365 Days Later

Hey everyone, it's been a good solid year and I'm quite happy with how far this little project has come. Thank you so much for sticking with us (for those that have) and welcome to our tiny little speck of the internet (for those who are new to the blog) which I hope we'll maintain for the years to come. We're still lacking a proper dialogue between us and you but I understand it's a little daunting to comment on a stranger's blog. If you do want to say something though, please feel free, be it criticism or praise or suggestions or anything really, unless you want to spam us with spam sites, then, please don't come back.

Anyway, one year in and we're still going quite strong. We're working on a couple of things aside from writing here and we'll be happy to reveal them to you when the time comes. Hopefully, the major thing will be being able to transition from the blog to our own proper website where hopefully, we can create a fun and vibrant community, a little corner of the internet you can call your virtual home, like PlayStation Home except not terrible. Again, thank you to anyone who has stuck with us for however long you've stuck with us and we look forward to hearing from you.

The Last of Us: Hunter or Hunted? Part 1

Freshly fallen snow lines the streets of the deserted Lakeside town, crunching beneath their boots as they move towards the buildings towards the centre of what had once been some sort of resort. The four scavengers move cautiously but quickly, worried that reports of Fireflies encroaching further and further into their territory might mean a hard fight for what would probably turn out be a measly amount of supplies. Wordlessly, the Hunters split up and take up positions that allows them to maximise coverage of the snow-laden resort.

Climbing to the roof of a low-slung cottage, the man with the sniper rifle scans the area thoroughly, looking out for the garish yellow uniforms of the Fireflies. Seeing no signs of life, he signals the others that the town is all-clear. The other three peel from cover and move in a V formation towards their first target, a large lonely cottage separated from the rest of the little lakeside commune. From his perch, the sniper continues to scan the area, determining that the reports must have been wrong or that the Fireflies had given up and gone home. Dropping noiselessly to the snow-covered ground, he makes his way into the house he was previously standing on top off through a conveniently-open window. Once inside, he searches for supplies and after meticulous searching of the small cottage, finds nothing of interest or utility. Worried that he's been away from the others for too long, he makes for the window to catch a glimpse or even establish contact with them.

As he approaches the window, he hears a shot ring out in the distance and all hell breaks loose. He hears the retort of gunfire from the house where he last saw his fellow Hunters. Snatching frantically at his sniper rifle, he dives to cover below the window and prays that nobody has seen him yet. Cautiously, he peeks through the window, scanning the area for targets. On the far side of the town, he sees a glint that can only be from a rifle scope and gingerly, he lifts the rifle to the window and peers through his own scope. From the magnified image of his scope, the Hunter manages sees a Firefly behind the glint with another Firefly probably acting as a spotter next to him. Breathing in, he lines up the shot and gently squeezes the trigger. The rifle adds a loud retort to the symphony of gunfire erupting across the idyllic whitewashed town as the man holding it attempts to bring the weapon back to bear for another short. One eye still glued to the scope, he sees the head of one of the Fireflies releasing a pink mist into the crisp winter air and satisfied with the result of his marksmanship, moves the weapon ever so gently to target the second Firefly.

Cannily, the other Firefly has dropped behind cover and grabbed his fallen compatriot's weapon. Moving frantically towards better cover, he scrambles across the snow with a rifle in one hand and a pistol in another, shooting wildly with the pistol out of sheer panic. The sniper takes a breath and leads the shot, slowly putting pressure on the trigger, waiting for the perfect moment to fire. The Firefly trips and the man with the sniper rifle pulls the trigger. Almost instantaneously, the round enters the Firefly's leg, causing him to shout in pain and fall even deeper into the snow. Cursing, the sniper works the bolt and loads another round into the chamber of his trusty weapon, sending another shot towards the fallen Firefly. Another one down and an unknown number to go. Peeling away from the window, the sniper moves cautiously towards the door, scanning the area ahead of him with his revolver in hand. With the area seemingly clear, he moves quickly towards the house his comrades are holed up, attracting the attention of the other Fireflies in the area. With a fusillade of shots whizzing past him, the Hunter increases his pace and dives through a window to escape the blizzard of lead headed his way. Grunting, the sniper gets back on his feet and moves further into the house, following the sound of gunfire coming from within the house. In the living room, he comes across his allies, two still up and one writhing in pain on the floor. As he approaches his compatriots, a nail bomb sails through one of the windows and detonates, killing his friends and sending various bits of shrapnel into his arms and legs.

to be continued

Pokemon X and Y : Preview Part 2

Hey fellow Poke-nerds.  I have seen new footage of the game and I have also found a pretty swell video made by MunchingOrange which pretty much shows some of the other things I have explained in my previous post as well as some other points.  Just watch the video below and I'll give my take on each topics to the best of my interests.



The New Pokemon- Yea, I have to agree. When playing a new Pokemon game, one definitely looks forward to seeing and catching all the new Pokemon Game Freak has thought up. The new typing (Fairy), like I mentioned in my previous post will add a well needed paradigm shift to a game that has remained arguably the same since Gen 2. While some people seem to be disappointed with the design of some the Pokemon, I am sitting on the fence with this one ( I neither hate or love them). I will just have to see the new generation of the Pokemon as a whole before placing my decision to whether this generation of Pokemon are aesthetically pleasing or butt ugly.

Mega Evolution - I have already touched on this topic in the my previous post so I won't ramble much about it here. What I will say though, is that after some reflection, the Mega Evolution seems to greatly resemble the Digimon formula of evolving ( Pokemon Black and White actually had a very Digimon-esque evolution style with the fusion of Zekrom or Reshiram with Kyurem). I may be wrong but that is the vibe I seem to be getting from the footage I'm seeing.

Customizing Characters - Not too much of a fan of this aspect. Then again this is coming from a person who cannot get past the the character customization screen in Skyrim. While it is a great incentive for gamers to be able to customizing his or her character to their own unique taste, I will not be dabbling much into this feature. I'd rather a Plain Jane than a Lady Gaga any day of the week. Skin colour and clothing accessories will be among the things players can change about their Pokemon trainer avatar. Somehow I wouldn't be surprised if fashion shows would be included in the game :P.

The Feel/ Layout of the Game - Beautifully done, however I must say it reminds of Digimon once again. Ever played Digimon World 1 and Digimon World 3. It looks and sounds pretty similar, which has gotten me a bit worried. While I do understand that the game is a reboot for the series, I guess I have gotten used to the feel of the old games. Once again, I hope to be proven wrong as I extrapolating data from recorded footage.

X and Y seems to be the most hyped Pokemon game in a long time. In fact I drifted out of the Pokemon franchise after Ruby and Sapphire. In my humble opinion, none of the Pokemon games has ever come close to topping the 2nd generation (Gold and Silver). However, I do hope X and Y will set the record straight and remind of my childhood bliss once again.

This has been Alex Plum reminding you that Pokemon X and Y is only days away. Carpe Diem Poke-nerds :).

Medal of Honor: Warfighter - A Retrospective

My, how time has passed. It's almost a year since I started writing on the interwebz and it's been a fairly rough ride. Getting content on isn't easy and getting people to read this stuff wasn't any easier. Hell, I'm still not sure if anyone actually reads this stuff other than the bots and spam-machines that occasionally drop by. As some of you may know, I started this whole project because I was disappointed in the state of video game "journalism", with the impetus being the disastrous reviews of a game I thought received a lot of undeserved criticism, Medal of Honor: Warfighter. As I predicted when the game came out, the negative reviews would lead to some pretty severe consequences. Thanks to the poor reviews the game received, the sales tanked and EA yanked the Medal of Honor series out of rotation for an indefinite period, marking the end of what I felt was the series that really launched a great era of first-person shooters. Furthermore, a majority of the development team was let go following the closure of Danger Close with some lucky enough to be transferred to the newly-created DICE Los Angeles, an off-shoot of the Swedish studio responsible for Battlefield and Mirror's Edge.

This infuriates me to no end because the Danger Close team were not a bad team of developers and they did not put out a shoddy game. They put out a decent game that unfortunately had to take the hit for the modern military shooter subgenre. Sure, the first-person shooter genre is flooded with military shooters but that did not make it fair for Warfighter to take all the criticism that could've rightly gone to Modern Warfare 3, released the year before and was seriously a re-hash of the previous games in the Call of Duty series. At the end of the day, because a few "journalists" decided to trash a game as an example rather than because it was a poor game, a lot of people lost their jobs and a great series has been put on ice, perhaps even killed off. Look, I'm sure there are a lot of detractors out there who would disagree with me, saying that reviewers were right for calling the game a buggy, unfinished piece of trash. To those people, I say they're entitled to their opinion but they should recognise that at the end of the day, it is an opinion. Sure, Warfighter had its fair share of bugs but what game doesn't? In addition to that, I can think of a few examples of games with fairly massive flaws that got ignored because the reviewers like the game so much (e.g. Fallout 3, Fallout: New Vegas, Skyrim, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, Call of Duty: Black Ops for the first week or so on the PS3 etc.). I don't know about you but that seems like a huge double-standard to me. The point is, all the reviews for Warfighter were just opinions. Understandably, the general consensus that the game was bad would turn any sane person away from purchasing the game but unfortunately, reviewers aren't always right.

I've always recognised that reviews are opinions and they should be taken with a grain of salt, but the problem is, most people don't see it that way. I'm not going to claim that reviewers should receive all the blame for Warfighter's dismal sales but if you read the comments or are even remotely tuned in to the internet at large, many people basically decided not to pick up the game because of the poor reviews it got. Fair enough, people want to spend their money wisely and a poorly-rated game across the board seems like a pretty risky purchase. I get that. The problem is, reviewers are stating opinions as fact and people actually believe that. Not that I blame them. Reviewers or video game "journalists" have been trying to convince people that they are actual journalists for a long time. There are definitely a few actual journalists in the field but unfortunately, their work isn't as popular or widespread as their more populist tabloid-y counterparts who work for the major gaming networks. These people are not journalists just because they are paid to report on gaming news. They are basically glorified bloggers with fancy job titles. Now don't get me wrong, not everyone in the business of reporting gaming-related news is a pretentious or elitist snob. On the contrary, I'm sure a lot of the people in the business are passionate and dedicated writers trying to improve their craft. The problem is, they work in an industry that keeps trying to convince itself that it is a serious business that people should take seriously. This isn't a negative thing. As an Arts student, I completely understand the need to justify your choices and your work because people don't take you seriously. My problem is that these people fail to fulfil the basic requirements needed to be a journalist. Many cannot spell properly and have terrible grammar and even worse prose making it somewhat difficult for me to take them seriously as journalists. Furthermore, there is a disturbing lack of ethics particularly when certain sites advertise the games they are supposed to be impartially reviewing and receive special gifts or trips from companies publishing said games. On the subject of impartiality, there lies the biggest problem I have with video game "journalists". They seem to have none although they try to portray themselves as experts reporting facts to the public. If they really are professionals who are reporting facts then they shouldn't be accepting special press trips or gifts from publishers. Even if they have the utmost integrity, it is completely unacceptable for a journalist to be getting preferential treatment. And on the flipside, journalists should thus not throw a hissy fit because they failed to get a copy of a game early from a publisher especially one that is notorious for not handing out early copies. This was the case with Warfighter when reviewers flat-out accused EA for withholding early copies because it was an unfinished product that they didn't want the public to see. Or perhaps it was because EA is wary of reviewers who give their competitors higher scores because they get showered with special events, previews and gifts way in advance of the game being released.

Back on the subject of Warfighter, the reviewers/"journalists" demonstrated an epic misunderstanding of what their job involves by nitpicking on small things rather than focusing on the whole package. As a fan of the game, I'm more than willing to admit that Warfighter had its shortcomings but it was a genuinely decent game. It had problems and there were some things it got wrong but there were so many things that it did get right that none of the reviewers noticed or bothered to point out. First of all, the graphics were, on the whole, excellent. Sure it's not up to the same level as Battlefield 3 even though both games use the same engine but you have to give Danger Close some props, this was the first time they were working with the Frostbite engine and they managed to get quite a lot out of it with so little experience working with it. Furthermore, the game had a nice degree of realism to it with realistic weapons, gear and equipment and if the advertising is to be believed, even fairly realistic recounting of real-life events. I mean, come on, they even bothered to actually put in and animate the fire-mode selector so that it actually moves to the correct position when selecting various fire modes! I think the problem in this respect was that the realism was in the details rather than the big picture. The way the weapons were handled, the camouflage used, the types of gloves the operators wore, the weapons and equipment they used as well as the realistic dialogue were all things I noticed because I'm an avid military enthusiast. I'm not suggesting that all the reviewers should have known this but with realism being the major marketing point used by EA, it probably would've paid off if they did their research and see if the claims of realism were right. Keeping on the theme of realism and details, the developers definitely put a lot of work into the weapons and attachments, allowing a vast array of customisation that actually affects the performance of the weapon based on whatever accessories were equipped unlike another big-name competitor where the balance is so fine-tuned that attachments barely do anything and occasionally aren't even modelled correctly (Long Barrel, anyone?). Furthermore, the sound design was brilliant with some of the best audio I've heard in a game since Battlefield 3 or ARMA II with the guns actually sounding like guns, the suppressors actually working like suppressors rather than magic silencers and the various sounds made when a bullet hit various surfaces.

I suppose Warfighter's downfall can be partly attributed to their focus on the nitty-gritty and putting the devil in the details while failing to account for how people might perceive the big picture. At the same time, these people reviewing it are supposed to be and often call themselves professionals. If this were the case, they would've done their research and actually tried their best to present an impartial case when reviewing any game. If they keep reviewing games as they do now though, that's perfectly fine but it'd be nice if they acknowledged that their reviews are simply opinion and not fact as they lead people to believe and people do actually sometimes believe, a misunderstanding that I find is still prevalent. On the specific subject of the Warfighter reviews, I was extremely disappointed by most of the reviewers who had a need to trash the game because they didn't get an early copy (only a smattering raised this point) or because they were burned out by the genre (a majority of reviewers). If they wanted to express their disappointment with the military shooter genre, then write a god-damn opinion piece on why the market is saturated with military shooters and how much of a disaster it is, not attack a fairly decent game because you want to make an example. The absolute best part is, when Black Ops II came out, apparently everyone got over their disillusionment with the modern military shooter and praised an old game with a few small tweaks sold as revolutionary and innovative.

In short, I have two main points:

1. Reviewers should try and act with some semblance of impartiality if they want to present themselves as experts in the field that offer recommendations and advice, if not, stop pretending like they are more qualified than anyone else and mention that their reviews are merely opinion, not fact.
2. Cut Warfighter some slack. It got a bad rap because of an unfortunate series of events which led to it taking the fall for the modern military first-person shooter as well as some poor reviewing on the part of a majority of the major sites. Gamespot, in my opinion was the only major site that gave a fair score, the rest sort of gave scores that don't seem to match the descriptions of their scoring system. I mean, a score in the 30s or 40s would mean some pretty serious problems and somehow, Skyrim for PS3 which had A LOT of issues, including freezing and massive lag, but was nonetheless a good game got scores in the 80s and 90s.

Goodbye, Mr. Clancy

If you haven't heard, Mr. Tom Clancy, the best-selling author of classic thrillers like Rainbow Six, Patriot Games, Red Storm Rising and countless other fantastic books as well as the name behind a smorgasbord of successful video game series published by Ubisoft, has passed away. This is not an obituary, for I do not have the words nor the right to speak of the man. Rather, this is an expression of gratitude, one that celebrates his legacy and the effect that this great writer has had on me personally.

In short, I would like to thank Tom Clancy for moulding a large part of my childhood through his seminal works featuring his classic hero, Jack Ryan, as well as numerous other books including but not limited to Red Storm Rising and Rainbow Six. He inspired me to do my own writing, which will never be as good as his and probably never make the light of day (trust me, it's better that way) but nonetheless, his words were an inspiration and his stories a well for a young boy's imagination. Furthermore, his detailed examination into the worlds of espionage and military activity helped to develop my passion for both military history and the colourful world of spies and lies.

No discussion of Tom Clancy would be complete, of course, without mentioning his work in the gaming industry. While the Tom Clancy brand might have little to do with the man in recent years, we can thank Tom Clancy for bringing us the characters and series we've grown to love. His initial contribution was of course through the founding of Red Storm Entertainment, the original creators of Rainbow Six and currently still active as a subsidiary of Ubisoft. Through Red Storm, the Tom Clancy universe in video games was born. Although his contribution to Ghost Recon, Splinter Cell, H.A.W.X, EndWar and now The Division is unclear, the fact remains that none of these games would've happened without the man himself and his initial jump through his ownership of Red Storm.

Ultimately, all I have to say to Mr. Clancy is thank you for everything and may you rest in peace.

Pokemon X and Y : A Preview

Pokemon X and Y is finally gonna be released to the masses in the coming month. After months of waiting and toiling, the 6th generation of the pocket monsters will be before us. One of the top grossing series in video gaming history, the formula of the game has arguably remained the same for the duration of the franchise. However X and Y offers a massive paradigm shift in terms of gameplay and visuals.

1. Finally a 3-D Pokemon Game
We aren't going to be counting the the home console versions cause we hardcore fans only stay with the main series. With the advent of the technology over the odd 1 or 2 years, the integration of the 3-D visuals was definitely on the cards this time around. While, I am not super hyped on this  aspect of the game, it is  still a noteworthy inclusion that is definitely something to look out for. Just don't play too long or your eyes might go wonky.


2. A New Pokemon Type
We haven't had a new Pokemon type since Gen 2's steel and it is about time Nintendo did something to counter the massively imbalanced Dragon-types. The new Fairy-type adds a new spice to the main game and has caused huge repercussions in the meta-game competitors. For you squares are unfamiliar to the meta-game, that is the the domain where people battle competitively. Under those circumstances, the typing of your Pokemon, the nature, the hold items, etc. become highly scrutinized as people truly battle to become the 'Pokemon Master". The new typing will help stir things up a bit as the competitive scene has become stale due to the platitude teams most people keep putting out.


3. Transport
Ahh the bicycle. I loved it so, the quirky tune it made when you got on it and the fact you could travel substantially faster than the feet dragging walk you had. Now Pokemon is going to follow a route the haven't taken since Gen 1 and introduce new modes of transport. Now you can use roller skates and make like an X Games participant as you shred around the region. Did I also mention that you could ride on your Pokemon, more specifically a Pokemon called Gogoat. Great, I guess we'll hear from PETA soon regarding cyber animal cruelty.


4. Mega Pokemon
The Pokemon series has been well known for its evolutionary system. No, we are not talking about redundant creationists yakking about how Pokemon defiles God's holy scripture and is the work of Satan. We are talking bout the maximum evolutionary cycles of 3 stages per Pokemon line. Now Nintendo has gone and done the unthinkable and introduced the Mega Evolutions. Pokemon powerhouses such as Charizard and Garchomp are among the pseudo-legendaries involved in the Mega Evolutions. Again, this is gonna cause hella mayhem in the main game and the meta-game.


12th October 2013. Mark your calenders  fellow geeks. We ain't gonna be leaving our 3DSes for weeks when the shit hits the fan. This is Alex Plum reminding you to catch em' all.

Battlefield 4 Exclusive Beta (PS3) First Impressions

Hello readers, I'm currently downloading the Exclusive Beta for PS3 as I write this and will be updating this blog post with my experience with the game as I go along. As far as I can tell, the beta will feature the map Siege of Shanghai, demoed at E3 earlier in the year to spectacular reception (mainly because of the awesome destructible skyscraper). I'm really excited because I also took part in the Battlefield 3 beta two years ago and that was a blast even though it was Metro 24 hours straight for about a week. Check back every few minutes as I update this blog post with my impressions of the game as quickly as I can.

Update 1: Just finished playing my first match, overall, I'm extremely satisfied. Battlefield 4 is a beautiful game, no doubt about that. Despite the texture pop-ins and occasional glitches with graphical fidelity, this thing is quite the looker. Gameplay-wise, it's classic Battlefield with the exception of the controls which have been changed quite a lot. Also, I saw the skyscraper come down during the course of the Conquest match. It was beautiful.

Update 2: The controls are a little hard to wrap my head around because I'm so used to the Battlefield 3 controls but other than that, so far so good. The gameplay is solid teamplay, vehicles are still fairly integral and gunplay is just fantastic. My only criticism so far is that Siege of Shanghai is a little big for 24 players, it's a bit hard to come across enemies unless you're already engaged or near an objective.

Update 3: There's an interesting glitch whereby the textures disappear after the skyscraper has been destroyed, making it look like the textureless pre-alpha build shown on YouTube by a bunch of Battlefield YouTubers. Also, the 5-man squad doesn't quite work because of the 12 vs. 12 limit on PS3. There's always a squad of 2 players in the end, a bit of a problem. Man, it is difficult to fly a scout helicopter now. The controls are really weird and hard to control, it has the ability to become extremely accurate and intuitive but having just jumped in, the new control scheme for helicopters feels weird. I hope they provide Battlefield 3 controls in the full game.

Update 4: Tried one match of Domination, didn't quite enjoy it. Too fast-paced and reflex-based for my liking. I'm the slow tactical type. It's an interesting combination of objective-based gameplay with what appears to be a team deathmatch driven philosophy in the sense that it's a micro-version of Conquest so that you are always in the action at any given moment.

Update 5: After a couple more matches, I noticed some interesting changes from the last game. Firstly, when you reload, your ammo count drops based on how many rounds were left in the last magazine. That's a pretty awesome feature since it adds to a bit of realism. I'm a bit annoyed that you don't keep the magazine, instead you toss it out but I suppose from a balancing perspective, it makes sense. As well as that, there are distance markers for where your squaddies are, which is a great little innovation. Additionally, the commorose is back! Or it's finally arrived on consoles. For those of you unfamiliar with the commorose, it's basically a menu where you can select some commands/requests such as "Need Ammo" or "Need Health" or "Need Transport" or "Attack/Defend". Very cool. Battle pick-ups are also present in the map and I had the opportunity to test out the Milkor MGL, the M82A3 and the HVM Starstreak. These are very interesting and in the right hands, can change the course of the battle. The M82A3 is a joy/nightmare depending if you're on the giving end or the receiving end because it's a one-hit kill superweapon with a range-finger attached.

That's it for my first impressions of the Battlefield 4 Beta. I'll write a more comprehensive article once I've stress-tested the crap out of the beta and gotten Bernt Toast and Brancake's opinions on the beta when they can finally join during the open beta because the suckers didn't buy Medal of Honor: Warfighter or pre-order Battlefield 4.