From the same universe of books of Old Man’s War (8★★★★★★★★), John Scalzi tells a story of a human colony on another planet. It’s a new colony, so mostly tells the hard conditions and situations that they have to face.
They are far from home. And contact with the former homes is prohibited. Most do not know why. Just focus on creating the initial conditions for bigger and definitive immigration waves. Wild animals, inhospitable weather, and a lack of resources and technologies make everything a very dire situation.
You follow the story of John Perry, the same protagonist from the original novel. This story takes place many years after the events of the second book in the series, The Ghost Brigade. Perry and his wife Sagan are now trying to have a normal civilian life with their new daughter Zoe.
This small shot from the Mexican developer Tequila Works. A platformer, focused mainly on puzzle solving a bit of combat. It happens in the city of Seattle, during a zombie apocalypse. Zombies, platforming and puzzles.
The visuals are great. Very detailed environments and characters. The animations between stages are very well produced. It’s probably the highest point of the game. Since the very first moments I was impressed by it.
The story is bad. Lots of cliché situations and setups. Among the several problems, are:
Inefficient mystery: During the whole game, the protagonist have memory flashbacks. They give glimpses of what happen. But never enough to neither clarify what’s going on, nor to increase the tension. It feels that it’s a bunch of disconnected facts about the past.
Awful character development: despite your main character, the entire cast of characters is either boring or annoying. Or both. The character from the sewers excels in both categories.
The tension of the gameplay is valid. It’s real. The zombies offer enough challenge. It’s not like the running kind from Left for Dead nor the super slow and easy to avoid from Alone in the Dark
The infamous sewers level
I feel that if Tequila Works invested in a second game, it would be much more refined in the storytelling department. It falls short on its potential.
Yesterday I finally finished Enslaved: Odyssey to the West. Great game! Underappreciated and undersold.
It tells the story of Monkey, a brute man that is really flexible and versatile. Gameplay and game story wise, this character makes much more sense those characters on Assassin’s Creed, parkouring around. He is a humble and simple man, that was captured as a slave. He finds Trip, a beautiful and resourceful girl that faces the same destiny. However, their destiny changes when the transport airplane suffers a problem and crashes. Trip and Money survive. Trip wants to return to her father and see the opportunity to do something really bold: uses a device to enslave Monkey using a special collar. Or he helps her to return to her home, or he dies. If he tries to remove the collar, he dies. If he gets too far from her, he dies.
He wants to live. So he decides to help. So the game starts.
The gameplay is basically a combat and 3D exploration and parkour. In a sense, is a mix of old Mario 64/Lara Croft, with Assassin’s Creed combat. It sometimes requires some puzzle solving, but generally they are very easy. The combat is rudimentary and only require some tactics and button smashing. Bosses are difficult, however. Time to time, the mechanics change to something special, like controlling a gun turret, but 99% of the game is very straightforward. In fact, it is probably my biggest complaint about Enslaved: Odyssey to the West: after while, you will not get anything new to do. It’s just repetition of the same things. This is the reason I played about half of the game, stopped and only returned several months later, with the mission in my head to finish it once and for all. It was surprisingly good, nevertheless.
Oh, there is another thing: every time you die, you are moved back to the last checkpoint to try again. Great. HOWEVER, you are forced to see the cinematic that are often played before the action. Every time. If it is a challenge part, like a boss, I bet you are going nuts for the time wasted. Developers, never (I repeat, never) do this. It is super annoying.
The visuals are a big plus here. Even for an older game (originally released in 2010), the game is still gorgeous. It has personality, flavor. The scenarios are all very pretty as well the characters. Money and Trip show emotions in a level that more modern games still struggle to accomplish. The animations are great and fluid very plastic.
The story is also a great point for the game. It is original, personal and compelling. You will love the couple. The protagonist is likable! What a great feature, so rare! The companion is a bit arrogant, but she is also very likable. Only the third guy, named Pigsy, falls into the typical NPC of boring, arrogant and annoying. Yet he is cool. 3 characters total and the story is still super cool. Great achievement. The ending is a bit of “the architect moment in the Matrix”, trowing a lot of information to give it all a closure, but it is really great and memorable. The main “villain” is also played by Andy Serkis, which plays the main character Monkey, is a big surprise (don’t worry, it is not exactly a spoiler).
Overall it was a great experience. I believe it is a new classic. The same kind as Blade Runner, that was critic acclaimed, but a commercial failure.
I was wandering in the giant wasteland of TV shows, changing channels every 15 seconds, when I noticed that animation Sing was about to start. I decided to give it a try, but I had no expectations about it. For me, it would be another cashing animation movie.
When it ended I felt super surprised about how good it is. I was crying like a baby, but it is something I do often. 😛
The movie is about a theater owner that dreamed about having a great and successful show but got failure after failure. Deeply in debt, he decided to create a singing competition. It attracted hundreds of contestants, which one with a unique style. The narrative is very predictable, but nevertheless very emotional one. The main theme is believing in your dreams. But there is a bit of father-son relationship for some characters. They don’t run away from the typical stereotypes. And there a very few surprises along the way.
Visually stunning, the song selection is very nice (could be great, however) and the characters are very well realized. My personal favorite is the chameleon assistant. 😛 The cast is very good here, with solid performances. Some of them I did not notice who as whom. I don’t know if the actors actually sang for the movie, but I doubt it.
Very good pop corn time movie to watch with the family.
Just after watching a fun and light comedy with Sing, another channel started to show Queen of Katwe. I heard good comments when it was in theaters, so I decided to keep up the marathon.
It tells the story of Phiona Mutesi, a real life girl from the village of Katwe, in Uganda, that end up being a very good chess player. It is a very typical against-all-odds and follow-your-dream kinda story. The poor girl has to face all the prejudice for being women and poor (but not about being black, because the whole movie is basically on Uganda, which such thing is nonsense) to get a place under the sun.
Her unexpected success transformed the lives of her family and of the many people of her village. She became a celebrity at very young age, which influenced her personality. Year after year, she started to behave as a spoiled kid, believing that she was invincible. With the family support, she realizes the most valuable things in life in the end.
The acting of the protagonist, from Madina Nalwanga, is excellent. The entire media focused the attention to the beautiful Lupita Nyong’o that plays Phiona’s mother, but the real star here is Madina. Phiona is portrayed as a timid, introspective girl, but Madina played in a way that it still makes the character very, very likable. You cheer for her. Even being in a chess match!
The other kids are also surprisingly good. It is always a challenge to work with children.
My main complaint with the story is the sub-plot of her older sister. I don’t know if the book that was based on uses this character to a greater purpose, but in this motion picture this subplot, while gives hints about the whole situation of Phiona and her mother, does not go anywhere relevant.
The visuals are great. The poverty is displayed in a way that brings emotions but is not there to provoke shock. The African colors and styles gives it a very distinctive and beautiful look.
