'Inception" Review

Dream Big

“What is real?” Is the big question at the heart of Christopher Nolan’s (he wrote, directed, and produced) stunning ‘Inception.’ This is not your usual big budget summer blockbuster. Not only do you have to bring your sense of willing disbelief, the characters have to work out their own sense of reality – which is constantly shifting.

Leonardo DiCaprio holds his own as Cobb, a man who steals corporate secrets by teasing them out of people’s brains while they are dreaming. He is on the stereotypical “one last mission” that will permit him to go home to his family. However, as the movie progresses we delve not only deeper into the story, but also deeper into Cobb’s character. This allows the movie to transcend the standard action movie format and tell a touching love story, as well as make us question ourselves about how our thoughts and actions influence others.

The rest of the cast also does an excellent job as well, and there is a little bit of an ‘Ocean’s Eleven’ feeling to the film as the individuals band together to pull off an impossible heist. Tom Hardy’s character Eames is especially noteworthy, as he is able to mimic others – including changing his appearance in the dreamscape. There is also the transparently named Ariadne. If you don’t understand, then perhaps you should spend some more time with Greek myth this summer.

Pacing and editing are highlighted during the last half of the movie, since time is further dilated the deeper into the subconscious you go. This allows action on one level overlap with exposition on another, while still keeping a sense of urgency and forward momentum.

The overall tone of the film is very serious, with only a very few moments of levity. Coupled with the action it makes for a very relentless two hours. I’m wondering if there was originally more humor and interaction between the various members of them team, that ended up needing to be sacrificed to the cutting room floor in order to highlight the central story and fit the time limit.

I highly recommend this movie. There is enough action and gun fights to make it a fun summer movie, and enough drama and emotional tension to make it an excellent date movie, and more than enough questions to keep you busy long after the stale popcorn has been swept off the theater floor.

Summer 2010

Yikes! I go to Montana for a month and all of a sudden it’s summer here in Spokane. My house has sort of air conditioning, but in the kitchen it is about 15 degrees hotter than the living room – and it just so happens that the desktop computer I’m writing this on is in the kitchen. It is making me look forward to the move to New Mexico and having some office space. Since this is the first time I have not had the crazy merry-go round schedule of work/school/work/school in quite some time, I thought I’d work on this blog. I want to use it to keep track of all the nerd related things I’m involved in – like sci-fi and fantasy books, video games, movies, tv-shows, tech, etc. So you have lots of un-asked for opinions to look forward to!

First, a quick Friday rundown:

What I’m Playing:

Persona 3 Portable on PSP

Saw on 360

What I’m Reading:

Decision at Doona by Anne McCaffery

What I’m Watching:

True Blood (season 3 – on Sundays)

Inception (out today – look for a review!)

Oh so Sly

Sucker Punch weighed in on September 23, 2002 with the now classic 'Sly Cooper and the Thievius Raccoonus.' The game is essentially a platformer, with a few minor stealth elements, as well as nods to generas such a double stick shooters and cart racers.

The heart of the game is the platforming elements, which are accomplished masterfully. When you jump, you can push the circle key to perform a flourish that allows you to land on very tiny spots and narrow ledges, or permits Sly to grab onto a pipe to clamber up to a new area. It's a clever trick that makes the player feel like they are really accomplishing something fantastic. At the end of the game when you have to quickly chain moves together into a fluid whole, the brilliance of the design becomes apparent. in other words, I felt like a total bad-ass as I guided Sly through his paces.

While the platforming mechanics are second to none, there are a series of mini-game levels that are not quite so wonderful. There are several section where you pilot a variety of vehicles, but they all move with the left stick and shoot with the right. The control feels very soft and loose, making precise movement an impossibility. This leads to many frustrating and pointless deaths. There also several sections where you race a van against 4 other competitors. It is very arcade style, with the only controls being the left stick to steer and the square button to trigger power ups you pick up along the track. Again, loose, floaty controls make these sections more frustrating than fun. The platforming sections are so enjoyable however, it is easy to forgive and forget the exasperation.

The boss fights are exciting, challenging, and annoying. They play more like puzzle sections, in which you have to figure out the right sequence of moves rather than just be quick on the trigger. There is still a twitch element, especially with the Frog and Panda bosses, but once you figure out the gimmick for the fight, it is often over very quickly. However, you will be seeing each stage of the 3 or 4 stage boss fights repeatedly - because if you make one wrong move you are turfed back to the first form, no matter how far you've gotten. The game really forces you to learn the patterns of the fights very well. One of the more interesting bosses is Mz Ruby, who through a quicktime events at you. But, she tosses actually representations of the playstation button symbols, which you then dodge by pushing the same buttons in the same rhythm. It is a clever way to do it, rather than have them arbitrarily flash on screen.

A real gripe that I have is with the "life" system. I really believe that it's a hold over from previous generations of platforming games. It's like the developers put it in there simply because "that how games are." If you loose all your lives you go back to the beginning of the stage you are on, but don't have to recollect any clues, and you have an infinite number of continues. So it is punitive, but not whole heatedly.

Sly Cooper really rewards you for sticking with it when you run into a difficult section. The difficulty seems to be dynamic - ramping up when you are doing well, but lending aid when you struggle. It will give you charms - first a silver, and then a gold - to increase your chances. And it seems to slow down some sequences and/or make them easier if you are having trouble. For players that conquer the game, there are timed master thief runs that challenge you to master all the special moves you unlock in the game. Even the most obsessive compulsive gamer will be challenged to finish everything in Sly Cooper. The reward for beating a levels master thief sprint is a special developer commentary, which makes me wish unlocking them wasn't such a pain since I'm sure they are worth listening to.

If you haven't played this game yet, do yourself a favor and go pick it up for the few dollars it costs - it will remind you of why you like gaming so much. It is also interesting to compare it to Sucker Punches' most recent game - Infamous. Playing through both at the same time really made me aware how much of Sly Cooper went into Infamous, as well as seeing what lessons the developers learned from the series. This game is highly recommended.

The Road to 1183

In order to receive the one-star "puzzle gamer" badge over at 360voice.com (where my xbox blogs!) I need a further 1183 points in a select list of "puzzle" games.



Astropop
Bejeweled 2
Boogie Bunnies
Buku Sudoku
Coffeetime Crosswords™
Hexic 2
Hexic HD
Jewel Quest
Poker Smash
Puzzle Fighter HD
Roogoo
Tetris Evolution
Tetris Splash
TiQal
Word Puzzle
Zuma

A few I already own, like Luxor and Roogoo. Tetris Evolution, which I'm going to borrow from a friend, is the only retail game - the others are all XBLA.

To kick it off I bought Buku Soduku yesterday morning. It's a cute little game, with nice graphics but poor sound. It also has an "auto-pencil" feature that renders most of the Soduku gameplay irrelevant. All you have to do is click on the dark colored number. Also, the game is old enough that no one at all is playing it online anymore. I sat for nearly 10 minutes waiting, but couldn't find a match. So I can't get all the cheevos on this one without boosting. Dang it.

The second game I bought is TiQal which is a tetris rip off, skinned in a South American -psudo - indian way. There are some interesting facts about actual cultures on some of the load screens. You have to make cubes of same colored bricks in order to advance, and it's a little harder than it sounds! It actually quite will done and I'm looking forward to continuing to play it.

Yesterday I achieved 120 points playing these two games. Yeah! Now only 1063 more points left to get. Wish me luck because these puzzles make themselves hard to complete!

Bionic Commando Multiplayer Demo -First Look

I'm not much of a demo person, or a multiplayer person for that matter, but I am interested in the updated mechanics in the new Bionic Commando game - so I thought that I'd check it out. Much to my surprise I enjoyed the few rounds I played. I think a large part of that involved the fact that chat was not enabled and there fore I couldn't get annoyed at the constant stream of inane chatter. I hope it stays this way in the final release!

The demo pops you into a 5 minute deathmatch against 7 other players (so 8 people including you), with only one map at the time being. There is no tutorial on how to traverse the world, just trial and error. While the game is loading there is an innovative method of conveying the control layout. A 3-D render of the 360 controller floats in space and you can hit buttons to see what they do. Unfortunately the load time is not that long and it took me multiple rounds before I was able to push every button to see what it does.

The matches themselves are pretty fast and furious, and favor those who really have the swing mechanic down pat. Around the map are points where gun or armor are located. the glow brightly and tend to be focus points for the action as players converge on the spot. A handy feature is the ability to grab the guns or armor with the bionic arm and pull it back to you. Several times I was able to use cover, grab a gun, and then head around a corner and blow some dude away who was camping there to try and mow people down.

You are also brightly colored on a fairly drab background, so it's not an option to hide through camouflage. the catch is that there is some vertical layering to the levels, and you can grapple your way up and then reign terror down on your opponents.

There are melee attacks, but weapon use was so prevalent that I never had a chance to get close enough to an opponent to take them down by that method.

A leveling up system seemed to be present, but did not persist from match to match in the demo.

Initially after the release of the 360 demo there were some reports that people had problems finding and connecting to matches, by Saturday afternoon when I was playing this was not an issue. A minute was about the longest I waited to be matched with the maximum amount of other players.

I am going to continue to play the demo and see how it holds up as I learn the map and controls better, and may be picking the retail release up as well.

Review of Bully (360)

Late in the PS2's life came Rockstar Vancouver's view of high school society in the form of 'Bully.' It would take nearly two years for imperfect ports of the game to hit the Wii, Xbox 360 (March 2008) and the PC (Oct. 2008). Like the GTA games that Rockstar is better known for, Bully is an openworld sandbox game with a cynical view of Americana. However, with a smaller game world and shorter missions, Bully is actually a much tighter game than its big brothers.

Jimmy, the main character, finds himself dropped off at Bullworth academy by uncaring parents. He quickly discovers that the school is rigidly divided in to cliques, such as the Nerds, Jocks, and Preps. Sort of like a real high school. The game involves him negotiating his way through classes, and taking the cliques on one by one. Classes are done as mini-games, and are generally entertaining. The Scholarship Editions on the Wii, 360, and PC contain a few classes not found in the original PS2 version, and these seem to be tailor made for the Wii controller, and therefore end up being a bit awkward on the other systems.

One of the most notable aspects of the game is the passage of the seasons as you progress in the game. Holidays like Halloween and Christmas come and go, each with their own special events. Winter buries the school campus and the entire town under a blanket of white. If you receive detention during this time you'll be shovelling snow instead of mowing the lawn!

Little touches in the game world and dialog show off the high production value of this game. Several different collectibles are scattered throughout the entire gameworld, and more than 300 articles of clothing can be found or bought, thus giving completionist gamers something to obsess over.

Controls on the console editions of the game are tight, with vehicles such as bikes and go carts being as easy to control as Jimmy himself. The PC controls are a little harder to adapt to and seem a shoehorned on after thought.

Overall the game is extremely fun to play. It's everything you like about a GTA game, but with all the annoying stuff removed. The atmosphere is light hearted and the subject material not as dark. I can't recommend this game highly enough.

Oblivion Main Quest: From Weynon Priory to the Dagon Shrine

After exiting into the main world of Cyrodiil you head to Weynon to give the amulet to Jauffre, who also knows the location of the Emperor's Heir. You get a sense here for the depth of the world that Bethesda has created, and NPCs talk (to each other) about what has just happened in the imperial city, and a newspaper lays on a table also talking about recent events.

Jauffre points you towards the city of Kvatch and instructs you to bring the Heir, Matartin (who named this guy?) back to Weynon Priory. At this point you are faced with a choice. You can either a) set out on foot to the city b)receive a free horse in the stables, or c) quick travel. I went for option c because I knew that I'd be exploring the world through side and faction quests, because I have somewhat limited gaming time, and because I hate horse riding mechanics in any game. As an interesting note, when you are riding a horse in Oblivion the shadow cast by the horse only includes the saddle - not you! I'd recommend, however, that if you are only planning on playing through the main quest that you choose to walk or ride through the landscape rather than quick travel. This way you can full appreciate the size, scope, and beauty of the game.

Once you have arrived at Kvatch by your preferred method, it turns out the quest is not as easy as walking into the city and finding Martin. Instead, an Oblivion gate has opened right in front of the town and daedra (basically demons) have over run the town. Martin is holed up inside the cathedral inside the city.

The first task is to close the Oblivion gate. You have to go into it to do this, and find yourself transported to a hellish world. It's actually only a small area that sort of funnels you to the tower you need to go to. Once inside the tower I became very disorientated and it took a good bit of going in and out the same doors before I found the correct path. This happened because the first and second floors not only look the same, but are also labeled the same. So I felt like I was trapped in some time warp were I was continually ending up back at the same spot. I finally figured it out and was able to battle my way up to the top and remove the stone that was keeping the gate open. And unlike every other dungeon in the game, I was just kicked out back into the normal world and didn't have to back track to the entrance.

Once the gate is closed you head into the city and clean out the remaining daedra and find Martin in the Cathedral. After escorting him out of the town I choose to do a side quest and clear the Castle in Kvatch of daedra as well, which netted me a nice suit of armor, but it isn't necessary to the main quest.

You have to tell Martin he's the heir, that the daedra attacked the city because of him, and that he needs to follow you. All in all he takes it pretty well. In fact, he is just an unbelievably nice guy. since this is an RPG I choose to believe that he tortures kittens in his off time just to make up how nice he appears to be.


You can risk hoofing it back to the Priory, or just quick travel to make sure he gets there in one piece. No matter what you do the Priory is under attack when you arrive and the amulet has already been stolen by a mysterious cult. Since Martin obviously isn't safe at the priory, you are stuck hauling his butt up to a more defensible place. This is Cloud Ruler Temple, north of Bruma. After you stash him safely away, you have to head out and start tracking down the stolen amulet.

So starts one of the more boring lines of questing in the game. You go and find Baurus in the imperial city, and help him fend off the worst assassination attempt ever, and get a book. You may remember Baurus as being there, and useless, when the emporer was killed. Wish there was a dialog option to rub it in. Anyway, you go talk to Tar-Meena at the arcane university library and she gives you another book. Then you go to a bookstore and wait around to get a third book (but no latte - only bookstore with out a Starbucks), you then talk to Baurus again and head into the sewers to get the fourth book. Once you have all four you return to Tar-Meena and she tells you to come back later and she'll have it figured out. So you twiddle your digital thumbs for 24 hours until she's ready. At least it is 24 hours game time, and you can just sleep that time if you want. She tells you it has to do with the first word of each paragraph, and the real you has to pull out pen and paper to figure out the clue.

It points you to a tomb on the Green Emporer way at noon. So I staid at the closest inn for 40 gold for the night (geez! And not even a mint on the pillow) and waited in the right spot.
Glowing symbols appear, and tell you to head out to a new location to find the Dagon Shrine.

On to glory! (or at least another trip inside a cave)