Virtue's Last Reward

Warning, this post entry contains huge spoilers for the two related games. Be very aware that the experience will shatter your overall conclusion towards them if you haven't played them from the beginning to the end. These games are heavily relying on their mysterious stories.

Before you know it, a new intellectual property is born. Nine Hours, Nine Persons & Nine Doors was the first, Virtue's Last Reward is the second, and now a third title has been confirmed by Chunsoft for Zero Escape, which summarizes the series so far fittingly.

Playing through 999 at first(and having seen the true ending) will really help you get used to the overall structure and even some pieces of the storyline that will otherwise most likely subconciously spoil the secret details of some characters. Not only that, it's one of the highly recommendable visual novel type of games available for the Nintendo DS.

What's new towards the sequel are a different version of the Nonary Game with new bracelets and colored doors, as well as expanding upon it with the Ambidex Game, which resolves around allying or betraying your fellow contestants. Whatever you decide to choose, The available routes are connected, storywise.

Also, even if you feel that every Ambidex Game feels similar, the circumstances and the psychological scenarios change everytime in every route, and to me, that felt impressive. Sometimes, you choose betray in order to escape and leave someone else for death, sometimes you choose ally in order to save a life. But there are much more different reasons other than living or dying.

Furthermore, the mechanics have improved as well as the puzzles, partially because of a Hard and Easy mode being present, which are interchangeable only once. A much needed memo pad is present, and a flowchart has also been added, giving a very convenient overview of the available routes to take towards the endings. It even has its own secrets, like several other objects through the game.

There's a chance that it might seem tedious with going through all of the different playthroughs. The skipping button is there for a reason, for not having to read all of the stuff you have seen already. So use it. You can always jump to another route using the flowchart for various reasons.

As you are no doubt about to approach a bad ending or a game over, you will have to go to previous important choices in order to take their routes and see the consequences. If you have beaten 999 accordingly, then you would know that the best thing about both games are their intriguing endings.

Even so, don't get discouraged or think that all of the deadends are the same, because they are not. The best stuff is hidden, you just have to work and fight your way through the many dead traps or false leads.

Only then will you grasp the compelling writing of Virtue's Last Reward. Say for instance, you are unable to continue at a certain route. If you then proceed with making a different choice in a previous Ambidex Game for example, Sigma, your playable character, will note sometimes that his opponent's decision was different in the past(gamewise...or beyond?).

As the characters themselves act a lot like detectives, you too, will most likely start thinking about all of the different scenarios which have happened in all of the playthroughs so far, trying to connect all of it together. Make sense of it.

Virtue's Last Reward will also have some disturbing scenes, just like 999 before it. One ending for instance showed everyone dead in a single room except for you and 1 other person. In another event, we see a person reaching for their lungs inside a pod after getting no more oxygen. And there's plenty more creepy scenes actually.

Although each puzzle room had its own song, I must say that I prefer 999's overall soundtrack over this. But perhaps it's too early to say, there are definitely some standouts such as Biotope, Dispensary and Pantry. What that game didn't have though is voice acting. And I must say that it's pleasant to hear these Japanese voice actors acting their hearts out.

My favorite puzzle room from both games by the way are the Operating Room in 999 and the  Biotope Garden in VLR. Puzzles in both games range from being common sense or capable towards being mentally challenging but never unfair.

There's only 1 save slot, the character models are inferior for me and that's about the only criticism I can give. Judging the game without having seen all of the possible routes to take will mean that you would most likely have seen barely the surface of where the overall story is going to. The graphics are subpar at best for me, but they work.

About the antagonist, I suspected Luna as Zero Sr. during the playthroughs for being the most normal person in my opinion. I also believed the killer and Zero Sr. to be different persons before any twists happened. Zero Jr. is despite his suspicious appearance, just a programmed A.I., that was my deduction.

Only if you have seen the true ending towards Virtue's Last Reward will you be able to see why it's such a great, no, an outstanding game. It's brilliant writing starts with a mysterious new Nonary Game with plenty of questions to solve, but the fun really begins when you start reaching the different endings and THEN see the true one.

Old Akane, old Junpei, a red earth and more shocking truths made me fascinated as well as satisfied. The ultimate purpose of the AB game is to prevent the nuclear winter and ultimately Radical-6, going back through time with consciousnesses traveling with memories using the morphogenic field. Maybe best of all is how the game's title finally makes sense. Sigma and Phi are Virtue's Last Reward.

It would be very tempting to say who Zero.Sr is at this point, but no, that is the game's ultimate joy. Kotaro Uchikosi managed to beat 999's already amazing script, that's for sure in my opinion. There are a few plot parts still unknown regarding their nature, but a ZE3 is bound to change that.

As far as storytelling goes from a videogame perspective, I cannot remember it being so effective and rewarding as seen here with Virtue's Last Reward. Zero Escape has easily become one hell of a new franchise to definitely watch growing up with close surveillance.

You think that you have seen it all regarding video games and storytelling? Then definitely give these newcomers a chance. Will you be able to escape, or will that possibility be on a scale between one through ten simply mean zero opportunity?

Rating: 9.0

ZombiU

What defines survival horror?

It does in more ways. Resident Evil and Alone in the Dark started slower paced, Left 4 Dead however was faster paced. Clock Tower has no weapons, Dead Space has high qualified ones. Silent Hill has psychological entities, Fatal Frame has vengeful ghosts.

And then there is ZombiU, something inbetween. It's based upon Zombi for the Amstrad CPC, but I never played this is 1986. Playing as a random survivor, you are guided by the Prepper to survive your surroundings in London.

It's an experimental game from Ubisoft for showing off what the Wii U GamePad is capable of, but it also attempts to go back to the concept of survival horror in the sense of scarce ammunitions, outnumbered, disorientated and some uncomfortable settings.

The character models are laughable, but some of the backgrounds were nice, and the graphical details of objects can be pretty.  Luckily, if you are able to scan the CCTV cameras, your GamePad will be equipped with maps.

Your scanner, or the GamePad, is able to gain intel from objects in the area as well as sending off signals for any zombies nearby. For a better playthrough, you ought to scan new areas so that you will be more prepared for any possible upcoming attacks.

ZombiU has been criticised for having way too few animations for both your only melee weapon, the cricket bat, and for the zombies as well. There was enough variety in their appearances, but not in the way they moved.

I did enjoy the capable features that the GamePad was used for. Another feature would be the way item management is done upon here. As you open your backpack, you must manage it using the touch screen, however, you are still vulnerable to attacks on your TV screen.

The more I saw of ZombiU, the sooner I knew that the game was most likely rushed due to having way too much visible bugs or glitches. Aside from minor bugs such as dialogues overlapping another, or zombies getting stuck in doors, there was one huge glitch that cannot be excused on Ubisoft's part. I even recorded it to give you the proof: ZombiUbugged

As for the difficulty, it's true that getting surrounded will most likely leave you to die, but if you are a seasoned gamer like me, you ought to know how to exploit these situations by the use of your surroundings or the available items.

What was also creative is the feature of dying, and then returning towards your former survivor in order to recollect the items the survivor carried. After killing them as a zombie of course. You could even encounter survivor zombies from other players, and then get their items as well.

Leaderboards are also present, and you are able to leave behind messages during the single player campaign that frankly aren't helping much because you are only able to leave behind symbols, not actual text messages.

There is also a fun multiplayer mode which is somehow offline, called King of Zombies. One player is a regular survivor trying to capture flags, playing a FPS basically, while the other is able to see the survivor on his GamePad screen and spawn zombies to stop the survivor and to capture flags as well, RTS style.

After beating the game, seeing a very poor ending in a long time, ZombiU in the end does not feel committed enough to be the killer app for the Wii U. There were very few scary scenes, but on a second playthrough you would dismiss them with a dull thought most likely.

ZombiU had both very clear upsides and downsides to explore for me. Are you willing to go through a buggy and clunsy game while repetitively smacking your way through zombies? And are you willing to go through a genuine survival horror game that is actually trying to be innovative in a genre that has been drastically different these days? Repetition or tactical approach? Poorly tested or brave features?

Take your pick.

Rating: 7.3

Birdemic: Shock and Terror

I never thought that I would rate a 1.0 for any movie, but the terrifying and shockingly things seen in here comprehend unlike anything else I have ever seen.

Birdemic is about an epidemic of violent birds that randomly attack people, randomly make disturbing noises sounding like bicycle pumps and randomly crash into objects and then either die instantly, or explode instantly. A couple “fights” back, but can they survive?

The couple comprises of an almost emotionless faggot with a blank face, and a way too happy dumb smiling model and actress wannabe that is only redeemable because of her looks. The supporting cast consists of random victim kids, a bird expert, a grandma, a CEO and a peaceful tree hugger, *ahem* lover.

Only after about 45 minutes in do the actual birds attack, but before that, we are introduced towards the film techniques, or the director’s style. His style comprises of a slowly sweeping camera like a grandfather clock, wooden acting, pauses between sentences, sound pulling away into nothingness often, unfitting songs towards their given scenes and transitions of editing that are so terrible at times, it begs the question; what was the director thinking into filming this? (déjà vu)

There are so many useless scenes seen here, I have never seen a movie put that much emphasise upon cars driving around, people’s backs being shown that much or people walking constantly. The music does NOT compute with the scenes, or when they rarely do, it’s over the top. 

About the useless scenes, there’s those, and then there’s the scenes that stay there for too long, such as looking at a sign or a moon like atleast 7 seconds. The worst of all is the birds themselves, my God, what was the DIRECTOR THINKING!? It’s a very guilty “so bad it’s good” of a movie, like Troll 2(1991) or The Room(2003), and I laughed at almost every bird scene shown.

The 2D gif animations of birds either being motionless or flapping their wings around very unreal are thrown into the film without any effort, and weirdest of all, they can kamikaze and explode. As this was happening, the characters react towards the birdemic so amazingly bad, what were they thinking upon barricading themselves when the birds did not even attack with effect, or when the kids never screamed in I dunno, shock and terror towards either the awful birds or the huge guns that the guys pulled out of their asses!?

Birdemic has to be seen to be believed, but I am afraid that no one, anyone but the director himself and his editing team can withstand the shock and terror of Birdemic. It’s the worst movie I have ever seen, but thankfully, it’s a very good choice to make fun out of whenever feeling bored or having had too much drinks or drugs.

Or, if you wish to get spared from this nightmare, watch the best bird horror movie instead, which is of course The Birds(1963), of which this director, James Nguyen, takes awful inspiration of. The worst scene in this movie? It’s very hard to pick, but I think that the coat hanger scene takes the cake. I was speechless once that happened.

And there's a sequel coming. Are you kidding me? Is Nguyen an alien as well, just like Wiseau? Because they both believe they are great directors. Oh I almost forgot, here's the director's commentary, just watch it, it's awfully hilarious: 

James Nguyen identifying things 

Rating: 1.0

Upcoming Promising Games in 2013

Welcome to Flok Factory!

I am pleased to announce that there will be a lot more posts available in the early months. February will specifically be dedicated towards PS3 reviews, that's right. A lot of these posts will be game related. I would like to keep the diversity going regarding the available content, but that will have to wait for awhile.

For now, let's take a quick look at some of the upcoming promising games for 2013, the ones that interest me the most.

BioShock Infinite

The third installment is looking to be the most ambitious yet, as the scope of the setting has changed from an underwater city to a floating city in the sky, and mobility has been boosted up.

We can expect new exciting powerups alongside your usual arsenal of weapons, but what interested me the most about the previous BioShock has arguably always been about the background of what's happened. Especially the radio logs gave the locations emphasize upon them, but all of the propaganda, marketing and catchphrase posters are a very good second place for creating immersion.

Ace Attorney 5

That post is still coming about this franchise somewhere this year, as I hinted upon with the 999 post previous year already. Ace Attorney 5 will be the first 3D debut of the visual novel franchise, and it's looking fabulous already with the fluent animations presented.

With the return of Phoenix Wright, some have wondered what will become of Apollo Justice. Perhaps AA 5 itself will have the two re-unite oncemore, and explain the shift of switching main protagonists. Anyhow, I am definitely excited for the new cases. As always, the last case will most likely be the most dramatic, complex and satisfying.

Pikmin 3

A bit dissapointed that this got delayed to the second quarter according to my latest resources. It has been more than a decade already since Pikmin appeared on the Nintendo GameCube, and it's easily a unique strategy game what with the game mechanics, the natural environment and the playable creatures.

Pikmin 2 was a superior sequel for many reasons, including the multiplayer, the encyclopedia, the enemy design and for removing the stressful limited time between days. It looks like part 3 will have the limited time feature once again, but I trust that Miyamoto knows what he is doing, and will surely give us something to compensate for it.

Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon

It took a very long while, but Luigi's Mansion 2 is finally coming to the Nintendo 3DS. The original was a gorgeous looking game for it's time, with spooky sceneries, lightning effects and it's one of the earliest games available for the console.

Dark Moon will have several mansions instead of 1, and from what I have heard of it, the gameplay seems to have improved tremendously. And if only the length of the game has been deepened, and special portrait ghosts will make a return, consider me a faithful buyer then.

Carmageddon: Reincarnation

I only recently found out that this title is in development by none other than the the original team behind the first two games. Whatever you may think about the controversity of the franchise, the games were fun back in the days, primarily for trying to wreck the opponents's cars and then being able to acquire those cars for later playthroughs. Killing humans was only secondary compared to the score system, the powerups, the diversity of the cars and the motivating music!

Still, I gotta be skeptical with this one before getting too excited. The developers should definitely take a look at similar modern games such as GTA before they forget what makes the money flow these days. And I definitely do not want another N64 version of Carmageddon, ever again.

A Brief History of Time

Scientifically one of the best sellers from the 80's, and also published the day I was born, A Brief History of Time is a fascinating read into the origins of the universe, mainly according to the thoughts of many 20th century physicists as written by Stephen Hawking.

While doing so, he speaks most of the time of the big three contributors towards science,
which are Galileo Galilei, Sir Isaac Newton and Albert Einstein. Reviewing their extraordinary theories, he then proceeds by giving us one of his own.

His sublime thoughts about how black holes could possibly work earned him global recognition and awards for creating a brilliant theory just like that and it changed his reputation into being one of the best contributors of the 20th and 21th centuries.

After concluding on one of the largest mysterious topics for mankind, Hawking switches over to the
human and natural concept of time. Other large topics include the big bang, the string theory, special relativity, wormholes and time travelling, but Hawking is most of all famous for his black hole theory.

The theory explains that general black holes could possibly emit radiation, due to quantum effects near the event horizon. The radiation decreases the mass and energy of the black holes, thus letting them evaporate.

What Stephen also writes about is the so called "theory of everything", or attempting to explain all of the fundamental elements of the laws of nature, so that it can apply to any experiment in any principle. But unifying general relativity and quantum mechanics continues to be one of the unsolved problems in physics.

The four fundamental interactions of the universe, which are the weak and strong nuclear force, electromagnetism and gravity, also get mentioned along the chapters. Rounding the book up is when the author occassionally talks about the presence of God, philosophy and how these two can matter with all of these scientific progresses.

The editor deliberately advised Hawking to reduce the number of equations to only one, which happens to be the worldwide known E = mc². This was done so that the large number of normal people including me and most likely you could be able to keep up with the big topics A Brief History of Time offers.

Nevertheless, the book remains a staple of the scientific canon, and its succinct and clear language continues to introduce millions to the universe and its wonders, as quoted by the back of it. And I honestly cannot think of a better way to end this.

Rating: ***(out of 4)

Nintendo Wii U

It's been 23 days since I got my hands on the latest console from Nintendo, and although things have been busy(and still are), I have experienced enough of the Wii U in order for me to write up my first thoughts about it.

Let's start with the interface. It's familiar to Wii owners in the sense that it has big buttons and convenient configurations, but this time, there is a second screen present in the form of the GamePad. At first, I had to get used to concentrating my current view, and I'm sure that this will happen again every time a Wii U game comes up with a new way of navigation.

The GamePad does not feel cheap as many others stated, nor is it heavy at all. It's just another way of holding a controller, but this time, it comes with a touchscreen in the middle and it's horizontally larger than many traditional ones, but nothing ridiculous.

Near Field Communication is also implemented, which will make several physical objects be able to interact with the controller in the future. Other than that, traditional buttons are placed conveniently, along with a microphone, a front-facing camera, a gyrometer, accelerometer and a magnetometer.

But the most important feature is the presence of a second screen. Now, way back in the early 80's, the Game & Watch and more recently the Nintendo DS already had second screens. The Wii U's version however is powered up with the previous functionalities listed, and also, it is by my knowledge the first console variant of this idea. (the Dreamcast's controller was just baby steps)

This means that all of the mandatory information will most likely be on your TV screen, while all of the additional resources will be displayed through the GamePad, when speaking in general. This basically means that you have 2 perspectives available which allow for creative new situations to happen.

One of my favorite "side effects" so to speak of the GamePad is that some Wii U games allow you to play their experience thoroughly on the GamePad by itself, discontinueing on the TV, which grants you the power to play on the toilet or in your warm, fuzzy bed for example.

Returning to the interface, the home page consists of a prettier collection of all the available square formed software installed on the console, but on the other screen, either on the TV or the GamePad, there is this little new social experiment called Miiverse.

Miiverse is a much appreciated difference from other ways of communicating together in that it is meant to be game related with positive comments, that it allows screenshots of games to be uploaded and many people somehow feel more motivated to draw posts thanks to the touch screen.

I somehow feel that discussions will be relatively lessened by the restrictions Nintendo has laid out, but this doesn't have to be negative, it's rather a relief not to see endless discussions that most of the time proceed going into nowhere, or your average internet humor, what with trolls, memes and such these days. Plus, the spoiler policy that is in strict use is a thumbs up for me.

Thus, it was a good decision to implement it in this way, which lets us see that with a more user friendly policy present, minimal moderations and getting the messages more to the point in less time, either written or drawn, Miiverse is different.

While looking further, I opened up the internet browser to test it, and to my surprise after hearing postive comments about it already, it really is the fastest known console browser I have seen yet. On the other hand, the separate YouTube application has crashed upon me, but other than that, works fine. This is obviously an issue for Google to patch up in the future.

The Nintendo eShop that comes with the Wii U is also enjoyable to look around into, having another pleasant song playing, demo's and video's available, a rating system and who knows what else is upcoming? A Virtual Console feature seems likely amongst other promising things like the connection with the 3DS eShop.

Miscellaneous stuff such as Wii U chat, Wii system transfer and Nintendo TVii are untouched by me for now. Because either I haven't needed them yet, or they aren't available yet. But I hope to experience more about the 1st and 3rd items next year. Perhaps another post regarding the Wii U features will indeed be needed.

As for the high definition graphics, truthfully, Nintendo is late to the party with this as they were with internet connectivity before that. But what can I say about them other than their beauty? I am certainly not obsessed with it as it simply isn't as much needed like Nintendo has proved to us countless of times already.

In any case, Nintendo continues to innovate and set itself apart from the others, while making a huge advancement towards internet, social media, graphics and overall connectivity.  The Wii U has impressed me as well as many others so far in regards to the new ways of gaming.

The launch line-up is also nothing to take lightly. Although they will never be as important as they were at the beginning of a console's lifetime, it does remain impressive. In my eyes, there is plenty of quality based third party support available already.

Wii U games will be reviewed individually in the nearby future.

James Bond

To commemorate the franchise's 50th anniversary on the big screen, I will be talking in general about it, as well as reviewing the latest one, Skyfall, while talking about my memories of the N64 GoldenEye game.

I thought it would be fitting to be talking about not necessarily a movie franchise I praise with the highest esteems, but more of a cool, edgy and action series that I happened to have grew up with. So what keeps us coming back to James Bond, the British spy agent with the code number 007? Is it the locations? Is it the cars? Is it the women perhaps?

I think it's the overall structure of each film that has changed slightly over the decades. And maybe it's also because we secretly want to be an undercover agent ourselves. Infiltrate suspicious companies and groups, having a license to kill and along the way making out with random gorgeous women.

Personally, the infiltration scenes of any movie and the memorable henchmen and villains are my reasons for liking James Bond. Of course, gadgets, locations, supportive characters and plots can add up towards that.

Still, it's odd to say this again, but although I can enjoy them no matter how many incarnations there are of the same general plot, they have never been truly remarkable films for me. Well, maybe only 1 time, with On Her Majesty's Secret Service(1969) starring George Lazenby.

It happens to be my favorite James Bond title for a number of reasons. First off, the choreography was the most impressive after the previous 60's Bond films and it even rivals others afterwards. Second, I enjoyed the cold setting of Switzerland and the unfolding plot.

The best thing about the movie are surprisingly the romance and the drama inside of it, two genres that really don't dominate the franchise. Bond falls in love and marries the Bond Girl featured in here, but after he thinks that the danger is over, he loses her, presented in such a way in what can only be deemed as a classic scene.

GoldenEye(1995) is another memorable one for not only introducing Pierce Brosnan as Bond and perhaps the most crowded group of villains yet, it also was adapted into the most popular first person shooter for the Nintendo 64.

Rare, the developer of the game who was once Nintendo's strongest 2nd party, successfully brought the genre towards consoles, giving us not only an identical journey through the singleplayer mode, it's multiplayer mode was immensely popular during the late 90's as well.

It would only take a few years before superior titles would show up, including Perfect Dark, also developed by Rare. But despite that, GoldenEye remains a favorite period of a trip traveling back to the past.

Now I will give you my Skyfall review. If you thought Casino Royale(2006) felt rebootish, wait until you see this one. It’s plot is simple, yet effectively makes a good relation between James Bond and M, his superior. Furthermore, traditional characters such as Q and Moneypenny finally return with some dignity towards the series.

The mission is essentially to reclaim a secret list of NAVO infiltrators from a terrorist, but personal relations soon take over the theme of Skyfall. The action scenes were pretty good and varied, but not so memorable. The humor touch of Bond actually is improved from previous films, which is also good. 

Raoul Silva is a traditional and impressive villain that reminded me most of all of 006 in GoldenEye, also carrying vengeance and isn’t as megalomaniacal as many others. The movie felt familiar, but also re-introduces to us objects and characters from the past.

There are also a few cameo references, such as the “For Your Eyes Only” line, or the classic Aston Martin car with gadgets such as the ejection button. The theme sung by Adele felt as an effective tool for hyping up the film, and it succeeded of course.

The only nitpicking I can think of this movie is that although any movie can have a simple plot and be effective, Skyfall lacked for me a few more interactive and varied scenes that don’t necessarily have to be action related.

I don’t know, despite that the runtime is roughly 2 and a half hours, it could had been more interesting with perhaps a background plot happening, or more detailed mission briefings and/or character development.

Other than that, consider Skyfall as one of the best Bond films from any time, certainly Craig’s best yet even though Casino Royale had a lot of style as well. 

Rating: 7.0