Darksiders Review

Rating: A-
Premise:
Darksiders is an action adventure game that follows the story of War, one of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse as he tries to clear his name from being framed for destroying the human race and throwing heaven and hell out of balance.

Gameplay:
Many have compared this game to Nintendo's Zelda games, however, since I have never played any of those games (yup, its true) I cannot speak intelligently on any comparisons between the two. I can say that there are some slight similarities between this game, God of War and Devil May Cry, but in my opinion, this game really stands on it's own as something completely different.

There are branching attack combos which can be upgraded using souls (the games currency). As you play through the game, War becomes more and more versatile and powerful, almost overly so in that I felt it was a bit easy to beat most of the game's bosses. War has access to a sword, a scythe, and a tremor gauntlet as his main weapons. He also has several secondary weapons and gadgets that allow him to solve various puzzles throughout the game world--oh and he also has a horse. I have never played a game that had this many attributes applied to a character, and though it got a bit cumbersome to map and remember what items I had at my disposal, it was never overwhelming to the point where the game was not fun to play.

The combat didn't feel as tight and responsive as either of the aforementioned games, however it is much more forgiving, if a bit more repetitive, and was never clunky enough to become frustrating. I felt that the game focused a lot more on the exploration and puzzle solving than hacking and slashing, which while satisfying, was a bit weird considering War's hulking size. Once I finished the game I felt like it would have been nice to have an arena mode where I could go in and spend time chopping up baddies.

Story:
I'm not going to spend much time here, only because the story was a bit hard for me to follow. This is not because it wasn't well written, but  it took me over a year to find the time to finish this game and I can't remember the details well enough to comment on it. I can say that the atmosphere created in this game was spectacular. The characters and environments were beautifully designed, and I can say it was once of the richest experiences in terms of character design I have ever seen. Joe Madureira is one of my favorite Comic artists, and his style is beautifully rendered here in 3-D. I also should mention that this game is really long, I would have to estimate 15-20 hours of content. Not bad in an era where games are getting a bit shorter and focus more on multiplayer.

Graphics & Effects:
Absolutely beautiful. The character design in this game is nothing short of amazing. Once of my favorite effects was the way the  massive Tormented Gates would  be visible moving off into the distance long after they allowed War access into a new area. I also really enjoyed the use of color in this game, though it is supposed to be a post-apocalyptic setting, the colors are nice and vibrant. There were a lot of nice environmental touches throughout the game that made the experience feel quite polished, like the sky and fire effects. It was also really satisfying to break glass and destroy the many burned-out cars all over the game world. One particularly nice experience I had with the game was how sneaky some of the enemies were. I can't remember the last time I played a game and was startled by an enemy who had hidden behind a pillar or was lurking just out of sight. It was a common and welcome occurrence in Darksiders and it was due to the game design and not to errors in code. It was also satisfying to see how far away enemies would notice War's presence and start running toward him for a fight.

Sound:
The sound in the game is really well done. The sounds of environmental destruction are all convincing and visceral. The weapons all sound like you would imagine (if you could imagine the way a 100lb sword would sound swinging through the air). The voice acting was also noteworthy. Mark Hamill did his customary best as The Watcher, and the other characters performed well enough that I was always interested in what was being said, and at no time was I unable to hear what was going on. Vulgrim was a surprise favorite, as I always found myself smiling when I visited his locations.

Overall:
I really enjoyed this game & give it an A-. I was actually a little sad that I reached the end of my time with it, and I would play through another time just to experience the atmosphere and artwork again. I felt there could have been more time spent on combat, and some sequences felt a bit clunky, but it was never frustrating if a bit too easy. The amount of content and variety in the gameplay was impressive and executed in a manner I felt was balanced and easy to use. Even though there were instances where I would put the game down for months I could return and easily recall the controls. All in all I look forward to the upcoming sequel and the opportunity to explore more of the Darksiders universe.

My First Heroes Con

Today I attended my first Heroes convention! It's a great way to meet a ton of really talented comic artists and talk to them about how they got into doing what they do. I have had the pleasure of meeting a number of local artists through Google+, and today I finally got to meet two of them face to face. Links to their sites are available HERE and HERE.
I also got to meet an extremely talented lady by the name of Afua Richardson. View her art HERE. She has such a warm spirit and I can't say enough how truly TALENTED she is. She and the other people I spoke with today inspired me to get the story idea for a graphic novel I've had rolling around in my head down on paper finally. Never has publishing a comic been easier, so I really have no excuse. Here's to me publishing that book and being a guest at next year's convention!

Fist Of the North Star--Review

I recently watched this movie after many many years of thinking I had seen it already, and I can say now that I was mistaken. This movie is one of the classic films that many fans of Anime can say they have seen and likely enjoyed. I can now join that group.

This movie was released in 1986, and is traditional animation with no CGI whatsoever. That being said the quality of the animation is not as good as what some come to expect from Japanese feature length animated films. It has more in common with the style of the GI Joe television series. That makes sense since the same production team is responsible for the animated TV series of the same name. Saying that it's not high quality is not meant to discredit this film in any way, in fact it seems as if more time, care and effort was spent on the many visceral fighting scenes. Heads explode, arms are detached and enemies are dispatched with disturbing fluidity in a creative number of ways. If you don't mind extreme violence by all means give this film a shot.

The story is a lot easier to follow than many other Anime films I've seen. (I had to watch Akira and Cowboy Bebop a few times, though I think I was distracted by the beauty of the animation in both cases). Basically the main character Kenshiro and his girlfriend Yuria are searching for a place to plant seeds to help the earth recover from a devastating nuclear war that has wiped most living things from the planet. During their search, they are accosted by Shin and his thugs. Shin wounds Kenshiro and forces Yuria to come with him, thinking only he should possess a woman with her beauty. The rest of the movie shows Kenshiro's bloody quest to rescue her, avenge his betrayal, and do battle with his Bother Raoh who feel's the power of the Fist of the North Star is rightfully his.

This is an extremely violent film. Kenshiro possesses a fighting style that causes his enemies to swell and explode. He meets a man who is able to slice people into fragments with his fingers, and there is an unforgettable battle scene where hundreds of ninja are crushed underfoot by a giant man who can change himself into metal. Blood, guts, and dismembered limbs fly everywhere with extra smooth animation. Just because this is animation does not make it for kids, show it to them only if you want to scar them for life. Sound problems are also evident. Footsteps never seemed to match the action on screen, and the music seemed to be disproportionately loud during some fighting scenes. I have to note that my DVD offered a few nice extras such as character art and original theatrical trailers. I watched the dubbed English version because I wanted to enjoy the animation as much as possible without having to read  sub-titles. My next viewing will be in the original Japanese format so I can hear the original voice actors and look out for any differences in translation.

If you are a fan of animation and can stomach some over-the-top violence I definitely recommend this film. Though the animation quality was sporadic and the sound seemed not to sync up at times, this is a classic that I'm glad to own and  I will definitely enjoy watching it again.

Gaming's Next Gen...Already?

There've been articles all over the internet for some time now concerning the next generation of consoles that will be available for sale. With E3 around the corner, gamers and industry professionals are turning their attention to the next big thing in gaming. While it's all exciting, I tend to wonder, am I the only one who feels it's too soon for the next gen of consoles to be released?


Granted technology is updating at a rate much faster than when the original PlayStation came out. The PS2 had an 11+ year life, so is it too much to expect the same amount of time with the current gen consoles? The PS3 was released in 2006, and Sony predicted a 10 year time of use for the system. This is fast approaching and it makes sense that Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo are thinking ahead to the next consoles, however I'm just not ready to let my PS3 go just yet. 

I got my PS3 for my 30th birthday in 2007, and it cost a TON of money (a bundle with 2 controllers, 2 games and some other stuff was almost $800). I have a little boy now so disposable income is a thing of the past. I don't think many gamers who have also been smacked around by the recession in this country are quite ready to start thinking of having to "upgrade" their consoles, especially when it looks like the next gen will forgo backwards compatibility. I've enjoyed the current generation of games and have barely scratched the surface of online gaming, not to mention the many titles I've missed because there are just too many I'm interested in and I don't have the time or money to invest in collecting them all.

I love gaming and I love my original 60 gig PS3 and its backward compatibility (and my Move System). Its because that feature is available that I've been able to go back and play some PS2 titles I didn't catch the first time around on their original format. I know there will be some awesome things to look froward to in the future of gaming, The PS Vita is one awesome machine, and I think it would be nice to have one, however all this new stuff, (not just gaming consoles) requires some considerable disposable income to truly enjoy. $60 is a lot of money for a new game, and I buy games like some women buy shoes. (I thought of asking my husband for an iPad for mother's day this year for reading digital comics, but once I realized how much it would cost to keep up with all the comics I want to read I let the idea slide.) Right now, we just don't have the income to spend on non essentials. 


I feel angst when talk of the next console comes out because I feel certain that I'll fall behind and lose touch with one of my favorite hobbies. But is it so bad not to jump on the bandwagon right away? I've never been an early adopter of electronics, sometimes they are buggy and the price always drops with time, and that stands to benefit someone like me who's strapped for cash. The next consoles are coming, however there will still be a ton of titles I will make the time to play, I'll still be a gamer, I just won't be playing the latest and greatest for a while and that suits me just fine.