Tag Archive: ray carsillo


Star Wars Uncut: Director’s Cut Goes Live

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January 26, 2012

THE BUZZ: Star Wars: Uncut: The Director’s Cut, a fan film re-doing the entirety of Star Wars: A New Hope in 15 second segments assigned to different fans from across the galaxy, went live this weekend.

EGM’S TAKE: Started in 2009, the site StarWarsUncut.com has been collecting these 15-second snippets for nearly three full years now and have finally edited them together into a two hour and three minute full-length feature film that follows A New Hope word for word, step for step down to the tiniest detail.

Clearly some of the scenes come together much more nicely than others, but this was a project of love on all fronts. Whether painting their beat-up Sedan like an X-Wing, using crayons to draw pictures and using stop-motion animation, or using Poser software, each person brought their own flare to their respective scenes to get their official 15-seconds of fame. Aside from watching it on the actual site, the full piece is also on YouTube and has garnered over one million hits in five days and we’ve embedded it below for your convenience.

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EGM Movie Review: Fullmetal Alchemist: The Sacred Star of Milos

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Brothers to the End

After attending the US Theatrical Premiere of Fullmetal Alchemist: The Sacred Star of Milos, I walked out of the theater more pleased after watching a movie than I had felt in a long time.

When a mysterious prisoner breaks out of prison in Central City using alchemy, it’s up to the Elric brothers to track him down! But this prisoner holds many more secrets than just his electric and ice based alchemy abilities. As the Elric brothers chase him down to Table City in the southwestern country of Creta, Alphonse rescues a young girl being hunted by the escaped prisoner and in the process accidentally pulls Ed and himself into a grassroots rebellion where a small valley of downtrodden people are trying to rise up against the two countries surrounding them and holding them back from retaking what they believe to be their holy land and birthright! But just how far will they go for freedom when a Philosopher’s Stone enters into the mix?

From the moment the movie starts to its final climactic battle, you can’t help but be sucked back into the wonderful and intriguing world of Fullmetal Alchemist as you root once again for the Elric brothers in this brand new original adventure. Keeping true for the most part to the tone of the original series in terms of humor striking a fine balance with the action and drama of the series’ more serious moments, this movie is a microcosm of the greatness of this franchise.

Now, clearly the movie is more geared towards the hardcore fans of the franchise, but what I think made it even greater is that even as a casual fan I was able to enjoy the development of the new characters the movie introduced while still giving me a beginning, middle, and end that left me entirely satisfied when all was said and done. And because you can go into the theater with a very loose knowledge of the Elric brothers and the world they live in and still come out smiling I think is a major testament to the quality of film this is.

The only thing that might make some people a bit uneasy is the killing in the film. Not to say there wasn’t drama like that in the cartoon series, but the wholesale slaughter and unnecessarily gruesome and graphic deaths of some characters may rub fans new and old alike the wrong way if not prepared for it as it happens a lot over the course of the one hour 50 minute running time of the movie.

Still, with amazing animation from BONES studio as always, the return of all the original voices from the cartoon series, and a plot worthy of a summer blockbuster, Fullmetal Alchemist: The Sacred Star of Milos is a must-see for casual and hardcore fans of the anime alike and hopefully you live near one of the 100 or so theaters that plans to carry it during its limited release.

SCORE: 8.5

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XBLA “House Party” 2012 Lineup Detailed

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THE BUZZ: Microsoft announces the full lineup, prices, and “extra incentive” if you purchase all games for their Xbox Live Arcade “House Party” promotion for the first-quarter of 2012.

EGM’S TAKE: Similar to their “Summer of Arcade” promotion, Microsoft is looking to make a splash this first quarter on Xbox Live, keeping up the trend we are seeing of major releases coming out shortly after the New Year instead of sitting on them.

The “House Party” promotion will start on February 15th with the release of Warp from EA for 800 Microsoft Points. Here you play as Zero, a lovable orange alien killing machine with a score to settle. Captured and imprisoned in an underwater facility, you must use stealth and your wits to overcome the harrowing puzzles and lead Zero to freedom.

Next comes a very highly anticipated game here in the EGM office, Alan Wake: American Nightmare for 1200 MSP on February 22nd from Microsoft and developer Remedy Entertainment. Jump back into the shoes of horror writer Alan Wake as new enemies, games modes, and firepower highlight one of the creepier experiences you’re likely to face on your Xbox 360. For our full preview on American Nightmare, click here.

After that you can celebrate the Leap Year on February 29th with Nexuiz from THQ for 800 MSP. This arena based first-person shooter has you take on your opponents in ever-changing hostile environments and mess with the laws of physics.

Finally, wrapping up the event is I Am Alive from Ubisoft on March 7th for 1200 MSP. A year after a worldwide apocalyptic event wipes out most of the world, a man struggles to find his missing family while battling against other survivors in this desolated, dog eat dog world laid out before him. For our full preview on I Am Alive, click here.

Coming to a total of $60 dollars (4000 MSP) for all four games, you’re looking at a pretty quality haul here if you should decide to purchase them all. And if you do, again, much in the same vein as the “Summer of Arcade” promotion, Microsoft will throw in an extra bonus, this time of a credit on your account for an additional 800 MSP that you can use in any way you see fit as an extra reward.

It’s great that Xbox does things like this to really highlight the online marketplace and the fact that they can do it twice a year now shows how much developers are taking it seriously as well. And by putting out such high quality titles like this on a consistent basis, it implores the gamers to actually explore and check out the marketplace a bit more often for those hidden gems that sometimes fall under the radar of events like this. All in all, this looks like a winning lineup for everyone who takes part in it.

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The Pullbox – Issue #20

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A solid week all around in terms of releases this week, but it was difficult to pick the best of the best as there were a lot of good comics, but not necessarily great comics. Interesting twists abound as plots are further forwarded, so let’s see how by taking a look at this week’s pullbox!

1) IDW – Ghostbusters #5: After saving Ray from the hands of another minion of Gozer, the Ghostbusters are forced to try to get into shape by William Peck to meet the same standards as the NYPD and other civil servants. Meanwhile, as Venkman and Peck trade classic barbs, a new paranormal entity is causing havoc in Schenectady, New York, having possessed an entire amusement park and only the Ghostbusters are qualified for the job.

I can’t praise Erik Burnham enough for being able to capture the humor and absurdity of the situations that we loved seeing in both the movies and cartoons that many of us grew up with in terms of the Ghostbusters. After a brilliant 4-issue story arc to start the series off, I can’t wait to see what he does next as many details about this new ghost are minimal besides the fact that we know it is pretty powerful. Not to mention I love the paranormal files at the back of the book outlining the powers and abilities of the ghosts we’re seeing to give some insight as if we were a part of the team.

2) DC – Batman #5: Batman is trying his best to fight against the mind games of the Court of Owls, but as he remains lost in the ending labyrinth beneath Gotham, the world above can only wonder and worry what happened to their constant protector.

Almost feeling like a filler issue as most of the issue is simply seeing the effects of what the Court of Owl’s mind games are doing to Batman, the tricks used in the book might actually start to screw with the reader as panels start going sideways and upside down and so as you start turning pages, you’re also turning the actual book. A nice way to really help the reader feel just how upside down Batman’s world is becoming. But we’ve seen Batman overcome mind games before, whether with the Batman of Zur-En-Arrh sub-personality or some other mental training exercise he’s been through so again this is why as much as I love most of Scott Snyder’s work on Batman, this is a bit more of a filler issue, no matter how much I love the rotating panels effect.

3) DC – Green Lantern Corps #5: With John Stewart and some other members of the Corps being tortured clear on the other side of the universe, Guy Gardner is rallying the troops on Oa to stage a rescue mission and bring it to the Keepers. And Gardner is calling in the big guns, specifically a group of Lanterns who redefine the term “tenured” and who don’t know how to pull their punches called “The Mean Machine”. But will even this grizzled group of veteran Lanterns be enough to save Lantern Stewart and the rest in time?

I really like how this issue is expanding the Lanterns a bit more and adding a bit more personality to Corps members outside of those from Earth. I also like that it’s getting Guy Gardner back to his no-holds-barred, dirty tricks, all about results roots as he will do anything to save his friends and you have to love that about this character. All in all, this is a really well-written issue as it looks to build up to an explosive confrontation between Guy and his group of semi-rogue Lanterns and the Keepers, whose awesome origin story as a new enemy of the Lantern Corps is also pretty sweet and is revealed this issue.

4) Marvel – Daredevil #8: The second part of a two-issue crossover with Amazing Spider-Man ends here as Black Cat, Spider-Man, and Daredevil hunt down the thieves of some cutting edge hologram technology. But ol’ Hornhead may have bitten off more than he can chew as it becomes a bit more personal with the Cat. But can her motives be trusted and if he can’t or can, I don’t think Daredevil’s radar sense would be able to figure it out anyway.

The personality that Daredevil gives off and the constant making fun of Spider-Man makes this a particularly great issue and sets itself up that Black Cat, at least for the next few issues, will likely be a guest star as the hologram technology only scratches the surface of what could be a larger and more innate plot with Hydra and other evil global organizations. No matter if you’re just getting into Daredevil or have been following this new series since the start though, this book is most likely Marvel’s best written overall monthly and it only continues with this issue.

5) Marvel – Generation Hope #15: After another mission to find one of her “lights”, Hope doesn’t realize she has actually brought the mind-wiped Sebastian Shaw back into the midst of the X-Men and Cyclops is not happy about it. The X-Men must now decide the fate of one of their once greatest enemies as he is a blank slate and looking for refuge in Utopia. Meanwhile, the rest of Hope’s team come head to head with some Morlock refugees who are furious over their second class status even amongst their fellow mutants.

There were a lot of great X-Men books this week, but the banter between Emma Frost and Hope Summers as they argued over the fate of Sebastian Shaw put this over the top for me. Absolutely hysterical as you see things start to come to a head in the Utopia War Room. Throw in the return of the Morlocks who have almost been forgotten about in Utopia and I think this could continue to be the most interesting of the X-books in the near future.

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SOPA Officially Dead, Bill Pulled From Congress

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THE BUZZ: The SOPA and PIPA bills, at least in their current forms, are dead after being pulled from the floor of Congress.

EGM’S TAKE: House Judicary Committee Chariman and the chief sponsor of the SOPA bill Lamar Smith (Republican-Texas) said Friday that he is pulling the bill “until there is wider agreement on the solution”.

This of course came quickly after Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (Democrat-Nevada) said he was postponing a test vote for the bill that was set for Tuesday due to recent events. These recent events that Reid alluded to when he announced the postponement were the blackout of Wikipedia for one day and an online petition started by Google that garnered well over seven million signatures (you see what happens when you threaten our porn!).

Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell was all for Reid’s decision of postponement saying that it would “prevent a counterproductive rush towards flawed legislation”.

Not willing to accept defeat with some humility, Smith alluded that the bill may reappear in another form at another time as he released the following statement after pulling SOPA:

“We need to revisit the approach on how best to address the problem of foreign thieves that steal and sell American inventions and products. The problem of online piracy is too big to ignore. American intellectual property industries provide 19 million high-paying jobs and account for more than 60% of U.S. exports. The theft of America’s intellectual property costs the U.S. economy more than $100 billion annually and results in the loss of thousands of American jobs. Congress cannot stand by and do nothing while American innovators and job creators are under attack.

The online theft of American intellectual property is no different than the theft of products from a store. It is illegal and the law should be enforced both in the store and online.

The Committee will continue work with copyright owners, Internet companies, financial institutions to develop proposals that combat online piracy and protect America’s intellectual property. We welcome input from all organizations and individuals who have an honest difference of opinion about how best to address this widespread problem. The Committee remains committed to finding a solution to the problem of online piracy that protects American intellectual property and innovation.”

Harry Reid, much in the same vein as Smith, said he was optimistic about a compromise being reached after the concerns with the bill raised by the public were resolved. Markham Erickson, executive director of NetCoalition, the group that represents Google, Yahoo!, and Amazon.com commended Congress for coming to their senses.

This just goes to show you that when people in this country band together, change can truly be affected. It is just a shame that often things have to be pushed to the very brink before that happens. Although pirated media is a problem, the drastic measures proposed in SOPA were clearly not the answer.

The flaws of SOPA were put into perspective recently as a prime example being thrown around Facebook and other social media sites was that if you were to pirate music by Michael Jackson, SOPA as it stood, could condemn you to five years in prison. The man who was convicted of the manslaughter of Michael Jackson only received four years in prison.

And the crew here couldn’t be more thrilled about Congress’ decision, and to show off our joy, here is a picture of the crew after hearing about the death of SOPA.

(The EGM crew is in no way related to in likeness or personality to the Happy Tree Friends. We also hold no rights to this image and are merely using it in satire and to prove a point and therefore it is public domain. Try to get us now SOPA.)

What do you folks think? Did Congress make the right move? Did you partake in any of the protests this past Wednesday? Is this the last of SOPA or will Lamar Smith come back to haunt us like a cheesy comic book villain? Let us know with comments below!

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Adrian Gonzalez’s Cover Image for MLB 12 The Show Revealed

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THE BUZZ: Sony has revealed the official cover of MLB 12 The Show with Boston Red Sox first basemen Adrian Gonzalez.

EGM’S TAKE: I first covered the news of when Gonzalez was announced as the cover athlete for this year’s version of The Show HERE and my position still stands for the most part that Sony seems to have a Boston bias when it comes to their cover athletes. That aside, the cover does aesthetically seem pleasing, but let’s see if we can’t smack the cover off the ball when MLB 12 The Show hits store shelves for the PS3 and the Vita on March 6th.

What do you folks think of the cover? Are you fans of The Show? What new features would you like to see implemented this year? Will you get it and if so, for PS3 or Vita? Let us know with comments below!

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Ray Carsillo Talks with Tony Hawk at the 2011 VGAs

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EGM Associate Editor Ray Carsillo had a chance to talk to skateboarding pioneer Tony Hawk shortly before the Birdman let the world know on the 2011 SpikeTV VGAs about the upcoming releases of Tony Hawk Pro Skater HD in the summer of 2011.

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EGM Preview: Tony Hawk Pro Skater HD

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Grinding Greatness

For many gamers growing up, our first introduction into extreme sports came to us in the form of, well, games. And the game that paved the way for all others was of course Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater for the Nintendo 64, Playstation, and Dreamcast.

Spawning a half dozen sequels and even some crazy motion control board peripheral, Tony Hawk heard the cries of his gaming faithful (most of those cries were in pain as many of us, including yours truly, broke their a**es on that board last year) and went with his gut to declare that the series needed to return to its roots.

“It’s the best of our first two games for the new consoles and we’re back to joystick controls. And I’m super excited because we’re bringing back the game play that people came to love from the series,” said Tony Hawk himself in a brief interview with EGM back at the 2011 VGAs.

Along with returning to the classic joystick controls in order to link together as many sick tricks as possible, the game also pulls in seven fan-favorite levels across the first two Pro Skater games. Those levels are:

  • Warehouse
  • School 2
  • Mall
  • Phoenix
  • Hangar
  • Venice
  • Marseilles

But, of course, in the vein of many remakes coming out lately, fresh visuals are just the beginning for the Pro Skater faithful with the levels and playable characters in the game all getting a major facelift. And speaking of characters, both classic and modern greats like Rodney Mullen, Nyjah Huston, Andrew Reynolds, Eric Koston, Lyn-z Adams Hawkins, Chris Cole, Riley Hawk, and the Birdman, Tony Hawk himself, will grace the game’s roster.

The game animations and objectives also have been upgraded with the change in times. Original level specific goals like S-K-A-T-E and the Secret DVD (originally a VHS tape) have been tweaked while returning and you can also do manuals in levels from the first Pro Skater, originally a move that didn’t enter the series until Pro Skater 2. Along with tweaked classic objectives, we might also see some new ones come in via online play. Unfortunately, online play has only been confirmed at this point, but precious details like number of players, modes, or other online features have yet to be released at this time.

But the best part of all this nostalgia may be the price. Right now expected to be $14.99 on PSN and 1200 MSP on XBLA, I think fans of Tony Hawk Pro Skater as a franchise are beside themselves waiting for this game to finally become available in the Summer of 2012. But for those still on the fence of whether or not seven levels is worth the price, the Birdman said that some DLC levels could be a possibility.

“We’re basically going to go with the best of the first two (games) and if that goes well then we’ll add new levels maybe that no one’s ever seen before,” quote The Birdman.

Well, if that doesn’t give you an urge to grind some rails, then I don’t know what will. Maybe another look at the teaser trailer? Check it out below!

So what do you folks think? Are you pumped up for this classic reborn? Were you fans of the originals? How about the price tag? Let us know with comments below!

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EGM Review: Choplifter HD

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Get to the choppa!

A big trend in gaming recently has been “what is old is new again” as we’ve been seeing a lot of classic franchises get HD remakes to fit in new levels, modes, and whatever else they couldn’t the first time around on top of a new coat of HD paint. Well, Konami and inXile Entertainment have gone a bit further by digging up a game from a by gone era that many modern gamers may not have even been born for, never mind missed playing it the first time around.

Choplifter HD is the spiritual sequel to the early 1980s Apple II, Atari 5200, and arcade game, Choplifter. In this game, you play a helicopter pilot and must save stranded soldiers and civilians from various opposing military forces as quickly as possible by clearing the area of enemy soldiers and touching down on the ground to pick them up before returning them to your base. In this sense, the main purpose of this remake is still very true to the original. But, aside from just rescue missions, there is a lot more here that proves this a far cry from the original Choplifter of 30 years ago.

Securing a hospital and staving off a zombie invasion (yes, there are zombies, much like in every other game out there), destroying a dozen AA turrets to clear a path for your forces’ military jets, or just hightailing it out of there in a mad dash to the finish line with a dozen soldiers in tow definitely deviates from the original game’s simple, fly along a straight line, arcade style and provides the mission variety that you need to have nowadays to try to keep people interested. Unfortunately, even this unique mission variety can get dull as the game does start to repeat itself well before you complete all 30 missions that will be available to you. If you’re like me, by the time you make it through the first of the game’s three major campaigns (not including the obligatory tutorial campaign), you’ll find yourself tiring of how the game really just ups the difficulty by throwing more enemy soldiers in your path, no matter what the objective may be.

Another interesting new element added to the game is how you can rotate the chopper with the bumper buttons to attack enemies now stationed in the foreground. This added depth of field, taking advantage of modern processing power, makes it sometimes difficult to tell if an enemy on the ground, as you of course spend most of your time in the air, is in the foreground or the main ground though. And when you combine this with a poor control layout as you try to fly, aim, change perspective, and fire all at the same time, there is almost too much going on at once.

Aside from your 30 campaign missions, the game does offer some limited replay-ability as you can unlock a dozen or so different helicopters, all with different weapons strengths, top speeds, and person carrying capacity. And going back and replaying a level with a new chopper can help you climb the online high score leaderboards. After all, it wouldn’t be an arcade classic if it didn’t have high scores. The game also features some solid visuals worthy of a modern console with a bright color palette and fun and entertaining banter between the pilot and co-pilot to help keep you entertained and break up what will become the monotonous task of rescuing downed soldiers.

When all is said and done, for $15 (1200 MSP), this isn’t a bad game, but it is not spectacular either. Choplifter HD fits into the mold of classic arcade games of the 1980s and much in that vein, can become tedious and repetitive if played for long periods of time, especially considering there is a good amount of length here for the price tag. But if you’re looking for just 15-20 minutes to kill at a time between now and when some more AAA titles begin to drop, this might be a decent distraction as it can provide some old-school arcade style fun in short bursts.

SUMMARY: The fun of this arcade classic remake fades quickly as repetition leads to boredom, but its unique objectives might make it worth looking into if you have some time to kill and cash to burn.

  • THE GOOD: An old-school arcade game brought back to life in an entertaining way
  • THE BAD: Repetitive missions can cause the experience to become boring quickly
  • THE UGLY: The Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder you’ll develop if you leave too many men behind

SCORE: 6.5

Choplifter HD is available on Xbox 360 (XBLA), PS3 (PSN), and PC (Steam). Primary version reviewed was on Xbox 360.

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