Videogames based on movies tend to be a hit in the 80/90s with WarGames, Cloak & Dagger and Nightmares - it's pretty much of a hit and miss with those movies that feature a fictitious game who the protagonist always plays at their local arcade or something between those lines. In 1982, Troncame out directed by Steven Lisberger who created a Tron universe filled with mind-blowing CG effects and visualized art assets alongside fictitious game that they play in this tron universe/internet, much of it comes from on the battle grid where USERS battle it out on digitized motocycles or an arena free or all where the USERs are equipped with TRON discs fight to the last man. Anyways the story is about Kevin Flynn works for ENCOM, a corporation who creates video games - Flynn created several video games but never get the credit for it. And so Alan, Flynn's friend created Tron and by doing so Flynn went into Tron, meeting the Master program and so on.
Tron Legacy is about Sam Flynn since when he was seven, he never seen his father, Kevin since then as he runs away from home trying to find his father. 27 years later, he infiltrates ENCOM like his father, downloading much data and hacking the board meeting that Alan and Edward is presenting their new OS with his dog looping causing the OS to be online, for free. After being arrested and taken into custody, Sam returns back to his home where he meets Alan who told him one of great stunt he pulled and tells that he received a call from a pager that which is disconnected 20 years ago and from Flynn's arcade.
In Flynn's arcade, as he switches and opens the arcade, he finds a operational Tron arcade who he discovers that there's a secret passage behind the cabinet and into his father's secret office/workspace. In the workplace, he was suddenly beamed by a laser into Tron world. He was then spotted by a recognizer who the MCR taken him for being a bad program and stripped by 4 female programs into Tron gear and a battle disc where he alongside with other programs fight to the death in the battle arena and when he is pitted against Tron, it notices that Sam isn't the same as the others and was taken to the overseer room where he meets his ''father'', Clu. He informs him that he isn't his real father and watches his memory from his ID on how and where he came through this universe and then was taken into another game, lightcycles where he is pitted against Clu in a 5 v 5 lightcycle battle in the grid. I presume that the other 4 in Sam's team are his replicas who are his teammates.
To cut this short, Qorra interrupts the game and rescues Sam with a four-wheel vehicle driving back to a hideout. In the hideout he finally meets his real father, Kevin who has been hiding out for years, protecting Qorra -the last ISO and his Tron disc who is the key that unlocks the portal to the real dimension which Clu is after. After much of a reunion and such, Sam is frustrated that his father isn't doing anything to stop Clu and Qorra helped him by sending him off to 'Zeus' who will helped him.
Tron Legacy who alot of steps of making the visualized effects and CG as sharp as today's standards could be - making the world of Tron look dystopian as it may be. Ever since, such movies as Minority Report and Surrogates reflect on how the future may be, this movie just looks damn fine as the future. Anyways the parts where Sam is fighting in the arena and the battle grid where he and the other four look-alikes fight against Clu or when Kevin,Sam and Quora is reaching the portal, it looks spectacular and magnificent - fully looking how the original Tron was like, 28 years ago. However the CG regarding Clu, from the real world to Tron, looks fine until I figured out that it's CG and it's weird as ever. The 3D that comes along with it, disappointed others due to the lack of potential that it could be in all 3D of the Tron-digitized world. However there are spots that the 3D is
Overall, Tron Legacy relates back to the first Tron in which that it displays, groundbreaking CG and art asserts that the original has, plus the fact that it similar to the storyline in cases of Sam hacking into ENCOM and teleporting into the universe that his father and Alan created but unlike the original, it's action-packed and immersive that of which sucks you into this universe. The soundtrack performed by Daft Punk fits well in this movie, creating a epic soundtrack that fits along the scenes of the janned-pack action scenes to the intense and eye-popping scenes near the end. The acting performances by Garrettt Hedlund ( Eragon) who plays Sam fits into a stereotypical, ''son never sees father until an older age'' style and Jeff Bridges and Bruce Boxleitner who replays their own roles from the original provides a solid performance. Olivia Wilde as hot and sexy as her hair cut and black make-up as she could be, plays Quora is decent but I could never let my eyes off of her pretty face. Michael Sheen however feels like his role from Twilight: New Moon as Aro and it could be either bad or good from a performance standpoint.
From a unknown director, Joseph Kosinski who only creates commercials for video games, this movie proves that he has potential to direct other movies, seeing that this is a successful or being the ''#1 Movie in America'' as advertised in commercials. Also in the movie, there is probably a cameo with Daft Punk as the DJs in Castor's bar.
The basis of making an only African-only films has its faults – the ideal that the film consists of 80% of black people acting like real black people is totally uncalled for – then again, the ‘’misrepresentation’’ of black people in films are regarded to be rather a exaggeration than thinking racist remarks. This was the case for Daddy’s Little Girl directed by Tyler Gerry who also directed; Why did I get Married? And Madea Goes to Jail.
The premise is a mixture of drama, revenge and romance – After Monty’s mother dies, his ‘’wife’’ Jennifer has a feud with him over whose ownership over the three kids; China, Lauryn and Sierra and takes this matter into court for ownership. The bad part is that Monty isn’t able to support a lawsuit over his ex-wife and was separated from his kids, getting a new job as a driver. Enter Julia played by Gabrielle Union who is the main romantic interest of Monty in this film – after having some conflict issues with him and a multitude of bad blind dates set up by her friends – she begins to love Monty and want to help with the lawsuit over ownership of the children. Now, I know it has been said that it’s taking a realistic step into real life but the romantic parts in the film seems too fake and also having the majority of this film, black people and making an attempt to say that ‘’white people are racist’’ and ‘’bitch bitch bitch’’ isn’t justifying anything towards the point of the film.
Anyways, the acting in this film is decent – sometimes the interaction between Monty and Julia seems too awkward and painful to watch – the other characters feels either too rush or too realistic in the sense of a fistful of attitude that usually are obnoxious. The main character, Monty is quite a likable guy, he doesn’t fall too much under the stereotypical black person and he isn’t obnoxious like the other characters in this film.
I had seen many movies that are dumb, whether its the American Pie series, Dumb or Dumber, Bill and Ted and Anchorman - not in the ''this movie sucks'' but its so dumb that its good. While they established some story behind their immature jokes of having sex or spurting genitalia vocabulary at each other, being actually productive and hilarious at the same time, there are movies that are seriously fucking aggravating that it isn't funny anymore... cough* The Hangover *cough..... This is the case of the Step Brothers, one of the most boring ass attempt of comedy and makes me rather watch The Hangover again than this pile of white doggie shit.
The premise is somewhat a good start for this potentially comedic movie, two middle-aged losers or man child (Brennan and Dale) are still living in their parents homes, as both of their parents (Nancy and Robert) are divorced. Their parents leave for work, only to see that they both get married and Brennan and Dale is forced to live with each other.
Anyways, when Brennan and Dale first met, they both hate each other - pulling pranks at each other and then having a huge fight due to Brennan rubbing his balls on Dale's drum set. Also destroying the house, the disgruntled father forced both of them to get a job and want them to move out of their life for a dream boat location at some island with his wife. Though the problem is that both of their ''sons'' doesn't want them to leave, having a pussyfit with them and sleepwalking at night - destroying more of the house. Furthermore, Brennan has a brother who he considers as a dickhead which constantly harasses him due to his inability to fight back - who is trying to sell his parents' home but both of them prevented him on selling the house.
The plot could be sum up in the few words but I want to make it clear that this film is clearly filled with the worst immature jokes since The Hangover, having said that a million times. It easily a portrayed of two idiots whose past is traumatic and the only friends they have is themselves and wants their parents to never leave them due to I presume, parents who didn't make their kids grow up to become a man and get a life or something. It's this kind of movie -- having their childish mentality and unable to fight back those who bullied you from the past and later on have the courage to fight back alongside with another person who had experienced the same.
The cast of characters portrayed by various actors/actresses are a mixed bag of shit that is. Will Ferrell as Brennan and John C. Reilly as Dale is working their own material, trying to have a sort of comedic relationship (not gay though), making the comedic moments more funnier. But seeing that the entirely of their jokes is a bunch of horse-shit, or that the director, Adam McKay is trying to make it unfunny - it doesn't seem like a coincidence that this movie sucks. Mary Steenburger and Richard Jenkins as Brennan and Dale's parents are trying too hard on this film, especially Richard - scenes where he is trying to like and envies Brennan's brother due to being successful is out of his league in my opinion. His laugh and trying to swear is seriously fucked up in a wrong way, and the sex scene seems out of the portion, though in The Visitor, he flirts with a middle-eastern lady but at least that film has general quality into that character and NOT this! The supporting cast is the same as the others; lame, boring and totally retarded, I couldn't say anymore.
The whole movie is a piece of shit... The Hangover may be dumb but at least they redeemed it but going to Las Vag.... well at least they move from place to place rather than having see Reilly and Ferrell fucking face looking at the camera/at the ceiling when they are trying to sleep. I would say skip it though if you like the Hangover, or those Ashton Kuck(whatever his last name is) movies with Cameron Diaz or whatever - then rent it if you like that type of humour.
Last year's Pixar animated Up, won a plethora of Academy awards and is considered to be one of my best movies of last decade. From the bitter sweet heartwarming moments, the adorable and charming characters and a moral lesson - to get rid of a burden that you've longed for since a kid, growing up. You cannot deny how charming and sweet, Pixar movies are - they always tend to have some sad moments but the good thing is that there's always something to cheer you up. Also, Pixar movies are always been recommended for everyone, whether child or adult.
Just fifteen years ago, when animation is just starting to appeal to western audience - one of the first animated movies by Pixar Animated Studios that impressed everyone with its gorgeous looking graphics from a 3D point of view is Toy Story. One of the breakthroughs of CG animation integrated into movies not only come with its attention to detail but its storyline about two bewildered toys, the Inner Galactic Buzz Lightyear and his Cowboy partner, Woody as both of them are trying to find their owner but stuck in a world that they never intended to be in. Though it doesn't age well towards now, but the adventures of Buzz and Woody is the most significant and exciting parts of that movie, After that comes Toy Story 2, the animation improved and features a new cast of characters from the old ones. This movie is considered one of the best (back then) in the series, with a strong narrative, lovable and charming cast of characters and a wild adventure.
Now in 2010, when 3D implementation into movies are going strong with mind-looking to not-so minding vision that utilizes a ''real-world'' of actually being there being advertised - it doesn't necessarily does that, its pretty much a eye-strain watching
Anyways, today or recently I went to the theatres to see Toy Story 3. Everyone seems to talk about this highly-anticipated animated movie and even though this movie came out on the 18th, my local movie theater was jam-packed with people - selling out tickets for Toy Story 3 though me and my friends had to wait a few minutes until we watched this movie under a different time slot, waiting in line to buy them. As we presented our slips and received our 3D glasses which looks like thick sun glasses, the room that they are showing this movie was already getting filled up and we were lucky to get the middle-row seats.
The 3D glasses at first are terrible and I have dry eyes which makes me tear up, distracting my ''3D'' experience due to the amount of trailers showed at the beginning; consisting mainly of animated movies from Pixar, one animated film with Brad Piit and Will Ferell and the other I don't really remember, oh... and some short cartoon called Night and Day. But besides the trailers, there are a few Toy Story 3 shorts that are brillantly well-done; one of them is with Mr and Mrs Potato Head asking people to close their phones and shut their mouths and the other one is the avoid ''piracy'', as an toy-crafter designs Woody and says that Toy Story 3 will not look better than watching it in theaters... Kinda quirky and hilarious but that piracy one is something to considered on.
The movie then starts with the title card already and then shows Mr and Mrs Potato Head robbing a train in a western-theme style action movie as Woody comes saves the day and trolls, but they got away and Buzz saves the day as he lifts the train from falling and Woody as well. As Woody, Buzzand Jessie with his horse catches up with the two villains, the mechanical Hamm comes to destroy Woody and Buzz dropping red monkeys. Then it transitions to Andy's childhood through some kind of montage, as he is
The toys are pretty much disappointed that Andy isn't playing with them anyone, as Andy's mother wants him and his little sister to donate toys to the Sunnyside, a local daycare but he refuses to let his childhood memory go as he decides to put all his toys with the exception of Woody into the attic to protect them. But as he later became distracted with helping his sister, his mother picks up the garbage bag fulled of his toys and onto the curb from an oncoming garbage truck is coming. Woody tries to save them as they all decided to go to Sunnyside where they could be played with kids due to the fact that their owner doesn't want to play with them anymore and thinks that they're garbage.
When they arrived to the daycare, Buzz, Jessie, Mr and Mrs Potato Head, Rex and Hamm the Piggy Bank, Slinky Dog, and the Aliens are greeted by Lots-O'-Huggin' Bear named Lutso who is the leader of the daycare and smells like strawberry. He introduces his new guests to the other outcast toys that are donated to the daycare and says that there will an infinite amount of fun to be played at. Then Lutso offers them a room where the kids could play with them all day but Woody arrives to warn them
At night, they decided to leave the daycare - as Buzz tries to find a exit, he was later ambushed by the tyrannical baby and realized that Lutso intended for them to live in this so-called penitentiary, first brainwashing him, changing the play button to the demo button where Buzz thinks that he is a inner-galactic superhero again thinking that his friends are his enemies as they are locked up into containment cells and the slur of prison-movies' references escapades. Woody as he escaped the daycare was spotted by a cute little girl named Bonnie who brought him back to her house to play cafe with Mr. Pricklepants, Trixie, Dolly, Chuckles who was once Lutso's friend and Peas-in a pod and also Neighbourhood Totoro which never speaks. Miss Opportunity.
Besides that, Woody now must save his friends from the Cute Thing that became Evil Bear in the daycare also known as the penitentiary where no toys ever leaves...
There's no words to say how incredible this movie is, its just awesome to see the cast of characters from the second one with the exception of Slinky Dog's actor (may he R.I.P) though Blake Clark manages to fit into that role. The main characters, Tom Hanks and Tim Allen still got that nostalgia from the first two Toy Story movies, they still sound the same and manages to entertain everybody as well as the rest of the cast of characters. Joan Cusack, Wallace Shawn, John Ratzenberger, Estelle
Anyways to wrap this up, Toy Story 3 is a compelling, remarkable and good-looking animated Pixar movie in this year though the 3D didn't have its role in this movie, the movie just sucks you in - forgetting that its in 3D and still looks very pretty and gorgeous. The moral lesson in this movie comes to the main character as he is growing older and doesn't have time to play with his toys anymore but having his inner child still inside. It's what the lesson is, regardless of how old you are being tired of playing toys that you have kept for through the generation, you still have your inner childhood and like what Up's life lesson, to get rid of a childhood burden just as how Andy leaves all his toy including Woody to Bonnie, as the child of him becomes responsible. The story does so to contribute that with the sweetness that Pixar movies had to offer mixed in with comedy that everyone can enjoy. This is considered to be, I'm calling it, one of the best movies of this year besides the upcoming Expendables and Inception.
Words I cannot describe how marvelous and remarkable, this movie is - seeing that this movie is my favourite and number 1 movie of the previous year. I'm quite astonished that The King's Speech has left me speechless throughout the whole movie, enjoying and embracing, the influential parts with His Majesty, Prince Albert and his hired speech therapist, Lionel Logue practicing and improving on his speech impediment. This kind of feeling is relate-able to 2006's Academy Award Movie, The Queen, not only being a bio-documentary and historical figures of our society but how "refined" it is without the bias.
Director Tom Hooper whose name is quite unknown, directed this movie with such finesse -- not making this "influential" movie that doesn't derive from other movies being "too sentimental" or exaggerates between the lines of a underdog tale or overuse of a sweeping score.. No Hooper crafts together, a movie that puts a realistic view towards a "influential and powerful" film that which nothing of the previous year could top it.
The King's Speech stars, Colin Firth as Prince Albert, The Duke of York's ascension to the throne, his reluctance of ascension, the perilous journey regarding his speech impediment and the means to solve it. This movie doesn't comprise of another bland
Through the course of the movie, starting with the awkward opening -- it clearly shows the general feeling of a nervous stammer, of the audience reaction, and public embarrassment - these are quite relatable in our daily lives (ex. making a speech, presentation, etc). Hooper clearly wanted to craft something that relates to real-life standards of stammering through the course of the movie, making the great lengths to the main character's intolerance and patience of stammer and the means of improving throughout the movie.
Being that of it is, Elizabeth ( Helena Bonham Carter) hires a unconventional speech therapist, Lionel Logue ( Geoffrey Rush) to tutor, Prince Albert, everyday through the years before his ascension to the throne. The mentor-ship of Lionel Logue is the hallmark of this film, it deliberately makes the movie, the influential one. In the sessions with Logue and Albert or Bertie, we could see the frustration and self-confidence issues coming out of Albert and Logue utilizing his experience to conquer his fear of his responsibilities and speech impediment. Also having a R rating attached to it, and having to see Bertie's burst of constant profanity with a touch of humour makes this movie not overly being constantly dramatic.
As the prince, he also faces the dilemmas after his father, King George's death and the responsibilities of his ascension with his older brother, Edward ( Guy Pearce) who decides to abdicates his rule rather than denouncing his twice-divorced American wife, Wallis Simpson. Being unable to be equipped rule as well as being cruel and vile to his younger brother, Albert and others.
Geoffrey Rush who plays Barbossa in The Pirates of the Caribbean series, performance is excellent being a speech therapist that didn't get his career off a diploma/degree but through experience during the aftermath of the first World War, coping them through traumatic experience. This goes
Overall, The King's Speech is not only a influential masterpiece and my number 1, movie of the previous year but has really left me, speechless through the course of the movie. This is how powerful this movie truly is without being overly-sentimental with a moving soundtrack and tired use of thoughtless ''inspiration''. Hooper and his screenwriter has proved that even unknown, filmmakers could craft such an astonishing, intriguing and thoughtful drama that takes a rare turn of balancing out the political and the personal life with equality.
Source Code is in fact The Inception of 2011 - it mixes a simple yet complex story and combines it with a unique and compelling concept of which is exactly the sum of it's parts. From what critics and fans raved, Source Code marks an exemplary for a Hollywood thriller that hit in April Fool's day in no less, which doesn't mix together due to the fact that it isn't a practical joke rather than a thrilling and outstanding movie that came out in the first quarter of 2011.
Director Duncan Jones who previously directed another fantastic film, Moon - a mixture of Philip K Dick and with a touch of Stanley Kubrick into one film decided to make Deja Vu and Speed into one complete package called Source Code. Like with The King's Speech, we see another new writer,Ben Ripley who makes a excellent and well-crafted script that derives from other movies and adds a unique concept into it.
Jake Gyllenhaal stars portrays two roles; Sgt. Colter Stevens, a helicopter pilot from Kandahar and Shawn, a history teacher who wakes up as the teacher on board a Chicago-bound train, not knowing where he is and why is he not in Kandahar in a firing mission. The mentally and physically of both Shawn and Stevens plays such in movies like Down to Earth and Groundhog Day where the character doesn't realize that he's in another person or he doesn't accepts that he's in a time paradox until he accepts it through a trial of endangering himself and others. At first he tries to find himself but eight minutes after, the Chicago-train explosives and he finds himself as Stevens in a capsule, under a secret military program codenamed Source Code as Lt. Carol Goodwin (Vera Farmiga) tries to convince him that the incident on the train was really a simulation and everyone on the train is actually dead.
Carol wants Stevens to relive the eight minutes of Shawn's life in order to find the terrorist/bomber who detonated the train so that he could prevent the next attack which will target the city of Chicago and Dr. Rutledge (Jeffrey Wright), overseeing this "simulation" and finds that this simulation project, Source Code will be a huge success for the military. In the eight minutes of Shawn's life, he first meets with a mid-twenties girl, Christina (Michelle Monaghan) who accomplices him as well as a student and finds Shawn, troubling as he endears a massive time-paradox or Groundhog's Day of first endearing conflicts with the passengers on board, knowing everything that will happen and ways to find the terrorist.
At first with trying to track the terrorist who planted the bomb, it felt short and to me - I thought it would be like Speed (substituting the bus for a train) and the whole time, the train will be monitored by the terrorist to ensure that the bomb will detonate and no one will be able to disarmed until Keanu Reeves tricks Dennis Hopper. But what we actually got is a terrorist/nut-job, Derek who tries to "send a message" by killing thousands to millions of innocent civilians and cleverly dropping his identification so that he is presumed dead on board the train so that he could blow up Chicago. It felt rushed to me at that point but having Stevens reliving the 8 minutes as Shawn coming into conflict with the passengers; from beating up a motion-sickness Middle-Eastern businessmen and ending up being run over by a train, getting arrested onboard for stealing a gun to finding the bomber and getting him and Christina shot adds some drama and comical touch to it.
Oh, we also have Jeffrey Wright trying his best to chew his lines like in any other movies he's in as the commander discussing the secret program, Source Code of which is a "time adjustment/paradox" and reveals to Stevens that he actually died in Kandahar, while engaging on a firing mission and he is actually now Shawn. It plays the Down to Earth formula with a touch of Inception in the end of having a "time-paradox" of Stevens trying to save the whole train from detonating and revealing that this program does work in that instance. Or that he is still living in that part of time having described by Wright - "being in another dimension."
The story overall felt like an episode from an action-packed sci-fi thriller to me, running around 93 minutes, the sets is only focused upon the train and finding the terrorist who planted the bomb, the military compound where Carol and the commander is tracking the terrorist, the capsule that Stevens in and some parts of Chicago. These locations felt un-Hollywood standards to the executives due to a shortage of locations and only basing the movie around the train. This does hinder the movie of lacking a loop of Gyllehaal eye-balling everything and punching the douche bag to Russell Petersmaking everyone laugh over a bet of 125 dollars. And of course falling in love with Christina and saving her and the passengers from the threat of the bomb exploding.
It is sure compelling but some parts like character doesn't go much into detail along with the characters; we don't much know of Carol who orders Stevens to find who's the terrorist and Derek who is the terrorist isn't much of an attention-grabber, making a stereotypical nut-job albeit clever who tries to "send a message" by killing civilians and disappointedly not a terrorist who demands ransom. It's main focus is centering the bomb and Stevens like Phil Connors from Groundhog Day being an anti-hero enduring the trials of the same event, over and over until he finally achieves a trial that is less of himself and takes the girl as well as save millions of people.
The Middle-East can be the bad place. A place that is conquered by war and games, games like Command and Conquer: Generals. This game plays in the middle-eastern influences that we have today, such as a plethora of games and movies today and believed to recruitment tool of the government. This type of modern-esque games can be cool, seeing real units from the US military are in play in these games. It is my dream coming to reality, seeing crusader tanks to tomahawk missiles on the battlefield with stealth bombers flying above them. It’s just amazing.
C&C: Generals is a RTS game created by Westwood and published by Electronic Arts, which is probably the last game that we see that Westwood created. Its previous contenders, C&C: Red Alert 2 was known for its wacky humour and game-play which was complimented with better graphics and features. Now, Generals created something different and steer away from the majority of C&C games like Tiberum Sun to Red Alert.
As you entered the title screen, you see something different; it isn’t a plain screen with some animations but a look into the game-play which has an isometric view as you see a group, defending while the opposing force is swarming them. This is something that looks awesome in that era, seeing a fully 3-D view and it is truly eye-popping to witness.
The campaign consists of three sides; you can choose the patriotic Americans, the people’s republic of China and the deadly Global Liberation Army known as the GLA. Also it contains a tutorial which contains one mission, teaching you some of the basics of Generals. Each campaign consists of seven missions who follow the example of Starcraft which goes in chronological order, starting from China, GLA and the US.
Starting from chronological order, China starts off in the most controversial where the GLA ambushes the Chinese military parade at Tiananmen Square, ending up with a nuclear explosion, destroying it. From there on, the Chinese army strived to liberate their territory from GLA and drive them back to their lands. The GLA however is recovering from the Chinese attack and focus on retrieving their military strength, on the series of attacking the US and Chinese forces. And finally, the US finishes the GLA which the first mission is reminiscent of the real war of Iraq and then drive them back to their headquarters in Kazakhstan.
Each mission opens a briefing screen which tells you the objective like previous C&C games, the big difference between those games is the cinematic opening for each missions. The cinematic openings contains of only game-play which is weird because the C&C series is the stable of full-motion video and this game lacked it. But it compensates with a 3-D isometric view which you can zoom in the battlefield or switch to a 360 angle view to change the camera of the battlefield.
Each side has its specialties and their way to play. The US plays technological as they focus on technologies like lasers, tomahawks, a strong air-force, unmanned drones to either repair or scout, aurora bombers to particle cannon that are reminiscent of the ion cannon in the Tiberian Sun game. The problem is that their units are expensive and lack the resources to fund them. China uses hordes and nuclear power as their advantage, encouraging you to produce hordes and compliments with propaganda towers, napalm, gattling guns to producing two basic soldiers instead of one. The problem is that they move slower and can be ambushed by the US air-force or the GLA. The GLA however acts with no power and air supremacy, ending up with deadly tactics like toxic tractors, terrorists, quad cannons to SCUD storm which rains missiles of poison and destruction to their foes.
Also each side is complimented with their perspective powers, as you defeat units in the battlefield, you can get experience which is used to purchase “General Abilities” to further strength the outcome of the battlefield. Each side possesses a different one, the US powers relies majority on air supremacy and exclusive units (paladin tanks and snipers), the Chinese relies on promotion of units, one exclusive unit (nuke cannon) to artillery support and the GLA power relies its ambushes emplacements, toxin drop, bounty bonuses to some exclusive units (hijackers to marauder tanks).
The game-play interface is reminiscent to Starcraft and Age of Empires where the HUD is at bottom which is different than its predecessors. Like other RTS games, you can acquire supplies from supply piles which can be gathered by building a supply center. Each side had different types of vehicles to acquire resources; the US acquires resources from a Chinook and also can take the role as a transport, the Chinese acquire resources from a supply truck and the GLA acquires resources from a worker which is used to build buildings.
What is different from its predecessors, is that you need to build workers or dozers to construct buildings rather than queuing up a building and placing up within your perimeter. The advantage of building dozers is that you can build any-where in the map, provided that you safe-guard your dozer to that location. Also these builders can remove traps like the demo trap to Chinese mines. Similar to other RTS, you need to build basic buildings to advance to the higher ones, provided that you have sufficient amount of power when you played as the US or China.
The US with air superiorly and technological advance units are quite expensive especially when faced to upgrade them, they lacked the sufficient amount of supplies to produce a large army and acquire further resources like supply drop-zones. Their buildings are powered by Cold Fusion Reactor which can be upgrade with Control rods to increase power input. As the US is elitist to air, there are a plethora of upgrades to improve your air-force with deadly proficiency. The ground forces, like crusader tanks, missile defenders, snipers to tomahawk missiles can be deadly as-well, provided that you can see good micro-managing among them. Infantry like Rangers can be upgraded with Flash-bangs which can clear out buildings and other infantry.
They start with a satellite radar which you can use it to reveal hidden areas on the map and can see the mini-map without any upgrades. They also can build a detention center which has the ability to reveal the whole map. Other buildings such as the Strategy Center is the HUB for upgrading units, furthering the building tier and can choose either bombardment which raises the attack power and fires nearby enemies, “hold the line” which boosts units and structures’ defense and “search and destroy” which increases unit and buildings’ range. Their main source of defense is the patriotic missile which can connect to other patriotic missiles, resulting in a strong line of defense against their enemies. And finally, the particle cannon which is the super-weapon for the US and like the Ion cannon from Tiberian Sun, it can move in a straight line causing havoc upon units and structures.
The Chinese with the power of producing units quickly and the usage of propaganda can be deadly first but weak second. Building hordes of units can be suspected but with ambushes like GLA SCUD launchers or the US air-force can be resulted as fatal to China. The Chinese focus on napalm strikes from their MiG aircraft and inferno cannons, propaganda towers which heal them to nuclear warfare like nuke cannons to the deadly nuke. Their buildings are powered by Nuclear Reactors which special ability, “over-charged” can increase power but decreases the health of the reactor. While MiG can be deadly against ground forces, it doesn’t compare to the US air superiorly. China relies on ground forces, which you can upgrade them into more of a formidable foe, battle-master tanks and overlords can be only upgraded to its full potential by the Chinese super-weapon, the Nuclear Missile. Their basic unit like the Red Guard produces two of them instead of one and their rocket soldiers can plant tnt charges on buildings and such.
They start off with no radar and require upgrading radar from their command center. All of their buildings can purchase mines around their buildings to prevent them from easy captures or terrorist bombings. They can build propaganda towers which heal and raises attack power for units that surround the area of it. Their main defenses are bunkers which can hold up to five infantry and gattling cannons which provided with these combinations can be deadly to air and ground forces. Other buildings such as the Propaganda Center upgrades Nationalism which increases attack, provided in a group and subliminal messaging which increases propaganda towers. Producing Overlords gives you the choice on upgrading them, whether it’s a bunker to store five infantry, gattling cannons to destroy air and ground forces or propaganda towers which heals and boosts the attack power of units. If resources are proven, insufficient, you can build hackers to “suck the internet dry” of cash, benefiting small quantities of cash at first but later on with a horde of hackers, can restore your economy, granted that you protect them well. Finally the Nuclear Missile is their super-weapon and launching it will cause a mushroom cloud of radiation upon your enemies and death.
The GLA is one of the most deadly sides to choose upon. The fact that you can use deadly chemicals to ambushes of angry mobs to terrorists is just cheap yet great at the same time. While their forces produces cheap units that can be easily destroyed, having an army of specific units like SCUD launchers, Demo trucks to Scorpion tanks can be really deadly to your foes. The GLA relies on amounts and amounts of toxins, AK-47s for angry mobs, armor-piercing bullets and rockets for Quad Cannons to RPG troopers and rocket buggys. Their buildings aren’t powered by reactors so this could make an advantage as you are choosing the GLA. They also don’t have any air units to support them which means they are somewhat vulnerable to air attacks from US and Chinese forces, to compensate this, you are offered by building a deadly force that focuses on toxins and guerilla war-fare. In the battlefield, you can upgrade units like technical, scorpion tanks, toxin tractors to quad cannons and improve them by just destroying enemy vehicles and picking up. Units like Technical can be upgraded into two tiers; 20mm recoilless rifle and a rapid-fire RPG launcher.
Like the Chinese, they start off with no radar and require an arms dealer to produce a radar van unit. What makes the GLA special is when buildings are destroyed, you need to immediately destroy GLA holes or they will rebuild itself. Buildings like Palaces can not only upgrade units’ potential but can hold up to five units. Other buildings like the Black Market are the main hub for main upgrades to boost your military strength and can also fund credits for your economy. Their main defenses are tunnel networks, stinger sites and demo traps; after building up a tunnel network, it produces two RPG troops and can be garrisoned and transferred to other tunnel networks throughout the map, stinger sites with armor-piercing rockets can be deadly but the use of flash-bangs and dragon tanks can kill off the units of this defense and can proven a easy target after and demo traps can be really deadly if approached upon. And finally, GLA’s super weapon, the SCUD storm is known to be more deadly than the nuclear missile, causing toxins to spread in the area which was launched.
There are also hero units in this game for every faction, each of them having their own special abilities and remains invisible until shot upon. First the US, has Colonel Burton which stereotypes Arnold, plants demo charges, backstabs enemies and can climb up mountains with proficiency. The Chinese has Black Lotus which is unable to attack but can hack into buildings, vehicles and can steal cash from supply centers. The GLA has Jarmen Kell, which acts as a sniper and can use his ability to pluck off drivers from vehicles so that infantry units can control them.
This game doesn’t have engineers like other C&C games but basic infantry can be upgraded to capture buildings. These units can either capture enemy buildings or tech buildings that appear in maps. Similar to Red Alert 2, you can acquire these tech buildings and granted with beneficially bonuses that will help you in the battlefield. Tech buildings range from Oil Derricks which produces credits to fund your economy, and Hospitals and repair bays heals your infantry and vehicles. The flaw towards capturing buildings is that, it takes longer to capture it but having additional units can speed up it while unlike other C&C games, you can just move the engineer into the building and capture it.
The skirmish which is like any other RTS game, can be a fun experience, especially when you are playing the maximum amount of players in the largest map. This however can drag the frame-rate down if your opponents build up a huge army to contend with yours but it is a satisfying experience to enjoy. Besides that, the game encourages you to play skirmishes and beat the campaign because it awards you with a medal and having all medals can be a victor of bragging rights. These medals ranged from blitz medal which requires you to finish your opponent within ten minutes or less, a medal that will be awarded if you complete all the skirmish maps on the highest difficulty to building a sizable army of air-forces to ground forces.
The multi-player is nothing special, you can either choose online or LAN, adopting the similar format as typical RTS. You can choose either a random match or a custom match that are designed by the host of the game. The online play therefore fails to compliment the true potential of this game, adding nothing to the table to a exciting experience.
The soundtrack for this game is truly astounding and compliments the game-play. Composed by Bill Brown which composes a number of Tom Clancy games, he gives a militaristic edge and memorable theme for each faction in the game. Each theme possesses diversity to compliment each faction; the US theme consists of epic, militaristic scores that present itself as patriotic, the Chinese theme consists of orchestral scores that combines Asian influences and the GLA theme consists of Middle-Eastern influences with a touch of heavy metal. This soundtrack works perfectly as you roam the battlefields with your units, mowing down your opposition.
Despite having no FMV cut-scenes or in-depth story-telling, Generals proves to be a satisfying experience. Not only it is the first C&C game has 3-D and a different engine from its predecessors but has an addicting game-play that satisfies for years to come. Having a modern look on units that are in the real world and some that will be developing in the future looks compelling and duking them out with the opposing force seems awesome. Also Generals comes with a World-Builder which you can created your own maps or go to a fan-site to download theirs. The fan community of Generals is quite dedicated on creating their own revisions of maps, with a hint of creativity. This type of dedicated can make you addicted for more Generals. The downside of this game is that, it lacks a potential of multiplayer as it plays like other generic RTS. This game is a recommended purchase for RTS fans, especially C&C fans or people that want a modern-day RTS.
