Archive for December, 2004
I just finished watching Van Helsing. I was pretty entertained for almost the entire movie. I think the story was written pretty well and the acting, while sometimes overdone, was pretty good by all involved. There were times where I didn’t think they were going to be able to tie up some of the parts of the story with all of the classic monsters, but they did - and that’s what made it interesting. I am a little frustrated that we didn’t get more background on Van Helsing from the beginning, but that sort of had to be done to add suprise to the climax of the movie. And something looked weird about Kate Beckinsale - I think it might have been the makeup they put on her to make her look more “Transylvanian”.
As far as the rating goes, I can’t quite give this a 7 because I just don’t think it ranks up there. I think Bram Stoker’s Dracula is more of a 7 because that movie was a lot classier and creepier. But, here’s what I don’t get: How did Anchorman get a 64% fresh rating from Rotten Tomatoes and Van Helsing only get 22%? Maybe I just didn’t get that movie, but Van Helsing was FAR more entertaining and coherent.
December 31st, 2004
Well, I got to play quite a bit and a lot has happened since my last post. I got out of the mines, and back into a sparsely populated city and had to walk down some train tracks. I started walking down the tracks and saw about 5 headcrab dudes walking at me. I aimed and then saw a blue laser point at them from an overpass and shoot them all down. Then, I heard the all-too-familiar radio noise that always gives the Combine guards away. I waited until I got just shy of his view and tossed a grenade up to kill him. He fell out of the overpass in the old western movie style - pretty sweet. Anyway, I made my way out of the tracks by getting past one more guard - though he was harder - and ended up at a storage facility.
Once inside the facility, I heard lots of gunfire. I peeked in and saw the resistance forces shooting back at the guards! I helped them out and they took me to a video conference with Alex. Apparently her father, Eli, was kiddnapped in the raid that we were separated in and I had to go find him. Oh boy. I loaded up with ammo and health and was shown to my newest vehicle. Basically, it was a dune buggy with a lightning-like gun attached to it with plenty of ammo in the back for me to reload my submachine gun with. All I had to do was drive my new ride along Highway 17 to go get Eli. The only problem is that Highway 17 is almost completely demolished and I was introduced to my newest enemy - the Antlion. The basically are like huge beetle-type things that can burrow and surface anywhere on soil and then fly around a little bit (kinda like a cockroach).
I had to kill lots of those and Combine soldiers along my way. I was also given a laser guided rocket launcher to help bring down another new enemy - the airship. They are very lethal, can shoot down your rockets, and it takes 3 hits to bring them down. I ended up at a shipyard and got to kill lots more Combine soldiers, operate a magnetic crane, then drive away and shoot down yet another airship.
Now, I just went through a tunnel and stopped playing. I didn’t know what the little glowing ball was until after I took that picture and saved my game. All I know is that it can fly and it trys to stick to you or your vehicle. You can shoot it all you want, but it won’t explode. So, I just picked it up with my grav gun and tossed it in the ocean. Easy!
December 31st, 2004
I made the mistake of watching Anchorman last night. I only wish I could get that hour and a half of my life back, and I don’t think I’m even going to bother putting up the movie poster on this one. Overall, I really didn’t like the movie, and I’m not trying to be a film snob or anything. Even as far as typical comedies go, this just didn’t do it for me. There were parts that were just stupid and didn’t make any sense. But, there were funny parts - especially by the mentally deficient weatherman played by Steve Carell. Will Ferrell had some good lines as well, and I really liked his dog, Baxter.
December 30th, 2004
Well, I got through the end of Ravenholm with the help of Father Grigory. I love it when games have someone help you cooperatively like that. I let him do most of the work and if he got too much to handle, I helped him out with the shotgun he gave me. He opened a gate for me and told me to go through the mines. The mines were short, and since I started out elevated, I took my time shooting countless headcrabs and those poisonous spider things. I had to swim through a few flooded shafts and finally got to an inclining shaft. It had a makeshift vehicle with a heliopter blade on top. I pulled the lever to it and it buzzed up the shaft then back down. I figured out shortly that it could help me kill all the headcrab dudes as they came stumbling toward me. There was a neat effect at the end that was a “light at the end of the tunnel”. It was very realistic because if you looked at the light, you couldn’t see the front of anything in front of you.
So far, I am very pleased with the game. Ravenholm was really scary and I’m glad I’m out. I got to a point in Ravenholm where I was completely out of ammo and I had to use my crowbar or find things to throw with my grav gun. I think they did that on purpose and I think that’s pretty cool cause it made me really think of how to survive. I think now that I’m out of the mines, I’m back in a city and there’ll probably be more story to hear. Can’t wait!
December 30th, 2004
Alex showed me how to use the gravity gun (way cool) and took me to her “dog” (huge, agile, robot) to play fetch with it by using the grav gun. We ended up in this big open area and he threw big crates and a “ball” at me and I had to catch it with the grav gun and thow it back. That was all fun and games until the “scanners” came by and spotted us. A “scanner” is the very first thing you run into in this game. It basically scans around and takes pictures of any person it finds. Once it finds you, get ready cause reinforcements will arrive. So, the best thing for you to do is shoot it down before it catches you. Anyway, we all freak out and get stuck in this air lock thing while trying to get back to the lab. I chase after Alex, but once again, we are seperated. This time, it’s a hall that gets caved in between us. So, the dog opens up this sealed off hallway that leads to a city called Ravenholm.
This is where the game starts to get scary. Earlier, on the way to get the grav gun, we walked by that hallway and she said something about Ravenholm and that they don’t go there anymore and that it’s sealed off for a reason. Well, lucky me, now I get to go there! It’s basically filled with headcrabs and people controlled by headcrabs and also a few of these spider-type poisonous things. One got on me and my health went almost to nothing, but my HEV suit shot me up with antidote and morphine and brought me back to 100. I also met a man with a Russian accent named Father Grigory. You hear him spouting off some biblical-type prose and then you meet him by teaming up with him to kill off some of the headcrab dudes. He checked up on me at several checkpoints so far and helped me out. I really need to start watching my ammo now cause I’m quickly dishing it out and not getting any back like I was by killing those guards. So, the point of Ravenholm, I guess, is just to get through it and back to the lab to Alex and Eli.
December 29th, 2004
Ok, so the rest of the air bike maps didn’t take much longer. The climax of the air bike maps pits you against one of those super helicopters. I forgot to mention in my last post that when the resistance forces put that gun on my air bike, they got it from one of the super helicopters. So, essentially, you give this helicopter a taste of its own medicine! You end up in this very large, open area (you find out later it’s a dam basin) with a few hills, lots of water, and a bunch of crates with power for your HEV suit. This helicopter starts dropping a TON of mines on you and shoots at you a lot. Once I shot down the helicopter, I had to do some more problem-solving (of which there has been a lot of so far) to find out how to get out of the large area. I opened up a few gates, killed some guards, loaded up on some ammo, then drove my plane off the dam. I found a large utilities building with a dock, so I jumped off the air bike to investigate, and find out that I’ve ended up where Alex and her father, Eli, are! I’m greeted by a woman (can’t remember her name) that says how honored she is to meet me. I meet Eli and Alex again and I get the feeling from Alex that this other woman is going to be bad news. Supposedly she keeps talking about how she should have had my job in the first game and that she wouldn’t have screwed it up like I did. Whatever. Anyway, I’m at the point now where Alex is going to show me how to use the gravity gun (yipee!).
December 29th, 2004
Played a good bit of HL2 last night. Since my last post, I traversed further through the canals and met one of the resistance force members that gave me an “air bike” (sorta like a hovercraft) to get through the canals quicker. This also helps with getting through the nuclear waste patches too. Getting the air bike puts you into the BEST video game chase sequences of all time. You have to go full throttle through these canals, which are bascially like huge trashed out storm drains, while being chased by this super helicopter that is shooting at you. Along the way you get ambushed by many repelling gaurds, armored vehicles that shoot rockets at you, and countless obstacles. Sometimes you think you are trapped, but you spot a makeshift ramp that you can shoot across on the bike. I’m playing the game on normal so I got banged up a LOT by enemies but didn’t get close to dying. I got to a point where I met up with more resistance forces that put a gun on my air bike so I can shoot back while driving.
What I really like about the game is that it is sooo immersive. You can interact with just about anything and the flow of the maps are not as linear as most FPSes usually are. There are lots of “secret” areas to explore that don’t affect your progress of the game. So, if you want to take your time and explore and play, you can. I will say that the chase sequences are starting to take it’s toll on my patience and I hope they are almost done. Sure they are fun, but I want to get more into the story. So far, all I know is that I need to meet up with Alex and her father somewhere. I want to know what the heck is going on! What is up with City 17 and all the police forces? Why am I here?!?
I also think I’m going to start posting these with screenshots of where I left off, so this post will get edited with one soon.
December 29th, 2004
I wish I would have written this right after seeing it, so it might take me a minute to warm up here. The Door in the Floor, starring Jeff Bridges and Kim Basinger, is an original, quirky movie. The story is about a children’s book author, Ted Cole (Bridges), and his wife, Marion (Basinger), that become estranged and separate after their two sons are killed in a car accident. Ted realizes that his wife won’t leave without a nudge, so he hires an intern, Eddie (Jon Foster) that looks just like one of their sons. Marion and Eddie immediately hit it off and start to have an affair.
Bridges plays his usual oddball character, but there’s a little more to it this time. He does a great job of fleshing out his character and becomes quite transparent. Basinger was okay and didn’t have that much dialogue, which could explain it. Jon Foster was good too. My favorite was Elle Fanning (younger sister of Dakota Fanning). She is “as cute as a button” and played a very good part for a 6 year old. I hope she does more movies - especially drama. My favorite part of the movie was when Bridges character is being chased down by his current mistress played by Mimi Rogers. It is a pretty funny part towards the climax of a very serious movie. I love it when films switch gears on you at just the right time like that.
I liked the movie, but it wasn’t great. Focus Features puts out some really good movies and I’d have to say that this falls in line with most of what they produce. My favorite from them so far is Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind - a movie I hope to review soon.
December 28th, 2004
In case you’ve been living under a rock, or don’t care about computer games (very proabable), then you know about Half Life 2. It’s rated by many as the “best game ever” or at least “best game of 2004″. I asked for Half Life 2 for Christmas and my wife got it for me. - and BOY AM I GLAD!!! I’ve only played it for about 2 hours and I am completely hooked.
As far as where I’m at in the game (sort of a synopsis): I had some strange dream about the mysterious man from the first game, I got out of a train in City 17, I met up with Alex and someo of the rest of the scientists from game one, received the HEV suit, and have failed my attempt at teleporting. I got my trusty crowbar and proceeded to traverse through the city canals to get to where I was trying to teleport to in the first place. So far I have escaped countless “guards”, some of those pesky vine monsters, and one angry helicopter-type vehicle. Specifically, I’m at a point where I’ve shot up a bunch of these saw-buzzing flying machines and am trying to get to this room by flooding my current room with water.
My first impressions are obviously great. But what specifically impresses me is the story and environment you are sucked into. The game plays out like a REALLY GOOD action/sci-fi movie. Also, the physics of everything in the game are incredibly life-like. I don’t know how to describe that other than “things do what you expect them to do in real life”. Things that float, float. Things that should repel or relfect, do so. Lighting, textures, shadows, sound, AI - all superb. This game was definitely worth the wait. Something to mention: I have a mediocre system (AMD Athlon XP 1900+, 512MB DDR 2100, and a GeForce FX 5200) and at first I thought I was being jipped in terms of visual effects, but after playing for 5 minutes, I was very please with the performance I was getting for the visuals I was experiencing.
I’ll keep posting after each gaming session to chart my progress and share my experiences. I gotta find a way to get back on and play soon!
December 27th, 2004
Well, I haven’t had much time to write some movie reviews or really do all that much on the site. The only cool thing I’ve done on the site is install AWStats, a web stats generator. Since my last post, I saw quite a few movies and I hope to review at least one. Since Dec 3, I’ve seen Raising Helen, Elf, Calendar Girls, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, The Alamo, and The Terminal. I’m just looking at my recent Netflix returns and there are a few that I should write about - especially Under the Tuscan Sun (blech!).
Anyway, I also want to put my recent returns in and also my delicious bookmarks somewhere on the sidebar. I also need to come up with a better wordpress style/theme. I checked out Kubrick, but it might be too much work for me. For now, the tricolumn style will have to do.
Out.
December 13th, 2004
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