Battlestar, Condemned and Atonement

I’ve been putting off any real content article for a few days now, honestly I’m just hesitant to try and textualise my thoughts until I’ve completed a review of Warriors Orochi I’m doing for Xbox Elite – but it has yet to arrive and my thoughts are rattling through my head now.

So here we go, you get a Triple header – Three reviews in one post!

Battlestar Galactica Series 3

I missed watching BSG series 3 on television by about two weeks, and decided that rather than miss an episode or two I would painstakingly wait over a year for it to come to DVD. Well last week the time came to watch it, all 16 Hours, in one go and let me tell you, it was entirely worth that wait.

Admittedly it peaked early and within the first 5 episodes it became a bit too much filler and not enough thriller. But saying that, the first few episodes were more thrilling and entertaining than all of DS9 and Voyager put together. The scene were the BS:G FTL’s into the atmosphere … I could’ve died happy then.

Sadly, the season didn’t end on quite a high … I won’t ruin specifics, but we discover identities of all but one of the remaining human cylon clones. You won’t be shocked and if you’re anything like me, you won’t give a shit either really. It started at a 10 and ended on a 9 … Depending on who you like anyway (Oh and Fat Apollo will disturb and scar you).

Overall it gets a solid 9.5/10, not the best series yet … but it has some of my favourite episodes/moments.

Condemned

Voiced by that chap in heroes, I was sold Condemned on the grounds it was a Police game with some Horror aspects. Wrong. Its a Horror game with some Police aspects. I was quite disillusioned initially as it felt like they were grasping at straws and the plot was … well … thin in places, but it was actually very atmospheric.

Although the difficulty was a little too easy with only one or two parts even requiring tactical fighting … since medikits were so common, you could basically do whatever you wanted and not really about the consequences. Also, its supposed to be made more threatening by the lack of firearms (or at least ammunition) to protect yourself with … but sadly, in many parts of the game guns are quite common. In fact, if you have any kind of aim and ammo conservation habits from more stringent horror games then you will be trying to decide which gun to take from like … 3. Times like that made me wish I could at least carry two weapons -.-

All in all, its a good game. Quite probably the best Horror game I’ve played in years … Sure, Bioshock has its scary moments … But condemned was pretty damn horrifying from start to finish. 8.2/10

Atonement

This, I will keep brief.

I can put up with some chicky flicks and stuff … but this was fucking awful.

If I didn’t get to see so much of teh nipples, I probably would’ve left. The sequencing was schizophrenic, the dialogue painfully cliché and the plot fell short of my expectations … neigh … It ran head first into them like an angry bull determined to destroy my fragile existence.

1.5 Stars /5 – Nipples are win. Keira Knightley haf secksy body. Otherwise, shit.

It’d only be fair to mention in retrospect that the main guy’s acting was actually pretty good, sadly … He couldn’t bring the rest of it back from the brink of suckitude. Oh. and the Library sex scene was pretty good.

Until next time boys and girls, have fun! Mark assures me he has something planned, but not a Stubbs the Zombie review.

Regards,
James.

Ps. For the Record, I wanted to see that 3:10 to Yuma, but apparently cowboy movies “look boring”. Sheesh.

PPs. I was quite proud of my comment on this video. (I’m JamesPR87 btw)

Ghost in the Shell

Website

Ghost in the Shell is one of those long running manga series that everyone in the loop knows all about, and anyone who hasn’t been interested in manga probably hasn’t even heard of. I myself do like GitS, but I don’t consider myself to be a proper fan. Here is my list of GitS productions that I know about.

Films:
Ghost in the Shell
Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence

The GitS films are very different, both from eachother and from anything else you’ve ever seen. I recommend seeing the first one, although the secong one is a bit trying, I don’t think you should watch it if you don’t really like GitS. I don’t want to give any of the plot away, so I won’t discuss that here. The shortcomings for both is that they have very complicated stories, and first time watchers might find the concepts intoduced a little hard to digest. The voice acting is quite good, but sometimes the characters (especially Batou, Aramaki and The Major) sound like they are reading, although this might be intended because they have electronic bodies and thus eletronic voice-boxes.

TV Series:
Ghost in the shell: Stand Alone Complex
Ghost in the Shell: S.A.C. 2nd GIG

I have only seen the fist half of the first series, but I consider the S.A.C. episodes to be better than the films. They have more action, attractive and vibrant art, and good characterisation. The Major and Batou both seem more interesting, funny and happy in the series than they do in the flims, which is refreshing, and there are other additional characters like Saito which further liven things up. The series just seem to have more character than the films, and are not bogged down with so much philosophy. I hate the Tachikomas.

Games:
Ghost in the Shell (Playstation)
Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex (PS2)

I only had the demo of the PS1 game, so I can’t really talk about that. It seemed pretty good, but I do remember it being quite tricky to come to terms with. I do on the other hand own the PS2 game, so I can talk about that one. Although it’s called S.A.C., it doesn’t really have anything to do with the TV series other than the characters. I would go into the plot but I really have no idea what the game is about; which is my only real complaint: the story is way too difficult to follow and the player has almost no idea why they are doing what they are beign told to do. It has something to do with terrorists and micro-machine rice (?) but it’s just too complicated and weird.
The game itself though is fine. Graphically it’s pretty good and looks quite like the cartoon series (it’s not cell-shaded), I think it has voices from the series too. The levels are varied and fun, and there are 2 playable characters to choose from (plus more once you’ve completed the game). The melee system is basic but fun, and the multiplayer is pretty average.

So that’s Ghost in the Shell. Overall, I reccomend watching the first film and the TV series. If you like what you see, play the game and watch the second movie, it’s up to you what you think about those.

Live-D

You might enjoy the GitS game, but here’s a REAL computer game.

Consider the Barrel Scraped.

Its coming up to a strong Television time of the year, big TV viewers may have already noticed their favourites returning to Air. Such as Top Gear, Rescue Me, 24 and quite a few others. Well theres something else to be excited about in the coming months – The HBO/BBC Series ROME will be returning to British TV around April.

For those not familiar with it, its a gritty and violent drama based in the time before Julius Caesar’s Assaination. Which not suprisingly was where the series ended. However, the second series picks up with Marc Anthony’s struggle after this most devious of ploys.

On a similar note, the movie 300 is set to air next month – March 9th I believe. Its the movie incarnation of the Frank Miller Graphic novel of the same name and has been absolutely panned in preliminary reviews. I’ve been following it since I first saw a trailer for it, my good friend James even bought me the Graphic Novel and to be honest … If its even close to the same quality as Sin City I’m going to love it.

Other James has recently purchased the new Final Fantasy Game, Final Fantasy XII, and I saw the first fourty-five minutes or so. It looks interesting enough, but i’ll pressure him to write a review for us.

Over on the ET Forums i’ve also been giving, and taking, a panning to the PS3, its quietened down now – but maybe you’ll find it an interesting read. Click right here!

And I know I said my last map link would be the last, but they wiped their site … so its been re-uploaded. So check it out! 243 Downloads and a B+ (or 4-Star) Rating

Have fun guys!

More like White Coats.

Brown coats rejoice! Our beloved FireFly is being ressurected, but not in flesh and blood with Nathan Fillion whooping ass across the universe.

Take your seats.

Firefly is being ressurected by Multiverse a project headed by Ex-Netscape Employees with the aim of becoming “the world’s leading network of Massively Multiplayer Online Games (MMOGs) and 3D virtual worlds.” Well quite frankly, they are far too late, but is there hope for FireFly?

Well a brief spell upon the Multiverse website has tought me alot in the ways of Liberal Hippy Propaganda, after all … “This is the start of a revolution” … apparently. I do respect some of the things they have said though. Multiverse may seem like they are just trying to break into the market, but it would seem there is a Robin-Hood situation going.

They are trying to create a platform unto which modders can come together to create the mods they always wanted, in the format they could never achieve. A Noble cause perhaps, but is this really the solution? Should modders really be working on this platform, pioneered by Suits that used to work on Netscape, is this not against the spirit?

I would personally feel much better if amateur designers had produced a poorer simpler engine, but instead this overly hardware spec heavy engine seems to be the utter opposite of their own mission. It’s about as accessible as Mary Magdeline’s crotch, after Ninja Jesus had his piece.

Anyway, from what (admittedly) little i’ve seen, it would not be in the interests of FireFly to create this game. The brand will only suffer from being brought to this engine and that is the last thing I want.

Why is it that of all the MMOs i’ve played, only one is an accessible game that -anyone- can get into, and I don’t even need to say it.

Be sure to see what Wired had to say, I won’t bother linking the Brown Coats Abode, as its just full of fans glad to see a revival without thinking of the consequences.

Late Edit – I checked Wikipedia for what it had to say on the topic of Multiverse, no suprise it has only good things to say, but check it out. See what the ‘experts’ have to say.

Oh and Fox, seriously … What the Fuck! Its one of the most sucessful Sci-Fi DVD Revivals in history, why not fund another series? But you’re happy to let this shite happen.

For Shame.

I must make my threats, but I will do so in an uber-small font so not to offend:
Seriously, I will fucking disembowel your family and feed their entrails to hungry sharks whilst putting to work constant electric shocks to your extremities untill each and every nerve ending in your body is dead, then I will saw off your limbs – whilst you’re concious – and leave you to soak in a vat of sulphuric acid.

Enjoy your week.

Sword of a Thousand Truths

SP 1008 – Make Love, not Warcraft
Uploaded by pradera

Updated to show the video, or atleast I hope.

Enjoy.