WET also known as hard boiled gaming fun.

With the holidays soon approaching and many fantastic game releases upon us, (see Modern Warfare 2, Left 4 Dead 2, and Assassin's Creed 2) I have to thank the public library system for allowing me to partake in one of the ones that may have been left to the side for most folks, that is nonetheless a quality game as well.
There was quite a bit of hype for a little while for the lead in during the "off months" of releases wherein there really wasn't much of note coming out, just everyone frothing at the mouth of potential things to come via reports from E3 and PAX. The big get for the title from the boys at Bethesda (Fallout 3) was everyone's spunky, sexy, hot badass fantasy girl Eliza Dushku. If you disagree with me on this watch a few episodes of Dollhouse, or an old episode of Buffy. She lends he vocal talents to our lead character Rubi and is joined by a very small handful of talented actors. Now to go on explaining any plot to the game almost seems a bit silly as the game pretty much is laid out as if you were in control of a crazy grindhouse/hard boiled drive-in action movie, complete with film grain effects, missing reel animatics, film burn and 1950's era advertisements for things like Chilly Dilly pickles. All that's really needed to be said is there's a badass hot girl that dual wields revolvers and hacks people to pieces with a sword from her back... now take this controller and use that button to shoot.
Its very entertaining, the control system is very simple and easy to learn and allows for you to jump right in and let the bodies start to fall and the blood to spill. It eventually becomes yet another game of how many bad guys can I knock off and chain together in one long acrobatic slo-motion sequence. There are three kind of sequences you will find yourself controlling Rubi through, a main point A to B map platform in which you kill the horde of baddies intent on shooting you, a chase sequence in which you are unable to steal a car find yourself jumping on and over traffic while gunning and hacking your way to your target, and a rage mode in which someone dares get shot and spill blood all over Rubi and she goes full out breserker rage and you try to accumulate the largest "chain-kill" possible. Once you play through the story mode, and you most definitely will, you will unlock challenges and other story mode options. Challenges are mostly run and gun target shooting races against the clock in Rubi's training area, there is a points run mode for each level of story mode as well, tho I find once the initial game play is finished the challenges and extra content loses its luster very quickly and becomes a bit repetitive and either too difficult and/or boring.
Now while the game is quite thoroughly enjoying as I said it isn't very long and once you complete the initial story mode it will quickly become fairly repetitive, so unless you're an achievement freak you'll most likely tire of it within a week or so. So final verdict big kudos for originality, style, flow, and fun, but while it does a great many things right it will not last for very long in the console of your choice. So while I would love to say go right out and make this a purchase I can't because this is easily a must play but definitely not a must buy. So find a way to pick it up and give it a run through while you're saving up the cash for the new Call of Duty, or Assassin's Creed, it'll make you feel at least like you aren't completely missing out on all the fun. (insert smile here)

Updating because its nessicary

Lack of frequent posting does not seem to accurately portray my absence in the realm of writing as of late. I have not really had much to write about I suppose... actually that's a lie, I'm most certain that there is a fairly decent amount I have been able to write about but my innate ability to put it off to allow proper perspective, hes led to the obvious dilly dallying to make fresh idea become stale and rotted and then forgotten.
On the plus side of this I shall be starting class as of tomorrow night, so I can hopefully make better use of this with classwork and make everything as functional as I had once set out for it to be. Also on a random basis you may be able to find me playing internet Dj over at Anon Free Radio (awesomecougars.org) under the moniker Kanish.
I promise the I will be updating things here soon with actual meaningful reviews/topics. My monetary situation has left me in a tough spot for some of those. There will most definately be an Assassin's Creed 2 review, and most likely other holiday gaming releases as well but other than AC2 I cannot gaurantee any especially with my soon to be busy schedule.

So til next time... be well.

Warning... there is more to come.

I've finally seen District 9 and just prior to that 9, yet am still figuring out the proper way to put them both to words in a format that is appealing for consumption here. In addition there are a great many other very neat things running around out there that I have yet to try/use/play/go to that I shall hopefully be able to soon. Game releases being Wet(out), new Batmans(out), Assassin's Creed 2(Nov), CoD Modern Warfare 2(Nov) are close to my top of must play 1st's list. Shortly after that follows NHL10, a bevy of racers Blur, Need for Speed: Shift, Dirt 2 are some big ones. There's is going to be a very good chance I will not be playing most of those but not for lack of trying.

Fall TV season is almost upon us again as well, with the prime time Emmy's going off tonight, following with what is going to be me trying to figure out how the hell to watch a packed Monday lineup with no dvr. I think it will be figuring out which shows aren't broadcast online and watch those as they happen. I run into the problem for Monday specifically because I think there are now about 4 shows on almost directly opposite each other. CBS runs How I Met Your Mother and Big Bang Theory opposite Heroes and Chuck(when it starts in March), which reside on NBC. I think I may actually hold off to see heroes online due to not wanting to sit thru commercials and in case I miss a bit I can go back. Not having a DVR, after using them for a bit, makes for a less than optimal viewing experience.

That's a short one for now... off to vinyl and football. take care and be well.

500 Days of Summer, Funny People

Long overdue updates but things are hectic around these parts so my normal distractions can be compounded into more delays at times, enough about me this is about the movies so lets start of with film number one shall we.

Funny People,I enjoyed quite a bit, but please do not let the film's previews into thinking it is the movie that it in reality isn't. My point being is as with most trailers they are trying to get you to see their movie in however which way they can with whatever materials thay have on hand while not trying to give away the important bits of the movie. (some are better at this than others) Right off the bat with the traliers you might be led to belive that this is going to be a non-stop laugh your ass off type of film that we've come to know from the likes of Mr. Apatow and Mr. Rogan. But in turn what we are given is not only a very funny movie, mostly with very well placed one liners in the tune of stand-ups busting each others balls constantly, with a look at how one of the bigger names of comedy, Sandler aka George Simmons, is trying to deal with his own assholeish self and the regrets he's had through his life when he's been diagnosed with a rare form of cancer. Then after it seems he's becoming comfortable in dying his last ditch effort to battle back... actually works. I think what really draws me to the movie most is not so much the laughs or the potential serious drama involved but the whole thing and how its pulled of has a great sens of realisim throughout the whole. Most people know or should know to be funny you have to be at least a little fucked up, and to be really funny, you're probaly really fucked up. Now that isn't always the case but in most it is, and it takes you on the trip inside this one's head and how he's going to attempt to figure it all out, and all along the way the time is usually going to be interesting.

500 Days of Summer is right now currently one of my favorite movies of this year. Now granted due to my financial situation I still have to get to see Inglorious Basterds, and District 9 which from what my sources are telling me will probably bump this one off the top of the pile, most likely it won't go too far. Summer is fairly similar in my mind to Funny People actually, in the way that its yet another movie of, in the case a healthy young man, trying to figure out where everything went wrong. Now big resaon number one why I love this is because most guys out there have had that "one that got away" or the one that just crushed them so hard they didn't even know how to deal. So what do you do? You sit there and relive every important moment over and over again pouring over, what you think are, all the important details desperatley searching for where it went wrong, or what it is you can change and/or fix to somehow win her back or make things right. Which is exactly how this one works. The movie starts out in its opening sequence with "This is not a love story." Which is true... sort of. Not in our classic case of boy meets girl boy woos girl and after a number of random instances thrown around by the author boy wins girl and lives happiliy ever after. Yet the whole movie is about love and the complexities that come from two very different yet at the same time very similar people and how they seek to get through it. Zooey Deschanel (Summer) and Joseph Gordon-Levitt (Tom) play off each other brilliantly throught the entire movie. Accompanied by some very entertaining sequences, I'm talking to you morning after musical sequence, and an excellently chosen soundtrack I would absolutlely urge people to see this one.

So 2 down for tonight that I probably should have seen/writting about almost a month ago now, but things happen so lets get down to final verditcs. Funny People very good but not the type of movie the traliers led it to belive but an excellent choice if it's still avail to see in theaters, on dvd but please don't wait til it gets hacked to pieces by cable TV if you see it just grab the dvd people. 500 Days of Summer you'll probably have to do some work just to find this in general even if it was 1st 2 weeks of opening but def to me a must see, something different then the usual faire of movies out there and if you've missed it I know I will most likely add this one to my DVD collection at some point but go out and see it you'll like it I'm almost sure of it.

Thats all for now... coming up on my shortlist of things to see are still Inglorious Basterds, District 9 (i know i shoulda seen it already) and coming out on shortly 9 the very intriguing animated flick (http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi2476081689/) which hopfully will be worth my 10 or 11 bucks.
Til next time.

PS if someone knows how to make 1000 bucks fast let me know please I have issues with my car. I will take donations, and if you want more reviews you can donate for those two... psst I wanna do more games : )

Quick Hits and catch up

It's been a little while, as usual it seems I can't keep a working timeframe on things these days. That means I do believe its time to catch up on some stuff.

Movies worth the time and money to see at any point in time, UP, and The Hangover.

Up was yet another wonderful journey put together by the PIXAR folks. It's one of the sweetest, funny, adorable and all around good films that anyone can go see and enjoy. Another A+ from PIXAR.

The Hangover, much like Forgetting Sarah Marshall, has quickly solidified itself into a top 10 list of my favorite funny movies ever, and thats a very tough list to crack. Zack Galifinakis steals the show at almost every moment, and the number of cameo's (from Mike Tyson to Rob Riggle and even the wedding band) are perfectly placed. I was howling through a good 80% of this movie, go see it asap.

Solid yet not as impressive as I was hoping for.

Terminator Salvation. It was an amazing hype for a movie that was not bad but not as amazing as trailers would first lead you to believe. By all means it's not horrible if you're a fan of the series it should be fine though I think most people will agree we peaked with the T-1000.

Movies I could care less about going to see ever.

G.I. Joe, Transformers Revenge of the Fallen. If you look at the trailer for G.I. Joe and don't know what its about, it just looks like a horrifyingly acted, written and just overal bad movie. It resembles only a tiny fragment of what the target audience remembers/is looking for, yet it will end up grossing millions. Then there's Transformers... I saw the trailers, read the reviews (good and bad) and there is nothing that makes me want to see this. If I want explosions en masse I'll buy fireworks or some type of explosives.

Good movies that have the potential to be amazing or movies I'm really looking forward too.

Cold Souls - Paul Giamatti http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1127877/

500 Days of Summer - Zoey Deschanel, Joseph Gordon-Leavitt http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1022603/

District 9 - Peter Jackson, The trailers put together for this are all sorts of cool.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1136608/

The Hurt Locker - Not sure if I can sit through it given my history though. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0887912/

Funny People - Adam Sandler, Seth Rogan. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1201167/

Inglorious Basterds - Brad Pitt, Eli Roth, Quentin Tarentino (nuff said) http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0361748/

Lets hope the rest of the summer keeps the dissapointment low and allows some of the quality movies to stay out there over a week and not keep the massive budget stuff with no substance to boot em out. Enjoy.

Rachel Got Married... big deal.

The Oscars have come and gone, and this one is far past it's DVD release date, but its taken me a considerable amount of time getting around to seeing it. From what everyone was saying/raving/drooling over it I had assumed this would be a safe bet and figured it might be nice to see Anne Hathaway play a trainwreck. Turns out either everyone has really bad taste or were all hopped up on their own set of pills when they were either watching and/or talking about this one. I honestly have absolutely no clue why this was supposed to be a good movie.

I think this is a film that suffers from the "its arty so if things don't work out like everything else its still a great movie its just ARTY/visionary/ (insert stupid critic view here)" The movie has so many holes and unresolved relationship issues, undeveloped characters, and scenes that take too long to get to any important point to move the story along. There's the rehearsal dinner... a scene that after 6 people you will never hear a word from at any other point in the movie toast the bride and groom, they think its perfectly fine to go through another 5 or 6 before FINALLY getting to Kym (Anne Hathaway,) and her trainwreck of a toast. There's the non-existent love interest, that I think they had the idea about but forgot about it 1/2 way through fimling. She (Kym) ends up sleeping with the best man (also an addict at a 12 step meeting) in the first 10-15 minutes of the film, and you'd think that maybe there would be a bit more of a recurring voice as a source of advice for her, or someone that she can lean on and maybe get closer to, or any number of other ways, yet instead you go the whole movie without anything except for a flirty invitation to come visit at the end hinting that they have really been into each other for along while.

The whole movie was just frustrating and or boring me to tears or anger more than half of the time. I found myself during two sequences nearly yelling at the television to get to the goddamned point. *sigh* Ugh don't even remind me of the reception... its a 10-15 minute long scene of the families at a wedding reception with a few nervous glances of Kym looking at her mother. I get wanting to capture crazy families and awkwardness but you can do that without making me feel like I want to leave make myself dinner and come back to not having missed anything. And I'm not one of those anti-indie/artistic type films either, the two movies I'm really looking forward too coming up are probably going to be in that vein, or either just less publicised and still awesome. (500 Days of Summer and Away We Go) Its just that this one to me should have been a short film considering the amount of content you actually get from the entire 113 minutes of runtime, either that or completely re-worked because it could have been a really moving and powerful film but instead becomes a chore and worthy of "critical acclaim" because some overly pompus art haus film geeks think its deep.

Long (a very very long) ,and unnessicarily so, story short Rachel got married, Kym was a mess, and there was alot of people around for it and then everyone went home... thats it. I went in wanting to know about these people and came out still wanting to know about these people becasue there's so much more and they just made me not care anymore. Go see it if you want but I'll threaten your life if you try and make me see it, or at least make you pay me some sort of compnsation.

2 of 5 for good ideas with horrible follow through.

Star Trek, Live Geek and Prosper

The flowers are beginning to bloom, the weather is getting warmer, the clothes are getting more revealing, and that can mean only one thing, summer movies are soon to be upon us in full force. The first aside from the, previously aforementioned X-men, is the massively buzzed about J.J. Abrams take on the Star Trek series.

Geeks and fanboys alike in full Vulcan-eared regalia have been spewing over the possibities for this movie when there were rumors about it, and the only thing anyone saw was a teaser of a massive silver Starfleet insignia, followed by SUMMER 2009! This relly is one of the rare times that the amount of buzz and hype that has been pumped into a movie actually delivers. I figured right off the bat Star Trek = Hollywood cash cow so no matter what this thing was going to make massive number even if it was a heaping pile crap put in a microwave and served to a family of 4, and/or Leonard Nimoy standing there with pointy ears spouting gibberish for 2 hours. Thankfully neither of those things happened.

Instead what we are given is a chance for the non-fans, myself included (was never an appeal to me), to truly experience Star Trek for the first time. In ever previous movie there was almost the preculding thought of "Well I never saw any before... don't they all kinda go with each other I won't know hats going on." They do a remarkably good job at taking that stigma away from the seires, and bringing old and new fans together into a movie that I'm sure we will be seeing a number of sequels to come. The basic premise of the story is fairly simple, massive ship comes out of some space lightning storm into the path of a Federation ship, which very much proptly blown to bits, yet not before a officer by the name of Kirk manages to evacuate most of the surviving crew and, more importantly his wife who happens to be giving birth to a bouncing baby boy. We flash forward 25 years and slowly but surely are all introduced to the characters many of those geeks and fanboys know and love.

I think what is one of the best parts of this film aside from the stry and wonderfull effects and action, is the cast they put in to portray the old favorites. The cast seemed like each of them were made for the roles they were in. Zacary Quinto (aka Sylar from Heroes) is nearly the spitting image of a young Leonard Nimoy's Spock. i don't think they could have gotten anyone to portray him quite as well as he did. Simon Pegg, yet another amazing choice, for Scotty. A man who happens to be a massive geek like many of us, I can only assume was amased and proceded to dance around in his own living room when recieving the call to do it. Chris Pine comes in as our new James T. Kirk, who thankfully did not decide to pick up "pause-acting." Zoe Saldana (Uhura), Karl Urban (Bones), John Cho (Sulu) and Anton Yelchin (Chekov) round out the rest of the party. A hearty golf clap to whoever decided on that grouping because it proved to be most impressive.

This movie really is as good as it sounds, though I would suggest speding a few extra bucks to see it Imax if possible. If there isn't one available try to find a digital theater, I'm still uncertain if the one I was at was one but the clarity seemed far higher than normal, and its a very noticeble and pleasant difference to the entire experience. If you aren't a sci-fi fan then this obviously isn't a movie for you, but if you are even in the slightest make it on your list of things to see the next time you are heading out for a flick.
This one is a no brainer and easily takes in the high marks for me, see it however you can and don't be afraid to spend the dough to do it right.

X-Men: Origins... or Hugh Jackman running around with claws

Ok, now I'm really trying to do this as objectively as possible and really trying not to sound like a raving uber-fanboy. (which is very hard when discussing movies about things that are equally geeky) Now I've let this one sit to make sure I have the proper time to look back and make sure that I wasn't going on my inital gut instinct. At first coming out of the theater I thought to my self.."meh.. it was entertaining .. I guess, but they missed out on a bit." Now after taking that alloted time off, I really have to say that the only way to really think this was a "good" movie or a decent representation of the character is pretty off base.
I try and not bring in the knowledge I have of the character in when doing these but with something like this it's very hard because I know how incredibly well put together, and very carefully constructed Wolverine mythos is. Now this is a character that has spanned a great number of years of Marvel's history, and is almost as highly touted and hallowed as say Spider-Man. The story behind Wolverine is so complicated and difficult to tell, that I agree no one movie could ever do it justice, and that is where my problem shows at first. They are taking a character that has been taken over and used and woven in end to end of the Marvel-verse(?) by at least over dozen different wirters, artists, and directors , and at the end of the sitting come away with a very oversimplified story of his pre-X-men days. Certain characters used are very off form of what they are with the exception (for only a short time) of the Ryan Renolds portrayal of Deadpool. Which was very impressive short lived as it was and I have problems with that part too.
Alright now lets start at the begining and see where this takes us, it starts where I would have thought the basis of how he comes to be somewhere 1800's (supposed to be Canada) as what we come to find out is our good friend Logan/Wolvie. Now right off the bat they decide to change it up, which in most cases I'm willing to overlook had there not been the other string of inconsistancies. What happens is he kills a man who shoots his father in an argument, he's overcome with grief sprouts claws, loses it and takes a run at the shooter, who then tells him he was his father. Now what really happens is that is supposed to be a man by the name of Logan, who has a boy of the same age, but is only a groundskeeper who happens to beat his son when he drinks while young Wolvie is always sick living very rich. The other boy is made very clear in the origin story that he and what we find out to be Wolverine are NOT brothers. (now again willing to overlook but still) In this telling they go to tell us that our boy and the other who becomes Sabertooth very much are. After the incedent with the shooting (comic origins) he leaves and survives on his own and we next come across him trying to lead a new life under the name of the groundskeep Logan, in a logging camp in Alberta. Which in the movie Logan is his given name, and the logging thing came after he's pulled in by the government (US govt instead of Canadian) and trying to lead a life far from when he was pretty much a killer for the government.
I know I'm probably being picky and uber-geeky a bit but if you're going to make an adaptation try and stick to the story and timeline please. It eventually falls into Wolvie getting tracked down, his girl killed by Sabertooth and getting the adamantium put on him. Which should actually end up as him fighting with another man about a woman he was in love with who accidentally gets in the way and is killed by 3 claws under the ribs. The adamantium is actually put onto him years and years later. Anyway we fine the adamantuim on the skeleton, while Wolvie's attempt to get back ata Sabertooth, is a ruse to snatch his DNA for a project to build the Ultimate weapon, which is what they turn Deadpool into. Most fans at that point are either internally screaming or doing so out loud. The reason... because THATS NOT WHAT HE WAS its not even close. If you're just someone watching all of this makes for an entertaining flick but in the end it just tears at storylines and sub-plots and years of storytelling.
To most people its very cool but to someone that as a kid loved the character and read for a good portion of my formative years its just kinda bastardising it. Now there are some bright points here and there don't get me wrong. Action scenes well done, though the claws look really bad in a few spots. Gambit is very cool during his total of about 10 minutes of screen time, and the same with early Ryan Renolds Deadpool. Which I have to say is EXACTLY how it was supposed to be, and why I think it prompts the internal screaming bit when you see him as Weapon 11 later. It covers why Wolvie has memory loss which, and don't quote me on, is still kinda up in the air as far as the comic representation is concerned.
At the end of the day its a decent action movie that has people with superpowers, and if seeing it gets you into the comics by all means go for it and then start asking yourself "what the hell were they thinking?" This, if you haven't seen it at this point, I'd go with a wait to DVD and rent, to say you have, it's not really worthy of owning.

Been a While

Ok so I haven't had much to write about... scratch that I probably have I just haven't had the ability/want to but I've got 2 new things coming shortly, Star Trek and the newest Trophy Scars album (most likely.) With a possibility for a moderately harsh ripping of the X-Men Origins take.

On Watching the Watchmen

So the eagerly awaited March 6th debut of the "most celebrated graphic novels of all time" has come and past, and I was there this past weekend to hopefully enjoy a remarkable story that wasn't destroyed by Hollywood and their (frequently) money grubbing whores.
I do have to say I was mostly pleased with the product as a whole though I have a gripe or two. As I said for the most part the movie was very well done, fluid and well coreographed action sequences, which as in the original telling did not leave very much to the imagination, save for Rorschach's trip to the bathroom on an escape from prison. The story stayed almost perfectly true to form, with a few embellishments here and there but nothing too bad, unless you're a Watchmen fanboy you would hardly notice and or care. Though if you are not a fan of the story you will most likely come out HATING this movie. You'll most likely find it over-violent, with an annoying if not obnoxious at times score and mediocre acting.
That being said the summary of the story is (for those of you who don't know at this point) an alternate history 1985 Nixon is on his 3rd term in office, and the Cold War is even dealier and more serious then it had ever been. The US is busy fighting in Afghanistan, while being threatened each day by the growing nuclear threat of Russia. The Watchmen are a group of former costumed superheroes now being forced to "retire" (night owl/Miss Jupiter) or operate underground (Rorshach). What bring our story into view is a former member of the Watchmen is assaulted in his apartment (in an awesome opening fight sequence) and subsequently tossed out the window, where he then falls about 30+ stories to his death. It goes from there with the ultra violent almost anti-hero Roshach delving into what seems to be an assasin taking out 'masks' which turns out to be much much more.
Now as for me I like the story, its very dark, gritty, not a whole lot of happy Superman boy-scout nonsense to be found in these parts type of story. To me it gives it a true sense of realism, less of a glamorisation of the superhero, and more of a better look at what human nature is really like. My biggest problem with this movie, and I don't know how many times I have said it durin and now even after, was the poor if not horrible at times choice of music. To me the musical chocies weren't exactly horrid, they were cliche and out of place. They instead of helping the mood and subtely accentuating the point of the scene, go out of their way to bludgen you over the head with a "THIS IS SAD SCENE SAD MUSIC PLAY NOW!" type of feel. It begins to get a bit obnoxious after a little bit. For example a funeral scene with the "Sounds of Silence" by Simon and Garfunkel, if by definition the most cliche placement ever. Followed by a very awkwardly matched up love scene to Lenoard Choen's "Hallelujah," it just doesn't work right and just smashes the tone which needen't be said in your face. There is even a sequence near the end where "All Along the Watchtower" is being played as if it was trying to be 'this is the watchmen' theme song.' It failed.
Other than the my distaste to the music there wasn't a whole lot bad with this movie. It wasn't the greatest movie out there but it also didn't takea Hugo award winner and make it a pile of shit either. So in the end if you want to see a pretty solid superhero movie Watchmen is for you. Just try and spot the fanboys and steer away from them because their smells and babbling about how something is missing from the movie will annoy the shit out of you.

Watchmen gets a small soda and med popcorn from me (also eqiv. to 3.5/5) cuz thats what I had while watching.

More things to come soonish

I do plan on making my review of Thursday's Epitah debut Common Existance, but I haven't figured out just what I want to say there just yet. That and I'm slowly but surely been having things go hopefully in the right direction for work things. (one interview and a govt. test) There will definately be more on the Census Bureau later and how mind numbingly easy their testing is.
There also seems to be a string of shows to be coming up soon enough that hopefully I will be able to get to and share as well. So until update number three this is all for now, look for most likely the census post first and then after a few more closely listened to times through of the new album, my take on that as well.

Be well.

Prince of Persia (360)

So in my search for jobs as of late I've come across the public library and how great it has become around here. One of the number of neat things they have there is a game and music section, which wile obviously not that extensive is not all that horrible. You get games for a week and its free so I'm not going to complain.
So I pick up the newest version of Ubisoft's Prince of Persia franchise. I'd seen it around and heard some quality things about it but hadn't the chance to actually play it until most recently. At first glance people may be a bit turned off by the quasi cell shaded design due to games like Windwaker and other such games made to look like they were designed with a 5th grader in mind, although it is anything but that. From the opening screen you are given the sense that this is going to be very beautifully done and well created at least from a visual standpoint, the detail and environments are incredibly well sculped and put together, as well they should becasue as we knoe from any PoP gane its not so much about figing the bosses or enemies so much as fighting the map itself.
The control scheme is incredibly simplistic for the amount of acrobatics and combos you pull off (horay for the use of the Assasin's Creed engine), I would generaly find my self hitting maybe one button here or there and stringing together some of the most amasing moves and or combos that I've seen in a while with very little effort. That is one of the things that made the journey through the game so enjoyable, no sifting through a manual of button combinations and attempting to memorize patterns just to take a run down a hallway. (which I'm very glad other games are taking this into consideration as well ie NHL 09, NHL 2k9)
The sorty line is all very well put together and I only realyl have one gripe about it, but before I get to that part, lets give a basic overview. You're wandring through the desrt searching for of all things a donkey, which apparently happens to be laden in sacks full of gold from a recent tomb raid. You then come across your soon to be new partner in this event Elika. The damsel in distress chased by guards that you for reasons of plot and there wouldn't be a game otherwise you decide to help. Though the guards see you with her and attack you so you're pretty much forced into the situation especially when she tells you about the dark god Arihman trying to escape and edstory the world. Much fighting ensues and her father smahes apart the seal that was holding said dark god and off you go to save the day. Now my only gripe with this is how they end this whole thing, and no I'm not going to be an ass and say what it is, but the whole point of the game is to seek an certain objective. Then after however many hours of gameplay you finish and go well that was fun... I guess thats it... wait ... why can I still control my character. Then you become, in my case at least, a little bit more than milidly upset but hope they do better because they damn well better explain what the hell happens in the next game.
Other than the one major gripe I have in story conclusion the game was a ton of fun, sometimes going back through and finding the litle balls of light can be a bit repetitive but if you want the achievements go for it, its always a good time stinging together a crazy wallrun/vault/slide/celing crawl/backflip magic jump.
And because most people look for some sort of rating scale its a check it out via renting it out of a holy crap you need to buy this game and own it forever.

starting something again

So I'm not sure what I'm really going for here, hopfully this won't fall to the wayside like all other interweb endeavors that I've been going on with that have tried some sort of focus and then fallen apart.
I think what I have in my head is to actualyl update this from time to time... for whatever discussion-ey reasons I have, whether it be my seemingly constant frustrations with the current inabilty for the NY Rangers to score goals, what new albums are actually worth picking up (if i manage to get the cash to do so), or whatever.
Maybe its my want to start some sort of productive endeavor in putting my own thought out there that someone may actaully appreciate in some strange way. The logical conclusion being some sort of broacast medium but whatever happens happens. So this is the new thing for me, for now and well off we go I guess.