http://bmgf.bulbagarden.net/blogs/65070/ Bulbagarden - The original Pokémon Community en Wed, 19 Jun 2013 12:00:17 GMT vBulletin 60 http://bmgf.bulbagarden.net/images/styles/XY/misc/rss.jpg http://bmgf.bulbagarden.net/blogs/65070/ http://bmgf.bulbagarden.net/blogs/65070/game-review-journey-58403/ Tue, 28 May 2013 19:43:13 GMT Greetings everyone, how are you all today on this sickeningly cheerful Saturday afternoon? Well I suppose that’s better than expected. Time for another game review I think, this time Journey. Journey, the brainchild of Thatgamecompany and Sony, was released just over a year ago in March 2012,... Greetings everyone, how are you all today on this sickeningly cheerful Saturday afternoon? Well I suppose that’s better than expected. Time for another game review I think, this time Journey.

Journey, the brainchild of Thatgamecompany and Sony, was released just over a year ago in March 2012, which makes me question why I never played it sooner. While a standalone game, Journey is technically the third in a contract of games, the previous two being Flow and Flower , two astonishingly good and inarguably successful games and Journey is no different, picking up several awards after its release including 2 Game of The Year awards, 5 BAFTAs, 6 Game Developer Choice Awards and a Grammy nomination, as well as consistently scoring 9s and 10s out of ten from practically every well known game reviewer. Apparently, playing Journey should be considered an honour and a journey itself.

The story for this game is simple – you are a robed figure that wakes up in the middle of a desert, there is nothing around except a giant mountain with a glistening light and you begin a journey to reach the summit. That is the story, anything else you decide to add is entirely opinion. The key behind the story for this game is ambiguity. I could mention the white figure that appears in cutscenes and tells you a story through a cave painting or the ruins of a civilisation you must wander through in order to reach your goal but all of that is effectively unimportant unless you decide it is. The story is so powerful because there is one, but it is up to you to make it for yourself. Personally, I decided my character (called Sa’scanti) was travelling to the top of the mountain in order to save her people from the brink of extinction, hence the ruins, the white figure, etc. I know it’s cliché but it made me happy.

However, and I hate to say this because I don’t really consider this a whole criticism, more of a half one, but the game is short. Like 3 hours short. I’d say it was a disadvantage to the game but it doesn’t detract away from the experience at all. The game remains just as good despite its length but I can’t help feeling that they could have added so much more to the game if they’d made it longer. The game was originally meant to be created in only one year, and actually created in three years, making a lengthier game impossible to make but if there were ever a remake to this game, I would hope that they made it longer, since right now there’s a bit of desert, a bit of an underground tunnel and a bit of snowy mountain before the end. Lots of critics call this game “emotional” and “powerful”, myself included, and I understand that a short and simple storyline is not exactly bringing about any emotions apart from disappointment when you reach the end. That is because I have yet to mention the joy of the gameplay.

Like I said before, in Journey you play a robed figure. Like the story, the key behind the gameplay is its simplicity, the left analogue stick and the O and X buttons are all the controls you get. You can tilt the controller to move the camera or you can use the conventional right analogue stick but that doesn’t really matter. What matters is your scarf that gets longer as you progress through the game and find magical glowing glyphs in the world to extend it into a flowing ribbon. You will find symbols and ribbons all across the game which “recharge” your scarf and allow you to float by pressing and holding X. This is your jump button. Sometimes, there will be creatures or objects that only react to your character speaking. Pressing O will emit a shockwave-ish thing, which I can only presume is speech that will make these things work. In a world of complicated controls and having buttons assigned to a vague operations, such as “Square = Interact”, it is refreshing to see game in which there are buttons to spare, linking to the half-disadvantage I mentioned about possibly adding more features. The O button is by far the most important button in the game but while the O button is integral to completing the story, it is most important with co-operation.

Beyond a shadow of a doubt, Journey’s best feature in the game is its random co-operative experiences. As you travel on your journey, random people across the world also playing the same part you are can automatically join in, creating a sense of camaraderie and friendship between the two of you. You’d think that last sentence was sarcastic but it really isn’t. Once again, Journey’s simplicity factors in; there’s no speech throughout the entire game, the only way you and your newfound companion can communicate is through pressing O and emitting a noise. Without knowing if the person on the other end of the robed figure is another soul searching Sa’scanti or just a d*** who’s playing the game to prove it is s***, it is impossible to judge and therefore immediately start as friends. Because you don’t know if this other person has played the game before or is also on their first run through, you each rely on each other to find out how to get through the not-so-taxing puzzles and are genuinely sad when they sit down to meditate and then disappear because they quit the game for no apparent reason. Some people would say this makes the co-op limited but I think it’s perfect and honest and extremely difficult to ruin. They stripped the multiplayer down to its bare essentials and I’ve never seen anything more innovative, except maybe the Hitman: Absolution multiplayer.

It’s here I’d like to pause for a moment and talk a little about the production values that do evoke the emotions the game heavily promotes, sound and appearance. I cannot stress enough how aesthetically gorgeous the game is, and on such a large scale. Starting off in the middle of a vast, sandy desert is a great way to make you feel small and insignificant right away and that combined with golden sunlight is a sight to behold. The tunnels are dark and enclosed in comparison and there were a few moments when a surprise threat appeared that I felt scared for Sa’scanti, my companion running beside me and for myself. The snowy environment of the mountain is equally bleak and terrifying and really fills you with no hope until the end when you actually feel a sense of accomplishment. There were so many moments in the game that I wished I could screenshot and put as my desktop background and I could not stop telling myself that this game was amazing, something that had not happened to me since I first played Heavy Rain. The soundtrack was so good I immediately bought it from the Playstation Store as soon as I finished the game. It combined the scale of the game, the exoticism of its concept and a power ballad in there somewhere for the final push and I am listening to it now as I write this review. Everything in the game is streamlined, from the animations that were smooth as silk, to the dynamic lighting that cascaded down monuments and swept across the sand, to the level design (if it can even be called a level, more like world design); surfing down a sandy embankment and soaring through the air on a magical scarf was more fun than I have had in a video game for a while and the character design for Sa’scanti was so unique, I would pay to see more developers think like Thatgamecompany.

Journey is not a game, it is an artistic experience. It is original, inspirational and stunning – a brilliant game that promotes sharing and feeling. Every part of the game has something that warrants a positive comment and I don’t know if it’s my narrow minded view of the game but I thought there were very few problems with it and the problems aren’t even problems, they’re just things they can improve on, and they are the only things stopping this from getting higher than a 9/10.

Rating – 9/10

Final Thought – How many games can actually boast “no loading screens”? And how many of those games aren't developed by SCE Santa Monica Studios? That’s what I thought. ]]> The Patrician http://bmgf.bulbagarden.net/blogs/65070/game-review-journey-58403/ http://bmgf.bulbagarden.net/blogs/65070/game-review-hitman-absolution-57944/ Sat, 04 May 2013 15:53:40 GMT Well, it’s time for another game review and while I am positive these won’t become a regular thing, I would like to share my opinion of this game with you. So low and behold, today I shall review Hitman: Absolution. Hitman, believe it or not, is actually the fifth game in the Hitman series since... Well, it’s time for another game review and while I am positive these won’t become a regular thing, I would like to share my opinion of this game with you. So low and behold, today I shall review Hitman: Absolution.

Hitman, believe it or not, is actually the fifth game in the Hitman series since Hitman: Codename 47 was released in 2000. I ask you to suspend your disbelief because to me Hitman: Absolution seems like a brand new game. The game begins with you, Agent 47, the deadliest and most badass assassin that ever walked the Earth, receiving yet another contract to add to his repertoire, but this one is different. This contract is to kill his former handler (every assassin needs someone in his ear to give advice and discuss plans with), Diana Burnwood who is, in a way, one of the only friend he’s ever had. 47 travels towards Diana’s secure mansion in the middle of nowhere to kill her and that is where the s*** tentatively approaches the fan.

Unfortunately, like most games in a series, Hitman: Absolution suffers from what I have just now begun to call the “Forced Nostalgia Syndrome” and will continue to call it that for the foreseeable future. The whole premise of the story is based on the idea that you know who Diana Burnwood is and her connection with 47 and why it is such a big deal that you have to kill her. How would new players know the crucial facts about the creation of 47 as a clone and how this made 47 essentially a father figure to the genetically modified Victoria? How would they know that it is a running theme that Diana has never shown her face in the Hitman series and that was why fans of the series squealed in delight when they saw her face rather than the rest of her naked body on the bathroom floor? How would they know that Diana helped 47 fake his own death in Hitman: Blood Money and that was the reason Travis thought Diana could have faked her own death. However, beyond all this is the simple fact that this doesn't take away from the overall game. The introduction cutscene explains that Diana was someone 47 could once trust and that he regrets having to kill her so that all important context is fulfilled enough to enjoy the rest of the game. There are still a few nods and winks in the game due to the developer’s wackiness that they put into each Hitman game, such as the ice cream truck and Charlie the Chipmunk, but these things are amusing without knowing where they came from. There are even references to Kane and Lynch , Metal Gear and Mini Ninjas if you know where to look for those missing out.

Anyway, I should get to the story. The story in Hitman: Absolution is great. It actually has a cohesive plot, which is more than can be said for any other Hitman game which consisted of a block of vaguely connected contracts played consecutively and even if it didn’t, it felt like it did. Absolution flows. It is a basic storyline – villain takes something/someone and you must get it back – but with a character like Agent 47, to whom emotion does not come naturally, it does just fine. It has a nice “You VS The World” feel to it, pitting you against a colourful array of enemies from the paranoid, one armed Agency ICA Division leader Benjamin Travis to the foul-mouthed, cowboy arms dealer Blake Dexter to the offensive force of the Chicago Police Department, the odds are against you every step of the way. I cannot find anything wrong with the story; it evens sets a cliff-hanger to continue on to future games and allows no evidence to be left behind.

The gameplay is equally well designed. I will get into more detail on the controversies of the gameplay in a little bit but for now I will continue to praise it. Hitman: Absolution continues the vital traditions of its gameplay including disguises, hiding bodies and of course, 47’s dual silenced Silverballers for when things get slightly harder to control that made him the original assassin, yet adds several other brand new abilities, like my personal favourites, being able to take cover, being able to fight with your hands and being able to climb ledges, to show that they've been doing something in the past six years and not just copy-and-pasting from Hitman: Blood Money . Each level has been polished to perfection to allow for full varied use of 47’s abilities. Each NPC has a story to tell, a unique conversation scripted for them for players who are willing to listen, and some of them are funny, such as the man standing next to an open window cheering after having negative results for prostate cancer, ready for you to pull him out and ruin his good mood, or the man who just escaped a minor fire scare at a convenience store and immediately calls his girlfriend to break up, claiming that “he’s got a new appreciation for life”. It’s the small, insignificant details that the developers put in to a game like this that really make it worthwhile to play over and over again, making sure not to miss out on anything. Obviously, it wouldn't be a Hitman game if it weren't infuriatingly difficult at times. Part of the Hitman legacy was the use of trial and error to get through every obstacle; so much so that you would know the routes of every character by the time you were done. You will spend at least half an hour on sections in this game and I ragequitted three times but that is what Hitman is meant to be – challenging. It’s no fun if you can just go in guns blazing and mow down the opposition. Nah, the development team is far too sneaky for that.

In terms of graphics, this game is gorgeous. The Glacier 2 game engine produces some of the best graphics I’ve ever seen in a PS3 game and I’ve played Crysis which is said to be the best looking Playstation game of all time. The rain looks like rain as it bounces of 47’s bald head. The light makes shadows and it doesn't look like they’re separate textures stuck next to each other. The sunlight of Hope, South Dakota is actually harsh as you step outside. The in game footage looks just as good as the cinematic cutscenes. I’m glad this is a stealth game rather than an action game so I can just stand somewhere and look around, which was a problem with Crysis and Battlefield; in a game where you shoot people and do action things, people are not going to be focused on the nice job you did with the sunlight, they’re going to be worrying about the sniper on top of the skyscraper obscured by the sunlight. Hitman allows you the opportunity to admire the world around you that lives and breathes whether you want it to or not and doesn't just pop in because you’re there.

The levels in this game are so much more complex and thorough than I’d have thought before playing. There are secrets galore in every section of Hitman: Absolution and if you want to 100% this game, you’re going to have to play through the story at least three times. The environment around 47’s objective is tailor made to give you a whole other arsenal at your disposal and the level shown as the demo for the game, The King of Chinatown is a classic example of this. Let me list of the ways you can kill the King. You can:

Strangle him
Shoot him (with a total of five different guns)
Stab him or bludgeon him with any number of improvised weapons found throughout the map
Poison his food, coffee or cocaine
Blow him up (along with his obnoxiously expensive looking car)
Push him down a hole
Drop a pallet of bricks on top of him
Just break his neck

There are twelve ways in total to kill the King of Chinatown. Similarly, for everyone the game selects as a target, there are at least three ways of killing them. This is the sort of s*** every game should be doing. It adds personality to every kill you carry out as 47 and makes you feel more accomplished that you finally managed to drop the faulty disco ball on the sleazy strip club owner after your twentieth attempt. I almost thought it too good to be true, expecting some glitches or bugs to be found in the game but alas, there was only a single cutscene in which 47’s gun appeared invisible, and nothing game breaking. The trouble with glitches in this game though is that you can’t take them seriously. When one of the achievements is to kill three targets dressed in a ridiculous Charlie the Chipmunk outfit, you know the developers aren't taking it seriously and so neither should you. For such a good looking game, an invisible gun and a problem with the game’s code, resulting in a nonexistent notebook (which Squarenix admitted to), is hardly a problem, is it?

Now I know what you’re saying, you’re saying “But a game this good must have its flaws, right?” Well, no, not in my opinion. There are plenty according to the diehard Hitman fans. According to them, Hitman: Absolution is not worthy of being a Hitman game because it’s too easy, because it’s catered too much to new players and because it does not stay true to the Hitman legacy. Well, with the greatest respect, I think you’re wrong. I would not know the Hitman series existed if not for Absolution and I’m sure this is the case for hundreds of other people as well. The presence of Instinct in the game was revealed early on to appease the long term fans and when they cried out for war against it, the developers quickly added a “Purist” difficulty, removing anything that simplified the game. The map, the Instinct and everything else on the HUD was gone, only a crosshair remained and I thought this was a genius idea. Fans would get their old school Hitman and newbies would get their transition difficulties in hope that one day they would be as good as the professionals. Obviously, some fans still bitched and moaned but the developers felt they’d done all they could and just shut the blinds and put on earmuffs to drown out the sound of bricks flying through their windows and I respect them for that.

This is the part where I would normally talk about the multiplayer option for a game like CoD or something equally as disgusting but I’m not entirely sure if the Hitman: Absolution “Contracts” mode counts as multiplayer. Contracts mode is basically a global database of user made contracts, utilising the pre-made maps from the single player campaign. One person goes around the map, selecting up to three completely random targets and killing them in whatever way they so choose. The contract is then uploaded online and anyone can pick it up, see who the creator killed, using what and wearing what and if they decide it’s worth their time, they can also attempt to complete the contract, achieving a higher score than the creator. Money earned by doing this can then be spent on unlocking guns and attachments for these guns. There isn't really much to spend the money on but attachments are expensive and it’s more about the pleasure of beating someone that thought they made the best contract ever made. The Contracts mode is by the far the best, most inventive and most addictive idea I have ever seen in any game on any platform, period. It proves to other game developers that no matter the game, there is capability for multiplayer and reveals a whole other undertone to Hitman: Absolution, finding out that there are entirely new ways to kill enemies that were completely menial before and it made me appreciate how hard the level designers worked on this game, to have made everyone on the map a killable character.

So, before my Microsoft Word document breaches four pages of text, I should probably conclude. Hitman: Absolution is pioneering, bringing out the best in the stealth genre and having the possibility to go all out with a shotgun if you get p***ed off, it has the best of both worlds. I don't normally play third person games but the story kept me entertained for a long time - just over ten hours for my first playthrough and just under eight for my second (working on my third). The level of minute detail put into the game shows how much effort it took to make and it is one of the most well put together games of recent memory, continuing on and improving the Hitman series. The Contracts mode is top notch and gives Hitmen around the world the chance to best each other like never before. I give this game 10/10 because it damn well deserves it.

Rating – 10/10

Final Thought – Levels that don’t feature a mandatory target aren't “lame”, they show 47 is vulnerable and not just on a wild killing spree. ]]> The Patrician http://bmgf.bulbagarden.net/blogs/65070/game-review-hitman-absolution-57944/ http://bmgf.bulbagarden.net/blogs/65070/game-review-crysis-3-57848/ Sun, 28 Apr 2013 10:30:23 GMT I play a lot of video games, along with watching a lot of films and typing a lot of meaningless gibberish, so it can be safely assumed that I don't do much else, so don't assume I do because I don't. I have a list of games I intend to buy and play as well as a list of games I currently own that I intend to go back and continue to play; because I know you don't particularly care about my life (and who would blame you?) I won't tell you them but I will tell you my opinion on the most recent game I had the experience of crossing off my list - Crysis 3.

First I'll start off with the obligatory throwaway contextual information for those of you that grace the Earth with less talent for playing video games. Playing, and failing miserably, I should add to avoid a tsunami of angry bloggers determined to prove me talentless and, even worse, wrong. Crysis 3 is the newest installment in the badly spelt Crysis series, a recently fulfilled trilogy following the character Prophet, or wait...is it Alcatraz...oh, never mind, he's a black guy now called Prophet, a marine who dons a state-of-the-art nanosuit and is in a constant battle against CELL, an evil organisation hellbent on skinning him alive to get his suit and the Ceph, an alien race determined to kill the guy in the alien nanosuit and destroy all humans. Prophet has been in stasis since the ending of Crysis 2 because they needed a good way of transitioning time in a sci-fi way and cryogenic stasis is kind of the go to method, and at the beginning of Crysis 3, he is woken up by an old teammate of his called Psycho who is himself a reference to Crysis 1. Stop me if I'm getting confusing. You didn't play the other 2 Crysises? Well too bad.

Crysis 3 shoots itself in the foot straight away by referencing story lines from the two previous installments as much as possible, and then trying to explain the events from those two games for anyone who might not have played them. Firstly, who in their right mind starts playing a series from 3? Secondly, if you're still trying to cater to a new audience, don't reference that much. I know not many of them are relevant to the overall understanding of the story but it's nice to know. There's a random mention of Tara Strickland at the end of the game that only Crysis 2 players will understand and it would be nice to share that understanding with everyone. You spend the first half an hour of the game with a man you're supposed to know but don't quite remember unless you played a Crysis marathon beforehand. It just seems illogical to me.

Story is something I hold very dear to any game and is a main factor in what makes it good or bad in my opinion. Crysis 3’s story is not as good as Crysis 2’s or in some ways Crysis 1’s. You don’t seem to have the same purpose. Previously, you were a marine with a mission, an objective. Now, you’re aimlessly wandering through jungle infested New York doing people’s errands and being told off when you do them in a badass way. You know it’s a bad thing when you feel like you’re lost, being funneled down a linear corridor as in most FPS titles and while Crysis puts mirrors around the funnels to make them seem bigger and have more space, I felt that the mirrors were becoming dirty so the illusion was broken. That said, Crysis 3 had a solid story. It was a story told a hundred times, “Help Resistance fight against corrupt government organisation and save the world!” but with a predictable twist at the end. I mean seriously, if the main character has a “feeling” something bad is going to happen later in the game, it is not a prediction. It is foreshadowing.

Sidestepping awkwardly into gameplay, Crysis 3 has the same controls as its predecessor with a few exceptions. The new game and inevitable new marketing strategy Crytek has employed promises to bring more stealth and so within the first five minutes of the game, you are given a bow and arrow; primitive tools given to you through the medium of an advert from a late night shopping channel:

“Say Prophet, did you know that with new bow and arrow you can kill silently while staying cloaked?”
“Gee whiz Psycho, bow and arrow sounds jolly exciting and not completely useless when used in a battle situation. I’ll take it!”

I make fun of the bow and arrow but I must admit but they were also my favourite weapon. I barely got the chance to use them, so they couldn't disappoint me. Anyway, the rest of the gameplay was similar to all FPSs. You go in, you shoot everything up or you sneak everything up using the suit’s built in invisibility or super armor and you reach the objective and blow something up. A large variety of human, experimental and alien guns lay at your fingertips or somewhere on the battlefield. I barely used the alien guns however because something tells me that when I pick up a gun glitchy s*** should not come up on the screen to annoy me. And when you have to drop the gun to interact with things and when they burn through ammo faster than a one shot pistol, it all adds up to me not using them. There is a newly implemented hacking ability added as well. I have no problem with the hacking, it is a good idea except Prophet has gone through two other games without realising he could hack consoles and open doors, couldn't he have figured this out earlier? As is becoming popular with the whiny little FPS bitches nowadays, there are some vehicles to amble around a level in before being blown to smithereens by some Ceph airship as well. There were vehicles in Crysis 1 and 2 as well and they probably did a better job at it than Crysis 3 because this game made it feel like you needed the vehicles. You do not give the player base a dune buggy, a ridiculously long stretch of dirt with no apparent end and then say “It’s your choice”. Needless to say, I walked a long way down that stretch of dirt to find a pile of rubble with an invisible wall and a ramp and grumbled as I went back to get the buggy. I also did not see any other drivable vehicles in the entire game the first time I played through Crysis 3 except the dune buggies and this disappointed me but when I looked on the wiki and found a whole array of about 3 or 4 vehicles, I played it through again and found them at the side of the map looking blown up but still drivable. This annoyed me.

A quick note on level design: Crysis 1 and 2 had large open areas of the map with an objective marker at the other end and several ways to get the past the enemies in your way. You could kick cars on top of enemies, stealthily pick them off one by one, remove a HMG and fire away or just sneak past them and have a 0 kill count. Crysis 3 has something else. They decided that, in a game that is more lenient towards a stealthy approach (hence the giving of the bow), that the story should be punctuated with gargantuan levels with what felt like hundreds of enemies going in every single direction, including airships, Pingers (Ceph tanks), Devastators (Ceph “things that are difficult to kill”) and Masterminds (Ceph “things that have flamethrowers and bulletproof shields, making them more difficult to kill than the final boss”). I stealthed for a while. And then I realised, with two bars of power left, that there was no cover and an army was still headed my way. So I ran. And I died again and again. And that annoyed me as well.

And with the story mode over and me sitting there feeling unfulfilled after a final boss battle so uninspiring it made me wonder why they put it in at all and a final hack challenge that also got me confused at why this certain thing (spoilers, spoilers) was hackable, my mind turn to the multiplayer in hope that it would satisfy me more than the last seven hours of my life. And I was surprised to find that it did. I tried Crysis 2 multiplayer when I got that game and spawned into a lobby in which everyone used the invisibility cloak and sniped off the newbies as sport. You grinded your way to a high enough level to do the same, sniping anyone that didn’t get what was going on while you held back the tears and repressed metaphors of you were pulling the trigger on yourself. Crysis 3 hasn’t been out as long though so it will be at least another couple of months before that starts to happen. The fan base was fun and respectable – one guy on a game of Spears stood behind me for a couple of minutes before I turned around and he let me go because I had a JAW rocket launcher in my hand – and this boosts the rating I give this game astronomically for being the first game I’ve ever played with a respectable fan base. The multiplayer maps are basically the mammoth sized levels from the story with a few from Crysis 2 shoved in but there are enough maps for it not to get boring and like CoD you can choose which map you want to play on next. The guns from the campaign are present in the multiplayer and the more kills you get with a certain gun the more attachments you get for it, blah, blah, blah. Something that is different and in my opinion revolutionary for an FPS is that the common “Capture the Flag”, “Headquarters” and “Domination” game types are actually called different things, now named “Capture the Relay”, “Crash Site” and “Spears”. OK, I know it’s bad and it’s a small point but it’s a start. It’s the “Hunter” mode that everyone’s excited about and is worth talking about.

It’s what the CoD game type “Infected” could have been if it were Crysis...and any good. In “Hunter” you usually start off as a soldier with a group of other soldiers and your objective is to survive 2 minutes against a couple of people with nanosuits. These are the Hunters. They have infinite stealth and super speed but the only weapon they can use is a bow and arrow. It is effectively a game of hide and seek and it actively encourages people to find the best and most aggravating spots in the map you can hide in. It also actively encourages backstabbing as once you die you become a Hunter and can lead your fellow Hunters to the cubby hole all your friends are hiding in. Meanwhile, the soldiers that are still quivering in their corner at the edge of the map have some tools at their disposal to try and survive the onslaught, namely a proximity detector and a bullet/arrow proof shield you can pick up at various points in the map. The action is fast paced because each round lasts only 2 minutes and even when you are waiting to be found by the Hunters, you’re still nervous and therefore never bored.

Overall, Crysis 3 was enjoyable, if infuriating at a dozen moments I don’t care to mention. The visuals were stunning when it wasn’t pitch black enough to see. The gameplay and story were endurable but it was the multiplayer that made the game exciting and worth the price. If the story from Crysis 2 has been transposed on Crysis 3’s body, I would have to give this a much, much higher rating but for now, I give Crysis 3 a 6/10.


Rating – 6/10

Final Thought – With the Ceph gone and CELL in liquidation, why not put on a cape and become a superhero, Prophet? ]]> The Patrician http://bmgf.bulbagarden.net/blogs/65070/game-review-crysis-3-57848/ http://bmgf.bulbagarden.net/blogs/65070/fond-farewell-90-years-enjoyment-goodbye-bbc-56928/ Fri, 22 Mar 2013 21:22:33 GMT The BBC, the British Broadcasting Company, are the people responsible for creating television as we know it and also responsible for allowing the broadcast of hundreds of internationally known television programmes that have been enjoyed not just by the people of the United Kingdom but I'm sure people in other countries. It is today that they close the doors of their British Broadcasting Centre in the heart of London and this may not sound too tragic to many of you but to me, it is. The BBC building is home to so much history, so many memories and it seems like they are leaving it all behind. I feel I should clarify right now that the BBC will go on, they are just moving location. But that building is a monument to television and to finally say goodbye to it seems unthinkable. And so I leave this tribute.

The BBC was founded on October 18th 1922 when the British General Post Office and sixteen separate telecommunications companies came together for some experimental radio broadcasts. Its first broadcast was on November 14th 1922 and it was soon after that it requested a 10 shillings license fee so it would not have to broadcast adverts. In the beginning, there were raised concerns about just how long this would last but in 1927 the first ever manager of the BBC John Reith was given a knighthood and they adopted a coat of arms and the motto "Nation shall speak peace unto Nation". Then in 1934, everything changed. that was when television began...

Regular broadcasting began, and something strange happened. People started watching. And this lasted for seven whole years.

Then from 1939 to 1946 television was suspended due to the Second World War. And after that, not much happened for a bit until 1962 when the BBC were awarded with a second channel, BBC 2 which was broadcast in colour, before BBC 1, in 1967, by which time, BBC was the driving force of entertainment in Great Britain with BBC 1, BBC 2, and 4 separate radio stations. 1990 signified the introduction of BBC Radio 5 Live and, skipping ahead a little, 2006 the introduction of BBC HD, the experimental high definition channel. By 2013 the BBC is a multimedia giant that commands an arsenal of television channels, radio stations, websites and magazines, filling all three media platforms. But the best memories are in the past, don't you agree?

Over the years the BBC have given way to hundreds of television shows but the ones that stick out most prominently are those comedy programmes, the shows that made a generation of comedy that simply didn't exist before, giving birth to shows like Fawlty Towers, Blackadder and Dad's Army, formed using a brand new generation of actors like Rowan Atkinson, John Cleese, Bruce Forsyth, Terry Wogan, Fry & Laurie, Morecambe & Wise, The Two Ronnies, French & Saunders, Reeves & Mortimer, stop me if you actually know any of these people, which have since evolved into modern day equivalents such as Mitchell & Webb, Harry & Paul, Miranda Hart etc. The BBC truly has laid the foundations for comedy to grow exponentially for centuries to come.

The BBC have been around for the Second World War, surviving the Blitz bombings and then some. The BBC and their news programmes have reported, ot name just a few, the rise and fall of Muhammed Ali, the Suffragette Movement and the incredible journey of Black Rights, from the political career of Martin Luther King Jr. around 1963 to the inauguration of President Barack Obama very recently in 2009.

And then there's the rest. Britain's best loved soap opera Eastenders is made by the BBC, as are some programmes you Americans may have heard of; Top Gear, Doctor Who and Sherlock. Blue Peter has set countless World Records and lasted the majority of the 90 years the BBC has been around. Every year the BBC broadcasts the Eurovision Song Contest, which the UK usually fail miserably at I admit, as well as Children in Need and Comic Relief, which they have raised millions, if not billions of pounds to give to numerous charities around the world. The BBC have changed lives, if not because of charity then because of the dreams and aspirations it has given to millions of people. It is a pillar of worldwide entertainment.

Through thousands of shows, millions of auditors, billions of hours of television and what must be an infinite amount of memories that no archive can ever hold and no single person can ever remember entirely. It is just a building, but it is a building that has inspired the minds and hearts of people all over the country, it is a building that has a spirit great enough to bring a nation to tears of sadness or joy, it is a building that is the heart of television all over the globe. And it seems a shame to say goodbye. But I must.

I will end this post with a quote, as said by British comedian and journalist, David Mitchell, on the set of his TV show That Mitchell & Webb Look and, to a lesser extent, British statesman Sir Edward Grey on the first night of World War 1.

"The lights are going out all over television, we shall not see them lit again in our lifetime."

Thank you. ]]> The Patrician http://bmgf.bulbagarden.net/blogs/65070/fond-farewell-90-years-enjoyment-goodbye-bbc-56928/ http://bmgf.bulbagarden.net/blogs/65070/my-five-cents-house-55872/ Sun, 27 Jan 2013 20:30:29 GMT Welcome once again, I regret to inform you that due to budget cuts that comfortable chair you sat in last time has been replaced a rather worn out beanbag I scavenged from a pediatric unit. Can I get you a drink? It was a scotch last time, wasn't it? Well, I suppose I ought to begin.

My Five Cents is something I'll be doing every now and again when I feel like it and when I feel like I have an opinion on something. My opinion is not guaranteed to be something new nor valued but like I established in my first/previous blog, I don't care. I'll also blog about other general things that happen to me and I do intend to do one about Pokemon but for now, I have a subject I am very eager to discuss, and by discuss I mean rant at you.

A while ago, I decided to watch more TV. Unfortunately, I live in Britain so the only good shows here are comedy. No offense but American comedy isn't my thing, by which I mean it's a pile of shit. However, somehow American dramas manage to have better quality comedy than the purposeful comedy shows. Since I'm going on a tangent, I'll reel myself back in by saying that I decided I'd watch Dexter and House because I'm a big fan of Hugh Laurie and I'd heard nothing but glowing reviews for Dexter. By the time I'd chosen to watch these shows, Dexter was halfway through Season 6 and House had already ended its eight year run. To my good fortune, American dramas have a hiatus halfway through a season for no particular reason I can fathom so I was easily able to catch up with Dexter and am currently waiting for Season 8 to begin. But this blog is not about Dexter, this blog is about House.

House is my favourite show. It's that simple; I cannot recall watching a better programme. And here is why.

Needless to say, spoilers will be discussed beyond this point but since the show has already reached the end of its typical lifespan, I imagine the majority of you Americans have already watched it.

When I first began watching House, my favourite part of it was Hugh Laurie. I had heard that he got the part because of his stubble and because his accent was so good the producer and director didn't originally know he was British and I personally agreed. The story lines were interesting and the medical jargon wasn't too heavy that I didn't understand. The characters, especially House and Wilson, bounced off each other perfectly and they are the best characters in the programme. By the end of the first season, I was a fan and "Three Stories" was one of my favourite episodes of all the series'. It explained how House became the person he is today and manipulated the reality of the show for the first time, as it does several times after because of how popular that episode was.

Every series has its good episodes and its mundane ones but the series finales are always exciting, explosive and extravagant. My favourite season has to be Season 4. It brought the start of a new era and a new team for House; each candidate bringing their own character development over the several episodes it lasted for. I could tell Amber would be a recurring character in the show because of the large impression she gave but I agreed wholly with House's team, Remy Hadley (Thirteen) being my favourite character aside from House and Wilson because of the sheer amount of story lines they piled on with her. It may also be because she's hot. The two part finale showed me the full potential of the House character and the wealth of what was to inevitably come.

Wilson's cancer was a topic I had seen coming. It was the only thing I had known about House before watching it but I had half forgotten it and was sure that it was House that got cancer rather than Wilson. This was further proved when House got three mini tumors in his leg but alas, it was indeed Wilson that was given five months to live. I had the most fun watching the last five episodes of the Season 8 and I was on the edge of my seat for Wilson's extreme chemotherapy session and for most of the final episode. I must admit, being a fan of Sherlock Holmes and knowing House was based on Holmes I knew the series would end one of two ways; either by faking his own death, similar to "The Final Problem" or by retiring from his profession, just like in "The Last Bow", the answer being the former. "Everybody Dies" would have been better, in my opinion, if it were more reality bending, like in "Three Stories" but it wasn't. I was slightly disappointed by the abruptness of House's overall death due to me being convinced it was another hallucination and not taking it entirely seriously. Despite all this though, it was well done and deserving of the final finale of House.

In conclusion, House is how dramas should be done - with a touch of comedy. Its characters and the relationships portrayed between them require split second timing and they deliver precisely as requested. House and Wilson have one of the most original relationships ever and every conversation between them makes me laugh, cry or something with an equally intense reaction. Every character has a unique way of working around or with House and are all tailored to his personality in some way or another. Every season brought something new and took the audience on a journey through House's mind, showing his addiction in every way possible. And as for the ending, I couldn't have ended it better than myself. A death scene for Wilson was unethical, unnecessary and I doubt even the prowess of Robert Sean Leonard could manage emotion like that. I love it. House is yet to be beaten. So to all other dramas, American or otherwise, I wish the best of luck to you. You'll need it. ]]> The Patrician http://bmgf.bulbagarden.net/blogs/65070/my-five-cents-house-55872/ http://bmgf.bulbagarden.net/blogs/65070/greetings-one-all-please-come-55826/ Fri, 25 Jan 2013 19:16:22 GMT Good Evening, fellow users of the Bulbagarden Forums. Would you like to take a seat? How's your day been? Would you like a drink? Tea, coffee or perhaps something a little stronger? I make a formidable Farnell. Oh now, where are my manners? I must introduce myself properly.

My name, as indicated by the informative text in the top right corner of your screen, accompanied by my profile picture, is The Patrician or, if you prefer, Havelock Vetinari, the latter just as fake as the former. There is a story behind the name which I will get to shortly. I am British, I am seventeen, therefore rendering my profile picture just as worthless as my name, and I came to these grand forums because of the obvious reasons. I also came to these forums because I wanted to write. I am an actor at heart and am currently studying for a career in the Media but I also like to write down my thoughts and procrastinate and where better to do this than here? I am in the development stage of a story at the moment in fact and maybe one day I will tell you about it. But anyway, to the story behind the name I promised.

Sir Terry Pratchett, a British author of fantasy novels, has won countless awards for his works. He has eight honorary Doctorates, a Carnegie Medal, two Locus Awards, a Margaret Edwards Award and an Andre Norton Award, to name just a few. He is an Officer of the Order of the British Empire for his services to Literature and he is best known for his creation of the Discworld series, of which, at the time of writing, there are thirty nine. The Discworld is a floating disc supported by four gargantuan elephants, which are in turn supported by the Great A'Tuin, a giant turtle that is swimming endlessly through space. It has many countries but it's capital city is Ankh-Morpork, technically two cities divided by the River Ankh. Among the inhabitants of Ankh-Morpork, there are humans, dwarves, wizards, trolls, golems, werewolves, vampires, goblins, gnomes and those so far unidentified. At the head of these though, in charge of the whole city and as an extension the whole of the Discworld, is the lord of this fair city; The Patrician, Lord Havelock Vetinari. The man in the profile picture is the actor that played Vetinari on screen in some TV adaptations. So now we have all that sorted out, let me continue.

As well as Pokemon, which is a given given where I am posting this to, I enjoy other video games. I have owned, at some time in my life, a Playstation 1, 2 and currently 3, a SEGA Genesis, a Nintendo DS, a Playstation portable and a Gameboy Advance. My first ever game was Driver 2 on the Gameboy Advance and the most recent game I have played is Assassin's Creed 3. My favourite game is Heavy Rain, a combination of intricate story and intuitive design that stole my heart and that I have played over ten times to get different endings and my least favourite game I ever played was Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2, which was monotonous, predictable and any game that has an option to skip a level vital to the story shouldn't feature the level at all. I understand there are quite a few fans of the Call of Duty franchise though so I feel I must disclaim my opinion and say that it is mine and there are no hard feelings. I just feel that it was a pile of trash and not worth my time.

Well this is a Pokemon forum so I suppose I should discuss something to do with Pokemon. My first game was Pokemon Sapphire. I chose Torchic. I beat the Elite 4 with just Blaziken and Gardevoir and minimal Revives. It was fun but it didn't feel like a team. My next game was Leafgreen. I chose Bulbasaur, not because it was the easy choice but because I prefer Venusaur to Charizard. I planned my team meticulously but didn't expect it to be so difficult to get Dragonair to level up to Dragonite so fair Dragonair was used as cannon fodder in the Elite 4, which I completed with a sense of accomplishment. I went to fight Red at the top of Mt. Silver but couldn't get past his Pikachu. I gave up. My third game was Diamond, in which I chose Piplup because no one else I knew chose it. It evolved into a formidable Empoleon and I could not have beaten the Sinnoh Elite 4 without it. I was then given a cartridge for Pokemon Emerald, which I played and chose Sceptile. I used a team this time through and it was much more satisfying that my first journey across Hoenn. This was also the first game I nicknamed my Pokemon. I then played Heartgold, chose Totodile and named him Irwin, named poignantly after Steve Irwin. I also chose Squirtle as my Kanto starter later in the game and never used it again. I called her Galapagos. I surely shouldn't need to explain why. My most recent Pokemon game was Pokemon White. I chose Snivy because everybody else on the Internet appeared to have chosen the overpowered, over-hyped, completely ridiculous Oshawott/Samurott combination. Also, the idea of a Regal Pokemon was appealing to me. In Unova, I named all my team after video game characters. Snivy was named Solid Snake. It was, I must admit, the toughest of the Pokemon games I have played yet had the best and most enthralling story. I am in the process of finding a copy of Pokemon White 2 and with it I will choose Oshawott as my starter, only because there is a limited amount of Water type Pokemon in Unova in the same way that there is a limited amount of Fire types in Sinnoh. When it is released, I plan to buy Pokemon X, I am not in favor of using a single Pokemon in several teams and I hate the idea of using legendary Pokemon in a team to defeat the Elite 4 because, in my mind, it cheapens the experience.

My favourite Pokemon, however, is one that I have not caught and do not plan to. It is Darkrai. It is unique and I would rather it live in secrecy than in my PC. It is mysterious, peculiar, complex, nightmarish and the perfect subject for a story. I must remember to write that down. A story from the perspective of Darkrai would be, I imagine, well received.

To conclude, this has been my first blog. I hope through the process of reading it, you have learned more about me and whether you care or not, I will be making more. If you are to make a comment below, please tell me if you have ever read a Discworld novel and if so, what your favourite was. I hope you enjoyed it. Goodbye.


Lord H. Vetinari ]]> The Patrician http://bmgf.bulbagarden.net/blogs/65070/greetings-one-all-please-come-55826/