Review: Total Recall (Len Wiseman, 2012)

               Anothertop anticipated movie of 2012 for me.  Remembering my reaction of the original back in the mid 90s, Total Recall was the epitome for what I believed the future to look like.  Cool looking cars, that drive themselves, giant wall sized TVs and the ability to live on Mars. A more recent viewing of the 1990 classic has me thinking otherwise. Cool looking cars? Well, I guess in the future cars are ¼ the size they are now and travel at 10% the speed. Maybe in the future natural resources are limited. Cars that drive themselves? Not really sci-fi anymore thanks to Google. Giant wall sized TVs? I’m certain my living room TV is larger than the one in Arnold’s home. Mine is also anamorphic widescreen which makes it even better. That blender that Arnie is using to make his breakfast, is sitting in my cabinet at home. And the ability to live on Mars? OK, mankind hasn’t mastered that yet. But we did just land the most sophisticated space probe in the history of NASA. I am also intentionally leaving out the most important sci-fi draw of both movies; the ability to implant memories into people’s head. This is the sci-fi element that drives both films and still remains mastered.

                The two things that worried me about this project were director Len Wiseman and screenwriter Mark Bomback. Bomback is responsible for destroying John McClane’s personality in Live Free or Die Hard (not to mention that wonderful idea of John McClane riding on the back of an F-35) and he also penned the critically acclaimed Race to Witch Mountain. However, Bomback teamed up with Kurt Wimmer this time around, who I am a big fan of. Wimmer gave us, Equilibrium (which put Christian Bale on the map) and the Recruit. Wiseman is most known for the first two Underworld movies, where he actually stole actress Kate Beckinsale and then married her.

                Wiseman’s Total Recall is redesigned- Colin Farrell takes over from Arnold Schwarzenegger, still works reluctantly at his job, unhappy with the way his life turned out, married to a smokin hot wife (Kate Beckinsale) and intrigued by a company called “Rekall” that advertises vacations or fantasy memories by implanting them in your brain. Like Arnold, Farrell opts to visit Rekall and get ‘secret agent’ persona memories implanted in his head.  You can essentially break Total Recall into halfs- the first being ripped straight from original- making it easy to guess the sequence of events. Both films follow essentially the same pattern of events with minor tweaks and modernization of technology. Instead of cherry sized GPS implant in Arnold’s head, Farrell has a cell phone installed into his palm. There is also an overextended chase sequence showing off Wiseman’s futuristic hover cars. It’s almost as if Wiseman knew people were poking fun at the Verhoeven’s Total Recall depiction of the future and wanted to ensure his audience that yes, we made cars in the future cool again. Kurt Wimmer

                The second half is where new ideas start shaping. There’s no Mars in Wiseman’s adaptation, so the big sci-fi element is a giant tunnel through the center of the Earth. The tunnel divides the two surviving factions after World War III. The United Federation of Britain (UFB) and The Colony. In Verhoeven’s Total Recall, the rebel force on Mars was fighting for more air and a fair and balanced civilization. In Wiseman’s Total Recall, a rebel force is fighting for habitable space in the Colony. Wiseman does a great job portraying the Colony as a dark and gritty Blade Runner-like world, filled with congestion and unpleasantness, while the UFB is portrayed as a clean Minority Report world.

                The biggest problem with Total Recall is how the story develops in the 2^nd half. We meet up with Melina (Jessica Biel) early (as we did in Verhoeven’s version) but scenes feel dragged out. Maybe the source of the problem was in the editing room? The car chase sequence was way too long, the standoff sequence where Farrell is made to believe he is still strapped into a chair at Rekall was way too long and it took way too much time to meet up with Bryan Cranston’s character. Unlike Lockout, which I felt needed an extra 20-30 minutes to fully develop, Total Recall needs 20-30 minutes cut to make the movie flow better. 

                There are some things to like about Total Recall; some great action set pieces, neat sci-fi ideas and of course Beckinsale and Biel look great on screen. But Farrell as an action hero still comes off rather boring. Biel is also wearing cargo pants throughout the entire movie which was a big mistake. Maybe Beckinsale and Biel needed to switch roles. For an action movie, it’s a rather dull one. There are some great throwbacks to the original involving the “2 Weeks” woman and the “three breasted woman”, but no “See you at the party Richter” lines, no alien tech and no mutants. In fact, the three breasted woman isn’t really explained in the movie. I suppose you could argue that the radiation from World War III is the cause, but there’s no mention of radiation or anything else that could have caused that anomaly. In the end, Total Recall is a rebranded-iRobot screenplay that barely resembles its predecessor due to weak chase story mixed with a dull lead actor.

Grade: 70

Review: Prometheus (Ridley Scott, 2012)

CONTAINS SPOILERS

Prometheus was on my top 20 most anticipated movies of the year and is getting mixed reviews from fans of the Alien franchise and critics. I was really excited to see Scott get back into his element- His last few films have not been the Scott as we know him for; Robin Hood and American Gangster were bores, A Good Year was a love story that I could barely get through and the last enjoyable Ridley Scott movie was made over 12 years ago; Gladiator. What made Prometheus so interesting was the mystery behind the giant Space Jockey that we were introduced to in Scott’s original Alien movie. So many questions arose from the gigantic dead being, and Scott even provided some insight in the 2003 DVD commentary of Alien Director’s Cut.

“The space jockey is the pilot and he is part of a military operation, if that's the word you want to apply to his world. And therefor this is some kind of carrier, a weapon carrier, biological or biomechanoid carrier of lethal eggs inside of which are small creatures that actually fundamentally integrate in a very aggressive way into society or any place you drop. So if you land on a human being you have a resemblance to a human being, if you dropped on an ostrich it would look like an ostrich. And there is a fundamental connection in nature," ... Then he goes on to explain how there is an insect that has the ability to sense when there is a grub behind a piece of bark on a tree. “When the insect walks over the bark, senses the grub and stabs into the bark piercing the grub and lays the eggs inside the grub so the grub become the host.”

The problem with explaining this on the DVD commentary and not in the movie is it left too many questions and not enough answers as portrayed in this comical video.

                One of the problems with Prometheus is there is too much Lost-like story going on. Damon Lindelof has created the same problems that led to the mixed reaction of  J. J. Abrhams’ Lost ending. Too many motifs, too many unanswered questions, too much confusing (and misdirection) logic that it takes away from that great stuff that is put on screen. The second problem was FOX- We already know FOX wanted Prometheus to be PG-13, but somehow Scott convinced them to keep it R. FOX wanted to cut out the best scene in the entire movie; an abdominal surgery scene.

                But what Scott does do well is setup another universe within the Alien universe and the possibility for another trilogy. Prometheus is based around the origin of the human race; the mystery that could have started life on Earth. Elizabeth Shaw (Noomi Rapace) and Charlie Holloway (Logan Marshall-Green) are archaeologists who have discovered star maps in ancient civilizations across the planet, which suggests beings from another world have traveled to Earth giving these civilizations an invitation to humanity’s ancestors. They dub these aliens as “Engineers” and suspect they are the reason life began on Earth. A team is assembled to explore a distant moon, LV-223 (not to be confused with LV- 426 in Alien) on the ship Prometheus. We know Prometheus was a titan from Greek mythology who not only created man out of clay, but gave them fire. This angered the Gods and they chained Prometheus to a rock and condemned him to have his liver eaten out by an eagle every day for the rest of his life. (his liver would grow back) Prometheus the film, and the rest of the Alien franchise, returns to this torn abdomen motif on a regular basis as we all know well.

                The film narrates in a way that does not particularly come out with precise explanations for the events that transpire on screen. The opening shot of the movie involves one of the Engineers performing a ritual as a spaceship flies away. The Engineer drinks from a small cup of black goo that subsequently dissolves his body into a river as his body is broken down into individual DNA sequences. Is this Earth? We don’t know. And it doesn’t matter. The point Scott is making involves the building blocks of another world. Remember, Prometheus the Titan’s name is derived meaning “Forethinker” being a man of great foresight. Prometheus also approached Zeus with a choice of two animal sacrifices which his decision would set a precedent for future sacrifices. The Engineer in the opening scene of Prometheus is clearly sacrificing himself for the birth of man. What is the black goo? We don't know for sure but in theory the Engineers weaponized the xenomorph genetic material. We know what happens when you are exposed to the black goo as Prometheus plays out.

                Prometheus is not perfect, but Scott does create two of the most refreshing horror sequences I have seen in quite some time. When one of the scenes finally ended, I realized had squeezed my popcorn bag crushing the popcorn inside and my legs were twisted in front of me. I tried to imagine myself in the same situation of the character on screen.... I’m not sure I would have made it.

                What goes unnoticed are the bread crumbs Scott leaves, foreshadowing certain events that are not directly explained but opens the area for discussion which I find the most fascinating and clever portions of the film. For example, the final shot of the movie with the xenomorph had people rolling their eyes. Was this inserted because FOX pried it into the movie? Did Scott want to give Alien fans a link to both stories? Probably not. 

The creature was known to exist by the Engineers as shown by the mural and the theory of the base being a military facility. Based on Scott’s comments in the Director’s commentary above, I believe the Aliens change based on the species they come in contact with. This would also explain why the face huggers that come out of the eggs are different than the one Shaw gave birth to.  

                Theron's character (Vickers) was pointless. I didn't say the film was without flaws, but I still believe they are easily ignored flaws. Why do we even care that her character is pointless? Does it bother viewers who were expected her to have a bigger role in the premise? I think if anything her character serves as an opposite to Dr Shaw's character; she was a cold SELFISH human being (and arguably non-human), which is proven towards the end when she escaped the ship to save her own life. This was well represented in the motifs of the notion of self-sacrifice of “Prometheus”, which Vickers has no interest in partaking. If anything, her fate was well depicted. Shaw on the other hand is a believer "in God" with a "very strong faith". Her personality evolves through the film as seen with the discovery of the star map and then later with an internal conflict of her belief system and then a physical conflict fighting for not only her life, but all of Earth. And even when the battle is over, she still has the determination to continue to question her beliefs, to find more answers.

                Prometheus is not to be part of the Alien universe. It was made for different reasons and Scott pulls it off. It will not end up considered an instant classic, but it is a great way for Alien and Scott fans to rejoice to what is an interesting concept manufactured inside an existing fictional universe. I'm on board with this new storyline and I await the sequel to help quench my thirst for more Space Jockey. 

Grade: 91

Review: The Dark Knight Rises (Chris Nolan, 2012)

It’s been months since I’ve done an update, and rightfully so; in that time I’ve earned myself a nifty new post-graduate degree. Now that I have all this extra free time after work, I have the freedom to watch movies, play sports, go out with friends and do things that I’ve been dying to do but couldn’t in the past 21 months. My first update will be about the Dark Knight Rises, my number 1anticipated movie of 2012.

                The Dark Knight Rises was everything I had hoped it to be, even with a running time of 165 minutes, far exceeding the length of the first two films. The movie begins 7 years after the events in The Dark Knight. Gotham is quiet and crime free, while a badly worn out Bruce Wayne hides inside his mansion mourning over the death of his love Rachel and struggling with an internal battle realizing how much he has given up, for so little in return.

                The three new characters introduced are the most interesting parts of The Dark knight Rises. They include; a talented cop, John Blake (JGL) , who suspects Bruce Wayne to be Batman, Selina Kyle (Anne Hathaway), a mysterious jewel thief who is described to be an associate of the main villain but appears to only act in her own selfish manner,  and the main villain Bane (Tom Hardy), whose menacing voice and monstrous appearance hides behind a respirator. The new characters are pivotal to the climax of the movie. Nolan did a fantastic job building the relationship of Selina and Bruce and at the same time intertwining the stories of the first two films to uncover Bane’s master plan. Hathaway is perfect as Selina, (but don’t call her Catwoman!) as Nolan portrayed her in a tight, black suit with cat ears that fold down to night vision goggles.  Bruce/Batman also has an incredibly memorable fight scene with Bane and Nolan depicts quiet clearly how the 7 years held up in his mansion has taken a toll on his body and it appears Batman is most definitely physically outmatched.

                The complaints I have are minor in scope. I didn’t expect Nolan to produce excellent action sequences and I was right to assume so. The Dark Knight Rises probably has more action set pieces than the previous two films and with the exception of one emotionally great sequence involving a stadium, the Dark Knight Rises chugs through bits and pieces of car chases, fist fights and aerial shots that are not exceptional. They also don’t need to be. They feed the story fine. Nolan also doesn’t do humor. There’s no witty comebacks like Spider-man is known for, no cute banter that makes Tony Stark so charming, there’s just stone cold Bale.

And my biggest gripe about Nolan (SPOILERS AHEAD *** skip this paragraph) is his inability to induce any sense of a drama into a villains defeat. We saw what happened to Two Face in The Dark Knight, which could possibly go down as the weakest character death in the history of all cinema.  There was speculation that Two Face wasn’t dead and was being held inside Arkham Asylum, but the Dark Knight Rises squashes that theory pretty quickly. But more annoyingly, the movies spend a great deal of time building up Bane as an unstoppable monster only to dispatch him in a pseudo-deus ex machina event.

                Although Nolan had more time to tell his story, there does seem to be a bit of rushing editing involved. Nolan is known for using cross-cutting (a type of editing that simulates events occurring at the same time) in his past films but there are sections of The Dark Knight Rises that really stand out as rushed. In Nolan’s defense, the cross-cutting is a technique used to power the audience through a lot of the silly (but important) pieces of information but the audience is vulnerable to get confused on just how much time has actually passed between scenes. None of these critiques affect the love affair I had with the on screen characters. They were casted perfectly and to read more about how Nolan and David Goyer (an avid comic book fan) were influenced on all three movies, I invite you to read 20 Batman Stories Most Influentialto “The Dark Knight” Trilogy.  

                In the end, Nolan left the Batman universe with another tremendous effort with a satisfying conclusion, which should leave Batman fans smiling. Chris Nolan has ended his saga with Batman with a beautifully written love letter. The hopes of Nolan being involved in a future Justice League movie are doubtful. It’s best for him to walk away at this point, let someone else spin a Batman story of their own. But Nolan has transformed comic book adaptations as we know it (as evidence with The Amazing Spider-Man and The Man of Steel).  Not only will the next Batman predecessor have a huge challenge in front of them, the filmmakers will be challenged with creating a story following the best trilogy ever made. 

Grade: 95

The Rest of PAX East 2012 Stuff and Other Awesome Things

But first, the not so awesome things….

Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon: Future Soldier

               The title of this game should be; “Ghost Recon; Exactly Like We’ve Done Before”. How can this be a “future soldier” game when in every iteration of Ghost Recon, players had the ability to wallhack? Why is it fun to know where your enemies are?

Assassins Creed 3

                What a waste of time! I should have known better than to wait in line for this pile of crap from Ubisoft. If you’re expecting anything drastically new from the last five iterations over the same number of years, (which I’m not sure anyone is) then you probably already have decided on whether or not you will be buying Assassins Creed 3.  Assassins vs Templars taking place around the 18^th century when America was first being colonized. Another year, another Assassins Creed game. It will also most likely be $60 on PC and most likely be another pass from me. 

Mass Effect 3 Panel

                Another waste of time. Bioware went out of their way to declare they would not be addressing the ending to Mass Effect 3. The good news is the audience was allowed to ask questions after the panel speakers were done talking. What a perfect time to confront Bioware! The panel included a producer of Mass Effect, Level designer, two writers and a QA guy. The first topic? DLC. Ok. Then some talk about Tali and how she’s a racist. OK. Then questions…  And the audience elects to ask about; the Citadel, video game relationships to art, shooting Mordin, WHAT KIND OF TOOLS WERE USED FOR TESTING THE GAME, “If you could throw one character into the synthesis ending, who would it be?”and some lame question about Garrus.  My fellow video gamers disappointed me.

Borderlands 2;

 Another sequel, another game you probably have already decided whether or not you re buying this. Me? I’m not. The first one is a giant mundane repetitive piece of shit. As much as I want to kill dogs for the first 30 levels I think I'll spend my time doing something more fun. 

The Things That Were Cool…

Aliens: Colonial Marines; While waiting in line, we got to speak to the marines, who were not part of Sega marketing or any other contract marketing company, but were rather fans of the Alien franchise and had constructed their own Marine outfits. Sega found these guys online, and hired them to hang out at PAX, which was a nice touch to the authenticity around the Aliens Colonial Marines booth.

The game itself looks OK, definitely not what you would expect from 6 years in the making, but as we learned recently, the game was announced before production had even started. We saw "Pre-Alpha" footage of a live demo of the game. After the live demo, we got to play 5v5 multiplayer against the developers where we were the Marines and the devs were aliens. It was essentially Left 5 Dead only in the Alien Universe. The Aliens even had an equivalent of an tank.

What got me the most excited was this game is actually going to be the canon "sequel" to Aliens. So it follows the events after the movie. You board the Sulaco and see Bishop cut in half, two pods were jettisoned into space alluding to Ripley surviving.... later in the game you apparently get toland on the planet LV-426. One of my questions after the demo was whether the Space Jockey would be making an appearance. And the response I got was; "Well you can't land on LV-426 without bumping into the Space Jockey can you?"

Diablo III Beta Keys;  ( I still haven’t received mine yet but the Blizzard dude said it would take 7-10 days… I’m still hopeful)

Primal Carnage; A multiplayer game that is Left 4 Dead, only putting dinosaurs against humans. The game we played was extremely buggy, but it was also extremely fun in the early pre-alpha development stages. Playing as a T-Rex, velociraptor or pterodactyl you can attack humans in exactly the ways you are envisioning as you read this.  I have high expectations that future demos will be more complete and even more satisfying as this demo was.

Air Mech; The surprise of PAX for me. It’s a multiplayer RTS that can run in your browser. You can even play right now if you’d like; https://www.carbongames.com/chrome.html When you hear RTS you immediately think of Command and Conquer, but this RTS is less about placing/building buildings and more about using your super jet/robot transformer to fly over predetermined bases, build your army and attack your opponents in 1v1, 2v2 or 3v3 co-op play. The devs claim it’s also coming to steam later in the year but you can play the demo right now through your browser.

Super Monday Night Combat; Another wicked fun multiplayer game. Yes it’s a lot like TF2, but it’s more like TF2 on steroids... for free. It was actually released on steam yesterday before I post post this. Seriously, go there right now and you’ll start downloading it. 

PAX East Summary: So yes, I hit up all the major titles and not one of them really sparked any  huge interest. The two places I had the most fun were at the Air Mech booth and Far Cry 3, and the only reason Far Cry 3 seemed so fun was because I got to sit down and rest while I played. Overall I feel 2012 is a weak year for games and I'm surprised more gamers are not bored with the over hyped beaten to death franchises. My only hope is Valve can get me another release soon…

Good Movie’s I’ve Seen Lately

I meant to write full reviews for these but I haven’t had time, so very quickly people should go see, Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance if it’s still around in your area. Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor, also known as the Crank guys (and Gamer), have put their own spin on the Ghost Rider franchise and it really paid off. It’s light-years better than the first movie that also stars Nicholas Cage. This is what Ghost Rider should look and feel like. Johnny Blaze (and Cage) come off as crazy lunatics. Now we need Neveldine and Taylor to tackle the Punisher.

Another great movie out right now is The Cabin in the Woods, written and directed by Drew Goddard, the dude who wrote Cloverfield and a bunch of Lost episodes and co-written by Joss Whedon, the dude who directed awesome movies like Serenity, Thor and the upcoming soon to break every movie record; The Avengers. It’s much better for me not to say why The Cabin in the Woods is so great, because it’s greatness is hidden in a bunch of misdirection in the way the movie was promoted. You just need to trust me that it should be experienced. Don’t ask anyone if they have seen it, don’t Google the synopsis, just go to the movie theater, see the movie and return here and comment on your reaction. 

PAX East 2012 Far Cry 3 Impressions

Surprisingly, I spent most of my time at PAX East 2012 at the Far Cry 3 section. Every year, there’s one floor exhibit that “gets it right”. In 2011, it was THQ booth and Red Faction Armageddon. They had four or five stations setup, with exactly 60 seconds of play time with a goal of getting the highest score possible. The player with the highest score at the end of the day, won an iPad. The “60 seconds” aspect was key because it kept the line moving and gamers did not have to wait long to try the game. Plus it was addicting!  In 2010, the folks over at EA (look at that…something positive about EA!) and Skate 3 had a demo called “Wreck Yourself”; again, you have 60 seconds break as many bones in your body as possible, and if you get the highest score, you win some prize that I can’t remember.

                This year, Ubisoft had 16 stations setup where gamers could play a domination styled map, 8v8, for 10 minutes! The player with the highest score on the winning team, got to play in a tournament at the end of the day to play for a spot in an upcoming tournament and win some prizes. Getting 16 players in and out was seamless. The maximum amount of time you would be waiting is 20 minutes, which would put 32 people in front of you and the 10 minute play time was well worth the wait-to-play ratio. Compare this to the 2 hour wait to play Max Payne 3 or the 2 hour wait to watch an “exclusive trailer” to Assassins Creed 3 was a complete waste of time. At the Far Cry 3 booth they actually give you a place to sit down too; an extra bonus!

                Far Cry 3 multiplayer demo (which was a Pre Alpha Build) was fun. The domination mode separates players into two teams, the Pirates and Rebels, and they fight against controlling certain points on the map. The fact that you get to play against your fellow gamers was a treat and the fact that you are actually playing for a reward makes it competitive. There are seven classes to choose from, all having different advantages and disadvantages as well as different weapon config. Far Cry 3 was running on PC, but we were given Xbox 360 controller to play- so aiming wasn’t as accurate as it will be with a mouse and keyboard. The gamplay was pretty standard run and gun- like you would find in any Battlefield or Call of Duty multiplayer map. The map we played only had three capture points so it kept the play area small and action packed.  Like any multiplayer mode in today’s gaming market, there is also a leveling system built in for each class giving different bonuses the higher you climb.

                Ubisoft also built a revive system into the multiplayer modes where if a player dies, they have the option of pro-longing their incapacitated state by button mashing. Keeping yourself alive may be beneficial if your teammates are close to revive you and you’re trying to lock down a capture point. But if you’re fighting alone, it may be a better idea to choose death and respawn somewhere different on the map. Ubisoft also took a page out of the Call of Duty franchise and built in a team point system- the more points you acquire like reviving a teammate or capturing an objective, the more you can spend on air strikes and perks for your teammates. Overall this appears to be a solid multiplayer effort built into the attractive new storyline in the Far Cry series.

                To further promote Far Cry 3, Ubisoft hired a tattoo artist and hair dressers that were giving out free tribal themed tattoos from the game and free Mohawks in exchange for a copy of Far Cry 3 (to the first 100 volunteers). Maybe if this was Half-Life 3 or Diablo III I’d have considered it… 

PAX East 2012 Max Payne 3 Impressions

               This year’s PAX East I took a much different approach to the last two years I attended. This was going to be a much more casual visit to PAX than my previous visits. For starters, I was not going to arrive on day 1, five hours before the exhibit doors open to wait in line with the obnoxious  videos, fellow gamers and no place to sit. The only advantage in doing this is to get close to the front of the line for some highly anticipated games and I just did not feel like doing that this year. I was content waiting.

                Secondly, I wanted to buy a few PAX East 2012 shirts. The previous two years I waited too long and they were sold out before I could get them in my size. I wasn’t going to make this mistake for a third year in a row so getting shirts was number 1 on my TO-DO list this year.

                And lastly, the PAX guys didn’t send me my badge that I purchased back in January, so I had to wait in line at Will Call anyway, at entrance to the Boston Convention Center. PAX people totally dropped the ball on the badges this year. Went I got home on Friday, my badge was in my mailbox.

Max Payne 3 (Meh!)

                Rockstar, which has been known for having fantastic floor displays and demos; Last year we saw a live demo of L.A. Noire, the year before we got a playable demo of Red Dead Redemption. This year we got a playable demo of Max Payne 3.

                After waiting in line for around 2 hours, players got the choice of playing Max Payne 3 on PC, 360 or PS3, which I thought was a fantastic way to give fans what they want. We didn’t have a choice back at PAX 2010; we could only play Red Dead on 360. I tried to wait around for a PC to play on, but my legs were in pain by the end of the line and I folded and opted for a 360.

                Unlike previous Max Payne games, the new Max Payne is stripped of the Noire feel; no comic book styled framed narration. Instead this is replaced by the voice actor of Max Payne speaking over actual video. But the gloomy violin music makes its return and gives Max Payne a nostalgia feel.

                The demo that we were allowed to play was extreeeeeemely difficult even with the standard Max Payne bullet time. I’m not sure which difficulty was set on this demo, but I ended up dying quite a few times. It might have because I have never played Max Payne game on a console before but it was tough finding a comfort zone. GTA and Red Dead work well on a console because of the slower styled pacing of the action. Max Payne 3 is mostly run and gun, which I found difficult to adapt to.

                They added a new feature to Max Payne 3 which players will either hate or love. If you die, the game will immediately enter a bullet time state in which you have a last chance to kill the guy that shot you. If you succeed, you will stay alive and continue the game. This feature is fun when combined with the newly added effects such as enemies with flashlights which will blind Max and their exact location. If you are killed by one of these enemies, the player will need to blindly shoot into the giant lens flare on the screen and hopefully hit the enemy that shot Max. This can be a very rewarding or frustrating gameplay element.

                Another new feature they added that never existed in a Max Payne game before is a cover mechanic. This is not a pop and gun mechanic that exists in Gears of War or Uncharted. It’s more of a cover mechanic that helps Max recover for a bit when there’s a ton of enemies on screen. Max Payne 3 is definitely an ‘always moving’ action game and I think that’s what Rockstar wanted to achieve. They didn’t want a player to hiding behind cover for 90% of the game. This keeps the players constantly on their feet.

                Although I liked the previous Max Payne games, I don’t think I’m too attached to this franchise to be overly excited about even after having played the demo, especially since it is coming from a different developer. Rockstar is known for open world sandbox games and it’s interesting to see them take on new genre game but I don’t see many improvements, aside from technically, that will make me run out and buy Max Payne 3. It’s nice to see the franchise back, and I probably will be buying Max Payne 3 on steam eventually, the question is whether or not I will be buying it at launch. 

Mass Effect 3: Extended Cut?

                Not 30 seconds after I posted myMass Effect 3 rant, I noticed my RSS feed had mentioned something about an EA and Bioware announcement. It sounds like they are making an extended ending of the game to clear up some confusion and bring some closure to the story arc. It won’t address most of my complaints the series has presented over the years, but at least it may address some satisfaction on seeing some familiar characters again.

                The DLC which will be released over the summer will be free and available on all three platforms, Origin, Xbox Live and PSN.

To be continued…