Yesterday Capcom dropped the reveal trailer for their newest addition to Street Fighter V, R. Mika. If you are familiar with the Alpha series then you might be aware of the wrestler's history. She appeared in Alpha 3 as a grappling centric character and all this remains present in the new trailer. Her command grabs appear to function more than just powered up throws. A couple of the command grabs send into a wall bounce allowing for an opportunity for a free hit or two. At the thirty six second mark she also has an anti-air throw that can be used as a finisher at the end of a combo that launches the opponent. She also appears to have a couple of assist moves provided from her tag partner as v-skills, but in the context of this trailer I'm not entirely sure. She looks to be a close range character with some decent pokes as of right now.
On the aesthetic side, I love how absurd she is. She wears a scanty wrestling outfit with long blond pigtails and her trademark attack is the Flying Peach which has her hurling her ass at the opponent. She is also notably more endowed than the other female fighters in the game. Thick thighs, a voluptuous posterior with accompanying front assets. Her super at the end with the double Flying Peach pile driver is also hilarious. Overall this trailer did get me interested in trying this character out and highly consider for a main. I'll be on the lookout for more R. Mika gameplay.
I recently discovered singer/rapper Princess Nokia now christened Destiny put out a couple new tracks, "Orange Blossom" and "Soul Train". These new songs are 70's inspired, especially "Soul Train". "Orange Blossom" has Destiny singing in a particular fashion and beat similar to "Young Girls" and "Yaya", but the instrumentals are more electronic and synth based. The music video is set in a carnival while Destiny sports 70's attire. Visually the video is appealing. It opens up looking a hand cam from the aforementioned time period and proceeds onto the various shots of Destiny dancing and shots of objects and people on the carnival grounds. Though simplistic as it is, the cuts change at a good enough pace to prevent it from being boring and her dancing is also stimulating. I find it a sufficient video and a decent song.
"Soul Train" is highly reminiscent of 70's funk and disco. I find Destiny's vocals on this one quite not up to snuff as in other of her works, especially in the second verse which I find awful, but the song's instrumental is song and it is quite fun. The video is even more interesting than the song taking the 70's concept to the fullest having everyone in it dressed in 70's attire, with afros, boomboxes, and roller-skates accompanying it. The Electric Slide in the video threw me off as I thought that dance didn't show up until two decades later. The editing is fine. It doesn't do much, but it works and the lighting is almost perfectly even. The song sort of falls off, but the video is great. I'm looking forward to seeing more from her.
This game released by Sunsoft back in 1992 was one of the many games I spent time playing with my older brother back in the day. Firepower 2000 is a vertical shoot 'em up that consists of a steadier pace of action. The game has you in control of a green jeep if you're player 1 and a yellow helicopter if you're on the second controller. While these two vehicles function the same there are some differences between them. The jeep cannot collide with dirigibles, but loses a life when touching a terrain vehicle or containers that hold shields and power ups. The helicopter can avoid all ground vehicles, but loses a life when colliding with an air vehicle. Both vehicles are perfectly vulnerable to all projectiles. They both have their advantages, but the jeep ends up coming out on top considering most of the enemies in the game are flying.
The game plays similarly to most shooters out there. You have your various weapons that you must use to plow through enemies while getting the occasional power up. The movement in this game I'm mixed on. When firing you are locked in the direction you were aiming when you started while moving and to change direction you have to stop re-position yourself in the desired position first. It took some time to get used to, but it didn't take long at all and in some cases I feel that this type of movement can be advantageous. You can move in area you wish while also keeping your aim on the enemy.
In terms of the combat I feel that it has a lot of weight to it and this is greatly due to the excellent sound effects in this game. Explosions are tense and grabbing power ups has a nice ding to them. The weapons are pretty diverse for how short the game is. You'll get a total of five different weapons in the game and about four power-ups. I believe actually the weapons could be a quite bit more diverse. The bullet and laser feel too similar even with power-ups to increase their proficiency. The power-up special moves are really powerful in this game capable of defeating most enemies in one hit. The explosion ring is probably the most powerful as I only used it twice on a boss and it was defeated.
Speaking of bosses this game is quite hard. My brother and I never beat this game when we were children and I honestly couldn't manage to do it this time around without the use of save states. The enemies are plentiful in this game and you can find yourself dodging a multitude of missiles and particles. One touch equals death in this game, but you get numerous lives however, starting off with four in the first level and you can replenish lives by gathering a certain number of golden star points throughout the levels. The bosses are relatively easy compared to path you take to reach them. The first one is okay, the second can be difficult if you're not watching your spacing carefully, the third is easy once you figure out how to avoid its largest attack, the fourth is easy, the fifth is even easier, and the final level doesn't have one.
The game turns out to all around to be a decent package. The final portion of the game ends so abruptly however that I felt that the last segment was rushed. It's not a game I'd recommend to everyone even though I had fun with it. I feel it could have done some things a bit better like the lackluster soundtrack, and weapon diversity. If you're a fan of the genre I say give it a try at least.
This biopic was my most anticipated movie of the year and did it meet my expectations? Yes, and it actually exceeded them. This film directed by F. Gary Gray relays the tale of the creation and falling out of hip-hop's most popular group NWA.
O'Shea Jackson Jr. portrays his father Ice Cube, Corey Hawkins plays Dr. Dre, Jason Mitchell helms Eazy-E, Neil Brown Jr. takes the role of DJ Yella, and Aldis Hodge plays MC Ren. The actors overall did a great job at their roles. Hawkins did a fitting job in the role of Dr. Dre and Hodge was good enough as MC Ren as I couldn't critic a lot on his performance as Ren probably had the least amount of screen time for any member, but Mitchell embodied Eazy-E. You fall deep into his portrayal and truly feel that he is Eric Wright. Him looking a bit like him also helps quite a bit, but his performance is not to be shunned. I can't say the same for Jackson Jr. While he does look remarkably like Ice Cube, on the acting ability he leaves a bit to be desired. He is not terrible, but he's obviously not a trained actor and I felt a slight disconnect a couple of times in his performance. Brown was sort of in the sidelines in the film, but he did a decent job at his portrayal of DJ Yella.
As far as the cinematography and editing goes I feel I can't make valid criticisms on it without a rewatch, but nothing particularly bad or exceptional stuck out to me. The movie is well paced throughout 95% of it. The story beats hit on target and the characters aren't mythologized at all. You see flaws in all of them, but they do leave out some of the more controversial aspects of the group like when Dr. Dre assaulted journalist Dee Barnes for slandering him and it was rumored that he abused Michel'le as well. The movie does however make sure to show how dirty and vile Suge Knight is. It is not surprising to me though considering Ice Cube and Dr. Dre were producers on the project. Aside from that I also felt that the movie ended a bit abruptly. The ending just felt weird to me. This is still a great movie however and in my opinion the best one to come out this year. This is a recommend of the highest degree.
As I was looking at the purchasers of Phantom Limbs on bandcamp, a certain user profile icon caught my eye and I decided to click on it. The user was Wyatt Armstrong Hunter
and noticed that he had a few Cunninlynguists purchases in his
collection so I figured he had great taste and decided to give a listen
to the first album that appeared on his page, The Rapture: Live from
Oaklandia by Zion I. This album released just a few days ago on August 7
and upon clicking on the first track I regretted missing it on release
day. This is a live rap/soul album from artist Zion I who I didn't
realize was already in a few tracks in my library as he did "In the
City" with Cunninlynguists, and was featured on Nneka and J. Period's
"God of Mercy". His features apparently didn't capture my attention
before, but it certainly has gotten it now. In The Rapture the
duo of Zion I focuses on unleashing riveting energy. Zumbi's voice is
propelled and projected to get the listeners hype and his flow is at a
steady, but quick pace. His energy and pace does start to slow down at
the end however, but it's still energetic.
The live instrumentation from the band is also a main contributor to the
sound. Drums, cymbals, saxophones, pianos, and guitars are present
throughout the performances. There is also a nice electronic sounding
instrument I don't recognize at the end of Human Being that I like a
lot. It overall has a bit of a jazzy and soul flavor to it. What I like
the most about the choice to go live for this album is that it really
captures the feeling of being in a concert. The quality is superb and
the crowd interaction really sets it home. What is also notable is that
most of the tracks seem to flow into one another. In all but one song
there seems to be not definite cuts from one track to the next further
instilling the feeling of being at a live concert.
Now I haven't touched upon the lyrical skill of the album and I can say
it's pretty decent. It's more straightforward and I didn't catch any
instances of wordplay, but the themes of goals of this album seemed to
be about uplifting the spirit which I typically don't see in those type
of songs anyway. His style is more of the boom bap flavor. His
pronunciations are clear majority of the time and the featured emcees
hold up decently. The singers attached accompany the instruments well
enough and none of them are bad, but none of them really stood out to me
either except for that end note that Codany Holiday dropped on "Sorry".
That was off the chain.
To conclude this, The Rapture: Live from Oaklandia is a great album that
makes great use of live instruments and recommendation to those looking
for a little more joy in their life. I'm now eager to hear more of him
and I think his style would be greatly complemented to the likes of
Blitz the Ambassador, Common, Akua Naru, Ben L'Oncle Soul, and Nneka. Oh
yeah, I'm definitely going to listen to everything else in that user's
profile.
Today underground rapper Sadistik unleashed his latest EP Phantom Limbs. This EP is a collaboration with producer/rapper Kno from Cunninlynguists and in this project he lends most of his talents to composition for a package that's all around superb. Sadistik is known for his gravely morose voice and flow which is present on this album in spades. You can feel the anguish he's going through in his words and he has a way of making his words visual. Take these lines from "The Darkness" for instance, "Petals falling off the daffodils, I can't appeal. There's never monarchs in this monarchy only caterpill. Hurts while leaving shadows on the moon, teach me how to drown in the shallowest lagoon". These sad and dark images of dying flowers shadows cutting into stone and attempted suicide helped create the somber tone and also added a bit morbidity to the song. These subjects are present throughout the entirety of this project. "To Be in Love" is about missing a lost love, "Hers Forever" expresses painful love for a woman who rejects him, "Phantom Limbs" talks about coming to terms with painful memories and thoughts, "Daydreams" is talking about getting caught in the nightmares that torment, but sooth him while also trying escaping from the pain, and "In Heaven" he talks confesses that he feels that he is too sinful for heaven and perhaps enjoys tormenting and being tormented in the bridge in between the two after lives. I could not pin down the theme of "Unaware" however.
As you can obviously see this isn't an album for partying or lifting spirits. Lyrically it is very layered in flow, rhymes and wordplay. Metaphors, alliteration, and puns can be found throughout this audio journey into descent. The featured artists also contribute in these respects, "Unaware in particular" has three guest emcees that lend their talents to the mic. Chino XL, Sheisty Khrist, and Metasota all add something unique to the track while also keeping in lime with the tone of the song. Chino XL's verse in particular impressed me the most. His flow is raw and unforgiving.
To touch upon Kno's contribution to this EP, his instrumentals play well in hand with Sadistik's rhymes. The beats are slightly electronic reminiscent with lost of drums, a couple of choir samples, and piano pieces. They are good instrumentals on their own and I hope that Kno releases an instrumental version of this album before the year is up. While Kno is a producer, he also raps from time to time. His only mic contribution is on "Hers Forever" and I'll say that he's as good as Sadistik on the track and I would've like to seen him rap on at least one other song. This is a great album by two incredible artists and right now I say it ranks among the best in the year.
Gamescon took place earlier this week and it gave us a slew of information. Among of what I received, these three trailers were the most memorable to me.
The Final Fantasy XV trailer that Square Enix presented was relatively short. What we got to see were a couple of environments that Noctis ran through (what looked like a mountain, a grassy field, and a swamp) along with a very brief glance at a battle with a Malboro. The Malboro is a recurring enemy in the Final Fantasy series starting with VI and is known in many incarnations to inflict multiple status ailments to the party. What occurred in this trailer didn't get to show that off. Basically Noctis and his friends walked into a swamp, the Malboro spawns from underneath Noctis sending him into the critical state immediately, the AI party members inflict a few blows and then a jump cut to the Malboro casting Bad Breath and Noctis getting KO'd resulting in a game over. This trailer showed gameplay at least I have to give it that, but it was certainly lacking in the gameplay shown. There was just running and no real chance to look into the system of the combat. It all ended way too abruptly. I'm not sure why they decided to show this off when it didn't look like a complete trailer. Square Enix definitely needs to step it up when it comes to their promotional material. That makes for two bad trailers in a row.
Mirror's Edge Catalyst also made an appearance at Gamescon and the game looks to be better than ever. The game looks visually impressive and retains the simple geometric style of the original. The free run platforming gameplay looks just the same, but there are some differences. When performing a roll it looks like their is less shake and disorientation and the red colored objects that highlight the path you should take look to be gone. The removal of the red colored objects I find as an improvement as it encourages players to look more carefully around when trying to find routes and with the removal I expect a more open ended level design. The game now also includes take downs which switches to third person when performed. There was also a noticeable lack of gunplay in this trailer. There were enemies that fired at Faith, but she did not pick up any guns herself after taking down the guards.
Away from gameplay, Faith has received a new voice actress which I find worse than the previous. Her voice sounds I'm not sure how to explain it, but she sounds very fake to me and not entirely into the role she's playing. The dialogue isn't really much better than in the original though, but at least the eSurance-like cutscenes are gone and replaced by cgi scenes. Overall this trailer had me pumped to get my hands on the game.
On the other side of things, Gamescon also gave us a demo for the upcoming and anticipated Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain. This thirty minute long demonstration focused on the base management of the game. You can construct and fully design your Mother Base which houses Big Boss's Diamond Dog staff. Your base is a tool for support during the story campaign. It houses R&D, combat, and support. Your is fully explorable and is full of dozens of features. You can visit your dog DD, listen to conversations from soldiers that may or not give information for missions, take showers, obtain anime posters, take part in training sessions, and a lot more. The mother base is quite extensive and dedicating time into it will make things a lot easier during your campaign as it can provide you with vehicles, weapons, reinforcements, and air strikes.
There is also an online component called FOBs (Forward Operating Bases) that function as online mother bases. With the case of FOBs they can be attacked and robbed from players online. You will be given a notification for this while you're in a mission and you can either ignore it and hope that you're staff can handle it or you can go and attend to it yourself. When you choose to participate in a defense of a FOB raid you it's you cooperating and moderating your security so you can take out the intruder. These battles were demonstrated to be heavily intense and for the raider to be very difficult and stealth focused. It was also revealed that you can have a friend defend your base in your place while you're away.
This game is shaping up to look quite layered and heavily refined. It's just a shame what had became of Kojima and Konami as a whole. This game looks like a contender for game of the year.
Square Enix just dropped a new trailer for Final Fantasy XV at Gamescon and what a terrible trailer it is. The trailer starts out with some text that narrates the story, we get a glimpse of a child Luna edging away from some unknown man, then another piece of text transitioned into a cutscene where some guards are walking around and a dog hops out a car and walks down a street. The next piece is a part that takes up the majority of this 3 minute trailer. A young Noctis is held in a bearded man's arms as he embraces him and a tear falls down his cheek following that is another piece of text and then the logo.
This trailer was highly disappointing and another example of Square not doing their marketing very well. The first issue is that there is no gameplay whatsoever. For a trailer for a video game that's pretty essential and secondly even judging the cutscenes on their own premise, they are not good or even mediocre. The editing is way too basic, they fail to deliver any kind of emotion to the viewer, and that whole scene with the hug had some weird lighting issues and the two lines of dialogue present weren't even voiced. The man's skin looked waxy and to mention that whole scene was just boring. It failed to make me feel invested. If these cutscenes actually had decent editing, showed off the world and had engaging dialogue or action pieces than I could forgive the absence of no gameplay, but unfortunately it didn't do any of that. The whole trailer came off as flat.
Just a couple days ago Arnie Roth and Hitoshi Sakimoto composers for Square announced at a recent Distan Worlds concert that a remake of Final Fantasy XII is on the way. Later, Arnie Roth made a restatement saying the word remake was used improperly, but he did not rule out the notion of a remaster which many people took it as to begin with.
Earlier, producer Yoshiaki Hirabayashi from Capcom posted an image on the Resident Evil Facebook page of a logo of Biohazard 2, the game's name in Japan with the comment "Right
after the RE HD Remaster project was finished, I actually started
putting together my ideas for this "RE2 Project". So, I just brushed it
up and went to see my boss to present the basic concept of the project
already…".
This is evidently a pitch towards a Resident Evil 2 remake. The original Resident Evil received a remake back in 2002 for the Gamecube and was given a port and remaster to current gen systems earlier this year. In that case it is not farfetched that we could possibly be seeing a remake of the 2nd installment.
With a possible remaster and remake on the way there are some things I would like to see changed in these games. In the case of Final Fantasy XII, firstly I want it to be a remaster of the International Zodiac Job version. The X and X-2 remasters were of the international versions so it's not unreasonable to ask. One of the major issues I had with XII was the loot system. It's fine in most cases, but a lot of the good equipment you can get in the game is due to random chance. Content in treasure chests in the game are worked in a random formula and this wouldn't be too bad, but the issue is that some chests don't regenerate and if you end up with the common treasure you would have to reset the game if you wanted the rare one in that playthrough. I can tell you it wasn't exactly fun fighting the demon wall a bunch of times to receive the Demonsbane Sword. The game also has a fair bit of rare hunts that are far too rare. I can't imagine grinding for extremely longs amount of time for a rare enemy or item to drop is fun to anyone. In the case of Resident Evil 2 there isn't much I can think of to improve it. I would like to see some additional costumes and that's about it. In the case of both games I'm eager to see them if they actually come into fruition.
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