Reviews by sh4dow

buffy used to be one of my favorite shows ever and i rated it 10/10 but now that i'm watching at once more after a couple of years, i can't help but realize that i probably got way too sucked into it back then.

the stories are mostly really great but buffy is pretty annoying, dawn is probably the most annoying character i've ever seen in any tv or movie production and the "big bads" of season at least season 4 and 5 seem ridiculous (i haven't watched 6 and 7 yet, can't remember the finale of season 7 any more).

i don't know why they added that stupid "hyper-girly" character or why they couldn't see that neither adam nor glory were interesting, it's really a pity because that show had such huge potential. but at least angel mostly succeeded where buffy failed.

this is one of the best trip-hop albums i've ever listened to. beautiful slow melodies and haunting female vocals... well... just the way trip-hop is supposed to be - at least in my opinion ;)

unfortunately, george sarah and sarah folkman split up after the release of this album (which was in 1999...). so there's no chance whatsoever to get new material by THC.
george sarah did start a supposedly (i don't know enough about it) successful solo carreer but his sound developed in a more experimental, less melodic & emotional direction.
as for sarah folkman - she did additional vocals for some other bands but it seems like no more trip-hop lead singing for her: [Link removed - login to see]

i have to say that nine inch nails usually is not my cup of tea - except for their ballads. which is why the second cd on this album is very important.

even if you're sceptical about NIN, give this one a chance and try to find samples or something of that second cd. it features some of the most beautiful piano ballads i've ever heard. i really don't know just how many hours i've spent listening to them and they still touch me.

to me, it's really a pity that NIN doesn't do more songs like these, i'd buy every album they release...

a friend of mine compared this to "gears of war" when he recommended it to me. while he might be right about that when it comes to certain aspects of the look and the controls, i think it can't compare at all when it comes to story. with "gears of war", even though the story isn't exactly the pinnacle of storytelling either, you always have a feeling of how the plot constantly progresses. not so with "dark sector"... you run and run and run and then maybe there's a cutscene here or there. and some of those cutscenes don't even seem to be particularly relevant to the story.

but it looks great, it has nice features (although e.g. the weapons upgrading feels more like "well... it is in there" than something they really thought a lot about - feels a lot better in e.g. resident evil 4), hacking away at those monsters is a lot of fun, which is why i would still recommend it to action fans. just don't expect it to be a game that gets you hooked immediately until you finish it.8/10

first off, i want to preface my review with some quotes... only one has an actual source, the others are pretty much just sayings which i still find to be very true:

"OPTIMISM, n.
The doctrine, or belief, that everything is beautiful, including what is ugly, everything good, especially the bad, and everything right that is wrong." - ambrose bierce

"pessimists are optimists who have reflected on things"

"optimism is simply a result of lack of information"


that said, i suppose people who know the movie already are by now probably able to tell why i think that "amelie" fails in every way it can when it comes to transporting relevant messages about life. no, not everything is dark and bad but not everything is just cute and cuddly either. those who don't know the movie yet but think that above quotes are quite true - well, better stay away from "amelie".
apart from this shallow attempt at a story there's amelie herself as character. she is portrayed in such an awful way that i started avoiding movies featuring audrey tautou fearing she might once again have that frozen cocky smirk that makes me more aggressive than... listening to the spice girls. or something in that category.
that was until i saw her in "dirty pretty things" and didn't even recognize her without that stupid grin - but that's another story (and a great film - go see that instead!).

i think there is only one positive aspect worth mentioning (which "doudouce55" also already has in her review) and that's the decent photography - which is why i give it 2/10 too.

this game is utter crap.
now to back that up with some reasons:

.) the amount of detail in environments is almost the same as in "sonic adventure". the character models are a bit better but still not nexgen-worthy. damn, sega should look at some of their other games - like virtua fighter 5!

.) the camera is horrible. once you jump high up in the air, it doesn't seem to know what it's doing any more and starts to jump all over the place like some raver on speed.

.) tails throwing "ring bombs"?! give me a break, this is really the stupidest new character feature i've ever seen in a sonic game. you don't even have a crosshair for aiming those damn things! and controlling the flying tails feels like... i can't compare it with anything else, i never had to control a flying something in a game which felt this bad.

.) incredibly long loading times. i was even doing some stuff on my pc in the meantime but still couldn't stand it.

maybe this sonic part has even more crap to offer but i didn't even want to finish the first level!
until after sonic adventure 2 i loved almost all sonic games - which makes the disappointment just bigger.