Man of Steel

A reboot superhero film directed by Zack Snyder and produced by Christopher Nolan. Man of Steel's technical products and captivating direction with a stronger sense of happening on a larger scale like an epic, resulted into it being a worthy blockbuster.

The planet Krypton is facing a global energy crisis after harvesting resources from the core. A dangerous process is playing out, because the planet is about to implode due to the lack of resources. A council meeting shows us Jor-El criticizing the political authorities.

But then the meeting is interrupted by General Zod, the highest military commander, and he attempts to overthrow the established system and begin anew with fewer "superior" bloodlines. Despite the extremely dangerous natural disaster approaching, Zod takes over with violence.

Before all hope is lost for the people of Krypton, a natural born baby, which has been a rarity for the entire race in centuries, is send off to the planet Earth by Jor-El and is wife in order for their race to start anew somewhere else in the universe.

That baby turns out to be Superman, as many of us knew already according to the comics and previous released films. With Man of Steel, the origin of the character is focused upon, but not so much with his alter ego known as Clark Kent, but more with Kar-El himself.

Such as concealing himself from humanity, dealing with his differences from them, searching for the reason he was stranded alone and finding out who his true parents were. Although the movie can be considered more seriously than previous similar films, eventually Kar-El will grant supernatural powers and for instance fly through any kind of object with minor ease.

As Lois Lane turns out to be the gal that finds out about the alien, the two get more important as the story continues with Zod returning from his broken prison called the Phantom Zone, alongside a few of his insurgents still alive.

He states his motivation for needing the Codex inside Kal-El's body and then insuring that the race of Krypton will survive. His way of doing so however is incredibly violent, as he even proceeds with changing the ecology of Earth by the use of some terrible weapon ship.

The Codex is some kind of plot device where the cells of many babies continue to inhabit, but for some reason, they weren't able to let them grow up I guess. It's a minor confusion, but nothing that stands between the pace of the movie.

Man of Steel's highlights are the incredible fight scenes. For someone as abnormally strong such as Superman, he sure had a hard time against his antagonist here with good reason, for he was a worthy opponent.

Next to those, the soundtrack was in good harmony with the scenes unfolding, and as said before, the scale has been lifted considerably, not to mention all of those scenes where buildings are getting destroyed beautifully by aliens and human technology.

It is a very good reboot movie because it feels more seriously than the other entries and the acting was just fine. Henry Cavill, Amy Adams and Michael Shannon were well casted for their roles, Laurence Fishburne however I still wonder if his character will turn more comical.

A sequel towards this will probably happen, as we have yet to see Lex Luthor make a new appearance here. Up until now, I considered Superman movies not that interesting really, but thanks to Man of Steel, I am up for more content to happen from that world.

Rating:7.5

Central Europe

For my 1st vacation this year, I shall be going on a roadtrip with another buddy that enjoys driving around and discovering new places just like me. We stayed at a quality hotel called Dr.Stühlinger in Austria and from there we started driving towards several interesting cities.

Semmering, Austria

The location around the hotel itself was a quiet experience with minor activities spotted. We discovered an old train station from the 19th century, but otherwise considered the place as calm yet dull.

Vienna, Austria

The capital is a very large city so that we could not discover every highlight, as we had our hands full with a large Frence formal garden at the Schönbrunn Palace and numerous impressive buildings at the center occupying our limited time. A Gay Pride Movement was also happening, and it was a very hot day that would last with every other place to come.

Bratislava, Slovakia

The other nearby capital on our trip was the most dissapointing because it had a poor atmosphere which is well seen back when looking at the roads, broken buildings and few if any prominent spots. The Nový Most is an exception, but Bratislava Castle wasn't really captivating apart from the view it provides with the proud Svatopluk statue. Still, I'm glad to have seen this.

Sopron, Hungary

A surprise town which had a peaceful tranquility feeling on our minds as we explored this small spot at the far west. Children and adults were relaxing with comfort at the little but elegant views we found.

Maribor, Slovenia 

As the second largest city of the country, Maribor was okay for me, nothing really stood out personally.

Český Krumlov, Czech Republic

The second surprise during this short vacation was this exquisite looking town, but because we had very little time left, we ran through the place pretty quickly. We did shoot some great pictures and we enjoyed the various shopping areas and foreign tourists to be found.

After all that, we concluded our journey at Zwiesel in Germany, where I had a very good Schweinschnitzel meal. The remaining ride would be around 8 hours left to Holland, but we managed to complete this succesfully after we rode many kilometers through partially 6 countries already.

E3 2013 Thoughts

Tons of announcements, 2 new hardware competitors and unexpected surprises, that's what E3 2013 is about! There are simply too many games, including independent ones, so during the comments below I might say too much that the game or the series are still new for me.

This post might also be written a bit more amateurish than previous entries, because they are basically first impressions for a lot of games, I'll admit that. Which means that first impressions in this case are NOT final impressions of the products.

Let's get it on with the press conferences and that other company who presented content differently this time:

 Microsoft:

As I tuned in, the Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain trailer was halfway through, but I am already excited by it. World of Tanks seems addictive but I haven't tried it yet. Dark Souls II looks very slick, can't wait to play through another difficult quest like that.

Ryse: Son of Rome is looking hectic and has potential, but those were a lot of quick time events at once. The shield formation is exciting, it's what you would expect from that age of warfare. Killer Instinct is finally back, awesome!

Sunset Overdrive, I need to see more of that before I can judge it beforehand. Dammmn that car on the show looks crazy as shit with Forza Motorsport 5, but not my kind of game. Minecraft, same opinion, and I have not delved into Quantum Break's hype yet.

Project Spark seems to be a creative engine to design your own games, like Little Big Planet. Crimson Dragon seems to be a spiritual successor towards Panzer Dragoon, and Dead Rising 3 is looking bigger and better and grimmer as well.

Witcher franchise, also untouched but I have heard good things about it. Battlefield, same deal, where will I get all of this free time for this shit!?! What Lies Below looks like a troll game. Syphon Filter was shown too quick as well, and which Halo is this? An old or a new title?

Titanfall is a new IP as well? It's another shooter but this time mechs join the party. Anyhow, I think we can all agree that this was a better Xbox One conference than the first because of the games right? There was enough announced for the target group and anyone else interested.

Electronic Arts:

Garden Warfare is looking pretty cute but it seems to be a very different game from Plants VS. Zombies. The most noteworthy change is 3D physics. Titanfall looked better here than at Microsoft's conference, and It's also coming to PC, I will be watching this shooter which is trying something different with mecha units and multiplayer.

Star Wars Battlefront was too quickly over hehe. It's been too long since I touched Need for Speed(3), and it's not like I'm missing it. It was cool to see Aaron Paul briefly. The EA Sports Games seem to have more access to control with regards to footprinting, dribbling and more. The MMA game trailer looks interesting because MMA itself is on the rise.

Battlefield 4 looks very chaotic with 64 players going to battle simultaneously. Commander Mode seems like a fun mode that originated in part 2. Dragon Age Inquisition... 2 was dissapointing, might look into this after beating the original one with had ups and downs. But a fall 2014 release is very far away.

Mirror's Edge 2 is...well, let's just say that I will start with part 1 soon.

Ubisoft:

Mighty Quest is looking very funny and immature, while Watch Dogs continues to have plenty of potential with a relevant current age of too much information. Assassin's Creed IV features pirates and sea battles, but I still have to start with this series.

Rayman Legends, I am looking very forward to this after I truly enjoyed Origins. The Crew, what's the selling point? It's an open world for cars. Trials Fusion, I used to play the original version when classes were boring, and Tom Clancy's The Division was the big surprise, but like Titanfall's first reveal I need to see more before this generic looking shooter might be worthwhile.

Sony:

Vita needs to pump up in popularity like it's rival needed early on as well. The Last of Us is looking good and even better after all those very positive reviews, too bad I won't be able to play it for a while.

Beyond: Two Souls hopefully won't have horrible glitches such as "JASON" in Heavy Rain. Also funny to see real actors portrayed as characters here. Batman: Arkham Origins will be a great game like the others, I just know it. It will take some time to get used to Batman and Joker's new voices though.

PlayStation 4 looks blocky, but has a cool "inner part" sideways. After the TV and cinema talks a new IP known as The Order blasts off as promising new kinds of action in an unlikely setting nowadays. Killzone Shadow Fall looks good but also dull from the latest trailer.

Infamous Second Son doesn't seem to have Cole anymore, that doesn't matter because the fastpaced superpowers are still intact! And it's looking much better. I almost forgot about Knack but this might be just another great 3D looking platformer.

The Dark Sorcerer started funny with the old guy being used before during a tech demo in February and it ended unexpected, seems like in order to continue seeing it I will have to search through the E3 topics.

 

Transistor seems to feature more than 1 genre of gaming, including over head action and 2D platforming. The indy games afterwards are looking great for retro and innovative reasons. Oddworld is even in there! Makes me really wish that I had the capacity, time and endurance to create my own indy game.

Rise, Final Fantasy XIII Versus! That game seriously needed to return, and now that this trailer popped up, I'm pretty sure that everyone onboard the Final Fantasy community is more excited since a long time. Sick looking graphics, typical from Square Enix.

And after a very cool twist, it seems to be renamed to Final Fantasy XV now!? And then they throw in Kingdom Hearts III right afterwards, that's another great announcement. These titles will be very important for Squeenix to be globally praised like they used to be in the 90's.

Dissapointing to see Assassin's Creed IV Black Flag lagging live, but otherwise the game is looking good. It's kind of funny to see more of Ubisoft news again seen here, but each time it's something differently shown.

Watch Dogs is looking very good as usual but I won't buy it unless I know for sure that I won't be dissapointed like the previous Ubisoft title I last played. Still have to start with Elder Scrolls 1 before trying the newest ones damn it.

Never heard of Mad Max before, seems like it's based of movies. PS4 supports used games, it's funny how the crowd reacts positively, as if we all would go down Xbox One's road. The games don't need to be online to play or for any mandatory authentication, another victory over their competitor.

Playstation Plus, even I think it's a very friendly service, and it's coming over from the PS3. Destiny gameplay is looking ambitious as co-operation is an important factor. 399 dollars is very acceptable, contentwise, as well as pastwise(599 US dollars) and looking at the competitors.

Nintendo:

At first, I was a bit worried that this video would only be 40 minutes.

Then I was focused when Satoru Iwata took stage.

Pokémon X/Y seems to be more of the same old good strategic gameplay, the last one I played was SoulSilver, been missing out on the Black&White games, I wonder, should I give them a try or skip into the latest 2 versions instead?

Super Mario 3D World is looking awesome because of the multiplayer and the notch towards Super Mario Bros. 2, but I will be slighty dissapointed if this becomes designed with linearity just like Super Mario 3D Land. Otherwise, consider me excited.

Mario Kart 8's new feature of  racing atop and across courses sounds like fun, and it's good to know that the online mode will be improved even further. Bringing back the air and sea segments as well as the bikes is a good thing.

The third party games were all previously known before, so that's a bummer, however I am still excited about titles such as Arkham Origins and Watch Dogs. The indy games, like with Sony before, were great to see, ShovelKnight for example seems entertaining.

I still need to see more about The Wonderful 101 before I consider even trying it, but Bayonetta 2 seems to be more of the same good beat/slash em' up as I beat the original earlier this year. X is still definitely, definitely worth waiting for, if it has atleast some basic gameplay from Xenoblade, consider me hyped.

Donkey Kong Country Tropical Freeze was a surprise announcement because everyone was either expecting a new Metroid or a new Star Fox game to be shown from Retro Studios, however this sequel is no bad thing. As Returns showed, the developer knows how to make challenging and diversive level design, so it looks like I will be buying this one.

And then Super Smash Bros. happened. The Animal Crossing opening felt sarcastic, but then it continued. Starting with the 3DS version, having a distinctive kind of graphics from it's Wii U counterpart, traditional gameplay was shown, which of course was sublime to see.

As the Villager entered with his shovel and other kinds of moves, I thought okay, that's a nice teaser for what else is to come. And then the new challenger alarm hype moment happened. The Nintendo characters looked at a small silhouette on a hill, someone with a bit too long hair.

The moment Mega Man was revealed, I became so happy that I honestly cannot remember the last time I was SO FUCKING HAPPY. I honestly shed manly tears as Mega Man kicked everyone's expectational asses while Dr.Wily Stage 1 was playing and Robot Master weapons were shown as moves.

Damn it Nintendo, I absolutely will have to main Mega Man now and host a new tournament in celebration of my happiness towards this masterful franchise. Thank you Nintendo, thank you Sora Ltd., thank you Namco Bandai Games.



And could this be the return of Capcom's glorious reputation from the past?