Freezerr

I have no way of knowing, and certainly, the film wasn't going to be high art either way. Here is one of the places I heard this from: http://tinyurl.com/yczzfh6.

I've heard the vision of the original screenwriter was pretty much raped in post-production, and in an effort to make it more mainstream and accessible, character motivations were radically changed. Of course, that's pretty much impossible to do in post-production, so a real shame if true.

It would be immensely amusing to me if the Idle Thumbs guys acquired the .scoops TLD. That is all.

Seppuku (1962) dir. Masaki Kobayashi Tatsuya Nakadai Rentarô Mikuni This was a dark, angry, bitter film about Samurai honor culture and the people that are left behind when society undergoes an economic shift. It's not a film I'd want to see every day, but I really did appreciate it as a masterpiece of storytelling. The premise: in the early 17th century Japan, samurai are becoming outmoded. Many are now unemployed in this time of peace and wander the streets trying to survive. There have been a series of incidents of these ronin appearing at the gates of the remaining houses and threatening seppuku (ritual suicide), in hope that they will be given some money to go away. It is in this climate that a mysterious older samurai appears in front of the Iyi House, requesting use of the courtyard for seppuku. Eventually, we realize that Hanshiro Tsugumo, the ronin, and Kageyu Saito, the proud lord of the Iyi House, have very different conceptions of the good life, a man's duty, and the nature of honor. I hesitate to say too much about the film, as the plot is revealed slowly to change our perspective on events. I found it extremely powerful and accessible, with story as tragic and beautiful as nearly anything in Classical Greek literature. Both thumbs up on my end! PSA: I actually wrote this on the Filmspotting forum first, but I liked this movie so much that I wanted to share with the Idle Thumbs guys, too.

Cool - I'd be interested to hear whatever you think. My degree is in Philosophy, and I am very interested in free will topics. One of my professors was a noncausal libertarian (a very interesting viewpoint).

I also got to see Moon yesterday on DVD. Not as ambitious as I had expected, but still a quality movie.

Just wanted to stop in and mention 8 1/2. It's in Italian and in B & W, but wow. A refreshing, light-hearted story with heavy symbolism and dreamlike sequences that are handled very deftly. I started watching it out of a sense of obligation but got hooked very quickly. "8 1/2" refers to this being film number 8 1/2 that Fellini had directed (counting his shorts as "half a film"). It's a semi-autobiographical story about a movie director who is stuck with writer's block and is looking for inspiration. It's on Netflix watch instantly FWIW.

Got this for Christmas. It's really quite enjoyable and a significant improvement over the first game. Still a 'lite' stealth game. The game is still essentially the same, but a bunch of the mechanics have been significantly improved - especially swordplay, social stealth, and the stuff outside the Animus. The very light RPG elements are fun. I got a real Count of Monte Cristo feel in the beginning of Ezio's story. Young, innocent man is betrayed by someone he trusts and loses everything. (There's even the destruction of the letter proving innocence). He then goes away, becomes very wealthy, and returns for revenge. I was pleasantly surprised by all this. Of course, so much of the beauty of Count of Monte Cristo is in the tragic love story - and none of that is present in Assassin's Creed II to this point. I don't have high expectations for a literary quality to the end of Ezio's story, but I'm enjoying the story much more than I thought I would. Also, I found it amusing that my sister just sits at a desk all day long counting my money for me now.

Merry Christmas everyone! Hopefully you'll get a bit of snow like we have here.

I picked up STALKER for $2 to have it on Steam after my great disappointment with the way D2D handled it earlier this year. I'm sorely tempted to double-dip on Mirror's Edge for $5, but my computer can't handle it. I'm waiting on other stuff till after Christmas since it seems most of the sale continues until Jan. 3. Also I think you can get Machinarium + the developer's other games for $10 total from their own website, if you like.

Finally picked this game up when I saw it on Impulse for $10. Wow, this is really fun! It's got a bit of that Portal magic - I'm actually trying to solve puzzles with a set of tools. It really feels like anything is possible within the rules of the game and I'm not being strung along by the developer ("and here the player will make two boxes followed by swapping to the rogue to use the grappling hook"). It's quite a bit easier than Portal, puzzle-wise, and the writing is nowhere near as charming. Also, I don't really get all the hate for the final level. If anyone could explain why they didn't like it, I'd love to hear it. I personally found

I saw it first on the igndotcom twitter feed, I think. And I certainly hope it's tongue in cheek but I have no idea when it comes to IGN. Anyways, this game... I hope it's rad. All the talk of an "organic world" and the use of Leone motifs makes me quite excited. My only concern is that the missions may end up being more GTA IV than Far Cry 2.

Now I'm starting to get excited.

I'm really curious about Halo: Reach. There wasn't too much information in the trailer. The only thing I gleaned was a possible reference to 6-player campaign co-op. There wasn't much information in any of the trailers I saw, come to think of it. Also Green Day: Rock Band. WTF?

So how would you decide game of the decade? Is it simply the best of the 10 GOTYs for that timeframe? Is it the game that influenced subsequent game developers the most? Or is it a game that you feel captures "the spirit" of gaming for the decade?