Captain America: Super Soldier review

 
    Licensed tie-in games suck. This is a universal rule. There's a reason for this. By and large, the tie-in games are made by apathetic developers who have to crank it out ASAP. The developers may or may not have much knowledge of the material involved and will undoubtedly find the people above their heads uncaring about the quality of the product. Being asked to develop a tie-in game is almost a licensed to half-ass things. There's been like one exception in the history of gaming with the Chronicles of Riddick tie-in game.

   SEGA, known purveyors of tie-in half-assery, said they would try and avoid it with Captain America: Super Soldier. It was still made with virtually all the same restraints but the developers were passionate about the material. Chris Evans, Hayley Atwell, and others do the voices for the game while the mentioning of characters from the comic books (Madame Hydra, Master Man, Baron Strucker, Baron Zemo) made me cautiously optimistic. What's my verdict? Short version: It's an Arkham Asylum clone. Longer version: There are worse things to be than an Arkham Asylum clone.

Captain America punches Nazis. It's not a bad premise by any stretch of the imagination.

    The premise of the game is pretty simple. Captain America finds evidence of a secret HYDRA plot to create super-soldiers identical to himself and is air dropped into the kind of Prussian castle that has existed in Pulp fiction since time memorial. Steve proceeds to whoop ass through a variety of his WW2-era foes plus hordes of Nazi mooks.

    Captain America displays uncharacteristic looting behavior as well, getting achievements for stealing ceramic eggs, steins, and WW1 helmets along his way. I'm pretty sure that's illegal, Steve. Like in Batman: Arkham Asylum, there are tapes and diary entries from the various villains encountered in the game as well. The game got an extra-point to its score by including information from one of my favorite Thunderbolts mini-series, Baron Zemo: Born Better, which is not the sort of thing I expected to see in a game.

There's a lot of scenes like this.

    Sadly, it's not as good as Arkham Asylum. Part of the fun of Arkham Asylum was the joys of stealth combat, which is entirely absent from the game. Steve just plows into each room, throws his shield like a boomerang, and moves onto the next one. Even the acrobatic sections don't make much sense since it's mostly the case of going to the highlighted sections before pressing A. The code-breaking mini-game is also ridiculously easy, consisting of comparing two diagrams and finding out which figures match.

    There's another element that I'm going to be anal retentive over; that the game screws up the continuity of the movies in one small but very obvious way. Several times during the game, the HYDRA goons very obviously say, "Heil Hitler." This is a mistake because the HYDRA forces of the movieverse have broken with the Third Reich. I only bring this up because it's a strange setting detail to forget when they got so much else right and it's harder to like the villains when they're directly a part of Hitler's regime.

It's like Wolfenstein 3D meets Arkham Asylum.

    For example: my absolute favorite character from the game is Madame Hydra. I've always been a fan of Viper and she's lovingly rendered in the game as well as deliciously evil. Of all the Captain America rogues I hope to see in upcoming movies, she's definitely high there on the list. Here, she manages to properly combine sexpot and prison warden. Bravo, Sega.

    There's a lot of beating up Nazis, robots, and cybernetically altered zombies in the game. So much so that you'll be reminded of another famous Nazi killing series. This isn't a bad thing, though, because if you're going to steal then steal from the best. The game feels a bit like a step down from Arkham Asylum because Captain America doesn't have a grappling hook like Batman or Detective vision but he does have a lot of throwing shield tricks so I suppose it evens out. Sadly, while Peggy Carter (Hayley Atwell) is heard, she doesn't join you on your adventure to shut down Hydra's main research base.

I'd say she reminds me of my wife but I doubt Kat would appreciate the comparison. It's just the nose, really! Not the evil!

    Still, the game is enjoyable enough and I didn't turn it off in the middle of play like I did with Marvel Ultimate Alliance. It's a step down from Arkham Asylum and it's a little too easy but I appreciate the effort which went into this game. So I'm going to give it a seven and a half, maybe an eight if you're a fan of the characters. This tie-in game did not suck, but it could have been much better. A pity they're not making a sequel. Maybe they could as a tie-in game for the next movie.

     The best part of the game is the fact it's really something that captures the spirit of being Captain America. You're punching Nazis in a Neo-Pulp story about attacking a castle full of despicable Nazi aristocrats and super-soldiers. The Wolfenstein parallels are deliberate and obvious but that's a good thing.

8/10

Captain America: The First Avenger review

 
    I decided to pick this one up on DVD because I just recently purchased the surprisingly non-sucky video game tie-in, Captain America: Super Soldier. I saw the movie before and wasn't blown away by it but it remains one of my favorite of the Marvel movie line-up.

    I've always been a fan of Captain America but I've got to say he's a character who suffers badly from the fact, well, not that he's not interesting but there's long periods where he's not exactly entertaining. Captain America is a bit like Superman in that his best storylines are when people embrace him going in unexpected directions rather than touting him as an icon.

    The most memorable Captain America stories are when he quit being Captain America to become quasi-hippie Nomad, when he was first dealing with his culture shock, and the Winter Soldier stories. Seriously, as a long time Captain America fan there's extensive periods where he doesn't do anything but patrol Brooklyn like Spiderman.

    Much like Kal-El of Krypton, you need to take Captain America out of his comfort zone and let the character express himself to work. The best Superman stories include things like him visiting Krypton (or New Krypton), facing opponents equally strong, or dealing with problems which can't be solved by punching them (a certain 5th dimensional imp as much as social justice). Oddly, despite being a story about the classical Captain America, I'd say The First Avenger succeeds in this.

    Because it's not a story about Captain America as most people know him.

     The Captain America of this story is a scrawny geek, closer to the Peter Parker of the comics than the buff paladin we tend to think of. He's bullied constantly, has a mouth on him, and seems to think going over to fight America's enemies is an honor rather than an obligation (which, in an all-volunteer army, it should be--reality often says otherwise).

    The movie perhaps spends a little too much time establishing Captain America is a good person, it's pretty evident from the start, but new audience members will appreciate he's the guy who understood "with great power comes great responsibility" without Uncle Ben having to die. He's not perfect either, taking an instant dislike to Howard Stark over class reasons and being utterly incompetent around women. These qualities just make the regular hero shine all the more, especially since it's obvious how ill-fitting Captain America the icon is on his shoulders even in-universe.

    No movie about Captain America would be complete, however, without the Red Skull. I'm going to probably damn my soul to hell forever for this one but I actually am rather fond of this version. The movie nicely gets around the question of how to sell toys set in World War 2 by having HYDRA break away from the Nazis early in the war. Yes, the Red Skull is pure evil but if it's a choice between him and Hitler winning I'd choose Hugo Weaving's Skull.

    I know, not exactly a great choice.

    Hugo Weaving portrays the Red Skull as a man who has taken the Nazi ideal of Aryan superiority and twisted it to a belief in his own superiority, which is sadly probably healthier. He's done the impossible by making the Red Skull actually likable, possessed of a humor often lacking in Marvel villains. The movie costume designers did a neat trick of having Hugo Weaving wear a Hugo Weaving mask during the movie as opposed to just using his face. It leads to some unsettling moments right up until the point we see the Red Skull's true face.

    The supporting cast on both sides is fabulous. Tommy Lee Jones channels the 616 version of Nick Fury as Colonel Phillips and the Howling Commandos are perfect with Steve Rogers taking the lead. The movies version of Bucky Barnes is perfect and I'm interested in seeing the actor return as the Winter Soldier. Hayley Atwell's Peggy Carter is so charismatic and so sexy in a 1940s-esque way that I actually worry how they're going to make Sharon Carter's actress likable enough to take her place. Dominic Cooper as Howard Stark was also a brilliant choice as we get to see a Howard Hughes-esque predecessor to Tony, exactly the sort of person who would get under the skin of working-class Steve Rogers. I'm even fond of Armin Zola, the Red Skull's pet scientist, who does the kind of role Peter Lorre would have done in the Forties.

You know a movie has succeeded when a scene like this doesn't come off as patently ridiculous.

     Now is there a flaw to this movie? Yes. It's a self-evident flaw that's been popping up lately in a couple of Marvel movies and really needs to be dealt with. Specifically, when you stop and think about it, this movie actually doesn't have much action. I know what you're thinking: waaah? A superhero movie without much action? Surely, you jest.

     There's some excellent action sequences in the movie with Steve Rogers chasing down the saboteur and the initial prison break but there's mostly a montage of him fighting HYDRA as opposed to actually, you know, fighting HYDRA. Seriously, the movie needed Steve punching a giant robot or something. It's the same problem the Superman movies have always had.

    Overall, Captain America is a gloriously fun movie but lacks the sort of punch that would move it to the mother load of awesome. Iron Man had Iron Man punching a giant robot, Iron Man 2 had Iron Man punching a giant robot. Thor, though he didn't do much of it, punched a giant robot. Do you see a pattern here? Learn from your friends, Captain.

9/10

Update again

Feeling a little better.

Now on a road trip to TN with my wife to visit her hometown.

Hopefully, in addition to doing some updates this trip, I'll also get to do some writing.

Esoterrorism is stalled despite Derek being my favorite character of all.

Update Again - Bleah

    Hey guys,

    Well this has been a cruddy weekend. First, I busted my laptop right before an expensive trip and second I've come down with a particularly horrible chest cold.

    Oh well, aside from delaying doing much work in writing or anything else, it's not particularly impeded me. Let's hope I'm over it soon.

    Bleah, colds suck.

Lords of Night review

    Lords of the Night by Thom Brannan can be described as The Lord of the Rings meets Night of the Living Dead meets The Mummy meets The Lone Ranger. I'm not saying this is a particularly good description but it nicely underscores how delightfully gonzo he's managed to make the premise. Is it as good as The Lord of the Rings? What, seriously, you're asking me that question? No! It's a pulpish horror-fantasy novel, but it's entertaining and that's whats important.

    Fantasy is an underrepresented medium in the post-apocalypse genre with the majority of ways the world ends usually being attributed to disease or science gone wrong. In this respect, Lords of Night is refreshing because Thom dispenses with artificial realism to have an ancient evil mummy-god from Atlantis rise up to destroy the Earth. It's like H.P. Lovecraft's Old Ones rising from ancient Hyboria.

    The Lords of the Ring element is the fact this is fundamentally an ensemble travel piece. Our heroes are traveling across the ruins of the Eastern United States in order to retrieve a Maguffin which may or may not be helpful in preventing the end of the world. Much like The Lord of the Rings, the cast consists of numerous badass warriors and one rather Hobbit-ish teenager. Also like The Lord of the Rings, it is the teenager who will determine the future of the world.

    I'm not a real big fan of messiah-orientated fiction where there's one person in all the world who can save everyone due to being the Chosen One. Sometimes it's possible to pull this off well like The Matrix or Buffy the Vampire Slayer but other times just feels like the good guys are being handed a free win. Jack mostly manages to subvert this trap as Thom goes in some unexpected places with the expectation of being a hero.

    For one, his Chosen One status causes disrust and dissension amongst the heroes as opposed to instilling hope. Likewise, the book hints Jack may only be the Chosen One as part of a larger plot by the Ancient Enemy. Jack is also reasonably likable, especially at the start, where we find out he's the kind of geeky kid many of us were around their teenage years. Might the story have been improved with less of Jack's awesome powers? Perhaps, but the story is focused on his hero's journey and I am not inclined to tell other authors how to write their characters.

    Anywho, my favorite characters are actually supporting members of the cast. Hands down, the one I loved most is the Ranger. A former American soldier gone completely delusional (or has he?), he's adopted the identity of the Lone Ranger to deal with the Apocalypse. The utterly absurd nature of his belief crossed with the fact he's one of the more competent heroes makes him an endless source of entertainment. I'm also especially fond of the Renegade, a character whose story would be spoiling were I to explain it.

    The flashbacks to the apocalypse are my favorite part of the book, detailing how each character ended up surviving the end of the world to get to the point they have. It's sort of like Lost, if you can accept me adding yet another analogy to the already eclectic mix I've described. I could easily see something like this adapted to the big screen for these alone.

    There are some elements I felt could have been expanded on better. For example, there's only about three female characters in the entire book with one of them the hero's mother and another his love interest. This is less of a flaw than it might have been due to the fact the cast is surprisingly small. We spend the vast majority of the book traveling with our protagonists and don't get a chance to meet many more characters. Still, I would have enjoyed a few more females to round out the cast.

    Another flaw is I felt things occasionally relied on Jack too much. Jack as the only psychic in the group is pretty much forced to fight most of the group's battles for them. I would have appreciated seeing the Muggles (for lack of a better term) in the group get to do more than fight the main villains' hordes of undead.

    Despite this, the heroes all get to display action-based heroism. The book contain countless action sequences as our protagonists are constantly imperiled by their hostile surroundings. The Eastern Seaboard has been transformed into a combination of Mordor and zombie-ridden hellhole so it's not like our heroes can pause for rest. Thom Brannan manages to keep the tension riding high through most of these encounters, despite the fact Jack's power consistently grows throughout the novel.

    Overall, my thoughts on the book can be summarized as a very good fantasy novel. The story is self-contained but there's definitely room for a sequel without it being tacked on. Indeed, the fact it's only a single novel is to the book's deterrent. I could have easily read an entire trilogy about the same plot line without feeling the story was being padded. If you feel like you could have read more about a series, that's usually a good sign.

    I'm going to overlook the flaws in the book to give it a full ten because I am pleased about the fact it's a fantasy post-apocalypse novel (there aren't many of those set on Earth) and the story occasionally goes in unexpected directions. It's not a particularly deep novel but it's got great action, memorable characters, and boo-hiss villains.

    So kudos to the author.

10/10

Update on Life

I may soon have a job teaching college!

Woot.

Just thought I'd let you guys know.

Keep your fingers crossed for me.

Skyfall review

 
    The fiftieth anniversary of James Bond brings everything back to where it should be. Which, for me, is both reassuring and disappointing. After Casino Royale and Quantum of Solace deconstructed a lot of the original Bond formula by making everything gritty and serious, Skyfall goes a long way to reconstructing a lot of the stuff they'd cast aside from the formula. There's the return of a couple of long-term characters, the return of gadgets (originally treated as a joke then thoroughly subverted), and the movie teases the possibility this is actually part of the previous film continuity.

    Truth be told, the previous two films weren't that far removed from the original Bond formula. QUANTUM was nothing more than a re-imagined SPECTRE for the new millennium and it's not like the previous two movies were lacking in outrageous stunts or plots. Even the biggest changes of having Bond fall in love and not sleep with the girl had been done before. So, Skyfall is still a valid progression from point A to point C.

    The premise of Skyfall can best be thought of as a combination of The Dark Knight and The World of Not Enough. If these sound like an oddball mix to you, the truth is it is. MI6 (also known as SIS) is threatened by an insane lunatic who blows up the organization's headquarters before making a direct attempt on M. The fact this is the second time they have blown up the headquarters of the real-life organization should tell you they probably should have thought of another premise.

Perhaps the most notable guest-star this movie is the car behind Bond.

    The character of Raol Silva is fairly close to the Joker in terms of being one of the few Bond villains to be absolutely crackers. His behavior is bizarre and his motivations are unclear, though it's obvious he wants revenge against MI6 you also get the impression this is the only thing he could think to do with his life. There's a nice moment too where Raol attempts to unsettle James by coming onto him only to have Bond slug it off. Given the literary Bond's horrific homophobia, it is a nice update on his character.

    The James Bond of this movie is a far more experienced agent than the one of the previous two films. Having presumably wrapped up QUANTUM between films, he is no longer as fit an agent as he used to. He's suffering from wounds suffered in the course of his duty and will eventually be killed if he doesn't retire. Unlike The Dark Knight Rises, retirement isn't an option for Bond and he more or less let's us know he's going to eventually get killed in the field. It's true to the books as 007 routinely ruminated on the inevitably of his death.

    Dame Judi Dench gives an excellent performance for her M's final performance, putting her in the same place she put 007 in Goldeneye. The world considers her a dinosaur which needs to be put out to pasture, a relic which no longer has any relevance in the cyber age. Watching her struggle with this is neat as she desperately tries to point out crippling MI6's boots on the ground is not going to help anyone.

    As for Craig himself, he manages to sell a weary half-broken James Bond better than Christian Bale managed for The Dark Knight Rises. Craig's Bond finds himself unable to find any sort of meaning in civilian life, so he swiftly retreats into pills and alcohol. He might have found peace with Vesper but without her, he's lost. He and Max Payne should form a club, "Retired badasses suffering addiction problems."

    The Bond girls this episode were quite lovely with Naomie Harris doing an excellent job as Eve, an updated character who comes at the position from an unexpected direction. The standout performance, however, was Bérénice Lim Marlohe as Sévérine. The dark and evil Bond girls are always the best of the bunch and she is no exception. Despite having only a limited time on screen, she's more interesting than half of the cast put together.

    There's even notable moments from the supporting male cast with Ralph Fienne's Mallory, Albert Finney's Kincaid, and Ben Whishaw's Q all giving standout performances. Ben Whishaw's Q is a lot more powerful and hands-on, representing the increasing role of technology in the role of spywork. I'm not sure how Bond-ish the role of Mission Control is but I enjoyed Craig and Whishaw's chemistry.

    A lot of people are saying this is the best Bond since On Her Majesty's Secret Service. I disagree. The plot is somewhat recycled, the stunts not particularly impressive, and the villain doesn't particularly wow me. I think it's roughly equal to Quantum of Solace but that's only because I preferred Adele's Let the Sky Fall opening to the abysmal one they chose for QoS by Alicia Keyes. It's a fun afternoon's viewing but I've got the entirety of the James Bond series Special Editions on DVD.

    It's nothing I haven't seen before.

8/10

Star Wars: The Old Republic: Sith Warrior Storyline review

Warning: Some possible minor spoilers for the Sith Warrior storyline.

    I am Darth Tremor.

    Darth Tremor is the cyborg son of an Imperial noble bloodline. He never had much use for the Force or the Empire's aristocracy. Instead, he went on to be a loyal soldier of the Empire only to find himself drafted to the Sith Academy when it was discovered he had high force-potential. Darth Tremor was a surprisingly nice fellow for a Sith Lord. Well, not really, but if you don't randomly kill subordinates and only inflict pain on the deserving you're considered to be a saint in the Empire.

     Darth Tremor was a brainiac who always felt under-appreciated by the Sith and ultimately decided that the Dark Council had to go. Later, he became fascinated by the Light Side and Darth Revan, which made his confrontation with the latter idol all the more painful.

     Ahem.

    Okay, that was pretentious.

What's surprising is this guy is actually almost reasonable for much of the game.

     To be a Sith Warrior is to be able to be Darth Vader, not dinky Prequel Anakin Skywalker but a Dark Lord with all the potential power that implies. The Sith Warrior isn't just a mindless brute, much like his movie namesake, he spends most of his time involving himself in the politics of the Galactic Empire. It's even thematically appropriate for the budding Dark Lord of the Sith to take the Gordian Knot approach to the majority of his problems. Your Sith master has a number of enemies, what do you do with them?

    Well, you go out and kill them, obviously.

Dark Side Jaesa was tempting despite my Lightsidedness. Why? She's feisty like my wife.

    The best part of the Sith Warrior's journey is the characters he deals with. They are vibrant and nuanced in ways you wouldn't expect in Star Wars. You have the option to either corrupt a Jedi Knight into a full-blown monster or turn them into a Light Side Sith like yourself. You can keep a Twilek slave as your abused chew toy or you can free her and develop an unusual friendship.

     You can even have your own version of Admiral Piett in Quinn, the poor dutiful Imperial who just happens to be saddled next to a juggernaut of destruction. The other characters didn't make as much an impression on me but I deeply enjoyed them anyway.

     I was especially fond of your Sith Lord mentor, Darth Baras, who is what would happened if Darth Sidious was played by Marlon Brando. Some of the best moments in the game are when he's calling your character out for growing up with a silver-spoon in his mouth. The game makes it clear you and Baras are going to eventually face each other, as Sith and student inevitably do, but it is a conflict which is evenly paced. You get to know Darth Baras better than anyone in the galaxy and when you finally face him, it is after a long and hard road.

The final confrontation with your mentor is both epic as well as satisfying.

    The Sith Warrior is definitely of above-average story and I enjoy the sense of being born into the Sith nobility. It made my role-playing of a Light Side Sith all the more poignant as I had to deal with a system designed to personally benefit me but which was obviously dysfunctional with anyone with half a brain. The fact you have no choice but to climb to the very top of the ladder, eventually becoming the Emperor's second-in-command.

    Unlike the Sith Inquisitor's storyline, the infighting amongst the Sith didn't feel gratuitous. Treachery is the way of the Sith but as a Sith Warrior, I felt like I was mostly dealing with normal levels of infighting in a monarchical society (which is to say, still a lot) and primarily concerned with the Republic. There were some good missions setting me against the Jedi Order and their government. Plus, you don't have to just kill your enemies in this game. One mission had the option of assassinating a powerful Sith Lord only to have an agent of yours impersonate him after death.

Character customization is quite good. I admit, though, I generally let Vette and Jaesa wear something more modest.

    My favorite character interactions in the game are a toss-up between Jaesa Wilsaam and Vette. Jaesa Wilsaam is a Jedi Knight fed up with the hypocrisy of the order, only to find herself surrounded by the sharks of the Sith. Vette, on the other hand, is a spunky adult-version of KOTOR's Mission Vao, who may or may not be stuck with the nicest Sith in the galaxy. Both of them are awesome. It was genuinely difficult for me to choose which of the two of to romance. Ultimately, I chose Jaesa but I like to think Vette stuck around anyway.

    What really worked for me in the Sith Warrior's quest storyline, however, was the genuine poignancy some of the missions had. I would never have expected this from the Sith Warrior of all things but there were some genuine touching moments in the story. Perhaps my favorite was when poor Jaesa wanted to meet with some fellow Light-Side Sith only to have it go horribly wrong. If I had to replay any of the games I'd played so far, it'd be the Sith Warrior.

    There's a few moments in the Sith Warrior storyline I'm not entirely fond of. For example, Darth Baras asks you what the Sith Code is but you can't recite it. Which, given you were raised in the Sith culture seems ridiculous. The road to becoming the Emperor's Wrath, however, is something I felt was quite impressive.

The Dark Side is your ally.

    One of the early missions I liked has you given a choice between killing a Sith Lord's son or making a deal with his wife to kill him so the son can take his place as her puppet. The fact you can go the additional mile and seduce the wife as a male Sith Warrior made it surprisingly Game of Thrones-esque. Having played both the Sith Acolyte and Sith Warrior storylines, I'm surprised to say it is the latter which has most of the Palpatine-esque politicking.

    However, how does it play? I think it does extremely well has a great ease of utility. It's easy to simply slice your way through literally thousands of monsters and I found it superior to the Sith Inquisitor. My only regret was there was more focus on shocking Vette than executing idiots with force choke.

    Though I could do that too.

10/10

Assassin's Creed 3 (Spoiler) review

 Warning: The following review will contain spoiler information about Assassin's Creed 3.

    The non-spoiler review of the game is available here.

    I think the moment I decided I loved Assassin's Creed 3 was a non-story moment. It was where Connor Kenway (a.k.a Ratonhnhaké:ton) comes across a Templar convoy heading to who-knows-where with a wagon load full of silver.

      It's fairly early in the story but the option for you to ambush and murder these people is there. Given Connor is only fifteen years old at this time, it was disturbing to watch him sneak up behind a bunch of unsuspecting British soldiers before bashing their heads in with a stone tomahawk.

    By the end of that encounter, Connor had slaughtered a bunch of Redcoats and killed his first Templars. It was a different sort of moment from Ezio Auditore whose first victim was, quite literally, the man who murdered his family. Ezio proceeds to go after the rest of the Templar order but he achieves his revenge early on.

     Connor Kenway is also on a mission of revenge, at least partially, but he doesn't have the grim satisfaction of working his way up to the Grandmaster of the Templars. The man Connor thinks murdered his mother and most of his tribe, Charles Lee, is distant for much of the game. Instead, Connor decides to blame the Templars as a whole for his family's death and devotes himself to murdering hundreds of them.

    Except, well, the Templars didn't have anything to do with it. That, for me, is the big spoiler of Assassin's Creed 3. The entire quest of Connor to annihilate the Templars and avenge his dead mother is pointless because the whole thing is based on a misunderstanding. The day Charles Lee showed up was the day Connor's village was burned to the ground. You can understand why Connor thinks he's involved. In fact, he had nothing to do with it.

    George [expletive deleted] Washington was the guy who ordered our hero's village burned down. This isn't even the game doing revisionary history, it's actually just mentioning one of the less pleasant elements about our first President which history likes to gloss over. It's like Andrew Jackson, the man on the twenty dollar bill, who helped make democracy about the common man rather than rich landowners. He just, you know, nearly destroyed the Cherokee nation and made it clear that assimilation was not a possibility for America's first residents.

    Even without bringing up the rest of the story, a large part of why I enjoy Assassin's Creed 3 is it's a deconstruction of the revenge fantasy. Indeed, it's a deconstruction of Assassin's Creed 2 and Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood. Connor doesn't get to live in the same sort of world as Ezio Auditore where he's an Italian James Bond. He's, unfortunately, stuck in a world where there are no good guys or bad guys with even his allies being one sort of dirt bag or another.

    At heart, this ambiguity is the heart of Assassin's Creed 3's story. The Revolutionary War was not a war of good vs. evil or even tyranny vs. slavery. It was a war of taxation that, nevertheless, ushered in an age of free representation for certain people in the USA.

     We get to see the moral compromises made by the colonists in the very beginning with slaves being the ones to serve the people at Independence Hall. Some of the Founding Fathers manage to get off well; Benjamin Franklin was an abolitionist from the very beginning and Sam Adams thinks the USA will work towards abolition as soon as it's established.

    Still, by making the protagonist a Mohawk, they've put him squarely in the middle of the game's central premise: that no matter what Connor Kenway does, he's not going to be able to prevent the subjugation and oppression of his people.

     Despite this, he's not a helpless protagonist either. The Templars were in a prime position take over the early United States and we get to witness our hero prevent that. Also, depending on whether you get The Tyranny of King George DLC or not, at least one version of Connor Kenway does get to avenge himself on Washington.

    I also appreciate the game's handling of the Templars, who we get at least a little more insight into the doings of. Unlike the Borgias, who are evil for the sake of being evil, the Templars of Assassin's Creed 3 are ruthless but understandable. You even get to play a Templar (Haytham Kenway) for three sequences.

    I'm one of those individuals who thinks the Templar vs. Assassin conflict shouldn't be boiled down to good vs. evil. In the canon of the games, the Assassins have allied with Mao, the French Revolution, and the Ottoman Empire. I'd like to see more emphasis on the fact that while the Assassins loathe tyrants, they also rarely put anything better in their enemy's place.

    The resolution to Desmond Miles' story is something I have mixed feelings about. I'm operating under the theory that Juno has "possessed" Desmond for lack of a better term and isn't exactly dead so my reaction may be less negative than others. Overall, I think it is a fitting conclusion to his story arc but I honestly wonder why they couldn't have just continued with him indefinitely.

    Overall, I'm very glad the 2012 genocide threat is dealt with. Mostly because it would have been silly to worry about the end of the Mayan calender after 2012. I just hope the rest of the Assassins like Shaun, Miles, and Rebecca continue on in the series. I really don't want to have to repeat the 'get to know' process we had with Desmond.

    In any case, Ubisoft deserves kudos for creating a vast and intelligent story across four games and I'll definitely be picking up the fifth one.

 10/10

Buy at Amazon.com

Star Wars: The Old Republic review

    I beta-tested the game before it came out but haven't been able to play the game enough to give a full-fledged review until now. I've completed the Sith Inquisitor story (Light Side), the Imperial Agent story (Light Side), and am currently doing the Sith Warrior (Light Side) version.

    Can you sense a pattern?

    I admit, the biggest thing I enjoy about Star Wars: The Old Republic is playing a Light-Side Sith. It's virtually unprecedented in the whole of Star Wars lore. Usually, if someone comes over to the Light Side they switch over to being a Jedi. You can have Dark Jedi but Light Side Sith is something new.

    Really, I enjoy playing the Light Side of the "evil" faction because it's more narratively appealing to me than simply playing the good guy. I also don't see nearly as much potential in playing a Darksider on the "good" side. I'm not alone in this but from what I can tell, most people who play the Imperial side actually enjoy being the bad guy.

    So, different strokes for different folks.

The joys of killing things with lightsabers never gets old.

    Star Wars: The Old Republic has many things going for it, not the least bit being its excellent voice-acting and story. The stories are so rich and so deep, I'm actually going to individually review all of them separately from my main blog. There's really eight different stories here, sixteen if you're interested in playing Light Side and Dark Side variations on everything. They all deserve individual consideration.

    Which is part of the problem.

    Having played Star Wars: The Old Republic for awhile, I'll say the biggest issue it has is the fact it seems to be the MMORPG for people who don't like MMORPGs. No, seriously, if you just like solo-games then this is a bit like buying Knights of the Old Republic 3-10. With slight adjustment, all of these could have been released as individual games.

    That's really not what an MMORPG is about.

I'm totally lightside. Honest.

    Seriously, even the Flashpoints kind of reduce the desire to do team exercises. You gather together in relatively small groups of people and proceed to do all of the missions. It's even possible, though unwise from what I gather, to do missions alone. There's not exactly any real incentive to gather into a massive Guild since there's no raids or large-scale team-content to speak of.

    One of the silliest World of Warcraft gatherings I ever saw was when a bunch of players gathered together forty or so pink-haired gnomes for the explicit purpose of assaulting Sylvanas' stronghold in order to give her a hug. It was a ridiculous, surreal, and absolutely awesome way to spend the day for a lot of players.

    I don't see anyone getting together to go assault the Emperor's fortress or kill Satele Shan. Indeed, the only way to battle the Emperor is to do it with the Jedi Knight as the climax of his story. This seems patently ridiculous as Luke Skywalker did the first Sith Emperor in Star Wars with Darth Vader's help. The death of the Emperor should have been a Flashpoint for both sides like with Darth Malgus or a certain character whose return is still one of the biggest spoilers of the game.

    I can understand why Bioware didn't want Tython overwhelmed with hundreds of Sith Warriors and Sith Acolytes trying to cap the leader of the Jedi but that's part of the fun. That's not even getting into what is the weakest element of the game: the Player vs. Player element. It's not bad and there's an awesome idea called Huttball but I think they could have emphasized the community element more.

    Indeed, the very nature of Bioware's companion system may work against the players forming communities. There's no need to travel around the galaxy with an intrepid band of heroes when your campaign story comes pre-equipped with an intrepid (computer-controlled) band of heroes.

     I won't bring up the piloting missions of the game, which I think could have been improved on by slightly updating TIE fighter and X-wing with better graphics before setting our heroes loose on each other. Of course, if I were the guy designing it, I would have made the option to be aliens and so many other things which would be impractical for the story-based MMO they were clearly interested in making.

The characters are, really, the heart of what makes this game awesome.

    Really, I shouldn't talk about the way I think they should have made the game but instead how it actually is. I loved Knights of the Old Republic and this is like an extraordinarily long series of games set in the style. The characters are extraordinarily well-written, the adventures are fun, and the expansion on the Star Wars universe is amazing.

    Is the MMORPG as good as a single-player console game would be? I'm not so sure about that. There's parts that seem a bit unpolished like the over-focus on tomb-raiding in the Sith Inquisitor or the fact the Sith Warrior has a questionable position at the end due to the Emperor's death. Still, that doesn't mean it's not more enjoyable than 90% of the games out there.

9/10

Assassin's Creed 3 (Non-Spoiler) review

    The spoiler review of this game is available here.

    I think I may like this more than Assassin's Creed 2.

    This is fairly high praise, indeed, from me because Assassin's Creed 2 is one of my favorite games of all time. Ezio has a tighter story than Connor, so far, and was consistently awesome from the very beginning. Assassin's Creed 3 has more of a slow burn feel and I'm not nearly to the end yet.

    Still, Assassin's Creed 3 successfully manages to integrate a quality that I had previously only assumed Bethesda knew how to properly do. Which is, bluntly, make it enjoyable for me to just wander around looking at stuff.

    In previous Assassin's Creed games, it's wonderfully fun to soak in the scenery as you're plotting the death of your next target. Still, I was never particularly compelled to go-quest all that much. Yeah, I went off-quest it involved Leonardo Davinchi's designs or a new set of armor but the main quest was where it was at. I never felt compelled to go after the feathers that were present specifically to pad the time.

    Here, I honestly am not all that tempted to continue the main story. There's endless hours of fun to be had simply exploring the staggeringly massive maps and appreciating the scenery. Hunting game is a lot more fun when cougars, bears, and packs of wolves might ambush you at any minute. There's also a ridiculous number of characters, both from history and otherwise, padding out the setting.

Those damn Continentals. You'd think they'd thank me for murdering the guy!

    I think I knew I would love Assassin's Creed 3 when one of the first people I met on the Frontier was Daniel Boone. As a man from Kentucky, this is like meeting our state's version of Christopher Columbus. The game could have incorporated the character more, had him befriend Connor or interact with him more, but it was nice to see him included.

    I could go on about the setting detail for hours, really. While there's none of the beautiful Old World architecture of the first two games, the wild forests of 17th century America are breathtaking. While there's not that much to climb in Boston or New York, there's an endless amount of fun to be had jumping from treetop to treetop.

    The storyline of Assassin's Creed 3 is excellently written but perhaps is taking on a little too much at one time. The designers at Ubisoft attempt to tell a balanced story of the American Revolution and may have made the gameplay suffer a bit. There's a HUGE amount to do but the personal story is a bit small. Whereas Ezio fought a very personal war of revenge, poor Connor Kenway is a man who who is stuck in a conflict well beyond his control.

    It's not a spoiler to know that Connor Kenway (a.k.a Ratonhnhaké:ton) is fighting for freedom. Unfortunately, he's fighting for all peoples' freedom and the fact he's a Mohawk while his mentor is a black man underscores this isn't going to end well for either of them. America, especially in its first hundred years, had a pretty despicable civil rights record.

     For all of our "land of the free, home of the brave" rhetoric, we have a responsibility for what happened to those who weren't white Englishmen. Assassin's Creed 3 doesn't shy away from that. I love America but those expecting a 'rah-rah' portrayal of the USA will be disappointed.

    Still, I wouldn't say the game is anti-Revolutionary War either. For all the hypocrisy the Founding Fathers get called on, you also get a sense plenty of them are decent people at heart. I'm especially fond of Samuel Adams who is a wartime propagandist and cynic but personally impressive. Benjamin Franklin also gets to recite his lengthy, "the merits of seducing older women" treatise, which is as hilarious today as it was meant to be in the 17th century.

I could spend all day wandering around the Frontier. In fact, for the past few days, I have.

    Perhaps my favorite feature of the game is the addition of a naval sailing mechanic. In addition to being the man who single-handedly wins the American Revolution (as much good as it did the Mohawks), is also an accomplished sea captain. Piloting the Aquila (Latin for Eagle), Connor wages war on British privateers and performs all manner of fun missions. All of these missions are optional but sailing is far-far more fun than the base defense mechanic of Assassin's Creed: Revelations.

     Is Assassin's Creed 3 flawless? Well, not really, no. Part of the problem is the game really wants you to experience all this new stuff and Connor sometimes feels like he's perfunctory to the plot. How does Connor feel about the ocean? What does he intend to do after the Revolutionary War is over? These are questions which could have been used to develop Connor's character more without detracting from the existing plot. Sadly, Connor too often feels like he's going along with stuff because he's the hero and knows it.

     Despite this, I'm going to give Assassin's Creed 3 a ten. This is not a measure of the game being perfect but a measure of how much fun I had playing it versus other games of its type. I'm going to continue playing the game indefinitely, collecting goodies and enjoying the scenery, which is about the highest praise I can give it.

10/10

Buy at Amazon.com

Star Wars: Agent of the Empire: Iron Eclipse review

 
    James Bond in Star Wars.

    It's such a wonderful premise, I wish we'd seen it before. We've had loyalist Imperials before. Soontir Fel, Gilad Pellaeon, Maarek Stele, Kir Kanos, and Janek Sunber are some of my favorite characters. However, there's always a nice undercurrent to the storyline that these individuals are struggling against the tide. No matter how honorable and noble a person may be, none of that means anything if your cause is rotten.

     Our protagonist is Jahan Cross, a member of Imperial Intelligence who has all the suaveness of James Bond but a bit more professionalism. He also occasionally cracks a smile at something other than the death of a henchmen. I don't know if the idea for an Imperial Agent protagonist came before or after the Old Republic announced their use of a similar character but I suspect it's just natural parallel development. After all, who would be the best employer for a spy in the galaxy but Imperial Intelligence?

    Jahan Cross is a nice balance of idealism in the Empire's purpose and cynicism about the universe. Alderaan has yet to be destroyed and the Jedi Knights were mysterious enough that you could believe they weren't the heroes they were. It was a gusty move by the writers to have Jahan badmouth the Jedi Knights yet it invokes pity more than derision. Jahan is yet another dupe of Darth Sidious and all of his efforts to protect the people of the galaxy are only keeping Darth Sidious in power longer.

    Iron Eclipse is a mini-series chronicling Jahan Cross investigating a smuggling ring which turns out to be so-much more. There are numerous nods to Sean Connery's James Bond with Jahan Cross employing techniques ranging from starfighter piloting, seduction, sharpshooting, seduction, intimidation, and seduction to win the day. Okay, not that much seduction but it's interesting to see the ease with which Jahan persuades attractive women to fall under his spell.

    Human or alien.

    The miniseries takes place in the Corporate Sector, a lesser known part of the Star Wars Expanded Universe that is one of the two places in the galaxy which can be considered a foreign country to the Galactic Empire (the other being Hutt Space). Jahan Cross is continually stymied by the fact the Empire's reach isn't nearly as far as it normally is for him. We also get some nice tie-ins to the Clone Wars era with explanations as to what happened to a number of the corporate bodies which followed Count Dooku into war.

    My favorite part of the story is the revival of a character I liked from the Old Republic period: Iaco Stark. Iaco Stark was a sleazy corporate raider who managed, through a variety of genre savvy methods, to nearly defeat the entire Prequel-era Old Republic. Unlike most villains in Star Wars, he managed to escape and live to tell the tale. This story shows what happened to him and I confess a certain level of disappointment. The Iaco of the Stark Hyperspace War would have eaten the bad guys of this story for breakfast.

     The art is gorgeous with the period-piece in space feel of 1960s spy culture making the covers exceptionally lovely. Also, despite my complaints regarding Iaco Stark, the story is enjoyably serious with the villains having a suitably grandiose plot. I even liked the token love-interest of the story, Faabri, who proves herself more capable than she absolutely had to be. In short, this is an excellent Star Wars story and I hope Dark Horse continues to make them.

10/10

Disney buys Lucasfilm...and my childhood

A Short Time Ago In Our Galaxy...

    Disney buys Lucasfilm, Star Wars, and announces there will be a new Star Wars movie entitled Episode VII in 2015. When I logged on yesterday to find out this news, I've got to say I was completely blown away and it's taken a bit of time to fully process the news. When Revenge of the Sith finished its credits, I was fairly sure Star Wars was finished. There might be animated series, books, or television shows but the movies were the heart of the beast.

    George Lucas has always been the father of Star Wars and I think the backlash against him has been somewhat unfair. Okay, not entirely unfair because the Prequels had horrible acting and numerous terrible ideas but they were still enjoyable--at least to me. Lucas has always been an idea man with the original trilogy primarily benefiting from his immense vision. I encourage anyone who thinks the Prequels were flukes to watch some of the screen tests for Star Wars and hear some of the original dialogue.

    It's atrocious.
   
    Still, Star Wars isn't a fluke either. If you ever thought it was, you just have to look at Indiana Jones. It was George Lucas' idea that he and Steven Spielberg do a work based on the old pulp serials. Really, given Harrison Ford was involved in both projects, I'm inclined to think he was a major guiding force in dealing with some of Lucas'....quirks. In any case, at the age of 68, he's at retirement age and should be able to enjoy his remaining years. Given he's being paid two billion dollars in cash and two billion in Disney stock, presumably he'll retire on whichever planet he chooses to buy.

    What does this mean for Star Wars as a franchise, though? The revelation they're going to make Episode VII indicates it's going to be a living franchise now. Even if George Lucas dies, the series will continue on indefinitely. In some ways, this is a bad thing. Say what you will about George but he's always done what he wants to do. George could have kept churning out Star Wars movies indefinitely like they've done with the Aliens franchise. Hopefully, Disney isn't going to do this but the fact is they've now got time George as a movie mogul doesn't. Two hundred years from now, Disney will still be around and hocking Cinderella merchandise.

    The difference is, now, they might be hocking Jedi merchandise as well.

     I think future generations deserve a chance to experience Star Wars in the theaters and keeping it a living franchise is a good thing. I'm not particularly worried about what happens with the Star Wars Expanded Universe since I have a somewhat Doylist view on the subject. There is no "true" story of Star Wars. Han shot first in the first movie but shot second (after Greedo's incredibly **** first shot) in the Special Edition. Stories like the New Jedi Order build on previous continuity but I consider these to be features of a well-written story as opposed to an absolute necessity.

    Some of my favorite Star Wars stories are Crisis on Cloud City, Domain of Evil, and the Otherspace duology. Even if you're a die-hard EU fan, you probably haven't read about these stories because they're tabletop RPG modules. They're stories about how a set of heroes stopped a nanotechnology plague, redeemed a fallen Jedi, and fought against other-dimensional death cultists. There's no way to say how these things happened in the "real" Star Wars universe because they were different for every Gamemaster who ran them. This is how I view the Star Wars universe, to an extent, as a playground for people to tell their stories.

    The Disney corporation may declare all of the novels non-canon, start the next trilogy immediately after the Battle of Endor, and kill Luke Skywalker in the first five minutes. None of this will affect my version of Star Wars. Luke Skywalker married Mara Jade, had a son named Ben (also a daughter named Padme I made up), had many adventures, and died centuries later.

    When the opening crawl first came into theaters, it ceased to be entirely George Lucas' tale and became the property of all of us. I'm eager to see what other storytellers have to say but won't get bent out of shape over them.