Limbo ~ video game review

Title: Limbo

Played on PlayStation 4

    Limbo is a puzzle-platform video game developed by the independent studio Playdead. It was originally published by Microsoft Game Studios for Xbox 360 and was released way back in July 2010. The game was later made available on other platforms as well including PlayStation 4 which is the version that I played and reviewed here. A unique video game that excels in its simplicity, Limbo has been listed as one of the greatest games of all time by various publications, and it has also won many awards within the industry since its release.

It's Black & White

    Limbo is a minimalist video game not just in its visuals but controls, story and sound as well. When it comes to its visuals, the game is basically in black and white. However, the developer still managed to create beautiful and eerie settings with its monochromatic tones. I'm surprised at how striking the visuals can be even in its limited use of colours and art designs. It shows you the creativity of the developer on how they can stretch their imagination in creating the world of Limbo with simple designs.

    The soundtrack of the game is very interesting. It's more like a compilation of sounds than music, at least that's what I feel about it but other people might disagree. Nevertheless, it's a unique soundtrack that evokes the sense of calmness and at other times, a sense of dread as well. It's a weird combination, I know, but it complements the game very well.

Resident Evil (Remake) ~ video game review

Title - Resident Evil (2002 Remake Remaster)

Played on PlayStation 4

Have you heard the rumour that Capcom might be doing another remake to the first Resident Evil game? Remake of a remake, how crazy is that? Only time will tell if the rumour is true. If it's not, well no need to be sad about it. The remastered version of the 2002 Remake that were released still look amazing and is still great to play.

Here's a brief info of the game. Resident Evil Remake was released way back in 2002 by Capcom exclusively for GameCube. A remake of the original 1996 game of the same name, it has improved graphics, new gameplay mechanics and puzzles, new areas to explore, additional story and reworked dialogues. A high-definition remaster (this is the version that I've played and will review here) was later released in 2015 for multiple platforms (PlayStation, Xbox and PC) and later in 2019 for Nintendo Switch.

A Hauntingly Beautiful Mansion

It's hard to believe that this game is more than two decades old because looking at the graphics, the game still looks pretty amazing. The minute you enter the mansion, the main setting of the game, you will be mesmerized by the amazing details and you can look forward to more eerie settings to come. Gloomy lights from the lamp on the ceiling casting long shadows, with zombies and dogs lurking around the dark hidden corridors barely lit by the dim lights. The sound design complemented the creepiness with the sound of dogs howling, the moaning of the zombies, and the screaming of one Lisa Trevor. Both the graphics and the sound design make the game feels so atmospheric that you immediately transported into the horrific world of the living dead when you're playing the game. Sure, the human characters and the creatures that you fought didn't really look lifelike like the AAA games that you typically see nowadays, but they still look nice and fit with the game's settings and overall design.

The Haunting of Hill House ~ TV review

The Haunting of Hill House is a supernatural/horror television miniseries created and directed by Mike Flanagan for the streaming platform, Netflix. The 10-episode TV series premiered on the platform on October 12, 2018.

It's a fantastic TV show, so I'm inspired to do this quick mini review on it. I am a fan of Mike Flanagan's films such as Oculus and Before I Wake but for some reason I was dragging my feet when it comes to his many TV series that were currently available on Netflix. Finally this year, I took the first big step and watched the show, which is loosely adapted from the 1959 novel with the same name by Shirley Jackson. The show follows the Crain family, the husband and wife with their 5 children, and their experiences with paranormal activities after living at the Hill House. The show alternates between the time when the five children were still kids staying at the Hill House, and when they were adults still grappling with the tragedy that happened when they were kids.

I love how the way the show tells the story of the family; it took its time and slowly building up the tense and mysteries to finally revealed everything at the end. It's as much of a family drama as it is a horror story. The two elements blended beautifully. The first 5 episodes focused on each of the five children characters respectively (both when they were kids and adults), and I find that really helpful for me to get to know each of them and their struggles. There's also an episode each that focused more on the parents in the second half of the show.

Uncharted: Drake's Fortune Remastered ~ video game review

Title - Uncharted: Drake's Fortune (part of Uncharted: The Nathan Drake Collection)

Played on PlayStation 4

I don't think this game need an introduction but for those who may not have known about this "little" franchise, here's a brief intro. Uncharted: Drake's Fortune is the first game in the Uncharted series released way back on PlayStation 3 in 2007. Developed by Naughty Dog, the game received praise from game critics and gained quite a number of fans, which give rise to a couple sequels and even a film which starred Tom Holland and Mark Wahlberg.

In 2015, a remaster of the first three video games was released, titled Uncharted: The Nathan Drake Collection, for the PlayStation 4. This is the version that I played but I will only review the first game for today.

Time to Explore

Obviously, I'm late to this party. I played the game more than a decade after its initial release. I know it's the first game in a successful franchise but I have to be honest, my first impression of the game visual-wise was not great. I can definitely say that it was underwhelming...and I know the reason why. Throughout the years, I have been keeping up with the news on this franchise; reading articles and reviews, watching walkthroughs and reaction videos, et cetera, et cetera. So in a way, I am aware how the games have grown and evolved throughout the years. I think maybe the greatness that I saw of the 4th game in the series somehow cloud my judgement and I was expecting the visuals of the first game to be at the same level as the latest installment, which is foolish of me. I somehow forgot that this is the first, the very first, game in the series, and furthermore it's just a remaster, not a remake. But as I spent hours playing the game, the visuals grew on me, and I can finally see how beautiful the game is.

Even though it looks a little dated visual-wise, the game still managed to mesmerize me with its beautiful locations and settings; the lush jungles, the winding rivers, the ancient structures; they were all quite fascinating to behold. You get to walk around and explore these great locations and as a player, it feels amazing. Something that I wish the game would have though is more varieties for its locations because sometimes there are a little bit of sameness to some of the locations. 

Unravel ~ video game review

Title - Unravel

Played on PlayStation 4

Unravel is a video game developed by Coldwood Interactive and published by Electronic Arts. It was released back in 2016 for Microsoft Windows, Xbox One and PlayStation 4. It's a puzzle platformer where you control Yarny, a creature made of yarn, across different sets of environment while solving puzzles along the way. It's sweet, it's lovely and it lets you look at the cycle of life through the perspective of its cute little protagonist.

Little Yarn in a Big World

First of all, let me tell you that Unravel is a beautiful video game. The settings are beautifully crafted from the peaceful, soothing locations of the house backyard and the seaside, to the dark, intimidating locations like a gloomy factory, a toxic dumpster area and snowy garage of abandoned vehicles. Everything is perfectly visualized. It feels like you have been shrunk to a small size and you get to explore these amazing places which are basically real-world based locations but from a different perspectives. The fact that it was greatly and beautifully constructed makes exploration a fascinating and wonderful experience.

The soundtrack for the video game is well-crafted too; complementing it's beautiful sceneries with soothing and calm music, while slow and melancholic music complement it's dark and depressing locations. The music and the environment go hand-in-hand in making the journey richer and satisfying. Not to forget the sound design; crashing waves, rustling leaves, flowing water, all of which play an important role immersing us in the adventure of our little protagonist.

Heavy Rain ~ video game review

Title - Heavy Rain

Played on PlayStation 4

Heavy Rain is an interactive action-adventure drama video game by Quantic Dream first published by Sony Computer Entertainment in 2010 for PlayStation 3. A remaster of the game was later released for PlayStation 4 which, for the record, is the version that I played. The game was also later released for Microsoft Windows.

It was my first time playing an interactive drama video game like Heavy Rain, so I was a bit worried if I would not like it. Will it be like a movie? Will it have enough gameplay for me to enjoy? I have so many questions. I think I did watched few gameplay videos for the game before but still I was worried. Now I can happily say that I love this game and the experience it gave me. It has its flaws and plot holes, no doubt about it, but I was enjoying it so much that I ignore them all and just focus on my enjoyment of playing it.

God of War (2018) ~ video game review

Title - God of War

Played on PlayStation 4

God of War is a video game from Santa Monica studio published in 2018 by Sony Interactive Entertainment. It's the sequel to God of War III but also somewhat of a reboot to the franchise. Different settings, different mythology, different antagonists, but same old Kratos, the fallen Greek God of War, now with a son and a new journey awaits him.

2020 is the year that I went back into console gaming and this game is the first game that I've completed story-wise. I feel like it's the perfect introduction for me to the games of this generation; it won a lot of awards, highly praised by critics and beloved by fans. Well, it also came free with the console bundle that I bought so yes, it make sense for this to be one of the first game that I played.

Although I have enjoyed a lot of playthrough of the games in the franchise on YouTube, my experience in playing the games myself is not much, I've only played the first God of War game on PlayStation 2 which I must say was an amazing experience, I love that game. But the franchise has evolved throughout the years and with the 2018 God of War, a lot has changed not just in gameplay but narrative-wise as well.

Andhaghaaram (2020 Tamil film) ~ film review

Image source from Wikipedia

One of the best thing that Malaysians get is exposure to media and entertainment from so many different countries, and this is from free-to-air TV stations no less which is easily accessible by public. Unfortunately, this film will be one that is only available in select streaming platform (read: Netflix).

[Update] The film has been aired in one of the channel on ASTRO Malaysia (sorry I can't remember which channel), so the film is available on other platforms now.

Andhaghaaram is a 2020 Tamil supernatural/thriller film which is available on Nextflix starting 24 Nov. 2020. It starred Arjun Das, Vinoth Kishan, Pooja Ramachandran, Misha Goshal, Kumar Natarajan and Jeeva Ravi.

The film follows the story of three seemingly unrelated people; a blind and poor young man struggling to maintain the mansion that he inherited from his dead parents, a de-spirited cricket coach who felt guilty after his friend suffered an unknown mental disorder after receiving a book about occult from him as a gift, and a renowned psychiatrist who woke up from coma from the result of being shot by his own patient and found out that he had lost his entire family from the same attacker, as well as losing his medical license and his voice. These three stories which are told separately eventually intertwined to reveal the horrible connection between the characters involved.

Artemis Fowl Book Four: The Opal Deception ~ book review

Title - Artemis Fowl: The Opal Deception

Author - Eoin Colfer

This is the review of the fourth book in the Artemis Fowl book series titled The Opal Deception. First published in 2005, the book tells the story of young Artemis Fowl and his fairy friends trying to beat his pixie nemesis, Opal Koboi, from her second attempt at world domination.

It's been years since I read the third book but I must say, it's one of those series that is easy to jump back into. It won't take long for you to familiarize with the characters and the world of the series again, at least that's what I've experienced. I immediately recognized the main characters, the basic plot points of what happened to our main characters in the previous book, and the humorous tone that is carried over to this fourth book which is something that I always like about this series and glad that it is being retained in this chapter of Artemis's journey.

The following review will have minor spoilers of the plot so I recommend that you only read my review if you had read the book, or if you're okay with spoilers.

The Undoing (2020 miniseries) ~ TV review

The Undoing is a 6-episode miniseries aired on HBO (here in Malaysia and I believe in most Asian countries) starting in the end of October until end of November 2020. It starred Nicole Kidman as Grace Fraser, a therapist who found herself intertwined in a murder case of an acquaintance which unbeknown to her involved her family members as well. As the murder case begins to unravel, so do her personal life as she tries to make sense her connection to it and the impact it has on her family.

Overall, this is a really good miniseries. I've been a fan of many HBO miniseries before and I must say this is another one from them that they delivers. The story is very compelling and engaging. It also gave an interesting insight into the life of an elite New Yorker family dealing with a murder, and the attention and spotlight that comes with it.

Ranking the superheroes in Captain America: Civil War film

I've finally watched Marvel's Captain America: Civil War and it was a fun experience. Instead of a regular movie review I've decided to do a ranking of all the superheroes/enhanced humans that were featured in the film like I did with the movies The Avengers and its follow-up, Avengers: Age of Ultron. After all, this movie does feel like an Avengers movie with so many characters involved.

This list will only featured the 12 characters from each side of the teams, team Captain America and team Iron Man, so villain like Crossbones and awesome supporting character like Sharon Carter would not be in this list. I might exposed some plot points too so please be aware that this post might contain spoilers for the movie.

Now let's move on with the chart. We start from the bottom and make our way to the top of my list, let's begin!


12) Vision (Paul Bettany)

I think Vision is a very unique character but he didn't really featured a lot in this film, so that is why he is at the bottom of my list. To be honest, I think he is quite powerful, in fact he might be too powerful that the other characters might not stand a chance if the filmmakers decided to fully utilize him in this film. Anyway, I hope the studio will continue to explore the character in the upcoming Marvel movies. He is a very interesting character after all.


11) James Rhodes/War Machine (Don Cheadle)

What happened to James Rhodes near the end of the movie is very tragic, but I didn't really feel connected with the character so I placed him near the bottom of my list. But I think it is important to note that he was quite crucial in relation to Tony Stark's character development. I guess he will not be featured much anymore in the future films considering what happened to him but you'll never know because when it comes to comic book movies, anything is possible.


10) Clint Barton/Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner)

Here's another character that was not much involved but since I already love him from the Avengers movies, he managed to make quite an impression on me even with so little screen time the character had in this film. I especially love the scene in the middle-of-ocean prison where Clint Barton was locked up and the banter he had with Tony Stark there. He is a great character, one I really like so much, so I hope he will continue to be featured in the Marvel movies.

Before I Wake ~ movie review

Before I Wake is a movie directed by Mike Flanagan, the mastermind behind 2013's Oculus, and starred Jacob Tremblay, Kate Bosworth, Thomas Jane, Annabeth Gish, Justin Gordon and Dash Mihok. As someone who adores Oculus, I was super excited to watch this because I wanted to see what the man behind this movie has more to offer. Mike Flanagan not only directed it but also co-wrote this movie with Jeff Howard. After struggling to secure a release date after it's distributor, Relativity Media, filed for bankruptcy, Before I Wake was finally released in Malaysia (although I'm not sure if it is under the same distributor for release outside of United States).

This is my review of Before I Wake. It will not contain spoilers (at least not any major ones) so feel free to continue on reading my thoughts on this movie.

Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice ~ movie review

Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice is a movie that was involved in a lot of conversation lately. Is it a good movie? A bad movie? Can it be considered successful? Or is it a failure? Why people hate this movie? Can anyone even like it? So much discussion surrounding it and the movie, directed by Zack Snyder, certainly had divided the fans. Some people love the movie, some people hate it, while others were in the middle and thought it was just okay. Most critics were unapologetic when giving it negative reviews but was it really that bad?

I'm one of the people who loves the movie and I even saw it twice at the cinema but not for the reason people would think. After the first time I saw it, I had mixed feelings about the movie. There are so many scenes that I love and the discussion the movie was trying to raise about a god-like being living among us and the world reaction to him is very fascinating, but at the same time if people would have asked me then how I feel about the movie, I couldn't say it was a great movie. The best I could say was "I kind of like it, it was okay", which I find odd since I love a lot of the scenes in this movie like I've mentioned. Then why did I watched it for the second time?

It was because I thought I had an info-overload kind of situation. There was too many things to think about, so many layers of story the movie was trying to tell me, and I was overwhelmed by it. I had the same kind of reaction after I watched Man of Steel and The Hunger Games: Catching Fire for the first time at the cinema. But after the two movies were aired on TV and I watched them multiple times, I love both of the movies now! So I thought that was the case for me for Batman v Superman too. I'm almost certain I would fall in love with it once I saw it multiple times on TV, but before it hit the small screen, I wanted to have another look at the movie at the cinema. Although I could still end up having mixed feelings about it after my second time watching it, I knew I love so many scenes from the movie that I thought it was a risk worth taking. Fortunately for me, my instinct was right and I did fall in love with the movie and appreciate the scenes even more than before. I even thought the movie wasn't long enough!

Before I discuss more about Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, let me put a warning here that this movie review will contain spoilers. If you don't want to be spoiled on details of this movie (even minor ones), I would suggest you to leave this page and read something else. If you don't mind though, well, you're more than welcome to read on.

Asia's Next Top Model Cycle 4 ~ 2 episodes impression

Asia's Next Top Model season 4 had premiered on StarWorld Asia (channel 711 and 722 on ASTRO Malaysia) on Wednesday, 9th March 2016, and currently it is at its second episode which had already been aired on 16th March 2016. At first I wanted to write a post after its season premiere but I thought maybe I should give it one more episode before I write anything about it. It allowed me to know more about the contestants and also the new line of judges.

For this season, not only do we have 14 new contestants vying for the title, we also have a new host, and a new model mentor. Taking over from Georgina Wilson as head judge and host is Cindy Bishop, while Kelly Tandiono is replacing Joey Mead-King as the model mentor. I must say, I will truly missed Joey Mead-King, not only she has been the consistent face on the show but she was also funny and entertaining to watch. She was a good mentor to the contestants too.

I was a bit confused on who is the creative director for this season. It was promoted on TV before the premiere that Yu Tsai would be the creative director, even in the official website it was stated that he will be taking that role for this season. So when he didn't show up in the first episode and Kenneth Goh showed up instead, I felt a bit cheated. For the second episode though, neither Yu Tsai nor Kenneth Goh showed up so who is the real creative director for season 4? As it was heavily promoted that Yu Tsai is indeed the creative director, I guess maybe we would eventually see him on the TV show, starting with episode 3 perhaps?

Zootopia ~ movie review

Jason Bateman as Nick Wilde (left), Ginnifer Goodwin as Officer Judy Hopps

Zootopia is the 55th animated feature film from Walt Disney Animation Studios. I've been enjoying my time at the cinemas with the last couple of films from the studio in recent years like Big Hero 6, Frozen and Wreck-It Ralph, so seeing how amazing the movie trailers were for this movie, I was certain I would have an amazing time with Zootopia too, and I sure did. So here's my review for Zootopia.

I will try to keep this review spoiler-free so you would know as little as possible regarding the plot if you haven't watch the movie yet.

So what is the basic story for Zootopia? It's about a country rabbit named Judy Hopps (Ginnifer Goodwin) who had graduated from the police academy and appointed as a new member of Zootopia Police Department. Wanting to prove her worth as a capable police officer to her chief officer, Chief Bogo (Idris Elba), she must solve a missing animal case in 48 hours with the help of a fox who is a small-time con artist, Nick Wilde (Jason Bateman), who happened to be a key witness in the case.

Danganronpa: The Animation ~ full season review

Welcome to my full season review of the anime series, Danganronpa: The Animation. I did a 4-episode impression for the anime before, so if you're interested to know what was my initial reaction to the anime series, you can click here for my post for that.

Danganronpa: The Animation is the anime adaptation of the visual novel game, Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc. It's the first game in the franchise and it became so popular that it spawned more video games, manga adaptations, novels and of course an anime series. There might be a few spoilers scattered in this post regarding the plot so if you plan on watching the anime, you may want to skip and read something else. There won't be any big spoilers though so you might not need to worry much.

So what's the anime about? It's about a young boy named Makoto Naegi, along with 14 other students, who were trapped in the building of Hope's Peak Academy, an elite academy which only accepts talented students. All the doors and windows were closed and locked, the facilities were run with an enclosed self-sustainable system, security cameras were everywhere watching them, and they were monitored by a mysterious someone who controlled a stuffed teddy bear named Monokuma who also acted as their school's principal. All students who were trapped were to live in the facility forever and if they want to get out from there, all they have to do is to kill another student BUT they cannot be caught doing it. A trial will be held when someone is killed and if the killer is caught, then he/she will be punished, or should I say executed. If the killer got away with the murder and someone else was blamed for his/her action, then the killer will be released from the facility and the other students who will be executed instead. It's a weird (but definitely fascinating!) premise.

Danganronpa: The Animation ~ The first 4 episodes impression

Danganronpa is a video game franchise which currently consists of 3 main titles (with one upcoming title) and had also spawned manga series, novels and of course, anime adaptation, in which I will review now based off the first four episodes that I had watched. Danganronpa: The Animation had been aired in Japan beginning of July in 2013 but it had just premiered on Animax Asia last Monday on 16th November 2015. It's kind of sad to see that it only got released on the channel more than 2 years later but I guess it's better late than never.

I've never heard about this series before and I was just lucky to have seen TV ads for it a few days before its premiere. So what is it about? It's about several people trapped in a building and the only way for them to get out is to kill someone but they have to make sure they don't get caught doing it. Sounds dark, creepy and interesting, right? The ads just showed this simple premise but that definitely caught my attention straight away.

The anime starts off with the main protagonist (Makoto Naegi), a regular, normal, "extremely lucky" student walking into Hope's Peak Academy, an elite academy that only accepts the best of the best of students. But once he step his foot into the academy territory, he passed out and next thing he knew, he was trapped in the academy's building along with 14 other "accepted" students of the academy. As they assembled at the assembly hall, they were introduced to an evil-talking-stuffed bear named Monokuma and were told that they were to stay in the academy forever and if they want to get out from there, they have to kill someone but they cannot let themselves get caught by the others for doing it...and so the story begins.

Regression ~ review

Regression is a 2015 movie starring Ethan Hawke, Emma Watson, David Thewlis, Dale Dickey, David Dencik, Lothaire Bluteau, Devon Bostick, Peter MacNeill and Aaron Ashmore, written and directed by Alejandro Amenábar. It's a psychological thriller film about a detective investigating a case which involved a girl who had been a victim of a Satanic cult. I think the release date for the movie had been delayed in the US but it was already released here in Malaysia in October 2015, and had also been released in Spain, United Kingdom and Canada. This will be my review of the movie and it will have no spoilers in it, so don't worry about getting your movie experience spoiled.

Before I begin this review, I would like to address that the trailer for this movie was a bit misleading to me. It was marketed as if it was a horror movie from the trailer but I would say that the movie's plot lean more towards the mystery and crime aspects of the story. But I would still labelled it as a horror film because it does have some pretty scary scenes, and it also have a typical horror vibe to it since the case the detective was investigating revolved around the horrific activities that were related to the satanic cult.

Hammerin' Hero ~ review

Hammerin' Hero is a platforming, beat-em-up, action game for the PlayStation Portable (PSP) developed and published in Japan by Irem Software Engineering (as Ikuze! Gen-San: Yuuyake Daiku Monogatari), published in Europe by DHM Interactive (simply as GenSan) and published in North America by Atlus.

I don't think I need to put a spoiler alert for this game review but just in case if people are wondering -  no, I won't go into details regarding the story but I will mention several of the levels/characters/unlockable items that were featured in this game. I won't give the full list of those things of course but if you want to be surprised when you unlock any new stage, character or item, you might want to avoid reading this review altogether then.

So what is this game about? When a small town is threaten by a huge company (the Kuromoku Company) who wants to demolish the area and develop the land, Gen, a local townsfolk come forward to fight them in the hope of bringing an end to their evil corporation plan. It's a platforming game so it's understandable if the story is not something the game is focusing on but regardless I find the story quite entertaining and easy to follow, the story was told in a kind of cute way too. In this version that I played, players have a choice between English or Japanese voice-overs. I chose mainly English voice-overs. Although some characters' voice-over were pretty bad, for the rest it was quite good with the lines delivery were quite funny, and I mean that in a good way. I like the main character's English voice-over, Gen, the most. The voice actor (sorry but I don't know who it was) did it just right, not too over-the-top but not quite plain either.

Infini ~ review

Infini is an Australian 2015 science fiction/thriller/drama film directed by Shane Abbess and starred Daniel MacPherson, Luke Ford, Grace Huang, Bren Foster, Harry Pavlidis, Dwaine Stevenson, Luke Hemsworth, Louisa Mignone and Kevin Copeland. Primarily set at the farthest space station that human had ever explored in the 23rd century, a search and rescue team was dispatched to secure a highly-volatile source material from being transported to Earth and to rescue the only known survivor that had escaped from the disaster that had happened there.

This movie review will have minor spoilers regarding the film's plot, so if you haven't watch the movie and want to avoid spoilers, please leave to read other posts in this blog right away.

I had never heard about this movie before, and I just noticed it because of the poster and film's trailer that had been shown at my local cineplex while I was there to watch another movie. I have no knowledge regarding what's the movie about and I was only interested to watch it because the trailer reminds me of the movies Event Horizon and Sunshine, both which I loved. And I love science fiction movies, so why not? But in the end, did I like the movie?