IE Really Sucks

So I just noticed that my page has been broken under Windows Internet Explorer for who knows how long. Every other browser–Safari, Firefox, Opera, Mac OS IE–renders the page correctly, but IE under Windows XP fails horribly. Specifically, all the text on this page was mysteriously centered. I’ve fixed the problem, but the real solution is to STOP USING INTERNET EXPLORER. In addition to being an insecure hunk of garbage, it can’t render pages right, it doesn’t follow the HTML standard, and it’s slow. If you are on Windows, download FireFox now!. If you are on a Mac, use FireFox or Safari. Linux users–I already know what you are using.

Seriously, switch away from IE. Every other browser on the planet can block popups, filter ads, and prevent spyware from getting onto your machine.

Uzumaki

Today I had a few hours to kill, so I watched Uzumaki. Uzumaki is yet another post-Ring Japanese horror flick that probably would not have warranted American release if fanboys like myself were not creating demand for Japanese horror. Adapted from a manga series by the same name, Uzumaki (which means “spiral” or “vortex”) is about a town that is becoming increasingly influenced by, well, vortexes. Now, if you are wondering how a shape can exert influence over a town, welcome to the club. Sadly, the movie fails to answer this question; instead of dealing with difficult topics like personal relationships and back-story, the film stumbles through a mediocre introduction and then proceeds with mediocre gore. No explanation of the premise is ever attempted, and even if you accept the events that are occurring in the film, the events themselves are still nonsensical.

Technically, Uzumaki is a mixed bag. The acting is terrible, with a protagonist that seems like she’s trying too hard and a boyfriend stuck in empathy-less monotone for the entire film. Surprisingly, some of the editing is pretty well done: the director has tried to wrap the movie with little disconcerting references to spirals (including a few post-processing effects that are interesting), and some of the shots are very well composed. That said, there are also some awful scenes, including one that reminds me of a scene from Vertigo that may have worked in 1958 but looks very lame now. The sound design isn’t bad, but after a while everything seems to make the same sticky crackling noise.

The manga that spawned Uzumaki is probably a lot better than the movie. I suspect that the movie is a collection of scenes or short story snippets taken from the manga, which might explain why the movie makes no sense and the story seems to go nowhere. Overall, it’s an interesting rental if you are the type of person who likes looking for technical details (see how many spirals you can find in the regular scenes), but otherwise skip it.

Wait while I hit you with this bat

Last night my friend and I finally finished Obscure after a four month hiatus. I’ve posted my thoughts on the info page. Though Obscure is a pretty run-of-the-mill horror game, its slight blandness is completely offset by the two-player cooperative mode. And lurking under the hood of this French horror game are some imaginative and fresh design ideas. Overall, I liked it better than most of the critics.

I want to believe but they make it so hard

This evening I finally got around to finishing The X-Files: Resist or Serve. The game is basically a Resident Evil: Code Veronica knock-off, but it manages to mess up some of the basic game play while simultaneously doing a disservice to the X-Files license. I’ve read that the development of this game was plagued with problems, which might be why half the screenshots in my gallery never appear in the game (including out aquatic friend over there on the left). Anyway, I posted a short review about the game.

The Light at the End of the Tunnel

I’m not dead yet, I swear! I’m on my way out of crunch mode for a project at work, so updates should soon resume to normal frequency levels. Actually, I’ve been so busy lately that I haven’t had time to play games at all, so I’m really looking forward to getting back into a more sane routine. A few more days and I should be out of the woods.

During this crunch cycle, I’ve actually been playing a tiny bit of two games: Capcom’s Killer7 (GameCube) and Nintendo’s Nintendogs (DS). Both games are amazing and I highly recommend them. They are both two of the most innovative games I’ve seen this year.

Thanks to this guy for the cool tunnel picture.

Darkwatch Released

Despite a year-long delay and some major business changes to the developer, Darkwatch: Curse of the West actually shipped last week. Even more surprising is the high ratings this game has been getting (~80% at the moment). Considering the developer went from being a wholly-owned Sammy office to an independent studio and switched publishers in the space of a year, I’m frankly surprised that this game ever saw the light of day. Kudos the the dev team! The game looked awesome at E3 this year, and it’s the first FPS I’ve been interested in playing on a console.