The signs were all around me. The pastor of my church (the same church that housed my school) always had a fly new ride, from a Suburban, to a nice little sports car. The kids in my school that prayed the hardest and sang the loudest during chapel always had the best grades (I could have had those grades too, but I was too focused on girls and basketball, so I was content with my 3.4). I know there are others that share that belief. I am also aware that there are more that do not. But if sports fans are paying attention, there are more signs emerging. I present to you, Tim Tebow and Jeremy Lin.

Understand, I am not comparing Tebow and Lin, in ANY WAY. They play different sports, and have, quite frankly, shown different levels of aptitude. One thing they do share is their meteoric rise from deep on the bench (easy to forget that Tebow, at one point, was Denver’s 4th QB) to leading their teams to places previously unknown in the current season. Another thing is an all-out devotion to their faith, and a lack of shame in sharing that faith with the rest of us. Look at Reggie White. One of, if not the most dominant Defensive Linemen we have ever seen. He was a preacher! Deion Sanders, turned his life over to Christ, and he was just inducted into the Hall Of Fame. There are many more examples. So I ask all of you: is G.O.D. the new P.E.D.?

Don’t laugh.

There have been a lot of athletes that have “given God the glory” after a tightly contested game, or a breakout performance. Most of the references ring hollow. Not when Lin says it. In a 2010 interview, Lin said that he views his athleticism as a way to bring glory to God. He also stated that he “really” became a Christian when he was a freshman in high school. This is not thanking God for “all of your utensils”, as Roy Jones Jr. once famously did. This is a kid that is not ashamed to talk about all of the blessings that his God has bestowed upon him, and honestly feels as if he would not be as successful as he has been without God in his life. Tebow is cut from that same cloth, but with a MUCH larger pattern. I watched Tim Tebow sing “Our God Is An Awesome God” on the sidelines during a feature on Sunday NFL Countdown. I don’t even need to type anymore. That says it all. The missionary work is well-documented, and he even has a style of prayer named after him, but ever-present through all of these things, for both guys, is the winning.

Denver went from 1-4 to winning a home playoff game against the heavily-favored Steelers. The Knicks are 4-0 since Lin started getting heavy minutes. Jeremy Lin is doing things that only LeBron has done in the same amount of starts. He is no LeBron, but that is impressive no matter how you look at it. Which brings me back to my question from two paragraphs ago. Today’s athletes will stop at nothing to gain an edge. To get another win, another ring, another contract, another chance. Guys have resorted to all types of things, from HGH to ballet dancing. So why is it so hard to imagine, in the face of Tebow’s and Lin’s success, guys becoming devout Christians? Be honest with yourself. It’s not. And I’m not talking about just thanking God after games, and pretending to pray while plotting the scene of that night’s debauchery. I’m also not suggesting that guys start building hospitals in the impoverished section of Uzbekistan, either. I’m simply saying that the success and popularity of these two guys cannot be ignored, and is no doubt envied by others in their respective sports.

Please know that I am not condoning guys feigning Christianity because they think it will add a few more productive years to their careers. Not in the least bit. But don’t be surprised if you start to hear more and more guys (even those that maybe are already Christians) being more vocal about their faith, because the Bible does speak about being unashamed of it, and if they feel that it will help their performance, why wouldn’t they? If a guy will put on a pair of tights and dance with Mikhail Baryshnikov, I’m almost positive that a few extra prayers, and church services are not out of the question. 

By Matt White

These are the view of this writer and not particularly those of the Open Forum Radio Network as a whole. I am sure that all members of this network all have top ten lists that are completely different so with that said, lets get on down to number 6. That game is Bulletstorm from Epic Games.

Number 6: Bulletstorm

Early in 2011 “Gears of War” creators Epic games took a chance. They took a chance on a game that was a new IP. While some thought of “Bulletstorm” as little more than a vehicle for folks to get into the “Gears of War 3” multiplayer beta. While initially I thought the same thing, I then played this game. While not many new games have that large of a chance to become hits, there are many this past year that did not, this one was pretty damn good. While some might write this off as your typical shooter at first, it had quite a bit more to offer.

The story for this game is all over the place. All over the place but in a good way. For example its a space shooter, but not a space shooter. Its really sci-fi. It has an over abundance of humor, but not very child friendly. Its got dinosaurs, but only remotely controlled. All these things are true, but it has more of an adult playground or amusement park feel to it. Not adult in a nudity way, but just in the humor or language of this title. You start out as a member of what I would like to call a “hit squad” leader but find that your team has been set up so you have turned to a life of space piracy. I know it sounds great already right? When you start the game play your character is intoxicated and trying to get information out of someone by placing a empty liqour bottle on their head and threatening to shoot it off. One thing that is kinda neat in this sequence is that the screen is kinda blurry and your aim isn’t the steadiest. From then on you find the person that set you and your team up and try to go after them. After a space battle both ships end up crashing on a pretty much deserted planet. You find what the game calls the whip.

The whip is a new area of game play that I don’t think I have ever seen in any other game to date. With this you can create so called “Combo Shots” where you can link the whip to enemies, to shots, or even to things in the environment. One that I liked was to shoot or launch a enemy into the air, then hit the whip, land a few more shots then send them into spike plants. Of course there are many different weapons with many different types of “alt fire” modes. There are many different characters, environments, and boss enemies. The bosses in this game are actually pretty huge. Some of them gave me the feeling of truly epic battles, although maybe that is from me playing on the hardest difficulty level.

One of the levels that I probably enjoyed the most was when you went into the amusement park and you actually got to control a “RC” Godzilla type dinosaur. While this can lead to some major mayhem it was actually fun to just use this dinosaur to utterly destroy everything in that particular level. At the end of the level or at least your time controlling the monster with one of the best one-liners of a game that was full of one-liners. There are many other levels without really repeating any environments. That is a very good thing all original levels.

All in all, if you can get past the language and play after the kids are in bed, this game was a very enjoyable experience for me. For me it was also one of the biggest surprises of the year in a good way. With the way that this game ended I can see how Epic kept it open for a sequel, which I would be more than willing to buy and play on day one. I cannot say too much about this game. If you are like many others and just brushed this game off as just another first person shooter, don’t! Go out and either rent, or buy this game now. It is one of a very few games that are worthy of purchase, especially now that you can get this game for a steal of a price.

By Matt White

Of course, the views expressed in this article are those of the writer and not those of the Open Forum Radio Network as a whole. That said lets kontinue the count down with number seven.

Number Seven: Mortal Kombat

In a year of sequels where it seems like every thing was a second game or third game in their respected series, this one was a complete reboot. I think that after the last few games including the dismal “Mortal Kombat VS. DC Universe” that if it were to come back that it would need a total overhaul and reboot. That is exactly what happened. The studio that was in charge of this was Netherealm Studios, which is headed by “Mortal Kombat” vet Ed Boon. With him back at the helm this game had to be good right? Read on my friends.

The past few years have seen a major resurgence in the fighting genre. There have been a few additions to the “Street Fighter” legacy and others such as “BlazBlue” and “Marvel VS. Capcom 3” While the only one of those I have played was “MVC3” I can say that with the number put out in the past year or two were staggering, but where was the old stand by “Mortal Kombat” Well since Midway went out of business and their licenses sold off, Warner Bros. Interactive picked up the rights to the “Mortal Kombat” series. While “MK VS DCU” was not the best game in the world, far from it, it did say that there was hope for this franchise.

In 2011 Ed Boon and his team released “Mortal Kombat” to the masses. As a long time “MK” fan I decided to play this game as I had enjoyed most entries in the series to some extent. When I popped the game in I was greeted by more options that what I expected out of this game from the different ladder modes that are present in most all “MK” games but also a story mode. I was curious about how a fighting game could really do a story mode out side of maybe just a couple of cut scenes for each player. I was greatly surprised when I started it up. The story mode was smart, fun and lengthy. All of which fighting games really are not known for too much. One thing that I really enjoyed was the story mode made you use just about, if not every fighter in the game, at one point or another. It really gave you a sense of the whole overall story line, along with having you use characters that you normally just would not use. As for length, I believe that the story mode took me about 10 hours to complete which is really unheard of. I didn’t think that it drug on at any point and the pacing was really well done. Fun factor came from seeing just how many different combos that I could pull off and enjoying the well thought out story. Playing this game on the Playstation 3 I was able to use Kratos as a playable character. While he really wasn’t a part of the story line, it was fun to use him with the “Blades of Chaos”. The team really outdid themselves with the post release content. They added 4 more selectable characters including the original bladed nightmare himself, Freddy Krueger. While he also really had no part in the story it added that little extra to the game.

All in all it this game was a great surprise for me and quite possibly a lot of other gamers out there. I know that the team has supported it post launch with numerous patches and dealing with balancing issues. They really didn’t have to do that but, they did and proved that this series is really here to stay. Just once I would love to hear Scorpion say “Let’s Get It!!”

By Matt White

In this continuing series of articles on what my top games of the year are please keep in mind that these opinions are my own and do not reflect the the opinions of the open forum radio network as a whole. With that in mind we are down to number 8: Assassin’s Creed Revelations.

This was a game that I was super hyped up for. I had finished “Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood” earlier this year and was eager to continue the saga in this installation. By the title you would figure that it would tie up a lot of the loose ends that this series is known for. While you do get a few answers, it just wasn’t as many as I would have liked. Upon finishing this game and thinking back on the story line from the games I was reminded of the last season or two of “Lost” on television. It was almost like you could see where it was going, but you didn’t want it too. That being said I did enjoy this game for what it was and that is a great semi open world action game.

This game gave us a few new features in one of our favorite series of games. The first would be that of the hookblade. Now I loved using the hookblade for a lot of things. First of all it helped with the tightrope sections. You could just slide across the wire instead of trying to walk or run across it. The other two major new features I really did not care for. The new bomb making mechanic was decent. I could see how they would be useful, but I just didn’t find myself using them all too much. There were many different combinations that you could use to kill, distract, or even make the guards thing they are hurt in the case of the lambs blood bomb. The last new feature was the whole “den defense” aspect or what most people would call town defense. Now I have never really played a tower defense game and didn’t do too well when this mini game came up. Most of the time I just let the templars take the bases back just so I could attack them and get them back for me.

On to story of the game, it finished up Altiar and Ezio’s stories up pretty well. It gave you pretty much the only ending that it could give. Desmond’s ending really wasn’t an ending. While I did somewhat enjoy the “puzzle” parts myself. They were a somewhat refreshing part to a game that had just become the same thing as the last. That said, they really didn’t seem to advance his story too far which for me was a bit disparaging. I wish they would have done more. With the next game in this series set for this coming November, I for one would hope that they do a lot more advancing of the story.

The graphics and fun factor were there. I have really enjoyed the aging process on poor Ezio. To see him from pretty much a teenager in “Assassin’s Creed II” to being just an old man with tricks in “Assassin’s Creed: Revelations”. The models used for characters have gotten better in each game in the series. The combat was fun as it has been in the previous 2 games. I do have to say that as far as “fun factor” goes I can honestly say that not much was added to make the game more fun for me. All in all if this game was just a bit better and did not seem to suffer from the somewhat short dev cycle it would have ranked a lot higher on this list. Although number 8 is still a respectable spot

This was apparently foreseen.  On Wednesday, the internet buzzed with rumors that the website NoHopeLeft.com was a viral campaign for Resident Evil 6.  Once again, the internet was right.  You can jump in on the genocidal zombie action on November 20, 2012 when the game launches.

By Matt White

In this continuing series of articles I go over my top games of last year. I will preface this by saying that this is my opinion based on the time that I had with the game and what I honestly thought of it, not how the specs were. So without any more of a wait, Number 9: Deus Ex: Human Revolution.

While this game was not on my radar from the initial press release, after a few friends from the network started to fuel up the hype train on this game I started to pay attention. Not having played the first two games in this series, I felt I was kinda at a loss. Not really knowing the story behind the game until I figured out that this was supposed to be a prequel to the first “Deus Ex” game.

With this being a “play it how you want” type of game, I believe that it did succeed to some level on delivering that. Most of the areas were large in space, even if you couldn’t go inside of a lot of buildings. There were a few side quests in each area to complete before you needed to move on to the next. The shooting aspect was competent if that was how you wanted to play the game, as a shooter. If you didn’t really care to do that and wanted to go stealthy instead? Well that made the game a lot tougher; especially when it came to the boss battles in this game. Boss battles that developer Square-Enix has since stated that they farmed out to another company and was not really their doing.

You were able to beef up your Adam Jensen with a number of different “perks”. Most just facilitated different play styles. Myself, I played through as a run and gunner. This helped me in those fights that you couldn’t avoid and let me take out people in others that could be. As far as replay in this title goes, it goes as far as the number of play styles that you can create. There was one piece of DLC released for this game called “Missing Link”, which I have not played, that was supposed to be good. Due to the somewhat low sales of it, there hasn’t been any more created. Also as far as replay value does, this does not have any form of multiplayer to speak of.

Bottom line is after a few months, if you like game that can in certain points make you think this game would be great for you. If you do not care about competitive multiplayer, then this game is for you. Other than that, I would say it would be a good Gamefly rental or if you can find it in the bargain bins at your local brick and mortar or online. In any other year this game might have reached my top five, but with a few glaring weaknesses I cannot put it up there this year.

Please keep in mind that this list is my opinion only and should not reflect the views of the rest of the staff at Open Forum Radio. Thank you for your time and keep an eye out on what I think is number 7 in this countdown, it might just surprise you

By Matt White

In what I will attempt to be daily articles over the next week and a half I will go back through my catalog of titles I have played from last year and see what ranks where. These can either be Playstation 3 titles, Xbox 360 titles or downloadable games from their prospective networks. I have been through the gauntlet of titles this year with this being my first whole year owning a Playstation 3 and also adding Gamefly rental service. There have been a lot of hits this year with a few games that ended up being duds, in my opinion. So without making you wait any longer I will start this list at number 10 on this list

Marvel Pinball (Zen Pinball Marvel, Pinball FX Marvel) PSN/Xbox360

I had fooled around with many video pinball games through out the years including Pinbot on the original NES. While some of them where just pure cash in attempts on pinball lovers everywhere, Zen Studios have come up with something great. While Zen has been doing original tables for their respective games, this was the first time they were charged to do a set of them. Disney/Marvel Entertainment must have seen something in this company to put their faith in Zen to create something great with one of their biggest universes.

The original set of tables that came out included “Wolverine”, “The Amazing Spider-Man”, “Blade”, and “Iron Man”. This was a great starter pack at a great value for $10 or 800 MSP. With this pack Zen gave me great selection of tables, long hours of play, and somewhat of a high score chase with my brother. Now each table has its own difficulty level that can be changed, and also different bonus modes that can help you rack up those high score that are fun to get to and play. I can remember many nights when I got little sleep because I thought “Oh just one more game”. This title delivered for me in replay value. I still go back to these tables to this day. Playstation Network just offered this title free for their PSN Plus membership subscription and if you didn’t pick it up when you had the opportunity to do so, you deserve a kick in the pants.

So what does the future of this title hold? That is anyone’s guess. Marvel has trusted them to do more tables. If this is a cash grab on their part or true faith in Zens ability is beyond me. 6 more tables have been released including “Captain America”, “Fantastic Four”, “Ghost Rider”, “Thor”, “Moon Knight”, And “X-Men”. What other heroes or villians might they be planning for future tables is anyone’s guess, but if anyone out there is decision making powers is listening I would love to see a “Punisher” table. Frank Castle can save the world one bullet at a time

Reviewed by Lamar Kukuk
12/27/11

The Mission:  Impossible movie franchise was born at a uniquely strange time in the evolution of the modern blockbuster, when studios had begun to fully commit to raiding their vaults for remakes and adaptations of TV series but had not yet gotten a clue that it was the fans of those pre-existing properties that were their target audience.  As such, M:I, the popular late-60’s espionage series about a team of agents became a star vehicle for Tom Cruise who played a team of one in Brian DePalma’s diverting but forgettable flick that made sure no one confused the filmmakers with fans of the series by allowing original IMF leader Jim Phelps (then played by Jon Voigt) to die only after revealing he was a traitor.  But either way, money rolled in and a franchise without a direction or purpose was born.  Latching on to Hong Kong director John Woo’s success with Face/Off, he was hired to helm Mission:  Impossible 2, a laughable unintentional parody of his best work that again grossed money hand over fist but left Cruise and the Paramount suits knowing they still needed to find some kind of point and direction for his cypherous IMF hero Ethan Hunt.  Enter JJ Abrams, the TV mogul looking to make his feature directorial debut.  He and the team responsible for the cult TV series Alias finally licked the whole Mission:  Impossible thing with M:I3, which gave Hunt a wife, a life, friends, a workplace and, dare I say it, stakes.  Then something really nasty happened:  a series of PR missteps caused Cruise to fall out of favor with the public and it seemed that the underperforming sequel would be Hunt’s swan song.  But that’s the thing about franchises, they provide actors with a safe harbor during the valleys of their careers and under the producorial eye of Abrams, with many of the Alias team intact and Incredibles animation wiz Brad Bird making his live action directorial debut, the series finally hits a new high note five and a half years later with Mission:  Impossible-Ghost Protocol, which does everything the original M:I got wrong right, building a solid team in a slam-bang espionage thriller packed with amazing stunts.  Most of all, it really understands the human dynamic necessary to make an action blockbuster run.  Who cares if Ethan Hunt prevails if he’s an indestructible superman?  But if it takes everything he’s got to turn his amp to 11… well, THAT’S a movie hero, and Mission:  Impossible-Ghost Protocol is a globetrotting spy action flick of the highest order.

Read the full review here: http://www.lamarsmoviepalace.com/missionimpossiblegp.html

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

What’s that sound?  Oh, that’s just the International Bestseller Hype Machine arriving on the scene with yet another screen adaptation of a novel obsessed over by millions who’ve already got their knives drawn should it fail to be anything less than exactly what they saw in their heads when they read it.  Personally, I’ve never read Stieg Larsson’s Internationally beloved Millennium Trilogy nor seen any of the Swedish film versions produced a few years back, so I come into David Fincher’s adaptation/remake of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo without preconceptions or a checklist of stuff I demand to see.  You can certainly tell this is a film version of a beloved book because it lingers over irrelevant details and goes on way too long.  It’s also a pretty good mystery, highlighted by some great performances, but I don’t need to be a devoted reader to know that what makes these books a phenomenon is the character of Lisbeth Salander, embodied here in an astonishingly fearless performance by Rooney Mara.  Lisbeth is like nothing we’ve seen before, a punk genius with the thought process of a criminal mastermind and the collective fury of every woman who’s ever been the victim of sexual assault.  She’s cleverly paired with Daniel Craig’s endearingly frumpy journalist hero to investigate a solid mystery full of lurid details.  Lurid is Dragon’s middle name, and Fincher’s trademark observational chilliness serves the material well.  There’s stuff here far more graphic and disturbing than the MPAA ordinarily allows (I suspect the thought process went something like this:  It’s worse in the International Bestseller, and how could an International Bestseller by NC-17?), and you should certainly go in knowing that you’re going to see the Mother of All Disturbing Rape Scenes.  Of course, you’re also going to see The Mother of All Revenges on Said Rapist, which will make it more than worth the trouble for some viewers.  Spit on your grave?  Man, for Lisbeth Salander, that’s just letting the guy off easy.

Read the full review here:

http://www.lamarsmoviepalace.com/girlwiththedragontattoo.html