron Perlman about this movie, several of his past roles, the future of the Hellboy series, and much, much more.


CLICK HERE – to listen to my interview with one of the greatest character actors out there, Ron Perlman.

I felt this movie had such great potential, but fell short in the end. It was like a combination of The Punisher and Resident Evil with even less writing and even more generic action sequences. The story is loosely based off an old-school pen and paper RPG (Role-Playing Game); like Dungeons and Dragons, but with Necro-Mutants and automatic rifles. Mutant Chronicles had the source material to deliver a solid action experience, but poor writing and character development left you wanting more from the experience.

The acting, at least, was solid from everyone involved. Tom Jane basically reprised his Punisher role in this as a solider-of-fortune so it wasn’t a stretch for him to succeed in it. Ron Perlman is one of the most underrated character actors out there and did a phenomenal job playing another great one to add to the long list he’s compiled over the years (some of which we spoke about in our interview above). The supporting cast did well in the few moments they were called on to rise up and take a scene including a short scene with John Malkovich as a political figure during the beginning of the Necro-Mutant invasion.

This isn’t a bad movie, but it isn’t a great one either. There were a lot of spots that dragged on with too many gaps in the plot, which is typical when taking a plot from an old-school RPG if you don’t take it upon yourself to fix these holes with additional writing. I walked away with seeing enough action and enough sci-fi, but I still needed something else from the plot to make it feel complete.

It also felt like the movie couldn’t decide if it was going to concentrate on the action, the sci-fi, or the zombie aspects a lot of the time and this tug-of-war keeps you from becoming totally immersed in the fantasy.

The movie is an hour and 51 minutes and you have to figure that if they could have tightened up the movie to somewhere around the hour and a half mark and wrote a couple more minutes of really concise dialogue then it might have flowed in a way that would have left a better feeling in my gut when I left the theatre.

Mutant Chronicles gets 2 out of 5 for Ron Perlman dominating his role as usual and some average action sequences.

-Ray Carsillo

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The Addendum to End All Addendums

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Originally Published: April 21, 2009, on 1050ESPN.com (now ESPNNewYork.com) and Lundberg.me

Watchmen is easily one of the most influential comics to ever be published. This is a fact that cannot be disputed even by the staunchest of critics of the comics. One of the things that made it great were the addendums at the end of each chapter to flesh out the characters of this fictional Earth and their society’s problems. It was also one of the reasons why many speculated it would be impossible to make it into a movie.

Well, here we are two months after the motion picture’s release without any of the addendums included and many, myself included, thought it was spectacular.

However, many diehards of the franchise were furious that Zack Snyder couldn’t find a way to fit in several of the addendums and many newcomers to the series couldn’t understand every facet of the Watchmen reality without them.

In response to their fans and in a stroke of money-making genius, DC has released an animated feature of Tales of the Black Freighter with the DVD including a live-action feature representing the Under the Hood addendum.

This DVD addendum to the movie (that started as addendums to the novel) is a near-perfect representation of these stories within the story.

The first story, Tales of the Black Freighter, is the response to the comic’s quandary: “If there are superheroes in real-life for these people, what would their comics be like?” Not a common thought when developing a plot, but that’s part of the beauty of Watchmen. The answer to this question was pirates and the supernatural (ghouls, demons, etc.) would populate the pages of these fictional rags.


Tales of the Black Freighter is a mirror for the story of Watchmen as it shows in a microcosm that sometimes the best of intentions don’t always have the best of results and that sometimes one’s focus on the worst aspects of life can blind them from everything good in the world.

The Black Freighter is a ship of ghoulish pirates who have committed so many heinous acts over their lifetimes that their souls are cursed to sail the seven seas on hell’s personal sea vessel in search of more damned souls to hoist her rotten masts. A testament to just how hard it is to find good help these days.

The particular tale in Watchmen that we see is how the Black Freighter attacks and ransacks another pirate ship, and how all the crew is slaughtered except the captain. The captain washes up on a desolate shore with the carcasses of his crew and the sole intention of seeing his family again. He also fears that the Black Freighter will sail towards his home and the very threat of his family being in danger is enough to keep his resolve strong.

In desperation, he strings up the carcasses of his crew into a makeshift raft and sets off in the hopes of reaching his family before the Black Freighter. Alone, hungry, and left to drink seawater, he begins to go mad, talking to his slaughtered friends’ dead bodies. Disgusting sights begin to drive him further into madness as gases trapped in his crews bodies begins to make them explode and leave a trail of blood in their wake that attracts the seas’ most feared predator: the Great White Shark.

With pieces of sharpened parts of his makeshift raft, he stabs one of the sharks in the eye and jams the staff deep into the cranium of the shark, killing it, adding it to his raft of death and scaring off the remaining sharks.

After nearly losing all hope and preparing to succumb to the sea, the raft finds shore. Convinced that the Black Freighter has reached here before him, the captain believes with every fiber of his being that all the shapes draped by shadows by the night sky are actually pirates laughing at his futile efforts.

He skulks through the town, approaching his home, the longing to see his family all that is keeping him going. The night continues to play tricks on him as he beats to death what he believes to be a sentry positioned at his home, only to come to his senses after his daughters’ shrill screams piece the night air and to realize he just beat his own wife to death. In his panic, he runs back to the sea where he sees the Black Freighter waiting for him, ready to finally claim its next soul.

The captain was so blind to his hate of the Freighter and that it would hurt his family, that in the end, the captain was the only one to do the harm as he condemns himself to an eternity of sailing the seven seas as a member of the Black Freighter’s crew with one misguided act.

The animated version of this on the DVD perfectly depicted the gruesome fates of the captain and his crew from the original story and Gerard Butler (300) played the voice of the narrator/captain very well, but I couldn’t help but want to hear him yell “THIS IS SPARTA!” or more appropriately “THIS IS THE BLACK FREIGHTER!” the entire time.

The other story is much simpler. Under the Hood is an autobiographical story revolving around the original Nite Owl and his driving motivations showing why he put on a mask and fought with the Minutemen. Not as deep a part of the universe’s main plot, yet still critical nonetheless because it retells almost the entire back-story to the Watchmen‘s world and sets the stage for the events taking place in the novel itself.

DC knew that an autobiography with no pictures clearly wouldn’t work on a DVD though. In order to counteract this problem, Under the Hood was turned into a magazine news program episode. Similar to 60 Minutes, The Culpeper Minute gets all the minor and past characters of Watchmen to come out and tell their story as if a Mike-Wallace-type was interviewing them.

All the actors who took the extra time to make this half hour mini-feature were great and showed how in-depth they got into their characters while explaining a lot of the key details that the main feature movie had to bypass to keep it less than three hours.

This supplemental DVD for the movie Watchmen is really high in quality and succeeds in filling in several of the gaps from the main feature’s plot, but considering both mini-features combined barely mark an hour, it is tough to say this is worth $20 (even with the sneak peak at this summer’s animated Green Lantern feature included).

Unless you are a die-hard fan of the Watchmen, then you can probably pass on this DVD and wait till it is included with the Director’s Cut Special Edition of the Watchmen DVD for a much smaller price. Rumor has it that these features will be worked in at key parts of the movie’s story just like in the book, which would make the Director’s Cut a much smarter buy for the die-hard fan than this DVD if they can wait a couple more months.

Good quality for poor quantity at an even worse price makes the Tales of the Black Freighter DVD only worth 2 out of 5.

-Ray Carsillo

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The Hardcore Legend

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Originally Published: April 17, 2009, on 1050ESPN.com (now ESPNNewYork.com)

When you think of hardcore wrestling, there are only a couple of men that shoot to the forefront of everyone’s minds. One of those men is Mick Foley.

Mick has had a long and illustrious wrestling career from being the King of the Death Matches in Japan to a 3-time WWE Champion and has a chance to add TNA Heavyweight Champion to his list of accomplishments this Sunday in Philadelphia at TNA’s Lockdown.

Mick will take on “The Icon” Sting in “Six Sides of Steel”, TNA’s take on the steel cage match, at TNA’s most hardcore Pay-Per-View of the year, Lockdown. So, if you can’t get down to Philadelphia to see the show live, you can order it through your local cable provider to see Mick Foley in a match he helped put on the map.

In my interview with Mick, I asked what his thoughts were going into the steel cage once again at this stage of his career. We also chatted about getting snubbed from WWE’s Legends of Wrestlemania video game, his decision to come to TNA Wrestling, and the possibility of being in TNA’s next video game, TNA Impact 2, due out later this year.


CLICK HERE – to listen to my interview with The Hardcore Legend, Mick Foley.

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The Return of King Tut

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Originally Published: April 12, 2009, on 1050ESPN.com (now ESPNNewYork.com) and Lundberg.me

I usually like to use my column here as a chance to inform people and maybe entertain at the same time. I usually like to use my column as a force of good. I also usually don’t have the clarity of mind when driven to such a rage by bonehead maneuvers by the powers-that-be to properly channel it into a semi-coherent comic book rant. This article goes against that norm, though.

The powers-that-be in this case happens to be DC Comics, which also happened to be the subject of my last semi-coherent comic book rant after they killed off Batman.

Even with the death of the Dark Knight well behind us and being about one-third of the way through the “Battle for the Cowl” story arc, DC still has several titles that deal with the Dark Knight by using the spin that these are simply excerpts from Batman’s greatest case files (after all, Batman kept meticulous records). These titles are the Batman/Superman crossover and Batman: Confidential.

For the most part, I’ve enjoyed these titles as you see interesting spins on Batman’s first team-up with Superman against Lex Luthor or a different take on the Joker’s origin story. However, recently I’ve been noticing a trend becoming quite clear after the events of the recent 3-issue story arc in Batman: Confidential.

This trend is the integration of long-forgotten villains or villains introduced through non-comic book media into the comic canon.

The most recent example is the villain King Tut. For those who are not familiar with the many forms of Batman in the media through the years, King Tut is a villain who never appeared in the comics, but was a fabricated villain for Adam West’s 1966 Batman series. Victor Goodman was an archeologist obsessed with the legends of King Tut. While moving part of his King Tut exhibit into the Gotham Museum of History, an Egyptian urn was dropped on his head and when he awakened, he imagined himself as the ancient Egyptian ruler (As was the motif for the show, the villain was always played by a celebrated actor or actress; in this case, the split personality archeologist Victor Goodman was played by Victor Buono). WHAM!

The obviously bad idea that, 43 years after King Tut’s appearance in the campy TV show, the brass at DC felt it was a good idea to bring this character into the comic storyline is a clear sign of desperation in terms of writing. It symbolizes a lack of confidence in their planned re-launch (when they bring the Dark Knight back sometime within the next six months) that they are adding campy 60s villains to one of the most celebrated rouges’ galleries in comics. ZZZAP!

The next thing you know, we’ll be seeing Vincent Price’s “Egghead” character (a man with an egg-shaped head, pale complexion, and an obsession with poultry embryos) or Roddy McDowell’s “Bookworm” (a really ticked-off librarian and a Riddler knockoff) with his “Book-Mobile” causing Batman and Robin about as much difficulty as they did in the 60s (also, both never in the comics). BONK!

“What about characters that did appear in the comics and the TV show?” you ask. What? Like False-Face (master of disguise character), who only made one appearance in the comics (Batman #113, February, 1958; a bad year of villainy for the Dark Knight as it was also the year Calendar Man made his infamous debut) before people said he was nothing more than a toned-down Clayface? (False-Face would be re-imagined again when the animated series Batman Beyond used him as an international spy, but he failed there, too) He was used in the TV show only because he was a jewel-thief and not a murderer which played better for 1966’s primetime audiences and his costumes were easier to construct using the technology for the time (he was played by Malachi Thorne of Star Trek fame and nearly sued the producers of Batman for refusing to put his name in the credits in order to sell the illusion that False-Face could be ANYONE; in the end they settled on his name appearing in the end credits of the last part of his two-part arc). BAM!

If Louie the Lilac (played by Milton Berle, a gangster obsessed with lilacs and the color purple; basically a cheap Joker knock-off because Berle refused to wear any heavy make-up for a different character) makes an appearance, I may have to swear off Batman comics like I did with Spider-Man after his most recent re-launch. OOF!

To prove my point, with the “Battle for the Cowl” re-launch effort underway, old one-shot villains are re-emerging for no reason whatsoever. Jane Doe, Adam Bomb, Anarchy…do any of these names ring a bell? No? Of course not! They are being dragged out of obscurity and into the limelight for no reason except for DC to show you how much they’ve screwed up over the past 70 years and that maybe you can hope they’ll just kill them off in one fell swoop and promise to do better in the next 70. KER-SPLASH!

And let’s not forget Composite Superman who only appeared in a two-part arc in June and July of 1964 before his recent return in Batman/Superman a couple of months ago (basically a Bizarro rip-off that is one-half Batman and one-half Superman). One of the worst concepts ever, but DC brought him back for a one-shot story. THWOCK!

I love the history of comics. I love where comics have come from to where they are today. I understand why the characters in the 60s, no matter what the medium, no matter the level of success or failure, are important. That is why I am so furious that it seems that DC feels the need to try to re-justify a time period long since past by re-introducing these characters and re-working them for modern audiences into a canon they no longer fit into. POW!

The Joker has lasted 70 years for a reason. Clayface wasn’t an original villain, but he has proved to be one of the most popular even 50 years later. There are reasons why some characters fail and some succeed and these reasons usually translate over time so there is no reason to believe that a character that failed in the 50s and 60s will translate to today even with some re-tooling. When DC makes major plot decisions like this, all I see is the tarnishing of my memories of the 1960s Batman and the watering down of modern Batman stories. It is unnecessary and, as tacky and campy as the 1960s Batman was, moves like these are even more so.

-Ray Carsillo

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A Sitcom for Your Inner Pyromaniac

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Originally Published: April 9, 2009, on Collider.com and 1050ESPN.com (now ESPNNewYork.com)

It was March 25th, 2009, a normal Wednesday afternoon by most standards. Being an uber-geek like myself, I was counting down the hours to when I would be allowed to escape work and go the comic store for my weekly fix when I saw a new e-mail from a contact of mine on the west coast. He wanted to know if I was interested in covering a special preview of the new Comedy Central show, Krod Mandoon and the Flaming Sword of Fire. I had seen commercials and was intrigued, but not sure if I would be up to it. I explained my hesitation and he explained there would be an open-bar and free food.

Two minutes later, I was on the guest list.

The preview was scheduled for Thursday, April 2nd, at Professor Thom’s at E. 14th St. and 2nd Ave.

Professor Thom’s was an interesting place, with a regular bar on the first floor and a private screening room on the second, which was where the party would be held. Since I was eager for the free food and beer and since my unfamiliarity of the area drew me to leave with ample time to spare; I arrived a half hour before the preview party was to start.

The pretty lady who held the guest list complained that nothing was ready yet and was shocked at my effrontery since most press members tend to arrive closer to the planned time. This not being the first time that a pretty lady had complained that I arrived early; I was unfazed and simply sat at the bar and finished some work I had begun at the office.

When I was allowed up to the second floor, I was a little surprised by the lack of places to sit and the amount of press that was already beginning to show up. This was going to leave for a rather cramped viewing experience. I made sure to claim to my space with my coat and backpack and then proceeded to the open bar. When I asked what was available, the bartender explained only one beer was on tap. I frowned at this, until she said it was Yuengling, my favorite beer.

With a smile on my face and a cold one in my hand, I proceeded back into the viewing area to find that Krod Mandoon preview comics had been littered about the place. I was in geek heaven, free beer and food, free comic books, a projector screen, the fairer sex floating about the place in abundance. Even though I knew I would never mount the courage to talk to any of the pretty ladies, I knew my night was nearing its peak.

After my second free beer, the preview was finally about to start (just like the purpose of this article). Would the ploys to satisfy my geek-dom by Comedy Central, Wiredset, and the Onion (who all sponsored the party) actually work? They wouldn’t have to because I actually enjoyed the show.
The first episode, that will air Thursday, April 9th, at 10PM on Comedy Central, is a special one hour episode to get the series to hit the ground running, with regular half-hour episodes following each Thursday thereafter. I had it in my head before the preview that this would be Robin Hood: Men in Tights: the Sitcom, and I wasn’t that far off from this assumption.

Set in medieval times, Krod Mandoon, is the story of a freedom fighting band of misfits who must liberate their kingdom from the tyrannical fist of the evil Xanusian Empire and its Chancellor Dongalore (Matt Lucas). In the first episode, Mandoon (Sean Maguire) is joined by his pig-faced ogre-ish bodyguard Loquasto (Steve Speirs), a wannabe mage in Zezelryck (Kevin Hart), and the lovely, but rather loose (Read: Nymphomaniac), love interest Aneka (India de Beaufort) as they attempt to free their rebellion’s leader from Dongalore’s prison. (A nymphomaniac homosexual named Bruce, played by Marques Ray, joins the bumbling troupe later on in the one hour premiere.)

Matt Lucas as Chancellor Dongalore steals the show as the villain. Even looking at him you have to stifle a laugh as he looks like some sort of albino woodland creature and his careless killing of extras is a joy to watch. India de Beaufort is absolutely ravishing (India, if you’re ever in the New York City area and want to grab a cup of coffee or something, feel free to drop me a line via the link on the upper-right hand side of my page) and has all eyes drawn to her when she’s on screen, for…several reasons. Kevin Hart, Steve Speirs, and Marques Ray do a great job as the bumbling sidekicks for Krod Mandoon.

The only real disappointment was Krod himself. I thought the character was more whiny and wimpy than swashbuckling, which would have been a better fit for the show. You already have two bumbling sidekicks; the main character should’ve been as far a counter-balance to them as possible to provide a larger array of comedic situations. Having too much of the same thing on one screen is going to exhaust the audience quickly and wear out plot situations to the point that the Flaming Sword of Fire may burn itself out before Season 1 even makes it to DVD.

The most complicated thing about this show is everyone’s names. If you can get past those, you’re going to have some physical comedy and some potty humor mixed in with swords, shields, bows, and arrows. The first episode quickly grew on me as all the characters played well and the show set the stage for the rest of the series. Although I predict the series will begin to run out of plot ideas pretty quickly with a weekly half hour show, I think that at least for a season or two, Krod Mandoon will be a winner.

I really did enjoy this show, and the party was great, but I think Krod Mandoon and the Flaming Sword of Fire will be snuffed out before it can truly gather a fan base to appreciate it. It was a valiant effort for some more original programming in Comedy Central’s solid nightly lineup. After the preview, I gathered my belongings, smiled at all the pretty girls, who were all way out of my league, and headed home, looking forward to the show’s network premiere on Thursday, April 9th, at 10PM, on Comedy Central (so that I could see India in action again).

-Ray Carsillo

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