Recently we rented two of the new releases, one we loved, the other I rented for myself and was really disappointed in.
First up we have "Righteous Kill" with DeNiro and Pacino. Okay, right there makes it worth watching as far as I'm concerned. It was a great movie, and just when you thought you had it figured out, you didn't. Loved it.
Next was "Wanted". I wanted to like this movie about a secret order of assasins who can curve bullets by flick their wrists at the right time as they are shooting a gun.....okay that last bit always made me scream "I DON'T THINK SO!!!!". The actor that played the Faun in Narnia plays a kid who's Father is a member of this order and he's got all the right stuff to become one of them. Okay, that's great, but apparently part of the training is getting tied to a chair and having the shit beat out of you. Not sure exactly what that does to train you to be an elite assassin, but whatever. The "twist" was lame, and the motivation for the "ex assassin taking out his former mates" was really dumb too. The action was okay and yes the curving bullet trick was kind of cool. This film could have been better, but it wasn't.
Now for games. As you know we have a Wii. After getting burned by Activision (of all companies....but I digress) we have taken to renting games before we buy them. Thank God too. Store policy at a lot of retail stores when it comes to media (and they tell me it's not their policy it's the manufacturer) is if you open it, it can't be exchanged for your money back, only for the same product (in the case of it not working). Even if the game sucks and infuriates you, you can't get your money back. I understand why; too many people buying a game/CD/DVD, taking it home and making a copy, then taking it back and getting their money back essentially getting the item for free. Thanks you cheap, thieving bastards!!!! We bought a game called "Block Party" by Activision. On the cover of the box are examples of all kinds of sports; badmitton, frisbee, bocce, etc all the kinds of games you'd play in your neighborhood as a kid. Not a single one of the games on the front cover is in the game. NOT A SINGLE ONE!! I had to check the disc to make sure there wasn't a mistake. Nope, what you got was some bizarre game of kids playing games like "garbage bag hammer toss" or "wheel the Unicycle across the clothesline, or shoot the flies that are eating your cake!?!?!?!?!? No music, and the characters you use look like toddlers and sound like them too. Activision totally misrepresented the game. Could I get my money back? Nope. So after learning that lesson, we have opted to renting them at Hollywood before buying them. Here's a list of the ones we've rented and recommendations on them.
Deadly Creatures: Great graphics and gameplay. You switch between playing a Tarantula and a Scorpion making your way through the Sonoran Desert. The movements of the animals were recorded from motion capture sensors placed on an actual Scorpion and an actual Tarantula. Great game, but I beat it in 3 days. Unlike other games of this type, there's no replay value whatsoever. The collectibles that you find just open up more concept art....ooooooooo.... what would be cool is if they had a deathmatch mode or a battle mode where each player/player vs CPU picks either one of the main critters or one of the countless others that you run into during the game to fighi it out. Rating: Fun but no replay value. Not worth 40-50 bucks, more like 20.....you're better off renting it and playing it for 3 days. It will be worth your 8 bucks.
Sims 2 Castaways: Fun game, but it only lets you save one game at a time, so if multiple people in the household want to play, all their hard work is overwritten by the next person playing it. What possessed EA to not let you have multiple save slots is beyond me.
Rating: Fun if you're the only person playing it. Not worth it if there are multiple people in your household sharing your Wii.
Animal Crossing: City Folks: What a great game. We've actually not deleted our saved info for this game and plan to purchase it. This is one of those, slow paced, walk around talk to your neighbors/interact/fetch/collect type of games. You start by naming your City, then up to 4 members of your household can live in it (each with it's own save slot). The great part of it is if you have a friend that has the same game, you register each other's machine's "friend code" and via Wii Connect, you can "travel" between Cities and visit your friends City that he has created. It also uses the Wii speak module so you can chat with that friend as well.
Harvest Moon: Tree of Tranquility: One of those strange Japanese Final Fantasy looking type games, but plays like Animal Crossings or a Sims game. You farm/fetch, etc and make friends on this land you live in. The problem with it is it seems to have a function in it that keeps kids from playing on the Wii all day that you cannot disconnect. Your character loses energy so quickly that you tire easily and are only limited in the time you can actually get on and play the game. Stupid concept, and it's what's keeping us from buying it. Hell if I pay 40-50 bucks for a game I want to play it as long as humanly possible if I want to. You want to limit my playing time, then charge 20 for your game.
Rating: Fun game, but it has a built in limiter that is frustrating as all Hell so this is a no buy for us.
Carnival Mini-Golf: Lots of fun, but once you've unlocked everything it's pretty much done. Sure you can replay the courses, but they are the same three holes every time.
Rating: Fun, but no replay value after you've unlocked every thing. Not worth the high price.
Monster Truck 4x4 World Circuit: For 20 bucks you get a racing game that comes with a plastic steering wheel that you put your Wii Remote in. Even after unlocking all the vehicles, etc it's still one I play alot. My 5 year old Grandson loves it too. Great for kids.
Rating: Fun game, and worth the 20 bucks. You get a great game with a controller accessory for 20 dollars....very rare for the Wii
We Love Golf: What a great golf game this is. Regular Golf with several levels to unlock and several mini-games/tournaments as well. It also works via Wii WiFi so you can play against a friend via Wii Connect.
Rating: Great game, lots of fun. It has this great taunt feature that you can use to make a snide comment (pre-programmed based on the character you are playing) on your opponents Wii Remote (each one has their own speaker).
Rockstar Games Pro Table Tennis: This is a fun one, and it wears you out playing it.
Rating: Real fun, and worth buying if there were others willing to play against you. Playing the computer is fun, but against a friend is even better.
Star Wars Clone Wars Lightsaber Duels: This game is okay. It's basically a fighting game with characters from Lucas' latest Star Wars crap item he's packaging. The artwork is even the same as those used on the CG cartoon. Battling the other characters is pretty cool (you can even buy Wii remote light saber holders....) but in the single player mode it's repetitive and gets old quick.
Ratings: It's okay, but then again I tend to look down on all things Lucas since those pieces of crap he called "Prequels" came out..(yes I'm still bitter). If you have other humans to play against it's great fun.....
Nascar Kart: It's Mario Kart with Nascar Drivers. It's fun, but it's not Mario Kart.
Rating: Buy Mario Kart which is one of the best racing and battling games ever. This one is okay.
My Sims: We just bought this one and it's fun. Like Animal Crossing, but unlike the other sims games. The characters are a bit cartoony, but thats okay. The essence of this game is building stuff. You build houses for characters and move them into your town. This is an EA game like Sims Castaways, but it has 3 save slots so 3 people can actually play the same game.
Rating: fun and addicting. Nice casual game.
That's it for now. More to come later.
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