For every Harvard Graduate in the NBA, there’s a guy who can’t count.
Take, for example, the Minnesota Timberwolves’ Martel Webster.
Here’s the situation, the Timberwolves are trailing by three with four seconds left in overtime, and the only chance they have to tie it up is the insane chance that they can steal the inbound pass and hit a three.
And..well…watch what happens.
/sigh
1. Lin Pun! New York Knicks point guard Jeremy Lin took over the sports world this week, partly because he’s the first Taiwanese American to make it at the NBA level, partly because he’s pretty good for a guy who’s hardly ever played NBA basketball, partly because he went to Harvard, and mostly because it’s super easy to make puns that start with “Lin.”
2. There’s a New Playstation Thing. Sony launched the Vita this week, to the delight of that one person who really loved his PSP. I think it was probably just the kid in those commercials. This is NOT a PSP with a DS taped to the back though. Despite what you may have heard. It’s totally not that.
3. The Simpsons Turn 500! It’s hard to believe that it’s been 500 episodes, but then again, the show has been on for about 1,000 years, so that’s only 1/2 an episode per year. Of course, I, like everybody else, swear I stopped watching at episode 120.
4. Judi Dench Can’t Read What We’re Saying. What a Ho! Dame Judi Dench, who is totally awesome, announced this week that she is going blind. No word on whether or not this will change her role in the James Bond films, though it will certainly make looking at Daniel Craig easier.
5. A Guy Died. Neil Hope, the guy who played Wheels on Degrassi was reported dead this week. He died in 2007. But yeah, nobody ever watched Degrassi, so it took a while for this news to get out. Also, the Baby from Dinosaurs died. He will be missed.
I always like to open these reviews by giving a little background of how my mind is set up going into playing this game. Three things impacted how I felt about this series. One: Telltale has been on a cold streak as far as adventure games since Tales from Monkey Island. Two: I love the courtroom games genre, thanks in large part to the influence of Phoenix Wright. Three: I have no feeling one way or another about the Law & Order franchise, other than that I was never a watcher of the shows.
Remarkably, Law & Order – Legacies does little to change my opinions on any of the three seemingly divergent thought processes. It is, overall, a weak throwback to the early to mid-90s FMV adventure games where the game is less about actual deduction that constantly offering pop quizzes about how much you understand the premise of the game. However, despite still not being a fan of the series, I found myself oddly compelled by the storyline and the characters involved.
The episode plays like an episode of the television series, and on that the game delivers in spades. There’s good drama in the “law” portion of the game and the courtroom scenes do a good job of engaging you mentally. Unfortunately, there doesn’t seem to be a whole lot of “game” even in this portion, as most of your time is spent clicking through rather spartan dialog trees (something Phoenix Wright hides well with bluster and humor), which can cause you to glaze over and miss salient points and rather good writing.
An interesting note, none of the television show’s cast reprises their roles here, which, while understandable, feels odd and may turn off fans of the show. The replacement actors do a fine job of mimicking their counterparts, but it does seem a shame that they couldn’t get anybody from the cast.
Extra Features:
There aren’t any extra features, to speak of.
Technical:
I haven’t come across any bugs on my machine, and the retail version seems to be relatively bug free.
Graphics:
You’re either going to love this or hate it. I sort of love the graphical style of this game. All the “actors” are presented in sort of a motion comic format, so they look like live actors painted into the 3D scenery. It’s a very interesting and unique visual style that I think works really well in motion, but it’s going to turn people who wished they would go full 3D or 2D off.
Sound:
As I said in the lead, the voice actors are fine, but they are generic voice actors which does more to detract from the presentation than anything. If you can get over that particular hurdle, they do a fine job of playing this group of characters.
The music feels like it was pulled directly from the show, which is a good thing. The opening score is there intact, and the classic DunDUN is inserted whenever possible to remind you that you’re playing a Law & Order game.
Replay Value:
Some, but not much. You collect a score for every quiz answer, objection, and line of questioning you get right, which the game spits back to you at the end of the episode. If you aren’t satisfied with your score, it makes sense to go back through and see where you missed.
Final Score: 6.5/10
This is TellTale’s best game so far in 2012, but that’s not saying much. I really think this series has some legs though, and I hope their integration of the technology into the story gets better as it goes, because I was a big fan of the drama being presented here and found the gameplay to be a huge hurdle to my enjoyment of it, which isn’t good.
I think it’s very telling of TellTale’s overall quality control problem currently. They are (understandably) very excited about branching out into the iOS/Android/X-Box Marketplace fields, that they’ve forgotten how to make a good game. This and Jurassic Park especially, have been dumbed down to the point of barely being a game anymore, is all just vaguely interactive fiction, which isn’t one of TellTale’s strengths and not what brought them to the dance.
While the Back to the Future license brought them a lot of eyes, I’m afraid this sort of slip in quality has been frustratingly evident in TellTale’s line-up since, perhaps Sam & Max Season 2 when they started eschewing their point and click roots to incorporate frustrating multi-platform control schemes. Since then, development has been about getting games out on as many platforms as possible. Which is, I understand, tremendous for business, but their game design philosophy has really suffered horribly since that point, to the point that these are barely even games.
It’s going to be interesting, given Double Fine’s recent success in getting their Adventure Project funded, how that will turn out (it’s already made a profit sales wise, and it hasn’t even started production yet). I’m hoping it spurs TellTale to dive back into the adventure pool with a fresher perspective.
In any event, I think the writing and art style of this game is easily an 8 almost a 9, but it’s so caked in bad design decisions that, while I think it’s worth a look at $19.99 for seven episodes, I can’t recommend it to anybody but fans of the show.
If you’re interested in taking a look at the game, you can find it at the TellTale Website.
Class Lore: Bounty Hunter is another “catch all” term in the Old Republic universe for anyone who is unaffiliated with the Republic or Empire, but kills for money. Most true Bounty Hunters, however, are somehow aligned with the Mandalorians, an ancient order of hired killers who live to challenge themselves against others in combat.
The Empire begrudgingly condones the use of Bounty Hunters (even granting them their own enclave on Droman Kass) mostly because hunters are willing to do jobs that most self respecting Sith aren’t. Also, because the more violent and combative nature of the Sith Empire allows the Mandalorians more freedom to operate their war games.
The Story So Far: As a bounty hunting novice, it seems unlikely that you’d get an invitation to the Mandalorian’s Great Hunt, an honor competition with a rather large cash reward. Luckily, a “talent” scouting group has been searching for somebody on Nal Hutta to sponsor in that tournament, and are willing to back you up.
Advanced Classes:
Powertech: More about substance than style, the Powertech hunters use a single blaster and as much crap as they can pile onto their armor as possible to make themselves an unstoppable killing machine. This selection includes tanking and DPS trees.
Mercenary: More about tactics than brute force, mercenaries use two blasters and a bunch of gadgets to keep their enemies off balance and their friends standing. This selection includes healing and DPS trees.
Republic Mirror Class: Trooper
Starship: D5 Mantis
Lore:</>
You chased the Naga all over Vashj’ir until they dove into the Abyssal Maw and attacked Neptulon, which is probably the worst thing that could happen. So, uh, maybe we should go down there and help him?
And that’s what we do, swimming down into the cave system that leads to his palace, killing as many naga and other nasty things as we possibly can to help Neptulon drive them out of his kingd…Is that a giant octopus?! EVERYBODY RUN!
Degree of Difficulty: Easy/Medium
Consistent with most of Cataclysm’s content, there’s a fair amount of trash in Throne of the Tides, but most of it can be engaged in small groups without much interference. Most of the trash won’t give you any problems, but the Faceless Watchers in the (entirely optional) east wing tend to hit for a lot of damage. The Murloc and Tainted Sentry swarms in the first and last corridors spawn constantly until you move past their area.
The difficulty of the bosses in this instance are very much dependant on group coordination. The Naga Lady Naz’jar must be interrupted when casting her lightning spell, you must also watch the ground for her geyser attack, and CC at least one of her adds when she becomes immune to damage. Commander Ulthok, a faceless one, is a fairly simple fight if your tank can keep him kited so the DPS can stay out of the AoE he drops on the ground. Mindbender Ghur’sha is a mindcontrolling octopus, and definitely the most difficult encounter of the instance, though he is skippable. When controlling his host, he does a light cone attack, a heavy cone attack, and a knockback. When loose he is uneffected by any spell damage, a stun AoE, a DoT, and an instant kill mind-control attack (if he’s not DPSed off quickly enough). Ozumat (the aforementioned giant octopus) is an interesting encounter. You start by keeping trash off of Neptulon until phase two, in which the tanks pick up AoE dropping blight bests (healers must be especially on the ball to keep players up during this phase as the AoE can quickly get out of control). During phase three, the players get a massive damage buff and can just wail away at Ozumat. Or whale away, if you prefer.
Special Features:
Using a Scroll of the Highborne Archaeology Item in the clam at the beginning of the instance will grant 10% extra damage to the party against humanoids. Completing this dungeon grants reputation based on the tabard equipped.
Recommended for Levels: 80 (Normal)/85 (Heroic)
As a starter instance for Cataclysm dungeon content, this does its job. You have two fairly simple boss fights at the beginning, one of which (Naz’jar) trains you to develop group strategies that you will use in future content. Then there’s an advanced, but optional boss that really tests your ability to put those skills into practice, and a fairly easy but convoluted end boss.
At this point in the Cataclysm life cycle, it’s hard to recommend running this instance as there are just so many more and better ways to gear up and get points these days. But if you’re new to the game or this level of content, it is a good training wheels instance for you to build on as you get deeper into what Cataclysm has to offer.
I mentioned this in the Top Five, but it’s hard not to love the Double Fine team. Nobody wants to fund an adventure game? To hell with that, just toss it up on Kickstarter and overnight become the most supported Kickstarter project ever.
Yet another reason why I love the Internet.
(Just don’t put Call of Duty or something up there please)
Anyway, here’s Tim Schafer on what we can expect from the Double Fine Adventure Project. Including Swedish?
1. It Was the Grammys. Chris Brown somehow managed to overshadow Whitney Houston’s death by just…showing up. And then Nikki Minaj was engaged in some weird Assassins Creed cosplay, and Adele won all the awards while looking suspiciously like Lana Del Rey.
2. Hulu Is Turning Into Its Own Damn Network. The first show that Hulu has financed itself, “Battleground” a show about a senator’s clueless campaign staff staring the delightfully perky Alison Haislip launched this week. But Hulu’s being weirdly cagey about how well the show was received by the five people who were aware that the show exists.
3. How Much Would YOU Pay for Whitney Houston Music? That’s what Sony tried to find out this week when they bumped the price of all her music on iTunes as soon as word of her death leaked out. Sony representative Bobby Brown later apologized for the action.
4. Oprah Doesn’t Understand Twitter/TV. Oprah Winfrey is in trouble this week after she sent out several tweets over the weekend begging Nielson box owners to tune into her failing OWN network to artificially boost the viewer numbers. Which…happens to be against Nielsen’s policy. Oops.
5. Uh, Oh, People Found Out About Kickstarter. Doublefine Games, the makers of Psychonauts and the child of adventure game pioneers Tim Schafer and Ron Gilbert announced that they were looking for funding for a new point and click adventure game, but given its unpopularity amongst business bigwigs, they were asking fans to support the budget. On Kickstarter. Within hours a $400,000 proposed budget became $1 million. And they still have almost a month of fundraising left. I guess it’s time for big companies to get fans to buy into projects without spending their own money. (But seriously, kudos to the awesome guys at Doublefine).
Class Lore: “Smuggler” is the catch-all name for a ship captain or crew who perform various under-the-radar activities (both illicit and not) for profit throughout the galaxy. In the period of the Old Republic, smugglers are finding more and more employment as mercenaries than as goods trafficers because of the lack of warm bodies on the front lines.
While Smugglers aren’t actually “Republic” or “Imperial” on or off the record, in the Old Republic storyline, most smugglers feel as though their activities would be suppressed by the more domineering Empire, and are willing to compromise their legendary neutrality…for a price.
The Story So Far: You’re a starship captain with a lot of bad luck and worse associates making a run of supplies to a Republic base on Ord Mantell. But faster than you can say “I’m getting too old for this shit” the Ord Mantell Resistance attacks leaving your ship missing and you to fend for yourself.
Advanced Classes:
Gunslinger: Trickshot artists who use two pistols to keep their enemies at a distance and take them down, usually from the cover of a nice chest high wall. This selection only includes DPS trees.
Scoundrel: A master of using the shadows and any cheapshot he can take to get an advantage. They’ve only got one gun in hand, leaving their other open for scattergun shots, picking up drinks, ladies, or an extra medpack. Whichever. This selection includes DPS and Healer trees.
Sith Mirror Class: Imperial Agent
Starship: XS Freighter
Lore:
So, let’s recap our time in Northrend. We killed the Blue Dragon Aspect, we beat back an Old God, we killed trolls…for some reason, and now we’ve taken out Arthas himself. It’s sure as hell time to leave, I heard Deathwing’s throwing a killer barbecue.
What’s this? The Black Dragonflight snuck into the Red Dragonflight’s house for a pre-party and didn’t invite anybody? Well, that’s a definite party foul. We should go…kill them. Or something? I don’t know. Can’t the damn dragons handle this for once?
Degree of Difficulty: Easy
The trash is nothing to speak of, as this is just a filler raid to eat up time between raiding at Icecrown tier and raiding at the first tier of Cataclysm content.
But there are four bosses:
Saviana Ragefire: A Black Dragon, who is basically like a dungeon boss but with a lot of help. Not really complicated. If you get the debuff move away from the raid so as to minimize the radiant damage, and afterwards she’ll launch into an AoE of her own until you can interrupt.
Baltharus the Warborn: A Drakonid, and a real swell guy. Again, move away if you get the debuff or your raid will lose DPS fairly quickly. At half health, he produces a clone of equal health, off tank that sucker and continue to burn down the one you’ve been killing this whole time.
General Zarithrian: A black dragonkin. He’s got a stun and summons some adds throughout the fight. Switch tanks as he stacks up the armor reducing debuff and just DPS him down.
Halion: One of those spooky Twilight Drakes that Deathwing has been hanging out with. He too has a debuff that players must move away from the group with to minimize AoE (it was apparently Debuff Discount Day at Blizzard HQ). Watch the ground to make sure you aren’t killed by a fireball in phase one. In phase two you get transported to the Twilight where you have to choose between your Blood Elf lover and a Worgen with a heart of gold.
No?
Anyway, in phase two everybody but one tank and one healer (who nap) runs through a portal and avoids orbs that shoot lasers and more AoE debuffs (seriously, you guys?).
Phase 3 is a fight on both sides of the portal, so split your raid group. The more damage you do in one realm, the less you do in the other, and that stacks, so you want to keep the damage about even on both sides Do that and collect loot.
Special Features:
None
Recommended for Levels: 80-85
There is really no point in doing this raid unless you need a little (tiny) bit of Cataclysm flavor or just want to whore out the achievements. Even after it was first released, Ruby Sanctum did not see a lot of play.
Still, the raid itself is very easy and until the last fight has very few weird mechanics, making it a pretty good “starter raid” for people who are new to endgame content. At this point all 85s vastly outlevel this content anyway, so it could be used as a decent teaching tool in the future.
As a wrestling fan, I’ve always been fascinated by the inner workings of the business. Wrestling is so alien and yet, often so familiar, and there have been some wonderful documentaries over the years that have shown us just how human the “larger than life” superstars of pro-wrestling often are.
Whereas Beyond the Mat showed off the careers of several wrestlers at very different points in their careers, Wrestling Road Diaries is a deeper, much more lighthearted dive into the world of independent wrestling. It’s sort of the Animal House to Beyond’s The Graduate.
The stars of the DVD are Colt Cabana, an Indy fixture who had a cup of coffee in WWE but is lately turning heads with his podcast “The Art of Wrestling,” Sal Rinauro, an independent ‘enhancement’ talent, and Bryan Danielson, perhaps best known to fans these days as World Heavyweight Champion Daniel Bryan, who is weeks away from signing his second (of three) WWE contracts.
Wrestling Road Diaries is, at times, oddly schizophrenic, but in a good way. While much of the focus of the feature is on the amusing fraternity relationships the three have developed with their wrestling compatriots, the real center of the piece is Bryan Danielson, and his struggles as he copes with his fears during what would wind up being one of the biggest weeks of his life.
There are a few really touching moments during the Diaries, where the audience sees Danielson at his most vulnerable. In the time leading up to his contract signing, he gets the dreaded “elevated liver enzymes” which causes him to reflect on his life with some surprisingly candid conversations with the camera about his fears for his health, his career, and his future. There’s also a very sobering moment in which he laments the future of the business while attempting to train some inattentive students.
Danielson’s story is very nicely set off against the story of Nigel McGuiness (formerly TNA’s Desmond Wolfe), who also has dreams of a WWE contract, that we know ultimately go unfulfilled. Seeing it knowing what we now about the careers of both men makes this storyline all that much more intriguing.
Cabana’s role in the story is more of the comic relief. If you’ve ever listened to his show or seen his matches, you know he’s hilarious, and it doesn’t change here. It’s unfortunate, I think, that he doesn’t let his guard down a little more, especially considering that he opens the Diaries with a fairly emotional statement about his time in WWE.
But what we get from Colt is silly and a lot of fun. The road stories, sleeping at a fan’s house, merch tables, there’s a lot to love about these sections. Just with the caveat there that he is very much Colt Cabana the character throughout the DVD, and if you don’t appreciate the gimmick, then you will likely get annoyed by him quite quickly.
I do feel that there’s an interesting story to be told with Sal Rinauro, I’m just not sure that this was the DVD to do it. His part in the production is very minor, as he’s mostly just around to react to Colt and Bryan, which he does a fine job of. It’s just too bad that he didn’t have more to add here.
Bonus Features:
If you get the 2 disc version of the DVD, you also get over an hour of deleted scenes. Most of these scenes were clearly cut because they stretched the narrative of the film a little thin, but they’re almost all amusing in one way or another. It includes more footage of Danielson from the training session and a special appearance by former WCW legend Van Hammer.
There’s also an interview with Cabana on the “Wrestling Roundtable” a Public Access looking program with two public access looking hosts. I’m assuming they were somehow involved with the production of the DVD, otherwise it seems like a bit of an odd fit, because it’s comparatively poorly put together. But it does allow Cabana to talk a little bit more about his short lived WWE career.
And then there is an ad for the DVD. They’re very well put together and give you a nice little taste of what the DVD is all about. Which would be nice if you hadn’t just watched them. But still, it’s nice that they included a little extra on the bonus features.
Overall: 4 of 5
If you’re a wresting fan, you owe it to yourself to check out Wrestling Road Diaries. It has a little something for every wrestling fan, and it’s one of the most honest portrayals of the backstage atmosphere in wrestling to date.
It’s an interesting addendum to the current careers of both Daniel Bryan, WWE World Heavyweight Champion and Colt Cabana, iTunes sensation, and, for what it’s worth it’s a good primer for some Indy guys to look out for as they pass through various promotions.
It’s almost a shame, because both Colt and Bryan have stories to tell that are worthy of full length DVDs, but I feel like only Bryan’s story really gets any meat here, while Colt (and to a much, much lesser extent, Sal) exists outside the narrative, playing comic relief, But sometimes, I guess, a documentary doesn’t have to be all narrative all the time, and while what we get isn’t exactly Beyond the Mat or Wrestling with Shadows it serves to fill a different, but still necessary position in the wrestling documentary oeuvre.
The DVD is currently selling for $20 ($25 with the second disc) at http://coltmerch.com/.
Also, it’s worth noting that Cabana recently announced that they’re currently filming a second DVD staring himself, Cliff Compton (WWE’s Domino) and Luke Gallows (WWE’s Luke Gallows) that sounds like it’s going to err more on the “comedy” side, which sounds entertaining, but not particularly enlightening.
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