Mr. Nolan,

From the bottom of my heart, thank you.

Thank you for Inception.

From this day forward, I will be there opening weekend, to support your work.

Much Love,
TeamCTF.com

After a crushing 4-1 defeat once more at the hands of Germany in the world cup, you’d think that football (soccer) was the last thing on my mind. However, I simply couldn’t ignore the release of the second high profile rendition of the beautiful game to hit the AppStore.

EA have released two games based on their hit FIFA license. Gameloft have done admirably too, but it’s been the two releases from X2 that have stolen the show thus far. So how will Konami fair with Pro Evolution Soccer 2010 for iPhone and ipod Touch?

There are a ton a play options and a bevy of cups to play for, 19 in all, including the European cup, Italian cup, Spanish Cup, UEFA champions league cup and Europa league cup. Konami have added their custom ‘Konami’ Cup, which lets you mix and match any of the cup teams into a dream cup. The Europa cup is the biggest league to play, with 48 teams to play through before cup glory. As well as cups and leagues you can play quick matches which randomly pics two teams to battle it out, or you can choose an exhibition match and choose any two teams from the full roster available. This includes club teams and international teams. So, for example, you could play Liverpool against Spain, creating an interesting doppleganger of Fernando Torres as a striker for both teams!

While the full roster of international teams are available, the same cannot be said for the cup teams. Only Liverpool FC and Wolves are available from the UK, due to licensing, with other teams and the Premier League given fake names instead. I assume EA got the license to use those teams officially on the platform.

If there is one thing that Konami’s offering brings to the table well, it’s great controls. There are three options in all. One is true flow, which uses accelerometer and one touch passing and shooting. The other two options use a virtual analogue stick as usual, with either one touch, or A and B buttons for ball control. To be honest, the accelerometer doesn’t really work well… however, the one touch ball control works great, especially for beginners. Instead of worrying about complex button taps, the game intelligently works out what shot you are trying to do, and for the most part it gets it right. Used as a training aid you can get good at the basics before moving onto the the standard A and B setup. I’m not sure why, but I found PES’s v-stick and buttons to be easier to use than the other games, and found my goal tally to be far higher, even on harder difficulties. Does this make PES easier than the others? Possibly, but it’s certainly more fun!

The graphics are another standout for PES. For me it looks the best out there. It might not have the effects as the others, but it looks the most realistic and authentic. The colour palette across any four of the weather effects all look natural, and the player animations are some of the best i’ve seen so far, perfectly blending from one sequence to the other. Up close the character models aren’t the highest in polygon count, nor bear any likeness to their player names, but from a distance you can almost be fooled into thinking you are watching a real game on the TV.

Unfortunately, while PES 2010 has great graphics, some of the best controls and the basic gameplay is great, it cant keep up with the competition on options. Both EA’s, Gameloft’s and X2’s offerings give you multiplayer, with the last two offering full online. Multiplayer is probably one of the main reasons for playing in the first place, and it’s an odd omission from Konami. Small details such as recording replays, and Gameloft’s Youtube uploads is also amiss. And finally sound. While the game does sound good with a mix of rock and classical in the menus, the on-pitch sound effects fall short. The Crowd sound good for the most part, but it’s the lack off commentary that is most apparent. You could argue that some of the other football offerings don’t do that great a job of the commentary, however, it is a traditional part of football, and to leave it out is, well… like removing one of Pele’s legs!

Overall then and it’s another great football game for iPhone and iPod Touch. If, like me, you prefer the simpler controls, then PES 2010 might be for you, but you may want to weigh up the pros and cons of the other offerings out there…. Especially the current champion, X2 Football (Soccer) 2010.

Pro Evolution Soccer (P.E.S. 2010) is out now for £5.99 (.99), get it on

Pro Evolution Soccer 2010 (PES 2010) – review is a post from: TouchGen

TouchGen

I just got back from taking my 2 kids to see the A-Team movie. My 11 year old son was the main reason for our movie outing as he was “dying” to see the A-Team. I thought it was quite odd, since he refuses to sit down and watch any of the old episodes with me.

At the theater, situated between my son and 13 year old daughter, I was preparing myself for another long and boring movie – kinda like the remake of Clash of the Titans (yeah, that movie sucked all around). Little did I know that aside from me waxing nostalgia for a TV show that I really didn’t care too much about but still found myself watching back in the 80′s, is that my biggest surprise was this action movie totally harkens back to the days of Die Hard.

I know it’s still early in the summer movie marathon and Inception is about 4 weeks aways but I will go out on a limb here and proclaim that the A-Team movie will be one of the action movie gems of this summer and probably for years to come.

I won’t go on and on about how over exaggerated the whole concept was, what I will share with you is that you have probably (or definitely) seen this movie before a couple of dozen times. The biggest difference with the A-Team (aside from the great casting) is that it goes where most other films have frequently tread and, lucky for us, it doesn’t stop there because it keeps pushing on and goes so much further. It’s violent without the blood. There’s lots of explosions (a very high BSU quotient!) and know one really dies, at least you don’t see a lot of dead bodies. This movie even goes “3D” with tongue firmly planted in cheek.

Will this movie change your life? No, probably not but it will allow you to forget about it for about 2 hours and change. So far, it’s the best popcorn movie of the 2010 Summer season. I hope it does well enough to warrant a sequel or two because I really enjoyed the characters and their crazy plans. Actually, I love it MORE when a good movie comes together and goes beyond your expectations and that’s what the A-Team does very well.

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So, what did you think?

I was prepared to pass on Red Faction Guerrilla, but then I saw some of the trailers. This looked just like something I’d like to play. So I picked it up, and sure enough, it’s a really fun ride. This video game sets the bar for destruction.

First of all, RFG has a story, but you probably won’t care much about it. There are supporting characters, and you won’t care about them much either. The story and supporting characters are not really well fleshed out, but you won’t care.

RFG is set in an open world version of a future Mars that has been made hospitable through terraforming. Soon after you arrive, you find that all is not well on the red planet, and before long, you find that you’re the one to help set things right. To do that, you have to blow stuff up.

Lots of stuff.

RFG is really all about destroying as much as you can – and I’m pretty sure that everything in the game is destructible, so you’ll have plenty of opportunity to create mayhem. In fact, Red Faction Guerrila shines in the destruction department. You can hack away at structures with your hammer, or blast anything you like with a cornucopia of damage dealing weapons and vehicles. While the environment is fairly stark (it is Mars, after all) – I really enjoyed the many hulk-smash moments in this game.

The multiplayer modes are all combat related, and are all pretty straight forward, and there’s enough depth and options to give RFG some re-playability legs. As in the single player, the multiplayer environments are also fully destructible, which opens up some interesting possibilities for new tactics and gameplay.

RFG is available on XBOX 360.

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If you’re not living under a rock or in a cave in the wilds of Pakistan, then you’ve heard that Watchmen opened on Friday. Find out why only idiots would miss it.

Watchmen opens with a brilliant visual montage set to Bob Dylan’s Times They Are A Changing that sets the stage in an alternate 1985 in which the superheroes who walk among us have been outlawed, and tricky Dick Nixon is elected to a 4th term after America wins the Vietnam war. Now – if you think that one sentence was too complex for your simpleton’s brain to grasp, you’re going to want to skip the Watchmen. This isn’t a film that you should sit through and half-pay attention to while you’re texting. Unlike just about every other movie based on a “comic” (and we’ll use the term loosely here), the Watchmen demands your full attention. It’s not just a visual feast – it’s also the most darkly intense film I’ve seen in a very long time, and it’s not for the kiddies.

The mood of the film is dark as we follow Rorschach, the only active costumed hero, as he tries to solve the murder of another masked hero – the Comedian – who is tossed through the window of his high-rise apartment after a brutal fight with an unknown assailant. As the story unfolds, you meet other former masks – now retired from crime fighting – many of whom are living lives both anonymous and bland. The characters are complex, and appear completely realized. Rather than flat, comic book heroes, we find Watchmen populated with exceptional people that have histories, who have made mistakes, and who have regrets and their own self-interests in mind.

Visually, Watchmen is a stunning piece of filmmaking. There is beauty – a rough, gritty, broken-tooth sort of beauty in nearly every frame set in New York. The digital effects aren’t overpowering and add a layer of otherworldliness to the character of Dr. Manhattan (Billy Crudup) – who is something that is no longer human and someone whose is losing touch with ties to the rest of us and our mundane existence

One of the things that separates Watchmen from other films based on graphic novels, is this one is based on what is arguably the best of the best in the genre. Fans of the novel will be satisfied – although die-hard fanboys will spot the places where the film veers off the course set by the original novel. As a film, Watchmen stands far and away above nearly every other “comic book” adaptation. Even so – you can’t really compare Watchmen to most other films, other than to say that it deals with some of the same themes that other films touch on: life vs. death, good vs. evil, etc., but Watchmen does this in a way that would never work in another “comic” film. Here, there are no solid lines between heros and villains, because the heros don’t just have a requisite “fatal flaw” – they have very real flaws that everyone has.

Of course, not everyone likes complexity. Idiots, for example, tend to like their fiction in a nice, neat package where you can spot the good guys and the bad guys using the color of their hats. If you fit in that category, go re-rent a copy of Electra or Daredevil. If you’re smart, please do yourself a favor and go see the Watchmen on the biggest screen you can. You’ll thank me later.

MPAA RATING: R for strong graphic violence, sexuality, nudity and language

Starring Jackie Earle Haley, Patrick Wilson, Matthew Goode, Billy Crudup, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Malin Akerman, Carla Gugino, Stephen McHattie, and Matt Frewer

WRITTEN BY: Alan Moore (graphic novel)
Dave Gibbons (graphic novel illustrator)
Alex Tse
David Hayter
DIRECTED BY: Zack Snyder
RELEASE DATE: Theatrical: March 6, 2009
RUNNING TIME: 163 minutes, Color
ORIGIN: UK | USA
- Warner Brothers

Max Payne was really cool, if you’re into hot babes, tattoos, and you like your shoot-em-ups on the tepid side. I watched the unrated version, and I wonder what all the fuss was about.This was not a particularly well liked film by many reviewers. It got only 18% on RottenTomatoes.com, and comments like this were common:

No high-octane, fast-paced shoot ’em up this, Max Payne may well be the most tedious trip to a cinema you make all year. Truly, the minutes pass like hours. It’s akin to one of those straight-to-DVD titles you only ever find in petrol stations. (RottenTomatoes.com)

My take on this was that, since I enjoyed the Max Payne game series, I would give it the benefit of the doubt. Even so, I found this film adaptation to be slow moving, and I’m not sure that Wahlberg injected enough grit into the title role. The film ended up being a pretty standard man on a mission flick – and a predictable one at that. Without giving away too much, I can say that as soon as the mystery antagonist appeared on screen, we knew where the film was heading.

On the plus side, there are some hot babes and neat tattoos, and some of the gunfight scenes were pretty good. But there was too little of all of these to overcome the general sense of malaise that I found myself in by 1 hour mark.

It’s a new season is on for Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, and I have to confess that this is one of my favorite sci-fi series. The writing is way better than you’d expect for a series about assassination cyborgs from the future.

In the latest episode, Sara Connor is suffering from a gubshot wound, and she needs to enlist the help of a doctor to save her life. Sarah floats in and out of pain-induced delirium, and she is “assisted” by a long-dead Kyle Reese – John Connor’s father. One thing I didn’t care for is casting Jonathan Jackson as Kyle. This was the role that Michael Biehn played in the original Terminator – and Kyle was a gritty, war-weary soldier from the future. In this episode, Kyle looks like he might have stepped off the set of the OC, what with his boyish looks and immature partial beard.

Still the episode, much like the series, works – as improbable as that may seem. Summer Glau is surprisingly convincing as the futuristic, emotionless cyborg protector for John Connor. Thomas Dekker plays John Connor with just enough teen angst and a palpable sense of apprehension about the approaching rise of the machines. And I doubt that the show’s producers could have found someone better than Lena Headey to play Sarah Connor. She’s all business – just like we expect given the way Linda Hamilton played the role in Terminator 2.

Halo Wars is the next big real-time strategy game from Ensemble Studios, creators of “Age of Empires.” Designed exclusively for the Xbox 360, Halo Wars allows you to take charge of the human UNSC armies and see the Halo universe from a totally new perspective. Halo Wars takes place before Halo 1 during the UNSC’s first deadly encounters with the Covenant.
Players lead the crew of the UNSC’s “Spirit of Fire” from initial skirmishes to an all out war against the evil Covenant. [Ensemble Studios]

PUBLISHER: Microsoft
DEVELOPER: Ensemble Studios
GENRE(S): Real-Time Strategy
PLAYERS: 6
ESRB RATING: T (Teen)
RELEASE DATE: March 3, 2009

Our Review

The tutorial was informative and quickly introduces the simple control scheme, and much like my first Halo experience, I found the button layout intuitive and very approachable.

The first demo mission had a simple objective – collect some marines and retake your base. You spend some time guiding a warthog through a series of waypioints, picking up additional marines and fighting some isolated covenant along the way. Eventually you arrive at the base, and you throw all the marines you’ve gathered into the assualt. Needless to say, the Covenant don’t really stand a chance.

The second mission starts with you rebuilding the base you just took, and you get a look at the supply and provision aspect of the game. Assembling new structures like barracks and generators is very straightforward, and before too long, I found myself with a sizable force of UNSC Marines, warthogs, and a few scorpions. While training up, my base was attacked by a couple lone Covenant drop ships, so I installed and upgraded some turrets. After I was certain my base was reasonably well defended, I took my force out into the field.

Soon, I encountered a Covenant base, and launched an attack. Combat was smooth, and it was very easy to control the entire UNSC force. After a short battle, the covenant forces were defeated, and the enemy base was laid waste.

There also extensive cut scenes that gave some back story, and it’s clear that Halo Wars is doing all it can to fill some very big shoes. Even so, I think this is going to be a pretty popular RTS – especially with Halo fans – who may not even notice this isn’t a Bungie game.

The biohazard threat has not ended: Just when it seemed that the menace of Resident Evil had been destroyed, along comes a new terror to send shivers down players’ spines. Chris Redfield, returning Resident Evil hero, has followed the path of the evil literally around the globe.

After joining a new organization, Chris heads to Africa where the latest bioterrorism threat is literally transforming the people and animals of the city into mindless, maddened creatures. He is joined by a new partner, Sheva Alomar, who lends her strength, intelligence and sharp-shooting skills to the mission. In order to survive, Chris and Sheva must work together to take on the challenges of discovering the truth behind this evil plot. Utilizing a revolutionary new 2-player co-op mode of gameplay, players assume control of either Chris or Sheva and experience Resident Evil in new ways. In Resident Evil 5, Capcom has players fearing the daylight as much as they have feared shadow in previous games. [Capcom]

PUBLISHER: Capcom
DEVELOPER: Capcom
GENRE(S): Third-Person Action, Adventure, Survival Horror
PLAYERS: 2
ESRB RATING: M (Mature)
RELEASE DATE: March 13, 2009 (Capcom)

Our Preview

I tore into the Resident Evil 5 demo for XBox 360 like a rabid grizzly bear into a fat weekend hunter. Unfortunately, there were enough flaws in the demo to make me hope for better things come release day. First off, let’s set aside the things Capcom has done right.

Look and Feel

RE5 looks amazing. There’s no other way to say it. The environment detail, characters, lighting, effects, almost everything about the graphic quality of this game will NOT disappoint you. For me, one of the minor nits was the cheesy feel to enemy body disposal. Rather than simply fading away, Capcom has chosen to make your fallen foes melt in away in a bizarre bubbly mess that is completely at odds with the artistic direction of the rest of the game.

Another thing I loved about the demo was sense of immersion. I’m not usually a cut scene fan, but in this case, the cut scenes really added to the story because the quality of the in-game play was so close to the rendered cut scenes. You see this a lot these days, but Capcom has done a good job blending the missions and story-driven cut scenes so that the distinction between them is fairly seamless.

Gameplay

The control scheme is pretty intuitive and easy to grasp, but the one major flaw that I’ve found in the demo was the wonky camera and slow aiming system. Aiming is essential to a shooter, and I can forgive slow aiming in most cases. Here, however, the camera gets in the way. Since you’re playing over the shoulder, the camera can get hung up in a wall or whatever is behind your character during a fight. I found this to be annoying, and the one thing you DON’T want to do in a game demo is annoy your potential customers.

Have you played Resident Evil 5 yet? What did you think?