Saturday, September 22

Avatar Day

Today is the day. Well, actually, for us Pinoys yesterday was the day, but we're one day ahead. Today, September 21 in Canada and the US, is the debut of Avatar: The Last Airbender's 3rd Season, The Book of Fire. In a few hours, the first episode, "The Awakening" will be showing and finally breaking the months and months-long fast for Avatar fans. Starting tomorrow, the episode should be available in the usual channels for those who know where to look.

Man, it's been a wait. But it should be worth it. Starting from today, there will be a new Avatar each week for ten weeks. It's gonna be HOT. With fire, I mean. Moving on.

Thursday, September 20

Off the Rack

If there's something really unsettling about being sick (aside from the obvious that your health is in danger), it's the fact that you're on the shelf and in storage, out of sight and out of mind. You feel that the world is passing by without you and may soon think that they're better off without you. On the other hand though, it's for your workmates and people's benefit that you keep any virus and sickness to yourself and to no one else. It's nice that the Internet allows contact and stuff to be done regardless of whether I'm at my desk or not, but there's always that nagging feeling that I should be there.
But then, when you're sick, you're sick and you can only get sicker if you stress yourself out. It's a vicious cycle. The best thing to do is just relax, let the body heal and just redouble your efforts once you're back 100 percent.

Actually, I'm just pissed that I wasted my nice haircut after all this time locked up in The Sanctum. Oh well.

Sunday, September 16

Game Ads

As an advertising person and as a gaming addict, I find it quite amazing to see how ads and commercials for games have progressed since the days of Asteroids and Pac-man. Yeah, a lot are still just slick CG cartoons and there are still those 'out there' spots, but quite a few ads for videogames these days are surprisingly touching or poignant, or exceptionally well-orchestrated with unusual music to evoke different emotions. Or maybe I'm just reading into all this a bit too deeply. They're game commercials, after all. Here are a few of my recent favorites...

This is a spot for the Xbox360 shooter, Gears of War, which has since become one of the most critically-acclaimed and popular games today. The ad features the game's protagonist, Batista-lookalike Marcus Fenix, in some very dangerous situations, set to unusual music.



The Launch commercial for Bioshock, an Xbox360 shooter that has since become a blockbuster acclaimed for an incredibly well-told story and highly imaginative gameplay. It's the use of the classic song Beyond the Sea (sung by Bobby Darin)that elevates this from being just lots of slick action to creepy-cool slick action. The slick CG doesn't hurt either.



An even more recent one, this ad for Halo 3 (which is pretty much guaranteed mega-blockbuster status), the third part of an epic trilogy in which humans battle an alien threat called The Covenant. After a cliffhanger Part 2, Halo 3 promises to 'finish the fight'. The ad campaign includes an earlier spot called 'Museum' where we see an aged war veteran recalling the events of the final battle. This ad, 'Believe' just features the amazing diorama created for the game's promotions, set to a stirring score.



All of the preceding spots are for the Xbox360, so let's put in some stuff from Sony. Here are a couple of movie-quality commercials/trailers for the highly cinematic slash 'em up, Heavenly Sword.