The Tourist

The tourist is one of those movies that starts out making you think “okay, what is going on here?” and then explains it with the revelations that occur between the characters throughout the film. Except that there were no revelations here, no reveals, and nothing that let me abandon that feeling. I felt like I was always waiting for the movie to start, but not because there wasn’t any action (because believe me, there was action!), but rather because there were little assumptions made at the beginning of the film that didn’t ever really get explained!

The movie picked up in action slowly, and unravelled itself, but I still walked away from it thinking that there just wasn’t much substance. To this day, I am not sure how I feel about the flick. It makes sense as a comedy-drama-thriller film, but I’m not sure it really excels in either of the categories. So rather than give you a synopsis of the film, I’ll tell you about the actors.

Angelina Jolie isn’t hot. She’s beautiful. And this movie proves it. In every scene, Jolie was put together, wearing something silky that ran the entire length of her body, which you’d think would get old after a while. Nope. Hot as ever from the first minute to the last.

Johnny Depp, on the other hand, always seemed to be in a bit of a state of disarray, but that was the character he was playing, and it serves him well that he got a Golden Globe nomination for the role (as did Angelina, by the way). His acting was as good as I’d ever seen it, and while I’m not a fan of Depp’s other movies, his role had me laughing and playing along with the idiocy of his character the entire time.

Oh, and Paul Bettany plays a cop. Review over.

007: Blood Stone

I love the James Bond franchise. From the guns to the gadgets, and the airplanes to the Aston Martins, James Bond is synonymous with luxury, clean-cut bad-assery. And this game is no different. Except for the clean cut part.

See, the game has beautiful opening cinematics that would make any game made in the last year blush. The mouths on characters don’t quite match their speech, but I’ve yet to find a game that really does, so it’s kind of a non-issue. The polish on the game is pretty great, and while it isn’t the longest game I’ve ever played, it does have some of my favourite moments in video games. Ever. Read on to see why.

First up, the driving is ridiculously amazing. Maybe it’s being behind the wheel of a DBS, or perhaps the fact that it just feels like you’re going 180 kph without a 3D-TV. It does make sense that the driving is great, considering that the game is developed by Bizarre Creations, the creators of the Project Gotham Racing Series. And there are tons of these racing scenes – boats, hovercraft, and of course, Aston Martins. The game actually ends in a car chase across the glorious nation of Greece, where you can see the stunning vistas of the Acropolis and the Rio Antirrio bridge.

And that’s where my problem lies. Even going at 180kph, it would take an hour of driving to see those two locations, because they’re nearly 200 kilometres apart in real life! Now, that wouldn’t bother any normal person, but you see the name at the top of this page? Yeah, I’m Greek, and that detail bugs me.

Thrilling moments are what Bond is known for, and there are some really original ones in Blood Stone. The most thrilling of the game is in a fast-paced escape of a tunnel boring machine. Very thrilling, incredible detailing on the machine, it was probably the best part of the game. And it only lasted twenty seconds.

There is a reason for that though, and that is the developers wanting to move onto other gameplay mechanics. There is a ton of variety in Blood Stone; you always feel like you’re doing something new, whether it’s releasing exhaust valves or destroying planes, controlling cranes or free running across rooftops, there is a ton of gameplay packed onto this disc, and it should be enjoyed by everyone. The fast paced nature of it means that you’re going through the game pretty quickly, and they didn’t really pack enough missions onto the disc (the game is over in about five or six hours) to make this an absolute buy. With that said, rent it, because you’ll get a decent fill of James Bond with Blood Stone… at least until the next movie rolls around in a couple of years.

When I started playing Blood Stone, within the first half hour or so, I had the same feeling when I played Quantum of Solace: “Alright, let’s get through this so I can be done with it.” Not the best experience you can possibly have with a video game, but nonetheless, it did deliver some pretty incredible action moments. Either way, any game that makes you want to see the end credits just to say you finished it isn’t really doing the audience any favours.

Blood Stone is that disappointment you find when watching the latest movie in your favourite series. Ostensibly, it sucks, but you love it because it’s your favourite series. That may only be true for myself as I’m such a Bond fan, and truth be told, you could rebrand this game with any other characters and it would still make sense, but the fact is that this isn’t any other franchise. This is James Bond.

The Sly Collection Review

by John Kalanderopoulos, Gaming Reviews
December 1, 2010

The Sly Collection is all three of the Sly Cooper games bundled and remastered for the PlayStation 3.  Sly Cooper was first introduced to gamers back in 2002, near the end of what I call the golden age of gaming which began with the Nintendo 64 and ended with the original Xbox, and PlayStation 2.  The collection greatly upgrades the graphics of the original games, supporting 3D compatibility, and adapts the control scheme to include the ability to use the PlayStation Move, as well as adding Trophies.

Sly Cooper is a classic platformer with dialogue and characters similar to Star Fox or Sonic the Hedgehog.  The player is a descendent in a long line of thieving raccoons and it is your job to carry on the family legacy with your posse of thieves around you.  The first game, Sly Cooper and the Thievius Raccoonus, you learn the back story to the Cooper family and how the “Thievius Raccoonus”, a book that chronicles the Cooper line, has been stolen.  It is the player’s job as the last Cooper to go and recover the book.  The second game, Sly 2: Band of Thieves, Sly Cooper is attempting to destroy what remains of his enemy but the pieces he must gather have been stolen by a rival gang and must go through each world, tracking down and destroying artifacts.  The final game, Sly 3: Honor Among Thieves, Sly is trying to enter his family’s vault which has been fortified with security.  The game takes place in flashback and has the player going around and gathering their gang in order to infiltrate the security and get into the Cooper vault.  As anyone can tell the story is very linear and simple, there are no great twists, but somehow the simplicity of it is very engaging and makes the player really feel part of the world and feels an honour among thieves.

 

The graphics of the game (as mentioned before) have been punched up significantly.  Even without high definition and 3D, you can tell that the development team put effort into the presentation.  The characters are drawn in 2D but placed in a 3D world giving an enjoyable contrast to the play.  The characters come across as very sharp but have retained that old school feeling about them.  With the classic audio track that accompanies the graphics, it is a very nostalgic feel entering the world of Sly Cooper.

As for the game play, this is a clear reminder of what platformers should be like and what they should involve.  No complicated plots, no need for a huge worlds, just good jumping around, hacking and slashing cartoon enemies and the like.  The game is a third-person adventure, “stealth” game.  There are elements of stealth as you sneak around and hide in shadows, but don’t expect Splinter Cell here.  The second game introduces the ability to play with characters other than Sly as well as expands on the stealth aspects.  You have the ability to shoot sleeper darts, hack computer terminals, and pickpocket people.  In part 3, there are a few new in-game puzzles to solve like cracking safes and the use of disguises but what I think is most significant is an offline multiplayer experience.  Overall, it is just a good time and has enough change to really give the player and enjoyable, varied experience in the world that has been created.

When Sly Cooper was first introduced almost 10 years ago I had heard of it but didn’t really experience it.  So when I had the opportunity to play this collection I was very excited because I remember the reverence the game was treated with on the PlayStation 2.  This is an excellent collection that should be picked up because it reminds us all what games used to be and how simple games can be the most engaging experiences we have.  Plus, who doesn’t want to play a cane-wielding, wise-cracking, raccoon thief?

DJ Hero 2

Oh look at this, a music game. At least this one doesn’t have a bunch of copycats. You know, Guitar Hero, Rock Band, Band Hero, You Rock Guitar, et cetera, et cetera, all fighting with each other for space on your accessory shelf? Yeah, it gets annoying – because they’re all guitar based games! Well here is the second iteration of something thankfully unique in the music game-genre. Enter DJ Hero 2.

As with any music game, the play doesn’t vary too much once you get started. Up the difficulty and you add another element or note to play (in this case, the complexity just goes through the roof), and you continue to challenge yourself and test your skill. And since this is the second iteration of the game, I can say they made it significantly harder this time around. But for those newbies that haven’t the original DJ Hero, the tutorial the game starts you off with is pretty great. Even if you’ve played other music games, this isn’t exactly the standard guitar controller, so they do a good job of explaining every little detail of the game.

You might think that a tutorial would be unnecessary, given that this thing only has three buttons to start with. Actually, having five (or even six) buttons would’ve been alright. But the way the game gets more complex is through the return of its fader and effects knob. Some very interesting dynamics, especially when coupled with the fact that you’re supposed to move your hand up and down on the turntable as if scratching. Good luck with that. At least they’ve made it so that existing users can reuse the same turntable controller they had from the first game, although that does also mean that Activision hasn’t innovated on the controller at all, so believe it or not, gameplay is essentially the same. (Shocker, right?)

Now of course, these games always come down to one thing: music. If you know the music, this game makes you want to sing, bob your head, and get into it. It really makes you think you can be a DJ (on Easy, anyways). And any game that makes you feel like you can be the character you’re playing is pretty phenomenal stuff. With that said, I didn’t know most of the music. Sure, I recognized some Rihanna, Eminem, and Iyaz, but there were some songs in there that just didn’t appeal to me because I had no idea what the hell they were. And they were mixed with even more obscure songs. Not my thing.

At the end of the day, DJ Hero is fun if you know the songs, and like the mashups. The mixes are done really well, and while I’d like there to be the ability to play through with a bunch more different mixes (for example, being able to pick and choose which tracks get dropped on top of which), I can’t complain considering the usual music games are all exactly the same song over and over again. And how many times can you really play Dani California?

DJ Hero is worth a rent, if you’ve got the original controller. Otherwise, you’re SOL (that’s shit-out-of-luck, by the way), and you’ll just have to buy it. Read up on the set list and see what you like, and if there’s enough there, then buy it. It’s a good game and worth taking a look at.