…Fox News after midnight repeats the same crap so often it's worse than being forced to count the Coke Logo's for the 43rd time while you wait for your movie to start.
...the Google "current" channel is comprised of the trifecta of softcore porn affectionately labeled "National Geographic-type nudity", newslike segments singing the praises of group sex, and animated cartoons so offensive that they make Southpark look like the Care Bears.
...how to perform maintenance on a Compaq 1850-R server using a letter opener, my fingernails and a pocket knife.
...someone has developed (I am not making this up) a urinal that functions as a video game controller.
...Reggie Fils-Aime is not only a member of Nintendo of America, he's also the president. (Well he is now, anyway.)
...No one really knows what the new 2007 Camaro will look like.
...That it's okay to delete the contents of /var/tmp/portage and /tmp.
...That Microsoft almost bought Ebay.
...Not to always listen to what the Haynes repair manual tells you - especially if the guy at the parts store tells you otherwise.
Sunday, May 28, 2006
Tuesday, May 23, 2006
Movies!
I saw two movies this weekend, but I'm only writing a review for one of them. A local theater specializes in obscure and older movies and was playing the first Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. That was the most fun I've had at a movie since the Lord of the Rings trilogy night. 99% of the audience already knew the movie forwards and backwards, there was cheering and shouts of "We love you Master Splinter!" Someone started humming Darth Vader's theme music when Shredder made his dramatic entrance, and Chief Sterns was immediately compared to Chief Wiggam from the Simpsons - half of the audience shouted a nasally "Nyaa" every time he was on screen. It's a classic that still holds its own - which is more than I can say for its sequels.
But on to the other movie I saw: The Davinci Code
This movie was somewhat of a disappointment in numerous respects. On several occasions, people have recommended the book to me, but I never got around to reading it. After the awful Omega Code movie I was leery of anything that involved both the Bible and secret codes. I warn you now, this review is pretty much entirely a spoiler - normally I would hold back for the sake of those who might want to see this movie, but in my opinion, no one should need to waste their time in such a way. The story, according to the author's laughable re-write of history is basically this:
Jesus married Mary Magdelene and fathered children - this somehow indicates that he was not God's son, but just a really charasmatic mortal. The holy grail is not actually a cup, but a symbolic reference for Mary Magdelene herself - the cup (her womb) didn't catch Jesus' blood, it caught his blood-line. In 300 or so AD, Constantine - a consumate pagan until his death, organized a rally of "Christian" scolars to sit down and have a rap session to hammer out the details of this new ficticious Christianity religion thing. At that point they were sterilizing the gospels of anything that would make Jesus look like a mortal, and throwing out the gospels they couldn't clean up (including one written by Mary Magdelene herself! lol). After this, they covered their tracks and just went on pretending that Christianity had always been that way. But the catholic church had to erase Jesus' heirs from history, because somehow all of their power and influence was based on the premise that Jesus was immortal and somehow having children makes him mortal. The Knighs Templar was apparently a secret society with the hidden agenda of protecting Jesus' living descendants against the extremist Catholics (that's practically a contradiction in terms.) So flash forward a couple of thousand years, and the battle of Templar vs. Catholic rages on. Caught up in this are Robert - a symbologist that specializes in obscure interpretations of common symbols and Sophie - a cop, and the unknowing descendant of Jesus. The movie unfolds somewhat like National Treasure as one clue is followed to the next, however it was not nearly as intriguing or mysterious. The obviousness of the plot killed most of the suspense for me - I was able to guess what was going to happen next with accuracy that surprised even me. Even the double-crosses were badly botched. There was one sequence in particular that made me laugh out loud at is ineptitude. The butler that just double-crossed the heroes has a conversation with a man who is purposly obscured from the camera and does not speak - the butler even makes reference to the fact that his identiy is supposed to be a secret - the exposition couldn't have been more obvious if the actor had faced the audience directly and spoke. Now, it was pretty obvious to me who the mystery man was just by deductive reasoning, but the scene switches to something that is pretty much unrelated for a few minutes then jumps back and the mystery man's identity is revealed. It was a complete waste of intrigue. When you use intrigue on an audience, you have to give them a reason to want to know the secret. This was just bad film making. Anyway, our heroes jet-set across europe and at the end discover that Sophie is one of the last living descendants of Jesus (they use Christ like it was his last name, lol). According to the author, revealing this fact to the world will utterly destroy the catholic church, which is, evidently, the sole source of racisism, classism, oppression, hunger, war, the author's bad childhood, and pretty much everything in the general category of evil. So now Sophie has to make the decision to go public, she makes a cutesy little visual gag where she tries to walk on water and then says she's going to go try the water and wine trick. As an epilogue, Robert follows the exact same clues that led him elsewhere earlier in the story, but this time they lead him to a pyramid inside the police station where the remains of Mary Magdelene a.k.a. the holy grail are now enterred. He kneels respectfully to pray to the corpse.
Firstly the core of the underlying story - that Jesus married Mary Magdelene and fathered children is a very old, very un-biblical theme. There has never been any evidence to support it, nor much of an effort to directly disprove it because it's absurd. The idea that this, if true, necessitates that Jesus was mortal is a stretch for even the most atheistic philosopher. The author clearly needed this to be true in order to construct the antagonist's (the Catholic Church) motivation, however it is also clearly motivated by some personal vendetta the writer has - there is no logic behind it. The un-biblical part of this was explained away by the council called by Constantine to sit down and do an ISO-ish re-write of the Christianity standard. For the rest of this review, I'll call it ISO 001.1. Now, don't get me wrong, I'm not defending the Catholic Church. I think the Catholic Church has done more harm to Christianity than any other person, entity, or assembly that has ever existed - their doctrine is largely fabricated by men with secular motivations, they openly contradict the Bible in public favoring idol worship and papal dispensation over the scripture. I'm personally sick and tired of Catholicism being regarded as the authoritative organization in Christianity. As far as I'm concerned, they ceased being Christian as soon as they began referring to priests as "father." They have even gone so far as offering to sell passage into heaven for money all in the name of Christianity. It is not difficult to understand why people like Dan Brown (the author) would become resentful and vindictive, or why so many would flock to believe what he says when this bastion of Christianity is so clearly full of deceit. And again, I want to clear up that I am not defending Dan Brown, merely attempting to lay open his motivations in order to explain why this movie was so bad.
Story-wise, it was poorly paced, badly conceived and executed. The plot was basically a badly performed and less interesting version of National Treasure. It is obvious that the director was counting on the noterity of the name to sell tickets, and not any inherent quality of the movie. Many of the characters had a 3D introduction followed by a distinctly 2D role. I've seen a lot of book-to-movie adaptations and they usually do a much better job with this - either the charcater is shallow and mostly unimportant or he is part of the main plot, not a little of both.
Special effects were basically confined to ghostly overlays as Robert explained or thought through something - his imaginations would appear on screen as translucent objects. Some of the camera work was very good, proving sweeping and often interesting views of the exotic backdrops.
Tom Hanks' acting was somewhat below par on this one. It seemed like he was trying to stretch the boundaries of his repitore and he ended up looking a little rough around the edges in terms of delivering a believable performance. Ian McKellen on the other hand, was on top of his game. Jean Reno also gave a very good performance, for what the director allowed him to do.
Philosophically this film is complete and utter heretical and blasphemous crap. It is obvious that the author is a bitter ex-member of catholicism and this was born of some personal vendetta.
I would recommend against wasting time or money on this.
But on to the other movie I saw: The Davinci Code
This movie was somewhat of a disappointment in numerous respects. On several occasions, people have recommended the book to me, but I never got around to reading it. After the awful Omega Code movie I was leery of anything that involved both the Bible and secret codes. I warn you now, this review is pretty much entirely a spoiler - normally I would hold back for the sake of those who might want to see this movie, but in my opinion, no one should need to waste their time in such a way. The story, according to the author's laughable re-write of history is basically this:
Jesus married Mary Magdelene and fathered children - this somehow indicates that he was not God's son, but just a really charasmatic mortal. The holy grail is not actually a cup, but a symbolic reference for Mary Magdelene herself - the cup (her womb) didn't catch Jesus' blood, it caught his blood-line. In 300 or so AD, Constantine - a consumate pagan until his death, organized a rally of "Christian" scolars to sit down and have a rap session to hammer out the details of this new ficticious Christianity religion thing. At that point they were sterilizing the gospels of anything that would make Jesus look like a mortal, and throwing out the gospels they couldn't clean up (including one written by Mary Magdelene herself! lol). After this, they covered their tracks and just went on pretending that Christianity had always been that way. But the catholic church had to erase Jesus' heirs from history, because somehow all of their power and influence was based on the premise that Jesus was immortal and somehow having children makes him mortal. The Knighs Templar was apparently a secret society with the hidden agenda of protecting Jesus' living descendants against the extremist Catholics (that's practically a contradiction in terms.) So flash forward a couple of thousand years, and the battle of Templar vs. Catholic rages on. Caught up in this are Robert - a symbologist that specializes in obscure interpretations of common symbols and Sophie - a cop, and the unknowing descendant of Jesus. The movie unfolds somewhat like National Treasure as one clue is followed to the next, however it was not nearly as intriguing or mysterious. The obviousness of the plot killed most of the suspense for me - I was able to guess what was going to happen next with accuracy that surprised even me. Even the double-crosses were badly botched. There was one sequence in particular that made me laugh out loud at is ineptitude. The butler that just double-crossed the heroes has a conversation with a man who is purposly obscured from the camera and does not speak - the butler even makes reference to the fact that his identiy is supposed to be a secret - the exposition couldn't have been more obvious if the actor had faced the audience directly and spoke. Now, it was pretty obvious to me who the mystery man was just by deductive reasoning, but the scene switches to something that is pretty much unrelated for a few minutes then jumps back and the mystery man's identity is revealed. It was a complete waste of intrigue. When you use intrigue on an audience, you have to give them a reason to want to know the secret. This was just bad film making. Anyway, our heroes jet-set across europe and at the end discover that Sophie is one of the last living descendants of Jesus (they use Christ like it was his last name, lol). According to the author, revealing this fact to the world will utterly destroy the catholic church, which is, evidently, the sole source of racisism, classism, oppression, hunger, war, the author's bad childhood, and pretty much everything in the general category of evil. So now Sophie has to make the decision to go public, she makes a cutesy little visual gag where she tries to walk on water and then says she's going to go try the water and wine trick. As an epilogue, Robert follows the exact same clues that led him elsewhere earlier in the story, but this time they lead him to a pyramid inside the police station where the remains of Mary Magdelene a.k.a. the holy grail are now enterred. He kneels respectfully to pray to the corpse.
Firstly the core of the underlying story - that Jesus married Mary Magdelene and fathered children is a very old, very un-biblical theme. There has never been any evidence to support it, nor much of an effort to directly disprove it because it's absurd. The idea that this, if true, necessitates that Jesus was mortal is a stretch for even the most atheistic philosopher. The author clearly needed this to be true in order to construct the antagonist's (the Catholic Church) motivation, however it is also clearly motivated by some personal vendetta the writer has - there is no logic behind it. The un-biblical part of this was explained away by the council called by Constantine to sit down and do an ISO-ish re-write of the Christianity standard. For the rest of this review, I'll call it ISO 001.1. Now, don't get me wrong, I'm not defending the Catholic Church. I think the Catholic Church has done more harm to Christianity than any other person, entity, or assembly that has ever existed - their doctrine is largely fabricated by men with secular motivations, they openly contradict the Bible in public favoring idol worship and papal dispensation over the scripture. I'm personally sick and tired of Catholicism being regarded as the authoritative organization in Christianity. As far as I'm concerned, they ceased being Christian as soon as they began referring to priests as "father." They have even gone so far as offering to sell passage into heaven for money all in the name of Christianity. It is not difficult to understand why people like Dan Brown (the author) would become resentful and vindictive, or why so many would flock to believe what he says when this bastion of Christianity is so clearly full of deceit. And again, I want to clear up that I am not defending Dan Brown, merely attempting to lay open his motivations in order to explain why this movie was so bad.
Story-wise, it was poorly paced, badly conceived and executed. The plot was basically a badly performed and less interesting version of National Treasure. It is obvious that the director was counting on the noterity of the name to sell tickets, and not any inherent quality of the movie. Many of the characters had a 3D introduction followed by a distinctly 2D role. I've seen a lot of book-to-movie adaptations and they usually do a much better job with this - either the charcater is shallow and mostly unimportant or he is part of the main plot, not a little of both.
Special effects were basically confined to ghostly overlays as Robert explained or thought through something - his imaginations would appear on screen as translucent objects. Some of the camera work was very good, proving sweeping and often interesting views of the exotic backdrops.
Tom Hanks' acting was somewhat below par on this one. It seemed like he was trying to stretch the boundaries of his repitore and he ended up looking a little rough around the edges in terms of delivering a believable performance. Ian McKellen on the other hand, was on top of his game. Jean Reno also gave a very good performance, for what the director allowed him to do.
Philosophically this film is complete and utter heretical and blasphemous crap. It is obvious that the author is a bitter ex-member of catholicism and this was born of some personal vendetta.
I would recommend against wasting time or money on this.
Wednesday, May 17, 2006
My Video Game Archive Project: Finished!
It's been six days with nowhere to sit down in my house. My feet are still sore from standing up for 10 hours at a stretch. I've gone through 16 AA batteries to take nearly 1200 pictures. My dog and cat probably want to kill me for completely disrupting the order of my household. Thankfully my wife was just as excited to see just how much video game crap I have accumulated over the last 11 years as I was.
I had no earthly idea how large and time-consuming that this project would become when I first decided to do it last week. But it sure feels good to get it done. Here are a couple of highlights of my collection.
My complete collection of Working Designs games:
My PS2 Linux Kit:
My Grandia Cloth Map:
I'm writing a database to archive my collection in OpenOffice.org Base, but for a little instant gratification, I put up a simple php gallery viewable here: Paladin's Game Collection
It's not on the fastest server in the world, so please be patient while the images load.
I had no earthly idea how large and time-consuming that this project would become when I first decided to do it last week. But it sure feels good to get it done. Here are a couple of highlights of my collection.
My complete collection of Working Designs games:
My Final Fantasy VII Launch T-Shirt:
My PS2 Linux Kit:
My Grandia Cloth Map:
I'm writing a database to archive my collection in OpenOffice.org Base, but for a little instant gratification, I put up a simple php gallery viewable here: Paladin's Game Collection
It's not on the fastest server in the world, so please be patient while the images load.
Saturday, May 13, 2006
My Video Game Archive Project
I saw a contest over at luv2game.com where users were encouraged to post pictures of their game collections. I saw one or two of impressive size, but I found myself thinking "that's pretty big, but mine's bigger." I've been collecting games since around 1995. I actually got my first game system back in 1989 but for reasons I won't get into, I started at basically 0 in 1995. I've been amassing this collection for some time, but I realized that I had never actually seen it in one place at one time, so I had this brilliant idea - my wife and I would create a visual archive of the collection.
Three days into the project, I realize that it was much easier said than done. I have stashes all over the house, intertwined with Pokemon and Transformer collections. My back is sore, I've lost sleep three nights in a row; man this is hard work!
Here is the state that my theater room finds itself in:
Three days into the project, I realize that it was much easier said than done. I have stashes all over the house, intertwined with Pokemon and Transformer collections. My back is sore, I've lost sleep three nights in a row; man this is hard work!
Here is the state that my theater room finds itself in:
Monday, May 08, 2006
Mission Impoissible III
With all of the recent publicity Tom Cruise has been getting over his choice of fiancees and his aggressive pursuit of the futuristic Scientology religion, I thought it would be hard to separate Tom Cruise from the role he plays as Ethan Hunt. But once the action started...Tom Who?
Gone is the stylized ultra-slick Metallica rendition of the Mission Impossible theme from MI:II, Ethan Hunt's cavalier attitudes about women, and motorcycle kung-fu. I couldn't help but be reminded of Lethal Weapon 4's approach to a maturing franchise, as the story opens with Ethan trying to finally settle down and start a family, taking a back seat at the IMF as a trainer. And of course, this is not to last.
This movie really packs a lot of punch, bombarding you with intense action scenes as well as gut-wrenching drama. You'll hate the bad guys and cheer the good guys - provided you can figure out who is who. As any fan of the series should expect, it's filled with plot twists and false clues to keep you guessing about the end. The tech takes a back seat in this movie - no more scenes with their own special version of "M" (ala James Bond) giving an inventory of all of their little toys. They seem to realize that the audiences today aren't fascinated by futuristic gadgetry the way they were in the last four decades. The tech is there and it works, and that's all anyone ever need know. I can only see this as a good thing, because, although I really like knowing the particulars of a clever piece of technology, I don't need a break in the action to learn about it. That's what websites, comentary tracks and DVD extras are for. The action sequences, while still mindblowing, were not as "impossible" as those in the previous movies. There are no half-inch-short-helicopter-blade-to-the-throat run-ins, no motorcycle kung-fu. The action was all believable, and that made it somewhat more fantastic. In my opinion, this was the best of the three movies in terms of action, drama, character development, suspense and story.
It is not without its cheesy moments; I had to laugh at the not one but several times Ethan found himself dangling horizontally on the end of a string, mimicking one of the most well-known scenes from the first movie. The ability of a script-writer and/or a director to allow the movie to sort of make fun of itself goes a long way toward instilling a sense of matured confidence on the audience.
After his run-in with South Park and the tabloids, it's difficult to know what to think of Tom Cruise these days, but I will say that I'd like him a lot more if he'd stick to his job and act, because he's extremely good at it.
Gone is the stylized ultra-slick Metallica rendition of the Mission Impossible theme from MI:II, Ethan Hunt's cavalier attitudes about women, and motorcycle kung-fu. I couldn't help but be reminded of Lethal Weapon 4's approach to a maturing franchise, as the story opens with Ethan trying to finally settle down and start a family, taking a back seat at the IMF as a trainer. And of course, this is not to last.
This movie really packs a lot of punch, bombarding you with intense action scenes as well as gut-wrenching drama. You'll hate the bad guys and cheer the good guys - provided you can figure out who is who. As any fan of the series should expect, it's filled with plot twists and false clues to keep you guessing about the end. The tech takes a back seat in this movie - no more scenes with their own special version of "M" (ala James Bond) giving an inventory of all of their little toys. They seem to realize that the audiences today aren't fascinated by futuristic gadgetry the way they were in the last four decades. The tech is there and it works, and that's all anyone ever need know. I can only see this as a good thing, because, although I really like knowing the particulars of a clever piece of technology, I don't need a break in the action to learn about it. That's what websites, comentary tracks and DVD extras are for. The action sequences, while still mindblowing, were not as "impossible" as those in the previous movies. There are no half-inch-short-helicopter-blade-to-the-throat run-ins, no motorcycle kung-fu. The action was all believable, and that made it somewhat more fantastic. In my opinion, this was the best of the three movies in terms of action, drama, character development, suspense and story.
It is not without its cheesy moments; I had to laugh at the not one but several times Ethan found himself dangling horizontally on the end of a string, mimicking one of the most well-known scenes from the first movie. The ability of a script-writer and/or a director to allow the movie to sort of make fun of itself goes a long way toward instilling a sense of matured confidence on the audience.
After his run-in with South Park and the tabloids, it's difficult to know what to think of Tom Cruise these days, but I will say that I'd like him a lot more if he'd stick to his job and act, because he's extremely good at it.
Friday, May 05, 2006
Silent Hill
A little more than seven years ago when the first Silent Hill game was released for the Playstation, curiosity and hype drove me to to rent it. As a rule, I don't generally go in for "survival horror" games. Resident Evil had failed to capture my interest in all but the most technical aspects.
I remember being told by magazine reviewers that this game was extremely frightening and unnerving at times, but I didn't really believe it until I sat down and started playing it. The first 10 minutes of the game were some of the most mortifying that I have ever spent with a controller in my hand. The developers of this game really knew how to get under your skin and keep you jumping at shadows.
I finished Silent Hill in one night - eager to bring the whole thing to some sort of closure so I could sleep a little easier. I have never picked up any of the Silent Hill sequels, but if they're anything like the first one, I'm sure they're intimately frightening.
When I saw the trailer for the Silent Hill movie for the first time last year, I identified it instantly from the foggy atmosphere and the abandoned car on the mountainous highway.
As with any game-to-movie review, I feel obliged to mention all of the awful game-become-movies that have proceeded it like Super Mario Bros. movie, the Street Fighter movie, to tell you how much better this one is by comparison blah blah blah. Instead, however I'm using this as an opportunity to bag on the horribly awful pseudo-director Uwe Boll. Any film he touches usually ends up being crap because he has a deeply rooted fundamental misunderstanding of what video games are all about, and seems to have read the Cliffs Notes of film making instead of employing any actual talent. Thankfully he had nothing to do with Silent Hill, and it shows in the fact that it's actually a good movie.
Firstly I would recommend against anyone under the age of 17 seeing this film, and even then, don't go see it alone.
The Silent Hill movie only deviated from the story of the game in minor respects, and then it was obviously because of the time limitation. Even so it weighed in at just over 2 hours. It's a little slow to get started, but when it does, you're thrust into a confusing and horrifying tour of the ghost town Silent Hill.
The special effects were top-notch but never became the focus of the film. It seems that Hollywood is learning that special effects are supposed to help the movie not be the movie. Filled with visceral imagry, gore and unnervingly remorseless bad guys, no horror fan should be disappointed. Some of the sequences seem to employ the same techniques as recent Japanese horror films like Ringu and Juon, where the undead are made to move in ways that your brain tells you on some subconscious level just isn't right. This unsettling effect is coupled with unabashed carnage for a well-rounded scare. To top it all off there is an underlying tale of secret sin, retribution and a very confused commentary on the nature of good and evil.
A couple of aspects that detracted from my enjoyment were the fact that all of the principal characters in the movie were female. I suppose it's my male-centric mind making something out of nothing, after all there are plenty examples of movies where all of the principal characters are male, and they don't even make me bat an eye. It just seems odd to me.
I was delighted, however that the filmmakers resisted the urge to include sexuality in this story. The main supporting character is a busty blond policewoman with with a buzz cut that just screams out that she's as buch as a lumberjack, but this was all window dressing as far as the story went.
The story attempts to tell a morality tale from a decidedly secular point of view. When agnostics start getting preachy, it's hard not to laugh as they make comically flawed moral judgements based on absolutely nothing. One line in particular still makes me laugh when I think about it "Your faith leads to death." the main character says to the crazed psychopathic cult/church leader. It is clearly intended to be a profound and powerful revelation, and indeed the cult leader responds as such as though she is momentarily shaken by the statement. Any person with actual faith understands this as a fundamental tenet of faith. Any true faith can lead to death - the nature of faith requires the possibility. For Christians, Jews, Muslims, and Catholics, the story of Abraham and Issac is probably the best example of this. As I often say, writers shouldn't write stories about things that they clearly do not understand because they generally just end up looking stupid to anyone who does understand the subject. I expect the vast majority of people who go to see this movie will pass by that dialogue without much notice, or may even find it as profound as the writers obviously think it is.
Bottom line:
This movie will potentially scare the crap out of you. There are plenty of scenes that will unsettle even the most stalwart of horror afficianados (whether they'll admit it or not). Fans of the game will enjoy the mostly faithful storyline. The story caters both to the gory and psychological sides of horror. The movie mostly sticks to what it's good at and doesn't have any sexual references of any kind. The morality aspect is deeply flawed and silly, and should by no means be taken seriously. The casting was decidedly feminist.
I remember being told by magazine reviewers that this game was extremely frightening and unnerving at times, but I didn't really believe it until I sat down and started playing it. The first 10 minutes of the game were some of the most mortifying that I have ever spent with a controller in my hand. The developers of this game really knew how to get under your skin and keep you jumping at shadows.
I finished Silent Hill in one night - eager to bring the whole thing to some sort of closure so I could sleep a little easier. I have never picked up any of the Silent Hill sequels, but if they're anything like the first one, I'm sure they're intimately frightening.
When I saw the trailer for the Silent Hill movie for the first time last year, I identified it instantly from the foggy atmosphere and the abandoned car on the mountainous highway.
As with any game-to-movie review, I feel obliged to mention all of the awful game-become-movies that have proceeded it like Super Mario Bros. movie, the Street Fighter movie, to tell you how much better this one is by comparison blah blah blah. Instead, however I'm using this as an opportunity to bag on the horribly awful pseudo-director Uwe Boll. Any film he touches usually ends up being crap because he has a deeply rooted fundamental misunderstanding of what video games are all about, and seems to have read the Cliffs Notes of film making instead of employing any actual talent. Thankfully he had nothing to do with Silent Hill, and it shows in the fact that it's actually a good movie.
Firstly I would recommend against anyone under the age of 17 seeing this film, and even then, don't go see it alone.
The Silent Hill movie only deviated from the story of the game in minor respects, and then it was obviously because of the time limitation. Even so it weighed in at just over 2 hours. It's a little slow to get started, but when it does, you're thrust into a confusing and horrifying tour of the ghost town Silent Hill.
The special effects were top-notch but never became the focus of the film. It seems that Hollywood is learning that special effects are supposed to help the movie not be the movie. Filled with visceral imagry, gore and unnervingly remorseless bad guys, no horror fan should be disappointed. Some of the sequences seem to employ the same techniques as recent Japanese horror films like Ringu and Juon, where the undead are made to move in ways that your brain tells you on some subconscious level just isn't right. This unsettling effect is coupled with unabashed carnage for a well-rounded scare. To top it all off there is an underlying tale of secret sin, retribution and a very confused commentary on the nature of good and evil.
A couple of aspects that detracted from my enjoyment were the fact that all of the principal characters in the movie were female. I suppose it's my male-centric mind making something out of nothing, after all there are plenty examples of movies where all of the principal characters are male, and they don't even make me bat an eye. It just seems odd to me.
I was delighted, however that the filmmakers resisted the urge to include sexuality in this story. The main supporting character is a busty blond policewoman with with a buzz cut that just screams out that she's as buch as a lumberjack, but this was all window dressing as far as the story went.
The story attempts to tell a morality tale from a decidedly secular point of view. When agnostics start getting preachy, it's hard not to laugh as they make comically flawed moral judgements based on absolutely nothing. One line in particular still makes me laugh when I think about it "Your faith leads to death." the main character says to the crazed psychopathic cult/church leader. It is clearly intended to be a profound and powerful revelation, and indeed the cult leader responds as such as though she is momentarily shaken by the statement. Any person with actual faith understands this as a fundamental tenet of faith. Any true faith can lead to death - the nature of faith requires the possibility. For Christians, Jews, Muslims, and Catholics, the story of Abraham and Issac is probably the best example of this. As I often say, writers shouldn't write stories about things that they clearly do not understand because they generally just end up looking stupid to anyone who does understand the subject. I expect the vast majority of people who go to see this movie will pass by that dialogue without much notice, or may even find it as profound as the writers obviously think it is.
Bottom line:
This movie will potentially scare the crap out of you. There are plenty of scenes that will unsettle even the most stalwart of horror afficianados (whether they'll admit it or not). Fans of the game will enjoy the mostly faithful storyline. The story caters both to the gory and psychological sides of horror. The movie mostly sticks to what it's good at and doesn't have any sexual references of any kind. The morality aspect is deeply flawed and silly, and should by no means be taken seriously. The casting was decidedly feminist.
The End of Oblivion
After 125 hours of playtime, 450 saves and 20+ XBOX lockups, I can honestly say I'm done with Elder Scrolls IV. I've collected the entire 1000 points for my XBOX Live gamerscore, completed the main quest, become head of the Mages Guild, Fighter's Guild, Theives Guild and the Dark Brotherhood, become Grand Champion of the Arena, and acquired every house in the game. After all that the game still has a smattering of quests that I haven't completed such as the ridiculously tedious Nirnroot quest, not to mention a dozen or more dungeons that aren't tied to any quests but contain some great loot. There is still plenty of room for improvement of my stats. Add to that the fact that I've only played through as one gender of one race, and you can start to see how enormous the replay potential for this game is. That being said, I probably still won't pick it up again until an expansion or "Game of the Year" edition is released with additional quest lines etc...
Wednesday, April 26, 2006
Mario's Wacky Worlds and the Zelda CD-I games
I got a new toy yesterday - something I had passed up a few years back (presumably because these babys were really really expensive and didn't offer much bang for the buck). I just got a shiny almost new Philips CD-I player. This was one of those multi-media systems that came out around the same time as the Playstation, Saturn, 3DO and the Jaguar and touted itself as a "multi-media" device. It played music CDs, Video CDs and special CD-I (I for "Interactive") discs, some of which qualified as video games. When I caught wind of a lost Mario game that was fabled to exist for the system, I dug and dug until I found a copy of it on the net. Since there aren't any actually working emulators for the CD-I system, I was forced to purchase one in order to play this Mario game that never was. I was surprised to discover a small but rather dedicated fan following for this platform. The lost Mario game was about what you can expect from a very early alpha prototype. The levels are there but there is no continuity between them. The code for Mario dying doesn't exist yet so he can't be hurt - there are no bottomless pits. The system has to be reset to get back to the menu because there is not in-game menu or way to exit the stage. The stages themselves would have been impressive if released back in 1993. And the control is surprisingly close to the the real Super Mario World, which, based on what I've read is really impressive. It's beyond the base capabilities of the CD-I system. If this game had been completed, it may have actually saved the CD-I format. It makes me wonder about how many other little gems like this were just washed away into obscurity by money troubles.
This platform is also host to an infamous trio of games (I use the term loosely) based on the Legend of Zelda series. These were the fallout from a deal that Nintendo made with Philips back when the company had been commissioned to provide the CD-ROM add-on for the Super Famicom/Super Nintendo (around 1992). I also acquired this trio of games and I have to say after having played them first hand that they're not horribly scar-you-for-life bad like everyone likes to say. True, they don't come close to measuring up to the standard set by the real thing, but if there had been a competent artist/animator working on them, they wouldn't have been so craptacular. It looks very much like someone was trying to storyboard everything to get the syncing and voice acting done with every intention of going back with a proper artist and re-animating everything. The games Link: Faces of Evil and Zelda: Wand of Gamelon were animated and voiced with intentional humor. The animation itself was surprisingly fluid, albiet still badly drawn, but these games weren't even trying to be serious Zelda games. Once you get past the animation sequences, there's actually a halfway passable platform game underneath, in the vein of Zelda II. I think the biggest shortcomming of these two games has to be the fact that the animation and dialogue were clearly aimed at younger children, but the difficulty is so high that I doubt many young children would enjoy playing them. The third game, Zelda's adventure was probably the worst of the lot. I was actually surprised by this because I had heard from several sources that it was the best. While the game actually makes a stab at being a proper RPG (it actually has an equipment menu), everything in the game is a digitized bitmap (ala Mortal Kombat and Pit Fighter) which means that there was no art direction whatsoever. The acting and plot are laughable, largely because they are attempting to be so serious. Frame rate wasn't something that we used to think about back in the days of 2D gaming, but it actually becomes an issue here.
In conclusion, I agree that these are clearly the worst Zelda games ever made, but given the standard set by Zelda games in general they're aren't absolutely horrible.
Saturday, April 22, 2006
Why I Am a Console Junkie
I've been a die-hard Nintendo fanboy for as long as I've known what Nintendo was. When I first saw the NES and what it did, some magical switch clicked in my head and I've been hooked ever since. I remember getting into arguments that nearly led to blows with Sega fans. Silly? Sure, but I was a kid and what is childhood but a chance to be serious when you're being silly?
Flash forward over a dozen years, and I find myself still having arguments with other games over platform preference, but now the argment isn't Nintendo vs. Sega, it's Console vs. PC.
Now the arguments in favor of PC gaming have always been the following:
Flash forward over a dozen years, and I find myself still having arguments with other games over platform preference, but now the argment isn't Nintendo vs. Sega, it's Console vs. PC.
Now the arguments in favor of PC gaming have always been the following:
- The keyboard and mouse setup offers the ultimate precise control
- PC's are modular and can be way more powerful than consoles
- PC's are useful for a lot more than just playing games - Teamspeak, for example.
- Although I freely admit that mouse control allows quicker, more precise targeting than joystick control, it is ergonomically unsound and inferior for traversing game environments.
- Although PC's can have higher technical specs than consoles, they are very seldom actually superior because PC hardware is general use and not specialized like a console (in other words, consoles can do more with less because they were made with a specific purpose in mind), this also makes PC's more expensive than a console of comparable power, and much less compatible. PC games tend to have a large number of bugs simply owing to the fact that the game makers have to account for such a diverse variety of possible configurations. This has led to a tendancy of game makers to knowingly release deeply flawed games with the itention of maybe releasing a patch later when they work out what's wrong. Consoles, on the other hand, generally have a static configuration so the game makers only have to make it work on one platform to know that it will play properly for everyone who buys it.
- PC's are useful for other things, but that's not what this debate is about. This debate is about whether PC's are better game machines and they are not.
Monday, April 10, 2006
Oblivion - some chinks in the horse armor
I've now been playing Oblivion for about 50 hours and I have a few more things to say. The game is still phenominal, has yet to become boring or repetitive, and I'm sure I'm only about a third of the way through with it. Some of the newness has worn off, however. I'm up to 14 complete XBOX 360 lockups. I'm not really surprised by this, evidently this is hallmark of Bethesda games. Nor am I really annoyed with it. With a game as rich and complex as this, my programmer's mind is telling me that these are acceptable losses. There were a couple of things that I do take issue with, however. I've run into at least three quests where I had to revert to a previous save and begin all over to complete because glitches or poor design made them unfinishable - one of which was part of the core story! Bethesda ought to worry about correcting these snafus, not charging people extra money for horse armor.
And while I'm on that subject, I have to say that Bethesda ought to be ashamed of themselves for trying to profit from something so frivolous and stupid. Expansion packs are one thing, but charging someone for horse armor is downright petty. I hope the whole concept dies a short but painful DIVX-like death. I, for one, will never be so stupid as to spend real money on special game items. It is my hope that gamers will never fall into this trap that Microsoft and Sony are hoping to trap us in where everything is virtual, and you spend money on intangable things.
Microsoft envisions a future where all game content is downloaded from the Internet. While this may seem more convienent, it is a very bad thing. For starters, it destroys any real value that your games have. You won't be able to sell your used games because there won't be anything to sell. You won't be able to let friends borrow your games because Microsoft will not let you - I can say with absolute certaintly that their opinion on the matter will be that if your friend wants to play the game, he/she can come to your house to do it, or buy a copy his/her self. The publishers will have complete control over what you can play and when you can play it. And if that wasn't bad enough, the bargain bins and used game shops which allow so many people to enjoy games without dropping tons of cash will be done away with. So I urge you to resist this trend - don't pay to download games from XBOX Live! and whatever you do, don't waste money on virtual items and cheats.
And while I'm on that subject, I have to say that Bethesda ought to be ashamed of themselves for trying to profit from something so frivolous and stupid. Expansion packs are one thing, but charging someone for horse armor is downright petty. I hope the whole concept dies a short but painful DIVX-like death. I, for one, will never be so stupid as to spend real money on special game items. It is my hope that gamers will never fall into this trap that Microsoft and Sony are hoping to trap us in where everything is virtual, and you spend money on intangable things.
Microsoft envisions a future where all game content is downloaded from the Internet. While this may seem more convienent, it is a very bad thing. For starters, it destroys any real value that your games have. You won't be able to sell your used games because there won't be anything to sell. You won't be able to let friends borrow your games because Microsoft will not let you - I can say with absolute certaintly that their opinion on the matter will be that if your friend wants to play the game, he/she can come to your house to do it, or buy a copy his/her self. The publishers will have complete control over what you can play and when you can play it. And if that wasn't bad enough, the bargain bins and used game shops which allow so many people to enjoy games without dropping tons of cash will be done away with. So I urge you to resist this trend - don't pay to download games from XBOX Live! and whatever you do, don't waste money on virtual items and cheats.
24 The Game and the progressive scan easter egg
I recently picked up 24 the game for $35 at a local EB. Being an avid fan of the show, I thought it'd be interesting to see how good (or bad) it was. From a story perspective, it's just like the show - in fact it seems to be the remains of the original 3rd season - that is to say chronologically it takes place between season 2 and 3 and features a lot of interesting "oh, that's when that happned" moments. The herkey-jerkey camera bobs just like the show's action sequences giving you a feeling of urgency, and although PS2 graphics are really feeling their age at this point, it manages to pull off a passable in that category. The inane and wildly inaccurate techno-babble is here too - for example they show a picture of what is clearly an encrypted code generator used by banks and the like, but inaccurately describe it as a PDA, and the stereotypical nerdy guy has to try to decrypt its "hard drive" to get at the info (neither PDAs nor code generators have hard drives). I've only played through the first 8 hours or so, and I've been stuck wondering what to do or where to go at least twice - my little guide arrows were either gone, or pointing me somewhere I couldn't go. The level design needed a bit more tweaking, but I've played worse. At the same time, the game is entertaining. The interrogation sequences are clever if repetitive. All in all I'd give it a 7 out of 10.
There was one point of much frustration that I hope to save you from. The game supports progressive scan (which is a big plus in my book) but good luck finding instructions for turning it on. After reading through the manual and coming up with zilch, I called 2k games for support and the scottish guy who answered the phone scratched his head, told me it was my TV, then said that the game actually performs some sort of magical evaluation and evidently decided that my TV wasn't worthy of progressive scan. When I explained the absurdity and technological impossibility of that to him (it's pretty much a one-way street, the Playstation might be able to tell that the cables were connected, but there is no return signal for evaluating the capabilities of the TV it's plugged into), he thought it might be that my Playstation was too old, and then told me (it sounded like he might have been reading this somewhere) that PS2's before model 50000 weren't capable of outputting in progressive scan. When I explained that I have several games that seem to have ignored that limitation and display in progressive scan anyway, then maybe it was only available in the UK/PAL version of the game. When I asked him why the back of the box clearly stated progressive scan as a feature, more head scratching ensued. Remembering the way that games like Star Ocean III and Radiata Stories require you to hold down X and (triangle) as the game starts up to access the progressive scan menu, I tried that and lo and behold it brought up the secret progressive scan menu. The 2k games support guy was very relieved to hear that I wouldn't be grilling him any longer. He was a nice enough fellow, but 2k games ought to at least give these guys some technical manuals for these games if they're paying for me to call all the way to the UK to talk to them.
There was one point of much frustration that I hope to save you from. The game supports progressive scan (which is a big plus in my book) but good luck finding instructions for turning it on. After reading through the manual and coming up with zilch, I called 2k games for support and the scottish guy who answered the phone scratched his head, told me it was my TV, then said that the game actually performs some sort of magical evaluation and evidently decided that my TV wasn't worthy of progressive scan. When I explained the absurdity and technological impossibility of that to him (it's pretty much a one-way street, the Playstation might be able to tell that the cables were connected, but there is no return signal for evaluating the capabilities of the TV it's plugged into), he thought it might be that my Playstation was too old, and then told me (it sounded like he might have been reading this somewhere) that PS2's before model 50000 weren't capable of outputting in progressive scan. When I explained that I have several games that seem to have ignored that limitation and display in progressive scan anyway, then maybe it was only available in the UK/PAL version of the game. When I asked him why the back of the box clearly stated progressive scan as a feature, more head scratching ensued. Remembering the way that games like Star Ocean III and Radiata Stories require you to hold down X and (triangle) as the game starts up to access the progressive scan menu, I tried that and lo and behold it brought up the secret progressive scan menu. The 2k games support guy was very relieved to hear that I wouldn't be grilling him any longer. He was a nice enough fellow, but 2k games ought to at least give these guys some technical manuals for these games if they're paying for me to call all the way to the UK to talk to them.
Laser Tag
Growing up in the 80's I have vague recollections of Laser Tag and it's rival product Photon (at least I think that's what it's called). I never played it when I was little but I always wanted to. So when I was at my nephew's 6th birthday party this weekend and was invited to play “Lazer Tag” with him and a bunch of his 6-8 year-old friends, I wasn't sure what I was in for. I'm fairly certain that the Laser Tag of the 80's was never quite like what I experienced. For starters, the equipment, a gun shaped like a UPC scanner, and vest with glowing target areas, made everyone look vaguely like a Wal-Mart employee going to war. With the soundtrack from the N64 Goldeneye and the movie Mortal Kombat blasting in the background, a dark maze with strobe lights flashing, blacklights giving everything an ethereal glow, and 7 other people running around trying to shoot you with lasers, it was just like an FPS - the most tiring one I've ever played. After 15 minutes of that, my feet felt like lead and my lungs felt like they had been scraped out with a wire brush (I'm still coughing crap up that I swear has been there since middle school, but I guess that's what happens when you weigh in at nearly 300lb and don't exercise, then suddenly run around like you're seven years old again). That was the best “multi-player” fun I've ever had. Just goes to show you, despite FPS Doug's insistence to the contrary, RL is waay better than FPS.
Friday, March 24, 2006
The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion - First Impressions
I've had a couple of days to get acquainted with Elder Scrolls IV, and I must say I'm very very impressed. Until I saw Oblivion listed as a release title for the XBOX 360 I never gave Elder Scrolls much thought. I usually go in for more mainstream fair like Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest and .hack. When the promise of having an RPG at the 360 launch evaporated, I got impatient and picked up a "Greatest Hits" version of Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind. After wandering around cluelessly for about 45 minutes and getting pwnd by a Mud Crab, I put it down and didn't touch it again for two weeks. But the hype over ESIV forced me to give ESIII a second chance and I was glad that I did. After overcoming a steep learning curve, a cryptic menu system, and awkward battle controls, I was hooked. I had been playing ESIII for around 50 hours by the time that ESIV came out. I've been playing ESIV for about 25 hours now and I feel like I've only scratched the surface. There is simply so much to do here it's mind-blowing. For example, I just spent about 3 hours clearing out a dungeon that I had absolutely no business even going into just because it was on the way to my next destination. I didn't really get anything valuable out of the experience, and died a couple of times because the monsters were way too strong for me, but I had a total blast doing it. The game world is easily as immense as those in MMO's like Final Fantasy IX and World of Warcraft. The graphics are top-notch. Honestly it's the best use of the XBOX 360's power that I've seen so far. The Dolby Digital Surround adds a creepy degree of atmosphere. Unlike a lot of other games, the music isn't just there to give you something neat to listen to, it is used to add ambiance to the game to great effect. I have a couple of very minor complaints - the 3rd person view still looks unnatural and clunky, the horseback riding is a bit glitchy, the menus, while arranged very logically, aren't as easy to navigate as they were in ESIII and I managed to somehow get myself and my horse lodged inside of a rock and had to restart the game to get out of it. These minor gripes disappear in comparison to the improvements that have been made. The Journal system now logically sorts your objectives so you know what you have done and what you need to do. It also correlates with your map and compass to tell you exactly where you need to go, making navigation a breeze. And if that wasn't good enough, moving around the map no longer requires Travel Guides, Silt Striders, or the Recall spell. If you've visited a location before, just open your map and point to it, and the game will take you there. You still lose time off of your clock for the time you would have spent walking the distance but it makes the game a lot less tedious.
I purchased the uber-expensive special edition of the game (because I'm a complete sucker for stuff like that) that came with a bonus DVD (which I have yet to watch) a pocket guide to Tamriel (It's pretty cool - writtent to look like an official guide from the Tamriel government to newcommers) and a reproduction of a Septim coin from the game. It also came with a map of Tamriel that was ripped because whoever packaged it at the factory crammed it down into the sleeve. The case itself was a cardboard and plastic fold-out similar to what the extended editions of the Lord of the Rings movies came in, complete with a lot of nice hand-drawn artwork. I also opted to pick up the phone-book sized official strategy guide. It's over 300 pages long and has already come in handy a couple of times. It was printed on relatively thick paper, presumably to make it appear to have more pages than it does, but it's still a good value all-in-all.
If you like RPGs at all this is definitely worth checking out. If you liked Morrowind, you will absolutely love this game.
Totoro redo!
My Neighbor Totoro (original release shown left):This has been a favorite of mine for a few years now. It was released twice on DVD. The first time was before Disney contracted with Studio Ghibli (the home of the celebrated anime director, Hayao Miyazaki). As with a lot of anime directed at younger children, the original release was hacked to pieces and recolored, because evidently North American children are far too stupid to like a cartoon if it is letterboxed and doesn't look like a bowl of fruit loops. To put it another way, when 20th Century Fox brought the film stateside, the left and right edges of the picture were hacked off to produce a "Full Screen" version of the film, the color intensity was dramatically increased, destroying or obscuring much of the subtle detail, and "edge enhancement" was applied to the picture resulting in permanant NTSC dot crawl. About the best thing I can say for the original release was that I loved the English voice track. (The original release featured only English language).
I very nearly bought a copy of the Japanese release of the film so I could watch it as Miyazaki intended (ie. widescreen, sane color levels, Japanese language track) but I was saved from the need by a re-release from Disney (shown left.) This version had everything I could have wanted and then some. The film transfer is faithful to the original, with no added colors. It is presented in anamorphic 16:9 widescreen preserving the original aspect ratio. The original Japanese language track is included as well as a brand new English language track recorded just for this release staring some big names like Dakota Fanning and Tim Daly. I'd just like to say to Disney: Thank you for not thinking I'm a half blind moron with no appreciation for subtlety!For anyone who isn't familiar with Miyazaki's work, here's a quick rundown: Hayao Miyazaki is a Japanese anime director with a rare gift for storytelling. For the most part his stories seem to come from the imagination of a child but are all told with the grace and subtlety of a master storyteller. Couple this with a unique artistic style and he has some of the best movies ever made to his credit. Some of my other Miyazaki favorites are Spirited Away, Princess Mononoke, Nausicaa and the Valey of the Wind, and Grave of the Fireflies.
If you've seen Totoro before, you'll probably want to give this re-release a spin to see what you missed the first time.
Friday, March 17, 2006
Movies!
To kick off my vacation, I saw a couple of movies tonight, and here's what I thought.
V for Vendetta
Rated R
The story was that of an imaginative revolutionary, determined to wake up the sheepish masses that had allowed the UK to become a totalitiarian regime. Laced with patriotic sentiment, classical references to Shakespere and the like, a strong dose of philosophy, a healthy dash of intrigue, and some interesting action sequences, the movie delivers a well-rounded experience. Although the enigmatic main character V wears a mask, that becomes more of a smokescreen, or a symbolic reference rather than the object of mystery it first seems to be, very reminiscent of M. Night Shyamalan's work.
Although it involved an Australian (Hugo Weaving) and an American (Natalie Portman) playing the roles of British citizens it was very believable. (I suspect that if I were actually British I might feel differently about that:) Hugo was particularly impressive in his flawless delivery of very complex and lengthy lines, some of which were on par with the Architecht's elaborate oration to Neo in The Matrix: Reloaded.
I expect there will be a lot of comparisons made between President Bush and the evil "Vice Chancellor" who rules Brittian with an iron fist and intolerance. I don't hazard to guess if this is intentional or isn't, but comparisons are inevitable. The evil "Vice Chancellor" came to power through corrupt financial ties, clandestine malevolent scheming, and exploitation of Christian-like religious beliefs. (I say Christian-like because it is a gross misrepresntation of Christianity, and is obviously written from the position of someone will no personal understanding of the subject.) His minions frequently engage in what we (citizens of free countries) would regard as flagrant privacy violations, unauthorized and unwarranted search and seizure, and sinister propaganda campaigns. These are all things that President Bush has been accused of very recently by extremist liberals.
Another thing that I thought was in particularly poor taste was the unfortunate emphasis on homosexuality as an intended object of sympathy. Evidently the Wachowski Brothers could not come up with a better "class" to be targeted for oppression and racisism-like discrimination. The intention was clearly to describe the evils that go hand in hand with totalitarianism - the freedoms that are denied people, and the fear that people live in. And having homosexuality on that list makes sense, but comprising the list entirely of homosexuality seems like blatant activism. Further it is displayed in a way that attempts to tell the audience what to think rather than showing the facts and allowing the audience to come to a conclusion. And to top it all off, it gives them a great excuse to show lesbians kissing numerous times (evidently flashbacks of this kiss were necessary to drive the point home). If homosexuality is normal and wholesome, then it just is, and they don't need me or anyone else to think so to make it true. The fact that I have to be beaten over the head with this every time I turn around steals any verisimilitude that argument had any hope of having.
In conclusion, this movie would have been great if only the writers' personal politics hadn't destroyed the integrity of the underlying story of patriotism and sacrifice. It's one thing to have strong political and philosophical views, quite another to tell someone else they should share them.
Ultraviolet
Rated PG-13
This movie was entertaining, but it has a fatal flaw: there is no appropriate target audience. The plot, the script and the acting were overly simplistic for anyone over the age of about 8, but the partial nudity, language, and violence keeps it from being appropriate for anyone not in their teens. Adults will find it too cartoon-like to get much out of, and children shouldn't be allowed to watch it.
Milla Jovovich (Violet) was evidently trying to avoid too closely matching her performances in the Resident Evil movies, but lacks the flexibility of a more seasoned actress. Many of her lines seemed forced, and a lot of her physical actions were Power-Ranger-ishly cheesy. It was largely hit and miss, though, as she also delivered some lines with pristine conviction.
The cinematography appeared to make no attempt to hide the CG being used, probably as a device to achieve the surreal look and feel of a comic (which the story is evidenlty based on). This, coupled with extreme perspective shifts, and blurring effects created an atmosphere that was remarkably similar to Tron. I found it a little distracting at first, but became accustomed to it about half way through the movie.
The plot seemed to be little more than a device for stringing together a dozen or so fun action sequences, replete with clever special effects and 80's style one-liners. The story could easily be summed up in a couple of sentences, and although there are surprises, they aren't really all that surprising.
To sum up, this is definitely a renter, but even then isn't really all that great unless you're a fan of the comic, or of Milla.
V for Vendetta
Rated R
The story was that of an imaginative revolutionary, determined to wake up the sheepish masses that had allowed the UK to become a totalitiarian regime. Laced with patriotic sentiment, classical references to Shakespere and the like, a strong dose of philosophy, a healthy dash of intrigue, and some interesting action sequences, the movie delivers a well-rounded experience. Although the enigmatic main character V wears a mask, that becomes more of a smokescreen, or a symbolic reference rather than the object of mystery it first seems to be, very reminiscent of M. Night Shyamalan's work.
Although it involved an Australian (Hugo Weaving) and an American (Natalie Portman) playing the roles of British citizens it was very believable. (I suspect that if I were actually British I might feel differently about that:) Hugo was particularly impressive in his flawless delivery of very complex and lengthy lines, some of which were on par with the Architecht's elaborate oration to Neo in The Matrix: Reloaded.
I expect there will be a lot of comparisons made between President Bush and the evil "Vice Chancellor" who rules Brittian with an iron fist and intolerance. I don't hazard to guess if this is intentional or isn't, but comparisons are inevitable. The evil "Vice Chancellor" came to power through corrupt financial ties, clandestine malevolent scheming, and exploitation of Christian-like religious beliefs. (I say Christian-like because it is a gross misrepresntation of Christianity, and is obviously written from the position of someone will no personal understanding of the subject.) His minions frequently engage in what we (citizens of free countries) would regard as flagrant privacy violations, unauthorized and unwarranted search and seizure, and sinister propaganda campaigns. These are all things that President Bush has been accused of very recently by extremist liberals.
Another thing that I thought was in particularly poor taste was the unfortunate emphasis on homosexuality as an intended object of sympathy. Evidently the Wachowski Brothers could not come up with a better "class" to be targeted for oppression and racisism-like discrimination. The intention was clearly to describe the evils that go hand in hand with totalitarianism - the freedoms that are denied people, and the fear that people live in. And having homosexuality on that list makes sense, but comprising the list entirely of homosexuality seems like blatant activism. Further it is displayed in a way that attempts to tell the audience what to think rather than showing the facts and allowing the audience to come to a conclusion. And to top it all off, it gives them a great excuse to show lesbians kissing numerous times (evidently flashbacks of this kiss were necessary to drive the point home). If homosexuality is normal and wholesome, then it just is, and they don't need me or anyone else to think so to make it true. The fact that I have to be beaten over the head with this every time I turn around steals any verisimilitude that argument had any hope of having.
In conclusion, this movie would have been great if only the writers' personal politics hadn't destroyed the integrity of the underlying story of patriotism and sacrifice. It's one thing to have strong political and philosophical views, quite another to tell someone else they should share them.
Ultraviolet
Rated PG-13
This movie was entertaining, but it has a fatal flaw: there is no appropriate target audience. The plot, the script and the acting were overly simplistic for anyone over the age of about 8, but the partial nudity, language, and violence keeps it from being appropriate for anyone not in their teens. Adults will find it too cartoon-like to get much out of, and children shouldn't be allowed to watch it.
Milla Jovovich (Violet) was evidently trying to avoid too closely matching her performances in the Resident Evil movies, but lacks the flexibility of a more seasoned actress. Many of her lines seemed forced, and a lot of her physical actions were Power-Ranger-ishly cheesy. It was largely hit and miss, though, as she also delivered some lines with pristine conviction.
The cinematography appeared to make no attempt to hide the CG being used, probably as a device to achieve the surreal look and feel of a comic (which the story is evidenlty based on). This, coupled with extreme perspective shifts, and blurring effects created an atmosphere that was remarkably similar to Tron. I found it a little distracting at first, but became accustomed to it about half way through the movie.
The plot seemed to be little more than a device for stringing together a dozen or so fun action sequences, replete with clever special effects and 80's style one-liners. The story could easily be summed up in a couple of sentences, and although there are surprises, they aren't really all that surprising.
To sum up, this is definitely a renter, but even then isn't really all that great unless you're a fan of the comic, or of Milla.
Wednesday, March 08, 2006
Tales of Phantasia : Nintendo is the culprit
I make no bones about the fact that I'm a Nintendo fanboy. They've made some boneheaded moves before, but by and large they seem to know what they're doing, and they really are the only ones pioneering anything in the industry. Sony's most innovative contribution so far has been the eye-toy, but that was what, 8 or 10 years after Nintendo releaced the Game Boy Camera?
In my quest for who to place the blame on for the horrific desecration of Tales of Phantasia I contacted my favorite import game store, National Console Support to ask if the Japanese GBA release of ToP was this horrible. Here's the response I received:
That coupled with this response that I received from Namco:
So as recommended, I called the Nintendo Customer Service line and requested my refund. The young man who answered was very pleasant and understand but explained that Nintendo would not be refunding my money and that a recall was not at all likely. He recommended that I voice my frustration on Nintendo's forums.
Well, there you have it folks. My ToP story. I'm sure you're sick of it if you've been reading it, but it really ticks me off and I just can't let it go.
In my quest for who to place the blame on for the horrific desecration of Tales of Phantasia I contacted my favorite import game store, National Console Support to ask if the Japanese GBA release of ToP was this horrible. Here's the response I received:
Hi Samson, yes we were also disappointed by the changes in the USA version but we confirm that the Japanese Tales of Phantasia includes the opening score from the Super Famicom version.
Regards,
NCS, Inc
That coupled with this response that I received from Namco:
Thank you for contacting Namco Bandai's Customer Support Department.And here's what I received from Nintendo:
Please contact Nintendo as they are the publishers of Tales of Phantasia.
Please feel free to contact us again in the future as the need arises.
Message(#6851-000490-2968\4902968)
Hello and thank you for contacting Nintendo,
I was sorry to hear that you don't like Tales of Fantasia. Your
feedback is important to us and I will be sure to forward your comments to
the appropriate departments here at Nintendo for review.
And while e-mail is a great resource for contacting companies about
most consumer service related issues, it is not the best method for
providing assistance in matters similar to what you described. In order to
be of further assistance to you, we would like to speak with you
directly. At your earliest convenience, please contact our Consumer Service
Department by calling 1-800-255-3700. Our representatives are available
between 6:00 a.m. and 7:00 p.m. Pacific Time, seven days a week.
When calling our Consumer Service number, you can bypass the recorded
information by pressing "0" on your touch-tone phone. This will connect
you to the next available representative.
We look forward to hearing from you.
Sincerely,
Nintendo of America Inc.
Sharon Matheny
So as recommended, I called the Nintendo Customer Service line and requested my refund. The young man who answered was very pleasant and understand but explained that Nintendo would not be refunding my money and that a recall was not at all likely. He recommended that I voice my frustration on Nintendo's forums.
Well, there you have it folks. My ToP story. I'm sure you're sick of it if you've been reading it, but it really ticks me off and I just can't let it go.
Tales of Phantasia: These tales aren't the Phantasia I know...
After my tainted start in ToP for the GBA, I persevered and tried to give it a fair shot.
Every other SNES/SFC game translated for the GBA (at least all that I have played) have been superior to the original to some degree. Although purists may debate whether they like graphical updates, such as those in the Super Mario Advance series, the fact is that the GBA is much more powerful than the SNES/SFC, memory chips are dirt cheap compared to the roughly fifteen years ago that ToP was originally released, and the fact the game was already finished - the features were already there for crying out loud- make any downgrade completely inexcusable.
After I got past the atrocity of replacing the opening song with some uninspiring tune, I began to notice other things, like the fact that your character's image is no longer reflected in the water when he stands over it. This effect was used extensively in the original game, and added to the polish that really made it special.
And the fact that on the equipment screens the item names are all truncated. This happens because the Japanese language version could say the entire item name using nine or fewer spaces. (Nine seems to be the width allowed by the menu) Try to say the same thing in English and you use up those spaces pretty quickly. The artful and pretty much industry standard solution to this is to create a separate sprite pallet with narrower-width characters. If you've ever played Secret of Mana for the Super NES you may have noticed what I'm talking about - the text appeared very narrow on the menus to accomodate for the fact that English needs quite a few more letters than Japanese does to say the same thing. The fact that the translators of ToP neglected to do this is just one more example of a shoddy localization job.
The voice acting was a good effort, but I think the localization team should have taken a queue from the group who did the North American version of Tales of Destiny and left the Japanese voice intact for the most part. Most of the voices are banal and uninspiring compared to the original Japanese, which may have been silly, but was at least done with conviction. At one point one of the "cinema"-type sequences that was supposed to have voice actually just died in the middle of the clip. The subtitles said something like "Please do not harm the tree" and the sound came out as "Please do no..--bzzzert........". Come on, people, your testers saw this and thought it was ok?
Best Buy won't allow me to return the game for my money because it has been opened, so I have demanded my money back from Nintendo or Namco, whoever it is that is responsible. I probably won't get it, but I can try.
Usually the reviewers in EGM give warning about stuff like this when they review a game, but they sure dropped the ball on this one.
Every other SNES/SFC game translated for the GBA (at least all that I have played) have been superior to the original to some degree. Although purists may debate whether they like graphical updates, such as those in the Super Mario Advance series, the fact is that the GBA is much more powerful than the SNES/SFC, memory chips are dirt cheap compared to the roughly fifteen years ago that ToP was originally released, and the fact the game was already finished - the features were already there for crying out loud- make any downgrade completely inexcusable.
After I got past the atrocity of replacing the opening song with some uninspiring tune, I began to notice other things, like the fact that your character's image is no longer reflected in the water when he stands over it. This effect was used extensively in the original game, and added to the polish that really made it special.
And the fact that on the equipment screens the item names are all truncated. This happens because the Japanese language version could say the entire item name using nine or fewer spaces. (Nine seems to be the width allowed by the menu) Try to say the same thing in English and you use up those spaces pretty quickly. The artful and pretty much industry standard solution to this is to create a separate sprite pallet with narrower-width characters. If you've ever played Secret of Mana for the Super NES you may have noticed what I'm talking about - the text appeared very narrow on the menus to accomodate for the fact that English needs quite a few more letters than Japanese does to say the same thing. The fact that the translators of ToP neglected to do this is just one more example of a shoddy localization job.
The voice acting was a good effort, but I think the localization team should have taken a queue from the group who did the North American version of Tales of Destiny and left the Japanese voice intact for the most part. Most of the voices are banal and uninspiring compared to the original Japanese, which may have been silly, but was at least done with conviction. At one point one of the "cinema"-type sequences that was supposed to have voice actually just died in the middle of the clip. The subtitles said something like "Please do not harm the tree" and the sound came out as "Please do no..--bzzzert........". Come on, people, your testers saw this and thought it was ok?
Best Buy won't allow me to return the game for my money because it has been opened, so I have demanded my money back from Nintendo or Namco, whoever it is that is responsible. I probably won't get it, but I can try.
Usually the reviewers in EGM give warning about stuff like this when they review a game, but they sure dropped the ball on this one.
Tuesday, March 07, 2006
Tales of Phantasia:GBA Not off to a good start...
I've always loved the "Tales" games, ever since I played Tales of Destiny for the first time. I always found the odd mix of turn-based and action role-playing. The graphics were always inspiring and pleasant to behold, and the music was just top-notch.
It didn't take me long to discover that Tales of Destiny was not the first game in the series, just the first one to make it to North America. The first game, Tales of Phantasia for the Super Famicom, was nothing short of a technical marvel. It was a Super Nintendo game with voice. But what really wowed me was the first time I fired the game up and was treated to the unbelievable opening song, it was upbeat, inspiring, catchy and it had voice. For those of you who joined the gaming scene in the Playstation days, you may not see this as anything special, but back in the 16-bit cartridge days, it was just unheard of.
I have had that enchanting and beautiful opening song in my head ever since the first time I played that game, and I jumped for joy when I heard that it was finally making its way to the United States on the Game Boy Advance.
Not five minutes ago, I just popped the game into my DS and called my wife over to witness the amazing opening song. She blinked and nodded politely instead of smiling in blissful agreement that it was a wonderful song. And well she should...
To Namco: WHAT THE HELL IS THIS!!!?
They replaced the awesome opening song - one of the game's crowning moments in my estimation, with this sad uninspiring NES-quality beep-boo-beep tune. I could have cried. I couldn't even play it. All these months waiting for greatness, and I get a steaming little plastic turd.
The game was published by Namco in Japan and Nintendo in the US. Shame on whoever ruined it. The GBA is technically superior in every conceivable way to the SNES and this is actually a downgraded version of the game. What gives? Shame on whoever did this. Whoever it is, you just gave me a reason to go out and get the ROM of the original game and play that instead.
You may think I'm blowing things out of proportion, but the original song is really THAT good, and the one they replaced it with is really THAT bad. As far as first impressions go, this one was plain awful....
It didn't take me long to discover that Tales of Destiny was not the first game in the series, just the first one to make it to North America. The first game, Tales of Phantasia for the Super Famicom, was nothing short of a technical marvel. It was a Super Nintendo game with voice. But what really wowed me was the first time I fired the game up and was treated to the unbelievable opening song, it was upbeat, inspiring, catchy and it had voice. For those of you who joined the gaming scene in the Playstation days, you may not see this as anything special, but back in the 16-bit cartridge days, it was just unheard of.
I have had that enchanting and beautiful opening song in my head ever since the first time I played that game, and I jumped for joy when I heard that it was finally making its way to the United States on the Game Boy Advance.
Not five minutes ago, I just popped the game into my DS and called my wife over to witness the amazing opening song. She blinked and nodded politely instead of smiling in blissful agreement that it was a wonderful song. And well she should...
To Namco: WHAT THE HELL IS THIS!!!?
They replaced the awesome opening song - one of the game's crowning moments in my estimation, with this sad uninspiring NES-quality beep-boo-beep tune. I could have cried. I couldn't even play it. All these months waiting for greatness, and I get a steaming little plastic turd.
The game was published by Namco in Japan and Nintendo in the US. Shame on whoever ruined it. The GBA is technically superior in every conceivable way to the SNES and this is actually a downgraded version of the game. What gives? Shame on whoever did this. Whoever it is, you just gave me a reason to go out and get the ROM of the original game and play that instead.
You may think I'm blowing things out of proportion, but the original song is really THAT good, and the one they replaced it with is really THAT bad. As far as first impressions go, this one was plain awful....
Tuesday, February 28, 2006
Abortion MPAA Style
Just checked out this article on IGN:
Next-Gen DVD Copy-Protection Debacle
If the article is accurate, and I have no reason to believe it isn't, it appears that the MPAA is trying to kill the next generation of DVDs before it's even born.
They have made it a requirement to severely cripple next-gen DVD players for existing HDTV owners. Basically if you own an HD set today and try to play HD-DVD or Blu-Ray content in a couple of months when it comes out, at best you will be presented with a severely downgraded picture (From 1080p down to 720p, losing more than 30% of the picture quality), and at worst you may be presented with some warning to the effect that you're not allowed to play the content. This is particularly infuriating for me because my HDTV doesn't support 720p.
In other words, the MPAA have let their irrational fear and broken business model destroy any chance of early adoption of the new format. The irony is that the AACS and HDCP (both code names for the copy-protection schemes that are to be used in the new DVD formats) will probably be cracked inside a month. So the MPAA has crippled the new formats out of the gates, ruined any chance for rapid adoption, and it's all for nothing.
When are they going to learn?
I had planned to adopt the new formats (both HD-DVD and Blu-Ray) fairly early on, but now I think I'll wait until there's a properly cracked piece of hardware, or until there are proper instructions for cracking it available. I don't see any reason why we should be crippled by their fear and paranoia.
And before you go shouting foul, think about it like this: if you punish someone for following the rules, do you seriously expect them to keep following the rules? No, not unless you're insane ( and the MPAA clearly is). Punishing people for following the rules, or giving them a signigantly diminished reward is counter-intuitive to garnering cooperation.
Next-Gen DVD Copy-Protection Debacle
If the article is accurate, and I have no reason to believe it isn't, it appears that the MPAA is trying to kill the next generation of DVDs before it's even born.
They have made it a requirement to severely cripple next-gen DVD players for existing HDTV owners. Basically if you own an HD set today and try to play HD-DVD or Blu-Ray content in a couple of months when it comes out, at best you will be presented with a severely downgraded picture (From 1080p down to 720p, losing more than 30% of the picture quality), and at worst you may be presented with some warning to the effect that you're not allowed to play the content. This is particularly infuriating for me because my HDTV doesn't support 720p.
In other words, the MPAA have let their irrational fear and broken business model destroy any chance of early adoption of the new format. The irony is that the AACS and HDCP (both code names for the copy-protection schemes that are to be used in the new DVD formats) will probably be cracked inside a month. So the MPAA has crippled the new formats out of the gates, ruined any chance for rapid adoption, and it's all for nothing.
When are they going to learn?
I had planned to adopt the new formats (both HD-DVD and Blu-Ray) fairly early on, but now I think I'll wait until there's a properly cracked piece of hardware, or until there are proper instructions for cracking it available. I don't see any reason why we should be crippled by their fear and paranoia.
And before you go shouting foul, think about it like this: if you punish someone for following the rules, do you seriously expect them to keep following the rules? No, not unless you're insane ( and the MPAA clearly is). Punishing people for following the rules, or giving them a signigantly diminished reward is counter-intuitive to garnering cooperation.
Saturday, February 18, 2006
Farewell Working Designs, we hardly knew ye...
I can recall a time when I first began using the Internet, and only knew a handful of URL's - this would be the days before Google. Every time I would visit the Internet, I would instinctually visit the Working Designs home page to see when their latest and greatest translation would hit the shelves.
For those of you unaware, Working Designs is probably the single greatest third-party publisher in all videogamedom. I was not aware of this until today, but the company closed its doors in December. The website's gone...it's over. I'm sadder about this than when Sony starved Bleem! into bankrupcy. And it appears that it was Sony's fault this time as well.
So I thought I'd take a moment to reflect on the wonderful memories I have thanks to one of the greatest companies that ever was. Working Designs did not actually create the games they published, however they invariably made them better. The company painstakingly selected phenominal japanese titles that would otherwise never have seen the light of day in the U.S. and localized them for the U.S. market. Along the way, the games would get what I can only describe as a loving, caring translation. The company's moniker was "Our games go to 11" - sort of a tip of the hat to "This is Spinal Tap" and a statement of their commitment to excellence beyond what should be possible.
Whenever you bought a WD game you could be assured that your money was well spent. They were one of the first to use full-color silkscreen printing on their game discs, and foil stamping and embossing on the manuals and inserts. They are, to my knowledge, the only game publisher to ever include a leather-bound hardback instruction manual. WD was known to their fans and to the industry by two unmistakable traits - one, their releases were always special events, and two they never ever released a game on time. They were one of the only companies that I know of who would release nothing at all if they could not release perfection. They took the time to do the job right, and every game they ever released was a gem.
I felt so compelled to buy each and every one of them that I used to jokingly say that I wished they'd stop making them for a while so I could keep up. Now I wish I had never even thought such a thing... I can, however, proudly say I own a copy of every single game they ever put out.
My first encounter with WD was when a friend told me about Lunar: The Silver Star for the Sega CD. I called all over town to find someone who had a copy, and when I arrived, I saw another WD game called Popful Mail. I was impressed at the foil printing and embossing on the game box, so I bought both. To this day those are two of my favoritest games of all time. Both of them were filled with quality voice acting - there were few games that even had voice, but they were the only ones that seemed to take it seriously enough to hire talented voice actors to do the parts in English. Most publishers at the time would have shied away from the whole prospect of re-recording the voice tracks.
WD had re-written the script for Lunar to contain more than a little wit and satire. It was the first glimpse I had of a game that transcended the kids-only stigma placed on video games without having to be violent or obscene.
Popful mail is still my favorite Action RPG of all time. I can still hear Gaw (A little blue creature from the game) saying "I'm dead...and hungry...and that's not a very good combination...Gaw...." and "Does Lord Venuncio have something good for Gaw to eat?".
As time progressed WD began releasing "Omake" boxes with their games. This is almost never done in the U.S. but in Japan, it is not unusual for an even lightly anticipated title to be released with a handful of special items, in a special deluxe artbox. Collectors (such as yours truly) just yum this stuff up. Aside from a couple of rare titles like Earthbound for the Super NES and Robotech (XB,GC,PS2), this never happens in the U.S. Well WD was a gamer's company and they loved all of the same things we do. They played most of the same games that we did, they saw the same movies and anime. They were all around a bunch of great guys.
After getting Lunar: The Silver Star and Popful Mail, I quickly returned to the store and purchased WD's other two titles - Vay, and Lunar: Eternal Blue. Later on, I purchased a Turbo Duo so I could play WD's earliest games - Parasol Stars, Cadash, Cosmic Fantasy 2, Vasteel, Exile, and Exile 2: Wicked Phenomenon.
When the Saturn came out, one of the biggest reasons I jumped on board and bought one was in anticipation of the games that WD would release on it. I was in for a bit of a wait there. I didn't care much for Shining Wisdom, although I have to admit that is more of a preference for art style, the game itself, and especially the writing was great. Iron Storm failed to impress me. Dragon Force, on the other hand was pretty nice, and Sega Ages was a lot of fun as well. I was practically holding my breath waiting for the Saturn remake of Lunar: The Silver Star to be brought to the states. The wait grew so protracted that I purchased a copy of the Japanese version of the game to get a sort of "preview" of it. In the mean time, Albert Odyssey was released. I have very fond memories of that one - I loved the art style. Although I can't remember much about the story or the characters, I remember having a ton of fun playing it, and getting stuck so badly on the last dungeon that my wife bought me a strategy guide just so she wouldn't have to watch me wander around the same dungeon for another 10 hours. I can't recall the exact timing of events but at E3 around 1997, WD dropped support for the Sega Saturn after wonder-moron Bernie Stolar, the then president of Sega of America deeply insulted Working Designs and their work, and later went on to deep-six the entire Saturn lineup when he announced that Sega was basically done with the platform. Although it took a few months to work out that way, this was the death knell for Lunar on the Saturn in the U.S. WD only published one further title. Ironically this was one of the first games announced by WD for the Saturn, and it ended up being the very last game to be released for Saturn in the U.S. - that game was Magic Knight Rayearth. To give you an idea of their level of dedication, when the U.S. anime publisher Media Works refused to allow WD to use the already-done english translation of the opening theme song that was to be used in the Rayearth video release, WD did their own translation of the song and hired a professional singer to come in and do it. Their verison is arguably better, but at the very least on par with the anime version.
With few places left to go, WD went to Sony. They made history with their first release in the sense that it was the first time Sony had allowed a third party to publish one of their first-party Japanese games in America. That title was the remarkable Action RPG, Alundra. Alundra was about as close as any game ever got to being Zelda on the Playstation. While RPGs were WD's main focus, the company did some occasional branching out into other genre's with games like the awesome shooters, RayStorm, Thunder Force V, and RayCrisis, and the light-gun RPG-ish Elemental Gearbolt. They were also entrusted with a Treasure title, Silouette Mirage. Eventually the Playstaion juggernaut convinced the Japanese creator of the Lunar series, Game Arts, to port their games over to Sony's system, giving WD another shot at publishing the 32-bit remakes, Lunar:The Silver Star Story Complete, and Lunar:Eternal Blue Complete in North America. WD treated Lunar with such respect that it was mind-blowing. The first remake, Lunar SSSC, was released in a gorgeous art box, came with a ton of extras, including a leather-bound manual, a soundtrack, a special video disc with a making-of feature, and even a special place to keep your preview demo of Lunar, if you had managed to snag it. Lunar 2:EBC was an even bigger release with an even bigger box of goodies. Shortly after release, they also made a several-hundred page hard-bound strategy guide available. Another of Sony's own RPG franchises had been consumately ignored by the company's U.S. counterpart - Arc the Lad. Working Designs picked up the rights to all three of the Arc the Lad titles that had been released at the time, and bundled them together in a single release, complete with all of the same trimmings as the Lunar releases. including an impressive 500+ page leather bound strategy guide. The game was released well after the PS2 had made its debut in North America.
WD hopped on board and began making titles for the PS2 right away. There were two titles available very shortly after launch - Gungriffon Blaze (Mech Combat) and Silpheed: The Lost Planet (Shooter). For a very long time after that WD was silent, not much news, besides a vague announcement that they had picked up the rights to do two additional PS2 games - both RPG's. Approxamately a year ago, WD released another masterpiece of translation - Growlanser Generations, a two-game set, complete with special art box and the works. They announced a PS2 Goemon title, similar to the N64 Goemon/Mystical Ninja releases.
Inferring from some of Victor Ireland's last comments, it is easy to conclude that Sony refused to allow WD to publish Goemon in the U.S., although the game was, for all intents, finished. That was apparently the final nail in the coffin.
WD was a champion of the gamer. Other than Nintendo, there just aren't many (if any at all) other companies that see the video game industry as anything other than a fast buck. Companies like the inappropriately named Electronic Arts with their slave-like labor conditions and anti-competetive business practices churn out games by the handful based on how many copies they can sell. They have lost the soul of gaming; they have lost all sense of the art form that is gaming. Without companies like WD who provide what can only be called "fan service" to the gaming public, the gaming industry is destined to die a slow dark death of un-innovative mediocrity.
Working Designs, I salute you. We will all miss you dearly. Thank you for 20 great years of gaming.
For those of you unaware, Working Designs is probably the single greatest third-party publisher in all videogamedom. I was not aware of this until today, but the company closed its doors in December. The website's gone...it's over. I'm sadder about this than when Sony starved Bleem! into bankrupcy. And it appears that it was Sony's fault this time as well.
So I thought I'd take a moment to reflect on the wonderful memories I have thanks to one of the greatest companies that ever was. Working Designs did not actually create the games they published, however they invariably made them better. The company painstakingly selected phenominal japanese titles that would otherwise never have seen the light of day in the U.S. and localized them for the U.S. market. Along the way, the games would get what I can only describe as a loving, caring translation. The company's moniker was "Our games go to 11" - sort of a tip of the hat to "This is Spinal Tap" and a statement of their commitment to excellence beyond what should be possible.
Whenever you bought a WD game you could be assured that your money was well spent. They were one of the first to use full-color silkscreen printing on their game discs, and foil stamping and embossing on the manuals and inserts. They are, to my knowledge, the only game publisher to ever include a leather-bound hardback instruction manual. WD was known to their fans and to the industry by two unmistakable traits - one, their releases were always special events, and two they never ever released a game on time. They were one of the only companies that I know of who would release nothing at all if they could not release perfection. They took the time to do the job right, and every game they ever released was a gem.
I felt so compelled to buy each and every one of them that I used to jokingly say that I wished they'd stop making them for a while so I could keep up. Now I wish I had never even thought such a thing... I can, however, proudly say I own a copy of every single game they ever put out.
My first encounter with WD was when a friend told me about Lunar: The Silver Star for the Sega CD. I called all over town to find someone who had a copy, and when I arrived, I saw another WD game called Popful Mail. I was impressed at the foil printing and embossing on the game box, so I bought both. To this day those are two of my favoritest games of all time. Both of them were filled with quality voice acting - there were few games that even had voice, but they were the only ones that seemed to take it seriously enough to hire talented voice actors to do the parts in English. Most publishers at the time would have shied away from the whole prospect of re-recording the voice tracks.
WD had re-written the script for Lunar to contain more than a little wit and satire. It was the first glimpse I had of a game that transcended the kids-only stigma placed on video games without having to be violent or obscene.
Popful mail is still my favorite Action RPG of all time. I can still hear Gaw (A little blue creature from the game) saying "I'm dead...and hungry...and that's not a very good combination...Gaw...." and "Does Lord Venuncio have something good for Gaw to eat?".
As time progressed WD began releasing "Omake" boxes with their games. This is almost never done in the U.S. but in Japan, it is not unusual for an even lightly anticipated title to be released with a handful of special items, in a special deluxe artbox. Collectors (such as yours truly) just yum this stuff up. Aside from a couple of rare titles like Earthbound for the Super NES and Robotech (XB,GC,PS2), this never happens in the U.S. Well WD was a gamer's company and they loved all of the same things we do. They played most of the same games that we did, they saw the same movies and anime. They were all around a bunch of great guys.
After getting Lunar: The Silver Star and Popful Mail, I quickly returned to the store and purchased WD's other two titles - Vay, and Lunar: Eternal Blue. Later on, I purchased a Turbo Duo so I could play WD's earliest games - Parasol Stars, Cadash, Cosmic Fantasy 2, Vasteel, Exile, and Exile 2: Wicked Phenomenon.
When the Saturn came out, one of the biggest reasons I jumped on board and bought one was in anticipation of the games that WD would release on it. I was in for a bit of a wait there. I didn't care much for Shining Wisdom, although I have to admit that is more of a preference for art style, the game itself, and especially the writing was great. Iron Storm failed to impress me. Dragon Force, on the other hand was pretty nice, and Sega Ages was a lot of fun as well. I was practically holding my breath waiting for the Saturn remake of Lunar: The Silver Star to be brought to the states. The wait grew so protracted that I purchased a copy of the Japanese version of the game to get a sort of "preview" of it. In the mean time, Albert Odyssey was released. I have very fond memories of that one - I loved the art style. Although I can't remember much about the story or the characters, I remember having a ton of fun playing it, and getting stuck so badly on the last dungeon that my wife bought me a strategy guide just so she wouldn't have to watch me wander around the same dungeon for another 10 hours. I can't recall the exact timing of events but at E3 around 1997, WD dropped support for the Sega Saturn after wonder-moron Bernie Stolar, the then president of Sega of America deeply insulted Working Designs and their work, and later went on to deep-six the entire Saturn lineup when he announced that Sega was basically done with the platform. Although it took a few months to work out that way, this was the death knell for Lunar on the Saturn in the U.S. WD only published one further title. Ironically this was one of the first games announced by WD for the Saturn, and it ended up being the very last game to be released for Saturn in the U.S. - that game was Magic Knight Rayearth. To give you an idea of their level of dedication, when the U.S. anime publisher Media Works refused to allow WD to use the already-done english translation of the opening theme song that was to be used in the Rayearth video release, WD did their own translation of the song and hired a professional singer to come in and do it. Their verison is arguably better, but at the very least on par with the anime version.
With few places left to go, WD went to Sony. They made history with their first release in the sense that it was the first time Sony had allowed a third party to publish one of their first-party Japanese games in America. That title was the remarkable Action RPG, Alundra. Alundra was about as close as any game ever got to being Zelda on the Playstation. While RPGs were WD's main focus, the company did some occasional branching out into other genre's with games like the awesome shooters, RayStorm, Thunder Force V, and RayCrisis, and the light-gun RPG-ish Elemental Gearbolt. They were also entrusted with a Treasure title, Silouette Mirage. Eventually the Playstaion juggernaut convinced the Japanese creator of the Lunar series, Game Arts, to port their games over to Sony's system, giving WD another shot at publishing the 32-bit remakes, Lunar:The Silver Star Story Complete, and Lunar:Eternal Blue Complete in North America. WD treated Lunar with such respect that it was mind-blowing. The first remake, Lunar SSSC, was released in a gorgeous art box, came with a ton of extras, including a leather-bound manual, a soundtrack, a special video disc with a making-of feature, and even a special place to keep your preview demo of Lunar, if you had managed to snag it. Lunar 2:EBC was an even bigger release with an even bigger box of goodies. Shortly after release, they also made a several-hundred page hard-bound strategy guide available. Another of Sony's own RPG franchises had been consumately ignored by the company's U.S. counterpart - Arc the Lad. Working Designs picked up the rights to all three of the Arc the Lad titles that had been released at the time, and bundled them together in a single release, complete with all of the same trimmings as the Lunar releases. including an impressive 500+ page leather bound strategy guide. The game was released well after the PS2 had made its debut in North America.
WD hopped on board and began making titles for the PS2 right away. There were two titles available very shortly after launch - Gungriffon Blaze (Mech Combat) and Silpheed: The Lost Planet (Shooter). For a very long time after that WD was silent, not much news, besides a vague announcement that they had picked up the rights to do two additional PS2 games - both RPG's. Approxamately a year ago, WD released another masterpiece of translation - Growlanser Generations, a two-game set, complete with special art box and the works. They announced a PS2 Goemon title, similar to the N64 Goemon/Mystical Ninja releases.
Inferring from some of Victor Ireland's last comments, it is easy to conclude that Sony refused to allow WD to publish Goemon in the U.S., although the game was, for all intents, finished. That was apparently the final nail in the coffin.
WD was a champion of the gamer. Other than Nintendo, there just aren't many (if any at all) other companies that see the video game industry as anything other than a fast buck. Companies like the inappropriately named Electronic Arts with their slave-like labor conditions and anti-competetive business practices churn out games by the handful based on how many copies they can sell. They have lost the soul of gaming; they have lost all sense of the art form that is gaming. Without companies like WD who provide what can only be called "fan service" to the gaming public, the gaming industry is destined to die a slow dark death of un-innovative mediocrity.
Working Designs, I salute you. We will all miss you dearly. Thank you for 20 great years of gaming.
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