Review by Paeter Frandsen After getting over my disappointed realization that I wasn't going to be watching an Elder Scrolls movie in a few months, the trailer for Oblivion, starring Tom Cruise, intrigued me and made me interested to see what would come of what looked to be the summer's first sci-fi blockbuster. Whether you're a fan of Cruise or not, he tends to be in geek genre movies that, at the very least, are not terrible, and often are well funded and solidly directed. (Legend, Interview With The Vampire, Minority Report, War Of The Worlds.) Cruise plays Jack Harper, a technician tasked with taking care of the drones that patrol a devastated earth of the future. It is 50 years after a war with aliens who were defeated, but ruined our planet in the conflict. Most humans have relocated to an off-world colony. Jack and his mission partner, Victoria, are the last two humans still working on earth. The drones they repair are responsible for protecting t

Review By Paeter Frandsen As Konami was preparing to enter into the 3D world with their popular Castlevania series, they decided to fill development time by releasing one last 2D Castlevania game in 1997. Little did they know this "last" 2D game, Castlevania: Symphony Of The Night, would do more than fill time. It would be a smash hit that many fans still consider to be, hands down, the best in the franchise. Unlike previous Castlevania games, Symphony Of The Night had the hero jumping and slashing through a single, giant castle in a layout scheme inspired by Metroid. Instead of tackling one level at a time, the player was now able to explore the castle in whatever direction they desired, often backtracking into old areas again. New parts of the castle became available as the player gained special abilities that allowed them to jump higher, or turn into mist, for example. Additionally, SOTN was not just a platformer, but an action RPG. The hero gained experience and

Review By Paeter Frandsen The first paper and pencil role-playing game I ever played was the first edition of the DC Heroes RPG, published by Mayfair Games in 1985. I didn't discover the game until about 1996, when it turned up like buried treasure in the back of a "hole in the wall" comic shop. DC Heroes is from the old-school of RPGs. No miniatures, cards or extra fluff to buy. Just rulebooks, dice and your imagination. Just the way I like it. (True, the first edition came with some reference cards and 2D cardboard character standups, but who used those?) The system is more about story and action than about stats and mechanics. But that's not to say it is "rules lite" or without an exhaustive structure with which to build and populate detailed worlds. Central to DC Heroes are two tables. The Action Table and the Result Table. Each table is a number-filled grid. Running vertically along the left edge and horizontally along the top are s

  Review By Paeter Frandsen Tai-Chi Zero is a Chinese Kung-Fu movie that aims to blend martial arts action, steam punk and video game references into a creative, comically punchy, tongue in cheek mash up.