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To be honest, I don't know much about Swamp Thing other than the movies and short-lived TV show from my childhood, but given that Alan Moore is well known for his work with the series I figured I should check it out. Swamp Thing: Love and Death is a collection of Swamp Thing 29-34 and Swamp Thing Annual 2, which were originally published in 1984 and 1985. The book deals with a large section of the Swamp Thing mythos, including his origin and a bit of his emerging love life. Throughout the course of the book he journeys through hell and back, with Moore doing some heavy literary lifting.
Moore's issues were definitely ground-breaking at the time: the content here is far beyond the realm of everyday comics and pushes some pretty heavy existential stuff onto the reader. It's definitely a part of the adult-centered focus that Alan Moore perfected in Watchmen. Honestly, at this point in his career it seems to me that Moore could have taken any character - say, Humpty Dumpty - and made a pretty compelling glimpse into their psyche. His use of tricks like page orientation might be par for the course today, but for 1984-1985 it seems pretty ingenious and triply.
Lastly, there are a couple side stories included (with some Sandman-universe cameos to boot) which bring a good amount of variety to the mix. One of the stories in particular, which is a thinly-veiled allegory of our destruction of the planet, is a timeless little story that closes the collection out smartly.
In all, this collection makes a compelling read (both with and without the fact that it's Swamp Thing), and is a good option for anyone looking for something a little headier than the typical comic book fare. If you're a fan of Neil Gaiman's Sandman series, this book should be of particular interest to you thanks to its similarity in focus and style.
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I've heard a lot of good things about the Hunger Games, and it was a quick and interesting read. However, it is also mired down by some of my least favorite writing characteristics - incessant and useless 1st person narrative, climaxes dragged down by realism too bare to leave us feeling anything climatic, and shallow conceptualization - that I am not sure if I'll read the other two books.
I'm not above a 1st person narrative, but it's hard to get in the head of a 16-year-old girl. Granted, this is a young adult book and shouldn't necessarily be judged on the trappings of its genre - but Harry Potter wove a much more compelling story through a 3rd person narrative, even if it mostly kept the focus on Harry. By the end of this quick read I was sick of the main character, and bringing in a few chapters from different points of view would have done wonders in terms of pacing, delivery, and variety.
The whole book is built up to the Hunger Games themselves, and they manage to devolve into trite, boring battles in which the battlers have little say in the outcome, and the game is played by the Games' orchestrators, the environment, and sheer luck. The led me to believe that there is absolutely no reason to follow our main character; I'd have much rather read about a clever girl that outsmarted each obstacle at the perfect moment using her wits, experience, and previous hardship. Instead we get an empty shell of a teenager that fumbles from one lucky outcome to the next, and writing that just glosses over anything that shows the character's real gifts and strengths.
The only reason I'm considering the next two books is my hope that the narrative will get a lot broader. Instead of worrying about the Games, let's hear more about the interesting world that Collins crafted, and how the main character plays her part in a larger rebellion.
This isn't all to say that it's a bad book, just the wrong book for my tastes, and not quite meeting its universal praise. I enjoyed the cynical take on reality television - which doesn't get enough cynicism these days - and I really do like the vague, dystopian setting. no comments
It's not often that we talk about books here at The Easy Mode, but I recently came across a trailer for an upcoming novel on Youtube (I know!) that had me really intrigued.
The novel in question is Untouchable by Scott O'Connor, and is due to be released on Tyrus Books sometime in May 2011. I don't want to talk too much about the details of the book, as I'd probably do it an injustice, but I will direct you to the video that was so effective in captivating me in the first place. Check it out, and feel free to let us know what you think.
As a side note, the music featured in the video is a track by a band called Signal Hill. I haven't been able to find out what the name of the track is, but I can't help but feel that it just fits that video perfectly. no comments
The novel in question is Untouchable by Scott O'Connor, and is due to be released on Tyrus Books sometime in May 2011. I don't want to talk too much about the details of the book, as I'd probably do it an injustice, but I will direct you to the video that was so effective in captivating me in the first place. Check it out, and feel free to let us know what you think.
As a side note, the music featured in the video is a track by a band called Signal Hill. I haven't been able to find out what the name of the track is, but I can't help but feel that it just fits that video perfectly. no comments
Our new friend Adam Morris sent in this review for the XBLA and PSN (ok, and PC...) kill-em-up, Shank. Enjoy!
For a long time my sadistic need for a brutal couple of hours of remorseless bloodshed had gone unsatisfied, which is why I was awaiting Klei entertainment's latest entry Shank with extremely high hopes. The first thing anyone will notice about Shank is its striking visual art style and the fluid combat animations, which are Shank's best and most defining attributes, meaning it makes one hell of a first impression. Unfortunately that impression is short lived as Shank's visuals cannot carry the game on their own, therefore towards the end portion of the four-hour playtime the repetitive combat starts to really wear thin.
Right from the beginning, Shank is thrown into the thick of combat and you rapidly receive your starting weapons, twin pistols, a chainsaw and of course your shanks. As you progress through the story more options for weapons will become available including an uzi, machetes, a shotgun and a samurai sword, these weapons can be changed on the fly at any time with a tap of the D-pad, although I rarely found myself switching from my shotgun, shanks and chainsaw set-up because... well it wasn't necessary. When facing an enemy one on one combat becomes a breeze, but Shank is all about crowd control and it's here where the starting difficulty arises, as even the enemies you will face in the first levels have a surprising amount of health, but once you find your favorite combos and learn to crowd control the onslaught of bloodthirsty goons heading your way, this is when Shank's combat shines.
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We here at Easy Towers TM love user submitted content, and so it gives us great pleasure to present Dirk Davie's review of Episode 1 of Alan Wake.
If you would like to submit any work, you can do so here.
‘A psychological action thriller indeed’.
Throughout the first episode, I found myself grasping the controller, looking intently at the screen … and jumping out of my skin when my dog barked next to me.
Alan Wake was developed by Remedy studios, and has been in development for many years. It is a third-person shooter/mystery following Mr. Wake over a campaign that is split into episodes, much like a TV series. Without giving too much away, its storyline will keep you hooked till the end with intelligent writing and collectables.
During playtime, the faults of Alan Wake became obvious, somewhat mocking the player with predictable ‘Taken’ encounters and absolutely one of the worst voice animations in a game to date. To put this in context for you, picture an old Chinese martial arts film. Now remember what happened when they dubbed in English voices; the same result occurred in the game – twenty mouth actions to say hello.
But enough with pointing out its bad side, as episode one of Alan Wake does exactly what its meant to, which is to hook the gamer with a thrilling and mysterious campaign that honestly makes the void between episodes seem like an eternity. Throughout this episode, the gamer is introduced to the main characters, back-story and storyline in a clever and compelling way. The tutorial game mechanics though, were told in a way that made me say WTF just happened (if you haven’t played the game you’re probably thinking what does he mean?). Basically, you are dreaming, and well, a big light from the sky (maybe its Jesus, who knows!) teaches you the basics of survival, combat and the enemies you shall face.
Stay tuned for further reviews “coming to a website near you”. no comments
Spacework is a space design-game. It's about a fully artificial, synthetized environment with controlled machines, robots, spaceships. This is not about the simulation of the reality. This is a future-retro design product.
The surface of the Titan is soaked by acid precipitation. You receive alarm-signals from the inhabitants. They have also mentioned a Monolith having disappeared not long before this strange substance started to fall. You and your team set off to investigate the situation and organise the evacuation of the Titanians. On your way, the team is attacked, and you are the only one who survives. The attackers take you and your ship to their planet, the Triton and leave you alone in a zone under control. You want to look around, but you've been locked up...
Your mission is to find and regain the Monolith.
Spacework has two version: Red Edition and Orange Edition. The difference is only the main color. Why these are separated? We like stuffs that has only one way to use. No options, no settings, only the original idea in it.
The game is available for Mac OS X and Windows.
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Today, Tyler and I will be at the Anaheim Comic-Con. Sure, it's not the San Diego Comic-Con, but whattryagonndo? If you go, stop by the Verne Troyer booth (yes, srsly), say hi, and get some free stuff*! See you there.
"Stuff" = hugs.
"Free" = $10.
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It's a war that's been waged for eons, which started with one simple question - "What are better, books or film adaptations of books?" - and to this day books have won almost every time. Of course, there are some exceptions to this, and by that I mean films like A Clockwork Orange, Fight Club, Jaws, and Trainspotting. That being said, I recently found out that a favorite book of mine, Ishmael by Daniel Quinn, had been adapted into a 1999 film called Instinct that I neglected to see when it first came out for obvious reasons. The obvious reasons, obviously, are a) the film looked like garbage and b) the film is probably garbage.
I decided to watch it, if only because I was curious to see how the film handled Ishmael's philosophical take on our world. It's not every day that a Hollywood film tries to tackle such subjects as mankind's role on this planet, overpopulation issues, and the end of our civilization. Turns out they didn't really know how to tackle it. The film spends about five minutes discussing some of the issues raised in Ishmael - mainly, our move from tribal societies to civilization - but barely skims the full breadth of Daniel Quinn's novel (and two sequels). However, I still found it to be a fairly entertaining film, and my wife really liked it.
Looking back, it's been ten years since I first read Ishmael and its message, while overly Darwinist at times, is something that everyone could stand to read. I won't get into the book's details because it's a discovery you should make on your own (however, there is this thing called "Wikipedia" if you're really curious). I'm glad that somebody at least tried to bring Ishmael to a larger audience; I just wish there was a little bit more of it in the actual film. no comments
Global Frequency was a 12-issue series written by Warren Ellis, with each issue drawn by a different artist. The series ran from 2002-2004. It follows the story of an organization named Global Frequency (how apropos) that consists of scientists, agents and experts from all over the world that provide their skills to solve crazy emergencies. Each issue is its own self-contained story, with only two characters - the leader of the Global Frequency, and her techie sidekick - that tend to show up in each book.
The issues range from pretty good to really good, and each story and tone is drastically different. I liked the range within the series for the most part, although the extreme variety sometimes fails to keep the whole series tied together cohesively. Luckily, the inventive storytelling was more than enough for me to see the series through to the end.
There was a pilot for a TV series filmed in 2005 that loosely follows the first issue of the comic. It never got green-lighted, but you can find the episode online if you're file-sharing-savvy. no comments
Now this is what we're talking about. Reader Moray_G had a chance to play a game we haven't yet, Darksiders, and humbly submitted a review for us to feast on with our eager eyes. Thanks Moray_G, for doing our work for us!
Click here to submit your own post.
So I was taking a quick look around my local game store, looking at the PS3 games and trying to see if any of them were worth dropping some cash on. Then an overeager young sales assistant came bounding up to me and proceeded to interrogate me about what games I like to play, what the last game I bought was, and what game I was looking at. Now I’ve been in this situation many times before and a quick reply of “I’m just browsing, thanks” is normally enough to end the conversation and give myself enough time to decide to buy or not; however, this guy was not at all discouraged and continued to ask questions and managed to extract the fact that Dragon Age: Origins was the last game I bought. This then led to a series of question about whether or not I like swords and magic, which I really don’t know how to answer. How does one really answer that question?! I then got to the point that I was uncomfortable enough to grab the first game which I recognised by title, which happened to be Darksiders. With a quick shout of, “I think I’ll take this one!” and a sprint to the cash desk, then out the door I was free.
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