Monthly Archive for October, 2007

Upgrading to WordPress 2.3.1

Published on October 27, 2007 in Stuff. 1 Comment Tags: , .

This is now my 2nd attempt at upgrading to the latest version of WordPress. My first attempt earlier today somehow killed the blog, but so far I seem to have everything back up and running. Now it’s time to test my theme and plugins…

Update: The dust seems to be settling… Looks like I’ve lost use of Extended Live Archives, but so far nothing else. We’ll see if I run into any other problems over the next few days.

Update 2: K2’s sidebar seems to be broken, too. Fuck.

Also, they still haven’t fixed the div/p issue.  I had to go edit the code to fix it manually again.

You must admit, you brought this on yourself.

Published on October 22, 2007 in Movies. 2 Comments Tags: , , , .

Michael Haneke has remade his own brilliant movie, Funny Games. The original is German, and one of the most fucked up, brutal, terrifying movies I have ever seen. This also makes it very memorable. It’s an amazing movie, but of course, isn’t for everyone. While some people may dismiss it on the surface, the movie also contains significant thematic depth.

I’m not so sure why I’m so excited about this remake. Some of the shots in the trailer make it look like it’s a remake shot for shot, when compared to the original German trailer, but then halfway through the trailers are drastically different. I guess I want to see where Michael Haneke goes with it.

Continue reading ‘You must admit, you brought this on yourself.’

The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass (Nintendo DS, 2007)

Published on October 18, 2007 in Video Games. 2 Comments Tags: , .
Phantom Hourglass box

Phantom Hourglass is the latest installment of the Legend of Zelda franchise. Overall, the game is an awesome experience.

The first thing that should be noted about this game is that the controls make it play differently than any other Zelda game. The stylus controls all the action in the game. All the DS buttons do is act as shortcuts to menus. It all works very, very well. The only downside is that I felt like the difficulty of combat has been reduced to accommodate the controls, most likely because the controls wouldn’t be conducive to the quicker, more active combat of the previous 2D Zelda games.

While the combat is a bit easier, the new controls also add new play mechanics that make the game feel very fresh. The player draws with the stylus to plan the path of the boomerang or bombchus, or to create tightropes. You fire arrows with precision by tapping on the screen. Using the stylus to swordfight comes close to using targeting in the 3D Zelda games, but makes combat a bit slower than other 2D Zeldas, as I mentioned earlier. The player can also sketch notes and such on the maps, which becomes a crucial element for many of the game’s puzzles. Similarly, you draw the course of your ship directly on the map to navigate the game’s oceans, leaving you free to man the cannon full time, which is much more fun than navigating in Windwaker.

The bulk of the game is played in 2D (with the exception of some boss fights), but is rendered fully in 3D. The graphics are superb for a DS title. They look great even when we get up close for the game’s excellently directed cut scenes, which are a joy to watch.

The game’s dialogue is also excellently localized. This leads me to believe that Nintendo is taking its localization seriously, after seeing them do such a great job with Super Paper Mario and now playing this.

The only downside of the game is that it’s a bit short. One of the central elements of the game is that there’s a main dungeon that you revisit several times, each time delving deeper into it. It was interesting, but I think I would have rather had a greater variety of dungeons, and more islands. The hardest parts of the game are the optional timed mini game challenges. I liked them, but I could have done with less of those in exchange for more difficult and involved puzzles involving the game’s new stylus mechanics.

Don’t let my few negative comments deter you from playing this game. If you have a Nintendo DS and haven’t yet picked this up, you’re doing yourself a disservice.

Trix is for kids?

Published on October 9, 2007 in Video Games. 0 Comments Tags: , , , .

N’Gai Croal of Newsweek’s Level Up blog posted about his appearance on CNN about the upcoming Manhunt 2, notable for having to be retooled to receive a lower rating, violent use of the Wii controls, and now the achievement of having been denied review by the British Board of Film Classification a second time even after self-censorship.

The real interesting thing about Croal’s post is that he realizes that during his interview, the anchor keeps making the assumption that all games, including the M rated Manhunt 2, are aimed at children.

Here’s an excerpt:

Chetry isn’t alone in her bedrock assumption that all videogames are primarily aimed at “kids.” After all, had we gone on the show to discuss Ang Lee’s NC-17-rated erotic thriller “Lust, Caution,” or the upcoming horror movie “30 Days of Night,” we doubt that we’d have been asked “Would you let your kids watch it?” It would have been assumed that those movies, like certain TV shows, books or plays, are not intended for children. Yet videogames often don’t get the same recognition.

The assumption that all videogames are toys for children rather than entertainment for a variety of different audiences is one of our pet peeves. It may seem innocuous, but it’s not only the foundation of continued attempts at the state and national level to regulate the sale and marketing of videogames, it’s also an excuse for developers and publishers to coast on the innocuous, the inoffensive and the tried-and-true rather than push the medium forward in multiple directions for multiple audiences–including adults. In other words, it’s not just videogame outsiders who hold this belief: many insiders do as well.

What’s even more interesting to me is how Croal links the issue to the general lack of innovation in games today. While I still believe that lack of innovation should mostly be blamed on financial reasons — entertainment’s habit of parroting formulas that have been commercially successful in the past in hopes of reaping additional profits — Croal’s argument is definitely compelling.

The assumption that all games are meant for kids is especially mind-boggling to me after playing through most of Silent Hill 2 with friends over the last couple days. It’s glaringly obvious that the game is for adults. The game features narrative, atmosphere, intelligence, and emotion with far more depth than most horror films I’ve seen. Anyways, I’ll write more about SH2 another time, after we actually finish the game.

Probably for the best

Published on October 7, 2007 in Links, Movies and Video Games. 0 Comments Tags: , , .

The Halo movie is “entirely dead.”

I’m sure it would have made a ton of money, but I’m also confident it wouldn’t have been particularly good.

Halo 3

Published on October 4, 2007 in Video Games. 3 Comments

First off, a disclaimer: this review of the game is only meant to reflect my experience with the Campaign mode of the game.

Saturday night I played through Halo 3 with Morty, Asher, Pat, and Justin. While the game is much improved from the previous installments, it retains many of the same problems.

The game plays very well. Controls are tight, the action is great, etc. The weapons have definitely been improved, and I didn’t feel the problem I had with them in the past. I definitely had fun playing, and could tell that multiplayer would be a blast.

The design of the Campaign mode maps is still for the most part dull, repetitive, and boring. At first it didn’t feel that way, but soon it became apparent that while the environments were more richly detailed, the level designs really hadn’t been much improved. Why is Bungie so fascinated with warehouses full of crates and shipping containers? Why is all architecture full of purposeless rooms that are all unmarked? Too many times we were wandering aimlessly, just waiting for the waypoint indicator to pop up to tell us where to go. This simply shouldn’t happen.

My second big gripe with the game is the story. There were a couple great moments, but overall the story and writing is mediocre, predictable, and uninteresting.  I only found one or two of the cutscenes particularly compelling.  I must say, though, I really liked the epilogue, how they ended the trilogy.

Like I said before, despite these complaints the game plays well.  I need to spend some time with the multiplayer component of the game, which seems to be where the majority of the game’s features are, before rendering my final judgement.