Darksiders II Review

September 7, 2012 By 1 Comment

Darksiders 2, being the sequel to 2010′s Darksiders (obviously) surprisingly changes things up quite a bit. Not Zelda II changes, but changes nonetheless. Where the original Dakrsiders was a rather well executed equation of God of War combat, 90′s comic book art and story, and Legend of Zelda dungeons/puzzles/items/world layout/gameplay…. basically, it was  a mature Legend of Zelda clone.

For the most part, Darksiders 2 remains true to this formula. Well, kind of. DS2 adds in a much larger and more open world(s) to explore, and most notably, adds in Diablo-style loot drops and weapon upgrades.

From the get-go, Dakrsiders 2 throws you into this apocalyptic world of angels, demons, mythic creatures and elder gods. You don’t need to have a strong understanding — or any understanding at all, in fact — of the previous game’s plot in order to follow Death’s quest to redeem his brother War, the main character of the previous game. Death is a cool, somewhat devious counter balance to the brooding warrior of War. Almost like the Deadpool of this universe.

The story revolves around Death trying to restore humanity, after earth was mistakenly destroyed by War. The story is good, exactly what you’d expect from a game like this, but in all honesty there’s much better out there, and as a guy who likes less story and more gameplay, I wasn’t that drawn in, save for a few rather badass moments. The art direction, however, is wonderful. The art and design of these worlds and dungeons give the setting an strong identity. Sadly, other than the dungeons and hub zones, the rest of the world feel bare and boring, despite the fact you don’t see much of it. Darksiders 2 spans two giant worlds (The Viking/Tolkien-esque Forge Lands, and the Kingdom of the Dead), but the inclusion of a fast travel system means you’ll mostly be popping between objectives, dungeons, and merchants, and not spending much time exploring. What little exploration you do embark on happens within the few optional dungeons scattered about the map.

Thankfully, Darksider 2 plays magnificently well. Everything from combat to traversal feels fluid and intuitive. The God of War-style combat makes use of light attack/heavy attack combos, dodges, and special abilities. The traversal is like a mix between Uncharted and God of War, playing a lot like 2010′s Castlevania: Lords of Shadow, making exploring dungeons quite fun.

This is all rather par for the course as far as Darksiders goes. Where the game deviates from it’s predecessor is in it’s items and loots system. Where in Darksiders players worked through puzzle-laden dungeons in order to find a new item or new ability, use said item to defeat the dungeon’s boss, and then use the item to access a new part of the map.

Darksiders 2 does things differently. Most everything is open fro the outset of the game, at least in terms of the first over world. You don’t gain nearly as many special items, though there are some, and you do use them to uncover secrets or secondary areas. Instead, the focus is on loot and equipment. Often enemies will drop loot and gold. This loot can be anything from health potions, to new weapons and armor. Like with any loot-based game, certain items will increase your stats, and other may even have a special effect, such as stealing health or ice damage. As you might expect, better loot can make a difference in combat, especially boss battles. There are even special weapons that can “eat” other equipment and level up, allowing you to increase damage and add extra buffs.

In addition to this, Death has 2 skill tress to develop — one for melee attacks, and one for summoning minions. As you level, you earn skill points, yada, yada, yada. It’s action RPG 101. And if you don’t like your choices, you can spend a few gold to respec at any time. I found I didn’t use the melee attacks much, but the minion tree proved to be quite useful, especially for life steal. Thing is though, the system feels odd. I didn’t feel all that compelled to upgrade, even to the point of forgetting to use my points for about six levels. In terms of progression, I hit a wall about halfway through and lost interest in the RPG aspects of the game. The base gameplay was good enough, and my progression through the dungeons quick enough, that I still stuck with it though.

All in all, Darksiders 2 is pretty great. It diminishes a lot of what I loved about the original game, but many of the new additions are pretty cool (even if the RPG elements feel tacked on a bit). Darksiders 2 represents a type of game that is slowly dying out: the B-level, super “videogame-y” videogame, that doesn’t take itself too seriously, knows what it does well, and offers a great experience that doesn’t have to be a AAA blockbuster (and shouldn’t). If you’re in the market for a new God of War, or action RPG, or Zelda, or Legacy of Kain, or Castlevania: Lords of Shadow, then you’d do well to pick up Darksiders 2.

Score: 3.5/5

Pros: Awesome combat; great dungeon design; fun exploration and puzzle solving; really great artwork and setting.

Cons: Story is a bit bland; the overworld is bare and boring; the RPG elements can be hit or miss.

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The Children of Men

September 1, 2012 By 5 Comments


We are late to the party with this review of a truly under appreciated sci-fi that we regret not formally placing on our original release of Power Cord’s Top 10 Sci-fi flixs ever. Graeme Dyehouse now hopes to rectify this with his latest article.

What it is: The year is 2027 and there has not been a single human child born on planet Earth since 2009. If that sentence alone did not send shivers down your spine then you have not thought long enough about the implications of such a scenario because I refuse to accept that I may be that much of an ineffectual writer. Alfonso Cuarón brought P. D. James’ book of the same name to the silver screen back in 2006 and it has stood as a fantastic film in its own right but may also be one of the greatest of the science-fiction genre. We begin with Theo Feron, a immigration official with the British government, the last functional government remaining since other countries have fallen into chaos as global infertility slowly unravels civilized society. Refugees flood the country, causing the government to institute Draconian immigration laws to keep the rest of the world out of England. In response, a radical group of these refugees have taken to fight said government IRA style: bombing cafés, underground smuggling, and general terrorism.

The scene is one of utter hopelessness and chaos and then Theo is kiddnapped by these refugees who demand he acquire passports for a teenage girl from Africa on their behalf. Why are terrorists helping out a teenage girl? That would be because she is pregnant.


Why I dig it: The true essence of any work of science-fiction is simply the question, “what if..?”, which is then suppose to divorce the piece of any semblance to our own reality where we currently exist. Usually putting the story in a future in which technology has completely warped human existence beyond immediate recognition does this. Through this lens is when a good science-fiction filters out much of everything else we understand, leaving us with pure human emotion, rationale, and feeling. This phenomenon is precisely what occurs in Children of Men. Sure the big movie trope is a quiet every day man suddenly has to be a big hero and save the day, but the vehicle in which it is carried is so fascinating and yet so simple, you can finally see a great story in action.

As mentioned, the film starts us off with a pretty gloomy introduction, and continues to do so. Right from the get-go we are more or less resigned to the idea that things are hopeless. Personally I feel that this film has its place in the tragedy genre as well. However the characters are what truly keep things light, they have a weary hope about them that keeps you rooting for them up until the tragic end. Certainly the end is by no means ideal but if I could interject my personal feelings once more; too many happy endings make too many optimists. The theme of hope runs continuously through the film, making the realities around the characters a stark contrast and therefore much more dramatic. But you enjoy it; it’s very subtle. Michael Caine has a particularly delightful role as an ex-journalist who now grows marijuana in his hideaway home in the forest outside of town.

To perservere in the face of all odds is most certainly an inspirational facet of our species and this film displays this most fantastically, earning its place as one of my favorite science-fiction films

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Guest Blog: Breaking Bad Review

August 9, 2012 By 3 Comments

Graeme is back again for a late to the party review of the AMC hit, Breaking Bad. Not only does he review the show but discusses just exactly how Bryan Cranston’s character Walter White breaks bad. 

While a little late to the party I’m sure, Power Cords has allowed me to take a stab at television’s most watched, Breaking Bad and I am honored as it is, along with many others on the planet, possibly my most favored of shows. Yes, there will be a recap of the first episode of the new season but my hope is that our readership will appreciate the in-depth analysis and review of this most-watched series. This unique insight is what we at Power Cords like to bring to our audience.

What it is: Walter White is a mild-mannered high school physics teacher and is played by Bryan Cranston. White is portrayed much akin to Cranston’s former role as Hal from Malcolm in the Middle with less bumbling idiot and more cancer. Yes, Walter White gets cancer and is under crippling debt with his wife, Skyler White, due with a second child soon and his son afflicted with cerebral palsy. What’s a man in his position to do? Make crystal meth of course. We learn Walter is in fact quite a capable scientist, developing Nobel Prize winning work in his former years and after a time, falling from grace. Now stuck with his circumstances, he uses his knowledge of chemistry to manufacture the purest methamphetamine the world has ever seen. He does so with the help of a former student-turned-drug dealer Jesse Pinkman, and the two have hilarious misadventures whilst cooking crystal meth.

Why I dig it: Except there is nothing hilarious about it. Breaking Bad is dark and twisted and Bryan Cranston does a phenomenal portrayal of the character, Walter White. With several awards for his performance it is easy to claim so and I believe Bryan Cranston is possibly the best actor you’ll find on T.V. today. That alone should get you hooked but luckily for the addict in all of us the show has so much more to offer.

As the title may suggest, Breaking Bad can be boiled down to what exactly constitutes ‘bad’. Any freshman who’s had a philosophy class will go Nietzschean on you and dole out slogans on what an abstract concept the word ‘bad’ is but with Breaking Bad you can observe this happening in real time. Walter is inherently a good person, regardless of how you believe a human becomes good; we meet him as a nice, downtrodden old man with a big heart and even bigger love for his family. Walter has been given a raw deal in life, and again, however you believe a person comes to have these circumstances effect their lives, they stand as burdens on a man who wants nothing but good for his family. This introduction of the character lends our hearts to pity him, with the cancer diagnosis really tugging at our heartstrings. Then we watch him transform. The transformation is gradual, and along the way he does many terrible things; murder, drug trafficking, etc. but the beginning of the series shows us that he does these things for his families well being. This calls into question what it is to be ‘bad’; is it a man’s intentions, actions, or thoughts that make him ‘bad’? The answer is convoluted and the unfolding of the series beautifully illustrates this moral question.

What we see in the first few seasons is Walter breaking into the drug business. As I am sure most of us could easily guess, the drug business is not at all a nice one. So here we have our good man, Walter White, getting mixed in with the wretched, horrible world of drug trafficking. We see Walter become involved with a series of evil people too caught up in the business. They are violent, sociopathic, and lend themselves to arrogance. Much of the terrible things Walter does within the series is purely reactionary, a detail I feel most miss out on. [SPOILER ALERT] Walter kills Krazy-8 because 8 threatens to kill him and his family. All the dealers and suppliers Walter encounters fall to Walter after threatening him and his family [END OF SPOILERS].

Walter has one mission: make as much money as he can with what time he has left but a myriad of obstacles get in his way. These are mostly people trying to screw him over, murder him, steal, etc. and he will not tolerate it. Hell, the whole reason Walter enters the drug business is a reaction to his life’s circumstances. Perhaps it can be argued that outer forces drive people to become ‘bad’, as it is clearly the case of Walter White. Make no mistake, Walter breaks bad, real bad. Terrorism, arson, pre-meditated murder, all these things Walter commits in the name of his business and what we can see now, with the beginning of the fifth season, is that Walter is no longer the good man we were introduced to. Slowly up until now we’ve seen flashes of a cold, calculating man but now he is nothing but, hollowed out by the atrocities he has committed, jaded by the destruction he has wrought. It was his intention to never kill or hurt or anything otherwise but he has seen what happens to people, what extremes people force him to that has caused him to become remorseless.

Inherently what Walter has done is unforgivable. The manufacture of drugs is something no sane person would condone and yet we love to watch. Much the same occurs when we watch Dexter, as our protagonist carves his way through humanity and yet we can’t help but adore them. Ultimately this is what attracts us to the show, and has catapulted its themes and message into our conscience.

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Final Fantasy IX – Retro Review

July 27, 2012 By Leave a Comment

What it is: Final Fantasy IX is the ninth (obviously) main entry in Square-Enix/Squaresoft’s vastly popular Japanese RPG series, Final Fantasy. It was an important game as it marked a return to the series’ true fantasy roots, and was a salute to the then already-long-running series.

Why I dig it: I’m particular when it comes to fantasy. I can buy just about any apocalyptic scenario, and far-future sci-fi tale, and just about any superhero story, but for fantasy, it either works or it doesn’t.

All things considered, I shouldn’t like FFIX — whimsical setting, anthropomorphic animals and 15-year old theives with tails; immeninent, over-the-top magic and a sappy, generic love story at it’s core are all things I can’t stand. It’s almost like a fairytell setting, but for some reason, I love it. It could be the combat, the unique skill system, the great music, or perhaps it’s just the honesty and lack of melodramam and cynicism — things that have seriously marred the series ever since Final Fantasy VII brought in zippers and spikey hair, and filling it with more angst and moodyness than a Hot Topic. It’s truly a “fantasy” setting.

Final fantasy IX has a great — albeit goofy — cast of characters, including the mischievous thief Zidane; young black mage Vivi; adventurous Princess Garnett; and the mysterious dragoon Freya, to name just a few. You meet many characters along the way who all fit the Final Fantasy molds, but as with everything in FFIX, they have a charm and whimsy that characters in other Final Fantasies lack. Then again, it may just be that most of the NPCs are anthropomorphic animals, but who knows.

The story is good, balancing a s story book tale with perilous journey and warring kingdoms. There are some interesting twists, but because of the game’s lighter tone (when compared to games like Final Fantasy VI or VII), some of them don’t pack much of a punch, and for the most part, even when the villian’s plans have been uncovered, there isn’t a strong sense of peril. Still, the character-driven story is more than enough to keep you engaged.

When not reading through lines of dialogue, you’ll find yourself actually playing a game! (not to sound too facetious, but Final Fantasy isn’t exactly an action packed series). The good news is, it’s a good game. The combat is pretty similar to most Active Time battle systems, and features a “trance” meter, which builds throughout encounters, and allows you to perform powerful moves. Some scripted battles will begin with a party member already in trance (usually due to story reasons), giving you a bit of an edge in certain circumstances.

The skill progression in FFIX is probably the most interesting and unique system in the game. Skills and abilities are tied to certain pieces of equipment, meaning you can only have access to the skills your equipment comes with. However, the longer you wear the equipment, the higher a skill is leveled until it is “mastered.” Mastered skills can be used without needed a specific item. The catch here is finding the right balance between stat boosting and skills. You might find an much stronger weapon, but the one you have currently equipped may have a few highly beneficial skills tied to it. Do you wait and level your skills until they are mastered, or take the stat boost and be more effective in general combat? It’s a very fun and deep system, and one that requires a bit more strategy and planning than other skills systems in the Final Fantasy series. Unfortunately, it can also mean you’ll be spending quite a bit of time grinding, but the combat is good enough that having to do so isn’t always a chore.

I’m not as invested in this series as most. I’ve played a few titles here and there, but mostly, it’s not on my radar. That being said, Final Fantasy IX might be my favorite final Fantasy; 7 may be more widely beloved, 6 might have the better story and characters, and 12 might have the better combat, but 9 has an undeniable charm that has drawn me back to it time and time again. As I said, I’m not much of a Japanese RPG fan beyond the few titles I’ve mentioned in this review (and classics like Chrono Trigger and Final Fantasy Tactics), but for what it’s worth I feel Final Fantasy IX may just be the perfect Final Fantasy to play if you’ve ever been curious in the series or longing to return to the series.

Even thought the main antagonists are a giant clown queen and androngenous male with a visible g-string under his garments.

Score: 4/5

Pros: Fun story; combat is strategic, but still quick enough that it doesn’t become a bore; great skill/equipment system; returns the series to its roots and avoid the problems that have befallen the latter half of the Final Fantasy catalogue.

Cons: Dated graphics and sound; some pacing issues; saves system is archaic and can be frustrating; often feels more like an interactive story than “role playing” game.

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The Dark Knight Rises Review

July 21, 2012 By 2 Comments

So the day prior to the release of the Dark Knight Rises I was absolutely exhausted. For one reason or another I got very little sleep before waking up early for work and I was the most exhausted I have been in years. I tried to make up for this exhaustion with coffee and energy drinks and naps but for one reason or another I couldn’t sleep and the caffeine was not helping. This one night where I was required to stay up until 3:00 am, a feat which I normally wouldn’t even bat an eye at had me worried about whether or not I would be able to fully enjoy the premiere. As the credits started rolling for the movie around 3:00 I found myself rather upset that the theater wasn’t playing a 3:30 showing. My exhaustion had vanished and if the opportunity had been available I honestly would have gone on to watch that show. As well as the 7:00 am show.

What it is: The Dark Knight Rises is Christopher Nolan’s final film with Batman and it is the epic conclusion to his much beloved trilogy. The film stars Christian Bale who is once again playing Gotham’s dark knight and he is accompanied by several familiar faces including Morgan Freeman, Gary Oldman, and Michael Caine. Joining the cast for the first time is Anne Hathaway as Catwoman and Tom Hardy as Bane in addition to other Nolan staples such as Marion Cotillard and Joseph Gordon-Levitt.

Why I absolutely loved it: So as you have probably gleamed by this point I kind of enjoyed the film.

The film starts out at a party marking the eighth year since Harvey Dent’s death. Right from the get go we are seeing the impact of the Dark Knight. We see the effect that the Joker and Dent had on Gotham as well as the strain it has had on the people of Gotham. It shows that each movie isn’t more or less its own thing with reoccurring characters but rather one chapter in a single story. Not only are the events of The Dark Knight established early on but as the movie progresses we also see that the events of the first film also have a big impact on the story. Batman Begins and The Dark Knight were both brilliant movies but both were building up towards The Dark Knight Rises. Each movie isn’t its own standalone thing but rather a piece of the bigger picture in addition to each one being great when looked at individually.

While the old and familiar played a major role in the film in no way whatsoever was it stale and littered amongst the throwbacks and the recognizable were quite a few new faces. The first I wanted to talk about was Catwoman. To sum up Anne Hathaway’s portrayal of Catwoman in one word would be ‘wow’. When it was first announced that the villainess/heroine would be making her debut in TDKR I honestly a little underwhelmed. Sure she is an iconic character in the DC universe but I just never really cared about her and never really understood why I should. TDKR completely changed that for me. Holy crap was she awesome. As much as I love Chirstian Bale as Batman I honestly felt that Anne Hathaway was a better Catwoman than Bale was a Batman. It really just felt like the role Hathaway was born for. She was intelligent, clever, cunning, fast, sexy, funny and completely badass; she was everything Catwoman should be and Hatheway perfectly captured the Catwoman essence. I found myself smiling every time she showed up on-screen which fortunately was quite often. Words can’t really adequately describe my glee at Nolan not only being able to portray Catwoman perfectly but he was also able to give her her iconic cat ears but in a not stupid “I am deliberately wearing cat ears” way.

The next new face I wanted to talk about was Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s character John Blake. Blake is a new face not only to Nolan’s trilogy but also to the entire DC universe and he is an addition I am glad Nolan made. Blake feels a lot like a younger James Gordon with little splashes of Bruce Wayne sprinkled on top. While he is not a traditional DC character and is more or less is just another friendly cop –by friendly I mean one who likes Batman and eventually collaborate together—he does serve an incredibly important role in the film. In the past two movies it was really Batman and Gordon working together and other than that they were alone. Even though Gordon was a police officer more often than not he is alone in his support for the Bat and he is alone in fighting alongside him. With the addition of this single character fighting besides Batman and Gordon, Nolan is able to demonstrate that they are not alone this time around. It is not only Blake fighting besides them but all of Gotham is as a unified front against Bane.

Now Bane is one hell of a villain. Nolan has taken a few creative liberties throughout the trilogy but for the most part has stayed relatively true to the comics (one or another). With Bane, Nolan has taken perhaps the most creative liberties to date and I am sure there are some people out there who are unhappy about this. And by people I mean like two or three die-hard fans and Bane purists out the 7 billion people on Earth. Sure Nolan diverged some from the real Bane but his take on the villain is at least in my own opinion way, way better. Prior to this movie I had always really thought of Bane as this ruthlessly strong and massive brute. Nolan painted him as a ruthlessly strong and massive brute who also happens to be an evil mastermind. Not only is Bane able to physically dominate the Bat but he also has the intellect to outsmart him ultimately providing us with a much deeper villain with a much deeper relationship with our hero. Sure in the comics he was more of a mastermind and genius than Joel Schumacher painted him to be but honestly I never really thought of Bane as an evil genius until now. Another big liberty Nolan made was not covering Bane’s entire face. Bane has traditionally always worn a mask over his entire face and thank god Nolan decided to show off his eyes this time around. Tom Hardy has been one of my favorite actors for a while now and even with a mask covering up 75% of his face he delivers one of his most powerful performances to date. With just his eyes Hardy is able portray so many emotions and a ridiculous amount of intensity. With only his eyes he is able to deliver an amount of intensity than anyone else would need his or her entire face to accomplish. Nolan’s version of Bane’s mask not only is superior to other variants due to the uncovered eyes but the mask also serves to distinguish Bane from the rest of the crowd with an incredibly unique voice –which you can understand 95% of the time– and equips him with a mug that gives him the appearance of someone who could bite your face off.

As much as I loved Nolan’s take on Bane’s origin story they never really explain that giant scar running down his spine.

Everyone I have discussed the movie with has absolutely loved Hardy’s Bane but his incredible performance begs the question: is Bane better than the Joker? Most of the people I have talked to have most certainly felt that he was but I am not so sold. While I might not completely agree with them I can understand where they are coming from. Hardy delivers a powerful performance and is hands down one of the best movie villains of all time and if Bane and the Joker had a villain-off I would probably bet that Bane would win. So in some sense Bane is a better villain but regardless of Bane’s intensity and power, his performance didn’t haunt me the way Ledger’s did. I spent a lot of time after The Dark Knight trying to figure out a single word to describe Leger’s performance and that was the word I settled on: haunting. Heath Leger’s Joker was just so uniquely perfect and he perfectly captured that insanity behind the Joker which in my opinion makes him the greatest villain of all time. In no sense is Bane a bad villain. Like I said I honestly would place him in my top five villains of all time –do I see an upcoming list?— and off the top of my head the only other villain in movie history that might steal second from him would be Darth Vader.

As awesome as the movie and its cast were I do have a few minor complaints. First off I felt that there were a couple quick fixes that occur earlier on in the movie. For example we see in the beginning Bruce has a messed up leg, so much to the point that he must walk with a cane but then all of a sudden he gets an awesome machine leg brace and he is completely healed for the rest of the movie. I remember counting four real instances in the movie and they all happened early on. Every time Wayne or friends is faced with an apparently unfixable situation they quickly answer it with an unrealistic solution. It’s like every time he is faced with a hurdle he simply pulls out a step-ladder from his bat-belt and walks over it. These situations build up the tension and have you going crazy trying to figure out what he will do next and the answer has you mumbling about how stupid it was. These moments always feel like the creator gets really excited establishing an awesome situation and then exhausts all creative ability and just finishes it with some quick fix.

The Dark Knight Rises is the longest in Nolan’s trilogy clocking in at two hours and forty five minutes and it is absolutely necessary because there is so much content that needs to be covered. That’s my only other complaint actually that is wasn’t long enough. Several scenes felt like they were rushed and smushed to fit in. For the most part this wasn’t too excessive of a problem but there are a couple of scenes I really wished had been half an hour or so longer. Like I said this movie is closing in on three hours long and I honestly wish it was closer to four. There are few movies I can say that for and very few that I would encourage to increase the running time to an amount that high but TDKR is an amazing movie and at no point did I feel that those one hundred and sixty-four minutes were too much.

[SPOILER ALERT. Do not read the following section if you have not yet seen the film and do not want big chunks of the plot spoiled because I am going to be discussing several of the films major and final revelations. I am going to throw in a picture right here to mark the start of the spoiler zone and will throw in another one to signify the end of the spoilers.]

Christopher Nolan, I love you for being the genius that you are. From early on we were given several tid bits about the film from trailers and auditions about who was going to be joining the next Batman’s roster and once we were given a glimpse most people, myself included, thought we had gotten things figured out. When we first saw that Joseph Gordon-Levitt was going to be playing a young and idealistic cop we felt for sure that this meant we were going to be seeing Robin or Night Hawk make an appearance regardless of the character’s name being off. Even after Nolan expressed his disinterest in including the character in this final chapter I held on hope of seeing the Bat’s faithful sidekick showing up in one form or another. I mean how perfect would it be to see Robin come in as Batman left. Who would be dissatisfied with that ending? I understand the sidekick has a natural disposition of being cheesy and lame but if simply implied he would show up you wouldn’t even risk that on top of giving fans what they want. Walking into the theater I knew what I wanted to see happen but I knew that it most likely wouldn’t. The character’s name was completely wrong and even Nolan had pretty much shot down the concept. Because he did this it made that final revelation that much more fantastic. We had all but given up hope of seeing him and then there he was.

The next revelation is another one people figured out pretty early on. When it was first established that Liam Neeson was going to be returning and that Marion Cotillard was going to be joining the cast it seemed pretty clear that she was going to play Ra’s Al Ghul’s daughter, Talia Al Ghul, arguably one of Batman’s greatest foes. Being a giant fan of Batman Begins and Neeson’s portrayal of Ra’s you can only imagine my excitement of the prospect of seeing his daughter make an appearance. Once again though as more information became available it appeared that Cotillard wouldn’t be playing Talia but rather some other lady name Miranda, again destroying our hope of seeing the character’s we wanted and once again, making her eventual revelation all that more exciting.

Now I have loved Nolan for his directorial abilities and storytelling for as long as I could remember names of directors but the way he handled these seemingly obvious secrets was masterful. Once casting calls go out the world pretty much knows what’s up with a movie and the basic gist of the plot. By using different names and denying what everyone wanted to hear he was able to maintain the power of every big revelation in the film and was able to make it an amazing revelation even for the people who figured it out on day one.

With that being said, it makes you wonder what else Nolan has lied about to maintain the significance of the revelation. Perhaps that whole statement about being done with Batman? I know it’s a long shot but he has established that he is a man who cannot be trusted in the best sense possible.

Before ending the spoiler section I wanted to mention exactly how stoked I was that Nolan included Bane breaking the Bat. This is arguably one of the most iconic moments in all of Batman lore and I know that I personally would have felt a bit cheated and jipped if this scene was not addressed. This scene in addition to the those two big revelations has got to more than make up for any artistic liberties Nolan took with the series. I hate to admit this but I was honestly squealing with joy at each one of these moments due to my inner comic book geek being overly ecstatic.

[END OF SPOILERS. The rest of the review is completely spoiler free so read on without fear.]

As Christopher Nolan has mentioned in interviews, TDKR is one of the most epic movies to be released in years and the fact of the matter is that it really is. Not only is it the ‘biggest’ of the trilogy but I cannot think of any other action movie that even compares to it or is even close to being on par with it. Admittedly the scale of the situation isn’t as large as the situation in The Avenger’s but the way Nolan paints the situation you really feel the weight of Bane’s actions in a way that few other movies have captured. Sure Nolan is responsible for the beautiful cinematography and perfectly constructed shots throughout the trilogy but he is also just a masterful storyteller. I am hard pressed to think of another director who would have done as well of a job with the trilogy as Nolan did if someone else had been given the script.

Batman is facing the most difficult and intense situation and villain he has ever before and this leads to an incredible movie that keeps you on the edge of your seat with your eyes stuck on the screen for all two hours and forty-five minutes. The amazing cast delivers great and spot on performances from all which means that both you comic book lovers and non-lovers alike will love this movie. The scale of which everything happens leads to not only the best super hero movie of the year but arguably the single best super hero movie of all time. As Christopher Nolan time and time again reminds us that he is force to be reckoned with I feel it would be only fitting to use his own word to end on. The Dark Knight Rises is absolutely epic.

While for the first half of the movie I was settling on something closer to a 4.5/5 than a 5/5 due to those few small complaints I had in the beginning the second half had me settling on something closer to a 10/5. I give The Dark Knight Rises a 5/5.

So with that being said, go watch this movie right now. There is a pretty good chance you will see me in the theater back for more. This is the first movie since the first time I watched Fight Club where I wanted to immediately watch it again the second I finished it. The Dark Knight Rises is such a good movie and it is so absolutely epic.

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Video Game High School Season 1 Review

July 18, 2012 By 3 Comments

As many of you know by now I am a big fan of Freddie Wong and Brandon Laatsch so you can only imagine how excited I was when the YouTube duo announced they were working on a feature-length web series.

What it is: Video Game High School (VGHS) is a 9 episode web series that takes place in the near future and tells the tale of Brian D., the underdog who has by luck made his way into the most prestigious high school around: Video Game High School. VGHS is exactly what it sounds like, and is essentially the dream school of every teenager who has ever even partially enjoyed gaming. The series is directed by both Brandon and Freddie as well as Matthew Arnold. The series features cameos from many familiar faces including fellow YouTube stars such as Harley Morenstein in addition to Zachary Levi who is best known for his role on Chuck as Chuck. While the series has quite a few cameos the actual stars of the series are Josh Blaylock as Brian and Jimmy Wong and Johanna Braddy as Brian’s best friends.

What I thought about it: I am going to be completely honest here; VGHS didn’t start out all too well. While the series had a lot of what makes the Freddie channel awesome such as amazing visual effects and action sequences, the acting and writing felt really poorly done and the story just felt clunky. From the first episode I found myself disliking all of the leads. None of them felt real and everything they did felt scripted. The series felt a lot like what it was: a low resources, small budget production. Because of my disinterest it was a little hard to become involved in their conflicts and care about what they did. For those first three or four episodes I kept watching simply because of my love of the concept and because of my faith in Freddie and Brandon.

As I continued on with series I found that my faith in the VFX duo had paid off. The further I progressed into the series the more and more the characters started to grow on me and the situation became interesting enough for to feel motivated to check in weekly to see what would happen next, not just out love of the concept. Admittedly even after the characters had grown on me they still weren’t the deepest or best developed characters of all time but they were intriguing enough to keep the series going. In the beginning Brian felt young and immature but at the end of the series it felt like he had grown and matured over time.

As is required in any and every underdog tale is that bad top-dog our hero needs to overcome. It just can’t be an underdog tale if there isn’t that pedestal our protagonist can’t snag out from under the antagonist. VGHS’s antagonist takes his form as “the Law”, the best video game player out there and the captain of the Varsity FPS team at VGHS, making him the ideal villain for the series. The Law is played by Brian Firenzi who just so happens to also be one of the writers and creators. While he might be kind of cookie cutter he is very entertaining and consistently one of the strongest characters. The Law is funny, entertaining, despicable and he makes Brian that much better. The Law is constantly antagonizing and pushing Brian D. and because of that he is forcing him to become the best he can be. By being the worst to our hero he brings out the best in him which is exactly what a villain should do and the fact that he is able to do so in a witty and awesome way is just fantastic. As I mentioned already, Brian D. got better and really developed as the series progressed and I think a lot of that development is due to The Law.

Brian Firenzi as The Law

As one could expect from a web series titles Video Game High School you can bet that there will be some scenes of video games being played. Being directed by VFX and action masters such as Freddie and Brandon you also know that those scenes aren’t just going to be shots of people sitting and staring at a screen but rather something a little bit more kick ass. One of the best parts of the show is when the games start to get played. FPSs lead to intense shoot outs and the drift games lead to some really intense practical races. The video games provide all the real excitement to the series. It’s not only the action sequences which show us that this is essentially a video game show. In addition to the shoot outs the entire script is littered with game references and little throwbacks that really show that this is a show about people playing games, created by gamers, for gamers.

VGHS is not a web series for everyone. To get through the early episodes you have to love the idea of going to FPS class before heading over to RPGs 101. If you love video games than the awesome effects and action can make up for the cheesiness early on and carry you into the much more awesome later season. The Freddie duo has once again left me impressed.

I give season 1 of VGHS a 4/5 and I am excitedly looking to season 2. You gamers and fans of Freddie will absolutely love the series.

Check out episode one below and the rest of series over on freddiew’s YouTube channel which you can check out here!

 

Filed Under: Gaming, Movies/Television, Reviews

Guest Blog: The Newsroom Review

July 16, 2012 By 1 Comment

Mr. Graeme Dyehouse

Sunday, June 5, 2012 was the premier of the fourth episode of HBO’s The Newsroom and we’ve been hearing a lot about it, ironically, from the news media itself. What I’ve come across is a lot of negativity towards the show. Everything from the general premise, the plot devices, and the writing; all held in contempt by reviewers and media persons alike. A television series about the news, in critique of the news media, can certainly be expected to catch a certain amount of flak from aforementioned news media. I am not surprised but I do still believe that we must draw attention to what we can constructively learn from the series, that it does indeed have merit, and that that merit is based on the message the series broadcasts to its viewers.

What it is: Jeff Daniels stars as Will McAvoy, the anchor of a fictional cable news show. The series begins with Mackenzie MacHale starts as the new executive producer on Will’s network, and institutes a new way of doing news with facts, straight, to the point.                    

John Gallagher Jr., Alison Phil, and Dev Patel join them as supporting staff in the newsroom. Dev Patel making a mind-bending 180 from his former role on Skins. Olivia Munn also appears as Sloan Sabbith, a co-anchor and she is much more enticing playing office politics in dress suits than she ever was pretending to really like videogames.

 

 Together this crew of newsmen and women work to undo what their industry has become; a bloated, ineffective entertainment outlet and it makes for good T.V.

Why I dig it: I wanted to point to a particular review I read in which the author, Michael Wolff, wrote in the role of fact-checker, pointing out the various flaws within the story line of the show’s first episode, which centered around the break in the BP oil spill story. Would I be naïve to question the purpose of an assessment of the truthfulness of a historical fiction piece? I missed the point. The purpose of The Newsroom is to make a statement; to draw attention to the cracks within modern journalism and doing so through our very own world events. The creators of a dramatic television show are allowed some creative license and it should not be the cause of detraction from the show’s following. The Newsroom walks a line between its message and its medium. Nit-picking the facts of the show does not make these issues go away, but if your in Mr. Wolff’s camp here are some facts for you: modern news media is lousy with salacious reporting. It is by and large ineffectual, sensationalist, and generally fails to properly inform the public, (I am specifically thinking of the media’s coverage of politicians and their antics rather than their philosophies). The show brings these issues into focus and will continue to do so as the season progresses.

 

Next I challenge Mark Lashley, who writes for that rag we’ve all been duped into calling news, The Huffington Post. Mr. Lashley agrees that the show isn’t that bad, which I should point out. His issue lies with the beginning of the first episode, in which the main character unleashes a diatribe upon college students for assuming America is the greatest country in the world and it makes Mr. Lashley uncomfortable. Here it is in its entirety for your reading pleasure, but I highly recommend watching it at some point, (the performances are spot –on and smart).

“And with a straight face you’re going to tell students that America is so star spangled awesome that we’re the only ones in the world that have freedom? Canada has freedom. Japan has freedom. The UK, France, Italy, Germany, Spain, Australia, BELGIUM has freedom.

So, 207 sovereign states in the world, like 180 of them have freedom.

And you, sorority girl, just in case you accidentally wander into a voting booth one day there’s some things you should know. One of them is there’s absolutely no evidence to support the statement that we’re the greatest country in the world. We’re 7th in literacy, 27th in math, 22nd in science, 49th in life expectancy, 178th in infant mortality, 3rd in median household income, Number 4 in labor force and Number 4 in exports, we lead the world in only three categories: Number of incarcerated citizens per capita, number of adults who believe angels are real, and defense spending where we spend more than the next 26 countries combined, 25 of whom are allies.

Now none of this is the fault of a 20 year old college student, but you none the less are without a doubt a member of the worst period generation ever, so when you ask what makes us the greatest country in the world, I don’t know what the fuck you’re talking about. Yosemite?

It sure used to be. We stood up for what was right. We fought for moral reasons. We passed laws, struck down laws for moral reasons. We waged wars on poverty, not poor people. We sacrificed, we cared about our neighbors, we put our money where our mouths were and we never beat our chests. We built great big things, made ungodly technological advances, explored the universe, cured diseases, and cultivated the world’s greatest artists and the world’s greatest economy. We reached for the stars, acted like men, we aspired to intelligence, we didn’t belittle it, it didn’t make us feel inferior.

We didn’t identify ourselves by who we voted for in the last election and we didn’t scare so easy. We were able to be all these things and do all these things because we were informed, by great men, men who were revered. First step in solving any problem is recognizing there is one. America is not the greatest country in the world anymore. Enough?” 

He describes the monologue as “suspiciously statistic” as if numbers can lie. The reality is that the figures given by Jeff Daniel’s character are correct, and they speak volumes to where America is.

With statistics like that, how can you argue that we are not? What is it? We’ve been the greatest country for so long and we are having a hard time admitting it to ourselves that we may, in fact, not be anymore. The damning monologue should be seen as a wake up call, it should slap you into focus, it should invoke a visceral reaction, and it should make you think. If it does none of those things for you, if you feel insulted, cheated, or outraged you may need to stop and think critically; try arguing with your TV. Like it or not, America is a broken thing that is in dire need of fixing. What the show does is highlight this phenomenon taking place right here, right now. That is why I wanted to bring the show to everyone’s attention. It’s wonderfully done and has a truly powerful message for us. It’s a how that makes us think which is ultimately the real purpose of the entertainment we consume; to transmit thoughts, ideas, and concepts. The Newsroom has something great to offer us and I’d hate for you to miss out on it.

Graeme likes telling you what you like and more of his ramblings can be read on Twitter: @Mad_God

Filed Under: Movies/Television, Reviews Tagged With: , , , ,

Darksiders – Retro Review

July 11, 2012 By 5 Comments

With the upcoming release of Darksiders II, I decided to check out the first game in the series. I’ve always been a fan of lore and mythology in video games whether it’s a game like God of War, or Dante’s Inferno, or others such as Age of Mythology. Seeing that this game involves a battle between Heaven, Hell and Humankind–I was very interested in checking it out.

You play as War–one of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. When Heaven and Hell first started warring, the Charred Council sent the Four Horsemen to end the War. When you come into play, you’re under the impression that the Seven Seals have been broken, which is the only way you can be summoned. But soon find out that that is not the case. You’ve been somehow called early which is breaking the rules of the Charred Council. The game is you questing to find out who and how you were summoned and to eventually defeat “The Destroyer”.

I had a lot of fun playing Darksiders, from beginning to end. Throughout the game you are faced with many different enemies and many different challenges. Playing as War, you can use a few different items to accomplish everything. You start with your sword–Souleater– and gain a few new weapons along the way such as a scythe and a fist weapon. The game mechanics are similar to that of the God of War series, and Dante’s Inferno. It works off of a strong and quick attack system with combos added into the mix as you go as well as grab attacks and aerial attacks. As you deal damage to your foe, the lower they get and eventually the grab button shows up above their head which initiates an “insta-kill” feature where you finish off the last of your enemies health–very similar to the games mentioned above, but not exactly the same.

If you’re looking for a great hack-n-slash, mob slaying, combo racking, bpss battling, puzzle solving action game–then this is a good game to check out! It’s a lot of fun and if you enjoy it enough, the sequel is coming out soon and you get to play as Death!

Filed Under: Gaming, Reviews Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , ,

Moonrise Kingdom Review

July 10, 2012 By 5 Comments

This past week I found an opportunity to get to see the new Wes Andersen movie, Moonrise Kingdom and let me tell you that I was not disappointed

What it is: Moonrise Kingdom is more or less a love story between two 12 year olds and their adventure as they combat the challenges and hardships they are faced with. The movie is of course directed by the always fantastic Wes Andersen and features an absolutely incredible cast including Bruce Willis, Edward Norton, Bill Murray, Frances McDormand and Tilda Swinton on top of being narrated by Bob Balaban in addition to having cameos from Harvey Keitel and Jason Schwartzman.

Why I love it: I have said this before but allow me to reiterate: yes I am from Portland and yes I love my Andersen films but no I am not a hipster. The reason I love Wes Andersen isn’t because he is hip but rather he is simply a great director. He has an incredible cinematographic style which he uses to tell great original stories full of deep, unique and all around amazing characters. Moonrise Kingdom only serves to further validate this opinion.

Let me start by addressing the film visually. The movie is clearly an Andersen film due to characteristically centered and geometrically structured shots that helps give his films that Andersen style. On top of the assortment of classic Andersen shots are some beautifully composed scenes that made my inner cinematographer absolutely giddy. While I do love Andersen’s style it was a nice twist to see these gorgeous shots seamlessly sewn into the tapestry of familiarly composed scenes. The second visual aspect of the film really worth mentioning are the visual effects. Admittedly they are nowhere near being cutting edge but that was not the purpose they were meant to accomplish. The special effects once again deliver a large dose of Andersen flavor but in new and exciting ways. The effects were actually some my favorite I have seen in any movie ever. They were very well done, poorly done effects if that makes any sense at all. They seemed low budget but done with a large budget. They felt cheesy and campy but in the absolutely perfect way.

A lot of the campy-ness of the effects might be from what they were used for. The special effects were most abundant in scenes or moments that were completely unnecessary for the film. All of these moments were much like Halo Reach’s assassinations in the sense that while they do not enhance or better the movie/game they are an absolutely awesome addition which ultimately makes the respective piece of media better. I understand this is kind of contradictory so let me refer to an example from the film. So at one point in the film one of the main characters, Sam, is struck by lightning. There is maybe 30 seconds of build up to this and he gets up immediately afterwards and it is as if it never happened in the first place. No characters are really developed –with the exclusion of us seeing that Sam is a tough kid, a point which was already pretty clear—and the plot is not furthered by these events. But with that being said this short and brief scene is absolutely awesome and one of the most memorable of the film. While the scene isn’t necessary or really that important it really is just an awesome and bad ass scene that ultimately makes the film that much better and that much more enjoyable.

One of the things that have become a staple of Andersen’s films is the quirky and unforgettable characters. As I have mentioned already the film has a rather large and impressive cast but not a single actor really outshined the others. It’s not the case that no actor really shined but really that they all did equally. Every single character was motivating and deep and you found yourself relating to and caring about every single one of them. After walking out of the theater I found myself pondering which of the films many characters was my favorite and as soon as I settled on one I would remember a glorious moment from another. While everyone was fantastic it was Murray, Norton, and Willis who really stole the show. For each of these actors I am hard pressed to think of a movie where they had done a better job. Each of these three actors’ respective portrayal of his character was one of highlights of the movie for me.

Now this brings me to my small complaints about the film. We have seen Andersen do films with large casts like this before and he did an excellent job of spending a good amount of time developing each character. The Royal Tenenbaums for example did a great job letting us understand and come to love each member of the family. Moonrise Kingdom did not do as great of job with this as I would have hoped for. After it was finished I found myself wishing we had been given more time with all of the side characters. I hadn’t got enough of Norton or Willis or Murray or any of the other fantastic characters when the credits had started to roll. Throughout the film we mainly follow Sam and Suzy’s young love and are only shown brief glimpses of what has been going on in all of these side character’s lives and their relationships with one another, but unfortunately glimpses are all we are really given. We are told and shown that something is going on there but this small sample is all that we are shown.

This was probably my single biggest complaint about the film and I have been pondering and considering this ever since leaving the theater and after much thought I realize this is actually much less of a negative than I had originally concluded. As much as I wanted to see more of these other characters they were not the focus of the film. They are brilliant and intriguing details of the story but ultimately small details. As many of you remember The Darjeeling Limited was preceded with a ten minute short titled Hotel Chevalier that was perhaps one of Andersens best works. Hotel Chevalier demonstrated that Andersen is capable of creating beautifully deep and intriguing characters and relationships in short amounts of time. It showed us that there is so much more to every character than what we are given on the screen. We can’t always be spoon fed every single detail, some of it needs to be inferred and we might need to read between the lines. The phenomenal side characters reminded me a lot of this. While we aren’t given much of these characters there is still so much there to infer and so much left to be filled in by us, the viewers. After coming to this conclusion I realized that Moonrise Kingdom was essentially a film about two young lovers intertwined with half a dozen short films portraying the rest of the cast which really in all honesty is not a negative. There is so much more there than what we are shown if only we look a little harder.

 My only other complaint about the film is another one which I concluded was ultimately incorrect. In the first half of the film we see Sam and Suzy alone adventuring across the island. While it was cool seeing them travel I found that the interactions between the two were incredibly awkward. At first this drove me crazy. I thought less of the film due to the awkwardness that accompanied the two central protagonists being together. We see both children interacting with other people prior to them being alone with one another at which point they are not the least bit unnatural. Admittedly this effect lessened as the film progressed but none the less the second the two of them were alone it became a bit uncomfortable. At first I held this against the film but once again after further consideration I realized my miscalculation once again. The awkwardness and discomfort that arises when the two are together is not the result of poor acting or casting but rather a brilliant portrayal of young love, because you have to admit, young love can be quite awkward. These two realistically portrayed the true and uncouth nature of love at that age and how we all honestly acted in that same situation. Those two weren’t doing a poor job but an astounding one delivering to the audience a dash of true and honest emotion.

Moonrise Kingdom is an incredible movie. The all-star cast gives us one of the best character rosters I have ever seen and the film in its entirety is charming, heart-warming, witty and real. I have tried incredibly hard to find something bad to say about the film but every negative I can think of I find myself being able to justify. This is one of those movies that literally everyone can appreciate and because of that I recommend it to absolutely everyone. Moonrise Kingdom is definitely one of my favorites of Wes Andersen’s.

I give Moonrise Kingdom a 4.5/5. Now go watch this movie while it is still in theaters. You won’t regret it.

With all of that being said, what did you guys think of the film? How do you think it compared to his other work? Did you think Suzy and Sam were awkward together or am I just kind of crazy? Leave your thoughts in the commenst below!

Filed Under: Movies/Television, Reviews Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

The Legend of Grimrock Review

July 2, 2012 By 1 Comment

Down, down, down you go, where you’ll stop—no one knows. In the game Legend of Grimrock you play the role of anywhere from one to four prisoners that are trying their damndest to escape this mountain prison. You start out on level One of the prison and as you progress through the game you go deeper and deeper on to level Two and Three and so on. However you’re not the only people in this dungeon, along the way you’ll find markings on walls and letters on floors as well as creatures that are there to stop you at whatever cost.

When you start the game you’re given the choice to create your own characters or let the game create a party for you to play. You can—but don’t necessarily have to — have four members in your party. However the more the merrier (unless you find a hidden Easter Egg they’ve put in there for some One on Dungeon action.) There are three classes; Fighter, Mage, and the Rogue. And there are four races for you to choose from; Human, Minotaur, Lizardman, and Insectoid. Each Race and class has their own advantages and disadvantages. Some combinations are better than others for instance a Minotaur Mage makes less sense than an Insectoid Mage; however you’d probably love to have a Minotaur Fighter. Granted you can do whatever combinations you’d like. During character creation you can add up to four Prisoners’s and give each multiple Traits, for instance the trait Daemon Ancestor says “Your Great Grandfather had fiery eyes – Resist Fire +25”. And once you’ve chosen your class and race you get to assign skill points to that class’s skill set.

As you go farther and farther down into the mountain prison, you come across more and more dangerous traps, monsters, and more difficult puzzles. If you look hard enough you’ll come across a few secrets on each level as well which can yield wonderful magic items that will be of tremendous help down the road. As you kill monsters like Giant Mushrooms, Frost Raptors, Skeletons, and Troll’s you gain experience and level up. Leveling up allows you to increase your skills to use different abilities and increase your effectiveness in combat. There are thrown weapons and melee weapons; some can reach further than others and each weapon type has specific abilities that coincide with the respective skill. For instance, Maces can ignore armor later and Swords can attack faster.  The way the characters are set up is in a two-by-two square; two members in the front and two in the back. You can change the order around by dragging each of the prisoner’s to a different spot. This allows you to place your “tanks” in the front and let your ranged characters sit in the back and take no damage. However, when a hallway has more than one runoff the side characters are vulnerable as well. A skilled player can adapt to the situation and overcome the adversity! Moving is a matter of turning, strafing, walking backward and forward with the Q, W, E, A, S, D buttons.  If a member of your prison break team dies, there are life crystals throughout the game that will allow you to bring them back to life, so if you lose one or two in a tough fight—have no fear—they’re not gone for good.

One of my favorite aspects of this game is the magic casting. So much so I decided to give it its own paragraph entirely! In most games, magic is something that’s just an innate thing that you’re able to do and you learn spells as you level up. That is not at all how it is in LoG. When you have a mage in your party they start with anywhere from 0-3 spells depending on how many points you put into the different magic schools. As you go along throughout the game however, you’ll find scrolls that show you the runes setup to cast specific spells, and in order to successfully cast the spell you have to have a certain skill level in that school of magic. When I say rune setup I mean, in order to cast spells you have to open the magic menu — whether that’s from your mages hand, staff or orb — and then a set of nine runes shows up and you have to click on the specific runes shown in the scrolls that will allow the spell to be cast. There are no preset spells that you can just click cast, you’ve got to click on the runes each time. This mechanic is wonderful, it gives some sort of old school realism where you’ve got to prepare the spell before casting it, and you’ve got to either read the scroll or have it memorized. All in all, the combat system strikes me as perfect—at least for this game style anyway.

The Legend of Grimrock is the best current dungeon crawl/puzzle game I’ve played. When Almost Human sat down to put this game together they did an outstanding job. The combat system is functional and makes complete sense for the setting and style of the game. And the story is pretty compelling, I mean if you were stuck in prison with some experienced adventurers, wouldn’t you want to escape? If you get the chance to snag this game I say go for it. Great price on Steam, for many hours of gameplay.

Filed Under: Gaming, Reviews Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , ,
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