Gaminez: April 2013

Sword Art Online

Friday 5 April 2013 22:07 Posted by desmondykw
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It took me just 2 days to finish the show, definitely one of the best animes for me! The start of the anime already got me hooked in, some awesome unique storyline that never once surfaced on anime history. It kept me watching episode after episode continuously without fail, always keeps me wondering whats next. Action scenes are sufficient, perhaps abit short in duration but its all well since most of which are flashy and are worth watching more than once! Besides all that, the anime also fits in some of mmorpg main features like recreational skills (fishing/cooking), blacksmith crafting, party/guild and PK etc. This show is just fantasy to me, enough said.

My rating: 9.0/10

In 2022, humanity has created a complete virtual environment as a mmorpg where humans could log in and play as characters themselves. This game is called Sword Art Online (SAO). Gamers around the world bought the game on launch date, log into the virtual world only to realise that there is no button to log out. The truth appears to be that they are trapped in the world of SAO and the only way to escape is to defeat the final boss and clear the game. It is a game of death, dead in game = dead in real life. Now players will have to fight for their lives, may the strongest survive!

The anime was really good in showcasing the assets of a mmorpg as well as how life is like in a game. Different assets of a mmorpg are spread out into episodes. For example, recreational skills like fishing and cooking are displayed. Quests, besides monster hunting but also people's requests like uncovering a mystery or capturing a wanted criminal for bounty etc. Boss fights are epic, short in duration but worth watching more than once. If you enjoy some anime heroic romance as well, this show is definitely a recommendation!

There are also some factors that hold the show back a little. The imbalanced timeframe. In the world of SAO, simply 9 episodes would already be like 2 years. While in the faerie world, 10 episodes is like only a week long. Some mysteries were also left untold, for example the 'walking coffin' guild. A bunch of suspicious PKers, little was told about them.

Any gamer would definitely love this anime, as well as the characters. Unique storyline, epic boss fights, incredible romance/affection, a must-watch!

Have a nice day!

The Darkness 2

Monday 1 April 2013 05:41 Posted by desmondykw
, 0 comments

The Darkness 2 is a first-person shooter, published by 2kGames in 2012. It was a good game, could have been so much better if it was uncensored. The gameplay was thrilling, using the power of the darkness and mutilating every mothafucker in your way! Cool-as-shit relics to collect, top-notch voice acts, amusing characters and not to forget the Vendettas! Story was fairly okay, taking revenge and getting down to the truth. Graphics was fine, maybe just some camera problems at times.

My rating: 7.5/10
Gamespot rating: 7.0/10

Goods: Refreshing gameplay, amusing characters, interesting relics to be uncover, top-notch voice acts, Vendettas mode

Bads: Censored executions, gameplay felt repetitive overtime, lipsyncing fails, imbalanced interface (postion to talk to characters, not alll scenes can be skipped)

The goods. Refreshing gameplay, embrace the darkness or die! The darkness in the game are just merely 2 demon snake heads yet more than enough to deliver a smooth sail to hell!! With the darkness, you will be able to grab objects in the environment like poles/car doors etc. and throw them at your enemies for the 'impaled' and 'sliced' executions. There is also the skill tree upgrade system whereby using dark essence acquired from missions, you can learnt new skills and upgrades. Dark essence are obtained from killing/eating hearts/collecting relics, you will get more essence if you perform executions on targets. Remember that lights are your worst enemies, destroy them!

You wont be using jackie all the time. For like 2-3 missions, you will be crawling around as the devil monkey ripping throats and groping eyeballs out. The monkey is worthy as your ally, showing you the way and assisting you in fights, and he is funny as well. New game + is available after the campaign for you to replay individual missions and uncover the remaining relics after your 1st playthrough.

Amusing characters, like Johnny, Vinnie and Dolfo. In a game of revengeance and blood spillage, it is always cool to have some characters to brighten up the underworld atmosphere. Each of them have their own unique personality that is so of detail, making them so memorable and fun to interact with!

Interesting relics to be uncover. All of darkness relics have their own in-depth history, described by Johnny himself-including voice act. Well like i said, described by JOHNNY. Thats all you need to know.

Top-notch voice acts. This had to go to the darkness itself, the person voicing the darkness is a genius! The voices for the rest are freaking damn clear and on-point, you can clearly hear every single word. This actually makes you want to listen instead of just skipping the scenes.

Vendettas mode, featuring new characters and a whole new campaign/story. Every single character had their own distinct personality and talent trees, choose either 1 to play the campaign. A campaign based on a mercenary perspective, not a bad one indeed.

The bads. Censored executions, the worse of them all. Asia copies of the game are all censored, which just sucked. Executions never felt like executions, you cant even see the body tear into half not to say about the more severe executions (those are totally removed from the game). This also make some of the skills in the talent tree completely useless, like for example health/ammo/sheild executions. You expect more violent kills right and all you get is just the effect of the executions using always body slam and body rip. A disappointment indeed.

Gameplay felt repetitive overtime. Once you have acquired all the skills in the talent tree, there is really nothing much to do other than searching for all the relics. Massacre is fun at first, but boring after a while. Vendettas mode provides campaign and hitlist, but trust me you will only play 1 character and you be done. You will be shooting most of the time or using your secondary weapon (katana/staff/axe), even the talent trees wont help much in getting you interested.

Characters lipsyncing fails. The words said and the way they move their mouths dont even sync, sometimes their mouth will still be moving even though the sentence is done. This can be annoying to watch.

Imbalanced interface. For example, talking to characters required a specific position to stand in order to interact with them. Not all cutscenes can be skipped, some can some cannot. Even if it can be skipped, its by sentence by sentence instead of the entire scene.

The Darkness 2 was a blasting experience, shredding people to bits never felt so fun before. Gameplay was exciting, story's abit confusing but still able to grasp in the end. So i am off to play star ocean now!

Have a nice day!