Review of 2010

2010 was a great year for movies...and a not so good year for games. Either way, a year has passed and I feel I should at least talk about the honorable mentions of the year. To start off with, nothing completed wowed me this year. Usually something does. Hopefully 2011 will bring that "wow" feeling back. Well, let's just dive right in.

A lot of good movies came out this year such as Scott Pilgrim, Toy Story 3, How To Train Your Dragon, Let Me In, Shutter Island, etc. but I really want to talk about the top dogs and my personal favorites.

A Coen Brother's film will almost always make my list so I supposed I could be a little biased for being a critic, but the film was excellent. It had a smart cast, was filmed well, had some subtle funny moments, and still held true to that Coen Brother's "feel." Overall I'd give it a 10/10. It was a great film. Nothing else much to say.

Shutter Island by Martin Scorsese is another one of my picks. Though it was viewed overall as an average movie, I saw more in it than the critics did. I used to not like Leonardo but I've put that aside and I've come to realize that he may be one of the greatest actors out there. The movie had a chilling feel to it as it should've and it even made me think a little bit more about whether becoming a psychologist was actually the right choice. ;) The film had an expected but still nice twist near the end which was a nice touch, but still predictable. The filming was nice but it didn't seem up to par with True Grit. Overall I'd give it an 8.5/10.

And oh yeah, the grand daddies. Inception and Social Network. Inception gets a 10/10 for being so creative, and Social Network gets a 10/10 for excellent cinematography, music, acting, humor, and much much more.

So there you have it. I lied, I'm not dealing with Video Games tonight. I'm tired so I'm going to bed. I'll give you a hint, one of them rhymes with Tack Bops. ;)

Resident Evil 4 (better late than never)

RE4 is one of those games that leaves its audience in complete aw. It's the most you could ever ask for in a video game. It has a compelling storyline, incredible voice acting, a large variety of weapons, and challenging boss fights. Not to mention the amazing graphics. The graphics rival the best wii game graphics. There is also replay value in RE4. When you beat the game you can keep all your money and your upgraded weapons and items. You can buy infinite rockets or a typewriter with infinite ammo for 1,000,000 dollars a piece. It sounds steep, but a few runthroughs of the game and you'll have them in no time. When you beat the game for the first time, you also unlock two modes called mercenaries and assignment ada which both add to the overall quality of the game. With all of the great features RE4 has to offer, it would seem silly to not own it. It's that good of a game. The best. Really. 100/100

How to Train Your Dragon

Dreamworks has made yet another exciting film. How to Train Your Dragon focuses on a young boy named Hiccup who meets a dragon of what the vikings call a "Night Fury." The Vikings view the dragons as savage beasts that will not hesitate to kill you, yet Hiccup, after shooting down his first dragon, finds himself unable to kill it. Unfortunately for the dragon, one of his tail flaps has gone missing so he finds himself stuck on the ground. Hiccup and the dragon slowly become friends and Hiccup realizes that everything that the Vikings have ever taught him is incorrect. The dragons personalities in the film resemble a dog's. They are loving, tame, and playful. Only are they aggressive when they have to protect themselves.

Though I didn't splurge to see it in 3D, the visuals are very good. They aren't Pixar good, but then again, nothing ever is. From what I've heard, the 3D makes the movie a very thrilling experience so I would say pay the extra couple of bucks and see it in 3D. Anyway, the overall plot of the movie seemed to flow very smoothly and hiccup himself is a very likable character, but the his friends did not have very memorable personalities in my opinion. It was almost as if all his friends, minus Astrid (the girl he likes) could be completely removed from the film entirely. Also, not to bash Jonah Hill, but having him voice a character was a bad move. Of course, Hiccup's dragon named "Toothless" is bursting with personality. He's got an aggressive outer layer, but once that peels away, toothless is a very happy and lovable dragon. Hiccup's personality and Toothless' personality seem to work perfectly together, and it makes the film a very nice experience for the movie goer.

Though the plot is so so, the extra characters are useless, and the animation still can't top Pixar, the film is a wonderful experience, and Hiccup and Toothless alone make the film worth seeing. 65/100

Borderlands

Borderlands is one of those rare gems in video games. It doesn't have good graphics, or a detailed story-line. What it does offer is very addictive gameplay, thousands of weapons, and the ability to play with three of your friends. In borderlands, your character starts at level 1, and tries to get all the way to level 50. On the way, you face all different sorts of enemies including Skags, Bandits, Lava Crab Worms, Spiderants, Drifters (If you get the expansion), and the Crimson Lance to name a few. Pandora is full of all sorts of different enemies all with their own unique personalities. The weapons in Pandora are the reason I can't stop playing. I'm constantly looking for the best sniper rifle, the best machine gun, the best SMG, the best revolver, etc. They have all sorts of stats to look at at like the amount of damage the gun delivers, the accuracy, the fire rate of the weapon, how likely it is that the enemy will be set on fire, shocked, corroded, or blow up. The best part about the weapons in Borderlands is that there are an infinite amount of them. Every time you open a chest, you will get a new weapon. Even if it's the same chest you've opened before, there will be a new weapon in there. There are duplicates of weapons in the game, but it's rare to see the exact same weapon twice. Aside from all of that, borderlands also has $30 dollars of solid downloadable content. You can relax and kill some zombies in Dr. Ned's Zombie Island, or really put your skills to the test with Mad Moxxi's Underdome Riot, and the Secret Armory of General Knoxx. Although borderlands doesn't offer a great story-line or great graphics, it makes up for it for having possibly the most addicting gameplay I have ever seen in any game. 90/100

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2

You don't have to change a lot from the first modern warfare to make the second one just as good, and that's what Infinity Ward did. They played it safe, and stuck to the basics that make this game great. A solid roughly eight hour campaign, great online gameplay, and a new feature called Special Ops, where players gain stars for completing various missions. In the campaign, a player can choose between recruit, regular, hardened or veteran difficulty. Forewarning, if you dare to do hardened or veteran, be prepared to have your patience tested. The game is not easy, and beating it on hardened or veteran will get you a gold trophy on ps3. The campaign has a variety of missions, such as stealth, breaching, and just straight out "run and gun" missions. The main goal of the campaign is to take out a man named Makarov who is responsible for the current war between the Russians and the U.S. I won't give anything away, but nearing the end, the game picks up, and it gets pretty damn fun (and tough). The online is not a lot different from Modern Warfare, but it's new maps are a blast to play on. I still can't wait to play the map Wastelands again so I blow up some people lying in a bunker with my M203 Launcher haha. The online multiplayer is fast paced, exciting, and creative. You can fight however you want, and with whatever perks you want. If you want to have increased knifing range, you equip the perk Commando. If you want to be able to run continuously without tiring, you equip marathon. The variety is endless. Whether you want to blow stuff up with grenades, snipe from afar, or knife your way to victory, online gives you the option to choose whatever you want.

The special ops is a new featured added to the call of duty's which players do missions in order to gain stars. The player gains 1 star for beating a mission on regular, 2 stars for beating it on hardened, and 3 for beating it on veteran. There are five different tiers of missions, all getting increasing harder all the way up to the finale, which is killing 15 Juggernauts. Trust me, killing one Juggernaut on veteran is difficult enough. Infinity Ward even says in the description of the level "Is this really even possible?"

Overall, the game is not that different from Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, but it didn't need to be. COD4 got it right the first time, and all MW2 had to do was keep everything good, and leave out the bad. A must have. 90/100

Avatar

Hello again. It's been a long while since I've reviewed a video game or movie, and I figured it's about time I start doing it again.

Avatar

With a budget nearing 300 million, it seemed highly unlikely that James Cameron's Avatar would make a profit, but it did. It really did. Avatar is now the highest grossing film nationally and internationally. It just recently topped Titanic for the highest grossing film. Titanic, which was also directed by James Cameron, grossed 1.2 billion worldwide, while Avatar, being in theaters only eight weeks, has already accumulated over 1.7 billion. So what is it about Avatar that made it so much money. Was it the overdone advertising, such as Avatar Coke Zero, the Mcdonald’s gift cards, and the millions of commercials, or was it something else?

The first week Avatar was released it made about seventy million. Spiderman 3 made over 110 million it’s first weekend and made nowhere near the amount of money that Titanic made. If you think about it, a movie never makes more money the following week after opening weekend. But Avatar did. It made a lot more. There’s really one explanation to why it made more the following weeks: word of mouth. People really enjoyed the movie. And there’s good reason why. Avatar is visually the most spectacularly film ever made. The world of Pandora takes the film goer on a journey, and it’s no longer a movie. It’s an adventure, and you’re right there with the Na’vi (Natives of Pandora).

The main premise of the movie is about a handicapped U.S. military soldier trying to negotiate with the Na’vi to leave their territory so the military can drill up their land for a rare material named ununtanium. The plot is somewhat predictable, but the plot isn’t really what makes the movie good. The visuals make up for any holes in the plot. The whole world of Pandora is absolutely spectacular. The various animals, the vegetation, the floating mountains, are all so believable. In a logical sense, we understand that this is just cinema, and none of this is possible, but our creative self wants to believe it is real. We want to believe Pandora is real just as we want Star Wars and Lord of the Rings to be real. Avatar deserves all the attention it is getting, and if it doesn’t win the Oscar for best visual effects, I will be highly surprised. 90/100

Killzone 2/Wipeout HD

Killzone 2 has many great aspects to it, but gameplay isn't really one of them. The music in the game is good, the graphics are spectacular, but the campaign is pretty mediocre. I guess you can't expect too much of a story in any shooters, but it seemed like this one should've been better. There were plenty of great guns, plenty of helghast to shoot, and great boss fights (though few in number). There are a few problems with the story. There is little to no character development. You don't really get to know anyone that well, but then again, the campaign is pretty short, at about only 10 hours, if you're good. There is also a weak plotline. The plot is literally to stop Radec (Visari's main man) from getting codes necessary to control nuclear bombs. There really isn't much more to it than that. Literally, the entire campaign is spent trying to find Radec. Of course, Radec is one heck of an opponent to verse. He can cloak himself and then re-appear right next to you, while almost instantaneously kill you with his knife. I guess Radec further proves my point that the boss battles are fantastic, but the story and the stereotypical helghast soldier get very old, very fast. It's a game of fantastic graphics, great weapons, okay gameplay, and a bad story. All in all, it's still worth purchasing, but lower your expectations a little bit.  90/100

Wipeout HD is the newest installment in the ongoing Wipeout series. This game packs a bunch for being only 19.99 on the playstation network. Wipeout is all about fast, brutal racing, and that's all it is. That's all it has to be to be great. Sure, it's difficult, but that doesn't make it bad. That's the thing that separates me from most of the other critics. I enjoy challenging games. I like games that you have to work for to accomplish what you want. I like games that require you to push yourself to your limits to achieve in them. Anyways, about the game. The game has online capabilities, a campaign mode, and a racebox mode. The game has many fun aspects to it such as zone mode, where you race until you smash your vehicle, and you gradually go faster as you progress from level 1 to level 2, or from level 2 to level 3, and so on. There are 12 vehicles types in the game, some of which you need to unlock to race with. Every vehicle has 100,000 loyalty points you can earn, which can get you the 100,000 loyalty points trophy, and can also unlock all of the vehicles skins for that vehicle. The game has 8 different main stages where you can race the computers on novice, skilled, or elite mode. Elite mode is very difficult and can get extremely frustrating. The computers can beat you by 1 second one run, and then 12 seconds the next, even if you got the same time both runs. But eventually, you will be able to win. It is not impossible. It is just very hard. Wipeout HD's is also one of the two PS3 games with a 4/4 difficulty of obtaining 100% of the trophies, so if you're up for the challenge, get this game. Also, if you just want to have some fun and race on novice mode, that's fine too. With graphics in full 1080p, there is nothing not to like about this game. 90/100