By Joey Alarilla, hackenslash Editor
INQUIRER.net

SINGAPORE–The Philippines may not have made it to the finals of the first Southeast Asian Granado Espada Raid Party held at Zouk on June 16, but the teams went down fighting and gained experience in competing at the international level.

Kudos to Malaysia, which emerged as the champion in the two-on-two player vs player tournament after cara and Nuub of YakiMY2 defeated the Singaporean team Ravage composed of Voyage and RavaNa. Interestingly enough, it was an all-Yakisoba affair as all four members of those teams belong to the Yakisoba faction in Granado Espada.

Meanwhile, the Philippine teams received a number of special awards. Hailed as the Most Valuable Player was Mark Sta. Ana, one of the members of the NCR team that emerged as the top team in the Philippine tournament and was sent to Singapore to represent our country. Mark went home with a Pinnacle digital media player.

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SINGAPORE–Here’s a video of legendary game creator Hakkyu Kim, the “Father of Ragnarok,” responding through a translator to questions on how he feels about the gaming community’s reception to his new game Granado Espada and if it exceeded his expectations.

Questions thrown by me, GAME! editor in chief Howard Paw, and Hinge Inquirer Publications group editor in chief Adel Gabot.

I took this Video on June 16 during the first Southeast Asian Granado Espada Raid Party at Zouk.

By Alex Villafania, hackenslash Reporter
INQUIRER.net

THE FIRST “Fantastic Four” film was a good popcorn movie but not as well-made as other Marvel-based movies such as “Spider-Man” and “X-Men,” despite doing well in the tills. But the Fantastic 4 sequel is something of a surprise, particularly the storyline that stuck close to the material, except for a few changes in characterization. Simply put, the second F4 movie is one of the few sequels that have surpassed expectations.

One of the more difficult parts in doing a sequel is merging separate plots into a cohesive storyline and in the case of “Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer,” there was lower expectation about the narrative due to the largely bad reviews from the first film. Fanboys of the comic book did not like the overly simplistic characterization of the heroes and even ordinary moviegoers only saw a regular action flick with the sultry Jessica Alba as the cherry on top. The first F4 flick suffered somewhat a “lechon manok” effect amid Hollywood studios taking Marvel comics licenses to turn them into money-making movies. Not surprisingly, F4 was overshadowed by the successes of the Spider-Man and X-Men movies, as well as minor success of the first Hulk film (with the exception of the badly mangled Punisher film).

In “F4: Rise of the Silver Surfer,” there are two distinct stories, namely the wedding of Reed Richards (Mr. Fantastic) and Susan Storm (Invisible Girl), as well as the appearance of the cosmic being known as the Silver Surfer. The Richards-Storm wedding is notable in the story arc of both the comic book series as well as the movie as it depicts the complexities of settling down amidst a media circus as well as their responsibilities to society.

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By Alex Villafania, hackenslash Reporter
INQUIRER.net

THERE are so many double-crosses in this movie that it made me dizzy just in its first 30 to 40 minutes. The plot was muddled by a difficult-to-understand Middle English accent spoken by all of the pirates in the film and the progression of the narrative is as confusing as Captain Jack Sparrow’s thoughts. Wait a minute, is this supposed to be a kiddie movie?

If Disney wanted to turn a good theme park ride into a cash cow, it should have made the third installment of Pirates of the Caribbean consistent with the first two films. True, the plot of the first two Pirates of the Caribbean films were also hard to follow, but what they lacked in progression, they made up for with comic relief (almost single-handedly delivered by Johnny Depp’s clever portrayal of crazy pirate Jack Sparrow), thus leaving viewers with a sense of comprehension of what the entire story was all about.

But these two films’ slightly confusing storylines were no match for the third film’s incomprehensible plot and seemed to have broken off from the original story, which is rescuing Jack Sparrow after being eaten by the gigantic Kraken.

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By Alex Villafania, hackenslash Reporter
INQUIRER.net

WITH only two weeks left before the opening of the highly anticipated “Transformers” movie, comic fans, collectible fanatics, hobbyists and casual geeks were treated to the year’s biggest toy and hobby fare, the Philippine Toys, Hobbies and Collectibles Convention 2007 (ToyCon).

This year’s ToyCon at the SM Megamall saw the biggest number of exhibitors and sponsors, many of whom are involved in the preparation for the opening of the live action flick “Transformers,” which will be shown on June 28 in the Philippines, almost a week before the worldwide premier showing.

The ToyCon website even offers video streaming to highlight this year’s activities.

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