Tag: review

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Rack Focus Review: Detention

Gary Sundt

Detention jams as many ideas into its 90-minute run time as possible — including references to The Breakfast Club, the Disney Renaissance, the Saw franchise, David Cronenburg, Scream, Stephen King, the Backstreet Boys, Mean Girls, Nickelodeon, and lots of other pop trivia. Additionally, there is a time-traveling bear and a mutant fly-boy. The flick is also a jumbled mess, but mostly pretty fun in that live-action-cartoon-soaked-in-blood kind of way. Continue reading “Rack Focus Review: Detention”

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Review: Tales of Graces f

Chris

Tales of Graces f review: The latest “Tales” doesn’t disappoint

NOTE: This is a review of a game in progress. Chris and Co. have put in around 35 hours into the game, which means they’re probably at the halfway point or so. Still, if major media outlets can review the game without finishing it, then so can we!

I’ve made no secret of my love of the Tales series on this site in the past. So you might think that this review is going to be a five-star endeavor, full of glowing praise and endless superlatives about the quintessential RPG of our generation.

You would be wrong.

That’s not to say that it’s Graces’ fault. The game suffers from many of the same problems that other Tales games have: a sometimes too-wordy story, typical anime tropes, lackluster music. But like many other offerings in the series, the battle system comes through in a big way.

In fact, I’ll go a little further: Tales of Graces features the best battle system of any RPG ever made.

How’s that for an opening argument? Continue reading “Review: Tales of Graces f”

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Rack Focus Review: Jeff, Who Lives at Home

Gary Sundt

Jeff, Who Lives at Home, which is written by Jay and Mark Duplass, is rather obsessed with signs — and by that, I actually mean M. Night Shyamalan’s Signs. Both present their protagonists as witnesses to coincidences that, if paid their due attention, may ultimately prove to be an order to a seemingly listless universe. But this indie drama is smarter than the big-budget sci-fier it references, and indicates this self-awareness by placing these theories in the mouth of Jeff (Jason Segal), a 30-year-old stoner who does indeed live at home with his widowed mother. Continue reading “Rack Focus Review: Jeff, Who Lives at Home”

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Rack Focus: Review: Hunger Games

Gary Sundt

Once in a great while, my career beckons me in a way that incapacitates me ever so slightly. Did I see The Hunger Games? Yes. Did I like it? Definitely. Do I have time to write a full review? Not this week. For this reason, joining me for the review is At The Buzzer contributor and all-around Superman look-a-like Shaun El-Ters.

Both being fans of the novel by Suzanne Collins, we’re going to first take issue with any and all comparison’s to the Twilight films beyond the simple truth that these are popular stories designed for tweens. The trailer for The Hunger Games is, on its own,  compelling viewing, while any clip of Bella Swan (who we most recently saw hungrily eyeing a deer) induces laughter. Both properties are obviously designed to make money, but the expertise in the production of The Hunger Games makes it the sci-fi pulp cult classics are made of. Continue reading “Rack Focus: Review: Hunger Games”

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Review: Street Fighter x Tekken

Chris

There’s never been much of a debate between 2D and 3D fighting games for me. I was a Street Fighter kid from the start.

My grandparents had an NES when I was little, so I got some playing time in with Mario 3, Dr. Mario, Chip ‘n’ Dale Rescue Rangers, Metroid and all the classics. But when the Super Nintendo came out and my dad picked one up, Street Fighter II was the first game I had for it — not Super Mario World like 95% of the rest of America.

SF II was interesting for a few reasons. It’s what got me started on the chess-like nature of fighting games. It was also the genesis (see what I did there?) for my love of video game music, as I would let some of the great stage themes play in the background while I worked on other things. Ryu, Ken, Guile and later Cammy’s stages became the accompanying soundtrack for life.

Why does all of this matter? Because Street Fighter x Tekken incorporates a long-standing 3D franchise into my 2D wheelhouse, and that’s just the way I like it. Continue reading “Review: Street Fighter x Tekken”

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Review: Mass Effect 3

Jason

**Well, I did it, folks: I beat Mass Effect 3 in time to get you all a review. I feel I should preface this by mentioning that a certain aspect of Mass Effect 3 deserves a more detailed discussion than can be done without spoiling that part of the game. So if you have yet to beat the game, then be sure to skip the section clearly marked with a spoiler warning.**

Earth is going to need some help...

OK everyone, the time is finally upon us! Mass Effect 3 is here and marks the end of Bioware’s epic space trilogy. Earth has come under attack and it’s up to you, in the shoes of the one and only Commander Shepard, to rally the diverse factions of the galaxy together and save Earth (and the galaxy) from destruction. While I won’t reveal much about Mass Effect 3’s narative, I will say that those of you hoping for a galaxy spanning story where you meet up with old friends (and enemies!) in an attempt to unite them will not be disappointed. The Krogan and the Genophage? Yep, you’ll deal with that. The Quarian and the Geth? Yep, them too. Of course, that won’t come as a surprise to those of you who have played the previous Mass Effect games; and rest assured that your choices in the previous two games will come back to help (or haunt) you.

Continue reading “Review: Mass Effect 3”

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Rack Focus: The Lorax

Gary Sundt

The Lorax is my favorite of the many animated adaptations of Dr. Seuss’ works from the 1960s and ‘70s — where bizarre and vaguely hippie-dippie tunes were set against the rough lines and bright-yet-cruddy pastels that are synonymous with the artist’s humble illustrations. Now we have a feature-length version courtesy of the studio and director of Despicable Me, where the viewer enjoys state-of-the-art CGI artistry wrapped in a cotton candy-coated color scheme not found anywhere I’ve seen in nature. Continue reading “Rack Focus: The Lorax”

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Review: Katawa Shoujo; or how I stopped worrying and learned to love disabled girls

Jason

**I’m gonna start this blog off by giving you all fair warning that the game I’m about to “review” most certainly crosses into NSFW territory. Although the content of this blog does not, Google searching this game and clicking some of the following links could very well be a trap.**

Katawa Shoujo, or Disability Girls, is a game/visual novel centered around a young man with a heart condition who finds himself at a school for the disabled that just so happens to be filled with cute, single girls. If that sounds like the setup for a bad porno or some kind of webcomic you’d find on 4chan, then you aren’t all that wrong.

Produced by 4 Leaf Studios, Katawa Shoujo does indeed find its origins on 4chan (/a/ in particular) where a thread popped up featuring the artwork of one RAITA. The piece featured all the building blocks for a dating game involving a private school for the disabled, and started quite a wave of interest in the subject. Of course, this kind of thing isn’t all that surprising to see on the Internet. Although surprisingly, from what I understand, this push for disabled and crippled girl content was actually urged on after a thread on /b/ featured the touching tale of a nurse at a nursing home doing his best to take care of a 7-year-old girl that had recently come under his care after having lost her family (and most of her limbs, plus an eye) in a terrible car accident. Kotaku posted a slightly more detailed history of all this on their site a little while back, for those interested in their article it’s here.

Regardless of its origins, though, the most important thing to remember about Katawa Shoujo is that it’s a game that would never have seen the light of day had it not been for the Internet. Now I don’t mean that in a “the web helped them put it together” kinda way that almost any project could claim these days. I mean it in the sort of “this game was developed and put together by people from many different locations all around the world without ever getting together in the fashion an typical game studio would” kinda way. This game is a shining example of the kind of quality projects that can only just now be made in this day and age. Continue reading “Review: Katawa Shoujo; or how I stopped worrying and learned to love disabled girls”

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Rack Focus: Review: The Artist

Gary Sundt

As I live in Los Angeles, I am an avid listener to the hilarious Kevin & Bean Show in the mornings on KROQ 106.7 FM. This past Tuesday, Kevin was complaining about The Artist, this year’s apparent frontrunner for the Best Picture Oscar at this year’s Academy Awards. Not only does our man Kevin dislike the film, but he has gone as far as to call it “utter BS.”

He has, of course, made up his mind having never seen the film, under the guise that it is for hipsters and intellectuals. They’re all wrong, but we’re going to circle back to that.

In the meantime, let me explain a little bit about The Artist. Here we have a silent film about the silent film era, specifically focusing on the transition into the talkies. Many silent film stars lost their livelihood when sound came along, and more than a few ended their lives when they were told their careers as movie stars were over. Those who could afford to reinvent themselves did just that, and such is the path of our protagonist, George Valentin (Jean Dujardin), a Frenchman who has spent his career singing and dancing and emoting without the aid of words. When sound hits the street, his success hits the skids, and he’s left to navigate the ways of filmmaking with only his faithful dog and his faithful driver (James Cromwell). Continue reading “Rack Focus: Review: The Artist”

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Review: The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword

Chris

During some of the buzz leading up to last week’s release of The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword, a few gaming outlets dared to wonder the impossible: Could Skyward Sword be better than Ocarina of Time?

At first, I’m sure a few people found that idea to be outlandish. OoT is held up as the gold standard in gaming, after all; it received a litany of awards and perfect 10s when it came out more than a decade ago, and introduced the Z-targeting system found in hundreds of games today. And now this upstart game on a dying console was supposed to supplant what some would call the best game ever?

Well, believe the hype, folks. Skyward Sword is the best Zelda game ever made. Continue reading “Review: The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword”