Game of Thrones

Excellent dark medieval fantasy story about Seven Kingdoms and their noble houses trying to control the land of Westeros. I was instantly immensely impressed with the first episode. So many interesting occurrences happening at once, and the plot only got thicker and darker the more I saw. 

With Sean Bean as the main leading character, and a very strong cast to support him with old and new faces, there is lots of political events happening, twisted and tied to traditions and insanity. Adapted from what happen to be excellent books as well, Game of Thrones has absolute beautiful sceneries, costumes, writings and performances. 

Violence, vulgarity and sex are displayed in a strong mature form, and the main theme is an instant classic. Tons of secrets wait inside this epic struggle of a story, where cultures, opinions and ethics clash. And best of all, you never know for certain whom to root for in this, meaning that the morality values are often thrown into a grey zone, allowing for complex situations to arise.

My favorite character turns out to be the most popular one, which is Tyrion Lannister. He has such a way of manipulating people that it's almost inevitable not to get affected by his actions. But he isn't alone, no. There are others who are considerably admirable when it comes to tales of promises, letting people die for causes and hiding behind barriers of deceitfulness.

I would like to read the books, but it turns out that I have a giant backlog for those as well, so they will have to wait in line. In the mean time, I am enthusiastically anticipating the end of march, as Game of Thrones shall continue the many cliffhangers it left behind on the television.

As a rare and shiny TV-series where EVERYONE has interesting stuff to say (even Hodor!), Game of Thrones is my current favorite one for all of the many quality based series available in present time, like it is for many others as well.

However, it shares the number one spot of mine with a series from the early 90's of which I shall speak soon enough at Flok Factory. So that actually means, depending on when GoT will end, I will be able to decide between the two eventually.

Rating: 9.0

Robotics

This field of technology has fascinated me since I knew about the possibilities it could have upon the world. Since the words robot and machine are associated heavily, I could be wrong somewhere on this post regarding their differences.

Since discovering upon it first through science fiction, robotics tackle with numerous branches of life that only will get more intriguing to follow in present time as mainstream news occassionally mentions their breakthroughs.

From industrial manipulators that manufacture equipment, products or materials inside factories to  domestic service assistents that automate regular work to be done, robots can be helpful in many ways.

Thinking of examples that are currently already happening, such as tasked machines being able to create complete houses in a matter of a day, or a possible example in the medical fields where machines could operate on people entirely capable of doing so given by their data and tools, these thoughts make me very excited.

However, there are many skeptical topics that surround robotics for decades now. One such thread is about robots "stealing our" jobs. Primarily physical ones for the time being are every day affected by our machines simply being much better workers than us.

Personally, I do not mind these major changes at all, because it eliminates old fashioned jobs that could easily be replaced by better hands and feet. As long as the monetary and the market systems would also be succeeded by superior ones, no one would complain about it anymore.

Those two systems are too large of a topic to elaborate upon here, but I will most likely give my detailed support about replacing them once more in my blog. For now, let's just say that lesser jobs will in overall be better in the long term.

Then there are the evil robots that have long been anticipated by films, books, other forms of mediums and the scientific community itself also takes the subject seriously. But as long as people design their potential and their possible moral compass limited but relevant, this shouldn't happen right?

But that just perks my brain as to what to do with those who would be able to eventually abuse their artificial intelligence through sabotage, or perhaps even more complex, take two countries with clashing moralities and political ideals, and see how their robots get shaped.

Luckily, the well known three laws of robotics as mentioned by Isaac Asimov are the principles that could provide on how to develop the artificial intelligence of future extended robots, thwirling around the fundamental need for survival.

Ethically, advanced machines or AMA's that perhaps could make morale decisions on their own and even produce or make "baby" robots by their own in the future would make for a catastrophic change worldwide. It would certainly uproar humanity with endless amounts of protests and violence.

But that's assuming if these kinds of robots would be available for instance in the next decade. From our side, we should constantly question our ethics surrounding designing and constructing them as well.

As I continue to see robotics becoming ever more absolutely mandatory, I hope that our unavoidable future problems will be solved with the utmost care regarding ethics, economics, societies and technical details with them. So there are some scary thoughts about robots, but also many happy and beneficial ones.

Every branch or field has their positive and negative aspects though. It's just that robotics will most likely be the next huge event culturally that will continue to evolve mechanically or virtually.

Fruity!

Many years ago, around 2004, I created a topic discussing about fruits. Well actually, it was more about the lines of what kind of fruits each person had as favorites.

This time, I'd like to take a step back from the recent reviews and just give random comments towards fruits, because they can be quite awesome! This includes the ones I have tasted and the ones I would love to taste:

The durian looks intimidating visually as well as how it could taste, but apparently it is very high in demand in southeast Asia for consuming it.

Ah yes, the pitaya! I first tried these in Cambodia. Also known as dragon fruit, I wonder how they would taste inside one of my cocktails?

Still have to try the carambola, also known as star fruit. Such interesting forms of fruits to be found here and there.

Coincidentally, I tried a rambutan in Thailand after remembering how it looked like. Truthfully, I wasn't really enjoying it. Better luck next time!

The kiwi has been my favorite for a long time now for various reasons including awesome name, awesome color and awesome healthy, but I'm sure that there are plenty of eligible competitors available out there!

One of the many obscure ones, the salak with it's snake-like appearance seems to be challenging when imagining how it could taste!

This one should always been mentioned because of it's form alone. Worldwide famous because it can be used in so many ways, the banana continues to be dominant for many.

Final Fantasy XIII

It's time to review Squeenix's Final Fantasy XIII as depicted by my omen. I have had such mixed thoughts with this title, that it is becoming a trend for me personally after experiencing and beating the experiments called Final Fantasy II and VIII already.

The story is mostly told through the unlimited cut-scenes, but there is also a synopsis of each chapter available plus lore. The terms Cocoon, Pulse, Purge, Focus, l'Cie and fal'Cie are used many times, and while I understood them, the execution of the plot is shallow. Quite simplistic really.

What bothers everyone more, including me, is the absence of towns, a world map or the actual feeling of not being alone in these otherwise bland locations. Interacting with stuff was very largely missing, and the shop system was wrong.

As YouTube reviewer The7thLevel once said, the game plays itself. Well, almost. You walk through linearity for the first 10 chapters for what seems to be a twisted long prologue towards Chapter 11, where you will finally be able to traverse a large map in your own way. NPC's are almost extinct, and I only saw them at Chapter 9 at the earliest.

The only sidequests are missions where you must find special enemies and defeat them, hence, this means more of the same battles. Speaking of which, the battle system comprises of Paradigm Shifts, Auto-Battle, special techniques and most of the time only 1 summon per battle.

Libra, the most common technique, automatically scans weaknesses and adjusts your tactics towards exposing them every time you re-encounter the particular enemy. Auto-Battle then works around doing just that, meaning that you will be pressing a lot of X's only through the whole game.

Paradigm Shifts means that you are able to switch roles between characters, and later on, all of the roles become accessible towards everyone. A Saboteur for example debuffs enemies, while a Ravager chains the Stagger percentage of enemies.

If the Stagger meter is complete, you will deal extra damage. The paradigms are shifted by the use of the L1 button, and customization is normally automated, so are the tactics. Shifting paradigms, building up the stagger meter and healing will be the main things you will be focusing on to drag further.

You are able to manually order the characters around, but why do so when the battles are fast-paced and the Auto-Battle button is there? This creates an ironic moment when you consider the opportunity to do battles manually as well.

But unless you know exactly what you're doing with swift actions, things will get unnecessarily harder. It's better for most of us to stick to the very conventional automatic mode of which I can almost call the Audience Mode instead.

The Crystarium system is similar to the License Board and Sphere Grid from FFXII and FFX, but this time, because of the various paradigms or character roles, each paradigm per character has it's several spheres to be leveled up by the game's CP points.

Sure the graphics are pretty and prettier like the Final Fantasy games are nowadays associated for, but their stories and characters have made a huge fallout for far too long now. The variety is largely missing as sidequests, non-linearity and other extra's are just missing out.

FFXIII is only fightings, cut-scenes and bosses(more fightings). This isn't the epitomy of RPG games Squeenix! They have also always been about exploring their worlds, the plot progessions through overcoming more than just battles and actually caring about what's happening and what is available to do, which hasn't been effective in years.

You still do exploration and still uncover more about the world, but the way it was designed just is by far not as exciting as other RPG's. Ever since part VII, the playable cast has been given more personality because of the graphical capabilities and eventually voice acting as well. XIII's cast isn't the worse that I have experienced, but it's still a long mile for me to get to really care about them, minus Sazh, an odd fellow with a good personality.

Barthandelus, the main antagonist, was convincing with his motivation for empowering the playable cast of XIII and in the end his ultimate goal of destroying Orphan in order to reset the world. Taking on the appearance reminiscent of the pope and talking religiously with his supernatural powers, he was both memorable and a dangerous opponent.

But apart from those two characters and the difference of the swift battles, there isn't much else to hang onto. Some songs such as the battle theme were decent, and bosses became considerably better for being tricky.

Final Fantasy XIII is a mediocre and alienating game to crave momentum from. The overall pace is slow and it wasn't designed with balance in the sense of variety. there was too much emphasis on what was available.

But don't listen to me, because a sequel is already out and another one is coming. Were the global sales towards this entry really that impressive?

Rating: 6.3

Final Fantasy XIII-2

I am able to review the first sequel, so I wonder, what did change? Well, plenty did actually. Quick Time Events, or Cinematic Actions called here and Live Triggers that give you different sentences as a choice like modern Western RPG's tend to do are present now.

You have a way more interactive world for being able to talk with people for real now. The map system has been updated with fog present if you have not located the actual map in an area yet, plus new information such as the locations of Chocobos or a Moogle that accompanies Serah as a morphable weapon, which can scan hidden items or be thrown around for more hidden items.

The story focuses on Lightning's sister this time. Guiding and guarding her will not be Snow, but Noel, a time traveller from a period where he is the only surviving human left. Lightning herself seems to have passed away(The ending of XIII is slightly and quickly altered here in regard to her status), but only the main characters know that she is still somewhere, somehow.

It gets more weird, as space and time have interferred here greatly, not only as 1 time traveller is present, but objects appear and reappear at certain times as well. Plus, creatures seem to be coming from the Void now, a new area. Somehow, I wondered how the story would go further.

Perhaps that would be the first sign of the game having potential, plus I was getting content with the things that have changed around the gameplay aside from the story already. So that's good. However, as I came further, the latter wouldn't hold the momentum much longer.

The story is convoluted involving inconsistent usage of themes such as time travelling, paradoxes, dimensions and deus ex machina's appearing such as Noel. Sure anyone can toy and experiment with stories, but putting this one up above the one established by Final Fantasy XIII already felt just like a huge mess to me.

It is so radically different from what was established in XIII that it doesn't work for me. All those era's, and then the whole time traveling factor, it was a nice try, but in the end is a huge departure from the previous world so to speak.

The soundtrack is noticably different, more upbeat, energetic and perhaps even inappropriate, but it worked for me for the most part. Re-using songs and enemy design from XIII felt lazy, but I will let it slip.

Pre-emptive strikes are executed better here, and it's easier to avoid monsters. Chocobo's are also more accessible and earlier to get, plus this time you can collect and train monsters on your team and level them up in the Crystarium much like the 2 main characters.

Traveling through the different timelines is fresh, but as said before an odd concept after XIII. The order also seemed weird, but alternate timelines are given amongst other topics as explanations. It's nothing exciting like Chrono Trigger, but it does make for a rather different sequel.

Caius as the villain was lame, but atleast had a good motivation for his reasoning. Actually, it goes the same for Noel as well. Serah seemed to take things for granted rather easily, although there are the Live Trigger moments where you can choose the outcomes, sometimes serious, sometimes comical.

Puzzles were also present, and I really liked the clockwork ones. One thing I didn't mention in the previous review is that XIII had save points with not one, but all of the shops available. This was a poor design decision in my opinion and in this game it's replaced by a fellow time traveller called Chocolina, who acts as a merchant, although a strange one.

Final Fantasy XIII-2 is a weird sequel with a dissapointing plot, but it makes up for it with an improved battle system, a more navigational map, entertaining side quests such as the casino area( the chocobo races return!) and if you've got the time, I heard that it has like 8 different paradox endings to get.

Rating: 6.5

It turns out that I will have another month of PS3 reviews because I simply have beaten quite many of them next to these featured in february. I don't know what month it will be, but I do know that they will be published before the summer at the least.

Heavy Rain

Quantic Dream has come up with another interactive video game exclusive towards the Playstation 3 after having success with the unfinished Fahrenheit/Indigo Prophecy. Called Heavy Rain, it's a thriller story involving 4 playable characters who all play an important part.

Ethan Mars is a lovable husband and father to two gorgeous sons, but is soon separated from both of them. His primary task is to solve the origami related puzzles created by the mysterious Origami Killer, who leaves behind origami figures and orchids on each young victim.

Scott Shelby is a private investigator and an ex-police officer who is professional when it comes to beating up thugs and following leads. He was my favorite of the four because of his personality and just his veteran look in his field of work.

Madison Paige is a journalist who stumbles upon the story surrounding the serial killings and encounters Ethan one day. At first there doesn't seem to be much connections, but sooner or later she too starts getting deeply involved with all of the tensions and she primarily becomes a supportive character, intended with searching for the truth.

Norman Jayden is a hipster FBI agent because of his sunglasses technology called ARI, which is able to track fingerprints, blood trails, tire tracks and more clues towards solving crime scenes. He works together with a jackass for a partner, but atleast most of the time they follow protocols and the law.

Heavy Rain has several endings that show us the fate of each character depending upon the choices you made through the story. Quick Time Events dominate, similar to Fahrenheit but because I was playing with a Sixaxis PS3 controller, the controls were quite different than those found on a keyboard.

I was impressed with the different routes and choices to make, plus the presentation is polished. Heavy raining is a common theme for the game, and the modus operandi and the motivation for the Origami Killer, as revealed near the end, were satisfying to know and made the overall story memorable.

The identity of the killer also came as an unexpected revelation for me, because I did not expect that particular character to be the guilty party. And the voice acting by the way is also wonderfully done, as I learned from the bonus content, 90 actors were used in the end.

It seems that I have catched another glitch as I seem to be stumbling upon them lately in modern times. It happened at the mall scene, where you are supposed to look for Jason. Take a look at Ethan's position, I cannot believe I was able to casually walk around like that: Casually looking for Jason...on thin air.

While Heavy Rain wasn't outstanding with the game mechanics it provides, it does make for a thrilling and different experience combined with the unfolding, rather dramatic plot. Especially the action scenes and the origami challenges were exhilarating.

Rating: 7.9

Catherine

Vincent Brooks has to choose between two women; Katherine has been in a relationship with him for years and now wants to take the next big step, while Catherine represents freedom and flexibility with sexual desires. However, during nights, he experiences horrible nightmares involving weird sheeps and climbing up to the top!

Catherine is an original mixed video game with psychological horror, intimidating timed puzzles, social parts and some questions regarding your own morality. I answered honestly at the confession questions, but I was leaning more towards going for Catherine or the naughty route.

Take heed, Catherine is both the name of the game and the other mysterious girl of the story, representing lust and cuteness and what else going through Vincent's mind. There doesn't seem to be a clear reason for why both female characters sound similar.

So the main course is about living up the nightmares, climbing through towers of blocks in your way towards the next level in order to reach "true freedom" at the end. At the end of every night, which is usually divided into 3 parts, there is a nightmare boss chasing you, not a boss fight.

How do the puzzles work? Well, you push blocks around in order to create stairs or swivel your way around them using the edges in order to reach new ground. As these puzzle stages have a time limit, you will have to think quick before confusingly moving blocks around.

There is an undo button should you mess up once, and between each stage, there are several sheeps walking around on a floating field where they can give you techniques during the puzzle sequences or give you insight into the unfolding mysterious story.

After you reach the top, the game switches over to daytime, and you will be able to socialize with your friends, communicate with your girlfriends and have casual talks with others at your favorite bar while seeing cut-scenes as well, rendered in cell shaded graphics or anime.

While walking around the bar, you are able to do a few things, but the most interesting feature is to play a bonus version from the main game itself. It is called Rapunzel and the difference with it is that time is now infinite, and you are only able to move around blocks for a few times.

Back to the main gameplay, there are different kinds of blocks which stand in your way, Such as ice blocks, trap blocks and bomb blocks. The difficulty of facing these obstacles as well as all of the levels can range from driving you nuts towards driving you even more nuts.

Luckily there are collectable items for you to use, such as making you able to climb up to two blocks, killing off all of the enemies or creating a block. There is a particular sheep that sells you these things too should you have the need.

Catherine is no breezeover. This is a lengthy title only because the puzzles themselves took me sometimes so long to get past before reaching the next part. But I am not alone, Catherine is kicking a lot of asses around. Expect to die often here.

As the story continues to be quite thrilling to follow in the sense of how it will continue regarding Vincent's dilemmas, the nightmares and the mysteries, in retrospect, for me it did have a happy end. Even though I leaned towards Catherine's side, I turned out to have the good ending instead, possibly because I answered honestly pretty much all of the time.

Beating the main story will unlock Colloseum mode, where you will be able to compete with another friend. You could also co-operate by opening the Babel mode, where single or multiplayer trials await you, although you are advised to be adept at the game before trying this.

Oh, and did I mention that Catherine is a very Japanese video game? It could even have been a Grasshopper Manufacture or Suda51 game, when looking at the scale of weirdness of this. The presentation is pretty much an eye catcher because nothing else looks like Catherine out there.

But it's not all well done. The game suffers from clunky controls. Circling around with the camera, especially at the back of stages can be frustrating. Once you are manouevring at the back, controls are reversed as well, which although logical in the end did not work out great.

And the difficulty curve, or just the balance between Easy, Normal and Hard is unconventional. I managed to beat it on Normal Mode, but I felt that there should had been one mode instead. For me, any game should start out easy long enough for the majority of players to keep trying.

Having said all of that, Catherine remains an unusual title which became a surprise hit published by Atlus. If you are looking for something completely different, then you should give this an attempt and support the creativity found in it.

Rating: 7.5

inFAMOUS

inFAMOUS is a versatile and alluring PS3 game where you are the protagonist Cole, who has been granted with electrical super powers by the Ray Sphere. The backstory involves a large city gone to ruins because of a huge blast, and it's now ruled by ruthless gangs of terror.

Cole is equipped with enhancable abilites that give him tactical advantages towards his foes, destructive powers and best of all ways of mobilizing around quickly. Sliding on train rails or hovering around is hip.

As a sandbox game, inFAMOUS is well designed by the surroundings, and especially plays fastpaced as a third person shooter. I was most of all enjoying the climb physics it provides, as Cole has swift and adaptable reflexes to grab anything that can hold his body up.
 
You can play main missions, as well as side missions. Getting missions is quick, precise and convenient. Because of the game's overall speed, you probably will do a lot of the side missions as well.

The current story is about Cole being awakened with his new super powers, and he decides to test around his karma, battling the deadly gangs in the process as well as dangerous villains. Luckily he has a supportive team of friends to assist him with information and sometimes backup.

A morality system plays occassionally, as you as the player will have to decide to do either good or evil actions. Whatever the outcome will give you more access to either the good side of Cole's powers, or the evil side of him. Of course, story consequences play here as well.

I didn't notice much of the soundtrack, because I was too busy navigating around and shooting up stuff. Deflecting incoming missiles or dropping from high locations and activating a powerful thunder drop are more ways of enjoying the game.

There is also an art style based on comics to accompany the 3D graphics. And the more experience points you collect, the quicker you are able to upgrade your available abilities further. And there is a lot of stuff to do.

Sucker Punch created a different sandbox game where you are not driving around cars, but instead sliding on train rails to travel even faster than your average driving game. And that's only one part of the slick action provided by Cole's fun powers.

Rating: 8.4

inFAMOUS 2

In the sequel I went the evil path instead of the good. There isn't much change between them apart from the available missions, powerups and dialogues. New powerups to get such as grabbing up objects and tossing them and being able to slinger up buildings add up to Cole's superpowers. The graphics were done better and the new story worked, but comic scenes were lessened.

There is also user related content available, as gamers are able to make their own missions and rate others. This makes the replay value obviously longer, but both games are about the same for me. The only reason inFAMOUS 2 gets a slightly higher score is because of more content being available, the new city and the new gameplay elements.

Rating: 8.5