I finished a couple games the past week or so and I just thought I would share my thoughts on them in a couple of quick reviews:
Dead Space
I absolutely loved this game and think everyone should check it out. It's definitely a Resident Evil style game but set in space, but it improves on some of the mainstays from the RE series. More than anything, I really liked that I was able to shoot my gun and walk at the same time. I don't quite get why in RE you stop dead in your tracks (no pun in intended) before trying to kill the zombies. To be quite honest, if I had zombies coming after me, I wouldn't stop running. I might stop and do Thriller, but that's it. I almost wish now that I had started it after Resident Evil 5 so that the lack of moving while shooting wouldn't stick out so much.
This game definitely has some of the best spaceship environments I've seen in a game and it definitely has a very creepy atmosphere that provides for some very tense moments. The creatures/aliens have some pretty cool designs to them too. The suits your character wears do remind me of Bioshock but I love how your health and other stats are displayed on the suit, allowing the game to have HUD that isn't full of displays. The headsup video communications and inventory system look very cool too. Almost like something out of Minority Report.
The weapons in this game are some of the coolest I've ever used in a game. My favourite was the line gun. Since the objective when fighting enemies was to dismember them and not just fire into them as much as possible, the line gun perfect for this purpose.
I'm definitely looking forward to any eventual sequels. I really recommend that everyone check this out as I think it's definitely in the top 5 of games that came out in 2008 for me.
Mario vs. Donkey Kong 2: March of the Minis
Just finished this one today after swiping it from my girlfriend on the weekend. I haven't played the first one, so I don't know what kind of game it is, but this one is very much like Lemmings. You have to get your mini-Marios through the exit in each level. The most you have on one level though is usually 4 or 5 (a few have 6 or 7), so it doesn't have quite the numbers that Lemmings does.
I'm a big fan of Lemmings, so I really enjoyed this even though as I said it doesn't have the number of characters and you also don't have the tasks you do in Lemmings, i.e. diggers, builders, etc. You do have to manipulate the playing board though and it's all done very well with the stylus. Controlling the minis with the stylus is pretty easy too although if they're tightly bunched up, it's a little hard to control specific ones.
The levels start off pretty easy and get very tough as you progress through the game. There are 8 floors of 8 levels, plus a minigame and then the boss fight against DK. I'd say I put about 6 hours into this game tops to get it finished.
I haven't played with the level maker yet and the game does have Wi-fi too. I do recommend you check out this game but at a lower price.
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
I watched the Watchmen
Even though it's been over a week since I saw it, I'm finally going to post my thoughts on the Watchmen movie, without spoilers for those still waiting to see it. First off, I just want to say that I really liked this movie a lot. I think Zach Snyder and co. did the best job they could do taking the source material and turning it into a movie. Even at a run time of about 2 hours and 40 minutes, there is still a lot of material from the original graphic novel that they had to take out. However, I think they did a great job of deciding what to keep in and what to take out.
They also didn't make too many changes to the story itself until the ending. The basic premise of the ending is the same as the book but some of what happens is different. To be honest though, I preferred the ending of the movie to the book. Karli did as well. In fact, she liked the movie a lot more than the book.
As for the casting, it ranged from spot-on to good, but not great. Rorshach was the best casting in the movie and he was exactly as I pictured he would be in terms of his voice, mannerisms, etc. The weakest casting was probably Dr. Manhatten, however, to be fair, it's hard to act I'm sure when you do pretty much the whole movie covered in sensors for the motion capturing.
This movie is definitely not a comic book movie to take the kiddies to. It is violent, has bad language and nudity. Definitely earns it's R-rating.
I give it a very well deserved 4/5 and hope everyone goes to check it out.
They also didn't make too many changes to the story itself until the ending. The basic premise of the ending is the same as the book but some of what happens is different. To be honest though, I preferred the ending of the movie to the book. Karli did as well. In fact, she liked the movie a lot more than the book.
As for the casting, it ranged from spot-on to good, but not great. Rorshach was the best casting in the movie and he was exactly as I pictured he would be in terms of his voice, mannerisms, etc. The weakest casting was probably Dr. Manhatten, however, to be fair, it's hard to act I'm sure when you do pretty much the whole movie covered in sensors for the motion capturing.
This movie is definitely not a comic book movie to take the kiddies to. It is violent, has bad language and nudity. Definitely earns it's R-rating.
I give it a very well deserved 4/5 and hope everyone goes to check it out.
Sunday, March 1, 2009
Who Watches The Watchmen?
This guy right here. Well not until next Saturday hen the movie opens next weekend. I went to the theatre yesterday and picked up tickets for Karli and I. Yep, she has agreed to go see it with me. She even read the graphic novel. While she wasn't totally impressed with it, she still wants to see the movie. Yeah, she's pretty awesome. :)
I'm really rather excited about going to see Watchmen. I loved the book, even more so on my second read through. I think that, aside from maybe one or two characters, they did a fantastic job in casting the movie. I really liked that they are using actors that are accomplished but not huge celebrities like a Tom Cruise or Brad Pitt. Director Zach Snyder has done this with Dawn of the Dead (Sarah Polley, Ving Rhames) and 300 (Gerard Butler, Lena Headey, Dominic Cooper). I think it really helps to let the movie itself take centre stage and not just whose name is on the billing. I guess it also helps the studios keep their costs down.
As a huge fan of Snyder's previous two movies, mentioned above, I really think he'll do the source material justice. I'm not expecting it to be an exact adaptation, as that is impossible with most written material, but I'm sure his movie will be as faithful as possible.
Speaking of movies, I just realized that I haven't shared my thoughts on the new Friday the 13th movie. I caught this a couple weeks back with my brother Adam as he's my horror movie buddy, i.e. no one else really wants to go see them with us including our girlfriends. :P
I really liked what they did with this installment in the Friday the 13th series. It's not a complete remake/reimaginging/sequel. Basically what they've done, is they've taken elements of the first three original movies and used them in this one. As everyone who cares probably knows, in the original Friday the 13th, the killer is Pamela Voorhees and not her son Jason. She of course meets an undesirable fate at the end of the movie. Then in the second movie Jason takes over where mom left off. That is how this one starts off. You see what happens to Mommy Dearest over the opening credits and then it's all Jason from there on out.
When you first meet Jason, he doesn't have his signature hockey mask yet. This was the same case in the original 2nd movie. He doesn't get the mask until the third movie. He gets his mask in this one later on in the movie.
This movie does have all the requirements of a slasher movie. Stupid horny youngsters, girls who like to take their clothes off and lots of drinking and drug use. The movie starts with a group of kids in their late teens/early 20s who are in the forest looking for a secret pot stash. They have an unfortunate run-in with a certain masked killer. We then find out that the brother of one of the girls in the group (Jared Padelecki from Supernatural - which is a show everyone needs to watch) is now looking for his sister and he runs into the latest group of younguns who are going to a cottage to party. You can imagine what happens next.
If you like slasher flicks, this is one of the better ones...especially since they didn't wimp out with a PG-13 rating. This is a very R-rated movie with the violence and naked chicks and whatnot. It was also much scarier than pretty much any other movie in the series. Check it out for sure.
While on the subject of horror, I can't say enough how excited I am about Resident Evil 5. Mainly, I'm dying to play the online co-op. While I am trying to rent more games, I'll be buying this one for sure. I'm hoping to finish Dead Space before then but I'm only on level 2. I'm loving the game though. It's like Resident Evil in space with a dash of Bioshock. Just have to make sure all my gaming time doesn't go to Left 4 Dead or Death Tank. :)
I'm really rather excited about going to see Watchmen. I loved the book, even more so on my second read through. I think that, aside from maybe one or two characters, they did a fantastic job in casting the movie. I really liked that they are using actors that are accomplished but not huge celebrities like a Tom Cruise or Brad Pitt. Director Zach Snyder has done this with Dawn of the Dead (Sarah Polley, Ving Rhames) and 300 (Gerard Butler, Lena Headey, Dominic Cooper). I think it really helps to let the movie itself take centre stage and not just whose name is on the billing. I guess it also helps the studios keep their costs down.
As a huge fan of Snyder's previous two movies, mentioned above, I really think he'll do the source material justice. I'm not expecting it to be an exact adaptation, as that is impossible with most written material, but I'm sure his movie will be as faithful as possible.
Speaking of movies, I just realized that I haven't shared my thoughts on the new Friday the 13th movie. I caught this a couple weeks back with my brother Adam as he's my horror movie buddy, i.e. no one else really wants to go see them with us including our girlfriends. :P
I really liked what they did with this installment in the Friday the 13th series. It's not a complete remake/reimaginging/sequel. Basically what they've done, is they've taken elements of the first three original movies and used them in this one. As everyone who cares probably knows, in the original Friday the 13th, the killer is Pamela Voorhees and not her son Jason. She of course meets an undesirable fate at the end of the movie. Then in the second movie Jason takes over where mom left off. That is how this one starts off. You see what happens to Mommy Dearest over the opening credits and then it's all Jason from there on out.
When you first meet Jason, he doesn't have his signature hockey mask yet. This was the same case in the original 2nd movie. He doesn't get the mask until the third movie. He gets his mask in this one later on in the movie.
This movie does have all the requirements of a slasher movie. Stupid horny youngsters, girls who like to take their clothes off and lots of drinking and drug use. The movie starts with a group of kids in their late teens/early 20s who are in the forest looking for a secret pot stash. They have an unfortunate run-in with a certain masked killer. We then find out that the brother of one of the girls in the group (Jared Padelecki from Supernatural - which is a show everyone needs to watch) is now looking for his sister and he runs into the latest group of younguns who are going to a cottage to party. You can imagine what happens next.
If you like slasher flicks, this is one of the better ones...especially since they didn't wimp out with a PG-13 rating. This is a very R-rated movie with the violence and naked chicks and whatnot. It was also much scarier than pretty much any other movie in the series. Check it out for sure.
While on the subject of horror, I can't say enough how excited I am about Resident Evil 5. Mainly, I'm dying to play the online co-op. While I am trying to rent more games, I'll be buying this one for sure. I'm hoping to finish Dead Space before then but I'm only on level 2. I'm loving the game though. It's like Resident Evil in space with a dash of Bioshock. Just have to make sure all my gaming time doesn't go to Left 4 Dead or Death Tank. :)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
