New talk! Animation.

So over the weekend I watched a bunch of animation. Not anime (though I watched a little bit of that too) but Western animation courtesy of the good folks at Werner Bros.

The first thing I watched was Batman: Under the Red Hood, which I enjoyed immensely. The movie opens up with the Joker beating Robin (I think the second one? I get so confused with all the robins) with a crowbar. Theeeen blowing him up.

Why is this awesome?

BECAUSE THEY ARE FINALLY MAKING ANIMATION FOR ADULTS.

I loved anime when I was growing up because they--for the most part--are geared to a more mature audience. Back then I really liked it because with animation you are not limited by special effects or stunt doubles or whatever. As long as you can draw it, it can be shown. These days this is less important with the advancement of CG technology, but back in the 90's it was pretty important to me.

And all the while I hoped Western animation would come along, because--and I'm sorry to those of you who like anime--the drawing style of anime bothers the hell out of me. Giant eyes and tiny mouths, and two curved lines for noses. Nine times out of ten all anime faces (especially female faces) use the same model and I get bored. I think a major part of the reason Hayao Miyazaki is so successful is because you can tell by the art that he's directing it.

The other day I was browsing anime and the common denominator of mostly all of them (except the really popular ones like Evangelion, Naruto, Guyver, Ghost in the Shell, etc.) were totally fan service on a plate served up with a side of T&A. For example.

But last night I was feeling the pull of a little anime so I popped in Rin: Daughter of hardwordtospell. It's about a private investigator who comes back to life every time she gets killed. Sounds good, got high ratings so whatever I'll watch an episode or two.

The show was designed for depressed, lonely nerds who don't know how to find porn on the internet. Seriously, animated tits left and right, main character's a busty lesbian, torture scene involving dominatrix style piercings... you get the point.

Aside from that it was a decent anime. It had zombies in the first episode so that's pretty cool.

But back to my original rant! WESTERN animation. Under the Red Hood could have easily been a Hollywood blockbuster with a little more character development, script attention and mass market appeal. Aside from that it was still a VERY good movie and I loved the speech the Red Hood gives at the end of the movie.

Only thing I didn't like about it was that they didn't get Mark Hamill to be the Joker(Mark's best voice work here, in my opinion). They had some guy who did his best Mark Hamill Joker impression.

So after that I got all excited and watched Halo: Legends only to discover it was an anthology of short animations and had all sorts of anime in it (not even the god kind too. The first three had shitty anime with loooots of doubles and triples (doubles/triples meaning using the same frame two or three times in a row to save on animation effort) in use.

After that I tried watching the Superman/Shazam thing only to find it was ANOTHER DAMN ANTHOLOGY. Good animation. I know nothing about the Spectre though so I got bored and went to go find something else to watch.

I lost the point I was trying to make some where along there... Oh, I found it! Western animation is coming along, but if they don't hurry they will be made obsolete by advancing CGI techniques.

-McK

Book Review Time!

So last night in the wee hours of the day I finished The Devil You Know by Mike Carey.

When I started the book I told Binah that it was like a watered-down version of the Dresden files. I quickly rescinded that statement.

The Devil You Know stars Felix "Fix" Castor, sarcastic wise-ass exorcist. He quit the job a year or so back when he messed up royally, but in a pinch he takes a new job and of course--because it's a book about something that is not "The routine life of a boring man"--everything gets super complicated.

I had a hard time with this book because the author is very, very British and has a vocabulary like the Oxford English Dictionary. I found myself stopping at least three times a chapter to look up stuff like what the English call those plates on the back of trucks that tell the world that they're carrying explosives or acids or something that may kill you if you stand too close. And sangfroid.

Other than that though I had a really fun time. I wasn't as "in" to the story as I could have been because of the words I was looking up. I think that's why I was able to pick out who the villain was so early in the story (don't worry I won't mention it). Usually I'm so absorbed I don't really think and so everything is a surprise.

The writing itself is the kind that you don't really notice, which is the kind I like best. I didn't think "Well, the writing isn't all the good but the story is great" and "Well, the writing is very good so I guess I'll stick around." The writing itself slipped behind your awareness and just let things unfold in your mind, calm and competent and contented just to let you experience the story.

Robin Hobb's writing is spectacular, which is why I stuck around for the first, second and part of the third Shamans Crossing books when I absolutely hated the story. The second book was described by a disgruntled Amazon customer as "The diary of a depressed fat man," and I have to agree. /rant

With the Morcyth saga, while the writing wasn't all that good, I liked the story. Bought 5 of the books I liked it so much. But by the time I got to the 5th book it was like I was reading the same book over and over. Travel. Fight. Travel. Fight. New magic. Fight. Faint a lot. Fight.

So when I don't notice the writing I consider it a wonderful thing. I can appreciate the story for what it is and the story of The Devil You Know is rather good.

I felt frustration along with Fix, relief when he didn't die, and all that sort of awesome stuff. Still, toward the end of the book I was still reserved about something, not giving the book my full vote of confidence.

The ending fixed that. It left me with a smile so wide it lasted until this morning when I woke up.

All in all, a wonderful read with at least 5 in the series so far (yes I've already started the second book, love Kindle for iPhone).

-McK

The Wise Mans Fear

Today I'll be reviewing The Wise Mans Fear by Patrick Rothfuss.

The Wise Mans Fear is the second book of the Kingslayer books and from what I've read he's yet to slay any damn kings. If you're going to name a series of books Kingslayer I expect the walls to be painted with theocratic blood, dammit.

Facetiousness aside, I love this book. For one, Patrick is a lovely writer and though the book is slow at times I didn't have the urge to skip ahead and get to the action.

More importantly, the funny parts were actually funny. It takes a lot to make me laugh at a book. Example: Hitchhikers Guide was entertaining, but I didn't laugh. The only book that ever really made me laugh was Good Omens, and if you haven't read that get up from your computer right now, go buy it and read it.

Anyway, what I was getting at is that I have two distinct sense of humors, verbal and written. My sense of humor with written media is very different from my verbal humor (lol butts lol). So the fact that Patrick made me laugh goes a long way to endear him in my heart as a writer.

You'll notice I'm not saying much about the books storyline because pretty much everything is a spoiler. When the main character Kvothe (pronounced Quoth) forgets to shave it has world-changing consequences.

I will tell you what I like about Kvothe as a charcter; He's incredibly smart. Able to put together things and scenarios with rapidity. But he's also stupid as can be when it comes to women or what people think of him. He's competent, but there are people surrounding him who are far more so. Bottom line--he's not a Gary Stu.

The book is long which I like very much. I could read about Kvothe forever. Sadly, the book did end, in a typically frustrating middle-book way that leaves everything open and makes you want to tear the book in half (which would've been pretty neat for me as I read books on my phone).

In closing, go buy The Name of the Wind, then The Wise Mans Fear, and then grind your teeth along with me waiting for the next book.

-McK

Bulletstorm

Hello readers!

Sorry for the lack of posts, I had a sickness that ranks somewhere in the top five sicknesses I've ever had. I didn't feel safe writing anything when stuck with a fever. A fever that made eating vanilla yogurt and cheese seem like a good idea (it wasn't).

So anyway, I'm hale and hearty again so today you get to suffer through another video game review. Bulletstorm.

Story Breakdown: You're a space pirate out for revenge and redemption.

I could go more into it but that's it essentially. Not very imaginative I know but that's not what the creators of the game were worried about when they made the game. The storyline is essentially there to give them an excuse to let you run around and shoot the shit out of everything that moves.

Gameplay: I got this game on Steam of course so that means I played it on the computer. The thing I don't like about this is that the game was obviously made with the Xbox 360 in mind. The control mechanics are almost identical to Gears of War, the only change being a first person perspective instead of a over-the-shoulder (third person) perspective. You press space to sprint (wtf?), press it twice to go into the most impressive power slide I've ever seen. It's like rockets fire from your ass and your pants are made of grease as you slide your ass down a good forty feet of level concrete before you slam into some obstruction.

You also use space to climb over things. But only when prompted. Also you can't jump. This kind of game design encourages you to look for the obvious path and it is very linear. That is a word I hated early in my life, linear, because I had no idea what it meant and game reviewers would never explain it. Linear--apologies for those of you who are more intelligent than I-- means "of a line." In game terms it means that the game's gameplay and story events follow a single line, without much choice in the events of the game.

So you have infinite ways to kill that mutant, but as soon as you're done killing him and his hundred buddies you only have one direction to go: forward.

This isn't terribly bad and for a game like this is probably a good choice. This is a game that knows what it wants you to experience: the death of thousands and thousands of badguys in imaginative and horrifying ways... that earn you points.

The "sell" of this game, the "reason" you should buy it rather than that other shooter (aside from profuse and often hilarious usage of the word "dick") is that you get points for killing folk in creative ways. Example: If you straight up just shoot a guy to death, you get ten points. If you happen to kick him off a cliff, you get fifty. If you happen to kick him off a cliff while he was on fire onto some spiky rebar, you get a hundred and fifty points. If you happen to do that to him and three of his buddies, you get a multiplier.

These points have a use, too! They aren't just a score you get. You can use these point to upgrade your guns, buy ammo and generally keep yourself killing mutants in the manner in which you prefer--with extreme violence.

As an aside: You get fifty points for killing someone by shooting his ass--the bonus is called "Rear Entry."

Then you have the Leash. The Leash is an electric cord you can whip out by pressing Q and it will snatch a badguy and throw him at you. At the last instant the body slows down very much like slow-mo, but this only effects the bad guy. You can use this opportunity to carefully blow off his head, or just have an easier time shooting him. The game frowns on this as you'll only get twenty-five points for head shots. What you're supposed to do is use this time to find the most horrifying and creative way to kill this man/mutant.

Voice Acting: If you've read my blag previously you'll know that voice acting to me is very important. Make-or-break important. So I'm very happy to say that the voice acting in Bulletstorm is very good, if very over the top. For instance, the first time you meet Trishka, the female lead, she threatens your character by saying "If you assholes follow me I swear by something or other that I'll kill your dicks!" (paraphrase except for the last part)

Grayson Hunt, your character, replies with a very witty "Oh yeah? Well, I'll kill your dick!"

I should mention that while I was playing this game I was pulling my hair out trying to figure out where I'd heard the main characters (you) voice before. I just did a little bit of googling and it's the guy who voiced Spike Spiegle from Cowboy Bebop, along with every other voice in video games. Anyway, the voice acting is so over-the-top that it matches this over-the-top game perfectly.

Graphics: Nothing special. Typical stuff you'd see on the Xbox 360 but something my computer had to struggle with occasionally, because while it has a nice powerful video card it doesn't make up for a rather mid-range processor. You need both. Well, it depends on who you ask. I have a fellow computer geek friend who claims with the right video card he could run Crysis on a speak-and-spell. I wisely let the issue drop.

Aside from that the game is rather beautiful and the engine could render a lot of landscape. The water is pretty, the atmosphere (I mean, like, the air) looked like the atmosphere of a foreign world, and the cities looked like cities.

What detracted from this is that while the world itself was beautiful and real looking, the characters were a little cartoony. Something about them just made me think they were drawn rather than created. If you don't know what I mean by that, don't worry, because I'm not sure either. It's something that caught my attention, that's all. Nothing good or bad by it.

What I didn't like:

Endless shooting: Realizing the game is called Bulletstorm, towards the end of the game I was having to unload entire clips into badguys to get them to die. Fifty bullets, sometimes from mere feet away, all centered about the head and shoulders. Sometimes they wouldn't die, and I'd have to reload, and then continue to shoot the bastard until he deigned to die.

This is just a personal preference with me. When I have a gun in my hands (or my characters hands, I guess), I want it to do some damage. Assault rifles are made to kill people, and nothing else. I don't care how heavily armored you are, fifty bullets slamming into your helmet should be enough to turn your head into some form of jam, I don't care how tough you are.

Couldn't do anything with the Leash: Aside from pulling stuff towards me, I couldn't figure out how to make me pull stuff other ways. Maybe you couldn't, like I figure, but I'm not above saying I just didn't know what I was doing.

Jumping: You couldn't. You could climb over stuff, but you couldn't jump. In the universe of Bulletstorm, hopscotch does not exist. Also, friction. Play the game and you'll understand.

SPOILER ALERT! The following has to do with the story and will be in white font, so if you want to read it you're going to have to highlight it.

You didn't do a damn thing. You set out to do such and such, and not only do you not do it, you get everyone close to you killed except for the hot chick who's dad you killed. You didn't even kill the badguy who started this whole mess to kill. It was a lame ending and a total cop-out for a sequel.

So that's about it. I don't do numbering systems because it's arbitrary and in the past I've disliked games for the same reason I've liked other games. So I will say I liked this game enough to buy it for the single player, but from playing it I don't know how fun the multiplayer will be. If I have to shoot some jackass in Iowa seventy times for him to die I will be pissed.

Anyway, if you have a console I'd recommend renting it. If you are flush with cash I'd recommend buying it. Otherwise, it was a funny and fun six hours.

-McK