Crystal Dinamics made, as usual, a masterpiece out of this Tomb Raider title. The graphics are awesome, they feel more realistic than in Legend or Anniversarry, and the controls are a bit better. I don't like that the game is full of puzzles you need to solve in order to proceed further. I wouldn't mind, but the game is totally unlinear and you need to walk around for a lot of time in order to find the proper way to solve them. It's also complicated to move around without getting lost at least a few times. I personally had to use a video walkthrough to get over some scenes. Clearly, Underworld is far more challenging than Legend and Anniversary. Another thing that caught my atention is the way to set the game difficulty. You don't simply choose easy medium or hard. This time, there are a few options like how much damage Lara takes (little, medium or much), the ammunition quantity and stuff like this. Interesting. I guess there might be some sado-masochist who likes to see Lara getting killed and therefore will choose her to take much damage. I admit it, I chose little damage. I'm not as much into challenge as I am into the story development. For me, good graphics + good story means a good game. Of course, some puzzles won't hurt anyone, but let's not exagerate. This game has way too many puzzles. The enemies are easy to kill, yet you can also lose health depending on the damage settings you choose. Inevitable, the game benefiths of the regular bugs, like Lara's legs being half inside the ground. Of course, that bug doesn't last that much, but it's still there, so... we have a minus!
The motorcicle controls are the same as in previous games. I don't know about you, but I didn't really like those. Sorry. Also, the Mexic area was hardcore. Had I not watched a video guide there was no way I could find my way through that jungle. And that's not the only hard level.
The story is mediocre by my standards. I'm sorry to disappoint those who liked this game 100%, but I think they could have made a better story. I mean, if Avalon is really under the Arctic Sea, then why the fuck did Lara go through so much trouble trying to get there?! In the end, it feels like it was all for nothing. The whole game had one single purpose: to find Thor's belt and hammer. Full stop. Once that was done, I had to go to Avalon, as it's position has conveniently been revealed to me. Also, killing Allister (sorry, if you don't want spoilers don't read my reviews) felt kinda random. I was expecting to see him again in the Underworld, but shit! I had no such luck! From the story's point of view, Tomb Raider Legend was the best. It was also great doing stuff outside jungles and underwater realms! But wait! The programmers realized continuing on that basis was a pain in the ass, so they came back to jungles and underwater realms in Anniversarry and Underworld!
The soundtrack is awesome, as I expected it to be. The graphics, as I said below, are way better than before. The controls are quite the same (small differences, don't fuck up gameplay so it doesn't matter).
So, I guess I said enough about this, therefore I'll go on with the final judgement! (OOPS NOW PEOPLE WILL SAY I COPY FAT MAN JUDGETH!! NEVER MIND! FUCK THEM! I'M JUST A GOD DAMN FAN!).
Graphics: 9,5\10
Story: 6,5\10
Gameplay: 9\10
Soundtrack: 10\10
Personal option: -1 point for the extreme difficulty of the puzzles and for the lack of more urban areas.
Overall: 8,7/10 - 1 point = 7,7/10
Saturday, May 15, 2010
Friday, April 30, 2010
Prison Break: The Conspiracy
OK, this isn't actually what you'd ordinary call a review. I'd rather not call it a review because if I do, then people will start bragging that I don't know what a review is. No, no, no. I know exactly what a review is, but in this case all I want is to share my opinions on this game.
First off, I'm disappointed because you don't play as Michael Scofield. He did a lot of stuff and could have done even better in the game. On the other hand, company agent Tom Paxton has a completely different story and he only watches the cons escape. Maybe it's not 100% bad playing as Paxton, but we gotta admit it, Prison Break isn't Prison Break without Michael Scofield. Also, some character designs are totally different from how the characters looked like in the series.
The graphics are great. Makes you feel like you're actually watching the series, as the characters look very close to real people. Maybe I'm overreacting a bit because I haven't played too many next generation games until now, but this is my opinion.
The voice acting is good. Some of the original cast provided voices for their characters (including Wentworth Miller for Michael, Dominic Purcell for Lincoln, Peter Stormare for Abruzzi and others). The soundtrack is poor, though. Just a few tracks Ramin Djawadi composed for the series are heard now and then. And a few background tracks.
The gameplay is mediocre, in my opinion. I didn't like the way the camera was centered on the upper half of the playable character's body. I mean, if you make a third person make it complete, right? The fighting is easy (well, it was for me, as I chose the easiest game difficulty), I don't even know where my health bar is. They don't show it to me at all. There are certain key sequences that you need to press (thank God I have fast fingers!) from time to time, when a certain action happens, and there are also stealth scenes where you have to stay clear of guards, maintainance staff, cameras or searchlights (fuck those searchlights they're so god damn annoying!). And that's about it.
The story is based on season 1 of the original PB series. Tom Paxton, a company agent, is sent to make sure Lincoln Burrows dies on the electric chair. For that he must find out what is Michael Scofield planning and stop him. During his search, Paxton is betrayed by the company who will end considering him disposable. Now Paxton has a hard choice to make. Keep helping the Company and end up dead or change sides and break out of prison with Scofield's gang. You can see what happens if you play the game. I don't wanna spoil everything here.
OK, now for the final scores:
Gameplay: 7/10
Story: 9/10
Soundtrack: 8/10
Graphics: 9/10
Final mark: 8.2/10
Gamespot
I don't believe it! Gamespot gave this game 2.5! Well, what can I say?! Gamespot assholes, go back to your Counter Strike and stop giving bad marks to good games! You don't have to rate the game so low just because of the stealth, jeez!
First off, I'm disappointed because you don't play as Michael Scofield. He did a lot of stuff and could have done even better in the game. On the other hand, company agent Tom Paxton has a completely different story and he only watches the cons escape. Maybe it's not 100% bad playing as Paxton, but we gotta admit it, Prison Break isn't Prison Break without Michael Scofield. Also, some character designs are totally different from how the characters looked like in the series.
The graphics are great. Makes you feel like you're actually watching the series, as the characters look very close to real people. Maybe I'm overreacting a bit because I haven't played too many next generation games until now, but this is my opinion.
The voice acting is good. Some of the original cast provided voices for their characters (including Wentworth Miller for Michael, Dominic Purcell for Lincoln, Peter Stormare for Abruzzi and others). The soundtrack is poor, though. Just a few tracks Ramin Djawadi composed for the series are heard now and then. And a few background tracks.
The gameplay is mediocre, in my opinion. I didn't like the way the camera was centered on the upper half of the playable character's body. I mean, if you make a third person make it complete, right? The fighting is easy (well, it was for me, as I chose the easiest game difficulty), I don't even know where my health bar is. They don't show it to me at all. There are certain key sequences that you need to press (thank God I have fast fingers!) from time to time, when a certain action happens, and there are also stealth scenes where you have to stay clear of guards, maintainance staff, cameras or searchlights (fuck those searchlights they're so god damn annoying!). And that's about it.
The story is based on season 1 of the original PB series. Tom Paxton, a company agent, is sent to make sure Lincoln Burrows dies on the electric chair. For that he must find out what is Michael Scofield planning and stop him. During his search, Paxton is betrayed by the company who will end considering him disposable. Now Paxton has a hard choice to make. Keep helping the Company and end up dead or change sides and break out of prison with Scofield's gang. You can see what happens if you play the game. I don't wanna spoil everything here.
OK, now for the final scores:
Gameplay: 7/10
Story: 9/10
Soundtrack: 8/10
Graphics: 9/10
Final mark: 8.2/10
Gamespot
I don't believe it! Gamespot gave this game 2.5! Well, what can I say?! Gamespot assholes, go back to your Counter Strike and stop giving bad marks to good games! You don't have to rate the game so low just because of the stealth, jeez!
I'm back!
I'm back from hibernation!!! Good day to everyone and now hear me out for a brief moment. From now on I review GAMES. OK? I'm back at games now. But first! THE FIRST TRAILER FOR THE TESTAMENT OF SHERLOCK HOLMES, the new game by Frogwares, due to be released in Q4 2010 is HERE!!! Watch it below:
Sunday, February 14, 2010
My top 10 movies of 2009!
This is my personal top 10 of the best movies in 2009. I don't ask you to share my opinion and I don't care if you disagree with it. This is my top of preferences, so if you have another one, feel free to post it in a comment or somewhere else.
Sorry for the bad quality. I'll work my ass out to make higher quality movies next time.
Sorry for the bad quality. I'll work my ass out to make higher quality movies next time.
Saturday, February 13, 2010
[CANCELLED] The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus
Sorry, this review is cancelled. I had no time nor desire to talk about this movie so I decided not to do it.
Tuesday, January 26, 2010
Ho! Ho! Ho!
No, I'm not crazy nor drunk, that's the title of the movie released by the Romanian company "Media Pro Pictures" last Christmas. I wrote this review in February, as I didn't have time to do it before, but, anyway, you should just be grateful that I actually wrote it.
I watched this movie a while ago, so I'll try to explain the plot from what I remember. It's like this. A kid lives with his mother - the father left them - and the mother gets out of work a bit too late to reach the stores on time and buy her kid a present. Therefore, she tells the kid they'll go to the mall together the next day and buy a present from the money Santa left them. They reach the parking lot and their car breaks up (it's a fucking Dacia 1310 what would you expect?!), so the mother calls the repairmen and lets the kid wait for her at the mall restaurant. The repairmen were very funny, and in my opinion, their best scene is when they blow the engine and the hood flies away.
Back to the kid, he meets a gipsy guy who's up to no good and always gets into trouble by stealing from customers. The guy's name is "Gipu" and he always gets angry when he is called "Gicu". So the first kid, called, I think, Horaţiu, goes with Gipu through the mall and get into some trouble. At one point, they get separated and Horaţiu meets up with a guy dressed as Santa, called Ion (played by the Romanian Elvis - Ştefan Bănică Jr). This guy is part of a band of robbers who are there to steal some jewels. If at first Ion is a big fat jerk, he turns out to be a real nice guy in the end. Then there's this new security guy, played by Pavel Bartoş, who is a bit stupid and messes up a lot of times. The security guy - Marin - and Ion have a quarel, as Ion stole his girlfriend some time ago. Their fight is very funny, specially when Marin acts like a gay ninja.
As you'd expect from a Home Alone like movie, there are a bunch of bad guys, all dressed like Santa Clause, which want to kidnap the kid, because he heard their plan of stealing the jewels. The plot is full of funny stuff and in the end it has a happy ending, as all christmas themed movies should. I won't spoil more of the story, because you may just want to see the movie, so I'll get on to the final marks.
So, here I go:
Story: 8/10 (because it kinda has a lot of cliffhangers and it copies Home Alone)
Acting: 8/10 (because all actors get into their roles surprinsingly well, but there are certain flaws)
Fun factor: 9/10 (because I laughed a lot when I watched it)
Originality: 7/10 (copying Home Alone is not what it takes to get aknowledged by critics, but it still has some original stuff in it).
Effects: 8/10 (not too many effects in this movie)
Soundtrack: 9/10 (even Ştefan Bănică Jr contributes with a song).
Overall: 8,16/10
Conclusions:
This is a fair movie. It's a step ahead for Romanian cinematography, which, ever since the 1990's kept going downwards.
I watched this movie a while ago, so I'll try to explain the plot from what I remember. It's like this. A kid lives with his mother - the father left them - and the mother gets out of work a bit too late to reach the stores on time and buy her kid a present. Therefore, she tells the kid they'll go to the mall together the next day and buy a present from the money Santa left them. They reach the parking lot and their car breaks up (it's a fucking Dacia 1310 what would you expect?!), so the mother calls the repairmen and lets the kid wait for her at the mall restaurant. The repairmen were very funny, and in my opinion, their best scene is when they blow the engine and the hood flies away.
Back to the kid, he meets a gipsy guy who's up to no good and always gets into trouble by stealing from customers. The guy's name is "Gipu" and he always gets angry when he is called "Gicu". So the first kid, called, I think, Horaţiu, goes with Gipu through the mall and get into some trouble. At one point, they get separated and Horaţiu meets up with a guy dressed as Santa, called Ion (played by the Romanian Elvis - Ştefan Bănică Jr). This guy is part of a band of robbers who are there to steal some jewels. If at first Ion is a big fat jerk, he turns out to be a real nice guy in the end. Then there's this new security guy, played by Pavel Bartoş, who is a bit stupid and messes up a lot of times. The security guy - Marin - and Ion have a quarel, as Ion stole his girlfriend some time ago. Their fight is very funny, specially when Marin acts like a gay ninja.
As you'd expect from a Home Alone like movie, there are a bunch of bad guys, all dressed like Santa Clause, which want to kidnap the kid, because he heard their plan of stealing the jewels. The plot is full of funny stuff and in the end it has a happy ending, as all christmas themed movies should. I won't spoil more of the story, because you may just want to see the movie, so I'll get on to the final marks.
So, here I go:
Story: 8/10 (because it kinda has a lot of cliffhangers and it copies Home Alone)
Acting: 8/10 (because all actors get into their roles surprinsingly well, but there are certain flaws)
Fun factor: 9/10 (because I laughed a lot when I watched it)
Originality: 7/10 (copying Home Alone is not what it takes to get aknowledged by critics, but it still has some original stuff in it).
Effects: 8/10 (not too many effects in this movie)
Soundtrack: 9/10 (even Ştefan Bănică Jr contributes with a song).
Overall: 8,16/10
Conclusions:
This is a fair movie. It's a step ahead for Romanian cinematography, which, ever since the 1990's kept going downwards.
Jeremiah (2002)
After my abrupt decison of cancelling the freewebs site, I decided I should write my reviews right here. As of now, all my reviews will take place on this blog and nowhere else. That is due to the fact that freewebs has a shitty page editor which loads hard as shit if you don't have a very good internet connection, which I have to admit, I am lacking right now.
Anyway, let's get on to the review. I know I planned to release it on January 22nd, so it's too early to write it according to my standards, but it's a pleasure to me to write on my good ol' blogger blog I haven't been using for a few months now. Well, that time passed! It's long gone! Now, this blog turns into my own review shrine.
Jeremiah was a science - fiction show aired by MGM (Metro Goldwin Mayer - the worst producers that could have done this show in my opinion! They suck at getting along with people for too much time). It stars Luke Perry, well known from the Beverly Hills 90210 show as Jeremiah, the main character, and Malcolm Jamal Warner (from Malcolm and Eddie) as the other main character, Kurdy, Jeremiah's partner along the series. I can say this is one of the few SF shows I liked, except for Star Wars, of course. That one is so awesome that no SF can go before it. But let's leave Star Wars for now.
In "Jeremiah", the story focuses on the main character, living in a post-apocalyptic world. A world that has been struck by a disease called The Big Death (apparently created by people), a disease which wiped out everyone over the age of poverty and left children take care of themselves. Jeremiah searches for his father, who went to a place called Walhalla Sector. A lot of background story emerges during the episodes, as we find out more about the characters, despite the fact that every episode has it's own main story. Anyway, let's get back to the main plot. Jeremiah and Kurdy reach Thunder Mountain, former military base, now refuge for people that want to form a new civilisation and restore the world as it used to be before The Big Death. At the end of Season 1, Walhalla Sector's secrets are revealed, and finally Thunder Mountain defeats them. Season 2 focuses on a "new enemy". He stays against Thunder Mountain leading the new world. Apparenly his name is Daniel, but, in fact, that turns out to be just a name. OK, that's enough spoilers. All that's left to say about season 2 is that Sean Astin joins the cast, as Mister Smith, a guy that can talk to God. This new character turns out to be a great addition to the series. At least I liked it.
The only minus I've got is that the producers didn't get along with MGM anymore and dropped the show when Season 2 ended. Damn!
The Soundtrack is composed by Tim Truman (got Looking at Forever - season 2 intro theme - in my playlist) and it's made out of some great songs.
OK, now for the marks:
Story: 9/10
Acting: 8/10
Effects: 8/10
Soundtrack: 10/10
Overall: 8,7/10
Anyway, let's get on to the review. I know I planned to release it on January 22nd, so it's too early to write it according to my standards, but it's a pleasure to me to write on my good ol' blogger blog I haven't been using for a few months now. Well, that time passed! It's long gone! Now, this blog turns into my own review shrine.
Jeremiah was a science - fiction show aired by MGM (Metro Goldwin Mayer - the worst producers that could have done this show in my opinion! They suck at getting along with people for too much time). It stars Luke Perry, well known from the Beverly Hills 90210 show as Jeremiah, the main character, and Malcolm Jamal Warner (from Malcolm and Eddie) as the other main character, Kurdy, Jeremiah's partner along the series. I can say this is one of the few SF shows I liked, except for Star Wars, of course. That one is so awesome that no SF can go before it. But let's leave Star Wars for now.
In "Jeremiah", the story focuses on the main character, living in a post-apocalyptic world. A world that has been struck by a disease called The Big Death (apparently created by people), a disease which wiped out everyone over the age of poverty and left children take care of themselves. Jeremiah searches for his father, who went to a place called Walhalla Sector. A lot of background story emerges during the episodes, as we find out more about the characters, despite the fact that every episode has it's own main story. Anyway, let's get back to the main plot. Jeremiah and Kurdy reach Thunder Mountain, former military base, now refuge for people that want to form a new civilisation and restore the world as it used to be before The Big Death. At the end of Season 1, Walhalla Sector's secrets are revealed, and finally Thunder Mountain defeats them. Season 2 focuses on a "new enemy". He stays against Thunder Mountain leading the new world. Apparenly his name is Daniel, but, in fact, that turns out to be just a name. OK, that's enough spoilers. All that's left to say about season 2 is that Sean Astin joins the cast, as Mister Smith, a guy that can talk to God. This new character turns out to be a great addition to the series. At least I liked it.
The only minus I've got is that the producers didn't get along with MGM anymore and dropped the show when Season 2 ended. Damn!
The Soundtrack is composed by Tim Truman (got Looking at Forever - season 2 intro theme - in my playlist) and it's made out of some great songs.
OK, now for the marks:
Story: 9/10
Acting: 8/10
Effects: 8/10
Soundtrack: 10/10
Overall: 8,7/10
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