Burke's Joystick

First, let me extend a heartfelt apology to Kaos Studios for ever mentioning their first person shooter in connection with this dreadful movie.  Sure, both shared the same idiotic premise of a North Korean invasion of America, but I am sure Homefront provided far more entertainment value than this dog of a movie.    Having said that, I will now briefly review Red Dawn (2012) .  You know what was the best part of this movie?  That screenshot above.  Everything else was rubbish.  Yeah, seriously. Now, I want to be clear about something.  As you probably know from reading my previous post, I am a HUGE fan of the original movie.  Therefore, I guess it could be expected that I would find fault with any film that tried to "remake" John Milius' classic.  I understand that.  However, let me assure you that I went into this film prepared to forgive a lot because I am one who believes that more of a good thing is no sin...

[Warning: Some minor spoilers follow] I should have known that when Hillary Clinton showed up in Black Ops 2, the game's interesting campaign was going to go straight to hell.  Oh, she didn't star as herself - which is strange considering how this game did not shy from including other real people in its cast - but as "President Bosworth".  Nevertheless, a s with Oliver North , the similarity of appearance was unmistakable.   Sure, she wasn't running around hiding the Rose Law Firm records , nor did she scream "what difference at this point does it make!" when the bodies started piling up due to the global terrorism unleashed by Raul Menendez, but the bug eyes sort of gave the game away (as well as her apparent affinity for the ChiComs...I, for one, found it strange that "President Bosworth's" first call after the attacks went to the Chinese premier.  Hmm.  Old habits die hard , I suppose).  Be that as it may, it was shortly af...

[Yes, this is going to be another Black Ops 2 article.  No, Burke's Joystick is not turning into a BlOps 2 blog.  It just happens to be my flavor of the month. :) It also happens to be relevant in various ways to the mission of this blog...as the next posting will demonstrate. ]  What do you suppose would happen if someone invented a product so fantastic that is garnered over a billion dollars in sales in around two weeks time?  Do you suppose that if someone did accomplish such a business feat, that he/she would be the recipient of a lot of mainstream media attention? Probably, right? Let's be more specific:  let's suppose that James Cameron made another movie - call it Avatar 2: Feline AIDS Strikes Back - and it made another billion dollars, but in less time then the original film.  Do you think that - just perhaps - Cameron would be the toast of the town?  That Time, Newsweek, ABC News, TMZ, Entertainment Weekly, etc. etc. woul...

I knew there was going to be something special about the single player campaign in Black Ops 2 when the game began with this emotionally powerful video: Indeed, it seems that such intense emotional energy is the driving force behind the entire BlOps 2 story, not surprising when David S. Goyer, co-writer of The Dark Knight Rises , has penned the script. 

[Stand by for a lot of Blacks Op 2 content coming to Burke's Joystick!  I am finding it to be representative of what is best about gaming:  it is thought provoking, exciting, and wonderfully produced!] Imagine my surprise when during one of the early moments of Treyarch's superlative shooter, Black Ops 2 ,  an animated character walks up to me and I am struck by a sense of familiarity.  I think: "I know this guy...." "Hey!  That's Oliver North!" I exclaim.  And, sure enough, he is introduced as just that!  How cool is that? Why would that be cool, you ask?    

I am not what you would call much of a "movie goer".  Never was, for that matter.  Rather, I am the type of person whom would much rather wait a few months so I can watch a movie in the comfort of my home instead of in a sticky-floored, teenager-chatting movie theater...and for top dollar, no less.  No thanks,  I can wait. This is why I have just gotten around to seeing the actioner, Act of Valor (AoV).  When I first heard the pitch for this movie, I was excited: When a covert mission to rescue a kidnapped CIA operative uncovers a chilling plot, elite, highly-trained U.S. SEAL teams speed to hotspots around the globe, racing against the clock to stop a deadly terrorist attack. Pulse-pounding combat sequences, cutting-edge battlefield technology and raw emotion fuel this unprecedented blend of real-world heroism and original filmmaking -- a thrilling tribute to the skills, courage and tenacity of the world's most revered warriors. ...

I iz bak! Amazing how everything can change in a matter of minutes. For me, the world turned upside down about three week ago when my father had a heart attack. I never saw it coming as my father had no history of heart problems. Nonetheless, there I stood in the local emergency room early one Sunday morning wondering how we wound up in such dire straits. Interestingly, neither the ambulance techs, nor the emergency room doctors, could definitely conclude that my father was having a heart attack as the EKG was inconclusive, and my fathers symptoms were not the classic symptoms of a heart attack (pain down the arms and/or jaw, trouble breathing, etc.). In fact, for some three hours, the docs were thinking gallbladder attack or a bloodclot in the lung (his only symptoms were a severe pain off near his shoulder, and falling blood oxygen levels). However, the blood test showed that at some point he did have a heart attack.

A tragedy and a travesty to report today: First, the tragedy:  Details are emerging about a 14-year old boy who had committed suicide last year in the UK.  As reported by The Telegraph , Callum Green hung himself with a school tie after claiming "he was being bullied at Audenshaw High School in Audenshaw, Manchester."  As I wrote in my piece on The Hunger Games , or as Pink Floyd satirized so long ago , the government-run school system, be it in America or the UK, is increasingly becoming a place of desperation, bullying, and lower and lower academic standards .  Tragic. Now the travesty: The results of the coroner's inquest have now been released and the results are...a joke?  Despite Green's girlfriend saying that "he wanted to run away from home and have a baby with her", and despite having a fight with his "mum" and being "grounded...for staying out late with his girlfriend the night before", and even de...

I confess to knowing next to nothing about The Hunger Games .  So when the movie was announced last year, and a subsequent wave of excitement swept across the internet, I was intrigued to say the least.  As I dug into it a little more and learned that the novel involved a futuristic death sport, I found myself becoming excited as well.  It's not because I am a sadist but because I am a gamer - that is what most games are about these days (but more on that later)!  So, I was also enthused...well, until the movie premiered and I started seeing things like this: Photo from:  http://insidemovies.ew.com/2012/03/05/hunger-games-fan-event/ Screaming teenage girls and soccer moms are not exactly the first things I think of when the term "death sport" enters my mind.  I started to have serious misgivings....

"This week Vice President Joe Biden spoke at a senior center in Iowa. Which explains why the seniors were like, 'Is this Hell?'" –Jimmy Fallon   Poor Joe Biden.  Personally, I think our VP is a rather nice fella.  Unfortunately, he just isn't the sharpest tool in the shed.  We knew this long before he was ever VP - I mean, he was caught plagiarizing time and again.  Then there are all those wonderful gaffes caught on film: And liberals like to make fun of Palin.  Wow.   Well, ol' Joe did it again with this incredibly racist statement a few days ago: Remember when Bill Clinton complained that Team Obama "played the race card" on him?   Well, it looks like they were planning on going back to that well in their desperation to talk about anything but Obama's abysmal record.  Unfortunately for them, this time they went too far and needed to put Joe back in the attic .  Now, what has this got to do...

Well, this is interesting.  It seems Frank Woods, one of the devs of the original Call of Duty: Black Ops , has been spilling the beans regarding all sorts of details concerning what content will be packed into Black Ops 2 .  Amongst the many tidbits is a reference to the Commander-in-Chief himself, Barack Obama: U.S.S. Barack Obama – An aircraft carrier. Clearly, in the near future world of Black Ops 2, the current president will have an aircraft carrier named after him.  Interesting, that, seeing how Obama might preside over the most damaging defense cuts in US history due to Obama's inability to balance the budget during his four years in office. I will say that I am a bit disappointed that Obama won't actually be more of a part of BlOp2.  I mean, I would love to have a mission where the player needs to quadruple the US deficit in three years!  I wonder what type of kill streak that would earn you? I also wish VP Biden would make a...

"How many people had I already killed? There were those six that I knew about for sure. Close enough to blow their last breath in my face...." - Captain Willard, Apocalypse Now Yeah, you are probably already thinking that this is gonna being an Apocalypse Now -themed entry.  Not really (hint: it's actually gonna be a Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3-themed entry!).  It's just that I spent the weekend watching that classic war movie and realized I'd forgotten how much I enjoyed it.  I mean, I used to watch a VHS copy of an ABC broadcast of it over and over again as a kid.  Couldn't get enough of it!  What fascinated me then, as now, is how Francis Ford Coppola took the Vietnam War as turned it into a moody, nightmarish and almost science fiction-y trip into metaphysical madness.  To this day, the opening sequence of that film gives me the chills: The foreboding jungle, the dream-like sound of the helos, the weird colored smoke, the D...

Time for a new poll!  Here it is: If President Obama was a character from a video game, which character would he be? Pac Man Capt. John Soap MacTavish from Call of Duty John Henry Eden from Fallout 3 Jim Raynor from Starcraft Kane from Command and Conquer Gordon Freeman from Half-life Arcturus Mengsk from Starcraft Commander Shepard from Mass Effect Vladimir Makarov from Call of Duty If I missed your choice, let me know in the comments section.  You can find the poll at the bottom of the page.  I look forward to reading the responses. ...And yes, I will conduct the same poll for Romney.

Back in June, there was an investigative report on FOX News concerning how America's increasing reliance on drones could present a severe security risk in an age of cyber-warfare.  It is a good report, so give it a quick watch here: Pretty interesting, right?  But here's the kicker: if you were one of those slack-jawed video gamers, you probably were already well aware of this possibility because of Treyarch's forthcoming title, Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 .   Remember this from May (i.e., one month prior to the FOX special report)? But how can this be?  After all, aren't video games all about mindless violence?

That's right, ladies and gentlemen!  Only 100 days to go before this nation gets a chance to correct a big mistake!  Boy, how the "hope and change" time flies.  Almost four complete years into President Obama's first (and last?) term, and he has yet to create anything.  Oh, I know how he likes to tout all those jobs he saved or created, but the truth is that America is suffering a net loss of about 1 million jobs (the link shows a net loss of 1.6 million, but as of June the figure is now closer to a 1 million net loss.  Just trying to be fair here.), making President Obama the worst job creator in American history (with a net loss of almost a million jobs, perhaps "job destroyer" would be a more accurate term for him?).  I guess that $800 billion Keynesian "shovel ready" jobs bill wasn't so "shovel ready" after all (even Obama has conceded that! ).   So what has Obama managed to create? Well, quite unexpectedly...mem...