samedi 30 juin 2007

Movie : Ratatouille


Ratatouille : This movie is about a rat who doesn't like garbage food and wants to find good food for him and his family ; and Linguini a young man who was sent by his mother to get a job at the great Gusteau's restaurant.


There is only one way to describe the movie : Simply the best!!!


I think Ratatouille is simply the best movie Pixar has made so far ... the assets are really beautiful, the facial animations of all characters give the impression that they have emotions (we know exactly what they feel), the dialogues are really funny and they use a lot of humour through animations.


Theres always some comedic elements on screen in a corner of the screen even when there are long dialogues you'll laugh at whats going on around them.


people applauded at the end of the presentation!!


a lot better than the last Shrek!!


I loved it and hopefully a lot of people will go see it.


mercredi 27 juin 2007

A Mighty Heart


This is the movie that tells the story of Marianne and Daniel Pearl, the american journalist that was kidnapped in Pakistan.
We follow Marianne, Daniel, american agents and Pakistan police agents who try to find the kidnappers. Throughout the movie we are shown flashbacks of Marianne and Daniel life outside Pakistan, how they met and their overall life story. We are shown flashbacks of Daniel's meetings with his collaborators during the actual investigation so we know what really happened and if the police officers are the right path.
There are a lot of things that we don't know so we are on the same page as the police officers since we don't know who did what and how it all happened.
The scenes are actionned packed and everything is going so fast hence we are "involved" in the movie and it keeps you on your toes.
Angelina Jolie is good in the role of Marianne Pearl. Most of the actors offer good and believable performances.
The movie gives some insights of Pakistan fights against violent groups and its relationships with country around and the US.
I went to see the movie yesterday night. I really enjoyed it!
Go see it if you like movie that matters.
It's not a cheap way to cash out on a true story.

vendredi 15 juin 2007

People leaving Ubi for ... Eidos

And it continues ... people are leaving ubisoft mtl for other companies but this time Eidos seems to attract a lot of talent!!

its a known fact that in the recent months/year a lot of employees left ubisoft montreal to go explore the market which consisted of A2M and EA.

Ubi bosses didn't seem to care and wouldn't try to give any incentive to keep the best talent around...they only assumed that people would come back some day.

But now with the market expanding : Eidos is now in montreal and a lot of rumours mentionned other companies that could settle in; what will happen to ubisoft and its desire to have 3000 employees before 2010 ?

Eidos seems a good new option in Montreal given the fact that this company has a lot of new IPs coming in the close future and a lot of really good IPs out there (Hitman, Tomb Raider, Deus Ex, etc...), they will attract talented people and it has started already!

Some of the best are leaving now!

All these companies give developpers a lot of opportunities to find a place they like and can relate to without leaving this beautiful city :)

jeudi 14 juin 2007

Random stuff

Sony vs Church : Wow this is scary ... if we can't use churches, historic monuments and known places in our games what will it look like ?

A lot of games are trying to make believable environments where the players will be immersed in something he knows or recognizes which makes the game (sometimes) that much more fun.

So what if every time a developper uses a known area there is someone who sues... what will happen to GTA for example ?

I think some people should focus on more important matters than that...

Ocean Thirteen : I enjoyed the movie it has some funny moments. It's always interesting to see so many talented actors in the same movie, but I think it's more of the same though... hopefully we won't have an Ocean Fourteen movie ... do something else guys.

Transformers - The video game : This game seems a lot better than the movie thats coming out soon...well okay its not that hard to be better than a Michael Bay movie...oups I said that! Unlike the movie that focuses a lot on humans (which the original Transformers didn't care to much about), the game actually give you control of a lot of our favorite Transformers and new ones and you'll fight against the other faction of Transformers. You can choose between Decepticons or Autobots and all of the Transformers have their own abilities + the transformation seems well done. At least it looks better than the last Transformers game... Also the designers brought back the real Megatron and Optimus Prime's voices unlike the movie which is good for the old fans. :)

Mr.Brooks: I really enjoyed this movie. I like how they presented Mr.Brooks personalities by using two different actors to provide a different view point of what they think. Great action and thriller sequences. You're always on the edge of your seat!

Pirates 3 : I liked the introduction scene, some of the fights were spectacular, Jack's personalities and how the movie present them and I like Johnny Depp's performance in this role. He's a really great actor and he's good in any role he plays in. I didn't like a lot of story elements in this new script, I didn't like the ending and how some scenes are "oh well yet again..." or " yeah right ..."

Xbox 360 : Finally I got an xbox 360 ... I played condemned and it has good moments where I'm actually afraid of what's next...but it has some "where do I go now" situation where I feel like I want to stop playing. The investigation gameplay is kinda too easy and doesn't bring that much more to the table. Anyways, the xbox hasn't failed yet ... hopefully its gonna stay that way.

Chulip (ps2) : I have to try this weird japanese game soon. In this game, the main objective is to kiss as many people as you can and mostly the sad people to bring joy and hapiness to your city. This is kinda weird but ill try soon :) The characters are so cute ... the graphics arent that great though and gamespot gave a 6.0 we'll see ...

samedi 2 juin 2007

Jade Raymond...and ubisoft's assassin

For those who don't know who Jade Raymond is ... she's the producer of the fabulous game being developped by Ubisoft Montreal : Assassins Creed.

The game looks amazing and hopefully for ubi and gamers it will be fun...we'll see soon.

I never worked with Jade, but I've heard a lot about her in the newspapers and in discussions between developpers.

Everytime I say I worked at Ubi Montreal, guys ask me if I ever worked with Jade or if I know her personnally this is strange. People in the industry (mostly guys) totally flip out when they see her in interviews and pictures...they don't care about the discussions they watch and analyse her.

I think thats crazy... but is it really? Is Ubi using her appeal to promote Assassins Creed ?

I really hope ubisoft and Jade aren't using her image to attract people around the game. I heard that a lot of newspaper articles in Canada are focusing on Jade and how "the sexy and hot Jade Raymond is producing a game called Assassins Creed".

Journalists should really focus on the games ... we don't need to celebrate the fact that she might be (or not) a beautiful producer over the quality of a game.
I don't see how these articles help women become men's equal or help women get the respect they deserve to be where they are at.
Jade is one of the few women in the game industry and yet we focus on her face and body! I'm ashamed ... really!! When I hear people around me talking about her like that (in the industry), I feel bad.

I hope ubisoft will not promote Assassins Creed as a game made by the "hot" Jade Raymond, but on the fact that this game is revolutionary with new gameplay elements using crowds and etc...

Ubisoft as started a casual games department and I think the Jade thing is a totally opposite mentality than what they are trying to do...trying to attract people who don't play into the gaming industry.