Friday, May 2, 2008

Back in business  

Been away for a few days, kept busy with some late nights and too-early mornings. Gonna play some catch-up here, tho...


Movies: Iron Man is pretty frickin' cool. Went to the first showing today, and walked away absolutely satisfied, and jazzed for the sure-to-come sequel. Robert Downey Jr. was a great fit for what I think of as the classic Tony Stark character from the comics, and the rest of the cast was just as strong. The special effects were great, and the writers really took the time to pencil in the back story and motivation properly before getting to the explosions and heroics. There were a few things I couldn't take here and there, but overall it was the best superhero movie I've seen in a while. It just goes to show that special effects only work when they're laid on top of strong writing and strong performances-- no amount of eye candy and CGI can overcome shoddy material. Recommended.



Games: I never would have believed it, but I finally polished off Persona 3 today. It took me around 70 hours total, an astronomical amount of time in general, and especially so for me since I usually draw the line at around fifteen hours for an average title, and usually no more than forty for the superstars. What's even crazier than me devoting so much time to one game? After wrapping up P3, I went straight into 'The Answer', a second quest that comes on the revamped re-release of Persona 3: FES.

Another 30 hours of the game I just spent 70 on? In this case, Sure! I'm contemplating doing a second opinion for Gamecritics, but whether I do or not, P3 is one of the top RPG's on the PS2, and one of the top RPG's in general from the last few years. Again, Recommended.

Also, my review for Endless Ocean finally hit the main page at GC, you can check it here.

Writing: After a brief hiatus thanks to life and other assorted reasons, and getting back in the saddle for the second in my trilogy, Behind Infernal Eyes, and (fingers crossed) I'll be starting chapter 13 before Monday.

Also, on the topic of agents and publishers-- can I just say that the only thing more annoying than receiving completely generic, mass-produced rejection slips are publishers and agents that don't even bother to respond at all.

You know, I get it if you're too busy to read the entire manuscript or even the first page, and I guess I sort of get it when you don't have the time to write a brief 'thanks, but no thanks' on a scrap of paper with your own hand, but I'm sorry...the very least you can do is let someone know that you're not interested.

I mean, would a few words in an e-mail honestly take more than 10 or 20 seconds? It's cool if you don't want to buy a book, but at least do someone the courtesy of letting them know that they can remove you from their list of people to follow up with. You're not the only person whose time is valuable, you know.

Comics: I was planning to do a comics rundown, but I have to wrap this up so I can actually start on my book sometime today. For the moment, let me just say that Ghost Rider has suddenly started not sucking and I'll get to the rest later. Oh, and Fables still rocks. Bill Willingham sure knows his way around a pen.

Food: Pulled pork sandwiches and pepperoni pizza with hot peppers, pineapple and whole cloves of roasted garlic both rock. Also, the wife and I reviewed a local tapas place... check it here.

That is all.

by Brad Gallaway

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2 comments: to “ Back in business ”

  • Anonymous
     

    What were the few things about the Iron Man movie that you couldn't take?


  •  

    Heh, honestly the part where Pepper instantly translates the spoken arabic language was a little ridiculous. call me crazy but having some knowledge of iinterpreting, i was outraged at the preposterousness of it. ; )

    there were a few other minor things, but i think that was mostly it.

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