With "The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim" sucking the hours and social lives out of RPG gamers all over, I thought it might be interesting to take a look at the world of Elder Scrolls from an angle that usually isn't covered. That of the religious culture. Almost every big name RPG and fantasy novel series incorporates religion in some form. Neverwinter Nights and Dragon Age had polytheistic and somewhat monotheistic settings. Even sci-fi RPGs like Mass Effect 1 and 2 and Fallout 3 have religion involved in numerous subplots, if not the main story. But the Elder Scrolls games may have one of the richest fictional theologies ever developed for a video game RPG. MY GAME WITHIN THE GAME A fun little exercise I like to do when I play a new RPG is try to figure out what religion I would follow if I were in this world and doing my best to seek out the truth about who is really running the universe. I play the part of a spiritual "seeker", letting every nut-job pro...

Oblivion was my first experience with a 1st-person RPG, my strong preference then being 3rd person, and it took me two attempts before I could adjust. But once I did I discovered a gaming experience nearly without equal. For months I've waited in eager anticipation for the next game in the Elder Scrolls series, and Skyrim does everything but disappoint. My first five impressions of any game's first five hours have almost always been an accurate summary of my thoughts on the game even after I finally play through the whole thing. So here are my first five impressions of the first five hours of "Skyrim". (Well, actually I've played twelve hours so far.) 1. The visual design has gotten a very nice upgrade. I was very impressed with the look of "Oblivion", but the new spell animations and gritty textures of "Skyrim" take the experience even further. (And people don't look weird anymore!) There is something strangely "Fallout 3...

An evil King leads an army across the land on a quest to retrieve an ancient weapon and awaken an evil power that will destroy the world. It falls to a man named Theseus, battle trained by Zeus himself, to lead the forces of good and fight for humanity's survival. "The producers of '300'" were heavily marketed as being behind this flick, and between that, the cool slow-mo action trailers and the plot description, you're probably thinking this movie sounds like the stuff the best brutal, fantasy action flicks are made of, right? Unfortunately, this one was mostly knock-off style with little depth or substance. Director Tarsem Singh is best known for his trippy visual style, as showcased in movies like "The Cell". And he brings those sensibilities to "Immortals" as well, though I'm not sure they're always the best fit. There is a lot of green screen going on here, but it didn't bother me too much. I even got used to ...

Friday is the big day. If you're an RPG video game fan, then by now you've seen the trailers and game play footage. You're probably even watering at the mouth as much as I am, while also making a point to not schedule social activities for at least the next 2-3 weeks. I've been between games again for a little while now, play testing my card game and playing "filler video games" for the last couple of months. But as the anticipation builds I find that the filler games just aren't scratching that nerdy itch like they used to. And more and more I'm itching for the kinda stuff that only Skyrim is likely to provide anytime soon. The last time I was this excited about a game was for the release of "Dragon Age 2". Of course, Bethesda won't disappoint me like Bioware did, will they? Please? (Sigh) Let's face it. The more we nerds let things like this build in our minds, the more likely they are to disappoint. There's an elusive...

In 1986, DC published Frank Miller's "The Dark Knight Returns", which arguably re-established Batman as a grim and gritty character and influenced the way Batman stories were told forever after. One year later, DC hired Miller to retell Batman's origin in a story entitled "Batman: Year One". Unlike "The Dark Knight Returns", this story was part of official DC Universe continuity, and even further established the dark tone that this well-known character is defined by. "Year One" served as source material for a number of great comic book stories, and was drawn from heavily in Christopher Nolan's "Batman Begins" movie. Now, the DC animated studios have turned their attention to "Batman: Year One" and set out to create an animated version of this iconic story. I'm pleased to report they succeeded wonderfully. The character driven story is what really sells this movie so well. Surprisingly, for those who...

I'm a big fan of monster movies. And the more creative the monster, the better. I'm a sucker for that tried and true formula of mysterious frightening deaths, followed by glimpses of a creature, followed by progressively revealing looks and information about the creature and culminating in a terrible, expansive revelation of the creature in the climax. It worked in Jeepers Creepers, Alien, Predator and my choice for "King Of All Monster Movies", John Carpenter's The Thing (a 1982 pseudo remake of 1951's "The Thing From Another World"). This awesome flick was unfortunately in theaters at the same time as E.T. and was essentially a box office failure. But it has gained a wild cult following on television and home video and you can consider me a card carrying member of that cult. What I love about the 1982 film is the great character performances and use of suspense and paranoia to carry the film, rather than the creature effects. But the cre...

Given my disappointment over Superman, I wanted to give Batman, another DC icon, a shot at hooking me in with a fresh take. I hate pretty much everything Grant Morrison did with Batman. All the Damien stuff and Batman Incorporated just seemed a far cry from the brooding loner version of Batman that I think works best. But seeing that some of that stuff is being carried over into the new DC, i decided to give the Batman books one last chance to make these ideas work for me. Although I wanted to read Detective Comics #1, local stores were sold out, so I'll have to wait for the reprint. But I did manage to snag all of the others. My first stop was Batman and Robin. Batman and Robin Again, more wrong turns, in my opinion. As a "new" reader again to the Batman books, i kept asking myself, why is this guy taking his 10-year old son out to fight crime with him? I don't care how well his son is trained. Granted, Bruce is a screwed up guy, but his decision t...

The Savage Hawkman I really wasn't sure what to expect with this one. The creator's compared it to Indiana Jones fighting aliens, and the first issue delivers on the concept. I'm also encouraged by the revamp of Hawkman's powers that seems to be going on, centering them even more fully on the mysterious properties of the Nth metal. There's great potential for the concept of Hawkman to get a fresh new take. What i would have liked was a slight retracing of Hawkman's origin story, so I know whether or not it's the same as it has been. But hopefully they will take the opportunity to re-establish that at some point in the first story arc. I wasn't blown away, but this book will bring me back for at least one more issue. Aquaman I admit. I doubted. I hoped, but I doubted that Geoff Johns could work his magic on Aquaman and for the first time create a book that would have me genuinely invested in this character, and not just wanting him t...

I picked up another load of DC's final comics of the first month of their new universe. here are my thoughts on two. More to come soon! Green lantern: New Guardians Given that this book shares a subtitle with a TERRIBLE concept that came out of the lame "Millenium" crossover way back in the 80's (do I get some extra geek cred for that reference?), I was reluctant to check it out. But as a die-hard GL fan, knew I at least had to give it a shot. This issue is almost pure set-up, mainly of Kyle Rayner's character. It retells his origin with a few modifications that make him less of a loser (he wasn't fixing to puke in the back alley, just urinate) and firmly establish him as having been specifically chosen to bear the ring. The other elements of the issue set up what will be coming, which is still very unclear, but I'm interested. It's a quick read, with a little less dialogue or other text to give it meat. And while I hope that won...

Mister Terrific I picked up this one because I like sci-fi themed super heroes and Mister Terrific was a character I enjoyed in JSA. The redesign of his costume is in keeping with his former look and the character itself is largely the same. Although his origin is retold in flashback without the Spectre's involvement, it retains the same basic elements. His wife and unborn son are killed in a car accident, leaving Michael Holt crushed. But a time travel visit from his future adult son (instead of The Spectre dropping by) convinces him he was meant to do greater things. Specifically "educate the world", although it's not clear what this will involve. One point of interest was Holt's profession of anti-theism. After retelling the tragic story of his wife's death, he says "I don't believe in God. Now you know why." This is an interesting position for the writer to take, since it establishes his atheism as being rooted not in some sci...

Last week DC introduced several more #1 issues, re-introducing us to more of their properties in hopes of grabbing new readers and reminding existing fans why they love DC Comics. As you might expect, the effort produced mixed results, at least as far as I'm concerned. Here are the titles I picked up: Hawk And Dove Although I'm not a longtime fan of these characters, I like the contrast between the pacifist Dove and the enraged warrior Hawk, and I enjoyed their inclusion in Gail Simone's "Birds Of Prey". And while the art in this first issue was great, the characters were fairly well-defined and I'm curious about where things will go, I'm not sure that all adds up to a purchase next month, especially since DC has launched a number of other books that I enjoyed more than this one. If they had showed more of their hand regarding the future direction of this book, they might have sold me, but at this point there just wasn't quite enough t...

This week I checked out three of DC's new titles from the launch of their new DC Universe continuity. Stormwatch #1 I'd read and enjoyed some previous iterations of this book and these characters, but this one wasn't really working for me. If you're looking for a comic book about super-powered people who don't necessarily wear costumes and aren't necessarily heroic, this might be a good fit for you. That was one of the draws for me in previous versions. But the writing this time around seemed to simply present the concept of the book rather than introduce us to who these characters are. It felt like a page by page run down of quick character bios that included little more than their names and their powers. Speaking of powers, I'd forgotten that the power sets represented in this book are a bit odd and abstract at times. One guy can control and communicate with cities (huh?), another woman can mentally access any information from every me...

Last night I watched the sci-fi comedy "Paul", which had a handful of funny moments but a lot of missed opportunities. Unfortunately it never quite took off as the celebration of geek culture it was likely meant to be, but I still enjoyed much of it and thought the performances were great. It also had an odd subplot the writers (who also starred in the flick) used to knock theism in favor of naturalistic evolution. In the commentary there was a brief reference to a scene that, had it been included, would have brought a little more balance to the topic, but as it was handled in the movie it made the writers come across to me, ironically, the same way they apparently aimed to portray Christianity: Emotionally driven, intolerant and ignorant of the facts. It reminded me of something C.S. Lewis (brilliant thinker and a fan/writer of sci-fi) once wrote in "Mere Christianity", and made me think he may have invented a time machine, traveled to 2011, watched this ...

DC's new universe started with the end of the Flashpoint Mini-series and Justice League #1, which both came out this week. Although Flashpoint was drawn and written fairly well, it was ultimately just another ho-hum "alternate reality story" which we all knew would not stick around. Although surrounded by tie-ins, the Flashpoint universe was predictably here and gone, giving me no reason (as I knew it wouldn't) to invest in the alternate versions of my favorite characters that were presented. Where it functions well is as a Flash story, dealing with Barry's greatest enemy, The Reverse Flash, and bringing the stakes close to home as the story hangs on the death of his mother. The ending felt a little rushed and I think it would have been stronger if it wasn't attached to the "New 52" event, but these are five issues that would stay in my collection even apart from their soon to be historical significance in attachment to th...

I've never read a word written by Robert E. Howard (Creator of "Conan") and I barely made it through the Schwarzenegger "Conan" movies, but I love dark, brutal fantasy and have been waiting for Hollywood to make one to scratch my itch. Today, that itch was scratched! In a legendary time of humanity's past, a barbarian child named Conan is the only survivor of a raid that wiped out his entire village. Growing into manhood his greatest wish is to kill the men responsible for the murder of his people. As it happens, the man responsible is also trying to awake an ancient evil and plunge the world into darkness, death and chaos, so if Conan succeeds, everybody else wins too. The action is bloody and brutal and the portions are generous. The fight choreography is cool, but not too fancy and in favor of the dark mood. The story isn't original by any stretch, but feels like a return to a classic framework in this movie, rather than a tired cliche. Jaso...