Tuesday 10 January 2017

Assassination Classroom First reaction Episodes 1 and 2

Sunday 13 March 2016

ISWT review: Undertale



First of all let me state this. I will not spoil anything massive but I will get into spoilers about one character in particular. I wanted to get this out of the way first because this is one of the biggest things about this game and why during my top ten games I more or less told the fan base to shut up. Spoilers kill the effect this game has and can also scare off potential fans by being so loud and overbearing that no one wants to be a part of that fanbase.
 
 So fans I know how much you want to get into discussions about the game. Hell I'm going to later on but I have the ability to give a warning and enough space so that it's not the first thing you see when you load up the page. But If you spoil the story especially late game stuff that literally makes the game worse for any newer players seeing as they don't get the same feeling when they get to a part if it was spoiled for them. So if you love the game. Don't spoil it. Plus who would've thought this was a resident evil sequel.
 
 
That's not true.
 
 
I'll say all I can for the plot. You play as a supposed non gender character (They look like a girl but I think it is supposed to be non gender) who fell into a chasm on the side of a mountain and somehow lived. The story is just you trying to find a way back. That's all I'm saying. Yeah I want to be that vague. but I will say that it does introduce a lot of questions in the plot and while you are given enough clues to figure it out it's still quite a surprise I'd say when you get to really any of the final bosses. I'll get to that. The story really is about the characters and what you run into on your way back not so much the combat or lack there of.


One main thing about the game is how combat is handled. The main aspect is avoiding attacks through a kind of bullet hell mini game and while it's nothing really enormous and after fighting the same enemy a few times it can start to feel a bit dragged on they are generally pretty damn fun and with certain fights can throw a few very interesting twists at you and combined with the idea of either fighting the monster or trying to talk them down and have mercy on them creates a varied and very interesting play through.


As I mentioned off hand earlier you can fight enemies or talk them down. The game nudges you towards talking them down and while not at first punishes you for killing enemies off especially if you're doing nothing but. Again I'll get to it later. What's interesting though is that it often pushes you to kill. Almost tempting you to with situations that seem like you have no choice and I'll say one thing about this. There is one situation in which you have no choice but to fight someone down if you're going full on peaceful or talking every enemy down. I won't say when or where but you will have to fight someone.


The graphics are very simple but also very effective it works for what it is and it does it's job just fine. The music on the other hand is simply spectacular. It's fairly simple at first but the farther in you get the more instruments get added to the point of a saxophone solo in a certain boss fight which is freaking amazing and that's not just cause I have a thing for jazz music. lemme put it this way. You can buy the soundtrack with the game and it's more then worth it. My mp3 player was nothing but the Undertale soundtrack at one point and that is unheard of for me.

But I mean I'm being awfully vague here. I'm not really going into details just because of something like spoilers. Well I'm going to talk about one character in great detail saying to hell with spoilers and going into full spoilers to give you a better idea for those that either don't care about spoilers or who have played the game and are just curious I suppose. I will once again state you should play the game first. This game is meant to be played unspoiled to get the full effect so this is your last warning.

I love that this picture is borderline memetic.


Ladies and gentlemen. For those still here let me tell you a tale of my favourite character in the game and as well one of my favourite female characters in gaming or anything for that matter.



Undyne is a character you meet in the third area. A knight tasked with hunting down humans and while after the second area you may think that most people with that task are hilarious goof up characters Undyne is a bit different. Every time you run into her she's silent or very noble in speech about her mission until you run into her for the last time and she breaks her cool demeanor and loses her mind. Dropping the demeanor and throwing off her helmet revealing her to be a half fish creature and her theme turns from a creepy black knight theme that's incredibly threatening to a noble yet extremely overbearing and excited theme to match her personality and to great effect. She almost says word for word

" SCREW IT! I'm done with the flowery crap. Your ass is grass and I'm a lawnmower!" And then dragoon jumps off a mountain spear first to initiate battle. The change is done beautifully switching her from an intimidating knight to a full blown berserker to the point where your only real option is to run. She only really backs off after you show her mercy when she becomes exhausted after chasing you into the volcanic area which well...... fish don't do well in fire. She does eventually become an ally after she kind of realizes she has no choice. Again I won't go into details where I don't have to but that's what happens if you face her killing none or few enemies. What happens if you face her when you're murdering everything in your path?

She tracks you down all the same but only faces you when you threaten the life of a monster child that looks up to Undyne. She takes the blow for the child and sends them off revealing it to be a mortal wound. She declares she's sorry and begins to dissolve. But the like the name of the track that plays during this scene "But the world refused to die". She reforms partially and says she feels something in her that won't let her die. She knows that if you get past her you'll (the player character I should say) destroy not only the monsters but the humans and really everything. She pulls herself together and takes a new form.


Declaring you'll have to try harder then that she initiates the second hardest fight in the game and just generally one of the harder fight I've played in a bit. The music goes from her usual theme the excitable "Spear of justice" to the epic and threatening "Battle with a true hero" It's odd how she goes from dark and threatening to this hyperactive and excitable girl to once again a noble and unnerving boss fight. I know at this point I'm just gushing about a character I love but Undyne is a microcosm about this game. A character that's fun, hilarious, and just a blast to watch and on the other side Dark, and unnerving, and yet another side noble and out to serve the lives of her people. For how simple the graphics are it can really get an emotional effect out of you. That song I mentioned earlier " But the earth refused to die" I can't help but tear up every time I hear it. The gameplay is great but my god the story and characters really are what you're playing this for. Which again is why I started this like I did.


This game is something that needs to be seen unspoiled. If you never played or saw anything in it and read this anyway then anything involving undyne won't have the same effect. This is why the creator toby fox is very adamant about it as well. Like I said if you're a fan you don't need to keep spreading the word. If you wanna gush find like minded people online or that you know personally. Don't go spreading pictures of the final bosses around like it's nothing it very well may ruin someone's play through if they know what's coming. This isn't just for Undertale it's for a lot of things but in this case it's extra important because of how much of the stories enjoyment comes from experiencing it first hand. And again it can scare people off if you're just throwing images and in jokes in their face. It took me two months of the game being out for that exact reason. So fans like I've said before. This game is fantastic. It's unreal how enjoyable it is but just know as a fan of undertale or anything else. Know when to calm down and not just gush constantly about it. It can very well have the exact opposite effect you want to. It can scare people off of something you love. Subtlety is the key in fandoms. Don't scream to the skies no matter how much you want to because not everyone wants to hear you screaming.

Shit this got serious.....just play the game and stay off the internet while you're doing as such. It's great.....Um....Think I'm done now. Yeah....back with whatever I pull out of my arse. Laters.

Wednesday 9 March 2016

Villain Profile Carnage

 
I learned my lesson and I'm just doing one by one now not a list that just makes no sense anymore.
 
 
Let me take you back to let's say 1996. I'm a young impressionable youth. I love Spiderman and my grandparents grab me a game for my Sega genesis. Spiderman and Venom Maximum Carnage. Yes my grandparents bought an 8 year old a game called Maximum Carnage it was different times. Anyway One of the better things about this game is that it introduced me to Cletus Kasady.
 
 A serial killer who looks FUCKING AWESOME (Bias) when in his symbiote suit. A suit split off from the alien venom suit and while the venom suit attached to Eddie Brock a guy who at best had a chip on his shoulder and the suit amplified that to more or less turning him into a turbo bully. That same power amplified to literally being as strong as Spiderman and Venom combined and given to a slightly less stable Joker. Think about that for a moment. A less stable version of the joker who is incredibly strong and can turn his hand into a Battleaxe. That is a beast of legend.
 
Long story short with Mr. Kasady Bad childhood plus one of those creepy kids who dissects the neighborhood dog equals Cletus pushes granny down the stairs and gets put in a boys home. Messed up all round. But it never really improved for him either since as an adult he went into a life of crime. Then basically turned into the joker with far less of a plan to what he's doing. THEN the aliens happened.
 
We all know the story of venom. Alien Symbiote bonds with Spiderman. Spiderman gets the heevy jeevies and ditches it. Spidey's personal nemesis Eddie Brock gets the suit and becomes Venom a being made of pure desire to wedgie the hell out of Spiderman because fuck that guy amirite? There's more to it but I love messing with venom fanboys. Where was I?

Right. After a while though the symbiote had to reproduce and split off another symbiote and at the time Eddie Brock was in a cell with Kasady. After he venom hulked out of jail he didn't notice the bundle of joy he left behind and long story short we've now got the scariest goddamn thing in existence running around.
 
One interesting thing about Carnage as the symbiote using Cletus Kasady though. While most symbiote hosts call themselves "We" and refer to themselves as two beings. Carnage Bonded so completely with his symbiote so much to the point where the symbiote will try to find Kasady specifically. A bit spooky but compared to the rest of the carnival it's a drop in the puddle.
 
 
 
 But then we have his big event in the comics. Thanos had The Infinity war. Joker had The killing joke. Carnage had Maximum Carnage. The comic story not the game though really same difference for story purposes. The story is simple. Carnage gets a bunch of guys together and starts wrecking shit and pooping on couches. That's it really and as simple as it sounds it fits carnage perfectly. Carnage doesn't have a plan. He doesn't think ahead of time or often time at all. As long as he has a few people with him he's a force of nature and even if he doesn't he's still incredibly strong. Again really so much of this comes down to simplicity. Really I could have said "He's a less stable more durable joker who can turn his arm into an axe" and really that says it all but this villain left an impact on me.
 
Like I said I had this game Maximum carnage as a kid and I enjoyed it. In hindsight maybe not great but I enjoyed it back then so shush. It was the first time I ever saw a distinct villain in anything and that same picture from the beginning was in the game. In fact most comic panels from the arc were fairly well translated into the game. Well relatively well translated anyway. It stuck a note with me and carnage just became the benchmark for me. A digitized laugh would pop up every now and then and it freaked me out and early on he pops up and fights venom and he was a nightmare. It was a forced loss after a bit but even then he was just a prick to fight. The odd time he'd pop up later he was hard as hell and the final boss fight was insane. His health wouldn't even move until you beat on him for a good few minutes.

It did show me something though. I wanted to beat him because of how hard he was and that's both how I got into games and villains. Both him and venom were just cool characters but because of the game and later the animated series I just have this nostalgic love for this character. That and let's face it. The random and psychotic way he behaves and has no plan or anything and still is a force to be reckoned with. That to me is intimidating. He throws knowledge and planning out of the window for complete random and unpredictability but god knows that's not something he thought out. Fighting him is like fighting a large bee with a sword. Hard to predict and hit but can seriously mess you up. Fact of the matter is he's nightmare fuel that can mess you up. Like a tank with a picture of your parents having sex on the side......Think I'm gonna leave on that note.


Monday 22 February 2016

Bloodborne to die

Click here for the enitrety of my streams of bloodborne and it's dlc The old hunters.


This game is an amazing experience even over it's siblings the dark souls games. The fast paced gameplay and much more offence based gameplay makes for something way more aggressive and much less turtle and hiding behind a shield.
 
 
And boy can you tell that I have not played in a while at first.
 
 
I'll be honest I'm not great at playing the game in general but trying to do it while talking is murder especially when it's the first time you really have done it. but all in all I think especially later in the series I get pretty good at it and even a few boss fights went stunningly better then expected. Others...
 
 
 

not so much.



Thursday 31 December 2015

My top 10 games of 2015.

Another year gone, Another crap ton of games played and another intro to one of these I can never make sound un-cliché. Then Again I suppose the sheer concept of a top ten end of year list is cliché but that's an argument for another time.
 
 
As per most of these lists this is my opinion of the game I've played. Meaning some will agree and some won't and some of the games this year a lot of people loved like MGS5 and The Witcher 3 I never played so again keep that in mind. Again I suck at these intros so let's just charge right in.
 
 
Number 10: Soma
 


This was a weird one. I had never played the amnesia games but I was so excited to give this a shot being that it's made by the same developers and I'm a horror fan. The results? Well I had a review made up for this but I kind of realized I could not talk about this game without going on a titanic rant and flying well off the handle. I mean the sound design is incredible, the story is extremely interesting hell the beginning and end are scary as hell but the issue comes in two parts. One at least to me the level design is wonky. The game doesn't seem to know how to lead you to places and so much of the game is wandering around confused looking for where to go. Second They could have removed the horror elements and honestly the game would be better for it. It feels forced with the rest of the game and coming from frictional games the makers of Amnesia the dark descent I'm just kind of confused. Again it is on this list for a reason Mainly the story which is amazing but I just have issues.
 
 
Number 9: Five nights at Freddy's 3
 
Fnaf 3 above a spiritual successor to Amnesia. This is gonna cost me.
 
I think this game gets forgotten between the original two and the fourth and while my feelings have softened towards the franchise a bit from sheer exhaustion I do think that this game deserves credit. While the first game is definitely the most terrifying and the second game ramps up the gameplay. this one does the same by both using more unique and interesting game mechanics and introducing the only truly malicious enemy in the game. Springtrap. Maybe it's just the fact that this guy always kinda spooked me more then the other animatronics but I mean something just comes off more malevolent then even the exaggerated nightmare animatronics. Maybe that's just me but I did love this game for what it is.
 
Number 8: Resident evil Revalations 2
 
 
Putting a Resi game above both a frictional horror game and a fnaf game. THIS is gonna cost me.
 
In seriousness I never was as hard on the post RE4 games as most people. I still think Re5 and 6 are fine but even then this game is honestly pretty impressive. It's by no means as good as RE4 but even then It's entertaining and does some unique things with the series. A co-op mode that means a little more then two people shooting at crap instead of one being a good example (I always use the non shooter character in multiplayer. Mostly to annoy my friends by shining light in their eyes or poking them). But I did have fun with this and hell it did creep me out at points. Nothing massive but I mean I did have fun and that's kind of the bottom line convoluted story aside but what's new for RE?
 
 
Number 7 Dragonball Xenoverse.
 
 
My soma grudge aside this game probably has the most issues of any game on this list. Namely the ability to get your opponent into a (to quote a certain famous let's play of this game) "Fuckbox" and some issues with general polish. That being said it did enough that I was intrigued and enjoyed my time with it. The gameplay is enjoyable.The rpg elements were done well enough and again the ability to create your own character is defiantly cool so it's one of those things that while it does have quite a few issues I did enjoy it despite that.


Number 6 Arkham Knight.


On consoles of course since I'm not touching that can of worms

This game is a weird case. It's gotten a very rough review as of recently even aside from the pc version. A lot of people have come out saying that the story is awful or the batmobile sections are WAY too long and overused. I think that the issues are exaggerated. I will say the batmobile parts do take up too much space but they are enjoyable to me and as for the plot... Well Maybe it's my bias towards scarecrow but I still think he's amazingly done. Yes Jason todd is insanely obvious. (I'd say spoilers but really?) But I still really enjoyed so much of it I have to at least put it on the list and really fairly high up. I think it deserves it.


Number 5: Mortal Kombat X


This is one of the very few fighting games I've managed to get into. I still suck at it but I did get into it. A lot of people say it's a direct downgrade from 9 and I can see what they mean. That does not mean that this is a bad game however. I love how this game plays and hell I mained kano and I was honestly okay with him....I still suck online but again for me to even get into a fighter is impressive so that alone should say something. The game does play well. also the story is okay....for a fighting game.

Number 4: DanganRonpa Ultra Despair Girls



Okay....This is a weird fucking game. At one point I flat out had a moment of "Game what are you doing?....Game.....STAHP!!" Full on someone had severe issues during the writing of this game but that being said I do enjoy it for what it is. It's a decent enough 3rd person shooter but again much like the first two Danganronpa games the real meat is in the story. Again MASSIVE ISSUES but for what it is I really enjoyed it and hell it honestly made me enjoy one of my favourite characters from the franchise even more. That's Touko Fukawa and Genocide Jack of course. It also sets up well for three so while the game does have issues it's a good side story if you're into Danganronpa and ONLY if you're into danganronpa. Cause otherwise this game has some splainin' to do.

Number 3: Fallout 4


Why is it I end up defending massive successes this year?

It seems like this was another game that was a massive success and then the backlash hit it hard. People saying the Interactions were nerfed or that quite a few other things weren't a huge step up or even a step backwards. My thoughts? I think it's on par with fallout 3 and new vegas for better or worse. Yes it does have problems and yes some things are steps back but honestly It's still damn fun. Should it have been more? Yes. Is it still a shit tonne of fun? HELL YES. The companions are cool. The ideas they bring in are unique. And the missions are fun and have neat things in them. Just like the others. Again I get innovation but a fun game is a fun game. Now they do it again for fallout 5 okay then I may call bullcrap but right now Imma go get a deathclaw gauntlet and shove the fist of the north rawr down some neck holes.

Now we get to the number 2 spot......is what I'd be saying if we didn't have a tie. Yeah I went back and forth between these two titles for so damn long I couldn't keep my mind made up. I switched back and forth for a while and eventually just said screw it literally while I was writing this. It's just very difficult to choose between a new member in a well known family in the game bloodborne and a new rising star that I'm sure everyone has heard quite a lot of in Undertale.


Number 1: Bloodborne



This game when it was first announced I really didn't care all that much. I mean I loved dark souls 2 but I never really had my heart into the style as much as I do now. Suffice it to say this is what made me like this style. I adore this game. The difficulty is one of the things a lot of people know but it's more then that. It's the style, the story and the fact it's honestly one of the best horror games I've played in a while. It's horrifying when it wants to be and when it starts throwing mind fucks at you he game becomes quite the trip alongside great gameplay which keeps getting content. I'm not just talking about the dlc (which seems to be pretty awesome) around the same time they added a new covenant for free aside from the dlc. And as well the dlc adds in a lot of stuff that fixes the main issues of the main game. More strength weapons, more covenants, more bosses. Get the complete version If you can and you are in for a trip.


Number 1: Undertale

 
My first words when I had this game described to me were and I quote.

"Wow...That's some hipster bullshit right there"

It took me two months hearing the fanboys flipping out about how this is the greatest game ever made and it driving me bonkers for me to start looking at it different. What made me change my mind? I think a better question with the same answer should give you an idea.

Why did I pick the soundtrack cover for the image?

It took one listen of papyrus' theme "Bonetrousle" For me to start looking towards it and mother of god once I did everything started falling into place. The story is beautiful. The soundtrack is unreal. the Humor is amazing and just in general this game made by one guy Toby fox is just such an accomplishment. I won't say much about it to avoid spoilers but I will say this. Fans of the game. Take this as a sign from one of your own who has done the same....ahem....

SHUT THE FUCK UP!!

Seriously guys I know the game is great but there is a reason why It took me so long to get into it. The fanbase is so damn loud and obnoxious at times it builds so much into the minds of non fans that no matter how good the game is it'll be disappointing. Want Proof? How many people loved the last of us? How many people Thought it was meh because of the same reasons listed above? That's my point. Yes The writing, the design the characters, everything is brilliant about undertale and it is a great game. But think? Do you want people to remember the game or the fans? If you truly love the game then let it speak for itself. Thank you and see you all next year.

Friday 25 December 2015

First Reaction The Husbands Of River Song

 
 
 
Also two things I want to say.
 
First I want to mention that I've been doing a bit of livestreaming using my ps4 and the results of which are up on my Youtube channel. I will say I am still working on my audio so it may sound a little off at points in them but I am working on it.
 
 
Second I just want to wish everyone a happy holidays.....and at this point literally an hour before dec 26th that means new years I think....apoligies if another holiday is coming up as well and I'm not aware of it but have a happy one whatever it is.