Review: Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception

For those of you have not heard or played The Uncharted series you are truly missing out on one of the most beautiful gaming experinces there is.  When I got my Playstation 3 for Christmas 2008, one of the first games I was told to get was Uncharted.  Well at the time I already had my mind set on some other games that I was more interested in.  As luck would have it, in April 2009 my local Blockbuster was having one of the best sales, I would even say the best sale I have seen for video games.  I was able to pick up a brand new copy of Uncharted and Bioshock for a combined price of $35.  And considering those are probably the two of the top five games I have played in recent memory I consider it a great deal.  The Uncharted series tales the story of fortune hunter Nathan Drake as he travels to exoctic and dangerous locations searching for lost artifacts and trying to unravel the past of one of his ancestors. 
In Uncharted 3 the gameplay is pretty much more of the same that the first two were which is not a bad thing at all.  A cast of familiar characters joins Drake in his adventures, as well as a new friend and of course a group of new villains.  The game is full of gorgeous scenery that is straight out of a movie as well as ridiculous action scenes that could never happen also straight out of the movies.  The game does a good job of pacing and mixing action with story.  It blends the romance aspect of the game in and out of the death defying moments such as jumping from bridges that are falling apart underneath your feet.  So the gameplay and the story of the game are both excellent, so what is not to love?

Maybe this is just me because I played this game while battling a pretty nasty cold.  So I set the dificulty to very easy because I was mostly just interested in the story.  In the first Uncharted game I played on the default Novice which is a bit challenging.  And for the second game I played on the hardest possible start level.  Which now after playing Uncharted 3 on the easiest made the first two more rewarding experiences.  So I really cannot blame the game for what is most likely my fault.  Also new for me was soemthing I enjoyed that came out of nowhere.  My girlfriend, Lisa actually wanted to play some of the game herself so she did some of the level traversing and puzzles and tiny bit of the combat.  Lisa plays games but usually shys away from the more actiony modern violent games.  Except for Saints Row which is bascially a less mature but to be honest more fun version of the violent Grand Theft Auto series.  So I hope this continues with future games in this category.  However I did not like the absurd increase in Drake's leaping ability.  In the other games there have always been moments that seemed to defy reality and the odds, but nothing as shockingly noticeable as some of the jumps Drake pulls off.  Some of the seemed as if he were jumping twelve feet in the air flat footed.  And there were enough of these moments that it was memorable for me.  That really is my only gameplay complaint aside from the fact that the last encounter of the game which is typically the most challenging and rewarding that envolves some kind of strategy was basically just an upgraded fight sequence that you had to do the whole game on lesser characters.  The first two games end sequences were much more in depth. 

The only complaint in the story department so far (I say so far because of hopes they tie up some of the loose ends in the sequel, if not then that will be a huge complaint when I think back to this game) is something my girlfriend actually likes.  In the past two games you spend three fourths of the game following the story and getting to know what has happend in the location you are in and near the end of the game you meet enemys who seem to have taken a slight supernatural turn in their evolution.  Uncharted 3 leads you to think it follows a similar pattern and Drake will have to fight a new type of creature, only to have that flipped upside down and the few "battles" with the creatures turns out to be a hallucination and the revelation as to if the creatures even existed behind a "door" is lost in the sand.  In the first Uncharted game when the "creatures" showed up I was a little pissed.  I thought they threw an unneccesary wrench into an otherwise great story.  And in the second game I thought "well they did it in the first one so I guess it is okay if these guys exist here".  But in the third one you would think this twist would be a "oh they got me" moment but it kind of feels like the developers ran out of time and cut %5 of the game off the finished product.  My girlfriend likes that this game did not feature any of these creatures as she was even more upset about the turn of events in the first game then I was. 

The only aspect of the game that I did not really get to participate in was the multiplayer.  I am usually not a fan of multiplayer as I am not that great at the team aspects becuase I play so rarely that I do not think it is worth it to buy a headset to communicate.  And now of days unless you buy the game brand new you have to actually purchase an online pass, which I was not going to do because I did not play multiplayer when it was free for me.  However, Lisa and I were able to play the co-operative split screen mode together and we were taking on computer opponents in multiplayer style games and that was quite fun.  I do not have any friends that play games online and as many people have told me and I have come to realize unless you have actual friends you know or atleast people you have played with before playing with random people is just not that fun.  But playing the mode with Lisa was fun and I would have liked to spend more time playing that mode with her.

All in all this game is great, arguably flawless depending on your perspective.  It does what it sets out to do.  However I do have personal complaints so that impacts my score.

Rating:  4½

Review: The Smurfs

So when I first heard about the making of this movie years ago I was very excited.  I remember seeing the rumored cast list which featured Quentin Tarantino as the voice of Brainy Smurf and John Lithgow as the voice of Gargamel.  I figured the whole thing would be CGI.  Well a few years later and the previews came out and it was a mix of CGI smurfs with live action actors.  And Gargamel was not being played by John Lithgow.  And to make things worse The Smurfs were in New York with Neil Patrick Harris.  Nothing against New York or Neil Patrick Harris but neither of these are reflected in my memories of The Smurfs growing up.  I did want to see the movie eventually but I was not in a rush.  Well I was very pleasantly surprised.

As a child I remember having countless plastic Smurf toys and stuffed animals  that I would take to school with me and play in the sand with.  As well as fond memories of watching the cartoon and learning whatever lesson was unknowingly being taught to me.  Fortunately for me as a kid I was able to go to an in state amusement park, Carowinds, that featured its very own Smurf village complete with life sized Smurf mascots.  We are talking about the late 80's and very early 90's here.  So it was very sad as a I remember a visit to Carowinds in the summer of 1994 where walking along the familiar path led to a very destitute Smurf village absent of the Smurf mascots I remembered so fondly.  The new children were asking stupid questions like "who are the Smurf's" and "why do they live in mushroom houses?".  Idiots.  And then there was a the even sadder memory of going to Carowinds in the summer of 1997 and finding Smurf island completely removed the park.  I think if i remember correctly my thoughts were along the lines of "Fuck This Shit".  Now I understand that each generation has their childhood things that make memories fun.  Now I understand why my brother was never excited as I was when they made a live action Teenage Mutant Turtles movie.  So seeing the Smurfs in New York in the preview made me think that it would just be another crappy attempt at ruining things I love from my childhood.

I like how the movie starts off and takes you into Smurf village and you get quick little cameos of different Smurfs many I remembered and would instantly point out silently.

Even the inclusion of at least three new Smurfs (Gutsy Smurf, Narrator Smurf, Crazy Smurf) did not bother me.  However I do think Gutsy would have been more believable as a real Smurf from my childhood without his chops.

So far so good I smiled a lot during the open intro.  Then we get our first shots of Gargamel and Azrael up to their usual shenanigans and plotting which as usual end in a humorous fashion.  I loved the way Gargamels house looked and all his lab equipment and even his costume and make up were very well done.  And even though John Lithgow was not in the movie I think Hank Azaria did a very nice job.  I laughed quite a lot at his performance.

At this point of the movie they get on with the plot as Gargamel stumbles upon Smurf village which leads to an encounter where the Smurfs are sent threw a portal to New York City with Gargamel and Azrael following.  Here it gets pretty predictable.  Smufs find humans, Humans freak out, Gargamel plots to find Smurfs, Smurfs get into trouble, bonding with Humans and Smurfs, one last master plan carried out unsuccessfully followed by a heartwarming farewell where lessons are learned by all.  

The movie is way better then I thought it would be and my complaints are really not the bad, aside from the whole being in New York thing.  But they pulled it off nicely.  The peformances were all well acted and pulled off nicely.  The special effects were very believable as well, except for a few scenes where the Smurfs were either being held or hugged, some of those seemed a bit flimsy.  It has its eye rolling moments where Smufette voiced by Katy Perry speaks lines such as "I kissed a Smurf and I liked it".  Yes I know its a supposed to be fun and corny and all about pop culture but I don't know that was the only big "roll your eye moment" of the film in my opinion.  Then you have borderline moments that appeal to older members of the audience such as when Smurfette gets a new dress and stand on a air vent.  This moment is corny but fun and has a funny twist at the end. 

All in all it was a good movie that I wish I had seen in the theatre in 3-D.  There were a few action scenes that I feel would have made great use of the 3-D technology.  I would totally re watch this again someday.  

Pros:  Good job the cast, Good job the the special effects people, Better then expected.  The inclusion of a possible future cameo from the newly added Passive Agressive Smurf.  And the running joke of having Gargamel backtrack and walk through the steam from the sewers as if it were mysterious mist.

Cons:  I still think they could have made a movie that solely featured the Smurf world and landscape of the cartoon.  A few bad special effect moments but not enough to take away from the overall feel of the movie.  A few corny lines.  The fact that more of the popular Smurfs from the cartoon were not given somewhat larger roles.

Rating:  3½ Stars

New Year

So it is a new year.  And like all "New Year's" people have their resolutions.  I have never really partook in such resolutions but this year I have a goal of changing some bad habits (i.e. nail biting, soda intake, procrastination) as well as setting weekly and monthly goals for myself in various areas of my life.  For example Lisa and I are switching rooms.  We have set our goal to be in the new room by January 9th.  We currently use the extra room for extra storage and boxes and boxes of stuff we do not really need.  So I am looking forward to switching rooms.

Even though nobody reads this I still am going to try and update it more.  I want to at least have some kind of review once a week or at the absolute laziest twice a month.  So we will see how it goes.

So Happy New Year.