Anyone thinking about giving this game a go, REALLY don’t bother. When I started it, it was going quite well, but very quickly is broke down into fight every minute then watch a cutscene.
The over reliance of Gandalf voiceovers for movie clips seriously hampers the story mode. Nearly after every fight do you unlock an ‘Epic Scene’ that tells you either a bit of the film that doesn’t really concern yourself, or an explanation of events that just happened to you with scenes from the film which are quite irrelevant, for instance when I met my dwarven companion the Epic Scene was full of shots of Gimli with Gandalf’s voiceover saying something like, “This is Gimli, the Dwarf I travel with, he’s quite a nice chap unlike the one you have met. Shame you won’t get to meet him.” Occasionally though, the story will be told from in-game cutscenes that actually feature your own characters, when those happened I felt a lot more connected to the characters. Shame they were few and far between.
The battles are almost random encounters, just not quite. There’s a nice little icon at the top of the screen that gets brighter the closer you get to a fight making it feel slightly less random and much less annoying. They’ve put a few variations on the Final Fantasy style fighting. Most obvious of which is to change your party mid-fight. This is a major change and one I welcome quite enthusiastically, the amount of times I’ve got into a fight in Final Fantasy and think “Damn it, so-and-so would be really handy right now” I can’t count. Also the variation of the line ups; reinforcements, being surrounded and only long range is really quite cool. Shame they didn’t bother with different rows like Final Fantasy.
This game could have been great. But they turned it into constant fighting and ‘unlocking’ scenes from the film. And don’t even get me started on the Balrog fight.
Tuesday, June 28, 2005
Thursday, March 17, 2005
Knights of the Old Republic II
The sequel to one of my all time favourite games is out. Is it any good? Hell Yeah. Rich story and great characters, but it has its faults. Improving things for my personal experience is Chris playing Dark Side this time, instead of vaguely watching someone retrace my footsteps I get to see the other side of the game, some small differences, some major.
One problem I do have is the loading screens/times. I must stress here that in some areas they’re fine in, but others, of note so far the second planet you visit where I got extremely pissed off with them, every two seconds there seemed to be another one. What made it worse was some of the areas appeared tiny, making me wonder the reason for the need to load the area.
I’ve heard the complaint that the game doesn’t have any of the planets from the films. THANK GOD. Is it just me or is the fact that so much happened on backwater planets like Tatooine or Hoth getting a bit ridiculous? I have no problem with places like Coruscant constantly being visited, it is the Capital of the Galaxy after all, but the place furthest from the bright spot of the galaxy I do. Instead we visit a bunch of places that have resonance for this time period, originals or mainstays from games. Onderon, Dxun and Korriban are from the Tales of the Jedi comics that this is following on from. Plus Korriban is a return from the previous game, as is Dantooine. While Peragus II and Telos are originals. Its Telos and Nar Shaddaa that I have problems with. Why make it a new planet with Telos when the previous games Taris fulfils the role perfectly? Nar Shaddaa, surely this hasn’t been this built and that bad for all this time, I can buy that Coruscant is but not a Smuggler’s Moon.
One of the main parts of any RPG is the story. In this KotOR 2 excels… sort of. Personally I think the story of your character is much better that the one in the first time game. Instead of a mind wipe and you discovering what happened to you, the digital you knows exactly what he’s done but he’s keeping quiet, you have to put it together from what other characters know/say. To me this was much more satisfying, the character much more mysterious and for my Light Side game someone who didn’t want to advertise where he was during the Mandalorian Wars.
Which brings us nicely to the other members of your party. Once again all the members have rich stories behind them. Unfortunately this only comes out if you spend time with them, a good touch as they’ll only tell you things if they trust, an excellent example is in Chris’ Dark Side game where the Handmaiden won’t even speak to him anymore because he’s too evil. However it also has the downside that you can miss some major plot points if you don’t favour the right people. In my games one or two of the Handmaiden’s decisions were a bit surprising, and I imagine Chris is going to be quite baffled by her.
The plot characters outside your party are quiet a mixed bag which I feel is LucasArts fault rather than Obsidian’s but more on that later. Colonel Tobin, a secondary character on Onderon who reappears (in the Light Side game at least) felt extremely well flashed out. Meanwhile Darth Nihilus, one of the main bad guys, was as two dimensional as a Garfield cartoon. This becomes blatantly clear during the ending.
Ah, the ending, the main complaint of nearly every gamer whose played KotOR 2. The game was originally planned for a February/March release, then LucasArts took the bright decision to ship for Christmas in the US. Clearly the game wasn’t finished or even ready. Obsidian tried their best but in the end nothing will ever make up for that lost time.
This game could have outclassed the original easily and was well on the way to doing that. Unfortunately, LucasArts got greedy and as a result the game’s ending lets it down. Hopefully Knights of the Old Republic III can address this.
One problem I do have is the loading screens/times. I must stress here that in some areas they’re fine in, but others, of note so far the second planet you visit where I got extremely pissed off with them, every two seconds there seemed to be another one. What made it worse was some of the areas appeared tiny, making me wonder the reason for the need to load the area.
I’ve heard the complaint that the game doesn’t have any of the planets from the films. THANK GOD. Is it just me or is the fact that so much happened on backwater planets like Tatooine or Hoth getting a bit ridiculous? I have no problem with places like Coruscant constantly being visited, it is the Capital of the Galaxy after all, but the place furthest from the bright spot of the galaxy I do. Instead we visit a bunch of places that have resonance for this time period, originals or mainstays from games. Onderon, Dxun and Korriban are from the Tales of the Jedi comics that this is following on from. Plus Korriban is a return from the previous game, as is Dantooine. While Peragus II and Telos are originals. Its Telos and Nar Shaddaa that I have problems with. Why make it a new planet with Telos when the previous games Taris fulfils the role perfectly? Nar Shaddaa, surely this hasn’t been this built and that bad for all this time, I can buy that Coruscant is but not a Smuggler’s Moon.
One of the main parts of any RPG is the story. In this KotOR 2 excels… sort of. Personally I think the story of your character is much better that the one in the first time game. Instead of a mind wipe and you discovering what happened to you, the digital you knows exactly what he’s done but he’s keeping quiet, you have to put it together from what other characters know/say. To me this was much more satisfying, the character much more mysterious and for my Light Side game someone who didn’t want to advertise where he was during the Mandalorian Wars.
Which brings us nicely to the other members of your party. Once again all the members have rich stories behind them. Unfortunately this only comes out if you spend time with them, a good touch as they’ll only tell you things if they trust, an excellent example is in Chris’ Dark Side game where the Handmaiden won’t even speak to him anymore because he’s too evil. However it also has the downside that you can miss some major plot points if you don’t favour the right people. In my games one or two of the Handmaiden’s decisions were a bit surprising, and I imagine Chris is going to be quite baffled by her.
The plot characters outside your party are quiet a mixed bag which I feel is LucasArts fault rather than Obsidian’s but more on that later. Colonel Tobin, a secondary character on Onderon who reappears (in the Light Side game at least) felt extremely well flashed out. Meanwhile Darth Nihilus, one of the main bad guys, was as two dimensional as a Garfield cartoon. This becomes blatantly clear during the ending.
Ah, the ending, the main complaint of nearly every gamer whose played KotOR 2. The game was originally planned for a February/March release, then LucasArts took the bright decision to ship for Christmas in the US. Clearly the game wasn’t finished or even ready. Obsidian tried their best but in the end nothing will ever make up for that lost time.
This game could have outclassed the original easily and was well on the way to doing that. Unfortunately, LucasArts got greedy and as a result the game’s ending lets it down. Hopefully Knights of the Old Republic III can address this.
Wednesday, February 23, 2005
Comics Aren’t Just For Kids
In this here text you may find a rant about Comics aren’t just for kids. However, this is more about a conversation I’ve been holding in for years. The conversation you have when someone actually says to you “But comics are for kids!”
Last night, I was in the pub with a fellow comic reader and a lady from work. As the night was winding up my friend just had to ask me about Green Lantern: Rebirth #4. The lady in question sat with a puzzled expression as we chatted for a minute or two about Hal, Kyle, Ollie and Sinestro. She just had to ask what we were talking about, “Comics” we both replied. Her eyebrow raised and “Aren’t comics just for kids?”
Darren launched straight into “Some of the comics I get I let my kid flick through, but others I wouldn’t. Take the Punisher for instance…”
I announce I’m going to the toilet while he covers the Punisher, figuring hit her with an obvious one first. As I leave I just hear “He’s a marine who’s just got back from ‘Nam and he goes on a picnic with his family and they stumble on to a mob hit…”
So I siphon the python, get some more drinks in and wander back to the table. Not sure what Darren’s said but it looks like a god damn good start. Angie still looks a bit hesitant though. “Why not just tell the stories in books?”
“Why should you?” I ask
Angie starts saying how books are quicker and easier to show what’s happening. Personally I think she’d conceded that comics tell stories for adults, but is struggling with the fact adult stories are being told in what she sees as a child medium.
We hit back that think of comics as a film, the art as the actors. While a book tells the story by spelling everything for you out, in a comic the art helps tell the story. Someone is sad it shows on their face, someone is sad their body language shows it. The look on Angie’s face proves another score for the comic geeks.
Angie’s crawling for ground, she knows she has a point, tries to bring up Batman, he’d been mentioned during the GL: Rebirth conversation. The problem is some people still think of Batman as Adam West, “Holly Campness, Batman” and the death traps they always escape at the start of the next episode.
Now she’s just wandered right into my territory. Time for the big guns.
Batman is a true psychopath. As a child he watched his parents get gunned down in a robbery, vowed no one would ever suffer like that and dedicated his life to fighting crime dressed as a bat which causes fear in criminals.
Angie hits back with Robin.
“Do you remember Robin is Dick Grayson?” I get an affirmative smile and nod. “Well in the comics he’s grown up and nearly got married.”
“And became Nightwing,” Darren pipes up, somehow I miss this little fact out, don’t ask how I wonder myself.
“The second Robin had his brains smashed in with a crowbar by the Joker,” Angie’s face is dropping as I say this, Darren drops in “Then blown up” and I carry on, “Which brings us to the third Robin, Tim. Tim’s mother is killed and his dad crippled when he first became Robin. In the last year, his dad, his girlfriend and another girl he is very close too have all been killed.” Angie’s face dropped. “Not exactly for kids is it.”
“So I should be careful the next time I take my son into the newsagents,” Angie quite rightly asked.
“Not really, comics are more in specialist stores these days. However, if you are thinking of buying any comics for your kid make sure it’s the right line. In one comic you have the fun stories suitable for kids, another you have Spider-Man finding out his first love woman cheated on him with his greatest enemy and gave birth years ago. The first love who he accidentally killed.”
“Erm Ok… He killed his first love?” Angie asked a bit intrigued I think.
“Absolutely. In the film where Green Goblin drops Mary Jane off the bridge and Spidey saved her. That didn’t go so well in the comics. Gwen was thrown off the bridge but Spidey webbed her feet to stop her, only problem she’d hit terminal velocity and SNAP. He breaks her neck. She was dead anyway though.”
That’s when the conversation pretty much ended, it being closing time and all. While I don’t think we had a convert on our hands, I do believe Darren and myself managed to get somebody to at least respect the medium. Another victory for the good guys.
Last night, I was in the pub with a fellow comic reader and a lady from work. As the night was winding up my friend just had to ask me about Green Lantern: Rebirth #4. The lady in question sat with a puzzled expression as we chatted for a minute or two about Hal, Kyle, Ollie and Sinestro. She just had to ask what we were talking about, “Comics” we both replied. Her eyebrow raised and “Aren’t comics just for kids?”
Darren launched straight into “Some of the comics I get I let my kid flick through, but others I wouldn’t. Take the Punisher for instance…”
I announce I’m going to the toilet while he covers the Punisher, figuring hit her with an obvious one first. As I leave I just hear “He’s a marine who’s just got back from ‘Nam and he goes on a picnic with his family and they stumble on to a mob hit…”
So I siphon the python, get some more drinks in and wander back to the table. Not sure what Darren’s said but it looks like a god damn good start. Angie still looks a bit hesitant though. “Why not just tell the stories in books?”
“Why should you?” I ask
Angie starts saying how books are quicker and easier to show what’s happening. Personally I think she’d conceded that comics tell stories for adults, but is struggling with the fact adult stories are being told in what she sees as a child medium.
We hit back that think of comics as a film, the art as the actors. While a book tells the story by spelling everything for you out, in a comic the art helps tell the story. Someone is sad it shows on their face, someone is sad their body language shows it. The look on Angie’s face proves another score for the comic geeks.
Angie’s crawling for ground, she knows she has a point, tries to bring up Batman, he’d been mentioned during the GL: Rebirth conversation. The problem is some people still think of Batman as Adam West, “Holly Campness, Batman” and the death traps they always escape at the start of the next episode.
Now she’s just wandered right into my territory. Time for the big guns.
Batman is a true psychopath. As a child he watched his parents get gunned down in a robbery, vowed no one would ever suffer like that and dedicated his life to fighting crime dressed as a bat which causes fear in criminals.
Angie hits back with Robin.
“Do you remember Robin is Dick Grayson?” I get an affirmative smile and nod. “Well in the comics he’s grown up and nearly got married.”
“And became Nightwing,” Darren pipes up, somehow I miss this little fact out, don’t ask how I wonder myself.
“The second Robin had his brains smashed in with a crowbar by the Joker,” Angie’s face is dropping as I say this, Darren drops in “Then blown up” and I carry on, “Which brings us to the third Robin, Tim. Tim’s mother is killed and his dad crippled when he first became Robin. In the last year, his dad, his girlfriend and another girl he is very close too have all been killed.” Angie’s face dropped. “Not exactly for kids is it.”
“So I should be careful the next time I take my son into the newsagents,” Angie quite rightly asked.
“Not really, comics are more in specialist stores these days. However, if you are thinking of buying any comics for your kid make sure it’s the right line. In one comic you have the fun stories suitable for kids, another you have Spider-Man finding out his first love woman cheated on him with his greatest enemy and gave birth years ago. The first love who he accidentally killed.”
“Erm Ok… He killed his first love?” Angie asked a bit intrigued I think.
“Absolutely. In the film where Green Goblin drops Mary Jane off the bridge and Spidey saved her. That didn’t go so well in the comics. Gwen was thrown off the bridge but Spidey webbed her feet to stop her, only problem she’d hit terminal velocity and SNAP. He breaks her neck. She was dead anyway though.”
That’s when the conversation pretty much ended, it being closing time and all. While I don’t think we had a convert on our hands, I do believe Darren and myself managed to get somebody to at least respect the medium. Another victory for the good guys.
Thursday, December 16, 2004
Blade: Trinity
How is this a 15? Blade 1 was less violent, less explicit language and the woman was less likely to turn a 15 year old on! I mean both 1 and 2 were 18s! Despite what Chris puts to me I’m gonna stand by my stance that the BBFC are getting far too lenient. Now I’m going to stop sounding like someone’s mother and actually get to what I thought about the film.
I liked it, I’m just really unsure how much, I keep flicking between it’s the weakest of the 3 Blade films or better than 2, but it is a great action film. This CGI is a lot better this time than in Blade 2, where the Ninja fight in front of the lights was terrible. It had a lot less glaring inconsistencies in this one too, Blade 2 was terrible for this, like the UV protection suits that they suddenly forget what they used them for. The biggest one I can really think of was him driving his oh so precious car straight into the bikers, then switching the UV headlights on to kill the driver. Surely he should have just switched the things on instantly killing the two bikers and not damaging the car he spent the first fight scene in Blade 2 not even scrathing.
Wesley Snipes came across as going through the motions in this film, he knows how cool Blade is, he knows he’s amazing so he just trundled through the film doing the same thing he’s done for the previous two. In fact the bits I really enjoyed of Snipes was when he was being a bit less like Blade, such as “Mother Fucker, I’ll kill you, I’ll just enjoy it more.”
Jessica Biel was fucking gorgeous and I’ll take her over Sarah Michelle Gellar and Kate Beckinsale any day of the week. She has to fight Eliza Dushka for me though, in chocolate mousse. It was nice to see her with the bow and arrows too, I’ve developed a great love for them because of Lord of the Rings and Green Arrow recently.
Ryan Reynolds as King was fantastic, and possibly what made the film so enjoyable. I was constantly getting Jason Lee with Kevin Smith vibes off of him. However, I want it on record I’ve been saying “Fuck me sideways” for years!
Dracula, I loved how they made him the ultimate vampire by giving him all the advancements we’ve seen in the other two films various vampires have had (minus Frost’s Blood Godhood obviously). Blade’s day walking, Reaper’s superior feeding method and the Count’s (Blade 2 old geezer) look to the nth degree. However, Dominic Purcell’s acting was terrible. Of course all villains in the Blade series have the unfortunate position of trying to live up to Stephen Dorff’s Deacon Frost.
As for the other bad guys, Danica Talos was fun in a campy way but I couldn’t see past the fact that she was in Rachel Leigh Cook’s Josie and Pussycats. Her brother did next to nothing, which is a shame cos it’s the second Ray from Due South! He deserves a good role! Triple H I wasn’t particularly fond of, both Chris and I laughed out loud at one point during the “Wrestling match” between him and King, but on looking back he makes a nice change from the last two big guys who were just big and hard. He’s big, hard and a big softy, I mean look at his stupid dog.
Overall I really did like it, despite how negative this all sounds, I seem to have the innate ability to just sit back and enjoy a flashy action film for being just that. I also think it did a great job of turning a movie and it’s sequels into a trilogy as well, the previously mentioned Drake being all the parts that various evolutions from vampires from the last two films the most obvious of this.
I liked it, I’m just really unsure how much, I keep flicking between it’s the weakest of the 3 Blade films or better than 2, but it is a great action film. This CGI is a lot better this time than in Blade 2, where the Ninja fight in front of the lights was terrible. It had a lot less glaring inconsistencies in this one too, Blade 2 was terrible for this, like the UV protection suits that they suddenly forget what they used them for. The biggest one I can really think of was him driving his oh so precious car straight into the bikers, then switching the UV headlights on to kill the driver. Surely he should have just switched the things on instantly killing the two bikers and not damaging the car he spent the first fight scene in Blade 2 not even scrathing.
Wesley Snipes came across as going through the motions in this film, he knows how cool Blade is, he knows he’s amazing so he just trundled through the film doing the same thing he’s done for the previous two. In fact the bits I really enjoyed of Snipes was when he was being a bit less like Blade, such as “Mother Fucker, I’ll kill you, I’ll just enjoy it more.”
Jessica Biel was fucking gorgeous and I’ll take her over Sarah Michelle Gellar and Kate Beckinsale any day of the week. She has to fight Eliza Dushka for me though, in chocolate mousse. It was nice to see her with the bow and arrows too, I’ve developed a great love for them because of Lord of the Rings and Green Arrow recently.
Ryan Reynolds as King was fantastic, and possibly what made the film so enjoyable. I was constantly getting Jason Lee with Kevin Smith vibes off of him. However, I want it on record I’ve been saying “Fuck me sideways” for years!
Dracula, I loved how they made him the ultimate vampire by giving him all the advancements we’ve seen in the other two films various vampires have had (minus Frost’s Blood Godhood obviously). Blade’s day walking, Reaper’s superior feeding method and the Count’s (Blade 2 old geezer) look to the nth degree. However, Dominic Purcell’s acting was terrible. Of course all villains in the Blade series have the unfortunate position of trying to live up to Stephen Dorff’s Deacon Frost.
As for the other bad guys, Danica Talos was fun in a campy way but I couldn’t see past the fact that she was in Rachel Leigh Cook’s Josie and Pussycats. Her brother did next to nothing, which is a shame cos it’s the second Ray from Due South! He deserves a good role! Triple H I wasn’t particularly fond of, both Chris and I laughed out loud at one point during the “Wrestling match” between him and King, but on looking back he makes a nice change from the last two big guys who were just big and hard. He’s big, hard and a big softy, I mean look at his stupid dog.
Overall I really did like it, despite how negative this all sounds, I seem to have the innate ability to just sit back and enjoy a flashy action film for being just that. I also think it did a great job of turning a movie and it’s sequels into a trilogy as well, the previously mentioned Drake being all the parts that various evolutions from vampires from the last two films the most obvious of this.
Friday, November 12, 2004
The Batman
We have a new Batman show on the scene. Let me start with, isn’t it about time Warner Brothers gave some of the other big heroes apart from Bats and Supes a chance. Now that’s over with, on with the meat of the issue.
I really like the intro. The visuals are perfect, exactly what was right with the Beyond cartoon and Teen Titans as well. The music is pretty cool and I’m not sure if it’s in the theme or just background music of the program but I definitely heard hints of the old 60’s tune done very well.
The animation is very slick. Like the Teen Titans cartoon it’s not in the Dini style. As mentioned in the Teen Titans rant, I’m sad to see the Dini era is over. I’ve come to terms with it now, and he’s having one hell of a swansong over on JLU. The fight scenes flow extremely well. They’ve also gone the route of what is coming standard these days and this is using CGI for vehicles, which personally I like but I know these things are love or hate.
I’m not sure why they’ve gone with the Bat-Wave. One, what’s wrong with the Bat-Computer? Two, It brings back horrible memories of the 60’s Batman, especially when backed up by the Bat-Bot. Truth be told I quite liked the suit, just not the name. The amping up of Bane required it, and the fact that got trashed was even better, just Bat-Bot?
Not sure why they went for the Batman Returns version of Penguin rather than the one that’s been used everywhere else. It’s a version that never really worked that well while the freaky looking mobster is so much cooler. This version of Joker isn’t great either. He’s gone from insane genius willing to do anything for a laugh to just plain crazy. Man-Bat was a terrible mistake. They’ve turned the tragic character into just another looney that Bats has to fight. Another tragic character to suffer from this cartoon is Mr. Freeze, yet another tragic hero which for some reason they seem to using the version from Batman and Robin and turned him into Arnold Schwarzenegger, a low beat criminal one at that too.
This makes the rest of the characterisation even stranger. Bruce v Batman is done perfectly, especially considering this is early career, you can believe this guy becomes the obsessed individual we all know, but right now there’s a much more blurred line where Bruce ends and Batman starts. Ethan Bennett is great character, I can understand going away from Jim Gordon when most people think of him as the old Commissioner, but why a totally unique character and not someone like Hardback Bock. Yin is good as well and a great foil to Bennett but once again why the new character when you could use Montoya or another from Gotham Central. Alfred once again is spot on.
Not all the villains were done badly either. Catwoman is fantastic and I think I enjoy this version of the character more than the original Animated Series’. Bane got a power upgrade and a slightly new look to match but apart from that is nearly a carbon copy of Bane of old.
All in all I think the show’s a bit of a let down. Despite the characterisation of the main cast and the animation it just fails on the other levels. Removing what was great about most of the villains kills it, and the bad names for the tech are a step backwards. I’ll keep watching it, but I’m not overly fussed now.
I really like the intro. The visuals are perfect, exactly what was right with the Beyond cartoon and Teen Titans as well. The music is pretty cool and I’m not sure if it’s in the theme or just background music of the program but I definitely heard hints of the old 60’s tune done very well.
The animation is very slick. Like the Teen Titans cartoon it’s not in the Dini style. As mentioned in the Teen Titans rant, I’m sad to see the Dini era is over. I’ve come to terms with it now, and he’s having one hell of a swansong over on JLU. The fight scenes flow extremely well. They’ve also gone the route of what is coming standard these days and this is using CGI for vehicles, which personally I like but I know these things are love or hate.
I’m not sure why they’ve gone with the Bat-Wave. One, what’s wrong with the Bat-Computer? Two, It brings back horrible memories of the 60’s Batman, especially when backed up by the Bat-Bot. Truth be told I quite liked the suit, just not the name. The amping up of Bane required it, and the fact that got trashed was even better, just Bat-Bot?
Not sure why they went for the Batman Returns version of Penguin rather than the one that’s been used everywhere else. It’s a version that never really worked that well while the freaky looking mobster is so much cooler. This version of Joker isn’t great either. He’s gone from insane genius willing to do anything for a laugh to just plain crazy. Man-Bat was a terrible mistake. They’ve turned the tragic character into just another looney that Bats has to fight. Another tragic character to suffer from this cartoon is Mr. Freeze, yet another tragic hero which for some reason they seem to using the version from Batman and Robin and turned him into Arnold Schwarzenegger, a low beat criminal one at that too.
This makes the rest of the characterisation even stranger. Bruce v Batman is done perfectly, especially considering this is early career, you can believe this guy becomes the obsessed individual we all know, but right now there’s a much more blurred line where Bruce ends and Batman starts. Ethan Bennett is great character, I can understand going away from Jim Gordon when most people think of him as the old Commissioner, but why a totally unique character and not someone like Hardback Bock. Yin is good as well and a great foil to Bennett but once again why the new character when you could use Montoya or another from Gotham Central. Alfred once again is spot on.
Not all the villains were done badly either. Catwoman is fantastic and I think I enjoy this version of the character more than the original Animated Series’. Bane got a power upgrade and a slightly new look to match but apart from that is nearly a carbon copy of Bane of old.
All in all I think the show’s a bit of a let down. Despite the characterisation of the main cast and the animation it just fails on the other levels. Removing what was great about most of the villains kills it, and the bad names for the tech are a step backwards. I’ll keep watching it, but I’m not overly fussed now.
Thursday, September 16, 2004
Star Wars New Jedi Order
The New Jedi Order has come to end and was it any good? Muh. Ok so it came to an end quite a while ago but I’ve only just got round to reading the last book so nurr. Personally I think that the whole thing was hit and miss.
A bit of a confession first. In general conversation I always blame the prequels for my fall (or should that be rise?) from hard core Star Wars fan to almost normal levels but to be honest it’s the prequels and the New Jedi Order books. My problems with it, well I just got really sick of a lot of what the series was basing itself around. Planets that were important to Star Wars as a whole were getting wiped off the map, I appreciate that this had to be done to show how bad the Yuuzhan Vong were, just don’t agree to the extent it was done. Coruscant I believe needed to happen, as much as it saddens me they did that to such an important part of Star Wars mythology it did need to happen. But ALL the other planets? I think they went a bit overboard.
I actually stopped reading the books just before Anakin’s death (Star by Star). They’d built him up so much and was easily the most interesting character during the whole thing to date I just got so annoyed and stopped dead. For about a year. I finally did pick up Star by Star and Anakin’s death blew me away, I’m not sure if I’ve read a better death. This nicely brings me onto one of the good things the series accomplished. The growth of the new generation. Like I just said it really looked like the only person who was growing was Anakin (Kyp Durron looked like he’d had a total personality reversal to me), upon his death everybody else got meaning, Kyp swung round, Jania went on a dark journey (buh-dum-ch), Jacen stopped being a whiney little git and Tahiri went through a shed-load and that was damn interesting.
Corran’s return bugged me though. I love the character but the only people who can write him properly are his creator Michael A. Stackpole and his buddy Timothy Zahn. Stackpole wrote him out in a very good way. I felt his reappearance later on just didn’t feel right.
The Yuuzhan Vong. Too many cooks spoil the broth. It took forever for these guys to actually mean something. For the first half I got no real feeling who they were or about, just sadistic bastards who liked mutilating themselves and enjoyed killing things, especially droids. Once again it was halfway through that it got good. Finally we got a sense why they were like they were, we understood why they were invading. By the very end I actually really enjoying the Yuuzhan Vong.
From where New Jedi Order started and where it ended what do we have? Well a shit load of property damage to the Star Wars universe, major growth of the Solo twins, and the Jedi Order finally comes to mean something in the post movie world. The amount of planets bug me, but looking back on it now I realise that I expected this saga to make the Jedi’s mean something and actually develop the new generation. That was done, even though it still was Luke, Leia and Han save the galaxy a bit, it’s getting less so.
All done, I like where the series ended up, took too long to get going though. However I don’t like where Star Wars books are now. With this and Clone Wars it looks like they’re going to be huge sagas spanning many books, I hope it doesn’t become the norm. New Jedi Order also gets the unfortunate honour of me no longer buying every Star Wars book anymore because of it. As it stands now I’m not getting any Star Wars books unless they have Michael A. Stackpole, Timothy Zahn or Aaron Allston as authors. Which of course gives me a problem because Allston is writing parts 4-6 in a series of 9. Ahh whom I’m kidding I’ll get all nine parts.
A bit of a confession first. In general conversation I always blame the prequels for my fall (or should that be rise?) from hard core Star Wars fan to almost normal levels but to be honest it’s the prequels and the New Jedi Order books. My problems with it, well I just got really sick of a lot of what the series was basing itself around. Planets that were important to Star Wars as a whole were getting wiped off the map, I appreciate that this had to be done to show how bad the Yuuzhan Vong were, just don’t agree to the extent it was done. Coruscant I believe needed to happen, as much as it saddens me they did that to such an important part of Star Wars mythology it did need to happen. But ALL the other planets? I think they went a bit overboard.
I actually stopped reading the books just before Anakin’s death (Star by Star). They’d built him up so much and was easily the most interesting character during the whole thing to date I just got so annoyed and stopped dead. For about a year. I finally did pick up Star by Star and Anakin’s death blew me away, I’m not sure if I’ve read a better death. This nicely brings me onto one of the good things the series accomplished. The growth of the new generation. Like I just said it really looked like the only person who was growing was Anakin (Kyp Durron looked like he’d had a total personality reversal to me), upon his death everybody else got meaning, Kyp swung round, Jania went on a dark journey (buh-dum-ch), Jacen stopped being a whiney little git and Tahiri went through a shed-load and that was damn interesting.
Corran’s return bugged me though. I love the character but the only people who can write him properly are his creator Michael A. Stackpole and his buddy Timothy Zahn. Stackpole wrote him out in a very good way. I felt his reappearance later on just didn’t feel right.
The Yuuzhan Vong. Too many cooks spoil the broth. It took forever for these guys to actually mean something. For the first half I got no real feeling who they were or about, just sadistic bastards who liked mutilating themselves and enjoyed killing things, especially droids. Once again it was halfway through that it got good. Finally we got a sense why they were like they were, we understood why they were invading. By the very end I actually really enjoying the Yuuzhan Vong.
From where New Jedi Order started and where it ended what do we have? Well a shit load of property damage to the Star Wars universe, major growth of the Solo twins, and the Jedi Order finally comes to mean something in the post movie world. The amount of planets bug me, but looking back on it now I realise that I expected this saga to make the Jedi’s mean something and actually develop the new generation. That was done, even though it still was Luke, Leia and Han save the galaxy a bit, it’s getting less so.
All done, I like where the series ended up, took too long to get going though. However I don’t like where Star Wars books are now. With this and Clone Wars it looks like they’re going to be huge sagas spanning many books, I hope it doesn’t become the norm. New Jedi Order also gets the unfortunate honour of me no longer buying every Star Wars book anymore because of it. As it stands now I’m not getting any Star Wars books unless they have Michael A. Stackpole, Timothy Zahn or Aaron Allston as authors. Which of course gives me a problem because Allston is writing parts 4-6 in a series of 9. Ahh whom I’m kidding I’ll get all nine parts.
Saturday, September 11, 2004
Star Wars Special Editions
I loved the special editions when they first came out. LOVED them! I was majorly into the whole Star Wars universe and all they did was enhance it. It took me a few years to look at it objectionably and realise what a fucking cock up Lucas had made. The end celebrations were much better with just Ewoks. Greedo shooting first? For fuck’s sake let’s just totally destroy Han’s character development, totally destroy his uber cool moment and make him an idiot. I mean did Lucas actually think it was believable for someone the distance Greedo was to miss?
Now we have even newer versions coming out. One’s that Lucas claims are even better than before. So what travesties await us this time? Well first off we have Naboo joining the celebrations at the end of Jedi. Hayden Christensen replacing Sebastian Shaw as Anakin as well. And most criminally of all bloody redubbing Boba Fett to sound like his damn “did”.
But of the not really bothered, hard core fans are crying about it ruining the charm, is the once more improved effects. Most notable is the improvement to A New Hope’s Special Edition Jabba which so needed it.
Good stuff though? Surely not. Actually it seems so. The first thing I heard about was Ian McDiarmid replacing the ‘fake’ Emperor in Empire. This one is a stroke of genius. It was one of those annoying things that couldn’t be helped while developing a movie series. Best of all though? Apparently Greedo no longer shoots first and Han gets to mutter “Yes, I bet you have” again.
I’m almost tempted. At the very least I’ll get rid of the original Special Editions from a few years ago.
Now we have even newer versions coming out. One’s that Lucas claims are even better than before. So what travesties await us this time? Well first off we have Naboo joining the celebrations at the end of Jedi. Hayden Christensen replacing Sebastian Shaw as Anakin as well. And most criminally of all bloody redubbing Boba Fett to sound like his damn “did”.
But of the not really bothered, hard core fans are crying about it ruining the charm, is the once more improved effects. Most notable is the improvement to A New Hope’s Special Edition Jabba which so needed it.
Good stuff though? Surely not. Actually it seems so. The first thing I heard about was Ian McDiarmid replacing the ‘fake’ Emperor in Empire. This one is a stroke of genius. It was one of those annoying things that couldn’t be helped while developing a movie series. Best of all though? Apparently Greedo no longer shoots first and Han gets to mutter “Yes, I bet you have” again.
I’m almost tempted. At the very least I’ll get rid of the original Special Editions from a few years ago.
Sunday, August 22, 2004
Worlds Finest!
Inspired by Chris and me watching the Batman episode "Girl's Night Out" while drinking.
Thursday, August 05, 2004
Justice League Unlimited
So the Justice League gets a third season and a new set up. Now they’re the Justice League Unlimited and they now have every DC hero as members. Now that’s what I call a concept. It one of those that has been batting about my head for the last year or so, after I read JLA/JSA: Vice and Virtue. Why on Earth are there multiple teams of superheroes on the Marvel and DC worlds. Doesn’t it make a ton more sense to have one team with all the heroes in then when a mission comes up you pick the best people for the job?
And what a perfect way to arise awareness of DC heroes for the public. My guess is every episode will have one of the Big 7 in with a team of unknowns, just like the first episode ‘Initiation’, Green Lantern, Supergirl (returning from the Superman series), Captain Atom and Green Arrow (who in my opinion sounded to young but apart from that was spot on). Hopefully this will inspire people to go pick up books of any heroes they really like from the show and gives a chance to someone other than the big names to shine outside of the comics.
A new name and a new theme tune. Thank God we got rid of the CGI start, I’m not too keen on the ‘samples from the show’ part of it but I guess they have to showcase the characters involved. Shame the old tune had to leave, I really liked that the new one I’m unsure of, but haven’t made my mind up.
On a small note, Captain Atom was voiced by George Eads. That might not mean much to most but he’s Nick in CSI. WHICH IS COOL! He’s the character you should hate cos he’s all buff and you know the girls love him, but he’s a dude thrown in so he’s alright.
Now all we need is an episode with Nightwing in and a Hard Travelling Heroes episode, ok it wouldn’t be Hal but still, and I’m set for life.
And what a perfect way to arise awareness of DC heroes for the public. My guess is every episode will have one of the Big 7 in with a team of unknowns, just like the first episode ‘Initiation’, Green Lantern, Supergirl (returning from the Superman series), Captain Atom and Green Arrow (who in my opinion sounded to young but apart from that was spot on). Hopefully this will inspire people to go pick up books of any heroes they really like from the show and gives a chance to someone other than the big names to shine outside of the comics.
A new name and a new theme tune. Thank God we got rid of the CGI start, I’m not too keen on the ‘samples from the show’ part of it but I guess they have to showcase the characters involved. Shame the old tune had to leave, I really liked that the new one I’m unsure of, but haven’t made my mind up.
On a small note, Captain Atom was voiced by George Eads. That might not mean much to most but he’s Nick in CSI. WHICH IS COOL! He’s the character you should hate cos he’s all buff and you know the girls love him, but he’s a dude thrown in so he’s alright.
Now all we need is an episode with Nightwing in and a Hard Travelling Heroes episode, ok it wouldn’t be Hal but still, and I’m set for life.
Monday, July 19, 2004
Where Did Transformers Go Wrong?
For me there is a definite moment when it happened. Season 3 of the first ever series. Now I’m not saying it was crap, just saying that’s when it all started to fall apart. It went into space started throwing new races, alien and transformer, around like it was Star Trek and looking back Season 3 is a shade of what Season’s 1 and 2 were. Then we had the Beast Wars, a good concept but not when you compare it to the original; Beast Machines, a clever way of tying Beast Wars back to Cybertron and Leftfield’s Phat Planet as a theme tune. Next we had Robots in Disguise, Armada and Energon, truth be told I’ve seen 5 seconds of Armada and saw a flying shark and switched off but friends who have sat through entire episodes hate it.
So how to fix it? Well first off bring back the proper voices. I remember finally figuring it out, I was watching Beast Machines and I suddenly realised why Optimus Primal sounded wrong, there was no electronic hint in his voice. He sounded totally normal. The electronic voices were great, Christ except for the cassettes it was all Soundwave had going for him.
Now this next bit I think they’ve already fixed, but I’m gonna moan about it anyway because it’s one of the things that really cheesed me off about Season 3. The setting. Transformers only really works on Earth and Cybertron and when Autobots are fighting Decepticons. Random planets with random aliens do not make a cool Transformers story.
The vehicles. Ok, let’s me start with Hot Rod was fucking cool! Now I’ve said that I can bitch about the fake cars. I have no problem with the fake cars, I love the fact that they’re being used as the Cybertronian version of the ’Bots, it makes sense, why would they be built on another planet to look like a Toyota Supra? Can’t we have some that were designed on Earth and built there that does look like a Supra though? When you look back Jazz, Bumble Bee and Sunstreaker were cool because they were actual cars. Now I don’t know who blame. The toy company (because they don’t want to pay the licence fees) or the manufacturers (because I can see the arguments now “But we don’t want our car/gun/plane/fridge to be evil, our car/gun/plane/microwave is obviously good and should be an autobot”). If it was the manufacturers, SHUT UP! When I see a Porsche 911 or a Lamborghini Diablo I don’t think ‘Wow Jazz’ or ‘Cool just like Sunstreaker’ I think ‘Bloody Nice Car’. I have always loved the design of the F-16, who knows if it’s because of Starscream and co, but I don’t think of it as a evil plane, just a cool one.
Now they seem to have the right idea with BinalTech and Alternators. I’m not sure how they did it but they’ve got companies to let them design Transformers around their cars. Which is just fantastic! Now can we have a cartoon about them please? With electronic voices? Based on Earth?
Sunday, May 30, 2004
Trojan
A new brand of condom here in the UK, though I know it's quite big in the US. First thing
when Smithy, Jason and myself saw the name was pretty much the joke
above. What a really STUPID name for a condom.
Tuesday, April 13, 2004
Smoke Machines
Ok, let’s be fair, smoke machines were great… in the 90’s. I imagine they were perfect during those heady days of raving, happy hardcore and all the rest of the stuff we’ve thankfully left behind as bad ides. But now? Crap idea. You see, a club here in Dundee, used to be the local dive, had a major refurbishment and is now considered the best in town. Lots of fun was had by me and my friends. Then two weeks ago Chris, Barry, Mark and myself were stood at the bar next to the dance floor admiring the ladies shaking their booties when a plume of white smoke came flying out of the sides and we could see bugger all. Later on when we were dancing and the smoke machine went off you couldn’t see a foot in front of you and that’s no exaggeration. When you tried to find someone on the dance floor even when the smoke wasn’t there all you got now was a bunch of light reflections off the remains of the smoke.
I wouldn’t even had realised this if the club hadn’t operated for two months without one and it had perfect lighting and ambience. Now it’s spoilt by a device I think has had its day.
Except when it comes to dramatic moments, nothing scarier (in a I’m gonna to kick seven shades of shit out of you kinda way) or cooler than someone or something coming out of a plume of smoke. Not really something you want in a club that though is it.
I wouldn’t even had realised this if the club hadn’t operated for two months without one and it had perfect lighting and ambience. Now it’s spoilt by a device I think has had its day.
Except when it comes to dramatic moments, nothing scarier (in a I’m gonna to kick seven shades of shit out of you kinda way) or cooler than someone or something coming out of a plume of smoke. Not really something you want in a club that though is it.
Monday, March 22, 2004
Fighting in 80’s Cartoons
Can you think of any really all out brawls that happened in the 80’s. He-man would throw stuff and make people fall over, same with Captain Planet. Thundercats, if they didn’t trick the Mutants into buggering up then it was just a lot of jumping about (though admittedly rather good jumping about) then firing lasers out of things that shouldn’t fire lasers such as swords, nun-chucks and shields. To my memory even the NINJA Turtles hardly did any fighting really, especially with their weapons.
Transformers seemed to get it right, not two episodes could pass with out one Decepticon try and take an Autobot apart. Maybe because they were robots they were allowed to beat the shit out of each other.
I can understand the fact that to see He-Man, Lion-o or Leonardo cut the bad guys to pieces fighting their way to Skeletor/Mumm-ra/Shredder is a bit much for a kids program, but maybe all these people needed was one good punch to make them think that this wasn’t the right thing to do, rather than embarrassing them by pushing them over or shining light in their eyes with a mirror.
Transformers seemed to get it right, not two episodes could pass with out one Decepticon try and take an Autobot apart. Maybe because they were robots they were allowed to beat the shit out of each other.
I can understand the fact that to see He-Man, Lion-o or Leonardo cut the bad guys to pieces fighting their way to Skeletor/Mumm-ra/Shredder is a bit much for a kids program, but maybe all these people needed was one good punch to make them think that this wasn’t the right thing to do, rather than embarrassing them by pushing them over or shining light in their eyes with a mirror.
Sunday, December 21, 2003
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
Yet another of my child hood programs has a refit for the modern day. This one really isn’t that much of a surprise considering how much of a success it was the first time. By my reckoning it’s also the youngest. The Tutles I watched lasted into the 90s, so this new series isn’t a major overhaul like He-Man has been. The stories have a similar feel with the humour much better than it was before where it relied on the stupidity of the villains.
The first difference you notice if you’re from the UK is it’s actually called Teenage Mutant NINJA Turtles instead of Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles because of some stupid law there was back then making Ninjas and Michelangelo’s nun-chucks illegal. Next is the art style, which is very very nice. Also the characterisation of the Turtles themselves is much better, to me Raphael was a slightly less cooler Michelangelo before, now they seem to have gone with the movie (and quite probably the comic that started it all) version of Raph. All the better for it, in the old cartoon Raph always felt that the character wasn’t adding much now he does. Finally the theme tune, and it’s another bad one, the 80’s tune was much better and that’s saying something. As for Shredder, well my viewing to meet him but judging from the adverts it’s another good improvement. The Foot are proper ninjas now instead of robots that fall apart all the time. No Bebop and Rock Steady, ok I loved them as kids, but really what were they except comedy relief?
So in closing another good update from my childhood. Now if someone will get round to bringing back MASK! Just don’t go doing a Transformers Armada!
The first difference you notice if you’re from the UK is it’s actually called Teenage Mutant NINJA Turtles instead of Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles because of some stupid law there was back then making Ninjas and Michelangelo’s nun-chucks illegal. Next is the art style, which is very very nice. Also the characterisation of the Turtles themselves is much better, to me Raphael was a slightly less cooler Michelangelo before, now they seem to have gone with the movie (and quite probably the comic that started it all) version of Raph. All the better for it, in the old cartoon Raph always felt that the character wasn’t adding much now he does. Finally the theme tune, and it’s another bad one, the 80’s tune was much better and that’s saying something. As for Shredder, well my viewing to meet him but judging from the adverts it’s another good improvement. The Foot are proper ninjas now instead of robots that fall apart all the time. No Bebop and Rock Steady, ok I loved them as kids, but really what were they except comedy relief?
So in closing another good update from my childhood. Now if someone will get round to bringing back MASK! Just don’t go doing a Transformers Armada!
Friday, December 19, 2003
Teen Titans GO!
I’ve just watched my first ever episode of Teen Titans (ok so I’m slow, I have to wait till I’m visiting my parents to see it). Overall I impressed, I had a feeling it was going to all nice and fluffy, thankfully it’s not. The animation is pretty good, especially considering I’d just watched an episode of Static Shock and that animation is dire! The characterisation of Robin is spot on (assuming they are going for the Dick Grayson Robin as it looks like they are) as seems Beast Boy, who should be called Changeling like in the old comics but never mind. Cyborg is pretty good character as well, I’m not sure if he’s that similar to the comic version or not due to my limited exposure to both. Raven didn’t appear enough for me to make a judgement.
The choice of Slade as the main bad guy is a damn good choice as well. He’s not the Slade Wilson we know from the comics but with his relationship to the Titans in them it makes perfect sense.
I do have some qualms about it though. Starfire is a complete wimp. I don’t have a problem with them tweaking characters so they work better (which I think is what they did Cyborg and definitely for Slade), but they completely and utterly inverted Starfire’s personality. Next the intro, whoever decided on that song deserves shooting. This from the same people that brought us Batman, Superman and Batman Beyond whose intros were fantastic. The animation to go alongside it is good though and a nice step away from the CGI intro they tried for Justice League.
And now my biggest gripe. This is purely personal preference. It doesn’t relate to what has come before. Batman, Superman, Batman Beyond and Justice are all the same continuity, one that started in 1991, but isn’t required knowledge. Suddenly it’s abandoned for this one. The Robin can’t be the Dick Grayson or Tim Drake from the Batman cartoon. I know it sounds silly but it bugs me.
Well I’ve now heard the Japanese sung intro and I no longer hate it. Much better! Raven is another character that falls into the “tweaked to suit the cartoon better” and well done too. Aqualad makes a guest appearance, and quite a good one too. But why call him Aqualad, that just ties him into Aquaman and to my knowledge there has been no tie into the other cartoon’s continuity, why not call him Tempest, one to separate him and two it does sound a damn sight better. Oh and Marv Wolfman is writing it which takes it up a few places in my books.
The choice of Slade as the main bad guy is a damn good choice as well. He’s not the Slade Wilson we know from the comics but with his relationship to the Titans in them it makes perfect sense.
I do have some qualms about it though. Starfire is a complete wimp. I don’t have a problem with them tweaking characters so they work better (which I think is what they did Cyborg and definitely for Slade), but they completely and utterly inverted Starfire’s personality. Next the intro, whoever decided on that song deserves shooting. This from the same people that brought us Batman, Superman and Batman Beyond whose intros were fantastic. The animation to go alongside it is good though and a nice step away from the CGI intro they tried for Justice League.
And now my biggest gripe. This is purely personal preference. It doesn’t relate to what has come before. Batman, Superman, Batman Beyond and Justice are all the same continuity, one that started in 1991, but isn’t required knowledge. Suddenly it’s abandoned for this one. The Robin can’t be the Dick Grayson or Tim Drake from the Batman cartoon. I know it sounds silly but it bugs me.
Update - 20 December 2003
Well I’ve now heard the Japanese sung intro and I no longer hate it. Much better! Raven is another character that falls into the “tweaked to suit the cartoon better” and well done too. Aqualad makes a guest appearance, and quite a good one too. But why call him Aqualad, that just ties him into Aquaman and to my knowledge there has been no tie into the other cartoon’s continuity, why not call him Tempest, one to separate him and two it does sound a damn sight better. Oh and Marv Wolfman is writing it which takes it up a few places in my books.
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