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JenniferV1311

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This game is awesome.

No, really, it's fantastic. The characters are fun and complex. The plot is engaging and intense. The mechanics are (for the most part) tight and responsive. The multi-player is seamless and integrated. It's a great game.

The story is great. You're a hacker for hire out for the big score when your greedy, idiot partner dives too far for too long and gets caught. As a result, your niece is killed while on a car ride with you. The rest of the game, you're fighting your way to the people that did this to your family, wiping out anything in your path.

I wish there was more of a backstory on the main character, Aiden Pierce. Didn't really get to know his past or anything about him. He was apparently taught by his old partner Damien. He has a younger sister. Other than that, he's pretty blank. His growth is dependent on you finding all the goodies in the game, and it's minimal at best. Still, for a game with a linear storyline, they handled it really well.

The other characters are a blast. Clara is one of the best characters in a video game that I've seen since Mass Effect. T-Bone is funny, though one note. Damien is a slime from day one and they do a good job of making you dislike him. Lucky is terrifying. He's a terrifying, creepy old bastard, fantastic design choices, great writing and a good voice actor casting. Iraq was probably my least favorite. He felt like a cliché. You look at him and can interpret how he's going to react. His brother Bedbug is better but too minor to really make up for it. Nicky, the sister, is a bit of a whiner but she makes a great case as the "normal" person looking in to Aiden's world.

Only three major complaints:
1) Family Man
The relationship between Aiden and his family is weird. He and Nicky never felt brother/sister. It felt more like ex-girlfriend material for the most part. I kind of wish that had been the plot instead of this sister bit, but it is what it is. And his obsession over his niece and nephew really feels more like a father watching out for his kids. I wish it had been a broken home kind of thing, resulting from the little girl's death, instead of an uncle thing.

2) Uplay
My God, Uplay. It's a horrible platform. All you console people are lucky in this one regard. You don't have to deal with Uplay. It's just God awful. It's always crashing, resetting my settings, kicking my friends for no reason. I thought Origin was bad but this is a whole other level.

3) Investigation - QR Codes
Screw whoever came up with this side mission. I thought collecting all the Riddler question marks was difficult in Arkham City. Nono, that was just tedious. THIS? This is just throat slicing terrible. The correct camera is almost impossible to find. There are no hints, no obvious (or even subtle) paths. It took me ages just to figure out HOW to even complete the first Investigation, forget actually DOING it. If there were some sort of visual clue about the direction or location of the correct camera, it wouldn't be so bad. Instead, I spend 15 minutes at each damn location to find the right one to line up for the right shot. Seriously, whoever came up with this idea needs a demotion.

Rating: $60

Absolutely worth the full price. No buyer's remorse at all. I do have to admit it was a lot less difficult than I anticipated. Hacking is what will keep you alive and, once it's maxed out, everything becomes much easier in the campaign. Didn't take me long to power through Hard difficulty, though I'm still collecting the extra bits and side missions.

Oh, and the multiplayer bits are a blast, too. This coming from someone who hates multiplayer :P

GREAT game. Major props to all companies involved.
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Okay, Arkham Origins. Finished the storyline. "Official" review:

I see what they were trying to do. And I appreciate it. It's a really great version of how the Joker and Batman met. In fact, it might be my favorite version. The bits with the two of them interacting were great. Watching Joker's mind slowly break into the psychotic madman we know today has some of the best visuals I've seen in a video game.

Mechanics are tight (ripped completely from Arkham City, which isn't a bad thing) and the animations are stunning (some of the best facial animations I've ever seen for the Joker, including outside video games). And the voice acting keeps up. Batman is a great Kevin Conroy and Christian Bale mix while Joker is exactly the same as Mark Hamill's (though perhaps half an octave lower). Love it.

The boss fights are amazing, some of the best and most difficult I've seen in a game (keep in mind I'm on Hard difficulty to start). Origins also has my favorite version of Bane I've ever seen. Period. He's absolutely amazing in this game.

However.

There are bugs and glitches everywhere. Fight mechanics, though solid, suffer from random counter glitches (enemies will freeze with the little counter signs going off over their head OR Batman will randomly pull out a gadget instead of countering). I can't count the number of times I've had to force quit the game because it froze. And not in some random, out of the way place. We're talking throughout the main storyline. They're rampant. I don't know who beta tested this thing (if anyone!) but they need to be fired.

Then there are the save crashes, the walking-through-a-door crashes, the loading crash...you get the idea.

The story feels rushed and...light. They really REALLY wanted to get to the Joker bits, so they pushed through the merc nonsense with barely a second glance. You don't even fight one of them. It's...it feels like a waste. Or maybe a waste of time, I can't decide. It's like they wanted to carry the free roam part to carry the bulk of the game. As a result, the main story suffered.

18 hours to get through the main storyline with a 30% completion. Translation: SHORT GAME

And a nitpick thing: Batman's suit. Did they really need to waste memory space making his suit get all scratched? Remember how it broke apart in City? They tried to mimic that with very poor results. And their suit design makes Bats look short and thick. Bad proportions.

Ranking: $30 (buy it when it's $30 and it will be worth it)
A good game, but not the best.

Summary:

This game wasn't ready for the big time and suffers for it. It needed more work. The assassins should've been given more respect by the writers (Bane not included). EVERY area should've been thoroughly beta tested, ESPECIALLY THE MAIN STORYLINE.

Nice attempt, WB Games Montréal and Splash Damage. You deserve a gold star. No really. It's a decent game. But Rocksteady did it better.
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October 2nd

1 min read
I've never applied for an internship before and I'm not entirely convinced I'll be chosen for this one. Still, it was good practice and now I know what I need to work on.
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May 5, 2013

1 min read
"Do you drink?"
"Of course, I just said I was a writer."
― Stephen King

Happy Cinco de Mayo, my friends. And if you're not Mexican, DON'T SWEAT IT! Neither am I, and I STILL have a margarita in my hands!

Cheers!!!
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I've been bit by the sketch bug again. I have this fantastic idea to draw my girls from WoW and SWTOR and mash them together in some fantastic battle royal format. I can actually see them on the paper. That's not typical for me. My sketches tend to be seen as vague shapes in my mind. But this isn't even the important part.

I was looking for a good reference for my first main, Verita Swiftarrow. I needed a strong presence that was also feminine without any overtly sexual overtones. If you know ANYTHING about comics (my first place for inspiration and references), you know that's next to impossible to find. For some reason, I thought of Wonder Woman. It seems obvious in hindsight, but WW has never been a first choice for me. She had the unfortunate assignment of being the third wheel to the World's Finest gentlemen (one I adore beyond obsession and the other I'd like to turn into a pile of Kryptonian goo). Add in a uniform that didn't leave much to the imagination and mother's censorship threw any possibility of WW influencing my childhood out the window.

But, again, for some reason I thought of her. She's strong, feminine, and I know fans go boiling with rage whenever someone does so much as an upshot. So I looked up her images.

Ignoring the fanboy erotica crap, I noticed a pattern with the Amazonian princess. She's strong. But feminine. I know it sounds like I'm repeating myself, but look at most of the other mainstream female comic book characters.

Catwoman, Poison Ivy and Harley Quinn are all hyper-sexualized in everything, so are Supergirl and Power Girl. They're fantastic characters, but none can give the impression of strength (save Power Girl on occasion). There's confidence, but more in their sexuality than in their abilities. I'm making these assumptions based on the body language artists give them. Their "heroic" stances are sex. Same with Marvel's Emma Frost, Black Cat, and Elektra. They're all strong women, but their strength comes from sexuality.

Wonder Woman isn't limited to sexuality. In fact, she hardly ever uses it. Her stances are powerful, so powerful that sometimes she could be mistaken for a man if she's turned right. She faces the reader, looks them dead in the eye, pure confidence without arrogance. There's no tilt to her head, no arch in her back. Her shoulders are squared. Both feet are firmly planted. In fact, the only feminine gesture is she's often portrayed with her weight on one leg, giving her that tilt of the hip. Nothing else reads feminine, not even the placement of her feet (hyper-sexualized characters usually have the "Barbie" feet where they're always on their toes). She's usually all serious face, but when she smiles it's soft and warm. Even her smirks are less flirty and more mocking.

There are a few exceptions like Wonder Woman, but the thought slapped me so hard during my search that I couldn't let go. She's pure feminine strength. That's it. She is power incarnate, and the times when she's restrained and soft only makes her stronger.

I wish I'd learned this about her earlier. I knew it, but I didn't KNOW it. I grew up looking to Batman for lessons in honor and dedication, and as a result I struggle to identify with my femininity. Had I looked to Wonder Woman instead, I could've had the strength I so admired and the femininity to become what I always wanted to be: a strong woman. Guess it's never too late to learn.

Teach me, princess.
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