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Sounds of Nostalgia: Silent Hill

Do we need an excuse to play old games? Hell no! But sometimes music from OSTs can inspire us to try new ones or revisit past loves like dirty, secret affairs.

There’s nothing quite like Silent Hill. The survival horror series stands on its own, and while the games aren’t quite what they used to be, they’re still as screwed up as ever. Even the not-so-great Silent Hill movie succeeds as one of the better adaptations, especially since it manages to retain the spirit of Silent Hill with so many nods to the fans—not to mention my favorite scene, where Pyramid Head rips the skin off Anna.

Anyway, few fans can forget the first installment of the series—the game that redefined “what the fuck” moments. Who can mistake the classic alley scene at the beginning? Or the first time you were thrown headfirst into the dreaded otherworld—which I’m pretty sure is what hell really looks like. From static radios to monsters in the fog, exploring hospitals and cursing at the sudden lack of road before you, Silent Hill truly grasped the raw notion of horror and made you stare at it mercilessly before shoving you blindly into hell. The combat system might be worse for wear, but we loved the game for its ability to scare the shit out of us with psychological, weird stories that don’t make a shred of sense but horror scenes that completely do. And the puzzles were always annoyingly fun, like they should be.

While “Promise (Reprise)” ranks high as one of the best Silent Hill songs, it’s hard to scrub the eerie beginning of the “Opening Theme” out of your psyche. And isn’t that just perfect?

What are some of your favorite Sounds of Nostalgia?

Tags: Music, PlayStation, Silent Hill, Sounds of Nostalgia
Posted in Video Games | 1 Comment »

Peter David on Fallen Angel: Reborn

If you’re an Angel fan, chances are Illyria ranks high on your list as one of the television show’s best characters. Amy Acker’s impressive transformation from the sweet and bright southern gal Fred to the cold, dangerous demon goddess Illyria took us by storm in the final season. Unfortunately, we didn’t see nearly enough of Acker’s performance on screen. We mourned the lovable Fred at the same time we fell head first for Illyria. Boys drooled over her, and girls wanted to be her (I mean, just look at that awesome outfit, right?).

Like with Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Dark Horse Comics, the characters of Angel live on in new adventures from IDW Publishing. But now fictional master Peter David is introducing Illyria into a whole new universe—the domain of Bete Noire in his own comic, Fallen Angel: Reborn. If you’re at all familiar with the comic, you know that throwing Illyria in with the likes of Liandra is sure to stir up some controversy. But whether you read Fallen Angel or not, you might be puzzled about how Illyria could fit into a non-Whedonverse comic.

That’s exactly what I asked Peter David in my latest interview over at Impulse Creations. He gave a fantastic scoop on what the new four-issue mini-series has in store beginning this July, so you’ll definitely want to hop over there and check it out. It’s a good one, I promise.

Tags: Fallen Angel: Reborn, IDW Publishing, Illyria from Angel, Peter David
Posted in Comics/Manga, Exclusives, Impulse Creations, Writing | No Comments »

Robin, Obviously

The jerks over at BatmanObviously.com put up their latest podcast. In it they reveal the five winners of their blog name contest. My suggestion of “All Robins Go to Heaven” placed sixth, with the excuse that I get “promotional comics all the time for free, so there’s no way in hell I’m sending her free comics.” Whatever. I don’t want their pity comics, anyway.

They also talk about some other stuff, argue for five minutes about a piss bear, and as usual, Jason struggles to speak correct English.

Anyway, you can listen to their hilarious podcast completely devoid of my cheerful sarcasm here.

Tags: Batman Obviously, one of my favorite movies as a kid was All Dogs Go to Heaven, Podcasts
Posted in Comics/Manga | 2 Comments »

Preview: Deadpool: Merc with a Mouth

Yes. You, too, can enjoy Deadpool’s Human Torch jokes by flipping through the preview pages of DEADPOOL: MERC WITH A MOUTH #1, which comes out next Wednesday. The Girls Entertainment Network now has access to Marvel previews … which makes us like every other comics section/website out there.

At least we’re not linking to somewhere else, right? Right. And you can come to us instead of them. Us, us!

Because I’m lucky and receive nearly all the comic perks under the sun (for working my ass off), I got to read the comic early. Gischler doesn’t quite nail Deadpool like Daniel Way does, but I was surprised at how strongly written he was in the issue. Panels were fun and hilarious, like they should be. If you’ve been reading Way’s DEADPOOL stuff lately—and you should be, it’s fantastic—then you’ll enjoy MERC WITH A MOUTH. So pick it up … erm, on Wednesday. You know. With everyone else.

Tags: Bong Dazo, Deadpool: Merc with a Mouth #1, Victor Gischler
Posted in Comics/Manga, Girls Entertainment Network, Writing | No Comments »

This Monkey’s Not Yet Gone to Heaven

A few weeks ago I blogged about Shia LaBeouf turning down the role of monkey-shouldering Yorick Brown in the upcoming Y: The Last Man movie, which is still being scripted. I respected his decision, considering his reason for rejecting the proposed role was that he didn’t want to be typecast. He felt that by the time the film rolled around, he’d have outgrown it.

Smart move, right?

Well … dunno. Geeks of Doom now reports that the actor hasn’t completely dismissed the idea. He just wants to do some other things first before he actually makes a decision, but he loves the idea. So basically we have no clue, and Geeks of Doom—and everyone else—spoke too soon. Hooray.

Substitute pulling the trigger for spinning the rumor wheel, and you've got the LaBeouf mess.

In other film news, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows—based on the last book of J.K. Rowling’s children series—will probably be broken up into two movies, the first ending on a cliffhanger. While the Harry Potter novels are monstrous little buggers jam-packed with plot and other enjoyable fantasy crap, making two movies out of one book is just bullshit. If the Lord of the Rings could pull off one movie for each book in the trilogy and make fantastic films, then Harry Potter has no excuse. They just want to make more cash—it’s as simple as that.

And even though it’s not as ridiculous as splitting The Fucking Hobbit into two movies—around 150 pages, give or take, compared to over 500 pages for the first trilogy movie alone—when nobody cares anymore because the Lord of the Rings movie hype is long over, drawing out the Harry Potter movies is still going to stumble just the same. Why? Because the Harry Potter books have ended, and no one’s going to care about the ever-capricious movies and their round table of directors with dramatically varying styles.

That many hours of hobbits might end up something like this. Oh, the horror!

Whether you agree or disagree, the point remains the same: They want your precioussss monkey! Err, I mean money. Damnit, LaBeouf.

Side Note: The Hobbit is one of my all-time favorite books, and I love the Harry Potter books, too. I just can’t believe anyone could justify this crap.

Tags: Geeks of Doom, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, no one needs two movies of hobbits, Shia LaBeouf, The Hobbit, Y: The Last Man
Posted in Books, Comics/Manga, Movies/TV | 5 Comments »