As you can see in the video above The Tick is back and better than ever. What about Arthur you say? You can see him in the video below! Best Amazon series ever! Well it may not be, but I choose to believe it is going to be awesome!
Sherlock Holmes And The Case Of The Never Ending Loading Screen!
Way back in March the game Sherlock Holmes: Crimes and Punishments by Frogwares was given away as part of Microsoft’s Games with Gold program. I had been meaning to give it try since then, but there have been way too many things to play. I am happy to report that it is a pretty good modern adventure title, but just be prepared for a lot of loading. Seriously, you may need to get a book. A Sherlock Holmes novel perhaps?
Taking its queue from the classic Sir Arthur Conan Doyle novels on which Crimes and Punishments is based, the game is split in to six different cases. Each one with clues to find and chumps to make look stupid as you bring up things they thought they were hiding. Also nodding to Fyodor Dostoyevsky’s novel Crime and Punishment, when you wrap up a case you can choose whether to imprison the perpetrators or take pity on them and set them free.
Like most games in the adventure genre, Sherlock Holmes: Crimes and Punishments involves a lot of walking around and looking at things, touching things, and talking to people. The more you look and touch, the more options you get when you talk. To help you look for stuff there is a Holmes vision that turns everything gray, but then highlights things you may have missed in yellow. Also when you talk to people you get to slow time and check them out all over so you can make those Sherlock Holmes snap deductions, like that they are a poor son of a rich man who now works as a fish cleaner. That is by far my favorite part. There are a few little mini-games as well that Frogwares uses to try and break up the monotony of all the looking, touching and talking. Some are good, and some are not. Luckily they are all skip-able.
My second favorite thing is the way Crimes and Punishments lets you piece the clues together. You go in to Holmes’ brain and make deductions, but some decoctions have multiple conclusions you can make, and based on those conclusions you can then make your final judgment. Once you accept this judgment a very Sherlock Holmes-y cut-scene will take place with him explaining everything. What is even better is that it saves before this cut-scene, so if you have all the clues you can watch them all. The downer is that the loading takes so long that you may not have the patience to do so.
If Frogwares could have found a way to cut down on the excessive loading times Sherlock Holmes: Crimes and Punishments may have been a must play for fans of the adventure genre. As it is, it is still pretty good and worth a look since it usually can be found for cheap. I am enjoying the feeling of being the Master Detective, I just wish that there wasn’t so much down time, but maybe they were just trying to give us more time to think about the case.
TK-436 Puts The War Back In Star Wars!
Shmee Visits Zootopia!
Disney Animation Studios is on quite the roll. They haven’t released a bad movie in quite some time, and Zootopia continues this streak. Somehow the folks over at Disney managed to make a poignant movie about racism, but still have it be cute and charming. Zootopia is a great movie, and one that can be seen by the whole family.
The film follows a bunny named Judy Hopps (Ginnifer Goodwin) who becomes Zootopia’s first rabbit cop, but she soon finds out that the world isn’t the wonderful place she hoped it would be, and tensions are running high in the city between Prey and Predators. Her first big case could make things even worse. Hopefully her new friend a sly fox named Nick Wilde (Jason Bateman) can help her navigate the big city.
A bad movie would have fumbled this story and made it too preachy, or even worse, insulting, but Zootopia’s writers managed to get just the right tone while still getting their point across. I like how they made sure that the main characters were not immune to the problems the city had, but instead they had to overcome them. Too many kids movies make the main characters perfect, so nothing is learned.
Disney Animation and Pixar continue to be the gold standard on finding great voice talent for their films. While other studios chase big stars, so they can advertise their star power, Disney just gets the right people for the job. Bateman and Goodwin are very good, but the rest of the cast is wonderful too. Though I am a sucker for anything with John DiMaggio in it.
The animation in Zootopia is amazing. Disney Animation Studios really brought this animal city to life. I loved all the different districts, and how all these different animals interacted with one another. It made Zootopia feel like a real place. It was just great work all around.
Zootopia is a good family film that was made by a studio that has really hit its stride. The only reason that I could find for not recommending this film is that it has a couple of quick scary parts, but my two year old made it through with flying colors. Zootopia is so good you should watch it even if you don’t have a family.