Stargate SG-1: Unleashed Review

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The Stargate franchise has had a pretty tumultuous relationship with the video game world. I remember hearing about an MMO called Stargate Worlds in development years ago, but their money ran out and the game was never released. A third-person shooter called Stargate: Resistance came out in 2010, but less than a year later they pulled the game from stores and shut down the servers. I was really disappointed that I missed out on it, but Stargate SG-1: Unleashed looks like it is here to stay.

Unleashed is a third-person adventure game for iOS and Android. I can understand the desire to bring console-grade gaming to mobile devices, but despite the fact that the power in our phones is increasing at an incredible rate I don't think this will ever be a viable option.

One very obvious reason is graphics. Unleashed tried to go for photorealism, and as you can see it's pretty bad. This could easily have been avoided if they went with a different art style; for example, some nice cel shading could have given it a comic book feel similar to The Walking Dead. My Nexus 5's Snapdragon 800 is about as high-end as they come right now, so the game ran smooth as butter. Even so, it drained my battery pretty fast so I usually only played when I knew I had access to a charger.

The other big reason that console-like gaming doesn't work on mobile is the way the game is consumed. When I play something on my computer, I have probably made sure that I have a decent chunk of time available. I play mobile games when I am out and about and I have a few minutes to kill. Unleashed acts like a console game in this area, expecting me to sit down and play it for an extended period of time. It doesn't let you save manually, instead relying on checkpoints. I ended up replaying quite a few sections because I had to step away before hitting the next checkpoint.

Gameplay and controls is another area where third-person mobile games struggle. Unleashed uses the expected twin-stick emulation in most areas where you move around, and it works pretty well. Combat is pretty simple: you are crouched behind cover and have to strategically decide when to pop out and shoot at enemies. If you get hit you can just stay behind cover until your character stops panting. Almost everything else in the game is based on quick time events. Seriously. Shimmying along a ledge? Quick time event. Taking out a guard from behind? Quick time event. Drawing a bucket of water out of a freaking well? You'd better be ready for a quick time event, my friend! Ugh.

Let's talk about some positive stuff! The story was well-written and interesting. Most of the voice acting was by the actors from the show, so it was both congruent with my expectations and it was quality voice acting. If the story or acting had been worse you can bet that I would not have finished the game.

Ultimately Stargate SG-1: Unleashed is only worth playing if you are a super fan of Stargate. I am interested in the story enough to get the second episode, but I am seriously disappointed in its quality as a game.

Dream: The Galactic Senate

Note: this blog has been migrated to Medium, with the articles here available to preserve permalinks Please see this post at https://medium.com/@ianrbuck/dream-the-galactic-senate-80132ca42c11

Note: in this dream I take the role of the silent observer; I'm not a character in the story.

Last night's dream started off with a situation similar to that in Spacetrawler: there is a large Galactic governing body and Earth is currently considered a "dark planet" which means that nobody is allowed to visit until the humans have discovered interplanetary travel for themselves. However, there are a few humans who were illegally brought off-planet and are now representing Earth in the Galactic Senate. Chief among them is Daniel Jackson, who is really good at this whole diplomacy thing.

Before long the Foosa (from the movie Madagascar) show up, saying that they have as much a claim to the planet Earth as we humans do. Most of the Senate was going to vote in favor of the humans, but then Daniel surprised everyone by voting in favor of the Foosa. Why would he do that?? Well apparently he realized that the only way for us to be able to get rid of the Foosa without looking like terrible people was to give them a share of the planet and then go to war with them for some atrocity that they would inevitably inflict upon the people already living there. Very cunning, Daniel Jackson. Unfortunately my alarm went off before I could find out how this one turned out.

Stargate Universe Review

Note: this blog has been migrated to Medium, with the articles here available to preserve permalinks Please see this post at https://medium.com/@ianrbuck/stargate-universe-review-6e20f7cec99a

I grew up on Stargate SG-1 and Stargate Atlantis, both of which were over by the time I watched them. My parents got me each season on DVD over the course of many birthdays and Christmases. As Star Trek was for many nerds of the previous generation, Stargate was for me.

I knew that Stargate Universe was happening during my final two years of High School, but my family doesn't have cable so I couldn't catch it. I had also heard that a lot of Stargate fans disliked the series, so I wasn't in a huge rush to see it.

I finally started watching SGU with another Stargate fan last spring, and initially we had a good time making fun of the series. I think that most Stargate fans dislike SGU because it is very different stylistically from either of the other shows; the colors are very saturated, there is a lot of film grain, just a hint of shaky-cam, the show focuses more on the interpersonal issues of the crew than the big save-the-world moments, and honestly there were very few characters that I liked at the beginning. I was reminded of the episode 200 from SG-1 where they make fun of shows just like SGU. Seriously, they have "younger, edgier characters" and they "just throw the title up and get on with it."

Despite all of that, by the end of the second and final season, I had really grown attached to the characters. I can't really point to where it turned around for me, but I remember really liking the season finale for season one because it was so personal. There was also a three-episode arc towards the end of season two where they explored the what-if scenario of these characters living out the rest of their lives together much like the final episode of SG-1, but I liked this one a lot more. It was clear that they had known that the show was ending when they wrote the final episode of Universe, because they ended it in such a way that they could justify either bringing the show back in a few years or never touching it again.

My favorite thing about the show, and the thing that differentiates it from pretty much every other show that I have seen, was their willingness to kill off characters. Sure, they have their core cast of about seven that clearly weren't going anywhere, but many secondary characters kicked it throughout the series, and I really cared about some of them. It really drove home the idea that these characters were the wrong people for the mission, something that was frequently said during season one.

I really want them to bring this show back. I'd even pay money to see it.

Plug: Amazon Prime

Note: this blog has been migrated to Medium, with the articles here available to preserve permalinks Please see this post at https://medium.com/@ianrbuck/plug-amazon-prime-d5415a9b39f8

Many people don't realize it, but Amazon Prime is probably the best subscription deal on the internet. I discovered it through their six month trial for students, and I am hooked. Not only do you get free two-day shipping on most items, but you also basically get Netflix for cheaper. This year I used it to watch all ten seasons of Stargate SG-1 and all five seasons of Stargate Atlantis (which alone is worth way more than the $40 a year that it costs me.)
Prime also has another advantage over Netflix; Netflix has to wait until an entire season of ongoing shows has come out before they have it. I'm pretty sure that this is because they follow the DVD release schedule. Amazon Prime, on the other hand, usually has episodes available the day after they air. The only catch is that it usually costs $2-$3 for each new episode. For a show like Doctor Who I am definitely willing to pay that much to watch each episode as they come out.

Thanks Amazon, for replacing my TV channels and DVD collection all at once.