The film’s refit was only slightly improved when it came to clarity of myth, though that all fell quickly to the wayside when the cameras panned for the first time across beautiful Argos (though, admittedly, my least favorite of Greek cities).

One thing filmmakers need to understand is for this genre of film, expectations have become so high, that had Argos been anything less than epic and astounding and beautiful, it would have been sub-par.

The story itself was easy, solid, typical. Humans, with their hubris have offended the Gods. While I found it odd that Mighty Zeus the Thunderer would wear full plate armor, circa 1200 AD Europe (or from the set of Excalibur – which, by the by, would make a fine remake as well), Liam Neeson was an acceptable choice for the role.

The “pretty face” that played Perseus did a fine job, mostly because it was an action movie requiring little acting. The film’s true mistake, however, was the twenty minute battle with the scorpions, in place of the two-minute confrontation with the Kraken. Technically speaking, the film had no falling action from the plot climax. There was about sixty-seconds of “Good Job, here’s your prize,” and then credits.

Of course, I loved the film, being a fan of the Greek myth cycle and anything that dares attempt to render it for the modern audience. One thing I can’t shake, however – The Kraken is straight out of Norse/Finnish mythology and never was a Titan. I can accept that a creature of a magnitude would be considered a Titan (sort of) but Medusa, was a Gorgon. I suppose Clash of Norse Kraken and Gorgon just didn’t roll off the tongue like “Titans.”

Unfortunately, the same thing happened with The Pitt. Granted, my expectations may have been unusually high for this expansion module. The gossip and rumors I’d been hearing were equating it with the Shivering Isles expansion for Bethesda’s other hit, Oblivion. Sadly, the reality was far different.

I powered up the old Xbox 360 and loaded the game. I used a previously created character, one who had topped out at 20^th level. After a few moments of wandering the wastes, I received the radio call and headed towards the map marker. I met a man named Wehrner who led me to the ruins of Pittsburg.

The morally ambiguous plotline was frustrating, actually. By committing a kidnapping to secure a cure for intense radiation sickness, you begin a brutal revolution that ultimately forces you to blast the child’s parents. In this case, I chose a recently liberated flamer, as I was desperately low on regular ammo, charred “the Cure’s” Ma and Pa. However, first time through, I chose to not kidnap the child, as I realized it would result in a conflagration of serious proportion. The slaves wouldn’t budge and end up attacking your character. Blasting a few slaves, I quickly noticed my Karma was disappearing faster than my ammo.

I reloaded the game, and against my better judgment, I took the baby/cure. So, as it all unravels the slaves get freed and the child/cure has a foster mother who, though worn out and obviously regretting her decision, attempts to take care of the child as best she can.

Before the climax of the plot, you are asked to fiddle around with the usual gather/investigate quests. Most irritating is the much-lauded and greatly anticipated Arena. Three matches and you’ve earned your freedom, are Arena champion, and the plot climax is only moments away. The arena itself is a tiny little room, baked with radiation, and the opponents were one V.A.T.S. click away from being splattered all over the radioactive rocks.

The exploration of the Pitt took longer than the actual quests, of which there were like three.

Of the new weapons available, none are remarkable. The Auto-Axe or Man Opener is cute, but frankly, if I wanted a melee weapon game, I’d play Oblivion. The new rifle, called the Infiltrator, is an automatic assault rifle with a sound suppressor and scope. At full zoom, its accuracy is about as good as a drunk trying to make it into the toilet bowl so his wife doesn’t bitch him out the next morning. That is to say, the rifle has some serious drift and does significantly less damage than the Chinese Assault rifle. It’s basically dead weight.

After some hours scraping through the Pitt, I found an abandoned apartment complex. Suddenly excited for a little of that magic that made Fallout 3 so great, I sat up straight and dove into the Trog infested building. Two floors later, I’d scoured it clean and was once again bored. The ongoing quests of bringing teddy bears to the baby-cure is a little more depressing (if possible) than the rest of The Pitt, and as the residents had not yet chosen to police the corpses from their revolution, I don’t think I’ll be taking my character back there any time soon.

Technically, it was a very nice expansion. The environments were convoluted and messy, true Fallout 3 style. But spending most of your time in a steel mill and surrounding areas felt rather… blah.

Overall, it’s a beautiful expansion, but with not much real game play. Diehard Fallout 3 fans will enjoy, as always, but find themselves craving more. 

Rise of the Argonauts was described to me as being somewhere between God of War (which were great games!) and Conan (a hack n’ slash game of exquisite entertainment value).  I’m thinking this is going to be great, though Jason is my least favorite of Greek heroes, I can give it a chance. 

Well, I played it through. There’s actually only about three hours of actual “play.” The rest of the game is desperately long conversations with uninspired (perhaps too well known) characters, loaded with exposition and inopportune options for dialogue. Between running around expansive levels with limits options for action, interaction or combat, and the dreadfully elaborate conversations, I found myself considering turning the game off and returning it, at least for the first two hours. 

Eventually, I started to get the hang of the game, and even enjoyed playing. Like any game in it’s genre, the camera angles aren’t quite right. Once you get used to the action, Jason becomes a much more effective fighter, and incidentally, much more fun to play. Of course, the opponents were either evil monsters from Tarterus or Ionians (an arbitrary selection from the true-life ancient greek sub-cultures), neither appearing as much more than a glowing suit of armor to be hacked at.

The inclusion of the other Argonauts seems superfluous. They serve very little purpose except to distract opponents while you massacre others. While we’re talking about the Argonauts, I feel compelled to comment on the game designers choices for Argonauts. The inclusion of Achilles and Pan, Lycomedes and Medusa, was just awkward. As one friend commented to me “It’s as if one designer was a classics major and the others had seen alot of movies.” 

He’s right. There are moments in the game where the designers knowledge of classics is impressive. And in the rest of the game, they seem to nothing except what they learned from Clash of the Titans. 

Over all, a simple, straight forward game with little to offer a true classics buff, too much talking and limited combat.