| Transformers |
[Jul. 13th, 2007|08:14 pm] |
Saw this earlier today.
Note: I had almost no familiarity with Transformers before I saw the movie, beyond knowing there was a dude named Optimus Prime, and that the movie was about giant robots that could transform into cars. My impressions:
( Spoilers )
On the whole, not bad, but I thought Casino Royale was a better popcorn movie. |
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| Valkyrie Profile 2: Silmeria |
[Jul. 5th, 2007|09:44 pm] |
Back when Valkyrie Profile 2: Silmeria was only a rumour, I pounced on any and all scraps of information I could find. After it was confirmed, and as it drew closer to completion, I pored over the official Japanese website, eagerly downloading each new trailer or wallpaper. It was one of the few games that I really looked forward to.On Thursday 25 May, I fired it up for the first time, in order to celebrate handing in my Honours thesis. Last night, I finally finished it, after spending most of the day blitzing through the second half of the game, and staying up for the last boss battle.
How did I find it? On the whole, I loved the game: I wasn't at all disappointed. I really enjoyed the gameplay -- it improved on the first game with platforming that was just challenging enough for me, plus a deep battle system. The palette-swapped enemies wore on me after a while, but unlike certain other games, VP2 actually let you bypass them, instead of having tedious random encounters every three steps. Its art design was beautiful, particularly in the backgrounds of towns and dungeons; and its music, from ambient scores to boss-battle tracks, did a great job of complementing the other elements of the game.
Courtesy of the above, the game did well at worldbuilding: even the dungeons were evocative and lent themselves to speculation. The einherjar didn't receive much characterisation, but what they did have was very good (and often overlooked, judging by some of th ecomments I've seen), and often tragic. The plot, and the plot-related characters, were the weakest elements of the game... but only for the first half. The second half moved me to omfg fanboy squee, particularly when good plotting combined with good gameplay to produce memorable moments. There seems to be considerable criticism of the ending, but I personally enjoyed it: I found it thematically satisfying, and I liked how it wrapped up various characters' arcs. Speaking of which, the game deserves credit for trying to tell the story of its heroine's character growth, even if its execution could have been better.
(As a postscript, I'm actually glad my knowledge of Norse mythology is so rusty -- and I'm afraid to refresh my memory -- because otherwise I probably wouldn't be able to enjoy the series as much; its treatment of the source material is Hollywood-worthy in its fidelity, or lack thereof.)
Anyone up for a spoileriffic discussion? ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) falcon815? |
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| Straw poll |
[Apr. 14th, 2007|09:21 pm] |
I imagine most people who read this would have at least a nodding acquaintance with the webcomic format - updates two or three times a week, on fixed days (e.g. Monday / Wednesday / Friday), with each update being short and usually self-contained, even if there is an overall story arc.
I have three questions for you, inspired by a couple of mentions about how publishers of fiction should look to webcomics for ideas:
1. Would you visit a website that posted textual updates on a regular schedule? (I'm thinking of something a little more formal than a blog, here.)
2. How long should each update be? 100 words? 300? 500?
3. What kind of content should it contain? Fiction? Short essays on science or technology or even law, a la l_clausewitz's military history posts? Some of each - say, fiction on Mondays, non-fiction pieces on 'creative' topics on Wednesdays, non-fiction pieces on 'real-world' topics on Fridays? |
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| LOTR What-Ifs |
[Jan. 28th, 2007|05:26 pm] |
"“Before you decide whether we should go through the Mines of Moria, Frodo, I should warn you that there’s a 30-foot-tall flame-spewing demon servant of the ancient god Morgoth hanging out down there."
I particularly like some of the most plausible ones, such as #18, and those that would have affected the War of the Ring or the actual quest (as opposed to Aragorn's love life), such as #10.
Coincidentally, I rediscovered this link the same day that, while watching the Fellowship of the Ring extended edition, one of those exact points (what if Elrond had attacked Isildur and forcibly disposed of the Ring?) occurred to me.
More what-ifs:
- What if Frodo never goes wandering off by himself (movie version), never quarrels with Boromir, and the Fellowship never gets broken? |
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| Entertainment Pt 2 |
[Jan. 27th, 2007|09:39 pm] |
Howl's Moving Castle - Good in the first half, but fell apart from a plot/coherency/internal logic perspective in the second half. Still, Sophie's new look reminded me a lot of Platina from Valkyrie Profile - something that made me favourably disposed towards her for the rest of the movie.
Rome - Just watched Season 2, episode 2, and holy crap, it is mindblowingly good.
( Spoilers, if anyone has seen it )
The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly - Something else I saw weeks ago, but also really, really, really good, courtesy of the greyish mood and Clint Eastwood's depiction of Blondie. |
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| Entertainment Update |
[Jan. 25th, 2007|09:49 pm] |
KOTOR - Running around on Tatooine; just used HK-47 to talk to the Jawa at the gates. (In other words, still not that far in.)
Maniac Mansion - Will probably give in and use a walkthrough when I next pick up the game.
Gundam 0083 - Finished a couple of weeks ago! I liked it a lot, although Nina was a [b]very[/b] unconvincing engineer, and her storyline (minimising spoilers) was plain annoying.
Battlestar Galactica Season 2 - Last saw 2.5, episode 1 - "Resurrection Ship". Most of season 2 was decent but not edge-of-my seat, but the Pegasus episodes, 2.0 ep 10 "Pegasus", and "Resurrection Ship", are fantastic. Cain is an entertaining (if psycho) character, who reminds me of Gundam 0083's Cima, and there's some very good tension and drama.
Rome Season 2 - Only seen the first episode, but it was great - much better than the first season. Powerful, good characters, strong plot - heck, it compares favourably to most of BSG. |
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| HBO Buys ASOIAF Rights |
[Jan. 17th, 2007|10:00 pm] |
| [ | Tags | | | books, grrm, tv | ] |
| [ | mood |
| |  trying not to get too excited | ] |
Exactly what the title says. Each book will be a whole season. Or should that be "[b]would[/b] be a whole season"? As I understand it, nothing comes of most rights deals - I don't want to get my hopes up too high. Still, it would be so cool to see Jaime Lannister, Daenerys Targaryen, and the rest of the gang on screen... |
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| The Lightbulb Ignites |
[Jan. 11th, 2007|05:17 pm] |
| [ | Tags | | | writing | ] |
| [ | mood |
| |  inspired | ] |
| [ | music |
| | Slayers Next - Jama wa Sasenai | ] |
I just had a flash of inspiration, for the first time in seemingly ages, in which several long-standing thoughts, gripes, and half-formed "wouldn't it be cool if..." ideas came together. Damn, it's a good feeling.
Now, I just have to wrap up the first draft of Price of Dreams -- almost there! If only I didn't have this frickin' backlogged homework to deal with... |
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| Use the Force, Amuro |
[Jan. 6th, 2007|10:13 pm] |
| [ | Tags | | | a deepness in the sky, anime, assignments, books, gaming, gundam, kotor, movies, rl, star wars, the prestige, uni, vernor vinge | ] |
| [ | mood |
| |  tired | ] |
| [ | music |
| | Death Note OP, in my head | ] |
RL: I've been putting off an assignment for too long; with a test out of the way, I'll have to work on it tomorrow. Then there's the yet-untouched honours thesis. Fun...
Movies: Saw The Prestige; it was a technically accomplished movie, with a neat twist, but for whatever reason it didn't really spark that gosh-wow in me. I did like Tesla, though.
Gaming: Now up to Dantooine in KOTOR. Did every quest on Taris except the Bendak Starkiller bounty/duel; I didn't feel like racking up dark side points and getting slaughtered every time I fought him.
swordlily, I will probably tackle Day of the Tentacle soon, too.
Anime: Finished Gundam Movie 3 (better than movie 2); I saw Sleggar's fate coming, but I liked seeing more of Char. In particular, I liked the domesticity of the scene where Char and Lalah lounge on the sofa watching the news; and got a chuckle out of imagining Char as Cowboy Andy. Have also seen Death Note 11; will probably watch 12 tomorrow.
Books: Am slightly over halfway through Vinge's A Deepness in the Sky. Good characterisation, truly creepy 'villain' society, but the two halves of the plot do not mesh well at all.
Miscellaneous: theantitexan, I have posted some assorted ideas and thoughts on the Gundam game. |
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| Gundam Web Game |
[Jan. 2nd, 2007|10:00 pm] |
Some of you may have remembered my mentioning a website, Forumgaming.com, in connection with an AGOT strategy game. Well, I'm planning on a Gundam One Year War strategy game there. My concept is here. The short version is, you would take on the role of an officer from the One-Year War era (ie the original Gundam), and not only battle the other side, but also intrigue against your colleagues. A turn would be crunched every couple of weeks, and in that time, you would move around units on a strategic map, choose production and research from an Empire- or Civ-like menu screen, and conduct diplomacy/planning sessions on the forum itself.
Anyone interested? We currently have four slots (out of eight) vacant. |
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| This is no 0080, boy! No 0080! |
[Jan. 1st, 2007|05:12 pm] |
Knights of the Old Republic
I now have T3-M4 in the party and am about to tackle the Sith base (aka, Yet Another Dungeon Crawl). I'm planning to use Bastila as a tank (hey, she's a Jedi - she must be pretty good) and T3 or Mission in case I need a door unlocked. Or should I just bring Bastila and the Wookie?
Speaking of Bastila, boy, does she have an attitude -- I was half expecting her to call me "a bit short for a swoop racer". :P
Gundam
I've also been watching various classic entries in the Gundam series lately. So far, I've seen the first two of the Gundam 0079 movies, plus the first two episodes of 0083. I prefer 0083 -- it has a far more serious, realistic feel, Kou is much less irritating than Amuro, and his relative lack of protagonist powers is refreshing. Amuro, in turn, is not the Gundam protagonist I find most annoying -- that dubious honour goes to Kira from Gundam Seed -- but angst, sulking fits, and storming off in a huff are hardly the way to endear him to me. Was he the ur-whiny teen hero of anime?
On the bright side, Char and Gato both rock, even if Char is far more amoral than I was expecting (never mind moral ambiguity -- he may be bold and decisive, but I'd really hate to work for/above/with him), and Gato acts too much like a console RPG boss, complete with speeches in mid-battle. Why couldn't they -- or even some Zeon mook like Ramba Ral -- have been the protagonists?
I may or may not be bothered watching 0079 movie 3 any time soon (0079 is watchable but not spectacular), but I will probably watch more of 0083. |
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| Happy New Year |
[Dec. 31st, 2006|09:51 pm] |
In the same vein as my Christmas post, Happy New Year to all of you! |
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| Knights of the Old Republic |
[Dec. 31st, 2006|12:21 pm] |
After all these years, I finally got around to KoTOR, and so far it lives up to the hype. I'm three hours or so into the game (just got the wookie in my party), and although it's a bit fetch/combat-heavy, the dialogue is well-written. The moment that really made me fall in love with the game was the reaction I got from everyone when I dressed as a Sith grunt; it was enough to send me on a power trip and get me running around talking to all the NPCs, just so I could see the new dialogue.
My Planescape: Torment instincts kicked in at chargen and I twinked out int/wis/char - leaving me with a pretty weedy character. I did take scout instead of scoundrel, though, so at least I'm not THAT feeble. I've survived thus far by cowering in the back row, hosing down bad guys with a blaster rifle and improved rapid fire, while Carth tanks with dual-wielded vibro-blades and Mission snipes with a blaster.
My biggest problem? I think that I inadvertently spoiled the plot twist for myself - while browsing for mods, I stumbled across some that seemed to refer to the play character by a certain name... >_ |
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| Merry Christmas |
[Dec. 25th, 2006|10:14 pm] |
Merry Christmas/Season's Greetings/Happy Holidays/, everyone! |
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| FFT - Narration |
[Dec. 20th, 2006|10:54 am] |
When I first saw that FFT trailer video that I posted yesterday, I thought I recognised the voice of Norio Wakamoto (Vicious in Cowboy Bebop, Chiyo-Chichi in Azumanga Daioh, Reuental in Legend of the Galactic Heroes, Al Cid in FFXII) narrating at the end. A quick Google confirms I was right -- it is him! Check out this page. I guess my ears aren't so bad after all... |
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| Why I like newspapers |
[Dec. 19th, 2006|06:56 pm] |
... because by flipping through one, whether physically or virtually, you can be exposed to stories on many, many interesting topics. Take these:
Can you "visit" a Shinto shrine over the Internet? This is truly fascinating as an example of how new technology having unexpected ramifications. The fact that it's Shinto -- a very different religion to the Abrahamic ones -- piques my interest even more.
Sydney Symphony to perform Play!, a symphony of game music from FF to WOW. This isn't new to Australia; the Eminence Symphony Orchestra has been performing every year for a few years -- some of you might remember I attended their performance in 2004. Still, if there's anything especially compelling (and preferably new), and if it takes place after my exams, I might just attend.
Google to provide high-res satellite imagery of the Moon and Mars under agreement with NASA.
And lucky last -- not a newspaper link -- a hand-recorded trailer for FFT-PSP! The characters' facial expressions are largely lacking, with the exception of Delita, but Agrias's body language is fantastic. <3 |
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