Da Vinci Code Bust?

While gamers and armchair analysts alike will flame and fight over just how quickly Sony's new pricing structure (free with every home mortgage, essentially) will ruin the company ... Sony might have more realistic and immeadiate concerns on it's hands. The Da Vinci Code is it's massive theatrical and multimedia push this year, and it's not looking so hot right now.

The movie is getting slammed by reviewers who ackowledge it's nothing more than a standard boilerpot mystery plot with some crackpot conspiracy theories turned into a slow moving, elongated movie. "So, does The Da Vinci Code live up to the hype? Sort of. It's not a terrible film by any stretch, but it's not perfect either," says Kevin Carr ... and that's one of the ones counted as positive.

The grand Google Code Quest cross promotional challenge looks like a bit of a flop as well. It probably got some pretty cheap viral advertising out there, I would imagine. Claims, however, are stacking up that the last puzzles for the finalists are identical and easily reproducible on the net for others to preview. So far I've seen diagrams, screenshots and even a video offered. The fastest time I've heard is just over five minutes. A good time from people who didn't use the previews ... about nine minutes per puzzle or just about forty-five minutes. Since Google and Sony can't a) prove who used crib notes or b) determine a reasonable "cheating cutoff point" ... I'm sure the grand prize will go to the one who can memorize and mouse click the swiftest.

Note that I could be wrong and there might be variations not revealed. But there are definately some that have and at least some people have been able to benefit by seeing them early, so the point is somewhat moot for the overal contest.

That leaves the cross-platform Da Vinci Code game to save the pack. So far early reviews seem mostly impressed by it's lousy controls, boring gameplay and poorly designed combat.

But hey, it just came out on Friday. So I guess we'll just have to wait and see...





tagged: game, gaming