Made for TV Movie: The Day After

Hey all. Greetings for Day 2 of Made for TV Movies. Now we covered the supernatural and thriller all in one helping of Darren McGavin and trust me that was fun. The thing I recall growing up with was the impeding Nuclear Winter that was always the buzz word as a wee lad. With the Soviet Union and America having pissing matches over Capitalism and Communism this particular looming threat was always there and Hollywood took notice. They're sharp about these kind of things. When writer Edward Hume (Cannon, The Streets of San Francisco, Barnaby Jones and Parole) was contracted to give the popular theme of nuclear fallout, what if we saw it from the eyes of those that believed it could happen but never in even their darkest days would predict this would be the day of all days. This is The Day After.

Poker?  I'd hardly even know her. HAH!

With our writer/director Nicholas Meyer (Time After Time, Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, Volunteers, Company Business, Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country and Vendetta) bringing us this story is the accounts and events leading up to thermonuclear war??? Did we miss a few steps? The Soviet Union is showing to have a arms buildup in East Germany which they claim is nothing more than Warsaw Pact (Treaty of Friendship, Co-operation and Mutual Assistance) exercises similar to our own NATO but the states are not having it. In the late hours of September 15^th, the news broadcast a massive rebellion in the East German Army, following that is an immediate Soviet block of West Berlin. With the states poised to push "the button" they tell the Soviets to end their blockade for this will be considered an act of war. With the refusal on the Soviets the President orders all military force to the ready.

Traffic on the K-10 seems a little light now.

Our story opens with the after effects the nuclear attack on Lawrence Kansas and Kansas City (Missouri) told from the point of view each character. Dr. Russel Oakes (Jason Robards of Once Upon a Time in the West, All the President's Men, Laguna Heat, The Good Mother, Parenthood, The Civil War and Mark Twain and Me) is a professor of hematology teaching at University of Kansas is working in at the hospital when the news reports start pouring in, the Soviets have gone too far and the hammer and sickle is pointed at the states. Oakes worried for his wife trieds for a telephone booth but apparently Clark Kent and the rest of the Justice League are all hogging them. He then jumps in his car and hauls for Lawerence via the freeway when the Emergency Broadcast System alert goes off. Airman First Class Billy McCoy (William Allen Young of Knots Landing, Babylon 5, Almost Dead, Moesha, Any Day Now and CSI: Miami) ready for the 30 day paid furlow has been cut short due to Whitman AFB has recieved a DEFCON 2 alert. As a missile technician he has to be at the silos and gets to witness first-hand launching. What is to become of these existing farms, communities and the people?

This story gives good dramatic weight what with the impeding build up the bombs dropping all these characters each have something going on in their lives only to utimately finding out they are not masters of their own fate. It shows every facet of humanity. From those willing to heed the call to help one another, to the cowardly and greedy. No one concept is overlooked and what is truly the End of Days as we know it. Capturing the best and worst of humanity is what this film set out to do and gathering all the lives it effected with end results. Not too shabby and this scared the crap out of me as a boy. To be honest, it still does.

Remember when portable TVs were this heavy? Haha back to the film now.

Life in Fallout 3

Hey folks sorry for last week's lack of blog.  I was quite ill. I hope this will make up for it.

Now being a Fallout RPG turn based fan I was skeptical but Fallout 3 turned out to follow Fallout 2 (1997 and 1998 sequel to the original) in the same standing of being open ended with no time limit to speak of.  10 years had passed since Fallout 2 and we were promised by Interplay then Black Isle that we would see a Fallout 3.  Finally after buying the rights Bethesda Softworks brought us our FPS/skill-based/post-apocalyptic dream come true.   Rather than be in California as the two predecessors were, this takes place in the heart of democracy Washington D.C.  After 2077 it is now referred as the Capital Wasteland.  Our great monuments have collapsed, roads and freeways are devastated and no government or police are in control.  Might makes right. 

We start off the game with a series of cut scenes from your character’s birth and growing up in Vault 101.  An underground fallout shelter that is capable of housing 1,000 people.    I should note no matter your sex or skin color your father James is still white and voiced by none other than (Liam Neeson of Darkman, Love Actually, The Phantom Menace and Schindler’s List)  James is a scientist who believes in helping his fellow humanity as best as he can.   As you age you learn more about your relationship with your father and life in Vault 101.   Your mother dies delivering you in childbirth so you are raised solely by your father.  You grow up in spurts through cut scenes, little whispers throughout each aging process hints to events of the past and the present day.   James tells you as an infant a bible passage that reflects his life’s work in trying to better humanity.   At age ten you receive your own Pip-boy 3000.  This arm band computer interfaces with radio signals, tells you your health, points out radiation in your area and inventories your supplies you pick up during the game.   At age 16 you take your Generalized Occupation Aptitude Test or G.O.A.T. to help sum up what career you are best suited for in Vault life. You of course try to weasel your way out of it by faking a cold.  Best of luck with that when your father is the Vault’s chief physician.

 After breaking up a squabble or joining in on it, you take your test and proceed on to Age 19, to be awaken by your friend Amata to discover your father somehow left the Vault and the Overseer is furious.  The chief of the guards beat your father’s assistant Jonas to death.  A man you have known and respected your whole life.  You must choose to escape or be dealt the same.  Fending off radiation enlarged cockroaches and some of the vault security.   Save the ammo folks.  The ball bat does a pretty good job of defending yourself and it is, kill or be killed scenario. You make your way to and out of confides of the home you have known since you were a boy/girl and out into the unknown with nothing more than what you took with you.  Vault 101 is up the hill from a shambled town known as Springvale.  One lone resident silver is hiding out from a neighboring town called Megaton.   You will have to probe her for answers if you care to know.  Or be a brute, kill her and take everything she owns.   An elementary school is not far from Silver’s place is crawling with raiders.  If you are lacking in firepower or armor, my advice is get stocked before waging a fight with these lot.

Wandering out into the wasteland you will encounter raiders that prey on the helpless, Ghouls and Super Mutants, creatures that were once human now mindless monsters that terrorize the surrounding towns.     Meeting pockets of humanity and their plights it is up to you what sort of a person you are going to be.  Will you be a decent compassionate man/woman?   Will you turn into a heartless monster with no cares except your own interests?   Will you be passive to some and help to others that can pay you a wage?   The choice is yours.  Are you to be the savior the Capitol Wasteland or its destructor?   Will you be a hero or villain?  Only you can answer that.     The graphics engine that Bethesda Software developed is phenomenal.   The background, the colors from rusted metal to the rising and setting sun this game was awarded Game of the Year in 2008 and people are still raving about it and recommending it to friends.   Its Vault-Tec Assisted Targeting System or V.A.T.S. for short allows characters to train their weapons melee or firearms alike at points of vulnerability.  Ideal for the sniper character or if you just simply think it will take out your target faster.   An amazing voice cast with Liam Neeson and Malcom McDowell to name a few.  Sound captures the imagination so well.  Different outfits and armor can change the pitch of what shoes or boots you are wearing.  Guns and rifles are not a universal lumped effect GOTY allows modifications on everything from characters and armor to the quests and weapons.  I have also been able to play the PS3 console based game and the controls are a bit sensitive but you soon develop a rhythm.  

  A word of warning for those photophobic or seizure prone:  This is a real-time fasted paced game.  There will be a quick pitch in combat especially in V.A.T.S. as you see your character shoot, slash or bash your targets and it could very well be jaunting so my advice is to skip it if you suffer from either affliction.  That being said from the rest of you who are Fallout fans, DO NOT let this one slip through your fingers and enjoys the in-depth story arc and game.