1. The Dark Knight
The greatest superhero movie of all time. This should've won Best Picture at the Oscars. What other superhero film can you actually say that about? What Christopher Nolan did with Batman and The Joker is simply the stuff of legend. You can't just look at it as a comic book movie, you can't just look at it as an action flick, you can't just look at it as a crime drama... it's a mindblowing masterpiece of cinema. Nolan took a franchise that had become known for "Chill out, bird boy!" and somehow managed to craft a dark epic that would become the second highest grossing film of all time. To make that sort of herculean effort with minimal CGI in today's environment... the man is simply a visionary genius.
And Heath Ledger... what is there left to say about Heath Ledger? He didn't win the Oscar because he died. It wasn't a sympathy vote. He deserved it, by portraying The Joker in a way wholly unlike anything we'd ever seen before. Fuck Cesar Romero, fuck Jack Nicholson, and fuck Mark Hamill. Ledger will always be The Joker now. So many quotable lines, and even a second villain that felt natural and meshed with the plot. Who could forget that brilliant hospital scene with our first glimpse at Two Face? The way Nolan teased at it, turning his head away at just the right moment to heighten the suspense. And then the actual reveal, and hearing the gasps in the audience. Just great iconic moments.
Another iconic scene: the interrogation room. What a wonderful way to subvert the traditional interrogation. Start it in darkness, but then shift into bright light, contrasting the white room with the blackness of Batman. Also reflecting the two warring sides of Two Faces. The Batman pummels the Joker, yet somehow still ends up being helpless while the Joker is holding all the cards. This isn't the sort of stuff you expect from a superhero action film. That's why it's so wonderful. Just as the Joker turned Gotham upside down, this film has completely turned its genre upside down. My favorite scene is the ending monologue from Commissioner Gordon: "Because he's not a hero. He's a silent guardian, a watchful protector... a Dark Knight." BAM. The title card finally comes onscreen. If that didn't affect you in some manner after witnessing the last 2 and a half hours, you're just not human.
2. Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan
You have to know, Star Trek 2 was one of the first films I remember watching as a young lad. Back in the good ol days, channel 44, which would later go on to become UPN and then the CW, would rerun old movies all the time, and one of those would be Star Trek 2. This was my very first Star Trek film, and left an absolutely indelible impression on me. This film was what made me a Trekkie. It was pretty cool too, cause this was right around the time that TNG was starting up and I was able to watch that great show as it originally ran.
Then my family bought a VCR player and I recorded Star Trek 2. And rewatched it and rewatched it and rewatched it. Fuck all other films, I couldn't get sick of viewing this somewhat poor quality recording. It got to the point where I could pretty much recite the dialogue line for line as they said it onscreen. Ya know how it is, being a young kid and going all crazy trying to ape Ricardo Montalban with fun lines like "To the last... I will grapple with thee. From Hell's heart... I stab at thee! For HATE's SAKE... I spit... my last breath... at thee!" Just wonderful emotional lines that you could really rasp out. Of course, some of the dialogue made absolutely no sense back then. It took me years to figure out exactly what "Sauce for the goose" meant, for example. Still, great childhood memories.
So, that's just a bit of context to let you know how much I cherish this film. The best Star Trek film ever, and my favorite film until The Dark Knight last summer. What Nicholas Meyer pulled off was nothing short of a miracle, when you look back and see that it was following up on Star Trek The Motionless Picture. Who could have had the imagination, and force of persuasion to alter basically the entire Star Trek universe like that? Suddenly... awful pajama uniforms gave way to awesomely elegant red jacket uniforms. With that iconic clasp over the right shoulder? That feature's been copied for fucking decades now, in all kinds of scifi movies and video games. You've gotta give props, that was an amazing costume change. And the single best starship battle, STILL. You can show me all sorts of ship battles from DS9 or Nemesis, but I still hold that Mutara Nebula battle as the greatest ship to ship battle in Trek history. You cannot top that film finale. Which is strange, because it's two Federation starships battling one another.
Then you realize that's what made it great. What was great was how they made it two Federation starships fighting each other. It seems like that would be a weird dynamic, but they make it work. The Reliant is from Starfleet, but it looks totally different from the Enterprise. And I'm not just talking about the red lighting they used, which was blatant as all hell. It's got two low nacelles right under it, far apart, so it kinda looks like a mean pitbull. A pitbull in somewhat of a lean, crouched down. Small, but packing a punch. While the Enterprise is longer and much more graceful with two nacelle struts in a V, like an eagle. This really hits home when the Enterprise is cruising towards the Mutara Nebula with the Reliant hot on its heels.
The final battle is tense, just like the u-boat films which Nicholas Meyer referenced on his commentary of the DVD. But what's so important is how slow the ships move. This is what is great about Trek, they are these giant ships and they act like it. When the Reliant comes charging out of the static towards the Enterprise, we can see Kirk pivoting his chair, while ordering "Evasive starboard!" Yet the ship herself turns much more slowly then his chair pivot. We feel the engines straining for such a maneuver. Is it realistic? Oh hell no, of course not. Ships are weightless in space, yada yada yada. But it doesn't matter, because Trek ships need that sense of size and weight. After all, this is space... they have nothing but the Enterprise and an occasional alien planet. This ship is the workplace, and home, and overall landscape for 500 people. She's as much a character as any of the main characters. So to maintain the heft and importance, it is crucial that the ship not be pulling off all sorts of crazy loop-de-loops or whatnot.
So yea, Wrath of Khan still holds up. That's why it's a classic. I will always have a big goofy grin on my face while watching this film. Just can't help it. And yes, occasionally reciting a line like "Sauce for the goose, Mr. Saavik. The odds will be even."
3. The Rock
Here's a shocker... it's a fucking Michael Bay movie! But ya know what, that doesn't matter, because Michael Bay managed to actually combine his great action sensibilities with superb storytelling. Everything here is outrageous and explosiony and exciting, but without going so far over the top that it becomes incredibly retarded and irritating, e.g. Armageddon, Bad Boys 2. This is, in my opinion, the perfect modern day action flick. Navy Seals, U.S. Marines, jet fighters, a deadly nerve toxin, Sean Connery being a bad ass, Nicholas Cage being crazy fucking Nicholas Cage and allowing us to laugh at him... it has it all. It's sad that all of Bay's films after this have failed to live up to the promise that The Rock showed us. Perhaps he was just more hungry and determined back then, who knows. But even if Transformers 2 and 3 turn out to be turds on the order of the Star Wars prequels, I'll still remember him as the director of this great action flick.
4. Aliens
So many franchises we have today owe their success to Aliens. The Zerg from Starcraft? Aliens. The Tyranids from Warhammer 40k? Aliens. The bugs from Starship Troopers the film (not the book)? Aliens. The Brood from X-Men? Aliens. The Flood from Halo? Aliens. Probably a few others I've missed? Aliens. James Cameron took Ridley Scott's spookhouse in space and completely changed gears to deliver the ultimate scifi war film. Do smartguns on steadycam mounts make a ton of logical sense? Maybe not, but they looked damn cool. So much of what James Cameron designed was incredibly cool and has influenced pop culture. The Pelicans from Halo? Just copies of the Dropship from Aliens. The dropship pilot telling us we're in the pipe five by five? A direct line from Aliens. Angry black sargeant? That's just Apone. Shotgun being good in Doom? Probably Hick's, for close encounters.
The greatness of Aliens, apart from its many cool little tidbits, is the pacing. It's relentless. You're on this sorta roller coaster ride, but it's not quite fun. It's tense, scary, completely draining. And when you think you've managed to escape the worst of it... the Queen pops out of the rear landing gear and you're right back in the thick of it, witnessing an epic fight with a goddamn power loader. This film is great because it dialed absolutely everything up to 11. Looking back, it's easy to see that Alien 3 would've been somewhat of a disappointment no matter what they chose to do. Aliens said pretty much everything that needed to be said about humans in space battling xenomorphs. Game over man, game over.
5. Superman
Yes, another superhero film. This one also has a special place in my heart. Christopher Reeve set the mold for all other actors portraying superheroes. And nobody since has managed to break it. To me, Reeve *is* the Man of Steel. I don't care if the special effects are dated these days. This film's greatness transcends that. After all, Superman Returns had state of the art special effects and yet was a complete failure of a film. Christopher Reeve was able to make me believe a man could fly.
Also, Superman is one of those magical movies that really lodged itself in my mind because it's one of those films that, because of its length, I could never actually finish watching as a kid. Ya know, it's one of those films that you'll catch on tv, or see at a day care center somewhere in Reno, and yet something will always come up which prevents you from getting the ending. Either you'll just fall asleep, or you'll get picked up from the daycare center... just events unfold which prevent a full viewing. For me, it was this film and Back to the Future 2 that always seemed to last forever and I'd never finish till the end. That gave them a sort of mystique in my childhood.
Now, there is one weakness of Superman, and that's the ending. Superman turns the world backwards in time to save Lois and stop California from falling into the ocean. Yes, it's not great... it doesn't really make any sense. But it's one small blemish on an otherwise grand superhero origin story. And honestly, how could you resist the very end when Christopher Reeve flies over the earth at the onset of a new dawn, looks up at us, and smiles in the way that Superman would smile? It's just movie magic, folks.
What makes Superman work is Richard Donner's verisimilitude, especially during the Krypton and Smallville scenes. This movie was the first to tell the superhero origin story, and is still the best one, in my opinion. The shots of the crystalline Kryptonian landscape are awe inspiring. You really believe this is an alien world with an alien people. Smallville looked like the town that Norman Rockwell grew up in. Sure, it doesn't actually exist in real life, but it looks like how we would all want a small American town to look. Who wouldn't want to grow up in a pastural idyllic setting like that? Who could possibly doubt that America's greatest hero would emerge from such a place? When the camera raised and zoomed ahead of Clark and Martha Kent, embracing in a rich field of golden wheat, it was the film was letting us know we had just witnessed the birth of a modern American myth.
And of course, the soundtrack. Who the hell doesn't know the Superman soundtrack? I haven't talked about the soundtrack of any other film on this list, and it's for good reason. None of them matter compared to John Williams' work here. Truly a masterpiece of scoring, and probably his greatest work to date. The notes simply cry out "Superman" even though there aren't any lyrics. Just as Aliens worked to pummel you with dread and suspense, the Superman music worked to uplift the spirit and allow the audience to soar like the Man of Steel himself.
Showing posts with label review. Show all posts
Showing posts with label review. Show all posts
Saturday, April 25, 2009
Saturday, March 7, 2009
Review: Watchmen
Thought it was... ok. Definitely not a huge crowd pleaser like The Dark Knight. No real thrills or shocking payoffs. But this is coming from a guy who's read the book about 15 or 20 times, so maybe a newcomer to the story would beg to differ. But uh... just flat in a lot of areas where the book didn't translate well to the screen. What worked on the page was brought to the screen by Zach Snyder as best as anyone could've mustered, but it wasn't really brought to life in a meaningful, emotional way. The violence was fine for the few fight scenes where it was actually present, but that just made them stand out as peculiar, when 90% of the movie is about... talking. Sometimes talking with bad aged makeup.
That rape scene hit me hard. Geez. I knew it was coming, I'd read it plenty of times on the page, but the way it was filmed was just... awful, and you could feel the audience dying inside. Though that was one thing I was surprised about, the audience. I dunno if it was because I went to an 11:50 pm showing or what, but nobody at my screening laughed aloud at Dr. Manhattan's blue dong like so many other reviews have been describing. They were just... pretty much silent throughout. The biggest reaction was when Rorschach spilled the oil on the convict and yelled "I'm not locked up in here with you. You're locked up in here with me." Of course they would, it was a great line.
Yea, that Dr. Manhattan... I gotta say, he ended up falling short of my expectations. Not Crudup's voice, that was fine. But the entire CGI entity just... did not look right to me. Maybe it IS the uncanny valley, but I just thought he looked unreal, inhuman, and somewhat of a failure as a visual effect. Perhaps part of that was because he had no pupils. I just checked and he doesn't have any in the graphic novel either, but... perhaps in this case it would've been better to diverge from the source material.
Like I said before... Snyder did as good a job as anyone could've in bringing this book to the movie screen. And yet... I did miss all the material that was cut out. The stuff with the two Bernies, the Psychiatrist's marital problems, Hollis getting pumpkin'd... there was a feeling of loss throughout watching the film. So I dunno how any person who hasn't read the book will react to the movie.
The ending change? Yea, fine. It works logically. About as well as the original ending I suppose. Though the visceral impact of seeing six full pages of dead corpses in New York was completely missing here. Sorry dude, but showing us a giant blue CGI explosion just doesn't carry the same impact. We needed to feel those millions of dead. I did like the Rorschach pattern in the snow though, that was something new and worked pretty well.
Oh yea, one last thing... good god Zach, what were you thinking with that Hallelujah sex scene? Dude, I like porn and I like superheroes, but that scene... I could not have rolled my eyes any further. It was cringeworthy. And no, it was not as bad as the sex scene in 300, because I was perfectly fine with that sex scene. It was short, perfunctory, and did not have an incredibly odd soundtrack. In this case, less would've been more. The scene in the book was only 2 panels, that was about right. Mostly it was the song though... that Hallelujah song will never be the same to me again.
But I did really like the intro credits with Bob Dylan.
Again, thought it was ok. But no, not the greatest comic book movie ever. It's a mostly faithful retelling of the book in 2 and a half hours that, in my opinion, will completely fly over the heads of the mainstream audience. Let's say 7.8 out of 10, and I'm being generous.
That rape scene hit me hard. Geez. I knew it was coming, I'd read it plenty of times on the page, but the way it was filmed was just... awful, and you could feel the audience dying inside. Though that was one thing I was surprised about, the audience. I dunno if it was because I went to an 11:50 pm showing or what, but nobody at my screening laughed aloud at Dr. Manhattan's blue dong like so many other reviews have been describing. They were just... pretty much silent throughout. The biggest reaction was when Rorschach spilled the oil on the convict and yelled "I'm not locked up in here with you. You're locked up in here with me." Of course they would, it was a great line.
Yea, that Dr. Manhattan... I gotta say, he ended up falling short of my expectations. Not Crudup's voice, that was fine. But the entire CGI entity just... did not look right to me. Maybe it IS the uncanny valley, but I just thought he looked unreal, inhuman, and somewhat of a failure as a visual effect. Perhaps part of that was because he had no pupils. I just checked and he doesn't have any in the graphic novel either, but... perhaps in this case it would've been better to diverge from the source material.
Like I said before... Snyder did as good a job as anyone could've in bringing this book to the movie screen. And yet... I did miss all the material that was cut out. The stuff with the two Bernies, the Psychiatrist's marital problems, Hollis getting pumpkin'd... there was a feeling of loss throughout watching the film. So I dunno how any person who hasn't read the book will react to the movie.
The ending change? Yea, fine. It works logically. About as well as the original ending I suppose. Though the visceral impact of seeing six full pages of dead corpses in New York was completely missing here. Sorry dude, but showing us a giant blue CGI explosion just doesn't carry the same impact. We needed to feel those millions of dead. I did like the Rorschach pattern in the snow though, that was something new and worked pretty well.
Oh yea, one last thing... good god Zach, what were you thinking with that Hallelujah sex scene? Dude, I like porn and I like superheroes, but that scene... I could not have rolled my eyes any further. It was cringeworthy. And no, it was not as bad as the sex scene in 300, because I was perfectly fine with that sex scene. It was short, perfunctory, and did not have an incredibly odd soundtrack. In this case, less would've been more. The scene in the book was only 2 panels, that was about right. Mostly it was the song though... that Hallelujah song will never be the same to me again.
But I did really like the intro credits with Bob Dylan.
Again, thought it was ok. But no, not the greatest comic book movie ever. It's a mostly faithful retelling of the book in 2 and a half hours that, in my opinion, will completely fly over the heads of the mainstream audience. Let's say 7.8 out of 10, and I'm being generous.
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
Review: Mirror's Edge
Ya know, this game looked really cool after seeing some previews for it. Then I read giantbomb.com's review of it and they only gave it a 3 out of 5. So that meant ok, but not good or great. Sorta dimmed my enthusiasm a bit. It was like, yea this game might not be some perfect sphere of nirvana like Half-Life 2 or anything, but it's an innovative new game concept that really tried to breathe new life into the FPS genre, so why not give it the benefit of the doubt? Who else would think to take EA's bags of money and make a first person parkour game that almost totally avoids combat? That is the creation of either some madness, or some genius.
So it came out and I started playing it. And frankly, I dunno why giantbomb gave it a 3/5. This game is fucking fun. The sense of speed and adenaline from running over rooftops while sliding under pipes and walljumping from scaffolding is just amazing. That's what this game excels at, making you feel like an amazing athlete, some sort of freak Olympian who gets their kicks from stealing stuff and running away. The parkour is easily accomplished with the controls and viewing it from first person makes it much more immersive then a traditional third person camera would have.
The entire game has a nice sorta Ipod-ish aesthetic. It seems that in the city of the future, everything is clean and white, with some splashes of other colors. If you've ever watched the turd of a film called "Ultraviolet", then you'll recognize its look here. Very sterilized and cold... even the plants in the city are painted white for some reason heh. I suppose it's a new take on the futuristic city aesthetic though, compared to a lot of stuff in scifi games that're just ripped off from Blade Runner and Aliens.
So while I'm enjoying the game a lot, there are a few caveats. First off, I started playing the game last night. At the end of the session, I had completed the first four levels. There are nine levels in all. Yes, this game is not built for longevity. It is short. And no multiplayer, so all that's left is doing speed runs in the completed levels to try to top your last time. Obviously a factor if you're gonna go and buy this game for 60 bucks or whatever.
The combat's also lacking, since this isn't a game where you're meant to run and gun. You can use guns, but you have to first disarm a cop. Then, you'll only be able to shoot until the magazine runs out, you can't reload. So shooting it out isn't really encouraged. Also, your character Faith can only take a few shots, so you'll definitely need to run behind cover and wait for opportune moments to strike. If you do work at it, you can shoot it out with a SWAT team though. Just isolate one guy, disarm him, run to another guy, shoot him, grab his gun, and repeat, while trying not to catch too much lead. It's not ideal, and it's certainly much harder then just running for any exit, but it's doable. The hand to hand combat works for the weak police, they'll drop after 2 or 3 punches. But the SWAT guys in armor will just push you away, so hand to hand doesn't work on them. All in all, if you're looking for some sorta Matrix-style martial arts combat to match the game's parkour gameplay, you won't find it here.
Oh, and yea... the game cutscenes do resemble the Esurance cartoon commercials. But honestly... I always liked those commercials. Erin Esurance was hot. So that's not really a complaint for me.
So it came out and I started playing it. And frankly, I dunno why giantbomb gave it a 3/5. This game is fucking fun. The sense of speed and adenaline from running over rooftops while sliding under pipes and walljumping from scaffolding is just amazing. That's what this game excels at, making you feel like an amazing athlete, some sort of freak Olympian who gets their kicks from stealing stuff and running away. The parkour is easily accomplished with the controls and viewing it from first person makes it much more immersive then a traditional third person camera would have.
The entire game has a nice sorta Ipod-ish aesthetic. It seems that in the city of the future, everything is clean and white, with some splashes of other colors. If you've ever watched the turd of a film called "Ultraviolet", then you'll recognize its look here. Very sterilized and cold... even the plants in the city are painted white for some reason heh. I suppose it's a new take on the futuristic city aesthetic though, compared to a lot of stuff in scifi games that're just ripped off from Blade Runner and Aliens.
So while I'm enjoying the game a lot, there are a few caveats. First off, I started playing the game last night. At the end of the session, I had completed the first four levels. There are nine levels in all. Yes, this game is not built for longevity. It is short. And no multiplayer, so all that's left is doing speed runs in the completed levels to try to top your last time. Obviously a factor if you're gonna go and buy this game for 60 bucks or whatever.
The combat's also lacking, since this isn't a game where you're meant to run and gun. You can use guns, but you have to first disarm a cop. Then, you'll only be able to shoot until the magazine runs out, you can't reload. So shooting it out isn't really encouraged. Also, your character Faith can only take a few shots, so you'll definitely need to run behind cover and wait for opportune moments to strike. If you do work at it, you can shoot it out with a SWAT team though. Just isolate one guy, disarm him, run to another guy, shoot him, grab his gun, and repeat, while trying not to catch too much lead. It's not ideal, and it's certainly much harder then just running for any exit, but it's doable. The hand to hand combat works for the weak police, they'll drop after 2 or 3 punches. But the SWAT guys in armor will just push you away, so hand to hand doesn't work on them. All in all, if you're looking for some sorta Matrix-style martial arts combat to match the game's parkour gameplay, you won't find it here.
Oh, and yea... the game cutscenes do resemble the Esurance cartoon commercials. But honestly... I always liked those commercials. Erin Esurance was hot. So that's not really a complaint for me.
Monday, January 19, 2009
Review: Gran Torino
Well, this left me disappointed. The Hmong actors were fucking terrible. Specially that Toad guy, him screaming to get out of the basement at the end was laughable. "Walt! Waaaaaaaalllllt!" Cmon, that was just the worst scene in the movie. And how the hell could a pussy like him even have a driver's license to drive the Gran Torino? It was inexplicable.
It was strange, this film was trying to show us to be nicer to our neighbors and more accepting of foreign cultures... but then they go out of their way to show us that the Hmong are really weird and freaky. Like... no touching the tops of people's heads? An actual no-shit voodoo witch doctor? Cranky old woman spitting out a bunch of weird brown fluid? But hey, it's all good cause their food's really tasty, right? Right? Heh...
The padre was just annoying me throughout the entire film. Not badly acted, but his character just came off as a sanctimonious prick. Mission accomplished if that was what they were aiming for.
Clint was good as usual. But that ending... just didn't work for me. I know they were setting us up for a more traditional ending and then went for an unorthodox approach, but still... I wanted that traditional ending. Instead, they gave us Walt committing suicide, essentially. Very disappointing ending.
It was strange, this film was trying to show us to be nicer to our neighbors and more accepting of foreign cultures... but then they go out of their way to show us that the Hmong are really weird and freaky. Like... no touching the tops of people's heads? An actual no-shit voodoo witch doctor? Cranky old woman spitting out a bunch of weird brown fluid? But hey, it's all good cause their food's really tasty, right? Right? Heh...
The padre was just annoying me throughout the entire film. Not badly acted, but his character just came off as a sanctimonious prick. Mission accomplished if that was what they were aiming for.
Clint was good as usual. But that ending... just didn't work for me. I know they were setting us up for a more traditional ending and then went for an unorthodox approach, but still... I wanted that traditional ending. Instead, they gave us Walt committing suicide, essentially. Very disappointing ending.
Saturday, January 3, 2009
Review: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
First of all, they actually make Cate Blanchett look kinda hot in this movie with the heavy use of CGI, and I do not find Cate Blanchett hot. That is impressive.
Ok, this is basically Forrest Gump but gloomier, less colorful, and more boring. The main character here is not retarded, but merely aging backwards. Instead of a bird's feather, there's a hummingbird. Instead of a girl named Jenny, it's a girl named Daisy. Instead of a son played by Haley Joel Osmont, it's a daughter played by Julia Ormond. And instead of Vietnam, it's World War II. I repeat, this is a more boring Forrest Gump.
Now with that said, I still recommend this, because Forrest Gump was a hell of a picture. That movie made me cry quite a bit, this movie merely made my eyes tear up. It's incredibly shot, and of course the special effects are amazing. Brad Pitt looks like a freak for the first half, and Cate Blanchett gets turned into an 20 year old. It's long at 2 hours and 47 minutes, so be prepared for that.
Oh yea... while it was enjoyable, this movie does not deserve to win Best Picture. It's completely crafted to be Oscar bait, but is nowhere near as good as something like The Dark Knight.
Ok, this is basically Forrest Gump but gloomier, less colorful, and more boring. The main character here is not retarded, but merely aging backwards. Instead of a bird's feather, there's a hummingbird. Instead of a girl named Jenny, it's a girl named Daisy. Instead of a son played by Haley Joel Osmont, it's a daughter played by Julia Ormond. And instead of Vietnam, it's World War II. I repeat, this is a more boring Forrest Gump.
Now with that said, I still recommend this, because Forrest Gump was a hell of a picture. That movie made me cry quite a bit, this movie merely made my eyes tear up. It's incredibly shot, and of course the special effects are amazing. Brad Pitt looks like a freak for the first half, and Cate Blanchett gets turned into an 20 year old. It's long at 2 hours and 47 minutes, so be prepared for that.
Oh yea... while it was enjoyable, this movie does not deserve to win Best Picture. It's completely crafted to be Oscar bait, but is nowhere near as good as something like The Dark Knight.
Review: Prince of Persia
Should you buy it? Ehhhhhh.... this is really hard for me to answer. I was one of those who read the reviews and was like, this is just too easy, Ubisoft went too far and this game is basically a quick time event made into 12 hours. At least in Assassin's Creed they let you chose your own missions and fight multiple enemies at once, this game seems more like a movie with minimal input from the player.
While I would still say the game is a bit simplified and easy, I had a great time playing it and really feel glad I decided to give it a try, cause the experience is pretty awesome. The graphics and overall craftsmanship of the levels is really well done. You can tell Ubisoft believed this is a AAA game, cause it is very polished and beautiful to look at. Nothing you wouldn't expect from Ubisoft Montreal, guys behind Splinter Cell. The animations are just as fluid if not more so then Assassin's Creed, and the boss fights feel suitably epic.
The combat's pretty basic in nature and can devolve into quick time events, so it's not gonna be for a lot of people who want a challenge, but I was alright, since I don't play platformers as a general rule. And the no death aspect of the game, which a lot of people have complained about, was actually a game design choice that made sense to me when I played through it. Instead of quicksaving every 5 steps like in other games, you can just die by falling off a ledge and there'll be a quick 3 second animation and boom, you're right back on solid ground before the mistimed ledge jump. It really takes the frustration part out of platforming and sorta compels you to keep progressing. So ultimately, it just gets rid of the F9 quickload and isn't really any easier then other games, it's just presented in a different fashion.
What really stands out is the beauty of the various levels and the interaction between the two main characters, leading to the ending... which I absolutely love. It's powerful and moving and depressing but inevitable and fucking brilliant. Ubisoft was sending a very meta message with that and I like how it makes a complete fool out of all the people who are complaining about it.
Ultimately, I can't really recommend you pay 60 bucks for the game, because the gameplay really isn't deep enough to justify it. The ease and quick time events... let's be honest, this is not Game of the Year material. However, if you can rent it for your console, or... obtain the PC version somehow, you'll be able to play it through in 2 or 3 days and have a very rewarding experience, I feel.
Maybe worth it for 40 bucks, which I hear they've dropped it to.
Review: Dead Space Downfall
Well, I started playing Dead Space today and figured I'd give the companion animated DVD a spin, since it's supposed to fill in the backstory... and it's pretty entertaining. You might wanna give it a look.
And by entertaining, I don't mean it's entirely entertaining in and of itself. It's more like, entertaining because it's amusing to spot how much stuff they lifted from Alien and The Thing, and I hear also Event Horizon, but I never saw Event Horizon, so I can only really think of Alien and The Thing. Like, they utilized pretty much every sort of sci-fi horror cliche in the book.
Right off the top of my head, I can list... well, the central character is a security officer on board this ship who's pretty much Ripley but a redhead. And of course, she closes off the movie with a narrative that just screams "This is Ellen Ripley, last survivor of the Nostromo, signing off." Though she doesn't go to cryo sleep with a cat, sad to say.
And they make every effort to make the ship as vulnerable as possible. The security team for this huge ship is apparently 6 people, half of whom freak out at the first sign of trouble. Oh, and they of course are only armed with these pistols that don't do much damage and require frequent reloads, since weapon technology never keeps pace with... ya know, interstellar travel. Annnnnnd they only seem to have a tank top, cargo pants, and these ugly leather jackets for protection.
It goes without saying that the ship's interior resembles the Nostromo, and the aliens quickly cover it in some mutant membrane, just like in Aliens.
Oh, but of course, these are only somewhat alien, since they're actually mutated crewmembers that get stuck in the head and injected by a flying alien, just like the brain bug in Starship Troopers.
And this whole accident started because these colonists on a planet discovered a giant alien "artifact," and you can't help but think of the alien crashed ship from Alien.
Of course, the Captain of the ship wants to bring the dreaded artifact back to Earth, which the doctor reasons is a somewhat dangerous endeavor, so he ends up killing the captain and trying to scuttle the ship, to prevent the aliens from infecting Earth. Just the same ol "Protect the rest of humanity" cliche we've seen time and time again.
Oh, and the final climax of the movie has the security officer using the emergency airlock to blow a bunch of the things out into space, a la the Alien/Aliens ending.
Have I impressed upon you the magnitude of the "flattery" this animated film engages in?
I almost forgot to mention, but this is probably the goriest bloodiest animated film I've ever seen. One poor lady gets completely chainsawed in half and you get to see her skeleton cross section...
Oh yea! Another cliche I just remembered... they meet this one Indian mystic who joins the survivors and holds off a wave of aliens before being butchered, a la Billy from Predator. And later, another character sacrifices himself by closing the door on the main character after saying "It's been an honor serving with you."
This is ridiculous, I ought to put together a friggin list.
And by entertaining, I don't mean it's entirely entertaining in and of itself. It's more like, entertaining because it's amusing to spot how much stuff they lifted from Alien and The Thing, and I hear also Event Horizon, but I never saw Event Horizon, so I can only really think of Alien and The Thing. Like, they utilized pretty much every sort of sci-fi horror cliche in the book.
Right off the top of my head, I can list... well, the central character is a security officer on board this ship who's pretty much Ripley but a redhead. And of course, she closes off the movie with a narrative that just screams "This is Ellen Ripley, last survivor of the Nostromo, signing off." Though she doesn't go to cryo sleep with a cat, sad to say.
And they make every effort to make the ship as vulnerable as possible. The security team for this huge ship is apparently 6 people, half of whom freak out at the first sign of trouble. Oh, and they of course are only armed with these pistols that don't do much damage and require frequent reloads, since weapon technology never keeps pace with... ya know, interstellar travel. Annnnnnd they only seem to have a tank top, cargo pants, and these ugly leather jackets for protection.
It goes without saying that the ship's interior resembles the Nostromo, and the aliens quickly cover it in some mutant membrane, just like in Aliens.
Oh, but of course, these are only somewhat alien, since they're actually mutated crewmembers that get stuck in the head and injected by a flying alien, just like the brain bug in Starship Troopers.
And this whole accident started because these colonists on a planet discovered a giant alien "artifact," and you can't help but think of the alien crashed ship from Alien.
Of course, the Captain of the ship wants to bring the dreaded artifact back to Earth, which the doctor reasons is a somewhat dangerous endeavor, so he ends up killing the captain and trying to scuttle the ship, to prevent the aliens from infecting Earth. Just the same ol "Protect the rest of humanity" cliche we've seen time and time again.
Oh, and the final climax of the movie has the security officer using the emergency airlock to blow a bunch of the things out into space, a la the Alien/Aliens ending.
Have I impressed upon you the magnitude of the "flattery" this animated film engages in?
I almost forgot to mention, but this is probably the goriest bloodiest animated film I've ever seen. One poor lady gets completely chainsawed in half and you get to see her skeleton cross section...
Oh yea! Another cliche I just remembered... they meet this one Indian mystic who joins the survivors and holds off a wave of aliens before being butchered, a la Billy from Predator. And later, another character sacrifices himself by closing the door on the main character after saying "It's been an honor serving with you."
This is ridiculous, I ought to put together a friggin list.
Review: 28 Weeks Later
I just watched this for the first time because Left 4 Dead put me in a zombie movie mood.
And goddamn, what a fucking disappointment. This movie seriously pissed me off. I'm still angry sitting here thinking about it. It had a pretty cool premise, the US army reestablishing a colony on Britain after the infection died off. Unfortunately, the movie is really short, cause we're already at about the halfway mark by the time the infection comes back. That's just not enough, especially since this is a sequel, meaning we're expecting things to be bigger and better. For the most part, this didn't happen. And they had all the ingredients to make a great sequel.
First off, we're supposed to buy that these two dumb kids can sneak out of the safe zone. The level of military incompetence in this movie is truly a wonder to behold, it's fucking everywhere. And seriously, if these kids were real, they wouldn't fucking risk their lives going out to their old house, the area's got damn zombies. I'd be happy to stay in my cozy penthouse or whatever the fuck their dad had going. The girl apparently went back to pack her lame ass shoes or something, dumb.
Then, when they find the infected mom and bring her in, we're supposed to buy that the dad, Mr. Carlyle, has the handy dandy all access keycard and can sneak around like fucking Sam Fisher to get in undetected and see his wife. Again, absolute military idiocy. What kind of military gives a civilian caretaker access to a medical bio hazard quarantine?
So he goes and kisses her all sloppily and gets her saliva, which is icky. Then he gets infected and attacks her. This is odd, because this is the only known case of one infected attacking another infected. In every other instance in the movie, the infected are all running together merrily as one big horde, never attacking each other. How strange.
Later, the military stupidly sticks the civilians all together in one big warehouse for their own safety. And locks it, with one cheap ass padlock. Ok, whatever. However, their brilliant containment plan is somewhat flawed, because this warehouse apparently has a back door which is not locked, and unluckily gets accessed by the infected Mr. Carlyle. Great, all the innocent civilians are locked in a room where they can all get infected together. What the fuck movie? Why do you make yourself so damn stupid and nonsensical?
So everything goes to shit and Doyle the Delta sniper comes to rescue them. Cool, this is getting interesting. But then they run into another army sniper who begins sniping at them. Now, this is where they again lost me. Instead of getting on his radio and saying "Whoa whoa, stop shooting at us, we're not infected!" Doyle shoots the sniper. Wait, what? Would a US army sniper really shoot another US army sniper in cold blood? This didn't make any sense.
Now, there were a few things I liked. One was the helicopter chopping up a bunch of infected with the rotor, that was pretty awesome.
Later on, they get stuck in a car to escape a gas attack. Now, I'm not really sure that getting in a car, closing all the vents and breathing through your T-shirt would really protect you from a gas attack, but we'll let that slide. They see that there are gas mask soldiers coming to torch shit with flamethrowers, and the car won't start. So Doyle decides to get out and push. This leads to him getting burned alive. This was really dumb. Nonsensical. Why didn't he just get out and show the guys with flamethrowers that he wasn't infected? Then he wouldn't have been toasted. Or hell, he could've gotten out and shot them all with his rifle, which he happily did before to the sniper. No logic at all. Just a cheap death to shock the audience, after making us like the guy.
Now we come to the worst part of the movie for me, the nightvision trek through the subway. This was fucking excruciating to watch. Some ppl actually said this was "artistic" but I don't see anything artistic about seeing everything in green night vision while being whirled around like in the Blair Witch Project. I go to the movies to be entertained and this was not entertaining in the least.
This scene also ended a very problematic element of the movie for me, the dad character as some sort of main villain. Sorry, but this whole thing didn't seem like a good idea. I prefer my zombie hordes to be, well, zombie hordes. Just faceless masses of death. The introduction of a boss zombie like the dad was lame and really took away from the sort of realism that the first film achieved, IMO.
So yea, this film was a huge disappointment, since I really liked the first film. While that was dark, this just seemed pointlessly retarded, especially the cheap deaths of some main characters. Left me feeling full of rage, you could say.
And goddamn, what a fucking disappointment. This movie seriously pissed me off. I'm still angry sitting here thinking about it. It had a pretty cool premise, the US army reestablishing a colony on Britain after the infection died off. Unfortunately, the movie is really short, cause we're already at about the halfway mark by the time the infection comes back. That's just not enough, especially since this is a sequel, meaning we're expecting things to be bigger and better. For the most part, this didn't happen. And they had all the ingredients to make a great sequel.
First off, we're supposed to buy that these two dumb kids can sneak out of the safe zone. The level of military incompetence in this movie is truly a wonder to behold, it's fucking everywhere. And seriously, if these kids were real, they wouldn't fucking risk their lives going out to their old house, the area's got damn zombies. I'd be happy to stay in my cozy penthouse or whatever the fuck their dad had going. The girl apparently went back to pack her lame ass shoes or something, dumb.
Then, when they find the infected mom and bring her in, we're supposed to buy that the dad, Mr. Carlyle, has the handy dandy all access keycard and can sneak around like fucking Sam Fisher to get in undetected and see his wife. Again, absolute military idiocy. What kind of military gives a civilian caretaker access to a medical bio hazard quarantine?
So he goes and kisses her all sloppily and gets her saliva, which is icky. Then he gets infected and attacks her. This is odd, because this is the only known case of one infected attacking another infected. In every other instance in the movie, the infected are all running together merrily as one big horde, never attacking each other. How strange.
Later, the military stupidly sticks the civilians all together in one big warehouse for their own safety. And locks it, with one cheap ass padlock. Ok, whatever. However, their brilliant containment plan is somewhat flawed, because this warehouse apparently has a back door which is not locked, and unluckily gets accessed by the infected Mr. Carlyle. Great, all the innocent civilians are locked in a room where they can all get infected together. What the fuck movie? Why do you make yourself so damn stupid and nonsensical?
So everything goes to shit and Doyle the Delta sniper comes to rescue them. Cool, this is getting interesting. But then they run into another army sniper who begins sniping at them. Now, this is where they again lost me. Instead of getting on his radio and saying "Whoa whoa, stop shooting at us, we're not infected!" Doyle shoots the sniper. Wait, what? Would a US army sniper really shoot another US army sniper in cold blood? This didn't make any sense.
Now, there were a few things I liked. One was the helicopter chopping up a bunch of infected with the rotor, that was pretty awesome.
Later on, they get stuck in a car to escape a gas attack. Now, I'm not really sure that getting in a car, closing all the vents and breathing through your T-shirt would really protect you from a gas attack, but we'll let that slide. They see that there are gas mask soldiers coming to torch shit with flamethrowers, and the car won't start. So Doyle decides to get out and push. This leads to him getting burned alive. This was really dumb. Nonsensical. Why didn't he just get out and show the guys with flamethrowers that he wasn't infected? Then he wouldn't have been toasted. Or hell, he could've gotten out and shot them all with his rifle, which he happily did before to the sniper. No logic at all. Just a cheap death to shock the audience, after making us like the guy.
Now we come to the worst part of the movie for me, the nightvision trek through the subway. This was fucking excruciating to watch. Some ppl actually said this was "artistic" but I don't see anything artistic about seeing everything in green night vision while being whirled around like in the Blair Witch Project. I go to the movies to be entertained and this was not entertaining in the least.
This scene also ended a very problematic element of the movie for me, the dad character as some sort of main villain. Sorry, but this whole thing didn't seem like a good idea. I prefer my zombie hordes to be, well, zombie hordes. Just faceless masses of death. The introduction of a boss zombie like the dad was lame and really took away from the sort of realism that the first film achieved, IMO.
So yea, this film was a huge disappointment, since I really liked the first film. While that was dark, this just seemed pointlessly retarded, especially the cheap deaths of some main characters. Left me feeling full of rage, you could say.
Some Game Reviews
Here's my thoughts on some recent games I've been playing.
Red Alert 3: 3/5 stars
Ok, so I obtained this... it's ok. Not the sort of amazing experience like Company of Heroes or Sins of a Solar Empire. It feels just as wacky as the other Red Alerts, the movie cinematics are definitely the strongest selling point for this game. I couldn't help but feel very cramped and claustrophobic with the camera, I kept trying to scroll my mouse so it would zoom out, but no dice. That's kinda a personal preference though, so you guys might not mind.
The other thing that I noticed is that this game seems to have very hard counters. For example, you might be used to say, Company of Heroes where you can use a tank and pretty much throw it at the enemy without much worry. However in RA3, if you use the wrong unit against an enemy unit, you're gonna get your ass waxed very quickly. Something that's compounded by the fact that there isn't much real estate to work with on the maps. I found the units very big and hard to manuever around all the buildings sometimes. This only compounded the feeling of being cramped.
The co-op feature in single player isn't very interesting, you just get an AI teammate that has his own base and units following you around and helping a little. Nothing ground breaking.
For me, it's an average RTS. RA fans will like it, but the gameplay really isn't as fun as the cinematics, they're the best part of the game.
Far Cry 2: 4/5 stars
No prone option, seems pretty weird. Crysis had a prone position, and that game had you as an elite Delta Force guy in an uber nanosuit with a magical armor shield, as opposed to being a malaria patient wearing a hawaiian shirt.
This game runs fucking awesome. I have to turn everything to Low to make Crysis playable, whereas here I can run pretty much everything on medium with 2x AA with silky smooth framerates. Definitely impressed, and while it doesn't quite look as amazing as Crysis, it's still pretty good. Think COD4 quality, or a notch above. Of course, COD4 didn't portray 50 square miles of terrain.
I was kinda disappointed by the weapon selection, just judging by the upgrade menu. Hopefully more guns'll get added to the list throughout the campaign, otherwise the selection isn't very impressive at all.
Another thing I noticed is that to use the weapon sights, you have to hold down the right mouse button, it doesn't work as a toggle like in other games. A little miffed by that at first, but you do get used to it. Not a gamebreaker.
Does anyone else feel the mouse sensitivity for the game menus is way too low? Just a minor nitpick of mine.
So far, it seems pretty easy, and I'm playing it on Hardcore. Maybe this is why they didn't feel a prone position was necessary? A bullet will take from 10-15% of my health. Hardly a Tom Clancy feel, so don't expect that. Infamous is another notch above, so you'll maybe want to try that for a bigger challenge. *shrug*
I've already talked about the weapon selection, but here's a bit more detail. There's 4 weapon slots, one for your machete, one for a primary weapon, one for a secondary weapon, and one for a special weapon. A primary weapon counts as shotguns, rifles, sniper rifles, and a grenade launcher. A secondary weapon counts as pistols, or machine pistols. A special weapon would be a machine gun, rocket launcher, or flame thrower. This seems alright, but is actually quite problematic with its restrictions. Because of the slots, no sane player will ever use a shotgun, since it counts as a primary and thus would take over the slot for rifles or sniper rifles, which are far more useful on the wide open African savannah. This is in contrast with Crysis, in which the best combo was often a sniper rifle coupled with a shotgun. In FC2, this combo is impossible, and thus the grenade launcher and shotguns must be neglected, which is a shame. Speaking of the lack of variety compared to a Rainbow Six game, there're only 3 shotguns, 3 assault rifles, a submachine gun, a grenade launcher, and 3 sniper rifles to choose from for the primary slot.
Another annoyance is the fact that throughout the landscape are various checkpoints manned by enemies. Clearing these checkpoints are pretty easy, but the problem is that they are quickly remanned as soon as you leave the area. With all the various traveling you must do in the game, it quickly becomes tedious reclearing the same checkpoints over and over again.
So far, I've been having fun sniping everything in sight. Though many tempting sniping spots are unfortunately out of reach due to the terrain being too steep to climb.
Oh yea... I did notice something really cool while playing earlier today. I'd sniped some guy in the chest but it wasn't a fatal shot so he staggered and fell down. A little later he got up to a crouch and a second enemy ran over and gave him a piggyback ride. No, I'm not kidding. Just thought that was pretty damn awesome.
Sins of a Solar Empire: 5/5 stars
This game kicks ass. It's pretty much a combination of Homeworld 2 and any regular 4X space empire game. You could also see it as a space version of Supreme Commander, it's goddamn epic. Like, battles with fleets of over 200 ships.
Plus, there's absolutely no DRM, if you know what I mean.
While I describe it as Supreme Commander in Space, Sins has a much better UI. Supreme Commander wasn't all that great IMO because the pacing was slow as hell and you had to individually upgrade all the tiny little resource poiints which really got annoying. You also do a lot of teching in Sins but it's all very easy and intuitive, without feeling like a chore.
The only thing this game lacks is a singleplayer campaign with a storyline, but the open sandbox levels do an adequate job.
Crysis Warhead: 4/5 stars
It's really fun, but pretty short. Overall, this game is more of an expansion pack then a sequel so don't expect too much.
My favorite loadout was the gauss rifle/shotgun. Perfect for sniping at long range and then ambushing from cloak mode with the shottie. But when I didn't have the ammo, I'd use the precision rifle/FY-17.
The minigun APC is insanely fun, as long as you stay at long range and shower your targets with the minigun. It's really inaccurate but so damn powerful it doesn't matter.
My only complaint is that the normal Korean soldiers can take insane amounts of damage. I mean, the elite nanosuit guys are durable, that's fine... but even the regular cannon fodder guys need multiple shots for some reason.
Call of Duty 4 Modern Warfare: 3/5 stars
This game actually blows ass. I tried it on the hardest difficulty setting and it wasn't bad, until I got to the TV station. WTF? Infinite respawning enemies, who spam grenades at you every 5 seconds. Why should I try and play it realistically when you give me no cover system and infinite enemies magically coming out of a door. Fuck you Infinity Ward and the half-track you rode in on.
I changed it to normal difficulty and now I can play it without getting the urge to punch my monitor.
And for a game that's supposed to be about modern warfare, there's no rate of fire selector or any ability to customize your weapon accessories. Crysis had those, and that's a game with fucking giant robot squids.
So yea, I'm not sure why everyone called it the best game ever. The presentation looks nice at first, but there's a lot that's fucking retarded, and you'd think they'd have fixed their shit since this is the FOURTH fucking game in the series.
Red Alert 3: 3/5 stars
Ok, so I obtained this... it's ok. Not the sort of amazing experience like Company of Heroes or Sins of a Solar Empire. It feels just as wacky as the other Red Alerts, the movie cinematics are definitely the strongest selling point for this game. I couldn't help but feel very cramped and claustrophobic with the camera, I kept trying to scroll my mouse so it would zoom out, but no dice. That's kinda a personal preference though, so you guys might not mind.
The other thing that I noticed is that this game seems to have very hard counters. For example, you might be used to say, Company of Heroes where you can use a tank and pretty much throw it at the enemy without much worry. However in RA3, if you use the wrong unit against an enemy unit, you're gonna get your ass waxed very quickly. Something that's compounded by the fact that there isn't much real estate to work with on the maps. I found the units very big and hard to manuever around all the buildings sometimes. This only compounded the feeling of being cramped.
The co-op feature in single player isn't very interesting, you just get an AI teammate that has his own base and units following you around and helping a little. Nothing ground breaking.
For me, it's an average RTS. RA fans will like it, but the gameplay really isn't as fun as the cinematics, they're the best part of the game.
Far Cry 2: 4/5 stars
No prone option, seems pretty weird. Crysis had a prone position, and that game had you as an elite Delta Force guy in an uber nanosuit with a magical armor shield, as opposed to being a malaria patient wearing a hawaiian shirt.
This game runs fucking awesome. I have to turn everything to Low to make Crysis playable, whereas here I can run pretty much everything on medium with 2x AA with silky smooth framerates. Definitely impressed, and while it doesn't quite look as amazing as Crysis, it's still pretty good. Think COD4 quality, or a notch above. Of course, COD4 didn't portray 50 square miles of terrain.
I was kinda disappointed by the weapon selection, just judging by the upgrade menu. Hopefully more guns'll get added to the list throughout the campaign, otherwise the selection isn't very impressive at all.
Another thing I noticed is that to use the weapon sights, you have to hold down the right mouse button, it doesn't work as a toggle like in other games. A little miffed by that at first, but you do get used to it. Not a gamebreaker.
Does anyone else feel the mouse sensitivity for the game menus is way too low? Just a minor nitpick of mine.
So far, it seems pretty easy, and I'm playing it on Hardcore. Maybe this is why they didn't feel a prone position was necessary? A bullet will take from 10-15% of my health. Hardly a Tom Clancy feel, so don't expect that. Infamous is another notch above, so you'll maybe want to try that for a bigger challenge. *shrug*
I've already talked about the weapon selection, but here's a bit more detail. There's 4 weapon slots, one for your machete, one for a primary weapon, one for a secondary weapon, and one for a special weapon. A primary weapon counts as shotguns, rifles, sniper rifles, and a grenade launcher. A secondary weapon counts as pistols, or machine pistols. A special weapon would be a machine gun, rocket launcher, or flame thrower. This seems alright, but is actually quite problematic with its restrictions. Because of the slots, no sane player will ever use a shotgun, since it counts as a primary and thus would take over the slot for rifles or sniper rifles, which are far more useful on the wide open African savannah. This is in contrast with Crysis, in which the best combo was often a sniper rifle coupled with a shotgun. In FC2, this combo is impossible, and thus the grenade launcher and shotguns must be neglected, which is a shame. Speaking of the lack of variety compared to a Rainbow Six game, there're only 3 shotguns, 3 assault rifles, a submachine gun, a grenade launcher, and 3 sniper rifles to choose from for the primary slot.
Another annoyance is the fact that throughout the landscape are various checkpoints manned by enemies. Clearing these checkpoints are pretty easy, but the problem is that they are quickly remanned as soon as you leave the area. With all the various traveling you must do in the game, it quickly becomes tedious reclearing the same checkpoints over and over again.
So far, I've been having fun sniping everything in sight. Though many tempting sniping spots are unfortunately out of reach due to the terrain being too steep to climb.
Oh yea... I did notice something really cool while playing earlier today. I'd sniped some guy in the chest but it wasn't a fatal shot so he staggered and fell down. A little later he got up to a crouch and a second enemy ran over and gave him a piggyback ride. No, I'm not kidding. Just thought that was pretty damn awesome.
Sins of a Solar Empire: 5/5 stars
This game kicks ass. It's pretty much a combination of Homeworld 2 and any regular 4X space empire game. You could also see it as a space version of Supreme Commander, it's goddamn epic. Like, battles with fleets of over 200 ships.
Plus, there's absolutely no DRM, if you know what I mean.
While I describe it as Supreme Commander in Space, Sins has a much better UI. Supreme Commander wasn't all that great IMO because the pacing was slow as hell and you had to individually upgrade all the tiny little resource poiints which really got annoying. You also do a lot of teching in Sins but it's all very easy and intuitive, without feeling like a chore.
The only thing this game lacks is a singleplayer campaign with a storyline, but the open sandbox levels do an adequate job.
Crysis Warhead: 4/5 stars
It's really fun, but pretty short. Overall, this game is more of an expansion pack then a sequel so don't expect too much.
My favorite loadout was the gauss rifle/shotgun. Perfect for sniping at long range and then ambushing from cloak mode with the shottie. But when I didn't have the ammo, I'd use the precision rifle/FY-17.
The minigun APC is insanely fun, as long as you stay at long range and shower your targets with the minigun. It's really inaccurate but so damn powerful it doesn't matter.
My only complaint is that the normal Korean soldiers can take insane amounts of damage. I mean, the elite nanosuit guys are durable, that's fine... but even the regular cannon fodder guys need multiple shots for some reason.
Call of Duty 4 Modern Warfare: 3/5 stars
This game actually blows ass. I tried it on the hardest difficulty setting and it wasn't bad, until I got to the TV station. WTF? Infinite respawning enemies, who spam grenades at you every 5 seconds. Why should I try and play it realistically when you give me no cover system and infinite enemies magically coming out of a door. Fuck you Infinity Ward and the half-track you rode in on.
I changed it to normal difficulty and now I can play it without getting the urge to punch my monitor.
And for a game that's supposed to be about modern warfare, there's no rate of fire selector or any ability to customize your weapon accessories. Crysis had those, and that's a game with fucking giant robot squids.
So yea, I'm not sure why everyone called it the best game ever. The presentation looks nice at first, but there's a lot that's fucking retarded, and you'd think they'd have fixed their shit since this is the FOURTH fucking game in the series.
A Dark Night Indeed
I was completely blown away. It's probably the best superhero movie I've ever seen. The movie did have a lot of hype and expectations and to be honest, I think it exceeded them.
Heath Ledger was pitch perfect as the Joker. His magic pencil trick was um, quite effective, let's just say. Cackling and twitching, odd mannerisms ahoy, Ledger completely becomes the Killer Clown from Hell. No one's going to remember Jack Nicholson after this one. The one recurring thought I had walking out of the theater was how unfortunate it was that we wouldn't see his incredible talent again in the inevitable third feature.
Aaron Eckhart's Harvey Dent was also excellent. As other reviews have already said, he is the White Knight to Batman's Dark Knight. The entire central plot is pretty much designed to channel this man's fall from grace. When you first see the full reveal of Two Face's face, it's hard not to gasp. The CGI/make-up for Two Face is how he should always look, it's iconic and grotesque and realistic all at the same time.
At a running time of 2 and a half hours, this is ostensibly a rather long movie, yet it never felt that way to me. Probably the fastest 2 and a half hours I've spent in the theaters. From the opening bank robbery to the sobering finale, I was completely captivated by this epic crime tale from Chris Nolan. Yes, this is not simply a feel good superhero movie like Iron Man (which I enjoyed a lot), but an honest to God HEAT-esque crime drama. For some people, this may not be a good thing. They may complain that it wasn't light hearted enough, that it was disturbing to peer into the heart of darkness in a city without hope. For those people, yes... please go elsewhere. Maybe go watch Mamma Mia. For the rest of us, The Dark Knight is a night to remember.
Heath Ledger was pitch perfect as the Joker. His magic pencil trick was um, quite effective, let's just say. Cackling and twitching, odd mannerisms ahoy, Ledger completely becomes the Killer Clown from Hell. No one's going to remember Jack Nicholson after this one. The one recurring thought I had walking out of the theater was how unfortunate it was that we wouldn't see his incredible talent again in the inevitable third feature.
Aaron Eckhart's Harvey Dent was also excellent. As other reviews have already said, he is the White Knight to Batman's Dark Knight. The entire central plot is pretty much designed to channel this man's fall from grace. When you first see the full reveal of Two Face's face, it's hard not to gasp. The CGI/make-up for Two Face is how he should always look, it's iconic and grotesque and realistic all at the same time.
At a running time of 2 and a half hours, this is ostensibly a rather long movie, yet it never felt that way to me. Probably the fastest 2 and a half hours I've spent in the theaters. From the opening bank robbery to the sobering finale, I was completely captivated by this epic crime tale from Chris Nolan. Yes, this is not simply a feel good superhero movie like Iron Man (which I enjoyed a lot), but an honest to God HEAT-esque crime drama. For some people, this may not be a good thing. They may complain that it wasn't light hearted enough, that it was disturbing to peer into the heart of darkness in a city without hope. For those people, yes... please go elsewhere. Maybe go watch Mamma Mia. For the rest of us, The Dark Knight is a night to remember.
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