What Do I Do Now, Pete?

Damn you, Peter Jackson…

Now that the Lord of the Rings trilogy has ended, you’ve left me with nothing to look forward to at the end of the year. For the last three years, no matter how bad the movies were, I could always console myself with, “At least Lord of the Rings is coming.”

Now… Damn you… You’ve taken all hope away from me.

What really annoys me about this whole LotR phenomenon is that Pete made LotR the Star Wars experience that the new Star Wars movies should have been. A solid–if traditional–story weaved with some good acting and some of the most jaw dropping, “Oh-my-God-Am-I-Actually-Seeing-This” visuals and battle sequences that have ever graced the screen. True, the new Star Wars trilogies also have their share of amazing visuals, but since the acting is NOT there, the story is drowning in confusion and the writing and pace are all completely off… It makes it hard to care.

Even the much vaunted Matrix trilogy ended up getting lost in itself. And though I am and always will be a fan of the One True Trilogy, even I have to admit that the Ewoks towards the end kind of killed the whole effect of the first Star Wars series. LotR on the other hand simply got better and better with each successive film, leaving viewers totally exhausted and depressed at the end of it, not because it was bad, but because it was over, and we wished it didn’t have to be.

It would be really cool to actually create something some day that would have that same impact on people, but that’s really a once in a generation opportunity, and Peter Jackson took the torch from George who is now fumbling badly with his beloved franchise.

Video Games I Cannot Ignore

Xenosaga II:

Quite possibly the most ambitious, well-written and epic RPG made in the history of RPGs to date, I am soooo looking forward to this since the first installment sucked me in with the grandiose ideas and themes it addressed. I never thought a video game could seriously tackle questions of religion and existentialism, but somehow Xenosaga did it, and it’s bound to get even more complicated in the sequel now that all the character set-up stuff is out of the way.

Final Fantasy XII

It’s Square-Enix. It’s Final Fantasy. ‘Nuff said if you know anything about games.

Silent Hill 4: The Room

I have a bad, bad feeling that this game may be so disturbing it has the potential to actually traumatize young players. Silent Hill has a bad habit of actually disturbing and frightening its players, but Silent Hill 4, with its deranged monsters and crawling, long haired, gasping ghost women might just be enough to be too sick to play. Nevertheless, I will give it a try if only because the girlfriend will put me on the couch until I agree to play it.

Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas

For the misanthrope in everyone! Probably one of the single most fun to play games ever created, GTA has a bad habit of bringing the bad out in everyone. Perhaps you really wouldn’t drive down the street shooting innocent people only to get out of your car and thrash an old lady to death with a baseball bat, but in this game, you can, and when your curiosity (or repressed evil side) gets the better of you, believe me you WILL. And you’ll enjoy it in that sick way you can never admit…

Bah! Enough teasing myself! I need to get back to a review of another turgid game.