This is the link.
Monday, March 21, 2011
Something that will change your life
This video has changed my life forever, and it should change yours too, if you don't see what these people have to say about the human condition, you're missing out on the opportunity of a lifetime. Open your heart to these people, they can make you whole, as they did with me.
Sunday, March 20, 2011
the fretlessbass reviews: The rest of Homefront
I just finished Homefront. My last review was a "First impressions." All I need to say is that before, the game was a 5/10, but near the end it gets to a 9/10.
Games getting good near the end isn't usually a point in their favor, but Homefront's single player campaign is pitifully short.
Near the middle of the game, there's a forced vehicle section, it's not good, but it also isn't as aggravating and inflaming as most shooter vehicle sections.
The absolute best, most adrenaline-activating, pulse-pounding, brain-blowing moment for me was when your character falls off the Golden Gate Bridge and lands on the strapping underneath. All the other characters assume you are dead, so you must fight your way under the bridge to a ladder that will bring you to a turret that you need to destroy for your team to move up. There was no part this cool in ModFare, and I still get excited just thinking about it.
So if you can stand about one hour of mediocrity, then you'll love Homefront about one hour in when it gets fantastically excellent.
I desperately hope for a sequel, because the game leaves enough room for an entire series at the end, if they can just do the bridge scene again for two more games, then I'll be happy.
WOLVERINES!
WOLVERINES!
Thursday, March 17, 2011
the fretlessbass reviews: Home Front
Let me start by saying this, when I bought this game, the guy at the counter saw my Walking Dead shirt, and suggested that I should read the comic series Fable, because it takes classic fables, and makes them "bloody and gory." This is not why I read the Walking Dead, nor is it why I do anything I do. Anyone who thinks gamers are addicted to seeing entrails get spewed all over the screen are mostly wrong, there are some gamers who delight in simulating human dismemberment, but they should seek therapy. The truth is, most people play violent games because those games also happen to have excellent story-telling, or interesting gameplay mechanics.
Which brings me effortlessly to Homefront. I pre-ordered it when a really nice gamestop employee told me it was going to combine everything that worked in Modern Warfare and Battlefield. But the best way I can describe it is completely influenced by ModFare, with only vehicles coming from battlefield. The controls are all the same as ModFare, the kinematics are the same as ModFare, it even does the same thing where your melee attack is a knife materializing from nowhere even though you're holding a seventy pound rocket launcher.
Not to say the game isn't good, to sum up the entire thing in one sentence; Red Dawn meets Call of Duty. If you have seen the movie and played said game, then you know that Homefront is worth checking out.
The story goes that in 2027, North Korea invades the United States. Most war games make the enemy some faceless PMC or a terrorist organization, but this game blatantly points a finger at Kim Jong-un, the son of the current dictator of North Korea. America loses the war, because the economy had taken a massive hit before the invasive, and the Korean occupation of America begins. You play as a pilot who was being taken to a labor camp, when the local resistance breaks him out, you then join a multicultural cast of characters in trying to get to San Francisco where what's left of the U.S. army is rallying.
The game goes to great lengths to get you angry, you see some disturbing imagery of soldiers doing horrible things to de-humanize the local population, and several times throughout the game you come upon a child's former bedroom or treehouse with drawings in it that all go something like "I love mommy and daddy, and being not in a labor camp and starving and being American and cute." It's like the game is trying to get you angry at communists, but the support characters do enough of that for you.
Like I said, gameplay is exactly like ModFare, but that's ok, because ModFare was a fantastic game, it's ok to copy something that worked in moderation.
Graphics take a bit of a hit, you know how in ModFare, you would sometimes stop and look at your gun, or the rock, and just say "Wow, I just got shot forty times for hesitating, but it was worth it because the graphics look like angels from heaven came down and rendered the environment themselves?" Well in Homefront, the graphics are good enough so you don't notice, but bad enough so you don't care.
Multiplayer is pretty cool, the matches are 32 person rounds and the maps are enormous, too enormous, I spent half of my multiplayer time running around looking for enemies and getting shot by snipers. In ModFare, you could always find the enemy, in Homefront, you need to do some looking.
If you've noticed that I'm compairing this game to ModFare a lot, you're right. I do it because to me, Homefront seems like an extension pack for ModFare chronicling a civilian's journey during the part where Russia invades America. So the game is un-original, that doesn't make it not good, all Boston songs sound the same, but you listen to them anyway. So I recommend Homefront to everyone who's ever played Modern Warefare, or been paranoid of communists and needs to take out some steam on North Korea's face.
Which brings me effortlessly to Homefront. I pre-ordered it when a really nice gamestop employee told me it was going to combine everything that worked in Modern Warfare and Battlefield. But the best way I can describe it is completely influenced by ModFare, with only vehicles coming from battlefield. The controls are all the same as ModFare, the kinematics are the same as ModFare, it even does the same thing where your melee attack is a knife materializing from nowhere even though you're holding a seventy pound rocket launcher.
Not to say the game isn't good, to sum up the entire thing in one sentence; Red Dawn meets Call of Duty. If you have seen the movie and played said game, then you know that Homefront is worth checking out.
The story goes that in 2027, North Korea invades the United States. Most war games make the enemy some faceless PMC or a terrorist organization, but this game blatantly points a finger at Kim Jong-un, the son of the current dictator of North Korea. America loses the war, because the economy had taken a massive hit before the invasive, and the Korean occupation of America begins. You play as a pilot who was being taken to a labor camp, when the local resistance breaks him out, you then join a multicultural cast of characters in trying to get to San Francisco where what's left of the U.S. army is rallying.
The game goes to great lengths to get you angry, you see some disturbing imagery of soldiers doing horrible things to de-humanize the local population, and several times throughout the game you come upon a child's former bedroom or treehouse with drawings in it that all go something like "I love mommy and daddy, and being not in a labor camp and starving and being American and cute." It's like the game is trying to get you angry at communists, but the support characters do enough of that for you.
Like I said, gameplay is exactly like ModFare, but that's ok, because ModFare was a fantastic game, it's ok to copy something that worked in moderation.
Graphics take a bit of a hit, you know how in ModFare, you would sometimes stop and look at your gun, or the rock, and just say "Wow, I just got shot forty times for hesitating, but it was worth it because the graphics look like angels from heaven came down and rendered the environment themselves?" Well in Homefront, the graphics are good enough so you don't notice, but bad enough so you don't care.
Multiplayer is pretty cool, the matches are 32 person rounds and the maps are enormous, too enormous, I spent half of my multiplayer time running around looking for enemies and getting shot by snipers. In ModFare, you could always find the enemy, in Homefront, you need to do some looking.
If you've noticed that I'm compairing this game to ModFare a lot, you're right. I do it because to me, Homefront seems like an extension pack for ModFare chronicling a civilian's journey during the part where Russia invades America. So the game is un-original, that doesn't make it not good, all Boston songs sound the same, but you listen to them anyway. So I recommend Homefront to everyone who's ever played Modern Warefare, or been paranoid of communists and needs to take out some steam on North Korea's face.
Tuesday, March 15, 2011
why action movies rarely win oscars.
We've all been there, I'm talking to the fanboy, the fanboy who's favorite franchise was made into a movie this year, the fanboy, who will be disappointed when the Oscars come around and his movie only comes up for something dumb like best makeup or lighting. The Academy rarely chooses action movies for the awards everyone cares about like best actor/actress or best picture, and that's because of the basic form of movies.
Movies are a visual story, they're moving picture books, and so the Academy likes movies that tell stories. It's true, most action movies have a plot, but did you see Prince of Persia for the plot, no, you saw it so you could get excited by seeing a guy with hippy hair parkour for two and a half hours. Action movies aren't focused around the plot, they're focused around stunts and adrenaline, whereas movies that tell a story can have the ability to change everyone who sees it because they didn't spend all the writing budget on parkour training.
Even when action movies do have good stories, like Spider-Man and Inception, it's either too confusing to have a plot that allows for such hyperbolized fight scenes, or suffers from being tethered to the source material. Not to say there aren't good action movies, one of my favorite movies of all time, Watchmen, is an action movie, but that is an exception from both the confusing story and source material rules.
So that's it, the Academy likes stories, and action movies aren't as much about the story, so enjoy them for what they are, not always masterpieces, but excitement generators, that are fueled by adrenaline and exist to get you pumped for the sequel next summer.
Movies are a visual story, they're moving picture books, and so the Academy likes movies that tell stories. It's true, most action movies have a plot, but did you see Prince of Persia for the plot, no, you saw it so you could get excited by seeing a guy with hippy hair parkour for two and a half hours. Action movies aren't focused around the plot, they're focused around stunts and adrenaline, whereas movies that tell a story can have the ability to change everyone who sees it because they didn't spend all the writing budget on parkour training.
Even when action movies do have good stories, like Spider-Man and Inception, it's either too confusing to have a plot that allows for such hyperbolized fight scenes, or suffers from being tethered to the source material. Not to say there aren't good action movies, one of my favorite movies of all time, Watchmen, is an action movie, but that is an exception from both the confusing story and source material rules.
So that's it, the Academy likes stories, and action movies aren't as much about the story, so enjoy them for what they are, not always masterpieces, but excitement generators, that are fueled by adrenaline and exist to get you pumped for the sequel next summer.
Tuesday, March 8, 2011
the fretlessbass reviews: Marvel Vs. Capcom 3: fate of two worlds
First, I have a little cousin. His name is Timmy. I like Timmy, he understands my video game banter. He plays lots of video games. Once, we were talking and he said the word "verse" as in "will you verse me in Marvel Vs. Capcom 3?" No Tim, I will not, because that is not only not a word, but it also wouldn't be a verb. Two often people see the symbol "vs." and just say "verse" that is wrong, it is an abbreviation for the word versus.
Now to the game. My fist teen rated game was Capcom: fighting evolution. I liked it a lot, it held my attention, was it a good game? meh. Marvel Vs. (versus) Capcom 3 is very similar. In that I mean that you need to keep the controls page open on your lap for the first two weeks playing. It would be easier to control a nuclear generator while drunk than get Captain America to do "Hyper stars and stripes."
I don't really like fighting games, but MVC3 is about as good as they're going to get. Once you get into it, you can do the controls, but it's only fun with friends, and once you do that you're "that guy" That guy that in wanting to unlock all the characters for his friends has become unstoppable and un-fun to play with. Also, the plot is unveiled by unlocking video clips, I don't know about the rest of you, but when I play video games, I like to contribute to a story, that's what sets them apart from normal TV. Games like MVC3 are like guessing to "Who wants to be a millionaire?" You're technically playing, but no one gives a rat's ass and you could make more money by selling cars that instead of staring when you turned the key, punched you in the face.
My grievances with the characters, Who the F@#$ are half of these guys? The problem with games like these are the designers are fanboys of the origional, so most of the Capcom characters that haven't had a game in thirty years are playable characters that you will never play as. Also, I think all the female Capcom characters are S and M prostitutes in their spare time, because there is about a square inch of clothing among them. Who is Ryu? who is the cat lady with unrealistically jiggly breasts? Why should anyone care? The Marvel characters are why normal people buy this game, not the washed-up fighters turned prostitutes.
MVC3 is fun though, I like to play it with my brother, and if you get really good with one character, you can watch your fighting style change over time. I reccomend it to anyone who can rub a controller on their dog. Now if you'll excuse me, I need to make sure someone isn't ogling the cat-lady while my game is paused.
Now to the game. My fist teen rated game was Capcom: fighting evolution. I liked it a lot, it held my attention, was it a good game? meh. Marvel Vs. (versus) Capcom 3 is very similar. In that I mean that you need to keep the controls page open on your lap for the first two weeks playing. It would be easier to control a nuclear generator while drunk than get Captain America to do "Hyper stars and stripes."
I don't really like fighting games, but MVC3 is about as good as they're going to get. Once you get into it, you can do the controls, but it's only fun with friends, and once you do that you're "that guy" That guy that in wanting to unlock all the characters for his friends has become unstoppable and un-fun to play with. Also, the plot is unveiled by unlocking video clips, I don't know about the rest of you, but when I play video games, I like to contribute to a story, that's what sets them apart from normal TV. Games like MVC3 are like guessing to "Who wants to be a millionaire?" You're technically playing, but no one gives a rat's ass and you could make more money by selling cars that instead of staring when you turned the key, punched you in the face.
My grievances with the characters, Who the F@#$ are half of these guys? The problem with games like these are the designers are fanboys of the origional, so most of the Capcom characters that haven't had a game in thirty years are playable characters that you will never play as. Also, I think all the female Capcom characters are S and M prostitutes in their spare time, because there is about a square inch of clothing among them. Who is Ryu? who is the cat lady with unrealistically jiggly breasts? Why should anyone care? The Marvel characters are why normal people buy this game, not the washed-up fighters turned prostitutes.
MVC3 is fun though, I like to play it with my brother, and if you get really good with one character, you can watch your fighting style change over time. I reccomend it to anyone who can rub a controller on their dog. Now if you'll excuse me, I need to make sure someone isn't ogling the cat-lady while my game is paused.
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