Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (LOL)

Thanks to some random conversation a few nights ago regarding I don't even remember what and how, I watched the TMNT movie (from 2007) and fell in love. LOL. XDXD!! I know it's random; it's crazy. I've never even thought/talked about TMNT since I was 9 or something and now suddenly "BAM!" and I'm in love, somehow, sort of. XD!

Despite what other people/reviews may say, I really enjoyed the movie. Of course, I have other things/ideas in mind while watching the movie (XD!!), which is probably why I enjoy it much more than 'most people' would, not to mention I was never much of a TMNT fan when I was young (let alone a hardcore one) so I've got nothing to compare this movie with.

The plot of the movie is simple (great for kids), self explanatory and well... simply perfect as a whole, that is, in my humble opinion. The turtles look great too, much better than anything I remember of them from back in the days. But then again, to be fair I have to admit that I don't remember too much about Ninja Turtles altogether. All I know is the four turtles (plus their colors and names), their rat master, April and Shredder (along with a giant robot with some pink blob in his stomach?). And by that I just mean I can identify/recognize them, but I know nothing/much of their character.

Just for fun, let's take a look at the difference in my impression of each of the four turtles back then VS now:

Leonardo
Back then: My cousin's favorite (cos they share the same name). His dual swords are cool, and he's prolly the strongest of them four cos' swords > all other weapons.
Now: Not bad, but he doesn't catch too much of my attention unless the story's focusing on him. I also just *gasp!* found out that he's the leader, and I lol'ed at myself how I could have never known. (Back then I didn't know there's a leader at all, I thought they were all equal) [On a random note, I'm still debating whether he goes up or down. XDDD!!]

Raphael
Back then: Invisible. (LMAO) Didn't care and couldn't bother with him. I thought he was the least outstanding, and I don't remember anything about his personality/strengths other than the fact he uses two short 'swords' with such lousy reach I don't know why anyone would prefer them over a kitchen knife.
Now: My favorite. (LOL?) I'm surprised to realize he's the rebellious, hasty and hot-headed type, and that totally floats my current boat. XD! He's hard to handle and quick to bite but hey... I love 'em hard-to-get. XD~~ And, now that I finally know/recognize the sai, I must say that it's definitely the best and coolest weapon of the four. The way he holds/handles it alone is enough to make me swoon. <33 (I also happen to think that sais are hard to master cos' if you aren't good enough with it you prolly won't survive using it, but since it's Raph specializes in it it must mean he's really good at it)

Donatello
Back then: My favorite. XD. I liked the more gentle and intellectual type. I was a little disappointed at his choice of weapon (cos it's so 'tame') but I figured I had to accept it cos' it's in Donny's nature to be soft and non-violent.
Now: I still think he's a sweetie. He's smart, well-mannered, patient, hardworking and creative, kind of like the perfect kind of boyfriend except he's a turtle. XD But alas my virtual tastes have changed so tho' I still remember Donny as my favorite, he no longer gets as much attention as before.

Michaelangelo
Back then: I thought he was the main character, cos he typically stood in the center of the team (for pictures/poses), talked the most, was the loudest and caught the most attention with his behavior and voice and manner of speech. In short, he's the first turtle that comes to mind whenever I think of "Ninja Turtles", and was my 2nd favorite. I although thought his weapon was a little too 'tame'.
Now: The impression stays, except I realize he's not the "main character". LOL. He still remains as my 2nd favorite, but I also still think his weapon is a tad too tame. >_>; It'd be a lot better/flashier if his nunchakus had three segments instead of just two.

Resident Evil 5: The Mercenaries (a.k.a. Mercs)
(Attached image & videos below include spoilers)

It's been 2 weeks since I played this game and YES!! It's FINALLY TIME (after fixing my bloody PC) to babble about The Mercenaries!!! <3333!!!! You know you saw this coming! XD

I've been mad about this mini game since RE4 and the madness still stand. >=D The Mercenaries is the thing in RE5 that I looked forward to (instead of the main quest) so you can clearly tell I'm a Mercs > Main Quest person. So far I've only beat the main quest on normal 1.5x (haven't cleared it a 2nd time cos' I got bored), and since then I've only been playing the Mercs (20+ hrs so far), even tho' it kicks/kicked a shitload of my ass.

There're quite a few differences between RE4 and RE5 Mercs, and that is what makes RE5 Mercs a lot more intense and exciting, altho' at the same time it's also a lot more frustrating due to certain new difficulties. However, despite its difficulties it remains a fair game so even if I die/restart more than half the time I don't feel like I have any 'right' to be mad about it. Of course, cursing and blowing my head off is unavoidable. x_X

Differences between RE4 and RE5 Mercs:

Time bonus
RE4: You approach a time bonus spot and press a button to earn time bonus instantly.
RE5: You're required to press a button for your character to smash the time bonus 'item', which takes/wastes about 1-2 secs depending on your character.
Comments: Even tho' this may not sound like much, it does make it harder for you to keep your time going especially if you're a "last minute" person like me. A lot of times I manage to get my time bonuses in my last 0.25 second; it's just much too close to game over for comfort. Otherwise, I simply miss it and it's premature game over.

Grabbing items
RE4: Grabbing an item is instant. And when your case is full, the game pauses and allows you to take your time to combine/discard any item to pick up the new one. If you don't want the item, simply exit the screen and the game resumes.
RE5: Grabbing items take about 1 second, but in the process you gain invincibility, which is very handy. However, in the case that your case is full, you will have to open the menu, select and discard an item while the game continues to run (it's spontaneous). Discarding an item also takes 1-2 seconds and it leaves you fully vulnerable.
Comments: Becos' you turn invincible while grabbing an item, it becomes an alternative way (other than melee/physical attacks) to avoid getting hit when an enemy is in your face, which is something players can abuse to their advantage. However, you are at total disadvantage when you really have to pick up an item when your case is full (e.g. when you're dying), and that's when you get screwed real bad. There are a LOT of cases when I had to sacrifice an item I really need/want but can't pick up due to a full case, just becos' a horde of enemies are right behind my tail. This forces us to learn to only pick up items that we really need/use, which also means we must always be aware and careful of what we pick, especially when the enemies in RE5 love to drop rotten eggs on purpose!! @#$%^! Of course, even tho' this makes the game harder you gotta admit it's actually a good feature/change, considering the RE series is supposed to be survival horror. It's already lost its 'horror' factor, so it's good to see that it managed to improve its 'survival' factor since RE4 (which wasn't very 'survival').

Enemy spawns
RE4: Most enemies spawn from rooms/areas that you currently aren't at, so in order to 'trigger' enemies to spawn you have to keep moving from room to room.
RE5: Enemies come from everywhere and any corner at any time. There is absolutely not a single 'safe ground'.
Comments: In a way enemies spawn faster and that, logically, should help increase your kill combo, but this doesn't always seem to be the case. Unless you have a shotgun, chances of you getting surrounded by enemies from all directions is pretty high, along with the possibility of getting grabbed from behind which would pretty much ruin your kill combo, and that SUCKS.

Enemy behavior
RE4: Enemies typically warn you that they're coming by laughing/shouting/etc so that you can anticipate them and get away in time. They also seldom grab you from the back, and if they do it's prolly becos' you didn't notice them for a while.
RE5: Enemies still warn you they're coming by laughing/shouting/etc, but most of those that come from behind are silent. The back grabbers are the worst of them all; they're not just silent but they run/leap at you as well. This happens so often you should consider buying insurance for your pretty HDTVs.

Reloading ammo
RE4: Reloading requires that you do it manually, which means you have to actually watch your character reload. How fast the gun loads fully depends on the type of gun and how upgraded it is.
RE5: You can either do this the RE4 way, or you can abuse the 'traditional/classic' RE reload method by combining your ammo with your gun through the menu. Since the menu can be opened at anytime, you can literally reload at any time and any speed for any gun. (How fast you reload depends on how fast your fingers are) Better yet, reloading during invincible frames (grabbing an item/ doing a melee attack/ climbing up a ladder/ etc) guarantees your safety. This is pretty much the only new thing in RE5 Mercs that makes it 'easier', and I doubt anyone can survive for long without adopting this tactic.

Aaaanyway, I'm really sleepy now that it's 3.30am so I'm gonna end this post with two videos I prepared - they're my first two recorded footage of RE5 (since my PC was dead for 2 weeks). The first one below includes commentary and demonstrates the "reload tactic" written above.

Stage 1 - Battle Suit Jill (Rank S)

And the below second vid is a footage of my current best run/score ever with my favorite Mercs character (excluding STARS Wesker whom I've yet unlock):
Stage 3 - Tribal Sheva (Rank SS)

Figurine rant: Welcome two more members to the family~!

I got two more figurines this past Friday (found local sellers on eBay) so yar it's time to show off~! X3 (But man... now all the space on top of the TV is officially fully taken up. Someone's gonna have to sacrifice himself when my highly anticipated Mihawk (I pre-ordered him) arrives in May.)

Chousokabe Motochika (Sengoku Basara)
Whoo hoo!! This dude's the only one in my "big figurine" family who's not from One Piece. He also happens to be the shortest (~17cm), cheapest ($66) and most eye-catching of them all thanks to his bright colors. He has a wide base cos' you're supposed to put batteries in it to play his voice (built in voice thingy) but it doesn't seem to work, owtf. Another problem I really didn't expect is the hand he's supposed to hold his weapon with. For some reason the hole is too small to fit/slide his weapon handle in (it's just physically impossible) and the only solution I can think of is to hang the weapon on his finger using the chain (thank god it has a chain!). It's weird but it's the only way I can get him to hold it. Argh... But yeah, I still like it. ^_^ It's pretty and different from the rest of my One Piece figurines.

Shanks (One Piece)
I saw Shanks the first time I visited the local figurine shop and I never thought of wanting/buying him... until last week or so when I played One Piece Unlimited Cruise Ep2. x_X One of the boss battles feature a double-boss fight against Mihawk & Shanks and instantly I squealed. <333 I'm a big Mihawk fan and when I saw them appearing together my mind just went off on its own to www.creative-fantasies.com. In otherwords, I pretty much bought Shanks for Mihawk. XD! But of cos', I wouldn't have bought him if he didn't look awesome. This figurine is truly a perfect Shanks in real life 3D and I have yet seen any other Shanks figurine out there that comes close to this, let alone beat it. He doesn't come with other accessories/items other than his cloak, which is removable, and he cost me $70, which is the cheapest of my One Piece lot. Once Mihawk arrives, I'm planning to put him together with Shanks and Zoro on top of the TV, which means Lucci would have to move to Chousokabe's place, or either one of them would have to move to my office at work >_<! Siggghhh....

Game review: Resident Evil 5

This game has just been released a few days ago and after 2 days of playing it on co-op with a friend, we managed to beat it =) It isn't a very long game (shorter than RE4), but we still took a fair bit of time especially near the end. Dying too many times against the same dude makes me an angry kitteh. =/ But whatever, here's my humble spoilerless review yet again...

Graphics - A+

I guess A or A+ would be the standard/default/expected rating for graphics for most games on the PS3/Xbox360. I dunno. I can't really tell unless it's like Wii games or something. It's standard PS3 nice and I'm cool with it.

Story  - C-
I must say... it's pretty bad. It's prolly gonna leave a long-term bad impression on the RE series altogether. None of the 'revelations' in it is actually 'surprising', neither do they make much sense. Many things feel/seem random, including flashbacks and past occurrences that we've never known about but the writers threw them in there anyway for the sake of a 'story'. The villain, who was once cool and mysterious, is now reduced to the most generic of generic villains with a pretty generic objective. The hero, even after all he's been through in the series, still behaves naively, and the heroine doesn't even need to be in it if not for the sake of co-op.

Gameplay - A+
Basically it plays just like RE4, so all you've learned back then applies here. One slight improvement, though, is that you are able to move sideways (not just forwards) when you are NOT aiming your gun, which makes movements easier. The most significant change of them all, however, is prolly the "instant weapon switching" function (which is excellent) and the fact that there's no longer an upgradeable 'item case' for you to store your stuff (which is horrible).

Instant weapon switching
This new features (using the D-pad) makes switching weapons a lot faster and smoother, but that also means you can't pause the game and look at your items and strategize or something. Everything would have to be spontaneous, which makes the battle more intense and exciting, which I guess is good when you're kicking ass and bad when you're screwed.

"Item case"
In the entire game you are limited to holding only 9 different items at the same time (per character).So a box of handgun ammos and the handgun would take up two slots, and a green herb and a red herb (before you mix them) will take up another two slots, which means it won't take long before you have no more space for additional items. If Chris's 'case' is full and he needs to pick something up, he'd have to give/pass an item to Sheva before he can pick the item up, which means Sheva has to be right beside Chris. Also, time does not freeze while you're managing your items, which makes it very inconvenient for you to be wasting time trying to pass/combine/discard items with each other just to pick up a new item, especially during critical moments.

Weapons
There is quite a variety of guns, and it's interesting how you get most of them along the way in the main quest for free. >_>; You can upgrade each gun between the start and end of each chapter (or when you die and have to restart), as usual, but it's a shame our beloved merchant's gone; I miss his voice and lines. XD But just to be picky, it's so questionable how the guns can be upgraded when you're in the middle of nowhere and without a weapons specialist.

Enemies
First, I must say that I'm glad they didn't reuse too many of RE4's animations for the enemies' actions/death sequences. Anyway, in general the enemies this time are faster and more aggressive than the Spaniards in RE4. They attack fast and frequently pounce on you from the back but in a way I'm still glad they tend to pause/hesitate when they get near you after running. (LOL)

Next, thanks to all that fame in RE4, the potato-sacked chainsaw psycho is back, except he's kind of only half as aggressive as before. (He tends to pause in your face for a second before he attempts to saw you. I would suppose this is both a good and bad thing depending on the players' expectations.) And then there's the executioner, who actually is tougher than the chainsaw dude this time (I think) due to his reach and longer HP. There's just one surprise though - he only appears once in the main quest. >_>; But fear not you challenge-freaks out there, there's still one new strong enemy (that I remember) who's more capable of killing you in an instant than the chainsaw dude and executioner, and I'll leave that to yourself to find out =)

Physical attacks
Thank god Chris's ginormous arms ain't just for show. His punches pack a load of damage, most small fry die straight after eating it. Sheva's physical attacks are probably kind of like Leon's in terms of power. Of course, it also gives you invincibility frames, which you can take advantage of during close/dangerous situations. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that I'm glad that you also gain invincibility frames when you pick up or use items (I originally thought you'd be vulnerable).

Co-op
The co-op feature is prolly the best new thing in RE5 (although I'd only do this for the main quest). It basically turns the previously single-player game into a 2-player game, which allows you to share and enjoy the fun and action together with a friend, and that doubles the gaming experience. Playing co-op also generally makes the game a lot easier as you'll have full control over the second player, which allows you to discover/adopt new strategies against different enemies/bosses.

Sound/music - A-
I've only played through the game once at this moment and from all that I remember the music is pretty alright. The sounds/sound effects/ambiance are perfectly fine. I guess what's left for me to find out now is how the Mercenaries music sound like.

Replay value - A+
First off, with the Mercenaries mini game, who can let go of the game!? Secondly, there're a lot of bonus features (unlockables) including alternate costumes that you can unlock with points that you earn in the game (be it main quest or Mercenaries). However, the unlockables themselves have to first be unlocked as well (gasp! LOL) by shooting these blue BSAA badges that can be found in various chapters of the main quest, which you're likely to miss in your first run or two. With all these, you should find yourself replaying the game at least a few times (and definitely the Mercenaries) before you get tired of it, especially if you were fond of RE4.

On a related note, the Mercenaries in RE5 includes 8 different stages (ZOMG!!) and "10" characters. As for what I mean by "10" characters, go find it out yourself. =P

Overall - A
RE5 is definitely a fun game. It's a rip off of RE4 and everyone knows that, but it's still a great game, especially for RE4 fans. Besides, I'm sure most people know to expect that this is basically gonna be like an "extension" of RE4. Many of the settings and enemies resemble those in RE4 so much that you'll wonder if that's for the sake of homage, or if Capcom honestly ran out of ideas. But yes despite all that, it doesn't change the fact that it's fun. Of course, it's disappointing that it lacks a few new ideas from a fan's point of view but I'm sure no one would reject the game anyway if it had been titled "RE4: Chris's Melon Adventure" instead if you get what I mean. (And yes I meant RE four.) Anyway, I hope you guys will enjoy/enjoyed RE5, despite the awfully horrible story and characterization (which is the reason why it's an overall A instead of A+). x_X