'Batman: Arkham City' videogame review

I know that this is very late and that nobody will probably read this and that this game is SOOOO LAST  YEAR, but around the time when it was 'all the rage', I didn't even know about, it so I torrented it a few months ago and it took me over so much, I had to review it. I haven't played its predecessor Batman: Arkham Asylum either, so don't expect any big comparations, just my simple toughts on it. So Arkham City is an action-adventure game in which you control Batman, which gets trapped in the controversial superprison, known as Arkham City.  Batman must uncover and foil the notorious plan by the evil Dr. Hugo Strange, only known as  'Protocol Ten' as well as intersecting in all the gang wars, battles for control and  other connections made through the veins of this vast prison, which is basically like a small town, except that it's full of power-thirsty psychopaths with no regard for human life.

Now this game got a shitload of praise and you know what? It fucking deserved it. First of all, the graphics are amazing. The whole wide world of the Arkham City superprison is awesome and greatly matches the dark tone of the Batman story.  Second, the gameplay is amazing. One of the reasons, that the game is so popular, is because people love being bad-ass. And people love being Batman. And what's better then being a bad-ass Batman? A very bad-ass Batman indeed, as you're able to glide off a building, doing a dive bomb downwards and crashing like a ninja, then releasing a shockwawe to stun several nearby hostiles, then punching one in the face, while already kicking the second one and countering a third one's attack in the same second, evading a bullet and throwing a few batarangs, then smash two guys's heads together and generally being the biggest bad-ass you can be. I have a little slow graphics driver, so the fight sequences sometimes got a bit Guy-Ritchie-y, but it was still very enyoyable to kick the enemie's asses. Oh yeah, and playing with Catwoman (you can do that, duh) is pretty bad-ass too, it's good to be a little faster and more agile sometimes (and sexier). 

I don't think the story is a very important factor of the game, but it sure is one of the best things in Arkham City. It's so good, movies could be made after it, has a lot of unexpected twists and a pretty shocking ending, which sadly the marvellous world of the Internetz has spoiled for me before I even downloaded the game. With such a story the game really has a nice cinematic feel to it, as I really enyoyed watching the cutscenes, reading the character bios and basically understanding the whole story, that makes you feel even more like Batman, not just playing as Batman. The great original score makes the feeling even deeper, as it slightly resembles, betterly said references Hans Zimmer's soundtrack for the Nolan's Batman movies, but is still original and very good on its own.  Altough some people complained that there are too many villains in the game. I agree, that too many villains are not very good in movies (Batman & Robin), but in video-games...not as much. I actually liked the game much more because it featured so many majestic characters, backed up with excellent voice acting.

The story is also very well-made, as it lets a lot of different missions. There are some in which you fight, a few boss fights, some where you have to think and puzzle, some where you have to travel and explore the city, some where you have to go all CSI with the detective mode...My favourites are the stealth ones, where you have to go all Ninja Batman and throw a smoke pellet and the grap hook to escape then observe the situation, swing between vantage points and glide behing  the baddies to perform the silent takedown, rescuing the hostages or simply taking the bad guys out. They are hard, but enyoyable as hell. As I've said before, Ninja Batman is very bad-ass and people love being bad-ass. It's basically like seeing those  scenes from Batman Begins, when Batman goes to that port and hunts criminals for the first time and everyone's like "WHERE ARE YOU!!!", except from Batman's point of view. Pure awesomenes.

The game is also very vast – the world of Arkham City is big, the main story mode is long, there are also several side missions, Riddler's quests (you have to find all of the trophies scattered around the town, solve puzzles or even complete physical challenges, like gliding for over  100 metres and such), other hidden secrets and Easter Eggs to keep you entertained til' kingdom come.  It's also cool, that the Catwoman missions are a bit distanced from the main story, as you sometimes simply do what Catwoman wants to do and have a bit different point of wiew. You also have a game mode called »Riddler's Revenge«, which I first tought you had puzzles and stuff like that, but you actually have either fighting challenges either stealth missions. They are even harder as in the main story mode, but enyoyable as hell as Robin is a much bigger bad-ass then I tought he would be.  

Arkham City is also a sanctuary for Batman fans - you have character biographies, concept art, 3-D character models from The Earth One Batman to The Animated Nightwing  (you're even able to play with these in the Riddler's Revenge mode) and tons of unlockable stuff like that.  But now that we spent so much time praising the game, we have to move on to the bad stuff, as like 99 % of things, Batman: Arkham City isn't flawless.  Firstly, it has that really loud and kinda creepy Nvidia logo at the beginning. Secondly, Robin and Nightwing look a bit emo with that eyeshadow. But that's pretty much.  No, seriously, there is one thing that really, really bugged me and that is the glitch. Yup, there's a glitch and this isn't much of a spoiler - Somewhere in the first half of the game, after the Ra's Al Ghul boss fight, Ra's takes hostage of his daughter Talia and tries to convince Batman to kill him with the sword he is holding and lead the League of Assasins. Then Batman drops the sword on the floor, takes out the batarang and defeats Ra's, like a sneaky prick (just saying). But in many cases, he won't drop the sword. He just stands there like a fucking statue. Some people had to play with lower graphics, some retry a few times (meaning having to do the boss fight a few times) and some actually had to restart the game. But the good stuff is still simply so good, that the gkitches cannot hurt it. Therefore in conclusion, Batman: Arkham City is a great game, with great graphics, great gameplay, a great story, with great voice acting, great music and lots of great greatness.

Total rating: 10 / 10 

So what did you think about Batman: Arkham City? Did you like/dislike it, why? Which were your favourite missions/characters/parts of the game? Comment, below, let me know! Also, check out these amazing Arkham City trailers, here, here and here!

'The Hangover' movie review

It is now officially confirmed, I also review older movies. So anyways, The Hangover is a smash-hit 2009 comedy, directed by Todd Phillips, the director of comedies, mostly known for crude, sex-related jokes, like Old School, Roadtrip and School for Scoundrels. I have enyoyed those movies, but have also heard, that this was actually the film, that put Phillips on the map, as it made a shitload of money and was also surprisingly critically-acclaimed. Its reputation is big, so I had to watch it with very high expectations. But did it reach them?

The plot of The Hangover is about Doug (Justin Bartha) getting married and his best friends, Phil (Bradley Cooper) and Stu (Ed Helms) and his future wife's brother Alan (Zach Galifianakis) giving him a kick-ass bachelor party in Las Vegas. But things get out of control, as the three actual main characters wake up, finding a tiger in the bathroom, a baby in the closet, Stu missing a tooth and Doug missing. And now it's up to 'The Wolfpack' to find out, 'what the fuck happened last night', as it is illustrated several times in the film. Now first, The Hangover is a very funny movie and also pretty original. The humor isn't all as crude and inappropriate as you might think, but it still isn't for everyone and is Rated R for a reason (even tough it the rating basically precedes its target audience a bit). However you need more then just laugh-out-loud humor for a REALLY great comedy (the case of Ted, for an example).


And The Hangover has that. The three main characters are good and relatable, from the bad-ass Phil to the nerdy Stu imprisoned in his marriage and the straight-forward idiotic (but funny as hell, of course) Alan, and it works even better, because the actors are great. The story is actually very interesting and unpredictable and near the end of the movie, where question marks and mysteries of the last night's drunken misadventures keep showing up in chaotic and hilarious situations, you really start to feel for these guys. There are 5 hours til' the wedding, the groom is missing and you start to symphatize, understand and want them to suceed. So in conclusion, The Hangover met all of my high expectations, as I find the movie a fresh and incredibly funny comedy, with interesting, but relatable characters, a good story and good acting, deserving all the awards the movie has received, from the Golden Globe for Best Comedy or Musical to the MTV's Movie Award for Best WTF moment.


Total rating: 8.5 / 10

'Ted' movie review

This is just a teensy bit late, but I just saw one of the most succesful movies of the year and it would be weird  if I woudn't review it. So Ted probably doesn't need extra introduction: A little boy, named John with no friends wishes for his Christmas gift teddy bear to come to life and that really happens. The bear becomes his best friend, even in the next almost 30 years, as the little boy, (now Mark Wahlberg) still hangs out with him, even tough the bear also kinda grew up, as we all saw in the trailers and stuff like that (one of the posters is Ted and John urinating on the street, the other one Ted holding a sign with the R rating and all that MPAA crap on it), so we knew what movie we'll be watching. But things get complicated, when John's girlfriend Lori (Mila Kunis) wants a little bit less teddy bears in his life.

So the director of this movie is Seth MacFarlane, one of the most succesful TV-producers in the world, mostly cooperating on many cartoon series, but most known as the creator of Family Guy. I hope you know what that is, but in short: a very funny and harsh cartoon for adults. Now I only watched a few episodes of Family Guy and saw a few clips and there were pretty funny, but I'm not exactly a fan, since the show insulted a lot of stuff I like (what probably every human alive could say), but I knew what kind of humor would be in this movie. So yeah, it's not really for everyone. If you don't mind cussing every half of a sentence and a teddy bear having sex and getting high, you'll be okay.

The main question that many people asked themselves, before watching the movie is: Is it funny? And the answer is yes, it's VERY funny. That is the answer pretty much 80 % of the critics and masses, agreed to. The humor is mostly crude and harsh, filled with cussing, sex and pot jokes, but also has quite a few pop culture references and other types of humor. But it's all very funny. Of course, it's rated R, but I think the target audience is 14 - 25, so yeah. But anyways, as I've said, most critics agreed that it's funny, but they tought it was predictable and that you know, that the director is used to short stuff, as the movie is more of a collection of very funny scenes, weirdly put together.

I behalfly agree with that. Sure, the movie has a predictable ending and is no revolutionary, but Mark Wahlberg is pretty good as childish John and there's also a funny subplot, which wasn't revealed or mentioned in the trailers (and am I not going to reveal either), but I think it nicely connects to the main plot and all that stuff, so it all works out at the end. I also like how Lori puts the ultimat on her or Ted and naturally everyone would say Mila Kunis, but they succesfully made Ted one of those likeable characters, which you don't exactly want to hang out in real life, but still think he's insanely cool (or that he's got swag, depends on how much Ed Hardy stuff you own). So in conclusion, Ted might not be an excellent comedy with deep characters, an unpredictable story and Oscar-nomination-worthy acting, but nobody really expected that. We expected an excellent comedy in terms of laughter from the audience, and that is exactly what we got. 

Total rating: 7 / 10