Hadn’t heard of a new zombie game coming out, so did a little search and discovered that Age of Zombies is Halfbrick Studio’s new “mini” for the PSP and PS3 available for $4.99 from the PlayStation Network store, the PlayStaiton miniS series being their strategy for competing with iPhone game apps. While Keri generally likes most games, her critique above is resounding applause compared to her usual comments on other titles. So for five bucks what did I think I had to lose?

Best five bucks I’ve spent on a game. Thanks Keri!

Trash throngs of dead-heads in five time zones with a variety of weapons.

Age of Zombies is a top-down shooter like Berserk or–well, most of you are probably too young to remember Berserk, so let’s just say it’s a top down shooter where you move in eight directions with either the left stick or d-pad and fire in eight directions by pressing the face buttons or combos of two buttons (so if you want to fire towards the upper right, hold the square and triangle buttons at the same time, etcetera).

The hilarious story follows the exploits of mouthy hero Barry Steakfries as he goes to Professor Brain’s laboratory one night to kill the guy for no particular reason. There he finds the Professor has a “super awesome surprise” for him, having just perfected Hypertimealogical Transfer Machine. “Ah, an HTM. Interesting,” replies Badass Barry, as if he knows what the hell that means. If you’re also wondering, it’s a time machine which the Professor uses to send zombies to the farthest reaches of time to destroy mankind. After turning Professor Brains into a grease spot Barry jumps into the time portal and finds himself in caveman days. He must kill all the zombies and their super awesome zombie boss monsters in each time zone to save the day.

Age of Zombies features five stages with two or three levels each. The prehistoric times stage features a tutorial to acquaint you with the controls. After killing off several waves of caveman zombies without finding a caveman pet to take home and name Steve Bennett, you must defeat a Zombie T-Rex. Then Barry jumps to Prohibition era 1930’s to battle zombie gangsters, some of whom fire machine guns. The stage ends in a battle against a zombie car. Then Barry jumps to Ancient Egypt, Feudal Japan, and finally the future, with each stage ending in a boss fight.

Use the flamethrower to barbecue the outer edges of a horde.

In each level zombies flood out of time portals and you soon find yourself backing away from a massive horde. Tossing grenades into hordes helps, and so does circling around the edges of the area to corral the enemies together in a tight, centralized group. Pickups fall from the sky as you kill certain numbers of zombies (usually landing on the far side of the field from your position ). But pickups include cool weapons like flamethrowers, rifles, chainguns and SMGs, grenades, bazookas and trip-mines. In later stages zombies that glow red explode when shot, allowing you to destroy large crowds easier. A gauge on the right side of the screen shows how many more zombies you must kill to clear the level. If a boss appears, the gauge shows how much life the boss has remaining.

Between all battles we’re treated to the witty banter of Barry Steakfries, who doesn’t mind referencing Resident Evil games ad nauseam. That is, until the producers run out of ideas and start using placeholder text. (Don’t worry, this too is a joke that makes sense in the context of the whole.)

Despite the fun, Age of Zombies is over in a flash. No multiplayer either. Luckily there’s a Challenge Mode where you see how long you can survive and how high you can score in each stage. But still, for five bucks and a new game it’s a really addictive, old-school gaming experience that you’ll play repeatedly and won’t regret.

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• Running through the jungle, Ben stumbles upon Ilana’s group and convinces them to return to the Flight 815 survivor’s beach camp.
• In the flash-sideways universe, Ben is teaching his high school class about Napoleon at Elba. After class, Principal Reynolds cancels Ben’s History Club and assigns him to run detention.
• Ben eats lunch in the teacher’s lounge with Leslie Artz (Yes, the same Flight 815 survivor who accidentally blew himself up with dynamite taken from the Black Rock in the Island universe). Substitute teacher Locke, seated a few tables away, suggests to Ben that he should be principal if he cares so much. Ben begins to consider it.
• Ilana confronts Ben about Jacob’s death. She hands Jacob’s ashes to Miles. Using his power, Miles figures out that Ben killed Jacob. Ilana takes the ashes back and tells Ben, “Jacob was the closest thing I ever had to a father.” The group continues toward the beach camp.
• Ilana’s group returns to what remains of the beach camp. Ilana gives orders to find food and tools. She refuses to speak to Ben.
• Flash-sideways Ben is microwaving a frozen diner. He takes the hot tray into the dining room where his father Roger Linus is seated. Ben tells his father about being assigned to detention, and that he feels like a loser despite his doctorate. Roger says he wanted more for Ben, that’s why he signed up for the Dharma Initiative and took him to the island. The doorbell rings, it’s Alex (Ben’s adopted daughter in the Island universe). In the flash-sideways universe she’s one of Ben’s history students and wonders why History Club didn’t meet. Ben agrees to tutor her early in the morning if she brings coffee.
• Sun confronts Ilana at the beach camp and says she needs to find her husband Jin. Ilana says she wants to find Jin too because both Sun and Jin are candidates to become the new Jacob.
• At their camp in the jungle, Jack wakes up Hurley and tells him they can get back to the temple by nightfall. Hurley tries to stall him, but Jack heads off. Hurley tries to lead Jack the wrong direction, but Richard appears. He tells them he knows where the temple is. Jack and Hurley follow Richard.
• At beach camp, Ben is rooting through Sawyer’s tent. He finds a porno mag and a book by Benjamin Disraeli. Another shot shows the novel The Chosen by Chaim Potok. Lapidus approaches, mentioning to Ben that he was supposed to fly 815. Ben laughs that the island still got him in the end. Just then Ilana points her rifle at Ben’s head and marches him away. At Boone Hill where the other post-815 casualties are buried, Ilana makes Ben lay on the ground and she ties a cable to his leg (possible reference to his appearance in Saw?). She tells Ben to pick up a bamboo tube shovel and start digging his own grave.
• Flash-sideways Ben’s history book is open to Chapter 19 about the East India Trading Company. He and Alex are in the library, and he is quizzing her on history. Alex is worried about getting into college and says her mom is working two jobs just to make ends meet. Alex says she needs someone with Yale contacts to get in, and “pervy” Principal Reynolds is the only one around who has them. Ben asks her if the principal’s done anything inappropriate. She explains that she went to the nurse for a stomach ache and that the principal was having sex with the nurse in the next room. Ben promises not to say anything to anyone. (Cute transition, how Ben says “Shall we return to the high seas?” and then the next shot shows him back at the beach.)
• Ben is digging his own grave while Ilana patrols. Miles brings him some green beans and bananas. Ben refuses the food but offers Miles the $3.2 million dollars he asked for during the Season 4 episode “Eggtown” if only Miles will cut him loose. But using his ability, Miles knows about Nikki and Paolo being buried nearby with $8 million dollars worth of diamonds, as seen in the Season 3 episode “Exposé”. Miles explains Jacob’s last thoughts to Ben, that Jacob was still hoping that Ben wouldn’t kill him, right up until the moment he did.
• Trekking through jungle, Hurley is asking Richard why he looks the same as he did in the 70’s. Richard explains it’s because Jacob gave him a gift. He leads Jack and Hurley to the Black Rock cargo ship (the slave vessel which came to the Island in 1845) and explains that he lied about going to the Temple because everyone there is already dead. When asked, Richard doesn’t know the status of any of their friends. Hurley reveals that he was warned away from the Temple by Jacob. Richard tells Hurley that if he’s seen Jacob not to believe anything he says, then heads for the Black Rock. Jack asks Richard what he’s doing, and Richard explains that he needs to die.
• In the flash-sideways universe Artz is marking tests with failing grades and cursing to himself. Ben enters and asks Artz if he would access the nurse’s email account. Ben doesn’t want to tell him why, but because Artz threatens to not help Ben must explain that he’s going after Reynolds’ job. Artz agrees to help if as Principal, Ben will give him a better parking spot and new lab equipment. When Ben agrees, Artz laughs and says Linus is a “real killer.”
• Inside the Black Rock, Richard is looking at a pair of slave manacles. Jack enters and Richard explains that this is the first time since he’s been on the island that he’s ever come back. Richard finds the dynamite, looking somewhat surprised at its appearance inside the ancient vessel. Richard explains to Hurley and Jack that he can’t kill himself because Jacob touched him, and that Jacob’s touch is a curse. Richard wants to end his life because Jacob is gone without having ever explained his “plan,” and so Richard thinks his life no longer has purpose. He can’t light the fuse himself, so he wants Jack to do it. Jack lights the nearby gas lamp and uses it to light a long fuse attached to a dynamite stick. After the fuse is burning, Jack sits down and says, “Now… let’s talk.”
• Hurley is freaking out about the burning fuse, so he leaves Jack with Richard. Jack tells Richard he doesn’t believe either one of them is going to die, citing what he found at the lighthouse as evidence. Jack bets that because Jacob was watching him all his life, nothing will happen. And he’s right; the fuse dies just an inch short of the dynamite. Richard asks Jack what they should do now, and Jack says he wants to go back to where it all started.
• At Boone Hill, Ben is almost finished digging his own grave when he hears the familiar sounds of the smoke monster. The Man in Black appears to Ben as Locke and explains that he’s gathering a group to leave the Island for good. But he needs someone to take charge of the Island, and he wants it to be Ben. Ben’s shackle magically falls off, but he is hesitant to go with the Man in Black. The Man in Black explains that his group will be on Hydra Island, and that he’s left a rifle by a tree near the clearing. The Man in Black walks off, with Ilana having seen none of this. Ben bolts into the jungle and Ilana chases him.
• In the flash-sideways universe, Dr. Linus enters the Principal’s office and confronts Reynolds with the nurse’s emails. He tells Reynolds to resign and recommend Linus as his replacement. Then Reynolds reads an email from Alex asking him to write a letter of recommendation to Yale. He says that if Linus makes him resign, he will torch Alex’s future.
• Ilana chases Ben to the rifle. He picks it up and makes her drop her gun. But he hesitates to kill her. He wants to explain that he knows what she’s feeling and talks about Alex’s death. He chose Jacob over Alex, and Jacob didn’t care. He doesn’t expect her forgiveness because he can’t forgive himself. He says he’s going to the Man in Black because he’s the only one that will have him. Ilana says “I’ll have you,” and takes her gun and walks off. Ben is shocked.
• Flash-sideways Ben enters the principal’s office and looks at the nameplate. Alex enters and says she wants to thank Reynolds for the recommendation for Yale. Linus has his history club back, but he obviously didn’t sacrifice Alex to burn Principal Reynolds. Artz confronts Ben about his parking space and Ben says that Artz can have his. He watches Alex leave Reynolds office, hopeful and happy, and he is happy for her.
• Ilana and Ben return to the Beach Camp. Everyone is surprised to see Ben. He approaches Sun and offers to help her rig up a shelter. A season one style montage occurs. Ilana cries for Jacob. Miles holds up a diamond he excavated from Nikki and Paolo’s grave. Jack, Hurley and Richard enter the beach camp. Everyone hugs like they used to do in season one. Jack sees Ben looking kinda pathetic.
• In the water a submarine periscope surfaces, watching the people on the beach. The sub’s commander is Charles Widmore.

Analysis after the jump >>

My favorite Dick novel of all time, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, is also back in the news for both good and bad reasons. BOOM! Studios is almost finished with their comic series adaptation run. But the novel also gained some recent infamy in connection with the sad disappearance and subsequent death of actor Andrew Koenig. Also, Google named their recently launched phone line Nexus One, which may be an infringement of the Nexus-6 model androids from Dick’s book.

Young Philip K. Dick posing with a sheep.

People don’t believe me when I tell them that the novel actually forced itself into my life. When Blade Runner hit theaters in 1982 I was quite interested in seeing it. All of eleven years old, I had no knowledge of Philip K. Dick at the time; I was more interested in seeing yet another space adventure movie starring Han Solo. Unfortunately the film was rated R, and I was still subjugated under an oppressive totalitarian regime: my mother. Restricted films were outlawed for young Danny Birlew following an “accidental” viewing of Alien. Fortunately the administrators of my Pennsylvania school were suckers for publisher kickbacks, and so my classmates and I received the monthly Scholastic Book Club sales sheet. Imagine my excitement to see this paltry sales catalog offering Del Rey’s novelization of the movie. Although my mother’s censorship activities prohibited restricted films, I could still read any book I wanted regardless of subject matter. I’d already put several Stephen King novels under my belt by that age, so I could use my allowance to buy the Blade Runner book without even asking.

My first copy of Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? with Blade Runner tie-in.

Lo and behold when I received the book 6 to 8 weeks later, I was surprised to find it had the bizarre subtitle, “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep(sic), a novel by Phlip K. Dick)” Perplexed, I read the inside cover to learn that it wasn’t the cheap movie novelization I actually wanted, it was the original novel published in 1968 and written by some author I’d never heard of with the kind of last name me and my jerky friends immediately derided. Anyway, like Ralphie Parker in A Christmas Story I figured I’d been “skunked again.” Although I tried to read it, my eleven-year-old brain couldn’t fathom the silliness of people being awakened by a mood-altering device and then sitting around complaining about it for five pages. I took the book home, tossed it in my closet, and forgot about it.

(Little did I know that Scholastic subsequently endured something of a minor scandal involving their sale of this edition: When parents found out that a book involving sex with androids and mechanical brain splatters was being sold to school children by Scholastic, a hubbub ensued. I believe Scholastic later had to replace the Dick edition with a Weekly Reader children’s edition that simplistically described the movie shot by shot in remedial vocabulary.)

It wasn’t until my high school years–while full of teen angst and seeking higher knowledge and world view from books like Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein and The Catcher in the Rye–that I found Do Androids Dream in the back of my closet, yellowed and smelly with a few year’s age. Let me amend that: I didn’t find the book so much as it fell off a shelf and whacked me in the fucking eye socket while I was cleaning. Having finally seen Blade Runner a few months before, I re-read the first chapter of the book pretty quickly (Oh yeah, forgot about those damn mood organs. Meh.) and then started the second chapter, wherein the mentally challenged J.R. Isidore grabs the handles of his empathy box and fuses with the perpetually suffering Wilbur Mercer.

Wait… what? There wasn’t anything in Blade Runner about a Sisyphus-like demi-god forever climbing a dusty hill while unseen killers hurled rocks at him like snipers. Enduring a lot of agnostic vicissitudes in my teenage days, this book describing a futuristic society that worshipped a false god caught my attention immediately.

Little did I know at the time that I was from then on hooked… and I remain forever mesmerized by Dick’s world. Hello Dickheads Anonymous, my name is Dan and I am a Dickhead.

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Resonance of Fate

The game takes place in a multi-level construction called Basel that has been built above the atmospheric layer of a poisoned, decaying, uninhabitable Earth. The survivors built Basel to purify the atmosphere and normalize the environment. The limited space around Basel was the only place people could continue living, so humanity had to entrust its survival to the grinding gears of Basel’s machinery. Civilization gradually began to grow around Basel, with people eventually moving inside the machine itself and building up the core, raising it high above the planet’s surface. As centuries went on, people built levels around the core and established various towns, cities, and even theme parks and landmarks for the survivors to enjoy themselves. However, Basel has now existed so long that people have forgotten why they live there, or that there is even a world outside Basel. Many parts of Basel have become eroded and filled with monsters. No one knows where the monsters came from. This neglect and forgetfulness may be the fault of the Cardinals, who are the political/religious leaders that foster a worship of Basel and it’s machinery. The Cardinals built their mansions in the uppermost layers of Basel, in the monster-free “Chandelier.” The recent death of the Prelate Frieda provokes a long-lasting depression in ranking Cardinal Rowen, who then calls upon freelance bounty hunters to reactivate the lower levels of Basel, restore the machinery, and defeat the most powerful monsters.

Cardinal Rowen mourns the passing of Prelate Frieda.

…Or so I make of it. The story line is somewhat shrouded in mysticism and secrecy, so you might play the game and take away a different back-story than I did. But whatever the case may be your job is to manage a party of three Hunters: the experienced Vashyron, the hotheaded Zephyr, and the beautiful but mysterious Leanne. Each character can be equipped with a firearm and an item box. Depending on the type, item boxes can be loaded with curatives, special ammunition, or grenades. A character can also dual-wield two weapons and double their attack power, provided their weight capacity allows. Each character also gets to wear two accessories to improve defense or prevent status ailments. Items can be bought at stores, or specialists called “Tinkerers” can combine many parts to form new weapons and weapon parts, ammunition and grenades, and accessories.

Steampunk meets Tokyo runway in "Resonance of Fate."

While visiting towns you can explore and interact with the citizens of Basel. In certain towns there are Hunter Guilds where clients post missions. By viewing these missions on the bulletin board, you can then go and speak to the client to sign up for the mission. Completing missions usually involves going out in the field to explore a dungeon or other location, defeating a powerful enemy, or finding an important item. There are also “Story Missions” that the party signs up for automatically. Completing Story Missions usually requires defeating a powerful boss enemy. Beating these creatures advances the “Chapter.” The game is divided into seventeen Chapters, during each of which new information comes to light and the situation in Basel changes.

Basel's world map is presented as twelve hexagonal grids. Reactivating hexes allows access.

After signing up for missions you can then exit to the world map, which consists of twelve levels mapped out in hex grids. Many hexes are inactive and therefore impassable. Laying down Energy Hex items on the map can reactivate these hexes. Energy Hexes are acquired by defeating enemies in combat, and using them to reactivate hexes can cause the party to find hidden treasures.

Combat in "Resonance" is both strategic and action-packed.

The combat system is complex, action-packed and highly strategic. I laughed to read Stephen Tolito’s blog post over at Kotaku.com, wherein he attempted to explain the combat system of Resonance of Fate. This is not to say that combat in the game is too complex for a person to understand, but even I must admit there is a lot to it. Fully explaining the combat system takes up several pages in the official strategy guide, so I’ll only try to give you the basic gist of it herein:

1. Each character gets a turn.
2. On a character’s turn, he or she may move, attack, use items, perform a Hero Action, or a combination of all of the above.
3. A Hero Action allows the character to run a pre-charted course through the battlefield, attacking continuously. Hero Actions allow a character to inflict greater damage.
4. Each Hero Action costs one bezel in the Hero Gauge displayed at the bottom of the screen. If the Hero Gauge reaches zero, the party enters Critical Condition (explained below).
5. Defeating enemies or blowing off their body parts restores bezels in the Hero Gauge.
6. During character turns, enemies have their own gauges that charge. When fully charged, enemies then get a turn to attack.
7. The party is invincible to damage while the Hero Gauge is active, and all damage is sustained as “scratch damage.” But if a character suffers 100% scratch damage then bezels are subtracted from the Hero Gauge to replenish their HP, at a rate of 1000 HP per bezel.
8. When the Hero Gauge is reduced to zero bezels, Condition Critical occurs. The characters cower in fear and cannot perform Hero Actions or use items. Attack and accuracy are greatly reduced. All damage sustained is subtracted from the characters’ HP. Only defeating an enemy or blowing off a body part to restore a Hero Gauge bezel can avert Condition Critical.

…And that’s only describing combat in the simplest way. So as you can see, battle in Resonance of Fate is quite entertaining and deep, requiring a lot of strategy. Luckily the guide contains a full explanation of the combat system and all its features, along with some basic strategies that you should probably read before plunging into the game. The mission walkthrough also features tested strategies that work against each boss. In the game, an Arena just outside the characters’ hometown offers dozens of active tutorials, and going through them all can also catch you up to speed. The Arena also allows you to re-fight previously defeated foes in order to level up, acquire items and improve your wealth.

I admit the Resonance of Fate guide was challenging to write, not only for the need to explain the deep, gun-blazing combat system but also because we really wanted to cover every aspect of the game. Included is coverage of all bonus dungeons, extra costumes, side missions, and the other extras tri-Ace likes to throw into their RPGs. I was glad for my previous work on titles like Star Ocean and Valkyrie Profile, which only barely prepared me for the task at hand in Resonance. And yeah, having a great author like Casey Loe to work with certainly helped too. The Resonance of Fate Official Strategy Guide is available in stores today. Let me know if you have any questions on the game or guide in the comments:

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The Man in Black and his followers.

We’re already six hours into the sixth season of Lost and it seems the right time for me to finally step in and do some of my usual theorizing regarding what the hell is going on in this crazy, fabulous show.  Other than some forum posts, I’ve remained mum on this here blog up ’til now due to some heavy lifting required on my latest strategy guide for Resonance of Fate, due out March 10th. But after the amazing events of last night’s episode it seems time to finally pull my sporadic forum posts together and give some theories.

First up, an extremely non-detailed bullet point summary of what we’ve seen thus far and how every string is tying together:

• Jack’s plan to detonate a hydrogen bomb in the electromagnetic pocket beneath the DHARMA Swan Station–thereby preventing the Swan Station from needing to be built and preventing flight 815 from ever crashing on the island–didn’t work… and it also worked.
• Jack’s Plan Worked: The typical flashback device employed in the last five seasons has been replaced by the new device, the “flash-sideways” to an alternate universe where 815 doesn’t crash and the characters land in Los Angeles and continue their lives. We’ll pick apart this portion of the storyline later, so keep reading.
• Jack’s Plan Didn’t Work: The story on the island continues, with Jack’s group suddenly re-materializing around the remains of the Swan hatch in 2007. Removing the wreckage at the bottom of the pit, Sawyer climbs into the hole to find Juliet, whose heroic and gut-wrenching detonation of the bomb at the end of last season left us completely upset while the show was off for seven months. She dies in his arms before she gets to tell him something important. Furious at Jack, Sawyer vows to kill him.
• At the four-toed statue, Locke cleans the knife Ben used to kill Jacob. He then tells Ben to go outside and bring in Richard. When Ben tells Richard to go inside, Richard throws Ben on the ground next to Locke’s dead body.
• Ilana’s men take Ben and storm the statue. Locke flees behind a pillar and vanishes. The Smoke Monster then enters the chamber and kills all the men. Bram protects himself momentarily by pouring a circle of ash around himself, but the Smoke Monster strikes the roof and knocks Bram out of his circle before killing him. Afterwards, Locke reappears and tells Ben, “I’m sorry you had to see me like that,” confirming that he is indeed the Smoke Monster as I deduced in my Season 5 finale wrap-up.
• Jacob appears to Hurley, who’s always been able to see dead people. Jacob admits that he was just murdered an hour ago by “an old friend who tired of my company,” confirming to some degree that Locke/Smoke Monster is the Man in Black seen threatening Jacob on the beach when the Black Rock arrived at the island sometime in 1845. Jacob tells Hurley to take Jack and everyone to the Temple, the only place on the island where they’ll all be safe.
• Sawyer and Miles stay behind to bury Juliet. Afterward, Sawyer forces Miles to communicate with Juliet and ask her what she was going to say before she died. He says that Juliet replies, “It worked.” The message is somewhat lost on hot-headed Sawyer.
• Jin takes the group to the hole beneath the Temple’s outer wall, where he saw Montand of Rousseau’s French team dragged to his death. Descending into the hole, they pass Montand’s rotting corpse. A few yards inside they hear the whispers before the Others suddenly appear and capture them.
• The Others take Jack’s group before a Japanese man named Dogen, who acts as a kind of guardian of the Temple and talks only through his interpreter, Lennon. Dogen orders the Others to shoot them all as intruders. Hurley quickly interjects that Jacob sent them, and hands over the guitar case he’s been toting ever since Jacob stepped into his cab in last season’s finale. Dogen opened the case and found not a guitar but a giant Ankh. Smashing the Ankh, he found a note addressed to him from Jacob with a list of everyone’s names.
• Changing his tune immediately, Dogen orders the Others to take dying Sayid into the Temple. The Others try to revive him by dunking him in a spring. However, beforehand Lennon notes that the water is murky. The Others seem to hold Sayid under the water too long, and he drowns.
• Learning that Dogen does actually speak English, Hurley reveals that Jacob is dead. Dogen immediately puts the temple on lockdown, and all exits are blocked with lines of ash. A series of flares are fired into the air.
• The flares are seen at the statue, where the Man in Black emerges and confronts Richard. “It’s good to see you out of those chains, Richard,” he says. Richard immediately recognizes the Man in Black, who knocks him unconscious and carries him into the woods.
• Sawyer and Miles arrive at the Temple during the commotion. Soon afterward, Sayid quite suddenly sits up and asks “What happened?” Everyone is shocked. Dogen asks Sayid to come answer some questions, but Jack interferes. As the castaways scuffle with the Others, Sawyer grabs a gun and fires to get their attention. He leaves the temple and says to Kate specifically, “Don’t come after me.” Kate and Jin immediately volunteer to go after Sawyer, accompanied by two Others.
• Dogen straps Sayid to an inclined table and tortures him with electricity, needles, and eventually brands him with a poker. Afterward he explains that it was a test and that Sayid “passed.” But after Sayid is carried out, Lennon confirms that Dogen was lying.
• Learning that Dogen was tortured, Jack demands to speak to Dogen… and is allowed to do so with surprising acceptance by the Others. Dogen gives Jack a pill to give to Sayid because he is “infected.” After talking to Sayid, who fully trusts him, Jack decides not to give him the pill. He returns to Dogen and demands to know what’s in the pill. When Dogen won’t say, he takes it. Dogen karate-chop forces Jack to spit out the pill, which he finally admits was poison. Dogen later informs Jack that Sayid has been “claimed” and that there is a “darkness growing inside him” which will soon overtake his personality. Jack asks how Dogen can be sure, and he replies that the same thing happened with Jack’s sister.
• After tricking their Other escorts, Kate and Jin split up. Kate goes after Sawyer and finds him at the DHARMA barracks ruins, where he admits that Juliet’s death was his fault. Kate leaves him at the barracks while she goes looking for Claire.
• Jin meanwhile gets his leg caught in a bear trap and is found by the Others, who are suddenly shot by a frazzled and jungle-worn Claire.
• Meanwhile the Man in Black in Smoke Monster form returns to where he is keeping Richard, contained in a bag hung from a tree. The Man in Black tries to recruit Richard, who vehemently refuses. The Man in Black does not persist because he sees a mysterious blond boy whose arms are covered in blood. Richard looks back but doesn’t see the boy. The Man in Black leaves, promising they’ll see each other again.
• At the statue, Ilana gets Ben to tell her what happened to Jacob. When she learns that Jacob burned up in the fire, she scoops up some of the ashes into a bag. She leads Sun, Frank, and Ben off with Locke’s body. Ben asks if the Man in Black will change forms again and Ilana says he can’t now, that he’s stuck looking like Locke. They take the real Locke’s body to Boone Hill near the castaway’s beach and bury him.
• The Man in Black heads to Sawyer’s old house in the DHARMA barracks. Sawyer is drinking liquor and listening to The Stooges “Search and Destroy.” He catches on quickly to the fact that his visitor is not the real Locke. The Man in Black convinces Sawyer to go with him by promising answers.
• As the Man in Black leads Sawyer to the coastline, he sees the blond haired boy again, this time sans bloody hands. Sawyer can see the boy too. The Man in Black chases the boy into the jungle, but trips and falls. The boy doubles back and says to the Man in Black, “You know the rules, you can’t kill him.” To which the Man in Black adopts Locke’s famous reply, “Don’t tell me what I can’t do!”
• Meanwhile Sawyer encounters Richard, who tries to get Sawyer to go with him to the Temple. Sawyer refuses. When the Man in Black is heard approaching, Richard runs away. The Man in Black asks Sawyer who he was talking to. Sawyer says “nobody” and asks if he found the kid, to which the Man in Black echoes his distrust by saying, “What kid?”
• The Man in Black leads Sawyer to a seaside cliff. They climb down to a cave using a series of ladders. The ladders break while Sawyer climbs down, and the Man in Black saves his life. Inside the cave, a scale rests on a table full of books and other items. The scale is balanced by a white rock and a black rock. The Man in Black takes the white rock and throws it into the ocean. When Sawyer asks what that was all about, the Man in Black responds “inside joke.”
• The Man in Black leads Sawyer further back in the cave to show that the walls are inscribed with names and numbers written in chalk. Most of the names are crossed out. The ones that remain are 4-LOCKE, 8-REYES, 15-FORD, 16-JARRAH, 23-SHEPHARD, and 42-KWON. In regard to the last, the Man in Black admits he doesn’t know whether it’s Sun or Jin. When Sawyer asks about the numbers the Man in Black says dismissively that “Jacob had a thing for numbers.” Sawyer doesn’t understand why his name’s on the wall when he’s never met Jacob. The Man in Black guesses that Jacob did come to Sawyer at the lowest point in his life, and has been manipulating him ever since to bring him to the island. He then explains that all the names are “candidates” to be the new Jacob and protect the island, though it doesn’t need protecting. He tells Sawyer that he can either do nothing and see what happens, become the new Jacob and protect the island, or that they can leave the island together, to which Sawyer responds “Hell, yes.”
• While searching the Temple for food, Hurley encounters Jacob’s ghost. Jacob tells him to get a pen in order to write things down, because someone is coming to the island and Hurley needs to help them find it.
• Claire frees Jin from the bear trap, but he passes out.
• Following Jacob’s instructions as scribbled on his forearm, Hurley locates a secret passage within the Temple. He is discovered by Dogen, who tells him to go back outside. Jacob appears and encourages Hurley to tell Dogen that he doesn’t have to, because he’s a “candidate.” Dogen curses in Japanese (My Japanese sucks, but it was something like “Lucky I must protect you or I’d cut your over-sized insolent head off!”) and walks off.
• Hurley finds Jack outside and tells him that they have to leave the Temple through a secret passage he found. When Jack refuses, Hurley says that Jacob told him to say “You have what it takes.” Hearing his father’s chiding words echoed, Jack agrees to go with Hurley.
• Jin wakes up in Claire’s makeshift little camp. In a doll’s cradle he finds a creepy-looking baby doll made out of a dog’s skull. (Vincent?) Hearing Claire return, he hops back to where he woke up. Claire has one of the Others, still alive. She tells Jin she’s going to make the man tell her where the Others are keeping her baby, Aaron. While she prepares to treat Jin’s wounds, the Other tells Jin that he must untie him so that he can snap Claire’s neck, or she will kill them both.
• While following Jacob’s instructions, Hurley and Jack encounter Kate in the jungle. Kate says she’s not going back to the Temple, she’s looking for Claire. But Jack tells her that the Temple people encountered Claire, so she starts to head back there.
• Claire stitches up Jin’s leg and explains that she has a “friend” who told her that the Others have Aaron, and her father said the same thing. When she threatens the captive Other with an ax, Jin tries to intervene and explains that Kate took Aaron off the island and raised him. She looks relieved, then plants the ax square in the Other’s chest.
• Jack and Hurley eventually arrive at the coastline, where they find a 5-story lighthouse. Jack can’t believe they’ve never seen it before. Hurley figures it’s because they “weren’t looking.” Jack breaks in and they climb to the top. There they find an ancient device consisting of a brazier encircled by a large gear, around which a set of mirrors can be rotated to direct the light. Hurley begins rotating the mirrors to 108° per Jacob’s written instructions. While he’s doing that, Jack noticed that each degree on the gear is numbered and named. Most of the number/name combinations are crossed out. However, he finds “23-SHEPHARD” written on the gear. Looking in the mirror, Jack sees a Japanese landscape reflected. He makes Hurley stop and turns the gears to point to his own number.  The mirror reflects Jack’s childhood home. Jack freaks out and demands that Hurley ask Jacob why he’s been watching him and why his name is on the gear. Hurley tries to explain that the dead come and go at will, but Jack smashes the mirrors.
• Jin lies to Claire and says that he was lying before about Aaron, that the Others do have him at the Temple. Claire says that’s good, because if Kate took him Claire would kill her. The Man in Black then enters Claire’s tent. Jin thinks it’s Locke, but Claire explains that it’s not John, it’s her “friend.”
• Outside the lighthouse, Jacob appears to Hurley again. Hurley apologizes that Jack smashed up the mirror and now they couldn’t bring someone to the island. When Jacob shrugs it off, Hurley realizes that Jacob’s true intent was for Jack to see his own name on the gear. Jacob explains that Jack is important and is on the island to do something. He also wanted to get them away from the Temple, because something bad is about to happen there. Hurley wants to warn them, but Jacob says it’s too late.
• At the Temple, Sayid confronts Dogen about the torture. He claims that he is still a good man, which seems to incense Dogen. The men fight. Dogen pins Sayid and is about to stab him (in the neck, looks like) when a baseball falls off his desk. Dogen returns the baseball to its place and tells Sayid to leave the Temple and never return.
• The Man in Black and Claire stand outside the circle of ash around the Temple. He sends Claire inside with a message for Dogen. She makes him reaffirm that he’ll get her baby back for her, then asks whether he will kill the people in the Temple. “Only the ones who won’t listen,” he replies.
• Sayid explains to Miles that he’s been banished by the Others, which is weird since they’re the ones who brought him back to life. Miles explains that it wasn’t the Others, that he was dead for two hours after they tried the spring. Claire enters and demands that Dogen go outside to speak with the Man in Black. Dogen says that he’s no fool. Claire tells him to send out someone that the Man in Black won’t kill. Dogen asks Lennon to find Jack and Hurley, but Lennon explains that they’re gone. Thus, Dogen is forced to ask Sayid to help him.
• In Dogen’s room, he gives Sayid a ceremonial sword and tells him to exit the Temple and kill the Man in Black. He explains that the Man in Black will be someone Sayid knows, who is dead. He explains that Sayid must stab him in the heart before the man can speak. Doing this will prove that Sayid is still good.
• Sayid passes Kate in the jungle. Kate returns to the Temple and speaks to Miles, who tells her that Claire is in the Temple.
• Sayid hears the sounds of the Smoke Monster and then the Man in Black appears. He says “Hello, Sayid” before Sayid has a chance to stab him in the heart. The Man in Black pulls the dagger out, and there is no blood. The Man in Black immediately figures that Dogen made Sayid attack him, and that someone has probably tried to kill Sayid before. He promises Sayid anything he wants if he returns into the Temple to deliver a message. Sayid replies that the only person he ever wanted died in his arms and he’ll never see her again (Nadia). The Man in Black says, “What if you could?”
• Sayid reenters the Temple and tells the Others that Jacob is dead and the Man in Black is leaving the island. Those who want to go with him should leave the Temple before sundown. Those who stay will die.
• Kate makes Lennon take her to Claire. The Others are keep Claire in a small pit. Kate explains to her that Aaron is safe because she took him back to the world and raised him. She says she came back to save Claire, but Claire replies, “I’m not the one who needs rescuing.” Lennon pulls Kate away, and Claire shouts that the Man in Black is coming and no one can stop him.
• While many are leaving the Temple, Sayid finds Dogen near the spring. Dogen explains that he was a successful banker who received a promotion and had a little too much to drink. He picked up his son from baseball practice and had an accident. Jacob appeared to Dogen and said that he could heal his son, but that Dogen would have to come to the island and never see his son again. Sayid agrees that Jacob drives a hard bargain, and Dogen surmises that the Man in Black probably offered him something similar. He asks if Sayid will stay or go, and Sayid says that he wants to stay… just before he seizes Dogen and drowns him in the spring. Lennon enters screaming that Dogen was the only thing keeping the Man in Black out of the Temple. Sayid grabs Lennon and uses the ceremonial swords to slash his throat.
• The Man in Black as the Smoke Monster enters the Temple and slaughters all within. Kate and Miles run for safety but are separated. Kate returns to Claire’s holding cell. Claire refuses Kate’s help, and Kate is forced to jump into the pit. Hanging from the ledge, she watches with fascination as the Smoke Monster flies past overhead.
• Miles tries to barricade himself in a storeroom, but something begins banging on the door. It is Ilana, who forces her way in with Ben, Sun, and Frank Lapidus. She asks Miles where Shephard, Ford, and Reyes are, but he doesn’t know. She asks where Jarrah is and he says by the pool.
• Ilana leads her group through a passage past the spring. Ben spots Sayid and tries to get him to come along, but something about the way Sayid is stroking his bloody sword frightens Ben, who runs off.
• Ben rejoins Ilana’s group in the passageway where Hurley found the secret door. She gets them inside the passage and closes the barrier just before the Smoke Monster streams past.
• Claire and Sayid wander through the Temple courtyard, now destroyed and full of bodies. Kate picks up a rifle and follows them outside, where they exchange creepy smiles with the Man in Black. All those who left the Temple before sundown are behind him. Kate is shocked to see that it’s Locke. He regards her only slightly, then leads his recruits away.

Now then, let’s start sorting all this out….

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You’d think that something like Lost coming to television would set a new bar for the format. And true, many producers responded by trying to air very similar shows. But they all failed. For instance ABC failed to replicate their own success when they created Invasion and then The Nine. Invasion was a very Lost-like show where alien body snatchers who weren’t all bad invaded a small Florida town after a hurricane. Produced by Shaun Cassidy, it had a lot in common with his mid ’90s Fox series called American Gothic. It lasted one season. Next year ABC tried to follow Lost with a show called The Nine about people trying to get their lives back together after being held hostage in a bank robbery. However, because of whatever happened during the robbery the hostages all had to keep a secret. The entire first season didn’t even air. In last ditch efforts to keep the Lost viewers watching something if not Lost, ABC has launched FlashForward and V with better marketing campaigns. Still, neither show is pulling the same ratings and following of Lost.

Many blame the failures of Invasion and The Nine on poor marketing, season hiatuses, and other stuff that never seems to prevent Lost fans from watching Jack, Kate and Sawyer, whenever and wherever they’re on. But what if Lost clones fail because of something different? What if Lost is just such a smart and enjoyable show that viewers really don’t need another show like it?

Perhaps TV execs at Fox and Starz are thinking something similar. Last week Starz debuted its heavily-publicized Spartacus: Blood and Sand. The first episode featured more than a dozen slashed body parts and three fuck scenes with full-frontal nudity. The dialog is cheese-laden and written with old-world trappings, such as “Thou did’st wish a favor in return?” and grandiose statements about what Rome will and won’t stand for to veil what the characters will and won’t stand for. This is not your daddy’s Spartacus; it’s 300 meets Gladiator with very little Kirk Douglas at all. The series is created by Sam Raimi and Robert Tapert, the guys behind the Evil Dead movies, Hercules and Xena: Warrior Princess. The show is clearly the bastard spawn of all the aforementioned. It’s big, dumb, not that original, and a whole lot of fun with only a threadbare storyline to follow. A big-budget special effects production with nothing to think about, just lots to do. Everything Lost is not.

Spartacus: Blood and Sand

The cast of Human Target

Coming up on its fourth week on air is Human Target, an episodic series vaguely reminiscent of the A-Team where the team is one bodyguard who uses a cover identity to put himself in the line of fire in order to protect his clients. The show is adapted from a DC comic book. Another TV adaptation was previously attempted back in the 90’s with Rick Springfield in the lead. Whoever’s writing this show seems to be purposely breaking every rule of good storytelling in the book, and the dialog is laughably bad. But the action scenes are so good and so over the top that it’s actually worth watching. Human Target appears to be trying to fill the void left by all those bad ’80s action movies that Schwarzenegger and Stallone no longer make. And Jackie Earle Haley (Watchmen, A Nightmare on Elm Street reboot) plays the computer geek, giving the show just the right amount of dignity. Like Spartacus, it’s just big loud and fun.

Whether these new shows are actually successful remains to be seen, though word is Starz has already renewed Spartacus for another season with only one show on air. But it’s interesting to watch television veer from one extreme (smart, intricate Lost) to another (big dumb fun action shows) and wonder if this reverse psychology will actually grab viewers.

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Sam Bell (Sam Rockwell) finds something disturbing at a crash site near his moon base.

Describing the plot of Moon without spoilers is seriously tricky, because a major twist happens only twenty minutes in. Sam Rockwell stars as Sam Bell, an astronaut manning a corporate mining station on the moon. Mankind has discovered a source of limitless energy in the form of helium-3, which is only available on Earth’s satellite. Sam is finishing up a three-year contract running a moon base and four massive harvesters for the Lunar Corporation. In just two weeks he gets to jettison from the base and return to Earth to be with his beloved wife and daughter.  Communication problems have prevented him from talking to anyone directly for three years. His only companion is GERTY (deadpan voiced by Kevin Spacey), a computer/robot/butler that is in charge of caring for Sam. GERTY expresses emotion or concern with emoticons displayed on a small screen, such as and . This, for me, made GERTY instantly creepy.

GERTY is Sam's smiley-face robot caretaker/prison guard.

Just two weeks away from his jettison, Sam isn’t looking too good. He’s grown pale and is suffering from near-constant headaches. He begins hallucinating that he sees a young woman. While riding out in a rover to check on one of the harvesters, a hallucination occurs and he crashes the vehicle. Moments later he awakens back at the base. Sam’s frustration grows as GERTY unsubtly tries to contain him in the infirmary. Sabotaging the base, he finally convinces GERTY to let him go outside. He drives another rover back to the harvester and finds the crash site. And inside the wreckage Sam makes a shocking discovery: he finds a man who is his identical double.

From there I can say no more without giving the film away, but the story develops into a cunningly simple tale of identity, purpose, the relevance of the past and the true meaning of humanity. But these elements remain unspoken in the deceptively simple script. Sam must figure out who the other man is and what the Lunar Corporation is really up to.  He has just fifteen hours to accomplish this before a “rescue” team arrives to “contain” the situation. However, the film never devolves into a clock-watching thriller, it maintains the simple narrative style established in the beginning.

Sam Rockwell delivers a complex, "dual-sided" performance in Moon.

With the Golden Globes airing tonight it’s both a shame and a clear sign of dubiousness that neither Moon nor Sam Rockwell are nominated in a single category. Hopefully the 2010 Oscars will rectify the Globes’ oversight. There are even several Internet petitions and grass-roots Oscar campaigns cheering Rockwell on. I can’t think of another performance I’ve seen in recent years more deserving.

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Jill's and Josh's fight to the exit is detailed in download episode.

The second episode will also feature Costume Pack 2, which adds business attire for Sheva, a “road warrior” look for Chris, and makes Josh a playable character in The Mercenaries Reunion mode.

As previously announced on Capcom’s Unity Blog, the first downloadable episode is titled “Lost in Nightmares” and features Jill and Chris hunting Wesker at Ozwell Spencer’s mansion, as previously shown during cutscenes only. The first episode is scheduled for released on 2/17 for Xbox and 2/18 for PS3, and will include Costume Pack 1 which gives both Sheva and Chris “medieval warrior” looks.

Sheva's and Chris's "warrior looks" will be included with the first DLC package.

Both DLC packs will include the new extra mode called “The Mercenaries Reunion,” which boasts 8 new playable characters and weapon loadouts yet to be revealed.

For those without Internet, the Resident Evil 5 Gold Edition with all downloadable content will arrive on store shelves March 9th.

Modern Warfare is back!

Infinity Ward’s been nice enough to include enough new mechanics to keep the action a little fresh. One early mission begins with ice climbing, for instance. Using two ice picks, you make each of your arms impale the ice wall and pull you upward. The same stage ends with a James Bond-esque chase on snowmobiles ending with a full throttle jump over a huge chasm. Obviously a lot of thought went into that stage.

Outrunning and outgunning hostiles on snowmobile is an early highlight of the single player campaign.

Immediately afterward, the player is assigned to infiltrate a terrorist cell undercover. As you might suspect, the only way to get terrorists to trust that you’re one of them is by acting like a terrorist. To achieve this, you and your new terrorist buddies enter an airport and massacre innocent civilians and some armed security guards. The scene is brutal, shocking, controversial, and quite daring. I have to say that I really respect Infinity Ward for putting it in the game. You certainly won’t forget this stage anytime soon. Note that even though you’re teamed with the terrorists, there is no requirement to shoot civilians. Probably you’ll still have to shoot a few security guards and the responding TAC team. You can also skip this entire level by opting out prior to starting a new game. Still, why shortchange yourself the experience? Full video of me playing this stage is below.

Several stages later a cool new feature comes into play. Certain doors are marked “Breach.” In the room beyond, hostiles are guarding hostages. By approaching these doors and holding the appropriate controller button, you can place a charge on the door. When the charge blows, you automatically step through the door. Time slows to a crawl, and you must shoot the hostiles before they have time to kill you or the hostages. You must prioritize which hostile to kill first, since killing the wrong one can mean a hostage death or your own demise. [Click here for video]

Slow motion breach bang and clear moments bring a new mechanic to certain missions.

Otherwise, Modern Warfare 2 features all the “grab cover and shoot back” game play we’ve come to know and love. Grenade-dodging and returning is still in play, as are smoke grenades and flashbangs. So far I’ve encountered an uncountable number of weapons you can pick up and use, so there’s very little reason to stick with one gun for a whole mission. I haven’t even played the Special Ops challenge mode or Multiplayer yet, so there’s plenty more to experience. But like I’ve indicated, it’s the most exciting game of the year and a worthwhile Christmas present.

The Legacy of Kain series featured time traveling vampires.

While there was never an official announcement that the Kain series was to be abandoned, its demise was heralded by three major events:

• Amy Hennig mysteriously and inexplicably left Kain studio Crystal Dynamics to join Naughty Dog, where she immediately began work on Jak 3 from the Jak and Daxter series.
• Perhaps in explanation of the above event, Eidos Interactive took the flagging Tomb Raider franchise away from Core Design–the studio that created Tomb Raider–and gave it over to Crystal Dynamics. The company put all its efforts and resources into developing Tomb Raider: Legend, which used some very Kain-like storytelling to revamp the series. (The Kain-famous Soul Reaver also makes an appearance in Legend as a secret item.)
• Tony Jay, the actor who provided the voice of the Elder God, died in 2006 around the time Tomb Raider: Legend was finished. His character would have proved pivotal in a final Kain game.

For all these reasons, the Kain series was abandoned just one game shy of completion. I say “just one game” because after the ending of Defiance, there wasn’t much left to explore. Still, the holes remaining were big enough for Raziel to glide through. These famous plot holes include:

• Vorador, the vampire executed in Blood Omen, mysteriously appears alive and well in Blood Omen 2. Yet he’s still absent from the future, when Nosgoth was on the verge of collapse. While the ending of Soul Reaver 2 triggered a time paradox that allowed the Hylden to re-enter and overtake Nosgoth, the part of the paradox that allowed Vorador to survive his own execution remains unexplained.
• After receiving the true Soul Reaver and learning that the Elder God has orchestrated much of his fate, Kain defeats but does not kill the Elder God at the end of Defiance. The Elder God retreats into the ground, claiming immortality and promising to return. Kain muses that he can finally see the puppet master and the strings he pulls. If that’s not an endorsement for a sequel, I don’t know what is.

So… not a lot left to cover, right? I’ve read some rather unfounded (cited without source) reports that the game was originally intended to be longer, but was cut due to production constraints. To my mind the only way Kain and his trusty Soul Reaver were going to set things right was by returning to the Oracle Caves and time-traveling back to the source of it all: the Elder God emerging to the Ancients, its demand that they start a war with the Hylden, and their subsequent cursing with vampirism as a result. As Kain and Raziel traveled further back in time the Elder God seemed to be smaller in size and more solid, more scaly, more animal-like. If Kain went far enough back in time with the Soul Reaver, which allowed him to see the Elder God’s true form, then it’s possible he could find the Elder God in its original form and kill it, thus averting Nosgoth’s entire history.

So yeah, there’s quite obviously a whole game missing from the Legacy of Kain series, one that would allow Kain and Raziel (as the spirit of the Soul Reaver) to finally sort the bad hand Kain had been dealt at birth. Plus there’s that whole Vorador surviving thing, which could be explained along the way. But Crystal Dynamics has left the series in limbo since late 2003, instead content to develop Tomb Raider games seemingly ad nauseum. Amy Hennig moved on to direct the Uncharted series currently garnering so much acclaim on the PlayStation3, though it’s doubtful she retains any rights to continue the Kain series at any point.

No, Kain is just… over. And we fans who followed him ever since the series was called Blood Omen and the words “Legacy of Kain” were explanatory have been left perpetually hanging. Replaying the original game is still a fun trip down memory lane, but with a bitter under taste of all that should have been, but was denied.