News: Netflix

To be truthful, this isn't necessarily new information, as it was originally reported back in September of last year, but instead serves as a reminder to the forgetful or notice to the unknowing.  February 28th marks the end of a contract with Starz and Netflix, which will result in the removal of approximately 1,000 titles available instantly streaming from Starz Play.  When this was originally announced, it caused Netflix stocks to plummet.  Starz has provided much of the recent and relevant content on Netflix, in regards to movies at least.

Some argue that this will actually be good for Netflix, as it will allow the company to save $300 million that would have gone to Starz and instead allocate it somewhere else.  Netflix has started to make deals for original programming and exclusive content, such as the upcoming new season of Arrested Development.

While only time will tell the affect this will cause in the long run for Netflix, I strongly urge everyone who has a Netflix subscription to make use of the catalog of content that theoretically will be gone by the end of the month.  Although I primarily have used Netflix to watch television shows I had not watched previously, admittedly a number of the movies I have watched have been made available by the Starz Play deal.  It is kind of a shame for any consumer to watch as a price gets hiked while simultaneously losing a ton of content from said service.  Here's hoping for a positive outcome for Netflix.

Video Game: Duke Nukem Forever

Gearbox, the developer behind the critically acclaimed FPS Borderlands, formed a subsidiary group, Tryptich Games to put the finishing touches on the game that the shut down 3D Realms left unfinished.  Many a Duke Nukem fan awaited Duke Nukem Forever for years, during its unnecessarily long development time.  Like anything that takes longer than expected to be released, while waiting, one wonders the two options, whether this delay was to polish something that would truly blow us away, or if the impending experience wasn't coming together quite right and in the end would be a product along the lines of which Duke Nukem might tell the game developers to "Blow it out your ass!"

Well after playing it to the end, in my humble opinion it's neither.  It is about what I expected.  The game really is a victim of its own hype.  Duke Nukem Forever became so infamous for how long it was taking to be released, that fans and haters alike kept close tabs on its progress.  Take for instance Guns N' Roses album Chinese Democracy as a similar situation.  Both of these cases, the end result is something okay, but underwhelms the listener/player so much in comparison to their anchored perspective of what they expected versus what they're getting, that it results in an uneven judgment and inevitable backlash.

Duke Nukem was panned for its outdated graphics, lack of innovation and strangely its title character's elementary behavior among other things.  The game actually plays all right.  It has a few humorous quips, as it attempts to capture a faux universe where everyone worships the ground Duke walks on for saving them in the past and hopefully will protect them in the future.  Another common complaint I've noticed is the adoption of more modern FPS elements, such as recharging health called Duke's Ego (like Halo's health system) and the ability to only carry 2 weapons at once (akin to modern war shooters).  This too, as well as a more linear playing field, disappointed some people hoping for the more run and gun type of atmosphere from the older games.

Ultimately, the game suffers from delivering a different experience than what the masses expected and hoped for.  The game plays fine and is not boring by any means traversing through action packed sequences and over the top driving scenarios reminiscent of any 80's action movie.  I'd recommend picking the game up on a severely discounted deal on Steam or in the bargain bin where you can most likely expect it to be soon for the console versions.  Go into it without the hype and notoriety it gained for its long development cycle, and without the critically negative reception it received flooding your mind.  Instead, expect nothing amazing and you may find yourself enjoying a decent shooter, which if anything, may serve to make you look forward in anticipation for Gearbox's actual creation of the next Duke Nukem game.

Movie: The Adventures of Tintin

Another movie theater trip with friends, another audaciously mortifying experience with surround sound popcorn and foot stamping aplenty.  Whoever set the trend for it being all right to chow down with some of the most ridiculously loud food possible to eat while simultaneously paying money to watch something that commands the respect of silence and concentration, especially when surrounded by large groups of people that will most definitely be subject to the whim of the consumer's masseter muscles overture, should have a taste of their own medicine with ears wide open.

With that, I'd like to recommend The Adventures of Tintin.  This movie utilizes motion capture and 3D animation.  The end result is something that looks visually stunning and downright realistic in some situations.  The movie follows the story of Tintin, a journalist who goes on many an adventure with his trusty and intelligent dog, Snowy.  Often times, two similar looking bumbling interpol agents happen to be on the same case and often tie into the story with humorous effect.  Another key character, Captain Haddock, a seafaring man who's thirst for adventure is as unquenchable as his love for alcohol, generally gets dragged into the fray.  I had never read the books/comics, nor had I seen the TV show, so I went into the movie knowing very little about the source material, save my friends' high hopes for the film.  That didn't seem to matter though, as it essentially supplied the viewer with all the information they needed to know about the history of Tintin.

With Stephen Spielberg at the helm and John Williams doing the music, I could quickly tell this film wasn't going to disappoint, just by the stylistic opening credits and theme.  Apparently Tintin has gone on many adventures, but this one epic is definitely worth seeing in my opinion.  An action packed adventure filled with suspense and mystery, some humorous elements and fast paced forward momentum.  The movie had seamlessly excellent transitions between the scenes and some pretty neatly illustrated chase scenes as well.  It all fits neatly together to be a pretty enjoyable experience.  It is a pretty clever movie and I'd expect most people would enjoy it.  I recommend you give it a chance, especially if you've got a yearn for adventure you would like to whet. 

Video Game: LIMBO

LIMBO is an incredibly atmospheric platformer game.  I recently purchased it on Steam in response to a friend's recommendation.  It is really short, ending in only a few hours, but where it lacks in length, it makes up for in fun gameplay.
There is little to do with story in this game.  the details of the game read: "Uncertain of his sister's fate, a boy enters LIMBO."

Other than that, there is no narrative.  Not a single spoken or written word in the game.  Instead, it relies on the atmosphere to tell the story.  There is little music, save for a few unsettling queues during some changes in pace within the game.   As the boy, you make your way across a forest that you originally wake up in, into new settings such as a cave, city, machine etc.  All of this happens seamlessly as you move from left to right, completing various physics puzzles along the way.  Although admittedly short, the developers of the game reasoned that rather than create repetitive puzzles or variations/clones, it would be better to offer the unique puzzles they did create, short but sweet.

Pretty, artistic and affective to the senses, one's short stay is worth the price of admission into LIMBO.  There really isn't a dull moment, only fun condensed into this short game.

Movie: Limitless

I thought Limitless was a pretty interesting movie.  It is currently available streaming instantly on Netflix. It centers itself around the ever fascinating topic regarding the fact that humans don't use the entirety of their brains, and humors the affects that would occur if a drug were able to allow one to harness that other portion.   

A demotivated writer named Eddie Morra (Bradley Cooper), serendipitously happens upon his ex- brother in law from his past marriage, who also happens to be a shady drug dealer.  Eddie, being in such a depressed and uninspired funk, eventually decides to take a specific drug that he was ensured would help him focus, and transforms into an extremely intelligent, witty guy with an incredible drive for being constructive.  However, when the drug wears off, he loses this ability to harness the rest of his brain and becomes regular old Eddie again.  This sets the stage for a plethora of interesting events and engagements with other people Eddie would never have met or interacted with, had he not taken the drug.


The movie is pretty entertaining.  The colors of the movie are dull and gray when Eddie is sober and brilliantly colorful when he is on the drug.  Without spoiling it, obviously things start to happen that shakes the foundation of Eddie's new lifestyle.
If you haven't seen it, give it a viewing.  If anything, it will probably make you consider what you would attempt with new-found confidence and brainpower.

Video Game: Sonic Generations

I have always been a pretty big Sonic fan.  From the first games on the Sega Genesis, the combination of speed and platforming really appealed to me.  When the Sega Dreamcast came out, I was highly interested and ended up receiving Sonic Adventure for my birthday.  While some had concerns with Sonic's leap into 3d, at the time I had a blast playing it.

The majority's consensus is that Sonic games have been on a general decline since the beginning, many regarding the fault with the leap into 3d, accusing the series of never fully finding a foothold of success in modern gaming. I've personally played the majority of Sonic games that have come out from the Adventure series up through Sonic Colors, excluding the Black Knight Wii title which I heard was awful.  That list includes the likes of Sonic Heroes, Shadow the Hedgehog, Sonic 2006, Sonic Unleashed, Sonic Rush and Sonic and the Secret Rings.  While each has had their share of respective flaws, some being universally panned by critics, I nonetheless trudged through them all and found something noteworthy about each of them, even if the games themselves didn't shine as a whole.  Now though, with Sonic Generations, I can finally once again recommend a Sonic game without the requirement being that one be a die hard Sonic fan that is willing to look past some subpar elements.  It's fast and looks great.  Sonic Generations is genuinely a good game.

As an homage to Sonic's 20th anniversary, Sonic Generations sees the classic Sonic as well as the modern incarnation of Sonic play through levels from other games in two different perspectives.  Classic Sonic plays the levels in a 2d sidescrolling with 3d elements, while modern Sonic plays through in a 3d field with some 2d sidescrolling.  Classic Sonic utilizes the spin dash, while modern Sonic uses homing attack and a boost feature.  Although this may at first sound like a rehash, it is pretty awesome.  The levels are handpicked from different iterations,  some being from the classic 2d Sonic games, some from the Adventure era, and some from the not so stellar modern era.  Regardless of which era the levels come from, each and every one of them is great.  All of them have been reimagined and play differently, while still retaining their original concept.  This makes for some very inviting nostalgic moments.  Even the music is similar to the original levels, but redone in certain ways.  Ever imagine hearing Chemical Plant from Sonic 2's catchy tune with the main instrument being jazz flute?  Well now you can bring that dream to realization.

The story is what you would expect from a Sonic game.  It really is just there to set the stage to be able to do what the game does, bringing you through Sonic history, so the story is largely not what the game is about.  What is really great about this game is its re-playability.  After you go through the actual levels, in both classic and modern sonic mode, as well as the bosses, many other unlockables remain, such as 5 challenges per level x2 taking into consideration that both classic and modern Sonic have 5 per level, plus S-ranking each of the actual levels, boss hard modes, and challenges.  As well, collecting red rings per level.  Each of these things unlock art, music and skills that can be applied to Sonic.  On top of that, you can compete on the world wide leaderboards against other people's fastest times, so there really is a lot to do in this game.

Potentially the greatest thing about this game is that it goes back to what made Sonic fun originally.  Rather than speed taking a backseat to other tacked on gameplay elements, it instead takes the forefront here.  Sonic is once again all about speeding through a level, looking for the fastest routes, mastering twitch reaction with, for the most part, tight control. 

If you were ever a Sonic fan but have been put off by the games as of late, give Sonic Generations a try.  It is available for the HD consoles, soon for the 3DS, and cheap on Steam for $30.00.  At least, it will bring you back to a different time in Sonic's career, when he could actually walk the walk and not just talk the talk with weird voice acting.  This is probably the best Sonic game ever made.  Welcome back, Sonic.

Television: Prison Break

Over the past couple months, I've taken the time to watch the show Prison Break, which originally aired on Fox from 2005 to 2009. The entire series is currently viewable on Netflix.  After recently finishing the last few episodes of the series, I'm pretty taken aback at how incredibly captivating the show really was.

This show felt big budget.  I suppose that's rightly so, being on network television, with the later episodes budget being around $3 million per episode.  So many startling over the top twists and turns would happen in each episode, by the end I would be extremely curious as to what would happen next.  Like many of the suspenseful shows I've watched archived in the past, I can't imagine how suspenseful these episodes must have been for die hard fans watching each week, or waiting for the next season.

Prison Break really brings to the forefront what we often take for granted on a daily basis; that being our freedom.  Prison Break tells the story of two brothers, one being wrongly accused of a high profile murder and sentenced to death.  When there is no hope of stopping the execution by legal means, the other brother, a brilliant structural engineer takes matters into his own hands, landing himself in the same prison to attempt to break his brother out.  The brothers soon realize that they are in way over their heads and must try to clear their names while trying to just survive.

The complex dynamic story and well done character development, each with their distinctive unique personality, results in one really caring for the characters, even at points the antagonists.  The writers use this to their advantage to really shake things up from time to time,  by placing the characters in perilous situations.  Any time things seemed to be calm in the show, I started to get concerned and begin to brace myself because of the sheer fragility of the characters.  Any one character you may have paid attention to and grown to care about may be plucked away and gone for good in a matter of seconds.  While the vast majority of action and events in the show made a lot of sense and panned out very cleverly, there would be the occasional blip of some inconsistent action done by some character, or something that would happen that would seem utterly stupid which would cause upset because everything until that point would lead one to believe the characters or the show itself was too smart for that.  I think that just stands as a testament to the shows ability to mesmerize, when some inconsequential action could be picked up upon because the story called for close attention.  It often would leave you guessing whether a character was genuine or had their own ulterior motives.

A lot of what I'm describing may not make sense without going more in depth, but that would also serve to ruin plot points and surprises, so I'll stop there and finish with a resounding suggestion that if you haven't given this show a chance yet, you do so.  It's an amazingly suspenseful and intriguing series that may keep you infatuated with it until the end, leaving you wanting for more after such investment in the characters and story.