Time Off?

Okay, I've had the last week off (as well as the next two) and I've been keeping busy. I've written the majority of my application essays (if you're following the med school update, then you'd know that) but nobody can write all day long, so I've been catching up on a fair amount of TV, movies, and games. Of course, I've got a thing or two to say about each of them. First, the games.

Psychonauts (Xbox): This is easily the best game I've played since Metroid Prime 2 a few years ago, and has found its place in my Top 10 games all time. This game is just pure genius. The dialogue is incredible - it's witty and hilarious, and the story is both gripping and a joy to play. The game is an adventure game - you play as Raz (short for Razputin), a kid who crashes a secret government camp used to train psychic warriors for the military - to turn them into Psychonauts. The majority of the game is spent in the minds of others and the level design is just crazy. If you're a fan of well made, artistically brilliant games, you need to play this. It's by the same designer of other Top 10 favorite Grim Fandango, as well as the hilarious Monkey Island series. I feel confident calling this the best game on the original Xbox platform.
Rating: Hot Shit

Star Wars Battlefront (Xbox): I've had this game for a while but never got into it until I finished Psychonauts. I thought "oh boy, another crappy Star Wars game" at first but after playing through this game I really enjoyed it. The premise of the game is that you relive (fight) the big ground-based battles of the six Star Wars movies (well, make it 5, nothing from Episode III in here due to the date the movie was released) from either the Empire/Rebel or CIS/Republic [Clone] Army sides. Each map contained many Command Points and you needed to capture them to assure your side's victory - an odd combination of capture the flag and king of the hill, but with laser guns and AT-STs. Strategy was necessary to win, but even with the game at its most challenging difficulty level I found victory pretty easy to attain. A couple levels required multiple tries, but never more than a couple. The Historical Campaigns were the game's highlight, as the Galactic Conquest Mode was boring - fight to win planets, then blow them up with the Death Star. Lately Star Wars games have actually been good. Coupled with the two Lego Star Wars games and KotOR (which I never got into), the Xbox has been kind to George Lucas. Now, on to Battlefront II.
Rating: Hot Shit

The video games have been good to me, but I've seen a handful of pretty awful movies (in due fairness, also quite a few good ones) in the past couple weeks or so. I guess that about even things up. Here's the rundown of the bad ones:

The Descent: This movie got rave reviews for its innovative approach to the horror genre. It's monsters in a cave. How in the hell is this "innovative"? This movie was excruciatingly boring. I can't remember the finer plot details because they were either non-existant or I was too busy playing Tony Hawk's American Sk8land on my DS while this movie was on. One of the two.

Jet Li's Fearless: Matt Jordan's Boredom. Five minutes of action, 90 minutes of boring Chinese pseudo-history, and then five minutes of action to close the movie along with a really cinematic death. Like every other movie in this genre.

Miami Vice: Pretty looking movie. Pretty boring plot. Seriously, this movie had one weak, weak plot. Pass on this one.

Hostel: I got exactly what I expected in this movie, a lackluster horror flick. Gory, bloody, some nudity, and sheer boredom.

I'll run down the good movies after I get a chance to see a few more.