Author Archives: Joe

April 30, 2012

Greatest Games: Devil May Cry

By Joe

Devil May Cry (2001)

Capcom has gone thru many identities throughout its existence.  Early on Capcom made its mark with the blue bomber, Mega Man, and his blend of run and gun platforming.  Mega Man had six games released on the original Nintendo, plus many more on the Gameboy, Super Nintendo, and so on with entries in both the main series and several spin-offs.  In the 90’s Capcom would establish itself as the leader in the fighting genre.  Championed by Street Fighter, Capcom’s games were the measuring stick for all 2D fighters.  The genre exploded, and like all things popular, it eventually became over-saturated.  Capcom needed a new identity as video games headed into the third dimension.  Mega Man was a 2D experience through and through, and no one knew if Street Fighter could make the jump, so it fell onto Capcom to create a new money-making franchise.  Enter Resident Evil and its focus on what would become survival horror.  Alone in the Dark was the first game to be called survival horror, but Resident Evil defined it.  It was hugely popular and it too would spawn many imitators, but Capcom had a new hit and in a new genre to boot.

A company that has always been linked to Capcom for me is Konami.  The two had a strong presence on the original NES with Konami’s most popular title probably being Contra.  Similar to Mega Man, it too was a run and gun platformer but with a much different focus.  Konami’s other big franchise was the Castlevania series, a side-scrolling action/adventure title that popularised the non-linear format of gameplay.  When systems like the Playstation and Nintendo 64 started showing up with their fancy new 3D graphics, both Konami and Capcom found themselves in the same boat when trying to bring their classics to the new hardware.  Both had some stumbles, but Konami experienced a most spectacular failure when it came to Castlevania.  Konami arguably released the best Castlevania it had ever produced and did so on the Playstation with Castlevania:  Symphony of the Night.  Even though it was on the Playstation, Konami kept the game rooted in the 2D perspective.  It garnered quite a bit of positive press, but it was mostly ignored at retail and Konami blamed that fact on the presentation.  Feeling pressured to bring Castlevania to 3D, Konami released Castlevania 64 in 1999 and it was not met well.  The press at the time seemed to think it was okay, but time has not been kind and the Castlevania diehards were not impressed.  It’s sequel later that year was not met well by critics or fans and many wondered if Castlevania could exist in 3D.

Devil May Cry went with a gothic approach for its style, which helped separate it from Onimusha and Resident Evil, but not Castlevania.

Leave it to Konami’s rival, Capcom, to get it right.  No, Capcom did not develop a Castlevania title for Konami but it might as well have done just that when it released Devil May Cry in 2001.  Devil May Cry (DMC) is one of Capcom’s greatest mistakes and best games they ever released.  It’s a mistake in that originally the game was supposed to be Resident Evil 4, but the development team would eventually realize they had something different on their hands.

When Devil May Cry came out, Resident Evil was still a bankable product.  It had also spawned a pseudo spin-off franchise in the form of Onimusha.  Onimusha had nothing to do with Resident Evil from a narrative perspective, but it was basically survival horror in feudal Japan.  It focused more on combat and was pretty successful in its own right.  Devil May Cry took that formula, and added something very familiar to gamers:  a jump button.

It seems like such a simple device, but jumping completely changed the Resident Evil/Onimusha formula.  DMC’s protagonist, Dante, could jump from ledge to ledge like Mega Man and attack from the air, leap over enemies, and soar to new heights Jill and Chris could never hope to reach.  Dante was also super-powered being a half-demon so it wasn’t like he was jumping two or three feet, he was leaping twelve or fifteen!  He could drop from any height without getting hurt, and all in all pretty much controlled like one would imagine Castlevania’s Alucard would.

Dante's demon blood lets him turn into a demonic creature giving him enhanced powers and special abilities.

DMC is an action heavy experience, and even though Dante is a half-demon, he still needs some weapons to get thru the hordes of vile machinations and weird creatures that stand in his way.  At the onset Dante is armed with a sword and a pair of revolvers, Ebony and Ivory.  The revolvers have unlimited ammo and can be fired in rapid fashion, but do little damage.  They’re used more as a means of linking damage from one enemy to the next until Dante gets close enough to hack ’em up with his blade.  Gamers can just mash the attack button and get by some of the early enemies, but more precise timing and maneuvers are needed to progress further.  Dante has a couple of moves including a rapid stabbing technique and slower hack and slash.  Arguably, the move he is known best for is the air juggle where the player upper cuts an enemy into the air with the sword and then fills them full of bullets as they hang suspended in the air.  Other weapons change things up some, including a lightning blade and a shotgun.  There’s also the ogre gauntlets that let Dante roll with just his fists.

Both the lightning blade and gauntlets can be powered up using soul orbs that are mined from fallen enemies.  The power-ups unlocked all make Dante’s devil form more powerful.  As a half-demon, Dante is able to activate his devil trigger and morph into a demonic form for a short period of time.  In said form, Dante moves faster and does more damage.  He also has special moves that let him fly and rain lightning down on his enemies or hurl massive fireballs.  The mode is activated by filling an onscreen meter, flashy kills and general good play cause the meter to fill faster.  Activating the devil trigger can quickly turn the tide of battle and is one move the player will often keep in reserve until the time is right.

As I said earlier, the game is really action heavy and is not afraid to pit the player against hordes of enemies.  DMC really popularized the recent trend in action games like God of War, Ninja Gaiden and even Arkham Asylum to have the hero fight off a crowd of foes.  The standard difficulty setting is a suitable challenge for most gamers, but the harder difficulty settings will test any gamer’s skill with a controller.  And even though the focus of the game is on action, the game does pause for some exploration elements and even  some platforming scenarios.  The game arguably shines brightest during one of its boss encounters which often present a good test for Dante.

Visually, the game was a stunner when it was released in 2001 and has aged pretty well.  The gothic aesthetic the developers went for suits the game’s mood and the boss characters are large and imaginative (though not as massive as future installments would get).  The story is just filler to give the game purpose, and that’s fine.

The new Dante featured in DmC. Fans have unkindly dubbed this "Emo Dante."

Devil May Cry was so obviously perfect an approach for Castlevania that Konami’s next game in the series was practically a clone.  And as I mentioned, lots of other action titles followed suit and tried to replicate what DMC had done.  The franchise was perhaps never more popular than when it debuted as it was considered a really fresh take on the action genre.  A sequel would follow in 2002 and was not met well.  Devil May Cry 3 mostly served as a make-up title, but by the time Devil May Cry 4 was released it felt like other titles had leapfrogged it.  Now Capcom is trying to rebrand the game as DmC and features a redesigned Dante.  Time will tell if this reboot is worthwhile, but for my money the original Devil May Cry is still the finest action title I’ve ever played.  When I first played it as a demo (bundled with the PS2 version of Resident Evil:  Code Veronica) it was like nothing I had played before.  It captivated me instantly and I have no idea how many times I played thru that 3 mission demo.  A gamer playing it for the first time today would not likely have the same experience, and they would be missing out.

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April 21, 2012

Record Store Day!

By Joe

My target for today.

Today is Record Store Day!  A day that hasn’t been around for too long but intends to celebrate the good old fashioned record store.  As a means of celebration, several labels and bands participate by releasing limited edition twelve and seven inch records (go here for a full list of what’s available today) to get people into the stores which usually are offering sales of their own.  Only independently owned stores are allowed to participate and the organizers of the event take a mostly hands off approach.  This leads to swings in pricing from one store to the next and certain records are only available in certain stores.  Unfortunately, this also leads to some stores forgoing the event and just hawking the limited releases on eBay for inflated prices.  This is also the type of event that attracts scalpers of all kinds only interested in making a quick buck, which takes some of the fun out of it.  It’s become a pretty big deal these past few years and the amount of stuff released each year seems to grow and grow and get more and more interesting.

Last year was my first time taking part.  I was more interested in the spectacle than the actual albums released on that day.  I went over to my local Newbury Comics, one of the few small chains to really break thru and thrive in this day and age.  I got there a little after they opened and found the place pretty packed.  I ended up snatching an Opeth 7″ single released for RSD, “The Throat of Winter,” and picked up some odds and ends taking advantage of the sales.  This year was different though.

There's some black streaks on the record as well, though they don't show up in the picture.

Just a few weeks ago Rhino Records announced that they would be releasing a limited edition of The Misfits’ debut record Walk Among Us to commemorate the 30th anniversary of the release.  This version is limited to 3000 copies:  1250 on red vinyl, 1250 on blue, and 500 clear.  They’re packaged in a blind style, meaning you don’t know what color you have.  Overseas, a purple copy is being released.  The stores that participate in RSD have adopted a 1 copy per person policy to give more people a shot at the record they covet.  This unfortunately means the completist collectors out there either need to round up some friends or take to eBay to get one copy of each.  I was content to get just one, but I had to have it!  Given the vast number of retailers participating and the limited nature, I figured each store would only receive two or three copies, meaning I had to get there early if I wanted one.  Complicating things is the fact that not every store gets a copy of every release.  My local shop didn’t know what it was getting as of Thursday so I was taking a shot in the dark this morning when I jumped in my car and headed over.

I got there early; 7:15.  The store is located in a shopping mall and the doors for the mall open at 8 while the store doesn’t open until 10.  I was going to sit in my car for awhile but became too eager to just sit there so before 7:30 even hit I was up in front of the door just waiting outside.  Once the mall opened its doors I was the first to the store (ended up walking in with the manager) and took a seat right outside to begin the 2 hour wait.  It wasn’t too bad as I brought my Vita with me and had my phone too.  By the time 9:30 came around I was too excited to play games any longer and stood and waited anxiously.  I was the first one there, but by the time the doors opened I was one of 50+ and the first inside.  The manager knew what record I was after and made sure to point it out to me before the doors even opened.  I snatched the first copy and then proceeded to mill around poking at the other exclusives.  A wave of people washed over me with hands darting and grabbing at each release.  It was frantic, but fairly orderly.  No one was pushy or rude at all and it seemed like the crowd was mostly record enthusiasts just hoping to score something from a favorite artist.

Side A of the Nightwish disc.

I ended up grabbing the Nightwish picture disc as well, along with a super cheap copy of Batman:  Sub-Zero since it was the only Batman film I didn’t own (other than the wretched Schumacher films I want no part of).  My purchases came with a tote bag and a ton of freebies I have yet to go thru.  They’re mostly CD samplers and some stickers and stuff.  I don’t know if there will be anything good on them, but it will be fun to find out.

Once I got home I was pretty eager to check out my new Misfits record to see what version I ended up with.  This release is designed to mimic the original first edition release right down to the insert it comes with.  It’s pretty cool, and I actually don’t have a first edition of Walk Among Us as I have so far stuck to the 7″ releases.  I didn’t really care what version I got, but certainly I was hoping for the more limited clear, especially since I don’t own any clear vinyl.  My elation was certainly audible when I did indeed pull a clear piece of vinyl from the packaging.  My day could not have gone any better!

And side B.

The Nightwish picture disc is also quite nice too.  Titled Trials of Imaginaerum, it’s a 10″ release and contains four demo tracks from their last album.  It also comes with a download code to get an .mp3 version of a fifth track.  Currently, the web address doesn’t appear to be up and running yet so I’ll have to try again later*.   The artwork is nice and this release is limited to 1500 copies.

*I tried the download address on Sunday with no success, but it worked tonight(Monday).  It took me to a page that asked for my email address, and then a download link was sent there.  The fifth track is titled “The Heart Asks Pleasure First” (previously released on the single “The Crow, The Owl, and The Dove”) and it’s a folky little number that’s quite pleasing.

All in all, a good day to hit the record store!  Record Store Day is fun, but the getting up early to wait in line for hours does sap a little fun out of it.  I don’t mind it when there’s something I really want, but I certainly wouldn’t do that for most releases.  Turns out I probably could have strolled in at 10 and have been fine, though I probably wouldn’t have ended up with the clear version of Walk Among Us.  I encourage everyone who’s into  vinyl to check out their local record store today.  You might stumble upon something truly special!

2 Comments   |  tags: , , , , , , | posted in Danzig, Music

April 8, 2012

Catching Up With WWF: No Mercy

By Joe

WWF: No Mercy (2000)

It’s been awhile since my last post, 3 weeks to be exact.  It’s been a busy time and for me, and a busy time of year.  There were concerts to attend, personal relationships to pursue, Game of Thrones to catch up on, and WrestleMania!  Yes, even though I do not really consider myself an active wrestling fan I do get caught up once a year for WrestleMania as that’s traditionally when the company is at its best.  It also helps that the NFL season is over and there’s usually a lull in television programming all around (though this year, video games have been kicking my ass).  This year’s WrestleMania, like most of them, failed to live up to expectations.  I think I’m in the minority when I say that, but I really didn’t enjoy it.  I thought CM Punk and Chris Jericho put on a good show, and it’s always a nostalgic trip to see The Rock in action, but the rest of the card under-performed.  It certainly didn’t help things when one of the better matches, featuring perhaps the company’s best worker in Daniel Bryan, lasted a mere 10 seconds or so to kick off the show.  It’s one thing when an unscripted boxing match or shoot fight lasts seconds, but for a booked match like that (featuring one of the company’s major championships) to last only seconds is just cheap.  Especially when several less interesting matches receive more time, or when the show stops for terrible hip hop concerts.  Blah!

This isn’t about WrestleMania though, it’s about a little game called WWF:  No Mercy.  WrestleMania, for me, means a gathering of friends and a wrestling theme gathering pretty much requires a working Nintendo 64 and some wrestling action.  This year’s event featured WCW/nWo:  Revenge, No Mercy, and Virtual Pro-Wrestling 2.  For fans of wrestling games, the connection is obvious.  All three were developed by AKI Corporation who have become synonymous with wrestling games.  American audiences were first introduced to them in 1997 when WCW vs. nWo:  World Tour was released for the Nintendo 64 and was a major success.  The game laid the groundwork for the company’s many future games.

World Tour was fairly straight-forward in its game modes.  It was basically just one on one, two on two, or battle royal which put four wrestlers in the ring at the same time.  There were no over-the-top entrances and the single player mode just put the player up against a series of opponents culminating in a title match.  The roster was huge and included all of the main wrestlers from WCW at the time and even a bunch of wrestlers from Japan.  All of the wrestlers controlled the same, which is good because that’s what won fans over.

Stay away from this game. Far away.

AKI’s approach to gameplay for this title revolved around the grapple button.  The B button made wrestlers throw punches and kicks, but the A button caused them to tie-up by grabbing each other’s shoulders.  From there, the player who initiated the grapple could initiate a move with either the A or B button plus a direction on the D-Pad for a total of 10 possible moves.  Holding the grapple button caused the wrestler to use a strong grapple, opening up another 10 potential moves.  Most wrestlers had several repeat moves but the potential to really flesh out an arsenal was there.  And more over, the gameplay system worked.  Up to this point, most wrestling games tried too hard to emulate the ever popular fighting genre of video games.  This would peak with the WWF game In Your House for the Playstation, which was basically a straight-up fighting game complete with fireballs and everything.  It was absolutely atrocious and not at all what wrestling fans wanted.  Acclaim was the developer with the WWF license and essentially owned the wrestling video game world in America.  World Tour changed that, and for the better.

World Tour was followed by Revenge which was basically more of the same but with a little more of that American wrestling flair.  The graphics were better, the individual wrestlers had a bit more personality, and wrestling fans were genuinely happy.  Acclaim tried to counter with WWF: Warzone and its successor WWF:  Attitude.  Both games were successful for the time and generally well received, but just about any unbiased fan of wrestling knew AKI (with THQ) had the better game.  Acclaim was still going with a pseudo-fighting game approach.  Each move required a series of directional buttons followed by an action button.  They did introduce some good things, particularly running grapple attacks, signature moves, and the create-a-wrestler feature (though that had been available in Japanese games dating back to the Super Nintendo, as did others, but Acclaim popularized them with American audiences and AKI would soon adopt all).  Even so, WWF’s marketing arm must have noticed how well received the WCW games were and when their contract with Acclaim was up, and WCW’s with THQ, WWF was there to pounce.

This resulted in big switch of brands and developers.  Acclaim reached an agreement with ECW and would make a couple of games for them using their Attitude engine.  WCW would sign a lucrative deal with EA which lead to the ambitious, but lousy, WCW:  Mayhem.  THQ and WWF soon became a very profitable alliance and is the only one left today.  For the Playstation, THQ enlisted the support of Yukes which developed the Smackdown games and continues to do so.  AKI was left on the Nintendo 64 and was pretty much tasked with making their WCW games into WWF games.

The ladder match was a big addition for WWF: No Mercy.

Wrestlemania 2000 was the first game under this partnership, and a good one, but the follow-up is the one fans seem to remember the most fondly.  No Mercy arrived in November of 2000 and was an instant success.  The same gameplay that originated with World Tour was left mostly the same but with a few additions.  AKI had now finally adopted the running grapple maneuver, a simple addition but a welcomed one.  AKI also took a stab at new gimmick matches such as the steel cage match and the ladder match.  The announcer’s table was also available to smash opponents thru, and a new story-line mode added some spice to the single player action.  Tons of unlockables gave gamers incentive to keep playing to earn Smackdown Cash to purchase new create-a-wrestler attires, moves, weapons, and even additional superstars including Cactus Jack and Andre the Giant.  And it’s a good thing there was so much to do because No Mercy would be AKI’s last with THQ.

I’ve always felt this fact, plus nostalgia for WWF’s “Attitude Era,” has made fans remember No Mercy more fondly than they perhaps should.  It’s remembered so well that there is still a large section of fans that feel No Mercy is the best grappler ever, and certainly the best to feature the WWF (now WWE) branding.  That’s rather high praise for a game over 10 years old and a testament for how good the basic gameplay system is.

At the time No Mercy came out, it was the fourth game in four years to feature basically the same gameplay.  Other than a few small additions and a fresh coat of paint, this was still World Tour.  It’s a system that works extremely well to make the game playable even if it’s not entirely authentic.  How many wrestling matches take place in a similar manner where every move is initiated by a tie-up?  None I’ve seen.  If the gameplay is fun though, should gamers and wrestling fans care?

I have fired up No Mercy several times over the last couple of weeks.  My first reaction when I did was at the visuals and general presentation.  The presentation for this game was never its strong point and at this point in time it’s fairly ugly.  The graphics engine though is still passable.  It’s no secret this era of video games has aged rather poorly as far as looks go, but each wrestler is easily identifiable, though the height is kind of off.  There’s little or no difference between a monster like Kane and a little guy like Taka Michinoku.  It’s one of those things that took a while for wrestling developers to get right.

The game's story mode was a mixed bag, but it did give gamers incentive to keep playing.

The story mode shows a lot of age.  Developers were trying really hard at this point in time to create games that let players experience the television product for themselves.  Great emphasis was placed on making the story-lines feel random and yet authentic, but in the end it’s still just a series of matches with some distractions in between.  The game, for some reason, loves putting the player in handicap matches.  Handicap matches are no fun no matter what side you’re on.  If you’re part of a team of two going against one it’s just a squash.  If you’re the one taking on two then it becomes a frustrating game of trying to exploit the weaknesses within the game’s artificial intelligence (top rope moves work well here).  Gimmick matches and the Royal Rumble often play a role too, but unfortunately nothing is as fun as the standard one on one or triple threat.

In those matches where the gameplay is the focus, this one still holds up pretty well.  Fans used to current wrestling games will definitely notice the slower pace.  The wrestlers all have a slightly clunky feel to them.  When just striking and grappling, it’s fine, but they don’t run too well and lining up running attacks can be a chore.  It would be fine if the larger wrestlers handled this way and the cruiser-weights speedier, but that’s not the case.  The A.I. is at least competent and won’t let you get away with spamming wake-up attacks, for example, to gain an upper hand.  I’m definitely rusty, and most of my gaming was spent on Sony consoles, but my matches aren’t automatic wins for me which is actually a welcomed thing.

Admittedly, a big part of No Mercy's appeal today is the era from which it came.

There are a couple of other glaring negatives with this title.  One of which is the slowdown that takes place with four wrestlers in the ring.  In normal matches, it’s not too bad but gimmick matches can get clippy.  Collision detection is very spotty, but perhaps the worst is for the early adopters.  The first batch of games have a defect that THQ didn’t offer to correct aside from fixing future releases.  This defect causes the saved data to become corrupt and the game erases itself.  This includes unlocked items and created wrestlers.  Mine seemed fine for several years but last week I turned it on and found my unlocked items were gone.  It’s definitely frustrating, and when buying copies on eBay you’re forced to rely on the word of the seller because there’s no obvious way to tell a good copy from a bad one.

There are a lot of little things that drag this game down, but even so I found myself having a blast with it.  There’s still so much depth to this game and that couldn’t have been more apparent than when two of my buddies hooked up for a one on one match of old veterans.  They spent far more time with this title and other AKI ones when they first came out.  It took a few minutes for them to get their legs back under them, but before long the match was a series of reversals and set-ups that spanned about 15 minutes before a victor was decided.  It was fun to watch and a reminder of how well developed the basic gameplay is.

It may not be perfect, but get a group of friends together and No Mercy is still a damn good time.

AKI did not leave the wrestling world after THQ dropped them.  I don’t know why the two companies ended their relationship.  I assume it was a cost-cutting move on the part of THQ who basically handed over the WWF license to Yukes.  I’m guessing it was sales related as even though most fans preferred No Mercy to Smackdown 2, there were still far more Playstations out there than Nintendo 64s so it wouldn’t surprise me if Smackdown 2 was the better seller.  And Smackdown 2 was a good game in its own right, just entirely different in approach.  AKI would go on to use it’s engine to create the Def Jam wrestling game as well as several in the anime Ultimate Muscle universe.  I never played any of them, but I understand the same basic principles still apply with obvious changes to suit the subject matter.

WWF:  No Mercy is still a great grappler.  It’s really a shame AKI hasn’t been able to take another shot at developing a WWF game for American audiences.  Yukes has put out some excellent Smackdown themed games since, but it’s not surprising that there still exists a strong fan-base for No Mercy.  A fan-base that still considers it king.  While I don’t consider it the best one out there, I really can’t begrudge any who do and it’s still easily in the top 5, and for a genre as bloated as the wrestling one, that’s some pretty high praise.

1 Comment   |  tags: | posted in Television, Video Games

March 18, 2012

Epica – Requiem for the Indifferent

By Joe

Epica - "Requiem for the Indifferent" (2012)

I love Epica!  I have all of their studio albums, (except the instrumental one) plus their live album The Classical Conspiracy, and each one is fantastic.  The band is a relatively new obsession for me but that doesn’t mean I wasn’t looking forward to their latest effort, Requiem for the Indifferent, which was released this past week in the US.  Oh, and if you hadn’t heard, it’s good!

Probably like a lot of the band’s fans, I was introduced to Epica through Kamelot.  The band actually began as Sahara Dust, but changed it to Epica after several of the members heard Kamelot’s album of the same name.  This must have got back to the members of Kamelot, as soon they were taking Epica on the road with them.  Epica’s primary vocalist, Simone Simons, did a guest spot on Kamelot’s follow-up to Epica, The Black Halo, on the song “The Haunting.”  Simons would join the band on stage for live performances of the song, and Epica’s other vocalist and primary song composer Mark Jansen, would also show up to do the death growls featured in the song “March of Mephisto.”  Kamelot’s then vocalist Roy Khan would also appear on Epica’s sophomore release, Consign to Oblivion, on the track “Trois Vierges.”

This relationship has continued on to this day.  Simons even began dating Kamelot’s keyboard player, Oliver Palotai, which has made working together fairly easy.  Palotai has even played with Epica when their keyboard player Coen Janssen was unavailable.  Simons has had a vocal part on all of Kamelot’s albums ever since The Black Halo and was part of the band’s most recent tour where she not only sang her parts from various songs but also performed lead vocals for the Kamelot song “Don’t You Cry” at several shows.

Simone became a regular part of the Kamelot live experience following her appearance on the band's album "The Black Halo."

It was love of Simone Simons’ vocals that got me to ultimately pursue Epica.  Her early appearances with Kamelot mostly added color and character to the tracks she appeared on.  Her voice was basically in the background, but on Kamelot’s latest effort, Poetry for the Poisoned, she was moved into more of a duet type of role and really shined.  I had checked out some of the band’s stuff on youtube and had a muted experience.  Epica is a symphonic metal act at it’s core but adds dashes of death metal as well, mostly through the vocals of Mark Jansen.  I like all metal to some degree and have written about acts that use death growls with great admiration like Opeth and Children of Bodom.  That said, I found Jansen’s vocals off-putting.  They sometimes sound like they exist just because someone in the band feels that they must.  There’s usually little melody to how they’re presented and are very monotone.  It didn’t help that I was checking out Epica primarily because I enjoyed the work of Simone Simons with Kamelot and mostly wanted to hear her front a band.  Eventually I decided I needed to give the band a real chance though, and picked up their album Design Your Universe.

As with most things, repeated exposure to Jansen’s vocals softened my opinion of them.  I gravitated towards the tracks that featured them minimally, but then I started to enjoy the others as well.  Design Your Universe is a great, fantastic album.  I’m still not a big fan of the use of death growls, as they sometimes just don’t fit, but they don’t bother me.  The musicianship and composition of the songs stood out to me, as well as the work of Simons.  I soon sought out the album that preceded DYU, The Divine Conspiracy, and found it hard to decide which I enjoyed more.  I stopped there for awhile, as Epica’s other albums are a pain to locate in the US, but eventually I ordered the remaining ones off of amazon and have enjoyed them all.  I really can’t pick a favorite, though the debut album The Phantom Agony is probably my least favorite.  Not because it’s bad or anything, it’s quite good, it just sounds like a band still finding its voice.

Which brings me to the latest effort from this Dutch outfit, Requiem for the Indifferent.  At it’s heart, Requiem is a natural extension of the last album, Design Your Universe.  There’s a metal base to the record that’s accentuated with classical and Hollywood style orchestration.  There’s a bit more ambition this time out in terms of song structure.  Even the album’s lead single, often the album’s “safest” track, experiments with interesting time signatures.  It’s a bit more of an aggressive lead over something like “Never Enough” from The Divine Conspiracy, but also a superior track.  This lead single, “Storm the Sorrow,” is arguably the album’s best song which is a rarity for a single.  This makes the album a more challenging listen, but a very rewarding one.  Epica is the rare band that seems to get slightly heavier in sound with each subsequent album.

The album begins in the same fashion as the last few, with an instrumental that leads into a soaring epic.  “Monopoly on Truth” is an excellent choice for an album opener as it serves as a pseudo preview of the whole, but still is a viable song on its own merit.  It’s one of the heavier tracks, and there are quite a few of other such tracks.  “Internal Warfare,” dedicated to the victims of the terrorist attack in Norway last year, is another heavy and bold track that gives the head-bangers something to get excited over.  There’s also plenty of softer moments.  “Delirium” is the token ballad of the bunch where a pleasant composition is content to stay in the background while Simons does her thing upfront to really drive the song along.  The US exclusive track “Twin Flames,” is another similar ballad though distinct enough from “Delirium,” and a very capable ballad at that.

The band is often at it’s best though when it can intertwine the heavy and the serene.  The title track is one such instance.  It begins with an unusual (for Epica) “jangly” guitar riff that soon introduces a sitar before the song gets going.  There’s a soaring chorus and lots of extension as the song finds a

There are a few special releases for this album. Pictured is the double LP on white, 180 gram vinyl which is limited to 150 copies. It contains both bonus tracks, "Nostalgia" and "Twin Flames" plus a poster of the album cover.

way to fill eight minutes without feeling long.  Epica is quite fond of exceeding the six minute mark with its songs, and usually does so capably.  “Deep Water Horizon” is a song most will probably find stuck in their head.  It contains an almost out of place chorus, but it’s so good that the song makes it work.  It intertwines the dark and the light and is the kind of song that temps the listener to immediately “rewind” and listen to again upon completion.  The closing number (not including bonus tracks), “Serenade of Self-Destruction,” is the album’s most ambitious song and possibly it’s brightest moment.  Every aspect of the song works well in it’s favor and the chorus has an appropriately “epic” feel to it.  For the track, Epica makes liberal use of choirs and Simon’s more operatic vocals while Jansen adds some brutal undertones with his grunts.  There’s even a spoken word section, something Epica would probably do well to make less use of, that doesn’t derail the song’s momentum as it doesn’t stop to let the speaker speak.  The CD version of the album was actually released without the final version of this track and the lead vocal tracks are missing.  Nuclear Blast, the label for Epica, wisely corrected this error by releasing the song for free over the internet in both .mp3 and .wav formats.  Future pressings will most likely include the full version of the song, but the instrumental version is still an engaging listen and allows the listener to appreciate the composition.  The chorus is so expertly crafted that it works just as well without the lead vocals.

Requiem for the Indifferent is another excellent release from this now firmly established Dutch outfit.  There are moments that do not shine as bright as others, but there is not a single bad composition here.  The production from noted producer Sascha Paeth is fantastic.  The drums are full, the guitars distinct, and the bass audible where it needs to be.  This is Epica’s best album in terms of guitar playing and composition.  There are some great lead riffs and just a ton more variety than their previous albums.  Vocally, Simone Simons is excellent, as always.  There is slightly less ambition as most songs are content to keep her in mid-ranges.  There’s no “Tides of Time” moment, but she stays within herself and when she does push her range it’s with great effect.  It’s much too soon to declare if this latest release is Epica’s best, but the fact that it’s already in the discussion is a very good thing.  Don’t sleep on this one, folks!

Top Tracks:

  • Storm the Sorrow
  • Deep Water Horizon
  • Serenade of Self-Destruction

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March 12, 2012

Getting Cloud Connected with MLB and the Vita

By Joe

MLB 12 The Show (PS3, Vita)

One of my main motivations for acquiring a Playstation Vita was the potential for connectivity between it and the Playstation 3.  It’s been the main focus of Sony’s advertising campaign to get consumers interested in their new handheld and while the launch titles did little to exploit this feature, it didn’t take long for Sony to release a game that did.

Enter MLB 12 The Show.  The game is the latest in Sony’s first-party, and much heralded, baseball title.  Released for both the PS3 and the Vita last week, it makes use of the Vita’s cloud feature in the most logical manner by letting the user take their franchise on the road.  Now when you finish a game on the PS3, you can upload the save file to Sony’s cloud and then download it onto the Vita.  The process is as simple as it sounds and it only takes a moment.  Once it’s been loaded onto the Vita, it’s just like any save file and can be saved down to the Vita’s memory card.  Then you can play it on the Vita while you’re out and about, and once done re-upload it to the cloud to download onto the PS3.  The only limitation is the Vita obviously needs an internet connection to make use of the cloud. I’m not sure if it works over the 3G network for those who opted for that  version of the Vita.

There are some limitations.  For one, there’s only one save available on the cloud per user.  In other words, you can’t upload both a franchise save and a Road to the Show save at the same time.  You can upload either one, but not at the same time.  The other limitation is that in-game saves can’t be uploaded to the cloud, which seems to contradict the ad campaign running on television at the moment.  It’s a little annoying when you’re in your living room but have to finish a game on the Vita before transferring to the PS3, but it’s not the end of the world.

The power of the PS3 in the palms of your hands! Mostly.

It helps that the two versions of The Show are pretty similar.  Visually, the PS3 version is superior.  It’s most noticeable in the textures as everything just has a nice coating to it.  There’s also some minor frame-rate drops on the Vita version during some animations, mostly batter walk-up ones for some reason.  It’s more of a presentation issue than anything.  The Vita is also limited slightly in the control department, though San Diego Studios tried to compensate for this by adding touch controls.  I haven’t used many of them, but also haven’t felt my gameplay experience hindered much by absence of the R2 and L2 buttons.  I do like the touch controls for pitching as riding the train can make precise pitch locations a little challenging.  If you wish, you can simply touch the screen where you want the pitcher to throw the ball, then use the buttons to deliver the pitch.

The game itself is pretty similar to past versions.  There’s some new controller configurations for both hitting and fielding that I personally have no use for.  I stick with meter pitching and zone batting, and it’s plenty hard enough as is.  Hitting is particularly challenging and takes a lot of practice, especially if you’re like me and haven’t played a baseball game in a couple of years.  I’ve only used franchise mode, exhibition, and practice.  I assume Road to the Show is pretty much unchanged.  Franchise mode has actually been simplified to a certain extent when it comes to ballpark upkeep, but roster management has become more complex.  The added complexity makes the game more authentic, but just be careful when using the “Auto” function when it comes to roster moves.  Sometimes it’s tempting to let the CPU auto-fill your Double A or Triple A lineup but sometimes it takes way too many liberties and makes changes to the MLB roster, which can be unwelcome.  I made the mistake of simming Spring Training in one year of my franchise and found my roster turned into a disaster by the AI management.

Uploading to the cloud (or downloading from it) is about as simple as this image makes it look.

I hear online still sucks, but I haven’t tried it myself since I’d just get thrashed.  Online being laggy and unplayable is unfortunately nothing new for this series.  It’s borderline criminal that they haven’t been able to fix it over the years, but I guess it’s on us at this point.  I mentioned in my last post that Sony also chose to knock 20 bucks off the price of the Vita version if bought alongside the PS3 one.  This makes sense since Sony wants people to experience the cross-platform play.  It still means it will set you back 80 bucks for the full MLB experience.

Is the novelty of being able to bring the console experience to the road worth the price?  Depends on how much you like baseball, I suppose.  I really like baseball, though even I have to admit this is probably a one-time thing for me.  It’s a cool thing to have, and the game runs well enough on the Vita to not diminish the experience much, but it’s still 20 bucks just to play your franchise or other single player mode on the go.  Though now that I think about, 20 bucks for a full-fledged portable baseball game isn’t really that bad.  I guess everything depends on your outlook!

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March 4, 2012

Playstation Vita (Helpless in the Face of New Technology II)

By Joe

I didn’t go back and look, but I think I mentioned the Playstation Vita in three posts and in all three I said I wasn’t going to get one at launch.  I had purchased a 3DS at launch last year and it didn’t turn out to be the best purchasing decision of my life.  The software at launch was terrible and the entry price pretty steep.  Roughly six months later Nintendo would slash the price of the unit by a significant margin.  As an early adopter, dubbed a Nintendo Ambassador, I received ten free NES games and ten free GBA games but if given the choice I might have just chosen the cheaper unit.  And the 3DS isn’t a bad system at all.  I’ve enjoyed it now that the software has caught on and even purchased the new add-on.  It seemed unwise to be an early adopter again, especially for a Playstation product.  I’m not sure if any Playstation console has had a good launch lineup and they’re always expensive.

I could have said it until I was blue in the fact, but the simple fact of the matter is, when new technology comes out I can’t help myself.  And when I got a glimpse of what Uncle Sam was sending me as a refund I found it harder and harder to make excuses.  I lasted over a week, so I guess I can be proud of that, but as of March 4th I am an owner of a Playstation Vita.

Vita game cart. Pretty small, as you can see.

Now, I said Sony consoles tend to have expensive and poorly supported system launches and in one way the Vita is no exception.  The Vita is expensive.  There’s no way around it.  I’m a bachelor with a home and a good job.  I have no kids and my living expenses aren’t too cumbersome.  I have disposable income to throw at video games, but even so, it still didn’t entirely sit right to spend $350 on a new handheld system.  What did my $350 get me?  Well, it got me a Wi-Fi enabled Vita ($250), a 16 GB ($60) memory card, and one game ($40).  The price tag of the Vita itself isn’t awful.  It’s the same price the 3DS launched at but the Vita is the far more powerful system which makes it seem reasonable.  However, the 3DS came with a 2 GB SD card and most of the games save directly to the game’s cartridge.  There were also some pre-loaded games, nothing great but it’s something.  The Vita comes with nothing.  There’s a USB chord, an AC adapter, and some documentation.  There are some augmented reality cards that I admittedly haven’t even done anything with, but I’m not expecting much entertainment from them.  There’s no onboard memory though, and that’s the Vita’s biggest hurdle.

The memory cards are a joke.  Sixty dollars for 16 GB of memory?  That’s obscene.  And you need a memory card to play just about every game and there isn’t any onboard memory to download games to.  It looks like most of the games will require between 4,000 KB and 5,000 KB for save files.  This isn’t a scientific observation, merely what I saw on the back of each game case I looked at.  The packaging for the memory card itself says you can expect to hold 4 to 8 complete games on it, so if you’re planning on acquiring most of your games digitally you may want to go even larger.

Even smaller than the the games; the Vita's stupidly expensive memory cards.

Because of the costly memory, I suspect most will just buy game cartridges.  The cartridges are small, thumb-shaped cards.  Most will set you back $40, but there are some for $50 like Uncharted: Golden Abyss.  I picked up Rayman Origins and that cost me $40.  The cases are small but proportionately similar to a Blu Ray case.  In the case of Rayman, there was nothing inside the case except the actual game.  There is a clip for an instruction booklet, so maybe other games come with one, but this one only comes with an electronic booklet.  It’s kind of strange to have a case even this size for one tiny cartridge but whatever.  For Rayman, the load times are pretty minimal and I’m not sure how they compare with the PS3 version.  I would expect this type of medium would have pretty quick load times and would certainly be faster than the PSP’s UMD format.  I don’t know why they lack their own means of storage for game saves and have never seen it addressed.  It seems to me like they should be able to do that, but maybe I’m underestimating just how much space these games take up.

The Vita itself is an impressive piece of tech.  Which makes sense, because if it wasn’t I wouldn’t have bought it.  I’m going to skimp on the features since they’ve been covered elsewhere, but the screen is an OLED screen with touch capabilities.  There’s a second touch “panel” on the back of the system as well.  There’s cameras on the front and back and all of the buttons from the PSP are returned.  The biggest additions are the analog sticks.  The PSP’s nub is no more as the Vita features twin mini sticks that feel very similar to the PS3’s.  They do not double as buttons like the PS3 ones, which is unfortunate as that’s the only setback for the Vita.  Without the additional triggers and buttons the PS3 has, it will make certain ports trickier than others but the addition of a second analog stick is pretty significant.  And the quality of the hardware is exceptional.  The unit is larger than a PSP, but is surprisingly light.  It’s thin and very portable if you carry a messenger bag (or purse, if you’re a woman) but it’s probably not going to fit in most pockets.  And you probably wouldn’t want to try anyways without a screen protector or some kind of case.  I didn’t spring for one but I might have to eventually.

I mentioned earlier I got the Wi-Fi model.  For another $50 there’s a 3G one with service through AT&T that costs a monthly fee.  I have no interest in a monthly fee for my handheld gaming device so deciding which one to get was a no-brainer.  The device is also equipped with Blue Tooth and I assume it can be connected to certain headsets.  It also can communicate with the PS3 and the two can share a PSN account.  I checked out the remote play feature, as I never tried it with my PSP, and found it worked fine.  It basically turns your Vita into your PS3, but not all games can be accessed (for me, no games could be).  I think all of the PSOne Classics are supposed to work with the Vita, but might not yet.  Some games available across both platforms will be able to communicate with each other and some of the early releases include both a Vita version and a PS3 version.  Most of them will require a double purchase though.  It would be nice if buying the PS3 version of MLB The Show got you a discount for the Vita version, but I don’t expect Sony to go that far to please the consumer (edit: after publishing this I looked on both amazon and Gamestop’s websites and saw that if you buy both versions it will cost you $80, which is a $20 saving which is better than having to spend $100).  I’ll probably buy both versions of that one as I’m eager to test out the cross platform features with that particular title.

I spent multiple hours with Rayman Origins and found the Vita pretty comfortable.  Surprisingly, my left thumb is a bit tender which I would not have expected but it isn’t bad.  The buttons are all easy to reach though the shoulder buttons are slightly awkward, but not too bad.  Visually, the Vita (and Rayman Origins) does not disappoint.  The OLED screen is bright and vibrant offering a better picture than most plasma TVs.  It has to be seen to be truly appreciated.

The Vita, side by side with a Circle Pad Pro equipped 3DS. Neither is very portable.

It helps when the game is gorgeous too.  Rayman Origins is a direct port of the critically acclaimed PS3/360/Wii title from last year.  It’s an old school 2D platformer that will test your jumping abilities with lots of timing based challenges.  The gameplay is tried and true, and though I’m only a short way into it, I’m impressed.  Visually though it’s one of the most appealing games I’ve ever played and it doesn’t appear to have suffered one bit in being ported from consoles to the Vita.  It looks like a living cartoon.  Some cel-shaded games, like Super Paper Mario, came close to achieving such a feat but none have managed to pull it off like Rayman Origins.  The art style reminds me of 90’s era cartoons like Ren & Stimpy and Rocko’s Modern Life.  There’s a “zany-ness” to everything and a lot of the movements of the characters are exaggerated.  There’s more screaming than speaking, and the whole thing just seems crazy.  If you haven’t played it, and like platform games, definitely check it out.  It can be found for about $30 new for home consoles and is the type of game developers should be rewarded for making.

So for $350 I got an excellent game and a new handheld with (hopefully) plenty of memory.  I feel okay about it, but the other risk one takes on when buying a new system at launch is long-term support.  The Vita got off to an okay start in Japan, but shortly after launch sales were ground to a halt.  I haven’t seen sales figures for the US launch yet, but most of the stores I’ve been to over the last week or so are not over-flowing with units.  I’ve even seen a few sell-outs, so it would seem that the Vita is off to a good start.  I’ll be curious to see if it can maintain that momentum as the PSP wasn’t a huge success in the US, certainly not compared with Japan.

Whether it survives or not will depend largely on price and software.  The price is already out there and quite an obstacle, but if it’s moving units then maybe I’m placing too much emphasis on it.  That other problem most Sony systems face at launch is not an issue for the Vita.  There are plenty of good, and even great, games available right now.  Some, like Rayman Origins, are ports of console titles and some, like Uncharted, are all new.  For the system to flourish, developers will have to continue to support the Vita with both new titles and ports.  Some games are perfect to see ported to a handheld, especially sports titles.  If that’s all that’s out there though then gamers might get bored.  If given the choice, more often than not gamers will take a home console game over a portable.  A pick-up and play title like Rayman Origins is a rare exception, as I think that’s a game that works great for a portable.  A more in depth experience like Arkham City though is best on a home machine.

So I guess I’m happy with the Vita, for now.  I have so many games to play now, it’s borderline obscene.  It may actually be a week or more before the Vita even accompanies me on the train as I’m currently splitting my time between Tactics Ogre for the PSP and Resident Evil Revelations for the 3DS.  I will get MLB for the Vita though, and at that point I may not be able to resist playing it during my commute, but after that I have no idea what my next Vita game will be.  I guess I’ll have to start paying attention to all of these games.  I have a problem.

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March 4, 2012

Greatest Games: Castlevania: Symphony of the Night

By Joe

Castlevania: Symphony of the Night (1997)

There are several core genres of video games, but few games can actually be summed up as one genre.  A game can be called a role-playing game, but there’s a big difference between Chrono Trigger and Baldur’s Gate.  The same can be said for platform games, as few will confuse Super Mario Bros. with Ratchet and Clank.

The Castlevania series has long struggled with genres.  The original game is often described as a hybrid action-adventure title.  Famous for its great, but punishing, gameplay it’s no surprise it spawned several sequels.  The first of which, Castlevania II: Simon’s Quest, was a radical departure.  For that title, Konami decided to take the non-linear gameplay fans seemed to enjoy so much about the first game, and expand upon it by introducing many RPG elements.  Simon’s Quest was an ambitious title, but probably one that had more failures than successes.  As a result, Konami would simplify the many sequels and slowly work its way towards something more complex.

With new hardware and many more attempts are crafting quality Castlevania games, it was time for Konami to get bold once more.  The arrival of the 32 bit era brought about realistic opportunities for 3D gameplay design.  Not 3D as we know it today (the optical illusion), but 3D polygons instead of hand-drawn 2D sprites as a visual and gameplay style.  If Konami was attempted to explore this style with Castlevania, it wisely held off and stuck with what worked.  Symphony of the Night was born on the Playstation and unveiled to the world in 1997 in a very quiet manner.  Because it was not 3D, and was up against the massive hype-machine known as Final Fantasy VII, it was overlooked initially.  Review outlets were generally impressed by the title, though some would probably like a do-over as even many of those old reviews look like they were done as after-thoughts.

In Symphony of the Night, players will take control of Alucard; son of Dracula!

No matter, Symphony of the Night would receive its due eventually.  SotN took Simon’s Quest and married it with Nintendo’s Super Metroid.  This has lead some fans to affectionately refer to the title as “Metroidvania,” which should not be mistaken as an insult.  SotN sees the player dropped into a familiar setting; Dracula’s Castle.  Only this castle is different than before.  The player can explore it at will as the game doesn’t merely force the player to go left to right.  There are many ledges and secret rooms to find and explore and roadblocks, especially early in the game, are quite frequent forcing the player to back-track.  This emphasis on exploration made the game more than just an action title and really put the focus on the adventure aspect.

In the starring role this time was a familiar, and yet unfamiliar, face.  Alucard, son of Dracula, is the primary protagonist.  The first scene of the game teases a starring role for Richter Belmont, but Alucard is the one who will receive the majority of the playing time.  Alucard plays very differently from the other protagonists to appear in a Castlevania game before him.  As a half-vampire, he’s far more powerful than any Belmont.  He can dash, leap to impressive heights, and change his form.  He has spells at his disposal, input like fighting game commands, and can be built up to god-like levels.  As he kills enemies, Alucard gains experience and levels up.  When the game first starts off he’s fairly weak and most of the player deaths experienced in the game will come in the first hour or so.  As the player “level grinds” and explores more weapons and abilities will be found.  Alucard does not use the traditional whip, but can use pretty much every other type of weapon one can think of.  Most will include various swords and spears but tough guys can also roll with just their fists if they wish.

And since Alucard is the son of the game’s main antagonist, many storyline possibilities are opened up.  While this game came before story became a major point of emphasis in video games, it manages to weave an interesting tale.  SotN sets out to finally bring all of the previous games together under one massive narrative.  Old questions are answered, and new ones born, and for longtime fans it’s a very satisfying experience.  The only drawback is with the voice acting.  Voice acting was ever growing in popularity at the time, but few did it well.  SotN is no exception in that regard and the original release features some atrocious acting.  It’s not used a lot, thankfully, but is pretty groan-inducing.  Ports of the game have improved upon it, though I can’t say how much since I’ve never bothered to play them (I still have my PSX copy).

Symphony of the Night takes a traditional visual approach for the series and even returns many familiar foes.

Visually, the game is a delight!  Alucard’s sprite has smooth animation and nice effects to go with it.  The game makes liberal use of all of the 2D tricks perfected in the 16 bit era and enhances them.  There are some polygons in the game, but they’re mostly used to dress up the background.  Because of this approach, the game holds up quite well to this day.  Some of those old Playstation and Nintendo 64 games that were much heralded in their day cannot say the same thing.  This is still a pretty game, by any standard.  And since it’s a Castlevania title, the soundtrack must be mentioned.  It contains many of the old tracks made famous by the series, but also has a ton of new compositions that all suit the game’s mood.  The synth-metal approach to many of them is a great deal of fun to listen to and there are numerous elements of techno, classical, and other genres blended in.  This is still my all-time favorite video game soundtrack.

The game controls tighter than any previous Castlevania title.  Perhaps it’s because of Alucard’s inhuman nature, but he is much more nimble than any Belmont before him.  This makes controlling him a more enjoyable experience, but also makes the game much easier.  As I mentioned before, the early part of the game can be a challenge as Alucard is de-powered early on, but as you level up and find new weapons and spells the game becomes increasingly easier.  There are a couple of items that practically break the game because of how over-powered they are.  You can, of course, choose not to use them but it’s hard to resist.  There are many boss battles though, and most are fun affairs and offer some of the game’s best challenges.  There are also multiple endings as this is one of those games where just when you think you’ve finished, more is revealed.  Get to 100% completion and the castle gets literally flipped upside down and the game practically starts over again!  There’s also a code to play the entire game as Richter, and later ports include a third character as well; Maria Renard.

Fans looking for a more traditional experience could take control of Richter Belmont in lieu of Alucard via code in the original release.

When I first set out to cover my favorite games I mentioned I was going to mostly stay away from the consensus classics.  Symphony of the Night is probably one of those classics, but to me it has always felt overlooked which is why I chose to include it.  It was largely ignored by audiences when it was first released but as time went on gamers went back to it.  I was one such gamer who first ignored it.  I don’t even remember there being much coverage for it at the time, but I eventually made the time for it and picked up a used copy.  And even though I grabbed that used copy a couple years later, I was still ahead of a lot of people to even be able to find a used copy for cheap money!  Now that black-label game is considered a collector’s item, and while it doesn’t go for huge money in the secondary market, it’s not likely to be found in a bargain bin.

Symphony of the Night, for me, represents Castlevania at its absolute best.  Some long-time fans think it’s too easy to be the best of the best, and since the main gameplay does not feature a whip of any kind it can turn off some traditionalists.  It’s still the most fun I’ve ever had with a Castlevania title and the one I remember most fondly.  Several of the new handheld games have copied the style of SotN but I’m not sure any have truly improved upon it.  Oh, those games are good, but the crown still belongs to the game almost no one played when it was first released nearly 15 years ago.

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February 26, 2012

The Amazing Spider-Man and Reboots

By Joe

The Amazing Spider-Man (2012)

There are two big superhero movies set to hit theaters this summer.  One, The Dark Knight Rises, figures to close out a trilogy that could go down as the best superhero trilogy ever conceived to this point (and one of the all-time best trilogies in general).  The other, The Amazing Spider-Man, hopes to launch a new franchise that could one day be among the best.  The two films are not very similar, but The Amazing Spider-Man hopes to do for Spider-Man what Batman Begins did for Batman.  That’s a tall order and complicating things is the fact that not a lot of time has elapsed between the original Spider-Man film franchise and this new one Sony is looking to start.

How much time needs to pass between two films based on the same property before a reboot can be introduced?  A reboot refers to a new beginning for a character.  The Amazing Spider-Man will ignore the three previous Spider-Man films directed by Sam Raimi.  When it hits theaters it will have been 5 years since Spider-Man 3 was in theaters.  For Batman Begins, 8 years had elapsed between that film and the most recent Batman film before it, Batman & Robin.  In the case of both, these new films are arriving after the last one was poorly received, though to different degrees.  Batman & Robin was panned by critics and filmgoers alike.  There is almost nothing positive that can be said about it.  It was the sequel to Batman Forever, a film that received a mixed reaction, and was also the fourth film in a line of movies but introduced its third actor to play the starring role.  There was little continuity in that series following Batman Returns and every film seemed to be worse than the one that preceded it.

For Spider-Man, Spider-Man 3 returned the same cast and crew as the previous two.  The first film was received warmly and accomplished what it set out to do, and the second was roundly praised as one of the best comic-to-film adaptations ever.  Spider-Man 3 had a lot to live up to, and though it was not as good as the first two, it actually has a “fresh” rating on rottentomatoes.com, albeit barely so.  It wasn’t a terrible film, but it was a mess of a movie that encountered numerous problems.

What the Hell were they thinking?

I’m not sure if it was the intention from the start, but it felt like going into Spider-Man 3 that this could be the endpoint for the Rami directed movies.  The third one rounds out a trilogy and there seems to be a natural tendency to view films within a franchise in groups of three.  I’m not sure why, but that tends to be the reality of things.  The main actors were originally signed for three films so a potential fourth one was likely to get expensive.  As such, both Raimi and Sony/Marvel tried to cram everything into Spider-Man 3 they ever wanted to address on film.  From the onset, Raimi and star Tobey Maguire had mentioned they liked The Sandman and wanted to get him into a film.  There was also the Green Goblin plot which developed over the course of the first two films that had to be addressed in the third.  And then there was Sony and Marvel (and to a certain extent, the fans) who wanted to see Venom make his big screen debut.  If they had bothered to do any fan research though, I think they would have found most fans would not have wanted Venom in this film and would have preferred to see him introduced slowly across multiple films like he wan in both the comics and television show.

It’s no surprise then that Spider-Man 3 became a bloated mess.  Raimi tried to bring everything full circle for Peter Parker by revealing another piece of the puzzle where Uncle Ben’s murder was concerned.  And not content to let Mary Jane and Peter have a conflict free movie, he put a lot of focus on their relationship and tried to create a love triangle with Harry, the New Goblin (who looked ridiculous).  And then they had to get Gwen Stacey in for some reason, and introduce Eddie Brock and the black costume.  The fact that the movie actually does have a coherent plot is some-what commendable, even if it’s not a good one.

The film made a ton of money riding on the strength of the franchise more so than on the merits of the film itself.  The ending tied up some loose ends for the trilogy, mostly the Green Goblin story, but left things open where MJ and Peter were concerned.  I hated this ending, though the film did such a good job of making both Peter and MJ unlikable that I really didn’t care what became of their relationship once the credits began to roll.  Because it did make so much money, there was some speculation that Raimi and the main cast would return for a fourth film.  Things appeared to be moving in that direction until Sony abruptly cut ties with all involved.  This actually was met with a positive reaction by the fan-base, or seemed to be.  Fans actually seemed on board with a reboot of sorts for Spider-Man, partly because the existing films seemed to lose their way with all the melodrama thrown into the films, and because the Venom character was so thoroughly botched.

The new leads: Emma Stone and Andrew Garfield

A fresh start was definitely in order, but I’m not sure if The Amazing Spider-Man is what fans had in mind.  This new film is copying the Batman Begins formula perhaps too much by re-telling Spider-Man’s origin.  When Begins came out it had been well over a decade since Batman in 1989 and his origin really wasn’t explored in as great of detail as Begins set out to do.  With Spider-Man that’s not the case.  This film does give film-goers a look at Peter’s parents, which was never addressed in the previous trilogy, but it also goes through the whole bitten by a spider thing again.  I don’t speak for everyone, but I have no interest in seeing that re-hashed.  The film’s main villain is going to be The Lizard, who supposedly would have been the villain had Raimi’s franchise continued for a fourth film as well.  He’s another scientist with good intentions who has a horrible accident that leads to him becoming a super-villain.  That type is quite common in the Spider-Man universe, but The Lizard may be one of the most boring.  The film could portray him differently than most mediums, but for the most parts he’s just a mindless rampaging creature that tests Spider-Man physically, not so much intellectually.  He’s been around for a long time so he’s had other portrayals, but that’s the basic one.

If this isn’t the reboot fans were looking for, then what was?  Well, I think fans would have been happy to see a new actor dawn the red and blue tights without an origin story.  The film could have still ignored the Raimi trilogy and laid the groundwork for a new one.  It makes sense to go with a villain that wasn’t captured in the first three films already to provide some added freshness, though I’m not sure The Lizard was the right one.  Ideally, Eddie Brock would be in it to set the stage for Venom in a later film, but a main villain would be needed for the first one.  A grounded, real world type of villain might have worked best just to get away from the whole science gone wrong angle.  He may have shown up in Daredevil already, but The Kingpin could have been utilized again, maybe even the Spider Slayers?  The plot could show how Spider-Man, portrayed as a teen out having a good time stopping muggings and other petty crimes, confronts an enemy far more dangerous than anything he’s confronted before.  Kingpin could even have a lackey to beat the tar out of Spider-Man, someone like Hammerhead, Tombstone, or The Rhino.

The new costume has a Ben Reilly feel to it. That's not a good thing.

Or my concerns could amount to nothing.  It’s not impossible that The Amazing Spider-Man turns into a great movie, though I don’t consider it likely.  Maybe I’m just being pessimistic, but this thing looks dead in the water.  I expect it to do well at the box office, but perhaps not so well critically.  This may just end up being the example of what not to do when rebooting a franchise.  It has a “too soon” feeling already, and if a large chunk of the film’s run time is spent going over things the previous films already covered people may react negatively.  Then again, maybe the casual movie-goer doesn’t care and just wants to be entertained.  Spider-Man bouncing around and wailing on a CGi Lizard may delight audiences, and a lot of people seem to like Emma Stone who plays Gwen Stacy (whom has the misfortune of expectation as comic fans will basically just be waiting for her to die).  The trailer is linked below, so you can form your own early opinion on the film.  Mine seems obvious, but in the interest of spelling things out, I don’t expect this to end well.

 

 

 

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February 25, 2012

Danzig: Thrall-Demonsweatlive +

By Joe

Danzig: Thrall-Demonsweatlive (1993)

Last weekend I posted my final review for the Danzig LP’s, but that doesn’t mean I’m done with Danzig!  Far from it, as there’s still a few more items that require attention.  If you’ve been keeping track, I’ve posted a review for all nine studio albums plus a summary of the soundtrack only songs that have seen release over the last 20+ years.  That still leaves the EP’s, The Lost Tracks compilation, and the Black Aria releases; all to be addressed in good time.  This post will take a look at live releases and the EP’s, specifically Thrall-Demonsweatlive.

It might surprise you to know that the two best selling Danzig releases (and the only two to reach gold status) are the 1988 self-titled album and the 1993 EP Thrall-Demonsweatlive.  This is, of course, due to the popularity of the “Mother” track which saw a re-release for radio and MTV when Thrall hit stores.  “Mother” was originally released as a single for the first album, but it struggled to find airplay on mainstream rock radio stations.  It had an even harder time finding an audience with MTV and the network determined the video was “too Satanic” and refused to play it without some editing done.  Danzig balked at censoring the video, so the label instead released a home video (simply titled “Danzig”) that contained all of the music videos shot for the first album as well as some behind the scenes interviews with the band.

Side B of the picture disc release.

In between Danzig III and Danzig IV, Glenn Danzig approached the label about doing an EP.  The label wasn’t too keen on the idea, but according to Glenn he was able to to get them to agree to put one out after pointing out how well Alice in Chains had done with the Jar of Flies EP.  Once the agreement was in place, the band hit the studio in between tours to record a couple of original tracks and one cover.  The two originals ended up being “It’s Coming Down” and “The Violet Fire.”  Joining them for the Thrall portion of the release was a cover of the Elvis tune “Trouble.”  The band had been working on this cover ever since the Samhain days but had never found an appropriate place to release it.  Those three tracks comprised what was called the “Thrall” portion of the release, and were paired up with four live tracks that made up the “Demonsweatlive” part of the album.  These four tracks were all taken from the band’s Halloween gig at Irvine Meadows in 1992, they are:  “Snakes of Christ”, “Am I Demon”, “Sistinas”, and “Mother.”  There’s also one hidden track on most releases, a slightly remixed version of “Mother” often referred to as “Mother ’93.”  To my ears, it doesn’t sound any different than the original version.  It was this version of the song that was made into a new music video featuring nothing but live shots which found an audience on MTV.

The studio tracks on this release are pretty solid, with “It’s Coming Down” becoming a staple of most live setlists ever since.  I personally prefer “The Violet Fire” for its more groove-oriented pacing.  The live tracks are all pretty ferocious and played faster than they were on the albums.  Glenn almost growls the lyrics for most of them, with the exception of “Sistinas” which features his signature croon.  I know a lot of people who prefer the live version of “Sistinas” to the album version, to me, both are excellent.  The live version of “Mother” is superior to the album version as it captures a different kind of energy that really lends itself well to the rebellious lyrics.

Danzig: Live on the Black Hand Side (2001)

The rest of the setlist from the Irvine Meadows show would pop up here and there one track at a time on various singles.  The majority of it would be released on 2001’s Live on the Black Hand Side.  Live on the Black Hand Side is Danzig’s only other live release and the band’s only full-length live album.  It’s a two disc set that captures the band’s peak in the mid 90’s as well as the Satan’s Child tour from 2000.  Disc 1 is split between the Irvine show and a Seattle show from the 4p tour.  The track-listing is like a greatest hits album, and the first disc is a nice piece to own.  Disc 2, on the other hand, is a disaster.  The audio quality, perhaps because the shows took place in smaller venues, is garbage.  The track-list is pretty solid, though there are a couple clunkers, but the quality ruins it.  Glenn’s vocals are often hard to make out and the band sounds thin.  Live on the Black Hand Side can be a tough album to track down these days, but is only worth doing so for the hardcore.

Danzig: Sacrifice (EP, 2000 E-Magine release)

The only other EP put out by Danzig is the Sacrifice EP.  It was originally released as a single that contained six tracks, all remixes of the of the song “Sacrifice.”  It was re-released in 2000 by E-Magine with additional tracks added; remixes of “Deep” and “Serpentia.”  The original version did have a limited vinyl pressing for you completists out there, while the re-release was CD only.  It’s a release for the hardcore only, as none of the remixes improve upon the original songs, and in the case of both “Deep” and “Serpentia,” the original song wasn’t that great to begin with.

Thrall-Demonsweatlive is a must own for Danzig fans.  The studio tracks are solid and the live ones entertaining.  It was released on CD and cassette initially, but also had a German picture disc release that can be hard to track down these days.  The front cover of all of the releases features artwork by Simon “Biz” Bisley who would go on to do a lot of illustrations for Danzig.  The reverse image of the picture disc features a bare-chested Glenn Danzig from Irvine Meadows, an image also included inside the CD booklet.  The booklet for Live on the Black Hand Side features dozens of live shots from throughout the band’s existence and is arguably the best thing about the release.  The front cover is atrocious though and very amateurish.  There’s not much noteworthy to say about the packaging for any of the Sacrifice releases, save for it does include that image of Glenn spreading his arms melded with the skull logo.

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February 19, 2012

Twisted Metal (2012)

By Joe
Twisted Metal (2012)

If you frequent this blog you may have noticed that I do not post many negative reviews.  That’s because, for the most part, I’d rather talk about things I like and enjoy and not things that irritate me or make me mad.  There have been some exceptions.  I set out to review all of the Danzig releases which meant reviewing the good and the bad.  I also reviewed the X-Men trilogy which meant having to review the less than stellar third film.  Otherwise, I think most reviews have been fairly positive, especially the video game ones.  I suppose there’s a first time for everything, but it does pain me that my first negative video game review on this blog is going to be about a franchise I adore; Twisted Metal.

Twisted Metal made its return to livingrooms across the globe this past Valentine’s Day.  I recently made an entry in my Greatest Games feature praising the last home entry in this series, Twisted Metal Black, which came out over 10 years ago.  The new game, simply titled Twisted Metal, was announced a couple of years ago at E3 in grand fashion complete with a live-action Sweet Tooth driving his famous ice cream truck onto the stage during Sony’s conference.  Long-time fans of the series had been nearly driven insane wondering when, if, Sony would return to one of its oldest franchises.  The wait was long, but it did have an end, unfortunately it wasn’t really worth the effort.

Twisted Metal is not a bad game in the strictest sense.  Visually it’s quite nice to look at though not breath-taking.  The textures on the scenery are minimalist but that’s because the game was built for speed and there’s little need for gorgeous textures when the player is going to spend the majority of the game zipping around the various levels.  The cars look great, though from an artistic standpoint they do seem to lack in personality when compared with the older games.  Perhaps that’s nostalgia getting the best of me and an over-compensation on my part considering the drivers are no longer unique (more on that to come), but it is the impression that I get.  The soundtrack features a mix of original compositions that mostly trend towards hard rock and some licensed tracks featuring a return of Rob Zombie (which is actually kind of odd, considering he was only featured on the much-maligned third and fourth entries in the series).  It’s been quite a long time since I’ve driven around a war zone with “Dragula” booming through my television speakers.

The game mechanics of Twisted Metal remain largely unchanged as well.  You still drive around blasting opponents with fire, power, homing, and all sorts of other missiles all the while relying on powered-up special attacks.  A lot of the vehicles have a familiar feel as well.  Sweet Tooth (the truck, not the character) still handles like a bath tub on wheels and Dark Side has a punishing ram attack.  Some vehicles return with new special attacks this time out, such as Roadkill’s mini gun and Junkyard Dog’s Taxi.  This one even includes a helicopter for the player to try out, something that was to be included in Black but had to scrapped at the eleventh hour.

Cut scenes are done with live actors. Also, Mr. Grimm isn’t dead.

If a lot of the game is more of the same, why am I threatening a negative review?  Well, a lot of reasons really.  While the gameplay is fairly consistent with prior games, there’s a different feel to the physics this time out.  It’s as if the development team decided the more chaotic the battles, the better.  Now it seems like only the slightest bump or the most insignificant weapon can send your vehicle bouncing around like a tennis ball.  This causes vehicles to get hung-up on walls and proves especially annoying during the games racing levels.  You read that correctly, there are racing levels this time around and they are atrocious.  Twisted Metal was never designed to be a racing game and that is more than evident when it tries to be one.  The levels are still wide open but force you to travel through gates or checkpoints along the course.  The thing is, there is no set course so the whole thing becomes an exercise of trial and error as you try to figure out which way the game wants you to drive.  The final race is particularly annoying as it has you speed over ramps and rooftops where one error spells doom.  And passing through all of the checkpoints first is something only required of you, the player, the AI controlled opponents are free from that restriction.  This is a pretty big deal for the final race because finishing in first is meaningless, it just reveals on your map where the final, mobile, checkpoint is.  Activating this final checkpoint causes all of the other cars to explode, which means if one of the AI cars activates it first, you lose.  And since they don’t have to pass through all of the checkpoints it really becomes a crap shoot.  If there’s one silver lining for the racing levels it’s that there are only three, but you’re likely going to hate all of them.

And that wasn’t the only way the team “spiced” things up with the single player, there’s also electric cage and endurance matches.  Electric cage match sounds pretty cool, but it’s not.  Again, it just turns into another gameplay tweak that’s annoying, not enjoyable.  In these levels a laser cage surrounds an area for a set amount of time.  While inside it, you’re fine but leave it and a timer is activated.  Once that timer reaches zero you begin to take damage.  Every minute or so, the cage vanishes and reappears at another part of the level setting off a mad dash to find it.  One of these levels occurs in an amusement park and the serpentine like roads make it a challenge to find the damn thing once it re-spawns.  It just doesn’t add anything enjoyable to the experience.  The endurance rounds are actually okay.  These require the player to kill a certain amount of enemies while keeping a large number of them on the map throughout.  This creates a more chaotic experience that actually works.  I still prefer the more traditional levels, but this one’s okay.

Since the game only has three characters, each one can drive whatever vehicle he or she chooses.

Then there’s the Juggernaut levels.  The Juggernaut is a semi with a full trailer armed to the teeth.  It also spawns a new enemy every thirty seconds.  In these levels you have to kill the Juggernaut as well as all other combatants.  Later levels introduce a second Juggernaut and a more powerful version at that.  These levels are okay and do prove challenging and serve as a sort-of mid-point boss fight for the three single player scenarios.  The true boss battles comprise their own level, though usually play out in stages.  The first one was pretty cool and pits the player against two over-sized monster trucks. The second, a battle against a mech-like enemy, was annoying.  Part of the reason for its annoyance is the inclusion of the dreaded electric cage for a portion.  The final boss, a Sweet Tooth themed one, is much better.  It’s both over-the-top and inventive and a good way to close out the third and final story.

And yes, that is also correct, there are only three single player stories.  This has been known for awhile and dreaded by me.  My hope was that since only three existed they would be more involved and longer than before.  Instead, they’re shorter than what was in Black and can be completed in less than an hour a piece.  They kind of form one long story and have to be played in succession from Sweet Tooth, to Mr. Grimm, and to Dollface.  Sweet Tooth is pretty much the same Sweet Tooth from Black.  In his scenario we get to see the origins of this Sweet Tooth and what he hopes to get from Calypso when he wins.  The story unfolds in three parts, an intro movie, a middle, and an end.  These are done with live actors instead of CGi.  It’s actually not bad, and Sweet Tooth’s story, while predictable, was entertaining.  Grimm’s was less so, and Dollface’s more like Grimm’s.  There are a couple of ending movies that serve as epilogues that bring the focus back to Sweet Tooth, which proves to be a good thing.  This game’s Calypso is also very different from previous ones.  He kind of looks like Jack Black from The White Stripes and is some sort of entrepreneur and has his own company.  He still bestows wishes on the victors but I found him less entertaining this time around.  The twists were all very predictable and thus less amusing.

The single-player was a tack-on thing and definitely feels that way.  It’s a shame, because I loved playing through each one in Black.  Sure the writing wasn’t anything fantastic in that game but it was entertaining.  This game’s primary focus is on multi-player, something I rarely engage in.  I’ve never touched the online component of most of my games including Red Dead Redemption, Uncharted 2, Mortal Kombat, Smackdown vs Raw, and so on.  Because this one includes such a small amount of content, I’ll pretty much have to give it a shot.  It could be good, but right now the servers are all messed up leading to numerous network connection errors.  This appears to be a wide-spread issue and a patch is set for release next week.  Online is still playable for the truly determined, I’m just not among them.

I suppose that makes this verdict incomplete, but in truth, no amount of multi-player action can change my mind at this point.  Online matches may help alleviate the notion that I just wasted sixty bucks but it won’t change the fact that, as a single player game, Twisted Metal isn’t very good.  There’s not much content and the gameplay engine just isn’t up to par with past efforts.  I looked forward to the return of this franchise more than any other and I’m really disappointed it could not meet my expectations.  Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m gonna go fire up Twisted Metal Black and try to recapture those glory days long since passed.

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