News from The AV Club

5 articles

13 October 2008 10:34 AM, PDT

Mark Wahlberg isn't known for his sense of humor. (In case you're wondering, the things he's known for are, in no particular order: "Good Vibrations," the Funky Bunch, the roller coaster scene in Fear, audible breathing as acting, Dirk Diggler, pants-dropping, and Entourage.) In fact, he's only ever had one role in an intentional comedy (The Big Hit). And though the Emmys always classify Wahlberg's Entourage as a comedy, that's probably only because there is no category for Best Puffed Air Frat No-Fun Good Times—if there were, though, Entourage would win that award every year. Still, you would think that someone who dedicated his autobiography to "My dick,", and who has been made fun of on a national scale since at least Clueless ("We might get Marky Mark to plant a tree."), might have developed a sense of humor about himself over the years. But as...

13 October 2008 9:19 AM, PDT

With film directors latching onto game properties with increasing frequency, players might look at World Of Goo and assume that Tim Burton finally brought his design sensibilities to gaming. But Burton has nothing to do with it. Created by ex-ea employees Kyle Gabler and Ron Carmel, World Of Goo centers on exceptional physics-based gameplay, not oddball design. (Though the wickedly cute graphics and Danny Elfman/Ennio Morricone-ish music don't hurt.) The elegant setup asks players to guide a set number of goo-balls into the mouth of a pipe. Levels often begin with a small structure crawling with a few blobs. Between them and the pipe might be fire, a great chasm, or instant spiky death. Grab a goo ball and place it near the original structure to build a rubbery truss, then repeat as needed. Structures will teeter as they grow high and wide, and eventually they'll fall,...

Russ Fischer

13 October 2008 9:17 AM, PDT

Orbient is a close cousin to Spore. Where Will Wright's creation sim dances around the idea of evolution without really resorting to education, this downloadable offering for the Wii toys with celestial mechanics. Players are responsible for a single orb adrift in space. The game is played with two buttons, one that creates gravitational attraction, and another that generates repulsion. Playing Orbient isn't really a matter of control, but of exerting force. The game's puzzles come by way of increasingly intricate and dangerous solar systems. Spinning planets, moons, and space rocks create treacherous mazes, which players must navigate without collision. The goal is to absorb similarly sized planets, pick up smaller rocks and moons as satellites, and eventually hook up with the sun. Once these simple goals have been accomplished, Orbient encourages players to make riskier maneuvers, attempting to nab bonus satellites for bonus points and extra lives. The urge.

Gus Mastrapa

12 October 2008 9:09 PM, PDT

For about the first 20 minutes of this week’s Mad Men, throughout Don Draper’s adventures on the left coast, I was a little confused about where “The Jet Set” was headed. We had Pete and Don wandering awkwardly around the pool, marveling at all the fashionable folk in tailored jackets and swimsuits; Pete awestruck at seeing Tony Curtis in the men’s room and grumbling about how everyone’s late in L.A.; and Don seeing Betty’s face in every woman and pointedly ordering Old Fashioneds. Everything seemed to be moving in slow motion out west, in stark contrast to the rapid patter and big moments happening back at Sterling-Cooper. And then, Don’s story took a turn. And then another. And I was about as awestruck and enraptured as I’ve been this whole season. (And this has been a good season.) It all starts in a seminar room,

12 October 2008 9:01 PM, PDT

1. Q While George W. Bush remains the first American president to reduce his name to a single letter, he's hardly the first person to try that bit of addition by subtraction. Similarly, Oliver Stone's Bush biopic W. is part of a long tradition of movies that keep it simple. Witness Larry Cohen's Q, which arrived with this tagline: "Its name is Quetzalcoatl. Just call it Q, that's all you'll have time to say before it tears you apart!" Easy enough, especially since most people couldn't pronounce "Quetzalcoatl" anyway, whether or not they were being torn apart. The 1982 horror movie stars David Carradine and Richard Roundtree trying to catch a hideous winged beastie, the living embodiment of the Aztec god Quetzalcoatl, who's gotten into the bad habit of snatching victims off the top of New York buildings. Trouble is, only Michael Moriarty knows where Q has made its...

Scott Tobias, Noel Murray, Nathan Rabin, Leonard Pierce, Keith Phipps, Josh Modell, Claire Zulkey

5 articles