I talk about the new Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter movie and how I enjoyed it, but also how it didn't really resonate with those not from the states.
I am Trikucian, an all around geek, in all things one can be a geek in. Games, TV, Movies, Cosplay, Baseball, Astrophysics, you name it, I'll probably be into it. Join me in the quest to bring all of these wondrous things to the unsuspecting public!
Sunday 24 June 2012
Tuesday 19 June 2012
Assassin's Creed 3 on Wii U
Assassin's Creed is my favorite series. Period. It's got everything you want from a good game and then some. Its story is spectacular and has great twists, you find yourself really caring about all the characters, who are written very realistically, and the art direction is spectacular. I once brought Assassin's Creed 2 into an art history class so I could walk Ezio around and the professor describe Venice and Florence how they would have looked like back in the day. This series really is that realistic and accurate.
I've been psyched for this series since the very beginning. Before the beginning in fact. I fell in love with the Prince of Persia: Sands of Time trilogy because of the great music and clever acrobatics and climbing based puzzles. When I heard that Ubisoft was going to incorporate that into a new game for the PS3 era that was not only more realistic but was also set during the Crusades. THE CRUSADES! A real world historical event that was not only during a point in history that rarely gets reinterpreted in the modern world, but is, and was, very controversial and ties in to the social and military unrest of the current times. It also had a lot to say about religion, politics, and how history is recorded. Wow, Ubisoft is showing the world that they have balls! It's still my opinion that the game only got an M rating because of all the religious themes, not because of the blood and violence. This first one has as much as the Uncharted series.
I am of course talking about the first Assassin's Creed, where you play as Altair. A lot of people say this game is boring, and it is in a way, that nothing really happens and it's repetetive. I take it more like its subtle, because the events of this game take place over a couple weeks, so the difficulty setting gets harder because the cities keep getting more and more on edge. And you meet King Richard the Lionheart! This was the first of many cool historical figures you meet in the series.
In the next couple, which I like to think of as the Assassin's Creed 2 trilogy, you play as Ezio Auditore da Firenze throughout the majority of his life. I'm not going to go into detail about why these games are awesome. Read the chapter in your European History book about the Italian Renaissance and you'll know why these games are so awesome.
So, of course, I, and pretty much anyone who's into video games, are super stoked for Assassin's Creed 3. And this game looks like it more than deserves the hype. In 3 you play as Connor, a half English, half Native man who is battling the Templars during the American Revolutionary War. In the initial videos we see him fighting the red coats, aka the British, which I find funny because Assassin's Creed 3 is being developed primarily Ubisoft Montreal. This is because Canada became a different country than the United States specifically because of this war and us Canadians, or Loyalists at the time, wanted to remain part of the British Empire. I do realize that these are the demos shown for the American media, so I'm not really upset we haven't seen Connor fight any blue coats yet. But I do hope before it comes out there's a British/ Canadian video that shows him combating the blue coats.
Anyways, that's all very cool and I can't wait, but the big news of E3 is that not only will Assassin's Creed 3 be available for the Wii U, but it looks just as good as the PS3 or Xbox 360 versions. This is amazingly good news for Nintendo's launch of the Wii U. Basically what this means is that Ubisoft believes this new system to be good enough for their premiere title. It also means that Nintendo, which has had issues with 3rd party developers in the past, is going to make its new system available for the big titles without them having to be substandard to the PS3 or XBox 360 versions. This makes me really excited for the potential of Nintendo first party titles like Zelda or Metroid.
All I know is that I'm going crazy with excitement for Assassin's Creed 3 and I'm counting down the days to when it's released.
Added July 11, 2012: Also, it’s just been announced that Michael Fassbender will not only star in the Assassin’s Creed movie, but he will be producing it as well!!! My head exploded when I saw that. My favorite actor in a movie based on my favorite video game, holy crap that’s amazing. And not only that, it’s going to be independently produced my Fassbender in conjunction with Ubisoft so it’s not going to have some retarded thing in there because of studio mandate! This just sounds like it’s going to be crazy awesome!
Original story posted by GamingUnion.net
I've been psyched for this series since the very beginning. Before the beginning in fact. I fell in love with the Prince of Persia: Sands of Time trilogy because of the great music and clever acrobatics and climbing based puzzles. When I heard that Ubisoft was going to incorporate that into a new game for the PS3 era that was not only more realistic but was also set during the Crusades. THE CRUSADES! A real world historical event that was not only during a point in history that rarely gets reinterpreted in the modern world, but is, and was, very controversial and ties in to the social and military unrest of the current times. It also had a lot to say about religion, politics, and how history is recorded. Wow, Ubisoft is showing the world that they have balls! It's still my opinion that the game only got an M rating because of all the religious themes, not because of the blood and violence. This first one has as much as the Uncharted series.
I am of course talking about the first Assassin's Creed, where you play as Altair. A lot of people say this game is boring, and it is in a way, that nothing really happens and it's repetetive. I take it more like its subtle, because the events of this game take place over a couple weeks, so the difficulty setting gets harder because the cities keep getting more and more on edge. And you meet King Richard the Lionheart! This was the first of many cool historical figures you meet in the series.
In the next couple, which I like to think of as the Assassin's Creed 2 trilogy, you play as Ezio Auditore da Firenze throughout the majority of his life. I'm not going to go into detail about why these games are awesome. Read the chapter in your European History book about the Italian Renaissance and you'll know why these games are so awesome.
So, of course, I, and pretty much anyone who's into video games, are super stoked for Assassin's Creed 3. And this game looks like it more than deserves the hype. In 3 you play as Connor, a half English, half Native man who is battling the Templars during the American Revolutionary War. In the initial videos we see him fighting the red coats, aka the British, which I find funny because Assassin's Creed 3 is being developed primarily Ubisoft Montreal. This is because Canada became a different country than the United States specifically because of this war and us Canadians, or Loyalists at the time, wanted to remain part of the British Empire. I do realize that these are the demos shown for the American media, so I'm not really upset we haven't seen Connor fight any blue coats yet. But I do hope before it comes out there's a British/ Canadian video that shows him combating the blue coats.
Anyways, that's all very cool and I can't wait, but the big news of E3 is that not only will Assassin's Creed 3 be available for the Wii U, but it looks just as good as the PS3 or Xbox 360 versions. This is amazingly good news for Nintendo's launch of the Wii U. Basically what this means is that Ubisoft believes this new system to be good enough for their premiere title. It also means that Nintendo, which has had issues with 3rd party developers in the past, is going to make its new system available for the big titles without them having to be substandard to the PS3 or XBox 360 versions. This makes me really excited for the potential of Nintendo first party titles like Zelda or Metroid.
All I know is that I'm going crazy with excitement for Assassin's Creed 3 and I'm counting down the days to when it's released.
Added July 11, 2012: Also, it’s just been announced that Michael Fassbender will not only star in the Assassin’s Creed movie, but he will be producing it as well!!! My head exploded when I saw that. My favorite actor in a movie based on my favorite video game, holy crap that’s amazing. And not only that, it’s going to be independently produced my Fassbender in conjunction with Ubisoft so it’s not going to have some retarded thing in there because of studio mandate! This just sounds like it’s going to be crazy awesome!
Original story posted by GamingUnion.net
Monday 18 June 2012
Mass Effect 3 Ending Deemed Accurately Advertised
Metal Gear Solid has its political intrigue, Assassin's Creed its immense attention to detail and awesome what the fuck moments, and even Final Fantasy has its moments as an effective world based story. But none of them compare to the grandeur of the Mass Effect franchise. Well, at least not yet.
Mass Effect 3 must have been the most riveting and intense game I have played to date. Every single piece of this game was masterfully done. Any of us who are fans of the series know this already, so I won't go into detail on just how awesome it was, in that respect. But everyone has their own feelings on the ending. I still haven't bothered to play it again because I want to replay Mass Effect 2 (and subsequently make my choices for the first one in that silly interactive comic) as a Paragon Female, and a Renegade Male. All I know is that if you just play it from the basic character they give you at the beginning of 3, the game can be pretty lack luster, and I'll leave it at that.
One thing I do know that the ending to the game was severely polarizing. I personally liked it. Granted, it initially kind of pissed me off when I thought of the final cut scene as the big ending scene that other big titles have, but then I realized that almost half of Mass Effect 3 is an ending leading up to the climax that is the battle in London, and everything after that is the denouement. What I didn't like was that you couldn't see the aftermath of the individual characters' stories. I know it's from Shepard's perspective, but it's the same reason why the ending to The Hunger Games trilogy was so dissatisfying. We had no closure. Maybe that's because they plan on continuing the story of one of the main characters who don't have to die, like Liara or Garrus, but that would mean a pretty loose connection to this trilogy.
Anyways, some people were so pissed off by the ending that they filed complaints. Plenty of the internet reviewers I like to watch were seething with hatred for the ending. And to be honest, I can see where they were coming from. The ending, the way it is now before the DLC comes out to extend it, feels like a limb has been cut off. And us, as the player, still feel that ghost limb, like we can move it, but when we look it's not there. It just ended, a stump of a story, so to speak.
Basically there's a point right at the end of the game where you can make one of three choices, and they effect the universe as a whole. These choices are posited to you by a God-like being, who in my opinion both needed to be elaborated on more for us who were playing the game, but also made sense how little he was seen from Shepard's point of view. To be fair though, from a writing point of view, the player character couldn't associate any weight to any of those decisions unless they played through the whole game and felt what was the right choice, for them.
In any case, many of those who played the game felt the need to protest the ending, and how it was advertised. The UK Advertising Standards Authority (ASA)claimed that player decisions "completely shape your experience and outcome," and "drive powerful outcomes, including relationships with key characters, the fate of entire civilizations, and even radically different ending scenarios." What I read here pretty much coincides with how I took the writing in the game. It seems that the ASA agrees. The Better Business Bureau, however, actually did state that the ending was falsely advertised, but, like I've pretty much said before, the 'ending' is all up for interpretation.
In any case the Extended Cut DLC will be coming out soon, and fans will have something to either cheer for or gripe about all over again.
Original story posted by Gamespot.
Mass Effect 3 must have been the most riveting and intense game I have played to date. Every single piece of this game was masterfully done. Any of us who are fans of the series know this already, so I won't go into detail on just how awesome it was, in that respect. But everyone has their own feelings on the ending. I still haven't bothered to play it again because I want to replay Mass Effect 2 (and subsequently make my choices for the first one in that silly interactive comic) as a Paragon Female, and a Renegade Male. All I know is that if you just play it from the basic character they give you at the beginning of 3, the game can be pretty lack luster, and I'll leave it at that.
One thing I do know that the ending to the game was severely polarizing. I personally liked it. Granted, it initially kind of pissed me off when I thought of the final cut scene as the big ending scene that other big titles have, but then I realized that almost half of Mass Effect 3 is an ending leading up to the climax that is the battle in London, and everything after that is the denouement. What I didn't like was that you couldn't see the aftermath of the individual characters' stories. I know it's from Shepard's perspective, but it's the same reason why the ending to The Hunger Games trilogy was so dissatisfying. We had no closure. Maybe that's because they plan on continuing the story of one of the main characters who don't have to die, like Liara or Garrus, but that would mean a pretty loose connection to this trilogy.
Anyways, some people were so pissed off by the ending that they filed complaints. Plenty of the internet reviewers I like to watch were seething with hatred for the ending. And to be honest, I can see where they were coming from. The ending, the way it is now before the DLC comes out to extend it, feels like a limb has been cut off. And us, as the player, still feel that ghost limb, like we can move it, but when we look it's not there. It just ended, a stump of a story, so to speak.
Basically there's a point right at the end of the game where you can make one of three choices, and they effect the universe as a whole. These choices are posited to you by a God-like being, who in my opinion both needed to be elaborated on more for us who were playing the game, but also made sense how little he was seen from Shepard's point of view. To be fair though, from a writing point of view, the player character couldn't associate any weight to any of those decisions unless they played through the whole game and felt what was the right choice, for them.
In any case, many of those who played the game felt the need to protest the ending, and how it was advertised. The UK Advertising Standards Authority (ASA)claimed that player decisions "completely shape your experience and outcome," and "drive powerful outcomes, including relationships with key characters, the fate of entire civilizations, and even radically different ending scenarios." What I read here pretty much coincides with how I took the writing in the game. It seems that the ASA agrees. The Better Business Bureau, however, actually did state that the ending was falsely advertised, but, like I've pretty much said before, the 'ending' is all up for interpretation.
In any case the Extended Cut DLC will be coming out soon, and fans will have something to either cheer for or gripe about all over again.
Original story posted by Gamespot.
Sunday 10 June 2012
Prometheus Review
My thoughts on Ridley Scott's newest movie, Prometheus. Done in a VLog, there are some spoilers, but they won't ruin your enjoyment of the film. I'm pretty sick, so that explains the pauses.
Thursday 7 June 2012
Snow White and the Huntsman and Game of Thrones Season Finale Reviews
After seeing Snow White and the Huntsman on opening night I do an impromptu VLog review. There are spoilers around the half way point.
Then, in response to the Game of Thrones Season 2 Finale, I compare the show so far to the book series as well as describe what I think is going to happen past book 5. If you haven't read the series and only seen the show I have to warn you that I talk about the books extensively, so BIG spoiler warning. Also at one point I say Tyrion Lannister when I mean his father Tywin, though it's probably obvious what I meant.
Then, in response to the Game of Thrones Season 2 Finale, I compare the show so far to the book series as well as describe what I think is going to happen past book 5. If you haven't read the series and only seen the show I have to warn you that I talk about the books extensively, so BIG spoiler warning. Also at one point I say Tyrion Lannister when I mean his father Tywin, though it's probably obvious what I meant.
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