Batman: Arkham Knight

So first off, I know it's been a while since my last post. I'm actually not dead though. Still here.

 Time to inflict my opinions on the world once again. Anyway, I know I'm a little bit late on this, but there's some stuff rattling around in my head that I felt like sharing. Let's get started then, shall we? I love the Arkham game series. Arkham Asylum was quite possibly the best superhero game ever when it came out, and then it was surpassed by Arkham City, which is still my favorite superhero game. After that though, there was Arkham Origins, which was made by WB Montreal instead of Rocksteady. Please don't misunderstand; Arkham Origins is a really cool game, but just it didn't continue the upward trend of its predecessors. It did improve on detective mode and Bane, plus it had Deathstroke and a couple other favorites of mine, but even that didn't make it any more  satisfying than Arkham City. Not to mention the different voice actors, who sounded a lot like the originals, but still just weren't quite the same. So after that, I was worried Rocksteady was gone for good and that from this point forward we would receive good Batman games instead of fantastic ones. If that's not a little bit petty and/or selfish, please let me know, but either way that's how I feel. Fortunately though, Rocksteady is making a triumphant return. (Feel free to revisit the gif above this block of text.) As per my usual posts of this sort, I'll post the trailer below.

Just give me a second here...

Almost there...

And...

Aha!

If you like Batman and video games and aren't really excited right now, I don't know what it'll take. You know what? You don't even have to like both, If you like Batman or video games, you should be excited. But the name of the game comes from the name of a character introduced in this story, so the question of the hour is: Who is the Arkham Knight? And I've got an idea. It sounds crazy, but considering who and what the idea involves, crazy seems appropriate. Hear me out on this. In Arkham City, we found this with Harley Quinn's stuff:




Not to mention the fact that during the credits, Harley can be heard singing a slightly homicidal lullaby. Yeah. You see where I'm going with this. Also, this game is set many years after Arkham City. So in summary: Harley and the Joker have a child in this universe, this game is set a long time after the pregnancy test was positive, the man called Arkham Knight is an original character and not in the comicbooks, AND THE IDENTITY OF THE TRIGGERMAN IS A MYSTERY! Wait... wrong Batman universe. So in case anyone isn't following me, I think the Arkham Knight may very well be the Joker's son. It couldn't just be some guy who knows how to fight and put on a costume; this is the conclusion of an epic trilogy, so the main villain has to be significant in some way. Also, the Joker is dead and Harley believes it's Batman's fault. Assuming my theory is correct, this is a man who has been raised by a homicidal psychopath and taught his whole life to hate the Batman. And you know who else's father was killed? Batman. Therefore, it provides symmetry between the two characters, which is always nice. If I'm right, I am the new World's Greatest Detective. And if not, I'm some fool with a computer and a crazy theory... Now that I put it like that, I really hope I'm right...

Candy Crush

I. Hate. Candy Crush. I like good video games and I talk about games on this blog (usually real games and not phone games, but I'll make an exception today), so why not explain why I think Candy Crush should be destroyed forever.For the purpose of making sure we're all on the same page, Candy Crush is a highly overrated phone game that if you don't already know about it, you should consider yourself lucky. It's similar to Bejeweled, which is a good phone game, but Candy Crush is bad. Both involve switching pieces to form and eliminate groups of three, but Candy Crush is level based, meaning that even if you get a good run going, it will automatically end at a certain point, and you'll most likely have some good moves lined up that you never get to use. Also, the levels are essentially pass/fail, which I don't like. What I like about Bejweled (not blitz; the regular version) is that with strategy, you can keep one game going for a long time and get a really high score. Candy Crush cuts you off once you get the required score for each level, and gives you a limited number of moves. So that's why I think it's bad, and what makes it worse is that it's really popular. Angry Birds is a decent game, but people have gotten really obsessed with it, which makes me like it less. The only thing worse that a decent but overrated game is a bad game that everyone seems to love. Because of this, ordinary and decent people like you and me get incessant requests to send lives on Facebook, which got really old really fast. Candy Crush is destroying the video game industry, and people are standing by doing nothing. By supporting it, people are showing companies that they'll make a lot of money by making low quality games and charging people for more content. If they see that they can make money this way, then that's what they're gonna do. If this doesn't stop soon, the world will be filled with atrocities beyond our nightmares, all because we failed to act now. So what I'm saying is that if you play Candy Crush, stop, and if you don't, I will think less of you, but I beg of you not to spend any money on it. If you do, the bad guys win.

Judge Dredd Video Games

There have been a couple Judge Dredd video games in the past, but none of them were that good. I thought the Judge Dredd vs. zombies phone game was decent, but phone games barely even count as real games. What I want is a quality console game where you play as Judge Dredd. For best results, I'd say that they should combine elements from the movie and the comicbooks, like having more aliens and weird sci-fi stuff than the movie, but maybe a little less than the comicbooks. Judges and their guns should have a movie inspired look, but I think the lawmaster bikes should be much more like they were in the comicbooks. Where gameplay is concerned, this game should be an open world third person shooter with a little bit of RPG thrown into the mix. Picture Skyrim combined with Red Dead Redemption, Fallout, and Far Cry 3, set in the world of Judge Dredd. I'd say a large section of Mega City One should be completely open to the player to explore, and filled with both simple crimes to stop and also some more complex side quests like Skyrim. Traversal should be primarily reliant on Dredd's lawmaster bike, which would work like a horse in Red Dead where you can summon it from afar, since he does that a lot in the comicbooks. It's a big city though, and even if you're only in part of it, this game would be best with a map roughly the size of Skyrim's. So with that in mind, a fast travel system should be set up similarly to Far Cry 3's, so in this case, Judge Dredd can fast travel to Justice Department outposts around the city, then take his bike or any other vehicle he finds the rest of the way. Combat should work almost identically to Red Dead Redemption's third person shooter style, except with a melee button for getting up close and personal. Also, there should be more than one melee move so that you can take guys down hand to hand without getting bored. The bounty system from Red Dead could be adapted to serve as Justice Department assignments, except you don't choose whether or not you take the perp in alive or dead. Now picture that, but with an RPG element too. Due to the extreme versatility of the lawgiver pistol, I'm thinking maybe that should be the only weapon the player uses, with an inventory wheel like Far Cry and Red Dead for selecting different types of ammo instead of different weapons. Defeated enemies should drop money and regular bullets, but the special stuff like high ex. or ricochet ammo and health syringes like Far Cry 3 should have to be bought at the Justice Department or one of its outposts like the way you buy things in Far Cry 3. There should  also be items that you can pick up and either sell or use in a quest. These could be stored in an inventory like Skyrim's, along with possibly other ammo types that don't fit in the quick select wheel. If this is the case, the wheel should work like a favorites menu, where the player decides which items are available in it. Found items being equipped and used doesn't really make sense since judges have better stuff than most criminals, plus they have to be in uniform, but it could get boring if there's no way to get better gear. I'd say that XP points earned by taking down criminals should be spent in a perk menu with a few different skill trees like an armor tree, a lawgiver tree, maybe a vehicle tree, and probably a couple others. Maybe a negotiation and speech skill tree. Yeah, I think that'd make a cool gameplay element doing things like negotiating hostage situations and stuff.  In terms of the main quest line, I'm pretty flexible, but Id like it to involve the Angel gang and the Dark Judges, but the story shouldn't be just the generic villain team up against hero story. That's been done so many times now. I want something fresh. The reason I suggest these villains is that fighting the Angel gang could result in a few quests going outside the city into the Cursed Earth, and a fight with the Dark Judges could take place in their alternate universe. Or maybe the Angel gang could be in a separate DLC quest line instead, which could open up a portion of the Cursed Earth for exploration, complete with side quests and random acts of violence to stop. Badically picture the Fallout games except you're Judge Dredd. They could also make an expansion that opens up more of the city, or one that takes place on the moon colony. Or best yet, they could release a disk with all of these areas on it to download onto your system (since I like hard copies of things), and also include new perks to get, new vehicles to drive, and new lawgiver ammo types. Maybe the game could have some multiplayer in the form of Justice Department training simulations where judges shoot each other for practice. Ideally these could be accessed directly from single player by visiting a specific areas. That said, it's not a necessity. The only other thing this game does need is the option to yell "I AM THE LAW!"

the Deadpool Game

Comicbooks and videogames are both great forms of entertainment, so when one of my favorite comicbook characters finally got his own game, there was no way I wasn't buying that. In my experience, games based on comicbooks are often good, while games based on movies based on comicbooks are almost never good. In fact, the reason the X-Men Origins: Wolverine game was actually good  is that it started development as a game based on the comicbooks, then they just threw the movie into the mixture with it. There are exceptions to this rule, but Deadpool isn't one of them. His game is really well done, which is hard to do with Deadpool and his weird, twisted humor. High Moon Studios may be a familiar name to you if you played War For Cybertron and Fall of Cybertron, which were the two best Transformers games ever (by the way, games based on cartoons based on action figures are good, but games based on movies based on cartoons based on action figures tend to not be as good). High Moon has shown us that they know how to make a good licensed game. In Transformers, they stayed true to the lore and got all the characters' personalities dead on. One would say the same for Deadpool. His personality is exactly how it should be, and the game's humor is actually funny and not overdone. I especially applaud them for that, since especially fourth wall breaking humor is really easy to overdo. This is the first game I've played that's made me actually laugh out loud. Especially in the scenes where Deadpool is talking to Cable, and if you don't know who the f Cable is, the game has seen to that. Here, I'll find their short little description of him. Ah, here it is:

Yeah, that's basically the tone of the whole game. There's even a scene where Cable is giving Deadpool a warning from the future, but Deadpool is bored and thinking about tacos, so he starts imagining Cable as a taco.

Yeah. You have a conversation with a floating cybernetic taco from the future. I don't even know what else I can say about that. Can you think of another game that has that? Besides having a good sense of humor, the gameplay is actually fun, which is the most important factor to me. It's satisfying to shoot, slice, and smash your way through hordes of enemies with a variety of cool weapons. Also, High Moon has brought back their cutscene-gameplay hybrid sequences like the ones in Transformers. In Transformers, there's a cutscene where Metroplex, the city sized Autobot, is about to start punching Megatron, and right before he does, they give you control over him. You just repeatedly press a button to punch Megatron with a gigantic fist. Deadpool is a little smaller scale, but funnier. I mean, look at this!

This game is really good, but I do have one major complaint about it. It's too short. There's just not a lot of game content. The story is pretty short, and this style of game doesn't really lend itself to multiplayer. If this was a bad game, being short wouldn't come into the equation very much, but since it's a good game, it does. It's really fun to play, but in my opinion, there's just not enough game. I bought a used copy for a lower price, so I suggest you do the same, since I don't like paying full price for a game unless that game is going to entertain me for a long time. I do suggest you pick up this game though, even if you're not a huge Marvel fan, but if you are, you'll enjoy it even more, since there are lots of subtle little jokes they make. Either way, I like this game, so give it a try!

 

Still don't buy an Xbox One

This is old news, but in case you haven't heard, Microsoft did an Xbox One Eighty with their DRM policies, meaning that used games will be fully supported, sharing games will be possible, and disks will work like they do now. All because when they announced their plans, we said no. There was so much protesting, and we did it. If you posted anything saying what madness their proposed policies were, you did it too. Be proud, because the voice of the people made a difference. That may sound a little cheesy, but it's true. I don't know if you like Doctor Who or not, but if you do, you may remember a scene where the Daleks are threatening to exterminate people if the ninth Doctor doesn't comply, and he just keeps saying no to them. Basically, Microsoft is the Daleks and get excited, since that makes us the Doctor. Anyway, I'm happy about this victory, but Microsoft has shown that they are clearly unhappy about this and only doing it so people will at least consider buying their console and stop hating on it. So because of this, they've decided to be petty about it and take away family sharing, which was one of the few kinda decent things they had announced before. It's petty and contemptible, but I have to admit that it's smart. Now all the people who were looking forward to having family sharing are turning against us, the people who fought for their freedom from oppressive DRM. I'm not sure if they planned that to happen or were just trying to punish us for wanting to own the games that we pay them money for (since last time I checked, that's how a transaction works. If they want us to have no choice but to basically rent games, they had better be a lot cheaper than the price to buy them). If they did plan to turn gamers against each other though, I'll admit that's pretty good as far as corporate evil schemes go. I don't like it, but I do respect it. That's allowed, right? Doctor Doom sincerely respects both Mister Fantastic and Iron Man. Now that I think about it, I think villains are usually the ones who both hate and respect their enemies. Especially Kraven the Hunter with his philosophy about every man having his "spider." But this isn't really a you're-my-spider kind of thing as much as an I-don't-like-what-you-did-but-I'll-admit-it-was-smart kind of thing. Besides lacking my and many other people's respect and not deserving our money, there are still other reasons not to buy an Xbox One. It costs One hundred dollars more, and relies a lot on voice commands, which you can't expect to always work. You just can't. And the most important reason is still the fact that it's not truly about games anymore. Honestly, if you want a new console, buy a PS4, if you have some money you want to blow after buying one and like Nintendo, buy a Wii U, and if you still have $500 you want to spend on something, buy those gold pills I mentioned in my last post , and I honestly could not care less what you do with the remaining $75. I'll take it if you don't want it.

Don't buy an Xbox One

The Xbox One looks horrible! Not to mention having a stupid name (puns to come)! As in Xbox One Hundred dollars more expensive than the PS4 but way worse! I would literally prefer to buy gold pills that give you golden poop (yes, they make that) than buy an Xbox One, since the pills cost a little bit less, and either way, what you get is a shiny turd! Besides the price tag, what else is terrible about it, you ask? Where to begin?! How about their decision to mercilessly screw over the used game market? You buy a disk for the purpose of installing the game to your system, then there's an as of yet undisclosed fee if the disk is used by a different person! This is all because Microsoft is a corporation that rivals the evil of the Umbrella Corporation, and it might as well be run by Cobra Commander, Mr. Burns from the Simpsons, and the freakin' Monopoly guy! Seriously! Microsoft is becoming so greedy and corrupt that now their evil rivals, if not exceeds EA's! That's right! I went there. They're ruining used games, which is how I buy a lot of my games! But it gets better! They talk about a bunch of features they're adding that make it sound like there are perks to the system, but they're things that WE ALREADY HAVE!!! For example, they say you can borrow a game from someone, but only if you've had them in your friends list for 30 days, and only once! With the current system, you can borrow games from anyone, as many times as you want! And you know what the funniest one is? This actually made me laugh. Ready? One of the features they list is that people in your house get unlimited access to your games! Think about that for a second! If they had to resort to listing that among the good things about their console, clearly there aren't many! But there are plenty of negatives! For example, an even bulkier Kinect that constantly spies on you. They say it won't, but we all know that's a lie. Or how about the fact that there's no backwards compatibility? Or the fact that it needs a constant Internet connection to work, even for 100% offline games! They tell us lies about why it's "necessary," and it is for some games, but not for all of them! And you still have to pay for Xbox Live, except now you can't play your games without it, so you're being forced to pay for a product that some people don't even want, even if you never use it! It seems like it's not even about games anymore! They keep talking about using it to watch TV, or do other things besides gaming, none of which I care about! The Xbox One is a media device that happens to be able to play games! That's what it is! It's not a game console; they say it is, but it isn't!  Meanwhile, the PS4 supports used games, has free online capabilities but doesn't require a constant connection, doesn't spy on you, costs less, focuses on games instead of other stuff no one wants, and doesn't have a stupid name! Honestly, Xbox 720 sounds better, and 720 is a stupid name already. On top of that, unlike the Xbox One, the PS4 doesn't look like a clunky brick, and even more importantly, has some degree of backwards compatability! Which console does Microsoft think people are going to buy? The only thing Microsoft has that Sony doesn't is their exclusive content, but Sony has their own exclusives, which seem to keep getting better, while Microsoft's just kinda... don't. Actually, I take that partially back. Microsoft had one exclusive that I'd really like to play: Dead Rising Three. I loved the first two games, but the second was released on all platforms, so maybe they'll go that route eventually with the third. So let's do a recap, shall we? Used games: advantage Sony. Backwards compatibility: advantage Sony. Online functionality: advantage Sony. Price: advantage Sony. Basically everything: advantage Sony. However, I would like to thank Microsoft for doing one thing very well. They made it extremely easy to decide which console to buy, and it's not theirs! The 360 is my favorite gaming platform, but Microsoft, blinded by greed, is alienating the customers, which will cost them my and a lot of other people's buisness. Microsoft is turning out to be like that one childhood friend you had that turned into a total jerk, so you stopped hanging out with him. Xbox One? More like Xbox lost. 

Battletoads

Recently, it seems like there have been a lot of reboots. Devil May Cry, the Superman movies, the Spider-Man movies, and various comicbooks to name a few. In my opinion, the next reboot they should make is... Battletoads.


That's right. I said Battletoads. The NES game that everyone makes prank calls about. It was decent at first, but then it got so hard it wasn't even fun. Especially since if you got far enough, you could see that the devs were counting on the fact that most people wouldn't get that far, so they put gradually less effort into the levels and enemies as the game went on. The first two levels are actually fun though if you want to head over here and give the game a shot. If you do, make sure to pause the game at least once, since when you pause it, the game gives you a really catchy beat that you can rock out to. At one point there was also a Battletoads cartoon, but it was incredibly cheesy and they overemphasized the plot element of the toads' human identities being losers so much that it took away from their relatability. I like the idea of anthropomorphised toads that use their limited shapeshifting abilities to fight aliens though, so I'm thinking they could use a gritty reboot. If Aquaman can go from being the lamest member of the Super Friends to the tough guy he is now who loses a hand in battle and doesn't even care, then the Battletoads can be made cool. Their biggest obstacle is the fact that people dismiss them as a cheap Ninja Turtles knockoff, which is understandable but mistaken. What they need is a prequel story. In the cartoon, it's said that the toads were ancient warriors and their identities were passed to the human teenagers, who serve as their current embodiments. So a prequel game could take place before the lameness of the humans comes into the equation, and also serve to prove that the toads are different from the turtles by elucidating their backstory. The other thing I said already is that the story needs to be dark and gritty. Not incredibly dark, but darker. There should be likable supporting characters who die, and other plot elements that create real emotion. Lastly, if a Battletoads reboot is going to work, it needs to be fun, which means good combat. I'm thinking Rocksteady might be a good studio to make it since they did a fantastic job with the unarmed combat in their Batman games, and the toads are all about hand to hand. Of course, their shapeshifting has to come into it, so I think ordinary attacks could gradually fill a meter on the HUD, which can be spent by performing shapeshifting attacks. If a game was made that fit this description, I would play it, and not just because it was my idea. The one other problem I see is that video game stores would be reluctant to sell it, since that would give people even more reason to call and ask about Battletoads.

Batman: Arkham Origins

Now that a trailer is out there for Arkham Origins, I might as well do a post about it. So first of all, here's the trailer if you haven't seen it yet:

So that looks pretty good, huh? Personally, I couldn't be happier with their choice of villains. For the main villain they chose Black Mask, a lesser known villain who seems pretty cool in this from what little we see of him in this trailer. What I really like though is Deathstroke being in this. Bats is my favorite DC hero, so a game with him against possibly my favorite DC villain is something I'm going to play very happily. Sometimes I even root for Slade when he fights the Teen Titans, depending what version it is. I wasn't thrilled with Deathstroke's look when I read the Game Informer article, but now that we've seen him in action, I think he looks like a total BAMF. A little less impressive looking but still cool is Deadshot, who also seems to be a character in this game. They don't name him in the trailer, but judging from his eyepiece and extreme sniping skills, I think it's a pretty safe bet to say that's Deadshot. Especially since the story involves Black Mask hiring the world's deadliest assassins to kill the Batman. Black Mask is pretty hardcore and I like him, but I gotta say this is probably the one and only time that if they have one of those plot twists where the real main villain is actually someone other than who we thought was the main villain, I would be totally fine with it. If you don't know what I'm talking about, think about The Dark Knight Rises. The main villain turned out to be Talia Al Ghul and not Bane. Something similar also happens in the third installment of another superhero movie trilogy that happens to also star a genius billionaire playboy philanthropist who shall not be named for the purpose of spoilers. We all know who I'm talking about, but I'll sleep easier if I don't go right out and say it. So anyway, I usually don't like when that happens, but if it does in this game, I would be completely okay with it, since that would make Deathstroke the primary antagonist, and he is more than qualified considering his combat skills, strategic mastery, and genius intellect. Playing as him would be cool, so there's a good chance I'll preorder the game, but to be safe I'll wait in case another preorder bonus is announced (which one usually is) from a different store, so then I can choose what I want, but it'll be pretty hard to beat Deathstroke. Or maybe I'll just be lazy and not preorder, then buy the DLC codes secondhand. Either way, I'm still f'sho getting this game.

Injustice DLC

So there are of course going to be some Injustice DLC characters, two of which are already confirmed, and one already has a gameplay trailer: Lobo.

I was hoping for him, and his trailer looks awesome, but as for the other possible characters, I'm not quite as satisfied. It's been revealed that the second DLC character is Batgirl. Why you ask? I don't know I answer. She is literally a female and watered down Batman. I can't think of anything she could bring to the table that Batman hasn't already. Allegedly, other characters may include General Zod and Scorpion. I love both of those characters, but neither if them should be DLC. Scorpion should stay in Mortal Kombat and Zod is Kryptonian, giving him the exact same powers as Super Man, so that would be yet another duplicate character. Speaking of duplicates, according to Ed Boon's Twitter, there's a chance we'll see Professor Zoom, but I'm hoping they'll choose Martian Manhunter over him. To be honest though, there are other characters I'd like to see even more. The ones I want are Metallo, either Plastic Man or Elongated Man, Ra's Al Ghul, Swamp Thing, Steel, and one of what i call the superhe-bros (Booster Gold and Blue Beetle). I thought of that pun on the spot by the way. You should be proud of me. I am. Anyway, as far as the characters that are apparently going to be released, I'll quote a movie I like: I'D BUY THAT FOR A DOLLAR! But seriously. I'd gladly buy it for a dollar, but not a lot more. Especially since they already have a lot of Batman characters, and as much as I like General Zod, I have a feeling they're just trying to make him more popular before Man of Steel (which looks pretty awesome) comes out. It's not that I have anything against these characters; I just think any of the other ones I mentioned would have been much more interesting. Ra's Al Ghul is a master swordsman, Plastic Man and Elongated Man could have some cool stretching/shapeshifting moves, Steel has his hammer, Metallo is a freakin' robot, Swamp Thing has swamp stuff, and either of the two superhe-bros would be cool, especially with the Blue Beetle's gadgets and stuff. Well that's my opinion, and until I think of something else to post about, farewell!

Injustice: Gods Among Us

So I picked up Injustice this weekend, and I'm impressed. The people who made it are the same ones who did Mortal Kombat, so they know what they're doing. It has almost everyone in it that I wanted except Ra's Al Ghul and Darkseid, but you can play as Doomsday, so that makes up for Darkseid. Also there are already a few Batman characters, so I can understand why they didn't want more. On the plus side though, Darkseid is a part of one of the stage transitions. Each stage has three areas you can fight in, with cool transitions in between. So one of them involves kicking your opponent through a portal to Apokalips, where Darkseid will putt a serious hurting on him, then throw him back through the portal, thus transitioning to a nearby but different area. Each stage is also unique and interactive, with lots of items that are useable in different ways depending on the character. The only other problem I see is that the story is pretty short. Granted, no one buys a fighting game just for the story mode, but a little more of it would've been nice. Especially since the story is pretty good and most of the characters have pretty cool alternate costumes. Sinestro gets a weird helmet, which I don't like that much, but some characters like Shazam look cooler in the alternate universe than the main one, and some of them are about the same in coolness, but a change is still refreshing. Besides appearance, NetherRealm had done a great job making every character feel unique. A big part of that is the fact that now there's a button for a unique character power. For example, Bane juices himself up with Venom, Batman summons some flying bat projectiles, and Wonder Woman changes her fighting style from hovering and wielding her lasso to standing and using a sword and shield. Super moves are also very character appropriate, besides being just plain awesome. Deathstroke tosses his sword into the air, shoots his opponent, kicks his sword into them, then shoots some more, which is something he would totally do in the comicbooks. Same with Aquaman (who's actually pretty sweet in this game) stabbing someone with his trident, then feeding them to a shark. NetherRealm has taken steps to make Injustice very different from Mortal Kombat, which is definitely a good thing, but the one thing I wish they kept is finishing moves. They don't need to be fatalities, but I just want some sort of cool move to use once you've won and want to further humiliate your friends. Overall though, they did a great job with this game, and if you like DC, you should totally go buy it. Even if you're not, but you like cool fighting games, check this one out!

Comicbook Mercenaries and Assassins

In both Marvel and DC, the mercenaries and assassins have always been some of my favorite characters. For example, Marvel has Bullseye, and Taskmaster, DC has Deadshot and Onomatopoeia, and Deadpool and Deathstroke are each one of my favorite characters in their respective universes. I love Deadpool's randomness and Deathstroke's sheer toughness and ability to beat anyone if he has time to prepare. I was pretty happy when Deadpool's game was announced, then Deathstroke was announced for Injustice, and now that they've announced Arkham Origins and showed that he'll be in it, I'm a happy man. Especially since they've said that the story of the game is that eight of the world's best assassins have gathered in Gotham to kill the Batman. Now that sounds exactly like the kind of game I want to play. I know that the Penguin and Black Mask are in the game, but they're not part of the assassin squad. Where they're concerned, the only member we know of is Deathstroke, but Deadshot has already been in an Arkham game, so I wouldn't be surprised if he shows up too. I just wish there were more comicbook stories about villains-for-hire. I've read Suicide Squad and The Thunderbolts, but I don't count those. Those are villains being forced by the government to do hero stuff. I want there to be an ongoing series about villains doing some antihero stuff and some villain stuff that ends up working out for the greater good. No government involvement though. They have to choose to do what they're doing or else it's not as good. There are tons of stories with costumed mercenaries in them, but I want them to be the protagonists so they can do what they do, but actually win. Maybe the story could involve some assassins being hired then betrayed by another villain, then seeking revenge. Ir maybe one of thise miniseries type things that take place during a massive crossover event and details what's going on with other characters. Either way, their actions serve the greater good but they're still not trying to be herpes. I am happy though that my two favorite mercs will both be playable in upcoming video games. Deadpool gets his own game, but Deathstroke is playable in Injustice and is a major antagonist in Arkham Origins, so they're both doing pretty well. And that's all for today. Later!

Giant Swords

Many fictional characters use oversized swords, about which I have mixed feelings. Sometimes I think a huge sword looks cool, others it gets a little ridiculous. I'll try to find some pictures as I go to illustrate what I'm saying. Mainly it comes down to who's using the sword. Enormous swords aren't feasible for normal people to use, so there are only some excuses a character can have for using one. For example, Cloud and Sephiroth from Final Fantasy would be normal people if not for artificial genetic enhancements. That just doesn't quite... Cut it for me. Plus I guess I'm biassed since I've never been much of a Final Fantasy fan. And besides looking using weird looking swords, everyone in those games kinda looks like their oversized weapons are compensating for something. Sorry if you're a Final Fantasy fan, but you have to admit that there are manlier looking characters out there. Which brings us to someone else who uses a gigantic sword: War from Darksiders. War uses a large sword, but there's no questioning his masculinity. Especially since he is a horseman of the apocalypse and the living embodiment if war. War being war is also why he can use carry his massive Chaos Eater blade without me questioning it. He's freakin' War, so if he wants to use a huge sword, he gets to use a huge sword! Same with his brother, Death, in the sequel. He can use a variety of really big hammers, axes, etc. but it's ok because he's Death! All horsemen of the apocalypse, gods, demons, and even some half demons can use whatever weapons they want! I mentioned half demons in an attempt to smoothly transition to someone else who can get away with using a pretty big sword: Dante from Devil May Cry (did it work?). Some people like the old games, some like the reboot, some like both, and some aren't fans of any DMC games, but Dante is a pretty cool dude no matter how you... Slice it... Anyone? No...? Okay... So anyway, Dante is the son of a demon, so he can do what he wants. Also his sword isn't quite as big as some others, so it's reasonably sized for a half demon.

Next Gen Consoles

As a console gamer, the announcement of the next generation of game consoles was a pretty big deal for me. The PS4 is the console that all the news is about, and that doesn't really apply to me since I play Xbox and don't plan on switching and I'm too cheap to buy both, but I assume the next Xbox will be very similar. Some of the features they announced sound pretty nice, like a considerably bigger hard drive, a light bar on the controllers which are charged while the machine sleeps if they're connected, and the ability to record and share game footage for every title, but there are some things I'm less than thrilled about. There's nothing that I think will make it worse, but games will cost more, plus the console itself will be far from cheap, and I don't like being forced to pay for things that I don't necessarily need. For example, the console comes with a headset, which I would probably buy anyway, but I would prefer to choose one that, at risk of sounding like a cheesy commercial, is right for me. There's a fair amount of variety in headsets and I want to choose one without also being forced to buy the one that comes with the console. Especially since I don't play a ton online, and when I do, there always seems to be some kid who sounds way too young to be playing whatever game it is, and who doesn't know how or when to shut up. I pretty much never play Call of Duty, so I avoid the worst of it, but it's still a problem. Also, the graphics on these new consoles are going to be a lot better, which is good, but I don't know if I care enough for it to be worth the extra money for every game. Unless a game's graphics are extremely bad (and I mean extremely), I don't really care that much about them. I play and rate games based on fun gameplay, good story, creativity, originality, music, voice acting, how well it keeps with the series if applicable, loyalty if it's based on something else, THEN graphics. I've always thought that playing a game just for the graphics is like reading a book for the font it's written in. No matter what people try to convince you, video games aren't about looking good. They're about feeling good. Sorry, I kind of went into a rant there. I hate raging and swearing 9 year olds on Xbox Live, and I hate when people think graphics are the most important characteristic of a game, but I think the next consoles will be pretty cool! I said I'm not thrilled about some things, but that wasn't an understatement in order to express unhappiness. I meant that I'm literally not thrilled. I'm happy though. I'll probably wait a while before buying one, and an even longer time before I stop playing 360 if they're not backwards compatible (which they had better be or Imma shank someone), but I have high hopes for next gen consoles.
Until next post!

First Person Daredevil Game

Big news, everyone! They've just announced an upcoming first person action game staring Daredevil, the Man Without Fear! Check out these leaked screenshots at the bottom! Just kidding. But a Daredevil game would be pretty nice. Obviously it would have to be mostly third person since seeing through Matt Murdoch's eyes wouldn't be very useful. But I think a sort of first person focus mode would be cool. The screen would have to be all black except for the outlines of things and people detected by his hearing, his radar sense, and any other sense that can be justified. It could be used to either detect objects and places of interest, or hidden enemies. Or it could be used to temporarily slow down time during combat. If the latter, there would have to be a time limit to it. Maybe when a combo meter is filled, focus mode could activate. Or it could just be used as an alternate mode of perceiving the environment and be switched on an off at will. Making this a stealth based game would be a bad idea, but it could borrow a bit from Splinter Cell and have the light sources in the environment be destructible so then Daredevil has the advantage since nothing is different for him when it's dark. When it's completely dark, his senses mode would be activated automatically, but combat would still work normally. And combat skills are what should be used to defeat bosses. NO QUICK TIME EVENTS. I hate boss battles that consist only of dodging attacks until the boss is stunned, then completing an otherwise meaningless sequence of buttons. And no henchmen or environment boss battles where the villain just happens to have some piece of technology or pet monster or army of thugs. As for who the bosses should be, I think it should definitely have Kingpin and Bullseye, and I think Jester would make a cool addition. There's a comicbook issue where Daredevil goes through his maze of doom, then fights him mano a mano, so that could be a cool video game. And that's pretty much all the ideas I have for a Daredevil game. Until my next post, farewell!

A Hawkeye FPS

There have been some good Marvel games, and also a fair amount of bad ones. There are a few though that will probably never be made, but I feel like they would be cool. Like a first person shooter staring Hawkeye. It could benefit from the popularity of the Avengers movie, and be the only fps to my knowledge where your only weapon is a bow, which would make it new and interesting instead of a generic COD clone with a new label on it. I haven't played the newest Crysis yet, but from what I've seen and heard, the bow mechanic works pretty well in that, so a Hawkeye game could have similar bow gameplay. It would have to be a little less overpowered, but I think Clint's different arrow types could fit well into an upgrade system, along with perk trees involving accuracy, attack damage, and things like that. There should be a lot of arrow types, but not too many ammo pickups besides basic broadhead or maybe blunt tip arrows. I don't know about you, but I would totally play this game if it was made (unless it was made by EA, since I can easily see them charging money for additional arrow types... Ok that was a joke, but I still don't feel like EA would be a good fit). As far as traversal goes, one f Barton's most common arrows is the grappling hook arrow, so that could become an important gameplay element. Maybe the player could start the game with unlimited grapple and nonlethal blunt tip arrows and acquire more as the story progresses. I feel like grappling around the map just wouldn't be that fun if you always had to worry about running out of grapples. Rocksteady did a fantastic job with Batman's grappling hook, so something like that would be cool where there are grappleable points marked on the HUD and firing the grapple has its own button so you never have to equip it. Also the camera should move to third person while zipping up to a grapple point. Maybe a little bit of stealth gameplay could be thrown into the action, but definitely not too much. Maybe sneaking to get in position to attack or something like that, but when it comes to taking enemies out, I think this game should be an action packed shooter more than anything else. And that's all I have to say about this genius idea for something I want.

Some Video Game News

First up is Skyrim, which is getting even more DLC! Available now is the Dragonborn DLC, which takes you back to the island of Solstheim, which you'll recognize if you played Morrowind. You also battle the first dragonborn, get some new powers and weapons and stuff, and I'm fairly certain the ability to ride a dragon. I know a lot of people have been waiting a long time for that. And unfortunately for PC and PS3 gamers, they'll have to wait even longer since 360 gets it first. Most people who don't have a 360 and want this DLC have my sympathy, but the annoyingly arrogant PC gamers who think they're better than everyone else deserve this and more. And now a rap by me:
 If you're havin' game problems I feel bad for you, son.
I got 99 problems, but Skyrim ain't one.
.... I promise I won't do that again. That just popped into my head and my brain to keyboard filter isn't working very well.... Do me a favor and forget about that. In other news (see how smoothly I transition?), Deathstroke is a confirmed playable character in Nether Realm's Injustice: Gods Among Us, and he looks awesome. They released a gameplay trailer showing him in action, so if I wasn't completely sold on the game before (we all know I was, but for the sake of the discussion, let's say I wasn't), I am now. Deathstroke is one of the characters that I was hoping would be in Injustice, since I want to play as him, and I heard such bad things about Mortal Kombat Vs. DC Universe, I never played it. It makes sense too, since when you think about it, he's a perfect character for this genre of game. He relies heavily on unarmed brawling, he has mele weapons, and he uses long range attacks too. But guess what? I have even more news. This time about Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2. As promised, I'm updating this post after finding a gameplay video. At Spike's 10th annual Video Game Awards, a new trailer with gameplay was released. We've already seen a trailer showing Gabriel as a superpowered vampire kicking the collective a** of a whole army, but we hadn't seen any gameplay before. Mind you, this trailer reallly doesn't have that much gameplay in it, but it's still nice to see some. I just remembered that in interviews, the developers have commented on the first trailer and mentioned that the new healing system is based on drinking blood instead of using light magic, so we already had evidence that you still play as Gabriel, but now there can be no doubt. That makes me very happy because his awesome (awesome is a noun now) has increased exponentially, and if he wasn't the protagonist, I wouldn't want to buy the game. In the first trailer, we saw him teleporting, turning into a smoke bat thing, and killing people with a long red energy whip, but now we see him killing guys with what looks like some sort of glowing longsword, so I'm curious which is the primary weapon, and how many other weapons and powers Gabriel has now. Or should I say... Dracul? And now here are some trailers:

Valve Guns

Two of the fictional guns I want most are both found in games from Valve. If you're a fan of that studio, you probably already know what games and what guns I'm talking about. If not, I'll give you a hint: GLaDOS and Gordon. Still not enough? Ok, I'll just tell you. The gravity gun from Half-Life and the portal gun from Portal. They both take a lot of skill to use, but once you master them, they're awesome. If you're unfamiliar with these two guns, I'll describe them for you. The portal gun fires an orange portal and a blue portal, and whatever goes in one of them comes out the other with the exact same velocity. The gravity gun gives the wielder a sort of telekinesis. It can attract certain objects from a distance and suspend them in midair, then fire a bolt of kinetic energy that launches almost anything it hits. It only works on a relatively small scale, but it can throw things with enough force to kill an armored soldier. So now that everyone is all caught up, just imagine what it would be like to dual wield these two guns! Especially in an area with a lot of sharp objects around like Ravenholm in Half-Life. You could set up two portals, then launch a saw blade and decapitate any enemies, but when the projectile would otherwise hit a wall, it goes through a portal and flies in another direction. Or the portals could be used to enhance the gravity gun's limited range to do things like disarm people or grab supplies from a distance. And in the game each gun comes from, the other one would solve a ton of the protagonist's problems. Gordon Freeman needs to get from point A to point B without touching the ground? Done. An Aperture test subject wants to grab a companion cube or disable a turret from far away? No problem! See what I mean? There really are a lot of uses for these two things.

Spiders

I've decided that giant spiders are my least favorite enemies in video games. Most of them aren't that hard to beat, but they're just annoying. In Skyrim, frostbite spiders are my least favorite minor enemies because of the annoying sound they make when they walk, plus they shoot poison at you that adds a greenish tint to the screen, which also bothers me. Darksiders also had a level where you fight a bunch of different types of spiders. The smallest ones weren't that annoying but they still were just because of their numbers and the fact that they jump onto you, but the big ones were way worse. There were four micro-bosses that you had to pull their outer shell off with a grappling hook, and they still just took way too long to die, then there was the mini-boss, an even bigger spider that it took me half an hour to figure out how to kill it, and finally the boss, who I knew how to kill, but it kept teleporting. Corpsers from Gears of War are also one of the tougher enemy types, so they annoy me just with their sheer hardtokillness. Giant Spiders from Castlevania: Lords of Shadow are also bothersome because they're fairly tough, but also they keep jumping around and can trap you if you're not careful. Then there are robot spiders. They're typically relatively small, like Dwarven spiders in Skyrim. They're not that hard to kill, but when you do they explode in a ball of lightning stuff that hurts you. In the Amazing Spider-Man game, there are robot spiders with force fields protecting them. Those are a pain to take down. In War for Cybertron, there are little spiders that crawl around in large numbers and try to surround you. Not all robot spiders are small though. One War for Cybertron boss was a giant robot spider. And Spider-Man also had a huge robotic spider type thing with lasers and missiles and stuff. I hate spiders.

Transformers: Fall of Cybertron

I picked up Fall of Cybertron earlier, and it's more than worth every cent. In a lot of interviews, Matt Tieger of High Moon Studios said that he was excited for gamers, Transformers fans or not, to get to play this game. Now I know why that is: IT'S A FREAKIN' AWESOME GAME! He also reiterated that in the end, it's all about how the game feels under your thumb, and playing this game feels terrific. I only played a little of the campaign, but I felt like Bumblebee and Optimus Prime, who on an unrelated note, I've decided is one of the best characters from anything. He's just awesome, and you can feel that awesomeness when you play as him, more so than in War For Cybertron. Fall plays similarly to War, so if you have War, you'll already know the basics, but it's different enough to be well worth your money. Especially the multiplayer. There are a few things that take some getting used to, but once you do, most of them are improvements. One thing that pleasantly surprised me was the ability to sprint in robot mode with any character. Same with the fact that instead of being an available ability to fill one of the two slots, dash is always LB, or whatever the equivalent is on PS3 and PC. I thought that might bother me, but it really doesn't, since they've improved the dash, and in War, I kept trying to dash even if I didn't have the ability. And double jump has been replaced with one bigger jump, which surprisingly doesn't bother me either. There are some things I'm neutral on, like some abilities being turned into guns and vice versa. Like the Drain ability has been replaced by a gun called the energon harvester, which is harder to use, but more effective. There are also some things that I wouldn't describe as awesome, but they really add to the game, like parts of some levels that don't involve any shooting or fighting, such as Optimus Prime walking through a section of Iacon that turns out to be Metroplex. Things like that. And then there are the things that I would describe as awesome. Some of the playable characters in the campaign are just epic. Like Grimlock and Bruticus. And as Optimus Prime, you can call in Metroplex to destroy a group of enemies, and there's one part where you're controlling a HUGE artillery gun and taking out whole squads of enemies with one shot. More than just the campaign though, the multiplayer customization is awesome. You pick the chest, which also decides the vehicle form, and pick any shoulders, arms, head, legs and wheels/wings/tank barrels. Each part costs some XP, but I think that's a good thing. It keeps things interesting, plus now XP is actually useful for something. In War, once I maxed out my classes' levels, I just said "Ok, I just got a ton of XP, but what am I gonna do with it?" And the answer was nothing, since there was nothing you could do with it, but now they changed that, and for that I'm happy. As for what I was hoping for, some of it happened and some didn't. I was hoping to play as Wheeljack, but I'm pretty sure he's not in the campaign, but I think you can play as him in escalation. You can get his parts for multiplayer customization, but it costs real money, so I seriously doubt I'll ever do that. I'm pretty sure Shockwave is in escalation too, but you can use his parts for custom characters, and I do a lot more team deathmatch than escalation, so even if there are no Shockwave levels, I guess that's enough for me. It doesn't look like we'll see any cassetticon gameplay, but that's ok; I never really expected that to happen, I just thought it would be cool. Hound and Ultra Magnus made an appearance in the G1 Retro Pack trailer, and Ultra Magnus is the same as Wheeljack in terms of playability, but I have no clue about Hound. But even if none of the things I said I wanted to see were in this game, I would still be more than happy with it, and highly recommend it, even if you're not a Transformers fan. And if you are, I very highly recommend it. 'Till all are one!