It's a hard-knock life in The Orphanage. Unreal Tournament 3 frags the PS3. Vader and Yoda in Soul Caliber IV? Plus Mad Men, and, because you demanded it, Dexter!
This week in Movies:
It is an international edition of the movie segment this week, starting with a review of the Spanish-language thriller, El Orfanato (The Orphanage), presented by Guillermo del Toro. One, two, three, the guys knock on the wall.
Meanwhile in Thailand, the Jackie Chan-esque legacy of stunt-laden martial arts films continues with Chocolate. Alex, Dan, and Jeff are impressed by the new trailer.
This week in Video Games:
Alex, Dan, and Jeff have played a bunch of Epic's newest frag-fest, Unreal Tournament 3 on both the PC and PS3. Does it compare to the great multiplayer experiences in Call of Duty 4 and Team Fortress 2?
One of Dan's favorite overlooked titles of 2007 was Stuntman: Ignition from THQ. Alex and Jeff give the game a whirl to see if they agree with Dan's high praise.
Namco-Bandai shocked the geek world this week, with announcemen of surprise characters in their upcoming fighter, Soul Caliber IV. The guys discuss the ramifications of playing Darth Vader and Yoda in SCIV!
This Week in TV:
Following the Best of 2007 episode , Alex, Dan, and Jeff received an overwhelming number of emails wondering why they hadn't included Showtime's Dexter in any of their top 5 lists for TV. Their reason? None of them had seen it! This week, they rectify the situation and give Dexter a proper review.
AMC's Mad Men has been receiving kudos from many critics, and even earned Golden Globe nominations. But is it rad?
Plus!
The guys put-put over to the mini-golf course for an epic TRS showdown on the greens in the shade of the castle and windmill.
This week's email question asks the guys to look forward to the rest of 2008 for their most anticipated events. Expect some unexpected responses!
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Posted by Cyric on 01/22/2008 at 12:53:29 pm in Totally Rad Show
Potential Dexter Spoilers......
I'm not too sure about the Dexter/superhero analogy presented in the review. I'm a little hesitant to say anything really, since I'm not familiar with the back stories of either the Punisher or Batman, and so if I'm completely wrong here feel free to set me straight...
Sure superficially they both kill bad guys, however at least to me the motivations of a real superhero and Dexter are very different. Dexter doesn't kill for any moral reason, there's no altruistic component, there's not even a revenge aspect to it as there might with a superhero. He kills only for the selfish need to sate his pathological desire to kill people (or rarely for his own self-preservation). The fact that his victims all happen to be bad guys deserving of being killed is sort of irrelevant as far as he's concerned and is just a result (and a happy bonus for us) of the coping mechanism developed and instilled by Harry. If anyone is the vigilante it would Harry who (perhaps subconsciously) grooms Dexter and in essence uses him as a way of dealing with his own demons from a distance (this is totally spelled out in the 2nd season, but is there in the first as well). Another thing mentioned as a problem in the review and also in this thread is that Dexter isn't supposed to have emotions but seems to show them anyway. Dexter is supposed to be a psychopath, this doesn't mean he lacks all emotions, he has emotions perhaps dulled somewhat), what he lacks is empathy. This was fairly consistent in the show. Whenever he does stuff for others it is through the filter of selfishness and self-preservation. His relationship with Rita is a prime example of that. What Harry did through his code was to find a way for Dexter to have a relatively safe outlet for him to kill while at the same time doing something justifiably good from Harry's point of view. So I don't think Dexter would qualify as a superhero (I don't think one could characterize him as a kind of supervillain either). I guess if you only look at the surface and project morals that aren't really there, then maybe (but they sort of make light of this in the second season).
And as for the first season being predictable from an early stage, sure I agree (I don't know anyone who didn't see the broad strokes of that plot coming early on). The two main "reveals" where telegraphed and so I don't think they were trying to hide it all that much. Besides the path of the plot was kind of locked in the first time they allude to a connection between the ice truck killer and Dexter, and to me it's really the only basic path you can logically take and still have a consistent, self-connected story. So I don't fault them for that and thought they dealt with the scenery along the way in a satisfying way.
I'll sort of agree with the casting, insofar as I very much disliked nearly everything surrounding the LaGuerta character and actress. I didn't really have much of a problem with the rest, though. I only started to watch Dexter after Rome ended and saw it as a sort of replacement. And in that capacity it didn't quite live up to it. But overall I still liked quite a bit, and am now eagerly awaiting season 3.
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Posted by SisterChristian on 01/22/2008 at 10:30:31 am in Totally Rad Show
"About Dexter,
I haven't watched it yet so I can't really comment on the show itself but a lot of people have been saying "you should watch the entire first season before you make your opinion about it" I think that is a very flawed statement because for me if a show can't grasp my attention in 2 or 3 episodes then it doesn't deserve my attention...I shouldn't have to spend 20 hours on a show to see if I like it...2 or 3 hours should be more than enough to decide. If the writers/creators of the show can't grab my attention in 2 or 3 episodes then they didn't do their job in my opinion."
I agree completely! Most of my fave shows catch me in the first couple of moments and keep me completely hooked. Mad Men was like that, also Journeyman. I just started watching Damages, and THAT is a show that grabs you in the first 60 secs! Most shows do need a couple of eps to get their stride, but if there isn't anything there for you at the start of the series, don't bother suffering through. :)
About Dexter... I watched Season 1 of Dexter mostly due to the great acting of Micheal C. Hall. The character of Dexter is compelling but the show really suffers from the supporting cast and show runners. And by show runners I mean that he individual eps were well written but the over all season was not satisfying and "jumped the shark" at several points. In fact the end of season 1 was so obvious and nonsensical that it turned me off of the show.
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Posted by Velho on 01/21/2008 at 10:36:39 pm in Totally Rad Show
"
Guess I will save my time for something else on that one too then. I just watched first 20 minutes of "Mad Men".....and completely agree with Jeff. It thinks it is too smart for it's own good. It does have Connor (Angel's son)....though, now that I think about it, he always bugged me.
It's lame. Time to move on.
Two good things out of it though. Because I was recording Mad Men, I also recorded "March of the Penguins" and "Breaking Bad".
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Posted by AutoDas on 01/21/2008 at 02:16:37 pm in Totally Rad Show
There were so many things wrong with Dexter (the show) to even enjoy it past the first few episodes.
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Posted by Heyseuss on 01/21/2008 at 01:52:14 pm in Totally Rad Show
"
I will make a separate thread to show the trailers for you guys so you can at least see the trailers if you don't want to play the game even again after reading this post and the tips."
Dude, I was halfway through reading your post when I had already decided to ask you if you had the replays online. I would love to watch those. I haven't played Ignition, but I still have all my replays from the original Stuntman even though I no longer have the game. I really enjoy the replays so I hope you see this post !!
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Posted by gm_wil on 01/21/2008 at 12:49:29 pm in Totally Rad Show
"About Dexter,
I haven't watched it yet so I can't really comment on the show itself but a lot of people have been saying "you should watch the entire first season before you make your opinion about it" I think that is a very flawed statement because for me if a show can't grasp my attention in 2 or 3 episodes then it doesn't deserve my attention...I shouldn't have to spend 20 hours on a show to see if I like it...2 or 3 hours should be more than enough to decide. If the writers/creators of the show can't grab my attention in 2 or 3 episodes then they didn't do their job in my opinion."
I used to think that way...but Space: Above and Beyond is a good example on how the Pilot was absolutely horrible and the first two discs only have 1 or 2 good shows, but by disc 3 the episodes are really good and discs 3-5 make it one of my all time favorite sci fi series...I enjoyed it more than the new battlestar galactica...
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Posted by RottNKorpse on 01/21/2008 at 08:51:06 am in Totally Rad Show
About Dexter,
I haven't watched it yet so I can't really comment on the show itself but a lot of people have been saying "you should watch the entire first season before you make your opinion about it" I think that is a very flawed statement because for me if a show can't grasp my attention in 2 or 3 episodes then it doesn't deserve my attention...I shouldn't have to spend 20 hours on a show to see if I like it...2 or 3 hours should be more than enough to decide. If the writers/creators of the show can't grab my attention in 2 or 3 episodes then they didn't do their job in my opinion.
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Posted by Mega Man on 01/20/2008 at 06:00:22 pm in Totally Rad Show
Hey guys, great episode this week. I have to reiterate what everyone's been saying about Dexter for the most part. You should definitely watch the entire first season before you pass judgement on this show. You really learn a lot about his background towards the end of the season.
As for reccomendations, I'd say check out The Wire. It's a great show that takes an in depth look at all sides involved in the "drug war" of Baltimore city. The first season is great. But if you do set aside some time to check this show out, be sure to watch the ENTIRE season.
Oh and Jeff, I'm diggin the beard. It's a good look for you man.
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Posted by RottNKorpse on 01/19/2008 at 04:50:35 pm in Totally Rad Show
Ok my reply is about Stuntman : Ignition and I agree with Dan on this one as this is indeed an underrated game...in fact, I LOVE THIS GAME!!!
Alex and Jeff were talking about how there is only "ONE" way to beat the scenes and that is COMPLETELY WRONG. There is only ONE way to get 5 stars but for 3 or 4 you can do whatever you want as long as you don't miss 5 director stunts.
5 Stars has NOTHING to do with hitting all of the director stunts, you could miss 4 or the 5 and still land a 5 star rated scene because the way to get 5 stars is to never lose your string...as long as you keep your string alive by doing various combo stunts and such, it doesn't matter if you miss a few director stunts...the stunts are there to help you keep your string where there are parts of the map that you can't do anything else so yea if you miss a directory stunt then, sure you will lose the string.
The part I do agree with them is how you don't know what to do until you get there because it only tells you about a second ahead of time...there should be an overview map showing where each stunt is while it does the loading screen. The loading screen is cool where it tells you what you need to do for the larger stunts but I think it should tell you what to do on each stunt while it loads. Other than that I love the game.
I have told people to play this game and many give me various reasons why they don't like it and all of them be wrong about their reasons...such as the 5 star ratings and the director stunts...then I explain thats not how to get it and they go back and try again and see how fun the game is then. I have also had people tell me that the stunt director guy is so annoying and that they wished they could turn him off and were so pissed that they couldn't...that my friends is also false as you can turn him off in two ways...fully turn him off by going into the settings or just plug in a xbox live mic and all his stunt is sent to the mic which you can then temporarily turn him off in the volume.
The movie trailers are awesome as well because a few actually make you want to watch the movie that doesn't exist. Aftershock, Night Avenger and, the 007 parody, Never Kill Me Again. Overdrive gameplay is awesome and that makes you want to watch the movie but the trailer for that one is kind of lacking but the playing of the scenes makes up for that.
I played this game way too much as I have 5 stars in EVERY scene even the commercial but I hope they make another one because I will be first in line...
Speaking of the commercials those are very cool because once you beat them you can actually watch the commercial that is all built from your driving...once you finish it play the replay and you get to watch your driving along with the logo stuff of whatever company as well as a voiceover guy talking about the product...very nicely done :)
Even the online play is fun because not only can you do the scenes with friends or whatever but you can also race them and have string battles which lets you go in a regular race but the goal is to get the most string points and the battling part is that you can bump your opponents and steal their string. The only part wrong with the online is that is isn't very popular so you don't get to play it very much because it is an extreme pain to find someone to play which is a shame as the online is quite fun.
I will make a separate thread to show the trailers for you guys so you can at least see the trailers if you don't want to play the game even again after reading this post and the tips.
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Posted by wandomike on 01/18/2008 at 01:45:31 pm in Totally Rad Show
Great show as always guys. Dan was hilarious in the video game section! I have to say I liked Stuntman:Ignition - but I only played the demo.
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