Empire's Suicide Squad Covers.

 New covers of the December issue of Empire magazine were recently released featuring cast members for the upcoming DC film Suicide Squad. The four covers consist of Joker, Enchantress, Deadshot, and Harley Quinn, portrayed by Jared Leto, Cara Delevigne, Will Smith, and Margot Robbie respectively.

The Joker cover comes off as a bit too vibrant for the character and the small white text that reads “Psycho Killer” feels tacked on. The alternate cover that features Leto on a purple background is more visually alluring.

Cara Delevigne looks stunning as the Enchantress. The costume design and makeup makes her look fittingly creepy and the blue electric background is a nice contrast.

The Deadshot cover is pretty standard in terms of presentation, but it does have remarkable lighting and the background does its job of separating the character from the page.

The Harley Quinn cover has a great sense of color. It takes blue and pink from the character's design and it applies it to the background in halves with a nice pop that immediately catches the eye. The Harley Quinn costume is as great as ever, though the jewel encrusted gun is a bit much. Great covers all around.

G: Pokemon Soul Silver

Pokemon Silver was the last game I played in the long running series since I had took a long hiatus from the franchise. Three years ago I played Emerald which I found okay and a bit too easy and this year I was nostalgic for the early days of the series and decided to play Soul Silver so I could experience both the new and the old at once. This DS remake was released back in 2010.
As being a remake that came after Diamond, Pearl, and Platinum it features mechanics, updated graphics, and pokemon from that generation. Game Freak re-stylized the game with 3D models, but movement is still confined in a 2d environment. The female character model from Crystal has been replaced by a girl named Lyra, the pokemon in your front most slot follows you around while you're walking, and new moves added from generation iv has been added to TMs, an HM, and movesets of pokemon in this game to name most of the differences.

Having not played Silver since 2000, the game felt mostly fresh while at the same time brand new thanks to redone graphics and new additions. As the premise of all the pokemon games, you play as a trainer who collects eight badges across a region to challenge The Elite 4 and then the champion. What makes these games enjoyable is the combat and collecting as many different pokemon as you can along the way. The battle system still utilizes the rock, paper, scissors format with the type weaknesses. Water beats fire, fire beats grass, grass beats water. As simplistic as it can seem once you remember each weakness, this game makes it challenging by having trainers that fight better, with pokemon that hit harder and utilize moves that are outside of their type. I lost quite a few times in my playthrough even when I concentrated on exposes weaknesses. You may think you might win when you have a fighting type against a steel type, but once that steel type hits you with a psychic move you find yourself on the defensive. That's just one of the many examples I found through this playthrough. This might not matter as much if the game gave you more experience points during battles. At every gym in the game outside of the first I found my pokemon to be below the level of the gym leader's strongest. Having bosses above your level did make for challenging fights, but at the same time it felt frustrating and as if I wasn't where I was suppose to be. Grinding for levels is difficult because of the experience output. Wild pokemon hardly give experience and trainers give just enough. Some trainers can be fought multiple times depending on the day of the week if you've collected their number. Despite that experience problem I didn't feel for the most part that I had to do a lot of grinding. The only time where I felt this was necessary was for the Viridian City Gym that's available after the main game.

As for catching pokemon, this game offers many ways to catch pokemon. You can do it the standard way by running into them in the wild, you can fish, go to the Safari Zone, trade, evolution stones, and breeding. As varied the methods are for catching these creatures, I think they should have integrated generation III and IV pokemon better. You will not run into any pokemon from those generations until you have beaten the Elite 4 and the few that you can are mostly tied to listening to a radio station on a specific day while in a place that triggers a random encounter. I was expecting a more natural integration of pokemon from those generations since this is a remake that uses the engine of Diamon/Pearl/Platinum and it would have been fun to mix some of my old favorites while finding new favorites.

I did discover too late that there is a great hack of the game that adds more pokemon to the game, gives more experience while also making the game harder, adds a bit more story content, and makes some items more accessible. As the game is I found it great, though flawed and frustrating at times. The content after you beat The Elite 4 is great. I remember being astounded by it when I was a child, but replaying through Kanto this time around was a real experience. I loved how they progressed the events from Red/Blue/Yellow and made Kanto feel like a living breathing world. You can encounter characters you met and played as in that game and see what they have been doing since then. The battle against Red was one of the most exhilarating experiences I had in a game. This is a great entry to the pokemon series and if you haven't I would recommend it and if you can play one of the hacks titled Sacred Gold & Storm Silver. I certainly will when I plan on a replay.

8.5/10

M: Generation Now

Nitty Scott MC dropped the first music video for her visual album today and the track of choice is "Generation Now". "Generation Now" is the opening song from 2014 release "The Art of Chill" coming after the "Wanderlust Intro". The Art of Chill is a very tranquil, but spacey kind of project with deep underlining and this is present in the video. Nitty Scott is going with a majestic, yet sexy look in this video sporting a dress that extenuates her curves with a head wrap, tattoos, and jewelry of Buddhist influence. War and animal footage are the cutaways in the video and I am not quite sure the relation to them in regards to the song. The war footage I could see being a metaphor for the struggles that the current generation is dealing with, but the footage of the lion I am clueless on.

The shots are pretty clear, though they could be better, with slightly more even lighting and a crisper shine. The editing is simple, but suitable and digital effects aren't distracting. This is a pretty serviceable video and the song is still pretty decent, though not the best from the album. I look forward to seeing more of this visual album.

Laura Reveal Trailer for Street Fighter V

This fighter was leaked about a week ago through Japanese magazine Famitsu, but now Capcom has officially (semi-officially?) revealed her today with a trailer. Laura is the newest Brazilian fighter to the franchise succeeding Sean from Street Fighter III and Blanka from Street Fighter II. Like Blanka, she dawns the color green and has electrical attacks by a slow moving projectile that seems good for setting up traps and its also implemented in her critical art and v-trigger skill. She appears to be a hybrid grappler in her playstyle, but it's not apparent if most of the grabs in the trailer are command grabs. They look more like a special move rekka, ala Fei Long, that ends with a throw. Nevertheless grabs are implemented into her moveset. She is definitely a close range fighter opting to put pressure on the opponent. She has a move that allows her to absorb a hit while also attacking and moving in, a Sean's wheel kick, and an anti-air strike that ends with a throw. Her defense appears weak to make up for her strong offense game.
On terms of appearance I like her costume. The Prince butt-less pants look a bit silly and the green may be a bit too bright, but otherwise it looks fine. While I also in general don't like the half hairstyles, it looks good on Laura. She looks to be a fun character to use and will definitely be a consideration for a main once Street Fighter V drops next year.

Indivisible Prototype

 Indiegogo Campaign     Prototype for Windows

Lab Zero Games, studio creator of the indie hit fighter Skullgirls, just launched their Indiegogo campaign yesterday for their new game Indivisible and along with it came a prototype of the game. Before I go into my review of the prototype, I'd like to clarify a bit about what Indivisible is. Indivisible is a fantasy RPG influenced by Valkyrie Profile and Metroid. The game stars Southeast Asian protagonist Ajna and it also has a predominant Southeast Asian influence, but there will be other settings in the game to make it a bit diverse. The team is planning the game to be about 20-30 hours in length excluding side quests which puts it around the length of Super Nintendo JRPGs such as Chrono Trigger and Final Fantasy IV. An ambitious length for a small studio and it interests me even more.

A little after I visited the Indiegogo page I decided to download the prototype. Upon opening it, if you have a controller installed the game asks you to map the buttons to your controller immediately giving the player the option to make the controls suitable for him or her. After that the title screen appears showing Ajna standing by a cliff. I was waiting for the "START GAME" text to appear, but when it didn't I hit a random button, Ajna folded in her skirt, the title faded away, and I was put in control. It's a minor detail, but I found it endearing. After jumping off the cliff you follow a small creature into a tomb.

The first tutorial prompt is given here telling the player the basics of performing an attack which leads us into the battle system. This is where the influence of Valkyrie Profile comes from. Enemies appear on the same field that you traverse areas, but when you engage in actual battle in Valkyrie Profile, the battle takes place on a separate screen. In Indivisible, battles take place on the same field that you traverse, the camera just zooms in a little closer. Attacks are mapped to an individual face button for each character in your party and you can attack up to three times with each character. I have only played the first Valkyrie Profile, but there seems to be some changes in regards to the battle system. In Valkyrie Profile character turns worked on a standard turn based system, but in Indivisible it utilizes an ATB (Active Time Battle) system like in the Final Fantasy series. A bar a orange bar fills up and when it turns yellow the bar is fully allowing you to perform an attack and you can get up to three bars. It's as simple as that. There are three variations for your attacks. You have the standard button press and you also have the face button, plus pressing the direction, and the direction up. Up for most characters seem to be multi hitting moves, though that is not always the case in the point of Ajna's unarmed up attacking that's a single kick that launches an enemy.

Up attacks appear to be the most powerful, but I never felt the urge to only use up attacks. The player also has access to special abilities in combat. A separate multi color bar at the top of the screen fills up when the player performs combos appropriately. There are three bars for these as well. Pressing R1 or right shoulder button with a face button performs the special move for the corresponding character. The effect that the special move dishes out varies per character. When characters attack the screen gets an orange haze around the corners of the screen and the character that's about to be attacked flashes red. Hitting the button corresponding to the flashing character results in a successful block, but it's also noted that blocking preemptively results in a depletion of the special meter. The battle system is very enjoyable and differs enough from Valkyrie Profile to make it stand out.

For the gameplay outside of battle this is where the Metroid inspiration comes in. The level design is a large map that is interconnected and you can't access all portions of it immediately. In order to proceed you need to get a new ability that will allow you to get past that obstacle. It's a level design that creates a little bit of backtracking and exploration. It's way more ambitious than just making a linear path that most rpgs tend to have. Traversing the level felt very intuitive. Ajna controls smoothly and quickly. The ability you gain in the prototype also feels to have some weight to it and it also serves as a weapon.

The dynamic between combat and level traversal feels fresh and the demo progressively becomes deeper. The encounter with the boss at the end of the demo is quite a difficulty increase. It punishes you if you haven't quite grasped all of the mechanics so far and while I initially got frustrated with my failure like anybody else, it became easier and more satisfying once I actually concentrated and utilized all of mechanics available to me appropriately. It's a well designed boss that tests skill and strategy. This prototype was well put together and I will be playing this several more times. If you have money to support the game then I encourage it because it's looking to be quite the game.

M: Peace or Power

 Peace or Power

This solo album from CunninLynguists member Deacon The Villain was originally supposed to be released on September 30, but due to unknown reasons it was released the next day on the first of October. Peace or Power was a highly anticipated release for me since CunninLynguists is my favorite hip-hop group and their last few projects have been stellar. I wish I could say the same about Peace or Power. This is Deacon's first solo project. Some may bring up Niggaz with Latitude, but that was a duo project with Sheisty Khrist.

Deacon produced all the tracks on this album along with emceeing throughout most of it. Most of the instrumentals have a funk vibe to them, but they don't provide the same kind of energy or fun that funk sounds usually tend to bring. The non funk tracks aren't much better. They're not bad, just not memorable. On the vocal front Deacon's singing is a neutral element to me. It's usually just part of the hook and his voice is good enough for the purpose. His rhymes I'm more critical of. For a while I couldn't differentiate between Deacon the Villain and Natti when it came to rhyming. They both have similar voices, but thanks to this solo album I'm now able to distinguish them properly. Deacon's voice is a bit softer with less energy. As far as the rap skills go, I find Deacon's flow to be pretty average. There aren't any parts within the rhythm of it that catches my ear in a way to instill excitement. I ended up tuning him out majority of the time on my first listen. Lyrically, he is pretty sub par on this album as well. Little wordplay and he has a lack of making his words visual or an impact of any kind. Most of the featured artists on here actually outshine him and make what would otherwise be a mediocre song, good. I actually find myself listening to the Sheisty Khrist and Natti tracks most on this album.
This album isn't bad, but it's not good either. The overall result comes to an average album. I would recommend listen to the Natti and Sheisty tracks, and skip the rest. The album art is fantastic however.

Notable Tracks: What's a Star, Ghosts Don't Lie, Peace or Power