Alan Wake (Xbox 360)

Alan Wake was introduced at E3 in 2005 and has been finally released 5 years later.  A "Psychological Action Thriller" as the box art displays is a pretty good summation of what entails, but was Wake worth waiting 5 years to play?

You are the world renowned writer Alan Wake, on vacation with your wife Alice at Spring Falls, a quirky little town surrounded by a lake with lots of small town folk.  You book a stay in a little cabin by the lake and are trying to just relax and enjoy your vacation when Alice tells you this trip was a way to get you to be inspired to write another novel.  In your anger you storm out of the cabin, leaving Alice behind to clear your thoughts.  As you venture further, you hear your wife scream and once you turn, you see all the lights of the cabin have been shut off!  You race back to the cabin, calling out to Alice, but your cries are in vain because Alice's own shrieking is drowning them out.  You look out toward the lake, some 40 feet below, as you see Alice's silhouette through the water.  Without hesitation you take a deep breath and dive in after your wife.  Then in a flash, you wake up in the drivers seat of a car, blood dripping down your forehead as the car is dangling off the side of a highway.  This is the beginning of Alan Wake and what follows is a great story, some may say, worthy of a big screen adaptation.  You are attempting to find your lost wife and are trying to uncover the mysteries of Bright Falls.  Along the way you must deal with all sorts of terror caused by the Taken (things trapped by the Darkness). 

The Taken are beings or objects enshrouded by a dark presence.  These take the form of people, objects, and even animals.  While covered in Darkness, your enemies are near invincible and only can be destroyed by first removing the darkness by ways of flashlights or other light sources.  The game shines (no pun intended) in the way it uses light as not only a source of comfort, but as a weapon.  You will definitely need to cling tightly to that flashlight because more then half the game you're covered in darkness.  Enemies can be around every corner and sometimes you may think your eyes are playing tricks on you, but its true that you actually did see something scurry a couple yards ahead.  Speaking about enemies, the enemies are sometimes a pain.  Often they come in pairs but other times you're bombarded by close to 6 enemies at once.  Not only do they gang up on you, but they like to circle around you so while you're dealing with one enemy, another sneaks up behind you and hits you with a hatchet.  When you're playing on the harder difficulties, one hit could mean the end for you because some enemies actually combo into you, taking you down in one quick swoop. 

The enemies are competent enough, but the game shows its age in other ways.  There are times where you can't see enemies around you because of the placement of the camera (similar to the problems in Resident Evil 5).  Also, you're supposed to be collecting Coffee Thermos (for Lord knows what) as little collectibles which don't seem to have any purpose to Alan as a character.  Finally, as you get further along in the game you are tested with what seems like an endurance round as swarm upon swarms of enemies are thrown at you at once, giving you little time to recover.  This is not to take anything away from the game as a whole, but it shows some of the older gameplay mechanics this game has since it's been in production for close to 5 years. 

The main focus it seems as to why this game has got such high praise is because of the story and to be honest, I did enjoy it.  Is it the best story I've played this year?  No..that'd be Heavy Rain.  This game has a great pacing though and truly feels like it could be a episodic series.  The presentation is broken into chapters and Alan plays through each one usually ending in a cliffhanger.  The credits roll and then the next chapter immediately starts giving players a summary of last episodes events.  With this type of gaming, you could limit yourself to one chapter a day and not feel the need to plow through to the end (unless you really want to.)  Without giving too much of the story away, Alan finds these manuscript pages along the way from a novel he doesn't remember writing, but strangely the pages seem to be foreshadowing upcoming events.  The more pages you find, the more of the story you can uncover.  Even though I was able to read what would be coming in the future, it actually helped build tension as I went along, worrying about when the events would take place.

SUMMARY

Pathetic

Enemies sometimes cheap

Short Game

Some awkward animations

Some cheap scares and dated game cliches

Very Nice!

Great Story with Excellent Pacing

Lighting Mechanics are beautiful

Sound is amazing as is the musical score

Combat is fun as is the creative ways you can use the environment to destroy enemies

FINAL GRADE: B

While I enjoyed the game and my experience playing through it, I don't really feel compelled to run through it again.  Aside from beating it on the nightmare difficulty (unlocked after completing the game on hard) and collecting miscellaneous objects, there doesn't seem to be any other reason to play through it.  You won't get the same experience the second time through as you did with the first.  Definitely an enjoyable game and worthy of a playthrough, but I can't say it's worth a purchase yet.  Have to see about the upcoming DLC, but as a standalone, worth at minimum a rental.

Iron Man 2 *Quickie Review*(Movie)

In 2008 Iron Man was released in theaters and gained amazing praise.  Some called it the best Marvel movie since Spider Man and it even earned a very high 79 from Metacritic.  Two years following we're given the highly anticipated Iron Man 2 and there's no arguing that this movie is a commercial success ($133.6 opening weekend) but how about critically?  Dropping from a 79 score on Metacritic, the sequel only garnered a 57 overall score.  What could have happened in two years? 

Iron Man was (and still is) a great superhero movie and the casting of Robert Downey Jr as Tony Stark was brilliant.  Downey is still excellent in the sequel but the focus doesn't seem to be entirely about him.  We have sub-plots about Nick Fury, Rhodey, Ms. Potts, and the S.H.I.E.L.D. organization.  There's Stark's problems against the competing Hammer company, the US Government trying to seize the Iron Man technology, Iron Man having health issues, a psychopath after revenge for his family, etc.  There's a lot going on but the movie isn't too confusing and everything ties together at the end.  Along the way there's fights, explosions, witty banter, love stories, and more of Downey being Stark.  While all of that is okay, I just feel like the movie fell into being a traditional superhero sequel.  As I watched, I enjoyed the dozens of plots, characters, and the slight nerd excitement spotting things that every marvel fan should have recognized (stay until the credits are done rolling).  At the end of the day though, I really felt like the movie was passable.  Fun, exciting, enjoyable, and flashy but not truly memorable. 

SUMMARY

Worth a watch if you're a fan of the first film or superhero movies.  Downey is still great as Iron Man and Mickey Rourke was a treat as the villain.  Watch it in the theaters once but don't expect to be blown away like you were while watching the first.

FINAL GRADE: B-

Nightmare On Elm Street (Remake)

As far as I'm concerned, Freddy Krueger has got to be one of the greatest slashers ever created.  What could be more scarier then an enemy who attacks you in your sleep?  Apparently Hollywood has completely run out of new ideas and has been forced to "remake" (or reinvent as they like to put it) old franchises.  The last we heard of Freddy was in the bad (yet oddly satisfying) Freddy Vs Jason.  Some of us may not have watched all of Freddy's films (or even one of them), but we all know who Freddy Krueger is.  The question now is, does this new Nightmare on Elm Street live up to the legacy of the old?  I truly wanted to compare this remake to the original, but in all honesty I felt that it just wouldn't be fair.  You can't top the original, no way no how.  So I deliberately chose not to watch the original again to make sure it wasn't that fresh in my mind and proceeded to watch the remake with an open perspective. 

Let's start with the story: kids in whocaresville are mysteriously dying in their sleep.  Turns out that all the kids that died are dreaming about a man with a burned face, complimented by a tacky sweater and fedora.  Pretty standard Freddy Krueger material right?  What I quickly noticed in this remake was that the directors never gave a sense of dread in the atmosphere.  Sure the locations were nice, dark and gritty, but the fear that the directors were going for never seemed to hit me.  I guess that has everything to do with Michael Bay.  Apparently the king of explosions decided to try and apply his method of directing action films, to a modern day horror film.  Did he succeed?  No..No he did not.  Instead of explosions everywhere we're given jump scares every 15 minutes.  What's sad is that most of the jump scares themselves, weren't even startling.  But that's okay as long as the villian himself was scary right? 

Freddy Krueger is iconic and will almost always be remembered as Robert Englund.  Unfortunately I couldn't ever get his image out of my head as I watched this new film.  Just look at that burned smirk on the left.  Freddy had just the right amount of humor mixed in with his evil intentions and we loved him all the more for it. 

Flash forward to 2010 and take a look at this pic on the right.  Granted that its not an actual film still, I kid you not in saying that thats literally how his face looks.  I understand the filmmakers wanting to create their own unique looking Freddy, but did they have to make the mask look so bad?  Jackie Earle Haley did a great job as Freddy and I would love to see him reprise his role in the eventual sequel so I can't really fault him.  His Freddy was also menacing and stylish but the lack of meat in his dialogue mixed with a not so thought through plot only helped to fuel the argument that Robert Englund should have come back for the remake. 

SUMMARY

Freddy Krueger is a great villian and I honestly was excited to see him reinvented.  The movie itself however was neither memorable, nor scary.  For fans of A Nightmare on Elm Street, this movie is a decent different perspective on Freddy in our modern day.  Tragically though the movie is worth only one viewing, if any at all.  If you want to see a 80s slasher flick done right, go and watch Rob Zombie's Halloween instead.

FINAL GRADE: C-

Splinter Cell Conviction (Xbox 360)

Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell franchise has been around since 2002 and has since spawned 5 sequels, the newest being Conviction.  Touted for its methodical and almost completely stealth-based gameplay, Splinter Cell has remained one of Ubisofts highest selling franchises to date.  Unfortunately, with 5 games being released in as many years (2002 through 2006) Splinter Cell started to become last years news.  Back in 2007, Ubisoft decided to try and reinvent Splinter Cell's gameplay (as evidenced in this old trailer.)  Gone it seemed were the shadows, the gadgets, and apparently our protagonists care for self hygiene.  But James, he doesn't look like that on the box art you're showing us!  Let me finish..apparently Ubisoft didn't like the idea of an Assassins Creed style Splinter Cell game so they scrapped it and went with a more traditional level based game.  If you've played the new Conviction or seen trailers, you can still see many of the original concepts gameplay (some settings, animations for throws).  But did Ubisofts decision to delay the game and completely overhaul it pay off?

Since 2002 we've stepped into Sam Fishers shoes.  Conviction has our hero on a mission to find the truth about his daughters death.  Originally thought to be an accident, Sam finds out that it was planned and sets out on his own to uncover what really happened.  Since Sam is a lone wolf in this game, most of his gadgets are no longer available.  The developers have given us some new tricks though like the fun Mark and Execute where you can mark multiple enemies and take them out with one quick sweep.  The game also fades to black and white when you're hidden from enemy sights on your mission to find the truth about your daughters killer.  To be honest, the story doesn't really factor in too much to the overall game and you could really just glance over it without losing much.  There's not really too much that compels the player to want to gain attachment to Sam and I believe that Ubisoft was banking on the fact that players already know a little about him.  Even if you tried though, you wouldn't have much time to because the game is over in under 8 hours!  That's not to say that the game isn't enjoyable, but in a market with lengthy single player games, open worlds, and major plot changing decisions, Conviction doesn't offer too much replayability, at least in the single player department. 

Co-op play was one of the major reasons many gamers had their eyes set on Conviction.  Splinter Cell Chaos Theory showed gamers how much fun co-op stealth could be (especially against two other players.)  Does Convictions multiplayer live up to the recently deceased Chaos Theory?  Well..that depends on your perspective.  Conviction offers its own co-op story where you control Kestrel and his whiny american counterpart Archer.  Besides the story, you're given three other modes in Hunter (eliminate all enemies), infiltration (eliminate without being detected) and Spy vs Spy (self explanatory and unfortunately not Mad Magazine inspired).  This is where I truly had a lot of fun and Convictions new Mark and Execute feature becomes a must (at least on the harder difficulties).  Like the single player romp though, multiplayer can be over in a heartbeat and you're left with having to replay the same game types over and over.  Many are wondering why Ubisoft didn't put in a Spies vs Mercs mode like Chaos Theory and I too am baffled. 

SUMMARY

Pathetic

Very Short Game

Some glitches (being able to shoot through walls with Mark and Execute)

No SPIES VS MERCENARIES MODE

Not much in the replayability department

Very Nice!

Stealth kills and Mark and Execute are very satisfying
Multiplayer is a blast to play
Single player is still enjoyable while being short
Interrogations are entertaining enough

FINAL GRADE: B+

Conviction is a fun game and definitely enjoyable.  I had a lot of fun with the multiplayer and the new gameplay additions are a nice touch.  This isn't the type of game though that I see myself playing months down the line and because of its length, I don't think it really justifies a $60 purchase.  Definitely worth a try though especially with a partner.