Falling Skies was never without problems. The main character was forever speechifying in a way that could be boiled down to "USA! USA! USA!" and few opportunities were passed up to revel in American exceptionalism.
It's perhaps fitting that one of the characters gets so fed up with Tom Mason that he tries to kill him and sets off on his own because he's sick of listening to him... but at least the show didn't overstay its welcome.
There seemed to be a rather marked downturn in budget for this final season and while it's clear that Falling Skies was never cheap to make it clearly suffered from aspirations for a Hollywood blockbuster but on a TV show's budget.
Most perplexing though, is that the enemy for the entire show had one CRITICAL weakness - kill their queen (let's just call her Sarah Kerrigan) and they ALL die. All of them. Literally turning to ash. As this show rejoices in historical parallels to the American Revolutionary War... this would be like George Washington crossing the Atlantic, killing King George and that just destroying the entire British army.
It seems particularly baffling as prior to that magic bullet, things had been parsed in very much a resistance type way. The enemy was on the back foot after a series of hard won tactical victories... and then they allude to how the Queen is basically going to allow them to win (somehow) but all it takes is for the magical ER doctor Tom Mason to use a magical bioweapon grenade to kill her and commit genocide.
"LOLWUT?!" As the Internet is wont to say.
Was this supposed to be a climactic showdown? It felt as though someone suddenly got told "We're not getting another season." and it was 4:30pm on a Friday and they went "Oh, uh - then he uses this biological grenade thing and it kills all the aliens forever. The end."
Oh, wait - they had to do a bit more masturbatory "USA! USA! USA!" at the end. Naturally.
It just seemed to be an ending rather anathema to the whole programme's thesis.
Friday, September 04, 2015
Pillars of Eternity
There have been many who have argued that there has been a trend to simplify and streamline away much of what used to make RPGs so immersive and hearkening back to games as relatively recent as Baldur's Gate 2 or even Dragon Age: Origin, there is certainly an argument to be made that games now have dropped complexity in the name of accessibility - the results of which have been hit or miss.
This is what has spawned the cRPG subgenre. Games that seek to recapture the look and feel of the Baldur's Gate/Diablo 2... well, seemingly more Baldur's Gate as they owe more to the D&D inspired RPGs, whereas Diablo was always a hack-n-slash.
The first thing to say of Pillars of Eternity is that it effortlessly recaptures the feeling of Baldur's Gate in general look and feel... The game does trick you by seeming to offer voice actors and then making it rather obvious that they are going to be used only sparingly. That's OK but it just highlights how integral voice work has become to modern gaming.
As to the combat... perhaps action RPGs have spoilt me but it just felt like busy work (that said, Dragon Age: Inquisition fighting felt like busy work). You're stuck with D&D style fighting too so... forget mana bars or whatever - you get abilities that can be used a finite amount of times. These will recharge between combat or when you sleep and when you're out in the wilds, you can only sleep with camping supplies annnnnnnnnnnd you can only carry a fixed number of those (upgradable with some skills)... as this is the easiest way to regain health (unless you want to start dabbling in the now mandatory crafting system), you can find yourself tediously shuffling back and forth to inns a lot, which kind of kills the pace of dungeon crawling.
Perhaps it's just nostalgia but Baldur's Gate combat usually felt more interesting too and seldom as unrewarding...
I will give credit to Obsidian Entertainment for creating their own world but that creates some problems in itself - mostly the fact they apparently chose a Welsh and/or Gaelic name generator for everything. Imagine if Lord of the Rings had the first 30-40 minutes of people talking about things with Elven names and you'll get a feel for the kind of barrier Pillars of Eternity throws at you. It's as if it's daring you to give up because you don't want to wade through these gobbledygook names.
Once you manage to penetrate that though, it's not so bad. It's not exactly a world which will make you gasp at is originality but it works well enough. The story is serviceable, although it suffers from leading you along and then just the "TIME FOR EXPOSITION!" in the final act. Granted, it's hard to hint at revelations in these kind of games and those among you familiar with the tropes of science fiction and fantasy will probably have your suspicions but the twist is still neat...
The game's ending also feels like a direct response to Mass Effect 3's clusterfuck...
It was a serviceable game but really only serves to remind me that things have moved on. Given that the Baldur's Gate games are being re-released, it seems strange to want to recapture nostalgia and those more cynical might see cRPGs as a means to justify dramatically reduced production costs... although, if they allow smaller developers a chance to enter the marketplace, then there's nothing wrong with that.
Only recommended for those that actually played the likes of Baldur's Gate and truly want to have something which doesn't feel a need to hold your hand.
This is what has spawned the cRPG subgenre. Games that seek to recapture the look and feel of the Baldur's Gate/Diablo 2... well, seemingly more Baldur's Gate as they owe more to the D&D inspired RPGs, whereas Diablo was always a hack-n-slash.
The first thing to say of Pillars of Eternity is that it effortlessly recaptures the feeling of Baldur's Gate in general look and feel... The game does trick you by seeming to offer voice actors and then making it rather obvious that they are going to be used only sparingly. That's OK but it just highlights how integral voice work has become to modern gaming.
As to the combat... perhaps action RPGs have spoilt me but it just felt like busy work (that said, Dragon Age: Inquisition fighting felt like busy work). You're stuck with D&D style fighting too so... forget mana bars or whatever - you get abilities that can be used a finite amount of times. These will recharge between combat or when you sleep and when you're out in the wilds, you can only sleep with camping supplies annnnnnnnnnnd you can only carry a fixed number of those (upgradable with some skills)... as this is the easiest way to regain health (unless you want to start dabbling in the now mandatory crafting system), you can find yourself tediously shuffling back and forth to inns a lot, which kind of kills the pace of dungeon crawling.
Perhaps it's just nostalgia but Baldur's Gate combat usually felt more interesting too and seldom as unrewarding...
I will give credit to Obsidian Entertainment for creating their own world but that creates some problems in itself - mostly the fact they apparently chose a Welsh and/or Gaelic name generator for everything. Imagine if Lord of the Rings had the first 30-40 minutes of people talking about things with Elven names and you'll get a feel for the kind of barrier Pillars of Eternity throws at you. It's as if it's daring you to give up because you don't want to wade through these gobbledygook names.
Once you manage to penetrate that though, it's not so bad. It's not exactly a world which will make you gasp at is originality but it works well enough. The story is serviceable, although it suffers from leading you along and then just the "TIME FOR EXPOSITION!" in the final act. Granted, it's hard to hint at revelations in these kind of games and those among you familiar with the tropes of science fiction and fantasy will probably have your suspicions but the twist is still neat...
The game's ending also feels like a direct response to Mass Effect 3's clusterfuck...
It was a serviceable game but really only serves to remind me that things have moved on. Given that the Baldur's Gate games are being re-released, it seems strange to want to recapture nostalgia and those more cynical might see cRPGs as a means to justify dramatically reduced production costs... although, if they allow smaller developers a chance to enter the marketplace, then there's nothing wrong with that.
Only recommended for those that actually played the likes of Baldur's Gate and truly want to have something which doesn't feel a need to hold your hand.
Monday, June 08, 2015
Jupiter Ascending
A film where a mostly oblivious humanity is little more than cattle to be harvested by a cold, calculating and far more technologically advanced civilisation - where people with what amount to superpowers have fights over a special individual who unwittingly holds the fate of the world in their hands... Gosh, how would you ever know this was a film by the Wachowskis?!
What's most surprising about this film though, is that it's NOT an adaptation of a young adult novel. It clearly owes much to the recent successes though, as the eponymous Jupiter is the chosen one - who is swept up into a galaxy spanning adventure, where everyone needs her but she has almost no agency.
The reasons for her being the chosen one are even more hilarious than usual. Despite being a highly technological society, apparently this galaxy spanning civilisation is practically religious about DNA and what amounts to reincarnation exists... and so, Jupiter is what amounts to the prophesied reincarnation of the matriarch of what amounts to this universe's interstellar equivalent of big pharma.
And, if you hadn't already guessed from the Matrix reference earlier, humanity (existing on presumably hundreds or even thousands of planets) is harvested for the purposes of a super duper youth formula that allows people to live for tens of thousands of years - so long as they're alright with entire planets, whole CIVILISATIONS just being erased from existence so they can go on living.
That might actually be an interesting idea for a film if it was explored but the film is far more interested in Jupiter scrubbing toilets and being a damsel in distress. Say what you will about things like the Hunger Games and its myriad rip-offs but at least they understand that the heroine should DO something.
Jupiter spends most of her time being a credulous fool, waiting to be saved and getting saved. She's not tough, she's not clever, she's not strong - she just wants to make googly eyes at Channing Tatum, her genetically engineered half-dog protector (it's OK, she always liked dogs).
Anyway, after having recklessly endangered all of humanity JUST to save her extended family and been saved about a dozen more times by Channing Tatum - Jupiter is the heir to an interstellar empire (on account of reincarnation allowing for you to write yourself into your will) and decides to just... go back to scrubbing toilets.
One might argue something about humility, except for the fact that Jupiter is ignoring however many billions of humans are still out there, being harvested when she is now eminently placed to help put an end to this. It would be like Frodo getting back from destroying the One Ring, finding Saruman running the Shire and going "That's cool, man. You gotta do your thing." Which is to say, as stupid as it is negligent.
She doesn't even THINK of doing it. There's no suggestion of alternatives and yet, we KNOW that she's one of the richest and most powerful people in the galaxy. OK, maybe explaining to the people of Earth that she owns their planet would be counterproductive but she's now afforded a place amongst the nobility (although, they seem to use companies/houses/nobility/royalty entirely interchangeably) and just goes back to cleaning toilets.
The heroes journey shouldn't be seen as the beall and endall of storytelling but to have a protagonist go through all their trial and tribulations, end up back where they began and just shrug and say "Back to scrubbing toilets!" with a smile on their face? Whether it's an attempt at a subversion of the genre or just idiot writing... well, given the rest of the film - idiot writing but it's just baffling as to how this could be considered a GOOD ending?
And, if you hadn't already guessed from the Matrix reference earlier, humanity (existing on presumably hundreds or even thousands of planets) is harvested for the purposes of a super duper youth formula that allows people to live for tens of thousands of years - so long as they're alright with entire planets, whole CIVILISATIONS just being erased from existence so they can go on living.
That might actually be an interesting idea for a film if it was explored but the film is far more interested in Jupiter scrubbing toilets and being a damsel in distress. Say what you will about things like the Hunger Games and its myriad rip-offs but at least they understand that the heroine should DO something.
Jupiter spends most of her time being a credulous fool, waiting to be saved and getting saved. She's not tough, she's not clever, she's not strong - she just wants to make googly eyes at Channing Tatum, her genetically engineered half-dog protector (it's OK, she always liked dogs).
Anyway, after having recklessly endangered all of humanity JUST to save her extended family and been saved about a dozen more times by Channing Tatum - Jupiter is the heir to an interstellar empire (on account of reincarnation allowing for you to write yourself into your will) and decides to just... go back to scrubbing toilets.
One might argue something about humility, except for the fact that Jupiter is ignoring however many billions of humans are still out there, being harvested when she is now eminently placed to help put an end to this. It would be like Frodo getting back from destroying the One Ring, finding Saruman running the Shire and going "That's cool, man. You gotta do your thing." Which is to say, as stupid as it is negligent.
She doesn't even THINK of doing it. There's no suggestion of alternatives and yet, we KNOW that she's one of the richest and most powerful people in the galaxy. OK, maybe explaining to the people of Earth that she owns their planet would be counterproductive but she's now afforded a place amongst the nobility (although, they seem to use companies/houses/nobility/royalty entirely interchangeably) and just goes back to cleaning toilets.
The heroes journey shouldn't be seen as the beall and endall of storytelling but to have a protagonist go through all their trial and tribulations, end up back where they began and just shrug and say "Back to scrubbing toilets!" with a smile on their face? Whether it's an attempt at a subversion of the genre or just idiot writing... well, given the rest of the film - idiot writing but it's just baffling as to how this could be considered a GOOD ending?
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