College Kings: Act 1

Looking at my blog analytics, I noticed that most of my views come from my Being A DIK review, which proves that I’ve somehow captured the attention of an audience of horny wankers who are trying to figure out if BaDIK can do a good job of getting them off. Goddammit y’all. As such, it is now my duty to get you up to speed on how good/bad the other fap games are in comparison. And that brings us all to this review of College Kings: Act 1 [just gonna be abbreviating it to CK from here on].

College Kings is an adult VN designed by Undergrad Steve, a Patreon creator. The game begins with the MC Nomad [standard practice of naming my MCs “Nomad” shall never change] getting admitted to San Vallejo College, and the game begins on the first day of college, where we get driven to the college by our mom, Julia; because apparently she isn’t going to miss out on her chance of embarrassing us in front of the entire college. Thanks mom. To throw in a bit of backstory, Nomad has been cheated on by his ex-girlfriend Emily and as the chad we are, we have broken up with the cheating ho. But now, she hasn’t been able to make it into the Ivy League colleges, and so we’ll be seeing more of her at SV. Not a happy turn of events [or is it?].

Right as Nomad gets off at his college and is lugging his suitcase up the staircase of the main building, he knocks into Cameron, who wastes no time in being an absolute prick and threatens to beat Nomad up. Thankfully, a girl Autumn comes to our rescue and tells him off. On the way to our dorm, while in conversation with her, we find out more about the college frats and sororities; the Deers and Chicks for the sororities and the Frogs, Apes and Wolves for the frats. Also, Autumn is the president of the Deers. Nice. Moving on.

We attend our first class, and make our first friends in Lauren, Riley and Ryan. Lauren is a pretty girl, if a little on the plain side, and happens to be Autumn’s younger sister. Meanwhile, Ryan is pitching us the possibility of joining the Apes, however Nomad has no interest in fighting anybody; girls or not. Lauren agrees, as she is not one to like the idea of fighting. Overall, the only good thing about the opening class is the teacher who’s hot. That’s about it.

We get to our dorm and meet our roomie, Imre, who’s already super stoked about pledging the Wolves. Apparently there’s a huge rivalry between the Apes and the Wolves with the Summer Showdown events: both frats have won 5 each in the last 10 years. And his elder brother was the winner of the Summer Showdown twice, back when he was still in college. Or “Fight King” as people refer to the winners. But why does Imre really want to pledge the Wolves? Cuz obviously, fighters get girls, duh. Honestly, seems like a pretty good reason to pledge either of the frats. And Frogs is the nerd frat, so no way we’re getting in there. Not when there’s pussy on the line.

I’m not going to reveal too much more of how the plot progresses, but Nomad does have the opportunity of joining either the Apes or the Wolves towards the later section of the game, and that would change the storyline entirely from one track to the other. Pro tip: save on the screen before you make your frat choice. This choice also affects the girls you can pursue later on in the game.

This chick gonna make you nut like a mofo, watch out.

The gameplay is quite similar to how Being A DIK works, with you clicking around on the free roam sections, and choice-based dialogue. An extra thing here is how the dialogue you choose alters your KCT [key character trait] status between Popular, Confident and Loyal; these statuses can affect how you’re perceived by the girls, and help in furthering your relationships or make them impossible. For example, to pursue Lauren in the game, you’d need the KCT Loyal status, while if you wanna bang Chloe, the hottest chick in the game, you’d need the KCT Popular status ideally [even though it’s not 100% necessary].

Another special feature to CK is the fights: you’re there to be Fight King after all! The controls for the fights are quite simple, but on the hardest difficulty you’d have to be super quick to defend and attack the opponent effectively, depending on their motions. In case you want to avoid the exercise of fighting, you can choose to have the fight auto-complete via simulation, but I wouldn’t recommend it.

The plot of the game is pretty good overall, it has a fair amount of “Never Back Down” vibe to it [the 2008 movie in which Amber Heard was hot as sin, way before all the bs with Johnny Depp] which fits right in with the game overall. The character animations are top-of-the-line, on par with BaDIK I would say, except for the MC himself. Again, it’s just my opinion here, but I believe the MC could have been designed better. The hot girls look HOT, what else do we want? Meanwhile, the sex scenes are decently animated, but not the best. Some of the animations end a bit jarringly, but overall I was satisfied with them [in more ways than one]. Great fap material; Aubrey is crazy as hell, always bang her. See? Another pro tip for you guys.

The game length comes to around 4-5 hours, but then there is tremendous replay value here, especially with the Apes/Wolves choice we have to make, which adds an hour’s worth of gameplay easily, if not more. It is especially a great deal, considering College Kings: Act 1 is free.

FREE.

Let this sink in for a minute, before you storm their Steam page and install the game off there. Also, Act 2 of the game was just released a couple days ago [June 4], which costs like $4. It’s a deal, it’s a steal, it’s the sale of the fucking century. This is how a character from Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels would put it, if he came across this info. Sick film by the way, but I digress.

RATING: 9/10

PROS:

– interesting KCT implementation
– really well-drawn characters, on par with Being a DIK imo
– Never Back Down vibes

CONS:
– sex scene animations are sometimes a bit off

ACTING LESSONS

There are games you play because they have great combat mechanics, some because of the vast, beautiful environments you can explore and some others which have excellent storytelling. Acting Lessons isn’t a game you’d play because of any of those things. Not at the outset, anyway. Because it’s an 18+, adult VN. Basically, you play AL to, you know, relieve some stress, if you know what I mean. If any of you guys read my Being A DIK review, you’d notice I literally copypasta-ed the opening from there and changed the name of the game.

This VN was DrPinkCake’s OG gem, which catapulted him into adult VN creators’ hall-of-fame, kind of. I hope such a thing exists; but I digress. If you have already played BaDIK before this, you might find the character animations and rendering to be somewhat on the lower end, but that’s only to be expected. Even so, AL’s character renders are still miles ahead of most of the competition. By now, I’ve played my fair share of adult VNs, and even though 2.5 years have passed since AL released, it still is in the upper-tier in this matter.

AL starts off with the protagonist Nomad [again] moving into a new city to begin his life anew, after a bad breakup that leaves him heartbroken. But then, one the very first day, when we go to a local grocery store to buy, well, groceries, Nomad happens to be the unfortunate bystander of a robbery carried out at gunpoint. Nomad gets knocked out and has to be hospitalized. At least, the grocery store clerk, Megan comes by the hospital to check on Nomad, so I guess it wasn’t all bad after all? We also end up making a new acquaintance in the form of Leah, the hospital nurse who is taking care of us. We also get to meet our best friend from back in the day, Liam, who’s an awesome dude. DrPinkCake writes great best-friend characters I must say.

Unfortunately for Megan, after the robbery incident, the grocery store manager ends up firing her from the job, leaving her with no way of funding her dream: becoming an actress. On a rainy evening, Megan comes to Nomad’s door to stay for a night, as she gets thrown out of her lodging too as she’s in no position to pay the rent money that was due. Nomad offers to help her out by letting her stay over at his place, until she sorts out her finances. We get to hang out with Megan’s best friend, Melissa [and more, heh heh] along the way, and one day Megan invites us to join her acting lessons, just for fun. Over there Nomad gets to meet Rena, a hot af blue-haired babe. If I speak more about the story, I’d be spoiling too much AND doing it a disservice too. Suffice to say it’s worth checking out.

This is a beach episode of a harem anime now. Perfect, I’m not complaining.

Somehow, even though Acting Lessons is a game you’d play to jack-off to hot sex scenes, the plot is actually the strongest point of the game. Animations are pretty good but as I iterated before, they aren’t the absolute best; especially if you’re coming off of the high of Being A DIK’s renders. However, character development is way more mature than one might ascribe to adult VNs. I would venture to say it is better than BaDIK’s plot easily. The soundtrack is really well-suited to the scenes playing out in the foreground, improving the immersion levels. Gameplay is again kinda basic most of the time, with the game mostly making you click through conversations. However, some of the choices you have to make influence the meat of the storyline quite heavily, where you choose to go out with one girl while rejecting the other, and whatnot. This will make you create a pile of save files which you might want to revisit later on.

The game length is pretty good: an easy 12-14 hours of gameplay here. And even this game costs like $4 on Steam at the moment, so this is pretty much a steal. Absolute must-buy of a game. Just, heed my advice and don’t open this game while in the living room; you’ll have to get creative with your explanations when your mum’s asking pointed questions.

P.S.: Megan is bae.

RATING: 9/10

PROS:
– brilliant plot
– Liam is a great dude
– great sex scenes

CONS:
– animations might feel a bit dated when compared to newer VNs

THE MEDIUM

It has been ages since I last played a horror game. In fact, the last horror game I played was F.E.A.R. back in 2017, and I barely made it through that without pissing my pants. After that, I totally swore off all horror games, and decided to stick to something more likely to keep my sanity.

OK no, the last horror game I played was Outlast [also back in 2017], that terrifying game which I played for a whopping half hour before I went, “screw this, I’m out”. That was way too hard on my nerves, and that totally kept me from even glancing in the direction of the horror genre. Until three days ago, when I came across The Medium and decided to try it out. To cut a long story short, go play this, amazing game.

The Medium starts off with the main character Marianne, a 25-30 yr old woman in Poland, narrating events to somebody seated opposite her as to how her situation came to be. “It all starts with a dead girl…” Her story begins with the death of Jack, her foster father who ran a funeral home. Now it is Marianne’s turn to go through the appropriate procedures to cremate Jack. However, just after this happens, the lights go out, and eerie stuff begins to happen. Marianne goes into Jack’s office to see what the commotion was, and gets hit with a literally mind-splitting headache where she goes over into the spirit dimension and meets Jack. She helps him pass on into the afterlife, and this is how the game shows us an important aspect of The Medium: Marianne is a spirit medium and uses her powers to help the dead pass on.

A few minutes after this happens, she receives a call from a man named Thomas from Niwa Workers’ Resort for help from a spirit medium. He somehow seems to know about Marianne’s abilities, even though her being a medium has been a closely-guarded secret. When Marianne tries to pass it off as a prank caller, Thomas hits her with the above quote “It all starts with a dead girl”, which refers to a recurrent dream Marianne has been plagued by for years. This is when Marianne realizes that the call wasn’t a prank after all, and metaphorically speaking, shit was about to get real. If nothing else, this was an opportunity Marianne had to find out about her forgotten past, and she wasn’t going to let it slip through her hands. This is how the game starts off, and from here onwards, the entirety of the game takes place in the aforementioned Niwa Resort, a deserted, desolate estate with everything falling apart, interspersed with wild nature.

Gameplay is quite similar to what one would expect from an exploration-based game, rather than something action-packed. Marianne can either walk or jog along, that’s about as far as movement goes. Other than that, there are some puzzle-solving aspects in the game where you interact with / pick up objects to be used elsewhere. Also, you get to pick up letters lying all over the place [a la Alan Wake], which flesh the story out with each letter you read, or news article you peruse. You can also use something called Insight, where Marianne can reach through to the history of certain objects and play back audio of certain events these objects might be associated to. All in all, this gameplay style is a good fit, as it allows you to take in more of the environment.

And now to the head-splitting headache part. There are occasions where Marianne has these episodes where she can simultaneously be both in the physical and astral plane at the same time, and this is rendered effectively through split-screen gameplay. If you want your character to not move in the physical plane but only in the astral plane, you can make Marianne focus on her powers through a simple key-press; this serves the purpose of allowing Marianne to get to places that would otherwise be unreachable. This also serves the other purpose of dropping your frame-rates to disgustingly low levels, despite my jacked-up rig which handled the bug-ridden mess of a game that was Cyberpunk 2077 almost effortlessly on max settings. Anyways, a lot of puzzles in the later stages of The Medium make good use of this ability of Marianne’s.

The physical/astral plane split.

The only issue regarding gameplay is the camera angles used: the game isn’t exactly played from a typical third-person perspective, but more on the lines of Heavy Rain, where you control your character from a certain distance away. As such, some of the camera angles get wonky and the character occasionally gets stuck running into random obstacles in a way that shouldn’t make sense. But this gameplay design has the benefit of making the players take in more of the environment, which was likely the aesthetic that was prominent in the designers’ minds. That certainly is a solid choice, seeing as the game is not too action-heavy but is more of atmospheric horror, as well as allowing the game to show off its amazing artwork and graphics. The Niwa Resort hotel building looks proper dilapidated and deserted, and simultaneously scary and beautiful. That’s a solid contrast with how the estate looks, with rusted vehicles lying around, abandoned camping tents and wild, uncontrolled nature. The yin to the yang, as it were.

If you’re still reading this, then I’d say thanks for the support and go get this beauty of a game. The plot is amazingly well-done. It has some of the horror tropes like communicating with spirits and desolate resorts for sure, but the game does spin some of them on their heads. The end result is something quite unexpected and wonderful, as such I highly recommend this. Definitely not for the faint of heart, but I guess I’m back to playing some horror at long last.

RATING : 8.7/10

PROS :
– Amazing story
– Atmosphere and environment
– Physical/Astral splits are brilliantly done

CONS :
– fps drops during the physical/astral splits
– occasionally bad camera angles

P.S. : Get Even was the last horror game I actually played. I even have the review uploaded on here. Well shit, I guess all the story-telling at the start was a wasted effort at, well, story-telling.

Being A DIK [SEASON 1]

There are games you play because they have great combat mechanics, some because of the vast, beautiful environments you can explore and some others which have excellent storytelling. Being A DIK isn’t a game you’d play because of any of those things. Not at the outset, anyway. Because it’s an 18+, adult VN. Basically, you play BaDIK to, you know, relieve some stress, if you know what I mean. All thanks to a friend of mine who played BaDIK first, then let me know it was a must-play.

The first season of BaDIK comprises of the first four episodes released by the creator DrPinkCake, who has another VN to his name called Acting Lessons [which I’ll cover in another review]. BaDIK is his second such work. And you can really see how much effort has gone into rendering the characters in the game, which is apparent almost immediately upon getting into the game. That is, unless this is your first adult VN, in which case a lot of the effort might be lost in translation. At the point of writing this review, I have played a few such games, and I must admit that BaDIK has the absolute best character animations and rendering.

The game starts off with the protagonist Nomad [that’s what I named him] just getting accepted into the B&R College. Nomad is equal parts nervous and excited about this new phase in his life, and he goes and shares this news with Josy, a co-worker at the grocery store he’s working part-time at. Unfortunately, Josy hasn’t managed to get into the college, but you still do go out with her to celebrate your acceptance. Due to certain circumstances, Josy rejects your advances [plot spoilers which I won’t reveal], and you leave dejected from your town, to enroll at college. And this is where the whole shitshow begins. You get into a fight with the jocks, you make friends with a crazy shirtless guy called Derek, and start meeting new girls at college, starting with Maya, a hot blonde. And this is just the beginning. TLDR: Crazy shit starts happening from hereon, with everything on overdrive.

For a game you start up just to jack off to, the plot is surprisingly good here. Granted, it is a somewhat exaggerated college-life story where you get to bang a load of hot chicks day in and day out, but putting the self-gratification aside, the effort that went into the story is quite telling. What starts off as a simplistic college-life plot begins to turn into something more, with the players rooting for certain characters and hating some others quite soon, a sure sign of getting into the game. Meanwhile, the gameplay is basic but gets the job done. It’s mostly a whole lot of clicking through conversations and narration, with some epic soundtrack blasting away in the background.  You can scroll back to get to a previous part of the conversation, and depending on how far you scroll back, that far backwards you can go. There are also some optional minigames you can play on the protagonist’s cell to unlock extra lewd renders, as well as some minigames as a part of the main story too [Math and English tests, beer drinking etc.]. But then, you do have to make certain choices which influence how the story progresses. For instance, Episode 4 of BaDIK can play out 3 significantly different ways, depending on what choice you make.  As such, there is incentive to save often, just to try out different choices to witness new outcomes in the story.

But yeah, enough about gameplay and plot. Now for the real shit: girls. As I mentioned already, the animations are the best I’ve seen in any adult VNs. And of course, this translates to really well-animated, lifelike characters. AKA totally hot/cute girls all around [not to discredit the animations on male characters]. The still images are really well-drawn, and the sex scenes are done well too. Well enough to get you off, at the very least. Meanwhile, the hair effects especially look like Tomb Raider games’ TressFX on overdrive; that’s how well done it is. You may consider me delusional for that statement, but whatever. Here’s a sample right below, for you to be able to confirm/deny my claim. Maybe it is easier to draw hair in pre-rendered scenes, as opposed to programming its movement in a dynamic game like Tomb Raider. I don’t know for sure, I don’t design games after all.

And not just that, each character has their own mannerisms and quirks, which make them all memorable. For instance, there’s Quinn, who’s absolute bonkers to deal with, Jill [the girl on the main image] is this super-rich girl who’s down-to-earth and Arieth… well, suffice to say she’s just Arieth. You’ll know what I mean if/when you start playing the game and get well into it. And Derek. He’s the absolute madlad, probably the best character of the game. What a guy.

All in all, I absolutely recommend this totally family-friendly game which you can play on the main TV with your parents and sibling and have a bonding time together. Well actually, don’t do that. That is, play on the main TV with your parents and siblings around. Unless it is totally fine in your family to jack off in presence of other family members. In that case, you got some bigger issues to resolve, you sickos.

But yeah, do check this amazing VN out. Season 1 is a good 8-10 hours long, so suffice to say there is quite a bit to look forward to when you pick up this game. It sells on Steam for around $5 last I checked; the game is a total steal at this dirt-cheap price, especially when we get those same old recycled AAA games with fractionally improved graphics for $50-60. It also has some of the sickest background score I’ve heard in a game, with the score shifting from melancholic blues to aggressive rock/metal depending on the scene playing out.

In case you haven’t received the message I conveyed above, it’s this: just go buy the damn game already. You’ll be doing yourself a favor. Also, do support the guy DrPinkCake if you can on Patreon. He’s presently busy making the Season 2 of the game; Episode 5 is already out, with Episode 6 soon to release, if my calculations are correct.

RATING: 9.5/10

PROS:
– best animation/renders of all the adult VNs
– background score
– good plot
– memorable characters
– great sex scenes

CONS:
– sometimes the soundtrack switches up jarringly upon scrolling backwards in time

Fantasy/Sci-Fi Series I’ve Completed

1. J K Rowling – Harry Potter
2. Steven Erikson – The Malazan Book of the Fallen [my favorite]
3. Glen Cook – The Black Company
4. Joe Abercrombie – The First Law [haven’t read the standalones yet]
5. Mark Lawrence – The Broken Empire
6. Daniel Polansky – Low Town
7. Teresa Frohock – Los Nefilim
8. Cixin Liu – The Three Body Problem
9. Douglas Adams – The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy
10. Leigh Bardugo – Six of Crows
11. Victoria Schwab – Monsters of Verity
12. Ian C Esslemont – Path to Ascendancy
13. Steven Erikson – The Kharkanas Trilogy [waiting for the final book]
14. George R R Martin – A Song of Ice and Fire* [I rate it 5/7]
15. Yoon Ha Lee – The Machineries of Empire
16. Patrick Rothfuss – The Kingkiller Chronicle*
17. Mark Lawrence – The Red Queen’s War
18. John Gwynne – The Faithful and the Fallen
19. Martha Wells – The Murderbot Diaries*

It has now been a while (5+ years now, come to think of it) since I’ve started reading fantasy books, and I have realized I prefer more of epic military fantasy type of books, as well as some theorycrafting type of sci-fi works a la The Three-Body Problem and Starmaker.

Image : Itkovian by Merlkir, Malazan Art Guild, DeviantArt

TATE NO YUUSHA NO NARIAGARI [2019]

The only thing I hate about Tate no Yuusha no Nariagari is that I have to wait a week for each episode. Goddammit.

The story starts off in a more-or-less familiar way of a regular gamer/otaku getting sucked into another world, which operates in a similar way to an MMO game world; similar mechanics and stuff, involving grinding levels and whatnot. The thing is, the protagonist Naofumi Iwatami is summoned into this alternate world as, you guessed it, the Shield Hero, who’s supposed to be one of the four main heroes with the power to save the world from the enemy Waves [extremely powerful monsters showing up in waves to destroy the world]. Unfortunately, he’s unable to equip an actual weapon as they’re incompatible with his shield, and is stuck with the two possibilities of either fighting the wild creatures with his bare hands, or relying on his party members for damage.

Within a day though, the Shield Hero has become the object of disgrace in the entire kingdom, due to the deceitful rape accusations brought forth by his party member Myne [a hot chica who’s cancer… learn something from goddess Chika ffs]. Cast out by his fellow heroes and society and unable to fight monsters because of his shield, he has to carve out his own future, however he can. He’s been pushed to the point where he has to have slaves in his party, to actually make progress.

This is the moment Naofumi knew…he fucked up. Somehow.

I haven’t watched many isekai anime; in fact the only good one I’ve seen until now has been No S2 No Life So Fuck My Life. But boy, am I glad to see a new anime challenge the traditional isekai tropes… Naofumi the protagonist, as the vilified Hero is brilliantly written, and all the bs he has to put up with is something one can empathize with, especially with the current social situation being as it is. What with the whole #metoo movement which has now turned into a witch hunt and outrage culture, Tate no Yuusha really drives home the point. The way he acts is quite probably the way I myself would, if I was put in an identical position.

Art style seems mainstream fare for me, although that in no way demeans it; but I wouldn’t say it’s god-tier either. Same with the background music, in my opinion. They are both serviceable, but it’s no One Punch Man or Mob Psycho 100 where we’re watching the show both for the antics of the characters AND the incredible art style.

I’m loving how the relationship has been developing between Naofumi and his “slave” Raphthalia at present; can’t wait to see what the anime does with it. Yeah, this anime has slavery in it. Some fodder material for SJWs who enjoy talking shit without grasping the full facts. I hope there is more controversy over the show, cuz controversy would in turn drive up the anime’s popularity, and I’d love for Tate no Yuusha to be watched even more.

I’m actively looking forward to how the anime develops in the coming episodes.

RATING : 9.6/10

PROS :
– well-made characters
– pacing
– cool OP
– underdog protagonist

CONS :
– art style isn’t anything special

 

GLASS [2019]

“First name Mister, last name Glass.” This is Samuel L Jackson, back at it, baby!!!

Glass is the final movie of the trilogy that started off with Unbreakable which was a pretty good film, followed by Split, a film which I personally wasn’t a great fan of, however nobody can deny James McAvoy’s acting prowess regarding that. Kevin and his 22 other personas, with the 23rd being a mythical beastmode version; now that was an epic reveal right there. With Glass, M Night Shyamalan takes the series to its conclusion[?] . Let’s see where it leads.

The film starts off with Kevin kidnapping four more college girls [they’re still dressed in their cheerleader stuff, interestingly enough] ; on the other end of the city we have David Dunn [played by Bruce Willis, as you ought to know] searching for Kevin all over Philadelphia with his son’s help, in search of the abductor. Bu where in heaven’s name is Glass? That’s the question plaguing us all. Anyways, after a fight between David and Goliath [aka The Beast] , they both end up getting caught by the police for their activities and taken away to a psychiatric hospital. Here is where the main female protagonist of the film comes in, in he form of Dr. Ellie Staple played by Sarah Paulson.  She specializes in the field of psychiatry which deals with people who suffer from illusions of grandeur, specifically those who believe they possess superpowers. Her goal : to cure the two of their mental illnesses by helping them identify the roots of their problems; awareness is the cornerstone of treatment after all. Oh, if she only had the slightest inkling of reality… And here in the hospital, is where we come face-to-face with Dr. Elijah Price/ Mr.Glass, who’s now in a comatose state, or at least something very near to it.

So basically, you have one guy who’s a vegetable more or less, and two guys who are waiting for the first chance to have another go at each other and settle the fight once and for all, all of them locked up in the same building. What could go wrong, huh? I’ll just leave the storytelling part here, as revealing more of the story would be detrimental to the reader’s enjoyment of the film. Suffice to say it is a very… interesting film, especially when it comes to mind that Glass is supposed to be the final film of the series.

The plot is not too complicated; what lends the film its complexity is the three main characters. Sorry, I mean the 24 + 2 main characters; one must give McAvoy his due. Coming back to the main characters, Bruce Willis, James McAvoy and Samuel L Jackson do an amazing job reprising their roles from the prequels. Bruce Willis’ role as David Dunn comes off as a nuanced portrayal of a man who’s lost his wife, on the run from the law and saddled with vigilante-like responsibilities. And James McAvoy is either a crazy guy or an absolute master of the art; I can’t decide which, either way he is clearly the Beast of the film.

However, it is the film titled after Mr.Glass after all; the man with a hundred fractures because of his medical condition. One would think how being fragile would make somebody a superhero-esque persona; well, he has a mind for many things. Just watch Unbreakable, and you’ll know. Let’s just leave it at that, for now. But only Samuel L Jackson can make a bearded old man in a wheelchair look like a badass. He does that, and how!

When you mess up, big time.

Sarah Paulson as the psychiatrist Dr. Ellie gets on the viewer’s nerves constantly, but that weirdly serves to elevate the film’s tension, as you clearly know Dr. Ellie has no clue how much trouble she can get into, and you’re just waiting for the tension to reach the cusp, until it boils over into something insane taking place. However, the thing that couldn’t satisfy me really was the film’s endgame. I was anticipating something truly insane to take place in the climax, an epic showdown between the trio. Maybe I should blame it on them Marvel/DC films, but it felt more realistic and less epic in Glass. It’s as if the film created all this tension within me, but the release never came. Sort of like getting blueballed, I must say, as that is the closest analogy I can arrive at, at the present moment. It better be intentional, if Shyamalan has decided on this ending. I don’t have much really to say about the supporting cast; they were adequate but nothing out of this world; especially when compared alongside the main trio + Sarah Paulson. However, their roles weren’t all that fleshed out, so it isn’t even their acting that’s at fault now. I myself couldn’t care for any of them.

Overall, Glass as a film certainly gave me a greater thrill factor than most other films I’ve seen; however it seemed like the payoff in the end was not equivalent to that. But the acting has been splendid, far as the main trio is concerned. Unless you want to count James McAvoy 24 times, which you could do, like M Night Shyamalan did in the final credits. Somebody give McAvoy an acting award or three already!

RATING : 7.6/10

PROS :
– High tension
– Amazing acting by the lead trio
– Crazy final credits!

CONS :
– weak ending, at the outset
– supporting cast feels like an unnecessary add-on

LEAGUE OF LEGENDS : WORLDS 2017 WEEK 1 HIGHLIGHTS

I have been playing this godforsaken game for almost 2 years now[2 years!], even though it seems like only yesterday I started learning the basics with Ashe, feeding my arse off in Co-op vs AI games and soon after in normals. Anyways, I love watching pro players face off against each other in esports, and in League of Legends, nothing beats Worlds in this regard[LCK does come close though]. Let’s jump right into the highlights and surprises of the first week of Worlds, with each team getting 3 Best-of-1 matches against their group opponents.

The SKT T1 Comeback : SKT vs EDG, Group A

Considering they were last year Worlds winners, not to mention 3-time world champions now, it may not be surprising to see SKT topping their Group A standings at 3-0 presently. But it wasn’t an easy road to their destination; the game against EDG was especially difficult, with SKT falling behind by 10K gold at some point between 25-30 minutes, actually. But SKT is world champion for a reason; they held their nerve, let their Twitch ADC scale up gradually alongside Orianna.

                                                  Oh, you messed up big time EDG!

One positioning mistake by EDG at the 29-minute mark turned the tide; SKT Wolf on Rakan just flash-ulted 3 of the enemy team members, and this was followed by a 4-man Orianna Shockwave; Faker coming in during clutch situations as always. And nobody could even get close to Bang’s Twitch, who just spray-and-pray-ed the enemy to shreds, resulting in a 4 for 0 trade in SKT’s favor, allowing them to pick up a baron thereafter. This was the beginning of the comeback which allowed them more map control and objectives, and ultimately won them the game.

Level 6 in 5 minutes : GAM vs FNC, Group B

For those who have seen MSI 2017, Gigabyte Marines [GAM] would be one team to look forward to, with their off-meta picks, crazy strategies, chaotic early game and one hell of a jungler in Levi. And Fnatic is a team which has always been something of a crowd favorite on the international stage, which also specializes in some aggressive early-mid game playstyle. So, what happens when the two of them meet? Absolute chaos, of course!

The insanity began right in the team draft phase itself, with GAM locking in Nocturne jungle, a champion who has seen virtually no playtime in competitive play this year. Added to this was the level-1 laneswap initiated by GAM, sending Tristana and Lulu botlane duo top side and Galio to the bot side. Nocturne received the best leash ever, with Archie on Galio leashing for him at raptors, the bottom lane duo doing the same at the red buff, followed by a further Galio leash for all of the botside jungle camps. All of this accelerated the Nocturne jungle clear so much, he ended up hitting level 6 in 5 minutes, which Levi used to great effect, as he managed to kill 3 FNC members in a botside fight where GAM traded 3 kills for 2 deaths. This further snowballed Nocturne, who could now burst down anybody in teamfights whenever his ultimate[Paranoia] was up.

                                                              Level 6 already?

Meanwhile, Tristana was often left alone and she, with her amazing turret-killing abilities, managed to get turret gold on multiple turrets, not to mention free farm on many an occasion, enabling her to get ahead of the enemy Varus as well. All of this culminated in Tristana[Noway] getting a quadra-kill in a 2v5 fight, with the pentakill being stolen away by scumbag Optimus[on Kassadin] who, along with the other 2 members of GAM, arrived right at the end of the fight, and the game as well. Oh, and by the way, Lulu went heal+ignite this game, forgoing the safer option of Flash, cuz why not, eh?

The Rift Herald Dance : LZ vs FNC, Group B

Longzhu’s toplaner, Khan, is known to be the absolute best top laner in the LCK region right now, overshadowing even KT Smeb and AFS Marin[who was a part of SKT during their Worlds 2015 victory]. Not only that, he’s known to often pull out non-meta picks and win with them as well; for example, he picked Mordekaiser into AFS Marin’s Renekton, pretty crazy considering Mordekaiser not seeing much competitive play in the season[similar to GAM Levi’s Nocturne, in a sense]. This time, he sees FNC sOAZ pick up Maokai, and immediately proceeds to take Nasus, an unconventional pick, to say the least; however it is apparently a great counter to Maokai; I’m not a toplaner so I’m not well acquainted with top lane matchups.

Anyway, this game is one of the most clinical games ever played in competitive play, even; LZ beat FNC with a 5-0 scoreline at the end, in a span of just under 21 minutes, probably the fastest game in Worlds history, especially considering it was minimal on kills and consisted of brilliant map control. The events transpired so fast that LZ got to use the Rift Herald only at the FNC Nexus turrets, and it survived until LZ took down the enemy Nexus. This is the only condition under which  Rift Herald dances, and boy did it dance!

                                                  Rift Herald dance time!

Reckless [Rekkles] Flash, OH NOOOO! : FNC vs IMT, Group B

Fnatic and IMT are both teams which are pretty aggressive in their playstyles, so it was only inevitable that one would get to see some fireworks in the game as it went into late game; with both teams opting for late-game bot lanes[IMT Cody Sun on Kog’Maw and FNC Rekkles on Twitch], which has been the norm in this Ardent Censer-support meta.

FNC took the lead with an early 4-man dive on botlane, but IMT responded with a 3-man dive on top lane, both dives being successful. The game went back and forth throughout, with FNC sOAZ missing his Cho’Gath Feast on the baron at about the 24-minute mark, alongside the Jayce[IMT Flame] solokilling Lee Sin under a FNC botside turret which gave IMT a good break, offering them a way back into the game. However Rekkles on Twitch was a monster throughout, using his stealth effectively to try making some picks against IMT’s carries. But another botched fight later, IMT get yet another baron at 34:30, helping them to knock down more turrets of FNC.

It wasn’t nearly over, though. FNC Broxah[Lee Sin jungle] managed to steal away the elder dragon from IMT in a Smite battle, bringing the game back to even keel. Rekkles was the biggest threat on FNC, and an Elder Dragon on top of their two Infernals was going to spike their damage up several notches. IMT still manage to put up a good defense during the Elder dragon buff period. But at 49:43 mark, Rekkles seems to get a pick on IMT Pobelter’s Taliyah, and proceeds to all-in her. And then comes the misplay; Taliyah flashes away from Rekkles’ Twitch, and Rekkles flashes in after her. But Taliyah just ends up using her Zhonya’s Hourglass to survive, and her teammates follow up immediately; IMT Cody Sun on his Kog’Maw obliterates the fed Twitch even through a Lulu[FNC Jesiz] ultimate, and they kill the Lulu as well, and “swiftly” close out the 50-minute bloodbath of a game.

                            Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhh Gaaaaaaaawddddddddd!

So, what do we learn from all of this? To watch all the FNC games I guess, at least if you want to watch some crazy stuff; too bad they are stuck 0-3 at the bottom Group B. A final speciality of this Worlds is the Kalista permaban; what with the Ardent Censer-supports keeping the ADC alive throughout the extended fights, no team wanted to risk a situation where a Kalista ult ends up saving her support as well, keeping them both near-unkillable.

Will be back with another post at the end of next week, when the Group stage ends and we finally know which teams will be making it to the knockouts. See you all!

 

 

 

 

 

GET EVEN

I have always had something of a love-hate relationship with horror games. For example, I’m always excited to start up a new horror game, but then once I actually get down to playing it, I start getting way too tense and stuff; there have been times I just totally stopped playing a game just because I couldn’t handle the atmosphere; Amnesia : The Dark Descent and Outlast did that to me, among many others. I don’t even know how I managed to get to the end of F.E.A.R as well. So, with some trepidation, I booted up Get Even. Did I manage to complete it? Well, if I didn’t, I wouldn’t be writing this review, now, would I?

We play as the protagonist, Black, with almost no memories at all concerning recent events; the only thing he remembers is trying to save a teenage girl with a bomb strapped to her chest, and failing to rescue her. With a machine called the Pandora fixed to his head, Black tries to get back his memories, and in the process unravel the mystery of the girl. Throughout this journey Black is accompanied by a mysterious entity who calls himself “Red”. Who is this Red guy, and his Pandora tech? What is this abandoned asylum we’re stuck in? Especially considering it isn’t as abandoned as one would like to believe, with creepy, disturbing inmates for company? Lots of questions to start with, and no answers whatsoever. And thus we begin to go down the rabbit hole.

                                                  Goddamn spooky places…

Get Even is a first-person shooter game, so the first thing to deal with would be, how does the gameplay stand up? Well, I’m glad to say it holds up quite well, actually. It starts off as a traditional shooter fare, but with the difficulty ramped up a few notches more than usual. Enemies go down with 1-3 well-placed shots, but so do we. Stealthy gameplay is encouraged, and it is ideal to kill nobody along the way so as not to distort the memories we’re reliving. When we do have to go loud, the shooting mechanics hold up nicely. In addition, Black has a weapon called the CornerGun, one with the ability to, you guessed it, shoot around corners with the aid of a joint at the center of the weapon. With its help, one can chill in cover and still kill the enemies without poking our heads out, as often.

However, Black is more of a detective than a killing machine. For this purpose, he has a smartphone which is way smarter than the normal ones. It is equipped with myriad features such as an IR scanner and a UV device among others. The camera in the phone is also the chief way you get about gathering the required evidence, apart from reading newspaper cutouts and flyers lying around the place. Not just that, though; the camera also locates some irregularities in the memories, and can remove obstacles, put up new ones as cover, or open up shortcuts on the map. It also serves as Black’s gun scope when shooting up people. And at the end of the missions, we get to visit the Evidence Room where we get to view all the evidence we have collected, and this adds an element of replayability for the completionists among us, if they happened to miss some of the evidence during the first playthrough of the mission.

                                       Don’t underestimate this phone, bruh…

The game’s atmosphere is superb. As in, superbly bleak and moody, with dilapidated warehouses, the spooky asylum with the crazy inmates and whatnot. The environment sets up the mood brilliantly, and the soundtrack of the game is just godly. It varies all the way from western classical music to a k-pop type number which kicks in during a mission where stuff begins to go sideways. This soundtrack is quite possibly the best I’ve encountered among the newer games. Added to this, is the choice system in the game. Do you choose to go in guns blazing, or a silent, stealthy approach? Should you let that asylum inmate out of his cell or just leave him in there? These choices make more impact than one would expect.

Not to say that Get Even is completely devoid of flaws, though. First of all, the protagonist Black cannot jump; there are some small obstacles which you think you would easily be able to bypass, but Black can’t vault even the minutest of walls. Also the stealth part of the game could have been executed better; at the very least it could have been improved from being an avoid-the-vision-cones gameplay it ended up being, which seems too barebones in approach to me although it does get the job done.

But when viewed in an overall sense, it is evident that the positives far outweigh the negatives. Pick up Get Even if for nothing, then just to experience the story, which develops in a psychological-thriller style, which totally works for me as I am a hardcore fan of the genre.

RATING : 8.5/10

PROS :
– Great plot and progression
– Nifty plot devices
– Atmosphere and environment
– Godly soundtrack
– Choices dictate outcomes

CONS :
– stealth gameplay is meh
– guy can’t even jump

 

Baby Driver (2017)

I don’t often watch movies, and certainly not right on the release date, preferring to instead spend my time gaming, or possibly watching anime or some good TV series. But this movie did rack up some talk, and I was free, even for my standards, so I thought, why not? Well, let’s get right down to the matter, and talk about how Baby Driver fares.

The protagonist’s name is Baby. Yes, you read that right, it’s Baby. So, what does he do? Baby works as a getaway driver for Doc, but is trying to get out of this stressful business. Why doesn’t he, you ask? Well, Baby happened to dump Doc’s merchandise on one occasion, and now Doc’s put him to work as the driver for all the heists he pulls off. Baby’s driving skills happened to be the only thing that saved him from taking a bullet to the head. And Baby comes with his own quirks. He’s always listening to music on his iPod, whether he’s just chilling at home with his foster dad or buying coffee for his heist mates or even during intense car chases where he’s drifting like crazy and pulling off 180-degree turns with a practised ease. Actually, his habit of listening to music started from his childhood itself, and was more of a necessity than anything else. When he was a kid, Baby was involved in an accident in which he lost both his parents and has since then been suffering from tinnitus, a condition in which the patient’s ears constantly ring. He uses music to drown out the noise.

One fine day, Baby meets a waitress at a coffee place and a love story begins between the two of them. And he’s also managed to pay off all that he owed Doc, by working as his driver for a bunch of heists. He now wants to get out of the nasty business he’s been embroiled in for so long, and lead a new life with his lover and his foster dad. But then he’s forced into participating in yet another heist by Doc, and this time round the odds seem a bit too long for the heist to succeed. Can Baby get out, once and for all, from this life of crime?

                                           So, that’s the plan. Baby, what do you think?

The story of Baby Driver is passable and gets the job done, for the most part. However, the plot progression has been achieved pretty well. However the movie drags a bit around the halfway mark, where the romance track kicks in. The action in this film is pretty slick, I must say. Chase scenes of all kinds were impeccably well done, and this is the shining point of Baby Driver. The car stunts are damn good, and makes you think about what The Fast and Furious series could have been, instead of the mindless set-piece montage it seems to have become. Another thing that was amazing, was the soundtrack of the film. It’s on point all the time; not only that, it also does a great job establishing Baby’s character. Watching the other thieves’ consternation at Baby’s seemingly carefree demeanor is always oddly satisfying. the humor is good too; and there is no overdose of it , a trap a lot of movies seem to fall into these days.

The acting in Baby Driver is pretty good, I would say. Ansel Elgort is awesome as the mostly-silent, music-loving Baby. CJ Jones as Baby’s deaf-and-dumb foster dad is good in his role; the silent banter between father and son is entertaining to witness. Kevin Spacey as the heist leader Doc, is witty and satirical, but underneath it all lies a menacing persona. A role he plays to perfection. Jamie Foxx as the volatile Bats is cool, and so are Jon Hamm and Eiza Gonzalez as a pair of lovers robbing their way through the city. Lily James plays Deborah, Baby’s love interest, and does well too. But clearly, the standout performances come from Ansel and Kevin Spacey; it is their show throughout.

If you guys want to see something uber cool but somewhat grounded in reality, Baby Driver would be a good choice, in my opinion. If you happen to be going to the cinemas,better make Baby Driver the reason for this excursion.

RATING : 8.2/10 

PROS :
– Cool action sequences
– Humor is well done
– Ansel Elgort and Kevin Spacey are epic
– Awesome soundtrack

CONS :
– Plot is nothing special
– Film drags a bit during the middle part