Just Cause 1 was a very strange game. It had great ideas, such as the whole game being based around outlandish stunts and fun rather strict realism, but I don't think it quite pulled it off.
The story was tedious to the extreme, the scenery was pretty but the combat was awful and there were many confusing controls for simple actions.
Just Cause 2 seems to be the game the original should have been.
I've played for 2 hours so far, and in that time I've accomplished the following tasks in no particular order:
- Swung from a moving helicopter one-handed.
- Commandeered said helicopter for myself.
- Destroyed an enormous base.
- Engaged in a car chase by standing on the roof of a speeding vehicle.
- Caused a chasing Jeep to roll over spectacularly before exploding.
- Hooked an unfortunate baddie by his foot to a moving car.
- Hooked a bad guy's moving bike to a tree.
- BASE jumped from a mountain.
- Had a Raiders of the Lost Ark style punch-up with the driver of a car.
- Ridden on the roof of an airliner.
Only a couple of these things have happened in scripted missions, and to be honest I've spent most of my playtime either laughing or grinning like a fool.
The story itself is still terrible, but now in a good way. I couldn't work out if the first game was trying to parody action films or was just really cheesy. The sequel is definitely the former.
During one cutscene Rico (the protagonist) is chatting to a guy he's rescuing from some soldiers. He pauses briefly mid-sentence to casually scoop up a live grenade from the floor and throw it back without even looking, and sure enough there is a scream off-screen as it blows up.
So I'm very surprised so far, and pleasantly at that. I'll come up with some kind of review once I've gained more of a lasting impression.
In other news, I'm going to try and post up some of my Blood Bowl opinions and teams, my habit for movie reviewing has taken the blog in quite a different direction!
Saturday 18 December 2010
Monday 13 December 2010
Movie Review: Gladiator
I fancied watching an old favourite film of mine recently: Gladiator.
Having first watched it 10 years ago, I remember thinking how wonderful the battle sequences looked, and how perfect the ending to the film was.
10 years on, I have to say my feelings haven't changed. In fact, I think they've grown stronger.
The Action and Aesthetics
You know how every second film in recent years seems to have CGI for the hell of it? One of the most refreshing elements of Gladiator is that Director Ridley Scott knows when to use CGI (the awe-inspiring huge battle sequences) and when to scale back on the technology and use live action filmed with real stunt men (the up-close action sequences).
The difference is immediately noticable. Watch "300", a far inferior film in my opinion, and look at all of the battle sequences closely as they happen.
You'll notice immediately that when King Leonidas is slicing and dicing enemy troops, all the blood present is in bizarre diamond shapes, obviously computer generated, and never settles on the ground. This is combined with all the enemies on screen being CGI too (the whole enemy army was made of "man in mask" clones who don't cast shadows?!) and some really ridiculous CGI stunts (hurling a full grown man over your head with a shield bash?...Riiight-o!).
Then watch Gladiator. The actors are gritty and realistic, the fights look believable and have a concussive impact to them. The effects, particularly the blood and dust effects, were obviously performed using squibs and real machinery - and they look fantastic.
In this new(er) age of obsession with computer generated pixel men falling over with crappy over-the-top animations, it's a breath of fresh air to see real horses and men performing stunts.
The difference in budget between these two films? $30 million. Gladiator had a $100 million budget, 300 had a $70 million budget. Yet Scott extracts immense value from that pretty small gap in budget and makes a far more believable picture.
The Story
The story is at heart a revenge story. However, it touches on many themes: greed, lust for power, deception and the moral ambiguity of war. The film is also a really interesting look at Roman society.
Despite some minor factual errors that history buffs will spot immediately (such as the rather dubious fighting tactics of the Roman Legions shown), the film doesn't often compromise accuracy needlessly - aside from the clearly fictional elements of the story, that is.
One of my favourite qualities in the film is how it's themes are universal and unpolitical: good and evil, the triumph of the human spirit against all odds.
Like Touching the Void and The Shawshank Redemption, the film gives us a really splendid glance into not only the darkest pits of despair, but also the brilliant highs of being a human being. Despite a bittersweet ending that almost always gets the throat choking up, Gladiator finishes on an up note.
Acting across the board is top notch. Russell Crowe is excellent as the grizzled, valiant Maximus, Djimon Hounsou provides a calm balance in the form of his friend Juba and Oliver Reed, Joaquin Phoenix and Connie Nielson are all top notch.
Ralf Moller deserves a special mention for his performance as Hagen, a huge Germanic barbarian who looks more like a shaved bear than a man.
Final Word
Unlike Braveheart, a "similar" film (which I loathe!), Gladiator isn't interested in distorting events of history or making sweeping moral generalisations and passing it off as "real". Instead it uses a loose framework of history to weave a compelling fictional story.
And it does it successfully with every crashing sword, roaring chariot, hushed whisper and epic orchestral score.
Speaking of music, this film's soundtrack is also sublime - just listening to it is enough to provoke shivers:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d8v2TUQomZU&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FgCevpO18t4&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZAOTSO9ioZk
Overall, Gladiator is like a hybrid of what made old "epic" films great, combined with modern ideas and techniques, all mixed together with the heart of a good old morality play.
5/5.
[*][*][*][*][*]
Having first watched it 10 years ago, I remember thinking how wonderful the battle sequences looked, and how perfect the ending to the film was.
10 years on, I have to say my feelings haven't changed. In fact, I think they've grown stronger.
The Action and Aesthetics
You know how every second film in recent years seems to have CGI for the hell of it? One of the most refreshing elements of Gladiator is that Director Ridley Scott knows when to use CGI (the awe-inspiring huge battle sequences) and when to scale back on the technology and use live action filmed with real stunt men (the up-close action sequences).
The difference is immediately noticable. Watch "300", a far inferior film in my opinion, and look at all of the battle sequences closely as they happen.
You'll notice immediately that when King Leonidas is slicing and dicing enemy troops, all the blood present is in bizarre diamond shapes, obviously computer generated, and never settles on the ground. This is combined with all the enemies on screen being CGI too (the whole enemy army was made of "man in mask" clones who don't cast shadows?!) and some really ridiculous CGI stunts (hurling a full grown man over your head with a shield bash?...Riiight-o!).
Then watch Gladiator. The actors are gritty and realistic, the fights look believable and have a concussive impact to them. The effects, particularly the blood and dust effects, were obviously performed using squibs and real machinery - and they look fantastic.
In this new(er) age of obsession with computer generated pixel men falling over with crappy over-the-top animations, it's a breath of fresh air to see real horses and men performing stunts.
The difference in budget between these two films? $30 million. Gladiator had a $100 million budget, 300 had a $70 million budget. Yet Scott extracts immense value from that pretty small gap in budget and makes a far more believable picture.
The Story
The story is at heart a revenge story. However, it touches on many themes: greed, lust for power, deception and the moral ambiguity of war. The film is also a really interesting look at Roman society.
Despite some minor factual errors that history buffs will spot immediately (such as the rather dubious fighting tactics of the Roman Legions shown), the film doesn't often compromise accuracy needlessly - aside from the clearly fictional elements of the story, that is.
One of my favourite qualities in the film is how it's themes are universal and unpolitical: good and evil, the triumph of the human spirit against all odds.
Like Touching the Void and The Shawshank Redemption, the film gives us a really splendid glance into not only the darkest pits of despair, but also the brilliant highs of being a human being. Despite a bittersweet ending that almost always gets the throat choking up, Gladiator finishes on an up note.
Acting across the board is top notch. Russell Crowe is excellent as the grizzled, valiant Maximus, Djimon Hounsou provides a calm balance in the form of his friend Juba and Oliver Reed, Joaquin Phoenix and Connie Nielson are all top notch.
Ralf Moller deserves a special mention for his performance as Hagen, a huge Germanic barbarian who looks more like a shaved bear than a man.
Final Word
Unlike Braveheart, a "similar" film (which I loathe!), Gladiator isn't interested in distorting events of history or making sweeping moral generalisations and passing it off as "real". Instead it uses a loose framework of history to weave a compelling fictional story.
And it does it successfully with every crashing sword, roaring chariot, hushed whisper and epic orchestral score.
Speaking of music, this film's soundtrack is also sublime - just listening to it is enough to provoke shivers:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d8v2TUQomZU&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FgCevpO18t4&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZAOTSO9ioZk
Overall, Gladiator is like a hybrid of what made old "epic" films great, combined with modern ideas and techniques, all mixed together with the heart of a good old morality play.
5/5.
[*][*][*][*][*]
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