The Sci Fi Guy

The Day the Earth Stood Still. An exciting title for a movie created a half-century ago about our penchant for violence and a sinister love affair with Miley Cyrus headlines [wait, what?]… Moral of the story: Let’s all be good or the interstellar space consortium won’t let us in to the club.

Enter Keanu Reeves. As a socially inept alien:

“Whoa bro… Like, the Earth is special, and, like, all you humans are trouble ‘cuz you want to mess it up.”

Enter Jennifer Connelly. As a scientist with a widow-production bastard step-child. (This is true, I’m not creative enough to conjure that character struggle out of thin air):

“But, like, we can change. I won’t actually demonstrate how we can do it because that would require actually creating a plot mechanism to demonstrate that humans are capable of denying the fundamental issues that have raged on our planet since we learned we could hurt each other by hurling rocks at one another, but seriously… Change is totally our thing.”

And sayeth the Klaatu/Keanu:

“Oh. I see, like, your bastard step-son [sorry, I'm just enjoying that phrase too much] is, like, capable of hugging you because I, like, scared him and stuff. You can change. Good times. I shall sacrifice myself.”

-Fin-

There. I just handed you the movie. Don’t waste your time. It’s a B-movie in an A-movie’s clothes – and even that might be pushing it. Some of the special effects are movie-of-the-week quality (although the disintegrating truck is cool; but that was on the movie’s trailer so it doesn’t count). All this movie needed to save it was some sort of actual, believable method to show that humans really can change. The truth is that an alien visit might prompt us to work together, get over our differences quickly, and go star-hopping. But it’s not in the movie, so the whole thing falls apart. There’s really nothing redemptive about the whole movie – no standout performances, no saving moment of awesome visual effects. It’s just a dud. Don’t waste your time.

I don’t review a lot of video games on this blog. In point of fact, I’m not sure I’ve ever reviewed a video game on the site here. However, Battle Forge came across my desk the other day, and I felt it deserved a quick note.

I used to be a big fan of Magic: The Gathering. If you don’t know what that is, you’re either older than me (but not old enough to have kids that remember the 90′s), or were one of the cool kids that didn’t find themselves hanging out in libraries and around kitchen tables many an evening in your youth. That’s alright, I won’t hold it against you; but I was, and frankly, it was a great time in life!

Enter an heir apparent: Battle Forge. The game reminds me of a lot of other Real Time Strategy games like the Command & Conquer series, or Warhammer. The twist in Battle Forge is that it integrates a real-time, resource-based gaming experience with the card gaming experience (Magic-esque, not poker). You design your “deck” of cards that you’ll use to thwart your enemies. There are 4 main groups of power that you can tap from… Frost, Fire, Nature, and Shadow. You design your potential army through a deck management system, and then battle opponents online (or vs. computer in solo-play). The game really takes shape in the online system, where you can challenge others to combat in an experience that happily reminds me of my library-bound youth [Side note: I turned out cool enough]. There are even “booster packs” available which let you pick up more units (some more rare than others).

The fundamental problem with Battle Forge, as I see it, is the fact that it’s rated ‘T’ for Teen gaming. I’m not sure if parents even pay attention to those ratings when considering what games to let their kids play, but the experience seems like it ought to be well within the reasonable capabilities of a 4th grader. There’s a lot of depth here, don’t get me wrong, but this particular style of game might not appeal to the older, more advanced gamers looking for a more comprehensive RTS experience.

Ultimately, Battle Forge is a fun game, filled with surprising variation and nearly limitless opportunities to tweak your deck and fight the perfect fight. If you’re in the mood for something just off the beaten gaming path, Battle Forge may well be worth the try.