MAG-nificent Review

Okay, yeah, so the name's lame. But I thought it was funny...and I'm the one writing this, so there!

Alright, anyway, let me start out by making it a point to note that I have yet to play Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 online. Thus, whenever I compare MAG (the game I'm reviewing here, in case the oh-so-clever title didn't inform you) to "Call" it is the first CoD:MW. Of course, I've read a lot of reviews and watched a handful of videos about the second installment of the MW series and may level my experience with that. But, in doing so, I'll reitterate that this is speculation.

Okay...here we go!

Earlier this week I had the pleasure to download and partake in the Open Beta for Zipper Interactive's new Playstation 3-exclusive First Person Shooter, MAG. While I have no idea what the name of the game means--is it an acronym for something or just the common use of "mag" for "magazine"--but what I do know is that the game's story revolves around a near-future Shadow War being fought by three Private Military Company's (Valor, S.V.E.R., and Raven). Each PMC represents an area of the world (not simple countries, but a coalition of existing powers) and the player is tasked with joining one and taking up the offered arms. From here you create a character and customize loadouts then head out into one of the gametypes offered to your current level; the beta only had one gametype available while I was playing it, but allows you to take a look at the others. There is promised 264-player combat and, though I'm not sure how that is going to work out, during my time with the game, the mode offered sported 64 players and ran silky smooth.

Now, let's dive into the meat of the game: Gameplay.

From the second my digital boots hit the dirt to the time I was comfortable with the controls--which I opted to learn via fumbling around like an idiot ingame--took less than one game. I'd say I had a handle on the controls within 5-10 minutes. The game is an FPS so all the basics--run, strafe, shoot, zoom, weapon/item swap and usage--were there and easily mastered. Shoot and zoom are handled by L1 and R1, respectively, while switching items or weapons are done by tapping L2 and R2. Given that I prefer the Xbox controller, which uses the trigger/shoulder bumper system, over the PS3 controller, I was a little leery about the "trigger" set-up. However, by the end of my second game I had assimilated the layout and was using it naturally. Another aspect of the PS3 controller I am generally put off by are the thumbsticks and their side-by-side position on the controller; n my opinion, the concave layout of the Xbox's thumbsticks is simply more natural and easier on your hands. That said, I didn't really experience any of the cramping I used to with the DualShock controller. This could be attributed to the fact that I've spent a lot more time with my PS3 in the last year and may have conditioned my thumbs to the controller's shape. Either way, I had no problem playing for multiple hours at a time.

The core aspect of MAG's gameplay is skill progression and customization. Players earn experience through objective-based goals or actions during gameplay. Now, I'm not totally familiar with every detail with the leveling system, but my time with the game revealed the following: Players earn 5 xp per kill, 3 xp per Assist (typically done by losing a stand-off with another player and then being rewarded when a teammate steps in and finishes the job for you), 10 xp for reviving a downed player (something only Medic-spec'd players can do), and you lose 5 xp for teamkilling a fellow soldier. As a whole, I am happy with this system; I think, for the most part, it's fair and offers a nice reward/penalty balance. Of course, that isn't to say I don't think there isn't room for improvement; specifically with the Medic. When a player is reduced to 0 health, they are incapacitated and on a timer (much like Gears of War), thus giving a player who has allocated Skill Points in the Medic skills time to come over and revive them. As I said, the medic player is awarded 10 points for every time this occurs--a fair amount for risking one's life--but the player who was just revived is given nothing but a second chance with half their full health. Under normal circumstances I would totally agree with this system. The problem, however, comes in two flavors: 1. TeamKilling a player just to run over and revive them for free 5 xp (10 for the revive -5 for the TK) and 2. Most of the Medics I dealt with refuse to clear an area of enemies and simply run up, revive you, and dart back into hiding--this allows the guy who killed you to rack up xp and murder your Kill-Death Ratio (for those of us who take pride in such things) as he simply stands by and shoots you again in that frantic few seconds after you're revived. Kill-Heal-Kill, repeat.

There isn't a whole lot I could suggest to fix this, other than to give the player who is being revived some compensation for allowing himself to be revived instead of simply hitting X and Bleeding Out. If I'm going to risk my own score so that you can rack up the xp by continuously healing the wounds I sustain from the same asshole's gun, then I should be compensated accordingly. Right?

All that aside, though, MAG is simply fun as hell. The gametype available is simple in terms of objectives, but can drag out to the entire length of the match or end within 5 minutes based on how good your team works together; plus, parachuting into the battlefield (which is how you respawn once Objective C is unlocked) is unbelievably fun! I never once experienced an unfair disadvantage because another player was exploiting some glitch or taking advantage of some overlooked loadout which totally sodomizes the game's ballance. I had one or two issues with people just being dicks in general (one guy started shooting at the same enemy soldier at the same time and, since I got a headshot and scored the kill, he turned and knifed me in the face) but this sort of thing you can't avoid. When that many people, of that diverse an age-range, go to war, you're going to come up against (or play with) the occasional asshat. But, in the 8+ hours I spent playing MAG (accumulated, btw), I never once got frustrated or angry. I had fun. That's almost unheard of in online multiplayer of this sort, anymore.

My final thought on the game is this...

MAG is a war simulator, plain and simple. It forces players to think tactically and approach each match with the goals in mind and utilize their team's cooperation. Other games may have War in the title, but never once, did I feel like I was a soldier in the conflict talked about on the box. Instead, these games almost always devolve into a pissing contest to see who can get the most kills in each match...and, unfortunately, the one's who do, usually augment their "skills" with exploits or system mods. I'm not saying that this won't eventually happen with MAG, but so far, that stuff is just not there.

For anyone who has a PS3, I highly recommend this game. If you don't have a PS3...well...enjoy Call for as long as you can, I guess. My thinking is that a lot of players are going to migrate.

Later!

Insipid Samurai

Hey, guys!

Okay, so it’s no secret that I love samurai. That said, it’s easy to assume that I’m a fan of most things featuring samurai in one form or another. From the classics like The Seven Samurai to some more obscure things like the Onimusha series. If it’s got samurai in it, chances are I’ll give it a chance. So, in that respect, when I got a whiff of the Way of the Samurai series several years ago—I think a little over 4 years now…maybe more—it’s obvious I was excited.

Here was a game that allowed me to take on the role of a wayward Ronin—masterless samurai—and choose to help the people of a village in need of a hero or take over the gang of bandits and reek havoc on the dingy citizens as I saw fit…or I could simply pass the village by and legitimately end the game in 10 seconds. I, being the paragon that I am when it comes to gaming, always choose to help those in need. And, from that point forward it was an amazing romp through the fictional life of a Ronin. I loved it.

So, when it was announced that WotS3 was on its way, I was stoked. It was one of the highest games on my list of “must haves” for October this year. But, sadly, as the game’s release drew nearer and more reviews were surfacing, the edge on the sword that was my fervor began to dull. It seemed that this latest installment in an otherwise inspired series was somewhat lacking. All the key elements were there, but the meat was a little on the lean side. After reading the last average scored review, I decided that I’d throw it on my GameFly list and wait to play it when I got around to it.

Well, last week I received the notice that the game was on its way and, low and behold, my excitement shot right back up to its original zest. I was pumped.

Then it showed up.

And I put it in the Xbox…

And was sorely disappointed.

It’s not that the game is totally horrible. It’s just that I can’t seem to figure out how to find the parts that aren’t. First off, let me tell you that, should you choose to play this game, you need to speak to a minstrel (the little old dudes with the string instrument—Biwa—found in every major area) and get him to play a song. This isn’t really made readily apparent at first and, thus, I found myself creating my character from scratch on three separate occasions. That is to say, three times from not saving; if you die, you can load from a previous save or start over with any experience, yen and weapons accrued in your previous playthrough.

As for the game itself, there are definitely a lot of great ideas here. The core concept of the game—the reason I was drawn to the series—is present but, for me at least, felt more like an inspiration than an actual element of the gameplay. From what I could tell there is little in the way of story to be found and what snippets I did experience, were few and far between and made little to no sense to me. When you start the game, your character awakens—after a brief cutscene where you pass out in front of a couple of battlefield looters—in a small home in a village. When you exit the home you are greeted by a mean old man (presumably the owner of the home) and can actually accidentally skip the whole encounter and not be able to go back, thus having no idea what the hell is going on—not that the encounter really gives you much to go on in the first place.

The accidental skipping involves a system in which every major conversation can be interrupted by one of two choices: throwing yourself to the ground and groveling or drawing your weapon. The former usually has you kneel like an idiot and then get up and walk away, completely skipping the conversation and erasing any chance of repeating it. The latter…well…you can imagine what might happen there. This is a cool system in theory, but with no explanation as to what you’re doing or what the consequences are it can make for an irritating trial and error learning curve.

The gameplay itself, from what I can gather, revolves mostly around doing odd jobs for the people in and around the major areas of the world. The starting village offered only two that I found. One was a completely incompetent housewife who has apparently lost ever single sharp object in her kitchen and wants you to cut vegetables for her. A simple enough task and, really, kind of expected given the type of game you’re playing. However, the “mission” consists basically of you standing on one side of the screen and the woman kneeling on the other. She then proceeds to throw shit at you! And it’s not just veggies, people! I don’t know if she was just completely nuts or what, but the bitch starts tossing furniture at you like it’s no big deal. So, now you’re dodging wooden lamps and the like while trying to chop this dumb woman’s produce. Okay. But does she throw them in any kind of rhythm? Hell no. She gets clever and mixes up the pace randomly. I don’t know about you, but if someone wanted me to do them a favor and then tried to bludgeon me and, barring that, went out of their way to make said favor unnecessarily difficult, I’d toss up a finger and walk the hell away. And slap her kids on the way out just for spite.

The second “task giver,” if you will, was a perverted old lady who is apparently just this side of delusional. To “earn her trust” (to what end I never gathered) she gives you tasks that she feels are menial and, in reality, are ridiculously difficult or just so…fucking weird…that it wasn’t long before I wished for the stupid housewife’s flying produce. The first task I was sent on was a mission to locate this crazy old broad’s Lucky Underwear. I’m not even kidding here. It seems that she takes this pair of sacred panties with her wherever she goes—why she doesn’t wear them, I’m not sure I want to know—and she has misplaced them on one of her many walks. Okay, so you’re being sent on your standard early-game fetch mission. Got it. But why the hell are you hunting down an old lady’s underoos?!?! I mean, I understand that this is a Japanese game and, well, the Japanese culture is, by and large, far stranger when it comes to this type of humor, but come on! The task itself isn’t all that difficult. You run out, find the old granny’s panties and you bring them back. The problem is, apparently they smell like fish or something because once you have them, you are instantly the object of desire for the crows that inhabit the area in which the underwear is found. Like moths to a flame, the little feathery bastards chase you around and try to steal the garment. Again, I ask…why?

The second of the three tasks she gave me was to push her around. She’s old—duh—and doesn’t have the energy to walk down the friggin’ road from where she is and stand on the bridge overlooking the creek she’s already standing next to! Okay, gently push the old nut few yards down the road. Sounds easy, right? Wrong. So very…very…wrong. First off, the designers made the controls for movement roughly two speeds, standing still and sprinting like a maniac. Normally I wouldn’t have a problem with movement being sped up in a game where I have to walk everywhere. But when you want me to push an old lady without pissing her off by being too rough, give me an option to toggle a walk mode, eh? Or, at the very least, allow me to grab onto her or pick her up. No, what you have here is the equivilant of pushing a chair covered with bacon grease! There doesn’t seem to be any point of contact that will last more than an inch before you slip off and start running past her. It’s unbelievable, really.

But! That’s right…BUT!

As annoying as that task was, she isn’t through! It seems that three of the village’s children like to run away once in a while and you—the nameless stranger with a sword—are the best possible option for finding them and bringing them home. Okay, okay, okay…no. That’s just too much for me. The lady just fucking met you and she wants you to find the kids who ran away?! You were dragged off a battlefield and no one knows if you’re a bloodthirsty murderer or amnesiac pedophile! I mean, c’mon! You willingly went on a mission to find her panties! That, in my mind, does not a good babysitter, make! But, okay, it is a game, after all so let’s take the job. The three children are hiding randomly in one of the major areas and you have to talk to them one at a time and get all three to follow you before the mission’s over. The problem, though, is that if you bump one of them (which is easy to do given the aforementioned movement control) the little bastard then spends the rest of the mission kicking the shit out of your shins.

Now, this would be a little funny if it didn’t take a decent sized chunk of your life away as well as make it irritatingly difficult to speak to the other children since every kick knocks you out of the conversation! By the end of this mission I found myself running from a 6-year-old just to talk to his friends and keep from pulling my sword and taking that little foot right the fuck off! By and by, not a fun mission. Not a fun mission at all!

Well, that about covers the milk and honey of what I played of the game. The bulk of the filler gameplay, if you will. So, what about the combat? Nearly non-existent if you don’t want to murder everyone in sight. Yes, you can fight pretty much anyone, but unless you do something untoward around them or attack them directly, no one wants to fight you. I spent roughly 3 or so hours with this game all said and done and got into maybe 5 fights. For a game about a wandering warrior, this seems a might on the weak side. One of those fights is pretty much necessary when you leave the mean old guy’s land—unless you want to help the thugs picking on a woman right outside the gate—and serves mainly as a way to get a feel for the fighting. Which, by the way, is relatively straightforward: A to jump, X for weak attack, Y for strong attack and right bumper for block. Other than that, your options are to attack with the lethal side of the weapon (be it sword or staff) or flip it and use the blunt side. Using the blunt side inspires some interesting dialogue from your foes while the lethal side offers a chance to Quick Kill your opponent which, in this case, is an homage to how most sword duels played out. It wasn’t always a lengthy volley of blades, but, rather, a contest of who could unsheathe their sword first.

The second of my small list of fights was the result of the way a conversation played out and was actually rather cool in that respect. The fight itself was short and felt as if I had murdered the man. But, hey, I don’t think butterflies are the most beautiful thing in the world, what can I say? The next fight was Butterfly Guy’s friends (another cool aspect of the game’s ability to track who you’ve killed) and the last two were random encounters with a Killer and the daughter of some samurai I supposedly killed in battle.

Both of those, sadly, ended in my untimely demise.

Hey…that chick could handle a sword!

The last death was, unfortunately, the last time I played the game. Quite simply, it bored the hell out of me. It’s just not interesting. There are a lot of solid ideas and the pieces for a great game, sure. But they were put together by a monkey with Down Syndrome…and, judging by the PS2-quality graphics, that monkey was blind as well.

Poor monkey…someone should get him a better job.

Meanwhile, I’ll play some more MAG and forget about being a samurai.

For now…

Zombies, Sci-Fi Trilogies and Horror Films

Hey, guys! Long time, no blog, eh?

Well, this is really just an update of sorts. A kind of "What's Ray Not Doing Now" peak at my creative ongoings of late. I've got several things in the mix; a few I've been working on a while and one or two I've recently started.

We'll start with Neomyn. Greg did the first 8 pages of the revised script for Zuda, as I'd stated before and I've colored and lettered the first two pages and posted them in the last two blogs. I'd started working on the colors for the remaining pages when I had an idea. A dear friend of mine--Ruth Collins--is an art major and teacher and a damn fine artist herself. That said, I recently sent a feeler offer to acquire her services as colorist for the comic. She's a damn sight better than I am with photoshop and it would take a massive load off of my shoulders (all I'd have to do is lay the flats for each page for her, cutting my workload on the colors by more than half). She has tentively agreed and I am working on sending her the files. More on that in a few days, methinks.

On another note, Greg (my penciler) has submitted his own comic--Slam McCrackin--over at Zuda so if you've got an account, you should go vote for him this month. It's a nice lil' homage to crime noir done with an interestingly odd twist. I'll just say this...the main character is a hardboiled egg (get it??).

Moving on.

As most of you know, I've redone the Dead Seasons page so that it's easier to get to the different chapters and avoid reading it out of order. For those who are caught up, I'm working on the next part and should have it finished by the end of the month (I look at it like a text-based comic story, anyway, so monthly releases shouldn't be too surprising). My goal with this story is to make each part feel like it's own story. There's a beginning, a middle, and an end. Sure, the end is a cliffhanger and makes you want to know more. But, I want each part to have action and decent pacing in it. Again, this is working on the comic issue theory of releasing each one with at least a month between. This way you know that when you read each part you're going to get more than just character backgrounds and filler. There will be zombies in every chapter if I can help it.

Now, for something new. About a month or two ago, I had an idea to do a 3-part sci-fi story. Each "chapter" would be a self-contained short story that ties into the one before it. Each with a new character and time but each one closely linked to the others so that, as a whole, they make one story spanning the life of a family. The story is called Legacy and will have, like I said, three parts: Recon, Invasion, Counterstrike. Each "chapter" will have its own main character--who is one part of a family--and will take place 5-10 years after the previous story.

My goal here is to tell three seperate sci-fi stories, allowing me to write three entirely different types of characters and motivations while utilizing the same over-arching plot. I'm actually really excited about it and have already set up a page for it: LegacyStory.blogspot.com Look for more to come soon!

Then, of course, there's Rearview Mirror. This is a short horror film I'm writing with the hopes of filming in the near future. I'll go further into detail when I have the first draft of the script done. The premise is to film a horror movie mostly from inside a car, utilizing one shot throughout most of the film. It's about a man who has lost control of his own sanity and done something that he regrets. He begs forgiveness from his victim, who rides in the backseat, silently watching him through the rearview mirror. When she finally speaks, the truth--and consequences--of what he's done is revealed to both the driver and the audience.

Other than all that, I have a few ideas for new Only a Geek strips but have, heretofore, been too lazy to draw them. A problem I hope to rectify soon.

Hope you guys have a great Thanksgiving!

Later!

Neomyn Page 2

Hello, there.

I've been busy with a lot of overtime at work and various other things around the house lately. As such, it's taken me a lot longer to get going on the coloring of my comic than originally planned. However, I'm here to tell you that I'm back on track and to prove it, here's page 2.

Now, keep in mind that all I did was color and letter the pages that Greg drew based on my script details...y'know...how comics work, lol.

Also, I'll have to remove all of the pages I post before I submit them to Zuda so enjoy them while you can!

Later!

Greg Woronchak Rocks!

It was decided several weeks ago that I was going to enter Neomyn into the competion over at http://zudacomics.com/. To do this, I needed to go back and re-write the first 8 pages to make them more "grabbing" and turn that section into a kind of pitch piece. I needed to get across as much of the story and conflict as possible to grab potential readers' attention and interest while still leaving the flow of the overall book intact. This wasn't too hard as I'd written the opening sequence with just such goals in mind; all I had to do was edit out some of the page-lengthening segments and action fillers.

After this was completed, I needed to contact my artist--the amazing Greg Woronchak--and pitch the idea of Zuda to him. It turned out that he'd already done a piece for a previous month's competition for a friend and loved the idea of the site as a whole. I asked him if he'd be interested in redoing the first 8 pages of Neomyn (of which he'd completed 6 standard pages and would need to rework those into the format required by Zuda's media player) and he enthusiastically agreed. Less than 2 weeks later I had all 8 pages in two e-mails, penciled and inked and ready for me to color.

I've been busy with work and moving Jennifer to Illinois over the last several weeks to a month. The amount of O.T. I've been doing at work has left me with one day off every 3-4 days and, at 12 hr shifts, this leaves me rather drained of the energy required for anything save video games. That said, Neomyn had fallen to the weighside recently.

Well, yesterday--after spending the previous day showering my son with attention--I'd bucked up and sat down with the intention of getting at least one page completely done. Of course, the first page in the book was the hardest for me...I've never colored a fully rendered cityscape and, well, that's what I'd written as the opening shot. Several hours and some learning later, I came up with this...

And I must say, I'm pretty damn impressed with how it turned out. Needless to say, Greg's pencil (or stylus work if he uses a tablet, lol) is front and center of what makes this page awesome. I like the way the windows turned out and the glare off the brass ball in the bottom left. I was also happy with the choice of typeface and colors for Cera's monologue. If anything stands out in Greg's work above anything for me, it's the fact that he so faithfully sticks to Ruthie's character designs...wich, of course, you can't see here...but in the following pages (which I'll post as I get them done) you'll see that he replicates her designs perfectly. On top of that, his choice of panel layouts really makes the action pop off the page. It's interesting and unique and I'm a huge fan.

Anyway, keep a lookout for more pages here as well as the whole 8-page story to show up in ZudaComics' July (hopefully) competition!

Later!

Console Wars Hit the Home Front

Okay, so I've had my Playstation 3 for a few months now and I'm about to utter something I never thought I'd say out loud (well, technically it's not "out loud" per se, but I digress)...

I think I may leave my Xbox...

Now, don't get me wrong...I still love my 360, she'll always hold a special place in my heart. And, well, we'll still be friends and hang out on the weekends.

Okay, okay. In all seriousness, though, I am becoming more and more impressed with my PS3 with ever game I play on it. I've always said that there was no doubt that the Big Black Beast could put out more Pretty Power than the White Goddess, but I'd always sprayed forth the usual Microsoft-loving arguments about how the system doesn't have enough exclusives to hold it's own and that Sony doesn't really give a shit about gaming as much as multi-media entertainment (BluRay movies and music and shit like that). And, for the most part, I'm not entirely wrong. Sony still has a fundamental lack of exclusive titles for which I can justify scorning the Achievement Whore within my skull and they're focus still seems to be more about making money than making good games.

That said, however, there are more things about the PS3 that I'm loving than there are things that I think the good ol' 360 does better. These things include:

Free online gaming in the form of Playstation Network. I mean, c'mon! Brilliant! Why should I have to pay a monthly fee to play with my friends online and then turn around and pay MORE for content that I can ONLY get if I pay the aforementioned fee for which to play with my friends? Sony, as far as I can tell, simply taxes its individual content and sets you loose with an abundance of options that you have to get past Microsoft's velvet rope by showing your Gold Membership card to their surly semi-bald bodyguard.

Direct purchasing of downloadable content. When I first dove into PSN with my hold-it-at-arm's-length-cause-it-bites attitude, I was upset that Sony taxed their content forced you to buy content separately (or in a bundle, I later discovered). I was like, "Maaaan, Microsoft taxes you once and then you pay the "price" you see right there." Under further scrutiny, however, it quickly became apparent that this was a much better and consumer friendly method. Now, instead of spending $6 for 500 points to download a game worth 350 points--leaving me with 150 that I'll never be able to spend on anything other than a theme or gamerpic--I can just spend 1.99 (about 2.15 after taxes) for that extra character I wanted and be done with it. No more of the Hotdogs vs Buns scenario.

No Red Ring of Death. 'nuff said.

On top of those two specific things, I'd have to say that there are a few minor things like better graphics and the USB controller charging and, not to mention, the new Trophy System that I like more. All of these things combined have led me to the decision that from now on, unless it's an FPS (cause, let's face it, there's just no way around how awesomely comfortable the Xbox controller is) or a game that offers multiplayer for which my friends and I are interested in playing together, I am going to be buying multi-platform games on my PS3; seemingly starting with Batman: Arkham Asylum.

That is, of course, unless Sony releases a controller with off-set analog sticks. Then it's game over, man...

Be back soon with my thoughts on inFamous; a PS3 exclusive that was "shocking"....

Get it...

Later!

Stellar Trek, Terrific Terminations, and Wolvie’s Wasted Opportunities

Okay, so the Summer Movie Season is off with a bang! So far four of the big blockbusters this year (and I'm talkin' popcorn movies here, people, not sappy love stories or dramedies) have finally hit the silver screen and I couldn't be happier! Roughly $400 and 8 hours and 15 minutes later, and the following is what I've taken away so far.

We'll start with the movie that everyone knows I was waiting for; X-Men Origins: Wolverine. Now, it's no secret that Wolverine is my favorite Marvel character--I named my son after him for cryin' out loud!--and that I had been excited to see this movie since Hugh Jackman went on record after X3 with news they were beginning production. I'm a big fan...

...which is what, after much deliberation and two viewings, I believe is what kept a smile on my face through the film. Now, don't get me wrong, the movie isn't without it's charms and I, for one, will be buying the BluRay when it hits shelves. That said, however, there are a great many things on a growing list that they screwed up or, quite simply, missed out on. I'm not talking about things like making Victor and Logan actual brothers, or Emma Frost Silverfox's sister and making her look like something Favor Flav would put in his grille (really, how else are you going to convey diamond skin and make it look believable as a moving organism?). I'm not even really talking about the creative liberties taken with Wade Wilson and the (sigh) "Dead Pool". All these things are forgivable...well...not Deadpool's retardedlly long hidden blades, that's just poor editing and character design.

No, the biggest mess up is probably also the biggest missed opportunity to do something damned cool with a damned cool character. Gambit. He does one cool thing and then it's all down hill from there. After he charges the Ace and throws it at Logan Gambit is done being anything but a massive example of how these people simply didn't get the character. I might have been able to forgive the telekinesis had it not been for the ridiculous way they used it. But what I simply could not get passed (especially after the second time) was the staff and the way he used it to defy gravity and physics. I could have accepted the climbing the walls if the staff had been glowing at the ends to show him blow the holes in the wall but there's just no way to forgive the helicopter glide...bah!

Other than that, though, I loved the movie. Really. Once again, Jackman really personified the character and showed me once again why I love the Canadian berserker. The use of the bone claws was an excellent visual and the adamantium infusion sequence was awesome; especially the x-ray view of Logan's claws unsheathing. I even liked what they were trying to do with the bathroom sequence at the farm...even if the execution was someone on the cheesy side.

Moving on...

There isn't much to say about Angles and Demons, really. I was a huge fan of The DeVinci Code and, through I'd never read the books, thought that the narrative and character development was phenomenal. Tom Hanks seemed to really sink into the Langdon character with the kind of totality you rarely see anymore. I loved the theological undertones and the mystery of the whole thing. The sequel was simply a continuation of all these elements with a new plot and several new characters. Langdon was once again a man you could relate to and I rooted for, but this time around he was a little less "out of his element" and, since this plot didn't directly include him and he was more of the detective investigating a crime with no connection to the victims. All and all, though, it was an excellent experience. If for nothing more than the purely filmmaking elements of it; the score, the cinematography and overall direction of superb acting.

Star Trek was, well, more than I expected. A handful of people I've spoken with about it have cited slight displeasure with the plot and it's apparent "weakness" but I tend to be of the opposite view on this. I thought the plot was everything it needed to be and a little more for an origin film; which, let's face it, this really is. It established characters, fleshed relationships and laid the foundation for them to build a new history on. On top of all that, J. J. Abrams also managed to use time-travel and the ripple effects of tampering with the past to satisfy old fans while not drowning new ones in decades of story and pre-established continuity. I wasn't sure what to expect going in, but left with a feeling of having witnessed the beginning of something with massive potential to grow and encompass a whole new audience.

The modernization of the original series' designs were probably my favorite aspect of the film. I grew up on The Next Generation and have always had a kind of mocking distaste for the look of the original. From the bell bottom uniforms to the "ray gun" phasers and box-and-tube construction of the ships. But the new film managed to update all of these designs while sticking ridiculously close to the look of the originals. Excellent work, guys.

And, finally, Terminator Salvation. I can only say that I was so totally blown away that it is hard to believe they hadn't done this before. Since my childhood, I have been a big fan of the Terminator in all it's paradoxical glory. I was even a huge fan of Rise of the Machines with the exception of the heavy-handed female terminator. John Connor's fight to fulfill a destiny he never wanted and isn't even sure he can live up to was always one I enjoyed following. My only problem was the fact that my favorite part of this story was the part they kept eluding to but only gave me flashes of. The future in which John leads the war for humanity against a relentless, soulless enemy of our own creation (come to think of it, aren't Adama and Starbuck fighting the same war?).

Well, it would be a massive understatement to say that I have finally been granted my wish...with a giant fucking cherry on top!

Not only do I get to see the fight for our future, but it would seem that the future John is fighting in isn't the future he thought it would be. The future Kyle Reese told his mother Sarah about. It would seem that all that all those trips back through time have given more than John the intel needed to win. See, I'd always thought that a computer that keeps sending machines back to wipe out it's biggest enemy should be learning from its mistakes just as much as John had been. And, to a certain extent, it alwasy appeared that they had...a little...with each subsequent Terminator being an upgraded model. But Salvation does a fantastic job of showing that Skynet is a computer and learns like a computer learns. Thinks like a computer thinks.

Cold. Calculating.

I wasn't sure how I was going to feel about Marcus' character but with every bit of information that was revealed I found myself growing exceptionally fond of the concept of his character and Skynet's plan. Finally they show that they've learned from their previous failures. Finally it's apparent that messing with the past has had a significant impact on the future as John knew it. As even Kyle Reese knew it. Finally the writers and director acknowledge how fragile the paradox they'd created was. Brilliant!

And, the acting! Wow. What perfect casting. I was originally skeptic of how hard it'd be to get behind Bale as Connor since he's already so very much Batman in my brain. But very quickly I found myself believing in his portrayal of the character just as readily as I do when I watch Han and/or Indiana. And Kyle...oh, man, Kyle...I can only say that if they do more of these films (or another series to replace the unrenewed Sarah Connor Chronicles) I hope they focus on Kyle and that he's played by Anton Yelchin!

Well, that's about all for me for now.

Come back next week for a catch-up on some game reviews, including X-Men Origins: Wolverine (the better version of that story)...

Later!