Saturday, December 02, 2006
Casino Royale, Happy Feet, and WarGears
Tying up a few loose ends here – gotta blog about Casino Royale and Happy Feet, and then another review at the bottom. Read on.
Casino Royale
On Friday, Hawk picked me up from Streetsville Go, and we went home and started watching Die Another Day. We didn't finish, because we had to go to AMC and watch Casino Royale. We missed the 8:30 and 9:00 show, so we saw the 10:15. The movie was pretty good. Ray says it's the best he's seen this year. I thought it was pretty good, but some things were missing.
It was good to see James Bond come back, but it didn't totally feel like a James Bond. He had a nice car (Aston Martin DB9), but the car didn't do anything but drive... well, it had a glove compartment with a defibrulator and a medicine cabinet kinda thing, but it didn't shoot missiles or anything.
Casino was a prequel to the James Bond franchise, where it shows James Bond becoming 007. So I guess it's okay that he doesn't have special gizmos and all that, but it felt less James Bond like. I guess that's okay - James Bond does have to grow up some time.
The first main action sequence was pretty awesome. He chases this guy who's fast and quick and nimble - it's like chasing Jackie Chan. I thought that was cool. But enough about that. Skip forward to the opening sequence with the song - it was weird. It's like poker is the new sex - there were almost no girls in the intro, just a bunch of poker symbols and stuff... but enough about that too.
I like how this James Bond, the movie wasn't quite as clear cut as the others - the story wasn't as linear. It had a few twists and turns, but not really... it’s like they borrowed from MI and MI3… but I shouldn’t compare the two franchises so much.
One thing I didn't really like was the Poker scenes. But then again, if you had to have scripted poker, it probably would've been like this anyway. I especially don't like the first hand they showed - there's an ace on the board, and a king hits on the river. The bad guy raises like crazy and he shows pocket kings. And James Bond... well of course. James Bond has pocket aces. So James Bond wins, and the audience (in real life) is like OOOOHHH and I'm here thinking "wow, so scripted".
My favourite poker thing they did was the first hand in the main game, were the bad guy hit a full house on the river, and James folded his hand. It felt like the most real possible scenario. Then there are two other poker hands that I didn’t enjoy too much, because of the same reasons as above:
So the board shows JKAKJ… on the river they have this raising match, if I remember correctly, and then James eventually goes all in. And then, James shows his hand first – AK, making a full house.
That’s a big no no. Everyone should know that, in scripted poker, if you show your hand first in a somewhat arrogant way, you’re gonna lose. NEVER, in scripted poker, should you show your hand first, and feel very proud of it. So here I am, thinking the obvious – the bad guy has either two aces or two jacks. And… drumroll… he had two jacks! WHAT A SURPRISE… And the audience oohs and aahs again…
And the next hand is something that almost only happens in scripted poker. The river hits, and the board looks like A 6 8 10 A, with the 6, 8, and 10 and first Ace all spades. It’s near the end of the entire game, and four people move all in. FOUR! Including James Bond and the main bad guy. First, a nobody shows his KQ of spades, thus having the nut flush. Then, another nobody shows pocket 8’s, so he has a full house, eights full of aces.
Then the main bad guy shows A6, giving him full house, aces full of sixes. Once again, James Bond has the lucky power of “getting to show his hand last.” Everyone knows “showing your hand last” in scripted poker gives them a +80% circumstance bonus to winning. And of course, it’s so obvious when you look at the board, and two people have full houses. James Bond MUST have a straight flush, holding 5 and 7 of spades. And he does. And it’s so spectacular, the whole audience is going crazy because Bond has such awesomeness.
Then Bond gives the dealer a million chips for being so nice. That was pretty funny.
Anyway, so just like Ambrose had that gripe with The Departed and the bad Chinese, I have this gripe for Casino Royale. Then again, James Bond is known for being over the top, so this scripted poker isn’t unexpected. Anyway, James Bond was pretty good.
Happy Feet
On Saturday, Mai, John, Vinh and I saw Happy Feet at Coliseum. I liked it. It was pretty good. I think I liked it more than Vinh did. It wasn't all cute and fluffly like we expected... actually sometimes it was sorta scary. Maybe not really scary, maybe just, the penguin was in so much danger. Anyway, the story is about a retarded penguin. Okay, that sounded harsh, but that's the easiest way to summarize. While he was in the egg there was an accident, and he was born retarded - instead of being able to sing, he was able to tap dance.
That was a real problem, because all penguins needed to sing. They went to school to learn to sing, but Mambo couldn't do it. He can't sing, and he can only tap dance, which is very unpenguin like. He quickly became a social outcast. His mom believed in him, but his dad didn't. Gloria sorta believed in him, but his other friends didn't. Anyway, eventually he wasn't a baby penguin anymore, but he was still a social outcast. So he eventually left, or he was banished from the village, and he went on an adventure. He met a few new Puffin friends and etc... eventually he finds out that aliens are taking all the fish, and then he gets captured and he ends up at the zoo. Um... and stuff happens, and eventually it ends.
It's a sorta sad story, but it's also very hip and funny and all that. Mix in some dangerous parts, and the adventure is actually pretty cool. I enjoyed that movie.
Gears of War
Yuri: “I believe it's Wargears.”
Andre: “Thank you, but I prefer it my way.”
(Mad World by Michael Andrews feat. Gary Jules) (high quality, 320kbps, 7.2 mb)
On Thursday I went to Futureshop and bought two games: The King’s quest collection for $20 and Gears of War for $60. So technically I bought 7 games for $3 each and 1 game for $60, but who’s counting? I’ve been hearing and reading so much about Gears of War, so I decided to buy it. It’s not exactly an impulse buy.
So I hear – best graphics ever, great sound, good game overall. Is it?
(If you’re lazy and don’t want to read the whole thing, here’s a summary: great graphics/sound/etc, great gameplay, I really like it; the “cover” mechanic is awesome and is visually awesome, feels like you’re in a movie; co-op makes it sooo much fun)
It’s good. It’s really good. Graphics are great, and sounds (music, voice acting, etc) are good too, no complaints. Gameplay is actually pretty good too. They say this is the killer app for the 360, and it just might be. I don’t usually buy games like this, but I’m glad I did. Where to start? I don’t want to write a formal review, but I want to touch base on the important stuff.
Gears of War is a third person shooter. In the future, this alien race called the Locust appears from underneath Earth, and they wipe out a lot of humans and whatever. You’re Marcus Fenix, and you’re in jail, but then they get you out and want you to help take out the enemies. It’s not much of a story, but it’s one hell of a game.
Graphically, it’s great – lots of detail and stuff. I usually like games that are very smooth, and run at a constant 30 or 60 fps, like with Burnout. It looks so blurringly fast and it’s so pretty. I don’t think Gears of War runs at 60, but it’s still really pretty. A lot of games don’t run at 60, or 30, so I guess I have to lower some expectations. But the frame rate of this game is constant enough, so that’s good.
Is the game unique? Well, it’s a 3rd person shooter, and in order to stand out from the rest of the crowd there has to be something special… usually it’s some sort of gimmick, and yeah, this game has a gimmick, except it’s built so nicely into the game so that it doesn’t feel gimmicky.
Let’s step back for a moment. Remember James Bond, Everything or Nothing? The game had things called “Bond Moments”, which you activate by doing something special that James Bond would do, like escape from a building in a weird way, or jump over a bunch of cars. When you get a bond moment, it’s like a cutscene and your character does something. It was nice and all, except it felt… kinda scripted, and it wasn’t integral to the game. It’s just something of a bonus that made it feel more actiony, but really wasn’t.
Back to Gears of War and its gimmick. It’s called “cover”. In almost all rooms, there’s some cover which you interact with – it could be a block, or a wall, or a car or something. If you approach cover and you hit “A”, you pretty much magnetize to the cover, and then you’ll be undercover. While undercover, you won’t get hit by enemy fire (unless they’re standing beside you or something).
From cover you can blindfire toward a target, or you can expose yourself a bit and aim and shoot them with better precision. So instead of just ducking by a wall and standing up and firing like in Halo or whatever, cover is now an integral part of Gears of War. You use cover, and enemies use cover too. In movies, people use cover.
And then there’s context sensitive things you can do with cover, that feels actiony but still part of the game. If you press “A” while in cover, you get out of cover. But if for example you’re on the left wall near a doorway, if you press right and then press “A”, you will roll and then go to the right wall, and be in cover. If you’re by a block, and you hit forward and “A”, you’ll jump the cover.
It feels so cool! You’ll enter a room, and then go to the first cover you find, and steadily make your way closer to the other side of the room, like in movies. It’s soo cool!
So that’s cover. There are other cool things in the game – weapons are nice, character models are good… oh yeah, characters. They’re like big hulks, so you feel like a big hulk when you play the game, haha. Levels are kinda linear though, but there are still some puzzles, but usually it’s a lot more action and not very much roaming around getting lost.
Lastly – there’s multiplayer co-op! (online and offline). I love co-op FPS (and TPS?). For some reason co-op FPS’s feel much different than like, “co-op” x-men legends and stuff. I guess it’s because it’s an FPS, so you’ll feel like you’re much more in control of the guy, instead of looking from above as if you’re god controlling puppets.
Sweet, Co-op, sweet co-op. So now I’m in a co-op campaign with Amish, so I’ll wait for him to come back here before I continue the campaign.
Anyway, that’s my semi-review for Gears of War.
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| Tying up a few loose ends here – gotta blog about Casino Royale and Happy Feet, and then another review at the bottom. Read on. Casino Royale On Friday, Hawk picked me up from Streetsville Go, and we went home and started watching Die Another Day. We didn't finish, because we had to go to AMC and watch Casino Royale. We missed the 8:30 and 9:00 show, so we saw the 10:15. The movie was pretty good. Ray says it's the best he's seen this year. I thought it was pretty good, but some things were missing. It was good to see James Bond come back, but it didn't totally feel like a James Bond. He had a nice car (Aston Martin DB9), but the car didn't do anything but drive... well, it had a glove compartment with a defibrulator and a medicine cabinet kinda thing, but it didn't shoot missiles or anything. Casino was a prequel to the James Bond franchise, where it shows James Bond becoming 007. So I guess it's okay that he doesn't have special gizmos and all that, but it felt less James Bond like. I guess that's okay - James Bond does have to grow up some time. The first main action sequence was pretty awesome. He chases this guy who's fast and quick and nimble - it's like chasing Jackie Chan. I thought that was cool. But enough about that. Skip forward to the opening sequence with the song - it was weird. It's like poker is the new sex - there were almost no girls in the intro, just a bunch of poker symbols and stuff... but enough about that too. I like how this James Bond, the movie wasn't quite as clear cut as the others - the story wasn't as linear. It had a few twists and turns, but not really... it’s like they borrowed from MI and MI3… but I shouldn’t compare the two franchises so much. One thing I didn't really like was the Poker scenes. But then again, if you had to have scripted poker, it probably would've been like this anyway. I especially don't like the first hand they showed - there's an ace on the board, and a king hits on the river. The bad guy raises like crazy and he shows pocket kings. And James Bond... well of course. James Bond has pocket aces. So James Bond wins, and the audience (in real life) is like OOOOHHH and I'm here thinking "wow, so scripted". My favourite poker thing they did was the first hand in the main game, were the bad guy hit a full house on the river, and James folded his hand. It felt like the most real possible scenario. Then there are two other poker hands that I didn’t enjoy too much, because of the same reasons as above: So the board shows JKAKJ… on the river they have this raising match, if I remember correctly, and then James eventually goes all in. And then, James shows his hand first – AK, making a full house. That’s a big no no. Everyone should know that, in scripted poker, if you show your hand first in a somewhat arrogant way, you’re gonna lose. NEVER, in scripted poker, should you show your hand first, and feel very proud of it. So here I am, thinking the obvious – the bad guy has either two aces or two jacks. And… drumroll… he had two jacks! WHAT A SURPRISE… And the audience oohs and aahs again… And the next hand is something that almost only happens in scripted poker. The river hits, and the board looks like A 6 8 10 A, with the 6, 8, and 10 and first Ace all spades. It’s near the end of the entire game, and four people move all in. FOUR! Including James Bond and the main bad guy. First, a nobody shows his KQ of spades, thus having the nut flush. Then, another nobody shows pocket 8’s, so he has a full house, eights full of aces. Then the main bad guy shows A6, giving him full house, aces full of sixes. Once again, James Bond has the lucky power of “getting to show his hand last.” Everyone knows “showing your hand last” in scripted poker gives them a +80% circumstance bonus to winning. And of course, it’s so obvious when you look at the board, and two people have full houses. James Bond MUST have a straight flush, holding 5 and 7 of spades. And he does. And it’s so spectacular, the whole audience is going crazy because Bond has such awesomeness. Then Bond gives the dealer a million chips for being so nice. That was pretty funny. Anyway, so just like Ambrose had that gripe with The Departed and the bad Chinese, I have this gripe for Casino Royale. Then again, James Bond is known for being over the top, so this scripted poker isn’t unexpected. Anyway, James Bond was pretty good. Happy Feet On Saturday, Mai, John, Vinh and I saw Happy Feet at Coliseum. I liked it. It was pretty good. I think I liked it more than Vinh did. It wasn't all cute and fluffly like we expected... actually sometimes it was sorta scary. Maybe not really scary, maybe just, the penguin was in so much danger. Anyway, the story is about a retarded penguin. Okay, that sounded harsh, but that's the easiest way to summarize. While he was in the egg there was an accident, and he was born retarded - instead of being able to sing, he was able to tap dance. That was a real problem, because all penguins needed to sing. They went to school to learn to sing, but Mambo couldn't do it. He can't sing, and he can only tap dance, which is very unpenguin like. He quickly became a social outcast. His mom believed in him, but his dad didn't. Gloria sorta believed in him, but his other friends didn't. Anyway, eventually he wasn't a baby penguin anymore, but he was still a social outcast. So he eventually left, or he was banished from the village, and he went on an adventure. He met a few new Puffin friends and etc... eventually he finds out that aliens are taking all the fish, and then he gets captured and he ends up at the zoo. Um... and stuff happens, and eventually it ends. It's a sorta sad story, but it's also very hip and funny and all that. Mix in some dangerous parts, and the adventure is actually pretty cool. I enjoyed that movie. Gears of War Yuri: “I believe it's Wargears.” Andre: “Thank you, but I prefer it my way.” (Mad World by Michael Andrews feat. Gary Jules) (high quality, 320kbps, 7.2 mb) On Thursday I went to Futureshop and bought two games: The King’s quest collection for $20 and Gears of War for $60. So technically I bought 7 games for $3 each and 1 game for $60, but who’s counting? I’ve been hearing and reading so much about Gears of War, so I decided to buy it. It’s not exactly an impulse buy. So I hear – best graphics ever, great sound, good game overall. Is it? (If you’re lazy and don’t want to read the whole thing, here’s a summary: great graphics/sound/etc, great gameplay, I really like it; the “cover” mechanic is awesome and is visually awesome, feels like you’re in a movie; co-op makes it sooo much fun) It’s good. It’s really good. Graphics are great, and sounds (music, voice acting, etc) are good too, no complaints. Gameplay is actually pretty good too. They say this is the killer app for the 360, and it just might be. I don’t usually buy games like this, but I’m glad I did. Where to start? I don’t want to write a formal review, but I want to touch base on the important stuff. Gears of War is a third person shooter. In the future, this alien race called the Locust appears from underneath Earth, and they wipe out a lot of humans and whatever. You’re Marcus Fenix, and you’re in jail, but then they get you out and want you to help take out the enemies. It’s not much of a story, but it’s one hell of a game. Graphically, it’s great – lots of detail and stuff. I usually like games that are very smooth, and run at a constant 30 or 60 fps, like with Burnout. It looks so blurringly fast and it’s so pretty. I don’t think Gears of War runs at 60, but it’s still really pretty. A lot of games don’t run at 60, or 30, so I guess I have to lower some expectations. But the frame rate of this game is constant enough, so that’s good. Is the game unique? Well, it’s a 3rd person shooter, and in order to stand out from the rest of the crowd there has to be something special… usually it’s some sort of gimmick, and yeah, this game has a gimmick, except it’s built so nicely into the game so that it doesn’t feel gimmicky. Let’s step back for a moment. Remember James Bond, Everything or Nothing? The game had things called “Bond Moments”, which you activate by doing something special that James Bond would do, like escape from a building in a weird way, or jump over a bunch of cars. When you get a bond moment, it’s like a cutscene and your character does something. It was nice and all, except it felt… kinda scripted, and it wasn’t integral to the game. It’s just something of a bonus that made it feel more actiony, but really wasn’t. Back to Gears of War and its gimmick. It’s called “cover”. In almost all rooms, there’s some cover which you interact with – it could be a block, or a wall, or a car or something. If you approach cover and you hit “A”, you pretty much magnetize to the cover, and then you’ll be undercover. While undercover, you won’t get hit by enemy fire (unless they’re standing beside you or something). From cover you can blindfire toward a target, or you can expose yourself a bit and aim and shoot them with better precision. So instead of just ducking by a wall and standing up and firing like in Halo or whatever, cover is now an integral part of Gears of War. You use cover, and enemies use cover too. In movies, people use cover. And then there’s context sensitive things you can do with cover, that feels actiony but still part of the game. If you press “A” while in cover, you get out of cover. But if for example you’re on the left wall near a doorway, if you press right and then press “A”, you will roll and then go to the right wall, and be in cover. If you’re by a block, and you hit forward and “A”, you’ll jump the cover. It feels so cool! You’ll enter a room, and then go to the first cover you find, and steadily make your way closer to the other side of the room, like in movies. It’s soo cool! So that’s cover. There are other cool things in the game – weapons are nice, character models are good… oh yeah, characters. They’re like big hulks, so you feel like a big hulk when you play the game, haha. Levels are kinda linear though, but there are still some puzzles, but usually it’s a lot more action and not very much roaming around getting lost. Lastly – there’s multiplayer co-op! (online and offline). I love co-op FPS (and TPS?). For some reason co-op FPS’s feel much different than like, “co-op” x-men legends and stuff. I guess it’s because it’s an FPS, so you’ll feel like you’re much more in control of the guy, instead of looking from above as if you’re god controlling puppets. Sweet, Co-op, sweet co-op. So now I’m in a co-op campaign with Amish, so I’ll wait for him to come back here before I continue the campaign. Anyway, that’s my semi-review for Gears of War. |