Dawsonville Express

Here you have a quick picture I drew while playing D&D with my friends a couple of weeks ago. The setting for the campaign is a mixture of chop-socky adventure and Sergio Leone westerns, with a generous helping of Stephen King's The Dark Tower series to finish it off. The day I drew this, my group found some railroad tracks and ended up riding a train driven by a guy named Charlie. Whether or not he looked like this in the Dungeon Master's head is open to discussion, but I kind of like it. I hope you do too!

Clash of the Titans

Another epic movie trailer has just been released. We recently spotlighted Prince of Persia, and today we showcase the teaser trailer for the Clash of the Titans remake, starring Sam Worthington, Liam Neeson, Ralph Fiennes, Gemma Arterton, and an angry giant scorpion. And maybe this would be a good moment to confess I've never seen the original, at least not completely. Will this new version be better than the classic film starring Harry Hamlin, Claire Bloom, and Laurence Olivier? Well, we'll just have to wait and see.

D'ohme

Stephen King's latest whopper of a novel, Under the Dome, came out on November 9th, and here you can watch a brief interview with the author. Needless to say, I have already bought it (new in hardcover for only $9 --thank you, Amazon!), but I doubt it will be scarier than the hairdo Mr. King sports in this video.

The book stars a town that wakes up one morning to find itself surrounded by a transparent dome that traps the whole population inside. Sounds familiar? King has gone out of his way to assure us it has nothing to do with The Simpsons Movie that came out a couple of years ago, and whose premise was, well, Springfield being trapped inside a giant transparent dome. Apparently, King started writing this book in 1975, abandoned it, came back to it in 1979, and abandoned it once again until last year. I have a long tradition of trusting King's word, so I absolutely believe him and will not think of Matt Groening while I read the over 1,000 pages Under the Dome packs between its covers.

Will I love this book as much as I do most of King's previous efforts? Stay tuned to find out!

The Best 50 Inventions

Time Magazine just published their list of The Best 50 Inventions of 2009. There are lots of interesting things, such as the Ares rockets (which happens to be on number 1), the Natal controller for the Xbox360, the bladeless fan, or the robo-penguin. At any rate, it makes for an interesting read, so check it out and let us know what you think.

Kill Those Nazis

The Saboteur comes out on December 8, and it looks all kinds of awesome. It could be pitched as Assassin's Creed in France, and it has certainly caught my attention. Check out this video (it's fifteen minutes long, but oh so worth it) and then tell me you're not excited about it.

Regardless of how the game turns out, it is exciting to see Electronic Arts developing new IPs. I really enjoyed last year's Dead Space, and hopefully The Saboteur will be at least as good if not better. Based on the video I mentioned above, you will be able to spend an incredible amount of hours in this virtual Paris accomplishing all sorts of missions, and the featured sandbox gameplay looks really cool.

It will be interesting to see how well this game sells, because Assassin's Creed II comes out tomorrow, and both games are directed to the same target audience. Here's to hoping both games are amazing, so that we can enjoy them for many months to come.

Scrooged

I didn't expect A Christmas Carol to blow me away, but I enjoyed it very, very much. This new adaptation of the classic tale by Charles Dickens was written and directed by Robert Zemeckis, and he definitely knows what he is doing. If you're thinking about his previous photorealistic animated Christmas movie, The Polar Express, and understandably shivering and swearing you will not go through that again, I can't blame you. But you are mistaken.

ACC is a feast for the eyes, with arresting visuals, fantastic textures, amazing animation, and incredible likenesses. Jim Carrey, the voice of Scrooge among many other charactes, does a formidable job giving the old miser tremendous personality, depth, and humanity. Other voice talents include Gary Oldman, Colin Firth, and Robin Wright, and they all bring their A game to this movie. And best of all, like I said, is the dark and shadowy look of the movie. Poorly lit rooms that feel gloomy and oppresive, half-crazed ghosts who have been driven insane by death, and ominous coaches steered by nightmarish horses that chase you through damp alleys all combine to create an oppressive atmosphere of despair and poverty, which is why the lights shine even brighter whenever they appear.

I don't particularly care for Christmas-y stories (and I sure didn't make ACC sound like one), but I must say that Zemeckis won me over with this solid movie that I can't help but recommend, so go check it out, and let me know what you think!

Mi boda

Bueno: después de muchos años, por fin me han dicho que sí, y me estaré casando hoy en unas cuantas horas. Será una boda sencilla, nada de grandes despliegues con vestidos lujosos y leches varias.

La ceremonia será en una ermita en mitad de las montañas en Alcoy, y después una comida en una casa rural cercana. La tarde nos la pasaremos jugando a juegos de mesa chulos, intentaremos organizar campeonatos de mus y fórmula D, y jugaremos al billar y al ping-pong. Y el que quiera y se atreva puede pasear por las montañas, que están muy bonitas. Por la noche haremos una barbacoa y ceneremos cerca de las chimeneas, que seguro que algo de frío hará.

Sólo lamento que algunas personas a las que aprecio mucho no puedan venir en un día tan importante para mí, pero sé que, estén donde estén, pensarán un porquito en mí.