MTV Multiplayer is typically the last place on earth I check for video game news, but today was my lucky day. They have a weird yet interesting video of Allison Carroll doing random Lara moves at the MTV Multiplayer office. They certainly made a wise choice when they selected Allison as the new Lara Croft. Check out the video below. It’s the most interesting video from MTV this year.
Boomp3.com (Run time: 7:38)
One of our favorite commentators on the site, Adrian Otero, joins Carlos today to talk a bit about MTV finally getting Apple Corps to loosen their grip on the Beatles license. Thrifty/Sav-on talk ensues…you listen in.
Bonus! “Dan in Real Life is a movie that came out last year…”
I rarely pay attention to MTV’s take on video games, but one of their articles caught my eye today. They claim that “The Force Unleashed game does not play like it’s demo”. While the article makes a little sense, they article is a bit misleading as well. This almost leads a reader to believe that we were somehow deceived with the demo. Most demos are simply a quick glimpse at a level or segment of a level. If anyone makes their final opinion of a game from a demo, then I’m not sure what world they live in.
We were so jealous when we found out that record-breaking Gold-medal U.S. swimmer, Michael Phelps, got an early copy of Call of Duty: World at War a few months early, that any gamer watching likely spit out most of whatever they were eating at an unsuspecting television in front of them.
MTV got to the bottom of the story recently to let us know that, in fact, Mr. Phelps received nothing but an EMPTY box. The game, apparently, hasn’t even gone gold yet! Now, the swimmer only has his share of gold medals AND records to gloat about in our faces. No wonder he seemed unfazed at the end of the following video, he knew he was being lied to all along!
All hating aside, though, Activision did promise to send him a copy of the game, free of charge, when it’s actually released.
Via MTV Multiplayer Blog (found through Kotaku)
MTV’s The American Mall is out this week and proves that even though it’s a musical from the giant that popularized music videos, it doesn’t mean they can produce a great movie. TAM revolves around a couple of aspiring songwriters who happen to live out their lives in a mall, fully going after the upper-teen crowd.
The problem is that even their focus group might be put off by this shoddy production with talented (albeit unknown) actors, ridiculous sayings, and forgettable songs. It tries to feed off of the popularity of Disney’s High School Musical, but is sub par in comparison.
An average mall as the main, and only, setting further cements its inferiority to Disney’s for-kids musical. It could’ve been an interesting setting, but it becomes tiresome to see store after store that only serve to market different products (i.e. Rock Band) and bolster brand identity (cough, Sears, cough). A mash up reminiscent of Kiss meeting Six Flags, but to worse results.
Besides the generic setting, unlike a good musical, the story bits and musical performances in TAM are integrated poorly, one cuts into the other abruptly every time; seamless transitions were clearly not the goal for The American Mall.
From what it seems, in-sync choreography was not a central focus of the film either as the timing is clearly off every time a song is performed. The actors look dazed and confused while they prance around for every song break, indicating that little time and effort went into rehearsing for the final cut.
Poor choreography might have deserved a pass if the songs were good but, besides the few that standout, prove to be forgettable titles. “Dreaming Wide Awake,” “New You,” and “Sorry’s Not Enough,” are about the only redeemable songs from The American Mall. So much so, that the first song mentioned is actually performed three times during the film.
It’s a shame that the most important part of the film, music, is botched because the actors actually pull off strong performances regardless of the tepid story. TAM is full of sexy, energetic leads that would’ve worked wonders if they had better source material.
RANDOM MOVIE COUNTS:
- “Backspace” Annoyingly Used as a Word: 2
- Shameless “Rock Band,” the game, Plugs: 6
- Signs of the Declining State of Sears: 3
- iPod Worthy Songs: 3 out of 10 Mediocre “Songs”
Nina Dobrev, as Ally, puts on a charismatic performance that brings light to every interaction she has with the rest of the cast. The movie shows glimmers of hope every time she’s confronted with the mall owner’s fiery redhead daughter, Madison, as their arguments are rightly heated and believable.
While the movie’s titular “American mall” might bring in the teenage girl in all of us to watch, the single setting actually becomes one of its biggest crutches being that there’s no variety and all the backgrounds look the same. There are a few good scenes and a couple of great songs littered throughout (sometimes times three), but are scatter shot and not enough to carry an otherwise typical musical about people trying to “make it.” If you missed the premiere presentation on MTV and want to see it, don’t bother looking for it on DVD…this reeks of “Generic Brand.”
DVD Release: August 12, 2008
[Editor’s Note: Walking down the aisles of your favorite retailer you’ll see movies that you’ve never heard of. Even if you’d like to know how they fare no one cares enough to review them! That’s where “Movie Watch” comes in…oh, and we’ll try to cover movies on Xbox Live from time to time. Because if you’re gonna spend those confusing Microsoft points on something other than games, it better be worth it, right?]
More Movie Watch:
Starship Troopers 3: Marauder
Batman - Gotham Knight
Like a Dragon (Ryu Ga Gotoku)
Raising Jeffrey Dahmer
If you have been wondering if we’ll ever see Led Zeppelin songs in a video game such as Rock Band or Guitar Hero, the answer is NEVER! Apparently Activision and MTV have tried to get LZ, and Jimmy Page turns them down every time. It’s unfortunate, but I certainly respect their right as artists to control their music.
According to The Wall Street Journal, Jimmy Page, and his bandmates have repeatedly turned down offers from both Activision and MTV to use their tunes in either Rock Band or Guitar Hero music games. The band isn’t “comfortable with the prospect of granting outsiders access to its master tapes.” ”It ain’t about the money,” says Led Zep manager Peter Mensch.
More interesting info from the Wall Street Journal: These bands are all in talks to have content included in music games (either Rock Band or Guitar Hero):
- Van Halen,
- the Eagles,
- Steely Dan
- Guns N’ Roses
Silicon Knights’ game has been in development for years — across multiple console generations — and it looks like it might need some more time in the cooker, or at least, according to recent previews of the game.
Some of the complaints across MTV, Wired, and IGN are that the game is too short (about 10 hours), uneven game and storywise, and that while Too Human’s combat shines at times, it can be repetitive and frustrating.
This writer was definitely looking forward to the game, but now will take a more cautious approach when walking by it in stores. Might just have to save those $60 previously reserved for Silicon Knights’ baby…
Sarcastic Gamer posted an interesting article concerning MTV’s Stephen Totilo and how some fanboys have sent him death threats due to him assigning lower scores to games than they liked to see. While some people have found this to be shocking, it doesn’t really surprise me much. The anonymous nature of the internet tends to bring out the worst in fanboys most of the time. I actually have yet to have my life threatened because of a review, but I did receive some nasty threats from Jack Thompson last year when I was working for Ziff Davis Media.
We all certainly have our moments where we get a little out of line when responding to a review or article we disagree with, but it seems to me like things have been getting out of control lately when it comes to the opinions and threats flying out of the mouths of fanboys. You also have to give the reviewers a break sometimes. We aren’t perfect, although we try. I suppose some gamers need to grow up and learn how to communicate properly with others…
Via Sarcastic Gamer
The likelihood that two systems from competing manufacturers would connect harmoniously in the happy world Rare created with Viva Piñata: Trouble in Paradise and Viva Piñata: Pocket Paradise is slim…but they did it. Rare figured out how to connect the Xbox 360 and DS to share info from the two games, but stumbled on the discovery too late, according to MTV’s Multiplayer Blog.
The developer talks to Stephen Totilo on how the Xbox 360 Vision Cam would scan images from the DS game and use those to integrate both console and handheld gardens. Unfortunately for gamers, Rare is too far in development at the moment to implement such a feature. Maybe in sequels down the line Microsoft and Nintendo can learn to get along — or their games anyway.
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