Gundam Age Third Look: I want to cry now, can I?

Gundam Age act III, okay for all of you who doesn't realize it until now: This anime has become creepier and incompatible with my brain parts, and also an insult to the gundam franchise, this is a reminder for all of you movie makers: You CAN'T take Band of Brothers and tone down the level of violence so it'll be suitable for kids, Gundam is a story about war, about kids killing other kids or adults, you CAN'T TONE DOWN that!! and if the franchise really wants to sell more toys to kids please let me remind you that kids in Japan is a non existant entity. And the amount of teenage nerds that bought Gundam toy models is even bigger than the population in my city anyway

Because if there are kids in Japan, they'll start building weapons of mass destruction

Ok, so in the end of Act two the dark lord Flit Asuno and his force-less apprentice son Asemu set up a trap to lure the Earth spies for the Vagan, which apparently the president of Earth itself, so Darth Asuno captured him, executed him and the rest of his senate accomplice and start the dark reign of Earth under the military rules and strict martial law, turning the Earth itself into a training grounds for the new Sith generation.

Yeah...

I lied, apparently the citizen of earth are okay with those execution and live happily ever after, which is weird because in my head the battle between the V and the Earthers are becoming more and more 1980s cold war-like, except both parties endlessly launched giant robots to space and blow up planets and space stations, it's extremy unfathomable that Sith Emperor Asuno brainwashed the entire Earth citizen to hate Vagans while on the other side the prophetic leader of Vagans brainwashed the entire Martians to think Earth is their rights to take, it's like watching the entire international conflict on World War 1 fused itself into a giant ball of polarized opinion

I don't have any good picture to describe this but this one come close

So, let's continue, after Asemu and the most screen time girl have coitus (legally of course, they're married anyway) they have a son called Kio, apparently dark lord Asuno isn't finished on his quest to eradicate all communists.... i mean Vagans so he brought his grandson a combat simulation which apparently a Gundam cockpit simulator, so yeah little cute Kio has been trained to kill Vagans since he was five.

His parents will be so proud

After that the story goes on, Kio got a transformer big Gundam called Age 3 and start blasting away Vagans with ease, and that's that.

yes, that's all, the end, now let me cry.

Mind Invading Tyrians (Guild Wars 2 First Beta Weekend hands-on)

It's been a week month since I left Azeroth due to a new work project (again), and also tried to do something different with my daily life (again), but apparently it didn't stop my hype for Guild Wars 2, I feel like I've been shot by a lethal dose of mesmerizing potion, more or less Tyria is invading my mind, long story short... I'm on my laptop on fourth in the morning logging in at the first Beta Weekend

Before I logged in I read the countless twits and forum posts describing the error some of the folks encountered, seems like the login server is broken due the fact that hundreds of thousands drooling mobs tried to login at the same time, I personally waited two hours until Arenanet's team fixed it, after that I logged in and everything's fine, I relog a couple of times just to make sure the problem is fixed, my friends reported they still have login issues so i think I just got lucky


The Weapon Masters

Since it was the first time I will be playing Guild Wars 2 I decided I'll be playing Warrior because I viewed it as an 'easy' class on every MMO I ever played, and it'll be a blasphemy not to roll the most iconic Guild Wars character: the Charr, so there I was, rolling a white furred Charr Warrior.

Because white is the new hype

The first time I zoomed to the starting zone I noticed is the FPS drops (maybe due the obvious fact that everyone rolls charr), got some tutorial on the mechanic and then quickly blast (i mean slash) away mobs with my sword, the control is incredibly easy, the battle system was hectic, yes it was INCREDIBLY HECTIC AND FUN!! The key point is to have you constantly moving while you cut enemy to pieces (or smash them with your hammer, or cleaving, or...) anyway if you think warrior is only a close combat expert think again, Warriors on Guild Wars 2 are weapon masters, they can use every single arms available (except staffs, daggers, and other magicky stuffs) oh yeah, Skills on Guild Wars 2 is weapon based so your skill changed based on what weapon you're using, and Bow/Rifles are equally deadly as a greatsword on Warrior's hand, imagine a ranged weapon on a heavy armored class, blasting everything with long range shots and arrow volleys, experimenting with weapon was my great time on Guild Wars 2

I also get my hand into Mesmer, crazy class in which a crossing between the word fun and exhausting, as a magic user mesmer relied on their illusions and debuff skills, I didn't get my hand on that guy much but I have to say this: Flashy purple skills will make your eyes hurt :))

I like hacking and slashing more, the sole reason I got two weapons

Dying In A Busy World is not a Bad Thing

After a short tutorial and initial quests I got threw into an outpost outside my capital city: The Black Citadel, after that I was deemed free to start my story, there are several quests type on Guild Wars 2, there are heart quests that involved you gathering resources and killing stuffs to reinforce the area, after you complete it the NPC involved turns into a vendor, selling you some good upgrades for your weapons or armors with karma (basically a PVE currencies, just like JP and VP on WOW) you gain Karma as you complete hearts and events. There are also dynamic event which seemed to happens every time your character stepped a foot inside an area, it usually happened when your character is busy gathering resources or slaying a heart quest objective, these dynamic event ranged from defending an outpost raided by a bunch of enemy into a 'raid' situation itself where you have to escort an NPC into the enemy territory and killed the big elite boss there, sometimes it also happened in a chain wehere the first event is a raided outpost, the second is scouting the territory, and the third is a full pledged raid into the heart of the enemy's lair. Everyday is a busy day on Tyria, the NPC on the game is not stationary, they helped you fight mobs, they heals you, they're also smart enough to run away when a bunch of hungry bears invaded a village, they're also defeated and can be ressurected (or rallied on Guild Wars 2 term) some of the dynamic event can be triggered by speaking to an NPC. Last one is the personal story quest, I'll be covered that in the next chapter

When you are faced with a pack of angry mobs, here's a fact: you will DIE, even when you're lucky enough to survive a long time somebody else will take your place dying, and here's another thing: when you die (downed on Guild Wars 2 term) you can still fight with a bunch of downed skill, including tried to build your HP, throwing rocks to enemies, teleporting to a safer place, or even get up to fight once again with a limited time, when the enemy attacking you died (whether it's from your attacks, dots, or somebody else's doing) you'll be back in action and it's called rallied. The second 'death' state is called defeated, which happens when your downed time is up or all the mobs continues to bash you, this is basically where you are truly dead and can't do anything except waiting someone to resuscitate you (a.k.a rallying) and since anyone can do this it's basically a blessing, you're also responsible for keeping your health in check, even when you're a warrior when you rush headlong alone with a sword and a shield into a boulder-throwing elemental you'll get downed pretty fast or even defeated, every profession has unique healing skills, which equipped in the 6th slot of your skill hotkey, so if you want to rush headfirst, rush headfirst with friends and other people, just make sure you keep that 6th shortcut in mind and don't mind dying, it happens, just pray that there are somebody else around :D

You see, 'charge straight into battle' means you do that with your fellows

In short: there are enough things to do to keep you occupied on Tyria, variety of those, and they said there are more, it is the biggest selling point of Guild Wars 2

My Story

Epic stories on a game always an awesome thing, you don't just read it or listening to it, you're IN IT! the levels of involving are varied throughout RPGs though and Guild Wars 2 delivered some good thing, it's all  started at the beginning: when you create your character you will be given some options for your character, for the charr is the legion you belong, your lineage, and your sparring partner, this create a set path where your character embarking on an epic journey on a quest chain, the personal story quests offered great experience, karma, and some equipments upgrades, all personal story takes place in an instanced zone and you can bring other people to help or experience it from the view of your character, to add the flavor some of the personal story quests had choices that'll affect the plot, so even when you following your friend's storyline, his/her choice might not be yours and you can always pick yours when it your turns to do the quest

To be honest In this beta experience some of the quests are... ridiculuously hard while the other is plain flat easy, the decent challenge is somewhat rare, from five of my stories I've only seen it once, the others are involving me dying over and over again where every mobs throws flame bolts at me, or in other case I just facerolling everything. The easy way is always to have friends tagged along and created havoc among the enemies, but this thing confront the very soul of the 'personal' thing. I think Arenanet needs to addresses this issue, whether tweaking with the companion NPCs or scale down/up the ability of the mobs itself, there are also some... disconnected feeling at the plots between chapters from the human's personal story

Overall: Decent story for every lore-lover including me, not too long, can be joined with friends, although some of the hard difficulties are somewhat turns me off, there's a  charr quest that is a reminisce from the old Guild Wars quest on Ascalon it gave me a warm feelings and I really enjoyed that one

Bumps on the road

It's beta, it will have flaws and Guild Wars 2 have quite a lot of it, the login server is posing a problem for some people, the difficulties of instances are spiking ups and downs, the FPS problem is a major disappointment for almost all minimal spec user,

What about me? Well for me nothing is gamebreaking although there seems to be a major hiccup on the guild system, the second day I'm logging in I found my guild is gone! I tried creating it again and it didn't respond, but in the end I just moved on and created a second guild with new name, it's just a beta after all, one other thing is despite the heavy armor I'm wearing I found my survivability is on par as a medium armor wearing classes, I think it's where the traits system started (I'll get it done after I fiddled with it a bit more)

Closing (But there's still more to come...)

It's good so far, Guild Wars 2 representation is almost as I expected, I didn't get my hand into PVP or server battle though (dubbed World Versus World Versus World: WvsWvsW), also I didn't have time to do the crafting, and since gathering requires some gear it still make me frown since they said we can gather without restriction, but well nobody's perfect but since the beta ended I've been died a liitle inside, one month from now, hope they smooth some of the issues (especially the FPS thing) at that time

Reviewing The Raid: Redemption

The Raid doesn't start with a bang, it started with usual buildup towards the inevitable violence, but when the things started, you can't take your eyes off it, and it continues to rolled over you over and over again like a mean ashpalt roller machine. The plot is quite simple: A squad of SWAT team prepares a Raid on a building owned by a drug lord, it also serves on a hideout for dangerous criminals and terorrists, then fate goes batshit crazy (triggered by n R-rated scene that will probably created the spin-off, The Raid: Lost Generation), long story short the SWAT's raid become a fight for survival, a journey full of carnage and beautiful violence.

 This is the very first picture on google search, the sole reason I posted it

 

What's the good? The Raid has only one strong point: The fights, every single fight scenes in this movie is beautifully executed, unpredictable, and well-choregraphed, whether it's one-one-one, two-on-one, or even a mass fight involving several people at once, the solo fights by Iko Uwais are the highlighted events from the movie, the fights scene will came at you full-powered, it didn't build up, it didn't take long, they're fast fast and straight in your face street fighting with every assortment of lethal tools including the building's concrete walls itself, it's brutal and adrenaline surging, it's not shiny like the Matrix or flowing like Ong Bak, it's goddamned bleak as hell where every wrong enemy moves are exploited and often resulted in quick death or a grotesque scene.

The Lethality level of fight is strengthened by the scene's ambience, like the light, camera positioning, and sounds. My God, the sounds of the fight is uniquely satisfying for my ears, whether it's a knuckle's, a swinging sword, or just a guttural sounds of a severed neck artery and so on. The sounds itself is so connected with the fight, the sound of a knuckle that broke's a rib is different from a knuckle that didn't, you can tell the fight is coming to an end when the punches or kickes become so erratic you won't even blink due the fear you'll lose the next frame. The lighting helps a lot, the camera positioning are good and the CG helps a lot (most of the bloods are animated but didn't feel too phony).

 

 The body count caused by the right guy's moustache is also satisfying

Despite the great fighting scenes, there are also some fight scene that didn't exceed the expectation, the fight on the drugs lab are so lame it didn't get the usual applause from the audience, it feels like a filler and so anticlimactic, the story is predictable and the movie is ended with another anticlimactic event, the actor are decent but none too groundbreaking, Ray Sahetapy provide a good one at the beginning but also too comical. Iko Uwais doesn't speak much but he's just about so-so, Donny Alamsyah is better (too bad he didn't get too much fighting scenes), special credits to Yayan Ruhiyan for his moustache and hair.... err no, it's because his crazy moves strengthen his Mad Dog character, all others are mediocre, but as I said before the story doesn't matter, it's a martial art movie and it live it's hype.

The one thing that noticed by me is the amount of dark humour scattered at this movie, I watched this movie with it's original language and laughed my ass hard when that Eastern Indonesian speaks with his dialect in a scene, no offense but their dialect never quite grew in my ear, I noticed the amount of serious dialogue and the... I don't know... 'funny' dialogues amounted the same, were they intended by the director? Could be, but it helps release the tension after or before the fight, IMO it's probably there in purpose to made the audience didn't fall asleep on the in-between-fight scenes, I personally want to see how's the subtitled version looks like on these scenes, hope it helps them feel the humours.

I recalled his real name is Alfred or something: 

Well Al, believe me, you're my new fave cameo ever

Final Verdict: It's awesome, and I KEEP WANTING MORE, GODDAMIT THIS MOVIE IS TOO SHORT!!! I don't care about the story but how should I? The movie already makes me want to spar with my friends so I guess it's quite influencing, let me gives this beautiful piece of art an 8.8