Vlog review Of Asylum of the Daleks *Spoilers*

 

I SPEAK!!...Yeah I decided to dust off my mic for the reaction to the 8 month return of doctor who.What was it like? Spoilers.....Not a river reference there are spoilers.

Doctor who Series 7 Theories and thoughts.

 

 

With the episode Asylum of the daleks starting series 7 within a week I kinda want to do kind of what I think is going to happen and what I think of what's been released so far.So let's get started with the leading man himself.The Doctor.

 

 

First off let's talk about what happened so far with number 11.He's gone through some changes since the regenerations from the tenth being more like a kid on the outside with the wise old man peaking through every now and then.Though he still does feel the consequences of the time war causing him to be very protective and between that and his growing anger the scenes of the exploded daleks with the doctor asking who do you think killed them there is a very big break coming.Now dealing with the daleks can cause alot of massive problems.Series 1 they nearly wiped out earth in three different ways.Series 4 they nearly wiped out everything literally.So the first episode starring the daleks is a big bit of pressure and because of how the trailers are leading it's believed that this season is going to be a snapping point for the doctor and possibly the height of his character arc in terms of time war backlash.

 

Now that being said I'm half and half on the idea that in the first episode he breaks his "no kill" Policy which is partially echoed by something amy said about him being alone too long something that was partially shown in the runaway bride when he went into that odd trance after dooming the racnoss.That and him saying that there are lives on his conscience "Because of my mercy" to quote him.It makes me think that davros when he exposed the true soul of the time lord to paraphrase him may have had a much bigger influence on him then we thought.That and I think that the events of waters of mars may have had an effect as well now that I think of it.

 

I'm not certain if this will change the doctor in any way since the anger seems completly built into the eleventh but if that is the case and he does break the no kill policy that's jumping the shark a bit since that's something the doctor has had in all of his incarnations and if this doesn't have massive reprecussions then it's gonna be insanely hard to top that.Now as for one of the bigger themes let's talk about daleks and as well the other big villain the master.

Yes I do think the master will return this season but whether he'll be played by john simm is a crap shoot.but how would he come back? He was sent back to the time war quickly losing energy from his revival.Well I do think that he survived somehow.Whether he regenerated or just absorbed rassilon using some kind of time lord tech and it healed him or something like that.the point is I do think that him being reintroduced into the time war will have some consequences and I think it's possible that the finale may actulally be a second time war between a returning davros and the daleks against the master now ruling the time lords.So where's my proof of this? Well It's minor thing but one line the doctor says in the trailers caught me by surprise.

"Today I honor the victims first.HIS,THE MASTER'S,the daleks,everyone who died because of my mercy"

While HIS I do think applies to the enemy from the town called mercy episode it could be davros though far more likely the cyborg cowboy.But why did he say THE MASTER'S? The eleventh has never mentioned the master before so I think he's coming back and will be back in the first episode along with another returning force.Davros.

Now how would Davros return then? He was in the dalek ship when it exploded right? Well first of all they didn't show his death for that exact reason but there is another one.In the asylum of the daleks trailers they showed what is potentially dalek caan.The dalek that was in the ship with davros when it was destroyed.Now it's possible it's not caan but It's also the first time I can think of I've seen a dalek outside of it's shell since caan.So yes I do think that both davros and the master are coming back and will restart the time war.It's a long shot but I'll take it.

And yes this does potentially kill my Master controlling the silence but one I do think that's another possibility but I also have another theory for them.Namely the reason why they controlled earth and who madame kovarian is.Yes I'm stretching this but I do think she's the Rani.Since her fate is up in the air it's a possibility and it lends creedence to the idea that the silence are mutated creatures with The Rani being a mad scientist.Plus she has taken planets for experiment subjects before at least according to the wiki I found.It's a weak theory and I don't think we'll even see the silence this season but there's just a few coincidences that I can't miss.

So what else is there? The odds of a multi doctor reunion.Small damn near 0% I'd say.It just seems unlikely with hows things are going.What about companions? More likely at the very least.I wouldn't say a sure thing but closer anyway.What about the new companion? I have no clue.Other then she's either a time traveler or is from victorian times since that's when the episode she debuts in takes place.Though I am happy to say it looks like madame vastra will return for that which I do like.

That's really all I got right now.All I can say other then this is I'm bouncing off the walls waiting for the premiere.

Time is NOT a wibbly wobbly timey wimey ball of stuff.

What Can I say? Doctor Insano got it right.

ISWT Review: Alice Madness returns

I wish I could sit here and tell you all about how much I love the original books by lewis carroll but I can't.In fact I had to look up who wrote it.I wish I could say that the disney movie was a massive inspiration to me as a child,but I have yet to actually see it to my recollection.I wish I could say that after the tim burton movie I felt completly ripped off......alright that one is actually true but nonetheless I've never had a massive connection to the alice in wonderland franchise but for some reason I've always loved the characters and places of this series and I really do think it's genius.I know that sounds odd but I love the setting,the characters and yet for some reason I never really set out to look up stuff or watch the movies or read the books even though I love the characters.Even being a huge batman fan the villain mad hatter was always kind of just there.Like I knew he was obsessed with alice in wonderland and I thought it was cool but it never really attached myself to him like I did scarecrow or even riddler.

Why did they make a rabid wonderland fanboy a villain anyway?

Where was I? Oh yes,I've always known about a game made years ago called "American mcgee's alice" and that people loved it for it's creepy atomosphere and very deranged approach to the fairy tale.And after recently playing it I will say that it's certainly got those two things but I will say due to the very......rough controls I'm not a huge fan.It's not bad by any means just kind of hard to control being a bit archaic or old in control style.Not helping it was made for the PC and I've been playing the ps3 port but again I'm getting sidetracked.But a few years ago a sequel was finally released.I just recently got to playing it and I've got to say I really enjoy this game but let me explain.

The main story of the two games is that years after the second book through the looking glass alice is placed in a mental asylum after her family dies in a fire and she survives,and once again is sent to wonderland which has become alot more warped and chaotic due to her mental damage.She had to confront the red queen to cure her mental damage.It makes more sense if you just play the first game trust me on this.

Wrong red queen.....Oh shit why'd I remind myself of this stupid movie



Years afterwards Alice liddel (yes she does in fact have a last name) is out of the asylum and trying to make a living for herself as well as forget the deaths of her family that have still been bothering her even after the events of the first game.And of course she travels back to wonderland to discover that a train has been going around wonderland causing massive damage and releasing creatures known as ruin.I have to say while maybe simple the plot is pretty good for what it is.There are a few odd parts like how between the second and third worlds for some reason she really wants to find her old stuffed rabbit and goes to her old therapist from the asylum to get it back.I'm not really sure why is the issue.But one thing I do like is how if you find memories(Read collectables) that give some hints at what is causing all of this.It's a fairly obvious near the 4th world via a flashback you get there but a pretty good twist that honestly gets pretty dark.It's a bit morbid but handled well.

So the story is pretty good how about the graphics.Well I think let's player helloween 4545 said it best.You could take a snapshot of any scene in the game and make it an awesome desktop wallpaper.The game is incredible looking and it adds so much to the style and the overall presentation.Going from beautiful in the first part to dark and sinister in the second to a steampunk factory all in the same chapter.The game is both beautiful and disturbing.In fact later on in the game there is an area that goes from creepy to "Oh god my eyes,my eyes.The goggles they do nothing!" Levels of horror.To give you an idea I've played through all of "Dante's inferno" a game in which you travel through hell and the final area of madness returns out freaks me by a landslide.

First off this is not I repeat NOT the creepy part of the final stage and second yes this does look like someone took the doctor who episode "Night terrors" and gave it crystal meth.

Now the gameplay is where fans start getting divided by this game.While most of the people I've heard talk about this game will generally say that the atomosphere is just slightly less impressive then the original (Something I do disagree with.I find this game is slightly more atomospheric then the original) most fans of the first game will immediatly turn on the gameplay saying it's bland or "Just another beat 'em up" I can't fully disagree in the sense that the gameplay is more generic then the first game.However this is a case of uniqueness vs playability.While the original has more unique gameplay to itself and some interesting platforming situations but my god it is stiff.That combined with the decent combat at best and it's only okay in terms of gameplay.While madness returns has basic combat that could be found in any given beat 'em up this gen and the same with platforming.However the gameplay feels so much less stiff and the combat is so much less hit or miss that it just feels alot better.So it's uniqueness at the cost of fluid gameplay or solid feeling gameplay at the cost of originality.It's a debate but to me I enjoy madness returns more in terms of base gameplay

One of the major differences though is the use of mini games and this is another point of fracture for the fanbase and this one I'm more or less agreeing with.Anywhere from a weird shooter segments with the mock turtles new boat or the really terrible slider puzzles that haunt a couple of levels.Some like the shooter segement are mandatory but you can actually skip the slider puzzles and the melody guitar hero style rhythm parts and all I can think of is "Why did this need to be here?" this is probably the weakest point of the game and it just serves no purpose all in all.It feels very forced though two of these I will defend.namely the slide sections cause those are actually quite fun and the giant segments in queensland which again are quite fine.

One other thing is that the 3rd level for it's enemies,and iffy level design all in all can drag quite a lot compared to the varied second level and very fun fourth level.It's a minor thing but even then I prefer it to the veil of tears level in the original.

Finally the collectables are ripe and are everywhere between the pig snouts,bottles of.....I have no idea but for some reason I assume piss,Memories,and radula rooms which you get heart pieces from and yes you get four you get another heart added to your total.

So in the end how is it? Well the style is out in full and the graphics are amazing but you may have issues with the gameplay being fairly bland and the constant minigames that are few and far between for actually good ones.But all in all I say at least rent it for the story and style.This game can easily be a good playthrough but just know what you're getting into with the gameplay.It's far from bad just not anything special.



In Sane We Trust Review Persona 4

With the upcoming releases of the persona 4 remake on the vita and the Fighting game Persona 4 Arena I figured it would be a good time to put my opinion out there on the 2008 RPG by Atlus.But It kinda started long before that so go with me on this.Years and years ago a friend of mine mentioned an RPG with a weird concept and an even weirder cameo.A game Called Shin Megami Tensei Nocturne.

This game is a damn masterpiece.The music is gorgeous and the story is incredibly thought provoking.It's also the game that introduced me to the Four horseman mithos which I've become as weird as it sounds Intrigued by.That topped with A cameo from Dante of devil may cry fame and you've got a winner but that's for another time.But I had never heard of the game company Atlus at the time.Suffice it to say I had their name ingraved in my mind for further notice.And then a few years later I hear of another game from them called persona 3 and once again I was blown away.The gameplay crossed with the social link system was once again a winner and you could tell they really sunk alot of money into the production and it paid off cause persoan 3 was a huge success.And alongside a remake called Persona 3 FES they started immediate work on persona 4 to capitalize on the success and while on the surface it may appear to just be a clone they shoved out to make money it was alot more then just that.They took the amazing system from persona 3 and alot of (Not quite as but alot of) The depth of Nocturne,Put them in a blender and it came out glorious.

For those who don't know Shin megami tensei is a series made by the aforementioned Atlus that all have a similar system.Namely the demons and a similar Pokemon-esque demon collection system.The system is simple but very effective in that you fuse demons you get in combat into bigger stronger ones.the combat being very simplistic trying to figure out what the enemy demons are weak against and usually exploiting the crap out of it get more damage out of it and if you do an attack that the enemy is weak against you'll usually (game depending) get another turn as well making you want to carry a variety of demons or personas (Again game depending) to use this effectivly.Trust me though it's not as easy as it sounds most SMT titles are ball breakers at some point in it.Still haven't beaten Lucifer in nocturne.

Ya Giant Blue bastard.

Yeah one thing you have to get used to is the demons/personas are from every culture and mithos from bhuddism to Christian.lemme put it this way my personas from the end of persona 4 were. Satan and beelzebub and yes apparently they are different.(I'm not exactly a religion scholar) along with Odin and the chinese dragon Kohryu.It's pretty badass having these huge mythological beings at your beck and call and really It is pretty badass telling the God Asura what to do.But I'm getting sort of off track.

Using the basic persona system of using multiple persona's that change your characters stats works well in persona 4 but here's the thing.The gameplay is the weakest part of persona 4.Now Don't take that as a bad thing in fact It's a great sign as the fusion system is rewarding and general combat is satisfying learning what enemies weak points are and exploiting them in a very strategical manor.It's more that though.The story,Characters,Soundtrack,and Style are so good that It's hard to really put even the best combat system on par.

The story takes place in the Foggy town of inaba where mysterious murders are taking place with victims ending up hung on roofs with no definate cause of death.Suffice it to say something like this has the whole town buzzing and just after the arrival of a new school student.You play said school student coming to inaba after his parents go off on some kind of trip.Which is admittedly a bit uncreative but at least his parents didn't just die of CPPS or Cliche Plot point syndrome.Nonetheless they've Left you with your uncle and cousin.I have to say one of the best parts of the game is Dojima and nanako the aforementioned uncle and cousin respectivly since they give the game a very warm feel that really does get you into the tone and locale very quickly giving a very real home kind of feel.

On your first day of school (Which gets cancelled due to the first murder by the way) You meet up with local unluckiest kid ever and son of the local family run chain of Junes(Read wal-mart) Yousuke Hanamura and local kung-fu enthusiast and the most unintentionally adorable girl in anime history Chie satonaka.After the second murder of a close friend of yousuke's you all find yourselves looking into the murders and end up oddly enough finding another world inside of a television inside junes,And saying it there almost made me check my "Anime WTF moment" Bingo card.Though it gets a bit stranger as you find it's connected to the murders and houses an unknown creature named teddie who ends up helping everyone out.

Oh also I hope you like puns cause He's filed to the brim with them.

Throughout the Investigation you meet up with other characters like local Inn Heiress and Chie's Best friend (I repeat FRIEND) Yukiko Amagi, A punk who beats up biker gangs by night and knits animals plushies by day and also One of the most Awesome characters in history Kanji tatsumi.A pop Icon Resting in inaba after debating on returning to normal life Rise Kujikawa,and Nicknamed the detective prince Naoto Shirogane.I wouldn't have actually mentioned who you get but in both of the opening cinematics the game has they show all the characters which personally I think it would've been a bit more interesting keeping it a secret but nonetheless.

The characters are a very strong point in the game.The uncle and cousin you live with,the rest of the investigation team,and the social links you complete all have interesting and most importantly are all Easy to like.Alot of people didn't like teddie and I see why but personally I always found his decent writing for his actually good comedic stuff made up for a few bad puns.

The Story is once again pretty damn good and maybe that may be from a bias of mine.I love mystery stories.Love them to death.So maybe the whole murder mystery and the fact that you do actually have to find out who the culprit is to get the good ending just adds to how cool of a mystery it is.But aside from that the plot is pretty good giving alot of twists and turns that makes you think you've found the culprit right before another murder happens or clues lead to another suspect.It's a ride to say the least.

The graphics are one of the maybe not weaker points but they're nothing special.The actual 3D sprite work looks okay but it's nothing to write home about.The Anime stills they use are actually pretty good and the anime cutscenes range from pretty good to looking a bit off.I can't quite put my finger on it but some of them namely ones with alot of charcters actually in the scene can look a little strange but again it's nothing terrible just an off point.

The music on the other hand is absolutly amazing.I've often said that Sonic generations has THE best soundtrack of all time to me and I stand by that but alot of it is Previous tracks slightly or massive mixed not alot of new ones and that is why Persona 4 Has the best original soundtrack to me at least.The quiet tracks are beautiful and the battle music "Reach out for the truth" Is Amazing.I seriously thought I'd be tired of it fairly quickly but honestly I still love it to this day.But that combined with I'll face myself which is off the top of my head my favorite Boss track of any Rpg and it's just a work of damn art.Oh by the way that Bonus disc on the cover at the top of this post.That's a soundtrack disc that COMES WITH THE GAME FREE!!!!.....That's just awesome.

But here's the kicker the Recently released "Persona 4 The golden" Remake for the Ps Vita actually outdoes it at least in battle theme and opening theme.Hell even the animation scene seem better.I mean I cannot think of anything more flat out awesome then the opening animation combined with Shadow world by Shihoka hirata.(the woman singing basically every female vocal in P4)

Okay This is but It's practically cheating really.

But it's a game So how's the gameplay? Well as I said the main concept behind it is basic Rpg with the schtick that enemies have certain elemental weak spot that you can Exploit to usually do more damage and get another turn with that character.Like most SMT games this is the main idea in combat.Use every element you can and see what certain enemies are weak against but this game seems to throw a wrench into the works after a while having enemies with no weakness that take massive damage from certain elements but it doesn't count as a weakness or take very little damage from their weakness and it's a better idea to try something else.Another thing that happens when hit by a weakness is that they fall down and if all enemies are down you can perform an all out attack where all of your teammates strike at once in a cartoony cloud and do massive damage usually killing off the enemies in one swoop.

Also one thing to note is that Physical skills actually use HP and are a bit risky to use while Light and Dark skill (named Hama and Mudo) don't deal damage but have a chance to auto kill anything it hits (anything weak to either is basically an auto kill on contact)

One thing that alot of people would see as a massive problem is the difficulty.Now SMT games have been known to be hard.Fair but hard.But wow the first two areas in particular the bosses are absolute jackasses.There is such a difficulty spike in those two bosses it's absolutly maddening if you're not used to it.Seriously I would not blame someone for looking up a walkthrough or an FAQ.Though For beating them you get one of the best healers in game and a crazy boss killer for the first two fights respectivly.Trust me It's worth it just get through those two and you're gold....well it's still hard just not as bad.The Worst part is easily this spike.

Another aspect of gameplay is fusing and social links.Fusing is pretty enjoyable just trying to get certain moves and planning personas for boss fights.Though I will say that it can get annoying trying to get certain moves on personas that don't inherit certain skills.I know this from experience trying to get Magarudyne on Beelzebub and only succeeding after more time then I'd like to admit.

Social links are realy enjoyable just trying to tetris together your schedule with combat and social links plus the actual stories of the people in the social links are pretty good if potentially a bit depressing with some.But as I've said It's just fun to plan ahead plan when to raise stats like knowledge or courage (Heavily Social link Involved stats that can unlock new social links and/or side jobs) or when to head into combat or  do social links.Again schedule tetris.

One other thing is that there is one more thing that new players may not be a fan of at first and that's that the game is rather talky.Personally this never bothered me but especially since it does take a while to actually get into the action at the beginning of the game some people could easily have issues with this but once you're used to it you'll be fine.

So long story short (beyond too late) What do I think of Shin Megami Tensei Persona 4? Well let me put it this way.There was for the longest time a three way tie between P4,Breath of fire 2,and Final Fantasy 9.While I love the latter two and while FF9 has an amazing gameplay and soundtrack and Breath of fire 2 has a great story and characters,Persona 4 has all of these elements and then some.In my opinion This is just the most quality RPG I've ever played And I cannot reccomend enough that anyone who reads this give this version or the upcoming Vita port a shot.Also as a side note and a sign of how much I love this game,The new banner for this blog actually features a persona.Take-Mikazuchi.Love this game.

I really need to try a game I don't like in one of these.....this may require searching.

Did I ever mention I love my friends?

So since I've had my piece of crap banner I made In Ms paint up for over a year now on this blog  I figure It was time for a change.A friend of mine Who I'll just call Icy made this new banner and I freaking love her for that.I'll also be tweaking with the yellow to blue ratio on the colors just to see what looks better so expect a few changes coming up.^^

Mass effect 3 Multiplayer Firebase Rio on gold.

For the record I'm not the destroyer I'm the vorcha sentinel Raijin1026.KristianNox recorded the match for His/her channel (Sorry I'm not certain what your gender is mate) Sent a message to me saying the match was up on youtube and I asked if I could put it up.They said yes and here we are.For the record I love the Vorcha Sentinel.As you can tell by the mass amount of flames being thrown around.This was actually my first gold mission and I think I did okay.Recklessness does me well and vorcha are definatly reckless incarnate.Nonetheless check out kristianNox's channel And enjoy the carnage.

http://www.youtube.com/user/KristianNox (KristianNox's Channel)