By: Waterbuffalo65

Europa Universalis III is a game released by Paradox in January 26^th, 2007, which on top of that, as of writing this article, happy 5^th birthday Europa! Now Paradox is a company known by many for making games, such as Mount and Blade and War of the Roses, however Paradox’s biggest section of games is largely ignored, and those games being Grand Strategy. Grand Strategy is a genre of games in which you generally control a nation in the midst of a large campaign map, focusing on many aspects in detail such as politics, economics, and warfare.  Grand Strategy games are Paradox’s specialty, and I guess they don’t quite appeal a crowd as wide as say, Mount and Blade. Mount and Blade, don’t get me wrong, it’s an amazing game, I love it, in fact I even reviewed it here. However it seems odd that the type of game Paradox makes the most isn’t quite as in the spotlight, however I won’t go all hipster-y, I will say that most people that know their way around the internet have probably heard of Europa Universalis III, Victoria II, or Hearts of Iron III (more on top of that have probably heard of Crusader Kings II, that being a relatively new release). Anyway Europa takes place from about the year 1399 and extends to the late 1800’s, giving you about 400 years of conquest time. It has an extremely detailed map of the entire world and all of its territories, and you can even scroll forward the clock to start at a different date. As you move the time along, the world detail keeps up, keeping track of things such as wars that happened around that time, resulting in an extremely accurate setting of the world during the Late Middle Ages-Early Industrial Era. Anyway, something I think I should mention is that all of Paradox’s Grand Strategy Games link up together in time frames, Crusader Kings 2 takes place from 1056-1453(yeah, it goes a bit into Europa but it still connects together) Though Crusader Kings 2 is different in that it takes place during high feudalism, and there is much more emphasis on diplomacy and politics, being that you control a political family. Europa is less so, having you just in charge of your nation, there are many factors to consider in your nation, and admitted, some of Paradox’s strategy games have a tiny bit of a learning curve, but if you love history as much as I do then these games are a blast, Castile is one of my favorite kingdoms, I love the whole ‘Reconquista’ culture, and it’s cool to be able to play during that time. Also, you can start the game as any nation (even China, or perhaps the Incas over in South America), and start it at any time within the game’s time frame. Gameplay is fun, but not in an action packed sort of way, it’s a thinking game, strategy games on a complexity level of ones like this do take some thinking to do well in, but as you get better and better at the game; you’ll get better at making decisions. It will take a while to learn, and I promise you on your first campaign game you will screw up and do something stupid, but maybe you won’t be as stupid on your second campaign, and even less so on the third. I recommend at first playing a series of campaigns until you feel you’ve really screwed up, and then maybe try again at another campaign.

Graphics: The Graphics aren’t astounding by any means, the graphics on most grand strategy games aren’t. However it shows what it needs to without being a cluster of pixels, so it does the job, they’re not really ugly in any way either. I don’t think graphics should be that big of a factor if you’re showing interest in a game like this, most likely if you’re looking at a game built on decision making and thinking, you won’t need outstanding graphics for the perfect immersion experience. Anyway, the campaign map is very nice, it has hundreds (literally) of nations from whatever time period you select, and you can pick/play any one of them that you want, and its impressive every now and then to pause the game, sit back and take a look at the world.

Gameplay: The gameplay is that of an intense strategy game. There is always something going on, and both diplomacy and economy play a big role in this game. Both will either make you up to be great or destroy you (you can’t conquer mercilessly).  It starts you off in control of your nation, you can modify diplomacy with any nation you’ve discovered, and there is a lot to do with diplomacy. You can embargo trade, you can increase relations with them with a gift of gold, and every nation on earth that knows you has an opinion score of you, represented by a number(from -200 to 200) and many things affect this relationship. If you are a major power next to them, they will feel threatened by you, diplomacy penalty. Royal marriages, gifts of gold, trade agreements, alliances, and having the same religion will boost your relationship; however things like embargoing trade, trespassing on their soil, and a history of wars will severely hurt your relationship with them. It’s all about diplomacy in Europa Universalis III, and I learned that the hard way after trying to attack a weakened Portugal while they were allied with England and Aragon, this is a dog eat dog world, and unless you have alliances it’ll be you against 4 other dogs every single fight. Aside from that this game is amazing, it’s one of the few strategy games I can sit down and play pretty much all day. Add some additional priority to get this game if you’re a history fan. Beware the learning curve(you will play the first couple of games confused, just watch Youtube videos, play the tutorial, or keep playing, that’s what I did.)

Audio: Soundtrack in a video game isn’t something I think is very important (as long as it’s not terrible), and some a good soundtrack can do a lot to make a game memorable (it’s the only reason at all I still remember King of Dragon Pass very well), and this game does have some nice music. It has music that you can sit back and listen to while thinking over your strategies.

Overall Europa Universalis III is an astounding game. If you are a fan of strategy, and like to sit down and play a game where you get to think about your strategies a bit instead of blowing through like it’s nothing, then it’s the game for you. This is an amazing game, for history fans, and for strategy fans. I love this game so much I cannot describe it in words, and you should seriously get it if you’re the kind of person I just talked about. I’m working on a Castile campaign, and a Mamluk campaign right now, and I can guarantee you I have many more hours to go on this game before I ever get tired of it.

Gameplay
Inspired and designed precisely from Mortal Kombat. It relies on combos, jumping, and things you might expect from a typical fighting game. Players control one of the many DC Universe heroes/villains to choose from and engage in your not-so-typical fight. Each character has their own special set of skills and unique abilities along with a combat type: Power or Gadget. Power characters engage as full on tanks with super-human like traits, while your gadget character will use the surroundings around him to his or
her advantage. The game features multiple stages within a map known as “Arena”, which in this case, Superman may punch you through a wall which reveals a new fighting ground/stage. Players will also have a special power-meter which allows special/enhanced attacks. Filling up your power-meter allows you to unleash a devastating super attack. Rating: 97% (I’ll give this a 100% if they add Red Hood or any of the Robins..)

Update
As of now, only (12) characters have are revealed, however Ed Boon will announce more in the coming future Likewise, I will keep the list updated. For those curious of the
characters they are:
-Batman
-Superman
-Wonder Woman
-Green Lantern
-Joker
-Solomon Grundy
-Flash
-Green Arrow
-Catwoman
-Harley Quinn
-Cyborg
-Nightwing

Music/Sound
As of now, not much is known about the music in the game, but the sound engineering seems to be more improved from their predecessor fighting game, Mortal Kombat. The sound of bone crunching, batarangs flying, and the surrounding background have a much accurate and very improved sound. Rating: 85%

Graphics/Design
The game runs on a modified version of Unreal Engine 3, and features a great array of design. Characters are designed carefully and unimaginably accurate to their comic versions. Instead of wearing spandex (Dear Lord…) the idea of an armored costume (probably inspired loosely on Nolan’s Batman) was used for the characters, which means yes, NO OUTSIDE UNDIES! The unique design and style for each character makes this a very important and awesome factor. Rating: 95%

My Critique
I’m a big fan of Super Heroes, and fighting games, and when you combine both, it just makes me a better person inside…anyways because of that, I would definitely recommend this game. I also believe it is very appropriate for the idea of making it Teen Rated. I know, I know…let me explain. In the DC Universe, super heroes ALWAYS try to avoid killing, which makes it logical in this setting. But some of you are asking, what about the villains? Well even if you want to kill in this game, it’s not going to really fit in and it would probably make DC look very…out of place. Ex: Joker slowly cutting your face bit by bit….(now do you have a better perspective). Back on topic, I believe this game is worth the wait, and the money, so I would highly recommend it. Game Rating: 92%

Be sure to watch Injustice hit the shelves sometime in April, 2013. Until then, thanks for reading, and I’ll be sure answer any of your questions in the comments.

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‘Cool Hand Luke’ is a 1967 film about a former soldier who is sent to jail for taking the heads off of parking meters. This film is famous for it’s use of religious metaphors and symbolism and one of the greatest lessons ever taught from a film. Think you saw a religious metaphor or symbol in the film and want to know if there are more? See all of them in a list below with explanations.

• His name is Luke, like the apostle, Luke.
• Luke’s prisoner number is 37. In the Book Of Luke 1:37, “For with God nothing shall be impossible”.
• In the fight with Dragline, Luke is shown with the sun behind his head, as if an aura over his head.
• Luke ate fifty eggs. There were fifty prisoners. He was a martyr and absorbed all of their sins.
• After eating the eggs and being left on the table, he is sprawled out on the table like Jesus.
• When the man with no eyes is walking down the road as it is being covered with dirt after being tarred. The dirt goes right by his feet, like when the palm trees being thrown at the feet of Jesus.
• Luke says “Stop feeding off me!” at one point. Later in the film, when he is given a crapload of food as a punishment, the other inmates start helping him by eating his food or ‘feeding off of him’, like the sacrament of Holy Communion.
• Luke has to dig his own whole and is thrown inside as if it is his grave, like Jesus had to carry his own cross.
• When Luke is lying in the hole after being ‘broken’, he cries out to God asking for help, to which the head warden or the ‘God of the prison camp’ comes up and says “Come on out son” to say that in a way, God answered his prayers, just the wrong God.
• After being let out of the hole and he goes back to his bunk, the other inmates shun him since he finally gave into the bosses of the camp and they offer Luke no help at all but they just cry or are sad. Just like Jesus when he was worshipped all of those years, then when he is forced to carry his cross then is put on the cross, no one tries to help him at all, instead they cry and are saddened that their hero let them down.
• When the photo of him with the women is being put back together, it is ripped in the shape of a cross.
• At the end with the zoom out of the inmates working on the road, the four rodes join at each other in the shape of a cross.

The allegory to the story being that we should not trust false prophets or gods or idolize people or anything but God.

For Our Review Of ‘Cool Hand Luke’, Click HERE.

With the DVD, Blu-Ray, and Trilogy Box sets being released December 4, 2012 for the Holidays, it was about time we got something a little new to feed our hunger for probably the greatest film of the year. Thanks to Trailer Park, we get three of the unused posters that were to promote ‘The Dark Knight Rises’. For whatever reason, they were not used.

Click For Full Size

The first two are awesome. They’re definitely better than some of the crappy posters or the UK DVD Cover that was released. The last one, I think I’ve seen it before. Or at least the little Bane drawing.

Own ‘The Dark Knight Rises’ on Blu-Ray or DVD OR the Trilogy Box Set on December 4, 2012.

Quentin Tarantino is a phenomenal filmmaker, no doubt about it. With films on his belt such as ‘Pulp Fiction’, ‘Reservoir Dogs’, ‘Kill Bill’, and ‘Inglorious Basterds’. Many masterpieces and fan favorites. We now learn that Quentin Tarantino doesn’t plan on making movies forever. Why stop at all?

“Who knows what I’ll do? I just don’t want to be an old-man filmmaker, I want to stop at a certain point. Directors don’t get better as they get older. Usually the worst films in their filmography are those last four at the end. I am all about my filmography, and one bad film f*cks up three good ones. I don’t want that bad, out-of-touch comedy in my filmography, the movie that makes people think, ‘Oh man, he still thinks it’s 20 years ago.’ When directors get out-of-date, it’s not pretty.” Courtesy Of The Hollywood Reporter

“You stop when you stop, but in a fanciful world, ten movies in my filmography would be nice. I’ve made seven. If I have a change of heart, if I come up with a new story, I could come back. But if I stopped at ten, that would be okay as an artistic statement.” Courtesy Of Deadline

Of course, he has a point. Many directors do tire out and just stop making good films. They’re usually good, but nothing like how they used to make films. And when you’re a director like Quentin Tarantino who writes all of his movies, it’s even harder. The director did say in an interview with Playboy that he did consider directing a ‘big budget superhero movie’ but turned it down because everyone knows, this guy writes his own movies.

“They did get in touch with me in the very early, early, early, early stages of Green Lantern, and a couple of other things. They’ve learned… They’ve probably learned not to call me, they know I write my own sh*t. But after Grindhouse flopped, I actually started getting aggressive offers for some big Hollywood hot project movies.”

“I felt like, I see where they’re coming from…They’re thinking I’m a little insecure right now and that I’m going to want to get back on the horse right away, in a solid situation. And I was a little insecure, but I didn’t quite bite. That Friday before Inglourious Basterds opened, I remember being so glad I had stuck to my guns.” Courtesy Of Deadline

After this year’s ‘Django Unchained’ hits theaters, Quentin Tarantino will have eight films on his list. Will he make two more films then retire? Lets hope not.

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Yes, that’s right folks. Here on Retrospect Realm we’re giving you a over 42-minute preview to ‘The Hobbit’ Official Soundtrack composed by Howard Shore.

‘The Hobbit’ hits theaters December 14, 2012.

• Plot: A man refuses to conform to life in a rural prison.
• Director: Stuart Rosenberg
• Writers: Donn Pearce (screenplay), Frank Pierson (screenplay), and 1 more credit »
• Stars: Paul Newman, George Kennedy and Strother Martin | See full cast and crew

“What we’ve got here…. is a failure to communicate!” Oh boy, oh boy. I am certainly glad I watched this movie. I absolutely LOVED it. Now, I watched this for the first time in my film class. The teacher told us that she watched it the night before and that it had it’s ‘boring parts’ throughout the whole movie. I admit, it did get pretty boring. But she was partially wrong, it was only boring in some parts during the beginning of the movie. From the middle to the end, it was great.

Story: After a ridiculously short and somewhat lame reason for going to jail, Luke goes to jail, of course. Right off the bat, Mr. Walton arrives. Yes, Mr. Walton, also known as Ralph Waite, the actor. So Luke goes to jail and puts up an amazing fight to Dragline, the biggest inmate in the prison. Although he doesn’t win, matter of fact he gets beaten pretty badly, but he earns the respect from everyone for not backing down. Then eating fifty eggs and becoming the messiah to the other inmates and a favorite with the guards, his sick mother comes to visit him. She leaves a banjo for him. Soon enough, Luke gets word that she is dead. He then goes back to his bunk where he is left alone in the room to mourn. He sings the famous, ‘Plastic Jesus’.

Luke is then put away in the box so he won’t try and escape to pay tribute to his mother before she is buried. At first, I really did not understand the point of putting him in the box. Why not just give him the leg chains? Then when he actually escapes with the chains, I understood that is was extremely easy to escape even with the chains.

This film was also filled with a TON of religious metaphors. Lets take a look at just some of the religious metaphors and references.

• His name is Luke, like the apostle, Luke.
• Luke’s prisoner number is 37. In the Book Of Luke 1:37, “For with God nothing shall be impossible”.
• In the fight with Dragline, Luke is shown with the sun behind his head, as if an aura over his head.
• Luke ate fifty eggs. There were fifty prisoners. He was a martyr and absorbed all of their sins.
• After eating the eggs and being left on the table, he is sprawled out on the table like Jesus.
• When the man with no eyes is walking down the road as it is being covered with dirt after being tarred. The dirt goes right by his feet, like when the palm trees being thrown at the feet of Jesus.
• Luke says “Stop feeding off me!” at one point. Later in the film, when he is given a crapload of food as a punishment, the other inmates start helping him by eating his food or ‘feeding off of him’, like the sacrament of Holy Communion.
• Luke has to dig his own whole and is thrown inside as if it is his grave, like Jesus had to carry his own cross.
• When Luke is lying in the hole after being ‘broken’, he cries out to God asking for help, to which the head warden or the ‘God of the prison camp’ comes up and says “Come on out son” to say that in a way, God answered his prayers, just the wrong God.
• After being let out of the hole and he goes back to his bunk, the other inmates shun him since he finally gave into the bosses of the camp and they offer Luke no help at all but they just cry or are sad. Just like Jesus when he was worshipped all of those years, then when he is forced to carry his cross then is put on the cross, no one tries to help him at all, instead they cry and are saddened that their hero let them down.
• When the photo of him with the women is being put back together, it is ripped in the shape of a cross.
• At the end with the zoom out of the inmates working on the road, the four rodes join at each other in the shape of a cross.

The allegory to the story being that we should not trust false prophets or gods or idolize people or anything but God.

Music: Composed by Lalo Schifrin, the score for this film is very nice and fitting. Just little cues and some faint and soft music, it fits the mood of the story. The actual theme song is perfect for the whole film and Luke. It especially fits in at the ending.

Cast & Characters: Paul Newman gave a STELLAR performance here. He was nominated for an Oscar, sadly he didn’t win. Mr. Walton had a notable performance and recieves the Retrospect Realm award for worst shorts tan we’ve ever seen in our lives. George Kennedy and all of the other inmates, Strother Martin, and Godfrey Woodward all deserve applauses too.

Verdict: Whether you realize the bigger picture or not, ‘Cool Hand Luke’ is a timeless classic that entertains with a stellar performance from Paul Newman & Co.

Good music, great graphics, cool cars, guns, women, gang scene, that’s Grand Theft Auto for you. Rockstar North is back again with yet ANOTHER installment to the GTA series. So far, the two trailer and all of the screenshots we’ve seen have not dissapointed one bit.

This trailer seems to show a lot of action. From scaling down buildings, to skydiving out of a jeep that comes out of an airplane, to motorcycle riding, to driving from the cops and enemies, and then to driving a jet over Los Santos to blow up a helicopter. This definitely has a TON of awesome sequences we will be able to play. But the storyline? How will that be?

Like any other GTA game, the storyline will be freaking awesome. I mean, what do you expect. To fully tell you how awesome it SHOULD be, I’ll have to show you the first trailer also.

‘Grand Theft Auto V’ seems to follow a retired (or semi-retired) man who used to live a life of crime. He moved to Los Santos (Based on Los Angeles [Obviously]) to live a life like the movies (and for the weather), “but, you know how it is…” He then got back into a life of crime, and that’s where us and our controllers and keyboards come into the story. This is one of those games where it’s just guaranteed to be great and a classic, I mean come on. Name one GTA game that wasn’t great.

Buy ‘Grand Theft Auto V’ in stores Spring of 2013! Or Pre-order now!