Review: Unstoppable

I like Denzel Washington a lot, all his movies seem to be golden. Looking back on his career anyone would be hard pressed to find a movie that wasn't good or a movie that didn't make mountains of money. Training Day, American Gangster, Remember the Titans, John Q, and the list goes on and on of movies ranging from dark and mysterious to good and wholesome. His latest movie, Unstoppable is another golden one.

Denzel plays a veteran train engineer who is tasked to work with the equivalent of a rookie at the train yard. It is another routine day as they take a train, pick up its boxcars and start taking them wherever they need to be. Everything is fine except for one problem, there is a runaway train that is flying down the tracks with no driver on board and its towing a massive amount of very dangerous and hazardous chemicals. The train is going nearly 70 mph down the tracks and is about to hit a curve in the track that has a required speed of 15 mph or less. It's a race against time to stop the train before it gets to the curve and Denzel along with Chris Pine is tasked to do it.

The movie has a good story, inspired by a true story and after looking it up the movie seems to be accurate. Chris Pine is a young actor starring across from Denzel and Pine showed everyone that he has what it takes when he showed up in Star Trek as James Tiberius Kirk. He continues showing that in this movie as well. Unlike his previous roles as a handsome young noble or a star ship captain, Pine is a young man separated from his family and just trying to get his life back on track and back to normal. Denzel plays the veteran who has two grown up daughters working their way through college and he is the old man in the business being forced out as the business replaces him with younger employees, like Pine. Pine is a rookie in the business and during the beginning stages of the movie he is getting to know Denzel's character and in the later stages they start to work together well. Their partnership is not based on instant friendship, unlike other movies it is based on the necessity wanting to live.

The filmography blew me away. So many fast and crazy movies have camera angles and shots making you feel like your on a roller coaster. Not this one though, this movie has angles and shots that don't make you sick. The chase camera parts and the shots of the train moving make you feel like your following the train rather then riding on its undercarriage.

The movie does portray the inner workings of the train command center and how they deal in everyday situations as well as in crisis. The rush is on as Denzel and Pine volunteer to try and stop the runaway train after several attempts fail. It's fun to watch as Denzel takes matters into his own hands while the command center wishes him good luck and corporate yells at him to stop or risk being fired until he informs them that he had already received his 90 day notice from them that he was going to be forced to retire. All of these things combine into something great.

On the downside, the movie did have some characters that were not fleshed out enough. Some of the problems facing the characters were presented but then never addressed leaving me wondering if those problems had just vanished. One character that was shown in the beginning made rare appearances during the movie lasting no more then three minutes. It left you to wonder what exactly his job was and even at the end when you saw him for more then three minutes, you still were lost on what exactly his job was. The soundtrack was hard to hear if there was one and some parts of the movie were completely unnecessary. Pine takes around four phone calls in the beginning of the movie, only two of which contribute to the story. The others aren't even long enough to be a time extension tactic which leaves me wondering why they even bothered having them in there.

Review
Grade-Harvest It!
Highs-Great story, believable and based on a true story, can't beat that. Both actors do well and the filmography is amazing
Lows-Absent soundtrack, parts of the movie are not needed and it does demonize some people a little too much
Rating-PG 13 for sequences of action and peril and some language
Kid Friendly?I would say it is, a bit scary and I would not take your 5 year old to see it, but any cursing is almost nowhere in it and I would say ages 10 and up would be fine
Overview-Movies make be expensive to go to but this movie was worth the price.

-Rezler

Review: Deliver us from Evil

I am someone who reads books that deal with political intrigue, dark secrets, or suspenseful dramas with thriller parts. I am a fan of Vince Flynn, John Grisham, and Robert Ludlum books. So when I sat down to read Deliver Us From Evil by David Baldacci I though it would be good. It was recommended by a close relative who also likes Vince Flynn, Grisham, and Ludlum and thus I thought this book would be good.

The plot follows two organizations, one a government agency and another an independent vigilante organization, going after an evil retired KGB officer who killed thousands of people. The story is good and very fast paced for the first half of the book, the dynamics between the characters is good.

Unfortunately, it fizzles late in the book. It has a few flashes of excitement but other then that it is a boring book. I kept reading hoping it would recapture the excitement and suspense but it didn't and I felt almost betrayed like the book had led me along before dumping me off.

To top it all off, the ending was disappointing. I won't spoil it but it is so bad that there is not much to spoil. I understand trying to make an ending different from the rest but botching it makes it so different that it slides into crap. I was very disappointed and very sad at the same time with how a good book went to horrible in the span of 10 pages. It was good and then 10 pages later it was horrible.

Review
Grade-Needs some cultivating
Highs-Good drama and suspense and well described action scenes and locations
Lows-It fizzles and horrible character development is left out. It cuts you off in scenes and seems restricted
Genre-Drama
Kid Friendly?Its OK, nothing really shocking, but spare your child the horrible story
Overview-Don't get it, it will waste your time

-Rezler

Review: Smackdown vs Raw 2011

WWE has been is business for a long time. They have their hands in tons of things too. Movies, books, DVD collections, TV, and games. The games have always appealed to me because why the show is fake, in the games treats it like it is real. The customization has always been there as well, being able to make your own superstars and take them to glory and the world title.

The 2010 version was good but it did lack some key things. The first problem was the AI, your opponents were quite stupid most of the time, walking straight into your grapples or not even trying to stop you from using a chair on them. It seemed to be that no matter how low your overall statistics were, you could beat them with ease. The entrances were clunky and painful to watch at times. Along with that, you could challenge anyone for their title no matter what, the commentators said such generic things you sometimes wondered if they were even watching the match or you wondered if they were watching your match, and the ring announcer sometimes would introduce you with an irritated tone more then an enthusiastic tone.

2011 fixed all this and then some. The commentators still have some generic lines but they are accurate and use your superstar's name a lot more. The ring announcers also have been updated and they introduce with a lot of enthusiasm and with the voice acting done by the actual announcers you actually feel like you are at the show. The entrances are smooth and a joy to watch. It is very fun to create your own entrance with fireworks and then watch it smiling at your creation. The opponents are tougher and I found myself actually breathing a sigh of relief after winning a close match. New options and more customization allowed you to create a more detailed superstar.

The biggest change was the system allowing you to go after titles, it has made it harder and more authentic. This version introduces something called The WWE Universe, it is the yearly schedule so to speak. You create your superstar, choose a show and off you go. Your superstar appears in matches in the show and you work your way up the rankings to become the #1 contender and then the champion. You also fight at pay-per-view events defending your title and such. There is money in the bank match you can win and use it to go for a title whenever you want. On top of that there are feuds that can be started simply by beating certain people on a regular basis or alliances that can be forged if you fight along side someone enough times. Along with that, the weapons are more lethal, you can do more with the chairs and on the outside of the ring you can do more damage. In universe mode there are also matches where people will interfere who actually would interfere unlike the old version where random people would come out for no reason. Sneak attacks will also happen, I remember one where I was sneak attacked by my opponent before the bell had rung and as a result I started the match on the ground with my superstar in pain. I lost the match due to the attack. 2011 is a massive step up and it reminds me why I love those games.


Review
Grade-Harvest It!
Highs-A new graphics engine makes it pleasing and smooth. Good voice acting, improved on matches and system.
Lows-Still easy at times and the generic comments are still there
ESRB Rating-T for Teen the equivalent of PG-13 rating
Kid Friendly?No, it still is violent and although it got a teen rating it still has some parts I think are a bit graphic
Overview-It is good, I spent $59.99 on it and that's how much it is worth, a good solid game and it clearly improved.

-Rezler

Saturday Soundboard:Fallout

Fallout has become one of the best series in games. It is a golden piece of gaming, no matter what number or title it is, it is hyped up and then lives up to the hype. Fallout 3 was Game of the Year. On October 19, 2010, the next chapter of the Fallout Saga came out, Fallout: New Vegas. This Saturday, lets take a journey down memory lane.

For those of you who don't know, Fallout is a game set in a post apocalyptic earth. Nuclear war took place and almost everyone died, the world has become a wasteland. Those who survived the war had taken shelter in massive underground vaults. The number of those who survived is close to one million out of billions that were wiped out. These games are set hundreds of years after the bombs, the radiation is mostly gone except and those who have come out of the vaults are trying to restart their lives.


The first two titles in the series are Fallout and Fallout: Tactics. Fallout: Tactics was a bit of a squad/turn based combat game. You had a squad of men and you ran around taking people out. It was set the in Fallout universe, while it didn't advance the story, it did have some relevance. It has a very basic concept.


The actual main Fallout storyline took place in the first game named Fallout minus any additional words. You played as a well respected and well known officer in vault. The problem was the vault was running out of water due to the fact that their shipment of water had gone somewhere else before the war. Your mission was to go and get them new water. You had 100 days to do it before the vault ran out of water and people would start to die. The game was good and featured an open world where you could go anywhere and everywhere, so much to explore and do except for one problem, you had a time limit. You had 100 days to get water, and calculate you were traveling on foot and across the mountainous terrain of the west coast, your time would quickly run out. You had to go all or nothing on the quest, exploring was not an option unless you didn't want to beat the game. The question I asked myself was why they gave you an open world to explore but didn't allow you time to explore it. I still beat the game hoping it would allow to me watch the end or continue to explore, it did not give that option.


Fallout 2 was a vast improvement the graphics weren't updated much but the gameplay was amazing, more of the good old turn-based combat and life in a post apocalyptic world. In this game you were a descendant of your character from the first game. A member of a tribe. Apart from that, what made it better? The open world was back along with a quest, but no time limit. You could explore wherever you want and do whatever you want for as long as you want. Sure you could complete the quest quickly if you wanted to but you didn't have to. I myself completed most of the quest in five hours. I got what I needed and made it to the next objective which is the final part but I held off. So after five hours which equals to about 30 game days I stopped working on the main quest and just started doing whatever I wanted. I went to new cities and became a boxing champion. I saved a town from certain death and killed two mafia big shots while at the same time getting in good with one of them by marrying his daughter so he could tie her down by claiming she had a husband to be there for whenever he (that being the player) returned from his adventures.

Sadly, not long after Fallout 2 there was a problem. Interplay and Black Isle, the two makers of it, they went bankrupt. Black Isle vanished and Interplay said they were alive but basically was dead and are now officially after selling all Fallout rights to Bethesda. Bethesda is known for the Elder Scrolls games and is quite successful at making blockbuster games. Bethesda bought the rights for Fallout from Interplay and began to make Fallout 3.


Bethesda changed up Fallout quite a bit. They took the turn-based combat out of it making it real time. But they kept one thing from the combat that most players loved. They kept a system called V.A.T.S. The letters stood for Vault-Tec Assisted Targeting System. What V.A.T.S. did was allowed players to pause combat and tell their character to target certain body parts of their enemy, it can make for some very bloody results in combat while at the same time can allow you to take down bigger opponents who would otherwise kill you. Bethesda also made the view point first person whereas in the previous games it was a third person view where you were looking at your character from about 20 feet up in the air at an angle.

Fallout 3 was moved away from the west coast by Bethesda. It was moved to Washington DC. It featured a very in-depth storyline and featured the voice acting of Liam Neeson. I don't want to give anything else away apart from the fact that you never hear about the events of the first two games and you can walk around inside Capitol Hill and check out all the places you only see on C-Span. The game may be on the older side and some people say "You can't spoil it!" Yes you can.


Fallout:New Vegas took the series back to the west coast right next to the Mojave Desert near what is left of Las Vegas. Some of it was spared the war but after spending time around the world you discover that maybe one street was left untouched but other then that, everyone took hits. New Vegas takes place 10 years after the events of Fallout 3, which doesn't seem to matter considering those events are not even discussed. They kept the same perspective but they changed up body types and made the storyline a lot more interesting. Just to give you a taste, the intro features a well dressed man, voiced by Matthew Perry from the iconic TV Show Friends, says a few words to you before shooting you. Your rescued and nursed back to health.

The most recent game (New Vegas) takes a much different approach then all the other games. In Fallout 1 you were in a vault, in the second game, you were descended from someone in a vault. The third game had you back in the vault. Vault, vault, and vault, all of the games centered around them, I understand people survived in them but the game is about a post nuclear war world, not the vaults. Someone at Bethesda agreed, there are mentions of the vault but they are just off hand comments and people don't even seem to care. You can find vaults if you go looking for them but apart from a doctor mentioning it, you can go through the game without even finding one. It was nice change, you were no longer a "vault dweller" or "tribal", you were just you. Mind you that in the previous games you were treated differently due to being a "tribal" or "vault dweller" and especially worse if you were a "tribal" and it got worse if you were a female in that role.

New Vegas also brought back something Fallout 3 missed, and that is, the sex, violence, drugs, and rock. Fallout has been iconic for these features, not porn movies, but the suggestive nature of why you went to "that club" or why your character's vision is blurry and the question someone asks when they come into their house to find you standing next to a pile of something red, "Where is my husband?" Fallout 3 dropped all of that which were staples of the first three titles before it. New Vegas realized that it couldn't let it stay away and it was brought back and the Fallout universe was back as it should be.

With Fallout still going strong and New Vegas still making money it seems another Fallout game will have to come out, Bethesda says they have something in the works, but just what will that look like? No one knows one can only hope we get to see the iconic: Fallout.4 But more importantly hopefully the famous Pip Boy (Pictured in the Latest Review Corner) will be there!

Review
Fallout:Tactics-Let it Ripen- Amazon
Fallout 1-It Could Grow- Amazon
Fallout 2-Harvest It!- Amazon
Fallout 3-Harvest It!- Amazon and local game stores
Fallout:New Vegas-Harvest It!- Amazon and local game stores
Rating-All Fallout Games hold a M for Mature, Ages 17 and up
Kid Friendly?No, do not get your 12 year old this game, the rating is completely justified!
Overview-Early stumbles but the games are now a staple of what a post nuclear war world would look like

Review: The Second World War

I haven't posted for a while because of this review. I had to finish this monster of a book in order to write about it. It was long but it was well worth all 747 pages of it and add another 99 pages of maps, bibliography, and an index. As indicated in the title the book is about World War 2. The title and author are: The Second World War, by Martin Gilbert. I bought the book after learning that Martin Gilbert is Sir Martin Gilbert and was knighted for his historical writing.

As a World War 2 history buff I always look to expand my knowledge and while authors such as Stephen Ambrose, John Keegan, and Antony Beevor have done that, I have always been looking for fresh materiel from other authors. Max Hastings was good but his style of writing was overwhelming and getting lost in a book should happen with fiction books. Gilbert does a great job to not overwhelm you and he makes sure to add in maps and other small bits of information that are relevant.

Gilbert starts right at the beginning in 1937 with explanations of what was happening and how the previous war and peace talks had helped breed Hitler into what he became. Stalin is also touched on briefly along with a focus on Roosevelt and Churchill. He discusses the political landscapes and the elections in Britain. He devotes a chapter to the Japanese system and the rise to power of Tojo along with a focus on Mussolini and his rise to the top. After his political environment and nationalistic examinations he moves on.

Gilbert makes sure to cover his bases by explaining what was going on all over. America had ships getting sunk only miles off the coast but refused to enter the war although he pulls up letters that Roosevelt wrote where the president seriously debated entering the war and attacking Germany in the Atlantic because thousands of American lives were being lost due to the U-Boats.

Gilbert also talks of the Holocaust, the ways which Germany used to kill the Jewish people and the psychotic hate that drove Hitler. I learned that the 6 million dead figure was inaccurate, that the true number could never be known due to bad record keeping and the incinerated bodies could not be counted accurately. The number is estimated at 7 to 8 million Jewish people murdered by the Nazis.

While Gilbert was brilliant in the history he didn't focus on the war in the Pacific very much. He focused on the European Theater and he also didn't focus on Allied defeats very much. It was disappointing in his chapter about Battle of the Bulge. If you read only that chapter and based everything on that chapter, you would wonder why it got its name. His account doesn't recall it as bad as some other authors do. It wasn't inaccurate, he just left some things out of the story.

All in all, it was a good book, it opened up my knowledge a lot more it gave me much of what I need to know, what I knew, and I learned a lot from it.

Review
Grade-Harvest It!
Highs-Lots of information provided well and never complex. Maps, and time periods given that will allow almost anyone to learn more
Lows-Things left out and the Pacific Theater is left out much of the time
Genre-History
Kid Friendly?Depends on the child, it can be a bit graphic, history is though
Overview-Good book, I paid a whooping $34.95 for it but it was worth it

-Rezler

Heads up! The grading system has changed.

New Grading System
Harvest It!- Get this book! It is awesome! No time to waste!
Let It Ripen- It's good, get it, it can wait though
It Could Grow- The book isn't too bad, but you have to like that type
Needs Some Cultivating- Don't even get it, it is a waste
Let The Bugs Eat It- Why was it published? Who at the company signed off?

Review: The Last Wish

It has been a while. Has anyone played the Witcher lately? Well if you haven't that's quite alright because this review is about the book that the game was based on. The book is called The Last Wish and is written by a Polish author by the name Andpzej Sapkowski. The Last Wish was used later to create a game called The Witcher, a game that picked up where the book left off. It is important to note that the game was created by a Polish game company and was watered down when brought to the United States, which changed when scores of customers decided to buy the game online directly from the developer. Apparently buying the boxed watered down version was not appealing since it drew comparisons to watching a movie on TV that had been edited in order to be shown.

The Last Wish chronicles the adventures of a character named Geralt. Geralt looks human but the book makes sure you know he is not. Although he appears human in all regards he is a Witcher and not a human. A Witcher is someone who is a bit stronger, faster, and tougher then a human. Witchers have one purpose in life, and that purpose is to kill monsters. The book follows a Witcher named Geralt.

The book doesn't read like most books. It's not a book where you sit down to read 2 chapters because you will be lost. The book has the name of the story with a number next to it, indicating the chapter in that story. For example a chapter could be named A Grain of Truth 1 and the next chapter after it could be The Reason 1. A Grain of Truth will be continued later when you see it in the book. It keeps you reading and maybe after a few chapters you will see A Grain of Truth 2. That is the second part of that story. The entire book continues in this matter.

The stories are good and you really feel for the characters. You find yourself somewhat angry at Geralt but rooting for him at the same time. Other times I found myself saying, "No, shes going to trap you, don't do it!" I had played some of The Witcher before reading the book and the only difference I noticed is I knew what Geralt looked like and I recognized another character in the book from the game.

When it comes down to it, the book is well written but it is geared towards only one audience. All books are geared towards a certain audience but this one is a very selective audience, if you like this book a lot chances are you read this type of book. As much as I enjoyed the book, I still found myself slogging through it and not turning the page quickly like I would a John Grisham or Stephen Lawhead book.

Review
Grade-It Could Grow
Highs-Good stories, well written and you know the characters
Lows-Appeals to a very small number of people. The story jumping is hard to follow
Genre-Fantasy
Kid Friendly?No, the themes in this book are adult, there is violence and some of the drug references are not for people under 18
Overview- It's ok, I bought it for $9.99 which is the limit I would spend for it, but I would recommend only get it if you like books like it.

-Rezler

Heads up! The grading system has changed.

New Grading System
Harvest It!- Get this book! It is awesome! No time to waste!
Let It Ripen- It's good, get it, it can wait though
It Could Grow- The book isn't too bad, but you have to like that type
Needs Some Cultivating- Don't even get it, it is a waste
Let The Bugs Eat It- Why was it published? Who at the company signed off?

Review: Supreme Commander 2

I love strategy games, it doesn't matter if its on the board or on the computer. As some of my friends know my love for strategy has often led to their demise on the RISK board or in the virtual game world when I toy with their last structure before destroying it. I also loved the game Total Annihilation. There is something sweet about blowing up metal soldiers and then using the charred remains of it to build your own metal soldiers. When the first Supreme Commander (Harvest It!) came out I was overjoyed to play the spiritual successor to Total Annihilation. Some would say that it isn't but the fact that both games were made by the same man quickly dismisses that notion. So when the sequel came out, I was completely ecstatic.

Supreme Commander 2 takes place ten years after the events of the first game. For background purposes I should explain the first game. The storyline is about Earth sending out a spacecraft to find planets to colonize. It is set far in the future when Earth has such a large population that it needs to find new worlds before it runs out of space and resources. It worked but there was a civil war and the entire human population broke into three factions. UEF, Aeon, and Cybran. UEF is the United Earth Federation, Aeon is a religious group, and Cybran are enhanced cybernetic humans that are half machine and half human. A huge war took place with no clear winner really, the UEF was beat up quite a bit but Aeon also lost a lot. The Cybran nation kind of went quiet after the first game as well. If a winner had to be chosen then it would be the Cybrans, they beat up the UEF quite badly before leaving them to lick their wounds.

Ten years later the UEF is back with new technology and is determined to teach those Cybrans a lesson. Aeon is present but is quite content to let those two factions tear each other apart. The first few missions in the campaign follow the Cyrban and UEF fight as long as you choose one of those campaigns. If you choose the Aeon campaign you will find yourself slogging through boring missions for a bit. Supreme Commander 2 follows its predecessor and the resource system is the same as well as a bit easier to use. It allows you to focus on the fun part of the game, the attacking and defending.

Innovation worked, the musical score is the same with some new spins on familiar tunes. Another innovation is the introduction of experimental units. You can research and build new powerful experimental units and watch them walk into an enemy base destroying everything while your opponent struggles to build his own experiments to answer yours. Another key feature they tweaked before changing it completely is the missile system. In the first game I would build tons of missiles to use and only find myself disappointed when a tiny little explosion took place. Not to mention that the damage was something to laugh about. Not anymore, the new missiles cause massive amounts of damage and the explosions made me as happy giddy like a kid after his first kiss.

The downside is that the game is far too easy. Unless your on the hardest level, no challenge is presented. I was playing one mission where my virtual general told me I needed to have a good size army before I attack a UEF base. So naturally I built 35 units and put another 35 into production before heading out to attack. My idea was that if the first wave failed that my second wave would be ready by the time they failed. I was wrong, I marched in with 35 and lost only five as I torched the base. Just to add insult I sent in my other 35 and destroyed the base with ease. I tried to up the difficulty but until I got to the top level I was still taking out bases with ease. The hardest level was not too much of a challenge. I lost 20 units before sending in my second wave but at the end of the day I still had 45 units. It was still fun though.


Review
Grade-Let It Ripen
Highs-A new graphics engine makes it pleasing and the storyline is a good one along with new gameplay options and experimental units
Lows-Far too easy to beat the computer and the multiplayer needs some work before it can be a serious multiplayer strategy game
ESRB Rating-E+10, for everyone age 10 and up
Kid Friendly?Yes, its just metal blowing up so it's not too violent but I would let your kids hit 10 before allowing them to play it.
Overview-It is good, I spent $39.99 on it and thats how much I was willing to pay for it.

-Rezler

Heads up! The grading system has changed.

New Grading System
Harvest It!- Get this game! It is awesome! No time to waste!
Let It Ripen- It's good, get it, it can wait though
It Could Grow- The game needs work, unless its cheap (19.99) avoid it
Needs Some Cultivating- Don't even get it, it is a waste
Let The Bugs Eat It- Why was it published? Who at the company signed off?

Review: Kick-Ass

I have always liked movies, I even toyed with majoring in film at one point. Decided against that course of action but my love for movies continued. I recently sat down and watched Kick-Ass. Kick-Ass is a movie that follows the story of a young boy who simply wants to know why people don't try to help when they see something wrong. He also wants to know why there is not a real superhero around helping, regardless of no special powers or Batman equipment.

The young boy decides to become a superhero or rather try to be one. He gets a costume and some weapons to use and goes to work. It doesn't go well for him in terms of being a superhero but his life changes and he inspires people while also ticking off a major mob boss. He also encounters two other superheros who are much more skilled and much better armed then he is. His journey through being a superhero also gets him new friends and a relationship with a girl that he thinks is the most beautiful girl in the world.

In terms of the actual making and the meat of the movie it has a good plot and a good score. The comedy is witty and smart without being crude. The special effects are a bit over the top but they seem to be intended to be and add to the comedy value of the movie. The only thing I shy away from with this is that the movie did have a good amount of curse words and lots of blood. Not Gladiator level blood and not Training Day curse word level but still concerning. I have no problem with blood in movies and they amount of it wasn't over the top so it didn't really bother me. However, the curse words did seem a bit unnecessary and somewhere along the way I think the director forgot who the story was about.

Anyways, the movie is pretty solid and its a good comic adaptation. The music works too, it is inspired by John Williams and they had four composers working on it.


Review
Grade-Harvest It!
Highs- Good plot and story line along with smart comedy make this a fun movie to sit down and watch. It also has a bit of a good message if you look hard enough
Lows- Curse words and a bit over the top on blood and some of the action is a little too much. Tends to loose focus near the end.
Rating- R
Kid Friendly? No, its R rating is enough and the blood and curse words are very much there. I would recommend your child be 14 minimum before you let them see this.
Overview- It's good, I would buy it, rent it first though, it is one of those movies that you hate or love.

-Rezler


Grading System
Harvest It!- Get this movie! It is awesome! No time to waste!
Pick It- It's good, get it, it can wait though
It Could Grow- The movie needs work, unless its cheap (19.99) avoid it
Needs Some Cultivating- Don't even get it, it is a waste
It's Dead- Why was it published? Who at the company signed off?

Spellforce 3? Where is it?

I recently played through yet another level of a game called Spellforce 2. I have not beaten it yet because the time it takes is not time I have and because it seems to never end! Apart from making you go back to places you have been to, the game also has you traveling to new places with your hero and where you build an army and take out another enemy base before learning that your help is appreciated but the big bad evil boss is gone and you need to peruse him/her into another corner of the world. So far I have been to 21 levels and counting! This is not a problem because the game is great and continually challenges you and why it may sound repetitive, it isn't. Each level is different in the sense that some levels don't let you build an army and thus forces you to put your hero in harms way or to somehow change your tactics up.

I am a fan of the Spellforce games because they combine RPG (Role Playing Game) with RTS (Real Time Strategy). This style means you have a hero that you create and make stronger but it ditches the traditional RPG style. RPGs used to allow your hero and his/her companions to walk into a world and take out an entire country worth of enemies without taking a scratch. Spellforce decided that why it was fun it was not practical, so they created a game where you have a hero but in order to take out a country, you need an army. Your hero has the ability to take control of a friendly HQ and build an army allowing which they lead into battle. It makes the game fun and while it is still fantasy, it is somewhat more practical. Spellforce 2 changed the place and time but kept the same mechanics.

But now going on a few years I still have not heard a peep of Spellforce 3, so I went to the forums of the developer, JoWood, and found fans clamoring for it. Well instead of listening to the fans JoWood has decided that fans don't matter. They instead have thrown a moderator onto the forums, this moderator has taken to basically demeaning fans and attacking anything they say. So I ask myself, does JoWood want to loose customers? If that is their plan, then I commend them because the moderator they set loose is very good at insulting and mocking people. Now, I know that making a game takes money, a lot of money but most game companies that are doing well, they stick with what works and they listen to fans. EA, Activision-Blizzard, Bethesda, Bioware, and more, they all are doing well because they listen and produce.

The forums are filled with people saying they will buy the game Spellforce 3 if it is made. JoWood stays silent and seems to not even want to discuss it. This may be on of the worse decisions I have ever seen. It is the equivalent of someone offering you money and instead of taking it, you ignore them and walk away. I know that sounds stupid but that is exactly what JoWood is doing.

I think the only thing left to hope for is JoWood going bankrupt and EA or someone, buying the rights to Spellforce and making a third one. It has happened before. Interplay made two Fallout games before going bankrupt. Bethesda bough the rights and made Fallout 3. It earned them a Game of the Year award! Until JoWood gets smart or ceases to exist I guess the fans will have to replay the current Spellforce games.

Spellforce 1-$14.99 on Steam, for the game all its expansions (Pick It)
Spellforce 2-$29.99 on Steam, for the game and its expansions (Harvest It!)

-Rezler

Grading System
Harvest It!- Get this game! It is awesome! No time to waste!
Pick It- It's good, get it, it can wait though
It Could Grow- The game needs work, unless its cheap (19.99) avoid it
Needs Some Cultivating- Don't even get it, it is a waste
It's Dead- Why was it published? Who at the company signed off?

Review: NCAA Football 2011

So the first taste of football has come out in college format, a huge improvement on its predecessor NCAA Football 2010. 2011 not only changed much of the game, but it has a revamped layout, updated graphics, new animations, new playbooks, and it has tweaked some of its gameplay modes to make them more enjoyable.


The three main modes have returned, Dynasty, Online Dynasty, and Road to Glory.


To clarify, Dynasty and Online Dynasty are the mode in which you take your favorite team (or a team you created) through a 10-20 year period of football. It entails much more then just playing the games. The Madden games give you complete control of drafting, signing, resigning, trading, setting the starters, and even naming team captains. NCAA Football keeps that by giving you control of recruiting players, calling them, offering scholarships to them, and even promising them a starting job. It also allows you to red shirt players and even suspend them for behavior issues. If SS #21 is giving you trouble and refusing to show up at team meetings, then grant him his wish by making sure he doesn't show up at all for the next five or six games! As you go through the season the crowd gets louder as you near the home stretch and play for a bowl game (which is never a problem considering there are somewhere near 25 bowls to begin with) and there are special chants and songs played at your home field. On top of that, the gameplay features animations that are team specific when it comes to endzone celebrations and it is always fun to watch your team hit their lockeroom sign before coming out of the tunnel. The graphics are also very good and the animations help them to look even better. Grass will actually stick to helmets and tackles look smoother and sound louder instead of the blocky and square tackles with generic hit sounds from past games.

Road to Glory mode is where you take one player through his college experience whether it be three or four years. You create him, choose his position, his number, what he looks like, and lead him through his High School state playoffs and on to college. You control him and only him. It was frustrating in previous games because the coach would call plays that seemed doomed to failure. If you ran a play that lost yards seven times in a row, the coach would seem to never care and you would run it seven more times each quarter. I often wondered if the opposing coach was calling the plays. That has all changed now, the coach mixes up the play call a little more and it only takes him two or three times to figure out that a play just won't work. It also gives you more freedom if your player is QB. In the previous games running a no huddle was impossible if you were a QB because the coach never allowed you to. Now you can, I ran a no huddle the entire fourth quarter to catch up when my team was 15 points down. My defense fell apart and lost the game but I was happy to be running a rushed offense, it seemed so fluid and free. Another problem with the QB mode was that upon throwing an interception the game would pause and a small window would pop up with three different defensive plays in it. In order to keep your QB composed, you had to select the right one. I found this quite aggravating because half the time the defense was out of position which made it impossible to know the play. Furthermore, you never knew who picked the pass off, so if the defense was using a man coverage play you had no idea if it was the safety or conrnerback who was covering your intended receiver. That has been removed and doing so removes headaches and rage quitting from gamers.

Playbooks have all been tailored after the school playbooks. Instead of every team looking the same on offense, each coach has updated AI and makes them run their team the way they would in real life. Oregon uses its massive spread offense and New Mexico runs its no huddle theme. Texas still emphasizes a hard running game and LSU still loves its play pass. The no huddle system when using dynasty mode helps, it opens the playbook and gives you about 10 seconds to choose a play as your team hurries to the line.

Other miscellaneous features such as crowd volume and commentary are improved. The crowd gets louder when your on defense and when you score it erupts into cheers. They quiet when its 3rd or 4th down and it almost feels like your there and your hopes and dreams are with them as the ball is snapped.

The game does have a few drawbacks. Moving players to other teams is not included so updating transfers is a hard thing to do. Names are excluded so generating names is a must unless you have the patience to update every roster (have fun, there are 199 Division I teams alone, that totals renaming 14,875 players). Road to Glory has eliminated some positions and being a Road to Glory linebacker is much harder, maybe too hard. Not to mention that the difficulty settings are a huge difference. Varsity level is far too easy but the next level up makes all your players stupid and makes the game extremely hard as computer controlled teams seem to know every play your calling and they call the perfect play to destroy you while your team acts like a Pop Warner squad.

Review
Grade- Harvest It!
Highs- Amazing graphics, improved gameplay modes, accurate playbooks, and updated AI.
Lows- Difficulty settings are very far apart, fixed some Road to Glory issues that were never broken to begin with.
ESRB Rating- E for Everyone, all ages
Kid Friendly? Yes, although with its complexity I would recommend that your kid should be 10, 8 at the youngest.
Overview- It's well worth the $59.99 price tag, a good solid game, if you like football games, then this is a game you would want!

-Rezler



Grading System
Harvest It!- Get this game! It is awesome! No time to waste!
Pick It- It's good, get it, it can wait though
It Could Grow- The game needs work, unless its cheap (19.99) avoid it
Needs Some Cultivating- Don't even get it, it is a waste
It's Dead- Why was it published? Who at the company signed off?