The Wolf Among Us

Since as of the time I'm writing this the Playstation Network is still down, I've been playing The Wolf Among Us on an un-networked PS4 instead of the game I was really looking forward to since I made my Christmas list.  If you haven't heard of this game before, it's probably because it's far from your typical video game

The Wolf Among Us is by Telltale Games, a company which is practically synonymous with the genre of game they make.  It describes itself as a "graphic adventure game," but contrary to almost every other use of the word "graphic" to describe video games, what it means is that it's an incredibly immersive story-based role playing game (don't worry, it's also graphic).  There is little of what modern gamers would recognize as gameplay.  You don't run around through an environment of non-stop action and linear story.  Instead, this game focuses on bringing you an in-depth look at a pivotal series of events in the lives of its characters.  Player interaction with the game is almost entirely in the form of choosing how your character responds to others and what he notices in the environment.  By now most of you are probably thinking "that sounds boring," and you'd be right, if not for the phenomenal story the game is based around.

You play as Bigby Wolf (read Big B. Wolf) the Sheriff of a small community of Fables living in New York City.  Fables are characters from myths, legends, and especially fairy tales who live in the real world, but instead of the Disney versions you're probably used to, none of these Fables lived happily ever after.  This dark, half-familiar world is the perfect setting for a game which revolves around story and character: the way you interact with the story elements allows you to either flush out details and become a part of this unique community, or shut yourself out like a cold son of a bitch.

The amount of influence you have over the game is reminiscent of old text-based games or a choose-your-own-adventure novel.  The game allows you to choose how your character acts in the world, whether that's a by-the-books lawman, loose-cannon cop, or dozens of in-betweens, and the NPCs react accordingly.  What you say and what you do affects the development of all the characters, and good or bad, you'll have to live with the consequences for the rest of the game.  Sometimes you'll pick what you think sounds like a reasonable dialogue choice and immediately regret it when another character throws it back in your face, sometimes you'll be surprised how well things worked out for you.  More than anything you'll feel that your choices are an integral part of how the story advances.

The graphics aren't stunning, but they do fit the game by further its graphic novel style.  The same could be said about the controls. For most of the game you can hold the controller with one hand while you snack with the other, although you definitely still have to pay attention as NPCs will just assume you're giving them the silent treatment if you take too long to respond.  Overall I'd say if you're looking for a fast-paced action-packed game then this is definitely not the choice for you.  If you want a unique story with amazing scripting that feels fresh the entire way through (guaranteed no grinding) then you'll probably want to play this a few times over.

Bioshock Infinite

I know I'm a little behind with this review as the game came out at the end of August, but I finally had the chance to play through Bioshock Infinite this weekend, and it is hands down my favorite shooter of the year.  I loved the previous two installments of Bioshock for their gritty sci-fi/horror take on first person shooters, but this one blew the others out of the water in terms of story, depth, and gameplay.

Bioshock Infinite takes place in 1912 in the city of Columbia, which is the Heaven to Rapture's (the underwater city of the first two games) Hellish nightmare city.  Columbia floats high above the clouds while Rapture is sunk deep beneath the ocean, and the society of Columbia is a virtual utopia founded on American patriotism and a cult-like sect of Christianity.  While the first two installments had you fighting zombie-like junkies with guns and genetically modified powers you inject into yourself, in Infinite you'll be fighting more or less normal humans with twisted ambitions.  You no longer inject yourself with plasmids to grant powers either, Columbia's technology allows you to drink a tonic which uses the salts in your character's body to power the genetic enhancements.  The overall feel of Columbia is that it's a city which managed to pull off the utopia that Rapture was aiming for, but after spending about 5 minutes walking through its streets you'll get the feeling that the society is far too good to be true, even if you haven't played the other games.

The image of perfection shatters when you attend the Founder's Day raffle and are greeted with some old fashioned racism like a slap in the face, and when I say that I mean they don't slowly build up to it, the way it's introduced will make you say "Woah," when you get to it.  At this point things turn sour very quickly for the main character, Booker DeWitt. He's labeled as the "False Prophet," the equivalent of "Enemy of the State" in this brainwashed community.  From here you evade and kill the people coming after you until you meet up with Elizabeth, and things really start getting interesting.  I'm not exaggerating when I say that Elizabeth may be the coolest support character ever to appear in a shooter game.  She will find you money, open locked doors and safes, throw you health packs and salt when you are running low, and toss you fully loaded guns when you are running low on ammo, replenishing your ammo stock and removing the need for reload time every once in a while.  You don't need to protect her from being killed, she's not just thrown in as fan service or eye candy, and she has some really cool abilities which I won't go into because they tie into the central story and I'm trying to avoid spoilers.

The actual gameplay is very similar to the previous Bioshock installments, but with the added bonus of a shield which recharges after taking cover for a few seconds, gear which adds abilities (don't worry no RPG type stats to manage) and the addition of Elizabeth which, as already mentioned, is awesome.  All your weapons and powers are upgradable through the currency system used in Columbia: Silver Eagles, and your health, shield, and salt levels are upgraded by drinking Infusions found throughout the game, usually in the more secretive areas.  Instead of farming Big Daddies and Little Sisters for ADAM the optional content of this game is found through exploring locked rooms which Elizabeth opens for you, code books and ciphers which she also decodes, and locked chests that you need to find keys for.  There's enough optional content in the game to keep you entertained, and it's arranged in such a way that you won't need to backtrack for half an hour to get back to the actual mission.

The highlight of Bioshock Infinite is the amazingly beautiful and complex world through which the story is presented.  Like its predecessors, Infinite is built on a world of duality which harkens back to the olden days of the early 20th century: men and women wear hats, the music is all done in styles which the majority of gamers are not going to hear anywhere except in games like this and Fallout (listen closely for some fantastic anachronistic versions of songs like "Tainted Love" and "Everybody Wants to Rule the World"), and nobody walks around staring at a handheld device.  At the same time though, this is a flying city with automated "Patriots" and a giant mechanical bird to protect it, and they've developed a tonic that allows you to do things like shoot fire or lightning out of your hands or summon a flock of crows to attack.  It's a world which appears to be a utopia, yet just a scratch at the surface shows the atrocities it's built upon, and the propaganda used to keep the people believing.

And if I can just go back to the music for a moment.  Except in combat scenes, the music in this game is not at all background music.  Every time you encounter a radio, phonograph, or the few "live" musical scenes it's a captivating event that reminds you just how similar this world is to our own.  I know I just put a lot of time into telling you how different and unique the world of Infinite is, but when you stop to listen to the beautiful rendition of "Shake Sugaree" sung in Shantytown or this haunting version of "Fortunate Son" sung while a war rages all around, it gives you the feeling that the people of this world are not so different from those of our own.  They have the same ambitions of greed, revenge, redemption, longing for freedom, love, and hope. (Video may have minor spoilers but if you haven't played through the game it's almost certainly not what you think)

Bioshock Infinite is an all-around stunning game, easily the best of the Bioshock games and easily the most original and entertaining shooter of the year.  I recently bought it used for about half price, but I wish I had purchased it on release for full price because I was missing out.  I highly recommend picking up a copy of your own, this is a game I definitely won't be trading in anytime soon.

Most Badass Fictional Characters

Warning:  This post contains minor spoilers.  Most of what follows is general character profile, but there may be plot points included, especially in the video games section.  This post is intended to be a recommendation for readers, not to ruin the stories mentioned.  No endings are revealed.

Television
Walter White - Breaking Bad's Bryan Cranston is currently the greatest actor on television.  For the first three years of Breaking Bad he won the Primetime Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series.  His high school teacher turned major meth dealer is possibly the most devious scheming character ever on screen.  The viewer can't help but remained glued to the screen as Walter quickly spirals downward, overtaken by greed and power.


Spike Spiegel - From Cowboy BeBop, the single best animated series ever created, Spike is a bounty hunter in the future who travels the solar system to earn enough bounty to get by.  He is a master at a very zen form of martial arts which requires minimal effort on his part while using his enemys' excess force against them.  He's also a skilled spaceship pilot and marksman with his pistols.  Spike is obsessed with the figures of his past, but puts on a cool, often sarcastic demeanor around his crew.


Dr. Walter Bishop - The mad scientist from J.J. Abrams' Fringe, Walter Bishop means well but must always overcome feelings of guilt at his past actions and his own mental deterioration.  He is a man who carries the weight of having kidnapped a version of his son from an alternate universe after his own son dies of disease, an act which sets in motion a chain of events that begins to rip the other universe apart.  Walter may be losing his mind, but he is still a genius in all fields of fringe science, from telepathy to scientific necromancy.


Literature
Achilles - "Sing, O Goddess, the ruinous wrath of Achilles, / Son of Peleus, the terrible curse that brought / Unnumbered woes upon the Achaeans and hurled / To Hades so many heroic souls, leaving / Their bodies the prey of dogs and carrion birds." How much more badass could an opening be? The Iliad is easily the best war story ever told, and fleet-footed Achilles is its main character. Fated to choose between a path of long life, happiness, and obscurity, or a short, but heroic life which would assure him eternal glory. The vain, arrogant Myrmidon would be an awful character if he wasn't literature's greatest warrior, but he is, so he earns the respect of his peers and fear of his enemies, and his story is still told toady.


Logen Ninefingers - From Joe Abercrombie's First Law trilogy, Logen Ninefingers, or The Bloody Nine, is the most feared warrior in the North. He is possessed of a berserker rage which makes him dangerous to even his allies in battle. In such rages he often cannot get enough killing and will rip through anything in sight until he is satisfied. Logen also has a very unique world-view for such an infamous killer, and often says things like "You have to be realistic about these things."

Roland Deschain - Stephen King's Dark Tower series has a cult-like following, and its central figure, Roland the Gunslinger, is a man obsessed with his quest of reaching the Dark Tower.  Traveling through multiple universes and through nightmare worlds, Roland never hesitates to do whatever's necessary to reach his goal.



BONUS!
Gerald Tarrant - From the little-known Coldfire Tilogy by C.S. Friedman, the Neocount of Merentha was once a leader and gifted sorcerer in the Church but turned to darker masters in exchange for immortality to pursue his studies and remake the world in his image.  Tarrant is possessed by a vampire-like curse which prevents him from interacting with light and heat.  Instead, he draws his power from the forces of death, darkness, and cold, powers which he is beyond proficient in crafting.


Graphic Novels

Michonne - The world of fiction in all its forms is full of ditsy, vain leading ladies.  It abounds with annoying Skylar Whites and Faye Valentines, arrogant Egwene al'Vers, and emotionally unstable Elayne Trakands.  Even the rare female leads who do not fall into one of these character pitfalls can often be outshone by their male counterparts, as Olivia Dunham is by Walter Bishop.  Michonne does not fit into any of these categories.  Instead, she is arguably the most badass character in The Walking Dead.

When she first appears in the graphic novels, Michonne wields her classic katana, and drags along the chained, mutilated zombies of her boyfriend and his friend.  From there she only gets more badass.  Skilled with her sword and subtlety, Michonne is rarely afraid of zombies or other humans, and often gets the jump on her opponents before they can react.

John Constantine - The witty, asshole magician created by graphic novel mastermind Alan Moore appears throughout the DC universe, but first appeared in Swamp Thing and currently stars in Justice League Dark and his new series Constantine.  Constantine is not liked by anyone else in the DC universe, but his allies often put up with him for limited periods of time.  He is self-motivated, and often requires "something for his troubles" before he'll act on anyone else's behalf, even if the world is in danger.

Rorschach - Masked vigilante from Alan Moore's Watchmen, Rorschach has his own methods of cleaning the scum out of the streets, and they're not pretty.  He often kills or brutalizes  the criminals he pursues, and continues doing so even after vigilantism has been officially outlawed.  At one point characters in Watchmen tell a joke about a "villain" who used to beg them to punish him.  One character asks whatever happened to that guy and is told that he tried the same thing on Rorschach and was thrown down an elevator shaft.


Video Games
Kratos - Warrior of Sparta, God of War's Kratos was granted inhuman fighting powers by Ares, the God of War, but these powers came at a terrible price.  Kratos was turned into an unstoppable killing machine with his blades chained to his arms and burned into flesh.  Now he seeks revenge on Ares, but he must find the power to kill a God.


Dante - Devil May Cry's lead character, Dante is a nephilim who wields demonic powers.  He uses multiple weapons including swords, guns, gauntlets, nun-chucks  scythes, and hammers, but his trademark weapons are Rebellion the sword and Ebony & Ivory, his pistols.  Dante doesn't believe in not being flashy, so even simple actions like putting on his jacket become showmanship


Vincent Valentine - A hidden character in Final Fantasy VII and the star of Dirge of Cerberus, Vincent is a former Turk (an elite division of Shinra) who was experimented on by the mad scientist Hojo.  Now a demon lives within him which he struggles to control.  In FF7 Vincent wields a triple-barreled shotgun and can transform into a number of demons, including a Jason-like monster with a hockey mask and chainsaw.  In DoC the shotgun is customizable but the demon Vincent transforms into is always Vincent's Chaos Form, which is his final demon form in FF7.

Diablo 3: Testing the Beta

Warning: The following contains the most minor of spoilers.

After months of waiting to be selected for Diablo 3 Beta testing, and literally years of awaiting the game's release, I was finally able to sample the game this weekend when Blizzard Entertainment finally opened up the Beta testing to everyone with a Battle.net account. While the purpose of this was largely to see how their servers would cope with the explosion of players, many fans viewed it as a demo version of the game which will be released next month (5/15/12). I know that despite being locked out of the server about 50% of the time I tried to log in and experiencing minor glitches which prevent me from joining games once logged in, the open Beta weekend has only ramped up my anticipation of the game's full release.

In the 13 levels and handful of quests the Beta allows you to play the highlight is definitely the amazing aesthetic quality of the game. Both sound and graphics are absolutely stunning to the point where you'll want to just sit in town practicing your moves and playing around with the zoom key. My personal favorite is the Witch Doctor's Firebats (Starcraft reference?) move, which shoots a stream of flaming bats in front of the character. But the graphics are not to be outdone by the sound quality. The dungeons are riddled with the sounds of bones rattling, ground shaking, and blood coalescing into fearsome monsters. On top of that, everything a character says, be they player character or NPC, is actually said out load and there are also sound clips to go along with scrolls and journals found in dungeons as well as lore which you can listen to when you confront new monsters. Unlike Diablo 2 which featured long speeches by NPCs like Deckard Caine and Akara, quest givers that we've seen so far in the Beta keep it short and simple and even feature a little back and forth with the player character whose lines vary depending on your class.

The scripting for Diablo 3 seems significantly better so far than that of the previous installments. That's not to say that scripting in Diablo 2 was bad, but it was certainly tiring and drawn-out and was often just skipped over entirely. The Beta features such gems as "It's a shame that bard got himself eaten. I could do with some music right now," and exchanges between the mercenaries and player character including one in which the Demon Hunter remarks that he doesn't believe in an afterlife because "Isn't this life bad enough?" Each of the 5 classes has a slightly different script when responding to quest givers, all of which give the same results, (ie. you accept the quest) but the way they respond to the mercenaries when prompted varies significantly, displaying the personalities of each class. It's no Portal 2, which I still hold as the best scripted game I've ever played, but it's done well enough that players will actually pay attention when the characters start talking.

The Diablo 3 Beta only allows players to make a small dent in the first act so as not to reveal spoilers for the rest of the game, but so far the storyline is actually intriguing. By the time you reach the end of Beta content you'll be left with such questions as "What's the deal with the fallen star?" and "God damnit, why can't I keep playing?" As a World of Warcraft player I've been steadily growing fed up with the direction of the storyline ever since the Cataclysm expansion, (let's be honest: the pandas are just a calculated marketing scheme designed to draw in younger audiences) but Diablo 3 seems to have all of Blizzard's good writers. In just the first part of the first act we are given quests in which we must help the blacksmith pity-kill his wife and nameless villagers, a templar get revenge on a former member of his order, and rescue Deckard Cain (it wouldn't be a Diablo game without him). The focuses of the quests and the lore that relates to them are madness, betrayal, revenge, and save the NPCs caught up in all the madness, betrayal, and revenge. There are no pandas, no /dance, and no other cutesy WoW stuff. There's only killing.

Anyone who's played Diablo 2 knows that the mutiplayer aspect of the game was seriously lacking in one significant area: looting. Each boss in Diablo 2 essentially gave loot to whoever had empty bags, no lag, and could click the fastest while everyone else got nothing. Diablo 3 features a system in which each player in a party has separate loot and gold. This system combined with separate achievements and events for co-operative play makes teaming up with other players great for all parties (pun intended) involved. This installment in the series also features an Auction House form which players can bid on or purchase gear from each other without having to create a trading game and wait for hours on end until someone finally has the gear you're looking for. It's almost as if Blizzard wants Diablo players to work together in this game instead of just viciously competing with each other. Unfortunately though, there is no PvP element to the game yet, so even when you want to compete you can't. Blizzard said last month that they plan to add PvP combat including some sort of arena system in a patch shortly after the game's release, but as of now the system they have for PvP just doesn't meet their standards.

For now players will have to deal with a purely PvE game, which is not necessarily a bad thing as the dungeon content is stunning. We don't get a wide variety of monsters in the Beta, (mostly various forms of skeletons) but the environments housing these monsters are way more interesting than the previous games. Rather than just standing around waiting for something to fight them, many monsters will spring out at you from walls and traps, as well as climb through windows, form from the blood of dead villagers, crawl out from bushes, burst forth from other monsters, and literally be puked into existence. Most of the indoor environments feature traps which you can use to drop chandeliers or sections of walls on your enemies, and there are even minor experience bonuses for doing so. If you get bored slaughtering the endless horde of monsters, you can destroy many of the objects in the indoor environments for more experience bonuses, including statues, tables, bookshelves, altars, tombstones, and barrels.

Like Diablo 2 we are given 5 classes to choose from, and you have to assume that Blizzard plans to release expansions with additional characters at some point down the road (Blizz is all about the expansions). Each of the classes has a unique play style while still following the Diablo paradigm of "just kill stuff," rather than the Tank/Heals/DPS setup of World of Warcraft. The way talents are done is significantly different, however. Each class is far less customizable and given only a handful of actual skills to use compared to the Diablo 2 skill tree. This game gives the player a choice of 4 skills for each mouse button and the 4 numbered hotkeys where potions used to be (potions now stack neatly in a single item slot in your inventory) which are upgraded throughout the game. Starting at level 10 you can earn passive skills which give you a slight degree of customization as you choose one or the other.

If there is a downfall of Diablo 3 it's looking like it might be how linear the game is. The talents are certainly captivating now, but Diablo has always involved a lot of grinding dungeons which could prove to be boring after many levels using the same basic set of skills. Of course, the achievement system will keep some people grinding away all day no matter what, but if further content proves to be as interesting as the Beta content it may be enough to make the players forget that they're essentially just spamming a couple of moves throughout whole dungeons. The Diablo games are far less open-ended than many other MMORPGs because they lock you in to path to complete quests, beat bosses, finish the game, and repeat on a harder setting, so there will definitely be some grinding. The only question is will this remain entertaining throughout the game given the relatively small set of skills each character has? I'm hoping so because the Diablo 3 Beta has definitely sold me on the game.

Welcome to Strangeland

Today marks the day of Aaron Yates's (better known as Tech N9ne) 40th birthday, but more importantly for Technicians everywhere, today is also the day that Welcome to Strangeland becomes available across America. As Tech's 14th studio album since '99, it's safe to safe that fans already know exactly what to expect from him: rock n roll beats, haunting opera sounding vocals, and the brutally paced rhythmic rhyming of the independent rap giant himself, Tech N9ne.

Right off the bat, Welcome to Strangeland provides all three of these elements in the song "Stars." It opens with a deep voice-over with an eerily beautiful piano accompaniment, eventually giving way to the bass/snare/clap rock beat and the lyrics. In tracks like this it's easy to see where Tech takes his name from: he spits verse like bullets, and just when you think he's through he reloads and comes at you even faster. Excellent use of breaks throughout the song give exactly that feeling: stop, reload, kill it, while the beautifully harmonized chorus haunts you even after it's gone.

"Stars" gives way to the album's title track when the star lands in Strangeland. To introduce him, the outro in "Stars" is the intro from the track "Strangeland" off of All 6's and 7's. After the first track, which is an all Tech track, it's easy to forget that this is the fourth Tech N9ne Collabos album, which means it heavily features the other Strange Music artists, or really just anyone Tech feels like rapping with. "Welcome to Strangelan" gives us the album's first taste of versatile vocal wizard, Krizz Kaliko, who in my mind immediately becomes the Willy Wonka of Strangeland (Gene Wilder not Johnny Depp).

The Tech/Kaliko combination has always reminded me of a more wide-ranged Dre and Eminem, and this one's no exception. First of all, let me just say that I am not exaggerating when I say that I could listen to just the beats of Tech N9ne songs all day, their rapping over them is just icing on the cake. They are one of the foundations of the entire Tech N9ne style simply because they're so very different from every other artist out there. "Welcome to Strangeland" features bass heavy synthesizers over a moving bass/rim/clap drumbeat. The Krizz Kaliko chorus is the perfect welcome to the rest of the Tech N9ne collabos, who are featured more heavily in the rest of the album

"Unfair," the third track on Strangeland, feature Kaliko and Ubiquitous and Godemis, both of Ces Cru. This is another perfect example of unique Tech N9ne beats, but the main focus of this song has to be the chorus. How many rhymes for "Unfair" can you think of? In the chorus of this song Tech gives you about 30 of them in 15 seconds. The rest of the song is excellent, the Ces Cru verses are particularly well written, but there's just no competing with the chorus.

The fourth track, "Kocky," features Kutt Calhoun and Jay Rock, and features a beat that sounds incredibly similar to Dre songs. The slow simple beat makes this song all about the verses, which are great but fall short after the first three mind-blowing songs. The next track is another all Tech track. "Who Do I Catch" is another slow beat track, but this time with a soothing piano melody and the fine vocals of the lovely Liz Suwandi. This song takes the album in a dark direction, which continues until the eighth track. "Bang Out" features the 816 Boys (they won a grammy for their song "Aeriola," remember?) and a slow beat which contains haunting high-pitched vocals.

Track 9 is "Beautiful Music," the last all Tech verse track, but this one with Krizz Kaliko working his magic on the chorus. This song doesn't have that great of a beat (nice bass drums though), but it shows how Tech and Kaliko work so perfectly together. Tech keeps his verses moving quickly which are interrupted only for Kaliko's stunning and meaningful choruses. "Won't You Come Dirty" is the 10th track on the album, and it's one truly different from the most other Tech songs. It features Young Bleed and Stevie Stone, and has a slow techno feel to it. It's not a bad song, but as Tech's style is already like a combination of rap and hard rock, adding the techno feel is just a little off-putting.

"Sad Circus," as its name implies, is the beginning of another set of songs from Tech's darker side. It features Brotha Lynch Hung and Courtney Kuhnz as well as a tragically beautiful piano melody. If you prefer Tech's slower depressing songs, you'll like the last five tracks best, as they're all like mixtures of rock ballads and remorseful rap songs. The four after "Sad Circus" showcase the beautiful vocal talents of ¡Mayday!, Krizz Kaliko, Kutt Calhoun, and Jay Da 3rd.

So, like most Tech N9ne albums, Welcome To Strangeland progresses from upbeat to down-tempo, features artists you wouldn't have heard of otherwise, and is worth whatever you pay for it. It's the kind of album that you can't even appreciate properly the first time you listen to it.

The Lesser Evil

Say one thing for the First Law Trilogy, say it's far from your typical fantasy series.

With The Blade Itself, Joe Abercrombie creates a unique fantasy world so dark and manipulative, that it has produced skewed versions of the stereotypical fantasy heroes. The amazingly well-crafted characters all blur traditional moral lines for their own purposes, creating unpredictable plot twists and reinforcing the underlying principle of the series that the ends always justify the means. Every character is fatally flawed in their own ways, but the fairytale notion of justice is scarcely found in the series.

Sand dan Glokta is a scheming torturer with nothing to live for but his hatred of everyone and everything. Once a rash young soldier, Glokta was captured by his country's enemy and held for years as a prisoner before being ransomed back. Years of torture left him crippled, spasmodic, and hateful, yet he survived to work his way up in his nation's Inquisition out of pure spite. His attention to details, capacity for bluffing and taking risks, and utter ruthlessness allow him to plot his way through any task and justify anything he needs to do to succeed. His character is hard to sympathize with, and is by no means likable, but one can't help but respect his cunning and above all, his perseverance.

Jezal dan Luthar is a parody of the chivalrous knight that can sometimes be found amongst sword and sorcery. He is a loud-mouthed buffoon who's rich family bought his position as a captain in the Aduan army. When we first meet Jezal his goals in life are to marry rich and get drunk while playing cards with his fellow officers every night. Jezal starts off as an infuriating character who comes across as even more unlikable than Glokta, (Jezal is referred to by more than one character as a pompous ass) though his blundering is often funny, but he is the character who changes the most throughout the series, and I found myself eventually warming up to him.

Logen Ninefingers, or the Bloody-Nine, was my favorite character throughout the series, possibly because he starts off as the simplest and most well-meaning character. Logen seems to ascribe to the principles of the typical fantasy warrior hero: courageous, fierce, honorable, for the most part. He is hideously scarred all over his body from years of experience fighting, but his philosophy of being realistic and doing whatever it takes to survive have allowed him to beat every opponent he has faced. Losing the middle finger from his left hand in a battle earned him his name which is feared throughout his homeland. However, there is a much darker aspect of Logen's personality that haunts him and caused him to wander away from his people aimlessly. One of my favorite quotes from the series without giving anything away comes from the third book when a man is describing The Bloody-Nine to his children. "He'd send you back to the mud. Faster than the [lightning] killed Willum, and with no more regret. Your life hangs on a thread every moment you stand within two strides of that nothing-looking bastard there."

Of these three characters which the First Law Trilogy offers as protagonists, Logen is my personal favorite, though none of them are fit to be called heroes. Most of the minor characters are more easily distinguished as good or evil characters, though a few are even more ambiguous than the main characters. Because so many of the characters do terrible things out of self-perseverance or ignorance as well as to advance their own goals, it is incredibly hard to judge any character as plainly good or evil.

The web of character interaction spreads the moral ambiguity throughout the major and minor characters of the trilogy, causing each character to change the others' situations and attitudes. This only multiplies the reader's difficulty in trying to decide which characters are in the right and which are the real "bad guys." The twisting, character driven plot makes the First Law Trilogy an excellent read that will leave the reader guessing even when they think they know all the answers. When you plunge yourself into this series remember that nothing is as it seems, rules were meant to be broken, and the only thing that matters in war is winning.

Barefoot's Never Tasted So Sweet

Barefoot Wine & Bubbly, though not even a 50 year old company, has produced many award winning wines at affordable prices. What started as a small “garage wine” project has become a California wine empire, and their new Sweet Red certainly adds flavor to their selection.

Barefoot currently produces a total of twelve different wines and five champagnes. Their wines win hundreds of awards every year in the U.S., and in 2008 they were the most awarded California wine for under $15 a bottle. Since she became Barefoot's chief winemaker in 1995, Jennifer Wall has greatly increased the reputation and variety of their wines. In addition to handcrafting the wine recipes, she hosts a blog for Barefoot where she posts drink recipes, cooking recipes, and food and wine pairing suggestions.

For Wall, the art of wine making goes far beyond grapes, as she includes a mixture of fruits in her wines. Her whites contain honeydew, nectarine, pear, peach, apple, orange, lemon, and apricot, depending on the type. Raspberry, cherry, blackberry, boysenberry, plum, pomegranate, and even blueberry can be found in the reds. Barefoot's single blush wine is made with pineapple, peach, strawberry, and pear, in addition to the traditional grapes. As with her previous wines, Wall does not hesitate to use bizarre ingredients with her newest creation.

Sweet Red is Barefoot's newest wine, and is sure to be enjoyed by those who do not prefer wine. Unlike many red wines, Sweet Red is very moist, and, as its name implies, sweet. It is made with raspberry, pomegranate, and cherry, giving it a delicious cocktail of flavors. Its low 10.5% alcohol content and this fruity combination give Sweet Red an almost fruit punch taste.

True wine snobs will likely not appreciate Sweet Red because it is so very different from most other reds wines. Its fruity taste is not what traditionalists prefer, but for those who do not generally drink red wine it is a welcome change. Its taste, though very sweet, is not as overwhelming as many others, allowing it to go down more smoothly. Because of its moist medley of flavors, Sweet Red drinks more like a heavy white wine than most reds I have tasted, and is an excellent choice as a table wine with dinner.

The pairing suggestions listed for Sweet Red are “grilled vegetables, marinated flank steak, spicy beef kabobs, and all fiery treats.” I enjoyed a glass with some teriyaki pork tenderloin and white rice, and while not a suggested pairing, I think they complimented each other well. Though I normally prefer a beer with dinner, I found the Sweet Red an interesting change of pace. The food sat better in my stomach without the carbonation, and the wine's strong flavor left a refreshing taste in my mouth after every sip. I look forward to trying this wine with a spicier dish, as its sweetness must neutralize the hot food.

Barefootwine.com offers recipes for both foods and drinks that can be made using their wines. Some of these are posted by the company, but most are from fans who like to cook using Barefoot wines. Though Sweet Red is the newest of their line of wines, there are over 20 recipe submissions in which it is the preferred wine. The foods include desserts like blueberry crepes, pork, seafood, chicken, and steak recipes, salads, and a variety of dips, sauces, and marinades. The only drink recipe for Sweet Red is a Sweet Red Sangria, but this could easily be because there is no need to add to this wine. It already contains a strong mixture of different fruits, and its sweetness only intensifies the flavors.

Sweet Red is an excellent wine for those who do not enjoy the traditional dry red wines. It is a good dinner and desert wine, and would be a good choice for entertaining guests with a variety of tastes. Barefoot wines are usually sold for between six and eight dollars a bottle, making them a cheap wine, but they are definitely some of the best wines in their class. The only thing to be wary of with Sweet Red is overindulgence. Its juicy taste and low amount of alcohol will leave you literally thirsty for more, but its sugary content will give you one nasty headache if you're not careful.

Towers of Midnight Detailed Summation

BEWARE! MANY SPOILERS! Also some conjectures into A Memory of Light.

Towers of Midnight, by Robert Jordan and Brandon Sanderson is the 13th and most recent addition to Jordan's epic series, The Wheel of Time. This installment, the second to last in the series, takes the reader through the events that lead right up to Tar'mon Gaidan, the Last Battle.

The 13th book both opens and closes following Lan Mandragoran, the warder king of Malkier, a nation long fallen to Shadowspawn. Determined to march to his death by trying to retake his homeland from Trollocs, Lan approaches Tarwin's Gap, where he will make his stand. He has ridden by himself for many leagues across the Borderlands, refusing to raise the flag of his fallen nation so that he does not have to lead others to their deaths. Throughout the book he rides ever closer but finds he cannot stop his countrymen and other Borderlanders from riding with him to a righteous but doomed battle. The very last sequence in the book is the beginning of Lan's charge at Tarwin's Gap, 12,000 men against 150,000 Shadowspawn.

Another Borderlander who is shown battling the Shadow throughout the novel is Rodel Ituralde, the great Domani general. Ituralde is frantically defending the Saldaen city of Maradon, in the western Borderlands. Unlike Tarwin's Gap in the east, the invasion of the shadow has already begun in the west. When Ituralde's character is introduced, around 250 pages in, a detailed map is given of Maradon and his camps. Though hopelessly outnumbered and fatigued beyond any reasonable standards, Ituralde fights against the seemingly endless assault of Trollocs. Showing the tactical genius which makes him one of the Five Great Captains, he outmaneuvers his opponents at every turn, but is forced to retreat several times as he is overwhelmed by the shadow's inexhaustible numbers.

Ituralde is eventually left fighting with only a small group of survivors inside the burning city, when the new, sane Rand Al'Thor brings the aid he long ago promised. The group is about to call their loss and abandon the mostly destroyed city when Rand decides to take a bold stand against the shadow. Descending to the battlefield outside the city with only a pair of maidens to guard him, he unleashes a massive display of power, devastating the army of Trollocs and saving the city. During this scene Ituralde, Bashere, and Naeff the Asha'man watch the battle from atop the building in which Ituralde had been holding out. Naeff says he has never seen so many at the same time and describes Rand as "A storm of Light and streams of Power!"

This is easily one of my favorite moments in Towers of Midnight because it is one of the few glimpses we get at Rand and it shows him using the full potential of his new found power. Unlike The Gathering Storm, Towers does not grant us a passage directly following Rand until a very slim one in the epilogue. We are shown that Rand has indeed transformed into the spectacular Dragon Reborn, unlocking all memories of Lews Therin's haunting life in the Age of Legends, but we only see this through the interpretations of those with whom he interacts. Min is the most instrumental in our viewings of Rand, as her few scenes give us an intimate look at his emotions. Her scenes occur when the two of them are together, and we learn that he has found peace, that the shadow can no longer hide from him, having failed their play for his soul, and that he has realized that he is not a weapon. Though Min plays her own part from afar -she is tasked to learn about Callandor and as always, reads her viewings of people's futures- the few viewings we are given of Rand through Min are her real contributions to Towers.

Through Min, we see how Rand mourns and tries to make up for all the mistakes he has made. He accepts his bodyguard of Maidens which he had always previously dodged, apologizes to his father, weeping, and even uses his Ta'veren nature to counterbalance some of the more prominent bubbles of evil. One particularly noteworthy scene shows Rand re-establishing command in Bandar Eban, which he had previously left in chaos. He hires city guards and brings in supplies and Aes Sedai to heal the people of disease. Most importantly, he arrives at the city docks where thousands of bags of tainted grain are being guarded to prevent the starving people from killing themselves by eating it. Leaving the already opened bags of entirely bad grain, Rand shows that every bag opened now will be full of perfect, untainted grain. Those around Rand may not realize what this means, but we know that Rand is such a powerful ta'veren that the world literally changes around him. Now that he has regained his sanity he is shown reversing the effects of the Dark One on the Pattern.

While The Gathering Storm is mostly about Rand's struggle to maintain sanity and fulfill his destiny, Towers deals largely with his Ta'veren, Mat and Perrin. Perrin's journey is a long one in which culminates in his understanding of the wolf within him, and an acceptance of the leadership of the Two Rivers people. Perrin's path clashes with both Galad, the Lord Commander of the Whitecloaks, and Graendel, the forsaken who is revealed in the prologue to have escaped the balefire Rand meant for her. In the Wolf Dream, or Tel'aran'rhiod, Hopper teaches Perrin to master himself and the dream the way wolves can. As they are training, they discover that Slayer is back and killing more wolves in the dream. This time slayer has been given a dream spike by Graendal, a powerful Ter'angreal which when placed in the dream world, casts a dome from its center. This dome is invisible in the real world and prevents traveling such as gateways, and is visible as a pink barrier which prevents warping outside its area in Tel'aran'rhiod.

With Hopper's help, Perrin is able to master the Wolf Dream and defeat Slayer, though not kill him, destroying the dream spike in the process. Perrin's battle with Slayer is another of my favorite scenes in Towers, and coincides with Eqwene's critical point in the novel, also in Tel'aran'rhiod, making for an amusing meeting between the two of them in which Perrin scolds her for being in the dangerous Wolf Dream. The actual fight with Slayer is lengthy and forces Perrin to use all his knowledge of the dream world. The fight itself is a duel of imaginations and as such things require, it is written extremely creatively. Unfortunately for Perrin, Hopper is killed in the fight, and Perrin is once again unable to help his wolf mentor, who fades completely from existence.

In the real world, Perrin's camp has crossed paths with Galad's army of Whitecloaks. Galad demands that Perrin meet him in battle so that the Light may judge Perrin as a shadowspawn and a murderer of two Whitecloaks. After much delay, Perrin agrees to be tried for his crimes with Morgase, her charade as Maighdin the serving woman revealed, as judge. Perrin explains that he killed the Whitecloaks because they had killed wolves and is found guilty. Galad and Perrin agree that the armies will both go their separate path to the Last Battle and that Galad could extract his judgement, presumably through the form of execution, if both men survived the battle. Following this judgement, Perrin fights Slayer in the Wolf Dream, detroying the dream spike and allowing his army to move the army by gateway.

When the army arrives in its new location, Perrin is deeply distraught over Hopper's death. He decides to head to the forge to unleash his emotions by shaping metal. The Asha'man, Neald helps by keeping the metal the perfect temperature for Perrin, and before they know it, they are both allowing their emotions to take over, doing to the metal what feels right to them. Perrin constructs a massive war hammer with a leaping wolf on its head, naming it Mah'alleinir, or "He who soars" in the Old Tongue. Neald had been instinctively crafting the weapon also, making it a Power-wrought weapon, a tool of superior quality which is especially effective against Shadowspawn. Following this crafting, Perrin accepts leadership of his people and returns his army to camp near the Whitecloaks.

Most of Perrin's army and all of Galad's believe that they are there to ambush the Whitecloaks, but after thinking about it, Perrin had determined that the dream spike had been intended to keep his army in place to be attacked by the shadow. If he had not agreed to the trial with Galad, his army would have been ambushed by Trollocs following their victory over the Whitecloaks. Instead, he allies with Galad, saving his life and the two armies defeat the Shadowspawn together. Overall, Perrin is undoubtedly the most featured and developed character in Towers, growing from a modest man who is unwilling to accept the duties of a lord to a bold and honorable commander. He also find the balance he has sought for his inner wolf and learns to master the Wolf Dream, bringing him an inner peace which he has sought since discovering the wolves.

While Perrin is the most developed and Rand the most inspirational character in Towers, Mat is by far the most entertaining character. We find Mat dwelling on the letter left to him by Vera, and quickly learn that the Gholam is once again after him. After a quick fight the Gholam retreats, and a bad tempered Mat writes an hilarious letter to Elayne demanding to talk to her. The two eventually meet, resulting in Mat signing the Band of the Red Hand into service for Andor, and Elayne comissioning bell founders to build Mat's Dragons. While the Dragons are being built and tested, Mat fights and beats the Gholam, sending it to a fate worse than death, falling forever through the darkness off of a skimming platform.

All this happens during the time Mat is "waiting around" for a gateway to the Tower of Ghenjei, where he fulfills his revenge on the Aelfinn and the Eelfinn. Entering the tower with Thom and Noal, Mat finds his way down the endless maze of hallways using his power over chance. He rolls his dice to determine which way to go at each intersection, 1-3 left, 4-7, straight, etc. When Noal points out that this isn't really chance since some are more likely combinations and Mat can't roll a 1 with 2 dice anyway, Mat proves him wrong by rolling a 1. The three eventually find Moiraine, and Mat, following the information he received from the Aelfinn, trades "half the light of the world" for her rescue and protection from the foxes for their escape. The foxes greedily accept, taking Mat's left eye and allowing his party to leave. On their way out, however, they are attacked by the snakes, whom Mat had forgotten about in his bargain. As a last ditch effort to help the others escape, Noal sacrifices himself to the Aelfinn, revealing himself to be the fabled Jain Farstrider in the process.

In every other chapter in which Mat appears, we see the same old amusing Two Rivers boy. He is still constantly frustrated by his memories from other lives, Aes Sedai, the Gholam, and of course, thinking about his new wife, but he is always the same light-hearted gambler. These last few chapters in the tower show a very businesslike Mat Cauthon. Rescuing Moiraine is a task that he has been told is impossible, but Mat risks his life and even sacrifices his eye to save her. He has long been my favorite character in the series because of his unintentional humor, but the Mat we see develop from his trials with the snakes and foxes is the character we want to see commanding armies alongside Rodel Ituralde and Gareth Bryne in the Last Battle.

Egwene is also an important character in Towers. She struggles to maintain control of the "unified" White Tower while trying to rally the many nations to stop Rand from breaking the remaining seals. Egwene has certainly changed as a character throughout the series, becoming the Amyrlin with a full Aes Sedai scheming attitude. Her character in Towers is certainly an improvement over previous Egwenes, such as the almost insufferable "refuse to break" Egwene, but she is still one of my least favorite characters in the series. Egwene has become the opposite of the timid, subservient innkeeper's daughter she was when the series started. Now she is the leader of the Aes Sedai, a position which seems to have made her headstrong, stubborn, and often careless person.

Throughout Towers, Egwene refuses to trust the people she knows best, relying instead on the minimal intelligence she receives and her own scheming mind. Everyone else who encounters Rand after his change at the end of The Gathering Storm can see that he is a far better person who knows what he is doing. Egwene is the one person who knows Rand who cannot see this change. Instead of aiding him in preparation for the rapidly approaching Last Battle, she tries to turn the nations which support Rand against him. When we last see her in Towers, it is with the assembled armies that are supposed to be fighting the Shadowspawn, gathered to stop Rand's plan. I can only assume that the final book will develop a more reasonable Egwene who can work with Rand and others to fight the Last Battle. If not we are likely to see a parallel to the Fatal Concord, the original schism in the co-ed White Tower of the Age of Legends.

Egwene shows herself to be more than knowledgeable of the White Tower politics in Towers, but in other areas she continues to blunder about, accidentally achieving her goals. The traps she sets with herself as bait are easily countered by her enemies, and she only manages to survive because of the assistance of others from whom she repeatedly distances herself. Gawyn constantly asks to guard her from a threat she believes she must tackle on her own, and he eventually saves her from one that she didn't see coming. Likewise, in Tel'aran'rhiod, she survives Mesaana's attack only because Perrin fights Slayer in Tar Valon with the dream spike. Perrin also shows her that her weaves mean nothing in the dream world, putting her in the state of mind she needs to defeat the Forsaken. She awakes to find Gawyn, almost dead after defending her against 3 assassins against whom she would of been helpless. Hopefully her newly established Warder bond with Gawyn will be a good influence on her in the coming book. I suspect that Rand will need some kind of alliance with the White Tower to deal with whatever is brewing in the Black Tower, and if not he will certainly need them for the last battle.

Elayne is often shown throughout Towers, though she doesn't play a large role in the novel' s plot. As Queen of Andor, she must scheme her way through the city's endless political maze. As if one city's mess weren't enough, she also plans to take Cairhien. She is somewhat successful in recruiting the Band of the Red Hand and in making copies of Mat's foxhead medallion, though the Band is free to leave whenever and the medallion copies block the wearers' ability to channel. Due to her pregnancy, Elayne has become a raging ball of emotions, openly weeping at small things and generally engaging in all sorts of other unqueenly behavior. Because of her bond to Rand, she can feel that he has changed, but she is still convinced by Egwene to oppose his plan to break the seals. The epilogue reveals to us that a massive army of Shadowspawn has used the Waygates to attack Andor, but the city's fate is unclear. Elayne will certainly want to bring her troops to Andor's rescue, but whether she will have time to transport them or time to commit them with the Last Battle so close remains to be seen. Hopefully she will accept Rand's plan and aid him in the Last Battle, but with her pregnancy affecting her channeling, it is unlikely that she will be one of the two women Rand needs to use Callandor.

Aviendha makes only a few brief appearances in Towers and none of these directly affects the events of the other characters, but her appearances reveal important information about the future of world. Following her trial in Rhuidean to become a full-fledged Wise One, Aviendha receives extra visions from the pillar Ter'angreal. It is unclear whether only she was granted these additional viewings or if she permanently changed the nature of the Ter'angreal so that all who walked through could see them. Rather than showing the Aiel's past as was the previous function of the pillars, they showed Aviendha her descendants, beginning with the last of her line and progressing backwards in time to her children.

These visions show how the Aiel become restless following the Last Battle, and provoke a war with the Seanchan that eventually leads to their rise to power. The Aiel are shown as being particularly discriminated against by the Seanchan, treated like insects that need to be exterminated, but it is mentioned that other nations and even both the Black and White Towers have fallen to the Seanchan. Aviendha's own children are particularly important in the Seanchan rise to power. All four of her children agree to attack the Seanchan because they believe the Aiel have no purpose besides war. They also mention that Rand was unsure of what to do with the Aiel following the Last Battle so he made the other nations agree to a peace that the Aiel were not a part of.

Something in Lews Therin's newly unlocked memories tells Rand that he must use Callandor to seal away the Dark One. The sword is revealed to be flawed, requiring its male user to submit to two channeling women. It is also hinted at that the sword may be further damaged, though this may mean some design flaw or an additional requirement of the three who use it. Though Rand has tasked Min to research Callandor and she is easily the female he can most trust, she cannot be one of the two women to assist in the sealing because she can not channel.

Rand asks Nynaeve to be one of the two women and she accepts. This seems a good choice on Rand's part because Nynaeve is one of the only women who's sole focus seems to be on the Last Battle. Both Egwene and Elayne have positions of command and people to watch over, and even Aviendha now has reason to worry for the future of her people. Aviendha is definitely still a possibility as the second woman, but Moiraine seems a much more plausible alternative now that she is free. Moiraine was the first, and for some time only, Aes Sedai that Rand trusted, and she has given what she thought would be her life to protect him.

When we see Rand through Min's eyes, we see that her viewing of him is now of two men lying dead at Shayol Ghul. Presumably one of these is Rand but the other one remains a mystery. My best guess would be Perrin since other viewings by Min have indicated that Rand needs Perrin to succeed and that when the two of them are separated he will fail. I would guess that Perrin is needed to make the physical shield that will seal away the Dark One, much like the 7 Cuendillar disks which were used by Lews Therin to seal the bore. Much as Neald used a circle of men and women wielding the one power to make Perrin's hammer a Power wrought weapon, the Dark One's prison may require a physical item to be forged with the power.

Metal Asylum

When I went to purchase the new Disturbed album, Asylum, I was disturbed to find it hidden in the rock section of the record store. After listening to the whole CD, I was relieved to find that this was clearly an error; Disturbed is very much still a metal band.

Disturbed is most famous for their groundbreaking single “Down With The Sickness,” from their first studio album The Sickness, released in 2000. The intense drum beats provided by Mike Wengren and provocative, guttural vocals of David Draiman immediately captivated American metal fans. Ten years and five studio albums later, the band has not abandoned their original gritty style.

As with most metal, the lyrical content found in Disturbed albums deals with larger than life themes including war, violence, relationships, and the concepts of Heaven, Hell, and redemption. The lyrics in Asylum are not as meaningful as those in their last album, Indestructible, which featured the single “Inside the Fire,” a song about Draiman standing over the body of his ex-girlfriend following her suicide while the Devil whispers in his ear to join her in the fires of Hell. Some tracks on Asylum deal with other personal issues from the signer's life, but many lack depth and meaning.

While lyrical content is decidedly less inspirational in Asylum than in their other albums, Draiman's voice has never sounded better. He puts so much feeling into every note he hits, flawlessly switching between smooth singing and the rough, throaty style that first made Disturbed famous. The fourth track on Asylum entitled “Another Way To Die,” is about pollution of the environment, a long reach for any metal band, but Draiman pulls it off making environmentalism metal with his unique style.

The guitar work of Dan Donegan has grown increasingly impressive with each album release, culminating in wailing metal solos on almost every track on Asylum. Traditional metal techniques such as pinch harmonics, tremolo picking, and sweep arpeggios adorn most of these solos. While the style is very much Donegan's own, one can't help but think of the metal gods when listening to these solos. There is definitely a taste of Pantera's Dimebag Darrel, Metallica's Kirk Hammett, and Megadeth's Dave Mustaine in every riff and solo on the album. Chordal progressions rarely appear in Disturbed songs, as Donegan prefers to craft constantly shifting riffs which move up and down the scale endlessly.

As with their previous albums, Asylum starts off with the heaviest tracks and progresses into touching originals fueled by Draiman's personal emotions. The ninth track, “Serpentine,” is a slower song about being betrayed by someone you have trusted. The chorus is features some of the best lyrics on the album: “I was caught up in the moment / We were alone and you seemed to harness the light / Even though I felt cold inside / When you told me it would be alright.”

Disturbed has released a cover of a non-metal song on each of their odd numbered albums, and Asylum, their fifth album, does not disappoint. The unlisted 13th track on the album is entitled “ISHFWILF” a stunning metal rendition of U2's “I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For.” On previous albums Disturbed released covers of Tears For Fears's “Shout,” and Genesis's “Land Of Confusion,” proving that any song can be made metal if the right feeling is put into it.

The Sickness and Believe, Disturbed's first two albums were released with parental advisory warnings, but their past three albums were not. While some fans are disappointed with this, saying that it is proof that the band has “sold out,” the lack of “mature content” which leads to the parental advisory means that Disturbed singles are more widely played on the radio. Disturbed fits into a very specific genre which I like to call gateway metal. Many parents do not mind their children listening to Disturbed because they no longer produce albums with the mature content warning. Children, or even adults who do not typically listen to metal, are often enthralled by the band's in-your-face attitude and as a result, end up listening to harder metal.

Asylum is absolutely not Disturbed's best album, but it definitely conveys the in-your-face attitude that all metal strives for. After all, metal is not about lyrical content or even technical instrumental skill, its about the discharge of emotions which society usually demands we to keep to ourselves. Disturbed may not be the hardest metal out there, but they are certainly still their own unique brand of metal, and they still rock.

The Town Review

The Town, written by Peter Craig and Ben Affleck, directed by Ben Aflleck, and starring Ben Affleck, is exactly what one would expect from Ben Affleck. It is full of gunfights, car chases, fist fights, and of course romantic tension.

Affleck's character, Doug MacRay, has lived his whole life in the slums of Charlestown, MA, the supposed “bank robbery capital of America.” When robbing a bank with his best friends Jim Coughlin (Jeremy Renner), Albert “Gloansy” Magloan (Slaine), and Desmond Elden (Owen Burke), the silent alarm is pressed, and they are forced to take the bank manager Claire Kessey (Rebecca Hall) as a hostage to escape. Though they all wear masks during the robbery and destroy anything that could be used as evidence, the robbers decide to send Doug to check on Claire and make sure she did not see anything that could be used against them. After talking with her, Doug quickly falls in love with Claire, who never suspects he was one of the men who held her hostage.

Meanwhile, FBI Agent Adam Frawley (Jon Hamm) is determined to catch the four robbers at any cost. While busting drug dealers he suspects may be used to launder the bank robbery money, he discovers the identities of Doug and his friends, but does not have enough evidence to convict them. We learn that Doug was drafted into the NHL, but was kicked out for excessive fighting. Throughout the movie Doug is portrayed as the only Charlestown native with potential, which his friends and family destroy by constantly dragging him into crime. Jim is portrayed as Doug's worst influence, a friend who prefers to shoot first and ask questions later. Jim's family adopted Doug when he was six,after Doug's father (Chris Cooper) was imprisoned and his mother ran away.

This movie, while not overly terrible, has many failings, which prevented it from fully captivating me, the first of which is its overwhelming predictability. Affleck's character is meant to be such a nice bank robber that he gets to know the woman they took hostage while he is supposed to be making sure she has no evidence. Then after learning she knows nothing, he continues to see her, building a relationship which should never have existed in the first place. Despite the obvious problems in their relationship, Doug soon falls madly in love with Claire and decides he wants to change his life, by escaping the criminal world.

Even though the major aspects of the plot are predictable, there were details throughout the movie that I was left wondering about by the end. The four friends seem to have an inexhaustible arsenal of weapons (though they seem to favor assault rifles) and ammo, though where these all come from is never explained. Their robberies are carried out with the tactical precision of a swat team, though none mention having any sort of training. Before one robbery scene they are shown disinfecting everything they use, from guns and ammo to the gear they wear. Similarly they are shown dumping bleach at the crime scenes to destroy DNA, and destroying cameras and computer hard drives. This attention to detail befits master criminals, yet these are four Boston natives with criminal records who are easily identified.

For those who like action movies, I would recommend this as a rental rather than seeing it in theaters. If you do not like violence and vulgarity this movie is not for you because it is essentially two hours of shooting and swearing in heavy Boston accents.