A Future Game Designer

The Brilliance of Pixar

2008-04-28T16:55:00.001-07:00

I only realized a few short months ago that Mr. Incredible in Walt Disney/Pixar's The Incredibles (my favorite Pixar film) was voiced by Craig T. Nelson, best known for his role on the TV series Coach during the late 80's and early 90's. Then I realized that other than the woman who voices Violet in that same movie (I can't remember her name right now, though I can picture her), I have no idea who voices any of the characters. (I take that back, I know that the director, Brad Bird, voices the character of Edna)

Then I thought about other Pixar movies. I know that Larry the Cable guy voices Mater in Cars and Owen Wilson voices Lightning McQueen in the same movie and Paul Newman plays Doc Hudson, but other then those few people, I have no idea who any of the characters are in real life.

I don't remember exactly when I found out that Tom Hanks or Tim Allen were in Toy Story, or that Jim Varney was the slinky dog and John Ratzenburger the pig, Ham. All I know is that I had no idea who played the characters in the movie until far after I had actually seen the movie.

I am a huge movie buff who prides himself on being able to remember movies and the people in movies, so I was actually surprised when I thought about all of Pixar's movies and the relatively few actors that I actually knew from their films. And this, I believe, is the true genius that is Pixar. They make their films so very well that the actors truly disappear into their roles (a phrase that I usually find reprehensible and overly artistic when actors talk about their live action roles that way, it just seems to me to sound stupid, like what they're doing is so complicated that no one else could do it and they are so special because they can disappear into a character) and you don't even think about the people behind the voices. All you think about are the characters, and you don't even think of them as characters, you think of them as people...or whatever else they are in that particular movie. You think of Nemo as Nemo and Dory as Dory. You don't think of them as Ellen DeGeneres and...okay, I don't know who voiced Nemo, but you literally only think of them as Nemo and Dory.

This is a thing that is truly remarkable for an animation studio today, when every big animation release is pumped up to be the biggest thing in the world and every voice in it is talked about in previews and marketing materials for the movie (that's how I know the actors in Cars. If it weren't for interviews on the Tonight Show I don't think even I'd know anyone in it). I just find it amazing that they are able to do what they have done with all of their movies, which is literally make something that no one else could have made, and make it in such a way that you are hooked from the very first second of the film to the very last. That is movie magic, something that I think has been lost in recent years.

I also think that it is very much worth noting that this is an even bigger accomplishment because an animated film is a group effort, something that I think is sometimes forgotten when you think about an animated film. So, this accomplishment of making something so wonderful to experience that you forget who the people behind the characters are is really deepened by the realization that this wonderful illusion that you are throwing yourself into was created by 100-300 people. That's just mind blowing if you think about it for awhile. And, when you do think about it, you'll then realize that Pixar is a really special studio.

What they have done is something that few actors have ever done. In fact there are only two that I can think of right off of the top of my head. The first is Johnny Depp. You cannot imagine anyone other then him portraying Edward Scissorhands or Jack Sparrow. He disappears into a role so very well that watching him is just...amazing. Sure he has a similar voice in all of his projects (that's just kind of unavoidable) and he is easily recognizable (most of the time) but just a little bit into the movie you get past the part where you recognize him as Johnny Depp, and then you only think about him in terms of the character. The other actor that I can think of is Tom Hanks. I own several of his films, and in each one I am truly amazed at how he seems to be a completely different person. In Road to Perdition he's a father who works for the mob and decides to get revenge when his wife and child are killed. In The Terminal he's a middle-aged, chunky, foreigner who lives in an airport and eats crackers smeared with ketchup and mayonnaise. In Catch Me If You Can he's an FBI agent with a slight (and funny) accent, who is divorced and has one daughter. In Big he's a little kid in an adult's body. In Saving Private Ryan he's an English teacher turned soldier and forced into situations way beyond what he thinks he could ever handle. In none of these movies is he Tom Hanks. In all of these movies, he is truly the character that he is playing to the point that you sometimes forget that it is him.

This, I think, is the ultimate compliment for an actor, and so therefore it is the ultimate compliment for the group of 100-300 people who make each Pixar project truly come alive.

What 'No Country For Old Men' Means - To Me

2008-03-26T18:56:00.000-07:00

When a movie wins an Oscar,people go to see it. When a movie wins 'Best Picture', everyone goes to see it if it even looks a tad interesting. This year, No Country For Old Men won all of the big awards, and so people are flocking to see it, and with good reason.

The movie is a spectacularly vivid and violent piece of art. The movie is filled with beautiful imagery, tons of blood and violence, and tension that keeps it going until the end. The book is an oddly written (No apostrophes in dialog, no quotation marks) journey filled with (I think) even more tension and violence, making it into a wonderful read that keeps your attention the whole way through.

The first time I saw the movie, it was definitely not in ideal conditions - in a theater with a less than state of the art sound system that made it hard to hear half the dialog. At that time I had many questions simply because I couldn't hear half of what was said, and the ending (at that point) flat-out stunk.

It came out on DVD a little over a week later, so I rented it and watched it again, with subtitles on, because I wanted to appreciate it and understand it completely. Let me tell you, subtitles, if they don't bother you, help to answer almost any question that you might have about the movie. I know for a fact that they answered every single question that I had and also made me realize how amazing the movie actually was.

Now, if you are reading this then you have obviously seen the movie and are looking for an interpretation of the ending, which I will get to, but first let me write this little prelude:

The ending of No Country For Old Men is absolutely brilliant and the only ending that would work for this kind of work. There is no real dramatic ending, this is the only thing that works. At first viewing, and without reflection, this ending stinks. However, what makes it brilliant is the mere fact that after watching the movie you feel a need to understand the ending. I know that even though I was upset over the ending of the movie, I wanted to see the movie again because of how beautiful the rest of the movie was, as well as because of the fact that I wanted to understand the ending. That's what makes the ending perfect - it makes you want to see and enjoy the film again. It is also perfect because it is ambiguous and there is no right or wrong interpretation of the events. It inspires debate, and therefore the film and book will be remembered far longer then they would have otherwise been. It's sort of a ploy to get the film remembered longer, but it's brilliant because it inspires that sort of debate that will never end, because there is no right or wrong answer. Remember that. You may not agree with my interpretation, but please do not criticize, because there can be no absolute solution or interpretation of the ending, it is all up to whoever is doing the interpreting.

Now, onto my interpretation:

I've heard a lot of talk about how Chigurh and Bell are supposed to be the polar opposites of each other. Chigurh symbolizes unstoppable evil and Bell is just basically a man yearning for peace. I agree and I would definitely say that that is a major theme in both the book and the novel. In fact, on one forum that I frequently post to, I read a summary that interpreted the ending solely based on this thematic thread. The author of said post basically said that Bell's dream meant that he wished to head back to simpler times when things weren't so horrible. I'm not saying that that interpretation is wrong, but I personally don't think that it is. Again, there are many interpretations, none right, none wrong; this one just isn't for me.

I do think that the opposition (albeit not physical) between Chigurh and Bell is definitely a major thematic element to the movie, I just don't think that it has any real bearing on the ending. No, I think that the real meaning of the ending can be found during the conversation between Sheriff Bell and his Uncle Ellis (the dude in the wheelchair). In it (and I'm working from my memory of the movie), Sheriff Bell says something like, "I always thought that when I got older God would somehow come into my life. He didn't. I don't blame him." Then, in the dreams that he later talks about, he loses some money that his father gave him, and then in another dream his father goes ahead of him to get a fire ready for him when he dreams that they are old time cowboys.

I think that this means that Bell found God. Think about it. When he talks about losing his father's money, that parallels with the story of The Fall, where mankind lost the gift that God (Heavenly Father) gave them. Then, the man's father (paralleling God) going ahead to make a place for him (as Jesus said he would in John 14:2 - "In My Father's house are many dwelling places; if it were not so, I would have told you; for I go to prepare a place for you.") directly parallels the Bible.

That's really the only evidence that I have for this theory, but I think that it fits. Again, this isn't the only right answer, but it's definitely not a wrong one. I was actually told flat out that I was completely wrong on the Game Informer forums, and I think that the person who told me that (I don't remember his user name) was apparently someone who doesn't like having his own views challenged. I'm not criticizing his theory (which is the one that I listed above mine) or him, I'm just criticizing his narrow view of an ending that can be interpreted any number of different ways.

Anyways, comments and thoughts and other interpretations are definitely welcome, so please, pile them on me.

Please?

Game Review: Assassin's Creed (Xbox 360)

2008-03-04T19:21:00.000-08:00

Assassin's Creed (Xbox 360)

Overall Score: 9/10
Pros: An interesting story, beautiful graphics, compelling gameplay
Cons: No real conclusion, aggravating fights

Basically, the end of 2007 was an interesting one in the world of gaming. Towards Christmas you had three games coming out, each one vying to become Game of the Year, with two other close contenders having been released just a couple of months earlier. The three games were Call of Duty 4, Mass Effect, and Assassin's Creed. The two other games that would have been contenders were BioShock and Halo 3.

In the end, BioShock won most GotY awards, though in my opinion Mass Effect should have held the crown. People loved Call of Duty 4 and quickly embraced its amazing graphics and addictive multiplayer. Assassin's Creed also received a lot of critical love, as well as high sales numbers, but in the end it is rarely now referred to, and is definitely pushed to the side a lot more than Call of Duty or BioShock or Halo.

I went into Assassin's Creed hoping that it would be a game that I could finish. One that was complex and deep and awesome, but not overly complicated or too complex.

The story, following a medieval assassin as he takes down nine targets throughout three large cities, was definitely involving and interesting and the modern day frame story helped it along. However, in the end I was left with a feeling of emptiness. The ending lacked finality. Basically you were told that you would be needed again eventually. Then the credits rolled and you were allowed back in the game to walk around or do whatever you please. That sucked, and what really sucked about it was that that line of, "We'll need you again soon," wasn't even spoken dramatically. The one guy just said it and then you watch as he walks out of the room. There wasn't anything to lead you up to such a dramatic moment, no music nothing, and then when it came there was another period of at least a minute before the credits rolled. A full minute of walking around at an excruciatingly slow pace and, really, doing nothing. That was the only part of the story that really sucked. One other thing about the story. It starts off slow and you basically have no information about what is going on. You are just thrust into the situation and as you go about the game your targets give you information and eventually you learn what it all means. Then the final conclusion, the final boss and all that, is a little bit too mystical for my taste. It just wasn't as realistic as the rest of the game.

The real meat of the game, which is actually not the story, is the gameplay, whereby you run around three gigantic cities, jumping off of buildings, climbing up buildings, leaping and flying everywhere; using your sword to fend off large groups of enemies, assassinating drunks and beggars, and then eventually driving your hidden blade into the neck of those nine men you are sent to kill. I was a bit worried about the fact that this game was being touted as letting you leap everywhere and do everything, because I was worried that the 360 controller just couldn't handle it, that there wouldn't be enough buttons to let you do everything that you should be able to do. I'm happy to say that not only do the controls work pretty much perfectly, but they do so without utilizing the shoulder buttons on the 360 controller. The control scheme uses the triggers, just not the bumpers, and to great effect. Running, climbing, dodging, diving, everything controlled perfectly, and, just like I said I could play hours worth of conversations in Mass Effect, I could also stand just running and jumping in Assassin's Creed for hours on end. My only complaint with the running, dodging, exploration controls are city specific. In Acre, near the docks, one mission, which takes place at the docks, gives you a route through the playable area that has you jumping from basically a log turned vertical to several other logs arrayed in a specific route in the middle of a harbor. The targeting in this area absolutely sucked. I can't tell you how many times I fell into the water, and to my death, before finally hunting and finding an alternate route to my objective. Also the combat controls are a bit wonky until you get the hang of them. When you do get the hang of them, however, then you will just roll over your enemies, and instead of feeling like the game's too easy because of this, you'll finally feel how truly awesome you really are. Assassinations go as smooth as possible, most of the time, and the hidden blade is one of the coolest and most functional video game weapons of all time. What I found out, and then went crazy over, is that you actually have access to the hidden blade all the time, not just when you're on specific assassination missions, and so you can use it to kill anyone that you want to. I used this many times when I was on rooftops I wasn't supposed to be on and there was a guard nearby. There was nothing like a flying leap that ended with my blade in the guard's neck. Then there were the memorable moments when I was walking through the city streets and suddenly there was a beggar in front of me, not letting me go forward, stopping me and bothering me with her requests for money that I didn't have. One tap of a button and I would stab her with my blade and continue on without a second glance, leaving her body to eventually fall to the street for someone else to discover. My only complaint about the combat was that sometimes they just overwhelmed you in a frustrating, not fun, sort of way. There was one fight in particular where I was facing about ten men at once, which isn't much as it turns out, with an archer overhead. I kept getting hit with arrows and I wasn't able to defend as more and more attacks came towards me. I bet I played that one fight ten times. That's when a game isn't fun. That's when it's annoying. However, later on when I got more experience with the combat system, I handled a crowd of 30+ enemies without any problems whatsoever. It was just that early battle that really got to me.

The graphics of this game are what really impressed me the most. I'm not one to care much about graphics-if a game has horrible textures and blocky characters but plays well and has an awesome story, then I'm all for playing it over and over again. This game, however, made me sit up and take notice like no other title has. This game is unlike other games that try to look realistic and have a unique visual style in that it has a unique visual style by being just that, completely and utterly realistic. You won't find any sort of filters or anything like that over the visuals to give them a unique look, everything just looks practically photorealistic, and the game benefits because of it. The characters in the game all look a little bit out of place and chunky, as do all video game characters, no matter what people say, but the environments look truly stunning. To get to a View Point in the game and look over any of the three cities was to look out upon what 'next-gen' truly is. I mean, when I clime a spire in Damascus or Jerusalem or Acre and look out upon the whole city and see literally thousands of people in the crowd surrounded by hundreds of buildings, every single one of which I can climb upon and 'play' upon....that's just breathtaking to me, and when all of it is completely realistic....I could go on for days and days about the graphics and the environments and how truly amazing everything in the game world is, but I won't. Instead I'll just count on you to go buy and play this game and see and appreciate the world that Ubisoft Montreal has created for you.

Now, I have to write briefly about my absolute favorite aspect of the game, the Leap of Faith. Basically you climb to an extremely high place to get more of your map filled in, then you jump off of a small piece of wood and land in a cart full of hay sometimes hundreds of feet beneath you. It may not exactly be the most realistic aspect of the game, but the visuals and the feelings that accompany it make it something truly awesome to experience. My favorite was one spire in Damascus that was the highest one in the game. I got to the top, filled in the portion of my map that needed filling in, and then jumped. I knew that it was just a game, but I got goosebumps when I saw how high up I was and how low the cart was beneath me.

Now, one last issue with the game that I must present. I'm all for long cinematics, specifically because I love seeing well-made cinematics. I mean, watching the cinematics of Metal Gear Solid 3 gave me feelings and emotions and overall an experience that was better then some movies I've seen. This game, with it's interesting historical background and relatively interesting plot, however, has some of the most long winded cinematics that I've ever seen. They're well made and entertaining and informative and interesting, but they are also horribly long winded and in some cases downright boring. Whenever you assassinate a target you are treated to a sort of conversation with them in this sort of blue void. It is here that many plot points are revealed and you find out a lot of useful information. In fact, it's where all of the plot is revealed. However, these are the worst of the cinematics because there's nothing interesting going on in them at all. It's just two characters in a blue void....talking. I liked the plot and everything that went on, but some of these were so boring and frustrating that I almost gave up the game for good.

Overall I would say that if you are at all interested in a game with awe inspiring graphics, amazing gameplay and an adequate story, then you need to check out Assassin's Creed.

Concept: Create a living, breathing world with some of the most fluid gameplay and detailed visuals ever seen in a video game.

Graphics: I could go on and on. I'll just say that they are the most 'next-gen' graphics I've seen yet in a video game.

Sound: The music was okay, and really helped add tension to tense situations. The voice acting was adequate, though nothing to write home about.

Playability: The smoothest third person controls that I've ever experienced. This thing controls like a dream...except in a few combat situations.

Entertainment: Endlessly entertaining when in the medieval setting (I could run around on rooftops for days on end) but outside (if you've played in then you know what I mean)...gets a tad slow and boring.

Replay Value: Very high, just for the graphics alone!

Movie Review #14: Matchstick Men

2008-03-04T19:09:00.000-08:00

Matchstick Men
Overall: 8/10
Pros: Interesting story, great cast and acting, great writing, fitting ending
Cons: Horribly slow to start with, and it doesn't get any faster towards the end

I read the back of this movie at Wal*Mart one day, and after reading it I was instantly hooked with the premise, and I wanted to see it right away. Four months later, I've finally seen it, and I can say that it is a really great movie.

Basically the idea is that Nicolas Cage is a con artist along with his partner Frank. Also, Cage's character is a germaphobe. Then, his fourteen-year-old daughter comes into his life for the first time and he has to experience being a parent. He eventually teaches little Angela a little bit about being a con just when he and Frank are pulling off a deal that will net them each $40,000. Things go a little downhill from there.

I was actually surprised to find out later on that this was a Ridley Scott film, and after watching it again today, this time I definitely recognize it as a piece of his work. The colors and shadows and lighting are all beautifully and perfectly done, as is everything else in the movie, just like all of Ridley's other movies. The casting was spot on and you really believe in the characters and what they're doing and what they're visibly feeling. All of the acting was truly superb, and I think that Nicolas Cage gave an absolutely perfect performance, at least in comparison to the other movies I've seen with him in them. Alison Lohman also did a terrific job portraying the fourteen-year-old daughter; her and Nic really gelled and worked perfectly with each other.

The music and the visuals of this film were completely spot on, just as I would expect from a Ridley Scott film. I find myself humming the main theme of the movie, composed by Hans Zimmer, even now as I write this, and I doubt that it will be out of my mind soon. The washed out pastel colors of the movie really go well with the whole premise and the way that the characters see life and the way that they view everything around them. Whoever decided upon that look for the film-you're a genius.

Now onto the meat of the film, the all important story. I can say that the story is one of cinema's greatest. The pacing is extremely slow and it never really gets any faster, but when you get to the end and you experience the twist, which I won't reveal here, then it makes it all worth it and it amazes you that they were able to pull the whole thing off as well as they did, both in the context of the movie itself, and in terms of the construction of the movie, as in, they didn't reveal too much about the characters too soon, they waited until the perfect moment.

This movie made me laugh throughout and at the end it left me with an impression of amazement at what they were able to do with this film. If you like good movies and you're up for one with a twist, then you owe it to yourself to see this film.

Movie Review #13: Blade Runner {2007 'The Final Cut'}

2008-02-23T17:57:00.000-08:00

Blade Runner {2007 The Final Cut}
Overall: 9/10
Pros: Still a great story and atmosphere, tons of amazing visual imagery
Cons: Still slow, a little bit plodding

I can say for sure that I have no real preference between the 1982 Theatrical Cut of Blade Runner or the newly released 'Final Cut'. I can also say that I don't really care if Deckard is a replicant or not; what really matters is that the question is there and the needless debate over the question will keep the movie in people's minds forever.

What matters is if the movie is good, and this movie is great.

The first time I saw the movie, as in, the first time I watched the 1982 cut of the movie, I was a little bit overwhelmed with the visual imagery, and while I loved it, I'm not sure if I really appreciated it. Now I have the image of the Tyrell Pyramid permanently burned in my mind, and Roy Batty saying, "All of these moments will be lost, like...tears...in rain," practically makes me weep. Now I truly realize and appreciate the beauty of this movie and its amazing look and execution.

I still have minor complaints about the pacing and the real lack of any sort of major plot, but I still think that the movie's brilliant. Really what I like most about this definitive cut of the picture is that it takes out the voice over which, while informative, detracted a little bit from the movie. This also still contains the unicorn sequence that was present in the 1992 'Director's Cut' which was the start of all of that 'Deckard: Replicant of Human?' stuff, and so I like the fact that it was in this cut because I like the fact that it has inspired debate amongst the fan base. But still, I truly have to say that I have no real preference between the two. I truly love both versions (voice over and no voice over) equally.

One last thing that I must mention: Roy Batty's final speech in the movie. I loved it in the 1982 cut of the film and thought of it as a great movie moment and a defining moment that gave definition and meaning to a film that was otherwise pretty much meaningless. At that time, however, I didn't realize how profound an effect it would have on me during this second viewing. This time, as the rain fell and the light turned blue and Rutger Hauer's speech came up, I was completely engrossed in the moment and, more importantly, in the character. As he told about the wonders that he had seen, the attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion and whatnot, I was completely inside this character and emotionally involved in how horrible a moment this was for him. And then when he started talking about the memories being completely lost in rain, memories that no one else has or could ever have, I was crying some, and every time I think about it I still almost cry because for some reason or another, I was completely emotionally involved in a film that initially polarized me in all respects. Before, I didn't realize how amazing this moment was and how important it was, even if only to science fiction fans, and now I must say that it is my absolute favorite moment from a film. The movie itself may not be my absolute favorite, but I will cherish that moment of this particular film forever.

Book Review: The Man in the High Castle by Philip K. Dick

2008-02-23T17:20:00.000-08:00

Overall: 4/4 Stars

The life of Philip K. Dick originally fascinated me much more than his novels. I always thought that it would be interesting to experience paranoid delusions, just so long as I would be able to wake up from them in the end. Seeing as how I couldn't do so, I have been forced to merely read about and study those who have experienced such things, and PKD is one of the most fascinating due to his creativity and contribution to American literature as well as the field of science fiction. My first experience with PKD came after viewing the special features for The Matrix and Minority Report. Minority Report is based on one of his truly phenomenal short stories and The Matrix was heavily influenced by his work. My interest in these two films drove me to reading about him online, and that led me to reading about his novels. My local library had The Man in the High Castle, and since it was considered to be one of his more famous novels, I decided to read it.

Reading it for the first time was extremely tough. This truly brilliant novel was very well written, but it was also extremely dense and philosophically and intellectually challenging, and very hard for a thirteen-year-old to read. Eventually I got into it and completed it, but I was still left wondering as to the true meaning of the work. Surely it was beautiful and brilliant, but I just didn't understand it.

Fast forward two years to my second reading of this amazing work, which was just completed less than ten minutes ago.

This time the book was much easier to get into and I must say that I have a newfound appreciation for the style of this book. Having now read Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, Clans of the Alphane Moon, and Radio Free Albemuth, three other of PKD's books, I must say that The Man in the High Castle's style is very different from his other books. His other books feature a much more dialog and character-oriented voice and style, and this book in particular has a very philosophical and formal style. The characters address each other in a very formal and almost non-human way, and their thoughts are very philosophical and rather unnatural. It all seems very Asiatic, which makes sense for the setting and premise of the novel. It's sentences are very short and to the point, rather like a noir-tinged detective novel, though very different in content and therefore in tone. Before I don't think I was able to appreciate the style and composition or content of this novel, and now I think that I finally have a firm grasp on it.

The plot, I, of course, must mention, is another thing that I now appreciate in a much fuller sense. It follows a Japanese diplomat, a 'Swedish' businessman, a German diplomat, a Jewish jewelry maker, his wife that he is separated from, and an American businessman as they all interact with one another in a sort of tangled web. Unlike other PKD novels, however, this book really doesn't have much of a plot, and what plot there is, none of it jumps out at you initially. Basically the main focus of the novel is nothing but their tangled and interesting lives, and we as readers simply watch the characters as they go about them and interact with different people around them. All of them also interact somewhat with a novel called The Grasshopper Lies Heavy, which is a fictional novel within the novel, with its name taken from Ecclesiastes 12:5 (Also when they shall be afraid of that which is high, and fears shall be in the way, and the almond tree shall flourish, and the grasshopper shall be a burden, and desire shall fail: because man goeth to his long home, and the mourners go about the streets: - KJV). In this novel there is told an alternate present (for the time period), in which Germany and Japan lost World War II (In The Man in the High Castle, they won it). Eventually we find some things out about The Grasshopper Lies Heavy, but I won't ruin the surprise and I won't really analyze it because, well, I'm not really too sure if I completely got that point. Anyways, the plot and the pacing is excellent, and it is really a tribute to how well PKD writes.

As far as the philosophy of this book goes, this novel differs from PKD's other books in that I really can't pick out a 'main' philosophical idea that carries the whole book and is only really resolved and revealed at the end. Instead I just have a few inklings of different philosophical ideas or statements that add up to create a book that doesn't seem philosophical but definitely is, if you know what I mean. It doesn't seem to be very intellectual or deep at one level, but the more you look into it the more you grasp different ideas and concepts that were in the novel, they just weren't expounded upon. That being said, there are still certain things that I understand in terms of them actually happening, but I still have trouble wrapping my head around, particularly the final piece of information revealed about The Grasshopper Lies Heavy. Maybe I'm just stupid, or maybe I'm not the only one who doesn't get it all. I don't know.

Overall I can't recommend this book enough, and anyone who has any interest whatsoever in PKD owes it to themselves to pick up this book if they haven't already. Two warnings, however:

1. Aside from a few side references to space travel to Mars and cross-country rocket ships, this is really barely a science fiction novel for all you PKD/sci-fi fans. I would group it more in the alternate history bracket, though it still has enough sci-fi elements to be considered such a thing. Still, don't be looking for laser guns or aliens or anything like that in this book.

2. If you have a problem with endings that aren't really endings or endings that aren't completely satisfying, then read this book (even though it doesn't have a really satisfying ending) and be prepared to deal with it. The book is brilliant and amazing and absolutely needs to be read, but PKD has a habit of (at least in the few novels of his that I've read) not giving a satisfying ending for the characters, just a good ending for the plot as he sees it.

One final note, I was also very interested to find within this novel a discreet reference (if you could call it that) to a novel that PKD eventually wrote at least ten years after writing this book. I can't exactly remember where it occurred, but at one point Juliana Frink recalls 1 Corinthians 13:12 (For we know in part, and we prophesy in part. But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away. When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things. For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.) which was later used as inspiration for the novel A Scanner Darkly, also written by PKD. I guess it's not really a reference, probably more of a coincidence, but it's still interesting.

Movie Review #12: Blade Runner {1982 Theatrical Cut}

2007-12-26T16:24:00.000-08:00

Blade Runner {1982 Theatrical Cut}
Overall: 8/10
Pros: Great story, great acting, interesting setting, great design and special effects
Cons: Slow moving, slow pace, no real philosophical or idealogical point until the end

I got the ultimate five disc collection of this movie just today and watched the original movie that was released in 1982. I had heard about Blade Runner years before and was yearning to watch it, seeing as how it was considered the definitive cyberpunk film for decades and inspired countless other movies, including The Matrix (Of which I am a huge fan).

Well, I have to say that I was not disappointed. The movie was awesome and completely lived up to its hype. It also lived up to being a great adaptation of Do Androids dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick, even if it does leave out some of the animal themes and a lot of the dialogue having to do with philosophy and trying to figure out what exactly is happening to Deckard.

The fact that the movie is awesome is really just all I can say about how good the movie is. However, there are a few issues that I have with it. First off, it is extremely slow and plodding for most of the movie, and it really doesn't have the philosophical point that Philip K. Dick's books had until the very end. And as far as this version of the film goes, the narration is cheesy and really just sucks. The movie is great, but the narration just isn't all that good and really degrades the quality of this version of the movie as a whole.

Now, one last point: This movie is interesting in that it does not exist at all to have any major idea or philosophy behind it. It exists simply to tell a good story, and that is something that everyone can and should be able to appreciate.

Movie Review #11: The Bourne Identity

2007-12-26T16:11:00.000-08:00

The Bourne Identity
Overall: 8/10
Pros: Interesting story and characters, less of a focus on massive amounts of action and more of a focus on story
Cons: Somewhat slow and a little hard to understand

I watched this (Finally) after much prodding and poking from my sister. I had always thought the movies featuring the character Jason Bourne looked interesting, but they also looked a lot like your average action movie. Well, I was wrong about that. This movie (And presumably the other two, which I haven't seen) actually have an idea behind them, making them a set of "smart" action movies.

The character of Jason Bourne and all of his abilities as well as his past and life are extremely interesting and make for a great movie. Matt Damon is perfectly cast as Jason Bourne, and he really helps to bring the character to life. The supporting cast is also great, and they also help to flesh out the movie as a whole, making it much more than your traditional action thriller.

The story is great and the whole premise is very cool, and that combined with the execution of the movie makes it a real joy to watch and experience, and I really hope that everyone out there watches it and loves it like I did.

However, I do have a few problems with the story's pacing, as well as the fact that you really need to think about everything that is said in order to figure out what really went down in the life of Jason Bourne. That's good because it keeps the audience thinking, but it's bad because it forces you to think through and figure out something that should have been explained better.

The movie is great, though, and I hope that everyone out there goes and sees it.

Movie Review #10: Big

2007-12-26T15:59:00.000-08:00

First off, Merry Christmas to everyone out there, I hope that you had a good holiday.

Big
Overall: 8/10
Pros: Funny, interesting characters, good execution
Cons: It isn't really that funny for a comedy

I first heard about this movie a few years ago when I looked up Tom Hanks and all of the different movies that he has done. Big was one of those that was considered one of his better ones, and so I mentally filed away the title, meaning to eventually watch it.

This Christmas, my older sister bought it for me and I watched it, loving every minute. Tom Hanks is completely convincing in the role and is really good at it. I totally believed that he was the character for most of the film, which helped in terms of immersion and enjoyment. The rest of the cast is just as great and memorable, and I really loved everyone in their respective roles.

Now, onto the one complaint that I have: for a comedy, it really isn't that funny. It is funny, with several quite hilarious moments, but overall I found that it was much more of a drama than a comedy. It's a minor complaint, but still, I thought that I should say it.

Overall the movie is great and pretty funny, and I highly recommend it to anyone interested in a comedy with a smattering of drama thrown in for a great mix.

Book Review: Clans of the Alphane Moon by Philip K. Dick

2007-12-20T16:18:00.000-08:00

Overall: 3/4 Stars

This is yet again, another great Philip K. Dick novel. It is witty and funny and smart and extremely well thought through. The characters are well-developed and memorable, and the technologies in the book are flawlessly integrated and thought out.

The setting...well, call me stupid but I was sort of confused on that point so I never really got the actual setting, but that doesn't matter, at least overall, as long as you realize about the two different planets or moons that are the major areas of debate throughout the whole book.

The main characters of the book are extremely memorable and human, and the secondary characters are also some of my favorite in literature as a whole. I especially loved the slime character and the comedian Bunny Hentman.

Now, I do have to say that I really didn't understand the philosophical or intellectual reason behind this book. Unlike other PKD books that have a clear philosophical message or idea that they want to get across, this one seems to have a lot more to do with political messages, such as things like class and mental classifications and all sorts of social messages like that. However, the book was extremely detailed and thought out and wonderfully implemented. It was truly absoluteley perfect.

Overall, I can't say that this is one of PKD's best novels, and it isn't even one of his better ones, but it is still worth a read if you are a PKD fan, or if you like good science fiction.

Book Review: Radio Free Albemuth by Philip K. Dick

2007-12-16T12:23:00.000-08:00

Overall: 3/4 Stars

I have not read very many of Philip K. Dick's books (3 of them) but I am quite familiar with who Philip K. Dick was. I know all about his methamphetamine addictions and his writings while on them, I know all about his religious visions and those correspondences with VALIS, and I honestly would pay practically anything to read the Exegesis, his eight thousand page journal that details his multitude of religious experiences and visions.

This book, which was only published posthumously and was originally the first draft of the book that became VALIS. I read the book in about six or seven hours, and I have to say, for a short book (214 Pages) it is extremely complex and interesting and in some cases downright hard to understand.

It takes place in three parts, the first and third being narrated in first person by Philip K. Dick himself as he observes and talks to his friend Nicholas, who basically experiences everything that Philip K. Dick himself experienced. Every religious vision, every prophetic occurence, everything that PKD went through, Nicholas goes through. The middle part is perhaps the most interesting of the whole book, because it is told from Nicholas' point of view, and has to do with his involvement with a satellite overhead known as VALIS A. This satellite gives him these visions and these pieces of information that lead him to discover his purpose within a corporation known as Aramcham.

Throughout the book there is a multitude of religious imagery and allegory, and in fact the story of Nicholas as a whole is really a lot like the story of Jesus, showing how knowledgeable PKD really was about Christianity. Anyways, the book also offers what I believe is a completely interesting and unique science fiction views of humans extraterrestial origins and alien contacts and their role in shaping what has now become human religion. For instance, it shows that these aliens, who were really the forerunners to humans, were once all together with humans. Then, when the humans did something (I can't remember exactly what), they were seperated from the aliens in much the same way that Adam and Eve and all of humanity were seperated from God.

My only complaint with this book is that sometimes it is extremely hard to understand. Especially when Nicholas converses with VALIS himself, where most of the religious aspects and philosophical elements are discussed. That can get a little tough to understand, but eventually I can pretty much guarantee that you will understand it and understand both the religious elements and the plot elements perfectly, and when you do, you'll realize that this is a near perfect novel.

Book Review: Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick

2007-12-13T20:38:00.000-08:00

Overall: 4/4 Stars

I bought this book because I plan on buying the amazingly awesome and spectacularly cool 5-Disc set of the movie Blade Runner, which was based on the Philip K. Dick book, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? I bought the book for $5 at the store and read it in two days, loving and savoring every single moment.

First off, the setting and characters are pure Philip K. Dick. It takes place in a sort of bombed out future where human barely exist on Earth, and most have migrated to colony planets. The main character is Rick Deckard, who hunts down androids who have illegally returned to Earth, and then he kills them or 'retires' them. He also uses the money that he gets from retiring them to buy a real animal, which is both regarded as a social status thing and a way to cope with what he does.

What I mean by the characters being pure Philip K. Dick is that they are, in essence, losers who really don't aspire to anything except purely human desires, including social status symbols (such as a real sheep) and all sorts of things like that while also being extremely smart and analytical. They sort of talk scientifically and philosophically just in everyday speech, which (And I don't know about you) is something that usually doesn't happen to me. This sort of speech sounds completely natural even though the setting for it is strange, and it's just that kind of oddness and indirect humor that I love about the book.

The story definitely has a theme, which is (I think) all about emotions and the way that humans form attachments to things. It is also an interesting novel in that it features what I believe to be a Philip K. Dick trademark in at least two of his books that I have read (This and, The Man in the High Castle), and by that I mean an ending that really isn't an ending.

Anyways, I highly recommend the book to science fiction readers, and I just cannot say enough about how awesome and interesting it really is. Oh, and by the way, when you're done reading the book, go watch all of the many cuts of Blade Runner. I've never seen it, but I will soon!

Movie Review #9: Road to Perdition

2007-12-13T20:21:00.000-08:00

Road to Perdition
Overall: 9/10
Pros: Great story, action, adventure, character, writing, imagery...
Cons: Nothing major, except that it is a little slow at the start

I first heard of Road to Perdition by reading the phenomenal graphic novel that was held in my local library. The book was amazing, filled with a great story, amazing characters, awe inspiring visuals, and stark graphic moments. The thing was truly a piece of amazing work, and I still love rereading it to this day.

I wasn't sure about the movie. I had heard that it was good, but I was worried because I loved the book so much, and what I really wanted from the movie was a complete and faithful adaptation of the book. And that's exactly what I got.

The cast is the first major part of the movie that I love. Everyone was perfectly cast, and each actor fully embodies their character, making them into living, breathing people on the screen. The writing is also excellent, faithfully translating the core of the graphic novel while also adding a whole other level of emotion and back story to the story, as well as a new character whom I absolutely love.

Overall, the film wasn't perfect. It was a little bit slow at times, especially in the beginning, but the story as a whole as well as the execution of that story more than made up for the whole thing. My one other complaint is that in the graphic novel the kid narrates the story as an adult after he became a priest, and in the movie he narrates it as a child while talking about events that happen in his future. It works but it just seem sorts of stupid to me.

Movie Review #8: Paycheck

2007-12-04T18:36:00.000-08:00

Paycheck
Overall: 7/10
Pros: Okay action, okay story...
Cons: Everything else

When I heard of this movie I thought that it looked all right at best, and filed the title away as a movie to eventually watch in the future. Then I heard it was based on a Philip K. Dick short story and I got a whole lot more interested.

The movie was simply adequate. The acting was okay, the action was okay, and the story was okay, but it all seemed cheap and stupid looking. I mean, the story was great (It was based on the work of Philip K. Dick-Hello!) but it was implemented stupidly.

Overall the movie was just okay. It didn't stand out to me in any way, and it didn't seem spectacular at all. It was an all right movie, but that was it.

Game Review: Mass Effect (Xbox 360)

2007-11-30T11:36:00.000-08:00

Mass Effect (Xbox 360)

Overall: 9.5/10
Pros: Beautiful graphics, great gameplay, amazing story, really great conversations...and graphics...and did I mention the awesome story?
Cons: Elevators, some combat situations, and your squadmates-sometimes.

The first time I saw this game I practically freaked-Bioware, the makers of the greatest Star Wars game ever, creating their own IP with their own ideas and story and characters. Add that scenario in with absolutely brilliant graphics, interesting characters, a unique and revolutionary conversation system, and your own starship, and you have a recipe for science fiction greatness.

I ordered the Limited Edition of the game off of Gamestop.com on Thanksgiving night, and when it arrived on Teusday, I couldn't stop playing. My final playthrough logged in at around 11 hours (I hated the fact that the game didn't outright tell you how long you played it once you beat it) and I didn't even crack the surface of what was possible in the game. I simply followed the story quest, pursuing two or three optional assignments maximum.

First off: the story and setting. The setting in the twenty-third century is superb, and is highly enhanced by the awesome art style and graphics. The environments everywhere are breathtaking and amazingly inhabited by the aliens within them. These environments and inhabitants help to give the story a breath of fresh air, as it simply provides context to everything that you do, and every situation that you find yourself in. The story itself is amazing, spanning several planets and situations to find yourself in, and the scale is just awe inspiring.

I just traveled laong the main pathway this time around, sticking to those planets that you absolutely need to go to in order to complete the game, and sticking to the order that you are supposedly supposed to visit those planets. That main quest alone took eleven hours of my time, and that eleven hours in four days was completely worth it.

I just loved the exploration and main quests that you have to partake, even though on some planets there are extended sequences where you just run from person to person until you can progress in some other way. This was sort of annoying, but in the end it just didn't matter because it always made you feel like you were progressing, which is the most important thing. Then, when you started to get going and really progress in a visible and quick manner, then you just love it even more.

The combat was extremely smooth and easy, playing a lot like many FPS games, albeit from a third-person perspective, and it was really, really fun and cool. The actual encounters, except for a few that I can think of, were extremely easy and simple to get through. However, that only strengthens the game. The combat, really, if you think about it, is simply overlaid over top of an epic and amazing story. It just doesn't matter in the long run. It is simply a vehicle to get you from place to place in order to progress the story-and that's what I really liked about it. Plus, even though you do level up, it doesn't feel like you absolutely need to spend hours and hours in order to upgrade your character, which is something that I hate about most RPG's. It really plays well in that you can simply play the game like a shooter-going from place to place doing what you need to do in order to get the game over with, and you can beat the game that way. That is very unlike most RPG's where you have to spend a massive amount of time leveling and working towards beating the game, leveling up every character that you could possibly have in your party, keeping everyone balanced. Also of note-you didn't have to keep switching characters in order to get certain things done. I beat the entire game using only two characters in my party: Ashley and Liara. Obviously Liara came into the game late, but after I acquired her, she was the only character that I used along with Ashley and myself-Commander Shephard.

This idea of using only two characters was interesting in that it provided me with insight into two interesting things: what makes a great game brilliant, and what makes a great game simple while at the same time being complex. What I thought was brilliant was that using this constant party, my Tech powers were never leveld up at all. That meant that I never got to hack into many of the crates and lockers and supply-giving areas in the game. This meant that except for around 5-10 crates maximum, I didn't pick up any new equipment or powers or items. I also only visited one store in my entire playthrough-and I still beat the game! I think that all games, not just RPG's need to be made like this. They need to be made while giving you the ability to beat the game with a minimal amount of work. You don't need to collect everything to get through the game, you just need to work at it minimally. You don't need to be an expert, you just ned to be a fan. And as for what makes a great game simple while at the same time being complex: guided freedom. I'm not a big fan of the sandbox genre, and I hate that 'go anywhere do anything' mantra. It just annoys me. I like to finish games and get a complete understanding of the story. If that takes me forty hours because I wasn't sure what was really going to progress the plot or help me out, then that sort of dampens the experience. The ability to visit literally dozens of worlds in Mass Effect is very cool and unique, and eventually I'd like to visit many of those optional worlds and discover what they have to offer, but if you really just want to get through the main plot and understand that aspect of it completely, than you can and it is extremely easy and fun to do so.

The conclusion, however, is just a little bit odd. It does leave room for the rest of the planned trilogy, albeit a little bit wierdly, but really it just makes me want to play throug the game all over again.

Now, onto the only three bad things that I can think of.

#1: Combat and Squad
Sometimes the combat is a little unbalanced and difficult. I mean it is fun and easy to play with, it can sometimes be a little overwhelming and odd. Now, in terms of the squad, this was my one major complaint. Your squad, while most of the time helpful, can at times be extremely stupid. One particular incident comes to mind where I realized that one of my squadmates was way, way behind me and wasn't moving at all. I had to go backtrack all the way back over there to get to Liara, the squadmate in question, and then I had to screw around for another five minutes until I finally got her to come with me and help to finish the mission.

#2: Odd Dialog Choices
The dialog is my absolute favorite part of the game. I could sit for hours on end and just go through the many sorts of conversations in the game. My major complaints with this system isn't with the system itself, its more with the delivery. Some of the lines are delivered in a sort of sarcastic or serious or even angry manner when they are supposedly the 'nice' lines. The characters react in the desired way, but the delivery is just a little bit wierd. At the end, one of the dialog choices suddenly makes you like whip around in another direction and walk off while spouting a few more lines. It isn't bad or game killing, it's just a little odd.

#3: Bugs
I don't play games to find bugs. With Halo 3 and the Forge, yes, I do screw around some and try to find glitches and things like that that help to make the game fun in a different kind of way, but with Mass Effect, my entire desire in playing the game was just to do that: Unfortuantely, my experience was marred by two bugs that I found while just doing what any player would normally do. The first one was me just simply walking along a walkway right next to the railing, and all of a sudden I was stuck and couldn't move at all in any direction whatsoever. It would play walking animations, but I couldn't move. I couldn't figure out any way to get out of there, and so I had to load my last save point and do about fifteen minutes worth of playing over again. The second bug happened while I was in the Mako. I went over a rock and flipped the thing. The Mako ended up falling through the geometry of the level and then ended up hung from its cannon. I could move the cannon, but the Mako itself was still stuck underneath. While these bugs were technically game killing, and I was mad about them, I didn't mind them overall, because the rest of the game was so good that it just didn't matter.

Overall, if you love either shooters or RPG's, get this game and play it to its full extent. It is amazing and extremely fun to play. I really loved the game and can't wait to continue on with the story.

Concept: Create an amazing RPG, and an amazing science fiction universe while incorporating amazing tactical gameplay and an awesome conversation system to create one of the greatest video games ever overall.

Graphics: The in-game environments are amazingly beautiful and detailed, and the character models are awesome. However, the character models that are used during the conversations and cinematics are the true show-stealers, showing off nearly five million polygons at once. They are amazingly detailed and show of the real power of the Xbox 360 and next generation machines as a whole.

Sound: The main draw for sound-the voice acting, is absolutely perfect and exquisetly superb-mostly. See my section up above for the full story. The music was also really, really amazing. I didn't expect it to be as good as it really was, but it was amazing-inspired by the electronic soundtracks of the 70's and 80's. It was one of my favorite features of the game in the end-and I wasn't even expecting it. What a pleasant surprise it was.

Playability: Combat is awesome and smooth. Exploration is fun, although a bit jumpy, and conversations play like video games were invented just for that system.

Entertainment: It is extremely fun and offers a massive amount of entertainment, and you don't really have to look for it. It is all right out there on the surface and aching for you to come in and play with it.

Replay Value: So high it is impossible to come up with any kind of words to describe how high the replay value is.

First Impressions: Oblivion and Mass Effect

2007-11-27T17:06:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I bought The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Collector's Edition from my local Gamecrazy for $25 (Plust tax). Today I received in the mail a game that I ordered on Thanksgiving day: the Mass Effect Limited Edition.

Now, I'm not great at RPG's, even though I love them, and I have to say-so far, I love both of these games a phenomenal amount. So here is what I think of them so far:

The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion (Xbox 360)
I was very nervous about buying this game. First off, the world of Tamriel is a world that will take anyone literally hundreds of hours to explore to its full extent like I am so fond of doing, and second off, I was extremely worried about how first-person sword combat would work.

The world is so beautiful that the first part is something that I shouldn't be worried about; it's begging to be explored. As far as the side missions go...they look cool, but I doubt that I'll complete very many of them, I'm just going to stick to the main quest. But everything, and I mean everything, is rendered in such beautiful detail that the exploration parts of the game, or the optional exploration parts, are actually incredibly fun.

And the sword combat works surprisingly well. I was primarily worried that they had only made one attack animation for the sword combat, but thankfully they've made a really cool system with numerous animations and combos and all sorts of things like that. It's really just awesome.

The game overall so far (About an hour of playing) has been extremely fun and detailed and I can't wait to invest more time into it.

The Collector's Edition special features are brief, but nice. The trailer is awesome, and what is really the only other major feature on it: a 45-minute documentary about the making of the game, is extremely well done and it is really fun to watch. The packaging for the Collector's Edition is awesome, and the book that comes with it is really cool to read and just look at, beign exquisetly designed and crafted.

Mass Effect (Xbox 360)
This is the one game that I really, really wanted this year. In all the trailers it just looked absolutely spectacular and like it was going to be something amazing to experience, and so far (About 3 hours) it has been one of the most amazing RPG experiences ever.

The combat, while not perfect, is really more fun than I thought that it would be, and the laser pistols and weapons really feel a lot like normal FPS and 3PS weapons, which is something that I really appreciate. The squad controls are nice, especially with the allies that you meet up with, and the graphics make the whole thing just a joy to experience.

However, the thing that I mostly have to commend in the game is its conversation interface. Really, it sounds stupid, but that is really one of my favorite parts of the game. The usually tedious task of conversations and information finding are replaced with something that is a joy to experience in every single way possible. It is just awesome.

The Limited Edition is really, really spectacular. It is in a Gears of War-style case, and the bonus features and bonus books are just really fun to watch and read. They had a whole ton of information to the game world and just make an already spectacular game even more immersive than it already is.

Overall
Overall...I have to pick out Mass Effect as the better game so far. But that is not to say that I don't like Oblivion, its just that I've had more time to play Mass Effect and more time to see what it really has to offer. That's something I haven't done with Oblivion so far, so...my opinion on that matter doesn't really count.

Three days till my birthday!

First Impressions: F.E.A.R.; Quake IV; Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter

2007-11-25T20:09:00.000-08:00

So, on Black Friday I took some money and went down to the local Gamestop, where they were having a 'Buy Two Get One Free' sale, and so I bought three games. These are my impressions of them.

F.E.A.R. (Xbox 360)
Okay, so far, this is probably my favorite of the three games. It has solid FPS action, a creepy atmosphere, and so far, a good story. Now, that is not to say that it is without faults. It is definitely a little bit repetitive, having you basically traverse through a little bit of a maze, just killing the guys that come at you while simply trying to progress to the next story point. So, that kind of gets old. As far as everything else goes...I can't really complain. The graphics are nice, although a little lo-res or low detail at some points, and the enemy AI is a joy to fight against, especially with the slow motion. The horror moments are cool, albeit not very scary, and so far the story has been brief and spread thin but still enjoyable.
My favorite part of the whole package for this game so far has been the slow motion ability. First off, it's just a cool feature on paper, but the way that it is implemented, with all of the visual effects and super cool filters, make it just plain awesome. The best part about the slow motion: the blood sprays. The blood is just streaked across the screen, and it just looks awesome. The best gameplay addition to the slow motion: the shotgun. It is just absolutely amazing to see an enemy cut in half using that powerful shotgun, showering the area in a massive amount of blood and what is left of the enemy's body. There are very few greater feelings in video games today.

Overall 1st Impression: 8.5/10

Quake IV (Xbox 360)
I bought this title simply because I absolutely love id Software. All of their games have been groundbreaking and have pushed the industry forward as a whole, especially in the graphics department, and Doom 3 and Quake IV were no different. Sure, Quake IV wasn't developed by id, but it was made using the Doom 3 engine, and so I think that that sort of links them together in a way, and if they aren't linked by graphics then they are sure linked by gameplay.
I beat Doom 3 on the Xbox (I'll have to post a review some time) and that was a very fun game. It wasn't great, but it was good, with solid action, albeit sucky level design, and interesting creatures. The game delivered, even with an extremely weak story. So far, Quake IV looks to be the exact same thing. The levels seem very industrial and Doom 3-esque, and all of them are cramped and while they are interesting to fight in, they just get a little old after a little bit. Now I know that you get to fight outdoors and that you are eventually transformed into a Strogg, but from what I've seen so far, the game isn't all that spectacular.
Now, my favorite part of the game so far has to be the opening sequence. It opens on a marine that looks like he's floating through space. It looks like it could be a dream, but then the camera pulls back and shows you that he is floating through space, and that his body has been ripped in half and is showering the space around it in blood. It is just awesome.
Also, I love the fact that id and Activision included a bonus disc with the game. It's got a few cool documentary things, but the coolest part is definitely the inclusion of Quake II. That game was just awesome (It wasn't my era but I've played it) and it's really a blast using a gamepad, since I really don't like PC controls.

Overall 1st Impression: 7/10

Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter (Xbox 360)
I bought this game mostly just because of how awesome it looked. The graphics are just absolutely beautiful. Now, playing it on the other hand is a little wierd. The controls are fine, and everything about it is great except for two major things:

1) The aim speed. It would be really hard to play this as anything other than a really slow tactical shooter. The look speeds are just so slow it's unbelievable, and every single encounter practically turns into a sniping encounter whereas they might have been a really awesome assault encounter.

2) Why can I not save when I want too!? Why!? I absolutely hate this. Especially when I get called away and I don't have time to finish what I'm doing. I had to do most of one mission twice before I got a message that saved "Saving..." and then I shut the game off. Still, I'm not even sure it actaully saved it.

My favorite part so far...........I dont' know, I'm still looking for one.

Overall 1st Impression: 7/10

So there you have it!

This Holiday's Video Game Dilemma

2007-11-18T12:25:00.000-08:00

In just four days (and counting) many of us will be sitting down to Thanksgiving, a celebration of friends and family and (some would say most importantly) good food. That day is the day that I will be celebrating my 15th birthday, even if the real thing isn't for another week, and so I think that I'll have the money to go and buy one game. The trouble is, I can't pick between Mass Effect, Assassin's Creed or Call of Duty 4. So, I've decided to rate them by their own merits.

Mass Effect
Pros: Awesome story, amazing graphics, cool gameplay
Cons: I suck at RPG's, heavily stat based

Concept: Take the team that made one of the best Star Wars games ever and let them make their own amazing idea. Also, start amazing trilogy of games.
Graphics: Right up there with the best of the best. Especially great facial animations and things like that.
Sound: Well, I'm not sure about all of this, especially the music. But right now it looks like it will have hours and hours of voice acting that is going to be just absolutely spectacular, so...
Playibility: RPG's are always a little hard to control, and from what I've seen it appears that combat is somewhat squad based, albeit real-time, so...I'm not sure how that's gonna play out.
Entertainment: Oh the entertainment will be there, just hopefully you won't have to level an insane amount to get at it.
Replay Value: Hopefully high, but then if it takes 200 hours to get through, do you really want to have to do that all over again?

Assassin's Creed
Pros: It looks like it'll have a great story, interesting characters, interesting gameplay.
Cons: It looks a little to sandbox and open-ended for me.

Concept: Prince of Persia for the next generation with a better plot and all that.
Graphics: Well, the environments look really amazing so far, but they really haven't showcased what they are doing about the nitty gritty details yet, so I'm not sure how it looks at street level so to speak.
Sound: I don't really know. They haven't really talked about that all that much and I haven't really experienced anything that gives me an impression of what the sound will be like, so I can't really tell. What I do know is that it looks like the sound, music, and acting will be pretty good.
Playibility: From what I've heard, the controls are great and work well, but are kind of hard to learn.
Entertainment: It looks like a great adventure that will last for hours on end. The trouble is, Im not sure if I want to invest that many hours into it. I'm sure it'll be great and spectacular, but will it be fun?
Replay Value: Hopefully high, but it looks kind of medium to me.

Call of Duty 4
Pros: Graphics that make my jaw drop, perfect FPS action, fun to play.
Cons: Since I'm primarily a Campaign player, the six hour long campaign that many gaming magazines report makes me want to cry.

Concept: Take Call of Duty is a whole new direction and make it absolutely awesome and perfect.
Graphics: The best that we've seen so far in this generation. Seriously, it makes me think that in the next generation of game consoles we will see truly photorealistic graphics. Meanwhile, this is as close as we're gonna get...maybe.
Sound: From what I hear, awesome. Sound effects look to be awesome, and most war games have really great orchestrated music, and hopefully this one does too.
Playibility: The controls are great, supposedly, and the 360's controller is great for FPS games, so that combined with a Halo 3-esque control scheme will have me smiling from ear to ear.
Entertainment: Supposedly non-stop thrills and amazing experiences, this game has it all. Trouble is, it looks to be too short to play through more than a handful of times, so...I'm not sure if that is something I'll really like.
Replay Value: I want to say high, just because the game looks so awesome, but with a really short campaign mode, it looks to gravitate more towards medium.

So there you have it, my thoughts on the latest and greatest console video games. The trouble is I have my thoughts down...and I still don't know which one I'm going to buy.

Movie Review #7: Next

2007-11-12T17:42:00.000-08:00

Next
Overall: 8/10
Pros: Great story, great action, great movie overall.
Cons: Some bad writing and horrible special effects.

Please don't take this score wrong. This has absolutely become one of my favorite movies ever. Based on a short story by one of my favorite authors Philip K. Dick, the movie plays out the basic idea of the story in a grand fashion, showing off all of the smarts and style that Mr. Dick had while changing the setting and making it more relatable to the viewer.
My favorite parts of the movie were those involving looking ahead. There was just something about those sequences that made you feel like you knew something special. You knew that everyone else who was watching the movie knew the exact same thing, but for some reason, you just felt like you knew the main character's secret, and then when you found out that you didn't know the secret, that you didn't really know what was going on, you weren't mad or anything like that, you were amazed and enthused at the new direction the movie was going. The acting was pretty good, and that combined with the story and script just made the whole thing a joy to watch. However, it wasn't without it's faults.
The writing, while good on a technical and story level, was at times a little wierd on the personal level. There are a few lines that just seem to stick out as a little strange or awkward, and while it doesn't make the movie stink, it just seems a little odd. The other thing that brought me out of the movie were the special effects. They looked good, but you don't even have to concentrate on them very hard to see that they don't really hold up all that well. Everything that was digital just looked digital. It looked like early 90's films or budget TV films today, where it looks good, but it just doesn't look great.
So, really, my complaints were small and overall insignificant. However, they do make the film a little bit worse than it would have been otherwise. Still, I recommend this movie to anyone interested in science fiction and looking for a good, twist-filled plot.

Movie Review #6: Gone in 60 Seconds

2007-11-12T17:36:00.000-08:00

Gone in 60 Seconds
Overall: 8/10
Pros: Good action, pretty fast paced.
Cons: Cheesy at times, just really not that good.

So, I watched this movie simply because it didn't look too bad. It looked all right. I wasn't very excited to see the movie, and I didn't have high expectations. Thank goodness, because otherwise I would have been disappointed.
To be fair, the movie isn't bad. It's actually pretty good. It's good everything a good drama needs, a good story, interesting characters, tons of action, but then it also has some things that no good drama should ever have: sometimes lame and way too spectacular special effects, gimmicks, and just some dumb elements overall.
So, I know that this review is kind of short, but that's all I really have to say about the movie. It just wasn't spectacular or amazing in any way. It was just...adequate.

Game Review: BioShock (Xbox 360)

2007-10-27T06:46:00.001-07:00

BioShock (Xbox 360)

Overall Score: 9/10
Pros: Great story, art style, graphics, gameplay, pretty much everything.
Cons: You really got to pay attention, and sometimes it gets a little bit slow.

This game had a lot of hype before it was released, and then there was a lot of hype when it was released due to the high review scores that it got, including a 10/10 in Game Informer, my favorite gaming magazine.

First off I'll list the high points. I absolutely loved this game and had a massive amount of fun playing it. The world of Rapture is practically living on this box of circuitry in my living room, showing everyone who picks it up what is truly possible with next generation technology. Everything about this game screams "next-gen". The graphics are absolutely stunning, and the art deco art style prefectly fits the world and gives it a unique look compared to other games of this era, although my game actually froze once and there were some frame rate issues towards the end, but nothing major.

Combat is super smooth, playing just like any other FPS. I was worried initially that the game would be awesome but the actual gunplay would suck. Well, it plays just as smoothly as Halo 3 or any other FPS game that you can think of. The encounters are intense and play out just like any other game, though the simple depth and detail of the world of Rapture help to add a little bit of extra "oomph" to each encounter, making it feel somewhat different from other shooters while feeling the same. The Big Daddies are absolutely awesome, both from an artistic side and a gameplay side. They look completely stunning, with either their really cool drills and multi-bubble helmet or their rivet guns. And like one review said, you have never been punched in a video game until you've been punched by a Big Daddy. They are super hard every time that you fight them, and defeating them is one of the most satisfying experiences of any game I've ever played.

The whole world of Rapture is breathtaking. Everything about the world seems perfectly sculpted and placed, and it really seems like it could be a real city underwater. I cannot describe enough how amazing the world of Rapture feels. The Audio Logs lying about add a whole other layer of immersiveness to the world, eschewing the needs for actual cutscenes, and the few cutscenes that do appear are absolutely awesome. Then we get into the actual ecology of the world, with the Little Sisters, Big Daddies, and Splicers. Each enemy in the game feels unique and their unique places in Rapture's halls is clear. The Splicers feel really screwed up and destroyed, the Little Sisters feel weak and weary while at the same time being completely creepy, and the Big Daddies appear as freaky and awesome as you think they can be.

Also, deserving of special mention is the Plasmid system. When I read about the game and how you could use telekenis and differeny powers like that, I was honestly a little worried. Usually when you think of powers like that you think of a traditional RPG where you are leveling up and stuff like that, and so it uses menus heavily. Thankfully I was surprised with the menu and control system for the plasmids, making them one of my absolute favorite elements of the game.

Now, onto the negative aspects of BioShock. First off, the story, while completely interesting and awesome, did have some annoying goals to it. I didn't like having to complete the 'find the item' quests, where you just walk around and look for a number of items until you've found all of the required ones. That kind of annoyed me.

Another thing was that at times it didn't feel paced right. I would be walking around and exploring and then there would be a string of action and then another exploring part, which is really quite normal for any game, but for some reason it didn't feel natural, it felt just a little off beat at some times.

The final thing is the endings. Both of them are pretty interesting, but they just end really, really quickly and don't really give an ending to the story in the traditional sense. I don't know, I just felt like I wanted more from the story. Oh, well, here's hoping for a sequel!

Really, these are minor complaints, and the score that I gave the game reflects that. I really liked the game, and it is definitely on my favorites list, but I don't think that it was perfect.

Now, even though this is a review, I have to broadcast my hopes for a sequel, a quality sequel. The world of Rapture is so huge and so detailed that it is just begging to be explored, and that is something that I just can't get out of my system, the want and need to explore that world. It is just so awesome and I know that there are probably a thousand other stories that you could tell within that setting. I just hope that Irrational Games, or 2K Boston, goes on to make an absolutely awesome sequel with a story just as awesome as this first game.

Concept: Make a living, breathing world in a video game and make a killer video game overall. Oh yeah, and tell an awesome story and have an awesome art style and all that stuff.

Graphics: The art deco style that everything has gives the world of Rapture a perfect 1940's nostalgic vibe that I, 1) really like, and 2) just can't get over.

Sound: The music is pretty good, although no theme really stands out, but the voice acting is what you really look forward to. With over 100 audio logs, as well as actual characters in the game world, you'll hear plenty of awesome voice acting. The Little Sisters are particularly creepy.

Playibility: Plays just as smoothly and great as any other FPS, but perhaps it plays even better overall considering it gives you Plasmids and guns to fight with.

Entertainment: Trust me, the entertainment is there, you just have to look in all the right places. Completing the game and really getting a sense of what went on beneath the sea can be a little bit challenging, with all of the audio logs and piecing together information, but that just adds to the experience.

Replay Value: Very, very, very high.

Movie Review #5: Edward Scissorhands

2007-10-27T06:33:00.000-07:00

Okay, it's been awhile since I've done this but here we go. Today I'm going to do a movie review and a video game review.

Edward Scissorhands
Overall: 9/10
Pros: Quirky characters, good music, great stylistic design and good acting.
Cons: The ending sucks.

This was one of those movies that I heard about when I started to get into the genius of Tim Burton. I rented it and watched it several months ago, and just recently I bought it and watched it again. My thoughts and impressions haven't changed: this is one good movie. The acting is superb, the storyline is awesome, and it is just really cool over all. The musical score by Danny Elfman is another element that I really liked about the film.

What I loved about this movie was that it was a comedy overall. As a little kid looking at the cover to this movie in the store or at Blockbuster, I could admit that I was a little frightened. I probably thought it was some movie about a killer or something. But now, having seen it and read about it and experienced it, I can truly say that it is one of my favorite films of all time.

The only downside is the ending. The whole movie used Frankenstein kind of as a motif or even a basic outline for the plot, and so the workup to the ending isn't very surprising at all, and really what actually happens isn't a surprise either, it is simply following the logical arc of the story. But, no matter what, the ending stinks, it's simply too short and too dumb. The rest of the movie awesome, and it more than makes up for a lackluster ending, but still, come on...

Also, for a little bit of movie trivia, my uncle was actually an extra in the movie. He's in the garden sequence.

The First 30 Minutes of BioShock

2007-10-09T17:14:00.000-07:00

Today I finally purchased BioShock for my brand new Xbox 360, and so far I have only gotten to play around thirty minutes of it, but even in those thirty minutes, the game has left a huge impression on me.

Graphics
Okay, the most obvious amazing thing about the game is its graphics. The whole art deco art style is absolutely amazing, giving the game a very unique look compared to other titles, and the water effects are absolutely amazing, although Halo 3 gives the game a run for its money. The enemies look extremely cool, and their deaths are pretty cool too.

Sound
The voice overs are absolutely perfect, and even the enemies have good VO that is creepy and awesome at the same time. The music, which is licensed tracks from the 40's, is perfect for the title and make it absolutely chilling. The sound effects are awesome too.

Gameplay
So far, the gameplay is smooth and overall awesome. It controls like a dream, making the enemies a blast to fight, and it is extremely easy to pick up items and do different things. The scripted sequences that open the game and then take place throughout are absolutely perfect, and I really don't even miss cutscenes, which I usually love to death.

Overall
So far, the game lives up to its 10/10 rating by Game Informer. Now, would you kindly go buy it?

First Impressions: Blue Dragon (Xbox 360)

2007-10-01T17:29:00.000-07:00

Technically, Gears of War was my first Xbox 360 game, but I got Blue Dragon the next day, and really it was meant to be the first game that I got.
Now, I'm around three hours into the game and I have to say, it is freaking awesome for three reasons:

1) The graphics just blow my mind, even on an SDTV. Everything looks vibrant and perfect and amazing. It looks like stylized Japanese clay characters running around a practically photrealistic, but still stylized, environment. It is truly an amazing thing.

2) The music is awesome. Every place in the game world is really just amazingly enhanced by the beautiful and completely memorable music. The boss them sucks beyond belief, but that's a different story...

3) It is a blast to play. To be honest, I'm not that good at RPG's, really I just stink. I love them, but I'm not really good and I usually end up dying and it ends up being that I didn't level up enough so now I'm a really low level character that can't beat any monster anywhere. This game has a little bit of that attached to it, but really, I'm having so much fun leveling up that it doesn't matter. Combat doesn't get at all repetitive, or at least it hasn't yet, and the usually tedious task of leveling has become a lot easier and more fun.

There you go, my first impressions of a game that I probably will not beat for a long, long time. Now I"m gonna go play some Gears of War, so until next time...

Game Review: Halo 3 (Xbox 360)

2007-09-29T07:06:00.000-07:00

The conclusion to this epic trilogy....and I finished it!

Halo 3 (Xbox 360)

Overall Score: 10/10
Pros: Great graphics even on an SDTV, great story, super fun gameplay, best campaign mode ever.
Cons: Some points are a little confusing, and it spoils you for other games.

Halo 1 was perfect, Halo 2 was near perfect, and Halo 3 helps the series regain its jeweled crown of perfection. First off, no, the graphics aren't super high detail, super high textures, super high everything. They are subtle and stylized and overall much more beautiful. The sound design is perfect, with everything sounding as realistic as is possible, and the music is to die for. And the main reason that I play, the campaign, is the best part of the whole package. The story is downright awesome. Even though some points are a little fuzzy and will require a couple more playthroughs, I felt like I understood everything in the big picture. The story itself is really tied neck and neck with the gameplay as my favorite part of the game. Everything in the game feels like it was structured and paced perfectly. The entire game was absolutely a blast to play from beginning to end, and I can't wait to play it again, in fact, I might just do that once I'm done posting this. It is super amazingly fun, and it is highly recommended to anyone who likes good stories and fun gameplay.

NOTE: I didn't really get a chance to screw around with multiplayer stuff, but from what I have experimented with, I can say that Forge is pretty easy to use, though not perfect, and that Saved Films are a blast, but I'm still trying to figure a couple of things out concerning it.

Concept: Make the ending of the Halo trilogy the best possible game that it could be.

Graphics: Extremely good on an SDTV. They aren't the sharpest things in the world, but the overall Halo style and feel are presented perfectly. Real fans won't be disappointed.

Sound: Mary O'Donnell's music mixes in perfectly with the rest of the sound in the game, making the whole thing just absolutely perfect.

Playibility: The perfect Halo gameplay isn't gone. This game is more fun than Halo 2, and just as fun as the first game. I gave it a 10/10 score, so that's gotta tell you something about how fun it was.

Entertainment: Perfect from start to finish, this game is great for everyone who loves good stories and good gameplay.

Replay Value: Very High.

Game Review: Halo 2

2007-09-24T07:49:00.000-07:00

Halo 2 (Xbox)

Overall Score: 9/10
Pros: Great graphics, voice acting and story, as well as sweet new weapons. And the gameplay is as good as ever.
Cons: A lot of times I just didn't feel like it was very much fun. Sometimes it felt like a shooting gallery instead of a living world.

Halo 1 was awesome, and so Halo 2 had a massive reputation to live up to. I like to say that it delivered, but to be honest, I don't think it was as good as the first game. Since most people know how awesome the game was, I'm just going to focus on the points that I felt were negative.

First off, some of the levels were just really too long for their own good. They just didn't feel fun. Sure, there was a lot of good stuff there, but it just wasn't fun. Okay, I have to be honest, that's my only complaint, but it was enough to drop the game down to a 9/10, so....

Concept: Make an awesome sequel that almost lives up to the hype.

Graphics: Pretty darn good, even if there are a few switching textures.

Sound: Halo in 5.1 is always a good thing, and the score is just as truly amazing and beautiful.

Playability: Gameplay hasn't changed much, just level design has, making the game slightly less fun than its predecessor.

Entertainment: If you're looking for an awesome FPS, even one that isn't quite perfect, Halo 2 fits the bill.

Replay Value: High.

Game Review: Halo-Combat Evolved (Xbox)

2007-09-24T07:33:00.000-07:00

In preperation for Halo 3's historic launch tomorrow, I thought that I would review the first two games in the series, starting with number one.

Halo: Combat Evolved (Xbox)

Overall Score: 10/10
Pros: Epic and awesome story, great voice acting, great gameplay and controls, super amazing multiplayer.
Cons: Thehuman character models really don't hold up that well, but the rest of the environments do so amazingly.

Halo was really the first 'hardcore' game that I played. All other video games that I had played were casual games like Tetris and stuff like that, and I gotta say, even now, years after having played it for the first time, I still love it just as much.
By now, everyone who is going to play it has already played it, and even if they haven't, they know a lot about what goes on, so I'm not going to worry about spoilers here. The story starts off in a very interesting way, giving you very little information about exactly what went on. Sure the manual clued you in a little bit, but definitely not a ton. Then, you go on to play through nine of the greatest video game levels of all time, in the process viewing and experiencing one of the best video game stories of all time. This is interesting to me now, because replaying through Halo and Halo 2, its amazing how simple the story is, especially in Halo 1, and yet the first time you played it, and even now replaying it, you feel like you're in on some big secret. You feel like you know something other people don't know. That kind of feeling is a tribute to how good a game this really is.
On the technical side, the game is pretty solid. The gameplay, which was truly revolutionary, still proves that even years after the initial innovation, it still feels and plays just as good as any of the competition. The graphics are pretty nice, although the actual character models don't exactly look breathtaking, and the enemies are just plain cool. The AI works well, and the game is truly just a blast to play.

Concept: The first FPS on a console that replicates the PC experience perfectly.

Graphics: The environments and weapons look really, really cool, even after several years. The human character models are the main bad part when it comes to graphics, and the enemy models hold up fairly well, especially the Hunter.

Sound: This is one of the first games to really get voice acting right. Other then that, the weapons and enemies and allies all sound great, and the music is practically Oscar-quality. Marty O'Donnell is truly amazing.

Playability: The controls and gameplay are awesome to begin with. Then you add vehicles like the warthog into the mix and it just gets better and better.

Entertainment: Even if you are playing on easy, you get an amazing story, amazing gameplay, and the start of an epic trilogy all wrapped into one.

Replay Value: Super High.

Book Review: 2010-Odyssey Two by Arthur C. Clarke

2007-09-19T07:58:00.000-07:00

Overall: 3 and a half/4 Stars

2001: A Space Odyssey the film was an epic film that captured the imagination and the mind. The movie was just awesome, filled with mind-blowing imagery and great music to top it all off. But, to be honest, it was just a little bit wierd, and the ending didn't really bring everything to a conclusion.

Now, we must thank Arthur C. Clarke, famed British author and inventor, for continuing the story of the space shuttle Discovery and making everything that was once so confusing much easier to understand while still expanding upon the already established universe that the books take place in.

First off, the book is super easy to read, and even if you didn't get 2001 the movie, you'll pretty much immediately understand everything in the book and the movie, and maybe you'll even understand the movie better then you did originally. I know that's what happened to me. The entire story is very interesting because unlike a lot of novels, there really isn't any action, just a lot of internal and external observations that take place onboard a space ship. There really aren't even that many dramatic moments, really, between the crew on the space ship, even in a book that you would expect to have lots of them (I mean eight people onboard one ship for a matter of years, come on). Overall, I was pleasantly surprised with the entire book's structure and narrative, and now I can't wait to go to my local library to pick up 2061: Odyssey Three, the third book in the series.

Overall, if you like science fiction in general or maybe you just liked the movie 2001, this is a great book and I highly recommend it to everyone.

World War II Video Games

2007-09-17T20:31:00.000-07:00

Okay, so in the video game industry, there is a huge amount of titles that aim at depicting the action and heroism of soldiers in World War II. For the sake of this post, towards the end I'm going to only focus on the main WWII games.

First off, I don' t think that video games that seek to emulate real wars and situations are disrespectful. If they are taken wrong then they can be, because they make light of a situatin in which thousands of people lost lives, but in general I don't think that is a real problem. If you play a World War II game just to have fun instead of intending on being wrapped up in the story and drama of the war, then you may just be missing the point. I think that these games should be made to tell real and accurate stories, not just to run and gun through a historically based mission.

Now, I'm going to look at a few series of WWII games and say my thoughst about each.

Medal of Honor
As I have said, I don't think that World War II games are bad or wrong. The one thing that I have a problem with in the Medal of Honor series, is that they glorify things and tone things down. There isn't any blood flying everywhere, there aren't swear words being spewed out of every mouth, and it just doesn't do any justice to what real veterans really experienced. To be honest, the MoH games are engrossing and epic experiences, but they still aren't my favorite.

Call of Duty
The Call of Duty games suffer from the exact same thing as the MoH games. They glorify everything, making it seem much more heroic then it really was. Sure, the soldiers helped to define history as we know it, but really a lot of them were just trying to stay alive, they weren't doing certain actions with the whole situation of the war in mind. Then, they tone everything down, with no or very little blood. I'm not saying that you need to make everything bloody and gory to the endth degree, but at least make it accurate to some degree.

Brothers in Arms
This is my favorite series of WWII games. It is brutally and horribly accurate in its depiction of combat situations and the real drama between soldiers and enemies. I think that this is the series that does the best job in depicting what it was like to fight in World War II, and I hope that Gearbox Studios, the series' developer, keeps on doing this kind of job, giving gamers and people everywhere who couldn't have experienced WWII to at least get a little taste of what it must have been like.

Also, for those of you interested in World War II, there is a documentary called The War that looks very interesting that is set to air on PBS on the 23rd.

Movie Review #4: Saving Private Ryan

2007-09-17T20:11:00.000-07:00

Overall: 4/4 Stars
Pros: Great visual style, battle scenes, pretty much everything.
Cons: Musical score.

First off, I'll get the obvious out of the way. This movie was amazingly beautiful to watch. The cinematography was brilliant and the battle scenes were amazing. Yes, the movie was bloody and full of swearing, but that really didn't bother me at all. The movie was amazingly well written, and each and every one of the characters was someone that I could relate to and I was interested in their well-being. Corporal Upham's story in particular was just something that I really felt rooted in across the entire movie.

Now, on to the part of the movie that really impacted me: the emotion. This is truly one of the first movies in a long time to make me cry, and it made me cry a lot. The ending is one of the most powerful endings I have seen in a movie ever, and it just touched me in a way that I didn't think was possible. Also, the battle scenes stirred something in me. I think it would be disrespectful to call them 'cool' or 'awesome', but what they really did is show the true atrocity and brutality of war. The shot in which the one soldier is blown to pieces by a sticky bomb is one particular image that has just stuck with me. Most people called this a bloody movie, but to be honest, it didn't really impact me like I thought it would. I came into the movie expecting a massive bloodbath, but it wasn't really like that, it was more subdued and a lot of little bits of blood to add up to a larger amount of blood total. There were a few moments that were quite gruesome, such as one man picking up his own arm that had just been blown off, or another where a man literally holds his own guts inside his body, but those kinds of moments were far and few between. The main thing thta this movie made me do was reflect. My grandfather served in World War II, and just thinking about that makes me realize what a brave man my grandfather was, and how much honor he really deserves. That was the real success of Saving Private Ryan.

I think right after this I'll write down my thoughts on WWII video games...

My Fascination With the Unknown

2007-09-16T12:47:00.000-07:00

Without any doubt, 2001: A Space Odyssey is one of the greatest films ever made, and really, its one that I very much enjoyed. Right now, I'm reading 2010: The Second Odyseey, a continuation of the movies that was written by Arthur C. Clarke, the original book's author and co-author of the screenplay. There are also two other books, 2061 and 3001.

To be honest, I didn't really get the movie when I saw it for the first time. It was just too wierd, and the plot wasn't really expressed or told to the viewer, they really had to look and find it for themselves. I guess that was what really threw me off the first time through. Now, watching it again, I realize just how awesome it really is. I don't really have the time or the ability to write down every single thing that I find awesome about the movie, but I do have to say, it is just awesome. Maybe sometime I'll get around to writing a review of it...

Movie Review #3 - Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End

2007-09-15T17:49:00.001-07:00

The third part of a trilogy.

Overall: 2/4 Stars
Pros: Witty dialogue, okay music, some good battles, and great special effects.
Cons: Stupid story, some pretty boring characters, unbelievable and impractical battles and situations.

So, really, I loved the first two Pirates movies, and so I had high expectations for this third one. Boy was I let down. First off, lets start with my chief complaint, the story. The first two movies did an admirable job of mixing the supernatural and pirate themes together, while this one focuses almost exclusively on the former, making the entire movie more about mythology and pirate lords and pirate legends and stuff like that. The movie concentrated more on becoming a spectacle unto itself instead of fitting in with the other two movies and becoming an awesome and epic trilogy. The music for this entry was done by Hans Zimmer, who composed the music for the second movie as well, and really I was quite disappointed. Really, I only heard the main Pirates themes that I know and love about 10 times in the whole movie, mostly in the background so that you could barely hear them. That was a major disappointment to me. The visual effects are as good as ever, and I really admire what ILM has done, but they can't help save an overall disappointing movie experience.

Movie Review #2 - Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest

2007-09-15T17:43:00.000-07:00

Here's the second movie...

Overall: 3/4 Stars
Pros: Still great and witty dialogue, truly breathtaking special effects, and an interesting if not awesome plot still add up to a quality movie experience.
Cons: It's a little drawn out, and it just isn't as good as the first one.

This was on the top of my list of movies to see when it first came out, then when I saw it I was utterly confused about everything in it up until I saw it again, at which point I understood everything in it. However, even then I wasn't pleased with the movie as a whole. First off, this time, they didn't really concentrate on making it just one self contained movie, they had to make it this big thing where there would be a third movie that would finish it all off, and really I didn't like that all that much. Add in the fact that you really had to pay attention to every single thing going on around you in order to understand it completely makes it hard for a person to enjoy it within a casual and simplistic context. The music was good, though not as good as the first movie's, and everything really added up to make the movie a great one, but still, great music, dialogue and visual effects doesn't make up for a confusing plot.

One facet of this movie deserves special mention: the visual effects. Ever since the original Star Wars, everyoen has known what ILM could do, but up until now, they haven't done as good a job as they did on this movie. To be honest, the first time that I saw it, I thought that Davy Jones was simply a guy in a suit with a few special effects touch ups, it was that detailed and realistic. The guys there simply create some of the best visual and special effects ever, hands down, and this movie really shows the quality of work that they can do.

Movie Review #1 - Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl

2007-09-15T17:37:00.000-07:00

So today I thought I would mix it up and review all three of the Pirates of the Caribbean films. This here is the first one!

Overall: 4/4 Stars
Pros: Great story, witty dialogue, and some of the best movie music ever combine to create a really awesome time.
Cons: Does it really have to end?

The first time I saw this movie, it was instantly my favorite movie. Everything in it was amazing, the visual effects, the swordplay, the dialogue, the story...everything. It made for a really entertaining two hours, and it is a surprisingly good film to watch over again several times. The whole supernatural element mixed in with the whole pirate theme is one that just gives me goosebumps because it usually wouldn't work, but in this case they made it work in such a way that almost as soon as the wierd things started happening, I was hooked and lost all doubts about the movie.

There is a part of this movie that deserves special mention here: the music. Klaus Badelt, a little known German composer working in Hans Zimmer's studio, has composed here one of the absolute best soundtrack's of all time, rivaling Star Wars to such a degree that I really cannot pick a favorite. I have the soundtrack, and I listen to it as often as I can. There's something about it that just excites me and energizes me, why, I don't know, but it does. Really, if you consider yourself to be a movie lover, go see this movie if you haven't already, and if you consider yourself a lover of 'modern' classical music, i. e. movie soundtracks, then go out and get this music immediately.

Video Game Laws

2007-09-11T19:16:00.000-07:00

I know that I've posted three times today, which is kind of a lot, but I really want to write this stuff down instead of waiting for a later date.

When I was at Wal*Mart buying my copy of GUN, probably sometime in December, I went up to the counter with my mom because I am under 17. I was going to pay for the game, and my mom was going to give permission for me to buy it. The lady wouldn't allow it. She said that store policy was no sales of M-rated games to minors at all. I tried to give my money to my mom so that she could buy it, and the lady said no again. I was still paying for it. My mom said that she would pay for it herself, and the lady said that she needed to hold the game so that someone could take it back to the shelf.
I went all the way back to the back of the store and picked up another copy of the game, gave it to my mom, went in a different isle and my mom bought the game for me. I paid her back, but still, both of us were kind of angry about it.

To clarify: the only law about the sale of M-rated video games to minors is that they must have the permission of an accompanying parent or adult. Whether or not it is legal or whatever for stores to have their own policies like that is something that I do not know. What I do know, is that it is annoying.

Game Review: GUN (Xbox)

2007-09-11T11:44:00.001-07:00

Today I thought that I would post again, and so I decided to do another game review. Here you go...

GUN (Xbox)

Overall Score: 8.5/10
Pros: Quickdraw mode is awesome, super great voice acting and story, silky controls
Cons: Graphics ain't exactly the greatest, but that's okay, and it felt less open-ended and more simplistic and linear

I have wanted this game forever, and so when I finally picked it up (The lady at Wal*Mart was mean, maybe I'll write about that later tonight), I was instantly immersed in the game. Then, after awhile, I got stuck with one of the bosses and put the game to the side. Later on, probably two months later, I picked the game back up, sat down, and played. Two days later, I was done with the game, having probably played it for nearly eight hours total over those two days. The story that the writers at Neversoft have penned is amazing, and is perfectly complemented by the amazing voice cast. The in-engine cut-scenes were always amazing to look at, even though the game's ending left off at a wierd point. The gameplay is great, and the third person perspective works in a way that I didn't think it would. It feels like a first person shooter when you're playing it, giving you total control over Colton throughout the game. Quickdraw Mode is especially fun, and I was absolutely delighted one time when I entered into Quickdraw Mode, shot an enemy in the right side of his head, and then watched chunks of his skull fly off, only on that side just as his head whipped around in that direction. Now that's good graphics, animation, and physics all rolled into one. Overall, if you're a first or third person shooter fan, snatch this game up right away, it is just that good. If you're not a shooter fan but you really like good stories, still buy the game, because 1) the story will hook you in, 2) the shooting is simple and easy, and may just suck you into the genre as a whole, and 3) the game is not very hard and not very long, which makes it a great find for gamers who don't have a lot of time to invest in a title.

Concept: A video game spaghetti western that is practically perfect.

Graphics: The in-game cutscenes are really good and show off an impressive use of motion capture and key-frame animation. The graphics as a whole, however, are very detailed for an open world game, but still not the prettiest.

Sound: The music fits in perfectly, and is really just as good as any hollywood movie that you go see today. If you really want to get a taste for it, just sit and let the game idle at its title screen just to listen to the music. I did this a number of times.

Playability: The camera works perfectly most of the time, the AI is pretty smart, the controls are great, and the Quickdraw Mode is one of my favorite video game features ever.

Entertainment: The game is pretty easy, and the story alone makes it worth picking up over and over again, or at least once a year for a complete playthrough.

Replay Value: High.

Fun in Games, and my Awful RPG Skills

2007-09-11T11:13:00.000-07:00

Fun in video games is something that is rarely championed anymore. If you look at any video game magazine's coverage of upcoming or even already released games, what they mainly champion are the graphics, sound, and sometimes the gameplay. While this isn't expressly wrong, it is also not expressly right.

What people, and I'm including consumers, developers, and reviewers, need to concentrate on is something that has been around since the beginning of gaming: fun. Today, I was playing through the original Splinter Cell. I had only gotten through the first two levels before, and today I started really getting into it and am now on the CIA headquarters level. I'm making good progress in the game, but what I'm really doing is having fun!

Now sure, I get frustrated from time to time in the game, mostly just because I keep getting caught, but I'm having fun nonetheless. The same is true about when I recently played through Ninja Gaiden. Now I'm not saying that developers don't concentrate on fun when they are making the game, because I am sure that they do, but really what I'm getting at is that they don't champion the fact that their game is fun. You don't see previews of major games that concentrate on what a gas the game is to play, you see them talking technical specifications for the visuals, new gameplay gimmicks, and new characters. What I really want in a game preview, is all of that stuff, plus a report on how fun the game actually is!

Now, recently I read an interview (I can't remember where, might have been on Game Informer's website) where some game designer, I think it was Denis Dyack, said that previews shouldn't be opinionated. I think that they should be! I think that previewers should give the gamers their honest opinion of a game, from the visuals to the gameplay and everything inbetween, including how fun the game is! Sure, it may hurt the developer in the long run, but what it does is it just makes them do a better job at making an awesome game, and it gives gamers an honest opinion on what a game is like. That way, they don't feel gipped when they buy a game that a reviewer said was great and then they hate it. Instead, they can decide from the beginning about whether or not they want the game.

But hey, that's just my opinion.

Onto other matters...

Now I love RPG's. I love the stories, the visuals and the gameplay. The one thing that I do not like, is the fact that I will rapidly progress through a game, and then come upon a boss that requires me to go back and level up for a ridiculous amount of time before I can defeat him and continue to progress in the game.

That being said, it is easy to see that I am not that great at RPG's. I love the, but unfortunately I have never beaten any real RPG (I've beaten Fable, but that debate is for another time). What I want, is an RPG that is as great and as immersive as Final Fantasy X or Final Fantasy XII, but with gameplay that literally progresses just as I do, so that enemies only get stronger when I level up, and that bosses are tuned to the level that I am on, so that you don't have one big hulking boss that you can' t get past until you've gone back and fought enemy after enemy over and over again to get to the next level!

Sure, this may sound simplistic and 'stupid' to big RPG nerds, but for those of us who love game stories and RPG's, and yet aren't good at them, this would be one of the most awesome games ever! Maybe Blue Dragon, which I just picked up, is like this somewhat. I sure hope so, because I really want to beat this one.

My Newfound Love of the The Sims

2007-09-10T17:09:00.000-07:00

I am not much of a casual gamer. Really, I am a hardcore gamer. I buy the games that you need to buy the whole series to get any of the games, and then I play them through, memorizing every story detail, and everything about the game (Maybe not to the biggest fanboy degree, but still...), so that I am practically and authority on it.

That being said, it is easy to see that I rarely play casual games. Usually they don't do anything for me, and the only casual game that I play anymore is Rollercoaster Tycoon for the PC, which I only play sporadically (But when I do play it, I play it a lot). Now, add The Sims to that list.

I don't know what it is about playing with your created characters, but it is super fun to run their lives. I'm kind of new to it all, so I don't really get everything about the interface and the objectives, but I'm still having a fun time.

If you haven't played The Sims or Rollercoaster Tycoon, go out and buy them, because they are awesome games.

Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell

2007-09-08T18:28:00.001-07:00

If you have been reading my blog at all, you know that I am a big Halo fan. However, I have to admit one thing:

If I were to have only one video game series that I had to play for the rest of my life, I would choose Splinter Cell.

Why? Well, here, I'll spell it out for you. I love Halo, and have probably beaten the first game at least forty times. I've also beaten Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory around eight times. Each time that I replayed Chaos Theory, I have felt that it was like a totally new experience, because the AI is always adapting, and you are always discovering new things in the game world. Each time that I have replayed Halo, it has been simple and pretty much the same every single time that you play.

Plus, I have to admit, the Splinter Cell series has some of the best graphics, sound, gameplay, voice acting, and stories of any video game ever. Everything is just awesome. Michael Ironside is awesome, and the supporting cast works out well. The graphics really help to immerse you in the game, and it just makes everything so more visceral.

Today, I went to the store and bought the Splinter Cell: Double Agent Collector's Edition for the Xbox 360. It was $29.99 new, while it used to be $69.99. Anyways, this entry in the series brings the level of graphical quality and gameplay quality up to amazing heights. Anyone seen the screenshots in Game Informer? The game looks amazing. I'm not sure if it really holds up that well while you're playing it, but...man does it look sweet.

Overall, if you haven't played Splinter Cell yet, buy one of every game in the series and then go crazy. The gameplay is awesome, although you do have to have some patience, and it just makes for a superlative gaming experience.

(Also, if you can, get the collector's editions of Chaos Theory and Double Agent, because they are worth it, especially the Chaos Theory one)

The Greatest Game Ever Played-One of the Greatest Movies Ever Made

2007-09-07T18:59:00.000-07:00

As I write this, I am sitting near my television, watching the movie The Greatest Game Ever Played, starring Shia Labeouf. Really, I hadn't even heard of the movie until one day when my mom picked it up from the library. I didn't have anything to do, and so I threw the movie in. I watched it, and was totally amazed.

First off, sure, the movie is about golf, but you know what, it is just awesome. The acting is superb, the cinematography is beautiful, and the visual effects blend in perfectly. People that I have showed the movie to are amazed, because initially they think that a movie about gold would be boring. Then, when I showed it to them, they were amazed, because it was really filmed more like an action film then anything. Really, the movie is just amazing, and I wish that it had had a better reception, because it really deserves a huge, massive, wide audience.

If you have not seen this movie, than what are you doing at your computer? Go see it!

The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion the Witch and Wardrobe

2007-09-06T06:45:00.000-07:00

The Lord of the Rings is one of my favorite series of books. I like them so much that I ended up buying the 50th Anniversary Edition of the books, setting me back nearly $100. Then, one day, The Chronicles of Narnia book series was recommended to me. I bought all seven of them in one big collection and started to read. Instead of the hard read that I expected, since they were supposedly similair to the Lord of the Rings, they were extremely easy to read, and I got through them rather quickly. Just that first impression made them into some of my favorite books ever, so much, in fact, that my first ever attempts at writing a script was an adaptation of the books, because I believed that they needed to be made into a series of films that did them justice (Not those stupid TV movies).

Then, I heard about the film. I was worried, as any fan of any book is, that they would just ruin it through the process of Hollywood-ization. My family doesn't usually go to the movies, at least not when movies first come out (We usually go to the dollar theater), but ther was no option this time, we were going to go. The first thing that hit me about the movie was the opening sequence with the bombing planes. That was awesome, and one of the things that made me go back and re-read the books, because I didn't remember anything about the war being mentioned in the book. The second thing that hit me was the music. As I said before in my post about music, I loved this soundtrack, and it wsa really the first movie that really grabbed ahold of me, just through the music. The third thing that hit was the pacing. Really, it was a pretty slow movie if you look at it, but when you're watching it, you just don't realize that. The next thing that hit me ws the battle sequence at the end. Even watching it again now just on its own without watching any of the movie beforehand, I feel a wierd feeling of pride and joy at the sequence. Then, when you mix in the awesoem visuals with the music, it is movie heaven. The last and most important thing that hit me was the fact that the movie stuck close to the book, even sacrificing the quality of the movie for it. That is what I loved and what stuck with me. Now, I can't wait for the next one, Andrew Adamson better do a good job.

I actually bought the Extended Edition of the movie when it came out, and I have to say, anyone who liked the movie and hasn't seen the extended cut, look on eBay, because what little they add to the movie is worth it, and the special features are really cool too.

Game Review: Ninja Gaiden Black (Xbox)

2007-09-05T18:44:00.000-07:00

The last game that I played and finished was Ninja Gaiden Black, and several video game magazines have suggested that those wanting to get into the video game industry should maybe write some game reviews, so here goes...

Ninja Gaiden Black (Xbox)

Overall Score: 9/10
Pros: Great graphics, engaging combat
Cons: Crappy story, stupid save points, sometimes just gets too dang frustrating

Okay, so I picked this game up awhile ago, and then one day I decided to actually play it. First off, the game is awesome. The combat is buttery smooth, the graphics are great, especially the pre-rendered cutscenes, and it is just awesome altogether. However, there are a few drawbacks. One, the combat, while awesome, is super ridiculously hard against a lot of the enemies, and while that is good and engaging, sometimes it just becomes ridiculous, specifically if you don't have a lot of time to play. The same goes for the puzzles, which are brilliant, don't get me wrong, but maddening. Sometimes, I just wanted it to be a tad easier, and then when I finally solved the puzzle, I felt a lot better and happy that I had solved it. Even then, that feeling of anger stayed with me. Once, I was so frustrated that I slammed my Xbox controller into the ground, and now I have to hang onto it very tightly, because otherwise it buzzes uncontrollably whenever a game vibrates.
So overall, if you have some patience and some skill, go ahead and buy the game if you're intereested, otherwise, stay very far away.

Concept: Ninjas, cool creatures, and awesome girl characters make for ultimate gaming awesomeness.

Graphics: Super smooth and great. The character models look great, although some of them look a little shiny at times, and the pre-rendered cutscenes are to die for.

Sound: The music is pretty good most of the time, the sound effects are nice, so overal not too bad.

Playability: Pretty good, if not challenging AI, and pretty awesome controls, except maybe for the camera at times.

Entertainment: Perfect the first time you get through it, but I personally am not sure if I really want to play through it again.

Replay Value: Moderate.

Okay, so now every time that I beat a game, or anytime that I feel like review a game that I previously beat, I will do.

Film and Video Game Music

2007-09-04T09:01:00.000-07:00

Today, I decided to write an article about something that I have very little expertise in: music. This year in high school (Ninth grade) I am taking music as my elective. However, instead of choosing an instrument (I play guitar, violin, viola, cello) I decided that I would do music composition. It's going all right, but not spectacular, but what I really want to write about now is how important music in film and video games, and tell you who my favorites are.
Okay, first off, games and films suck without the right music. Would Star Wars Episode III even be cool if it weren't for the music? Sure it had Darth Vader, but not until the end...okay, back on subject, music adds a whole other layer of interactivity between the audience and whatever is being played/watched. Sure, you don't really interact with it, but it just makes it seem more visceral. Right now I'm playing through The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay on my Xbox, and when that battle music comes up, man I'm humming along and I can't get it out of my head. What I really hate, however, is when I see interviews with composers and they're like, "Oh yes, we talk in colors, we just decide the color of the scene and I compose music to go with that color." Yeah right. I hate it when filmmakers talk like that. "Yes, we just had to get into character and get into everything." Whatever. You're making a movie. You're standing in front of a camera and delivering lines. Sure there is a little bit of skill involved, but not enough to give me that artsy fartsy junk.

Okay...way off track. Anyways, these are my favorite composers.

John Williams - If you've seen Star Wars, you know why
Howard Shore - Lord of the Rings is awesome in all respects, and Into the West practically makes me cry.
James Newton Howard - King Kong and Shattered Glass have some really awesome music.
Klaus Badelt - If you don't know who this is, look him up now.
Hans Zimmer - Sure he steals credit (Look up Klaus Badelt again, I seriously didn't know that it was he who did Pirates of the Caribbean until I bought the soundtrack), but he's pretty darn good.
And finally...

Harry Gregson-Williams - The Chronicles of Narnia was the first film that had music that really 'spoke' to me or hooked me. Also, Metal Gear Solid's 2 and 3 have some of the best music ever. I think that they should release yet another enhanced edition of MGS 1 just so that he oculd compose the music for it and make it truly even more amazing than it already is.

Short Stories

2007-09-03T19:49:00.000-07:00

Today, I sat down and wrote a short story. This is interesting, because whenever I would work on a short story before, I would always write it as part of my series of short stories eventually to be collected into a book. Today, the short story that I wrote was a standalone story, and instead of being 20 pages, like those other stories usually are, it ended up being 8. This one I was thinking of sending to Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine.
It's pretty interesting, and it all came out of me sitting in front of my uncle's Windows Vista laptop trying to come up with a story. I figured that generally I only write Science Fiction, so I chose a category that turns up in sceince fiction from time to time (Cloning) and wrote a little on that. I also just read Anthem by Ayn Rand, and so that may have influenced the story just a little bit, but not too much. Hopefully some other people will like it.
Also, yesterday I finished up another short story in my collection of short stories, although this one was quite a bit longer, ending up at 56 pages over the course of 12 days, although if you looked at the days that I actually spent writing, it would really be around four or so. I sent that one off to my sister for proofreading, because I was thinking of getting that one published as a standalone story eventually in some science fiction fanzine or something like that.

On a side note, my uncle and aunt left to return to Chicago tonight. They're supposedly going to come out next year, but that may or may not work out in the long run. Anyways, just thought I'd mention that, because it means no more using the Vista laptop. So sad...

Anyways, maybe later I'll try and post that entire short story on here, once I figure a couple of things out.

Windows Vista

2007-09-02T18:59:00.000-07:00

I'll be honest, I'm something of a Microsoft Hater. I don't really like them, and even though I use Windows XP (Just because the rest of my family needs it), I'd rather have a Mac.
Sure, I'll be honest, I want the video game Crysis so bad that I'm willing to spend a couple of thousand dollars on a Vista gaming platform...eventually, but really, I don't like Vista all that much. Between my anger over Microsoft and the horror stories over bugs, it just doesn't excite me.
The past couple of days, my Uncle from Chicago has been here, and he brought with him a Toshiba laptop with Vista on it. I've been playing around with it, and I have to be honest: it's pretty nice.
The interface and design, excpet for the Windows Start Button, are ripped straight out of Mac, but lets be honest, we can't blame Microsoft for copying the world leader in beautiful backgrounds and interfaces. I'd do it if I were them. As for ease of use, I wasn't really getting into the nuts and bolts of the thing, so I was really looking at it from the point of view of a basic consumer, and what I saw wasn't bad. Everything opens super quickly and super easily, nothing appears to hard to use or anything like that, and he's got a built in webcam on his laptop, so that comes up and works at surprisingly high resolutions with extreme ease.
Now I can't say that it convinced me to like it all that much, but for a first time experience, I came away rather pleased.

All right, here's a list of the only things I like about Microsoft:
1. Xbox (Includes Xbox 360)
2. Halo/Halo 2/Halo 3

That's it!

The Art of Novels

2007-08-31T07:52:00.000-07:00

Right now, I am currently working on actually three novels, an update from the two that I said I was working on back in the post 'My Dream Job', as well as a collection of short stories.
A few publishers that I have looked at their submission guidelines have all said that they want their novels to be at least 80,000 words, which is actually extremely hard to do. Right now my main focus is on the short story collection. Each of the stories is focused on one central theme or idea, and each different story could really be considered just a chapter in an overarching novel. Right now I'm working on the sixth of ten planned stories, and even with all five previous stories crammed together, it equals 99 pagers (Not in manuscript format) and roughly 20,000 words. Now that is really a lot of writing to do over the period of one month.
I deeply admire novelists who churn out book after book. Mind you, some of them take their time and write huge novels that take forever to get published, but my favorite novelists are the Philip K. Dick novelists, the ones that need to write to survive and so churn out book after book, each one being a high qualiy piece.
Hopefully I eventually become that kind of novelist. I can write very fast and very well, its just a matter of actually getting things published. Maybe in a few days I'll post one my short stories in its entirety. That would be kidna cool, right?

Seriously Thinking About Video Game Careers

2007-08-30T18:17:00.000-07:00

Today, I sat in front of my computer for three hours with a stack of Game Informer magazines, going through them and listing all of the different video game developers that I would be interested in working at. I eventually listed 101 total.
Really, looking at my abilities, I don't really have all of the skills usually attributed to a 'Design' postion, which is really the only kind of position I would be even considered for, so I'm going to be researching all of these companies for the next few weeks, gathering research and narrowing it down until I compile a final list of companies that I would be interested in working at as either a 'Designer' or what I would really prefer, a 'Writer'.
Primarily, my interest is in writing. I can't really do scripting and all that junk, I just really like to write, and I am really good at it. Some companies. Like Insomniac Games actually take resumes for any position and keep them on store. Then, if they need someone, they just look at their records.
As soon as I graduate high school, I am going to send a bunch of resumes out to a bunch of video game companies and see if they are interested. I don't know, it might work.

Also, I've started another screenplay. It's a little bit like Gears of War, but instead of a few people banding together to save the world, its a whole ton of people banding together. I wrote 20 pages yesterday. Maybe I'll work a little bit on it tonight, but I don't know...

Blue Dragon and My Favorite Video Game Feature of All Time

2007-08-29T11:21:00.000-07:00

Blue Dragon
So today I went and picked up my pre-order copy of Blue Dragon. The case is awesome and the game looks pretty sweet, but, of course, I can't play it yet because I don't have an Xbox 360 (Of course I wish I did). The game is three discs, all stacked on top of each other in a very nice case. I just can't wait to get a 360 so that I can finally play it and Gears of War.

My Favorite Video Game Feature of All Time
Today I started re-playing through Resident Evil 4 (I have the super awesome Gamestop limited edition, if you don't know what it is, look it up on eBay or something), and I figured out what my favorite part is: the 180 turn. I love it. It helps so much and is so awesome and helpful and useful. I love it! It works extremely well, and it has worked extremely well in all of the Resident Evil games, even all of the other ones with their 'clunky' controls, although honestly I didn't find them too clunky. So, yeah, that's my favorite video game feature of all time.

Halo 3 Has Gone Gold!!!!!
I just can't wait. 27/26 days (I'm not sure which)!

Gears of War and My Pre-Order Anger

2007-08-28T11:55:00.000-07:00

Blue Dragon
Today, August 28 2007, was supposed to be the North American release date for Blue Dragon. Today, I got to my local Gamestop, where I pre-ordered the game back in May, and they say that today was the 'ship date' and that they would probably have the game tomorrow. I am venting right now, because #1, the release date is the release date, its not the 'ship date'. September 25 isn't the 'ship date' for Halo 3, its the freaking release date, and I'm going to be there on that day to get my copy along with everyone else.
It just really ticked me off. Oh, well. While I was there, I also picked up...

Gears of War Collector's Edition
Okay, sure I don' t have a 360 yet, but I don't care, becuase this game was the first game that I was going to by besides Blue Dragon and Halo 3. Now, I don't have to go sifting around at my local stores trying to find the game. First off, the tin just looks freaking awesome and is uber-cool. It's a little bit like the super rare Gamestop Limited Edition of Resident Evil 4 that I have, but its black case makes it a pain in the but concerning fingerprints. The stuff inside is cool, and the Destroyed Beauty book was really nice. I just got finished watching all of the special features stuff, and it is pretty freaking cool.

Special Effects in the Movie Industry

2007-08-25T12:20:00.002-07:00

So for awhile now I've talked about video games pretty much exclusively. So, today I thought I would talk about another industry that I am interested in-movies, specifically about the presence of special effects in movies.

The Good
We all admit and know that special effects are awesome. Without them, the Death Star would never blow up, lightsabers wouldn't exist, and Neo could never destroy Agent Smith. Today, most special effects are computer generated, and if they aren't computer generated, than they're computer enhanced. This is good, because it makes otherwise improbable or impossible things appear realistic and awesome, and also just help to make things look altogether awesome. Half of the things that appear in movies today wouldn't be possible without the advent of high quality CGI effects, and so it is good that they have arrived and are doing well, because otherwise we'd be stuck watching the 90's cheesy James Bond films with the most apparent CG imagery ever.

The Bad
Movies today are becoming too relient on digital and CGI technology. Many special effects people have said that the greatest thing you can say to them is that you don't realize its fake, and yet today, everyone knows whats fake and whats not. You don't go to a movie and come out wondering how something was achieved, you just automatically know how they did it. When someone does make a movie with pretty much no CGI (I can't think of any right now, but I'm sure that they're there) they don't get the credit that they deserve because most people think that they used it anyways. So, CGI is becoming a crutch for the movie industry, that's basically my point.

Conclusion
I love movies that use a whole ton of CGI because I love action movies, albeit ones with plot, like The Matrix. However, I think that for some pictures, they need to tone down the reliance on CGI effects, until they can make it so immersive that no one does know whether it is real or not. To be truthful, the first time that I saw Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest, I was divided on whether or not Davy Jones was CGI or real, it was that convincing. That's how all CGI effects should be. Now I understand that some movies require elaborate and exaggerated CGI effects, and not all of them can only focus on realism, but those that do focus on realism should really push that and make it work right.

Also, super props to Weta for making the absolute best mixture of live action and CGI elements in Halo: Arms Race.

The Importance of Graphics in Next Generation Games, As Well As Analysis of Gaming People Groups

2007-08-24T20:08:00.000-07:00

Right now, I do not own an Xbox 360 or any next generation console. Yesterday, I re-watched a demo video that I had downloaded of Gears of War. Now, sure, the game's a year old, but it still looks pretty freaking amazing. So, today I thought I would talk about graphics in video games.

Now first, I'll say that I truly love it when games have good graphics. I play games with crappy graphics simply because I also love games that have great gameplay and stories, but graphics are always a nice extra draw.
But here is my real stance on the issue: I could care less about the graphics in the games I play. Sure Gears of War looks awesome, Heavenly Sword looks beautiful, and every day John Carmack makes something even more beautiful than what he did yesterday, and yet ultimately the fun that I have while playing a game has nothing to do with the visuals.
Personally, I prefer really great gameplay and really compelling stories to graphics. To be completely truthful, I would buy and play a game that would take me forty hours to get through because of horrible gameplay just to experience the story. Other people could care less about the story of the game, and they just care about the gameplay. Now that's not really the way that I play, but I'm fine with those people. People who play just because of the graphics annoy me slightly, but not as much as other people. 'Graphics hounds' as I call them annoy me because they will buy a game because of its graphics, and then complain like crazy when some feature doesn't work, or when they can't figure out what to do. Me, I buy games that I want to buy, that I also believe will be compelling experiences.
Another group that I am not a big fan of at all, are people that I call 'Trend Followers'. have you ever walked into your local game store and found a group of people dressed in the latest 'hip' clothes, all talking about games like Halo 2 or Gears of War or shooters like that, and then you mention RPG's and real time strategy games and these same people are clueless? These are trend followers, people who play games that are popular, just to be popular. People who could care less about the actual gameplay experience as oposed to the 'popularity level' of the game.
I was in my local game store once, a week after the Xbox 360 came out. Some kid walked in and said he had one of the Premium Editions on order. The man went behind the counter and picked it up. The kid paid for it, and the man at the counter asked if he wanted any games with it. The kid said yes, and then the man behind the counter actually had to walk him through all of the available games because the kid had no idea what was available. Now this is perfectly fine, but it still annoys me that someone is going to lay down $400 (At launch time) for a brand new console, and they do absolutely no research whatsoever into what they're actually buying. After the kid picked out a couple of games, he then got into a discussion with the sales associate over HD graphics and TV's. He didn't even know what HD was, and truthfully thought that he was going to go home, plug his 360 into his old SDTV and get super sweet, super awesome graphics. Why wouldn't you research and look into a $500 purchase before you actually make the transaction? That just boggles my mind.

Anyways, that's enough for now, I've vented my thoughts, and even though I could go on for pages about Trend Followers, I think I'll just wait for a rainy day before writing that post.

My Thoughts on the Next Generation Consoles, and Halo: Uprising

2007-08-22T11:20:00.000-07:00

Okay, so this blog is becoming pretty much daily rather than weekly, but that's okay, because I'm enjoying it. So, today, I thought that I would actually talk about my thoughts on certain parts of the video game industry, rather than just talking about games that I like. So, with that in mind I wrote today about the next generation consoles currently on the market, and even though I'm trying to seperate today's post from the last two posts, I couldn't help but talk about the Halo: Uprising comic before I get into all of that good stuff. So...

Halo: Uprising
I just picked up my reserve copy of the comic from my local comics dealer, and it is pretty awesome. The artwork is pretty good, and the story is great, I just wish it had more to do with Master Cheif. Although, this is only the first of four issues, so chances are that it will get better and make more sense in the future. If you are a big Halo fan, I definitely recommend picking it up. The store where I got mine said that they had a whole shipment this morning, and that they expected the four remaining issues that they had to be sold out within an hour after I came. Good think I reserved it.

Okay, now that that's done, I'll get on with what I really wanted to talk about:

My Thoughts on the Next Generation Consoles
Nintendo Wii
So I'll start with the Wii. My friend has one and I've been over to his house to play it several times. All of the games that we've played have had super smooth gameplay and have been super awesome, but still the Wii is third on my list of Next-Gen consoles to buy. Why? Because of its game selection. I'm a gamer that likes fun games, but I'm also not the kind of person to by the kind of lighthearted Mario-fare that already dominates the system. Sure, the console has got Red Steel (Which was better than people give it credit for) and Resident Evil 4, but other than that, there's really no big draw for me.
But even then, I still have to commend Nintendo for making a family-friendly console with revolutionary gameplay. Now all they have to do is get some real games for the system.

Playstation 3
Number two on my list of systems to buy is the PS3. The system is awesome, there's no denying that, but for the games that I want to buy right now, such as Halo and BioShock, it's impractical. I can't wait until I do get one, simply because the graphics are awesome, the Sixaxis is cool, and there are going to be a whole ton of really cool games for it. I already want Ninja Gaiden Sigma almost as much as Halo 3. But that really isn't enough to make me run out and get it just yet. Semi-revolutionary gameplay concepts like motion control (The Wii's motion control is innovative, PS3's is tacked on) aren't enough to make me run out and get it however. I'll get one eventually, but just not right now.

Xbox 360
Now I really don't like Microsoft all that much, but I really want a 360 right now, just because of all of the awesome games that I really want to play on it (Halo 3, BioShock, Splinter Cell: Conviction, or even Splinter Cell: Double Agent for that matter). I like the design, especially of the Halo 3 console and the Elite model. It doesn't have as awesome specs as the PS3, but if its got the right games, than that's good enough for me. Ultimately I don't really have a preference, despite how slanted I may seem in this post, but because of all of the games that cater to a gamer of my tastes, this console is the right one for me.

So that's all. Please leave any and all thoughts and comments on this and any other posts.

One Week Until Blue Dragon

2007-08-21T06:11:00.000-07:00

So yesterday was 35 days until Halo 3. Well, today is exactly one week away from the release of Blue Dragon. The game just looks amazing, and I've had it pre-ordered forever. I can't wait to pick it up in a week, even though I don't have an Xbox 360, because I know that just looking at the manual and the-count 'em-three DVD's will be enough to sustain me until I get one.
The only other game that I want as bad as Halo 3 and Blue Dragon is BioShock, which just looks absolutelty mind blowing. But I want the Collector's Edition, not just the normal edition, because of all of the cool stuff its got with it, plus the case just looks beautiful.
So, yeah, seven long days until Blue Dragon. I know that thousands of other people are as excited as I am about the game, even though EGM gave it a fairly poor score, we all now its going to be awesome. Although I have to admit, I am really bad at RPG's, having never beaten a real RPG (The only one I've beaten is Fable: The Lost Chapters, which really isn't a traditional RPG). I love RPG's, and I own several of them, including Final Fantasy VII, Final Fantasy X, Final Fantasy XII Collector's Edition, Shenmue II, Deus Ex: The Conspiracy, and Deus Ex: Invisible War, it is doubtful that I will ever finish any of them. I just love them so much that I buy them anyways. Oh well, maybe I'll write some more about that some other day.

Until then - SEVEN DAYS TILL BLUE DRAGON!!!!!!!!!!!

5 Weeks Until Halo 3!

2007-08-20T09:52:00.000-07:00

I just can't contain my excitement. I have a running countdown of days until Halo 3 releases. Right now it is at 35 days, also known as 5 weeks. On that day, I will go down to my local Gamestop at 10:00 in the morning (Not midnight, I'm not totally crazy), to pick up my already paid for Legendary Edition. Then, I'll go home and read the manual over and over and over again while millions of other people 'Finish the Fight' because I don't have an Xbox 360 yet. Even then, I still can't wait for September 25th.

Five Reasons Why Next Generation Gaming is Awesome

2007-08-19T19:53:00.000-07:00

Okay, please note that all of this is coming from someone who does not own a next generation machine (Yet), but who has played all three consoles, and who is very knowledgeable of video games in general.

1. Graphics - Okay, let's get this one out of the way. Yes, graphics are going to be awesome and amazing, and judging what we've seen so far, the 'Uncanny Divide' is closing (Google it if you don't know what it is). Characters are becoming more and more lifelike every day. Just seeing BioShock, Call of Duty 4, Mass Effect, Halo 3, and even Gears of War tells me that games are going to be uncanilly realistic very very soon.

2. Sound - There is nothing like wearing 5.1 surround sound headphones and playing games like Halo 2, Return to Castle Wolfenstein, or Doom 3. It sounds awesome, and at the same time (In the last two games listed) creepy and very eerie. After graphics and gameplay, this is the most immersive facet of next-gen gaming.

3. Gameplay - Alright, nothing makes a game great like gameplay. As much as I love the story in Halo and Halo 2, if they hadn't nailed the gameplay, it would have changed an awesome game into a mediocre game. This right here is more important than graphics, more important than anything in video games right now. If you can't nail gameplay, than your game isn't going to be the best that it can be. Sure, I play games with less than perfect gameplay, but you have to, because otherwise you'd only play liek five games a year.

4. Storylines - I think that this generation is opening up a lot of avenues for stories to be told in games. Now sure, some people are sticking to tried and true concepts (Call of Duty 2/3 anyone?), but even now and definitely in the future, developers are going to be taking advantage of the advanced storytelling opportunites that features like great graphics and sound give them.

5. Multiplayer - To be honest, I can't stand splitscreen co-op, system link co-op is okay, and I can't stand deathmatch and things like that, I personally prefer single player. However, I cannot deny the importance of online, and even offline, versus modes and even co-op. A lot of people that I know play online, especially Halo 2, and even though it's really not my area of expertise, no one can deny its important place in gaming today, as well as the important role it will certainly play in future console wars.

There you go, those are my thoughts. Anyone who reads this, please leave a comment, because I'm desperate to know if anyone has actually seen my blog. Thanks.

My Dream Job

2007-08-18T17:50:00.001-07:00

A freind asked me not too long ago to tell me what my dream job is. So, I thought that I would write it down. I'd like to work in four different fields at the same time, and have already started working towards all of them:

1. Video Games - I'd be a designer/writer. I am very good with ideas and design, and am also a very prolific writer. I have started to work on a small game project with my friends, and not too long ago I wrote a 154-page design document for one of my ideas-in eight days.

2. Screenplays - I have written four of these so far (1 science fiction/first part of trilogy, 1 sci-fi/noir, 1 western, 1 odd no genre film), all of them clocking in between 110 pages and 126 pages. I wrote the western over the course of eleven days. Maybe some day I'll post excerpts from some of my scripts.

3. Novels - I am currently working on three books: two of them are standalone novels, and one is a collection of short stories. I have a rough outline for one of the novels, the first four chapters and forty pages of the other novel, and over 100 pages of the collection of short stories (Which I'm only half done with). I heard somewhere that Stephen King writes 1500 words a day, which I have found to be roughly nine or ten pages. Just yesterday I wrote a 26-page short story, all in about four or five hours altogether.

4. Comics - I have written the first two issues of a planned six issue series (Please note, the plan for six issues is my plan, not a publisher or anything, no one besides me has seen the scripts), I have the first chapter of a graphic novel, and plans for several more.

Yes, I know, this all seems like a big huge dream of mine, but you know what, I'm working towards these goals with every day, and maybe just some of this stuff will be possible.

Introduction

2007-08-16T12:09:00.000-07:00

This is my first ever post. I am an aspiring Game Designer and Writer, who is 14. Now, because I am not yet a part of the video game industry, most of my posts are going to be ideas and concepts and thoughts on the video game industry as a whole. Because I am not part of the industry, these observations may not always be correct, but they are my opinion.
I will also talk about other things that interest me, namely comics, movies, and books, as well as whatever the heck I feel like talking about.
I realize that not many people will look at this, and so therefore I don't really expect many comments. One of my main purposes in this is to actually sort of use it as a portfolio in and of itself if and when I apply for a video game job.
I hope that whoever comes across this blog enjoys it and takes interest in it, and hopefully tells other people about it.
I'll try to post weekly, but no promises there.