Star Wars: The Force Awakens - J.J. Abrams

I had yet to see a J.J. Abrams film until The Force Awakens.  I had heard bad things about the Star Trek reboot, but that could have always just been typical fandom complaining (and I was quite a fan of Star Trek for a while, so I know what that can be like).

After viewing The Force Awakens, I was determined to find out if the result was just a fluke or indicative of J.J. Abrams film-making ability.

It turns out J.J. Abrams couldn't direct a film to save his life.

And, no, it's not lens flares.  I hardly ever noticed those.

If one world can describe J.J. Abram's director style, it is sloppy.  His movies are simply uneven.  They might succeed in one area only to fail completely in another, particularly in action scenes.

Comparing J.J. Abrams to Brett Ratner is an insult -- to Ratner.  Ratner has made at least three decent movies (Rush Hour, Red Dragon, and Hercules).  That's not to say they aren't without problems, but they function as movies and not just dumb spectacle.  Even George Lucas has at least one great movie (Star Wars) and possibly two other good ones (THX 1138, American Graffitti).

But also notice that Ratner and Lucas have a greater breadth of genre.  As listed above, Ratner has made a buddy-cop action comedy, a detective-thriller, and a historical fantasy-adventure movie.  Lucas has made an sci-fi/fantasy-adventure, a sci-fi dystopian future, and a teen comedy.

J.J. Abrams just keeps making the same type of movie over and over:  action movies combined with sci-fi and a bit of mystery.

The thing is, he's not even good at action!  In 2015, Kingsman: The Secret Service and Mad Max: Fury Road were both far better action movies than The Force Awakens.  His action scenes are hardly ever exciting.  They lack impact and seem to exist only to fill time.

Simply put, J.J. Abrams makes big dumb action movies, with bad action.  He's found success because such movies are in style right now:  Captain America: Winter Soldier and Guardians of the Galaxy are very similar in terms of mind-numbing action to an Abrams movie.  He's a faddish director whose movies won't be remembered once the fad ends.  It's appalling that he was chosen to spearhead the Star Wars revival.

If I were to rank J.J. Abrams' movies, it would be this:

1. Star Trek (2009) - In a surprise, some of the action in this Abrams film is actually good (such as Kirk running around with swollen hands, the Vulcan destruction sequence, the end fight), has some good characters (Old Spock), and proper character focus (Chekov, Sulu, and others are there, do something, but aren't a drag).  It still has problems with some bad action (monster on Vulcan's moon), plot contrivances (Kirk's mother giving birth on the ship at that exact moment), and forcing Kirk to be the captain at film's end.  It's middling at best.
2. Super 8 - It has good emotional scenes and insane action sequences that belong in a war movie.  I couldn't place the tone of the movie.  The focus of the movie should have been film-making with an alien mystery
3. Star Trek:  Into Darkness - Strip everything good from the first film.  Now it's an even dumber plot with dumber action.  It's #2 only because the momentum from the first one helps it.
4. The Force Awakens
5. Mission Impossible 3 - an action movie with terrible action.  Not once did I feel invested in the fight scenes that just come off as realistic to the point of boredom,  There is a mystery/thriller plot as well that's fairly obvious.

I'm not firm on this ordering.  I could swap #2 and #3 (Super 8 was slightly more creative, but its tonal dissonance was even more jarring than Into Darkness) as well as #4 and #5 (thus making The Force Awakens the worst movie J.J. Abrams has ever made).

On top of that, Abrams movies aren't even good by the standards of their respective franchises (or even similar movies/TV shows):

• Star Trek Beyond was the best of the new Trek movies.  It was fun, the plot made sense, the story was serviceable, and the action and character interaction were good.
• Mission Impossible 3 was the worst Mission Impossible movie and earned the least at the box office.  The preceding and following movies all had a good grasp of the tone and action the series should have.  On top of that, MI2 and MI3 are almost direct copies of each other, but MI3 is simply handled worse (worse love interest/chemistry, worse action, worse mystery of the "Rabbit's Foot" and what the stakes are).
• Stranger Things is far better than Super 8.  It has better characters and far more understated action sequences.
• The Force Awakens is around Prequel-quality.  Various Expanded Universe books, comics, and video games beat all of them.

Some people think George Lucas shouldn't have directed the Prequels, instead acting as Producer on them.  I'd argue the same goes for J.J. Abrams.  His directorial skills are sub-par, but his list of producer credits include:

• Mission Impossible Ghost Protocol and Rogue Nation.
• 10 Cloverfield Lane.
• Star Trek Beyond.
• Westworld.

From this list, it's clear that J.J. Abrams is good at finding people with talent and giving them the opportunity to succeed.  He shouldn't be directing movies.  For the love of God, he also shouldn't be writing them.  Gone Fishin' and Armageddon should have taught us that.

Star Wars: The Force Awakens - Title Crawl Analysis

To a degree, the quality of a Star Wars movie can be determined by the opening title crawl.  A movie with a logical or decent plot should be reflected in the opening text.  For the purposes of this demonstration, all texts will start with a score of zero, then points subtracted as non-sequiturs or bad plot points are encountered.

Let's start with the Original Trilogy.

A New Hope:

It is a period of civil war. Rebel spaceships, striking from a hidden base, have won their first victory against the evil Galactic Empire. 

During the battle, Rebel spies managed to steal secret plans to the Empire's ultimate weapon, the DEATH STAR, an armored space station with enough power to destroy an entire planet. 

Pursued by the Empire's sinister agents, Princess Leia races home aboard her starship, custodian of the stolen plans that can save her people and restore freedom to the galaxy....

Nothing wrong here.  All the major groups, people, and events are listed.

Score:  0.

The Empire Strikes Back:

It is a dark time for the Rebellion. Although the Death Star has been destroyed, Imperial troops have driven the Rebel forces from their hidden base and pursued them across the galaxy. 

Evading the dreaded Imperial Starfleet, a group of freedom fighters led by Luke Skywalker has established a new secret base on the remote ice world of Hoth. 

The evil lord Darth Vader, obsessed with finding young Skywalker, has dispatched thousands of remote probes into the far reaches of space....

Again, this sets up the movie perfectly.

Score:  0.

Return of the Jedi:

Luke Skywalker has returned to his home planet of Tatooine in an attempt to rescue his friend Han Solo from the clutches of the vile gangster Jabba the Hutt. 

Little does Luke know that the GALACTIC EMPIRE has secretly begun construction on a new armored space station even more powerful than the first dreaded Death Star. 

When completed, this ultimate weapon will spell certain doom for the small band of rebels struggling to restore freedom to the galaxy...

Yet again, this sets up the movie.  The only minor quibble could be that the first paragraph deals with one plot thread (rescuing Han), while the rest of it deals with the main story.  The movie opens with the main plot and transitions between the two in a smooth fashion.

Score:  0 or -1 (maybe).

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Let's try the Prequels.

The Phantom Menace:

Turmoil has engulfed the Galactic Republic. The taxation of trade routes to outlying star systems is in dispute. 

Hoping to resolve the matter with a blockade of deadly battleships, the greedy Trade Federation has stopped all shipping to the small planet of Naboo. 

While the Congress of the Republic endlessly debates this alarming chain of events, the Supreme Chancellor has secretly dispatched two Jedi Knights, the guardians of peace and justice in the galaxy, to settle the conflict....

As much as people hate this movie, the opening crawl is accurate to the movie.  We saw the Senate debating and arguing, not actually accomplishing anything.  The Trade Federation blockades Naboo.  Two Jedi Knights are central to the story.

Score:  0.

Attack of the Clones:

There is unrest in the Galactic Senate. Several thousand solar systems have declared their intentions to leave the Republic.

This separatist movement, under the leadership of the mysterious Count Dooku, has made it difficult for the limited number of Jedi Knights to maintain peace and order in the galaxy. 

Senator Amidala, the former Queen of Naboo, is returning to the Galactic Senate to vote on the critical issue of creating an ARMY OF THE REPUBLIC to assist the overwhelmed Jedi....

Again, this is accurate to the movie.  It could be docked a point or two for not showing the Jedi Knights struggling to maintain peace or solar systems seceding.  It's a borderline case between background information and plot information (see Rebel spies text in A New Hope's opening crawl).  The line about the Army of the Republic is actually useful since the whole movie is about obtaining a clone army.

Score:  0 or -1 or -1.5.

Revenge of the Sith:

War! The Republic is crumbling under attacks by the ruthless Sith Lord, Count Dooku (-1). There are heroes on both sides (-1). Evil is everywhere. 

In a stunning move, the fiendish droid leader, General Grievous, has swept into the Republic capital and kidnapped Chancellor Palpatine, leader of the Galactic Senate. 

As the Separatist Droid Army attempts to flee the besieged capital with their valuable hostage, two Jedi Knights lead a desperate mission to rescue the captive (-1) Chancellor....

This is the first title crawl with major issues.  First up, Count Dookuis mentioned, but quickly killed off in the movie to little impact.  Grievous is in the movie more.  "There are heroes on both sides" loses another point because that is never seen at all.

It also loses a point for "rescue the captive Chancellor" because that isn't the main plot of the movie.  Like Dooku, that's resolved in the opening act.  All other opening crawls were related to the main story of the movie, but not this one.  ("Rescue Han" from Jedi isn't either, but the main plot was referenced.  A simple line about the Senate/Republic crumbling under the war might fix it.)

Score:  -3.

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And now, The Force Awakens:

Luke Skywalker has vanished (-1). In his absence, the sinister FIRST ORDER has risen from the ashes of the Empire and will not rest until Skywalker, the last Jedi, has been destroyed. 

With the support of the REPUBLIC (-1), General Leia Organa leads a brave RESISTANCE. She is desperate to find her brother Luke and gain his help in restoring peace and justice to the galaxy. 

Leia has sent her most daring pilot (-1) on a secret mission to Jakku, where an old ally (-1) has discovered a clue to Luke's whereabouts....

The "Luke Skywalker has vanished" is a plot thread that is quickly abandoned by the movie in favor of the Starkiller base plot.  It barely factors into the movie at all.

Leia's Resistance doesn't seem to actually have the support of the Republic, or wouldn't they have more ships?  And wouldn't they be more willing to listen to her?  She apparently sent her assistant to the capital to deliver warnings that the New Republic failed to heed.

In fact, let's check Wookieepedia's article on the Resistance:

When the First Order arose from the ashes of the Empire, Organa urged the Republic to take the threat seriously. Rebuffed and being labeled a paranoid warmonger, Organa was disgraced in the eyes of the New Republic's Senate following the revelation that her father was Darth Vader.

"Rebuffed" and "labeled a paranoid warmonger" doesn't sound like "support".

Poe Dameron is barely in the movie and isn't even really a character.  The fact that he is mentioned at all is astounding considering he was originally supposed to die.  Replacing him with Han, even though he himself dies, would have made more sense.  At least Han had some importance to the movie.

"An old ally" is again a pointless reference to someone who doesn't matter at all.  Max von Sydow plays someone who somehow knew Leia in a book or something.  If it were someone more important (Lando, Ackbar, Wedge Antilles, etc.) and they had some more involvement in the plot, mentioning them would make sense.  As it is, it's just useless cruft.

Score:  -4.

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At a score of minus four, The Force Awakens narrowly beats Revenge of the Sith for the title of Worst Opening Crawl.  Sith's opening has no relation to the main plot of the movie (Anakin's turn to the Darkside and the fall of the Republic), whereas Awakens' has a slight relation to the plot (Luke has vanished, which is quickly superseded by the Starkiller base plot).

Star Wars: The Force Awakens - An Unmitigated Disaster

Author's note:  I initially wrote a bunch of these articles in March and then stopped to do other things.  Since then I've consumed more media and have better comparisons to make to The Force Awakens.  With the upcoming new movie, my plan is to rush these out as quickly as possible, which couldn't possibly end in failure.  Why, just look how quickly The Force Awakens was produced.

I'll be constantly updating this post as new articles are published.  Everything is going to be published out of order because I'm horribly organized and need to push myself to do things.

I'm rather later to posting any sort of review for The Force Awakens.  It will have absolutely no effect on anything whatsoever, but I wanted to post my inane ramblings somewhere.

The Franchise Shambles from Its Grave

When Disney bought Lucasfilm and announced a new set of Star Wars movies, people were generally hopeful.  George Lucas's Prequel Trilogy failed to impress both audiences and critics.  The movies contained bizarre dialogue, odd/inappropriate action sequences, poor story/plots, and didn't mesh well with the original trilogy (characters didn't act like their Original Trilogy counterparts).  Surely Disney couldn't produce a movie as bad as that?

Three years after Disney's purchase of Lucasfilm, they released The Force Awakens, which contains bad dialogue, bad characters, bad action, bad story and plot, as well as it just doesn't feel like Star Wars as all.  At least Lucas's Prequels still sort of felt like Star Wars.  The Force Awakens is a Marvelized version of Star Wars.

This entire blunder can be laid at the feet of The Force Awakens' director, J.J. Abrams.

The magnitude of Disney's failure is so great, I'll be going in-depth on each topic and linking to them from this post.  It went wrong in so many ways, it's practically required.

Table of Contents

1. The Characters
2. Star Wars vs. Game of Thrones
3. The Plot and Story
4. The Dialogue
5. The Action
6. J.J. Abrams
7. Conclusion

Load State

I finally have access to my computer again after several months.  Not that anyone noticed except some spambots.

And it just so happens that something called "GamerGate" erupted during that time...

How to Force a Gamepad to Work with Saints Row 2

I purchased Saints Row 2 off Steam only to discover my PlayStation DualShock controller doesn't work out-of-the-box with it.  After spending an hour experimenting with it, I figured out how to make it work.

The problem is the axes are screwed up.  The game assumes there's an Xbox 360 controller, which has more than four axes.  It also assumes the axes do different things or are in different positions.  This causes the uncontrollable scrolling effect when starting up the game.

How Saints Row 2 recognizes controller input:

Axis 1: Non-existent.  Doesn't correspond to any button or axis on a DualShock.  (May also be a default setting for unused axes.)
Axis 2: Left analog stick back/forth movement.  (Y-axis)
Axis 3: Left analog stick left/right movement.  (X-axis)
Axis 4: Right analog left/right movement.  (Z-rotation +/-)
Axis 5: Right analog up/down movement.  (Z-axis +/-)

If it weren't for Axis 1, this would work perfectly.

The in-game controller settings only allow the user to assign Axes 1-4 when using a DualShock controller.  Axis 1 doesn't work with the DualShock.  Axis 5 does work, but the user can't assign it.  However, hex editing the file "input.bin" can force the game to use Axis 5.

The red number "04" corresponds to "Axis 5".

The game will play perfectly with this setting, but changing gamepad input with the in-game menu causes graphical glitches.

It sort of works.

Simply switching 0x2C4 in input.bin back to "00" fixes this and allows the player to change buttons again.

Here are the steps to get a DualShock or similar controller working with Saints Row 2:

1. Start game with controller off or unplugged (to prevent scrolling problem).
2. Set Movement X/Y to Axis 3/2 and Camera X/Y to Axis 4/1.
3. Exit game.
4. Open input.bin with a hex editor (such as HxD).  File should be located in "D:\Documents and Settings\{username}\Local Settings\Application Data\THQ\Saints Row 2".
5. Change address 0x2C4 (row 0000002C0, column 04) from "00" to "04".  Make sure it overwrites (replace characters) and doesn't insert (add characters, lengthening the file).
6. Save and start up Saints Row 2.
7. If you need to change the controller's other buttons (such as changing fire button to a shoulder trigger), repeat steps 4-6, but change the hex value from "04" to "00".  The in-game menu should work then.  (Then change back to "04" to get the camera working again.)  You can also just keep the hex editor open, but the file might change if you make input changes via the game's interface.  The game needs to be restarted with every change via hex editor as well.

If this doesn't qualify as "forcing", I don't know what does.

How to Reset Dandelion's Lute Quest in The Witcher

I've been playing The Witcher recently and ran into a problem with a quest.  Basically, I messed up Dandelion's Lute quest:  I found the lute before even talking to Dandelion thus robbing Geralt of a Romance Card.  I found a somewhat successful way to fix this using The Witcher save game editor.

Here are some things you'll need:

• The Witcher save game editor.
• Make sure the run shortcut points to your install and save game files.  Right-click on the shortcut, select Properties, and check the Target text box.
• For example, my shortcut link is: 
• %windir%\system32\javaw.exe -DTW.install.path="D:\Program Files\Steam\SteamApps\common\The Witcher Enhanced Edition" -DTW.language=3 -Xmx256m -jar TWEditor.jar 
• DTW.install.path is the install location of The Witcher.  In this case it is Steam, but your system may be different.
• DTW.language=3 apparently puts it in English.
• DTW.data.path (not seen in above example) controls save data path.  The default is "C:\Documents and Settings\{username}\My Documents\The Witcher".
• Two save files:  One from the beginning of the game (your "source save game") and the one you want to change (your "target save game").
• A backup of the to-be-changed saved game in case anything goes wrong.

Steps to reset the quest:

1. File->Open the target save game.
2. Delete Dandelion's Lute from Inventory.  (Important since it affects dialogue choices.)
3. File->Save to save these changes.
4. Click on the "Quests" tab.
• Click on the name of the quest you want to change, such as Dandelion's Lute, and click the Examine button.
• Note at the end of the description a file is listed.  This is the file we need to copy from the source save game to the target save game.  In the case of Dandelion's Lute, the file is called "q3031_lute".
5. Actions->Unpack Save the target save game to a directory such as "target".
6. File->Close the target save game.
7. File->Open the earlier save game.
8. Actions->Unpack Save the earlier source save game to a directory such as "source".
9. Close the save game.
10. Copy the quest file (such as "q3031_lute.qst" for Dandelion's Lute) from the "source" directory to the "target" directory, overwriting as necessary.
11. In the save game editor, select File->Open and open the target save game again.  Select Actions->Repack Save and choose the "target" directory to merge all those files into the target save.
12. File->Close to close the file.
13. Play the fixed save.  Talk to Dandelion about the quest.  He should say to go see a woman.
14. Visit the woman and this time she'll talk about Dandelion more and enable a Romance Card.
15. Return to Dandelion, save the game, and edit this save file.  Re-add Dandelion's Lute to inventory and save.  Talking to him again will complete the quest.

This successfully reset the quest triggers to the point Geralt could earn a Romance Card.  However, this did not reset every conversation or previous action:  the woman who held the lute already knew Geralt, Geralt had already dealt with her father, and the lute wasn't returned to the trunk.  I also experimented with completing the quest and then resetting the quest file.  The conversation with Dandelion already occurred, so Geralt couldn't activate the lute quest.  In short, this quick and dirty way of resetting quests has very limited use. 

Oculus Rift and Facebook

Facebook acquired Oculus Rift for some two billion dollars in cash and stock.  While I've never been a fan or proponent of virtual reality or the Oculus Rift, I can understand why some backers are upset.

Facebook isn't a games industry company.  Games run on their platform, but the games only serve as a way to draw people into their system.  Facebook churns through users and depends on a massive number of them in order to sell advertising.

The problem is that virtual reality probably won't be used by hundreds of millions of people.  It will be a niche product like stereoscopic 3D games and movies, although it could be a very large niche with millions of users.  A company like Valve can support a small to large niche, but Facebook demands higher returns for its investments.  It's unlikely Facebook will derive significant consumer revenue from Oculus Rift without gaming.  That leaves business and government purchases, but there's a problem there as well.

It doesn't quite make sense that Facebook bought Oculus Rift to compete with Google Glass.  Google Glass provides a heads-up display to deliver environmental information to users.  The business application is readily apparent:  a delivery man equipped with Google Glass can track a package, drive an optimal route, and receive updates from headquarters in real time (individual technologies already exist for this, but Google Glass can combine all these functions into one portable unit).  Oculus Rift only allows the wearer to explore a virtual environment.  It might be useful for training medical or military personnel, but its applications are inherently limited.  Gaming is one of the larger potential roles for the Oculus Rift, but since Facebook isn't primarily interested in it, the Rift's backers may be left out in the cold.

Of all the possible suitors for Oculus Rift, Facebook may prove the worst.  Companies like Microsoft, Nintendo, and Sony have all shown a willingness to support new technologies for a length of time.  Facebook is too young and their recent spendthrift buying spree suggests little if any long-term planning or strategy.  The second Facebook runs into serious financial difficulty, they'll jettison Oculus Rift as dead weight.  Facebook will either sell it or, possibly to forestall competitors, simply shut it down and cease all production.  Oculus Rift fans and backers are right to be worried.  A more traditional gaming company could guarantee a certain level of support.  Backers could trust that it wouldn't be dropped on a whim.  Facebook can't buy that.

HDMI and VGA Video Converters

I'm interested in recording gameplay from my computer and I bought two products to try to do this:  a ViewHD HDMI to Composite and a Monoprice VGA to RCA converters.  My hope was to use my DVD recorder to capture computer footage.  The output would only be standard definition, but I'd be mostly interested in recording older computer games.  Software recorders carry significant CPU overhead and I hoped to record video without dropping frames or quality.  Unfortunately, my hopes were dashed after using these two products.

(HDMI to Composite with The Witcher at resolution 800x600.  The colors are darker most likely due to a bad contrast setting.)

The ViewHD's video quality proved sufficient except that it included a copy-protection signal in the composite output.  My DVD recorder added a distorting/banding effect to deliberately ruin the picture.  It connected to a television just fine, but VCRs and DVD recorders were useless.  Oddly enough, a USB composite capture dongle I own displayed the video without the distortion.  Either the hardware itself or VirtualDub ignores the copy-protection signal. As such, the ViewHD could record to a computer, but that defeated the purpose of getting the device in the first place.  It might be possible to find something to strip the signal, but that's an added expense and may not work.  Footage in a 16:9 aspect ratio might work with the converter since the distortion could be cropped out of the video.

Strangely, the ViewHD works perfectly well with a second-generation Apple TV, but won't work at all with an iPhone 4s with iOS 7.  The iPhone seems finicky about which devices it will work with.


(VGA capture footage of The Witcher at 800x600 resolution.  No sound.)

The Monoprice VGA to RCA converter didn't introduce any copyright protection, but its overall quality seemed quite poor.  The right and bottom borders clipped so the image wasn't an exact copy.  These border problems were probably due to over-scanning, but there was no way to fix it despite a switch which claims to do just that.  It definitely receives the whole image since zooming will show the correct border, but for some reason it clips in the normal view.  The device reset once, but refused to do so after the first time.  It seems designed for PowerPoint presentations and not gameplay capture.

The sad part is that with all the money I spent on this little project (due to needed cables and whatnot), I could have purchased a GeForce 650/750 with ShadowPlay recording technology.  It requires a little CPU overhead, but far better than most capture software thanks to the inclusion of an encoder chip.  Since I use a Dell desktop which includes a proprietary power supply, I'd need to purchase a drive bay power supply.  I haven't used either of these products, but my buyer's regret makes me think this is a workable solution.  The biggest problem I can see with this plan is that the graphics card might be too large for my system and that my PCI Express version might be too old.  [Edited 2014-04-29:  That drive bay power supply apparently requires a special type of PSU that it plugs into (for purposes of grounding and whatnot).  However, I also found out that Dell no longer uses proprietary supplies, so swapping one out shouldn't be a problem.  And I discovered that EVGA creates GeForce 750 graphics cards that function on 300 Watt power supplies without six-pin connectors (assuming an Intel processor is used instead of a rather power-hungry AMD).]

For Radeon-oriented users, there's the AverMedia Game Capture HD, but there have been some complains about that one.  It requires a hard drive as well.  This is another product I've yet to use.

Terra Nova: Strike Force Centauri (DOS - Looking Glass Technologies - 1996)

Terra Nova:  Strike Force Centaui is a first-person combat simulator with squad-level tactical control.

Story

In the year 2327, pirate groups menace the Centauri system, raiding farms and killing people.  Strike Force Centauri and other similar units must intercept and eliminate these groups wherever and whenever possible.

An in-game computer database explains the history of the Centauri system, its clans, and other information.  It explains minute details about the economies and societal structure of nations.

Dotted throughout the game are Full Motion Video sequences.  These enhance the game and give the characters personality.  The quality is in the B-Movie range even compared to other similar games released in the 90s.  Unfortunately, there aren't enough video sequences.  It seems like there should be more of them.  Plot points and threads are introduced and never reach a definitive conclusion.  It's almost as if the developers wanted a larger story, but cut everything down to fit on a single disc.  Even worse, DOSBox sometimes skips the movies entirely (restarting DOSBox after each mission seems to help avoid it).  The game even crashed repeatedly before Operation Goblin could even begin (fixed by correctly configuring sound settings to use SoundBlaster's IRQ and whatnot).

Combat

Missions take place in the first-person point of view.  The player controls a mechanized suit armed with weapons and devices to defeat the enemy.  These weapons and items include lasers and rockets as well as spy drones, electromagnetic dampeners, and medical kits.  The player gives commands to squad members such as scouting an area, protecting a location, destroying a bridge, or retreating to an evacuation point.  The artificial intelligence on the squad members is pretty good, but the player needs to take care to give appropriate weapons for the mission (squad members will use auto-turrets to defend an area, but won't deploy them offensively; grenade launchers carry a risk of friendly fire).

Sometimes there are numerous tactics to win a mission, but others, especially timed missions, require precise planning and foreknowledge of what events occur in said mission.  Performing well earns the player medals.  Players must retry failed missions until achieving a minimum set of objectives.

Team members can not be killed during a mission since they evacuate whenever damage is critical.  However, wounded team members may not be available for a mission or two unless the story requires their presence.  Story and mission progression are linear, so missing out on a needed specialist can make the subsequent mission significantly more difficult.

Overall the combat is both fun and challenging, requiring the player to quickly react to changes in the enemy formation or mission parameters.  The trick is to give the right set of equipment to squad members along with proper tactics to defeat an all-too-often numerically superior foe.  A small bit of luck is handy as well.

Conclusion

Terra Nova is an enjoyable military simulator though there aren't enough missions or story sequences for my tastes.  There weren't enough missions to experiment with every weapon or tactic.  There weren't enough story sequences to give a sense of completion; the villain never receives their comeuppance.  I finished the game in about five hours, though that may not include aborted mission attempts.

Five and a half hours on standard difficulty.  It may not include aborted missions.

Perhaps combining the real-time combat of Terra Nova with X-COM's base management, enemy interception, and strategic overlook would create an even better game.  The developers already created fairly large maps to represent planetary surfaces.  The game engine could randomly generate terrain for this hypothetical hybrid game.  Non-story missions would extend the game's length and give the player an opportunity to experiment with weapons and tactics.

Fiend vs. Mystic (Chrono Trigger - DS vs. SNES)

In the Chrono Trigger DS review/overview, I mentioned that "Fiend" isn't a good fit for the monster-people in Medina.  Here, I'll go into detail about that.

There were many other names, words, and terms that TOSE and Square-Enix could have re-translated to better match the original Japanese (Crono to Chrono, Ozzie to Vinegar, Masamune to Grandleon, etc.), but most survived the cut.  "Mystic" did not despite that it seems to be the superior term.  "Mystic" is better because it indicates the creatures are magical, but not necessarily evil.  "Fiend" doesn't hint at their magical nature and casts them as unthinking monsters.  A society with a mayor, shops, town square, and an inn can't be Fiends.  One of them even gave Crono cake.  How Fiendish is that?

In Japanese folklore, "demon" can include fairy-like or magical creatures that aren't necessarily evil.  This is a problem in American English as there is no general term that I know of for a magical creature that could be good or evil (there may be some regional, outdated, or esoteric terms, though).  "Fairies" are benign, but that term brings forth images of Tinkerbell.  "Demons" are inherently evil.  "Monsters" commit evil acts and may be unthinking; ditto for "Fiends".  Dungeons and Dragons solved this by using the term Fae/Fey (reminiscent of "fairy") to indicate a magical realm and creatures.  "Mystic" could be used similarly to imply magical origins, but not an evil disposition.

Likewise, Magus gained the title "Fiendlord" because of his Japanese title, Maou.  According to Chrono Compendium, this can be translated as either "Demon King" or "Magic King".  Calling Magus "Magus" seems analogous to "Magic King" and thus "Fiendlord" is wholly unnecessary.  Perhaps he could have a second title, "Lord of the Mystics", but it doesn't seem natural to refer to him as such.

iPhone: Not the Future of Gaming

Tech writers raised much ballyhoo regarding the adoption of the iPhone as the preferred gaming device of the masses.  There is one problem with this:  the iPhone is simply too expensive.  Apple sells their latest phone at $650 as the base price (additional storage raising the price in $100 increments).  The iPhone 5s pushes approximately 115 GFLOPS of graphical power for that amount of money.  The forthcoming PlayStation 4 on the other hand delivers 1840 GFLOPS for $400.  The PlayStation 4 provides more value for the dollar compared to an iPhone 5s.  Other devices beat it or are at least competitive with it.  I've assembled a table to display relative GPU efficiency of devices:

Gaming Efficiency
Device	iPhone 5s	PlayStation 4	Xbox One	3DS	Wii U	Lumia 521*	Vita
Cost	$650	$400	$500	$170	$300	$150**	$200
GFLOPS	115	1840	1230	4.8	352	19.2	51.2
GFLOPS per dollar	0.177	4.6	2.46	0.0282	1.173	0.128	0.256

*Assume it runs Adreno 305 GPU.  There should be similar Android phones in that price/performance range.
**Nokia/Microsoft cut the price to $100 recently, but they may be taking a loss and the nature of cell phones means a new model will be out next year.  So, $150 makes a good base price for comparison.
(Source for device GFLOPS:  http://kyokojap.myweb.hinet.net/gpu_gflops/)

With a voice and data plan, the iPhone 5s costs a user about $1,000 per year.  A typical family can't afford to give their children iPhones purely for gaming.  The iPhone 5s is so expensive that for the same price a person could buy a $50 pre-paid basic phone, a PlayStation 4 or desktop computer, and avoid a monthly cell phone bill.  Phone carriers subsidize the cost of the phone as part of the monthly bill (taking money from their standard plans to pay for the phone), but the costs are still too high for most families.

Additionally, a new iPhone comes out every six months to a year.  Keeping up with that pace drains the finances of the average consumer.  Consoles typically last at least five years before a replacement shows up and used games allow players to avoid $60 lemons.  Even copies of brand new console games drop after a while (see Greatest Hits versions of games on PlayStation).  PC gamers can upgrade graphics cards and make use of Steam sales to purchase games cheaply.  The iPhone is a money sink that practically requires cheap games to make up for the high costs of ownership.  And cheap games are not necessarily good games despite the hype for indie and mobile developers.  Not to mention that some mobile games push downloadable content heavily, sometimes costing over $100 to obtain every feature in a game.

GFLOPS aren't the be-all and end-all of gaming, but even in other areas the iPhone is lacking.  Fast-paced games require buttons; a touchscreen isn't good enough.  Using third-party controllers won't work well because developers would need to plan for multiple input schemes (such as one controller which includes shoulder buttons and another that doesn't).  Despite its far lower GFLOPS, the Nintendo 3DS at least contains buttons allowing for fast-reflex games and every developer can assume they are present during the development cycle.  The iPhone also does not allow for external SD cards or the swapping of batteries whereas far cheaper smartphones from competitors do.

Expensive smartphones and data plans have their uses, but their total cost of ownership is far too high to function as dedicated gaming devices.  They could be casual gaming devices, but casual gaming devices don't need to cost $650 and push 115 GFLOPS.  If your job, if you have one, doesn't involve constant communication, then you probably shouldn't buy something like an iPhone.  At that point it's just a toy and there are cheaper and better toys out there.

Chrono Trigger DS (Nintendo DS - Square Enix - 2008)

Originally developed and published by Square in 1995, TOSE added additional quests and re-translated the game for the Nintendo DS.

Positives

Accessible from the start of the game, the Arena of the Ages permits low-level challenges by enabling the player to win a Workman's Wallet early on.  The Workman's Wallet converts experience to gold and thus causes party members to avoid gaining any experience.  Stat-boosting Tabs/Capsules can also be won and are quite necessary for said challenge.  The Arena also allows two players to battle each other using Smidges (small generic monsters that evolve into more powerful creatures).

Compared to the PlayStation version, it loads very quickly.  If the choice were between the Nintendo DS and PlayStation version (available on the PlayStation Store), I'd go with the Nintendo DS version as it loads much faster.  The battles in Chrono Trigger fly by quickly once the player knows what to do, so excessive load times detract from the experience.

The Dimensional Vortex designs and layouts almost live up to the game's original dungeons, though the story elements that crossover with Chrono Cross may not be everyone's cup of tea.

New items such as the Master's Crown (permits Haste and a damage boost), the Elemental Aegis (blocks elemental damage for Lucca), and the Dragon's Tear (boosts critical hit rates) are some of the new useful items added to the game.

Nitpicks

A few translation points are perplexing, but especially the changing of the term "Mystic" to "Fiend".  I personally prefer Mystic because it seems to fit into the fantasy setting better.  Magus even gained the title "Fiendlord" which seems clunky since "Magus" is already a title!

Some of the rest of the translation may fall into the trap of being too literal, but, having quickly played through the Super Nintendo Chrono Trigger recently, the changes aren't too bad or drastic save for the modification to "Fiend".

Negatives

The Lost Sanctum fetch quests are horrible, consisting of going up and down a mountain repeatedly.  The party acquires some useful items, but this is the antithesis of the original Chrono Trigger's design philosophy.

New items such as the Mirrors are some of the less useful items found in the Arena of the Ages.  For instance, the Pontic Mirror counters non-Water attacks 25% of the time and is only usable by Marle and Frog.  The trouble is that Rage and Wrath Bands counter all attacks 50% and 80% of the time, respectively, and all party members can equip them.  The Mirrors have some use in a low-level run, given that Rage Bands can't be easily won.  A higher counter-attack rate would negate some of these complaints.  The same goes for the Nu Arcana:  it can be useful in a low-level run to potentially reduce a non-boss enemy's health to one hit point.  It becomes less useful as the party gains more power.

Rather than using portals that appear on the map, the new locations could have been placed on an island at the corner of the map.  It wouldn't be accessible until late in the game, but it would both fit in with the changing-world theme and stay out of the way of the normal game.  Using portals just makes the new content feel even more tacked on.  Even something as simple as an earthquake opening a cave in a mountain could have served as an excuse for their abrupt appearance.

Pro-Tips

If going for a low-level run, never allow the Smidge to transform to a higher form.  The cost of fighting in a tier increases, but the prizes won't change.  It completely wrecks the economics of fighting in the Arena of the Ages.  Always keep a backup save in which the Smidge has not been sent to train.

It is possible to re-enter the Dimensional Vortex dungeons after defeating the respective bosses.  Since parts of the dungeon are random, this allows the player to retrieve all items or visit all sections.

The Nintendo DS version adds a clear save file after defeating the final boss, so that it is not necessary to go through the entire game again to access the Dimensional Vortex dungeons.

Conclusion

If you're looking to play Chrono Trigger for the first time, challenge yourself to a low-level game, or desire to battle Smidges in the Arena of the Ages, then Chrono Trigger DS may be the game for you.  Despite a few quibbles with the new translation and content, the basic story and game are there and are still enjoyable.

Hello World

Video games are a bit of a hobby for me and I wish to review ones that I find interesting.  I'm not necessarily the best gamer (in fact I cheat frequently) and my tastes are esoteric, but when I find a game I enjoy I may post here about it.  Maybe I'll even post about games I do not enjoy, but without whining constantly.

I hope to create both video and text reviews and post them to this site.  The video reviews should be a mix of Ancient DOS Games, Turbo Views, and MMO Grinder.  The text reviews will be for shorter games or ones I did not particularly enjoy (or had to cheat extensively to beat).    I may also posts cheats and other items of interest.

Blogger may not be the best platform for this, but it's free and low-maintenance.