Another Mortal Kombat Klone

I came home with a new Xbox game, Tao Feng: Fist of the Lotus. It's a fighting game in the vein of the popular Mortal Kombat series (which had a bit of a resurgence recently thanks to an exceptional new installment). This translates into an atmosphere that is heavy with martial arts/oriental mysticism, gaudy costumes and lots of brutal, bloody fighting. TF is all about the conflict between two powerful groups of fighters: The Pale Lotus sect (the good guys) and the Black Mantis sect (the bad guys). The lineup of fighters includes your usual young upstart all-around hero, an old master, a big bruiser and some scantily-clad babes. There's also a guy who's a dead ringer for action star Jet Li.
The setting is in an alternate-reality version of a near-future USA dominated by oriental culture. This 'New China' is strangely empty of anyone except the ten or so fighters in the game, and is a silent setting for the various martial arts duels. Both sects are fighting over the pieces of a tablet that will give them the key to immortality. Of course, each of the fighters in both sects has their own sordid back stories, but Tao Feng has an exceptionally detailed history and drama raging between the characters. Depending on how much you get from the plots and subplots, this may power your drive to finish the game's lengthy Quest mode. Otherwise, you can cut your teeth on Training, VS, Tournament, Survival and Team Battle modes.
Anyway, the game looks very nice; the fighters are very well detailed and lifelike, at least at the same or perhaps even better level than, say, Mortal Kombat Deadly Alliance. However, it Dead or Alive 3 still holds the best graphics for a fighting game title on Xbox. The stages are cool and range from an arcade to a museum; each has walls and obstacles you can slam opponents into (like DOA3). TF takes the environmental factors a bit further by letting characters swing from poles or catapult themselves from walls as attacks. In addition, there is the danger of getting an arm hurt or broken, resulting in a loss of strength. Finally, there is the cosmetic effect of the fighters getting bloodied and their clothing torn during the course of the fight.
Sounds great, eh? Well, on the bad side the game is HEAVILY dependent on dial combos, and for some reason there seems to be no way to break a chain once you get hit by the first blow. This pretty much boils down to you watching your fighter get battered repeatedly as the CPU does a long, long combo. Frustrating like hell. Gah. And there doesn't seem to be that many moves; or maybe I just haven't played it to the fullest... there are some kicks and strikes, a couple of grabs and three Chi attacks. It seems limited and nowhere near as varied as the better 3-D games: Tekken, Virtua Fighter and DOA. The animations, while often smooth, can get jerky and stilted at times. 3-D movement is also hell and pretty useless for avoiding attacks, and blocking is tricky.
Sigh. Even worse, there seems to be zilch in terms of extras. Only two costumes per character (USELESS!!!) and ONE hidden character that can be used only in VS mode (The only character ever worth getting with these conditions is VF's Dural) means... bad replay value. Oh well, there's the quest mode which should take you some time to play through, but in this day and age, there should at least be hidden swimsuits for the babes to wear. Bah.
Tao Feng isn't horrible; that belongs to the bland and pretty stripped-down Kakuto Chojin. It's serviceable, and there are some cool ideas. However, even the presence of John Tobias, one of the original producers of Mortal Kombat, in the development couldn't make this wannabee even close to it's competition. A valiant, but failed effort.

I have to say though that the funniest and probably most distinct thing I will remember of Tao Feng is the voice acting of the Quest Mode's narrator (Master Sage)... from the accent of the guy, the voice actor just HAS to be Pinoy. Heh.

Roads Not Yet Taken

For some reason I was in the mood for a good discussion tonight, and together with Carl I thought about what I could do aside from my usual day job in advertising. If I wasn't working in an agency, where could I go? I wouldn't- and couldn't- go to another office-setting, I think. If I left the agency setting I'd probably do freelance work, something like my friends Arnold and Cynthia have been doing for some time now. I'd probably specialize in something along the fringes of media and advertising- most probably doing art for storyboards for TV commercials.
Our discussion went onward to other directions; Carl told me about teaching. Imagine that... me, a TEACHER. Heh. Well, the pay doesn't seem spectacular, but the hours (it's really, really flexible) allows for lots of side jobs to complement your teaching salary. I laughed at it at first, but... why not? I've been in advertising for over six years, in a wide assortment of agencies (from teeny-tiny boutiques to big multinationals), done everything from TV commercials to AVPs... why CAN'T I be a teacher? Heh. Well, it's amusing to think about the possibility. I wonder how cool a teacher I'd make?
Anyway, I'm back to the Salt Mines tomorrow. I wonder for how much longer though? Hmmm.

Battle Royale 2 Update!

Aint It Cool News posted a cool article concerning the sequel to one of my fave films- Battle Royale (by the late Kinji Fukasaku). The appropriately-titled Battle Royale 2 picks up a couple of years after the end of the first film. Shuya Nanahara (Tatsuya Fujiwara), one of the survivors from the first movie, has since been very busy since he started to 'run'. He's now a professional terrorist and revolutionary, staging actions against the oppressive government. And he's not alone... Shuya leads a group named Wild Seven, which is composed entirely of past Battle Royale survivors. Together, they have accomplished quite a lot against the regime holding the BR tournament. During Christmas though, a disaster that levels several skyscrapers and kills over 8000 people is blamed on them. With this tragedy in its pocket, the goverment enacts a new anti-terrorist act and throws another class of doomed students wearing explosive necklaces. The game this time is a bit different... land on Wild Seven's island stronghold, and eliminate them. Or die yourself.
Weird premise; why not just send the army to do it? Perhaps the regime is more sadistic and evil than we thought. Anyway, this seems to guarantee tons more sickle-waving, gunfighting, knife-slashing and skull-smashing violence than before, and a lot of clean school uniforms will get bloody before this is over. No release date yet, but we'll be keeping our eyes on this one.

Angel Ace NEXT Developments



I've been in a bit of a quandary on what to put in the next Angel Ace comic. I've thought of stories focusing on Mike and Angel, just Angel, Angel's past, Kai and the SIVA, Angel and Kai's past... but for some reason, I've just failed in focusing on any one single plotline. Well, I've finally thought of the solution.
Do them all.
Well, not really all. But many, and in a way to tackle topics and events which would be hard to put into a single story.
Angel Ace NEXT will be an anthology of sorts, with short stories dealing with each of the important characters written and/or drawn by talented contributors. I've already told some friends about this, and everything looks great. It's very early, but I am excited at the prospect of letting other creators get into Angel's boots or Gregor's trenchcoat. Or Kai's... um... belt. Heh.
Anyway, the next Angel Ace comic will be a thing to see, with lots of variety in art and writing. Of course I will be still doing most of the stuff, but one can't always do it alone. Especially when you've got so much talent in your circle of friends.
Within the year. By hook or by Took.

Work Weekend


Me and the lovely cast of my new TV commercial.

The weekend was long for me, though not for the reason I'd usually want. I was working from seven in the morning to late at night. I only got home from the shoot early this Monday morning. AGH. Oh well. At the very least though, it was for a very nice TV script which should look quite nice when it's finally finished and showing on TV here in Manila. Anyway, I had the great pleasure with working with some lovely young ladies, and the script was pretty close to my heart. Our lead talent, as I had mentioned before, bears a striking resemblance to Hong Kong actress Zhang Ziyi in many of her angles and shots. The role and story of the commercial as well follows this fact. Let's just say it's the closest I will get in the near future to a VISA 'Dining Out' type commercial. Heh.
Anyway, this was a rush job, so we expect the spot to debut on air in a couple of weeks or so. Sigh. I really hope it comes out great. Now I can breathe a little easier and just... pause. Ooh! The Oscars are on...


We risked our lives to get this sneak peek into a ninja dressing room...

A Long Day

Early this morning I set off towards a university campus to attend the shoot for my new TV commercial. As before, the day would be mostly waiting for shots to be set up, meals and drinks to be served and more waiting. But this time however, at the very least I could look forward to seeing gorgeous models on camera. In fact, I have to say that our lead talent reminds me of an international star. Heh. Anyway, I took some pictures and hope to post some images soon. The day was long and I left the shoot at 10 PM. Sadly, I had to beg off from our gang's usual Saturday Night Out since I was tired, sleepy and still had ANOTHER shooting day tomorrow. Sigh. Got to get back my lost weekend somehow, someway.

Prepped for the Work Weekend

Tomorrow I go on location to attend yet another TV commercial shoot. I think I will have fun since the board is pretty cool and the talents are mostly gorgeous young women. Heh. Hopefully we finish the day early so I won't miss the nightlife. What I will miss though is my Greenhills Day. Argh... No new games or anime... Gotta make up for it on Monday. Yes, that's the ticket... Monday is my funday next week.

Serious blood loss... Ahh...

New stocks finally arrived just before closing time at Comic Quest, and so I found myself getting drained. Picked up the latest Newtype USA magazine, which once again impresses me with all the good stuff an anime fan would want. Also got the latest Blade of the Immortal (one issue to go to finish the current Fall Frost story arc) and the second issue of Thundercats Return, which maintains the cool art from the first issue. An unexpected purchase of the night is the small, 'traveller' sized TPB of the Crossgen fantasy-adventure, Meridian. I've heard good things about this title, with some of my friends telling me that it brings to mind Angel (Ace). I've procrastinated getting it, but now with a good opportunity and a nice number of issues (the collection has issues 1-7) it was a no-question buy. Cool!
Anyway, It was a long day at the office, divided between thinking up advertising copy and monitoring the TV for news on the ongoing US-Iraq conflict. How do they expect us to work when these things are happening?! Sigh.

"The war has begun."
- Magneto, X2

I left the house with the Fox News channel announcing that only fifteen minutes was left in Saddam Hussein's alloted time limit before the US-led coalition started their big push. I'm in the office now, and just a few minutes ago CNN, BBC and other news channels have reported that indeed, the war has started. There's talk of anti-aircraft fire being heard, and some 'precise' weaponry and munitions being employed to take out a possible member of the Saddam government.
I remember the images of Bagdad night skies lighting up with anti-aircraft flak and tracers. I remember the weeks-long air bombardment. It the allies had finished it then, this wouldn't have been necessary.

Just finish it quick, and thouroughly. And let's all get back to living normally again.

Buffy is MINE! HAHAHAHAHA!!!

While walking about at Park Square, I came by a video shop and got myself the boxed set of Buffy the Vampire Slayer: The Complete Third Season. I've always liked the show, and since the shop gave a pretty good price (at just over 2K), I decided to get it. One of the most absurd prices I've seen for the Buffy DVD box sets is Php 9000 (!!!). DAAAAMMMNN!!! Anyway, I would have wanted to get the first or second seasons first, but I think it's a good thing since the Third Season is supposedly the best.
The 3rd Season basically has Buffy returning to Sunnydale after some time of exile. The season highlights include the introduction of the rogue slayer, Faith, and the return of Angel. Of course, a fearsome Big Bad awaits the Slayer and the Scooby gang at the end of the stretch.
Personally though, I kinda enjoyed the high stakes 5th Season, and having a gorgeous evil god named Glory as the final boss was cool. Well, that's further down the road I guess. Again... gotta find time for this, since a couple of the gang has already expressed a desire to borrow the set. Heh.

Questforce II

I went over to Comic Quest and disappointingly, new stuff hadn't arrived yet. On the bright side, most of the gang was there. They played a word game while I drew away my time sketching out our superhero aliases from comicbook the movie. Afterwards, we set out to have dinner at Jia Yao restaurant. I had dumplings with fly lice-er, Yang Chow fried rice, and a bowl of steaming congee split with Mike. Really filling dinner despite being inflicted upon with a waiter whose brain was on the fritz. PAH.
Anyway, I got home to watch some WWE wrestling, a guilty pleasure I can now once again indulge in thanks to the Solar channel. I really ought to check out my new anime acquisitions, but watching the physical farce is just irresistible. Tired and feeling a bit under the weather, I just want to turn off my brain right now. Especially with the prospect of having NO WEEKEND this Saturday and Sunday. Yep. Got another TV commercial to shoot this weekend. Oh well.

Trailer for next Animatrix episode online!

Ain't It Cool news has posted an article with a link to the trailer of The Final Flight of the Osiris, yet another short film in the Animatrix series. Osiris introduces to us Jue and her crew as they race to warn the human city of Zion of an impending machine invasion. Animated in startlingly realistic CG animation by Square USA, this part is perhaps one of the most awaited of the Matrix anime.
With liberal amounts of sex appeal (Jue shows off her CG-perfect bod in the episode's hot training duel/striptease sequence), action and a gripping story, Osiris will probably give us more satisfaction in it's scant 10 minutes than the sad, sad and ill-advised feature film, Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within.

You can find the trailer here.

Ab Ovo #2 now available

The second issue of the Levi's-sponsored comics anthology, Ab Ovo (Black, White and Red) is now available at Comic Quest and Levi's branches. This time around, there are a lot more stories, art and literature to enjoy.
Participating artists/writers/creators in Ab Ovo 2 include Arnold Arre (Mythology Class, Trip to Tagaytay, After Eden), Marco Dimaano (Angel Ace, Immacolata: The Fury of Hinirang), Jason Banico (Baylans, TXTMen), Honoel Ibardaloza (Bagani), Dean Alfar (The Lost ), Nikki Alfar (The Lost, Ruin, As Snow As Blood, TXTMen), Vin Simbulan (Isaw Atbp.), Oliver Pulumbarit (Lex, Nancy & Argus), Carlo Vergara (One Night in Purgatory, Zsa Zsa Zaturnnah) and Tony Bucu (P-Noise)
Get your copy now at Comic Quest for P50, or free with a purchase of Levi's jeans at Levi's outlets.

A Brand New Superhero Team!

My good friend, comic compatriot and weekend warrior Dean had some fun and submitted all our group's names at Comic Book the Movie to learn our superhero names. Some interesting results:
Dean became Doctor E., Nikki became Doctor Mayhem, Carl became Mecha Witch, Cams is Molecule Girl, Jason is Captain E.(Maybe Dean and Jason are part of the E-Team), Vinnie is The Black Baby, Noel is Mega Warrior, and Arnold and Cynthia are Doctor Danger and Captain Justice respectively.

And me? I am Commander X!!!! HAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!

Together, we are the Quest Force! Seeking better dinners and gimmicks... for all mankind....

Heh-heh.

Treasure Planet

It’s been a long time since I watched the latest but not quite greatest Disney animated flick, but I decided to delay talking about it since I was saving it till after me and the gang watched it together. But since the sci-fi interpretation of the classic pirate story has come and gone as quickly as it did in the US (where it was a big flop), I don’t think we’ll be watching it any time soon. Oh well. Moving on…
Treasure Planet is a pretty close translation of Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson. Basically it’s all about the quest for an almost mythical treasure trove of an infamous pirate. The main hero, delinquent youth Jim Hawkins (Joseph Levitt) comes into possession of a map to the said treasure. He, along with a family friend named Dr. Doppler (David Hyde-Pierce) set off on a ship to go find it. Unfortunately, the ship’s crew consists of dangerous mutineers, led by a cyborg named Long John Silver (Brian Murray). A bond of friendship has grown between Jim and Silver… but will this bond overcome greed and obsession for the richest treasure in the galaxy?
Of course, Treasure Planet boasts quite imaginative yet whimsical updates from the original novel. Islands have been replaced by whole planets and star systems, and sailing ships have now been given the ability to travel through space. Instead of going for a wholly sci-fi look, Treasure Planet is mixes high-seas with high-technology, for a very interesting look. Aliens as well as humans populate the film, with some funny designs. My favorite character has to be the beautiful Captain Amelia (perfectly voiced by Emma Thompson), a no-nonsense cat-like humanoid who just commands the screen everytime she appears (heh). Another clever design is Long John Silver himself, who sports a CG-animated arm that’s so cool, it almost made me want to have an arm amputated. Almost.
Anyway, as it does stay close to the original story, Treasure Planet has action, some off-screen deaths and some imagery and situations that may be a bit intense for very young kids. However, it does stay pretty comfortable within Disney safety zones. The friendship between pirate and boy, supposed to be the center of the story, is well done, but there’s really never any question of where Silver’s true loyalty lies.
Overall, performances are excellent, though Martin Short’s manic Ben (a robot missing a few chips) can grate a little. The visuals are awesome on the big screen, so that at least was worth the price of admission.

In all, Disney’s Treasure Planet was a serviceable, entertaining feature. Not incredibly great, but a sight to see and an imaginative take on a timeless story. Worlds better than crap like Titan AE, but it’s still irksome to know that it received more marketing support than the divine Spirited Away. Oh well.

Opening an old box o' chocolates

Forrest Gump, the Tom Hanks film about a loveable simpleton who traipses through life, love, success and heartache was shown tonight on HBO. I liked it then, I still like it now. Pretty nice film, though some of the 'events' and things that Forrest 'inspired' are just too contrived; such as him inspiring the 'happy face' and 'Have a Nice Day' symbol by wiping his muddy face on a T-shirt... or how he started the saying 'Shit Happens'. Still, it's nice to revisit this modern classic. I still think that his lifelong girlfriend/eventual wife with issues, Jenny (Robin Wright Penn) was kind of a mega-user person. Heh. Anyway, it was pretty funny to see Haley "I see dead people' Joe Osment in the film as Forrest's son, Forrest.

Alias at last!

The hit action/spy thriller series Alias, starring Jennifer Garner, hit Philippine TV quite some time ago. Horribly enough though, ABS-CBN put the show on their masa channel, dubbing it in tagalog. Alyas Alias? AAARRRGHHHH!!!! There's nothing more irritating than something like this. They didn't even at least put the show untouched on their more high-end channel, Studio 23.
Well, soon viewers can watch the adventures of college student/CIA agent Sydney Bristow as she tackles deadly missions, delves into double-dealing organizations and plots against national security... in english! AXN Action TV will be showing Alias soon. Woohoo! Now it's just a matter of time. I hope they replace Relic Hunter with it. Or that sawed-off Sheena. Long time coming.

In a hip and happening place

Last night for a change we decided to go to Eastwood. Luckily we all fit into Cam's car- Dean, Gig, Noel, Jason and me. The place was packed with a weekend crowd, from very young and attractive teens to older party animals. Like us. Heh.
Anyway, we decided on a restaurant named Mama Rosa. We ordered a range of stuff. I got a Lukban longganisa sandwich, while the others got dessert stuff. We then spent the rest of the evening people watching and talking about the entertainment scene.
Today I stay home and try to do some art stuff. I want to enjoy as well my latest acquisitions; anime VCDs and DVDs of some new series; Wolf's Rain, the live-action You're Under Arrest series and the collected Gatekeepers 21 OAV. I also got DVDs of some cool movies; Below is a ghost/monster story set in a submarine in World War II. So Close is a Hong Kong action flick with femme fatale assassins starring Su Qi, Karen Mok and Zhiao Wei.
Lots of stuff, and I gotta have time to enjoy them. That's the trick.

Campy Classics


Dun... Dun... Dun-Duuuuuuunnnn.... Remember that classic score?

Last night I went to Megamall's Astrovision to look at what's new in DVD and video. Ironically, I took home a couple of old flicks, which date back to when I was a little kid. David Lynch's Dune was the first film adaptation of author Frank Herbert's novels about a universe full of warring families, or 'Houses' (I think this term pretty much introduced the House title for me) and the ubiquitous spice melange that everyone's fighting over. I remember watching featurettes and movie-in-the-making clips on Dune... of how it was actor Kyle Machlachlan's first film, of the special effects and stuff (mainly about the fat, diseased Baron Harkonnen's ability to float) and the epic story. I also remember watching the flick in the theater.
Dune was a big change from 'cleaner' sci-fi like Star Wars; battles and fights were bloody, brutal and gritty, and there are many grotesque scenes as well as action and drama. I remember many things clearly in Dune: The weird, full-body suit uniforms of the elite Sardaukar Terror Troops (which sound just as cool today as it did years ago...), the cool Atreides personal force fields, the sight of Atreides troops lying dead in piles (ala Krull... default good guy armies are SOOOO weak), Patrick Stewart as an Atreides officer, the Emperor and his generals playing videogames to defend their ship/fortress against the Fremen (pretty ridiculous, I think) and more. Dune is also the first time I saw 'thought bubbles' in a movie. Oh, and as a last detail, the Dune movie is preferred my friend Vinnie over the recent TV mini-series since it contains the 'correct' way of pronouncing the word 'Harkonnen'. Heh.
From what I can recall, Dune wasn't really that big of a success; people just didn't get it, simply because there was far too much book to fit into a movie. Well, Lord of the Rings did it... Oh well. Anyway, despite this, I like Dune, so I got it for my collection. It's a pretty bare package though; no extras whatsoever... only a Play Movie and Scene Selection are available.


Isn't it about time for another Sheena remake? With Milla Jovovich. Gyyaaa...

The other DVD I took home was Sheena. Yep, Sheena: Queen of the Jungle. I love jungle girl movies, and Sheena was probably the best of them (which is really not saying much). It's classic camp, and while the acting and plot are pretty thin, sexy actress Tanya Roberts gives the role her all and shows of her dazzling beauty. I think it's probably the last time we'll see a real authentic jungle girl portrayal, down to the really, really skimpy bikini and loin-cloth outfit (though the film used a brown skin outfit instead of the original comics' leopard/tiger skin bikini) and the ability to control animals. The film also adheres to the original comic character being barefoot (though in some sequences we can see Miss Roberts wearing some transparent sandals...), which is something 'modern' jungle films/TV series don't do anymore (Tarzan and Sheena in the recent TV series wear designer fur boots). I have to admit, I'm a big Tanya Roberts fan, and this movie just shows her off so well. Now if only I can find an original Beastmaster DVD... Heh.

Anyway, Mike and I ate at Marina after closing down the store. I had Kilawing Tanigue while he had clams and sizzling Tanigue. We were tired and it was a hard week, so we went home early. Should be an interesting day today. Have Greenhills to visit later, and hopefully a nice night with the gang tonight.

Looking Back At Philippine Comics

Paolo Manalo, a professor on creative writing at the University of the Philippines and the literary editor for The Philippine Free Press, does a long, interesting and exhaustive article on the local comic book industry. Read the article here.