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November 18 Changes to the blogI've taken interest in writing about discoveries of new species of animals, both existing and extinct, and decided to get rid of the Soundtrack part. October 02 Assassin's Creed - Video Game Being one of the most hyped up game of the next generation of video games, Assassin's Creed promised players of a truly amazing and captivating espionage experience. However, does it live up to its expectations? First of all, the graphics in this game is amazing. Everything looks nice and in proportion, the animations are great and Altair, the protagonist, looks like he can eliminate anybody if he wants to. But sadly, graphics is the only good thing in this game. Assassin's Creed is a sandbox game, meaning that it's meant to be fun, meaning that you're meant to have a lot of side-quests and the freedom to kill innocent bystanders. Assassin's Creed delivers none of this. The game doesn't allow you to kill innocents and if you do, your life bar will decrease. There are no side-quests, either. Now, the game mechanics. The actions that you can do with Altair is divided into 2 groups: actions which attract attention and actions with doesn't attract attention. For example, killing a random person will attract the guards unlike, say, sitting down. However, the guards are overly sensitive at times, and at other times, completely ignorant. For example, I can be climbing up a building and they won't care whereas when a random drunk person will hit me, the guards will start attacking me. Another annoying scenario involves the horse. The horse has two speeds: slow and fast. Should you choose fast, the guards will be alerted and should you choose slow, you'll end up taking half an hour to get to your destination. Climbing around with the parkour is fun for the first 10 minutes, but I soon realise how boring it is. One button combination allows you to climb, run, jump, grab onto ledges and many more. It may seem like a great idea at first, but to me, the automated actions is akin to playing a racing game where the game brakes and accelerates for you. For most of the time, you only need to run in the general direction to get there, the game does the leaping, climbing and running for you. Even though you are a master assassin, there will be times where you are discovered and have to either run for dear life or fight to the death. Most of the times, you can just run away from the guards because you are the fastest runner in the whole game. But other times, you are required to save a citizen and that requires some fighting. But, just like everything else in this game, it is dull and boring. A typical fighting scenario consists of you holding the block button and tapping the counter button at the right timing. As if to ridicule or insult you, the game allows roughly one whole second for you to react. Also, while holding the block button, you are very much invincible. Sure, some enemies can break through your defense, but the rate of health regeneration is much faster than the rate of these guard-break attacks. There is no fun in playing an over-powered character. Altair's throwing knives are as deadly as sniper rifles in FPS games (i.e. 100% accuracy and 1-hit kill), Altair runs almost as fast as a horse in full speed and has the agility of as a gibbon in a tropical forest with Wolverine-like health regeneration. The game requires you to assassinate nine individuals, all of whom are well-guarded. It is possible to assassinate them all in low profile, but it is much faster and much more fun to just run up with your sword in your hand, jump over the guards and strike your target down. For a game called Assassin's Creed, there isn't really much assassinating necessary. There is also intentional "glitches" where your screen would be filled with hexagonal, DNA-like patterns. Thank you Ubisoft for reminding me that I'm playing a game. The unskippable scenes are very annoying, as the dialogue are less interesting than a blade of grass growing. The sound is not much better. Sure, it's nice to hear different accents (Arab accents when you're in Damascus and English accents when you're in Acre) but do they need to be saying the exact same things? The music is forgetful, and there isn't much else to say about sound. Assassin's Creed tries to be many great games at once. It wants be a fun sandbox game like Grand Theft Auto with immersive environments of Shadow of the Colossus and espionage action of Metal Gear Solid all at once, and failing to do so. There are many reasons why it fails on so many levels. In Grand Theft Auto, you can steal and car, run pedestrians over and bludgeon the ambulance drivers when they come. In Assassin's Creed, you get punished for having fun. In Shadow of the Colossus, there is nothing but the environment and the twelve colossi, allowing you to admire every rock, every shrine you come across. In Assassin's Creed, you are punished for galloping into the sunset and you are given friendly reminders that you are playing a video game. In Metal Gear Solid, inside every room is a well-crafted obstacle with carefully-placed sentries in your path. In Assassin's Creed, there is no such thing. It is a classic case of the project is determined by the tools used. "Here we have a climbing system. Let's get our players to climb towers!" "Here we have a action-detection system. Let's use it!" "Here we have a short assassination narrative. Let's get the players to do it 9 times!" "Here we have a free-running system, let's have them collect flags!"  These unskippable cutscenes are the stuff that nightmares are made of.  Those guards will never notice me among these scholars, even though I carry a giant sword and a knife strapped on my back! Rating - 2/10 September 22 Spelunky - Video Game A friend introduced me to this free-to-download game called Spelunky. Here's the link. Download it, it's only around 10Mb, and then try it out. This game is a lot of fun. It's a 2D platformer with a twist. Basically, it's a Super Mario game meets Indiana Jones-type environment, with the death frequency of Revenge of Shinobi, and a bit of Dark Cloud for that random dungeon generator. You play as an Indiana Jones-type character, complete with the brown attire and a whip (though it's not as handy as Indy's whip). You have a stock of ropes to climb and bombs to blast your way through the environment, but be careful of traps and menacing enemies. There are four distinct themes to the environment, and the challenges increase in much the same way as the game progresses. You also only get one shot at finishing this game. When you die, you're deposited back to the menu screen, and have to start again. What you get is a very fun and addicting game, somehow have that sand-box feel due to the variety of things you can do to get to that exit door. The money system in this game is also quite entertaining. Once in a while, you will stumble upon a shop where you can buy accessories from the near-useless bow and arrow to a jet pack. To get items from the shop you can spend gold you've picked up on your journey, try to kill the shopkeeper and claim all the items or steal the item. Any illegal activities will make you a fugitive, and from that stage onwards, shopkeepers will shoot you on sight. There are also damsels in distress which you can save to gain an extra hit point. I'm a sucker when it comes to old-school-type games, but this game really has a lot to offer. Adorable characters, memorable name, compelling gameplay and great music makes this one a winner. The game is constantly evolving, and always raising an angry yet gleeful smile to my face.  Wonderful art which captures the essence of the game.  Yes, this game has it's own bleeps and squeaks as well. Awesome. Rating - 9/10 September 12 District 9 - MovieDistrict 9 has caught my eyes ever since I saw the preview for the first time a while back. It has a very interesting plot and some interesting characters along with unusual choice of format and camera work. The plot of the movie is simple enough to understand. 20 years ago, an alien mothership came to Johannesburg and hovered over the city. People were anxious as to why they came to earth. Some think that they're here to invade earth, some think that the visit will accelerate human technology. However, instead of imminent doom or technological breakthrough, the aliens came to earth offering nothing. They came to earth looking for help. And so, the area was sealed off and was called District 9. The special effects are very well done in this movie. The technology that the aliens have are not vastly superior to ours. Sure, they have a hovering spaceship and guns that shoots lightning bolts, but an alien cannot win against a troop of soldiers. I really enjoy the design of the alien gadgets in the movie. The main character, Wikus, is an inspector or some sort at District 9. His job is to monitor the aliens so that they are kept under control. However, due to certain chain of events, he became a wanted man and was hunted by the government. Having nowhere to go, he went into District 9 and gained some unexpected allies. Wikus is a very painful character to watch. Throughout the movie, I cannot help but associate him with Shinji from the anime series Evangelion. They both have that pathetic, whining character which I despise. The main alien character however, is very enjoyable to watch. His name is Christophe. He is portrayed as a an (or alien) of his words, loyal and trustworthy. The movie is not without some illogical reasonings. I don't understand why the humans think that the aliens are stupid, even though they have a spaceship and superior weaponry. Also, Wikus' reluctance to using alien technology baffles me. If I'm Wikus and I'm in a pinch, I would grab that gun, alien or not, and use it for self-preservation purposes. Yet, Wikus did the classic "I don't want to die so instead of getting into that <removed due to potantial spoiler>, I'll just take cover behind this plank of wood right here". There are many other inconsistencies around, but I won't spoil the movie for you. The movie is an interesting look at human nature and how we deal with others. The aliens are portrayed as savage beings with little respect to human lives and an severe case of addiction to cat food. At first, I despised the aliens because they were barbaric, killing humans without any apparent reason. However, as the movie progresses, you soon realise that the humans are just as despicable.  This could be reality in the not-so-distant future. Who knows? Rating - 8/10 September 09 PG GAT-X105 Strike Gundam + Skygrasper - Gundam Kits Gundam kits have always been popular. They can range from AU$5 First Grades to AU$200+ Perfect Grades. This Gundam kit that I'm about to review is the top-of-the-range model of the very popular GAT-X105 Strike Gundam and it's "accessory pack": the Skygrasper. If you never come across a Gundam kit before, they are a cross between a plastic model kit and an action figure. Just like other PG kits out there, the Strike Gundam comes with the plastic moulds which you have to snap off, an Instruction Manual and a Construction Manual. It's all packed into a very large, white box which looks very slick. As you are going through the parts, you'll notice that there are chrome-painted parts and also an LED for the eyes. The packaging for the Skygrasper is not as dramatic. It can easily be mistaken for your generic MG kit. When Bandai says "Perfect Grade", they weren't exaggerating. This fully articulated model combo has over 700 individual parts, and amazingly it doesn't require a drop of glue to assemble. It only has one optional screw used to keep the battery holder closed. With the scale of 1/60, Bandai can inject more detail and articulation than any MG kits can ever dream of (not that they can, but still). I cannot describe how intricate and complicated each joint is designed. Basically, everything that can move, does. Each finger can be moved independently, air intake flaps move, four hydraulic cylinders work in unison whenever you adjust the tilt of the hip, the shield locks into the forearm. Even something as simple as tilting the ankles to one side or the other causes parts to move along both sides of the calf as if controlling the movement. The only qualm I have is that it doesn't come with rub-on stickers. Instead, you get your normal stickers which comes off and collect dust and grime over time. As for the Skygrasper, it's a mixed bag. The backpack for the Gundam is treated with as much consideration as the Gundam kit, but the airplane isn't. It just doesn't compare to the Strike Gundam. There are many things in the airplane I wish were designed better. For example, I would expect the wheels to be fully functional, or air intake flaps to move. it's a shame that they didn't put more thought into it. It's a nice thing to know, however, that the airplane can carry the backpack, the rifle and the shield if you want to. Another cool thing is that it comes with an adjustable stand, which you can use on the Skygrasper or the Gundam itself. The Strike Gundam comes with a huge sword, a cool looking rifle complete with a blue lens, a shield with functional viewing window, two folding daggers which fits into the two side compartments, two light-sabers from the Skygrasper, an open-able cockpit with a screen that flips open by itself and, with a bit of electronics, you can have eyes that can be lit up with watch batteries. With a full arsenal, the whole thing looks unreal. One can only wonder why these designs aren't being applied to real objects.  GAT-X105 with the Aile pack.  The Skygrasper without anything attached to it. Combined rating - 9/10 |
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