Battlefield Hardline

By: Robert Murphy 

Over the years when people have heard the name Battlefield, their minds jump to huge/insanely big maps filled with explosions, realistic gunfire and massive amounts of vehicular warfare. Now, the series is going in a slightly different direction with it's latest title Battlefield Hardline and moves to the streets where brave men and woman also fight a war on drugs, corruption and lawlessness. Hardline bases much of it's style around police and criminals, it's a more urban aspect to warfare and changes up much of what players have seen from the franchise over the years. This isn't a bad thing though as new game modes, characters and story come into play and I was anxious to dig right in.

Whenever I start a new game, even if it has a heavily based multiplayer aspect, I immediately have to play the single player campaign first and right from the start of Hardline's single player campaign I was glad that I act this way. A catchy opening theme song pops on as you zoom in on our main character, rookie cop Nick Mendoza, he's being sent to prison now for a crime he didn't commit. After this admittedly funny and quirky opening you move to the events that set this whole thing in motion, flashing back to the events leading up to his arrest. After the first initial car chase and drug bust scene though, things start to slow way down in terms of this campaigns plucky appeal. The whole thing plays out like a bad cop series like the Cop Drama spoof on South Park or something like it. There is way too much over the top drama to sell what is happening in the story and if it had been more spoofy like Battlefield Bad Company then I would have been more on board with what I was sitting through. 

The other aspect to the story that doesn't sit well with me is the need to slink through the same basic level set up and enemy formats over and over again. For a game about a cop you sure do an awful lot of James Bond style sneaking around, this isn't to say cops/detectives don't have to sneak around and get the job done but I felt like I was playing Splinter Cell without all the gadgets and actual stealth options. The only way to sneak around in the game is to crouch and prone yourself, you hide behind various objects and get the jump on criminals, then you flash your badge and later yell and point at bad guys to arrest them. The new element to the game allows you to halt up to three criminals who are close together and move in to arrest them all, you have to be sure to stay out of sight of other criminals who will shoot your brains out though or notice one of their guys knocked out on the ground. You gain points for each arrest you make, you also can find and arrest people with outstanding warrants in levels too, this gives you access to more guns and gadgets. Don't get too excited though, guns are mainly police level so no grenades or anything huge and gadgets are just tactical vests and grappling hooks. You can go all out in levels and start shooting everything in sight, after six levels of sneaking around I almost felt I needed to shoot something. The whole experience really is a bust, there are no stealth attributes to this game and you spend all of your time doing just that, sneaking. Initially, arresting bad guys and skulking around has it's appeal but not enough and it really isn't in Battlefield's wheel house to pull off.

As for the multiplayer aspect to the game, the new cops and criminals element is handle much better than it was in the single player. There are seven new multiplayer modes to choose from and they pit the good versus the bad with groups of cops and bad guys trying to complete various objectives. Among them all, Heist is perhaps one of my favorites and it is a mode where the criminals must crack into a safe and make their way to an extraction point with bags of cash before the cops take them out and return the money back to the start. It is a mad dash of people and explosions, I watched as a teammate booked out of a vault with cash pouring from his bag and then get knocked out a few minutes later, I kindly picked up the loot and took off. The other maddening mode is Hotwire, players race across the map in various vehicles to gain points for their team while the opposite team does the same and tries to take each other out. I had my teammates leaning out of the vehicle with rocket launchers trying to take out the opposing car and screaming for joy when they got them, I promptly drove over a mine a few minutes later. 

Online modes bring back the calamity for Hardline where the single player was far too quite and peaceful, online brings back the immense explosions and chaos to what I thought would be a lack luster game. There still may not be any huge tanks rolling across the screen, how would a cop get a tank or vise versa but their are new heavily armored troop vehicles that can take quite a beating and move a big group across the map. The game focus a lot on players on foot and fighting one another though and there is nothing wrong with that and it still separates itself from other first person shooters as it has done before. Maps are still full of different avenues and massive in their structure and even if their isn't an avenue, you can make one! The weather changing system also makes a comeback, in certain maps that will batter you with hurricane weather conditions. Then there are other maps with massive crumbling buildings and even a giant crane that can come crashing down on top of your entire team, it's simply a fantastic amount of chaos. 

In conclusion, I think Battlefield may want to turn in it's single player hat as the recent years have shown that it isn't their thing anymore. The whole affair is far too ridiculous and takes all the wonderful cops and robbers aspects of the multiplayer and turns into something far less appealing. As for the mulitplayer, I think Hardline did a wonderful job with it's new avenue here. Online is filled with new game modes, skills/weapons and plenty of that solid chaos that I have loved in the past. 

Good:

- A fresh new look to the multiplayer

- Stealing a big sack of money in Heist or whipping around in Hotwire were some of my favorite moments

- The look and feel is still fresh and polished just like previous Battlefield games

Bad:

- A very poor single player campaign

- A stealth game without any actual stealth options is a little ridiculous

Scully Rating: 7.5 out of 10

Focus

By: Robert Murphy

There is something about a con man movie that makes you really understand people in this world, there is a science to just about everything and you can use it to your advantage. Some people, like Nicky (Will Smith), have been manipulating people their whole lives. He was born into the game of hustling, tricking and pulling one over on people and so when somebody else is trying to pull a con on him, he would instantly know. Enter Jess (Margot Robbie), who could probably pull one over on any guy with her looks alone, but she's trying her hand at striking it big with some small time cons of her own. When she tries to pull a classic play on Nicky, he plays along and pokes fun at just how terrible she really is at this sort of thing and she should probably quit while she's ahead. She, of course, doesn't take this advice and the two end up on a path filled with heists, twists and intense drama.

You could not find two people with better on screen chemistry than the one that goes on between Will Smith and Margot Robbie. Most of the time the two are together they act like old friends who know one another inside and out, laughing at one another and working together in sync. Will Smith perhaps needed this movie and great combination the most as his past few films haven't gone over too well. While talking about the premise of Focus with a few friends, I pointed this fact out and how Smith's character looked like a return to some of his earlier and top notch work. He saunters around on screen with plenty of confidence and emotion, using that trademark ability that I love from his work and that is the ability to make me laugh one minute and spurt out a tear the next. As for Robbie, she has already proven to be a great actress, The Wolf of Wall Street immediately springs to my mind and here she brings even more of her trademark style. She is an incredibly beautiful woman but that's not the only card she has to play with that smile and spunky personality that worked insanely well with Smith's Nicky character. 

The story goes through three sort of separate arcs. After Nicky and Jess get acquainted with one another, he jets off to New Orleans where he is putting together a massive get together of players. It's something that he's apparently done countless times before as everyone knows the infamous "Mellow" who runs the biggest trade for the area. Jess has followed him and ends up getting brought in on the action. There's a brief sequence of how plays are run for cons and the many different ways regular people get screwed over every day, getting credit card information stolen, wallets lifted and even stealing the filters on your camera for some reason. What's great though is Jess proves to be a natural at it all despite her initial ditsy confusion to everything being explained to her. She chats up guys and distracts everyone she comes across as you see the rest of Nicky's team come along and swipe their valuables. This gets Nicky's attention and from here you could probably tell what was going to happen next.

This leads to perhaps the most intense and intricate scheme that I have scene in a long time. Throughout the movie there are constant little cues and prompts to pay attention to, it's a tell just like in Poker to what will probably come next. Without giving this insanely cringe worthy sequence away, you will see Nicky has quite a gambling problem to deal with and in the suite at the Superdome, he lays it all on the line. A delightfully strange, Liyuan (B.D. Wang) joins in on the action here as well.

What lies next was a bit of a confusing part for me in Focus. The last scene that I mention gives off so much tension and intrigue that you could have ended the movie right then and there. What happens next is a three year time skip, Nicky and Jess had gone their separate ways but have now been reunited by separate cons but ones with the same mark. Nicky's part in this sequence is far more interesting in terms of what he ends up doing but the continued romance that takes place between Jess and him feels lack luster. When you end up finding out what Jess's con is too, you almost can't believe that it was what she was doing the entire time. Nicky's estranged father played by Gerald McRaney also gets shoehorned into this section of the film and just left me with a soar taste for the ending of the movie. 

For the most part though I truly enjoyed Focus. With con movies I am always on my toes and ever vigilant to try and figure out what may be going on for myself to see if I could spot the con. I have to say that I saw one or two things coming but I was genuinely surprised by some of the bigger picture ploys that Will Smith's character played on myself and others. Smith and Robbie were also excellent together, playing off one another and coming out strong in all their scenes. If Focus had ended after the Superdome scene in New Orleans, I would not have any problems with the movie because the rest just felt unnecessary additions to a great ending. 

Good:

- Great dialogue and premise

- Smith and Robbie's wonderful chemistry together

- The entire Superdome scene is incredible

- A great soundtrack

Bad:

- The last half of the movie could be chopped out and thrown away

- Weak ending that has an even weaker twist

Scully Rating: 7.0 out of 10 

Grand Theft Auto 5

By: Robert Murphy

Well I was finally able to pull myself away from the controller long enough to tell you all my thoughts and feelings on the latest entry into the Grand Theft Auto franchise, Grand Theft Auto 5. Now I am here to say straight out from the get go that I am in love with the game, since the very first opening sequence I have loved everything that the game has to offer. Players are now put into a massive world that is not only beautiful to look at but feels like a living breathing world with everything from animals to hunt, stores to shop in, games to play and just about everything you’re little heart desires. GTA 5 is the culmination of years of Grand Theft Auto games and brings in it all the things we have loved in previous games, brought them together and then added even more along with it. But this is only a fraction of a fraction of the pleasure that comes from the game, we also have an insanely addictive single player story to enjoy, so let’s dig right on in.

From the start of the game, I took immediate notice of the games vastly improved mechanics, player movement is both smooth and easy to handle much like it was in the last GTA game but now it’s been given an overhaul and made even better. Also the cover system and weapon handling has finally been put to a level that you’d want from a massively open world shooter, taking cover behind objects and popping out to take out enemies feels like a breeze. Not only that but moving the auto aim function, which was an absolute horror in GTA 4 at times, can now be described as seamless as it simply moves from enemy to enemy with a flick of your thumb. These mechanic upgrades also transfer over to the vehicles you will have the opportunity to be driving, cars are now not only easier to control and drive but the massive amount of selection and customization is astounding. There have always been fast cars in GTA games but now they look, sound and act like real life cars that you can go out and buy, for example, hearing the roar of the Dodge Charger look alike in the game gave me an evil grin and racing heartbeat. And then I have to make notice of small features that I just love, for example missions in the game start without players having to do a thing except walk up to the indicator and then the dialogue starts right up. Also we have another great improved to missions and story and that is the games checkpoint system, where in the past you could spend five minutes stumbling back through a mission if you screwed up, now checkpoints throughout the missions prevent all that frustration.

The story doesn’t suffer at all alongside the immersive world of GTA 5, in fact it’s on par with about everything else the game has to offer, it gives you a crazy, thrilling and often times dark tone but hey it is GTA after all, what do you expect. In the city of Los Santos, the people are stuck up and snobby, they spend their time on the couch, doing yoga, drinking their overpriced coffee and updating their Lifeinvader accounts, which is a jab at Facebook that I just love. The game makes a point to jab at today’s new generation of glamour seeking nobodys and the age of multimedia (good it needs to be taken down a peg) and you are destined for good things in this town. As you play between the three playable characters, you set out to make money, find purpose or just go ape @#$% on everything, as each character has their own reasons for doing what they do. This includes a list of highly integral heists and crimes that are something that you’d expect to see in an Ocean’s 11 style movie, with various elements to plan out, ridiculous maneuvers and of course daring chases. And you yourself get to plan out these heists and preform them in whatever way you see fit, you want to go in loud and heavy or smart and calculated you can, it’s all up to you.

Oh right I should probably introduce our characters, we have Michael a retired con man in his 40s, who is not happy with his new found life of luxury as he lays about his massive home, drinking and laying in the sun all day. Then there’s Franklin who is a young man from downtown Los Santos who gives off the feel of CJ from San Andreas but Franklin doesn’t want the gangster life style that his friends seem to relish in and he is looking for a way out to bigger things. And finally we have Trevor, a volatile criminal who spends his days out in the hills of Los Santos, cooking drugs, killing rednecks and generally causing mass chaos. Players can switch in between the three characters during the game and get a feel for the life of each character and what they’re all about and experiencing the many different elements of Los Santos and the people that live there. This was a great aspect in my opinion because I didn’t have to play as one player that I didn’t necessarily like but I had the option to choose from multiple characters, each with their own unique personality and appeal.

I could literally go on for pages about all the action, activities and fun that can be had in Grand Theft Auto 5, Rockstar has spared no expense for fans this time around and it is much appreciated from me and I’m sure the Grand Theft Auto community as well. The game has an intelligent storyline and appealing heists, crimes and activities to be had with our three characters, just about anything you can think of doing or want to do is set out before you. The games ability to plan out heists and crimes as you play through the main story is a great aspect that makes you feel in complete control of the action and the crimes you’re performing. The in game mechanics have also been improved in every way imaginable, movement is smooth and no longer clunky, gun play and the auto aiming system have all been given an upgrade and driving cars is not only fun but is massively appealing with how real all the cars feel. Grand Theft Auto 5 is the GTA game that fans have been waiting for and for those of you who haven’t played a GTA game before will quickly fall in love just as fast as hardcore fans will.

Good:

- Incredibly massive and immersive world

- Stimulating storyline

- Amazing and ridiculous heists and crimes

- Dark and witty humor/dialogue

- Never ending list of things to see and do throughout the game

Bad:

- I haven’t had a single bad thing to say about this game

Scully Rating: 10 out of 10