Sean Lemme

I started blogging as a way to lazily pass my high school senior project and somehow I've kept doing it for more than half my life

Monkey Magic

Enslaved: Odyssey to the West

Here’s a review of a game I wish I had played last year. Enslaved is the latest game from developer Ninja Theory, the team behind PS3-exclusive Heavenly Sword and the upcoming Devil May Cry reboot DmC. It is a game that does not break new ground, borrowing its action-adventure gameplay heavily from the likes of Uncharted, Prince of Persia and God of War, but wraps around that solid base a story that is simply one of the most engaging I have played in a while.

Much of what makes this game great is its Hollywood ties. Alex Garland (28 Days Later, Sunshine) wrote the story of Enslaved, based on the Chinese classic Journey to the West, the same novel that inspired Dragon Ball. In the distant future, the modern world is in ruins. The only remnants of our civilization are ancient mechs who still do what they where designed to do: kill humans. The few people that are left face the constant threat of abduction by slavers. As the game begins, Monkey, a muscular wild man and Trip, a brainy lady, manage to escape a slaver transport. Monkey is knocked out, so Trip puts a mind control headband on him, which wounds Monkey if he disobeys her and kills him if she dies. Trip enlists Monkey’s help in getting back to her home some 300 miles away.

Andy Serkis plays Monkey and I imagine he did a lot of mocap for this game as well, just like Heavenly Sword. We’re living in a post-L.A. Noire world, so I can’t say these are the best in-game performances I’ve seen, but they’re close. The interactions between Monkey and Trip are shockingly nuanced and make the story rather touching. It helps that the whole game is beautiful, set in a vibrant, largely desolate world that is so much more colorful than most games these days. There are plenty of cinematics that seamlessly integrate with the gameplay and overall the game feels a little bit like Avatar. Except you can play it.

The combat in Enslaved is your basic heavy attack/light attack fare, with counters, evades and simple combos to keep it interesting. Your only weapon is a staff (the legendary extending staff that Goku also had) which can shoot blasts of plasma that damage or stun enemy mechs too. But getting to enemies is far more interesting that actually destroying them in this game. You often don’t stand at chance at a distance, so you’ll have to maneuver around cover and rely on Trip to distract enemies while you close in on them. It’s simple, but it adds a nice puzzle element to the game. To mix it up further, there are turret sections, races on your hover disc (called your cloud) and plenty of platforming. Platforming in Enslaved is pretty worry-free, as the game straight up won’t let you jump to your death in almost all situations. Instead, you just jump along an obvious linear path, which discourages exploration, but adds to the game’s cinematic quality.

Enslaved was a delight to play and it’s haunting ending will probably make it stick with me for a long time. The poor game sold terribly, probably because it came out in the packed Q4 2010 without much marketing behind it. During these slow summer months, there hasn’t been a lot new to play, which I why I would encourage you to seek this one out. It’s got to be pretty cheap by now and it certainly is worth a look.

3DS First Impressions

On Friday, Nintendo reduced the price of the 3DS portable console to $169.99 – making it a tempting purchase for anyone who was on the fence. I hadn’t bought a new Nintendo handheld since 2006 (my DS Lite) and when I learned about Walmart dropping the price early, I decided to pounce. You see, to compensate early adopters who felt cheated, Nintendo is giving out 20 free NES and GBA game downloads as part of the 3DS Ambassador program. Now I am a 3DS Ambassador as well. But is the system worth your money if you can’t become an Ambassador? Was it worth my money?

The design of the 3DS definitely reminds me of my DS Lite, it’s even about the same size. Nintendo added a circle pad above the D-pad, which is surprisingly comfortable to use – a real step up from the PSP’s one. The stylus storage area was moved to the back of the system, making it a bit of a chore to get your GameBoy pen out unlike the DS Lite, where you could slide it out of the side easily. The system is light, the buttons sufficiently comfortable and the look of the console is nice; I’m a fan.

The most notable feature of the console is the top screen, with its widescreen aspect ratio and 3D capability. The glasses-free 3D does definitely work and look really good in a game like Ocarina of Time 3D. I didn’t experience any eye fatigue using the console, although it did feel a little weird just looking at the screen correctly the first few times. Like 3D movies, the effect here is all about depth, not pop, which I think is probably the way to go. Not having to wear the glasses is really nice, although it leaves you very little room to move around. You have to hold the 3DS exactly right, or your eyes won’t be able to see the screen correctly. I didn’t think it was that big a deal, but it might be if you spend most of your time playing in bed or somewhere where you can’t sit comfortably. Overall, I think the 3D is really cool, but probably unnecessary. Playing games in 3D is not really that different from playing games in 2D. Which is why it’s nice you can turn the 3D off if you want. In fact, Nintendo encourages that for players under six.

The 3DS also has three cameras, which enables it to do some cool stuff. It has two cameras on the back, which you can use to take pictures in 3D and play neat ARG games. The system comes with cards that the camera will recognize and bring to life right before your eyes. It’s a really neat effect and, as Colin put it, it’s great that I can finally play games set in my room. The system also sports a gyroscope so you can move around in those ARG games and other games as well, although I think it’s silly to move a console around that you need to look at in a precise way.

The big downside of the 3DS is the battery life. Allegedly the system only lasts a few hours with all the features turned on. You can turn the 3D off, adjust the brightness, turn off WiFi, and turn on power saver mode to get more time out of the system, but that’s still not great. Personally, I always put my 3DS on the included dock when I’m not using it and I haven’t had it die on me yet. But this could definitely be a problem if you’re counting on your 3DS for a long flight or something else where you simply can’t charge it for a while. Ask yourself if it’s a deal breaker, because knowing Nintendo there probably will be a new, better 3DS coming down the pipeline next year.

I’m pretty impressed with my 3DS. It’s really fun to play with and a cool gadget to own. That said, there aren’t that many games for it yet, especially if upgraded N64 ports aren’t your thing. So while I really enjoy the 3DS, I think the wisest thing for anyone to do at this point is wait for that one game you really want and get the 3DS then. You never know what Nintendo has up their sleeve.

The Bravest Man I Ever Knew

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2

The whole Harry Potter thing was pretty amazing. The books are one thing; a long-running fantasy series is not without precedent, although the success of the series probably was. But it’s the film series that truly seems amazing to me. A decade-spanning eight movie series that featured a cast that grew up with its fans. That’s a hell of a thing, and I can’t imagine it ever happening again. I’ve been visiting Hogwarts for the better part of my life now, and bidding goodbye to the franchise as I enter real adulthood is as fitting and bittersweet for me as it is for Harry, Ron and Hermione.

This is the eight movie in the series, you’re either going to see it or you’re not. Nothing is going to persuade anyone at this point. Indeed, not only is it movie eight, it’s also a part two, so the barrier to entry for newcomers is damn near insurmountable. This is a movie for the fans. The ones who read the books, learned the spells, got the tattoos. There are some parts of the movie that straight-up won’t even make sense to those that have just seen the films, since important plot points play off of minor details that were omitted from earlier movies. That’s what happens when a series has so many different directors. But the big scenes will work for anyone who has made the slightest effort to keep up, as this conclusion centers around epic battles and long-awaited revelations.

Picking up immediately where Part One left off, Harry, Ron and Hermione are still hunting down Lord Voldemort’s horcruxes. Things remain as bleak as ever, The Dark Lord now has the Elder Wand, the most powerful wand, and the Order of the Phoenix is weak and spread out. As Harry learns more about horcruxes, the more disturbed he gets, leading to some hopefully shocking revelations and epic battles. Notably, The Battle of Hogwarts, in which students and teachers stand united against Voldemort’s army, is one of the most awe-inspiring battles this side of The Lord of the Rings. And what makes it all work is that there is so much emotion behind these battles, I actually cared about what would happen, unlike a movie like Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen. Every shot of this incredible battle is brimming with familiar faces, some who we won’t ever see again.

Little is changed from the book and most of it is in the service of making the story work better in this format. Professor McGonagall’s role is a little different and a lot more bad ass because, why not? Maggie Smith earned (and nailed) it. Alan Rickman is perhaps a little too indulgent in his Snape-isms, but who cares? It’s the last time he gets to be that crazy son of a bitch. Daniel Radcliffe has grown into a real actor and provides the film with a strong star, along with Rupert Grint and Emma Watson. Everyone has their time to shine here, making Part Two one of the most satisfying movies of the year.

Harry Potter was an incredible series. Somewhere between the Star Wars and Up series. I can’t imagine anything else taking up its mantle, and I don’t really want anything to… At least not for a while. Let there be no doubt, this is the end of the series: they’ve filmed everything. In an era of unsatisfying remakes and prequels (see: all comic book movies not made by Marvel or Chris Nolan) it’s been a real ride seeing one of the most imaginative worlds in recent fiction come to life. The Harry Potter series has given me a lot, everything from jokes about characters resembling people I know to laughter at Amazon reviews about the flying broomstick vibrator. And now it’s done. It’s done well, to be sure, but it’s done.

Real Men Kill Each Other

Mortal Kombat

Midway went out of business last year, leaving the future of many of that company’s legendary series in question. The Mortal Kombat property, along with many of its developers, including series creator Ed Boon, ended up with WB Interactive, creating a new studio called NetherRealm. Their first game is a reboot of sorts, returning Mortal Kombat to its roots in more ways than one. Consequently, this ninth game is another stellar entry in one of gaming’s most prolific franchises.

Mortal Kombat is a retelling of the first three games in the series, featuring the entire cast of those three games. Scorpion, Sub-Zero, Johnny Cage, Nightwolf, everyone you actually care about is here. What’s more, they’ve included a story mode ala Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe, that lets you play through the first three games in an alternate universe “let’s change the future” kind of way. It’s hands down the most entertaining story mode I’ve experienced in a fighting game, even though a lot of the story’s moments are pretty cheap. There are way too many 2-on-1 fights for my taste, and Shao Kahn is annoyingly difficult to defeat.

Just as the story has gone back in time, so has the gameplay. Mortal Kombat returns the series to flat 2D combat, abandoning the various fighting styles and 3D fighting of recent entries in the series. NetherRealm did keep the power meter from MK vs. DCU, which can now be used to power up moves, break combos and unleash devastating x-ray attacks and various levels. What this means is the game is extremely playable for veterans of the series and fairly welcoming to newcomers. The game is easy to pick up, compared to something like Street Fighter IV, and for my money, more fun too.

This is probably the most gruesome game I’ve ever seen. The x-ray attacks are pretty painful to watch, as you see characters have valuable bones broken and eyes stabbed. But the fatalities raise the bar. Probably the most famous one is Noob’s, in which he literally pulls his opponent in half, their innards pouring on the ground as he does so. This is an extremely graphic game, a hard M, if you will. It’s not for kids. Don’t give this game to kids. I’m being serious. It’s gross and you’ll feel bad about it if you do.

This is a game with plenty to keep you busy. There are ladders to climb, hundreds of unlockbables and a great online multiplayer feature set. NetherRealm has shown that it will continue to add DLC characters from the latter games in the series as long as gamers are interested. I think that will be a while. Mortal Kombat is back and better than ever.

A Song of Ice and Fire

inFAMOUS 2

With all the hubbub surrounding E3, it would have been easy to forget that once of the most exciting games to come out this year was actually released the same day the convention began. inFAMOUS 2 is a stellar sequel that lives up to its memorable predecessor. Since a lot of people just got a chance to play that game after the PSN downtime, now is a great opportunity to pick up another of Sony’s best exclusive games.

inFAMOUS 2 opens with quite a bang as Cole has his first encounter with the beast, the monster we learned about in the final moments of the first game. Cole obviously is outmatched by the beast, so he and his portly companion Zeke travel down to New Marais, basically a renamed New Orleans, in search of getting Cole even more power. Immediately Cole makes another new enemy in the militia who’ve been running the town since some disaster. Together with some new female friends, Cole works toward helping the city, all the while building up his strength for the beast’s arrival.

Once again, powering up Cole depends somewhat on moral choices. In the first game, that meant more precise powers for good choices and more explosive powers for evil decisions. That seems to be the case this time too, but with the added incentive of ice and fire powers making two playthroughs practically necessary. Controlling Cole still feels great and Suckerpunch even added some new, faster ways of getting around the city. inFAMOUS 2 is all about getting more powerful, and you certainly will feel that way by the end of the game.

Unfortunately, the games vibrant visuals and tight gameplay are marred by poor sound design. Maybe it’s just because I’ve watched a lot of Treme, but New Marais seems eerily quiet. There’s occasionally some traffic sounds and a little chatter, but for the most part you be running around listening to the wind blow and the crickets chirp. The voice work is also… interesting. The dialogue is written very conversationally and the voice actors mostly sound unlike anyone I’ve heard in games recently. This leads to some oddly human moments, which would be a great thing, except this is supposed to be a super hero game. Make it more over the top! Make it fun! Don’t just throw a bunch of bizarrely real, angsty arguments at me.

I did genuinely enjoy the story, however, despite it taking maybe a little too long to get where it needed to go. But the ending is pretty impressive, regardless if you get the good one or the evil one, and it genuinely provided me with more closure than I would have expected. inFAMOUS didn’t make the same jump in quality Uncharted did with it’s first sequel, but that’s more because the first inFAMOUS was better than the first Uncharted. I think they stand together as the best PlayStation-exclusive third person shooter franchises, and among the best in the industry.

E3 2011

The Electronic Entertainment Expo has come and gone once again. The convention is always a mess to cover for the organizations who actually have people there, for a civilian like myself, it’s damn near impossible. So I’ll just tell you about what I’ve gleamed so far.

The biggest news of the show was the announcement of the Wii U, Nintendo’s Wii successor. They said they would be debuting the console at E3 a while ago, and most of the rumors surrounding the new system seem to be true. It is an HD system, probably more powerful than the PS3 and 360. It works with Wii games and all Wii peripherals. Additionally, the console will work with one new controller which everyone is calling the WiiPad. It basically brings DS functionality to home entertainment, giving you a big touch screen as well as all the necessary buttons. The screen has all sorts of sensors, including one for WiiMotes, so you could, for example, set the WiiPad on the floor and swing a WiiMote over it to simulate hitting a golf ball off a tee. It seems pretty cool but it’s obviously still very far off, as Nintendo didn’t have any real games to show. Also, Wii U is the worst name since Wii.

Sony also has a new system coming out this year, the NGP, which has been renamed PlayStation Vita. Vita games look a lot like console games so far, which is probably what Sony is going for. The biggest bombshell on this front was that the base model of the Vita would cost $250, the same price as the 3DS, which has not been doing amazingly well. Sony must think they’ve got a real shot at taking a chunk of the handheld market and I don’t blame them. Of course, the Vita will also have functionality with PS3s, so it will be interesting if Sony tries to get a head start on Wii U-style gaming before Nintendo gets their new system out.

The game everyone’s talking about is Bioshock Infinite, of which we still only have gotten to see choice segments. I’d really like to see how the game plays, but it obviously is going to be extraordinary. I remember the hype for the first Bioshock being pretty crazy, but this sequel has taken that into the stratosphere. It’s a shame it’s so far off.

Bioware seems to be having a strong show, showing off a bunch of Mass Effect 3 and Star Wars The Old Republic, probably the two games I’m looking forward to the most right now. What they showed of Mass Effect 3 makes the shooter gameplay look better than ever. I’m not sure how I feel about the OmniTool being a weapon, but whatever. TOR is looking great too, the GUI has been drastically improved since the last time they showed it and the game looks pretty good. They say they’re hoping to get it out this year. My biggest concern is that the combat doesn’t look that interesting yet, especially compared to a Dragon Age II. But we’ve seen so little of these two games it’s still hard to tell.

Ubisoft showed off the new Assassin’s Creed game, I think it’s subtitle is Revelations. It looks cool, but I’m worried it’s a little worn out. I mean, Ezio looks old as hell. When I played Assassin’s Creed II, I had no idea we’d be getting two more Ezio games, and that worries me a little. But then I remember that Brotherhood was great and probably shouldn’t worry.

We got to see some more Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception and God damn, that game looks great. I don’t think I really need to belabor this point.

Now that Bungie has left the Halo franchise we’re getting a bunch of new Halo games. For starters, the original Halo is being rereleased. What’s cool about that is that the game runs on the original engine and you can even turn off the new graphics and play with the original ones. So I’m guessing that means unlimited grenades and all that goodness is back. Also, there’s going to be a Halo 4, which will start a whole new trilogy of games. That’s about all we know about that one, though.

The big pushes are still towards 3D, PlayStation Move, Kinect and the 3DS, none of which I own. There are also plenty of great games out there worth you investigating, I just touched on the biggest games that mean the most to me. For example, Modern Warfare 3, Battlefield 3, and Far Cry 3 all made a big splash at the show. So go to a real website and find out what’s going on in the world of games!

T3: Fictional Presidents

Just a little thing I was thinking about after learning that Jack Ryan becomes the president eventually in those Tom Clancy books. Who is your favorite fictional president? I bet you can guess mine.


10. Dwayne Elizondo Mountain Dew Herbert Camacho – Idiocracy
Here is a president who we can all admire. President Camacho cares about the people. He wants everyone to have a good time. He also thinks plants should be watered with Gatorade. Maybe he’s not a super genius, but he lives in a world where no one is smart. He gets by on charisma and his idea that everything should be fun. That’s pretty cool. Hell, if we lived in the Idiocracy universe, I’d vote for the guy.


9. Gaius Baltar – Battlestar Galactica
Gaius Baltar was partly responsible for most of humanity dying in a horrific attack by evil robots. While it wasn’t directly his fault, he did a great job of self-preservation that continued to put good people in danger. Plus he takes orders from a woman who only exists in his head. But that didn’t stop him from saying whatever the people wanted to hear and getting elected. What did he do with his presidency? It looks like he mainly slept with beautiful women, then surrendered to the Cylons. That’s pretty pathetic, but kind of awesome too, don’t you think?


8. James Dale – Mars Attacks!
President Dale had no real effect on the events of Mars Attacks! – he mainly just delivered jokes. Which was fine with me, since most of them were pretty funny. Jack Nicholson makes for a pretty good president, especially in a world as crazy as the one in this movie. I love his portrayal of a man who is mostly just a politician, not the idealistic leader we get with most fictional presidents. Plus, he delivers on a promise the Simpsons made of showing us the president impaled by a flag.


7. Tom Beck – Deep Impact
So there’s this asteroid headed for the earth. It’s going to kill everybody, except for the select few who get to stay in a special shelter. Everyone else gets to die in a terrible firestorm. It takes quite the president to make that seem noble, and fortunately President Beck was that guy. His speech at the end of Deep Impact was sombre and yet rousing, reflective and optimistic. Plus he paved the way for future great African American presidents.


6. Dave Kovic – Dave
When President Bill Mitchell has a stroke, it falls to Dave Kovic, who runs an employment agency and works on the side as a Mitchell-lookalike, to run the country. Dave flounders at first, but then single-handedly balances the national budget, vastly improves his popularity with voters and even reinvigorates his romance with the First Lady. It’s these kind of down-to-earth values and fiscal responsibility that most Americans look for in a president, and proof why we’d never actually get one like him.


5. Andrew Shepherd – The American President
President Shepherd is kind of the prototype for Jed Bartlet, in that he is a popular, liberal president who must deal with a conservative congress. In the beginning of the film, Shepherd is a widower and clearly has lost the drive that got him elected in the first place. Thanks to falling in love, however, by the end of the movie he is delivering terrific speeches and leading the country in the direction everyone wants it to go. I think the “least presidential thing I’ve ever done” speech is what clenches it for me.


4. Thomas J. Whitmore – Independence Day
When you think about it, Whitmore was kind of a shitty president. He didn’t seem to really know what was going on, nor did he take the right advice when he should have. He didn’t even know Area 51 existed, the fool! Then, when the country needed his leadership most, he stepped up and gave a rousing speech about how Independence Day was now an international holiday. Then he hopped in a plane and lead the charge himself. How about that?


3. James Marshall – Air Force One
Now here is a president whose administration we know nothing about. We don’t need to know anything about it, either. All we need to know is that in a world full of pathetic, sniveling bureaucrats, President Marshall is a guy who takes things into his own hands. Instead of escaping Air Force One when it is taken over by terrorists, this guy jettisons the pod and starts taking out terrorists one at a time. “Get off my plane,” he says. That’s right up there with “Ask not what you can do for country…”


2. David Palmer – 24
We don’t really know that much about the Palmer presidency. We know he was very popular and the first African American elected to that office. But what his domestic policies were like is anyone’s guess. What we do know is that the man was an amazing decision maker and extremely capable under pressure. He became the go-to guy for dealing with terrorism in the United States. With Palmer calling the shots and Jack Bauer on the front lines, America was never safer. In fact, Palmer was such a beloved TV president, some people attribute part of President Obama’s success to the character.


1. Josiah Bartlet – The West Wing
The West Wing gave us two full terms of Bartlet, and man, I wish we could have given that guy a third one. Bartlet is liberal, but he is also deeply religious and resolute. He didn’t serve in the military, but he capably uses force when necessary. He is among the most intelligent and eloquent characters I’ve ever seen. In eight seasons, he reinvigorated the Supreme Court, made peace in the Middle East, helped make college more affordable and raised the level of political discourse. Jed Bartlet is the real deal, I mean, he can even speak Latin! Four more years!