This is a roundup of stuff I didn't write about during 2012. Between the first and second part of the year, I started cataloging and writing (sometimes incredibly slowly) about pretty much all the movies and comics I saw. I barely read any books, but the few I did are on here. I didn't write much about video games besides Mass Effect 3 last year, so that's what a big chunk of this is. I prefer doing them one at a time rather than a big round up like this, but this will allow me to purge everything. I still have a big backlog of stuff to post, which is all done on my tumblr now. This was way too big, so I put it here. Separate wrestling post to possibly follow. Personal stuff is at the end, beware.
Skyrim developed by Bethesda Game Studios - The first time I'd ever played an Elder Scrolls game or really any of the huge open world RPGs Bethesda makes, not counting about five minutes with Fallout 3. I enjoyed it through some major frustration spells. I should mention I only played for about 30 hours (yes, ONLY 30 hours), during which I barely advanced the main story. The frustration largely stems from a realization that a friend made to me about how I play games. I am a pseudo-perfectionist when it comes to games. I want to do everything possible in them, but only up to a point. I've never made it through a sandbox game, because there's often so much to do I get overwhelmed. Skyrim is like this to a preposterous degree. Where before there were multiple missions and activities in games like GTA or Red Dead Redemption, here there is a gigantic map that must be navigated, at least initially, on foot, with omnipresent substantial things to do everywhere you turn. It intimidated me to a point where I had to stop playing. That's a shame, because everything here is quite nice. The scope is nuts, the graphics are gorgeous, and the exploration is part of the fun, even for an irritable OCD doofus like me. I had some moments unlike any I've ever had in video games. There are tough decisions to make in this game, for which there is no corresponding metric or rating that leads to any sort of known reward at least. That leads your decisions to carry weight that they don't in other games that try the alignment mechanic. I had a guy who was hunting shoot an arrow past me at an animal as I was coming into a clearing, and thinking he was attacking me, I charged and killed him immediately, not realizing the mistake until afterwards, which is simulation of a type I've never had in a game. Lastly, I once marveled at the beauty of the landscape near a waterfall for so long, I barely had time to react when a chameleon-type enemy walked right out of the trees and almost killed me. I also was fascinated how the game rarely takes control away from you. There are no cutscenes or cinematics. It reminds me of the Half-Life games in that sense. The game does all storytelling through standard player perspective. It's not the greatest thing ever, it leads to glitches, all kinds of unintentional hilarity, and it's almost impossible to get any storytelling or emotional weight through, but I dunno. It kind of reinforces the control you have and the immersion level. On the other hand, they hired maybe three voice actors for the whole game? Maybe having everyone talk is not the way to go, because immersion gets immolated. And the combat is just not for me, pausing to load in setups and configurations and spam items from inventory. I guess I just like games where I press a button and win. Inventory management is tedious, though I know a lot of people feel different. I'm just not into RPGs anymore. Getting old and cranky without my beat up EGM with the FF7 walkthrough I read a million times before I ever played the game.
Arkham City developed by Rocksteady Studios - I really like these Batman games made by Rocksteady. The whole environment aspect and how they treat the story and characters is odd, though. They want to retain the goofy aspect by including everything about Batman they can, but then they try a lot of stuff to try and seem edgy and it comes off painfully childish and bad (kind of like those Nolan movies, running away). So just forget the story. An open world game that focuses on hand-to-hand combat lets them refine that system to a point where I just wanted to fight huge groups of enemies repeatedly. Whoever designed the combat for this deserves some recognition. You feel so powerful, but you're also quite vulnerable and if you start getting overconfident or lackadaisical, you end up getting beat down fast. It's easy to get the hang of and not too difficult to get very good at, but that makes you really want to be perfect and never be hit while growing your combo meter ever higher, so there's always a good challenge while not being overbearing. There are enough new wrinkles added on to the basic template of Arkham Asylum, and the massive open areas let them create all kinds of setpieces and optional objectives that can be tackled from a variety of angles. Catwoman and Robin mix things up enough without having to relearn the entire system, and there is tons of replay through the challenges and campaign modes. I very well might play this one on the harder difficulty, and I don't replay many games.
Bastion developed by Supergiant Games - A fun little action RPG. A mildly intriguing story grafted onto the idea of the levels constantly revealed around you and a narrator that tells the story depending on how you perform. If you wreck house, he tells you you're a house wrecker. If you barely pull it off, he tells you you're a barely puller-offer. The novelty wears off pretty quick, and it seems to disappear in the middle of the game if I remember correctly, but the first few times it makes you set up and take notice. The combat is fun, you can take any of the two weapons you've unlocked (one melee, one ranged) into a mission with you. They're balanced well and totally different, so while you can probably stick with the first two, it's a lot of fun to figure out good combinations and make yourself change your play style and therefore think about how other combinations would work. Good template for getting your money's worth from an Arcade title (I paid half-price, but it's worth $15).
The Orange Box developed by Valve - I picked this up for cheap and played through everything again. I had never beaten Half Life 2: Episode 2 because the ending had me so frustrated I gave up to save years of my life. I managed to get through it this time by micromanaging and saving practically every 20 seconds. Half Life 2 is still one of my favorite games ever. The music cues are so good throughout those games. That's what I took away this time. The levels are so well designed, and the gravity gun is still amazing years later. I wish I had a good PC so I could play that Black Mesa remake of the first one.
The Witcher 2 developed by CD Projekt RED - I might get back to this one day. My growing distaste for RPGs reared up again sometimes. Skyrim plants you in a word where tons of stuff is happening and has happened, but it's okay if you don't give a shit. This game is the same, except the game makes you care, whether you really want to or not. It reminds me some of Game of Thrones, but with a heavier focus on magic. It's all about that "Adult Fantasy" nonsense, which can go either way. It's not designed like a standard game, especially at first, which is both good and bad. Real-time combat with a power wheel like Mass Effect, but you can't use potions or items in combat, which is a twist that makes you think. Instead, you prepare with potions and things ahead of time and they last a set period of time. It leads to some poor planning and a lot of deaths and then planning correctly. A common complaint I've heard is that the game is brutally difficult in the prologue, when you're supposed to be learning, which I will vouch for. I just rented this, and by the time I had the difficulty and combat figured out I had to return it. Also like Skyrim, tough choices, and some are timed, which is a neat feature that makes sense. Great graphics, and the colors? Wow, this game is vibrant and beautiful, like a French BD album. Stupid quick time events. Can we put a moratorium on those now? I liked God of War a lot too, but that wasn't the main reason why. Inventory management GAH! Did I mention how pretty this game is? Because wow it looks great, and I wasn't even playing it on PC.
Bioshock 2 developed by 2K Games - I don't even rememer if I played this during 2012 or not. I think I started it in 2011. Should be Bioshock 1.5. Doesn't really advance or live up to the massive world building of the original. Playing as the Big Daddy isn't any different from being a guy, which is weird. If that was their sell, they missed big time. The story is all about the dangers of collectivism rather than objectivism and gets nowhere near the interesting dynamics of the first one (and I hate both beliefs). Still, you know what? I paid eight dollars for this and had a good time playing it. I like the customization, I love the world, and the design of Rapture is still a highlight. If I had to pick, I'd choose the first one, but that doesn't mean this is completely without merit.
Borderlands 2 developed by Gearbox Software - Still in the early stages of this. It's fun like the first one. They tried to add in some more story, but thankfully you can still ignore it and just shoot things with your friends. The humor overload is back, it works most of the time. You can now pick up things by walking over them. And really...that's about it as far as improvements. The graphics are about the same. There's still the weird difficulty spikes. The formula isn't stale yet, but they might want to mix it up some next time.
Dredd directed by Pete Travis - I didn't get to see this in 3D, which makes the parts that were shot to use that technology a bit...odd, I guess? How about mundane in a peculiar way? It seems dumb to think of this as a fun movie, but I feel that way. It's a buddy cop movie that nails how the humor of Dredd and his world is so double-sided. This is not the Dredd that makes us think while thrilling the shit out of us. In fact, if you're a hardcore Dredd purist, there are plenty of bones to pick here. But forget those people, because Karl Urban is awesome and Judge Anderson is written so much better than you would expect for a movie of this ilk. The conviction is there in how Dredd acts and thinks, and I thought the part with the corrupt Judges and how he talks to them was pointedly hilarious and the film's real point of satire. And lots of extreme violence. Thank God. And creator credits in huge letters first thing in the credits.
The Raid: Redemption directed by Gareth Evans - Whoa this is about as good as they come. It's like Tony Jaa movies if they were actually good movies and not just choreography and a really great tracking shot every now and then. The action in this is so brutal and so well captured. It's funny to remember the moment in time years back when martial arts movies were proclaiming "NO WIRES" and showing injury reels in their special features. All that's here, but there's no point in proclaiming or showing anything besides what's happening on screen, because you can infer everything just from that. Eventually it's just one man who can function stripped of everything except his limbs, a desire to survive and return home to his pregnant wife, and something else you don't find out about until deep in the movie. But none of this takes precedence or gets bludgeoned into you with melodramatic sequences that go off the rail before they even get started. Instead, it's all tied to immediate and visceral action. We get started off with guns and explosions, but then the shootouts get tossed in favor of guys packed into sardine cans of rooms and hallways beating the shit out of each other, the building a gigantic level that must be cleansed. The characters are there just enough to where we know them when we are supposed to and nothing more. It's a mix that works so well and seems so simple you wonder why they all aren't like this. But even if they were, this one would still be special. Please watch this.
The Grey directed by Joe Carnahan - Liam Neeson in a movie that uses him to his fullest. The plane crash sequence is the most terrifying thing I've seen in a theater and a valid example of why the theater experience can be unrivaled. The movie hits the beats that you expect, but then turns them against you, revealing what you really knew but didn't want to believe. Memory, faith, fate, perseverance, and man's relationship to nature all get examined in such a way that leads you to the realization of how the wolves in this movie are just a distraction, a metaphor for life itself and it's savage fatality. Through it all, a cast of characters are portrayed as humanly realistic, never more so than with their mortality. They do all they can with what little they have, rising to heights we as the audience expect, only for the results to not be enough. The film reverses expectations, but never just for a cheap hit. Neeson's survivalist leader character is the apex, the best available, but his successes only lead to failures and then there's nothing left to succeed at. And then when he breaks, well, you'll know a captivating performance, a man who is pouring his soul out while claiming to be acting.
Stray Dog directed by Akira Kurosawa - This gets a bit too pointed with "post-war" young male angst, but not surprisingly, it has some amazing shots and Mifune and Shimura are so good, who cares?
High and Low directed by Akira Kurosawa - It's a siege film where no one is directly coming and the protagonists can't defend themselves. This is probably the worst comparison in history, but the focus on the single set of the house reminds me of Dial M for Murder. I'm sure there are a million other, better examples, but I've only watched about two movies in my life. This movie is written well and shot incredibly. When the addict slowly pulls her hand into frame onto a structure to pull her body up into the frame, while the antagonist looks on in the background, unflinching? Chills. And the final shot of this movie, with it's booming anti-climax, Mifune's reflection in the metal screen after he gets nothing and everything from the guy tormenting him for the whole movie? Wow. I think this also might be a template for people who want to write films that have social commentary but aren't terrible.
LA Confidential by James Ellroy - Ellroy firing on all cylinders. I love the guy so much, he's my favorite author ever. This may not be his best, but it's so good, who cares? He even busts out some amazing action sequences, which I don't recall from any of the previous LA books or the Underworld Trilogy.
Neuromancer by William Gibson - Re-read. Gibson gets environment so right in these books. Some of the later cyberpunk stuff is so concerned with tech deluges that it all becomes pointless. Gibson never falls for that. You could argue that later authors are just building upon what he started, and that's fair, but his restraint here is commendable. Peter Rivera...goodness what a character. The fragility of real memory and synthetic memory, technical oligarchy, societal replacement and readjustment, and the military-industrial complex are all examined without preaching, without ever replacing the story and without removing Gibson's young voice, equally confident and unsure, a young kid doing the work and putting the gauntlet down. Corto relapsing into incoherence is such a horrifying and real event, and the sequence with Case inside the AI speaks to the the question of whether or not reality is worse off than one we construct favorably for ourselves. Outstanding.
Starship Troopers by Robert Heinlein - The thing I despised the most all year. Disappointing because the first and last chapters are excellent sci-fi war writing. Everything in between is social and political wish-fulfillment garbage that is terrible not because of the belief, but because that's literally all it is. Fiction that wants to be non-fiction so bad that it eclipses everything else that could be interesting or entertaining. "I want to write about how crappy the world is but how much potential the future has for society." If this wasn't so few pages I wouldn't have gotten through it. When I finished it, I swore I would never read another Heinlein book again, but now I kind of want to, just to see if they're all like this, because I hate myself.
Star Slammers by Walt Simonson - Track this down for the part where Simonson uses the mentally-linked nature of the protagonists to overlay grids onto pages that have no panels but still have separate images. Best way to show hive mind and shared consciousness on a comics page. Simonson is your new God.
The Eyes of the Cat by Moebius and Alejandro Jodorowsky - Moebius is better than your favorite artist. Jodorowsky can't work family into this, which is a shame, but Moebius guys. Moebius.
Grandville by Bryan Talbot - Talbot somehow makes washed out computer coloring look good and delivers a ripping counter-factual anthropomorphic beatdown. I need to get the rest of these.
Deathzone! by Michel Fiffe - Fiffe pores his love onto the pages of this bootleg Suicide Squad comic. The art is so attractive, it's easy to gloss over how he's mixing color, layout, design, and various lines to create a comic that you can't help but cherish. He transmutes his adoration into a comic and imbues it with contagion of the finest kind. Best final panel of any comic last year by light years.
Weather Systems by Anathema - Favorite album of the year, nothing else is even close. Absolutely beautiful. It's not perfect because the last track lapses too much into some random dude talking about his out of body experience and, well, I just don't care. Sorry man, you're interrupting the good stuff, but at least they threw it on at the end. The rest is an album of songs that slowly build and build until they explode. Anathema gets recognition in metal circles because of their death/doom roots, but they have maintained a metal attitude despite their almost total retreat from heavy guitars and growls. They still want to take your head off, just in a mellow and melodic way, and then gracefully return su cabeza onto your body. They remind me of Katatonia if they were much more progressive, with the ability to write songs that are structurally different while maintaining a core sound. Nothing flows the same, but it all melds together seamlessly. Any of these songs can be heard independently and have incredible effect, but played together they resonate equally. Discovering this album and band was similar to finding Porcupine Tree, Opeth, and Cormorant. Bands that play music in I always wanted to hear, that I assumed on one would made. I'm glad to have been proven wrong again.
March of Progress by Threshold - Another new discovery, and a lesser experience like the one with Anathema. Both bands have been around for years and have went through tonal changes. Threshold is progressive metal that is reigned in. They're Porcupine Tree if they were heavy all the time or OSI if they were less avant-garde. They sound insanely mainstream but you'd never hear them on the radio or in any popular music discussion. They keyboards are a massive part of the sound, but they integrate rather than dominate. They show off, but not like Dream Theater or Fates Warning. They write big goofy choruses that you singalong to. They make the music I would if I could.
Personal by Cletus Van Damme - 2012 was okay. It didn't suck as bad as 2011, but it wasn't as good as 2010. All other years are meaningless, sure, why not? Mom got cancer and then beat the shit out of it, which was a harrowing process but we really got off easy compared to what so many others go through. There were few complications and she's doing well. The worst part was probably our dog getting killed by a pitbull the day she was able to finally be around him after she got out of the hospital. Pitbulls suck, I don't care about your facts that prove otherwise. Almost flipped a tractor and died. Turned down a graduate assistantship position and decided not to go back to grad school at Murray State. I want to be 100% if I go back that it's what I want to do, but I won't quit after I start, so I had a tough decision to make. I moved to Nashville instead and then back to Paducah in three months. Never felt comfortable where I was living, never found a job better than the one I thankfully was able to come back to, and the location wasn't rewarding enough to make me want to stick it out. Still need to get out of the basement. It sucks ass in the winter. Mom and dad are getting older and like having me around, but I can't stay here forever. Started shaving my head so I wouldn't look like a methhead troglodyte. Now I'm just a troglodyte. No major setbacks, but no major progress. Yikes.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment