Smashbomb

Search

Search results

All (2536)

Content

Goddess in the Stacks (553 KP) rated Alanna: The First Adventure in Books

Apr 16, 2018

Alanna: The First Adventure

Tamora Pierce | 1983 | Science Fiction/Fantasy

8.8

(9 Ratings)

Book Rating

The beginning of an epic world (0 more)

Writing style (it gets better!) (0 more)

The Song of the Lioness quartet is Tamora Pierce's first set of books. I read her latest trilogy (the Beka Cooper trilogy) first, which didn't exactly prepare me for The Song of the Lioness. It's obvious, going from the latest trilogy to her first writing, how much her writing has matured since the 80s. My first thought upon completing Alanna: the First Adventure was "I'm very glad she's gotten better at writing!" The story itself is still interesting and worth reading, but the style is a little difficult to read when I KNOW how well she writes now. The characters are mostly one-dimensional; few of the side characters seem to have plots going or events happening to them when they're not with Alanna. Characters pop up, have a significant interaction with Alanna, and are gone again, with no indication they exist outside of their usefulness to the main character. This is in stark contrast to her latest work, where every character that has a significant role to play has a history of their own, and thoughts and feelings of their own. They're much more fleshed out in her recent books.

That complaint aside, the Alanna books are really the foundation that the rest of Tortall was built upon. It's interesting to see how Pierce has fleshed out some of the concepts she touched on in the Alanna saga, and it's fun to see where some of the things from the Beka Cooper trilogy originated. It also pays to keep in mind that though the Alanna books were written first, the Beka Cooper trilogy is based two hundred years earlier. We learn a lot more about the office of The Rogue in the Beka Cooper trilogy, something that isn't explained very well in the Alanna quartet, even though one of Alanna's main romantic interests is George Cooper (yes, a descendant of Beka!), the Rogue. Pierce also never explains the origins of Alanna's cat, Faithful, in the actual Alanna books. That explanation lies in the Beka Cooper books as well.

The Song of the Lioness quartet is the story of a girl who decides to rebel against tradition and follow her heart to become a knight. In her time, ladies simply do NOT become knights. They learn to organize households and marry well. Alanna, however, is lucky enough to have a twin brother who does not want to become a knight; instead Thom wants to be a mage. So when they're sent off to face their futures, they switch places, with Alanna becoming "Alan", the younger twin. (Thom stays Thom; the school that ladies are sent to is the same school mages start at.)

Alan/Alanna begins as a page, then moves to squire, and eventually a knight. Her secret is discovered, but due to her influential friends, most of whom knew she was a girl by then, she is able to keep her status. Her adventures take her from uncovering a plot against the royal family, to being adopted by a desert tribe, to recovering a magic jewel of prosperity, with many small adventures in between.

I love reading Pierce's heroines; both Alanna and Beka have problems reconciling their feminine natures with the work they've chosen. The scenes where Alanna's love interests see her in a dress for the first time, instead of her normal boy-garb and armor, is heart-warming in one case, and sad in another. In both womens' lives it's the man who can accept all of their aspects who ultimately wins their heart, which is a wonderful message.

Ultimately, the technical flaws in the writing of the Alanna saga faded as I became absorbed in the story. I'll be requesting more Tortall books from the library in the near future!

You can find all my reviews at http://goddessinthestacks.wordpress.com

Kudos

Mothergamer (1546 KP) rated the PC version of Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning in Video Games

Apr 3, 2019

Say Fable, Skyrim, and Dragon Age have a baby and Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning is the result and what a brilliant result it is. Not only is there a fantastic in depth story created by R.A. Salvatore, there is amazing art work done by Todd McFarlane and an incredible musical score by Grant Kirkhope. Last but not least, there is of course the game's executive designer, Ken Rolston. Together, these individuals made one hell of a RPG video game, that was not only fun to play, it's worth playing through again and again.

The story begins with your character finding himself or herself revived from death by a creation known as the Well Of Souls. This event has disrupted the threads of fate that affect the people and events of Amalur leaving you with no determined fate. This opens you up to many possibilities and of course there are those who would exploit it for their own personal gain.
With an opening like this, Kingdoms Of Amalur's story has a lot of depth and there are many possibilities that one can take as it progresses. There is so much to explore on the map and there is a freedom to it as you can explore as much as you like. The story line itself leads to you exploring the kingdom of Amalur even further opening up new areas and you are not isolated to just one location.
All the areas are beautifully done and are different from each other. No similarities or one map used repeatedly here. There is even a dangerous beauty and creativity to all the fantasy monsters that are a threat to you such as mountain trolls. Although you will see some of the same monsters in different areas as well as types of NPCs and other characters, it mixes together so well it doesn't hinder the game play or the story. The dialogue with characters is well written and even more refreshing, well acted. It's never boring and in some dialogues it even adds more to the tale.

One flaw Kingdoms Of Amalur has is a couple of the quests had a few bugs, such as the Shine And Shadow quest. The quest couldn't be finished because of the quest items not being in the inventory or the Boss for this particular quest just didn't show up. It wasn't a terribly trying ordeal, but it was something that was noticed and something that could and should be fixed. Other than that, there was no other technical issues with the game for me. The game didn't freeze once during all the hours of game play and the frame rate didn't drop, and because of how much fun I had with the game, a couple of quest bugs didn't bother me at all. But, let's move on to the rest of the good.

The core of Kingdoms Of Amalur is the combat throughout the game along with the ability to fully customize your character and play to your character's strengths due to your fate or lack of one. The possibilities are endless and you can even open up new job classes as your character levels up as the game progresses. Award points earned after leveling up can be put into three categories: Might, Finesse, and Sorcery giving you added abilities and status boosts associated with whichever job class you have chosen. Combine this with all the questing and yes, that includes all the side quests, five guild story arcs, and the downloadable content of The Legend Of Dead Kel, that could easily give you 100 hours or more of game time. To sum up, Kingdoms Of Amalur isn't just a run of the mill RPG. It's something more. It has a great mix of excellent story telling, amazing game play, and an exciting world to explore that promises tons of great adventure. Overall, it is a game worth having in a gamer's collection.

Kudos

Ryan Hill (152 KP) rated The Incredible Hulk (2008) in Movies

May 9, 2019

The Incredible Hulk (2008)

2008 | Action, Sci-Fi

6.9

(50 Ratings)

Movie Rating Watch

Ed Norton as Bruce Banner Bruce and Betty's romance The Action sequences An epic Third act The story The heart and emotion William Hurt as General Ross Abomination (0 more)

Taxi scene Just the fact that most people consider it the worst MCU Movies (0 more)

"As far as I'm concerned, that man's whole body is property of the U.S. army."

I will defend this gem until the day I die.

The Incredible Hulk is without a doubt one of the most underrated, underappreciated film's that I have ever seen. There it is. I'm just putting it out there. Don't worry, I have my reasons that I'll get into but if you don't like this film, if you hate this film even, I encourage you to read this review. I encourage this because I hope to open your eyes to how beautiful and tragic The Incredible Hulk is.

For one, let's take it back to May 1962 when Stan Lee and Jack Kirby introduced to us, in his very own debut issue, the Hulk himself. According to interviews, Lee spoke of how this film truly captured the essence of the character and the comics. In those comics, General Thunderbolt Ross, along with the military, was always chasing Dr. Banner ever since the accident. This is portrayed brilliantly here by Louis Leterrier. I'm not a huge fan of his work but I got to give credit where credit's due.

I don't even know where to start for positives because there's so many. For one, Edward Norton is brilliant (yes brilliant) as Bruce Banner. His performance is so emotionally subdued, filled with great sadness and longing. They even show him suffering from PTSD, which has never been touched on with this character on film. Really great stuff on Norton's part. We also get to finally see Bruce Banner be a scientist. We've seen it in the future films sure, but not to this extent. Bruce is working with scraps, using solely his wits, in a third world country . . . just like in the comics.

The story of Hulk is really a tragic love story. I got serious King Kong vibes from the similar dynamic here and it's beautiful. The chemistry between Banner and Elizabeth Ross is great. It's so believable; two people put in an impossible situation and making it work. That's love.

Hulk's character is so well realized here. He suffers from PTSD like I said, but the actual monster himself is perfect. They even throw in a bit of a horror vibe for the first Hulk-out scene. Oh yeah, there's numerous Hulk-out scenes!!! There's so many great omages to the comics as well and I loved every bit of it.

Lastly, looking at it from a technical side it's great. The cinematography is extremely well done and a total feast for the eyes. The pacing is great and goes by like the snap of Thanos himself. The editing is top-notch. The soundtrack by Craig Armstrong is one of my favorites of all time and is so iconic and beautiful. Finally, there's a serious tone. FINALLY. There are some well incorporated jokes but unlike some other Marvel films, it's not overbearing.

As for negatives, they are almost none to nonexistent. Really just nitpicks. The taxi scene is a bit unrealistic and silly. It's the only scene of humor that felt a bit forced and silly, yet I can easily ignore it. But since this is an analysis, I had to mention it. Also, unlike Ruffalo's Hulk, Norton's Hulk doesn't look very similar to Norton himself. Again, purely a nitpick.

Overall, I absolutely love The Incredible Hulk

Kudos

Matthew Krueger (10051 KP) rated Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem in Video Games

Oct 28, 2019 (Updated Oct 28, 2019)

Psychological Warfare

Contains spoilers, click to show

Eternal Darkness- why does no one talk about this game. It is amazing, its horrorfying, terroryfying, spooky, creepy, thrilling, chilling and so much more. Plus it came out only for the gamecube, which is huge because nintendo doesnt put out or release alot of horror games. This, luigi's mansion and Resident Evil 4 were the big horror games for the gamecube. Maybe more came out, but those 3 were the big ones. Lets talk about this game, shall we....

The narrative of the game's story switches between two phases. The main phase focuses on a series of chapters in which players take control of a new character each time. The other phase acts as an intermission. The game boasts twelve playable characters, split between four distinct locations, and from different periods of time.

The story features multiple paths that can be taken. This choice not only determines which of the game's three other antagonists are aligned to the plot, but it also has subtle effects on the gameplay in chapters and intermission periods. Some changes include slight differences in puzzles and items, but most changes revolve around enemy placement, which will determine how the player engages them. This can even have an effect on the relative difficulty of the game in certain situations. Red tinted enemies, for example, are tougher than their counterparts.

The other distinctive gameplay aspect comes from "Sanity Effects", the game's standout concept that Nintendo patented. Upon beginning the game's second chapter, players must keep watch on a Sanity meter – a green bar which decreases when the player is spotted by an enemy. As the bar becomes low, subtle changes to the environment and random unusual events begin to occur, which reflect the character's slackening grip on reality.

While minor effects include a skewed camera angle, heads of statues following the character, and unsettling noises, stronger effects include bleeding on walls and ceilings, entering a room that is unrealistic before finding that the character never left the previous room, the character suddenly dying, and fourth wall breaking effect such as "To Be Continued" promotions for a "sequel", and simulated errors and anomalies of the TV or GameCube. While the latter does not affect gameplay, they can be misconstrued by the player as being actual technical malfunctions.

Lets talk about the plot/story....

The story of Eternal Darkness takes place over four principal locations which the game skips back and forth between. They include an underground temple complex called the Forbidden City, in Persia; a Khmer temple in Angkor Thom, Cambodia; Oublié Cathedral in Amiens, France (not to be confused with Amiens Cathedral); and the Roivas Family Estate in Rhode Island, which also leads to an ancient underground city named Ehn'gha beneath the mansion. Each time a location is visited, it is done so in a different time period. Spanning from 26 BC to 2000 AD. Almost half of which take place in the 20th century. Each different era and character offers a different periodic and personal perspective on the location.

The chapters found in the game are not discovered in chronological order. Instead, to make the narrative more dramatic, each chapter jumps around the timeline of the plot. However, despite the overall story skipping back and forth through time, the chapters do follow chronological order within their respective locations. This is because each setting also has its own contained story.

This game is so good, its epic, im surprised that not of people know about this game and heard about this game.

I highly reccordmend playing this game.

Lastly shout out to @LeftSideCut for getting the hints/clues for this review.