Game Review - God of War III (PS3, 2010)

Story:

God of War III is the PS3 debut of the exiled Spartan Kratos and is the final chapter of his story to take his revenge on the Gods, more importantly THE god Zeus, plus on top of that he also deals with such beings as Gaia and the Lord Hades, just to name some.

God of War III is actually a pretty good game and I enjoyed playing it, Kratos is a well developed character with a good history, the timing of the game's release is neatly slotted in with the recent theatrical releases of Percy Jackson and the remake of Clash of the Titans and the blood in this game is simply glorious to look at.

But if I do have a complaint it's this; I have severe doubts that this game is worth the $120 price mark in Australian stores, normally on average PS3 and Xbox 360 games retail for $110 but sometimes titles like this and Batman Arkham Asylum go up to the higher $120 mark, and that I feel is too high plus I must say that I object to the MA15+ rating given to this game, yes I know it's because an R category doesn't exist at the time this review is published but this is a classic example as to why this needs to be introduced, here is a game full of blood, sexual content and at times violence towards women, I can't say that I feel comfortable somewhat about 10-15 year old's getting this game.

Visuals:

Even though the visuals are only in 720p, they are glorious to look at especially the blood as I mentioned before, there are also a lot of very detailed levels and environments that are nicely shown off throughout various points of the game, the battle scenes are fluid in motion and large in scope, no complaints here, a job well done.

Controls:

Again, no complaints to be had, as you go through the game you are given instructions on how to perform the various skills you inherit as the game goes on, they are easy to get around after some time to get use to them.

Overall:

God of War III is a Game that is perfectly enjoyable and fans should lap it up post haste, but for me the high price mark and objectionable rating keep me from it giving it a purchase, so I'll say that it's worth a good rental for newcomers but fans well, chances are you have it already.

Film Review - Alice in Wonderland (2010)

Alice in Wonderland is based on the Lewis Carroll novels but this time around has been adapted by director Tim Burton and screenwriter Linda Woolverton, the story this time is that Alice played by Mia Wasikowska is now 19 and engaged to be married, but while she's walking around the gardens she spots a white rabbit in a great hurry and as a result, stumbles down to a place she can't quite remember.

While there are parts of this film I enjoyed, mainly the performances by Wasikowska, Stephen Fry and Alan Rickman, the film as a whole has no idea what to do with itself, best seen as the uncertainty around Alice herself and whether she is indeed the same one that came to their land as a young girl, on top of that it is also hard to understand what everyone is saying as most of their lines feel like they're on fast forward, the Wonderland characters aren't that interesting and the visual look of the film just made me think of Pandora from Avatar, but it's also nowhere as magical as that world.

Alice is an okay film and one that I didn't mind somewhat but one that is unsure of itself and hard to gain any emotional interest in, so it gets a 2 out of 5.

Game Review - Command and Conquer 4: Tiberium Twilight (PC, 2010)

Story:

Command and Conquer 4: Tiberium Twilight is the final game in the original series and takes place three years after the end of the smash success Tiberium Wars, which brilliantly relaunched the series in 2007, this time the sacred green crystal called 'Tiberium' has spread throughout the Earth and is close to making it uninhabitable to humans, but GDI (The Global Defence Initiative) has received a very strange visitor: Kane, the reclusive leader of the Brotherhood of NOD and he wants to help GDI contain the Tiberium outbreak, but does he really want to help or is it all for his own purposes.

I have a ruling when it comes to PC RTS (Real-Time Strategy) Games and that is there is one for everyone be it this series, Age of Empires, Starcraft or C and C's sister series Red Alert, well this series was mine and I had been eagerly awaiting this game after the well deserved success of its predecessor despite the major changes to the game's layout, but does it deserve to be hailed a worthy finale to a great series.

Well, no it doesn't and for precisely the reasons of the layout changes, it gives the game a different feel and one that I found to be unwelcome this time around, 07's C and C 3 relaunched the series for all the right reasons; improved graphics, a new race called the Scrin and the traditional RTS feel and soul of its predecessors.

This one tries to go in the direction of an MMO and as a result, it fails miserably, you are unable to build up a big army of tanks and soldiers to attack an enemy base, you cannot create a single player game on your own and you're stuck with the credits given to you with no chance of Tiberium mining, a mainstay of this series.

But then I can't help but feel that Westwood Studios had little to no say in the development of the game, as EA have simply gone it alone and botched it by mixing things up, this game essentially ends up proving the old saying "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" to be right.

Visuals:

Bumping up the visuals to the higher settings gives this game a great look, shadows and maps are very well detailed and soldiers, tanks, bases and airships are easy to spot and have a slightly animated look to them, all in all a job well done and one of the game's few bright spots.

Controls:

The very soul of a game is how its mechanics feel to the person playing it and they're one of the few things to stay as they were from last time around, you do the obligatory tutorial mission to get a feel for them and then you're off and running to the races, again not much to be said but I wasn't complaining.

Overall:

Unless you're a diehard Command and Conquer fan, this game will disappoint, heck I'm gonna say that this game will disappoint even them, as someone who loved Tiberium Wars so much, it pains me to say this one is a big failure, what could have been a great send-off for a beloved series is a complete mis-fire, Tiberium Wars is now out on sale for cheap, if you want a modern day C and C to play with, buy that one, it's a much better game at a cheaper price.

Game Review - Aliens vs. Predator (2010)

Story:

Aliens vs. Predator is the newest Game in the franchise and this time it switches from being an RPG game to a first person shooter, the game itself goes to three threads, the first being a Marine not too similar to the ones featured in James Cameron's 1986 film Aliens heck there's one modelled on Vasquez from the same film.

The other two threads predictably follow an Alien thread which is quite good as you can freely move about the environment and sneak up on unsuspecting victims and give them a new one and the last is the Predator role where you can learn stealth, tri-beam firing and the dual blades.

And lastly, the game was initially banned in Australia until the developers appealed and got it through with an MA15+ uncut, personally I don't really mind the MA decision but if the R had been available, it may have gotten under that with Low Level Violence due to the blood scene throughout the game.

Visuals:

The Visuals for the PS3 version of the game go up to 720p and for the Predator side of the game the visuals work best as when you turn on the heat vision it looks extremely good as does the stealth mode, as for the Alien and Marine sides of the game I would say that the visuals were rather dull and generic looking.

Controls:

The controls of the game feel like the controls of many other first person shooters like the Call of Duty releases, the Resistance series and so on and so forth only the Alien section of the game differs somewhat as you can have a much more freeing use of the environment as I said before.

Overall:

Overall Aliens vs. Predator is not worth your time, while some sci-fi geeks may enjoy it but only if you were a super fan of both Aliens and Predator, the controls, visuals and overall experience feel very generic and with better titles on the market like Borderlands, you're best to look elsewhere.

Editorial - R18+ Games: A Step in the Right Direction?

As some may have noticed this morning, SA Labor MP Michael Atkinson stepped down as the Attorney General of that state to serve on the back bench for the rest of his term following his win in the traditionally safe ALP Seat of Croydon, a suburb of Adelaide.

As expected, this was good news for Australian Gamers as Atkinson had been steadfast in his refusal to allow an R18+ Rating for Games, a move that annoyed many but one question still needs to be asked.

And that is that is it a step in the right direction for getting the rating introduced, in case you may not know, any changes to the Australian Classification System require unanimous agreement between all of the state and territory attorney-general's, Atkinson did not agree and as a result, an R rating was denied for Games, leaving some Games Refused Classification or RC to shorten the term.

While it is pleasing to see Atkinson gone, SA Premier Mike Rann has yet to name a successor and this could also be a road block for the plan as he or she could share the same view as Atkinson did and on top of that, there seems to be a change of government in Tasmania with again a new Attorney General who's views on this are unknown.

So while the push for an R18+ Rating for Games has gone in the right direction, Australians must not rest on their laurels now that Atkinson has stepped down, there have been whispers in the past that other Attorney-General's opposed the decision to bring in the rating and the two new A-G's must be contacted to get their views because if one of those others oppose it as Atkinson did, then all of the hard work may go to waste.

So in closing, Australian Gamers while they have the right to celebrate Atkinson's resignation, his replacement and the new Tasmanian Attorney-General must be contacted to be made aware of the overwhelming public demand for this rating or otherwise, we may be doing to dosie-do on this issue for a long time to come.

Editorial - Money Never Sleeps, or so we Thought

As by the name of this editorial, I'm going to focus on the recent decision by 20th Century Fox to push back the release of their upcoming sequel to Wall Street, Money Never Sleeps from late April to late September.

Now when a major studio pushes back a film's release, a couple of things can happen:

First, the studio has had a preview of an edit of the film by director Oliver Stone, who also directed the 1987 original and didn't think much of it and began to doubt its chances at the box office, especially with Iron Man 2 due to open in the US in May and storm the box office.

Second, they may have had the opposite reaction and pushed it back long enough so that it can be counted in the Oscar nominations, pointing out that Douglas (quite rightly I might add) won one for his portrayal of Gordon Gekko in the original film.

And lastly, the aforementioned edit by Oliver Stone may have significant problems and require reshoots with the actors, as Peter Jackson did with his Lord of the Rings films when they went into editing and as a result, may ask Fox to push back the film's release to give him the time need to reshoot and recut the film.

Those are of course, only some of the reasons but they're the ones that readily come to mind as something like this is usually a bad sign, as for me well I'll go and see the film as I'm curious as to how good it might be and hey, it's the only way to find out right, right?

Film Review - Up (2009)

Up is the latest film from the Pixar animation studios and concerns a man named Carl Frederickson voiced by Edward Asner who after losing his beloved wife Ellie faces being sent to an old age home after attacking a person, but he has a cunning plan to avoid letting that happen and holding on to the one thing that has meaning in his life.

Up is a film where 2/3rds of it work and 1/3rd of it doesn’t, although the film is essentially about High Adventure and realizing that it can have more than one meaning, the core of the film regarding Carl and Ellie is beautifully handled and will bring about many tears, a good portion of the comedy is very funny especially regarding the dogs but if the film has a failing it’s this.

Firstly, the character of the cub scout doesn’t quite work as well and at times is a nuisance and lastly the action part of the film becomes quite silly very quickly with these two old men fighting it out.

But Up is a very well done film and I’ll happily give it a 3 and a half out of 5.

Film Review - Inglorious Basterds (2009)

Inglorious Basterds is the new film by Quentin Tarantino and stars Brad Pitt as Lt. Aldo Reine who leads a crack team of Nazi killers behuind enemy lines, meanwhile a young Jewish girl is plotting her revenge against the third reich after her family is slaughtered.

Basterds starts off well with a very tense opening sequence and setup for the general plot but as the film rolls on, it goes on and on and on, brilliantly setting up tension then stopping it dead so Quentin can go on about his knowledge of cinema and some other side point that quite frankly, I didn't want to see, there are some good performances by Christoph Waltz though he does border on being cartoonish at times, Brad Pitt and Melanie Laurent but the endlessness of the film and its preposterous ending frankly got on my nerves.

Some will say that I sound like a grump but I can't say that I was all that enthusiastic about this film, in fact I was reluctant to see it but after reading the raves about Waltz I gave in but does it color my opinion, no as it only gets a 1 and a half out of 5.