Update 3/29/12

This blog will now serve as updates for my Youtube Channel and will no longer host film and gam reviews. I feel that a video format is easier to use rather that writing reviews and I think I will reach a wider audience. Thanks for reading.


[Coletrain]

The Misconception of Video Games

I understand that a lot of the material I provide is strongly related to gaming and I feel that what I say on this blog is either not read or shunned upon. But my reader's (all six of you) have to understand my taste and I think I should post what I want to post. Don't get me wrong, I'm a huge movie buff and I intend to do more reviews of films but when there are more video games that get better reception than movies that come out today, I don't have a desire to go to the movies see a basic plot that has been recycled. I want variety and that's why I do game reviews. The thing that annoys me though is that video games should be treated as a traditional game, something like pong or Tetris. Well let me clarify that is no longer the case as games today include story, character development, destructive set pieces, and best of all, interaction. This isn't the days of Atari 2600 as developers have nailed the aspect of engrossing a player. In fact, some of stories found in games are making Hollywood pay attention. You see, gaming isn't just about something simple like play wii bowling its much more deeper than that. This is when the established casual and hardcore gaming comes into play. Casual gamers are those who are intimidated by the site of a controller and just want to spend 10-30 min playing something at a time. Games in this kind of crowd include wii sports, generic dancing games, Mario party etc. The gamer doesn't want something with a lot of depth because they are afraid to learn how to play. Unfortunately, these are the kind of games and people that are truly missing out on the whole experience. Then you have the Hardcore crowd whose games consist of Halo, Mass Effect, The Elder Scrolls, and Fallout.These are the kind of people who not only expect a challenge, but want a rewarding experience, something in which they can put a lot of time into. This is the area in which freedom comes into play as the player is given the opportunity to experience how they want to play. Let's take a look at a game like mass effect which is a space opera that had 50 percent action and 50 percent of dialogue options or choices. I bet your confused but let me clarify. Mass Effect is a game of choice and by choice I mean choosing who will live or die, choosing who to pursue a relationship with, and choosing who will help you on your quest. There's much more to games than shooting and killing as the decisions you make in the first game carry over to the second and third title, making it like the decisions you make really matter. You sure as hell don't get this out of a game like wii sports or Hello Kitty do you? Didn't think so. You can also choose what abilities you have which changes the way the game is played. Whether you want to carry all weapons or you want to use force power or elements, it's up to you. You get to change the overall appearance of your character so it resembles you. This is just one of the many examples of what games are today and if you think it's all about shooting enemies, you're wrong! They even hire professional actors to voice each characters such as Marten Sheen, Seth Green, etc. Even Hollywood is starting to borrow these idea's because half of the movies that are released today are crap.

Every video game I've ever played

I don't expect you to read this entire list but I just wanted to let you know how many games I've played. Some will be reviewed at later date and this list will be updated often. These are in no particular order and I'm sorry if I took too much of your time. I have not completed all of these games but I've played them greatly. This list is currently incomplete. In others words, I have played a lot more than 166 games

1. Halo
2. Halo 2
3. Halo 3
4. Halo PC
5. Halo 3 ODST
6. Halo Reach
7. Halo CEA
8. Gears of War
9. Gears of War 2
10. Gears of War 3
11. Red Dead Redemption
12. Mass Effect
13. Mass Effect 2
14. Team Fortress 2
15. Half Life
16. Half Life 2
17. Half Life 2 Episode 1
18. Half Life 2 Episode 2
19. Call of Duty: Finest Hour
20. Call of Duty 2: Big Red One
21. Call of Duty 3
22. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare
23. Call of Duty: World at War
24. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2
25. Call of Duty: Black Ops
26. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3
27. Monday Night Combat
28. KOF 2002 UM
29. KOF i
30. Mario Bros.
31. Super Mario Bros.
32. Duckhunt
33. The Legend of Zelda
34. Punch Out!
35. Mega Man
36. Mega Man II
37. Dynasty Warriors 4
38. Dynasty Warriors 5
39. Samurai Warriors
40. Warriors Orochi
50. Pac-Man
51. Ms. Pac Man
52. Pac Man: Championship Edition DX
53. Galaga
54. Dig Dug
55. Donkey Kong
56. Tetris
57. Sonic the Hedgehog
58. Sonic the Hedgehog 2
59. Sonic the Hedgehog 3
60. Sonic 4: Episode 1
61. Sonic Spinball
62. Sonic R
63. Sonic the Fighters
64. Sonic CD
65. Sonic Adventure
66. Sonic Adventure battle 2
67. Sonic Heroes
68. Shadow the Hedgehog
69. Sonic Generations
70. Brink
72. The Darkness II
73. Fallout 3
74. Fallout: New Vegas
75. Crysis 2
76. Bulletstorm
77. Army of Two: The 40th Day
78. Darksiders
79. Bayonetta
80. Orcs Must Die!
81. Full Auto
82. Iron Brigade
83. Assassin's Creed II
84. Assassin's Creed Brotherhood
85. Prince of Persia
86. Prince of Persia The Forgotten Sands
87. Star Wars: The Force Unleashed II
89. Monday Night Combat
90. Super Smash Bros.
91. Super Smash Bros. Melee
92. Super Smash Bros. Brawl
93. Marvel VS Capcom 2
94. Marvel VS Capcom 3
95. Ultimate Marvel VS Capcom 3
96. Capcom VS SNK: MF 2000
97. Street Fighter 2
98. Street Figher 2 Turbo HD Remix
99. Street Fighter 3 Third Strike
100. Street Fighter Alpha 3 Max
101. Ninety Nine Nights
102. War Hammer 40K: Space Marine
103. War Hammer 40K: Kill Team
104. Socom Navy Seals Fire Team Bravo 2
105. Death Jr.
106. Star Wars: Battlefront
107. Star Wars: Battlefront II
108. Star Wars: Battlefront Renegade Squadron
109. Star  Wars: Jedi Outcast
110. Star Wars: Rogue Squadron
111. Star Wars: Rogue Squadron II
112. Star Wars: Rogue Squadron III
113. Star Wars: Clone Wars
114. Soul Calibur
115. Soul Calibur II
116. Soul Calibur IV
117. The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion
118: The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
119. Super Mario Galaxy
120. Super Mario World
121. Super Mario 64
122. Mario Kart 64
123. Mario Kart Advance
124. Mario Kart Double Dash
125. Mario Kart DS
126. Mario Kart Wii
127. Nintendogs: Labrador Edition
128. Super Mario Strikers Charged
129. Mario Party
130. Mario Party 2
131. Mario Party 3
132. Mario Party 4
133. Mario Party 5
134. Vectorman
135. Alex the kid
136. Soul Calibur Legends
137. Medal of Honor: Frontline
138. Medal of Honor: Airborne
139: Perfect Dark
140. Goldeneye 007
141. Time Crisis
142. Time Crisis 2
143. Time Crisis 3
144. LA Machine Guns
145 Final Fight
146. Magic Sword
147. Portal
148. Portal 2
149. Bomberman Hero
150. Metroid Prime 2: Echoes
151. Metroid Prime 3: Corruption
152. Rock Band
153. Rock Band 2
154. Star Fox 64
155. Star Fox Assault
156. Donkey Kong 64
157. Deus EX: Human Revolution
158. Rage
159. Fear 3
160. Dead Space
161. Dead Space 2
162. Red Faction: Guerilla
163. Red Faction: Armageddon
165. The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
166. The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
167. The Lord of the Rings: The Third Age
168.  The Lord of the Rings Online
169. Battlefield: Bad Company
170. Battlefield: Bad Company 2
171. Battlefield 3
172. Spore
173. The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time
174. The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess
175. The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker
176. The Legend of Zelda: The Minsh Cap
177. Custom Robo
178. Puzzle Fighter HD
179. Kinect Adventures
180. Kinect Sports: Season Two
181. Child of Eden
182. Baja: Edge of Control
183. Tiger Woods PGA Tour 03
184. Tiger Woods PGA Tour 04
185. Tiger Woods PGA Tour 07
186. Tiger Woods PGA Tour 12 Masters
187. Devil May Cry 4
189. Dead Island
190. Section 8
191. Section 8 PC
192. Castle Crashers
193. Batman Arkham Asylum
194. Batman Arkham City
195. SSX Tricky
196. SSX 3
197. SSX On Tour
198. SSX (2012)
199. Spiderman: Edge of Time
200. Fire Emblem
201. Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones
202. Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance
203. The Maw
204. Battlefield:1943
205. Rampage
206. Deadliest Warrior
207. Deadliest Warrior 2
208. Streets of Rage 2
209. Crackdown
210. Crackdown 2
211. Bioshock
212. Bioshock 2
213. LA Noire
214. TMNT 1989
215. Brutal Legend
216. Borderlands
217. Duke Nukem 3D
218. Duke Nukem Forever
219. OF: Red River
220. Vanquish
221. Tinker
223. After Burner Black Falcon
224. After Burner Climax
225. Homefront
226. South Park: Let's Go Tower Defense Play
227. Harm's Way
228. Splitter Cell Conviction
229. Worms
230. Xmen Origins Wolverine
231. Small Arms
232. Street Fighter IV
233. Street Fighter Volt
234. Lost Planet
235. Lost Planet 2
236. Resident Evil 4
237. Resident Evil 5
238. Dead Rising
239. Dead Rising 2: Case Zero
240. Lord of The Rings Conquest
241. Transformers: War for Cybertron
242. Transformers 3
243. [Prototype]
244. The Simpsons Hit and Run
245. The Simpsons Game
246. Fable II
247. Fable III
248. Final Fantasy
249. Final Fantasy XIII
250. Tekken Dark Resurrection
251. Tekken 6
252. Mirrors Edge
253. Kung Fu Panda
254. Lego Indiana Jones
255. Lego Star Wars
256. Lego Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy
257. DDR: Mario Mix
258. Time Splitters
259. Tine Splitters 2
260. GTA IV
261. GTA Chinatown Wars
262. Mass Effect 3
263. Mega Man X
264. Nova
265. Nova 2
266. Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney
267. Brain Age
268. Animal Crossing: Wild World
269. Midway Arcade
270. Guitar Hero
271. Guitar Hero II
273. Guitar Hero III
274. Guitar Hero World Tour
275. The Sims 2
276. Battle Tanks
277. Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards
278. Kirby: Nightmare in Dreamland
279. Fantastic Four
280. Shinobi 3
281. Phantasy Star 2
282. Rinstar
283. Ecco the Dolphin
284. Kid Chameleon
285. Mortal Kombat Armageddon
286. Mortal Kombat Deception
287. Mortal Kombat (2011)
288. Bonaza Bros.
289. Dead or Alive 4
290. Ninja Gaiden Dragon Sword
291. Dragon Ball Z Budokai
292. Dragon Ball Z Budokai 2
293. Dragon Ball Z Budokai Tenkaichi
294. Dragon Ball Z Budokai Tenkaichi 2
295. Dragon Ball Z Budokia Tenkaichi 3
296. Harry Potter Quiditch World Cup
297. The Incredible Hulk: Ultimate Destruction
298. Blades of Fury
299. Wario Ware: Smooth Moves
300. 300: March To Glory
301. Cut the Rope
302. Goldeneye 007 (Wii)
303. Goldeneye Reloaded
304. From Russia with Love
305. AudioSurf
306. Spiral Knights
307. Uncharted: Golden Abyss
308. Jetpack Joyride
309. Full Metal Alchemist: Dual Sympathy
310. Tony Hawk Pro Skater
311. Tony Hawk Pro Skater 4
312. Tony Hawk's Underground 2
313. Tony Hawk's Project 8
314. Tony Hawk's Downhill Jam
315. Godzilla: Destroy All Monsters Melee
316. Excite Bike 64
317. Warioland 4
318. Frogger
319. Crush the Castle IOS
320. Scribblenauts
321. GTA: Vice City
322. GTA: San Andreas
323. Fruit Ninja
324. Doodle Jump
325. Super Mario Sunshine
326. KOF 98
327. Metal Slug
328. Meal Slug Advance
329. Advance Wars
330. Advance Wars: Black Hole Rising
331. Advance Wars: Dual Strike
332. Mario Party 8
333. DDR Revolution
334. Time Crisis Raising Storm
335. House of the Dead II
336. Terminator Salvation (Arcade)
337. Marvel Nemesis: Rise of the Imperfects
338. Kirby: Squeak Squad
339. Super Mario World 3 Yoshi's Island
340. Pikmin
341. F-Zero
342. F-Zero X
343. F-Zero GX
344. Scott Pilgrim VS The World: The Game

Video Game Review: The Darkness II for Xbox 360

"The Darkness II" is a first person shooter that sets it's self apart from the crowed market. After many complaints by critics over the original game, it's sequel was able to address those problems and then some. You play as Jackie Estacado, the leader of  a mob who tragical lost his girlfriend and is now trying to rebuild his life again. The only problem is that "The Darkness" won't let him. "The Darkness" is an evil entity passed down to Jackie which allows him to have the ability to grow two evil demon arms and summon a creature called the "Darkling" to do his binding. These abilities play a major role in the gameplay as you not only have a large arsenal of guns at your disposal but you can use "The Darkness" to rip enemies in half, pick up environmental objects to perform fatalities, and to enhance your gun wielding abilities. This may seem like you're character is overpowered but there are a few elements that keep you from being too powerful which ultimately is the games main problem. First though, I'd like to point out elements that are good. I think that the gameplay is "The Darkness II" strongest element as you can shape the way how you want to play. The player can have an experience where he can rely only on the use of guns, darkness powers, or a combination of both. It not only changes the way you play the game but makes the game have high replay value. "The Darkness II" also uses an upgrade system to make Jackie stronger. The player obtains points by performing different ways of kill the opponents and then can spend those points to enhance certain areas such as increasing the amount of ammo you have, unlock new execution moves like summoning a black hole, and raising Jackie's defense. This may not be an original idea as it's been done before in many other games but it's nice to see that while you progress through the game, Jackie does as well. The player also has the option to start a "New Game +" which restarts the singleplayer experience while you still retain the powers you have earned from the previous playthrough. Also included in the package is "Vendettas", the multiplayer of "The Darkness II". Vendettas is an entirely new campaign in which four players can play online as Jackie's friends, which have both there own characters and abilities. While there wasn't much of a story and the characters seemed one dimensional, I still thought it was an enjoyable experience as I didn't experience any connection problems whatsoever. All of these features make up "The Darkness II" but there are a few things that keep it from being a fantastic game. First is the weakness of using the powers of "The Darkness" in both the singleplayer and multiplayer campaign. Apart from taking damage from bullets and objects, light also contributes. That's right, whenever you stand under a light, you take damage as the player can only use "The Darkness" powers in the dark. There will be moments where you'll been in a bright room full of enemies and you can't direct you're attention to these two things. The only way you can heal yourself is eating enemy hearts which really starts to become tedious by the time I was six or seven hours into the campaign. Also I felt I was constantly low on ammo I had to either pick of up different guns after every enemy I killed or  I had to run away. It really started to be frustrating as I can remember dying over and over again just because I didn't have ammo and enemies were too far away. Overall, "The Darkness II" is much better than the original and host a new bunch of content but at times is incredibly difficult.

Scott Pilgrim Vs The World- Movie Review

Scott Pilgrim vs The World is the kind of movie that doesn't come around often. Based off the graphic novels created by Bryan Lee Omaley, Scott Pilgrim tells the story of a 24 year old man in Toronto, Canada who comes across a girl by the name of Ramona Flowers. Upon meeting her, Scott instantly falls in love but in order to date Ramona, he must defeat her seven evil ex boyfriends. Now you're probably thinking that this is a stupid concept but it isn't as it what makes the film stand out. What the film really adopts is the classic retro video games and applies it to the character's make each of them unique from one another. This especially comes into play during the fights Scott must participate in as it meant to be taken in a realistic manner but to more of the style of the original graphic novels. This could also be considered as one of the films biggest flaws and is probably why the film didn't do well commercially. Most audiences won't understand the style and the easter eggs laid throughout the film and if seems like it was directed towards a specific audience rather than everyone as a whole. That doesn't stop it from being a great film though but it seems its associated to both the 80's and today's youth. The fight sequences use a comic book style feel as characters are flying through the air, using flaming swords, and using super powers which is something the common person wouldn't expect from a film such as this. Sounds like something a person were to find on a Saturday morning cartoon but the overall special effect are great. If you are a fan of Scott Pilgrim, I highly recommend you see this film as it's a faithful adaptation to the graphic novels. For those who are new, give it a try and you may forgive it for its lack of clarity.

I love Katamari impressions video IOS

This is an Impressions video of me playing the IOS game "I Love Katamari". Review to follow shortly and I made this video to demonstrate the game's gyroscope control scheme. I apologize if it's difficult to see as I am trying to get accustom to filming such a small device.

Star Wars Prequel's- Movie Review

   Instead of just picking specific episodes from the prequel trilogy, I rather just address the series as a whole as my opinion is pretty much the same on a of these films. Let me just start of and say that I was a huge Star Wars fan during my early childhood as I would watch one of the three movies every day multiple times and you know, I still think the movies are great to this day because the originals were able to combine multiple film genre 's into one to make it appealing for the masses. Unfortunately, that not the same with the prequel's  as they lacked the sense of fantasy and the idea of adventure that the original films had. I just believe that George Lucas's career just went completely downhill from the release of "The Phantom Menace" as I really didn't think he cared anymore and it was only about shoving as much crap on screen as possible to he could make money off toys. There's also the argument the prequel's were made in order to appeal to the new generation of Star War's fanatics, trying to rekindle to magic that was left back in 1977. Well, it didn't work as I don't think this was a story that necessarily needed to be told because the franchise would lose respect of audiences anyway. It's just a same to see just a great franchise go to waste because of these films so enough of this conversation as I promised to analyze these films.

 So let's look at the first film "Episode I: The Phantom Menace". Like many people, I was excited for the film to be released as I never thought that after twenty or so years, Lucas would start a line of new films. My expectations were high I thought to myself "There's no way Lucas could screw this up!". And then I saw the movie...ouch. When you think of "Star Wars" does a trade federation or space taxes come to mind? Yeah I didn't think so as it's basically the plot of the entire movie. We are introduced to wooden characters such as qui gon jinn and  obi wan Kenobi, two Jedi who have no personality whatsoever and we never really get much of a back story about them. Then we are introduced to the annoying cartoon rabbit JAR JAR BINKS, which pretty much put the nail in the coffin for whatever chance Star Wars had to impressing the audience. I understand that Lucas really wanted to appeal to little kids but he doesn't really make much contribution to the story other than being  comic relief. Every time this character opened his mouth, I wanted to throw my TV remote at the television screen. He just felt completely out of place to the whole feeling of Star Wars and the only thing positive thing is that he would later be ignored in the later films but it still didn't the sequels better. You see, in the original Star Wars films, characters such as "C3-P0" or "Chewbacca" actually served a purpose to the overall story because multiple times, whether direct or indirect, they would save the main protagonist from peril and they weren't annoying. Jar Jar is the exact opposite as he constantly makes an ass out of himself when ever he's on screen which doesn't help the audience establish a connection with the character. I also need to mention the "cookie ucutter" dialogue and delivery by the actor's and actresses, the worst being from Anakin Skywalker when he say something along the line of "Are you an Angel?".  It just support's the idea that Lucas must've finished the script in an hour and decide to direct his attention to the Lightsaber fights and space battles. I could go on and on about how many problems this film has but I'll just sum up the big standouts. The whole idea of Midichlorians took away the fantasy aspect of "Star Wars" and made it science fiction, Ray Park as Darth Maul was only casted for his martial art abilities and not for his acting so we don't get a back story to his character, the amount of direction focus put towards random CGI character takes away from the story as it isn't needed, It just goes on.


So we knew episode I was a disaster but "Episode II: Attack of the Clones" looked promising right? NO! In fact many people argue that the second film is the worst of the series for numerous reasons. One of which is the awkward and forced relationship between the two character's, Anakin and Padme.  It's extremely dull as the dialogue is just horrible between these two, one of them being Anakin's opinion about sand. Do you see the pattern here? With a title like episode II, you think they wouldn't focus the majority of their time on this relationship. I'd also like to mention the amount of CGI back rounds used in this film as I noticed the use of this becomes more frequent throughout the films. It's ok to use computer generated images in you're film but not for the whole movie. It start's to look like a video game and not a movie and it certainly doesn't help the Actors and Actresses. You start to lose a sense of realism with both the actors and the world around them. I guess lucas didn't want to travel all over the place and wanted to just stick to one area. Basically, the film highlights the rise of the Sith and the start of the transformation of Anakin Skywalker to the dark side. None of the problems that were addressed from the first film weren't corrected for the second and it just becomes more of the same. If there was anything positive about film, It would be when the film was over.

Now we get to the final film of the trilogy and at this point, my expectations were extremely low and I pretty much lost all faith within the franchise. Even if it is considered the best of the three films, It didn't feel like Star Wars and unlike the previous films, the movie takes a darker tone and gets a full PG-13 rating. Lucas's is now trying to stray away from his original path of appealing to a new generation of Star Wars fans. Just the change from the annoying Jar Jar Binks from episode I to a  fallen Jedi in episode II who decides to slaughter children feels disjointed. I thought the audience was going to be introduced to a kind hearted character who unfortunately was seduced to the dark side. The problem is we never got that from the first two films as they just made Anakin's character evil from the beginning. You just have no sympathy for him and it unfortunate that the audience wasn't able to connect with a main protagonist because there was never one to begin with. And that's the big problem with all three films, the characters. If one was killed off, you never really cared because there was nothing about them that really stuck out or they were underdeveloped. The cons outdo the pros in these films and I think it really didn't help expand the story but rather hurt it. Even  20 years after the release of the original films, people were still talking about it which showed it stood the test of time. However, the prequels make you want to forget that they were even created.