As one might expect from a Vin Diesel movie, A Man Apart isn’t very good. It’s a rather hokey story about a couple of guys from the streets who turn away from a life of crime to become cops and make a difference and all. Diesel plays one such cop who manages to take down a major druglord, and his wife is murdered soon after. So basically it’s an action flick with revenge at the core and very little to set it apart from the myriad other lackluster films in the same vein, let alone to rival the better ones. Ahh, well.
I really liked Karl Urban as Eomer in Lord of the Rings, but perhap he’s just not cut out to be the leading man. Or maybe he’s just bad at picking roles. Either way, Pathfinder seems like it could be an interesting premise - a young Viking invader found and raised by Native Americans fighting to defend them when his countrymen return- but the film just doesn’t deliver. Even its attempt at stylized visuals just seems like a bad ripoff of Sin City and such. The film was at least good enough to hold my attention all the way through, but I certainly wouldn’t watch it a second time.
I honestly don’t have much to say about this one. It has everything you’d expect from a cheesy action flick starring a pro wrestler, and not much more. But given the circumstances, it’s surprisingly decent. If your in the mood for some mindless entertainment, seeing “Stone Cold” and 9 other death row inmates duke it out for a chance to be free while millions watch over the internet certainly fits the bill.
When I first saw the trailers coming out for Soul Calibur IV, I have to say I was pretty unimpressed. I’ve always been a big fan of the series, ever since the first Soul Calibur game came out on the Dreamcast, but the Star Wars tie-ins (Yoda and Darth Vader) seemed like a bit much. I hate platform-specific content like that as well (only PS3 users get to play as Vader - 360 players get Yoda instead). But while I still hate the platform-specific part, after playing the game through the Star Wars characters don’t feel out of place at all. You have to get used to the idea of blocking a lightsaber with a sword though, I suppose.
In some ways, SC4 falls short of the last installment. The character creation system doesn’t give you as many options, for instance (a good portion of the equipment is just pulled from your characters’ secondary costumes) and the way equipment choices connect to stats and abilities means that the strongest characters will turn out looking goofy. But worst of all, the story mode for each character is far too short. A long text blurb at the beginning does most of the storytelling, and then after five fights and one or two generic cutscenes you’re at the ending. I liked most of the unique endings, but they just aren’t enough to carry the story mode on their own. Luckily there’s plenty else to do, like challenging the rather long Tower of Lost Souls mode.
But where Soul Calibur IV strays from the path, it compensates with new gameplay features and great visuals. It’s the first game in the series to feature online play, and each character now comes equipped with a special finishing attack. The character creation mode will let you edit the originals as well as create your own, and as always there’s a ton of stuff to unlock. It’s plenty to keep you busy for quite a while. There are a few things gameplay-wise that I’m disappointed to see missing - the tutorial part of training mode, for instance, or the weapon exhibitions you used to be able to watch for each character - but on the whole this is another great installment in the Soul Calibur series. If you enjoyed the other games, you’re sure to like this one.
Strangely enough, I found the packaging for Lost Odyssey to be a pretty accurate metaphor for the game itself. They crammed all four discs into a normal-size case: 3 on a single spindle and the last one in a paper sleeve. Everything you’re looking for is there, but it could’ve been put together better. Likewise, Lost Odyssey has everything you’d expect from a Final Fantasy-style RPG: the strong character development and story, the solid battle system, the slew of extra bosses and sidequests and locales… it just doesn’t quite measure up to the real thing in polish and emotional oomph. Well worth playing, to be sure, but it’s not going to blow your mind. Everything about it is good (except perhaps for a few obnoxious sidequests), but none of it is exceptional
One neat twist it makes on the usual RPG formula is a little over half of your characters are immortal. This has obvious benefits - when defeated they revive after a few turns with a third of their HP recovered - but it also takes the plot and characters in an interesting direction as it deals with the hardships of living for a thousand years. It also opens up a little extra character development in the form of dreams - certain events and conversations may cause you to stumble over a forgotten memory. These dreams are presented as short stories, but the words and backgrounds and such are animated as you read. It’s an interesting sort of visual poetry, so to speak, and makes these little glimpses into characters’ pasts all the more engaging.
The gameplay mechanics are quite good as well - its battle system consists of classic turn-based combat with a few little innovations that really liven things up. For example, instead of weapons with special properties (that poison the enemy, perhaps, or drain their health), each character can be equipped with special rings that add these properties to your attacks. You can assemble all sorts of different rings to suit whatever situation you might face. In battle, the better your timing is, the more effect these rings will have. Also, Lost Odyssey isn’t the first game that lets you protect your spellcasters by placing them on a row behind the rest of your party, but it’s the first I’ve seen to let enemies do the same. Both you and your enemies have a GC bar that indicates how well your back row is defended. When it’s full, characters in the back will take little damage from attacks. But the more damage done to your front row, the more exposed they’ll be. Similarly, you’ll need to take the enemy’s front line down a few notches before you can deal much damage to their back row. The last big twist on the usual formula is the skill system. In Lost Odyssey, your mortal characters will gain new abilities as they level up, but immortals have no such luck. Instead they’ll need to learn them from mortal allies and equipped items. Once you’ve learned a skill, you can assign it to a character’s skill slot whenever you like, so your immortal characters can pick up some awesome abilities and you can customize them depending upon the situation you’re facing. If the enemies in an area like to paralyze you but you only have one anti-paralysis item, learn the skill from it with all your immortals and they’ll have nothing to worry about even if you give the item to a different character.
All in all, Lost Odyssey is definitely a fun game. It’s no Final Fantasy, as I mentioned, but with enough extra polish it’d come pretty damn close. As it stands though, it’s a solid RPG with plenty to keep you busy for 50 hours or more. I think it took me around 65 to get through all the side quests I could find and rack up most of the achievements.
