Hitman: Absolution - Absolutely fantastic

Machinima.com posted the world exclusive gameplay trailer of Hitman: Absolution. Needless to say, it looks absolutely jaw dropping. I am still having a hard time trying to get over the fact how great it looks, like a thriller flick down absolutely right. Don't believe me, see for yourself!


Some stuff in my mind:

• The visuals and animations look superb, easily among the most awesome looking games this generation, kudos to IO Interactive for cooking up an amazing game engine! The art looks fantastic and dark Gothic color and architecture clearly inspired this game. I think all fits perfectly to lend in with the tone when the tables have turned and the hunter becomes constantly hunted throughout the game.
• Is it just me or all the cops sound like Italian mobsters? Even some of their names are very much Italian.
• The only thing I didn't like from the gameplay footage is the new vision mode Agent 47 gained due to years of successful assassination. The mode not only highlights the enemy but also show their path points. My most concern is with the latter, part of the experience of playing previous Hitman games is when you try to anticipate enemy movements by yourself and lets not forget the tension it builds as you follow closely whether the enemy chooses left...or right (where you were hiding). This system gives away everything and you know exactly when he will stop. Hope they tone down this mode, even better, make it just optional. Look, I know Agent 47 got all manner of experience under his blade and all but surely there must be a better way to show it than painting the world in the shades of blue.
• I found the voice acting to be too cheesy sometimes, hope they work it up.
• Now I know why this game cleaned out at the GameSpot E3 2011 Awards.
• If Agent 47 and Batman go out at each other and if only one of them comes out alive. Its 47...only because batman knows nothing about killing and 47 knows nothing but killing.
• This game reminds me so much about Arkham Asylum; no surprise here as the color tone, atmosphere and the music plays to the now Batman classic.
• Loved the soundtrack, wonder if Jesper Kyd returned to his role. For those who don't know, Kyd was responsible for the music of previous games in the series as well as Assassin's Creed. This guy is really awesome at what he does!

Batman: Arkham Asylum - Review

The experience playing Batman: Arkham Asylum was like being strapped into a chair with the controllers attached to your hand while you eyes are glued to the TV. Batman: AA portrays the dark nature of the caped crusader and takes Batman and puts him in Arkham Asylum aka hell's den, all the psychotic foes Batman has ever fought ended up in the asylum, and so you understand that everyone is just waiting to get a piece of him. This is going to be one of the longest nights of Batman and for us its a thriller that gets better the more you go into the game.

The game utilizes all the facets that makes Batman so great. Batman, being the world's greatest detective can turn on his detective mode with L2 button to scan the areas for threats, objects, clues ,etc other wise impossible to detect. Using the help of that vision, Batman can uncover trails left by his prey otherwise hidden.

The combat system touted 'Freeflow' combat to me is the best combat system in any game to date, not only its very easy to pick up with simple Square to attack, Triangle to counter, O to cape stun, X to evade and combine all these with his slick gadgets like batclaw, batarangs in 1 'flow', and it easily bests even the best of Hollywood stunts and just awesome to watch. Simply put the system is very easy to pick up, but very powerful if you can master it.

Another part of the combat is the signature Batman style of taking out his foes like a predator, appropriately named predator encounters. A room filled with goons with guns which is not good for someone as human as batman, so he lurks in the shadows with the help of gargoyles, air ducts, etc and takes out his foes silently. As their numbers increase, you will notice they become more nervous and eventually terrified, its just amazing. I once cornered a guy, he was alone and kept shouting out for the bat to face him, even though deep down he regretted saying that. I glided behind him, he was backing up and touched me, he turned to face me and got so scared that he actually fell from the railing and got KO, you can create tons of interesting scenarios like these. The only problem I find is that in this mode the AI becomes all blind as a bat, I was literally standing next to him and he couldn't see me, just went over his head and acted as if I was not there. Still nothing too serious but still hope in the sequel both the combat and predator modes blend.

Rocksteady wants to tell the dark tale and they crafted a really dark world with the Unreal Engine 3. So instead of talking about how good the game looks thanks to the technical features of UE 3, lets talk about the art direction. They put tremendous attention to detail to bring that dark world of Arkham Asylum and by blending modern technology with the dark Gothic architecture, its truly dare I say amazing place to be in. The cutscenes look great, however the in-game conversations look weak with bug-eyes and stillness. Batman animates really well, but the only thing that looks weird in some angles is how stiffly he walks, I know the guy is menacing but god's sake he is just a man. Overall a spectacular technical and artistic achievement.

The sound is equally impressive with the orchestral music of Dark Knight with even more Gothic tone to it makes it unique while still retaining the character. The voice actors of animated series returns including Mark Hamill who played the joker returns with such a performance that it deserves more than Oscar, hell if your not familiar with his voice and his laugh, after playing this game when you think about Joker the only voice that comes to your mind is his, in fact its good enough reason to buy the game just for his voice over, yeah its that good.

Batman hooked me in such a way that Metal Gear Solid 4 did back in 2007, its a masterpiece. Here is hoping the sequel is already in the works.

Was playing Resident Evil 5, and shouted Holy Shit!

My intentions on that day was to complete the game on professional difficulty, the highest difficulty in the game, its pretty easy when you have unlimited magnum. Anyways paired up with a dude online, and noticed he had a rocket launcher, well...unlimited rocket launcher, which is like the most powerful weapon in the game, boses go down with just 1 shot. Anyways the final level was finished, it turns out not only we had just finished the game in pro, but I also finished the entire game in 4 hrs and 15 mins, thats under 5 hrs.....so I unlocked the unlimited rocket launcher through that dude, lol, sweeet! Now I just need to upgrade some weapons to the max and the platinum is mine!

Next blog is about my hype for uncharted 2 and hopefully finish my Batman: Arkham Asylum review.
Later dudes.

Finished Batman Arkham Asylum

It is easily one of my favourite games of all time, I was never been addicted so much since Oblivion and MGS 4. It truly captures what is Batman all about why he is the most feared hero in the entire universe, despite being an ordinary man. I tried to find faults for the game, other than how stiffly Batman moves... I couldn't find any, I tried so hard but I couldn't find any real faults for the game. I unlocked most trophies, played the game on hard from get go, got all collectibles; oh yeah this is the first game ever I actually enjoyed alot collecting the stuff needed to collect, I loved the puzzles and riddles of riddler! But I dont think I will ever get the platinum for this as there is a small series of trophies which is extremely difficult: Free flow combat challenges, it gets tougher every time u move on, you need to make sure you are flawless and build a big combo in every 4 rounds which makes it one of the hardest platinum trophies ever. The entire game in hard is really challenging, and hence it felt really good finishing the game.

This year's dark horse is riden by the Dark Knight himself.
 

Got Fallout 3 platinum

Yeah I got it 4 days ago, cant believe I got it in just under a week of play! As for other games, I am playing Resident Evil 5 hoping to get the platinum. Although this will take a lot of time because I need to have a unlimited magnum before I want to try out the game on the professional difficulty, not to mention several trophies which requires you to play a lot just to gain enough points to buy out all the weapons and upgrade them, so it will take a while.

I am also playing Killzone 2 singleplayer and multiplayer, still feels fresh and solid, and yeah the graphics still blows me away. The singleplayer is solid with great enemy AI, although it is very disappointing that the game doesn't have Co-op, I mean Killzone 2 would have been 10 times more fun and sometimes less frustrating if you had a friend giving you a hand in the campaign. It is easily the the FPS of the year contender for me, and easily beats the likes of what Call of Duty have done in recent years, and Modern Warfare 2 doesn't look to do anything new and different just the usual a bit better graphics (still along way from Killzone 2 level of visual prowess) and new perks.

In fact I might not even get Modern Warfare 2, instead I will get Assassin's Creed 2. Loved the original with its conspiracy storyline and great sandbox world. AC 2 is even more better thanks to an assassin with personality this time around so we should connected  to this character Ezio more than we did with Altair. Also the fact that its in Italy, I love everything about Italy. I cant pass this one.

Also I will finally start playing the MGS for the PS One which I downloaded a month back. The reason I didn't play because I had exams going on and its a MGS game..... it deserves all the time in the world. Cant wait to play one of the best games ever made and then move to MGS 4 which to me is the 2nd favourite game of all time. Great deep story, fantastic cinmatics, voice over, music, gameplay makes it a stunning package, a masterpiece by Hideo Kojima.

Well that's it, in a weeks time I will be putting on the cowl and get myself a copy of Batman: Arkham Asylum, the batman game we all been waiting for a very very....very long time:).

Some updates, looking ahead

 

Since this E3, I cant help but feel as if a new PSP was launched, as the support from Sony and other devs have been tremendous. I mean we are not just talking about 2 or 3 high profile games, but more and added features like recently unveiled video store direct download, comic store and host of great games like MGS: Peace Walker, Gran Turismo, Resident Evil just to name a few. As if PSP is given a 2nd, better life. Even though I dont have a PSP it got me excited, maybe this Fall I will get one.

I am playing Fallout 3 again to get my platinum back, I thought it would be a boring or will feel like a chore or something, still somehow the game still amazes me and really great way to release stress for some reason. I am one of those hardcore Fallout and Elder Scrolls fan and I try to dig up everything about the gameworld, its really rewarding to find out more yourself then the game throwing the details at you, Bethesda have created such rich worlds, even thought their games are really buggy which is bad.

Last but not least, I am stalking The Dark Knight at Arkham Asylum. I really feel this is it, the game that I have been waiting since I was a child but never came, a dark gritty batman game (a child wishes dark gritty batman game, something is wrong for sure!).

Thats it for now, next blog I will post about some of my anticipated games and updates on the on-going operation 'take it back'- fancy sentence for getting back as much trophies as I can.