Star Wars vids

If you’re both a science-fiction fan and a video game addict, you should garner enough courage to try these titles.

When Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic came out a few years ago by Bioware Co., it broke every rule in the book. And pushed the envelope in gaming a bit further.

Vivid graphic effects coupled with an epic story. Starting out with the familiar words “…a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away,” the game takes you further into the Star Wars universe than before. Set back about four thousand years before the rebellious days of Luke Skywalker, Han Solo and Princess Leia. And you’re caught up with the stuff of old legends.

You play Revan who suffers amnesia at the beginning of the game. That’s the core of the story. You begin to piece together your memory as you near destiny.

He or she, depending on how you play the game, is the central character who develops as the game flourishes-- teeming with hundreds of other characters and starships. Every planet explored is filled with beautiful graphics wrapped around a progressing story.

There’s Kashyyyk, Mannan, Tatooine and Korriban. Each one with a climate of its own. And a story arc which it follows. Seven planets in all. The story becomes wide-ranging.
KOTOR plays like a dungeons-and-dragons type of game. Your character grows more powerful based on experience. But you are not yet a Jedi. You must learn patience.

The beauty of the game is that you can follow your own path. You can play the good Jedi who upholds the law or the vengeful opportunistic Sith--whichever reflects your own personality. You can mould the game into your destiny.

You acquire attributes such as charisma or strength. You can buy weapons and supplies. Plenty of D&D rolls.

I’ve clocked fifty hours playing the game. It’s long, involved, with plenty of detours you can take. I never get tired of it. The storyline holds your interest. And the action sequences are phenomenal. Hell, you can get to be good a swordsman like Obi Wan Kenobi. When you’re skilled, you can carve your way through a horde of bad guys like a knife through butter. There’s a sense of coolness being a Jedi. But others can beware the temptation of the evil Sith.

You can acquire companions to join your journey. Balista is your mentor for most of the game before you find your own footing. There’s even a Wookie too. Wookies are cool. I don’t care if they’re a walking carpet.

It’s a playable game. Very smooth. The texture and features in the game are excellent--the designs very imaginative. It’s just like you’re playing inside the actual Star Wars universe. It sucks you in easily.

Following on the heels of KOTOR is the equally successful Sith Lords. Here the previous character Revan has gone evil and took the war to the furthest edges of the galaxy to wipe out the remaining Jedi. (That sounds familiar. Anakin Skywalker?).

You play the last Jedi in the Sith Lords game. You are disconnected with the force--the natural influence that surrounds you and binds your will to everything. That force beings you back to becoming the Jedi you once were as the game progresses.

Sith Lords follows the same pattern as the first game. There’s more development with characters and worlds. You also revisit old worlds. The calmness of the storm is broken as you fall into a devastating universe filled with multi-storied landscapes and alien worlds. You can appreciate its beauty especially if you enjoy science-fiction. It won’t disappoint.

Knights of the Old Republic is a force that is not to be trifled with. And the force is always with us to the very end. Find out where your destiny lies.

A little bit of writing advice

If you need writing tips, turn to Joss Whedon.

The reason? The guy knows how to write television. He makes the chore look easy.

His characters in all shows he’s written come to life with a simple breath. He fills them people with tragedy, sad moments, far happier times. His characters are wrapped with a humanity that we can all learn lessons from. Their pains ache… and remind us of our own.

Whedon is the creator of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel series which showed a surprising, and successful, duration on television.

While I’m not his biggest fan… and believe me he does have a fan following out there who are crazy like a vampire walking out in broad daylight… I do admire his writing. He knows how to get into his characters’ heads. They go on personal journeys. We get to know the people who populate Sunnydale and Los Angeles. Their lives are teeming with loves and hates, joys and angers… they’re people. Like you and me. With perhaps a little touch of weirdness.

You can get a lot from this guy.

The thing is this… his characters grow. They change… just like real people do. Some people grow up and move away from their hometowns. And lovers tend to grow apart. People lose their jobs. There’s a death in the family… people continue to change. Life’s a journey in itself.

And the people of Buffy and Angel lead remarkable lives.

If characters stay the same, if they don’t grow, they become dull cardboard figures. People try different things everyday. They seek new territory of life. There’s a whole world out there. To coin a phrase.

Take one of my favorite characters Wesley for example. The classic nerd. In the beginning, he was a failed watcher who stemmed from England. Stuffy, pompous, yet stumbling. He was so very British. Look at Wesley when he first appeared in Buffy... "Bad Girls." Take a hard look. Then see him in his final episode on the spin-off series Angel.

You could barely believe it’s the same Wesley.

Why? He’s changed. The guy’s been through a lot. He’s seen people get killed, been through a lot of relationships… it’ll shape a man’s thoughts. And his feelings. Many painful wounds.

When working with Angel on several investigative cases, he’s grown with confidence. He’ll never become the superhero type. But he became his own man. Hell, he even took over the agency for a while when Angel was absent.

Each character is distinct. The character Willow is different from Buffy. They have their own little habits. And the way they talk. So does Angel who has lived for more than two hundred years. He’s going to pick up a few heartaches.

There’s one episode that’s a standout directed and written by Whedon—an apex of his writing abilities. It leaves one shaken with grief. You cry through the entire episode of “The Body” in the fifth season of Buffy. Because it felt so real. Everyone has gone through bereavement. And it hurts. Whedon shows how much his characters hurt. Just like life. We just don’t forget about these things. It stays with us. Everyone has gone through a death of a parent. It’s a very sad thing.

I would recommend “The Body” for perfect television viewing.

The writer of Doctor Who Russell T. Davies has mentioned his liking for Whedon’s writing. He owes some of his style to the Buffy creator. You can tell. Davies’ characters work the same way: they’re not clockwork people. They go through moments of disappointments. And tragedies. Both writers have the same kind of writing which is crisp, sharp. You know Davies must like Buffy. Anthony Stewart Head appears in one of Doctor Who’s second season’s shows.

The blokes from Star Trek: Enterprise could learn much from watching how Whedon works. People want a decent story with a heart. The series Enterprise missed out on that opportunity. Big time.

Any writer should review Whedon’s work before taking on a television project. They might get something out it. A little laughter. A little tear. And you begin to care about these characters. And that can mean a lot.

Trail blazing in Hell

Horrors drenched the gothic wasteland. The city of London became a battlefield for demons filling every corner of darkness.

It doesn’t sound like a comic book. But it is. In fact, it’s been around for some time now. “John Constantine: Hellblazer”* is something of a milestone.

It’s got greater longevity than its forefather… that being the Swamp Thing series (vol. 2). Constantine first appeared in SW issue #37.

The difference between this anti-hero and the others is this: John Constantine isn’t a superhero with powers to save himself from danger. He’s just a regular Joe. With an attitude.

He’s been through every nook and cranny of sordid life. He drinks, smokes, curses like nobody’s granny. He's a real departure from Metropolis’ Boy Scout. John’s what you call a con-job. A dabbler in the realm of magic, he's a sorcerer with another trick up his sleeve.

Constantine isn’t well liked. He has several ex-girlfriends and treats them like toilet paper. Few, if any, of his friends survived. The one and only buddy he’s got is cabbie/family guy Chas Chandler. Even they’re not on the best of terms.

So Constantine walks alone. He’s been in the constant company of ghosts: a reminder that his life’s not always a bowl of cherries. His life’s filled with wounds, scars of guilt. His life is often a doorway to hell. It’s a familiar place to him.

Created by comic-book writer Alan Moore, John Constantine becomes a larger-than-life personality. JC started out as a supporting character to Swamp Thing, giving him guidance from the occult world. Doing a disappearing trick that’s been his trademark.

Moore gives Constantine a mystery that thrives like the Dickens. Finally, after a year, the guy’s been given his own book.

He has a habit of pissing everyone off. Chalk it off to his usual cheating ways. No one says he has to be a nice guy. He isn’t. He knows that if he gets to close to someone, it could lead to a bad way. He trends through the macabre world equipped with an English accent, a trench-coat, his cocky pick-up line. Though he picks up demons more often than women.

During the first three-and-a-half-years, Jamie Delano lends his always poetic-and-beautiful signature writing… his words are often meticulous, a radiant string of words painted by a powerful prose, describing a morbid, tortured song, that’s never really been matched until another major writer Mike Carey came long.

Yet, while Moore sets up the character, it's Delano who breathed life into Constantine… a sad, torn past filled with tragedy. Delano gives Constantine a family… a sister, a bitter father and a mother lost in childbirth. His first nine issues are collected in the “Original Sins” trade paperback. Highly recommended.

My favorite stories are still the early Delano days when Constantine is still fresh to the scene… a youngster. I loved the art by John Ridgeway… stark, criss-cross lines that seem to set a mood.

It’s Garth Ennis who popularized him in the next four years. And I do mean that in the most mundane fashion. His writing’s good… sometimes a bit too quick-paced for my taste.

Sometimes his writing seems to go around in circles. Which can be aggravating. However, his dialogue's always great. The best stories under the Ennis mantle is the cancer story and the Jack the Ripper tale. Both transcend most of his other storylines. I also liked his five-part story “Son of Man” about the mobster’s failed attempt to raise his dead son.

The best moment in the series, however, is in the cancer story where, after foiling the Big Three of hell, patching his health, he walks away from the Devil by cheerfully flipping him off and saying, “Up yours!” to the Big Guy.

Not surprisingly, Constantine goes back to his hefty diet of smokes. (Or "fags" as the British refer them to).

Brian Arrarzello takes Constantine through the darkest heart of America. It’s a brief, yet memorial run of stories.

Many other writers came and went adding on their niche. The writing's always good. You can find there's a certain enrichment to these horror stories.

Here’s a character with penchant for the gruesome. And devilish twists abound that drags the mage to the lowest ebbs of humanity and he returns only to dust away his coat. And puffs away at yet another smoke.



* You can find trade-paper backs and regular issues of Hellblazer now written by Denise Mina at your local comic shop. Oshkosh has only one such store called "House of Heroes" at 407 N. Main Street or call 231-5500. Come on Saturday to catch the latest Free Comic Book Day fever.