Story wise this new Wolfman takes the original plot and characters and mixes in several elements from another classic “The Werewolf of London”.  Lawrence Talbot has still returned to his ancestral estate following his brother’s death, though this time at the behest of the brothers fiancé.  And he still gets attacked by the wolf after visiting the gypsy camp.  From that point forward however the story takes some dramatic turns away from the original’s script.  A great deal of new back story has also been added as well as a trip to London and a few new characters.

The film has a great cast, Benicio Del Toro does an excellent job as the brooding and cursed Lawrence Talbot and Anthony Hopkins plays his father with a quirky mix of insanity and barely concealed menace that was a joy to watch.  Maleva the gypsy fortune teller was played to a tee by Geraldine Chaplin.   While Emily Blunt played Gwen, the fiancé of Larry’s dead brother and his love interest, a role greatly increased over the original film.  And then you have Hugo Weaving playing Detective Abilene of Scotland Yard, a new addition to the story that helps tie in some of the new plot lines and locals.  However for all the great casting a fair amount of the dialogue seemed a bit heavy handed and really forced, add in some strange transitions and cuts and the overall flow of the film was very choppy.

The special effects are impressive as is the make-up work.  I’d heard some people complain about the transformation going  CGI but I think it was done very well, the change and the werewolf end looking more real and far more bestial then the original, which I think works and makes it a far more frightening creature.  However there were a few places where the CGI had a tendency to look a bit fake, especially during some of the faster paced chases and fight scenes where things tended to blur and textures seemed muddied.  The addition of far more gore to this version is a result of changing times and may not have been so necessary, but then the film still has less than many other modern horror films.

Overall the movie was enjoyable to me simply because of what it was.  As an homage to the originals it grabbed that nostalgic part of my childhood.  But on its own it’s not a great film, it felt as if there were too many people involved in the final cut and they couldn’t quite decide what they were trying to make.  It a good movie perhaps, and I would recommend it to people, but unless you’re a fan of the original or werewolves in general I’d wait a few months and pick it up as a rental.  Just not sure that the average movie goer would get their ticket’s price in enjoyment out of it.

Beyond the camera work the most important thing about a film or a game is the story, and Heavy Rain has an incredibly written story.  On the surface it’s a fairly standard crime drama.  A serial killer is stalking the city, kidnapping children and then murdering them.  But it’s what they do with that basic premise that’s so well done.  The game spends much of its time giving forcing the player to make moral choices while digging into the physiology of its characters.  There is an incredible attention to detail and as the chapters progress and events unfold the story is constantly changing.

You control four disparate individuals all trying to track down the Origami Killer and save the latest victim.  As Ethan, the father of the kidnapped child, you are put through a series of gruesome trials to see how far you’d go to save your son.  As Norman the FBI agent sent to hunt the killer down its all about detective work, using the sci-fi  inspired ARI interface to find and analyze clues while also dealing with a growing addiction.  Scott the private detective is slowly working through the parents of the previous victims in search of clues.  And then there is Madison, the journalist with her own demons who is hunting the story more than the killer.  As the game progresses their paths begin to cross and intertwine.

One amazing aspect is that all the characters can eventually die or fail, and the game doesn’t end until either that happens or the boy is saved and the killer caught.  If one dies the story goes on, and it all feels and flows so naturally.  I don’t think I’ve played a game like this in a long time if ever.  A game where I wasn’t just afraid of dieing because it would hurt my score or end the game but because it would actual effect the story, not to mention that I really began to get attached to all four of them.

The graphics are good but not quite up to par with some other releases.  The facial animations were all motion captured and looked incredible, but in some areas the physical animations and backgrounds just weren’t up to the same level.  Clipping was a problem in some areas and pretty much anytime to characters were supposed to touch there were issues as well.  But most of it is nitpicky really.  The game does look good, and the graphics help tell the story well enough, the amount of emotion in the faces and eyes overshadows the weaker points.

The voice acting was excellent, apparently the actors they motion captured for the faces all did the voice work as well, much like casting a real movie I suppose.  There were one or two moments when the emotions in the voices didn’t quite seem to match the on screen actions but overall it all really felt right.  The dialogue was well written which always helps.  Add in great music that helped set the mood of each scene, adding urgency when needed, and did a good job laying a subtle emotional ground work and the games soundscape was nearly perfect.

Now one of my biggest gripes is also the game best features really.  In order to make nearly every part of the game interactive and have it feel natural the game uses a large number of quick time events.  Unfortunately I personally suck at these things.  Luckily the game lets you change the difficultly of them a bit which made it easier.  Otherwise all the controls are very context sensitive and though it takes a little getting used to one you have they all feel very natural.  Later in the game you’ll find yourself almost responding without looking at the prompts, the controls being second nature.

Unfortunately the game is rather short, but it packs of a lot of story in its limited time.  You should be able to finish it within a few days of play, or even a weekend if you really get into it.  It good enough that that’s what I did.  And it’s loaded with replay ability since different actions will result in different paths through the story.  Of course at the same time sitting through the credits each time, they aren’t shippable, could get annoying.  Also, and this could be my system getting old, but the game occasional locked up forcing a reset of the console.

I highly recommend this game to everyone.  Its well written, well acted, and just all around well made.  It truly is an interactive movie experience.  I personally recommend buying so you can replay through all the different paths and see all the endings, but it’s worth a rental at the least.

So what causes this yellowing, why do the plastics that make up your favorite childhood toys and collectible figures become discolored and brittle over time, and most importantly how can you stop it?  Well realistically you can’t; you can only slow it down.  However to do so you need understand a bit of the chemistry of plastics.  How they are made and what they are made of.  I’m by no means an expert, but I’ll try to lay out the basics here.

Plastics are a type of polymer, a polymer is a large molecule made up of thousands and thousands of smaller molecules called monomers.  Mix in additives like UV absorbers and plasticizers and you have yourself a basic plastic.  Different mixes give you different results, from rigid but brittle clear plastics to the softer rubbery plastics often used for weapons and pointed objects in modern toys.  All of them age at different rates but the techniques for caring for them are basically the same.

Over time the bonds in a polymer in any particular plastic will begin to break down, as this happens they release free radicals.  These are atoms that cause a chain reaction that speeds the aging process.  In plastics they cause the yellowing, as well as blistering, brittleness, and pretty much all the other nasty things seen happening to old toys.  Heat and UV radiation accelerate this process.  Thus the reason most plastics have some amount of UV absorbers in the mix to absorb the incoming UV radiation and the free radicals.  Of course you have a limited amount of UV absorber in any mix and once it’s all used up the plastic is going to start aging very quickly.

Plasticizers are another big part of a plastics composition.  If you’ve ever gotten into a new car and smelled that unique scent, that’s from the plasticizers; and if you’ve ever gotten into an old car and seen a dashboard that looks like its been in a meat grinder you’ve got an idea of what happens once its all leached out.  Plasticizers are basically compounds that give the plastic flexibility and allow it to have a bit more bend before breaking.  Over time heat and UV radiation cause these compounds to leach out and causes the plastic becomes brittle.

Obviously the easiest first step is to keep your toys and collectibles out of direct sunlight.  This prevents the bulk of the UV radiation from reaching them.  The second step is keeping the room or case they are in at a constant cool temperature.  Somewhere in the around seventy-five degrees Fahrenheit is probably optimal.  Not quite as important for the plastics themselves but for the other parts of a toys be it metal or the stickers and paint is to limit the humidity where the toys are stored.  This prevents paint and stickers from peeling and metal from rusting.

Understandably we don’t all have access to climate controlled display cases, but as long as you can keep at least one small room shaded and reasonably cool you should be fine.  Hopefully this helped some of those who are trying to figure out how to care for your cherished toys, and explained for others why the hell those childhood treasures you pulled out of the attic looked like hell.  Happy collecting boys and girls.

Whereas the Golden Age comics, and for the most part the Silver Age as well, had been considered strictly children’s fair; by the time of the Bronze age there was a much larger contingent of adult collectors.  A great many children who had read the books of the sixties had grown up and continued to follow their favorite characters, not to mention the average age of the comic reader had moved from young children to teenagers.  Along with this shift in demographics many of the biggest name artists and writers of the Silver Age, many of whom had started in the Golden era, had retired and a group of younger newcomers had begun to take the reins.

These younger storytellers, artists and writers alike, worked to stretch the boundaries of what the comic code allowed.   They utilized far more realistic and less stylized art paired with much deeper stories that explored all the social issues of the day.   Those members of the old guard who remained reacted to the shift with changes of their own, toning down much of the more fanciful and overpowered elements of the characters who had sprung up during the previous decade.

Marvel led the charge into this new style of storytelling, its characters already having a much more human and vulnerable feel to them over the more “perfect” characters the populated DC’s books at the time.  Characters such as the Fantastic Four and the X-Men had been in many ways dealing with the same issues in more subtle ways since their introduction.  For DC it was a far more dramatic shift in theme and style.  Not only had many of their characters, Superman in particular, become extremely overpowered and godlike in abilities, but they had all been crafted from the start as the classic All American ideal.  They were all honest to a fault, there were no rivalries or jealousies, all were patriotic and conservative, and other then perhaps Batman, none really had any sort of dark side.  It would take Green Arrow, who by this time had been transformed into the companies only “liberal” character to really begin bringing social issues into the books.  The landmark Green Lantern/Green Arrow #85 and its depiction of Speedy, Green Arrow’s sidekick, dealing with drug addiction marked their entry into the new era.

Along with social changes the feminist and civil rights movements had begun to really gain steam and in turn would see era would see the birth of a large number of strong female and minority character.  At the same time Marvel in particular has faced some criticism over its depiction of its minority heroes, many seen as stereotypes meant to cash into what was then the popularity of kung fu and blaxploitation movies.  Despite this many of these character have continued to grow in popularity and become strong characters.

Unfortunately as a result of the surge in interest and popularity of comics during the early seventies DC would begin what it called the DC Explosion in the mid seventies.  Premiering fifty-seven new series between 1975 and 1978 DC flooded the market with new titles, and as a result nearly destroyed the industry.  Almost every series failed and DC comics was nearly bankrupted in the process.  Much of this can be blamed on poor timing as blizzards during those years dramatically effected distribution chains and the country had entered a recession around the same time that caused a drop in readership across the board.  This DC Implosion would result in Marvel comics, always the second place company, to gain 50 percent of the market share.

The era would also see a surge in underground and independent comics that were not governed by the restrictive comic code and were thus able to experiment in both “adult” areas and just generally produce stories that the big companies couldn’t.  Many European series such as Heavy Metal would begin appearing on US newsstands during this era.  And at the same time mainstay genres such as romance books, westerns, and war stories would for the most part come to an end and super hero books continued to dominate the field.

The end of the era is debated almost as much as its beginning.  Like the end of the Silver Age, there is no particular event or date that marks it though the mid eighties are the general time line.  DC’s Crisis on Infinite Earths is often marked as their transition in to the modern era as it wiped out the Silver and Bronze age continuities and essentially started them over from scratch.  For Marvel the Secret Wars crossover is usually used as it featured many changes in the personalities of the character, however much like the earlier era shift with Marvel the changes were fairly minor.  Thus began the Modern Age which continues today.

In the early 1950s parent and watchdog groups began to appear, rallying against comic books and their apparent corrupting influence on children.  One of the more famous was Fredric Wertham, author of Seduction of the Innocent. Wertham believed that all comics were dangerous to children.  Crime and horror comics he claimed turned children into violent criminals; but super hero books were not saved from his attack.  Within them he saw subtle connections to white supremacy, homosexuality, and anti government propaganda.  In fact in some ways he though these more subliminal messages to be more dangerous.  All these criticisms would result in governmental involvement in 1954 with the Senate Subcommittee on Juvenile Delinquency.

Comics were essentially put on trial.  Blamed for juvenile delinquency and claimed to be a danger to children the industry quickly began organizing to fight back.  In an effort to self regulate before the government forced regulation upon them they created the Comic Code Authority .  A side effect of the new code was the death of the horror and crime genres that had sprung up.  With a vacuum formed by this sudden shift the industry quickly decided to reintroduce super hero books to the newsstand.

A few characters, notably Superman and Batman, had actually continued publication over the five year hiatus of the genre.  And in actuality the first new super hero of the 50s would be born in 1951 when Captain Comet started appearing in Strange Adventures, but this was labeled more sci-fi stories, just as Martian Manhunter’s first appearances in Detective comics were seen as more a detective stories.  Thus through technically not the first super hero of the genre’s resurgence The Flash’s arrival in Showcase #4 in 1956 is considered the beginning of the Silver Age.

He would soon be followed by reinventions of other classic DC characters form a decade earlier, along with a host of brand new characters.  Green Lantern, Hawkman, The Atom, and the creation of the Justice League of America.   All of these characters took on more sci-fi origins in place of the more magical inspired themes favored in the golden age.  They were also far less violent then their predecessors, a result of the new comic code.  In the Golden Age even Batman and Superman would routinely kill villains, the code led to a new kinder gentler era with far more creative battles.

For the first few years of this revival DC basically had the genre to themselves, and thus controlled the market. That would change in 1961 when Atlas Comics began the stories of the first family of comics, the Fantastic Four.  They would soon follow it up with a slew of other new character including Iron Man, The Hulk and Spiderman.  Thus was renewed the battle for dominance between DC and Marvel that continues today.

The Silver Age itself would continue for another decade or so, ending somewhere between 1970 and 1973.  Unlike the Golden Age which has a more defined end date the silver age seems to have ended at a slight different time for different books.  There were no wide scale cancellation such as those that ended the golden age of comics, just a subtle shift in how the stories were told. There was also a shift in who oversaw them as a host of writers, artists, and editors would retire around this time.  The Silver Age really just faded out, this era of general innocence slowly being darkened by the grittier fair that would dominate the 1970s and the Bronze Age.

I’ve had the game now for about two weeks, and though I haven’t had the time to finish it I’ve had plenty of time to get fairly deep into the game and put together my thoughts on it.  It’s a very different game from its predecessor.  In some areas much improved, in others I think it actually takes a bit of a back step.

First let’s start with the improvements.  Graphically the game is a definite step up over the first outing.  It almost looks like they used the same engine, but with a host of improvements.  Character models look far more realistic and detailed, the many powers and explosions look incredible, and the general look and detail of the environments is amazing.  It’s not the best looking game out there, but it is still a beautiful game with varied environments and its obvious how much effort was put into the game.

The voice acting and sound shares the same high level of quality as the first game.  Though there are a few areas where the ambient sound seems to overwhelm things, particularly a few bar areas, its somewhat fitting but at the same time a bit annoying.  The game brings back the many actors from the first game to reprise their roles and brings in a host of new ones to flesh out the many new companions you’ll pick up along your journey.  Dialogue is again a huge part of the game and its all well written and voiced.  The story is just as well written and told as the first time around.  It’s also much darker and larger, two discs worth in fact, then the first game.

Side missions now have far more variety of both objectives and design, no more cookie cutter base layout showing up dozens of times.  A bit more thought seems to have gone into them, though there also seems to be a few less than the first game as a result.  However downloadable content seems like it’s going to be a bigger focus this time around to make up for that.  The main missions are just as well designed  as the first game, with lots of minor side quests contained in each and you can pretty much choose your own path through them as in the first game.

Your party of companions is significantly larger this time around.  A few of your original companions will rejoin you but for the most part it’s a new cast of characters that are just as interesting, though I admit to missing a few favorites from the first time out.  Also there has already been one character added via the DLC and I expect we may see more in the future.  This time around your allies also have much more divergent desires and personalities as well, they don’t play quite as nice with each other this time around which leads to a bit more replay ability depending on who you decide to side with at times.

The game also improved the hacking mini games.  Gone is the simple button matching quick time event from the first game.  Now you have a memory match game for storage containers and another matching game involving finding select blocks of encrypted text when accessing databases and the like.  Unfortunately the search for resources has ended up with its own mini game that isn’t quite as enjoyable.  Mass Effect had you either scanning a planet with a click or landing and exploring it with the Mako, a six wheeled tank like vehicle.  This time the Mako has been abandoned and the scanning has been turned into a rather annoying and boring affair involving using the rumble feature of the controller and a white spike on a bar graph to help you find things to collect.

The lack of the Mako was very disappointing for me, though I appear to be in the minority I really enjoyed driving the little tank around planets despite its sometimes awkward controls.  It appears that rather than try to improve the experience Bioware simply decided to remove it.  Another area that I though could be improved but was instead was gutted was the inventory system.  The PC version had a much better version then the 360 version but was still a bit of a hassle to manage.  This time around there is no inventory.  When you find improved weapons or buy upgrades they simply replace your old weapons.  Armor is setup in a dress up like system and really has very limited options, especially considering the limited selection available at release.

Another minor quibble is that where the last game felt like a continual journey, this time each mission ends with a little summary screen where your kills, credits earned, and anything you learned are listed out in the form of a report to the Elusive Man.   This breaks up the games flow and for me at least destroys the immersion factor, it gives it more a shooter feel with each mission being a different level rather than a small part of the great whole.  The way its presented at least ties it in a bit, but even with the flavor text and design it still feels out of place.

Combat has had some significant changes.  They’ve streamlined the classes so they are all truly unique this time around rather then being three main and three hybrid.  The change has however lowered the number of skills each class has which is somewhat disappointing.  Another change is that they added an ammo requirement to the weapons.  Now hte first game used an overheat mechanic which served a similar purpose but though you would lose the use of a weapon for a moment you never had to worry about losing it for more then a few seconds.  With the new ammo requirement its actually possible to end up with a weapon being completely useless in the middle of a battle.  This does force you to plan more carefully and think tactically, but it also limits you in some ways.  Its not necessarily a bad change but it does change the way combat works in some dramatic ways.

Overall it’s a very enjoyable romp through the universe that I can see myself playing a second time at least.  There is hope at least that DLC might give me back the Mako or something similar in the future, and the other issues I have with it are all fairly minor.  I’m hoping the third game will be a balance between the current system and the first game.  Regardless if you are a fan of the first game I highly recommend this one, and if you never played it I recommend you pick it up and then play this one as well.  Now if you’ll excuse me I need to get back to saving the universe.

Starting in 1935 various publications would begin to appear featuring stories of tough detectives, secret agents, and western heroes; all taking cues from their pulp forbearers.  In 1938 Siegel and Shuster’s Superman would take the idea of the vigilante hero to a new height and create an entirely new genre in the process.  Though Philip G. Wylie’s Hugo Danner had brought the idea of a “superman” to the world in 1930, the comic book world had yet to see anything like it.  It actually took a few issues for the public to really get around the new character, but by the fourth issue of Action Comics Superman was a certified hit.  Various imitators would soon follow with publishers jumping on the superhero bandwagon at a rapid pace.  Interestingly during this era Superman was actually out sold by one of those Imitators.  Whiz Comic’s Captain Marvel had the highest circulation of any superhero book of the time.  Of course the licensed Disney books being printed by Dell Comics were actually outselling everyone.

Even the pulps that had inspired them began getting into the game, with many of the biggest names making the transition from written word to the four color page.  Street and Smith began publishing Shadow Comics in 1940 which featured all their most popular characters.  Thrilling Publications would quickly transfer its Phantom Detective and others over as well.  And all the other classic genre’s of the pulps, from mystery and westerns to romance stories would quickly begin filling the pages of comics as well.

Comics books became a multimillion dollar industry over the next few years with the height of their popularity in this era coming during World War Two.  Unfortunately the war would be a double edged sword.  Though it drove sales, with both children and service men grabbing up comics to help escape the realities of war, shortages of paper and the fact that the draft pulled a great many artists and writers into the military took a great toll on the industry.   By war’s end a great many smaller publishers of both pulps and comics books had folded. Only the larger scale operations like Timely, who would become Marvel, and National Allied Publications, who would become DC managed to survive.

By the early 1950’s the Golden Age had ended.  Though the official date is debated, by 1953 most smaller publishers had closed their doors and the vast majority of super hero books had been canceled.  Only a few of the bigger names, Superman included, survived through this dark era.  A shift in focus to horror and gritty crime stories had taken place and The Senate Subcommittee on Juvenile Delinquency would soon begin putting comics on trial.  For a time it appeared the industry was heading towards its end after a mere 20 years.

The game starts with a stylish cut scene introducing the core cast and setting the otherworldly over the top tone the game carries throughout.  The game leans heavily towards fan service.  Bayonetta’s rather pronounced anatomy is shown off as often as possible in various evocative poses, and during the first cut scene alone she has a sexy nun outfit torn from her body by demonic “angels” and we get a brief nude scene, with naughty bit just barely concealed, before her hair transforms into a skin tight leather like outfit.  She then nearly crushes one “angel’s” head with her thighs while blasting away at the rest.  And she finishes this intense battle off while licking a lollipop provocatively.  Her dialogue is full of innuendo throughout the game and even the characters walking pose in the few quieter moments seems designed to exude sex.

Graphically the game is beautiful, and has a very distinctive style.  The in game models are only slightly lower in detail from there cut scene counterparts and the animation is very fluid.  This is complimented by superb voice acting and a great soundtrack that leans heavily towards female artists and techno style tracks.  Of course though these appeal to me they might not be high on everyone’s list.  But they do fit the style and the look of the game and give a nice up-tempo beat to the combat.

Combat being of course the focus of the game, and there is a fairly complex mix of punches, kicks, and of course guns used to beat your enemies senseless before killing them.  In this case our lovely heroine is equipped with a gun in each hand and one attached to each high heeled boot.  Which makes for some very visually appealing attacks such as a spinning leg kick that sends a barrage of lead downrange.  And the many combos in the game all look incredible.  The torture kills are over the top strikes where Bayonetta summons things like guillotines or iron maidens to execute her foes.  And at times you will find yourself shape changing or using her hair as weapons.  However though a deep combo system does exist it’s really not all that necessary for most of the game.  In fact the easiest mode can practically be played one handed, I’ll leave the dirty jokes to you.  The game also uses the always popular bullet time, in this case called “witch time”, that triggers whenever you successfully dodge an attack.  All this makes the easy setting ridiculously easy and thus boring.  Unfortunately at the higher difficulty levels the game is painfully and punishingly difficult.  There doesn’t seem to be much of a middle ground.  Between fights you can purchase upgrades and new attacks using halos picked up from slain enemies.

The game has one significant flaw.  Loading times throughout the game are insane.  Literally everything you do, from moving from chapter to chapter in the game to pausing, yes even pausing, has a significant load time to it which pulls you out of the game. I even noticed a pause when I went to pick up items.  It’s obvious they knew the problem existed as the load time between levels allows you to practice your combos, but when you get a ten to fifth teen loading pause just to pause the game or access the menu that’s just bad design.

Add to this the game’s story line is a vague mess.  Your basically one of the last of your kind on earth.  Your memory is in tatters after spending 500 years in a sort of stasis and your attempting to piece together your past while hunting down and killing “angels” who are attempting to take you to hell.  I won’t spoil what little story there is but I think it’s safe to say this is the weakest part of the game.  Though things are pieced together in beautiful cut scenes it’s a matter of style over substance.

In fact most of the game seems to suffer from this problem.  The game is incredibly high on style with very polished graphics and voice acting.  But when it comes down to actual substance its lacking in story and the combat only becomes worthwhile if you can handle the tougher difficulties where the deep combat has the potential to actually be interesting.  But a paper thin story and a game that in easy mode can be completed in a single sitting of six or seven hours makes for very little of interest unless you want to go for high scores.  For some the game will be a hit, and the great reviews its gotten elsewhere attest to that, but for me at least the game was a rental that I have no desire to return to.