The Walking Dead

Zombies. My my, how they have risen up during the last decades. In the past, I bet that zombies were nothing more than a myth of voodoo induced deeds, and as stated by the earliest films like White Zombie(1932), that seems to be such. I first embraced these monsters and horror in general with the video game Resident Evil remade on the GameCube, and after beating it more than once, I opened the gates to hell and searched for the best rated media regarding horror. I was very terrified of horror before then, a feeling that is almost extinct from viewing or playing horror media now. Perhaps I will talk more about fear in general in the future, as it is not easily categorized or summarized because of the diversity in each person's fears.

The Walking Dead is the latest piece of infected media that covers the sub genre. It happens to be the most qualified TV series about the undead yet, for following a strong survival story in the midst of walkers walking around deserted cities. The character development is sublime, the main character keeps his head cool and acts rational while the others each have their own personalities to share while conflicts come and go, including a foul mouthed aggressive redneck who is worried about his partner, another man who seems to have started digging his own grave already because of his family loss and people in general that despair heavily so much that some of them even decide that their life is done and nothing out there will rejuvinate their mind.

While I can praise the characters for their realism and the zombies and gore for their quality, I must say that we haven't seen too much bloodshed yet, something we most likely will see in the upcoming Season 2. The Walking Dead had a few interesting story directions I had not seen before, such as using the smell of zombies to cover your own and walk around a dead city. The conflicts the characters face are well created, sometimes you wonder if people made the right choice.

However since there is a Season 2 coming up, there is room for improvement as stated before. It is by the way based on graphic novels that look interesting to say the least, and a videogame has been announced. Not much else to say yet, other than definitely check this TV series out for its outstanding turn of events. Honestly, this is about as good as the 28 films and the early "...of the Dead" movies by Romero. Let us welcome more undeads in the subgenre that has become a massive pop icon, as long as quality can show up.

Rating: 7.5

Boss Battle Blast!

Another old IGN blog no one read before:

 

"And finally, here is the promised boss battles blog, for all of you to view. My opinion about boss battles. My belief that they present the best moments of singleplayer games if handled correctly.

"That's one of the best feelings ever -- and it's also one we rarely get in everyday life. The enemies we face in our contemporary world are so much more ambiguous and internal, and half the time it's ourselves. We try to find a meaningful job, to hack through a bad relationship, to blunder through the red tape of money and taxes."<<Quoted from a fellow boss battle fan

There are many different boss battles in the game industry. Intro bosses, difficult bosses, original bosses, final bosses and mini bosses are a few of them. Most of the time they present a story purpose for you to fight them, but the general idea of a boss battle is to test your skill and the abilities you have learned so far in a game.

"Enter Marx, the final boss awaiting Kirby in Super Star and it's enhanced port on the DS."

Now what makes a boss battle great? Different reasons exist for that as well. You've got a dramatic boss battle for example, say, a former ally is forced to fight you somehow because of plot device or because of a villain. In this situation, the story itself is the first factor to define a great boss battle.

"Dimentio abuses Luigi AKA Mr.L to crush Mario once and for all."

Then there are the early boss battles, or in essence the "Get used to the current game and use your new acquired item/move, or controls to defeat the enemy". Usually the evil force throws a big guy for you to fight at first, but again, there are numerous of boss battles out there, I am just giving an example here.

"Using the Hero's Bow, Link should be able to safely take out the quirky Odolwa."

And there are even boss battles so random and so strange that sometimes these specific battles become my personal favorites from each given game. Say that you are about to defeat the final boss, or you have reached into an unusual location or plot development. Suddenly the game throws at you a bizarre boss to fight, and it's movements are so unpredictable that you would had to die a few times first before memorizing it's patterns.

"Welcome to Abaddon's chill out place. It's got it all, a lonely tree in the background and an ominous sky, giving a chaotic feeling while a freakish creature conducts it's quick locusts at you."

That is another big reason for liking boss battles in general. EVERY boss battle out there requires analysis from the player first before you can properly prepare your strategy and your options for beating the battle. You do this by observing the boss's patterns, how it moves, how it attacks and most of all when you can attack it.

"Not only is Seven Force in Alien Soldier a tough son of a bitch, you will have to adapt to him every time you defeat him and his new form shapes up."

In general platform games, there are usually platforms for you to jump on so that you can hit the boss easier when talking about giants. In general 3rd person games, items, hiding spots and event triggers AKA assist events can help you defeat the enemy. And in RPG games (And since this genre is so diverse by it's gameplay, let me just give 1 example and be done with it), using a specific element on a boss might be more effective than your standard weapon.

"Tech Kraken is susceptible to a flamy attack, showing the rock-paper-scissor system found in not only Mega Man Zero , but also in it's brethren series."

Boss battles also are infamous for it's high difficulty, talking very generally once again. It is common for games to have atleast 1 boss to make your head go explode, because you will die a lot of times against it until you get the hang out of it, figure out it's weakness or grasp victory with luck and barely any strength left.

"Poison Ivy fulfills her role as the only difficult boss in Batman: Arkham Asylum."

And last but not least, the music, oh yes THE MUSIC makes or breaks the boss battle. It's kind of hard to explain, but that sentence I just typed just summed it all up regarding the music. There are incredible boss battle themes out there, and no mainstream song can ever match up to that kind of feeling when battling a tough boss while the music is pumping up because you are going either "Oh shit" or "Hell yeah" basically.

"The first time when I saw Baby Bowser as a kid in the background and later on saw him charging at me, I definitely panicked and freaked out."

Now I would like to close this blog. Of course, I haven't been talking about everything regarding these battles, but it should suffice enough for those interested into knowing my opinion about them. In conclusion, I hope that boss battles will continue to overwhelm me, which surely will happen sooner or later forever."