Spoilers abound for this week's show. Mark couldn't make it so we've decided to discuss all of the things we've been up to without the worry of giving away the ending for anyone. You've been warned.
This week is all about LOST, Mass Effect 2, Heavy Rain, Silent Hill: Shattered Memories, Halo 3: ODST, X-Men Origins: Wolverine, and F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin. Man, that's a lot of colons.
After a bit of research and some help from the gracious folks at Bloguin, we're now able to embed Flash-based SWF files in our posts. If that last sentence sounded like garbage to you, let me put it more simply: we can now add streaming songs from lala.com into our record reviews. Don't believe me? Check this shit out:
Lala.com is awesome, and I wrote about it once on our old site. It doesn't have every song in the universe though, so I may use Grooveshark.com from time to time, as well:
Lawd, I hate this kind of comedy. You know, those movies where we're supposed to think it's funny to place the protagonist in a series of unfortunate events that spin out of control and make the him look like an asshole. Maybe it's because I unknowingly project myself into every leading character, but this shit just drives me up the wall. It's the reason I couldn't ever watch What About Bob? or Meet the Parents more than once. Sure, I get it; the protagonist makes some sort of stupid initial decision and the rest of the film is "punishment" for acting out against social or cultural norms. I've taken a film class or two. But goddamn if I don't get irked by these downward-spiral films.
Extract is the latest Mike Judge movie (you know, Office Space!) and it stars that guy from Teen Wolf Too and some other shit. He owns an extract factory, he's going through some sexual dysfunction with his wife, and he's friends with Ben Affleck (who's a bartender). These three factors drive the film into my previous-bitched-about subplot, in which things go haywire for our hero. But unlike the few films that get this "downward spiral" mechanic right (see: just about every Coen Brothers film), this slow descent into unhappiness is neither graceful nor deserved, and it never feels like it ends satisfactorily for the characters, and the viewer.
Granted, this film may be the deepest thing associated with Mike Judge ever (we are talking about the guy that made Beavis and Butthead and Idiocracy after all). It deals with death, dismemberment and a failing marriage; but in the end, I can't help but feel that Mr. Judge should stick to shallow and mildly vulgar comedies. Those were at least entertaining.
Best line: "I'd be the laughing stock of the grindcore community!"
I've spent a couple hours with F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin, and despite the fact that the HUD is the most annoying thing ever, I might end up finishing it. When I first played the demo a year ago, I had promised myself that I was never going to play the full game, for fear of crapping my pants. Out of fear. You see, I don't really mind crapping my pants, but my wife hates to do laundry. I have a hard time with ghosts, and scary things just popping up out of nowhere. The game's sound effects don't help either; I HATE that sound made famous by The Ring, which is a creepy mix between a dog whistle and guitar feedback. Luckily, a lot of the scares don't come out of nowhere, and there's usually the "everything goes fuzzy" cue right before my little heart goes pitter-patter.
The gameplay itself is standard FPS, although it feels much more loose than I remember. I'd even go as far as calling it "loosey goosey". There are a few combat elements that are just plain broken; I never want to throw another grenade in this game, ever. There is a slo-mo feature that turns the game from fairly easy (I am playing it on Easy, of course) to ridiculously easy. It even makes the bad guys glow blue, further making them perfect bullet sponges.
The thing that makes me want to keep playing the game is that it's going by really quickly. After two quick sit-downs, I'm nearly 25% done with the game already, with nice little 15G achievements strewn about every 20 minutes or so. The story is mildly compelling, and even though I never played the first game, I don't feel like I'm missing much. All in all, this is a solid FPS whose scares make it a much more memorable experience than I expected.
Plus, the obscene amount of gore is pretty amusing:
Woops. Looks like we forgot to actually post the story that won our contest. It's witty, it's poignant, it's true. Sorry about that Steve Kielce from New Jersey. Better late than never, eh?
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Every day I show up to work at the same time and follow the same routine. And every day, regardless of the weather, the farm behind my job is always watering the fields. Snow, hail, rain, or shine, the sprinklers are going off. I first thought that they were broken, but after 15 years of the same thing, I became suspicious. One evening when I was leaving work particularly late, I heard a moaning coming from nearby. As I peered through the mist to the field in the distance, I saw mounds of dirt starting to move. I looked closer and realized that zombies were rising out of the ground. That's when I realize that the farmer wasn't watering the fields of grass or wheat, but of zombies! I bolted to my car, which thankfully started on the first try, unlike some of those typical zombie movies, and I sped out of the parking lot. The next day I read in the paper of a strange disturbance that the neighbors were complaining about the night before and of a loud rustling. As I put the paper down, I promised myself that I would be the only one to really know what happened that night...
I know Demon's Souls is a ridiculously difficult game, and this knowledge has heretofore kept me from spending money on it. Why would I want to spend money on something so hard that I'd be frustrated with it? Simple solution: borrow it from someone that's already finished it. Success!
I jumped into the game pretty well prepared: I've read all sorts of reviews about it, had several discussions about it, and have even sat down and watched some HD videos of people playing it on YouTube. Knowing full well that I'm not the best player of the video games ever, I was ready to die a lot. Knowing all of this, I still was caught off guard by three aspects:
1. No pausing, no savepoints. If you're like me, you've played RPGs resting on the fact that you can always hit the "inventory" button and take a break from the action at any time. Yeah, inventory manipulation happens in real-time here, buddy. Even hitting the PS button keeps the game running in the background. And after an hour with the game, I couldn't figure out when the game was saving and when it wasn't; in the end, I just turned off the game and settled with the idea that I'll just pick up wherever the game left me off.
2. Dying really, really sucks. The game relies heavily on the number of souls you harvest from killing demons. Some baddies give more souls than others, but the highest amount of souls I had at one point was 450. When you're killed, you lose all of your souls, but they wait patiently for you at the spot where you died, and if you can get back to that spot before dying again, you can recover all of them. I did just that, and got my 450 back (plus another 450 for re-killing all those enemies again), and then I died from the same guy again. It took me 15 minutes each time. This cycle not only keeps you retreading familiar territory in order to get your souls back, it makes my real-life soul ache in fear of getting killed by some demon's cheap shots.
3. You're on your own. Sure, the game allows you to see "bloodstains" of other fighters and the last few seconds of their lives in order to learn from their mistakes, and you can leave messages to other players, but at this point in the game's life cycle, they're not really helpful. The majority of the messages are pranks or somewhat amusing insights (there was a message that said "poor guy!" on top of a dead horse), and the bloodstains are full of less-than-skilled flailing (read: just my type of play style). In the end, I felt completely alone in this quasi-online title, and it makes the experience even more difficult.
I never really planned on playing this game all of the way through, because I knew that it would consume me. I would die so much that my play time would be twice as long as that of your average gamer. In the end, my mind hasn't changed; I'll play it a couple more times, but it's just too much for me. I'm not saying this isn't a good game - I'm actually really impressed by how original the gameplay is despite its somewhat derivative story and level design - it's just not for me.
When Bioshock first released in 2007, it was an incredibly ambitious game that practically re-wrote the rule book for game design. Developer Irrational Games took the time to ensure that every aspect of the game was original or innovative in some way - the setting, the characters, the plasmid abilities, the story - all of it was conceived with ingenuity in mind, with the simple goal of creating a unique, autonomous ecosystem. Like all of the best ideas, Bioshock was designed to be a singular, self-contained entity; a once-in-a-lifetime adventure. By definition then, any attempt at a sequel would only ever serve to dilute the franchise – which Bioshock 2 definitely does.
With this in mind, the biggest problem that plagues Bioshock 2 is that very little of it feels new or inventive. All of the innovation from the first game has been irrevocably lost, and replaced instead by something far more workmanlike. Worse still is the fact that the game feels like it was developed by a talented team, but one who felt that the game was just as unnecessary as most consumers did. It's a pity too, as amidst the myriad of retreaded ideas, there are some legitimate, albeit brief, touches of brilliance.
I hadn't even heard about Pandorum until it showed up on my TV screen the other day, but I was thinking it was the right film for me. Dennis Quaid in space. You know, like Enemy Mine, or maybe even like Innerspace (although that's a stretch). Awesome. People waking up from deep sleep to find their ship is all messed up and that they aren't alone onboard. Awesome. Sounds like something right up my alley.
Unfortunately, I feel like I've seen Pandorum somewhere before. Nearly every scene smacked of something familiar, and it left me unsatisfied. It's a mix of Alien, Event Horizon, and Total Recall (not really, but nobody talks about Total Recall enough these days), without capturing any of the essences which made these films enjoyable in the first place. In the end, it was a derivative and overly long sci-fi film that was mediocre at best, and as much as I hate to admit it, a waste of my time. I'm holding out for Enemy Mine 2, though.
I think we all remember The Casting video that was shown at E3 almost four years ago. We watched in disbelief (or belief) as the female protagonist demonstrated a raw emotion that was unheard of in videogames back then. It was a realism, not only in graphical detailing and animation, but also in how compelling and convincing she was. I think we were all intrigued by the conceptual basis of the demo and how it would translate into a full game. Once we saw gameplay footage, we were once again curious of how those seemingly simple button presses would evolve into something plausible. Not only does its idiosyncrasies make Heavy Rain what it is, it takes all of the elements of the traditional adventure game and makes them shine in a progressive and thoughtful piece of entertainment.
David Cage preludes the Heavy Rain with the forward, "How far would you go to save somebody you love?" It may not be the most nuanced question when it comes to modern day narratives, but in the videogame world it automatically sets it apart. It has more in common with films (think Magnolia) than it does with any other games. Don't expect epic fight sequences; battles are fought with sheer will and desperation. Fitting neatly in the psychological thriller genre, the focus is on the characters; father and architect Ethan Mars, insomniac reporter Madison Paige, FBI agent Norman Jayden and P.I. Scott Shelby. All of them are somehow involved with the Origami Killer - a serial child abductor and murderer that haunts the city.
The Easy Mode Podcast #5: This week is all about Battlefield: Bad Company 2, Heroes of Gaia, Silent Hill: Shattered Memories, FEAR 2, and Prince of Persia.
Russ Crandall Senior Editor Mark Hill Associate Editor, Podcast Host Tyler Miller Associate Editor, Artistic Director Steve McKay Contributor, United Kingdom Giang Cao Contributor, Australia
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Bloguin is the revolutionary blog network specifically focused on helping bloggers get the most out of their websites. We're currently working on building a large network of online communities and hope to expand our blogging coverage to include a wide range of topics. 
The Bloguin Network allows advertisers to promote their products and services to our ever-growing number of visitors. We offer both site-specific ad placements as well as the ability to run a network-wide campaign. If you're interested in working with Bloguin to meet your advertising needs, please contact us.
The Bloguin Network is always looking to expand. We're specifically looking for blogs in the sports, entertainment, and video games field, but are open to adding any type of quality site. If you're a blogger and interested in joining our network, please fill out our application form.
The Bloguin Login gives you full access to everything our network has to offer. Your name and password will work for each and every one of our sites. Signing up is simple, and will allow you to post in all our forums, create member blogs, and access other cool features! What are you waiting for? Create an Account!