Wednesday, August 26, 2015

Fort Meow (Game Review)

The concept of Fort Meow is just too adorable to pass up. A unique cartoon style of physics-based tower defence as you build a fort out of various household items to defend Isa from the cats that desperately want to sleep on your lap.

Fat Cat incoming!
Isa goes to spend her school holidays with her grandparents, only to arrive to an empty house. Not surprising as her grandfather in having surgery at the hospital. So Isa heads up to the attic, her favourite place in the whole house to go treasure hunting. She finds her grandfather's journal and begins to read, but suddenly a cat jumps on her lap, stopping her from reading. There are more cats coming, desperate to stop her from reading her grandfather's journal. Why are there so many cats and why are they so desperate to stop her? The story is quite cute and does a good job of at least giving some sense of progression in the game, though overall it's not that compelling.

The real driver of this game is the physics-based gameplay. You have to construct a fort out of various household objects using a limited amount of resources cleverly designed as 'time'. You're not actually on a time limit, but it reflects how long it takes to get each item. You can only have a limited number of each item and everything has various hit points and special abilities. Items range from simple objects, such as pillows and tough coffee tables, to more exquisite items such as the foam dart launcher and washing basket. The various kinds of cats that the game has (six in all) will force you to change tactics. Fat cats are very destructive, requiring you to place bean bags to repel them. Melon cats come low and fast, taking out the sides of your fort in an effort to bring your whole structure crumbling down. To me, the best part of this game is the fort building and watching as it attempts to withstand the cat assault. You can't do much except use some special items during 'Defence Mode', which makes watching the assault that much more nail-biting.

Explore the house to unlock new items for your fort.
In all, Fort Meow just encompasses everything in a perfect little package. It plays directly into your childhood (or adult) fantasies of fort building all while in a well-drawn cartoon style. Everything is just done so well, but the game is short. I finished the story in about three hours and spent another three unlocking all the achievements. I felt that the value you get from it was worth it's asking price of $8 and I definitely had a lot of fun playing Fort Meow.

Monday, August 17, 2015

Btooom! (Anime)




Ryōta Sakamoto, ranked 10 in the world in an online video game called BTOOOM!, wakes to find himself on a desert island where he has to play his favourite game for real.

Has a distinct 'Battle Royal' influence with a unique take using various explosives called 'Bims'. Deals with some serious adult themes and has extreme violence, but keeps the gore to a minimum (there is still a bit of gore though). Some fan-service, but not used in a blatant nonsensical fashion for the sake of it (i.e. H.O.T.D.).

Currently available on Netflix in English dub. Voice acting was a bit bland, but the story was entertaining and characters are interesting.

1 Volume, 12 Episodes. Future volumes pending manga release.

I enjoyed it. It's as long as it should be: 8/10


Burning Gas Bims = OP. Nerf plz.


Monday, May 4, 2015

The Order: 1886 (Game Review)



Set in an alternative steampunk England that is governed by The Order, a legion of knights based after King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table. Having found the Holy Grail, they have achieved a sense of immortality by using Blackwater, a liquid that prevents aging and heals wounds with amazing speed. As a member of The Order, you play as Sir Galahad, sent to deal with a growing uprising of rebels against The Order and the Monarchy. Things aren't as they seem as some of the rebels are lycans, humans that can turn into werewolves.


The plot thickens later and becomes the usual ordeal of rebels actually not so bad, corruption in government and vampire subterfuge. The story is decent, but it plays it safe and doesn't make any surprise twists. It progresses slowly though, and it feels very drawn out. Despite being cliché, the story does hold the game together well and is engaging enough to not leave you bored.

Visually, the game is amazing. It clearly demonstrates the graphics power of the PS4 and is amazing to look at. It has the grungy look of 1886 London, but the steampunk design adds a flair of colour and brightness to most levels. The motion capture and character design is probably the best feature of the game. It is amazing and beautiful to look at, completely faultless.

If I had to compare the combat system to another game, it would be Gears of War. It is incredibly similar, warts and all. Right down to the cover system, health regen and combat variety. It doesn't hurt the overall experience, but it doesn't help it either. It tries to do other things, like stealth sections and environment exploring, but it's spread far too thin. The stealth is a clunky quick-time event charade and the environment is messy and cluttered and I often couldn't find my way. The detail put into some areas that were completely inconsequential was astounding. I walked into a room that was so well detailed, but didn't lead anywhere. It was confusing and annoying to repeatedly get lost because of an over-complicated environment.


Although it features vampires and werewolves, it sadly overlooks any unique encounters with these creatures. Werewolves do a hit-and-run tactic repeatedly, easily overcome by sitting in a corner and waiting for them to charge you. The elder werewolf encounters are reduced to a quicktime fight, and the only werewolf you actually kill is trapped inside a cutscene. You will kill lots of human enemies though, oh so many. The AI is pretty average by today's standards, and it's easy to predict their movements. Shotgunners will charge you, snipers will sit at the back and everyone else runs for cover or tries to flank. Combat encounters are broken up with short environment crawls or cutscenes, often completely ruining the pacing.

The game wants to show you how pretty it is really badly. You can look at inconsequential pieces of paper, closely examine items in your hands or listen to audio recordings. I was so bored by the jarring and slow pacing that I ignored the audio files, eventually stopped looking at the papers and yelled in rage every time I was forced to spend ten seconds looking at something in my hand that I didn't really care about.

Visuals and mediocre story is the only thing holding this game together. Even with that said, the game gives a giant middle finger when the story ultimately doesn't resolve in any way and finishes with a disappointing quicktime fight. The combat is more of the same, but is horribly broken up by bad pacing and illogical encounters. I hated playing The Order so much, but thankfully you never have to pick it up again since it has no replay value, unless you're a completionist, in which case I feel sorry for you.

Friday, April 24, 2015

Double Movie Feature: Halo 4: Forward Unto Dawn / John Dies at the End



Originally a five part miniseries, the movie was a small feature released prior to the Xbox release of Halo 4. It follows the story of Lasky, the commander of the ship 'Forward Unto Dawn', and his training years at the academy. His struggle to find his place in his floundering unit and his health problems are just a speck when faced with a new enemy, the Covenant.

It's kind of hard to judge this appropriately, as it is a small indie film with a bigger budget. It was very interesting for the first ten minutes, slow and boring for the next forty minutes and then action-packed for the next half hour. The characters were poorly developed, but the special effects and overall story was good. This isn't meant to be a feature film, but its higher budget makes it feel like it should have been better.

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Don't listen to the description this movie gives you. I still don't really know what happened, but it involved two guys named David and John, some strange drug that gives you control over time and space and an all-powerful sentient being from another dimension.

It's strange, confusing and erratic, but there is a plot in there somewhere. Regardless, it was a fun journey as long as your head doesn't explode, which happened a lot in the movie.

Sunday, April 19, 2015

Read a Book! – Bleeding Violet



Bleeding Violet – By Dia Reeves
Romance/Horror/Supernatural

“How did you get out of the suicide door?" Her disbelief was a living, pettable thing.
"Magic."
Her eyes narrowed. "There is no magic."
"Maybe not for you. But I'm from out of town.”

What happens when the 'crazy' girl goes to the craziest town in America? A story of mystery, magic and unknown horrors in a town rife with the supernatural like a moth to a flame. Hanna seeks out her mother after her father passes away and she is left with her aunt, but her unloving mother has more secrets than the town itself.

This was a hard book to read. It was convoluted and has difficult themes and arcs to follow, but if you can manage it then this book is amazing. It's charming and enthralling story is truly refreshing. The key characters are well-written, but there is a lot of bloated information and the story regularly detours, which makes it a longer read without the payoff. I still recommend it as it is a unique and charming read.

Recommended for mature audiences. Contains: Adult themes, supernatural themes, medium-level violence, medium-level sexual references, low-level course language

Saturday, April 11, 2015

Double Movie Feature: Would You Rather (2013) / The Crazies (2010)





Would You Rather pays homage to the original premise that Saw introduced us to: Torture Porn. Eight strangers down on their luck are offered the chance to have all their problems solved by a 'charity' organisation if they win a game of 'Would you rather?' The game starts out innocently enough, but quickly begins to spiral into a game of life and death.

I found this movie to be far more tasteful than Saw, paying more attention to the psychological aspects of people under pressure. It's also far less gory, which I was appreciative of. Aside from that, it was very uninspired with uninteresting characters and a 'kick-in-the-guts' ending which left the whole movie feeling cheap. Good to watch if you don't want a serious movie.

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The Crazies is a remake of the 1973 Romero film of the same name. The townspeople of Ogen Marsh begin to become infected, with insanity. When the military steps in to contain it by all means necessary, the sheriff and his wife fight to get out of the town before the military or the townspeople stop them first.

I haven't watched the original film, but I found the remake to be both interesting and well cast. The characters were interesting and the premise was well executed. The outbreak was well escalated, but the movie plateaued for a while after the first 30 minutes and became a bit drawn out for my liking. The Crazies is an above average horror movie with some very good direction. It doesn't overdo the gore, which makes it a much better thriller than a horror.

Thursday, April 9, 2015

Dying Light (Game Review)



The zombies are back, or rather, they never really left 'cause of the whole 'undead' thing. Anyway, you know a really good way of dealing with zombies? Apparently parkour is excellent for escaping the undead hoards. If you currently aren't in the middle of a zombie apocalypse nor have the agility to learn parkour, then Dying Light is for you!

He just wants a hug, but give him one and his heart will pop!
As an agent for a government agency called the GRE (I never actually learnt what that stood for) you play Kyle Crane, a somewhat competent agent who is sent into the zombie infested city of Harran to recover a stolen file which contains something sensitive about the virus and/or cure which is being held by a vicious dictator. Minutes after being deployed, Kyle fucks up royally and is saved by the local survivors and scavengers. The entire premise is rather long-winded and most of what happens is simply a staging point for the actual story which a much more interesting man-o vs man-o war of personalities. When I say more interesting, I mean slightly less stereo-typical than its starting ideas.

For once, it's nice to play a character that has clear morals and intentions, who isn’t a two dimensional canvas for you to project yourself on. Kyle has real and well expressed emotions and reacts to situations like a 'normal' person. He scoffs at stupid fetch side quests, mocks idiots and has compassion for those who are suffering. It's been quite a while since I've seen such a well-developed character as the player character. The rest of the cast is nowhere near as developed, almost as if Kyle Crane got all his personality by sucking it out of everyone else like some hipster vampire. Everyone is replaceable and stock standard, even the main villain. The story and characters were predictable and the ending was rather lacklustre, though gratifying. I was climbing the ladder to meet the villain in a final showdown and I openly said "I feel a quick-time event waiting at the top of this ladder". I was right, which was disappointing.


But who cares about the story when there's a city full of zombies to chop into pieces? The game, made by the Dead Island developers, features their signature combat style of 'aim and swing'. You can take to the undead with a variety of clubs, hatchets, axes and swords, all can be upgraded with a variety of 'blueprints' that add extra effects to weapons. These are made by collecting crafting pieces in the environment and can increase a weapon's durability, handling or power while others add fire or electricity damage. While it is extremely satisfying to make a poisoned weapon make those annoying human enemies vomit their guts up, it's not all that realistic and did make it feel more of an arcade game. Over time, you learn a range of new skills that makes dispatching zombies easier, but that is where I found a problem with the difficulty curve. The game is brutal hard early game as you lack the abilities to deal with enemies fast before they overwhelm you, but once you get those skills then the game gets far easier. The introduction of other zombie types shakes things up, but not in any new or interesting ways. Perhaps the most unique feature is the day/night cycle and the nasties that come out at night. Initially, these zombies are fast and dangerous, but they lose all their thrill once you gain parkour skills. It feels wrong that a game simply gets easier as you play through. There are firearms, but they don't play a major feature until nearly all human enemies start to use them. Dying Light is a bad shooter. I don't even want to talk about how bad guns are.

The feature point of Dying Light is the parkour system. First-person free-running hasn't really been tried since Mirror's Edge and Dying Light certainly makes big steps in the right direction. It's still horrible trying to navigate a climbing section in a first-person camera, but it is satisfying enough to make it a lot of fun. Again, levelling up skills makes using the parkour even easier. It really feels like you become a hero among the mere mortals as you become so overpowered that it becomes borderline boring to play. Oh, and then you get the Batman grapple gun. Yeah. I feel that a lot of the skills are interesting to use once or twice, but you'll always revert to your simple ones. Being able to make shields, boosters and throwing weapons never felt necessary, and in fact, I never used them. I think it got to the point where they were adding skills to pad the oversized skills tree.


In the end, I found Dying Light a lot of fun to play. Not for the story, but because running around being the equivalent of Batman in a zombie game is bloody awesome. I didn't feel a sense of completion when the story ended, I just wanted to kill more zombies, which I did for a few days and then finally got bored with no missions to do. I honestly feel like I could single-handedly just kill every zombie in Hassan and end the whole disaster. I tried to do that too, but then night time came and I fucked up all the mutant zombies. I looked over the square full of body parts and thought about what I was doing. "Screw this, just nuke it" I said, and quit.

Note from Editor: I couldn't review the multiplayer content at the time of writing, but Dying Light also supports a coop system and an online player vs zombie player mode.

(Reviewed on PS4)