Films and Games of June!
Ugh I am melted. Sure its not as hot as down in England seems to be... but working in Odeon's retail section aaaall the time isn't much worse! Especially when its busy and the staff on before you haven't resupplied ANY stock ._.
Anyway, that's my rant about work problems out the way! Though I have to say... I loved getting paid as much as I did... but I'd like to know where its all gone? =(
Works
On the plus side, I feel integrated into work now; seems I get more appreciation nowadays. Plus there's a load of newbies for the summer... I've already been asked to take charge of one of them o.O
I have a lot of work to do on the game though. I have a list. I am hacking my way through it with my free time. The level is basically done now... I am onto leftover characters and level assets and of course the rigging and animation of those characters... yea. Its going to be a fun few weeks.
Don't think I have any images to show you really... its all a bit in-development right now.
It has been a looooong month! Here we go...
Films of June
Angels & Demons
It's funny... I prefered Da Vinci Code as a book to Angels & Demons, yet their film counterparts I much preferred A&D! This film felt more together than the first, as it is really a film based around a ticking time bomb. The pace is fast, while at the same time having some neat twists and some quite grisly, dark imagery.
Much like the book in this way, but anyone who knows the book will see a lot of changes from start to finish; the ending is completely different. But while this can annoy, the film version works better than an imagining of the book's ending.
Overall I enjoyed it. Unlikely to be a DVD purchase any time soon, but I was pleasantly surprised.
Though Tom Hanks still seems too old for the character...
Terminator Salvation
A pleasant surprise! Though in following T3 how can you get any worse? Salvation does have a head start with extremely low expectations, but from the trailer it showed promise.
Thankfully we ditch the tired "hunting down a member of the Connor family" plotline and finally go all out with what fans have wanted since the 80s. The Future War. When I was a kid I wanted to see more of this aspect and I felt Salvation delivered. Everything is desolate, everything is destroyed and the film has a real gritty feel to it. Terminators are everywhere, SkyNet machines are at war with humans and we see the continued development of John Connor as he tries to prove himself to be leader of the resistance.
Or at least... we are suppose to see this. Christian Bale's Connor seems to be on the sidelines as a much more developed story involving Sam Worthington's character, a battle between man and machine.
I really want to see more of this series, probably even want to see (stupidly named) McG direct again. Great action, great to see real Terminators again and not CG all the time.
Tropic Thunder
Not my usual. Ben Stiller comedies and Jack Black, neither really go with me. But I actually quite enjoyed this! It starts off a little like Grindhouse, oddly; our lead characters are actors making a Vietnam war movie, but to understand them we have a host of different trailers from movies the character have starred in. I loved this bit, in fact I think a film of just random stupid trailers would be awesome!
The general gist is their new film is failing as the actors can't work together. So the director takes them into the jungle to secretly film them improvising. (while he is scaring the life out of them with explosions) Unfortunately, the local druglords don't take too kindly to this, and our hapless heroes find themselves in a very real war film!
Enjoyable, rips into all of the classic Vietnam war films (which I grew tired of very quickly) watch even just for the fake trailers. Oh... and a cameo of a very famous actor... who I did not recognise until the credits! =o
Amistad
Best way I can describe this film is... Steven Spielberg epic set in the 1800's about African slavery and I had fully intended to do something else while watching. I sat down... but ended up watching all of it, start to finish.
It is hard to review this sort of film, except to say that it is excellently paced, moving and real. It moves from painfully real with shocking intensity to being really quite lighthearted with some of the dialogue. I would say if you want to see what films Spielberg used to make, before he started endorsing computer games and making films like Minority Report and War of the Worlds, I'd recommend this one.
The only downsides I saw, were that Morgan Freeman's character (a black man working as an investigator) felt a little unexplored; he would often appear, have a scene with little dialogue but truckloads of meaning, then nothing. Obviously it is fairly self-explanatory, but I felt there should have been more. Also... does Matthew McConaughey always play an underdog lawyer?
Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen
Oh boy. I've had long enough to wrap my feelings up about this, I guess. I suppose it is hard to have lightning strike twice; I loved the first film, even with aaaaall its flaws, I didn't care. The sequel, while definitely up on the first film in regards to Transformer screentime and less stupid irrelevant characters, feels quite bloated and haphazard.
While we do have great Transformer moments: Megatron Vs Starscream banter; Constructicons; more half-decent fight scenes we can actually follow, there is just too much! Kids will undoubtedly love this film; nothing stops for breath, its just one long battle sequence and to give the man his due, Michael Bay has probably made the most explosive action movie every made. He has outdone himself, which (and I'm not being funny here) is an achievement.
But I preferred the first film's integrity, it felt more paced than this, we knew what was happening. I really didn't buy The Fallen character; he didn't deliver anything but headache for people trying to keep up with the plot, plus the Pretender Transformer (college girl Alice turns into a Decepticon) felt completely unnecessary in so many ways.
Overall, if you want a film that will blast you away for a (overloaded) 2hours 30mins, go for it! If you are a fan, you will love a lot... but also question a lot.
Resident Evil: Degeneration
How funny it is to say "This is probably the best Resident Evil film I've seen yet". Uhm... because this is hard?
It is also funny that this film is entirely motion captured CGI (and amusing people starting to watch it expecting stupid Milla Jovovich running around in tights again) and it works better than its live-action counterparts.
Sure... the lip syncing is quite terrible and takes a bit of ignoring (best to do something else while watching) and the CG itself isn't amazing, but it sure feels like Resident Evil! For once!
We have characters from Resident Evil! We even have T and G-Viruses, we have sneaking around dark places with torches, we have luscious environments doomed to-be-destroyed-into-final-boss-arenas and an awesome monster at the end!
I know that all sounds pretty standard... but believe it or not... the live-action Resi films barely had any of these things!
Good stuff for fans! Non-fans maybe turned off by the CG quality, but it is a neat little zombie flick anyway.
The Spirit
What even is this film? A police officer comes back from the dead as an immortal vigilante, bent on defeating an equally immortal nazi doctor who looks a lot like Samuel L. Jackson? All in the style of Sin City??
Well... that last point is a little deceiving and I think is what crippled this films reception. It is similar to Sin City... but it is nothing like Sin City! It is like a spoof; there isn't anything we haven't seen before. (except maybe Mr Jackson as a Nazi.... yea that is new)
There are some nice shots, like bullet holes ripping through long coats, but overall it is a perplexing film; its gritty look playing off a goofy comedy script involving a womaniser and a crazed madman throwing kitchen sinks at each other, liquidising fluffy cats down to their eyeballs and the blood of Hercules.
Complete nonsense!
Games of June
Croc: Legend of the Gobbos (PC)
Haha, I forgot I had this. Me and my sisters played the demo of this to death yyeeaars ago, we bought the full game but it never worked. So naturally I tried it again and it worked! So for a bit of an afternoon I was pleased.
Some dodgy camera work makes jumping incredibly difficult, along with some odd fight collision detection... also the music didn't work for some reason (probably wasn't reading the disc properly) which was sad because the music was the best bit of the demo. Overall, pretty darn standard really :P
Alien Vs Predator 2 (PC)
Yes, yes all you PC elitists, I've only just gotten around to this... just when a sequel as been announced. (I think?) Still, this game is hard. It is haaaard. I naturally picked the Marine because... well... that's the way you should play it. So many nods to Aliens I love it, while at the same time I continue to feel the Predator series sitting on the Alien franchise like a giant blood-sucking leech.
But yes, it is hard. The first aliens I encountered, while being pretty terrifying, ripped me to shreds! Then the second group did the same... then the third.. etc etc. They are just too fast! I much prefer them in the films...
I didn't get to play much of it, but Half Life-esk graphic aside, I thought it was pretty damn good. If they are remaking it, I will definitely get the new one!
Deadly Creatures (Wii)
I got this simply because I did a survey about it online. In fact, I did another one a while afterwards! So I felt I had to see what the end result was. Shame its pretty mediocre.
The UI and graphic design is nice, gritty and stylised like someone's had a go at it with black, white and orange spray paint. WHY they didn't go with my suggested box cover design which goes perfectly with this.. I... do... not... KNOW. Asides from this purely personal attack, the game is not much to look at. Yea, yea people will say "Oh, cos its on the Wii durrr!" but I have played Metroid Prime 3, I know the Wii is perfectly capable! The characters being a Tarantula and a Scorpion is a novel idea I had warmed to, except without any real connection to them... it got dull quickly. The environments aren't greatly detailed... and as this game is all about seeing the world at a tiny, miniature level, detail should be key. True, finding a giant cellphone mis-dialing was pretty cool.
Madworld (Wii)
I think Yahtzee has this one to a T. Madworld could be the first sign of games going the way of film... it is rated 18 purely because it is deliberately going for that rating, without any particular style or grace. Whereas games that are undoubtedly scarier, aren't as bloody and therefore aren't rated as highly. Who knows. What I do know is... Madworld is about as deliberate as they get!
I like the Sin City style, and unlike Yahtzee I don't call it "Wii power compensating". It is dramatic when things get bloody. (as they do from the word go) I will say though it is pretty... monotonous as it goes on; you will ram a tire over someone's shoulders, put a sign post through their head and then spear them on a wall spike more times than you will care to remember. There are some pretty nasty moments... like picking up a guy and ramming him straight down, ass first on a metre tall spike.
But unlike the infamous SUDA51 games... this doesn't have the same dramatic and weird flair for the unusual, instead it is just bloody and violent for the sake of it.
Banjo Tooie (360)
Wow, I did well this month! First 360 game isn't even a 360 game really! As my schedule has gotten busier I've only played Banjo Kazooie's sequel twice =( But from what I've played, I like it as much as the first game, moreso in fact given it has a graphical upgrade.
But! I am highly suspect of the lack of linear gameplay... Kazooie had some, but only some. From what I can tell, I am going to be traveling back and forth a lot! While Turok 2 should have me used to this sort of thing... I still don't like it!
Like I said with Kazooie, it is good to play an old classic Rare game, with Donkey Kong 64 level of graphics, it makes me feel good compared to all of the normal-mapped grisly games you get now!
Red Faction: Guerrilla (360)
There you go, proper 360 game! I played the demo last month and now I have the game. Red Faction is the essence of sandbox. Give the player a huge open space to roam freely without any restrictions, while also giving them completely destructable buildings and vehicles. Every building can be broken down to their component parts, either with a rocket launcher or by your little sledgehammer, hell there is a weapon that disintegrates all matter, use that! Or drive a dumptruck clear through the foundations!
Sorry, getting carried away. The game is set on Mars, you are a miner working under the Overseeing EDF organisation. Of course it isn't long before you see EDF killing and torturing their workers and are roped into a rebel group known as the Red Faction. The only gripe I have with the one player is that you do everything for this group. You don't have any say, you just go do it! But then, finding unique and destructive ways to destroy heavily defended fortifications without dying never gets old. It also helps to make sure you aren't in the building as its collapsing.
Multi-player is pretty awesome too, with plenty of different game modes to play. Unlike single player, you get a choice of ten powered backpacks. My favourite being the Rhino pack; you are temporarily invincible as you ram clear through walls, building foundations and people alike!
Yep, I am playing this too much right now!
You know, I must admit... looking at my list half-way through the year... I'm not seeing any big winners for the best film list =/ Terminator Salvation probably... Star Trek... Cronos and Enchanted maybe? Loads for the worst, that will be a different sort of struggle. Perfume... Resident Evil: Extinction... 10,000BC.... There Will be Blood... etc etc
Ah well... aw damn its 1.13am?? I have dishes to do.... laaaaame.
EDIT: I also had some reeeeaally strange dreams last night. Lots of them too. o.O
Anyway, that's my rant about work problems out the way! Though I have to say... I loved getting paid as much as I did... but I'd like to know where its all gone? =(
Works
On the plus side, I feel integrated into work now; seems I get more appreciation nowadays. Plus there's a load of newbies for the summer... I've already been asked to take charge of one of them o.O
I have a lot of work to do on the game though. I have a list. I am hacking my way through it with my free time. The level is basically done now... I am onto leftover characters and level assets and of course the rigging and animation of those characters... yea. Its going to be a fun few weeks.
Don't think I have any images to show you really... its all a bit in-development right now.
It has been a looooong month! Here we go...
Films of June
Angels & Demons
It's funny... I prefered Da Vinci Code as a book to Angels & Demons, yet their film counterparts I much preferred A&D! This film felt more together than the first, as it is really a film based around a ticking time bomb. The pace is fast, while at the same time having some neat twists and some quite grisly, dark imagery.
Much like the book in this way, but anyone who knows the book will see a lot of changes from start to finish; the ending is completely different. But while this can annoy, the film version works better than an imagining of the book's ending.
Overall I enjoyed it. Unlikely to be a DVD purchase any time soon, but I was pleasantly surprised.
Though Tom Hanks still seems too old for the character...
Terminator Salvation
A pleasant surprise! Though in following T3 how can you get any worse? Salvation does have a head start with extremely low expectations, but from the trailer it showed promise.
Thankfully we ditch the tired "hunting down a member of the Connor family" plotline and finally go all out with what fans have wanted since the 80s. The Future War. When I was a kid I wanted to see more of this aspect and I felt Salvation delivered. Everything is desolate, everything is destroyed and the film has a real gritty feel to it. Terminators are everywhere, SkyNet machines are at war with humans and we see the continued development of John Connor as he tries to prove himself to be leader of the resistance.
Or at least... we are suppose to see this. Christian Bale's Connor seems to be on the sidelines as a much more developed story involving Sam Worthington's character, a battle between man and machine.
I really want to see more of this series, probably even want to see (stupidly named) McG direct again. Great action, great to see real Terminators again and not CG all the time.
Tropic Thunder
Not my usual. Ben Stiller comedies and Jack Black, neither really go with me. But I actually quite enjoyed this! It starts off a little like Grindhouse, oddly; our lead characters are actors making a Vietnam war movie, but to understand them we have a host of different trailers from movies the character have starred in. I loved this bit, in fact I think a film of just random stupid trailers would be awesome!
The general gist is their new film is failing as the actors can't work together. So the director takes them into the jungle to secretly film them improvising. (while he is scaring the life out of them with explosions) Unfortunately, the local druglords don't take too kindly to this, and our hapless heroes find themselves in a very real war film!
Enjoyable, rips into all of the classic Vietnam war films (which I grew tired of very quickly) watch even just for the fake trailers. Oh... and a cameo of a very famous actor... who I did not recognise until the credits! =o
Amistad
Best way I can describe this film is... Steven Spielberg epic set in the 1800's about African slavery and I had fully intended to do something else while watching. I sat down... but ended up watching all of it, start to finish.
It is hard to review this sort of film, except to say that it is excellently paced, moving and real. It moves from painfully real with shocking intensity to being really quite lighthearted with some of the dialogue. I would say if you want to see what films Spielberg used to make, before he started endorsing computer games and making films like Minority Report and War of the Worlds, I'd recommend this one.
The only downsides I saw, were that Morgan Freeman's character (a black man working as an investigator) felt a little unexplored; he would often appear, have a scene with little dialogue but truckloads of meaning, then nothing. Obviously it is fairly self-explanatory, but I felt there should have been more. Also... does Matthew McConaughey always play an underdog lawyer?
Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen
Oh boy. I've had long enough to wrap my feelings up about this, I guess. I suppose it is hard to have lightning strike twice; I loved the first film, even with aaaaall its flaws, I didn't care. The sequel, while definitely up on the first film in regards to Transformer screentime and less stupid irrelevant characters, feels quite bloated and haphazard.
While we do have great Transformer moments: Megatron Vs Starscream banter; Constructicons; more half-decent fight scenes we can actually follow, there is just too much! Kids will undoubtedly love this film; nothing stops for breath, its just one long battle sequence and to give the man his due, Michael Bay has probably made the most explosive action movie every made. He has outdone himself, which (and I'm not being funny here) is an achievement.
But I preferred the first film's integrity, it felt more paced than this, we knew what was happening. I really didn't buy The Fallen character; he didn't deliver anything but headache for people trying to keep up with the plot, plus the Pretender Transformer (college girl Alice turns into a Decepticon) felt completely unnecessary in so many ways.
Overall, if you want a film that will blast you away for a (overloaded) 2hours 30mins, go for it! If you are a fan, you will love a lot... but also question a lot.
Resident Evil: Degeneration
How funny it is to say "This is probably the best Resident Evil film I've seen yet". Uhm... because this is hard?
It is also funny that this film is entirely motion captured CGI (and amusing people starting to watch it expecting stupid Milla Jovovich running around in tights again) and it works better than its live-action counterparts.
Sure... the lip syncing is quite terrible and takes a bit of ignoring (best to do something else while watching) and the CG itself isn't amazing, but it sure feels like Resident Evil! For once!
We have characters from Resident Evil! We even have T and G-Viruses, we have sneaking around dark places with torches, we have luscious environments doomed to-be-destroyed-into-final-boss-arenas and an awesome monster at the end!
I know that all sounds pretty standard... but believe it or not... the live-action Resi films barely had any of these things!
Good stuff for fans! Non-fans maybe turned off by the CG quality, but it is a neat little zombie flick anyway.
The Spirit
What even is this film? A police officer comes back from the dead as an immortal vigilante, bent on defeating an equally immortal nazi doctor who looks a lot like Samuel L. Jackson? All in the style of Sin City??
Well... that last point is a little deceiving and I think is what crippled this films reception. It is similar to Sin City... but it is nothing like Sin City! It is like a spoof; there isn't anything we haven't seen before. (except maybe Mr Jackson as a Nazi.... yea that is new)
There are some nice shots, like bullet holes ripping through long coats, but overall it is a perplexing film; its gritty look playing off a goofy comedy script involving a womaniser and a crazed madman throwing kitchen sinks at each other, liquidising fluffy cats down to their eyeballs and the blood of Hercules.
Complete nonsense!
Games of June
Croc: Legend of the Gobbos (PC)
Haha, I forgot I had this. Me and my sisters played the demo of this to death yyeeaars ago, we bought the full game but it never worked. So naturally I tried it again and it worked! So for a bit of an afternoon I was pleased.
Some dodgy camera work makes jumping incredibly difficult, along with some odd fight collision detection... also the music didn't work for some reason (probably wasn't reading the disc properly) which was sad because the music was the best bit of the demo. Overall, pretty darn standard really :P
Alien Vs Predator 2 (PC)
Yes, yes all you PC elitists, I've only just gotten around to this... just when a sequel as been announced. (I think?) Still, this game is hard. It is haaaard. I naturally picked the Marine because... well... that's the way you should play it. So many nods to Aliens I love it, while at the same time I continue to feel the Predator series sitting on the Alien franchise like a giant blood-sucking leech.
But yes, it is hard. The first aliens I encountered, while being pretty terrifying, ripped me to shreds! Then the second group did the same... then the third.. etc etc. They are just too fast! I much prefer them in the films...
I didn't get to play much of it, but Half Life-esk graphic aside, I thought it was pretty damn good. If they are remaking it, I will definitely get the new one!
Deadly Creatures (Wii)
I got this simply because I did a survey about it online. In fact, I did another one a while afterwards! So I felt I had to see what the end result was. Shame its pretty mediocre.
The UI and graphic design is nice, gritty and stylised like someone's had a go at it with black, white and orange spray paint. WHY they didn't go with my suggested box cover design which goes perfectly with this.. I... do... not... KNOW. Asides from this purely personal attack, the game is not much to look at. Yea, yea people will say "Oh, cos its on the Wii durrr!" but I have played Metroid Prime 3, I know the Wii is perfectly capable! The characters being a Tarantula and a Scorpion is a novel idea I had warmed to, except without any real connection to them... it got dull quickly. The environments aren't greatly detailed... and as this game is all about seeing the world at a tiny, miniature level, detail should be key. True, finding a giant cellphone mis-dialing was pretty cool.
Madworld (Wii)
I think Yahtzee has this one to a T. Madworld could be the first sign of games going the way of film... it is rated 18 purely because it is deliberately going for that rating, without any particular style or grace. Whereas games that are undoubtedly scarier, aren't as bloody and therefore aren't rated as highly. Who knows. What I do know is... Madworld is about as deliberate as they get!
I like the Sin City style, and unlike Yahtzee I don't call it "Wii power compensating". It is dramatic when things get bloody. (as they do from the word go) I will say though it is pretty... monotonous as it goes on; you will ram a tire over someone's shoulders, put a sign post through their head and then spear them on a wall spike more times than you will care to remember. There are some pretty nasty moments... like picking up a guy and ramming him straight down, ass first on a metre tall spike.
But unlike the infamous SUDA51 games... this doesn't have the same dramatic and weird flair for the unusual, instead it is just bloody and violent for the sake of it.
Banjo Tooie (360)
Wow, I did well this month! First 360 game isn't even a 360 game really! As my schedule has gotten busier I've only played Banjo Kazooie's sequel twice =( But from what I've played, I like it as much as the first game, moreso in fact given it has a graphical upgrade.
But! I am highly suspect of the lack of linear gameplay... Kazooie had some, but only some. From what I can tell, I am going to be traveling back and forth a lot! While Turok 2 should have me used to this sort of thing... I still don't like it!
Like I said with Kazooie, it is good to play an old classic Rare game, with Donkey Kong 64 level of graphics, it makes me feel good compared to all of the normal-mapped grisly games you get now!
Red Faction: Guerrilla (360)
There you go, proper 360 game! I played the demo last month and now I have the game. Red Faction is the essence of sandbox. Give the player a huge open space to roam freely without any restrictions, while also giving them completely destructable buildings and vehicles. Every building can be broken down to their component parts, either with a rocket launcher or by your little sledgehammer, hell there is a weapon that disintegrates all matter, use that! Or drive a dumptruck clear through the foundations!
Sorry, getting carried away. The game is set on Mars, you are a miner working under the Overseeing EDF organisation. Of course it isn't long before you see EDF killing and torturing their workers and are roped into a rebel group known as the Red Faction. The only gripe I have with the one player is that you do everything for this group. You don't have any say, you just go do it! But then, finding unique and destructive ways to destroy heavily defended fortifications without dying never gets old. It also helps to make sure you aren't in the building as its collapsing.
Multi-player is pretty awesome too, with plenty of different game modes to play. Unlike single player, you get a choice of ten powered backpacks. My favourite being the Rhino pack; you are temporarily invincible as you ram clear through walls, building foundations and people alike!
Yep, I am playing this too much right now!
You know, I must admit... looking at my list half-way through the year... I'm not seeing any big winners for the best film list =/ Terminator Salvation probably... Star Trek... Cronos and Enchanted maybe? Loads for the worst, that will be a different sort of struggle. Perfume... Resident Evil: Extinction... 10,000BC.... There Will be Blood... etc etc
Ah well... aw damn its 1.13am?? I have dishes to do.... laaaaame.
EDIT: I also had some reeeeaally strange dreams last night. Lots of them too. o.O