Monday, February 22, 2010

Game Review: Assassins Creed

Ok so I know I am a bit late jumping on this bandwagon but I bought this game for about $20 for my desktop computer but it didn't work. So I tried it on my laptop and to my suprise it worked. I finished the game in about a week (thought it would take longer). So now I thought I would do my first game review.

First a little plot telling:
Desmond Miles has been kidnapped by a company called Abstergo Industries, a pharmaceutical company. They plan to use him in a machine called the Animus which can read a persons DNA to recall ancestors memories. The memories Abstergo are after are that of Altaïr ibn La-Ahad, who is a member of a league of assassins during the year 1191AD. After going on a mission with fellow assassins and making a decesion that risks the life of him and his fellow assassins, Altair is demoted losing all his weapons and skills (how one loses skills I don't know). But his master Al Mualim tells him he must kill 9 people to regain his rank as he had before. His mission takes him to Acre, Jeruselem and Damascus. Each of these 9 gives him an insight into why they did what they were doing and Altair discovers that they are all members of The Knights Templar. As Desmond and Alatair are exploring the memory they discover the hidden truth behind why Abstergo wants Desmonds memory of Alatair and why Al Mualim wants Alatiar to kill the 9 people.

So thats the plot I didn't want to spoil much. The game starts is spilt between the two controlable characters of Desmond and Alatair. Although all Desmond can really do is wonder around the Animus room of Abstergo, go to bed, hack into peoples email accounts and talk to Lucy (Animus operator with a secret of her own....insert dramatic music here). So mainly its up to Alatair to gain all the information. Too kill the 9 you must first discover the map of the three towns by climbing on tall buildings and "syncronising" with them to get a feel for the world around. This unlocks different missions to which you discober where and when the assassination target will be. This includes pickpocketing letters, interrogating people who rant about the target on the street, helping an assassin who supplies information or simply eavesdropping on someones conversation. After this you gain access to where the target is and must report to the assassination bureau of the town to get a feather (this feather as proof of the kill with the targets blood wiped on it). The idea is to be stealthy for these missions but I found this to be quite difficult so i found myself running to kill the person them running away to a point and me chasing after them and getting in a big sword fight with them and about 20 guards and make sure i was the last man standing. Probably the most difficult I found was one of the earlier ones (i was still trying to be stealthy) It was a doctor accused of drugging his patients with a drug allowing them to be controlled. So you go into this hospital and I am being all stealthy but there were these rabid patients who kept pushing me. One happened to push me into a guard and the guard attacked me....so i had to kill the guards kill the guy and get the hell out. Then I couldn't find the exit. I got out eventually and hid in a haystack.
It is stuff like this that makes the game difficult. As the game progresses the guards get more suspicious and to get from one place to the other you have to walk (running apprently causes to much suspicion, so what running was outlawed in 1191?)
Like I said before the game wasn't as challanging as I thought. There were a few times I died but after trying it one or two more times doing exactly the same thing I found myself passing it. Using my laptop was a bit difficult as the game uses the traditional WASD for movement while the arrows are used for camera, and the mouse pad for attacking. I got quite annoyed because for some reason the game never opened in full and i still had the windows toolbar down the bottom and often found myself clicking out of the game mid stab. But this is a computer problem not the game I guess. I have often been weary of playing games on computer with the WASD controls I didn't mind it, the only thing was to run fast whilst knocking people out of the way I had to press W, left mouse button, shift, spacebar and of course to run diagonally you had to press WD (or any combo of W-S with the A-D) buttons and this got difficult.

All in all though it was a good game, with good story lines and gameplay (except the issues I mentioned. But that just means I need a PS3 :-P ) although the game felt reptetive at times with the sub missions in order to reach the assassination it was the assassination that drove you to hang in there. With a cut scene before the assassaination of the target talking it allowed you to figure out a plan. For example one of the guys was an executioner and was onstage. As you can move around during the cutscene. I got up the front as close as I could and my plan was to once I could just one on stage. I managed to kill him before the guards came...ADAM WIN. then the guards chased after me and I had to run like a pansy boy...but I killed the bad man so ADAM STILL WINS. Also the good things about the cutscenes were that they had "Glitches" these glitches flashed up and if you pressed the mouse button it showed an alternate view.

I give the game 4/5 and now I have to wait till March till the number 2 is on computer :-( or buy a PS3/Xbox 360 before then....I will go with the first option

Wednesday, February 17, 2010

District 9 review

Ok so I recently saw District 9 and thought it was blog review worthy.

First of all it wasn't what I expected at all. I saw the trailers and expected another "aliens attack, world is in doom" movie. But of course it wasn't. For those of you who don't know the story revolves around a spaceship hovering above Johannesburg, the aliens are sent to a shanty town to live (District 9) by order of the MNU (Multi-National United) here the Humans and Prawns (as they were called, sort of a racist slang) lived happily. Fast forward 20 years into 2010 and things are going bad the "prawns" and humans relationship is starting to break and the MNU decide to move them further out of Johannesburg to a place where they can not be disturbed (District 10) it is Wikus van der Merwe's job to round them up and move them to the other district. But he stumbles accross a fluid that one of the "Prawns" is working on which slowly starts turning him into one of the aliens. He seeks refuge in District 9 with the "prawns" and finds Christopher Johnson (The aliens are given Earth names) Chris eventually agrees to help Wilkes stop the alien transformation if Wilkes can get the fluid back that MNU has so Chris can go to the mothership. Thats just a brief outline. I don't want to spoil anything.

Now obviously the first thing you notice is the movie is set in a documentry style talking about the aliens and Wilkes operation and setting the scene of the aliens and humans parts in the story. The other thing you realise is just how poltical this movie is. I think it resonates with Australians well because of the on going "Boat People debate". The aliens them selves were Immigrants and seeked refuge to a better place only to find them selves in poor housing with little rights. This is in ways similar to the "boat people" being put in detention centres waiting to become australian citizens. Although the "Prawns".
When the MNU is rounding up the "Prawns" they do it peacefully but many of them disagree with the move and act out and end up getting shot or killed, they are then experimented on later in a biolab as the MNU is also trying to disover how to use the "Prawn's" weapons as it can only be used with their DNA. Wilkes can also acheive this once he starts turning into an alien and is used for similar testing.
Like I said the conditions they are living in are quite poor, even poorer than the poorest og the south africans are living in. The "Prawns" have to fend for them selves by dealing with the Nigerian war lords by trading guns and stolen goods for cat food (the choosen food of the "Prawns"). The government offers no assistance in anyway apart from the housing, they can not get jobs or anything (again boat people?)

The poltical aspects are certainly there and are quite evident of similar situations going in the world with refugees all over the world. What I liked most about this story is that instead of making the alien race superior and wanting to destroy the world; they are the good guys, the underdogs, the refugee. So instead of feeling sorry for the human race you feel for this alien race and are finding yourself barracking for them (and not your own race). I can't say I have seen many other movies where this happens, apart from maybe E.T. Which shows a similar story in a way, Alien refugee - humans want it for experiments - trying to get home - befriends a human. But District 9 pushes the poltical side of the story more with what the government ideally wants with these aliens (technology)

All in all I quite enjoyed the political satire of modern day issues with sci fi. I spent the whole time thinking "boat people are the least of Kevin Rudd's problem if this happens". Like I said i also liked making the aliens the good guys (we are seeing a lot of this role reversal stuff lately) I actually found myself comparing it to Avatar but its like reverse Avatar.
District 9 - Aliens come to Earth -> aliens get screwed over
Avatar - Earth goes to Pandora -> aleins get screwed over

Both have similar outcomes but the Human Race's part in each is completly different.

I give it 4/5 (guess i should review Avatar now, been a while since i saw it though)

Saturday, February 13, 2010

I generation (pt 2)

Ok so now is the time where I continue boring you with my thoughts on technology. Like I said, in this post I will be talking about movies, communication and life in general.

sooooooo Movies:

Well it is pretty obvious how far movies have come. Don't know if much of you know this but one of the first movies ever shown was the great train robbery and there was footage of a train coming towards the audience. The audience freaked out at this and thought the train was going to come out of the screen and hit them. Flash forward today and that is actually happening with more and more movies coming out in 3D (Monsters vs Aliens, Avatar etc) seems this is where movies are going now. But lets go back a few years before this. Looking at any movie in the 1920 till about the 50's and it's black and white. Wizard of Oz revolotionised film by combining both. Look at the early colour films and you see a different picture quality. Even movies up to the early 90's have a different quality somewhere in between now and the 50's. I am no expert on how films are made, but I assume this is due to such things as camera capturing, editing, lighting etc. Obviuosly now all the editing is done on computer making it a much more crisp image. Ever watched an old movie and wondered why a black spot flashes up every now and then and lines in the screen? Well this was the old edting style where they use to just glue the bits of film together from the reels those black dots are called "cigarette burns" and they are a mark to know where on reel ends and the other starts. so from the 90's 3d was a gimmick and around but very solemn I remember going to the Melbourne show and they had a tent that was a cinema showing 3d images and i was so scared I had to take my glasses off (a Bug came out trying to eat me and a tiger was jumping above my head) fast forward today and its the new norm. James Cameron has been waiting 10 years for technology to advance so he could make Avatar. Every new animation (disney pixar, dream works) is coming out in 3d now. So is it still a "gimmick"? I say no I think it is here to stay, with more and more live action films being rumoured to be 3d (Harry Potter, Spiderman, Avatar 2). Even T.V is becoming 3d with the release of 3d televisions. My question is will we see computer games take the step into 3d. I haven't heard anything yet but sure it is in the works.

Communication (is the key.....lol had to say that)

Obviously communication has changed probably the most over the decades. Carrier pigeons, Telegraphs, Morse code are all things of the past and now replaced with Email, Mobile phones, and instant messaging (MSN,Skype etc). Alexander Bell created the telephone, I wonder what he would think now if he saw us on mobile phones. Mobile phones started off as "bricks" and only the wealthy could afford it (think i heard they started at 1000 dollars). Now nearly everyone has one and they are now only half a brick in size (although still getting smaller) Now phones aren't just used for ringing people but also used for text messaging, surfing the web, sending emails, organising your life, listening to music...and the list goes on. I am typing this on my laptop but I could easily type this again on my Iphone, seems computers are becoming obselete with mobile phones doing pretty much everything a computer can do anyway.
Gone are the days we send some a letter or decreasing slowly is calling people. With social netowrking sites increasing why spend money calling someone? When you can simply send them a message on facebook. I am noticing a trend of instead when we used to call someone for thier birthday we know text messaging them or even just facebook them (Thank you Facebook for reminding me of my friends birthdays so I don't have to remember). Communication stays fundamentally the same with the generic "how are you going" it's just the way we send it that is changing.

Life:

with technological changes obviously we adjust our lives accordingly. As I write this on my LAP TOP I am watching T.V with the SET TOP box my IPHONE is next to me and I am also uploading photos from my DIGITAL CAMERA. (see all the technology I am using in everyday life)
I watched an interesing documentry (can't remember the name) but it was all about a family use to having all the above technology and more going back to the 1900's and every day they would go forward a decade till they got to the year 2000. They had kids who were use to laptops and game consoles and tv, and the parents had laptops mobile phones. It got me thinking how would i survive? The answer is....I couldn't I would be so bored and wouldn't know what to do without having a mobile or a laptop or even some form of game console. I agree myself this sounds bad but having been use to growing up with this it is hard to think of life without all the stuff i take for granted.

So in conclusion thinking about my life I think I was born at the right time (1988) I have seen the development of computers ( From Amega Commodore to Acer Aspire laptop), Tapes to C.D's to Digital downloads, game consoles (atari to Wii). It kinda freaks me out that in 22 years of my life just how much technology has changed and how I have adapted, I remember my first internet experience I had no idea what I was doing, now look at me here in the blogosphere, on facebook, twitter,msn,itunes,email etc etc.
I thought the atari was the best thing ever invented (I said that for the nintendo, gameboy, N64, Playstation and Wii).
Just goes to show how much tecnology has changed throughout the years and I hope you think next time you are surfing the web or playing a game console.....WHAT WOULD MY LIFE BE LIKE WITHOUT THIS. Because unfortunatley there are places in the world where people can't afford stuff like this or have no internet/ game consoles etc.


Would like to hear your thoughts on this and how you have seen technology change or bring up anything I missed. So leave comments please

Monday, February 8, 2010

I generation

As you will see by the time you get to the bottom of this page, I have written this post on my iPhone. It has come to my attention that this iPhone is slowly taking over my life. I recently downloaded this application as well as some ones for Twitter. I was never caught up in the Twitter craze I signed up to check it out and shortly after left it alone. Now that I have the iPhone though I have found myself checking every 5 minutes along with my facebook. Having these things at my fingertips is now making me think why I feel the need to check them so often. What are the odds if someone posting something on my wall or tweeting me something in a space of 5 minutes..... Highly doubtful I assume, but then there is the fact I feel the need to know everyones business by checking thier status/tweet when I could easily just pick up my iPhone and call them (I know you can call people on them too... Amazing!)
The day after I got my iPhone I went down to Melbourne and whilst sitting on the train I was looking at all the people with iPhones typing away a message, playing their music or just checking facebook (Me) and thought how these devices have changed since the brick phone days and now most phones come with Internet, mp3, camera etc capablities. It only makes you wonder where we go from here with the release of the ipad makes you wonder where the next step is in the likes of mobile devices and what they can do. I can already order pizza via an app or tweet my poo with details, make a band, update numerous social sites plus much more I have yet to discover.

The reason I titled this blog I generation is reference to an MC Lars track of the same name. We really are living in an I generation where moat households probably own one or my apple products . I only have my iPhone and iPod. But with so many products out there doing the same thing anyway it really is the genration of the uber-do-everything phone. Being 22 I have seen technology change a fair bit. Let's break this up in tecnology genres:

Entertainment: first video game console we owned was the atari my brother got it for his birthday and I thought it was the best thing ever. We then got a nintendo (original) then the first real taste of handheld gaming he gameboy (and later the
Advance) then came the N64 the first look at 3d gaming then I got a ps2 same sorta thing just a little crisper picture and now I own the wii which is working towards the first virtual reality console (one day?) all the predesscers to the wii have become obselete and are in boxes somewhere and only bought out on days I feel really nostalgic.

Music: obviously the genres have changed due to technolgy but I am more talking about how we get music. I may be a bit too young for records but I still remember listening to them occasionaly and taping them on to tapes. My first tape player was a hand me down that still works I used to record my own voice or stuff off the radio and listen to it over and over. I still remember my first cassette I ever got a tape full of kids tv show themes (still listen to it sometimes) then came CDs we bought a cd/tape/record player all in one for about 500 bucks back when CDs first came out. The first cd I ever got was simpsons in the key of Springfield but it wasn't till about a year later I got my own cd player , this unfortunately died a few years ago and I have not had another cd player since. You see I used my computer as a cd player and put all
My music on there then i got my iPod and could take my music where I want when I want. Now with the launch of iTunes and file sharing I found myself visitng the music stores less and less I only ever by hard copies of stuff if I really like the band. I admit I do download music but I then go out and buy it if I like it enough. The stuff I don't just gets fogotten about. If only most people thought this way then downloading wouldn't be such a problem.

Anyway I am going to leave this here for now and will continue later with communication, movies and life just in general....thanks for letting me bore you

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Saturday, February 6, 2010

Album review - Regina Spektor - Far

Ok another album review for you. This time Regina Spektor's new album far. I would say this is one of her best albums yet and she is back with her heart felt and deep lyrics that we all know and love. Her vocal range is also showcased nicely in such songs as "eet" that's the sound she makes in the first single off the album. Like I said before her lyrical genius is shown again. I will share some of my favourties with you

You use your headphones to drown out your mind -eet
Blue lips, blue veins, blur the colour of our planet from far far away- from blue lips
No one laughs at god in a hospital no laughs at god in a war - laughing with (whole song is like this, but it isn't preachy that's why I like it)

Also makes you wonder the meanings of each song for example machines sounds like her anti piracy song to me but that is open to opinion like I said laughing with is her song about religion and how when bad things happen people curse god even if they don't believe

The album again is also ranged from the mellow to the upbeat each showcasing her amazing vocal range and random sounds she makes such as the song dance anthem of the 80's which has similar singing to that of my favourite song of hers "that time"

In conclusion really is a good album showing us what she is really capable of and a great follow up to begin to hope. I swear she just keeps getting better

4/5 rating

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone




Location:,Mildura,Australia