Wednesday, October 16, 2013

Things Go Wrong In SPAAAAAACE! Movie Review: Gravity

     This is my first attempt at a movie review, and as I do more and more I will (hopefully) get better and better at them. In other words, if it sucks: let me know what I can do to improve. Oh and I will warn you right now SPOILER ALERT.

    Movie Review #1: Gravity

Space Sandra Bullock and Space George Clooney...in SPAAAACE


      The other weekend I made a spur of the moment decision to go see the new movie "Gravity" starring Sandra Bullock and George Clooney. If it hadn't been one of those spur of the moment things, I probably wouldn't have gone to see it, as its really not my type of movie. But after I saw it, I was fairly glad that I did.

Plot: 4 out of 5.
     The plot of the movie was good, but not amazing. I was entertained, it kept me actually wondering what would happen next, etc etc etc. I really did like the aspect of the entire movie (minus one scene) in space. However, I did get a feel much like that of how I felt while I watched "Armageddon":  WHY IS EVERYTHING GOING WRONG? I mean, seriously, how many things went wrong for these astronauts?! Too many

Character Development: 3 out of 5.
     I felt the character development was lacking in the fact we only had 2 characters in the entire movie. Okay, yeah, there's one other guy who's there for like the first 10 minutes, but then he dies and we never hear any more about him. And I also felt like I didn't really click with the protagonist, Dr. Stone, but maybe that's just me. I did love Kowalski though, you can't NOT love him. Adds some much needed comedy and heart to the movie.

Graphics: 5 out of 5.
     I'm not going to lie, I hate Imax and 3-d movies. That being said, this is the kind of movie I wish I would have seen in  Imax and 3-d. Anyway, the graphics were stunning, the views gorgeous, and there were some very creative point of view shots. All in all, some of the best graphics I've seen in a realistic fiction movie. 

Acting: 4 out of 5.
     The acting was well done. Again, good but not amazing. I have no complaints, but nothing to rave about, with the exception of George Clooney. Absolutely did a perfect job in this. In fact, I liked his character more than the protagonist.

Overall: 80 out 0f 100

The Stanley Parable

Back in 2011 a mod for the game Half Life 2 was released known as The Stanley Parable. The experience lasts about 30 - 40 minutes but it is a solid 30 - 40 minutes. 6 Endings each with full dialogue and a new take on first person narrative at the end, it is diffidently worth your time.

             The game possesses great charm, while graphics and things of that nature may seem primitive the narration is the superb, it surpasses all games that i have played with flying colors. After playing i can still hear the narrators voice, it is hauntingly soothing. It also won Smartest mod of 2011.

            The reason I bring it up is because the developers(Galactic Cafe) have pulled together and have made a standalone game. This release will be different, deeper and with a lot more dialogue. If you are interested the demo is available on steam right now. Full release is in 1 day! now none of my friends are excited as me about this but they don't get to rain on my parade. Speculated price is below 20 but no price has been announced officially.

           The demo, contrary to other demos, isn't the first 10 minutes of the game, not just the tutorial but a full voiced fully mapped narrative experience that contains nothing from the full game, no spoilers here! In total the demo is about 20-35 minutes depending on how you play it and how many secrets you find.




Link Dump
Galactic Cafe Developers
The Stanley Parable mod for Half-Life 2 - Mod DB
My steam name: mlp_midnaspet


         

Tuesday, October 15, 2013

GOTTA CATCH 'EM ALL

So this last weekend Pokemon X and Pokemon Y were released, this for me is a huge release. Not many people I know are into Pokemon and less have a 3DS but if you own one and have played any Pokemon game before, you owe it to yourself to buy it. The Story (no spoilers) is very light, its a return to older games, possibly to contrast the dark story of black, white, and its sequels. This game contains all generations and is based in a French type environment.

            I have been playing Pokemon since blue(im not actually old enough that was just my first) and have played my way through the years and haven't been this giddy to play a Pokemon game since blue.
A major complaint of mine and others with the last two games is that the Pokemon sucked, one was an ice cream cone, another was a garbage bag, it was bad. But in this game instead of adding 150 terrible Pokemon they added 70 good, original Pokemon. Quality over quantity.

           The Pokemon in this game, instead of being 2d sprites, are rendered in full 3d and man some of them were cute before but now I wanna hug 'em all. The art style is a cell shaded  style and it works, well. Also there is only so much graphically that the 3DS can do. Speaking of the system, the 3d can only be used in contextual areas, sad but its ok because no one uses the 3d. Also if you turn on the 3d during a battle the fps drops down to about 15-, not very cool.

           All in all I give it a solid 4.5 out of 5. Its awesome but a little bit of detail here and there could make this game shine a whole lot more.

Friday, October 11, 2013

Don't Wake the Cumber-Dragon!

 
You woke the Cumber-Dragon...
  I am not sure if you all are aware or not (I would hope you are aware), but we have been shown Benedict Cumberbatch's voice as the fiery dragon Smaug. As amazing (and just generally nerdgasmic) as this voice is, that's not the main thing I'm excited for Cumberbatch to do in the upcoming Hobbit movie.

      The main thing that nearly has me crapping my pants in excitement is the fact that our beloved Mr. Cumberbatch is also going to be voicing the shadowy Necromancer (SPOILER ALERT: He's actually Sauron). Which, other than "I seeeee yoouuuuuuu" and "Aragoooorn", Sauron didn't really have any lines in the main trilogy, so its going to be very fun to see him with a few more lines.
   
     If you haven't seen the newest Hobbit trailer, I will be oh-so kind as to include a link here. And as always you can see how many days we have to wait until the movie is released over in the top left corner. That's all for now!

-Time to "abandon ship",
     The General

Tuesday, October 8, 2013

Video games and violence.

To start i know that every gamer and their grandmother has disused this subject but i don't care. The subject is not as complex or as touch as fox news would have you believe. The main issue is children, people claim that "video games corrupt children" and "they promote violence". One game that comes into question a lot is the Grand Theft Auto games, they are violent, have large amounts of sexuality and drugs and shooting lots and lots of shooting. This scares the sheep that seek to control video games it scares them into thinking that games are the problem, they mirror real life tragedies right? Yes they do, but mirror and promote are different things. The games are set in a realistic setting with npc's who follow traffic laws to decent object physics, and you can do anything if you can do it in real life you can do it in GTA, example you can hijack a airliner while 2 friends are throwing grenades down below. In all seriousness its an amazing game and really showcases what games can do. However you might hit some poor person in the head with grenade and this is the point at which controversy is born.

            People want these games banned because the "corrupt children", im going to show you the box for GTA 4, do you see that M in the bottom left corner,Yeah when parents but this for their kids they should know what they are getting into. Countless times a Gamestop employee has warned a parent multiple times about the content of the game that they are buying for the 12 year old standing next to them, and countless times they buy it, then later freak out when their son shoots up a strip club. This is why there are complaints, its their faults for putting these ideas into children's heads not the games.

          On the subject of ideas, it is said that these games plant ideas of violence in children heads, but ideas are strictly in the mind, they have the opportunity to be fulfilled but in reality, they cant, especially by our nations kids.

          We can look at these games in another light. There is a college professor that has a 3 year old, he sits down his child and plays GTA. What he does is he drives around the map,following traffic laws, and has his child yell out the colors of the cars, and even sometimes the makes and models. This is an excellent way for games to be used for good, instead of just entertainment value. The sheep who shudder at the sight of a violent game need to realize that video games are only bad is used improperly, or just looked at from a scared sheep-like point of view.