During my time away from the kids, I watched some movies (or finished them). I'll give a few quick impressions.
John Carter
This was actually a good movie. I'll agree with most of what I read, that the title and ads for the game did nothing to sell it to audiences. It's one of those "the movie is so interesting that I want to read the books now" movies. I liked the story, the characters and the action. It's definitely a "nerd fantasy", since the main character goes to another planet where he learns to belong, gets super powers (because of the lower gravity) and gets to bed a princess. It was very enjoyable, but a bit longer than I thought it would be. As mentioned before, I haven't read the books, so I don't know how faithful it is to the source material. I recommend seeing it if you can.
Hobo with a Shotgun
The reason I wanted to see this is because someone called Megatron from Transformers: Dark of the Moon "Hobo with a Shotgun". This movie is pretty cheesy and very bloody. I actually kind of enjoyed it, but I wouldn't say it was good. It's almost worth watching for the concept alone, and I really liked the look and idea of a pair of villains called "The Plague". I couldn't remember any really good (terrible), cheesy (quotable) lines, which movies like this usually need.
Fist of the North Star
I will admit that I thought the first half was pretty decent. It appeared to follow the source material, which surprised me. It didn't follow it 100%, but definitely more than I thought they would. The second half wasn't as good (around "Vader Time" haha), and was more "hollywood" to me. In the second half, Kenshiro just did martial arts and wasn't really exploding fools or anything that would make you know it was Fist of the North Star. It wasn't terrible, but not good either. If you are a fan of FotNS, I would recommend seeing this, even if for the cheese factor.
Amazing Spiderman
I was very worried about this movie, since the "first" one was great. The second was even better. The third sucked really hard, and was pretty much an offense to humankind. When I heard they were rebooting the series, I had lots of doubts. Those proved to be unfounded, as The Amazing Spiderman is a really good movie. Unlike my friend Marcus Shadow, I don't think it was better than Avengers in any way, shape or form, but it is still worth watching. It was a very well done movie, and the acting was top notch. It was a bit longer than I would have liked, but it pretty much filled the time with important stuff to the plot and character development. I know I'm late to the part on this one, but I recommend seeing this movie. I will admit that I'm not 100% sure who the shadow figure is in the stinger, though.
Monday, December 31, 2012
Saturday, December 29, 2012
Zombie Driver HD (PSN) Review
Zombie Driver HD is an upgraded version of a two year old game from Exor Studios. Players control a driver that is being tasked with rescuing civilians and fixing other problems in a town overrun with zombies. The military might not be much help, but at least they are footing the bill. So let's look at the PS3 version of:
Zombie Driver HD has a pulled back, isometric view so you can see lots of action around you. There is good detail in the environment, even though it is really small. I think my favorite part of the graphics are when the levels take place at night. You only get the ambient light of civilization (streetlights, houses, etc.) and the headlights of the car. Things look really smooth, although sometimes when I'm driving and turning quickly in the game, it's hard to focus on it. This of course, could be my terrible eyesight and not a problem with the game.
The music has what you would expect, a few creepy tracks and some fast paced ones when the action ramps up. They fill the role they need to. There's a fair amount of voices in the story mode. They aren't that great, and most can't be skipped. I'm not even advocated skipping them to not listen to them. I read faster than people talk, so I can finish reading the text and then have to sit there while they finish talking. You can skip the mission briefings, but not the in-mission jibba-jabber.
Controlling the car is simple in Zombie Driver HD. Accelerating, shooting and backing up perform well, but the car turns really quickly while backing up. This makes it easier to do a 180, but usually the turning was too sensitive for me while in reverse. It's not a deal breaker, but it did bother me. It can be hard to make some of the tight turns with the faster cars, and I couldn't quite get the hang of decelerating enough to turn and keep some speed. Also, the handbrake doesn't seem to help much when driving forward. When going in reverse, it behaves how I feel it should, but I swear it doesn't even work when I try it while having forward momentum. To be clear, I'm not accelerating while trying it, but it doesn't seem to stop me at all.
You can get four different kinds of frontal weapons. Each seems really good at one or two functions, but not so hot at others, making them pretty balanced. Machine guns were good in the Blood Races, as was the flamethrower. I can't hit the broad side of the competition with the rockets, though. However, those same rockets are great at destroying the zombie hives, which take way too long with the flamethrower. The rail gun amassed a ton of kills in the slaughter mode, but only when fully upgraded. I actually like that the weapon you should use is different depending on what you need to do. There's also a handy nitro boost, that can kill enemies behind the car too. I'm not sure why there are nitro pick-ups in the story mode, since the nitro refills over time. They aren't really hanging around in convenient locations to refill it instantly, either.
The story mode has 31 levels. Most only last a few minutes, but they are really good for pick up and play. There's a decent variety, too. I personally like the missions where you can drive a special vehicle like an army tank and a bulldozer. There's even a few bosses throw in for good measure and secondary objectives for each stage. If you wan to take a break from killing zombies, you can participate in some tournaments that have different events. Sometimes you race other cars, sometimes you kill them, but they all provide a good break from story mode. Admittedly, I don't score as well on these as I'd like. Tricky turns trip me up in races, and sometimes I'm just not close enough to rivals in Eliminator (or they steal my kills, the jerks!) to survive for long. They are still fun, but not as much fun as Slaughter.
Slaughter is the game's survival mode, and it's pretty fun. You have to survive waves to get weapons and upgrades, so the first wave is just driving over zombies until you get a weapon the next wave. I like it, but there isn't much reason to play it again, once you have all the gold medals. I think it would be fun to have co-op slaughter maps (with no trophies for them, though) if I had a friend or two to play with.
There isn't any kind of multiplayer in Zombie Driver HD, which is fine with me. The only real online is the leaderboards, on which I was usually in the top 10 for slaughter, even snagging the top spot on one of them at one point. It seems silly to mention it, but it's the first time I've been that high on a leaderboard, so I'm happy about it. I won't be up there forever, but it was an honor just to be nominated.
The trophies are a good mix from all the modes. Several are obtained by making your way through the story mode and unlocking the different cars. You get some for doing the tournaments and for getting gold medals in the Slaughter mode. It will take some playing to get them all, since you have to get all golds in Slaughter and Blood Race, and complete all 31 story levels.
I will mention a bug I experienced while playing. When I tried my first mission using the muscle car, I had no HUD. So, I had no idea how far the objectives were from each other, no minimap and no health bar. I actually finished the mission, but it wasn't fun. Quitting to the XMB and loading the game again fixed it. This only happened once, but I thought I would note it. And while not really a bug, per se, occasionally I've gotten the car stuck. You can hold the select button to respawn, but it takes several crucial seconds, meaning you will lose the race or possibly get killed while you sit there.
I always have fun driving over things in video games. Bandits, animals, zombies...it's all fun. Yeah, there's probably something wrong with me, but my driving record is sparkly, so we'll let it slide. The game doesn't stray much from its core concept of driving over zombies, even with the occasional race in the tournament mode. If you like driving over people or shooting hordes of zombies from the relative safety of a car, then try out Zombie Driver HD. It's not the most original game, but it has lots of 'pick up and play for a bit' fun.
Zombie Driver HD has a pulled back, isometric view so you can see lots of action around you. There is good detail in the environment, even though it is really small. I think my favorite part of the graphics are when the levels take place at night. You only get the ambient light of civilization (streetlights, houses, etc.) and the headlights of the car. Things look really smooth, although sometimes when I'm driving and turning quickly in the game, it's hard to focus on it. This of course, could be my terrible eyesight and not a problem with the game.
The music has what you would expect, a few creepy tracks and some fast paced ones when the action ramps up. They fill the role they need to. There's a fair amount of voices in the story mode. They aren't that great, and most can't be skipped. I'm not even advocated skipping them to not listen to them. I read faster than people talk, so I can finish reading the text and then have to sit there while they finish talking. You can skip the mission briefings, but not the in-mission jibba-jabber.
Controlling the car is simple in Zombie Driver HD. Accelerating, shooting and backing up perform well, but the car turns really quickly while backing up. This makes it easier to do a 180, but usually the turning was too sensitive for me while in reverse. It's not a deal breaker, but it did bother me. It can be hard to make some of the tight turns with the faster cars, and I couldn't quite get the hang of decelerating enough to turn and keep some speed. Also, the handbrake doesn't seem to help much when driving forward. When going in reverse, it behaves how I feel it should, but I swear it doesn't even work when I try it while having forward momentum. To be clear, I'm not accelerating while trying it, but it doesn't seem to stop me at all.
You can get four different kinds of frontal weapons. Each seems really good at one or two functions, but not so hot at others, making them pretty balanced. Machine guns were good in the Blood Races, as was the flamethrower. I can't hit the broad side of the competition with the rockets, though. However, those same rockets are great at destroying the zombie hives, which take way too long with the flamethrower. The rail gun amassed a ton of kills in the slaughter mode, but only when fully upgraded. I actually like that the weapon you should use is different depending on what you need to do. There's also a handy nitro boost, that can kill enemies behind the car too. I'm not sure why there are nitro pick-ups in the story mode, since the nitro refills over time. They aren't really hanging around in convenient locations to refill it instantly, either.
The story mode has 31 levels. Most only last a few minutes, but they are really good for pick up and play. There's a decent variety, too. I personally like the missions where you can drive a special vehicle like an army tank and a bulldozer. There's even a few bosses throw in for good measure and secondary objectives for each stage. If you wan to take a break from killing zombies, you can participate in some tournaments that have different events. Sometimes you race other cars, sometimes you kill them, but they all provide a good break from story mode. Admittedly, I don't score as well on these as I'd like. Tricky turns trip me up in races, and sometimes I'm just not close enough to rivals in Eliminator (or they steal my kills, the jerks!) to survive for long. They are still fun, but not as much fun as Slaughter.
Slaughter is the game's survival mode, and it's pretty fun. You have to survive waves to get weapons and upgrades, so the first wave is just driving over zombies until you get a weapon the next wave. I like it, but there isn't much reason to play it again, once you have all the gold medals. I think it would be fun to have co-op slaughter maps (with no trophies for them, though) if I had a friend or two to play with.
There isn't any kind of multiplayer in Zombie Driver HD, which is fine with me. The only real online is the leaderboards, on which I was usually in the top 10 for slaughter, even snagging the top spot on one of them at one point. It seems silly to mention it, but it's the first time I've been that high on a leaderboard, so I'm happy about it. I won't be up there forever, but it was an honor just to be nominated.
The trophies are a good mix from all the modes. Several are obtained by making your way through the story mode and unlocking the different cars. You get some for doing the tournaments and for getting gold medals in the Slaughter mode. It will take some playing to get them all, since you have to get all golds in Slaughter and Blood Race, and complete all 31 story levels.
I will mention a bug I experienced while playing. When I tried my first mission using the muscle car, I had no HUD. So, I had no idea how far the objectives were from each other, no minimap and no health bar. I actually finished the mission, but it wasn't fun. Quitting to the XMB and loading the game again fixed it. This only happened once, but I thought I would note it. And while not really a bug, per se, occasionally I've gotten the car stuck. You can hold the select button to respawn, but it takes several crucial seconds, meaning you will lose the race or possibly get killed while you sit there.
I always have fun driving over things in video games. Bandits, animals, zombies...it's all fun. Yeah, there's probably something wrong with me, but my driving record is sparkly, so we'll let it slide. The game doesn't stray much from its core concept of driving over zombies, even with the occasional race in the tournament mode. If you like driving over people or shooting hordes of zombies from the relative safety of a car, then try out Zombie Driver HD. It's not the most original game, but it has lots of 'pick up and play for a bit' fun.
Saturday, December 22, 2012
End of the Year Xbox Sale Time!
So I finally rented Dishonored to see if me pining over it was worth it...and yeah, it is. The game is really good. I love that you can kill or stealth your way through the game. Given how easy you can find ways to go around (or over) all the guys, the game really feels like it lets you choose how to go through. So far, it's better than Deus Ex in that regard (since there are no bosses in Dishonored). I almost bought it when it was $25, but I wanted to try it first and I should just wait to save the money. It will drop more than that by the time I get around to playing it, but I look forward to getting it eventually.
Recently, Xbox has been having the end of the year sale, and I've picked up Hell Yeah!: Wrath of the Dead Rabbit and Mark of the Ninja. In a day or two I will snag Dust: An Elysian Tale (all 3 of these were 50% off, making it a good deal). I would have picked up the Simpsons Arcade game, but it was only 25% off, so I'll just wait for 50% off again. I think Mark of the Ninja will hold my stealth itch until I can buy Dishonored.
Hell Yeah is fun too, but some of the minigames to kill the monsters are annoying. Most are press A at the right time or mash a button, but a few require something else, and it can take a few crucial seconds to orient yourself to what's going on. That part reminds me of the Warioware games, where it can be frustrating when you don't know what to expect the first time you run across a game. It's not game breaking, but annoying. Also, you can apparently only go to the island (where you can get things from the monsters you have killed) from the menu, which is strange. I'd like better stopping points, since all levels run into each other, meaning you just have to stop after an autosave point. I'm liking it so far though, the game is funny and colorful (bloody).
I should also have another review for you in the next few days, so keep an eye out for that!
Recently, Xbox has been having the end of the year sale, and I've picked up Hell Yeah!: Wrath of the Dead Rabbit and Mark of the Ninja. In a day or two I will snag Dust: An Elysian Tale (all 3 of these were 50% off, making it a good deal). I would have picked up the Simpsons Arcade game, but it was only 25% off, so I'll just wait for 50% off again. I think Mark of the Ninja will hold my stealth itch until I can buy Dishonored.
Hell Yeah is fun too, but some of the minigames to kill the monsters are annoying. Most are press A at the right time or mash a button, but a few require something else, and it can take a few crucial seconds to orient yourself to what's going on. That part reminds me of the Warioware games, where it can be frustrating when you don't know what to expect the first time you run across a game. It's not game breaking, but annoying. Also, you can apparently only go to the island (where you can get things from the monsters you have killed) from the menu, which is strange. I'd like better stopping points, since all levels run into each other, meaning you just have to stop after an autosave point. I'm liking it so far though, the game is funny and colorful (bloody).
I should also have another review for you in the next few days, so keep an eye out for that!
Wednesday, December 19, 2012
Black Knight Sword (PSN) Review
The new action platformer from Grasshopper Manufacture and Digital Reality has recently been released on PSN and Xbox Live Arcade. Take control of the Black Knight and attempt to defeat the evil Princess in this 2D action platformer.
So what happens when the art styles of Monty Python and Castlevania have a baby? You get the look of Black Knight Sword. The game is presented like a puppet show with background scenery changing as you make your way through the levels. There is also a slight hand-drawn look to the game, which suits it well. The border of the screen is the curtains for a stage, furthering the idea of this as a puppet show. Since this takes up part of the screen, I wonder how it looks on SDTVs, since it doesn't interfere much with a widescreen TV. Bonus points for the loading screen, which has silhouettes of the audience pop up, and one of them has steam from their...coffee? Some kind of drink. It seems like it would make more sense as a cigarette or something, but looks like a cup. Either way, it's a nice touch that cements the look and theme of the game. There is also copious amounts of blood in the game, so if you are squeamish, you might want to shy away.
The music is pretty good, and like most games, fits the style. Blood sounds suitably gushy and monsters make appropriate noise like howling and clucking and such. Intros and outros to stages are done by the narrator, who has a great, deep voice. He sounds just creepy enough to really sell the crazy nature of this game. Actually, he reminds me a bit of the late, great Tony Jay.
You don't get many buttons in Black Knight Sword, and you don't need them. You can run, (double) jump, stab and throw out your sword (she's actually an evil doll-looking creature named Hellebore) to hit switches. You later unlock magic and charged attacks (including a flash kick!). One really nice and useful ability is stabbing in multiple directions. You can attack straight up, up at an angle or croutch and stab for low enemies. This is very useful for hitting airborne enemies. You can roll, but it seems fickle on if you get invinciblity from it or not. It might be like Monster Hunter's roll, where only certain frames are invincible, but I'm not sure. You also have to be careful when trying to do it quickly, as you can't cut your attack animation to do it. This usually leads to getting hit more often that you would want to
The game has fairly simple controls, but can get challenging. It hasn't been controller-throwing hard by any means, but some parts and boss fights can be tough. Thankfully, you can take some time to figure out how to fight a monster and what to do to proceed, so it wasn't that frustrating the first time through. I will note that stage 3 reminded me of the dreaded "clock tower" stages from various Castlevanias, but thankfully there are no medusa heads (or equivalents) to be found here. The end of that stage had a lengthy part that was very much like a plane shooter (shmup), and was a cool part to do. The boss took a good amount of hits and was trying his best to make it a bullet hell (and partially succeeding). I play several shmups, so I was right at home, but I don't know how others will fair.
The game only has 5 stages, but each is fairly long and ends with a boss fight. You get some replay time from trying to find all of the cat grass pots in each stage and trying to go for the trophies will add a time or two through the game unless you are super good the first time through and beat the game without dying, on hard and without the shop. Good luck with that, the rest of us will just go through the game a few times and save ourselves the frustration. There's also some challenge stages, which thankfully you unlock in groups so if you are stuck on one, you can just try another. The biggest fault with these is they don't really give you any info on what you need to do other than "reach the door" and how much life and magic you have to do the stage. I don't expect them to tell me everything, but you have to fly blind the first time in each challenge to figure out anything. They are timed, so your first run will likely be bad while figuring out what to do. Some are really tricky, but fun once you figure out what to do. I've only completed a few, since they get pretty hard.
If you like "Metroidvania" style action/platform games, you will feel right at home in Black Knight Sword. I had fun with the game, even with some frustration. The game is a bit short and linear, but you could get some extra time out of it going for the trophies and challenges. It's a very quirky and unique game (it is a Suda 51 game, after all) that I recommend if you like jumping around and stabbing things to death.
So what happens when the art styles of Monty Python and Castlevania have a baby? You get the look of Black Knight Sword. The game is presented like a puppet show with background scenery changing as you make your way through the levels. There is also a slight hand-drawn look to the game, which suits it well. The border of the screen is the curtains for a stage, furthering the idea of this as a puppet show. Since this takes up part of the screen, I wonder how it looks on SDTVs, since it doesn't interfere much with a widescreen TV. Bonus points for the loading screen, which has silhouettes of the audience pop up, and one of them has steam from their...coffee? Some kind of drink. It seems like it would make more sense as a cigarette or something, but looks like a cup. Either way, it's a nice touch that cements the look and theme of the game. There is also copious amounts of blood in the game, so if you are squeamish, you might want to shy away.
The music is pretty good, and like most games, fits the style. Blood sounds suitably gushy and monsters make appropriate noise like howling and clucking and such. Intros and outros to stages are done by the narrator, who has a great, deep voice. He sounds just creepy enough to really sell the crazy nature of this game. Actually, he reminds me a bit of the late, great Tony Jay.
You don't get many buttons in Black Knight Sword, and you don't need them. You can run, (double) jump, stab and throw out your sword (she's actually an evil doll-looking creature named Hellebore) to hit switches. You later unlock magic and charged attacks (including a flash kick!). One really nice and useful ability is stabbing in multiple directions. You can attack straight up, up at an angle or croutch and stab for low enemies. This is very useful for hitting airborne enemies. You can roll, but it seems fickle on if you get invinciblity from it or not. It might be like Monster Hunter's roll, where only certain frames are invincible, but I'm not sure. You also have to be careful when trying to do it quickly, as you can't cut your attack animation to do it. This usually leads to getting hit more often that you would want to
The game has fairly simple controls, but can get challenging. It hasn't been controller-throwing hard by any means, but some parts and boss fights can be tough. Thankfully, you can take some time to figure out how to fight a monster and what to do to proceed, so it wasn't that frustrating the first time through. I will note that stage 3 reminded me of the dreaded "clock tower" stages from various Castlevanias, but thankfully there are no medusa heads (or equivalents) to be found here. The end of that stage had a lengthy part that was very much like a plane shooter (shmup), and was a cool part to do. The boss took a good amount of hits and was trying his best to make it a bullet hell (and partially succeeding). I play several shmups, so I was right at home, but I don't know how others will fair.
The game only has 5 stages, but each is fairly long and ends with a boss fight. You get some replay time from trying to find all of the cat grass pots in each stage and trying to go for the trophies will add a time or two through the game unless you are super good the first time through and beat the game without dying, on hard and without the shop. Good luck with that, the rest of us will just go through the game a few times and save ourselves the frustration. There's also some challenge stages, which thankfully you unlock in groups so if you are stuck on one, you can just try another. The biggest fault with these is they don't really give you any info on what you need to do other than "reach the door" and how much life and magic you have to do the stage. I don't expect them to tell me everything, but you have to fly blind the first time in each challenge to figure out anything. They are timed, so your first run will likely be bad while figuring out what to do. Some are really tricky, but fun once you figure out what to do. I've only completed a few, since they get pretty hard.
If you like "Metroidvania" style action/platform games, you will feel right at home in Black Knight Sword. I had fun with the game, even with some frustration. The game is a bit short and linear, but you could get some extra time out of it going for the trophies and challenges. It's a very quirky and unique game (it is a Suda 51 game, after all) that I recommend if you like jumping around and stabbing things to death.
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