Mr W Phallus

Rare warned us about stealing their bananas, but did we listen? But yeh I guess this new film fits more with the recent Planet of the Apes, I was sorta thinking they'd want to associate the prequel with the original because that was a good film and Tim Burton's was extremely poor, but apparently Hollywood know better. Well I have this to say to you Hollywood: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a5R_pS0h5Qk

That's not how it happened. That's just stupid. Also it looks like the peak of James Franco's career may have been and gone already. Edit: @Atom: Isn't the whole point of the first Planet of the Apes that humans destroyed each other with war, and the apes eventually evolved and took over the few surviving humans (who devolved somehow). Not that apes forcibly conquered humanity. That's just ridiculous.

Hmm I'd have put Batman under powers of the mind.

Source Code is a great. Go see it. Unfortunately once the film was finished my friend immediately said 'It was just copying Inception' and I have a feeling this is a stigma it will struggle to shake off, even though it is a) nothing at all like Inception and b] probably better than Inception.

Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (xBox) My xbox was my first console and The Fellowship was one of the games I got with it. At this point I was still too naive in the ways of video games to know that adaptation = bollocks in 99% of cases, luckily the other games I got with it were Halo and Splinter Cell.

It shouldn't work...but it looks like it actually might. The one thing that I didn't like from that trailer was that the fighting moves he uses in the bar just seem too modern. Edit: I dunno, after watching it again they don't seem that bad. Its a pretty tiny thing anyway.

I just started the first game and I'm really enjoying it so far. Only in a video-game would you find sexual conquest and collectible trading cards combined into the ultimate form of female objectification. And I must say I kinda like it.

Pokemon (Ruby and (Heart) Gold). Shouldn't we have a 'A game you thought you would like, but ended up hating' question to go with yesterdays?

I have bad news. They'll even attack your popcorn. Oh and you're not safe in hiding behind a banister either. Double glazing is a definite no-no. So many questions...

Do you spend that much time on boats? Not since I quit rowing. But apparently they're also firing invisible lasers at our cars now. And worst of all I can't even fire off a missile without the risk of it being shot down in non-real time. How good are lasers at cutting through brick and/or double glazing? Should I shut my curtains? They're all out to get me with their invisible beams of death.

It's just not the same without a red beam of light lopping off limbs and such. Lasers have let me down. If anything it's scarier, whenever I'm on a boat now I'm gonna be worrying about walking into invisible laser beams that will set me on fire.

I guess probably Minecraft, it took me a long time before I finally caved and bought it to see what all the fuss was about.

Dammit I'm out on the 23rd. An extra day of waiting!

Duffy 4 PM, 2K11.

I know I'm psyched for I Saw The Devil too, not available to rent from Lovefilm until the 9th here. Hopefully The Man From Nowhere will tide me over til then, if I can get my hands on it that is.

Its still interesting to look at how the modern setting has developed in the FPS, and maybe even dispel the myth or at least the over-simplification that everyone just wants to copy MW. Judging from the discussion in this thread I'd say people are pretty interested in the topic.

I tend to avoid saying cartoon myself just because it has slightly negative or childish connotations to a lot of people but unless someone says it in a derogatory context or tone of voice then I don't care if they call any animation a cartoon. Same with graphic novel/comic, I don't have a problem with saying I read comics. I sometimes use the two terms to distinguish between the format so I'd call a trade paperback a comic and a collected edition a graphic novel.

South Korean revenge thriller? Count me in.

I'd definitely count Counter-Strike, sure it's a mod but people still play CS and CS:S today, it's pretty influential in terms of multiplayer gaming. I wouldn't count Halo as a modern warfare shooter but it could be worth mentioning the Halo generation, the console/PC divide and how that comes into play when considering the question at hand. For example, was MW simply bringing to consoles what BF2 (or another game) had already brought to the PC? Or is the current modern warfare market saturation simply a result of an increasingly commercial gaming industry brought about by a larger consumer base? Here's a tricky one: does Goldeneye count as a modern warfare shooter? At this point it seems like I'm giving you more questions instead of helping you find answers, so sorry for that.

Oh I totally agree, what I was trying to say was that because the first Modern Warfare benefited from the attention of the Halo generation (unlike the PC only BF2) I'd point to it as the game that made publishers say 'let's make our set our FPSes in a modern setting'. Of course MW probably owes a lot to BF2 and other games, you really have to consider the whole history of modern era shooters, since you'll never find one definitive start point.

BF2, in my experience at least, was popular amongst 'gaming' crowds but didn't have the same impact amongst 'casual gamers'. MW reached a much larger audience thanks to it being released on consoles, whereas FPS gaming on the PC tends to be a bit more 'gamer' exclusive or hardcore. Again this is just from my own experience, and could be specific to my age group or whatever. It is also possible that the rise of social networking has contributed to the increased popularity (both perceived and actual) of MW and CoD in general, what with all the CoD related statuses flying around facebook and so on. I also think gaming is generally accepted amongst a wider audience now, contributing to the apparent higher popularity of MW over the older BF2.

Rainbow Six and Ghost Recon come to mind. According to wikipedia Full Spectrum Warrior (not an FPS I know, but still relevant I'd say) came out a year before Battlefield 2. Some things that you might want to consider, whilst MW2 may not have 'invented' the modern warfare shooter it sure as hell popularised it, especially amongst what you might call the lay-gamers, as in the people who play video games but don't identify themselves as 'gamers' or 'hardcore gamers'. If you try and find some sort of measure of popularity - sales figures, ratings etc. - then you could get an indication of which game(s) everyone wanted to copy. It would also be interesting to consider not just the games themselves but the publishers: Who has the most modern warfare shooters? Who was jumping on whose bandwagon? and so on. Hope that helps. I don't have any sources more credible than wikipedia since most of these games are from before I really got into gaming.

Probably stepping out of the escape pod for the first time in Halo:CE.