Archive for the 'Reviews' Category

Jun 17 2013

Unreal Movie Review: Man of Steel

Published by under Movies,Reviews

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4 out of 5 stars

A new Superman film was always going to face an array of challenges. It would be a movie pulled in many different directions, and could easily suffer because of it. Would it adopt the lighthearted, joke-happy Marvel model that’s turned Iron Man and his Avengers into cash machines? Would he go for that now infamous buzzword, “gritty,” making Superman dark and tormented the way Man of Steel’s producer Christopher Nolan made Batman? Or would they attempt to slavishly devote themselves to Richard Donner’s original films, the way Superman Returns did, and suffered because of it?

Surprisingly, the answer isn’t any of the above. Rather, Zack Snyder’s Man of Steel manages to not feel like a copycat of anything that’s come before it, either in the modern age of superhero blockbusters, or the treasured years of Donner and Reeves. And really, it’s not like any of Snyder’s other films as well, filled with slow-motion action and rather nonsensical dialogue.

What we have is a film that manages to bring new life to our most prized superhero, one somehow we’ve deemed as rather boring over the years. How interesting can a character really be who can’t be killed, or really even hurt? We tend to like our heroes most when they’re vulnerable to some degree, not completely invincible, or literally bulletproof.

Zack Snyder’s Man of Steel is many things, but rarely boring. It’s visually astonishing, even if it didn’t utilize his famous slow motion action sequences, though it can be dramatically hollow at times. It’s a thrilling film as you watch it, and hard to find fault with initially. It’s only later when you start to reflect that the cracks start to show. Continue Reading »

22 responses so far


Jun 14 2013

Blazing a Trail Through the Path of Exile

Published by under Reviews,Video Games

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Many of you expressed shock and dismay when I recently revealed that I still tend to play Diablo 3 from time to time. It’s a game that’s cool to hate, but after many, many improvements through a series of patches over the past year, it’s turned into something that’s a lot of fun.

That said, I owe it to myself to broaden  my horizons. It was suggested to me that I play the uber cheap Torchlight 2 and the uber free Path of Exile as two other entries in the ARPG genre. I played through the former, and now it’s time to give the latter a try.

For the past week, my buddy and I have traveled to the land of “I don’t know what it’s called” and have killed some demons and monsters for people I also can’t name. But these games are never about story, and if Path of Exile’s is particularly interesting, than shame on me for skipping through the dialog boxes. But let’s be real, I’m here to kill shit.

First off, I noticed that there are a whole bunch of different classes, seven in total I think. That seemed like quite a hefty amount for a free to play game, and so it was a tough choice. I forsook my usual Barbarian pick, and went with a class I loved in Diablo 2, the Paladin. He combines magic and strength, and I thought he could give me a sense of diversity when I played. My friend was a bow hunting Shadow, and we thought we’d make a good pair of melee and ranged for tanking and damage dealing.

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Path of Exile is in beta, so naturally there are lot of kinks still to be worked out. Fortunately, I haven’t come across all that many as of late, other than things like how the overlaid map looks like it was literally pulled from Diablo 1. Interestingly, the rest of the game is pretty good looking, more so than Diablo 3 in many ways. The physics aren’t quite as good, but the graphics are, and that’s something I suppose.

Though the game plays the same way as Diablo, you have skills and mash buttons and click until enemies die, the way it’s set up is quite a bit different. Your character doesn’t have inborn skills. Rather, all skills are accessed through gems that you socket in items, some of which can be linked together for additional effects. For example, I found an Ice Nova gem pretty early on, and used it every five seconds for the next three hours. I could then link that with a support gem that does extra ice damage or something. Any gems you have socketed will automatically level up as you gain XP, so there’s no allocating skill points that way.

But there is allocation of skill points. A lot of them. Perhaps my favorite aspect of Path of Exile so far is the comically large skill tree that’s almost overwhelming to behold. It is a fun to try and map out the way you want your character to grow and evolve, trying to figure out a path to get the increased life node or winding a path to higher fire damage.

No, there’s no respecing from scratch, though you can earn respec points that will let you take a point or two back if you really want to. And of course, I imagine it’s possible to buy a full respec from the microtranscation store if you really wanted to.

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But it’s not as big of a deal as it was in say, Torchlight 2 or Diablo 2. You’re not sinking points in skills, only stats. You’re a lot more likely to regret spending a skill point on a move you know nothing about, only to find out that it sucks. That’s where a lack of respec is a pain. But it’s not really the case with this skill tree, as it’s all about increased life, damage, resistances, etc. Unless you want to change EVERYTHING about your character, chances are you’ll be making decisions you won’t regret 90% of the time.

There are three acts in the game, and progress is saved by completing quests and finding waypoints. I’m told the goal for Path of Exile is to create a new Act a year for the next decade. Seems ambitious, but the game does appear to be doing well.

Though I like many aspects of Path of Exile from a logic perspective, the skill gems, the skill tree, and so on, it does suffer in the gameplay department when compared to its competitors. It just feels old and clunky much of the time, and there are really annoying aspects to combat like incredibly small hitboxes. I soon learned that AOE spells were the way to go, and so I’ve simply been Firestorming enemy clusters for the last ten hours now, and sinking all my points into fire and magic skills.

But my friend who tried to be an archer had much greater difficulty. Because it’s so hard to click on specific enemies, it’s incredibly frustrating and difficult to constantly do single target damage. It’s even worse for a ranged archer because if you click on an enemy and miss, you will walk over to the point you click, which is probably right in a cluster of bad guys who will promptly bend you over. If there was a solution to this in controls, we couldn’t find one, but my friend finally had to respec into a dual wielding melee character eventually. You know there’s a hitbox problem when it takes you five clicks to open a chest or pick up an item from the ground.

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I’m about level 30 or so now, but I’m still a little confused about what the actual distinction is between classes. Yes, it’s different where you start on the skill tree, but gems are more or less usable between most classes. My buddy picked up a Firestorm gem and could use it no problem. Really, gems are more restricted by the type of weapon you wield rather than the class you are.

I think this is supposed to create for a ton of different kinds of builds, and I’m sure there are tons of advanced tactics to this game that I simply don’t understand yet. I picked up a skill gem where it literally made me explode, doing damage to enemies, but leaving me at 1 HP and a hit away from death. I can’t for the life of me figure out the point of such a thing, but perhaps paired with some other skill, it’s amazing. But I don’t know if I’m creative enough to figure all this shit out.

That said, this is a lot of fun for a free game. Ironically, even though it’s completely supported by microtransactions, that store is FAR less intrusive than Diablo 3′s auction house, which actually became the most important part of that game. Microtransaction purchases here are nearly 100% cosmetic-based, taking after the example of a game like League of Legends. It’s really the best of both worlds. Devoted fans give you money so they can look cooler, while you don’t sell anything to unbalance a game. This is how the system should work, and POE does a fine job of it here.

All this said, I would say Diablo and Torchlight are more fun, simply because the controls are more responsible and they simply play better. I like a lot of the ARPG experimental concepts that POE puts forward, but it’s just not as smooth to play, and it can result in a frustrating experience at times.

For its budget, and it’s non-existent price, it’s worth playing if you’re a fan of the genre. I’m not sure how long I’ll stick with it, but it’s going to be at least until my Paladin finds some armor that makes it look like he’s wearing pants.

5 responses so far


Jun 13 2013

Unreal Movie Review: This is the End

Published by under Movies,Reviews

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The apocalypse is old news at this point. It seems like there’s a new movie about the end of the world every week, or if not, we’re almost certainly watching a post-apocalyptic shows or playing a post-apocalyptic video game. Hell, I even wrote a post-apocalyptic book.

So it’s really going to take something special to jar us out of apocalypse fatigue, and This is the End aims to do just that by making light of the death and destruction that accompany the end of the world.

This easily could have gone awry. It could have been something like Apocalypse Movie, a Scary Movie spin-off I’m stunned doesn’t exist yet, full of obvious jokes and nonsensical humor. Parody is a tricky thing and it easily can go wrong.

Hollywood needed to put their best men on it, so they did. All of them. Continue Reading »

6 responses so far


Jun 13 2013

90’s Flashback: Neon Genesis Evangelion

Published by under Reviews,Television

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Today I’ve decided to go back in time and deliver unto the readers of Unreality something very near and dear to my heart; that rare work of animated fiction that deserves a spot on a list of favorite anything and only continues to get better with age. So journey with me back into the mid-90’s to a world where Japanese animation was just establishing its first vestiges of a foothold in American geek fandom a few years prior to blowing the doors off with three of the greatest works of science fiction of any medium. There, we will find one of my favorite shows of all time, animated or otherwise.

Even fans of the sci-fi genre who avoid anime altogether have likely heard of Cowboy Bebop and Ghost in the Shell, which were each landmarks of both style and substance. But arguably the greatest and certainly most thematically dense of the three 90’s sci-fi anime masterpieces is Neon Genesis Evangelion.

It’s been over a decade since I first saw Eva, and it has proven to be one of the few shows whose fans’ adoration only intensifies with time. That love has been rekindled once again in the past several years due to the theatrical remake films, but what inspired me to revisit it yet again is not the oft-delayed Rebuild of Evangelion series, but the upcoming American kaiju-versus-mecha film Pacific Rim.

How? Well, I spent a significant amount of the initial trailer believing I could possibly be looking at the long-rumored live action Evangelion film. Pacific Rim’s look and basic premise very much resemble and take inspiration from this most seminal of anime series and, in fact, all of the trailers have been redone by fans using footage from Eva. In anticipation of what is almost certain to be the highlight of my summer I’m going to discuss a few of the finer points of what makes up one of the most enduring worldwide cult franchises and passionate fanbases in all of geekdom. Continue Reading »

16 responses so far


Jun 11 2013

Unreal Movie Review: The Purge

Published by under Movies,Reviews

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I often try to avoid being political on this site, because I find it tends to rub people the wrong way. We talk about movies, TV and video games here and if you start injecting your own political leanings into your posts, even a little bit, it can turn off your audience in a hurry who didn’t tune in for that sort of thing.

The same can be said for horror movies as well.

You may not have guessed it from the trailer alone, but The Purge is less a thrilling home invasion feature, and more one of the best blatant political allegories I’ve probably ever witnessed onscreen. See if you can grasp the point it’s trying to make after a brief description.

Unemployment is near zero, and so is violent crime and poverty. The reason is not economic policy or technological innovation, but rather it’s the creation of the Purge. It’s one twelve hour block a year where the US government has decreed that any and every crime is not only legal, but encouraged. Theft, murder, rape, it’s just an all-you-can-eat buffet of depravity, and the “New Founding Fathers” of the country have deemed it vital to our nation’s prosperity. Continue Reading »

19 responses so far


Jun 10 2013

Game of Thrones Finale Review: “Mhysa”

Published by under Reviews,Television

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Last week’s Red Wedding was such a tumultuous upheaval of an event for Game of Thrones, it seems that this week, with the season finale, the showrunners wanted to balance things out with perhaps one of the most subdued episodes in the show’s lifespan.

Game of Thrones tends to do this, positioning a rather eventual episode right before the finale (Ned Stark, Blackwater Bay), but even by past standards, this was a rather soft spoken farewell for the show, and is really just a bridge to a season we’ll now have to wait a year for.

The extended hour long episode had us traveling all over the map, and made sure we checked in with just about every major character before we bid them adieu for the year. Well, the ones that are still living.

We start in the immediate aftermath of the Red Wedding, and watch as Arya witnesses the sickening sight of her brother’s corpse with the head of his slain direwolf paraded through the streets. She takes off with the Hound, and some time later comes across a band of Freys bragging about how they sowed the beast’s head onto her brother.

Continue Reading »

15 responses so far


Jun 06 2013

The Final Verdict on Arrested Development

Published by under Reviews,Television

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I did it. I stayed true to my word and didn’t binge watch all fifteen episodes of Arrested Development the weekend they came out. Rather, patience and other things getting in the way led me to have a more spread out viewing experience, and I finally wrapped up my time with the show last night.

As you may remember, I did stop midway through the season to write a post about what I’d discovered so far. I focused on that it was odd how disconnected the show’s characters felt, though I was assured that would get better as time went on.

Well, I made it through all of them, and now I’m able to give a more complete picture of my thoughts about what is undoubtedly the one season of television I have looked forward to more than any other in my life.

In short, I wasn’t disappointed. I know many were, and I will acknowledge the season does come with its fair share of issues, but the bottom line is that this was a great set of episodes and a fantastic project for the cast, creators and Netflix to bring to life. Continue Reading »

2 responses so far


Jun 05 2013

Unreal Movie Review: Behind the Candelabra

Published by under Movies,Reviews

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“Too gay for Hollywood.”

That was the descriptor given to Behind the Candelabra, a film that bounced around from studio to studio trying to find a home. Eventually it landed at HBO, and the channel might have had its first Oscar nominated feature.

If that was allowed.

But old institutions don’t like change, and a movie that comes out first on TV instead of in theaters isn’t allowed to compete for such awards, no matter if Steven Soderbergh, Matt Damon and Michael Douglas are all on board.

And yes, Douglas and Damon’s performances of Liberace and his lover are of the caliber that would indeed draw such nominations, but they’ll have to be content with a job well done and a few Emmys instead.

Michael Douglas is *fabulous* as Liberace, at the height of his fame when the film opens in the late ’70s. His fast fingers catch the eye of Damon’s Scott Thorson, a midwestern animal trainer who in turn catches Liberace’s eye when he’s invited backstage after the show. Continue Reading »

3 responses so far


Jun 04 2013

Unreal Movie Review: After Earth

Published by under Movies,Reviews

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1.5 out of 5 stars

It’s a common complaint that modern movies often show you the entire story in their two minute trailers. It’s frustrating because why would you bother seeing  a film when a trailer has spelled out every plot point in advance?

After Earth didn’t seem to fall into this category. What we saw was an intriguing concept for a sci-fi film starring Will Smith, long absent from the silver screen, and his son Jayden, who recently disproved notions of nepotism with a great performance in the Karate Kid remake.

We’re shown the pair, also father and son on film, crash landing on Earth, long abandoned by humanity. Their ship breaks in two and injured ranger Cypher (Will) must send his son Kitai (Jayden)to the tail section of their plane to activate a beacon which will get them rescued.

Along the way Kitai discovers that Earth now hates humans quite a bit, and will do anything to make sure it kills them as fast as possible. Predators that were fearsome before have now evolved into even more dangerous beasts, and Kitai must contend with rabid baboons, enormous vulture-eagles and slinking jungle lions. Not to mention poisonous insects and periodic snap freezes. Continue Reading »

8 responses so far


Jun 03 2013

Game of Thrones Review: The Rains of Castamere

Published by under Reviews,Television

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There’s a reason HBO took a week off of Game of Thrones last Sunday over Memorial Day weekend. They didn’t do it last year, and suffered a drop in the ratings as people were out and about vacationing rather than sitting in their homes watching TV.

They sure as hell didn’t want anyone to miss this episode this year.

The Rains of Castamere came pouring down for what very well may be the most shocking episode in the show’s history. And considering how many gasp moments there have been so far, that’s really saying something. Continue Reading »

33 responses so far


May 29 2013

Unreal Movie Review: Fast and Furious 6

Published by under Movies,Reviews

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3.5 out of 5 stars

I’ve been a prophet extolling the idiotic brilliance of The Fast and the Furious series for years, but only recently has the rest of the world seem to have finally gotten the joke. After Tokyo Drift eliminated 100% of the old cast, the fourth film brought everyone back on board, and the series has been a moneymaking runaway train ever since.

2011′s Fast Five was one of the best blockbusters of that year, arguably the best, and with instant success, two more films were greenlit immediately. The cast, most of which have literally nothing better to do, would return, and we now get to see just how far this series can go before running out of gas.

Part of Fast Five’s appeal was that it wrapped the series up in a nice little bow that brought infinite riches and happy endings for everyone. Fast and Furious 6 dangles the one thing in front of the crew that they still don’t yet have, freedom.

Exiled to all corners of the world after their latest heist, the crew reunites at the behest of enemy-turned-ally/government stooge/Samoan Thor, Hobbs (Dwayne Johnson). He brings tidings to Dom (Vin Diesel) that his long-lost love Letty (Michelle Rodriguez) has somehow survived her death in the fourth film, and is now working for a Very Bad Dude. Continue Reading »

7 responses so far


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