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RelentlessKnight

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Short Look at Asura's Wrath

All the talk about how Asura's Wrath is awesome prompted me to play the game, since it won in one of the categories in their GoTY. TO be honest, I haven't really seen this game nor know the fact that its part quick time event and part a hack-and-slash game. From I heard so far in those podcasts and looking at some screenshots, I did not think its like an anime until I actually played it.

From the start, when I boot up the game, what I saw was confusing. The first mission, I guess that goes along with the credits starts off as a huge armada of spaceships invading some planet filled with these lava monsters and the whole battle commences with these eight monstrous generals fighting against the lava guys. You play as Asura, one of the generals in a space harrier-type of shooter flying into space and shooting and dodging those lava enemies. It was quite a surprise that it started off as a shooter although I had not fucking clue why these guys are invading or cannot comprehend the story as far as killing dudes.

Then after defeating the first boss, Asura then gets to return to his homeland to meet his wife and daughter who is the priestess (I guess) but when he was hurried to meet the emperor. He was then framed on killing the emperor, as well as his wife and was kicked out there and was forced to live in exile. The story so far is like Dishonored with Corvo being framed of killing the Empress but in this game, from I had played, you had been framed by the 6 or so generals who wants to use/steal Asura's daughter powers to become deities or gods and reestablish their order. Fallen down to the planet, he climbs up this long pole while being greeted by a golden spider. During that, he reminices about his past and returns to where he came and the generals that are prsumed to be immortal.

Yet the game tries to conceal itself as a episodic anime show with recaps on previous shows and it almost felt like a Dragon Ball Z/Gundam Wing format of storytelling. Within every episode, there is a stylish storybook telling you what happens in between the episodes and more story generally. I somewhat like the format but seeing that I don't like anime anymore or not that much, I just don't like the plot to this.

Anyways, since its anime-based, there are certain voice actors in the game who really sounds familiar to fans of Dragonball Z and other anime such as one of the generals' voice actor is Orchimaru from Naruto and the other somewhat sounds like voice actor behind Nappa from DBZ and the narrator's voice actor also sounds familiar.

The gameplay aside from the start is like a hack and slash in the veins of God of War, there's a normal attack and there's a heavy attack although that requires to be recharged within every single use that does a AoE around your opponents. When you had beaten down that it falls down, you could do a execute move that either kills him or damages him alot. Other moves include the range that is a spread-shoot and a target rapid fire that seems useful to me although its weak. You can lock-on your opponents to face them and who dodge, recover from enemy blows and also like the execute button, you can a more powerful execution when your bar is full that severely damages or kills your opponent. This bar recharges when you damage or take damage from enemies and once full, you can activate it causing you to do more damage and can use heavy attack more than once.

In addition, certain moments like boss fights you transform into this six-armed badass doing powerful amounts of damage as well as being a badass in certain QTE moments where you are mashing yourself to hell whether lifting up a huge giant finger or successfully executing a QTE moment to either dodge or do damage. These moments are the Resident Evil 4 moment of not being able to enjoy any cutscene under stress that a QTE moment will appear and it really a pain in the ass to be at the edge of the seat waiting for it. Although there are some moments like ME2 that you could shut up someone like that huge fat general that likes to taunt Asura.

Asura itself is awesome and somewhat felt like the japanese version of Kratos with all his rage and getting vengeance on those who wronged him. He just so angry!

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A Little Late Impressions of Dishonored!

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To be honest, I haven’t seen this game yet until I played it recently and was somewhat surprised at how the game actually is. I also did not know that it was a Bethesda game and just saw only one screenshot of the game without any knowledge of how the game actually is besides being a stealth game. However, I just recently purchased it on Boxing Day and just played the first two or three hours of the game and here are my initial impressions of it.

The game starts out as you have been blamed for the murder of the Empress and the disappearance of her daughter by High Overlord Campbell and the Lord Regent who has sentenced you to death. Also that the city has a plague in reference to the Black Death in Europe that has been spread across its populace in the city causing death and an increase of rats.

Much like Bethesda’s Elder Scrolls’ games, the first mission involves you to break out of jail, however, its not quite open-world (at least from the two hours, I had played) and sets you in a somewhat linear path with optional quests and collectibles to find on your way.

The contact that guard had slipped for you at the starting first helped you escape the prison, having a location of your gear and to escape the island. The contact eventually is the loyalists who realize the main character is the one who has been framed for killing the Empress and the disappearance of her daughter. The leader of the Loyalists, the Admiral first wants you to kill the High Overlord Campbell which was really surprising considering that’s your first main objective after you landed there and left somewhat confused how long the game actually is.

After you had escaped the prison and made your way to the Loyalists hideout, in your sleep, a mysterious person grant you a gift to wield magical abilities, starting with the first useful ability, Blink which teleports you from one place to another. Also you get a heart that creepily talks to you in a woman’s voice and tells you where to find Bone shards and Runes that of which could obtain more powers and upgrade existing ones.

The heart will indicate where to these runes and whenever you are close to them, you will hear a “singing voice” and that heart will constantly beat rapidly. The heart constantly reminds me of that Doom 3 expansion, where you obtain that demonic heart in the beginning although you could wield it and your sword in this one and there’s no ability for the heart to consume souls (maybe, I’m still at the beginning).

From a combat and gameplay portion, it just felt like Skyrim, the fact that you could wield a spell/power on the left hand while you sword on the other. Even the blocking and stealth kills are quite reminiscent of that game due to the fact that the stealth kill animation looks like it has been pulled straight from Skyrim.

As a stealth game even though it feels like Skyrim, it stills feels good. In the two or so hours that I had played this game, I really liked the crossbow with sleeping darts and used it more than the non-lethal takedowns. It just reminds me of playing Human Revolution although I liked the non-lethal takedowns more in that game than this. Furthermore like that game, you could carry/drag unconscious or dead guards into places where enemies could not see it or trash bins. However, I don’t think the AI could wake up a unconscious guard from the time that I had played.

As I said, Blink is a really useful spell especially when you storm into the Campbell’s compound after rescuing the old overseer. Infiltrating his place reminds me so much like Arkham Asylum without the gargoyle statutes and blinking from one ledge to another makes it satisfying.

The other powers/abilities I had unlocked aside from blink are the see-through ability, mind-control and slow-motion. Each ability has a upgrade that requires more than one rune though so far it only goes to rank 2 where that specific ability becomes better. The mind-control power is weird because the first rank you could control an animal such as a rat that could be used to crawl to smaller vents that of which the player could not go and find hidden areas however you cannot be close to a guard or else they will kill it – in the next rank, you could possess a guard or so and in the limited time, the other guards will be friendly to you and will not attack, furthering obtaining more loot.

Like Splinter Cell, when you approach a door, you can peak to see if the room is empty or not and also you could upgrade a perk to enable your mask to have binoculars like Sam’s night goggles.

Like Deus Ex, the game promotes less bloodshed and more non-lethal takedowns or to avoid enemies as possible. In fact, the game tells you that killing any person will increase the outcome of how it will affect your ending due to the fact that both the plague and the rat infestation that clogged the city.

The AI are dumb at times and for a stealth game, its really not a coincidence. Although I did like that the guards’ alert level icon reminds me of Arkham City when you try to alert them, they have two stages before they spot you. I also like the fact that when they spot you out of nowhere, they get startled and then proceed to warm others about their discovery at your position. Also the AI will sometimes peak into doors and have the will to look up and spot you unlike other stealth games and like Assassin’s Creed will use their ranged weapons to kill you.

From a graphical standard, from the same company who brought Skyrim, Dishonored just plains looks like Skyrim from the somewhat snarly and ugly character designs to the environment and its textures. The lighting just sets it apart and it basically felt like the similarities that New Vegas have as a light aesthetic with added steampunk-ness to its setting. However it stills looks good from the effects of your powers to how they decided on the art style.

Again like Skyrim, the problem having the somewhat interface as that game ruins the character interaction of this game. It’s just plain awkward to see a NPC turn around to speak to you, although certain key NPCs like Fallout 3 and Skyrim will trigger that weird locked-in interaction. In addition, there are times that some random NPC will appear when you are talking to someone and it just feels that they need to improve the general quality of these weird interactions.

So far, I had killed Campbell and freed the former overseer and had saved the captain from an assassination by poison by him. I somewhat rushed to kill Campbell seeing that I have one or so optional quests remaining at that place (it is the quest where you had to poison the thugs that has been harassing the crazy old women).

UPDATE: FINISH THE GAME IN 7 HOURS

Written my first review of 2012 since Generals.

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Clever Anti-Piracy Methods in Games

The recent Bombcast had discussed several video games that cleverly use and detects pirate/hacked versions of games which the designer/programmer of said game will add some terrible flaw if said game was pirated. They had exemplified games like if you pirated the PC version of Alan Wake, your main character will be wearing a pirate match to pirated DS games like Rhythm Heaven which will affect the speed and render the game more difficult to unplayable and other games that will increase/tweet the difficulty of a game because of a illegal version that was detected. Nowadays, these measures of anti-piracy or DRM hasn't really been added in such games to stop piracy or make great uses of scaring the shit out of you if you really pirated a copy of a game.

After the bombcast, I searched in Youtube for a few games that added many bizarre side-effects if you ever pirated a game; it goes from "EVIL" to many out of the ordinary bugs that will effect the game and wish you really had purchase the damn game.

Surprising Grand Theft Auto 4 on the PC has some side effects when you play a pirated version of this game. The video says that if you did not log in "windows serial number" the game will go nuts. The actual video starts at 3:11, where you will experience several annoying things that Rockstar had implemented to screw with the player. The one main thing that screws with you is the camera, the first thing shown in the video is when you drive a vehicle will start "smoking" for no reason and the camera will then proceed to swirl uncontrollably like if you have been drinking in the game and does it for the duration of the game affecting the gameplay. It's like Niko is drunk forever with the way the camera is making you nauseous.

Mirror Edge does a little tweeking if it finds out that you had been playing a illegal copy of the game. The game has these checkpoints that will determine if you ever pirated this game and so if you did, this will happen. The game is essentially about running but if you reach a checkpoint like this coloured ramp, you will stop running and instead walk slower and that will screw up the point of trying to jump across to another building.

I have some fond memories of Spyro: Year of the Dragon back when I was playing this on the PS1 but I regrettably had pirated/brought a pirate version of this game and there were some instances that would fuck my entire game for me. I remember one exploit or copy protection schemes that will teleport you to the final boss, not knowing how to kill it or extremely impossible to kill it in the first place, I died and then it jumps back to the start of the game and my save file has been deleted or has been overwritten to the start of the game. This was the many detects of this game with copy protection that will fuck with you plus the fairy in this game will break the fourth wall and will tell you that "you seem to be playing a hacked version of this game" and it will result/experience problems that will not occur in the legit copy.

Maniac Mansion has a funny copy protection scheme too. When you encounter the steel door, there is copy protection, failure to input the right code will have severe consequences but provide the right code will give you a hilarious GAME OVER screen. Maniac Mansion is already scary in the first place with the fact that you could die in an adventure game but this takes the cake.

Puggsy, a weird ass SNES game somewhat breaks the fourth wall and tells you the game that you have been playing is "pirated" or this "silly copy." The video showed here is somewhat similar to Earthbound but in the cheeky way it is implemented. When you reach the last level of this game, you will face a underpowered and weak boss that will encourage you to play a legit copy or the "full game." After you had beaten this boss, it will prompt a message with a somewhat creepy message and music telling you to play the cartridge version of the game "instead of this silly copy". There are also several things in the game that will prompt this message too.

Mother 2 or Earthbound which has a clever to creepy copy protection. The game will detect the bootleg cartridge through boot-up and then will screw up the game for you. The programmer has added several affects that will screw the player if it is pirated; the first instance shown here is really scary and clever at the same time. If you have encounter Giygas, during the battle it will automatically freeze the damn game along and will add some scary music and sound and you will be forced to reset the console. If you do, the game will perceived to delete all your save data from your cartridge and thus all your hard work wasted for pirating a SNES game. Other effects will include such things like increased difficulty and enemies that will spawn at a unprecedented rate.

There are also games like Super Metroid, Super Punch Out and Tetris Attack that will detect if your copy is pirated specifically Super Punch Out that will out right NOT let you play the damn game. I find that even back then programmers and developers have the time to add these layers of copy protection into games that will screw and scare the player if you did not purchase a legit copy. Nowadays developers is trying to find ways to do it but fail at attempting to prevent people who pirate games to access them in the first place. I would like to see in the future that they will implement these things shown here and possibly scare the shit out of you...

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And thus we keep driving into the night...... (Subtle Spoilers)

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Currently I am still playing Max Payne 3, the game does not rise any expectations that I would perceive as a Max Payne game should be. I was hoping for a nightmare level after Max took a shit load of painkillers and whiskey or inhale some drugs that knock him unconscious but so far, I am now at Chapter 13 of Disc 2 and was left out disappointed. Even though the previous Max Payne especially the first one had difficult levels such as the nightmare ones and I assume that people complained the fact that it's too difficult but this right now just felt like a Max Payne game that did not set themselves apart from other third person shooters. I mean, aside from all the bullet-time, in-game annoying comic strips that play when you load up your game, hard boiled cop out for revenge and such, nightmares were the defining moments of the series. Having the game stripped apart from it remotely did not feel like a Max Payne game from the start and after parts of non-stopping action, I am not left satisfied of it.

Withstanding the lack of nightmare elements in this game so far, the storyline plays like the previous games, being that of a conspiracy with PMCs, corruption with government officials and others, gang warfare and "Good Guy turned Bad Guys" plus loads of grieving with Max. It is essentially the main path of both the series and this game, being that of corruption and the conspiracy that government officials are helping fund private military guys but I won't spoil that much. It's like how the Aesir corporation and Woden owes most of New York in the previous games and inject their drugs upon the poor (well the Aesir corporation did that) as to how the UFE is "trying to clean up" Comando Sombra and their situation with the other gangs and PMCs. We could clearly see some compare and contrast with the storyline in previous games to this one.

When last I talked about my impressions, just right after the mission that I was playing, I encountered some interactions with the environment such as Max being able to watch television although it is mainly two channels such as the news and a cartoon show featuring The Adventures of Captain Baseball Batboy and seeing their animation, it looks like the same animation/cartoon team that made those cartoons from GTA IV. There are also clues and evidence to be find whether it's to find the truth behind the UFE and the gangs that corrupt Sao Paulo or fun stuff like turning on the TV or playing the piano and each time he plays it, he gets better of finding the right note.

I encountered many problems with the game aside from what I complained earlier, back in Chapter 6, I had encountered clipping problems with the cover system and when I go into bullet-time and try to do a leap-dodge onto cover in a office cubicle, I fell down/clipped out of the place and cannot even shoot my way out of it while paramilitary assholes were killing me. That's my main gripe and so far the only annoying glitch/bug in the game and the other problems I had addressed is the last man standing where I cannot pin point what guy has shot me or when I ran out of bullets.

In Chapter 7, we see a new Max and is going to the mean favela streets of Sao Paulo to the hill, I was surprised that there is a surprising amount of nudity in this game. When you go to the run-down strip club, Max walks into open rooms where you could see whores naked and having sex, I was somewhat stunned like when they showed male genitals in the Lost of the Damned DLC in GTA IV, it's just came out of nowhere to me. Anyways I was relieve that both Fabiana and Marcelo is murdered especially when Marcelo was burned alive, I was actually laughing my ass off because I really fucking hate that annoying prick. Aside from that I did not like those in-game looking comic strips when you load up the game, it just felt like screen-grabs from what I saw previously and overall want to have those comic panels like before.

Also I like how the John McClane-ish (without the beard) look that Max has in Chapter 11, he even has that tank-top.. even though his personality borrows heavily from those films.

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Such a Late Goodbye, Max....

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I haven’t really seen any pre-release coverage of Max Payne 3, like other Rockstar games I rather see the final product than see the previews and coverage beforehand. What I only had seen is some screenshots of bald Max smoking fools and seen no comic-strip in those shots. However I really wasn’t that anticipated for this game since it’s announcement, I just turned a blind eye on other games that I was excited and when the GTA V trailer was released, it got overshadowed by that game.

Anyways, I am always fond of the Max Payne series, I remember writing some fan fic and getting me into those hard-boiled cop movies specifically John Woo (even though I watched Hard Boiled before) and the fascination of a riggid cop who’s family is murdered and presumably girlfriend too. It’s what strives Max Payne to be all emotional and pathetic and the only friend he needs is Jacks and a dozen painkillers which seems to be consumed more than food. To be honest, I really liked the Fall of Max Payne (the second one) more than the first, not only of the difficulty that the first one has but I liked Mona Sax’s character and the storyline even though it’s sillier than the first one. I remember how difficult those damn nightmare sequences are in the first one than the second one, there is one level where you have to carefully balance yourself on fucking beams made out of a blood trail and do some platforming which I failed plenty of times back then. That level specifically after in the mansion (I think) when Payne gets surrounded and gets injected by that bitch was fucking hard, although it felt like they just made the same level earlier, more difficult with a bigger maze and a even worse platformer.

At times, it's fun but overshadowed by the slow-motion effectiveness including Max
At times, it's fun but overshadowed by the slow-motion effectiveness including Max

Other than that, the gameplay was quite dynamic and unique to me back then along with bullet-time, enabling you to go into slow-motion, jump whether sides or a leap-dodge and smoke fools was impressive at it’s time. And it still is, although unlike Fall of Max Payne, bullet time doesn’t speed things up for you but slows everything down to make it more challenging which sometimes infuriates me due to it affecting other gameplay elements such as Last Man Standing, where I often fail at. When your mortally shot (even if your health is full), it turns on slow motion and you have to kill the last person who did that and then you regain your health.

It does look satisfying but run out bullets and you are dead unless you have a spare painkiller
It does look satisfying but run out bullets and you are dead unless you have a spare painkiller

At times, it’s really frustrating due to the fact that if your no careful on the cover or trying to do a melee on someone, your death because you ran out of bullets and cannot shot the guy or you’re too slow on shooting him. Although if you have a painkiller it will automatically consume it but painkillers are often hard to find unlike the previous games generously. Which goes on saying that the painkillers and the health system itself does not regenerate your damn health but it could relief your addiction; it do like the fact that the painkiller affects you unlike the previous games where it felt like popping candy to your mouth. It adds up the difficulty and frustrating I have for this game, there are times that I really need it and have to play the game not doing all the slow-motion flips because I end up dying.

It's just ridiculous to waste too much bullets for him to physics'd
It's just ridiculous to waste too much bullets for him to physics'd

The Kill-cam was the most useless feature in the game, how did even add it – I am sure in previous games, it has moments like these but there were sparse all around and this felt too repetitive and me wasting bullets to overkill the last enemy is dumb especially when physics kick in. The good thing about the returning features however is that they did not change the HUD which I like.

Classic Tequ.. I mean Payne dual doves...
Classic Tequ.. I mean Payne dual doves...

Unlike the previous Max Payne games, you cannot carry an arsenal of weapons from a sniper rifle, machine gun to dual guns but three, two sidearms and one two-handed gun. The amount of realism that exists in this game astounds me and having less firearms at times when you are out of health and luck, it’s very annoying. You do however combine side-arms such as a Uzi with a revolver or a pistol but you have to drop the damn two-hander although I find it better just using the dual pistols rather than other weapons not only because it’s his signature choice but it’s more effective to me, spraying dudes. There are collectibles in this game which is almost like Goldeneye but throughout the game you have to collect several parts to unlock the golden version of it; it is almost like Resident Evil 3 where you collect gun parts from different places. When I was using the golden pistols, I thought it would do more damage because I found it more accurate and took less to kill the enemy.

One Whiskey, One Smoke and a shit ton of Painkillers
One Whiskey, One Smoke and a shit ton of Painkillers

Now, Max Payne 3 is criticized especially Giantbomb’s Quicklook for it’s controls and Max Payne himself being a mopely bitch which like I said, he’s quite that before. They had address the fact that he’s been quite negative in his attitude in the previous games but the fact that this dude’s family (even killing a damn baby which is fucking messed up) and Mona Sax has been killed. He made more of a effort to drink more than the previous ones even though I rarely seldom see him drink before but

The controls is somewhat terrible I had to say, maybe it’s just because I had been playing the first two on the PC and how smooth the controls are but it almost felt like L.A Noire or the same sort of engine in regards of the shooting mechanics (except the bullet-time). I really wanted to play this game on the PC and I hope Rockstar would get on ahead to release a fucking PC version even though I don’t have a computer to run the damn thing. There are three options on aiming, soft aim which is the default one (on medium) which gets some use to as it’s does not quickly locks on the enemy, the hard lock which seems to disable achievements (or so they say) and free aim like the name says.

I am still getting acquainted with the controls as I still stumbled on the difficulty and have a learning curve to overcome. It’s just the sloppiness of not going on Rambo-style and killing dudes and trying to converse ammo while hiding behind cover and not having the damn AI flushing you out with a grenade. It’s like the difficulty with everything adding on top of it makes it even harder than the previous games.

The art style and graphics like what Ryan talked about is like Man on Fire, from the dynamic lighting, the blurry version every time Max takes pills to Payne being a bodyguard to a wealthy family with the exception of Dakota Fanning.

In her place is some spoiled trophy wife, Fabiana that was however kidnapped by terrorists called the CS (Commando Sombra) which demands ransom for three million from his rich husband, Victor that Payne and Passo protects. When they hit the sports arena to exchange money, they were ambushed by paramilitary forces with antiquated weaponry, severely wounding Max. Him and Passo must then find Fabiana in the Tjete River where she is held and this is where I left off.

The lighting and aesthetic is like they came out of Man on Fire (the remake)
The lighting and aesthetic is like they came out of Man on Fire (the remake)

The graphics itself that borrowed elements of Man on Fire (the film) with the blurry effects felt like a reverse version of WET and the cool aesthetic that these two games has though WET were to look terrible without that, this game felt like it would look better without the aesthetic-art style. Although, the design on the female especially Fabianna looks terrible to me, she just looks like some creepy doll that looks robotic (as Payne says) and throughout the game so far (that I played) doesn’t even that emotions in characters. Along with the aesthetic, these cutscenes makes it more like a realism comic-strip instead of a visual novel, it’s a cutscene in the comic strip. At times I hated the text that appears, it just annoys me and just destroys the purpose for me to enjoy the cutscenes aside from all the fucking rich idiots showed on screen or Paulie-D fags that I killed.

Cameo soon-to be killed.
Cameo soon-to be killed.

Just like the previous games, there are amounts of douchebaggery in the characters, you just really want to torture and kill them. The opening missions says a lot to that with rich boiled brats and frats boys partying and one mission that I had been satisfied on killing is those fucking Jersey Shore faggots that seems to be connected to the Sop… I mean mafia. Heck, they even reference that putrid show and The Sopranos, the two douchebags that bothered Max looks like Paulie D and Jackie Jr from The Sopranos since they were in New Jersey in a flashback. Although in The Sopranos, there are Jersey Shore look-alikes as well (the Second Season) and they were fags and assholes.

Stopped currently
Stopped currently

The story so far, I am currently at Chapter 5, I don’t really care of this Fabiana bitch that I need to rescue. I ended up stopping the beginning seeing how it looks like some sort of stealth mission and you having a silent pistol which I don’t remember anything about previous Max Paynes having a stealth mission. Anyways, I don’t think I would want to play the game due to how the gameplay has changed from the previous ones and the stature of realism that Rockstar is often fond off but I might give it another try in the future. An interesting thing I pulled out after I had rewatch the Late Goodbye Music Video by Poets of the Fall is that the effects they use also felt like they got some inspiration from that seeing that they provided the music for Max Payne 2.

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Prometheus MOVIE Review

Ridley Scott who directed the first Alien film returns to direct the prequel to Alien, Prometheus. Previously his directing career isn’t really successful than back then, his previous film, Robin Hood was not technically great and seems somewhat a disappointment in box office ratings and negative reviews. His other films like Body of Lies, A Good Year and Hannibal were terrible and aside from American Gangster which redeemed his career; Prometheus indeed brought back his talents in directing watchable and exciting films.

Prometheus is a prequel to Ridley Scott's sci-fi horror film, Alien following a group of scientists and archeologists led by a religious archaeologist, Elizabeth Shaw (Noomi Rapace), the captain of the ship, Janek (Idris Elba) and Weyland employee, Meredith Vickers (Charlize Theron) to monitor this expedition on board the ship of the same name, Prometheus after discovering strange, unknown drawings from Scotland in 2085 tracing to an unknown planet from another galaxy. Eager to find these so-called “engineers” that were once humans, they were funded by Peter Weyland (Guy Pearce) CEO of Weyland Corporation to a distant moon, LV-223 and what horrors lay deep in an ancient alien spaceship.

What I find disappointing is how Scott tried to rush the story, having less exposition on how they were able to analyze and find the planet quickly. He doesn't let the audience know who are these anomalies are or anything besides the fact that there were humans back then and justified this through when the group of scientists had entered the alien spaceship and out of sudden seen holographic images that was activated by the android, David (Michael Fassbender) who out of neglect of the group were able to activate it even though we don't know what the heck is going on. There are some instances like the main characters revealing that these aliens were humans once and that there weren't the first ones who had a expedition here.

I do not feel connected or felt any sympathy with the characters in this film, even though there were mostly Scottish and British - it felt like Scott just has the same stereotypes in mind like the arrogant person. I really did not care for the main character and it felt like the characters werent thoroughly explain. Plus the android (Michael Fassbender) wasn't really convincing, the previous two android possessed. Sure, Fassbender's character fascinates to be a human, learning the universal languages of Earth (and the alien language), watching black and white films and learning emotions and expressions. It's surely like that type of cliché of robots having feelings and also fascinated with alien technology although like Holm's character is somewhat mischievous in his fascination with his objective to his company to rid all the group and infect the crew aboard to be scientifically tested; although I question why this android wasn't an ounce of a malfunctioning robot like the first one despite the fact that this was a prequel.

There are many theories of the main character being an android but I'm not really convinced that she is anyway an android which implies that her childhood dreams when she had parents weren't really a reality but what she wanted. It implies that this was indeed a red herring if she was one even though dialogue from the Fassbender's character clearly implied that but since its a prequel I don't think technology back then would technology and scientifically develop a perfect android with emotions and feelings like an actual human being.

The design of these humanoid aliens look like they had been ripped off from another horror movie by David Cronenberg with the exception that it doesn't have needles that spiked in it's head. I really loathe the make-up for the old guy, it just felt like they put too much prosthetics to make him look like an aged man rather than having an actual actor to be replaced with a young one. Although what’s more worse is that I found out that Guy Pearce plays Peter Weyland and had to apply prosthetics to make him look like an old man. I mean, it’s no excuse to reuse the same actors for a script that of which did not get into play in the actual film but for Pearce to play both roles of his characters is just pure bullshit.

What I also found disappointing is the lack of tension and horror that previous Alien movies have - the fact that the previous ones had this kind of paranoida and suspension where no one is safe or could be trusted as well as being quite claustrophic which the first Alien movie has. This film however doesn't really go in that route which was disappointing but it still has that atmospheric and action vibe that the second film, Aliens had. However, the first Alien movie relies on that certain aspect, heavily while this film lacks it and from time to time, I thought that I was watching another sci-fi film. Granted that Prometheus did not fault on deriving it's moments from the previous ones that much but there aren't any specific moments with the exception of a few scenes that did, or at least made me jump specifically when the headcrab pops out.

However the pacing, action and drama wasn't what I expected, it's one of these films that what other people found to be lacking unlike the previous films and did not really have the dark vibe specifically like the third one. It did have some parallels and references to its sequels like the main character was infected by her boyfriend who was injected by alien blood by the Fassbender's character and became pregnant of that thus giving birth to an alien headcrab. Ripley had this nightmare in the second film where she dreamt of waking up with something growing in her stomach, lashing out. The pacing was quick but there are times where it soaks the atmosphere in like when the group first travelled to the spaceship or when Fassbender's character finds the command centre where the aliens had develop a death ray kind of weapon and the atmosphere seemingly absorbs into it. Furthermore, when all hell breaks loose at the spaceship, even if the action was short-lived, it’s really badass when Idris Elba goes out and smokes the mutated human with his crew.

As a sci-fi film that doesn’t really add much horror and admits no relations from the first one, this film did have some intense scenes from time to time that were good. The film did borrow favours much of Cameron’s Aliens though as it replies on the action and less of the elements from the first film.

Another aspect of the film that I found lacking is the 3D - there were not that much of it. I was surprised that there isn't one of those alien headcrab thingy jumping towards the screen. The 3D is just an excuse to have stuff like debris, thrown in your face but there are some instances where there are decent effects. I think that the reason why 3D wasn't focused heavily in this film is that, it was rushed and they had done post-production with this aspect but had implement less of it.

As I said earlier, after watching this film, I did not really care for the character’s fate and this is because while the acting is impressive, I did not care for the performance by Noomi Rapace who is known for her character, Lisbeth Salander in The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo series. Her character is a believer “in God” as she is probably a Christian and this religious type of deal did play a part in the film much of my scrgrim and amusement. The religious in fact plays with the themes of this film along with Rapace’s burden of her cross that she wears, Weyland (Pearce) also is suffering from a god complex and furthering the ideal of throwing religious beliefs in this film.

To this day I don’t understand Scott’s decision to cast Guy Pearce rather than Max von Sydow who seems to fit into this character, it’s like they or he is mocking the character in the universe with Perace’s fake old men impression and it felt like his performance felt apart from some sketch from SNL done wrong then turned into a serious sci-fi flick such as this.

I did not like Fassbender's performance of David, he just doesn't have that stale personality and robotic performance as Henderson or Ian Holm. The character he plays has the same objective of wanting to cause havoc on the spaceship by first injecting an alien sample from the egg that he took and spiking a drink. At first I thought he wasn't an android until they stated that. He just did not make up a convincing android despite being somewhat an antagonist. The main character plays a convincing role that throughout the film I did not felt like her performance ever connected with the audience unlike Ripley. Although I do give Fassbender credit, he did not “replicate” and avoided watching the first two movies.

The CG effects are another aspect why this film was impressive, the designs of the ship and the controls just look like there were pulled from Minority Report with the holographic interface and the scenes in the alien spaceship looks quite impressive. It feels like Scott has made more of a dynamic atmosphere around the characters, giving them more room to breathe and making it less claustrophic and grim than the previous Aliens films.

While Prometheus had led made with a sour note seeing that I hope to anticipate a claustrophic horror film much like Scott’s Alien film, this film however was satisfying and did not disappoint me from watching the IMAX version of it. However I was surprised that as a recent film, the theatre that I went to was nearly empty and this is the top five movies in the charts right now. I did not regret any moment of me watching this film despite the many religious overtones and prosthetics that Pearce’s foul-looking face can consume.

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E3 Optimists, it's menagerie of idiots and non-ethical journalist

There's a thread on the message boards that is completely the opposite on what I am saying but I often see these kinds of threads from time to time and felt obliged to write about it. The thread itself talks about how terrible journalists are and the fact that they aren't stoked to write about games in E3 and carry some negative energy to the convention centre. Also implying through a tweet that someone posted that "E3 is like a dental appointment" or something which he literary exaggerates the meaning and how the context of that tweet was put into place.

These kinds of things pissed me off, there are a bunch of games that journalists are excited about and had talked extensively about in podcasts, their write-ups and through their live coverage of E3. The matter of how much "positive" befuddles me on what kind of excitement this person wants, this is a large convention centre that is crowded with enthusiasts, journalists and developers showing off their games (plus some booth babes) and typically having to cover a damn E3 with games is really exhausting to the point where you just want to cover your game. Plus you have to discuss about the game professionally with some knowledge to a degree rather than gone out as ignorant. I think that's the kind of "person" he wants in this E3, the fucking enthusiasts who are, I think are a waste of space, that are excited to be there and there to fucking take a shit load of swag which why the fuck would you even go here for that, there's PAX you motherfuckers. Those people blatantly as I see it at youtube and other message boards that people shit on the game and their reasons why the game sucks is because of bullshit reasons.

I really hate the fact that they even let these people in, whether they have a fucking press badge because they want a pretentious shitty website or have some terrible youtube channel or the fact that they got it out of spite. Like I said, these people are a fucking waste of space being there and the fact that I see them in the Live Cam tour on Gamespot or on separate videos often pisses me off, whether they are carrying that G4 bag, taking pictures of booth babes or some cosplayer and just annoying the shit out of me when they are in the motherfucking background in these live coverages. Granted that some developers want enthusiasts or fans to pump up their booth and to be glad to be there but if they voice an opinion about a particular game, it just goes shitface and they can't really express a "civil-thought" in any way why this, this and this sucks or why they are pumped for the game. I had read some comment that threw me off about Quantum Dream's Beyond Two Souls in which some idiot that went to E3 says that he played the game and the story is better than "these shitty writers in hollywood" or between these idiots remarks which baffles me, they find one bit to make shit on comparisons that are not the slightless bit of knowledge that they possess; that's why I do not like to read other's opinion that aren't in the press and while there are some exceptions of people having some basis on video game knowledge and knowing that this game reminds them a familiar game and fully detailed the game in what they had seen so far. Plus the idiot commenting about Beyond also states that he had read "reviews" that shit about the game, what the fuck are you talking about reading a review, the game did not come out yet - it's fucking called a preview or a hands-on impression, it's like he's retarded.

With enthusiasts, I am not talking about 1UP all of whom is about the enthusiasts press from the number of their podcasts that they say that they kind of like that crowd with "positivity", they are professional enthusiasts that know what they are saying and explain why they are liking what they saw so far or not and there are some "hands-on impressions" that are interesting to read despite not knowing who these new journalists are and what they did to 1UP. There are some instances that where I hate journalists and the fact someone is trying to bring back, or get attention with his sensational journalism on a particular game. I always hate Tom McShea ever since he joined Gamespot, he often mainly shits on FPS without no basis to back him up or more importantly play the damn game before out-rightly shitting on the game on what he saw (presumably not much) and "criticize" the lack of realism that the upcoming Medal of Honour game, Warfighter has. The balls that he has when the developer of the game confronted him over a terrible article with no basis on playing that game in a "interview" where the developer flat-right took his place on his negative and nonsensical remarks about the game and FPS games in general and McShea's unprofessionalism with "trying" to explain why he wrote the negative article. Plus his article basically repeats itself on the lack of realism and he even says that he did not play the fucking game in which destroys his entire argument (if there is one) and thinks that all FPS shooters like this one should be a simulation of sorts of what war is really like when you go overseas. And the fact that the video is called a "matter of authenticity" when he mainly criticizes the realism is where he went full retard.

All he says in the interview was how "unrealistic" the game is with it's regenerating health system and other exaggerated things that he does not explain, he just sits there and smiles like a retard, making snide remarks and he felt like some mentally retarded person in that interview and does not address at any point about the lack of realism in the game. If you want a "realistic" or more specifically, a FPS simulation that does NOT have a health bar, play ARMA or Operation Flashpoint; these games rely how what's (he thinks) he's talking about or the fact that the audience (in which he does not know what the fuck his audience should like) should play a "realistic/authentic" FPS based on what soldiers overseas are currently doing right now. That interview is like a cry for attention and more page hits and Tom thinks he's unique, trying to be a sensationalist and tries to criticizes what's he talking about and it comes out to be flat-out terrible. This interview also reminds me when Angry Joe "interviewed" Geoff Keighley, I had never like that guy, back then when I go to the Nostalgia Critic's website, I always find that his content is super annoying and I fucking hate his fake personality and the way he reviews games or tries to have some reason and just comes out like his head in his ass.

At the end of the day, you get super tired and exhausted but you have to still do your fucking job on fully covering the game with write-ups and shit and plus your voice probably gets shut-off and I think that's "what" the fucking cynicism that he criticized with the press. At this point, I do not know why I am defending this but even Jeff said in earlier bombcasts that E3 isn't really a "friendly" place for enthusiasts and journalists, developers often hate to showcase their games to the public and rather for the press to cover it. That's a really valid point in which this guy is clearly out of his mind shitting on the "cynicism" of journalists these days and you should just go to PAX if you want to see the opposite on what E3 is really like.

Now I got that out of the system, I still fucking hate Tom McShea and the menagerie of fans that exists in every E3. I wish it was years ago when E3 only allowed the press to come and when McShea was not there. It's like he's trying to make this thing of his, a controversial video that will get his page views and the attention that he should never deserve. They never show have even hire him and the fact that he is still at that site shows how Gamespot still sucks.

/RANT

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E3 2012 Overall Impressions

This E3 was actually great, there are a balance between games, with new IPs and more features on existing consoles and such. What I found relieving is that there isn't anymore sales charts, figures and statistics back in the last decade and push most of the boring things that, the audience should or shouldn't care about which goes a long way considering the audience demographic.

Between the "'Big Three," there is often games that lack attention throughout the conference due to the fact that they show not much of it. Conferences like Microsoft focused their show on Smartglass and on their services as well as a list of games but there isn't much world premiers and games that you would be interested. Nintendo, again like last year does not focus on the hardcore audience and rather focus it on their dying casual audience, yet sales wise, cannot competitive with the other two consoles since it's released in 2006. Plus the fact that they pull off more than one conference due to time and have a Direct Nintendo and aftershow conference where Direct is mostly about the Wii U and technical side of things and that aftershow is about Chasing Dads and Iwata holding a fucking banana. It often befuddles me that Nintendo tends to reach out to an audience that is losing them money and the fact that Pachter even said that even THQ is topping them at the sale charts means a lot. Lots of people say Sony was the best of all conferences of this year but I just think that they actually redeemed themselves since last year or so; they show a list of games that you should care about and some interesting Vita support, some old PS1 games that will be on the Vita and was an asskicker trying to convince everyone that Sony is better and actually gave out PSN vouchers to everyone in the press conference as well as free old games from the network. It saddens me that Sony had pull that stunt like that and the conference itself could be the winner for me if they had not shown the whole Wonderbook segment that wasted time - granted they at least show a Move game but I do not like the motion of being some sort of educational book of some kind and the fact that it will teach kids which is the complete opposite, illiteracy is poor in America and the game itself does not look educational at all - it just looks like a sad excuse for a Move game for the casual audience.

What I really like is the Ubisoft press conference, they had one of the better presenters bested by the worst presenter that was unfortunately paired up and they shown a plethora of interesting games and stuff that you care about. It is the conference for me.

Throughout the whole E3, I was impressed by the games shown, although most of them was in the press conferences itself but seeing more of the gameplay itself was rather enticing. One of my game of the show floor was The Last of Us, shown in Sony's conference and it plays like I AM Alive if that game actually was fun and not broken and if you have a useful companion that actually assists you in many interesting ways that will impact the progress of your game. Furthermore, the companion reacts to the progression of your playthrough, how you play throughout the game, whether if you go for a non-lethal playthrough or a violent one will effect your companion and will also advise you, the better way instead of the violent one.

SimCity was another contender and the fact that the Last of Us maybe is exclusive on the PS3 which I may or may not be able to buy it, that this game might be the one that I will play the most and is my game of E3. The trailer shown in that EA press conference impressed me, I often have a niche on playing urban planning, simulation construction games and I have not much words to describe how addictive that this game will be with the added features and potentially exciting multiplayer which seems it will affect your city if you connect it to your friends one. The trailer shows a industrial tycoon city with smog pollution and high crime rates next to a family and friendly neighbourhood and what I heard in the Bombcast is that it will affect your neighbour's city for instance; a high crime rate will soon be prompted by thugs robbing a bank in the other city as well as air pollution. Furthermore, there are aspects in the multiplayer that are cooperative from challenges where you build a specific building that will benefit both cities where the industrial city could have the materials to trade the other city materials to build this shared huge airport. I just like these cooperative aspects to this new features and I am seriously pissed off that I have to wait until next year to buy this game and a new computer.

Anyways here is the rest of my games of e3 2012!!

e3

e3 2012

1. The Last of Us
2. SimCity
3. Assassin's Creed III
4. Hitman: Absolution
5. Metro: Last Light
6. Star Wars 1313
7. Rayman Legends
8. Borderlands 2
9. The Cave
10. Watch Dogs
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Virtual Relent @ E3 2012 - Day 02

[WILL UPDATE BLOG]

So far the only thing that I'm excited is Star Wars 1313 even though Republic Commando did alright with the Bounty-Hunter(type) of guy, first person shooter. What other people are talking about is that the gameplay is like Uncharted; from flipping from cover to how the mechanics work and the fact that it's "The FIRST M RATED" game in the Star Wars franchise. I do not see the appeal of this game even if it's M rated or the fact that the gameplay looks even better..

It's more Borderlands, the same Borderlands but more fun! I did not really play the first game to completion but I love how it looks like so far in what they shown.

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