Hobbits indulge in Tea

Filthy hobbitses.

Going a different direction here, giving my thoughts on some of the political goings-on lately. If you have easily offended political sensibilities, please skip this post so that we can continue to be friends.

PSN Reviews - Classic Remakes Edition

I recently picked up the pac-man remake, and decided to share my thoughts about a couple of other 80's remakes along with it, running the gamut from amazing to unplayable.

The Men Who Stare at Goats

More of this is true than you would believe.

I used to listen to Loveline years and years ago when Adam Corolla was one of the hosts, and when a wise-ass would get through the screeners with an obviously fake story, he would respond with the deflating phrase: "Is that true? Because it's not funny."

When the phrase "More of this is true than you would believe" flashed on the screen at the beginning of this movie, I knew I was in trouble.

Voltron Force

Alright, so when they remake the classics, I feel obligated to at least give it a shot.

Torchwood: A Primer

Torchwood. Outside the government, beyond the police. Tracking down alien life on Earth, and arming the human race against the future. The Twenty-First Century is when it all changes, and you've got to be ready.

Torchwood: Miracle Day will be premiering on the Starz Network on Friday! This series is a continuation of the BBC series, and while I'm sure great care will be given to make the show accessible for those joining us for the first time, I wrote this for any newbies who would like to know what's come before, and any old fans who might want to refresh their memories.

Seriously, though... if you have Netflix, the whole series is available to stream there. So why not just stop reading now and go watch it? I won't be hurt.

As a disclaimer, the above picture is a promotional shot from the new series. As I've avoided spoilers (River would want it that way), I'm not actually sure who the two people on the left are. :)

spoilers below the cut

Some PSN Games

Peggle/Peggle Nights
Peggle is a fun little waste of time. It's downright addicting until it gets buried underneath it's own weakness. . You launch a ball from the top of the screen and try to shoot in a direction that will bounce around and hit as many pegs as possible before it's lost at the bottom of the screen. Along the way, you'll encounter levels where certain pegs will cause special things to happen, like helping you aim better, or making all the pegs around it explode.

So you get about fifty levels with the basic game. I had a lot of fun with them When you're done, there's a mess of challenges. But they were basically harder versions of the previous levels. And these challenges hammered home for me that weakness that I mentioned: the harder it gets, the more it becomes a game of luck.

But it didn't stop me from shelling out another $5 down the road to upgrade to Peggle Nights and get another fifty levels. Mild Recommendation.

Flower
Pretty. Relaxing... well, until you get to that fourth level anyway.

You are a flower petal. Or maybe you're the wind.... I'm not sure about that. At any rate, you guide your flower petal across pretty green fields, waking up other flower petals. Waking up enough flowers will activate other sections. Pleasant chimes play as you activate the flowers.

There's not a whole lot of challenge here, and I think you can beat the game in an hour or two. But every once in awhile I want to revisit those green fields. Mild recommendation.

Bionic Commando: Rearmed
To clarify, this is the remake of the original, not the disappointing successor that this was released to promote.

Bionic Commando is my all-time favorite NES game, and so when I heard they were doing a remake, I knew I had to have it. What the created is truly a labor of love, as this isn't just a fresh coat of paint, but rather tightening everything up and making it worth to stand alongside the other new and shiny platformers of this console generation.

What's funny is it's pointed out to me how lazy a gamer I've become. This was not an easy game originally. It was a game like Super Mario Brothers where you had to play over and over to master the early levels until you were good enough to play through it in one sitting, and there was no turtle waiting in world three to give you hundreds of lives.

Gameplay wise, the best comparison would be to another Capcom game.. Castlevania. Basically they replace your whip with a mechanical arm which is your primary mode of transportation. It's used to move from one platform to another, swing across pits, pick up itens, and knock back enemies.

I can only guess how many hours I put into getting good enough to beat the original, and even then I still liked to go back on a Saturday afternoon and see how quickly I can beat it.... seem to recall it could be done in about two-to-three hours. I no longer have that kind of dedication, but fortunately this remake had level setting the original didn't have, with unlimited continues, unlimited lives, and the easiest settings cover some of the pits of death so that if you miss a swing you escape death altogether.

This game also had an interesting multiplayer setting as well, but this wasn't one I cared to play with strangers, and didn't know anyone else who bought it.

A Rearmed 2 has since been released.. I can't imagine it being bad, but I understand they added a jump button which I feel completely misses the point of the game.

They took one of the games of my childhood, and made it better without changing anything that made it great. I can't imagine anyone who calls themselves a platform fan not liking this game. Highly Recommended.

Drive Angry

I've become very good at avoiding commercials. In terms of movies, it means that I get to walk into some completely blind, which is nice. On the other hand, some movies escape my attention completely. Based on the DVD cover, for all I knew, this could have been a sequel to another movie I'd seen.