Torchlight

I needed a fix and it is Blizzard’s fault.  Diablo 3, with an original target date of sometime in 2011, was pushed back yet again.  “Early 2012” is the word from Blizzard.  I’m excited for Diablo 3 and was really hoping it would appear soon.  Thus, after accepting the grim fate that I would not be playing the game until next year sometime, I finally decided to try a game that had been on my radar for a long time, but I had never given a chance.  That game would be Torchlight, developed by Runic Games.  Torchlight is unabashedly a Diablo clone.  Runic’s own description of the game says from the designers and leads of projects like Diablo and Diablo 2.  Torchlight is fun, comforting, and easy to play.  It is also infuriating.  For a game that came out in 2009, it is not just influenced by Diablo, it does it’s best to be exactly the same thing.

A Beginner’s Guide to Classic Cinema Part III: Art vs Entertainment

There are a lot of reasons why I watch films but they all boil down into two main categorical reasons. I either want to enjoy a provocative story that expands my world view, or I’m just looking to relax and slip into the absurd. Using this reasoning all films can be place in one of two categories. They are either art or strictly entertainment. I’ve often lamented Hollywood’s absurd predisposition towards violent, oversimplified summer blockbusters, but the fact is sometimes those absurdly awful films are just what the doctor ordered. That doesn’t mean I’m suggestion you should abandon all my previous advice and dive haphazardly into the cinema sea. Not all mega-budget explosion ridden, plot hole riddled Hollywood drivel is particularly fun to watch. Allow me to explain.

Mario and Luigi: Bowsers Inside Story

I don’t really have much to review this week, so I’m going to hit up an older game I’ve had laying around for a while.  I’m not sure why I didn’t review this one before now, though come to think of it I probably avoided it because the name of the game made it exceptionally difficult for me to put a smart ass title on the post.  But I’ll do it down here instead.  Mario and Luigi: Bowsers Inside Story – OM NOM NOM NOM.

Okay, yeah enough of that.  Bowsers Inside Story is the third installment of the ever popular Mario and Luigi games, bringing continuing the ongoing tradition of RPGs starring Mario being inexplicably good and an awesome idea to produce.  Though, honestly, some sections drag on a little long.

Transcendent Man

I really enjoyed the world that Deus Ex: Human Revolution created.  I liked the idea so much that I was poking around various message boards about the game, and amidst a discussion of technology, the film Transcendent Man was mentioned.  It’s one of the more out there documentaries I’ve ever watched, but it leaves a lasting impression.  It focuses on one man, Ray Kurzweil, who says that humanity will soon be reaching what he calls a Singularity with technology.  It’s hard to describe what he means by this, considering almost the whole film is an exploration of what exactly the idea means.  In it’s most basic form, the Singularity is the point where technology has become so advanced that we as human beings will need find new ways of interfacing with it to be able to keep up.  Augment ourselves, as it were.  The film didn’t convince me that I will be merging my brain with a computer any time soon.  It was a fascinating look at the idea though, but really the lasting impression of the film is that of Kurzweil himself.  Agree with his ideas or find him insane but there is no doubt he’s a figure worthy of notice.

The Bone Collector: An Underated Whodunit

I always enjoy a Denzel Washington movie. This is an undeniable fact. Whether he’s stumbling through the wastelands or leading his mixed-race team to victory he’s got it going on. It’s hard to say what his biggest movie is because he has stretched across a wide gambit over the years. He can always keep his head when the situation gets tough and he’s often cold and calculating. My favorite Denzel performance is probably Man on Fire or John Q. He seems to be at his best when he is faced with impossible situations. But, my favorite Denzel movie is The Bone Collector, released in 1999. Denzel, may I call him Denzel?, makes for a very dynamic and expressive quadriplegic. As you can imagine in a movie about a bedridden cop, the movie is all about mind games and I’m a sucker for some good old Sherlock Holmes. In fact, The Bone Collector combines a slew of things I love. Detective puzzles with elaborate clues, New York City, historical references and old books, I already mentioned Denzel, and Angelina Jolie. This is one of two movies featuring Angelina before I really knew who she was. The second I believe I mentioned last week.

Blue Dragon: Because magic means having a weird ass shadow

THIS IS MAGIC

Blue Dragon is a unique game for me.  Namely, it’s one that I have actually beaten.  Oh, granted, it took me a while.  I teetered on the edge of no return of this JRPG for about a year and a half before I finally piloted my airship-fish into the atmosphere sucking hole at the end of the game in order to throw down with the last boss.  I’m glad I did.  While Blue Dragon is pretty much what you’d expect to find in JRPG fare, the ending was something bizarre enough to keep the game in my head nearly a year after I’ve beaten it.  I’ve played through portions of the game since then as well, mainly because I’m a sucker for games that have a job system in place.

That’s not to say Blue Dragon doesn’t have problems.  Most games do.  But the way Blue Dragon bypassed its own, personal issues was by being totally messed up and throwing in a liberal helping of cubes late game.  There’s probably going to be spoilers in here, for the record, though I’ll let you know when they’re coming.

Resistance 3

Resistance is a series I fell into by accident, mostly because it was free.  An old co-worker of mine in electronics retail land went to one of those trade shows and brought back goodies for everybody in the department.  I was lucky in that I was the only person there who owned a PS3 at the time, so free game for me!  Resistance: Fall of Man was not a good game.  It dragged on too long, the shooting mechanics and level design were stale and mostly boring, but it did have one thing going for it: the story.  In the midst of World War 2, aliens show up in Europe and start an invasion, forcing military forces there to quit fighting each other and take out this new threat.  I love alternate history stuff so I was pretty bummed when the actual gameplay left me wanting.  I gave it one more chance in the form of Resistance 2.  That turned out to be a great idea because Resistance 2 was fantastic.  Varied level design and encounters, the alien race known as the Chimera invading America, and series protagonist Nathan Hale slowly succumbing to the virus that would turn him alien, but gaining super human abilities in the process.  Spoilers for Resistance 2 (and the first cinematic of 3, this is not a secret)!  As the previous game ended Hale was killed by one Joseph Capelli, a fellow American soldier who was an ally against the Chimera.  It wasn’t a betrayal though, it was because Hale was about to give in to the alien disease.  Making another game in a series after your hero is dead is a tough sell, but Resistance 3 surprises.  It’s different from both of the previous titles in terms of story and gameplay, and I think manages to almost outshine Resistance 2.  It’s nice to see something different!

Gone in 60 Seconds: A Distinct Lack of Angelina Jolie

Cover of Gone in 60 Seconds

Jerry Bruckheimer’s Gone in 60 Seconds in one of the few films I actually own, which means I must really like it. And I do. But like many Hollywood films it’s actually a remake. The original Gone in 60 Seconds was a cult classic independent film with no plot, almost no budget, and a forty minute car chase that is surpassed in spectacle only by Jake and Elwood themselves. The chase is shorter than Vanishing Point, more dramatic than Bullitt, and much more exciting than Smoky and the Bandit, and yet it is surpassed by its remake in several crucial areas.

Rock of Ages: Making the most of your eternal damnation

I AM OF ALL TIME. WOOF.

Oh man, I spent all day thinking about how to start this article, and had to throw the whole thing out the window when I accidentally misspelled “damnation” as “dalmatian” in the title.  Before I knew what happened, I was surfing the net for suitable pictures of dalmatians to doctor into ultimate immortal dalmatians of eternity, and thus you see the end result to the right here.  I guess that’s life, though.  Sometimes your best plans need to be thrown out at a moment’s notice, because it’s time to doctor a dalmatian picture to make him look immortal and godly in Microsoft Paint.

Anyway, now that that’s out of my system, I guess we can get back on track here and talk about video games or something.  When was the last time I even reviewed a game?  I don’t remember.  But this week saw the release of Rock of Ages, by Atlus and Ace on Steam, and it looked so ridiculously silly I couldn’t help but pick it up.

What I ended up with was a unique gaming experience that was like if marble madness and tower defense games had a baby, and then that baby grew up playing skeeball in an arcade in ancient Greece.

Deus Ex: Human Revolution

I have the same goal whether I’m playing a game, watching a movie, or reading a book.  I want to forget I’m doing any of them.  All three of those mediums have different ways of doing so, but in the end they’re all forms of escapism.  I believe video games are the hardest of the three to be able to truly pull you into an experience, because YOU as the player controls it.  A film is just something you follow, every scene and bit of dialogue is planned out from the start.  Reading works the same in that the only possible line you can follow is what words are on the page in front of you.  Gaming though, gaming is tough.  A developer might construct a brilliant level that is all about timing, but if the player decides to spend twenty minutes exploring an office there goes the carefully constructed pacing.  The term “sandbox” game has been popular because players like the idea of a truly open world in which they are free to do whatever they want; developing one while maintaining an effective story is tricky.  Deus Ex: Human Revolution manages to skirt this line in a fantastic way by having a carefully constructed illusion.  And that isn’t a criticism.  No game in recent memory, save maybe Red Dead Redemption, has engrossed me in the world it created like Deus Ex has.  The cracks in the armor do show at points, sometimes glaringly, but it’s a game that sets itself apart for both its lofty goals and it’s ability to almost achieve them.  Eidos Montreal shoots for the moon, doesn’t quite get there, but deserves credit for trying and getting remarkably close.