Aziz Talks Games: Tomb Raider

                

                The new Tomb Raider is a complete reboot of the series taking us back to Lara Croft’s first adventure and is essentially an origin story. Recently the Tomb Raider games have been under par and disappointing. However, this game brings back the franchise back to its best.

The art style for the game is beautiful as are the characters, especially on the PC. On the PC they have a new system called “Tressfx” which makes her hair more realistic. It’s a small thing but it is definitely appreciated. Unfortunately I played it on the Xbox 360, the graphics were still amazing, and they show it off just the right amount for you to appreciate it but not so much you feel like it is shoved down your throat.

The whole game has a cinematic quality. At time this can be amazing, but it does result in slightly too many quick time events, which I’m not a huge fan off. If used in moderation they can definitely add to a game, like in Star Wars: Force Unleashed, where you use quick time events to finish off a boss. In Tomb Raider, there is a major boss (I’m not going to say who or when for spoiler reasons) which is an entire quick time event, which frustrated me as I felt it was too easy so late in the game. It did not ruin the game though I still really enjoyed playing it and found myself not able to put it down and playing it for 4 or 5 hours straight.

The character designs are amazing, and I really cared about the majority of them, especially Lara I really cared about her and wanted her to get out O.K. The voice acting, by Camilla Luddington, was brilliant and made me really feel for Lara. Although, some of them seemed to be created to be killed, and to be honest I can’t remember some of their names. Another negative is the villain amongst you. There is a good chance you’ll be able to point him out straight away.

The story is good and kept me interested and thinking “I’ll play a bit longer to see what happens next” which is the sign of a good story. Lara is on a ship called the “Endurance” searching for an island, however they crash land on the island due to a freak storm before being kidnapped by the residents, you then escape from them in the form of a tutorial where you learn the basic controls. After the tutorial you are introduced to a relatively open world that consists of side quests and secret tombs. You start empty handed and have to find weapons and attachments. The game has an RPG element, with you gathering salvage to upgrade weapons and experience points to learn new skills, although this does not really affect the way you go about the game but does add depth to the combat. One criticism I do have about the story is how quickly Lara turns from innocent young women to ruthless killer. She seems to turn in an instant from being scared to killing 8 or 9 guys at once.

 The puzzles in the secret of tombs aren't difficult but some of them will have you thinking for a few minutes before you get the “duh!” moment. I enjoyed the puzzles and I always looked for the tombs. I played the game on normal difficulty and did not find it too challenging, the AI was intelligent and took cover and adapted to the way I was fighting by destroying my cover with fire or charging me if I stay still for too long.

I’m only going to briefly mention the multiplayer because I haven’t had a chance to examine it closely. So far, it seems just O.K, you can choose your character, but I can’t really see a difference (I may be wrong with that) and you have to level up to gain better weapons. It seems to be a pretty deep multiplayer and not something just tacked on at the end. Even though it’s not as good as other multiplayers. Especially if it's compared to games like Halo and Team Fortress 2 (i'd definitely recommend Team Fortress 2 for a fun multiplayer game that's free).  It is worth a play, but the maps seem to be too big for the team modes and I found myself spending a lot of time looking for people rather than shooting.

I’d label Tomb Raider a must buy, if you’re a new comer or a veteran to the franchise, there is definitely something for everybody here. I was going considering giving the game a 4.5 or 5 out of 5 but the final boss left a bitter taste in my mouth (I won’t say anymore as I don’t want to ruin it) and ended the game on a sour note for me so my final verdict is a 4/5.

My First Blog Attempt: Batman Returns

This review/retrospective is going to be me talking about Batman Returns starring Michael Keaton as Batman, there will be spoilers but it’s a 21 year old film so if you haven’t already watched it you probably won’t, unless I interest you but I doubt it. I watched this when I was a kid and really liked it, probably my favourite Batman film; so when I was looking through the Blockbuster closing down sale for games I came across this and thought I’d see if it stood me to me watching it as an adult, because (god forgive me) I liked Batman and Robin when I was young, god I was wrong. But this was directed by Tim Burton and starred Michael Keaton who was amazing in the 1989 Batman. I was a bit disappointed afterwards though and I think a lot of that has to do with the ending. I enjoyed the main story even though I probably shouldn't  it’s cheesy and the penguin is disgusting but I’ll get to that in a minute.  The story was pretty much standard for a Batman film, you've got the main villain a secondary villain and a love interest that for some reason doesn't work out in the end, and somebody always ends up finding out that Batman is Bruce Wayne.

 In this case we have Catwoman, portrayed by Michelle Pfeiffer as the secondary villain and the love interest. The Catwoman/Batman is always awesome if done right and was one of the good things about the Dark Knight Rises in my opinion.  And this movie is no different, as in it is good the two could not be more different. Hathaway is a strong woman who steals as a way to get by but doesn't want to, more like Robin Hood. Pfeiffer, on the other hand, is rooted well and truly in the 1990s. She’s a vulnerable woman that is pushed too far by her male boss and transforms overnight into a gymnast, martial artist, whip expert, but in reality all she really needs is a man like Bruce Wayne to make her vulnerable again. This pseudo strong woman was stereotypical of the 90s so I won’t judge too harshly. The good aspect of this character is between Max Shreck, played by Christopher Walken, and Bruce Wayne she is strong and plays on the male expectations of her being weak and you do get the image of her being deranged and pushed too far. Maybe it’s just because I like the Catwoman character in general but she is one of my favourite characters in the movie.

Now we get to Penguin the main villain. Danny DeVito does a good job of playing the Penguin but the character is disgusting; eating raw fish, biting a man’s nose, being a pervert towards every woman he comes across and constantly has something drooling from his mouth. Penguin’s counterpart, Max Shreck delivers a boring performance and I found myself not listening to his monotone dialogue. He’s more of a side character and barely warrants a mention apart from he pushes Catwoman over the edge, literally and figuratively, and he attempts to use Penguin as his pawn and is too stupid to realize that Penguin really is in control. 

Michael Keaton delivers a good performance as Batman as well as a solid performance as Bruce Wayne, although Bruce Wayne barely gets any screen time and hardly and dialogue, in fact most of the dialogue is from Max’s monotone. However, this plays to the movies credit as it shrouds Batman in more mystery. One of the only negatives of the Dark Knight Series is we seem to know everything about Batman and everything is discussed so Batman becomes less powerful.

Apart from the main characters none are really of mention, Michael Gough as Alfred is good but the mayor remains unnamed and has about 2 minutes of screen time, Commissioner Gordon gets the same treatment, we barely see him. The “Ice Princess” is your typical damsel in distress and Chip Shreck gets 1 or 2 lines.

My main gripe with this movie is the story. For the most part it is okay, it is typical of the Batman series so it is relatively predictable but still enjoyable. The main problems I have is with the ending. One of the most important aspects of Batman is his refusal to kill, however in this movie he blows up Penguins “home” with him inside, and then moments later lectures Catwoman for wanting to kill Max. The biggest “jumping the shark” moment is after this where Catwoman attempts to commit suicide and kill Max by electrocuting them both. We see Max’s charred remains (boring character with no redeeming qualities so no loss really) but the twist is that Catwoman survives. Somehow. If anybody has an explanation please tweet me (@AzizTalks). And that’s not mentioning Max shooting Catwoman 4 times, and not once aiming for the head or chest, it was like he was temporarily possessed by a stormtrooper.

That’s my say on the film. I’d give it 3/5, it’s not technically a good movie and some of the humour is good and the development of Catwoman is good, but Batman gets barely any development from the first film. I still can’t say that I didn't enjoy it and now I have it on DVD I will definitely watch it again, maybe I just love Batman and I’m blind to it.  Let me know what you thought of the film and my opinions on it via twitter (again its @AzizTalks) or comments.