Great game design teams can take a well-tread genre and throw in a change to make it feel new all over again. Portal exemplifies this, taking first-person shooter mechanics and tossing in brilliant and inventive elements from puzzle and platformer titles to make it about using your brain, rather than spilling those of your enemies. In the same vein we have the quirky indie-developed Tiny and Big: Grandpa’s Leftovers. While its challenge level and narrative are uneven, Tiny and Big nonetheless brings a unique twist to its platforming that, when paired with its fantastic aesthetic and personality, creates an endearing and delightful little experience.
Tiny and Big is the story of the two titular characters. You play as Tiny, a bookish little guy with a penchant for science, using your wits to overcome obstacles in your quest to find Big and recover your inheritance – a pair of underpants. Big’s a jerk, though, and will do everything in his power to slow you down, constantly running away and using his underpants-conferred magical powers to throw gigantic chunks of the world or levitate himself to the higher ground.
Not to be outdone by magic, Tiny’s got a few tools in his arsenal that make him deft at reaching the unreachable. If Tiny encounters a sheer wall he has no chance of jumping up, he can pull out his raygun and slice the world apart. With a few clicks of the mouse you can dynamically cut apart rocks and structures, shaving a column into a set of stairs that you can easily hop up. With your raygun it’s easy to cut up the world, then deploy a rocket booster, use your arms or a grappling hook to push and pull the stone into a configuration that allows you to progress.
At its most basic level, Tiny’s quest really boils down to a few environments you have to scale, but it manages to stay fun because each step is a little sandbox that lets you use your imagination to succeed. You could walk up to a wall and slice it into tiny chunks if you wanted, or you could just as easy do a gigantic slice that allows you to bring the whole wall down in one swoop. Sometimes I would cut stairs out of the world, still other times I might attach a rocket booster to a felled piece of stone, jump on top of it and then ride across a chasm. I died a whole heck of a lot, but forgiving checkpoints didn’t make it too much of a headache. Even when I did die, it usually was the result of hilariously poor planning, with a piece of a rock or wall coming down and crushing me.
It only takes a few hours to get through the entirety of Tiny and Big, but in this case that’s a good thing. Tiny and Big’s slicing mechanism entrances, but since you immediately have access to all the gameplay mechanics from the start, it’d grow wearisome if it went on much longer. The occasional boss battle might force you to be a bit faster with your cuts, but Tiny and Big doesn’t introduce anything new or tweak the formula throughout the story. In many ways it kind of feels like a really long tech demo with incredible aesthetics.
Really, it’s hard not to talk about Tiny and Big without spending time on its looks and music. The most valuable collectibles in each stage are cassette tapes that unlock phenomenal – and often bizarre – indie rock tracks. With so little done as far as the character’s voices -- they’re mostly composed of single sounds and grunts-- it’s nice to have fun and beautiful melodies accompanying your journey. The music feels right for the scenery, too. The look of Tiny and Big feels like someone took the cartoon Adventure Time and put it into the Borderlands engine. Along with its quirkily drawn characters, there’s just so much character in everything you see. Even the game’s menus are fun, and keep in step with the whimsical feeling of the story.
Like I said, Tiny and Big’s length is just about right for what’s included, but I’d really like to see the team at Black Pants Game Studio do more with their ingenious slicing mechanic and story. Some parts of Tiny and Big made me feel like I had to think to overcome them, but other parts felt a bit repetitive or so obvious that I wondered why the studio even bothered to put it in the game (cut a very conspicuously placed column to get across a gap? I’ve done this before…). Likewise I’d love it if the story went deeper. The funny in-game cut-scenes really show that the team has a knack for humor and making lovable characters, but in between all you have is the music to listen to. Games like this, where you spend so much time alone, need more witty banter between a companion and backstory to make the world interesting.
Love them or hate them, there’s no denying that the impressive progress of mobile games has been a source of significant amazement and surprise over the last decade-and-a-half. Games on mobile phones have leapfrogged from the NES generation to visuals that rival current-gen launch titles.
Gameloft’s long-running Asphalt franchise gives us a unique window into this rapid rise. The franchise kicked off in 2004 and has been active ever since, with Asphalt 7 Heat hitting the App Store earlier this month.
Examining the seven titles at once brings up other interesting points. Subtitles (and colons) in game titles came and went. Motorcycles and purchasable female co-pilots were briefly a focus. Asphalt 4, released in 2008 for iPhone, was a "steal" at $9.99. The App Store's race to $0.99 hadn't yet started!
Take a look:
Asphalt: Urban GT
Released: Late 2004
IGN Review: “You turn with '4' and '6,' which is hard to do with any real finesse. Drifting requires you to brake (use '8') and then turn, since you cannot manage both at the same time…”
“Asphalt: Urban GT does have a decent amount of audio, from themes to in-game sounds.”
Asphalt Urban GT 2
Released: Late 2005
IGN Review: “Asphalt: Urban GT 2 looks fantastic. The different tracks feature exquisite background detail. The cars themselves are expertly recreated on-screen. “
Asphalt 3: Street Rules
Released: Late 2006
IGN Review:“The better you do in a race, the more money you earn. This money gives you access not only to cars and parts, but also women. Gameloft, the great winking objectifier, actually offers you a series of femme fatale co-pilots that join you if you have enough money to make it worth their while.”
Asphalt 4 Elite Racing
Released: Mid 2008
IGN Review: “Any doubt about the iPhone's status as a true gaming platform -- one capable of entertaining both hardcore gamers and casual players -- is finally silenced by the release of Gameloft's Asphalt 4: Elite Racing… This is not only the best-looking racing game on the iPhone, but it is the best-looking iPhone game as of yet.
“… I know $10 feels a little steep, but Asphalt 4 is absolutely worth it.”
Asphalt 5
Released: Late 2009
IGN Review: “The graphics and music are top notch and while over-the-air multiplayer would be ideal, the Bluetooth and Wi-Fi play works well, too.“
Asphalt 6: Adrenaline
Released: Late 2010
IGN Review:“Perhaps the most damning thing about Asphalt 6, though, is how predictable the series has become… With so many racing games in the App Store, the inevitable Asphalt 7 needs a kick in the ass – something fresh has to happen before the entire series becomes part of the noise.”
Asphalt 7: Heat
Released: Mid 2012
June 21 App Store Update: “Gameloft’s arcade racing Asphalt franchise is back for another round of gorgeous, fast-paced street racing. Heat is available for the impressively low price of just $0.99 due to its increased emphasis on in-app-purchases. But after two hours and counting I’ve never once felt pressured to buy extra currency.”
Justin is Editor of IGN Wireless. He has been reviewing cell phone games since the dark days of Java flip phones. You can follow him on Twitter and IGN.
Better yet, the games will be available on the cheap. Each one will cost $20, but should you choose to buy them together, you’ll save $10. Both games have Trophies and should be available in their complete form as they were on Blu-ray.
Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune came to PlayStation 3 in November of 2007. We gave it a 9.1. Uncharted 2: Among Thieves came to PlayStation 3 nearly two years later. We gave it a 9.5. Playing both should prepare you for Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception, a game we gave a a perfect 10. Both were developed by Naughty Dog, the Sony-owned studio responsible for the Crash Bandicoot and Jak and Daxter series.
Colin Moriarty is an IGN PlayStation editor. You can follow him on Twitter and IGN and learn just how sad the life of a New York Islanders and New York Jets fan can be.
Microsoft and Sony really want you to wait a while before playing their next generation systems. They want you to sit tight.
Before launching anything new, they want to hold off until the last possible moment. They want to skip out of the tottering, crumbling edifice of the current generation just before it comes crashing to the ground.
Their anxiety about making the move is so great that they are prepared to allow Wii U a free run at the market for at least year, and they are even happy to wave each other through as first-to-market. Disappointingly, there has been none of the mind-games or competition on launch timing that we've come to expect (and enjoy) from hardware warfare. There is no sense of an arms race -- of two mighty rivals manfully striving to beat each other to the punch.
The reason is simple. The current generation is finally making money and declining at a seemingly manageable rate, adding much-needed loot to Sony and Microsoft’s coffers. In contrast, the next generation will cost a great deal of money and will continue to do so for years. And with both technology and consumer behavior changing fast, launching games consoles has never been riskier. In short, Sony and Microsoft have too much to lose by rushing to market, while Nintendo has nothing to gain by waiting.
Microsoft and Sony are seeing returns on their huge investments of the last decade. Game sales are declining but the businesses are largely predictable and clustered around big, profitable franchises. Also, they have finally reached a critical mass of online subscribers who are willing to buy highly profitable digital-only games. This is a situation both firms have invested heavily in achieving. They are not about to screw it all up by rendering their lead products obsolete.
As Microsoft’s Phil Spencer told me at E3, ”Our business is really in a sweet spot if you think about the installed base and the number of people -- the addressable audience -- of a platform like Xbox 360 right now. So as somebody who's running a publisher, a first-party publisher, but still, an entertainment publisher, it's a great time to be on Xbox. We've got tens of millions of people out there, so when we put out something like Minecraft, we sold two million units. That's a great business.”
And Sony Computer Entertainment America boss Jack Tretton is equally good at spinning positive on the company’s reluctance to move forward. He told Gametrailers, “We have never been first [to launch], we have never been cheapest, it is about being the best. If you can build a better machine and it is going to come out a little bit later, that is better than rushing something to market that is going to run out of gas in the long term."
Credit: Gamasutra
It’s interesting that the third-party publishers are in no rush for their first-party cousins to make the leap. Given that their sales are declining, you might expect some sort of call-to-action. Not so. One leading exec told me that he is “delighted” that neither Sony nor Microsoft had anything to say about new hardware at E3. The publishers do not want you saving up to buy a new console next year, based on fancy promises and lush previews. They want you buying their current-gen AAA games this year. They don't want you thinking that there's something better around the corner. They want you to be happy with your lot.
Of course, they are seeing serious declines in games retail sales in 2012, but they still don’t want the market to do anything rash, like introduce exciting new products. Because that would trigger an expensive third-party arms race of polishing and marketing all that new IP they’ve all been secretly working on. For now, the game companies would rather manage the gentle stroll of decline than face the extreme challenge of a new generation.
But this conservatism is risky. Downward trends have a habit of seeming predictable right up to the point when they are not. If Malcolm Gladwell is to be believed, it’s the trend-setters, the most knowledgeable consumers, who make the difference, who change behavior so sharply that it precipitates calamitous consequences. In other words, people like you make all the difference.
The gaming industry relies very heavily on trend-setters, just the sort of gamers who are most impatient for new hardware, and most likely to set buying trends for games on old hardware. The whole strategy relies on you continuing to be excited about the current generation, and continuing to influence the mass market by your enthusiasm. And sure, there are lots of things to like about the games coming out on PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. But should that excitement wane, the consequences are dire. The big games season of 2012 looks dandy, but 2013? Maybe that's a year too far.
Right now the business is relying on the millions of people who’ll go out and buy the new Call of Duty. But the people who really matter are the first million who bought the original Call of Duty and put the whole thing in motion. And, by the end of 2013, these guys will have been playing the same console for an unprecedented seven years (PS3) or eight (Xbox 360) without a new generational introduction.
Let’s just come out and say it. The current generation is old.
Meanwhile sales of retail games are dropping, fast. Earlier this month, in his excellent regular column for Gamasutra, statistics-analyst Matt Matthews made this startling observation:
“In each of 2008, 2009, and 2010 the 50 million annual unit software point was crossed sometime in March. But in 2011, it fell back into early April, indicating a significant slowdown. This year, unit sales just crossed 51 million units at the very end of May.”
Today, former MLB pitcher and 38 Studios founder Curt Schilling gave his first interview since the demise of his Rhode Island-based developer. The interview was given on The Dennis & Callahan Morning Show on WEEI in Boston, a program on a sports radio station that covered Schilling extensively during his days on the Boston Red Sox.
The lengthy interview was distilled by the Boston Globe-owned Boston.com, though you can listen to the extensive interview for yourself. Here’s Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, and Part 5.
The crux of the issue, according to Schilling, was that 38 Studios was never able to raise additional venture capital. “We tried for a long time to do that and it didn’t come to fruition,” he said. The money was largely needed to continue the development of Project Copernicus, the MMORPG set to take place in the universe of Amalur. This is the same universe where Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning took place, a game released earlier this year to critical acclaim.
38 Studios, at the time of its Chapter 7 bankruptcy declaration, had outstanding debts of over $150 million, with controlled assets valued at nearly seven times less than what’s owed. The state of Rhode Island is on the hook for a majority of the money, according to Boston.com. The Boston Globe report notes that “The company reported it owed money to more than 1,000 people and companies, most of whom likely won’t recover any money.”
Notably, Schilling talked about how 38 Studios began to fall apart at a rapid pace once a $35 million deal with a still-unknown publisher fell through to allow the development of a sequel to Reckoning. When a private investor, according to Schilling, tried to give 38 Studios up to $20 million of the needed money under an agreement with Rhode Island that would restructure the outstanding loan, the deal fell through. “If that happened,” this investor “would come in and save the company,” Schilling claimed.
Schilling also talked a bit about his own financial stake in the company. The Boston Globe notes that “he personally invested more than $50 million in the company, in addition to the $5 million to $10 million from other wealthy investors and a $75 million loan guarantee it received from the state of Rhode Island to entice it to move to Providence last year.”
“I put everything in my name in this company. I believed in it. I believed in what we built. I never took a penny in salary. I never took a penny for anything,” Schilling told Dennis & Callahan. He apparently told his family that “the money I saved and earned playing baseball was probably all gone... life is going to be different.”
Colin Moriarty is an IGN PlayStation editor. You can follow him on Twitter and IGN and learn just how sad the life of a New York Islanders and New York Jets fan can be.
Update: Blizzard has issued a statement explaining why players who purchase Diablo III digitally from this point forward will need to wait up to 72 hours for full game access.
"For security reasons and to help ensure the integrity of the game and auction house service, players who purchase the digital version of Diablo III may have to wait until payment verification is complete before they can access certain game features."
"Similar to World of Warcraft, these restrictions were put in place to deter credit card fraud, which in turn helps reduce gold spam and other harmful activities that can have a negative impact on the game experience for everyone."
The level 13 cap and progress limit at the Skeleton King boss fight in Act I, as reported below, were not actually intentionally implemented, according to Blizzard. "An unintended consequence of these security measures, players who purchase the game digitally after patch 1.0.3 are temporarily being capped at level 13 and not able to proceed beyond Act I. We are working to correct this as soon as possible and will provide another update when we have more details to share."
Here's the full list of restrictions, aside from the mistake with the level and progress cap.
No public game access for unverified digital purchasers
No auction house access (real-money or gold) for unverified digital purchasers
Unverified digital purchasers cannot trade items or drop items for other players to receive
Unverified digital purchasers are not able to chat in any public or game channels
Unverified digital purchasers cannot attach a custom message to friend requests, but they can send/accept friend requests, and play with their friends
Global Play is not available for unverified digital purchasers
Blizzard claims that in most cases restrictions are lifted within 24 hours. Have you purchased Diablo III digitally within the last few days? What has your experience been like?
Original Story: Most of the staff at IGN has been enjoying Diablo III. In fact, many of us talk about it so much that we've convinced friends and other co-workers to buy it. While plenty of people are willing to go out to a store or purchase a boxed copy online, many more turn to Battle.net and quickly pick up a digital copy. As of the new 1.0.3, though, new customers can apparently only unlock the full game three days after purchase.
As of patch 1.0.3, when purchasing a digital version of Diablo III through the online store or your Battle.net Account, players are restricted to the Starter Edition for the first 72 hours (sometimes less). Players on Starter Editions have the following restrictions:
Act I up to the Skeleton King is available
Level 13 cap
Matchmaking available only with other Starter Edition players
No Auction House access (Real Money or Gold)
Global Play is not available. Players attempting to connect to Diablo III Starter Edition in a region other than their Battle.net Account's home region will receive Error 12. See the Global Play support article for more information.
Basically, people who go out and purchase the game in-full are restricted to the content from the Beta. We've reached out to Blizzard for clarification, since at the moment we're just left wondering why this step would be taken. Perhaps it has something to do with restricting access in order to help server loads? Or maybe keep would-be farmers from buying a bunch of copies to put a ton of auctions up and get around the 10-item per account limit? Let's all speculate together.
Following yesterday's reveal of the revamped handheld, Nintendo announced it would let UK retailers decide for themselves how much they'd charge for the 3DS XL and now the prices have started appearing.
Play.com was the first to reveal a cost, listing the blue model as available for pre-order at £179.99. ShopTo has all three models (blue, red and silver) available at £179.84, though the RRP of the device is labelled as £199.99.
This is conflicted by Zavvi's offering, which also covers all models, but states they will be sold at £209.95, reduced from an RRP of £249.99.
It's safe to assume that Nintendo probably hasn't confirmed the RRP with its retail partners in the UK, which has led to the confusion. The RRP for the United States is listed as $199, which converts to roughly £128.
The European package comes without an AC adapter but will be released on July 28th, three weeks earlier than in America.
The developer behind Oddworld: Stranger's Wrath HD has "given up on Microsoft" over the company's failure to digitally release the game.
Speaking to VG247, Just Add Water head Stewart Gilray clarified earlier remarks which led many to believe that the XBLA port of the title had been cancelled. In actual fact, he suggests Microsoft's lack of co-operation is all that has kept the game off the platform.
“
What I said was that we’d given up on Microsoft, not that we’d given up on 360. What I meant was that we’d given up on Microsoft doing anything with it.
He explained, "What I said was that we’d given up on Microsoft, not that we’d given up on 360. What I meant was that we’d given up on Microsoft doing anything with it."
The code for an Xbox 360 HD port of the game, which originally launched on Xbox in 2005, has been complete for a while. Gilray is especially disappointed by the company's unresponsiveness as it was apparently Microsoft who approached JAW about bring the game to its console shortly after a PS3 version was announced.
"Two weeks [after announcing the PS3 version] Microsoft contacts us and asked if we wanted to a 360 version," he noted. "We said yes.
"Just before Christmas, they came back and said that they didn’t want it because it’d already been on a Microsoft platform. We said, ‘Hang on a minute. We didn’t come to you. You approached us.’ They said, ‘Yeah, but politics here says that we don’t want it on XBLA.’"
To try and resolve the issue, the idea was then floated that Stranger's Wrath HD could be distributed via the Games on Demand service rather than the XBLA. This fell apart, however, when it became clear that the game would have to retail for $20; a problem, given that it was already available on the Playstation Network for $15.
A last ditch effort to get the game out on Xbox 360 happened in January 2012, but JAW was told that Microsoft's team had gone off the idea as it had already been released on the PS3 some months earlier.
“
We can’t wait forever. If we did, PS4 and 720 would be out.
"We said, ‘We’ve been talking to you for over 15 months now’,” explained Gilray. “‘We haven’t stalled. You’ve been stalling us. If you’d had come to us six months ago and said fine, we would have held back the PS3 version until the 360 version was ready.’
"We can’t wait forever. If we did, PS4 and 720 would be out. We have to, at some point, say, ‘We tried. End of.’ And that’s sooner rather than later now. But people can’t accuse us of not trying.”
JAW is currently in negotiations with two publishers who are said to be interested in helping them get the game out on the XBLA, but nothing concrete has materialised as yet. If the game does ever get to see the light of day on Xbox 360 it may not be the version we're used to, with Gilray explaining, "because Microsoft dragged us along for 15 months, we’re now having to add new content to the 360 version."
Oddworld: Stranger's Wrath HD was announced in 2010 and launched on PS3 in December 2011. A PS Vita version is still in development, with no set release date.
Luke Karmali is IGN's UK Editorial Assistant. You too can revel in mediocrity by following him on IGN and on Twitter.
Eidos president Ian Livingstone has claimed that gamers will always want high-quality single-player experiences, despite the diversifying industry.
In an interview with MCV Pacific, the man behind Lara Croft said that the increased prominence of social and casual gaming doesn't necessarily threaten demand for core single-player experiences, such as the Tomb Raider reboot.
“
A game like Tomb Raider has historically been a graphically intensive single player experience, and that’s not simply going to disappear overnight.
He explained, "I think people still want a single player experience. The games industry is diversifying and is making new ways of delivering, new ways of playing games. One is certainly not totally at the expense of each other, and I think games as a product and as a service can live happily alongside each other for a long time to come.
"A game like Tomb Raider has historically been a graphically intensive single player experience, and that’s not simply going to disappear overnight. What we’re seeing is an emergence and a growth in the digital area and a new consumer which has come along (the casual gamer, which has almost reached ascendancy), but niche gamers are still going to be here and want content delivered specifically for them."
Livingstone suggested that consoles will remain the natural home for that type of experience for the foreseeable future, due to the intense power needed by the dependent system to run it. He compared this preference to choosing to watch a film at the cinema, rather than view it at a considerably lower quality on YouTube.
"Well, you’ve got to create a game that’s relevant to the platform on which it’s delivered, therefore the graphic-rich interactive experience of console Lara is inevitably going to be different to the experience that you’d expect on a mobile device" he mused.
"The important thing is that they’re all linked by the IP and type of experience you get with that IP will depend on the device."
Given the recent furore surrounding scenes from the Tomb Raider reboot, it's debatable whether the same issues could have been rendered as emotively on a handheld device.
His comments paint a contrasting picture of the diversifying industry when compared with the claim by EA's Peter Moore that the future of games lies entirely in going free-to-play, regardless of content quality.
Luke Karmali is IGN's UK Editorial Assistant. You too can revel in mediocrity by following him on IGN and on Twitter.
Spider-man? Nearly. X-Men? Nope. Superman? Fail. No superhero series has ever delivered the perfect movie trilogy – the third movie often proving the fatal stumbling block. Still, you’d fancy Christopher Nolan’s chances of delivering his Bat-finale with the sort of epic, IMAX-sized storytelling and action that made The Dark Knight, Inception and Memento into essential cinematic experiences. In anticipation of The Dark Knight Rises July 20 release, here’s our A-Z of Nolan’s Bat-verse…
A is for Applied Sciences
The Siberia of Wayne Enterprises: it’s where good gadgets go to die. The ideal place then for nocturnal spelunking base-jumping enthusiasts to cherry-pick rejected military grade tech such as the Tumbler, The Batpod and a certain Bat-like flying contraption. And as a bonus, it all comes in black. Having said that, given that Coleman Reece rumbled Bruce through trawling the archives, and modded Tumblers have been spotted in Bane’s arsenal, maybe the AS Division's next project should focus on internal security.
B is for Bane
“Let the games begin.” From the pits of hell, this scarred scourge has come to finish what the League Of Shadows started, and turn Gotham and its delusions of civilization into an expensive landfill. Team Nolan have refined Bane from his gimmicky comic book origins – a drug-fuelled monster of brains and brawn specifically dreamt up (a la Doomsday) to break the Bat – to a credible cinematic nemesis: a ruthless general, a relentless warrior. Although surely that mask – feeding him life-saving (and battle-enhancing) painkillers rather than Venom – couldn’t prove to be a fatal flaw?
C is for Commissioner Jim Gordon
“Commmm-ishion-errrr” Gordon is the lone good cop on an utterly-corrupt force who became a 'wartime' hero, and now finds himself about to be cut adrift in the Harvey Dent-inspired peacetime. The role of the world-weary Gordon also marked a sea change for Gary Oldman, who’d started to OD on OTT villain roles – although Gordon’s gleeful delight about piloting the Tumbler looks about as genuine as can be.
D is for Rachel Dawes
Or, to give Dawes her full and correct name, RAAAAACHEEEELLLL! Bruce Wayne’s sole friend and soul mate also turns out to be catnip to a series of doomed DAs, before undergoing an unexpected cremation care of Joker’s cruel ol’ switcheroo trick. Maggie Gyllenhaal was gifted the role in the sequel when Katie Holmes declined to reprise it in favour of starring opposite Queen Latifah in crime-caper Mad Money. Which kind of writes its own punchline.
E is for Escalation
Batman: cure or curse? One of Team Nolan’s deftest touches is to ask pertinent questions about the wisdom in having a semi-licensed vigilante in Gotham’s battle against the mob – especially when he seems to bring all the crazies out to play while justifying every angry jackass with a sporting goods discount card who wants to get padded up and get some time on that particular pitch themselves.
F is for Fox, Lucius
He’s risen from his basement exile to the CEO of Wayne Enterprises, but the cunning silver Fox still keeps a special side-interest in the Applied Sciences division. Morgan Freeman dishes up the tech porn with a mischievous twinkle in his eyebrows, but Fox is also a vital point on Bruce’s moral compass, throwing his expensive toys out of the pram when he feels his boss has tripped over the ethical line. Well, if you’ve got sage advice to offer, Morgan Freeman’s got the voice to deliver it.
G is for Gotham
Having stepped back from the brink of social collapse, the world’s greatest city – with London, Chicago, LA, and a huge Shepperton set doing sterling double-duty – is once again a thriving, bustling centre of civilization… for those on the right side of the economic divide anyway. The Bat reboot has created a real sense of Gotham’s geography – especially if you got sucked into The Dark Knight’s innovative virals – tracing routes from the Narrows to the waterfront, and from Arkham to Wayne Tower. Expect to see property prices crash come July 20. Actually, just expect properties to crash.
H is for Harvey Dent
“You either die a hero or you live long enough to see yourself become the villain.” In the end, the internal affairs agent turned dashing DA turned semi-charbroiled murderer didn’t get much say in the matter. With Batsy and Gordon covering up Dent’s coin-flipping murder boner, the tragic Two-Face has been cast as Gotham’s White Knight – a Kennedy-esque inspiration for Gotham’s citizen’s to sweep away the last of the mob and usher in the good times. Gotham City believes in Harvey Dent. For now.
I is for IMAX
Treating the rule book like Bane treats spinal columns, Nolan was the first feature director to shoot action sequences in proper IMAX – including TDK’s bank heist opening and truck-flipping pursuit – with Rises now expected to have over an hour of 15/70 footage. After The Dark Knight’s success, studio heads stopped treating IMAX as a naff gimmick and proceeded to leap aboard the bandwagon like it contained free Facebook shares. Yeah, of course Wrath Of The Titans needed to be seen in IMAX…
J is for Joker
Having teased us at the end of Begins, Team Nolan delivered the goods for The Dark Knight – conjuring up a shifting, complex take on the gasoline-fuelled fiend, with the match being struck by the late Heath Ledger’s Oscar-winning performance. Inspired by the psychologically-slippery tracks laid down in Arkham Asylum and The Killing Joke – with a dash of Clockwork Orange punk thrown in for good measure – they created the perfect psychopathic foil to the ‘incorruptible’ Bat.
K is for Kyle, Selina
The purrfect princess of petty pilfering, Kyle is the feline femme fatale for whom robbing the rich is merely righteous repossession, while ethics is where David Beckham comes from. Nolan, Goyer and actress Anne Hathaway’s Catwoman is a tough-headed, tough-kicking survivor – especially with her blade-heeled boots – whose allegiances are as slippery as her outfit. But will the pretty kitty grow a conscience before her claws are clipped?
L is for League of Shadows
“We restore the balance,” insists the LOS’s chief recruiting officer and *ahem* dual-passport holder Henri Ducard, whose brutal-if-theatrical methods of combat spark a few ideas in unsuitable applicant Bruce Wayne. Dating back thousands of years, the LOS have been there to help yank the chain whenever a civilisation required a courtesy flush – Rome, medieval London and now, finally, Gotham. We respectfully suggest Mr Ra’s Al Ghul points his ’tashe in the direction of Jersey Shore.
M is for Masks
“Your real face is the one that criminals now fear,” Rachel explains to Bruce at the end of Begins, as he faces up to a lifetime of having to pretend to be a feckless billionaire (oh, the misery…). Masks and appearances have been central to Nolan’s Batman: Bruce, Scarecrow and Bane all need them for practical reasons; Two-Face’s twisted psyche is scarred into his face for all to see while the mysteriously scarred Joker wears a clown mask only to reveal that underneath lies… another clown mask. Freud would have a field day, once he’d finished with the latent daddy issues.
N is for Nolans, The
Epic emotional drama? Complex narrative trickery? A knack for an astonishing visual? The ambition to pull it all off? As Memento, The Prestige and Inception demonstrate, the Bat-flicks aren’t flukes. Even if the Dark Knight Rises is half as good as its predecessor, Chris and his writer-brother Jonathan – together with indispensable co-screenwriter David Goyer - will have pulled off a unique cinematic first: the great superhero trilogy. It’s no coincidence that the triple-headed Bat-beast is overseeing The Man Of Steel reboot.
O is for Occupy Wall Street
Of all the people making a stand at Wall Street late last year, perhaps Batman and the Gotham Police Department were the strangest: Nolan shot the climactic dust up between Bane’s army and the countering cops – featuring over 1,000 extras – on the steps of the world’s financial centre. The coincidental timing couldn’t have been more ironic given that economic injustice is one of Rises’ underlying themes – with the 99% coming for their due.
P is for Pennyworth, Alfred
A cockney butler? That’s just not good form, old chap. But if Lucius is Bruce’s brain and Rachel his conscience, then Alfred is his heart. As played by Chris Nolan’s good-luck charm Michael Caine, he’s the ex-soldier who understands what it means to make tough decisions – fresh from burning down Burmese forests hunting for a thief – but knows his ward even better: his secret burning of Rachel’s Dear John being the only tender salve for a heartbroken Bruce.
Q is for Q&A
“You... complete me.” The Dark Knight’s real centerpiece is the interrogation room, with the two opposing ideologies finally colliding in a dramatic face-off to rival Heat – a masterpiece of boiling tension and dramatic switches as Batman and the newly promoted Gordon soon discover that Joker holds all the aces, despite his captivity. As they lose control of the situation, the Commissioner’s faith in his vigilante buddy comes crashing down around him, alongside his one-sided mirror.
R is for Ra’s al Ghul
This false father figure offers Bruce an alternative path, one that offers brutal justice of a more homicidal sort. The Demon’s Head’s mass-murderous musings look to have had more of an impact on one of his other errant apprentices: Bane. But is Ra's al Ghul really immortal? Rumours of the Lazarus Pit making an appearance in some form – and the return of Liam Neeson – have been circling ever since Rises began production. Birth of the Demon anyone?
S is for Scarecrow
There’s nothing to fear but fear himself. With Bruce's personal terrors – and plans to creating some pant-streaking new ones for his enemies – at the heart of Begins, it made perfect sense for Nolan and Goyer to book an appointment with Dr Crane; the maggot-masked physician’s hallucinogens providing Begins with its most unsettling moments. Cillian Murphy’s brief cameo in The Dark Knight further helped give Gotham the feel of a cohesive universe; could he be making more unprofessional diagnosis in Rises?
T is for Tumbler
“It’s a black… tank.” Avoiding the subtle flashing neon-wang designs favoured by Burton and Schumacher, the mainstay motor of the Nolan Bat-flicks reflects the practical nature of rebooted Dark Knight: a rejected military bridging vehicle able to perform ramp-free jumps. Petrol-heads will be delighted to know that working models of the vehicle were created, capable of reaching 0-60 in 5.6 seconds – that is if you’ve got a spare $250,000. “I’ve got to get me one of those,” Gordon marvels. Not on those wages, mate.
U is for Underground
Effectively born in the bat-filled caves and secret caverns under Wayne Manor, Batman makes them his home, overseeing some rather specific interior decoration in the rebuilt Wayne Manor. Rises however sees him meet his equal in underground décor: Bane is using the Gotham tunnel networks as a discreet base from which to transport his terror, before rising to introduce himself to his new neighbours in truly explosive fashion. A bottle of wine would have been fine.
V is for Voice
One of the most divisive aspects of the Nolan reboot is Christian Bale’s Bat-rasp – a throat-shredding 120-a-day growl that screamed ‘virus’ but went viral instead. To compound the vocal vagueness, cinemagoers watching the first Rises trailer came out complaining that Tom Hardy’s sub-Caribbean bur – or blur? – was inaudible thanks to Bane’s mask. We’re eagerly awaiting the pair’s on-screen dialogue. Maybe it’ll be subtitled.
W is for Wayne, Bruce
Team Nolan’s masterstroke has been to put the focus heavily on Wayne rather than his pointy eared, sore-throated alter ego: Christian Bale is credited as playing only Bruce Wayne – the Batman is merely an extension of the billionaire philanthropist’s battle against injustice. The role finally put Christian Bale on the A-list, after years of poking around the lower reaches of the alphabet, and gave him the perfect outlet for his complex, angst-filled charisma and occasional OTT tendencies. And if Nolan really wanted to get him riled up for a scene, he could just have someone walk through his eyeline.
X is for X-Rated
The only guarantee in Hollywood is that with great success comes a not-so-great porno parody. Axel Braun’s ‘mega-budget’ parodies are one of the few ways that old-guard grot-flicks can distinguish themselves from their amateur on-line cousins (which none of us writing or reading this have ever seen, obviously). His Dark Knight XXX – following on from the cunningly titled Avengers XXX – not only features Bane, Joker and Catwoman, but chucks in John Constantine and Zatanna for good measure. Actually, that Bat costume’s pretty good.
Y is for Year One
Following the neon-nippled nightmare that was Joel Schumacher’s Batman & Robin, Warner Bros spent five years trying to get the franchise back off the ground before hiring Chris Nolan and David Goyer in 2003. Other proposals included a straight fifth sequel revolving around the Scarecrow and Man-Bat, a live-action Batman Beyond and a Batman Vs Superman flick to relaunch both. The most interesting possibility though was Requiem For A Dream’s Darren Aronofsky directing a doubtlessly intense and blood-splattered adaptation of Batman: Year One starring… Christian Bale.
Z is for Zimmer, Hans
The German synth maestro – along side composer James Newton Howard – created a masterpiece in restrained heroics to perfectly match the subdued complexity of Nolan’s hero, later creating a jarringly atonal suite for the Joker by scraping a razorblade along the instruments’ strings to conjure those unsettling sounds. It’s up there with his other personal highlights, the theme tune for Going For Gold.
With the obvious exception of its vampires, Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter gets the broad strokes of the 16th U.S. President’s life right. The movie, based on the book by Seth Grahame-Smith, chronicles the loss of Abe’s mother in his youth (which serves as the motivating factor for his subsequent vampire hunting crusade, a la the murder of Bruce Wayne’s parents in the Batman legend) to his burgeoning career as a lawyer and politician to, finally, his Presidency during the Civil War. Along the way, he kills countless bloodsuckers as part of his secret war against the undead.
Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter is this generation's Billy the Kid vs. Dracula or Jesse James Meets Frankenstein's Daughter. Unlike those 1960s low-budget cult classics, this is a summer tentpole from a major studio produced by Tim Burton and directed by Wanted’s Timur Bekmambetov. The movie’s a hybrid horror movie and straightforward biopic with the final result being neither fish nor fowl. Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter isn't scary or exciting enough to truly work as a horror flick; it’s not even silly enough to laugh at. Indeed, the movie takes itself so seriously that it never seems like it’s having any fun, so it’s tough to feel much of anything but ambivalence while watching all the bloody mayhem unfold.
There are a few well-choreographed action set-pieces, the two best being a chase between Lincoln and a vampire amidst a horse stampede and the climactic railroad/burning bridge sequence. For the most part, though, all the vampire-killing sequences feel overly orchestrated and by-the-numbers. It’s like watching a video game walkthrough; it looks cool, but you’re not feeling anything except appreciation for the craftsmanship that went into making it. There are plenty of gruesome vampire kills, but none of them have any real, well, bite. (That said, Abe's axe/gun hybrid weapon is very cool.)
Looking like a young Liam Neeson (he actually played the teenage version of Neeson’s character in Kinsey), Benjamin Walker does a commendable job of anchoring the film and selling its sincerity. He’s in almost every scene and later appears under heavy makeup as the elder Lincoln, but he’s never overwhelmed by all the trappings. His performance imbues the movie with a much-needed humanity. Mary Elizabeth Winstead is a far cuter Mary Todd Lincoln than the real one, and helps warm up an overall cold movie. Walker and Winstead have decent chemistry together and make you care about and believe in this absurd version of the First Couple.
Dominic Cooper plays Abe’s mentor, the “good” vampire Henry Sturgess, and his scenes with Walker are some of the best in the movie. The rest of the cast don’t fare as well. Anthony Mackie and Jimmi Simpson are serviceable as Lincoln’s pals Will Johnson and Joshua Speed, respectively, although neither character has much dimension to them. Marton Csokas hams it up as the evil Jack Barts, coming across more like a mad leprechaun than a Southern vampire, while a flat Rufus Sewell phones it in as the main vampire villain, Adam. Sadly, fan fave Alan Tudyk hardly registers as Stephen A. Douglas, Lincoln’s rival politically and for Mary’s affection.
The visual effects are fine, with strategically utilized CG dust and mist obscuring some of the more potentially cartoonish touches. The makeup and wigs are hit-and-miss (Winstead’s old age makeup is terrible), and the sets, while period accurate, nevertheless make Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter feel like it was shot at Disneyland.
Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter’s heart may be in the right place -- and any film that makes people interested in reading up on the real Lincoln must be commended -- but overall the film is, ironically, bloodless, chugging along from Great Lincoln Historical Moment to carefully choreographed action set-piece without ever generating much energy or enthusiasm.
