It Is Back

Now, I didn’t bother writing what I thought of Terminator 4 before now, but I feel that I should throw in my thoughts.

Terminator is not an action series. It is a Sci-Fi/Thriller with action bits and an 18 certificate. Terminator 2 was better than 1, even if it was a 15. Terminator 3 wasn’t that great, and was a 12A. Salvation was worse than 3, and also a 12A.

Terminator is an adult series, with adult themes and adult depth. It is not a straight up action film with lots of explosions. It is not for 12 year olds. It is also different from Joseph McGinty Nichol’s other films. McG, as he likes to be known, is the man behind Charlie’s Angels and Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle.

There are echoes of Terminators with these large robots and explosions at gas stations, a very Great Escape like bike jump, high speed motorbiking lifted from Batman, in fact, herein lies a problem for this film. There are sequences lifted from so many different films that it seems Terminator: Salvation has no real identity of its own.

This, of course, goes in hand with the constant references to the past Terminator films. Nothing sums up the feeling about these echoes as much as the groan from the audiences (on both occasions I have seen this film) when one Mr. Bale utters the words “I’ll be back.”

Beyond what is just a headbangingly bad film of almost script-less drivel, this film is missing one of the most vital parts of Sci-Fi, especially the Terminator brand of the genre. The series needs heart.

T1 and T2 gave the remaining humans an air of being the last humans, even though that little event wasn’t quite upon them yet. This particular film, however, misses that, along with everything else that made the first two films what they were.

If this is the start of another Terminator Trilogy, I think you can count me out, along with that other large franchise beginning with “T” that has just made it to a second instalment.

Salvation is not a good Terminator film. It is not even a good film. Well worth missing, unless you have a choice between this and Mighty Morphing Robots, in which case, do as I did, watch the Schwazenegger-less Terminator.

MTFBWY

Apple and Rich Uncle Pennybags

Much has been made recently of Microsoft and their efforts to comply with anti-competition laws in the EU. Recently it was announced they wouldn’t be offering 7 as an upgrade, but instead would ship a full version at upgrade price to Vista users. Previously was the interesting news that IE would not be bundled with the OS. But I have a question, why do these things not apply to the fruit company? Oh, and before I continue, those of you who don’t get the title, see this Wikipedia article.

Now I am aware that Windows has the majority share of the computer market right now, but why does this mean Apple can get away with the same anti-competition practices. By bundling Safari web browser with Mac OS Apple are clearly “limiting” the user’s choice of web browser.

Not allowing the inclusion of a web browser, by default, on an OS seems to me to be one of the silliest things the EU could have insisted upon. Yes OEMs are likely to come with a browser, most likely IE8 rather ironically, but what if I buy the OS straight from MS, then I will need a second machine on which to download the executable to install a web browser, or go to a shop and buy some optical media with a browser on, or another such silly endeavour. Unless of course I buy a Mac, in which case I get it with Safari pre-installed, which would make downloading Firefox/Chrome/Other browser of choice a lot easier. But wait. If IE8 was pre-installed on my Win 7 machine I could download any browser I wanted and use it. The EU may feel that the average user deserves a choice over which browser they use, truth is, most are happy with IE, those that aren’t can make the choice to switch. However, it appears the EU feel that bundling the OS manufacturer’s browser is anti-competition, as such Safari should not be bundled, by default, with Mac OS.

Second point of contention, upgrades. I don’t quite see how this breaches competition laws, but as MS have felt the need to not offer upgrade packages and instead ship a full version at upgrade price there must be something there. Why is it then that when Snow Leopard hits these shores of the EU it will be as an update to Leopard not as a full release. You can throw this “MS have the market share” argument at me all day long, it is not a valid excuse. It is like saying “McDonalds sells more than my local café so the Café doesn’t have to worry about health and safety”.

One final point I would like to make. I can buy PC hardware with no OS. Be it that I can build it myself or go somewhere and ask for a nice clean computer with nothing installed. If Windows does come installed on the machine, I can remove it and have a refund. This doesn’t happen with Mac machines. It isn’t in the EULA that I can get a refund, I even asked an employee at the Mac shop in London, well, I ended up having to ask about three because the first two didn’t know, thank you Apple for providing these “Geniuses” or is it “Genii”, and they said no. No I cannot get hardware without Mac OS installed, well, I was offered a monitor but that isn’t really the hardware I wanted. Is this not anti-competition. Sure I can install Windows on it, and Linux with a bit of fiddling, but Mac OS has to be there, and if it isn’t it becomes slightly more tricky, and I don’t get a refund for not using it.

So, consider this a plea to the EU. Either stop being silly and making rules for Windows that make it more difficult for end users, or make it difficult for end users of Mac, as well as Windows. Or are Apple’s lawyers better than Microsoft’s?

MTFBWY

OnLive is the Future of Video Games

Or so the OnLive website declares. This claim, at least to me seems a tad silly. I have made a few posts before about why it is that in a technical and business sense that OnLive shouldn’t work. I even touched on why gamers wouldn’t like it in the latter post. However I have recently worked out one, final, dead horse flogging, reason that OnLive will not enter my home, and probably won’t enter those of most gamers.

If DRM has taught us anything it’s that gamers like to actually own the games that they play. Now this may be more true of PC gamers than those on consoles, but with the fact that OnLive has only license for PC, and not console, games at this moment in time, the argument seems fully valid.

You may say to me that this is highly hypocritical of me due to my love of Steam, but there is a difference here. I own my steam games. They may not come on a disc, well, I have the Orange box on DVD, and Trackmania, but for the most part they are digital downloads, but I own them. They are sitting on my hard drive, they run on my hard ware, and if at some point I want to go back to them I can. Therein lies the point. The ability to go back.

It’s all very well going forward. Left 4 Dead 2, whilst surrounded by controversy, is a large, and very nice, step forward from the original. Computers and consoles are getting more powerful, the games are getting shiner and, in some cases, the game play is getting better as well. Now comes the but, and it is a big but (and I cannot lie). I am the proud owner of an Atari 2600 Jr., A SEGA Mega Drive II, a PSone, a N64 and a PS2, and I game on the machine I have infront of me. My games range from E.T. and Mario Bros. on my 2600, through Sonic on the Mega Drive, stopping off at The Italian Job on PSone, via Pokémon Stadium and Goldeneye on the N64 and finally coming to rest at Okami and Stuntman Ignition, PS2, where you can alight for Team Fortress 2, Left 4 Dead and Americas Army 3 on the PC.

Now that is a roller coaster ride of games reaching back before I was born. There is however a point to me naming these games and the consoles. I still play these games. The consoles may be old, the 2600 Jr. hit in 1986 and this machine is my newest at a little over 10 months old. I won’t claim they get equal play time, but I do get almost as much enjoyment out of sitting down and shooting scary monsters from outer space on my 2600 as I do sitting down and shooting zombies.

With OnLive, when a game lives past its useful money-making life, it will probably disappear, and if OnLive is the “only console you ever need” those games will die out, and be irretrievable. The history of computer games is important. There are people who turn up their noses at anything pre-XBox or PS2, or even worse anything pre-7th generation (XBox 360, Wii, PS3). They are missing out on Goldeneye 64, they will never know the joy of Pong or Space Invaders, and then there’s all the original Zeldas. The list goes on, but without those games we would not have what we have today, and if we have OnLive any games we get may well be forgotten.

As someone looking to enter game development as a career, that is something that upsets me. I could make a game, a game that is good, look, it’s fantasy give me a break, and it will go out onto OnLive. If people like it the only way it will actually live on is through memory, and after a time no one will be able to play it. That idea makes me sad. As a gamer, not being able to go back and play those old games from my childhood, or even before that would make me even more sad.

Old games should not be consigned to just memory, they should be open for play by people who want to play them. Now, E.T. or Sonic.. hmmm…

MTFBWY

iPhone Gaming is the Future

Or at least that is what we are supposed to believe. This claim however, atleast from where I am sitting, is very, very wrong and in my usual ranty way I shall tell all my wonderful readers why. Although first let me just say I am not saying this purely against the iPhone this is for the general game model of the iPhone.

It has been touted as a wonderful portable gaming device that has transformed the way we can get and play our games. Well yes it has, but that alone does not make any gaming device “great”. Allow me to make a few points. First is the complete lack of first party support. There are no Apple Games releases sitting on the iPhone. What does that really say about how Apple truly view their device? They tout it as a wonderful gaming platform, but they don’t provide any games for it themselves. How many people would trust the XBox is Microsoft stopped making games for it? If Sony stopped making games for PS3, or Nintendo decided not to release Wii games. Sony and Nintendo even support their handheld devices. It is a sign of support and belief in your device to invest money creating content for it, something Apple aren’t showing.

That may seem like a minor point, but it is definitely something that major developers will be thinking about before jumping in to the market. Another thing that puts developers off is the criteria that games must meet to appear in the App Store. More importantly, the lack of clear criteia. The approval process for the App Store is about as clear as mud, and whilst Apple say they are trying to address this, not much has happened. If companies don’t know what it is they need to do to get a game on the market then they are unlikely to try and guess.

One final point to throw in for the iPhone is how the pricing of games affect their ranking. What is almost the default price for a game is $0.99, for that price no serious developers will put in the money to developing a big title. Now, Pop Cap recently dropped their game Peggle’s price to $1. This “sale” lasted four days. They sold almost as many units in those four days as they had in the previous three weeks. Now this may well be to do simply with the fact that the people buying iPhone games don’t want to spent all their hard earned cash on Peggle. But explain to me how a market of gamers only willing to pay $1 for Peggle help make the iPhone a gaming device.

So yes, wonderful, you can get the stuff out to people in a wonderful way and people can get the content. The problem is that people want cheap, quick games. Casual gaming is fine, but for my money a gaming device needs a mix of games, and there needs to be a market for both. It also needs to be pointed out of course that because anyone can make the games, anyone does make them, and the App Store gets flooded with sub-standard games. Now that happens with any gaming market, but with a set-up like the iPhone has, that problem is a slightly larger one.

MTFBWY

We’ve Been Thinking About Letting You Go

Let me start by quoting a great man. A man whom many of you associate with a film, a film in which this, admittedly very large, chunk of dialogue does not appear. This dialogue however seems fairly fitting today.

“Let us not mince words… The management is terrible! We’ve had a string of embezzlers, frauds, liars, and lunatics making a string of catastrophic decisions. This is plain fact. But who elected them? It was YOU! You who appointed these people! You who gave them the power to make your decisions for you! While I’ll admit that anyone can make a mistake once, to go on making the same lethal errors century after century seems to me nothing short of deliberate. You have encouraged these malicious incompetents, who have made your working life a shambles.”

If you know the speech have five points, if you know the man have another five, and if you know which part of which story it is from you can also have a cookie. All answers sent to us, and include a self addressed envelope so that your prize can be sent out. Entries, as always, come to the usual address.

Now on with the post. The reason I mentioned that wonderful quote is because at the polls on Thursday there was a vote for European Parliament candidates, and the results were announced last night. Almost one million people (943,598) voted for the BNP. That’s 6.2% of the country, and it earned them two seats. For those who don’t live in the UK you may not be aware who the BNP are. They are a British Political Party, the British Nationalist Party to be precise, and they go very far over to the right side of the political spectrum. They claim to be non-racist, but, well, kicking out anyone who isn’t “British” from the country, not allowing non-whites into the party and having a history of anti-Semitism and, more recently, anti-Islamic sentiments, I will allow you to decide whether or not that is racist.

The BNP have been described unfavourably by many people in the UK, especially by those in government. Now for those unaware, the UK government has recently been in the limelight for our MPs taking money in expenses for some things that maybe aren’t necessary for their jobs as MPs, Duck houses, moat repairs, dry rot in a house they don’t live in, making money by investing in property, that sort of thing. Now in many countries that sort of corruption is… well… a dream, but here in England that’s unacceptable. Many votes used this EU election to show their distaste for these MPs’ actions.

Some chose not to vote, some chose to vote against our current leaders, Labour, by going for the official opposition, Conservatives, and others decided that as everyone was saying “Don’t vote BNP.” That was exactly what they would do.

I won’t claim that all the people who voted BNP would actually disagree with the BNP on most of their policies, but it wouldn’t surprise me if quite a few did. I wonder how they would feel were the BNP to suddenly gain power, begin forced National Service, kick anyone who “isn’t British” out of the country, begin a campaign against Islam, disabled people, Europe, introduce Corporal Punishment in schools and prisons and suspend the Human Rights Act. With the sentiment currently floating around I wouldn’t call it a likely outcome, but, well, they may get a representation in our house of parliament, and from there things could start to escalate.

If it happens there is likely to be a public outcry, but whose fault will it be? Well, ultimately the responsibility lies with me. With those who are over 18 reading this post in the UK. With all voters here. We are the ones who elect these people, and if they get in we can only blame ourselves.

MTFBWY

Drag Me To Spider-Man 3

I’ve never actually been dragged to hell, but I have seen Spider-Man 3 so I think that the title to this post is fully justified and anyone who feels I have short sold Spider-Man’s third instalment, sorry, but really, come on, it’s not pretty. If you came here for a Spider-Man 3 review, I am sorry to disappoint, but stick around, Drag Me to Hell may interest you.

Back in 1981 a 22 year old director called Sam Raimi released a horror film. that film was Evil Dead. Six year later he released a sequel. Five years after that he even released a third in the series. The Evil dead Trilogy, possibly with the exception of number three, is a wonderful and truly enjoyable horror series. The elements of comedy that Raimi threw in were wonderful and made for a true blend of the two genres that made the film something to be enjoyed.

After 1992, however, there haven’t been any horror films directed by Raimi, save The Gift in 2000, unless you count Spider-Man 3, that was quite horrific. In cinemas now, however, is a new horror film from Raimi, with that blend of comedy, and it is enough to make you wonder why he left the genre alone for so long. Written by the two Raimi brothers, Sam and Ivan, Ted even appears in the movie, this film provides you with moments to jump, followed by moments to have a little chuckle.

The story focuses around a “loan officer”, Christine Browm, who, in an attempt to prove she is promotion material, declines an old woman an extension on her mortgage. The woman places a gypsy curse on the loan officer, played by Alison Lohman, which will make her life a living hell for the next three days. The curse won’t get much better after the three days, but those three are the important ones. In an attempt to remove the curse she contacts a seer, played by a new man to the screen Dileep Rao, and over the three days she becomes ever more desperate to remove the curse. I won’t spoil it for you by telling you how she tries this, but I will admit her final attempt is the best use of a goat I have seen in a film for a long time.

Surrounding Justin, I’m a Mac, Long with Apple products may well have generated a few laughs, at least from me, but the main humour comes in the form of slightly humerous ways of providing you with the shocks and scares. They are handled so masterfully that after you have leapt from your skin or suddenly leapt upon the person next to you, you can laugh at exactly what it was that found you in that position.

All in all this is a brilliant film. beautifully acted, wonderfully written and directed in a brilliant fashion. Drag Me to Hell is probably not one for people who dislike horror, it is a 15 certificate so that does remove those Spide-Man 3 fans that left back when I said I wasn’t talking about Spider-Man. This film receives the Peter Taylor seal of approval, which doesn’t mean a great deal, but it sounds good, right?

MTFBWY