The first “Boondock Saints” was one of the coolest, slickest, and most over-the-top violent flicks of the past 20 years.  And we have been waiting a decade for a sequel.  There was even a documentary about the director, Troy Duffy, and how he didn’t handle the success of the first movie.  But now we have a release date, Nov. 1, and a new trailer to study.  My only critique so far is it looks like they replaced Willem Dafoe with a female version of the same character.  But this is just speculation based on some brief shots in the trailer, so I could be way off.

More evidence that EA is trying to squeeze every cent out of this franchise is that they are now charging for practically everything.  Not happy with the progression of your superstar, just pull up your Xbox live account, spend a couple of bucks and you to can “maximize your superstars progression throughout his career”. Some little shit talker on-line really needing to get his goofy ass stomped, throw down some Washingtons and you can get a 10% ratings boost to all of your players for 1 play.  So if you are playing somebody and suddenly they pull out a play that seems to have come down from the football gods, then that might mean that they just have deeper pockets than you.

EA has even come out with an “Elite” package for $5.  And what does one get for being “Elite”, access to elite leader-boards (gasp), becoming ranked in elite matches (double gasp), and a harder difficulty setting (woman faints in background).  Are you fuckin’ kiddin’ me, you are paying $5 for a difficulty setting.  EA has found a way to charge for something that has been a staple for the majority of games since the dawn of Nintendo.  I gotta hand it to EA though, if I had sat in on that meeting where this idea was pitched, I would have fallen over laughing.  “You mean people are going to pay to make the game easier, and at the same time pay to make it more challenging.  And we don’t have to do anything. Ha!” 

I get the idea of finding new ways to make money on a product, and I’m not against it.  If people are stupid enough to buy these things, then shame on them.  But why not have both options, allow these extras to be unlockable after a certain amount of play.  And you can still charge for the people that don’t want to wait and need their instant gratification.  I feel like part of the game is being kept from me because I won’t pay for these extra upgrades.  And for a game I enjoy this much, it stings to not have access to all of it.

-Ryen Doty

If any of you are interested in becoming a contributer to this site, as a blogger or as a co-host of our weekly podcast, please contact me at either Twitter.com/RyenDoty or RyenDoty@gmail.com.

Also this week let’s have a little contest.  If you can name the band that performs the opening song, and tell me what cartoon show it was featured in, then…well good for you.  Send your answers to Twitter.com/RyenDoty.  We will name the winner in next week’s podcast.

It has been reported that JJ and Damon on currently working on the first draft of an adaptation of the series “The Dark Tower” by Stephen King. For anyone who has read the seven book series, this is very scary news. This story is immense to put it lightly. And the only way that I can see this even being a possibility is if either they turn this into a multiple movie franchise or a TV mini-series. There is simply way too much story to cut it down to a single film. But if Damon, JJ, and Carlton can somehow tell the story of Roland Deschain (the gunslinger) in its entirety, then I feel that this could be the next Lord of the Rings. Except that in these films our main characters would do a little more than simply walk from one place to the next.

I heard that Damon and Carlton optioned the rights from King for $19. Nineteen is a number that carries a lot of significance in the world that King made, and if its true that was the amount paid then in proves that Damon and Carlton truly love the material. And if there were anybody that I would trust with such an insanely difficult project, it would be Darlton (Damon & Carlton). So I wish them the best of luck, and wait to see if I get to see one of my favorite lines on the big screen, “The man in black fled across the desert, and the gunslinger followed.”

-RD

This brings an odd question to mind, why are all these creative and unique shows getting the ax when there are multiple versions of the same cop drama on every network. I am looking at you CSI.