'Dark' Looks Good, Is 360/PC Exclusive

In yet another one of those moments that make you go "Well -that- figures.", Joystiq ran a post today sort of introducing 'Dark' after a press release from the publisher, Kalypso Media, went out today.  The press release is a fairly good read, since it gives a little insight to the game that I've only known of for just over a week (Nothing really new from then, however), but it also sheds a little light (haha, no I'm not proud of that) on something a little unfortunate for me:  The game is only in development for PC and 360.  As you might see, I was actually pretty hopeful for Dark at first sight and was all-aboard, but this little hurdle means that I can probably comfortably drop it off my radar completely.  I'm interested in its development and how the end product turns out, of course, but not too much so; I won't be able to experience it unless I buy into a 360 at some point in the future which honestly is not in the cards.

Now, this is a bit annoying for me as it was just a couple months ago that I was saying what the industry really needed right now were games just like this.  Or if not what the industry needs, then certainly what I want, because, without rehashing my argument from the linked post, there just aren't enough actual supernatural games right about now.  It's all futury and high-tech or super fantasy with not a whole lot in between, the lot of them shooters or isometric romps.  On top of being a modern day attempt at vampire lore (without trying to put too much of their own 'stamp' on it, in the vein of Twilight sparkle, True Blood's brand of awful, etc. that I can see) trying to take it at least somewhat seriously, it's also a third-person stealth affair which I'm sure we'll all agree there are far too few of.  (Hitman and Thief rank here.)

What also stings is that the game looks really good in that it just has a lot of things that make it sound tantalizing.  Which is the point, clearly, and it requires on the actual execution of it to see just how it works out, but it is set up to succeed currently.  The cel-shaded graphics, as you see above are quite nice if a bit overly green (though it will give it a certain identity at least), but they'll likely have to be seen in motion to appreciate fully.  The RPG elements will likely allow you to give the main character 'your' own spin on him, depending on how you decide to grow him and what you focus on ala Deus Ex or Alpha Protocol.  I imagine as such, we could possibly expect the story to branch a little depending on how you handle matters, but that sort of remains to be seen.

Something I am curious to, as I'm curious with every sort of vampire piece is how they suggest the vampires blend in with society.  The bulk of the time, it's as simple as that; simply slipping into situations where they don't have to be out in the daylight, generally working the underworld and such.  It does seem like that may be the way it goes here in Dark as well, given the scenes shown.  Lots of indoor places, lots of artificial lighting, not a speck of sunlight to be seen around.  From what I can tell, our main character is freshly bitten as well, so that might weigh in on the gameplay some as well, in more ways than being a blank slate and/or at 'level suck' as it were.  Like, perhaps he's sensitive to even regularly lit areas to start with, thus necessitating the stealth in a big way at the start to ease you into making good use of it.

Whether or not the game will ever see a Playstation 3 release is iffy, but I'd be more than willing to imagine that it won't, unfortunately.  Unless it's a smash hit, of course, and the developers only omitted a PS3 version because of lack of funding, considering I imagine making a PC and 360 version of a game are fairly similar processes, where the PS3 is a whole other matter entirely.  So unfortunately, there's a good chance that I'll just be interested in the game without being able to do a whole lot about it.  It wouldn't be the first time, and I can only hope that it won't be the only thing to attempt something full-heartedly supernatural in the coming months, where I'll be able to partake in the others, but we'll just have to see.  If not, well, it's not like I'm hurting for games now or in the future to buy and play.

Needs More Macabre

What does?  Gaming does.  At least, that's what I've been thinking about for the last couple of days thanks to the gentle push of Yakuza:  Dead Souls.  Playing it has really made me think about how much time I've spent on different kinds and types of gaming over the last few years years and what's struck me is just how much time I've devoted to things that are more realistic (or at least mostly) and/or Modern-themed (Metal Gear Solid, Yakuza, Uncharted), futuristic (Phantasy Star Portable, Dynasty Warriors Gundam, Alpha Protocol (somewhat)) or just straight up historical, be it realistic or fictional (Dynasty/Samurai Warriors, Assassin's Creed (The games style themselves after history after all)).  This realization has made me realize the complete blind spot I've developed for things that cater to the 'darker' themes out there - the more Macabre types - like Yakuza:  Dead Souls, the above-pictured inFamous 2:  Festival of Blood (which I have not bought/played yet which honestly -really hurts-, but it's Digital-Only on PS3 and goddamnit, I don't have that kind of internet for something that runs hot like my PS3 does) and the classic Legacy of Kain series do.

In recent memory, the only other game that could cater to this type of thing would likely be Shadows of the Damned, what with the honest B-Side approach to the genre, though I guess Darksiders (and the upcoming Darksiders 2) could definitely count, what with the whole theme being the Apocalypse and all.  And Demon's Souls/Dark Souls certainly could count too, though it's hard to say if it's because you play it to fight realized Dungeom types of monsters or because you go into the game knowing that you are going to die several times.  Gruesomely.  Still, I'm sure you guys get what I'm grabbing at here; Vampires, Zombies, that type of thing has been beaten down into being a side-show in most games, rather than being the driving of it.  Or if it's included, they spend more time on how you, as the main character, are awesome for being able to kill them when no one else can, rather than using them to also further the story.  Yakuza:  Dead Souls perfectly exemplifies this; not only by having four protagonists who all, of course, do some zombie-killin', but because you see examples of other people, 'normal' people fighting as well just to survive.  It's gripping and it's driving without being contrived.

But then you have things like the Zombies mode of Black Ops where it is 1.) a Novelty, and 2.) a Novelty because the main characters are famous figures who, obviously, did not fight off a zombie holocaust, and assuredly not together.  Now I'm not saying that you should -only- have Zombies as a super serious addition to a game where they are displayed as is proper - a swarm that consumes and destroys by merely (re)existing, but when Zombies mode is one of the 'biggest' ways they've been used recently (other examples include being mooks in Darksiders, random fodder in Shadows of the Dead, etc.) then you have to then go a different way at some point.  The same could be said for Vampires, especially when they've really not been used in all that many games if you think about it.  Castlevania as a series, Vampire:  The Masquerade:  Bloodlines, the Afore-mentioned Legacy of Kain, and the Elder Scrolls series would be the main examples here.  I'm sure a few other things could be tossed out, but, really, for as dynamic as Vampires can be (for better or worse), you should expect a better utilization of them.

I just find that I really want these kinds of games now that I think about it and I've been further exposed into it.  They don't even have to be horror-themed or something like that (which I imagine is what you would expect) because Dead Souls certainly is not that, nor is Resident Evil (at least, not anymore), nor is Festival of Blood and so on and so on.  We really need to re-inject this theme, this mood, back into the hobby before the "shoot things that are somewhat humanoid in a destroyed city" trend really takes over fully (though some would argue it already has).  It's a surprisingly untapped market, so a few games out, if you put some real effort into them (and marketing effort), and we could see it really come around.  I guess the idea is that, because these things are so known, they've been done so much already, but as we can see, I can't really throw out a whole mess of examples.  Unless I'm just blatantly missing quite a few things, I honestly can't think of much here outside of movies and TV where it's reliably been what we could call 'over-saturated'.

Of course, maybe I'm just wrong.  Or maybe I'm simply the outlier.  But I know that, at least now, I'll be keeping an eye out for these types of games that cater to these themes because they're certainly something I want to get in on.  Whether it's shooting up some zombies ala Dead Souls, or something a little more traditional like trying to stake some Vampires, I'm really really wanting to play more games that revolve around that type of thing, so I'll be all for throwing money at the first dev to produce something that does this and does it well.  Perhaps the latter part is what most people are afraid of, and I guess I don't blame them in that.  But it doesn't make me want any less, that's for sure.

Misadventures in Bargain-Shopping: Vampire Diaries Season One

So, I haven't really mentioned it, but on Monday I did just as I said I would and indulged a little in all that Halloween could have offered.  While I didn't throw in Dead Space or a movie, I delved deep into the core rulebook of Vampire:  The Masquerades and really really started getting into the mindset of the game.  I figure the knowledge will likely go unused save for maybe making a character for the fun of it, but it's interesting to think of a game of that sorts that isn't Dungeons and Dragons (or Exalted, but I haven't really read into those either) and especially with such a lore that's been crafted for the game.  It's...quite impressive, really, how much effort they put into creating this real, detailed world while still leaving enough vagueness to allow everyone and anyone to really create just what they want to make.  Which is the point, of course.

But that's not the point of this post, as the point of this post is to talk about my growing interest in vampire things because of really getting into V:tM.  Now, I know it's fairly 'easy' to get into Vampire things nowadays as they're so mainstream it hurts, but as we are wont to do, we try and seek out the 'best', whether it's objective or to our tastes so that does add a little challenge, at least.  Vampire Diaries, as my good friend Saki-Chan assures me, is one of those things to seek out.  But don't take my efforts as an official endorsement of the product of course; I've yet to watch the first season (what I purchased....eventually) and likely won't for a week yet, as I'm waiting for a time when I can watch it along with Saki-Chan, since she's so mired in its collected knowledge already.

Honestly, I probably wouldn't even be making this post if the way in which I got it wasn't so hilariously counter to the last misadventures post I made, which was on purpose for that reason entirely.  Re-familiarize yourself with that experience before we go on; it makes it better I assure you.  So it all began Sunday night, after I'd put up the Halloween post, while I was talking to Saki-Chan and she, as she has done lately, was talking about the Vampire Diaries in an excited manner that mirrors much of my own when I'm going on about something I really enjoy.  While she's throwing out plot lines and character backstories, I'm taking it in as best as someone completely unfamiliar with the territory can (read:  not very well) but gain more and more of an interest in it.  Seeing as a trip out was in order the next day, I told myself I'd take a look around to see if the first season was on sale anywhere.  Not too far-fetched to imagine, right?  Vampire show being on sale on Halloween Day seems almost a given.

It was not, of course.  Interestingly enough, Target was selling the first season for $45, another store for $50, and neither were on sale.  It was a little odd, I thought that the price wasn't the same at two different stores, but it's hardly surprising, and as much as I trust Saki-Chan's judgment, I don't trust it enough to throw out $45 sight unseen.  To be fair, I don't trust -anyone's- judgment enough to throw out $45 sight unseen.  No offense, anyone who may be offended by this, I'm sure you can understand.  So, with that prospect out of the air, I decided simply to wait; a deal would come, I'm sure, or I would find a way to force one.  The latter, as you might suspect, happened.

The following day, the first of November (or the day that will forever be known as the day I spent $119.19 at GameStop, yet only walked out with a single game*, Uncharted 3) I was out and about once again and happened to land at Wal-Mart where I, again, checked to see what the price of Vampire Diaries Season 1 was there.  To my continued surprise, it was different there as well priced at $39.96 (or, for all intents and purposes, $40 a full $10 less than another local store) which was unfortunately still too much.  That's when my plan, bitter as it might have been to consider, began to form.  From the last misadventure, I still had a gift card from Best Buy with a slight amount of money on it burning a hole in my wallet, and it was at least worth a shot to see what they priced the show at.

Upon going into the store, I made a detour first to the Customer Service desk to find out just how much my gift card had on it.  There behind the counter was a girl who I'm going to call Victoria because I -think- that was her name, but I forget.  She was more than happy to help and, in very short order, I was informed the card still had $16.15 on it and with that in mind I went off to the Movies section.  Here, it was less surprising to see that the show was not on sale (the first season anyway), but the price of $45 made me a little more than annoyed.  Why couldn't it be $40, like at Wal-Mart.  I'm sure you can see the writing on the wall, but just then the idea struck me and I couldn't help but start to laugh at the reflective nature of it all.

Another visit to the Customer Service desk saw me asking Victoria if Best Buy's Price Match guarantee extended merely to sale items, or to the normal price of items and being informed that it was the latter.  So long as it wasn't from a store akin to Sam's Club (basically a store that sells bulk items and thus might have naturally lower prices) and the much-loathed "the competitor has to have it in stock" restriction was met, any price could be offered.  Having just been at Wal-Mart fifteen minutes prior, I knew it was there, well-stocked, and priced nicer, so I asked if she would set it up, and one call later to Wal-Mart to confirm what I already knew, she wrote out a note that guaranteed the price, asked me to get the set and take it up to the registers as per normal.

I'm having a hard time explaining it, but I'm sure you can just imagine what I was feeling at that moment, having such a pleasant experience in much the same circumstances as a previously terrible experience...it was a little strange.  Victoria's help was wonderful, however, and I was more than happy with my dealings with her and, as you might've already worked out I ended up walking out of Best Buy having only really spent $24 on the complete first season of Vampire Diaries, which is a fair enough price, I think.  I'll know more when I watch it, but if nothing else, I have this story of the journey no matter how I enjoy the outcome.  A story that can only make me laugh for reasons I can't quite place, and one that reassures me that there are still real bargains to be found out there if you work hard enough at them.

Halloween Time - How to Celebrate?

So, it is the season and while I'm not much of a celebrator of the holidays, aside from Christmas, Halloween certainly adds an interesting temptation that not a lot of other times could offer.  I figure that I've changed a lot of how I normally do things this year, so why not actually get into the spirit of the times and do something?  Of course, the question this poses is just what do I do?  And, aside from going out and causing mischief or begging for candy, there's not a whole lot associated with Halloween that immediately springs to mind, but luckily for us there are certain other things associated with the spirit that counts.

The immediate thing that comes to mind, of course, is the Horror that's so commonly associated with the principle of Halloween.  I guess the way I could go about this would be to watch one of the few Horror movies I have or toss in Dead Space; the latter would likely cause the desired effect over the former, though, since Dead Space always knew how to send a chill up my spine no matter what.  Especially since when I left off, I believe I was trying for my Impossible trophy and the One Gun trophy at the same time, which is tailor-made for "Oh shit" moments, I would suggest.  That's sounding more and more appealing now that I mention it..

Then there is the possibility of finally sitting down and giving the Vampire:  The Masquerade books I bought a look over as the game has come up a lot lately in conversations I've had with others.  Not really in a sense that a game was to get organized, but more in the sense that people were talking about it and I could do no more than sit by and listen with a nod every now and then since I have, really, no knowledge on the subject.  And that's something I would love to change, since the lore and the mechanics of the game seems rather rich and detailed.  While I not play a game of it myself (outside of the off-chance of playing the PC game at some point), just knowing about it would be nice enough.

Hopefully I can find something to get me excited enough to really celebrate a day.  It might be a little obvious from my posting (or, recently my decision to skip a couple nights) but it's been a little rough lately, and while I'm not saying that for sympathy, I can't -not- acknowledge it.  The majority of this post has been me looking at the page and wondering just what to say next, which got a little easier, admittedly, towards the end.  Still, something of genuine excitement amidst the grind that I've been going through (both life-wise and game-wise) would be a nice change of pace.  Here's to hoping for one!

Labor Day is a Very Laborious Day

So, every year on Labor Day weekend, there's a...semi-local event that my family and I go to.  It is, essentially a large flea market held out in some field, where vendors from wherever you want to imagine come to peddle their wares.  From guns and other sorts of weapons to the plastic toys you get in Happy Meals to paperback books to knock-off purses, if you go to this event, you'll likely find something you want, even if you go in not wanting anything.  Well, in most cases; I'm pretty shackled into at least buying a couple things every year almost completely out of habit, but not totally, as I do enjoy them, but...I'll get to that in a moment.

To give you an idea of the sheer size of this event, we got to the location before 9 AM and didn't leave until Noon.  In that whole time, we only took one break, around the 11:30 mark to eat lunch and then we looked at a few more rows of vendors before we decided to leave since, well, we had finally traversed the course completely.  My Poke'walker, which I solely use as a pedometer nowadays, read 10,811 steps when I checked it on the car ride home.  I am a bit speculative on that number, but still, that's some number right there.  Not mentioning that it was also very, very muddy all throughout, being in a field and all directly after it rained for a whole day.  It didn't rain while we were there, nor did it at all today, which was welcome and the cooldown yesterday's rains provided was most enjoyable.

Regardless, it was a good time, and my 'unplanned' purchase was, simply, three Rule Books for Vampire:  The Masquerade, more or less solely because of Helloween's LP of VtM: Bloodlines (Posted the link to the first video since there's no playlist for it yet.), since it really got me interested into the mechanics of the game the video game was based off of.  I got the Core rulebook (pictured above), Kindred of the East (which I assume covers Kuei-Jin and, more or less all things Oriental/Asian in the Vampire universe), and The Dark Ages, which....well, I'll be honest and say I don't know what the hell it entails.  Vampire:  The Masquerade more or less is foreign to me yet, despite watching the entire Bloodlines playthrough.

As far as what I usually get year in and year out and, in fact, continued to do so, I picked up some T-shirts with some fairly neat designs on them, and some Venison sticks.  Nothing all that interesting, I'm sure, but I wanted to mention them anyways because, well, I really enjoy venison.  Especially in stick form.  Especially especially when it's spicy as well, which half of what I purchased are.  While other vendors had movies and games that I looked through, there wasn't really anything that I wanted nor needed, so it was sort of a bust on that front, but at the very least, I got some new reading material.  That is, of course, if I ever read the books, which is...well, it's possible that it won't happen.  I'm fickle with my books like that.

When I got home, since the temperature has dropped significantly, I turned to my PS3 for entertainment and, by that, I mean I played Yakuza 4 for a number of hours.  And by "I played Yakuza 4 for a number of hours", I mean, "I took Akiyama to the bar, got him drunk, got into fights, and repeated that for hours".  It is fairly hilarious how Yakuza 4 encourages you to have your character sloshed 24/7 as there's really no downside to it, and in fact, there's a good upside to it:  When drunk, your Heat gauge fills faster.  Not to mention, you can buy Akiyama an innate ability that raises his overall attack power while he's drunk.  So by this combination, I became the Bane of Kamurocho Street Punks and Yakuza in no time flat, laying waste to any and all who stood in my way.

It was....quite fulfilling.

So, that was my Labor Day.  The trek and a few other things I did here and there made it sort of a rough day, but Yakuza 4 more than smoothed it over to make it a pretty great day overall.  Here's hoping your day was equally as good!

What Went Wrong - The 'Blade' Series

Just as a preface for this article and, indeed, every article of the "What Went Wrong" group, I'll be deconstructing whatever it's about, which means spoilers will be abound.  So if you have an interest in whatever it is, today's installment being the three Blade movies, then you'll want to be skipping these until you've experienced them for yourself!  That said, let's begin!

Where it started:

 

The first Blade movie, released in 1998, was the pinnacle of action movies for me for a very very simple fact:  Blade used a sword.  Obviously, right?  I mean, his damn moniker is Blade.  But, well, I was also 11 in 1998 (and while I didn't watch the movie when I was 11, I did see it while it was newish) so I was easy to please.  I still am, but that's beside the point.  As I've grown, I can still appreciate the first Blade movie, and do, even despite the flaws, and I'd still go out and say that it's one of the better action movies of its type; certainly one of the better Comic-to-Film adaptations as well.

Why though?  Well, the cast is fairly well-done:  Wesley Snipes, even though he may not be the best guy to work with, and you certainly don't want him managing your money, plays the character they wanted him to be very well.  As far as the movies go, Blade is obviously supposed to be the cool, confident, badass guy who wins, even when it looks like he may not, and he pulls this off well, so that even when he's been weakened by the Vampiric Thirst (which he subverts with a manufactured serum his mentor, Whistler, came up with), you're just watching and waiting for that badass switch to get flipped once more so he kicks back into the swing of things.

Deacon Frost is amused by his own antics; a Pureblood vampire is about to burst into flames from direct sunlight.

Rather than listing the characters and their actors as I was going to do, I'll just throw the blanket statement out there that every character manages to convey their archetype without being one-dimensional; a feat to truly be envied by some of these other Superhero flicks.  Stephen Dorff is convincingly conniving while showing that he is also a fairly immature vampire, Kris Kristofferson is believable in not only his age and how that bears on his character, but also the impact of his backstory in regards to the fight against vampire kind, and Donal Logue does astounding at being an appropriate foil to Frost; where Frost is serious more often than not, Quinn is truly enjoying the life (or un-life, depending on how your views of Vampires are), and is almost never serious.  Where Frost is inflexible, Quinn nearly changes on the fly, and where Frost obviously has plans, Quinn is just the guy who's there to help out when it's convenient.  If nothing else, I can honestly tout that they did characterizations correctly, which I've just gone on about for two paragraphs now.

But that wasn't all it did right; there was a very real style to the movie and one that was consistent with itself.  The camera angles and the general mood throughout never felt disjointed, there was no jumping about, and everything was done with consideration to the rest of it.  The big example of this that comes to mind is how the workshop is shown off; whenever it's introduced in the movie, you always get a feel for just how big it is, and that never changes.  So near the endpoint, when you're given Whistler's Last Stand and then apparent demise, it's not hard to imagine that he was so easily surprised and taken down.  They could have been hiding just about anywhere before they finally sprung out into action.

The choreography is top-notch as well, as the fight scenes rarely get too indulgent, too flashy, but still remain impressive.  It's hard to find a movie these days as far as action goes that doesn't try to incorporate some sort of wire-fu, CGI and/or bullet time anymore which is a real shame as those tools are really just crutches that should have been cast-off almost immediately.  They might have been fine for their originators, and some things have incorporated them well, but as a standard, they're almost unnecessary and end up detracting more than they add.  Though CGI is used quite liberally in the end-fight, it's really the only example, and it's used less for the fight and more for the flash.

In all, Blade is, in my opinion, one of the quintessential Action movies from that era, and, as I've mentioned, assuredly a quintessential Comic/Superhero movie that is a need-to-watch if you're interested in either.  It hasn't aged poorly, I'd say, because it doesn't rely too much on effects or the like (outside of Vampires crumbling), though the ending animation of Frost bulging out and eventually exploding, thanks to CGI, may be a bit laughable.  YMMV on that.

So, reading all that, you may be wondering, 

How did it go wrong?

And the answer is really quite simple:  They made a sequel.

 

Sequels are never inherently bad.  That has to be said and truly, a sequel to Blade didn't have "bad" written on it on principle.  But, while not being bad bad, it did manage to differentiate itself from the first movie in ways that aren't, well, good.  For starters, the character of Blade was changed; while still a definite badass even when he's not, he also had a little comedic effort pushed onto him which was wholly unnecessary, and though there's no indication that he's much of a team player or a leader, he's thrust into both roles and basically excels in them for little reason, despite the odds stacked against him.  Not only is he leading a group of Vampires, but he's leading a group of Vampires that exist solely to destroy him and are only working with him because something 'worse' has reared its ugly head.

Which, if anything, that would be what would make someone shy away from a Blade sequel, would be the fact that a sequel generally tries to one-up the first in ways that it doesn't really need to, in an attempt to ensure it's not painted as "the same film, but different".  After all, why make a sequel about Blade killing vampires, when he could be killing different vampires, the Reapers, is what I imagine the general thought was behind it.  The first movie's plot didn't really lend itself to a sequel in its' nature:  Deacon Frost stumbled upon an ancient prophesy and works towards fulfilling it to gain ultimate power, succeeds, and is still thwarted by Blade.  Of course reading that, you can't say "Well, that again in different ways would be so much better or just as good!" because it's not built for a re-do.  But the answer to that isn't "The head vampire made a new strain of vampire with science and it went totally wrong" in the classic Man vs. Machine plot archetype.

Jared Nomak, sympathetic villain, and straight up ugly as sin.  His chin opens up into a second mouth, if you're curious about the seam there.

While not a machine, Jared Nomak is a created being, and thus fills the role well enough for a comparison.  The reapers, as is quickly shown in the film, are unique in that A) They don't give a damn and will not only drink, but be sustained by human -and- vampire blood, but B) they are more unsustainable than normal Vampires as they're likened more to Crack Addicts in their need for blood and in fact, die out much faster and more dramatically than normal vampires from thirst.  Which should be a red flag as far as their supposed role as the true vampire successors goes, as was the intent of Damaskinos in creating Jared, or rather, making Jared a Reaper.  The goal being, more or less, to create Daywalkers like Blade; all the strengths, none of the weaknesses.  And while the Reapers developed an immunity to garlic and somewhat to silver, as well as an arbitrary skeletal upgrade to make staking them more difficult, the sensitivity to sunlight/UV light was cranked way up to a degree that borders on insulting to the viewers.

In the end, what you end up with in Blade II is less Blade and more Dawn of the Dead; the Reapers are too much like zombies in their single-mindedness for blood, only showing brief flashes of anything that could be considered a higher brain function, despite the fact that Nomak is smart and likely stronger than most of the other characters in the movie, and the movie itself is too wrapped up in showing a team against this 'crisis' rather than showing Blade just kill a lot of them and be completely badass.  On top of that, there's a 'reveal' section of the movie, where there's about two too many face-heel turns and double/triple-crossings that ultimately just exist to get rid of characters.  Which Blade II is really, really concerned with doing.

Most of the Bloodpack.  I would say the ones that do more than suck and die, but, well, Verlaine and Snowman are in it.

Within minutes of revealing The Bloodpack, the 'elite team' of Vampires put together with the intention of killing Blade, the numbers start dwindling after being shown just how poor they really are.  Not only are two of their members not much of a match for Blade together, but they're quickly beaten into submission with mind-games and a sort of insurance policy administered following the typical "Group superiority Mentality" moment.  And all in all, only about two of them amount to anything before dying.  They exist almost solely to show that they had a varied group ready to take Blade on, and then to die unceremoniously to random Reapers for being overconfident, vain, or just plain stupid.

For example, Lighthammer, the stereotypical "big guy who doesn't speak the same language as anyone watching the movie" character gets into a one-on-one with a Reaper, gets bitten and, rather than admitting it or dying, merely covers the wound and, I guess, tells himself that logic be damned, he wasn't going to turn into one of those.  He then goes on to turn into one in the very next battle, kills Snowman (the mute samurai of the group who does absolutely nothing prior to this point) and tries to kill his girlfriend, Verlaine, who kills him and herself by exposing them both to direct sunlight.  That's three members of the Bloodpack dead in ways that not only could have been avoided (Snowman was even killed off screen), but are, honestly, arbitrary.  Their inclusion just seems like padding.

In the end, after a lukewarm love sub-plot is extinguished, the movie just sort of ends after a great call-back to the start of the film.  It was a wacky adventure and then it was over simply because every single person involved, Blade excluded, was dead.

And then, well......and then They made a third.

In one of those moments where you can only go "wait, what, how did that happen?" Blade Trinity was announced, and right away, it's clear that they didn't learn their lesson.  The team aspect was back and though arguably better-executed this time, more members of it than not were frivolous at best still, and it again boiled down to only a few mattering whatsoever.  The film then continues on to destroy the semblance of universal continuity with the other two movies and, instead of portraying the war between Humans and Vampires as something that happened on an underground basis as it had been, brought it directly into the forefront of everyone's minds.  The film basically starts with a talk show of people talking about vampires and Blade in a way that just shatters everything created by the first film and especially the second.

Early on, Blade is tricked into killing a human (a familiar, but whatever) which is played up to be a bad thing, which, given that there's a focus on the police and the media for that very specific area of the film, is understandable.  And then almost immediately, Blade informs the viewers (and a psychiatrist who borders on schizophrenic) that he's done it 1,161 times prior.  All of them familiars as well.  Just that, well, he wasn't on tape those times, apparently.

The three best parts of Blade:  Trinity.

Essentially, the movie is everything the first is not; I said the first had a specific style and stayed consistent throughout, whereas Blade:  Trinity hearkens back to the ages of Evil Dead 2, where the horror genre was so over-the-top it started making fun of itself, and makes a mockery of just about everything involved.  It's hardly even consistent within itself, much less than with the Universe it had created with the first two films, and jumps around entirely too much.  At the start of the film, the 'bad guys' uncover Dracula's tomb and reawaken him and bring them back to their corporate office, er, I mean, secret lair, and at one point it's mentioned that that was months prior than when the bulk of the movie takes place, despite no real time lapse being shown or even hinted at.  Nor is it relevant at all.

The plot moves in a way that if you stop paying attention, as you are wont to do during action movies, you actually will get lost, as the bulk of it is touched on, then never mentioned again.  The group Blade ends up working with after Whistler is killed within the first twenty minutes of the movie, the Nightstalkers, has come up with a bioweapon that will take out every vampire in the world just because but they need a perfect sample of vampire DNA or something, which, despite some Vampires being able to procreate and create pure blood vampires, means they need Dracula's blood.  And by they need Dracula's blood, they mean they can create the weapon, but it needs to touch Dracula's blood before it goes into the air and then apparently spreads throughout the entire world.  So that's what they do; they put the weapon (which is a vial of some sort of liquid) in a special arrow shaft and give it to Abby Whistler (as in Whistler Whistler, she's his illegitimate daughter, which just ruins his character's remorseful and resentful nature towards his family being killed by vampires) and say "Shoot Dracula with this".

She tries and, as anyone could have expected, given that it's freaking Dracula, fails when he whips around and grabs the arrow right out of mid-air, dropping it afterwards because, well, why would he destroy the MacGuffin, I guess.  And then Blade being, well, Blade, grabs it, stabs him with it and wins for all mankind somehow and survives because he's Blade.  (Also a half-vampire, but, well, I guess not enough half or something, as he stays half-vampire)  With his dying breaths, Dracula congratulates Blade on defeating him and gives his respect, but warns Blade that "the thirst always wins".  Drained from the fight and affected somewhat by the bioweapon, Blade passes out, and then promptly awakens during his autopsy and almost immediately appears to be turned to the way of blood-sucking (specifically, stalking towards one of the nurses menacingly) before the movie just ends.

As a series, Blade starts well before clearly going off its own tracks and then flying directly into a city for a glorious train-wreck.  I will say that all three movies are entertaining, which is key, but by no means is the third good, and the second even, is questionable in this aspect.  You could certainly do worse things with the time that one spends watching all three movies, and there are plenty of lesser quality movies you could watch, so if you're looking to be entertained by Action and then less action and more Comedy, the Blade Trilogy should be right where you want to be.  But if you're looking for a series that exemplifies what a comic book movie should be, well, you know where to stop watching.