Ink

I watched this movie on a whim via Netflix Instant Watch. I think it made it on my queue from one of the Netflix recommendations, which usually recommend total garbage Hollywood films, but this time it struck gold. This movie rocks. I know I tend to write movie reviews where I essentially say "this movie was fun" end of story. So for this one I will go into a bit more detail about why I liked it, since I'm sure it needs a bigger sell being an indy flick with no marketing. So here's a nice bulleted list:

• Visuals. This movie is visually more interesting, creative, and striking for $200k than Avatar's $500M. The saturation and lighting are stand outs here, and dominate the film from beginning to end.
  
• Audio. The audio was wonderful. The special effects, from dimensional travel to fight scene punches, was top notch. It really stood out, which is really saying something since the visuals were already really distracting!
• Choreography. The fight scenes were awesome. The camera work, the stunt work, the special effects, the lighting, everything came together for truly brutal fight scenes. Not many movies pull this off so well. Most movies end up looking choreographed, like some bad kung-fu film. These fight scenes actually appear like people are trying to fuck each other up, and succeeding. The only other film in recent memory that pulled that off was Casino Royale; specifically the hotel staircase fight scene.
• The characters. Many characters didn't have a lot of screen time or lines, but despite that they still appeared to have depth. I really liked the lead female story teller, Allel played by Jennifer Batter, and her friend Gabe played by Eme Ikwuakor. Allel was just cool; she was kick ass, stylish, and good looking. Gabe had maybe two lines yet I really liked his character and was interested in him. The main character, John, was also done well. I didn't really like him, but he's not necessarily someone we are supposed to like.
• The story. It's a fairy tale. It's not cerebral or enlightening, but it is entertaining. It is a short story about a short conflict about interesting characters in an interesting fantasy world.

So there you have it; the specifics of why I enjoyed the film. Now go watch it before Hollywood starts pumping money into writer/director Jamin Winans and ruins him like big budgets always do.

Mini Ninjas

I got Mini Ninjas for 360 for Christmas. I then put down every game I had been playing (L4D2, MW2, Tekken 6) and played this straight to the end. It's such a great game. As my wife says "they must have taken time to study 'cute' in order to make this game." There is nothing ground breaking about the game play, except maybe that it's fun, which is sadly not a common theme in video games these days. It plays and feels a lot like Zelda or Okami. You play a band of ninjas pursuing an evil warlord to shut down his world domination plan, as always. There are items you collect along the way, and plenty of samurai to beat the tar out of. It has stealth kills, super attacks, special moves, magic spells, ninja equipment, herbalism, fishing, etc, as you might expect. Except they are all cute versions of said features.

It's tough to explain why the game is so fun without actually playing it. The atmosphere is definitely a big part of the charm. The audio, the stage design, character animation, everything adds to the charm. I plan on playing it again to find all of the collectibles. I played the game on "hard" the first time through because I suspected it would be an easier game (aren't all games nowadays?) and it actually challenged me a bit. I really had to whip out some spells and use my abilities to take out the warlord's armies. It was far from actually being hard, but more than I expected. I felt it was a good balance.

So I looked up the developers to see what else they had done. It's IO Interactive, and they had done the Hitman series and Kane & Lynch. How disappointing! Such garbage games when there is obviously a lot of talent in the studio.

District 9

I know I am way late on this one. It just came to DVD. I meant to see it in the theater, but never made it there. I finally saw it this last weekend. Best sci-fi movie in years, next to Star Trek. But Star Trek is Star Trek, so it doesn't count. Not going to bother talking about this one, since I am probably the last person on Earth to finally see it. Suffice it to say, the buzz is deserved, it's good.

Sherlock Holmes

Avatar seems to be dominating movie talk this past month. Everyone is raving about the amazing graphics and the terrible plot. Well to be honest, the movie just does not look interesting to me. "But the graphics!" you say. Sorry, the art direction looks boring and uninspired. Sure, the CG is really well done and highly detailed. But you can't polish a turd.

So instead I saw Sherlock Holmes. I know, I know. I was horrified at the trailer. I thought, "they've ruined Sherlock Holmes; fuck you hollywood!" But a trusted movie-goer recommended it to me (believe it or not, my Mother-in-law) and so we went. And I liked it.

First of all, Robert Downey Jr. is an awesome character actor, and if Iron Man and Tropic Thunder didn't prove that to you, then this movie is one more piece of evidence. Jude Law is also a strong actor and works well with RDJ. But the best character of all is turn-of-the-century London. Seeing 1890's London recreated with such grimy detail was way more fascinating than some florescent alien jungle with electric blue cat people.

So did it ruin Sherlock Holmes? No, it didn't. The stories are still there for you to read, unadulterated. But this is a new, almost comic book hero approach to Sherlock Holmes. And it's fun. I also very much like how they interpreted Holmes' character as being almost autistic. In a scene where he is waiting for Watson in a busy restaurant, we see Holmes nervously taking in all the details and conversations around him, overloading him in fact. I think this is a brilliant explanation for Holmes' almost anti-social behaviors, drug use, and middle-of-the-night fiddle playing. If you've read the stories, then I think you would agree, it fits.

So, while not an Oscar winning tear jerker or blockbuster CG masterpiece, Sherlock Holmes is a good, fun movie. And I can't ask for anything more.

Turtle Beach Earforce X31

I've owned two Earforce X1's in the past (the first one the cord went bad, either from the cats or from me stepping on it) and I really think it is a great headset for the 360. It only had two problems, 1) the cord, 2) I tend to yell into it because I can't hear myself talk. #2 is particularly troublesome because it defeats the purpose of wearing headphones, which is to be quiet.

So for Christmas, I was given a Turtle Beach Earforce X31. I had tried the previous generation, the X3, but it was terrible. The voice chat had a constant high pitch whine to it and the wireless was IR so it was all static and very sensitive to line of sight from the transmitter. Turn your head and gone. This X31 is RF, so no line of sight needed. The talk-back chat is great, no more yelling into the mic. It still has some of the high pitched whine with the chat, but that's livable given all the advantages it provides. One last thing is this thing chews through batteries. It takes two AAAs. If the batteries are brand new, they last 6 hours or so, which isn't too bad. But you can imagine how many batteries this thing will drain over the years. I tried my rechargables, but they last 10 minutes, not even enough time for a single round of MW2. Bah!

Overall, they are nice and a huge improvement over the IR versions. I recommend them.

Mushi-shi

Mushi-shi looked like something that was going to be really great. Mushi as used here refers to basic, almost ghost-like lifeforms that are closest to the Earth energies. If you remember the Lifestream from Final Fantasy VII, then you have a basis of understanding. Mushi are made of that lifestream. Ginko, the main character, is a Mushi-shi, or Mushi Master. He travels the land in search of mushi to study them, and often save people from them. Mushi are not evil or good, they are just animals, and sometimes their lives come into conflict with humans.

The animation is top notch. In fact the entire production is wonderful. The only thing lacking is story. Each episode is independent. There is no common thread other than Ginko, but even he has no story. In a way, it is refreshing to have a character who just is, and isn't some complicated, conflicted emo whiner or some other stereotype. But also it means there is no motivation to watch the next show. Nothing to keep you going. No hook. The mushi are completely out of left field and so each episode is free to do and be whatever it wishes. Sounds great, but I think in this case it hurts the show.

In short, the show has a lot of production quality, but weak on story. The result is a 7 disc series in which I have watched the first two discs and am not real motivated to continue watching. So I am switching to a new show.

Genesis of Shannara

I'm just about done with The Gypsy Morph, the final book in the Genesis of Shannara trilogy by Terry Brooks. For those of you who are unfamiliar, Shannara is a high fantasy world, first explored in Terry Brooks' award winning Sword of Shannara. Since then, there have been a slew of books. There was a prequel trilogy, The Word/Void Trilogy, that takes place in modern day Illinois. This trilogy, Genesis of Shannara, takes place in the post-apocalyptic Northwest and leads into the creation of the Shannara fantasy world from the ashes of the Age of Man.

Brooks is a solid author. While some books are better than others, they are never bad. This trilogy, while not his best, is still a good read. Light and entertaining. Some of his earlier Shannara books had better characters; people that were real and I felt invested in. The characters in this trilogy, with a few small exceptions, never quite come to life. There are a couple supporting characters that I feel are alive, specifically Panther and Owl. But the main characters are a bit two dimensional. In any case, the story itself is serviceable. There's a few plot devices that felt like cop-outs. Like the owl that guides Logan. Where was this nifty owl for the previous two books? Were the faerie creatures out of mana points and recharging?

In any case, I can't recommend this particular trilogy unless you are a fan of Shannara. If you haven't read any Shannara yet, then start at the earlier books (Sword, Elfstones, etc). They're better. If you become a big fan then ultimately you can read this trilogy, but otherwise, give it a pass.

G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra

I was a huge GI Joe fan as a kid. I read the comic, watched the TV show, and collected the toys. I would miss my school bus because I was watching GI Joe repeats. I loved GI Joe, I think maybe more than any other toy line. And I still love GI Joe. Just last year I bought a comic. And I have a couple of the newer action figures.

So, like Transformers, making a live action movie based on something so fond from my childhood is dangerous. You are almost guaranteed failure. The hate was quick to surface, long before the movie was released. I didn't like that they made it an international force instead of an American one. I hated the first character shots. Everyone was in those terrible black outfits that Hollywood slaps on all super heroes. Storm Shadow looked retarded in his white outfit. GI Joe was going to suck, and it was clear from day one.

But somehow, it didn't suck. I saw the movie despite my jaded attitude. And it was fun. In fact, I really liked it. In fact, I will admit that I almost, almost, loved it. Movie Bob over at The Escapist hit the nail on the head. The movie was a lot of fun. It was like all those battles you had with your GI Joe figures and vehicles came to life on screen and did all the wild shit you imagined they did. There are some character changes that purists will surely whine about. But at the heart of it is exactly what every kid loved about GI Joe: good guys and bad guys tearing it up with real and imagined military technology.

Go see it.

And Baroness is HOT.

Fatal Frame 3

I like me a good scare. Unfortunately, there are few ways to get one. Horror movies are 99% garbage. I hear there's a good author by the name of Stephen King who wrote a few good books. But I tried to read one ("The Shining") and he put me to sleep for five chapters before I gave up. A lot of "horror" video games are terrible in the horror department. Resident Evil hasn't been scary since the first game. Silent Hill, same. Most others are scary in the "monster jumps out of the closet" type scare. You might as well buy a jack-in-the-box for less money. But Fatal Frame... is different.

This is the third Fatal Frame game. I got it off eBay for a whopping $50 new, for a PS2 game! I guess it was a limited run. I've played most of the first game and recently completed the second game. So it was only natural that I now play the third one. And man was it well worth the money.

The gameplay hasn't changed at all. You are still a diminutive Japanese female stuck in a creepy old Japanese mansion full of vengeful ghosts. You are defenseless for a short period of time before you find a Camera Obscura, an antique camera that can damage ghosts when you take their picture. Of course, you do more damage to them the closer they are, and you get a special "shutter chance" when they are actually attacking you. So you are encouraged, if not required, to allow the ghosts to stalk you while you charge the camera and grab a snapshot at the last possible moment before their icy hands grab your throat. And believe it or not, that is not what makes the game scary.


What makes the game scary is the atmosphere. This mansion is creepy. It creeks. It has unseen children singing lullabies. It has ghostly women hiding in corners crying to themselves. It has ghosts who talk as if still alive, replaying the horror of their last moments. It has hooded priests who walk with their Buddhist staffs, which rattle like a chain as they strike the ground. There are little girls, shrine maidens, who are trying to stake you to the ground with a mallet. You know when those are near because you hear this wood-on-stone tapping sound of their mallet as they approach. Run bitch. Run.

The ghost list goes on. But you get the point. They are surprisingly varied in style and execution. And every single one of them is a character in an unfolding past drama. A drama which has spilled over into your own life. This game also links the first two games to this story, including characters from those games. Let me tell you: when you walk through a door and things start to look familiar, until finally you realize you just entered the "rope hallway" from the first game, that is fucking creepy. That is not someplace you want to be. In fact, that is one characteristic of this game that I haven't felt since the original Alone in the Dark. In both Alone in the Dark and this game, there were places that I did not want to be in. When I had to pass through those areas, I ran like hell until I came out the other side.

So in conclusion, I give Fatal Frame 3 a 5 out of 5. I also think it is the best of the series. Most reviews seem to think that 2 was the scariest, and thus the best, but I think 3 actually has it beat. There were some unforgettable moments in FF2; like dropping your camera in the caves and having to run from a pursuing ghost because you are defenseless; or when the little girl turns out the lights on you in the middle of a hallway battle. But FF3 just had more atmosphere, beginning to end. I wouldn't play the game after dark, alone in the living room. When the wife went to bed, I turn it off and play something else. That's how good the game was.

Tenchu Z

I am a geek, through and through. I like zombies, wizards, vampires, Star Trek, and ninjas. You put any one of those things in a game or movie, and you have my attention. So it should come as no surprise that Tenchu was one of my favorite Playstation games. I also liked many, though not all, of the sequels. Tenchu Z is a two year old Xbox 360 game. I played the demo when it came out, and was not impressed, so I took a pass. But I have since heard that some people absolutely loved the game. So I just picked up a copy on eBay for $14 shipped. For $14, you don't have much as far as expectations go. If the game sucks, then so be it, I'll eBay it back for $12. Well, I didn't put it up on eBay, I played it beginning to end, and then some.


Tenchu Z takes a different character approach than previous games. All other games you play Rikimaru, Ayame, or a couple other minor ninjas. In Z, you create your own ninja and take orders from Rikimaru. As you play, you unlock new clothing, accessories, saya, items, skills, and abilities. It was quite rewarding to be honest. I had a lot of fun picking out badass outfits for my ninja everytime I got a new batch of clothing. Little things make me happy.

Gameplay hasn't come very far since Wrath of Heaven. Stealth Kills are still the focus, combat is still weak, items are still completely unneccessary (though fun to use), and the AI is still completely dumb. After the first few levels, I played the entire game on "hard", and the only difference was the guys gained a little bit of vertical field of view, meaning they could actually see you if you were on the roof in the moonlight directly in front of them. The AI is so terrible, they give up chasing you after 5 seconds, usually kicking the dirt in frustration before running back to their predetermined walking route. Some new elements were introduced, like the ability to cling to ceilings, run along walls, stealth kill through shoji, etc. The difficulty didn't really require you to make use of any of these new abilities, but they were fun to play around with anyhow.

The level designs left much to be desired. The maps are reused several times each, with minor differences such as a few daylight missions, different start/end points, and different enemy load out. This isn't so bad since the levels are large enough that changing goals and enemy locations actually is enough to make the stage feel almost new. You can tell they wanted to show off the beauty of feudal Japan with their level design, but just didn't have the resources to do it. Either lack of ability or lack of funds means the levels are all a bit lackluster. I think a little bit more time and artistic talent could have really made the levels pop, and let feudal Japan shine. I also think more environmental changes could really put some variety into the game. Snow could cause crunching footfalls and leave footprints to be found. Rain could make dark nights darker but leave loud puddles to splash through, and muddy footprints at building entries. Stylish, fast moving storm clouds could cause dynamic shadows, blocking moon or sun, so that one second you are hidden in shadow but the next you are exposed as the clouds reveal the moon. The possibilites are endless! It would be a lot of fun to design a ninja game...

Finally, the actual missions themselves could use some variance. You get points for every kill, regardless of where you are (unless they are non-combatants; but if they have a sword they are fair game). Missions that take place in your own backyard still reward you for killing random guards, despite the fact that they are your own countrymen. I think changing mission parameters would make sense but also create interest. Imagine if you were given a mission to assassinate a spy, but since he is in your own territory you are forbidden from killing anyone else. Or even in foreign territory "retrieve the secret documents" type missions, you might want to require total secrecy, so again, no kills. Mix it up!

So you might be thinking that this game really sucks. Well, it's no AAA title, and it certainly has it's flaws. But in the end, the game is a lot of fun. If you like the idea of sneaking around and cutting people down with sprays of blood, then you won't go wrong here. I had a blast and played the game for hours on end. I'll probably go back and grab a few more achievements and play with some more items that I never got to use. If you liked any of the previous Tenchu games, then this one is certainly worth the $14 you will pay for it.

The Dresden Files

I'm almost done with Turn Coat, book 11 of The Dresden Files by Jim Butcher. I'm having trouble deciding where to begin, because it's easy to describe the series in such a way as to make it sound ridiculous. And I guess that's probably because it is ridiculous.

Harry Dresden is a wizard for hire in modern day Chicago. He's actually listed in the yellow pages. Most of his work comes from the Chicago P.D., whom turn to him when they can't come up with an explanation. That's how things start. We quickly learn of an international council of wizards, multiple breeds of vampire, werewolves, ghosts, zombies, holy knights, demons, fallen angels, a world of Faerie... Yeah it gets crazy real fast. But the series is really good. Jim Butcher spins complex yet comical tales of modern fantasy noir with a sarcastic and wise cracking main character who is so real that you can't help but think you've met the guy before. It's worth a read if you are a fantasy fan.

Oh, and I almost forgot about Bob, Harry's porn-obsessed spirit servant who lives in a skull in his lab. Instant classic.

Full listing of his books. He also has a traditional high-fantasy novel series going titled "Codex Alera". I haven't gotten around to reading them yet, but I'm sure they are just as good.

Stand Alone Complex

So I have watched all that Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex has to offer: two seasons and a made-for-TV movie. The reviews are in, and they are mixed.

Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex (season 1):
The first season of the show was good. Not as good as the movie, but good. There was a lot of what I would call philosophical-babble about entities on the net, AI, and "stand alone complexes". I call it babble because it doesn't mean anything, causing you to lose interest and/or your eyes glaze over. And despite several whole-episode conversations about "stand alone complex", I still can't tell you what the fuck that means and it's the title of the goddamn show. Also, Motoko's outfit was ridiculous. It was not sexy, classy, fashionable, or practical. The guy who approved it should be fired, and he quite possibly was since she had a new outfit for season two. Also, the CG intro was crappy and out of place. But despite these flaws, the show was interesting, entertaining, and fun. The underlying story about the Laughing Man was complex yet followable, and the occasional action sequences stylish and understated, much like the 1995 movie.

Ghost in the Shell: S.A.C. 2nd GIG (season 2):
The second season, titled S.A.C 2nd Gig, was a big improvement, and not just because Motoko has a new outfit that is both sexy and practical. The intro is cool and hip, with a much better song. In fact, the music all around was better. The philosophical-babble was drastically cut down, though not completely removed. The story itself was interesting and much easier to follow. But best of all, this season saw more introspective on our Section 9 crew, including Motoko, Saito, and Pazu. Overall, this season was leaps and bounds better than the last one, and I really think it is an example of the best of Japanese serial animation.

Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex - Solid State Society (TV-movie):
Finally, we have the made-for-TV movie. I really had high hopes for this movie, coming off a superb 2nd season of the series. But to be honest, the movie stunk. I thought the base story was actually strong, but the presentation and some plot choices were really poor. Motoko retired from Section 9? When last we saw them, they were in new Tachikoma ready to kick ass in a scene reminiscent of the first issue of the manga, which has all kinds of implications itself (the beginning of the end?). But now Motoko is out of the force, working on her own because she was "too restricted"? Fuck that. In addition, Batou is acting like an asshole for most of the film. And just to top it all off, the action sequences were boring and uninspired. In the end, it was just a really poorly done film. Any one of the episodes from Season 2 were better than this.

So here's my ratings:

1. Stand Along Complex (season 1): •••
2. Stand Along Complex: 2nd Gig (season 2): •••••
3. Stand Along Complex: Solid State Society (TV-movie): ••

So watch season 1, love season 2, and skip the movie. Well, maybe watch the movie if you are a big fan as I am, but be prepared to be disappointed.

I'm holding out for another season in hopes that they explore some of the other characters as well. I particularly like Ishikawa and Togusa, and we know next to nothing about Borma. So here's hoping for season 3.

Star Trek XI

So after seeing the movie a second time, I have to say I enjoyed it more. The first time, I was too distracted by the new actors and all the changes. I was watching too closely to see how they all did. So when I saw it a second time, I was able to simply enjoy the movie. And while it isn't an instant classic or anything, I enjoyed it. I'd give it 4 out of 5 stars.

But I think my original list of pros and cons still stands.

Pros:

• Bones - Karl Urban nailed it and he was my favorite part of the movie. Bones is easily my favorite character from TOS, maybe ever.
• Alternate Reality - I thought that was an awesome way to free themselves from any restrictions of the shows and movies that came before them. And it's hardly a new concept in Star Trek, so it fits with the canon.
• Kirk - He played it well without mimicking Shatner, which would have just turned into a parody.
• CG - The CG of the ships and worlds were awesome. The Enterprise coming out of the dust cloud around Saturn was sweet. All the little touches on the ship made it feel more real.
• Overall the story was good and to the point. It introduced characters but didn't dwell on origin stories, which could have really dragged.

Cons:

• They did a little of the shaky-camera action bullshit that Hollywood is addicted to. Shaking the camera does not make anything more exciting, it just annoys your audience who is trying to follow the action. Fortunately, this was limited to only a couple scenes.
  
• If you had told me yesterday that there would ever be a Beastie Boys track in a Star Trek film, I would have called you a retard.
  
• Sulu with a katana? The whole point of Sulu's character was that he was one of the first Asian guys on TV that wasn't a martial artist. Sulu was Asian, but he was just a dude, no kung-fu or samurai swords. They kind of ruined that, and I feel like Hollywood has moved backwards. It's like making Chekov a communist, or giving Uhura ghetto slang lines; "I gots kids to feeed wit yo special!".
  
• Spock's Ship broke the Star Trek feel and moved into Star Wars territory. Star Trek doesn't do one man vehicles with pointless moving parts, that's Goerge Lucas crap. I always felt like part of what kept Star Trek grounded in plausible reality was the fact that an advanced ship that travels space needs a large crew to operate and maintain it.
• Spock and Uhura? Really? The guy who came up with that should be fired.
  
• This is really nit picky, but I wish they had stuck to more of the original technology. Such as the solid beam phasers, both with the Enterprise and the hand phasers. It really made Star Trek unique in sci-fi tech and again seemed to be more plausible than most. And power requirements, such as raising shields during warp, shouldn't be possible. Power management was a big deal in TOS. It took time to raise sheilds, and you had to sacrifice engine power to do so. Again, it adds to the plausibility, but also allows for some space battle intrigue, such as when Kirk would hesitate to raise shields in a gamble, but takes a photon for it.

Star Trek: Legacy

Yesterday I finished Star Trek: Legacy on the Xbox 360 (also available on PC). The game is a bit old now (2006) and you can find it used for $15 at GameStop. It took a beating in the reviews when it came out. They ranged from 5/10 to 8/10. Remember, with game reviews anything below an 8/10 is considered shit. The scale pretty much starts at 8. However, I think a lot of people were too harsh. I thoroughly enjoyed the game. I enjoyed it so much that when I brought RE5 home on release day, I actually put in Legacy first and played a stage before I finally opened RE5. Maybe my enjoyment had something to do with how I am literally entrenched in Star Trek right now, watching an episode almost every night. Or maybe also because I played the game on Admiral (hard) difficulty, so it was more challenging than some reviewers had played. But I liked it so much I plan on playing it again and trying for some extra achievements.

The game is technically a Real Time Strategy (RTS). You control up to four federation ships in campaign mode. You start with only one, the Enterprise NX-01. You quickly rescue a second ship and take control of it. The combat is fairly straight forward. You have phasers and photon torpedoes. Phasers works better on shields and photons work better on hulls. You can redirect power to engines, weapons, or shields. You start in the Enterprise era so none of your own ships have shields yet, though your enemies do. There is a tactical map where you can issue orders more easily. The combat is essentially dog fighting. The missions vary from rescue, search and destroy, defense, recon, all kinds of things. No two missions felt the same. The game reminded me a bit of X-Wing, the old PC game. I loved X-Wing. While Legacy is far less complicated than X-Wing, it also means that Legacy is far easier to pick up and play. Legacy is not a number crunching strategy game. It is by no means a "casual" game, but it is certainly accessible. The strategy is small tactical deployment. You have four ships, a limited resource. Losing one can cost you in future missions. So you try to keep them together, but once in a while you want to send one of your faster ships off alone to achieve an objective while the main fleet defends another. You earn command points with which you can buy new ships. And those command points are restrictive enough that you don't want to lose a single ship if you can help it. I had a TOS era Constitution class ship right until the final stage, which means it was vastly outgunned and under shielded. But it was still very helpful as one more gun and one more target to distract enemy fire. If I had let it be destroyed in a previous mission then I would have been at a big disadvantage.

The game was a great fan service, IMO. They had every captain from every series with the real voices of the actors. Archer, Kirk, Picard, Sisko, Janeway, they're all there. Every version of every ship is there: NX-01, NCC-1701, NCC-1701-A, NCC-1701-D, NCC-1701-E, NCC-74656 (Voyager), NX-74205 (Defiant), and even DS9 makes an appearance. As far as I can tell, it has a complete roster of every Federation ship ever seen on screen. The same is probably true of the Klingon, Romulan, and Borg fleets.

Finally, I'd like to address some of the "problems" of the game, which I think have been greatly exaggerated in other reviews.

1. Pizza Box map - The maps are 3D but limited in the Z-axis, resulting in a pizza box shape. Honestly, I see this as a pro, not a con. It keeps the tactical map and the world at large much easier to manage and navigate. A large Z-axis would have just really complicated the UI and had you flying around trying to find things that are a million miles above or below you.
2. Flaky Controls - The controls do flake out once in a while. Your camera will suddenly jump 180 degrees, or one of your other ships would suddenly forget the command you gave it. While it would have been nice for these to have been fixed, it by no means ruins the game. The camera jump is harmless, and the lost commands are not very often and you are always monitoring all of your ships (or at least you should be) so you will notice rather quickly that Janeway has suddenly decided to go AWOL and is flying out into space.
3. Ship AI does not repair - You are always in direct control of one of your four ships, and the other three will be on AI unless you jump to it. I've read more than one reviewer complain that the AI ships will not conduct repairs no matter how damaged they are. These guys obviously didn't play the game very much. If they did, they would realize that if the AI did enact repairs on its own, it would be suicide. Enacting repairs on any part of the ship redirects a large amount of the ship's power. This means your engines, phasers, and most importantly, your shields will suffer. My guess is these systems lose at least 50% power. This means shields and phaser banks pretty much do not regenerate at all, and your ship is flying at half it's regular impulse speed. That ship is a sitting duck while conducting repairs. If the AI started repairs at the wrong time it would go down in seconds. Repair management is left to the user, and for good reason.

This is not a AAA title, and it seems some reviewers only want to see and play AAA. Well, in my mind, the game has to be first and foremost fun to play. And that automatically makes Star Trek: Legacy better than most of the so called "AAA" titles out there. I loved the game. I think any Star Trek fan with a 360 or PC should play it.