Pretentious Prog Nonsense

August 29, 2010

Scott Pilgrim vs. The World: The Trailer: The Movie

Filed under: Uncategorized — Tags: , , — admin @ 4:41 am

I’m not normally a cinema goer. Pretty much anyone who knows me knows that I much prefer to watch films at home, lying on a sofa. Cinemas, while an interesting outing, are expensive, restrictive, expensive and expensive. Perhaps growing up in a village where the nearest city didn’t even have a multi-screen cinema has turned me against them somewhat. However this summer I’ve been out to see more films than in the past 4 years put together; the latest being the well-hyped Scott Pilgrim vs. The World.

Apparently based off a comic book, SPvTW has got a lot of attention from the teenage/early 20s crowd. Personally I hadn’t heard about the movie until people started posting the trailer to Facebook, but the hype is definitely there. I went into this movie having only seen the trailer. I’d not seen or heard anything about the plot or even how good the film was supposed to be. But still, it was a good opportunity to get out of the house and spend some time with some friends. An occurrence all too rare during the holidays. The story of the movie is as follows: Scott Pilgrim is your standard geeky, 22-year-old bass player who lives in a small Toronto house with his roommate Wallace. Scott meets, literally, the girl of his dreams. Unfortunately his pursuit of said girl leads to some unfortunate encounters as Scott needs to defeat her Seven Evil Exes in order to have a relationship with the girl, all the while trying to achieve stardom with his terribly named band.

The film clocks in at 112 minutes, but needs to fit in a lot of story.  It juggles the plot threads of the various characters around with the  long fights and even a few surreal visual scenes, all under 2 hours. Obviously, this means that the movie is fast. After the short intro, the movies rockets up to a blistering pace and never really slows down. Of course, this can lead to some great comic moments. There’s a running joke where the camera cuts away from Scott, someone mentions his hair only to immediately cut back to him wearing a hat. There’s a lot of small jokes that definitely gave me a chuckle. The problem is that they’re all blink-and-you’ll-miss-it moments. While this can help a movie every now and then, I’m not so convinced it works as the entire concept behind the movie’s pacing. The movie also has this strange habit of throwing random effects on the screen at important or pivotal moments: big batman-style sound effects accompanying the musical portion, a kiss leading to a load of floaty hearts escaping the kissers’ mouths, etc. My guess is that this is trying to keep the style of the comic, similar to a number of other adaptations. But this combined with the movies over the top speed leads to the whole thing feeling rather schizophrenic. Scenes and people jump right out of nowhere with little-to-no buildup and at times can feel very heavy-handed. Even though they can sometimes feel out of place the visuals are quite impressive. Throughout the movie the style and cinematography are fantastic. The snow covered city shots are great, and while you may not expect them, the stylised effects the movie occasionally burps out at the viewer look very nice. All in all it gives a very pleasing experience visually.

Hopefully a film that features an up-and-coming band will have some good music (Wyld Stallyns not withstanding).  For the most part it succeeds. It has some vaguely interesting alternative rock stuff, meandering around various similar styles.  The music in the several band-playing scenes is on the whole very good and fits the visuals seamlessly. This is also where a lot of the direct video game references fall. The film opens to the sound of some familiar Legend of Zelda music, which features all the way through the move. At one point it’s even remixed to provide an oddly haunting soundtrack to a quite serene scene. Not something normally associated with 8-bit music these days.

It’s a good thing that the majority of direct video game references are kept to the music. The few that aren’t are, unfortunately, a bit jarring. They don’t really fit that much with the rest of the movie, and if you don’t know what they’re talking about then it won’t make a whole lot of sense. It can feel a little like the viewer is being pandered to, but for the most part this is just nit-picking. They’re few and far between and, much like the rest of the movie, they’re gone almost as soon as they show up so it’s not much of a problem.

All in all SPvTW is a solid movie, but very, very silly and at times more than a little juvenile. My advice would be this: Watch the trailer. If it doesn’t grab you, then perhaps give Scott Pilgrim a miss. But if you like it, you’ll probably love the movie itself because, really, it’s just more of the same.

August 8, 2010

Starcraft 2!?

Filed under: Uncategorized — admin @ 5:44 pm

Back in 2004 I was introduced to the original Starcraft. Already quite an old game I managed to pick it up cheap and gave it a go. It was, quite simply, great. A well-balanced, engaging RTS game with a relatively engaging story campaign (by video game standards, at least). By the time I started playing the game was already legendary, with a huge community already behind it. However, what really struck me was the ending of the expansion: The zerg rampage unchecked across the galaxy, the heroes retreat forever and pretty much the worst has happened.

That is until Starcraft 2.

Being so highly anticipated I found it hard to resist the game. I’m not a huge strategy game player, but I enjoyed SC1 so much that I felt it was worth giving the game a shot. My first port of call was the campaign. There are huge changes from the style of campaign that was seen in Blizzard’s earlier RTS games. Whereas SC1 and Warcraft 3 had separate campaigns for each race of approximately 10 levels, Starcraft 2 has a single Terran story based around Jim Raynor. While this is perhaps less inclusive compared to the previous games, it does allow the main story to be told in a more complete, flowing manner. Whereas, for those that care less about the story, there are still plenty of unusual missions to keep the campaign fresh. It doesn’t matter so much that you’re restricted to one race, except for a handful of protoss missions later in the game.

The gameplay itself is incredibly traditional. It feels very much like the original Starcraft, which is perfectly fine. I think a lot of people expected the game to be Starcraft: Again and this is what was given to us.  There’s a lot of returning elements to the game, right down to the units’ lines when they’re produced (You want a piece of me, boy?”). But there’s sufficient new material to keep the game fresh and make it seem less like an expansion pack and graphics upgrade to the original. A particular favourite of mine is in the campaign, where you can research certain upgrades depending on how many bonus objectives you’ve completed. However you’re given a choice of two and can only pick one. That sort of choice, in a strategy game, can change your entire playstyle and can certainly keep a person entertained for longer. On the skirmish side of things, I’ve only played a handful of games against AI, but it seems that there’s a sufficient range of AI difficulties to keep most players amused. I went in, unsure of what to expect, and ended up losing to a single medium AI, but after a little re-strategising I came back and easily defeated the same enemy.

Of course, the game does have its problems; mostly in the online/custom games area. First of all, the lack of LAN play is irritating as hell. Sure, you can make a custom game over Bnet, but it’s just not the same. Something strikes me as odd when I need to be connected to the internet just to play against AI. As for custom games, there’s no way to actually play a custom map unless it’s within the most popular maps list, you’ve recently played the map or you’ve published it yourself. Coming from the people who made Warcraft 3 that’s just appalling, not to mention a great shame.

All in all, Starcraft 2 is an pleasant game. I spent quite a few evenings on it and had a lot of fun. It doesn’t make any huge, innovative strides in the RTS genre but it does provide some very good entertainment. And that’s fine. Definitely worth a look.

April 3, 2010

Dragon Age: Origins - Awakening First Impressions

Filed under: Games — Tags: , , , , — admin @ 1:16 am

While the original installment of DA:O was very highly hyped the release of its first expansion managed to completely pass me by. Released on the 18th I only grabbed the game a couple of days ago and decided to give it a whirl. After messing about with Steam in what was far harder than it should be, I managed to access the expansion content. Poor show.

The game starts off as pretty normal expansion stuff. You can either import your DA:O character into the campaign or you can choose to make a new, stock character playing the role of a grey warden from Orlais. The expansion neatly, though unsurprisingly, expands on the old game mechanics. Every class features an array of new abilities and specialisations, new items are available, new gear, e.t.c. All in all it feels like quite a smooth expansion, nicely segueing in from the original game.

However, where the game falls apart is the new story and characters. The story starts with the aftermath of the final battle of the original game. Your chosen character is now the leader of the Grey Wardens in Ferelden and must meet up with recruits and the like at a shiny new keep far, far away from the original game. However, as it always does, complications arise and you’re thrown back into a wacky and wild adventure filled with blood, monsters and women in various degrees of scantily-clad-ness…

Anyway,

The plot is solid, but lacks something from the original game. The origin stories and initial part of the game set up a good sense of urgency and direction: Save the world, and be quick about it. The expansion seems to lack that somewhat. Once the story is established it kind of mills around for a bit without really directing you anywhere. The reason this is a “first impressions” review is because I did what I always do when shown a great amount of choice and diversity in what I can choose to do in a game. I got bored and played something else. I enjoy a good sidequest as much as the next man, but after spending 2 hours in a town I felt like I’d accomplished nothing other than killing a few smugglers and stealing a kitten. I could, of course, be wrong and things get very different, but if a game can’t grab you in those crucial first few hours, what’s the point?

Anyway, my other main gripe with the game is the characters. Only one character returns from the original to join your party: Ohgren. Remember him? The foul mouthed, druken stereotype dwarf with the voice of Spike Speigel? Yeah. He’s as much of a comic relief character as he ever was, so your opinion of him is unlikely to change. But then you get to the various other characters, none of whom seem to have any of the charm or wit of the original party members. The mage you meet in the initial mission is a very obvious copy-paste of Alistair into a mage suit, whether this is a deeply important plot point or not I have no idea. But even being modelled after the original and stealing a kitten, who he names Sir Pounce-a-lot, can’t stop me wishing I had my party back.

I suppose the game is competent enough, good for a bit of a distraction but it’s lacking something from the first game. It feels like the soul has gone from the game a little, and really, I just don’t want to play it all that badly.

April 1, 2010

The Big Final Fantasy XIII Review

Filed under: Games, Uncategorized — Tags: , , , — admin @ 7:32 pm

So. Final Fantasy XIII.

This game was the reason I even bought a PS3 in the first place, I didn’t want to be caught out when it was finally released. It’s fair to say I had high expectations of this game, though this was mainly due to ignoring any and all reviews on the game until I’d sampled it myself.

Anyway, the game opens up with a standard video and the very first thing that will strike you is how obscenely beautiful the game is. Being the first FF game on the latest generation it had a lot to live up to, and it does not disappoint. The game’s graphics are eye-bleedingly gorgeous from start to finish. The characters, the scenery, everything will leave you flabbergasted. While the PS3 is occasionally strained, with a few intense scenes causing some frames issues, this is rare. Once you get past the graphics, the story starts:

FFXIII is set on the world of Cocoon, floating above the “Hell” of Pulse, a world largely unknown at the start of the game. There’s a severe hatred towards anything to do with pulse from the residents of Cocoon, which serves as the catalyst for the first event of the game. We start with several characters on a train during “The Purge”, the events of which are slowly revealed in the first hours of the game. While the overall plot of the game and how it progresses is pretty standard stuff it still feels quite enjoyable. While supposedly the game was supposed to be a break from tradition in some respects (I have no idea who started this, but I’ve heard the term thrown around the place a few times) the storyline is pretty much standard. Evil Power, save the world, yadda yadda…

The characters are, by and large, annoying. They all have their various flaws that make each one unique: There’s Grumpy, Whiny, Boastful, Angry, Chirpy and Bitchface.  The only character most people might have any sympathy for is also the comic relief character, and that’s just depressing. You might be able to sympathise with the man who lost his fiancée if said woman wasn’t a complete one-dimensional cutout of a damsel in distress. This, by itself, wouldn’t be so bad, but the self-dubbed hero plays off this at every available opertunity, which just serves to make him more infuriating.  I won’t go into the other characters, but take it from me that it doesn’t get any better.

The game itself is most definitely a break from tradition. There was a lot of talk prior to the game’s release about it being “too linear”, but I wasn’t sure quite what people were expecting. It’s a Final Fantasy game, a story strung together by a progression of fights with larger numbers. It was a formula that worked. However, after playing the game it’s easy to understand why people might make this claim. The game is a played as a sequence of tunnel-dungeons with very little choices that need to be made. A step away from the old PS1 era games, where, given you were late enough in the game and therefore past all the railroading, you could go whereever you want, whenever you want. The game leads you by the hand through the story. There’s a point near the end of the game where there is actually a small amount of choice to be made: Continue on with the story, or faff around with the only sidequests in the game. Even once you finish the main story and try to complete all of these sidequests and trophies there’s still very little choice to be made. It’s a case of maxing out your characters, then actually doing the job.

The battle system is very reminiscent of older PS1 fight systems. Wait for a bar to charge up, hit your enemy, repeat. Each character is assigned a selection of jobs that they can perform, such as Medic (healer) or Commando (Physical damage). Each of these jobs can be swapped around using preset selections known as paradigms. This forms the main premise of the battle system: Need to heal? Switch to a team with a medic, All healed up? Switch back to three attackers. All in all the battle system feels quite rapid, but also quite fluid. With two speed settings you can at least change it slightly if you feel you’re being overwhelmed but overall I found the battle system to be the most fun part of the game.

Overall it’s a solid game, pretty fun if you’ve got a few spare hours every now and then. If you’re a fan of the series and have even a slight amount of rationality you’ll probably enjoy it. But you have to think, when basically all you’ve got is a story with battles in the middle, you want both to be impeccable. Did they really manage to do that with FF13?

No.

September 14, 2009

Muse - The Resistance.

Filed under: Uncategorized — admin @ 1:08 am

Ever since I first heard Feeling Good while watching some random music channel I’ve been in love with Muse. I’ve eagerly awaited every album they’ve released and their new offering The Resistance is no exception. The album opens with the heavy, rolling sounds of Uprising; The droning vocals of Bellamy and strong beats combined with familiar muse sounds should leave the old fans feeling happy. The album continues with some new and interesting sounds with songs such as Undisclosed Desires, with a beat-heavy electronic backing track, or the Queen-esque United States of Eurasia combined with a little Chopin in the form of Collateral Damage. Similar to the band’s two previous albums these tracks feel like a natural evolution of their sound while remaining distinctly “Muse”. Going into the album’s second half with the 7 minute Unnatural Selection throws the album into overdrive with a tune that starts as reminiscent of some of their classic songs such as Plug in Baby or Hysteria. The album slows down again with the jazzy I Belong To You, a piano heavy tune that wouldn’t sound out of place in a 1930s feelgood film. Again, a slightly different direction for the band but one that still manages to sound like noone else. I think I even made out a clarinet in there somewhere. The album finishes off with the three part Exogenesis Symphony totalling just under 13 minutes, starting off with the epic and eerie Overture. Bellamy makes a return to the soft, drawn out vocals of previous albums working seamlessly into the music. Building up in part two with a haunting piano it strikes familiar to the bands previous work, especially Origin of Symmetry. The queen style guitar makes a subtle return, but soon disappears as the song winds down into part three; the mellow and peaceful Redemption. A simple, soft piece that winds the album down perfectly.

All in all, I love this album. Again the band have managed to try out a few new things, go in a few new directions while still remaining the same band and would definitely recommend it to a fan of their previous stuff. Well worth the time.

May 31, 2009

Places to relax and the union.

Filed under: University — admin @ 4:17 pm

Over the last few weeks, while most other people have been revising, I’ve spent quite a bit of time reflecting on the way I spend my free time these days. It’s quite sad to see a lot of people I know get so flustered and worried about exams. Of course, occasionally the worry is sometimes justified, but still it’s sad. Also, I know that there’s very little I can do about this state of affairs, so I go back to doing other inconsequential things such as playing Braid, going to DDR in Birmingham or writing a blog post.

However, something occurred to me recently. I’ve been spending more and more time in the mathematics Linux computer room recently, as have many others. Their reason for being there? I assume it’s mostly for revision/work, massive youtube orgies and circle-jerks aside. But me, what was I spending so much time there for? Until recently I’d only spend a small amount of time in that specific room. It wasn’t so that I could specifically spend more time with the other people, don’t get me wrong, I enjoy their company, but I’d rather enjoy it somewhere a little more social. It wasn’t to do Project Euler either; I could just as easily go somewhere else to do that. Anyway, I went over a number of possible reasons in my head and finally one dawned on me: Was there anywhere else to go?

DCS isn’t an option for any non-CS students, or at least students with zero access to the building. It would be nice to go there, but it’s simply not viable. Places like the science concourse are also kind of what I’m looking for, but in reality are either far too busy or have other niggling problems. I used to go to the union. I very much enjoyed relaxing in the Kami Lounge/pool table area. I genuinely felt comfortable sitting there for hours on end either looking over notes, browsing t’internet over the union’s hotspot and playing pool when I could find an opponent. But this was cruelly taken away from me with the union rebuild, and so I defaulted to a place I previously only used for work, or at least something resembling work. Coupled with severely cutting down the amount of time I spent on WoW, this meant I was spending more and more time in this one room. Something I didn’t particularly want to do. I’m just hoping that when the union is finished there’ll be somewhere I can go to relax, much like before.

May 2, 2009

Cake!

Filed under: Food. — admin @ 10:51 pm

A while ago I made a cake as a prize for the AnimeSoc termly quiz and have just remembered that a couple of people actually asked me for the recipe. So here it is: Twinklefeet’s ridiculous Pancake-Cake.

Ingredients:

175g Butter

175g Caster Sugar

4-5 Eggs

175g Self-Raising Flour.

Bag of Plain Flour.

~2 pints of milk.

First off, preheat your oven to 180 degrees (If the internet is to believed this is apparently gas mark 4). Then mix together the Sugar and Butter in a large bowl. If you’re having trouble mixing them you can blast the butter quickly in a microwave to make things a little easier. Once you’ve got your sugar/butter mix add 3 of the eggs, put the other two aside for now. You should now have a very disgusting looking mixture, but don’t fret, it’ll look better shortly. Next use a sieve to slowly add the self-raising flower to the mix. You want to slowly fold in the flour into the mix making sure to try and get rid of any lumps. If you want to make a chocolate cake you can add some cocoa or drinking chocolate now too.

Split this mixture between two pre-greased up sandwich tins and put them into the oven for 20-30 minutes. When they’re done they will be firm to the touch and look like a cake.

Now, while they’re cooking, take out a jug or similar sized vessel. Add the other two eggs and beat them with a fork. When they’re thoroughly beaten, slowly add the plain flour, mixing as you go. I never really know what the ratio of eggs to flour should be, but the resulting goop should be very stiff and basically forming one big lump that sticks to your fork. Then slowly add milk to the mixture, stirring hard. Keep adding milk until you end up with a runny batter.

Take your frying pan and heat it up as hot as possible, greasing it with some leftover butter. When the pan is sufficiently hot add some of the batter. It will be quite obvious how well cooked the pancake is, and when it looks ready, flip it with a spatula or, if you’re feeling adventurous, without. Anyway, re-apply butter to the pan with a piece of kitchen towel or similar and repeat for moar pancakes.

Once your cake is finished remove from the oven and let it cool. Once they’ve cooled off construct your final cake. Personally I went with one pancake on top and one in the middle, glued in with some pre-made frosting. Then add whatever decoration you like and voila: Pancake-cake.

Enjoy.

April 27, 2009

Anime!

Filed under: Anime — Tags: — admin @ 3:31 pm

The new, allegedly spring, anime season upon us and now that there are a few episodes out for each series. Once again we have a huge variety of shows ranging from completely stupid to mildly stupid. Being the president of AnimeSoc I’ll just do a quick rundown of some of the more notable series this season.

Eden of the East

So far this series seems to have the most potential out of all shows I have watched this season. The first episode introduce a young female lead from Japan visiting DC. After getting into a slightly hairy situation while looking at the White House she is promptly saved by a naked guy with nothing more than a gun and some sort of hi-tech mobile phone. It presents itself as quite a light-hearted series but there are deeper, significant elements to the story that are keeping me interested. The art and music are both quite strong and, at least for me, seems like a good all round series.

Sengoku Basara

Without a doubt the MANliest series available of the new season. Truth be told, plot-wise I have absolutely no idea what this series is about. I think it was something to do with various warlords in ancient Japan competing amongst themselves for territory and honour. However, in reality, it is about manly men having ridiculously over the top fights with each other in a blaze of glory. It also has a horse with motorcycle accessories. If that doesn’t do it for you then…you’re probably sane.

Valkyria Chronicles

For the unaware. this was originally a game released for the PS3 set in an alternative universe of Earth circa 1940. The story focuses on the story of Alicia, a young girl from Gallia, a small neutral nation under threat of invasion from the East Europan Empire. As a member of the town watch on the border town of Bruhl, the first few episodes specifically deal with her and her fellow main characters defending their home. The series follows quite closely to the game with a few alterations. Overall it’s quite a competently made series. The animation style, while not as striking as the original, is still very nice and the music is lifted straight from the game. In short, it’s a series that you may not normally consider but you may just like.

Shangri-La

Truth be told I’ve only watched the first episode of this. However, I found it very interesting and I will definitely watch more of it eventually. It has art by Range Murata (for those who don’t know the name, he did the character art for Last Exile) so you know even if the rest of the series turns out to be crap it will always jizz beauty into your eyes. It has quite a wide variety of characters but hasn’t really told us anything about them from the first episode. Although, it does have a transvestite who appears to attack his enemies by either kissing them and/or using a whip he keeps wrapped around his arm.

Queen’s Blade

No list of this season’s shows is complete without this. The first episode contains an enemy who shoots acid from her breasts.

…

yeah.

That’s all for now, I may comment on some of the other series when I actually get round to watching a little more of them.

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