Bioshock Infinite is still in the running for my Game of the Year and the wait for Burial at Sea has been a long one. Infinite released in March and Burial at Sea did not see release until mid-November. Even for a piece of single-player DLC that is a long wait and there is no telling when we will see Part 2 surface.
Irrational has given us an interesting premise to start with sending us back to Rapture with an alternate version of Booker and a more mature femme fatale Elizabeth. The first twenty minutes of Burial at Sea does feel like something new and wonderful for the series and not one gun shot is fired. We get to see Rapture in all its glory. The Rapture we have only heard about in audio logs. Shops are open for business, residents walk up and down the passageways and Big Daddy’s are swimming the deep working to keep Rapture in pristine condition.
Once Booker and Elizabeth are sent down to the sunken Fontaine’s department store is when Burial at Sea becomes more familiar to Bioshock fans. This is not a bad thing but it certainly feels like territory we have been over before. Twice, actually. There are dark corridors with water leaking through, splicers running around and even a creepy baby carriage connecting us to the original game. Don’t get me wrong, it is an enjoyable experience, it just quickly becomes a case of been there, done that. They could have kept me in the brightly lit wonders of the city the entire time for what it is worth.
The gunplay you know is back with very few changes. Guns are mapped to your right hand and plasmids are back (not vigors, this is Rapture) including Shock Jockey, Possession and the new (yet not) Old Man Winter. With the shortened length of the DLC it feels like we are quickly forced to find the plasmids instead of relishing in them after plenty of time searching. I think it would have worked better to start you out with two of them and find the Old Man Winter. While in combat using the mix of weapons and plasmids are as fun as any other Bioshock title.
A little piece of Columbia makes its way to Rapture with Booker’s ability to use skyhooks (called air grabbers) to maneuver around, reach new areas and give you the upper ground in firefights. Elizabeth is in her giving mood again as well tossing you eve, health and ammo when you get yourself in a pinch. She can also use her tear ability to create weapon barrels, gun turrets and even a samurai warrior to slice up splicers. The mix of Rapture and Columbia works very well.
The long wait for Burial at Sea makes the story’s length a disappointment. You can finish in one sitting of about 90 minutes. I took around two hours taking my time to walk around and enjoy the sights of a living Rapture in the beginning. Knowing all you know from finishing Infinite takes away a little of the mystery in Booker’s reasoning and his relationship with Elizabeth. They do a good job throwing a wrench into it at the very end that does get you interested in what Part 2 has to offer when they give you control of Elizabeth for the first time.
Where do you go after you know the story of Infinite? It seemed definitive and perfect so returning to Rapture seems a bit anti-climatic. As I said I wished we could have seen more of the Rapture we are offered at the start of Burial at Sea. We have seen the beaten down and dilapidated underwater city before. Let’s get more of a look at it during its apex. Maybe with Part 2 we can get some more of that. With Part 1 there is not a whole lot of different ideas, just a mixture of previous games into a short Bioshock cocktail.
If you have read one Ryse review you have read them all. The game has been the butt of many jokes since its debut at E3 this year as a showcase title for the Xbox One, most involving the use of quick-time events which made many people give up on the game months before the product was on the shelf. To those who refuse to even give the game a chance you are missing out on some beautiful graphics, Batman-style combat and blood, blood, blood. The story borders on vapid but I can not deny that I had a lot of fun with Ryse.
The story of Ryse focuses on Marius Titus, a soldier of Rome who sees his family murdered before him and is set off on a tale of revenge that is told through flashback as he explains his journey to Nero himself as Rome falls around them. Revenge stories, especially in this genre, are nothing new and any expectations of story depth like Mass Effect or The Last of Us should be hastily abandoned. You see the betrayals coming, the comrades falling and the sacrifice that will be made early on because it is Writing 101.
The shallowness of the story is taking nothing away from the performances of the actors, who are all solid in their roles. These were more than just simple voiceovers in Ryse with the actors facial expressions all motion captured and will amaze in places with the power of the Xbox One.
Graphically, Ryse: Son of Rome is a game that you pop in to show friends just what next-gen holds in the future. It is beyond beautiful. Even the most cynical of PC gamers will have to admit that it is a wonder to behold in places. Weapons gleam in the midst of combat and backdrops ranging from the glory of Rome to forests filled with rivers and waterfalls will have you stopping to pan the camera around to take in how lavish your surroundings are. I am tempted to play through the game again to see if there was some details that I missed.
The biggest reason I had an enjoyable time playing Ryse was its combat. There is no denying it was influenced by the Batman: Arkham series. If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery then Ryse is showering Batman with roses. You attack with X and use your shield with the A and Y buttons. A is use to deflect attack (ala Arkham’s counter style) and Y is a shield bash you use to open up shielded enemies attacks. B is use for a barrel roll that you will be using. A lot. Pressing RB will make Marius use his focus mode which turns the screen yellow and allows him to go slash happy on any enemy in your path. It is helpful in crowds of enemies but is kind of a get out of jail free card when things get tough.
The combat flows seamlessly and helps with the games combo system that you use to gain back health, XP and focus while you are putting your enemies to the sword. At any time, in and out of fighting, you can hit a direction on the d-pad which distributes the points gained from combos to the three previously mentioned categories. The upgrade system has a lot of options but it is not as deep as it would appear to be. Once you unlock the games varied executions there is little else besides health, focus and damage upgrades which are spread across too many screens.
The infamous quick time events that many complained about are still in the game they have just been slightly reworked since the E3 presentation. During battle when you weaken an enemy an icon will appear over their head. You can choose to initiate the execution or continue your normal attacks until he dies. Hitting RT begins the different kill animations and instead of a button prompt over the head, the enemy will glow either blue or yellow telling whether you should hit X or Y. Here is the weird catch. It doesn’t matter if you hit the buttons or not, once you begin the execution it is going to happen. Hitting the correct button prompts adds to your combo and health/focus/XP gain. Most will find this asinine but I never let it bother me especially when it would give me extra hits on a long combo streak I had going.
Ryse does offer a different take on multiplayer. You and another person will be matched and team up to take on the dangers of the Coliseum. You won’t be stuck in an open arena rather an ever changing environment. Each stage changes to freshen up the proceedings including forests and multi-tiered areas. There is a meter at the top of the screen showing how entertained the audience is in your performance. You must execute often and use your environment to maim to keep the crowd cheering. You will be awarded gold for stage victories that you can use to purchase upgrades to weapons, armor and all the other good stuff a growing gladiator needs. I only played a few rounds and pretty much saw most of what there was to see and did not feel the need to keep going. After finishing the story it just felt like a grind when I had more games to play. Some may find it worthwhile but it was nothing special to me even though it retained the same fun combat.
The complaints about Ryse are understandable depending on what you were expecting. I went in wanting a hack and slash adventure that didn’t overstay its welcome. A fun time waster that showed off what the Xbox One could do visually. That is exactly what I got. The story only took me about seven hours to complete which was just the right amount of time. Combat is fun an fluid and even though it is repetitive I never wanted to stop cutting off limbs or bashing faces with my shield. The story is on the weak side but you should really just channel your inner testosterone and enjoy the mayhem. The best way I can describe Ryse is that it is beautiful Roman murder porn.
Killzone as a franchise has always had lofty expectations. The first game released for PS2 was billed as Sony’s “Halo killer” and failed to punch it in the face. Killzone 2 was shown off at E3 in an infamous video to show off the power of the PS3 which led people to call foul saying that it was an all-CGI trailer that no game could ever look like. When the game released it did look incredible but never as great as the E3 presentation looked.
Now Sony is here with a powerhouse console and they have called on Guerrilla once again to craft a showcase game that will wow people when they plug in their Playstation 4 for the first time. While they succeed with the visuals and controls the rest of the game falls into the same trappings of almost every other FPS out there and for someone that enjoys the Killzone franchise it disappoints me with what could have been with some more forward thinking.
The game begins some thirty years after the events of Killzone 3 where the planet of Helghan was destroyed by the Petrusite that the Helghast intended to use on Vekta. Since then the planet of Vekta has been split in two with one half consisting of the Vektan population and the other half the leftover remains of the Helghast. Right off the bat you get a Germanic vibe because the planet is separated by a massive wall that can only hope to keep hostilities at bay. You play as Lucas Kellan, a Shadow Marshal that, as a young child, saw his father murdered by the Helghast as they were attempting to make their way to the Vektan side during the planetwide split. This internal drama adds a bit more depth to the story which has always been on a worldwide scale but now you have more of a personal attachment to the conflict as the story moves forward.
Right off the bat you will notice how beautiful Killzone: Shadow Fall looks. The first time you see the brightly colored hues you will wonder if you are playing a Killzone title. Buildings are giant and sheen from the reflections of millions of glass plates, mountainsides are covered with foliage and waterfalls that you will spend a few extra minutes admiring before you remember you are here to murder hundreds of enemies. The first third of the game is truly a showcase for what first-person shooters will be offering us in the looks department. After that it sadly goes back into “Killzone mode” with more drab greys and blacks mixed with orange which is still beautiful but takes away from the graphic euphoria you felt when you began the game.
You will notice in combat that you move a lot faster than previous Killzone’s. You normally felt like you were moving at a slow pace because of the armor you wore but now Guerrilla has taken the weight away and you can move quickly and more freely. Weapons are the normal mix of Vektan and Helghan artillery and few, if any, distinguish themselves as special. The real different aspect of your toys comes in the form of the OWL. This is your small attack drone that you control with the touch pad on the Dualshock 4 controller. Swiping different directions on the pad and hitting L1 will tell your OWL to do various actions including attacking enemies, creating a shield to protect you and even throw out a zipline to access out of reach areas. It is a smart use of the touchpad that feels integral to the gameplay and not gimmicky. This is how the Dualshock 4 should be used.
Once you get past the initial wave of eye porn visually, Killzone begins to show that it is still caught in the memories of previous installments. The story, while a nice change of pace with the time change, is hurt by voice acting that goes from barely decent to forehead slapping bad. It hurts especially when your leading character sounds like he is reading off a cue card in a studio on a day that he had way more important things to do than this. Imagine Channing Tatum reciting All Quiet on the Western Front.
Missions begin well with surprisingly wide open areas in daylight lit areas giving you multiple ways to take on enemies. This soon is abandoned for more enclosed spaces and corridor shooting in the more muted Helghan side of the planet. When you begin to get in the later third of the game you will grow tiresome of the FPS staple “we have to hold this position until waves of enemies decide to stop coming”. So much good that is built up that crashes very quickly. If Guerrilla had just kept going with the ideas that impress you in the first few hours this could have been an exceptional gaming experience.
Guerrilla has taken a different approach when it comes to multiplayer. There is no experience system to keep up with. You begin with all abilities and weapons open from the very beginning meaning that you can select any possible loadout you want giving everyone equal footing when they begin a match. There are three classes to choose from and you have to complete certain tasks to gain new ranks. There are 10 maps and the Warzone will let you set your own set of match types, rules and more then share your creation online for all to partake in. The no XP approach is different and should open up the game’s multiplayer to gamers who do not feel comfortable getting involved in the Call of Duty’s or Battlefield’s.
After all the smoke has cleared and hundreds of Helghast have fallen by your hands has Guerrilla delivered a system seller? Maybe not a system seller but definitely a system showcase that you can admire for the beautiful graphics and good touchpad controls but what starts as an example of what next-gen shooters should be comes back down to Earth with token FPS attractions and lazy voice acting. If you are going to show off your new PS4 to your friends make sure to do it early in the campaign. Maybe Guerrilla can capture the early magic of Killzone: Shadow Fall and make an entire game like that next go round.
Thor was Marvel’s biggest gamble when it released in 2011. Movie audiences had accepted Iron Man but would they connect with a superhero steeped in mythology and magic? Luckily Thor was a hit thanks to good casting, Kenneth Branagh’s direction and knowing that the film was one of the lead-ins to The Avengers. Now comes the tricky part; making the character’s continuing story interesting.
Thor: The Dark World takes place two years after Thor and one year after The Avengers with Jane Foster (Natalie Portman) doing her scientist thing and following spatial anomalies in hopes of tracking down her god with the perfect abs. This leads to her finding a weapon called the Aether which binds itself to her and reawakens Malekith (Christopher Eccleston), a Dark Elf who needs it to cover the nine realms in eternal darkness. You know, comic book stuff.
When Malekith attacks Asgard and kills one of their own it is all hands on deck to bring him down. The only difference is that Thor and Odin’s plans are exact opposites with Odin acting like the young, war-hungry Thor from the first film letting vengeance guide him and Thor wants to lead Malekith far away from Asgard to spare as many lives as possible. I liked this twist in roles that shows exactly how Thor has embraced his role and matured.
One large plus that the Thor franchise has over any other Marvel movie is that Tom Hiddleston’s Loki is going to be involved. He once again steals the movie as the fallen prince who tried to take over Earth. He spends his days locked in a dungeon prison until Thor has no choice but to break him out to show him a secret path out of Asgard. As with everything involving the character there are many illusions and lots of subterfuge involved and some of it you will not see coming, even though you know Loki has something planned out.
Thor: The Dark World benefits from its director, Alan Taylor. One of the regular directors for Game of Thrones, the show’s influence can be seen and felt all during the movie. From Asgardian forces in battle to how the city looks during celebrations and also with the clothing that is less royalty and more cloaks of Westeros. Branagh used his Shakespeare background in the first movie to the best of his ability and Taylor does the same with his use of realism in a fantasy setting.
With Loki taking up the grey area between good and evil Malekith is enough of a presence to keep the proceedings moving forward. He is not a legendary villain like Red Skull but he is a constant threat even if his character and motivation is a bit by the numbers.
The secondary cast have plenty of time to contribute. This could have easily been Thor & Loki’s Excellent Adventure but the script gives each character at least one or two times to shine. Sif and the Warriors Two (I say two because Hogun is helping his home world to begin the movie) are just as loyal to Thor as ever even to bring treason on themselves. I like how they are already planting seeds for the third Thor with Sif’s apparent feelings for Thor and her obvious wonder at why he loves a mortal. Zachary Levi takes over the role of Fandral (which he was cast for in the first movie but had to decline due to his schedule) and is charming as hell. Idris Elba as Heimdall once again proves that he is amazing in everything and even Rene Russo’s Frigga gets a chance to show off more than a glimpse of being a badass for a nice change of pace.
I am here to tell you that reports of Thor: The Dark World’s mediocrity are exaggerated. Now that we know these characters we get a chance to see them further fleshed out including the parts that could have easily been left by the wayside. Where Iron Man has Tony Stark’s personality and Captain America has his never-ending belief in doing good to push their roles forward, Thor relies on family ties and they are explored and exploited in good ways in Thor: The Dark World and it does it while setting up Thor 3, Guardians of the Galaxy and The Avengers: Age of Ultron at the same time. By the hammer of Thor indeed.
*Note- this is a review of the single-player story only.*
As I made my way down the road, heading back from one of the bars I owned after a shootout with some unruly customers, I felt the urge to go play some tennis. After twenty minutes of me showing off my old school Top Spin skills, I decided to head to the airport and see if there were any jumbo jets about to leave the runway. Luckily, there was one and I hijacked it and took a short trip around the city before jumping out and parachuting to safety as the plane was left to…well you know.
This is only a small percentage of what is available to do in Grand Theft Auto V. Rockstar has spent the last five years creating the most living open-world game ever. Almost a decade into this console cycle, it is amazing how much they have been able to fit into this one title. The state of San Andreas is sprawling with not just the city of Los Santos, which is a world unto itself with so many different areas of urban life it is mind boggling to think of the development that went into it, but also the surrounding areas that hold a military installation, rural towns where city life is nothing but a story and wide open spaces with forests, beaches, rivers and deserts that each hold their own secrets.
Let’s start off by saying that I did not like GTA IV. At all. I tried multiple times to play it but always found it tedious, repetitive and could never care enough about main character Niko Bellic to try and finish the story. With GTA V, it is like Rockstar heard nearly every complaint I had about IV and addressed it. But we will get to that later.
Photo courtesy geekspodcast.com
The biggest departure for the GTA series to date, Grand Theft Auto V ditches the single protagonist for three separate characters and I can easily say that I do not believe I could ever go back to a single character GTA story again. When the game opens up you are in the middle of a bank heist almost a decade in the past that quickly goes bad which serves as the setup for the main story.
In present day, you begin to play as Franklin, an ex-gangbanger that is looking to make more of his life besides doing petty drug deals and boosting cars. He wants the big score and to spend his time with a more “reputable” brand of criminal. He gets plenty of grief from his friends in the hood about trying to forget where he came from. You will spend the first hour or two as Franklin as a reintroduction of sorts to the GTA universe. Taking on simple repo missions which get you back into the swing of things.
Soon though you cross paths with the games second character, Michael, who is an ex- bank robber that is living the high life in an upscale house and by high life I mean he has plenty of money, a wife that is sleeping around, two kids that absolutely hate him and is completely miserable while he drinks his days away. He is the dichotomy to Franklin, telling him that the life Franklin desires doesn’t always lead to good things. He nevertheless takes Franklin under his wing to try and impart his unique knowledge.
The third part of this trinity of recklessness is Trevor. Michael’s “best friend” who thought he died in the bank heist years ago and discovers he is alive and well in Los Santos. The best way to describe Trevor is to imagine everything horrible you have ever wanted to say to someone, all the vile, disgusting things life would not let anyone get away with and Trevor is all of that wrap in a meth covered bow. He is one of the most intriguing and unflinching characters in video game history. His early missions involve taking on a biker gang, Chinese drug lords and the sort while trying to get his meth business into the big time. There are a few nods to Breaking Bad along the way as you are left wondering who was the basis for this madness.
Photo courtesy evilgmr.net
The sheer amount of things to do in Grand Theft Auto V will easily ensure you will lose at least 50 hours but the main part of the story revolves around pulling heists. You will case the location, decide which crew you want to bring along, decide your plan of attack and hopefully make off like bandits with a ton of cash. Some jobs are not all for your benefit. You will have to pull off death-defying kidnapping missions for the FIB (the game’s FBI) and infiltrating facilities in the name of “patriotism”. When things get hot and heavy you can quick swap between characters as needed. Believe me, you will need it. You can possibly get through the waves of cops using one character but the real fun and strategy comes in swapping on the fly. In one mission you will be Franklin holding down the cops with fire then you swap to Michael who has to find a new position and take on the cops that are flanking your rear. Swap to Trevor, who is waiting on a rooftop with a sniper rifle to bring down anyone that slips past Franklin or Michael and take on the incoming police helicopter. It is complete insanity in the best possible way.
Between missions you can swap to any of the characters on the fly. This leads to a lot of great random scenes which shows you that while you may be playing as Trevor; Michael and Franklin are off doing their own thing. Swapping to Franklin may find him leaving a strip club, Michael could be waking up from nightmares and Trevor…well let’s just say that swapping to Trevor is an experience. I would switch to Trevor just for the hell of it and I was never disappointed. Once, he was throwing a random person off of a bridge for some reason. Why? Hell if I know. That is between Trevor and the guy that is a stain on the pavement below.
As I mentioned before, Rockstar has fixed many issues that I have had with GTA games for a while. First off, the driving has been changed and feels much more natural. There is no random fishtailing unless you absolutely can not help it. Cars feel like they have weight to them and driving at fast speeds no longer feels like you are one wrong move away from utter destruction. It still can not match up with Sleeping Dogs in terms of almost flawless open-world car driving but it is leaps and bounds better than any other game in the series. Any car you own, buy or steal, can, of course, be upgraded at Los Santos Customs. Want a chrome paint job? Easy. New off-road tires or a Dukes of Hazzard horn? You got it. When you have the money, it is an easy way to waste time.
The cover system feels better also. You will still go to the wrong side of objects sometimes but not too much. Weapons are accessed through a weapon wheel instead of the archaic d-pad swapping. If you use the auto-aim feature it works very well though you may want to turn on the free-aim just to give you a challenge. Every weapon is fully upgradable and customizable including silencers, flashlights and different paint options. Body armor is also available at your local Ammu-Nation along with your complete lineup of weapons that range from rocket launchers to grenades and eve a parachute. You will use the parachute. If you are like me, you will use the parachute in many odd ways and the only explanation you need is that it is GTA.
Photo courtesy variety.com
How many times playing any GTA game have you died while almost completing a mission and been taken back to the very beginning, having to go back and watch the cutscene and do the entire…mission…over as your rage builds and you almost become as violent as the character you are playing? Enter mission checkpoints! It only took a decade but now you will not have to quell the monster within whenever you screw up. Hearty handshakes all around for progress!
Your cell phone will be your main hub for everything you need from your contacts you meet throughout the game to using the internet. Do not skip past searching on the internet. There are some side missions that are unlocked by searching certain words. Also, the game has a fully involved stock market which, if used smartly, can easily make you a billionaire so you can buy any of the property that your heart desires. Have an affinity for the cinema? Buy a movie theater as I did and enjoy free flicks. Every property will come with weekly income that is deposited into your bank account.
Rockstar has kept up with the times with their satirical humor also. They have always taken pop culture to task in every GTA game and this time is no different. You will see people whoring themselves out to get on the popular reality show Fame or Shame, a radio advertisement making fun of Fifty Shades of Grey (“I’ve always wanted a billionaire to piss on me.”) and, as usual, all of the sardonic radio DJ’s. There are 240 songs over 15 radio stations. That in itself is crazy. I can not tell you how many times I have had memorable moments while listening to Eddie Murphy’s Party All the Time or Don Johnson’s Heartbeat. Rock jumping while listening to Willie Nelson’s Whiskey River will never get old.
Photo courtesy playstationgang.com
The story is fun most of the time with Trevor, Michael and Franklin each having their own set of problems that intersect. Sometimes it can get a bit eye rolling when you try to look for logic in some of the story elements but it kind of like watching wrestling; if you are looking for logic, you won’t enjoy it.
Grand Theft Auto V was, reportedly, the most expensive game ever made. It shows with the intricate detail given to every aspect of this game. When you drive through the city of Los Santos, you will notice how not just homes but cars and people change when you head to different neighborhoods with distinct class differences. My girlfriend, who grew up in Las Vegas and California, kept commenting on how realistic the roads were set up. It truly is a living, breathing embodiment of west coast living.
I could continue to type about how many random things can be done in Grand Theft Auto V. If you have read this far then I applaud you for not just scrolling to the score. With the next generation kicking into full swing this winter, GTA V has given notice that there is still plenty of life left in your aging Xbox 360 and Playstation 3. With Bioshock Infinite, The Last of Us and now GTA V, we as gamers are in a renaissance of video gaming. While GTA V’s story is not on the same level as Infinite or TLOU, the sheer technical achievement that Rockstar has accomplished here can not be overlooked.
When we are desensitized to big games due to annual releases like Call of Duty, Assassin’s Creed and the like, it makes GTA V all that much better. I am sure Rockstar could give us a watered down GTA every two years and rake in the money by the truckloads but that would cheapen the experience, both for us and them. GTA should be an experience. While I felt Rockstar tripped up a bit in IV, they have taken five years to craft and correct and the hours of your life you will lose to the game will be reward enough.
Now, if you will excuse me, I have to go and try to fist fight a mountain lion.
Space is as beautiful as it is frightening. It has enamored man since we were chiseling wheels out of stone. Select few have gotten to fly among the stars and there have been many movies made about those adventures like The Right Stuff and Apollo 13. I am here to say that Alfonso Cuaròn’s Gravity has set a new standard for the genre. It will take you into unimaginable despair, palpable tension and a sense of hope, all set against one of the most beautiful backdrops ever put to film.
And it does so in 90 minutes.
*Minor Spoilers Ahead*
When Gravity opens we are greeted with a breathtaking view of Earth. Dr. Ryan Stone (Sandra Bullock) is having a hard time keeping her lunch down as she works on the Hubble telescope during her first space mission. The counterpoint to Stone is Matt Kowalski (George Clooney), who is a veteran astronaut on his final mission into the stars. As Stone upgrades the telescope, Kowalski is having fun testing a new thruster pack while listening to country music and regaling Houston with his many stories of different women who have broken his heart. He begins each story with “Houston, I have a bad feeling about this mission” and as a bit of history embedded in the movie, Cuarón has Ed Harris voicing the Houston end of communication.
As repairs continue Houston warns the team of a Russian anti-satellite test that has gone wrong and has created a debris field that is growing larger as it takes out more satellites (think The Perfect Storm, just with satellite parts). Stone and Kowalski are unable to take cover in time and are separated. As Stone spins out of control, helpless, Kowalski uses his jetpack to reach her and tether them together. Their shuttle being completely rendered useless, Kowalski decides to try and get them to the International Space Station and use an escape pod to reach Earth.
Do not be fooled into thinking this is simply “Cast Away in Space”. There is no space volleyball. Clooney is a prime player and the voice of calm and reason for much longer than you think. But when this becomes Bullock’s film, she absolutely owns every minute of it. I always wondered why she won an Oscar for The Blind Side, but I have to say now that if she is not nominated again and a serious contender to win, there is something wrong in Hollywood. She takes you through a gamut of emotions that can rarely be matched. She runs through the five steps of (space) grief, albeit not in the usual order. I so much want to tell you more about the latter half of the film but can not in good conscience do that, needless to say that Bullock is a marvel to watch.
Photo courtesy 233prime.com
I am not a big fan of 3D movies, especially these days with all the post-produced effects as a money grab. I watched Gravity in IMAX 3D and was infinitely happy I did. It is the best use of the format since Avatar (I am not comparing the movies, mind you, just the use of 3D). More than once my jaw was agape at the immense depth of view when you were surrounded by nothing but stars. I flinched once during one particular scene involving the debris field, which comes along more than once. The use of practical effects and CGI are truly amazing.
Alfonso Cuarón was already one of my favorite directors having done Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban and one of my favorite films ever, Children of Men. He has hit new heights with Gravity in ways I never thought possible. For people like me that grew up staring into the stars and wondering what it would be like to float among them, he has given one of the most realistic looks at what it is like. The child in me wants to thank him for the wonder and the adult me wants to praise him for the technical and emotional ride that he has crafted.
Gravity is an achievement that should not be missed. It is my favorite movie of the year, by far.
This review? I didn’t write it. Hell, I haven’t ever played more than a few hours of any Saints Row game. Luckily enough, our friend Mr. Erich Wildgrube has played them all, and was gracious enough to provide us with this freelance review. Not for money, or even a whole lot of thanks, really. In fact, he’s buying me a copy of Saints Row IV just to prove to me how awesome it is in co-op.
Hey! Who wants to write our Diablo 3 review? You’ll need someone to play it with, obviously…
This is the Way the World Ends; Not with a Bang, but a Wub-Wub : A Saints Row IV Review
First off, let me just say that I love the Saints Row games, but SRIV sets a new bar. A lot of people have complained that this game feels disjointed, that it feels like DLC for SR3; Others griped the superhuman abilities within the simulation world are (forgive my internet-speak) OP, while paradoxically complaining the real-world sections are too hard.
I would argue the way certain reviewers have been playing this game makes it disjointed. This game is designed to go back and forth between the simulation and the real world; if you exhaust all the free roam content and then do all the structured missions, there is no payoff to getting “super homies,” extra weapons, and new powers that are then available to you.
I am aware that this title’s core concept came about as an April Fools’ joke, that then transitioned into DLC for SR3, that then became a full game; but after playing it, I am fine with its release as a standalone title. If we are all honest here, we could admit that this game would have been a nightmare as downloadable content. If nothing else, it would have required several patches for balance and bug fixes, and I don’t even know if that would have been enough to deliver a truly finished product.
The first two Saints Row games are dark, serious tales of criminal life interspersed with bits of whimsy; in contrast, The Third and IV have much more of a campy vibe – I am looking at you, dub-step gun. At the same time, this game has a few genuinely touching moments. There are character missions you do with your crew in order to progress their stories and unlock new abilities; the ones with Johnny Gat help solidify him as the “heart” of the series, while the ones with Shaundi reveal far more depth than her buxom figure and foul mouth would outwardly indicate. Fans of the series will get even more from these moments, as many of them are direct throwbacks to previous games.
The Saints Row games are known for some clunky controls, SR1 being the worst offender, and SRIV does not go unscathed. The best way to describe it is “Tom Clancy Syndrome,” where you have so much you can do that you forget which button does what, when. For instance, I never really got taunt or compliment to work right, and only figured out the radio 75% of the way through the game. Now as far as major mechanics go, I love me a ring menu, but the D-pad works well this time around.
Shooting is tight, and the new weapons feel very good. Still, nothing beats the feel of jumping a hundred feet in the air, aiming where you want to land, equipping lightning as your buff, slamming into the ground as hard as you can and wiping out an enemy base without a shot fired. By the end of this game, you are nothing less than a dark god unleashing your powers on the world around you; but if you are following the flow of the game, this is a goal reached after segments where you are outnumbered and outgunned by the enemy, most of which are as intense as they are rewarding.
Photo courtesy gametrailers.com
This is the only Saints Row that does not look significantly better than the one before, but it is also the only Saints Row that I did not notice any lag or freezing during gameplay. I have never seen more customization options in a game, and your guns look awesome. The dialogue in this game is utter perfection; whether you are listening to Shaundi arguing with… Shaundi, or talking to Keith David about his favorite video game.
When SR1 came out all those years ago people accused it of being another GTA clone… it was probably the truth, plain and simple. SR2 was a step in the right direction, but SR3 was the jump that set these two franchises apart. SRIV simply continues that next step. Is it silly? Yes. Can it be unbalanced at times? &@^$ yes. Does it ever stop being Saints Row? Not even for a second. This does not feel like a “new” game so much as it feels like coming home to Third Street to find your crew ready and waiting to hit the streets once more.
[amazon_link id=”B00BRQN2EM” target=”_blank” container=”” container_class=”” ]Saints Row IV was reviewed on Xbox 360. It is also available on PlayStation 3 and PC.[/amazon_link]
It is through the pure love of the character, Richard B. Riddick, by actor Vin Diesel and writer/director David Twohy that this third film was even put to film. After 2004’s The Chronicles of Riddick crashed very hard at the box office it was easy to think that the tales of the night seeing convict were at an end. Diesel and Twohy gathered up $38 million from various backers to help fund another movie, taking Riddick back to a smaller scale single story, instead of a bloated, world-saving adventure.
Good move, guys.
You may or may not remember that at the end of The Chronicles of Riddick he was assuming the throne of the Necromongers, having killed the Lord Marshal. If you don’t remember, just imagine the last fight at the end of David Lynch’s Dune with better special effects and Vin Diesel killing Sting and you should be good to go. Now, as leader, Riddick wants to go searching for his lost home world of Furya. Vaako (Karl Urban, in a brief appearance), gives Riddick a heading and when he reaches the planet he is betrayed by the Necromonger guards and left for dead on the wrong planet.
The first part of the movie is spent with Riddick doing his best Tom Hanks in Cast Away, getting back to his animal side and learning to survive in less than inviting conditions. Now where Hanks had to deal with learning to fish, make camp fires and talking to a ball with a face on it, Riddick has to reset a broken leg, domesticate a feral ocelot creature and fight against large reptilian creatures that hide in water and move across the planet with the rain.
When Riddick makes his way to an emergency beacon station and sends out a distress call, this calls two groups of mercenaries that are looking to collect on the bounty which is double if Riddick is brought back dead. This begins the Riddick fun of him beginning to take out guys one by one until they realize that they all have to work together to get off the planet as the rain comes and brings the creatures to their doorstep. Here is where it gets like Pitch Black with the game of survival and it works again because this is the Riddick character that everyone wants to see, not the destined leader of the Necromongers while saving a holy man’s family. He is a killer that occasionally does what he can for other people…provided they can help him in return.
The cast of mercenaries is mostly “who is that” and “I have seen them somewhere” except for the inclusion of ex-wrestler and recent Guardians of the Galaxy star Dave Bautista and Battlestar Galactica star and nerd goddess Katee Sackhoff, who I will go ahead and help out the movie’s box office right now, has her first nude scene. That sound you hear is a lot of BSG fans either getting in their car to go see the movie or hitting up Google at the same time.
Riddick is big, dumb action fun. You know, like 83% of Vin Diesel movies. The lines are eye-rolling and still illicit laughs even though you have something inside you asking “why the hell am I laughing?”. The action is good and is always a great thing to see Katee Sackhoff beat the shit out of people and that wasn’t even the movie I was paying to see. Diesel is clearly having fun playing Riddick again especially after the long wait between movies and how hard he had to work to get the movie off the ground. This is pure popcorn fare of the highest order and you will either have some fun watching Riddick chopping off heads and talking about going balls deep in someone or you will curse whoever asked you to go to the theater to see it.
For me, I had a good time with Riddick’s return and actually would not mind another flick with the character. Just remember to keep it small.
Well, here we are. Nine years after Shaun of the Dead was released and somehow, inexplicably, went from a cult following to required watching for any comedy or zombie buff, we come to the The World’s End. The third film from the trio of Simon Pegg, Nick Frost and director Edgar Wright and while it may not have as many laugh out loud moments as Shaun or 2007’s Hot Fuzz, it is certainly the most heartfelt and emotional of the three films, which is something I was not expecting, but was completely glad I got it.
Simon Pegg leads the way again as Gary King,a man approaching 40 who has never gotten past the good times of drinking and drugs that were the staples of his youth. He decides that he should get his old school mates back together and attempt The Golden Mile, a pub crawl in their hometown of Newton Haven consisting of twelve pubs that they never finished in their youth.
Ready? Here we go: The First Post, The Old Familiar, The Famous Cock, The Cross Hands, The Good Companions, The Trusty Servant, The Two Headed Dog, The Mermaid, The Beehive, The King’s Head, The Hole in the Wall, The World’s End.
That’s a lot of liquor.
Gary sets off to get his old mates back together and finds their lives exactly what he has always tried to avoid. Peter (Eddie Marsan) has never gotten past being bullied in his youth and is a car saleman at his father’s lot, Oliver (Martin Freeman) is a yuppie real estate agent, Steven (Paddy Considine) is an architect and was and still is a rival for Oliver’s sister (Rosamund Pike) and Andrew (Nick Frost) is a lawyer and Gary’s former best friend before a giant falling out.
Through some manipulation and flat out lying, Gary convinces the four friends to return to Newton Haven and take on the pub crawl that bested them. The night starts out simple enough with Gary reliving the best part of his life while imbibing plenty of pints while the four friends wonder why they even agreed to tag along on the journey. When Gary’s lies begin to fall apart and the group decides to leave is where things go haywire in the form of alien robots (not robots) that have taken over the town for some (what the group thinks) nefarious reasons.
Gary’s plan is to stick to the pub crawl sensing that if they act normally the blue-blooded beings will let them leave, but that is not the case. The five friends make their way from pub to pub getting more and more drunk as they fight groups of killer robots while working through all of their problems with each other. That is where The World’s End feels different from Shaun of the Dead or Hot Fuzz. It is about life not giving you what you thought you should have and trying to revisit the best times of your life only to realize that it can never happen. We grow up, people change, situations alter our plans and life just…happens.
Where The World’s End may disappoint is that it is not as slapstick funny as the previous films in the trilogy. I am not saying that the movie is not funny, far from it, but you will not be leaving the theater with a host of quotable lines that you will instantly connect with the movie. There are plenty of laughs to be had especially when the action gets frantic and everyone is completely off the wagon, it just takes its time and does not skimp on the emotional center and I applaud Pegg, Frost and Wright for doing that.
All in all I have to say that The World’s End would be in third place when it comes to The Cornetto Trilogy with Hot Fuzz being first and Shaun in the middle. That in no way is a slight against the film because it is funny as hell in places and the cast is, once again, top notch with plenty of bit parts from Cornetto regulars and even Pierce Brosnan. The World’s End is a fitting end for the trilogy and will surprise you with the sentimental depth of the relationships.
I’m not going to talk about this game excessively, because it is a game of no excess itself. Originally released as a Flash game in 2010, it was created solely by Mike Bithell; the only collaborative part of the game is the phenomenal soundtrack, which Bithell co-created with David Housden. Since then, it has seen releases on PC, Mac, Linux, PS3 and PS Vita. It is a puzzle-platformer where the player takes control of several AIs, who represent themselves as various quadrilaterals in a 2D environment. Each AI has a unique shape or ability that the player must use in conjunction with the others to progress through each level. The story is told through text, with accompanying narration by Danny Wallace.
And that’s about as far as I want to go into things, other than to tell you that you should go pick it up and play it, right now; or at least the next time you have three-and-a-half hours of free time. Journey, The Unfinished Swan, Quantum Conundrum, and Antichamber are the closest things I can think to compare it to, because these are all games that hinge on how much you are willing to give to them and receive in return. I’m sure there are people who would never be able to see these characters as more than colored rectangles; I personally came to feel very close to Thomas, Chris, Laura, Claire, John, James, and Sarah.
I mentioned the music and narration because the game simply would not be what it is without the involvement of either party. The score is a “procedurally-generated assembly of multiple instrument tracks over a fixed song line” according to Wikipedia. That’s the technical term for something I had noticed during play, which is that each track starts out small and then slowly builds over the course of not just each level, but each world as well. I often found myself pausing to just listen to it in the background; I also found myself coming to a dead stop any time Danny Wallace was speaking, for fear that I might miss some little nuisance in his delivery of the script.
I loved every second of Thomas Was Alone, and if I had one recommendation, it would be to make an effort not to rush through the experience. Try and detach yourself from thoughts of “beating” the game and just enjoy Claire’s super-power, or James’ unique disregard for Newtonian laws. Because this is the kind of game that you only really “experience” the first time through. It wasn’t until the credits were rolling that I realized that it was not Thomas who was alone now, but me.
