Well, Kinda.

The biggest thing that most of the fans have to keep in mind, at least for a little while, is that these episodes might not be perfect in every single way. Granted, the crew did release four movies since their cancellation, but they are still a little rusty. And, for the most part, that was the case last week when two brand new episodes premiered. We were willing to give the show a little bit of breathing room because we understood there was a possibility it wouldn’t be the Second Coming of Jesus that we were expecting.

That being said, the new episodes were really well-made and quite entertaining. The first of the two, “Rebirth”, was my favorite by far. It tied up the events that ended the film Into the Wild Green Yonder while setting up some great new jokes. The episode involved the Planet Express ship crashing after coming out of a wormhole while being chased by Zapp Brannigan. Fry and Leela had just declared their love for each other, before becoming piles of ash, bone, and skin. And Professor Farnsworth depserately tried to bring his dead comrades back to life through cloning, except for Fry, who seemingly somewhow survived the crash. The Professor’s plan worked as one by one, everyone came back to life, fully intact, except for Leela, who was in a vegetative state. Fry, so distraught that his love might not live, creates a robot version of her, a la Lucy Liu bot, so he doesn’t have to spend his life without her. Meanwhile, Bender is having to party for his life so after having a doomsday device shoved into him by Farnsworth. If he stops partying for even a second, the device will detonate, killing himself, and any poor soul who happens to be near him.

This episode had some fantastic jokes while nicely tying up any questions the fans had going into the premiere. Hands down, my favorite joke of the episode was after we find out Leela’s in a coma. Bender comes dancing along, singing, “Coma-coma-coma-coma-chameleon!” I honestly couldn’t stop laughing for a few minutes. Farnsworth’s joke about Comedy Central, followed by Amy’s reponse was quite clever and hilarious. With this episode, it felt like things were going to go smoothly from here on out and our good old show was back.

And then, the second episode premiered.

The premise for “In-a Gadda Da-Leela” was brilliant; an evil satellite was coming to Earth to destroy all things impure and vile, which translated into destroying the world. Zapp Brannigan is enlisted to help and ropes Leela into coming along with him. When the encounter with the satellite doesn’t go as planned, the two are stranded in a remote area with seemingly no other signs of life, and contemplate restarting civilization.

This is very much a Zapp episode. My favorite moments involved his 1950’s style, B-Movie sci-fi dreams where he always won and saved the day. It shows the kind of mand Zapp wants to be, but spends too much of his time non-deservingly thinking that really is who he is. His “fish in a barrel” bit was probably the funniest thing of the episode mostly cause it showed off classic Zapp.

I honestly thought it was a good episode for the most part. The parallels with Adam and Eve were humorous, Amy’s suggestion of an End Of The World Orgy, and the crew launching their own mission to save the world were all fun and entertaining. Everything was great…until the last five-sevin minutes. It went downhill very quickly.

Zapp’s achingly slow and increasingly predictable revelation made for a godawful ending. As it turns out, the entire stranded on a remote planet event was a massive elaborate plot by Zapp to get Leela to sleep with him again. The first two reveals were humorous,  but after that, it got really stale really quick. And then, when the satellite arrives, it believes that Zapp and Leela really are Adam and Eve, so it forces them to consummate their relationship in exchange for the sparing of the destruction of Earth, as a horrified Fry looks on. It was all quite unnecessary.

Overall, it was a good night. Longtime fans of the show will be happy with the way things have gone so far, and hopefully will continue watching. It honestly feels great to have this show back on the air. It’s almost like welcoming back a long-lost friend that you haven’t seen in years and picking up almost exactly where you left off. Here’s hoping Futurama can regain everything it’s known for and keeps its staying power. The future really is back, ladies and gentlemen. And it’s a good thing.

Go get this game. Seriously. Right now. Trade in your GTA collection and get it. Any fan of the GTA series is going to be an immediate fan of this game, assuming you dont hate the wild west with a passion. If youre skeptical because of the first title in the series, then you shouldn’t be. Redemption is a completely different game from the first, making it 10 times better right from the start.

Like I mentioned, any fan of GTA will be a fan of this due to all of the  similarities . Its incredibly easy to pick up and go with the controls, even if you havent played any of Rockstar’s other titles. Except for the inventory, the set up is the exact same as any of your beloved GTA’s. Nothing fancy, and no huge button combinations for anything at all. After about fifteen or twenty minutes of fooling around, youll be lassoing and yee-hawing with the best of em. Even the more advanced stuff like shooting from horseback, or lassoing moving targets isnt really so advanced. Id suggest just taking some time during your free roaming and just playing around with your inventory. You would be surprised at what you can pull off.

Another huge selling point for this game is the free-roaming environment. Just like tons of games now, this game is non-linear. You have the option of roaming around the desert shooting cattle as much as you please before furthering the main story or any of the side quests. So you can go take in all the sites on your own time. And thats something you definitely want to do. The environments are really really well done from the setup and placement of items, towns, etc, to the actual artistic appeal of it, which makes exploring or just goofing around that much more fun.

The missions and the story are also really well done. All the writing is great, and sticks to what it needs to stick to. No rambling or over the top speeches. No dialogue that sounds like it was written by kids. Just the great Rockstar stories and writing that you have come to expect. They even keep the vocabulary and jargon accurate to the period as well. They do a really good job of going outside the box and making missions with things that you wouldnt normally see, like herding cattle, or catching wild horses. And I know how that sounds, but once you get to it, youll have a ton of fun. I laughed, I cried, I hogtied a lady and put her on the tracks.

Multiplayer is also set up really well. There arent any new modes that you wont be used to playing already. Slayer, Team Slayer, Capture the Flag. The best part about the modes is the starting points. For every game type, regardless of objective, you start the game with a quick draw. Both teams are lined up facing each other, the announcer calls the draw, and the bullets start flying. Once one team has won, the match starts in whatever level with the normal set of rules. I still jump every time he calls the draw.

Now why youre reading this part is a mystery. I told you to go get this game a looooong time ago, and here you are … reading instead of buying and playing video games. What would your mother say?

Red Dead Redemption – XBOX 360 – 9.25 / 10

We here at LCP have both personal and independent confirmation that one of the numbers on the new posters being given out with CoD: Black Ops reserves is a phone number:

877-386-4270

When called, the number gives you an automated recording that sounds something like old jack-in-the-box or merry-go-round music, which is frequently interrupted with telegraph beeps.

Our guess? The beeps, and possibly the rhythm of the music, point towards a possible morse-code message. Whether this has anything to do with the possible “hidden beta codes” remains to be seen. For my two cents, I’m guessing more along the lines of a viral marketing campaign, like the “I Love Bees” days before Halo 2.

Update: The younger Black sibling (Tyberius, and no, not like in Star Trek) has informed me that the music playing on the recording is reminiscent of the jingle from the “Pack-a-Punch” machines used to upgrade weapons in CoD: World at War’s infamous “Nazi Zombies” multiplayer mode. Since this new CoD is also being developed by the guys at Treyarch, I’m willing to run with this.

I tried waiting for the demo to launch, but after two months of seeing the screen say “Download the demo soon”, even past the actual launch date of the game AND the movie, I figured it wasnt going to launch. And it still hasnt. I should have seen that as a sign of things to come. I have successfully wasted $50. SIGH. Again. Disappointment 2k10.

Im a huge fan of the Ironman franchise as a whole. The movies, games, animated series. Ive gotten my hands on a solid chunk of it, and this seems to be the worst one, which confuses the hell out of me seeing as how its based on one of the most anticipated movies of 2010, and definitely the summers blockbuster. You would think a little more TLC would have gone in to it. But no. Nothing about this game excited me.

Lets start with the visuals. None. Not impressive. Over it. Its, again, super confusing. Especially on this level. Iron Man and the sequel were both visually STUNNING on the screen, but somehow, somewhere, theres an editor, or a designer, or a boss man thatlet this slip by, and that needs to be fired for giving this the green light to be linked to either of the films. Even the menus are poorly designed and a sloppy attempt to recreate Stark’s personal computer system that you see him playing with in the films. The suits themselves are designed well. Theres a nice level of detail in all of the suits that youre able to unlock and use, but thats the only place youll find detail. Period. Seriously. At times it looks like someone just took a handycam and recorded someone else playing with the figures. I want to tell you just how bad the “suiting up” sequence for both Iron Man and War Machine are, but id rather not extend this review another two paragraphs.

I was suprised to look up these games on IMDB and find out that the voice talent for MOST of the main characters are the actual actors from the movie. Tony, Rhodey, Whiplash and Fury are all voiced by the appropriate actors. That would be a plus, if the acting would have wound up being decent. Buuuuut it wasnt. It kills me to say it, but it really does suck. Even RDJ and Don Cheadle are slacking big time.

The engine itself isnt really that bad in terms of controls and performance until you get in to the pre / post game suit customization. Im a big fan of being able to customize, swap parts, etc. but it needs to be done using a system that someone besides Tony Stark himself can understand. I exaggerate. But not much. You can earn credits in missions to unlock more suit variations, open up different suit upgrades, and even fabricate different parts for different reasons, but its thrown together in a clunky and confusing system that makes me want to just skip it and play with whatever load-out is ready by default.

Finally theres the plot. Sorry. I mean “plot”. Good news for spoiler haters. While the game does have an element or two in it from the game, the story is a new one created just for the games, so youre safe to play it if you havent seen the movie. Bad news is it all sucks. Everything from the actual plot to the way it was executed just makes me facepalm. They throw you from random location to random location, dont even try to piece it together for you, and then throw you in and let you blow everything up. It has a very “Wherever he lands, there shall he blow things up”, kind of feel to it. After getting about half way in, i started skipping everything that wasnt game play.

The verdict is in. I would NOT buy this game until it drops to around $20 range. Rent it for sure. Its a fun game as long as you play it in maybe 20-30 minute spurts, but after that you just start getting annoyed at how bad everything looks, and start suffering from repetitive stress disorder from doing the same mission objectives over and over. Its the same problems that the first game and similar comic-movie games, like Superman Returns, suffer from. I guess all of this is why the demo didnt launch. If it had i dont think i would have bought this game…Sigh.

Iron Man 2: TVG – 4.5 / 10

I know…I know…this is the billionth splinter cell in the series. What could possibly make this game worth getting over other big hitters like Just Cause 2 Final Fantasy XIII? Well I hate to break it to you, kittens, but there aren’t too many new features that are going to ‘wow’ you over to this game. It just continues getting a little bit darker, and give you actual guns this time! No more taser rifle, or air foil guns. This is mainly just the next in the line of games, so if you’re looking for something new, youre probably going to want to keep this one as a renter.

The visuals are all top knotch, except for the cinematic scenes before and after the levels. The models and environments in those actually look worse than the in-game engine. Backwards? I know its supposed to be grainy to simulate the film quality, but there is still a noticeable difference  between the two, and not in the way it should be. Thats the only gripe I had on the technical side at all besides the AI, but the AI is just what youve come to expect from any other Splinter Cell title. I didnt find any problematic glitches at all. The controls are a little different since there was the introduction of the ‘mark and execute’ system, but absolutely nothing off the wall that is going to make you completely fudge up your game, like jumping up and yelling instead of sliding in to cover.

The story is the selling point, and its pretty killer. Pun intended. It finally winds down the saga and Fischer’s story, and reveals some info that kind of throws you for a loop at a few points. Just like Assassin’s Creed II, it was really the story of the game that kept me playing. The game, as a whole, has kind of fallen in to just a “go here, kill them quitely’ style of play, which has its pros and its cons. Its almost just a straight line from point A to point B.

The motion and movement on this game was pretty disappointing. In the previously released versions, you were able to hop on, over, behind, etc. etc. almost everything in the game. In Conviction, however, you are extremely limited to what you can do with the environment. Its almost a skeleton of what it used to be in that regard. You are still able to venture off the beaten path and find the super sneaky ways of getting to where you need to go, but you just dont have the options that you used to when it comes down to escaping or getting wily in both the single and multiplayer modes.

The last thing I’ll hit on is the multiplayer modes and unlockables. They have cut out the spy vs mercenary side to it. Everything except for one mode revolves around co-op, which again, has its pros and its cons. The story mode for co-op is a decent length. Its not just a filler like it is on some games. The unlocks are decent. You unlock different weapons after so much game play, and are able to upgrade both them and your uniforms to give you more access to gadgets, ammo, armor. you know how it goes.

This game is a must play, but not so much a must buy at the launch price. Give it a bit and find a used copy after it drops down one or two times.

Splinter Cell: Conviction – 6/10

I’m going to be a negative Nancy and start with the bad for this review. This game is fun fun fun in the sun sun sun, until you start playing the missions. The writing and voice acting for this game are HOOOOORRIBLE. All of the dialog sounds like it was written by 14 year olds that think they know how to make an action movie, and the actual voice actors don’t sound like they’re too far behind that. At some points it feels like they cut out pieces that you’re supposed to see / hear and did a very poor job editing it back together.

The map and environments are another trouble spot for me. You can destroy a lot, but not everything. It all looks very nice, but the things you can destroy have a very preset look and feel to them. Everything will blow up or fall down the exact same way every time. The map itself is HUGE, which would normally be a plus. But its more like 75% desert, 25% city. With the exception of a few side towns, most of the towns and communities you find are spaced FAR apart from each other. So far that if you lose your vehicle somehow in between the towns you’re going to, you’ve fudged yourself over for the next ten minutes. Enjoy walking or whatever it is you do when you press the sprint button, cause its not sprinting. On top of all of this, the towns and missions have a very Assassin’s Creed feel to them. Meaning that there are really only 3 or 4 originals, and the rest are carbon copies of those. On the plus side, you’ll feel like you know everything like the back of your hand after completing 15% of the game.

Ok. Enough bad mouthing. Now to the… good… mouthing? Can I say that? There are still good points to the game. The grappling hook and the parachute are fun toys that you get to play with. They are two of your main allies against all the choppers trying to gun you down for attempting to blow up everything in sight. The hook will attach to almost everything, can tether two objects together, and provides you with that extra way to cause more carnage. The parachute is an interesting addition to a game like this, letting you get to different places safely, or helping you get from one place to another. The cinematic elements they throw in are also nice touches. Jumping off cliffs or driving of big ramps (or more cliffs) will kick in a very nice looking “follow the leader” camera angle that gives me goosebumps every time it kicks in. I like the idea of the vehicle hijacking also. If you’re just stealing from citizen Bob or Sally, then its just a quick button press to get in. If its a more serious vehicle, they will require you to complete a button pressing mini game. When you combine all of the mentioned items together, you have tons and tons of self created situations that will keep you giggling and craving more destruction.

Here’s that technical mumbo jumbo. After one or two sessions of the demo, I had the controls down solid and was ready to be tearing ass all over the city on foot, in vehicles, or just being Spiderman grappling from roof to roof. The cinematic scenes done with the in-game engine, so you don’t really get an awesome show between missions. The map itself, tho is very pretty, especially when you kick in the cinematic camera and enjoy it from a parachute.

This wound up being another wait-to-buy. It seems like it was kind of rushed to get to the floor. Its another good $30-40 game, but in my opinion, definitely not work the $60 launch price tag.

Just Cause 2 – 6/10

This game blends an entertainment factor with a very in-depth engine, and is all set to be a game that will pump out just as much as you pump in. There is SO MUCH depth to the engine, however, that it becomes overwhelming at times. The level of info that you can acquire from an individual citizen, building or one of your various graphs or charts or overlays is insane. But its not actually necessary to learn all the in’s and out’s of the entire engine. You can play with the bare-bone info that is readily available to you, but if you really want to kick the game in to overdrive then the resources are there for you to do so. This gives you a win/lose situation. It’s a win because you can tinker with and manipulate so many things from your citizens to edicts like tax cuts, but the down side is that the tutorial doesn’t cover everything you need. There are of course things the tutorials cant teach you, like how to use all of this information to its fullest. That requires s bit of intelligence mixed with a bit of common sense from the user. But being able to access that detailed information or changing some of the options that are off the beaten path are kind of left in the dark. I need Clarissa’s number so she can come explain it all. Yeah. 90’s joke. I went there.

On the more technical side, this game is pretty solid. The islands and environments look really good for being the type of game that it is, and I haven’t seen any hints or signs of any sort of engine problems or glitches. Its a smooth running game. Some of the controls are a bit touchy at times, but to be honest, I cant tell you if that’s the engine not performing properly, or my controller needing to visit the hospital because of all the button pressing and usage ive been putting on it for bad company 2. Sigh. They also include an island generator so you can spawn random environments for you to free play on if you get tired of the scenarios they set up for you to play thru.

In retrospect, I should have waited to buy this game. Its a great game, and very entertaining, but not really worth the launch price tag. This is definitely a buy when it reaches around $30, but until then just keep blowing things up or conquering things on a different game.

Tropico 3 – 6/10

Click Here for the A-Team trailer