Gravity Rush Game Review

I guess more than a simple review; look at this has more of a "look back at" but because I technically speaking am going to review this game in mechanics, graphics and what not... but the story behind this game is actually quite interesting if you can believe it.

Keiichiro Toyama is a remarked game creator in Japan, although must of his work is related to horror games like the original Silent Hill game and the Siren series (excellent games in their own regard), Toyama didn´t quite started has a programmer but has a graphics artist, working for Konami... His directing debut came to fruition with Silent Hill where not only did he directed but wrote the project, eventually he moved on to work on the Siren series where in my opinion he started a more original writing style mostly based on the fact that Siren itself is quite simple in concept but complex in execution, most of the characters resemble the original Silent Hill cast if you ask me, of course the writing makes that much less obvious.

What this gave Toyama is his experience to develop Gravity Rush, a game that according to him started almost 10 years before it´s actual development, that is pre-dating the development of his other projects including Silent Hill. Keiichiro Toyama said he was inspired by the french comics of Jean Giraud in his youth to create the world of Gravity Rush... At one point in development the game was going to feature photorealistic graphics, but after looking at the market being over saturated by realistic graphics Toyama saw fitting to instead create an anime look with cell-shaded graphics... all before finally moving the project to the PS Vita.

So what about the game itself? Is it any good? Well my answer is yes.

The plot is set in the floating city of Haksevile and the player takes control of Kat, a girl who lost her memory and has the power to shift gravity at will with the help of her pet cat Dusty, so unlike flying like Superman, has it seems from videos and other footage Kat is more like falling to the direction witch she is shifting gravity to, thinking about it is an interesting fair:

The gameplay of Gravity Rush is a mixture of open world, platforming, combat and exploration with many different mini-games to partake in to level up aside from the main story missions. For the most part the story has more the feel of a 24 episode anime than anything else, although Toyama stated he wrote the story with more american influences in order to appeal to a wider audience, the story itself has the heart of normal anime (and a good one at that if I may add), the characters are likable; Kat herself is lovely in her innocence, the universe and lore is actually kinda cool... unfortunately is not explored has much has I would have preferred considering that the game centers more on the plot than the lore witch is good, but I think this game deserved a better balance between the two.

Gravity Rush has it´s heart in the right place and because of that is hard to look at this game has anything less than a work of love, passion and shirr creative will to make something you want...

I think the game deserves to be played, unfortunately is only available in PS Vita (A system that in and of itself isn´t exactly popular or selling very well) but if you own a Vita or are planning on getting one Gravity Rush is a must own for it´s library.

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Hello guys!

I am very sorry for the long disappearance, it wasn't my intention to be honest I have been having plenty of social compromises this past weeks, believe me that I want to continue doing this game and movie reviews.

I want to retackle Inside Out again has there are somethings I have been feeling about the movie after watching it again with my brothers, has well has other games and series (I want to review the web series RWBY).

Thank you guys I know the wait must have been hard but I promise to extend the content of the blog in time.

Terminator Genesis Movie Review

I finally got around to watch Terminator Genesis the other day and my thoughts are just... *sigh* I think is not very good

I will admit that my expectations for this movie weren't particularly high, in fact much of my uncertainties for this movie manifested themselves from the trailers I watched. Now if you have read my thoughts on the previous Terminator films you are probably aware that I really enjoyed the first two has they are just classic movies at this point and tolerated T3 and Salvation for what they were... I can't say I like Genesis though has there are too many elements that are just stretched and forced far too much here.

The theme of genesis is that the timeline has been reseted... so now the events of T1 are completely different to the point that they pretty much didn't happen at all, John Connor is a terminator (it was in the trailers so is not a spoiler technically) and Sarah Connor is a badass from the start. Let me state that my first problem with the film comes from the time placement they choose for this movie: Why reset the terminator timeline? Why not continue from where Salvation left off? Why start at the point of T1?

One idea the movie had I really liked was the point that Sarah was saved when she was a child by a terminator, I would have rather had that explored more in a full movie instead of "reseting the timeline". Terminator Genesis is not really a good integration into the franchise, maybe has a stand alone movie is fine but has a terminator movie it just tried to hard on so many levels and forced too much for me to really "like" it... I say i like the action but I doubt I would watch it again.

Is hard for me to form gathering thoughts about this particular movie has I just have little to really say... I hated the "reboot" element, the story wasn't that interesting and the unexpanded ideas makes for a pretty forgettable experience overall.

Remembering Satoru Iwata

When the news that Mr. Iwata passed away the gaming industry let it be known how much it had lost... many have voices their thoughts via you tube videos, tweets, Facebook, etc... there is no doubt that Mr. Iwata has left a big hole in the gaming world.

In case you are unaware about who is Satoru Iwata, he was the CEO and president of nintendo but that is not the reason why people mourn his passing; Iwata was involved in the development of many games that marked the gaming experience of millions around the world like Ballon Fight on the NES, Super Smash Brothers Melee on the Game Cube and even Pokemon Gold and Silver for the GBC back when they thought the game was impossible to code on a cartridge, Iwata found a way.

What makes the passing of Mr. Satoru Iwata all the more tragic is the fact that he left this world way to young at the age of 55, that is still at a time where life continues; the tumor that Iwata fought was present since the year 2014, in fact he was absent of E3 at the time because of that very reason...

I have never really gave my full thoughts on the state of nintendo has how they are, however I will admit that I personally disagreed with the business choices that Mr. Iwata had made, I often thought that he should have stepped down has CEO and let someone else takeover... but I never wished death to the men, what makes his passing specially tragic for me is the fact that I grew up with nintendo consoles in my childhood and like many who grew up playing games, nintendo has meant a lot to me... to know now that Iwata had a hand on some of does games like SMB Melee and Kirby 64 makes me fell specially sad for never knowing this before his passing.

It breaks my heart to know that someone so young has passed away, I know what is like to loose a family member so my condolences to his family and friends... The gaming industry has lost a visionary men, even if I didn´t agree with his decisions has CEO of nintendo, I admire his work has game designer and his "Iwata Asks" sessions of nintendo direct; he was indeed a great person who always wanted what was best for his workers, friends and the fans.

RIP Satoru Iwata

Thoughts on the Batman Arkham series

So Arkham Knight is out... and I don´t care...

I don´t have exactly nice things to say about the Arkham games, so if you are a fan keep in my that this is just my personal thoughts that I want to transcribe into this post because I have been hearing plenty about Batman Arkham Knight recently and how "amazing" it is (If you discount the PC version).

I need to start with a preemptive defense here because my thoughts are sure to anger some of the fans of this series of games... What I am about to express is not hatred for the Batman character or Arkham games, I just want to transcribe in a short way why I am not fascinated by this franchise and what it does wrong... with that out of my chest let´s begin:

So the Batman Arkham games are set in the Batman universe (duh) with the first entry being Arkham Asylum where the Batman faces a riot started by his arch nemesis the Joker pretty much by himself with no backup from the police... in a general perspective the game is not bad by any means, I can´t hate it for that but I wasn't blown by it either. At the time, super hero games were limited to being movie license titles or the likes with a clear level of mediocrity and Arkham Asylum came in to break that mold and in that regard I can respect the title, it settled a standard for super hero games to live up to. Asylum in general is average, What do I mean? Well the stealth and combat are very bear bones unlike what many people have said, when in combat tap a single button to dodge and you´ll be fine... is not really "refined" has many reviewers have said if anything is extremely simplistic, same with stealth, just taking down the guys being from the top of this gargoyle statues "arbitrarily" in every stealth section.

Asylum is an ok game in general that created a new and brighter standard for superhero games, one that many devs have to live to when they attempt to make a superhero game now. With the success of Arkham Asylum a sequel had to be made no?

Arkham City is the sequel to the "hit" game of Asylum and while it retains the same mechanics and gameplay features now it is open world... yay? this only means you do the same thing only for much longer, the main problem I have with this game is that despite having a bigger budget and more development time they only translated the mechanics of Asylum into a bigger map that´s really all they did. You are probably thinking "Well if it ain´t broke don´t fix it!" but I never said Asylum was broken I said they needed to add depth to the core elements of combat and stealth.

I know that City is more beloved than Asylum, but put into perspective there is literally no difference, I can´t think of any new mechanics except perhaps the stealth, witch I admit is slightly better than in Asylum, but still very similar. The exploration is ok and in all fairness it does check the boxes when it comes to open world content needed, there are side quests, challenges, places to explore, etc...

I believe in giving credit where credit is due however, these games in general are polished and I don´t doubt that the devs put a lot of love and care into the making of this games... has of Arkham Knight, don´t really care enough to give it a shot, judging by looks AND looks alone, it´s Arkham City with a new code of paint...

Keep in mind my intention with this comments is not to keep you batman fans away from these games, I am just giving my take on to why i don´t care... I say this because I just want to  provide closure to does asking me to review Arkham Knight; there are plenty of reviewers out there that have tackled this title and provide very well balanced thoughts about it.

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Still working on the tutorial guys, sorry for the wait it´s taking me longer than I thought... If not out by this weekend maybe by the beginning of the next.