Reviews | The VidZone Network Blog - Part 2

April 15, 2009

The New Hotness vol. 2

Wow, that took quite a long while between updates. (Shhhh…don’t talk about the video show…) In the few weeks, about as many interesting consumables that I’d want to rave about passed through. Let’s get to it, though.

Music:

Completely by coincidence, continuing with Korean acts, here we have Girls’ Generation‘s (aka SNSD oveseas) “Gee.”  I stumbled upon the video while wading through the comments on a Kotaku article regarding one of the producers behind Japanese girl super-group Morning Musume.

If you know me, you know I make no secret that I’m a fan of pop music (as specifically referring to the post-grunge, teen idol era surrounding the turn of the millennium), in particular girl groups.  See Girls Aloud for a modern example.  Anyway, this song is quite catchy and (so far) not irritating.  There’s a marching percussion backing the whole composition, and the vocal melodies are very reminiscent of early ’90s pop-R&B.  What I enjoy most about this music video is the tight unity for the massive number of participants and how each feature girl is able to seamlessly apply her own flair for the current move that sometimes is played to a different beat, then jump right back in synch for the next formation shift.  I also liked the hyper-feminine sass that avoids becoming too sexualized.  To be fair, the choreography is far from complex with everybody generally doing the same thing between formation changes, but I think that they’re able to stay in unison so perfectly comes from the need to perform live constantly.  I wouldn’t be surprised if not that many takes were needed to get the shot in the can.

Though the single-shot video impressed me when I first saw it, after stumbling around the internet trying to relocate the same video as posted in the Kotaku comments, I learned that this is just a dance reel used for splicing into the actual video.  There actually exists another dance reel with a white background (not as cleanly danced as the above posted video).  I thought it was rather interesting that these full “alternate take” videos would be publically released for the fans to gobble up.  Take note, Britney!

Video Games:

Discounted XBLA games

Last week, Amazon.com began offering Xbox Live Arcade game download codes you could purchase with real money, rather than needing to invest in Microsoft Points.  The best part of it was that they offered several games for half price!  Of course the discounted offerings will rotate, but so far they’ve offered Galaga Legions, Pac-Man Championship Edition, DOOM, and Undertow.  When you make your purchase, you’ll immediately see (and be emailed) a code you can enter on your Xbox 360 or on Xbox.com to queue up the download; no waiting for a slip of paper to arrive by snail-mail.

Food:

Wonka Tinglerz

I don’t know if you’re aware it exists, but they make (official) Pop Rocks chocolate bars.  Unfortunately the chocolate is of a pretty low quality, there’s too many pop-rock nuggets per bite, and the thing is just too damned sweet.  The other week, I saw these at Target and decided to give them a try.  Thankfully, this is a much better candy.  Basically, it’s Nestle Buncha-Crunch with the occasional fizzy bit.  (Note that Wonka is a sub-brand of Nestle.)  So for the most part, your mouth isn’t exploding, but you still get some pop from the crispy “rice krispie” bits, but then every so often you get an extra kick.  It’s much a much better ratio of gimmick to food, and being a Nestle product, the chocolate actually something enjoyable.

Carl @ 2:59 am
Filed under: Games,Music,Personal,Reviews — Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , —

April 7, 2009

Carl’s Movie Mini-Review: Fast & Furious

Fast & Furious

First, a little background.  With the notable exception of Tokyo Drift, I’d never seen any of the previous movie in whole.  I caught bits and pieces of them on TV or on flights, but I never got pulled in.  This past weekend, in anticipation of catching director Justin Lin’s second go at the franchise and the original’s direct sequel, I watched my DVD of the first movie.  I bought the DVD long ago as part of a promotional two-pack of the first two movies that also included a preview DVD and ticket for Tokyo Drift.  The “acting” of the first movie was painful, the production value and lighting awful, and plot plodding.

The article-free sequel is a noticable improvement on all fronts.  Everything and everyone is much prettier, the line delivery adequate, and pacing brisk.  Tons of exciting car (and foot) chases, fights, and explosions.  It does, however, assume previous knowledge of the procedings of the first movie (and does have a tie to Tokyo Drift) and squandered some perfect opportunities to slip in a non-hokey introduction dialogue to explain certain initially vague and confusing pre-existing character relationships (that does get cleared up for any confused viewers in the second act).

There isn’t really more to say other than it delivers the fun.  Hey, it even has the “rambo lambo,” the Lamborghini LM002.  Also, if you actually watch the end titles, you’ll see it’s actually a continuation of the final scene and not just random computer effects.

Carl @ 2:11 am
Filed under: Film,Reviews — Tags: , , , , —

Reason #102 why the PS3 is so damn unenticing

For some odd reason, I decided to finally upgrade my Playstation 3′s hard drive this past weekend.  It was the 80gb (w/ software backwards compatibility), and like everything else, I’ve consumed all the hard drive space.  Wanting to continue downloading–and hoarding–high-definition videos, I juggled some of my extra laptop hard drives and settled on giving it a 250gb 5400rpm drive rather than the old 160gb 7200rpm drive that’s currently in my laptop.  The 320gb 5400rpm (but Samsung fast) drive I bought who knows how long ago will eventually go into my laptop.

In all fairness, some of the issues I encountered during this torturous procedure weren’t Sony’s fault and instead problems with my own ambition.  But most of them were. (more…)

Carl @ 1:24 am
Filed under: Games,Personal,Reviews,Techniques — Tags: , , , , , , , , , , —

March 21, 2009

The New Hotness vol. 1

In this ongoing segment, I’ll narcissistically talk about things that I’m currently enjoying or think are cool.  I’ll plan on doing this once a week, rather than random ramblings about Dancing with the Stars or the latest failed attempt at pop music.

Music:

BoA – BoA (self titled)
This is Korean pop singer BoA’s big American debut album…although she’s been singing in English…and Japanese…and of course Korean…for many years now.  For better or worse, unlike Utada Hikaru’s big American debut album, this one doesn’t sound very Asian at all.  In fact, if you tried to pass this off as Britney’s latest work, no one would be none the wiser.  It’s a collection of above average, lightweight, catchy, current dance/”hip-pop” tunes.

Fashion:

Busted t-shirt
I posted this a little while back, but at the time it wasn’t officially a shirt.  However, it’s been approved and available for purchase.  I don’t know what it is, but artsy Pac-Man shirts are able to make me pay more than $12 for mere t-shirts.

TV:

Hana Yori Dango (Boys Over Flowers)
The live-action adaptation of the classic manga/anime series.  That being said, I wasn’t familiar with the source material, but somehow I stumbled on a recommendation to check out the TV show, so I gave it a shot.  And it sank its claws into me, causing me to watch mini-marathons each night that prevented me from going to bed before 4am.

In a nutshell, Tsukushi is a poor girl whose family is putting her through the most exclusive, rich-kid high school in Japan.  Her goal was to fly under the radar until graduation, but after defending a friend, she draws the the wrath of the school’s ruling power: the F4, a group of sons of Japan’s ruling elite in commerce, culture, and the “underworld.”  Refusing to back down from the teasing and abuse from the whole school and actually socking a punch to the F4′s leader Tsukasa, she earns F4′s respect and the admiration of their self-centered, young punk leader, much to the dismay of all the rich girls doting on the boys.  Of course Tsukasa has familial obligation to become heir to the throne of Japan’s largest financial dynasty, and his wicked mother won’t stand to have him fall in love with a peasant girl.  The side characters all have interesting side-stories that are reasonably explored, and the Cinderella story is not overly melodramatic or cheesy nor girly or sappy.  However, a certain level of over-the-topness is expected from any Japanese show.  It goes on for 20 episodes between the two seasons, plus a movie.

Books:

Watchmen
I picked up the book after watching and thoroughly enjoying the movie.  I’m about a quarter of the way in, and so far the movie’s been pretty damned spot-on.  Already knowing how things are going to play out (more or less given the tweaks to the ending), I am having lots of fun seeing hidden hints and clues in the crude 1980′s artwork.

Video Games:

House of the Dead: Overkill
It’s a non-stopbloody, funny, funky, dirty-mouthed riot.  Except for those annoying half-second freezes everytime you blow someone up to smithereens…which is quite often.  It’s easy to overlook that technical quirkiness, though when the game is just this much fun thanks to it’s incredible polish.  There’s location sensitive hit-zones that let you blow off individual limbs, grindhouse-style dirtied up image and audio filters, and a genuinely funny script despite the famously frequent f-bombs.

Buy it!  Buy it new, dammit!  Otherwise we’ll still be stuck with endless mini-game collections.  Sega is sticking its neck out by publishing all these “core gamer” titles like HotD: Overkill, MadWorld, and The Conduit.  If they don’t get any love and appreciation (read: money), then the word that’s being sent their way is that it’s not profitable to aim for the “core” gaming crowd.

Carl @ 7:38 pm
Filed under: Games,Music,Personal,Reviews,Television — Tags: , , , , , , , , , , —

March 6, 2009

Carl’s Movie Mini-Review: Watchmen

Watchmen

(Note: I’ve never read the original graphic novel, so I can only judge the film on its own merits.)

First, a tangent: Chuck and I randomly decided to catch the midnight showing of Watchmen rather than simply purchase tickets for Friday.  Being that we’re pretty far from the college, it turns out that they hadn’t sold out of tickets.  In fact, when we returned to the theater after wasting a few hours in wait, there were still people buying tickets.  We finally let out right at 3am.  I don’t know whose crazy business decision it was to stay open and keep staff until past 3am for a single screen.  I mean, unless it’s a Friday or Saturday night, final showings are usually around 10:40pm, letting out around 1-ish.  That’s an extra 2 hours they had to pay staff!

It’s no secret that I’m no fan of director Zack Snyder’s previous work 300.  It was just a bunch of naked dudes screaming and yelling.  With no background on Watchmen, my only expectation/hope coming in was that it would be better than 300.

Watchmen was a stellar and tight effort.  There’s a small core cast, and there’s enough time spent on them individually and in pairs that you get a feel for the character and their chemistry amongst each other.  There are several extended vignettes for a handful of the characters that further delve into their backgrounds, but not all of the represented characters are given that same treatment.

Those who come looking for a wham-bam action flick will be disappointed…to a certain degree.  The story unfolds slowly and meticulously.  The plot itself is more akin to a mystery, but the significant focus is on exploring the characters.  How do certain people react to bad situations?  To distant partners, to break-ups?  To professional obligations?  To being “fresh meat” in a prison?  To the generational misunderstandings between parent and child?  To convincing people that contributing to the greater good means “cracking a few eggs to make an omelette?”  To impending global thermonuclear warfare?  That said, the action presented is intensely brutal with just the right amount of editing.  Cuts are made to make sure the composition remains dramatic, but the camera can, at times, be unflinching in presenting grotesque scenes.

I have a few technical issues with some of the effects work, notably the obvious wire-work assisting Rorschach’s prowling and the odd lack of shadow when compositing CG characters.

There is a tremendous focus on using 1970′s/1980′s media to date the setting.  There is plenty of TV-watching and perhaps overly prominent use of licensed songs.

Those looking for another dose of superhero action will be sorely disappointed; this film’s strongly in the drama category.  It’s a cerebral, meta take on masked crusaders as real people and something I will highly recommend.

After the movie Chuck told me about how things played out in the original book.  It seems to me it was a very wise decision to adjust the focus, trim down the cast, and avoid a likely awkward deus ex machina plot device that would make an already long movie quite clumsy.  I just ordered the book off of Amazon (on sale for $10.99!), so maybe I’ll have a different take on it after I’ve read the source material.  Chuck said that though he prefers the way things are handled in the book, as a stand-alone work, the film was great.

Carl @ 4:36 am
Filed under: Film,Reviews — Tags: , , , , , —

February 20, 2009

Carl’s Movie Mini-Review: Coraline (3D)

This was an unfortunately uneven, rough film.

Firstly, the 3D is fantastic. Though there are some instances of cheap “shove-it-in-your-face” moments, the majority of it really expands the depth of the canvas, showcasing many wide open vistas or enormous rooms. The whole visual design is stunning and camera angles incredibly dynamic. It’s not as if it were a stage production with only a rear wall or perhaps two other flanking walls. You are given a full 360-degree view as Coraline explores.

Story was a oddly paced. The first 2/3 of the film consist of a series of character vignettes, exploring Coraline’s apartment and neighbors, contrasting between the normal and “other” world. Then at the end, it randomly turns into a The Legend of Zelda. Seriously, it’s like a video game, where she goes into various uniquely-themed “dungeons” figures out an environmental puzzle with the help of a newly acquired piece of equipment, defeats the boss, and then she earns one of three magical baubles that allows her to challenge the final villain…who is a multi-form boss, so the fight’s not quite over just when you think it is. Seriously.

No, Seriously.

Tone is creepy throughout. Everything feels “just-not-right.” I certainly feel it would be unsettling for younger tykes. I remember being so creeped out at Never-ending Story II as a kid that I spent quite a long portion of the movie hiding under the seat. Something I think parents would object to is the overt sexuality flaunted by the two actresses who live in the apartment downstairs. Littering the walls of their home are old posters for what seem to be punnily named burlesque shows. One of them has enormous breasts that fill the screen, and I think there was an old-lady puppet nipple poking through a sweater on the other. In a scene later when they put on a production, one plays a mermaid, and the big-bossomed one the Venus on the Half Shell, wearing less than a scantily clad woman on a beach. The background art also has your usual classical naked woman paintings, completely with exposed nipples. Sure, the movie is rated PG, but I wouldn’t rate this movie as a “mature story.” It still feels like it was aiming right children, and there didn’t seem to be much played to older minds.

Uh, Coraline is an annoying brat. I’m sure that’s an accurate portrayal of a young girl, but it does no favors in helping the audience like the heroine.  However, the “what I care about right now is the most important thing in the world, ever” mentality of children is respectably represented.

Characters over- and broadly emote. And they narrate. Not only is the “show, don’t tell” rule broken, they over-do it.

The voice acting was passable, but I didn’t get lost in it. Best overall and likable character was the father, in both forms.

The dancing mice section was adorable.

Recommendation? If you can still catch it in 3D, do so. If not, I’d say wait for video.

Carl @ 5:34 pm
Filed under: Film,Reviews — Tags: , —

December 6, 2008

So I’ve been playing games and…

Sonic Unleashed
It’s pretty alright. It still has the usual problems of overly sensitive control and moving too fast to explore, but at least most areas are fenced in to prevent many accidental falls. Still, there are some annoying missed jumps and oops-you-went-a-bit-too-far-to-the-right moments. Still, at least it’s not endless suicide like the first Sonic game of this generation. The majority of the cutscenes are rendered in the game engine, and there was plenty of effort put into the production. The animations are animated, and they spent the time and data to create plenty of single-use animations. And up until Tails showed up, the voice work was fitting and expressive; Tails sounds like bad anime. There’s some framerate issues, but it’s not horrible.

Golden Axe: Beast Rider
There’s a pretty nifty combat system with well-telegraphed evade/counter actions, but you’re often surrounded and the default camera doesn’t automatically rotate to follow you. (This is especially annoying when walking toward the screen.) There’s a surprising amount of tweakability to the camera, including custom distances, but if the default options sucked, I didn’t want to bother with doing the designers’ jobs of tweaking. While the requirement to evade/counter is well-telegraphed, what isn’t is the multitude of hidden things that pop-up out of the ground. So far I’ve run into spears and giant bear-traps (woman-traps?). Technically you may be able to spot the bear traps, but they’re buried are varying depths, and you can mistake their teeth for grass. All games have hidden traps, but they shouldn’t be literally hidden; there’s always to tell-tale sign. What makes matters worse is the large collision boxes that make navigation a chore; there was one sequence where magic pop-up spears made a hallway and I had a bitch of a time piloting my slow and slow-to-turn beast through. Also weird is that all the other women in the amazonian tribe my character are totally topless; and my character isn’t. Apparently what my character is wearing is some training/ceremonial outfit…so…nipples have to go bye-bye or something. Overall, I felt pretty blah about this one; it’s moreso tedious than super-bad.

Fable II
I didn’t have the opportunity to play the first one (though it’s on my shelf), but this one’s sucking up my time. I’m making a point of being the best boy-scout ever, but it’s so tempting to go stealing stuff from peoples homes ala every other RPG. Do I get nega-points even if I’m not seen? Also, I inadvertendly made a baby with the bisexual town-whore…who I married… Yes, I had bought a condom. No, I didn’t use it. For some reason the option for “protected sex” just kept beeping and wouldn’t actually let me select it. Is that a bug?

Soul Bubbles
Download the DS demo from the Nintendo Channel on your Wii. This is a Toys R Us exclusive game and published by one of the crap shovelware publishers, but don’t let that scare you off. It’s a very ambitious and nicely designed action-puzzle game. I think that’s all I can really explain without you just trying it. Please, try it.

Lips
Boy, do I need to have a karoke party. This is totally a party game. The menus are super-fancy and animated, you can’t fail, a second (or first) player can jump in at any time, audience members can grab a controller and play tambourine/cowbell/etc., and it encourages goofy dancing. The wireless mics feel great, and I hope they patch in support for Rock Band/Guitar Hero because wires suck. Unfortunately, the lyrics are displayed ala SingStar (versus Karaoke Revolution) but it seems to give a better sense of position. I still really hate that you don’t have a consistent measure of time/duration. Despite my hatred for mechanics of SingStar, I still appreciate its great party modes; I have yet to test out Lips’ offerings.

007: Quantum of Solace
It’s perfectly alright, I guess. When I played it, I just didn’t feel like continuing through it. I can’t say it really does anything wrong.

Midnight Club: Los Angeles
Great sense of speed and chaos. What’s super-lame is that when you get a phone call, the graphic covers up your radar. Unfortunately you always get a phone call right after you choose a destination. So I spend 20-30 seconds just idling before I can figure out which fucking direction to start driving. Also, unlike Need For Speed, I can’t figure out how to lose the damn cops.

Need for Speed: Undercover
Soooooooooooooo disappointing. NFS: Most Wanted was my game-of-launch for the Xbox 360, so I was eagerly anticipating this spiritual sequel. Graphics are mysteriously smeary and not sharp, getting into the next race is as simple as pressing down on the d-pad, I have no context for why things happen in the store, and I’m not given enough cheesy FMV sequences. Even though I like that you don’t need to roam the map to find your next objective (as you need to do in Midnight Club), I do not like that they’re essentially spoon-fed to you. Still, the basic gameplay is as dependable as ever.

Motorstorm: Pacific Rift
A couple questions: 1.) Why do people like this series? 2.) Why is this game SO MUCH LOUDER than any other video game?

Pure
It’s fun. The tricking system is sort of limited by nature of its ease of use, but I have a tendency to be pressing too many buttons than I need to. Graphics and presentation are awesome, and ATV-upgrading and design should please with its RPG elements.

Resident Evil 5
Maybe it’s the endless swarm of non-zombies, but I don’t remember the RE4 control scheme being this slow and unwieldy. Also, due to co-op, inventory management is real-time. Unlike Dead Space, there’s no one-button insta-heal, so that gets tense.

And that’s all for now. I’ve played many other games, but I don’t feel like writing or thinking any more tonight.

Carl @ 1:43 am
Filed under: Games,Reviews — Tags: , , , —

December 5, 2008

Carl’s Movie Mini-Review: Hancock

When I saw the number of production logos leading into the movie, I had a bad feeling. All the reviews say it’s like two different movies duct taped together. To me, it felt like three (though the middle one was only about 15 minutes). The tone of the movie shifted so many times. I almost had the sense it was one of those vignette anthologies that allow different artists/filmmakers/etc. to explore their own unique takes on a character, ala Animatrix/Gotham Knight or different story archs with comic book characters. I don’t think the number of writers and producers listed could be accurate. It felt like there was a lack of consistent direction.

Now, it’s not a total mess, but it has too many unfortunate where’d-that-come-from? moments.

Dear Sony. Why do your big summer blockbusters have horrible special effects? Spider-man, even if crowds got tired after a couple sequels, would still pull in the big bucks. With Hancock, Will Smith is Mr. 4th of July. You’re guaranteed to make the money back; please invest more money in the effects budget so my eyes don’t bleed!

While I’m not going to tell you to avoid the movie, neither will I tell you it’s something worth seeing. It’s awkward, but it’s a fair way to spend an hour and a half.

Carl @ 10:10 pm
Filed under: Film,Reviews — Tags: , , —

October 25, 2008

Carl’s Movie Mini-Review: Max Payne

So. There was a series of events. That were, for the great majority, expedient in arriving at their intended goal. No time for any distractions, we’re here for business. In and out!

Also. There were many things you expect to be said in one of these cop dramas. Since you’ve heard it all already, they didn’t need to deliver it well; it’s ground you’re already familiar with.

Fortunately things got a little more exciting once Max started tripping out on drugs. I was very worried that there wouldn’t be Paynekiller-popping.

So here’s the moral of the story: Sure, everyone else goes through horrible shit when on drugs; life’s a living hell. But if you’re totally emo, taking some drugs can make you an unstoppable super hero! Regular people and happy druggies die from just one bullet, but your pharmaceutically-enhanced emo veil of darkness protects you from all kinds of harm, no sweat!

Be sure to stay for the scene at the end where Tony Stark walks into a moody bar to propose a partnership.

Carl @ 10:09 pm
Filed under: Film,Reviews — Tags: —

September 24, 2005

Carl’s Video Game Mini-Review: Indigo Prophecy

Yes. I marathoned it all today in something like 7-ish hours. Yes, I preordered it and paid the full $40 retail price. Yes, it was totally worth it.

I haven’t been this gripped by a video game since earlier this year with RE4 and God of War. All these have something in common: a story that takes hold of you and never lets you go. The biggest difference is that Indigo Prophecy, aside from a few reflex exercises, is a traditional adventure game. But no, don’t think that you can sit back and relax like your favorite PC point ‘n clicks of yore; even the dialogue scenes here are a frantic exercise in decision making. While this design decision will never let you listen to all of the dialogue, it does afford replay potential. (And if you just want to replay certain scenes, there’s a Chapter option on the menu.) Also, it keeps you from getting bored. I know any of you who’ve played adventure or RPG games get bored following every branch of a dialogue tree. This design never lets the pace drop.

Most telling of the overall cinematic experience is the option on the main menu in which you choose to begin the game. It reads “Start New Movie,” versus the usual “Start New Game.”

Here’s something to be noted in light of the recent GTA Hot Coffee scandal. There is an unbelievable amount of skin shown in this game. (Or maybe not so unbelievable if you consider the developers are French.) It’s not full front, there are no nipples. But it’s pretty much everything but nipple; breasts aren’t at all concealed otherwise. And yeah, there are several sex scenes. So how’d this get away with an M rating instead of the sales-killing AO? I think it’s the same thing that differentiates softcore and hardcore pornography. Never once here do you see pelvis meeting pelvis. Also, this game is pretty arty next to that pornographic (not just in the sexual sense) GTA game. (Kinda funny considering Hot Coffee had fully clothed characters while they were knocking boots.) Maybe it’s because in this game the sex wasn’t controllable unlike GTA. I dunno.

But this is one of the more truly mature titles out there. It doesn’t cater to the thrillseeking crowd, the bloodthristy and lust-filled. But you will be on a helluva ride playing it. The game is all about dialogues, both between characters and within one’s own psyche. It’s about character relationships and cause and effect.

If anything brings down the game, it would be the wonky walking controls (often making it hard to initiate interaction with objects) and the finger-breaking trigger tapping sequences. Oh, and those infuriatingly difficult stealth sequences. Yes, the gameplay nearly cripples the whole game, but you’ll suffer through anything to see what happens next.

Like I said, I marathoned the game in less than eight hours. But like this spring’s also brisk God of War, nary a moment feel empty or wasted. You’ll always have the feeling of accomplishing something and progressing forward in the story.

The main reason I say to buy this game is not so that you can play it. Hell, I think I may lend it to you if you want. I want you to buy this game so you can show your support with your wallet. Projects like these are labors of love and financial suicide for the developers because their production is draining with little potential of sales. If you want to see anything else this compelling to come out in the future, you’ll have to show the publishers that people will buy it.

Oh, and there are plenty of unlockables, including several behind the scenes videos. I saved those to watch for later.

Most highly recommended.

Carl @ 1:22 am
Filed under: Games,Reviews — Tags: , , —


« Newer Posts