Bryce's Pipe Bomb Survival Guide*

Now that I've got a PS3, I've been able to add in a bunch of games to my Gamefly queue that I've been hearing about, but previously unable to play. Here's some random thoughts on some of them: Last Rebellion, published by NIS America, who seldom do wrong, this is one of those seldom times. I'm sure there's a good game in there somewhere, for someone, but either I didn't find it, or it's not for me. The story and voiceacting were so terrible that I actually skipped all of the cut scenes, just because I stopped caring what was going on. Which is unforgivable for a JRPG, it's okay to have a cliched storyline, but if you're going to be spending a lot of time listening to the people talk, at least make the story or the characters interesting. Combat was kind of interesting, with you being able to attack numerous different body parts for each creature. Each attack leaves a "mark", and if you attack the body parts in the right order, the marks

The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo is a Swedish thriller/mystery film. I've got some serious mixed feelings about it. The movie kicks off with Mikael Blomkvist, an investigative reporter, being sued by someone for slander after writing an article accusing him of committing some crimes. He loses the suit because of all his sources disappear, and evidence is presented which shows all of his evidence as fraudulent. Shortly after he's offered a job from a very wealthy retired businessman, Henrik Vanger. Henrik wants Mikael to investigate what happened to his niece who disappeared nearly 40 years prior without a trace. Every year on her birthday, Henrik receives a pressed flower from somewhere in the world, and he is convinced that this is her murderer taunting him. The second Protagonist is Lisbeth Salanger, a hacker/investigator working for a private firm who is originally hired by Vanger to investigate Mikael to see if he was guilty of the libel he was charged with. A little

Powers is an odd comic. In a world filled with parodies of classic DC and Marvel super heroes, Powers is just about a pair of homicide detectives that have to deal with it, and do their jobs. Specifically, they're the officers that get assigned all of the Powers related homicide cases. In a world full of people that are bullet proof, can walk through walls, or kill with their thoughts, these two try and figure out who did the killing, and then go out with nothing more than their sidearms in order to make an arrest. It's a fairly ridiculous concept really, on their side, the police simply have "drainers" installed in all of their cells and interrogation rooms, which are able to dampen the abilities of powers. Out in the field though, there's nothing these guys can do to half the people they're fighting, they're reliant on superheroes to take down any supervillains that are resisting arrest. Really, actually bringing the perpetrators is rarely the focu

Okay, yes, this is another one of those situations where they call it Knight Morpher, but everyone who actually buys the damn thing knows it's really Optimus Prime. More specifically, it's Optimus Prime from a comic series that he wasn't even in... confused yet? Hearts of Steel was a comic mini-series published in 2006 by the current holder of the Transformers comic license, IDW Publishing. It's supposed to be the first in a series of "what if...?" style alternate reality stories where the Transformers awoke on Earth during different technological eras, the moniker for the overall series is supposedly Evolutions. It's been four years, and we're still waiting on news of any more stories. Hearts of Steel takes place in the Steam era, and thus, most of the alternate modes the Transformers take to blend in are locomotives and the like. Optimus Prime actually doesn't appear in that storyline at all, although there was concept art for him, which is

The latest run of Doctor Who is kicking off with a tremendous shake up. Russel T Davies has been the show runner for the entire run since the 2005 return, but he stepped down after the last season in favor of Stephen Moffat. David Tennant's also bowed out, in favor of new-comer Matt Smith. And a new companion in Karen Gillian. New companions and Doctor's are nothing new to a Who fan, so I wasn't too worried that a change would drive me away from the show, there's always a period of transition while you get used to the new characters, and the actors settle into their roles. More troubling was the idea of the guy responsible for all of my experience with the Who universe leaving the scene, until I realized that Moffat was responsible for writing some of my favorite episodes. Still, so many changes, I was expecting to be a little uncertain of the early episodes. I can now report that I couldn't have been more wrong, this first episode was simply fantastic. Smith

For those of you not in the know, this was the movie that Heath Ledger was filming at the time of his demise. The film wasn't completed at the time, and so for certain portions, his character is played by one of three different actors, being Johnny Depp, Colin Farrell, and Jude Law. Of course, none of these men look anything like Ledger, although that's not really an issue given the nature of the film. Dr Parnassus is a two thousand year old monk of sorts, with a gambling problem, and a long time gambling partner in the Devil. Throughout the ages the Devil has approached him, and made various wagers, which is where the good doctor's immortality came from. In the present, Parnassus wanders around performing shows with his daughter, played by Lilly Cole (a relatively new face, who has that same problem that Cristina Ricci does, her face makes her look more like a porcelain doll than a real person), a dwarf played by Vern Troyer, and some other guy who's in love with t