Reviews by charidotes20

I liked the storyline, but not the game mechanics. This made the more difficult missions more interesting, perhaps, than they were intended to be.

....

To be honest, I actually never liked this game.

(6/10)

Roleplaying perfection.

The freedom of the game was quite addictive, there really were no restrictions, no limitations of what you could do or become, and you could literally set off and explore anywhere, you could set off in any direction of the compass rose, and wander and wander for as long as you pleased. You could loot random caves and become rich, you could join Guilds, play politics and gain status and prestige, and you could even become the Hero to Save The World. But you didn't have to do any of that if you didn't want to--you didn't even have to save the world! You could just put it off, benign neglect, and let it wait, and just talk to people (well, the responses were all text, hahaha), read books, fill in the unexplored bits of your map--for forever upon forever....

.....

My parents, who stopped playing card/board games with me, on a certain day, for uncertain reasons, lol....

"This is Ironman!" ^^

As soon as you go outside, you get attacked by wild birds.

And I used to call this an "RPG", but now I'm going to dispense with the gamer lingo and just call it what it is: it's a fighting game.

"Television games!"

(8/10)

It was a little predictable, but kinda fun.

....

This is sorta a puzzle game, but it's a mediocre puzzle game at best. (Myst is an order of magnitude better.) {At least one, maybe one and a half....}

I mean, Harry Potter is a bit of a dandy.

Oh, and 'Dumbledore's Army, well-- excuse me, Lord Grantham.

But I remember when you were just, Mr Graham! ;)

.....~~

It was a dandy thing, and it could be fake.

In retrospect, the most, incongruent aspect, was that this central theme of one of my few nonviolent/puzzle games, (I wasn't totally without interest in them, but they were so hard to find, that it was almost necessary to let it slip, or something), was gathering an army....

In ways, it was clever, in ways, it was valuable, at its best, at least, maybe....

But it just didn't believe in itself, which is why it gave such a halfhearted, in a way....

A spiritless effort, I mean.... I mean, to quote one of the Yorkshire yokels from "The Secret Garden"-- in cleaned-up English, without the dialectical delight-- 'How do you like yourself?' (You don't like this and you don't like that.... well, how do you like yourself?)

(And Harry is, like.... all this and all that.... and he can be everything except himself.... and all because Hermione doesn't like herself.... at a certain point it's just slightly neurotic, and just, unfair.... just this sort of fear.... a sort of cowardice that requires a sort of willful misunderstanding of everything.... and so by the time you're done playing the ball game you're not really left with this upsurge in belief in the social spirit, or anything of the kind.... no, it takes an army to straighten out a school.... it takes an army, it always does.... but it's clever, this sort of disease-- well, cleaning away all the shit in your house is a sort of purgative, so that could be a 'war'.... fucking cowardly fear-- No, it doesn't have to be a war.... (No, that's fucking cowardly fear!).... You start to think of it that way only because you've taught yourself that you have to.... not every *duty* is *military*.... yeah, and so by the time you're done playing the ball game, you're just not left with it, it's not there.... there's *no* swelling of belief in, damn near anything, but not.... well, the fucking Beatles went to British schools, too you know, and I don't hear them whining their asses off and starting wars and shit.... the problem with the dandies is that they're always so damn *weak*, they resort to this sort of dandy militarism because they're too damn *weak* to walk away from the ball game with this upswelling of belief in.... whatever the king of the swans does.... "And hope my dreams will come true".... And I mean, why not, if the grey pinko lady really hates the grey pinko lady, maybe she's on to it.... Are these little children's games really supposed to be about collecting abstract 'points', or simply not requiring this sort of enervating bitterness and all that sort of poison.... 'Sorry we hurt yur field, mister'.... The point of the ball game is to walk away with a growth of belief that the world does not require bitterness, that to live a social life is good, that your friend is good, and that you do not need to really fight him.... And more.... "Close your eyes, and I'll kiss you...." )

(And, Luna Lovegood is great, but, let's face it-- she gets the Jessica Stanley treatment. Oh, *god*, not *her*, not my *friend*, not my [choose one or more] (*cheerful*), (*responsible*), (*pretty*), (*positive-attribute-which-I-lack*), *friend*-- get her out of here! I *hate* her!)

And always just a little out of place.

The more you like it.... the more you, *can't*, like it.

.... Even the mechanics of the game were like that, although it's hardly unique in that respect, there are plenty of imperial games like that too....

'Oh, this is great.... WHY DOESN'T IT WORK!?!?'

(7/10)

This was totally an epic of awesome. And it was so totally different from the 'original' game, Civ3, that it was like a whole new franchise, kinda. Everything was much deeper, better thought out, and even prettier to look at.

....

But, you know what.

It still sucked.

"Gym Neighbors", lol.

Empire! The Empire Game!

(7/10)

This is obviously really old now, but at the time, it was the veritable definition of epic.

And you know what? It's *still* awesome!

I guess I'm just addicted to bombing the crap out of rival civilizations while listening to classical music, and charting out my civ's technological advancement through the ages (and to the stars!) with my goofy, cartoon-y science adviser.

....

And there was a time when I would have given this a ten, (ten for trashy, lol), but now, in light of the fact that it wasted my time, distorted by vision of reality, (like the sci-fi scum, in general.... um, 'culture'???), and basically just provided me with a bunch of faintly disturbing memories that I happily can't recall quite so well....

And I used to call this a 'turn-based' game, but now I'm just going to dispense with the gamer lingo, (like Paradox, right!), and just call it what it is-- it's an 'empire' game.

And, you know what the funny thing, if you watch bad movies-- Peter Jackson, maybe?-- then you can watch good movies, but with games.... well, there just aren't good games, aside from Myst.... and whist.

I mean, I keep a copy of 'Twilight' and 'The Hobbit', but....

Basically, it's just not worth it.

(7/10)

I don't remember if I actually finished the whole storyline, but this was a pretty good game, a very competetent "tactical" shooter.

Also, the "tactical" aspect of it ("the squad is your weapon") made you feel like all the members of your team were important, even without any RPG-style long drawn-out conversations about where Mission grew up or why Carth can't trust anyone anymore, if you get my drift. I don't even remember there being any levelling/upgrading, it was just a straight shooter as far RPG/not-RPG goes, no "character development" in that sense, but you just got that gritty, realistic feel that the guy standing right next to you was just as much a Republic Commando as you were, and that you were all Brothers All.

And the title song, sung in Mandalorian, (Mandalorian Wars, bitches! yeeeaaah!) was pretty awesome.

.....

*sighs* You know, yeah. You might as well, at a certain point.

I was Mandalorian.

I used to be a Mandalorian; I could speak Mandalorian and everything.

Because I only had a few friends in the world.

And I liked to know that all of my little friends knew how to play their cards correctly.

(9/10)

Very realistic, difficult, and intense. Did not finish.

....

It's so fun.... you'll feel terrified. 0.0

Although, you know, for the record, alot of the time that I spent writing random papers for school was also time defs wasted.

I mean, compared to 'Halo', it's.... well, still pretty bad, actually. Even worse. And I don't.... I'm not sure if I played Halo, or.... which one. I mean, when (last year), I was doing this list, I wasn't sure whether to include that one or not, although I do remember it, kinda....

(I was going to write that all out proper, but then I got rudely interrupted and forgot half of it, so, what the hell.)

But anyway, I guess that I preferred actual tactics of the battle.

Time well wasted.

(5/10)

This show is pretty dang fun. The cast is just great. Tori, Jade, Beck, Cat...Sikowitz. Awesome. And the plot works too.

And they even have songs an' stuff.

(9/10)

I'll admit that I first heard of this movie from the Downfall parodies on YouTube, although (naturally) the real movie is not at all like the absurdist nonsense and false-subtitles-comedy of internet meme. It is a first-class production, and very dark.

It is the story of a vindictive dictator detached from reality, alternatively retreating into fantasies of impossible victories, or else ruthlessly ordering the execution of those subordinates he thinks have "failed" him. It is the story of a confused, cowardly and criminal high command that cannot think for itself, and of soldiers who would rather shoot themselves than surrender--not a few, perhaps, because they know they have already compromised themselves by committting unforgiveable crimes. It is the story of followers and fanatics who in chilling displays of devotion to the criminals they call their leaders, choose suicide over survival, to the point of even murdering their own children, lest they live in a world free from their 'ideals'.

It is also the story of those at least somewhat sane souls who try to live and leave, although not everyone who seeks safety in escape finds it. It is also the story of front-line soldiers, and medics, trapped in the doomed battle for the ruined city--men who find themselves in a fight that even the most experienced could never have been trained or prepared for, to say nothing of those drafted and thrown into the fight at the last minute, without training or arms, by an irresponsible and fanatical 'leadership'. It is the story of those disturbingly few officers and others who saw the need for surrender and survival. And it is the story of confused and disoriented civilians who often do not really understand what is happening to them, like the proverbial deer staring at the headlights of an approaching truck...unable to fully understand their danger, let alone their share of the guilt, these pitiable souls--who count among their number a young woman who works as Hitler's secretary--are unsure whether they will live, or whether the nightmare that has become their lives, or what used to be their lives, will ever end.

There is a saying, I hear, among the Germans: "Better an end in terror, than terror without end". And never was this saying more true, than in April of the Year 1945.

....

*realizes that he has to knock off one point so that it won't show up in the randomized shortlist of favorite movies anymore*

*joinyoselfinzenameoflove*

*throws the pencil*

..........~

Yeah, there's that.

And there's one other thing.

Albert Speer was really just another slave-labor lovin' Nazi who wrote a long, stupid book because he got away with it-- just like Eirch von Munstoong.

Or whatever his name was. His stupid, bosch, name.

There were no good Nazis.

They were Nazis-- therefore, they were also bad.

Very, very bad. And evil. And shitty.

The good Nazis were the ones who got killed. The good Nazis were the ones that ended up dead.

The good Nazis were the ones who got shot in the head by the Russians, and ended up dead in a ditch somewhere.

And dead.

So that they lose, in the end, and do NOT WIN.

Because of how dead the Russians made them.

(9/10)

I liked the TV series Stargate: SG-1, but the movie 'Stargate' just didn't do it for me. Part of the problem was that I really liked Michael Shanks' portrayal of Daniel Jackson, and James Spader really just didn't do as good of a job. I realize that the movie came first, so I guess I'm grateful it was made in that sense, but I can't help but compare the movie to SG-1...And I can't help but say that it comes up short. Aside from the problems with the cast....the whole movie in general seemed mediocre to me.

Upgrade: Oh, and this was the guy who made "The Day After Tomorrow"-- that explains alot, I think.

(6/10)