Gundam 00 - A Wakening of the Trailblazer

Yeah it's not a game, but who cares :p.

Gundam 00 - A Wakening of the Trailblazer is a japanese anime movie. It is a direct continuation from Gundam 00 anime that ran for 2 seasons. For those of you who don't know gundam, it's a giant war robot flying around shooting other robots. It may sound childish but it really isn't. Gundam is really famous because of the mature plot and storyline: war, politics, betrayal, romance, etc. Gundam 00 is the latest series in the franchise, and the best in my opinion. Go watch the series before you watch the movie.

Gundam 00 Qan[T]

Back to the movie, Trailblazer follows where season 2 has left off. Two years after the final battle, Earth is in peace under a new government. Celestial Being and the crew is still around but operating in secret. More humans become Innovators (the next step of human evolution, these guys are supposedly more capable than normal humans). And then there are aliens called ELS (Extraterrestrial Living-metal Shapeshifter) who emerged from Jupiter and seems to be attracted to Innovator's quantum brainwaves. Yes, aliens. This is the first time gundam have aliens.

ELS comes out from Jupiter

ELS is portrayed like crystals which can change shape, and they can assimilate everything within seconds. They seem to be sentient but their purpose is unknown. Anyway, the movie is all about human's battle with ELS. Innovator seems to be the key in the whole thing, so its up to Setsuna and the gang again to save humanity.

Gundam Raphael

The animation in Trailblazer is really good. The gundams look nice, the characters look cool, the battle scenes are exciting, etc etc, you get the point: it's good. The main characters each has a new gundam, but their screen time is somewhat limited so it's not clear what their speciality is.

The inclusion of alien in gundam is somewhat... okay. It's not great but it's not bad either, it's something new. You have to see the movie yourself. You may compare it with Macross, although I think Trailblazer is largely different.

Last words, If you like gundams, especially Gundam 00, then you have to watch this movie.

Darksiders

Darksiders is a third person action-adventure game, the core gameplay is similar to God of War : hack and slash, solving puzzle, platforming, etc.
When I started playing this game months ago I thought this is just another cheap God of War wannabe. I was wrong.

Darksiders' graphics is really good. The environment is detailed, the characters look tough, scary, and awesome, all at the same time. The art style reminded me of World of Warcraft.

It's War.

The plot revolves on one of the Horsemen of the Apocalypse named War, and conflict between Heaven and Hell. Horsemen of the Apocalypse are supposed to be a neutral group who will appear at the final battle between heaven and hell (Apocalypse) to restore balance and order; but somehow, someone triggered the apocalypse prematurely and War was summoned alone, without most of his powers. The apocalypse battleground is on earth (of course, poor earth is always the battleground for everything) and its all up to War to find out who triggered the apocalypse and what is really going on.

The gameplay. Being an action-adventure game you can expect standard combat, puzzle, and platforming in Darksiders. Combat is fun, War has many weapons, items, and abilities to use, although you have to obtain them during the course of the game. Different enemy requires different approach, this is true especially during boss battle, which is really cool and more like a puzzle: you have to figure out their weakness or do something that will make the bosses expose their weaknesses.

 

War can bring 3 main weapons in total: sword, scythe, and gauntlet. All of them have their own distinct moves, they also can gain experience and grow stronger when used. There are also a lot of sub-weapons and items to assist War during his journey, like guns and grappling hook. Usually the items can be used to solve puzzle and also have some function in combat. For example, War can obtain a horn that will open doors when used, but in combat it can also stun enemies. You can also mix all of these weapons and sub-weapons in your attack, because each are mapped to different buttons. That's a good control scheme.

When War killed an enemy he will receive some amount of soul, these souls act as a currency and can be used to buy new weapons, items, and moves. I haven't finished the game yet, but I think its not possible to buy every item and moves in the stores, this will force some kind of decision on the player, eg: do I level up my existing moves, should I get new moves, or should I extend my health bar ? One bad issue is we can't see a preview of the moves we're going to buy, so you should make a backup save before buying anything just in case you don't like it.

Items menu.

The puzzle and platforming section is quite difficult, but not frustrating. The puzzle seems natural and easy to understand most of the time, and you won't feel bored during these part because its interesting. In fact, my sister, who is a non-gamer, likes to watch me play Darksiders because of these puzzles, and she's pretty good at solving them too.

Samael, your breath smells...

In conclusion, Darksiders is a game worth playing. Graphics, gameplay, sound, and story are all good. I've been playing for 15 hours and I think I haven't reach the final area yet, so expect 20+ hours gameplay.

Score : 9/10

Super Street Fighter 4

Lately I have been playing Super Street Fighter 4 on PS3. I'm not exactly a fan of street fighter series but I played it anyway. The graphics is really good, I think it uses cell shading or whatever. The game is in 3D but plays like a 2D games (no sidestep like tekken), it bears heavy resemblance to Street Fighter 2. There are also bonus stages like destroying a car and barrel smashing, classic.


The gameplay is.... frustrating.. at least for me. Generally I don't like the input for special moves in 2D fighting games: quarter circle, half circle, full circle, full circle TWICE.. its really tiresome and difficult. The throws seem to be really powerful here, some character like Zangief and Abel specialized in grappling, and once their moves connected you can't escape their throws.

Anyway, after countless humiliating defeat against CPU and my brother (he's good in any fighting games), I decided to undergo a training, you know, to become less suck.
I picked Makoto as my main character.

I picked her (yes, HER) because she's using plain old karate, which is awesome. Unlike Ryu/Ken, her moveset is based on short range punch and kick only, no fireball. She's a hard character to play because of that. Why did I picked such a hard character? Because playing mainstream character like Ryu/Ken is really boring, everbody plays them.

After watching some youtube videos, practicing, and another countless embarassing defeat, I finally managed to play her well. Not great, but at least I can defeat CPU ! Well, I still have a long way to go. Now to defeat those blasted grappler...

This is my favorite move

Ouch...