Phil Villarreal's Blog, page 42

"Angry Alligator" Review

"Angry Alligator" imagines a swampland in which gators aren't content to skulk in the background, waiting for prey to emerge. 

Instead, your gator is an agile and incredibly hungry predator, dashing along and chomping everything it can. All the while, your life force is connected to a draining timer that requires you to keep eating or face starvation.

A game with more than a touch of shovelware features -- including slapdash visuals and a borderline cruel autosave system that has you backtracking after deaths far more often than is reasonable -- the game is often more fun than it has a right to be. 

Think "Maneater" or "Hungry Shark World."

There is a simple satisfaction in rampaging through and munching largely defenseless creatures. While you do occasionally run into enemies that can ably defend themselves, you are usually the apex predator, and your deaths are often tied to meandering rather than annihilation.

The dev squad at GS2 Games clearly had deadlines to stick to, and prioritized moment-to-moment gameplay over the larger objectives, which are generally scavenger hunts or fetch quests.

"Angry Alligator" won't be anyone's Game of the Year, but it may just be the game they play while they're waiting for their GOTY cut scenes to pass. Like its antihero, the game ably takes a chomp out of your free time.

 Publisher provided review code.

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Book Report: "The Autobiography of Malcolm X"

The Autobiography of Malcolm X by Malcolm X
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Malcolm X lived a complicated life, full of contradictions, animosity, pain and triumph. The essential civil rights figure has been analyzed and deconstructed to no end, but it's likely that the most crucial Malcolm X critic was himself.

Cowriter Alex Haley elegantly steps into the background to let Malcolm X tell his story. What results is a cohesive, often smoldering, intensely detailed narration of a life lived hard and vigorously.

Laurence Fishburne's narration in the Audible version is not so much a performance as it is a seance. Fishburne brings Malcolm X's fiery delivery to life as though he is speaking from the depths of his soul.

Malcolm X emerges to life as a vital, at times joyous figure blessed with incisive eloquence, gentle and often stinging humor, and exquisite clarity of thought.

He pulls no punches -- especially when criticizing himself -- as he traces his evolution from A-student to street hustler, to Black separatist and ultimately to a figure of compromise, reason and brotherhood. Especially near the end, he is ever aware of the coming assassination he feels blowing in the wind. His choice to live fearlessly inspite of the fatalism is commendable.

He is such a divisive figure that surely many people will refuse to hear what he has to say. Those who fail to listen will be those who lose out. He lived a hard and challenging life and his story bears listening.
Publisher provided review code.   

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"Tales of Arise" Review

A sweeping saga that merges a large-scale RPG with series-length anime cutscenes, "Tales of Arise" is a meaty endeavor that sates the thirst of series fans with dozens of hours of robust thrills, emotional hooks and bewildering twists.

No longer content to tread water with mild disappointments, Bandai Namco Games focused its collective energy on highlighting the franchise's strengths and minimizing its weaknesses. 

With every bit the care that, say, Square Enix takes with mainline 'Final Fantasy" games," the devs channeled heart and intelligence into every aspect of the production. Every moment you spend with the game feels as though you are in the hands of master storytellers with something to say, as well as abundant talent to spirit you through the story.

"Tales of Arise" has the feel of a magnum opus. Although maybe the game is a bit too in love with its storytelling -- cut scenes can be a touch long-winded and laborious -- it feels like an affront to the talent on display if you choose to skip them. 

Required grinding is kept at a minimum, and the combat -- which has not necessarily been a strong point of past entries -- is involving enough not to bore you. Rewarding masters of skilled orchestration akin to real-time strategy, the system discourages button-mashing while elevating the need for resource management and the strength of active and support party members in tactical roles.

A towering challenge, "Tales of Arise" can be intimidating who aren't able to mentally and spiritually commit to the entirety of the journey. But even for a casual sampler, there are rewards to be had in the experience. Miss "Tales of Arise" and you will lose out on one of the shining gems of the 2021 gaming year.

Publisher provided review code.

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Book Report: "The Sandman"

The Sandman by Dirk Maggs
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

A top-notch radio play-style adaptation of some of Neil Gaiman's greatest writing, the Audible adaptation loses little in translation to audio.

Because of the dreamlike, theater-of-the-mind-style nature of "The Sandman" anthology, this may be the strongest possible medium for the storytelling. The bluntness of a film or TV series adaptation might take away from the depth and grandiosity of the material.

Gaiman's narration leads the charge from an excellent voice cast, which includes James McAvoy, Kat Dennings, Bebe Neuwirth and Taron Egerton. The application of music and effects is pitch-perfect, rather than shoehorned into the production in the clumsy manner typical of audiobooks and podcasts.

Bouncing across myriad time periods, settings and species, Gaiman's finely-woven tapestry explores the intricacies of dream and desire in a haunting manner. His series has echoes of "The Twilight Zone" and "Black Mirror."

Fan service also abounds, with connections to the larger DC superhero universe present, without taking center stage. This is thought-provoking and challenging fiction meant for comic book readers ready to graduate to a higher plane of thoughtful analysis.

There's a reason Gaiman's creation has stood the test of time and is continually regarded as a great work of transmedia art. This production only solidifies its grandiosity.

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"Far Cry 6" Review

"Far Cry 6" does its best to shake the exploration-craft-conquer series out of its rut with plenty of Latin flair. 

The gaming equivalent of an exploitation film, the work from Unisoft Toronto leans into stereotypes -- very much in an absurd manner reminiscent of the "Just Cause" series. It's on you to take down the malevolent dictator of a banana republic. 

Along the way, you befriend a bloodthirsty croc -- along with a few other animal helpers in the vein of "Far Cry Primal" -- and face off with the looming grip of Anton Castillo, who is played with ferocious intensity by Giancarlo Esposito.

Esposito's performance -- though used sparingly -- bestows a grander cachet than previous "Far Cry" games had, granting the game more of a serialized TV series flair than the cartoonish nonsense it might have been.

The game gives you a bewildering amount of options, allowing you to take on missions in a number of creative ways. There are plenty of side missions, as well as a ton of hidden areas to seek out and explore.

If you're plowing through the "Far Cry 6" story, you're just doing things wrong. Far more satisfaction awaits those who dig into the sandbox and mess around. The physics, visuals and story twists invite you to stick around rather than rush.

A sleek, gorgeous game that is as rich in character as it is in visuals -- a counterpoint to the dry, stodgy "Far Cry 5" -- "Far Cry 6" is something of a rebirth for the beloved but stale franchise. It's a big event, watercooler style game that's just the thing to sink you into your couch as the thermometer starts to dip. There's nothing like cuddling up with Guapo for a fine meal of a video game.

Publisher provided review code.