I’m a sucker for detective stories, and The Creep #0 has just about everything I love about them: an engaging mystery, a lead with a troubled past (and in this case, current affliction), a suspicious supporting cast, and pitch-perfect narration that never feels the need to over-explain things. Writer John Arcudi and artist Jonathan Case are confident in the abilities of their readers, and this issue shines because of it.
The Creep is about a private detective named Oxel who suffers from a disease called acromegaly, which causes him physical deformities as he ages. An old flame from his college days, Stephanie, seeks his help after her son commits suicide, but she hasn’t seen Oxel since he was young and handsome. While the death of the boy is this book’s primary narrative, Arcudi masterfully weaves in the troubled relationships of Oxel and Stephanie underneath the mystery. At this point, this could be indicative of their connection having something to do with the case at hand or it could just be an added bonus to make us care about these characters. But in terms of just issue #0, it makes the read fleshed out and engaging.
The only thing that struck me as odd is the case of Oxel’s acromegaly; it seems rather arbitrary at this point. Though it does offer up some really nice word/imagery juxtaposition in a beautifully crafted scene aboard a train, it remains to be seen what purpose it serves the story, if any. That said, even if the disease is merely an additional character trait, the character moments it provides the deeply lonely Oxel is much appreciated.
Jonathan Case’s artwork impresses, not just in storytelling ability but also in diversity. The Creep #0 has two distinct styles, one of which is a gritty and straightforward approach supplemented by a cold color palette. The other is a more painterly approach with warmer colors and thin, sketchy lines. Case employs the latter style when appropriate, usually during flashbacks or hallucinations, though its usage in one particular instance is what really sold Oxel’s character to me. When Oxel finally calls Stephanie, speaking to her for the first time in over two decades, Case cuts between Oxel on the phone and Stephanie at home, with Stephanie’s two brief panels being rendered in the aforementioned warmer style.
The fact that this style had previously only been used in an “imaginary” capacity indicates how Oxel still views this woman – a warm reflection of his old, and presumably better, life. It’s a heartbreaking moment that is completely visual and happens during a scene when the tragedy should really be about Stephanie’s son’s death, not Oxel’s loneliness, and thus creates an unexpectedly complex moment for the reader.
And that’s what I really enjoyed about this debut issue. There’s so much weight to Arcudi’s words and Case’s visuals, but they do so in a way that keeps the mystery at the forefront and everything else sitting subtly in the background. The Creep #0 requires a bit of careful, thoughtful reading in order to fully appreciate everything that’s being done, but I promise that the effort is worthwhile.
Source : feeds.ign.com
Wednesday, August 8, 2012
Super Paper Mario: One and Done
Paper Mario's getting ripped in half. It hasn't happened yet – it won't be final until Paper Mario: Sticker Star ships to stores later this year – but when that sequel does arrive it will, in a sense, split its own series in two. We'll have the Paper Mario RPGs on one side, including the 2001 original game, the 2004 GameCube sequel The Thousand-Year Door and Sticker Star itself. But then we'll also have the Paper Mario action game. The one Paper Mario action game, 2007's Super Paper Mario, sitting alone by itself. Separated. Torn away from the rest of its own franchise.
The reason is that Super Paper Mario dared to do something different. Its two immediate predecessors both fit fairly well into the traditional role-playing genre – story-driven adventures with turn-based battle sequences. Super Paper Mario kicked that style of battling aside to focus on more immediate action – its gameplay was more in line with older Mario games, where hopping on a Goomba's heads simply defeated it on the spot instead of triggering a cut-away transition to a separate combat screen. Super Paper Mario was faster and more fluid as a result, and while it still had RPG elements in its design – including an incredibly detailed and text-heavy storyline – it was hard to classify it alongside the previous Paper adventures as a "real" role-playing game.
Opinions were split when Super Paper Mario shipped for the Wii five years ago, as some fans appreciated the gameplay shift while others bemoaned the removal of turn-based battling. It wasn't until recently, though, that we found out what that extra action emphasis would mean for the franchise going forward. As it turns out, nothing much.
Paper Mario: Sticker Star is set to ignore the tangent that Super Paper Mario took with its design and instead offer us another more traditional RPG experience. There's a slight thematic shift to having battles controlled by using collectible stickers, but underneath it's turn-based, rhythm-rewarding combat the same as we first saw in the 2001 series debut. And since we now know that the new Paper Mario is going back to its roots, we also know something else too.
That Super Paper Mario was a one-and-done.
Nintendo has done this a few times over the years. You can go back as far as the NES era to find examples like Super Mario Bros. 2 and Zelda II: The Adventure of Link, or you can look to more modern titles like Mario Kart: Double Dash!! All of them were one-and-dones in the sense that they were all sequels in established, on-going series. Each dared to do something different, and then each series went back to doing things the "normal" way immediately afterward. Multiple selectable characters in a Mario side-scroller, each with unique abilities? A separation of Hyrule into birds-eye exploration and 2D side-scrolling action? Two characters riding around on each go-kart together? All of these were intriguing gameplay changes over what came before, but none of them were ever used again.
Super Paper Mario seems like it'll be next in joining Nintendo's one-and-done collection, which is a shame. To me, Super Paper Mario wasn't just a Paper Mario game that did battles differently, but rather a brilliantly individual concept in world exploration. The game's big hook – beyond its visual style and streamlined combat – was the fact that it let you flip its worlds.
Mario started off in 2D, as usual, looking all flat and flimsy in his Papery form. But very early into the adventure you gained the power to rotate the camera 90 degrees, instantly transforming flat, 2D scenery seen from "the side" into full 3D environments viewed from "behind." Nintendo's designers had a ton of fun playing around with the different perspectives, as many of the game's puzzles dealt with interacting with things from both angles – you'd come to an impassable pit in the 2D space, flip the scenery and find that a hill in the background was actually a curved bridge you could walk across. You'd encounter blocks to hit in one perspective that would spin around and settle into the other, making new platforms for Mario to hop across. It was fresh. It was fun.
And now we'll probably never see it again. The Paper Mario series had two directions it could have continued in – it could have continued on from Super Paper Mario, using its design as the new "normal" in a series evolving over time. Or it could go back to traditional turn-based battling, settling back into the older template. Nintendo chose the latter, and because of that choice, it seems like the innovations Super Paper Mario introduced in environment exploration will be getting the axe as well.
Now, that's a lot of doom and gloom for Super Paper Mario fans – those of us who truly appreciated the new direction Nintendo chose five years ago and liked where things looked to be heading for this series. But even now that the franchise has doubled back, I'm still hopeful for the future. Here's why.
First, we don't yet know everything there is to know about Paper Mario: Sticker Star. Its battles are going back to turn-based, sure, but Nintendo has been especially quiet about the adventure beyond that – not even presenting a playable demo at E3 this year. So it's entirely possible that the inventive, perspective-flipping gameplay of Super Paper Mario could still live on in the series in some form during Sticker Star's environment exploration sequences (even if there aren't any helpful Pixls around.)
Next, it's by no means a terrible fate for a Nintendo game to go down in history as a one-and-done. The Big N's designers are so endlessly creative that there's no way each unique idea to come along even gets the chance to be used in a game – so these solo-outing mechanics and concepts are already better off than the thousands of other ideas sitting on the cutting room floor. I'd love a world in which we got a second take on Double Dash's driving duos or Zelda II's split viewpoint, to see what more could have been done with those ideas. But maybe it's those games' uniqueness, years later, that's helping me remember them so fondly to begin with.
Last and best of all for Super Paper Mario is the fact that the game itself has held up beautifully over the past five years. It was a late-generation GameCube project when it first went into development that finally shipped for Wii after being ported over and overhauled to take advantage of the Wii's controller. But now, just months away from the arrival of the next hardware generation, it's still just as fun and worthy of your time as it was in 2007. Better yet, it's become a part of the Nintendo Selects line of budget-priced games in the meanwhile, so if you missed it the first time around or got into Wii ownership a little later, you can grab a fresh copy in stores right now for just 20 bucks.
And I advise you to do just that. Because Super Paper Mario, while it may never inspire its own direct sequel in the future, is a brilliant game, even just as a one-and-done.
Source : feeds.ign.com
The reason is that Super Paper Mario dared to do something different. Its two immediate predecessors both fit fairly well into the traditional role-playing genre – story-driven adventures with turn-based battle sequences. Super Paper Mario kicked that style of battling aside to focus on more immediate action – its gameplay was more in line with older Mario games, where hopping on a Goomba's heads simply defeated it on the spot instead of triggering a cut-away transition to a separate combat screen. Super Paper Mario was faster and more fluid as a result, and while it still had RPG elements in its design – including an incredibly detailed and text-heavy storyline – it was hard to classify it alongside the previous Paper adventures as a "real" role-playing game.
Opinions were split when Super Paper Mario shipped for the Wii five years ago, as some fans appreciated the gameplay shift while others bemoaned the removal of turn-based battling. It wasn't until recently, though, that we found out what that extra action emphasis would mean for the franchise going forward. As it turns out, nothing much.
Paper Mario: Sticker Star is set to ignore the tangent that Super Paper Mario took with its design and instead offer us another more traditional RPG experience. There's a slight thematic shift to having battles controlled by using collectible stickers, but underneath it's turn-based, rhythm-rewarding combat the same as we first saw in the 2001 series debut. And since we now know that the new Paper Mario is going back to its roots, we also know something else too.
That Super Paper Mario was a one-and-done.
Nintendo has done this a few times over the years. You can go back as far as the NES era to find examples like Super Mario Bros. 2 and Zelda II: The Adventure of Link, or you can look to more modern titles like Mario Kart: Double Dash!! All of them were one-and-dones in the sense that they were all sequels in established, on-going series. Each dared to do something different, and then each series went back to doing things the "normal" way immediately afterward. Multiple selectable characters in a Mario side-scroller, each with unique abilities? A separation of Hyrule into birds-eye exploration and 2D side-scrolling action? Two characters riding around on each go-kart together? All of these were intriguing gameplay changes over what came before, but none of them were ever used again.
Super Paper Mario seems like it'll be next in joining Nintendo's one-and-done collection, which is a shame. To me, Super Paper Mario wasn't just a Paper Mario game that did battles differently, but rather a brilliantly individual concept in world exploration. The game's big hook – beyond its visual style and streamlined combat – was the fact that it let you flip its worlds.
Mario started off in 2D, as usual, looking all flat and flimsy in his Papery form. But very early into the adventure you gained the power to rotate the camera 90 degrees, instantly transforming flat, 2D scenery seen from "the side" into full 3D environments viewed from "behind." Nintendo's designers had a ton of fun playing around with the different perspectives, as many of the game's puzzles dealt with interacting with things from both angles – you'd come to an impassable pit in the 2D space, flip the scenery and find that a hill in the background was actually a curved bridge you could walk across. You'd encounter blocks to hit in one perspective that would spin around and settle into the other, making new platforms for Mario to hop across. It was fresh. It was fun.
And now we'll probably never see it again. The Paper Mario series had two directions it could have continued in – it could have continued on from Super Paper Mario, using its design as the new "normal" in a series evolving over time. Or it could go back to traditional turn-based battling, settling back into the older template. Nintendo chose the latter, and because of that choice, it seems like the innovations Super Paper Mario introduced in environment exploration will be getting the axe as well.
Now, that's a lot of doom and gloom for Super Paper Mario fans – those of us who truly appreciated the new direction Nintendo chose five years ago and liked where things looked to be heading for this series. But even now that the franchise has doubled back, I'm still hopeful for the future. Here's why.
First, we don't yet know everything there is to know about Paper Mario: Sticker Star. Its battles are going back to turn-based, sure, but Nintendo has been especially quiet about the adventure beyond that – not even presenting a playable demo at E3 this year. So it's entirely possible that the inventive, perspective-flipping gameplay of Super Paper Mario could still live on in the series in some form during Sticker Star's environment exploration sequences (even if there aren't any helpful Pixls around.)
Next, it's by no means a terrible fate for a Nintendo game to go down in history as a one-and-done. The Big N's designers are so endlessly creative that there's no way each unique idea to come along even gets the chance to be used in a game – so these solo-outing mechanics and concepts are already better off than the thousands of other ideas sitting on the cutting room floor. I'd love a world in which we got a second take on Double Dash's driving duos or Zelda II's split viewpoint, to see what more could have been done with those ideas. But maybe it's those games' uniqueness, years later, that's helping me remember them so fondly to begin with.
Last and best of all for Super Paper Mario is the fact that the game itself has held up beautifully over the past five years. It was a late-generation GameCube project when it first went into development that finally shipped for Wii after being ported over and overhauled to take advantage of the Wii's controller. But now, just months away from the arrival of the next hardware generation, it's still just as fun and worthy of your time as it was in 2007. Better yet, it's become a part of the Nintendo Selects line of budget-priced games in the meanwhile, so if you missed it the first time around or got into Wii ownership a little later, you can grab a fresh copy in stores right now for just 20 bucks.
And I advise you to do just that. Because Super Paper Mario, while it may never inspire its own direct sequel in the future, is a brilliant game, even just as a one-and-done.
Source : feeds.ign.com
Daredevil Annual #1 Reivew
If you are fan of Mark Waid's current run on Daredevil, you don't need to buy this book. It doesn't tie in at all. This is not to say that it's a bad comic book; it's a fun little tale about a single night of Daredevil patrolling the city. But considering how great Daredevil has been, it's a definite step down in quality.
Alan Davis writes and draws this issue, which right away should tell you that it's a beautifully drawn comic book. Davis is a true master in the realm of comic art and he shines here. Daredevil looks awesome and graceful. The panels where he swings across the city are a true site to behold. Since this is an annual, it comes with a higher page count and price tag. For me, extra pages of Alan Davis artwork is worth the extra dollar, but not everyone will feel that way. Especially when you consider the fact that the story is just sort of mediocre.
In this issue, Daredevil crosses paths with the ClanDestine. It's less than compelling and not the kind of story that deserves to be stretched out with an extra long annual issue. Again, it's not bad and certainly does entertain, but once it's over you'll close the book and forget all about it. There is nothing lasting within this issue. It's a bummer, because Daredevil is a character that has been on my mind ever since Waid's relaunch.
Source : feeds.ign.com
Alan Davis writes and draws this issue, which right away should tell you that it's a beautifully drawn comic book. Davis is a true master in the realm of comic art and he shines here. Daredevil looks awesome and graceful. The panels where he swings across the city are a true site to behold. Since this is an annual, it comes with a higher page count and price tag. For me, extra pages of Alan Davis artwork is worth the extra dollar, but not everyone will feel that way. Especially when you consider the fact that the story is just sort of mediocre.
In this issue, Daredevil crosses paths with the ClanDestine. It's less than compelling and not the kind of story that deserves to be stretched out with an extra long annual issue. Again, it's not bad and certainly does entertain, but once it's over you'll close the book and forget all about it. There is nothing lasting within this issue. It's a bummer, because Daredevil is a character that has been on my mind ever since Waid's relaunch.
Source : feeds.ign.com
Mass Effect 3: Operation Olympus Coming this Weekend
BioWare has announced Operation Olympus, the newest Mass Effect 3 multiplayer event. Beginning Friday, August 10th and running until August 12th, Operation Olympus focuses on “increased Reaper activity reported around London” and involves large-scale strikes against the Reapers intended “to buy the Resistance time to investigate.” Mass Effect 3’s free Earth downloadable content is required to participate.
The Squad Goal of Olympus is full extraction from Firebase London using any kit on any difficulty. The Allied Goal is completing wave 10 on any map using any kit against any enemy for a combined community total of 200,000 Bronze missions, 175,000 Silver missions and 70,000 Gold missions. If the Squad Goal is met, all squad members will receive a Commendation pack, while success in the Allied Goal will get all players a Victory Pack.
Mass Effect 3 will receive its next single-player downloadable content later this summer with the release of Leviathan. The game is also set to be a launch title for Wii U.
Source : feeds.ign.com
The Squad Goal of Olympus is full extraction from Firebase London using any kit on any difficulty. The Allied Goal is completing wave 10 on any map using any kit against any enemy for a combined community total of 200,000 Bronze missions, 175,000 Silver missions and 70,000 Gold missions. If the Squad Goal is met, all squad members will receive a Commendation pack, while success in the Allied Goal will get all players a Victory Pack.
Mass Effect 3 will receive its next single-player downloadable content later this summer with the release of Leviathan. The game is also set to be a launch title for Wii U.
Source : feeds.ign.com
Android-Powered Nikon Coolpix S800 On the Way with Google Play Store
Like it or not, "smart" point-and-shoot cameras which use Google's Android operating system are on the way, and the first one may land later this month.
A filing with the Indonesian Communication Agency (that would be Indonesia's version of the FCC) has outed an application for the Nikon Coolpix S800c digital camera, which is believed to be the company's first foray into Android territory.
According to Nikon Rumors, the S800 will run Android 2.3 and, get this: It will come with Google's Play Store, which means the camera will be capable of running just about any Android app you want to install.
To accomplish this task, Nikon is empowering the S800 with Wi-Fi as well as built-in GPS for geolocation, and the Coolpix shooter will reportedly come with a 25-250mm lens and 3.5-inch OLED screen.
The best news for Nikon fans is that the S800 could arrive as early as August 22, which is a mere two weeks away now.
Nikon is certainly not alone in wanting to bring Android onto point-and-shoot cameras, with rivals Panasonic and Samsung also expressing interest in such an animal. Back in February, Samsung even trademarked the term "Galaxy Camera" -- and we can only think of one thing that might be intended for.
Source: Slash Gear
A filing with the Indonesian Communication Agency (that would be Indonesia's version of the FCC) has outed an application for the Nikon Coolpix S800c digital camera, which is believed to be the company's first foray into Android territory.
According to Nikon Rumors, the S800 will run Android 2.3 and, get this: It will come with Google's Play Store, which means the camera will be capable of running just about any Android app you want to install.
To accomplish this task, Nikon is empowering the S800 with Wi-Fi as well as built-in GPS for geolocation, and the Coolpix shooter will reportedly come with a 25-250mm lens and 3.5-inch OLED screen.
The best news for Nikon fans is that the S800 could arrive as early as August 22, which is a mere two weeks away now.
Nikon is certainly not alone in wanting to bring Android onto point-and-shoot cameras, with rivals Panasonic and Samsung also expressing interest in such an animal. Back in February, Samsung even trademarked the term "Galaxy Camera" -- and we can only think of one thing that might be intended for.
Source: Slash Gear
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