March 2009 Archives

I had heard a lot of good things about this movie, so I finally broke down and went to see it. I was surprised to find that it's not a movie about drag racing (but I jest). The acting is solid, the storyline is solid, and the production is solid. I wouldn't expect anything extraordinary in any of these departments, but it was an all around solid movie.

The story goes something like this: A grumpy old man (with some slight racist tendencies) loses his wife. His family tries to offer him "help", but Walt won't have any of it. He ends up befriending his Vietnamese neighbors, who he isn't terribly fond of. Thao and Sue (brother and sister) wind up growing on him regardless. Thao's cousin is involved in a gang, and tries to get Thao involved. Thao, as part of his initiation, is told to steal Walt's Gran Torino. This ends in disaster, and Walt catches him red handed. Walt gets to know Thao a little better, teaches him "how to be a man", and gets him a job in construction. However, Thao's cousin tracks him down, takes his tools and beats him up. In return, Walt beats up one of the gang members and the tension begins to escalate. The Lor family (Walt's neighbors) becomes the target of a drive-by shooting. No one is harmed, but Sue comes home raped and abused. Walt swears vengeance on the gang, knowing that he doesn't have long to live. He cleans up, gets a suit, and goes to confession like his wife wanted him to. He confronts the gang, and as he reaches for a lighter, he is shot down in cold blood (there are many witnesses in the community). The police confirm that he didn't have a weapon on him, so Thao's cousin and his minions are arrested and put away. In his will, Walt leaves his Gran Torino to Thao. Walt ends up becoming the hero in a community of Vietnamese people, whom he came to love.

Gran Torino isn't a story about a car so much as a story about crossing racial boundaries. It's an eloquent presentation of the realities of gang violence. I would definitely recommend it, but it's not necessary to watch it on the big screen.

I was a big fan of the original Unreal Tournament. The maps were really cool, the controls were fluid, and it was an easy game to pick up and play. Then they came out with sequels and add-ons like UT 2003 and 2004. These were pretty good games, but they changed the direction of the game altogether.

Along came UT III. I'm still largely undecided on this game, but there are a few things I can talk about. First off, the graphics. I don't know if the graphics look better so much as dirtier and grittier. To get something to look real you have to give it an "aged" look, but practically everything in this game looks leathery and worn. Characters look like blobs floating around rather than actual objects. They look really pixilated to me. The environments look pretty stunning, at best, but at other times it's just too dark to tell what's going on. Add to that the fact that the game is really fast, so if you happen to log on to a well-populated DM server, you'll be fried before you can say "ouch".

I do like the fact that they incorporated some familiar maps, but they feel quite different. Maps that used to be bright and easy to move around in have turned into maps that are dark and monotonous. It's really hard to tell apart one object from the other, and when that happens to be an opponent... blam! you're dead.

A lot of the elements that made Unreal Tournament seem to be missing here. There isn't a lot of innovation to speak of, and the weapons are still basically the same. When you're getting shot at, your vision goes blurry, which is "realistic" I guess, but also terribly annoying and hard to recover from.

This isn't a full review by any means, as I have yet to play through the different modes, but if my first impressions are any indication, it wouldn't be a very good review.

It's been a very long time since I last played this game. I remember that I finished it in grade school, and was totally absorbed by it. Until I picked it up again recently, I had forgotten how hard it was. If I didn't have a guidebook, I don't think it would have been possible for me to finish it.

Now that I'm playing it again, I'm not sure if "fun" is really the word I would use to describe it. It's really more "addicting" than it is "fun". You want to get to the next city so you can upgrade your Wanzers and test them out on the battlefield, an endless cycle that continues. Early game, however, it seems like you're barely scraping by. You don't always have enough money to upgrade your machines, despite the fact that you need some of the best gear available to triumph, even in early missions.

I like the unique look and feel of the game. Without a doubt it's a SquareSoft game, but quite different from anything in the Final Fantasy series. That isn't to say it isn't without its similarities (like the music), but it holds its own atmosphere and aesthetic.

I'm finding the storyline a little weak this time through, but it seems like gameplay was the main focus in the creation of this game, as opposed to plot.

The first thing that struck me with this game was the graphics. All the player's movements were smooth, the court looked glossy and reflective, and the environments surprisingly realistic. In a word, the graphics looked stunning. There were some flaws that emerged after a couple of hours of gameplay, however.

While the players look great, the crowds in the stands are little more than polygons that make occasional jerks and jolts. While I'm willing to admit that it's better than a static background, I think we should be able to do a little better in this day and age.

The player's movements still seem quite limited as well. All the basics like dribbling, running and dunking are all there, but it feels like they haven't made many improvements over previous incarnations of the game. When the player holding the ball gets surrounded by two or more defensive players, he does the same movement I saw back in NBA Live 2000. Come on guys, really?

The commentators need more things to say as well. It seems like the audio tracks are far too limited for this type of game. Imagine playing through an entire season, 82 games, only to hear the exact same commentary on your team's star players. Not satisfying. I know we can do better in this department.

Finally, the music is just awful. I don't know what they were thinking when they picked these tracks, but I suspect that "annoying" and "irritating" were high on the list of qualities they were looking for. Yeah, NBA Live 2000 had some annoying songs too, but it was still better than this hogwash.

I love playing basketball games, and NBA Live has certainly had its moments. Sadly, 09 really isn't one of those "moments".

Nathan here again.

First off, let me tell you the basic premise of the game, so you're not completely lost throuought the Review.

The main protagonist, and somewhat of an anti-hero, Kratos, is a killing machine. He has the deadliest moves, wicked blades, abnormally fast reflexes and rockhard determination. He once was a general in the Spartan army, commander of thousands of men. But one fateful day he met his match in a Barbarian commander, and as Kratos' life flashed before his eyes, he called out to Aries, God of War. He gave Aries his life in servitude to him, in exchange for ultimate power and the defeat of his Barbarian enemies.

However, when Aries commanded Kratos to attack Athens, his wife and child were there, unknown to Kratos. As he stormed a temple, killing everyone in his wake, he realized too late what he had done. He had killed his family. He vowed from that day forward to have his revenge on Aries and to erase what he had done.

The game follows Kratos' struggle to defeat Aries and to erase the memories that haunt him. You go from fighting Minotaurs and Gorgons in Athens, to braving the Temple of Pandora, and even fighting Aries himself, among many other things.

Now as you may have seen up at the title there, I gave this game a perfect score. Why, you may ask? I'll tell you why. Because this game is freaking EPIC that's why!!

Seriously, this game has it all. The gameplay mechanics are more than sound, the storyline is gripping from start to finish, and it has everything else that makes a good game. A wide variety of monsters to fight, lots of them taken straight out of Greek legend, like Minotaurs, Medusa, and Harpies. There are various areas you can explore and interact with, such as Athens, the Desert of Lost Souls, the Temple of Pandora, and even the underworld itself.

Plus, the moves you can make Kratos do, even basic commands like fighting and dodging, are so smoothly done it's amazing.

The whole game basically focuses on Kratos and his crazy abilities in combat, as that's what he's been trained to do. Plus he has the best weapons ever invented: the Blades of Chaos. These are twin swords attached to his arms that he can swing around any which way with perfect precision. There are so many cool moves to pull too, like ripping your enemies in half or unleashing a relentless fury of spinning blades.

Also, the character development in Kratos is so well done, you actually feel as if you can relate to him, as if you know him even better than he does. And it's interesting, because at the beginning of the game, it actually shows you what happens at the end (kind of...) and you play from 3 weeks before that point up until then. And to me, I dunno...I just found that with the way that Kratos was developed, from his dark past, his haunted countenance, and his bitter anger towards the Gods who have abandoned him, I just thought that the development was so well done.

Well, I don't know how much more I can say without repeating myself, and I've been going on long enough anyway, so if you haven't played this game, DO IT. Even if you have to go out and buy yourself a PS2 just to do so. It's well worth it. Plus the God of War II is just as good, if not better. And I might have to upgrade to PS3 to play the final installment in the trilogy...

Hey there, Nathan here again. It's been a little while, but I'm back and ready for action.

Sad to say I haven't really played many new games in the past little while (been trying to beat old ones over again on harder difficulties) but I have played the Rock Band: ACDC Track Pack. What a game!

If you don't like ACDC, then you won't like this game. But if you do like ACDC, even in the least, and are only familiar with songs like Thunderstruck and Back In Black (both included on the game) then you'll definitely find this game fun. Especially if you just like Rock Band in general.

The game is comprised of I think it's like 18 songs or something, all of which are fun, with the feeling that you're actually a part of the concert. I've only played it on the PS2, as that's what I have and need to upgrade, but from that, the characters are the same the whole way through, which is nice and reasonable. The songs are all live, so that's even better, and there's lots of great fills and solos and drum beats and whatnot. Although I must say you've got to be able to step up to the challenge on singing. If you've heard ANYTHING by ACDC then you know that the vocals are extremely high. But it's still fun nonetheless.

I found that the guitar was great: True to the songs that ACDC fans know and love, with lots of little riffs here and there as they were all taken from a live concert. And you know how there's good live versions and then there's...well, not so good live versions? Well yeah, these are the GOOD live versions. But anyway, the guitar stuff was great, as was the drumming. Oh man, I loved drumming songs like TNT and Hells Bells. Great fun, great fun. Nice steady beats with occasional rat-a-tat-tats and drum fills. And like I said, the singing was good, but you gotta know what you're getting into when you step up to the mic. And bass was alright, some of it was even as crazy as regular guitar, but I'm not a bass guy...I try to avoid playing bass whenever possible.

Also, I found the track listing to be a nice healthy mix as well. New and old, fast and slow, well known songs and songs only die-hard fans have even heard of. With songs like Let There Be Rock, The Jack, Money Talks, and You Shook Me All Night Long, along with ones previously mentioned and others, this is a game for anyone, as long as you like ACDC, Rock Band, and having fun.

I've decided to split this review into two parts: The first part will be about the influence this game has had on me, and the second part will cover more of the technical details. So, without further ado, here's my review of Kawa no Nushi Tsuri 2 (part of the River King series).

As you might deduce from the fact that I'm splitting this review into two parts, I really like this game. I think I either borrowed this game from a friend or received it as a gift and played it to death. It's the type of game that you can turn on in your spare time and play for 15 minutes and actually make some progress.

This was the game that really turned me on to fishing. I don't enjoy fishing as much as I once did, but I had a friend in Jr. High that went fishing all the time, and he showed me the ropes. Pretty soon I was introducing my other friends to the art of fishing, and making excursions every opportunity possible. I have fond memories of those times, in spite of all the travel expenses and hours upon hours of walking.

In fact, I also remember walking to the local fishing store (which wasn't exactly 'local'), almost every Sunday after church. I had already walked a solid 2 kilometers to church, so this added an additional 4 to 8 kilometers to my walk. I go to great lengths for my passion. I loved hanging out with my friends and fueling my passion in the process.

My life has been about community. It always has been. I like to get other people excited about what I'm excited about. I love the adventure and excitement of fishing (some of you are nodding in agreement, others are shaking their heads in disbelief), but most of all it was about spending time with good friends.

I remember taking a trip out to a dam on the weekend. My friend told me that there was a good fishing spot he knew about, so I decided to tag along. We must have ridden the train for an hour or more. Then we started walking. We found out we were walking in the wrong direction, so we backtracked a long ways, and continued walking until we found the dam. Unfortunately, we weren't on level ground with the dam, as it was much higher up. There was a little creek to the side of where we were walking, so we decided to stop and fish there awhile. Nothing. My friend decides that we need to climb up this wall of concrete and get up to the dam. Somehow, we made it up safely. Then we couldn't find any good spots to fish because we were surrounded by trees. We started treading through the forest, but we couldn't seem to find a good place to cast out. Eventually we turned back, climbed down, and headed home (ran into a snake on the way down). If that's not adventure, I don't know what is. I look back on those events fondly, even if we didn't really get to fish.

Where was I...? Oh right, the game. What can I say? It's a really awesome game. It's too bad it was never ported to English. If you can figure it out, it might still be worth playing in Japanese. This is where my Japanese comes in handy. :P

Kawa no Nushi Tsuri 2 Review Part 2

Hey, Nathan here. Some may know me already from my own blog or wherever, but I'm Andrew's cousin. He gave me the honour of reviewing movies, games, and whatever I think is interesting. So here goes!!

Anyway, today I'm going to be talking about Weird Al's UHF. Let me first begin by saying what a movie!! I mean, it's comforting to know that somewhere out there there's a movie that is totally random, still has a storyline, and features the greatest parody genious ever to walk the face of the earth.

For those of you who haven't seen it, I'll give you a quick rundown. Basically, Weird Al's character, George Newman, can't keep a steady job because he's always daydreaming on account of his overactive imagination. Then one day, his uncle wins a little TV station, channel 62, in a poker game, and gives it to George, but they can't seem to get any viewers. So, George brings in all these wacky new shows like "Wheel of Fish" and "Raoul's Wild Kingdom" (my personal favorite..."Did you know that turtle's are natures suction cup!??") and ratings soar!! However, the sister station isn't happy with this as they had the monopoly before, so they try to shut channel 62 down. What happens after that?? Watch the movie and find out!!!

Personally, I love this movie, as it combines many of my favorite things. Weird Al, complete randomness, and hilarious one liners!! This movie is so full of things that just make you die laughing, like "Conan the Librarian" where a barbarian will chop you in half if you have any overdue fees, or "Stanley Spudowski's Playhouse" where you can "find the marble in the oatmeal!" Oh man, great stuff, great stuff.

I also enjoy the character chemistry in this movie. All the casting choices seemed pretty good, if a little weird. But all the characters work beatifully with one another, and all play their parts extremely well. However, if you're looking for something deep and psychologically fulfilling, then you've come to the wrong movie. Unless your psycological fulfillment comes from being entertained and laughing your head off.

Well, there's my first review, so hopefully I'll get the hang of this and get some more stuff posted up soon!!