Tio ĉi estas reskribo de mia origina ludrecenzo pri la ludo "Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker" (En Esperanto, la titolo tradukas al "Metala Aparato Solida: Pacmarŝanto").
Ne longtempe, eble nur unu semajno antaŭ hodiaŭ, mi aĉetis "Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker" (MGS:PW), la lasta ludo en la fama ludserio "Metal Gear" de Koĝima Hideo. Mi devas diri, antaŭ mi ados, ke tiu ĉi ludo estis nomata "Metal Gear Solid 5" antaŭ plua evoluado de la ludo daŭris. Mi diris tiun, ĉar mi pensas ke tiu ĉi ludo facile povus nomiĝadi kiel "la Kvina" sen sordidigo de la nomo de la "Metal Gear" serio.
La ludo estas por la Sony PSP konzolo, kaj pro tiu, estas eble ke Sony ne volis nomi la ludon "5", kiam la aliaj numeritaj ludoj en la serio ne aperas en la PSP konzolo, kaj okcidentaj ludantoj ne havas multaj de PSP konzoloj, nur PS3 konzoloj, do ili povus iĝi kolera al Sony ĉar "5" ne estus en la PS3.
Nun, la vera ludrecenzo, anstataŭ diskuto pri la publikado de la ludo. La ludo estas bonega ludo, kaj mi ne malcertus rekomendi la ludon al alia persono. Unue, la ludo "Final Fantasy 7: Crisis Core" estis la ludo por la PSP havanto, kaj ankoraŭ estas havdeva, sed MGS:PW estas pli bona ludo grafike, sone kaj eĉ tute.
La rakonto de la ludo estas bonega kaj belega - mi nun preskaŭ kompletigis la ludon (malsame al la Angla lingva recenzo) kaj mi miras de la aferkoncerneco kaj la aldoneco al la pli granda super-rakonto de la ludserio. La ludo rakontas la komencon de la militista grupo Militaires sans Frontières (Soldatoj sen Limoj), kiu iĝos la nacion "Outer Heaven" en la frua "Metal Gear" ludo. Ĝi ankaŭ rakontas la okazon kiam Serpento (Granda Estro, "Snake/Big Boss") komencas ne zorgi pri la malbonaj pli fruaj okazoj en sia vivo.
Ankaŭ en la ludo estas:
- Metala Aparato ZEKE, metala aparato kiu oni faras kaj uzas.
- "Extra Ops", kromaj misioj en kiu oni eĉ povas batali kontraŭ la monstroj de la ludo "Monster Hunter".
- "Outer Ops", eksteraj misioj en kiu oni povas uzi oniajn soldatojn kiel en la ludo "Pokémon/Poketto Monsuta".
- "Co-Op", kie oni povas ludi kun amikoj en normaj kaj kromaj misioj
- kaj eĉ plu!
Mi pensas ke tiu ĉi ludo indas ~ 10 steloj
Steloj: **********
Sunday, 5 September 2010
Monday, 30 August 2010
Game Review for Metal Gear Solid: Peacewalker
Recently, in fact only 4 days ago, I bought Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker, the latest game in Hideo Kojima's famous Metal Gear series. It should be noted before I continue that this game was originally called Metal Gear Solid 5, before further development occurred, and the reason I mention that is because this game could pass as the sequel to the main series quite easily. Nonetheless, Peace Walker is a game for Sony's PSP, so it's likely that Konami decided that calling it "5" would be met with hostility by western consumers who do not have any where near as many PSPs as they do PS3s etc (in Japan though, PSPs continue to sell like hotcakes even this far into their life).
Now for reviewing the actual game rather than discussing some of the intricacies related to how it was published. Peace Walker itself is an extremely good game, and I would not hesitate to recommend it to any PSP owner. Originally, Final Fantasy VII: Crisis Core was the game for PSP owners, and it still is a must have, but in graphics, sound, and overall presentation, it does lack a bit now compared to MGS:PW. In fact, MGS:PW has better graphics than many games from the PS2/Xbox/GameCube era. There are some noticeable texture resolution problems, but these should only ever stand out once you've unlocked a certain set of Extra Ops missions (I shall get to that later).
Of course, a game is not 100% presentation (although I suspect that MGS:PW could win alone with just that), and MGS:PW has a brilliant addition to the over-arching Metal Gear plot. In particular, it chronicles the birth of Militaires Sans Frontières, which for those not learned in French, means "Soldiers without Borders". The significance of this being that this group becomes Outer Heaven, which serves as a future plot point in some other games - or should I say, a past plot point, since the original Metal Gear games are rather old now. It also delves into the personal story of Big Boss and his post-mortem relationship with his mentor The Boss. Also covered in the plot are the rescues of some Sandanista members (part of a revolutionary force in Central America), and most importantly the stopping of a new weapons platform.
And this is where fans of the series are in for a treat - this game not only pits you against a new Metal Gear (as per usual), which is quite important as far as the plot goes, but also pits you against various AI machines of similar attributes, while being able to use scrap from defeated bosses to build your own Metal Gear (this actually reflects part of the original Metal Gear plot, which only really gets resolved in Metal Gear Solid: 4). So expect all the fun boss battles from the other Metal Gear games. Not only that, but these bosses also have excellent presentation - the graphics are excellent, as are the animations, movements, attacks, and everything else.
This brings the review to another wonderful quirk about this game - Kojima studios have teamed up with so many different franchises this time round to give fans some extra treats. For the AIs, the voicing is done by Yamaha's Vocaloid tool (done especially for Peace Walker), so expect somefunky (OK, "creepy" is a much better word) Hatsune Miku style singing to come from the AIs when battling them (or hearing them flying overhead). This adds to the sense of innocence and naïvety the AIs will give you, making you feel as if you're fighting not against gruff killer machines, but children given very dangerous weapons thinking the fighting's all a game. Another franchise crossover is evident as soon as you start listening to one character's (Chico, one of the Sandinistas) briefing tapes, and start hearing the words "monster" and "hunter" being repeated over and over again. Eventually (you'll probably need help from the internet for this), you'll find a certain Monster Hunter Freedom Unite character in an Extra Ops mission, who, mistaking you for a brave hunter, will take you to las islas del monstruos.
And you'll fight a Rathalos.
The fun part: It's about 1000x times more deadly than in Monster Hunter, and your "bowgun" (lame reference by me to the gun style weapon class in Monster Hunter) is about 1000x more deadly too (well, lets face it, Snakes lock-on missile launcher vs a crossbow with gunpowder?). So expect a very intense battle. And a lot of swearing directed at the weaker monsters running around jumping on you.
So, basically when you buy the game you get:
- The main story's missions (a decent amount at that)
- Extra ops, missions that don't progress the story much but often involve mercenary or clean up work (there's something like 120+)
- A Co-Op mode that allows you to play the above missions in 2-4 player mode (for most missions anyway), but be warned that this requires that you play in person with someone rather than over the internet (Ad hoc only)
- Outer Ops, sort of like automatically-played out pokémon style battles, where you send off troops while you're completing missions then see the results of battles in a fairly well presented format
- Mother Base/Outer Heaven, related to the "RPG" side of the game, where you put recruited soldiers into different departments that help your main game, e.g. R&D who make new weapons and items for you, the Combat Unit used for Outer Ops, a sickbay, a medical team (of course!), and various other teams required to keep the joint running smoothly
- A Metal Gear you get to work on and modify slowly, and then send into Outer Ops battles
- R&D where you go and make new items for the main game, and repair vehicles for the Outer ops
Not to mention in game there are many treats too, like a Sony Walkman which allows the player to listen to MGS music while playing (also upgradeable by R&D to later and later models released by Sony), the fulton recovery system (basically, a parachute you attach to prisoners or knocked out guards to send them to Mother Base and force them to join your team) which ironically doesn't alert enemy guards despite how noisy it is (they must be used to people being kidnapped or something), and various other bonus features.
Anyway, I'm gonna wrap up and say "GET THIS GAME". It's definitely a 10/10 PSP game, and is better than many console games (although the controls, while excellent, can get irritating after 3 hours straight play, due to how slippery the PSP feels in your hands).
If I have time later this week or month or year, I might rewrite this review in French or something...
Stars: **********
Now for reviewing the actual game rather than discussing some of the intricacies related to how it was published. Peace Walker itself is an extremely good game, and I would not hesitate to recommend it to any PSP owner. Originally, Final Fantasy VII: Crisis Core was the game for PSP owners, and it still is a must have, but in graphics, sound, and overall presentation, it does lack a bit now compared to MGS:PW. In fact, MGS:PW has better graphics than many games from the PS2/Xbox/GameCube era. There are some noticeable texture resolution problems, but these should only ever stand out once you've unlocked a certain set of Extra Ops missions (I shall get to that later).
Of course, a game is not 100% presentation (although I suspect that MGS:PW could win alone with just that), and MGS:PW has a brilliant addition to the over-arching Metal Gear plot. In particular, it chronicles the birth of Militaires Sans Frontières, which for those not learned in French, means "Soldiers without Borders". The significance of this being that this group becomes Outer Heaven, which serves as a future plot point in some other games - or should I say, a past plot point, since the original Metal Gear games are rather old now. It also delves into the personal story of Big Boss and his post-mortem relationship with his mentor The Boss. Also covered in the plot are the rescues of some Sandanista members (part of a revolutionary force in Central America), and most importantly the stopping of a new weapons platform.
And this is where fans of the series are in for a treat - this game not only pits you against a new Metal Gear (as per usual), which is quite important as far as the plot goes, but also pits you against various AI machines of similar attributes, while being able to use scrap from defeated bosses to build your own Metal Gear (this actually reflects part of the original Metal Gear plot, which only really gets resolved in Metal Gear Solid: 4). So expect all the fun boss battles from the other Metal Gear games. Not only that, but these bosses also have excellent presentation - the graphics are excellent, as are the animations, movements, attacks, and everything else.
This brings the review to another wonderful quirk about this game - Kojima studios have teamed up with so many different franchises this time round to give fans some extra treats. For the AIs, the voicing is done by Yamaha's Vocaloid tool (done especially for Peace Walker), so expect some
And you'll fight a Rathalos.
The fun part: It's about 1000x times more deadly than in Monster Hunter, and your "bowgun" (lame reference by me to the gun style weapon class in Monster Hunter) is about 1000x more deadly too (well, lets face it, Snakes lock-on missile launcher vs a crossbow with gunpowder?). So expect a very intense battle. And a lot of swearing directed at the weaker monsters running around jumping on you.
So, basically when you buy the game you get:
- The main story's missions (a decent amount at that)
- Extra ops, missions that don't progress the story much but often involve mercenary or clean up work (there's something like 120+)
- A Co-Op mode that allows you to play the above missions in 2-4 player mode (for most missions anyway), but be warned that this requires that you play in person with someone rather than over the internet (Ad hoc only)
- Outer Ops, sort of like automatically-played out pokémon style battles, where you send off troops while you're completing missions then see the results of battles in a fairly well presented format
- Mother Base/Outer Heaven, related to the "RPG" side of the game, where you put recruited soldiers into different departments that help your main game, e.g. R&D who make new weapons and items for you, the Combat Unit used for Outer Ops, a sickbay, a medical team (of course!), and various other teams required to keep the joint running smoothly
- A Metal Gear you get to work on and modify slowly, and then send into Outer Ops battles
- R&D where you go and make new items for the main game, and repair vehicles for the Outer ops
Not to mention in game there are many treats too, like a Sony Walkman which allows the player to listen to MGS music while playing (also upgradeable by R&D to later and later models released by Sony), the fulton recovery system (basically, a parachute you attach to prisoners or knocked out guards to send them to Mother Base and force them to join your team) which ironically doesn't alert enemy guards despite how noisy it is (they must be used to people being kidnapped or something), and various other bonus features.
Anyway, I'm gonna wrap up and say "GET THIS GAME". It's definitely a 10/10 PSP game, and is better than many console games (although the controls, while excellent, can get irritating after 3 hours straight play, due to how slippery the PSP feels in your hands).
If I have time later this week or month or year, I might rewrite this review in French or something...
Stars: **********
Saturday, 31 October 2009
The Automatic. English Indie Band.
Ok, so they might be Welsh. But who cares, these guys rock. They have a good sound, they let you preview their tracks, they um... have a forum on their website?
Seriously though, do yourself a favour and listen to these dudes. Especially if you like bands from the UK or Australia, like Gyroscope. They have a similar sounding accent, but their songs are cooler IMHO.
Go now! Listen!
... You're not listening... LISTEN DAMMIT!
Thank you! :)
Seriously though, do yourself a favour and listen to these dudes. Especially if you like bands from the UK or Australia, like Gyroscope. They have a similar sounding accent, but their songs are cooler IMHO.
Go now! Listen!
... You're not listening... LISTEN DAMMIT!
Thank you! :)
Wednesday, 28 October 2009
Our childhood dreams pave our futures
Some of you probably have heard about the big whooping dome they want to build over Houston. Just search on Google for "Houston dome project" and you'll find many links on this ambitious idea.
A rundown for the unacquainted is that they basically want to build a big geodesic dome over the U.S. city of Houston, which has gotten some positive coverage from the Discovery Channel's website. Now, why on EARTH would you want to build a big friggin dome over such a large city? Well, basically it's to do the same thing a Greenhouse does for plants but for people: condition the habitat for its occupants (in this case vegetables, including the special variant known as couch potatoes). It uses a material that allows UV rays to come through and thus allow plant growth, and the dome would be able to open up certain panels for ventilation et cetera. Overall it's a nice plan if you find a way to convince everyone to drive electric cars and figure out a way for the local new chopper to get it.
So sounds like a nice, futuristic idea, bringing the days depicted in science fiction one step closer. But this isn't the first example of human ingenuity reflecting themes and ideas brought about in science fiction. This makes me ask - are our fantastical ideas of the future as children or in the books we read or movies we see influencing our innovations of tomorrow? It certainly seems so. Of course, some things don't work out - building the tripods from War of the Worlds would be foolish as we A. don't have any murderous martians to put into them, and B. 3 legged transport is inefficient. Anyone who has watched Gundam would know 2 legged transport is the way of the future ;)
So if we really are making our future reflect what we think it should be like, how can we use this to make things better? Could this be used to implement perfect utopia? Could we have human-like AI controlled robots running around as bonafide members of society? And how come certain things (like city-wide domes and robot puppies) are worked on while other grand ideas like socks that never wear out that can be worn as shoes (not quite like this) or holographic HUD sunnies never quite grab attention?
Either way, the future looks very interesting, and given the trend so far, I think we can expect our lower-level dreams of the future to come to fruition soon. At least in Houston :)
Update: This is more what I meant by socks that double as shoes, but with a much less obvious sole (preferably none, but that's thinking a bit TOO big) and with a much longer neck/cuff/whatever the hell you call the long part of a knee high sock. Oh and a single colour, like long white school or sports socks. Now that'd be cool. You can probably guess that I hate wearing shoes.
Update: This is more what I meant by socks that double as shoes, but with a much less obvious sole (preferably none, but that's thinking a bit TOO big) and with a much longer neck/cuff/whatever the hell you call the long part of a knee high sock. Oh and a single colour, like long white school or sports socks. Now that'd be cool. You can probably guess that I hate wearing shoes.
Sunday, 25 October 2009
A can of LOL.
The other day I drunk a whole can of LOL.
No, I wasn't in hysteria. LOL is a new kind of carbonated fruit juice (a whole 99% fruit juice! ZOMG@!!!!!@#!@!!!!!ONEW!!!! - altho 1%'s all you need to still something toxic in).
It's made by Golden Grove in Australia (maybe elsewhere too, I don't know nor care) and it, well, doesn't really taste all that awesome. It's not bad, it's just not good. Although it feels like you're drinking a UDL or Red Bear mixed vodka drink. I swear that remaining 1% not-fruit-juice is vodka.
I find this funny though, as this comes after the iSnack 2.0 debacle where people got emotional over naming a new vegemite product something so crud. But then that makes me ask - Why are you so emotional over something that looks like they put tar or crude oil in a jar and marketed it as spread for your toast?! Seriously, it's as if the Queen has gone an' knighted George W. Bush Jr and revived the East India Company and put him in charge! Although that would be hilarious.
No, I wasn't in hysteria. LOL is a new kind of carbonated fruit juice (a whole 99% fruit juice! ZOMG@!!!!!@#!@!!!!!ONEW!!!! - altho 1%'s all you need to still something toxic in).
It's made by Golden Grove in Australia (maybe elsewhere too, I don't know nor care) and it, well, doesn't really taste all that awesome. It's not bad, it's just not good. Although it feels like you're drinking a UDL or Red Bear mixed vodka drink. I swear that remaining 1% not-fruit-juice is vodka.
I find this funny though, as this comes after the iSnack 2.0 debacle where people got emotional over naming a new vegemite product something so crud. But then that makes me ask - Why are you so emotional over something that looks like they put tar or crude oil in a jar and marketed it as spread for your toast?! Seriously, it's as if the Queen has gone an' knighted George W. Bush Jr and revived the East India Company and put him in charge! Although that would be hilarious.
Gender bias and so called unacceptable grammar in English
Now, alot of peop's tend to think that English is evil for a variety of reasons - maybe because it's stealing the limelight from French, maybe because it's grammar isn't actually to hard, maybe it's because none of these English-dislikers have ever tried to learn Irish (complain to me about spelling then!), or maybe they don't like the future of the English language because simple 3 letter words aren't good enough for their complex tastes.
But one interesting aspect of the English language that cops a lot of flack (especially from feminists) is Gender bias. Now, lets just note for a minute that English is not actually that bad with Gender bias. It has no grammatical gender, it's fairly flexible in regards to pronouns (e.g. we don't have a system where a group of women with one man is still referred to as an all male group). So really, the main argument comes down to petty things like referring to people whose gender is unknown, and the fact that 'woman' has 'man' in it.
In regards to referring to gender-neutral things or people, there's a simple solution to this - just use 'they' all the time. I mean, why do we even NEED to distinguish the gender of the person, let alone the plurality?
Example - some dude called Roger comes home from work and his sister says this to him:
"Oh, Sam dropped by while you were at work. They looked upset".
Firstly, lets think about this - Roger would obviously KNOW who Sam is. And if he knows more than one male or female Sam then it's still as ambiguous as using 'Oh, Sam dropped in and he/she looked upset'. So there's no communication failure there.
Ok, so what about writing a book or being told about someone by a mate? If they are introduced as 'they', then how do we know the number or gender of this person? Well, quite frankly, in a normal setting, all characters should be properly introduced in a story with their gender explicitly mentioned to the reader. It's just good literacy practice. And in nonstandard settings, using 'they' actually gives the author more flexibility and ability to express themselves or create interesting plot twists - e.g. 'OMG THEY WERE A GIRL?! I THOUGH THEY WERE A BOY! AND I BOUGHT THEM HAIRPINS!'. Ok, how that counts as a plot twist is not really certain, but you should be able to understand where I'm coming from.
Nooooow, what about the 'man' in 'woman'?
This one is actually interesting, as many people try to explain this. Some Christians might argue 'Oh, well, this is because Eve came from Adam, and that's why 'woman' has 'man' in it'. But this isn't a very realistic theory, as the English language comes from a originally Pagan people. And it's unlikely the original word for 'woman' would have been modified upon the adoption of Christianity, considering how 'woman' is one of the most commonly used words in English.
So where did this 'woman' word come from? From 'womb+man'? Nup. It comes from 'Wifeman' (Old English 'wifman' if I'm correct). This literally means 'female man'. But 'wifman' wasn't just paired with 'man', nope, in fact, male men were referred to as 'werman' ('Wereman' nowdays - think 'Werewolf'). In fact, 'wer' and 'wif' could have been used alone. Which means that 'man' simply mean 'human' or 'person'. So, in fact, Modern English is actually Gender biased towards women because they still have their own word. Actually, wait, that gets cancelled out because of Werewolves and all other things 'Were-'. Darn :P
But one interesting aspect of the English language that cops a lot of flack (especially from feminists) is Gender bias. Now, lets just note for a minute that English is not actually that bad with Gender bias. It has no grammatical gender, it's fairly flexible in regards to pronouns (e.g. we don't have a system where a group of women with one man is still referred to as an all male group). So really, the main argument comes down to petty things like referring to people whose gender is unknown, and the fact that 'woman' has 'man' in it.
In regards to referring to gender-neutral things or people, there's a simple solution to this - just use 'they' all the time. I mean, why do we even NEED to distinguish the gender of the person, let alone the plurality?
Example - some dude called Roger comes home from work and his sister says this to him:
"Oh, Sam dropped by while you were at work. They looked upset".
Firstly, lets think about this - Roger would obviously KNOW who Sam is. And if he knows more than one male or female Sam then it's still as ambiguous as using 'Oh, Sam dropped in and he/she looked upset'. So there's no communication failure there.
Ok, so what about writing a book or being told about someone by a mate? If they are introduced as 'they', then how do we know the number or gender of this person? Well, quite frankly, in a normal setting, all characters should be properly introduced in a story with their gender explicitly mentioned to the reader. It's just good literacy practice. And in nonstandard settings, using 'they' actually gives the author more flexibility and ability to express themselves or create interesting plot twists - e.g. 'OMG THEY WERE A GIRL?! I THOUGH THEY WERE A BOY! AND I BOUGHT THEM HAIRPINS!'. Ok, how that counts as a plot twist is not really certain, but you should be able to understand where I'm coming from.
Nooooow, what about the 'man' in 'woman'?
This one is actually interesting, as many people try to explain this. Some Christians might argue 'Oh, well, this is because Eve came from Adam, and that's why 'woman' has 'man' in it'. But this isn't a very realistic theory, as the English language comes from a originally Pagan people. And it's unlikely the original word for 'woman' would have been modified upon the adoption of Christianity, considering how 'woman' is one of the most commonly used words in English.
So where did this 'woman' word come from? From 'womb+man'? Nup. It comes from 'Wifeman' (Old English 'wifman' if I'm correct). This literally means 'female man'. But 'wifman' wasn't just paired with 'man', nope, in fact, male men were referred to as 'werman' ('Wereman' nowdays - think 'Werewolf'). In fact, 'wer' and 'wif' could have been used alone. Which means that 'man' simply mean 'human' or 'person'. So, in fact, Modern English is actually Gender biased towards women because they still have their own word. Actually, wait, that gets cancelled out because of Werewolves and all other things 'Were-'. Darn :P
Thursday, 1 October 2009
OMG! An evony ad WITHOUT women! A miracle!
This is scary stuff people. Today I found an Evony ad that did not have any women in it! Not only that, but it's a new one that I've never seen before too! Could this be the end of using mammary glands to sell a web-game which doesn't even have women in the plot?
A screenshot of the ad found on mangafox.com:
Interestingly though this ad came several pages after one of the more notorious Evony ads showing a bikini clad woman lying down (as they apparently did in medieval times). Oh well, at least it's a start towards somewhat-more-decent advertising principles.
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