Ok, I've decided to start writing a series of "Red" blogs on N4G. I'm gonna talk about games and movies I played and watched as well as the upcoming stuff.
-Reviews-
(Games) TimeShift, Kane & Lynch, DiRT, Skate, Soldier of Fortune Payback
(Films) Atonement, Saw IV, D-War / Dragon Wars
-Previews-
(Games) Burnout Paradise, Turok
(Films) Cloverfield, 27 Dresses, Teeth
There we go:
-Reviews-
(Games)
TimeShift: 8/10
+ Cool and stylish intro movie
+ Great graphics from a technical standpoint
+ Attention to detail with some really nice enviroments
+ Cool time powers that actually work differently from Max Payne and FEAR time systems
+ Great and deep multiplayer along with some innovations
- Seriously easy even on hardest difficulty
- Short singleplayer
- Confusing and rather weak story with mediocre ending
Soldier of Fortune: Payback: 3/10
+ Some decent graphics but nothing that should bring so many frame-rate slowdowns
+ Cool over the top violence, blood and gore
- Terrible and linear level design that feels 10 years old
- Stupid enemy AI and problemic control
- Seriously repetitve
- Shorter than even some episodic games!
- Cheap design and production values compared to expensive price
- Huge bug-fest
DiRT: 7.5/10
+ Great presentation along with superb menues
+ Realistic and accurate controls
+ Lots of real life cars and stuff
+ Good variety of modes
+ Lots of content from career to many championships
- Not so hot graphics with terrible frame-rate (Mostly Xbox 360 version)
- Lack of enough non-Rally tracks
- Uneven difficulty
Skate: 8.5/10
+ Great graphics and superb presentation along with awesome intro movie
+ Incredibly realistic but fun controls resulting in real skating simulation
+ Lots of content, licensed material and stuff to do
+ Cool soundtrack and audio
+ Sandbox elements in a big city with enough freedom
- No real progress in gameplay after first half of game
- Seems too hard at first
- Gets repetitive
Kane & Lynch: 4/10
+ Psychopath known as Lynch, his dialogue and some of his crazy actions
+ Huge levels and fight areas
+ Full Co-op support
+ Cool and innovative multiplayer
- PS2 graphics with some serious frame-rate drops
- Weak Story that has good start and decent finish but the progress is horrible
- Lack of innovation in cover and shoot gameplay
- Terribly buggy implementation of said mechanic
- Weak enemy AI
- Linear gameplay until the final chapter(s)
- So many bugs and issues and feels seriously unfinished
- Really disappointing game from developers of Hitman
(Films)
Saw IV: 6/10
+ Seeing Jigsaw again
+ Seeing the story kinda continue after Saw 3's ending
+ Still pretty entertaining
+ Music is superb as usual
- Not needed sequel and obvious franchise milking
- Unworthy follow-up to the excellent Saw 3
- Direct-to-Video feel and look
- Bigger plot holes than previous films combined
- Feels really rushed
- Mediocre ending compared to awesome final scene of each other Saw
D-War / Dragon Wars: 3/10
+ Robert Forster
+ Some cool CG scenes and battles
+ A non-hollywood movie that tries to be Transformers...
- ... But fails most of the time
- Some scenes with terribly bad and obvious CG like choppers and such
- Terrible acting
- Horrible plot that makes Uwe Boll film stories seem decent!
- Worse dialogues
- Some scenes are good for a laugh but overall, watching this film makes you feel dumb (I was warned by great N4G member but didn't listen...)
- Terribly underused Robert Forster
Atonement: 9.5/10
+ The best book to movie adaptation ever
+ Easily the best picture of 2007 and worthy of it's Golden Globe best picture win
+ Terrific acting and proof that Keira Knightley can actually act sometimes
+ Superb and effective music
+ Unbelievably great photography, lighting, art direction
+ Best ending in years
-Previews-
(Games) (Scores are predictions)
Burnout Paradise: 8.5-9/10
+ It's Burnout!
+ Solid visuals and frame-rate
+ Insanely good audio
+ Finally getting the open-world in a racing game concept right.
+ Incredibly superb online opitons and seamless feel
+ No menu or loading...
- Which means no real retry option (Though they could have learned some stuff from Skate)
- Lacks of many classic modes specially the Crash
- May be to different for classic Burnout fans
Turok: 7.5-8/10
+ Good use of Unreal Engine 3 with great animations and effects
+ Revamping of a classic franchise
+ Adding dinsours to the usuall FPS mix
+ Great enemy / monster AI
+ Hollywood class voice acting
- Changing the IP too much, from Turok character to now more realistic settings
- Somehow color and lifeless graphics and some really Gears-ish spots
- Not so perfect AI and misuse of dinosours in it
- Another FPS!?
(Films):
Cloverfield: 7.5-9/10
+ A surprisingly well hidden movie
+ JJ Abrams as producer
+ Promise of a really different monster movie
+ Positive early word
- Not so big bugdet for such a film
- May be over-hyped
- Some may not like the camera / FPS viewpoint
27 Dresses: 5-6/10
+ Katherine Heigl of Knocked-up
+ James Marsden in another great role after Hairspray
+ A female director that might have a different view
- Some negative early reviews and press
- Not so suble direction
- Seriously cliched
- It's the time of bad comedy romantics
Teeth: 7-8/10
+ Superb and disturbing idea
+ Finally, a different horror movie with original idea
+ Great early buzz
- So many delays
- Censor problems
- Maybe too indie
It is done, hope you enjoy it :)
