If you have been hiding under a rock then maybe you don’t know that Brink will be released tomorrow in the United States for the PC, PlayStation 3 and the Xbox 360. Also you should know that there has been quite a large media campaign going to teach prospective players the ropes of Brink’s SMART system.
Brink looks to be a game featuring plenty of shooting and free running around the environment as you shoot even more. The game focuses on a civil war premise where one force is trying to escape The Ark while the other is trying to make everything nice and secure. With combat focusing heavily on the multiplayer aspect of things it will be interesting to see the sale differential between the PC and 360 versions of the game compared to that of the PS3, considering the PS3’s lack of online play at the moment.
If you have been browsing the internet today then you may have seen the story that The PlayStation Network would be available on May 31st. This is not the case however as many of these reports are saying that the PlayStation Network would be down fully until the 31st but that is not the case. Apparently, Bloomberg, the original source of the information quoted Sony spokesman Shigenori Yoshida supposedly saying that their plan is “to restart services fully by May 31.”
However, after contacting Sony and receiving an answer back to the inquiry, it seems that is not the case. Patrick Seybold from Sony stated that there is no current date for the service to be back up and that there is no new information at this time regarding the services. Sony originally stated that the PSN would be up by the end of last week but as you can see, that is not the case. At the moment Sony is attempting to clarify all of these rumors, especially considering that if the May 31st date was accurate that would mean the PSN would be down for a total of 41 days, a very terrible number all Sony consumers.
I recently had the pleasure of interviewing a few of the folks over at Red Fly Studio of Austin, Texas about their work on franchises like Ghostbusters, Star Wars, Thor, and especially the team’s original IP: Mushroom Men. The following is the exchange between myself (CC), Chad Barron (CB), and James Clarendon (JC).
Chris Cerami: I’d like to thank you guys for taking the time to answer some questions for us. I think Red Fly is an excellent developer and I’m sure folks would like to know more about you. Why don’t we start by finding out a little about the studio’s history? When did Red Fly start and what were some of your earlier projects? How big is the team and who are the head honchos.
Chad Barron: Dan Borth and Kris Taylor started Red Fly back in 2005 outsourcing their art talents (they did the facial animations for Gears of War). During that time, Mushroom Men was being turned from an idea to an actual pitch document for publishers. In November 2006, Gamecock Media gave us the green light to create Mushroom Men, so Red Fly as a studio actually began in January 2007.
CC: Mushroom Men had a very unique feel to it, especially among Wii games. Between the soundtrack by Les Claypool, the use of anthropomorphic fungi, and its weapon crafting and salvage system it had a lot of creative features for a 3D platformer. Were there any games, past or present, that really inspired you in creating Mushroom Men?
CB: The idea of a “smaller than life scale” came about from a level in the original SiN game from Ritual Entertainment. One idea led to another and we thought “Hey! What about this meteor crashing and mutating things in the environment around the crash site?” Then we started looking at some of the Army Men series for some added inspiration as well.
CC: Likewise, were there any games or franchises your team saw that were clearly doing something wrong that you wanted to steer away from? In other words, did you see any other games and think, “Ok, that’s not very good, let’s make sure we don’t do that”?
CB: Not really. At this point, we were looking at the Wii system and figuring out the best way to utilize this new control mechanism. So that was our biggest hurdle at the time.
CC: How on Earth did someone come up with the idea of a civil war between 3-inch tall mushrooms? Did the idea to use the more edible Boletes and Morels as the good guys with the toxic Amanita and Lepiota as antagonists just arise naturally?
CB: We thought fungi would be great because of the cool character’s we could create. And we made it easy on ourselves – edible mushrooms = good guys, poisonous mushrooms = bad guys. 🙂
CC: When I was playing Mushroom Men: The Spore Wars, I definitely felt some classic sci-fi vibes, like a movie you might have seen at a drive-in during the 50s. Was MM intentionally given a sort of B movie style or was this just an unintentional side effect of mushrooms plus Claypool? If it was intentional, are there any particular films to which you would compare MM?
CB: We definitely set out to capture that vibe, so we were glad to see people catch onto the quirkiness of it. I don’t think there were any actual films we could point to besides just the genre in general.
CC: As much as I would love to ask Mushroom Men questions all day, let’s talk about some of your other projects. You’ve worked on some pretty prestigious licenses in the last couple of years, including Star Wars and Ghostbusters. I would imagine that this had to have been a moment of awe for some of the people at Red Fly. There were probably millions of kids in the 80s thinking, “Man, one day I’m gunna make the most radical Ghostbusters game ever!” (excuse obligatory 80s-ness of that quote). How did it feel getting to contribute something to such huge franchises that are so beloved?
James Clarendon: Of course it was a dream come true…these were franchises that we grew up with and wanted to do them justice. Then the reality hit: we had to live up to those childhood fantasies! It was a huge challenge finding that right balance between ensuring we were providing a great game experience and still delivering the core fantasies of both Ghostbusters and Star Wars. In the end, it was one of those “try everything from left field and see what can work.” The teams were always agile, insanely creative, and willing to dedicate the time it took to get to the point where we were happy with what we were delivering.
CC: Were there any challenges Red Fly faced in working on some of your licensed titles? I would imagine there was some external and internal pressure to maintain the integrity of a license, but there is also sometimes a lack of respect among more jaded gamers for many licensed games (we all do it sometimes). Have you experienced any of that cynicism? Has it helped that Ghostbusters and The Force Unleashed, for example, weren’t just movie tie-ins but were instead more unique creations?
JC: Of course there were challenges, but we were lucky to strike up good relationships with our publishers: they were happy to see that we have flexible teams willing to give anything a shot, and from our point of view, we were happy to have people that supported us and went out of their way to support us as much as possible. We looked to find the game first, instead of making the license dictate what we could and couldn’t do. Once we had a vision and things were feeling right, we pushed the game design as much as possible to embrace the license and really make it shine. There were a lot of long nights, but ultimately we ended up in bringing some fun and inventiveness that set us apart from our 360 & PS3 cousins. 🙂 These are titles that stand on their own, with their own take on the licenses. We often looked at it as two completely different directors getting the same script: how would Werner Herzog and Steven Spielburg approach that?
CC: Red Fly recently released Thor: God of Thunder for the Wii. Since your team has created quite a few titles for the Wii now, is there something that instinctively draws you toward the system?
CB: At this point, Red Fly had pretty much made a name for itself in the Wii market, so that is what we were approached with. Our main goal was to prove that you didn’t need to be a 1st party studio to create a good Wii game. Red Fly is actually in the process of working on its first PS3/360 game now, so we are moving into being a multi-platform studio. (CC: That’s damn exciting!)
CC: With Thor, gameplay seems to be pretty fast-paced and heavy hitting, but there are also some features that aren’t in the PS3/360 version of the game. Can you tell us a little bit about some of the exclusives for the Wii version?
CB: The only thing we really share with the next gen systems are some story and character similarities. Everything else is pretty much unique. The Wii version has flight levels, Midgard (Earth) levels, Rune collection to enhance combat, Motion Comics and even the 30 minute episode of Thor from the new Mighty Avengers cartoon on TV.
CC: Is there a particular part of Thor that your team enjoys playing the most (like an office-wide favorite level), or does everyone have their own opinions? And if so, whose opinion is right?
CB: I think with Thor on the Wii, it’s all about play style. I am a fan of the Cyclone powers, so you will see me equip those types of Runes and upgrades. Other people like the Lightning or Mjolnir upgrades, so at any time you would see all these different types of play-styles all over the office. As for whose opinion is right, it is the person worthy enough to wield the power of Mjolnir! <sorry, couldn’t pass that up>
CC: I think it would be appropriate to finish this up by returning to Mushroom Men (I told you I could ask questions all day). Will we ever see more of Pax and the other fungi folk or would you guys rather work on something new rather than revisit the franchise?
CB: We would love to reboot that franchise! Even though MM was well received, there was no marketing behind the title before its release, so a lot of people didn’t know about it. But we have a ton of ideas to keep Pax in play, so hopefully we can be given another chance to bring Pax back. Maybe we should start a campaign? 🙂
CC: I’d be all for it. That’s it for my time with Red Fly. I’d like to thank Chad and James for taking the time to answer all of my questions and Red Fly Studio for creating some excellent experiences on the Wii. Thor is out now for the Wii for anyone with a taste for brawling and Norse mythology (or at least Marvel’s version of it). We’ll all be looking forward to news on Red Fly’s next projects and we’ll be sure to fill you all in when that time comes.
Produced by: Aniplex Distributed by: Madman Entertainment Media: DVD Genre: Action, Drama, Comedy Runtime: 325 minutes, 2 DVD’s Rating: MA15+, Strong animated violence Available from: Madman – $59 Reviewed by: Grace Mitchell and Michael Marr
Premise
If Jane Austin Books and endless hours of studying classic English literature have taught us anything it’s that the lives and problems of upper class English socialites are Be-Oh-Are-Eye-En-Gee, BORING. For anyone that’s had to endure a class in the subject matter or be exposed to subject matter like Wharton’s “The Age of Innocence”, the idea of sitting down to watch an anime based on a young socialite and his able bodied butler did not appeal at first. Typically, many people don’t care too greatly for notions of problems amongst affluent upper class society, because the average person thinks that money tends to eliminate most of the stresses in life. So in short, to begin with, I was not overly enthused by the idea of watching this anime. However, as one of our other writers Grace convinced me to sit down and give it a go. And admittedly I was surprised. Never judge a book by its cover, I believe the saying goes.
“ Ciel Phantomhive is the most powerful boy in all of England, but he bears the scars of unspeakable suffering. Forced to watch as his beloved parents were brutally murdered, Ciel was subsequently abducted and violently tortured. Desperate to end his suffering, the boy traded his own soul for a chance at vengeance, casting his lot with the one person on whom he could depend: Sebastian, a demon Butler summoned from the very pits of hell.
Together, they’ll prowl the darkest alleys of London on a mission to snuff out those who would do evil. They’re a rare sight, these two: the Butler who dismembers with dazzling cutlery and the Young Master who carries the devil’s marking. Rest assured that wherever they may be headed, it’ll be one hell of a ride.” – DVD blurb.
The premise of Black Butler is to tell the story of a young noble, named Ciel, and his collection of rather eccentric staff, the most particular of whom embodies the title of the series: Sebastian, the butler always garbed in black. The pair engage in numerous activities that one might associate with both the upper class lifestyle, and that of the seedy criminal underworld. Along the way, viewers will be introduced to a deep personal struggle that torments the young noble, as well as a mystery regarding the origins of Sebastian and his superhuman abilities. Thrown together with a mixture of both dark and light hearted moments, Black Butler is one very unique, and well put together anime. So why not give it a closer look? I mean, it IS the same group that produced Full Metal Alchemist… in a very similar style too. It’s certainly worth a go.
Plot
Black Butler’s plot can be seen as a very simple one with many twists. It begins with Ciel, the only heir to the aristocratic Phantomhive family, as a young boy, who has his parents murdered in front of him and then tortured horrendously by some kind of cult. He then signs a contract with a demon, to bring revenge on the people who had done this to him and his family. This is the simple story line, the more twisted story line features demons, shinigami, angels, hell hounds, resurrection, cults and the dark side of organized religion. Where most of the plot consists of Ciel doing the bidding of the Queen, by eliminating supernatural situations that hurt her country and ‘saddens’ her, we slowly learn little tid bits along the way about who is Ciel’s true enemy and who is orchestrating this whole situation behind the scenes. The plot also consists of the hilarity of the staff who constantly try to gain Ciel’s approval as worthy staff and his fiance’s desperate bids to make Ciel smile as he had when he was a true child.
Visuals
From the very first scene in the first episode, we see a young person strung up in a dark void, being spoken to by a voice projected from a black raven. White feathers are being shed, which is likely to be an allusion to the fact that forming a contract with a demon will forever strip a person of their chance at angels or heaven. Black Butler most certainly knows how to make a visual entrance. What I like about the art and visual style about Black Butler is the colours blend together very well, and help sets the tone of the scenes to follow. This is most prominent when looking at the environments that the characters interact within. There are several iconic environments within the anime, the most significant of them being the mansion entrance, bedrooms, hallways, study, garden, and kitchen. Typically, Ciel’s bedroom is very dark, but even in light is burdened with dull colours, which often matches his mood. Other environments such as the garden and kitchen tend to be brighter and more lively, which is appropriately catered to the characters that we often see goofing around in them.
As for the characters themselves, the art style is often shifted between dark and realistic to highlight important or serious-toned scenes and a chibi anime style to highlight situations of humour. Since the two themes are consistently flip-flopping around one another, changing the style often assists the viewers in establishing if something is to be taken seriously or not, or if something is to be laughed at. This notion of art style swapping is actually personified by the character Tanaka, one of the manservants who is actually able to shift between serious and rigid faced “Real” Tanaka, and carefree, tea-drinking quiet “Chibi” Tanaka. In the anime itself, they seem like completely different characters, even though they are one and the same.
The special effects are also quite a spectacle to behold. Due to the dark themes and serious nature of the ongoing story, most special effects tend to be reserved for either the wacky anime style scenes or one of the more occult, magic oriented moments, where Ciel and Sebastian have the capacity to call upon ethereal strength to complete their goals. When that occurs, purple or red lighting tends to be used, which, although bright, tends to give off a sinister aura. Oh and the fact that Satan’s pentagram is usually present when it occurs.
Audio
The first thing that I have to mention from this anime is that the opening song kicks ass! Perhaps this is just me as an anime fan, but I often place a good deal of initial impression value on the quality of the opening song and intro sequence. It exposes the dark roots of the story, but also promises us action, mystery, and clearly elements of character growth.
Naturally, as an anime title that strongly links to the upper class social life of England, the music is often soft and classical for a majority of the social scenes. This helps set a calm mood. Although it does so to the effect of it seeming just that little bit too calm. It can bring up a notion in one’s mind that there may be something sinister behind the politeness and the affluence. On the other hand, the music really lets you know when the horror and supernatural elements start to take place. The strong violin riffs and sudden pacing help set the mood VERY effectively. During the scenes of wackiness too, often the music is similar to that of the classic tone, but slightly faster in pace. This helps establish a more light-hearted and casual feel.
Sound effects are also quite appropriate to the subject matter of a scene, especially in regards to volume adjustment for suspense, and the Doppler effect at more in the more tense scenes involving horror themes, chases or action.
Finally, I should comment that the voice acting cast has been quite well picked, and reflect the characters quite well, for the most part. Particularly in the case of Ciel and Sebastian who are both able to put on airs of a kind of eerie false politeness. All of the voice actors nailed the accents of their characters, although in a few minor of a few minor characters, their English and Irish accents tend to come off as forced. Having never seen the Japanese dub, I don’t know if I am in a position to scrutinise, but I do feel that the English VA cast is appropriate for the task of accenting. Let me put it this way, a Japanese attempt to perform an English cockney accent would probably sound downright ridiculous, so I think the English VA cast is justified in their use, comparatively.
Characters
Ciel-
Ciel Phantomhive is a young noble that is now in charge of the Phantomhive estate and business as his parents were killed. This would seem as a pretty lucky and go happy situation if it wasn’t for the fact that his parents weren’t killed right in front of him, his mansion was burnt down and he was kidnapped and tortured by a cult. This created the Ciel we know today, he was tortured until he didn’t care about himself anymore and all he wanted to do was get revenge. This is what Black Butler is truly about, getting revenge on the ones who hurt him, his family and dared to diminish the Phantomhive name.
He is proud, harsh, cold and calculating. Well that is to begin with of course, slowly throughout the story he does managed to soften a little bit to those around him who are supporting him the whole time. To begin with through his pride and coldness, we just seem him as an annoying brat but by watching more we can also see his strength and determination. Through the kindness of the people around him, mostly his staff and his fiancé Lizzy, he starts to also become someone who is loyal, considerate and caring of those that love him.
Sebastian –
Sebastian is the butler dressed in black, the character that the anime is based on. He is a demon summoned by Ciel to take revenge on those that hurt Ciel and the name of Phantomhive so badly. Sebastian is a smooth gentlemen who doesn’t seem like a demon until he brings out his weapons, often silver knives and forks, and starts to slaughter the people that oppose Ciel. Sebastian is a stunning character; he is smooth, elegant, taught in nearly everything and is a true gentleman … well as gentlemanly as a deadly demon can be that is. He also somehow manages to look after the whole mansion, take care of Ciel, and be in charge of the rest of the staff. Ciel’s ever faithful servant, Sebastian in the end is just ‘one hell of a butler’.
The Staff-
Bardroy is the foul mouthed cook that is the leader of the staff group. An awful cook who always seems to somehow blow up or burn the food, he is seen as hopeless.
Finnian is the young gardener boy who loves to be outside and garden. He is innocent and cute, but he seems to have super human strength for some reason which causes him to destroy a lot.
Mey-rin is the cute clumsy maid that tries her best at everything but always seems to failing and breaking the important china.
Tanaka is a curious character who seems to always be in chibi form as being in his real form takes too much energy from him. He always seems to be there with tea and wisdom.
Lizzie-
Ciel’s young fiancé is a pretty young girl who only wants to make Ciel smile. Though she seems to do this by constantly trying to make everything cute, which is funnily enough not to Ciel’s liking. Even though these characters seem to be very different, they do in the end care for each other very much.
Conclusion
Black Butler stands out as an anime title for me because of its uniqueness. And as I stated before, this anime did not turn out the way I had expected it to. Rather than being about problems to do with image, status and reputation amongst England’s elite, we’re presented with a dark, edgy thriller type story with lots of abstract humour thrown into the mix.
Sound like an anime you’ve seen before?
The FMA comparisons were quite easy to make, especially in regards to the wackiness of character interactions in what should be a serious and dark story. Even though Ciel promised to give his soul to the devil, the devil still insists on teaching him how to dance and live his life to the fullest. It somewhat like how Edward and Alphonse often got along with Scar… It’s kind of strange seeing a devil in human form, not so much because it’s uncommon, but more because Sebastian tends to act more human than many other characters within the anime. Not to mention that he doesn’t seem… well, EVIL. We’re often told to perceive devils as even beings of pure selfishness and malice, but Sebastian is able to perform his duty to protect Ciel and the other members of the house, often with caring words and helpful advice to help them grow as characters. Sure he’s going to get a soul out of it, but seriously, a lifetime of servitude for a single soul? That’s devotion.
Overall, I highly recommend this little gem. Don’t let the title or somewhat flamboyant cover work deceive you. Under its exterior lies a real gem of Japanese animation.
With Modern Warfare 3 close on our heels, it has been recently reported that Activision is to announce big news on the next instalment of the Call of Duty series within the week.
Over the last year, rumours have been running rife over the opposed plot line for the next game. Many believe it will feature as a prequel for fan favourite Ghost. Those rumours might be confirmed with the recent sighting of actor Craig Fairbrass who voices Ghost in Los Angeles this month.
Reportedly, pre-production of Modern Warfare 3 started only weeks within the release of Modern Warfare 2. However, with the fallout between Infinity Ward and Activision bought production to a halt and Modern Warfare 3 became a gaming myth.
Gamers are hoping for that exclusive news this week that will bring closure to the millions of fans worldwide.
Although it’s called Vampire Rush, it’s more Ghouls & Monsters than Vampires, and it’s more strategy and tactics than fast-paced rushing gameplay.
The iPhone device is infested with many cliché Tower Defence games, but among the piles of generic titles, every now and then a true gem shines and stands out amongst the rest. Enter Vampire Rush, a prime example of such a gem. Vampire Rush throws in a couple of Hack n’ Slash elements to mix up this Tower Defence title, and they all seem to work together quite well. At first glance it may look like just another iPhone game, but do not judge this book by its cover.Vampire Rush is a must play for all fans of the defence genre of gaming, as it is an addictive, enjoyable, solid game that has a great balance of difficulty and depth; not too deep but not too shallow and can appeal to gamers of all levels.
I think Mordor is on here somewhere…
Presentation
Vampire Rush is presented is simply, yet effectively. The protagonist Captain Greg’s design is obviously influenced from the classic vampire hunter, Van Helsing but no complaints there! Although it should be noted many of them don’t even look like vampires, and there is no use of holy water, crosses, garlic or even stake knives, so there’s isn’t much vampire-istic elements to it at all. Yeah thats right, I said ‘vampire-istic’. Its a word now! Menu’s are easy to navigate and everything appears nicely, but it would’ve been nice to have the purchasable upgrades listed with names and descriptions, as first time players just buy whatever and hope for the best. It also would’ve been nice to see a stronger story element involved in Vampire Rush, but its no biggie here as it is obviously more focused on the gameplay than anything else.
Medieval times had Vampires, organised armies of bats, vampires, fire shooting and ice freezing warriors and towers that shoot electric. Apparently!
Gameplay
Players take control of Captain Greg, a vampire hunter who guards various castles as evil bad-guy vampires storm the gates attempting to infiltrate it. Good Ol’ Greg can earn cash by picking up various pick ups along the way, and can earn more cash further by killing vampires. As he runs around the outskirts of these castles, he can build various kinds of defence towers to fire at the enemies, and deciding the strategic placement of them is crucial in order to prevent wave after wave of enemies from breaking through. As well as building the towers, Greg can go in for close range combat himself with his trusty sword, adding a very basic hack n slash element to the game. It would’ve been nice to see this hack n slash element to be slightly deeper, but while it is simplistic, it is enough to keep the gameplay fun. Towers can also be upgraded in three stages, they go from Green, to yellow, to red, and so do the enemies. There is a significant difference between each upgrade, giving you your monies worth and adds to the tactics players will develop. On top of this you are given the option to upgrade Greg himself, with various skills such as fire and ice as well as speed, power and defensive upgrades. This repetitive age-old arcade action is simple and enjoyable, but the true joy behind this title is the stage designs which dramatically effect how the player will decide where to place their towers, and the constant upgrading of the towers to hold particular positions and upgrading Greg in order to survive melee combat gives a strong sense of strategy to the game making it more than just a ‘run here, kill that’ type of game. Addictive and fun, the constant wave of villains keeps players on their toes and the perfect balance of difficulty is spot on, constantly challenging and getting harder as it goes along but never seeming too impossible has been perfected here, which is what truly seals the deal with Vampire Rush, keeping the player on their toes and drawn into the gameplay. Lack of many other features or gameplay modes would’ve also been a nice addition, but sadly there’s just the short campaign and survival modes.
Since you can build towers in seconds, why’s it so bad if the Castle is destroyed? Surely you can build a new one just as quick!
Graphics & Audio
Vampire Rush makes use of interesting character design, that while a slightly generic, is presented brightly and is easily overlooked. The graphics themselves are smooth, much like the frame rate, and while is nothing outstanding, they do look good. Explosions look great. The soundtrack and sound effects compliment the graphics as they are equally as good, but the audio is let down by quite terrible voice acting, and even worse dialogue. It’s a shame that such a great game has such a boring character deign and model for it’s hero, with quite bad voice acting.
Conclusion
Vampire Rush is one of the better Tower Defence games I’ve played on the iPhone device. It’s simple, fun and to the point. Anyone can pick up and play it, but it’ll take practice to master it truly. This is a title that’ll probably be overlooked by many, but it shouldn’t, as Vampire Rush is neck-bittingly great! While a little simplistic, Vampire Rush is a pleasure to play and is really worth sinking your teeth into!
Bethesda’s new FPS Brink is released in Australia on Thursday, but if you live in the Brisbane area (or are really keen to travel), Mana Bar is hosting an exclusive hands-on session with the game on Wednesday night.
The Xbox 360 version of Brink will be playable on all five screens in the venue, from 5pm Wednesday 11th May. Not only do you get to try the game before the rest of the country, but there are also limited edition Brink prizes to be won.
Get into Mana Bar on Wednesday and try out the much-touted SMART (Smooth Movement Across Random Terrain) system, the intergated single/multiplayer game modes, and the squillions of possible character combinations.
Brink will be released in Australia on Thursday 12th May, on Xbox 360, PS3 and PC.
Doctor Who – The Impossible Astronaut / Day of the Moon. Air date:1/5/2011 ; 8/5/2011 (AUS) – 24/4/2011 ; 1/5/2011 (UK) Stations:ABC1 (AUS) / BBC1 (UK) Cost:Must have own television with reception.
Doctor Who, one of (if not the most) longest running serialised television broadcasts on Earth so far, follows the adventures of an alien ‘Time Lord’ and his companions aboard the ‘TARDIS’ – Time And Relative Dimensions In Space’ (as revealed by his granddaughter, Susan Foreman, in the first ever story arc aired in 1963) – as they travel through time and space. Over the course of the series, The Doctor has travelled with many companions and battled many foes in order to keep himself, his companions and, sometimes, the entire universe safe from bad stuff that happens.
Series 6 of the revived series, the current Season of Doctor Who, has recently began airing over here in Australia. This series follows The Doctor’s 11th incarnation (played by the awesomely entertaining Matt Smith), as well as his companions – Amy Pond (the incredibly sexy Karen Gillian) and Rory Williams (a really awesome actor, well chosen for the role) – and his sometimes companion, River Song (Alex Kingston *drools*), as they work towards finding out about The Silence, what caused the cracks in time and space in the last series; as well as the origins of a particular little girl. This season is an almost direct continuation of the series just before it, Series 5.
Plot
The plot of these two episodes are wonderfully crafted and greatly add to the lore and drama of the series. The story introduces us physically to the much speculated monster, “The Silence”, as well as what could be a new recurring character in the form of a little girl. Basically, the first episode revolves around The Doctor and his team of Rory, Amy and River Song as they try and unravel the mystery of the little girl who keeps calling President Nixon. But, this being Doctor Who, the mystery easily deepens and the dangers escalate as things are not entirely as they initally seem. The main-plot doesn’t really begin until the middle section of the first episode, but it’s so well led into that it really doesn’t matter.
Pictured: Amy, The Doctor and Rory.
This two-parter brings us not only a very excellent story but also so much to speculate about. Just in case, SPOILERS! Now then, who killed The Doctor? Will there be a 12th incarnation? Who is the little girl? What happens to the Silence after Earth becomes a giant sleeper agent training facility? Who is the eye-patched woman, and what does she want? And what of the fluxing pregnancy? And lastly, what happened in those few months between episodes? Surely something significant? I’m hoping that all of these questions will be answered in some way in the future. I believe that this incredibly strong two-parter has introduced us to all these concepts so that we can have something to look forward throughout the series, I think that we will gradually get more and more and clues throughout the season as to the above questions, whether they are directly noticed by the main cast, or are hidden in the background for viewers to find on their own.
The monsters/ antagonists of this story are The Silence, and they’re a kind of alien that have been living on the planet for a long time, manipulating events to further their own agenda; like as The Doctor points out – “The Silence needed a space-suit, so they sent humanity to the moon.” Anyways, we first see a Silent towards the beginning of the story when the TARDIS team are all summoned to America by an unknown individual and all go out to have a picnic by a river/lake of some kind (sorry I don’t know much on American geography) and Amy spots one off in the distance. Their menace is further integrated into the story when Amy suddenly has to go to the bathroom and she meets another one of them, though this one was less friendly and electrocuted a woman to death.
Fortunately, she had no idea.
They’re made to be more menacing and methodical when it’s revealed that they have a proto-TARDIS type device that was first introduced in series 5, and it’s here that they appear to have a kind of nest filled with Silents. They also have another nest in an orphanage that is the home to the little girl that is important in these episodes. It’s clear that the Silence are up to something involving both time-travel and children, but what? And what was the device they had Amy hooked to in the second part?
Regardless, the story had an amazing plot and it was so well executed that you never got bored and you always had something to postulate over. It also had some great character development and the characters were definitely tested to their maximum at various points in the episodes.
Sound
The stories audio quality was quite high throughout the story. I can’t think of a time where the characters were inaudible or the score interrupted the flow of the story. The one thing that I can think of that might be a negative is that The Silence were a little hard to hear sometimes, but I think that’s a part of their character, as opposed to the audio suffering.
The Uber Sexy Alex Kingston as River Song.
It’s really hard to comment on the background score, because Murray Gold does such an amazing job of integrating it with whats happening on the screen that it’s so hard to notice. It’s something you pick up on subliminally and it helps from a feeling as to whats happening on the screen. But it’s also so good that if you listen out for it, you notice how well crafted it is and that you can’t help but enjoy it.
Believability
The story begins with comedy, which has likely been used to make the audience engage with whats happening in the show much quicker than if it had started with this really dramatically placed moment. Though, by the time the story has switched into tragedy, you’re hooked into the story and are forced to believe that The Doctor may have just been killed before your eyes; likely indefinitely.
When you find out that The Doctor may not actually be dead, you’re just as mystified as the characters. You’re also able to empathise with them a great deal too. This is because of the build-up from earlier as well as because of the amazing score by Murray Gold, which is able to put you right in the moment with his excellent scores.
Doing it Ghost in the Shell style.
Heck, man, you’re not even phased that there are aliens running around the White House or that a little girl has to live in a spacesuit, a spacesuit that is very similar to one that does some murdering much earlier in the story. You can feel the sense of mystery in this story and yet it doesn’t repulse you from what’s happening, it’s as though you are one of the companions yourself and are experiencing what’s happening right alongside the rest of the crew.
Overall
The opening story for this series of Doctor Who is quite amazing. The pacing is done really well, there are so many mysteries waiting to be solved and the audio/soundtrack is amazing. The monsters have been established really well and look like they could be menacing our screens once again in the future. I for one certainly hope that they do, as it’s likely that they’ll bring along some answers posed in this story, answers that I am dying to find out.
This Doctor Who story is probably one of the best ones in the revived series and I hope that the quality of writing and acting continues in the future. I recommend this to everyone, and it should be purchased on release.
Considering this is only two episodes of an entire series, we will not issuing a score, but rather a recommendation. There may be more reviews for this show in the future and possibly one when the series ends or the box-set is released.
Next I got to play inFamous2 over at the Sony Head Quarters in Sydney and spoke to Ken Schramm and Joe Ishikua from Sucker Punch Productions. Check out a full rundown (semi-preview) of the game and our interview here. I have to say inFamous2 is looking awesome and was great fun to play. The third game I got stuck into this week was over at UBISOFT offices, and I was totally blown away by the sheer awesomeness that was Driver San Francisco. Check out our preview of the game here, even if you’re not the biggest fan of driving games (like me) you have to at least give this game a go just to experience the great story.
Apart from that I’ve been getting stuck into Gears of War 3 BETA, which is now in its third week (I’m nearly level 25). Even though I don’t have much time to play I still make sure I get in there and chainsaw some Locust scum. I still hate shotguns but hey, best way to counter that is to get your active reloads happening and fight fire with fire!
Lastly I’ve been spending a fair amount of time playing Gameloft’s WoW clone on the iPhone, Order and Chaos. Check out our review and video gameplay of the game here. I must say this is certainly the best MMO on the iPhone; the only disappointment is that you can’t play it unless you are connected to a WiFi access point. 3G internet will not cut it due to the sheer size of the game. MasterAbbott can finally play as a Monk character in Order and Chaos so I’ve been running around kicking the crap out of everything that gets in my way. If you’ve got the game, jump onto the Asia server – Eye of the Swamp and send me a friend request…together we can beat the crap out of everything!
Have a great week. Play hard or don’t play at all!
Senior Editor: Travis Bruno
With the release of Portal 2 and Mortal Kombat last week, you can easily guess what I’ve been spending most of my time with the past week. First I spent most of my time playing Portal 2 on the Xbox 360. At first I was skeptical about the title because it seemed like it was just good enough when bundled together with The Orange Box package but I wondered how it would be in a full game. It actually turned out to be quite well, but some of the puzzle mechanics from the original game really took a hit. While the humor was great and the plotline was enjoyable there were a lot of times that you had to spend a few minutes simply looking around a big environment to find the one place where you can put a portal. That’s not really puzzle solving – it’s more like Where’s Waldo with Portals.
As for Mortal Kombat, it’s 2011, developers. Fighting games do not need cheap bosses at the end of the arcade fights anymore. Shao Khan is entirely beatable but the first time I faced him it was pathetically one sided. Beyond him, however, I found myself enjoying the story as it tied a lot of different things together as a great reboot to the series. I found the challenge tower rather fun but I also found it really fun skipping nearly all of the tower fights and aiming for the Test Your Sight/Might/Strike as those were my favorites. Have to love the reward for making it to and completing the 300th floor of the tower though. Or at least the achievement that they give you for it.
Besides new titles I was able to get back into the Call of Duty: Black Ops online multiplayer again thanks to the Escalation map pack being released. The multiplayer maps are good for the most part except for the Stockpile level (which is literally as it sounds: a stockpile of all the snow maps placed into one jumbled mess). Besides that I have spent a good while on the Call of the Dead mode trying to send the old crew to Paradise, have to say that the achievements for the zombie mode this time around are going to take quite a long time to complete. I’ve dabbled in the Gears of War 3 Beta and have unlocked Cole Train in the main title, leveled up Tifa and Terra in Dissidia 012 Final Fantasy and hitting up some Ghost Recon: Shadow Wars on the 3DS.
Senior Editor: Dustin Spencer
It has been a busy week for sure here. I most recently started playing Conduit 2 for the Wii. It is a decent shooter for the most part but online truly is what makes the game…so far anyway. I did encounter some bugs but it seems High Voltage are catching these as I have seen a patch applied as recently as last night, so it is nice to see this game looks to have full support from the developers (which is rare for a Wii Game). A review is coming soon on that.
Other than Conduit 2, I have been trying to mow through the Challenge Tower in MK, still have got quite a ways to go but all of the little touches and variations really make each challenge feel different. Portal 2 is also complete on both Single and Multi-player modes. Fantastic game all the way through and by far one of the most memorable stories I’ve went through in a long time. I also jumped back into RE5 a bit and I am going through the story yet again. I can’t even count the number of times I have went through the story mode, but there is just something about the whole RE universe that makes multiple playthroughs a must for myself.
The Pokemon dream world has also been a lot of fun to proceed through as well and I have caught quite a few team members from that feature all while attempting to harvest berries to buy furniture (100 berries for a CHAIR? MADNESS!). I am not really a Gears player, but the beta is awesome from what I have played so far and thankfully MasterAbbott and a few others have been showing me the ropes and I have hopes of gaining level 25 before the beta ends on the 15th.
Senior Editor: Dylan Radcliffe
Portal 2, Prince of Persia, Prince of Persia: the Forgotten Sands, and Runescape.
So I finally finished off Portal 2 Co-op with a friend on Friday, and then started on the rest of the achievements but got bored and decided to go for them another time. I bought two Prince of Persia games last weekend and started playing both. For some reason it seems like they simplified the combat and the overall style of the game in both. It seems more like I move forward through the levels and the levels solve themselves. Maybe it is because I am just that good, or maybe it is because they really did make the game easier to accommodate the little whiners out there who think it is too hard. Yeah, I am looking at you…you know just who you are! Something got me to start playing Runescape again; I’m not exactly sure why but I paid for another month of membership. I got into the game, donned my 99 agility cape, Verac’s chest piece, and dragon legs once again and… started cooking. Yes, I literally bought membership just to sit there and cook all 2000 shark and 1500 monkfish that were in my bank. What in the world is actually fun about this game? I am still looking for it, but I’ll probably just spend up my month doing absolutely nothing other than fishing and cooking. What is wrong with me?! Want to check out my stats? Look me up on the Hiscores: my username is “RadicalDylan”.
Senior Editor: Jed Bradshaw
This past week I played Pacman Championship DX edition, and I got almost all the achievements in the game. I love the graphics and music, and the gameplay is still tops. It is the best version of Pacman that anyone could possibly play.
I also got about 7 hours deep into Just Cause 2. I still love the grappling hook and causing mayhem, but so much of the fun in the game is hindered by boring stuff. For example, the game world is huge, but unless you explore every inch, there is very little to do. The missions can be exciting, but often times they are a little too rote for me. Bugs, glitches and controls are also a huge problem. Finally, I hate how you must cause a certain amount of “Chaos” before a campaign mission is unlocked. Overall though, there is still nothing better than hijacking a helicopter and shooting up oil silos that cause explosions that then fling the enemy every which way.
The final game I played this week was Forza 3. I am still loving zipping around tracks in million dollar cars. The painting and design system is also probably one of the most amazing mechanics I have ever experienced and I hope that is implemented into other games too.
Editor: Kyle Moore
With the burden of assignments ever present, I haven’t been able to put on my gaming shoes apart from the purpose of reviewing. Because of this, my gaming list for this week will be rather brief. Earlier in the week I had the opportunity to review the new Gameloft MMORPG, Order and Chaos Online. I’m not really a fan of these types of games, having never played World of Warcraft or anything like that. Despite of this, I had a blast getting to learn the ropes of the genre. Feel free to read the review or look at our gameplay video if you’re interested in it; I highly recommend it to iOS gamers. New to my reviewing list is the 3DS game Steel Diver. As I am yet to write the review, I won’t give too much away! I’ve been having a bit of fun playing it so far, which is about all I think I can say at the moment. Stay tuned for a review. As a form of huge procrastination, and a somewhat guilty pleasure, I’ve indulged myself in wasting a few moments here and there playing Tetris Battle on Facebook. After my addiction to Restaurant City a few years ago I thought my days of Facebook social gaming were behind me, but I’ve got to say that Tetris Battle is awesome fun. A really interesting twist on a classic game!
Editor: Matt Vella
Lately I’ve been playing ALOT of the new Mortal Kombat game….NOT! Damn you, Australian Classification Board! Instead I’m loving the new Black Ops DLC Escalation, and more specifically the map Call of the Dead. I’m going crazy over the fact Robert Englund and George A. Romero are in the same place at once…and I can slay zombies at the same time! I’ve also been playing Chillingo’s new iPhone game Vampire Rush: it’s a Tower and Defence game with a Hack ‘n’ Slash twist that actually works pretty well. The other day I almost got hit by a car because I began cross a main road without noticing because I was so into it! It’s really one of those games that get you into the zone when you’re doing well, which I love. I’ve also been brushing up on my X-Men vs Street Fighter. But mostly I’m thinking about buying Mortal Kombat vs DC Universe, because all this Mortal Kombat talk is getting me in the mood for some 2D MK fighting, and if I have to settle for second best, so be it!
Editor: Ben Webb
Eroge/Hentai games.
Seriously though, I only just got the internet back up after a long move, so I’ve been catching up on all my MMORPG’s; mainly WoW and RIFT. But, I have also been playing a tonne of QuakeLive (as always) but I feel like I’m completely gimped now – the move has really killed my skills.
During the internetless period; I actually picked up Unreal Tournament 2004 again and I found that I’m still reasonably good at it. Of course, I can’t take on godlike bots with instagib rifles like I could used to, but I can still kick a full team of Inhuman bots’ assess any day. This is also with or without the instagib mutator. I might actually upload the video of me back in the day instagibbing Godlike bots and winning, good times. Also, on topic with the UT, I’ve also been playing Unreal Tournament 3, same deal as with 2k4, can do inhuman but not godlike. I’m sure I’ll get back into it though.
Also during this period without the internet, I recently went back to an old favourite series of mine; .hack//. I absolutely loved these games; and still do. On my current run through, I’m up to the Mutation disc with Kite at level 50. Damned virus core hunting, why’d they have to make it so hard to get them?! For those of you who don’t know, I’ll basically mini-rant this quickly. Essentially you have a skill “Data Drain” that you use on enemies to obtain the virus core, but, the more you use the Data Drain, the less likely you are to obtain one. It kind of resets though after you kill a few enemies, but, it is still chance dominated and can get incredibly hard to get the cores you need, especially if they only drop from say a large enemy, and each area that is your level has large amounts of small – medium enemies. Gah! It’s not as bad as I make it sound though, it’s just a little annoying when you need 1 virus core and you don’t get it until the end of the dungeon in the area that you’re in.
Lastly, the 3DS. People who live in the Newcastle area, please take your 3DSes out with you, I haven’t streetpassed anybody yet! If you live in the area, keep a look out for my Mii; you’ll know it when you see it. On my 3DS I’ve been practicing hard on Super Street Fighter IV and I also have a review coming up in the next few days for a title appearing on the system (if it’s not up when this is published).
Editor: Chris Cerami
I started off May with a bit of a whimper: with the PSN still being down and my Xbox dead there wasn’t much to do. I did get through a majority of Final Fantasy X-2 (at the behest of a friend), but that isn’t anything to celebrate. I also went back to Phantasy Star Online with the same friend and have been levelling up my HUcast. That’s a giant robot that fights with laser swords for those of you out of the loop. I spent a bit of time with Portal 2 and Mortal Kombat, although I’m anxiously waiting for the PSN to come back to life before I can do anything too intense in either game. I’ve actually been reading this week rather than gaming a lot, as I just picked up James Clavell’s Shogun…and how can you put a book down that’s about samurai?
Editor: Adam Tabor
Well it’s been a couple of weeks since I was able to do one, but fear not: I’m still alive. Well, at work my PSP has been my good friend; we’ve been playing some Final Fantasy IV, also got Street Fighter Alpha 3 for the PSP as well and loving it. I’m also playing Tetris (you can’t go wrong with blocks), and some random iPhone games I have which I can’t remember. I have shown my consoles some loving (when I’m not drained from work), played Bangai-O for Xbox Live and getting owned in that. and I am trying to finish Final Fantasy XIII on my PS3 because I have been putting it off and now I have procrastinated no longer. Trying to get into the groove of it isn’t as easy when you stopped playing it for a year. Also, of course, I got some retro goodness going on as I have ordered a system from Japan that I have wanted for a long time…and that is the Neo Geo CDZ. For those of who are saying Neo-G whaaaaat?…Neo Geo was a company that made arcade games and decided to bring that home to people in the ‘90s. Needless to say an arcade machine console wasn’t cheap…then they developed a more cost effective version known as the Neo Geo CD and the Z is just a model with a little faster load speed. I played some King of Fighters 97 on it as well as one of my personal favourite Neo Geo game, The Last Blade. Finally with the announcement of Guardian Heroes coming to Xbox Live Arcade, I dug out my Sega Saturn and had myself a good old time. Now if you excuse me, my Paradigms don’t shift themselves.
NEVER FIGHT ALONE !!! Sometimes MasterAbbott turns on his XBOX fires up Gears Of War 3 and goes into battle Lancer in hand all on his own. Facing a world full of FREAKS and LOCUSTS all at the same time. The battle is EPIC, after the dust settles all that remains are the body parts of the Locust scattered all over the ground, and in the middle we have MasterAbbott the last man still standing all on his own. But why should I have all the fun ?
The Gears Of War 3 has just moved into its 3rd week of Beta testing with another 2 weeks of fun left, we think its time for MasterAbbott to find himself a Brother or Sister to aid him in the fight against the LOCUST SCUM !!!
Whoever wants a GEARS OF WAR 3 BETA download code leave a comment below and tell us what you love about Gears Of War, and what you’re looking forward to the most about Gears Of War 3. Winner will get the code and also a friends request from the legendary man himself MASTERABBOTT so you can both play together!!! WOO HOO life can’t get any better than this 😉
We’ll pick a winner in a few hours (or once we get a min of 10 comments) whatever comes first.
