PixlBit

With all this commotion about game length and references to juicy steaks and fat meals, I just appreciate the film experience a lot more sometimes. Films are often just about the same length and the quality varies from the skilled hands that made them and they all cost the same to watch or rent. With films, we either love them or hate, but even bad films with at least one good peformance or action sequence we can learn to love. 

I think the Order 1886 looks phenominal and it actually worked to get me excited for 'next gen' games after watching some of the game play. I mean, can you imagine playing a Batman or Dark Souls game that looks like the Order! What about a gorgeous Metal Gear, Uncharted, or any RPG that we haven't seen realized yet? Yup. I'm excited for the possibilities.

But this is about Films I recently watched that were just the right length and pretty entertaining.

1. Grand Budapest Hotel

I love me some Wes Anderson. This film takes place in a hotel and stars Ralph Fieness as a concierge of a fancy hotel full of rich patrons. Without giving too much of the plot away, there is a murder mystery that implicates everyone and it has a very funny charm about the whole atmosphere and characters. Ralph has an assistant named Zero who is more the silent type and his protege who is training to be a lobby boy, while also serving as an accomplice. The movie is super stylish, as most of Wes Anderson films are, in it's 2D style and weird ass characters are all very quirky and interesting. Reminds me of Twin Peaks in a lot of ways. All around, a great film and great performance by Fiennes.

2. Birdman

I didn't love this film that much. If you haven't seen it, it's basically like what if Michael Keaton was on a reality show documenting his real life as he tried to make a comeback as an actor on Broadway after Batman. The film is full of pop-culture references and is poking fun at the super hero film genre that's taken over Hollywood as well as critique our obsession with social media and going viral. It's very pretentious and it's all filmed with a steady cam style like all in one seemless shot for the whole movie. Keaton is very good in this, but I felt like he was playing himself too much. Edward Norton is also very good as the asshole actor trying to upstage Keaton and Emma Stone is great as a whiny brat. If you're a fan of comic book hero movies and wondered how that sort of fame affects actors, check it out. I honestly didn't know what the movie was until I saw it. Great performances by all and very well directed. Maybe I'll grow to love it over time. I'm kind of lukewarm about it. Seriously, it's like a reality show movie with a lot of drama.

3. John Wick

Well, y'all read my complaints about it last week. That new Pokemon Shuffle game that came out last week was a turn for the worst for Nintendo, and you could here a collective scream shouting, "We didn't ask for this!", and those screams were right.

See, the abominable thing about this game is that it's perfectly fine as a match-three tetris like game, except after the tutorials, the game is constantly harassing you to buy more crystal meth to keep playing like a drug dealer who you've taken one too many samples from. Now, I don't believe I have an addiction problem when it comes to gaming, and I've yet to pull out a credit card to purchase crack crystals from the eShop, but I wonder about other people that might get snagged into this.  You pretty much get like 5 matches per game session and then you have to wait 30 mins to refill, which I guess you could just play every 30 mins, which is what I've been doing just to see all the features of the game, but it's just not even worth it. The game is pretty generic all around and doesn't even offer 3D visuals or interesting artwork, unless you think swapping pokemon heads is umm, adorable?


After reading up on the game I noticed Nintendo is putting out a free to play 3rd person shooter called Iron Fall or something and it's basically a free demo with the full campaign needed to be paid for like DLC. Okay, Nintendo is getting real and late the DLC and episodic content thing, but I just hate seeing it on my beloved eShop. Ewww!

METROID PRIME DEFEATED!
In other news, I finished METROID PRIME on WiiU, and boy is that game just perfect and satisfying in every way. Some of the artifact hunting was a bit frustrating, but I eventually found all the 12 keys to unlock the final boss or whatever. I feel like if Metroid Prime was released today, I'd have to pay to unlock weapons and upgrades. Oh Dear! I might put up a more thorough impression of METROID PRIME later this week.



 

So Square Enix put out this weird episodic adventure game called "Life Is Strange" and I played the first episode. It reminds me a lot of Alan Wake, except it has teenagers and no combat, but it takes place in North West U.S in a town similar to Alan Wake and the main character, a girl named Max has weird powers. She can travel between the real world and the dreamworld (Spoiler: and can also manipulate time.)

Totally forgot about todays BaD. Oops! I'm only doing M-F for total of 20. Now you get two blogs combined. 

BaD #11 - Resident Evil 4 v Code Veronica

Okay, so Resident Evil 4 on Gamecube is 10 years old this year! The game on Gamecube still holds up, but I also have the PS3 version which is just as good, although I do feel that the HD conversion on PS3 makes the lighting look a bit flat in comparison, but I really can't tell too much. It's just a difference of whether you have a Gamecube with the original game around, or just have access to a digital version on PS3. I also have the Wii version, but umm...motion controls.  I started playing through Code Veronica X on Playstation 2 recently before RE4 and man are the games two different beasts! While I really enjoy Code Veronica, it is much harder than RE4. For starters, I haven't died once in RE4 and I'm almost in Chapter 3, and as cautious as I am, I found myself out of health items and low on ammo soon after I started a new game in Code Veronica. The difference is night and day, but I for one am glad that RE4 exists and it's influence persisted for years. I heard in a podcast recently that RE5 was the highest selling Resident Evil, hmmm... I don't know how I feel about that because for me the best game is still RE Remake, RE4, RE2,3, then 5 and 6. They are so different in mechanics and level design that a comparison would be kind of stupid. Code Veronica is the last of the old gen, and RE4 is still pretty accessible and contemporarry in design that makes it easier to get into. For starters, there are no ink ribbons so you have unlimited saves anytime you reach a checkpoint which there are many and there are ammo drops galore and Leon can kick and stab to conserver precious ammo. Anyhow, the opening level/chapters to RE4 are still the greatest intro to any game really. Pretty great pacing and even the cinematic actions make sense in the game. Still a classic!