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(03/05/13 1:27am)
Pitchforks: 2/5Rated: PG-13 “Anyone Out There,” directed and produced by Tiaraju Aronovich, was showcased at the Sedona Film Festival this past weekend. Aronovich also starred in the film and composed the soundtrack. This is possibly the most involved you can be with your own film. Not since “The Room” have audiences seen the same person in so many places at once in a film. And while the film has more strengths than the aforementioned Tommy Wiseau project, “Anyone Out There” never elevates itself above the status quo.
The film tells the tale of Mr. Ze, your typical, silent, good guy, hardworking janitor, who goes unnoticed even when his heart is failing and has only six months to live. He accepts this day in and day out and welcomes the inevitable end. That is until his cousin Jandira, played by the gorgeous and expressive Amanda Maya, appears looking for a place to stay. She, in her naïveté, is concerned with becoming famous and how Mr. Ze will be remembered after his death. Both learn from each other about death and eternity and manage to come closer together as the film progresses.
While Amanda Maya gives a stellar performance as the young aspiring actress trying to understand her cousin’s acceptance of his six-month work schedule, Mr. Ze is as interesting as a wet napkin. He is a slow-moving (the film alludes but never explains if he is mentally handicapped or not) and boring individual, and this was in part due to the actor’s wooden and stiff acting. He maintains the same facial expression throughout the entire film and gives Kristen Stewart a new benchmark in “plywood” acting. He grits his teeth, pushes his glasses and unhurriedly grasps an object each and every scene he is in. And the labored breathing he makes when simply walking anywhere is just irritating. It’s meant to convey struggle and that Ze is on his last legs, but film is a visual medium. Auditory repetition throughout an entire film is irksome and only serves to distract the audience.
His motivations are also confusing. At a certain point, the two of them sleep together, and then the scene ends abruptly.
In the last 10 minutes, “Anyone Out There” gets its final message across. It’s worth hearing even if the journey to get to that point is one of stumbles and missteps. If “Anyone Out There” were condensed into a short film and not a 115-minute feature film, it would be much more enjoyable. As it stands, “Anyone Out There” is a curiosity and a prime example of a director being too much in love with his own work and not willing to trim some of the fat.
Reach the reporter at Spencer.Fawcett@asu.edu.
(02/24/13 8:44pm)
Buying a game is not so simple as ABC, as it is for films and books. There is downloadable content, season passes, Day-1 DLC and even content that you can only receive from specific retailers. Most of these bonuses, perks and skins are fairly innocuous, but it is a stark example of a quirk in the gaming consumer public. Pre-ordering a video game has become the norm for the 21st century video game industry, and it has become a growing concern of mine in 2013.
(02/19/13 11:00pm)
While "The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim" won my Game of the Year in 2011, there was another role-playing game I passed up that year for simply being too difficult. A game that was so unforgiving and tense, it has been dubbed one of the most difficult games of this console cycle. That game is "Dark Souls" developed by From Software and published by Namco Bandai.
(02/14/13 1:00am)
Pitchforks: 2/5Everything is going according to plan. Then, without warning, everything just nosedives, and the only solace you can find is that it will soon end. This is the experience of playing "Aliens: Colonial Marines," developed by Gearbox Software ─ famous for Borderlands 2 ─ and published by SEGA.
"Aliens: Colonial Marines" differs from the Aliens vs. Predator games of yesteryear in that it is the canonical bridge between the movies, "Aliens" and "Alien 3." This is a mockery in every sense of the word. The game begins after the events of the movie "Aliens," with the most generic space Marines who have seen Ridley Scott’s "Black Hawk Down" too many times spouting “Oorah!” and “No Marines get left behind!” There are no real personalities or characters to latch onto, so the whole affair feels separated and inorganic.
It’s a shame that the story, which goes to some ridiculous places, answers nothing and raises more questions than it answers. “Hey, how did the ship get back here?” asks one character during the briefing. At one point, another character asks a very basic and reasonable question, and the answer is “That’s a longer story, all I know is that I want to get back at the company!” It makes the game, which now has a place in the Aliens lore, feel irrelevant and inconsequential.
"Aliens: Colonial Marines" nails the audio from the films with the pulse rifle and motion tracker sounding exactly like they did in the film. The music also offers creepy and unsettling tunes, as well as the quick and intense pieces when the action picks up. The setting and atmosphere is distinctly Aliens, with very excellent lighting effects.
Sadly, these are the only high points of the game as gameplay and A.I. miss the mark of what an Aliens game should be. Gameplay is nothing more than running down a corridor, pushing a button, running down a corridor, shooting aliens and getting nostalgic over something from the film. Rinse and repeat. It’s this kind of repetition that numbs your brain into a state of complete deadness.
The A.I. for the aliens fares much worse. Rather than stalk the player and hide in the walls of the environment (like they did in the films), the aliens have decided that tactic takes too long, so the solution is to rush the player and the teammates with their arms flailing. At certain points in "Aliens: Colonial Marines," you’ll have to do battle with humans. Their A.I. has them stand in one spot shooting and at certain points running completely past your entire team and into another room behind you.
The presentation for this game is also severely outdated. This is not a 2013-looking game, and it looks unfinished as far as the textures and character models are concerned. Nearly every wall texture looks blurry and muddled with character faces that look like the distorted evil twins of their real-world counterparts. When characters are “emoting,” their faces never move convincingly enough and have stilted facial expressions and puppet-like lip syncing. The player will have to jump in the powerloader (the yellow walker thing Ripley used to fight the Alien Queen in "Aliens"), but it has no sense of weight and tangibility when using it: You’re just walking normally.
Multiplayer is interesting enough as it lets you play as the aliens or the colonial Marines, but it leaves much to be desired. Playing as the colonial Marine is probably the more exhilarating faction to play as because the aliens can come from anywhere. Yet playing as the aliens, you feel slower and weaker by comparison. One of the modes dubbed "Escape" has a team of marines set to reach a certain point, and the aliens have to stop them. It is probably the more interesting mode but it is lifted straight out of Valve’s "Left 4 Dead" series of multiplayer games. The aliens and Marines can be customized aesthetically and through their load outs so those who are familiar with the Call of Duty series should be right at home.
"Aliens: Colonial Marines" leaves players broken, depressed and feeling conned by Gearbox Software and SEGA. Players were assured through the developer preview diaries that this was a game being handled by fans of the films. I was confident that this was a game being handled by people that loved Aliens and knew how much the video game wanted to do the franchise justice. This is a lax effort that only exists to swindle faithful Aliens fans out of their hard earned money. At the time of this review, the Alien anthology is $23.99 on Blu-Ray and $30.99 on DVD at Amazon. I suggest you spend your money on either of those, as they’re more faithful to the Alien universe than this game.
Reach the reporter at shfawcet@asu.edu and follow him on Twitter @MaroonandGame.
(02/11/13 11:14pm)
I can remember it vividly. My squad had just finished a mission to save the planet from aliens and one of my soldiers had just been promoted for his gallantry and bravery on the battlefield. And then, when we least expected it, there was a crisis call from Miami saying that there were human hostages in a library.
(02/06/13 11:00pm)
At The Center for Games and Impact at ASU, passionate undergraduate and graduate students are conversing about recent gaming news and upcoming games. Launched by ASU professors Sasha Barab and James Gee in partnership with E-line founders Alan Geshenfeld and Michael Angst, the center provides a wide-variety of video game systems and resources on video games and its cultural impact.
(01/31/13 1:30pm)
It’s no secret that video games require a great amount of input from talented programmers and designers. It's also no secret that publishers, who are investing in the game, may see sequels as safe bets so they will either see a return or break even.
(01/29/13 10:00pm)
Having never been to a comic convention before, the Amazing Arizona Comic Con certainly was an experience. Everywhere in the the Phoenix Convention Center, there was a nerd moment. Wooden carvings of dragons, fictional characters in the style of President Barack Obama's "Hope" posters and action figures were aplenty.
(01/29/13 9:51pm)
Webster defines a villain as a “character in a story or play who opposes the hero.” The definition below that is “one blamed for a particular evil or difficulty.” As far as video game antagonists go, there is no other that is more menacing and unpredictable than Far Cry 3’s Vaas played by Michael Mando. Initially, Vaas didn’t exist in the “Far Cry 3” script. Instead the antagonist was a large and burly warrior with a nose ring aptly named Bull. Once Michael Mando appeared and auditioned for the part, the initial design evolved and Vaas was born.
(01/21/13 11:02pm)
The top five worst video games of 2012 by reporter Spencer Fawcett.
(01/17/13 3:30am)
On a cold winter’s day in Newtown, Conn., a lone gunman killed his mother and 26 other individuals ? including children ? before killing himself.
(01/11/13 4:30am)
Check out the top 5 video games from 2012.
(12/10/12 5:00am)
Last year, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim won my, and several other publications’, Game of the Year award. The expansive world and the copious amount of dungeons and side quests continue to impress me even to this day. Bethesda Game Studios has always added content to their games post-launch with downloadable content that ranges from the very excellent to mediocre.
(12/07/12 5:49am)
I think by this point in time, we’re all familiar with YouTube.
(12/03/12 5:00am)
I get a lot of flak for buying editions of games that come with statues or memorabilia. The most common explanation that I hear is that “Oh dude, it doesn’t do anything. It just sits there looking at you in shame that you spent that much money on a statue.”
(11/30/12 5:00am)
Disclaimer: There will be mild story spoilers included in this article. So go finish Halo 4, come back here and see if you agree or disagree with me.
(11/19/12 5:00am)
Forgive me gamers for I have sinned... again.
(11/16/12 5:00am)
Games take a lot of money and person power to get made. And even when the game moves from concept to production to finalization – the reception can disappoint.
(11/09/12 5:00am)
I can’t even begin to exaggerate the number of times I’ve been on Xbox Live or PlayStation Network and have heard sexist comments, racial slurs and lewd homophobic statements. It’s almost as common as the audio in the actual game that you’re playing.
(11/05/12 5:00am)
"Before we fall apart at the seams.” The King of Rock ‘n’ Roll may not have been referring to the video game industry, but that’s the name of the game. And what name might that be? Patching, patching and patching.