I Am Legend

Since I've acquired the asinine idea of reviewing sampled goods and whatnot, its time to talk about this movie starring Will Smith. Its my second viewing of it, this time at home.

My opinion on it hasn't changed. While this falls into the 'apocalyptic' genre of movies when the entire world is destroyed/infected/screwed, it has an individual feel unlike other movies that I've seen. However, it also feels too much like say.. Resident Evil with the whole mutation/zombie effect.

I liked the beginning. I liked how you didn't encounter the 'Darkseekers' till almost 30 minutes in. I really liked Samantha the dog. In my highly professional opinion, she should get the best actress award.

Will Smith played an excellent role as the overzealous Dr. Neville who refused to leave ground zero until he found a cure. My biggest gripe comes from the Darkseekers though. They don't make much sense. So lets talk about them.

• They can smell blood from miles away.
• They have lost all human instinct.
• They have incredible strength/speed.
• They can be hurt by light.
• They control the infected dogs.
• They communicate through roars.
• They adapt (Trapping Neville?)
  
• They have a leader. (Boggle)

Alright. So if they lost all human instinct and have no way of controlling each other due to such savage nature, how (And why) do they control dogs? And why do they have a leader? I really didn't like that fact.

There are plenty of questions still as well. What do they eat? Each other? If thats the case, as was hinted, they should not have a leader. There would be no way to control them, not even through brute strength, since they all have incredible attributes.

And why do they still have clothes? Obviously, it was required for the given movie rating, but this is a noteworthy nitpick in my books.

If they lost their abilities to be human in all ways, they should not be smart enough to move 'Fred' the dummy or even set a trap up the way Neville did. Even if they were watching him, which they shouldn't, since they aren't smart- that is to say that there isn't a separate strain of infection that allows a number of them (Like the leader) to maintain their ingenuity.

I mean hell, even if I watched Neville set up a trap the way he did, I probably wouldn't be able to figure it out and repeat the necessary steps to have a successful trap. It just isn't possible with these guys based on what we got from the movie.

And in the end, I really don't think that a small colony in the middle of nowhere surrounded by high walls will really be a safeguard against these guys. I mean, if they were able to set up a trap against Neville, they will be able to scale those walls with ease, especially since they are able to climb buildings, Spiderman style. It should've been in a cave or something. With alot of light. Or on an island. Something better.

I don't know how the book is but I really did't feel much from this movie aside from Sam's death (Oh crap- spoiler!). It was standard in my books.

I give I Am Legend an average score of 3 out of 5.

Icewind Dale II

So I finally beat this game, a sequel to the amazing, exciting, and addictive Icewind Dale. The original had an awesome storyline, great music, alot of ingenuity and was very similar to Baldur's Gate. In fact, the engine was the same and everything. I played it from start to finish without much frustration. It was that good.

Then came the sequel. I never heard too many reviews about it but I figured that I'd have to at least try it. The first thing I remember doing was reading the back of the box/CD whatever and seeing "A dark horde of evil creatures has attacked the Ten-Towns once again. Brave heroes must come save Icewind Dale!" or something along those lines. I was thinking... "Same plot as Icewind Dale 1? I hope theres some sort of twist."

At first, the game kept crashing on me and it took me forever to finally get it to work. Not a game specific problem- it was probably related to Vista. One thing that really disappointed me, was that the music would stop playing shortly after I'd start making my characters. For anyone thats ever played Baldur's Gate or Icewind Dale series, you should know that the character creation would at least take up to an hour if you really want to get into it. Well, the music stopped playing before one minute was through. That seemed very cheap for me.

Aside from that, the character creation was very different and was most likely the pre-cursor to Neverwinter Nights type since new spells, abilities, and most importantly- feats were introduced. There was alot of variety when it came to classes and abilities- that was good.

When I began the game, I realized that nearly half the screen was taken up by my interface. Unlike the past Black Isle games, this seemed too constipated for me, seeing that there was plenty of useless stuff on the interface that was unnecessary.

Anyways, it seemed interesting as things went along but for a game that was made in 2002 or something, taking the Icewind Dale engine and re-using it seemed cheap to me.

I'll skip through the storyline- wait. Storyline. Oh right, this game hardly even had a storyline. You go from one town, fighting creatures to outside the town fighting creatures to another place fighting creatures till the very end. It was very bland, this storyline. There wasn't anything exciting or new. No twists whatsoever. A re-used idea with a re-used engine with re-used music doesn't make for a great game.

Some of the events in the game were extremely frustrating too. The designers apparently enjoy stuffing zones full of monsters, some hard and some easy. Sure, I had plenty of AoE spells but even then- is it really necessary to just clutter the screen full of enemies and see if you can kill em all? The dialogue in the game was very limited. Hell, the zones themselves were boring. Unlike Baldur's Gate and Icewind Dale where you could enter nearly every single house, nearly all the buildings in Icewind Dale II were closed off aside from the important ones.

Were the designers lazy or something? I mean, sure they followed the plot events from the first came and brought a few memories back but anyone could do that. This is just ridiculous for a sequel.

There was hardly any music in the game itself aside from climactic battle music- which usually ended quickly due to dumping a ton of Fireballs or some other form of AoE on the enemy. The designers got smart. They made a limit to how many monsters I could summon. That was how I beat Baldur's Gate I, I remember. The entire room was filled with monsters. Here though, I could only summon 5 at a time and throughout the game, they are useless except when I need cannon fodder.

The cinematics were horrible. The girl telling the story is boring and is irrelevant to the entire plot. There was no CG except for poorly made pictures depicted from a book. I just wasn't impressed whatsoever.

The most annoying part for me was the boss battles. I absolutely hate battles where bosses are immune to all your magic attacks. I mean.. if thats the case, what is the point to my spells? I hate it when I cast magic missile on the boss and all I see on my screen is "IMMUNE IMMUNE IMMUNE." Then my mage, cleric, and whoever else becomes pretty much useless except for summoning creatures who are even more useless and simply provide cover for my melee units who are in the middle, trying desperately to hit the enemy without getting paralyzed, mind controlled, or held in place (WHICH HAPPENS ALOT). Its absolutely annoying.

The last fight was not exciting whatsoever. I fight two cambions (Half demons) who are immune to all my magic. Their minions are easy to take out but it seems not of my weapons affect them. My bard/thief is absolutely useless because arrows don't seem to affect them so thats another man thats just standing there doing nothing. My melee guys take too much damage and I don't want to risk them getting stunned, so I have to constantly summon in useless creatures to take the threat attacks while my main guys are running in and out, trying to score hits.

And when I finally beat them, I don't even kill them. A spell that is surrounding the zone that I'm in, finally activates and kills them. Or banishes them. I don't know. Either way, I didn't have the satisfaction of finishing them off. No, the designers couldn't even get that right.

And then the game ends with a crappy climactic scene that is no better then the cinematics in between the game's chapters.

Oh, and I had a ton of gold that I couldn't spend. I hate when that happens.

Theres a "hard" mode on the game called Heart of Fury, where I can import my characters and start the game over with monsters being on par to my characters but I won't even bother with that. I didn't think I could be this disappointed with a game from Black Isle.

Overall, I give it a 2 out of 5 rating: Poor. Its a shame since the Baldur's Gate series and the original Icewind Dale were pretty much 4s and 5s in my book.

Barack Obama

So I want to briefly talk about this guy and this controversial running for presidential candidacy.

I first heard of him when he was simply a Senator and the presidential race was just starting. There was alot of news about him and his speeches, changes, and plans as Senator. The first time I heard him talk, I immediately got hooked. His charisma was simply beyond any other politician's. At that point, I got more interested in politics. I started looking into him a bit more and finding out who he was and what he did.

So I read a bit more about him and listened to a few more speeches. And then I thought, "This man should seriously run for president."

Hillary was already a democratic runner as was McCain, Huckabee, Paul, and the other folks. But Obama wasn't yet. And I knew at that point that he could do something big for not just the country, but the world itself.

As the runners started promoting their campaigns and getting donations, Obama was still off the hook when it came for presidency. I constantly checked his site, pondering if he would run or not.

And then, all of a sudden, Barack Obama decided to run for presidency as a democrat. I rejoiced.

The last time I rejoiced this much inside was when EA announced that Ultima X was cancelled but thats a different story. I was happy. This man was running for president. And against Hillary, at that.

In regards to Hillary, I just don't like her. I don't trust her. Her top priority is health care. Universal health care anyways. What else? Sure, she is against the war but she wasn't at first, unlike Obama who never changed his view on the war.

She has her agendas I think. She isn't charismatic. She pulls dirty tricks along with Bill, one big example being that fear mongering photo of Obama in a Somali suit that slightly looks as if he is some Arab.

Thats just ridiculous and dirty on her part. Its an act of desperation. Along with Obama's middle name being Hussein and the false allegations that he once swore on the Koran and that he attended some Islamic school when he was a kid is simply confounding. Has our fear gotten this horrendous, that we are to destroy images of other cultures with thoughts of prejudicial hate and oppression?

I don't want Hillary as president, especially while I'm in the military. McCain, I wouldn't mind but my mind is set on Obama. He caught my eye as he did with millions of others.

I think he can change things around for the country and the world itself. Who cares about color or the fact that he did drugs when he was young? Its time for a change. Obama is the right choice in my opinion.