REVIEW: Limbo

Xbox Live Arcade might be a haven for re-releases, remakes, and arcade-style puzzle games but since last year’s Summer of Arcade hits Shadow Complex and ‘Splosion Man, gamers have come to expect a bit more than a simple rehash out of their downloadable titles. Games like Braid and The Misadventures of P.B. Winterbottom have brought puzzle-platforming and unique aesthetics into the fold and Limbo follows in their footsteps.

Is Limbo a worthy opening act for this year’s Summer of Arcade festivities? Let’s find out.

What’s Hot

Minimalistic Visuals

Limbo is a game played entirely in shadows. Light is sparse and sometimes the only things you can see are the glowing eyes of the game’s protagonist. Effects like steam and water are well done and the contrast between the woods of the beginning of the game and the industrialized underground of the end is fantastic. If you play Limbo as it was no doubt intended to be played, in a dark room with the volume cranked up, you will be entranced.

Puzzle Variety

Rather than relying on one puzzle mechanic, Limbo keeps throwing new ones your way constantly. Never being forced to solve the same puzzles over and over goes a long way to keeping the game feeling fresh and exciting. Very rarely does one type of puzzle wear out its welcome.

Challenging, Not Frustrating

The puzzles in Limbo are all well conceived and if you take the time think them through, they all make sense. I’m a very impatient gamer myself, and the temptation of walkthroughs is usually too much for me. A few minutes of frustration over a single puzzle will usually send me to Google in search of hints in no time, but I solved all of Limbo‘s puzzles on my own.

What’s Not

Die, Die, Die My Darling

You will die often in Limbo. Sometimes it will be user error—a missed jump—but other times it will simply be because you didn’t know you were supposed to do. Limbo teaches you to play it not by a tutorial or hints but by killing you in disturbing, brutal ways.

That’s It?

Limbo is over quick. Three hours quick. It’s a Live Arcade title, so its brevity is understandable, but this is also a $15 title. Once you complete the game you can replay each chapter individually and there are some easter eggs to find and achievements to unlock. But even with those and some simplistic leaderboards, there simply isn’t much to do here.

Limbo is much better than your average Live Arcade release. It offers great platforming and puzzle-solving along with unique and stunning visuals. If it was $10, it would be an easy recommendation but $15 is pretty steep for a short game with no story and no replay value. I enjoyed every minute of my time with Limbo but there just weren’t enough minutes. All monetary considerations aside, Limbo is great and you should play it right now.

REVIEW: Chloe

Every so often, a movie comes along with limited hype, passes you by when it was released in the theaters, and only heard of this a few days ago before picking it up from my local Blockbuster… that movie is Chloe. The plot sounded intriguing, had three good actors/actresses that I enjoy, and it was billed as a sexual thriller. Julianne Moore, Liam Neeson, and Amanda Seyfried star in the eroticism that is Chloe. The story surrounds Catherine (Moore) who believes her husband (Neeson) is cheating on her and meets Chloe (Seyfried), who is shown to be a prostitute/callgirl type. Catherine asks Chloe to see what would happen if she seduced her husband and the story begins…

What’s Hot

The Acting: I haven’t liked Amanda Seyfried really until this movie to be honest, before her roles in the films I’ve seen her in, Dear John and Jennifer’s Body, I wasn’t a fan at all. In fact, I felt she made me dislike those films even more. I’ve heard she was good in Letters to Juliet, but I haven’t seen that one. Oh yeah, she was also in Mean Girls, but thankfully she doesn’t play characters like she did in that one anymore. In Chloe, she was given a good story to work with and she ran with it. I’ll be looking forward to seeing Red Riding Hood with her as Red in 2011 now.

The… Chemistry?: I wouldn’t call this a spoiler since the kiss was apparently heard around the world, but the chemistry between Julianne Moore and Amanda Seyfried was spot on and believable. They do have a kissing scene, come to think about it, she did with Megan Fox as well in Jennifer’s Body. But, they went further in this one. A full on, lesbian sex scene happened for about a minute and was very surprised that the two agreed to do that.

What’s Not

The Ending: I wasn’t a big fan on how the movie ended, pretty dumb to be honest. I heard that Chloe was a remake, I’m not sure if the ending was the same in that one, but it came completely out of nowhere and completely idiotic in how it was handled. I like the metaphor that was expressed while this happened, but I don’t like the stupidity of it.

The Son: Max Thieriot was one of the worst acting performances I’ve ever seen on the screen. Damnit, I hated seeing this kid in the movie.

Chloe was a very interesting movie, it dragged slow sometimes, but I forgave it. It draws you in with the thriller aspect of it and has you wondering what exactly is going on with Chloe herself, as well as the husband and wife. I just didn’t like the ending very much and that brought my overall enjoyment down a few notches. I will still give this a recommendation though, just sit back and watch for 1 hour and 36 minutes of a pretty good movie.

AUDIO REVIEW: Inception

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REVIEW: Inception

Inception takes the idea of dreams and adds in the attempt to manipulate and create in those dreams. The film’s response has been huge, as many have already praised it to be director Christopher Nolan’s “masterpiece.” Did Inception live up to the hype to this guy?

What’s Hot

The Script: The writing in Inception is clever, intelligent, and complex. The plot is extremely detailed in the sense that as the viewer, everything happening is important to the overall story; it’s just that you need to follow along minute by minute so you don’t get lost. I was incredibly confused at times, but that is the beauty of the great script. I was putting pieces to the puzzle together throughout the movie and enjoying doing that, I like a good script that can do that to me.

Leonardo DiCaprio: This man has been doing great movie performance after another, I would go to say that he is the best actor out there right now, he’s gold. Here are the latest of Leo’s movies that he’s been in, in order starting with this movie. Shutter Island (I’d say best actor of year here), Revolutionary Road (linked back up with Kate Winslet, very good movie), Body of Lies (didn’t catch this one), Blood Diamond (another good role done), The Departed (sadly to say, haven’t seen the entire gem that I hear this film was, but people rave about it and his performance), The Aviator (very interesting movie, I enjoyed it), Catch Me If You Can (loved this movie, awesome script and performance), Gangs of New York (bravo)… and the list does go on, it really does, Titanic, The Beach, even going back to The Basketball Diaries, this guy is seriously the elite of the elite.

His turn in Inception is like the rest, fantastic. He draws the viewer in and does it like nobody else. The way he acted did remind me a bit of his role in Shutter Island, but that’s a good thing to me.

The End: No spoilers, but I really liked how it ended.

What’s Not

The Length: I have to say though; it was very long at a 2 hour and 28 minute runtime. It really could have been cut down to about 2 hours and 10 minutes, I can think of the times that could have been cut out right now. It’s hard for people to sit through a longer than normal runtime, I noticed many people tossing and turning in their seats when a thrilling scene wasn’t on, I did toss and turn a few times myself.

Maybe… too complex for its own good?: As I said, I love a movie that makes me really, really, think… but this one, I was thinking and… still extremely confused at times. There were dreams; there were dreams within dreams, posing as another character, just lots of confusion spread around.

Overall, I can’t say how much I liked how Inception made me think, not many movies these days do that to the viewer. It was also too complex as I said at times. Yet, in the end, I would definitely say that while it’s not the greatest movie ever made (as some of the hype stated), it was an interesting summer blockbuster type movie that should get at least one viewing.

This Week on 2Guys1Blog: July 12-18

In an effort to force ourselves to write more and more regularly–and also to let people know what to expect–every Monday I will post a road map of sorts. Everything we plan on playing or seeing and plan on writing about during the upcoming week can be found here. Sometimes a game or movie will come out of nowhere and deserve some attention, but for the most part we will try to cover the games and movies on this list.

Movies

Predators - Nick saw it. I’m going to fit it in somewhere.

The Slammin’ Salmon – Came from Netflix today. I’m a big Broken Lizard fan, so if this is anything like their other movies, I’ll be very happy.

Inception – Holy shitballs this movie looks amazing! Me and Nick will definitely see it this weekend and write a spoiler-free review shortly after.

Games

NCAA Football 2011 – Comes from Amazon tomorrow. It’s NCAA football, for better or worse. Also, Tebow is on the cover.

Red Dead Redemption - Finished the main story last week and I’m still having a blast moseying around the wild west. Writing a review for this one is going to be tough, as it’s so expansive, but I’m going to try and have something this week.

Podcast

I know it’s been forever since we’ve done a podcast. Blame scheduling conflicts and pure laziness. From now on podcasts will be recorded and edited over the weekend and posted every Monday. Look for one filled with Inception and NCAA Football 2011 talk a week from today.

Thanks!

REVIEW: Lego Harry Potter: Years 1-4

Lego Harry Potter: Years 1-4 is my first exposure to the world of Lego videogames. The Indiana Jones and Batman source materials just weren’t enough to make me overlook the childish look and feel of the series. But the allure of working my way through the first four Harry Potter movies, even if they were Lego re-creations, was too much for me to ignore.

What’s Hot?

Hogwarts

The Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry has been faithfully recreated here. All the locales you remember from the books and films are here and they all look like they should. Students roam the halls, staircases rotate to form new paths, and the portraits hanging on the walls come to life when you pass. Walking around the school is a blast.

Hits All The High Points

All of the major plot points from the first four years—from the Sorcerer’s Stone to the Goblet of Fire—are here. From fighting the mountain troll trapped in the bathroom to competing in the Tri-Wizard challenge—it’s all here and it’s all told with light-hearted humor.

Collector’s Paradise

There is so much to do in Lego Harry Potter even after you finish the main story. There are 200 gold bricks to collect (after completing the game I had 68), 167 different playable characters to unlock (I had 30), and 10 bonus levels to complete (I did 1). Doing everything there is to do would take a long, long time and that doesn’t even take into account the builder mode that allows you to create your own levels. If you are a completionist, you could easily sink 50 or 60 hours into the game.

What’s Not?

Not For The Uninitiated

If you’ve never seen the movies or read the books, you will be hopelessly lost. There is no dialogue whatsoever in the game—the story is told through cut-scenes that make heavy use of grunts and other non-vocal verbalizations. I haven’t seen any of the movies since they came out and I was able to keep up fairly easily but brushing up on your Potter might be in order.

Rinse And Repeat

While there might be a lot to do in Lego Harry Potter, there isn’t much variety to any of it. Most of your missions involve finding three different ingredients for a potion, drinking said potion, and then pulling chain. There are a few puzzles scattered throughout that require you to use Legos to build a bridge or a ramp but even those grow old quick. A couple of late-game levels break up the monotony in a big way—the 2D underwater level in year four is awesome—but it’s simply too little, too late.

What Do I Do Now?

Lego Harry Potter has a decent system of making sure you’re always going the right direction: you simply follow around a ghost that leaves a trail of studs. Once you get to the area your missions take place though, you’re on your own. There’s very little tutorial or introduction to the missions, so most end up devolving into a “shoot everything until something happens” borefest. If it only happened once or twice, it would be forgivable, but more often than not you will be stuck with trial and error—and trial and error.

If you can’t get enough Potter or you love Lego games, Lego Harry Potter: Years 1-4 is an easy recommendation. Its numerous flaws and repetitive gameplay are easily ignored if you care enough about the story and the characters. Of course, if you don’t know anything about Wizards or Muggles, spend your time and cash elsewhere.

REVIEW: Singularity

The majority of you have probably never heard of Singularity. Sure, it was on the cover of the February 09—yes, about a year and a half ago—issue of Game Informer. There were even a few developer walkthroughs on various sites since. But I haven’t seen one bit of marketing aimed at the general public—no TV spots, no magazine ads, nothing. This, my friends, is a crime. Red Dead Redemption isn’t tearing up the charts right now because people have been anxiously awaiting the follow-up to Red Dead Revolver. OK, maybe the Rockstar name and GTA pedigree helped, but I can’t watch an hour’s worth of television without being bombarded with RDR ads. What’s the result? My mom has heard of Red Dead Redemption.

Bottom line: Singularity is going to slip through the cracks and it’s a shame.

What’s Hot

A Little of This and a Bit of That

Singularity : BioShock/Dead Space/F.E.A.R./TimeShift

Darksiders : Legend of Zelda/God of War

To say that Singularity borrows liberally from its first-person forefathers would be an understatement. It straight up plagiarizes. But hey, as William Mizner so aptly put it: “Copy from one, it’s plagiarism; copy from two, it’s research.” Singularity feels like a game made by gamers—gamers that know what works and what doesn’t. Rather than getting bogged down trying to reinvent the wheel, they’ve instead decided to take the best parts of their favorite games and bake them together to make one deliciously violent pie.

Time is on My Side

In addition to your standard shooter weapons—pistol, shotgun, rifle, rocket launcher—you are equipped with what’s known as the TMD, or time manipulation device. As you progress through the story, this device is upgraded and it becomes more powerful. At its most basic, it allows you to age and unage, or revert, things in the environment. This can be used on structures such as bridges to solve puzzles or used on bad guys to revert them back to the dust from whence they came.

Once again, it’s not new or revolutionary, but it works and it’s fun.

Easter Eggs

Singularity rewards those of us gamers who like to explore every nook and cranny and read every bit of in-game intel with some pretty freaking awesome Easter eggs. Typed up notes are scattered throughout Katorga-12, remnants of the previous inhabitants, that fill in some back story and let you know exactly what when down and why. If you are diligent (read: anal) in your collection, you will come across a gem that would make everyone’s favorite Kazakhstani proud.

And when I stumbled upon a hidden room paying homage to my favorite TV show of all time and was awarded an achievement that highlighted the ridiculousness of it all, I couldn’t help but smile. It’s evident that the people at Raven had a good time making this game and it translates into a damn fun game.

What’s Not

It’s Over Quick

I don’t think a game absolutely needs to be long to be good. But Singularity is over pretty damn quick. I completed the game in about six hours on the default difficulty and I spent a good bit of time scouring the environments for shit to collect. It’s entirely possible to finish even quicker if you don’t stop and smell the roses. Of course, there is something to be said for a game that ends before it overstays its welcome (ahem, Red Dead) and Singularity doesn’t.

So should you play Singularity? The answer is easy. If you liked any or all of the games it borrows from, you will enjoy it. If not, then you probably won’t. The multiplayer won’t blow your skirt up and the experience is over quick, but it’s a fun ride well worth your time.