Thoughts on The Sky Crawlers

Hmmm... While I have kept up on Twitter, I haven't posted anything here in quite awhile, like a month or something. Well, that's because I haven't had anything that I considered significant enough that couldn't be posted on Twitter. I really should fix that.

Well, that brings me to the new reason here: The Sky Crawlers. This is an animated film (anime if you want to be a weaboo, I personally think this rises above the level of just being a simple anime) directed by Mamoru Oshii and animated at studio Production I.G. Released theatrically in Japan in 2008, recently released on DVD/Blu-Ray in the US about a month or two ago (as of this writing). I managed to finally snag a copy at Best Buy earlier this week because I was too fracking lazy to go to Amazon and order it (:P), and watched it before going to work today.

Now, admittedly, I didn't go into this movie without knowing anything about it. I had seen a review of it on Anime News Network after the original theatrical release (unsure if this was the Japanese release or a limited US run). After watching, I quickly read through another review on a site I don't remember (and don't feel like Googling to find again). Both reviewers could not have been more different in how they understood the film, and both are equally valid. But, seeing as I read the ANN review long before I ever saw the movie itself (and, in all truth, if not for the ANN review the only reason I would have given this a second pass was because I like the director), and the other review was only read after, I was able to see alot of what the ANN reviewer noted, but at the same time not sure if that's what I got out of the film.

I, personally, am of the opinion that some movies should be seen by yourself, some with others, and even some that should be seen by yourself AND THEN with others. Right now, as I've only just seen it, I can't confirm, but its definitely the first, not the second, and possibly the third. As I haven't seen The Wrestler, nor seen the press kit, I can't say I got the same thing out of the movie as JS from ANN, but I'm sure the one or two of my friends I could actually get to watch will get something other than what I got out of it entirely.

(forgive me, but I don't remember the name of one of the three character I'm going to mention, so I'm just not going to state their names)

So what is it? The (incredibly limited) info on Wikipedia states that its based off a novel of the same name in a series also of the same name. The basic setup is that, in an alternate, post WWII history, world-spanning corporations hire pilots and stage battles for a populace that lives in peace, but is accustomed to war. The pilots in these battles are beings called "Kildren", people engineered to be adolescent and immortal, only dieing when killed in battle.

The movie starts when the protagonist arrives at the small base where he's been stationed, and despite being new, he falls into a routine such as if he's always been there. He does day to day operations of being a pilot, being a "war hero" to tourists, smoking, drinking beer (most likely Heineken from the appearance of the bottles :P), and sex with a local adult prostitute (despite being in his early teens at best). And its just a day to day existence. No beginning, no end, no past, no future. The only out of ordinary thing is The Teacher, an enemy ace that is unbeatable (and, as it later turns out, the former superior or the protagonist's base commander, AND AN ADULT). As things go, some of his fellow pilots get killed, only to be replaced by new people that look and act almost exactly the same, but with new names and no memories. No one seems to question this, though.

Things come to a head when a failed joint operation in the second half of the film allows several pilots from another base to transfer in. His base commander discusses how they exist solely for a meaningless war, and that their existence as Kildren, people with no pasts or futures meant to fight a war without meaning, is equally meaningless. One of the transfers also understands more about the Kildren themselves, genetically created to be immortal and then fight in an endless, meaningless war so that real people can feel the effects of war without actually having to see it directly. It is an endless cycle, and no one seems to care, even though the only way out is for someone to do something, anything, to change the way it all works. But the protagonist decides that it might be worth it to challenge The Teacher alone the next time he appears (*spoiler warning*and he fails SPETACULARLY*spoiler warning*).

Now, that was just a basic rundown, there's more to the events of the film. Really, if there's anything that I noticed from the very beginning is how unreal the world felt. Now I don't mean unreal in the way that the world is unrealistic. Even animated things can (and rightly do) have worlds that are believable within the context of the story. No, this setting feels unreal in that it feels very "off". I understand that its supposed to be lightly populated Europe, and the buildings are shown to have a lived-in quality, but even when the characters go to a city for the big operation in the middle of the film, it doesn't feel real. Now I mean that in the sense that the places the characters go and see have almost no people in them. The settings exist to be lived in, yet there doesn't seem to be anyone there. This isn't a bad thing, though. I actually think that this was part of Oshii's vision.

The film is primarily contemplative. Alot of time is spent watching as the characters going about their daily lives, which really aren't lives at all once you realize that its all just playacting. The Protagonist is initially curious of the person he is replacing, and while it is eventually revealed, it generally takes a backseat to the daily life. Even when they're finally revealed, the answers of the existence of the Kildren, the reasons of the war, and especially The Teacher, are left largely ambiguous. The base commander is herself one of the Kildren, and has been driven almost of the point of depression/insanity because she has seen the cycle so many times before, while the mechanic, an adult, seems to see, but knows there's nothing she can do about it.

And its all so sad, being a viewer that knows more than the characters, but being unable to do anything about it. And yet, it speaks volumes to me, a guy who feels like he's squandered away much more of his life than he should've. Sure, I like videogames and (some) comics, but I play more than I should. It also sort of makes me think of the ending to the Wanted movie last year, Westley's whole "This is what I'm doing, what the fuck are you doing?" line. So I have been asking myself recently (before actually seeing The Sky Crawlers) what the fuck I've been doing. And if anyone out there (that might be reading this) is stuck in a crappy, dead-end job (or some similar day-to-day existence), then think about what the fuck you're doing too. Nothing can change unless you want it to. I want to change, what about you?

Just some stuff

Gah, need to make a resolution to post more often, especially if I want to get better at writing. That's one of the two big things they say people need to do to become better writers. The other is to read, and in doing so learn from what other writers do, both good and bad. But, I typically don't have much to write that's actually blog worthy, as opposed to Twitter worthy. And while I know if I want to write something that could stand of chance of being published professionally I have to type it up on on PC, I much prefer doing anything creative with a pen and paper (rollerball pen, preferably a Pilot, but Uniballs are okay too). Actually, on the rare occasion I draw, I typically do it with a pen, instead of a pencil. Unless I really want something to be perfect, that is (I actually have a picture I want to do as a new avatar in mind right now).

Anyways, that's all neither here nor there. Like I alluded to before, I don't have a topic today, but I need to get something down. So this is pretty much a current events of sorts.

Currently playing Overlord 2. I'm around halfway through, I'm guessing, and I'm a little torn. Yeah, the idea of being a badass freakin' overlord is fun, but, so far I haven't felt like one. Not that its a bad game, its just basically Pikmen being controlled by a badass normal, except you're not all that badass, you just look badass. Kratos could bash through a phalanx without help... Also, the game has uneven framerate, especially when you've got alot of minions on screen, which is often. Anyways, I'm sure I'll finish it, but I'm pretty sure I'll be trading it in shortly thereafter. So I'ma just wring all the achievement points out of it while I can. Don't expect a full review from me.

Got a couple movies and some music too. Watchmen and Coraline on Blu-Ray, two movies that everyone should see, though for different reasons. Watchmen for the commentary and being one of the best comic book adaptations I've seen (anyone who says this isn't a good adaptation is too much of a blind fanboy to understand the realities of making adaptations of any written work). Coraline, well I don't want to be a name dropper, but the story its based on was written by Neil Gaiman, and that alone is worth the price of admission. But on top of that, the movie itself is stopmotion done by the same people that did Nightmare Before Christmas and Corpse Bride. And the story is enchanting, if dark, modern fantasy. On that note, I still need to get The Graveyard Book, but I already have 4 things currently on my reading list:

1) Multireal: David Louis Edelman (just started)

2) The Difference Engine: William Gibson and Bruce Sterling (been searching for this one for awhile)

3) Brilliance of the Moon: Lian Hearn

4) The Edge of the World: Kevin J. Anderson (I honestly didn't know he had a new book)

On the note of The Edge of the World, I only found out about it because of a story (on i09.com) about Kevin J. Anderson liking progressive rock, and how he got a new prog-rock group Roswell Six to do an album (their debut album, it appears) based on it. Music is a bit weird, but pretty good once you get used to the style. Album is called Terra Incognita: Beyond the Horizon, by the way.

And lastly, while the account has remained open, I haven't played FFXI for months, but with the announcement of FFIV, I'm considering installing and playing it again. I stopped playing LotRO, but I think the messed up work schedule has been a major factor in that. It may not be WoW, but its a good WoW clone, and it looks freakin' amazing if you can run it at full spec.

But whatever.

Just an idea

I had an idea. Actually, this isn't a new idea, but rather one I had well over a year ago, I just never wrote it down. But then, considering its doubtful that I'll ever work in MMOs, let alone videogames in general, I don't think I really need to write this down. But I will anyways, because its late (locally), I'm bored, and my internet is acting up and kicked me off BF:Bad Company. So there.

So why did I mention MMOs, you ask (only in my mind, anyways... *shifty eyes*)? Well, the idea involves using things that already exist in them in a way that hasn't been really thought of yet.

Well, we already have instanced content. For the uninformed (and anyone reading this shouldn't be), instanced content is pretty much where the game servers create an additional "instance" of an existing area that is seperate from the rest of the game world and usable by only the players within it. The reason for this is so that more players can experience more content without having to compete against other players to do so. It is typically (but not always) used with storyline or chain-quest areas, and are almost always very large and involved (for various reasons).

Then, of course, we have PvP. IE, the videogame answer to people's need to kick the crap out of eachother, and it takes different forms depending on the type of game its used in. No real need to explain it beyond that.

So my new, supermegaultracrazy idea, is to take both of these elements and find a way to smush them together. But MMOs that have PvP already have instanced areas designed expressly for PvP. How does this differ from those? Well the difference is purpose. Instanced PvP areas are basically similar to control-point style maps in online FPS's, with the basic idea revolving around killing opponents in order to get to and takeover said control points. While the areas could easily be repurposed into standard PvE content, they are purpose built specifically for handling a specific kind of PvP battle, which is almost always the big-freaken'-melee (even if players are smart enough to avoid that).

Now, when someone says the word "instance" in MMO terms, they usually refer to the first definition (and use a different term for PvP instances), which takes the form of a semi-linear dungeon. This is where I think PvP can be added. Just about all MMOs that have any form of large-scale PvP involve dev-created opposing factions. As well, in those games the world and quest lines are designed to bring those players into conflict. So why can't the devs find ways to bring these two things together in more interesting ways?

That's the idea. Bring dungeon instances and PvP together. This is still hypothetical, but since both factions are opposed, create an instance that plays to that. Have players from the two factions have quests that require them to enter instance. When entering, faction A starts at one entrance, faction B at another. The players run along doing their quests on seperate paths, but the paths will intersect at several points, designed around forcing the players into conflict. But then, make a quest requiring the conflict, and if there are no players, spawn higher level enemies in the room instead, to fulfill the quest requirement.

So when players are killed, they should respawn within the instance. But then, this could potentially lead to players griefing players on the other side. Well, the only real solution to something like that isn't something that will be popular. Since a quest requires defeating enemies (bots or opposing players), then "shove" them out of the chokepoint as soon as the reqs are met. And then there's the problem of bringing along a high-level friend, or even a full group of them, well that's only really solvable by the infamous thing known as level-caps. To keep from inconveniencing said high-level players, have a simple equipment balancing system introduced alongside the level-capping.

Admittedly, this is just the basic idea. Hell, I spent more time building to it than stating the idea itself. Ohwell, take it for what you will.

While I've been around, I obviously haven't posted anything in about 2 weeks. Just really haven't had anything to talk about. So forgive me if this is rather rambling and uninteresting. That is, unless I end up finding a subject at some point during typing.

I'll start off saying that I haven't really been playing anything new recently. Just going through Dead Space again, playing the new Fallout 3 DLC (Point Lookout), with The Conduit (Wii) being the sole actual new game (besides wondering why I haven't picked up Punchout! yet...). I've actually had the hankering to pull out and play Project Sylpheed again, if only for the thought of being in a fighter that performs various forms of asset denial (IE, blowing shit up). For that matter, I should pull out Star Ocean 4 again, if only to finish up the main game, since I'm on the final dungeon anyways.

As some videogame podcasts have put it, I have a very large "pile-of-shame". The term refers to games that one has had for a considerable amount of time and either played but not finished, and/or games that haven't even been played. As much as I like RPGs, they, and the considerable amount of time they take to play, are the primary cause of my pile. I'm not going to even get into what's on the list.

As for pulling out Dead Space and Project Sylpheed after having already completed them, well, I guess I am an achievement whore on the level that I like getting achievements in the games I have. I AM NOT an achievement whore on the level that I do not buy games specifically for the achievement points (Avatar will never appear on my gamertag! XD). This is a problem when playing RPGs though, especially the handful of JRPGs, which are known for their excessive use of sidequests, hidden areas and bosses, and general miscellaneous crap that requires you to play considerably large amounts of time for things that aren't related to the main quest. Some side stuff is okay, but sometimes theres so much that it just gets assinine (I'm looking at you, Blue Dragon and Tales of Vesperia).

Anyways, Fallout 3 DLC. Called Point Lookout. Of all the Fallout DLC packs, this one is on level, potentially better, with the previous pack, Broken Steel. Broken Steel allowed you to reenter the world after the ending, with additional quests and raising the level cap. Point Lookout, though, simply adds new map with its own seperate plotline, but it does it much more skillfully than the two DLCs before Broken Steel. Instead of being (primarily) linear, pathed experiences, Point Lookout is completely open to exploration from the getgo. As well, the area contains quests that are not actually part of the primary plotline. As well, all the plotlines fit well into the overall mythology of the game world. Moonshining hillbillies, Chinese (in this case communist) spies, and drug using hippies being led by a brain in a jar. Not to mention being in a bayou. The only issue I found is that Point Lookout is supposed to be in southern Maryland, but it has a distinctly Louisiana/Alabama vibe to it. Ohwell, I still give this particular DLC 5/5.

Now, The Conduit, FPS for the Wii. YES, THE WII. As much as I hate using the caveat, I have to, but this game looks great for a Wii game. I need to play more, but I've seen enough to impress me (I've only played up to halfway before accidentally deleting my save file >.<). The customization of the controls makes it possible for anyone to tweak it enough to be comfortable (but can't turn crouch into toggle instead of button hold, grrr...). Like alot of the reviews out there, though, I have to agree with comments on lackluster area design. Also, while the game isn't supposed to be difficult, there are occasional spots where the difficult gets to wallbanger (IE, Wii-Mote chucking) levels. My current replay has me stuck at one of those spots, and its not nice. Not nice at all. And the area is the Jefferson Memorial of all places too.

Ohwell, I think that's all I got for now. o.O

Thoughts on Ghostbusters

(Note: This is about the XBox 360 version.)

Okay, finished up Ghostbusters: The Videogame recently (IE, last week). So where do I begin? I don't know, honestly. I think I'ma try talking about this a little differently.

- The Good -

The graphics are pretty good. Time was spent, especially, on building the various character and ghost models. The characters models, especially the main ones (the Ghostbusters). They have this abbreviated realism style that looks realistic, but still lets you know its not (intentionally) real. I know some reviewers have touched on the whole "uncanny valley" (look it up on wikipedia if you don't know about it >.>) bit with the XBox/PS3 versions, but while the characters look like their actor counterparts, I don't get that "almost human, but not quite" feeling with how they look in game. The ghosts, for the matter, retain the more overdone, cartoony style the generic ghosts used in the movies and the cartoons. And they continue to work in conjunction with the rest of the art style.

Sound is very good. Pulling in sound effects and music from the movies. Going along with that, the original actors both writing and providing the voices for the characters, pure gold because it is so true to the original. And of course, hearing the old Ghostbusters theme song, yay. Controls are pretty good, nothing really notable.

- The Bad -

There is some screen tearing, but its pretty inconsistent, I only experienced it in a handful of areas, and it only seems to happen with rapid camera turning. But then, that's where it normally occurs, when it does. The primary graphical hiccup is actually lip-flapping. In all the cutscenes, both in-engine and out, when you can actually see the characters talking, the lip flapping on the spoken words is so off its almost hilarious. I know other reviewers say that this actually works in favor of the PS2/Wii versions of the game, which use an entirely different grahical style to make up for those respective system's lack of graphical power. But on the XBox (the version I got), it just looks bad. What makes it worse is that this game was done by an American company, and American companies working with any kind of animation (including film and television) usually worry too much about making sure lip-flaps match the dialogue, almost to the point of OCD (sometimes).

Japanese companies don't worry about this that much. Neither do Japanese animators (I mean anime).

Just a note: all that stuff above is just a minor annoyance, despite how much I said about it.

My primary beef with the game, though, is the end of the final stage. Just to note, I played the game on "Experienced" (IE, normal) difficulty, so the game has a few tough spots, but isn't (and I'm guessing isn't meant to be) too hard. This completely flies out the window during the last couple encounters. While the idea of grabbing and throwing around enemies is shown early in the game (including an enemy type that can only be killed by doing it), one thing the game never used previously is enemies that can one-shot you at full health.

Yes, until almost the end of the game, there are no enemies that can do that, and then they put you in a situation where you have to grab enemies and smash them into an environmental object, but these enemies can one-shot you. To make matters worse, there are more of these enemies than (I think anyways) it is reasonable to deal with, coupled with the inclusion of other enemies that are there specifically pull your attention away from the ones you need to deal with. I found the entire section almost wallbangingly difficult, I died more times there than the rest of the game combined.

This led to noticing another problem that is very annoying. Checkpoint loading. I can understand a long load time from the main menu, but when you're reloading the last checkpoint from the stage your in? NO. The game should not be reloading the entire fucking level from scratch on a checkpoint reload.

Other random problem, the game has an inconsistent freeze bug. It typically happens when checking the subscreen (pause menu) during a scripted, in-engine, non-cutscene, event. The game doesn't, technically, freeze, but checking the subscreen during an event sometimes causes the event to glitch and freeze the event. If the event doesn't complete, then the game can't continue, thus necessitating a checkpoint reload. Also, text from scans do not always load completely the first time the entry is viewed, sometimes requiring leaving the subscreen and reentering it to view it entirely. Like the event freeze, its inconsistent. Unlike the event freeze, this one doesn't actually affect gameplay).

- The Ugly -

1) The final form of the final boss isn't terribly imaginative, but, considering his character is from the 1800's, I guess unimaginative works for the character...

2) Aside from the painting of Vigo in the firehouse, there is only ONE callback to the second Ghostbusters movie (in the form of the Slimeblaster weapon). All other callbacks are to the first movie.

3) The Ghostbusters DVD artifact. lol

4) No Rick Moranis or even his character is seen, though his desk and mountains of paperwork are.

5) StayPuft is still cute, but clown ghosts (multiplayer only) are creepy as all hell.

6) The character voiced by Alyssa Milano is named, get this, "Alyssa". WTF?

7) Winston Zeddmore has a doctorate?

8) Walter Peck is still a peck. XD

I hope this was coherent. Hell, I hope someone reads this, let alone comments... *poke poke*

New Playlist

Okay, I'm currently working on a new iPod playlist and I need suggestions. So if anyone actually reads this, suggestions here or on Twitter are welcome. Here's what I currently have, shown in Songname/Artist format. By the way, this is in no particular order.

Playlist Title: Weird Things At All

I Know What I Am / Band of Skulls

The Metal / Tenacious D

Volver a Comenzar / Cafe Tacuba

Atlas / Battles

Kingdom of Rust / Doves

Beautiful Is Gone / The Ruse

No One Knows / Queens of the Stone Age

My Patch / Jim Noir

Panic Attack / Dream Theater

Energy / The Apples In Stereo

Hey You / 311

This Ain't a Scene, Its an Arms Race / Fall Out Boy

Paralyzer / Finger Eleven

Unless It's Kicks / Okkervil River

Take Me Out / Franz Ferdinand

21st Century Breakdown / Green Day

Catch Without Arms / Dredg

My thoughts on it are so far these. I'm trying to go for songs that sound out of the ordinary, or at least different from the average mainstream rock/altrock, but that doesn't mean I'm keeping that kind of stuff out of the running. I already know Panic Attack needs to be taken off. I like 21st Century Breakdown, but it also doesn't fit with the rest of set either. I Know What I Am, My Patch, and Energy are staying on. I'd like to keep Kingdom of Rust, but its so hard making a playlist that it will fit in. But then, that's why I'm asking for suggestions.

So my friends and I were finally able to get around to playing my new board game recently. Now now, boardgames are not crappy. The people who only think of boardgames in the vein of Monopoly or any of the other ones most people hear about, now they are crappy. Those people need to do themselves a favor and head over to the Fantasy Flight site and see that boardgames have evolved. From what I've heard, Europe has alot more. BUT, we are stupid, low attention span Americans, after all...

Anyways! I mention Fantasy Flight because the game I got was Android, by Fantasy Flight. It appeared at the comic shop a couple months ago, thought the premise looked interesting (not to mention the overall art design).

The basic premise is that, in the future, the moon has been colonized, human like cyborgs exist, and the government is still recovering from a recent war. In this environment, a murder happens, and the investigators (IE, the players) have to find the culprit.

Now, the first thing that I noticed (after reading another review myself) is that, unlike Clue where there is a definite killer, in Android there isn't. Rather, the game considers that all the suspects were somehow involved in the murder. The investigators jobs, then, are primarily to finger one of them as the actual killer based on their own suspicions, which are represented by cards randomly handed out to players at the beginning of the game (called their "Guilty Hunch"). The players are also given a card representing the suspect their investigator believes to be innocent (called their "Innocent Hunch").

In basic play, every investigator has a certain amount of time each turn, which represents the number of actions each player can take. Everything costs time, from moving, to investigating, to playing cards to help themselves (or hinder the other players). After someone uses all their time, play passes to the next player until everyone has gone, then the turn ends. After 12 turns, all the evidence is tallied, and the winner is decided.

Too be sure, that's the simple version. The object of the game is to be the player with the most VP (Victory Points). The primary method of obtaining said VP is making sure your guilty and innocent hunches are the correct, but they're not the only way. Now each investigator that the players can choose to play as have their own "plots", things that happen in their private lives during the course of the investigation. Making sure they resolve well are worth VP, while bad resolutions cost it. And then there's the Conspiracy Puzzle...

The Conspiracy Puzzle represents, in the game world, the people/organizations that caused the murder. In gameplay terms, it represents another way to gain or lose VP. Instead of investigating the crime, the players can investigate the conspiracy behind the murder. In doing so the players gain a puzzle piece that they place on the Conspiracy Puzzle in order to connect one or more of the various entities in return for end-of-the-game benefits. These benefits are making Guilty/Innocent Hunches/Good Plots worth more, Bad Plots hurt more, and various tokens obtained during gameplay are now worth VP.

All in all, its a very compelling game. The mechanics are very complicated and take a little while to get used to, and even if you know the rules, it isn't a short playthrough either. A full game will take several hours, but that isn't really something that people that play boardgames even worry about. Like alot of other Fantasy Flight boardgames, it contains alot of cards and tokens made of very heavy weight, laminated cardboard/chipboard(?). They are all well illustrated, and the flavor text on the cards adds to the feeling of the game world itself.

If anything the game needs (and Fantasy Flight is good about making expansions for their games), it needs more investigators with their own perks and playstyles, and the cards to go with them off course. Also, more murder scenarios would be good, as each of the scenarios contains special rules that encompass the entire game. More suspects, while nice, probably don't need to be added, though.