Malik
(12/27/05)
Well,
with the end of a year upon us, it seems like it's a good time to go
over some of my biggest complaints (and some praise...not much, but
a little) about the year in geek-review. Well, it's a good
time, and I don't have much else to talk about right now. So,
this week, without further ado, I present; The
Geek's Perspective On 2005 Consoles/Hardware:
The Worst PSP Anyway,
it's been on my chest for about 8 months now, but I would have to
say that the single biggest disappointment of the year falls on one
single place; the PSP. While some people, like myself, see the
PSP as a game system with no games, and thus it's nothing
more than an empty shell. On the other hand, some people
(these would be the damned Sony fanboys who have nothing else to do
besides brag about anything that Sony does) like to see it as one
hell of a cool portable media device. I would like to give
these guys some credit for seeing through Sony's half-assed attempt
at making a game machine and seeing a good underlying quality.
I would like to do that, but it's not that simple. In
reality, the PSP just doesn't have shit on the GP2X
(from Game Park Holdings). While the PSP offers limited
formats that can be played for video and audio files, this little
thing can handle a nice wide variety , with more supposedly in the
pipeline for future firmware upgrades. Meanwhile, the PSP
offers you two choices; either you go with UMD videos (wait for
it...) or you can convert a video to a MPEG-4, which is so unusable
by any other media player that it will only serve a single device
(the PSP). With the UMD videos you have the wonderful option
of either buying a movie on DVD and playing it on almost anything
(including a portable player, which you can now get with a good
screen for under $100) or you can pay about $15 more (on average) to
have the movie on UMD...and then you can only use it on the PSP,
since Sony has no further UMD supporting devices. Wow...that's
a lame choice. While the GP2X may not support any media disks,
you will not suffer for finding a supported media type. Down
the line, the PSP will still suffer. While it can use Memory
Duo sticks, these are some of the most expensive (per amount of
memory) memory cards available. Meanwhile, the GP2X uses SD
cards (which are some of the cheapest...and some of the
largest). This amounts to the PSP costing a small fortune to
buy if you are aiming to use it as a portable media device (either
you shell out big money for UMD videos or for storage of you
otherwise lame MPEG-4 files). Meanwhile, the GP2X will run you
about $70-$80 less than the PSP, and it will only cost about half as
much for your first 1GB of storage. However,
while it fails as a game device, and it also is only half-assed and
expensive for a multimedia device on the go, it truly is put to
shame when you combine this thing with Sony's paranoia and control oriented
way of running business. While something like the GP2X is open
source and runs with a Linux OS, the PSP has a Sony proprietary OS
(which means it's a bitch to program on) and it has more lockouts
than one would ever care to deal with. Everytime someone
cracks the security and gives some free programs to the masses, Sony
simply comes out with a new firmware update, which is required for
their newest games (which is not much of an incentive to upgrade
when the newest games are still only half as good as anything you'll
find on the DS, for example), which will lock out all of the latest
attempts at making free games available to all. When a system
has no good games to offer from the more commercial of outlets, this
type of lockout system only serves to reinforce the fact that THERE
IS NOTHING GOOD on the PSP. If you want me to continue my
comparison to the GP2X, let me just say this, it's open source and
it has (if you believe in them...let's not even open this legal can
of worms) emulators (scroll to the fifth from last question on this
link). However,
while software only makes half of what a system needs. Sadly,
beyond the built-in wireless networking of the PSP (which the DS
also has), the PSP is kinda flimsy on the hardware side. It
may look impressive when you check the stats, but it has nothing
when it's in your hands. For example, the "analogue"
nub is hard to handle and is about as precise as using the
Intellivision disc for moving a character on a game. The
remainder of the buttons are not bad, but they just don't have the
punch or responsiveness of the DS. The only other thing that
really makes it a good system, from a hardware standpoint, is the
bright and clear widescreen display. If only this display was
placed on a system with something to take advantage of it...and if
only you weren't practically guaranteed a dead pixel or two along
the way. Consoles/Hardware:
The Best XBox
360 Normally
a new console suffers greatly shortly after it's launch. If
you look at the PS2, the GCN, or the XBox, for example, you'd see
three consoles that became great in their own ways, but they all had
the same beginning; home to one good game and many bad ones.
XBox had Halo, GCN had Rogue Leader, and the PS2 had SSX.
Beyond those three games, each system launched with nothing more
than a nice bunch of mediocre to horrible titles which just failed
on all possible accounts. Luigi's Mansion showed us why Mario
was the true star of so many great games, DoA3 showed us why DoA2
was so sweet on the Dreamcast, and Fantavision showed us that
fireworks do not make a good premise for a video game. However,
despite what so many people who failed to secure a 360 will want you
to believe, the 360 has easily shown itself to be the top piece of
hardware for the year (sorry, DS was in 2004 for the US...not
2005). While the launch may have had no supposed must buy
titles, and while PDZ may have been a really incomplete and rushed
title, these was some hope that just didn't get the spotlight. Kameo
has shown to be a game, when given a fair and honest chance, that
can easily handle some of the best of the Zelda franchise with a
little of the darker side of things that Beyond Good and Evil tried
to show the world. Sadly, much like BG&E, Kameo is just
not getting the love and attention it so needs. Unfortunately,
Kameo, much like BG&E, just looks like too kiddie of a game, but
packs some more mature of content, leaving it in a weird gray zone
of where the game actually fits it. On
top of that, we have Ridge Racer 6. This is the first time
that RR has shown it's skills to a system not containing the Sony
name. It's also one of the most easily enjoyable arcade racing
games of the year. There is no hassles involved in upgrading
and customizing your whip, there's no need to deal with some lame
story about gaining street cred, and there is sure as hell no weird
incentives on why you must ram every single car going the same
direction as you. Beyond all of that, unlike Burnout Revenge
(which is one of the games I was poking fun at on that last line),
if you come in first place, you will be getting a first place worthy
reward. Throw in the fact that your able to race up to 13
other players simultaneously online and you have one hell of a
furious racing game. Even
if you don't like the games out there (and while you may not love
the games, you will probably enjoy at least a couple of them...I
know I was surprised that I did after my hopes were dashed with
Oblivion's delay), there is so much more to dig into with the
360. Assuming you have the premium set, or a core with a HDD,
and broadband, then you have access to the free content of
Live. In other words, there's the free arcade game demos
(Gauntlet, Joust, and Smash TV to name a few), the free video
trailers in both HD (usually 720p) and standard 480i for everything
from game trailers to movie trailers, the free 360 game demos (like
how they have Kameo, Madden, and NFS:MW2 playable demos), and the
new and unique Live Arcade games that all have both trial (free) and
full (pay) versions. There is so much you can get out of this
online marketplace, and while many would want you to think
otherwise, you will be able to get a good deal of entertainment
without paying a damned cent. Last
of all, while some may say the hardware is disappointing in the end,
this is another load of shit. The wireless controllers, as
first pioneered by Nintendo and the Wavebird (Meat Shield, that was
for you), are simple to connect, and hell of great to use when you
don't need to get off one's fat ass to turn on the system.
Plus, unlike the PS3 and their anticipated batarang controls, the
360 uses a easily recognizable controller that is nothing more than
a revamped and btter laid out XBox controller. The system is
easy to set up. The processor is hella strong, and you will
truly see it when you play a game like Kameo and are surrounded by
hundreds of trolls, all acting in different ways, at the same
time. Also, while some may say that the "Next-Generation
should be about visuals" and that the 360 "doesn't look
next-gen", the truth is quite the opposite. The visuals
don't make the next-gen, but if they did, then the 360 would still
easily be next-gen. ... So,
that's it for my first round of recapping what was definitely a year
of ups and downs for the geek world. Tomorrow you can look
forward to my take on the games of 2005. Malik
|
Malik
(12/28/05)
Games:
The Worst Franchise
Titles
This was another
year that seemed to imitate 2004, but with a twist. The new
games of 2005 were, for the most part, the same exact games of
2004. In 2004 we were surprised with Katamari Damacy, and in
2005 we had We Love Katamari. In 2004 we had Burnout 3 and
THUG2 on the extreme action side of things, and in 2005 we had
Burnout Revenge and THAW. In a nut shell, 2005 was a lot like
a rerun of 2004, but with a few less titles, and a little lack of
RPG action.
We have reached
the point that we really need innovation (not the evil Square Enix
style of "innovation", but rather the type that involve
thinking and planning). It looks like, for the most part, the
game industry has just hit a giant stumbling block in which they are
always trying to get a little more entertainment (and thus money)
from a license or property that has been used to death.
For example, while
Super Mario Strikers is giving us all a new and fresh look on the
subject of football (soccer), we can see FIFA hitting a brick wall
on the same sport, and Madden on the 360 shows truly the lowest
possible end to justify EA's greed in the other end of
"football". While Super Mario Kart gave us some
silly racing with a bit of speed, we saw Burnout Revenge hit us like
a ton of franchised bricks. Instead of having any creativity,
the tracks were poorly conceived (any time a wall appears at the end
of a blind turn is an example of bad design on a racing title), the
game was recycled, and to make matters worse, the game play
mechanics were killed by changing the "try to be reckless but
not destructive" mechanics and replacing it with some idiotic
notion of "hit everything, wreck everything, and worry more
about destruction than winning races".
True, not every
sequel took this type of path into infamy. We Love Katamari
was a great game, even if it didn't pack anything truly new in it's
game play or design, and Dragon Quest 8 showed that there is still
some hope left for fans of old school RPGs. However, many
games...far too many games just failed to even try to accomplish
anything new. It all came down to a very sad and tired method
for developers in which they simply try to milk any cash cow for all
it's worth.
Since it's not
fair to simply just name a vague group of games as the worst of
2005, I'll end this with a nice list of the worst offenders;
Madden NFL 06:
Which showed that by removing 2K Games from the mix, there is no
reason for anything beyond updated rosters
Burnout Revenge:
Which killed the Burnout originality, while throwing in canned
destructive themes
Castlevania DS:
Which not only offered absolutely nothing new, but even forced
exercises in tedium on us in the touch screen uses
Dishonorable
Mention
Jade Empire: This
was not a franchised game, but it sure felt like it. It was
fun while it lasted, but it ended up leaving a very sick taste in
one's mouth. The game was slow and the martial arts were
mostly pointless, despite claims of fast paced action in which we'd
be able to chain four different combat style together in a flawless
blur of action. In reality, you hit the jump button to go
behind your foe and then hit then with you standard attack a couple
time before you jump behind them again...yippee?...
Games: The Best
Guitar Hero
It is always hard
to name the best game of a year. In the end, this comes down
too much to taste and way too many other personal factors. I
mean, Dragon Quest 8 can easily be someone's idea of a perfect
game. I know I come close to thinking that. Mario Kart
DS is another example of that, and even Kameo (the little game that
no one wants to love) is simply amazing. Hell, every single
system had something to hold it's own with; the PC had Battlefield 2
and City of Villains, the GCN had RE4 and some more Mario sports,
the PS2 had DQ8 and We Love Katamari, the XBox had Fable: The Lost
Chapters and a great version of Staw Wars Battlefront 2. Every
system had something to call it's own, and each game appealed to a
small audience when compared to the whole of geeks.
This is where
Guitar Hero comes into play. Never before have I seen a game
that just draws in potential players with how it looks. While
a game like Taiko Drum Master will make some people want to play it
by how the taiko controller looks, the truth of the matter is that
it only reaches a certain group of people. Meanwhile, the
guitar has an appeal that the drum never could. Just looking
at a guitar shaped controller is enough to draw in a potential
victim. And this game will victimize it's players as they pour
hour after hour into trying to perfect the guitar solo in the middle
of Iron Man (or whatever song ends up being your poison).
When you throw in
the massive appeal of the music used in this game, you truly hit
something amazing. While a game like DDR, with it's assortment
of J-pop, Guitar Hero has the type of music that no one could
resist; a little of almost all major types of rock. You get 30
or so licensed songs (covered quite faithfully) that range from
Hendrix to Cream to Sum 41 to The Ramones. You also can unlock
about 30 or so extra songs from underground bands that cover a wider
range of sounds to bring in even more potential victims. While
heavier music may not have massive appeal, there is definitely more
appeal for the American musical palate than J-pop could ever give.
However, while
Guitar Hero is addictive, innovative, and is definitely showing more
appeal than anyone could've imagined (shown by how Red Octane has
more demand than supply), it would be wrong to simply ignore some of
the other great games for the year;
Honorable
Mentions
PS2: Dragon Quest
8, which brought back good old school mechanics with a nice addition
of new-school flair.
GCN: Resident Evil
4, which showed that if only more companies gave the GCN the same
love that Capcom gave, then the GCN could've been so much more.
Xbox: Fable: The
Lost Chapters, which made up nicely for many of the empty promises
of the original.
DS: Mario Kart DS,
which not only showed that a simply game can be amazing, but also
showed what the DS could truly do with it's simple and easy to
initiate WiFi.
PC: Battlefield 2
and Civilization 4; two games that are completely different, but
both showed some of the best in strategy and visuals on the PC.
XBox 360: Kameo,
while being overlooked by many as too kiddy, this is definitely a
game that shows a great blend of both Zelda style adventure and
Beyond Good and Evil style intrigue and plot twists.
PSP: Ummmm...well...maybe
next year...maybe...
...
Malik
|
Malik
(12/29/05)
So, to continue in
the theme of this week, I'll hit upon the news of the year.
While most would look at news like...well...news, I prefer to look
at what it really means to us geeks as a whole. While
something big may have happened, it usually is not as simple as
seeing the big events as a stand alone thing as much as seeing what
they really mean.
Stupidest News of
the Year
Without a doubt,
when the "Hot Coffee" scandal broke, this was possibly one
of the lowest moments in gaming history. It all began with the
revelation that some sexual content could be unlocked in GTA: San
Andreas when a person managed to use the PC version with an appropriate
mod. In other words, by using the PC version, using a certain
mod, and then playing through the game with special attention paid
to the girlfriends of the game, one could get Carl Johnson to enter
into a sexual mini-game. Not only is this something hard to do
(mainly because it was boring as all f#@% to get your girlfriend's
mood improved so much), but it was also something that is not
required or needed in the normal course of the game. There was
only one g/f that required so much attention paid to her, and this
was for the mission "Key to Her Heart". However, the
easiest way to accomplish the goal on this mission was (spoiler of
sorts on a 15-16 year old game) to simply kill her and then take the
key card needed for the main game from her home. Even if you
do this the hard way, you are still, most likely, going to
experience a cut scene of the sounds of CJ having some freaky and
nasty sex involving a fair share of S&M.
Also, you can
experience a similar type of auditory stimulation from frequenting
one of the infinite prostitutes in the game. However, once the
visual stimulation become graphic, then things changed...for some
lame reason. Plus, while a M rated game is supposedly equivalent
to an R rated movie, which may include some nudity and sex, the same
thing cannot be seen in a game. So, naturally, for any similarities
to sex being present on a video game, then game needs to be rated AO
(or the game equivalent of a movie NC-17 rating). Thus,
we had shit rain down on the gaming industry and the ESRB by
everyone from parent groups (who usually have more interest in
censorship than in protecting children) to Jack Thompson to
Congress.
These groups and
individuals decided that not only did the game industry need an
overhaul on the rating system, but also that all games needed to be
changed to be made cleaner for future children. This ignored a
very important fact; the average age of video game players was not
lower than 18 years old...the average gamer is in his (yes, the
average is a guy) mid 20's. To say that people in their 20's
are children in need of censoring from their chosen pastimes is like
saying that all media, from books to movies to games, need to be
censored simply because a vocal group has the need to keep America
clean of all "problematic" influences.
To make matters
worse, there was Rockstar's decisions in this problem. While
the news was still fresh, Rockstar and their parent company of Take
Two decided to claim that the "adult" content was not
programmed by their people. Instead, they claimed that the
content was actually added by the Hot Coffee mod creator. It
was soon seen that this content was included on the original
game. So, Rockstar made it sound like the content was actually
part of a bit of code that was no longer intended to be viewed by
the public, but was still so tied into the actual code of the game
that it couldn't be removed without destroying the game's final
coding (like Microsoft said in their defense when they were sued for
antitrust in Europe over the integration of IE and Windows).
In reality, this was also revealed to be bullshit, and it was seen
that the code was there mainly because Rockstar wanted to just shake
things up...like how a screaming toddler likes to scream to get some
attention.
In the end, this
created the single biggest debate on censorship for video games ever
seen. This made Mortal Kombat and Night Trap look tame.
It also showed how truly low all sides could get. Rockstar was
acting childish for the sake of stupidity and attention grabbing,
Congress wanted to simply censor games because of them being a
"bad influence" on children (despite the average gamer
demographics...let's ignore reality and the age of these VOTERS),
and Jack Thompson was brought back into the spotlight in the worst
way. The only side that did it's duty was the ESRB, who rates
games based on what they can see, and they did quite well on showing
that they rated the game according to the unlocked and visible
content. It also showed how, despite movies looking more
realistic, that they are considered cleaner in the view of
censor-nuts. The only real winners in this were the gamers (at
the end, since common sense barely won out in a close fight) and the
ESRB (who basically told the US to bite their asses...my word
choice, not theirs).
Coolest News of
2005
Without a doubt,
the coolest news of 2005 fell on Nintendo's shoulders. In
fact, they had the top two bits of sweet news. The first and
more minor was how they showed that WiFi portable gaming could
belong to the masses. While Sony has one hell of a frustrating
setup for running a game on a WiFi network (try the network setup
menu on the PSP), Nintendo gave us the single easiest wireless setup
ever seen on their DS. The DS, using Mario Kart DS, Animal
Crossing: Wild World, or a few other soon to be seen games, has a
simple setup involving simply telling the system to look for a
network and then to go at it. On top of that, by making a deal
with McDonalds to offer DS WiFi hotspots at most McD restaurants,
Nintendo played one half of the team that was determined to bring
wireless network gaming to the American masses.
However, the
bigger piece of news that Nintendo gave us comes down to the
next-generation. At the Tokyo Game Show (TGS), Nintendo
finally revealed the controller for The Revolution. While Sony
was bringing us a George Foreman Grill with 7 Batarang controllers
and a processor 2348.4 times (my number...sorry, I find these
numbers silly) more powerful than the PS2, and while Microsoft was
bringing us mini-tower PC with an intelligent design and about
1239.7 times (see note above) the power of the XBox, Nintendo said
that they actually cared more about making gamers happy than just
looking good on paper. So, their response was to make a system
only twice as powerful as the GCN, to make it tiny as hell (the
thing is only about 2 or so times as big as a DVD case), WiFi out of
the box (which Nintendo has shown they can handle with the DS), a
price that will be ready for the average person (not just the
average gamer), and the ability to play all past Nintendo games
(details still need to come along...I'm betting on a pay-per-month
service similar to XBox Live) with a little downloading.
However, the biggest bit of this news came with the TGS announcement
that showed what Nintendo showed off for the controller.
The Revolution
will use spatial mouse technology to give the most immersive gaming
experience possible. If this plays out like Nintendo is hoping
for, it will actually work, unlike the average PC spatial mouse
(which is typically a pile of shit). Also, it will open up a
new realm of possibilities for video games. While one hand
holds what looks like a DVD remote with the spatial technology, the
other hand will be able to be free or be holding an analogue nub
that is optional. Then, using the controller, one can motion
their hand to do all that is needed for both old genres and for the
new possibilities of genres. For example, if you're playing a
fishing game, you can flick your wrist like you're casting your rod,
and then you can jerk you wrist to fight the fish. If you're
playing pool, you can jab the remote like you would jab with a pool
cue. If you're playing a FPS, you can aim with the remote,
like a light gun, and then use the analogue nub to move and use
either a button on the nub (which has a couple of action buttons) or
the remote to fire.
These will be no
end to the possible gaming genres that can be invented for this
technology. One of my favorite possibilities is one I've
discussed with my friends Bastich and Meat Shield. It
basically is how a Jedi based FPS Star Wars game could be done on
the Revolution. While one hand uses the nub to move, the other
hand will be able to swing a light saber and to be able to block
enemy blows and even deflect blaster fire. On top of that, you
could drop the nub and pick up a second remote to play a game with
dual wielding light saber action. In a phrase; hot damn!
While there are
some concerns over if Nintendo will start to get the third party
support needed, and if the spatial mouse technology can actually
work correctly, the possibilities are simply astounding. This
will allow the type of innovation in the gaming industry that we
once had so much of, but are not so severely lacking. However,
this will all depend on two simple things; will the third party
developers support this new technology, and will this new technology
live up to Nintendo's hopes (being cheap and effective). To
make even more excitement, Nintendo has recently been saying that
there is more news in store for the Revolution, and these cards will
be revealed in the next 6 months.
Most Confusing
News of 2005
Without a doubt,
Sony was the master of confusion in 2005. This comes down to
the method Sony is using to advertise their almost useless PSP
system. It started when the intelligent advertisements for the
PSP (including the one with the song Take Me Out as the background
music) coming to an end a few months back. Then the
graffiti arrived. Sony denied any knowledge in this thing,
but basically a bunch of PSP themed graffiti, that looked a little
too stenciled, started to show up around the country. When you
combine the obviously stencil look with the coast to coast
proliferation, it was obvious that this wasn't just some PSP fan who
was also a master tagger. It was obvious to even the most
fanboyish of Sony fans that this was the work of Sony...and that
they were willing to break the law and deface the private property
of others in order to push their gameless wonder.
Sadly, after the
graffiti was attacked by upright citizens, Sony only further tried
to confuse the gaming landscape. They decided to start a
series of ads that were based, on the surface, on either a couple of
nut-obsessed squirrels or some carpet-obsessed dust balls.
However, while the ads may have looked crudely drawn, had nothing to
do with the PSP, and were simply pointless wastes of TV commercial
airtime, they seemed to hold a deeper meaning...maybe. One
could not help but notice how the dust balls had an obvious Latino
flavor to their accents, and the squirrels sounded stereotypically African
American. On one hand, you can't help but wonder why the
overall message in this could be that African Americans are
nut-obsessed and Hispanic Americans are obsessed with carpet.
You also could substitute whatever sexual meaning on "nut"
and "carpet" that you want. You could also see the
fact that all the animated characters are male (meaning all male
"squirrels" are obsessed with
"nuts"...wow...that's f#@%ed up). In the end, the
voice of the narrator who tells us all to waste our money on the
useless PSP sounds stereotypically white. Some potential meanings
for this could be;
1. All
"Squirrels" want to stare at "nuts" all day,
while all "Dust Balls" want to stare at
"carpet"...which is f#@$ed up in assigning sexual
orientations on "Squirrels" and "Dust Balls".
2.
"Squirrels" and "Dust Balls" are stupid enough
to do pointless activities, so the overbearing white man must force
another piece of useless and boring shit on them...which being
manipulated by a Japanese mega-company.
3. Sony
doesn't give a shit about female gamers (two ads, five voices, none
of them female).
I won't say how I
see it, but I will say that this type of advertising could be seen
as far more offensive to young minds that all the Hot Coffee in the
world and that it is still allowed to be seen before PG rated movies
(I saw it in a theater before Narnia started a couple weeks back)
and during commercial breaks between cartoons. This just
astounds and confuses me like no other event could. It's like
Sony doesn't know who they are selling their system to, they don't
want to know, and they don't even know why people would buy their
steaming pile of clunky-gameless-shit.
...
Malik
|
Malik
(12/30/05)
So, the whole end
of the year recap thing is now over with. I've spent the rest
of this week going off about the "best of 2005" stuff for
two main reasons. For one, I had not much else to talk about,
and on the other hand I was just too damned lazy to think of
anything original to talk about. However, that's done now.
So, with Christmas
and my birthday (which was yesterday) being over with, I now have a
nice set of new games (Legend of Heroes for the PSP and Guitar Hero
for PS2...it was a hero filled holiday season) to play with, some
extra money, the prospect of being promoted in the next couple of
weeks, and the harsh reality that I'll be moving from my home of the
last 3.5 years in less than a month. To say it's been a slow
end to the year would be a complete lie.
As for the games I
got, Guitar Hero is nothing short of amazing. I've said it
before, and I say it now; this is one of the most amazing games that
will ever grace the PS2. It is addictive, it meets the
American palate for being a rhythm game, and it is freakin' fun as
hell. I think this is just the type of game that has been
needed in the home market to introduce the once dreaded rhythm genre
to a group (Americans) who have been neglected with forced J-pop and
K-pop (and occasional C-pop).
As for the other
heroic game, Legend of Heroes is shaping up to be pretty good so
far. Of course, since it was a b-day gift, I haven't had too
much time to play with it yet. Besides the fact that the PSP
analogue makes this a pain in the arse to control (hence, I use the
d-pad), the game is good fun. The plot is somewhat original,
which is saying a lot for an RPG. However, I haven't
experienced a battle yet, since it takes about an hour or two to get
through the opening plot and start fighting battles. I should
have more information on this game next week, but I'm thinking I'll
be having some nice praise for this one of two first RPGs for the
PSP.
I also saw Munich
last night. It's a complete subject change, but this movie is
amazing. It's rare that a movie can inspire my friends and I
to have meaningful conversation, but this movie really did a good
job as getting us to discuss some real problems of the world.
That isn't to say the movie isn't simply amazing. I personally
didn't think a 3 hour movie could be carried by Eric "The
Hulk" Bana, but he did an excellent job of showing the rumors
of his career being dead were indeed false. Also, like with
the other Spielberg movies that deal with real historical incidents
(Schindler's List and Saving Private Ryan), this movie doesn't feel
like the typical Spielberg movie. Instead of forcing action
down the audiences' throats, Spielberg simply gives a series of
connected events, little personal commentary, and lets the events
speak for themselves. Even though I'm done with that
"best of 2005" kick, I would say this movie fits in as one
of the best 3 (in my opinion, at least) films of the year.
Lastly, I finished
Kameo on Wednesday, and the rumors of it's lameness are greatly exaggerated.
This is an awesome game for anyone who enjoyed both the Zelda series
and Beyond Good and Evil. While it looks really kiddy, the
plot is more about manipulation and back-stabbing (like BG&E),
and the action involves plenty of options for determining the best
solution to anything. Also, unlike BG&E, the final boss
was not a flat out bitch. The only complaint I had, at all,
was that the Eye of Regeneration (one of four equipible items...all
completely hidden and optional) breaks the game. You will
regenerate life if you don't get hit for about 2 seconds, and while
your spirit (think MP) takes more time to regenerate than normal,
this is easily offset by being constantly at full health.
Besides that one issue, this game has a lot of content and a lot of
chances for replayability, despite having about a 8 hour
lifespan. While many have been vocal about 8 hours being too
short, I'd just like to say that no one voices this complaint about
Zelda games, yet have you ever noticed how long they last? I
doubt these people would complain if this game was called Zelda,
instead of just playing like a game in the same genre.
Ok, I'm out of
here for 2005. There will probably be no post on Monday, since
it's a vacation day (my last one before I'm back at my day
job). Expect some nice changes to the site in the next couple
of weeks, and have a safe New Years.
Malik
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