Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows review

The sequel to the not-too-bad Sherlock Holmes movie back in Christmas 2009, starring the now-superstar Robert Downey Jr. as Sherlock Holmes and Jude Law as his partner and flatmate, Dr. John Watson.

The first movie, titled Sherlock Holmes (duh), was a pretty good movie, with a excellent performance as usual by Robert Downey Jr as the eccentric Sherlock Holmes. Jude Law himself was a pretty badass Watson.

And now, is this sequel better? Well...Yes and no.

Rad Bromance.

A Game of Shadows features the appearance of Professor James Moriarty, widely considered to be Sherlock Holmes' nemesis, although in actual fact, he appeared in maybe 2-3 of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's original 60+ Sherlock stories.

Despite, or maybe its BECAUSE of, his limited appearances, he has made a huge impact with Sherlock's fans. And in this movie, Jarred Harris does deliver as the supervillain that is more than a match for the scruffy eccentric detective.

The main focus of this movie however, has to be the relationship between Sherlock Holmes and John Watson. But this is of course nothing new, there are a number of fans who realise, or even support wholeheartedly, that they both are, ahem, rather close.

I leave that to your imagination.

In A Game of Shadows, Holmes is finding it very difficult to adjust to the fact that Watson will be marrying his fiancee, Mary Morstan. Thankfully, he does not try to sabotage their marriage, well not intentionally anyways.

But, it is clear that Holmes also wants Watson to be happy and safe, as he puts himself in danger just to protect him and his wife via his eccentric methods.

Don't they make a cute couple? Hey, there's a hot girl in white next to Watson.

However, wasn't this issue in the first movie? It feels like the movie is trying to play it safe by re-using the same conflict between them. Granted, the issue is somewhat more developed but still...It's an old issue.

The movie also treats the female cast rather poorly this time around, given less screentime in lieu of the dynamic duo.

Irene Adler (Rachel McAdams) is killed very early in the movie, making it a very personal battle for Sherlock Holmes. Come on, she was a main character in the first movie! At least give her more dignified screentime!!

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO....!!
WHY MUST THE HOT ONES DIE YOUNG!?

Mary Morstan, Watson's wife, is also reduced to a few screens, but then again she didn't have much scenes in the first movie, so it's not a big loss. And she was actually pretty badass in one or two scenes.

And lastly we have Madame Simza Heron (Noomi Rapace), who is suppose to the lead female here, but....well...yea. She feels like nothing more than just a link and a pretty face here.

Delicious....Dibs.

So much of the screentime this time around is dedicated to the trio of Holmes, Watson and Moriarty.

Robert Downey Jr is once again a bloody delight to watch as a different type of Sherlock Holmes than we normally see. Scruffy, extremely eccentric, socially challenged but bloody smart, kick-ass fighter, determined and overall badass. And his Sherlock-Scan-Bullet-Time-Analysing-Kick-Ass vision returns!!

Jude Law is pretty badass as well, playing excellently as the man torn between his friendship (or more? *snigger*) to Holmes, and his dedication to his new wife.

Jarred Harris plays Professor James Moriarty who is actually pretty damn scary. If you watch the movie's interrogation scene, yea...He does not FUCK around.

I like this movie's version of Moriarty. He is extremely ruthless and cunning, he gives Holmes the greatest mental battle of his life. And, somehow he still manages to keep all his connections and his reputations intact.

I will take your property. Then kill you. Then I will leave the toilet seat up.
Cause I'm evil.

Moriarty has a second-in-command named Sebastian Moran. Damn, that dude is one hell of a soldier. I hope he appears again in the sequel. That guy was a real determined soldier.

Also, Stephen Fry appears in the movie as Mycroft Holmes, Sherlock Holme's brother who works for the British government....as something. Important. Just don't know what the fuck it is. Also, there was this unnecessary scene with him in it. It's...erm...disturbing.

Action wise, A Game of Shadows delivers a lot of it.

Shoot outs. Chase scenes. Explosions.

A lot of explosions.

And its quite funny too. More so than the last movie. Especially Robert Downey Jr. He's like a walking comedy scene waiting to happen.

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________



So...now the question is: Is the movie worth a watch?

Well, overall yes. It is entertaining, there is no doubt about that. Robert Downey Jr is always a delight to watch no matter what.

It's just that the movie treads familiar ground, the only thing different this time is that the situation has gone even more dangerous, and the villain is so much deadlier and smarter.

Just like the last movie, A Game of Shadows isn't much of a Sherlock Holmes movie.

It's a movie about Robert Downey Jr playing Sherlock Holmes. Featuring other people.

Happy new year, kids.

Do not be alarmed. Underneath this pillow, lies the key to my release.

Mission Impossible Ghost Protocol review

The 4th installment of the Mission Impossible film franchise. Now, while I'm not a big fan of the original Mission Impossible TV series, nor was I that impressed with the film versions.

Watched the first one, found it confusing, probably cause I was a kid at that time when I was expecting an action movie. Second one was somewhat better when I watched it, but didn't hold me enough to watch the third one.

So, let's treat this as a standalone movie until I get around to watching the rest.

So why did I decide to watch this movie when I'm not a big fan of the series? Well, this.

It was a pretty good trailer. Eminem's rapping certainly sells it.

Is it good? FUCK YEA. The best in the franchise BY FAR.

I can't bear to watch this part.

The IMF team this time has to stop a terrorist from inciting a global nuclear war between Russia and the United States, however, they are framed for an operation gone wrong in Russia that involves the bombing of the Kremlin.

Disavowed by the President of the United States via the eponymous Ghost Protocol, the IMF team are left on their own to save the world while being pursued by the Russians.

A lot of factors helped in making this movie the best one so far.

For one thing, the director is Brad Bird, the director of The Incredibles and Ratatouille. And the movie is no longer just about Agent Ethan Hunt, this time his IMF team actually helps out, unlike the previous movies, where Ethan Hunt is somehow the only reliable agent.

Eventhough the IMF team this time only consists of four people, the movie goes to great lengths to portray them as incredible agents, tasked with the impossible, where things will go to hell constantly and somehow managed to pull things off.

Prototype. Assassin's Creed. Hoodies are back in style.

This time, Tom Cruise's character, Ethan Hunt, has less emotional baggage from his previous outings. So less time is focused on his past and him as a character in general. While this may seem like a bad thing, it actually works for this movie.

Come on we've seen Ethan Hunt for about three movies worth. There's not much point in trying to flesh out more of the same mold. So, this time we get to see the OTHER team members get fleshed out, which helps us viewers know the team better as a whole, and love them more.

SIMON PEGG!! Doing his Scottish technician Benji Dunn thingy again, like his character from Star Trek and Mission Impossible III. I like this guy and his movies (Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz, Paul).

You need to climb to the Burj's 130th floor using these gloves.
Of course you'll be fine, what's the worst that could happen?

Then there's Jeremey Renner as William Brandt, an analyst caught up with the IMF team in the chaos. He's quite a badass.

Benji Dunn and William Brandt are really funny together and their cooperative scenes are usually quite a laugh.

And finally theres Paula Patton as Jane Carter. She is badass.

Also has a nice ass.

She kicks lots of ass too.

Don't cross her.

Dibs.

Did I mention that everyone in the movie is a badass? Like seriously.

It seems like everyone involved are really determined badasses with martial arts and hardy bodies. No one ever goes down easy.

Even the big bad, who is just some middle aged dude, not a trained soldier nor operative mind you, did not go down easy. Gave Ethan one hell of a fight.

But he wasn't that prominent. The other villainess showed up more. Not that I'm complaining. She was a badass fighter too, and she loves diamonds.

Dibs again. Me-owwwww.

A lot of scenes in the movie are of course, ridiculously insane, but bloody entertaining and keeps you on the edge of your seat, leaving you pondering how they were gonna get out of this one. Hallmark of a good action movie.

The movie really plays up the saying, "If it can go wrong, IT FUCKING WILL."

One thing though, they really thrashed the BMWs in this movie. My friend, a BMW lover, really felt it everytime one was crashed. One BMW takes the cake for being nothing more than just an express journey to go down 100 feet.

Thankfully, this one survived. Mostly.

Ooooo....and the gadgets!! The gadgets are pretty awesome too. Some scenes pretty much revolve around the team using their incredible tools. Though most of the tools do tend to malfunction, leading to intense scenes.

But that's the appeal of the movie for me: when shit hits the fan, how will IMF handle it!? With skill? With dumb luck?

Or both?


_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________


So, the verdict comes down to this. Go watch this movie. Enjoy a proper action movie for once.

Your mission...

Should you choose to accept it...

Is to watch Mission Impossible Ghost Protocol...

What to expect in 2012: MOVIES

In less than two weeks, 2011 will come to an end, paving the way to 2012.

Whether the year 2012 will be a good year is rather up for debate, what with the recession and not so calm periods that we've being facing for the past year or two. At the very least, there are a few things that I am very much looking forward to in the year 2012.

Predicting the big GAME OVER waaaayyy before
E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial Game fucked up the industry.

Let's start it straight off with movies.

For the past few years or so, superheroes movies have received a massive interest from the public thanks to a few of them actually not sucking and are now part of a genre growing fast in the movie industry.

The most ambitious undertaking has to be Marvel Studios'

The Avengers

Holy crap, I had goosebumps just writing that.

The Avengers team is one of the most popular team in the comic books industry, rivaled only by the Justice League from DC comics.

And the buildup to this movie has been a good long journey, starting with Iron Man, The Incredible Hulk, Iron Man 2, Thor, and ended most recently with Captain America: The First Avenger. All of them have been damn fine movies. Well, ok, Iron Man 2 WAS a bit disappointing somewhat, but it was still pretty good.

The Avengers movie will be directed by none other than Joss Whedon. To say that the fans rejoiced upon hearing this decision, is an understatement. Many of his works have literally reached cult status, and many fans believe that just by having him on board as writer/director is enough to make this movie one of the greatest superhero movies of all time.

I approve.

And come on, look at the cast: Robert Downey Jr, Chris Evans, Chris Hemsworth, Scarlett Johansson, Samuel L. MOTHERFUCKING Jackson!!!!

But, you know what, I can't put it into words to be perfectly honest. It's actually rather tough to write down why The Avengers will be one of the most kick-ass superhero movies of ALL TIME. It's like everything comes together so beautifully. All I know is, no matter what, even if the world ends one day after I watched this movie, I will die happy.

Now watch the trailer and weep alongside me. On May 4th 2012.

And speaking of comic book movies...


The Dark Knight Rises

Reviving the Dark Knight is one of Christopher Nolan's greatest achievements, and is currently the Golden Boy of Hollywood. It's like everything he touches turn to gold. His filmography may be short, but the audiences love it too: Memento, Insomnia, Batman Begins, The Prestige, The Dark Knight and most recently, Inception.Of course, now everyone wants to go down the reboot/darker/edgier look for every fucking franchise. Just because it worked for Batman doesn't mean it will work for everyone goddamit!!

I'm looking at you, Spider-man. (Well, I guess its really more of SONY's fault.)

Once again, with a stellar cast: Christian Bale, Anne Hathaway, Gary Oldman, Michael Caine, Tom Hardy, Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Morgan Freeman. Damn.

I approve.

If the leaked pictures are anything to go by, The Dark Knight Rises will also be a confirmed epic movie, however, it does have a lot to live up to. The Dark Knight was considered to be one of the finest examples of comic book movies ever made, and Tom Hardy will be hard pressed to top Heath Ledger's performance as the Joker. But whatever it is, for comic book fans everywhere, this is a must watch of 2012.

Will Bane break the Bat? Find out on July 20th 2012.

There are plenty of other movies that are showing in 2012, but in my opinion, The Avengers and The Dark Knight Rises are definitely the ones that stand out the most in my list. So heres a short list of other potentially good movies to watch out for in 2012.


Men In Black III
May 25th 2012

I had my reservations about this movie when I first heard they were making a sequel, as the first movie was damn good, and the sequel...definitely not. However, I am more than willing to give this a shot. The trailers do show an interesting storyline where J (Will Smith) has to travel back in time to save K (Tommy Lee-Jones/Josh Brolin). It feels like they actually put much more effort into this one than MiB2, which had a reeeaallllyyyy generic storyline.

Trailer: <<< Josh Brolin looks like he's having a blast playing as K. :D


The Pirates! Band of Misfits
March 2012

From the same company that brought us Arthur Christmas, which I reviewed in my last post. They also made Chicken Run, Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit and Flushed Away. Their animated movies have always been good, though mostly sleeper hits unlike Pixar and Dreamworks blockbusters, but its nice to see that Aardman Animations getting some proper recognition thanks to Arthur Christmas.Trailer <<< I'm really digging that beard.

The Amazing Spider-Man
June 2012

First things first, I like Spider-man. He's one of my top superheroes ever, alongside Captain America, Batman, and Deadpool. So I was not too keen when SONY Pictures announced the reboot and subsequent darker and edgier direction, it feels like they are doing it just to emulate Christopher Nolan.

However, Andrew Garfield really showed off his skills in The Social Network, so maybe he will be pretty good after all. And Martin Sheen is going to be Uncle Ben! So I guess it will be worth the watch after all.

Trailer <<< Mirror's Edge?

G.I. Joe: Retaliation
June 2012

YO JOOOOOEEEEE!!!!

G.I. Joe: Rise of Cobra wasn't much of a movie, it was just an action movie to the core and nothing much. It ended on a cliffhanger, and Joseph Gordon-Levitt is always a delight to watch as the hammy Cobra Commander.

So why did I bother putting a sequel to that here?

Watch the Trailer <<<< THE ROCK AND BRUCE WILLIS!!! THAT'S WHY!!!

Dredd

September 2012

I. AM. THE. LAW!!

There was a movie adaption of the world's most famous faceless law enforcer. Until he took off his damn mask. I hope it doesn't happen here in this remake. To be fair, the Sylvester Stallone one wasn't horrible, but it definitely did not do Judge Dredd justice. This version will star Karl Urban as the eponymous character, so it's definitely something I'm looking forward to.

No trailers available as of writing.


Skyfall
October (London Premiere)/ October-December (worldwide)

Finally, a new James Bond movie, but supposedly won't have much to do with Quantum of Solace nor Casino Royale, which I thought to be a bit disappointing. I find Daniel Craig's performance as the new James Bond to be a damn good watch, as it focuses more on the agent than the flashy gadgets or the crazy sci-fi that used to be the staple of the series prior to this.

No trailers available yet unfortunately.

Prometheus
June 8th 2012

At first, Prometheus was suppose to be a prequel to the Alien franchise movies, but now it seems that it will be focusing on exploring the concepts of aliens responsible for human existence on Earth and the background of the famous Xenomorphs. It looks to be more akin to Ridley Scott's Bladerunner and the original Alien concept, which is a welcome change for me, as the Alien franchise is slowly going towards too much action without any logic behind it. Definitely something to look out for fans of the Alien movies.

No trailers available as of writing.

Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance

February 17th 2012

Hell hath no fury like a flaming skeleton on a motorcycle...

The first Ghost Rider movie. Sucked. It was rather lifeless and the fight scenes, which are suppose to be the highlights of any comic book action movie, sucked as well. However, it seems the new film looks promising, with a clearer focus without the burdens of an origin story to tell. Instead, it seems to focus more on Ghost Rider being an agent torn between two worlds. I may be looking too much into it though.

Trailer <<< Looks pretty action packed.

Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter
June 22th 2012

How do you make Abe Lincoln more badass?
Make him hunt vampires!!!

Its Abraham Lincoln. Re-imagined to be a Vampire Hunter. Really, need I say more???

*MIND EXPLODES FROM PURE AWESOMENESS*

No trailers available yet unfortunately.



The Hobbit
An Unexpected Journey:14th December 2012
There and Back Again: 13th December 2012

Peter Jackson is back again, this time with the prequel to the Lord of the Rings trilogy, where it all started. And this one has the magic touch of Guillermo del Toro as well. It looks set to be a winning formula.

No trailers available yet unfortunately.

John Carter of Mars

March 9th 2012

An American Civil War soldier gets sent to Mars. That's the gist of the story I got from the trailers so far. It feels like a really good fantasy movie, especially since its directed by Andrew Stanton, the guy behind some of Pixar's best movies: Toy Story 1,2 and 3, Finding Nemo, WALL-E and Up. Just by his credentials alone, I would go watch this movie.

Trailer <<< Looks pretty epic.


_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

So, that's my list of movies that I would definitely watch in 2012, and I hope that I have helped in creating awareness for some of the movies that were not as well known.

Here's a link to all the official movie websites:

• The Avengers
• The Dark Knight Rises
• Men In Black III
• The Pirates! Bands of Misfits
• The Amazing Spider-Man
• G.I. Joe: Retaliation
• Dredd  <<< No official website found as of writing.
• Skyfall
• Prometheus <<< No official website found as of writing.
• Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance
• Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter <<< No official website found as of writing.
• The Hobbit
• John Carter of Mars

Next time, I will write about the games and cartoons to look forward to in 2012. Whichever comes first, I ain't too sure yet.

Merry Christmas, folks!!

DAMMITDAMMITMDAMMITMDAMMITMDAMMIT!!!!

Arthur Christmas

First ever post dedicated to a movie review! Finally got the time to do something like this, so lets start off with a review of Arthur Christmas, one of many family/Christmas movies for December 2011.

*Few spoilers alert*

Cool story, bro.

So, the movie starts off with a panning shot of the Santa's gallery, apparently the Santa Clause persona is hereditary, passed down from father to son for centuries. Though I wonder how the Santas ever found their wives...do they go out into the towns the rest of the non-Christmas months and get jiggy with it?

Then, it jumps into a kick-ass scene with a million elves in high tech gear, performing military-precision operations deliving GIFTS to children in a metropolis, along with Santa, dressed in a military commanding officers garb, but in the traditional colors (his beret is bright red!!)

Hey, he looks like Bill from Left 4 Dead.
Just you know, fatter, jollier, and not dead.

And thus, Santa has gone high-tech, aided by his son, Steve who is in command of the whole operation from the North Pole mission control center (with another million more elves), and his other son, Arthur, who is in the mail department handling children's letters.

Inevitably, something goes wrong, and Arthur has to save Christmas (kinda) by teaming up with Grand-santa for a mission before sunrise. The premise is simple, there are no backstabbing attempts or villainy twists, which seems to be more prevalent nowadays in (of all things) animated children films.

Some of the themes explored in the movie will no doubt be more noticeable by the adults, such as modernization, fear of retirement, ego etc etc.

Part of the opening scene, conveys more emotions than an entire Twilight movie.

This film is a simple, feel good animation for the whole family. The jokes are absolutely hilarious and unpredictable, personally I feel that most of the jokes will appeal to both adults and children. There are one or two jokes that only grownups will get, but it does not spoil the movie nor break the flow in any way.

It helps that the are plenty of big names in the movie, and their voice acting is top-notch: James McAvoy (Professor X!!), Jim Broadbent (WHOA!!), Bill Nighy (I love this guy!), and last but not least, Hugh Laurie (House!!).

Yup...big names abound in this movie.

But, in my opinion, this elf steals the show.

I <3 Bryony

Now, all the elves in the movie are damn bloody adorable, in a fanatical soldier, Christmas-loving, children-loving (not like that, *smack*) sorta way. But, by far, I absolutely adore Bryony of the Giftwrap Battalion.

Like the rest of the elves in the movie, she's more militaristic than the usual ones that we've seen, but she's just so damn endearing and cute, especially with the way she tackles giftwrapping like a combat skill. I applaud Ashley Jensen, her voice actress, for her fantastic work in bringing life to this character, it would only be half as effective without her.

She deserves a spin-off short film. Hmmm...


_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Arthur Christmas is wonderful, delightful, funny and heartwarming movie. It's easily one of the best Christmas movies and one of the top animated movies of the year. The trailer really does not do it justice. The film is far better than what the trailer suggests.

The rest of the Christmas season movies have a really high bar to surpass.

My recommendations: watch this movie. You won't regret it one bit.

POLAR BEARS!!

Skyrim review

The fifth installment of the Elder Scroll games is finally here, 5 years since Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion (which itself was 4 years after Morrowind, hmmm...coincidence?).

So, without further ado, let's jump into the shoes of the Dragonborn in The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim.

Just imagine there's a Latin chorus whenever you read this title.

So the story kicks off as you you are captured and shackled for an unknown crime (Hey, that sounds familiar.), then the town you were in gets attacked by a DRAGON, which were nothing more than myths at this point in the province of Skyrim (those people aren't too genre savvy are they?). At which point, you need to escape from prison (Hey, wait), with either the Stormcloaks, who were responsible for the death of the High King (the royalty is dead, waitadangminute...) or with the Imperials, whose High King is murdered (Dejavu much?), escape via the sewage system (AGAIN?), then get out into the open world where the first thing you see after the obligatory sun glare/pure white screen is a picturesque view of the continent you're in lovingly rendered by the Creation Engine (*facepalm*).

Yea...It's not too different from Oblivion ain't it? That last part is kinda similar to Fallout 3 as well.

And later it turns out, if you ever get around to actually doing the storyline quests, you are the DRAGONBORN!!!

Cue epic music.

The Dragonborn is apparently a mortal with the blood and soul of a dragon, able to speak the Dragon tongue, can use and learn Dragon Shouts more effectively like a boss, and most importantly can absorb the souls of Dragons. According to the lore of the Elder Scrolls, Dragons never truly die, their shells may wither away, but they can always return to life given time.

For some reason, the Dragons have returned, and not being the kind, fuzzy, loving creatures that we're all used to, they want to annihilate all mortal lifeforms and it is up to you, THE DRAGONBORN, to save the world!! Or all of Skyrim, nay, Tamriel, WILL BE DOOMED!!

No pressure.

The storyline is nothing to shout about (hehe), it's certainly not Bioware level, but I guess that's being a bit harsh. I do find it a much better attempt than Oblivion's storyline, and the general setting is much more well developed as well. And I personally like the Norse/Viking themes.

The civil war background between the those that support the Empire and the rebellious Stormcloaks has an admirably grey and grey morality to it, where I had trouble deciding who to join as both had their fair points.

The Stormcloaks argue that the Empire is now weak, and that Skyrim should return to the rule of the Nords. The leader of the Stormcloaks, Ulfric Stormcloak, comes across as a war veteran who is truly tired of the war but is willing to fight one last battle so that the dead from the previous battles died meaningfully and he does see himself as a liberator of Skyrim from the weak Empire, undeserving of their support. However, the Stormcloaks do come across as extremely zealous, racist (or xenophobic), who only care for the Nords, the major population of Skyrim.

On the other hand, the Jarls that continue to support the Emperor, and backed by the Imperial Army wish to keep the peace, even if it means sacrificing some aspects of their culture, such as the worshipping of Talos. They understand that to stand up to the Empire or worst, face the fury of the Aldmeri Dominion, the dominant force on Tamriel, could mean the undoing of the Empire. Keeping the peace was far more important than simple blinded pride. At the same time, its visible that a number of the higher ups in the faction are just corrupted and lazy, using force to bully the citizens and generally don't really care about the fact that the Nords basically gave up a piece of their proud history and culture to appease the Empire's enemies.

However, generally most of the characters in Skyrim do come across as rather flat, and serve nothing more than quest and reward dispensers. Thankfully, dialogue wise, it HAS improved significantly since Oblivion: time no longer stands still during conversations and they've removed that annoying and pointless radial menu conversation thingy. People in the streets have conversations with each other, which may lead to quests, or just talk about certain issues which YOU may have a hand in it, giving some life to the world of Skyrim. The annoying thing though, is that when you are having a very important conversation with another character, some passerbys would just start talking randomly, causing me to be unable to hear the actual important shit.

Bitch, I don't care about your Mammoth Tusks.
I'M TRYING TO PICKPOCKET THE GUARDS!!

Graphics wise, Skyrim is an improvement over Oblivion, the game is able to handle a much larger world with a much more varied environment. You will find forests, snowy mountains, and plains, with a weather system that implements snow and rain. The night sky deserves a special mention here, the starlit sky looks absolutely gorgeous especially during the full moon.

The graphics however, makes looting a problem sometimes as it's pixel perfect. Instead of grabbing a quest item from the table, I may accidently "steal" a cheap-ass goblet instead. In broad daylight. In front of everyone. And then they call for the guards. And you either go to jail, bribe them or kill them all.

Armors and weapons in-game look pretty normal, the exceptions are those super-special unique gear which have their own models, lovingly designed and rendered to make even the toughest of men weep with joy.

Check out my chest, dude. It looks good.
I SAY CHECK IT OUT!!

In terms of scale, holy crap.

Skyrim is HUGE. The map is huge. There are nine holds (term for major cities in this culture) throughout the province of Skyrim, and there are smaller villages scattered here and there. They all offer quests, ranging from the major storyline quests or faction quests, to the simple tasks of fetching a certain item or 10 herbs. Within an hour of playing Skyrim, I had more quests than I could mentally remember, thankfully, the Journal used to keep track of the quests has a location indicator for the tasks.

Exploring the world of Skyrim, whether on foot or horseback, is a simple joy in itself. It's very easy to get sidetracked while following the map indicator to your quest as you find new points of interest, just to see what it might have in store for you. It helps that that the game allows for dynamic events to happen, so a detour to a nearby circle of stones may see you getting involved in a fight between a furry Mammoth and a horse. No seriously, that happened to me.

Gameplay follows the same route as the previous games, the more you use a skill, it will get better and level up. With each level up of a skill, it contributes to your character leveling progress until you level up. With each character level up, you gain one perk which you can spend within any skill, which improves it in many different ways, such as doing more damage with fire spells or gain the ability to craft dragon armor. Its basically, you find your own playstyle, and you slowly improve it by using those styles more often, and the effectiveness can be FELT, not just dictated by some number crunching in the background.

Here's my tale. When I first got Skyrim, I had a dream. I wanted to make Captain America. In Skyrim.

He would've approved killing the oppressive Dragons.

So, when I started the game, I choose a male Nord as my race. If you check out the link, you will find that he is about as close as you can get to his fighting style and Nords fare well as honorable fighters, in the Norse/Viking sorta way. And thus, Steve Rogers the Nord warrior was born. I was going to make him fight with fists and shield! If I could dye his uniform in the Red, White and Blue, I would.

At least that was the plan.

As it turns out, there is no barehanded character skill in Skyrim, short of a single perk and some limited enchanting, and the Block skill itself does not really have much of an offensive skillset. I tried to play it that way anyway, but Steve Rogers couldn't cut it. I guess there are limits to this game afterall.

In any other game, I would've had to restart the whole game, and make a new character.

Not in Skyrim.

Thanks to the way the game works, I simply dropped the shield and started using spells to roast, freeze and shock my enemies to death. And eventually, became pretty damn good at it too.

If it were another game, I would've been locked in the fighter class, and I won't be able to cast magic for nuts (I have a strong penchant for playing spellcasters in fantasy games, I thought I would make an exception here). Think about the Dungeons and Dragons games, Mass Effect, Dragon Age, World of Warcraft, Diablo etc etc. Once you have chosen your class, you have limited your options to that class alone, sure you may multiclass D&D style (IF that option is even available), but you lose out on being a Ubermage or a Uberfighter by being a Jack-of-all-Trades, and even then, getting to that point where the multiclass is effective is a pain in the ass.

Hell, I actually restarted Mass Effect 1 to play the Soldier class because playing as the lower health, sniping-loving Infiltrator Commander Shepard in mostly close ranged combat proved to be too much even for the alien booty loving badass. Thankfully, by Mass Effect 2, the classes were rebalanced, and much larger combat areas were implemented for viable sniper rifle usage.

Well hello, Tali. Your suit looks so fiiinneeeee.
Snug in all the right places.

That is what I find to be the beauty of Skyrim.

There are NO mistakes, and there are NO limits. If you don't like using magic, use the bow and arrow; if you don't like the bow and arrow, then swing a big ass overcompensating great sword; if that doesn't fancy you, then pick up a mace and a shield; and if you still don't like that, then go get another game. The point is, there are no closed doors, no option is ever denied to you. The worst case scenario is that you won't do it as well or as easily as someone who has invested perks in it.

Take for example, the Lockpicking skill. In Fallout 3, if you have not raised it to a certain level, you can't even try to pick a Lock. Why is that? Why has the game locked you out before you can even began to try? What, your character looked at the lock, said "FUCK THAT SHIT." and just gave up? Skyrim does not have that kind of shit. Even if the Lock's difficulty was at Master level, you always have a chance of picking it, its just that you might lose a lot of lockpicks and it will take longer, as compared to someone who has invested skills in it.

I started off with 99 lockpicks...

One of the best things to enjoy about Bethesda's games are usually their love of placing random events in their open world games. And just like Oblivion and Fallout, they deliver, and this time on a grander scale. WITH DRAGONS.

After a certain amount of progress into the storyline, dragons will start appearing much more often in Skyrim, usually chasing after you. So, its entirely possible to fast travel to a town, and find a dragon appearing within 15 seconds, hungering for barbequed mortals. And its always a sight to see the townsfolk trying to take down a mighty dragon. It's a vital event for you as a player as well, as absorbing the souls of fallen dragons is the only way to unlock new dragon shouts. However, the dragon fights do tend to be a bit tedious after a while as they don't have much variety in their fights.

So enough of the mostly good points of Skyrim. Any bad points?

Well...there are the bugs. Loads and loads and loads of bugs. But given the sheer size of the game and the fact that we're used to Bethesda's games being buggy anyways, it's a given. Once in a while, the textures won't load properly until a few seconds later, and the quest indicators don't always appear on-screen. And one time, a horse fell out of the sky, landed right beside me, and died.

But so far I have not met any game breaking glitches, and there was one single quest that couldn't be completed, thankfully, that was just a minor quest. So I count myself lucky.

Can't say the same for this guy in the video though:

But still, bugs are a given in a game series that continues to push the boundaries of scale and size. And in the long run, just to push the borders as far as possible, is well worth the price we pay in bugs.

And speaking of prices to pay, there is a general problem with all the damn merchants in Skyrim. THEY DO NOT HAVE ENOUGH MONEY!!! Each merchant generally does not have enough to buy the weapons off you. Sometimes, one of your major loot will cost more than what the merchant can carry. So, I end up running around Skyrim trying to sell loot. I feel its a rather pointless design, I can understand that you can only sell certain types of items to specific merchants, ie weapons and armor, but not potions and herbs, to a blacksmith. But this gold limit on merchants breaks the flow of the game.

The one bad thing that can get rather annoying is the control system on the PC version. Maneuvering menus with the mouse is extremely annoying, and seems to be leaning towards the WASD controls. The game doesn't seem to remember the position of your cursor, and it be can quite bad if you accidentally choose the wrong answer to a question.

Another issue is with the NPCs in the game. Almost all of them feel...empty. Just quest dispensers, or just dummies giving, speaking out story expositions. Their models just look like they're glued to whatever surface they're at.

The favorite position of every Jarl in Skyrim. All nine of them.
Whether arguing, giving out titles or being happy.

Don't get me wrong, some of the stories are damn good, it will disgust/inspire/draw pity out of you, it's the delivery that just quite bad. Have you ever seen an argument between two people just stand there, hands limp beside them? It's weird, and it makes the game feel outdated. Elder Scrolls could do with better animated models and a greater range of animations.


_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________


In the end, however, it doesn't matter. Skyrim is by far the best game I've had so far this year.

Heck, its probably one of the best games I've had in a few years. I've spent two weeks of glee in Skyrim, and there is no doubt I will spend the next few coming months just plain having fun.

Any criticisms of the game is outweigh by the incredible, deep and engaging design of the game. Bethesda has basically built a more detailed and livelier world than some MMORPGs ever did. And they delivered it in a shiny black box.

My recommendations? If you want a damn fine RPG, Skyrim. Get it and immerse yourself.

And now, I'm off to kill more dragons.

COME GET SOME!!!

Battlefield 3 review

After weeks of playing this game, I think it's time to bring on the review of one of the big guns of 2011 video games!!

Be warned: this will be a long-ass blog post.

I'm smoking hot. Literally.

Ever since I saw the Battlefield 3 Caspian Border trailer, this game has been on top of my must-buy games of 2011. And I'm pretty sure a lot of people agree with me that this trailer SOLD the game to many people: the epic music, the teams rolling out in the vehicles, the dog fights, the solid shooting, the knifing and dog-tag grabbing etc etc. It showed off the best multiplayer aspects of the game, 64 player combat!! Intense vehicular combat!! HUGE MAPS!! Weapons fest!! Unlocks fest!!

So did Battlefield 3 deliver?

YES.

Here's the breakdown for the multiplayer. The main attraction of Battlefield 3 is the multiplayer,if you're buying it only for Single-player...Dude. WTF?

Graphics

EA has been heavily advertising their FrostBite 2 game engine alongside Battlefield 3, they're really proud of it and after playing the game, I can see why. The graphics for Battlefield 3 is stunning, even on medium settings on my PC. Special mention goes towards the lighting effects, glare from the sun and Tactical Flashight attachments on weapons look extremely realistic. The environment is lovingly detailed and destructible to a certain extent. It's not as destructible as Battlefield 2: Bad Company 2, but it's still much better than a lot of games out there.

Too bad this only happens in the Single player mission, not in multiplayer.

The system requirements however, is rather steep. My GTX 560 Ti meets the recommended requirements only!! I had to run the game on Medium to accommodate so that it could run smoothly enough to play in multiplayer, hopefully, a patch would be out to optimize it even more. So if you intend to buy this game, I hope your rig is pretty powerful to run this game.

There are only a few generic models in the game, and after playing for some time, you will pretty much see all of it. But each soldier is lovingly detailed, as you can see the equipment they carry will be rendered in-game as well. You will be able to notice the scopes, the defibrillators and even the C4s carried by the player.

Environment wise, Battlefield 3 has thankfully managed to make the maps more colorfully varied than the dark and grey color scheme that is so prevalent today. Thank God for that. However, the game still primarily focuses on urban warfare, only two maps, Caspian Border and Canals, have any significant dense forest areas to fight in. I hope that they release more forest maps in the coming months.


Gameplay

Now, this is the most important bit of the game.

The game is really, really, REALLY fun. It really delivers on the BATTLE part, especially with a full 64-player map. Intense infantry firefights explode over vital objectives as pilots from each side try to gain air superiority and vehicles pound shells and bullets into the environment.

Tanks: Like Godzilla on tread-wheels!

The complete freedom in which the players are given to complete their objectives are part of what makes the multiplayer awesome. You could be raining rockets onto a tank in a helicopter, then quickly parachute out and start sniping at unsuspecting enemies; or you could drive a jeep with your friends, speeding behind enemy lines, capturing their objectives and silently killing them with suppressed assault rifles.

The weapons in Battlefield 3 are varied and using any one of them feels extremely satisfying; the kick from unloading LMG rounds into a poor unsuspecting sap is awesome, and the almighty C4 explosion that you just managed to plant on a defenseless tank kicks up dust, leaving a flaming tank carcass on the road. I especially like the new knife kills feature, Takedown. Takedown is when players attack their enemy with a knife from behind, and a special animation attack is performed, killing the target instantly. The attacker also gains the Dog-tags of the victim, although this serves nothing more than to show off your kills.

You look surprised.

Battlefield 3 comes with 4 classes: Assault, which provides healing and resuscitation to the team; Engineers, who repair vehicles and come with anti-vehicle arsenals; Support, who lay down a hail of almighty holy machine-gun fire and provides ammunition; and Recon, the sniping and/or scouting class, providing valuable information to the team and planting forward spawn points. Each class has their role to play on the battlefield, and good teamwork will ensure victory.

As with the previous games, Battlefield 3 has its leveling system, which is even more varied than before. Each player has a general leveling rank system, starting from Private First Class all the way to Colonel, which unlocks new all-class weapons and camouflage skins. Then each class has a leveling system, which unlocks class-specific weapons and gadgets. Each primary weapon itself has a leveling system, which unlocks accessories such as scopes, fore grips or suppressors. Heck, even vehicles have their own unlocks as you use them more often (IR flares, heat seeking rockets etc).

Gun nuts around the world just jizzed in their pants.

Battlefield 3 awards you with points for a lot of things you do: killing a single enemy nets you 100 points, neutralizing and capturing an enemy objective can net you 200 points and destroying a tank with the 2 occupants inside it can net you up to 500 points. This trickling reward system does a great job of providing gratification to the player as he completes objectives and kills. The great thing about this system is that it essentially makes sure that anyone can get top scores not just by killing, but by actually being "credit to team": Capturing objectives, healing and reviving teammates and repairing vehicles etc.

All in all, Battlefield 3 manages to provide an extremely fun multiplayer game. But make no mistake, it will be hard at first. Very hard.

You will die. A lot.
You will spend time looking at Killcams. A lot.
You will wonder if that is an enemy or a teammate in front of you. A lot.
You will crash that helicopter and jet fighter. A lot.
You will get run down by a speeding Humvee. A lot.
You will get blown up. A lot.
You will have a helicopter pilot hurt you with rockets then crash land on top of your Recon sniping ass. Hopefully will happen only once in your lifetime.

True story.

But once you get past those initial barriers, and starting learning to use your weapons carefully, earning more points, unlocking better scopes and developing better strategies...the game will suddenly be more fun than ever before. You start to die less and learn to pick your fights, and become less obsessed with killing, and be more focused on team effort.

THAT is when you realise...that the game is fucking awesome.

To put it in layman's terms: it prove to be one of the BEST online multiplayer experiences I have experienced thus far...


When it works.

@%#*(@$!!!

Now, on to the issues of the game. And boy...what issues it has.

First of all, I would like to let you guys know that, the game is indeed fun. And I've enjoyed myself immensely. But as of writing, there are various factors very intent on placing a gap between me and that joy as far apart as possible.

The main issue with the game right now, is the fact that its either crashing like mad for some reason (which actually did not happen that often until AFTER they patched the fucking thing) OR I'm disconnecting from EA Online for some other fucking reason.

I shit you not, I have officially seen this fucking error
more times than I have had sex as of 20th November 2011.

While I understand that developing a game is not the easiest thing in the world, this is one of the most highly anticipated games of 2011!! It shipped to MILLIONS of players, of which a significant percentage of them are now pissed off like hell (including yours truly) about this connectivity/crashing issue. It's not a weird-ass animation glitch or an off-mapped texturing, that's just something that can be ignored when you're having loads of fun. But when it actually prevents players from, you know, PLAYING, shit gets real, yo.

This is especially more appalling since to actually play Battlefield 3, you need to login via the Origin client (EA's own in-house digital distribution system), then go into Battlelog to actually get into the action. And apparently in the background, I'm also logged into EA.com, because according to the game for about 56,000 times, I get disconnected from it for some reason during playtime. So what does this mean?

Using the exotic power known as Google, I tried searching for fixes to my dilemma. I've updated Origin, re-installed Battlefield 3, updated my graphics card, lowered my video settings, increased my video settings, checked "Run as Administrator" for multiple programs, went to EA forums, went to DICE forums, and after a few days of hard work and the blood of a thousand sacrificial victims, I'MSTILLNOTSUREWHYICAN'TPLAYTHEBLOODYGAMEFORMORETHANAFEWMINUTES!!

On the other side of the wall were virgin n00bs waiting to be
penetrated in Battlefield 3, but I was denied that sick joy.

According to EA and DICE, they're working very hard to make sure the game is being fixed as much as possible. While I'm sure that they are doing that even as I type this, I cannot help but feel that in their attempt to beat Modern Warfare 3 to the release date, they had to sacrifice a few, erm, conveniences.

I know that so far, it's been a few paragraphs of ranting, but you have to realise that, well, I really like this game, and to have the rather shortsightedness on EA's part on not being able to handle the situation is a bit of a slap in the face. I bought the game, enjoyed it immensely for about 3 weeks, only to be unable to play proper matches for weeks up to this point (which is why I started writing this blog post now -__- simply because I actually can't play more of the game.)

But honestly, so far that is the one major factor that is killing the game, if EA and DICE can resolve this matter soon and in time for the Back to Karkand launch in December, they can still pull this one off.

There are other minor annoyances with the game, which in my opinion can be resolved rather easily once they're done with this major one.

Alright, so one of the minor annoyances I have found with the game is the re-spawn system. Generally you can either choose to re-spawn on your team, or choose to re-spawn on any one of the locations that your team has captured (Conquest mode). However, it seems that the system will drop you at the spawn point completely randomly, and it is entirely possible to re-spawn right in front of an enemy. With your back facing him. And you are complete unaware of his presence. Easy kill.

Hey, didn't I just popped up here at the exact same spot and got my ass stabbed just now?

It's a bit of a poor design in my opinion, I can perfectly understand if a player runs around and happens to encounter a single lone player and proceeds to slaughter the entire squad because they had the bad luck to all spawn on that one guy. That's just plain bad luck. This, on the other hand, can happen very frequently, especially for those on the losing end.

Another minor niggle is the supposed killcam; when you are killed, inevitably, by another player, the camera focuses on the player that killed you, giving you a glimpse of your killer and allowing you to plot the murder of him and his kin. My question here is what the hell is the damn point of it? It does not show you HOW he killed you but shows what he is doing AFTER killing you, namely either camping, reloading or just moving. Sure, it shows what equipment and accessories he is using and the dog tags, but so what? It's rather pointless information. It would've be alright if they had shown from his point of view as he continued to land a few kills, which could've at least served as a learning tool. But the camera is rather insistent on showing you the frontal close up of the generic face model of the soldier, refusing to let you examine his surroundings, which means in most cases, you have no idea where he is AT ALL when he killed you if you never actually saw him.

Only managed a 900 meter headshot? Slow day for me, must be Tuesday.

And for one reason or another, you can't access the menu at all during this killcam stage, only allowing menu access when you are ready to re-spawn. I don't about you guys, but I would rather have spent that time maybe tweaking my options instead of staring emptily at my killer for about 5 seconds. And by the time you get access to the menu and/or your weapon loadout, it is when you are ready to re-spawn, it seems like a waste of time when you can be out re-spawning and potentially save your squad or a conquest point, but instead you might be adjusting your weapon loadout to fit the situation.

It's a similar problem with the endgame summary. At the end of each round, you get a short clip of all the experience points you have gained for the classes you used, any unlocks and ribbons and medals you may have achieved during the round. That clip in itself works rather well in giving you a sense of achievement, especially if you have earned a lot of rewards.

I got this medal for blowing up a tank and my entire squad using C4s.

After reviewing your rewards, you get 30 seconds of doing absolutely nothing. Sure, you can see the next unlock for your class kits, rank and vehicle, see the scoreboard, and err...yea. You can't see the accessory unlocks for your weapons, nor can you examine other players, nor can you modify your weapon loadout, and once again, you can't access the damn menu (Do they have something against people accessing that?). It's essentially a big waste of time, while waiting for the next round to start. It's not an excuse to load the next map either, because after the timer drops to 0, you have to wait for the damn map to load anyway. If they allowed more flexibility for this stage, it would be for the better.

Then there are minor annoyances such as the Tactical Flashlight attachments, which for some reason, is fucking brighter than the sun even when OUTDOORS. Having it shone into your face it really looks like a mini sun covering 75% of the screen. And there is the jump over animation for players to go over obstacles: normally, you will just do a normal jump, but if you are moving forward and there is an obstacle (such as a low lying wall, or maybe a crate), pressing jump will make your character slide over the object without losing momentum. It's a nice little touch that adds to the soldier-feel of the game. However, its not perfect detection at the moment. Sometimes the animation will activate, but you realise that you're still standing in the same place, which can prove fatal if you were trying to escape other players and end up being stuck there for a split second, and then die in a rain of gunfire.

But, as mentioned, these are still somewhat minor design issues which can be fixed with bugs. The most important problem that needs to be fixed as soon as possible is the connectivity/crashing issue, which is standing in the way of players trying to have fun.




_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________



So, what's the conclusion?

As far as I'm concerned, Battlefield 3's online gameplay is one of the most fun I've had this year so far. The graphics are awesome, the gameplay is solid, and the numerous unlocks will keep players engaged.

It's just very disheartening that disconnects and crashings are keeping players out of what may be one of the best built multiplayer shooters we've had in a decade. Especially more so since its barely been 2 months since the game has been launched.

My advice? Don't buy the game yet. Let EA iron out the bugs, and once the game is stable...

THEN buy it.
Have fun.
Shoot n00bs.
Fly high.

Adios, kids.