Temporary Hiatus

I am dying.

Too... much... work to do.

Am still playing some games for breaks, just no time to sit my butt down to write stuff. Be right back after this.

OBJECTION!

I just got to play (and finish!) Ace Attorney: Phoenix Wright - Dual Destinies, thanks to a generous friend and his 3DS. Whooooooooooo~

For the clueless, you play as a lawyer in the Ace Attorney series, and you are to defend your clients in court. No, you don't have to memorise laws and statutes and treaties and nonsense and... *shudder*

No, the game's pretty much a puzzle game, played in the styles of a visual novel. You go around asking people questions and gathering evidences, all in order to unravel the mysteries behind each case. It's a really fun process too, especially when you know what's going to happen before the game guides you there. I feel like a professional investigator or detective everytime that happens. Heh.

Like its predecessors, Dual Destinies has a main storyline and accompanying cases which reveal bits and pieces of the story, until you reach the final case that gives you closure.

New mechanics and animated cutscenes are introduced. Crime scenes are now in a three-dimensional layout, so camera rotations are involved when investigating the scene. Characters' animations are now more... animated. These are not the things that make the Ace Attorney series great.

If you are seated down on a lazy Saturday afternoon with naught to do, and you feel like reading a book, play this game. The stories you find in this series are all fairly simple, with twists or turns you might, or might not expect in tales. Yet, the pacing of the game paired with the dialogues between the characters create this somewhat immersive story, which, frankly speaking, is a rare sight in the gaming scene nowadays. Not even AAA RPG titles deliver on that anymore! (Final Fantasy, I'm looking at you).

Down-to-earth and simple, without even attempting to be pretentious. Well, whacky maybe.

As you progress through the game, the missing links between events are filled in with evidences and it is up to you to point them out. It really is a puzzle game. Think jigsaw puzzle.

You start off the case with your client being accused, and as you defend him/her, the whole story behind how the victim was murdered, the motive behind the murder and the relationships between characters get clearer with each passing moment. You are basically reading a book, or better, you are an active participant in the book.

*sigh* I really love the series and it's silly to go on talking so highly of it. Go and buy it. I think it is a game which most people, if not everyone, will enjoy.

Now, on a personal note, where is my Turnabout Theme?! I love the sound of the new theme but I miss the old one too! GAH!

P.S: I find it tedious to write in a manner as though I am doing an official review of the game, which passed off as pretentious and unnecessary to me. I will just write what I feel like writing from now on. Hue.

GTA = Dog

The highlight of GTA V is the dog, Chop. That's it. Game over. Thanks for visiting the site.

Okay. *cough* I finally finished GTA V - only the storyline, too much other stuff to do. Does it live up to the hype? Before I begin, you need to know that I have not played GTA IV yet. I am making the jump from San Andreas, so, yep.

So, what's GTA V about? According to Rockstar:

"Los Santos: a sprawling sun-soaked metropolis full of self-help gurus, starlets and fading celebrities, once the envy of the Western world, now struggling to stay afloat in an era of economic uncertainty and cheap reality TV.

Amidst the turmoil, three very different criminals plot their own chances of survival and success: Franklin, a street hustler looking for real opportunities and serious money; Michael, a professional ex-con whose retirement is a lot less rosy than he hoped it would be; and Trevor, a violent maniac driven by the chance of a cheap high and the next big score. Running out of options, the crew risks everything in a series of daring and dangerous heists that could set them up for life."

Game plays similarly to earlier GTA games. You control your character in an open-world, armed with weapons to kill whatever that's in your path. You can hijack cars to get around or call for a cab. Do whatever, y'know?

What's so great about GTA V? Details.

You're driving down the street, Dre's playing on the radio and all's good. *BAM* A robbery takes place in your vicinity. What do you do? My personal preference is to run that sucker over with my car. You got the item that was stolen. What do you do? Return it, or keep it to yourself? I like to be the nice guy so, I return things usually. 10% of what was stolen as a reward? Ehh, makes you feel like keeping the stash, right? *BAM* Someone I once helped was actually filthy rich and gives me $100,000 worth of shares to his company.

YOU THINK YOU PLAYING THE GAME, BUT THE GAME'S PLAYING YOU. MWUAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

To a certain extent, GTA V feels like the world is somewhat alive. Hey Microsoft, Rockstar's doing it without the "power of the cloud". Take down some notes, maybe?

Well, after a few more robberies, that experience starts to feel dull. What next? Sports. Activities for you to do. You want yoga? You got yoga. Parachute down a construction crane? You got it. Race around on speedboats? Checked. Pimp your ride then race round the city? We got you covered. TRIATHLONS EVEN? No problem.

San Andreas is filled with so much to do, that if you are beginning to feel bored, there's always something there to divert your attention to. "But all these things take up my time and money, I want something I can do on the side..." *BAM* Stock market. Yeah, no joke. Stock market. There are missions in the game which allows you to manipulate the market, insider trading shit going on. Have some free time? Buy properties and maintain them for regular cash inflow! 

The physics of the game is still nowhere close to being real, but it's pretty good. Cars no longer feel like cheap plastic toys, for starters. Environment exploits are harder to do because your characters ragdoll easily, for example - spamming jump before you are even close to what you want to jump over. In a way, it keeps people on their toes and you can't mash buttons for lulz.

Combat? Oddly enough, there's an auto-aim function for the game. A lot of elitists will claim that this is dumb and for noobs, but given the amount of enemies you have to fight off from time to time, the stupefyingly small aiming reticle you are given and how easy it is to be killed, I do feel it's slightly justified. To prevent easy deaths, you're supposed to take cover and shoot when the time is right. So, no more Rambo bullshit.

Right, as I mentioned earlier, there are three main characters. You are allowed to swap between them, when the game allows you to. Each character is unique, with some having strengths and weaknesses in their parameters/stat, but those can be remedied by grinding in the game (running for stamina, sports for strength and etc.). So, what's the big deal? Specials. 

What's a special? It's like a skill that is unique to that character, which really helps in giving that "this guy's special for this role" when the game has you pulling off heists. Franklin has Speedbreaker from NFS: Most Wanted - he can enter a state where time slows down while he's driving, to improve his control of the car. Michael is also able to slow down time, but only when he's on-foot, which is useful for combat (rocket to your face). Trevor? SInce he's a maniac, let's make him somewhat-invincible when he activates his special. So, if you're running away from the cops, Franklin makes things easier. Shooting tyres from afar? Michael is good for that. Head-on assault against mobs? Trevor, brah.

So, "what's so great about the game, when everything seems the same?", as some would argue. Well, play it, and discover it for yourself.

Personal thoughts - I really enjoyed the story and the character switching mechanics does make it feel like I'm playing a movie, sort of, although I do feel like Rockstar had some problems ending it (rather sloppy?). The parodies mocking American culture were really hilarious, so, A++ to that. I loved the graphics. Some textures looked really beautiful, and the skybox was awesome, though, the ground (grass, dirt, etc) still suffers from ugliness. Maybe that's why they have beautiful horizons? Heh.

It does feel like you can sort of "live a life" in-game. You got a dog, and you can take it for walks. It pounces anyone you aim at, and kills them (YES!). You can modify your car and then take it out for a long ride through the countryside for some R&R. I definitely enjoyed getting to higher altitudes with a plane, only to jump out and crash it as I parachuted down like a madman. 

Was the game fun? Yes. Was there a lot of details? Yes. Was it immersive for me? Yes.

I don't see why anyone would say the game is the same even, when you do have new stuff like a dog and specials. Are you expecting some sort of overhaul, when that would take forever because they'd have to reprogram everything they have? Or, are you expecting it to just take on a new genre, which is really stupid. Imagine Devil May Cry transformed into an FPS. Shit would be different, and it'd disappoint people who look forward to the game's contribution to the genre.

Geez. Anyway, I wouldn't say it deserves a 10/10 (IGN pls). Complaints about horrible frame drops (not on my PS3, suck it Xbox users) and disappearing cars from garages were abound. The app to train Chop wasn't available for Android phone users. You can see that Rockstar didn't really cover all grounds by release. I couldn't even switch sides when shooting. The ending was a little weird for me too, so, yeah.

Personal rating? Maybe, what, 9/10? It is really good afterall, just some silly things which annoyed me. So, go get it. Now.

My Game of the Year is The Last of Us. kbai.

A Fancy Term For Gravedigging

Who is that girl I see? Staring straight, back at me. When will my reflection show who I am inside?

Answer: Lara Croft, and it will show near the end of the game.

Yes, I played me some Tomb Raider recently. Finished it even. Hickididooda. I have no idea what I just uttered but it's super late and I'm watching League of Legends World Series and I'm on a caffeine high and it's cold so bear with me. 

Square-Enix (SE) pushed out an all new Tomb Raider earlier this year, which gives players a glimpse of what is perhaps Lara's first adventure. Lara sets out to find the ancient kingdom of Yamatai, which was ruled by the Sun Queen, Himiko. Legend has it that Himiko possessed supernatural powers, powers which gave her control over the weather. Whether or not it is a myth, Lara will have to find out as she explores the kingdom of Yamatai while fighting a cult worshipping the Sun Queen.

I have to say, the game is actually fun to play. Although the story itself can be pretty short and can be finished within a day, the side activities available for players to do just add to the hours. There are plenty of relics, artifacts and documents for you to find, and they are all spaced out nicely so you are in fact exploring the environment as you find them. What smoothed out the process of hunting down these items is the Survival Instinct ability, where the screen grays out and interactive elements become highlighted. This means that the thrill of finding collectibles is always there. I found myself constantly roaming and activating Survival Instinct to locate the next collectible, and the time I spend on this feels worthwhile every time I find something new.

As you explore the island, you will inevitably gain experience and get salvaged parts, or loot, from crates or enemies. Getting enough experience levels you up and grants you a point to upgrade a skill, and salvaged parts will help in upgrading weapons. I guess it would make sense that the more experience you have, the more skills you will have, BUT how is it possible that I upgrade my gun's CLIP SIZE near a campfire? What, the campfire is actually burning with hell's flames and the temperature is hot enough for me to temper my equipment? I'm dumbstruck here.

The game's combat system is fairly basic. The game is a 3rd-person action game, and it plays almost like Uncharted. What is different is that in Tomb Raider, the aiming feels less smooth transitioning from X axis to Y axis, the recoil from firing your weapon is stronger and melee strikes are less spammable, since it opens you up to enemy fire and strikes if you time and position yourself badly. Maybe the repercussions are less significant in easier difficulties, but it sure messed me up horribly when I played badly. Also, there's a huge emphasis on one of the game's key theme for surviving in combat - "keep moving". If you stay too long in one spot, even if you are behind cover, enemies will either flank you or smoke you out with molotovs. I like how they implicitly emphasise this in combat. Very... sneaky. *heh*

Now, the game attempts to utilise Quick Time Events for certain scenes. An example I'd like to use here is combat because boy oh boy, did the first combat QTE make me mad. It seems that the majorly used QTE button for combat is, on the PS3, the Triangle button. That button also functions as your melee attack. Is this Square-Enix trying to be consistent or lazy? I don't know. What I do know is, the timing for the combat QTE felt impossible for me the first time I encountered it, then I found out it was always Triangle. After that, it just became a routine. So, maybe this game doesn't really have QTEs, instead they have timed prompts. 

Much like the other games Square-Enix develops, Tomb Raider offers stunning visuals. Check them out.

If anything, I think Square-Enix made a very nice skybox for the game. Liking the sun lots. Kudos to them.

The game itself is fun to play, however, be prepared for frame drops. Heck, there were times late in the game where I had frame losses. I'm not even sure if that's a thing, but what happened was the game would skip a little. I died a few times because of this. Here's to hoping next-gen doesn't have this happening.

Now, overall, Tomb Raider holds up pretty well. Visuals? Checked. Combat? Not too bad. Theming? Exploration, ruins and relics are ready. So, why didn't it sell well?

I don't know.

To be honest, I've not really been a fan of Tomb Raider, as in I've never really played the earlier games. I remember my brother playing it, but I never did touch it. So, to look into this whole deal, I did some Googling.

Hmm, it seems that most reviewers are saying it's bad because of its storyline. The characters never got much exposition? Lara is too whiney? Everything seems to be vague?

Ladies and gentlemen, this is why I hate "official reviews". They don't actually PLAY, play the game. They dabble in it, taste it, and decide what to write from there as they put on airs in their written work. 

Let's assume you are completely clueless as to what Tomb Raider is actually about, like what these snobbish reviewers are saying. The game is called Tomb Raider. Tomb. Raider. Hm, I guess this game has something to do with tombs, and raiding them... I mean, I don't know. I'm a stupid incompetent person who can't infer things from available facts.

Moving on, the story slowly exposes that Grim and Roth used to work with Lara's father. Hm, I wonder what's his job about. Ruins? He studies weird things, like ancient, crazy ritualistic stuff? Lara's doing archaeology? Gee, I wonder what is this Lara girl doing. Hm. 

What's this? This is Lara's first expedition? She has never been exposed to crazy shit like this before? You don't say? Gosh, how can a girl who has never faced life-threatening situations be so whiney when shit goes down?

Honest. I swear. These people who write these reviews in famous sites feel like pencil pushers who were swallowed by the sudden rise in authority when  forced to write something at the eleventh hour.

Okay. Back to business. I do feel that the game itself is actually something that's worth anyone's time, however, the whole feeling of exploration and adventure gets hindered whenever the frames drop, which really breaks the immersion. While the story may be rather short, the side activities which you can do can be really engaging, especially the hunt for documents, as they give some fillers on the history of Yamatai and the Sun Queen, not to mention EXP. I really enjoyed those bits of the game.

Some of the bits which are enjoyable on a personal level? Bow and arrow. B- no shush... Bow and arrow. Not enough? Flaming arrows. Not convinced? Explosive arrows. ... Yeaahh.... So good. What's even better than that? Gunning down samurais. What? Yes. Samurais wielding katanas running directly at you while you aim your shotgun at them. Delectable.

Heh. Anyway, I give this game an 8/10. The fact that it stutters so much and has a rather 'sticky' aiming when it shooting is such an integral part of the game are bad factors. I did enjoy the game however, and would suggest you to pick it up if you can get it at a discounted price.

Eyyyyyyyyyyyyy have fun