R & R: Reviews and Ramblings

State of the Union

2011-07-31T09:00:00.014-04:00

It's been a while since I've done this. You might notice that this is not a review of anything, after a streak of over two years worth of Sundays. The reason for this is simple, I'm going away from the blog like I did. I can't do this anymore and I would rather focus my energies on That Other Song. Now, the blog is not going away since That Other Song would still be posted here every other Wednesday. Also, I still want to review things, just on a more laid-back schedule where I could take my time writing a review that doesn't suck. Also, if Jeff Zweig wants to post something, he will. Granted I doubt it since he's busy with his book but the opportunity will always be there.

So until next time, this Wednesday will have a new episode of That Other Song with EMF.

Devil May Cry 4 reviewed

2011-07-24T09:00:00.057-04:00

Ah Devil May Cry....will I never cease to play your games even though the first two are utter crap and three not sucking was a mere fluke. But then again, Devil May Cry 4 may have the momentum of the third to push it over the edge to another good game....or could actually be a legitimately good game on its own. Besides, I just can't stop playing the franchise when I only have one more game left to beat...so far. So with that said, let's dig into Devil May Cry 4.

You are Nero....who is not Dante or Dante in a disguise. I think they may be related but I'm not sure how and the game doesn't know how either. But anyways, Nero is bored out of his mind watching his girlfriend, Kyrie, sing a hymn and the Pope blathering on Sparda and how we need a savior. Then Dante comes crashing down and shoots the Pope in the face! Of course that's bad and Nero is tasked with finding and apprehending Dante...then Kyrie gets kidnapped and then you find out that there's a whole bunch of demoning going on along with demonic angels.

And that's my biggest problem with the game, Nero. No, not the fact that he exists because there is a germ of an interesting idea with Dante being a bad guy who must be stopped at all costs, of course the game doesn't follow with that plotline. My problem with Nero is that he's pretty much Dante. He has Dante's weapons, a sword and a gun. He looks like Dante, only a bit more of a pretty-boy. He pretty much plays like Dante and I'm thinking, if this guy looks, fights and plays like Dante...why am I not playing as Dante? What's the point of a new character if he all is going to do is want me to play the old character.

And then for a few missions, you get to play as Dante and all seems to be well. Then you realize with a sicking feeling that you're just retracing Nero's steps. Going into rooms that he was already in, either solving the puzzles Nero solved or just slashing it in bits and re-killing the same bosses. There's nothing new in the levels except palette-swapped enemies with more HP. And then he gets all the bad missions, one of them has a spontaneous and gratuitous time limit or a level filled with poisonous gas. Nero's levels had no time limits and no poison at all!

But, for all the problems playing the game, the cut-scenes are by far the best of the series. If the third game upped the awesomeness and camp to eleven, then the fourth game upped it to twelve. The action is great and the "camerawork" if you will is fluid and kinetic. The voice-acting is extremely entertaining and there leads the charm of a few amazing scenes like a Shakespearean duel of words in an opera house or the battle between Dante and Nero.

For every moment I liked, there was an equal number of moments where I wanted to put my controller through a wall. It would make for a nice B+-movie but then there's playing the game and it's problems. Granted, those problems are not as bad as the first two games and the results are at least playable even if the difficulty goes back to being unfair at times and the camera system is, by far, the worst of the series. It's something to pleases the fans but wont' break through to non-fans like 3 did.

6/10

Captain America: The First Avenger reviewed

2011-07-23T17:16:00.000-04:00

NOTE: This was shown in glorious 2-D

Another piece of the Avengers assembly is finally....err assembled with Captain America: The First Avenger. Even in this horrible glut of superhero movies this year, it's a fair chance that one may be a bit tired of it all. I know I was beginning to tire of it but I know I have to see a Marvel movie since it all leads up to the Avengers in 2012. So I plopped down with low expectations and wanted to see the Avengers trailer at the end. But I was kinda shocked and surprised that it turned into a grand, entertaining adventure with lots of old-fashioned derring do.

Steve Rogers is a 90 pound weakling that even me and my pathetic muscles can beat up. He wants to fight for his country during World War II but he, rightfully, keeps being rejected for being small, weak and full of many diseases. But he keeps trying and some German scientist refugee offers him a chance to be something special, a super soldier. And before he knows it, he turns into Captain America., a propaganda machine! And then he actually joins the battle against Hydra, a splinter group from the Nazi's, that's lead by the evil Red Skull, the first person to be given the super serum. Then a whole bunch of good-old fashioned American ass-kicking follows.

The movie actually takes its time to set up the situations and characters so nothing is forced through at break-neck speed....except the POW's-cum-Commandos but that's fairly understandable. The movie does go through with some decent pains to develop Steve Rogers into a weak man with a good heart into a superhero....with a good heart. The action scenes are crisp, clear and a hoot to watch. The movie truly shows the it's all about having a good time when it comes to the action.

The acting all-around is almost as good as the first Iron Man movie. Chris Evans really sells his transformation and Steve Rogers as a good man. But then again, I always thought that Evans was underrated and he could always be counted on for his charisma and charm at least. Tommy Lee Jones as the gruff military officer is pretty much Tommy Lee Jones and that's always fine by me. Hugo Weaving is deliciously entertaining as the Red Skull who knows how to play the evil up. Everyone else is fine.

While both Iron Man movies had Robert Downey Jr's. remarkable performance, Thor had amazing Shakespearean overtones and The Incredible Hulk had smashing, Captain America also has something special. This is really good entertainment. It does everything it's supposed to do, it sets up The Avengers, it's action-packed, it sets up Captain America and it's just plain entertaining.

8/10

Top 50 Games #35: God of War II

2011-07-18T09:00:00.010-04:00

WHAT'S IT ABOUT:
Kratos is the new God of War after killing Ares but him being all jerkassey has made the rest of the Gods jealous. So Zeus decides to betray and take away Kratos's God powers and rights. He also decides to send him to Hades but all does this is piss Kratos off. So he fights his way back and makes an alliance with the Titans to destroy Mount Olympus but first, Kratos needs to change his destiny and make his way to The Temple of the Fates to do so.

WHY I LIKE IT:
But I know that this means nothing in the main draw of this, good old violence that's up to 11 here. You basically obliterate a good amount of Greek mythology single-handed. I mean the first game only had you killing The Hydra, Medusa, The Minotaur and Ares. This one has you killing: The Colossus of Rhodes, The Sisters of Fate, The Kraken, Persius, Theseus, Icarus(one of the best boss fights in the game) and whoever else I'm forgetting. And what would a review of a God of War game be without me mentioning the violence. All the times you break necks, rip off arms that have blades in them and then put the bladed arm into an enemy's face, kick dogs and break their necks, rip off heads, cut off wings, rip out eyes, rip out wings, tear things in half, run an enemy's own sword through him and slitting throats brings out the MAAAANNN in me....not really, but it's awesome. And Pegasus is in the game as a mode of transportation for Kratos...but wait, isn't Pegasus that unmanly flying horse that Hercules rode. You would be right...if Pegasus wings weren't ON FIRE! And his fur was BLACK, instead of white! Cause Kratos only rides things that are as black and manly as his dark, manly SOUL!

MY FAVORITE PART:
The Colossus of Rhodes

Read my review here.

Witch and Wizards: Operation Zero reviewed

2011-07-17T09:00:00.054-04:00

You gotta love my mom, she bought a James Patterson book because she looks reading James Patterson books. Little did she knew that bought a graphic novel. She doesn't read them and has no interest in reading them, even for her beloved James Patterson. But she knew that I read them, even if it's like one every five years, but I did read them and she gave it to me. I figured I might as well give it a chance and see what my mom sees...well, my mom watches those crappy movies on SyFy so I should have known better. Anyways on to Witch and Wizard: Operation Zero.

It's the future and the world has fallen over a New World Order. No, not the one lead by Hulk Hogan...or Jeff Jarrett....or Bret Hart but by The One Who is the One! Creativity is banned, books are burned and magic apparently exists so it can be banned. There's a resistance led by the Allgood siblings, Whit and Wisty, to take back what's theirs. In this story, The One who Bans Books has turned against the New World Order and has knowledge of a book that takes away somebody's magic powers....like The One Who is the One has!

First off, it's a sequel to something since there's a 2 on the spine. I figured that since Patterson seems to crap out books every minute of every hour of every day. However, while prior knowledge would have been nice, it's not actually required to understand what's going on in Operation Zero so that's got that going for it....which is nice. The story itself...isn't all that good. It's thin, it's moronic and at times ridiculous but not in the good, fun way. Of course most of my other complaints is in regards to the lack of world-building or good backstory but this is a sequel so that can be forgiven.

There is one thing that this book did right and that it's paced extremely well. I finished it in less than an hour....on the toilet! While the story may be thin, as in little development or backstory, it also doesn't have much time for fluff either. It's very economical with its story and every page either attempts to pack a punch or advance the story, it doesn't always succeed but it does try.

The artwork here is decent. The art is bright and colorful. The people actually look like people without doing any impossible Rob Liefeld-ian poses, even though the woman are scantily clad for some reason. The backgrounds are a little sparse and there are a couple times where the comic is laid out in a manner where trying to figure out what panel to read next is next-to-impossible. One page had it where it was to be read top-to-bottom, left-to-right....comics should rarely work that way and only then if there's a reason and it's clear which way to read.

It's more of summer blockbuster movie. It's there, it's somewhat entertaining and I think there were some explosions. It's a quick read and while it doesn't do much with what it has, it does do it in a fairly competent manner. You won't suffer that much with this.

6/10

Ratchet and Clank Future: Tools of Destruction reviewed

2011-07-10T09:00:00.050-04:00

It's Ratchet and Clank game time once again boys and girls. And after exhausting all the PS2 and PS2 ports of the PSP games, I've moved on to the PS3. And this time, the series is going to the FUTURE for some reason. So what's the future like? What new changes come with the upgrade to the PS3? How mighty is Captain Qwark's pecs? Well...not mighty enough sad to say. It's just more of the same as I'll explain.

We find our two heroes fixing a hoverbike and taking it easy...again. Then it turns out there's an alien invasion going on decimating the city being led by the evil Emperor Tachyon, leader of the extinct race The Cragmites! Tachyon's goal is simple, he wants to destroy all Lombaxes which Ratchet is obviously is. Eventually both of them race towards the Lombaxes greatest invention which has the power to open up any dimension which could lead to the return of The Cragmites....which is up. Meanwhile, Clank has been attracting some weird things like The Zoni who are some mystical robot creatures. Also, robot pirates are involved.

The game play is very similar to most of the previous Ratchet games. Ratchet and Clank fly to some world, there's a bunch of things to kill and Ratchet kills them with many types of weapons. When you kill enough things the weapon levels up to become more powerful. Yeah, not much has changed has it? I know some people, probably AC/DC fans, are going to be all like "If it's not broke, don't fix it...maaaannn!". It's not broke, but it's all stale and complacent.

That's the thing, there's nothing fresh or exciting while I was playing this. I didn't really have much fun and nothing the game did made me forget that I wasn't actually having fun. Anything this game did could be done on the Playstation 2 with the exception of some of the character models being a bit smoother than they have been in the past. There's nothing really epic, no big set pieces and nothing really to push the envelope or expand our minds or something like that.

Oh wait, the this game does try to utilize the PS3's SIXAXIS controller which is something different I guess. If you don't know or remember the SIXAXIS, it's pretty much that you can actually control the game....THROUGH THE CONTROLLER ITSELF! Whatever way you tilt the controller, that's where whatever you're controlling(not necessarily Ratchet) tilts! And it's a utter failure since it's way too sensitive and way too frustrating for it be even remotely effective. Many times I tilt just a little and the thing I'm controlling just goes flying off every which way.

This is the most disappointing Ratchet and Clank game I've played yet. Sure the PSP ports were somewhat worse but they were ports, I had very little expectations for them. The only thing I expected out of them was that they not be blights upon humanity and they weren't. But this one I did have such expectations that it would be good and be grand and be everything it should be on the PS3 and to see that it wasn't really sucks. It does what it does well, but you can tell the seasonal rot is setting with the exception of the ending in which it promises a whole new direction and fires up my imagination. But other than that, it's all very meh.

6/10

Zombies vs. Nazis: A Lost History of the Walking Undead reviewed

2011-07-03T09:00:00.083-04:00

Hey look guys, it's yet another book about zombies being inserted into a crazy time period. This time it's Nazi Germany.....or actually Haiti during World War II. I have complained in Zombie History of the US that if zombie history books needed a future, then it has to do more than just to stick zombies into a time period without any context or style. Then somehow I get this e-mail about getting a review copy of Zombies vs. Nazis so I did and here we are. Let's see if this zombie book does better.

It's the time of World War II. It's still in the early stages so Germany is kicking everybody's asses and taking their territory. But the Germans are not one to be complacent so they send three inspectors into Haiti to learn the way of the zombie. The thought process is that if the Nazis control zombies then they would have an army that would truly be unstoppable and the Third Reich would truly last a thousand years with all of it's original members.

The book is all in communiques that the inspectors sent out to their superior officer with the exception with a brief preface from the author explaining what we're about to read(with very unnecessary snarky bits and it's in red so it's color-coded for your convenience!) and two unclassified US documents about uncovering these communique. And this is, by far, the smartest thing the book did. It keeps things terse, fast-paced and exciting. If it was written like a normal fictional narrative, the results would have been disastrous. It would've been Plague of the Dead all over again.

And then the book does a rather big mistake. The aforementioned preface is all about "Humans shouldn't meddle in raising the dead unless they want to be eaten" and then betrays that with the standard "Humans are Bastards" theme. On the surface they may be the same thing but one thing suggests that we're not going to have the old tired zombie cliche that humans are worse that George Romero has beaten to death, resurrected and killed again and the other thing....does. Guess which path the book goes?

Additionally, there's some illustrations in this book and quite a few of them. They're all bright, colorful and cartoony...and in the end, not very good. To me, it just seems half-assed and lazy. The backgrounds are just splashes of color with little attempt at creating anything there. The people are really blocky and two of them are rather samey. And it does the cardinal sin of mis-matching the images with the words since I thought one of the Inspectors was actually one of the Voodoo priests.

In the end, however, I do like this. It does do something more that just stick zombies in some time period and just let them do wacky hijinks. It's short, a very fast read and has some decent action. While it's doesn't really do much with a high-concept title like Zombies vs. Nazis it's still quite entertaining.

7/10

Click here to order the book from Amazon

The Wild Boys reviewed

2011-06-26T09:00:00.014-04:00

Usually when a band gets me to read a book....uh, actually that never happens. But it did when I saw Duran Duran's "Wild Boys" video which fired up my imagination with fire-breathing, a robot head and Simon LeBon almost drowning. So I picked up William S. Burroughs Wild Boys to see how awesome the book was.....it wasn't.

I think what happens in the book is that it's the FUTURE! War is happening for some reason and a animalistic tribe called, get this, The Wild Boys is running wild on civilization or what passes for it. At the middle is some guy wandering around doing stuff and seeing guys doing it with other guys. Some other stuff happens but I don't know what and it all connects to the Penny Arcade Peep Show where stuff happens that I don't know or care about.

Burroughs has a reputation of writing the first thing that came to mind and the story evolving from there...like free-form jazz. It doesn't work here at all. Nothing makes any sense, there's no actual cohesion and it all becomes an incoherent bore. I'll admit that it does have a couple cute ideas like this obsession with creating gay porn with GASP an actual story. There's also a cute section about the military and all of its military hijinks but that quickly gets sidetracked by all the homoeroticism in this.

Obviously there's nothing wrong with being gay or writing about homoeroticism but I do take issue with poorly written and repetitive homoeroticism. Here's how it all plays out. There's going to be two boys and through some pathetic excuse their pants come off. Then they get boners and a jar of vasoline magically appear and then they have sex. And it's all the same in all the sex scenes and there's gotta be ten of them at least. There's no foreplay, no blowjobs or handjobs. It's all boring sex.

And quite frankly, I think Burroughs has done much more damage to literature than Stephanie Meyer did with Twilight. At least we treat Meyer has a joke but Burroughs though, there's respect and worship for this moron. And all for his incoherent, poorly written spiel with a liberal dose of boring sex. Anyone who likes this book or Burroughs is a damn dirty hippie.

Watch the Duran Duran "Wild Boys" video, it doesn't suck.

2/10

Top 50 Games #36: Mischief Makers

2011-06-20T05:54:00.000-04:00

WHAT'S IT ABOUT:
On the planet Clancer where, everything has this weird face on it, Professor Theo and his robot Marina Liteyears are doing...stuff. But then, Theo gets kidnapped by the evil emperor and it's up to Marina to go and save him and then save him again when you do save him. The path to saving Theo isn't easy since the Emperor's lackeys, the Beastsector, who's out to stop you from saving Theo since they think you're out destroying Clancer.

WHY I LIKE IT:
This game has really stood the test of time. It looks great, it has some awesome music and voice-acting clips. The story is decent. And no matter what wacky hijinks are at play, story-wise or gameplay-wise, you always sense that the game plays fair and with enough practice you can eventually master it. It never gets too dull or too frustrating. This is a great game that deserves to be remembered for being amazing entertainment.

MY FAVORITE PART:
The final boss battle.

Read my review here.

Lego Harry Potter Years 1 - 4 reviewed

2011-06-19T09:00:00.060-04:00

As much I loved the first two Lego Star Wars and Lego Batman & as much as I loved the Harry Potter books and movies, I thought Lego Harry Potter would be a great match. It turns out I was wrong. In fact, I feel very apathetic when I was playing this. Oh sure, it's everything you expect but something just feels very off this time around. What do I mean? Come on and I'll discuss everything about Lego Harry Potter Years 1 - 4.

As you expect, it takes place during the first four Harry Potter stories. So there's the revelation that young lad Harry Potter is a wizard. Then he finds out that he's the only survivor during Voldemort's reign of terror and actually sealed Voldemort away for many years. But slowly and surely, Voldemort is regaining strength for another reign of terror. It's up to Harry Potter to stop him...eventually, but first he has to learn the value of friendship, learn the awesomeness of Quidditch, free his criminal uncle from Azkaban and kill all of Voldemort's cronies.

The game plays the same as the other Lego games. You go out and find some stuff to build into things that do some other things. That part is still really fun since you never really know what you're going to build. Sure, you have an idea but there always some surprises sprinkled in somewhere. Even if the rest of the game falters, which I'll get to in a second, it at least keeps the building blocks, pun intended, of what makes these Lego games fun.

HOWEVER, the world of Harry Potter simply DOES NOT fit in a Lego game. These games never actually have voice-acting or actual story, just remnants of a story. That doesn't fly in Harry Potter. Those books and movies are dense and filled with many subtle moments that come back full force in future installments. You don't get that with Lego Harry Potter and in fact, you won't get much out of anything. If you never read or seen Harry Potter, you will not know what is going on ever. There are some times where it can get by on Rule of Funny, and it is hilarious, but to have something as complex as Harry Potter over-simplified turns this into an incoherent/border-line chore.

There's stuff to like about Lego Harry Potter, don't get me wrong. It is funny, it is fairly entertaining when you're not thinking about the story but it's very lackluster. As much as I like building stuff in the Lego games and the fact that it captures the external pleasures of Harry Potter(stuff like the score and the look), playing the game actually felt like a chore. This is for Harry Potter or Lego completionists only. But I will give credit that it supports the Harry/Hermione ship....the superior shipping couple.

6/10

Mischief Makers reviewed

2011-06-12T09:00:00.047-04:00

In the land where 3-D Nintendo games were absolute king, one game dared to be 2-D. One game dared to get back to gaming's roots. That game was Mischief Makers. And all I saw of it when I was a child was a five-second clip in one of Nintendo's VHS promo thingys. But that was it. I was hooked and I knew I must play it when it was finally released. And I did and it has stuck with me for many, many years.

On the planet Clancer where, everything has this weird face on it, Professor Theo and his robot Marina Liteyears are doing...stuff. But then, Theo gets kidnapped by the evil emperor and it's up to Marina to go and save him and then save him again when you do save him. The path to saving Theo isn't easy since the Emperor's lackeys, the Beastsector, who's out to stop you from saving Theo since they think you're out destroying Clancer.

This game pretty much broken down into two areas, speed and grabbing things. Okay, it's mostly grabbing things since a couple levels aren't really speed based...but it does keep track of how much time you take to complete a level and grade you accordingly. You do want a high grade don't you? Anyways, grabbing things is the main focus of the game. You can grab pots, balls, people, flowers, cats, missiles and even lasers. There's an inventiveness to it when you can grab whatever you need to solve whatever problem you're in. And then you can shake things to make things do even more things! And sometimes make more things. Yes, I know this sounds horrifically silly but it really is much more fun than it sounds.

And when you're not grabbing things, you're fighting bosses....and they are hard. All you're stuck with is just grabbing things and occasionally getting a weapon. And while you will die a lot, it never really becomes frustrating. It's always fun since trying to find the what to do to hurt the boss is a bit of a puzzle. There's never really a time you'll get so mad that you throw the controller against something like the TV or the wall.

This game has really stood the test of time. It looks great, it has some awesome music and voice-acting clips. The story is decent. And no matter what wacky hijinks are at play, story-wise or gameplay-wise, you always sense that the game plays fair and with enough practice you can eventually master it. It never gets too dull or too frustrating. This is a great game that deserves to be remembered for being amazing entertainment.

9/10

God of War III reviewed

2011-06-05T09:00:00.064-04:00

It had to happen. It had to happen eventually. All Kratos killed in the first God of War game was one God and a couple mythical beasts. The second game had Kratos killing off the rest of the beasts...and Icarus. So the only logical conclusion that one can surmise, if you never played the PSP games which I haven't, is that you start killing Gods...all of them. I guess in that regard God of War III doesn't disappoint but after the first two games, the series is getting a bit long in the tooth if they wish to continue the main series.

It picks where the second game left off where Kratos is commanding an army of Titans up Mount Olympus to kill Zeus and all who stand in his way. But shortly afterwards, the Titans pretty much tell Kratos that this is their war and Kratos has no part in it. Of course, being denied vengeance against Zeus pisses Kratos off and he's now making his way up Mount Olympus killing everyone and everything that gets in his way.

The gameplay and controls are very similar to the other games. The controls are still the same, the attacks are still the same and you kill people just the same. Granted that the controls have been perfect, there is no reason to change them. However, what has been improved are the weapons themselves. Sure, the other games had a secondary weapon but they were useless and I'm sure many of us just used the default blades but in III, your secondary weapons have a purpose. You won't use them very often, mind you, but you just can't ignore them either. Also, one weapon is much more powerful than the default blades.

Kratos, himself, no longer seems to VENGEANCE seeking person he was in II. Granted, he still wants to kill Zeus but instead of being all-vengeance all the time he gets back that little sparkle of humanity he had in the first game. He starts to care about the child Pandora, that Pandora from that box, and doesn't want her to die a horrible death, maybe in a bid to replace his daughter he killed. The problem is, it doesn't quite work. Not for the fact that it's half-assed but in the fact that is just doesn't seem natural. The game tries to explain it by having Hermes giving Kratos a Reason That You Suck speech before Kratos kills him but it doesn't seem to work in my eyes. Kratos is still at his best when he's yelling at people and then killing them though.

But the game does make one big mistake and that's at the beginning of the game where you're about to deliver an epic beat down on Poseidon. The game then switches to Poseidon's view so you watch Kratos's beat down of Poseidon through Poseidon's eyes. And what seemed so manly and badass now looks horrifically cruel. And I guess that's the point since Kratos usually does a lot of unnecessary cruel things to innocent people but since you're playing as him, I just found it awesome. But it did really suck the wind out of the games sails since I want have fun killing things in an unfeeling manner. Does that make me a monster? Probably.

This game is still good, the graphics are great and the voice-acting is entertaining. This game still does a lot of things right but at this point at time, it's really close to just going through the motions of yelling and killing. The ending does suggest a sense of finality or at least, if there's more games, a sense of a reboot coming up. The biggest problem of God of War III is that it has to follow up a masterful first game and a great second game.

8/10

Reality Bites Back reviewed

2011-05-29T09:00:00.064-04:00

We all know that Reality TV isn't as real as it says it is, just like the Safety Dance not being as safe as it said it was. There's been expose's, they're not even trying to hide when voice-over's are dubbed and even Hulk Hogan went into explicit detail about how Hogan Knows Best was made. It's safe to say that nobody really believes in the reality of Reality TV anymore. But I always like how Reality TV tries to trick us and I do like learning it's tricks which is probably why I got Reality Bites Back.

It's a book of two sides, on one side is stuff talking about Reality TV and about scriptwriters and that fun stuff. The author combed through and transcribed about 1000 hours of many such shows on the networks, VH1, MTV, Oxygen, Lifetime and a few other cable channels. Obviously, there's going to be a whole lot of commonalities between those shows. That leads to the second side of the book in which the author goes on about how those shows are indoctrinating the next generation on racism, sexism and I think health-ism.

On one hand, this is a blistering, searing and damning indictment of Reality TV especially America's Next Top Model and What Not to Wear. You will fear angry and it will be a justifiable anger. You will be angry on how far Tyra has manipulated ATMN to be a bastard shell of it's good intentions as it became all about Tyra...which should be obvious. You will be angry on how Tyra and her judges break down girls self-worth to fit their script. And then you will be angry at What Not to Wear and those other shows where all you need to be happy is to spend lots of money and crap you don't need. Then when somebody fights back, BAM, you're just cheap and hate yourself to damn much. Or we don't want you to be you anymore, we want you to be like everyone else. I'm almost ashamed of myself to actually watch and enjoy those shows.

On the other hand, while I hesitate to call this feminist propaganda since it delves into racism more than sexism, but barely, but it does suffer from sever author filibustering. When the author starts talking about The Bachelor, Joe Millionaire, or Flavor of Love it's pretty much "Oh woe is the world, they're being brainwashed in thinking white men could only love them and that black people are loud, rude & ignorant." She probably does have a point, but the way she talks she's only preaching to the choir. She's doing very little, if anything, to convert people to join that choir. She makes a token attempt at the end with what you could do to combat this like drinking games or Bingo but most of the suggestions come from other people. And it doesn't really go into Reality TV that much, it just uses that as jumping off point for her many filibusters.

This is something that wants to be important and it STRIIIVEESS to be important. There's so much we should be resisting on TV and it reveals so much on the ills, especially the luxury shows during the middle of a recession. It should be something great but the filibustering just gets so bogged down that it just brings the book down with it....shame.

6/10

Top 50 Games #37: Goldeneye 007

2011-05-23T06:00:00.000-04:00

WHAT'S IT ABOUT:
James Bond is out and about infiltrating a Soviet weapons factory. He meets up with 006 but the mission goes bad and 006 is killed but Bond escapes just in time. Nine years later, the world has changed and the Cold War is over. However, Bond goes back to Russia and discovers the plot of the Goldeneye Satellite that would unleash an EMP on the world and bring the British finances back down to zero. And who is the mastermind behind this evil plan...why 006 I mean Janus is silly.

WHY I LIKE IT:
The game has aged a bit, especially in terms of graphics with its five-sided faces but it's still a milestone of video game history and still a great game in its own right. The control scheme is fluid and natural. The missions are fun to play. There's a cheap thrill when you shot a chair and it explodes. This game still has it.

MY FAVORITE PART:
The boat level.

You can read my review here.

Goldeneye 007 reviewed

2011-05-22T09:00:00.058-04:00

In 1995 James Bond was back in Goldeneye, at the time the most successful Bond movie ever if you discount inflation which I do. Sure the plot was slow and it only spurted along instead sprinted like it should, but the villain was awesome, the action was good and Pierce Brosnan bought a sly charm to Bond. Then in 1997, the game adaptation by Rare came out and people were like "What movie?" Tomorrow Never Dies notwithstanding. It finally turned the First-Person Shooter into it's own full-fledged genre and we never heard the words "Doom-Clone" again.

James Bond is out and about infiltrating a Soviet weapons factory. He meets up with 006 but the mission goes bad and 006 is killed but Bond escapes just in time. Nine years later, the world has changed and the Cold War is over. However, Bond goes back to Russia and discovers the plot of the Goldeneye Satellite that would unleash an EMP on the world and bring the British finances back down to zero. And who is the mastermind behind this evil plan...why 006 I mean Janus is silly.

I think what got my attention first was the utter freedom of movement. In Doom and Wolfenstein you didn't have that freedom because you were using the D-Pad which was a bit cumbersome. But with the control stick and some good use of the C-buttons it showed the future of the FPS. There was freedom, you could glide, you could actually do some good strafing and actually do some precise aiming. There was a sense of exhilaration, a sense that you could do almost anything your imagination could allow you to do.

Another innovation was that this game forced you to actually think before you killed. You can't kill certain people since they have something you need, but you can kill them after they give it to you. You obviously can't kill innocent civilians or hostages, that's just bad. And of course, as much as we all want to, you couldn't kill Natalya since she was the main bad girl who wasn't evil. Granted, you didn't think too much as all supposed intelligence was "Don't kill this person or destroy this thing." but it was something that set it apart from Doom.

But what everyone remembers about Goldeneye 007 is the multiplayer. Sure, multiplayer existed in some other games like Bomberman, Secret of Mana and various sports, fighting & racing games there really wasn't a pervasive party atmosphere. It didn't really help since the 16-bit consoles only had two controller ports. But with the Nintendo 64 having four controller ports and use of split-screen, things drastically changed and it sprouted the seeds of the multiplayer phenomenon that Halo would then crystallized.

The game has aged a bit, especially in terms of graphics with its five-sided faces but it's still a milestone of video game history and still a great game in its own right. The control scheme is fluid and natural. The missions are fun to play. There's a cheap thrill when you shot a chair and it explodes. This game still has it.

9/10

The Godfather, the novel, reviewed

2011-05-15T09:00:00.060-04:00

In 1972, a little mafia movie made by a kinda-known but not really director who's greatest success was winning the Oscar for writing Patton was released to movie theaters. Of course, that little mafia movie was The Godfather and that director was Francis Ford Coppola and now you know the rest of the story. But there were two lingering questions, who was this Mario Puzo and why was his name above the title? A fool would answer that he co-wrote the Oscar-winning script with Coppola, which is true, but that doesn't answer the second question. Someone kinda knowledgeable would say that Mario Puzo wrote the novel in which the movie was based off. But only a knowledgeable fool would actually read the book and today, I am that fool!

If you read the movie or know anything about pop culture, then you know what the book is about. But in case you don't know, I'm going to tell you. Don Vito Corleone is a powerful and generous man, leader of the Corleone family, one of the Five Families in New York. He has his business and his family: sons Sonny, Fredo and Michael, adopted but not really adopted son Tom Hagen and daughter Connie. But things would not be as they are for long for a man called Virgil "The Turk" Sollozzo comes around asking Vito for start-up capitol for his drug business. Vito refuses and that decision leads to years of gang warfare, assassinations and exile.

Like the movie illustrated, Mario Puzo did craft an amazing story. The problem is that Mario Puzo isn't an amazing storyteller. The big problem is that Puzo gets way too descriptive for his own good. There's volumes and volumes of text to describe a simple thing like killing a guy. Some of the descriptions can get interesting but sometimes you're just thinking GET ON WITH IT. And then what he does describe is just plain gross and wrong. You see Puzo vowed that his next book, in this case The Godfather, would be a best-seller and Puzo went all out with the sex and violence. Some of the stuff is too out there even for my tastes and for the blog. After reading this book, you can safely say "I've read a book where such and such happened!" Whether it's with pride or with shame is up to you.

However, not all is bad and in fact there is quite a bit of good in the book. His storytelling needed a lot of work but his characters are as rich and vivid as they are in the movie. And this is the only time for Puzo's overly-descriptive descriptions work as it details everyone and the relationships between each other in a loving fashion. You do care about these guys just like we cared about them in the movie. Relationships are deep and fulfilling & there were a few times that I was choking down tears as some parts got especially heartwarming.

Sure the book may spin its wheels, it may have too many characters and it does get a bit gross but there's enough good in this for me to recommend. When the flowery prose does work it works very well and the characters are all great. Despite all the books flaws, on the whole it's not bad but remember that all the good parts are in the movie.

7/10

Night of the Living Dead: Behind the Scenes reviewed

2011-05-08T09:00:00.044-04:00

In 1968 George A. Romero released the definitive zombie movie Night of the Living Dead. To say it changed things is a massive understatement. It has spawned a series with Dawn, Day, Land, Diary and Survival. It has spawned spoofs, rip-offs and even remakes. The horror world will be a lot more empty if there was no Night to kick the zombies into our faces. Which lead me to this behind the scenes book that had John Russo's original screenplay in it. How could I resist that?

And this book tells you everything that happened to make Night of the Living Dead happen and more. It tells the story on how George A. Romero, John Russo and a couple other guys were brainstorming ideas for a cheap movie since they were getting bored making commercials for Pittsburgh. At first it was supposed to be a comedy where aliens go to Earth and befriend American Teenagers...in America. But that was deemed too expensive so they went with a zombie movie that had them eating the living and now you know the rest of the story.

The book is really factual and academic. It's like an episode of A & E biography which can get long and dry but here it does work. This book goes IN-DEPTH in terms of production, getting the money and shooting the movie. They get interviews, past and present, with everyone involved and they really open up some insight on what went on. It's written in a clear, confident manner and while the author may go on his soapbox saying that the nothing anyone has done has ever bettered Night you do get where he's coming from.

But the real crown jewel of this is that includes John Russo's original script for Night of the Living Dead. It's great to compare who the original script would compare to the eventual movie. And quite frankly, there isn't that much difference. Sure, there's a bit more exposition, Ben is dumber and the zombie girl is a zombie boy but most of it remains the same. The script itself is a bit amateurish as to be expected but it does keep the movie balls-to-the-walls dread that made the movie worked so well.

If you love zombies, George A. Romero or even horror movies in general then this is a really good book for you. It's informative, it's smart, it has wonderful interviews with other horror directors and the cast & crew. It's a bit dry at times and it goes off in a couple weird tangents but it's still one of the best movie books that I own.

8/10

Empire reviewed

2011-05-01T09:00:00.040-04:00

Picking a favorite album for me is all but impossible. Having to sift through a mess of noise and words to determine what's the best mess is a daunting task. But if I had to pick one it would probably have to be Queensryche's Operation Mindcrime. With it's sweeping story, pounding riffs and being masterfully sung by singer Geoff Tate there is much to love about that album and I keep hearing new things and see new sides every time I listen to it. And then they released the follow-up Empire in which it contains Queensryche's only Top 40 hit "Silent Lucidity" which is a very good album but then again, it's still under Mindcrime's considerable shadow.

But it's not like Queensryche doesn't try. The band most certainly gives it their all with some great riffs and some amazing sounds. They even stretch how long their songs are with none of them being shorter than 4 minutes and it never becomes boring. Even when they do some sampling like the "black man" bit in the title track or the beginning of "Best I Can" it's only done when it'll make the most impact and it makes the album a bit better.

Of course, I would probably be beaten into a pulp if I didn't mention "Silent Lucidity". There's a reason for this, it's my favorite song from Queensryche. Now I know what you're thinking: That album wasn't in Operation Mindcrime how can that be your favorite song? Simple, Mindcrime mostly worked as an album rather than a collection of awesome songs. "Silent Lucidity" stands alone with it's sweeping orchestration, great albeit weird-dreamlike lyrics and an emotional vocal performance from Geoff Tate. It may be a ballad and it may be uncool to like the song everyone else does but there's a reason for it being so popular...IT IS THAT DAMN GOOD!

There's a couple blights on the album that does bring it down. Like I said before, Operation Mindcrime still looms strongly on Queensryche and a couple songs do sound like a couple of Mindcrime's songs. "Jet City Woman" pretty much charts the same course that "Eyes of a Stranger" charted and the beginning of "Anybody Listening?" has the same riff as "Electric Requiem". Also, why I do say the songs don't get boring despite their length there is some dead air and I do get impatient waiting for the next song to start.

Despite Empire's faults it's still a very good album. The riffs are still pounding and heavy, the drumwork is impressive and the production is lush and sweeping. With an album that contains such tracks like the title track, "Best I Can" and "Silent Lucidity" you can't go wrong with this. Just try not to compare it to Operation Mindcrime.

8/10

A Zombie's History of the United States reviewed

2011-04-24T09:00:00.053-04:00

Ever since World War Z hit stores the book world has been flooded with zombie stories. There's the regular zombie invasion stories or anthology stories and the like but what really took off is the parodies. From Pride and Prejudice and Zombies to various How to be a Zombie books. It would be obvious that there will be a book that would insert zombies into various eras of history. And today is the day where I talk about A Zombie's History of the United States.

Hey kids, you know all those cool moments in history? The Revolutionary War, The Alamo, World War II and Theodore Roosevelt's reign of awesome?! Of course you do but what you don't know is that those eras and many more from American History were filled with zombies. Why did we cross the Bering Sea to North America? To run away from zombies. What happened during the first winter the Pilgrims stayed in North America? Zombies. What really happened to William McKinley? He turned into a zombie and Theodore Roosevelt put him down to become the new president. There's many other bits of zombie history as well but you get the idea.

Maybe it's just me but I am getting a bit tired of these zombie revisionist books. Most of the time they offer very little to the table. For the most part, History is no exception with it just inserting zombies into American events with little context or style. And what really bothered me with that approach is how almost every important death or massacre is zombie related. Humanity is pretty much painted as innocent victims terrorized by zombies. I mean that's the intent and I get that, it just doesn't work out that way like the author intended it to.

However, a few people did get some Historical Badass Upgrades which were a hoot to read about. Benjamin Franklin killed a zombie girl by jamming some guy's pen in her ear and then using his son's hammer to nail it in there. Clark from the Lewis and Clark Expedition had to kill Zombie Lewis. Theodore Roosevelt battled zombie William McKinley to become the next president of America. And that's only a few really awesome displays of badassery in the book. That's where the book shines and shows all the potential it could have.

In the end, it's somewhat interesting in a way a history books is interesting if you like history...which I do. It's not particularly bad since it's written well enough to retain my interest. But it just adds nothing to the table and even what it does add doesn't elevate the book to must read status. It's a shame, there's a germ of a good idea here it's just not executed in the best way.

6/10

The Tao of Wu reviewed

2011-04-17T10:00:00.038-04:00

I consider the Wu-Tang Clan the same way I consider KISS. Both of them are fascinating ideas that I love reading about and yet, I could care less about their music. Of course, Wu-Tang and KISS are polar opposites musically and I do have some KISS songs that I like. In Wu's case, I'm just not interested in their stuff at all. It doesn't make it good or bad, I just have some other things to do before listening to Wu. But I was interested in Wu-Tang's mastermind, RZA, five-year plan to take Wu-Tang to the top. And how it worked!

One thing that you must know before embarking upon The Tao of Wu is that this is not an autobiography. There are some of RZA's life stories but most of the time is various parables, song lyrics, religious quotes and how to apply The Lessons in life to achieve wisdom. As for what The Lessons are, it's a lot. There's the Supreme Alphabet and the Supreme Mathematics which are then used to activate the 12 Jewels. It makes much more sense with context and research.

Even though RZA may be a bit weird with his approach to numerology and other mystical things...it doesn't really matter since RZA has an exhilarating writing style that makes reading this book and probably The Wu-Tang Manual just fly by. He has a way to connect anything to any moment in his life to with the knowledge and wisdom derived from The Lessons. He even talks about Dragon Ball Z...that Dragon Ball Z and how he equates a Saiyan to a black man. That's just scratching the surface of RZA's knowledge.

There's also how RZA structures his book. At every life story he tells, there's a short summary on what he talked about and how to apply it to your own life. There's also some micro-stories and other nuggets of wisdom on which RZA talks about music, production, the digital age and how to use wit to stave off conflict. It gives the book an identity of its own.

While I hesitate to call this one of the greatest music biographies ever since Motley Crue's The Dirt still exists and it's not really a biography, it's still a great book. It's still wildly entertaining and it's still fascinating to marvel, for a lack of a better term, at RZA's knowledge and conviction in his beliefs. Also, on his five-year plan to bring Wu-Tang to number one....it's still amazing that it worked so well.

9/10

Ice by Ice reviewed

2011-04-10T10:00:00.050-04:00

STOP! Collaborate and listen! Vanilla Ice was there in 1990 with a brand new invention. Something grabbed a hold of America tightly. Ice, Ice Baby was playing on the radio daily and nightly. Will it ever stop? Of course it did, we know. We turned out the lights and kills his glow. To the extreme he rocked the mic like a vandal and lit up chumps like a candle. Then he danced and rush the speakers that go boom cause he was killing our brains like poisonous mushrooms.

Alright that's enough vandalizing The Ice-man's masterpiece "Ice, Ice Baby" but apparently from 1990 to 1991 Vanilla Ice and that song was everywhere. To the Extreme is one of, if not the, fastest selling hip-hop album of all time. "Ice, Ice Baby" was the first Rap song to ever go number...if you don't count Blondie's "Rapture". And the machine kept on growing with Ice being the second Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie and his star vehicle Cool as Ice. Then came this book which ruined Ice's career overnight. It was Ice's life story in a bid to create some street cred and be those Tiger Beat surveys all in one.

Since it was all ghost-written and stuff, suffice to say it's fairly bad. But since this is Vanilla Ice, he has history of making things at least entertainingly bad. But like I said, it's ghost-written by his manager I was a moron for thinking that it would be entertaining. Anyways, the thing that really got me about this books is how much it repeats itself over and over again. You could probably play a drinking game on how often he says he was a bad kid and put his mother through hell. And another drinking game for every yep yep.

Then there's so much filler, that after 1990 the book has no more to say about Ice's life. Granted, it was written around that time so there's that. So then the book has to REACH and I mean really RRRREEEEEACCCCCHHH! There's a chapter talking about Ice's VIP crew. There's a chapter on life on the road, complete with Nintendo and Tecmobowl. There's another chapter on how he lives life complete with God. It's all just boring bores.

Even as a fan of kitch, this book sucks. You could get more enjoyment trying to read a brick wall. The only interesting thing I learned from this was this Extremely Live was going to be called Ice Capades. That would actually been a good title. But there is something that will make this interesting. I would like to see the Ice-Man write his own book and then take this book and do some commentary on it. Like what was true and what wasn't. I'll buy it.

3/10

Gorillaz: Rise of the Ogre reviewed

2011-04-03T10:00:00.048-04:00

Oh Gorillaz, how I love you or at least I thought I did. I do love the first album, but Demon Days fizzled out and Plastic Beach really only had one great song despite it being a solid album otherwise. But between Demon Days and Plastic Beach, there was an "autobiography" of them called Rise of the Ogre. But it just can't be how Damon Alburn and Jamie Hewlitt created the band out of boredom but they have to have their own massive backstory and character traits. Gorillaz has to be more than just a cartoon band, they have to be a real band that just happens to be cartoons. And that's why the book isn't very interesting.

It acts like a true band autobiography. It tells the story of how Murdoc's, 2D's, Noodle and Russell's life and how they came together to become the Gorillaz. There's also some narrator/interviewer guiding the reader along the journey. But the thing is, it's all about the fabricated backstory of the Gorillaz which is fine. I just wanted the real backstory between Alburn and Hewitt. Oh well, I guess it is my fault for not liking what I got.

The main problem is how much Murdoc talks and talks and talks. Almost everytime Murdoc "opens" his mouth so to speak is pretty much when my eyes start to glaze over. There are a few times when Murdoc has some pretty cool stories like his youth, meeting 2D or double-crossing a record exec wanting to kill the band with this amazing line: "Didn't surprise me that he didn't find the guns, I didn't put them there." But other than that it's pretty much "Blah blah blah I'm so great blah blah blah Everthing I touch turns to awesome blah blah blah My bass shagging skills is second to none." He talks so much that the other band members don't have much to say which is a shame since 2D's hilarious, Noodle's thoughtful and Russell is entertainingly annoyed.

And I also have a problem with the involvement of Noodle in this. This takes place after Demon Days is over and done with, touring-wise. That means this is after the El Manana video in which Noodle's floating island from Feel Good Inc gets shot down and she becomes missing which neccistated Murdoc building a cyborg Noodle for Plastic Beach. She's in the book, answering questions like nothing ever happened. The last thing she says is about planning El Manana and then we get to the video shoot itself and she's gone. It's like she spontaneously becomes an unperson right then and there. That just irks me.

This book is for the hardcore Gorillaz fans. I don't find the backstory and how everything connects to each other all that interesting. Murdoc just bores me. It's not that well-written with so much self-congratulatory backslaps that it becomes sickenly. I know it's satire and it's probably a satire on those type of books of real bands but I didn't find it that clever or funny. The photographs are nice and I do want to listen to the music again but still, not a good book.

5/10

Parasite Eve reviewed

2011-03-27T10:00:00.075-04:00

I remember as a youth thumbing through whatever gaming magazine I had at the time and saw something about Parasite Eve on the cover. Of course, me being a 12 year old boy I immediately focused on the heroine, Aya Brea, and she became my first video game crush. Sure, Lara Croft existed but I was never that into Tomb Raider and Lara Croft was one of those unattainable chicks that's never fun to crush on. Aya, on the other hand, with her denim jacket, her white t-shirt and those steely greenish eyes is slightly more attainable and a lot more fun to crush on. The point is, I knew I would be playing this game sometime soon...granted by soon I meant 13 years but hey, I played it.

The year is 1997 and the city is New York City. Aya Brea is NYPD on the way to a fancy opera with some date. The opera starts off fine and the diva, Melissa, starts her big solo. It's so amazing that her co-stars burst into flames, then a couple members of the audience burst into flames....THEN EVERYONE WHO ISN'T AYA BURSTS INTO FLAMES! Wait, that may be a bad thing especially that Melissa is now Eve, which is bad. But fear not since Aya is on the case! The case is a horrible conspiracy that takes her and the rest of the NYPD to the limit over six days as they go deeper and deeper into the world of mitochondria, slime, Japan, evil doctors and the mystery of Aya's long dead twin sister, Maya.

Parasite Eve was touted as being one of the first cinematic RPG's and it really delivers on the cinematic front. There's load of cutscenes and FMV's in this game. However, I do think it was a bit ahead of its time. As it is, there was no voice-acting on most of the Playstation's library and Parasite Eve was no exception. So we get to read reams of text while blocky people make awkward poses and movements. It's not that it's bad or anything, especially for the era, but imagine how much better it would be with more cinematic graphics and voice-acting. As for the FMV's, they are pretty good. It's dynamic, it's entertaining and it's usually where you see the visual wonders like the amazing prologue.

The gameplay itself is pretty good when you're actually fighting and playing. It's a combination of survival horror and a RPG. The RPG elements are really well-done with the sense of tangible accomplishment when you gain a level...and it's lot a more tangible than a proper RPG. Also, you get special powers due to Aya's own mitochondria which are standard order RPG powers like heals and buffs and debuffs. The survival horror aspects...they're not as prominent. The battle system is all based on random encounters that decrease when as you level up, so you're not in a position to actually be ambushed or have something jump out of walls and windows...even though that did happen once. The only real connection to Parasite Eve and survival horror is the godforsaken Item Management Puzzle. Granted, you gain more item slots with levels but those fill up quite fast with useless junk, weapons and armor that are near- useless without tools to combine them and the fact that every encounter gives you reams of items.

Parasite Eve isn't a bad game or anything. It just makes a lot of mistakes that prevent it from being a good game. And yet, it is a product of that era. I really can't hold up it to the standards of today since voice-acting, while existing, wasn't that practical yet. The graphics are nice for the era, but they're still all blocky and weird. The gameplay is nice, albeit a bit maddening. It's just not that special.

6/10

Gungrave: Overdose reviewed

2011-03-20T10:00:00.002-04:00

Books-A-Million is weird place for they sold video games at one location...and possibly all of them. And this is where I picked up this game I never heard of because it was only five bucks. It looked to be short and that was fine enough with me. Then I did some preliminary research and found out I bought a sequel to a game I never heard of and there was an anime series as well. But like a fool, I carried on and now a couple days, multiple horrific rises in my blood pressure and a broken controller(the outside, it still controls) I ready to put Gungrave: Overdose in the grave.

*hits myself*

So apparently, three years ago there was this drug called Seed that turned people insane and sometimes into hideous monstrosities. So there was this guy called Grave, who came back from the dead with the help of some chick, Mika, to stop it. But they weren't successful for some reason since it's the present and Seed is back. Maybe with a vengeance or something, I don't know but I do know that you have to stop Seed again and this time, for real...maybe. But you have help, for some reason an undead rockstar and an undead blind soldier have joined you.

The plot is just a horrible excuse anyways, so the fact that I never knew the whole story beforehand makes very little difference. The gameplay is you go to some place, see a bunch of enemies trying to kill you and then you kill them before they kill you. As a run-and-game, it's not bad. It's fast-paced, the enemies are varied just enough and it provides a visceral experience. Also, I do kinda get off on dual-wielding pistols which is Grave's weapon of choice.

Of course, I would be saying that despite it's instances of fun if it wasn't so infuriatingly difficult and annoyingly repetitive. It's difficult because the game is cheap. More often than not you get more enemies than you can handle and at times, you just can't shoot them, you need to use strategy. But the game seems to punish you for trying to be strategic. You have to strafe at times but when you need to, it's always in a small enclosed space where strafing is next-to-impossible. You have to use your melee attacks, you get enemies giving cheap shots from behind. You have to target something, the targeting system is such a joke that you're betting off shooting randomly.

But if there is any bright spot in playing this, it's actually watching and hearing the cutscenes. They do have some nice anime cutscenes in this that are quite pleasing to the eye. Now, they're more like moving paintings since motion is rather limited except in a few cases but the colors are bright, the characters are well-defined and it's just fun to watch. The voice-work is pretty good, nothing truly amazing but nothing truly amazingly bad. I won't play another Gungrave game but I might give the anime a chance one of these days.

As much as I want to blast it all the way to hell for it's near-horrid gameplay, I really can't. It would be totally unfair to the cutscenes and the amount of care they made to the graphics. Granted, it may be weak justifications for an average rating but giving it a 3 or 4 doesn't feel right. If you like this sort of run-and-gun gaming, give it a chance. You'll probably like it a lot more than I did.

5/10

Angel Dust reviewed

2011-03-13T10:00:00.038-04:00

For a long, long, entirely too long time I just dismissed Faith No More as a novelty act based solely on "Epic". Was it unfair? At the time, no. It was the only song of there's that gets any airplay with a bone thrown to "We Care a Lot". But then I heard "Land of Sunshine" and then, that's when I realize that I was being unfair and I vow to rectify this situation by buying Angel Dust ASAP.

This album is where Mike Patton, the lead singer, starts exert his influence since on their previous album, The Real Thing, he just joined when the album was already composed and he just put in lyrics. So on this, the band wasn't going to chase the shocking pop success of "Epic" and there's a lot of genre-busting here, from the country-fried "RV" to the mocking and harsh "Land of Sunshine". The only sound that even sounds close to "Epic" is "Midlife Crisis" and even then when you squint and turn your head at the right angle.

The real draw is Mike Patton's voice and how it varied his vocal style is. There's an operatic grandeur to it as he sings. There's a giddy joy in not knowing what's going to happen next on the next song. He can be quiet, he can be boisterous, he can be mocking, he can be a redneck and he can even be a convincing Late-Nite TV salesman. Just listening to him is a wonder.

If there's any disappointment to the record, it still somewhat plays it safe in the harder songs. Not to say those songs are bad, they're just not as memorable as something like "RV", "Land of Sunshine" or "Everything's Ruined" where they do something completely different or give new spins and dimensions to previous standards. I really do like this album and it shows that Faith No More was more than just some one-hit wonder that just got lucky.

8/10