Nerd Rating

Category: Reviews

  • Worx WG787 Cordless Electric Lawn Mower Review

    worx-787-cordless-lawn-mower

    The best mower I’ve ever used

    After moving from an apartment into a house with a grassy yard, I headed up to Lowes for some lawn mower shopping with my son. We eventually chose the [amazon_link id=”B007AQZ9S0″ target=”_blank” container=”” container_class=”” ]Worx WG787 Cordless Electric Lawn Mower[/amazon_link] for three reasons:

    My favorite features:

    1. No gas.
    2. No cords.
    3. Quiet Mode.

    Other great features:

    • Cuts up to 15,000 square feet on a single charge
    • Up to 45 minutes of runtime
    • 3-in-1 cutting for mulching, bagging, or rear discharge; push-button starting
    • Adjustable mowing height from 1.5 to 3.5 inches; 17-inch cutting width
    • IntelliCut mowing technology adds torque when you’re cutting tough grass
    • Special mulching blade chops up clippings better than standard blades

    Over the past few months I’ve put these features to the test during the fast-growing sub-tropical Alabama summer.

    Smart Design

    The Worx 787 proves to be a lightweight, but durable, grass-eating beast that’s easy to maneuver. A hefty 12-volt rechargeable/removable battery makes up the bulk of the mower’s weight. Its lightness makes it feel deceptively delicate, but it’s actually pretty tough. I’ve banged it around the front and back yard in bumpy muddy weed-heavy terrain without any problems.

    The battery slides in and out of the mower body with ease. So easily in fact, if the mower tips over while in use the battery actually falls out, turning off the blade motor. At first I thought this was a flaw, but I realized it may be a safety feature since the blades are exposed if the mower is on its side. Even if it wasn’t an intentional decision by the industrial designers, I appreciate the feature while doing yard work with kids around.

    And of course, the battery-powered device is free from the hassle managing cords.

    I do wish the wheels were a bit larger, to help it cruise through deep overgrowth a bit better, but if you mow regularly, it’s not an issue.

    Politely powerful

    The Quiet Mode has a clever feature called Intellicut, which ramps up the power if you need it, but remains quieter than a hair dryer so you can mow at night without disturbing your neighbors. Not that you’d want to mow at night, but if you’re like me, you may want to get some yard work in while the kids are taking a nap.

    Treat yourself to the best cordless electric mower around… or the bigger one.

    Now that I’ve owned the Worx 787 for several months I have zero regret. Simple, clean, and surprisingly quiet, it dominates the lawn. [amazon_link id=”B007AQZ9S0″ target=”_blank” container=”” container_class=”” ]Buy it on amazon.com[/amazon_link]

    Or check it its big brother, the [amazon_link id=”B003BJE9WM” target=”_blank” container=”” container_class=”” ]more powerful self-propelled model[/amazon_link].

    Anybody else have a favorite mower?

     

  • Review: Little Big Planet PS Vita

    Can Sack Boy Save The Vita?

    It has been a rough summer for Vita owners. After the system’s initial launch there has not been much to be truly excited about. The games have been on a slow trickle out to retail with Gravity Rush being a small bright spot. There are only so many PS Minis and AR titles one can download before thinking that your cool piece of handheld technology is becoming a $250 paperweight.

    But there is a change coming and it began with the (early) release of Little Big Planet PS Vita as well as Sony giving the system some practical uses (PSOne classics, Cross-Buy) and a fall lineup that is shaping up to be better than expected. But right now, this is Sack Boy’s system.

    Little Big Planet PS Vita had me wondering if Tarsier could take over for Media Molecule and not only bring a complete LBP experience to Sony’s handheld but make use of all the Vita’s bells and whistles to change the way you play the series. Quite simply, the answer is a resounding yes.

    If you are familiar with the Little Big Planet series then initially you are not in for many surprises. You will be introduced to our hero Sack Boy and taken to the comfort of your world hub, known as your Pod. Here you will choose between three worlds of adventures. The first being the games story mode, the second is the community creations world where you download all of the weird (sometimes really weird) levels made by other Vita players and the third being your world of your own wonderful creativity.

    When beginning the story mode there is a comforting voice at the beginning, that of Stephen Fry which returns to give Sack Boy a new journey. Now trying to explain a Little Big Planet story is like explaining War and Peace to a five year old, there are some things you just don’t try to put into words. Like all other stories in the series it is perfectly understandable if you are in a constant state of….let’s say consciousness. (This site would never endorse illegal smoking) Sack Boy’s journey begins with a tutorial that will introduce players to all of our hero’s skills including all the new uses of the touch screens, both front and rear, as well as jumping and grappling. In no time you will be swinging and pad bouncing around like an old pro.

    Community Is King

    The level design in Little Big Planet is second to none and that is before you even leave the story mode to explore the creative community. Here is where you will find creations from all other LBP players all over the world. The best part about this is discovering what people can create with just a mind for creation and a lot (A LOT) of time on their hands. Levels range from the truly remarkable to the downright frustrating especially when you fight through a level and see that the creator really made no way to beat it. Annoying? Yes, but the beauty is in looking around and discovering the truly amazing levels of creativity that even puts some real game makers to shame.

    One of the best features to the entire game is the Memorizer. With this you can actually save inside someone’s user created level. This essentially means that people around the world can make entire games, not just one off levels. Imagine if someone wanted to make a LBP version of Gears of War. There are almost limitless possibilities with the use of this tool and really does make the game almost never ending.

    Now on the opposite side of playing other people’s levels is the level creator itself. Now I will just go ahead and tell you that this is one part of the game that I am not in love with but that is not to game’s detriment, it is to my lack of time to truly sit down and create the levels that are swimming in my head. Some of the menus are a little difficult to navigate through and place items exactly how you want them but as I said I lack the patience as some people to really delve into the nuts and bolts and focus all my energy on it. I have created a few basic levels involving jump gaps and grappling but when I think about the amount of time it took me to create them against some of the community levels I have played it staggers my mind to imagine how much time was spent crafting those levels. Again, that is not the game’s fault but my own feeble brain.

    If you have played through any of the first two Little Big Planet’s on Playstation 3 and own a Vita then this should be an instant buy for you. I would even recommend buying the system to get your fix for LBP. It is really that good. While the story mode is a little on the short side that does not affect the game at all with its robust and seemingly never ending user created content that should keep the game fresh and playable for months and maybe years to come.

    Nerd Rating- 9/10

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  • Review: Batman: The Dark Knight Returns Part 1 (Blu-Ray)

    Can This Animated Film Stay Faithful To Frank Miller’s Legendary Work?

    To say that adapting The Dark Knight Returns is a daunting task may be an understatement. Frank Miller’s 1986 classic is considered by most to be one of the greatest Batman graphic novels (along with Miller’s own Batman: Year One and Alan Moore’s The Killing Joke) ever published. DC Animated has already adapted Year One and did a good job of it but The Dark Knight Returns is a different beast. The “futuristic” dystopian feel of a Gotham fallen back into a state of hopelessness ten years removed from the last sighting of Batman has such an identity in the comic as well as involving a group of Batman’s and DC’s most iconic figures you begin to think that this could become a lost endeavor before you begin to watch.

    The movie opens just as the comic does with Bruce Wayne involved in a horrific wreck while racing F-1 cars in Gotham and right off the bat I am thrown off by the lack of internal monologue. It plays such a huge role in Miller’s work that it will take a few minutes to get past the exclusion of it especially if you know a lot of the source material by heart. But after a few minutes you become involved with the story that you know so well that it becomes an afterthought.

    As Commissioner Gordon prepares for his retirement, Gotham is being overrun with a string of murders, rapes, kidnappings and robberies by a gang known as the Mutants. Their leader broadcasts their hatred for the law and that the will kill Gordon and take the city. Thankfully for the purists the Mutant gang’s weird speech type has been left in tact as well as their distinct look.

    The smartest thing that DC did was to split this feature into two parts. The story is such a large event that it would have felt bastardized trying to fit it into 75 minutes. Even with two parts there is still so much story to digest in part one. Harvey Dent’s release from Arkham with a new face and new lease on life that doesn’t last that long, Carrie Kelly taking it upon herself to pick up the mantle of Robin and prove herself to the returning Batman, all of the interspersed news coverage showing the political and cultural overtones of Batman and what he represents to society and the caped crusader’s pair of fights with the hulking Mutant leader. It is all handled well in the movie with a few slight changes to the story that are subtle and only will be noticed by avid fans but none of them really had me cursing at the screen yelling ” YOU RUINED IT!”

    The animation is on par with every other DC release over the past few years. It’s mostly clean looking but sometimes feels like a little more care could have been given to it. I was excited to see what they could do with the look of Gotham considering the source material but was left feeling disappointed when it looked like a mostly bland city instead of the dirty, neon filled streets from Klaus Janson’s art style. The look of the characters is mostly intact with the only noticable difference being how young The Joker looks when you finally see him full frame at the end of the movie.

    The voice cast is good, not great. Gordon’s light undertone voice takes a few minutes to get used to but Carrie and the Mutant leader are pretty close to how I imagined when reading the graphic novel. Robocop himself Peter Weller has the opportunity to voice Batman and it is a mixed bag. During some scenes he seems to just be reading lines as Peter Weller, with no inflection or emotion at all but then will deliver one of the classic lines from the story and have you thinking “so that’s why they hired him”. Don’t worry Kevin Conroy, you still have nothing to worry about.

    A few minutes into the movie I was beginning to wonder if this movie could attain the lofty goals it set for itself by taking on such a beloved and legendary work. But the more I watched, the more I became engrossed in the story that I have read time and time again and by the time Batman gives his “This isn’t a mud pit. It’s a operating table” line near the end of the movie I was sold that despite a few missteps the animated department at DC took a chance and it paid off with a good feature that does have me looking forward to the second part.

    Well that and wanting to see an old Batman completely kick the s*** out of Superman.

    Nerd Rating: 8/10

     

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  • Review: Dredd

    Karl Urban Brings New Life To The Man Of The Law

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    First off let’s go ahead and get the blasphemy out of the way. I liked Sylvester Stallone’s Judge Dredd. It is a guilty pleasure for me. Like Demolition Man or Cobra, it was a big dumb action movie that promised a lot of explosions and Stallone overacting and it’s exactly what you got. It doesn’t apologize for it’s shallowness and it really doesn’t need to for an action movie. Now that we have that out of the way how does the 2012 version stand up to the mostly reviled 1995 flick? Dredd takes it’s predecessor out back and judges it guilty then puts one clean in the head.

    The judges are the police force in Mega City One, a massive concrete jungle with a population of almost a billion people. After a brief introduction to Judge Dredd complete with motorcycle chase and harsh judgment of a trio of criminals, Dredd is called back to the Hall of Justice where he is given a rookie to give his assessment on in the field. But this rookie is unlike any others because she is a psychic and despite being on the low end of testing is believed to be worth a badge because of her abilities. The two go to investigate a murder call at Peachtrees which is a “megablock”, a huge building that houses thousands of people and here is where you spend the rest of the movie.

    Dredd Hard?

    Peachtrees is under control of Ma Ma, a woman who controls the manufacturing of the newest hit drug on the street known as Slow-Mo. Not wanting to let the judges leave nice and quietly Ma Ma has the building locked down and sends all of her men hunting after them. One of the reasons Dredd works is that it keeps the action confined to enclosed spaces. In essence, it goes Die Hard with the action. Dredd and his partner are on a track to mow through every criminal from floor one all the way to two hundred. If this movie had tried to be a spawling sci-fi, futuristic epic it would have lost some of it’s appeal.

    I think I would define the shootouts in the film as beautifully gory. Blood flows freely and often complete with exploding heads and visceral slow motion bullet piercings. It easily earns it’s R rating and some folks may find it gratuitous but I felt it holds true to the character’s comic roots. Anything less would have seemed like a cop out by the film makers and thankfully there were no compromises made.

    One problem many had with the Stallone version was he spent half the movie sans helmet in an attempt to humanize Judge Dredd. Karl Urban had gone on record while they were filming that you would never and should never see Dredd without his headwear and they have stuck to their guns here. All you see is a black visor and Urban’s grisled mug scowling the whole movie. Urban, over the past ten years has carved a niche by taking over roles and making them completely his. From Eomer in The Lord of the Rings to his amazing turn as Dr. McCoy in Star Trek and even to lesser extent as “Reaper” in Doom and now with Dredd Urban keeps adding to his bada** character profile. Hearing him say “I am the law” should put a devilish smile on any fans face.

    Dredd-1

    Olivia Thirlby plays Dredd’s rookie psychic partner Anderson with an emotional strength that shows a few cracks but never breaks and Lena Headey is almost unrecognizable as the scarred up drug queen Ma Ma. Past that the rest of the cast should be filed under gun fodder, simply there for our twisted viewing pleasure.

    Dredd is a dirty, bloody and borderline NC-17 violent movie that keeps the spirit of the almost 40 year old character alive and well. Fans of the character, comics in general and utter gruesome violence should go and see this. And see it quickly.

    Nerd Rating- 8.5/10

  • Review: Mass Effect 3: Leviathan

    Does Commander Shepard’s New Mission Deliver?

    Leviathan is an interesting piece of DLC. If you are like me then you finished Mass Effect 3 months ago and have the ending to your Commander Shepard story firmly entrenched in your head. Now whether you liked the ending or not is up for grabs considering all the fan outcry when the game released but you have an ending nevertheless. So now Bioware has given us this add on mission which, while it would appear to not have a huge impact on a game finished for months on end, does manage to give some vital information into the Reaper’s history. Even if it is a little slow getting there.

    The mission starts as every piece of Mass Effect DLC does, by checking your email. There you receive a message asking Commander Shepard to go speak to a Dr. Bryson on the Citadel about the possibility of a creature powerful enough to kill a Reaper. After you arrive at the doctor’s lab he is killed by his assistant who seems to be under control by some outside force and now it is up to you to piece together the doctor’s research and find the being called Leviathan. And this is where the mission slows to a halt.

    The great office search is on.

    Yeah that title sums up a good portion of the mission. I love Mass Effect. Every one of them but this part of the DLC just seemed stuck into the game to give the content more of a playtime. You will run around Dr. Bryson’s office and bedroom a lot. And the searching isn’t even skillful. Just run around and click on everything you see and go to the galaxy map and get told where to go. Now if it had just been a one time trip before getting back to the action then it could be more forgivable but you will do this multiple times. Search the doctor’s things, head out for a bit of space flight, scanning planets, a bit of shooting and then head back to Bryson’s. I am not meaning this to sound as harsh as it does but this is over half the mission.

    Once you have located the whereabouts of Leviathan is where, to me anyway, this began feeling more like Mass Effect. Taking the drop ship down to the water based planet you are hit with a pulse of energy that crashes you and your team on a rig surrounded by nothing but ocean and what looks like thousands of years worth of decimated ships. As Reaper forces drop down the battle gets hot and heavy and you get to really get back into the combat. It had been a few months since I played Mass Effect 3 so by the time this section of the DLC came I was just getting used to the controls again. But like an old pro I was popping off biotics and melees no problem.

    Mech Effect 3

    After you get through the first waves of husks, brutes and banshees, Cortez tells you that there is a mech suit that you can use to dive down into the ocean to check out what your probe has found. You must first charge the battery pack while more enemies assault your position then you get to take your new mechanical friend out for a walk. There is a short burst of combat inside the mech but once you are in the ocean it is strictly exploration. While the mech section doesn’t last long it is a fun change of course and the underwater walk around has a slight (very slight, but still cool) Bioshock feel to it.

    Without getting too spoiler happy, once you find Leviathan is where the real meat of the story is. You find out the beginnings of the Reapers and why they look as they do. Leviathan reveals a good deal of important back story that should be known by all Mass Effect fans and adds more depth to the universe that you have been trying to save since 2007.

    While a good chunk of the DLC left me a bit numb mentally, the end battle and subsequent revelations about the Reapers history makes this a must download for Mass Effect lovers.

    Nerd Rating- 7.5/10

     

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  • Review: New Super Mario Bros. 2

    It really is quite amazing to think that in Mario’s long and illustrious history that a game like New Super Mario Bros. 2 has never been released. Making coin collecting the focal point of the game has taken the old premise and added a good turn of OCD coin looting to the mix and rewards players that want to go out of their way to find secret levels, find every star coin and spend every last second they have on a level trying to attain all the little gold pieces possible.

    Ok here is the obligatory Mario plot synopsis. Stop me if you’ve heard this before. The Princess is chilling in her castle when the Koopalings come along and kidnap her and take her to Bowser’s big bad castle. So first off, Bowser has become too lazy to kidnap her himself and also has anyone ever thought about who the Koopalings mom was? I mean Bowser has kidnapped the Princess a lot. Now that I have taken Mario to a deep, dark place that you will never forget let’s move on!

    One thing that the Mario franchise has never been lazy on is level design and that does not change here. You will be platforming your way through nine levels which include the normal environments of desert, water, snow and fire as well as three special worlds of the mushroom, flower and star variety. Now while the environments may not change the actual level design is all sorts of Mario goodness. As a lifelong Mario player I still found myself cursing at certain ghost houses or castles filled with rotating buzzsaws….those effing buzzsaws. But that is part of what makes the game endearing. You may want to throw your 3DS occasionally but you keep going onward because as weird as it sounds, the frustration is part of the fun.

    The new twist with New Super Mario Bros. 2 is that for the first time ever the game keeps up with your cumulative coin totals. Now that may seem like a simple change but you are given new powers and new game types to ensure that you will be collecting long after you have beaten the game. Special golden fireballs allow you to destroy any enemy you hit with them on screen and add extra coins for doing it. Special gold rings turn enemies gold and assign coin totals to each one killed. Stomp on a Koopa and hit his shell into enemies and watch your coin total balloon. Not to mention all the P blocks to find for blue coinage and each level truly has it’s own chance to be a banking bonanza.

    Another new addition to the game is coin rush mode. These are three randomly selected levels from different parts of the game which have you speed running through them to see how many coins you can collect. You start off with 99 seconds and have to take off and try and use all your skills and memorization of the past levels to keep the money coming. Now it’s not quite as rushed as you may think because there are random clocks to find to add to your timer but if you don’t pay attention fully to what’s going on you will quickly be staring at zeroes on the clock. This mode is where a majority of my coinage has come from because you can really get on a roll and get a great count for the three levels and for every flag you hit the top of at the end, your coin total doubles. And when you have your Streetpass on it will automatically send out your high scores and receive them from other players so there will always be a challenge out there for you.

    One thing that I could pick out to complain about would be the lack of any kind of 3D look to the game. It is colorful and very vibrant but it had no use at all in 3D mode. When I would set it on any kind of 3D the background would move back but become so smudged looking that it was almost ugly. This is definitely one to play with the 3D turned off unless you like beautiful levels marred by background that appear through dirty film.

    Nitpicking aside this game is a good, not great addition to the Mario family. Completely replayable and while it doesn’t break much new ground with enemies or environments it should be applauded for attempting something new that works for this as a handheld title.

    42,000 coins and counting. What is your total so far?

     

    NERD RATING- 8/10

     

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  • Review: Spec Ops: The Line

     

    Moral choices in games are not a new thing. We’ve all played games that give us choices that affect the outcome of a game either for the good or the bad. Spec Ops: The Line takes those black and white morality conundrums and smears the line with a new shade of grey where there is no right and wrong, just bad and worse.

    You play as Martin Walker, a captain in the Delta Force Squad. You and two strike team officers, Adams and Lugo, drop down into Dubai to search for a missing colonel. But this Dubai is not the sprawling Arabian city that we all know. This Dubai has been decimated by a massive sandstorm that has left the city in shambles and the number of survivors unclear.

    As you and your men delve into the city you quickly realize that not everything is as it appears to be. The man you are looking for, Colonel Konrad, who vanished trying to evacuate the city, may be the man that has taken over the city with the remains of his unit, the 33rd. Here is where some of your moral dilemma begins when the 33rd begins attacking you and you and your men are forced to kill American soldiers to stay alive. And believe me when I say that this is an easy decision to make when compared to the actions you are forced to take later on.

    That is where this game really sets itself apart. Even with all my playthroughs of the Mass Effect trilogy or Knights of the Old Republic I knew pretty much which direction I was heading in with my decisions. With Spec Ops I was truly sitting there thinking about not just how my decisions affected Walker or his team but also the refugees left in the city. It’s a lot of weight on one’s shoulders….and it’s just a game.

    A game this heavy would not be near as good if the writing was not up to snuff and I have no problem in saying that head writer Walt Williams has crafted and solid script that resonates even now that the game is done. I can only imagine how hard it must be to write for a game and try to get players to truly connect with your character hoping that nothing gets lost from the page to the screen.

    While the gameplay won’t win any awards for innovation, it is a serviceable cover based shooter. Cover doesn’t feel as tight as Gear of War but it gets the job done. There are instances of taking cover on the wrong side of a corner leaving yourself open for a backside full of enemy ammo or not being able to vault over things when you absolutely need to in the middle of a firefight but none of these things make the game unplayable. It is good, not great. The shooting mechanics feel right and the selection of weapons is a good size without being too much to grasp.

    Of course, with almost all games now, there is multiplayer but it is not anything to write home about. You have your basic class and faction selection and weapon loadout. I wish there was more to say about it honestly. It is a bit bug filled and has a few problems. This is a single player game at its heart and I can’t help but feel that multiplayer has been tacked on.

    I did have a lot of fun with Spec Ops: The Line. It is a game that kind of snuck up  and surprised me in a good way especially with its balls to tell a story that is more about what can go wrong with our decisions, not what goes right.

     

    NERD RATING- 8/10

     

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  • Review: Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater HD

    When Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater released on the Playstation in August of 1999 I don’t think anyone, even publisher Activision, knew just how immensely popular the game would be. I remember staying up late nights with friends trying to find all the SKATE letters and attempting to find the hidden video cassettes in every level.

     

    But like with any game that finds huge success there would be sequels. And in the case of Tony Hawk boy would there be plenty of them. THPS 2 and 3 were still very good skateboarding games but soon after we were under the deluge of Bam Margera cameos and skateboard peripherals. Ten sequels in ten years will tend to thin out creativity (you listening Call of Duty?).

     

    Now almost two years after the last Tony Hawk release Activision has decided that old is the new new and gotten developer Robomodo to remake Tony Hawk into a powerhouse again. What has come of that is Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater HD which takes the best levels of Tony Hawk 1 and 2 as well as a healthy bulk of the original soundtrack and given them an HD facelift.

     

    Let’s get this out of the way early. This game is freaking fun. No more loading tunnels for open worlds or trying to do a kickflip on a fake skateboard that won’t read your tricks. This is straight up Tony Hawk like you remember from way back (13 years….wow) and it controls just as good as you remember. Tricks and grabs are assigned to the button layout as well as the grind and jump. Spin is attained by control stick or the left and right triggers. Sound familiar? Manuals are back as well and can make for some sick combos.

     

    If you are reading this and thinking to yourself, “Nothing sounds different”, well for the most part you are right. And that is what is so refreshing about this game. The first time you bust through the glass into the Warehouse stage it’s like a warm feeling of better days when you were young and it was only plastic cars.

     

    Stages are unlocked the old fashioned way, by earning it. Collecting SKATE letters, hidden DVD’s, doing certain stage specific tricks and trying to get the progressively higher scores will have you skating on. And with this being a “best of” game from THPS 1 and 2 you will gladly keep grinding away to unlock the next stage so you can relive more memories. I already mentioned Warehouse as one of the levels and in addition you get: Mall, Hangar, School 2, Venice Beach, Marseille and Downhill Jam.

     

    The new in the game is mostly good with modes like Big Head which has the players head inflating slowly and the only way to keep it from exploding is to keep up your combo total. It’s also good to see online leaderboards added to the title because what’s better than comparing your high scores to you friends? Why comparing it to the entire world. You will find out quickly that no matter how good you think you are there is always a 14 year old in Seattle way better. That to me is a challenge.

     

    The only place I would say that trips the game up is the roster of skaters. Gone are the days of Bob Burnquist, Bucky Lasek and Rune Glifberg. Now we gets the likes of Andrew Reynolds (huh), Chris Cole (again, huh) and Riley Hawk, Tony’s son (dang we’re old). But you can still play as the Hawkman and also use your avatar on 360 so even my only gripe about the game is a minor one.

     

    Graphically, the team at Robomodo have done a great job sprucing up this 13 year old title. While it is not going to challenge Crysis in a graphics contest it is leaps and bounds about the original PS1 classic. It really is the perfect blend of playing a new game while remaining familiar.

     

    Finally the soundtrack is a big winner. While it doesn’t boast all the tracks from the first two games you get a great collection that includes: Powerman 5000, Goldfinger, and a host of new tracks. I dare you to not start singing Bring the Noise when it comes up on any level. Remember music? Yeah, I do too.

     

    So should you download Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater HD? Only if you want a game with smooth controls, awesome soundtrack and that good feeling you get when you remember back to better times….and better games.

     

    NERD RATING- 8/10

     

     

  • Review: The Dark Knight Rises

     

    Let’s just go ahead and answer everyone’s question right up front. Is The Dark Knight Rises better than The Dark Knight? No it is not. But that in no way is a negative judgment against Christopher Nolan’s last Batman adventure. Not a lot could top The Dark Knight. It was a force of nature four years ago and still is today upon repeated viewings, so if you go into the theater expecting a better movie you may leave a little disappointed. What you will get is a long, ambitious epic that puts a perfect cap on Nolan’s Bat trilogy.

     

    It has been eight long years since Harvey Dent went a bit on the crazy side and tried to kill Jim Gordon’s family while Batman took the fall for the fallout so that the city could hold up Dent as their savior and use his death to pass an act that has cleaned up the city. With major crime effectively under control Bruce Wayne has retired from being the Caped Crusader to become a recluse who nurses his battle wounds and lives in regret over the death of his love, Rachel Dawes.

     

    But like with any hero Bruce cannot escape his need (or want) for Gotham to have the Batman again. When he is robbed by a lovely cat burglar named Selina Kyle, played very capably by the scene chewing Anne Hathaway, he begins to slowly come out of his shell eventually getting back into the cape and cowl despite his butler Alfred’s insistence that he should stay away.

     

    As happenstance would have it, the return of Batman comes about at the same time a new big bad known as Bane is setting his master plan in motion to take over Gotham and complete Ra’s Al Ghul’s vision. Bane is viciously played by Tom Hardy who is not as scene stealing as Heath Ledger’s Joker but is much more of a physical threat to Batman. This is one thing that helped the movie immensely. While Batman Begins had Ra’s and Scarecrow and The Dark Knight has the Clown Prince of Crime, none really seemed like Batman’s physical superior. That is not the case here. Bane is a physical specimen and much more dangerously is just as smart as he is strong.  If you are read up on Bane’s history in the Bat universe then you know basically what is coming about halfway through the movie but the event is still powerful and brutal.

     

    I really had no problem understanding Hardy’s unique voice during the movie. With stories floating around since last December about his performance being lost in the muffled voice behind the mask I had a few concerns going in but it looks like Nolan did heed advice and clear up Bane’s dialogue which is great because Hardy’s nuanced performance adds so much to the story. It’s not just the voice (which yes does sound like Goldfinger) but the emotions he is able to convey with his eyes and body motions that complete the character.

     

    Now don’t get me wrong the movie is not without flaws. But most of them are so small that they don’t merit mentioning but one that I do want to mention is Gary Oldman’s Jim Gordon. He has plenty to do in this movie but after having him be such an integral part of The Dark Knight he does seem to get lost in the shuffle of the massive story and the number of characters that are given screen time. Oldman is still wonderful in his scenes but Gordon had much more of a meaningful role in The Dark Knight.

     

    Everyone else on the roster has brought their A-game as you would expect. Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s John Blake does not seem like a thrown in character. Much of the first half of the movie is from his perspective yet it feels completely at home in the Nolan Bat-verse. Morgan Freeman is his usual witty self and Michael Caine puts an exclamation point on the statement that he his the best version of Alfred ever, comics or film. Seriously, dude had me tearing up in two scenes. In a Batman movie.

     

    This is a big, robust movie that is like most of Nolan’s work. It gets so big with so much at stake that you feel that it may collapse on itself but in the hands of a great director it transcends just being another Batman story and speaks on many levels including political unrest, the loss of hope and how anyone can become more than a man.

     

    Where The Dark Knight felt as a stand alone movie this feels like a companion piece to Batman Begins while also bridging every character from all three films. It succeeds in bringing to a close the greatest super hero trilogy ever and avoids the pitfalls of most third films (see Godfather, Spider-Man) by giving a true emotional payoff for the characters that we have been investing ourselves in since the summer of 2005.

     

    When I look back I would probably say that The Avengers is still the greatest comic book movie ever made but The Dark Knight Rises may be the better movie.

     

    NERD RATING- 9/10

  • Review: Lego Batman 2

    lego-batman-2-superman-flying

    I know what you are initially thinking, Lego games are a dime a dozen. From Star Wars, Harry Potter, Pirates of the Caribbean and later on this year with the Lord of the Rings, Lego and developers Traveler’s Tales have invaded every facet of movies and pop culture. Some have been winners (Star Wars) and others have seemed like cash-ins (that’s Captain Jack Sparrow to you). With Lego Batman 2: DC Super Heroes the developers have truly gone for broke and crafted an open world Gotham that is as much fun to explore as it is to  complete your missions. And by adding in other playable heroes (Justice League!!) the game never grows into the repetitive battle and Lego building that has plagued the games before it.

    Now I won’t try and fool you. You are still going to be doing your fair share of button mashing and collecting Lego pieces but now that you are given the option of doing that or just roaming around downtown Gotham opens up the gameplay so much. In most Lego games when I would become bogged down from the repetitive feeling of the game I would simply shut it off and move on for a while but here I find myself driving, flying or racing my way around the city to blow off some steam…or just keep listening to the sweet soundtrack.

    That’s right since this game was released under the WB games branch it means you get Danny Elfman’s awesome Batman theme blaring through your speakers and that is not all. When you finally get to take over playing as Superman you are met with John William’s iconic Superman theme. As a nerd this adds so much to the game that it is hard to describe the feeling of when you take flight and the Superman theme hits and all you want to do is fly around Gotham City living out your childhood dreams, just in Lego form. Even now I am getting a few goosebumps thinking about it.

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    Gameplay wise you are not going to find any huge leap forward to the action genre. You are going to be hitting punch….a lot. As well as jump, then jump and punch to execute an air attack. See where I am going here? The real meat of the gameplay, as with any Lego game, is by using the different characters in your party to open up the locked off portions of levels for the rest of your team. This is accomplished with the finding of a huge variety of suits. Batman has an electricity suit, a sensor suit (for stealth use) and many more. Robin, likewise, has and acrobat suit, magnet suit, etc. I could easily lie to all of you and say that I breezed through the game without thought but there were many times I was standing there examining a room and thinking just how in the heck was I going to use the suits to get to the next available area. None of the puzzles are mind numbingly hard but some will give you pause for a minute or two.

    Even though the game is subtitled DC Super Heroes you will play the majority of this game as Batman and Robin so don’t go into this thinking you will just jump right in and fly around as Green Lantern. But the sections that you do get to play as a Justice League member offers a great break in the gameplay especially when you are the Man of Steel. I don’t mean to short change the rest of the playable Justice League members here but I really don’t see how we as gamers have yet to get a quality Superman title yet everything he does in this game feels exactly right. If I could tell any developer that wanted to make a Supes game how to go about it I would just say play this game…..and do that.

    This is also the first Lego game that has featured full voice acting. That’s right, no more reading facial expressions this game has an actual script and it is actually pretty dang funny. Batman is super serious to a fault, Robin is a crackly voice teen that makes mistakes and Superman is a tool. The even managed to bring in Clancy Brown from the Superman animated series to reprise his role as Lex Luthor. I found myself laughing out loud on many occasions in between levels. I am happy to say that the voice cast make this game so much more complete and give me new hope that when The Lord of the Rings game releases this fall it will be another winner like this title.

    With it’s new open world style, quality voice acting, hilarious script, fewer camera problems than other Lego games and side missions to keep you busy for hours on end, Lego Batman 2: DC Super Heroes not only raises the bar for Lego games, it takes the bar and goes up, up and away.

     

    NERD RATING- 8.5/10

     

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