Top ten Villains round 2 #9 Xenagos The god of revels.

Well I have some splainin' to do. First of all my apologies for my absence as of late. work has been rather rough lately that combined with some personal issues let's just say march and April are not favorite months of mine. Second of all I though I said I was going to crack open the doctor who bag early. Well I was originally going to put Mr. clever here but...well first off I just heard the booing of that decision considering how most people reacted to him but second while I do love the character I honestly couldn't think of much else to say other then " He's really fun to watch bravo to Matt smith." So consider him Number 9.5

Seriously that look says it all.

But onto the case at hand. Xenagos is a planeswalker from theros and.....Oh....I may need to explain somethings here. Xenagos is from magic the gathering. You may find it odd including a villain from a card game. It may sound odd but if you aren't a fan of magic you wouldn't know the storylines from their sets can be pretty damn good if you look into it. Case in point Theros. Theros is a plane from the MTG based on greek myth. As such gods play a massive part and Xenagos is one of them. Xenagos started as just a satyr a creature content in rollicking and frolicking through the hills Until his spark ignited. A planeswalker is a being from MTG that can travel to other planes. Xenagos awoke to this power when said spark ignited and through traveling to other planes he realized something horrifying to him. His existence was meaningless in the massive scheme of things and the gods reach meant nothing outside of Theros. This caused him to become a lot more ambitious with the powers he had gained and knowledge he had learned. He not only wanted to become a god but to become the only god in theros by wiping the rest out.

So you may be wondering what powers does xenagos have?  He has the power of revel. The power to stir things into a frenzy and to cause the frenzied to become even more enraged and psychotic.

Whoop de doo tarantula town right?

I mean being able to frenzy things is one thing but this isn't that powerful is it? Well tell that the three major cities in theros that got the shit kicked out of them by frenzied monsters. The main one to focus on is Akroas. Akroas got attacked by minotaurs not frenzied by xenagos but by the god of slaughter mogis. Xenagos waited though for the sun god heliod's champion another planeswalker elspeth to win and when the victory was acheived (at great loss ) The survivors held a victory celebration which xenagos amplified using his magic. Using a ritual and the energy of the grand revel as it became known he used the power to ascend to godhood as the god of revels.

Think about that for a second. Using outer plane magic which the gods have no power over and causing massive chaos to blind the gods by either killing or wounding the oracles of each other god so they couldn't see what happened or what he was planning. Then basically waiting for another powerful being to win a simple victory against angry minotaurs then using the victory celebration to ascend to godhood. In other words...

 

Xenagos threw such a bitchin party he became a god! 

 

 

 

Now granted because the stories are a bit vague It's hard to tell whether he timed his attack with the minotaurs or whether he frenzied them or whether mogis sent them in in time with the chaos it's the main reason he's this low because There are a lot of unknowns in this. Hell After elspeth got blamed for causing xenagos' ascension she would later find the spear godsend and kill xenagos. Some believe this was all according to the plans of erebus the god of the dead to gain either the soul of a god or that of elspeth. again a lot of unknowns. But because of this there is some leeway for interpretation. Between that and the fact that when he became a god he went about wrecking as much shit in theros as possible. He used his power to frenzy everything he could get his hands on and try to disrupt the gods as much as possible and before elspeth put an end to him he may have weakened the gods enough to overtake them I believe that xenagos is just a genius villain perhaps a little overdependent on other things going well but everything went so perfectly I have to enjoy this god of revels.

Also he BECAME A GOD THROUGH PARTYING!!! That's seriously badass I'm sorry it just is.....Ahem....sorry got a little carried away there....anyways next time I've got someone I've mentioned in passing before and the fact xenagos is from a greek setting seems appropriate for this cold hearted snake at number 8.

Top ten Villains Round 2 # 10 Dr nefarious and/or Alister azimuth

That's right ladies and gentlemen. When I first started this blog I Did a top ten list of my favorite villains. And looking back there are a few choices I have to change. Cybermen and The silence? Scarecrow? That chick from bioshock 2 Really? (Though I still say Bioshock 2 was a good game) Some decisions are hard to defend and Honestly better villains have come and gone since then so I'm doing Round 2 of my favourite villains and this time I Mean it....Well until a few more years go by anyway. But a few rules. First off With one exception one villain per franchise. So while there are two doctor who villains that's the worst It'll get. Second this is just my opinion I want to make this clear. I know some people hate villains I like and for that matter games I like (see bioshock 2 again) so take this with a grain of salt. Third and finally no ties....Stop looking at the title I'll get to that in a second. 

By which I mean now.

Dr nefarious

And Alister Azimuth

Remember how I said no ties. This isn't a tie. While Dr nefarious was in multiple games in the ratchet and clank series Crack in time and Up your arsenal are both amazing  and partially because of him. He's an absolute rush and partially due to amazing Voice acting done by Armin Shimmerman. Yes the same person who voices Andrew Ryan from Bioshock Voices Dr nefarious. I'm still incredibly impressed by that.

What gets me about nefarious is that He's clearly an idiot but he still manages to pull some impressive things off. Namely nearly taking over An enormous Time machine at the center of the universe (give or take a few meters) And turned half the occupied universe into robots through what I can only describe as Scientific brute force. He's smart enough to Create amazing weapons and then forgets to plug them in. This makes him an absolute joy to watch. And while you may say he's A terrible villain because of that and I can't argue but at the same time he has done some impressive things like I mentioned earlier. 

"But Immortal K..." You ask because you don't know my real name is Chris. "...Why is Alister here? he's a good guy." Alister Azimuth is a good guy but He's also the final boss of Crack in time after Nefarious. Much like Doctor nefarious He wanted to Abuse the great clock. Unlike Nefarious Who wants to use it to take over the world, Alister Wants to use it to bring the lombax race back from another dimension. For those Not familiar with ratchet and clank This may sound a lot like Doctor who and the time lords.....you aren't wrong. Anyway using the clock could cause immense damage to the universe so Clank won't allow it causing the conflict between Ratchet and Alister. He tries to take it by force and this is why He's on this list. He would possibly Destroy the only other member of his race for a chance to bring it back. If you saw The time of the doctor think about it this way. What if the doctor had to kill someone to bring back the time lords....and he did? While Alister was a general and murder isn't as much of a thing for him the crime is still there. So why are they both listed at Number 10?

Both of these two fit different roles and yet the same. They both Want to use the clock which is not a good thing. One is Directly evil but the other isn't. They show two sides of the mind. That both good and evil can end up wanting the same ends sometimes. That's fascinating to me and I think the story of A crack in time to be amazing because of that. Good villains make a good story and both of these whether or not they're evil are Antagonists in the end And to me that makes them villains. One defiantly and one arguably. Regardless both of them together make an amazing combination.

As for my Number 9?....Well let's crack open the doctor who bag early shall we?

ISWT Review: Beyond: Two Souls

Let me tell you about a company called Quantic Dream. Before this mist known for their games Indigo Prophecy and Heavy Rain they make very heavily story driven games often plagued by weird controls or hilariously bad voice acting. Just do a Google search for "Press X to Jason" and you'll see what I mean by that. But when this game was announced A lot of people started taking them much more seriously Seeming to fix both the VA problem by hiring some pretty decent actors (namely Ellen Page and Willem Dafoe.) And using much more simplified and yet still very unique controls. When the game came out however it was met with a unified "meh" Due to it's weird way of storytelling and just bizzarre plot in general. What do I think? 

Well first of all let's get one thing out of the way.While I never played Indigo prophecy, Heavy Rain I have a pretty good chunk of experience with. A pretty good plot and Game play for what it was muddied by often oddly funny voice acting (again Press X to Jason) and the fact that the game worked once in a blue moon and only once in said blue moon. The game was a glitched mess. But for what it was worth it was pretty good I'd say.

This game on the other hand was a weird grab bag. I was not expecting much going into it but coming out I was quite surprised and in a pretty good way for the most part anyway. First off the game is a lot more stable then heavy rain which would freeze or bug constantly. While Beyond honestly never had any major problems that I can recall anyway. The Voice acting is also a massive improvement with namely Ellen Page and Willem Defoe playing the main two characters Jodie and Nathan Dawkins.

It's sad but a character I legitimately Love I had to look the name of up because I always just called him Willem Defoe.

 Speaking of the characters how are they? I love the hell out of the characters in this game. Seriously the characters are so likable I honestly felt incredibly bad during more then a few times during this game namely a few incident involving Dawkins. For some reason his character always got me to really feel for him. I think it's just because the first few times you see him he's just a nice and very understanding character and honestly he may be one of my favorite characters in gaming.

No Kanji Tatsumi but still.

Jodie is also a very good character but it's kind of odd seeing her speaking to her invisible friend Aiden. It's very foreign seeing someone talking to thin air or from Aiden's perspective and knowing that something actually is there and that you actually get to play as. And for someone who doesn't know the story that sentence just weirded the hell out them. Speaking of lazy segues the story is kind of the strong point and kind of the weak point. The story is told in completely diced up order jumping from childhood to adulthood randomly which works in some ways but in some you can tell it's just to keep certain things hidden and flow the plot points how they want to. Again that does work okay but it's very bizarre.

But how is the actual story? The story itself is the story of a Jodie who discovers that she has an invisible friend who can actually move things around and interact. Her friend Aiden is a spirit that got attached to her somehow and the story progresses through her life finding out she had powers joining the CIA and evidently going on the run. The plot itself is strong enough but like I said it's really the characters that drive everything not so much the actual situations. It's more how is this going to affect Jodie then how is this going to affect the world or where is this going in the long run. I personally think it does more then it's job but I wouldn't say It's a work of art by any means often being a little ham fisted though only once or twice.

Graphically speaking the game is gorgeous. A few steps below the last of us but still a very good looking game again giving a very spooky feel the first few times you see the faces of Defoe and Page considering they are real people. granted a time here or there it looks off with the odd bush or the like but it's nothing to really call home about.

The game play is remarkably basic just like it's predecessor Heavy rain except with some improvements. The game play does it's job of fading into the background making the lasting memories be of the characters and story less the game play. I was almost ready to mark that as a bad thing but the more I think about it that IS what they're trying to do here so why is underwhelming game play a bad thing here.


From this point on I'm going to spoil the story a bit for the ending so you've been warned past here be spoilers

I'm predictable if anything

Throughout the story we learn of the other side. Rifts into the other side, Devices that can open portals to it and the creatures and spirits of the dead on the other side. Mr Dawkins earlier in loses his family to a car crash in one of the better emotional moments of the game. The thing is he ends up becoming a big wig in the CIA and creates a massive stable portal to the other side to study it. He reveals that he wants to De-stabilize the world in order to bring his family on this side over. This moment....is remarkably stupid and the worst part of the story. Some would say he was blinded by his wanting to bring his family back but that happened at least 20 years before he even got the portal and when he did he gained a way for his family to talk to him via a machine similar to the portals in which they flat out said "Don't merge the worlds and let us go" Since the machine they talked to him with caused them immense pain. He refuses to listen to them despite warning from his family and Jodie and it's easily the one problem I had with Dawkins. A great character who went evil for no good reason. While I do think the end is generally good with the rest of what happens and I won't spoil that part Dawkins going crazy at the end is very out of character considering and it's a big problem with the story.

END OF SPOILERS

So The progression is neat if perhaps a bit confusingly done, The end good if with a very bad twist to it, The story good but nothing that special all things considered, and littered with a cast of characters that are all very likable and enjoyable to watch. This game all in all surprised me but I will say that I don't think it's quite as good as heavy rain even considering. The story and characters are the main points of both games and the story of heavy rain is amazing and the characters are fantastic too. Beyond has amazing characters and just a good plot. I would say though This is worth the money it's up for even if it's not as good as it's predecessor. It's Something that like myself may catch you by surprise

Top 10 games of 2013.

2013 has been a damn great or at least a damn fascinating year for all gamers. The releases of both the ps4 and the xbox one. A new pokemon game. And two games people won't shut the hell up about....uh we'll get into them later. But starting off at number ten we have...!

Number ten: Guacamelee

This was an enjoyable little metroid-vania style game. A stereotypical Mexican theme alongside the pretty satisfying combat makes this game very one of a kind despite being a fairly simple and generic super metroid style game. The comedy is one thing that really kept me going on this one. for example

If you aren't at least intrigued after that screen I don't know what to say.


Number 9: DMC

While my opinion of this game may have lowered a touch during this year I will say that I still think this is the second best game in the franchise with 3 beating it. The combat is still rather enjoyable. The soundtrack fitting and again very enjoyable to me, And yes I do like most of the characters. I'll say that the dialogue can get a bit.....I'll say excessive with the whole gritty thing but I do still find everything enjoyable and I still say it's a worthy devil may cry game. also just want to say the whole Donte thing is so dumb. Think about it written it looks like it's pronounced the same as Dante. Since there is no ' So good call there internet....sorry what was I talking about?....oh yeah. the game Itself is fine and that's about it right there.

Number 8: A link between worlds

This is the second biggest surprise this year with the biggest coming later. I was never a fan of link to the past. Something about it just bored me. This game on the other hand while being in the same world and for a game that could be considered a re imagining of the first I'm stunned with how much I enjoyed this. This game is very old in style but it adds enough to the formula to become very interesting nonetheless. The new if very controversial weapon system of not getting Items in dungeons but having access after the first dungeon adds some odd life into the game. It's weird but still very enjoyable and one of my favorite 2-D style zelda games.


Number 7: The last of us

So I like DMC, I don't like link to the past and the last of us is not my favorite game of the year....I think I'm now trying to piss the internet off. But yeah this only makes number 7 for a reason. While I do think that the combat and general structure of the game is incredibly solid. the story is book ended with meh. The start was boring up to a point. And the end....Well the less I say about the end the better. but in between was quite good and as I said the game deserves a spot on a top ten list. Again not the best game this year to me and nowhere near the best game of all time.


Number 6: Bioshock infinite

When I mentioned earlier the two games people won't shut up about I was of course referring to the last of us and this game. and much like last of us I think this game has a lot of good points but I just don't get How so many people went nuts. The game play was enjoyable but was a step back from the first bioshock by removing hacking and other smaller parts and replacing with a very simple equipment system that doesn't do it for me. But unlike last of us I did get into the story and plot the whole way through and I do enjoy this game a lot. It just feels a step back from the first two games.....and yes I like bioshock 2....I think I AM trying to piss off the internet. I swear this was not intentional.


Number 5: Arkham origins

While a lot of people have encountered issues with this game namely glitches and a lot of the like. I got really lucky and never really had any major problems. I found the game pretty good. While it may have not improved a great deal over arkham city I do find this game very enjoyable. I will say that while the story was maybe easy to predict being a prequel and alfred just isn't going to die no matter what happens but how everything turned out did feel really enjoyable. I was legitimately intrigued in how everything was going to fall into place. While roger craig smith was okay troy baker ran away with his role as the joker and became possibly my favorite version of the joker ever even eclipsing mark hamil. And yes I am serious. I had a lot of fun with this game....Man I'm mentioning games with troy baker a lot here.


Number 4: Ratchet and Clank. Into the nexus.

This one was a surprise. I mean I love the franchise but I did not call this one being as good as it is. It's a shorter game and a cheaper one. being half the size and price of a full price game. The atmosphere and game play is amazing. If the game was longer it would be by a long shot my favorite game in the franchise. and considering how much I love "Up your arsenal" And "A crack in time" That's saying a lot. Insomniac if you make a game this good on PS4 I may actually get one eventually. Not like I'm getting an Xbone anytime soon.



Number 3: Pokemon X and Y

This basically had to be on the list. It's a damn fine entry into the series. My only real issues being the massively craptastic post game and the fact that sans their leader team Flare are a bunch of morons. The graphics are quite good. The new game play mechanics like mega evolutions are mostly quite good though I am a bit confused as to why this happened but whatever. All in all it is a great game I just wish they took a bit more from black and white 2.


Number 2: Saints row 4

This was the world's biggest surprise to me this year. This beast is some of the most fun I've ever had playing a game in my life. This game is fun for the sake of fun and that's just genius to me. It gives you whatever the hell you want just so you can glide around using it to blow shit up and amen to that. This would be number one but it got squeaked out by a second by....

Number 1: Metal gear rising

You know I'm going to correct myself....THIS was the biggest surprise this year. I even so much as played the demo and did not like this game....and then I heard the soundtrack and immediately bought this game and goddamn that was a good call. This game is a blast and it's weird because I know some people massively dislike this game because it's a different ball game from the metal gear solid games.....these people need to widen their horizons because this is the best beat em up I've ever played. Better then any devil may cry, bayonetta, or god of war game I've ever played. This game is beautiful. Nuff said.


Oh man I hope that next year is gonna be this good because seriously these games were genius. if next year is any similar I'm going to have a ball next year.

Time of the doctor. Uh second reaction...sort of.

What the hell would I call this actually....nonetheless click here to listen to me ramble for MORE then 3 minutes

First reaction: time of the doctor sort of.

Click here to listen to me slurr for three minutes about the regen and How I so called what music they'd use.

First reaction: Day of the doctor

Click here to see why chinny, sand shoes and grandad are pretty damn fun to watch