News from Great Castle Wilson

Deb and I went to see Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time on Sunday. I wouldn’t go as far as to say it was great art, but it was everything it needed to be in a summer blockbuster: action, sexual tension, comedic relief, and a happy-but-not-trite ending.

The two main thoughts I had about this flick were:

1. This was the best live action fantasy movie I’ve seen in quite a while. The lines were delivered with a seriousness that overcame their silliness, even if the lead couple did struggle with some of them. The special effects generally worked, and did homage to the game. Speaking of which…
2. They really did an excellent job of capturing the gameplay. The Prince of Persia games are action platformers, with much climbing of walls, swinging from conveniently placed poles, and running along walls. This happened often enough in the movie to be strongly evocative, without getting tedious.

Capsule summary: Not a must see, but definitely fun.

Rating: 3.5/5

At CES, Microsoft announced “Game Room for XBOX 360″, which is purported to “recreate the old school arcade experience for you (and your avatar)”.

(Image courtesy Engadget)

For Pete’s sake people, can we please stop finding yet another way to re-deliver games that we got bored of twenty years ago. If we ever want the world at large to treat games like a valid art form, we’ve got to stop glorifying trivial gameplay and graphics so stupid-ugly that they can be implemented by emulating the whole bloody machine in JavaScript.

Uncharted 2: Among Thieves is the sequel to the 2007 game Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune. At it’s core, Uncharted 2 is an “action adventure” game — think Tomb Raider — with all the standard features: run and gun levels, platforming, environmental puzzles, etc., but what really sets this game apart is the cinematic quality of the ultimate experience.

To give you some idea of what I mean, I can tell you that I happened to be watching the latest Indiana Jones movie on the day after I finished Uncharted 2. Hands down, the game beat the movie at every level — action, story, characters, even emotional impact.

This is a good game. It’s definitely the best PS3 game I’ve played in 2009, and I’d put it up with the “greats” like System Shock and Mass Effect in terms of how much I enjoyed the experience. If I had to complain about anything, I’d say that the strength of the story ultimately limits the replayability, but even at that, I suspect that I will play it again at some point.

Click the picture above to get to the official game site. If it doesn’t start automatically, check out the “E3 Trailer” to see what you are getting yourself into.

Summary: Get it.
Rating: 9.5/10