Update + Work preview

Hello Everybody:

I wanted to tell you all a few things considering the lack of updates on this blog site, I have been working intensively on Vlamirka and The Golden Wolf since it´s lunch and I am not slowing down thus I wanted to give you  some news:

1. I am very active on my twitter so if you want to be up to date with me fallow me there: https://twitter.com/Inlikeflynn007

2. I have more reviews underway for my YouTube, because the comic is my top priority the production of these will be slightly slower but will still come out on: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCN62Ev4l4nGX8S28nQ8aV2g

3. Have a fantastic day! :D

Resident Evil Extinction Movie Review

This video is under fair-use

Stay tuned for the next video where I will talk about Resident Evil Afterlife!

Important Update

Hello everybody:

After a long vanishment on my part I find myself in the need to explain, the game and movie reviews I have made on this site has mostly been the reason why I started this blog site... although I will definitely continue to update the site regularly I might never do written reviews anymore but instead in video form so that way you guys can hear my sexy spanish accent...

Anyway, I will leave you with this video update I made a short while back and I explain everything there:

Fallow me on Twitter to keep in touch I make regular updates there: https://twitter.com/Inlikeflynn007

VGW Update

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New page here: https://tapastic.com/episode/405753 so go check it out!

Lot's of reviews are down the pipe so stay tuned!

Resident Evil 5 Game Review

Capcom is no stranger to the gaming industry, they have made many famous games nowadays and they have had an undeniable impact (Mega Man, Street Fighter, The Vs. Series, etc...), but out of all of their franchises, Resident Evil is without a doubt their most popular.

I have talked about Resident Evil before, (even made a couple of video reviews) and today I talked about one of the most polarising entries in the series has well has the most successful sales wise, Resident Evil 5... a game that me in particular find a lot of enjoyment out of.

Originally released in 2009 for the PS3 and 360, later on PC that same year; the story fallows Chris Redfield, working for the Bioterrorism Security Assessment Alliance (or BSAA for short) on a mission to stop BOW weapons trafficking between terrorist happening in Africa. Accompanied by a local BSAA branch member, Sheva Alomar, Chris will soon discover that there is more happening to this mission than meets the eye... will he be able to discover the truth and survive the horror long enough to discover it?

While the RE series has never been high art in story telling, this game serves a much bigger purpose to the series that many realise and that is giving closer to a chapter in the general saga, I won´t spoil much but If you have played the game and are familiar with the RE story then you know what I am talking about... that is not without saying that the story is all perfect, the writing is ok but is many of the choices present in the game that overall hurt the experience... here is what I mean: judging by the story presentation, the writing's weak points and late implemented gameplay elements it feels like RE5 turned out completely different than what it turned out and while all of this is not bad per say it did damaged many of the potential the game had. RE5 was originally going to be single-player with moments where you team up with other characters but most of the time you were going to be Chris alone in a one men fight against horror BOWs in Africa... but then co-op was implemented...

Witch takes me to the gameplay aspects of the game, RE5 is simply put RE4 with co-op; the whole of the game is available to play with a friend from beginning to end and it is a fun ride having someone with you helping out blast monsters. On top of the cooperative element, RE5 adds much more melee attacks and weapons than any of it's predecessors, but despite all this improvements it still somehow remained in it's laurels when they set up the game to have you completely still while firing... at the point RE5 lunched; games like Gears of War and Uncharted already had expanded upon the huge foundation that RE4 stablished with it's over-the-shoulder perspective (pretty revolutionary back in the day believe it or not), but the fact that the people in production made no attempt to incorporate the improvements brought in by others shows that either they thought the improvement weren't required for the game or that they were dumb.

The game's complete edition that goes now for all the consoles includes the Mercenaries mode, where you kill has many monsters has you can before the time runs out and I'll just say right now that this iteration of the Mercenaries mode is my favourite so far, the maps are fun, the monsters you face are fun and the flashing constant action happening on screen makes it a really addicting experience... not to mention it includes the largest rust of characters we have seen in any other iteration (or at least more interesting and fun characters than RE6 IMO). Lost in Nightmares takes you inside an Spencer Mansion type setting similar to the original Resident Evil, Desperate Escape is an action oriented affair where you battle through multiple enemies in an unseen chapter from the story and of course the Versus mode where you battle other players in a Mercenaries type setting... it's an alright mode but is nothing like other competitive experience that you can get from other games out there so don't get to exited about it.

Resident Evil 5 sold many copies, making it one of the most successful entities in the series (the most successful if you only count sales), but fans weren't fully satisfied: Many seem to agree that it's a fun action title for it's time, but many more felt alienated by the fact that it left behind the puzzle solving and exploration of entries past in favour of a more action oriented take to the series (maybe even more than RE4). While I perfectly understand this criticisms and are right, I still find myself enjoying this title... maybe because it's still the same RE4 formula I like but with a little more spice and the addition of cooperative play it's a better way to share the experience with someone else.

RE5 still looks great, even after almost 8 years it holds up amazingly well to the point that proves just how much a good art direction can take your game from looking good for it's time into timeless. That's not to say the visuals are all perfect, the character models can look pixelated up close and the lightning hits show their date by the bloom effect.

Even with all of it's flaws and more, Resident Evil 5 is a fun ride for me, it's not perfect or mind blowing but who says a game has to be does things to be a fun experience? I enjoy RE5 for being a fun action rollercoaster and giving closure to a chapter in the saga of Capcom's beloved series and that alone is enough to make me happy I spent the asking price.

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I am sorry for the lack of content on the blog; but if you fallow me regularly you are probably aware that I have started publishing my comic series here... I want to let you guys know that later today is the Prologue 15 so stay tuned there!

I will try to post more reviews and other stuff regularly.

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The Blaire Witch Project Movie Review

Yep... another found footage horror movie at Inlikeflynn's Corner! Yay!

This one is little bit different for me though, the hype for the movie was in 1999 (the year in witch it came out) and I was around 5 years old when people talked about this movie like it was the scariest movie of all time.

Me being a little boy, avoided this movie like the plague for being a little scaredy cat with horror movies back then... even many of my classmates talked about the movie in class, it really was a huge phenomenon back then (some people even actually believed the movie was real life). Years passed and I still didn't watched it mostly out of fear...

The story fallows 3 film students lost in the woods and being hunted by someone or something; that's pretty much it... The entire movie is shoot like a homemade movie and that helped to bring home the fact that it is "real" and that it "actually happened", the movie had little than a small budget indeed and I think that holds more water when you see it's three kids with a camera and shooting a documentary helping to bring home the scares. The bulk of the film is just this kids lost in the forest for what seems like almost a week with hauntings while they try to leave the forest.

The reception towards the movie seems to be very split, some consider it one of the scariest movies of all time while others consider it a mess of a movie where you can't tell at all what is happening, but to the films credit, the movie makers didn't had the budget to make a big epic scary fest... could they have made a true scary masterpiece? I don't know but regardless, the movie turned out pretty good if you ask me! While I don't find the movie scary in the slightest it is a very interesting film for what it is and how it was made with it's limited budget: I like how we never see the Blair Witch at all through the whole movie thus leaving us, has viewers, to imagine how this "ghost" or whatever looks, even though there are descriptions about how she looks at the beginning of the film it paints a picture in your mind that stays there until the rolling credits.

Now... how does the fear factor stacks up? it's not scary at all (at least to me), I will say though that I like how the movie subtly let's the tension be built around the situations that the main characters are in instead of relying on cheap jump scares with no build up or good real pay off.

Many horror movies rely on the anticipation of fear rather than the actual scare, some movies do this right others not so much, I feel like Blair Witch Project at least treats the viewer with a certain level of respect... witch is more than what I can say from many other horror movies that play it super safe and fallow an strict pattern of dumb.

Blair Witch Project is fun, and is made even more evident by the way it was portrayed to the audiences, being a success in all frontiers (with critics and at the box office) plus all the inspirations it gave to movies like Paranormal Activity and Grave Encounters... I wish the movie was truly more scary that what it is but it's still a fun movie to watch in a dark night... alone.

Grave Encounters Movie Review

This movie draws me... not in the "it fucks with my mind" kind of way but just by the idea of it.

A crew of filmmakers decide to lock themselves up inside a clearly creepy abandoned mental asylum for a reality TV show called "Grave Encounters". Has they lock themselves up during the whole night they experience certain hauntings and paranormal activities just has they wanted and has the time to leave approaches... something is clearly wrong with the place; something evil and dangerous.

I guess the reason why I somewhat like this movie so much is because I like the idea of a haunted place with angry spirits that kill people who trespass their territory (is golden creepy pasta stuff), the crew are an alright bunch with them being clearly playful bunch just doing their job, characters like T.C. do get on my nerves for being unlikable but with a situations that confusing and all out crazy I can't blame him when he or any of the other characters get natural frustrated and start to loose their minds.

The "found footage" style of horror is somewhat common now days with all the Paranormal Activities and such... so the movie is another attempt at cashing in on the style right? with it being relatively easy to shoot and such, well yes and no. Grave Encounters works for me because of two reasons: the story and the editing, the story is about filmmakers shooting a reality TV show inside an old abandoned insane asylum so it naturally makes sense to see the cameras being put in movie-ish ways and the editing help minimise does awkward camera angels of handheld shots by the main characters clearly done for "dramatic purposes".

Has you may have been able to tell I haven't talked about the fear factor of the film at all and that is because fear is subjective... some people are more easily frightened than others, I can say that I personally wasn't scared nor was it a nightmare inducing thriller, for me it was just a fun little movie and nothing more. I suppose if you are easily startled by the occasional jump scare with loud SFX and creepy looking face or stuff like that then yeah... it will be scary for you.

I guess what I am trying to say is that Grave Encounters is a film i can tolerate  better than many obnoxious horror films that I usually come across... I love good horror movies and I like seeing good horror movies so it is a breath of fresh air to see one that is not bad but actually fun to watch and I want to see it again in the future when it feels fresh again.

If you decide to check out Grave Encounters just keep in mind is really nothing special in terms of horror movies but it is a fun ride still witch is in my opinion the most important thing a movie must achieve first and foremost.

PS: don't watch the sequel, is shit...

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Shimoneta to Iu Gainen ga Sonzai Shinai Taikutsu na Sekai Anime Review

Or just "Shomoseka" for short...

Originally a light novel lunched in 2012 by Hirotaka Akagi and Eito Shimotsuki later adapted into a manga since 2014 and recently into a short 12 episode anime in summer 2015. The story revolves around a future where the japanese government has banned all kinds of lewd material (from pornography, to simply dirty jokes, etc...) and all citizens are forced to wear PMs or Peace Makers on their rists to analyse every word spoken and hand gesture that could break the law.

If you have seen my top 10 anime cliches you may remember I said that fan service is out of control in recent memory, Shimoseka still has plenty of fan-service but instead of going in full blown out of the reasonable it does manages to contain a certain amount of self control, witch is quite surprising considering both the attractive girls in the show and all the opportunities the show has to show it right in from of your face.

The main character is Tanukichi Okuma, he is has bland and boring of a main character has you can get, he is the typical blank slate you see every time in bad anime... thankfully the other characters fair much better, like Ayame Kajou (SHE SHOULD HAVE BEEN THE MAIN CHARACTER BTW), she is the "super hero"/"Terrorist" trying to fight in a world where the obsession of banning people from having access to obscene material exists and all while under the secret identity of "Blue Snow".

Other characters like the stern Hyouka Fuwa has many funny moments or Anna Nishikinomiya who starts a has a pure hearted and innocent council president becomes cartoonishly funny later in the series. I can say all the characters stand out except for the boring main character.

In a general sense however, I should hate on this show... it includes many tropes of things I absolutely cannot stand: dirty jokes, stupidly forced "romantic" plot lines, absurd amounts of fan service and sexual innuendos that add nothing at all... but for whatever reason I managed to stay through the entirety of the series and found myself attracted to it despite being something I should not be able to stand: It's like I said at the beginning, does hateful forces sexual innuendos don't go has far has some other anime that rely solely them do, it does what it does and it moves on, many of the good jokes in the show don't come from the dirty humour but from the situations the main characters get involved in has well has many of their reactions to does situations can be funny.

Another thing I love is the character designs, the way many of the characters are build physiologically should be for an ecchi style of scenes and shots showing us every nook and cranny but I feel a really interesting self restrain, not to mention the many female characters have a dress up way that covers their body whole heartly, of example: Anna Nishikinomiya is a pure innocent character and her uniform shows it, she wears a long skirt (the longest in fact) in the whole series and that also applies with the other female characters... even the male characters don't have that much attractive get-up styles to them actually.

I guess another thing that is really interesting is that the anime does carry a message about censorship and how far it can go. We live in a world where the internet is a part of our lives and when a government or a company attempts to censor people is received with a general negative backlash at the simple attempt; I do firmly believe that people have a right to express themselves about how they feel and I am sure many would agree with me. The plight of Ayame to fight censorship is something we can all relate to and sympathise with.

Do I recommend Shimoneta to Iu Gainen ga Sonzai Shinai Taikutsu na Sekai? Ehhh... yes and no...

If you think you have the stomach to get through the foul comedy of the anime then yeah why not, but if you can't stand that kind of humour then avoid it because it won't be pretty...

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Ghostbusters (1984) Movie Review

I have always believed that any press is good press:

Case and point... the new Ghostbusters movie by Paul Feig, a clear reboot that capitalise on the stablished franchise. Although my intent here is not to talk about the new film but about the original movie released in 1984, I believe it is imposible to do so by addressing the clear elegant in the room that is the negative reaction to the new movie... It is very possible for this movie to be good, who says it can't? but obviously the trailers haven't been good enough to sell us on a good movie but rather on a subpar comedy and this is what people are really angry about.

I have recently decided to watch the original 1984 movie that is still to this day being hailed has one of the greatest comedies of all time and although I do consider it a very good film... I don't know if I would call it "amazing". Now before you get me wrong, this film was released years before I was born so that means that either some jokes don't strike too much of a core with me because it's before my time or because I am an idiot...

Ghostbusters fallows the story of 3 gentlemen who study the paranormal, and thus they decide to create a "pest control" like group called the Ghostbusters with the addition of another new member to their team, they must eventually fight a dangerous force that can destroy the world. Has simple has it's sounds is this story, however is the characters what shine through: they are outcasted nerds that struggle to find their way in society... I am sure that almost everybody in the world has at some point found themselves alone through life and feeling like nobody likes or cares about what we do and love; witch is why is incredibly easily to relate to our main characters.

At the par with the Ghostbusters being relatable it is also very funny at some points and serious at others helping to give credibility to the world and helping you care for the situations at hand.

If you are young and haven't seen Ghostbusters then do yourself a favour and do so.

I may not consider it a master piece but it is a good fun and enjoyable movie... and that alone is good enough for me to enjoy it!

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Thoughts on Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare

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Resident Evil Apocalypse Movie Review

Vlamirka and The Golden Wolf: New Page! + Update

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For people who care about other content, I am also working on a new video;
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Resident Evil Movie Review

Vlamirka and The Golden Wolf available on Tapastic Comics

Today I am proud to announce that the comic I have been working on is now available to read online via Tapastic Comics!

I am so happy to finally be able to share this story that I have been working on for so long with the world, I hope you guys enjoy it!

I´ll leave the link below:
Click Here

In case you are concern that I will now stop working on reviews and content that I have been doing in this blog don´t worry... content like that will continue to be made!

I will now be doing regular updates on the comic however because I due care about this project a great deal...

See you guys around and yes the next review will be Resident Evil related for the marathon... but I am doing something a little different though so stay tuned!

Resident Evil 6 Game Review

I guess without realising I started a marathon... so yay!

I was thinking about a marathon to do and it seems I started one for Resident Evil; The only games I have talked about for this series are Revelations 2 and RE4 so I plan to tackle every RE game I can (lastly I will talk about the movies; both the live action by Paul Anderson and the CGI films based on the games cannon)

Resident Evil 6 was released in 2012 for the PS3, XBOX 360 and eventually for PC, although the sales for the game were enthusiastically high for the first few weeks it got polarised by many fans and critics for diverting far too much from the survival horror elements that defined the franchise. I played the game back then and after completing it I didn´t touched it again... I have decided to re-buy the game for the PS4 at only 20 euros and with all it´s DLC content included this is supposed to be the definitive version of the game.

Through trailers and gameplay footage that started to come out I began to notice a problem with the general game and I am sure many other fans did too, the over abundance of action oriented gameplay, it didn´t felt like the resident evil game it should be so I started to slowly loose interest. When the game finally lunched my brother and I picked it up just so we could play co-op together on split screen and we had fun at the time so I don´t feel it was a waste of money.

The franchise saw a huge decline around this time with some mediocre spinoffs and the life action movie Resident Evil Retribution came out around that time, indeed it was a dark time for the franchise, RE6 raised hopes for fans that the series could still come back to the focus on survival horror, I guess at this point it´s pretty obvious Capcom wants to focus the franchise on an audience of action games and it has antagonised it´s own fans; I am sure Capcom has realised this now and they seem to be trying to fix this.

Resident Evil 6 tackles 4 separate campaigns with fan favourites Chris Redfield, Leon Kennedy, Sherry Birkin and Ada Wong... for fans of the franchise this is an All-Star cast with 3 familiar faces, one we haven´t seen in a long while and some new faces, however the game´s story is not only way too ambitious for it´s own good but it also seem to miss a very big part of the franchise: the humour, this is the most joyless entry in the franchise where not a single attempt at comedy made me crack a smile... I get that what is happening is tragic, people are dying and stuff but the problem is that everything that is happening is so over the top that you can´t take it seriously, the attempts at making the player feel bad for what is happening fall flat and that´s without mentioning the rest is just non sense action that doesn´t build up to making the player feel bad but to be wowed by the circumstances the main characters make it through. Overall the story is way too fool of itself that it thinks is being deeper than it actually is.

Like I said before there are 4 campaigns: you are supposed to play all of them to get what is going on, understand the overall story and "figure out the big conspiracy" but here is the problem; Leon´s story spoils EVERYTHING and unless you are unobservant you will know who the bad guy is very early on and you play the others just to know where they were... the ordered I played was Chris, Sherry Leon and lastly Ada, I got plenty more out of the overall experience, it´s still an overall average popcorn story that can be funny if you leave your brain turned on but it at least kept some of the mysteries away from me. Through each campaign the player will notice the difference in tone and passing of each and every one of them:

-Chris Redfield: Chris´s campaing is the most hated by many because of it being more of an "army" type game rather than a survival horror, you are almost always in company of fellow BSAA soldiers pushing forward through enemy lines of machine-gun wielding zombies called J´avo... and it does feel like playing any action 3rd person shooter rather than a resident evil game with the difference being this time we have to put up with weird control skims (I´ll get more in depth the the games controls later).

It´s action orientation aside; Chirs´s campaign features the most memorable moments of the game thanks to it´s huge creatures and even some of the bosses are very interesting to fight, the j´avo enemies are obviously built to be like the plagas enemies with mutations upon damange and that kind of stuff... it dosen´t surprise me anymore at this point so I particularly am not bothered by this.

I am annoyed however by the honestly sincere lack of respect for environmental storytelling and more slower methodical gameplay and design: Resident Evil games have always had both very well built into it´s DNA and also allowing you to take the story at your own pase... Chris´s story is extremely linear and the only times I would deviate from the main path is when I am scavenging for ammo, with only a couple of times finding something interesting.

-Sherry Birkin: Sherry´s campaign is very much like Chris´s however here is slightly slower and allowing more versatility but just like in the general design of the overall game it isn´t quit has I am making it out to be: Sherry´s campaign is plaged with QTE´s at around pretty much every corner.

I want to say that I am not the kind of guy that will hate on QTE´s just because they exist... I think this mechanic can (and has) been used for very interesting scenarios; Sherry´s campaign is always eager to tell you to mach a button has fast has humanly possible... in a much smarter game, the player would be trusted to react to the incoming danger.

Despite all of this I have to say: Playing has Sherry was the most fun I had out of all the campaigns, the chemistry between Sherry and Jake works better than that of the other characters and is still a very fun experience overall thanks to many of the scenarios the two come across... is not amazing but is still much better than some parts from the others.

-Leon Kennedy: Many claim Lean´s story to be the best scenario and they are right to a certain extent: it is very slow paced and methodical than the others (at first) but it still comes across with plenty of annoyances like forced walking sections and cheap "instadeaths" but for the most part it is a very Resident Evil-ish affair.

I am having a hard time thinking of things to say about Leon´s campaign because for the most part it´s kind of "meh", I don´t hate it but it´s nothing really special and it got me thinking, Is it because the series in general is loosing grip of is it just me? and after much thought I think I figured it out: is not the franchise nor the campaign itself but the passing and game design has a whole. The first hours is very Resident Evil-ish but it immediately blasts with energetic action set pieces that leave no room to character interaction and right there is the problem: If you read my review for Resident Evil Revelations 2 I said that part of the charm of these games is the character interactivity... RE6 lacks that to a ridiculous extent and it shows on the character of Helena Harper where she kinda is forgotten in the character development department.

-Ada Wong: originally, Ada´story became unlocked after playing though the other 3 story lines and she is ok... her play style is similar to that of Leon´s where she has to sneak around enemies and it gives that vibe of being a stealth game with slight puzzle elements, but just like with previous campaigns they are not handled particularly well.

The stealth elements due play a big roll in Ada´s story but the action build controls of the game doesn´t blend well with stealth mechanics... thankfully Revelations 2 picked up on this and added an standard (much more improved) stealth system.

Just like the other entries since RE4, RE6 features the mercenaries mode: same deal has in does games exempt that this mode allows you to earn more time by performing more powerful melee executions to enemies, it´s always addicting to find every way possible to multiply the timer and keep up your timer. At this point the mercenaries mode in resident evil games feel like a must have because of their fun and addictive nature.

Thanks to the complete edition for PS4 there is now access to other extra content that players can stick their teeth into after the story is done like:

-Agent Hunt: Or has I like to call it "Trolling mode", where you join into another player´s campaign has an enemy monster to try and kill the player or players. This mode was available at lunch.

-Survivors: The PvP of RE6, I particularly don´t like this mode because the controls and health system is clearly build to be used differently and not has is; they should have actually tweaked these builds at the very least for this mode. There is a regular Free-for-all Deathmatch mode and a traditional Team Deathmatch mode for up to eight players and the character selection (same cast from mercenaries) features different arsenals.

-Predator: A 5v1 PvP mode where one player controls the powerful Ustanak monster, the other five players have to try and neutralise it

-Siege: A 3v3 PvP mode where three players control the monster and have to neutralise BSAA soldiers while the other three control main characters have to protect them.

-Onslaught: A mercenaries mode variant where two players are thrown into a map separately and have to neutralise monsters in order to have them invade the opposite player, the one with the bigger score at the end wins

The extra content in this game is varied but much like the main game is very disjointed and lacks any kind of substance basically because the mechanics seem to be at odds with core gameplay of each and every mode, for example: the Ustanak creature´s control mapping and usage just doesn´t feel right with it´s movement same has the Survivor mode´s gameplay style of PvP goes against the player control.

In games like Uncharted where there are good multiplayers; the controls are adjusted to allow more mobility to fight back against the other players... RE6 lacks such adjustments.

Resident Evil 6 is a game that lacks direction; is desperately trying to appease every audience possible that it just becomes a jack of all trades, master of none; sometimes just focusing on a simple mechanic and mastering it can make a far better game than if you try to put in far too much. The story really doesn´t move anything forward in terms of character for the majority of the cast (except for maybe Jake), the series has to either ignite a new generation or end the current story to truly move forward... Chris and Leon won´t live on live forever unless you stay in the early 2000s but moving upwards in years it has to finish the arc with these characters (It already kinda did anyway in RE5).

The general reception towards RE6 was negative and this has definitely forced Capcom to re-think the way they want to keep producing these games. The future will only tell if this will change or not...

Batman V Superman Movie Review

Resident Evil Revelations 2 Game Review

Oh boy it´s been a while, sorry for that but I was on a trip... didn´t really took my time to write anything for my blog... so how about I talk about a game release a year ago!

Resident Evil is one of my favourite video game franchises, the characters are memorable, the creatures are very interesting and well thought out, the art direction is always outstanding and while the stories aren't really masterful or anything it's the presentation and the character interactions not only with each other but with the situations, the monsters, etc... what makes this series shine for me.

The franchise has always had their ups and downs... with time both fans and designers have no idea what made the franchise so popular in the first place because the debates have ranged all across the board from blaming the bad live action movies to the absurd amount of Michael Bay-like action style in the latest Resident Evil 6. I can say that the series is in good shape by still coming up with good kinds of content (we recently got the HD remaster of the Resident Evil Remake, RE Revelations, the HD remaster of RE Zero, etc...), the latest entry in the main series is Resident Evil Revelations 2.

I'll admit I didn't play this game at lunch not because I didn't wanted to but because of it's episodic nature, I opted for waiting for a lunch on disk than getting it at digital lunch and having to waiting for a month or 2 for the next episode, I've had enough of that with the TellTale Games and the likes so I passed... recently I got it for PS4 brand new for 25$ and in my opinion this is one of the best in the franchise or at the very least from the most modern games.

The story is set between Resident Evil 5 & 6 (but set after the CGI movie Damnation), Claire Redfield is our main character for this game where she is now an anti-bioweapon NGO for TerraSave (witch was briefly explored in RE Degeneration), attending at a ceremony of the organisation but terrorists erupt and capture Claire and the other members of TerraSave. After waking up in some abandoned detention facility, Claire is reunited with Moira Burton, new member of TerraSave and eldest daughter of S.T.A.R.S. veteran, Barry Burton; the two must now escape the twisted local and discover who is doing these experiments and why.

I haven't mentioned the fact that Barry himself is also playable and he has his own quest line that you fallow, I guess you can figure he is indeed looking for his missing daughter but I won't say much for the sake of spoilers. Like I've said before, this franchise isn't exactly high art storytelling (there are some dialogue choices that are pretty dumb) but is the way the characters interact with one another and with the environment what makes it shine so much to me, it feels somewhat believable thanks to the delivery by the actors and the directing. Claire and Barry are very likeable for the most part, has for Moira and Barry's companion, Natalia, they are pretty likeable too, even though they don´t fight directly they are very useful and unlike RE6 where your companion is ignored almost completely here they are in danger and you will have to protected them witch is fine by me, besides you can swap between them any time so is not like they are completely out of your control and have their own ways of fighting back.

Gameplay wise, Revelations 2 plays somewhat similar to RE6, with characters being unrestrained by tank-like controls, moving while firing and even a dodge mechanic; however it suffers from certain production value issues witch unfortunately hurts the overall experience and if you ask me this is probably due to the team not being given enough budget: when Resident Evil 6 was under production Capcom combined two development teams to produce the game and even the budget was overall bigger than any other game Capcom had made for the series at the time while Revelations had less than half of the team RE6 had and that´s without mentioning the time constraints and probably the episodic nature of the game hurt a little for the budget. Make no mistake thought because on many areas I actually like Revelations 2 more than RE6, it certainly is much more atmospheric and slow passed than the action oriented aspects that the series has been criticised by in recent memory.

Revelations 1 made a great attempt at combining the gameplay aspects of the franchise that started to improve since RE4 and the classic horror aspects that RE fans love and for that reason alone I think Revelations is great; Revelations 2 stays very true to the elements of it´s predecessor and even improves the gameplay of both Revelations 1 and the main numerical saga: you can now dodge on command without having to necessarily wait for the enemy to get dangerously close to you and the shooting works great, they even went has far to include stealth mechanics that I actually wanted to see, it´s not deeply elaborated has that of Metal Gear Solid but it´s a very competent mechanic akin to that of The Last of Us (probably thats where the idea came from), ammunition will also be something you will have to keep a close eye, thanks to the stealth system is now not just about aiming well but about being smart with your environments.

Since Resident Evil 4, the franchise has had some great post game content like The Mercenaries mode, the Revelation series is actually taking it on a different direction with Raid mode: an RPG like meta-game where you partake on diffent objectives that range from reaching the goal to protecting a target and I have to admit that I find Raid mode to be more addicting than Mercenaries, it´s indeed very grind heavy where to fulfil certain goals you will probably have to replay some missions here and there to get to the required level, I won´t lie since this process can and is indeed very annoying and sometimes downright boring... but there is a special satisfaction when you achieve victory and is all because the challenge is both fair and fun.

Raid mode is just one of the modes, there is Countdown where you have to finish an episode of the main campaign within a time limit and Invisible where you play the episode within the campaign but the enemies are invisible... I don´t find these two modes very enjoyable, they are harmless I guess but it´s still dev time that could have been put into better use like maybe more enemy variety or much longer Campaign and more Raid mode maps and content.

Resident Evil Revelations 2 is rough around the edges... it´s unfortunate that the production and corporate choice of episodic style of game hurt the overall quality of the game but nevertheless I am thankful I played this game and I hope that more RE games like this can be given the treatment and respect it deserves because there is a great Resident Evil game waiting to come out within the Revelations name.

It´s nowhere near perfect but I know I would rather play this than any Ubisoft collecta-thon.

Gravity Falls Animation Review

During the last few weeks I have decided to watch the critically acclaimed TV show of Gravity Falls created by Alex Hirsch; I´ll admit that at first I didn´t knew what to expect... I went in knowing nothing about the show, literally, I didn´t had any positive nor negative expectations and has someone who enjoys animation in general I gotta say I really loved this show.

I have never limited myself to any kind of demography, genera or style despite many reprises by family and friends... many around me have argued that I should´t be watching cartoons like Gravity Falls because is for kids... indeed is for kids but that dozen´t stop me and many adults to enjoy a smart series. I have many reasons why I adore Gravity Falls and why is a great show.

The premise goes like this: Twin siblings Dipper and Mable Pines travel for summer to a town called Gravity Falls with their Granduncle Stan, a con-artist; while at first it does seem like a standard and somewhat boring hometown, Gravity Falls ends up having more secrets than it less out so eventually Dipper comes across a diary that holds the secrets of magical and interdimentional creatures out in the open... and so the kids have the summer vacation of their lifetime.

Alex Hirsch has stated that the promise itself was somewhat inspired by his own experiences on vacation with his twin sister, witch helps to give this series an air of genuine love and it shows on screen. There is plenty of good stuff in this show that I am literally having a hard time while writing thinking of where to start: well how about the comedy? I have seen many cartoon shows trying to be funny and mature at the same time and all they do is just fall flat on their faces by doing really idiotic stuff like telling jokes of all kinds that just goes over the head of many children and adults would most likely find revolting... Gravity Falls proves that comedy doesn´t have to be a complicated science or be too much of one thing; jokes can be simple with a circumstance in the story that drives it and have one character suffer a certain concequesce (weather it be slapstick or a play on words).

This generation of cartoons have not only been funny and extremely well animated but it has also been smart with it´s presentation, characters and stories in Gravity Falls is just the current example of that quality level in animated shows: I love the aesthetics, if you look carefully, the backgrounds matches the style of the characters, painting backgrounds is a nightmare for me so I am fascinated by seeing the team having such ease to work with blending the background with the characters so seemingly, the character models are very akin to something out of "The Simpsons" and for animation this is very good since it facilitates the work load for the animation, and with less complicated models there is more time to make plenty of wacky and interesting movements, the characters in this show are very well stretched and squashed. Even with their simplistic design the way these characters look is memorable, of course much of it comes from the personalities and characterisation but looking at them is easy to appreciate them: Mable is one of the most adorable characters I´ve ever seen on an animated show.

The stories are simple for kids to fallow yet intriguing for adults to watch, it´s smart on that regard by not only showing creative imagery but challenging their core audience by sometimes incorporating scary elements without going way too far with it, I can think of a couple of times I was startled by some of the creatures the team came up with... some people might think that this kind of things are too much for little children but I doubt it would scar kids or anything; if anything it challenges them to face scary imagery.

Like most cartoon shows now days (and some even back when), it has a core story it fallows yet every episode can be watched on it´s own and that helps any common viewer to jump in at anytime... however, thanks to the power of the internet people can access the episodes in sequence, I feel however that having this kind of story format helps to tell some new stories has well has helping viewers who are jumping for the first time in that very episode. The overarching story that is being fallowed does take many twists and turns about the direction the series is taking... I don´t wanna give anything away but it is very cleverly incorporated and it does know how to build good drama while at the same time keeping focus on the on the comedy aspects and the fact that it´s a cartoon.

Gravity Falls only has 2 seasons under it´s belt unlike most other cartoons that lasts for about 4 seasons or more, the creator knew that the magic would be lost if he forced the continuation of the show so he decided to finish it out with a bang by lunching the final season and wrap up pretty much every loose end has the summer is ending... again i don´t want to give anything away but let´s just say that everything from the message is trying to convey to the comedy, the action, the drama and of course the well incorporated animation is all excellent making what seems like an epic finale for a simple animated show something somewhat glorious to watch.

What else can I say; Gravity Falls is a great show and has an animator myself i can appreciate the work put into making this what it is, the characters are memorable, the stories are fun, the comedy is smart, the animation is great... is just an overall great cartoon, one I am glad I watched and I want to revisit in the future when it feels fresh again.

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After the bad taste that playing EA´s Star Wars: Battlefront left me I am glad I got to see something very fun and clever, I hope I got the interest of some people to check it out because I am not kidding when I say it´s a really smart animated show... If you are a fan of animation then I am sure you are gonna appreciate what it has to offer.

I don´t know what is to come on next but I have been busy with life stuff recently and I don´t know when is the next post going to be let alone the topic... it will come to me but in the mean time check out my tumblr page here. Since I know I haven´t been putting up anything related to my project I felt like I could get someplace to share it.

Thank you again and stay tuned.

Star Wars Battlefront EA Game Review

Back when the game was announced I did shared my thoughts has to why Battlefront looked like a disappointment from the get go: many months have passed since then with many youtube reviewers giving their take on EA´s Battlefront, the hype for The Force Awakes has passed and now with a clean set of eyes I give my take on EA´s Battlefront... and I am so happy I didn´t expended a single dime on this at lunch because it is a true slap in the face not only to Star Wars fans but to players all over the world.

First a little history: When Disney bought LucasFilm in 2012, Electronic Arts rush is to acquire the rights to develop Star Wars video games and their licence was given for a total of 10 years (a pretty long time indeed), when this news reached me I knew they were going to develop a Battlefront game with DICE, the same people behind Battlefield; It was just common logic... Battlefield games are very popular among many so of course the cries of people for a new Battlefront practically ensured the eventually existence of the game.

And of course later on E3 we got a teaser trailer for a brand new Battlefront game... all I could think of was "I knew it". I knew I wasn´t going to buy this game and while many people got exited they seem to forget that not only this is the modern gaming industry where games are purposefully lunched with serious lack of content and out right broken but the the publisher behind it is Electronic Arts, the corporate beast that´s always looking to gauge consumers with every new game release and responsible for pioneering Day One DLC via pre-orders...  oh yeah the future of Star Wars games is looking very bright now huh?

I didn´t play this game at release since I refused to purchased an incomplete game with a 50$ season pass... making me pay for a whole other game just to get everything is offensive, but I´ll talk about this later how is the actual game... well there is no single player at all, so there is no story mode, galactic conquest, no regular bot matches no interesting use of maps or meaningful single player tasks. For people like me who enjoy taking it easy with a video game by myself this just isn´t the game I am looking for... this could have been somewhat easily fixed by giving us the option to play multiplayer matches offline against bot; I know many people argue that DICE should have included a campaign mode but I don´t think that would have helped anything because in a shooter like this campaign would´t have helped with replayability of the game.

For off line there due indeed are some modes to play:

-Training: is basically mini-misions that you can easily complete in 4 to 7 minutes.

-Battles: is basic generic matches against AI opponents or another player where you take them out and collect their fallen tokens, collect 100 and you win. You can also play has a hero against against the AI or another player and is the same basic rules only here you can be Luke Skywalker swinging a lightsaber.

-Survival: it is what it sounds like; you endure wave after wave of imperial soldiers coming after you until the game stops, I like this mode but it gets really boring and repetitive quickly... they could have made this mode much more interesting if they let you play has a hero or use vehicles but instead you just go on-foot at all times and occasionally protect drop pods against imperial forces.

There really isn´t much to say about single player, say you want to play Battlefront but for whatever reason your internet connection doesn´t work... well does modes are all you get you can easily complete the whole thing in less than 1 hour if you power through it.

Obviously EA and DICE want us to focus on the multiplayer... what do we get? meh... some fun game modes here and there, some alright modes and some modes you play once and never tough again.

I´ll go through them one by one:

-Walker Assault: This is the flagship mode of Battlefront EA, the one mode they use to sell us the game (the one we played on the beta, the one showed at the E3 demo, etc...). The Empire must protect the AT-AT through the battlefield while the Rebels try to take it down by calling Y-Wing support, it´s fun I´ll admit... however I don´t find it has fun after a while: it gets boring fast after just a couple of matches there are very few maps, granted thanks to a couple of patches that number has increased but I am sure that wasn´t the case at lunch.

-Supremacy: This is my favourite mode out of all the massive modes in the game, is all about capturing control points while pushing back the enemy... there are heroes fighting around, ships fighting above in the sky, etc... is pure all out warfare and it is very Star Wars indeed. Unfortunately unbalances ruin this mode, the empire can summon AT-ST´s and just wreck rebels left and right while the rebels don´t really have a way to counter the war-machines, this could have been easily fixed by giving the rebel players some form of ground vehicle like a tank but no because apparently it "isn´t cannon".

-Turning Point: This mode was included with the Battle of Jakku DLC (it is free though so that´s cool), where imperials must defend check points while rebels push them back, it is indeed similar to Supremacy but this time imperials don´t push forward... they only endure the rebel push, it gets really hard to hold the line at first but the last check point and is only one so it makes it a mouse trap for any player trapped in the middle no matter the side, it is incredibly hard for rebels to win the last check point though. It´s a harmless mode I guess but nothing special either

-Drop Zone: This mode is like "King of the Hill", supply pods are dropped into the battlefield so rebels and imperials must secure the pods from the opposing team, it´s alright but nothing special.

-Blast: Traditional team death match... nothing else to say...

-Cargo: Traditional "capture the flag" mode, is what it is really... you pick up the enemy cargo while protecting yours.

-Droid run: Is a variation of "king of the hill" mode where teams must capture 3 Gonk droids before the enemy team does, unlike supply drop, the droids are always on the move so is not as easy to protect them.

-Heroes vs Villains: Is a moba style game where players take the roll of one of the 3 heroes of both sides and must defeat the others, it´s a lot of fun to play has one of the iconic heroes and trying to take down the opposition although I feel like the rebel heroes are slightly better than the imperial heroes... however to be fair there doe is a layer of strategy to the game has you can easily be wrecked if you go at it alone even if you are a hero so is not so simple.

-Hero Hunt: A player controls a hero and must fend off wave after wave of player controlled enemy soldiers for has long has they can until they are inevitably destroyed by another player and they become the hero... not really a super fun mode, specially if you can´t become the hero.

-Fighter Squadron: After you get pasted the meh flight controls this mode is alright... just wreck any star fighter of the opposing faction you can encounter and you´ll do fine, however the rebels are highly over powered and the empire dozen´t really have a way to counter this so the rebels always win, at least in my experience.

In the whole all the game modes have major glaring problems:

In game modes like Supremacy and Walker Assault, the hero token´s placement is completely unfair for new players, since the same people who become the hero can go on ridiculous kill streaks while never loosing, why? because the heroes never have a time limit, you must take down the hero character so the player can go back to become a regular enemy soldier, new players will almost never get the chance of becoming a hero character since is a power up that you have to pick up somewhere in the battlefield.

There is lack of weapon variety in the game, no classes for players to pick up, instead you make a load out of weapons a-la Call of Duty. You will see players using almost the same load out always and it gets boring really fast.

The way your avatar looks is completely out of control, you can´t select many generic looks until you level up to rank 20 or 30... I wanted to play has the Twi´Lek but the game is telling I need to level up to Rank 50 to play has her (the maximum level in the game BTW). Many developers seem to think that attaching an experience bar on multiplayer games immediately makes it exiting but I just don´t have the time in my hands to level up my character for multiplayer matches... why not just allow us to get this elements from the very get go? why make up play your game so much? is this the definition of fun for some people? This is really stupid.

There is no space battles at all, a mode included on Battlefront 2 is completely absent on Battlefront EA... even on fighter squadron there is no way to fight in space since it´s always on a planetary surface.

No Clone Wars... you only get to play on the Galactic Civil War, another big insult since this could have provided much more variety to the game modes with more unit customisation, weapon variety, heroes, villains and planets. The exclusion of the clone wars seems to me like a lazy executive movement to safe costs.

EA has been excusing themselves by saying that the lack of a single player campaign and modes is due to that kind of development being "too expensive" so they would rather put their efforts into only multiplayer... has it resulted on a better experience?

The biggest insult of them all is the cost of the season pass... 50$

It´s insane that the cost of a whole entire other game will get you a couple of new maps and locations, how can some people accept this is unbelievable to me, perhaps is because some of this kids a 13 to 15 year olds that get the game from their parents and money dosen´t hurt them. I made a post a while back about video games becoming a luxury because of how expensive they are; to cut this topic short, I know that game development now days has become increasingly more complex and difficult to make thus costing more to develop... but asking your consumers to drop 120$ for a single video game is a horrible practice.

...and EA then wonders why people call them a "corporate beast"...

Star Wars Battlefront EA is not good because it relies only on it´s multiplayer component and there is absolutely nothing to say about single player because it´s so barebones that is a joke on the people who like to enjoy a game by themselves offline. Nothing lasts forever, eventually PSN and Xbox LIVE has well has online servers for PC will go offline... who is going to play this game then?

Naruto Shippuden Ultimate Ninja Storm 4 Game Review

So I´ve finally played through the main story and played pretty much every mode within the actual game, after much thought and playtime I feel I can safely say Ninja Storm 4 is the best of the series by far, improving many elements of the game even if there are some baffling choices that either don´t stick or hurt the game´s overall quality.

The story mode starts off pretty much where Storm 3 left off, except that I can´t help but feel that I missed something... like there is a part of the story that is just gone, I don´t know if it´s just me or maybe a section of Revolution or Generations that i missed by not playing them but it really hurt my immersion. The timeline of the story (or storyboard has they call it in the game) has a neat idea but it doesn´t go far enough with the concept, perhaps is due the fact that CyberConnect2 is sticking very closely to the manga but I don´t see why there can´t be more branching paths in the timeline.

The story itself is ok... it does go all the way to the end of the Naruto saga witch is the one thing CyberConnect2 has mentioned since the announcement and it does, however there is something about the way the story is told that just rubs me the wrong way and this has to do with my overall thoughts on the Naruto series in general; just to be quick... it seems to me like the story is making stuff up has it goes along, thus feeling long for unnecessary reasons but I then remember that Naruto´s main story is in the manga so the feeling of passage of time is much less easy to detect than in an anime aside from the fact that in mangas and comics the reader can take the story at their own rhythm. So because Ninja Storm 4 is mainly a video game the passing of the story is up to the creators and I don´t know who to blame for the way this story is presented: I could blame the team at CyberConnect2 for not telling the story well but I could also blame Masashi Kishimoto himself, for making this story feel more drowned out than necessary with elements clearly boing made up has it goes along or I could also blame myself for not reading the manga or watching the anime since I am sure many things about the story are cleared up there but the point of an adaptation is to have it stand out on it´s own with no need of external material...

Just like in previous Ninja Storm entries there are times where the player must partake in quick time events during fighting cutscenes, now unlike some people I don´t hate QTE´s, I feel like the developers can make them very interesting and relevant for the game experience if done right (example: the confrontation between Leon and Krauser in RE4, the QTE helps the player get into Leon´s place has he tries to keep up in a knife fight), Ninja Storm 4 allies it in a similar manner than the previous ones, it´s not necessary to succeed on every single one of them but I can´t say the general audience will like this element, all I can say about this QTE sequences is that is completely up to the player if they like them or not.

Ninja Storm 4 is mainly a fighting/brawler type of game in a 3D arena, the core game is still the same has in previous entries but this time it feels much more fluid because many of the same moves players could perform previously are not only slightly more easy but also allow much more mobility while in combat: basically substitutions are very easy to perform and is instant in contrast to how it was back in Storm 2, the chakra meter also depletes much faster specially if you are using a ninjutsu and even they added a counter-attack mechanic that is perfect to use after a substitution to incapacitate the opponent. The previous storm games also featured a vast cast of characters from the Naruto franchise and even though I haven´t played all of them I can tell there is a huge amount of characters in this roster (definitely more than in Storm 2 and 3 at least), although all of the characters have the same control scheme to perform combos and jutsus, pretty much every character has their own layout of play styles but there are still some imbalances between the characters like some ninjutsus are less effective than other´s witch hurts the balance of combat: this could have been easily solved by having every ninjutsu in the game deal the same amount of damage... I can understand if it´s a combo-like jutsu that gets interrupted but it´s not quite like that.

One thing that CyberConnect2 has always done very well is the cutscenes mostly the ones where there is heavy action and sometimes even some emotional scenes are very well animated: the character´s faces, movement and overall body language is very well done (from what I could gather all this animations are completely done by hand), has an animator I have to say is very impressive how stylish and detailed this cutscenes are, the team deserves to be commended by this.

The game also features plenty of modes for offline play:

-Normal VS matches against the AI or another player locally

-Survival mode were you battle endless opponents until you are defeated

-League that is basically a mini tournament with qualification style score

-Tournament mode with regular elimination brakets

-The adventure mode where you play has Naruto exploring the world and visiting different locations, doing side quests, etc...

What i can say about adventure mode is that is very lack lacklustre, there sure is a charm about just wandering around Konoha village with nothing bad happening but with only a few collectable items, side quest that usually revolve around helping a little kid find their missing cat and a few other light RPG style elements there isn´t really that much to keep you coming back after you are done with it.

You also collect in-game-money after every battle you win and depending on your rating at the end of the match you can multiply the overall revenue has well has collecting certain materials used to purchased special items in the store, it´s a good choice to have this material type of currency since money is easy to come by in the game, however a better way to balance this is by increasing the price of those special items since this could insight for more playthroughs to earn the amount desired for the player to obtain these collectables.

The online mode is what it is basically: like in any fighting game you have regular online matches against other people, ranked matches, etc... however the connection online is awful, even when both players have good connection it´s still jacked, there due are bonus for logging in daily for materials and certain online events where you battle rounds of AI opponents under certain conditions, it´s fun but just not enough to keep my interest.

Acording to CyberConnect2 this entry is the last in the series... and I hope so because in my opinion Naruto should have ended a good while ago, with the story in this entry reaching to the very end on the Shippuden timeline maybe it is a good place to stop altogether at least for a while. Overall: I do am glad I bought this game, it has its flaws and it could have been better but it really feels like a vast improvement over what I played from the previous entries... I cannot recommend this game to regular casuals unless you are a die hard naruto fan or if you are like me and enjoy the naruto franchise has a regular anime viewer.

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Thank you for reading:

The next game I plan to review is Star Wars Battlefront... I have been able to get it borrowed from a friend and I intent to dissect this game has best I can, I know it is kinda late to review this game but I don´t look to analyse video games by how new of old they are.

I´ve also starter a Tumblr page here and of course I due plan to keep it updated, since I haven´t posted anything related to my current project this tumblr site will be addicted fully to that.

Thank you again for checking in and stay tuned for more