Category: Geeky Fanboy

From Sci-Fi wire…
A possible new show with Faith.

Also from the ABC site, Alias: Online Adventure — which looks like some sort of cheap knock-off of the ‘interactive real-time’ games that were starting up last year (after the AI promo started it) and then sort of dropped off the map in seconds.
I haven’t messed with this yet, so no bets on whether it’s incredibly lame, kinda cool, or both.

[timestamp is London time]
You can download Alias Underground from the ABC site. The game is basically a cheaper (looking), less-sophisticated Tomb Raider interface.
Upside1: downloadable missions continue to be added, and all seem to be based off of actual scenes from the show.
Upside2: Voice acting is all done by the actual actors from the show, which means you get even more sound bytes from Marshall. Bonus!
Downside: Did I mention the poorly done graphics and simplistic interface?
Still, IMO, it’s worth it just to hear Marshall during the training episode.

Grrrowl?


Which OS are You?

We’ll call this the “ABC post”. Due to a weird series of events, I managed to be away from the house most of last night and still saw a lot of new television.
Veritas, the Quest is going to die a lingering Birds of Prey death. A decent, fun idea for the main plot, and a couple of very good character actors in supporting roles, but the idea to take a not-particularly-charismatic teen and make him central to a world-spanning plot designed to cast him as a sex symbol was a mistake. This is not Tomb Raider, but it desperately wants to be. Also, I don’t know where the budget for the show went, but they definitely saved money on set lighting.
Miracles looks very promising. Reasonable creepy, some very good cinematography and very believable stunts, and of course Angus MacFadyen, whom you might remember from Braveheart (although he won a spot in my cult-favorite fanboy heart for playing Komodo in Warriors of Virtue). He plays a good almost-crazy (witness his role in Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood — the only part of the movie I entirely enjoyed). All this and Skeet Ulrich too. And the rest of the regular cast isn’t bad, from what we’ve seen of them.
Finally, kudos to Alias for having the balls to completely change the entire dynamic of the show in one episode. Huge. Just when you were starting to think “oh man, the bad guys have got to start noticing some of this stuff”, you find out you were oh so very right, and yet you still had no idea what was going on. Few characters on television shows are written well enough to make me feel slow-on-the-uptake, but Alias has two of them. Maybe three.

Hot new devices at a recent tech show:
They loaded a GPS into the newest Palm PDA coming out — it was just a matter of time — the iQue runs on the latest version of the Palm OS (5.1), on a 150 MHz Motorola MXL ARM 9 processor, comes with 32 MB of DRAM, an SD card slot and a (huge) 320 by 480 pixel TFT screen. It’ll come with the MapSource City Select CD-ROM (for all the maps), a leather flip cover and USB cradle. It should retail for $589.
The fact that they have the Palm OS on a Pocket PC-class procressor (when it doesn’t need a high end processor) just tickles me. I want one.
Except for the niggling bit of “THEY will always know where I am” paranoia, that is, but that’s true of cell phones too. C’est la vie.

Crappy morning.
Threw two guys out of one of the adult league soccer games today. (Indoor soccer on a roller hockey rink? Sockey?) Called the rec league coordinator afterwards and resigned. I do not need that kind of stress.
Superbowl today. I’ve always liked Tampa and I only ever liked the Raiders because of Gruden, so you can see that my eggs are all in one basket.
National odds on the game say Oakland over Tampa 42-9? I think not. Let’s sayyyy… 24-17, Tampa.
See, when the #1 Defense (Tampa) meets the #1 Offense (Oakland), one of them is going to make the other look like they don’t deserve the title. My money* is on Tampa.

* — Not actual money.

Unlike Dave, I’ve been pretty biased in my initial reaction to the new Daredevil movie coming out — both because DD was never really one of my favorite characters and because I think the casting they went with is a horrorshow.
Now, I like Jennifer Garner — I’ve been watching her in Alias for a couple of years and been satisfied by the physicality of the character — very kickboxing, but they acknowledge that that’s the training she has (notably in a great episode guest starring Tarantino), and it works. Her acting isn’t quite up to the level of the two actors that play her parents, but then they are both amazing, and she is still very good. Not really pretty, but that’s me.
Anyway, none of this information applies.
The difference is that Alias is basically realistic with it’s combat scenes: Garner’s character might (and frequently does) strike someone who just takes it in relative stride and smacks the crap out of her because she just doesn’t have the mass. Conversely, look at the DD snippet linked above and count the number of pointless weapon-twirls racked up between the two characters. in thirty seconds.
And the wirework is flat out horrible. Flat. Out. Horrible.
No comments on Affleck’s acting ability — clearly, Matt Damon got the lion’s share of talent in their divorce proceedings (going to go buy Bourne Identity tonight: yay!)