The Joker's Bad Day

For the most part, in comic books, villains are very simplistic characters. Their usual motivations are anger, greed, or pure insanity. No other villain defies this stereotype as well as Batman’s arch-nemesis, the Joker. It would be easy to believe that the Joker is driven by pure insanity, but to dismiss it that easily would be a mistake. With immenant arrival of The Dark Knight, there is now more than ever, a spotlight is focused on the man that is the Joker.
The first authentic portrayal of the Joker’s descent into insanity was in Alan Moore’s The Killing Joke, a one shot Batman comic. Apparently, after failing to become a stand-up comic (a goal that forced him to quit his job as an engineer) the man who would become the Joker was forced to turn to petty crime. While planning his first small job, he was informed that his wife had been killed in an accident caused by a small household appliance. Overcome by grief the man tries back out of the job, but he is strong-armed into going along. Of course, the plan goes wrong and the local security guards shoot the thugs accompanying him. Batman shows up to intervene, but only makes matters worse by scaring the man into frenzy. Terrified, the man jumps into a vat of acid and emerges, laughing hysterically, as the Joker.
The origin of the Joker is only a small portion of what The Killing Joke offers. For the rest of the book, the Joker is attempting to prove his theory that one bad day is enough to drive a man into insanity. Over the course of this day the Joker is trying to drive Jim Gordon (the police commissioner and Batman’s only “friend”) insane. The most heinous of his tactics was shooting Barbara Gordon, the commissioner’s daughter in the back. He even takes pictures of her crippled body in various states of undress. “Luckily” she was only paralyzed from the waist down. These monstrosities serve not only as plot points, but as a means of delving into who the Joker is. It was one bad day that drove a simple engineer into insanity, just as it was one bad day that drove a child into becoming a symbolic vigilante. That is where the true depth of the Joker lies, in his relationship with Batman. Bruce Wayne had his butler Alfred along with billions of dollars to hold onto after his “bad day,” but who did the Joker have. The only person he cared about was dead. He had no job or social life. He was left with nothing to hold on to, and as a result he allowed the madness to take over.
At times the Joker shines through as a man who wants to become sane again. He wants to be normal, but when Batman offers to help him the he can only answer with a joke. “See, there were these two guys in a lunatic asylum... and one night... one night they decide they don’t like living in an asylum any more. They decide they’re going to escape! So like they get up on to the roof, and there, just across the narrow gap, they see the rooftops of the town, stretching away in moon light... stretching away to freedom. Now the first guy he jumps right across with no problem. But his friend, his friend daren’t make the leap. Y’see he’s afraid of falling... So then the first guy has an idea. He says “Hey! I have my flash light with me. I will shine it across the gap between the buildings. You can walk across the beam and join me.” But the second guy just shakes his head. He says... he says “What do you think I am, crazy? You would turn it off when I was half way across."(Moore) In this short story, the Jokers shows that he wants nothing more than to be “human” again, but he cannot trust the only man who offers to help him, the only man who is just like him.
(Moore)- from The Killing Joke by Alan Moore

The Art of Space

For dozens of years film has been hailed as the modern art form. With the advent of episodic television, a la 24 and Lost, television has found its own method of achieving true art. No longer are TV shows weekly stand alone movies, but they can now tell one unified story over many years. No show has captured the essence of this art form like Battlestar Galactica. To disregard Galactica as simple science fiction would be easy, but it has become so much more than that. And as season 4 of this space odyssey begins, it can no longer be ignored

Battlestar Galactica is a re-imagining of the 1978 TV series of the same name. The general idea is that humanity has been destroyed by the servant machines (cylons) that it had created. Only one military ship, the Galactica, along with a few other civilian vessels, survived the attack. With Commander Adama at the helm, and with his ace pilots Starbuck and Apollo at his side, the small human fleet begins its search for the mythical lost colony….Earth. All the while the cylons, who look, act, and feel human now, are in heavy pursuit.

Sounds like a run of the mill sci-fi program, but it is so much more than that. Galactica uses these sci-fi elements only as a setting. This show is about the characters, not battles or space ships. The writers use the setting to explore the human psyche under extreme distress. Galactica does not deal in stereotypes. But rather every character is absolutely unique, yet inherently human. They all have their flaws, and it is those flaws that drive their actions. At times they prove noble and heroic, yet when the action stops they turn to alcohol and sex as a means of coping with their situation. In nearly every episode someone learns the “moral of the story,” but when we next see them they have fallen back to their bad habits. It seems as if happiness is a goal that everyone aboard Galactica is trying to avoid.

What’s just as impressive as the character development is the manner in which Galactica deals with modern issues. Religious fanaticism, terrorism, and even the war in Iraq are dealt with in a way that has never been seen before. The fact that Galactica unflinchingly approaches these topics allows viewers to relate to what the characters are going through.

All of these things are great, but underneath the characters and the issues lays one all important question. What does it mean to be human? As the new biological cylons arose, the line between human and cylon became even smaller. This startling new fact gives rise to a flurry of ethical questions. What gives humanity the right to live after the atrocities it has committed upon itself? How can someone who is fundamentally human be so alike, yet so different? It’s these questions that eat at the mind of each crewmember. And it’s the depth with which these questions are answered that is so unique.

Art, as described by dictionary.com, is the quality, production, expression, or realm, according to aesthetic principles, of what is beautiful, appealing, or of more than ordinary significance. It’s hard to imagine that a show on the SCI-FI channel could achieve such a status, but Galactica most definitely fits the bill.

Rainbow Six: Vegas 2

The first Rainbow Six: Vegas was the one first tactical first-person shooter to have reached mass success on the console market. Its success, not to mention the cliffhanger ending, assured that a sequel would be forthcoming. As a result the expectations were high, maybe a little too high. That’s not to say that RSV2 is a bad game. By all means, I am loving my time with it, but it does have its fair share of flaws and miscues. And although my review is going to focus on the negatives, I really do like this game.
The original Rainbow Six, for the PC, was a far cry from what it would become. It focused more on the tactics and preparations before the mission, but only allowed for control over a smaller portion of the actual execution. As the series began to shift on to consoles, the games started to rely more on heavy action. RSV2 is the culmination of that transition. The action does not stop. There are still tactical elements involved in the game play that shows up during the single player mode, but during co-op the only tactic that matters is deciding which enemy each player is going to take. In fact, I only ordered the CPU team members to breach a room once, a tactic I used on nearly every room in the first game. That might be my biggest disappointment with RSV2. Rainbow Six has always been about the tactics, but with this installment the series has devolved into a first person cover based shooter.
We all know that the true meat of the Vegas games is the multiplayer. And this time around the multiplayer is very good. All newcomers should beware; it has a steep learning curve. The newly embedded core of gamers have already begun to learn all of the little secrets and will ravage the untrained gamer. I was also disappointed to find that most players are only involved for their own success, rather than for the good of the team.
The story of RSV2 is obviously not the focus of the development, but for a first person shooter. In order to really understand it you have to have at least some knowledge of the story in the first game. There is one moment, near the beginning of the game, that is particularly shocking and shows that the story could have been much more.
In order to create an accurate representation of Las Vegas, Ubisoft had to sacrifice a few things. One of which was the graphics. They did move up to the Unreal 3 engine, but used it to create a vibrant world rather than a sharp one. As in the first game, the cover system reigns supreme over any other shooter in the genre. Its strength lies in the realism of the combat. Cover fire is inaccurate, it’s hard to shoot while running, and, most importantly, you are not a tank.
Despite its flaws, RSV2 was the best co-op experience I’ve had since Gears of War. This is a great game for anyone who wants to have a good time with a friend. If you’re in the market for a tactical shooter, with a decent plot and great game play, RSV2 is for you.

B+

Last Few Months

Here are the scores I've given the games I've played over the last few months.

Multiplatform
The Orange Box - A+
Army of Two - B-
Rock Band - A
Stranglehold - D
Assassins Creed- B
Call of Duty - A
Lost Planet- B-
Devil May Cry 4- A-
The Simpsons- C+
Lego Star Wars- B+

Playstation 3
Uncharted: Drake's Fortune - A
Resistance: Fall of Man - B+
Warhawk - B-

XBox 360
Mass Effect- B+
Halo 3- B-
Gears of War- A-

Wii
Super Mario Galaxy- A
Super Smash Bros.- A-

Gordon Freeman: Great Hero or GREATEST HERO

The Half-Life series is, arguably, the best FPS franchise that has ever been made. It takes a lot to even be mentioned in the same group as Halo and Call of Duty, let alone being mentioned as the best. How does Half-Life, a game with no multiplayer (a crucial element in the FPS world), stand at the top of this pile of glory? Two words, Gordon Freeman.
Why is Gordon Freeman such a badass? I’m glad you asked. The answer is simple. Gordon Freeman has no personality. At the same time, he has everyone’s personality. When I play Half-Life I picture him as a quiet confident person. Those are my personality traits as well. Gordon is a blank slate that we can all put ourselves into. We are the ones escaped from Black Mesa, we are the ones who escaped City 17, and the relationship with Alyx seems even authentic than most even though it is just a game. Few people feel that any of the relationships in Halo have any authenticity whatsoever, but the relationships that Gordon forms with Alyx, her father, and even Barney feel true and real. Through these relationships the payers become are tied even further to Gordon. Deep.

Sorry about the photo, Halo fans, I thought it was eyecatching

Condemned 2: Bloodshot Review

Anyone who played Condemned: Criminal Origins or F.E.A.R. can see that developer Monolith knows how to create a terrifying atmosphere. In Condemned 2: Bloodshot the rich get richer. Not only does Bloodshot continue where Criminal Origins left off, but by adding a deeper combat system and more terrifying locations it surpasses its predecessor in nearly every way imaginable.
Ethan Thomas, the series’ protagonist, has fallen away from public life and into the bottle. It is at that point when a character from his past, Malcolm Van Horn returns to his life and sets in motion the games’ series of events. The narrative in Bloodshot is direct and straight forward, but the story that it portrays is very well told and interesting. But, as the end of the game approaches, the story moves down a ridiculous path that is ultimately unsatisfying.
As we all know that Bloodshot is not about the story. It’s about the scares. And they are fantastic. At one point the game had me spinning and swinging my fists at nothing just because I heard footsteps. Bloodshot is the only game I’ve ever played that has nearly scared me into absolute hysteria, and in that it is unique. No game I have ever seen has created a world that the player can so easily get lost in. The settings are so meticulously detailed, so caringly made that it is impossible not to completely believe that every sound, every movement is something that is going to kill you.
At its heart Bloodshot is a brawler. And the combat in Bloodshot is better than Criminal Origins by far. The hand to hand combat is a welcome new addition that deepens the shallow combat form the first game. Near the end, the combat devolves into a corridor shooter which, while fun, is not as strong as any of the other game play elements.
One of the best game play elements is the “new” revamped investigation mode. The investigations aren’t mindless “follow the blood trail” any more. In Bloodshot you actually have to examine bloodstains, exit wounds, and more in order to solve various mysteries. These modes are fun and had me looking forward to them instead of dreading them as I did before.
Condemned 2: Bloodshot is one of the best experiences that I’ve had with a videogame in a long time. Although, if you don’t like a good scare, if you have a week stomach, or if you’re under 17 this game is probably not for you. That said, if going insane with Ethan Thomas sounds fun to you, check this one out.
A-

What's Up

A couple of weeks ago my brother, Matt, and his friends started The Target Demographic Podcast about movies, music, and videogames. Seeing my brother do this gave me the inspiration to try my own method of sharing my thoughts. In this blog I'm going to review video games, tv, and movies and share my thoughts about deeper side of these things. I'm hoping that I can refine my work enough in order to get a good job in journalism after college, so spread the word about this little blog.