I know you and Rob got your copy of Metal Gear Solid 4 a day early.
If you even dare start playing it without me I will fucking kill you.
I'm not joking, I will actually kill you and Rob until you die.

So just to summarise my threat.

1) Don't play Metal Gear Solid 4 without me
2) If you do play Metal Gear Solid 4 go to point 5
3) ???
4) ???
5) I will kill you.

So I hope for your sakes that you make the right choice, you have until I arrive tomorrow to think about your course of action.

I will either be posting pictures of their dead corpses, or an account of us all playing Metal Gear Solid 4 in my next post.

Waiting for The Incredible Hulk to begin last night I had really high hopes. Edward Norton, a promised appearance by Tony Stark and a comic book adaptation delivered by the newly formed Marvel Studios. Surely this was going to be awesome. The problem with every other superhero movie had been Hollywood. They just don't treat the material with enough respect. Don't understand. Don't care. Just see them as a giant cash machine. So with Marvel now at the helm Hulk couldn't fail to deliver, well nearly...

During the first hour of The Incredible Hulk, it threatens to be one of the great superhero movies. The film deals very effectively with Bruce Banner's backstory during the opening credits, plus teasing you with hints that Marvel are going to bring their comic book universe together on film in the way they have in print - look out for mention of Stark Industries and Nick Fury. We then see Edward Norton exiled in Brazil, hiding from the monster inside and desperately training himself to control his anger. There are references a plenty to The Incredible Hulk TV show here, with the old theme tune even turning up at one point. Banner has abandoned all of the stresses of modern living here, choosing to have no mobile phone, credit cards or ID and the film seems to be trying to make a interesting point about him having more freedom in exile living with his monster than we all do each day fighting to catch the tube.

Of course, the army then show up and ruin everything. Their early battles with the Hulk are fought out in brilliant horror movie fashion, with the audience only being given glimpses of the big green monster. Unfortunately, after this the movie takes a turn for the more traditional, with Banner being forced to return to America to find a cure and pointed in the direction of a showdown with Tim Roth's Emil Blonsky, who has decided he wants a bit of the gamma juice for himself. Thereafter, there are still fantastic battles between the Hulk and the US military and of course a giant wrestling match with the Abomination, but you can't help feeling that Marvel are playing it safe to ensure the future of the franchise when they should be Hulking out and really going for it.

Which brings me back to my disappointment with Marvel Studios. They've now got total control of the movie destiny of some of their most famous comic book characters, but rather than setting them free you can't help but feel that the scale of the task is weighing heavily on them. I've always felt that comics are about the outsider. The kid who doesn't fit in. The person whose powers mean they don't belong. Marvel used to be the outsider, but suddenly the success of their films has thrust them into the mainstream. Instead of using their new found powers for good, they seem to have decided that fitting in is better and they're making movies based on marketing decisions and focus groups. Unfortunately, the thing about The Incredible Hulk is he's aways going to stand out in a crowd.

The latest Resident Evil 5 trailer reveals several reasons to be super excited about the sequel to my favourite game of all time, but none of them new. The blood chilling cries of zombie townsfolk can clearly be heard. This was one of the coolest aspects of the last game and I'm glad they've kept it in. Back again are the infamous killer zombie dogs (well, it wouldn't be Res Evil without them). Thank God they've also kept those crazed zombie chainsaw baddies, as being cornered by them is one of the best things about Resident Evil 4. Even the one thing that's got the fans super excited, a female partner, isn't new. Haven't girls been a staple of Resident Evil since day one? I'm glad to see Capcom are applying the good old if it ain't broke, don't fix it reasoning to this. It's going to be amazing.

When watching the trailer, look out for zombies with a very similar bite to Luke Goss's character in Blade 2. Nasty...

Sorry this post has been a while coming - Geeky Tom has been on at me for ages (my excuse has been starting a new job, which has kept me butt-numbingly busy) but since I did finally get to see the pilot of FRINGE earlier this week, (along with a couple of other unremarkable shows) it's only fair that I share some thoughts with you and put all of us out of our misery.

You may recall that I was able to read the script a few months ago, and posted on it at the time - check this out if you want a plot summary, no spoilers of course.

I absolutely loved the script - it was exciting, intriguing and unpredictable. So while I was really looking forward to seeing it realised, I was also a little anxious about it potentially being not quite as magnificent as I'd imagined. In a nutshell, it was extremely good. I think. The opening tease on the plane, with people literally melting away, was a bit more B movie than I'd envisaged, but the effects were cool, especially later on when the main character's lover is infected with something that makes his skin go hard and translucent, so you can see all the internal organs and veins. Nice.



Joshua Jackson was fine - and went down well with a fair number of the female viewing audience - but for me, the real standouts were Anna Torv as Olivia Denham (the lead FBI agent) and John Noble as Walter Bishop, the eccentric and disturbed scientist whose research may hold the key to curing Olivia's lover. Noble (yes, you may recognise him as Denethor from Lord of the Rings - Return of the King) is sublimely good - funny and heartbreaking at the same time.

Torv is an Aussie actress who was in last year's BBC drama Mistresses (also being remade in the US fyi) as a hot lesbian mistress. She's beautiful, but in quite an understated way, and brings intelligence and guts to the part.

Although it was pretty long - clocking in around 80 minutes - my attention remained focused all the way through. Yes, there's loads of action, but there was also room to let the characters breathe and get a sense of who they are.

So overall, I think this has real potential. The only thing I would say - and this is probably more with my work hat on - is that it didn't quite give me the same rush I got when I first saw the pilot for Heroes, which was just so bold and different and immediately gripping that I was hooked from the get go. I really really like Fringe, but I don't quite feel it in my bones yet. Fingers crossed though...