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July 09, 2008
Media Glutton: Battlefield Bad Company, Space Invaders Extreme, Mad Men
Right now I'm in the middle of three or maybe four different books, some of which I probably won't ever finish, so this week I'm gonna concentrate on bright shiny moving pictures and explosions.
First of all, I've been playing a lot of Battlefield: Bad Company on the X-box 360. At this point in my life I've come fully to terms with the fact that I really enjoy first person shooters more than just about any other kind of game. But I'm still discriminating, especially after five-star greats like Bioshock (with its amazing story and art design combined with excellent game play) and Call of Duty 4 (with it's addictive multi-player and short but great single-player mode). Battlefield: Bad Company isn't as good as either of those, but it is totally fun. And fun is what they're going for here. The story and character have a lot of humor, most of which works pretty well. They're going for a kind of Three Kings vibe with the game, which involves you laying part of a squad of misfits fighting in the former Soviet Union who get side-tracked by the tempting lure of mercenary gold. The combat's solid and fun, a lot like Call of Duty 4 although not quite as polished. But the added feature of having most of the terrain destructible adds a really fun dimension to play. There's nothing more tense than trying to hide behind a house from an enemy tank only to have it blow the building to pieces in order to get a clean shot. And it's even more fun when you're the one in the tank leveling those buildings. I haven't really enjoyed the multiplayer yet - it's more like the other Battlefield games and thus feels really spread out and diffuse. Unlike Call of Duty 4, I never seem to know where the enemy is or why I'm suddenly dying.
I've also been playing Space Invaders Extreme on my DS, which is also fun. It's like the 30 year old Space Invaders but, you know, extreme. Different colored invaders drop different weapon power ups and the game plays fun and addictive. It's a great little DS game and I know I'll play a ton of it on my various airplane voyages in the next month or so.
On the DVD player I've been watching AMC's series, Mad Men, which is about advertising execs in 1960 New York. It's a really good show, well written, well acted, and nuanced in almost every way. There's an occasional false note, especially when the dialog woodenly highlights some obvious difference between now and then, but those moments are few and far between. None of these characters are entirely likeable, and as most critics have noted, the racism and sexism of the time are shown in unflinching detail. OF course, that's the point of the show, and it makes that point very well. I'm halfway through the first season, with the rest coming from Netflix today. The discs are packed with commentaries too, which is always cool, and if I was still the kind of guy who bought a lot of DVDs like I used to, I'd probably buy this boxed set. But I'm not that guy anymore.
Posted by rdakan at July 9, 2008 09:49 AM