MamaPop™

I'm a Call of Duty Widow

My husband, who could not tell you who just won the World Series (or who has EVER won the World Series for that matter) and who could not tell you who Harry Potter was even written by or who has ever owned a game console before stood in line for hours last night with a packed backpack full of Red Bull in anticipation of the release of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. He got home this morning at 8 a.m. after playing it ALL NIGHT LONG with a friend of his. That's ... weird, right?

Apparently it's not that weird.

Plaid Horse Game Review: Wet

Authored by super special guest contributor and honorary MamaPop Bestard, Plaid Horse

Ever want to play an action movie? Now you can. Despite the unfortunate name, Wet (short for Wetwork) is not a first person shooter of the Girls Gone Wild variety. Though Rubi, the game’s protagonist, is a girl-gone-wild with bloodlust, you’re not going to see flashes of barely legal unmentionables. Make no mistake, Wet does know what it is; imagine if Robert Rodriguez collaborated with Rockstar Games with the goal of redefining Laura Croft… well, Bethesda beat everyone to the punch.
 

The Beatles and Disney - It's On!

This has been a big week for the Beatles.  Their new game (see insanely cool commercial below) The Beatles: Rock Band is on the top of many a gift list and their entire UK catalog (plus Magical Mystery Tour and Past Masters) has been remastered and rereleased with a depth and a clarity that so many of us are missing in our lives right now.  Yes, once again we have found ourselves in times of trouble and the Beatles come to us.  Words of wisdom and all that.

Dr. Horrible Is a Gift That Keeps On Giving: The Guild's Music Video

Like anybody who only "discovers" things AFTER they catapult into the mainstream via a related national phenomenon, I discovered Felicia Day's hilarious web series The Guild only AFTER her appearance in Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog.

If you haven't watched it yet, you should. Particularly if you're a gamer or love a gamer or even if you regularly enjoy taping "kick me" signs on the backs of gamers, like dude, gamers. Man.

Plaid Horse Game Review: King of Fighters XII

Authored by super special guest contributor and honorary MamaPop Bestard, Plaid Horse

I’ll admit, fighting games aren’t on my priority list of must-play games. 17 years ago? Well, that’s a completely different story. My brother and I basically took rolls of quarters and duct-taped them to the coin slots of Street Fighter II so we wouldn’t miss an opportunity to jump back into the brawling. Our wrists splintered with pain. Our elbows ached from smashing little onlookers out of our way. When Street Fighter II came out for Super Nintendo, we didn’t sleep for three weeks. BLISS.

Video Game Review: The Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena

Authored by super special guest contributor and honorary MamaPop Bestard, Plaid Horse

Only one grizzly-throated B-film movie star can play the lead in two new video games in the same month. Yes, Vin Diesel. Vin Diesel of Fast and Furious and The Pacifier. That Vin Diesel. He's practically the Samuel L. Jackson of gaming -- he's everywhere and in everything!

Bikinis and Zombies Go Together like...

I love to support independent films and sure other people might call me a hero, and I would totally understand why, but I'm not in this for the glory, I'm in it for the fortune, obviously... so here's the point...ready? The first full trailer for Oneechanbara Vortex has been released and it looks to have captured the subtle eroticism and hidden mystique of the first two Oneechanbara films with aplomb. The carefully interwoven narrative that accentuates the inherent beauty of female bonding and camaraderie coupled with the nuanced social commentary in which Japan analyzes how it's zombie-filled future will mesh with it's feudal past. It is a hard-cutting investigation into how dressing in a sailor suit is the best possible solution to any problem.

Or maybe it's a bunch of scantily clad Asian women chopping up zombies with samurai swords. And if you think that's gross and sexist, than you are probably a racist, and everyone knows that racism is way worse than alleged sexism that you can't even prove, and also I bet you hate foreign films because you don't like to read subtitles and maybe you should just go home and watch a Larry The Cable Guy Movie instead. What? I'm not being defensive. YOU'RE being defensive.

Kick Off Your Morning With Some Controversy!

Or, Random Stuff From All Over That Will Either Get You Really Annoyed Or Maybe Just Tired, Either Way, You Better Go Refill Your Coffee

Mormons are angry with Big Love: Next week's episode features a scene depicting a sealing ceremony -- a sacred, closely-guarded secret of the faith -- in the Temple. (Via Queerty)

"And You Thought Grand Theft Auto Was Bad": Japanese rape simulation video games! Guaranteed to make you weep for humanity and maybe decide that your kid begging to play Candyland for the 400th time is not such a bad thing. (Via Jezebel and Slate)

Lindsay Lohan is launching her own spray tan line: Save me from the orange people! (Via People)

The bartender who inspired "Cheers" has been laid off after 35 years: He's "not bitter, he's just the 'casualty of the economic situation that we're in.'" Oh, man. Somebody needs to FIX IT! (via USA Today)

Hey guys! How's your hangover? Mine is probably going to be brutal once I get up, but I'm not awake now. See, I had to pour my husband into bed at, like, 2 a.m., like he was made of soup, and I am now drunk-editing my post, because I am oh-so dedicated.

So, did you make some New Year's resolutions? Like, say, do you have some holiday weight you've resolved to shed in the new year? Well, your friends at Walmart want to give you some extra incentive, and what better motivation than a dose of self-loathing?

Being asked to compile a best-of list always makes me happy that I have a blog, because I can never remember anything, not even pop culture that I've enjoyed in a 12-month period. But I have a "plop culture" category that I spent a few minutes perusing this morning and I said a lot of things like, "Oh, YEAH, that WAS awesome!"

Yeah, you know, we do a fair amount of kvetching and bitching and raging here at Mamapop. Either popular culture is just all around sinking to a Speidi level of irritainment...or all the writers here are a bunch of old cranky old cranks who have nothing better to do than wave our virtual rakes at everything that pisses us off.

I dunno. Tough call, there.

But! In the spirit of the season and the fresh hope of a new year, here are 10 things that made me supremely, sublimely happy in 2008:

Yep, you read that headline right.  A strip club was suing a video game.  Great use of our judicial resources.

The PlayPen, a L.A. strip club, sued Grand Theft Auto for using a strip club named PigPen in the most recent version, which it conceded was based on the PlayPen.  You would think the PlayPen would like the free publicity but no, they sued for copyright infringement, over a sign.  Well two signs.  They claim the PlayPen sign and the PigPen sign are in the same font and they both had signs out front that said "totally nude" advertising the strip club.  That is so unique and original.  I mean come on, strip club and totally nude?  You should totally copyright that.   

They lost.  Big time.  In fact the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals threw the case out.  They somehow scored a Judge with a sense of humor, which is rare.  There are days I would kill for a judge with a sense of humor.  Um, not kill, but it would make me very, very happy.  This Judge has a future in blogging.

Authored by super special guest contributor and honorary MamaPop Bestard, Plaid Horse

Post-apocalyptic games are as pervasive as the end-times rumors saturating Washington these days; the financial mess quickly escalated from passive kerfuffle to flat-out doomsday and everyone from Warren Buffet to Jim Kunstler (The Long Emergency) are predicting bread lines. Times are bleak. People are suffering and the snow hasn't even started to fall. A real Cold War style cloud seems to be settling over America as we realize we will be a much poorer nation than the last two decades promised.

We feel a little bit alone. We might have to fight our way out of this crisis, and in a Camus kinda way we're unable to understand or empathize with the ugliness of the world. In three weeks time, just as many games use similar scenarios as their plot driver – Dead Space, Gears of War 2, and the topic of this review, Fallout 3.

Authored by super special guest contributor and honorary MamaPop Bestard, Bad Horse

Holy Moses! The fourth installment of the Soul Caliber franchise doesn't hesitate to pull out all the stops; it's a berserk amalgamation of hyper rendered fighting of the first class. I'll admit, viewing screen shots and concept illustrations of the characters during the lead up of the release made me weary – does the world really need another spectacular thumb grinder whose side story focuses less on character development than boob lionization? Is the gaming community, both online and solo-rollin', clamoring for another insanely over-the-top fighter filled with scantily clad femme fatals and mutant muscle ninjas? Prolly not. Further inspection proved that Soul Caliber IV has little to do with necessity and everything to do with awesome.

The past week has been utterly dominated by nerds. First, Comic Con in San Diego, and then E3, the yearly hajj for game developers and hardcore gamers. While I am merely a casual gamer myself, I have been following news about the new EA game, Mirror's Edge, for some time now, mostly because my husband won't shut up about it.

The game is intriguing to me on many levels. Digital Solutions CE (DiCE), makers of the Battlefield series, apparently grew bored of games with big men shooting the crap out of each other, and sought to develop a first person action game virtually without guns, and with a female lead. And it looks cool as hell, y'all.

And that seems to be stating the obvious, right? Well, apparently not.

Three dudes in Washington DC (holla, homies!) recently decided to take their virtual jamming to the streets of our nation's capital, documenting it all on video to hilarious effect:

Umm... Freebird? (tentatively raises lighter)

Their "Rock Band" band also has a website. Because this joke cannot be taken too far, OH GOD NO.

I don't know how many of y'all betches are arcade game dorks*, but if you are, you've probably seen The King of Kong, and you know exactly what I'm going to say. Maybe you'll say it with me.

I love Steve Wiebe. Because of who he is, because of what he accomplishes, and because he's a totally perfect palate-cleanser for your blackhearted election-year, celeb-gossip cynicism. Netflix his movie, like, yesterday.

Walmart Wants To Remind You That Your Butt Is Huge In Those Jeans

Hey guys! How's your hangover? Mine is probably going to be brutal once I get up, but I'm not awake now. See, I had to pour my husband into bed at, like, 2 a.m., like he was made of soup, and I am now drunk-editing my post, because I am oh-so dedicated.

So, did you make some New Year's resolutions? Like, say, do you have some holiday weight you've resolved to shed in the new year? Well, your friends at Walmart want to give you some extra incentive, and what better motivation than a dose of self-loathing?

Non-Specific Top However-Many-Items-I-Can-Think-of List for 2008

Being asked to compile a best-of list always makes me happy that I have a blog, because I can never remember anything, not even pop culture that I've enjoyed in a 12-month period. But I have a "plop culture" category that I spent a few minutes perusing this morning and I said a lot of things like, "Oh, YEAH, that WAS awesome!"

10 Things From 2008 That Made Me Forget How Much I Hate Everything Else

Yeah, you know, we do a fair amount of kvetching and bitching and raging here at Mamapop. Either popular culture is just all around sinking to a Speidi level of irritainment...or all the writers here are a bunch of old cranky old cranks who have nothing better to do than wave our virtual rakes at everything that pisses us off.

I dunno. Tough call, there.

But! In the spirit of the season and the fresh hope of a new year, here are 10 things that made me supremely, sublimely happy in 2008:

Strip Club Loses Law Suit Against Grand Theft Auto

Yep, you read that headline right.  A strip club was suing a video game.  Great use of our judicial resources.

The PlayPen, a L.A. strip club, sued Grand Theft Auto for using a strip club named PigPen in the most recent version, which it conceded was based on the PlayPen.  You would think the PlayPen would like the free publicity but no, they sued for copyright infringement, over a sign.  Well two signs.  They claim the PlayPen sign and the PigPen sign are in the same font and they both had signs out front that said "totally nude" advertising the strip club.  That is so unique and original.  I mean come on, strip club and totally nude?  You should totally copyright that.   

They lost.  Big time.  In fact the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals threw the case out.  They somehow scored a Judge with a sense of humor, which is rare.  There are days I would kill for a judge with a sense of humor.  Um, not kill, but it would make me very, very happy.  This Judge has a future in blogging.

Fallout 3 Review

Authored by super special guest contributor and honorary MamaPop Bestard, Plaid Horse

Post-apocalyptic games are as pervasive as the end-times rumors saturating Washington these days; the financial mess quickly escalated from passive kerfuffle to flat-out doomsday and everyone from Warren Buffet to Jim Kunstler (The Long Emergency) are predicting bread lines. Times are bleak. People are suffering and the snow hasn't even started to fall. A real Cold War style cloud seems to be settling over America as we realize we will be a much poorer nation than the last two decades promised.

We feel a little bit alone. We might have to fight our way out of this crisis, and in a Camus kinda way we're unable to understand or empathize with the ugliness of the world. In three weeks time, just as many games use similar scenarios as their plot driver – Dead Space, Gears of War 2, and the topic of this review, Fallout 3.

Soul Caliber IV Review

Authored by super special guest contributor and honorary MamaPop Bestard, Bad Horse

Holy Moses! The fourth installment of the Soul Caliber franchise doesn't hesitate to pull out all the stops; it's a berserk amalgamation of hyper rendered fighting of the first class. I'll admit, viewing screen shots and concept illustrations of the characters during the lead up of the release made me weary – does the world really need another spectacular thumb grinder whose side story focuses less on character development than boob lionization? Is the gaming community, both online and solo-rollin', clamoring for another insanely over-the-top fighter filled with scantily clad femme fatals and mutant muscle ninjas? Prolly not. Further inspection proved that Soul Caliber IV has little to do with necessity and everything to do with awesome.

DiCE Realizes Women Can Kick Ass in Video Games, Too

The past week has been utterly dominated by nerds. First, Comic Con in San Diego, and then E3, the yearly hajj for game developers and hardcore gamers. While I am merely a casual gamer myself, I have been following news about the new EA game, Mirror's Edge, for some time now, mostly because my husband won't shut up about it.

The game is intriguing to me on many levels. Digital Solutions CE (DiCE), makers of the Battlefield series, apparently grew bored of games with big men shooting the crap out of each other, and sought to develop a first person action game virtually without guns, and with a female lead. And it looks cool as hell, y'all.

Playing "Rock Band" Does Not Equal Being In A Rock Band

And that seems to be stating the obvious, right? Well, apparently not.

Three dudes in Washington DC (holla, homies!) recently decided to take their virtual jamming to the streets of our nation's capital, documenting it all on video to hilarious effect:

Umm... Freebird? (tentatively raises lighter)

Their "Rock Band" band also has a website. Because this joke cannot be taken too far, OH GOD NO.

I don't know how many of y'all betches are arcade game dorks*, but if you are, you've probably seen The King of Kong, and you know exactly what I'm going to say. Maybe you'll say it with me.

I love Steve Wiebe. Because of who he is, because of what he accomplishes, and because he's a totally perfect palate-cleanser for your blackhearted election-year, celeb-gossip cynicism. Netflix his movie, like, yesterday.

I Praise You: Steve Wiebe

I don't know how many of y'all betches are arcade game dorks*, but if you are, you've probably seen The King of Kong, and you know exactly what I'm going to say. Maybe you'll say it with me.

I love Steve Wiebe. Because of who he is, because of what he accomplishes, and because he's a totally perfect palate-cleanser for your blackhearted election-year, celeb-gossip cynicism. Netflix his movie, like, yesterday.