November 2007

10 games to play before you die

Note: this is not a definitive list. My gaming experience is somewhat biased in favour of PC-based strategy and role-playing games, and as such is really nothing more than a list of personal favourites compiled with the intention of giving a fairly broad overview of my own tastes. The games are not in any particular order, but are roughly grouped in terms of genre. Generally, I’ve preferred to go for games that would have been considered groundbreaking in their day rather than more recent installments with flashier graphics.

Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness (Blizzard Entertainment, 1995)

Warcraft II was not the first strategy game (both Westwood’s Dune II and Blizzard’s own original Warcraft: Orcs & Humans preceeded it), but in its time it was certainly the best of its kind. It presented a synergy of different elements, combining the familiar rock-paper-scissors structure of the original Warcraft with bright, appealing graphics and a host of new tweaks to the game mechanics, including right-click “smart” commands, an attempt to make the two races not only look different but also play differently, and the inclusion of land, sea and air units. It also opened up the multiplayer arena like never before, offering maps supporting an at the time unprecedented eight players (in comparison with the more generally accepted two), as well as one of the first map editors of its kind, allowing players to create their own levels for solo or multiplayer gaming. In 1999 Blizzard re-released the game as Warcraft II: Battle.net Edition, featuring a variety of technical tweaks, including integrated Windows support, and, most importantly, the ability to play online using the company’s own Battle.net service (see below).

Starcraft (Blizzard Entertainment, 1998)

If Warcraft II was the first time Blizzard struck gold, it was with Starcraft that they refined their real-time strategy formula into a perfect, well-oiled machine. Starcraft is one of these rare games in which all the elements come together to great something virtually flawless: elegant presentation, superb balance, a gripping storyline and deep, addictive gameplay. Whereas previous strategy games had only hinted at racial diversity by providing different artwork or slightly varied spells and abilities, Blizzard pushed the boat out with Starcraft, creating three races that not only looked different but also played completely differently. In addition, it was with this game that online strategy playing really took off, thanks to the developer’s free Battle.net service. Starcraft didn’t reinvent the wheel, but it made it rounder and more well-oiled than ever.

Diablo (Blizzard North, 1996)

It wouldn’t be too much of a stretch to claim that, were it not for Diablo, the PC role-playing scene would be as dead now as it was in the mid-90s. Diablo may not be an RPG in the sense considered by role-players: it lacks character development in flavour of hack-and-slash action, and, while it does feature the leveling up and skill acquisition common in most western RPGs, its inspiration is less Dungeons & Dragons and more Unix and DOS text-based dungeon crawls like Rogue and Moria. Diablo, therefore, may lack depth, but makes up for it with its simplistic, addictive gameplay mechanics, including a random dungeon generator which ensures that the level layout is different every time you create a new character. Diablo was also the game that launched Blizzard’s Battle.net gaming service, which paved the way for numerous developers offering their own free online multiplayer gaming systems. I have chosen to list Diablo rather than its equally enjoyable sequel, Diablo II, for reasons of historical significance, and also because the sequel lacks its predecessors sustained atmosphere of dread.

Planescape: Torment (Black Isle Studios, 1999)

The antithesis of Diablo, the difference between these two games is somewhat akin to the difference between an enjoyable popcorn action movie and a good novel. Planescape: Torment is definitely more influenced by literature than other games, and indeed the amount of reading required (in this game, dialogue achieves far more than mindless violence ever can) will probably be off-putting for many players. However, as a testament to what good writing can achieve, the characters in Planescape: Torment seem more alive than in any game I have ever played, and, despite a lack of recorded dialogue and photo-realistic FMV sequences, it’s hard not to see them as real people about whom you genuinely care.

Baldur’s Gate II: Shadows of Amn (Bioware, 2000)

On the face of it, Baldur’s Gate II is not particularly different from Planescape: Torment. They were released within a year of each other, and both use the same Infinity Engine and are designed around the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Second Edition rules. Baldur’s Gate II, however, is more balanced in its approach, combining in-depth storytelling and believable characters with frenetic combat. The Forgotten Realms campaign setting may be considerably more generic and Tolkienesque than the imaginative Planescape universe of the previous game, but Baldur’s Gate II makes up for it in scope, delivering perhaps the broadest role-playing experience available on the PC.

Unreal Tournament (Epic Games/Digital Extremes, 1999)

Back in the run-up towards Christmas 1999, all eyes were on id Software’s upcoming Quake III: Arena, tipped to be the next big thing in first person shooter gaming. With the pedigree of the developers behind Wolfenstein 3D, Doom and the first two Quake games, how could it fail? When it turned out to be little more than a botmatch taking place over a series of blandly designed levels, however, its thunder was, to a certain extent, stolen by a little game called Unreal Tournament, which was based around more or less the same concept, but with such details as fun gameplay, inspired level design and (for the time) impressive artificial intelligence thrown in. I’m not generally an action gamer, but every now and then I find myself hankering for a little good old fashioned deathmatch action, and Unreal Tournament (or one of its descendants) is immediately the game I find myself reaching for. Later entries in the series may offer improved graphics and additional gameplay modes, but the original remains the most addictive and probably deserves to go down in history as the game that broke id’s stranglehold on the FPS market.

American McGee’s Alice (EA Games/Rogue Entertainment, 2000)

Can a game win points purely on account of style? In the case of American McGee’s Alice, I’m inclined to say that the answer is “yes”. The game may have its flaws, including iffy combat (showing that the Quake III: Arena engine really wasn’t the best fit for this third person puzzle-oriented platform actioner) and sometimes obtuse level design, but the self-styled McGee’s own personal twisted take on Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland, replete with gothic trimmings, a scrawny, leering Cheshire cat and an emaciated, pouting Alice has to be experienced at least once.

Super Mario World (Nintendo, 1990)

A rare console game in this almost exclusively PC line-up, Super Mario World is my idea of the pinnacle of the 2D sidescrolling platformer. This seems to be one of those rare games that gets everything absolutely right, from the simplistic but brilliantly executed visual design to the tough, borderline frustrating gameplay to the whimsical, upbeat score to which every single movement in the game is timed. Many entries in the Mario franchise have been excellent, but this 1990 outing, in my opinion, constitutes a perfect synergy of all the elements that have made the character and his games such enduring icons of the industry.

Donkey Kong Country (Rare, 1994)

In my opinion the best use of this classic arcade character, Donkey Kong Country was a pretty major deal at the time of its release due to the quality of its pre-rendered 3D graphics, which the manual boasted utilised the same technology as Steven Spielberg’s Jurassic Park (well, technically it wasn’t a lie). Thirteen years later, the game endures thanks mainly to its decidedly 2D gameplay, which remains one of the best examples of a two-character dynamic working well in a platformer. An amalgamation of old and new from a time when the sidescroller was at the peak of its form, there’s precious little not to like here.

Rayman 2: The Great Escape (UbiSoft, 1999)

Finally, it seemed only fair to include an example of a 3D platform classic, particularly given that there are so few examples of this sub-genre that are actually done right. The original Rayman is a magnificent game in its own right, but this sequel pips it to the post thanks to its lush art direction and superb in-game cinematic sequences. Rayman’s creator, Michel Ancel, remains one of the few game developers to truly understand and capitalise on the cinematic possibilities of the art form, as seen both in this and in his later Beyond Good and Evil. The word “whimsical” gets tossed around a lot aboard the HMS Whimsy, but if any game is deserving of that adjective, it’s this one.

PS. I originally started writing this article back in January, but only finished about half of it. Sorry it took so long to finally see the light of day.

An HD DVD that shines

My copy of the recent HD DVD release of Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining arrived on Saturday from Amazon.com. Now I’m only waiting on Full Metal Jacket, and so far, the Kubrick HD DVDs are basically two for two. A Clockwork Orange and Eyes Wide Shut both look reasonably good, if a little underwhelming, whereas 2001: A Space Odyssey and The Shining both look excellent - definitely in the top tier of Warner’s catalogue releases. Now, obviously The Shining is a less visually stunning film than 2001, so it lacks the “wow” moments offered by the earlier title, but this appears to be an excellent representation of the source materials all the same. A bit of light noise reduction is visible at times, but otherwise I’d have a hard time making any specific criticisms.

Oh, and just to weigh in on the aspect ratio issue once again, having flicked my way through various scenes in The Shining (I’ll watch the whole film soon, honest), I find it hard to understand why anyone would prefer the open matte version. The compositions, at 1.78:1 (close enough to the intended theatrical ratio of 1.85:1 for me not to bother splitting hairs about it), are absolutely sublime, and I can only imagine the open matte version looking decidedly wonky (which, judging by the screenshots posted at DVD Beaver, it most certainly does).

Just for the hell of it…

I reached a mini-milestone this evening: I completed a full clear of the launch content of Hellgate: London with my Evoker, LyraBelacqua. I haven’t been keeping track of how many hours I’ve sunk into it, and the game itself doesn’t make a record of this statistic (something I really appreciated about Tomb Raider: Legend - it may not be all that important, but it’s nice to be able to access the information if you’re curious), but one thing’s for sure: it took me way longer to complete than Diablo II.

Along the way, Lyra picked up an impressive array of weapons and armour, and came out the other end with a character level of 31 and looking decidedly different than when she first started out. I’ll say one thing for the designers: they certainly know how to craft an interesting-looking piece of equipment and make it look desirable. It’s the old “donkey/carrot” routine that made World of Warcraft such a hit (“play just a little longer and you’ll be able to get item x”), but I find it considerably less objectionable here because the actual process of gaining these items is fun, whereas (in my opinion) it wasn’t in WoW. In Hellgate, the combat is pretty damn good (when you don’t end up getting stuck in the scenery, that is), whereas I always found WoW’s system to be incredibly anaemic and counter-productive.

One reason for the amount of time it took to get to the end is that it’s simply a much bigger game than its predecessor. It has the same five-Act structure as Diablo II (well, Diablo II had four Acts until its expansion set, Lord of Destruction), but they are much larger in scope, with far more areas and side quests. In addition, just as the developers promised, the later Acts are considerably larger than the earlier ones, unlike Diablo II, whose final Act was the smallest of the lot. The other reason, unfortunately, is that, in its current state, the game is ridiculously unstable, and if, during a play session, I don’t get dumped back to the desktop with a “memory exhausted” error or suffer a complete system freeze, requiring considerable amounts of time to be spent on retreads, I consider myself to be incredibly fortunate.

That said, despite the shambolic nature of the code in its current state, something about the core gameplay clearly appeals to me because I keep coming back for more, despite having the game crash on me countless times and being forced to redo large portions of the game. Hellgate uses an “instancing” system, so, each time you fire up the game, every level is regenerated and repopulated, with only your stats, items and completed quests being carried over from one session to the next - meaning that, if you’re making your way through a series of levels to reach a destination and the system crashes before you get there, you’ll have to do it all over again next time. The fact that the game was released in this unfinished state truly boggles the mind, and I’m fairly sure that plenty of people with considerably less patience than me will have thrown in the towel by now. Certainly, I know that a lot of people who were considering subscribing are now saying they won’t even consider paying the monthly fee until the state of the game is improved considerably, and as such, people who subscribed to the Founder’s Offer, such as myself, must be a godsend for Flagship. It’s a real shame, because their reputation has definitely taken a massive knock, and the majority of the reviews I’d read so far have been lukewarm at best, most of them citing technical problems and a lack of polish are key reasons for their less than awe-inspiring scores.

Oh, and, having now made my way through the entire game once, I have to join the hordes of players who are lambasting it for its poor story. Actually, it’s a bit more complicated than that: the mythology itself is actually pretty good - it’s the integration of it into the game itself that’s poor. Barring some generic greeting sounds when you click on an NPC (non player character), all of the dialogue is text-based rather than spoken, and it’s generally poorly-written, trying too hard to be funny and failing miserably, not to mention incredibly long-winded. After clicking on Random NPC #57 for the umpteenth time and being treated to page after page of meandering nonsense, I simply said “Screw it” and just started skipping over the actual dialogue. (And, before you ask, I don’t have anything against reading extended passages of dialogue in a game. The ludicrously verbose Planescape: Torment is, in my opinion, the greatest computer RPG ever created.) The Quest Log does a pretty decent job of keeping track of what you have to do in order to proceed to the next area, although most of the quests are of the “Kill x number of y demons in area z” variety, while the ones that do have anything to do with the ongoing story are simply too few in number.

Okay, I know what you’re going to say: Diablo and Diablo II weren’t exactly literary masterpieces. That’s true, but what they did do considerably better than Hellgate was to integrate their meagre storylines into the game itself. In both games, all of the dialogue was audible, and all of the NPCs had distinct personalities. Better yet, while there were far fewer quests in both of these games than in Hellgate, they all felt as if they had something palpable to do with the plot and/or your ongoing mission, so, even if many of them were in the “kill boss x” framework, at least you knew why you were doing this and were able to actually care about it. In Hellgate, completing a quest is not about furthering the story - it’s merely about getting a few hundred more experience points or a vaguely interesting-sounding magic item that can be melted down for scrap metal.

Repetition is also a major issue, and, while it’s true that Acts 4 and 5 do help alleviate some of the monotony by throwing a new tileset each into the fray (although Act 5’s Hell maps slow my reasonably beefy system to a crawl), broadly speaking, you’re running through the same old sewers and city streets as you approach the final battle as you were when you were first learning the ropes. There’s not much of a sense of progression, not helped by the strings of levels which simply lead to dead ends and are only useful for mining experience points or completing yet more inane quests. The original Diablo was, I think, the defining example of how to do an action RPG right: there may only have been 16 levels, but each one took you further underground, with the décor changing gradually (ruined cathedral giving way musky catacombs, then subterranean caverns, then finally the depths of Hell itself) and giving you a real sense of working towards a defined goal. Diablo II, likewise, also had a sense of purpose, although it was more of a globe-trotting adventure than its more focused predecessor.

If all of that sounds overwhelmingly negative, I don’t intend it to be. Clearly, to have got this far and still be hungry for more (I’ve just created my second character, a Marksman, and am in the process of going through it all again), the developers must have got more right than they got wrong. Once again, though, I must reiterate that, as good as the game is, it really isn’t fit to have been released in its current state. The plethora of bugs and miscellaneous weird glitches suggest a game in the early testing stages, not at retail level. So many of these bugs were present during the early stages of the alpha and were pointed out to the developers time and time again, but rather than fixing them they seem to have made it a priority to do pointless things like removing risqué dialogue from NPCs and putting together mildly amusing but ultimately pointless Halloween- and Guy Fawkes-themed quests involving picking up apples, baked potatoes and recipes for gunpowder plot (the latter of which, thanks to a bug, can’t be deleted once acquired, so my stash is currently full of the damn things). It’s a good thing I’m (a) patient and (b) a fan of these guys’ earlier games, because, had I been neither, I doubt I would have stuck with it for this long. One day, Hellgate: London will be a great game, I’m sure of it. At the moment, it’s a decent one that feels as if it’s being held together by Scotch Tape and Pritstik.

Oh, and the final boss encounter (above) was surprisingly underwhelming. Given that one of his pre-showdown minions gave me considerable grief and killed me several times before I was able to put it out of action, I was expecting the big cheese himself to pose a considerable challenge. Not so: 10-15 seconds of trigger-mashing put an end to him, and I only had to use a couple of health injectors.

Edgar Wright on Suspiria

Edgar Wright, director and co-writer of Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz, has contributed audio commentaries for the international and US theatrical trailers to Dario Argento’s Suspiria over at Trailers From Hell. This is a very interesting little project that I wasn’t aware of until now, essentially having several “gurus” (including Joe Dante, Mick Garris, John Landis and Rick Baker) discuss a variety of trailers for genre pieces. Both of Wright’s commentaries are very entertaining, and, for the record, I completely agree with his assessment of their relative strengths and weaknesses.

International trailer
US trailer

Credit for discovering this goes to Pete M at Dark Discussion.

DVD debacle

I picked up a couple of DVDs on my lunch break the other day: Paul Verhoeven’s Soldier of Orange and Series 4 of Peep Show.

Again, sorry for the sluggish updates. I thought I was on the mend, but it turns out I may have been mistaken. The pains in my stomach have now gone, but I’m still getting all sorts of aches from the waist down on my left hand side, and, to make matters worse, last night, while lying fully stretched out in bed, I could literally feel the circulation in my left leg being cut off and the entire limb going to sleep. I was only able to get the circulation going again by bending it at a 90 degree angle - so, as you can probably imagine, I didn’t sleep particularly well last night. Oh, and I’m feeling absolutely rotten again today (nausea and stomach cramps), so I suspect I’m going to try to get another appointment with the doctor tomorrow.

This is going to set you back several Disney dollars… (Part 4)

You can view Part 1 (Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs to Alice in Wonderland) here, Part 2 (Peter Pan to The Black Cauldron) here and Part 3 (The Great Mouse Detective to Tarzan) here.

Fantasia 2000 (James Algar, Gaëtan Brizzi, Paul Brizzi, Hendel Butoy, Francis Glebas, Eric Goldberg, Don Hahn, Pixote Hunt, 1999) - I don’t own this one on DVD. The R1 US single-disc edition includes a DTS track, commentaries and other bonus materials not found on the R2 versions. This and the 3-disc Collector’s Edition (bundled with Fantasia) are both OOP.

The Emperor’s New Groove (Mark Dindal, 2000) - I don’t own this one on DVD. All versions present the film in an aspect ratio of 1.66:1, accompanied by the original 5.1 mix. The OOP R1 2-disc Collector’s Edition features a DTS track not found on the other releases, but otherwise all 2-disc variants throughout the world appear to be identical. Avoid the various (also OOP) single-disc releases.

Atlantis: The Lost Empire (Gary Trousdale, Kirk Wise, 2001) - All of the various 2-disc Collector’s Edition releases present the film in its original 2.39:1 aspect ratio, accompanied by the original 5.1 mix in both Dolby Digital and, in English-speaking territories, DTS forms, plus a massive array of extras. There is also a single-disc R1 release, but at all costs avoid the R2 UK single-disc version, which features only a cropped 1.33:1 presentation of the film.

Lilo & Stitch (Chris Sanders, Dean DeBlois, 2002) - All releases present the film in an aspect ratio of 1.66:1, accompanied by the original Dolby Digital 5.1 mix. Virtually every territory except North America has a 2-disc Special Edition packed full of extras, with the R4 Australian release also including an English DTS 5.1 track and therefore being the best available version. At all costs avoid the R2 English and German releases, which have been censored (particularly the German release, which is missing upwards of a minute of footage). The UK versions also have a Gareth Gates song inserted over the closing credits.

Treasure Planet (John Musker, Ron Clements, 2002) - All releases present the film in an aspect ratio of 1.66:1, accompanied by the original Dolby Digital 5.1 mix. The R2 UK release also includes a DTS 5.1 track, making it the preferred version. Having seen both PAL and NTSC transfers, I would say that the PAL version offers improved detail while also exhibiting slightly more in the way of compression artefacts.

Brother Bear (Aaron Blaise, Bob Walker, 2003) - The R1 2-disc Special Edition includes two versions of the film, one corresponding to the theatrical presentation of the film (starting in windowboxed 1.85:1 before expanding to 2.39:1), and the other cropped to 1.66:1 throughout. The R2 UK version, meanwhile, comes on a single disc and includes only the cropped 1.66:1 version. According to Rewind, the R2 Norwegian release is also OAR. Both English-language versions also include a DTS track. Note that the R1 release has very poor image quality (extreme amounts of filtering).

Home on the Range (John Sanford, Will Finn, 2004) - Draw between all releases, which present the film in an aspect ratio of 1.66:1, accompanied by the original Dolby Digital 5.1 mix.

Hooray for HD DVD!

Once again, I must apologise for the sparsity of updates over the last few days. It turns out that the problems I was having didn’t go away - if anything, they got worse. I took a trip to the doctor this afternoon, and, while I didn’t come away with a definite diagnosis, she said that the most likely answer was that I have IBS (irritable bowel syndrome). Apparently, there’s not a great deal that can be done about it, beyond establishing a diet that agrees with me and making sure I take lots of fibre and fluids, but I did get a prescription for a high fibre drink called Regulan, which, taken over the course of the next 30 days, should flush anything nasty out of my bowel and intestines (and all for under a fiver - seriously, one of the few things about this country that I’ll never knock is the NHS).

Anyway, while I wait for my Regulan to take effect, I’m going to take my mind off the horrendous stabbing pains in my gut by posting about the two HD DVDs that arrived recently (Wednesday and Thursday respectively), A Clockwork Orange and Eyes Wide Shut. While 2001: A Space Odyssey featured an absolutely sumptuous transfer on HD DVD (I’ll post screen captures soon, I promise), these two look fairly good but not great. Detail levels are above average, but there are some tell-tale signs of grain reduction, and overall they just don’t leap of the screen in the way that 2001 does. Particularly revealing is the fact that my old standard definition DVD of Eyes Wide Shut actually shows more grain than this new HD transfer. Now, maybe it was just the naturally lower resolution of the DVD accentuating the grain, but one thing’s for sure, this is the first time I’ve seen an HD release that is less grainy than its standard definition counterpart.

Oh, and, by the way, although the packaging claims that the both the censored American R-rated and international unedited versions are included on the same disc, in actual fact only the unedited version is there (I checked - no dodgy CGI men obscuring the rumpy-bumpy). Apparently, the Blu-ray and DVD versions released at the same time are the same. I’m personally not complaining - at least they included the right version! - but I’m slightly disappointed not to be able to see the apparently ridiculous censorship for myself, and I’m sure someone’s going to take Warner to the cleaners for false advertising (the back cover clearly states that the film is rated “R”).

Finally, a quick note on Eyes Wide Shut’s aspect ratio. As you probably know by now, the previous DVD release was presented in a 1.33:1 open matte aspect ratio, supposedly reflecting Stanley Kubrick’s preferences (although, of course, he isn’t about any more to ask). The new HD DVD, Blu-ray and DVD versions, meanwhile, are presented in a matted 1.78:1 ratio (as per all Warner releases with an intended 1.85:1 ratio). Now, I’m aware that the issue of how these films should be presented has been argued about since time immemorial, with passionate and convincing arguments coming from both sides of the fence, but ultimately I trust my eyes more than any theorising, and, having watched the 1.33:1 and 1.78:1 versions side by side, I am in no doubt that the 1.78:1 looks more “right”. Again, screenshots will follow when I get the chance to do them.

Casualty - time for a reappraisal

Back in September, the medical drama series Casualty began its 22nd series with an opening two-parter that did much to restore my faith in a show that I had been becoming increasingly disappointed by (see my thoughts at the time here). I concluded my appraisal of the season premiere by surmising that the show had been brought back from the dead, and begging the writers to retain the newly-retrenched ideology of hard-hitting medical drama rather than sliding back into soap opera antics.

Ten weeks later, and the show, by my estimation, celebrated its 600th episode last Saturday. I say “estimation” because, thanks to numerous specials and cross-overs with sister show Holby City, it’s difficult to determine exactly how many episodes there have been that are officially counted. A shame, because, back in 1999, when the show celebrated its 250th episode, there was a big hoo-ha with documentaries, “viewers’ choice” votes and so on. Nowadays, though, with 48 episodes produced a year, I suppose there’s not much point in counting such milestones any more.

Anyway, I thought it was about time for a reappraisal, particularly because, so far, the writers have done a piss-poor job of living up to the potential shown in the opening two-parter. While it’s true that the “who’s doing the horizontal with who” element has mercifully yet to return (barring a new character eating a journalist’s face in a lift at the end of his first episode, an event that has thankfully not been repeated), the inconsistent characterisation, implausible plots and poor storyline follow-through have fairly quickly crept back in. (It also doesn’t help that I’ve recently been rewatching Series 13, which, while not a perfect series, and in many ways the one that laid the foundations for the soap period of Series 16-21, at least had writers who had an understanding of how to tell an engaging and satisfying storyline over the course of a not unreasonable 28 episodes, using believable, likeable and consistent characters.)

This is most apparent in the departure storyline for paramedic Josh, who, having been in the show for the past 18 years, was its second longest-running character (and, if this episode truly was Episode 600, then it feels like a fitting time for such an icon of the show to bow out). According to a recent interview given in some newspaper or other, actor Ian Bleasdale actually made the decision to leave two years ago, which makes the unconvincing and slipshod manner in which he was written out all the more baffling. Basically, a storyline was manufactured in which he supposedly fell in love with Devika, a woman he had met while on holiday in India, and decided to jack in his job to head off into the sunset with her and her daughter. All well and good, and, let’s be honest, given the amount of grief that had been lumped on the poor guy over the last 18 years (including losing his entire family in a house fire in a Series 11 episode that definitely belongs in my personal Top Ten), it was about time he was due a bit of happiness.

It’s just too bad it was handled so poorly. Over the course of the handful of episodes in which this storyline was been developed, we were constantly told, by various characters, how much Josh and this strange woman cared for and were made for each other, and yet we were never shown a single shred of evidence to back up this fact. On the contrary, what we did see was Josh paying for an operation for Devika’s daughter, twice asking her to marry him and twice being rejected (the first time because she felt insulted by his suggestion that it would solve the problem of her visa, and the second because she felt she couldn’t leave India). Then, finally, after suffering a panic attack when confronted with a stabbing victim, reminding him of his own ordeal at the hands of a knife-wielding maniac last Christmas (what, would the writers have us believe that this was the first time he had come into contact with a stabbing victim since resuming work in May?), he decided to jack in 18 years of hard work and strong friendships by running after whatshername to the airport and hopping aboard a plane with her. Um, no. It also didn’t help matters that in his final scene with his best friend, Charlie, there was oodles more chemistry between the pair of them than there ever had been between Josh and his bride to be… and that includes Charlie’s peck on the cheek and Josh’s “I love you mate” line! At least this, coupled with Charlie’s line to a gawping passer-by, “He’s left me for a woman,” will give the slash fan writers plenty of food for thought.

As it stands, after having such high hopes for the series back in September, I’m once again finding it difficult to feel anything other than incredibly pessimistic about the show’s future. Having lost what I consider to have been one of its main anchors for the past 18 years, there is now a massive void that I strongly doubt the current managment will be able to fill. I suppose I shouldn’t be too surprised - nothing lasts for ever, it’s been painfully obvious for some time now that neither Josh nor the actor playing him have been particularly happy in their respective jobs, but still, it’s hard not to feel downhearted at this development. It wouldn’t have been so bad, I suppose, if there had been a whole cavalcade of believable and well-developed characters to take his place, but the sad truth is that there isn’t. Barring the three or four remaining characters that I actually like, the rest are as one-dimensional, clichéd and unengaging as they come. Therefore, while I don’t want to give the impression that things are now as bad as they were when the previous series was at its worst - improvements have definitely been made in most respects, particularly production values and the toning down of the soap elements - we seem to be backsliding at an alarming rate, and once again I’m beginning to find that I tune in on a Saturday night more out of habit than because I’m genuinely looking forward to the latest instalment.

So, whether or not the powers that be actually care to acknowledge the 600th episode milestone, I’m going to recognise the moment by listing my Top Ten episodes so far:

1. Perfect Blue (11.24, written by Barbara Machin, directed by Graeme Harper) - Casualty had done explosive season finales before, but this was the first one to take place over two episodes (much of what transpires in this one is set up in the previous episode, Monday, Bloody Monday). This one sees the team fighting to save the life of one of their own, nurse Jude, after she is found lying in a pool of blood in a corridor, stabbed by a mentally unstable patient.

2. Love Me Tender (12.22, written by Tony Lindsay, directed by Gary Love) - Notable not only for Claire Goose’s outstanding performance (one that I seriously doubt has ever been bettered in the entire history of the show) as Tina, but also for the writer’s bold (and incredibly successful) decision to intercut her recounting being raped in the hospital toilets with scenes of a wife-beater attempting to justify why he does what he does and explaining what goes through his mind when the rage comes over him.

3. Boiling Point (7.24, written by Peter Bowker, directed by Michael Owen Morris) - An impressive pyrotechnics display and an episode that, among all the carnage, also manages to hammer home what the show was all about in its glory period, this one sees the entire A&E department going up in flames after a group of rioters start a fire in its basement. This, the final episode of Series 7, was also the last to be overseen by original producer Geraint Morris, and he certainly went out with a bang.

4. Silent Night (21.16, written by Barbara Machin, directed by Diarmuid Lawrence) - Every time I heap scorn on Series 21, I have to remind myself that, for all its faults, it did contain two of the best episodes ever produced, a two-parter penned by one of the show’s best writers, who came back for a one-off gig after nearly a decade missing in action. While its stablemate, Killing Me Softly (see below) is the more innovative of the two, I feel that this one beats it for being tonally closer to classic Casualty and for several stand-out scenes which, in terms of writing and performance, succeed in tipping the balance in its favour. In particular, Charlie’s eventual confrontation with the deranged guest character Laura (a wonderful performance by Holly Aird), who has stabbed Josh and indirectly contributed to nurse Ellen’s death, is a wonderfully satisfying piece of rage-venting.

5. Treasure (11.20, written by Lisa Evans, directed by Ken Hannam) - The aforementioned episode in which Josh loses his family in a house fire, this one packs an incredible emotional punch, not just because of Ian Bleasdale’s performance as Josh, but also because of how the rest of the regulars react to his loss. The scenes of their desperate attempt to resuscitate his daughter, burned virtually beyond recognition and with her breath coming out in ragged gasps, are some of the most unsettling in the entire series.

6. Killing Me Softly (21.15, written by Barbara Machin, directed by Diarmuid Lawrence) - Silent Night’s partner in crime, this episode employs the unusual (particularly for a stylistically conservative show like Casualty) technique of repeating the same events three times, showing them from the perspectives of three different characters and each time adding a further piece to the puzzle. Also incredibly memorable for its highly effective use of the hymn Miserere by Gregorio Allegri at key moments.

7. Charlie’s Anniversary (22.02, written by Mark Catley, directed by Simon Meyers) - “Don’t even think about [killing yourself]. I’d resuscitate you.” “Why?” “Because I’m a nurse.” This episode, along with 22.01 My First Day, constitutes one of Casualty’s all-time strongest season premieres, and, had both parts been up to the standard of this one, probably the best ever. After so many years in the wilderness, this episode reaffirmed everything that Casualty used to be about, while demonstrating sharper, more accurate characterisation than had been seen for years. At the same time, it employs several highly effective narrative tricks, showing the entire day from Charlie’s perspective and, towards the end, having him, the longest-running character and the only one who has been there since Episode 1, walking alone through the otherwise evacuated department. This, in effect, takes it all right back to the beginning by stripping the show down to the only two elements that have been consistent right from the beginning. Oh, and any episode to feature Charlie answering his mobile phone with the words “No, Maggie, I haven’t been blown up yet,” has got to be worth the price of admission.

8. Burned Out Hearts (14.23, written by Susan Boyd, directed by Tim Leandro) - This episode deals with the murder and aftermath thereof of consultant Max’s son, Frank, and, after Treasure, is as effective a study of grief as I think the show has ever achieved. Once again it succeeds in showing the effect of a death not just on the deceased’s immediate relatives but also on those caught in the crossfire, including the staff, the killers themselves and the woman who called the ambulance. And, of course, just to add a touch of bitter irony to the situation, Max ends up saving the lives of the very people who killed his son after they are involved in a collision.

9. Cry for Help (2.04, written by Paul Unwin and Jeremy Brock, directed by Alan Wareing) - Looking back on it, I have a feeling that this episode probably set the stage for the inordinately high death rate that has plagued the last few series, but back in the day, the sudden and completely unforeshadowed death of paramedic Sandra Mute (just one of Casualty’s many stabbings by mentally unstable patients!), would have been quite shocking. Casualty, in its first couple of series, was very much a game of goodies and baddies, and the goodies (the A&E team) had clearly definied opponents (management, the Tory government). Killing off one of the show’s most charismatic characters at the time was a huge gamble, but it paid off, underscoring the fact that this world was far from cosy and that good people could suffer for no good reason. The final scene, in which Sandra’s partner, Andy, learns of her death (“No, no, don’t say it, Charlie”), is incredibly poignant.

10. Burn Out (3.05, written by Jeremy Brock, directed by Michael Owen Morris) - Creators Jeremy Brock and Paul Unwin had no involvement with the show beyond its third series, and this episode, penned by one half of that duo, shows the programme coming of age with a far more complex (and, ultimately, bleaker) outlook than the first couple of series. Although the most significant moment is probably consultant Ewart Plimmer’s heart attack and subsequent death at the end of the episode, by far the most powerful is his earlier scene with a depressed and disillusioned Megan, where Oscar-winning actress Brenda Fricker delivers an impassioned, powerful and surprisingly convincing monologue about how sick she is of being treated like a second-rate member of the team.

Blu-ray review: Oldboy

It’s great to see more non-Hollywood content appearing on Blu-ray, particularly a solid film like Oldboy, but it’s hard not to feel somewhat shortchanged by Tartan’s failure to port over all of the bonus content from their 2-disc DVD set, while the image, despite being a definite step up from every prior release of the film, falls short of the high standard set by their Blu-ray release of Black Book.

I’ve reviewed Tartan’s recent UK Blu-ray release of Oldboy, Chan-wook Park’s critically acclaimed revenge flick. This Region 0 release features decent if not outstanding transfer and audio treatment, while some but not all of the extras from the DVD release have been ported over.

BD+ cracked

Source: Engadget

Claimed to be unbreakable by its proponents, Blu-ray’s advanced BD+ content protection system has reportedly been circumvented by our friends at SlySoft, a mere month after the first BD+ discs hit the market.

Ha ha.

Alan Jones on Mother of Tears

Reviews of Dario Argento’s Mother of Tears have been pouring in for some time now, some good, some bad, some split right down the middle, but, for many fans, the review they have been waiting for is the one penned by all-round Argento expert Alan Jones. After much anticipation, he has finally written a few words on the film, as well as its Rome premiere on Halloween.

As to the film itself, well, it’s not the conclusion to the SUSPIRIA and INFERNO trilogy any of us wanted to see.

[…]

While it’s easy to criticise LA TERZA MADRE (occasionally different to the US MOTHER OF TEARS version) for what it isn’t rather than what it actually is - a gory, campy supernatural romp - the main problem with the film is simple. The layers of ethereal artifice given by lush cinematography and arch style to the prior two classic films lent their fractured stories a further atmosphere of palpable fever dream unreality. Stripped of that, and saddled with Fasano’s dull realism (his DO YOU LIKE HITCHCOCK photography was superior), the film’s equally episodic narrative comes off as contrived, crude and kitsch. Why on earth didn’t Argento use again the vivid colour palettes that made SUSPIRIA and INFERNO so fabulous to look at? He had the chance in Jace and Adam’s jewel-bleeding concept, but axed it as too fairytale instead of embracing its rich atmospheric possibilities.

[…]

Claudio Argento said it best at the premiere performance. He told me, “For the general public it’s a good solid movie, for Dario’s fans I’m not so sure”.

For the full piece, which includes several photographs from the premiere, head over to Dark Dreams.

DVD debacle, Blu-ray bonzana, HD DVD hullabalooza!

I’ve kind of been slacking on updates regarding new DVD, Blu-ray and HD DVD releases that have been pouring on to my desk. As it happens, one of each has arrived in the last week (not counting Les Triplettes de Belleville, discussed here). What can I say? I haven’t been feeling all that great over the last week or so, and as a result I’ve been a bit distracted. I was feeling decidedly queasy on Saturday, and in addition to that I think I’ve done something to a muscle, or joint, or bone, in my hip. For over a week, I’ve been having pains of varying degrees throughout my left hand side from my waist down, and, on Saturday night, I woke up with my whole leg spasming of its own accord. I was actually contemplating going to the hospital, but things seem to be settling down somewhat now, so I’m currently assuming that whatever was damaged is sorting itself out. I have a suspicion that it has something to do with the heavy crates I was carrying about at work just under a fortnight ago. One incident report coming right up!

Anyway, in jollier news…

My review copy of Blue Underground’s US 2-disc Special Edition of Dario Argento’s The Stendhal Syndrome reached me. I’ve done little more than take a cursory glance at the transfer, which doesn’t appear to be particularly good (although not much worse than I was expecting, given Blue Underground’s track record for having an unhealthy obsession with the edge enhancement and filtering dials), and watched the Dario Argento interview on the second disc (which was very informative, even if he did gloss over the supposed conflicts he had with cinematographer Guiseppe Rotunno during the shoot). I intend to take a fuller look at it towards the end of the week, with a review (including a newly rewritten article on the film, similar to what I did for Suspiria and Inferno) coming soon.

I also picked up a copy of Fox’s recent Region A Blu-ray release of The Fly, making this my first ever high definition David Cronenberg film (with Eastern Promises to follow on HD DVD in December) and only my second Fox DVD. From what I’ve seen of it, it appears to be a pretty good representation of the source materials, although perhaps a bit softer than I would have liked. Unfortunately, the original stereo audio mix has been junked in favour of a souped up 5.1 remix. For shame, Fox, for shame.

Finally, the HD DVD release of Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey arrived on Saturday. Believe it or not, I haven’t seen the film before and am decidedly curious to sit down and watch it for the first time. I have a feeling it’s going to be one of those films that takes a while to “get”, but one thing I do know for sure, at this stage, is that it features a very nice transfer. While I am a little concerned about its almost grainless look, in every other area it appears to be excellent, with a much higher level of detail than I am generally used to seeing from Warner’s HD releases. The line-up of extras looks very good, too, with the Channel 4-made documentary 2001: The Making of a Myth thrown in along with a commentary and several other documentaries and featurettes. The other four Kubrick titles released on HD DVD at the same time (A Clockwork Orange, Eyes Wide Shut, Full Metal Jacket and The Shining) are also on their way, although, due to supply issues at Amazon.com, they were all dispatched at different times.

Belleville belle vue

My copy of the French HD DVD release of Les Triplettes de Belleville arrived this morning from FNAC - a lovely surprise, as I’d completely forgotten it was being released at the end of October and had no idea it was on its way.

For me, this release is a huge deal, because it’s the first full-length traditionally animated film I’ve owned on HD DVD (the next is likely to be Asterix and the Vikings, also due out in France at the beginning of December). I’ve already seen the three Looney Tunes shorts that are included on The Adventures of Robin Hood HD DVD, which made my salivate for more, as well as Satoshi Kon’s Paprika on Blu-ray, but the latter featured a somewhat underwhelming transfer, while the visual style did absolutely nothing for me (anime generally does little for me anyway, particularly when its flat, bland, stilted, washed-out anime like the kind found in Paprika).

Many people are under the misconception that animation doesn’t benefit from HD as much as live action, but my opinion has always been that the exact opposite is true, as I hope the screenshots I’ve posted below prove. Les Triplettes de Belleville looks amazing, with the improved definition really allowing you to appreciate the line work of the pencil animation and the level of detail in the backgrounds. Oh, and as an added bonus, it’s in its intended aspect ratio of 1.66:1, unlike the DVD, which was over-matted to 1.78:1.

It’s not a completely perfect release: the low bit rate of 9.16 GB is slightly too stingy for the encoder to cope with some of the more visually complex shots. In motion, the artefacts that you might be able to see in some of the screenshots below are nothing like as noticeable - in fact, I hardly noticed any of them when I was actually watching the film - but they could probably have been avoided had an HD30 been used instead of an HD15.

Still, all in all a very nice release indeed, and one that means I can now retired my 2-disc standard definition DVD version (all of the extras have been ported over, even if they are, by necessity, PAL to NTSC standards conversions).

Les Triplettes de Belleville
(France Télévisions Éditions, France, VC-1, 9.16 GB)

Satan’s loot

Well, no sooner after I berated Flagship Studios for failing to release a patch for the single player mode for Hellgate: London, and for disabling the subscription process, they fixed both of these problems. Patch 0 for single player went live on Saturday morning, followed, just over 24 hours later, by the subscription page. As luck would have it, I also received an email containing my pre-order code, allowing me to access the unique dye kit and Founder’s Offer that were previously unavailable to me. It came directly from Gamestop, so it appears that what their representative told me when I phoned them (about the code only being available if I used the beta key they had sent me) was a load of old cobblers. Still, many thanks to Gamestop for finally getting the key to me, allowing me to subscribe to the Founder’s Option.

Yes, I ended up subscribing after all. I’m sorry, but new levels, quests, monsters, character classes and all sorts of cool stuff was just too good an offer to pass up. $150 is no small amount of money, I’ll grant you (although, given the current exchange rate of the dollar to the pound, it’s considerably less than it was a few years ago), but I think it will be worth it. Put it this way: its predecessor, Diablo II, had no major ongoing content, barring a $40 expansion set and a handful of patches, most of which offered nothing more than minor tweaks and bug fixes, and yet I’m still playing it on and off more than seven years after it was originally released. That game has paid for itself many times over, so I don’t have too many qualms about paying extra for ongoing content for a game that, so far, has proven to be just as addictive as the earlier game, if not more so.

So, I now have a lifetime subscription that I never have to worry about paying for again, and my mum agreed to get me it for Christmas. With any luck, that should coincide with the first major wave of new ongoing content becoming available.

And, as icing on the cake, twenty minutes after subscribing, I came across the helm you see above. This exclusive item, known in the game as the All Hallows’ Visage and possessing rather weak stats but a decidedly cool appearance, is part of the ongoing Halloween celebrations and has a random chance of dropping. Supposedly, everyone has the same chance of finding it, subscriber or not, but finding it so soon after shelling out for the Founder’s Offer made me feel quite chuffed. Of course, I have no idea whether the players that have managed to find these helms will be able to hang on to them after the event is over or they’ll simply vanish. We shall see.

I’m now well into Act IV, which, so far, is proving to live up to the developers’ promises of being larger and more diverse than the previous three Acts. Judging by the fold-out world map that came with the Collector’s Edition, Act V is bigger still, so I’ve no idea what sort of time scale I’m on for completing a full run through the game with my first character. It’s certainly a much bigger world than either of the Diablos, especially the first one, and for that I’m glad.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Season 8, Episode 7: No Future For You, Part Two

Written by Brian K. Vaughan; Illustrated by Georges Jeanty

It seems like it was ages ago that I wrote my last Buffy review - so much so that I’d almost forgotten what the ongoing story was, and had to reread the preview issue to remind myself of what was going on.

To tell the truth, these “episodes” are so short that it’s quite difficult to review them on an individual basis: generally speaking, not enough happens in each one for you to get much of an idea of the quality of the storytelling until you’ve read the entire multi-part story (discounting one-shots like The Chain, of course). This issue continues Faith’s mission to infiltrate rogue Slayer Genevieve’s party and assassinate her, as well as briefly hopping back to the issue of Dawn and her giantness. I’m enjoying the Faith plot, even if it seems that they’re retreading old ground at times; the Dawn stuff, less so. Generally speaking, if you’re going to tease a plot out over the course of several months (don’t forget that we’re only seeing one issue per month, if that), it had better be an interesting one. Dawn being huge because she had sex with a Thricewise (whatever that is) is not particularly interesting, and the idea of a sixty foot tall girl mooching around in a Scottish glen is a bit too farcical, even by Buffy standards, to hold up week after week. I sincerely hope they do something with this plot strand before too long.

Still, the Faith stuff occupies 90% of the comic, so my reaction to this episode was on the whole positive, and, because Faith has always struck me as a far more interesting character than Buffy herself, I didn’t object to the titular heroine’s non-appearance for the second time (the impersonator in The Chain doesn’t count). (Actually, a show based solely around Faith, Willow, Giles and Dawn, who are the only regulars to appear in this episode, wouldn’t strike me as a bad thing at all. Well, okay, maybe not Dawn, although it least in comic book form you don’t actually have to listen to her.) As I mentioned before, there’s a certain sense of déjà vu to what the writers are doing with Faith, although to be honest they made such a pig’s ear of her character development in Season 7 that it’s difficult to be too negative here.

Nice shock ending too. I had some idea of what was coming, but the way it was handled was pretty nifty.

7/10.

Hellgate: time for a status report

I’ve now had Hellgate: London in my greasy paws for just over 48 hours, and, while I’m not going to game that I’ve actually played it for 48 hours (PhD work, eating, sleeping and bodily functions do compete with it for my time, unfortunately), I’ve certainly spent a fair amount of time hunkered down in the post-apocalyptic demon-infested capital city.

First of all, my impressions remain much the same as they were in my beta report: this is a very good game, with the potential to be a great one. It’s well-paced, addictive, reasonably pleasing to the eye and with enough variety to keep me coming back for more. Unfortunately, it’s also an unfinished game, which means that more or less every criticism that was still valid during the final build of the beta remains an issue in the retail copy.

As it happens, the version of the game that ships in the box is actually older than the final beta build. That is not in itself unsurprising, as a new build was made available very close to the launch date, and the gold master for the retail version would have to have been pressed some time before the intended release date. Additionally, a 30 MB patch was made available on the day of release, which, as far as I can gather, when downloaded, brings the game to more or less the same state as the final beta build. However, the fact that, throughout the beta process, it was repeatedly claimed by Flagship representatives that the builds we were playtesting were several weeks behind the internal versions being used at development HQ makes this state of affairs a little hard to swallow.

As does the fact that the “Day 0” patch affects only the multiplayer mode of gameplay. Single player remains the same old, outdated build that we were playing weeks ago in the beta, and there is currently no ETA for the release of a patch to bring it up to date. (The single player and multiplayer modes actually launch from two separate front-ends, which is rather unwieldy and adds to the unfinished feel that runs through every aspect of the game.) This oversight is quite shocking, because the improvements made with the Day 0 patch are not insignificant. The biggest change is that the randomly generated environments are greatly improved in terms of scale and variety, with additional adjustments made to enemy spawning to give each of the various areas a more recognisable theme (for example, Boils spawn throughout Act III, the main theme of which is demonic infestation). Many of the pre-release reviews that have appeared online and in magazines have criticised the repetitive nature of the level design, and I suspect that, had they had access to the multiplayer build rather than being restricted to single player (because the servers didn’t go up until the game was officially released, naturally), this issue would have been considerably less of a bone of contention.

In any event, rather than attempt to hack it with an outdated version of the game featuring inferior level design, I decided to create a multiplayer character and go adventuring online. My first character, a Level 17 Evoker named LyraBelacqua, has now made it through most of Act III (as you may remember from my previous report, the beta eventually covered the first three Acts, with a handful of select testers getting access to the final two Acts as well), and has acquired some rather nice gear and abilities. The Evoker and Marksman were, for my money, the most fun characters to play in the alpha and beta, and I am happy to report that the former is just as much fun in the full version (I haven’t experimented with the other five classes yet).

Unfortunately, a lot of the time it feels as if I am enjoying the game in spite of itself, because it really is incredibly buggy. Problems that myself and other testers repeatedly pointed out during the beta are still present, including piss-poor collision detection (I’ve actually had to quit and restart the game four times with my character stuck on a piece of scenery with no way of getting free or even committing suicide), stability issues (I’ve had at least six hard freezes requiring a full system reboot) and even a return of the dreaded “infinite loading screen” bug that I thought had been banished ages ago. What makes the unfinished nature of the game all the more surprising is that the people responsible are the creators of Diablo and Diablo II, both of which were rock solid when they were released (especially the former, with the majority of the tiny number of serious bugs present in it taking upwards of a year to be discovered). I can only assume that they were leaned on by their publisher, the notorious EA, to ship the game in time for Halloween, come hell or high water.

The bottom line? Hellgate: London is a lot of fun, and I’m sure it will be an excellent game one day. However, I don’t believe it should have been released in its present state. There are still too many issues to contend with, many of them game-stopping, and I really do worry that Flagship’s reputation will have taken a hit due to this poor first impression (don’t forget that the subscription process is still disabled). If you ask me, it would have been better for them to miss the release date and concentrate on getting the game finished rather than shipping a buggy product on time… but then, I’m not a developer, am I?

PS. I’m still no closer to sorting out the Founder’s Offer problem that I outlined in my previous post. I phoned Gamestop last night, and was told by a representative that, in order to access the Founder’s Option, I would have to use the beta account that they sent me as part of the pre-order deal… only I had already received a previous beta invitation and upgraded it to a retail account. Oops. but then, after contacting Flagship’s tech support, I was told that this was in fact not the case, and that Gamestop should have sent me a pre-order key so that I could access the Founder’s Option from any account. Huh? All I can say is, these constant problems have pretty much killed off any desire I might have had to shell out an additional $150 for more (probably unfinished) content.