Who Framed Roger Rabbit

A unique idea (especially during the time it was released) in which it blended in live action with animation.  You get these 2D characters (straight out of the cartoons, with no alterations to make them more 'real') interacting with people.  It worked well and the fact that subtle movements like cartoon characters bumping into other people were included makes it much more immersive.  The plot, as the title suggests, is about solving the mystery of a murder in which Roger Rabbit (a cartoon character) is framed.  We don't really get a true detective story in which the revelation is slowly pieced together.  We don't even get a hilarious comedy, some scenes will put a smile on you face but generally, it felt a bit bland.  Needless to say, there were some wacky things that happened in the movie but it all feels right at home due to the cartoon nature.  One of the cool things is all the appearances characters from classic cartoons from Disney and Warner Brothers such as Mickey Mouse and Bugs Bunny.  The movie feels nostalgic especially if you have grown watching animation from that era.  I did find Roger Rabbit to be a somewhat wacky and unpredictable characters, doing odds things that you wouldn't expect him to do, especially when he's wanted for murder.

Book Review: Neon Genesis Evangelion: The Shinji Ikari Raising Project 8

Review:  #438
Title:  Neon Genesis Evangelion:  The Shinji Ikari Raising Project 8
Series:  Neon Genesis Evangelion:  The Shinji Ikari Raising Project - 8th volume
Author:  Osamu Takahashi
Read Before:  no
My Comments:  A solid volume but one that doesn’t advance the overall plot too much.  We do get a fairly intense final chapter in which the laboratory gets attacked (digitally) but the resolution is unsurprising.  On a whole, the events that happen are starting to become predictable which ruins it somewhat.  There are still numerous funny sections but the whole Shinji falling awkwardly on someone (or vice versa) is there multiple times in every chapter.  Not horrible and fairly interesting overall.

Rating:  6/10

Vessel (PS3)

Vessel is a puzzle platformer that has flown under the radar ever since it was released for PS3 in 2014.  Of the sites that did review this game, whether on PS3 or PC, it obtained fairly good ratings.  On the boot up of the game, one thing that stands out is the graphics isn't terribly good.  I don't know whether it was intentional but the background artwork and character models were fuzzy and grainy.  Vessel plays on a 2D plane, a sidescroller.  The graphics are not obvious 3D.  The mood and colour scheme is dark, to the point where sometimes you miss stuff in the background, stuff that was crucial in moving forward.  The puzzles involve activating switches and dodging obstacles.  The twist here is that there are these liquid/plasma based "fluoros" which are attracted to light (and other things).  You will gain the ability to create these fluoros and the interesting thing is that while initially, you can only use water to make them, later on you can use fire, light, dark and more, making for some really cool combinations.  The puzzles themselves start out okay but before too long, they get really difficult.

These puzzles become elaborate and you'll be stuck at a loss at what you need to do to advance.  While the puzzles aren't hard to the point of frustration, the good thing is that they require more thought rather than quick reflexes.  The solutions get really abstract and you will end up either spending huge amounts of time figuring out the solution or just cheat and watch a video online.  I think this is probably one of the reasons why Vessel isn't as high profile as it could be.  While the puzzles are clever, they aren't intuitive and it just isn't that much fun when a player with average intelligence will take minutes upon minutes figuring out each puzzle.  Considering the movement mechanics aren't the best, Vessel could have easily strayed into the stupid frustration category.  Your character can jump but the jump isn't that great, you end up falling back down really quickly and it will take a short while to get used to.  If they could have fixed this jump mechanic, it would make the game less annoying to play, especially in the later parts of the game where platforming plays a not insignificant role.  You are thrown straight into the game and at the beginning, you will wonder what the story is about since it doesn't tell you anything.

After a while, you will realize that there is an in-game journal which shows entries from the character.  These short snippets are interesting and tell an intriguing story.  It is an effective way of storytelling and doesn't get in the way of the game.  The structure of the game is going from one puzzle to the next, coupled with some platforming.  It's pretty much once you finish one puzzle, the next is waiting around the corner.  A cool thing is that you don't die by falling from a great height which allows you to travel a little bit faster (falling down as opposed to climbing down).  You'll probably die by molten lava or death by spikes when your plaforming goes amiss.  The music is very hollow and eerie, which seems at odds with the game. While I appreciate how the music complements the puzzle aspect, it feels more at home in a survival horror game.  It also feels like it's the same piece replayed over and over because they are so similar, making it feel uninspired.  Vessel is not one for the impatient, as each puzzle will take time and much trial and error before it can be solved.  However, the pride that you feel after solving one by yourself feels really good and it is a solid puzzle game with some interesting puzzles.

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Man of Steel

I couldn't take this seriously, Man of Steel tries to have a meaningful and complex plot but it suspends your belief too much.  The scenes feels disjointed as it skips from place to place and it doesn't transition smoothly.  You're wondering what just happened and why they decided to go to this section, it's not obvious how the story flows.  The beginning was interesting but it relied heavily on special effects, in general, the whole movie relies too much on special effects.  It tries to wow you with heaps of explosions, buildings crumbling and fight scenes at the climax but it so abundant that you just glance at it and not think too much about it.  We are supposed to gain an insight to how Superman came to be, how he feels, his human side.  It doesn't work very well because the way it was done wasn't effective.  Once again, it is a "save the world" plot.  It feels dodgy in how it flowed, like that it was supposed to be this clever storyline but in the end, feels shallow.  We didn't get to see Superman himself being the day to day hero.  The end fight scene dragged on for too long, as does the movie itself.  They need to shorten and cut out a few scenes, especially when the pacing wasn't so good to begin with.  Overall, still an enjoyable movie but leaves you thinking that the film was lacking in charm, wit and humour.

Book Review: Really Rotten Experiments

Review:  #437
Title:  Really Rotten Experiments
Series:  Horrible Science
Author:  Nick Arnold
Read Before:  no
My Comments:  A solid Horrible Science book but not as great as others since it also puts a large emphasis on practical experiments that you do yourself.  This means while it can be fun if you actually perform those experiments, it also means there’s not as much space for interesting facts.  The book had surprising humour which made it very enjoyable and there were many facts that you would not have known.

Rating:  5.5/10

Oblivion

I thought that this was going to be a standard science fiction film, maybe a few explosions and gun fights between the protagonist and the aliens.  Turns out that the story has more depth than you are first led to believe.  The beginning was interesting as they reveal what happened to Earth and what the protagonist's job was.  It was stretching it a bit though when it seemed like that for such an important task, they only had two people doing it.  This is slowly explained over the course of the movie.  The beginning was good but then it stalled until the plot twist came along.  It was a good twist and it made sense.  It made you think about the implications of what just happened and raised many more questions.  These questions are never fully answered and it had so much potential.  The movie relies heavily on special effects but it was visually impressive and didn't detract from the immersion.  The fact that all the designs in the movie had a similar aesthetic (white, sleek and simple futuristic design) helped.  While boring in some areas and feels like it is overly long at times, this is an intriguing movie that provides some food for thought.

PixelJunk Shooter Ultimate (Vita)

PixelJunk Shooter Ultimate is a combination of the first two PixelJunk Shooter games with a graphics upgrade and some other minor tweaks.  It was released for the PS4 and (surprisingly) Vita, being cross-buy, cross-save and cross-play, which is pretty awesome.  This is a twin stick shooter game but don't confuse it with the arcade shoot em ups, no, PixelJunk Shooter is more strategic and requires some thought.  I found myself strangely addicted to the game after the first level and kept thinking when I could play it again.  You play as a ship that sets out to a planet to save stranded scientists.

Obviously, these scientists are vulnerable and can die from external factors such as magma, enemy fire or you own ship's weapons.  It incorporates puzzle elements in reaching these scientists and this is by far the most interesting mechanic of the game.  They aren't super difficult at first but the difficulty will raise gradually as you go through the levels.  In the later levels, you will need to plan a few steps ahead, anticipating what is going to happen.  For example, you might have to blast a tunnel to channel the magma away first and then head in to save the scientists.

The water and magma animations are perfect, they behave like you would expect and it's apparent that a large amount of effort went into the water physics.  The animation is fluid, coupled with the crisp aesthetic of the game and you will enjoy just watching the water slosh around.  As will nearly all games these days, there are collectibles to be had.  The main attraction here is diamonds which are hidden throughout the levels.  Most of them are easy to find but a few are quite difficult to locate.

I was surprised that you could only aim in eight directions, which seemed at odds with what you would expect.  This drastically reduces accuracy and will take a short while to get used to.  You will need to aim carefully and this makes the game feel somewhat clunky.  The other game play twist is that there are "suits" in some levels that will alter your ship's abilities.  For example, you may get the magma suit which allows you to fire magma or the water suit which (you guessed it) allows you to spew water.  It makes the game much more interesting and fun to play.

Probably my lease favourite part of the game would be the boss battles.  It's not that they are not done well but they are dragged on for so long and the fact that there are no checkpointing makes it a huge pain to play.  The bosses themselves are not easy, from the first boss, you will die multiple times.  As is typical, each boss has various phases which kick in once they've reached a certain amount of HP.  Their attack patterns changes and you gotta adapt.  Frustratingly, if you end up dying at any time, you have to repeat the whole boss battle again.  Considering that it takes a decent amount of time to get to those stages, it's extremely annoying to say the least.

This is further aggravated by cheap mechanics such as the second boss shooting one hit KO mini monsters at you.  The fact that you can only aim in eight directions doesn't help either.  All of this combines to a frustrating experience that artificially extends the game time.  I'm not saying make the game super easy but at least give us a choice in whether we want a decent challenge or just want to enjoy the game at a relaxing pace.  The bosses themselves feel overly long, taking a while to chip down it's HP.

There are 30 levels in total, with a boss at every five stages.  It takes anywhere from 10 mins to 1 hour to complete a level so you are getting a decent amount of play time.  To be honest, I found that from around the fifteenth level onwards, things started to go downhill as the level designs were more annoying than clever or fun.  There will be timed levels or irreversible actions that you would have done meaning you can't take your time to explore and think about how to proceed.  Sure, you can restart that section but it gets very annoying.  By this point, the checkpoint system sucks as there are cheap instant kill deaths and if you end up getting surprised and dying near the end of that section, well, prepare to do the whole thing again.  It's frustrating and sickening.

There is a story.  You play as the pilot of a spaceship who is sent to an alien planet to save scientists.  They were on the planet to explore and mine resources but ended up being stranded when the planet attacked back.  You gain an idea of what the background is from the tidbits from special scientists you save and it makes the story more interesting than you would expect.  Sadly, the ending is ambiguous and not very satisfying.  Overall, PixelJunk Shooter Ultimate is a fun game where at times it can be challenging and frustrating.  Considering that it is the first two games combined into one, it presents great value and even has a multiplayer mode (granted, the servers aren't the best).  Despite my complaints, I have enjoyed the game and have no regrets.

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