Technology

Tinkering till perfection

Yesterday, my order of the HD DVD release of Blade Runner (5-disc Complete Collector's Edition - whew!) arrived from DVD Pacific. Considering the plethora of material contained in this release, including five different cuts of the film and a wealth of bonus features, the asking price of £15.90 seemed like a steal.

Anyway, last night, we watched the Final Cut on the wall. I was very impressed by the presentation - I think this is one of the few film-sourced (as opposed to digital intermediate) high definition transfers I've seen without edge enhancement. A handful of shots do appear to have been over-sharpened, but by and large the image looks very film-like and untreated. There are some astoundingly detailed shots, and the colours are eye-popping. Okay, so it's not as consistently amazing as something like Casino Royale or Ratatouille, but, given the film's age and the number of effects shots done the old fashioned way, it seems churlish to complain about what are more than likely faults inherent in the source material.

Some direct screen captures are provided below.

Blade Runner: Final Cut
(Warner, USA, VC-1)

I've also thrown in a few comparative shots to demonstrate the visual differences between the various different cuts included in this release. The Final Cut and Workprint both come on their own discs, while the three "Archival Versions", on a single disc, are essentially a stand-alone version of the film with the differences between the US, international and 1992's Director's Cut editions achieved through seamless branching (which the Blu-ray camp at one point claimed wasn't possible on HD DVD). As you can probably tell, some colour work has been done on the Final Cut, subtly changing the overall look. Oddly enough, though, in some cases, there appears to have been a reduction in detail at the same time (look at Example 2, and see how much crisper the Archival version looks than the Final Cut). Of course, the Workprint is not in the best of shape and, oddly enough, has been cropped to a ratio of 2.20:1, but it does appear that Ridley Scott and his production team went out of their way to find the best possible elements for this presentation. I look forward to further investigating the differences at a later date.

Example 1
(Left: Final Cut; Right: Archival Version; shot not contained in Workprint)

Example 2
(Left: Final Cut; Middle: Archival Version; Right: Workprint)

Example 3
(Left: Final Cut; Middle: Archival Version; Right: Workprint)

All I want for Christmas is you

Perhaps you haven't noticed, but it will soon be Christmas - a mere eight days to go. While virtually everyone I know is running around in a flap, braving the cold winds of Glasgow in December, not to mention the bustling crowds of like-minded last minute shoppers, I find myself sitting back with a look of rather smug self-satisfaction on my face. I, you see, have discovered the wonders of Internet shopping, and the savings in time, money and worry that come with it. With more or less everyone else's gifts accounted for, I decided it was time to give some thought to myself and what I would like to receive for Mithras' birthday.

First up, a couple of games: the Collector's Edition of Unreal Tournament III and The Witcher. Unreal Tournament III you already know about, from my previous complaint about the desaturated visuals in its pre-release demo. It's undeniably a fun game, though, and the saturation control can, to some extent, be used to compensate for the predominance of grey and brown. The Collector's Edition, in any event, looks somewhat interesting, given that it comes with an art book and a DVD exploring the history of the franchise and the making of this instalment, not to mention ten hours' worth of tutorials for the Unreal Editor.

The Witcher, meanwhile, is not a game that I've had an opportunity to experience for myself, but it sounds like an interesting attempt to do a complex, non-linear single player RPG that eschews traditional notions of good vs. evil and allows the player's choices to impact the story and world in a very noticeable sense. Ironically, the game's qualities seem to have been overshadowed by the controversy surrounding the publisher's decision to censor female nudity from its American release (the European versions are intact), calling into question all sorts of debates regarding the games industry's bizarre relationship within the human body (you can dismember it as much as you like, but God help you if you happen to spot a nipple).

I also picked up a couple of German HD DVD releases from Amazon.de: Wayne Kramer's Running Scared and Terry Gilliam's Tideland. The former is a film I know next to nothing about, but the transfer appears to be extremely good, and I do like to take the odd risk now and then with my movie watching (Inside Man certainly paid dividends, and I liked Kramer's previous film, The Cooler). Tideland, meanwhile, I've wanted to see for a while, even if the word of mouth has been largely negative so far. Interestingly, it is also, as far as I can tell, the only release of the film to present it in its original theatrical ratio of 2.35:1: most DVD releases are open matte at 1.78:1, while the UK release is in a ratio of 2.25:1, which is supposedly Gilliam's preferred ratio. (It may turn out that the HD DVD is also 2.25:1, despite what the packaging claims, but I figure that either is preferable to having an open matte 1.78:1 presentation, so I won't be too fussed either way.)

Oh, and, surprising as it might seem, I haven't yet completely given up on the world of standard definition. I ordered the Region 1 US releases of Michael Moore's Sicko and, carrying on a tradition that was started back at Christmas 2003, the latest release in the Looney Tunes Golden Collection series, Volume 5. I actually have no idea which cartoons are included in this line-up - I like to be pleasantly surprised, although I'm not holding out too much hope for Coal Black and de Sebben Dwarfs making an appearance any time soon.

You're a magnificent c...odec

This is a superlative transfer with a magnificent amount of detail and superb encoding across the board. The contents of the disc, including the film, a TrueHD track, several Dolby Digital-Plus tracks and a handful of extras, uses a mere 22 GB. I was told that a new version of the VC-1 encoder made its debut with the HD DVD release of Shrek the Third, and I wonder if it was also used for this film, because, given its running time of more than two hours and emphasis on tight, fast, hand-held photography, I would have expected to see at least some mild blocking in still frames. When Universal are at their best, they are almost unparalleled in the field of high definition. If only all their transfers were this good.

Shot 6 is included as a prime example of the rampant product placement that can be found in this film. I just love how the monitor, and more importantly, the manufacturer's logo, gets as much prominence in the frame as Jodie Foster.

Inside Man
(Universal, USA, VC-1)

HD heist hyjinks

As you'll know if you've been reading my brother's site, his 1080p projector arrived yesterday. Currently, the screen on which it is intended to project its images is noticeably absent, so for the time being we are making do with a crumpled sheet that has been attached to the wall with drawing pins. It really isn't anything like as bad as it sounds, although the fact that the image is split up by three long horizontal folds, and the image has a tendency to ripple and distort against the less than perfectly flat surface, is slightly distracting.

Anyway, tonight we had our first feature-length screening on the projector, and I'm happy to report that it was something better than Norbit. It was the HD DVD of Spike Lee's Inside Man, which arrived the other day and which I was originally planning on keeping for a Christmas present. I slightly overspent, however, and decided to pay for this one myself (I'll do a post on the other titles I ordered, which I will be saving for Christmas Day, at a later point).

I'm not much of a Lee scholar (actually, I know next to nothing about him), but I understand that this is one of his more conventional and easily accessible outings. It's a solid, engaging and at times decidedly inventive heist movie that, like so many films these days, is a good 45 minutes longer than it needs to be, but, although I did find myself shifting uncomfortably in my seat towards the end, I had a blast for the most part, and found myself being reminded on several occasions of The Taking of Pelham One Two Three, another New York-based thriller dealing with a gang of crooks holding a group of hostages to ransom. It must be admitted that Denzel Washington is not a patch on Walter Mathau,* nor is Clive Owen on Robert Shaw, but I enjoyed their performances thought that the film's only major failings, apart from its length, were a handful of ham-fisted attempts at social commentary, focusing on racial prejudice and, in one laughable scene, violence and "gangsta" culture in video games.

Oh, and it looks as if this is yet another stellar HD release from Universal, who can really do great work when they put their minds to it (they've also churned out some absolute garbage, though, and are to date, to the best of my knowledge, the only studio who have had the audacity to put out a 480i upconvert and sell it as a full 1080p HD release). Of course, moving from a 40" LCD screen to a projected image of over 100" takes some getting used to (everything immediately looks considerably less detailed, unsurprisingly enough), and at the moment I don't have much of a frame of reference for what a superb transfer looks like at this size compared with one that is merely very good, but I found the whole experience surprisingly cinematic and was never distracted by any unpleasant artefacts. I hope to do some screen captures before too long.

And I'm sorry, but I can't not like a film that includes the line "You're a magnificent cunt."

* As I was typing this, I happened to take a look at IMDB, and was somewhat surprised to discover that Tony Scott is directing a remake of The Taking of Pelham One Two Three, due for release in 2009. Guess who's filling Walter Mathau's shoes? That's right: Denzel Washington.

Tight, emphatic close ups, framed under the hairline and above the chin

This is some of the best detail I've seen in an HD release taken from a print source rather than a digital intermediate. The best-looking discs invariably tend to be the ones that have come from the digital domain, but Buena Vista shows with The Rock that you can still get very good results indeed from an interpositive. There's a bit of what looks like edge enhancement (see especially Shot 15, below), but I'm not sure whether this is a result of deliberate sharpening or a side effect of using a film-sourced master. Detail is exemplary, barring a few shots featuring location type, which have been taken from a poorer quality source, and the compression is extremely well handled, as it was on the Criterion standard definition DVD.

The Rock
(Buena Vista, France, AVC)

Cruisin'

I love the colour palette of this film. Given that so many action movies tend to go with dingy, desaturated visuals, I'm glad J.J. Abrams went down the opposite route and pumped the saturation to an almost ridiculous level. Somehow it seems more befitting of a big, dumb blockbuster than the near black and white moroseness we usually get. Paramount have done a really nice job of the HD DVD release, too. It was quite difficult to get decent captures due to the fact that the camera shakes around almost as much as it does in a Michael Bay film, but the images below should at least give some idea of the disc's look. There are some visible compression artefacts here and there - the only flaw preventing this disc from being a 10/10 affair.

Mission Impossible III
(Paramount, USA, VC-1)

Glamourama

This is such a sumptuously photographed film that I couldn't whittle it down to a mere nine images, as is my standard (I took over 60 captures), so I decided to throw in a whole bunch more than usual and select 15. Mulholland Drive is a naturally soft-looking film, shot with a lot of filters and with a definite glow in its daylight scenes, and as such, on HD DVD it doesn't have the pop of something like King Kong or The Bourne Ultimatum, but the look is totally in keeping with its source materials. There is a lot of very fine grain present in the image (this is one of these films that gains most of its detail from the densely moving particles, and as such can sometimes look quite a bit softer in still frame form), which is rendered very well during the brighter scenes, although those shot in low light tend to lead to some artefacting on this release. Still, it's a solid 8 out of 10 title and one that will no doubt be unfairly ignored by many viewers simply because it doesn't have any explosions or car chases in it.

Mulholland Drive
(Studio Canal, France, VC-1)

A tortuous web

Where to start? I haven't seen the first two Spider-man films, but I'm told this third instalment in the franchise is the weakest of the bunch. Myself, I thought it was fairly mediocre, but too long (as most films are these days), shambolic and utterly cringe-inducing throughout much of its second half.

Anyway, in terms of transfer quality, the detail in the Blu-ray release may well be the best I've ever seen. Encoding is also superlative, and indeed, were it not for one small niggle, this would probably have been my top-rated disc of all time, at least in terms of film-sourced material. Unfortunately, it is let down by a handful of shots that have been artificially sharpened (see the first and fourth images below). The rest of the film looks stellar, but this small number of problematic shots lets the side down, meaning that Spider-man 3 falls shy of the coveted 10/10 position, instead earning a respectable 9.5.

Spider-man 3
(Sony Pictures, UK, AVC, 41 GB)

High definition refinements

I've made some alterations to the HD Image Quality Rankings page, despite it being just over twenty-four hours old. Structurally, I've altered the HTML code to make it less of a hassle for me to update and move various titles around.

As it turns out, this was a wise move, because moving titles around is exactly what I've been doing this afternoon. There have been no jaw-dropping alterations (Ratatouille didn't suddenly become a 1/10 title or anything, and Universal remains the only studio to hold the dubious honour of having titles in both the 10/10 and 0/10 categories), but I did take the opportunity to tweak a number of titles in the 9, 8, 7 and 6 out of 10 categories. Several titles have been moved down a grade as I've built up a broader picture of the range of image quality possible in high definition (for example, I could no longer justify having Mission Impossible II remain a 7/10 transfer, so down it went to a 6). There has also been some degree or rearrangement within the various grades, particularly the 6s, done as an attempt to make the list more linear than it had become recently thanks to a steady influx of new titles, not all of which could be directly compared against each other. The crummier Universal catalogue titles have been reshuffled somewhat, to acknowledge that, for example, the soft, diffuse look of The Game is preferable to Lost in Translation and its harsh edge enhancement. One title, the remastered edition of The Fifth Element, has also received an upgrade from a high 7 to a low 8.

The biggest change, however, has been the splitting of the 10/10 ranking into two separate categories. I have always felt that, with HD, 10/10 should truly mean perfection, as good as it gets within the limitations of lossy compression. Looking at the previous list, which started with Open Season and ended with The Reaping, it was clear that there was a discrepancy in image quality between the 10s at the top and those at the bottom. That's not to say that there are any obvious problems with The Reaping's transfer - on the contrary, I think it's pretty flawless - but, if you watch it side by side with something like Silent Hill, it's pretty clear that Silent Hill leaps off the screen as the more impressive of the two. That, in all likelihood, is simply because Silent Hill is razor sharp and The Reaping less so - it's not a flaw in The Reaping, just evidence that its materials have less inherent detail. However, I wanted the 10/10 transfers to come as close as possible to using every one of the 2,073,600 pixels available in a 1080p transfer, so any transfer that wasn't cutting the mustard in that regard has been moved into the new 9.5 category. These are still, by and large, beautiful reproductions of their sources that can't be faulted, but they don't have that extra "punch".

The creation of this new category has also allowed me to recognise some titles that do have that "punch" but were let down by minor failing - such as the occasional compression artefacts in Transformers and the handful of over-sharpened shots in Spider-man 3 (watched it last night - okay film, but one which ransacks its self-dignity something rotten during its ridiculous second half). These are titles which would previously have been in the 9/10 category, but which didn't really feel like they belonged there. Mission Impossible III, for example, easily has as much detail as Casino Royale, but is let down by some mild artefacting in a handful of shots. Beautiful, stunning transfer 99% of the time, but with a few teeny niggles that prevent it from being a 10. Therefore, the 9.5 category has also gained some former 9s, which are now free to mingle with some of the former 10s which were demoted.

Ask and ye shall receive

Well, I've taken today as annual leave (my parents are away for the weekend, and, if I was going out to work, I would have had to get up at 6 AM to walk the dogs beforehand, so this means less hassle beforehand), so I decided to take the opportunity to answer a reader request and put together a permanent HD Image Quality rankings list.

You may be aware of my semi-infrequent postings in which I provide a breakdown of the various HD releases I've seen and how their image quality compares. When I first jumped aboard the high definition bandwagon back in the summer of 2006, I immediately began to notice major discrepancies between the ratings being awarded to the image quality of HD DVD and Blu-ray releases on major review sites, and what I was seeing with my own eyes. As with standard definition DVD, I quickly lost track of the number of times a reviewer would praise a transfer to the heavens, only for me to discover that it was in fact blurry, filtered and/or edge enhanced, or for them to utterly trash (or at the very least remain indifferent to) discs that turn out to feature smooth, natural, film-like image quality. Broadly speaking, there seems to be a lack of understanding among reviewers, even so-called professional ones, of what constitutes a filmic "look" and how to accurately describe the various strengths and weaknesses on display in a transfer. I thought, and still think, that reviews such as these can potentially cause damage to the format (a distributor, for example, might see that a filtered and/or edge enhanced title is receiving rave reviews and therefore mandate that all transfers have the same work done on them) and bring the profession into disrepute (by appearing ignorant).

Therefore, I made up my mind to add my own voice, wherever possible, and "call it as I see it". Initially, reviewing every disc that landed on my doormat wasn't too much of a tall order, but, as I ended up buying or otherwise receiving more and more discs, this became increasingly difficult until, fairly quickly, I realised that it would be impossible to write in detail about every single HD DVD and Blu-ray disc I'd seen. This is why I decided to create the rankings chart.

I was recently asked if I would consider creating a specific section on the site in which to store all this information, the contents of which would be continually updated and therefore meaning that there would be a permanent URL to which to refer, rather than having to wait for each new unscheduled update. I agreed, and the results, which I knocked together over the course of a couple of hours this morning, can be seen here.

300 half-naked men

Last night, I finally got a chance to sit down and watch the HD DVD release of 300, which had been sitting on my shelf for nearly three months. Unfortunately, the wait was most assuredly not worth it. While the transfer itself was absolutely stellar, I found myself phenomenally bored by what turned out to be little more than a two-hour display of testosterone, CG and tedious fight scenes. It's blatantly the most homoerotic movie Hollywood has put out in the last few years, and I suppose for that alone it deserves some kudos, but unfortunately homoeroticism doesn't float my boat, and there was precious little else to entertain me. If your idea of fun is watching a gaggle of men puffing out their ludicrously overdeveloped torsos, wandering around in skimpy pants and fighting each other, then you may get a kick out of this. I personally just found it all rather boring.

300
(Warner, USA, VC-1)

High definition hootenanny

A handful of discs have landed on my doormat over the last couple of days. First up, on Tuesday, was a check disc for Optimum's UK HD DVD release of Wolf Creek, replacing the Blu-ray release which wouldn't play in my Japanese Playstation 3 thanks to a strange bug called region coding. I've taken a quick look at it in advance of putting together a full review for DVD Times, and I can report quite categorically that those who already own the Weinstein Company's US release should stick with it. Optimum have inexplicably decided to encode their version using MPEG2, and the result is a heck of a lot of artefacting. You still get a nicely detailed picture, and some shots do look flawless, but the number of shots that show excessive macro-blocking make this a less than immersive experience.

Oh, and the menus appear to be bugged, at least for Xbox 360 users: the scene selection screen won't load. The on-screen overlay disappears, leaving the background footage to play in an infinite loop, requiring the disc to be ejected and reinserted.

Then, on Wednesday, while I was out at work, the Blu-ray release of Masters of Horror: Season 1, Volume 3, containing Don Coscarelli's Incident On and Off a Mountain Road, Tobe Hooper's Dance of the Dead and Larry Cohen's Pick Me Up, arrived. Then, today, this was supplemented by the fourth and final volume of Masters of Horror's first season, containing Takeshi Miike's Imprint (the episode which so horrified the executives that they refused to air it in the US), Joe Dante's Homecoming and Mick Garris' Chocolate. Given that the only episode I've watched so far is Sick Girl in Volume 2 (having previously seen Jenifer one and a half times, which was more than enough), it looks like I've got quite a bit of viewing ahead of me.

I've run out of Pan puns

Another day, another HD gallery. This one is for Optimum's recent UK HD DVD release of Pan's Labyrinth, a film which looks decent but falls short of brilliance. As I said in my review:

It's a good transfer, but one with some noticeable flaws, most noticeably a strange "eroded" appearance that appears to be the result of attempting to suck out the film grain. As a result, textures tend to look a bit waxy and "cut-out", particularly faces, while a lot of the fine detail has been removed from the foliage in the scenes taking place in the woodland. It's a strange effect, as it means there is a superficial sense of crispness, but not the sort of detail you would expect from an image so sharp.

Pan's Labyrinth
(Optimum, UK, VC-1)

More Hellgate chuckles

I continue to be impressed by the attention to detail that goes into Hellgate: London. Tonight, while wandering through one of the many tunnels connecting one underground station to another, I happened to glance down at the ground and found myself staring at a copy of the Daily Mirror. Not only is it an extremely accurate replica of that oh-so-respectable publication, they have also placed it in the condition and location in which it is most likely to be found in real life: in a sodden heap on the floor of a dank subway station, probably covered in piss stains.

A new patch was released for the game yesterday, by the way, and I'm happy to report that stability seems to have been improved substantially. I played for several hours this evening, and, while I did get one "Out of memory" error, bumping me back to the desktop, I've yet to experience a complete system freeze. Keep it up, guys, and you may have a complete game before too long. The patch notes are available here.

DVD debacle

I was out today at university, seeing my MLitt dissertation supervisor for a discussion about my PhD progress, the proceeds of which have left me with plenty of food for thought as regards various avenues that I can explore from now on. While I was waiting for the bus home, I decided to browse the shelves of Fopp, and came away with a couple of books which may or may not prove interesting and/or useful - Best Movies of the 70s by Jürgen Müller and Revolution! - The Explosion of World Cinema in the 60s by Peter Cowie. Oh, and I also picked up a copy of Tokyo Godfathers on DVD - one of the few anime films that I really like. Oh, if only Sony had released it on Blu-ray instead of director Satoshi Kon's most recent film, the incredibly disappointing Paprika.

When I got home, I discovered a package from DVD Pacific waiting for me, containing The Mario Bava Collection Volume 2. This is an incredibly generous package, containing seven films (the cover lists eight, but I'm not really convinced that Lisa and the Devil and House of Exorcism should truly be counted as two separate titles, particularly given that Rabid Dogs and Kidnapped have been counted as one in the same package).

I've taken a brief look at all of the discs, and the best-looking appear to be Lisa and the Devil, Rabid Dogs/Kidnapped and Four Times That Night, while the worst-looking are Bay of Blood and 5 Dolls for an August Moon, with Baron Blood and Roy Colt & Winchester Jack somewhere in the middle. A real patchwork of sources has been used, with the transfers for Bay of Blood and 5 Dolls for an August Moon looking suspiciously like DVNR'd versions of the same transfers used for the old Image Entertainment discs (I haven't seen the earlier versions of Baron Blood, Roy Colt & Winchester Jack or Four Times That Night, so I can't comment on them). Lisa and the Devil definitely has a brand new transfer (House of Exorcism looks much poorer, but is anamorphic, unlike the old Image version, so I doubt they are from the same master), while the Rabid Dogs/Kidnapped disc appears to be the same one that Anchor Bay released separately earlier this year.

This is a six-disc set, with Lisa and the Devil/House of Exorcism and Rabid Dogs/Kidnapped sharing a disc each, while, for some bizarre reason, 5 Dolls for an August Moon and Four Times That Night are to be found on either side of a solitary double-sided disc. Weird.

Anyway, looking forward to catching me some Bava, along with some Tim Lucas commentaries.

Hair of the rat

If I ever met Pixar's Rick Sayre, I would shake him warmly by the hand and say "Thank you, sir, for a job well done." The guy is possibly the best professional encoder in the business - he struck gold with the PAL DVD of The Incredibles, and he's done so again with Ratatouille. Even the absolute best HD releases generally have mild compression artefacts if you pause and zoom in close enough to inspect them in minute detail. Not so with Ratatouille. The image is, to my eyes, completely flawless. It just doesn't get better than this.

Ratatouille
(Disney, USA, AVC)

Oh, nausea!

I got through the whole of today without feeling sick once. I put this down to my decision to stop taking the Regulan (which my GP told me was probably a wise move when I suggested it to him), which was emptying my bowels at an impressive rate but leaving me feeling like crap for several hours after each, erm, evacuation. By the way, the GP (a different one from the one who put me on the stuff in the first place) gave me a pretty thorough examination, but could find no obvious explanation as to why I have been experiencing the pains I've been feeling. He said there was a possibility that it had been brought on by a varicose vein, which would correct itself in time, but otherwise couldn't offer any definitive diagnosis, and so has referred me to the hospital for an ultrasound, x-rays and the like. I'm feeling somewhat less worried now, though, because he obviously didn't consider it to be anything life-threatening, and the pains do seem to have abated somewhat over the last 24 hours, which makes me wonder if they were partly being accentuated by anxiety. I know that, if you constantly worry about something, it's always going to seem worse. Conversely, I managed to forget my aches and pains at various points throughout the day, which I take to be a good sign.

Unfortunately, the people responsible for mangling Suspiria (see my previous post on the issue here) seem to be doing their damnedest to make me feel as ill as possible. I got home from work this evening to find screen captures of the upcoming French 3-disc collector's edition from Wild Side waiting for me, and, judging by them, the new French transfer looks just as bad, if not worse than, the Italian "definitive" DVD. I've cancelled my pre-order - if it looks this bad, then all the bonus materials in the world won't convince me that it's worth shelling out €30 for.

In more positive news, my HD DVD of Stanley Kubrick's Full Metal Jacket arrived today from Amazon.com. I haven't seen the previous 2006 HD DVD release of this film, but apparently it looked like crap, so I'm happy to report that this new remastered edition looks excellent, along the same likes as 2001: A Space Odyssey and The Shining rather than A Clockwork Orange and Eyes Wide Shut. Detail is excellent, and this is definitely one of the best-looking discs Warner have put out, regardless of when the film itself was made (they've put out plenty of HD releases of 2006 and 2007 films that look vastly inferior). This is another "major" film that I've yet to see, so I'm looking forward to sitting down to watch both it and The Shining at some point in the near future.

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.

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.

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.