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The Only Complete, Detailed, and One-Hundred Percent Exclusive Review of the
Eragon Movie and Game Online!
An Extensive Review By Mike Macauley
If you've already read part one of the report and want to skip
right to part two, you can click here. That will bring you right down to
the start of part two. If, however, you haven't read part one, I'd
recommend doing so!
(Part one starts here.)
Day One: Flight, Hollywood, Hotel, Bob, Site
My trip started off with me waking up at 5 AM. For those of you who know me
personally, you know that waking up at 5 AM isn’t exactly my cup of tea. In
fact, 5 AM is usually when I go to bed. But because I was looking forward to
going to Los Angeles, California, I only semi-minded.
My aunt Amy, who accompanied me on this adventure to California, picked me up at
my house at around 6 AM. We headed off to the bus station in Rockland,
Massachusetts, where we missed the bus (it left after we got out of our car).
Because of this, we took the next bus to South Station in Boston, and from South
Station, took the Silver Line to Logan. What a pain.
My aunt and I grabbed some sandwiches (I was particularly fond of the ham and
cheese one at the deli) and then boarded our plane. The plane was only half
full, so we were able to occupy an exit row, with an empty seat in between the
two of us. This allowed lots of leg room, and lots of comfy sitting room.
Because my iPod decided to break the day before I left for LA, I had my new,
black video iPod. I watched a few music videos (“Move Along” by The All-American
Rejects, and “I’m Not Okay” by My Chemical Romance), and then listened to some
music. I also read Angels and Demons by Dan Brown. Fantastic author, if I do say
so myself!
On the plane, my aunt and I both purchased “meal packs,”
seen here. They weren’t
bad for $5, but they could in no way be considered a meal. Cookies, apple sauce,
and spread-cheese for crackers is not a good mix.
We arrived at LAX about six hours later. Since we didn’t check any luggage, we
were able to head right outside and hop onto a Dollar tram to take us to the
Dollar rental place. We rented a maroon 2006 Jeep Grand Cherokee, and with it,
we got a nice GPS system. The GPS system is the only reason that I’m not lost in
some random place in the middle of California.
Did I mention that the LA traffic sucks?
We headed off to Hollywood Blvd., where we walked around and saw both the
Kodak
Theater (Nintendo was holding their pre-E3 conference there as we walked by) and Grauman’s Chinese Theater (Microsoft was holding their pre-E3 conference there
as well), and then the Hollywood sign.
After this, we headed out to check into our hotel, Beverly Garland’s Holiday
Inn. I called Bob to check in with him (I had to ensure that the site wasn’t
driven to madness by the anticipating fans!) and he told me that he had heard a
rumor that there was a giant Eragon movie poster on the side of the Los Angeles
Convention Center, where E3 was being held. Of course, I had to go check it out.
My aunt and I did some insane paparazzi work to get the pictures I took. My aunt
drove the car up to the curb at the taxi-only section, right in front of the
south wing of the LA Convention Center. I bolted out of car, ran up to the sign,
took about ten pictures, and then ran back to the car. Taxis and buses were
beeping like crazy at my aunt, and the police were not happy. Not that I really
cared. I jumped into the car and we sped off.
These are the things I do just to get a few pictures.
After that, we went out to dinner with my aunt’s sister, then to Target for
batteries. We headed back to the hotel, where I sat outside on the lawn with my
laptop and updated the site. Bob and I uploaded the pictures, I made the news
post, and Bob launched the layout that Joelle and I designed.
The E3 mania had officially begun.
Day Two: No Sleep, E3, Website, Excitement, Thousands Of
People, Important People From Big Companies
I woke up around 8 AM on Wednesday morning, got ready, and gathered all of my
stuff. I ended up taking my laptop with me to E3, in addition to my digital
camera and video camera. I left the laptop in the car, though.
Before heading in, I recorded a little introduction for Shur’tugal’s E3 video.
It’s corny, and there were many bloopers, but still funny. After this, my aunt
and I walked up to the west wing of the convention center, where we got a few
free things (free things rock) and then headed over to the south wing, or hall,
or whatever they were calling it, where the giant Eragon poster was. We took
some pictures and video, got some free Mountain Dew, gawked at the idiots
protesting “war games” at E3, and then headed in.
Because our badges were for Exhibitors, and not just Exhibit Viewers, we were
able to get into E3 an hour before it opened to everyone else. This was awesome
because there was hardly anyone inside, so we got to play some games and walk
around without having to walk through giant crowds of people.
I saw games like World of Warcraft’s new expansion, The Burning Crusade, Quake
4, the Zelda booth, EVE Online, Magic The Gathering PC game, and more. Then we
went to check out the new Playstation 3, as well as Nintendo’s Wii. We were able
to see PS3, not play it, and take pictures. However, Nintendo had Wii hidden
behind a huge towering wall. The line to get in to see and play Wii was at least
700 people long. Not appealing.
Dear Playstation People: The price you’ve set for your game console is
ridiculous. Sincerely, Mike Macauley.
We scoped out the Eragon booth for a bit… the booth was more of a giant castle
built in the middle of E3. Inside of the castle was the Eragon movie theater,
where they were showing the Eragon movie and game trailer, as well as showing a
live game demo to anyone daring enough to wait in the very long line.
At around 11:30 AM, my aunt and I headed out to the car to grab my laptop, then
into a café area, where I used wifi to update the site with some pictures and an
account of what I had done so far. I also called Jack, my friend from Vivendi
Universal Games, who had organized this entire trip for me, and he told me to
meet him upstairs at the Eragon booth at 1 PM.
At 12:30 PM, my aunt and I headed back to the south hall-place-wing-area-thing,
and slowly made our way towards the giant Eragon theater. There we ran into Erik
(I think – I’m getting Erik and Evo both very confused, so my apologies to the
both of them!), who didn’t realize who we were until we said so. He brought me
around to meet various people, and then I ended up meeting with the owner of
Stormfront. We talked for a while, and then Ray Gresko came over to join us.
I was able to talk with him for a few minutes before it was finally time to go
inside of the theater. It turns out that Ray is a big fan of both Eragon books,
as well as the Harry Potter books, so we had a nice discussion about those. He
was hoping I knew the five words that Brom spoke to Saphira, but I had to
unfortunately let him know that I too am very much in the dark about that!
To prevent upsetting the people who had waited in line to see the trailer in the
theater, we were lead into the exit door on the other side of the theater to go
in and sit down. At this point, I was very excited, because I wasn’t sure what
to expect. One part of me was panicking, in case I hated it all, because as well
all know… I’m a hardcore, die-hard Eragon book fan.
Now’s a good time to mention that video cameras, camcorders, cell phone cameras,
recording devices, etc. were not allowed in. Common sense tells you that one,
though.
The Movie
The scene where Eragon, Murtagh, and the horses emerge from under the waterfall
right as they reach the Varden is in the movie, however, I don’t know exactly
how it’s done. In the preview, I did see Eragon and Murtagh come out of the
water with a few warriors pointing swords at their heads.
Another scene’s existence that I’m able to confirm is the prologue. I’m not sure
what order it appears in, but in the clip I was shown, Durza is standing on the
top of the small cliff, lights flashing and wind blowing around him, performing
magic.
For those of you complaining about Galbatorix being in the movie, and for the
opposites who were saying “he’s just in flashbacks!!”… well, the complainers
were correct. Galbatorix is in the movie, however, not in any kind of role he
plays in the book, from the scenes I saw. He could be playing in flashbacks, but
I can at least tell you that he’s definitely playing a character in the actual
current plotline. There were a few occasions where he’d look like a lush,
spoiled… jerk, laying around and acting like he was high on caffeine. There were
other parts where he’d be conversing with Durza about the current happenings (Arya,
Eragon, etc.).
It was also confirmed to me that the town on the water that we’ve been showing
you pictures of (the most recent had what looked like lizard skins hanging on a
store front) is Daret.
The Movie and Console Versions of Eragon
First on was the director of the Eragon movie, who couldn’t be at E3 because
he’s still at ILM working on the movie. He talked a little, and then some Eragon
movie footage came on. I noticed a lot of plot changes, minor mostly, which
didn’t really bother me. There wasn’t enough movie footage there for me to give
a full, accurate review of, but I was pretty impressed with what I saw.
I saw a glimpse of Saphira, but never enough to actually describe her to you…
from the movie footage. From the video game, however, I saw a lot more.
Saphira was shown wearing a few different things. Towards the beginning of the
movie preview, I saw her as just an egg. The egg was a bit larger than Ed
Speleers’ face. The beginning of the game preview showed Saphira wearing only a
saddle. In the live demo they showed us, Saphira was wearing her full body
armor. The armor on her tail had spikes going along the entire thing.
Saphira’s skin was most definitely scales, and it wasn’t the color blue that you
see on the cover of the Eragon book, or in any of the Eragon movie
advertisements. Saphira was more of a turquoise color, with darker blue adding
the details.
In the earlier parts of the game, which I saw first, Saphira is not always by
Eragon’s side. You, as the player, have the option to call in Saphira
telepathically, because you share a link with her at all times, when you see a
blue dragon-like shape appear on the screen where you will call her to aid you.
In the particular instance which I was able to see, the blue dragon shape would
appear on the bridges Urgals were attacking from. Saphira would then fly in when
told by hitting a certain button on the game controller and take out the bridge.
After doing this, Saphira would say one of her more witty comments (though I
can’t remember them off the top of my head).
Ah yes, Saphira’s voice… I’ll tell you right now, Fox still hasn’t told me a
thing about who is doing the voice for Saphira in the movie, however, I’m
positive Saphira had a voice in the game. Because Ed Speleers did the voice for
Eragon in the video game, and Garrett Hedlund did the voice for Murtagh in the
game, this leads me to believe that a female actress did the voice for Saphira
in the game… a.k.a. they cast a voice for Saphira. This isn’t confirmed, but it
seems to be common sense.
Some of the things Eragon and Murtagh would say as they completed something or
killed someone tended to be slightly corny and definitely out of character.
These things, however, were pretty much unnoticeable… you don’t really have time
to register what they’re saying before another Urgal jumps up and tries to kill
you.
By the way, the voice reminded me of the female voice from the computer in your
helmet in Halo, and the voice that greets the Professor when he goes into his
giant chamber in the X-Men movies.
I’m fairly positive that the crew at Vivendi got Saphira’s size correct, though
I haven’t been able to figure it out myself. They stayed true to the book by
making Saphira unable to breathe fire until the end of the game, where your goal
is to circle around in Farthen Dur to eliminate the Empire’s army with your tail
whip, a move where Saphira whips her tail, taking out ground enemies, and with
your flame breathe, which can be aimed almost like you would with a hose.
Another thing I noticed right away were the Urgals. For those of you in the site
comments insisting that Urgal horns will be added in to the movie with CGI, I’m
sorry to say that you were wrong. In both the movie, though for only a glimpse,
and in the game (they were in every scene of the game), the Urgals did not have
horns. They were, however, distinguishable from a human or elf – they were a few
feet taller and a lot thicker.
I was told that in the game (not sure if it’d be for the movie too), that
there’d be three types of Urgals: Urgals, Burzerkers, and Kull. What the hell’s
a Burzerker, you might wonder? One step up from an Urgal, and one step below a
Kull. Each group is more powerful than the one preceding it. Basically, they
needed to add different levels of Urgals into the game to make it more
interesting.
In the game, Eragon has his sword to fight with, starting off in Carvahall with
just daggers, and ending up with Zar’roc from Brom. Eragon also uses his bow for
long range attacks. If he has enough magic in his magic bar, located under his
health bar, he is able to turn those into what Ray called “brisingr arrows”…
basically, the arrows of fire that deal a lot more damage than normal.
Murtagh also fights with a sword and bow, though I noticed that he tended to use
his bow more than his sword, as he would be behind Eragon for the majority of
the time. Speaking of Murtagh, one cool feature in the game is the ability for a
friend to join in the game at any time. If your friend plugs in a second
controller, s/he will automatically play as whichever character is with you at
the time (Brom before his death, Murtagh after).
During the game play, one major thing to focus on is collecting little glowing
orbs that fly around in the air as you’re walking around, fighting, et cetera. A
blue bar running between you and the second player grows as you collect more of
these orbs. Once it gets all the way across, you’re able to use what I’m going
to code name an “insane move”. Ben, who was explaining this to me, said that
most players will choose to save this up for boss mode, when it’ll come in
really handy. One that I do recall was Eragon’s sword going ablaze and him going
on a banhammer rampage.
(This is where part two starts.)
Mike Forgot To Mention Something
I forgot to mention something pretty cool in my part one. In the game console
versions of the game, each level has a hidden dragon egg. Each dragon egg you
find unlocks some bonus material. One example of this bonus material that I can
remember is some footage from the movie. If you collect the egg from each level,
something big happens.
Games For Future Consoles (Wii, PS3, etc.)?
In short, they told me they’re working on “something” for them, however,
declined to comment further.
Before The Handhelds
During the time that the game was being played for me, a 20th Century Fox camera
crew was recording Ray Gresko (Lead Designer, Stormfront), me, and Ben Borth
(Producer of the Handheld games) playing the game.
After that was over, I was sat down on a chair (the type you see stars sitting
on when they do interviews for DVDs and such) and had me record commercial-like
little segments. One was for the Eragon Mobile Community, which I posted about
on the site. They had me say something like, “Hi, I’m Mike Macauley and I’m at
E3. I heard about the Mobile Eragon Community and texted the word ERAGON to my
country’s short code, then replied to the confirmation message, and I got a free
Eragon wallpaper back!”
When doing this, I messed up at least 100 times. Carol Cundiff, my friend at
Fox, was standing beside me ‘rooting me on’ – she and Dougal, the British guy
who was in charge of the Eragon Mobile stuff, both were telling me how if it was
them, they’d have no idea what they were doing. Finally, we broke it up into
parts and I pulled it off. Good going, Mike.
After this, we left the VIP room (which, by the way, was only about 150° - I was
dying.) and headed outside to record me talking about my opinion of the game and
movie. They had me stand with a few Eragon booth girls. I talked in front of the
camera for a few minutes, then spoke with one of the booth girls… and soon after
realized they got that conversation on camera too (picture yourself being
interviewed by Paris Hilton… then you’ll know what this was like).
Once this was done, everyone dispersed and my aunt and I stood around to talk
with Carol for a little bit. Eventually, we went and got my laptop and headed
down to a cafeteria thing so I could use WiFi. They charged me $10 so I could
use my WiFi for an hour at the convention. Sad.
I called Tim, posted a quick report and some pictures, then decided I didn’t
spend enough time at the Eragon booth, so I headed back up. When I was up there,
Erik came up to me and asked me if I liked what I saw, if I got a chance to
check everything out, etc. I said that the game was really cool and I was pretty
impressed. He asked me if I got a chance to check out the handhelds, and I told
him that I hadn’t gotten a chance because we had been recording things for the
camera. He told me to follow him and brought me back into the VIP room (I wanted
to cry… heat again).
Ben Borth was in there playing the PlayStation 2 version of Eragon for a woman,
and after a few minutes, Erik pulled Ben away and asked him to demo the
handhelds for me. The first thing I noticed when he did was that there was only
the Nintendo DS and the Game Boy Advanced there, no PSP.
The Nintendo DS Eragon Game
First up was the DS. Immediately I was reminded of World of Warcraft, an online
MMORPG game. Eragon was in a forest holding daggers (I was told the forest
wasn’t the spine, it was the path to Therinsford, but still technically part of
the Spine). This area was being called the “King’s Private Hunting Area,” in
which lurked Urgals and wolves. Eragon would encounter these wolves and engage
them in an RPG-like melee combat.
For those of you who own a DS, you’ll know that the DS has two screens for
playing – one is a regular screen, and the other is a touch screen, used for
various things in different games. Vivendi utilized this second screen in the DS
version, for what I think was pretty fascinating. To use magic during the game,
you speak the Ancient Language by drawing out symbols on the touch screen. For
those of you who are worried because your art skills aren’t exactly up to par,
don’t – the symbols I saw were mostly easy to draw. Over the course of the game,
your spells upgrade, and more symbols are added.
The Game Boy Advance Eragon Game
My personal favorite of all the games was the Game Boy Advance version. I was
immediately brought back to my Pokemon-playing days, back when I actually owned
a Game Boy Color. Because the GBA is an older handheld, it doesn’t have the
graphics that a DS or PSP do, and instead, still have the pixel graphics.
Though I’ve never played a Final Fantasy game, I have seen it played, and the
Eragon game was a similar game play type. As a full-fledged gaming RPG, you
always have three characters on your play list. When fighting someone, each
character chips in. You choose each character’s move, and each character makes
there move after the other. In the beginning of the game, you start off with
Arya and her two companions, Faolin and Glenwing. You encounter Urgals, who no
matter what, are impossible to beat (after all, it is the prologue, and if you
beat Durza and his Urgals, none of the story of Eragon will follow!).
For those of you wondering, I’m not sure how Saphira is in this game version,
though I’m sure she’s actually in it.
Each character in the game has certain skill areas to upgrade. Some characters
are only able to upgrade certain skill areas. For example, Eragon is able to
upgrade every skill area, however, Murtagh would have the magical skill area as
restricted to upgrades. For every level your character gains in the game, you
get one skill point to upgrade your skills. Each skill will max out at 150.
I was told that the GBA version of the game was the version that followed the
book closer than any other.
The PSP (PlayStation Portable)
While this game wasn’t there, I did get a chance to ask Ben Borth some questions
about it. As you all know, the PSP version is a complete dragon flight sim game.
You always play a dragon’s back.
One part I distinctly remember Ben telling me about was a strategy part of the
“dragon arena”, because it reminded me a lot of the scene in Eldest where
Eragon, Murtagh, Saphira, and Thorn are all fighting. You and your dragon battle
the other dragon and its Rider as you’re flying around on your dragon’s back.
The dragons will fight each other, bighting, scratching, etc. If you want to be
really daring, you can pull an Eragon, jump off of your dragon’s back, and
either attack the dragon or get onto the dragon and attack the Rider before
you’re pushed off or fall off. Once you’re pushed/fall off, your dragon will
maneuver under you to catch you in mid-freefall.
The game also utilizes the PSP’s ability to have wireless multiplayer games with
other PSP users. You can connect with another player in multiplayer mode and
battle it out with them and their dragon in an arena-type place.
The Rest Of The Day
After this, I asked Erik if I could see the movie preview one more time. We
skipped the line and were lead in, and this time, I got front row. I watched it
again, and after that, headed out. We left to use the laptop one last time.
I wanted to go back in to the convention after this, but realized it was after 6
PM. My aunt and I decided to see if we could get back inside, since they let us
in an hour early at the beginning of the day. The lady gave me a hard time
because of my badge, but called a guy over, who was coincidentally the same guy
that let us in an hour early, and he waved me in.
We walked around a bit more, took pictures of everything while it was empty
(since the convention was over), got asked to leave by many people, and were
finally escorted out. We headed back to the hotel, and on the way got In N Out
Burger (I was surprised to see a total of four things on their menu). What a
long day.
Day Three: Early Checkout, Fox Studio Executive Tour, Rodeo
Drive, People With Too Much Money, My Aunt’s Family’s House, Redeye Flight
We checked out of the hotel very early, and with the help of our GPS system,
ended up at 20th Century Fox’s studio lot about 45 minutes prior to when we
needed to be there. After going in the wrong entrance, we finally parked our car
and headed into the lot. We hung around in the Fox Studio Store, where I ended
up spending way too much money on all of the seasons of “24” on DVD, as well as
all of Family Guy on DVD, and Firefly on DVD. Everything in the store was half
off the price that they’re sold in normal stores for. Convenient!
The Fox Executive Tour Dude named Mike met up with us at exactly 11 AM. He
explained to us that he’s normally dressed in a suit or tux when he gives the
tours, because the Fox Studio is not open to the public, and the tours are only
given to executives from big companies that Fox has just bought, politicians, or
famous people. My aunt and I felt important for a few seconds.
We couldn’t find a golf cart and opted to walk around instead (which was
unfortunate, considering we had been on our feet for a good 14 hours the day
before). We first went into an empty sound stage, a giant warehouse-like
building. They had been filming a pilot for a show in there and had constructed
a giant “underground tunnel” inside. We checked this out and thought it was
really cool. Mike also showed us some interesting spots were prior big movies
had been filmed.
We checked out some sound studios (Fox has the biggest and best in the world… a
sound room that can hold over 150 musicians and only costs $65,000 a day to
rent), another sound room used to record sounds you hear in movies from dishes
clanging to horses trotting to skateboards on a sidewalk.
We walked around a bit more, saw the wardrobe where all of the clothing used in
TV shows and movies are stored for re-use (there was over 2,000 pairs of jeans
in there… this place was bigger than Maria Carey’s closet!), and then headed to
the wardrobe of clothing they don’t re-use because big stars wore them in big
movies. I saw the “breast and stomach suit” from Mrs. Doubtfire, held Logan’s 60
pound suit from X-Men, saw the dresses from Titanic, saw clothing from Planet of
the Apes, Daredevil, Fightclub (my aunt asked if she could have Brad Pitts’s
leather jacket, as it was “just laying around and was getting no good use in a
closet”), and more.
After this, we saw the giant dishes for sending out their broadcasts, the
Simpson’s recording studio, the set where “House” is filmed, the sheet metal and
woodworks shops, and another sound stage (with the world’s largest filming pool
underneath the floor tiles)… this was also the sound stage where movies like War
of the Worlds were filmed.
When our tour was over, we headed back to our car, where we found an
“inter-office memo” on our windshield telling us that we backed into our parking
space (thank you Captain Obvious!), which wasn’t allowed as it can “damage the
parking structure,” and stated that the next time we do it, we’ll be subjected
to a fine. Sounds like some Rent-A-Cops take their jobs way too seriously.
We left for Rodeo Drive. On the way, I called Bob and told him he was going to
New York City with me to see JK Rowling and Stephen King (“I am?”). We spent a
little time there, then I got sick of rich people and t-shirts that cost $4,000
and we headed off to Downtown Disney to do some shopping for the people I
promised gifts to.
We ate at the Rain Forest Café, shopped for my parents, sister, cousin, bought a
funny thing for Joelle and Yolanda (from the forums, known as Yoli) for their
birthdays, and then headed out.
We spent the rest of the day at my aunt’s sister’s house, where I was able to
finally hook up to some high-speed internet and download the episode of LOST
that I missed (“?” was one weird episode!).
We returned our car, headed to the airport, got on our 11 PM flight out to
Boston, and were home in Boston at 8 AM. Then I went home, bought tickets to the
JKR and King reading in NYC, reflected on how awesome of a trip I had, and
crashed in my bed until 8 PM.
Three words: Life is grand.
Thank Yous
I owe a big thanks to Jack Walker from Vivendi who put up with my five emails a
day for two weeks prior to the trip, worked out all the details for the trip
with me, and more. Also to Carol Cundiff, because she’s extremely nice, has put
up with my constantl emails and questions for over a year, made me feel less
embarrassed during the camera times in the VIP room, and arranged the Fox tour.
I owe a big thanks to Vivendi, who paid for my trip and made all of this
possible, and all the guys who I met at E3. You’re all extremely generous! The
following people from Vivendi need to be thanked: Ray Gresko, because not only
did I mess up the pronunciation of his last name really bad on the podcast, but
he took the time to give me the most in-depth explanation of the game
imagineable. Ben Borth, for playing the console games and the handheld games
for me, and explaining the handhelds better than I think anyone could. Erik and
Ivo (whose last names I don't know), for both making sure that everything went
well during the day. And if I forgot anyone else, I'm sorry.
Thanks to Bob and Tim for putting up with my constant phone calls and IMs at
obscure hours of the night, and assisting me because I hate laptops. Seriously.
My aunt, who won’t be reading this, but either way, I’m thankful she came with
me.
And the fans who didn’t harass me in the comments for being patient. You guys
rock.
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