Grouplove – Never Trust A Happy Song

Info:

Genre: Indie rock, alternative rock

Length: 46.34

Tracks: 12

Origin: Los Angeles, California

Release Date: 2011-09-05

Review:

Grouplove’s debut album – Never Trust A Happy Song, has been a long time coming, having first heard the single ‘Colours‘ back in 2010 on a website featuring a compilation of up-and-coming indie rock bands, Grouplove was the one that stuck out for me and unfortunately at the time, Colours along with a ‘Captain Cuts‘ remix version (equally good, incorporating a faster tempo) was the only material available at the time, but regardless I had the words – ‘black, black, green and brown, brown, brown, brown and blue, yellow, violets, red…‘ lodged in my brain for ages.

So the big question is – how does the rest of the album compare to Colours? Well, while Colours remains to be the best song on the album, the other songs aren’t bad at all with lead singer Christian Zucconi’s distinct voice shining through on every track and accentuated with backing vocals by the sweet canary-voiced Hannah Hooper.  Colours has been featured on EA Sport’s Madden NFL 12 and FIFA 12 soundtracks, as well as a Polish beer advertisement.  Other notable songs like Tongue Tied featured on Apple’s iPod Touch commercial.  On December 8, 2011 Tongue Tied debuted on #78 on the Billboard Hot 100, not surprising as the song is both catchy and upbeat (like the majority of the album).  Never Trust A Happy Song is first and foremost a feel-good musical experience (rather ironic given the title of the album), the album’s tempo is fast and seldom diminishes, and even the song Slow picks up rather quickly.  Grouplove fits the indie moniker to a tee with an alternative rock sound that opposes the contemporary sounds of popular music.  The world would be a happier place if more radio stations played this sort of music (not about to hear this on my local radio) but alas it is not so, so if you’re able to, do yourself a favour and get a copy, in the high probability that the album isn’t available in your local music store, I’m sure iTunes can oblige.

Conclusion | Music is subjective, if for instance you have a propensity for the indie genre then odds are you will share my opinion, if not then move on to something else.  Grouplove’s Never Trust A Happy Song is a well-crafted, easy to listen to and pleasant musical experience.  Furthermore, one can always judge the ability and authenticity of a band by its live performance ability and after listening to Grouplove performing Colours on the Letterman show I am glad to see that Zucconi’s distinct voice is his own and not that of auto-tuning processors.  Grouplove is also highly energetic (just follow the Letterman link to see for yourself), and one can clearly see that they’re doing ‘a hundred in a fifty zone’ if I were to put it that way.  If grouplove sounds interesting to you then you can check out more from them on their official site, which includes 90 second samples of each song from their debut album as well as photos and music videos.

Grade: B+

2012
01/23
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Real Steel

Info:

Genre: Science-fiction, drama, action

Director/s: Shawn Levy

Running Time: 127 mins

Budget: $110 million

Released: 6 October 2011

Origin:

Plot:

Set in the near future, a down-on his-luck robot boxing promoter continues to sink in debt and misfortune until he reconnects with his 11-year-old son who finds an old discarded robot that proves to be a solid fighter in the ring.

Review:

It is a realistic and logical assumption that sometime in the future, robot warriors may replace their human counterparts in the world of combative sports, in the case of Real Steel, that sport happens to be boxing.  The robots in question are not sentient, or autonomous and require human intervention in order to control them, usually in the form of a control pad.  It is made quite clear in the beginning of the film, that Charlie Kenton (Hugh Jackman), an ex-boxer turned robot boxing promoter, has managed to get himself into an awkward position, he owes plenty people a lot of money and due to recklessness, over confidence or distraction, invariably his robots get destroyed, landing him further in debt.

When Charlie learns that his ex-girlfriend has died, he is required to attend a court hearing in order to determine the fate of his estranged son Max (Dakota Goyo).  Max’s guardians wish to have full custody of the boy who Charlie sees as an opportunity to make some money, $100 000 to be precise, 50k in advance on the condition that Charlie looks after Max for three months while the foster parents go away on their second honeymoon.  So reluctantly Max and Charlie are forced to interact, and after Charlie manages to waste $45 000 on a robot that he destroys due to recklessness, it’s off to the scrapyard as father and son search for some usable parts to repair the damaged machine and in doing so they get more than they bargained for in the form of an obsolete Generation-2 sparring bot that proves to be a formidable and resilient fighter.

The premise is interesting enough, without being overly original in that Real Steel plays out like a traditional David and Goliath tale, as the underdog – in this case a bot named Atom, fights his way to the world championships and eventually faces off against the undefeated champion – Zeus, the name seemingly a hats off to Rocky as in the first two Rocky films, the world boxing champion is Apollo Creed, Apollo being the son of Zeus in Greek mythology.  These sort of stories of perseverance and defying the odds are always attractive, and though it’s nothing new, it’s always entertaining though from a logical standpoint, I couldn’t help but think that these robots could be used for more than just boxing.  While I understand that robot boxing would be an extremely enjoyable activity to watch, what prevents these giant, powerful machines – who being controlled by man,  hence allowed to bypass Asimov’s law of robotics from say, killing another person, being used for military application or simply robbing a bank?  I realize that these factors are never covered in the film, and that it’s probably due to the focus of the film being boxing and the bonding of father and son, it just would have been nice to have seen some sort of contingency in place that would make the viewer believe that these robots were only capable of boxing (like if they were the size of Medabots it would be immediately obvious that these robots would be incapable of harming a human being) and what have you, but perhaps I’m nit-picking.

…what prevents these giant, powerful machines from say, killing another person, being used for military application or simply robbing a bank?…

Aesthetically, Real Steel looks fantastic, no expense was spared in bringing the robot warriors to ‘life’ with CGI on par with Michael Bay’s series of Transformers films.  The CGI visuals seamlessly blend into reality, what bugged me though is that the robots seemed to be the only futuristic thing in the film.  Real Steel is set in the near future year of 2020, what I found strange is that everything apart from the bots looked to belong to the contemporary world, and while I realize 2020 is not too far off, the technology exhibited for the robots definitely is, at least another 20 – 30 years away.

Conclusion

Real Steel is not an overly cerebral science-fiction experience, apart from the typical themes like the aforementioned ‘David and Goliath‘ aspect, the film also focuses on the bond of father and son, or rather the lack thereof, and as Charlie spends more time with Max, he learns to value the time spent with his son, essentially changing his world-view.  The ‘son-teaches-father’ dynamic isn’t new to cinema and overall Real Steel is pretty straight forward and predictable, what saves the film however is the robots – the true stars of the show, who engage in combat in a spectacular fashion making the action sequences quite enjoyable.  Overall, Real Steel doesn’t cover any new ground, but the robot battles are entertaining enough to warrant your attention, just don’t expect repeat viewing.

Grade: C

2012
01/10
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Film & TV
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Space Battleship Yamato | ヤマト

Info:

Genre: Science-fiction, drama, adaptation

Director/s: Takashi Yamazaki

Running Time: 131 mins

Budget: $23.9 million

Released: 1 December 2010

Plot:

The crew of the space battleship Yamato set out on a journey to the planet Iscandar to acquire a device that can heal the ravaged Earth – imdb

Review:

I’ve decided to make this the first in a series of Asian film reviews over the next few weeks, just to spice things up a little due to the fact that the majority of my film reviews focus on the American film industry (though that’s not to say I won’t review any American stuff in-between), and I’m interested to see what our Eastern counterparts have been up to.  As it stands, I intend on reviewing a yet-to-be determined number of films both old and new, some of which are adaptations of popular manga or animes (like this review) and some being original stories.  So without further ado, I present to you – Space Battleship Yamato.

Based upon the 1974 anime series of the same name, Space Battleship Yamato – also known to English-speaking audiences as Space Cruiser Yamato (the original English dub being heavily edited) and Star Blazers in North America and Australia, is a live-action adaptation that has been in development since 2005.  On July 17, 2009, Noboru Ishiguro – director and staff member of the original anime series confirmed the film’s development at Otacon with an expected release date around December, 2010.

Right from the onset, Space Battleship Yamato throws you into the thick of it, opening with an epic space battle reminiscent of the battles seen in the popular Star Wars franchise, in fact, one of the scenes is basically lifted from A New Hope (1977), whether this was intentional (perhaps as a hats off to George Lucas) or coincidental, the similarity is undeniable.

A screen cap taken from the opening scene of Space Battleship Yamato...

...and here's a screenshot from Star Wars - A New Hope...homage to George Lucas or simple coincidence...?

So for the premise of the film – the year is 2199 and an alien race known as the Gamilas have ravaged Earth and reduced it to an irradiated wasteland.  Mankind’s last hope rests with a message sent from a distant world called Iscandar with promises of a device that will eradicate all the radiation on the surface. So Captain Jūzō Okita (Tsutomu Yamazaki) sends out a request for volunteers for the mission, one volunteer being Susumu Kodai (Takuya Kimura) – a former pilot, whose brother sacrificed himself to allow Okita and his crew to survive during a battle five years ago.  So with humanity’s last battleship – the Yamato, the crew sets off on a journey that will determine the survival of the human race.

…the characters in these films spend far too much time moaning about a problem (such as escaping from a bad situation or defeating an enemy) instead of actually doing something about it…

Given the considerably low-budget of this film, I’m amazed at what director Takashi Yamazaki and all those involved managed to produce.  Approximately 80% of the film incorporates supposedly the latest CGI technology, however I think that statement is subjective as while the CGI is good, compared to its American counterparts, it’s quite obvious that the CGI present is not the best available, and perhaps it would be more accurate to say that the CGI incorporated in the film is the best possible with the given budget.  The spaceships, space environment and so forth look quite impressive,

One of the aliens up close, while it doesn't look bad, it's definitely not conceived by the 'latest CGI' technology.

but the Gamilas themselves look quite artificial and detract from the overall enjoyment of the film somewhat.  But perhaps more annoying is the acting in the film, maybe it’s just a case of a culture clash, but I find it incredibly difficult to connect or feel anything for any of the characters in this film.  This feeling isn’t limited to Space Battleship Yamato, as several Asian films that I’ve watched (including the odd romantic film) have felt devoid of any emotion at all, especially with the Japanese films, and I think this is due to a major difference in culture and how East and West tackle everyday things such as love, loss, honour and duty.  What I find with Japanese films in particular, is that the concept of ‘leave no man behind‘ really doesn’t compute with the Japanese as self-sacrifice seems to be the order of the day and the remedy for solving most problems and when they try to do the opposite it comes across as a feeble attempt to emulate a Western ideology, with the result that the actors are incapable of making the audience believe what they’re saying, in fact most of the time it comes across as either being insincere or just plain goofy.  Perhaps it’s just me, but this is how a lot of Asian films come across to me so while Space Battleship Yamato held my interest, the performance of the actors prevented me from being able to take anything seriously as even the most ‘intense’ scenes lacked a sense of urgency.  Incessant whining

Yamato under siege.

also seems to be a prerequisite of Asian film (culture perhaps?), as a lot of the time the characters in these films spend far too much time moaning about a problem (such as escaping from a bad situation or defeating an enemy) instead of actually doing something about it.  So while I understand that dialogue is necessary to build atmosphere and progress a story and so forth, sometimes, that huge threatening alien that’s stomping towards you needs to be put down quickly and silently (cough..cough…Gantz…).   On another note, I was pleasantly surprised by the inclusion of Hiroyuki Ikeuchi who plays as commando leader Hajime Saitō in the film, you may also recognize him from Ip Man as Miura.

Conclusion

Space Battleship Yamato is a film not without scope, as the creators have managed to create a decent science-fiction experience, using a meager budget to put out an action-packed film that will please fans of the original anime show.  While I felt that the acting in the film lacked depth or believability, Space Battleship Yamato is fast-paced and interesting enough to keep you watching, even if you have only the mildest interest in science fiction films.  So while it lacks the grandeur of films like Star wars, Space Battleship Yamato is a fine science fiction film and vastly superior to the majority of Western sci-fi films of similar budget and subject matter.

Grade: B

2011
12/28
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Mark Ryden – Master of Meat and Madness

The Ringmaster.

It is an undeniable fact, that human beings are drawn to the strange, the bizarre, the macabre and so forth, just look at newspapers or news websites, no one cares for good news as for the most part, it’s just plain boring.  No, people want to read about tragedies, disasters, the weird and wonderful, these are the things that hold our interest.  Mark Ryden meets the aforementioned criteria, in that his work is disturbingly bizarre and deliciously creepy.

Ryden’s fascination with the macabre has been with him since childhood, and during his youth, his teachers would be puzzled as to why his drawings of dogs would be depicted as having their intestines showing…

Pine tree nymph.

Raised in Southern California, Ryden studied illustration and graduated from the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena in 1987 and made his breakthrough debut in 1998 with The Meat Show, an extensive list of his work can be viewed here.  A modern-day surrealist savant, using oil paint to bring his creations to life, his subject matter of choice includes, monsters, religious icons, animals, medical implements, movie stars and more, but his style is perhaps best recognized for the excessive use of engorged heads, large eyes and porcelain doll-type features in his work, oh, and not forgetting the inclusion of meat…lots of it.  Unfortunately, there seems to be a distinct lack of information on Ryden as apart from his home page, and a Wikipedia entry, there isn’t a hell of a lot about him, which is weird because he has a rather extensive repertoire including album cover design for Red Hot Chili Peppers, Michael Jackson, Ringo Starr, Scarling and Jack Off Jill (sadly, defunct), as well as book covers for Stephen King’s novels -  Desperation and The Regulators and painted portraits of well-known celebrities like Leonardo DiCaprio and Christina Ricci (Ryden’s style compliments the latter’s Gothic features wonderfully).

Mark Ryden is an avid collector of many things, and hoards items of interest which he incorporates into his work, and likes to frequent the La Brea Tar Pits in Los Angeles for inspiration and possibly more collectibles;

I do seem to gravitate to old toys, religious items, medical items, old children’s books, and strange characters in the form of an old decrepit stuffed animal or other toy.  I like toys that are supposed to be cute but actually look a bit strange or scary, it is interesting how, from the endless sea of stuff out there, certain things jump out – cited from Bizarre Magazine, March 2006.

I can only imagine the amount of depth and hidden meanings in a picture like this, riddled with so many symbols and oddities...

Ryden does his work at night (not too hard to imagine) and on one such evening he remarks;

The distinct smell of walnuts in the air broke my concentration.  It was very quiet.  A strange breeze gently blew through my studio.  I suddenly became aware of something on my shoulder.  Surprisingly, I was not startled to find a wee Abraham Lincoln sitting right there on my shoulder.  We looked at each other for just a moment.  Then he very softly whispered in my ear, ‘Paint Meat…’  - cited from Bizarre Magazine, March 2006.

Well, seems legit, after-all, it certainly explains the weird subject matter and his affinity for bovine products and Abe Lincoln.   I shall definitely be keeping a close eye on any future releases that Ryden may have, and I wouldn’t mind getting my hands on some of the merchandise available, though, expectantly, a lot of it isn’t easy on the wallet with items such as The Snow Yak Show Print Portfolio fetching for $4750.00 USD, ouch.

This time-lapse video, shows Ryden at work painting Incarnation.  Its mesmerizing to watch him paint especially considering that he starts with the background, carving out a silhouette for the central figure to be painted in last, amazing.  If you like your weirdness with a slice (or two) of meat and madness, Mark Ryden is the perfect inspiration for aspiring artists fascinated by the surreal and the creepy.  Think it’s about time I dust off the old pencil myself and see what I can come up with.

2011
12/06
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General
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Wallpapers – Tekken: Blood Vengeance | 鉄拳 ブラッド・ベンジェンス

Resolution – 1920 x 1200 | Aspect Ratio – 16:10

2011
11/28
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Tekken: Blood Vengeance | 鉄拳 ブラッド・ベンジェンス

Info:

Genre: Action, martial-arts

Director/s: Youichi Mori

Running Time: 92 mins

Budget: Unknown

Released: 22 November 2011 (USA)

Plot:

Set between the events of Tekken 5 and Tekken 6, a mysterious student named Shin Kamiya becomes the prime target for the new head of Mishima Zaibatsu – Jin Kazama and his father Kazuya Mishima – head of the rival company, G Corporation.

Review:

Well this is one film that came out of nowhere, usually I have a good beat on these types of things but came across Tekken: Blood Vengeance completely by chance, then again, I was bound to discover it eventually.  Blood Vengeance is part of the Tekken Hybrid package, the DVD and Blu-ray versions of the film were released simultaneously in North America and fans will benefit from the Blu-ray version most of all, apart from the obvious visual treatment, placing the Tekken: Blood Vengeance BD disc into a PlayStation 3 console will allow owners to play an enhanced high-definition version of the original Tekken Tag Tournament (1999) as well as a demo of its up and coming sequel – Tekken Tag Tournament 2.

I’ve wondered for years why a film company, who intended on making an animated film of a well-established franchise doesn’t just use the same CGI animation employed in the games themselves.  Why bother creating a brand new engine when a brilliant one already exists? It’s been a source of annoyance for a while now, a good example would be Dawn of War (2004) – the original CGI intro was awesome, so why not just use it for Ultramarines (2010), a film that had a pretty decent story, but horrid animation.  Well no matter, as Digital Frontier – a company with a sizable repertoire, including motion capture work on Metal Gear Solid 4, Death Note: The Last Name (VFX) and of course the Tekken 6 CGI, have released an animated film using the same visuals as the full motion video sequences from Tekken 6.

Directed by Youichi Mori, and written by Dai Sato (Cowboy Bebop), Tekken: Blood Vengeance expands upon the Tekken mythos, by focusing on a tight-knit group of characters with the result that the film actually has a fair amount of depth.  Too often, writers overextend a story by trying to cram in as many characters as possible (Tekken’s roster boasts over forty characters), resulting in a half-hearted, thin storyline that never does the source material any justice as since there are too many characters to focus on – each vying for screen time, the plot never develops into anything remotely interesting (just look at the Mortal Kombat films).

…the film really kicks into overdrive when heavy-hitters Jin Kazama, Kazuya Mishima and Heihachi Mishima go head-to-head in a three-way battle royale…

While not the most complex of plots, it is interesting nonetheless, as Ling Xiaoyu is recruited (forced) to work for Anna Williams – a G Corporation agent, in an attempt to gather data on Shin Kamiya, she befriends Alisa Bosconovitch who, wouldn’t you know it, happens to work for Mishima Zaibatsu.  While most of the film is focused on enriching the relationship and back-story of the two aforementioned characters, through a series of ‘antics’, investigation and plenty of brawls, the film really kicks into overdrive when heavy-hitters Jin Kazama, Kazuya Mishima and Heihachi Mishima go head-to-head in a three-way battle royale that’s both visually impressive and jaw-droppingly insane.  The awesome animation and fight choreography make for a highly enjoyable watch, and if you aren’t taken with the somewhat cheesy English language dub, you always have the option of watching it in the original Japanese.  Speaking of voice acting, Namco has tried as best as possible to use all the original voice actors from the games which is sure to appease die-hard fans.  It’s also worth noting that Tekken project leader Katsuhiro Harada has made it abundantly clear that Blood Vengeance has nothing to do with the abominable live-action version.

Conclusion

Tekken: Blood Vengeance is the definitive Tekken film, forget the old anime and the atrocious live-action disaster, as Blood Vengeance has enough character development and battles to keep Tekken fans satiated.  While not the greatest film ever, it is quite faithful to the source material, even though characters like Lee Chaolan or Panda don’t really add anything to the mix (Panda’s inclusion made parts of the film unbearably camp), I happily recommend this film to all Tekken fans, if only to see the awesome final battle.

Grade: B

2011
11/27
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Rage

Info:

Developer/s: id Software

Publisher/s: Bethesda Softworks

Platform/s: PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Microsoft Windows

Genre: First-person shooter, adventure, semi-open world

Release Date: 2011-09-04

id Software is one of the heavy-hitters in the computer and video-game industry, perhaps best known for Doom, a game that pretty much pioneered the first-person shooter genre, Doom has been the influential building blocks for games of its ilk for decades now.  With Doom came the first id Tech engine which would eventually pave the way for id Tech 5, the engine used by Rage.  Since id Software only releases a new game once every few years – their last game being Enemy Territory: Quake Wars which was released back in 2007 – the company always builds excitement and much anticipation with each new title.  And so, almost four years later, Rage has been released showcasing the new id Tech 5 engine (which will be used in the forthcoming, Doom 4), but will it live up to the high expectations or be crushed beneath the myriad of other first-person shooters available?

The premise is this -  a huge asteroid named Apophis impacts with Earth on August 23, 2029.  The planet is devastated, the few remaining pockets of humanity rejoin to create settlements in the remaining habitable locations.  These settlements are fiercely defended from the mutants and bandits that now populate what is referred to as The Wasteland.  You play as an Ark survivor – Ark was a scientific faction that froze scientists and other prolific candidates in underground cryo-pods so that they may survive the catastrophe and rebuild civilization.  You awaken from your Ark pod 106 years later, in a world populated by madmen, mutants and The Authority – the de facto government faction, and having no memory of who you are or what your purpose is, it’s up to you to discover the truth…and stay alive.

Persistent low-resolution textures prevented the game from actually looking this amazing...

Rage draws a lot of inspiration from the Mad Max film series as it’s set in a dystopic future setting where the world has been reduced to a desert-type landscape after a huge cataclysm and rampant factions are in control.  Rage even acknowledges its similarity to the film with various references throughout the game, a nice touch indeed.  Much like Mad Max, driving plays a large role in Rage.  Starting off with a simple quad bike, you will soon upgrade to a souped-up vehicle of destruction as you navigate from one town to the next, all the while fighting off bandit doom buggies and Authority tanks.  Racing also plays a large role in this game, as winning races earns you the means to upgrade your vehicle into something truly formidable.  Though the racing is entirely optional (save for a few sections requiring you to race in order to progress the main plot) it is highly recommended as the landscape is populated by outlaws that will attempt to kill you as you navigate The Wasteland.  The benefits of purchasing upgrades for your vehicle will allow you to dispatch your foes more easily and the driving component of Rage is an extremely fun one drawing heavy influence from games like Borderlands and MotorStorm.

One of many bandits you will encounter...aim for the face.

The driving aspect however is a secondary component to what is fundamentally a first-person shooter.  Like the majority of id Software’s creations, you play as a lone warrior who navigates the game environment (for the most part) in first-person along a somewhat linear path.  Though The Wasteland is quite open-ended, and there is a decent amount of exploration to be had, it serves as a conduit from one locale to the next (kind of like the word map in an old Final Fantasy game) as you will most likely navigate the landscape quite quickly in order to get on with the main plot.  You will also find that while the maps seem to be expansive, in actuality they are quite linear, allowing very little chance for players to become lost or frustrated.  The game is linear by design in that, you go to a town, meet a person (be it a mayor, sheriff, resistance leader or what have you), are given missions and then set off to do them in order to progress the main plot.  Thankfully, I found the story to be quite engrossing, and because the game mechanics are just so satisfyingly fun, the linear game design never deterred from the game’s atmosphere and overall enjoyment.

When these rush you, don't be shy with your bullets.

Though entertaining, the game-play mechanics are somewhat predictable in that Rage works with event triggers.  To elaborate, for example you could be in a section devoid of enemies until such a point where you reach a switch or entrance-way that will trigger a barrage of enemies for you to dispatch (much like Doom 3).  The number of enemies is always finite and oftentimes you will be required to kill all of them before you can progress.  Thankfully, Rage employs some pretty good enemy AI and proves to be quite challenging at times, with enemies strafing, ducking for cover, flanking and sometimes when they’ve received too much opposing gunfire, they’ll retreat all together.  The enemies are also rather diverse, ranging from bandits, mutants, armoured enforcers and so forth and in the traditional id style, expect to contend with various imposing end of level guardians.  Apart from the main quest, there are a myriad of sub-quests to partake in as a lot of the world’s denizens have favours to ask or jobs that need doing.  Whether you’re required to escort a convoy, snipe mutants or destroy outlaw buggies, there is always something to do in The Wasteland, rewarding you with either money, guns and ammo or some rare and useful item.

The striker crossbow, brilliant for stealth kills, though shooting enemies pointblank in the chest works too...

So what would an id shooter be without a huge array of destructive weaponry?  Well, fear not, because Rage delivers in spades with an arsenal ranging from the usual stock pistol, shotgun etc to more exotic weaponry such as wingsticks (a three-pronged sort of boomerang), striker crossbow (complete with mind-control arrows), Authority pulse cannon and more.  While your ‘fists of rage’ are rather effective in a brawl, you’ll want to upgrade to some sort of firearm fairly early into the game as it’s just so damn satisfying to unload a clip into some mutated degenerate or outlaw reprobate.  Weapons are intuitive, fun to use and have a satisfying oomph to them.  Be sure to have a fair amount of coin though as large quantities of dough will be spent upgrading your guns or purchasing untold amounts of ammunition.  I also highly recommend that you stock up on ammo before each mission as you’ll be needing it…

Unfortunately, Rage is not without flaws and though there are only a few problems, the most frustrating of all is definitely the terrible amount of pixel-popping present throughout the entire game.  Basically, you will be looking at something in the game, be it a mountain, weapon, person or whatever and it will appear low resolution until the proper textures kick in a few seconds later.  I’ve never seen textures delayed to this degree before and it really kills the overall enjoyment of the game.  In fact, some of the textures never pop up in certain sections (like the urban environments or dark corners of a building), with the result that one is left staring at a blank, non-detailed piece of scenery resembling something from the PSX era.  Disappointing indeed, as well as unexpected as id Software is known for its highly impressive game-engines.  Though it seems that Carmack is aware of this problem and I read an article stating that the game was originally over 100gigs, but that the developers had to compress it down to something ‘workable’ so that it could be stored onto DVD and Blu-Ray.  I imagine this was a cause of much frustration to the texture artists who spent years working on the game.  The general consensus is that the PS3 version looks the most impressive with PC a close second (PC version has had a myriad of problems) and then with Xbox 360 placing last.  Though I imagine that realistically the PC version (given the available hardware) would be the best-looking in the end.  As far as I know, there has been no patch or update released for the PS3 version addressing the pixel-popping bug.  Apart from the low-res textures , the game-engine is truly beautiful – the skies look amazing, the environments are richly detailed and interesting and the character models are brilliant.  The id Tech 5 engine is truly a masterwork and I look forward to seeing what other third-party developers will be able to squeeze out of it.

Authority troops in action.

The only other gripe that I have with Rage is that the game ends too abruptly, with the final level being a complete cake-walk, I spent every last penny I had on ammunition expecting a final battle to end all battles only to be left feeling cheated and disappointed.  Rage could really have benefited from another 10 – 15 hours game-play but oh well, what can you do?

Conclusion

Rage is a highly addictive, engrossing game and a worthy addition to id Software’s library of kick-assery, unfortunately, some unnecessary (for today’s standards) texture problems and a half-baked ending detract from the overall enjoyment of what could have easily been the best first-person shooter of the year.  Otherwise, Rage is a worthy addition to your gaming library, I just hope that id Tech 5′s texture problems don’t carry over to future releases.

Grade: B+

2011
11/24
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Florence + The Machine – Ceremonials

Genre: Indie rock, art rock, baroque pop, soul, experimental

Release Date: 2011-10-28

Length: 89.27 (including deluxe edition bonus disc)

Origin: London, England

After the critical acclaim of Florence Welch‘s first album – Lungs (2009), Florence and the Machine (stylized as ‘Florence + the Machine’) have released their latest album entitled Ceremonials.  Lungs received much praise and exposure – BBC Introducing attributing a large role for the band’s rise to popularity and mainstream success.  With Lungs being one of the best-selling albums of 2009 and 2010, it will certainly be a tough act to follow, and rightly so because in my opinion, Ceremonials is inferior to its predecessor.  Where Lungs was criticized for lacking cohesion and being ‘all over the place’, I criticize their latest album for being uninspired and tedious.

Florence writes her best songs when she’s drunk or has a hangover, because that’s when the freedom, the feral music comes, creating itself wildly from the fragments gathered in her notebooks and in her head.

I’m at odds with the above statement (taken off of the official Florence website) because judging from the band’s latest work, I’m inclined to believe that Welch must have been sober as a judge as Ceremonials doesn’t bring anything new to the table, in fact, the random style of Lungs, which brought us such imaginative and catchy songs as ‘Drumming Song‘, ‘Cosmic Love‘ and ‘My Boy Builds Coffins‘ has been extinguished for the sake of a more ‘cohesive’ song line-up with the result that everything sounds ‘samey’ to the point where one is not sure where one song ends and the next begins…

Welch’s voice is beautiful and powerful, shown off nicely in songs like ‘Heartlines’, which wasn’t half bad and has a decent amount of energy to it, I just wish the album was a bit more lively and inventive.  I suspect that die-hard Florence fans will disagree with me and that’s fine, this review is after-all an opinion piece, I just wish I could understand why this album has had so much acclaim.  Even though critics are saying that Ceremonials is a vast improvement over their previous entry, I believe that Lungs was far better and because of its popularity, the resulting hype and anticipation of the second album has blinded people somewhat.  Oftentimes, it takes a while to get into an album and repeat listening may be required until the hooks of the songs start dancing around one’s head, unfortunately after listening to this album three or four times now, it just doesn’t seem to do anything for me with the exception of ‘Remain Nameless‘, a beautifully constructed song and ironically a bonus track.  On a positive note, there’s no denying that a lot of time and effort has gone into Ceremonials, with twelve songs making up the main album and an additional eight tracks on the bonus disc (from the deluxe version) putting the running time at almost one-and-a-half hours.

Conclusion

Overall, even after repeated playing, I found Ceremonials to be uninspired and for the most part disappointing.  I love Welch’s voice, it’s gothic and oftentimes quite haunting, I just feel that her vocal prowess has been wasted with this latest album.  I can only hope that her next album will be more like the first, allowing her to flex her vocal talents with something unique and funky as opposed to ‘cohesive’ and unitary.

Grade: C

2011
11/02
CATEGORY
Music
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Cloud Control – Bliss Release

Genre: Indie rock, psychedelia, folk

Release Date: 2010-05-14

Length: 42.45

Origin: New South Wales, Australia

I’m not quite sure what it is, but there’s definitely something enticing about the indie rock scene, perhaps it’s the underground, garage band vibe or the ‘do-it-yourself’ approach that comes with developing such music, regardless of the reason, indie rock certainly has a more personal and heartfelt feel to it than its brethren and perhaps that’s where the attraction lies.  After the release of their single ‘Death Cloud‘ on November 13, 2008 – Cloud Control started to garner immense popularity and after several festival appearances and tours, the band released their first album – Bliss Release in 2010.

Admittedly, it took me a while to get into this band, its sound and style are quite different from what I’m used to listening to, but after playing the album through four or five times, the hooks of the songs dug themselves into my brain giving me a new-found appreciation for how catchy most of these songs truly are. Cloud Control shares a strong similarity to psychedelic bands like the Beatles, with a lot of their songs being up-tempo, feel good and generally mellow.

Though the term ‘indie’ doesn’t really refer to independent anymore, as the moment the bands are picked up by a major label (Ivy League Records in Cloud Control’s case) they cease to be independent, ‘indie‘ is now a music genre in its own right having a distinctive sound that people now associate the term with.  Indie rock is not as heavy as most other rock genres and focuses more on guitar and vocal melodies.  You will also find that bass-lines play a major role in most songs and are often quite pronounced.  Cloud Control shares all of the aforementioned attributes and more with catchy guitar riffs, funky drums and creative lyrics.  For me, a lead vocalist can either make or break a band, I’m not a fan of guttural screeching and thankfully indie rock is generally devoid of it, Alister Wright’s (lead vocalist) voice is expressive and mellow, and complemented wonderfully with backing vocals from Heidi Lenffer (keyboards) and Jeremy Kelshaw (bass guitar).

Songs of note include – Meditation Song #2 (Why, Oh Why), Ghost Story, Gold Canary and my personal favourite, Death Cloud – added to Bliss Release as a bonus track.  A reworked version of Death Cloud has been released recently and while I do prefer the original, this new version has a certain funkiness to it as well as an awesome, if somewhat odd music video.

Conclusion

Much like Scotland, there is an emerging indie rock scene coming out of Australia, and I highly recommend that fans of the genre keep a watchful eye on Cloud Control as they are definitely going places.  Having won several awards and opening for superstar bands like Foo Fighters, it’s only a matter of time before Cloud Control reaches super-stardom themselves.  While I’m not too certain of the global availability of Bliss Release (I don’t expect to see it in any of my local music stores), if the band strikes your fancy, it can be bought off of iTunes here for $16.99 (about  R135).  If you’re looking for something funky and chilled, you need not look further than Bliss Release.

Grade: B

2011
10/10
CATEGORY
Music
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Dead Island

Info:

Developer/s: Techland

Publisher/s: Deep Silver

Platform/s: Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360

Genre: Free-roaming, survival horror, first-person shooter, role-playing

Release Date: 2011-09-06

Ever since the official announcement trailer, Dead Island has sparked immense interest in the gaming community, with impressive (albeit pre-rendered) visuals and morbidly heartfelt subject matter, the trailer held great promise and when it was announced that Dead Island would be a survival horror, first person-shooter, role-playing game, the concept alone made the entire package all the more enticing.  I can’t really vouch for the console versions but what I’ve heard from several review sites and forums has been positive feedback for the most part, unfortunately the same can’t be said for the PC version as the myriad of bugs and technical glitches present are so imposing that it detracts from the overall experience to the point where the game becomes quite unplayable.  Granted, Dead Island’s ‘day-one‘ patch addressed around forty issues, unfortunately none of the problems I experienced were fixed by it.  I’d like to say that bugs and glitches were my only gripe with Dead Island though unfortunately that isn’t the case as I found the game to be rather boring and uninspired.

So firstly I will address the non-glitch related problems I had with Dead Island.  The premise is that you are on vacation at a lovely tropical resort island called Banoi – a fictional island located in the Papua New Guinean islands, south of the equator, north of Australia.  You have one too many drinks one night and through the alcohol-induced blurriness, people are seemingly attacking one another before you black out.  From this point, you are given the option of choosing from four playable characters:

  • Logan Carter – a former NFL star and ‘throwing weapons’ expert.
  • Purna – a former police officer and ‘firearms’ expert.
  • Sam B – a one-hit rap wonder and ‘blunt weapons’ expert.
  • Xian Mei – a Royal Palms Resort employee and ‘sharp weapons’ expert.

After you’ve selected your character, the game begins with you waking up in your hotel room, as you venture forth you discover that not only is the place devoid of human life, but blood-thirsty zombies are snapping at your heels.  It’s up to you to escape the hotel and find out what’s going on.

Using a vehicle to kill zombies is the fastest way to rack up experience points...it's also an effective zombie-extermination method.

Given that the idea behind Dead Island is to emulate a ‘real-world’ zombie apocalypse scenario, the most logical character choice for me was Sam B, considering that most of the items that one would defend themselves with would be anything one could get their hands on, it’s more likely that a person would arm themselves with a boat paddle, frying pan or baseball bat as opposed to razor-sharp throwing knives and firearms (though those are present).  Ammunition for the aforementioned projectile weapons is also extremely scarce, so having a character that is adept at using the things around them for protection was definitely an easy choice and considering that after completing the game I have absolutely no compulsion to play through the campaign with each of the other three characters, Sam B was a good choice for me.  I should also mention that melee weapons degrade in this game, so if you use one weapon too much it will become damaged requiring that you repair it. Weapon repairs can be done at any of the many work-benches strewn throughout the maps.  Work-benches also allow you to upgrade a weapon as well as modify it, so while a baseball bat is definitely useful, wrapping barbed-wire around it makes it all the more lethal.

Try to kill these particular creatures from a distance, if they receive too much damage they explode.

So this is where the problems begin…your character happens to be immune to the zombie epidemic, so while you’re certainly able to be killed by the creatures, you are immune to the virus they spread when bitten – fair enough.  Unfortunately that equates to you being the prime candidate for being given the run around by several other hapless survivors who have barricaded themselves in some hut, building, bunker or what have you.  Needless to say, because they’re ‘survivors’ they will be needing various supplies like food, water, power, weapons and so forth and each encampment is populated with a ‘leader type’ who will request that you do certain tasks (earning you experience points to unlock new abilities) but even though you are given the option to decline, if you wish to progress through the main plot you will have to accept all the quests from the leader characters.  Apart from the main plot quests, the other survivors offer side-quest opportunities (also earning XP) and it’s these side-quests which will occupy most of your time, it’s also the reason for having to constantly go back and forth the maps which becomes very tedious very quickly, especially considering that apart from the XP, the reward for helping the survivors isn’t really worth the effort.  Even though earning XP is crucial to your success, eventually I became so saturated by the game that I ignored the side-quests all together in an effort to complete the game as quickly as possible, which worked out fine as I was able to finish the game without unlocking the bulk of the special abilities or doing the majority of the laborious side-quests.  The Dead Island world is open-ended (for the most part) and expansive, so be prepared to do a lot of walking (or running given most situations) and eventually driving even though a ‘fast travel’ option exists within the game, extensive walking is an activity you should brace yourself for.  Killing zombies earns you XP which is required in order to level up.  Every time you reach a new level, you have the option to select an ability from the skill tree, the skill tree is broken up into three sections – Fury, Combat and Survival.  I spent most of my experience points unlocking the Survival section as it proved to be the most beneficial.

Find the right items and blue-prints (scattered throughout the game) and you can modify your melee weapons, like this flaming baseball bat for example.

If you strip away all the side quests, you are left with a generic and uninspired main plot which makes no effort what-so-ever to bring anything new to the table.  Plot wise, the zombie outbreak is similar to Resident Evil in that the zombies are of human design, except that the latter was actually entertaining and engaging where as Dead Island stagnates quite quickly.  Dead Island is broken up into four chapters, of which the first chapter confines you to the island resort and the surrounding area.  I found the first section of the game to be painfully boring but thankfully it gets a little bit better from the second chapter onwards.  Each chapter introduces a different kind of zombie, so while initially you are confronted with ‘walkers’ (the slow-movers), as the game progresses you are met with the ‘infected’ (fast-moving zombies that will sprint towards you), ‘thugs’ (large slow-movers that inflict major damage), ‘floaters’ (gelatinous blobs that spew poisonous vomit) and more.  Thankfully, the play-mechanics of the game are quite enjoyable, so smashing one of the undead with an oar or piece of pipe feels very satisfying, and if all else fails you have the ability to kick your opponents earning you some much-needed room especially if you knock your enemies to the ground.  I came across firearms eventually just over halfway through the game and compared to their non-projectile counterparts they are quite ineffective.  However, guns are extremely effective against the various non-infected human enemies you will encounter, so save your ammunition for them as they are all ‘packing heat’.

Sinamoi is the first 'leader' character you will encounter, talk to him to receive quests in order to progress through the game.

Unfortunately, dumb enemy AI detracts from the overall experience further so while I understand that the bulk of the enemies are supposed to be mindless zombies (pun intended), the human antagonists don’t make much of an effort to avoid gunfire.  Not only that, the easiest way to fight off the zombie hordes is to jump onto some form of elevated platform, in my case I found myself jumping on top of abandoned vehicles where I was safe from being attacked but was easily able to dispatch the enemies by taking swings at them with one of the longer weapons (like the mace).  I also found that, the ‘infected’ would be able to spot you a hundred metres away, sprint towards you to close in for the kill but the moment I jumped onto something high (like the aforementioned vehicles) they would stop immediately and act as if they never saw me.  I should also point out that everything you do pretty much requires stamina, so running, kicking or swinging a weapon will deplete your stamina bar, even though it replenishes very quickly, when surrounded by four or five zombies, fighting them off can prove to be difficult.

Despite their appearance, they are rather easy to take down, just make sure that you use something like a mace or sledgehammer.

Addressing the technical flaws, despite being patched Dead Island is loaded with problems, you cannot manually save, which is stupid especially for a PC game, instead the game auto-saves whenever the player reaches a checkpoint, which is fine except that this auto-save feature doesn’t guarantee that you will be in the same place when loading from the last checkpoint.  In fact at one point, I needed to cross a passage loaded with enemies and after being killed, instead of restarting where I was supposed to, I was ‘transported’ to the other side of corridor to where I was trying to get.  Another example, during the second chapter, I was running around the streets and when I was killed off, again instead of starting where the game last auto-saved, I was inside one of the survivor hideouts, one which I hadn’t encountered yet, and because I didn’t get there on my own, I couldn’t interact with any of the people inside as the game uses event-scripting, because I didn’t kill the zombies outside the entrance, the entrance-way was still closed thus the scripted event wasn’t triggered and the only way I could get out was to use a ‘fast travel’ map pinned on the wall.  The inventory system is a mess as not only is it confusing but for some odd reason it allows duplicate weapon entries, so lets say you pick up a revolver, that gun now uses one inventory slot, when you come across another gun of the same make and model, instead of collecting the ammunition, the gun is taken thus wasting another precious inventory slot…urgh…frustrating.  Another glitch worth mentioning is that enemies cannot open doors, so if a zombie is rushing towards you, players can close the door but a lot of the time, the zombie’s body would magically ghost through the door allowing you to attack him even though he is still on the other side, and at one point one of the ‘infected’ managed to run straight through a closed-door.

This is one of many glitches present in Dead Island, in this case, the zombie just walked through the closed doors.

Lastly, one of the few positive aspects about Dead Island is definitely the visuals, while the indoor scenes are somewhat bland, the outside locales are beautiful, be it jungle, mountains or beaches, everything looks authentic with a lot of attention to detail.  The zombies themselves look great too, and the artists did a wonderful job bringing the walking dead to ‘life’ as the zombies are decorated with gaping wounds, exposed bones  and oozing entrails.  At the very least, the developers did a fine job of creating a realistic atmosphere.

An example of the awesome, outdoor locations.

Conclusion

While the announcement trailer promised something emotional and engrossing, in reality, Dead Island is bug-ridden and generic at best.  The countless sub-quests serve only to pad an otherwise short and generic main quest, which relies heavily on over-used plot devices in order to progress the story.  The protagonists are as two-dimensional as the plot and while the combat is fun, it soon becomes tedious.  Dead Island fails to bring anything new to the table, with gameplay being broken up in to – find this, bring that or escort so-and-so and not forgetting the endless need to backtrack.  I don’t really understand why this game has been rated so highly by critics but while it certainly isn’t the worst game out there it’s definitely not the best perhaps only serving as a distraction until something better comes along.

Grade: D

2011
10/08
CATEGORY
Gaming
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