Star Wars The Force Awakens Movie Review (SPOILERS)

So I watched Star Wars The Force Awakens in opening night, I planned to review this movie after my second watching when it comes out on Blue-Ray but by then I am sure most of the people will have lost their interest, so here I am with my review of The Force Awakens. SPOILERS WILL BE AHEAD.

The story takes place right after the events of episode 6 by continuing the story forward, there is a new order lead by a sith named Kylo Ren trying to find Luke Skywalker who has gone missing has well has the resistance lead by general Leia... the entire race to find Luke becomes more rushing when the resistance finally get a hold on a map that can help them spot Luke's whereabouts and maybe save him from the new order since he is the last of the jedi. Through the story the droid carrying the map meets up with Rey, a young woman stranded on the planet Jakku and Fynn a former member of the new order gone rogue and together they must find their way back to the resistance's HQ and find Luke before the Kylo Ren and the order do.

First I want to talk about what I liked, the story is very good; not only is it easy to fallow and simple to identify with but is also well passed and the characters are well developed through the story, it's great to see nostalgic characters from the original trilogy in the film but made even better by having them take a meaningful roll in the movie... well at least Han Solo is the only one with a significative roll in the movie but it's still great to see the movie taking big risks like seeing Han die in the hands of his own son, it's something very significative and undeniably brave by the writers knowing the backlash they would get by fans.

One thing you probably noticed while watching the film is how similar The Force Awakens is to A New Hope, although not word for word it is pretty much structured like A New Hope, the sequence of events play out the same way has episode 4 witch it's not necessarily a bad thing for me... since Star Wars in general has always been more character driven than plot driven and The Force Awakens develops well the protagonist of Rey, she is identifiable, sympathetic, likable and memorable just like Luke back in the original trilogy.

Is The Force Awakens a perfect film? No...

Is it better than the original trilogy? No...

But has a movie it's still very good... Lovable characters, good story line and fun action. If you are a Star Wars fan you have already seen it... if you haven't and for whatever reason you decided to read my review then I still would recommend you check it out if you are looking for some good sic-fi action.

Fallout 4 Game Review

I have been playing Fallout 4 for days at this point; pretty much since it's lunch on november 10th I've been playing it non-stop and I finally am ready to talk about the game in depth.

Before I talk about Fallout 4 itself I want to explain where I am coming from: back when I played Fallout 3 I was much younger of course but I wasn't exactly into open world games like GTA, the closest franchise I was familiar with that has an open world format was Legend of Zelda. I always tended to imagine a game like Bethesda's Fallouts; a massive open world game with plenty to discover at our own phase and with the ability to force elements of the world through actions we make has players... Fallout 3 was for me that exact kind of game for me.

Fallout 3 wasn't just the first massive open world action RPG I had ever played, it was an experience all on it's own I had with a video game... so much in fact I find difficult to describe with words; I don't expect everyone to agree with me on this statement but to me Fallout 3 was one game that marked a new beginning for the way I look at video games in general. Fallout 3 touched upon so many characteristics I thought about but never even imagined being executed and I could talk forever about how impressive it was for me at the time, I still have fond memories of playing the game, witch is why I consider it one of the best in my book.  Keep in mind, I never experienced TES Oblivion or Two Worlds so I was unfamiliar with Bethesda's work so it came has a complete surprise to me to play such a game like Fallout 3 nor was I familiar with the previous iterations of the Fallout games by Interplay and Black Island Studios.

When Fallout: New Vegas was announced I didn't exactly knew what to expect, I knew it was being made by many of the same developers of Black Island studios at Obsidian and has more content about the game was shown I started to see many aspects about the game that intrigued me, like the faction system, the locations, etc... I started to feel like Obsidian were really trying their absolute best to live up to the bar set by Bethesda with Fallout 3 and although I still consider it to be a copy paste Fallout 3 with a new code of paint; in some ways it's even better. New Vegas included a more fleshed out dialogue system, more weaponry to play with and much more incentive to replay the main story after the credits roll when you see all your choice's consequences play out.

Although Fallout: New Vegas was watered down by the fact it was running on the same Gamebryo engine has Fallout 3, it still turned out very good... I certainly enjoyed it although not has much has FO3 and it didn't quite surpassed it when you take all the some of it's parts and factor them in, it feels like a massive expansion for Fallout 3 (I still really liked this game!) and I am also glad that the old Fallout developers had the chance to make the Fallout 3 they couldn't make with New Vegas since many of the ideas they had for New Vegas were directly inspired by their Van Buren project.

It took 5 years without any news about the franchise except for a few leaks before the official announcement of Fallout 4, the game was very hyped by Bethesda themselves and in a way it worked to boost the sales of the game because the marketing of Fallout 4 was far more aggressive than any other game Bethesda had released before it. Fallout 4 sold 12 million copies within the first day (far more than Witcher 3 and Phantom Pain at the time), so the marketing that Bethesda pulled off definitely paid off... but what about the game itself?

The best way to judge Fallout 4 is not by how much it changes but by how much it improves; the change was already radical by the time Fallout 3 changed completely how the main series plays before it, I can honestly say Fallout 4 does indeed improve upon many of the elements incorporated from FO3 and New Vegas; however it doesn't improve has much has it could have.

The story starts at the wake of the great war that destroyed the world, you character survives in the underground vault of 111 and after certain events transpire they emerge has the the soul survivor of the vault after being in cryogenic sleep for 200 years. Much like in the previous Fallout games, you have a very simple reason to go into the world and eventually your character gets involved into a much bigger conflict (it has more in common with New Vegas than FO3 with it's story handling), If you ask me the story of FO4 is better than 3 and the motivation of looking for your missing son is something I genuinely like... even though I still like the story and motivation in FO3, I find the one in 4 much more involving. One major issue I have with the story is how there is no real big threat to the wasteland has in previous Fallout games and the involvement of the major factions feels somewhat muted.

The design philosophy of Fallout 4 is similar to that of FO3 and New Vegas, go wherever you want whenever you want and do whatever you want... you can even breaking the game at some points if that's what you desire; Todd Howard has said that the player is the best director of their own experience and to a certain extent I agree with this philosophy, but has much has i love the freedom to go and do whatever I want in a video game, I know of some people who need directions to be given to them... like being told what to do and when; you may argue that this people aren't the target audience for a game like Fallout 4 and arguably you might be right but I can think of other open world games that streamline their storytelling much better than this title witch is why I perfectly understand why some people find themselves lost in games like Fallout 4.

If there is one area where Bethesda gave special care on is in the writing department; I already talked about the main story but I now want to focus on the characters (another important characteristic of writing), particularly the companions. In the previous Fallout games the companions felt like nothing more than just someone who supports you in combat, New Vegas did added much more to the companions than FO3 ever did by giving them much more personalities and background... in Fallout 4 this was expanded upon to the point that your character and your companion can make a deep bond (becoming even lovers if you so desire), although many might immediately associate this concept to Bioware's key franchises like Dragon Age and Mass Effect it only serves has prove that all ideas come from somewhere: the character development in does games are much more well thought out than in most games, Bethesda took a page and did a great job recreating the system from the Dragon Age games where you see your companion having their own likes and dislikes towards the actions you take in-game and what you say in dialogues... but the characters themselves are more fleshed out witch means that Bethesda really seem to be trying to add more to their game worlds than just massive places to explore.

When it comes to gameplay Fallout 4 has increased improved on some areas while taking a huge steps back on others. On the bright side the shooting has been drastically improved to FO3 and New Vegas, if you ask me in what spectrum it is similar in style to FO3's mechanic but with modern FPS system, I enjoy this changes science it needed it dramatically after FO3, of course the only change New Vegas added was the aiming down iron sights but it still felt like the same clunky shooting from FO3. You can argue that this turns Fallout into a regular FPS game but in actuality it is just has I predicted in my post before the lunch of the game, some enemies take more than a single magazine to take out and you will find yourself circle striving around enemies before finally putting them down making it more like FO3 than it seems at first glance. The dialogue system is a hit and miss (mostly a miss), I am not bothered at all by my character having a voice and Courtney Taylor is a very talented actress giving my character more of a personality of her own, in previous games I could always go back and play has another character but I don't think I can do that with Fallout 4 has easily... that is not to say that Brian Delaney isn't good, he does a great job has well; how ever the problems with the dialogue system comes with it's usage, you can only give 4 options at the time and most of them work has an answer... basically there is no way of asking about the situation at hand before giving a definitive answer and the times you can are so few and far between that makes me question just how did this just gone under the radar during development, it's nearly impossible to know exactly what my character is going to say when I make a choice not to mention there is very little text explaining what that answer means; it's already bad enough but the worst is the "sarcastic" choice... although I find funny most of the answers in this choice, it's not really good when I don't know what the answer really is: it's pretty dumb.

The visuals are fine... I have never been a "graphics first" kind of guy, but here is my take with the visuals in games like this: it doesn't matter how good it looks at the time it will eventually feel dated down the line, not necessarily in a year but maybe 5, 10 or 20 years it will... Fallout 4 looks good for it´s standards but to me the games that truly stand the test of time in visuals are does that stand with interesting and focused art direction (examples: Wind Waker, Gravity Rush, Rayman 2, Resident Evil 4, etc...), Fallout 4 most certainly does´t fall into that category and I am sure that in 10 years time or maybe less people will look back and say: "it looked good back when it came out" but one think that nobody can deny is that it truly feels like a post nuclear world. The Commonwealth looks far better than the Capital Wasteland because of it´s art direction.

The character creation is far better than in any game I have played: instead of going for the typical layers on multiple sides you just have to pick the part of the face you want to edit and drag it to sculpt it... I wish this could have been the same for the general body instead of being exclusive to the face but to be honest I was able to create my character in just a few minutes where I usually take far longer in other games because the way it´s structured makes me wander where are the options I want to edit.

I also love the way you can mod weapons with different attachments you can craft with world items you collect, it gives more depth to the mechanic than New Vegas ever did... this mechanic also transfers to the settlements that you can craft places for yourself to live if you so desire, however I will say that I like the idea I just don´t find myself compiled to do any of this... to me Fallout is about exploring and having adventures not crafting locals for settlements because I just don´t care at all about that, the only place I ended up decorating was my Red Rocket Truck Shop where I kept all my items, equipment, and companions...

The bugs have always been a serious issue with Bethesda games and I am glad to see so many reviews take it hard on Bethesda because of this since this is just simply unacceptable, I know many would defend them saying that this is an open world game and so it shouldn't against them... I disagree, if a quest goes wrong and breaks by no fault of the player is frustrating, I know that coding and programing is an extremely hard undertaking but it still unforgivable. I know Bethesda aren't the only one responsible for this, CD Project Red´s Witcher 3 has plenty of glitches that nobody says anything about, but unlike Fallout 4´s they don´t entirely break the game... Bethesda should take all this criticism has a wake up call for their next project that glitches and frame drops are not forgivable no matter just how good their games are.

Fallout 4 feels like a complete package on it´s own, however before I fully close my review on this game I want to emphasis one last thing... 2015 had many good games and many came before Fallout 4, some of this games have been judge under standards of hype and controversy rather than actual game standards...

*cough* Phantom Pain *cough*

Fallout 4 released at the tail end of the year and it´s flaws where easy to notice because we got so many good high standard games that it pretty much got overthrown, I only wish does games would have gotten the same critical eye... in the future, in a couple of years they will and people will start to notice has they did with Bioshock Infinite.

Fallout 4 is everything I wanted from a true sequel to FO3 where New Vegas felt more like a massive expansion pack (in a good way), the story is better than in FO3, the companions are more fleshed out and the world is interesting to explore... if you have been holding back because of all the negativity, than maybe you can wait for a GOTY edition but if you love Fallout and are a fan of open world games than pick this game up and prepare for one hell of an adventure.

Spectre Movie Review

James Bond 007

This is one of the biggest franchise in entertainment, not to mention that Mr. Bond himself is a well renowned action hero... Daniel Craig has played a unique kind of Bond that many something tells me will become quite the stereotype of Bond character.

Spectre is the direct sequel of the hit Bond film, Skyfall and admiringly it was a very good movie with competent writing and characters to go along and unfortunately Spectre tried to fallow the same footsteps with "varying" degrees of success. After the events of Skyfall, Craig's Bond is trying to track down a men requested by the old M has her dying wish and it all leads to a big reveal about the timeline of this generation's 007... here is my main problem with the movie, it's so desperately trying to be like Skyfall that it has no identity of it's own and it's story contexts are completely lost in translation: I don't want to spoil the story too much but let me just say that the reveal of the identity of this films Bond is so bland that chances are you will feel has empty has I did.

The action sequences where another step down not to Skyfall but the 007 franchise in general... the actions scenes are so underwhelming that I was baffled, 007 is know for facing odds no normal human being could possibly survive and this movie still does that but there just wasn't enough over the top action scenes like I would have wanted there to be... but you want to know what is the real icing on this cake? Sam Mendes was the same director on Skyfall and Spetre so what happened?

Spectre is not a terrible movie by any means, it has it's moments... but it is an underwhelming Bond film, if you are a hardcore 007 fan you probably already watched it but if you are not i would suggest you watch this one on DVD, it's worth watching at least once... but that's about it.

Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain Game Critique

It´s been almost two months since the lunch of Kojima´s last entry in the MGS saga... and at the time I felt giving my opinion was not the best because my take on this game isn´t really "nice" and I refuse to sugar coat my analysis.

Before I proceed with the topic in this post allow me to say that I like this game; I´ve spent hours on the experience and it´s been a fun time without a doubt... it´s worth buying even if you are not a fan of the franchise just because of the refined stealth gameplay. The way you can approach each situation is almost limitless and just because of this reason the player can decide their favorite way to deal with their objectives.

The level of polish in MGS5´s gameplay is so good that I doubt anything that Ubisoft comes up with will ever come close... but with this I am done with the praises.

Phantom Pain´s marketing envolved many different approaches, it brought topics that somehow spoke to many people making clear that Konami (and maybe Kojima himself) wanted has many people has possible to play the game... I am sure fans got exited about the story, some players were intrigued by the commentaries the game might present and some just wanted to play an action game out of the typical CoD/AC spectrum.

I particularly am not a huge fan of the franchise but I respect it for what it has done for the industry, inspiring many other trends, by it´s release MGS5 has gotten critical acclaim all across the board by many major outlets... but after it´s official release common players started to take on forums and other social media showing discontent towards certain aspects of the game (particularly the story).

If I had to give the game a score it would probably around 6 or 7/10 but why? Well for starters the open world is not that interesting; when we take in consideration other games that do open worlds better is easy to see why, the world of MGS5 is empty... there is nobody to meet or to discover out in the open world so why bothered at all to "explore"? no amount of little easter eggs is gonna make it justifiable there is just no point to it all. The side ops are a joke... too many of them repeat and are mundane tasks that add nothing to the story or have a meaningful reason behind their propose of allowing you to produce GMP faster or earning a new blueprint for a weapon so why really bother? Both Afghanistan and Africa are just enmity barren wastelands with nothing to really find in them.

MGS5 didn´t needed to be open world, the previous games never were nor intended to be so what was the creative reason for Kojima and his team to have an open world format? is it because every other major game was doing it? is it because the linear structure of a video game is seen has "bad" now days? Maybe Kojima´s team inexperience with open world formats took a beating in the game has a whole. The story mission themselves have an "open world" format attached to them, why? because of the tasks: this task are like side objectives to accomplish within your main mission and even though some fan may defend these because of their added context to the main story it accomplishes not his to do them... some reward you with emblems or better yet, a new weapon blue print but they are so far fetched that I find it unnecessary at almost every level because most of the time I just did the main objective and if I managed to catch a side obj. along the way than fine.

The FOB are ok I guess but still unnecessary since you can manage your base without the need to be creating another FOB... not to mention you can be invaded by other players and have materials and personal stollen or killed so I find it a little annoying more than fun.

I don't want to end on a sour note... I enjoyed this game and have put plenty of hours into it but the fact that it's gotten such high recognition because of the Kojima vs Konami situation may have stored reviewers and fans hearts towards the wrong angle of the spectrum; I am not trying to convince you guys of hating or liking this game... I just want to get across why I think these critical acclaims are unwarranted just because of the production issues it had before release.

Metal Gear Solid 5 is worth buying... but don't expect a "fascinating story" or a satisfying resolution... if you think you can tolerate the repetitive nature of the game's side ops then just be prepared to do it many times.

The Last Witch Hunter Movie Review

It´s the most average movie I´ve seen in a while...

When I went into this movie I had low expectations and it wasn´t that hard to be not exited... so why did I watch this movie? I had lunch with my brother one day and he wanted to go to the movies, he choose to see this one... that´s it.

Story goes that Vin Dessel is an immortal witch hunter and he is doomed by not being able to reunite with his dead wife and daughter in the after life, more happens but that is the just of it really... is not a bad story is just not has great has it should be, is made even less powerful by the fact that Dessel is not allowed to die; I get he wants to be reunited with his wife and child but why the immortality theme? it just takes away too much of the suspense.

I can say that the world and lore is kind of interesting... I like how the witchcraft is presented and how magic works by social and political restrictions, it´s actually kinda cool! Vin Dessel serves has our walking bible of the universe since he is constantly throwing exposition at us (granted, he is wise for living for centuries), but to the films credit it dozen´t go all the way with this and really leaving some amount to the imagination of the audience to interpret.

I can understand the need to introduce your audience to every little nook and cranny of your universe but is always better to have it written into context of the story instead of force feeding it, I really get it has a writer myself but this is why we must try hard to control this hunger and trust our audiences. The Last Witch Hunter is not bad,  is just average has average can get but I still have some respect for this movie since the talented cast really gives a lot to the movie has a whole and there was legit effort put into this movie, from the writing to the cinematography... unfortunately it doesn't fully pay off...

Fallout 4 - First Impressions

It´s been great so far.

Playing on the PS4 it´s been a great experience being one of the few games I have been more than happy to spent more than 100 euros on (yes I got the Pip-Boy Edition) and at the time of this post I have been having a blast since yesterday.

I did stated on a previous post that Fallout 3 is one of my favorite games of all time and while it might be too soon to say I love Fallout 4 more than 3, It comes very close to being my favorite game ever... but I am aware I am talking from a single day of gameplay so I am not going to set anything in stone at this point, besides stating what I am saying now has fact would be the equivalent of saying I love New Vegas more than 3 because of the little improvements.

Fallout 4 not only feels like an RPG but it also plays like an FPS right down to melee close range attacks, the combat in the game feels great but I would´t say is better than in other games where shooting is the sole focus but I would be laying if I say that what Bethesda has done with gameplay is nothing short of amazing, it´s exactly what I (and I am sure many other fans) wanted from a rightful sequel to the legendary Fallout 3.

For the sake of spoilers I won't dwell on the story, but for this post just know that it really feels like bethesda has really given a special care to the story line this time around; while Fallout 3 does have a strong motivator to head into the wasteland it lacked the writing and dialog to make it organic and even though it still a memorable story the fact that rather it reaches it´s audience might be a matter of hit or miss depending on the player. Fallout 4 on the other hand doesn't spend all it´s time on a single setting abusing of cinematic timing but rather spending has much time has it must to deliver on the impact, of course I haven´t finished the story at this point but it does just enough at the beginning to make you care for what you are fighting for in the wastes (I can´t say much for the secondary quests at this point until I experience a few more).

The voice acting so far has been very serviceable, the delivery from the protagonist makes me see not a vessel the character I am playing has, Courtney Taylor is nothing short of a great actress, she has proven her worth in Mass Effect, Knights of the Old Republic and Dragon Age Origins... she delivers a convincing performance making me look at the character we create not has a vessel for the player but has a character of her own, witch is both a good and a bad thing since it´s easy to notice the voice coming out of the character´s mouth being nothing what the player expected witch is a dangerous line to walk and can conflict with the player´s idea to interpret a character, this isn´t a problem for me particularly but because of my nature in roll playing games of not playing has a character that I "embody" I play has the character I see I want to be the protagonist, granted it could have also gone south for me since I was more in favor of a silent protagonist but this game works just fine with a voices player character...

It´s still too soon to pass a final verdict on the game since I doubt I´ll be done with it until weeks later... so far know that it´s been great and something tells me is going to keep up like that for a long time.

Hotel Transilvanya 2 Movie Review

Fun

The best word to describe this movie is fun.

Hotel Transilvanya 2 is made by the same people who did the original and is even directed by the very same Genndy Tartakovsky (creator of shows like Dexter's Laboratory and Samurai Jack); witch is good because it keeps the same vision of the previous one and it helps with the style of energetic fast passed animation.

In terms of story, is nothing really that i could say outstanding but i did enjoy the characters specially in the way they were animated, their movements translated well into the humor; they overall jokes were very fun indeed, just by noticing audiences laughing at the theater I can tell the movie was doing it right... it's not all perfect however; there were resist jokes like the ones found in bad Adam Sandler films, does just didn't stick at all and if you would have been in the theater where I was nobody laugh at does... and wouldn't you know, Adam co-wrote the movie so you know who to blame.

The biggest negative I have towards this movie was the ending with I didn't like because of how "Deus Ex Machina" it was... it just didn't work one bit (at least not for me)

Hotel Transilvanya 2 is a lot of fun and I really enjoyed it, it has it's wrongs here and there but it is overall a fun movie, not great but indeed very fun and entertaining... witch is the ultimate goal of any normal film to be regardless of genera.

The Martian Movie Review

The Martian has been getting plenty of critical acclaim and although I believe this is indeed a good movie is not really great or ground breaking...

The best parts of this movie is the story and Matt Damon's performance, I would give a simple summary of the plot here but let's just say is better to go into this movie knowing has little has possible, but it's basically Matt's character get's left alone on the planet Mars and is trying to survive... more happens but does are exactly the problems I have with this movie (I'll get into them in a moment)

Although I have never considered Ridley Scott to be a great director he does a pretty good job here, he does convince me that Matt Demon's character is a men who knows his field and puts that knowledge to the extreme to survive, clearly knowing he is millions of miles from earth is easy to get that anxiety, this arc is without a doubt the best part of the movie...

Unfortunately the movie has one crippling flaw, it's way to long... movies can be long and still be good, however The Martian doesn't count with enough material to make the movie interesting for a 2 hour run: What I mean is that this movie could have easily be 1n'1/2 hour long and all they had to do was cut everything that didn't included Matt's character, exclude his squad, the NASSA drama and earth all together, focusing only on Matt's perspective would have made the movie increasingly better in almost every way; even if the earth portions had good characters that actually acted like reasonable adults so credit where credit is due. The fact that the movie cuts every time to earth shatters my suspension of disbelief, because I can easily be absorbed by Matt's turmoil and struggles but every time they cut to earth I disconnected with the plight of the main character.

The Martian is a very good movie and one that is worth watching, the directing and acting in this movie is great and i really liked the story... but i am certain that if this movie would have been told from Matt Demon's point of view and never showed earth unlit the very end it would have been far better...

Indivisible: An RPG by Lab Zero and 505 games

Lab Zero (creators of the fighting game Skullgirlz) are currently working on a new RPG, since they are independent developers they have started an IndieGoGo campaign... they need all the support when can give them so these talented people can make this game happen.

You can also download a prototype if you want to try the game for yourself, visit their campaign site here: https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/indivisible-an-rpg-by-lab-zero-and-505-games#/

Video games are turning out broken or unfinished while slowly becoming an expensive luxury

I have been playing video games ever since I have been able to hold a controller and with time video games have indeed evolved: we have passed from playing simple games of pong to high definition graphics so good they can match does special effects seen in movies... but with the advancement of technology we are introduced to new problems we never thought we'd eventually see.

Games in the 90's and early 2000's were released relatively complete, this is me speaking from my memory, back then the games we got were what we get witch is why there always seem to be more care to release a more complete product with has little glitches and problems has possible, if a developer made a mistake recovering from it was a difficult ordeal: they had to re-release these games in new disk/cartridge formats to fix does issues.

For example: When Ocarina of Time was lunched, the original Fire Temple music had a chant that reassemble islamic chants and got some backlash for it so nintendo's next cartridges of the game had a new music for the temple... now days thanks to the improvements of technology and advancement of the internet developers can now fix games with online patches, making this issues disappear quickly and comfortably, on paper this practice sounds perfect... but the industry has unfortunately adapted a new format that hurts the consumer.

Games now days tend to lunch broken, unfinished, bugged out or flat out unplayable and this is something that despite a vocal majority stating it out, developers and publishers seem completely uninterested in fixing the practice... when players buy a game at full price they expect something functional, they are paying far more than they would for a movie or a comic... in fact some player may have bought some special edition or something.

The way games are being sold to players is also insulting:

How is this possible? Selling to the consumer who purchase a game at full price having their product sold by bits and chunks, is indeed a terrible and awful practice that hurts the pockets of the consumer making buying a game a full luxury... an overall game with all content can cost you around hundreds since some of these developers don't even let you get some kind of season pass but making you buy each pice of content separately. Downloadable content and expansion packs felt like a great way to extend the life span of a video game but now developers have the need to instead separate game part from the product and sell it to us separately.

The biggest newest trend is the practice of micro transactions in games that you have already bought, why? how is this possible? why apply this kind of practice of video games that players have already bought for full price?

Before I go forward I want to let you know I am well aware of how expensive and hard it is to develop video games now days: Modeling, texturing, rigging, animating, programing, designing levels, writing the story, recording voice acting, etc... It's hard work and one that I commend all of the men and women who dedicate their profession in this. Has consumers however, this practice is something that should be unacceptable by anybody since is a way to demand more out of you... before we know it we have expended up to hundreds into a single video game when you are buying other games at full price and apply the same practice.

Speaking for myself, I am not rich... my line of work is that without a regular salary and I struggle to get enough money to get by, I have to save up to get what i want (sometimes for months), so when I have to see game developers asking more money out of me after I purchased their game is insulting to my intelligence and my wallet; no amount of singing the same "it's completely optional and you don't have to use it" damage control by the developers is going to make me feel any better because this is just ridiculous on every level.

The point is: If has a developer you have to milk your consumers out just to get by then something is very very VERY wrong with the industry... because if developers and publishers now have to ask us for extra money after purchasing their game it feels like (forgive me for the flowing) I am getting punched in the dick.

Video games are becoming a luxury because only does who have enough time and money on their hands can now get the maximum out of a game... something I and does like me cannot afford. Perhaps one day I will have to quit gaming overall if this kind of practice continues... with Fallout 4 being the last video game I will have bought and I will be sad to know that one of my favorite hobbies has become an unaffordable luxury.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I wanted to make a review of the web series RWBY but since volume 3 is coming out October 24th is going to be put on hold, if you are interested in checking it out you can now catch up to the show on Rooster Teeth's YouTube Channel

More content and Updates coming to this site soon!

Stay Tuned!

Twitch channel available + Update

Hello ladies and gentlemen:

I know I have not posted has much content here has I thought I could, but I have been branching out in other places, getting things done, etc...

Anyway: I wanted to let you guys know I have a Twitch channel now: you can check me out there when I play games on my PS4, (this has nothing to do with my branching out statement)

Here is the link: http://www.twitch.tv/navy_enrik

About reviews and such; I was writing a review of the Rooster Teeth anime inspired web series "RWBY", but because very soon there will be a new season I will wait until later, I am in no rush after all.

Thank you guys for checking out,
Stay tuned!

How to work with Adobe Photoshop

I have been using photoshop for almost 4 years in a row and even though I don´t consider myself an expert since I am constantly learning new things every time, I do enjoy to use it and to see how my project takes form through the work I put in it makes me feel that everybody can do the same if they put their hearts on it.

Before I begin, you might want to take a look at my How to Draw post where I explain the steps I use to draw my characters... but for this post I´ll be exclusively going on about how I operate photoshop and maybe hopefully leave an impression on you (I am currently working with the CC 2014 version):

1- The first step is to import the drawing made on paper onto photoshop (that is of course if you decide to do it in this form), the best resolution I recommend is 300 pixels science is far more comfortable to work on the computer. If you believe your computer is not powerful enough to run this kind of res then try working at 150 or 200 pixels, you can also try going for less but the final result may not look has you might want.

2- The picture is set has a locked BG, you could unlock it to edit on the surface but I suggest you create another layer above it and fill it with white or another color that allow you to see the line when you extract it from the picture... to do this we need to select the line from the original picture: simply select the background layer, go to the selection tab (on mac) and select "Color Gamma" (sorry for the spanish on the interface).

With this tool we are going to select the line from the drawing, by simply clicking on the line you will have the selection ready, note that the "invert (invertir)" selection must be off or otherwise you will end up picking anything but the lines from the drawing; make sure you have selected the line has precise has possible to make the next step much easier.

Use the "Drop count" tools on the gamma window do increase the radius of lines you want to pick up (+ to add and - to reduce the magnitude) and the tolerance bar to select how much of the line to augment, too much will pixel your lines so watch out.

3- After you have selected the line, we must paint that area (preferable color black) with the brush tool augmenting it´s size to paint around 300 px or 250 px would be enough to cover well the selected area in a new layer. try re-bruching the same area at least 3 times to make sure you have covered the whole selected area: Remember to do the painting in a new layer not on the original picture.

With this done comes the fun part *sarcasm*...

Once you have painted the line, chances are that it´s going to look messy and not quite smooth has it should, you must re-touch the lines using both the brush and eraser tool primarily. It´s a long process to get the lines to look smooth and clean since it requires plenty of pulse and plenty of attention to detail to have this look good; I find this to be very annoying and perhaps the most tedious part to do on photoshop... but if you want the best results is important to invest time on this to make your lines look has good has possible.

-------------->  

4- The colors must be placed in solid below the line layer, each color must be put separately in the respective part you want the color to go and also do each color on a separate layer to work easily with each color level when it comes to erasing over placed elements, etc...

Once you are done with each color element, you have to combine the layers of the colors you have made (be careful not to take the line layer), before that I always clone the layers just in case but is not mandatory.

Right click on the selected layers and choose "Combine Layers" (Combinar Capas), I didn´t name the caps but in case you find yourself lost on your own work do it:

The line and the color have to be on a separate layers, this is how it has to look with the line and without:

5- The next step in the shadows, this process is similar to working with the lines but before that you have to select the character elements from the color and line layers using the "magic wand" tool in the "quick selection" mode... create a layer where you can paint in black the selected area.

The layer that you painted in black is going to be your shadows, before that you have to lower the opacity (Opacidad) level of the layer (it´s located above the layer window in the top right), lower it to around 55% or lower depending of how intense you want your shadows to look.

6- You must retouch the shadows similarly to how we did with the line before, using pencil and eraser tools to make the shadows give volume to your character.

The example I am showing on the left is just how that layer that of how the shadows looks like without the character model behind it.

7- Last is the final touches: a background, color opacity using masks (completely optional but recommended to get the best looking art). For this step I really have no core style... let´s just say that is all about experimentation, see what works and what doesn't; work with separate layers and depending of what this is, for example: If you are going to do the background use layers behind the character model, if you want to work on lights sources use layers above the character model, etc...

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Thank you for reading, I hope this extremely short and simple tutorial was useful to you somehow... it´s important to practice and experiment a lot to discover what things you can do and what you can show with does steps. Again I don´t consider myself an expert on the matter but I do like to think I have enough experience to share this with other people who are interest in learning how to use this extremely useful and very good image editing tool.

I´ll have more content in the future, stay tuned!

The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya Movie Review + The Disappearance of Nagato Yuki-Chan Anime (Spin-Off) Review

The Haruhi franchise is one that's very respected within the anime fandom, I particularly like "The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya" series since it's one of does shows that incorporates complex themes and make them work so well that makes this animes one of does rare anomalies to recreate in any form of media: It has a very interesting way of incorporating sci-fi elements into it's seeming "slice of life" storyline; it's made even more clever by having it play a background roll opposed from having it take away from the spot light the lovable characters.

The movie "The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya" is quite the fascinating movie and one I recommend people to watch, particularly if you are into anime in general, unfortunately it requires you to have certain knowledge of the background behind the universe and the characters... I would recommend seeing at least a few episodes if not the two seasons of the show. The movie happens to be a weird concoction of feelings despite at its core laying a story about saving the world but also how much is the world worth to others: After watching this film I can honestly say is one of the best animated movies I have seen in a long time placing among classics like "Ghost in the Shell" and "Berserk". I know that this sounds like an incredibly bold statement but I wouldn't be doing such a comparison if I wasn't feeling so sure about my thoughts towards this movie.

The movie deserves to be watched at least once, I know that it's a shame how does who want to check it out need to catch up to the anime, but it's still worth watching since it has mystery, humor, sic-fi and likable characters.

The anime "The Disappearance of Nagato Yuki-Chan" however falls into the spin-off category by taking a bold move and making a "What If" timeline: What if there were no aliens, time travelers, robots, etc... Despite the characters being the core center of the story, is the world itself that gives this characters and story it's flavor, removing these elements it's like taking away Lightsabers and starships in Star Wars.

This anime in question is nothing more than a romantic slice of life story about Kyon and Yuki, that's really all there is, Yuki is turned into a shy/weeboo-ish girl who although cute has none of the character the movie knew how to make work, in the original anime Yuki was like that one character you don't fuck with (To me is still a mystery how they managed to make her work there). The majority of the characters are still has they were in the original anime and movie though so is not like I don't recognize their characteristics but I can tell something is missing... and that is the fantastic elements the original story incorporates so well.

The romance sticks out like a sour thumb to me, the original anime and movie has non of that... it is hinted that Kyon and Haruhi have feelings but is never addressed to that level further into the story and is never touched or referred to ever again. I don't care that "The Disapearance of Nagato Yuki-Chan" is a spin off, to me it comes across has a fan fiction with a budget, no more and no less... I can say that it is harmless: regardless of my opinion I never felt like the anime insulted my intelligence or anything like that, so you can still check it out for yourself and judge it if you want, for me however is a definitive skip.

Thoughts on The Force Unleashed Games

Star Wars is a very important franchise for me, and when you put video games and combine them it makes for a great recipe for awesomeness. In the history of gaming we have gotten some great star wars games: The Jedi Knight series, Rouge Squadron, Battlefront, etc...

The Force Unleashed was an entry in the massive library of star wars games that was hyped far beyond what it really was: The story behind it is quite unique for a video game project, what I mean by that is that usually projects must start with a central focus or a central point... TFU didn't. A small group composed of six developers started brain storming ideas for a new star wars game, the ideas ranged for plenty of concepts, scripts and many ideas (with just saying that one of the ideas was a mercenary character taking place in the distant future past Return of the Jedi), eventually after researching the expanded universe they eventually got stuck between the old republic era or the (then) lesser known point between Revenge of the Sith and A New Hope.

In interviews, developers said that the game was going to fill the void set between the episodes 3 and 4, that we will find out about about dark characters in the saga and that The Force Unleashed was going to be "the next important chapter in star wars"... unfortunately it also promoted itself by being a bigger game than it really was, reaching to consoles that were not meant to handle it´s visual flare, effects and other sugar coating elements (Wii, PS2, DS, etc...). So what went wrong? The awser is quite simple and complicated at the same time:

The main problem is that the promotion of the game said otherwise to what was given and another and even bigger problem is the fact they branched out to multiple systems... giving unique fetters to each and everyone of them (ex: the Wii version has a 2vs2 mode while the PSP version has a special missions mode) pretty much demanding the consumers to buy all versions of the game to acquire the maximum experience; not only is this practice anti-consumer but also very unpractical from a development point, the core team focused on the PS3, 360 and PC versions while other hired 3rd party devs where given the task to adapt that game into the Wii and the other platforms, the amount of work placed over the head of this devs must have been crushing.

Of course the game wasn't received has well has it was hyped by both critics and players... the game at it´s core is just a beat em up style action game and quite fun at it, however it´s nothing like it was promised, I can say (having played it on the PS3) that is a good fun game witch only special deliver is the story and by saying like is the greatest thing ever either but I can at least appreciate what was done here, basically what this does is explain how the rebel alliance was created... that´s really it.

Force Unleashed 2 was announced almost a year after the lunch of the first game and I was flabbergasted at it, I was wandering why  if the original gave a very solid conclusion to the story, but of course the sales had demanded that devs pushed another game out:

What are they talking about...?!

Why make Starkiller the most powerful Jedi/Sith ever? It warps the concept of the force almost completely! Is Starkiller Kratos? I don´t mind playing a powerful character but this is ridiculous... no other character in the star wars universe has a chance against that guy.

This game was clearly rushed, just by looking at the game itself in terms of mechanics, there is no depth to combat unlike in the first entry... I heard that some of the developers who worked on the original game moved on, where they the brains of the gameplay department? It makes me sad because not only is the gameplay worts but the story also is, Starkiller is turned into an unlikable jerk who is blinded by his desire to find Juno that the most important events that lead to episode 4 are ignored entirely, there is no character development and Vader is turned into a wimp!

TFU2 is not very good, it was clearly rushed out into the marked has you might be able to tell... is sad indeed when this happens in gaming.

Quoting Miyamoto "A delayed game is eventually good, but a rushed game is forever bad"

A little update

Hello ladies and gentlemen:

Sorry for not having any content in the recent days but I have been very busy with work and plenty of other things that have been happening, you gotta understand I don't like posting content that does not motivate me to talk about.

In terms of my work, I haven't been slowing down but since summer ended I noticed some of my skills went rusty so I have had to practice a lot to get back on my feet before even daring to touch the comic again.

In terms of what's to come, I'll probably have plenty more content related with my work to share instead of reviews, does will still come but maybe not with the same rate has before since I really want to give full attention to this project.

Stay tuned!

EDIT: Oh right, the photoshop tutorial is still on the works BTW ;)

Blackfish Movie Review + Update

This documentary is quite interesting more because of esthetic reasons thus boosting the information it provides.

When it comes to a documentary I try to think about what the director wants to tell us and picture the story they are telling has if it was a fictional work how it would measure up, I gotta say that it manages to fulfill the number one but not so much the number two but I can't blame the film for it. Seaworld is a big park with plenty of tourists from all over the world coming over to see the great Killer Wheals in their glorious trained spectacle, the movie basically tries to shawn light into the behind the scenes of the spectacle, the history behind the park, the animals and some of their ex-trainers.

I think is very smart how the movie decides to pick a moment so powerful and very serious moment like the death of one trainer by Tilikum (one big male killer whale), the entire movie is centered on not only on the whales's nature, habitant, behavior towards humans (both in the wild and in confinement) but also of their trainers, how they work with the whales, what is it like, explaining the bond they share, etc... Blackfish is indeed a highly informative documentary about the nature of these mammals and also how humanities own desires can drive to the destruction of nature; all learned by the story of Tilikum.

The editing in this movie is extraordinary, the clips the filmmakers putted to make their points are spot on thus conveying exactly the kind of information us has viewers should get out of the movie to understand what the creators are trying to tell us... however the problem with the movie is it's the lack of unity in the information conveyed; I know that not everybody is going to get what is going on in a movie the same way has somebody else, but the point I am trying to bring is that because of it's unbalanced way of conveying information it leaves plenty in the air for a long time leaving a lingering question with no answer until much later and by the time it comes it may have slipped the mind of some people... for me it was quite distracting, is almost like the movie has so much to say but is not organized in how it conveys that information.

Blackfish is a very well polished documentary with very well focused directing, interesting information delivered and great editing making it one of the most informative documentaries about man and nature, I highly recommend checking it out if you can.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Few... with summer finally over I can get to work in peace jeje... it's been quite relaxing I'll admit but it's time to get things back in working order has well has get back into drawing to get my skills back into shape.

Next on the blog will probably be that long over do Photoshop post, if not I'll probably be making another series review...

Thank you again guys for reading, I know the contend has been coming in slow but I hope to be able to bring more reviews and have more updates coming

Stay tuned!