Tag Archives: Blog

REVIEW: The Hobbit

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Years after enjoying the Lord of the Rings trilogy, I was really excited to see The Hobbit. After all, when I read the books, The Hobbit was the first one I read, and I still remember it well. How does the movie stack up? I’d say it does splendidly.

I’m not going to go into detail in case you want to read the book, but it follows the book quite closely, which is really nice. The character arcs and development all follow the book’s path, which is great, because there are some really nice arcs, especially Bilbo‘s and Thorin‘s as they come to accept – and even welcome – each other’s company.

Now, there were a few parts that confused me. The part where Gandalf and Saruman are talking and the part with the Forest Wizard (I completely forgot his name. LOL) are two such parts that I don’t remember being in the book. Fortunately, some friends of mine explained that these were parts from the Appendices, which are extra bits of story at the end of the books explaining some of things that the reader never read about, such as those two very parts. This does one very important thing for me – explain why this is going to be a trilogy.

You see, when I first heard that The Hobbit was going to be a trilogy, I thought to myself, “how in the hell are they going to make one book a trilogy?” Well, the Appendices are the answer to that question, and I think it’s an awesome idea now that I know it’s not just the book, because they go through half the book in the very first movie.

Now, as for the look of the movie: as I mentioned in a previous entry, I saw it in 48fps, which completely changes how the movie looks. But, the look is very similar to the Lord of the Rings trilogy, which is very nice. The grandeur landscapes and towns all look fantastic, and even the Shire looks awesome. And in 48fps, it’s simply eye candy.

Oh, and the music, much like the trilogy, is fantastic.I have a soft spot for medieval sounds, however, so the music may not be your cup of tea. I definitely enjoyed it, though.

The Hobbit is a movie any Lord of the Rings fan will enjoy, especially those whom have read the Appendices, but don’t think that someone new to the series wouldn’t enjoy it. It’s got plenty of action, adventure, and good development and plot. Nothing stellar, but definitely solid. And believe me when I say that seeing it in 48fps is worth it.

Rating: 8/10.

Just sayin’

One Year

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Today marks the day of my first blog entry last year when I made a resolution to start and keep one. It’s been a pleasure writing for all of you who read my blog every week, and I want to thank you all for reading!

I look forward to a new year full of awesome stuff to write about!

Just Sayin’.

A resolution of the New Year variety

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Ah, New Year’s Eve; that time of year where people say, “I’m going to do x 3 times a week,” or, “I will stop x’ing”. But that’s not all – it’s also the the time when people try to start with a fresh slate. Unfortunately, that usually isn’t the case. It’s incredibly difficult to habituate something you’ve been wanting to do for a long time. When that next New Year’s Eve rolls around, your resolution may, in fact, be the very same one you had the year before. Talk about depressing.

So, tonight, whether you’re partying into the New Year, working, or enjoying a quiet evening this New Year’s, take it upon yourself to not only make a New Year’s resolution, but to add on a resolution to keep the resolution you just thought up. When you tell your friends what your resolution is, tell them that it’s to keep the “do x”, or the, “stop y”.

Maybe that’ll help.

Just sayin’, happy New Year!

Merry Christmas…

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Eve! Yes, a blog post on Christmas Eve wishing all of my readers a Merry Christmas! This post will be the shortest post I’ve ever made. I mean, I could ramble on about how I’m just typing up sentences to lengthen this post so it wasn’t just me wishing everyone a Merry Christmas…

But who does that?

Just Sayin’.

48fps movies – yay or nay?

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On opening night of The Hobbit (I will not be using that dumb subtitle), I went with some friends to see it at midnight in GLORIOUS 48fps. Let me tell you how amazing the experience was… then I’ll get into the movie. Actually, I’ll do that later; I just want to talk about how incredible this was.

We sat down, went through all the trailers, blah blah blah, and then put on our 3D glasses, and sat back to view 3 hours of amazingness. If anyone has a or has watched something on a high-end HDTV, you’ve probably noticed that your favorite shows move faster than on other TV‘s. A 48fps movie moves exactly like that, and while it may take some time getting used to, I guarantee you that it’s way better on a movie than on How I Met Your Mother. Everything is wicked smooth, and battle scenes look so much more…clean? Yes, clean. Instead of just watching a battle and kind of following it, maybe not knowing what’s going on, I was able to follow everything perfectly, and it all looked incredible.

When you’re watching a show that moves that fast, everything looks so much more real. All the movements are much more life-like – it’s really something you don’t notice until the characters really move. At 30fps, there’s a noticeable choppiness to everything – you know it’s a movie. At 48fps, it’s almost like you were watching it live, which I think is way cooler when applied to a movie than to a TV show.

If this is what the future of movies is going to be, I’m really excited for it! Bring on the 48fps, please! I give it a yay/10.

Just sayin’.

REVIEW – Paper Mario: Sticker Star

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I’ve been waiting patiently for the moment I could finally write this review. Ever since I first heard about the new Paper Mario game for the 3DS, I was excited. And so, when I finally got my hands on the game the day it came out, I had a lot of hype and expectations riding on it. Did it deliver?

You bet it did!

Plot:

The plot is very standard Mario fare. It’s the Sticker Festival in Decalburg, a part of the Mushroom Kingdom, and during it, Princess Peach is taken by Bowser (again), and it’s up to Mario to save her! There’s really nothing more to say here. It moves the game forward, and that’s what matters.

Characters:

Oh boy. The characters. Besides the ever-amazing Mario, we have Kersti, a sassy sticker from the Sticker Star that joins Mario on his quest, and she is amazing. She calls Kamek a hipster, which not only shows that the people at Intelligent Systems is keeping with current trends, but actively incorporating them.

All the little characters in the game that make an appearance are also great. You can see the time put into every character and their line of dialogue. It’s awesome that, throughout the Paper Mario series, the humor has been consistently enjoyable for me, and that the humor in Paper Mario: Sticker Star holds up wonderfully.

And let’s not forget about the PETEY PIRAHNA cameo (despite him being an incredibly easy boss).

I think the only downside to the characters is that Bowser does not talk. Ever. It’s a little disappointing, but the humor throughout the game with the rest of the cast more than makes up for it.

Atmosphere (Music/Graphics):

The graphics are an awesome twist on the usual Paper Mario style. It looks very similar to Paper Mario and Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door, but takes the ‘paper’ aspect a step further. Koopa Troopas fold into their shells to attack, enemies can stack on each other, goombas turn into a paper cone, etc… It’s very paper, and that makes it very awesome! One of the bosses is literally made out of paper, and there are references to being in a paper world all the time. There are a ton of references to older games in characters/the world you explore (I’m not going to give an away).

The music is also great. Many of the songs reference old games, but the new music is also great. The battle music, from normal battles to the final boss, are all very memorable. I still hum the battle music in my head sometimes.

Gameplay:

And here it is! Taking a page from the old Paper Mario games, turn-based battles are back. The difference? No partners, no badges, no experience. Just stickers.

It works like this: as you explore, you’ll see stickers laying around, and you can peel them off store them in a sticker album you have. You can then use these stickers to do battle with enemies. Right away, you can see that management of stickers is key. If you’re not prepared for anything, you may find yourself losing to a spiky goomba because you don’t have any iron jump or hammer stickers and you’ll have to run.

The stickers themselves are pretty standard – you have a jump, hammer, fire flower, mushroom, and various others that are references to games in the past and some items used in the Paper Mario series.

Like in the old games, Action Commands are here, and believe me when I say that anyone who has played the old games will probably be successful figuring these out.

So, you have all these stickers, but there’s more to them than just battling. You can also use them to change the environment and solve puzzles. To do that, Kersti allows you to “paperize” objects in the world. Many puzzles involve you peeling off a part of the world and putting it back where it belongs, while others are sticking certain stickers to unlock a door.

What’s more, there are ‘things’: 3D objects (like scissors, a fan, etc…) that you can collect and turn into stickers to solve puzzles and use in battle. These stickers are HUGE, so you can’t carry too many of them or else you won’t have enough stickers after a few battles. But, these stickers are incredibly powerful in battle, and many of the bosses are specifically wear to a certain thing sticker.

And the biggest part of battling is how you attack. Some stickers attack every enemy. Some only attack one. When there’s more than one enemy, you will always attack the enemy in front. That means that you have to carefully plan out which stickers you’ll be using so you don’t waste any. You can also use the Battle Spinner, which, if you match up two or three, allows you to use 2 or 3 stickers in one turn. Of course, you’ll notice that your first sticker will attack the enemy in front, the 2nd in back, and so on. Planning out stickers is very important, especially in the later levels when enemies do a ton of damage, even when you block.

So, since there’s no experience, the only way to grow stronger is to get better stickers. You start out with normal stickers, but soon you’re able to obtain shiny and flashy stickers, which are much more powerful. You also will collect HP-Up Hearts, which increase your HP by 5.

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Paper Mario: Sticker Star is a throwback to the old games that everyone loves with some new twists and a really, really awesome combat system. If you’re a fan of the Paper Mario franchise, you must buy this game – you won’t be disappointed. Even if you’re not, I think you’d be hard-pressed to really dislike this game.

Score:

Plot: 6/10

Characters: 10/10

Atmosphere: 10/10

Gameplay: 10/10

Final Score: 9/10

Just sayin’