Reviews by markjazz

Well, even though this game is fun it's the worst of the series for sure. It does have that "I've played this game before" feel but it has enough new cars and tracks to make it playable. Things I don't like is the whole career mode is now like what GT5's Seasonal Mode was with the PP. It follows the Angry Birds 3 Stars format too. I liked the progression bar better. The online play in this game is useless and I've played it only once and have no desire to go back to it. The biggest thing I hate in this game is the "add-ons" this game has. You pay $50 in real money for just $7,500,000 game credits. Some cars in this game are worth $20,000,000, like in GT5. So they except some dumb ass kid to dish out almost $150 of real money just to buy one friggn' car?!??! A smart game, like Grid 2, has packs of cars for just $4.99. That's how you do it.

Remember how fun it was to race with the Indy Cars and the X2010 cars? Well now they completely useless in this game. The PP is so high for them that you can't enter any races at all. Only thing they good for is single/ two player mode so don't waste your $2,000,000 - $6,000,000 on them.

Let's talk more about money. I finished the game and with all the money I had left, just over $10,000,000, and all the money I spent it equaled just over $20,000,000. So if you want just one of the priciest cars you have to complete the whole game. Pretty pathetic way they did this. Btw, the game took me 20 hours to beat. Again, very sad for this once great franchise. The game is far too easy and I really feel sorry for you if you paid extra money for credits.

This book was recommended to me and when I read the back it sounded like a good plot. However, getting into it I felt like it was too political and some of the main characters were just flat. I didn't feel connected to them at all. I also didn't like the idea of a Base set up on Mercury. Even for science fiction I hate that idea and I just find it laughable. I will say some of the ideas presented in the story are good but I think it could have been pulled off better. Idea wise I have to compare it too the book by Jack McDevitt called The Engines of God. I gave that one a 5/5 and it blew my mind. It has the same concept in a way. Aliens giving humans their knowledge. That sounds familiar doesn't it? Just watch history channel and you'll know what I mean.

Average rating for each story came out to 7.1. Here are my three favorite and least favorite of this volume.

TOP 3
The Drowning at Lake Henpin by Paul Tobin
This Is How The World Ends by John R. Fultz
Once More From The Top by A. Scott Glancy

BOTTOM 3
The Hour of the Tortoise by Molly Tanzer
A Gentelman From Mexico by Mark Samuels
I Only Am Escaped Alone To Tell Thee by Chris Reynaga

Is this story a horror tale or the first recorded acid trip!?!? I find this book very hard to rate. I almost wanted to give it a 4/5. This novel is a 'found manuscript' and it gave me the feeling that there is almost no point to this tale when I finished it because by the end of it you're left wondering if anything actually took place or not. It also can drag a bit with the constant description of situations that I felt the protagonist had already been through. The interesting thing though about this book was it had elements of fantasy and science fiction mixed in with horror and at first I didn't know if I would like this but by the end of the read I ending up thinking to myself the author did a good job mixing in these genre's. This is a fast paced read with good visual descriptions and I highly recommend it if you like H.P. Lovecraft. It reads very much like the style in which he wrote, except Hodgson doesn't use the word 'peculiar' as often.

One of the most original science fiction stories I've read. So vivid and the ideas presented were so fascinating. Each chapter ends with that cliff hanger quality making you want to read more and more. While reading this I thought to myself; "How is this not a movie yet?" and then further into the story I realized it would actually make an awesome Anime series. Great novel and I recommend it to anyone interested in the whole 'what makes us human' concept.

Night of the Living Dead (1968) - 96 min
Teenage Zombies a.k.a. Teenage Torture (1959) - 73 min
King of the Zombies (1941) 67 min
White Zombie (1932) - 69 min
Last of the Living (2009) - 88 min
Grave Mistake (Video 2008) - 90 min
I Am Omega (Video 2007) - 91 min
Awaken the Dead (2007) - 102 min
Zombie Dearest (2009) - 85 min
Hide and Creep (2004) - 85 min

I don't find this any better than the first movie so I don't see what others see, and I'm a b-movie fan too. I guess my main problem is Radu. I can't stand his voice, his fingers are ridiculous, and he spends more time drooling out blood from his mouth than sucking it. I'm serious too. Ever see the Cookie Monster "eat" cookies? Same thing here. Another issue is the subspecies minions make an appearance at the start, mainly because this movie starts were the first one left off, but then they're are never seen or mentioned again. Why? In saying this I do like the story and the music is good, even the death metal, so this is worth a watch if you're a b-movie or vampire fan.

I have mixed feelings about this movie. It looks good and the atmosphere is great as well. The music fits well with some good tracks. The acting is average and there's a lot of boobs to look at. However, the narrating is utterly pointless and I have to take of a whole star just for that. It leaves no mystery at all for the viewer, if there was any, and it makes it pretty forgettable for me in the end. I'm a fan of Charles Band so it is a keeper for me but he had produced better stories.

The Girl-Thing Who Went Out for Sushi by Pat Cadigan (7/10)
The Deeps of the Sky by Elizabeth Bear (6/10)
Drive by James S.A. Corey (8/10)
The Road to NPS by Sandra McDonald and Stephen D. Covey (7/10)
Swift as a Dream and Fleeting as a Sigh by John Barnes (7/10)
Macy Minnot’s Last Christmas on Dione, Ring Racing, Fiddler’s Green, the Potter’s Garden by Paul McAuley (6.5/10)
Safety Tests by Kristine Kathryn Rusch (8/10)
Bricks, Sticks, Straw by Gwyneth Jones (6/10)
Tyche and the Ants by Hannu Rajaniemi (4/10)
Obelisk by Stephen Baxter (8/10)
Vainglory by Alastair Reynolds (10/10)
Water Rights by An Owomoyela (6/10)
The Peak of Eternal Light by Bruce Sterling (7/10)

Average: 6.96/10

This is not intended to be a 'book of horror' so one should not think that before reading it. It's more a 'book of the weird'. There were probably only a couple tales in here that really moved me enough to be "scared". I feel I have to try and put myself in the time period these were written in order to get the full effect but it doesn't often work as I still end up getting bored. Luckily though that didn't happen too often. I had rated each story as I read them and only ended up giving five of the twenty a rating higher than 7/10. The lowest being a 5/10 from the author Lafcadio Hearn who spun an odd tale about hands glued to breasts! The best tales were by Erckmann-Chatrian, Villiers de Adam, Edgar Poe, William Hodgson, and Henry James. The one by James takes up nearly 1/4 of this book so don't except a short read with that one, but it's worth it. And I should add that when reading the one by Hodgson one can't help but think of the Creepshow episode where Stephen King turns into a green pile of grass before shooting himself. Overall, H.P. Lovecraft shows us that he has good taste in tales of the strange but reading some of these 100 to 200 years later just doesn't float my boat much at this age. H.P. is still better than them all in my opinion!