The Halo Series: Just Hear Me Out For A Second

It's been a while but rather than review something this week I wanted to talk a little about a series that means a lot to me, while I understand Halo is not really as popular as it used to be to a lot of people and many even think it needs to just go away, I really enjoy the series for a number of reasons. To me Halo is a lot more than just a few shooting games where you're some dumb fuckin' space marine, it's an interesting world with a deep expanded universe, it's a place I've been able to just chill out with friends and it's a place where I can generally find something new every time I play the campaign surprisingly enough.

I got in to Halo when I got a Xbox 360 and honestly I did not give a fuck about FPS other than the few times I'd played Goldeneye on N64, I remember I was more excited about a fucking Naruto game at the time, so I called my friends over and we played it a bit and over time a thought 'hey this is actually pretty fun'. Shortly after I was convinced to get Xbox Live and from there I was totally sucked in to the whole experience.

Halo 3 was a special case for a lot of people who began with it I think, at the time of release it was really showing what the 360 could do and it was impressive, but for me the whole online aspect of it was unbelievable, Id never really had anyone to play multiplayer games with but now I could just play with anyone I wanted whenever I wanted, holy shit this is amazing. For the 15 year old me it absolutely was, I used to get so into the games online and I've honestly met people on there I still speak to to this day.

But I think what made it extra special was the inclusion of forge mode, this mode allowed you to in most cases have a blank canvas of a pre-made map and allowed you to mess with values and move structures etc. However it is not as in depth as it sounds but players really went above and beyond with their maps and game types. I remember playing one called Fat Kid where the enemy was a super slow player who had like a million shields and everyone else had to stop him from getting near them.

Another was a house made of parts to look like Will Smiths house in I Am Legend set to the zombie game type and after a set amount of time the whole 'house' locks itself down so whoever the zombies are they have to figure out how to get in. It's things like that that honestly keep the replayabilty to games, I love when communities get together and do this kind of thing it really makes the whole experience special. It's a shame however that after all this time none of the other games, even with their own forge which is way more in depth have ever reached this kind of popularity.

I guess this is why even after all the issues the Master Chief Collection had or even still has, I love it because it's the closest I've ever go to reliving that experience and is a nostalgia trip to me, I know having nostalgia over Halo 3 is weird but it's almost been 10 years man...

Halo 3 is just one of those games I can pop in and play a campaign level of any time, I've done it so many times and honestly me and my friends used to just play levels to mess around and at times try and exploit glitches, I know one time we would tea bag the prophet near the end of the game so much he would fall through the floor and look like he was jacking off, simple things for simple minds right...

Sometimes we'd just explore shit and try to reach areas you're not meant to go to just to see if there was an Easter egg like the ones of developers dancing or certain music from other Bungie's games playing if you sit in a certain area for a certain time. Yeah this game is just another FPS to some people and maybe it would have been to me if I had played it at a different point in my life but I still really enjoy the experiences I got from it and still wait for the day another game can reach that sort of level in terms of online play.

The expanded universe is for a lot of fans where this series shines and while I used to think the idea of multiple novels about a dude who just runs and shoots would be absolutely as bad as they sound I was told to read the first book 'The Fall Of Reach' which came out around the same time the original game did and is what the Reach game is loosely based on. Honestly it took me back to when I used to read the Star Wars books all the time as a kid but it actually felt a lot more adult, it dealt with themes I never really thought about in a Halo game although they were always there.

The Fall of Reach acts as a prequel to the game and not only gives you an in depth look at the UNSC and how it operates but also the Spartan project and how the sacrifice of abducting huge numbers of kids and pretty much forcing them into painful training and augmentation was the last line of defence the Earth had against these aliens who were just decimating most of the human population across the galaxy. But even before the threat of the covenant it shows the Spartans were actually just to combat other humans in their war against the colonies and infighting.

I think the best character in this book is Dr Catherine Halsey, a huge character to the series but one that only appears in a few games, she is responsible for the Spartans and to many is arguably 'worse than Hitler' for what she did to those kids, but then those kids have won countless battles for the Human race and arguably saved the Earth a dozen times. I think this theme of doing 'bad' for a potential saving pay off is great and from the other books I've read it is something touched on quite a bit.

I think Eric Nylunds work on this Novel was absolutely fantastic, honestly I think it would stand as it's own as a great Sci-Fi book even if Halo never got a game. I recently read the sequel to this novel called 'First Strike' and while it was not as memorable as the former Nylund again did something amazing with the world that this series created, sure at the time it was pretty open and new but he really helped craft a lot of the lore of the series. I think what's special to me about these books is that while is gives backstory and detail it features Chief in an element absent from the games, with his squad.

Blue team have been with him since the beginning when they met as kids going through training but they've never been touched on much in the games other than a few nods, they're Spartans just like Chief and some are better than him at certain things like sniping and more. The way he actually bounces off these characters with the kind of shit you wouldn't expect from an almost (at the time) silent protagonist is great. While Halo 4 does have Chief become a more talkative person in retrospect it doesn't bother me because I've seen what he is like in these books, it doesn't make him feel like a different character to his game counterpart though.

I think Halo 5 excites me the most because it's going to focus on Chief and his squad, finally we can play as Blue team and others can understand what I mean. Well maybe the games will put their own spin on it but I'm still excited for sure. I think I enjoy the books too, even outside of Nylunds work because they actually focus on new people and give an in depth look at them, other Spartans other UNSC personnel or in some cases the enemy itself.

Perhaps that's why I find Halo: ODST to be my favourite single player experience. I absolutely love that in this game the stakes are higher, you're not playing as some super buff Spartan you're a much weaker but still skilled ODST. You're part of a group and you all have your own character traits like the tough one, the funny one, the commander, the sniper and then you, The Rookie.

While the Rookie is an entirely silent protagonist you actually don't play as him all the time, the game has you stuck in a city where the majority of the occupants have been killed or have long since escaped, you're alone and lost and you've got to solve the mystery of what's happened since you landed. This semi detective style story mixed with the sombre Jazz music and rain falling make the atmosphere absolutely phenomenal to me. It really helps convey the feeling that you're alone and need to find your squad before it's too late and the whole city is glassed.

While the city is over run with the enemy it doesn't feel like a horror game or anything but at times when you're in this 'free roaming' hub of the city as you look for the actual missions you can use your surroundings to sneak around as well as your silenced weapon, while in some respects you could do this in over games if you felt like it, sometimes in this game it feels almost necessary, especially on harder difficulties. I think that having the night vision function also helps convey this feeling that you're to sneak around and be a bit more tactical about the situation if you want to.

This game is a glorified expansion and I'm fine with that, it takes the great game play of Halo 3 and just makes a neat little side story out of it, I really love just walking through the city and hearing a bunch of audio logs about what went down there, while the game is not just a single player experience and does have a firefight aspect to it where you fight wave after wave of enemy I only really appreciate it for its atmosphere, story and characters, I think a lot of people may like that half the cast is from Firefly too as I know I do!

What I do like is that while a lot of these characters have not really appeared in any other game other than Buck briefly in Halo Reach, there are options to find out more about them in some of the expanded universe. Luckily though Buck will also return as a part of Lockes team in Halo 5. While I don't like Lockes team just because it isn't Blue team I know that when it comes to a co-op campaign I'll be fighting over getting to play as Buck, I just hope that while this game looks to be taking a more 'serious' approach to squad based shit that Buck still retains all his witty remarks along the way.

While 3 was the first game in the series I played and I did play Reach after it I was really anticipating the next numbered instalment but honestly I was also really sceptical as Bungie had just left to work on new shit and a new studio 343 industries had taken the reigns. To be fair they took over half way into Reach's life span and they seemed to be doing okay but how would a game under their total control turn out, would it really change that much compared to previous iterations of the series or would it be able to keep the same feel?

Of course I got Halo 4 on the day of release and I thought the Campaign of Halo 4 overall was quite good, It didn't reach the levels of other games and it did head in a new direction with making Chief care almost too much for his fucking blueberry waifu to the point of cringing, but on the other hand It did kind of humanise him to a degree only seen in the books at the time. I don't necessarily feel this is a bad thing, I think we have too many games with silent protagonists or almost silent protagonists and while some games can still convey a story with them I feel Halo suffers.

What I mean by this is that of course I get it, it's an FPS there isn't much time to convey an in depth story between all the shooting but because they've tried to humanise Chief more I feel this game does quite well in conveying the story of this 'ancient evil awakens' shit that is only really mentioned here and there or in the expanded universe, I don't know I guess it feels more mature in that it's taking these steps to go more in depth.

I think 4 looks amazing even on the 360, it absolutely pushed the 360 to its limits graphically and the scenery on every single player level was honestly breath taking, like the moment you arrive on a planet and reach a clearing to finally see the terrain you're dealing with I just had to stop and look around for a while it just looked great, while other games have done this and done this just as well I think to see this series reach that level was a fantastic moment for me, I can only imagine how fans since the original game felt.

Game play wise I loved that Legendary difficulty was actually super fucking hard at times, I mean Legendary can be hard anyway but the new enemy in this game the Knights were like rage inducing, just to have them teleport when you're about to finally kill them or suddenly have them appear in your face with a shot gun was fucking infuriating, but I loved it. I loved that there was a challenge to it in that way, while some people might call it cheap, when I play the hardest difficulty I want it to actually be really hard.

Multiplayer wise I can totally see why people did not enjoy it as much, Ordinance drops rather than having weapons spawn and it be a power play was a lot to get used to and playing as Spartan IV's was lack luster, they just look too shiny and like they're made of fuckin' plastic and rubber. I didn't like the customisation aspect at all though especially in terms of your own Spartan. How do you go from cool looking bits and pieces to add you yourself in Reach to shitty fucking parkour shit and Evangelion helmets.

I enjoyed that Big Team Battle was as popular as it was throughout as I always find it drops off pretty quick and honestly Halo 4 did the best job with the infection game type, if you become infected you actually become some sorta Spartan Flood Hybrid and it looks creepy as fuck, way spookier than a fast Spartan with a sword that's for sure. I dunno overall I was happy with the experience this game gave me but I think it was a case of 343 finding their feet with the series and I think they've had the opportunity to learn from their mistakes, the question is will they actually change.

What I like is that both Bungie and 343 have tried to do something different with the series over the years in terms of spin off games with the likes of their venture into the RTS genre Halo Wars. Now with this game I enjoyed it for what it was, a surprisingly decent RTS on a console where there are honestly not enough of  the genre any more. Personally I'm terrible at them and I never actually beat the game however I still enjoyed what it tried to do and at the time it had some of the most stunning cutscenes in a 360 game. I'm actually quite looking forward to the sequel and hope it's as fun as the original.

A few years later another foray into a different genre was released,  a top down shooter called Spartan Assault. I was never really interested in it at all  when I first heard of it but they eventually gave it away for 'free' on games with gold so I gave it a shot, honestly it wasn't anything special but I can forgive that as it was originally a tablet game, for a tablet game it's pretty fun! Honestly though the most fun you can have is the multiplayer where you just fight hordes of flood, I have never had a Halo game depict the flood as more terrifying than this game did, just to have literally thousands of the fuckers surround you and your buddy is amazing.

If they ever reintroduce the flood in the series they could take a not from this game in that respect. They have made a sequel to the game on IOS and Windows phones but I've not played it myself, I'm sure that again it's nothing amazing but perhaps for a mobile game it's alright.

I think one of the greatest parts of the series as a whole has to be the score, Marty O'donnell has done a fantastic job with this series, especially in ODST as I mentioned above and I think even without him in Halo 4 the music, while different was still on the same level as it had always been. I feel like this is a series with music that anyone can enjoy regardless of if you play or enjoy the games or not, Id honestly recommend listening to the ODST soundtrack some time, especially on a rainy day just the use of Jazz mixed with the 'epic' kind of feel you're used to in other Halo games is honestly a perfect match for the atmosphere that particular game puts you in.

I think the games title screens are usually the best in terms of the score, I can remember the countless hours ive been sitting in a lobby with friends and just hear the Halo 3 score playing over in the background, like it's still nice sombre kind of music to signify that at the time this was you 'finishing the fight' but it's also this kind of music that makes you feel yeah I'm about to go online and just fuck about with friends, no game has reached that kind of level for me where you are just so in to the online aspect and I think the title of the song 'Never forget' is absolutely fitting on so many levels to me.

So we're done with the games and the expanded universe in terms of the book but what about an area that's still finding it's feet within the series? I'm sure you're familiar with a bunch of trailers from the series that use live action scenes in order to briefly get people hyped. I remember seeing a bunch of these around the time ODST was being released and I just thought 'wow, these don't look half bad!' I guess that's why a lot of people were always asking Bungie/343 to make a movie out of the games if they could look this good.

But we've not had a movie yet, I actually hope we never do because there is just so much they could do with the games or the expanded universe itself that I feel this would work way better as a episodic thing, be it online or an actual series.

So far there have actually been two series produced, Forward Unto Dawn which was made to coincide with the fourth game and Nightfall which was made to coincide with the MCC. Now I really didn't think the first series would be any good at all, it was set before all the games and seemed to just tell the tale of a bunch of grunts going through training it looked a little low budget too so I really thought we'd be getting a throwaway story rather than anything too interesting.

However Forward Unto Dawn was actually really really good, It did look sorta low budget at first and the first episode was just okay but as it progressed and Chief joined in it actually kept my attention the whole time, I was kind of bummed out that it ended really because it felt like what I'd read in the books but finally in a live action format. Now I'm not saying it's for everyone but I know people who are just in to the games as a thing to play when they're bored who have watched it and in their own words taken the time to message Halos Twitter account and tell them how much they liked it.

Personally I don't think it's something that you could enjoy if you're not in to the games at all but who knows if you want a concise sorta self contained story that's only a few episodes long you may enjoy it, it does bridge into the fourth game at the end but that should not really hinder your enjoyment of it.

Now the more recent series, Nightfall was meant to be this big budget thing with named talent attached to it... but it sucked. I mean the acting was fine and the budget was clearly there but I just felt the it could have been something so much more. It followed the story of Locke before he becomes a Spartan in Halo 5 and the first episode is quite good as it has him in a city hunting down an elite, but it soon changes into a kind of survival horror show where a bunch of people are stuck on a planet and need to escape.

Now that sounds okay so far but it soon just becomes this predictable thing where someone betrays one of them and oh no the alien found us now can you guess who dies. I was quite surprised that something with this budget and Ridley Scott involved as executive producer could be this bad compared to the lower budget show that came before it.

Now there was an Anime series named Halo Legends but I've not really watched it so cannot say a lot on it other than it's a bunch of short stories animated by different studios kind of like what they did with Batman Gotham Knight years ago. I should really get around to watching it some time I guess.

Now on to the new game, I can't help but be super excited because it's Halo and while I'm someone who enjoyed Halo 4 overall, I can see why a lot of people would be sceptical about Halo 5. Maybe since 343 took over the standard hasn't been met as well as you'd hoped or you weren't feeling the changes made but I feel like 343 have had time to learn from their mistakes and in a lot of cases they have, such as removing ordinance drops from multiplayer and making some more arena like levels that are more common in the earlier iterations.

I played the beta and honestly I was putting it off, I didn't think it would be a good experience but it was great, it was way closer to what I thought it should be. It relied on weapon placement and smaller arenas rather than huge maps and having to earn a certain weapon through being good, which if you're new is just going to put you at a disadvantage more than anything. There were some things I was a little annoyed at like the 'dudebro' attitude of the Spartans before the match but 343 have taken the criticism on board and said they would give the option to make them silent, which I think shows that they are trying.

I'm quite looking forward to the new game types like the one where it's pretty much a big team battle but with enemy AI included, it's something new to the series and while it's still run and shoot stuff it's trying to be as refreshing as it can without deviating from what makes the series popular with fans and I appreciate that. I'm almost proud of 343 because they're trying, while they may not succeed they're trying to give the fans what they want.

This games campaign feels like it's for the die hard fans, it incorporates not only the latest TV show with Spartan Locke but also finally brings the expanded universes characters like Chiefs comrades to the games, finally we can act out the squad based game play we'd read about in the likes of The Fall of Reach and First Strike. While I don't expect it to literally be a case of switching characters on the fly etc I think I'm just happy to have these characters included finally.

Not only is the inclusion of these characters great but the whole 'Hey Chief is a dick and we don't like him so fuckin' kill him' from ONI is great, it's great to see the fall of a hero that's only due to false propaganda produced by those you served and protected for year, I kind of want to see Chief pull a Big Boss and go Nuclear against ONI, although I doubt that will ever happen, I'm sure at the end it'll be a case of Locke and Co joining forces with Chief after they realise they're in the wrong I'm just happy to be along for the ride. But if Arbiter dies I'm gonna be mad as hell.

There is one part of the franchise I've only recently discovered and that is the Hunt the Truth audio logs online, I mean they're only for turbo fans really but they come out every week for a set amount of time and show unique perspectives on the story between Halo 4 and 5. While I've never been one to listen to audio books or things like that this series is actually really well done, it's well written and acted by all those involved and I believe season 2 even has some bigger name people involved like Mark Hamill. Although it's not an ARG it reminds me of the ones they used to have back when LOST was airing, just a neat little thing for those who really can't wait for the next instalment of something.

Before I did wrap this up I wanted to get my friend Liam involved as he's the biggest Halo fan I know, I've never known someone to be so down to play a single game or be so into the 'lore' of something as this guy, to be fair it was him that got me in to this series and him who talked me in to getting an Xbox 360 for Christmas way back in 2007.

Q: What got you in to Halo?

A: I first got into Halo on the original XBOX, I remember getting it mainly for burnout and seeing Halo as a side game to play. Eventually I got bored of burnout and slapped in the disc, I was pretty much immediately captivated I had played fps games before on console, mostly n64 titles, but Halo was the first time I felt in control of my actions in an fps especially on a controller. There were things not in other games at the time, the music, the large landscapes and mostly the sense of scale and mystery. It really hit home as soon as I jumped off the pelican in Silent Cartographer and stormed the beach with the marines ever since that moment I knew I was in for the long haul with this series.

Q: Why are you still so interested in Halo after all these years?

A: For a majority of people Id think they'd say it was the multiplayer draw of Halo that kept them interested, we've all heard stories of Halo lan parties and hauling Xbox's over to your friends to play some CTF on Blood Gulch, but no one I knew played Halo or had the know-how of setting up LAN so I was really drawn to the story, the characters and the mystery of it all, I could walk around the games 2nd mission 'Halo' for hours just searching the tunnels and bases, neither of which were natural formations.

The story and lore only expanded with each iteration, I've read the books, the comics and watched pretty much everything Halo related that's important to the lore. Obviously by the time XBOX LIVE was in full swing I got way into the multiplayer side of things clocking around 30 full days game time in Halo 3 and way too many custom games to count. This combination of addictive multiplayer and story that while seemingly simple on first pass through gets more intricate the further you dig, the terminals in Halo 3 are a great example, fleshing out characters that even to this day are mostly unknown unless you're really into Halo lore.

Q: What is you favourite and least favourite title and why?

A: My favourite Halo game is without a doubt 3, the conclusion of the trilogy I started when I was 9 was a powerful moment, the build up to encountering Truth and fighting off the two scarabs is a moment in scale I believe hasn't been matched in a Halo game yet, the Arbiter finally concluding his revenge of the traitorous prophet, the reuniting of Chief with Cortana after fighting through the hell that is 'Cortana' (still adamant this is one of the best levels in Halo) a moment which in my mind
humanises chief more than any other moment in Halo. 

The whole game just had this grand scale about it that made it truly feel like we the player was finishing the fight, who can forget storming the Ark, taking down the towers on The Covenant and the final warthog run is the root of the best gaming experiences I've had, especially the vidmasters, 4 people on ghosts last level on legendary anyone?. The multplayer too was in my opinion the most balanced and fun Halo has been, BTB on Sandtrap ramming elephants into each other, the custom games and hours of playing infection on Neville's House or fatkid. 

Simply unmatched custom games and feeling of scale. Halo 3 ODST is my personal favourite campaign in terms of standalone story, the intimacy of New Mombasa, the detective noir-esque atmosphere and Marty's best score to date gives ODST a special place in my heart but as a whole package Halo 3 just edges it out

Now my least favourite? Halo 4.

The campaign of Halo 4 did a lot of things right, it continued to story of Chief from the only logical point. However it feels like 343 changed stuff needlessly just to stamp their impression on the franchise. First off the Mjolnir armour changes, this was explained away with nanomachines and cortana manipulating the suit while in cryo, which is an explanation that never sat right with me, another small nitpick of mine is how when waking in the beginning of the game while are all the weapons available on the remains of the Forward Unto Dawn the new more modern variants? I feel the intro to halo 4 would have been so much better if until Chief met up with the UNSC Infinity he was still in the old Mjolnir MKVI and using the 2553 designed weapons, it would give a much better feel of transitioning to a new era in Halo.

The way Chief was more humanised in Halo 4 is something I am both for and against, for me the appeal of Chief was that he didn't talk needlessly and when he spoke you listened as it was so rare to hear John converse (which is why the scene at the end of Cortana is so powerful)
thats not to say Chief in Halo 4 wasn't likeable, it just felt like he was speaking where in previous games it wouldn't be needed too. The introduction of EU characters such as the didact and librarian also felt rushed especially to those who hadn't read in depth in regards to Halo lore. The multiplayer is another can of worms, needless removals of Halo staples like map control and equal starts in favour of more 'modern' features a la CoD, ordinance drops as rewards for kill streaks and the butchering of the Jetpack? No thank you 343 I can handle sprint but keep tradition alive.


Q: What game had the best multiplayer experience?

A: Halo 3. Anyone who says anything else is wrong. end of.
The custom games, the coop campaign, BTB on Sandtrap, Shotty snipers on the pit, Jenga on standoff, Fat Kid.The forge was revolutionary and the way the community utilised it still impresses me. 30 days game time spent on Halo 3 and I don't regret a second.

Q: What game had the best Single Player experience?

A: As a standalone experience the best single player for me is ODST.
The intricacy of navigating new Mombasa alone or in a group as an ODST is a sense of exploration probably unbeaten in Halo, the slow unravelling of the mystery and your squad's fate
make for some unique story telling.

It was such a shift from playing as a 7ft tall super soldier to a honest to god Helljumper, always one of the most interesting units in Halo with the coolest armour design getting to experience the war
from the perspective of an ODST forced the player to utilise different tactics, when you were the Chief you could take on a Hunter in one to one combat, as an ODST? your best bet is quick waves of aggression and then retreating back into the darkness waiting for your next opportunity to strike.

The music itself was such a huge propellant of the experience, Asphalt and Ablution, Neon Night, Skyline. All tracks that just add to the sense of being lost, isolated and experiencing a more intimate experience. Halo 3 was great at ending the trilogy but ODST just felt like a way more personal and human tale within the Halo universe.

Q: Do you think 343 are doing well with the series now, how do they compare to Bungie

A: 343 to me are trying to stamp their identity on the Halo franchise, to make it truly theirs they take risks and big steps where perhaps it isn't needed, Halo 4 is an example of stuff being changed for little to no discernible reason other than to let the fans know that this is now 343's Halo and no longer Bungie.

Its not all bad I liked a lot of what 343 brought in and as a first shot at a Halo game 4 is pretty damn good but had obvious short comings. Halo 5 has me pretty damn hyped as they seem to have learnt from a lot of mistakes with 4, they are still taking pretty big risks but are keeping the core of halo intact.

Comparing 343 to Bungie I'd say Bungie did it better, they knew that the player wanted and knew what to show them and what not. The terminals in Halo 3 are a fantastic example, if you just want to be the Chief and finish the fight you could but if you want to know the intricacies of Mendicant Bias, the implications of Forerunnner actions then that was also there very cryptically hidden.

I also feel like 343 try to overload their games with features and needless fluff whereas it has been shown the best route for Halo is to keep it clean, keep it simple but deep enough to get your teeth into, how many people truly preferred the multiplayer system of 4 to the Bungie trilogy?
How many preferred the designs of Halo 4 to the original trilogy?.

343 could surely surpass Bungie, as of right now they are only on their second shot at a mainline Halo title but they need to learn to limit themselves and not splurge too much and overcomplicate the series. The last thing any Halo fan wants is meaningless milking of what is pretty much the video game equivalent of Star Wars.


Q: what is your favourite novel, if you had to get someone into the novels which one would you suggest and why?

A: My favourite novel right now is probably Last light or Broken circle, these being the last two I read. Last light just grabbed me because im a sucker for the other Spartans in the Halo universe especially Blue team. Last light is just a great story in how it addresses peoples fears about the Spartan's abilities but also shows how, despite how some may think, the Spartans are a lot more human and approachable than you would think, Fred 104 truly cares for the Spartans and soldiers under his authority and is not the 'demon' Spartans are made out to be by their detractors, plus is has ONI shady business which is always great.

Broken circle is a fantastic read for those interested in the covenant side of the story and shows how splintered the Sangheili truly were on their allegiances with the covenant, rebel uprisings, more detail on the great schism/ Covenant civil war and great character development for races we never really got an in depth look at like the San Shyuum.

If you want to get into the extended universe of Halo I'd recommend starting with the Nylund trilogy of The Fall of Reach, First Strike and Ghosts of Onyx, avoid the Karen Traviss novels (the Travvisty) unless you're a huge halo lore buff

Q: What is your favourite song?

A: One Final Effort from Halo 3, If there was ever a song which just sums up the Halo experience so well it would be this one, the way it starts off with the piano and then escalates into this epic gives such a rush and still evokes feelings today when it plays during the scarab fight on 'The Covenant' just compliments what is happening on the screen so well, rarely does a game use music to match the players actions and thoughts as well as the Halo series and One Final Effort is the pinnacle of this, whenever it plays you truly feel empowered.

Special mention: Siege of Madrigal, while not strictly a halo piece this little melody has appeared in every Bungie made Halo game and is a great tune that really brings more personal and intimate feelings to the surface.

Q: What are you looking forward to in Halo 5?

A: The first in game appearance of Blue team is about 90% of the reason I am hyped for Halo 5, seeing what is without a doubt the most efficient, professional and deadly Spartan squad together playable for the first time is amazing to me. The hunting for Master Chief angle and his true intentions, the mystery of it all just has me hooked. Why has Chief gone AWOL we all know he has a reason (a pretty damn good one too I bet) and why are ONI so adamant in bringing him down, to the point of creating a specialised group of Spartan Headhunters. It's just nectar to me I want to unfold the truth, delve into the intentions of characters, and I really want to see Sarah Palmer taken down a notch.

Q: Where do you want to see the series go next?

A: Its hard to know without playing 5, hopefully 343 don't write themselves into a corner or replace Chief as the face of Halo. I would love for a scenario which sees the remaining Spartan II's/Halsey etc, anyone who isn't an ONI lapdog really take on the Office of Naval Intelligence and its corruption.

Also Rainbow Six ODST when? get on it 343.

So you can see why I got this guy involved on this post, man loves his halo, but the reasoning is the same for me, the series overall was my first jump into the 'online' generation of consoles. While I actually had no idea I would ever enjoy this game let alone an FPS I'm glad I gave it a shot, I played it pretty much every day during the first few years of Halo 3 and I don't regret it, I remember being near the end of high school and just talking to people about all the cool shit I did in it on forge, you could have hours and hours of fun on custom games.

I think the multiplayer aspect is still and will always be the seller for this game for me and for most people but I have to say the more I play the single player campaigns or read into the lore of things I really do appreciate what Bungie originally did and what 343 are trying their best (arguably) to continue the legacy of. I don't know if Halo will be around for years and years to come, but I'm sure Microsoft won't let their main exclusive go just yet. I know though that even if the next few games are shit it won't dilute the enjoyment I had for the series and more specifically Halo 3 and it's online.

I don't like that because a series has a few bad titles or even only one good title in the series that this has to mean liking the franchise at all is a negative thing, games are what you make of them and if you enjoy something even if we're not talking about games you should just enjoy it, don't let what other people say hinder your experience of something ever.

If you made it this far thanks for listening to a couple of nerd ramble about an FPS game, I hope it explains that to us it's a little more than just a first person shooter and a whole universe that we're pretty engrossed in.

Batman: Arkham Knight (Xbox One, PC, PS4: 2015)

This week I'm finally going to put up my thoughts on the closure to the Arkham series, It was one of my most anticipated games for a hell of a long time and the torture of having it continuously pushed back only intensified my need to play it! But would this game truly live up to the hype surrounding it for so long? would it really show that Rocksteady used the extra time given to it by the Origins development team to their advantage?

As I mentioned in my Assault on Arkham review a few weeks ago, the Arkham series got me back into Batman and comics in general, before then I had just kind of seen a few films here and there and grew up with the various cartoons that were on the likes of Fox Kids. But this series truly introduced the mythos of the character to me on a whole new level and allowed me to find and read a large number of stories centred around that mythos.

I've definitely found enjoyment in every game released in the series with Asylum being a great start, it seemed to take place within or after the animated series' universe to a degree and while mostly using confined spaces in creepy buildings it really made you feel like Batman but more in the worlds greatest detective sense, I will admit I pretty much had the detective mode on all the time during that game as there were so many hidden easter eggs or riddles that would pop up every now and then.

Then City came along and we were finally allowed to run around in..well... the city, sort of. I felt City was a step in the right direction to expand upon the series and take it out of the confines of just a small area, truly you were allowed to feel more like Batman all around, you could do your detective work but you could leap from roof to roof and drop down in the middle of some thugs and beat the shit out of them. While this was a step in the right direction I felt the story was not as good as Asylum and the city did feel a bit desolate and lacking almost as if some areas were a copy/paste job.

After City we knew Rocksteady would be working on another title, but they needed more time, so WB stepped in and made their own title set before Asylum, titled Origins. Now I think this game gets shit on a lot and I can see why it does, a lot of people wanted to see the conclusion to the series and wrote it off because it was not a Rocksteady game, a lot of people got really mad that The Joker was again the main enemy of the game (but honestly what did you expect?).

However while I feel like this was more an expansion pack to City due to it literally having the same level layout. I felt the story was really well done, the atmosphere of it being on Xmas and having the snow everywhere was a nice change and the overall concept of the Villains going after Batman one by one due to a bounty on his head was great. Oh and the electro gloves were a always great to use, I'm surprised they were absent from Knight to be honest.

I also found the detective mode in this title to be one of the most in depth uses of it, tracing bullet trajectories and all sorts of stuff just so you can figure out what went down, all this was done during story missions too rather than on side missions like the other titles. Origins is really underrated if you ask me, but I feel the most underrated is Origins: Blackgate, a game created at the same time as the former but for handhelds (and later released on consoles).

Blackgate was set just after Origins and felt a lot more like Asylum in it's setting of a prison, but this game was really different to the other titles, it was actually set out more like a Metroid game with you being on a 2.5D plain rather than having the freedom to go anywhere, I felt this was a nice change of pace although the story was not fantastic and was honestly pretty forgettable, however I did like that there were multiple endings that you could get depending on what order you defeated people.

And with that we move on to Knight, the end all of the series that is meant to be the ultimate Batman experience, the story is meant to be amazing, the city has had a total redesign and the inclusion of the Batmobile is used all to make the player truly feel like Batman, but how does it fare?

I think I'm the only person I know who actually enjoyed the Batmobile, I really liked how it looked, kind of like a mix between the Tumbler from The Dark Knight and your typical Batmobile design. I enjoyed the Tank mode for what it was but felt battles heavily relied on it, like there was no real way to fight back as just the car. I did find myself just speeding through the city into people constantly for ages at a time though, it doesn't get old. Yet fighting against waves of armoured vehicles does, I preferred when you would have to actually chase other cars and shoot missiles.

I quite enjoyed having some sections where you hop from room to roof in the car but there really weren't enough of them, or enough sections where you would use tools like the winch in order to get to new locations. I've been playing the challenge maps a lot lately due to the latest DLC and I find them to be quite fun, while they are pretty dumb as a concept in terms of race tracks it's pretty fun if you just want a good time driving the car around and drifting like some Initial D shit.

I thought it was interesting that they tried to do a 'multi character' aspect to the game where you could play as other characters while you help out Batman but overall I felt it was not executed well. The trailers for it gave the impression of side stories and missions where you could play or even free roam as these characters but all you can really do is fight as them briefly or have them included in double team take downs. This is fine and it was fun for a time but I just felt it could have been expanded upon, but maybe they are saving future DLC for this sort of thing.

I enjoyed the use of the gadgets about as much as I did in any of the Arkham games but this time around I did feel items like the remote Batarang were not actually necessary as much as they were in previous titles. One of the new gadgets was the voice synthesizer which is interesting in theory with the ability to trick enemies into going to a certain area or doing a certain thing like locking a door however I felt as though it was only really necessary to use when you entered the airship area.

I don't think I felt compelled to use most of these items in areas like predator challenges because the AI was not as smart as it was before, I always took out most enemies just by doing silenced take downs, sometimes in front of other enemies and having them not even bat an eye. I felt the use of  predator take downs were fucking rad though, just in the way Batman moves between the enemies and lays the smack-down instantly, I think it's just satisfying to hear the enemies slam against the ground so hard.

 

While in every game they feel the need to include the Joker as the main adversary this time around with him being dead a lot of fans were worried they would pull some bullshit that showed he never really died, but right off the bat you see him cremated and confirmed dead. But did this mean he was absent from the game? No. This time around The Joker was a hallucination of Bruce's due to his encounter in City, I felt this was quite a neat way to include the Joker without having him actually be alive.

It also made for some humorous conversations, as the Joker knew everything about Bruce because he was in his own head, so you'd have him commenting on his identity, his relationships with people and at times on how he was really feeling during certain scenes. The Joker was the chaos inside Bruce and perfectly encapsulated that hidden side to him during the game.

I have to admit I saw Jason Todd being the Arkham Knight coming a mile off... Although the twist on the Red Hood story was quite nice, having him still technically be the Red Hood but not taking up that identity until just after the games main story closes. I did feel however that the design of the knight was fucking great though even if it did look a little Kingdom Hearts...

As much as I enjoyed that after the defeat of the Arkham Knight there was another character brought in to bridge the militia side missions together, I loved even more that it was Deathstroke because he was one of if not the best part of Arkam Origins and generally has a cool ascetic to him. However I feel like Rocksteady really fucked up a chance for a decent side mission boss. Throughout the game once Deathstroke is introduced he constantly reminds you of Origins and how he will get his revenge against you.

It really hypes you up and makes you want to have a proper CQC battle against him, yet his actual boss fight is literally a copy paste of a former battle against the Knight in his dumb ass 360 vision tank. I honestly though 'ok this might just be phase one' but no it's literally the entire boss fight. You easily defeat him, they tease you again by getting him out of his tank to fight you, then Batman just smacks him once and taking him to the GCPD. Absolute wasted potential if you ask me... Although it's pretty funny to see him sitting in a cell with the likes of Penguin and co, who he could easily snap the necks of in seconds.

Like most of the Arkham games the voice acting was really well done, every time you think Kevin Conroy is getting too old to continue on he knocks it out of the park and has not changed at all since his days doing the animated series, you can really tell he enjoys what he does when he plays Batman.  This time around Mark Hamill did return to voice The Joker after his absence from Origins and as you can imagine he did a fantastic job, I actually thought it was still Troy Baker voicing him this time around however, which explains why I thought Troy had truly become comfortable in the role!

I think another great example of voice acting this time around was John Noble as Scarecrow, I'm familiar with Nobles work as I used to watch Fringe every now and then but I eventually dropped it, I did however think that Noble was the best part of the show. As the Scarecrow while his voice is pretty much his normal voice he just brings an air of sinisterness to it and sounds pretty creepy at times, which is how you would hope Scarecrow would sound right?

I felt the rest of the cast was also pretty good, specifically Ashley Greene as Barbara Gorden/Batgirl. I felt she perfectly captured the cute dorky side kick character of Oracle without being too serious like she has been presented in older titles. I felt she did best when playing Batgirl in the DLC story however, especially her banter with Robin.

As much as I love the Arkham series for use of somewhat decent side missions I felt like the initial set up of Hush in the previous game ultimately wasted by the time we got around to seeing him in this title. While in the previous title it was a case of finding mutilated bodies across the city and ultimately finding out that Hush was the killer who has now taken on the guise of Bruce Wayne, this time around you don't deal with him over time but in one totally separate mission which is over in just a few minutes.

This really annoyed me as I really enjoy the Hush story line and would recommend reading it if you haven't already, I feel like Hush really could have been utilised better in this title perhaps early on by having the people of Gotham believe he was Bruce while Batman is stuck fighting against Scarecrow. I will admit however that I was quite surprised that the game made you feel as though you were actually playing as Bruce entering Wayne Tower and then shocking you by showing what appears to be Bruce taking Lucius hostage.

Overall I felt the side missions in this game were pretty good, however the militia segments became the most repetitive, I feel this is because they were so much longer than the other missions and they all revolved around the same enemy rather than relating to a specific super villain like the others did, I feel the Militia missions could have been consolidated into one long mission segment and then the space they took up could be used for one or two more different missions featuring different enemies like Bane or Deadshot.

This time around the stakes felt higher, it seemed whatever you did actually mattered to the character and Gotham itself, I mean you know Batman will come out on top at the end and all but to actually have characters die was really shocking in some cases. Then again you could say the same with the Joker dying in the previous game. The game really did present itself well during its more 'tense' moments like when Batman is attempting to stop a huge bomb go off by struggling to take it apart piece by piece while Alfred begs him to get away from the vicinity.

The most powerful scene though has to be when Batman under the effects of the fear toxin believes he sees Barbara shoot herself in the head. At the time you as the player believe it is Barbara who is under the effects of the toxin and is being manipulated into killing herself, you as the player do not even find out until near the end of the game that she is actually alive and well. But to see Batman so defeated in that moment really works, this is a man who had already 'lost' one Robin (which the game constantly reminds him off) and now he believes he has lost another member of his 'family'.

I feel like now that I have finished the game and know what happens with Bruce and his ultimate reveal to the world that he is Batman that it was at this point in the games story that Bruce knew he would have to drop the cowl after he has defeated the threats to the city. The game constantly reminds you that Batman can and has failed at times to prevent a death, especially Jason Todd. The Arkham Knight is proof of his failures and how they will eventually catch up to him, while it is left ambiguous what happens to Jason during the end of the main story the Red Hood DLC does seem to suggest he has become more of an anti-hero, however he still remains a stain on Batmans past.

Surprisingly I did not see Batman having his identity revealed to the world coming and I actually commend Rocksteady for going in that direction as it gives the series a nice point to be wrapped up while still leaving enough mystery as to what happens with Bruce in the future. It is actually really interesting to play the game after beating the main story as you're at a point where everyone knows who you are.

Just hearing some of the dialogue between NPC's discussing your identity is hilarious, some now feel you are no threat and some are more frightened that someone like Bruce Wayne could take out such a huge amount of people. I think my favourite example however is when the Riddler decides that there is no possible way Bruce is Batman as it would be too obvious, he believes this to be a clever ruse set up by Batman and Bruce in order to trick him, but of course he's too smart for that right.

At this point we're a month or so into the season pass and while I got it for free I do not think it is worth it so far, however the addition of the 1989 Movie Batmobile is fantastic and I cannot get enough of it, it's the only time I have actually cared about playing challenge maps in any of these games, It's a shame it can only be used in challenge maps at this time though, but it does bring with it exclusive maps based around the film and it's sequel.

While this may be the end of Rocksteady developing Batman games I'm sure Warner Bros won't let this cash cow die just yet, I mean if they did something like Origins but actually polished it up before releasing it it might be alright, if anything they should do a Batman Beyond game,it could be different enough while retaining the same core gameplay at least.

So is this game the best of the series? Overall I would say so, the experience in general was a great one, while it has short comings in a lot of areas I feel like story wise it was fantastic and gameplay wise it gives you a pretty much complete Batman experience, you not only get all these gadgets, you get to fight with your allies, you get a whole city to explore around and you get to use the Batmobile to a pretty great extent.

I would say this game is one of, if not the best comic book genre game out there at the moment, it actually makes me sad that there probably won't be another Batman game like it for quite some time. But if the rumours are true Rocksteady may be working on a Superman title in the near future, while I don't really like Superman too much I feel like they could do for him what they have done for Batman and finally make a game that gives you a decent Superman experience.

So would I recommend this game to you? Yes, I'd say if you have never played the Arkham series then you should really try out Asylum first of all and see how you go from there but if you've played them and started to become tired of them due to their repetitive nature during fight sequences and such then seriously give this game a shot if only for the story itself, like I said the story this time around is expertly crafted and really feels like something from one of the movies or more well known comics and is definitely worth your time.

Thanks for checking my review out, it's taken a while and I've been super busy lately but it means a lot that people actually take the time to check these out, let me know what you thought of Arkham Knight and the Arkham series in general!

Batman: Assault on Arkham (2014)

This week I felt like taking a look at something Batman related after I finished the Batwoman DLC for Arkham Knight as I'm still on a huge hype for anything Batman. I've always found myself enjoying Batman as a kid, specifically the animated series and the Beyond series too like most people who grew up during that period of time. However after that It was not until both Nolans Batman Begins and the Arkham series that I really began to get super into it.

I never ever used to read comics of any kind, I would only know about superheroes from their cartoons, movies or games. While Nolans series of Batman films really got me back in to that universe it never made me want to read any of the stories it was based on, It was only when I played the Arkham series that I began to research characters Id never heard of and stories that inspired plot elements within the game. I think I can thank the Arkham series overall for the way I feel about Batman In general today actually.

If it were not for its use of easter eggs and in depth looks at character profiles I would never have looked online and discover decent places to begin reading. The only thing with that is that I don't read new series as they come out, I can only read collected issues in a graphic novel format, I really don't like waiting to see the end of an arc or story. Perhaps that's because I began with collected issues and I've never actually tried to read weekly or monthly though, to be fair with the New 52 thing I don't really feel like starting anew, to me each story takes place in the same universe unless specifically stated not to.

The Arkham series as well as Begins pointed me in the direction of the Year One storyline and from there I was hooked, I've read so many graphic novels now and my collection is ever growing but I'll always love Year One and to a latter extent The Dark Knight Returns, both of these graphic novels really propelled my love for the mythos of the character, his universe and his rogues gallery as much as the video games did.

So I looked around and realised I had a few Batman Blu rays Id not checked out yet and after the Arkham Knight game I thought id give Assault on Arkham a shot. This film takes place within the Arkham universe and seems to fit in after Origins and some time before Asylum. Although it is a Batman movie he actually takes the back seat to the Suicide Squad, A group of villains and anti heroes set up by Amanda Waller. As the name describes this squad is set up to do the missions 'no one else can', to make use of the most dangerous villains skills and of course as a scapegoat if something were to go wrong so Waller can deny any accountability.

While Batman does take a back seat this time around I suppose this movie is a nice introduction to the Suicide squad if you are unfamiliar with them as a group as it does feature a number of characters who will be front and centre in the upcoming live action film in 2016.

I think it is a shame this film doesn't focus too much on Batmans perspective but to be far he has enough animated features as it is. I suppose if this film was titled just something like 'Sucide Squad: Assault on Arkham'  it would not have sold well (If it even sold well anyway), but anything with Batman in the title will garter more attention towards it. Maybe that will change after the films release if people can get over how the fucking Joker looks.

The Suicide Squad this time around consists of King Shark, Killer Frost, Black Spider, Captain Boomerang, Harley Quinn, and Deadshot. Their introduction almost felt like something out of a cheesy trailer with each of them having text around them stating who they are and who they were 'playing'. I actually really like the idea of the Suicide squad if only because I love to see villains working together to take on something, be it a hero who continuously beats them, a bigger threat        or an entire asylum.

I like that although they are working together, they're forced to, it makes for some pretty great scenes where the characters can't stand each other but know they just have to bite their tongue and get on with it or else their head will explode due to a nano bomb placed within their neck. I actually really liked that Waller showed first hand what would happen if one of the team were to disobey her. Right from the get go of the team being brought together we see KGBeast (what a name!) attempted to break away from the group and instantly got fucked up.

The plot begins when the Wallers government team infiltrate the Riddlers Hideout only to be stopped by Batman, Waller knows the Riddler has knowledge of each and every member of the suicide squads real names and threatens to release them on the internet. Waller assembles the squad to infiltrate Arkham Asylum while Batman is preoccupied in order to get a thumb drive laced with this information that is located within his cane.

The Squad lands in Gotham and works with The Penguin in order to find a way into the Asylum, during this time they suit up and await orders. However some members of the team begin getting specific secretive orders that the rest of the team are not to know about. As the story progresses we find out The Joker set up a Dirty bomb within the city and Batman believes the Riddler knows where it is. Because of this Batman continues to have run ins with the squad which allows Harley to be sent to Arkham, just as Waller planned.

As they all begin their plan to enter the Asylum they come across the Joker in Solitary confinement which pisses Harley off to the point of the plan almost going out of the window. During this time Batman gets the feeling Harley wanted to be caught and quickly heads toward the Asylum. Batman soons shows up and attempts to take on the entire squad, easily subduing the majority of them until he is seemingly overwhelmed and stopped by Black Spider.

Frost goes missing at this time and turn up at the Riddler's cell to assassinate him, however The Riddler states he knows how to defuse all their nano bombs in their necks. Naturally the Joker has found some way to escape (surprise surprise) and is looking for a way out of the Asylum. The Squad meet up with the Riddler and Frost and begin shocking themselves in order to overload the nano bombs.

At this point if you hadn't guessed it we see that Black Spider is Batman in his costume, who is somehow wearing his own mask beneath an entire Black Spider get up. Then the Joker shows up and chaos ensues as you can imagine.Oh and remember the bomb I mentioned before?, yeah it was just conveniently in the mallet Quinn was using.... how lucky.

The movie pretty much turns into Arkham Asylum lite now as the Joker releases all the inmates such as Two Face, Bane and Scarecrow while the remaining Squad members attempt to escape. Of course the Joker and Quinn were stowaways on Deadshots ticket out of the Asylum and the three begin fighting. The fight between Deadshot and the Joker is short but actually pretty great and get's quite brutal at times with multiple stabbings and choke outs rather than just a standard shitty fist fight.

The end of the movie shows Batman defusing the bomb and Gotham saved once again, with a short epilouge showing him confronting Waller about the damage caused by her Squad and a final scene with Deadshot reunited with his daughter aiming his sniper at Wallers head as the film ends.

This movie had a number of aspects that I did enjoy such as the line up of villains and the banter between them actually being quite funny at times, such as Killer Frost making ice related puns and the rest of the teaming groaning whenever she does. With that banter also came some rivalry between Deadshot and Captain Boomerang which I really liked the build up to with them having dart throwing competitions and getting into some fights, but in the end it felt like it didn't lead to anything as they betray each other after all.

To be fair though they are both villains so maybe the 'we were rivals now we're best pals' thing would not have really fit well. This sort of stuff actually helps the slower scenes with their pace, I feel these scenes would be pretty boring without the interactions to be honest. However Harley Quinn in this film, while a nice addition overall seems to be more of a 'IM SO RANDOM LOL' kind of character than actually funny in her own right, she had some dumb catchphrase throughout the movie of 'yahtzee' and it just got annoying.

I like that the films includes a large number of Batman's rogues gallery even if just for a moment such as the Penguin, Bane, Ivy and a few others, while they are only on screen for a few moments they are each a welcome addition and show that Batman's been busy and is already well established as the hero or 'dark knight' of Gotham by this point. 

I also liked that at least one time Quinns costume resembled her animated series version to an extent rather than the one she has in the Arkham games, I like to think the games take place in that universe but much later on. On the other hand however I like that the majority of the other characters costumes such as Bane and Scarecrow retain their look from the games, it's one of the only parts of the movie that makes it feel like it's actually related to the video game.

The voice acting is actually really good all around, Of course Kevin Conroy reprises his role as Batman once again and no matter how many years go by he still does the character justice, unfortunately he is not in the feature for too long every scene he's in shows how comfortable he is with being Batman, his voice just has this great power around it that just commands those around it to be intimidated, it's a guy in a Bat suit that will completely fuck you up if you're committing a crime and you know it.

While Mark Hamill has been away from the Joker character since Arkham City the use of Troy Baker as the Joker Origins has been the next best thing, he has truly been fantastic in the role, especially in Arkham Knight recently, there were definitely times when I could not tell the difference between the two. While he is great in this movie too, there did seem to be a number of moments where he just was not as good as he was in Origins, this isn't to say his portrayal this time around was bad in anyway it just felt like he could do better and he knows it.

The rest of the cast was pretty good too, Deadshot Particularly, while I found Harley Quinn to be annoying I can't deny that her voice works for the character and it always has, she'es meant to be this high pitched woman who love's to be the centre of attention other than when the Joker is around and honestly I had no idea until I just looked it up that it wasn't Tara Strong who voiced her this time around but Hynden Walch who voiced her in The Batman.

There were some issues I had with he movie too though. I don't understand the use of techno and dubstep like beats for the soundtrack, especially outside of action sequences It just did not seem to fit in any scene at all, Batman should be almost Gothic with its music, I mean if you're going for a more action orientated movie then fine but there is not need to have crazy ass dubstep playing when characters are suiting up and talking to each other, Id rather now music at all at that point.

The animation is nothing amazing, it kind of feels like your typical Saturday morning cartoon, a lot of scenes understandably take place in the darkness and actually look better because of this. One thing tht bugged me was having Batman's pupil semi visible most of the time, it was really distracting when and looked like a mix between the animated series batman and the film version where his eyes are always visible. To be fair though, the women were all drawn pretty well as you can see above....
In fact Killer Frost was one of the best things to look at I don't care!

Overall was this movie worth a watch? I would say yes if you're a huge Batman fan but no if you're more into just the films or games. While this is set in the Arkham universe it does not really have anything to do with the games other than some character designs, the story certainly does not really lead in or out of any game in the series. This film really is more of a Suicide squad movie, which is fine really I think in that respect it is quite a good way to become familiar with the characters and motives of the Squad so you're up to speed for the 2016 movie.

However the only key characters you'll need to focus on are Deadshot and Quinn it seems, as they seem to be center stage in the 2016 movie according to the trailers. Honestly if you're looking for a really good Batman movie from the long list of animated features I would not recommend this as your first. In fact Both Year One and The Dark Knight Returns have been animated and the Killing Joke is in the process of being made so honestly id say to go for one of these unless you're really in to the Suicide Squad.

I've actually got quite a few DC animated movies laying around the house so perhaps I'll review some more some time!, if you're into Batman or any Superhero let me know of any cool underrated animated movies to check out, they always seem to get overshadowed by their live action counterparts.

Dragonball Super (2015) : Episode One, How's it looking so far?

This week It was kind of a given that I'd take a look at the first episode of the new Anime Dragonball Super and how it's looking so far as well as what I hope to see as the series progresses. Now I don't plan to review every episode but maybe some key points every now and then, for now though I want to discuss what this show is, what I think of the planned storyline and how I feel this episode stands as a new beginning but also as a sort of continued epilogue to Z.

The series was first announced on the 28th of April 2015, just over a month before the airing of the first episode and was the first animated TV series in 18 years. The series characters and general plot were developed by Akira Toriyama much like Battle of Gods and Revival of F. What's interesting about this series is the setting itself, described by Toriyama as following “…the aftermath of Goku’s fierce battle with Majin Buu, as he attempts to maintain earth’s fragile peace” the series will actually continue on after this going up to BoG, in-between the two movies and after Revival of F where it is said to explore one of the alternate universes described by Beerus in the former movie.

While I'm happy with this I'm most excited about this other universe storyline as it's something totally new where we really have no idea what awaits other than the two new characters revealed who I assume act as the Beerus and Whis of that universe, Champa and his as of yet unnamed attendant. With this new universe we have a great opportunity to see some new character designs and world building but also some amazing fight scenes if the two films are anything to go by.

What's great about this is the way Japan planned Super to air directly after the last episode of Dragonball Kai so it literally feels like a continuation to those watching weekly in Japan even if it does go back in time slightly from the last episode of Z.

I feel like the creation of this series is the culmination of the Dragonball 'renaissance' that began back in 2008 with the Shonen Jump Special and just intensified with everything that came since, the OVAS, the Jaco Manga, the games like Xenoverse and Heroes and of course arguably the most popular and important factors, the last two movies. It really feels like Dragonball never really went away due to its world wide popularity with multiple generations.

When the first episode came out I was understandably super (ha!) excited but I wondered how they would deal with having to focus on the small amount of time after Buu but before Beerus, I did not think there was much they could actually do between those points that would involve the typical Z style fights or training. What we got was more akin to something only seen in the filler episodes of Z we got a look at how the characters are dealing with this time of peace and honestly that was great to see.

In Z it always seemed like there was no real 'down time' for the characters outside of the odd filler episode like when they were waiting for the Cell Games to begin. But here we see that Goku is now a radish farmer in order to support his family but yearns to train, Gohan is finally becoming a scholar and is engaged to Videl and from the looks of the next episode Vegeta is more of a family man albeit a grumpy one.

The plot of this episode was nothing major, it revolved mostly around Trunks and Goten looking for a wedding present for Videl while having sub-plots around the worlds reaction to Mr Satans defeat of Buu and showing Beerus during an undisclosed time as he destroys planets. The episode was definitely more comedy orientated akin to early Dragonball or BoG and felt more like the infamous driving school episode in that respect.

As a starting point to the series I thought this worked really well, it did not really make itself accessible for new viewers in my opinion but I think if you're watching this show you've got to be familiar with at least Z.  The first scenes we're shown are actually taken from the battle with Kid Buu in Kai, I'm not going to lie I'm actually disappointed that they decided not to reanimate this flashback but I can totally see why they did this as they already had it animated, I guess in some respects for many this would actually fuel their nostalgia.

I like that Goku is wise enough to know that although they are in a time of peace he has too keep up with his training and continue to get stronger, he is well aware at this point that he is the saviour of Earth and it is usually down to him to defeat the threat, although he seems fine with this because of his love to fight It shows how other cast members who used to have such potential like Gohan have understood this and in some respects given up on being a saviour, they still fight but they focus more on their own lives.

This actually points some of the characters, specifically Gohan in the direction he heads in GT, becoming a scholar and father first rather than stay like his Buu Saga self. Oddly Gohan even looks like he does in GT at this point, yet a few years later he will look and dress like a younger version of himself. Although I feel like Gohan is becoming more and more of a background character as time goes on I can't help but enjoy any scene with him and Videl in, I just like those two being together and wonder if they'll include their wedding in the show itself like at the end of the Dragonball Anime with Goku and Chichi.

Honestly It's nice to see Goku act more like a Father to Goten, of course he was never there for the first few years of his life due to being dead but now that they are in this time of peace it's great to see them hang out together, It was a nice touch to have Goku say he was proud of Goten. The next episode may even have Vegeta and Trunks moments like this which would also be a nice touch, especially after Vegeta finally understood how important his family is to him.

If the Opening and Ending of the show is anything to go by then hopefully we will be seeing more of characters like Yamcha and Tien like in Revival of F, Id love for this to happen it would just be nice to see them included again even if it's just brief scenes of them taking out weaker enemies.

I think capitalising on Beerus' popularity really helped this episode, I don't think it would have been as good as it was if not for his scenes, it was fantastic just to get a brief glimpse of what his job actually is and how he may carry out the destruction of worlds and funnily enough it's a lot like the film, Beerus just wants to have a great meal and barters with the planet that if it's good enough he won't destroy it. Hilariously he decides the meal was worth saving exactly half the planet for and he splits the planet exactly in half.


Finally I think Roshi's brief scene at the end of the episode absolutely stole the show, it encapsulated everything I love about Toriyamas comedic style. Just to have Roshi seemingly appear out of nowhere somehow knowing that Goku has come into a lot of money and screaming that they should buy some Porn with it was extremely early Dragonball and really solidifies Toriyamas involvement with the series.

Outside of the plot of the episode I'm really happy with both the Opening and Ending, I feel like both songs are quite catchy, while I don't feel they are on the level of the Z openings I feel like they still fit quite well. I love that Jaco is included in the opening itself as I loved reading his Manga and it shows how Toriyama really wants him to be a bigger part of the series itself, I'm excited so see him show up at some point within the show.

I really enjoyed the imagery in the ending more than anything as it shows a silhouette of Goku as a child as he walks through a background image of key locations from both DB and Z. This is quite similar to the 2008 Specials ending which I was also a really big fan off, it just shows how much not only Goku has been through and how far he has come but also the how far the series has come too. It shows that this series was not forgotten and will not be for a long time.

In terms of the shows animation quality it seems to be exactly what I would expect from any new Anime, which is pretty good while obviously having certain scenes where maybe a character is not as detailed as they were before. I think it's easy to forget that this isnt the big budget piece the last two movies are and there will be these examples of 'quality' every now and then. Generally though this does'nt bother me and I feel like the animation is great.

It seems like the animation team are already putting in Toriyamas 'Toribot' imagery in certain places like on the bills of money which is great to see early on as it's a sort of trademark Toriyama likes to do within his work. To see this happening so early on suggests to me that this really is a Toriyama backed series and like the two new movies, is going to be something special. They also seem to be using a few minor familiar characters again like Mr Satans students from the filler of the Cell Games Saga showing up while he is being interviewed for saving the world.

Generally I prefer to watch Dragonball in English although I don't mind the Japanese version, but I prefer the Japanese music more, at least for the original show over Z. So far with Super however I've  got to say I didn't find the music anything special yet, but that could change over time. There is so much room for things to either improve or change over time so it's difficult to comment on certain
areas right now.

Overall I feel like this episode was a great starting point to the series. I'm really excited to see where this series goes, especially with the exploration of Universe 6 as it kind of reminds me of the fan Manga Dragonball Multiverse (which isn't that bad) in some ways, although I hope it steers clear of the evil version of characters shit as well as AF like character designs. I hope we see many more comedic segments like in this episode too and if the teaser for the next episode is anything to go by then we're in for a hilarious ride!

Let me know what you thought of the first episode and where you think the series is heading!

Murasaki Baby (PS VITA: 2014)

After a bit of a hiatus I'm back this week with a game a played a lot of while on a short vacation, Murasaki Baby which is a side-scrolling puzzle platformer with horror elements from Italian developers Ovosonico released exclusively for the PS Vita in late 2014. The game was designed by Massimo Gurrani who is better known for his work on titles such as Killer 7, No More Heroes and Shadows of the Dammed, all of which are games I have played and loved.

I originally saw this game when it was revealed briefly in a Sony press conference at E3 2014 and at the time I had no intention of owning a Vita but in all honesty this game looked like it was going to be amazing from the brief look we got and the visuals made it really stick out in my mind as a game Id like to try eventually if I ever got a Vita. However after that E3 I never heard of the game again, it was only with PS+ that I remembered this games existence and jumped at the chance to play it after being so drawn to it the previous year.

I honestly could not wait to play it and saw my recent vacation as a chance to really get into it during travel and while I did play it first, I slowly moved on to other games and found this title to be much more of a chore, saving it mainly for the inescapable plane ride to and from my destination, it's fair to say I was disappointed with this game as a whole, but this is not to say it does not have it's strong points as a welcome edition to the PS Vitas lacking exclusives list.

First though I should explain exactly what this game is about and how it plays. The story of the game while not in depth focuses on a character known only as 'Baby' who lost her mother and needs to traverse a world filled with childhood fears and at times disturbing imagery in order to reunite with her, pretty simple. As he traverses through the world she begins to meet a number of other children however each child is help captive in some form or another and it is up to you to free them from their fears or problems.

Gameplay wise the controls are relatively simple and generally touch screen focussed as you guide Baby via dragging her balloon with the touch screen through various obstacles and eventually learn new techniques such as turning the Vita upside down to progress or using the swipe function to be able to use a certain ability on the world around you such as freezing a certain platform or even having a monster in the background constantly blow air into your balloon to re inflate it after a puncture.

These sort of abilities are a real strength for the game and are perhaps its strongest point, especially towards the end of the game where you're suddenly using all different abilities one after another in order to get through the level, while playing these latter levels I was actually having a great time. Unfortunately they were short lived as just as soon as they began the game was suddenly over, I really felt let down.

Although I was not really enjoying my time overall with the game the visuals were something that actually kept me interested in playing just so I could see what new creepy world Id be thrown into next. I found each design to be quite unique  especially in terms of the characters, with the heads flipped over and their mouths above their eyes yet the hair still being on the 'top' of the head. Overall  the visuals were quite creepy and even Tim Burton esq, although it is said they were inspired by American artist and writer Edward Gorey.

The primary use of Black and White really intensified the feeling of being a child who is more or less alone and depressed in a strange world as well as pushing the weird atmosphere upon the player. I think the use of the balloon was also pretty neat as it was at times the only coloured part of the game which stresses the importance of it as your 'life' but also that this item is the child's safety net, it's what keeps her calm in a otherwise scary place while she searches for her mother. While there were these areas that I enjoyed I have a lot to say about what I found to be lacking in the game.

 By far the worst part of the game for me was the clunky controls, which is surprising as the game is mostly touch screen based. The primary way you move the child is to press the balloon with your finger and drag it in the direction you want to move in, this seems simple enough however the speed at which Baby moves is tediously slow and if you ever try and move just a touch faster than a snails pace then the child falls over, cries and takes a few seconds to get back up, this is super frustrating towards the last level where you actually have to try and move at some speed.

What's worse is the odd time you have to turn around and the character will just turn and instantly turn back the other way again making it take a super long time just to get them facing the correct direction. Even when you have to use the touch screen to touch enemies in order to kill them, this sometimes is so inaccurate that you'll end up getting yourself killed numerous times. This was without a doubt the point which made me refuse to play the game for a number of days, I just could not bring myself to fuck around with the awful speed the child walked at.

The game was about 3 hours long which ordinarily I would not have too much of a problem with, however because the difficulty was really really easy for the majority of the game it felt like it was over way too quickly, it was only the last level where I actually had to do a few more attempts. This made me feel like the game had such a missed potential, the devs really could have put a bit more time into the level design and come up with levels more akin to the final one where it gets quite intricate, I feel like they really let themselves down in this respect.

I felt the soundtrack was really nothing special either and I'm not a trophy collector but I thought it was really dumb that the only way to get the gold trophy was to listen to the only real song within the game during the credits, the trophies may as well not have been in the game to begin with as they were all to just complete each level with only one requiring you to do something missable.

 I think I was a real shame that this game wasn't that good because the Vita as it is now is failing as a system, so much so that Sony outside of Japan have officially dropped support for it and class it more as a PS4 accessory. I love my Vita, mostly due to PS+ and I know there are a number of great games for it and amazing features such as crossplay, but I feel like Sony really didn't learn from the mistakes of the PSP and shot themselves in the foot, there are some great games for the Vita like, Senran Kagura, Danganronpa, Tearaway and Gravity Rush but it's only the former two that have any sequels on the system, it seems as though it's mostly Japanese games that dominate the system.

Now this isnt a bad thing and I love playing them but even the PSP had a number of Western games and exclusives at this point in its lifetime. I think I'm happy because I essentially got this game for 'free' due to PS+, as I'd only feel a huge sense of buyer remorse if I had paid full price for this title, If you're a die hard Vita fan who wants to play all the exclusives made for the console then Id recommend waiting for this to go on sale but overall I would advise you not to waste your time which really is a shame.

Thanks for checking this out, I'll hopefully get back to some sort of schedule soon!

Mobile Suit Gundam The Origin I: Blue-eyed Casval (OVA: 2015)

This week I move back to the Gundam series with part one of a new OVA series Mobile Suit Gundam The Origin. This OVA is interesting as it is essentially based on a Manga adaptation of the original 1979 television series which was not produced by series creator Yoshiyuki Tomino but Character designer for the original series Yoshikazu Yasuhiko. The reason for this adaptation was to look at the One Year War in a lot more depth by focusing on the reasons the war started, the politics and also the characters themselves. Due to this there are a number of changes to the story in order for it not to be a complete retread such as Mobile Suit designs, characters and plot points.

The Manga also has entire volumes dedicated to certain characters and their perspective, in one case being series antagonist Char Aznable, how he came to be involved with the conflict and his subsequent awakening as a Newtype. This OVA rather than beginning where the Manga does actually decided to use this volume as its basis and tell the story of Char who at the time was known as Casval. Perhaps this decision was made as not to reanimate familiar scenes and focus on what had never been animated before or perhaps it was due to the popularity of the Char character who has been involved heavily in the majority of the Universal Century time line.

Originally this OVA was announced as a four part series with room for more episodes in March of 2014 as part of the Mobile Suit Gundam 35th Anniversary ~ RISE! project along with the final episode of Gundam Unicorn and its release and the announcement of a new television series set after the Universal Century time line by original creator Tomino titled G no Reconguista which aired its final episode a few months ago. Clearly this event was jam packed with great content for fans and while the latter animations were received quite well how does this OVA fair?

The first episode was released in February of 2015 and sits at just over an hour long as opposed to the 45 minute time frame usually seen within the series OVA's and begins with the story of Casvel and his Sister Artesia as they must survive after their father Zeon Deikun's death during a speech for independence from Earth which would soon be known as the precursor to the Principality of Zeon. We soon find out the cause of Deikuns death was actually due to an assassination via poisoning by the Zabi family who would go on to control Zeon during the One Year War.

We soon see the Deikun family ripped apart as they are moved around for their own protection thanks to the loyal Ral family. But as time progresses and the situation worsens the children are taken away from their mother and smuggled back to Earth.

While the focus is very much on the past of these characters there is a brief action sequence set during the One Year War at the beginning of the animation which I believe was done purely to sell more Gunpla model kits as there is only one mobile suit featured during the main focus of the story, although I'm not complaining as the sequence was quite well done and gives a viewer not familiar with the franchise a quick look at why Char is regarded as the Red Comet of Zeon and an Ace pilot.

What I particularly enjoyed about The Origin was that is likes to focus not only on what happened before the conflict but also the roots of a lot of characters and factions motives which are just sort of there in the original series. For example we get to see the roots of the rebellion from the Earth Sphere via the protests riddled throughout the colonies as well as the low morale of those who would join the side of Zeon. We see that they are not just some evil soldiers like they are presented to be in the original series but a group of people who truly believe that they need their independence and not be governed by Earth.

It also makes use of showing the squabbling and betrayals ridden throughout the Zabi family siblings with numerous siblings plotting the others deaths in a bid to gain complete control of Zeon.We even see one of the siblings die early on from a bomb assassination implied to be by his sister, however it is blamed on the Federation and only fuels the growing hatred between the two parties.

While it does paint Zeon supporters a lot more positively it also shows the Federation in a more negative light, especially during the protests by having the use of tanks and other means as scare tactics to quell the problem. This differs from the way they are portrayed in the original series as the saviours and just side of the conflict. This portrayal actually works really well with the way the federation is portrayed in later series such as Zeta Gundam and Unicorn in that there is no 'good' side during a conflict and each has their questionable methods, this is a portrayal of each side I greatly appreciate as it adds some depth to both sides rather than a simple good v evil storyline.

The Animation quality is quite good all round especially in terms of character designs, however unfortunately it is not as spectacular as the previous OVA series Unicorn which is a shame as that only increased the overall quality of the animation in that case, but perhaps there was less budget to work with this time around and we must remember that there are not as many action sequences with robots pulling off crazy moves like in Unicorn.

Thankfully a few of characters voice actors from the original series make a return such as Shūichi Ikeda who reprises the role of Char in the opening sequence. Interestingly before release there were rumours circulating that the majority of voice actors were to be replaced as they were getting on in years and many important characters Seiyuus had unfortunately passed away in recent years, however much like with the latest Dragonball films using as many if the original voice cast as they can this OVA tried to do the same.

In this first episode there was not a huge reason to do this however as Casval and Artesia were still children and therefore used different Seiyuu, but perhaps as the episodes go on and the need to expand into a complete retelling of the series like the Manga goes on to do then there will be more reason to have a returning cast even if it is only the likes of original series protagonist Amuro Ray. With a number of returning characters in the mix generally it was great to see them again and see how they began their paths to wherever they may end up during or after the war but there was one character who pretty much stole the show for me and that was a younger Ramba Ral.

I really enjoyed the portrayal of Ramba Ral, a character who was more or less the first Ace pilot faced by the protagonists in the original series and a loyalist to Char and the Deikuns, Ral was always shown in the original series as an honourable man who enjoyed a battle and not necessarily one who agreed with the majority of Zeons motives. While he died quite early in to the series he was always a fan favourite character so it is great to see him as a more important entity in this OVA as well as a caring and charismatic ally to the Deikuns with one scene involving him going out of his way to retrieve Artesias cat.

While he is a lot more goofy and perhaps even innocent than he is in the series I think that works well, by having him help in the seclusion of the children he quickly becomes a much more serious man and the episode even takes a quick turn into a sort of noir spy thriller with him by having him go undercover in a bar in order to find his soon to be lover Hamon and get her help in smuggling the children to Earth. I sincerely hope we get to see Ral more as the OVA progresses as a reanimated segment of his battle with Amuro would be absolutely fantastic.

Of course the main focus is on the two children and I found Casval to be quite an interesting character with  the way he becomes almost like an adult  as the innocence of childhood is quickly taken away from him, especially when he meets with the Zabi family to show he is not and will never be afraid of the people who killed his father. Already we can see this will be the man to adopt the name Char and work his way up the Zabi ranks to destroy them internally during the end of the One Year War.

But while his innocence is quickly taken away from him his younger sister remains the same, even though I have seen her as an adult and seen her become a more capable character entirely I believe by having her remain innocent at this age it keeps Casval in check and stops him becoming too reckless as we see when he takes control of a mobile suit for the first time and begins picking off the enemy. If it were not for his sister he surely would have continued killing or got everyone else on board killed.
Perhaps this is why he becomes the man known as Char later on and why his  sister becomes Sayla and joins the protagonists in the original series, because without her he loses his way and becomes a character driven purely by revenge only.


Towards the end of the episode there are some very sad scenes which involve the children leaving their mother forever, which Casval understands but Artesia believes will just mean they will see their mother not long after they arrive on Earth, while some may not find this that upsetting I always find I can't deal with any emotional scenes involving young children or animals for whatever reason and this scene got to me a little!

While the episode begins to change Casval the ending is great because it ends on the child like wonder of discovering new things and looking on at something amazing as the children travel to and see Earth for the first time, which I feel works quite well in that it reminds you they are just kids caught up in this whole thing that they never asked for, but to have Casval explain to his sister the reason they left Earth was because it was beautiful until the humans polluted it really does remind you this is the child who will one day take this to an extreme and try to make the earth uninhabitable for humans to they move on to space and evolve as a species.

While I greatly enjoyed this episode there are a few issues that i've seen mentioned online. For example a number of people seem to complain about the popularity of using CGI in action based sequences as it sort of cheapens the look of the animation and is very noticeable. Personally I have never minded it too much but I have not seen many shows or movies that have actually used it, but more recently when I watched the first of the new Berserk movies I found it to be really bad and not suited to the beautiful art style that was in the majority of the film. While in that case it allegedly gets better in the latter films released in the case of this OVA I actually did not mind it's use at all.

I feel that style actually suits the action sequences because it fits with something mechanical and makes them stand out as more than just animated in the same way as humans therefore if it doesn't look as organic in its movements it actually benefits the whole use of something mechanical.

Another issue I've seen pop up is that there really is not enough action in this episode, which I again don't find as an issue but perhaps that's because I know the battles that will come. I understand that the average viewer of a Mecha Anime are expecting over the top battles but I feel like this series was produced more for the long time fan who want to get a deeper understanding of the events and characters of the One Year War. That is why the focus is on these back stories and more of a political drama at times, I honestly think this is fine but we must remember it is only the first episode and with the second approaching soon there may be more action as we progress.

Overall this OVA acts as a nice little start point for the Origin storyline and gives a wealth to expand upon in the next few releases. While it is light on the mecha action it more than makes up for it in terms of character development so I believe it is well worth the watch for any Gundam fan interested in the Universal Century.

But is this OVA a good starting point for someone new to the series? Yes and no, yes in the sense that it is set before anything during UC and does a decent enough job of explaining what is going on but no in the sense that you don't really know where any of this is going if you don't have prior knowledge to the original series. In my opinion I would recommend viewing the 3 compilation films of the original series which cut out a lot of filler and has superior animation quality and then view this OVA.