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iPod Classic - restoring an iPod that iTunes won't recognize
My wife's iPod had a strange problem: after it was disconnected from the PC (properly, mind you!), it claimed it didn't have any music but it's HD usage showed that it was full of stuff.
Reconnecting it to the PC solved this problem once before, but now, even after three hours, iTunes just didn't recognize it. Tried on another computer, but the same happened: nothing. iTunes locked itself in an eternal loop trying to load the iPod, only killing the process helped.
Resetting the iPod was of no help. Neither was starting it in Disk mode, and the analysis tools of the iPod showed no errors. Basically, the iPod was totally hung up and the only solution, using iTunes to reset it to factory settings, didn't work.
Upon unplugging it without disconnecting it first (how to disconnect an invisible device on a hung-up iTunes?), I noticed that my iTunes actually loaded the iPod's info with an error message about being unable to load the library. So, I figured, let's try resetting it to factory settings. And it worked! Here's what I did, step by step:
1 - Plug iPod in, and wait for iTunes to become unresponsive.
2 - Remove the USB cable from the iPod just slightly - NOTE THIS: do not remove the cable completely, just pull it out ever so slightly from either the right or the left side. iTunes will become responsive, loading the iPod's main page where you can click on the Reset To Factor Settings-button
3 - As soon as you have clicked the button, connect the cable to your iPod.
4 - Follow the onscreen instructions. If your iTunes becomes unresponsive again, remove the cable again as in step 2, but replug it again before waiting for any confirmation etc.
All your music will be lost, but your iPod might work again... at least for a while. My wife's iPod at least seemed to work just fine afterwards. However, I cannot guarantee that this method doesn't run any risk of causing some damage to your iPod, so do this at your own risk (and just to underline the obvious, I accept no responsibility for damage caused to your iPod if you follow these instructions). But if you're in this situation, your iPod is unusable anyway, so if your warranty is up you've got little to lose.
Added on 10:57:10, Monday 03/01/2011 by J Dread
Tags: General, IT, iPod, Apple, iTunes
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Necronomicon (H.P. Lovecraft)
Depending on your viewpoint, this is either a clear 5/5 book, or a bit less. Either way, Lovecraft is brilliant. Let me explain.
The best and worst of this book is that it's some 800 pages long. Best, because it means you have most of the essential Cthulhu-stories by Lovecraft in one, worst because the sheer massiveness of the book highlights just how formulaic, repetitive and at times even clumsy Lovecraft was. Somewhere in the middle of the book, at the latest, you'll come to realize that there's a pattern that almost all stories follow, and you can from the first paragraph guess what is going to happen. This robs the stories of much of their potence. A guy on a forum said when we discussed this book, that Lovecraft is best in small portions, and I agree wholeheartedly: you get the most out of Lovecraft when you read no more than four-five stories at once, tops.
Lovecraft as an author had many flaws, and in a book of this magnitude these flaws, mentioned above, tend to jump up to the surface and it is far too easy to forget than beneath these superficial flaws are stories unequaled before or since, stories of a shockingly nihilistic, dark and hopeless mythology and philosophy, at times almost misanthropic. Lovecraft had many flaws as a writer, but his imagination and his wild, at the time unprecedented concept have such earth-shattering power that it is in full justice that he has posthumously risen to be the foremost among the horror and dark fantasy writers... of all time. Stories like Dagon, Under The Pyramids (ghost written for Harry Houdini and extensively re-written by Lovecraft), The Colour Out Of Space, The Call Of Cthulhu, The Whisperer In Darkness and countless others have such potence, such terrible power to them that only the most unimaginative of minds cannot but stand awed at the vistas there. Someone like Clark Ashton-Smith, to mention one of Lovecraft's peers, may have been and probably was a far superior writer, but his stories lack the grand implications and unique nature of Lovecraft's grandest stories. Lovecraft's stories and the mythology he weaves are so powerful, that no other horror writer can come close to him. Even excellent authors such as Clive Barker pale in comparison, and authors such as the vastly overrated Stephen King don't have an inkling of a chance to compare favourably to Lovecraft - in a nutshell, if you're looking for the best in horror, you're looking for Lovecraft.
This anthology encompasses most of the essential short stories of Lovecraft, but omits a few, and includes three longer novellas he wrote, of which The Dream Quest For Unknown Kadath was left unfinished and is thus very much a raw, unsatisfying torso of a story. I would recommend this usually affordably priced anthology for anyone who's missing Lovecraft in their personal library, but would also advise people not to read this in one go or read nothing else until this is done; rather, read a few short stories from this book, read a few other books in between, and return to this book for a few more stories. That way, you'll get the most out of it.
Added on 18:35:33, Sunday 22/08/2010 by J Dread
Tags: Cthulhu Mythos, Reviews, Books
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Fable II
I had my doubts about Fable II, and would probably never have bought it had it not come for virtually free in a bundle package with a second controller for my XBox360. And boy am I glad I bought the marginally more expensive bundle instead of just the controller, because Fable II is a great game. I've played the original, and although I liked many things in it, somehow it completely failed to grip me. Fable II takes that basic recipe and improves on many things in it.
My main points of complaint in the original Fable were small areas, no jumping, limited paths and no speech on the hero's part. Of these, the areas have considerably grown in size and the player can more freely explore them although there is still no real jumping and even small branches pose an obstacle that cannot be overcome. Theh ero still does not speak, which I found annoying initially, but the expression system familiar from the first makes up for a lot. What I liked in the original were the colorful graphics, the graphical approach in general, combat and the premise of through actions deciding whether the character will turn out good or evil. The graphics are a bit less cartoonish this time around, but retain that same feel and I just love them still. The combat is very fluid, with one button for melee, one for ranged weapons and one for magic, and different combos of using the left stick and a button, pressing a button for a certain amount of time etc. access the different moves. The premise of good/evil remains, but is expanded upon, and instead of this being driven with plotline choices, it's every small detail in the game that decided how you'll turn out: eat vegetables, or eat meat? Help the thief, or help his victims? And so on.
Fable II is a genuine RPG in the sense that you actually identify with your character and play his/her role as you immerse yourself into the game. You will find yourself making decisions based on the moral viewpoints most befitting your hero, and you will feel it quite impossible to break character to do acts that would not become his/her nature. As far as the traditional identifiers of computer RPG's go, Fable II is blessedly free of thousands of stats, modifiers and all that. Instead, the skill system is exceedingly simple: you earn experience from a variety of sources, divided into categories that correspond with melee, ranged and magic, and a fourth category of general experience. You can use the skill-specific XP and general XP to learn new skills and improve your character, but there's not an abundance of skills: one linear tree for melee, one for ranged, and then increasing the HP, accuracy, damage and speed of the hero. Spells can also be improved to more efficient levels, and there's a rather limited set of spells to learn from them, but with sufficient variety. There is also no mana in the game; instead, the hero can cast spells whenever, but he has to charge them. This is another fun innovation in the game: you charge spells to the desired level, it taking longer for each level to charge, but it will also be stronger. You assign one spell for each level (or the same spell for many levels) and when casting will automatically cast the spell for the level you release the spell at. Each spell also has two forms: one that targets a single foe, and one that affects a certain area around the player. It's a bit annoying at first, but when you get used to it, it really works.
Which leads me back to combat. The combat is fast-paced and hectic, but seldomly spins out of control. The key to success is a combination of melee, ranged and magic. The hero can also evade enemies once the necessary skill is learned, and together with this essential skill combat becomes a neatly choreographed dance of rolls to avoid the foes, a few shots from a ranged weapon, a spell, a short attack into the throng of foes, back out with evasive maneuvers, a spell, etc. Many of the foes are quite simple to deal with once you figure out how and magic does feel a bit overpowered, but some of the stronger foes will present a real challenge especially when they charge at you en masse. All in all, I think the combat is very succesful and fun, especially once you've learned all of the skills available. And it is quite easy to max out your character about mid-game if you buy all experience-giving potions, do all side quests and just kill a big bunch of foes. On the whole, the game is a bit on the easy side, but not disturbingly so; there are times when it is genuinely challenging but it is rarely frustrating.
Apart from the main plot, there is a lot of stuff to do. There are side quests and jobs you can do, you can buy real estates and businesses to earn a steady flow of money (which accumulates even when you're not playing), you can hunt for stone gargoyles and destroy them, and you can even marry and have a family. And you can decorate your character with new hairstyles, beards, clothes, tattoos and make up. There's really a bit of The Sims here, which is great fun although there could be a whole lot more of it, too. The main plot itself is pretty short, so to get the full experience I warmly recommend doing just about everything you can. It not only adds longevity to the game, it's also very fun.
The plot of the game is a standard fare: your sister is killed by this evil dude called Lucien, and he tries to kill you too, but fails. You grow up to become a Hero, a mythical breed of super-power possessing human in the mythical land of Albion, and emerge much stronger only to find out that Lucien has been up to his own evil schemes to take over the world. You must find allies and finally take down Lucien. The nice touch here is that the hero's motives for doing this are not explained; at first revenge is assumed, but perhaps the hero is altruistically trying to save the world from a great evil? Or maybe it is vicious revenge? Or maybe s/he wants to take over the world himself? Or maybe s/he's just bored and wants to kill stuff? The ultimate motive is left to the player to decide. There are naturally twists and turns in the plot, but on the whole it's fairly unspectacular but servers its purpose.
Technically, the game is varied. I didn't notice any significant bugs when playing it, but I've heard of real game-breakers. As I got further in the game, the loading times and lagging when entering a new area increased significantly, leading to symbols and NPC's not showing up in tens of seconds after the area had finished loading. Installing the game to the HD of my XBox360 solved these, but the loading times for new areas were annoying. Sometimes the controls would be unresponsive for the shortest time; long enough to annoy me, but not long enough to get my ass kicked. On the other hand, the music is passable, the voice acting superb and the graphics very neat.
The overall conclusion is that Fable II is a gem. It's not spotless, and there is room for improvement, but even as it is, Fable II is one of the most fun light RPG's I've played in a long time. And I will certainly return to it one day in the not-too-distant future to try another approach. It's a shame this is an XBox360 exclusive game, because it'd deserve the larger exposure multi-platform games can achieve.
Added on 18:30:00, Thursday 12/08/2010 by J Dread
Tags: Reviews, Computer Games
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Red Dead Redemption (XBox 360)
In my review of Gun, another relatively recent game set in the wild west, I complained of one flaw crippling an otherwise decent game. This was true for Gun, which left me wanting for a truly outstanding open-world sandbox game set in the wild west. And now the wait is over with Rockstar Games' brilliant Red Dead Redemption, a game that is everything Gun could've been and then some. To describe it in the simplest, most generalizing way possible, one could say that Red Dead Redemption is GTA IV set in the old west. RDR certainly bears more than passing resemblances to Rockstars' flagship game, and the initial impression might suggest that this is all that RDR is, but as you delve deeper, the similarities reveal the underlying fundamental differences.
The story is set in 1911, when the old west is already dying, giving way to the modern age of automobiles and machines. John Marston, a former outlaw, is sent to the state of New Austin to hunt and kill his former gang members, federal agents having captured his family in order to give him the proper incentive to do their bidding. Things, however, don't go smoothly and Marston finds himself getting shot and left to die by the side of a road, from where he is saved by a local ranchers' daughter. From there, this tale of vengeance, redemption and manhunt truly begins, taking Marston and the player from the still wild and dangerous wilderness of New Austin to the hilly landscapes of Nuevo Paraiso in conflict-torn Mexico and back to the great plains of Blackwater. During his journeys Marston meets a motley crew of colorful characters, ranging from honest ranchers and cynical lawmen to a crazed, drunken Irish gun dealer, an old fraud selling narcotics as a miracle cure and a slightly creepy grave robber, and more. In his hunt for the men he seeks, Marston will not only do away with many outlaws in New Austin but also play a pivotal part in the revolution going on in Mexico. As can be expected from Rockstar, the salt of the game are the characters and the dialogue; it seems to me there is a bigger focus on dialogue than ever before, and it's better than ever before as well. There is less of the sarcastic humour of the GTA's and instead a whole lot of very strong cynicism and even a sort of nihilism. In the end, nothing turns out well for almost anyone and most people have to meet either an untimely demise or some other unpleasant fate. The plot is not great as in Alan Wake-great, but very good and especially towards the end turns both surprising and incredibly powerful.
The game is a third-person action-adventure in an open sandbox world, very much alike GTA. Marston walks, runs and rides across the world but unlike in GTA, where you pretty much grab the first car you come across, RDR puts some emphasis on keeping your horse: once you get a good one, you'll do well to stick with it, especially as once you gain its loyalty it'll serve you better. Marston can whistle for his horse at basically any time, meaning you don't have to steal someone else's horse even though your own is who knows where. In fact, horse theft is a punishable crime. Speaking of crimes, similar to GTA IV, when you commit crimes a circular area will appear on the map and Marston must get outside it in order for it to appear; however, when he commits crimes, Marston won't become wanted until a witness reports it to the law, giving Marston time to kill or bribe any witnesses. And once a bounty has been set, merely eluding the law isn't enough to clear it; until Marston pays off the bounty, the law or bounty hunters may pick up the chase at some point.
Apart from the story missions, which can within certain limits be completed in a freely chosen order (alike GTA), the world is full of side missions and random encounters: horse breaking, GTA IV-style "stranger encounters" and completely random encounters in the wilderness and towns which range from duels and outlaws ambushing Marston to strangers asking for help with various situations and helping the law to capture escaped criminals. Completing these gives Marston a small monetary reward and increases his fame and honour, both of which affect how people react to Marston and what wares he can buy from stores. Basically, with high honour and fame, people will ignore pettier crimes committed by Marston. These random encounters really give a lot to the game, being both varied and fun. In towns, Marston can also partake in various gambling activities such as Texas Hold 'Em and Liar's Dice, as well as just drink until he can no longer stand up straight. The world is also full of wildlife which Marston can hunt and skin, earning a living as a hunter. The animals, the activities and the random encounters give the world a feel of truly living; it's great fun just to ride around, hunt, take in the world and maybe play a round of Poker now and then.
Gameplaywise, it's GTA; the controls, the viewpoint and even the HUD remind me strongly of GTA, although unlike in GTA, in RDR there is no health bar; instead, as Marston is hit, the screen will turn first red and then black to signify damage, and a short rest without taking hits will automatically replenish Marston's health. The aiming and shooting is similar to GTA, with a good auto-aim/track feature that will aim at and track foes that are close to where the player aimed. Marston can also enter the so-called "dead eye" mode, which is essentially a bullet time mode, where he can "paint" targets and upon exiting the mode will in rapid succession fire at the painted targets, which is great for downing both multiple foes and particularly tough foes. A nifty invention is that as the game progresses, this dead eye mode will evolve from a basic form to a fully evolved form where the player can himself pick out several targets and select exactly which body parts etc. Marston is to shoot at. Tactical usage of the dead eye mode is essential in the later stages of the game. The cover system is also very much similar to GTA IV. All in all, combat both on mounts and on foot is fluid and great fun, although it will take some time to get used to the rapid reflexes some of the encounters require; usually it's a good idea to enter dead eye mode as soon as combat begins to scope out the situation and pick off some initial targets.
RDR truly takes the sandbox game to a new level with the amount of stuff to do and the living feel of the world. It is not a revolutionary game in the sense that GTA III was, but it improves upon the world immersion of previous sandbox games and takes the basic formula of the GTA's, the royalty of the action-sandbox genre, puts it in a new setting and in small but significant ways improves on it. In my opinion, RDR manages even to surpass GTA IV as a game and gaming experience and is therefore the new comparison point for any action-oriented sandbox game and the exemplary game of just what a modern sandbox game should be. And it will very, very likely be the best game of 2010.
Added on 11:01:23, Tuesday 03/08/2010 by J Dread
Tags: Computer Games, Reviews
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Batman: Arkham Asylum
There have been many games about the caped crusader, but so far none have truly managed to do justice to this great legend of comic history. Until now. Instead of being a movie tie-in or based on the more comical takes on the dark avenger, Arkham Asylum bears more resemblance to the darkness of The Killing Joke, Frank Miller's Batman: Year One, and certainly the two new movies. There is a certain amount of humour here, yes, but on the whole Arkham Asylum is a dark, twisted and bleak game, as is only appropriate when considering it is set in the notorious asylum of Arkham.
The game starts of where most would end: Batman has caught The Joker and hauls him off to Arkham once again. But something troubles our dark knight: it was too easy. And very soon his hunch is proven to be true, when The Joker escapes... not OUT OF the asylum, but INTO it, aided by his would-be girlfrien Harley Quinn. Soon the terrible plot is revealed: The Joker has managed to get an army of henchmen into Arkham and they have taken over, aided by an assortment of the deadliest foes Batman has ever had to meet. And it is up to Batman to save the day.
Arkham is to some extent freely explorable, with closed areas having to be "unlocked" at key points in the game, but after that the player can return to them at will. The capturing of The Joker takes Batman through the different buildings and the courtyard of the asylum, where he will face both superfoes and an army of regular thugs. The superfoes are of course boss foes, and the thugs are the cannon fodder foes. When the latter are unarmed or armed only with close combat weapons, The Bat can take on dozens of them at a time with the fluent combat system. There's no need to remember complex combos; rhythm and direction are the key elements. One button attacks, one counters enemy attacks, one makes a cape sweep that confuses the foes and one performs and evasive move. The player can also unlock simple combos later on, but the game can be completed without these. Rhythmically pressing the buttons and pointing in the rought direction where Batman should attack/move is what the combat is about, as well as paying attention: an attacking foe is highlighted, and pressing the counter attack-button stops the attack in its tracks, with the Bat performing an efficient counter attack. The evade button makes Batman jump over his foes and throw them off for a while, which is great for getting out of the thick and launching a new attack from another direction. However, when the enemies get weapons its an altogether different story: even one enemy can down The Bat easily. Then, stealth and cunning are keywords: Batman can swing up to gargoyles from which he can, if the skill is unlocked, sweep up a single foe and tie him to the gargoyle, incapacitating him. He can perform glide kicks and silently drop down behind foes and perform a silent takedown. Sneaking, staying out of sight, separating the foes from the group are keyword when the enemies have firearms.
The superfoes are usually more demanding fights, bossfights, where a trick is needed to triumph, but there are exceptions, such as the superb Scarecrow-levels, where Batman must stay hidden and evade the glowing eyes of a giant Scarecrow who is looking for the Bat. Batman must reach a batlight and aim it at the Scarecrow to flee the nightmare, in the process also combating skeletons and such. These sequences are eerie and highly atmospheric and provide fun variation into a game whose one major flaw is that it gets quite repetitive; the majority of the game is sneaking, fighting and solving simple puzzles and although they all are fun, during the course of the game they do tend to get a tad boring because basically it's just the same things over and over again, although against more foes, less places to hide etc.
One of the major innovations in the game is the detective mode, where Batman's vision switches to a sort of x-ray mode that shows nearby enemies through walls, shows structurally weak spots that can be blown up and at various points in the game is (automatically) calibrated to follow the trail of some kidnapped friend or a runaway enemy. This mode is also used to find the often hidden Riddler Trophies and other things the Riddler has hidden, which unlock challenge game modes and such. Apart from this view mode, Batman has of course a wide array of tools: batarangs, the batrope, the batclaw which can tear down weak structures and such, explosive gel which can be used on weak structures or enemies, and a rope that can be shot across gorges and such and then slid across, etc. These can and should be all used creatively for maximum effect in the game, as they can definitely be used in more ways than would appear at first sight.
The story itself is simple but good, like the episode of a good graphic novel: there are twists and turns and plenty of surprises. It takes quite a while to learn what The Joker is up to, which I liked. No point to reveal all cards at once. The Joker lightens the mood with macabre, murderous and twisted but funny jokes, and although he is rarely seen, becomes through his maniac monologues the second lead character of the game.
Overall, Arkham Asylum is a brilliant game despite becoming a bit repetitive towards the end. However, the game is sensibly enough wrapped up just when it starts to become too repetitive. No Batman-fan should miss out on this, and I am sure it will be good for far more than one playthrough.
Added on 21:58:02, Sunday 04/07/2010 by J Dread and edited on 06:29:36, Monday 05/07/2010 by J Dread
Tags: Reviews, Computer Games
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Alan Wake
Surely one of the most anticipated games for the XBOX360 or indeed any platform, I suppose the big questions regarding Alan Wake are: does it live up to the hype? Is it as good as the massive expectations put on it demand? In a nutshell, is it the type of material that could be labelled the "game of a generation" or a defining moment in gaming?
Alan Wake does have its shortcomings, some of them more serious than others, but I am still leaning towards an answer that is primarily an affirmative one. If games like the first Silent Hills and the first two Resident Evils defined the modern survival horror game and before them, a game like Alone In The Dark showed how to make a genuinely scary and good game, then Alan Wake could indeed be the next milestone in the genre.
Taking ques from a variety of horror, from books to movies and even tv-shows, Alan Wake is perhaps best described as the best works of Stephen King meeting with Twin Peaks somewhere in the Twilight Zone. The premise of the story is that Alan Wake, suspense author of large-ish fame, arrives with his wife at the small town of Bright Falls in what I think is the northwestern USA, to relax from the stress caused by his writers' block that's lasted for two years. And, hopes his wife, to regain his ability to write with the aid of the doctor from the clinic aimed specifically at creative people that can be found in Bright Falls. At first all seems fine and dandy, although the man who was supposed to give them the keys to their cabin is nowhere to be found; instead, Alan receives the keys from a shady old woman. But, they arrive at the cabin and find it to be satisfactory.
And then... something happens. Alan's wife vanishes into the dark, and Alan wakes up in a crashed car in the middle of the woods with his wife nowhere to be found. He soon discovers that he is also missing a week, and that there is in fact no cabin where he could swear they were staying. There is nothing there, just the lake. And this is only the beginning of a deep, dark supernatural mystery that starts unveiling itself. It turns out that Alan is intimately tied to the dark mystery through a new manuscript he has been writing unbeknowst to himself, and strangely enough this manuscript, whose pages he finds scattered as he wanders through the perilous nighted areas of Bright Falls, seem to be linked to what is happening to him, predicting events and revealing new facts about events that already passed.
The story itself is top-notch and the storytelling of the game excels on almost all levels: the pacing, the twists and turns, the constantly changing, evolving mood and atmosphere and the revelations all work well, like a genuine horror story. Only at the very, very end does there come a slightly cliché and disappointing turn of events, but up until then the story is exemplary. The characters work on many levels, are interesting, have interesting things to say and feel natural and lifelike. You actually develop a fondness for some of them, and fret anything bad happening to them. The story and the game are divided into episodes, which generally start in daylight where the setting for the coming night-time is set up and the major plot advances take place. In the first two episodes, you get to spend a considerable amount of time in the safe daylight, but there is less of it as the game progresses. When the dark comes, the ominous Taken, humans possessed by the dark enemy that haunts Bright Falls, emerge and assault all living, but most of all Alan Wake.
Many of the gameplay elements are tried and tested: the game consists of advanding from point A to point B with some light puzzles to open up paths, and of course plenty of action. Many sources have said that fighting is often the worse choice, but they're wrong: the somewhat clunky controls and Alan's tendendy to get stuck in the undergrowth mean that you just cannot flee, especially as Alan can run fast only for a short while, after which he slows down to an exhausted jog and the Taken can catch up to him. So fight it is. And this is done well for the most part: you have to weaken the enemies before you can kill them. At first they are protected by a dark envelope of sorts, and you have to use a flashlight or some other source of light to drive away the dark; this will not pacify the enemies, but after that they can be taken down with firearms, of which there is a small selection in the game. The flashlight runs out of batteries quickly though, and whilst it does replenish by itself, this takes a while and leaves Alan vulnerable. Just a few hits from the Taken and Alan is down, and two or more taken that get into hitting range usually spell doom unless you have a flare to scare them off with or a flashbang to destroy them with. Alan's health replenishes itself quickly when not taking damage, as seems to be the standard nowadays; but no complaints here, this works well. When facing a realistic amount of foes (two to five, depending on your weapons and other factors), the combat system is great although challenging. You really have to think and keep on the move because reloading takes time and almost all enemies take many hits to kill. However, there are a few sections in the game where you face a dozen or more enemies at once, and these tend to be aggravatingly hard, most with some trick you should figure out whilst desperately avoiding dozens of Taken. With the abundance of fighting in the game, ammo isn't exactly scarce, but gung-ho shooter tactics will leave Alan without ammo in the middle of the dark forest.
Apart from the once-human Taken, Alan will encounter a variety of other foes from poltergeist objects to shadowy birds, which are mainly slain with the flashlight, which is not only a weapon in the game, but an essential for pathfinding as the world of Bright Falls really is dark during the night. The whole element of dark vs. light, which permeates every facet of the game, is so well done that whilst Alan Wake isn't the first game to play with this theme, it truly does elevate it to a higher level. The usage of light, shadows and darkness is expert and dominates the whole visual outlook of especially the nocturnal scenes. Seeing a bright light in the distance filter through the trees is not only breathtakingly well made, but also a genuine relief for the monentary respite it offers. Graphically the game is more than appeasing otherwise, too: there are plenty of breathtaking vistas to see amidst the mountains and rivers of Bright Falls, and it all appears so realistic and lifelike. It all just breathes Twin Peaks in the best manner possible.
There are a few flaws in the game: the occasionally inane combats were already mentioned, but apart from these Alan Wake has a nasty tendency to get stuck amidst the undergrowth at the most inopportune moments, eg. usually when three or more Taken hunt Alan. Unable to move through them, Alan must take a few steps back and jump whilst in motion, but of course the Taken prevent this. This means that exploration of the linear but spacious areas is at times unpleasant because the dark areas outside the paths are where Alan will get stuck. Too bad, because there are many hidden things to discover, from equipment caches to radio and tv shows Alan can listen to, and of course the manuscript pages. The spacious but dark areas lead to another problem: there are times when the direction marker isn't enough and you're left to blindly stumble across a big area seeking the way out. There aren't many spots like this, but even the few are highly annoying. The area borders, which often are an insta-death drop, are also a minor source of annoyance from time to time.
The controls are for the most part intuitive and good, but the sections that require precision and speed can be annoying due to the occasionally clumsy nature of the controls. Alan will run and dodge with the same button, and there seems to be a small but at times crucial delay between pressing the jump button and the actual jump, leading to many an untimely death. There are a few sections where Alan has to flee from a darkness advancing behind him, and these belong to the most aggravatingly annoying scenes in the game, as you have to repeat them until you remember every nasty surprise. The endless running in forests also becomes a bit tedious, but luckily Remedy have been smart enough to make relatively short sequences of dark punctuated by light and small puzzles that break the monotony well.
So, in other words, Alan Wake is not a spotless game. The flaws do stain its excellence somewhat, but nonetheless Alan Wake is an excellent game. It combines suspense and horror with heart-pumping action and one of the great plots in computer gaming, and manages to create a vivid, life-like world through its characters and the various ways to give more depth to the world. It is a game no XBOX360 owner should be without, as it is a game that SHOULD becomer a classic in coming years. Remedy have already almost promised a sequel to Alan Wake; I genuinely hope we will return to Bright Falls in the sequel.
Added on 19:36:08, Sunday 04/07/2010 by J Dread
Tags: Computer Games, Reviews
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Interview With The Vampire (Annce Rice)
If there's one modern classic in the vampire genre, it's bound to be this, the first book in the Vampire Chronicles-series which succumbed to mediocrity after the second book, the third by latest. But this first book is far from the low reached alter, being a masterfully written piece of "light horror" and dark fantasy. It tells the story of one Louis, a plantage owner in southern USA of French descent, who after certain events in his family becomes suicidal and death-seeking. However, since he lacks the courage to do it himself, it drives him to situations where others might take his life. But as it happens, his life is not taken by a mortal but by a vampire, who gives him life everlasting. From here commences a tale that spans three centuries and two continents, a tale of the life of immortals and the tale of Louis' quest for answers to the questions his newfound immortality present.
The absolute strenght of the book are its characters; there's not always much in terms of suspenseful plot going on, most of the book revolving around what could snidely be called soap opera dramas of the immortal; emotions of hate and being bound together, uncertainty, fear, love, that whole thing. Instead of a thrilling and fast-paced plot, Rice dedicates much of the book to the main characters and their interaction, and the thoughts of Louis who in the book narrates his story to a young reporter in modern day San Francisco. Louis himself is a brooding, melancholy and at times even whiney delicate soul, a poetic sufferer who considers himself and his existence evil yet is still as unable to end it as in life. Lestat, the vampire who sired Louis, is the easygoing, selfish and shallow materialist, endlessly annoying Louis by his superficiality and lack of understanding for deeper feelings. Their companion and daughter, Claudia, is a combination of both sans much of the humanity left in the two other vampires. Together these three, and later Louis and Claudia without Lestat, live through the decades as vampires locked in their love-hate relationship. This takes up most of the book: it is credit to Rice's talent that she manages to make so much out of such little action and so few significant events. The story gets into motion when Louis and Claudia trave lto Europe to find other vampires and manage to find Armand, who professes to be the oldest vampire alive, and his band of theater-actor vampires; however, the answers are not pleasing and the two seekers discover that vampires are not a jolly fellowship of all-round decent people. Quite the contrary, in fact.
Much like in the more recent Twilight, what lifts the book of the ground is the obvious fascination with which Rice describes her vampires and vampire existence itself; this excitement and fascination will infect the reader as well, and the poetic prose rich in beautiful and evocative imagery will grip the reader and stick with him or her even long after the book is read. In comparison to the newcomer Stephenie Meyer and her Twilight-saga, the obvious difference to Rice's Vampire Chronicles is that Rice is actually a rather skilled writer and avoids the many pitfalls Meyer fell into; this makes for a very smooth and well-flowing read. Rice also keeps her vampires rather traditional, with sunlight being lethal, need for coffins, that stuff. She does however strip away some of the myths that are harder to explain in the atheist, non-christian depiction of vampires she presents: crosses do not harm vampires, nor does holy water, garlic has no effect, and they cannot transform to bats and such. This middle ground Rice has chosen works well, and results in one of my favourite depiction of vampires.
The book is tinged, at places even drenched, in eroticism; Rice portrays the vampires as deeply sensual beings, with plenty of passages that are sure to wet the knickers of most teen girls who read this book. Especially the tension between Louis and Armand is of such a strongly sexual nature that at times it feels a wee bit distracting. However, on the whole, this sensual part is kept well in alignment of the story and the overall feel of the book and does not play too big a role, as it probably would have in the hands of a less skilled author.
I first read the book in the late nineties, and fell for it already then. I had not seen the movie completely, just some fragments of it, and did not really know what to expect. I fell for the book immediately and have in the decade since re-read it three of four times; it is an enduring modern classic that deserves its status and shows that dark fantasy and horror litterature can achieve far more than the simple disposable shock-effects some deriders of the genre far too eagerly reduce it all to. Interview With The Vampire is a complex, many-hued and even introspective book that not only touches the reader, but also has a big chance of affecting some change.
The story continues in Vampire Lestat, a half-prequel, half-sequel to Interview With The Vampire, which is just as good as the original and gives the most interesting secondary character far more depth and complexity than in this first book in the series.
Added on 14:30:51, Sunday 30/05/2010 by J Dread and edited on 14:14:00, Friday 02/07/2010 by J Dread
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A couple of short book reviews...
STEPHENIE MEYER: Breaking Dawn
Spoilers aplenty warning.
Do not read this review if you do not want some pivotal plot elements to be revealed.
The last book in the Twilight series was in my opinion the strongest on most fronts. The writing was more mature and less clumsy than before, for the most part the story was well told and although some might claim incredible, held together well and felt plausible. OK, so some of you moan about a half-vampire baby but if you do that you obviously have missed the bit with the living dead and people turning into wolves. And you have no clue about the mythical incubi and succubi and how they are often linked with vampires. And you've obviously missed the fact that Meyer's vampires are very much detached from the stereotype vampire, for good or for bad. So stop your complaining, because Meyer does manage to make it work, which is a huge credit for her. The best bit is Bella's transformation into a vampire, though. To me it seems obvious that this is just what Meyer was looking forward to most; her style of writing in that first chapter of Bella's existence as a vampire is so vivid, so potent, so enthusiastic and so full of passion that I have no doubt that this is one of the key moments in the series for Meyer herself, one of the things she most wanted to put down on paper when she started writing Twilight.
The story does take a step back in terms of quality towards the end, but not too noticeably; the end resolution is perhaps a bit lukewarm and a bit too harmonious, and the oh so sinister Volturi give up far too easily for it to feel quite plausible. However, that the ending is happy is by no means a problem in itself; Twilight is more akin to a fairy taile (with a Gothic twist) than a horror story, and fairy tales should end well.
All in all, Breaking Dawn is a good conclusion to a series that wasn't magnificent but very enjoyable nonetheless.
DE MELLO, TONY: Havahtuminen (toim. Stroud, J. Francis)
Moisia elämäntapa- ja hengellisiä kirjoja vaivaa usein erittäin teennäinen ja ärsyttävän mahtipontinen, itserittoinen tyyli. Sama ongelma tässäkin kirjassa on. Hyviä huomioita ja ideoita kirjassa oli toki, mutta tyyli oli tosiaan sen verran rasittava että otti hermoille välillä. Ja loppujen lopuksi oli vaikea olla saamatta sellaista fiilistä että usein sanottin ei-mitään ihan liian monisanaisesti, mutta sekin on yleistä tällä kirjallisuuden saralla. Kaiken kaikkiaan sarallaan kovin keskinkertainen teos jota tokkopa tulee luettua toistamiseen.
Added on 18:20:35, Wednesday 28/04/2010 by J Dread
Tags: In Finnish, Reviews, Books
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Eclipse (Stephenie Meyer)
Meyer is finally starting to get her writing together, with the tension being built up from the very start instead of the first third of the book being rather pointless and repetitive as in the first two books. However, she still doesn't manage to completely avoid that pitfall and there is a lot of tedious repetition in the dialogue between Bella and Edward, as well as far too much going around in circles in the relationship between Bella, Jacob and Edward. Meyer also underestimates the reader again; we could all so see it was Victoria all along, and we could see the alliance coming. No need to build up for these "startling" revelations for 200 pages. On the good side, Meyer manages to describe the hopeless situation between Jacob and Bella aptly and conveys the right emotions.
Both this book and the series also appear as quite formulaic in certain respects, and this adds to the predictability of the book. The themes regarding love, marriage, sexuality and the dilemmas connected in becoming a vampire are already on their third go around without much development to them, so it's at times quite numbing to read Eclipse. Still, in the end, Meyer manages to carry it home with honor and Eclipse is a worthy addition to the series: not a spectacular book, but good nonetheless. Despite the many negative qualities, there's something in the world Meyer has created that manages to suck the reader in book after book.
Added on 18:53:53, Saturday 10/04/2010 by J Dread
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Gun
There are games where one small detail may ruin most of the fun of the whole game. Sadly, Gun is one of these games. Were it not for the godawful final bossfight, the game would be a whole lot more appealing. But when the bossfight is ludicrously unforgiving and the "trick" you've got to figure out is so far-fetched that it's insanse, and as a result you end up wasting hours in futile attempts to understand what you're supposed to do, it really drains the taste from the rest of the figurative dish effectively.
Gun is a game set in the Wild West, a setting that's been surprisingly rare in computer games. It takes inspiration from the likes of GTA and Godfather with a free-roaming world you can explore at will and carry out optional side missions for increased stats that improve your fighting chances against the ever-toughening foes. The side quests range from the dull Pony Express missions where you've gotta find the fastest path to the target in a short time to peacekeeping, hunting animals and outlaws, all of which vary from dull to rather trivial, and the one I found most fun: the Texas Hold 'Em tournament you can participate in. The main part of the game is, however, the story-related quests, which tell the story of one Colton White, who loses his father in the start of the game after a narrow escapes embarks on a quest to find the killer of his father and his own past. This takes him to the towns of Empire and Dodge and the wilderness between them, where he meets trusty friends and treacherous foes. The main missions have nice variation: some are plain fighting, some have an interesting twist like the one where you sit on top of a carriage and have to chase away the attacking indians, some involve sneaking and stealth, and many include riding. And riding is one of the most fun parts of the game. On mount, the game really lifts off. Fighting on mounts is fast-paced, chaotic but thanks to the subtle auto-aiming, not impossible. You still have to do the real aiming, the gun just tracks a foe you've managed to get in your sights. There are also other ways of improving your chances against the hordes of foes you'll encounter: with rifles, Colton can zoom in to aim, and with his pistol, you can for a short while enter a mode where the movement of enemies is slowed down, enabling you to aim more carefully. Yes, very much like Max Payne. Overall, both on foot and on mount, the combat is very satisfying and fun.
The voice acting is very good, but that's no surprise when you've got the legendary Lance Henriksen doing the main bad guy, and Country music legend Kris Kristofferson doing the voice of Colton's pa (who also bears a strong visual resemblance to Kris, by the way!)
All is well so far. However, the side-quests feel for the most part pointless and are quite repetitive, the gaming area is quite small, and woefully void of life. The towns are populated by only a handful of random people who wander around aimlessly, the wilderness mainly empty except for one area with buffalos and a few wolves here and there, and there's no sense of the world being anything more than a static backdrop. There's even no day/night cycle to create an illusion of a real world. And the game is rather short, but that's actually OK because much more of this, and it would've become repetitive.
However, and now I return to the topic of the first paragraph, were it not for the bossfight, all of the flaws jotted down above could be forgiven and the game would be unremarkable but nonetheless fun. But the final bossfight makes the whole taste quite sour. Sorry. There's potential in Gun, but the devs haven't been able to make the most out of it.
Added on 16:30:54, Sunday 28/03/2010 by J Dread
Tags: Computer Games, Reviews
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