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groupsix · 2 years

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Coming up with Concepts

After having a meeting with the group I was tasked with creating concept art for three ideas, in order to present them to the tutors.

The first idea that I had to develop was conceived my Manjeeth. He wanted the dome projection to be of a three dimensional forest, and in that forest he wanted there to be a fox which would walk around the dome. While the fox was walking it would age, so by the time it got to the point it started from it would have completed an aging cycle. The scene would start in the morning and by the end it would be night time. By the end of the cycle, the fox would die, and a swarm of fireflies would descend from the sky and approach the fox.

For the second concept, I wanted to make it take place in the interior of a submarine, where the audience can see what is happening outside from the windows. I thought that the shape of a submarine interior would be a great fit for the dome structure.

The third concept would take place in the a castle room interior, where the audience can see a dragon flying around through the windows.

I created a Pinterest board, where I gathered inspiration for the three ideas.

For the first idea I looked at how different artists had approached drawing foxes in a cartoony and simple style, for the second concept it looked at drawings of submarine interiors, and for the third concept I looked at castle rooms with dome like structures and dome windows.

First idea development:

Manjeeth had already modeled a forest for his idea, so I used images of the model that he sent me as a reference:

So I drew a panoramic image of the forest, as well as the fox moving across the dome. Below that I drew a storyboard of the fox going through its life cycle, and finally the fireflies flying down from the sky. I also used lighting to show how the day is progressing while the fox is walking

Looking at images of old foxes I found that there isn’t a huge difference between them and younger foxes, so I tried showing the age progression by having the fox be more energetic towards the beginning and middle, and more calm and tired in the end. Another thing that indicated older age in foxes as far as I could tell was their fur. The fur in older foxes was more raspy, creating more jagged shapes. So I tried having the fur change slightly throughout the storyboard. I don’t think either of those things were that noticeable, it would have definitely been something that I would need to develop more and exaggerated had we chosen that idea.

Second idea development:

For this idea I wanted the audience to be in the submarine and to be able to see what is going on outside in the ocean through windows. One of the windows would be a really big one where the main point of focus would be, and then there would also be small windows where people would be able to see the environment on the sides of the submarine, as well as fish swimming by.

The inside of the submarine would be in 3D, which would feel more realistic and immersive for the audience, while the exterior would be in 2D and more stylized, which I don’t think would break immersion too much as it is meant to be seen through windows. One way that I thought would be effective to show the environment from the side windows was parallax scrolling, as it would make it seem like the submarine is moving forward, and for the front window we could make it slowly zoom in. I hadn’t come up with what the main thing happening outside would be, as I thought it would be a betting idea to develop it only if we decided to go with that idea. My two ideas for it here that there could be a shipwreck outside and the audience could see the submarine crew extracting some kind of treasure from it, and the second one was that there could be a bunch of massive underwater statues around the submarine.

I also thought it would be a good idea to add bits of environmental storytelling in the submarine by having maps book pages etc hanging around the walls of the submarine.

Third idea development:

For the castle room I wanted it to be dome shaped and have five windows on the walls and one big window on the ceiling. I was mainly inspired by the image of the summer palace exhibit that I mentioned in my previous post, as I liked how the main point of focus was on the ceiling. The way I visualized it was that the dragon starts by flying around the room, which the audience can see from the wall windows, and the it flies up and reappears from the ceiling window

By Sofia Stefanis

Image Bibliography:

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antiloreolympus · 3 years

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10 Anti LO Asks

1. I wish Rachel hasn’t used the gods to create the comic but rather turned them into human OCs. The fact that they’re rich, immortal and attractive make the stakes so damn low we don’t even have anything to genuinely fret over narrative wise.

2. WAIT I HAVENT READ LORE OLYMPUS IN A WHILE BUT DID SHE REALLY MAKE APOLLO THE SUN GOD?! STRAIGHT UP IGNORING HELIOS THE ACTUAL SUN GOD?????? How could Rachel say she did research and still choose to incorporate one of the biggest misinformations about Greek Mythos.

Look I don’t want poor Helios to be seen in Lore Olympus style if he hasn’t yet, but that’s such a simple thing to get wrong.

From OP: Both of them are still sun gods, the main issue is that RS also made Leto a sun goddess for some reason.

3. im sorry but the only distinguishing factors between literal gods and humans is that the gods are neon colors and thats it is so dumb?? like what about demi gods? how about exceptional mortals? like how can anyone compare psyche to a goddess then if shes not neon colored? also theres a ton of myths where gods are easily able to blend in with humans without changing anything because they are supposed to look like them, so how can they do that if humans are normal skin tones but the rest are neon?

4. I honestly feel like a big part of why LO is so bad is it's just way, WAY too long. The first few episodes were fast paced and kept you interested, but once it really pocked up on popularity you can see Rachel just started stretching everything out and dragged it back to a snail's pace. I'm all for a slow burn, but that shouldn't for the readers. If it was this long and there were months/years of progress in story I would excuse it, not at most a month in all this time. It's exhausting to read.

5. ok but why do even the humans in lo look so wonky? idk i think her more early abstractions with human forms was really so much better than this more realistic but also more cartoony look, it just doesnt mesh well. sure its technically cleaner looking but it starts to show the many flaws in the art than the previous look didn't. in the early look you could excuse it as coherent stylization, in this current look it just looks like rachel and her team either are very lazy, cant draw, or both.

6. also the disney hercules movie 1) never claims its myth accurate but also 2) its still just a fun movie?? LO in comparison is a self righteous slog that thinks its reinventing the wheel and is more legitimate than the actual texts all while being so wrong its not even"myth fanfic", its just a completely different story with greek names slapped on it for marketing. disney also had the good sense to not make the whole story about a dark topic, meanwhile LO is milking R//PE for a creepy romance.

7. ngl im even surprised rachel would even call hades anything zeus related because she seems so vindictive against anyone who isnt hades/persephone/hera that i would have thought she would make a point to say zeus would rather be be called "light hades" or w/e.

8. Omfg I just realized Hestia and Athena are an incestuous couple. Hestia is Hera's sister and Athena is Hera's and Zeus' daughter. Hestia is literally dating her niece. So the only non-stright couple in LO is incest. I just... how do fail this fucking badly at represenation?

Also, bc I know someone is gonna say it: Yes, incest was pretty much par for the course in Greek mythology, but in LO Rachel seems to actively want to avoid that particular aspect (which is understandable). Zeus and Persephone were orginally biological niece and uncle as well, since Persephone was the daughter of either Zeus or Poseidon and Demeter, but in LO this is retconned into Demeter making Persephone herself without a father being involved, making HxP still sketchy but not blood-related at least.

The Hestia and Athena-situation seems like a comedic mistake RS made. She hastily threw together two same-gender characters to counteract the accusations of homophobia and straightwashing and it just... backfired in the most hilarious possible way.

From OP: Athena and Hestia aren’t technically related in LO but it’s still really odd that Demeter, Hera, and Hestia come from Metis but have no relation at all to her other than she created them. Like, you’d think even Metis’ power would connect them in someway but I guess not. The three even used sisters to refer to each other (although, it was only retconned once and left in the other time) so I still their (Athena and Hestia’s) relationship weird.

9. This isnt just an LO thing but it's ironic Rachel is in that group of WT creators who went to art school and yet have some of the most subpar art i've ever seen, meanwhile the self-taught creators who went to school for medicine, engineering, comms, etc all have some of the most beautiful art i've seen in a webcomic. Anyway LO stans have to stop using the "she went to art school" excuse since it'd pretty clear she's not the only example where art degree =/= good art.

10. ok now im a bit sus about about the LO stats and tbh every other original bc i just saw an original creator say the actual numbers (esp for popular series) are all overinflated by porn and spam bots and webtoons wont get rid of them to make it look like they have more engagement and market them as more successful than they let on💀getting real tumblr will ban boobs but not the n//zi blogs energy from that info ngl

#anti lo #anti lore olympus #lore olympus critical #lo critical

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certifiedwerewolf · 2 years

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Having recently gotten into hobby painting, something I've always wanted to do but didn't for a variety of reasons, here are some things I wish someone had said to me, just in case someone else is where I was for a long time and needs someone to say it to them:

It's fine if you only do it for a hobby. You don't have to monetize your work, you don't have to sell it or do commission work or enter contests or anything like that. You can just do it because it feels good and if you do mediocre paintings forever that's fine because the point of a hobby is to make you happy.

It's fine if you paint the same things over and over.

It's fine if you paint cartoon characters instead of scenery or portraits. (This was always a tricky one with me. I have a cartoony art style and the idea of learning to paint in a more realistic style was paralyzing for a long time.)

Buy the cheap shit. Seriously! One of the big factors that stalled me for so long was that I didn't want to mess up and ruin my materials or canvas and waste the money I'd spent on it. But over a few months I've spent collectively about thirty dollars on paints, brushes, canvases, pallets, and fancy graphite pencils in abundance because I bought the cheap shit instead of shelling out loads of money on the "good stuff". My brain is a layman's brain; it doesn't know the difference, all it knows is "paint stuff", and if I waste a canvas, I can get a six pack for like four dollars. If I ruin a brush, I can get a huge pack of assorted sizes for seven. It's okay.

It's okay if you mess up! See above, but also like. It's fine. It's fine. I pinky promise it's fine. It doesn't have to be perfect. It's fine.

No seriously you are under no obligation to perfection. I'm reiterating this because the fear of not being perfect the first time has stalled me from so many things all of my life and part of that is undiagnosed and mismanaged adhd and part of that is expectations placed on me from being "gifted" and it's shit but it's fine if you aren't perfect and it's fine if you do shit and it's fine if all you ever are is mediocre. It doesn't matter.

If you find joy in the creation, then the work has done its job. That's the point of doing something as a hobby. Just enjoy yourself. Experiment to your heart's content and find the things that bring you joy, whether that's painting the same cartoon character over and over or trying out every kind of art style that has ever existed. Do what you want. Who cares?

You don't have to display your work either. Or give it away. Or do anything with it. You can even throw it out once it's done, if that's your notion.

YOU DO NOT HAVE TO MONETIZE YOUR HOBBY. Reiterating that one too because "if I get good enough I can sell my work" has always been the quickest way to suck the fun out of anything I wanted to do. Don't tell yourself that and don't let anyone else tell you that either. Unless that's what you want, but that's more for if you're trying to become a professional and that's a different set of advice that I can't give you because I don't know what the fuck I'm doing, I've got like two complete and two incomplete pieces under my belt. The only art class I've ever taken was in fourth grade and I don't remember shit fuck from it except that for some reason you aren't supposed to just draw a bunch of cubes in the margins of your notebook and call it drawing. Even if it's super satisfying.

So, to sum up: Do what you want, it literally doesn't matter, don't worry about monetization and buy cheap shit because your layman's brain won't know the difference. Have fun. Also draw cubes.

Anyway here's a painting of my chickensona that I did a few weeks ago please enjoy

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vic-chaos · 3 years

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HELLO i love your art and your style so I wanted to ask if you have any tips for aspiring artists!

Oh thank you so much.....!!!! I feel honoured 🥺❤

I think the best general advice I can think of is just not to be afraid to experiment or go outside your comfort zone!!

It was hard to pick something to talk about in this reply, but this has helped me a bunch and is not something I see people talk about so often.

There's always something you'll be best at or do most often (what I mean by a comfort zone) and you will improve that specific skill by practicing it of course, but it also helps a surprising amount to do completely different stuff every now and then too!

Like for example if you mostly just draw humans, take a quick break sometimes - every few weeks maybe - to play around with animals or landscapes or whatever (and it doesn't matter if they look bad because its not your strength, you don't have to show anyone dsjhdfs) then when you go back to your usual stuff you'll feel it a little easier, and be able to see things with fresher eyes. That helps improvement a lot, at least in my experience!! Its also something I like to do whenever I'm feeling kind of stuck or art blocked.

I'm also really big on experimenting with art styles and I definitely think it's a useful thing to try (as well as just being fun!!) especially for beginner artists. What I mean by this is like... try experimenting with both cartoony styles and realistic ones, cel shading vs painting, clean linework vs just colouring a sketch, thick lines and thin lines or even no lines, smooth brushes or textured ones, just trying out different brushes in general.

With digital art especially there's SO many different things you can do, and the best way to find which styles and techniques work best for you is honestly just to try all of them! It doesn't need to be done in some gruelling long practice phase before you're ready to start posting either, you can experiment with your normal fan art and stuff. It may make your art look "inconsistent" but honestly... who cares sjjddndbd (I have the most inconsistent art on earth and you guys don't mind!!)

I guess in summary... its always worth it to try different and new things, even if they turn out badly you will still learn from the experience. And let yourself have fun above all else because it sounds corny but it really is the most important thing... nothing will help develop your skill or give you inspiration more than passion, so don't feel bad letting your art be as self indulgent as you want!

#x #thank you again for the compliment 🥺#i hope this post is at least a little helpful for someone!!

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cosmic-navel-gazin · 4 years

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This is something a bit different from me, but in light of the recent announcement from Ubisoft that there’s going to be a remake of Prince of Persia: Sands of Time coming out in January 2021, I thought I’d share some thoughts.

(This started out small but got outta hand so super long post incoming, no spoilers for the games)

So first off, a bit of my history with the original game.

I’m a big fan of the Prince of Persia (PoP) franchise, and I’ll fully admit that nostalgia plays a big part in it. You see, in many ways this 2003 classic was my real entryway drug into the world of videogames.

It wasn’t the first videogame I had ever played. My friends had consoles, there were some games on the school computers, but I didn’t own games as a kid. As far as my parents were concerned, these were all the spoils and soul damning devices of Lucifer himself. You know how it is, every generation goes through this thing of blaming all the world’s problems on a new artform: rock and roll, comic books and then videogames.

So yeah, a gaming console or buying games for the home computer was a BIG NO-NO!

But of course, the more an authority figure says you can’t have something, the more you want and crave it. It was only a matter of time until the opportunity presented itself to me.

And then the day finally came.

It was just me and a couple of friends, going to this new magazine store near the school. And there it was: the dvd case that came with a gaming mag for like 5 euros if I remember correctly, stupid cheap for such a great game.

There was doubt, there was fear, there was anxiety. I didn’t know much about the game, only the old 1989 DOS Prince of Persia:

This had the same name but looked different. I was seduced immediately.

The case stared longingly at me:

It’s not my fault, I was bewitched and I bought it.

My symbol of rebellion, my first big transgression, and my first real treasured posession that I bought with hard earned money.

PoP:The Sands of Time was my original sin so to say:

Accurate representation of what happened that day

I furiously installed the game as soon as my parents left the house. Played it for a couple of hours and stood in awe at the thing - the cinematics, the cool parkour moves, the arabian nights setting, the time manipulation to undo mistakes when platforming or in combat, the Prince breaking the fourth wall saying:”no no no, that’s not what happened, let me start over” whenever I died and got a game over…

You have not experienced true fear if at some point in your life you didn’t feel the cold sweat running down your back as you hear the very distinct sound of your parents’ car arriving when you’re doing something “prohibited”.

As soon as I heard that sound, I quickly quit the game, uninstaled it (I could not run the risk of them finding out I had tainted their machine with a videogame *gasp!*), and ran to my room to hide the game before opening the door for them.

Neetheless to say, I never made much progress since I had to start over every time after quitting and uninstalling the thing. I would just play those first couple of hours over and over, never knowing how the story progressed, but I was happy all the same. At one point I knew every line of dialogue, every music cue, every sound effect of that beginning part. It would be some years before I got my first laptop and finally managed to complete it.

All of this to say that the game means a lot to me. Not just as a product or piece of entertainment. This wasn’t casually playing on someone’s gameboy advance or PS2 to have a bit of fun and pass the time.

This was more intimate.

It was just me; the game; a dark room and a blanket; and a sincere and charming, simple but compelling story told seamlessly through mechanics that only enhanced it. This was me witnessing gameplay and storytelling going hand in hand in a way that even many of my other favourite games don’t do, or don’t do as well (there’s usually some disconnect where a game only manages to really excel at one but not the other).

Ok, so on the announcement and trailer:

youtube

As a big fan you might think I was super hyped for this.

But I gotta say…no, not really.

I’m not super angry, but I’m not really excited either honestly. And I don’t think it’s just the rough and uncanny character models and animation that people are pointing out all over (although that doesn’t help).

I guess to talk a bit on that, I should stress out that my problem isn’t that it doesn’t look realistic enough. To be honest, and this is going to sound rich from a big Witcher 3 fan, I think that the gaming industry overall, moreso big tripple A titles, seem to have this unhealthy obsession with photorealism. Like, I don’t need to see the characters’s pores to care about these polygon people. Strong art direction is what I feel is more valuable. I just don’t think this arms race to photorealism is sustainable. Games are taking longer to make and fund, and I’d rather have dev teams spend more time polishing and refining the games’ mechanics and/or story if the trade-off is less “realistic” graphics.

It might just be personal preference, but I wish we were getting more stylized character and world design. Go look at some screenshots for Pathologic 2, a game that came out last year that hits that sweet spot between full-blown cartoony/caricature and realistic by today’s standards:

And I think that is somewhat what they were going for with this remake’s character models (or I hope it was). But it’s still not quite there, hopefully they’ll work on improving those so they can hit that sweet spot also.

(in defense of my hipocrisy and love of The Witcher 3, I think the more realistic look was appropriate for the world they were portraying, it benefits from it. However I don’t think I would love it any less if it had less detailed models and environments)

One last thing on the graphics.

I will say this though, at least from the footage we see in the new trailer the team seems to be capitalizing on colour. Big vibrant reds, blues, whites and yellows in the environment look great, and really captures the 1.001 nights/arabian nights feel that I absolutely love. I appreciate that since there’s always this tendency for remakes to suck all the colour and life from the original (in both games and movies), regardless if it fits the setting and tone or not.

Anyway, I think the reason I’m very much without a big reaction is that I believe the 2003 original is a true classic, a masterpiece even - I guess I should stress out that when I say masterpiece, I don’t mean it’s perfect. Just that the whole is bigger and better than the sum of its parts, that the things it does right, it does so right, that it completely overshadows the flaws.

The story, the art direction, the gameplay (the holy trinity of platforming, combat and puzzle solving), the brilliant introduction of the dagger of time as a gameplay and story mechanic (one of my favourite mechanics in all of gaming), the music, the charming duo that is the Prince and Farah, the tight pacing with the game being just the right length and not overstaying its welcome, the outstanding level design where you’re never stuck doing one thing for too long (the game is always juggling between combat, story, platforming and puzzles, mixing and matching)…

Looking at all these things, I just really don’t think we need a remake because I don’t think there’s that many glaring terrible flaws that could justify it.

Adding more scenes and content could be good, or it might backfire: bloat and ruin the game’s already excelent pacing and fluidity (which I think is the main keyword that better describes the original, everything flows superbly). The original was only 6-8 hours long and it is better for it. I’m not confident that adding dozens of hours of gameplay like the big tittles today would help at all.

The only real improvements I can see are:

tweeking and perfecting the combat (I’ve seen it mentioned that they’re implementing a targeting system which sounds good);

perhaps also better Farah’s A.I during combat when you have to help protect her from swarms of enemies;

Maybe throw in a couple more enemy types? The cut sand tigers for example?

usual things like adding the option of subtitles, add the ability to skip cutescenes;

But other than that…

I don’t even think the graphics of the original look bad. They’ve aged of course, with the game being 17 years old, but still. I installed it last night and played through the first hour to take some screenshots and I think they’re still good:

I can understand the MediEvil remaster, the Spyro remaster or the more recent FFVII remake in terms of wanting to update the graphics. I can understand that not everyone can easily go back to these low poly lads:

But this game? I know I’m influenced by nostalgia and all, but I don’t think it needs that makeover that badly, especially when compared to these other remakes and remasters. Funnily enough, I just noticed that these examples I just listed were all PS1 games. PoP: SoT was a PS2 , PC and Xbox game. PS2 era games have aged far better visually and don’t need that big a makeover in my most humble opinion.

It would be one thing if the original was out of print like a Rule of Rose scenario ,where you can’t find the game unless you go to ebay or something and it’s stupid expensive. Or if it was a pain to get running on modern systems like it was with Grim Fandango, until it got a remaster.

But no, you can find the Sands of Time trilogy and the PoP (2008) reboot on GOG and Steam (on Steam only there’s also the PoP:The Forgotten Sands midquel). So there isn’t the usual problem of the game no longer being accessible to people who want to play it, which helps justify the need for a remake.

The original still plays nice, sounds nice and looks nice, so I guess this all goes to show that at the end of the day, this remake just feels a bit unnecessary to me, at least from what little the trailer showed (I would love to have my bitter cynical ass proved wrong though!).

Maybe I just have a superhuman tolerance for older games and how they look, I really don’t have that big a problem if the game itself is good or interesting, so I don’t always think older games need remakes.

Maybe my falling out of love with Ubisoft in this last decade has curbed forever any hype I might have for their announcements, even when they pull out my son, my baby boy Prince of Persia out again.

Maybe I’m just burnt out and too pessimistic about remakes, remasters and adaptations (although game remakes usually do better than film ones).

And this makes me a bit sad because I don’t want to sh*t all over the first piece of “new” Prince of Persia content we’ve had since 2010??? Oof, it’s been a while.

Especially knowing that Yuri Lowenthal is coming back and excited to voice the Prince again. And I also don’t want to be too harsh since we’re looking at an alpha of the game. But so far I’m just very numb to this, I do seriously hope it turns out good and that they don’t rush it out the door. But I’m not convinced we need a remake in the first place. The original is a milestone, a game changer. I’d rather see a game that had great ideas and poor execution being remade than something people already love and consider a masterpiece.

Guess we’ll see how I feel once more news and footage come out.

Oh and feel free to share your own thoughts on this remake. I’m curious to know what both fans and newcomers alike think.

small edit: I can’t believe I was just watching this Sands of Time playthrough on youtube and at one point it is said: “Another game that is designed similarly to this is Soul Reaver actually.”

Of course! I didn’t even see it! All of my favourite things are connected!!! Maybe that detail was another thing that helped me getting really into Soul Reaver as I was first playing it.

#prince of persia #prince of persia: the sands of time #prince of persia remake #ubisoft #videogames #my ramblings #I can't seem to write a short post to save my life!

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wingedweasel · 4 years

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My thoughts on Disney Remakes

Get ready for a loooooooooong post. Sorry.

So let me start by saying I don’t have Disney+ and haven’t seen Mulan yet, so I’m only going off of what I’ve seen in trailers and the reviews of other people - both who liked it and those who didn’t. Warning, spoilers if you haven’t seen the animated or remakes of Beauty and the Beast, The Lion King, or Mulan.

My opinion is that it seems like Disney really doesn't understand what to do with these remakes.

With Beauty and the Beast, they tried something different and added/changed some things hoping that it would make the story more enjoyable but kept it generally the same, and people didn't react as positively as Disney wanted. In The Lion King, they went the exact opposite and made it a shot for shot remake, and people still didn't react as positively as Disney was hoping. Now with Mulan, it's a completely different story and people are still not happy with the end product.

I don't think it's an issue with the audience being unsatisfied with everything no matter what. There is a little bit of that, make no mistake. There are people who will be unhappy no matter Disney did. However, I think it's more of an issue of Disney not realizing what people liked about the originals and enhancing that and failing to commit.

Beauty and the Beast tried to be more ‘real’ in bringing in PTDS and references to war, death, illness, and grief over losing a loved one, ramping up the sexism, and making Gaston more of a douche, but I think it would have been a better story if they made it more real/dark. One of the easiest things would be to make Gaston more of a threat and his followers either more blind in worshiping him - more cult like if you will - or having him have to work harder to get them on his side. The animates version had the almost cult like mentality of how the people of the village treated Gaston. If he said jump, they would have started jumping before asking how high. It was easy for him to get blind followers into charging the castle to kill the beast.

In the remake, there were times where, while Gaston was able to talk his way out of a problem, his anger or manipulative actions were kind of just waved away or people were only accepting of him and his desires due to peer pressure - which makes a good foil to the Beast before he was cursed. It could have been something the Beast could have recognized and wanted to changed because he sees that acting this way is really bad, wont get the girl, and doesn’t want to be like Gaston (or making it a teaching moment for Gaston if you want to give the villain a possibility of redemption, either works). Another thing would have been to capitalize on the fact Belle is just as much as an inventor as her father and/or she is secretly the one who makes gadgets the village uses and likes or what her father is going to sell. That way it shows she is smart, resourceful, and would be respected if only she just wasn't a gosh darn woman. At the end, when it’s revealed that Gaston is a bad guy and that Belle is the one who created everything, she would be able to get the respect and acceptance of the village she should have had all along. Instead she gets belittled for being able to read and is a senseless romantic because she like Romeo and Juliet? What? Honestly, I don’t think if she ever returned to the village and tried to encourage and teach the little girl to read again, she would have been just as dismissed as she was at the beginning. Her life wouldn’t have changed in any way if she did go back to her ‘provincial life.’

People know this story, as I said, so changing it up a bit with the background things but still making it about the message of it's the personality that makes a good person and how you overcome people not believing in you the focus would have made it better than just Gaston having PTSD, Belle wants to teach girls to read, and a potentially hidden gay character. In short, they could have made this a completely different movie and I think people would have been happy with that. Instead, they started to make changes, doubled back, and we got some lackluster kinda pro-feminism...thing. Also, get a singer for musicals. The singing wasn’t terrible, but still actual singers should be used in musicals more often.

The Lion King suffered for opposite reasons. It seems as if Disney saw that people didn’t like the changes they made to Beauty and the Beast, and went “Okay, not changes at all!” A shot for shot remake should only be done if you can make it interesting. You get bonus points for getting original actors, settings, and crew. Update the technology and it usually becomes better. This should have been an easy A+ since The Lion King did all this. However, it didn’t because it was too real - in a bad way. I haven’t seen the remake of the Jungle Book, but I have heard good things about it because of the way the characters were designed. They were interesting to look at even if they looked more realistic and not as cartoony as they could have done. The Lion King should have gone this root. The characters here were a bit bland looking. They’re just lions, which cool. They hyper realism of the CG was an interesting thing to do - in theory. The hyperrealism in something like Beowolf made it eye catching and was almost a character itself. In The Lion King, there wasn’t a whole lot of variance between everyone. All the animals all looked the same as one another. Sure in nature animals tend to have little variance within their species, but in movies 0 especially a kid’s movie - characters need to stand out from one another to be easily identifiable. Some of the quirks of the animated version could have been used to do this. Make Simba’s mane more reddish-orange, Scar’s mane should have been black. Some of my favorite characters were the lead hyenas. They all had a unique look - it didn’t hurt that Whoppi Goldberg was Shenzi. Now everyone is the same. Also, the mouth and facial emotes didn’t really work with the hyper realism. If they had made the facial features ‘looser’ and a bit more animated, it would have helped convey the expressions so much more and when they started singing, it would have looked more ‘natural’ for them to be doing so.

Nothing was really changes story-wise; they did add some dialogue and minor things like that, but not a whole lot else. It probably could have gotten away with making more alterations to the story - either by adding scenes or changing backstories or things like that - and people wouldn’t have been as mad as with other movies (as long as the changes made sense and added to the plot and weren’t changes just to be changes).

Now Mulan, on the other hand, seems to be split 50/50 sor far. It’s only been out for a short time, so not a whole bunch of people have seen it - myself included - but looking at reviews, it looks like Disney say the hate The Lion King got for being a shot for shot remake and went, “Fine, we’ll change everything!” And they did. I mean, they kept the general idea of a young woman taking her father’s place in the army to fend off an invading force and she somehow defeats the big bad (I think? I heard something about the Emperor fighting the big bad? I mean, it is Jet Li, so he has to have at least one fight scene, so...). I will say that from the previews that I have seen and all the reviewers agree that the movie is very pretty. It has gorgeous cinematography and the set design looks amazing. There were some other positives that a lot of people toted like even though Mulan has a love interest, it really isn’t that big a thing, and the fight scenes were very well choreographed, and some character interactions that were quite funny - things like that. Important things to be sure, but some of the biggest complaints were that Mulan in the animated version was shown to be resourceful, cunning, and proved that a woman could save the day just a s successfully - if not better - than a man (although why she had a fan when she went back to being a woman, I don’t know, but whatever). In the remake, it seems like strength and fighting prowess is all that is needed to be a hero.

Apparently, Qi is a thing in the movie and if you have more of it, it allows people - men - to be good fighters and do more athletic things better than those without it (I guess?) Women who have it are apparently shunned, which is part of one of the Witch’s backstory. She has Qi and uses it for dark magic...okay? Do some men not use it for evil? Is every woman who has it eventually turn evil? Speaking of the Witch, she is super more powerful than the main baddie. She is physically more powerful, has Qi, uses magic - some of which she uses to shapeshift? Like, why do we need another baddie? She should be the main villain. One reviewer said it would have been a great twist if she was just pretending to be the main guy using her shapeshifting powers and we only find out right at the end. Now that would have been cool. We get a strong female villain who plays off of the gender restrictions of the society and turns everything on its head by going, “I was a woman the whole time! All those things you said a woman couldn’t do, well, I was doing them and you didn’t have any complaints then!” Instead, we get another movie where the villainous woman is second to the villainous man simply because of gender stereotypes. Hell, even if the man was just pretending to be the main baddie and acting as her puppet would have been better.

I guess because she really isn’t the main villain, she gets to have a redemption scene and save the hero, but was that really necessary? Couldn’t she be bad and stay bad until the very end? Why not? Anyway, she sacrifices herself to save Mulan, and it’s supposed to be an emotional scene which causes Mulan to find her inner strength and gives her a power boost to defeat the baddie.

Mulan also doesn’t have a lot of cunning in this remake, apparently. She’s more physical than the animated version, but...wasn’t the point of Mulan to show that you needed more than physicality to save the day? The thing that I’ve seen most people complain about is this. In the animated version, Mulan and the other soldiers are given the task to climb a pole wearing heavy weights (I’ll Make a Man Out of You is one of the best songs ever, fight me). After a montage of her failing physical tasks, she is only able to succeed climbing the pole through her smarts. Not because she suddenly got supper buff and could lift herself up the pole. Yes, she gets physically stronger and becomes the best at everything during the finale of the song, but that just a result of training. You start off really bad and then become good. I believe what made this scene so powerful was that she was held back by the belief that she wasn’t ‘cut out’ for the army. She had to overcome her own mentality before she could start to be a better soldier. She does that by using her brain to find a different way to climb the pole.

In the remake, the task is to climb steps up a mountain carrying buckets of water. It’s not an easy task, as everyone fails, but apparently, she just keeps at it until she is physically strong enough to do it? No more effective way of carrying the buckets than just T-pose while holding them out to the side. Like I said, training makes you stringer. Practice makes you better. This is obvious. You get stronger the longer you work your muscles. There’s nothing special about that. Yes, the men were probably comparatively physically stronger than her, but they all struggled too. What’s the lesson here? Just keep at it and one day you will be big and strong? Okay, cool I guess. That’s something that is helpful, don’t get me wrong. Dedication and hard work are important. Being physically strong is one aspect of being a soldier - especially during the time period the movie is set in, but it’s not the be all end all. That’s what made Mulan stand out: she was at such a disadvantage she had to find a different way of doing things to succeed. Then the training kicked in and she became physically stronger.

It’s also good to note that in the animated version, she never relies on her physical strength to do something. Sure she is super awesome at the end of the training montage, but that’s all we see of her being physical. She uses smarts to defeat the army, the previous method of climbing the pole to get inside the palace, and deception to knock out the guards. No epic parkour, no breaking down walls, just her brain. In the remake, it seems as if strength is the be all end all. Mulan is supposed to be a role model for young girls and an example of why you shouldn’t listen to stereotypes. At least, she is supposed to be. And she is - in the animated version. Here, it seems as if the message is forget about being intelligent. All that really matters is that you be physically strong. I mean, even that hot mess of a movie Hercules taught us that this is wrong. You need more than just muscles to be a hero. Being able to fight isn’t what makes you a hero (it’s certainly part of it, obviously). You need a good heart and a good head, not a six pack.

With all that said, it looks like the Mulan remake suffered from trying to not be Mulan. It went too far in changing things. It added things that it didn’t need to add, and took out things that helped make the animated version well liked. The love story that wasn’t? They took out Shang, but added another love interest? Just keep Shang. Looking back, and even at the time I first saw it, it’s amazing to see the hero is a woman and she doesn’t need to rely on a relationship to reach her goals. The added bonus of having Shang was that he os believed to be the first LGBT Disney character. He respected Ping and thought him a friend before the big reveal and no one can convince me otherwise the looks Shang gave Ping during the training montage and after Ping gives Shang some encouragement right before they march out to the meet the main army are anything other than Shang thinking “Damn, I want some of that.” Add in the fact that he starts to act all flustered when he returned the helmet just shows that he had feelings for Ping, but now that Ping is actually a girl he can act on those feelings (this is both Ancient China we are talking about, not 2020...where being LGBT is still not always accepted...).

Okay, so what does all that mean for the Mulan remake? Beauty and the Beast wasn’t the best because it didn’t go far enough with its changes, The Lion King didn’t have enough changes, and Mulan had too many changes? Not exactly. Mulan, as a story, can work with being completely different from the original animated version. It probably mostly does. It’s more than like going to be a success on Disney+. But if any movie could have been a shot for shot remake, it should have been Mulan. Hell, making it not be a musical and adapting the story to account for that could work. It was the lessons that made the animated version so well liked. Also the humor, Eddie Murphy makes a great side kick. You have the yearning for ‘more’ and the feeling of not fitting in that Beauty and the Beast has combined with the self-doubt and acceptance despite origins of The Lion King. You have a kickass female hero who breaks all the gender rules of her society and saves the day by using her brain and not a sword. No magic to save the day - the ancestor spirts being the only mystical thing about the movie. Mushu isn’t overtly magical and he doesn’t really help do anything except be a convenient Zippo light two times in the movie - it could be argued that he, and magic in general, is a source of conflict since the other spirits all want to bring Mulan home. Also no stupidly forced romance subplot - or worse a love triangle. The remake just doesn’t have any of that, really. It’s basically just another action movie with the added flavor of a woman pretending to be a man in the army. It’s almost a ‘chosen one’ narrative since the aspect of Qi looks to be a major plot point - and source of conflict. There’s magic - and oh by the way, there’s a phoenix attached to Mulan for some reason...? - and what looks like a romance subplot (one where the guy isn’t Bi boooooooo). Mulan could have been shot for shot and would be successful. It can also be successful by making changes, but not many. We like Mulan the way it was. If you need to make changes or updates to it, fine, but don’t make the story so unrecognizable that it becomes a different movie. Mulan doing a whole bunch of fancy martial arts before literally beating the big bad and an evil Witch who turns into a bird are things we don’t want and the story doesn’t need.

Disney needs to stop messing with the original stories. We liked the old animated versions for a reason. Beauty and the Beast and The Lion King were two of the biggest box office hits and two of the most popular Disney movies today. The were huge successes and are still talked about 20+ years later. These remakes are just meh.

If Disney does change the story, change it in a way that emphasizes what was liked about the original. Otherwise, make it into a different movie and - more importantly - call it something else.

#Disney #Mulan #Lion King #Beauty and the Beast #remake #rant #film review

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deltaengineering · 4 years

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Spring Anime 2020 Part 5: Doga Kobo is adapting a Kiraralike about fishing

Appare-Ranman!

Oh hey, it’s PA Works, remember them? Their last project (A3) went hilariously awry, but it seemed like their heart wasn’t in it anyway. A-R is closer to a PAW premium product, with very nice production values that even manage to make the ridiculous character designs work. It’s also Wacky Races: A bunch of stereotypes in cartoony contraptions race across the USA. Oh, so it’s more like Cannonball Run then. Except A-R has some surprisingly good character writing in its first-episode origin story flashback, and I’d even say that writing this solid is kinda wasted on Cannonball Run. But wait, Cannonball Run with solid character writing and great looks, isn’t that just REDLINE? Sign me the fuck up!

ARGONAVIS from BanG Dream!

Bang Dream has its own male version now, you guys, and I do like me some Bang Dream (S3 only wasn’t in the season roundup because it finished so late — for the record, first time I’d call a full size Bandori anime “good” 7/10). Now the last time I encountered the male version of a franchise was IM@S Side M, and I didn’t like that, but also I don’t like IM@S much to begin with. On the other hand, I do like IDOLSHi7 a lot, and if you look at that one from the right angle it’s pretty close to a male version of Love Live. Uh, so Argonavis then: It’s Bang Dream with 20 year old guys instead of 16 year old girls. So the tone is similar, though a quite bit more subdued and the characters are a little less goofy. There’s only one (half of a) band so far, but they seem alright. It looks like a Sanzigen anime, slightly worse than S2/S3 in the regular parts but slightly better in the performances. I have no objections to watching this while I wait for Garupico Oomori to come out, because that’s where it’s really at.

Fugou Keiji Balance: UNLIMITED

Fugou Keiji B^U is a police comedy about a cop who solves crimes with the most realistic superpower: Money. It’s a solid comedy too, with a fairly laidback and wry sense of humor, aided by some slick directing and generally good (Cloverworks) looks. Now, the thing about this one specifically is that it’s good right now, but it can’t stay the way it is and remain good, because it’s already leaning close to [The Joke] territory. If every episode of this is going to be “Kambe throws fuck-you money at the problem and everyone goes ‘WHAAAAT’”, it’s going to get very old very fast. There’s some indication that it’s not that simple, notably Kambe obviously being portrayed as a prick (the ostentatious musical sting that plays whenever he appears is extra hilarious), but there’s nothing saying that they can’t just have him be a prick week after week either – he needs some character development or at the very least some getting dunked on, and sooner than by episode 11 too, please. I’m pretty impressed by this first episode and will stick with it for now, but the potential for this to not work out seems much higher than usual.

Houkago Teibou Nisshi

Doga Kobo is adapting a Kiraralike about fishing. Then again, Doga Kobo is adapting a Kiraralike about fishing. Since Doga Kobo is adapting a Kiraralike about fishing, it’s likely that Doga Kobo is adapting a Kiraralike about fishing possibly leading to Doga Kobo adapting a Kiraralike about fishing. I mean, Doga Kobo is adapting a Kiraralike about fishing, how could it be anything but Doga Kobo adapting a Kiraralike about fishing. In three months I’ll go on MAL, select “Completed” and “(6) Fine” and then click “Add”. Because Doga Kobo is adapting a Kiraralike about fishing.

Kitsutsuki Tanteidokoro

Since Pecker Detectives is a novel and not a manga, researching its target demographic is harder than clicking the Wikipedia link to its magazine and as such beyond my means. However, it’s yet another fucking story about historic author’s hanging around together being dreamy, so I have some suspicions. Anyway, poets, yes? Let’s keep them a bit closer to reality this time, maybe? Late Meiji era, yes? You can put your dudes in kimonos or smexy three-piece suits. With HATS. But needs plot, what do? Oh, I guess we’ll just rip off Sherlock Holmes again, that never goes wrong. Murders are always interesting right? Not the fucking way you write them, buddy. This show is just incredibly boring, and no amount of poetry or pastel backgrounds (which do look pretty nice) make it any less so. I can’t scrape together even a fraction of a fuck. At least there’s not a Dazai in sight, but the cast list promises Edogawa Ranpo (the Date Masamune of literature), so lol.

Mewkledreamy

Sanrio is trying to sell some plastic toys again. Since they’re selling to very young girls, well congratulations, you found something even more Not For Me than Shadowverse. Mewkledreamy is obviously a candy-colored, sparkly nightmare, and the mascot voice is just as insufferable as expected. Now apart from this... everything, I do have to say I enjoyed it more than I expected. Good direction can help; this was originally scheduled to be done by Chiaki Kon, but she was replaced by Hiroaki Sakurai, crafter of cutesy/shoujo shit like Cromartie High for three decades. The guy knows what he’s doing, and Mewkledreamy is pretty pleasant when the cat isn’t talking, the character designs are plush and cute, and the writing puts in more effort than strictly required too. If you can stomach something like Aikatsu (which I could not), you could do worse than give Mewkledreamy a spin. There’s just one more negative though: Sanrio character franchises can run for years, the last one that Sakurai did (Jewelpet Happiness) had 52 episodes. Not that I give a shit about how much Mewkledreamy exists, but this makes it very unlikely that we’re going to see a sequel to Sakurai’s last show, Machikado Fucking Mazoku, any time soon. And that’s unforgivable, to be honest.

Zashiki Warashi no Tatami-chan

It’s a flash short with some supernatural critters complaining about Tokyo. It’s bad and it looks bad. Go away.

#anime #impressions #Appare-Ranman #argonavis #fugou keiji balance: unlimited #Houkago Teibou Nisshi #Kitsutsuki Tanteidokoro #Mewkledreamy #Zashiki Warashi no Tatami-chan #spring2020

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inikavulpixelreviews · 5 years

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Let’s Talk About Pokemon - The Grookey Family

810: Grookey

And so, finally after 22 reviews, we get to see a Grass Starter. And erm, spoilers. Competition for the Gen 7 starters these are not. Even granting it's gonna be a tall order to top Gen 7's starters for me, these tragically can't even find a candle to hold up to them.

Grookey from day 1 has felt really underwhelming to me and my opinion on it has not improved a bit. It stinks to have the Grass starter, the starter type I've always traditionally started with, just strike out completely this time. Even if I wasn't too thrilled about Chespin either, it had a fun spin on a hedgehog design. Grookey here is. It sure is a monkey, yeah. Didn’t we already get a funny Grass monkey with Pansage though?

I don't know what it is about friggin monkeys. And how Pokemon can't ever seem to make me be able to give a damn about any of them other than Darumaka. (And that’s if you even consider that one a monkey.) Their designs have just always felt on the samey side to me even if we disqualify the Gen 5 elemental monkeys. I can't even muster up the emotional strength to get angry at Grookey for tarnishing the Grass starter's excellent run up until this point. It's just so harmlessly blasé.

It has one little personality quirk where it takes the stick out of its “hair” and uses it as not just a weapon in battle, but also it loves to drum with it. Very obviously flagging where it will be heading in an evolutionary path.

Personal Score: 5/10

811: Thwakey

I keep seeing people dunk on Thwakey but it's a monkey with at least a LITTLE fun going for it. It's got an odd body shape that looks a little more imaginative than its line-mates, and at least it pulls off the “just a regular monkey” look in a slightly cooler looking way than your usual Poke-Primate. I dunno, I just likes its face in a way I find a little hard to pin down.

But when it pulls out the sticks in its hair, it gets a fun bit of extra flare in a leafy mohawk! So it's got a cool dynamic model to go with it.

Though I will say a big irk for me about the design is how top-heavy the color distribution is. Had one of the colors either moved down to its legs or got removed entirely, it'd look a little less egregious, but it just makes the 'mon look uncomfortably naked. Don't be making me think of naked monkeys, man.

Something I will give this line credit for is that it continues the Grass Starter tradition of pre-history in an interesting way. And since I've admittedly been pretty on-off about explaining them, I might as well recap it so far. And since this may be the last time we talk about Starters for a few years, I might do the same for the other Starter lines and their themes, as well as how these new starters fit in.

Venusaur is easily the biggest stretch since this “extinct creatures” theme feels like it fell onto the Grass starters by accident or something. Venusaur was always meant to be more of a toad, not even being speculation at this point since it's been outright stated it is a one. It does, however, hold plenty of dinosaur-esque features which is probably why English localization has given it the “saur” in its name to begin with. Then comes Meganium, being an unambiguous sauropod. Sceptile has features of raptors and other feathered dinosaurs. Torterra goes from a tortoise to becoming notably part-ankylosaur. Serperior started out as a snake with limbs, showing a line-long progression of lizards losing their limbs over time to become modern snakes. Chesnaught evolved into the extinct mammal, glyptodont. And finally, Decidueye the Ghost-owl becomes the fairly recently extinct Stilt Owl.

Before the mass leak, a lot of fans speculated to keep up with this trend, that Grookey would eventually become a Gigantapithecus, an extinct species of ape. But turns out it's a bit more nuanced than that. As we'll see, Rillaboom is a much more average looking ape. Grookey could very well be based on cavemen. What, with them being primates that developed enough to start using sticks as tools. Even down to using them to create a musical beat! That's really clever! It's like, the one glimmer of super creative theming in this whole line.

Personal Score: 6/10

812: Rillaboom

And obviously the theme is still going into Rillaboom here, with it being a touch more human than the usual ape Pokemon as well as throwing in a bit of neanderthal into the mix with its large brow and all. But I can't get behind this decidedly basic ape. It's a Pokemon ape in a world where we've already gotten plenty of Pokemon apes so I have to wonder what was the point of introducing a new Pokemon that's even more grounded than the already pretty grounded; albeit cartoony, apes are. Why would you look at the lineup of so many grounded and fairly realistic Poke-Apes and think “Y'know what Pokemon is missing? An EVEN MORE grounded and realistic ape!!”

And yes, it gets a fun little drum set and some drum sticks made out of a tree trunk and some branches. That's neat and all, but I still think a Pokemon aught to be visually interesting even without its accessories. In exactly the same way Rotom is interesting even before it gained new forms from its ability to possess appliances, or that Decidueye is still a cool and eye-catching design even before you learn that it can use its arms and hood draw-strings as a bow. Take away Rillaboom's drum set and what does Rillaboom have? A giant leafy mullet, I guess. Though even then, it's odd how many repeated motifs we get this Gen. We already have a wild-haired glam rocker in Obstagoon, so why do we need another one, especially if it's even more downplayed? I guess they just really felt the need to have an entire band between Rillaboom on drums, Toxtricity on guitar and bass, and Obstagoon on vocals. Ehh.

I think that's the core of why these starters feel lukewarm at best to me. Normally the starters are at least competently designed, and very much made in mind that they're going to be the centerpiece of Pokemon marketing for the next 3 or 4 years. If this line had just been a mid-game random line of Grass monkeys, I wouldn't have found it weird at all.

...But at least it comes with a fun stealth pun! What do you say when you send your Rillaboom out into battle? “Go, Rillaboom!”

GoRillaboom.

Hah.

Personal Score: 4/10

Boy I can’t wait to see that new Mythical Pokemon, which is very likely yet another monkey. Sigh.

[Archive]

#Pokemon #Grookey #Thwakey #Rillaboom #Pokemon Reviews

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westendwithsteph · 4 years

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Frozen: The Broadway Musical Review

With Frozen due to open in the West End in a few months (although who knows what will happen with COVID-19 causing all the theatres to close), it seemed like the perfect time for me to review the show when I saw it in New York last December.

Frozen is a musical based on Disney’s film by the same name and was playing at the St James Theatre in New York City, until it was sadly closed during the COVID-19 lockdown. It follows the same story as the film. Anna, the feisty, positive, younger sister, sets off on a journey to find her older sister, Elsa, after she accidentally sets off an eternal winter in Arendelle at her anointment to become queen and runs away to the mountains. Anna meets Olaf, the snowman, Kristoff, the mountain man, and his reindeer, Sven, along the way and they help her on her quest to save her sister. It is a story of sisterly love and learning to love and accept yourself for who you are.

The musical, despite following the same story, brings lots of new songs and music, as well as keeping some of the classics from the 2013 movie. The first characters we properly get to meet are young Elsa and Anna, who sing ‘A Little Bit of You’, which is about them making a Olaf for the first time, and also leads to young Elsa hitting young Anna with her magic, which is really the beginning of the end for Elsa until the end of the musical when there is of course a happy ending (it wouldn’t be a Disney story without one!). I was fortunate enough to see Fiona Morgan Quinn as young Anna and Suri Marrero as young Elsa in this performance, and they were beyond phenomenal! Both had amazing voices and brought such an exciting energy to the stage. Their acting was very natural, but big enough for the whole theatre to see, they were an absolute pleasure to watch. I have seen a lot of children in stage shows and they are always amazing, but I was completely blown away by these two. They continue their excellent performances through a couple more songs, before magically growing up into Caissie Levy (Elsa) and Patti Murin (Anna) at the end of ‘Do You Want to Build a Snowman?’

(photo from @fionamorganq on Instagram)

Having described the kids as phenomenal, I am left with no words to describe the voices of Levy and Murin. They both have such power in their voices, while still being able to portray the struggles both sisters have been through. I will not say anything more about the two leads, because it is not necessary. They were cast for a reason and they show it.

One of the only things I did not love about the show was the set and staging for ‘In Summer’, Olaf’s solo song. Ryann Redmond plays the role of Olaf and does a great job of acting with her own face and body as well as puppeteering the snowman puppet (which is very cleverly designed but I will get into that later). My dislike was nothing to do with her, it was the set. Practically the entire show is full of incredibly detailed, realistic sets, except for ‘In Summer’, which has a cartoony style to it, and I know it is to show that he’s imagining, but since it’s the only time in the show where this style is used, I felt it was out of place and took away from the overall vibe of the show. If the cartoon style had been woven more into the show, especially around Olaf’s parts, I think it would have worked better, but it was only used in this one circumstance and I did not like that.

However, while I am on the topic of sets, I must talk about how stunning the rest of them are. Christopher Oram was the scenic and costume designer on this production, and I adore his designs. The sheer detail that goes into each of them is unmatched in any other show I have seen, and I ended up spending £19 on the souvenir programme, so I would be able to fully remember them! For anyone who does not know, programmes in England are usually only £10 maximum, so forking out nineteen is unheard of for me, but I could not resist. I would genuinely say that the sets alone make this production worth seeing. The costumes compliment each set amazingly as well, it makes the scenes absolutely stunning to look at.

(Kristoff (Jelani Alladin) and Anna (Patti Murin). Photo: Deen van Meer)

The special effects (by Jeremy Chernich) are so magical, and the lighting design (by Natasha Katz) just takes them to the next level. Lighting design and special effects seem to go hand in hand in this show, so I could not possibly know who designed which parts, I imagine it was a collaboration between the two though. One of the standout moments to me is when Elsa sets off the eternal winter. She touches the edge of the stage and the whole theatre turns to ice. Shards of ice shoot out of the wings and the floor is covered in dry ice smoke to look like snow. The set pieces to disguise the wings transform into snowy cliffs and its just incredible. The set change got a round of applause from the audience. It was magical to watch. The other major special effects moment I remember is near the end. The people of Arendelle are coming to capture Elsa and punish her for the eternal winter, and to protect herself Elsa makes huge icy spikes shoot up from the ground to block them out. They look so much like ice and are quite scary really. If I were one of the people of Arendelle I would certainly count them as a good reason to stay back!

(Caissie Levy as Elsa in Frozen: The Musical. Photograph: Deen van Meer)

Now I do not want to make this review too long, but it would be a crime of me to not discuss Olaf and Sven. Olaf is done in a sort of Lion King-esque style. He is a puppet attached to the actor. His feet were joined onto her feet and she controlled his arms, mouth, and head with her hands, using a not-quite-classic puppeteering set up. When they first came on, I was concerned that having the actor be taller than the Olaf puppet would be distracting, but it was quite the opposite. I found that I stopped noticing she was there and focussed mainly on the puppets face. But even on the occasions I did look at Redmond, she was mimicking the facial expressions and it almost added more to the character. Sven on the other hand, was slightly different. He was not a puppet per say, but I do not know if he could be classed as a costume either. He looked and acted just like a reindeer, but of course was not really one. He has only one person inside, controlling him (Adam Jepsen and Andrew Pirozzi switch off playing him, but you never see their faces, so I am not sure which one I saw!). The design is ingenious. It unfortunately is very difficult to explain though, but believe me when I say it is incredibly effective.

(Collin Baja and F. Michael Haynie in 'Frozen' North American Tour. Photo by Deen van Meer)

I adored watching Frozen and wish I could have seen it again while I was in New York City, but time and money were against me (NYC is awfully expensive!). I am extremely excited for it to come to London and will definitely be there as soon as I can. The cast list includes Samantha Barks as Elsa and Stephanie McKeon as Anna, two extraordinarily talented actors. Assuming it is going to be the same, or similar, to the Broadway production, I could not recommend seeing it enough, especially if you have children who love Frozen. But even if you have no children, it is so beautifully done that I have no doubts it will be enjoyed by adults too, I certainly loved it.

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beardycarrot · 5 years

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So, Detective Pikachu.

It was really good! While I’ve always enjoyed the first Mortal Kombat movie for what it is, and the Double Dragon and Street Fighter movies are entertaining in their own rights despite having nothing to do with the source material, I think Detective Pikachu might be the first actually good Hollywood video game movie.

It does have a few issues, but they’re all relatively minor. While the CG is great most of the time, there are a few Pokemon that don’t look great, or even feel like they don’t really exist in the scene. I was concerned by a group of Loudred surrounding a DJ in the trailers, as in the movie itself... yeah, they look pretty bad. Make no mistake, they’re actually utilized SUPER well: you can’t tell from the trailers, but during the entire scene they appear in, they’re beatboxing and creating the music you club music you’re listening to, and it just clicks in a really cool way. Unfortunately, the CG on them just looks smudgey and unconvincing.

I noticed the same issue on other dark-colored Pokemon too: Gengar, Machamp, and Snorlax all stand out a bit. Maybe it’s because their colors feel too saturated for how dark they are, I’m not sure, but unlike most other Pokemon in the movie they stick out whenever they’re on-screen. Thankfully, all the rest work well, and look great. Pokemon with cartoonie white eyes with a little black dot pupil look weird at first, but that was no longer an issue for me once I realized that they were actually depicted with normal eyes, just with completely white irises. It’s subtle, but actually really clever.

Another weird quirk of Psyduck’s design are those three... hair things, on its head. I can appreciate that they wanted to stay close to the original design, but I really wish they’d been depicted as feathers or something, because with the texturing on them, they just look like weird little hair-covered antennae or something. It’s really weird. I have no complaints about the rest of the Pokemon though, and some, like Snubbull, are legitimately amazing.

Anyway, enough complaining about CG, let’s talk story! Being a mystery, there ARE a couple plot twists, one of which I figured out, another that the movie actually manages to keep from you pretty effectively (while still making sense in context), and one that I was completely not expecting because the movie intentionally misdirects you. That’s a pretty impressive number of twists, given the movie’s short run time.

Unfortunately, the length of the movie also means that a few things feel rushed... the villain enacting their evil scheme kinda comes out of nowhere, and I feel like not nearly enough was done to set that up. This comes after a big action scene that I feel could’ve been greatly scaled back, especially considering the ending is also a big action scene... Don’t get me wrong, the [REDACTED] this movie does is on-point and I wouldn’t want them to change that, but the reality of what the villain is trying to accomplish really should’ve been explained at some point.

The writing itself, however, is really funny, snappy, and at times heartfelt, with great performances all around. There’s a slight issue in that all the best jokes are used in the trailers, but obviously that’s not the movie’s fault, and in a theatre full of people who haven’t watched them a dozen times there would probably be a fair number of laughs. It’s also surprisingly adult. Like, legitimately, I’m shocked that some of the jokes alluding to nudity, masturbation, cocaine, and Pikachu being violated were approved. You definitely think I’m kidding right now. I am not.

The Mr Mime scene is also a lot different than I was expecting based on the trailers, and is... well, I won’t spoil it in any capacity, but I’ll just say that it’s another of the scenes that I wish had gone on for longer.

One of my favorite parts of the movie is the female lead Lucy, because she’s... an actual person? She’s not JUST a love interest, she’s not quirky and bumbling to the point of being comic relief, and aside from being shown to be slightly athletic at one point, she’s not hyper-over-competent either. It probably says a lot about Hollywood movies that I consider depicting women as normal people to be a selling point. She’s kind of a cliche character in that she’s a journalism intern hungry for a scoop, and isn’t super well-developed, but as I’ve already mentioned that this movie has a lot to cram in.

One thing I was never really clear on is why Lucy has a Psyduck. In Ryme City, catching and battling Pokemon is outlawed, and everyone has a partner Pokemon to help with their daily activities. For example, Bill Nighy’s character has a Ditto that acts as sort of an assistant, assuming whatever form is needed. A street vendor has a Charmander to light his wok, a cafe owner has a Ludicolo as a waitress (presumably to carry cups on its lily pad thing)... but I’m not sure why Lucy has a Psyduck. I guess just because Psyduck is recognizable to people who watched the original series of the Pokemon anime? If there’s an in-universe explanation, I completely missed it.

If there’s one other thing I’d like to have seen in the movie, it’s Wooper a wider selection of Pokemon. I know that it’s a ridiculous amount of work to make even one CG creature for a movie like this, since they have to design it, animate it, and do a ton of tedious work like making sure that the lighting looks realistic in every single shot, but still. Towards the end of the movie, you really get a feeling that the Pokemon you’re seeing are being pulled from a limited pool, which is unfortunate. It reminds me of the very first Pokemon Stadium game, in which only something like forty Pokemon are available to use. Here’s hoping that the sequel (which is already confirmed to be happening) introduces a lot more, and does more world-building. I’d love to see what they can do with a full two hour run time in which they don’t have to establish the premise or introduce characters, devoting everything to telling the story.

#detective pikachu

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doktorpeace · 6 years

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My “Top 5″ Games Of The Year:

Okay so before we get into the meat of this I want to clarify the way these posts will be formatted. I’m just going to be giving my general thoughts on these games, there’s not going to be a huge amount of organization but I’ll probably loosely break them down into a few different aspects. These won’t be spoiler free either, so keep that in mind while reading. Also this is a top 5 list of games I played for the first time this year, not games that necessarily came out this year. So without any more preamble this begins my Top 5 games of the year list!

#5 - Psychonauts

This is a game that already gets a lot of love. I think, like Earthbound, it’s the kind of game basically everyone knows is supposed to be good, it’s a cult classic with a way bigger following now than what it had when it first came out. It’s got a unique look and pushes against the trends of games at the time, being a very traditional 3D Platformer in terms of gameplay with a fairly cute (comparatively) art direction in a time where the video games industry was going through what I would consider its teenage years, full of edgy, pointlessly gritty games as the next big thing. Also it’s about kids with psychic powers, I swear there’s something about that concept that gets people absolutely hog wild for games. In truth I didn’t play this game out of any great personal drive to, I only did it to try and get a little closer to my friend @spitblaze who dearly loves it but it really did surprise me. Psychonauts is something special, it truly surprised me at just how fun and well aged it was, and it really genuinely deserves the praise it gets and the dedicated fans it has. It’s got a great amount of polish, charm, and a unique identity in the landscape of games even today. Psychonauts follows a boy named Raz (short for Razputin) as he tries to become one of the titular Psychonauts by breaking into a summer camp which trains kids as PSI Cadets to hone their innate psychic powers. This setup and the opening sequence to go with it feels a lot like a Saturday morning cartoon to me and that’s just fine. I think it sets the tone for the game very well because this game excellently straddles the line between being funny and cartoony while also handling mental illness with the gravitas it deserves, which I’ll get into a little more later. For now I wanna talk about the gameplay and honestly I think Psychonaut’s level design and mechanics have aged extremely well. Double Fine studios really understood to a tee what makes a good 3D platformer. Raz controls comfortably, moving at a pace that feels snappy for the world he’s in but not so fast that it dissuades the player from exploration or opens up too much in the way of cheese strategies that disregard the level design. The game also has a nice and consistent feeling of progression which is based on how willing you are to engage with the game. The more you actually play the collectathon side of this platformer the more skills Raz gets access to, most of which are consistently useful and all of which are required for finishing the game to 100% completion. As far as I remember the player is handed all of the upgrades which are absolutely needed to finish the game but honestly it’s a much more dry experience which involves actively avoiding playing the game as intended to not get at least a bit of these optional goodies. The player starts the game solely with basic movement options, you can move around at a standard pace and you have a double jump. While the double jump physics feel a little awkward at first and take some getting used to that doesn’t feel like it’s due to a lack of polish but rather as an intentional design. Raz becomes a lot more floaty during his second jump, giving players a lot of time to line up and comfortably land their jumps over longer distances. This caught me off guard at first but over time I came to appreciate it, since the level design is actually planned around this, I only wish it didn’t break your midair momentum if you do it out of a full speed run. Over time the player will also gain access to both a slow fall upgrade and a speed enhancement upgrade, which are mandatorily earned only about a third of the way into the game. The game from here on actively makes use of these powers with bigger environments and more vertical spaces built into the levels. These powers all coalesce into a comprehensive and fun amount of mobility for Raz and makes just moving him around fun, which is a hallmark of any good 3D platformer in my opinion. Even if you don’t enjoy it as much as me the hub area has a fast transit system so it’s not really an issue. Aside from mobility options the player will also gain access to a variety of combat enhancements both through mandatory events and through optional interactions. The player starts the game with a standard 3 hit combo, but gains access to a reliable ranged attack, a ground pound-esc move with a big shockwave hitbox, the ability to pick up and launch objects from a distance, and more. Raz’s combat moveset by the end feels varied enough to justify how much combat there is in the game, but seeing as almost all of the combat upgrades are optional most encounters are not designed with them in mind, which is a missed opportunity. The amount of combat in the game is one trend from the era I wish Psychonauts had avoided, but for the most part enemy mooks are easy enough to dispatch and take very little time, or are entirely avoidable so it’s not really an issue. In terms of all of the upgrades, mobility and combat, Psychonauts is a little slow to open up, but it’s not a super long game, so slow by its standards is still not much time at all. One thing that Psychonauts absolutely falls flat on though are its boss fights. There’s almost one per level across about a dozen levels and they’re all bad. All of them, none of them are any good. One of the last ones, with El Odio, is passable I guess, but I wish they had focused more on platforming gauntlets like they do with the boss fight against Raz’s dad than on literal actual fights. That platforming section is tense, its timer is just long enough to get you though, and it really feels like a good test of the player’s relevant capabilities WAY more than any of the boss fights do. Some of them do implement one of the psychic powers into them in a fun or unique way, like the battle with the Scoutmaster in The Milkman Conspiracy but that still doesn’t make the boss fight itself good. The level design in general masterfully takes advantage of the game’s core concept of entering people’s psyches to help them with mental illnesses and traumas they have. Every single level has a completely unique and immediately identifiable aesthetic and most of them have unique ways of engaging with the level in order to complete it. While a few of levels are simply ‘get to the end’ those are definitely in the minority. One level is a loose kind of ‘Who Dun It’, one is a puzzle where you have to get a stage play to work correctly, one is a marksmanship course, and one is a giant board game. None of these concepts distract from the core collectathon gameplay, and almost every level has a portion that is just a pure platforming obstacle course so as to not stray too far from why players are here. The game’s ability to mix themes of people’s mindsets and in some cases mental illnesses or traumas with level themeing and gameplay mechanics is, frankly, astounding, and it pulls it all off without making the mentally ill into something scary or to be feared. They’re all sympathetic, good people who have just gone through something that has shaped their lives for the negative. I cannot say enough how well this game blends its gameplay genre with its story themes to make some extremely memorable and fun levels. If you like 3D platformers you really owe it to yourself to get Psychonauts just to experience these levels, they’re that good. The game also understands good and well how to deal with collectibles. There’s enough varieties to feel meaty and they all serve a purpose so nothing feels pointless. They also run the gambit from very well hidden to literally just along the main path so some progression is natural but players who want that extra challenge can really go for it, though even at its hardest Psychonauts is not a hard game at all. The only drawback to its understanding of collectathon elements are that some of the Imagination Figments, the most basic collectible, are either VERY hard to see thanks to their coloration relative to the environment they’re in, most notably in Waterloo World, or that they travel along set paths through an area, but oftentimes those paths literally include portions of being out of bounds. This means players playing through normally literally might never see some of the figments up for collection without just standing around an area waiting to see if a figment comes out of a wall or the floor. Them moving isn’t an issue, but them clipping out of bounds is. This is an extremely minor issue overall since there is a good excess of figments compared to what the player needs to unlock and even upgrade all of the powers but it’s still worth mentioning. Graphically Psychonauts was aged even at its time of release, coming out 3 years after Wind Waker for example and after the entirety of the Jak and Daxter trilogy, but I think it hasn’t aged too much more in the 13 years since then. The character designs vary between charming and intentionally really ugly (and I’m talking like a sin against humanity how ugly they are BOBBY) but because they’re all stylized and, again, very much like a saturday morning cartoon they’ve aged reasonably well compared to games with more realistic art styles of the time. The environments and textures are all still reasonably nice to look at as well, in fact some are quite striking visually, specifically Miguel’s mind, Black Velvetopia. That stage looks amazing. The sound design is pretty good. Sound effects are punchy and all feel unique, getting across the right kind of feeling. Not much to say on it other than that it’s good. The soundtrack also does its job quite nicely. I wouldn’t call any of it good listening music, like I don’t have it on my blog playlist or anything but they all do a good job setting their stage’s tone and not being annoying. Lastly I wanna talk about the writing, it’s something this game gets a lot of praise for and rightly so. This game is witty, it’s funny, and it’s charming. I’d say it’s got a lot of heart but that makes it sound more deep and emotional than it really is. At its core Psychonauts is a silly game about silly characters and it had me laugh a good number of times through the game; this game has a good sense of humor that has aged very well. There’s a lot of cutely tucked away dialogue too, a surprising amount in fact depending on certain interactions that aren’t always straightforward to discover and I always felt fairly rewarded with funny dialogue for poking and prodding at the characters and environmental set pieces. Raz is a charming and likable main character, he’s sarcastic like a lot of male leads are but in a way that’s very believable for his age he never felt dislikable or like an unnecessary jerk and that’s important for a character of his personality type. The game also does a good job giving its major characters just enough depth and implicit characterization to keep them interesting and feeling fairly fleshed out even with only a little dialogue. This is greatly helped by the Memories you can collect which give you slideshows of events which the shaped the characters in who they are, what caused their minds to look this way, and in some cases what caused their neurodivergence. It’s another great way the game manages to tie all of its elements back into the central theme. Really, really good writing overall, very deserving of praise imo. While the main plot isn’t very complex or really anything super special it’s still cute and worth following through. Honestly the only thing I didn’t like was Raz and Lili’s relationship. They don’t have much screen time together so it’s a bit weird, but I guess that’s also kind of true to form for childhood crushes so, whatever. In closing, I really loved Psychonauts, it’s an extremely fun game to play that has aged well in just about every way except visually. It takes extreme care in making sure the player’s experience is varied, fun, and consistently all tied together to the core theme of the game, human psychology, to give every last aspect a good through line for players to rationalize everything by. Psychonauts is a stellar example of a 3D platformer that even modern games can stand to learn from. Be it from a writing, level design, or game feel perspective, Psychonauts has almost everything down extremely well. This game really, truly deserves the longstanding praise it receives and I cannot implore you enough to give it a shot if you love this genre or just want to try something new. If you’re the kind of person who avoids things that often get praise or are ‘cult classics’ because you assume it’s just a bunch of nostalgia addled people way overhyping a childhood favorite you’re doing a disservice to yourself to avoid this game. It’s like, $3 on Steam and any computer can run it. Please, get Psychonauts and just have a good time.

#Dok's GotY 2018 #Psychonauts

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the-desolated-quill · 6 years

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Heavy Rain - Video Game blog

(SPOILER WARNING: The following is an in-depth critical analysis. If you haven’t played this game yet, you may want to before reading this review)

Do you remember the amount of hype that was building around this game at the time? Heavy Rain had caught the attention of multiple mainstream news sites with the promise that this was going to be the next big thing in games. A totally immersive, grown up drama that would bridge the gap between video games and films. Was it? Well... no. Eight years later, David Cage’s ‘interactive drama’ has been largely forgotten and while narratives in games did start to become more sophisticated in the 2010s, I’d argue that Heavy Rain didn’t really play that big a part as David Cage would like to think.

Heavy Rain is a murder mystery/psychological thriller. The Origami Killer kidnaps kids, drowns them in rainwater and leaves an origami figure in their hands and an orchid on their chests. The latest kid to get kidnapped is Shaun Mars and it’s a race against time to for the four main protagonists to save him before he dies. Like with David Cage’s previous game Fahrenheit, there is a good solid premise behind Heavy Rain. And to Quantic Dream’s credit, they have taken great strides to improve the gameplay. Instead of the stupid Simon Says system we got in Fahrenheit, Heavy Rain uses traditional QTEs and it works a lot better. It doesn’t distract you from what’s happening on screen and there are times where the game threatens to live up to its promise of being ‘immersive.’ For example when Ethan is having a panic attack in the train station and you have to physically move the wireless controller up and down to get him to walk or when Madison is picking a lock and you hold the L1 and R1 buttons down and tilt the controller to open the door. That’s good game design and it marries up quite nicely with what’s happening on screen. One thing I’m less keen on however is holding R2 to move the character. It feels so clunky and awkward, like you’re driving a car rather than moving a person. Nope. Don’t like that at all. Totally immersion breaking.

One gameplay mechanic I think had potential and wish was better handled is the ability to listen to a character’s thoughts by pressing the L2 button. That I thought was a legitimately clever concept and could have helped give the player an insight into the characters during pivotal moments. Like someone showing bravado only to listen to their thoughts and realise they’re actually terrified and just putting on an act. That could have been great. Instead the thoughts are either utterly mundane or are just there to give you tips when you’re stuck on how to progress. It feels like such a waste of potential.

I suppose I should quickly talk about the graphics considering they were a huge selling point at the time. The most realistic human faces ever, motion capture, blah blah blah. Except Heavy Rain wasn’t really the first game to use motion capture. The Uncharted games had used it for cutscenes and stuff. And honestly, I didn’t think the graphics were all that impressive even at the time. It’s the uncanny valley effect. There’s a reason why Pixar and Dreamworks make their human characters cartoony looking. It’s because rendering realistic looking humans on a computer is incredibly fucking difficult and people can instantly tell when it’s off. The characters in Heavy Rain look more like plastic action figures to me rather than actual people. Their movements and facial expressions just felt incredibly stilted and wooden to me, particularly during kissing and sex scenes where everything becomes really awkward and uncomfortable.

But never mind all of that. What about the writing? How does it compare to the insane laugh-a-thon that was Fahrenheit? Well if you’re after Tommy Wiseau-esque unintentional hilarity, you’re going to be slightly disappointed. Yes the writing is bad, but it’s not so bad it’s good like Fahrenheit was. It’s cliched, lacklustre and extremely limiting. The game boasts branching storylines and that all your choices matter, but in reality the story changes very little regardless of what you do. Yes there are loads of different endings, but what ending you get depends more on what happens in the final level than the rest of the game. As for characters dying at any time, that’s partially true. It’s impossible for Ethan and Scott to die before the end and when a character does die, all the game does is fence off certain levels.

In order to properly criticise and analyse the writing, let’s explore this character by character.

Ethan Mars

Out of all the characters, Ethan’s story is probably the most consistent and most satisfying to play. He’s the father of Shaun, the Origami Killer’s latest victim, and has to go through several Saw style trials in order to find him. I have to say, while the opening is extremely slow and tedious, forcing you to do all these mundane tasks like cooking and brushing your teeth and all this shit, as the game goes on, Ethan’s story comes the closest to delivering on the emotional and immersive experience David Cage promised. Pascal Langdale gives a pretty good performance for the most part and there were times where I did feel genuinely sorry for Ethan and his predicament. I’m not talking about the big set piece moments like when Jason dies at the beginning of the game. It’s the smaller scenes like Shaun doing his homework and Ethan looking on sadly at him or him sitting alone in his dusty office and reminiscing over his previous life before things went so wrong. That’s where the game really comes into its own. The trials too I thought were well written and designed for the most part. There’s some genuine tension in driving down the wrong side of the motorway or having to hack one of your own fingers off and it’s one of the rare occasions where the writing, acting and direction really come together and work as a cohesive whole.

That being said, there are still a litany of problems with Ethan’s story. The most glaring of which is the execution. While there are some legitimately powerful moments in Ethan’s story, they’re often ruined by David Cage’s overegging of the pudding. For example when Ethan has his panic attack in the train station, the motion controls and Langdale’s performance would have been enough to convey the pain and anxiety of the character. But then Cage takes it one step further with a stupid hallucination sequence with his dead kid Jason running round the station and people flopping over like ragdolls. Like... we get it. Ethan is depressed about his kid and that’s what has caused his fear of crowds. Even some of the mundane activities at the beginning of the game like making sure Shaun eats his dinner and does his homework on time could have been impactful if Cage didn’t drag it on for fucking hours and bore us into a coma as a result. In visual media, less is more. But the problem is David Cage seems so insecure about his own writing ability that he ends up overcompensating and bludgeoning the player over the head with these gaudy and over the top moments instead of just letting the performances of the actors convey the emotions and allowing the scene to speak for itself.

And then there are the moments and plot points that are just plain weird. So after his first son Jason dies in a car accident, Ethan starts experiencing blackouts. Not a bad idea, but the way they’re implemented is beyond incompetent. For starters Ethan has only two blackouts in the whole game and then it’s never mentioned or brought up again. Not even at the end when Shaun is all safe and sound (assuming you made all the right choices). Are we meant to assume that Ethan is magically cured after all this? And what exactly does Ethan get up to during the blackouts? When he regains consciousness, he’s always near Carnaby Square holding an origami figure. The significance of Carnaby Square is explained later on, but not how or why Ethan goes there during his blackouts. The only reason this is here is to plant the red herring that Ethan is the killer, except that’s utter bollocks. If Ethan was the killer, why would he kidnap a bunch of kids before his own? Were they just practice? What would be his motive? How did he learn to do origami? Where would he get the resources to create all these trials? What about the trials that involve him doing something in front of the camera or taking a photo as proof? If he’s responsible for these trials, who the hell is verifying this stuff? It’s utterly nonsensical and thus a complete waste of time. Apparently Ethan was supposed to share a psychic connection with the killer in the original script, but this was cut for time. The blackouts and stuff should have been cut too because it just doesn’t make sense with the current plot.

While there are a lot of flaws, I honestly would have been okay with Heavy Rain if the focus was just on Ethan. It wouldn’t have been a great game by any means, but it would have been decent enough. Unfortunately we’ve got three other characters to contend with, starting with...

Madison Paige

Let us turn our attention from the best character to the worst. I was amazed by the number of critics and gamers praising Madison for her strong characterisation because she has got to be one of the worst examples of video game sexism I’ve ever seen. The way David Cage writes and presents her is frankly despicable. She exists solely to be exploited. Cage’s obsession with her body is utterly disturbing. All characters, male and female, get shower scenes, but Madison is the only one that appears fully nude and the cameras pans across her entire body so you can see every inch of it. It’s really pervy and uncomfortable to watch. Worse still, every threat against her life is always sexual in nature. It’s not enough to have a cliched mad doctor who butchers people. We’ve got to have a scene where he tries to stick a drill up her vagina. There’s even a scene where a nightclub owner forces her to perform a striptease at gunpoint. You have the option to knock him out with a lamp before you get too naked, but the game seems to actively encourage you to strip off. And no, the intention clearly wasn’t to disturb the audience. The way it’s shot and choreographed is similar to the shower scene, clearly intended for a male gaze. And even if the scene was intended to be disturbing, there are ways of creeping out the player without sexually objectifying or demeaning women. It’s absolutely revolting. If you want further proof that Madison is intended solely to be exploited, please note that she’s only character in the game who has a separate person doing the voice while another person, glamour model Jacqui Ainsley, provides the body and face because presumably Judi Beecher isn’t sexy enough for David Cage. I rest my case.

But it’s not just that. It’s the way she’s implemented into the story too. All the other characters have their plots and vices set up immediately. Madison never does. We find out she has insomnia, but it’s never followed up on. We don’t know what caused it or whether she recovers. In fact we never learn a single solitary thing about her character. Her main role (apart from being sexually exploited) is to prop up the male hero Ethan. Even when it doesn’t make sense to do so. She treats his injuries and even helps him escape from the police, becoming a fugitive, despite not knowing a single thing about Ethan’s predicament. Also I couldn’t help but get the strongest sense of deja vu when Madison suddenly started to try and snog Ethan’s face off. It’s exactly like the bullshit romance from Fahrenheit. It comes right the fuck out of nowhere and is handled with all the grace and subtlety of a glow in the dark rhino. At least Heavy Rain gives you the option to decline. I tell you I couldn’t slam the ‘Don’t Kiss’ button fast enough.

Madison really does feel like a pointless inclusion to the game. She brings nothing new to the story and is basically used as a get out of jail free card. If Ethan or Norman fail to find the location of Shaun, Madison can just phone either of them up and tell them, even though she never meets or interacts with Norman at any point in the game, thus rendering the progress in their stories completely pointless. They could have sat in the corner dribbling for the entire game and it would have led to the same conclusion providing Madison survives the fire. (and speaking of plot holes and bad writing, why did she act shocked when Ann Sheppard told her the killer’s name. She never interacts with Scott at any point in the game. How does she know who he is? Did nobody proof read this shit?).

Norman Jayden

Here’s an idea to make playing this game more fun. When you get to the levels where you play as Norman Jayden, pretend he’s an alien from outer space. It would explain the daft VR sunglasses and Leon Ockenden’s terrible performance. I swear I’ve heard some bad American accents in my time, but this takes the fucking cake. I’m particularly amused by how camp Norman suddenly turns whenever he says the word ‘bastard.’

So. Norman. An FBI agent with a crippling drug problem... I think. He carries a tube of blue powder called triptocaine and sniffs it occasionally whenever he gets the shakes, but there’s a chance that this is actually caused by the VR sunglasses. There are several moments where a butler warns you not to overindulge in ‘you know what’ due to how dangerous it is. At first you think he’s referring to the triptocaine, but later it becomes clear he means the VR. So... what’s the point of the triptocaine then? Is he addicted to it or not? What’s he suffering withdrawal from? It’s all very unclear and poorly defined. And what exactly is the problem with the VR sunglasses? Why are they dangerous? How are they affecting him? We later see blood come out of his eyes, but how does that work? Not that any of this matters because it never actually links into the plot in any meaningful way. You can choose to either take the triptocaine or abstain and, aside from one level, the story carries on as normal regardless of your choice.

The thing is Norman Jayden’s story could have benefitted the most from the ‘your choice matters’ model. Imagine if the game actually gave you the freedom to investigate at your own pace. Allowed you to choose which suspects you question, which lead you follow, and have whether you find the killer or not all rely on the player’s own investigative abilities. Let the player find the clues and put together the solution themselves. Instead the game just yanks you from one false lead to the next and hands you solutions on a plate. This is a recurring problem throughout this game. Your choices simply don’t matter for the most part. David Cage merely wants to give the illusion of choice whilst forcing you down the path he wants you to take. There’s no real freedom or player choice. Actions very rarely have consequences and it all feels incredibly disappointing.

But the most excruciating thing about Norman Jayden isn’t even Norman Jayden. It’s the psychotic twat he has to hang around with. Lieutenant Carter Blake, police detective and arsehole. Throughout the game, Blake constantly butts heads with Norman and there never seems to be a good reason for it other than he’s a prick. Not just that, he often misuses his power, violently beating suspects for confessions and not only does Norman never report this, there’s also never a strong narrative reason for it. At first I thought Blake was just desperate to find the killer, but as it goes on you realise that’s not the case at all. He just enjoys being a violent dick. Why? I don’t know. And then there’s this whole witch hunt against Ethan. Ex wife Grace comes into the precinct to tell Blake about how Ethan dreams of drowning bodies and from then on Blake goes on a personal vendetta against Ethan, convinced he’s the Origami Killer. Except it doesn’t make the slightest bit of sense. For one thing, Ethan has an alibi. He was in a coma when the killings first started. Plus Grace says this happened in the spring and it’s been established that the Origami Killer only drowns his victims in the fall. There’s no concrete evidence tying Ethan to the crime. Just a vague, contradictory story from his ex wife. And yet Blake blindly goes along with it. Worse still, Norman never calls him out on it. It’s monumentally stupid writing. Did you know David Cage won a BAFTA for this game? How? Fucking how?!

Scott Shelby

Finally we come to Scott Shelby, a private detective who has been hired by the families of the victims of the Origami Killer to investigate. I have mixed feelings about this story. The Scott levels are often very dull and repetitive with each level mostly playing out the same. Scott questions someone about the Origami Killer, they refuse to talk, Scott leaves, someone threatens the witness, Scott saves them, witness gives information. Wash, rinse, repeat. It gets very boring after a while, especially considering the information you learn is basically the same as what Norman learns. The whole thing just feels like a massive waste of time.

Scott suspects someone called Gordi Kramer to be the killer and has to contend with Gordi’s father Charles, but from the moment you meet Gordi, you know he can’t possibly be the killer and yet the game constantly focuses on the Kramers. Another issue I have is his relationship with Lauren Winter, the mother of one of the killer’s victims who tags along. Not only does she contribute nothing to the narrative other than making sad eyes every five minutes, the two also randomly kiss each other near the end despite sharing no hint of romantic chemistry. (seriously has David Cage ever been on a date with a human being before?).

But despite all of this, I found myself quite liking Scott. Sam Douglas gives the strongest performance of the four leads and the character comes off as warm and affectionate. Despite the tedium of the levels he’s in, it’s often his charm and likability that gets you through. Which is what makes the reveal that he’s in fact the Origami Killer all the more shocking.

Now when I first played this in 2010, I honestly thought it was a good twist. Scott pretended to be a private detective in order to find and dispose of evidence connecting to him. His obsession with Gordi Kramer was because he was insulted that there was another person killing children without a ‘good’ reason. I even liked the little detail that it was seeing Ethan throw himself in front of a car in an attempt to save Jason that sparked off the idea of the Origami Killer. It falls into that classic trope of heroes creating their own villains and it’s fairly well executed. However there is a little bit of cheating going on here. The timing of certain scenes doesn’t quite add up and some of the thoughts Scott has just doesn’t make sense when you know he’s the killer. Also this revelation opens up a ton of plot holes. Where did he get the money to buy all this stuff? The cars. The abandoned factory. The warehouse. The phones. The secret room in his apartment where he grows the orchids. He used to be a cop. There’s no way he could have had that much money in his retirement fund for all of this. Why did he subscribe to an origami magazine? Isn’t that a bit of a giveaway? Why did he buy the warehouse where he drowns his victims using his own name when he used his dead brother’s name for all of his other transactions? And what happened to his asthma? David Cage puts a lot of emphasis on his asthma in the early levels, but there’s never any payoff in the later levels. In fact it’s largely forgotten about. Scott gets into fist fights and even an over the top gunfight through a mansion and yet never gets an asthma attack when before he seemed to get them at the drop of a hat.

But the biggest question I have is this. Why Ethan? The Origami Killer kidnaps kids in order to test the fathers. To see how far they’d go to save their sons. As I said before, it was Ethan’s selflessness that inspired Scott to start the killings, to find a father that could do what his couldn’t. So why does he pick Ethan? He already knows that Ethan is prepared to sacrifice himself for his son. Why put him through all these tests? It just seems pointless. It gets even weirder at the end when Scott tries to kill Ethan. Again, the whole point of these murders is to test the fathers. Ethan succeeded. Why does he need to die? It completely goes against his modus operandi. And why use a gun to kill him? The final trial involves Ethan drinking poison, but then it’s revealed that the poison isn’t real. If Scott intended to kill Ethan, why not just use real poison? David Cage clearly hasn’t thought this through very thoroughly and this is a problem that extends throughout the entire game.

I applaud David Cage for wanting to tell different kinds of stories using the video game medium, but the fact of the matter is he’s simply not good at it. Yes video games are going through something of a renaissance right now, but I’d argue that it’s in spite of Heavy Rain rather than because of it. We have seen some truly incredible games over the past decade. Games that have redefined what you can do with the medium and told really engaging stories. Telltale’s The Walking Dead, The Last Of Us, The Stanley Parable, BioShock, the Mass Effect trilogy, Horizon Zero Dawn, Life Is Strange and many more. These games have truly innovated and expanded the medium. Heavy Rain however does the opposite. David Cage talks about innovating games, but if you look at what inspires him as a writer and how Heavy Rain is designed and structured, you’d think that Cage was embarrassed by video games. He’s trying so hard to make Heavy Rain more cinematic, but it doesn’t work because it’s not a film. It’s a video game. In fact if this was a film, it would be laughed out of every film festival. It’s cliched, boring, insulting and just plain stupid. Yes it’s unique, but unique doesn’t necessarily equate to good.

Five years later, Supermassive Games would adopt this style of storytelling for the truly brilliant Until Dawn and it works so much better because there is effort to actually tell a compelling story with relatable characters and to give your choices actual meaning and impact. Heavy Rain however just gets bogged down in its own pretentiousness, pouring scorn over the medium being used to tell the story without offering anything of substance to replace it. There’s a reason why people don’t talk about Heavy Rain anymore and it’s not because it’s a BAFTA award winning ‘game changer’.

#heavy rain #david cage #quantic dream #sony #video game #review #spoilers

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tyrranux64 · 6 years

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Terry’s Favorite Playstation Games

I hate Sony. I have not made this secret, from much of my art to a good helping of Youtube comments reacting to blind praise, most who know me more than the usual internet passerby are acquainted enough with my hatred of the company and brand.

And it is not a biased band wagon kind of hate either, no this took time to fester into a most blackened bloom. Interactions with the biased rank and file, learning of the less than favorable business practices Sony has employed, the constant in your face propaganda from even third party publishers made against its two direct competitors, but most of all and most important my own experience with their premiere game system. No joke, the PS3 was effectively the worst console I have ever had the “pleasure” of owning, both with the initial 600 dollar 40 gig grill and the used slightly slimmer replacement I had to get just to keep my own sanity. I blacklisted the PS4 for a reason and even now I look at what the fourth generation of the console has to offer and feel assured my choice was correct.

Again my hatred of Sony is not pure bias fanboy raging, it is the culmination of less than favorable experiences and acquired knowledge that has forever soured my perceptions of the brand. And to further stress this point? I’ll go ahead and give you the Playstation Exclusives I absolutely loved in no particular order. Heavy emphasis on “exclusive”, all the titles listed will be ones you absolutely need a Sony console to play, no multi-platform titles, no games that were once exclusive then ported to other systems. Sony only.

And don’t expect Shadow of the Colossus on this list, of all the excellent titles one can point to that is the lowest of hanging fruit. Everyone loves that one, everyone, even its critics and detractors. My reasons for liking it are the same as everyone else’s...

____________________________________

INFAMOUS & INFAMOUS 2; Honestly I couldn’t decide which I liked more since both offer the same consistently excellent design and experience, I guess the second one for being more polished and having more interesting settings but trading one over the other is heresy. And honestly if I didn’t hate Sony so much I’d be all over the third one (though after seeing the story on Youtube I gotta say, Fetch is a complete unlikable asshole).

Ultimately this is a 3D platformer, one that more than belongs in the same breath as the likes of Super Mario Anything and Banjo Kazooie. Despite its otherwise “serious, realistic and edgy” tone and design this is the kind of delightful platforming romp that’ll satisfy even old school players pinning for the bygone era of platformers being the dominant genre in gaming. And it just makes the circumstances of its creation more fascinating. How Sucker Punch followed suit with Naughty Dog going from cartoony mascot games to so-called serious realistic games, yet unlike Naughty Dog puts out a product that still feels like a spiritual successor to their previous work.

Naturally the biggest negative is the morality system. Bad enough it is so arbitrary and safety helmet in its design that it tells you which choices are good and evil but said choices are so cartoonishly extreme on both spectrum that any sense of ambiguity and nuance are lost. But on the flip side, it does present one of the most fun bits of obsessive compulsive gameplay features I’ve ever experienced....

The Pulse Heal. Damn was this so much fun. The sheer rush of not only going to help someone but actually having the capacity to do so, the kind of humanity enriching wish fulfillment I didn’t get enough of. And I wasn’t just blowing smoke when I described it as a “obsessive compulsive” gameplay feature, I lost count of the number of times I slammed the breaks on what I was doing every time I saw some helpless citizen in desperate need of a jolt. It was nuts man, a game that lets you play as a superhero and actually let you feel like one....one helpless citizen at a time.... ______________________________________

GOD OF WAR III; But then there’s this fucking game that makes me feel like a complete villain, go figure. Then again that has been the real beauty of this franchise especially after the first game, there are no real heroes, no real champions of justice. There are only villains. What separates Kratos from all the other villains is that he was ultimately the culmination of their selfish and petty machinations to satisfy their own ends, he is the necessary evil meant to liberate the world from the cruelty of Olympus.....unfortunately, it entailed nearly destroying the world and sending it into a state of anarchy thereby making things worse. Oops.

Well either way the games are still just good ol’ hack n’ slash shenanigans. Technically I should give the nod to GoW 2 for having the more satisfying journey involving the Sisters of Fate....but it ends with a complete blue balling of an ending. Pretty arrogant to have such an ending when you’re not even sure you’re getting a sequel....well it did but still....

Plus the third one lets you actually fight more than one Olympian, hell it actually lets you fight Hercules, the proverbial OG Superman himself. AND HE’S VOICED BY KEVIN SORBO. But what really cements it is the overall combat which feels more satisfying. Not only are some of the core moves fantastic (especially the grab moves) but all the available weapons are chained weapons. It’s the kind of sameness and consistency that actually works to the game’s benefit, complimenting the gameplay and Kratos’ overall design as a range based fighter. Also nice how all the button prompts are regulated to the side of the screen to correspond to the button placement, a nice touch to mitigate any disorientation of the chaos on screen. __________________________________

CRASH BANDICOOT: WARPED; Yes yes I know the N’Sane Trilogy is now gonna be multi-platform (thank Primus) but as many who have played it will verify it’s such an extensive HD remake that it doesn’t quality as being the same game. And sadly I don’t see the original ported to any other system.

Not much that needs to be said here, when it comes to the original trilogy everyone has their first favorite. I might have played the first one once or twice but never haven owned the first PS (fun fact I actually wanted it over the N64 but my mom was convinced to get the later) it would be this one that I ended up playing the most and ultimately beat first during one particular visit to my out of state cousins. _______________________________________

RATCHET & CLANK FUTURE: A CRACK IN TIME; I never got into R&C during my initial PS2 era days, it wasn’t until a decade or so later that I played all three of the original trilogy and the future trilogy. And I played them all in chronological order, so to go from the utter lackluster flop of a plot that was Tools of Destruction to this one was an easy step up.

I’m not gonna argue this game’s quality against the original trilogy, after much retrospect and hearing other opinions there is just no contest as far as story, setting and personality. The original trilogy wins. But as far as the future trilogy? Yeah, this is easily the best one, the other two are just boring.

Crack in Time just had the best story overall and an overall journey that didn’t feel like my time was being wasted. Plus this was one of those games that gave me incentive to actually seek out the optional side objectives. Gameplay balance is an issue as things can skew a bit too easy but I was having too much fun overall to mind. Plus any game that gives me something like the Constructo Pistol and Shotgun easily gets the nod. ___________________________________

LITTLEBIGPLANET 2; There is some part of me that still loves this game....but these days it is more of a tragic love story of love lost. Ultimately my creativity and ambition overgrew my actual ability and the limitations forced on me with both the allotted level space and materials (I mean good lord have you tried to make levels with a lot of gold and complex shapes? The game just flat out tells you to fuck off). Perhaps what really soured the experience was trying to do exactly what the devs did with the story mode they made, but I realize now it was as impressive as it was because they had no arbitrary thermometer limiting what they could put in.....bastards....

These days I more respect this game for what it was made to do and what others were able to do with it. But as far as what I was able to do? Yeah, it’s too heartbreaking to think about..... __________________________________

JAK II; Remember not even a few paragraphs ago I said I never played Ratchet & Clank until recently? This is why. Because in an industry where brand new games cost up to a few tens short of a full Benjamin, well, choices have to be made.

And yeah I was easily drawn to the first game with it being a more direct 3D platformer, easily the kind of game I’d get into after my time with the N64. And then the second game came along and added guns and an edgy dark hero super mode.....without compromising the gameplay the series was established on. And for as edgy as it was now being with the story it never felt ridiculous or out of place, one of the few times I’ve even see it work out really.

Also it was a laugh riot to play what was extensively Crash Bandicoot meets Grand Theft Auto. __________________________________

KINGDOM HEARTS; I have already chronicled my thoughts on this franchise several times before so I won’t bore you with too many details. Bottom line I feel the first one is the only good one simply because it had a nice fun story that felt like both a parody and love letter to Japanese RPGs without a hint of Kojima grade arrogance or self indulgence, unlike later entries >:/

And not once did this ever feel like a mere commercial for the Disney films represented, each world was an adventure all its own and the interactions with your favorite Disney characters actually felt like characters interacting, instead of just actors in a studio voicing their lines. So ultimately I’m able to tolerate the rather archaic gameplay because the story is still a treat to enjoy.

But more relevant to this list, this was the game that got me to get a PS2 in the first place. I was rather content going only with Nintendo but then I played this game while at another cousin’s house and was immediately entranced. And really it was at this point I was kinda tired of missing out on third party games that were PS exclusive for reasons that sounded as arbitrary excuses back then as they do now.

I still can’t fathom how many games of the PS2′s third party library wouldn’t have worked just as fine on the Gamecube, thereby increasing the available consumer base and resulting in more sales. And if KH3 really is slated for release on Xbox One, why the hell are none of the HD compilations of past games also released on the console as a courtesy to those who might be interested in the series but don’t have reason to get a PS4? Sadly it’s a question I shouldn’t be asking because I know exactly what kind of answer I’ll be getting, excuses. ________________________________

So yeah, even though I have indeed enjoyed some of the titles available, not even these select games are not enough to sway my disdain for Sony. In fact the games listed that were developed and publish by Sony themselves only serve as a reminder of what the company is now all too willing to throw away in light of the current direction it is going for with its exclusives library.

And really it kind of makes sense that Sony just doesn’t give much of a shit these days, they were never a video game company to begin with, they are an electronics conglomerate. Movies, music, computers, headphones, that sort of jazz. Video games is just another department to satisfy their fiscal year quota, nothing more. People keep praising them for revolutionizing gaming but forget that they never needed to get into video games to begin with.....

Their only incentive to doing so was as a petty, vindictive, butt hurt reaction to Nintendo’s refusal to bend over the same way Michael Jackson did. Sony hates taking no for an answer so they acted like a jealous ex lover and produced a product based on a foundation of hate...and hatred only begets more hatred.... _________________________________

Also figured I give a few honorable mentions that can’t be on this list proper for one or two obvious reasons, but all of them I have experienced on Sony consoles...

CASTLEVANIA SYMPHONY OF THE NIGHT; Truth be told I’m more partial to Harmony of Dissonance but I know someone will get on my ass for not bringing this up. But yeah this was also on the Saturn....in Japan. Who’s dumb idea was it to keep the majority of the Saturn’s library Japanese exclusive?

MEGA MAN X6 (But Only On Easy Mode); On anything higher this game is just as broken and near unplayable as people say it is, shit even on easy it’s still a mess. Anyway this was the only PS MMX game I actually played on the PSOne back when it was new, this time on a friend’s console. And I’m not gonna lie I still have kind of a soft spot for it even with the glaring flaws....

KINGDOM HEARTS II; Yes yes this is a far superior game to the first one, gameplay wise. But in a game genre that lives or dies on the story being told there is no question that this was a serious downgrade. Everything that endeared me to the first game’s story this sequel proceeds to fuck up royally, and thus seeing the skip cutscene option as an absolute godsend makes me die a little inside, first rule of good storytelling in games is to make sure no one will ever want to skip the cutscenes even if they have the option to.

DEVIL MAY CRY 3; It was of course the first DMC I ever played and beat, and when said first happens to be the best in gameplay, structure and story it’s pretty hard not to be biased.

TRANSFORMERS WAR/FALL OF CYBERTRON; I think you guys know by now that I am a big fan of Transformers, so my reasons for liking these games are a no brainer.

BAYONETTA; Yeah it’s weird thinking this game ever saw the light of day on the PS3 and 360, mostly because Platinum had the decent courtesy to port the first game to the Wii U in direct response to concerns about the sequel now being Nintendo exclusive. And what did they do when it was announced a third game was on the way? They ported the previous two titles to the Switch so that no one would be left out of the loop, not even those that passed on the Wii U. That’s what I call customer service, wouldn’t you agree SQUARE ENIX?

DEAD SPACE; Pretty much the last good EA game. The final gasp of air made by EA’s capacity for common human decency before tossing it away and effectively going all in on putting out a constant flow of bullshit on a yearly basis.

ASURA’S WRATH; Pretty much the only interactive movie game in all creation that still feels like a video game, with actual video game segments. Still bullshit that you had to pay additional money just to see the ending but hey at least said ending was actually worth the money, heaven help Capcom if it ended up being a shit ending...

BATMAN ARKHAM ASYLUM; Yeah yeah I should be giving the nod to Arkham City but that whole business involving Talia Al Ghul all but killed the second game’s story for me....seriously Bruce what the fuck do you even see in that cunt to make you so sycophantic for her?

DRAGONBALL XENOVERSE; Well it was fun while it lasted and even now I feel it’s a better “Kingdom Hearts” than any of the latter actual KH titles. But aside from also being on the 360 and such, well, it’s not exactly something I’m willing to play again.

GOD OF WAR: GHOST OF SPARTA; One of two reasons I even bothered picking up the PSP, and while I have since fallen out of love with Birth by Sleep, this is one I’m still able to go back to. Not only is it a decent adventure in its own right but somehow it makes God of War II better from a story perspective as now it gave Kratos even more reason for going against Olympus...

#sony #playstation #terry's lists

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zoneload703 · 3 years

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Feeding Frenzy Free Download For Mac

Download Feeding Frenzy 2 Deluxe Free Demo Download. Buy Feeding Frenzy 2 Deluxe. $4.99 Add to Cart. About This Game The feeding frenzy begins again! Swim and swerve. Just click the free Feeding Frenzy download button at the top left of the page. Clicking this link will start the installer to download Feeding Frenzy free for Windows. Will this Feeding Frenzy download work on Windows? The free Feeding Frenzy download for PC works on most current Windows operating systems.

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Games by Genre

Track down the mysterious 'shadow fish' by eating your way through 60 action packed underwater levels!

Reviewed by: Mick

Categories/Tags: educationalfeeding frenzy seriesfish theme Blizzard app download mac.

What's Free - Play game for 100 minutes.

File Size - 16 MB

Play It On - Win XP/Vista

Support - Feeding Frenzy 2 Support

DFG Exclusive Review Summary

Fun facts add an educational touch to the game

Eating small fish while avoiding the big fish can be addicting.

Play a Butterfly Fish all the way up to a Great White Shark.

Unlock the mystery fish and you can play the game again as it.

Cons

Older audience might get bored quickly.

No difficulty settings.

› Read Full Feeding Frenzy 2 Review

Game Description

Same Great Action as the Original!

Feeding Frenzy 2 is a very fun, fast-paced underwater action game where you star as a fish seeking to survive the battle of the food chain. Eat smaller fish and grow - the fish that were trying to eat you will now become your dinner!

Track Down the Mysterious Shadow Fish

As you progress through the levels, you will notice the shadow of a strange fish appear. Your goal is to hunt this fish through 60 exciting levels to find out what it is and how it might affect your ocean home. When you do track it down, you will have to challenge it face to face in some thrilling boss battles before you reach the end of the game.

Play as 6 Different Fish

You start out the game as Boris the butterfly fish. Pass a few levels and you will need the help of new friends to track down the mystery fish in different parts of the ocean. Edie the Angler will help you in the deep and dark water levels. Become a Queen Trigger fish, even a great white shark as you attempt to solve the mystery.

New Bonuses and Play Options

Feeding Frenzy 2 expands on the original through several fun new features. Some levels let you jump out of the water and catch bugs and other helpful bonuses. New powerups like fishing lures that distract bigger fish, mushrooms that shrink predators, and exciting boss battles are just a few new things that await your discovery. Give Feeding Frenzy 2 a try - you'll love it!

If you buy the full version of Feeding Frenzy 2, you can enjoy:

A game easy to learn and control for all ages of players

New underwater challenges like dark water levels and jumping for bugs

6 different fish to play!

Build your reflexes and and hand-eye coordination!

A great, fast paced game for a quick coffee break or several hours of continual play!

Feeding Frenzy 2 Review

- Review by Mick

Feeding Frenzy 2: Shipwreck Showdown is the latest installment in the series and it doesn't disappoint. The adventure storyline will have you hooked and wanting to keep playing so you can discover what the mystery fish is. You can gobble up small fish while dashing to avoid being eaten yourself. The game is more geared towards kids but everyone can definitely enjoy this game just the same.

Basic Game Idea - Get Bigger!

You begin the game as Boris the Butterfly Fish, and as you progress through the levels you begin to notice changes in the food chain. Barracudas and Leopard Sharks begin showing up where they never were before. Eventually you will see the shadow of the mystery fish which starts your quest to find it. As you progress even farther through the levels you will play other fish like Edie the Anglerfish or Goliath the Great White Shark. You will eventually need to fight the mystery fish in a boss style fight several times until the end of the game. All this takes place in 60 levels with varying environments.

Easy Controls

The gameplay is simple in theory, but becomes very challenging as you move farther into the game. Controlling your fish is done entirely with the mouse. Moving up, down, left and right is done by moving the mouse just like you would normally. The left click causes you to dash while the right click lets you suck in large groups of fish. The second action is not available from the beginning of the game.

Watch What You Eat

When you start each level you are the second to smallest fish on the screen making your goal to eat enough smaller fish that you grow in size and are able to eat larger fish. You repeat this again to grow to a third size, once you have eaten enough in the third size you have completed the level.

At the end of each level you get to read a fun fact about fish or or other aquatic things, which adds a small amount of educational material to the game. During each level bubbles will float up through the level and in these bubbles will be power-ups that will help you complete the level. There are power-ups like the Shrink Shroom that shrinks all fish that are larger than you so you can eat them. Also there is the Feeding Frenzy Power-up, this fills one level of your frenzy multiplier. The frenzy multiplier is a reward for quickly eating large numbers of fish. It works by multiplying your score, so the faster you eat the more points you get.

A Couple Different Game Modes

You can experience the campaign in two ways: the regular mode or the Time Attack mode. The only difference between the two is in the Time Attack mode you must complete each level in a certain amount of time or you fail. You can add time to the timer by eating bubbles that contain a clock. The Time Attack mode make the game a little more challenging if you are bored by the regular mode.

Good Presentation

The graphics and sound are good in Feeding Frenzy 2 and very similar to the first game. The environments are all 2D with background detail to make it look like the appropriate environment. The fish are more cartoony than realistic. The sound of eating fish can become annoying after a while since it is the same every time you eat a fish and you will be eating hundreds and hundreds of fish. The sound and graphics don't really add or detract anything from the game.

Slight Drawbacks

A few minor issues with the game that could have been done better don't really detract from the game too much either. The first thing is no difficulty settings, any game should include difficulty settings to increase the range of people who will be challenged by the game. You should be able to make the game easier or harder depending on your preferences. The next issue is tied to the difficulty settings, older players might get bored quickly. If the game is too easy or just becomes too repetitive people can become bored with it. That's not to say that everyone can't enjoy this game, but it is definitely geared for a younger audience.

Conclusion - A Fantasically Fun Family Friendly Game :)

Feeding Frenzy 2: Shipwreck Showdown is a family friendly game all the way. The bits of information thrown in will teach kids and adults alike about the fish world. Minor annoyances from the sound and a lack of difficulty settings don't even come close to being a major issue with this great game. If you were a fan of the first game, just enjoy casual gaming or have kids at home then this is a great game for you.

Player Reviews

Game Video

Player created video showing first few levels.

Feeding Frenzy 2 Free Download For Mac

Screenshots

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About Download Free Games

Recommended by PC World Magazine (August 2004), The Miami Herald Online (Sept. 25, 2004), and Downhome Magazine (2005 – Favorite Games Site), Download Free Games has provided its users quality downloadable games since 2002.

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