Officially called DeFabrique, however, for the sake of this blog, and
any English readers, let's call it by it's title listed above.
As
my current work location, the place is a large maze, as all the
newcomers and temporary workers constantly tell us. Working as an
assistent in the spot of catering has shown me varied days of work.
Entertaining as it is, it has even inspired me to pursue getting a
degree as a basic cook, and anything I am willing to do beyond, despite
having a degree for a different field already.
It's history goes back as far as the early 20's, and to this day,
it holds titles from it's age when it was still an actual factory.
Titles such as The Warehouse(which is not the actual current warehouse),
Silo 61 and the Jute Cellar are at first confusing, but then it becomes clear that they add to the industrial theme that is still being used.
The Factory is nowadays first and foremost an event
organization, where large parties, congresses, auctions, fairs and
meetings are planned, discussed and scheduled by our people. When many
come over, hired employees are used for different professions such as
security, paramedics and entertainers.
Impressive as the
interior locations can be, each day being able to look quite different
than before, the amount of work to be found in each event can be
stunning. Personally, I am most of all responsible for the buffets for
colleagues as well as other attending ones. Well known famous Dutch
people may even be present, here and then.
Next to the events, The Factory is quite known for it's sub
location surrounding most of the inner area, where the sport known as
Go-Kart can be done. Starting with this sport at first, it was able to
grow larger due to it's success and eventually become the popular party
place to be, situated in the middle of the country.
It happens to be an unusual place where all sorts of things can happen, from regular to quite crazy. Personally, factories in general have had quite an interest upon me, so I am glad to be a part of this business.
Tuesday, December 20, 2011
Wednesday, December 14, 2011
Retro Blog: Super Smash Bros. Melee
The original title deserves as much attention as it's sequel, but I
gotta hand it over to the sequel for introducing to me personally to a
world of tournaments, or as it officially is called nowadays, e-sports.
Still, talking about all three current games as a whole while focusing
mainly on Melee shouldn't hurt.
Around the spring of 1999, a very curious looking fighting game was revealed in a Dutch gaming magazine. Called Super Smash Bros., I was instantly hooked as a young teenager, and I remember hanging up a picture of the game on the refrigerator in the kitchen. After obtaining the game, and after unlocking everything, the most cherishable memories I have with this game is having very good times every saturday afternoon with my best friends since then.
Super Smash Bros. came with it's own unique but simple based fighting system, where easy movements were set in place in order for us to glance at physical moves, as well as special exclusive moves. In essence, all of the character's worlds were put up against each other, bringing with them stages, cameos, items, music themes and of course the main characters themselves.
This trend became the basic for what the fighting games are all about. Introducing us to franchises, as well as recognizing the well known ones, while this crazy fighting system was being put to great use, there is no doubt that Super Smash Bros. remains a classic all-stars based game.
Now I can go all I want into how these games actually play out, but I trust that anyone that is reading this can easily and understandably take note of this, by using either a manual, a YouTube video or just by having played them. After all, the franchise is massively popular, one of the biggest from Nintendo.
After playing several more prominent N64 titles, the GameCube was among us, and the internet with it's mighty influence had arrived. Simultaneously I was getting introduced in 2002 with the sequel, Super Smash Bros. Melee and the gigantic fan site known as Smashboards, which also happens to be the first forums I had started with and pretty much was the first true homepage for me personally after a small period of scouting for Emulator ROMS, being very active there until the second half of 2005.
Having watched the teaser trailer of the sequel uncountable times, each time drooling of the thought of playing this on the successor towards the 64 bit console, it finally arrived in May 2002, a half year after the American release, which felt way too long for me. Again, after unlocking everything, I had even more fun with this than the original.
Then, at Smashboards, the Dutch Tournament was announced by Mr.Silver, and curious people responded. Situated east from my hometown, I was obviously hooked as well as my buddies. While we trained together(and personally I trained countless times as well against the CPU, which worked for me, but only in a fair way), we decided to register for this special event happening in late 2002.
And as the first contenders arrived in Ede, the competition had started. The names were filled in, the brackets were used as Double Elimination, the money was given from us all as the price for the first place, and the atmosphere was starting to change.
Never before was I excited that much to get higher in this private tournament. I can remember how pretty much all of us had such a good time competing against each other, discussing the game and the rules we used, and in overall the mood was great.
I met many kinds of people there. Some of them have vanished with no sweat, others from which I held either respect or friendliness had disappeared from my available connections entirely, and some are still my friends today. We do not speak much to each other, but we all remember the awesome memories of the Dutch Tournaments, which by the way were 10 in total, and happened from late 2002 until mid 2005.
There were so many funny as well as thrilling moments that it would be impossible to let myself type them all out in here, or even to remember others which I have forgotten now. Examples such as the quirkiness of some people's behaviors, the trash talking on the internet before and after the tournaments, watching with an audience at the final battle on each tournament, the crazy Mario Party Blood events, shout outs, comments and applauds towards others. It was so awesome, you just had to be there to acknowledge this.
And let's not forget that at the early tournaments, I quickly became at a time the best Smasher of The Netherlands, until my main rival Remen and other rising ones eventually continued to beat me successfully at later tournaments. Indeed, I was known as Flok, where as I used Mario as my main character, while I pretty much introduced wave dashing in our country.
At one point, the DT's even went international. Starting with number 6, The Doug, as if a new challenger had appeared in Melee itself, came in from Britain and proceeded to take the first place away from us Dutch men. We were all shocked as well as amazed at the foreign skill he showed us, but between you and me personally old rival, I still remember the half final match between us. Specifically, about the amount of matches needed in order to go to the final battle. What happened was that I won the first 2 matches, which would had let me won originally, but the group decided to enlarge the matches to a total of five. You then beat me four times in a row, but I will never forget this moment, hah!
I think that it was Dutch Tournament number 10, the final one, where another infamous foreigner came to beat our ass. It happened to be Captain Jack, a Japanese Smasher which I did not attempt to play that day, because I held the weird opinion then that this guy was too much for me. What I realize since then is that this was a stupid mistake from me, and that my opportunity to fight against him was gone. And after DT 10, many of the veterans went further with their lives.
Really, I could talk hours upon hours more about Melee and essentially the competition of these crazy tournaments, but I think that everything which I wanted to say has been said. Melee itself by the way can become very hectic when it comes to competitive play, but this was only known exclusively by the community supporting it. In the first place, Melee, like the original and Brawl, are played for fun. But we all know what else these games are and still are capable of.
Finally, I would like to thank everyone who was involved and attended the ten Dutch Tournaments hosted by Mr.Silver. My time during these moments was enjoyable, hectic, special and most of all, memorable. I will never forget this period of my teenage years guys.
But of course, my story with this incredible franchise had not ended. In E3 2005 I believe, Nintendo showed the world the next rewatchable teaser. Super Smash Bros. Brawl was announced, and the community discussed the game until the very release in 2008. The Smash Bros. Dojo, an idea maintained by Masahiro Sakurai, was used by Nintendo to keep us updated and hyped about the large sequel project.
Brawl was promised to involve a large group of renowned video game composers from many companies. As such, the soundtrack is one of the best things about this game. Online gameplay was introduced, and while not perfect in any way, it satisfied most.
The character roster, the stages, the items, the trophies, the features, the gameplay, the rules, everything had grown larger, making Brawl the essential fighting game for the Wii. It even let people create their own simple stages, and the single player was largely improved.
As I had promised back in 2005, I decided to host my first and so far my last own tournament, called the Balance Tournament. After a few months of Brawl's announcement, this was set in course and after the surprised responses of a tournament being announced "like 2 years too early", curious ones were vast once again.
Fast forward towards 2008, roughly one week after the release of Brawl, in collaboration with my favorite video game shop Dr.Games, the Balance Tournament was a success. The prizes were nice, the mood was once again enjoyable, I saw old and new faces and I even entered the tournament right away, as a fresh amateur who had just started playing the game. For your interest, others before me had imported the game already and thus had a giant leap of experience among the others.
And after the latest comments in my own tournament thread, I think I even said once that a second tournament could surely happen someday. But, as it stands, it hasn't happened. I was satisfied with the conclusion of the tournament, and went back to my passion of other video games.
Now, at the end of 2011, I type this special blog. And while I did so, I continuously had great memories in my mind from those days in the past, from all three games. In my opinion, Melee is the superior tournament edition, Brawl is the best technically, and 64 is the most nostalgic.
The future shows us that Super Smash Bros. itself isn't over. Nintendo has told us about a possible connection between a 3DS and a Wii U version, and this is only the start of how crazy a part 4 can and will be.
Whatever and however these games and their impact will have, I will always hold the view of the franchise as a whole; as being a celebration of Nintendo's greatest worlds. And I will never forget the enormous fun it provides.
Around the spring of 1999, a very curious looking fighting game was revealed in a Dutch gaming magazine. Called Super Smash Bros., I was instantly hooked as a young teenager, and I remember hanging up a picture of the game on the refrigerator in the kitchen. After obtaining the game, and after unlocking everything, the most cherishable memories I have with this game is having very good times every saturday afternoon with my best friends since then.
Super Smash Bros. came with it's own unique but simple based fighting system, where easy movements were set in place in order for us to glance at physical moves, as well as special exclusive moves. In essence, all of the character's worlds were put up against each other, bringing with them stages, cameos, items, music themes and of course the main characters themselves.
This trend became the basic for what the fighting games are all about. Introducing us to franchises, as well as recognizing the well known ones, while this crazy fighting system was being put to great use, there is no doubt that Super Smash Bros. remains a classic all-stars based game.
Now I can go all I want into how these games actually play out, but I trust that anyone that is reading this can easily and understandably take note of this, by using either a manual, a YouTube video or just by having played them. After all, the franchise is massively popular, one of the biggest from Nintendo.
After playing several more prominent N64 titles, the GameCube was among us, and the internet with it's mighty influence had arrived. Simultaneously I was getting introduced in 2002 with the sequel, Super Smash Bros. Melee and the gigantic fan site known as Smashboards, which also happens to be the first forums I had started with and pretty much was the first true homepage for me personally after a small period of scouting for Emulator ROMS, being very active there until the second half of 2005.
Having watched the teaser trailer of the sequel uncountable times, each time drooling of the thought of playing this on the successor towards the 64 bit console, it finally arrived in May 2002, a half year after the American release, which felt way too long for me. Again, after unlocking everything, I had even more fun with this than the original.
Then, at Smashboards, the Dutch Tournament was announced by Mr.Silver, and curious people responded. Situated east from my hometown, I was obviously hooked as well as my buddies. While we trained together(and personally I trained countless times as well against the CPU, which worked for me, but only in a fair way), we decided to register for this special event happening in late 2002.
And as the first contenders arrived in Ede, the competition had started. The names were filled in, the brackets were used as Double Elimination, the money was given from us all as the price for the first place, and the atmosphere was starting to change.
Never before was I excited that much to get higher in this private tournament. I can remember how pretty much all of us had such a good time competing against each other, discussing the game and the rules we used, and in overall the mood was great.
I met many kinds of people there. Some of them have vanished with no sweat, others from which I held either respect or friendliness had disappeared from my available connections entirely, and some are still my friends today. We do not speak much to each other, but we all remember the awesome memories of the Dutch Tournaments, which by the way were 10 in total, and happened from late 2002 until mid 2005.
There were so many funny as well as thrilling moments that it would be impossible to let myself type them all out in here, or even to remember others which I have forgotten now. Examples such as the quirkiness of some people's behaviors, the trash talking on the internet before and after the tournaments, watching with an audience at the final battle on each tournament, the crazy Mario Party Blood events, shout outs, comments and applauds towards others. It was so awesome, you just had to be there to acknowledge this.
And let's not forget that at the early tournaments, I quickly became at a time the best Smasher of The Netherlands, until my main rival Remen and other rising ones eventually continued to beat me successfully at later tournaments. Indeed, I was known as Flok, where as I used Mario as my main character, while I pretty much introduced wave dashing in our country.
At one point, the DT's even went international. Starting with number 6, The Doug, as if a new challenger had appeared in Melee itself, came in from Britain and proceeded to take the first place away from us Dutch men. We were all shocked as well as amazed at the foreign skill he showed us, but between you and me personally old rival, I still remember the half final match between us. Specifically, about the amount of matches needed in order to go to the final battle. What happened was that I won the first 2 matches, which would had let me won originally, but the group decided to enlarge the matches to a total of five. You then beat me four times in a row, but I will never forget this moment, hah!
I think that it was Dutch Tournament number 10, the final one, where another infamous foreigner came to beat our ass. It happened to be Captain Jack, a Japanese Smasher which I did not attempt to play that day, because I held the weird opinion then that this guy was too much for me. What I realize since then is that this was a stupid mistake from me, and that my opportunity to fight against him was gone. And after DT 10, many of the veterans went further with their lives.
Really, I could talk hours upon hours more about Melee and essentially the competition of these crazy tournaments, but I think that everything which I wanted to say has been said. Melee itself by the way can become very hectic when it comes to competitive play, but this was only known exclusively by the community supporting it. In the first place, Melee, like the original and Brawl, are played for fun. But we all know what else these games are and still are capable of.
Finally, I would like to thank everyone who was involved and attended the ten Dutch Tournaments hosted by Mr.Silver. My time during these moments was enjoyable, hectic, special and most of all, memorable. I will never forget this period of my teenage years guys.
But of course, my story with this incredible franchise had not ended. In E3 2005 I believe, Nintendo showed the world the next rewatchable teaser. Super Smash Bros. Brawl was announced, and the community discussed the game until the very release in 2008. The Smash Bros. Dojo, an idea maintained by Masahiro Sakurai, was used by Nintendo to keep us updated and hyped about the large sequel project.
Brawl was promised to involve a large group of renowned video game composers from many companies. As such, the soundtrack is one of the best things about this game. Online gameplay was introduced, and while not perfect in any way, it satisfied most.
The character roster, the stages, the items, the trophies, the features, the gameplay, the rules, everything had grown larger, making Brawl the essential fighting game for the Wii. It even let people create their own simple stages, and the single player was largely improved.
As I had promised back in 2005, I decided to host my first and so far my last own tournament, called the Balance Tournament. After a few months of Brawl's announcement, this was set in course and after the surprised responses of a tournament being announced "like 2 years too early", curious ones were vast once again.
Fast forward towards 2008, roughly one week after the release of Brawl, in collaboration with my favorite video game shop Dr.Games, the Balance Tournament was a success. The prizes were nice, the mood was once again enjoyable, I saw old and new faces and I even entered the tournament right away, as a fresh amateur who had just started playing the game. For your interest, others before me had imported the game already and thus had a giant leap of experience among the others.
And after the latest comments in my own tournament thread, I think I even said once that a second tournament could surely happen someday. But, as it stands, it hasn't happened. I was satisfied with the conclusion of the tournament, and went back to my passion of other video games.
Now, at the end of 2011, I type this special blog. And while I did so, I continuously had great memories in my mind from those days in the past, from all three games. In my opinion, Melee is the superior tournament edition, Brawl is the best technically, and 64 is the most nostalgic.
The future shows us that Super Smash Bros. itself isn't over. Nintendo has told us about a possible connection between a 3DS and a Wii U version, and this is only the start of how crazy a part 4 can and will be.
Whatever and however these games and their impact will have, I will always hold the view of the franchise as a whole; as being a celebration of Nintendo's greatest worlds. And I will never forget the enormous fun it provides.
Tuesday, November 29, 2011
Super Mario 3D Land
Undeniably, Mario's latest adventure on the Nintendo 3DS holds a special tribute towards one of the greatest NES games, which is Super Mario Bros. 3, which also happens to be my favorite Mario platformer.
Super Mario 3D Land is also connected with the 2 Game Boy Land titles, but I don't think there is much relevance other than the name. It's design is closely observed from various kind of earlier titles, including Super Mario 64, the Galaxies, the New Super Mario Bros. entries and as if reincarnated for a new era, Super Mario Bros. 3 elements are floating around this whole game.
With it's precise controls where I only had to get used with the slide pad's movement for a few levels, 3D Land is instantly familiar for anyone who has played with the plumber's platformers before. It takes constructive level design, which gradually emerges towards getting better crafted, while it keeps you busy with collectable valuables, well known and new enemies, remixed and re-used songs from before and a steady rate of variety.
It is, if you think about it, so diverse by it's levels, that it constantly keeps the players busy and guessing as to what kind of obstacles are to be found next. The new and old power items such as the Raccoon Tail and the Boomerang Suit offer simple yet enjoyable ways of playing. And if you have trouble, presumably because of the last levels, there is help available.
The 3D is rendered useful in here, allowing for some interesting level designs here and there. It has also become more accurately to land on spots during the game now because of the third dimensional helping out. Certainly, this is a very good choice as a game if you want to see what benefits 3D brings towards gaming.
After beating the game, unlocking 8 more worlds, I beat those as well and I can safely conclude that it indeed is a better game than the New Super Mario Bros. games, but does not hold up well enough towards the Galaxy games, when speaking of level design, length and presentation.
For a portable 3D platformer, this is a good choice to pick up if you want to spend 5 through 10 minutes each day to swift through several levels, or just beat the whole game in roughly a week. Which means getting a whole lot of Star Coins and seeing the last available levels.
I am also told that the very last level is unlocked if you beat the whole game pretty much twice, but I don't feel like doing that, much like I did so with the first Super Mario Galaxy. In any case, Nintendo has put up a very fine Mario game once again.
Rating: 8.0
Super Mario 3D Land is also connected with the 2 Game Boy Land titles, but I don't think there is much relevance other than the name. It's design is closely observed from various kind of earlier titles, including Super Mario 64, the Galaxies, the New Super Mario Bros. entries and as if reincarnated for a new era, Super Mario Bros. 3 elements are floating around this whole game.
With it's precise controls where I only had to get used with the slide pad's movement for a few levels, 3D Land is instantly familiar for anyone who has played with the plumber's platformers before. It takes constructive level design, which gradually emerges towards getting better crafted, while it keeps you busy with collectable valuables, well known and new enemies, remixed and re-used songs from before and a steady rate of variety.
It is, if you think about it, so diverse by it's levels, that it constantly keeps the players busy and guessing as to what kind of obstacles are to be found next. The new and old power items such as the Raccoon Tail and the Boomerang Suit offer simple yet enjoyable ways of playing. And if you have trouble, presumably because of the last levels, there is help available.
The 3D is rendered useful in here, allowing for some interesting level designs here and there. It has also become more accurately to land on spots during the game now because of the third dimensional helping out. Certainly, this is a very good choice as a game if you want to see what benefits 3D brings towards gaming.
After beating the game, unlocking 8 more worlds, I beat those as well and I can safely conclude that it indeed is a better game than the New Super Mario Bros. games, but does not hold up well enough towards the Galaxy games, when speaking of level design, length and presentation.
For a portable 3D platformer, this is a good choice to pick up if you want to spend 5 through 10 minutes each day to swift through several levels, or just beat the whole game in roughly a week. Which means getting a whole lot of Star Coins and seeing the last available levels.
I am also told that the very last level is unlocked if you beat the whole game pretty much twice, but I don't feel like doing that, much like I did so with the first Super Mario Galaxy. In any case, Nintendo has put up a very fine Mario game once again.
Rating: 8.0
Saturday, November 19, 2011
Heroes of Newerth
After laying down Defense of the Ancients back in early 2009, based of Aeon of Strife as earliest as I can tell, this game succeeded it.
The same game concept is re-used in here, but instead of being limited to the engine of Warcraft III, Heroes of Newerth has it's own one, allowing for many more things to be designed here, including a shop, better dedicated servers and voicechat amongst several positive things.
It borrows or steals(take your pick) hero concepts from DotA Allstars, which was maintained by Eul, Guinsoo and IceFrog throughout the years, while creating unique kinds of heroes on S2 Games's own. Sometimes, in present day, even the community gets the chance for their suggestions to be implemented.
Heroes such as Balphagore, Martyr, Ra and Engineer add their own original spin towards the established formula, making it all even more intricate, time demanding and enjoyable to know and use each of those. Especially newcomers, who know by now that the game has become F2P, if this is their first game based of DotA, prepare to get overwhelmed by the content, as well as the community.
That's right, the community is still as bad as I remember from the days of DotA, perhaps even worse, as vote kicking, conceding and constant yelling at the microphone or insulting, blaming, grieving and raging are ways to demotivate anyone. It is the only reason why Heroes of Newerth isn't an excellent game to pick up and play, because there are uncountable multiplayer games where the competition is still intact, yet way less badly emotional.
Heroes of Newerth can either be very entertaining, or very obnoxious, depending on the circumstances, most of all including your teammates and the enemies's. The best matches are usually those where the teams are equal in their overall strength, and they continue to clash, all 10 players available at once during battles.
There are plenty of sites nowadays which can explain how these kinds of games are played, including League of Legends, Demigod, Heroes of Newerth and the upcoming DotA 2, Realm of the Titans, Rise of the Immortals and Blizzard's own version of DotA. So I won't mention how it is played once again(I wrote a DotA blog at IGN already).
This sub-genre of action Real Time Strategy seems to have originated partly from Herzog Zwei for the Sega Genesis in 1989, although I cannot backup this claim. Anyway, enough with the history lesson.
If you are looking for a team based competitive online game which can be very enjoyable and which constantly gets updated with new content, balance changes and bug fixes, Heroes of Newerth would be a good start. Other current valuable options within the genre are still the ongoing DotA Allstars and most likely League of Legends(I haven't played it).
The same game concept is re-used in here, but instead of being limited to the engine of Warcraft III, Heroes of Newerth has it's own one, allowing for many more things to be designed here, including a shop, better dedicated servers and voicechat amongst several positive things.
It borrows or steals(take your pick) hero concepts from DotA Allstars, which was maintained by Eul, Guinsoo and IceFrog throughout the years, while creating unique kinds of heroes on S2 Games's own. Sometimes, in present day, even the community gets the chance for their suggestions to be implemented.
Heroes such as Balphagore, Martyr, Ra and Engineer add their own original spin towards the established formula, making it all even more intricate, time demanding and enjoyable to know and use each of those. Especially newcomers, who know by now that the game has become F2P, if this is their first game based of DotA, prepare to get overwhelmed by the content, as well as the community.
That's right, the community is still as bad as I remember from the days of DotA, perhaps even worse, as vote kicking, conceding and constant yelling at the microphone or insulting, blaming, grieving and raging are ways to demotivate anyone. It is the only reason why Heroes of Newerth isn't an excellent game to pick up and play, because there are uncountable multiplayer games where the competition is still intact, yet way less badly emotional.
Heroes of Newerth can either be very entertaining, or very obnoxious, depending on the circumstances, most of all including your teammates and the enemies's. The best matches are usually those where the teams are equal in their overall strength, and they continue to clash, all 10 players available at once during battles.
There are plenty of sites nowadays which can explain how these kinds of games are played, including League of Legends, Demigod, Heroes of Newerth and the upcoming DotA 2, Realm of the Titans, Rise of the Immortals and Blizzard's own version of DotA. So I won't mention how it is played once again(I wrote a DotA blog at IGN already).
This sub-genre of action Real Time Strategy seems to have originated partly from Herzog Zwei for the Sega Genesis in 1989, although I cannot backup this claim. Anyway, enough with the history lesson.
If you are looking for a team based competitive online game which can be very enjoyable and which constantly gets updated with new content, balance changes and bug fixes, Heroes of Newerth would be a good start. Other current valuable options within the genre are still the ongoing DotA Allstars and most likely League of Legends(I haven't played it).
Thursday, November 3, 2011
Xenoblade Chronicles
This ain't "just" a game. It has the unique status of an authentic Japanese Role Playing Game on the Nintendo Wii. Excluding Monster Hunter Tri, last year's big third party game, Xenoblade is the largest available RPG on the last period of active months for the Wii.
Mind me, I know that the game is developed by the first party known as Monolith Soft., responsible for the Xenosaga trilogy on the PS2, Baten Kaitos on the GameCube and previously created Disaster: Day of Crisis on the white console.
There is just no way around it. If you are by any chance a faithful JRPG fan, Xenoblade will deliver for you, in one way or another. It's grand presentation is marvelous, and it's interface is designed in a simple but helpful way. This is, without a doubt, one of the Wii's prettiest games.
The gameplay reminds me the most of Final Fantasy XII, except that it is here executed more smoothly, more exciting and best of all, it fixes small things common to the traditional thinking design that only RPG veterans will notice, regardless of it being an action based one. For example though, skipping large areas of walking grounds by the use of landmarks is well done and well needed for a giant design such as this.
I had barely traversed through the landscapes and I can say already that I love the soundtrack accompanying me. The songs feel calm, exotic and grand to me. The battle theme, that can change according to the hectic tension each battle provides, actually never bores me, because it is that good.
As far as the story goes, it starts out pretty normal, aside from watching two gigantic gods fight each other. Shulk leads a calm life alongside his childhood friends Reyn and Fiora, and spends most of his time inside interiors. It is not until abnormal circumstances arise involving Mechons and the legendary Monado sword that the plot is starting to move and from there on out, no matter how large the game is, the plot thickens and continues to grow in an intriguing way, while every party character is very much likable with good portraits of human emotions.
Some of the traditional RPG standards, such as normal attacks and mana, are both ignored. Instead, normal attacks activate automatically, and health regenerates the same way after battles. A special system called Chain Attacks is available once you use Art(the equivalent of Spells or Abilities in here) skills effectively, which definitely reminded me of Mega Man X: Command Mission's Final Strike. Once activated, you can chain Art attacks for free on an enemy, and if you chain well enough according to the game's rules, you can do even much more damage.
Next to this, each character has their own special ability to use in battles, which fills up the more attacks are successfully done. Such as Reyn being able to drag enemies towards him using aggression, or Shulk being able to reflect off special incoming future attacks.
That's right, future attacks. This RPG involves a future concept used during the story as well as combat and when picking up certain items, showing you possible future events happening. Stronger enemies usually start using dangerous future attacks, which you can overcome by either calling in for help from your allies, or using one of your own counter Arts, such as letting the enemy fall asleep.
Xenoblade also incorporates a crafting mode, letting you create certain gems out of crystals and cylinders, which make you able to equip their bonus attributes on your character's equipment. There is another kind of gameplay, called Heart-to-Heart. It basically is about building off affinity towards party characters, which then unlock bonus scenes at many parts of the game, giving you more rewards.
The Art skills themselves can be leveled up by collecting enough AP(action points if I remember) using various ways. Each character can also learn special Skill Trees, most of them being active passively, while experiencing around. And if you collect enough items in an area and place them in the so called Collectopedia, you can get access to bonus rewards. Even trading items amongst party characters can give more affinity and thus more options to see Heart-To-Hearts.
Convenient tutorials are placed alongside the first parts, explaining the gameplay well and understandable and the amount of it is also quite impressive for an action rpg such as this. Even tedious repetition in battles(should this happen, although I doubt it for most of us) as will be noticed by the ones preparing to beat the game can easily be bounced of by changing characters once in a while, offering just as much entertainment because of the diversity in them.
The only dissapointing note for me in this is that many of the side quests, next to the many others in this huge game, are tedious to complete, because certain characters only appear at certain times during day or night. Other than this minor point, nothing else of serious error can be mentioned by me.
For it's sheer amount of fun, length and lasting appeal already is Xenoblade an absolute must play for RPG fans.It's graphics and soundtrack are top notch, it is rewarding on it's own to traverse the god's bodies(which are the world maps of this game basically) and listening to these dazzling songs while the great gameplay kicks in plenty of times. Even the difficulty is fair and spot on for me.
It's amazing how a single game can let me enjoy a dying console as excitingly as possible until the last few promising games are released and the next generation is amongst us.
Rating: 9.0
Mind me, I know that the game is developed by the first party known as Monolith Soft., responsible for the Xenosaga trilogy on the PS2, Baten Kaitos on the GameCube and previously created Disaster: Day of Crisis on the white console.
There is just no way around it. If you are by any chance a faithful JRPG fan, Xenoblade will deliver for you, in one way or another. It's grand presentation is marvelous, and it's interface is designed in a simple but helpful way. This is, without a doubt, one of the Wii's prettiest games.
The gameplay reminds me the most of Final Fantasy XII, except that it is here executed more smoothly, more exciting and best of all, it fixes small things common to the traditional thinking design that only RPG veterans will notice, regardless of it being an action based one. For example though, skipping large areas of walking grounds by the use of landmarks is well done and well needed for a giant design such as this.
I had barely traversed through the landscapes and I can say already that I love the soundtrack accompanying me. The songs feel calm, exotic and grand to me. The battle theme, that can change according to the hectic tension each battle provides, actually never bores me, because it is that good.
As far as the story goes, it starts out pretty normal, aside from watching two gigantic gods fight each other. Shulk leads a calm life alongside his childhood friends Reyn and Fiora, and spends most of his time inside interiors. It is not until abnormal circumstances arise involving Mechons and the legendary Monado sword that the plot is starting to move and from there on out, no matter how large the game is, the plot thickens and continues to grow in an intriguing way, while every party character is very much likable with good portraits of human emotions.
Some of the traditional RPG standards, such as normal attacks and mana, are both ignored. Instead, normal attacks activate automatically, and health regenerates the same way after battles. A special system called Chain Attacks is available once you use Art(the equivalent of Spells or Abilities in here) skills effectively, which definitely reminded me of Mega Man X: Command Mission's Final Strike. Once activated, you can chain Art attacks for free on an enemy, and if you chain well enough according to the game's rules, you can do even much more damage.
Next to this, each character has their own special ability to use in battles, which fills up the more attacks are successfully done. Such as Reyn being able to drag enemies towards him using aggression, or Shulk being able to reflect off special incoming future attacks.
That's right, future attacks. This RPG involves a future concept used during the story as well as combat and when picking up certain items, showing you possible future events happening. Stronger enemies usually start using dangerous future attacks, which you can overcome by either calling in for help from your allies, or using one of your own counter Arts, such as letting the enemy fall asleep.
Xenoblade also incorporates a crafting mode, letting you create certain gems out of crystals and cylinders, which make you able to equip their bonus attributes on your character's equipment. There is another kind of gameplay, called Heart-to-Heart. It basically is about building off affinity towards party characters, which then unlock bonus scenes at many parts of the game, giving you more rewards.
The Art skills themselves can be leveled up by collecting enough AP(action points if I remember) using various ways. Each character can also learn special Skill Trees, most of them being active passively, while experiencing around. And if you collect enough items in an area and place them in the so called Collectopedia, you can get access to bonus rewards. Even trading items amongst party characters can give more affinity and thus more options to see Heart-To-Hearts.
Convenient tutorials are placed alongside the first parts, explaining the gameplay well and understandable and the amount of it is also quite impressive for an action rpg such as this. Even tedious repetition in battles(should this happen, although I doubt it for most of us) as will be noticed by the ones preparing to beat the game can easily be bounced of by changing characters once in a while, offering just as much entertainment because of the diversity in them.
The only dissapointing note for me in this is that many of the side quests, next to the many others in this huge game, are tedious to complete, because certain characters only appear at certain times during day or night. Other than this minor point, nothing else of serious error can be mentioned by me.
For it's sheer amount of fun, length and lasting appeal already is Xenoblade an absolute must play for RPG fans.It's graphics and soundtrack are top notch, it is rewarding on it's own to traverse the god's bodies(which are the world maps of this game basically) and listening to these dazzling songs while the great gameplay kicks in plenty of times. Even the difficulty is fair and spot on for me.
It's amazing how a single game can let me enjoy a dying console as excitingly as possible until the last few promising games are released and the next generation is amongst us.
Rating: 9.0
Monday, October 31, 2011
The Reigning Horror Icons of the 80's
Halloween, I tell you. The more I have touched horror media, the more this holiday sticks into my mind, and during this year, specifically, I decided to hold a marathon surrounding two of horror cinema's largest franchises from the 80's, while I also watched two anthologies. It continues to be too bad for me personally that this holiday isn't celebrated nationally really over here.
There are a ton of movies surrounding this genre, and about 95% of them are absolutely horrible as far as average film qualities go. However, for about a roughly 20% of them in a whole as I predict, and I target horror fans then, they are worth watching, if you can forgive poor budgets, bad actors, cheap and predictable scares and many times stupid plots. And only about a mere 5% out there are truly recommendable for everyone, from critics to average joes, if you can handle the horror.
However, I won't talk anymore about the genre as a whole from now on. Instead, I would like to focus on three horror icons from the 80's that everyone is aware of if they have done basic research into these kind of films. I am talking about Halloween, Friday the 13th and A Nightmare on Elm Street.
I know that there are other horror franchises out there, and some of them just as large as these three in particular, but as the title said, these three were simply all over the 80's, presented with their strong debuts, and from those inceptions onward, they kept getting worse and worse until you found the deepest pits of the art of milking awful sequel movies. And believe my word then, because I have at last saw each and everyone one of them, including the latest remakes, and three dedicated documentaries towards each of them.
I won't be talking about every sequel, instead, I would like to summarize each franchise with a few paragraphs.
HALLOWEEN
On this date, since at the very least several centuries, Halloween is celebrated, which at first was entirely different in its concept of a holiday than it is in present time. The well known Halloween franchise touches upon both concepts during its course, but the movies are, more to the point, about an immortal serial killer named Michael Myers.
The original film never clearly stated Myers's motivation in detail for doing these homicidal acts. Instead, they decided to let it remain a mystery, which therefore buffed up the tension of the story. Halloween and its antagonist tend to focus on babysitters, their friends, foster parents and other innocent humans usually residing in the fictional place known as Haddonfield, where they are killed off one by one.
The franchise is if you ask me, pretty average. Not even the earlier titles had left me profoundly fascinated by its design, or its cinematography, or its use of sounds. Nevertheless, they are worth watching up until Halloween 4. After that, it can no longer be saved, because the writers kept using terrible scripts to advance the story, and Halloween 6 and Resurrection are the lowest ranks for sure.
Favorite title: Halloween II(1981)
FRIDAY THE 13TH
The well known formula of Friday the 13th is "sex and gore", centering on the deaths of countless drunk and horny teenagers throughout the massacre films. It is a pretty popular game to send death wishes towards the many stupid characters.
It started with the accidental drowning of a misformed kid named Jason Voorhees while the caretakers of Camp Crystal Lake were too busy having sex. Driven by a twisted kind of revenge, Mrs. Pamela Voorhees ignites the start of the franchise in the original film, at first killing the original residents, and then returning in 1980 to continue her murdering legacy.
After being decapitated to death, the now grown up Jason watched in horror how his mother died, which in turn makes him all too unforgiving in the countless sequels. He is at first a very strong man who kills teenagers without any sweat, but starting with part 6, he becomes a zombified Frankenstein wannabe monster that still continues to kill people around the lake until he starts doing so randomly, and the latest sequels, Part 9 and Jason X, completely wrecked the antagonist, the franchise and the traditions for me.
There is no doubt that Friday the 13th is guilty of the worst kinds of horror sequels possible for me, but at least the first trilogy of the franchise is entertaining, interesting and even scary.
Favorite title: Friday the 13th Part 2(1981)
A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET
Whatever you do, don't fall asleep. The female protagonist Nancy Thompson tells us about these golden words of advice in A Nightmare on Elm Street, trying to warn everyone from the frightful demonic entity known as Freddy Krueger, the man born out of a hundred crazy maniacs raping a nun.
The story of the premise, especially what the original already established is simply put an interesting take on the theme of dreams, combining that with horror and its dream similarity; nightmares. Pop up an evil villain from beyond, manipulating everyone’s dreams with deadly results and you’ve got Freddy’s motivation throughout the movies.
And despite that not every sequel was polished well, at the very least does each film have unique kinds of horror for you to find out. Because of the freedom the manipulation of dream killing has, the directors and their teams had free reign and fun to benefit from this rule the original made, thought out by Wes Craven. So basically each movie is enjoyable by itself, even if standard cinema qualities such as acting, cinematography or editing are poorly done. Speaking quite in general now though when talking about what made some of them below average. Anyway, there is no doubt for me that the franchise is very enjoyable, mainly because of the unique horror premise.
Favorite title: A Nightmare on Elm Street(1984)
There are a ton of movies surrounding this genre, and about 95% of them are absolutely horrible as far as average film qualities go. However, for about a roughly 20% of them in a whole as I predict, and I target horror fans then, they are worth watching, if you can forgive poor budgets, bad actors, cheap and predictable scares and many times stupid plots. And only about a mere 5% out there are truly recommendable for everyone, from critics to average joes, if you can handle the horror.
However, I won't talk anymore about the genre as a whole from now on. Instead, I would like to focus on three horror icons from the 80's that everyone is aware of if they have done basic research into these kind of films. I am talking about Halloween, Friday the 13th and A Nightmare on Elm Street.
I know that there are other horror franchises out there, and some of them just as large as these three in particular, but as the title said, these three were simply all over the 80's, presented with their strong debuts, and from those inceptions onward, they kept getting worse and worse until you found the deepest pits of the art of milking awful sequel movies. And believe my word then, because I have at last saw each and everyone one of them, including the latest remakes, and three dedicated documentaries towards each of them.
I won't be talking about every sequel, instead, I would like to summarize each franchise with a few paragraphs.
HALLOWEEN
On this date, since at the very least several centuries, Halloween is celebrated, which at first was entirely different in its concept of a holiday than it is in present time. The well known Halloween franchise touches upon both concepts during its course, but the movies are, more to the point, about an immortal serial killer named Michael Myers.
The original film never clearly stated Myers's motivation in detail for doing these homicidal acts. Instead, they decided to let it remain a mystery, which therefore buffed up the tension of the story. Halloween and its antagonist tend to focus on babysitters, their friends, foster parents and other innocent humans usually residing in the fictional place known as Haddonfield, where they are killed off one by one.
The franchise is if you ask me, pretty average. Not even the earlier titles had left me profoundly fascinated by its design, or its cinematography, or its use of sounds. Nevertheless, they are worth watching up until Halloween 4. After that, it can no longer be saved, because the writers kept using terrible scripts to advance the story, and Halloween 6 and Resurrection are the lowest ranks for sure.
Favorite title: Halloween II(1981)
FRIDAY THE 13TH
The well known formula of Friday the 13th is "sex and gore", centering on the deaths of countless drunk and horny teenagers throughout the massacre films. It is a pretty popular game to send death wishes towards the many stupid characters.
It started with the accidental drowning of a misformed kid named Jason Voorhees while the caretakers of Camp Crystal Lake were too busy having sex. Driven by a twisted kind of revenge, Mrs. Pamela Voorhees ignites the start of the franchise in the original film, at first killing the original residents, and then returning in 1980 to continue her murdering legacy.
After being decapitated to death, the now grown up Jason watched in horror how his mother died, which in turn makes him all too unforgiving in the countless sequels. He is at first a very strong man who kills teenagers without any sweat, but starting with part 6, he becomes a zombified Frankenstein wannabe monster that still continues to kill people around the lake until he starts doing so randomly, and the latest sequels, Part 9 and Jason X, completely wrecked the antagonist, the franchise and the traditions for me.
There is no doubt that Friday the 13th is guilty of the worst kinds of horror sequels possible for me, but at least the first trilogy of the franchise is entertaining, interesting and even scary.
Favorite title: Friday the 13th Part 2(1981)
A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET
Whatever you do, don't fall asleep. The female protagonist Nancy Thompson tells us about these golden words of advice in A Nightmare on Elm Street, trying to warn everyone from the frightful demonic entity known as Freddy Krueger, the man born out of a hundred crazy maniacs raping a nun.
The story of the premise, especially what the original already established is simply put an interesting take on the theme of dreams, combining that with horror and its dream similarity; nightmares. Pop up an evil villain from beyond, manipulating everyone’s dreams with deadly results and you’ve got Freddy’s motivation throughout the movies.
And despite that not every sequel was polished well, at the very least does each film have unique kinds of horror for you to find out. Because of the freedom the manipulation of dream killing has, the directors and their teams had free reign and fun to benefit from this rule the original made, thought out by Wes Craven. So basically each movie is enjoyable by itself, even if standard cinema qualities such as acting, cinematography or editing are poorly done. Speaking quite in general now though when talking about what made some of them below average. Anyway, there is no doubt for me that the franchise is very enjoyable, mainly because of the unique horror premise.
Favorite title: A Nightmare on Elm Street(1984)
Wednesday, October 19, 2011
Breaking Bad
Breaking Bad is a popular TV series about a chemistry teacher gone bad
by the time he hears of his dreadful news of having lung cancer. As if he is
finally awake and alive now, Walter White leads a double life of a family man
and a “cooker”, who eventually turns into a force of a drug producer along with
his partner and former student of him, Jesse Pinkman, a professional but addictive drug
dealer. Along the way, both of them must keep their personal lives stable with
their hidden illegal work, while their partnership usually hangs on the edge
because of the dangerous events happening, and because of their unmistaken differences.
The first season was just a warm-up,
and the latter episodes of season 2 is where things started to get more thick
and interesting. Some highlights of the series are in S2 a turtle with a
severed head on its top walking around in the desert, then blowing up, killing
policia, and Walter throwing a chemical on the ground and the building explodes
partly in S1. The series continues to hold up well with Season 3, and Season 4 seems to be the best one yet.
It’s one of
those series that doesn’t necessarily have a deep plot, but the direction of it and it's characters just
continued to let me watch it. Character and plot development both are well done and most of the time, I wondered what would happen next. “Het kijkt lekker weg” I would say, in Dutch.
Rating: 8.0(Thanks to Season 4!)
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