Hitman (2007)

(Image from IMP Awards)


Hitman (2007)

I took away two things from 'Hitman'. One is that Timothy Olyphant is pretty cool even in relatively mediocre fare (though perhaps not so much in Die Hard 4.0). The other is that Olga Kurylenko is smokin hot and her gratuitous nudity in this will undoubtedly give Hitman's DVD sales / rentals a boost once people see the next Bond movie, in which she plays the Bond girl. Okay fine, there is a third thing. Video game adaptations seem forever destined to be relegated to 'crap to decent' in terms of quality. 'Hitman', based on the successful video game series of the same name, tells the story of Agent 47 (Olyphant), the best of the best in a secret 'Organization' of assassins. Hired to kill the Russian president, 47 seemingly succeeds, only to discover that he has become ensnared in a complex conspiracy and is now being pursued by both FSB agent Yuri Marklov (Robert Knepper), Interpol agent Mike Whittier (Dougray Scott), and his fellow assassins from the Organization. The key to clearing himself and getting back at those who set him up appears to be a prostitute, Nika Boronina (Kurylenko), whom he nabs before beginning his quest.

Directed by Xavier Gens - who apparently had the film taken away from him by the studio during editing - 'Hitman' is a fairly stylish film that in terms of production values is up there with the best videogame adaptations (that is, it's up there with Tomb Raider). It opens with a promising sequence depicting the assassins of the Organization training from early childhood before jumping forward to show us Agent 47 in action. The plot is actually quite straightforward but the screenplay manages to deliver it in an unnecessarily messy manner. None of the narrative threads are particularly compelling, and when you consider that the film is mostly devoid of any substantial characterization, it becomes apparent that the writers were the first barrier to quality (source material be damned). Gens action scenes are competent enough if uninspired, though Olyphant is great in them and makes them quite entertaining, particularly with that weirdly nonchalant gait of his. The film's not afraid of a little violence and mayhem either, always a plus in a shoot 'em up. Olyphant is the star and he delivers a good though necessarily one dimensional performance. Olga Kurylenko is surprisingly good (and easy on the eyes) as the feisty prostitute. Everyone else is forgettable, though it was funny to see Henry Ian Cusick make a small appearance as a Russian arms dealer - far removed from his role as Desmond in Lost, brutha!

Overall it's a decent action film that goes by fairly quickly. It won't impress, but it won't make you wish for your time back either. It doesn't do anything to improve the status of video game based movies, and I'm not sure what fans of the game will think - based on what I've seen of the games, they involved a lot of stealth and deception and sneaking around garroting people, not running around guns blazing. Actually, the kind of style seen in the games might have made the film more interesting, though the massively superior 'Leon' has already explored similar territory. This ain't no Leon, but on the other hand it ain't no Double Dragon either! It's more like Tomb Raider, only with violence and nudity, which is always a plus...

Tech Stuff

There's a brain control headset for gaming. It reads electrical impulses in the brain and can map facial expressions, emotions, and movements of a person directly into a gameworld. Needless to say - awesome! If the success of the Nintendo Wii has taught the gaming industry anything, it's that more intuitive and simple interfaces are the type of things that can lead to more entertaining, accessible, and innovative gameplay (which translates into greater profits, of course). And this type of interface should be just as usable for interaction with any computer system, not just games. This is the stuff of sci-fi come to life people! I for one welcome our new brain scan controller overlords!

There's also another interesting BBC article about the evolution of mobile phones as gaming platforms. Damn, these things are becoming more and more powerful; forget Tetris, we're talking genuine home console level gaming on mobiles. I guess it shouldn't be surprising, seeing how Sony's PSP did something similar by fitting last generation level console gaming into a handheld, but in the more limited and energy conserving form factor of mobiles? I'm impressed - I mean, these things have dedicated 3D graphics chipsets on board! Also cool are the potential interfaces, which include iPhone style touch interfaces and Wii style motion sensitive control systems.

Another (somewhat related) article is this one about how mobile smartphones will soon overtake laptops and become the mobile computer of choice. I have to confess, a few years ago I was one of those smug jackasses who'd sneer with contempt at gadget phones, arguing that there was no use for so much multimedia functionality. Phones should be for calls and texting, I argued. Well I'm eating humble pie, because to be honest the potential is huge and it's amazing what you can now do with these relatively affordable smartphones. They're getting some fairly powerful low energy consumption processors in there (even multicore!) that can match low end laptops in terms of basic functionality and applications both for work and for multimedia, including proper gaming (as above) and high def (720p) video. And this is on top of its use as a digital camera, a GPS device, and of course a phone! Yeah the size and interface are probably big stumbling blocks, but then some of these screens are decent sized and very high res, and there's even potential for a mobile projector. And there's always a roll up keyboard for typing. Even if you're not interested in mobile computing technology, the potential for more compact and energy conserving devices is something to be welcomed, as it will eventually filter through to the rest of the industry.

And finally, how could I not comment on the impending death of HDDVD? Yep, the format war is all but over and Sony and the Blu-Ray camp can rest easy. It's a good thing too, because the lack of a standard would have sucked and killed the possibility of there being a next gen successor to DVD. Actually, there still might not be - DVD is still pretty terrific and the leap from DVD to Blu-Ray is only in terms of picture quality. The leap from VHS to DVD was huge and allowed people to make the most of their existing televisions. Hi-def formats offer no significant new improvements apart from the picture (and sound), which require more expensive equipment to take advantage of in any case. And in the meantime, with ever improving video compression and global bandwidth increases, there's also the possibility that people will simply migrate from DVD to buying (or renting) movies online directly instead of moving en mass to a new disc format. Personally, I think Blu-Ray will take off but will never be as huge as DVD, and I think online video is still a long way off from becoming ubiquitous, simply because the network infrastructure isn't quite there yet and won't be for a while, and because there is no standard for online video distribution on the horizon.

And finally, a little humour to wrap up this post, courtesy of XKCD.

Half-Life 2 (2004)

Half-Life 2 (2004)

I wrote about my first impressions of 'Half-Life 2' an eon ago. Sadly the limited amount of time I had available precluded me from playing the game as much as I would have liked, with the end result being a frustratingly drawn out gaming experience. Nevertheless, I finally managed to finish the game and am ready for the world to hear my thoughts!

'Half-Life 2', is the sequel to the legendary, revolutionary 1999 FPS 'Half-Life' (which was revolutionary in the way it used existing technology to craft a uniquely involving gaming experience). HL2 continues the story of Gordon Freeman, who has been in stasis since the events of the first game. It's some time in the future, and the world has been taken over by alien overlords called the Combine. Gordon - i.e. the player surrogate - finds himself in an East European looking city where the people are subjugated in a police state headed by one of the scientists from the Black Mesa Facility, Dr. Breen, who is collaborating with the aliens. Gordon is soon aided by Barney, a security guard from the first game, who gets Gordon up to speed on current events and introduces him to members of the resistance, including Dr. Eli Vance of Black Mesa and his daughter Alyx. It also turns out that, following his heroics in the first game, Gordon is now seen as a messianic figure by the resistance and his return has rekindled their hopes of overthrowing the Combine.

The story that follows is a standard action adventure as Gordon has to run from point A to B to save people and aid the resistance, with further details about the Combine situation being doled out on occasion. In the first game the scope was small - a portal to another world opened up at a research facility, hostile aliens came to Earth, military forces were sent in to clean up the mess, and a shady guy in a suit seemed to know all about what was going on - but this time round it's a much larger story, and Gordon's role in events is relatively minor. This aspect of the game is quite frustrating; by the game's end, you'll learn very little more about the big picture than you learn from the first few levels. Presumably the subsequent 'episodes' provide more details, but it's disappointing from a narrative viewpoint. And while the flow of the game is quite smooth and levels segue well, the first half of the game descends into a repetitive routine where you find yourself running from one resistance base to the next. Fortunately the second half mixes things up and is more involving.

The level design cleverly introduces you to the game engine in the early stages by essentially being 'on rails' and forcing you to complete simple tasks, thereby learning the game mechanics. It also shows off the stunning design and production values (probably aged by now, but to my out of touch self it was good stuff) by letting you experience a detailed city environment right from the get go before sending you off into the comparatively dull levels of canals, deserts, and tunnels. The macabre Ravenholm level, which sits in between some of the less interesting levels, is quite cool however and prevents tedium from setting in. Things get much better when you return to buildings and city landscapes again, and fortunately there are no alien levels with tricky jumping sequences as there were in HL1! The game is, overall, very atmospheric thanks to the level design, graphics, and sound. The voice acting is also of a very high quality throughout. The design of the various units and creatures is also excellent and it all gels together nicely to create a compelling universe.

'Half-Life 2' features a nice balance between different gameplay elements, with exploration, gun battles, narrative elements and the occasional puzzle cropping up regularly and never overstaying their welcome. The physics engine used isn't completely realistic but it adds a lot to the believability of environments, and the incorporation of the gravity gun is terrific, particularly in the awesome last few levels where you get to go crazy with it! The set pieces throughout the game are impressive, with 'scripted' events and thrilling sequences such as ones where you have to defend a position against hordes of baddies or take out giant tripodal alien machines called 'Striders'. The combat, sadly, doesn't seem as fun as I remember HL1 being, with the enemy AI being fairly unimpressive. Maybe it's just nostalgia, but I remember feeling like I was actually taking on intelligent adversaries in part 1, while in HL2 they just seem to stand around or run predictably and get killed (and I wasn't playing on the easiest difficulty setting, either). The same can be said for the new 'team based' combat where you get allies following you around - their inclusion is fun for a while and useful at times, but they don't seem particularly smart, occasionally running into enemy fire without the slightest hint of concern.

Other new gameplay elements introduced into the sequel include vehicles, which are fun for a while but grow tiresome fairly quickly, and a very cool gimmick where you get to control a bunch of alien 'antlions' using 'pheromone pods' and maneuver them into taking out your enemies for you! Not so cool is the inclusion of a few 'infinite enemy' sequences, where the bad guys just keep on coming at you until you move on to another part of the level. Some of the new alien baddies are also very annoying, like the weird skinless howling creature and the guy that throws poisonous face huggers at you. The selection of weapons is very similar to HL1 with the exception of the gravity gun, and this is no bad thing as the weapons in the first part were very cool. As always, the best weapons are the tried and true submachine gun, pistol, and shotgun, though the new pulse rifle is also very effective. And of course, there's Freeman's trademark crowbar, still useful for walloping head crabs and zombies!

Overall, 'Half-Life 2' is an excellent though somewhat flawed game that isn't quite up to the amazing standard of the first part (though, when I replay that it'll probably seem ancient, but hey, it was superior in its time). The storyline in particular is less satisfying, and the ending is a frustrating cliffhanger that doesn't offer the simple and satisfying closure of part 1. I was entertained for the most part, but was occasionally bored and annoyed for stretches as well. Some of my frustrations with the game were undoubtedly the result of the stop start way in which I played the game; coming back to a game after a month away is always a bit difficult! The second half of the game does redeem the missteps of the first and the overall experience is, all things considered, pretty terrific. I'm looking forward to playing the sequel episodes, which I shall hopefully finish before the decade is out!

Half-Life 2 - First Impressions

I've finally started playing Half-Life 2, after a lengthy download period via Valve's Steam content management system. I know I'm only slightly over two years too late to the HL2 party to write down 'first impressions', but I felt like jotting down my thoughts nonetheless.

First impressions are everything, and things didn't start well - the first 10 minutes or so were a bit mixed. First, starting the game seemed to take forever; the Steam system has to sign on to your account before the game itself starts loading; I've decided to play 'offline' from now on. Then, the game took several minutes to start up. Once it did though, things began to improve. The menus (which have a dynamic view of a game environment for a backdrop) were similar to the original game, and setting things up took no time at all. Starting the game again resulted in waiting for the first level to load. The loading times aren't horrendous, it's just that compared to Tomb Raider: Legend and even the original Half Life, they're quite slow. And then, the game started.

Once again, you get to fill the shoes of scientist Gordon Freeman. The game begins with the creepy G-Man, now sporting detailed skin and realistic facial animation, telling you that you're basically back in the thick of things. You end up on a train that stops at City 17, a place that looks like a war ravaged East European town. The graphics are excellent, both in terms of design and technology. The game is incredibly atmospheric - decrepit old buildings with moss (or something) growing on the walls, cobbled streets with outgrowths of grass, an abandoned children's playground, a believable town layout, and so on. The physics are quite good as well, though I've yet to get the much ballyhooed gravity gun! The sound design is also excellent, from gunfire to the sound of doors being kicked in and people being clubbed with batons!

A lot of information is cleverly conveyed via background elements - as with the original game, there are no direct cut-scenes, you are pretty much always in control of Freeman even during the moments of exposition. The setting and situation are immediately made clear via the ubiquitous video screens featuring looped recordings of a Doctor Breen explaining (as propaganda) how City 17 is one of the last developed refuges on earth and the centre of the administration. It becomes apparent that Breen is working with some kind of occupying force, presumably alien, and that everything that is happening is supposedly for the further development of mankind, including a 'suppression field' that somehow prevents reproduction. Aliens you fought in the first game are now being used as slave labour. There's a strong military presence in the city called the Combine, and the people are clearly oppressed and unhappy. There's also a resistance force sneaking people out of the city, seemingly headed by Freeman's colleagues from the first game.

After a leisurely introductory period where you can get your bearings, the game throws you into the deep end without warning. This is what was so great about Half-Life 1, and it seems 2 continues in the same vein. It's like playing out an action movie, only it feels dynamic even though it's all scripted, and the result is exhilarating. After stumbling into a housing complex you're not authorized to be in, the Combine come after you. Residents try to help you out as you run to the roof, and you can hear them being beaten and shot in the background as you make your escape. I didn't bother to sit in one place and see what happens if the Combine catches up, I was so swept up in it all. Once on the roof, you get to run along from rooftop to rooftop while soldiers behind you and on the street start using you for target practice until you finally manage to get away by darting into a building through an open window.

You find an underground layer of the resistance where Dr. Kleiner and Barney the security guard from the first game, and Alyx, daughter of one of the other scientists, have been working on perfecting a teleportation device. You finally get your HEV suit back, and your classic weapon, the crowbar! The three of them have a humourous conversation; most impressive were the reactions of the characters, who make facial expressions and movements in tune with the conversation, and you can just stand next to any one of them and they sort of glance at you while doing it, with those impressively realistic looking eyes (really, they shimmer!). The voice acting is also really good, with the voice cast playing it straight but not overly seriously.

Later, when you finally get a handgun, you get to engage in gunfights with the Combine while fleeing through underground tunnels and around a set of railroad tracks complete with running trains. And that's about as far as I got...

It's just really engaging stuff, and while I've been out of gaming for a while, I suspect it's still up there with the best of them in terms of quality. Heck, I'd say the original which is nearly a decade old is still immensely playable! Half-Life 2 is atmospheric and exciting and has stunning graphics, involving storytelling techniques, an intriguing storyline thus far, and is bigger in scope and better than the original in nearly every way. I've yet to determine whether the gun battles are quite as exciting as those against the soldiers in the first game, but it's early days yet.

Hopefully, the game will maintain this level of quality throughout, and won't pull the same stunt as the original game by transporting you to an alien planet where you get to jump around on moving platforms like Mario!

Tomb Raider: Legend (2006)

Tomb Raider: Legend (2006)

This is the first videogame I've played since I finished off the very cool Max Payne 2 a couple of years ago. I'd been jonesing to play a game for some time now, and almost played Half-Life several months ago before something new and shiny (this game!) came my way. I'd played a few of the earlier games in the Tomb Raider series, in which the law of diminishing returns kicked in quite quickly, but this one was meant to be quite good. Tomb Raider: Legend also presented me with the perfect opportunity to make use of my new X-Box 360 gamepad, which I must say is easily the best gamepad I've ever used - it feels solid, fits snugly into your palms, and the buttons and analog sticks are within easy reach and feel nice and responsive. Admittedly, I haven't used any other gamepads in a while, so my opinion on gamepads is far from authoritative.

Anyway, onto the game. As with the other Tomb Raider games, this one features the impossibly buxom Lara Croft in a third person action adventure game featuring lots of running, jumping, swinging, swimming, and of course, shooting. There's also a reasonably interesting and entertaining story involving King Arthur, Excalibur, Lara's mum who disappeared years ago under mysterious circumstances, and an old friend thought left for dead, all of which are connected together. In addition to a stronger story (or... any story at all), the storytelling aspects of the game are quite improved from the old games, with more interesting 'camera' work, decent writing, and strong voice acting (particularly Keeley Hawes, who plays Lara). Also of note are the graphics, which are terrific. The character models are detailed and the acrobatic animation is smooth, but best of all are the lush and detailed environments. Oh, and the music is pretty good as well, as are the sound effects. All in all, the production values are top-notch, and really help to draw you into the game.

For once in these games, the storyline and the actual game content jibe to a reasonable degree. The level design actually makes some sense now; instead of weird, randomly designed areas, the environments are now somewhat believable. This also results in the levels being shorter than in the earlier games, but as far as I'm concerned this is a good thing, since I found the levels in those games to be interminable. The game is well paced, with cutscenes or chatter between Lara and her support team back at her mansion (tech geek and archeology/history buff) popping up regularly to prevent tedium from setting in. The environments are varied enough to never feel repetitive.

The gameplay is also much improved, with smooth and responsive controls and a far more forgiving jump system - gone are the days of frustrating millimetre precise aligning and timing! All of that running and jumping and swinging over chasms stuff is actually a lot of fun, and the controls are intuitive and allow for some quite impressive acrobatics. Also of note are the puzzles, which are also a lot better than the old games - they are logical (as far as puzzles involving rolling giant rocks onto pressure pads can be logical) and fit in with the environments being depicted, unlike the random nonsensical puzzles of old. The action segments are the weakest gameplay element here, but they're still reasonably good. Much of it involves just running at enemies while holding the shoot button down, but there are some nifty moves that can be pulled off, such as the bullet time 'leaps' that allow you to take out a whole bunch of enemies whilst in mid-air! There's not much variety in the weapons, and the grenades are next to useless. Overall, the action is reasonably entertaining but not stellar. There are some cool boss battles as well that combine puzzle solving and action; these are not too tough, but I prefer that to frustrating (or cheap!) bosses.

There are a couple of mini-game type elements which are fun. One is an interactive cut-scene that kicks in mid game where some action sequence takes place and instructions (for button presses) are given onscreen that you have to respond to quickly, so that Lara takes appropriate action. These look cool, and failing to press the buttons correctly or in time often leads to some amusing death animations. The other mini-game is driving - you get to drive around on bikes while shooting other bikers and jumping off ramps. These aren't major, but they're nice touches that break the routine and are quite fun. Another thing worth mentioning are the incredibly fast load times - while this is system specific, it seems faster than almost any game I can recall, and I don't have loads of RAM - other games that I've tried out take way longer to load.

The game is relatively short and isn't overly difficult (autosave points are sprinkled throughout the levels quite regularly). I took around 15 hours to finish it, but I imagine a good player making a concerted effort would do it in under 10. To some this would be too short, but it fits in nicely with my available free time. In addition, there's some replayability in terms of having lots of stuff to unlock by finding all of the secret items and completing levels within pre-defined time limits. There's also a 'bonus' level of sorts - Croft Manor - that's full of puzzles to solve.

On the negative side, there are some pretty annoying elements. One is the camera, which has a habit of whirling around at inopportune moments; since the controls are camera relative, this means that the direction you were holding at the moment the camera turned ends up pointing Lara in the wrong direction. A lot of diving into chasms happens as a result. Another camera problem is the 'look' button which allows you to examine your surroundings. Unfortunately it doesn't always let you get a clear view. In fact, more often than not, it has the unfortunate habit of zooming in on Lara, which is quite embarrassing when someone else happens to be around because it looks like you're ogling her 'digital assets'! Another source of frustration for me was points where I got stuck without a clue what to do next. Yes, I confess, looked at an online walkthrough, and the solutions were usually annoyingly simple but also kinda obscure. There're also a few annoying bugs in the game that stop things dead in their tracks. The biggest bummer has to be the ending - the game ends on a cliffhanger, and it's quite unsatisfying. I was shocked to see the end credits start to roll, and my first thought was "it's over?"

Tomb Raider: Legend is easily the best Tomb Raider game, and is a darn fine game in its own right. I was surprised at how good everything was, because the previous game in this series is apparently absolutely terrible. This game is good in all departments. I hesitate to say it's great only because I haven't played any of its contemporaries (like Prince of Persia) so I'm not really able to reach a definitive conclusion. In any case, it was fun and just the type of thing to ease me back into gaming. Up next, Half-Life 2. Oh yeah!