Greenville's free alternative weekly

By Fred Richardson

Tis the season for the computer-generated image. Highly anticipated games seem to be hitting the shelves almost daily and big-budget movies with scads of CGI are lined up for the holidays. This week’s big eye-candy is a totally digital adaptation of Beowulf. I suppose it was inevitable that the oldest story in the English language would meet up with the latest in digital film making with IMAX and Digital 3-D options. I saw the digital 3-D version and recommend the same if possible.

First the good: the script by comic book veteran Neil Gaiman and Pulp Fiction co-writer Roger Avary is solid and not too modernized. The acting (Voice and Mo-Cap) is all well done with standouts being Anthony Hopkins, Angelina Jolie, Crispin Glover, Ray Winstone, and Brendan Gleeson. After a bit of acclimation, the 3-D effects are wonderful and help draw the viewer more fully into the world of the 6th century. Yes, there are the bits where things fly at your head from the screen, but they aren’t ham-handed oddities like in so many of the early 3-D movies. Mostly there’s a simple depth of image that blends when it should, yet stands out just where it needs to. A quick caveat to all the literature buffs out there: it’s been probably 20 years or so since I read the Grendel/Beowulf story, so I can’t speak to it’s faithfulness to the source material.

There’s one major problem I and many others have with photo-realistic computer generated imagery in the movies and it’s the way people look. Some say it’s a deadness to the eyes, but I think it’s a complete lack of variation in facial skin. Most of the characters look like they have on too much make-up and all the lines in a real live human are filled in. Older characters look more real, but the technology to simulate real people just isn’t quite there. Oh, one other thing, while I’m not complaining that Jolie looks like Jolie when she’s seemingly naked, but why do animated characters have to look like the voice actors so much of the time? Isn’t it kinda the point to do with animation what we can’t see in real-life films? Maybe I’m nit-picking a bit, but when the technology is so prominent in a movie, it just can’t be ignored. All that stuff aside, Beowulf is an enjoyable telling of a classic and I recommend it to anyone who looking for high adventure in a nifty 3-D format.

Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (PC edition reviewed, also available on 360, PS3) As a huge fan of the first two Call of Duty games on the PC, I was very irked by CofD 3’s console exclusivity. Then I found out why. A company I’d never heard of called Treyarch, was developing this time around so that originators Infinity Ward could devote all their energies to number four. Once I got a next-gen console, I played number three and while it wasn’t bad, it wasn’t as compelling and groundbreaking as the first two. Jump ahead to last week’s release of Infinity Ward’s absolute masterpiece, Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare. From the opening credit sequence to the final bonus level, this game delivers what might just be the finest first-person shooter of all time. The only gaming experience that might rival CoD4 is Valve’s entire Half-Life series. My biggest complaint is that the single-player game was too damned short. Or did I just not quit playing till I was done? Also the save point system is not to my tastes, but one learns to cope. Be warned, there are some parts of the game that will challenge even the seasoned FPS veteran, but the feeling of satisfaction one gets from completing a particularly hard sequence more than makes up for it. I’ve barely touched the online aspect of CofD4, so I’ll save that for a future column. Hellgate: London (PC only)

Next up is a strange hybrid of a game from the same team that brought us the classic Diablo series. There’s a single player story and a free online component that are both playable out of the box, but there’s also premium content available by monthly subscription only. Also the game takes place primarily in a third-person mode, but certain character types allow FPS-like play. Taking place in a post-apocalyptic world over-run by demonic hordes, Hellgate: London allows you to role play as one of six different character types in humanity’s struggle for survival and retaliation. It all sounded like fun, but various stability issues and bugs in the game have prevented me from really enjoying the game as much as I’d hoped I would. My system falls well ahead of the minimum requirements on the box and despite two post-release updates I was frustrated to the point of e-mailing the developer in hopes of getting a refund. I’ve yet to get a response. I say avoid this game for the foreseeable future.

Kane and Lynch: Dead Men (360 version reviewed, also available on PS3 & PC) According to the Web site, the game doesn’t release till November 23, but I picked it up this past Wednesday. Maybe it was an accident, but in any event, the game should be available as this sees print. While the control scheme takes some getting used to, I found myself drawn into the VERY adult crime story. The characters all seem to have a history that’s barely been touched on in the hour or so I’ve been playing, but I know it’s all gonna be revealed as the game progresses. And that’s the hook for me. I’m not blown away by the gameplay, but the story has its hooks in me. More to come as I get deeper into the game.