Halo Wars Review
Ensemble’s hotly anticipated console RTS Halo Wars is finally upon us. And we are all asking the same thing: can an RTS work on a console? Breathe a sigh of relief when I tell you, yes. And not only does the game work, it works well. There is one other big question surrounding this game, how does the Halo franchise work when put in the hands of someone other than Bungie? Incredibly well.
Halo Wars takes place 20 years before the events of Halo: Combat Evolved, meaning all new characters and settings, which is far from a bad thing. Ensemble creates a wonderful story that hooked me more than either Halo or Halo 2. You start on Harvest, with the Humans and Covenant still fighting over the planet. Anyone who has delved into the Halo lore is going to love this game for showing you some of the things it does (don’t worry, no spoilers here). And people new to Halo, or who never really got that into the story, will love how accusable the history of the universe is made. As if a grade A original story weren’t enough, a Halo Timeline can be found in the extras menu, with key historic points in time to be viewed once you find them (represented by black boxes) in the Campaign maps.
Game play wise Halo Wars is quite an accomplishment. Many have tried, and failed, to successfully bring a Real Time Strategy game to home consoles. Of course, almost all of these games have been ports of PC games, and of course trying to compress a keyboard’s worth of controls to the ten or so buttons a console has is not going to work. Ensemble took the only logical step and built Halo Wars from the ground up specifically for the Xbox 360 controller. While this results in a more simplified RTS than genre fans might be used to, it in no way produces a shallow or empty game.
For Halo fans the big draw to Halo Wars will be the campaign for it’s story and what it adds to the Halo Universe. For RTS fans, the main draw is going to be the online multiplayer, which works flawlessly. You have the choice of 1v1, 2v2, or 3v3 game types for either offline (with AI) or online play. The game also supports system link, if anyone still does that. As I said, the online play comes off near perfect. Match making is quick and pairing opponents by talent level results in fair fights, usually. Gamers have the option of 6 different leaders to choose to play as, all with their own unique abilities and units. The end result is variety, as rarely will two games ever go the same way. With a good selection of maps, and I’m sure more to come, multiplayer seems to be able to provide an endless amount of play time.
Final word on Halo Wars is that it is worth the $60, both for Halo Fans, and RTS fans alike. Anyone who has been dying for an RTS on the Xbox has finally gotten exactly what they wanted. Although the campaign is a bit short, it was still very enjoyable, and I have no doubts I’ll play through it again. Did I mention that the campaign is Co-op? Online multiplayer is amazing and very fulfilling. The game looks and sounds absolutely amazing, and the cut scenes are some of the prettiest I have ever seen. Ensemble really could not have ‘ended’ on a higher note.
Watchmen Review
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Well the most anticipated movie since The Dark Knight hits theaters today. And everyone is on the edge of their seats to see if Hollywood can pull off 4 (Iron Man, Hulk, The Dark Knight) successful comic book movies in a row. Although that raises the question of does Watchmen even qualify as a comic book…but that’s another show. So to answer the question before you all die of anticipation: Yes.
Zack Snyder seems to have an incredible talent for adapting still art into motion. However you feel about the quality of 300 as a film, you cannot deny that Snyder did what no one else had been able to do when making a comic based film, he made the move look and feel like the literature. Snyder accomplishes the same thing in Watchmen. Never for a minute do you doubt that you are seeing the world of Watchmen come to life before your eyes. The characters and costumes and environments are lifted beautifully right from the pages of Dave Gibbons’ amazing art. The writing in the film is word for word lifted from the novel throughout most of the movie. Even though some lines have been moved around or given to different characters, there is hardly a moment of dialogue in the film that you won’t remember Alan Moore having written. Visually the film is incredible. Aside from recreating perfectly the alternate 1985 New York City, the characters look remarkably identical to their original incantations. Notable differences include Silk Spectre II and Ozymandis. I really don’t think anyone is going to complain about the recreation of Ozy’s costume, lets be honest. And Silk Spectre’s change was an understandable one. Rorschach looks absolutely amazing, and the work done with his mask in the film is perfect. The film is absolutely beautiful. The colors and textures of the environments really work to serve as a visual representation of the current in film emotion. The bright colorful scenes are as vivid as possible, and the dark cold foreboding sets are as terrifying as any haunted summer camp.
Tyler Bates reunites with Snyder to provide one more incredible score. Though thinking back I really can’t think of a score that Bates did that was not amazing. But what really got me was not the original score, but how well the licensed music was used. Song’s like All Along The Watchtower not only fit in with the movies time but serve as a great narrative to what is happening on screen.
One of the largest problems with comic adaptations is finding the right people for the right roles (See: Ben Affleck in Daredevil, Topher Grace in Spider-Man 3, Nick Cage in Ghostrider, George Clooney in Batman And Robin) and amazingly enough every role was casted perfectly. Billy Crudup’s voice for Dr. Manhattan was perfect, depicting the absolute lack of feeling and caring and emotion that makes me hate the character so much. Jeffery Dean Morgan’s performance as The Comedian actually made me change my opinion as to who my favorite character in Watchmen is. I could keep going, but I would literally be naming the entire cast one at a time. Take my word, that every actor gives an amazing performance and brings the characters to life in ways that even the greatest optimist could not have predicted.
My one complaint with the film comes in it’s length. Clocking in around 2 and a half hours, naturally the movie drags at some points. Not that the story was ever really uninteresting, but there were a few times where I found myself actually bored with the movie, and just wanting it to end. This is not a movie for the casual film goer, or someone who just enjoys comic book movies. This film is for Watchmen fans. Not that it is impossible for someone who has not read the novel to enjoy it, but it will be very overwhelming for someone with no previous knowledge of the story.
Oh, and there is a lot of male nudity. Not something that really bothers me in films, but this time round enough really was enough. Credit to the filmmakers for not shying away from it, but really. But a small issue.
The final word is that this movie was great. The more I think about it the more I enjoyed it. Yes it is long, yes it tends to drag on in parts. But there is so much to look at and see that it is very easy to get lost in the film. And it is hard to ignore a film full of great performances. I am very glad this movie finally got made, I think right now was the perfect time for it. Watchmen is a thoroughly enjoyable experience.
The Final Stage 