Moar marvel vs capcom 3 news yesterday! The reveals were hype and eveyone went absolutely nuts! There were about 4 reveals, Im gonna skim through them real quick.




For the marvel side's number one, we have she-hulk. She looks hot in her character artwork, but other than that, shes really a stupid choice, just like X-23. Nothing more than a hulk clone, though her gameplay roughly differs from hulk, she is more of a beatdown character. She has pretty good damage, a pretty stupid running animation, 1 retarded super and a stupid level 3 hyper. I really dont see the point of adding her in. I would prefer me some miss marvel.



Zero looks like a really good choice. Then again, Im a huge MMX fan and am a bigger zero fan, of all versions( MMX,MMZ,MMZX). I really hoped for aile from ZX, but the MMX zero is fine to me. He looks really powerful ( in fact, too powerful, somewhat dante tier), with combos that look unbreakable, and some insane teleporting prowess. Also so far he does have a butt load of special moves from the gameplay videos. Though I must say his level 3 hyper looks plain, hes an overall solid looking character.


Up for DLC here is shuma gorath. Shuma was fun in MVC 2, I dont understand all the shuma hate around the web, I think hes a solid choice. But since hes for DLC I dont suppose he will be ready to play right off the get-go. Will look foward to using him.


Also up for DLC is jill from RE. Many dont like her new look, same here, the old ones were better. But still, liking the nina williams look, and with that red thing in her chest, I suppose thes a villian in the game.
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Thats it for now, hoping for more to be revealed.



Monday, 15 November 2010

Pokemon ranger: Shadows of almia

gamespot score:7.5 (good)

my score:8.0

(+)Pros:- same old addicting pokemon "capturing" system,- difficulty balances things out and makes the game feel right,- plenty more pokemon to capture than the previous game,- has a lenghty story to keep you occupied for a long time

(-)cons:- side quests distract from the fun,- not much major gameplay improvements



gameplay time:20-30 hours(average)



Now that the AFA madness has subsided, its time to get back to business. Since I have been mass playing pokemon soul silver these days, Im gonna do a pokemon game review today to keep me on my pokemon fever. Shadows of almia is the sequel to the 1st pokemon ranger game, and it features the same stylus system as before, with a brand new adventure and a brand new continent. Shadows of almia in my opinion is more fun than the 1st pokemon ranger, with its new lenghty story and more variety of pokemon, you are in for a good ride.





The story pretty much starts out pretty good. You are a highly sopisticated kid who wants to become a pokemon ranger, thus you enter ranger school. There you meet a couple of "best" friends, one whom wants to be a ranger base operator, the other wants to be a pokemon ranger like you. After graudating with a happy ending you all get to be what you want, and you are transfered to a ranger base. There you accpet missiions from townsfolk and your superiors to capture pokemon, solve problems, blah blah blah. And as usual there is always bad brewing beding the works, this time its not the geo rock squad, its something much much more sinister featuring a more "classic" bad guy team set.







Shadows of almia provides the same old addictive gameplay featured back in the 1st game. As you do missions you go around fields or caves and many other different areas. In these areas all you need to do is reach the end which you will most of them time potentially find the source of the problem. Of course to get to the end you are hindered by mere obstacles such boulders, wooden fences, or bushes on fire. Your character doenst even know how to swim across mere lakes or rivers!~ So what do you do? This game fortunately puts ur brain to work and gets you on some backtracking. To counter these obstacles you catch pokemon corresponding to the obstacle. If its a bush on fire, catch a water pokemon to douse it out. If its a boulder, get a fighting pokemon to smash it. If its a river, ctach some pokemon who can swim and get it to bring u across. This system of catching what you need is really cool, since it always reminds you to catch what is needed and bring more pokemon than you should during your treks.


Of course, the game's more addictive aspect is here, the moment of pokemon circling. To catch the pokemon, you walk to them on the map to engage in a "battle". Though many a time there are aggresive pokemon that will come to you without need to approach it. During capturing, you draw loops around the pokemon in the touch screen with your stylus. Be careful cause when drawing the loop you cannot touch the pokemon or its attacks or the loop will break. Each successful loop will do 1 damage to the pokemon. After u successfully reduce its "HP" to 0, you will add it to your party. Of course if your loop drawing is interupted halfway the pokemon will have it hp reverted to the max. Also if the pokemon attaacks your circle while you are looping around it, you will suffer damage. And if your hp drops to 0, game over. If you find things hard, you can always use the pokemon that you already have and use thier assists. Examples are such, fighting poke assists make your loops do 2x damage. Grass assists make grass appear around the loops, making the enemy stuck. There are tons of assists out there, making the game sprout with a variety of options available during a battle.



Altough pokemon ranger is a great experience that can compare to its original counterpart. It is plagued with some extremely boring side quests. Besides the end game few side quests, the regular listening to rantings of townspeople is really annoying. The requests are repititive that it gets so old. The rewards arent very rewarding anyway, so its best to ignore most of them. Also, besides making the game look more "stylish" by adding new frames and throwing in a couple more attribute types, the game doenst have any new improvements. New pokemon aside, the rest of the game feels some sort recycled.

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Shadows of almia is sure to please those who enjoyed the 1st pokemon ranger. Those who love the original pokemon games should give this a spin too. The lenghty main story is more than enough to keep players occupied for at least 25 hours or so, that means you will be glued to the DS screen for quite awhile. This is one for the pokemon fans.




Happy gaming.

Saturday, 13 November 2010

Anime festival asia 2010

Alright grab a chair cause this is gonna be a long post. I just came back from anime festival asia today and am as tired as fuck, so im gonna mosey on and do something lazy.

This is my 1st year at the AFA, and boy, it is amazing. Didnt noe that singapore would have soooooooo many anime fans! The place was like, mother farking packed!!! We were pratcially like canned sardines. Without further ado, here it is, my day at the AFA 2010. ( All pictures were shot on scene in real life, though my camera skills may not be too good so bear with the pictures).






Okay so I promised to meet my friend at the convention center, where this was supposed to be held. The thing was at 10am, yet my friend told me to meet him at 8am. I thought he was retarded, to go there 2 hours earlier. Anyway I woke up late and took a cab there as I didnt want to keep him waiting, when i reached the place and looked around for my friend, I saw tons of people cosplaying as hatsune miku and some other vocaloids. Only 1 word, awesome.

Anyway I saw my friend and we went to buy some tickets, but, to my dismay.....the place was packed. The queue was tremendous! Due to some blogger issues I couldnt upload a vidoe I took featuring me walking from the beggining of the queue to the end, its frigging amazing! Added all together and when placed in a straight line, its easily longer than a chinese mystical dragon. And the stupid thing is, we were 2 hours early! These guys must have came here at like 6am or something.

So we queued and we queued while I played my PSP to pass time. Unfortunately I 4get to charge the damn thing before leaving and it flattened out after 10 minutes or so. Bummer. So at 9.30 am( thats 1 and a half hours of queueing), we were at the ticket counter. WOOOO. I bought some tickets for myself and for some of my other friends and brother, which were supposed to meet me later. While queuing we saw plenty of cosplayers! Some were awesome some were not, anyway that got me pumped! Without further ado we went inside.




So here we are! Straight up in the convention centre, at 9.40 am( I think they opened like 30 minutes earlier). The placed was fking crowded I could hardly move. When inside, i turned my head right, and there it was, the 1st thing I saw. The hatsune miku project diva arcade machine!!
OMG. I immediately snapped a pic, there it is, right in action. The graphics were awesome, but too bad, the queue for the game was equally horrendous to the queue outside, so I had to pass. Some other time maybe.




Cosplayers and otakus ahoy! The placed was filled with anime goodness, ranging from horny pillow casings to figurines. Some of the figurines are amazing, they are pretty damn tempting, its too bad majority of them cost over 50 bucks. I was stupid enough to bring only 50 bucks and I had no choice but to pass. I will bring more money next year for sure! Those black rock shooter figurines will be mine.


On a side note it seems the 2 most popular anime in singapore currently are black rock shooter and angel beats, and maybe some of K-on. Black rock shooter is EVERYWHERE. They have figurines displayed around like jewelry, they have posters, files, EVERYTHING. Angel beats was also pretty much in demand, with posters and posters and more posters. Same with K-on, but it seems to be slightly losing out to be angel beats. Them otakus are CRAZY, I think they spent over hundreds at the AFA today, carrying tons of bags with tons of goodies....damn I was pretty jealous.


AFA also had a column for artwork to be displayed. Some of these were amazing, I snapped a few quick shots of the best 2.



This is kinda blur, but well its was crowded and I coudlnt stay in 1 place for too long.
Next up me and my friend went to the stage area for some event. There we met danny choo, the director and producer for AFA 2010. He was a cool ass guy, hes a major otaku, and hes married!!! WTF!! Anyway he showed the crowd at the stage area a programme called japan pop culture, which is gonna be showed on animax soon. It was mostly a show about most things anime related, and also showing off some of japan's coolest technology and shit. Pretty cool show, too bad it didnt last that long.


After we were out of the stage area we went back to the main attractions. There was a karaoke area where poeple would siing their favourite japanese songs, but it was too fking crowded to even snap a picture of anything. Then there was this. It was a car with a gundam do-over job. It was cool, but there was one with anime babes on it. That one I coudlnt get a shot of unfortunately, due to space constraint issues.
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There was also a MAID CAFE OMG. But it was PACKED AS FUCK. That was my only regret for this year's AFA, I coudlnt go to the maid cafe.... I swear me and my friend tried to go in, but it was so crowded in the morning that we decided to try again in the afternoon. But when we looked in the brochure, there was a special K-on girls appearance in the cafe. So guess what, the queue only got longer, HAHAHAHA. I guess I'll try again next year.


So i went around snipping cosplay pictures. Coudlnt get that many due to as usual, space constraints. Around noon, like 1-2pm-ish. There was a super street fighter 4 fight club being established. The people there were mostly crazy SSF4 gamers. I managed to snap a pic, though it was rather low quality, I think someone bumped into me. Anyway hours of cosplay hunting later, when we came back here there was a blazblue fight club established! But the crowd was estathic, I couldnt get a picutre. There was also this rachel alucard cosplayer, she was hot, hot as heels. I wanted to take a picure but snapping a pic of her back seemed pointless. I coudlnt get her attention as she was busy looking at the game -.-.
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After MORE looking around ( this time at swords and hollow masks and guns and counter strike and call of duty cosplayers), we decided that we have seen pretty much everything, and decided to head into the stage area for some slack time. It was around 3.50-4pm, the gundam 00 movie jus screened finished and it was mostly a full house. We somehow managed to sneak a few seats and slack. Since the placed was bloody full, we suspected something big was coming and decided to stay in our seats. I sneaked a pic of the stage area.


See how outragously packed it is???!?!! Otakus from all around, both male and female, were spread across the hundreds ( maybe close to a thousand) of seats. There even people standing and sitting on the floors due to the lack of seats. My god I have never seen so many people for an anime event. After some wait we got to see Jam project and ichirou mizuki on stage. The crowd went wild for jam project, people were shouting, screaming and raising thier hands like a bunch of rebels. And though ichirou mizuki was an old 50+ year old fella whom I tot wud have sucked, when he went on stage the crowd simply exploded. Altough he was 50, on stage he seemed like 20! He was bursting with energy, his voice simply echoed through the whole stage area! That was simply terrific, though they didnt sing any songs, since the anisong concert is on later in the day. * Quietly runs off to get some jam project and ichirou mizuki songs*

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Lastly, as the final "big" event of the day. We stayed at the stage area after the intro of the 2 artists. We actually just wanted to slack off in our seats, but minutes later, we were prepared for another shock. On stage then was kana hanazawa! Ok I thought the crowd reactions for jam project and ichirou mizuki were crazy, when kana hanazawa came on stage, the whole stage area crowd literally STOOD UP. Yeap, no1 was sitting on thier comfy chairs anymore. Everyone was standing to grab a look at the seiyuu that just arrived on stage. The whole damn thing was pretty hectic, and when she was doing LIVE lines on stage people totally hushed to hear her lines. Amazing! Finally when she was signing pieces of art for fans people were ESTATIC for them, they were literally SCREAMING.
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Theres really nothing much else to say, so heres some cosplay pics before I close off.






2 princesscy looking ladies from and unknown anime/game.



The varia in action!



Possibly one of the best fellas in the area. Sepiroth is the shit, that wing looks pretty damn real up close.




Probably 2 of the hottest cosplayers. They were followed EVERYWHERE, throughout the WHOLE DAY. Seriously they are pretty damn hot up close.



Taokaka! Kinda blur since I was kinda rushing against the crowd.


Kamen rider! They are pretty rare in the field this was the only pair around. And if you ask me they arent half bad.




Storm trooper from star wars and yumi from black rock shooter. This is mostly for yumi, shes a pretty good cosplayer, loving that scythe.



Lelouch and some random.......person. Mostly for lelouch.



5 girls prancing around, 4 of them surrounding one squatting on the floor looking cute. Not a bad group, they were like doing a mini skit lol.

Persona 4!!!! Nothing much to say here exepct greatness. Yosuke in my opinion is better than the MC cosplayer.



Kinda blur but the girl in the blue kimono is pretty hot. The other one isnt half bad too.



Oh fck yeah the bleach team. Looking pretty awesome. I would say halibel is the best looking among the bunch but shes currently being blocked by gin.
I have some more but these were the best ones among the few. I missed quite a lot of good ones though, like ichigo, naruto, some good hatsune mikus, the call of duty and counter strike people, hazama...and many more. Kinda regretted, but be sure next year I will bring a proper camera. Oh yeah and I didnt want to leave empty handed, so at the last minute I went to buy a poster.





Heres a picture of it, kinda blur but it should be easy to see that its just a crazy girl trying to rip something up. Its really a work of art, its hanging up in my room now. Unfortunely I wont be going for the AFA's 2nd day due to homework -.-. So this is goodbye for now. I WILL BE BACK NEXT YEAR, WITH A CAMERA AND MORE MONEY.
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AFA FTW.
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Keep rocking on. Peace.

Tuesday, 9 November 2010

You like gunz?CLICKZZ!!!( CANAAN review)

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Opening songs-OP 1: Mind as judgement
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genres:action, mystery
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episodes:13
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BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG! Words themselves by the great deadpool. Guns are pretty awesome, and with thier developement to the world, probably every modern day action show in history has made use of guns. Animes are no different. Today I review CANAAN, a pretty run of the mill anime that features action with guns, and pretty much everyone shoots each other up that its not really interesting. Luckily, the show has a pretty robust story that backs up its plain style action.
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The show only has one opening, its mind as judgement from faylan. Didnt know a thing about her at 1st, it was mind as judgement which opened my ears to her songs. Mind as judgement is a great song. 10....9....8....7....6...5...4....3....2....1....OVERDIRVE. Nuff said, its a pretty goddamn solid song.
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rating:7.0/10
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CANAAN looks like a pretty normal show with nothing special in it, just people shooting each other. I 1st thought this was a darker than black wanabe, with a female protoganist and only instead of the cool ass rope knives she uses just a pistol. The show's action is average to mediocre, though one can only image gun fights to be interesting to a certain degree, so its actually hard to blame anyone for this.
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The show talks about a young female reporter maria and her partner who went to shanghai for a cover up story. And of course another one of the show's protoganists is canaan, a mercenary working for an unknown employer in shanghai. She also happens to be maria's childhood friend. On her 1st day in the shanghai streets, maria encounters a group of biologically viral infected terrorists who try to attack her. She is later saved by canaan, who eventually manages to fend them off, as canaan has somewhat a power of foresight, which allows her to see colors of emotion to sense attacks. The show later proceeds to figuring out canaan and maria's past, and it later shows an attack by a terrorsit group, whose leader has some sort of grudge against canaan herself,the story is then followed by a strong story of friendship which manages to drag out the whole show itself and make itself look good.
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While CANAAN might be a pretty plain and ordinary show, a good show of friendship and , impressive plot continue to make it shine. Overall CANAAN is not as ordinary as you think and is pretty much worth a watch.
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Peace.

Thursday, 4 November 2010

Singularity

gamespot score:8.0( great)

my score:7.7(good)


(+)pros:-variety of enemies to kill and defeat,-good boss fights,- exploiting TMD moments is an absolute blast,- seeker is one of the best weapons in all of gaming history,- online play totally kicks ass,- difficulty is just right,- upgrading of weapons add more strategizing in future battles of what weapons to use,- good multiple endings

(-)cons:- campaign is rather inferoir to online,- some slight glitches,- annoying voice acting


gameplay time:20-30 hours( average)






Singularity. A game I DID NOT want to buy AT ALL. This was my brother's purchase, he was dead set on getting this game, so yeah I jus played along. So here it is, singularity. I must say this game is not very popular, since the servers over here are practically dead, its always the same few players over and over, and they are pretty damn high leveled. Its a pity though, given the game's great online play, more people shud be getting this to jump into online. Anyway, get ready for one very generic 1st person shooter review.




The story of singularity is pretty okay. You star as captian reiko, you are going on a mission to a deserted island with your very own team of soldiers. While traveling to the island the platoon is hit with a devastating EMP blast while on thier helicopters, and all crash onto the island. Naturally, as any shooter with such a story would have it, you are the only survivor, and while navigating thorugh the area, you realize one of your teamates is still alive, and start traveling towards him. In your travels you learn about E99, and the orgin of the island, while experiencing your very 1st time travel back in time. You later come to understand the power of E99 and the existance of the TMD( time manipulation device), and the people who are after it.






Singularity is your very generic 1st person shooter game, with a TMD thrown in to make things less boring. Just like every FPS you get weapons and start shooting the shit out of your enemies, be it the E99 mutated freaks or russian soldiers who are just after your TMD. You get some guns, which you can upgrade to make stronger, and some guns which cannot be upgraded and are only for one time use. Some of these are the shotgun, valykrion rifle, pistol and many more, which include a sniper which can slow down time when zoomed. Its cool, but its quite typical now that I have seen it in so many games. You also of course, have your TMD, which has the ability to age people to death and do other various things, such as age or revert items, or turning people into mindless zombies.


Now let me get to the game's core and great feature, its online. Online play is basically simple, you get your basic run of the mill modes, deathmatches and whatnot. But whats fun about the online is tat during matches, you can choose your classes and weapons before going into battle. For both humans and creatures, you have both many varieties to choose from. While both sides have classes that heal team mates, each have thier own special class abilities. Humans have classes that allow them to reflect melee damage, they have classes that allow them to cast impluse, to fling opponents away. Creatures have classes that allow them to take control of humans, allow them to be invisible and some big ass class that basically does painful damage and tanks alot of hits. Online macthes are a blast, as humans you stick together and cover each other's backs. As creatures you camp at different areas and lay ambushes. It never fails to walk up front to anticipate creature attacks as a blitzer, or go sneaking up on your enemies as a phase tick, then take control of them.




Singularity does fall short, mostly in terms of the campagin. Compared to the online, the campiagn is just a mere speck. The campiagn falls short in many ways, puzzles ( they are boring as hell, simple as fck, and I see no point to them), story( its kinda predictable), and others. Most are the glitches. You can walk thorugh some boxes or walls, and go undamaged when triggering mines. You can also get shot while behind walls, cool huh. These only happen during campaign though so dont worry about these hampering your online fun. Also, the voice acting is kinda bad, especially doctor barisov. Though there arent many characters in the game with voices, they mostly suck. The only one with a decent voice is your crewmate at the start of the game.
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Singularity is a very generic shooter, with a slighty lousy campaign and a great online mode. Overall, its a good experience if you can overlook the campaign. Packed in with loads of online experience, online play is what one should be looking for in a shooter such as this.




Happy gaming.