Game Review: Gemini Rue

Launching Gemini Rue is like opening a door to the past, to the early 90s when point & click adventure games were king. Even though the game was released in 2011 it plays, looks and feels like on the of the old school adventure games and you could even confuse it with a game released from Sierra or Lucas Arts back in their glory days.

Gemini Rue could be a Phillip K. Dick story. It is disturbing, it asks difficult questions and portrays a dark future for mankind. You are Azriel Odin, a cop. You were an assasin working for a criminal syndicate but you betrayed them and now you are trying to take them down. Your brother has been kidnapped and is being held in a secret facility were they alter people's personalities. Your goal is to get your brother back. The plot of the game is very well written with great twists. The characters are well thought off and each has his/her own motives and past story that you will discover while playing. As far as sci fi stories go this is a top dog. I find that the better sci fi stories are criticism on the present and this is no exception.

One of the game's strong cards is its atmosphere. It has this noir detective mystery feeling. It feels a lot like being in Blade Runner. The graphics are hand drawn and beautiful. They play their part and get the job done without offering millions of polygons. The sounds and voice acting are nothing special but for an indie game are rather good.

The game is somewhat short but the gameplay is solid and you will never feel that you are bored or doing something that you shouldn't been doing. The riddles are almost all inventory based with the occasional logic puzzle here and there. The game is a bit easy but that will not bother you as the riddles are very well blended in to the story and what your characters are doing. During the course of the game you will control 2 different characters, most of the time each being in a different environment pursuing his own goals. There were no illogical puzzles but there are a few "action" sequences. Don't get me wrong these are not 'action' exactly but rather some shooting mini games that you will have no trouble tackling. They don't feel like they were put there to extend the gameplay or to market the game as having action, but they enhance the thrill at the right moments.

Overall Gemini Rue is a highly recommended game for everyone that enjoys a good adventure or a sci fi story. It is very cheap and you can buy it from steam, or from the publisher's website directly. Just launch it and travel back to the glory days of the point & click adventures

Review: Rise of the Planet of The Apes

I went to the cinema with mixed feelings. I had low expectations of the movie mainly because I found the scenario that was suggested in the trailer very silly. It seemed like a far fetched explanation of how we go from today, to the Charlot Heston dystopia of the mute primitive humans and the thriving Ape civilization. On the other hand, the movie was rewarded by a big round 8 on imdb which had to count for something. I was pretty sure that the movie was not an 8 but at least it would be enjoyable and interesting and I was right. In this dry period, of ridiculously bad summer movies, Rise of The Planet of the Apes seems like a good movie, or at at least, a respectable one that the people bored of all the crap of the past 3 months will give a high score to.

This movie is more about characters than it is about action and this is a good thing 'cause when the action starts, about 2/3 into the movie, it feels necessary and well integrated. The movie is the story of an Ape, Caesar. Caesar is a special Ape. His mother was part of some lab experiments to cure Altzheimer's disease which resulted in Caesar having abnormally increased intelligence. This causes some rather interesting side effects in the psychology of Caesar who cannot really place himself as a pet but he also acknowledges the fact that he is not part of the human society. To that mix add many more apes, an advanced version a lab created virus and some stunning CGI effects and you got your self a good summer Sci-Fi mix.

The special effects are brilliant. The people at WETA did some brilliant job bringing Caesar and the other Apes alive. Especially in the scenes where there are not human actors, you really cannot tell the difference. This is not a movie that will astonish you by its obvious use of effects though. It is about not letting the effects get in the way....not let the viewer think that it is CGI. This is really important in this movie since the protagonist is a a computer generated Ape.

Caesar. Very convincing and brilliantly executed role.

Andy Serkis was fantastic as Caesar but I am not really sure how much was acting and how much was 3d modelers working in front of the computer. So, I will just say that Caesar's character was fantastically assumed by whoever that was. I don't have anything important to say about the human actors since you really don't care about them throughout the course of the movie. Ok, James Franco did a good job as the lead human male of the movie but nothing special and you will not really care about him. At least I didn't. The rest of the actors just play their parts to allow the script to move on with nothing particularly bad or good about their performance, except from Tom Felton who played the, badly executed, exact same role of caricature bully he played on Harry Potter for that past 10 years.

Over all I thoroughly enjoyed this movie. It is not the best movie of the year but it is a good Sci-Fi cinema experience. If you are a fan of the franchise you will definitely enjoy it. The movie contains countless references to the original franchise with names and quotes. On the downside there are 2 scenes were Caesar does something which I consider a very bad choice from the filmmakers because it almost ruins the experience, at least to me, since it is scientifically impossible. When you see/hear it, try to go past it to enjoy the rest of the movie. Oh, and at the end, don't leave the cinema immediately because the credits include some further explanation to how we got to the dystopian future.

7/10

Back To The Future: The Game Review

If you were a kid growing up in the 80's or 90's chances are that one of your favourite movie franchises is Back to The Future. It had it all. Excellent plot, wacky Sci Fi, memorable characters, nice action, humor and of course, time travel! Since then I 've seen the movies countless times but they never fail to entertain me. Tell Tale games is a company that has given us some very good adventure games in the past few years, but Back to The future: The Game is their best so far! It continues the story of the movies with a brand new plot and contains all the elements that we loved about the 80s movies.

All the cast is back. Marty, Doc, the Mcfly family, the Tannens and of course everything is taking place in the Hill Valley's past, present and future. The game starts with Marty going back to 30s to look for Doc who has been lost and in the process to save him messes with the normal timeline. In the course of 5 episodes we get to fix things up and maybe even improve some aspects. I do not want to ruin it for you but the scenario is excellent and a worthy successor of the movies.

Since it is an adventure games we will have to solve puzzles to progress the story but these puzzles are so well done and so well implemented in to the story that do not seem like distractions but part of the game plot. In my opinion this is how adventure game puzzles should be. They should not seem something that the designer put there to make your life difficult but something that your character should do towards his story goals. The game is not very difficult but it is challenging nevertheless. If you ever get stuck there is an in-game hint system with 3 levels so you can get some help without ruining the experience.

The game looks beautiful. The cartoonish versions of the characters are convincing and the game scenes are rich with details that enhance the atmosphere. For each time period you will get a nice different feeling out of the graphics. The sounds and the voices are very well done as well. We have the actors of the movies' cast coming back to lend their voices once again and they do an admirable job in recreating the old magic.

One thing that I did not like at first was the controls and direction of how the scenes changed while Marty was moving. It seems as though the designers kept in mind that the game would be released for consoles as well and they made up this unified control method that would work well with a console controller, but at the same time keep the old school point and click control method. After a while I got used it and I did not mind.

Over all if you are a fun of the movies, or adventure games, this is a highly recommended purchase. It will keep you entertained for many hours and at the end you will see the all to familiar 'To be continued' that promises of an next installment to the franchise. I can't wait for it! In the men time Tell Tale is planning to resurrect another beloved franchise and transform it in an adventure game series, that of Jurassic Park. So, stay tuned!

Battlestar Galactica Online: Free Browser MMOG

Bigpoint, the German browser based game giant, is developing a free Battlestar Galactica based game for some time now. At the 8th of February they will open the gates to beta testers from around the world. It will be an open beta so anyone can participate.

The game is in 3D utilizing Unity Web player which brings fast 3d graphics to the browser. Unity is supported by Windows and Mac but unfortunately there is no support for LInux so far. Little is known about the game. You will be able to join the Humans or the Cylons and have various career paths such as fighter or miner.

In the mean time go register a game account and download the unity player. The 8th of february is near. Oh...and check out the trailer..

Philip K. Dick's new robotic head

Philip K. Dick is one of my favourite, if not the favourite, Sci-Fi authours. He alone managed to grasp the dark scent of the future and remain relevant. Underappreciated in his time he rose to mass fame after his death thanks to many of his novels becoming top grossing films. Classics such Blade Runner, Total Recall and more recent such as Minority Report and A Scanner Darkly allowed people to get to know and love novels such as my personal favourite Ubik.

Hanson Robotics funded by the dutch VPRO built an amazing robotic head of Philip K. Dick. It is so lifel-like and creepy at the same time. Apparently there was an old one that got stolen back in 2005 and they wanted to replace it. Dick would be proud!

NASA votes for realism in science fiction films

In all film-savvy groups you will find an individual that dismisses a film simply because it is unrealistic and scientifically bogus(for example "Star Wars sucks because you can't have sound in space"). Besides loving Star Wars I have to admit that I do not really care about the scientific plausibility very much if I do enjoy the movie for any other reason.

NASA and the Science and Entertainment Exchange voted for the most unrealistic/worst sci-fi films as well as the most realistic/science faithful films. It is an interesting list:

Most unrealistic films

1. 2012 (2009)
2. The Core (2003)
3. Armageddon (1998)
4. Volcano (1997)
5. Chain Reaction (1996)
6. The 6th Day (2000)
7. What the Bleep Do We Know? (2004)

Most realistic films

1. Gattaca (1997)
2. Contact (1997)
3. Metropolis (1927)
4. The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951)
5. Woman in the Moon (1929)
6. The Thing from Another World (1951)
7. Jurassic Park (1993)

The trailer for Duncan Jones' SOURCE CODE is released.

After an impressive debut with Moon, Duncan Jones has certainly earned the respect of science fiction fans.His second film, Source Code, looks like it's going to be another hit for the young director, further establishing him as one of the directors to pay attention to.

From the trailer, Source Code looks like a mix of 12 Monkeys, Groundhog day and The Matrix! Those are very interesting ingredients and I think Duncan Jones has the talent to make something very special out of them.

Bioshock: So good you will crap your pants!

Every once in a while, a game is released that raises the bar for everyone else. Two years ago Bioshock was released and did just that. Since then very few games have managed to be as immersing as this one. Rarely we see a game of that quality and so high production values. I was late to trying it, but when I did, I did not stop until the credits were rolling. I was so thrilled by it that when I was not playing the game I was thinking about the game. Every aspect was so masterfully done that I simply can not find anything to bitch about.

Bioshock is one of those games/films/books that can create really strong emotions through its story and setting. You start the game as a lone survivor of an airplane crash in the middle of the atlantic ocean. Soon you find yourself in a city(Rapture) built under the sea. NO GODS OR KINGS, ONLY MAN. This is the banner that greets you into Rapture and sets the tone for the mind of the inhabitants of this city. Something though, has gone terribly wrong and all those bright minds; the scientists, the artists, instead of freeing themselves and excel, they where enslaved by greed and power. You soon find yourself in sick situations and witness horror and perversion. This game is not for the faint of heart. You will have to find out your place in the story and try to save yourself.


Even though the game at first appears as your usual FPS, it is not. I mean it is definitely not. The gameplay is so rich and offers so much depth that you simply can not call it an FPS. The game has numerous RPG mechanics built in to it. You acquire a certain resource by killing powerful enemies (the infamous Big daddies) and squeeze it from helpless kids (the little sisters) by force or kindly. You use this essence to advance your skills, and powers. Besides your weapons you can use your powers (plasmids) in various occasions. Your plasmids range from simple attack powers to freeze, burn, control and defensive mechanisms. You can use them in many different ways and the environment is highly interactive to help you with that. For example, if you use your lightning plasmid on an enemy that is in the water, besides stunning him for a few seconds, you will damage him due electrocution as well.

The levels are full of items to gather and there are many machines to interact with. You can use vending machines to buy ammo, health packs and any other items using the money you got from the mad depraved inhabitants of the city you just killed. There are slot machine, health station, turrets, weapon upgrade machines, you name it. All play a very important role in the game and you better use them effectively in order to survive.

The sights and sounds of Rapture are breathtaking. Wandering around the city's corridors haunts you with the destruction that has taken place. The misery of the city is present in every corner and the blood that has covered the walls reminds you not to let your guard down to check out the fantastic job the game designers and artists have done. On the same level are the ambient sounds the music and the voice acting.

This is a unique game, one, I dare say, of the same quality as Half Life 2. It is one of those games that make other developers hide in shame because their games will be laughable before this masterpiece. Bioshock is not a game, it is art in all its interactive glory. Now, that Bioshock 2 is around the corner if you still, like me, had not played this one get it. It will be a revelation. It's so good you will crap your pants.

Geeking out: Ridley Scott sci-fi double feature.

Last night I went by a friend's place to hang out and ended up watching two of the greatest science fiction films ever made, Alien (the Directors Cut) and Blade Runner (the Final Cut).

The crew of the Nostromo.

As we were sitting there we decided to watch a movie and immediately a problem emerged. You see when 4 film geeks get together to watch a film, it's not always easy to decide what that film should be, since between the four of us we have watched a very large number of movies. But then the host said: "What about Alien?" Since none of us had watched it in quite a long time and we all love sci fi, our little problem was solved.

Upon finishing that movie we decided to make it a double feature. And what better way* to follow up Alien than Ridley Scott's next film, Blade Runner. Especially when it's the Final Cut which none of us had ever watched before.

Downtown L.A in 2019.

Watching those two films after such a long time, sure makes you realize they deserve all the praise they get and why they are considered classics of not just science fiction, but cinema in general!

PS. A little fun detail we spotted: a screen readout as Ripley is leaving with the shuttle from the Nostromo is exactly the same as a screen readout in the Police car as Gaff is picking up Deckard from the noodles place. Both screens say ENVIRON CTR PURGE 24556 DR 5. And here are the screenshots to prove it!

Alien: Space Shuttle screen

Blade Runner: Police car screen

*OK, maybe Aliens, but a) we didn't have it and b) it was the obvious choice.

Christopher Nolan's "Inception" has a trailer

Is it official! Inception just became my most anticipated film for 2010. Watch the trailer and tell me that doesn't look like a serious contender for best film of 2010.

I've included a YouTube embed but I highly recommend watching it in Quicktime HD here.

The Brit Report: Moon

And thus this review concludes the exclusive trilogy of must-see-now-or-die-in-agonizing-pain movies. I think I'll have to take it easier from now on... Thanks to Hotshuk, I watched this movie only for 6 pounds instead of 10! Hurrah for that!

MOON
(by Duncan Jones)

Moon is a movie that nobody saw. It made $6M worldwide. My prediction is that in 10-15 years, it will be on most top sci-fi movie lists. Destined to become a cult phenomenon and to be rediscovered later on, Moon is reminiscent of the great sci-fi movies of the '70s and '80s: THX 1138, Solaris, Blade Runner, Alien. What these movies have in common besides offering bleak visions of the future is that they use the science fiction backdrop to tell character-based stories, not offering some eye candy just for the sake of it.

It it impossible to form a synopsis of the movie without falling into spoiler territory, so I'll just say that the movie involves a certain worker (Sam Rockwell), stranded all alone on the surface of the moon for a 3-year contract for a mining company. His only colleague is the base computer, GERTY (Kevin Spacey's voice). Towards the end of his contract, bad things start happening. Sam Rockwell gives a career-best performance, carrying the movie throughout. His choice was inspired, injecting healthy doses of sarcasm and humor in an utterly dramatic role. Duncan Jones' (son of David Bowie, no less) direction is superb. The sets are impeccable, reminding a bit of 2001 and Alien, and although the movie was shot with a $5M budget, it never feels cheap - quite the contrary. Spacey's role is superb: his chilling and sleazy voice is exactly right for the HAL-like computer, but never being a cliche. Bottom line: if you can catch it at a cinema, go see it.
9/10

The Brit Report: District 9

You have to face it: this year I'm going to produce quite a lot of exclusives, so be patient: all will come eventually! Thankfully this time the ticket was only 4 pounds, albeit at the glorious Whitechapel district, which made the movie feel more realistic... A final word of warning: for heaven's sake, peace my brothers! Do not fight over a lost battlefield, the Jaunty Jackalope will come crashing through the windows and eat all the apples!

DISTRICT 9
(by Neill Blomkamp)

I'll try to keep this one short and spoiler-free: District 9 was a sleeper hit. Made just for $30M (1/10 of Avatar's budget), it has already made 4 times its money worldwide, and it still hasn't opened in a lot of territories. The first geek reviews that came out were ecstatic, so my expectations penetrated the stratosphere. Finally though, I think that I raised the bar a little too much.

Not to be snobbish though: the direction is excellent, with extreme attention to detail, the action scenes are suspenseful, and the CGI are really top-notch. The script has a few twists and turns that generate some excitement, but the movie dosen't delve a lot more than the initial premise. While watching I kept being reminded of these terrific Galactica episodes (ie. Exodus), that really knew how to create sci-fi allegories. The acual problem? "It's the characters, stupid", as Ron Moore had said. While the main lead tries very hard (and succeds) at being likeable even if he's an irritating racist, other basic players feel like cardboard cutouts: the evil plotting businessman, the evil macho mercenary, the sobbing wife... But the movie is owned by a CG: the prawn Christopher - amazing performance. Maybe I'm over-analyzing it. Every geek should see this movie - It's almost a miracle that this one came out. Don't mind my blabbering! Go see it!

7,5/10

Christopher Nolan's "Inception" has a teaser trailer

Christopher Nolan has managed to become one of my favourite directors with just a handful of films. From his debut film "Following" to the mega-hit "The Dark Knight" Nolan's films have always ranged from good to excellent. It would appear that Nolan is set to amaze us once again with his latest film.

Inception is a sci-fi thriller staring Leonardo DiCaprio, Ellen Page, Marion Cotillard, Ken Watanabe, Cillian Murphy and Michael Caine (in his 4th appearance in a Nolan film). The teaser sets the tone for a very atmospheric film without really showing anything. I think I will try to keep it that way and avoid learning too much about the film before it's release.



One more for the MUST SEE list!

The return of good science fiction films

Tired of stupid science fiction films which are nothing more than explosions and meaningles effects? Then you might want to check out the following three films which are a return to good science fiction:

MOON


review 1, review 2, review 3


District 9


preview 1 preview 2
Harry Knowles review (Ain't It Cool News)
Devin Faraci review (CHUD)


AVATAR

Sadly there is no trailer yet. But I'm going to say just two things:

James Cameron. Science fiction film.

That's all you need to know really. Listen to the man himself talk about AVATAR at Comic Con after screening, for the first time ever, 24 minutes of footage from the film.

I really hope that these three films will mark the beginning of a new, better era for science fiction films.