Vanquish Review

Tired of the same third person shooter with steroid consuming mass of muscle? How about stuck a bunch of rockets to the hero's behind and blast him like experimental science subject? This is the base of Vanquish, basically make third person shooter faster, more bullets with 80' macho one-liners. Surprisingly it works, much like Bayonetta to action games, the over-the-top campy guilty pleasure will make you smile for brief hours this game lasts.

The story is very simple with just a minor twist; you play as Sam, there's the bad guys, they are the ones shooting at you with those hundreds missiles, you shoot them back until one of you die. Easy and simple. While the story won't win any awards for depth or writing, but the overall vibe is quiet epic, it somehow reminds me of old PSX game, Silent Bomber. They even play alike when you obtain one of the weapon called Lock-On Laser. Safely say that this is a new approach of TPS, like the other end of spectrum from Gears of War. It even has contrasting pristine and glossy look compared to the other TPS.

You'll be doing this a lot.. I hope Winning Eleven had this move.

From Platinum Games which brought crazy witch last year, it'll be everything but normal. The basic TPS's mechanics are still present here. The cover system, peek-and-shoot, evading roll etc work well and smooth. But the main attraction is the rocket sliding, in which you boost yourself with aforementioned rockets on your behind to flank, approach or escape enemies. The speed at which you do this is ridiculously fast and the essence of your survival. It give you the ability to slide, on you knees sometimes, a la futuristic suster ngesot.. That sounds wrong, like Angelina Jolie's knee sliding at Wanted, that's better.

In case you haven't notice, the flashy suit has distinct gimmicks than the usual grunt, the AR mode. It is simply a stylish bullet time that you can activate in various conditions whether it's automatic use when near death or manually triggered. You can jump out of cover with it, slow down time and shoot while sliding, flip-evade from any position, practically dodging bullets like heroes always do post-Matrix. The AR mode also triggers when you are wounded by strong projectiles, but bear in mind that these plethora of actions use the same gauge, even melee uses it.

Although the gauge will constantly replenish itself quiet fast, it will overheat if you used up all, rendering it unusable for a limited time period. This takes away precious seconds and important defensive measure, mostly will result in death when facing harder foes, so perform acrobatic stunts sparingly and effectively. The weapons are consisted of the basic ones, like assault rifle, shotgun, rocket launcher and more unique ones, such as disk launcher or Lock-On Laser which can be upgrade respectively. Upgrades are dropped randomly or when you pick up the same type of weapon repeatedly, they are already fixed so you won't have freedom on what aspect of gun you want to improve. The number of guns and upgrades are somewhat lacking.

Is this even legal? There is only one of me!!

Visually the game is remarkable. So many details span over such large battlefield including several dozens bullets and missiles from allies and enemies the same without even frame drop is quiet a feat. The animation is fluid and flowing realistically for everyone present. Character models are well crafted, while it does has distinct Asian vibe, it also implemented rugged look from western TPS. The facial outlook is quiet amazing, you can see freckles in Elena's face or facial hair in Sam in scrutinizing details.

While the setting has certain atmosphere throughout the game, it managed to differentiate the areas from one to another. They are vast and span a long distance, albeit you can only travel linearly, they do make an interesting backdrop. When AR mode comes into play, the view comes to almost a halt, making players appreciate the beautiful graph in every explosion, missiles launch, wind trails of the bullets and gruesome slow-mo deaths.

Take cover, you dumb old man.. you know what.. never mind..

Unfortunately the dialogues on the game are still as cheesy and corny as ever. This is not like Bayonetta' s quips which sometimes can be witty, but more like something Ahnold would say. Every line is delivered this way, the writing is just plain flat and pretentious. The dub itself is quiet good, everyone holds their respective cliche role well, although some lyp-synch inconsistency makes it harder to take the story seriously. I have to give credit for doing multiple language, the cast is not many so it's not that hard, but the thought is always welcomed.

Japanese dub has better flow, but lip-synch suffers greatly. Ultimately just take it as comedy take of TPS. Sound effect is good, the noises are spot-on, they can even help time dodge an attack. Bullets pass when AR mode is activated sound subtly hissing, muffled explosion and speech are also well done. Soundtracks of the game fit the heart pumping fast pace appropriately, but you probably too engaged in combat to notice.

Just be thankful that the voice in your head is that of a sultry woman, not a grunting marine.. That would suck..

The game keeps track of your points from your kills, deaths, allies saves etc, so it gives a bit motivation on clearing the stages as well as possible. For all the epicness, this game is short. Seriously short, I finished Hard on 5 hours, give and take some deaths and it's still less than six hours. There are God Hard mode, Mission select and Challenge, but they don't really give much incentive of playing it again. If you are looking for short burst of exictement, Vanquish is one of the best so far.

Graph : Beautifully made characters and backgrounds. 9/10

Sound : Good and suited for the fast pace despite the corny dialogues. 8/10

Gameplay : Loud, fast and engaging with plenty of WTF moments. 9/10

Presentation : The set pieces are epic, but the story is cheesy and too short. 7.5/10

Overall : 8.4/10

The Concept of Beauty

Beauty is in the eye of beholder, says an old catch phrase. But how true does it ring? Nowadays beauty is what the other one million people think they know and impose on you. Media is partially responsible for this, what dictates as beautiful can be different significantly from time and place. So is there any idea of beauty that can be universally accepted throughout ages in all corners of the globe?

Oh well

Oh, my drawing. Hmm, could be better. The scan was poor and the colors faded. I can imagine it, but somehow I can’t get the color I wanted. It would be much simple if I could do it digitally, but I suck at tablet and photoshop. I sure hope some artistic guru can teach me how. That’s enough rant.

How can one be describe as beautiful? Believe it or not, there is actually a ratio to measure one’s face and even body. It’s a complex series of 1:1.6 lines (the ratio of say, lips to jaw, pupils and eyes etc) that create triangular shapes and eventually those shapes form a mold for a face. If the ratio matches, then they are considerate beautiful. Oddly enough, there are researches that back this up, but that’s not to say the rest are not beautiful.

Something like this, but there is more complex version.

In old days, even up to the turn of previous century, and in some countries now, beauty is how plump people are. The bigger one is the more wealth does he or she possesses. This concept began from the idea that bigger people meant more food to be had, thus meant they were considerate as having more and at the upper class of society. Some of African countries are still thinking like that, in tribal settlement mothers usually force feed their young, especially daughters so they grow fat. Without modern supplements, this can be tough, so they resort in lots of maize and milk, sometimes even up to the point where the daughters throw up.

It’s mostly agreeable that beauty has to be attained, even for the ones born with more generous build then others. People need to maintain or simple achieve the state of beauty. From simple things like what one eat, how many times one exercise until the more extreme counterparts like using a corset, a tiny Chinese shoes or plastic surgery. That is actually the easy part, the harder part is how to be beautiful on inside, inner beauty, as they say.

Vintage image from 1960

Like many pageant events, people can be judged from how they react and respond to several problems. This is not certain, but it gives us a viewpoint on how one on the inside. People with more vibrant personality, modesty, humbleness, confident, honesty, generosity etc is viewed or referred as more beautiful. I agree to this, but not everyone at every time is given the opportunity to prove themselves on these occasions. Mostly we look at someone only at skin deep, “Wow, nice boobs!”, or “Kyaa, so cute…” that’s already a plus point regardless if the people are jerks.

Commonly, the usual concept of beauty is young, good skin complexion and body proportion. This is probably the most basic idea, and rightfully so. But there are so many interpretation that born from this. I don't mean in extreme cases like fetishes, but in more subtle ways. For instance, more comedical Japan's elf or furry like character. Basically put a girl in bunny costume, ehm Playboy inspired. It's mildly amusing and just for entertainment sake.

Ah Final Fantasy chars.. Never fail to emphasis on fantasy part

How about the more real ones, like skinny models. It is thought that skinny is better nowadays from much media exposure of lean people on magazine or news. Models do tend to have light frame, bordering on insanely thin. It can look good for the most part if the dresses are right or the poses are well adjusted, but too skinny can mean eating disorder. Some of them just don't look healthy and even come across as anorexic.

There are much skinnier ones than this.

Then the other end of spectrum, the more muscular one. Some fitness females model are known to have massive muscles in their repertoire. Some even achieved the bodybuilding standard and looks too over-muscled, albeit this happens more often in Western society. I rare see any women with more athletic build in daily life.

I think this is just right. There are others who look they eat steroid for breakfast.

Turns out guys can be described as beautiful too, but the meaning has shifted from more masculine look to over feminine persona. I blame K-pop and J-pop. Some of the guys actually look like maho, for lack of better words. There is a reality show in Animax "Pretty boys and girls" in which all contestants must perform ridiculous humiliating cheesy act of "cuteness". I vomited a bit when I saw a guy wearing make-up, lipstick, act like a girl, dance like a girl even wink like a girl and still have the nerve to say that they are boys, even trying to act bad-ass and cool sometimes. Just plain bloody atrocity. An abomination towards nature. Abnormalities at its finest.

Korean boybands make Justin Bieber look as macho as Ahnold Swashnegger. I downloaded SM*ho vid out of curiosity, half way through, I coughed, deleted the vid just so I wouldn't get infected by their mahoness.

I want to post some SM*ho image or something, but I decided it's not worth defiling my note.

I have more respect for crossdresser. Yeah, at least they have the balls to say that this is female's outfit or it's female char. There are even Kabuki, old Victorian play or ancient Chinese performance where the girls were played by the males. That doesn't means they were maho, some of them can be artistic even, rather then pretentious girl wannabes that still have "guy only in KTP"

This is not a girl..

.. it's a guy.. http://www.kaskus.us/showthread.php?t=6739021

So does that means guys can't be beautiful with neat clothes or long hair? Not necessarily so. There are tons of guys who look okay even if they dress slightly different.

There's Jack Sparrow

.. and Batman..

.. and Kato..

So guys can be beautiful without being maho.. that leaves the question, why choose the maho part?

Let me end with a quote from Jack Black's old movie, Shallow Hal.

Hal: Okay, who do you think is the most beautiful woman in the world?

Mauricio: Wonder Woman.

Hal: Okay... let's say everyone else in the world thought Wonder Woman was ugly.

Mauricio: It wouldn't matter. Because I know they'd be wrong.

Dead Space 2 Review

I always like survival horror genre from Resident Evil and Silent Hill last gen era. However the genre has been declining in this gen, with Resident Evil 5 lacking horror element, Silent Hill : Homecoming is just not up to par with its legacy and Fatal Frame 4 doesn't get official English release, but fear not (pun intended) Dead Space 2 has came to rescue the dying genre.

Oh, my drawing is not finished yet. Man, I have to stop procrastinating.

I like Dead Space so much, I even replayed the first one before I played the second, and I can attest Dead Space 2 is a bigger, scarier and better game in every aspect possible. Even if you haven't played the first one, there is a "previously on" segment that will keep you up to speed. One thing that is apparent from the very start, Dead Space 2 is not for the faint of heart. It's brutal, beautifully disturbing and practically the scariest shit since Fatal Frame 2.

Why the hostility, man?

Dead Space 2 follows the story of Isaac Clarke from the first game. He managed to survived the ordeal and now is an inhabitant of a medical facility. Everything is not what it seems at the first place, and Isaac quickly thrust into another survival on Titan. The main difference about Isaac is that he now speaks. It was odd seeing him just stood there silently in the first game, but now he is voiced and able to act like a normal guy, depending on what normal constituted. He may looks okay. albeit will still be startled if some abomination appear in front of him, but inside he is actually a delusional schizophrenia.

It is intriguing to see that he tries to behave like ordinary person, but the ghost of his loved one lingers on his mind persistently. There are a few events that just show that Isaac is deeply hurt mentally while he denies and rejects the visions every step of the way. The other cast members are not exactly sane either, after the hellish outbreak, almost everyone Isaac meet have some sort of abnormality. It somehow gives the story more vibrant take and will keep you guessing for awhile.

Doc, I have a headache.. Can I have aspiri.. Oh hey, dead girlfriend, What are you doing.. Eww why you have no eyeballs?

The visual in the game is simple stunning. From the metropolis, futuristic shops, old fashioned church, old space ship, mining cave, the solar panels, there are well crafted and convincing, just as immersible as Aliens movie. I have to give credit for the great use of lightning and the contrasting shadows, they make silhouettes of ordinary ruin more menacing. The enemies' design is downright gross, disgusting and repulsive. I saw blocky shadows on the first game, but the second is just superior, better and has more fluid movement, giving it a slick moody atmosphere. It's everything you can hope for in a horror game.

Details of the environment are done so well that none of it feels out of place. Some scenes look like aftermath of a slaughter with blood scattered all over the place and mutilated corpses fill the alleyway. There are so much death here, that when you see no corpse, there is something missing. Glistering ornaments are pretty enough and make the scenery of an enclosed space more claustrophobic, but the real view is when you step into the light just barely leeching on the surface trying to hold on to the gravity while the extraterrestrial scenery unfolds in epic proportion. While it does has backtrack section now and then, but that doesn't feel old.

What makes it a truly cinematic game is the lack of HUD, similar to the first game. You basically play without any HUD whatsoever. The health display is at the back of the suit, ammo count will appear if you aim, and inventory will be presented as hologram in real time in-game. Even the communication, text and audio logs will be displayed as you travel. This is a good concept, makes me wish all game has the same presentation.

This pretty much sums it all.

The sound is brilliantly captivating, conveying the mood more fiercely. Tiny subtle ambient noises go a long way to invoke paranoia in you. Cranks in the floor, leaking water, hissing enemies from behind the wall and below the floor, even Isaac's own voice when he is breathing heavily when in low health are just arresting and frightening. The use of these simple noises is amazing, when a screaming exploding enemy comes near you or a baby-like bomb roll in your feet, they are screeching and heart-breaking.

While it doesn't has vast array of characters, but the ones who grace your scene are believably mentally challenged from the great dub. Isaac's voice is sometimes calm when in conversations with other, but he breaks down gradually from the haunting of his specter and his speech fits perfectly. The others are also right in the tone of sociopath and panicking survivors, their banters along with the scattered audio logs are pleasantly apprehensive.

Friendly tips, headshot might not work.

I play the game in Zealot Mode, very hard if you will. This mode makes Hard in first Dead Space looks like a picnic. Ammo gain is half what it should be, health is also scarce, this makes the game a real survival experience. For example, an enemy drops 3 plasma energy when defeated, but it takes exactly 3 pinpoint shots to defeat said enemy. Every items you scour are essential to keep you alive, not to mention you will need extra effort to upgrade your weapons and armor.

In Zealot, it's better to utilize every tactic in the playbook, or what I call "poor man's tactic". You see a broom or iron bar, grab and befriend with it. Use it to impale any approaching enemies, preferably in the legs, when they are down, stomp the living hell out of them, use stasis and melee as much as possible to conserve ammo. An exploding red canister is a gift from god, break the glass windows to decompress the room to suck all hostiles to cold dark oblivion and use the claws and body parts from dead enemies as projectiles. Every single ammo counts, if do you shoot, for heaven's sake, don't fucking miss.

There might me something inside it.. you know, just guessing..

Of course, the necormorphs will not stand around getting killed. They are brutal bunch and want nothing other than your sweet bloody limbs. In Zealot, they will take chunks of your health. Dead Space probably have the most diverse enemies I've seen in awhile. You have your normal necromorphs, its black stronger counterpart and the Pregnant, while it might looks more chubby and slow, it has a surprise in its stomach. There is Jumper which have no legs, but annoyingly fast and just want to cuddle you like golden retrievers from hell. The Children and the Limbs will come in packs, literally numbering more than a dozen sometimes.

Then there are ranged ones, the Puker, which is fast to spit on you and has slow attribute or the Lurker, small three tailed beast, which is slower, but harder to aim due its size and guess what, shoots three projectiles. Then comes the heavy hitter, exploding Baby Bomb and the Crawler that will.. um explode, stay away from them. The charging Stalker, looks cowardice and sprints to you like there's no tomorrow or Brute, the one who looks like deformed rhino will probably kill you in one hit.

Main line is if you don't have maxed out suit with strong armor in full health, just assume anything that screams and running your way can kill you. And they will not appear one by one either, there are times when I had to fought 4-5 enemy types in a single hallway, or worse, open space. They come in "sekampung" package, I know the basic bottleneck funneling strategy like in 300 "Their numbers count for shit", but sometimes it's not easy when they ambush you, I think they watched the movie too. I wailed at the screen sometimes, "This is not fair!"

We are perfectly fine.. just peachy.

The gameplay is addictive, with a multitudeof weapons to choose from there are a bunch of strategies to be had here. And after you dismember the first necromorph, you'll want more. It might be a bit linear, but certainly more lively and the quest for your life is felt throughout the game, a step forward from the first's stall mission structure. The few zero G sequences are a nice break from the usual combat and there is a skill tree like development for your weapons and armor. There are a few minor glitches like the ammo count won't show sometimes or the enemies floated to obscurity once when I used stasis, but nothing that derail the overall experience. This game will last about 10-12 hours. The outstanding presentation, great graph and truly ominous sound make Dead Space 2 a true survival gem of this gen.

Graph : Smooth, fluid breathtaking design. 9.5/10

Sound : Brilliant use of sound, very captivating and grim. 9.5/10

Gameplay : Addictive and gory pleasure. The action will keep you going. 9/10

Presentation : When everything comes into places, Dead Space 2 is one of the best action title this gen. 10/10

Overall: 9.5/10

PS: Here's some scenes from others' opinions. Lol

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jri8LFci4xQ&feature=list_related&playnext=1&list=SPA8D6BCA0A537750D

Apocalypse now?? No, man... Relax..

Is it just me or the number of "Nubuat nabi / mahzab Tuhan / anak kambing berkaki enam / Kiamat telah dekat" spams have been rising since the riot in Egypt? They are annoying, disturbing and unnecessary. If you see one, DON'T pass it around like a chain message or encourage it. That will not do any good, other than stir discomfort in whoever is reading it and dumb enough to believe it.

Quick advertisement.. My drawing

People have already predicted the end of the world ever since the topic is equivalent to 15 minutes of fame, even the famous (hoax) Nostradamus did it. Now a simple question: how many of those so-called prophets with their so-called visions / revelations / predictions actually succeed in predicting the end of the world? Maybe five.. or three of them? Hard question indeed.. Quick hint: we are still here.

Here's some quick funny read on apocalypse seers' predictions

http://pjmiller.wordpress.com/2009/09/25/a-list-of-failed-predictions-of-the-end-of-the-world/

Why are people so fixated on the end of the world? Is it because the idea is so global and universal? Because finally the human race is united in one titanic event? Screw those psychological craps. The world is not finish f*cking with us yet. You want a fast ticket out of here, but too pussy to commit suicide and hoping that the world will end. Sorry mate, not that easy.

Norde's idea of apocalypse.. Better than most, no?

I know end of the world is described in many large religions, The Book of Revelation for Christianity, the acceptance of end of time for Muslim, even the Kalachakra tantra in Budhist somehow point out to a massive change in the world as we know. I understand and highly respect the religions value, but keep in mind that religion is a private matter. It's not a reason to trigger mass paranoia. The world will end someday, even science predicts that sun will go out eventually, but it's still a long way. I highly doubt that it will happen in our lifetime.

Say that it really does happens, the Four Horsemen really descend and hell (and also some other nasty stuffs) follow them, so what? It will happen regardless we make a fuss about it or just apathetic about it. If it's truly inevitable what's the point in screaming and kicking? Might as well enjoy the view before a meteor, a flood, Y3K, some other dark cold oblivion happen. Hey, if your place got hit first make sure to record it and post it on Youtube before you pass. It will beat Justin Bieber's video for sure. :P

Would you prefer this...

Or this....

or maybe this?

Have you heard of Jim Jones? He was a charismatic leader of People Temple, a cult or a church founded originally to provide clairvoyance for people and such. He stated up okay, like providing soup kitchen for the poor, community services and many other social businesses. The he steadily gained more money from his flock and decided to move the entire church to Guyana, South America and created Jonestown, a utopia. At this point, he was already greedy and aimed solely for money and what not, he's a bit.. odd, to say the least. He charged the flock their social security number, saving etc.

Then in November 18th, 1978. He decided that the world was not pure any more and came up with a brilliant plan, off with every ones' head. Then he initiated perhaps the worst mass suicide on America's history. He encouraged his flock to first poison their children with cyanide and then proceed to kill themselves. Strangely, the flock was already so enticed by him that they actually did just that. 918 people relinquished their lives on a single day.

Outstanding human's stupidity

There is a lesson to be had here. We need to digest the information we received intelligently, rationally and slowly determined the validity of it. I've seen inet messages that said "This message has been going from 1943 and you will get a fortune if you send it to 15 people, don't let it break or you die" or "Don't see this message, if you do, you have to send it to 10 people, put your hand up your ass, if not, you die the next Friday". If you believe this type of thing, from now on, say Bullshit to whoever sent those to you.

There is practically no human wise enough to determine the future of other, let alone a group of people or even predict the end of the world. Be wise, keep your cool and slowly interpret information that come your way. If the world is really ending, hold your head high proudly and face it with a smile. You won't be lonely, six billion other people will accompany you to the other side.

Enslaved Review

Awhile ago a developer called Ninja Theory announced brand new Dante (the emo one), so just to better measure how ruined that can be, I've played Enslaved, a game from the same developer. This game is intriguing, because it uses one of the most despicable aspect of gaming; escort mission and manages to make it engaging while preventing it to be cumbersome. Yup, the whole game is practically one giant escort mission.

Btw I do have a drawing, but the file is corrupted for some reason. I'll try to fix it and post in next time.

Enslaved is one of those underrated and unappreciated games, mostly due to the fact it was released in major competitions such as Halo: Reach, Fallout: New Vegas and Black Ops. Talk about bad timing, it does reminds me of Threads of Fate, a good game but released in 1999 along with a dozen RPGs. But don't let it distract you, Enslaved is not an epic tale of saving the universe, but the characters' chemistry and development works wonderfully.

The story is heavily influenced (read rip-off) by the Sun Go Kong tale, Journey to The West. I bet we all know about it, since it's more famous in Asia. There are some differences though, the setting is post apocalypse, mostly New York rather than China or India and the enemies take the form of mechs. The hero is Monkey, rightfully named so, a big brute powerhouse with demeanor like, what else, a monkey. At the start of the game, he was locked in a slaver's ship and by fate or coincidence, it was hijacked by Trip, a sexy tech whiz. They somehow escaped together when the ship crashed. Realizing that she wouldn't survive alone, Trip put a slave headband on Monkey when he passed out, hence the title Enslaved.

To be fair, you could do a lot worse than being enslaved by this chick

Aforementioned headband serves not only for story, but it's a neat trick for the gameplay as well. It gives you the HUD and any info Trip scanned will appear in-game. It also provides a death link between the two, if Trip dies, so is Monkey. Through almost the entire game, you will need to make sure Trip survive the journey. Monkey is well versed in combat and exploration, think of it like a platformed action game with a bit strategy game. Monkey will be able to climb, jump and traverse the ruined world, a bit similar to PoP without the wall run, and the way he moves with his sash flailing about certainly describes a more primal movement.

There is stealth element involved that can make the travel easier, but in case that doesn't work, he can also engages the enemies in combat, it is quiet simple but works. He has the usual basic light attacks that can be mixed with heavy attacks, there are also more damaging charged attack and focused attack thrown in the mix or later in the game. His staff can also deliver plasma and stun to reach annoying ranged enemies. While the combat is not as deep as other action titles such as Bayonetta or DMC, it fits and quiet thrilling.

For a bulky muscle dude, Monkey moves with good agility.

If the whole escort mission daunted you, rest assure. Trip is not the usual burden type, she is quiet useful. She can create a hologram to distract enemies, uses EMP when she is in danger and also upgrades your stats. Across the game, it's rare that Trip will be a nuisance. She does however, needs your assist in reaching more elaborate terrains, but compare to Ashley and Sheva from RE 4 & 5 respectively, she is an angel.

The visual in the game is simply marvelous to behold. Post-apocalypse world has never look so good, a far cry from the normal plain or barren environment, Enslaved world is one with lustrous plants creeping about after years of thriving without humans' interference. It has some great artistic value to better the mood, from the subtle hints of passing civilization or shimmering sunset. They are beautiful to say the least. Although there are some awkward movement when Trip climbs or other clunky enemies' animation, they clipped sometimes, but it's just minor occasional distraction.

Thumbs up for the art direction

Sound is consistent enough throughout the game. The dubbing for the main chars are good, Monkey sounds like a sort of familiar Vin Diesel but with more crude voice. Trip has soft voice and the artist delivers well on more dramatic moments, she sounds completely believable. Soundtracks are good, it has moody despair vibe to it that matches the setting, add with some playful or serenade ballad tone, it works well with the game's theme.

The main draw of the game is the story of these chars when they are traveling together, while it's a bit linear, only occasion beaten paths to collect tech orbs. Playtime should takes about ten hours give or take, it's not that long, but it's a journey worthy of your time.

This basically sums up your journey

Graph : Beautifully rendered world and fluid motion, with a little odd movement. 8.5/10

Gameplay : A mix of platform, combat and stealth. A bit simple but still fun. 8/10

Sound: Interesting vocal, moody ambient noise makes the journey believable. 8/10

Presentation : Well told story, great characters in a brilliant setting, although a bit short. 8.5/10

Overall : 8.3/10

Plastic Surgery. Create Your Own You

Do you like K-Pop? Chances are they are not original spare parts any more. When flashy looks is more important by the day, it's not a surprise to see various artists used plastic surgery. I'm not by any way judging whether it's bad or not. It's one's own flesh, who has more rights to decide what they are going to do with it other than the said person themselves.

Time of traditional value is diminishing, it's not westerners who are concern of their looks any more. The rising on plastic surgery especially in Korean reflects consumers view of what is acceptable as pretty. There is a view which cute or pretty is what media dictated. If you don't look like the hot Korean chicks in magazines or TV, you are average. The industry demands gorgeous eye candies for a good reason: you like watching them.

If you want to look like this.. I understand

Well consider the cons of plastic surgery first : It's most likely expensive, it will hurt afterward and there could be after effects.

Now look at the pro : beauty of the flesh.

So hypothetically speaking, if it's free, will you do it? The pain will go away soon anyway and you might not have any side effects. It all comes down to the person in question whether they are secure about themselves or not. Plastic surgery itself is an improvement in medical department, the usage of it, it's an entire matter. Look at the numerous ads which advertise cute large anime-like eyes, just for a price of contact lenses.

For me those eyes seem abnormal, what is so special about large eyes anyway? There is actually an old paper about it, that anime eyes are inspired by general disposition of Easterners' squinty eyes. To compensate, they made anime version have ridiculously large eyes. If you ask me, forget the eyes, enlarge the boobs. If SNSD had boobs job, would they have more fans?

Come on now, she did it for your eyes..

It also marks the shift into more feminine look for both female and also male. To be frank, when I see some of the boy band from Korea, they look like sissy. Maybe I'm not qualified to make such statement seeing I'm not exactly the most masculine dude, but I sure as hell won't use thick make up and lipstick. The thing is they got tons of fans, especially females.

Now I have a theory, what is the most favorite thing women like to see. Please refrain from inappropriate thoughts. I think what female like to see is the reflection of herself. I don't mean in narcissistic kind of way, but normally which one post more photos and change profile picture in FB, male or female? It's all right, it's natural. Now when they see pretty boy, they associate it with beauty. The term itself is subjective, but when did the last time you see pop idol who looks muscular?

So natural beauty doesn't exist huh?

and attitude to boot..

By surgery, I don't mean specifically just in the face, but also another parts of the body. Boobs, sex change etc. We are living in real life MMORPG nowadays. And who could judge if they are wrong or not? If they are happy with it, why not? The old reply of "this is what God gave me" doesn't necessary work. When it's a private and intimate issue like one's body, we might need to look at broader range. I really don't think it's a solution, for it creates a destructive pattern and mindset, people value themselves less because they place themselves in stereotypes of what they think is beautiful.

While I don't condone it, nor do I condemned it, I certainly will not do it. I practically happy for who I am, thank you. That's it, I blabber enough.

One last thing to ponder. Ever play Mass Effect? Tali is cute, no? Her voice, her demeanor.. Ever think how she looks under the helmet? Do you even want to know..? Bioware aims for greatness here. A like-able female alien character with constant need to veil herself, can you see past the looks alone..? Never thought game could be so deep? For other devs.. TAKE NOTES!

Interesting video game character, not only without boobs job, but wearing a mask.. What an idea!

The consensus vote something like this

Fallout : New Vegas Review

After Fallout 3, I was convinced that this franchise is one of the best RPG to date. Only 2 years afterward, Bethesda released Fallout : New Vegas, what could look like an immersive open world turned out to be a bug ridden experience. It's in no way that bad, but it sure needs more unnecessary patient to enjoy.

Oh, no drawing this week, I'm trying to find info on digital drawing (photoshop) and better tools for traditional one, like better color pencils and such.

Fallout : New Vegas is actually pretty great game. The scale is vast and hundreds of places with hundreds of highly interactive NPC. It uses the same engine as Fallout 3 and quite frankly it feels outdated. Two years ago, it might looks okay and in some scenes, the environments are epic, but looking at the doll-like character expression feels awkward now. Okay maybe because my last game is FF13, so the gorgeous graph still lingers in my memory vividly, but there are numerous games that can top the graph easily.

The story opens up with a bang.. to your head, literally. You are a courier for Strip and midway you got ambushed by a checkered guy and some thugs. Then start the journey to find them with Mojave Wasteland as your setting. The world is large and can be daunting at first, it needs dozens of hours to see everything. Two main faction of New Vegas are NCR, the more nationality soldier type and Legion, practically a bunch of savage They are toe-to-toe on claiming Vegas territory and you'll find their members scatter across the wasteland.

It still quiet good, but not as impressive as two years ago.

For a game that depends on the size of the world, Fallout New Vegas doesn't disappoint. The game offers many diversity on choosing how you approach many situation. Tons of side quests to be had and multiple ways to complete them really give player a freedom for their actions. Choose carefully whether you want to help or attack someone, or a group. Every decision contribute on how well you are received by the community, this actually add depth and realistic behavior to the tone of the game.

Gameplay remains unchanged from Fallout 3. You either use first person view or third person (not recommended) and try to bring down your enemies with the aid of VATS which let you pause the game and aim a specific limb of your targets. The stats, skills and perks also make their returns. There is quiet deep customization of your character. Each stat contributes to many skills which then decide how good you are on a particular aspect. Speech skill might influence people easily, Guns skill provides better damage when you use handgun and such, while perks are additional bonus advantage that can be selected after a couple of level up or by special means.

There is also a Hardcore mode, which I chose, that give more detailed experience albeit it makes the game harder. You have to constantly check your food, sleep and water supply. Also there is limited ways to heal limb damage, stimpak won't heal it, only doctor can. This mode is not for the faint heart. I actually faltered a few times when going to more dangerous areas, although the main story line offers relatively safe path, at least nothing that can't be handle if you gain enough experience.

While it's not this bad, I've encountered many bugs since I played this.

From the sound department, it's good. Not the usual epic OST like in many other RPG, but the ambient noise and creeping silent actually help the compelling atmosphere. If you want to hear some tunes, the radio has several tracks to listen to. They are the usual '60 something classic songs, but they are not many so expect them to be replay on some occasions. Dubbing for the game is very good, characters deliver their lines with amazing personality. This helps tremendously when the animation of some characters are a bit stiff.

Now come the bad parts. It lags, more than it should. I don't remember Fallout 3 frame rate stall as much as this. There are also plenty bugs to deal with, from the glitching hands, the hovering characters, sometimes the enemies fall into the ground straight to oblivion etc. Maybe the technical doesn't support the ambition of such large world. Then the stupidity of the AI, it's almost given that at some points in the game, you will see NPC running around in the circle, the NPC who you should protect is suddenly possessed by some Spartan ghosts and decides to run head first to a team of six foes with grenades. Needless to say, they are awful.

The scope of the game is absurdly vast

Aside from the weirdness of AI, the animation or the movement of the characters is not smooth. For some reason they feel weightless, more like a floating human rather than ones who actually have gravitational and weight effect. One time, I saw an NPC walk to a wall and didn't even know that he stuck. All these minor impractical bugs and glitches can lead to frustrating gameplay and take the immersion away. It appears any good things about this game is accompanied by at least some sort of malfunction.

Ultimately Fallout New Vegas can be daunting on the prospect of its size alone, not to mention the bugs that plagued it. For Fallout or Oblivion fans, it's certainly worth it, but other gamers might be put off by the aforementioned hindrance. It's a shame really, once you got past the swarming bugs, there is a great game to be found here. It just demands gamers to be forgiving of its shortcoming. Beautiful but flawed. 8/10