__Hello. My "first impressions" posts always go up on the first Saturday of the month, and this time that happens to be the first day of October.😀 Are you ready for the Halloween season?🙂
__Let's start today's collection of reviews with a few movies. Danny Boyle is one of my favourite directors, and I realised recently that there were only four movies of his that I hadn't seen, so I thought I might as well complete the set.🙂
__I also have an extra one after those four. Lately, I felt like rewatching Avatar (though not in its current cinema rerelease), but first I decided to check out one of the movies to which I've seen it commonly compared: Dances with Wolves.
I like what it was going for: the three friends' mounting paranoia and the temptation of the stolen money. But their exact thought process becomes rather vague as it progresses; I don't fully understand David's reason for isolating himself.
My rating: 65%.
The leads' relationship certainly had comedic potential, but in practice, its rampant silliness comes off as more annoying than amusing. The angels' belief that a kidnapping situation is the ideal love story is highly questionable.
It has a strong first half that engages you in the characters' search for a supposed paradise and questions the cost of maintaining it. But Richard's mindset takes a baffling turn in the third act that no doubt makes more sense in the book.
My rating: 70%.
While the kids may have had good intentions, I can't even describe how frustrating their increasingly careless behaviour is to watch; Damian starts ignorantly throwing the money around in a manner that couldn't possibly be any more conspicuous!
My rating: 35%.
Technically speaking, it's epic, sharing Dunbar's adoration for the land, and the bison hunt is definitely a highlight. Even at three hours, it still feels rushed at times, with Kevin Costner's insipid narration filling in time jumps.
My rating: 70%.
__Now let's move on to video games.
__I mentioned in my last post that Broken Sword 5 would be the first to be commented on this time, since I've now started playing series all together instead of including each instalment in its respective year, like I used to. I'm currently finishing up any series that had an entry in 2006, since that's the year I'm up to in my regular run through all my unrated games.
__Following that, we briefly deviate from the schedule to finish up the Castlevania series (not counting the Lords of Shadow games, which are a separate non-canon trilogy). In between everything else I was watching and playing, I'd decided to watch the whole Castlevania franchise from beginning to end, like I previously did with Sonic. Since I was previewing Order of Ecclesia via watching a longplay, I'd usually put its review separate from the games I own, but afterwards I downloaded a DS emulator for all three of the console's Castlevania titles (since physical copies are prohibitively expensive), so I effectively do have it now… sort of.
__Next came the Devil May Cry series… which I've decided not to keep. Yeah, sorry, but I'm not a fan. The series just never grabbed me, and I think I've figured out why. While wandering around aimlessly, you don't feel like you're advancing the plot; it's just random stuff happening. I have no clue where the character's going or why, or what he expects to find when he gets there.
__After that, The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion took up most of my time over the following two weeks. In that game's case, I felt the need to expand on my thoughts beyond a Twitter-length comment, so I ended up writing a full review of almost four hundred words, which we'll get to at the end. It seems kind of appropriate, since Skyrim got the 250-word treatment when I first played it back in 2014.
__So, with all that said…
It brings the series back to its 2D roots. It's still not on par with the first two games, mainly because the animations are somehow more limited and slower-paced, but the plot is decent and the humour has its moments.
My rating: 70%.
The music once again is great, and instead of the standard singular sprawling map to explore, this one has an overworld divided into many smaller levels, including the monastery, mountains, spooky forests and even underwater.
My rating: 70%.
The storytelling is still vague and not very compelling, but at least its tongue-in-cheek humour is back. My favourite aspect is the level design, especially the colour scheme in the later stages.
My rating: 60%.
The gameplay, in between bouts of brawling, again has you wandering around with no clear goal. I was pretty indifferent to Nero, who's basically Dante 2.0. But the boss battles are epic, as established quickly with the giant toad, Bael.
My rating: 65%.
It didn't turn me around on the series, but this one's narrative comes closest to being cohesive. The three characters each play differently: Dante can switch between combat styles, Nero has the Devil Breaker arms, and V summons familiars.
My rating: 65%.
__Before we get to the big finale, I have a couple of additional comments.
__Some of my biggest laughs in Broken Sword 5 came from the title cards saying things like, "An uncomfortable metro ride later…" or, "One long story later…"
__The original Devil May Cry 3 came out in 2005, but the version in the HD Collection that I bought for the PS3 is the Special Edition, which came out the following year. As it's a prequel, Dante is younger and presumably less jaded, thus his irreverence is allowed to shine full force. So if that's what you like, you'll love this outing. But, like I said, I gave the whole series a try; it's just not my thing.
__Also, in DMC5, is it me or does Nero always look like he's talking through his teeth?
The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion (PC)
__I did not like The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind (mainly because I was quickly put off by a bombardment of names I had no idea how to pronounce), so I was hoping this follow-up would be at least a moderate improvement. Thankfully, it was.🙂 The main storyline held my interest fairly well, and the fact that it's fully voice acted alone makes it an exponential improvement on Morrowind!
__Although, that said, I wouldn't say the voice acting is the best I've ever heard. Many characters clearly have the same voice, and let's just say I've heard livelier. On the other hand, the cast does include some pretty famous names, like Sean Bean as Martin, Patrick Stewart as Emperor Uriel, and Terence Stamp as cult leader Mankar Camoran.
__Since I tend to favour stealth over combat, I chose the Agent class when creating my character. However, I never strayed far from the main campaign, which gave me almost no opportunities to practise the relevant skills. So, due to the way the level-up system works, I was still only at level one when I entered the first Oblivion Gate, and only level five by the time I finished the story. As a result, because of how quickly even the regular enemies can drain your health, I pretty much grew to depend on the God Mode cheat just to survive.
__The graphics are good, but no matter how high I set the view distance, trees and other objects would keep popping into view unnaturally.
__A good chunk of the game consists of wandering around blindly, especially if the way forward isn't immediately obvious, and am I the only one who thinks the running speed should have been the default walking speed? You can fast travel, but only to locations you've already found.
__Amusingly, even though this isn't a direct sequel to Morrowind, I did come across one reference to it in my travels: a conversation that mentions the Nerevarine left on an expedition to other lands.
__Overall, I enjoyed this game, but it's far from what I'd call great. The central narrative is good, but the stagnations you run into while exploring do mean the pacing suffers.
__My rating: 75%.
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