AVENGERS ASSEMBLE!!

I just can't get enough of this movie. It was so awesome that I've already watched it three times.

And I was still excited watching it during the 2nd and 3rd watchings.

It really is that fucking awesome.

Sheer awesomeness personified

Where do we begin...

Steve Rogers/Captain America:

New uniform, though the helmet looks abit goofier than the one he wore in his debut movie weirdly enough.

He's still trying to fit into the new century after spending time as a "Capsicle", and I think he's still trying to, but he is getting better.

Awesome leader as usual, provides a good contrast to Tony Stark/Iron Man. Also showing the world that he can kick ass with or without his shield.

Tony Stark/Iron Man:

Shows more character development than the rest of the team, accepting what it means to be part of a team and the sacrifices required.

And as usual, Robert Downey Jr. gets the wittiest and best dialogue. Every scene with him is a awesome/funny moment.

He also shows off his new Iron Man Armor Mark VII (I think).

Bruce Banner/Hulk:

Mark Ruffalo replaces Edward Norton in this movie, after negotiations between Marvel Studios and Norton broke down. But no matter, Mark Ruffalo plays this role marvellously (hehe).

He is surprisingly snarky and sarcastic here, and this movie shows how far and how much Bruce Banner has grown to accept the Hulk as part of who he is.




Thor Odinson:

Thor gets some of the best action scenes here, squaring off against almost everyone here: Captain America and Iron Man, mano-a-mano against Hulk, Loki, and plenty of Chitauri cannon fodder soldiers.

As a character, Thor has embraced the maturity and responsibility he learnt from his debut movie and its very heartwarming to see him just being so mature, signifying the excellent development he gone through.

Natasha Romanoff/Black Widow:

Scarlett Johansson's extreme hotness in a catsuit aside, she plays this role extremely well and gets a lot of screentime. She shows that she is no mere mortal in this movie and fights with the rest of the big boys as well as anyone of them.

C'mon, at least Hawkeye has god-like archery skills, Black Widow kicks ass using her wrist zappers, martial arts and handguns. She survived a blow from THE HULK!!!

An excellent way to introduce Black Widow to the mainstream audiences.

Clint Barton/Hawkeye:

Finally, Hawkeye gets the exposure that he so severely lacks in the Marvel universe. Hawkeye has been around for so many years, but he's very well below the radar when it comes to sheer popularity.

Unfortunately but unsurprisingly, The Avengers does not expand much on Hawkeye himself, which is a shame, considering that every scene Hawkeye is in is pure awesome sauce. And also slightly mind bogglingly impossible arrow shots.

Jeremy Renner is also a perfect fit as the confident Hawkeye despite the short screentime that he has. After The Hurt Locker and Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol, it seems Jeremy Renner is well on his way on becoming a superstar.

Here's hoping that he will get his own spin off movie with Black Widow.

Loki:

The big bad of this movie, Tom Hiddleston reprises his role of Loki from the Thor movie, and boy is he a delight to watch.

He really pulls off the demented and evil character that Loki has become since his downfall in Thor. Even in his first appearance, that slasher smile of his is...truly unsettling.

With delusions of godhood and the arrogance to match it, Loki brought about the Chitauri army in order to conquer it, but he has to use the Tessarect/Cosmic Cube to open a portal for them to cross over and wreck havoc.


Other characters also make their appearance: Samuel L. Jackson reprises his role as the badass Nick Fury, Stellan Skarsgård as Doctor Erik Selvig, Gwyneth Paltrow as Pepper Potts briefly and my favorite new character, Clark Gregg as Agent Phil Coulson (he's also a fanboy of Captain America =D apparently).
A new character was introduced in The Avengers: Cobie Smulders as Maria Hill, who also shined pretty well when the action called for it.

Honestly, the story is nothing great: "Loki is threatening to bring war to Earth and the Avengers have to get their shit together to work as a team to stop him" pretty much sums it up.

But Joss Whedon, with his magic hands, has managed to give humanity, humor and development to everyone without concentrating on any single character too much. This movie is very well balanced and there is honestly never a single dull moment.

Joss Whedon also manages to make everyone just freaking awesome and memorable. There is one particular scene where Loki has forced a large group of people to kneel in front of him, playing to his God complex.

Watch out for this scene.

Loki, being his ego-maniacal self, starts giving a speech about how humans crave subjugation and he will be the one who will give them that pleasure.

Then, this old man slowly stands up, turns and tells Loki, "Not to men like you."

Loki replies, "But there are no men like me."

The old man just says, "There will ALWAYS be men like you."

Holy shit.

It was a very simple scene, with very simple words, but the force behind those words are worth entire speeches and entire scenes made in lesser movies. And they probably have less impact.

And the action scenes. My god, the glorious action scenes.

For the first 2 hours of the movie, you get a few incredibly cool fight scenes between various characters.

And then, in the last half hour, the Chitauri come in full force.

Only the Avengers stand in their way and they fight.


That last half hour was worth all the other Marvel Cinematic Universe movies put together, multiplied by two.

It honestly is that freaking awesome.

Watching this scene gave me goosebumps every single time.

It was like a childhood dream for me coming true, seeing the greatest comic book superhero team of all time on the silver screen.

This movie generated so much hype it was mind boggling, the cinemas I went to had to put up notices that a few of the slots were completely sold out.

Very few movies ever actually surpass that hype, much less live up to it.

The Avengers. Is. THAT. AWESOME.

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I'm pretty sure by now, or even before reading this, that The Avengers has garnered alot of positive reviews from everywhere.

Sure, it has it flaws, but those flaws just seem so insignificant when you watch it.

A movie to bring together some of the most popular superheroes of all time was deemed almost impossible a decade ago. The fact that Marvel Studios is attempting to create their own cinematic universe is a bold move, it can easily fail and screw up like Squaresoft's Square Pictures (Final Fantasy: Spirits Within for those not in the know).

But looking at this, there is no doubt that the plans for the Marvel Cinematic Universe will only expand and perhaps bring more exposure their characters.

I was honestly quite afraid that the movie will not live up to the hype it generated.

Oh how me of little faith.

The Dark Knight Rises is going to have one hell of a competition this year. Good luck, Nolan.

And thank you, Joss Whedon, for making this movie.

AVENGERS!! ASSEMBLE!!!

Diablo III Open Beta Weekend

Diablo III was available to the public this weekend to whet our appetites for the actual game coming next month.

Of course we were limited to defeating King Leoric and a level cap, but that didn't stop millions of players flooding the open beta.

Me, included.

Hello ladies...I'm here to steal your boyfriends from you again.

There were a few problems with getting D3 launched though, something to do with the agent.exe updating setup files thingy. It took me about 2-3 hours worth of Googling to get it fixed, and even then, I'm still not sure exactly what was the problem was.

Still, after 3 hours of downloading 3 gigabytes worth of data, I was off to save the world of Sanctuary. At least, whatever that was allowed in the open beta.

Unfortunately I only had time to test out the Witch Doctor and the Wizard during the open beta weekend, but it was ok 'cause I had fun and those two classes were the ones that I was really interested in anyway.

Bikini goodness.

More bikini goodness

Unlike some other people.

Andy, holy shit dude.

So, what has changed? Let's take a look.

Skills

Instead of the skill tree we have back in Diablo II, we now have a more linear skill progression: you get one new skill everytime you level up, and a skill rune which enhances or modifies a certain skill every other level (starting from level 6).

At first glance, it seems to be much more limiting and simple, but that is not the case in my opinion. Now you have every skill available to you, unlike in D2 where you have to invest skill points into skills to have them available.

Many a times in D2, a Sorceress specializing only in Cold spells have met their doom or have had to request help from friends when they realise that a third of the enemies in Hell mode are immune to Cold damage.

In D3, you won't have that problem as all the skills will be available to you. Eventually.

The only thing limiting you is that you can only have 6 active skills at any one time; however, if one fight proves to be difficult and requires a change of tactics, all you have to do is to get somewhere safe, change those skills and you can go back into the fray again.

Like so.

So far, I found the Witch Doctor ridiculously fun to play, with all her zombie dogs, bats of fire, zombie hands, frogs and zombie spiders thrown at her enemies. It's simply addictive.

You might have noticed in the above picture, there are two new shortcuts between the skill keys and the other menus: the one marked Q is for health potions and the one on the right is the Town Portal key.

Yes...now Town Portal is now a skill by itself, no more tomes/scrolls of Town Portal taking up valuable space in the inventory.

The health potions shortcut is for emergencies where you can't pick up health orbs during combat. And you can't spam it either due to its cooldown, which is just long enough that you will want to use it only once or twice during major battles.

There are no mana potions of any sort, since every class has their own resource to use from and it regenerates by itself based on different conditions.

In D3, the skills are now directly based on your weapon damage, even for spells. This makes weapons all the more important for every class, and keeps the spellcasters still relevant even when in higher levels, which was a main problem for the magic users in D2.

By far the new Skills system is much more intuitive and more fun; in D2, it was very easy to fumble over the skills selection, as you can only have two skills at any one time (on the left and right mouse button) and to choose the rest, you have to assign them to keys F1 to F8.

Some people have complained that this removes customization, which I disagree. Everyone has the same pool of skills to choose from, your skillset now defines your playing style, as every skill is now useful. Compare to D2, where a multitude of skills were frankly rubbish, and to have any chance of actually surviving in the higher difficulties meant that most players had to follow pretty much the same skill build.

So much for customization aye?

Graphics

D3's graphics...well...they're...fine.

That's the best I can say about it.

The character models are rather lacklustre. It could be better, the textures and the polygon count feels lower than it should.

I'll still tap that though.

So D3 does not win much points there, but Blizzard has done a damn fine job of setting the mood/atmosphere and special effects.

The inside of the Tristram Cathedral is beautifully evil, with a giant hole straight down the center where a star has fallen through. And while I feel Blizzard has not done a good job with the player characters, Leoric the Skeleton King is rendered with much more detail: from the moment you put the crown on his decayed body, his armor and bones come together as he stands up as mighty as he was in real life, cracks his neck from decades of stillness, and lets loose a tornado of carnage.

Someone bring me my brown pants

The spells feel powerful as they rip through your enemies, and every spell is lovingly detailed. Lightning attacks will leave corpses charred black after their life has been snuffed out.

A little bit of butter...some garlic...perfect.

And the environment is now rather destructible, everything from gravestones and coffins lying around, to even destructible walls and chandelier ropes that will give you that slight extra edge against your enemies.

After some time, you even learn to recognise some of the tougher bosses by just noticing a small golden selection ring underneath them.

Weapons would even display a different colored background based on what elemental damage they are imbued with.

And like before, the color of the items name would indicate its rareness: blue means Magical, yellow means Rare item and so forth.

They are all very simple visual cues that are easy to pick up and familiarise.

It's the little things that make the D3 experience a clear winner over D2 in this case.


Gameplay

Now for the main part.

So far, the gameplay in D3 is solid.

It's the same old joy of playing D2: leveling up and playing around with new spells, gathering gold and shiny new items.

Only now, its BETTER.

Oh I just can't wait to see what shiny loot will come out of your ass.

The inventory system now carries more stuff and is easier to organise; the spells are now better and more fun; gathering new loot is STILL as exciting as ever, and now gold actually has use in-game.

Previously, in D2, gold served only two functions: repairing your items and reviving your (constantly dead) hireling. Heck, if you were a spellcaster, you probably won't need to repair your equipment at all.

In D3 however, gold and unwanted magical items are now an important part of gameplay thanks to the inclusion of the BLACKSMITH.

Ooo...shiny...

The Blacksmith can craft new weapons and armor (with a set amount of random magical properties) if you have the right amount of raw material, which in turn is gathered by salvaging any magical item, destroying it in the process. Gold is required for crafting the item as well, and for training the Blacksmith, which will open up new items for crafting.

This new aspect of gameplay is a welcome change, as it now ensures that every outing is rewarding: even if you can't find any suitable magical item to replace your current gear, you can always salvage them and craft something new.

Blizzard seems to have taken a leaf from World of Warcraft for this particular Blacksmith aspect, well...more than a few leaves I believe, while designing D3.

The chat system in D3 is very similar to the one in WoW, right down to the exact same buttons on the left of the chat box. Heck, they even used the same font colors.

However, it is a system that works, so there's nothing to complain there.

They've added an achievement system, also similar to WoW and Starcraft II, for players who are obsessed with these kind of achievements, or who have apparently run out of things to do in D3.

It does come with certain rewards though.

So far, some achievements reward you extra experience points for doing things like killing multiple enemies with one attack, killing a lot of enemies within a short span of time and destroying objects in game. The rest of the achievements seem to be for bragging purposes and a certain few allow you to change the design of your banner.

The quests system has received a huge overhaul in D3. While the quests are still more or less as linear as it was before, the objectives are much clearer and if it is nearby, it will appear on the minimap.

In some dungeons, you will receive new quests in them and you can do it right away.

Even in death, there are couples who suffer from sexual deprivation.

Unlike in D2, quests now actually give experience points as rewards, and they're a large chunk at that, thankfully. Which makes leveling up far less of a grind than it is back in D2.

One thing that is very well executed in D3 is the co-op function.

It's now as simple as clicking on your friends list and joining your him/her in slaughtering the minions of Hell. Just like that.

Two bitches out on a quest to kill more bitches

If, however for any reason, you do NOT have any friends who owns D3 (my condolences), then you have the option of making your game a public game (where random strangers on the same quest as you join your game), or joining a public game.

The latter requires you to go to the main menu, choose the quest you want to do, click on the public game button, and then you're off with three other random strangers carving a path through demons and ghosts of Hell.

The only thing is that D3 only allows up to 4-player co-op, half of the maximum party size in D2 (that's 8 for the mathematically challenged readers out there).

Although, to be honest, even with only four people, the game can be quite chaotic, especially when you have the casters throwing spells and the Demon Hunters raining arrows all over the place. So there may be some merit to the limit Blizzard has placed on co-op.

The seamless way D3 goes into multiplayer is a huge plus compared to D2, and so far I have not felt too bad a lag while playing in public games. Although only time will tell whether that will hold up when D3 is finally launched.

Now there was one thing that most D2 players will agree on is that in D2, the information displayed in-game was pretty much less than accurate (to put it lightly): about the only thing the character stat sheet displayed correctly was the name and the player level.

So, Blizzard to completely overhaul that in D3 and now we have this:

That is...quite a lot of numbers...

But don't let the huge chunk of information overwhelm you, it is apparently very accurate and makes much more sense than the D2 character sheets. It even displays how long it takes for your weapon to make a single attack.

In RPGs, information is a critical aspect that is sometimes hidden from some players, but I feel that developers should be more open with that information for players to make better decisions. In this case, Blizzard has made the right move.

Gameplay for D3: A definite satisfaction.

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ 

To conclude, every aspect of the game is a huge improvement over its predecessor. Whatever faults Diablo II had, Blizzard seems to have taken note and addressed them appropriately.

Of course it took them 12 years to come up with the sequel, so they really had a lot to live up to.

In fact, the wait was so long, Duke Nukem Forever actually shipped before they did. How messed up is that?

Overall, I found Diablo III a real joy to play with, and this open beta weekend only made me want more.

Damn you Blizzard.

Now I only have to wait 3 more weeks to save the world.

AHHHHHHHHHH KILL IT!! KILL IT WITH FIRE!!

DotA 2 Beta!

I finally got my grubby hands on a DotA 2 Beta key, and I've been playing it for the past two weeks.

Simply put, I can't wait for the full launch.

For the purpose of this post, I'm going to write from the perspective of a longtime DotA player making the transition to DotA 2.

Alrighty then, lets do this.

So, one major change is that there is no lobby per say, unlike in Battle.net. Instead, you go to the Play tab on the top toolbar and simply choose your region, game types and click search.

This will automatically help you find a game according to your criteria, and when Steam has found a game, you can then choose to accept or decline.

Yes I know I have more losses than wins. So sue me.

I've always liked Steam, it's seamless, smooth and fast. And it has that little overlay where you can find your friends and integrated browser for surfing Facebook and other websites while waiting for games.

It's still miles ahead of, say, Origin in its user-friendliness.

You might have also noticed that there's a create lobby button there, but it's only for private games for some reason. I have yet to try that function out.

Also, the curious thing is that for the time being, the All-random game type is not available. Possibly they're still coding the "swap heroes with other players" command.

So far, I've not have any connection nor lag issues with DotA 2, which may be attributed to Steam. On the other hand, it could be my connection is just stronger. In fact, loading only take seconds. The only thing that would delay a match starting is the amount of players available in the pool. However, currently there are a few thousand players, so so far I haven't had much of a problem with that.

One of the most important features that the team has added is the ability to reconnect to the game after you have disconnected from the game. Very useful feature for people that have shaky connections, and better for the game overall.

So, even if you have disconnected, DESPAIR NOT!! Rejoin and continue the fight!!

Unless you're a leaver.

In which case. FUCK YOU.

I hope Santa Pudge visits you for Christmas, ye damn leavers.

You can also report other players for offences such as verbal abuse, intentional feeding, and ability abuse. You can also commend other players for being forgiving, good leadership skills, friendly and for teaching other players.

I can understand the reporting players bit, the commending one seems somewhat unnecessary, 'cause at the moment seems to serve not much purpose other than having a few points on your profile.

Though I admit, having a few points on my profile does give a certain amount of gratification.

But enough about the lobby/Steam etc etc. To GAMEPLAY!!

The first thing that you will notice when you start a game is that you now get to actually see ALL the heroes in a single menu, as compared to Warcraft III (shortened to W3 for the rest of the post) DotA, where Icefrog had to distribute the heroes between several taverns to choose from.

You get about 1 minute to pick your hero then the game switches to the main map and another 30 seconds or so will pass before the game starts.

Dibs.

For the time being, not all the heroes are implemented in the game, new heroes get implemented every few weeks or so.

One of the best things about DotA 2 is that the developers are free from the restrictions of the Warcraft III engine, and have full reign of the game, thus letting them put in custom models, special effects and dialogues.

Each hero is beautifully rendered, and are detailed, right down to their animation. Take for example, the Alchemist: in W3 DotA, when he uses his Chemical Rage ultimate skill, he is basically replaced by a slightly different model; in DotA 2, you can see him change color and draw out his swords from the back. It all happens within a fraction of a second, but it's always the little details that bring life to a game.

I'm the brains. And I'm the Brawns.

They have added functions that would be limited by the W3 engine, or be too buggy of any use. For instance, items can now be dissembled from the inventory itself, as compared to W3 DotA, where you have to be back at the fountain, drop the item into the circle then press the "Dissemble" button. There are even dedicated buttons for the Courier and the Fortify Tower functions, so you don't have to, again, click on the circle at the fountain.

By the way, notice the little boxes on top of the heroes? Each small box represents 250 hitpoints. So just by looking at it, you can judge how much (or how little) hit points your enemies or allies have. Obviously, the more boxes, the more hitpoints they have. Which actually helps making the judgement of your relative damage output easier to comprehend.

A different approach has been given to the UI panel at the bottom of the screen, which is an inversion of the W3 version.

Dibs on her as well.

As you can see, the Skills take up most of the screen now, while the stats take up a much smaller screen between the loving detailed Hero portrait and Skills.

The basic 4 skills are now universally represented by the Q, W, E and R keys (with exceptions for a few heroes with more than 4 skills), this does get some getting used to as well, especially for this player who had to sorta fight against 7-8 years worth of DotA muscle memory. However, after 2-3 games, I got used to and liked the new shortcut keys.

A mouse-over reveals what the skills are and the stats. Each small orange box underneath the skill represents one skill point invested into it, other players can see what skills you have invested in as well.

On the far right is the inventory system, which is now reworked into a 2-row, 3-column grid; as compared to the 3-row, 2-column grid of W3 DotA. The reason for this change I believe is to accommodate the current gold display and the quick buy box right above the inventory.

I like that quick buy box, by default you can buy the Town Portal scrolls by just right clicking on it whenever you are near any shops, instead of scrolling through the tabs trying to find the scrolls within mountains of items.

A nice little touch there.

Speaking of shops...

At any one location, the shop is now represented by ONE vendor. As a result....

Oh crud

Yea...That's just one page of basic items, separated into four tabs of different categories. That's not even touching the Upgrades/Recipes page. The picture above is actually showing the full list of items without descriptions nor names. The other view mode shows the name and costs.

The first time can be very confusing, even for someone who made the jump from W3 DotA, especially since the icons are now very different. The system works very well actually, it's just that it will take time to get used to it, mostly to remember the icon for the items.

Once you get the hang of it, the UI is actually pretty good.

In fact, the development team have thought ahead and added very useful features to the interface. First and foremost is the search bar on top, which was very helpful in finding items, and even more so as it displays results AS you type the name, so its all very quick.

As you might have noticed, there is a suggested items bar right next to it, which is a very useful hero-specific guide. Another time-saving measure implemented is that you can simply right click on the upgraded items (which consists of several items and sometimes a recipe), and buy the whole thing immediately!

I seriously love that feature. Back in W3 DotA, you had to buy everything individually and had to make sure you had every component on your hero to be able to combine it properly, which can be time consuming if said item requires 3-4 items (remember: you only have six slots, not counting the other items you already have).

However, this won't work with items that require the Recipe (if you're not at the fountain) or if one of the components is something that can only be bought at the Secret Shop (if you're at the fountain or the side shops).

So far, I do have an issue with DotA 2.

All the girls in DotA 2 look hot. Definitely not an issue here.

Most of the special effects are a bit underwhelming I feel, which makes it hard to pick out the spells during battles. Mind you, I could pick out exactly what was going on and what spells were used during a full scale 5 on 5 fight on W3 DotA.

In DotA 2, however, not so much. And it's not because I'm not used to the graphics either. The graphics for the special effects just feel a little flat, or blends into the surroundings too much.

Take for instance, the item Mjolnir (Yes, it is based on Thor's Hammer): it has a chance to proc a chain lightning with every attack; in W3 DotA, when the chain lightning comes out, it feels and looks like raw blue electrical energy striking the targets, and you can feel that holy crap, THAT IS LIGHTNING STRIKING MY ENEMIES; in DotA 2, the chain lightning erm....well for lack of a better word, looks a bit pathetic.

Still, it's just a graphical thing that I can get used to, it's just that I feel that some of the special effects need to be flashier.



_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ 

So, overall, I have to say, I'm very impressed with the game. Quite simply put, it IS the game that definitely trumps the current W3 DotA by far. Like, lightyears. No shit.

And to make the transition was a bit difficult at first, because everything looked different, it took me some time to learn to identify the items, the heroes, the spells, and even learn how to last hit properly again.

But in just 2-3 games, I was back on track, having loads of fun and working together with random people, with the sole goal of taking down the other teams Ancient.

At the moment, it's still in Beta testing, though I think more and more people will be selected for it.

Try your luck here.

DotA 2. I await your official launch.

Excuse me, I have to go on a killing spree.

Yessssssss

Video Games Live is back!

Video Games Live is coming back to Malaysia!! May 26th and 27th to be exact.

Tickets are no sale now, and the venue is Istana Budaya. Which means this time they have an actual concert hall with better facilities than the convention hall in KLCC they used back in 2010, although by no means did that hamper the sheer awesome-ness of the concert.

For those not in the know, Video Games Live is basically a concert series that features music from all eras of video game history.

The last time they were here, the concert creators Jack Wall and Tommy Tallarico, himself a video game music composer and musician, played a multitude of video game themes both old and new:

God of War, Legend of Zelda, Metal Gear Solid, Super Mario, Sonic, Kingdom Hearts, Halo, Chrono Trigger, Chrono Cross, World of Warcraft.

For that concert they even managed to bring Norihiko Hibino, the composer and saxophonist for Metal Gear Solid.

HOW FREAKING AWESOME WAS THAT!?

The concert ended with One Winged Angel, with a FULL orchestra. I pretty much went rabid fanboy mode when they played it.

Also, a short update in that Diablo III's release date has finally been confirmed for May 15th.

Add to the fact that the Avengers movie is coming out in May along with Max Payne 3, May 2012 just became the most awesomest month ever.

John Carter review

Spoiler alert:

JOHN CARTER GOES TO MARS.

And now, review time.

King Kong's regretful one-stand night drunkenness. 

So, this guy, John Carter (duh) somehow finding himself on Mars after stumbling onto some ancient ruins.

Whilst there, he befriends the natives and saves Barsoom (the Martians' name for Mars), and gets laid with the Princess of Mars.

The director for this movie is Andrew Stanton, you may remember him for being the director of Finding Nemo and WALL-E.

Holy EFF-ING shit.

That was one of the main reasons why I wanted to watch this movie, due to those movies being, you know, bloody good.

However, it seems that Andrew Stanton does not fare so well when it comes to directing live action movies.

Frankly, John Carter is somewhat a messy movie with a few good ideas here and there.

Ok, this guy was actually rather cute.

When John Carter first arrived on Mars, he had trouble trying to move. Due to the lower gravity and his higher bone density, he could jump ridiculously high and throw killing punches.

So, kinda like the Hulk then.

Without the nigh invulnerability.

And the increased healing.

And certainly without the purple pants.

That particular scene where he was trying to get used to the new environment was actually a delightfully funny scene to watch.

And less than 10 minutes afterwards, that particular trouble is gone. It was forgotten a bit too quickly me thinks, nor was it ever properly explained.

A lot of other aspects of the story get the exact same treatment.

How does he breathe in the Martian atmosphere?

What the heck does he eat?

And in a bizzarely disjointing scene, we had the four-armed Martian Tharks speaking in a completely alien language to Carter, and immediately in the next scene, human-looking Martians of Helium speaking perfectly coherent English.

No amount of cleavage could take my attention away
from the lack of explanation on those details.

Hurm.

Mostly though, the characterization and the pacing of the story is somewhat messy.

Typical problems of a movie based on a novel I guess. There is simply not enough time to jam everything inside the time frame of a single movie.

There was a twist or two towards the end of the movie. Which was done pretty well in my opinion.

The action scenes were actually pretty decent though. And I liked the design of the Martian airships, though they're more of the awesome but impractical type airships.

It's so damn open!! Anyone with decent tactical knowledge could probably take down the aircraft with minimal equipment.

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ 

So, to summarize the movie:

• The story is messy and inconsistent
• Decent characters, but still suffers from inconsistency and clarity
• Decent action 
• Damn good special effects and design though

Well, personally, it's nothing great of a movie.

If nothing else, it's probably like the over-cooked appetizer before the epic main course that will undoubtedly be the summer blockbuster movies.

*cough* Avengers *cough*

Relatively, its somewhat the better of the movies that are available in the cinemas at the moment, though frankly that's not saying much.

Ah, hell.

At least it wasn't like Ghost Rider. Am I right?

*shudder*

Mass Effect 3 review

One of the most anticipated games of 2012, Mass Effect 3 is the ending to the epic sci-fi trilogy that is Mass Effect.

It has been ages since any franchise has generated as much a huge fanbase as this. Sure, there was Halo, Gears of War, Call of Duty etc...but honestly, when it came down to storyline and establishing an entire universe, Mass Effect is king of the hill.

Now the question is: Does Mass Effect 3 live up to its incredible hype? Does it deliver the satisfying ending that everyone is hoping for?

Lets find out.

Even in the far future, global warming is still an environmental issue on Earth.

Gameplay

ME3 brings back some older mechanics and improves on Mass Effect 2's combat system. Weapon mods make a return (YAY!), bringing more options to individual weapon loadouts as compared to the previous game.

Now you can add scopes, heat sinks, stabilizers, extra thermal clips and even knife attachments! Each weapon can have up to two different mods.

You can even add scopes to a HANDGUN.

Weapon mods can be brought from shops or found during missions just lying around, in addition to armor pieces and new weapons littered around the battlefields. So, it really pays to explore the environment to reap these rewards.

Unlike ME2, ME3's weapons are much more varied and more fun to use in combat. They also implemented ME1's weapons upgrade rank system, but much less cluttered but simply having the superior ranked weapon replace the inferior one. Thus removing one hell of an inventory nightmare that was prevalent in the first game.

Also, grenades make a return. Finally they're not the shitty frisbee thingy that we last saw in ME1. On the other hand, thermal clips make a return, but since the game is much more generous with the amount of thermal clips littered around, I guess it's not too bad a thing.

The armor system more or less follows the one from ME2, the only difference is that whatever DLC armor you had from the last game (Terminus Armor, Collector Armor, Blood Dragon Armor etc) will be available for purchase from various shops.

And we have lost the manliest armor of all time.

Generally, the combat in ME3 is much more varied, more challenging, and overall, more fun than its predecessors. In the previous games, only a few battles were challenging enough that simply shooting at the enemies without any tactics would pretty end badly (example: ME1's battle with Saren, ME2's Human-Reaper hybrid thingy).

In this game however, the firefights can end very badly if you decide to just gungho it without using your powers properly. The AI is smarter for one thing, and the various enemies now have special abilities which require tactics to defeat.

Especially Cerberus forces, which had taken some lessons in badassery apparently, probably due to Shepard's short time with them, and they have picked up some useful lessons.

The lowly Cerberus Assault Troopers are their cannon fodder grunts, but they are usually supported by Cerberus Centurions that come with shields and lay down thick smoke grenades to fuck with your vision. Later in the game, they will be accompanied by Cerberus Nemesis with sniper rifles or Cerberus Combat Engineers (which are pretty much the player character's Engineer class) who lay down turrets OR the Cerberus Phantom with guns for hands and an instant kill katana.

Sometimes, they bring out the big guns. Literally. By dropping the Atlas mechs to go against you.

It has always been my dream job to pilot a mech. Damn you, you lucky basterd.

And the best thing is? YOU CAN HIJACK THAT MOTHAFUCKA.

Even the Reapers are not pulling their punches. Now that they have made their presence known, the first thing they did is harvest the other races and start making husks out of them. The resulting husks are some of the toughest enemies in the game.

And slightly nightmarish.

Thank you Bioware. As if the Broodmothers from Dragon Age wasn't bad enough.

The scanning minigame returns! This time, the least time-consuming and more fun of the three. Third time's the charm apparently.

Now the Normandy scans the planet systems, like a radar, if there is anything interesting, EDI will point it out. Usually it's either more fuel from destroyed fuel stations or War Assets to scan on the planet. If the planet has something interesting, you will revert to the planet-scanning minigame from ME2. 

However, if the planetary system is under siege from the Reapers, you risk getting discovered by them everytime you "ping". Eventually, they will come after you and you will need to run.

It's much more simplified and by far the best implemented. It's much more fun and does not break the flow of the game. No more time wasted by spending untold minutes trying to mine some goddam minerals.

ME3 also made changes to the skill trees so that they are not as rigid as before, and by the 4th level of the skill, you get to choose one of the two perks that would modify the skill.

Like so.

 The changes are mostly just choosing between more damage, shorter cooldowns or longer durations though, so its not to say they are a hugely customizable. Only a few skills have drastic changes, like the Sentry Turret skill for Engineers.

So, overall, gameplay wise, Mass Effect 3 is probably the best of the trilogy so far. Fittingly. Bioware took what worked and made it better, and removed the unsavoury elements.

Storyline

Now for the main draw of ME3: The storyline.

After all, this is the final part of Shepard's story. The Reapers invade and take over Earth, and Shepard has to rally all of the galactic races together to fight back against them and save the galaxy before they take out every organic being in the galaxy. Again.

No pressure.

One thing I have noticed about ME3 is that compared to the previous two games, it's a lot more linear. And that's saying something. In fact, it has gotten progressively more linear.

In ME1, you could recruit Liara as the last companion despite being told to go do her recruitment mission very early on. You could also trigger other important missions in a different order.

In ME2, you could only recruit maybe 2-3 members during any particular part of the game. You weren't allowed to recruit the others until the game gave you access to the particular mission or star system.

In this game, the game only gave you one priority mission at a time. There are other side missions which you can choose to do or not, but will affect your War Assets and the characters that you meet. But in the context of this game, Bioware probably made the right choice, they wanted to make an epic ending after all.

If players were given a lot of free choice, it'll probably break the epic flow of the story. Thus, ME3 kinda just nudges players down the linear path with a few side quests littered about.

If there's one thing Bioware is good at, it's the stories. They have always been outrageously popular for their ability to tell stories, and Mass Effect 3 does not disappoint.

Well hellloooooo Ashley...

By far my favorite parts of the game are when Bioware focuses on the people. The way they interact with each other, not just with Shepard but with everyone else as well.

On the Normandy, the NPCs don't just sit around waiting for you to talk to them. Well at least not all the time. They do interact with each other, and I spent quite some time just standing there and listening to them talk, which really hits home how well written these characters are.

Joker and Garrus trading completely politically incorrect jokes with each other, which includes nods from Bioware about the silly things from the previous games; Joker asking Liara over the intercom about her hair scalp functions; Cortez and James (two new characters in ME3) joking about the pros and cons of the Mako and the Hammerhead. etc

My favorite scenes involve Garrus and Tali. In a lovingly endearing bonding moment, Garrus and Shepard decide to just break the rules and went shooting at bottles over the top of the Presidium at the Citadel. You could choose to miss it or hit it on target. I chose to miss it, and Garrus was jumping with joy declaring: "MY NAME IS GARRUS VAKARIAN, AND THIS IS MY FAVORITE SPOT ON THE CITADEL!!"

It is a ridiculously cute moment for the both of them.

As for Tali, well I romanced her *ahem*.

Look at those delicious hips...mmhmmmmm..

Towards the end of the game, as Shepard becomes more and more worn out by having the burdens of the galaxy on his shoulders. Tali was the one that stood by his side and helped him stay strong. One of Tali's lines still stands out in my mind long after that scene has passed:

Tali: "I want....more time."


The way her line was delivered was extremely good, but it was the simplicity of it that drove it home for me.

The named characters are not the only ones that are well written, completely random NPCs in the background will talk with each other, and every single one of them has a sad tale: the PTSD Asari soldier talking to her therapist; The Batarian comforting the Human female; the Human soldier requesting a transfer from fighting Cerberus forces after she found out her brother has joined them; two Turian C-sec officers who are also best friends who decide to resign so that they can go back to their homeworld of Palaven, just so they can search for their families together.

Garrus and Tali remain my favorite characters in ME3, but I spent time listening to these random background chatter, immersed in their dilemma.

They somehow made The Illusive Man a tragic figure by the end.
THAT is an accomplishment.

The war with the Reapers has taken its toll on the galaxy, and it shows. Everyone is affected.

Yet, at the same time, Bioware never forgot about the humor, acknowledging the memes that spawned from the games, and the silly little things that caught gamers attention.

Which is a shame, because the ending was not satisfactory at all.

Mass Effect 3, the final battle, the conclusion to the epic story that is Commander "BADASS" Shepard lasted all of 10 minutes.

Probably less.

Without spoiling anything, right at the end of the game, you are forced to make choices. The choices pretty much end the same way.

The worst part was that there was no closure. And was not exactly an ending that made any damn sense.

This was literally what I looked like and what I said when I saw the ending.
Minus the people in the background of course.

I feel a bit cheated to be honest.

It was not because it was not the ending I expected, in fact I was surprised by the turn of events when they revealed the purpose of the Reapers and why they do the things they do.

Nor was it because it was far from a happy ending, as the game repeatedly knocked into my skull: "You can't save everyone." I already had to make very difficult choices throughout the game, it would be obvious the last one would be one of the most difficult.

It just feels that everything that I've done (THREE GAMES WORTH!!) was for naught.

It didn't matter what I did, it was like towards the end, I didn't have a choice in changing the outcome. In fact, a number of things didn't make sense either.

Goddam. It's Evangelion all over again.

And multiple endings my ass.

There were suppose to be 16 different endings, according to Bioware, and after looking up all of them.

THEY WERE ALL THE SAME. WTF.

They were only different in minor ways. And apparently there was a secret ending, but to get that, you have to do things in a specific manner to get.

What the hell Bioware??

The most appropriate picture for this moment.

Why do I have to do things "correctly" to get the best ending? Player choice was suppose one of the main draws of the entire Mass Effect series.

And it got thrown out the window. But still, that is a minor gripe compared to the ending.

After three games, the ending just showed nothing.

You have no idea what happened to Shepard.

You have no idea what happened to the entire galaxy.

And to add insult to injury, you get a fucking screen with less than a paragraph of text. That tell you you can continue Shepard's journey via DLC.

WHAT? SERIOUSLY?? WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT???

I think the worst part of it all is that simply...the ending took your choices away. It didn't matter what you did in the entire Mass Effect trilogy, everyone will reach the exact same ending chapter.

Did I mention that the 16 endings are functionally the same and made no damn sense whatsoever?

Still the most appropriate picture for this moment.

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To summarize Mass Effect 3
The good

• Epic storyline build up to the end.
• Graphics are overall pretty good, especially facial animations
• Awesome music
• Awesome fights: Fighting a Reaper on foot!!!
• Bioware finally gets the perfect balance of RPG and action-cover shooting
• Characterization/development is top of the crop
• Optimized engine means that the loading time is almost nonexistent

The bad

• Texture are pretty pixelated up close and noticeable texture loading
• The ending....just...the ending.

As you can see, pretty much the ONLY bad thing about this game is well...the ending.

It's as if Bioware, just like Commander Shepard, just couldn't take the pressure any more and just went "Fuck it" and that's how we gamers end up with Mass Effect 3's ending.

So, is Mass Effect 3 the best game of the year? Maybe. Everything else it does is just absolutely perfect. The storyline. The gameplay.

Best game ever? Not Mass Effect 3.
No doubt though, that it will be close to the top of anyone's list. However, I feel that ending is such a huge setback that prevents it from being there. At least now without gripe or ill feeling.

The trilogy as a whole however, is definitely something that should be representative of what video games are capable of, and will stand the test of time.

The entire Mass Effect trilogy for best game ever? 

DEFINITELY.

Goodbye Commander Shepard.
It has been an honor to serve you.