The Road: The Movie

Yesterday, I rented (And more obviously, watched) the movie "The Road". It is based off a book by the same name by Cormac McCarthy. It's plot revolves around a man and his boy, who travel south in a post-apocalyptic USA (The actual cause of the apocalypse is never revealed, nor are the names of the two characters). Their goal is to reach the coast, but more importantly, to survive the dangers of the road, which range from starvation to cannibal bandits.

After reading a book, then watching the movie based off of the book, one normally expects the movie to completely ruin the book for a person (I'm looking at you, "Harry Potter" movies). Suprisingly enough, this movie doesn't follow that trend. The details of it, from the name of a wondering old man to the "contents" of a certain house's basement, match up incredibly well with the book. For that, I commend the directors.

The only problem (Which, might not necessarily be a problem at all) I can find with the film is that it might be considered too depressing in some parts. While I personally enjoy this effect, others may not and may even find it distracting to the overall watching of "The Road".

Overall, I would recomend this movie to either fans of the novel or newcomers to the story. It's emotional ride and deep story of the love between a father and son can't be described, only seen. That's why you should hurry out to your local video store and either rent or buy a copy of "The Road".

Final Fantasy Tactics: Advance

In my youth, I was very captivated by video games. They just intrigued me, what with their stories of treasure and adventure, heroes and villains, and who could forget the way they made the time just fly away. I spent lots of time on a very select few video games, and one in particular I spent the most time on. I can say I spent an upward of over 200 hours logged on this game (so sue me, I love this game). The game you might ask? Final Fantasy Tactics Advance.

In this game, you play as a young boy named "Marche". He lives in a town named "St. Ivalice" with his friends "Ritz" (A self-conscious young girl) and "Mewt" (A sort of shy, outcast kid). After learning a bit about the three and a few more characters (mainly Marche's family), the three kids begin to read a very old book. After reading it, they are transported to a land aptly named "Ivalice"; a land in which the children meet fantastic races and fight deadly monsters in a very medieval-themed style. Magic and monsters run amok, and judges are the only moderators of otherwise random battles.

The battle system takes the form of a board game; your units travel around the board by a set amount of "squares" a turn. Each square can contain (or not) a single unit, and each time a unit's turn comes up it can both move and perform an action. These actions can range from casting a spell, to using an item, to attacking the enemy. When a unit falls in combat, you can revive him or her either during or after the battle, unless you fight in a special arena-then the unit is dead for good.

While the battle system is amazing, the story is also really good. It starts slow, but once you get rolling in it you'll just get caught up. It really did leave me wanting more. If I had to pick out a few flaws, the first would be in the musical tracks. While they are good, the gameboy isn't really the best system for it, and the music becomes repetitive after awhile. Also, late in the game (when you obtain a lot of items), the menu can become cluttered.

Another famous element of Final Fantasy Tactics games is the job system. You start out with a few basic classes a unit can be - fighters, black mages, white mages, etc. - and once you gain enough experience in those classes, they can become higher-tier classes, such as a Ninja or a Summoner. Eventually, a single unit could become a spell-slinging archer, or a thieving Paladin, whatever you have the drive to do you can, which highlights the core gameplay of Tactics - customization. More about the job system can be found here.

If I had to rate this game, I would easily give it a 8.5 or 9 of out 10. It was easily in my Top 5 games I've ever played, and with only a few flaws, can rank up there with the best of them. Once you delve past the basic kid-friendly exterior, you can find a diverse and involved game that will keep you entertained for hours and hours.

Borderlands

Most of my gaming time in the past few weeks has been taken up by a single game: Borderlands. In it, you play as one of four "Vault-Hunters", Mordecai (A Hunter with his faithful pet, Bloodwing), Lilith (A "Siren" who specializes in dealing Elemental Damage), Brick (A big-ole guy who packs a mean punch), and Roland (An ex-soldier who clearly retains all of his training. The Vault-Hunters' job is to find the long-lost "Vault", on planet Pandora, which is said to contain vast amounts of treasure and wealth for any person or people who find it. To do so, they are guided by a mysterious woman who, without spoiling the ending, isn't exactly what you think.

Gameplay is broken down into a few basic things. The first is the fighting. You can use one of many gun types, from shotguns to rockets to alien guns. As you use the guns, you become more skilled with them and can pack a bigger punch. There are literally thousands of different guns due to the random gun generator, which can create guns with very creative effects - a sub machine gun with a sniper-esque scope, a rocket launcher which shoots an electric beam, or even a shotgun that can shoot rockets. Things like this are very common place in Borderlands, and make the replay value very high.



The second portion of the game is the questing. There are quite a few quests in the world of Pandora, and definitely enough to keep you entertained for long periods of time. The problem with that is while the quests can be humorous or fun, they can become repetitive, as most devolve into killing monster "A" or touching object "B". Not saying they aren't well thought out, doing these quests can lead to a greater understanding of the game world around you.



The third is one that most people could miss entirely. I speak of course of the online gameplay. It is in itself the same game as the single player, but with the added benefit of playing with your friends. Let me tell you, I haven't had as much fun on the X-box as facing down some of the most difficult bosses in this game with a few of my friends at my side. But outside of friend-only private games, there are also open games where you can play with total strangers. This can be very entertaining, but there is a catch - a very large amounts of online players mod, and while this can be fun, it can ruin the game for other people. This modding consists of making guns that can kill anything in a single shot, or leveling characters way past the intended cap. Gearbox has taken leaps to fix this, but it really is a prevalent problem in the community. Just something to think about.

Now, to rate the game, I would give it an 8.75 out of 10. It is indeed quite enjoyable, and can keep my attention for hours easily, but the modding online can really bring someone down, and a few glitches here and there can be frustrating. All in all though, this game should be on any Xbox 360's must-buy-list, and any visit to Pandora can only lead to entertainment.

First Post!

Hi! What this blog is meant for (if you haven't already guessed) is to provide a place where fellow gamers can blog about games and the like. Whenever you see a new game, or beat a new boss, feel free to comment on here about what happened! Whatever it is, this is the place to discuss our common hobby: video games.