Paul

Seth Rogen meets Simon Pegg and Nick Frost; not exactly Superman meets Batman and Robin, more like the Flash meets the Wonder Twins. But regardless, these three comedy greats come together in Paul, a sci-fi comedy about a couple comic book geeks who cross paths with an alien in the Mojave desert. Needless to say, this is easily a formula for a fun movie filled with homages to a bundle of classic science fiction flicks.

Pegg and Frost, whom you probably know as the dynamic duo that stared in Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz, play a pair of lifelong friends from England who are finally living their dream of attending Comic-con and road tripping across America to see its most famous UFO sights. On the way they run into Paul, a wisecracking, pot smoking alien, voiced by Seth Rogen. The little gray creature is on the run from the government, and convinces the nerds to give him a ride to a safe location.

Along the way they run into Kristen Wiig, who plays a Christan Creationist who loses her grip on reality when she lays her eyes upon Paul. Jason Bateman is the secret service agent who is hot on Paul's trail, while Bill Hader and Joe Lo Truglio are a couple bumbling cops assigned to assist Bateman. There's plenty of other cameos, but I'd rather not spoil it for you.

What makes the character Paul so likable is the fact that he's Seth Rogan, who pretty much plays himself in every movie he's in; a charming, smart-assed pothead that you can't help but root for. The only difference is that he's an alien, so he can do things like turn invisible, heal animals, and read minds. Seriously, about 30 minutes into the film, I thought to myself, "Man, it would be awesome to have a friend like Paul." When a movie makes you think that way, they've done their job.

This is probably one of the funnier movies to come out this year, but I can't recommend it as something to rush out for. The transition between the second and third act was also a bit slow.

Other than that, there isn't much wrong with Paul. It's a fun movie, especially if you're a science fiction fanboy that's in his 30s. There's no need to rush out for it right away, but if you've got some extra time and cash, go and enjoy yourself.

104 minutes long. Rated R. Image provided courtesy of TheMovieZones.com.

Bulletstorm

If Halo and Tony Hawk's Pro Skater had a baby, not only would the conception be impossible to explain, but it would probably look something like Bulletstorm. From the mind of Cliff Bleszinski, the man who gave us Unreal Tournament and Gears of War, comes a wacky, unapologetic festival of murder where points are added for creativity. However, while Bulletstorm is definitely a fun ride, it's not exactly something you'll want to go after right away.

Set in the 26th century, the game's protagonist is Grayson "Gray" Hunt, foul mouthed space pirate who loves to spend time at the bottom of a bottle of liquor. Ten years after he and his black-ops team went AWOL when they realized they were killing innocent people the whole time (whoops), they crash land on Stygia, a planet completely covered by a resort that's been overrun by mutants, gangs and giant monsters. Coincidentally, the same sailor-mouthed general who used Gray and his team for so long is also stranded on the planet. As the only surviving members of their team, Gray and his cyborg buddy, Ishi, decide to hunt the general down in the name of vengeance. Along the way they run unto Trishitaka, a potty mouthed chick who can hold her own with a gun. (Do you see what I'm getting at? Everyone in this game curses like Eminem after he's been set on fire!)

The main gimmick of Bulletstorm is the "kill with skill" mentality. Sure, you can just shoot someone in the head or the body like you normally would, but wouldn't it be more fun to set them on fire, or impale them, or shoot 'em in the nuts? Why not all three? You'll get more points that way! And with your plasma gravity whip, also called a leash, you'll be able to pull distant enemies toward you so you in slow motion, or your gravity boots to kick them far away in slow motion. Every trick, called "skillshots," has their own funny name and value. The points you earn can be used to purchase ammo and weapon upgrades from dropkits scattered across each level. My personal favorite is gang bang: when an enemy attaches grenades to you, run up to a group of enemies to blow them up instead.

OK, sounds fun, right? Sure, for a while. But there are times when there seems to be a lack of variety and the skillshots get repetitive and stale. Enemies also tend to run around a lot, as if they're begging for you to go after skillshots. And did I mention the adult content dialogue?

Another issue I had with Bulletstorm was the cover system, because it's pretty much non-existent. You'd think that the makers of Gears of War would know how to create such a system, but that's just not the case. All you can do is hold down your left thumb stick to crouch. You can't press it once to stay crouched or twice to go prone. And even that rarely makes a difference. Sure, you can slide across just about any surface, but it doesn't really make up for the weak cover system.

But other than that, there's not much to complain about. The characters are pretty entertaining, especially Gray and General Sarrano. There's also a fun area in chapter two when you get to control a robotic T-Rex that shoots lasers out of its eyes...seriously! Campaign mode is also co-op enabled. And while there's no real reason to play it again (besides the achievements, YOU WHORES!), it's still pretty tempting.

When you're done with campaign mode, you can go into "Echo" mode to improve your skills and beat your best time. There's also multiplayer for those of you who want to challenge the world in a contest for the best combo, but it's nothing special.

While Bulletstorm is definitely a good time, I'd advise you to try it before you buy it. And even though most of the humor and images seem like they came from a child's head, do not, I repeat, do NOT, get this for your kids. I know where you live...

Available for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC. Rated M for Mature. Published by Electronic Arts. Developed by Epic Games and People Can Fly.

Dead Space 2

Do you like survival horror? Do you like outer space? Did you like Dead Space? Then have I got a game for you: Dead Space 2. EA and Visceral Games' sequel to one of the better games of 2008 splatters back onto the screen to keep trying to make you soil yourself.

Protagonist Isaac Clarke wakes up in the aftermath of a Necromorph outbreak in a destroyed and nearly deserted city on Saturn's moon, Titan. He can't remember anything since he escaped the Ishimura at the end of the first game, and he keeps hallucinating horrifying images. As the plot progresses, he discovers that three years have past since his nightmare on the Ishimura, and he's apparently been working with the Church of Unitology to build a new Marker, which is what caused the new outbreak. Now he has to navigate the city to find the Marker and destroy it.

Perhaps the greatest improvement this sequel brings to the table is that Isaac now has a face, a voice, and a personality! So now it's easier to connect to the main character, which makes the story more engaging. Seriously, what was Visceral thinking when they made the first game?

The gameplay doesn't feel too different, which isn't entirely a bad thing. You still get to dismember enemies and make blood spray all over the place. The zero gravity areas, however, have gotten better, because it's now easier to reorient yourself when you get lost. Hacking into computers has also been added, but it never seems to get progressively harder. One thing I noticed was that it's only a survival horror game if you play on a harder difficulty, because an experienced gamer playing on Casual difficulty won't need anything other than a fully upgraded plasma cutter and the advanced suit. The extra guns and ammo are only necessary if you feel like challenging yourself.

The environments and enemies are just as creepy as their predecessors, and the gore has been kicked up a notch. Even though playing through story mode is pretty straight forward, it's still a lot of fun. I was a bit disappointed by the lack of boss battles though.

Multilayer mode is also available in Dead Space 2, but it's pretty much worthless. The only game available consists of two teams: humans and Necromorphs. The humans need to complete objectives within the time limit, and the Necromorphs need to stop them. All you do is fight as long as you can until you die, then respawn and do it all over again. Sure, you can upgrade your human equipment, but it won't take long till you find yourself yawning.

If your a survival horror fan who loved the original Dead Space, then there's no reason not to grab Dead Space 2.

Available for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC. Rated M for Mature.

Image provided courtesy of Wikipedia.org.

Season of the Witch

I think it's safe to say that Nicholas Cage has accepted that he isn't the most popular actor in Hollywood, so he'll do just about anything for a paycheck these days. Therefor, it's not that surprising that he took the lead role in Season of the Witch, a fantasy/horror/buddy/road trip hybrid of a snoozer.

Set in 14th century England, Cage and Ron Perlman play two Crusaders who've gone AWOL after realizing they've spilled too much innocent blood in the name of God. Unfortunately, the first town they stop in back home is suffering under the shadow of a deadly plague, a plague that the town has blamed on a young woman who happened to be passing through. The woman is accused of witchcraft and needs to be escorted to a monastery in the mountains where the monks will use their holy magic take her powers from her. Cage and Perlman are promised absolvement for their sins if they assist in the witch's transportation. But wait, isn't that what they went to the Crusades for? Ironyyyyyyy...

There's nothing particularly special about this movie. It's not completely horrible, but it's also not that great. It's just a boring waste of money that you probably won't even remember six months from now.

The plot in general is sadly predictable, and while the filmmakers want you to spend the whole time wondering whether the woman is a witch or not, the trailers kind of spoil it. That being said, Claire Foy does do a good job as the title character. So if you see this movie without having seen the trailer, her performance would probably seem a bit better.

Whenever Nicholas Cage was on the screen, I thought to myself, Thank God he's not trying to use an English accent, and whenever Ron Perlman was on screen, I thought, When is Hellboy 3 coming out? The pair does have a descent amount of chemistry in the film, but it's that cliche kind of chemistry that you see in any kind of buddy action movie. Their performances were pretty straight forward, cookie cutter, badass personas that plenty of lesser known actors could have done.

Speaking of English accents, how amazing is it that non-American actors like Christian Bale, Sam Worthington and Daniel Day-Lewis can play convincingly American characters, yet Americans can't be convincing as anything but Americans? Seriously, we have a huge outsourcing problem in this country. And I'm not talking about factory workers or call center employees, I'm talking about mainstream film acting jobs. It's kind of bizarre that the two main characters of a movie set in Medieval England are played by the only two non-European native actors in the cast.

Cage's character also keeps bringing up the fact that he no longer believes in the church and the imperfect men who run it. It's a common thing to see in religious themed movies these days; a protagonist who once believed in what preachers have told him who begins to question the church, due to an inner conflict of logic or emotion. I mean, sure, Christianity doesn't exactly have a model resume, and perhaps the church made a few mistakes over the last couple millenniums, but how much more anti-religious symbolism do we need? Then again, I guess a straight forward, zealous character would be too dry and politically incorrect for today's audience, wouldn't it?

While the technical side of the movie is good, including the special effects, Season of the Witch is an easy skip to make. It's a new year with plenty of other great stuff on the horizon, so just save your cash and ignore this one.

Splatterhouse

Way back in 1988 Namco released the original Splatterhouse for the arcade and the TurboGrafx-16. This dark and gory “beat ‘em up” side-scroller gained a small following, allowing the Japanese company to release three sequels. Now, Namco Bandi Games has revived the franchise in a 3-dimensional remake with a heavy metal soundtrack. Sadly, this game is merely the latest one to cram up the testosterone filled market of M rated video games.

Splatterhouse brings back the four main characters of the original game. You play as Rick Taylor, a college student who tags along with his girlfriend, Jennifer, to her interview with Dr. Henry West for a college newspaper. But when they arrive at West’s mansion, Rick is attacked by monsters that kidnap Jennifer. Left for dead, Rick’s blood comes in contact with an Aztec burial mask that has fallen on the floor. The blood awakens a nameless demon trapped in the mask, who tells Rick that they can save Jennifer if he wears the mask. It heals Rick’s wounds and turns him into a muscular freak. Now Rick will have to fight his way through hordes of demons, zombies and genetically altered freaks to save his girlfriend, all while dealing with the annoying jokes of the demon in the Terror Mask.

One thing this remake does right is use a lot of the elements of the original games. While Rick’s primary offense is his unnaturally meaty fists, he’ll also find weapons along the way, including 2x4’s with nails in them, severed limbs, and chainswas. Rick has the ability to heal, even if he loses an arm, which he can then pick-up to defend himself with. The game occasionally switches to side-scroller format, paying homage to its predecessors.

Also, if there’s an award for bloodiest game of 2010, no one will be surprised when Splatterhouse wins it. If you’ve got a weak stomach, watch out for the gallons and gallons of blood what will spray everywhere, including across the screen, when Rick smashes, slashes, shoots, and dismembers his enemies. Blood is used as currency for character upgrades, as well as unlocking certain doors.

There’s also a decent soundtrack of thrash and death metal, featuring a good balance between mainstream acts like Lamb of God and Mastodon, and lesser known artists like Invisible Enemies and WolfShirt.

Sure, all of this stuff sounds great…if you’re a 14-year-old. The gory gameplay tends to get a bit repetitive, the humor is mediocre at best, and it feels a bit creepy to collect reassembled pictures of Rick’s topless girlfriend. (Seriously, you'll actually spend time reassembling nude pictures of Jennifer.) What is it with M rated games that seem to be made for kids that are too young to legally purchase them? I know this game isn't meant to be taken seriously as art, but come on!

Also, the button command mini-games don’t always seem to respond properly, and items tend to glitch into the air and become unreachable.

If you get bored you can also play through the survival arena, and unlock three of the original Splatterhouse games.

Overall, this game is a good rental for action fans that need to let out some frustration, but it’s definitely not worth a $60 purchase.

Available for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. Rated M for Mature. Published and developed by Namco Bandi Games.

Image provided courtesy of VideoGamesBlogger.com.

Star Wars: The Force Unleashed II

As the sequel to Lucas Arts' fastest selling game in company history, Star Wars: The Force Unleashed II had a lot of pressure on its shoulders. When the gameplay of the original Force Unleashed turned out to be mediocre and forgettable, the announcement of a sequel gave gamers high hopes for a better combat system, and an overall better game. Too bad The Force Unleashed II seems to create more problems than it solves.

In this sequel you continue to story of Darth Vader's secret apprentice with a stupid name, Starkiller. (Spoiler Alert) After dying at the conclusion of the light side ending from the first game (or did he?), Starkiller is cloned (or is he?) on planet Kamino in order to continue to serve his master. However, Starkiller is haunted by the memories of his original self (or are they his own memories?), and decides to defy Vader and search for his girlfriend, Juno. General Kota also returns to try to convince Starkiller to lead the new Rebellion, plus there's cameos from Boba Fett, Princess Leia, and Yoda.

Starkiller's journey takes him to the familiar planets of Kamino, Geonosis, and Dagobah; as well as the Rebel starship, The Salvation.

The combat system isn't too different from the first game. You'll have two lightsabers this time, and you can also use the Jedi mind trick to convince enemies to fight each other or leap to their doom. The upgrade system, however, has been simplified. Each basic force power has three ranks, and Starkiller has almost all of them available at the beginning of the game. Lightsaber cores and color crystals have also been fused together. (I don't know about you, but I like being able to choose what kind of add ons I have and what color my lightsaber's blade is.)

The game's biggest problem is the story length. I'm going to be honest: this is one of the shortest retail games I've ever played. I'd estimate maybe five hours total of playtime. FIVE HOURS!? Are you serious!? And for $60!? No thank you sir. I'd rather burn my cash; at least I'll be able to cook some food and keep warm for about three minutes. At the end of the game, it's obvious that Lucas Arts intended The Force Unleashed to be a trilogy, if not longer. There's also at least one DLC due sometime in the future, so it looks like they're trying to garb all the money they can get.

The poor length of this game also hurts everything else in it. Character upgrades are rushed, there's only two real boss battles, and Boba Fett and Yoda only get 30 seconds of screen time a piece. Sure, there's plenty of mini-boss battles to be had, but they're limited in variety and get boring quick.

Of course, the game isn't completely horrible. Most of the force powers and lightsaber fights are still fun for any Star Wars fan. The force grip ability has especially shown significant improvement in control and usefulness. The game also looks and sounds like any Star Wars game should, even though John Williams didn't write the new score. Another new feature this time around is dismembering stormtroopers. (And yet it still got a T rating?)

There's also some challenges to keep you distracted, and I guess it's worth your time if you seriously need to unlock every single achievement, costume, and bonus material.

Star Wars: The Force Unleashed II is probably one of the most disappointing games of 2010. If you're a fan of the franchise, just rent it so you can unlock the Boba Fett costume and live a bit of nerd fantasy. Otherwise, stay "far, far away" from this game. (I know, I hate puns too.)

Available for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PC and MAC. Also available for Nintendo DS. Rated T for Teen. Produced and developed by Lucas Arts. Also developed by Aspyr Media for PC version, and Red Fly Studio for Wii version.

Image provided courtesy of Wikipedia.org.

Fallout: New Vegas

In the follow-up to one of the best games of 2008, Fallout 3, Bethesda Softworks is back with another post-nuclear role playing game. This time, however, Bethesda focused on producing, while Obsidian Entertainment took control of development. And instead of Washington, D.C., Fallout: New Vegas takes place in--you guessed it--a revived Las Vegas. But are these changes worth $60? That's a slope slipperier than liquid mercury, slipping down...a sloping...thing. (Steve Martin rules!)

Fallout: New Vegas takes place in the portion of the Mojave Desert that surrounds Las Vegas, now known as New Vegas. While most of America's other major cities were ripped to shreds during the nuclear holocaust of 2077, Vegas made it out virtually unscathed. Thanks to Hoover Dam, it gets a healthy supply of clean water and power. It's currently controlled by the New California Republic, a faction that superfans would remember from the earlier Fallout games. But an army of slaver tribes calling itself Cesar's Legion wants to take control of the dam, thus controlling New Vegas. You play as a courier who managed to get him/herself caught up in the middle of this struggle. You can choose to join either side, or join no one at all. It's up to you.

Much of the gameplay style isn't different from Fallout 3, but there are a few notable differences. For example, the companion system has improved. You can now have one human and one non-human in your party, and it's easier to get them to behave the way you want them to. Along with the returning workbench you used to build new weapons, there are also campfires and reloading benches you can use to make new healing items and ammunition. Ammunition is now available in armor piercing and hollowpoint, and can be crafted or purchased from dealers. You can also look down the sights of many of your guns.

But of course, what would a game set in Sin City be without gambling mini-games? Along with blackjack, roulette and slot machines, Obsidian also invented their own confusing game called Caravan. (If you figure out how to play it, please explain it to me.)

The biggest addition to the game is hardcore mode. Designed for those who thought Fallout 3 was too easy, hardcore mode truly makes wasteland survival more difficult. It makes your character need food, water and rest in order to stay alive. It also gives weight to ammunition and limits the effectiveness of stimpacks. The game even recommends not playing in hardcore mode. But if you really want a challenge, and or you're an achievement/trophy whore, don't say I didn't warn you.

The New Vegas Strip is to Fallout: New Vegas what D.C. was to Fallout 3; the place where all the danger and fun is. But don't forget to explore the entire map, which is mostly settlements and abandoned buildings scattered across the Mojave Desert. There are so many quests to complete, Bethesda has boasted over 100 hours of content. But like Fallout 3, you won't seem to mind. The storylines and gameplay of New Vegas is just as addictive as it's predecessor.

That being said, there are a few things that make this game fall a bit short of the standards that Fallout 3 set back in 2008. The game will freeze at times due to glitches in the computer code. In fact, Bethesda has already released a patch to fix this issue. The main story is also a bit weaker this time around, although there is a greater number of possible endings this time. I also found the crafting process a bit more annoying this time around. I got tired of hauling around all of these ingredients and parts that I couldn't even combine.

At the end of the day, Fallout: New Vegas is just as fun and addictive as the last Fallout game, despite the issues it has. From excellently crafted post-nuclear settings, to hilariously entertaining characters, it's what every fan of the series would come to expect. Grab your copy now, and be ready for the first DLC scheduled for this holiday season, exclusively on the Xbox 360.

Available for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC. Rated M for Mature. Produced by Bethesda Softworks, developed by Obsidian Entertainment.

Image provided courtesy of Unigamesity.com.