Sam and Max: The City that Dares not Sleep

The final part of the third Sam and Max season was suitably large-scaled and dramatic (notice how I sidestepped using "epic" there?), and also more effectively emotional than I really expected. It was hard to be too broken up by the proceedings because the show must always go on with these two, but it still worked. Plus the ending, while perhaps a bit convenient, is perfectly fitting for the convoluted logic these characters operate on and also amusingly wraps up about three seasons' worth of loose ends. In the end, The Devil's Playhouse (that title was finally explained this time around) was to me the strongest release yet by Telltale, with more creative energy in each episode than some of their earlier stuff had in the whole season, and some of the time shenanigans make me wonder what could possibly be in store with their upcoming Back to the Future game. But I guess I should talk about the episode itself at this point.

Because of Max's transformation, it necessitates a slight shift in the formula from the other episodes. You don't get to mess around much with the toys of power (although they aren't completely gone), but there's still a gameplay dichotomy where you have to shift between two different characters to get things done. The puzzles were pretty good for the most part, although there were a couple situations where you were forced to do something convoluted when a simpler solution would be pretty obvious, or misleading situations where you're prevented from getting something, leading you to look for a way around it, but that thing itself is actually unimportant. The story pulls out all the stops, bringing back characters from all three seasons in interesting ways, and also telling a pretty good straight up monster movie plot. The scale is impressive, leading to it being the best looking entry in the series. They did a great job with the final part, and Telltale should really be commended for being the masters of serialized gaming.

Futurama - Season 6

The hardest part of writing this was determining what number season to call it. Any number from 5 to 7 might have applied. Do I count the show's original run as four or five seasons, basing it on the production order or the televised order? Do the televised versions of the movies count as a season? Ultimately I went with this as the sixth, because I couldn't even be writing this at all right now if I went with production seasons since this current one is only half over, and counted the movies as a precursor rather than an official season.

Boy what a waste of words. Anyway, I was kind of worried about the show for a while. Like the movies, it was still entertaining, but had failed to yet reach any of the heights from the series' best episodes in its original run. Was I doomed to watch one of my favorite series ever gradually decline into unwatchable crap? But luckily, things started really picking up somewhere around halfway through this run. "Lethal Inspection" attempted sentiment but only ended up bothering me with some inconsistencies about Bender's origin (yes, I'm a giant dork, why do you ask?), but the next episode more or less got it right with Fry and Leela, and featured one of the series' best sequences ever. And then after a merely decent cat episode, it ran off several in a row that were as funny and inventive as the show has ever been, minus a couple of the true greats. It looks like they more or less righted the ship, and they're not even half done with the current production order.

So while I'm happy to see the show back and doing pretty well, part of me wishes it had stayed canceled. Now, I would never say I don't want there to be more of a show I love that's course hasn't fully run out. But when something has a perfect ending already, there's at least a nagging thought that it should stay ended. Futurama's first series finale was heartbreaking, but it also managed to send off the series brilliantly, with some of the best comedy in the whole show and a truly sweet ending. And it's getting to the point where that sort of emotionally perfect conclusion will get harder and harder to reach. There's only so many times the show can put Fry and Leela together and then split them apart again before I stop caring about the characters. The handling of their relationship was the most consistent issue I had with this season. They declared their love at the end of the fourth movie, but in half the episodes it seems like they're dating or at least considering it, and in the other half it's like nothing ever happened. It's inconsistent and lazy and annoying. It shouldn't be this hard to figure out what the situation is, right? Amy and Kif have been together for years with only a couple hiccups, and it's worked out fine. But whatever, it's a cartoon and I should worry that much, right? There's a new anthology episode in November and then thirteen more episodes next year, and that's all that really matters.

Game Update 16: PSN Demos 6

This might be the last one of these I do for this blog. Oh yeah, life goes on, long after the thrill of summarizing a few months of game demos is gone.

Army of Two: The 40th Day - You see why these are pointless? I try to wait long enough for a bunch of demos to build up so the post seems substantial, and I end up talking about stuff people have already long forgotten. This demo was all about the online co-op, and it was kind of fun for a while, but my random teammate was bad enough that I knew I wouldn't play it anonymously, and it wasn't interesting enough to play alone, and I knew I'd have no friends playing it, so it was an easy game to ignore.

Bayonetta - I didn't see any of the game's supposed terrible technical issues on the platform, but the purpose of the demo is generally not to reveal a game's biggest flaws, so that's understandable. Seems like the logical evolution of Devil May Cry, and was totally crazy.

Dante's Inferno - It's been a long time since I've seen a game so obviously derivative of another. It really is Dante's God of War. Not that it isn't fun to chop guys up, I'd just rather do it with Kratos. Also, didn't know you could just put so many boobs in a demo.

Dark Void - One of those games that looks really interesting on the surface but then a few people play it and say how it's disappointing, and then no one else buys it, and then no sequel comes to fix the issues and make a really great game. Kind of fun to play around, but the shooting really didn't even last through the end of the demo.

Just Cause 2 - I was sure I was going to play this game after the demo... and I probably will... I just haven't yet. Not a very big area, but you get a sense for the game's scale and a lot of silly fun out of the grappling hook and parachute.

Kane & Lynch 2: Dog Days - I played this before the original game, and looking back the cover and shooting are definitely improved. It also has a unique and interesting visual style, so I was interested in getting it until I found out the story literally only lasts four hours. That sounds like a discount purchase in a year to me.

Lego Indiana Jones 2: The Adventure Continues - This one shows off some levels based on the last movie, and weren't terribly exciting since they took place in a warehouse and I couldn't figure out what I was supposed to do in the boss fight. I don't think I'll ever get on the Lego game bandwagon. Not again.

Mafia II - 1940s open world game, weird driving thanks to the authentic vehicles, pretty good shooting, not really sure why it's open world. Mildly interested in checking it out.

Ratchet and Clank Future: A Crack in Time (Clank) - See? I reviewed this game last year. But I never told you about the demo, eh? The Clank levels in this game were awesome, so this demo was good.

Ratchet and Clank Future: A Crack in Time (Ratchet) - Whereas with the Ratchet demo... I was having fun, but I couldn't shake the feeling that it was just another Ratchet game. Which is how I ended up feeling playing the real thing. Ratchet games are fun! But I know what they are.

Scott Pilgrim Vs. the World: The Game - An old school brawler with a bit of a sense of humor, some cool RPG progression stuff, and really nice sprite animation. Seeing the movie's a bigger priority, though.

Skate 3 - Only a couple years after really shaking up the extreme sports genre of games, Skate already feels a bit old. The most fun I had with the demo was getting off the board and just jumping into people so they'd fall over.

Trine - I think the controls were more precise on PC, but it's still fun and looks really nice on console. Nice appetizer for the main game.

Vanquish - This game is kind of crazy, a third person shooter with a lot of Japanese hyperactivity added in. But I had a couple issues with the demo - it looks and plays great, but I couldn't really tell what was causing me to die when it happened. Poor feedback.

Yakuza 3 - I was disappointed by this demo. I still want to play the game because Yakuza is interesting, but the graphics are the only thing improved at all from the now ancient seeming PS2 games. The combat feels exactly the same, and it still awkwardly transitions between full cutscenes and text boxes for no reason. Plus, they cut a ton of content from the US version of the final game.

Metropolis

So this film was based on a story by the legendary manga creator Osamu Tezuka. It also takes elements from the classic German silent film of the same title, an image from which inspired Tezuka's story in the first place. So it takes from both, but I'm not entirely clear what bits came from each because I haven't seen the movie or read the manga. But anyway, it's about a gigantic, futuristic city that purports to be an amazing place to live but of course is filled with tons of seedy elements eating away at its core. There's a lot of strife between the classes, robots are treated like inferior beings, and there's something going on with the powers that be. It's really not a very original set-up, but they execute on it well enough to get away with it for the most part.

I'll admit to having an issue with the art style for a lot of the film. It's simple and cartoony, and it just doesn't really fit the tone or subject matter of the film very well. It's well animated, sometimes gorgeously so, but I think the character designs could have stood to be a bit more natural. There's even a thing where people's legs thicken as they get closer to their ankles. What the hell is that? Who's ever looked like that? I was mostly used to it before the movie ended, but it's the rare case where an animation's look got in its own way. But I still enjoyed it. The main characters are an interesting group, the mysterious suddenly-appearing girl is well-handled, and the villain is a real son of a bitch. It also features a really great particular scene near the end, with an unexpected musical accompaniment. There's not a whole lot new here, but it's done well enough to keep it pretty watchable for a hundred minutes.