IN SPACE, NO ONE CAN HEAR YOU JUMP FOR JOY

They can hear it here on Earth, though, and if you are a fan of RTS (Real Time Strategy) games or the Halo franchise then that is exactly what you'll be doing after playing Halo Wars. After acquiring a review copy of the game, I played the whole way through its 15 campaign levels and played some multiplayer against the computer and can see already this game has everything you could want from it.

Many skeptics out there worried that if you combined the long history of RTS failures on consoles with a prequel to one of the most successful franchises in gaming history you were going to get burned for playing with fire. Then when they heard it would be an XBOX360 exclusive with no PC port, they almost wrote this gem off before a demo had even been released. However, the folks at Ensemble Studios knew exactly what they were doing. Hailed for RTS staples like the Age of Empires series, Ensemble Studios proved they were the right ones to make what I am declaring to be the first successful RTS game for a console.

As an RTS, Halo Wars plays as if you were using your computer. Using the paintbrush tools and hot buttons to select troops and move from base to base make basic commands a breeze to the point that you forget you're using an XBOX360 controller and not a mouse and keyboard. Supplies gathering and building upgrades are simple and have been streamlined to fit the console's RTS scheme and make it so that you can build your supply depot and forget about it and know your supplies will continue to stream in (as long as you keep the supply depot from getting razed by enemy fire that is). The gameplay is crisp and there isn't an ounce of lag throughout the game.

The only problems were the usual ones you find in most RTS games, such as trying to send a group of three or four large units, like tanks, through a narrow opening in the land and instead of them naturally deciding to go one at a time, they keep running into each other as all four try to fit through at once. This pathfinding bugginess is forgivable since that has been a problem with RTS games for years, not just on consoles. The battle engagements are challenging and most missions require more thinking than "I'll just build more units than the enemy and unleash my entire army in a barbaric charge when the time comes". With four levels of difficulty to play through and an online co-op mode, the Halo Wars story mode will keep RTS fans happy for a long time.

In terms of the head-to-head multiplayer, I will admit I wasn't able to get a true feel for it due to there being only so many early copies out there for us media outlets, but I did play a few Deathmatches against the computer and it had everything you would expect from an RTS Deathmatch. Standard rules: wipe your opponent off the map. It gives you a huge amount of starting supplies and it's a race to see how fast you can build the largest army to try and eradicate your opponent. The maps are all based off planets and locales you come across in the main game, but on a smaller scale to encourage constant engagements. Everything taken into consideration, the Halo Wars head-to-head multiplayer has a strong foundation for some great XBOX Live battles ahead for itself.

If you're a follower of the Halo canon you can rest easy. The story is not only compelling, but it does justice to the series and highlights some obscure key events in the Halo timeline that many might not be familiar with that lead up to Master Chief's escapades. Troops, vehicles, and buildings are all as accurate as can be for both the Marines and the Covenant and follow in line with what you've learned from previous Halo games. For example, you can't make an army of Spartan soldiers; if you're lucky you'll get a couple at the beginning of the level to help you out and that's it. Add in collectibles that concur with the Halo universe like a skull on each level and black boxes to reveal more of the Halo timeline feature and you've got plenty to keep this game warm in your machine for a long time. The only real drawback I felt was that the story seemed a bit short. The plot developed too quickly for my tastes and to have as much action as it did spread across only 15 levels felt like you had unfinished business. Then again, it does take place 20 years before Master Chief so that might have been on purpose.

If you want to learn a little bit more about the story and the characters, take a look at the interview I did with Lead Story Writer, Graeme Devine from Ensemble Studios.



Graphics: 8.5: Not a tremendous amount of detail is usually necessary for an RTS game. As long as the terrain is has some variations and is glitch-free, then you're usually set. This being said, Halo Wars' cut scenes are spectacular to view and bring up the overall visual quality of the game and are something to look forward to after each mission. A solid display to say the least.

Audio: 9.5: The voice acting was crisp and clean and the SFX were fairly solid. In-game explosions could have used a little work. I just didn't feel it when I destroyed a Covenant base. The music was taken straight from the trilogy which was a smart move. Minor complaints, but really great overall.

Plot/Plot Development: 9.0: The plot seemed a little rushed at times and developed too quickly considering the grand scale of the Covenant's master plan in this game. I understand that it was probably a lot of story to fit in over only 15 levels, but it left you feeling with unfinished business at the end. Then again, this is only one short series of events over a war that spans decades and is still 20 years away from Master Chief's adventures.

Gameplay: 9.0: The game was mostly smooth and the A.I. was pretty impressive. The only problems were the usual ones you find in any great RTS game, such as trying to send a group of three or four large units through a narrow opening in the land. They decide that running into each other, as all four try to fit through at once, will be exactly the kind of reinforcements you need in any altercation. This has been a problem that has plagued RTS games for years and until someone figures out how to fix that, no RTS will ever earn a perfect score on gameplay.

Replay Value: 10.0: The telltale sign of an RTS game's greatness is if you want to keep playing the missions over and over and this one succeeds. With hidden collectibles on each mission, co-op and versus options, and like any good RTS game, no mission can be completed the same way twice, this game will stay in your XBOX360 for a long time.

Overall (not an average): 10.0: Let me start off by saying that 10 out of 10 does not make a game perfect, there is no such thing as a "perfect" game. However, to not give this game the highest possible score would be a tragedy. What pushed this up from a 9 to a 10 is that this game is the first to break the stereotype of RTS games being abysmal on a console. Never before has an RTS been able to successfully transition from the PC to the home console or go straight to the console with such fluidity. This game could revolutionize the RTS genre and open up doors we had only begun to dream of. This alone would have garnered a great score, but combined with an awesome plot, stellar controls, and visually stunning cut scenes, I could not think of giving this game any less than a "perfect" score. Thank you to the people at Microsoft and Ensemble Studios for FINALLY getting it right.

Halo Wars is available everywhere on March 3rd, 2009.

-Ray Carsillo

A WONDER TO BEHOLD

The first night of the NY ComicCon held one of the most anticipated events of the entire convention. The IGN theatre was filled to the rafters before a special complete viewing of the highly anticipated Wonder Woman full-length animated, straight to DVD, feature coming out March 3rd, 2009, three days before the Watchmen premieres in theatres (DC drilled that into our heads during the Lauren Montgomery/Bruce Timm/Michael Jelenic panel after the movie).

DC's animation department has been churning out these full-length features for years now, and they have always pushed themselves to the limits in terms of story telling and doing justice to the characters (except for Batman: Mystery of the Batwoman, I've tried for years to delete that from my memory banks). It's a credit to Producer Bruce Timm and Casting Director Andrea Romano who have been a part of almost all of them. Bruce and Andrea were also in the original brain trust that started the animation revolution in the early 1990s with Batman: The Animated Series and continued their relationship with DC with this project and it shows in another above and beyond effort.

This was a huge undertaking since it marks the first time in 30 years that any media form has devoted a sole project to the Amazonian Princess and DC pulled out all the stops in terms of talent: Keri Russell as Wonder Woman, Alfred Molina as Ares, Oliver Platt as Hades, Nathan Fillion as Steve Trevor, Rosario Dawson as Artemis, and Virginia Madsen as Hippolyta. And, of course, it wouldn't be a DC animation project without a little pro voice over talent, perfectly cast again by Andrea Romano, with Tara Strong (Raven in Teen Titans, Batgirl in Batman: The Animated Series) as Alexa and John DiMaggio (Bender in Futurama, Marcus Fenix in Gears of War 1 and 2) as Deimos. Director Lauren Montgomery is a veteran in the animation game, but this was her first full-length feature where she was the sole director and she did a great job with such a huge undertaking. Add in veteran cartoon writer Michael Jelenic for the script and the pieces were in place for what could be one of DC's best cartoon features to date.

Here's the basic premise for those of you unfamiliar with Wonder Woman's background. Taken with some liberties from Greek mythology, Hippolyta, Queen of the Amazons, wages war against Ares, the god of war, in an attempt to save humanity from itself. After besting Ares in battle, Hippolyta wishes to do away with Ares, but is prevented by Zeus, the father of Ares and king of the gods. Hera, queen of the gods, and patron to Hippolyta, bargains to imprison Ares for all time on the Amazon's island in the Aegean Sea and Hera would be given a child from the gods for her trouble. So Hippolyta locks Ares away and makes a child out of mud and clay that is blessed by the gods in the form of a daughter, whom Hippolyta names Diana.

Centuries later, the Amazons, who still look smoking hot because they are descended from gods and do not age like humans, are living in tranquility on their island, hidden from man's eyes by a magic mirror by Hephaestus (Greek god of the forge) when an American fighter jet gets shot down and crashes into the invisible island. Upon landing in what he thinks is heaven (who can blame him), American pilot Steve Trevor is captured and learns that the Amazons' culture involves the hatred of man and that he must be sent back to America with an emissary from the Amazons' island. Diana, dying to explore the world, rigs the selection process so that she may be the emissary. At the same time, the Amazons are betrayed by one of their own and Ares is set free so Diana's mission becomes two-fold, to re-capture Ares as well as escort Steve Trevor home.

This was a great watch. The only real snag I hit with this project was that it still never explained where the heck she got her invisible jet! Everything else was given a detailed, ornate history from her bulletproof bracelets to her Lasso of Truth. The jet though just sort of appeared as if an invisible jet was common place. Then, to add insult to injury, it seemed like too many people could see the invisible jet so it really wasn't that invisible, was it? My theory is that the Amazons reverse engineered the jet that Steve Trevor crashed in and made their own improvements to it, but it still wasn't explained outright. Cursed comic book speculation!

Overall, the story is relatively accurate to the comics, with a few liberties taken on the Greek mythos, but it was still done in an enjoyable and meaningful manner that does justice to the original stories from the 1940s. The voice acting was great, the story held your attention the entire way through, and it timed out nicely at nearly an hour and a half. It also answered every question (almost; damn invisible jet) that you might have about Wonder Woman if you weren't a diehard and not too familiar with the character.

The Wonder Woman animated feature gets 4 out of 5.

-Ray Carsillo

ROBIN VS RAY 2

During the first day of the 2009 NY ComicCon, I was accompanied by producer extraordinaire Robin Lundberg. Robin wanted the perfect setting to have at me for a review I wrote a couple of weeks ago for the new Marvel DVD, Hulk VS. For those who read the article (and still can by simply scrolling down or looking through this page's archives), you know my stance against it. Robin felt a little bit differently though as you can see by watching this video.

-Ray Carsillo

COLLECTING INTEREST

After days of images of Green Lantern Rings, Batarangs, and Webshooters dancing through my head, I've finally been able to remotely connect back to reality, dragging myself out of my NY ComicCon overload and managing to write something. The amazing events leading up to and during NY ComicCon included more previews for big movies and video games than I could count and I got exclusive interviews and demos on some of the hottest games and movies coming out in the next couple of months, and enough to keep me writing for a good long time.

My articles dealing with NY ComicCon will span the next few weeks and probably go in order of what is coming out first so there is less time for you to anticipate the gems galore I was able to get sneak peeks at. Keeping that in mind, my first article deals with a movie that is coming out on Friday, February 13th. No, it isn't the new Friday the 13th movie, although the horror genre does appeal to a special group of the geek community. No, I'm talking about my advanced screening of The International, the new action-thriller starring Clive Owen and Naomi Watts.

The basic premise is simple. Everyone uses banks to keep their cash safe and to basically earn free money by collecting interest as the money sits in the bank. Of course, the banks are government funded organizations and what most people forget is that the money is allowed to be used by the government to do whatever they deem is necessary for the good of their representatives. So what happens when that money starts being used by the bankers themselves for some very underhanded dealings? Not the Bush Administration, but close!

Clive Owen is an Interpol agent charged with tracking a bank in Luxemburg that allegedly is using investors' money to illegally buy and sell weapons. He teams up with Naomi Watts who works out of the New York City District Attorney's Office and has also been tracking this case since the New York branch is one of the top fronts for this bank. Action and drama ensue as the two seem to be the only ones who believe what the clues are telling them as they try to take down one of the most powerful banks in the world.

To be honest, I went into this not expecting much and walked away rather pleased. Not the smartest conspiracy action-thriller to ever come out, it did at least hold your attention for most of the movie and kept the twists and turns fresh and fun from the get-go. Naomi Watts' performance left something to be desired, but Clive Owen was solid as the Interpol agent whose career has revolved around this one case and would go through any means necessary to see justice delivered.

The ensemble cast around the two stars of the movie was great as well, from the assassin the bank hires, to the men at the top of the bank itself. They all seemed to fit in the movie perfectly, much like the clues Clive Owen finds as he tries to crack this career-long puzzle.Aside from Ms. Watts' lackluster performance, the only other negative aspect of this movie was that it seemed like everything came across as too simple, that everything fit too neatly and still not enough people in the movie supported Owen and Watts.

Positives, aside from the cast excluding Ms. Watts, include the overall flow of the movie. The pace was enough to keep you interested to the point that when it ends, you don't realize that 1 hour 58 minutes has passed. The plot does move at a very traditional pace though with everything slowly building to a climatic shootout followed by a neat winding down of the plot to its conclusion in the final 20 minutes.

With all the God-awful romantic detritus that is out there right now from Confessions of a Shopaholic to He's Just Not That in to You, it's nice to see someone come up with a semi-original plot with decent writing and action that holds your attention. If you're looking for a break from the Hollywood crap factory, for something a little bit smarter, then take a look at The International and you probably won't be disappointed.

The International gets 3.5 out of 5.

-Ray Carsillo

RAY SMASH PUNY MOVIES!

Its efforts like this from Marvel that have almost made me "Hulk-out" on many an occasion. I will give them some credit; their timing is impeccable. A few months after the release of the solid Incredible Hulk remake with Edward Norton on DVD, days before the New York Comic Con, and only a couple of months before Wolverine: Origins hits theatres, Marvel Studios drops this little wannabe gem on us called Hulk VS.

"Versus who?" you ask. Well, who do you want to see fight the Hulk? This is after all the question that the folks at Marvel seemed to ask themselves since this effort is just a huge piece of fan fiction to drive the fan-boys into frenzied fits at comic-conventions.

Hulk VS. is a straight to DVD release that contains not one, but TWO "movies". I have to put those magical punctuations around the word "movies" with this because something that can be strung across a pair of Saturday morning cartoon episodes should not be considered an actual movie. To try to make this geek-gasm on a disc worth your money, Marvel paired two separate Hulk adventures onto this DVD and even then it times out to only 82 minutes.

First, we see the not-so-jolly green giant take on the man who is "the best at what he does, and what he does isn't very nice". A pre-X-MEN Wolverine has been tasked by his Department H headmasters to locate and subdue a monster who is wreaking havoc in the Canadian countryside. Dept. H is a fictional spin on Canada's CSIS, by the way. Fictional, of course, because who expects Canada to have any REAL intelligence agency? After picking up the scent, Wolverine begins to track the Hulk across the Canadian Rockies.

The action quickly picks up as Wolverine finds a quivering Bruce Banner in the woods and he wants to know why there is a half-naked man in freezing temperatures out in the middle of nowhere. Wolverine's subsequent threats get under Banner's skin, transforming Banner into his worse half and the highlight of the "movie" ensues with a defining battle taking place with moments from all the Hulk vs. Wolverine battles that have happened over the past 30 years, again catering to the fan-boys. Before it can end, Sabertooth, Lady Deathstrike, Deadpool, and Omega Red appear out of nowhere. We then see a montage of Wolverine's origin story, which is not explained so if you are unfamiliar with the character, you end up lost, confused, and frustrated because I thought the Hulk was supposed to be the main character here and we just had every major bad guy and moment from Wolverine's history thrown into a five minute montage. The story then continues in a Wolverine and Hulk TEAM-UP against the Weapon X rejects. After they are defeated, the Hulk and Wolverine go back to fighting each other, for no apparent reason, and the credits start to roll on a freeze frame a la Rocky vs. Apollo Creed like they were two friends sparring in some eternal duel.

This first DVD is a complete and utter disappointment. The things that made me furious as a comics fan far outweigh the handful of positives in this. When all the special features vignettes outlast the actual "movie" by almost 20 minutes each, you know you got off on the wrong foot.

The only positives were that the animation style kept in line with the popular Japanese style that many American animation studios have adapted in recent history (starting in 1992 with Batman: The Animated Series and continuing through most major superhero cartoons up to this point) and living up to those standards, they tried to make it play like a comic story arc, and the introduction of Deadpool to animation.

The negatives include the horrible character development, the fact that the name of the title is Hulk vs. Wolverine and it ended up being Hulk and Wolverine vs. Weapon X, the horrible animation model for Sabertooth, who looked nearly the same size as Wolverine, the fact that the entire movie could have been done over the course of a Saturday morning special, and you just have a frustrating, disjointed viewing experience as if you were reading a comic story arc, but missed several issues. If you are a diehard comics fan then you will probably be able to sit through it because you already know the back stories and will recognize the many, many references the "movie" makes to the comics, but if you are a casual fan, this would not be for you. Add in a few typical behind the scenes vignettes and special commentary packages and the special edition part of this disc is not very special at all.

The second piece in this two part Hulk-fest sees Mr. "You Wouldn't Like Me When I'm Angry" against the mighty Thor, the Norse God of Thunder in the aptly titled: Hulk vs. Thor. This second "movie" was a lot better than the first. With a narrated opening montage that explains all you need to know about Asgard (realm of the Norse gods) and the characters in play, the plot is revealed within the first five minutes and the rest is non-stop smashing. Loki, the Norse God of Mischief and Evil has separated Bruce Banner from the essence that is the Hulk and unleashed him on Asgard during its weakest hour.

Without Banner to keep the Hulk tethered to humanity, the Hulk rampages throughout Asgard, laying waste to all in his path and all that stands between Hulk and the complete destruction of Asgard is Thor. The Hulk, being the only thing that could compete with a god, handily smashes Thor. Loki is betrayed though by his minion, the nicely drawn Enchantress, who revives Thor because it seems she's got a crush on Mr. Goldilocks. She reveals what Loki has done and the rest of the movie is cut between Thor trying to reunite Banner with the Hulk and Hulk just laying waste to the rest of Asgard's army as he makes a beeline towards the temporarily incapacitated Odin (near omnipotent king of the gods) with Thor finally succeeding in the end.

This "movie" was much better in terms of establishing the plot and giving the heroes an objective. Still though, being only 45 minutes, again this could have been done over a pair of Saturday morning specials and we could have been done with it. Instead, Marvel wanted to show off the new blood special effects that they have for animation so they could get a PG-13 rating on a cartoon and therefore make it so they couldn't put it on network Saturday mornings and mass produce these ridiculously overpriced DVDs. Again, the special feature vignettes are just "How we produced 82 minutes of par animation and charged you $24.99 for it" and they last longer than the actual "movie".

I have to end on the note that I really hope they do better with future releases in the "VS." series Marvel is planning. On an individual basis, Hulk vs. Wolverine gets a 1 out of 5 and Hulk vs. Thor gets a 2 out of 5 to average it out to a whopping 1.5 out of 5. Unless you are a hardcore Marvel fan-boy, I would probably avoid these or rent them at most.

-Ray Carsillo