My 2014 Fave Solo Songs from K-pop Girl Group's Members

This will be my second year doing a top 20 list of my favourite songs from K-pop girl groups, but while I'm finalizing the chart, I thought maybe I should post something about solo songs from member (or former member) of K-pop girl groups too. There are some pretty impressive songs this year so I would list here two standouts which are my personal favourites, and both songs happen to be their respective solo debut. Who are they? Read on to find out.

Nicole

Nicole was a former member of KARA. I'm not sure what led to her leaving her former agency and, ultimately, her group but one thing I'm sure of is that I like her more being a solo artist than a member of a girl group. Somehow I always felt like she was being overshadowed by the other members of KARA and only now I can truly see her talent. I love her debut song, 'Mama', and she has a nice voice which I never noticed before too. She can also rap and has great dancing skills. I love Nicole and seriously I think she has huge potential to become a successful solo artist, so I wish her all the best with her solo career. She was born and raised in the US so may I suggest she expand to promote her music internationally with English songs?

Watch 'Mama' by Nicole.

What to watch? ~ 2014 movies: December

Apologies for this late post but better late than never right? We are finally at the final month of 2014. How's the year have been for you? Before we step into 2015, which will probably be one of the big year in movies, let's take a look at some interesting movies that are coming (or may already have been released) in December. Let's start!


1. The Pyramid

The Pyramid had received a lot of negative reviews from critics, and to be honest, the trailer for this movie didn't show much promise either. But I include it in this list anyway because I'm curious about it. What is it about? I saw a glimpse of some kind of humanoid creature in the trailer, so are there monsters or creatures living inside the pyramid? Or is the plot lean more towards the supernatural side like ghosts and spirits? My curiosity that had piqued my interest towards this movie, but as I mentioned before, it had received a lot of negative reviews, so I'm still thinking whether to watch this in the cinema or not. Directed by Grégory Levasseur and starred Ashley Hinshaw, Denis O'Hare and James Buckley, The Pyramid was released in cinemas on December 5, 2014.


2. The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies

I've watched the first two movies in the The Hobbit movie series in the cinemas, so it would be silly not to catch this final installment in the cinema too. The trailer looks good and the ending to the second movie left us with a cliffhanger, so there's definitely something to look forward to. From the trailer to the name of the movie, they somewhat alluded to a big war, I guess we can expect more action in this movie then? Martin Freeman, Richard Armitage, Ian McKellen, Evangeline Lilly, Orlando Bloom, Luke Evans, Benedict Cumberbatch, Lee Pace, Aidan Turner and a lot other actors would all be back for one final round in Middle Earth, and you catch them all in action in movie theaters starting December 17, 2014.

What to watch? ~ 2014 movies: November

Quite a few big movies are coming out soon so let's just jump straight to business, shall we? Here are the movies that will be released in cinemas in November that I'm most interested in. Let's start!


1. Interstellar

This movie is shrouded in mystery. Nothing much is revealed about the plot and yet audiences are expected to be blown away by the movie. Well, if it's some other movie, I might not be tempted but it's a Christopher Nolan movie, so of course I believe whatever they are saying! I started to like his movie since The Prestige and I think he's going to deliver yet another amazing cinematic experience with Interstellar. Reviews for this film started to come out from the movie critics and surprisingly, they were quite unimpressed with his latest effort. Maybe he had set the bar too high before that even he has difficulty to overcome now? Nevertheless, I love science fiction movies so I'm looking forward for this, and you can bet I'll be watching this in the cinema the weekend it come out. Starring big names like Matthew McConaughey, Anne Hathaway, Michael Caine, and Jessica Chastain, Interstellar is scheduled to be released in cinemas on November 5, 2014.


2. Big Hero 6

This will be Disney's first animation movie that will be based on Marvel's properties. The 54th animated feature from Walt Disney Animation Studios is inspired by the Marvel Comics superhero team and will tell the story of Hiro Hamada, a boy genius, together with his robot, Baymax, and his fellow friends who will fight to uncover the crime plot by a mysterious masked supervillain. The movie looks promising based on the awesome trailers, and Baymax looks extremely adorable too! I'm pretty sure he will be popular among kids soon. Directed by Don Hall and Chris Williams, and featuring the voice of Ryan Potter as Hiro Hamada, Jamie Chung (GoGo Tomago), Scott Adsit (Baymax), Genesis Rodriguez (Honey Lemon), Damon Wayans, Jr. (Wasabi) and T. J. Miller (Fred/Fredzilla), Big Hero 6 is scheduled to open in movie theaters on November 7, 2014.

YuYu Hakusho Volume 18 ~ review

The final story arc continue on in Volume 18 of YuYu Hakusho manga. Will the friendship between Yuusuke, Hiei, Kurama and Kuwabara crumbles under the pressure of the powerful demons that are now conquering the Demon World? How will the story develop? Here's my review of the penultimate volume of the manga series.

This review will contain spoilers, so if you haven't read the manga and planned to do so, please stay away from this post if you don't want the story spoiled for you.

Just to recap, this final story arc began in Volume 17 with Yuusuke, Hiei and Kurama were each visited by representatives of three powerful demons that are currently fighting for supremacy in the Demon World. Each of them were invited to join the respective group/clan to strengthen their territory that they each conquered and finally take over all of the Demon World. Yuusuke then decided to join his "demon blood-related father" Raizen, Kurama joined the blind demon Yomi, while Hiei went to join Mukuro's group. So what has our protagonists been up to in the Demon World within each group?

There are altogether 9 chapters for this volume, and the first 4 chapters are interestingly different than the others, which set up the stage beautifully for this volume. In the first two chapters, we get to see how's Hiei been doing with Mukuro's group/clan. Although Hiei had been a very popular character in the manga (at least based on the readers poll), we don't really know much about his character, or more specifically his past, and in this two chapters we got the chance to do that. It's interesting to learn and explore his dark past, and even though it was not much, at least we get to know more about his background and the history behind his cold behaviour.

My Music Jam ~ Taylor Swift, Ed Sheeran and Alif Satar for October 2014

It's been awhile since I last post about music that I like so let's talk about music now and what music I've been jamming to lately. There's a lot of good stuff out there, so below are some of the music that I keep on repeating on my laptop while working, or dancing to in my car while driving. Just a side note, even though I put 'October' in the title post, it doesn't mean that the songs I'm listed below were released in October. I just want to differentiate this post with my older post about music, hence the month and the year in the title. Make sense? Now let's turn on the music!


Ed Sheeran ~ Don't

Ed Sheeran had released a new music video for a new song a couple of weeks ago called 'Thinking Out Loud' but I'm still enjoying his song 'Don't'. It is such a cool song with interesting lyrics. I've read an article my friend forward to me before that this song is about Ellie Goulding, who he had a fling with (or so he thought) before she hooked up with Niall Horan from One Direction instead. I'm not sure how true is that article though, you could never 100% sure what you read online nowadays. Whatever it is, I hope everything goes well for him and I hope he keeps continuing on making good music.

Check out Don't MV here.


Sheppard ~ Geronimo

When I first listen to 'Geronimo', I thought it was an odd song with strange arrangement. But after awhile, the song grew on me and I thought to myself, "Hey, it is a good song!". It was truly addictive listening to the song and it was not even your typical pop song that usually have that addictive vibe. This indie pop band from Australia had even been signed with music manager, Scooter Braun (the one who discovered Justin Bieber on YouTube), for their US launch. I'm pretty sure we will be hearing a lot from this band in the future. I hope they have great success!

Enjoy Geronimo MV here.


Colbie Caillat ~ Try

This is truly an inspirational song, and it's accompanied by an inspirational music video too. Although the lyrics and music video suits more to girls and women, I don't see why boys and men can't learn something from this song too. Boys and men do face peer pressure to 'fit in' too sometimes but I have to say in these days and age, girls and women face tougher challenges and pressures amidst all these unrealistic ideas on what beauty is. Yes, we all can learn a thing or two from this song. Let our inner beauty shine everyone.

Watch Try MV here.

What to watch? ~ 2014 movies: October

October's here, and in a few months more we will be in 2015. How time flies! There are some potentially good movies coming out this month so you better get ready for them. But like I always said, some movies might not be as good as we would expect them to be. It can be quite disappointing especially if you are looking forward to see them. Hopefully these movies I listed below will be good. Without further delay, let's begin.

1. Annabelle

After terrorizing horror fans last year, Annabelle, the creepy doll from The Conjuring, will get its own movie this year. The film will serve as both a prequel and spin-off of The Conjuring, and it is directed by John R. Leonetti and produced by James Wan, who is the director of The Conjuring. John R. Leonetti had served as cinematographer for James Wan a few times before, so hopefully he got a few tips from him on how to make a good horror movie. To be honest, I'm not too convinced yet on this movie but I think I might eventually be interested to check it out in the cinema. Annabelle was released in movie theaters on October 3, 2014.

2. Gone Girl

I'm really interested in this movie's plot. It's about a guy who is suddenly put under the spotlight as the nation follows the search of his missing wife. But as the authorities investigate the matter, more secrets come out and many suspicious eyes targeted at the grieving husband, and more are convinced that the husband is not as innocent as he seems to be. But did he really got anything to do with the disappearance of his wife? It's a mystery film and that's what I like about it, I'm eager to find out the truth behind this tragic incident. The movie also received critical acclaim, and that makes me even more excited about it. Starring Ben Affleck, Rosamund Pike, Neil Patrick Harris, Tyler Perry, Kim Dickens and Carrie Coon, this film adaptation from a novel of the same name by Gillian Flynn was released in cinemas on October 3, 2014.

The Maze Runner (film) ~ review

I've been waiting for this film for quite some time, and now that I had watched it, it's time to finally review it. This movie review is spoiler-free, so for those who haven't watch the movie yet, not to worry, you won't have the movie spoiled for you.

The Maze Runner is a science-fiction, action film based on the book of the same name by James Dashner, and starred Dylan O'Brien, Thomas Brodie-Sangster, Ki Hong Lee, Aml Ameen, Kaya Scodelario, Will Poulter and Blake Cooper, among others. The movie is about a teenage boy named Thomas who woke up and find himself trapped in a center of a giant maze with no memory of his past life. Together with the rest of the boys in the maze, Thomas must race against time to uncover the secret of the maze and find his way to freedom.

First of all, let's start with the story that this movie is trying to tell. Is it good? Personally, I really like the story a lot. It is entertaining, it keeps me guessing on what's coming up next (yes, I haven't read the book), it has the right atmosphere of despair and desperation but at the same time not too dark that could make it not suitable for younger audiences. It has a mystery element in it too and I'm enjoying my journey trying to solve the puzzle and mystery of the maze with the characters. Based off a book, the movie certainly find its ways and shortcuts to explain certain key points from the book (you can actually notice it eventhough you have not read the book). While overall the plot is quite easy to understand, the movie certainly doesn't take its time to properly explain certain things. But don't worry, even though you feel like you were left off some minor plot points, you can still enjoy the movie and it doesn't impact your enjoyment of watching it either, well at least it didn't impact me, so hopefully it won't impact yours too.

Ladies' Code Tribute ~ Rest In Peace EunB & RiSe

I believe all K-pop fans would have known the unfortunate event that befall Ladies' Code, one of the beloved K-pop girl group, which is the deaths of its two members; EunB and RiSe, due to a car accident. Whether you're a fan of the group or not, you would have to admit how tragic the news was not only to South Korean music industry, but also to K-pop fans worldwide, and certainly had left many in shocked and tears.

Image: EunB (left) and RiSe

A little background on the group for those who are new to them. Ladies' Code with members Ashley, Zuny, Sojung, RiSe and EunB, is under the management of Polaris Entertainment company in South Korea. Some of the members were already in the entertainment industry before the formation of the group such as Sojung who was a finalist on the talent show The Voice of Korea, and RiSe who participated in Miss Korea 2009 as representative from Japan. Debut in 2013, the 5-member group gained popularity with their debut song, Bad Girl, which was the lead track for their debut mini-album, Code#01. They follow that with the release of their first digital single, Hate You. Not long after that, they made another comeback with their 2nd mini-album, Code#02 Pretty Pretty, with the music video for Pretty Pretty featured a more fun and quirky concept than their previous releases. In 2014, they had released two singles; So Wonderful, an 80's influenced song, in February; and Kiss Kiss in August, which saw them gone back to their fun and quirky style like they did with Pretty Pretty.

The tragic accident happened in the early morning of September 3, 2014 when the van carrying the group along with their manager and a stylist crashed into a protective wall. Further investigation by the authority revealed that the van's back tire had fall out from the vehicle, and due to the rainy condition, had caused the van to skid and crashed into the protective wall. EunB passed away as a result of the accident while the rest were injured and rushed to the hospital. Sojung and RiSe were under critical condition; while Sojung condition stabilized later on, RiSe on the other hand succumbed to her injuries and passed away several days after the accident.

This sad event is certainly hard for family members and friends of both EunB and RiSe, so let us pray that they will be given strength to go though this, and my deepest condolences for their tragic loss. Hopefully Sojung, Zuny and Ashley will be strong too and may they get well soon.

Rest in peace EunB and RiSe.

What to watch? ~ 2014 movies: September

Eventhough the summer movies season has officially come to an end, it doesn't mean that we don't have any potentially good movies coming to the cinemas. There are still some interesting new ones coming out in the last few months of 2014. So what movies to be released in September that had caught my interest? Well, not much to be honest, according to my movie taste at least. Let's check them out.


1. The Maze Runner

I bought all the books in the series recently because of some promotion at the book store but decided not to read them yet. I heard a lot before about disappointed fans complaining how disconnected their beloved books had become with their movie adaptation (World War Z and Percy Jackson movies came to mind). Hence I will wait to watch the movie first before I read the book. Although the trailer looks promising, I don't want me knowing the plot from reading the book to set such high expectation for the movie adaptation. I think I would enjoy the movie much more this way. I really wish this film will be successful at the box office because it does seem to have a lot of potential to become a great movie franchise. It was also reported that the pre-production for the sequel had already begun early this month (September), so it would be sucked if the movie fail. Starring Dylan O'Brien, Kaya Scodelario, Thomas Brodie-Sangster, Ki Hong Lee and Will Poulter, and based on the book of the same name by James Dashner, The Maze Runner will be released on September 19, 2014 at the cinemas.


2. A Walk Among the Tombstones

I don't really like to watch heavy drama type of movies at the cinema, I would prefer to watch them at home on television. But I watched Prisoners (the one with Hugh Jackman and Jake Gyllenhaal) last year at the cinema and surprisingly I really enjoyed it. So probably I would try again with A Walk Among the Tombstones, a crime drama film directed by Scott Frank and stars Liam Neeson, Dan Stevens, Ruth Wilson and Boyd Holbrook, based on a novel of the same name by Lawrence Block. I think Liam Neeson looks pretty cool in this movie (judging from my view of the trailer) so it will be interesting to see how he would play the character throughout the movie. The film, which is about a former NYPD cop and a private investigator who was hired by a drug dealer to find his kidnapped wife, will be released in the cinemas on September 19, 2014.


3. The Boxtrolls

I love stop-motion animation, there's something unique and interesting about it. Unfortunately I had only watched one movie in cinema before, which was Corpse Bride. Others like Coraline and Frankenweenie I had only watched on television before. The Boxtrolls seems like a good movie; it's about an orphaned boy raised by trolls who lived underground beneath a city and his quest in saving his trolls family from an evil exterminator. Here's hoping I would be excited enough when this movie comes out to watch it in the cinema. With voice casts that includes Isaac Hempstead-Wright, Ben Kingsley, Elle Fanning, Jared Harris, Simon Pegg and Toni Collette, The Boxtrolls will open in cinemas on September 26, 2014.


So currently there are only three movies that I'm interested in for September. What about you? Any other movies you're interested in? It seems like a slow month at the box office in September, but don't worry, there are some big movies coming out soon.

The Signal (2014) ~ review

The Signal has finally been released here in Malaysia (28th August 2014 to be exact). The low-budget, sci-fi film originally premiered at the 2014 Sundance Film Festival and was released in US cinemas on June 13, 2014. I was looking forward to the movie and almost afraid that it would not be released here in Malaysia, but thankfully it did.

The Signal tells the story of a young guy who found himself in some kind of research facility after having a terrifying experience in an isolated area in a desert with his two friends. The main character Nic, played by Brenton Thwaites, must figure things out as he was being examined by the main scientist, Damon (played by Laurence Fishburne) and find a way to escape the facility with his two friends Haley (Olivia Cooke) and Jonah (Beau Knapp). What is actually going on? Why are they being quarantined in the facility? What happened to them that night at the desert?

Selamat Hari Kemerdekaan Malaysia yang ke-57!

Happy Independence Day Malaysia!

Just for information for those who don't know, Malaysia gained its independence from the British empire on 31st August 1957, and 2014 will see the 57th anniversary of the celebration. Don't know where Malaysia is? It's in South-East Asia with Singapore, Thailand, Indonesia, Brunei Darussalam and the Philippines as bordering countries.

As a proud Malaysian, I pray that my country will always be in peace and harmony with all people from all walks of life, race, religion, culture and political views to come together for a better, brighter future. Together we unite.

Merdeka!

YuYu Hakusho Volume 17 ~ review

Continuing my review for the manga series, here is the review for YuYu Hakusho Volume 17. Attention to those who haven't read the manga (either this volume or previous volumes), this review will contain spoilers on the plot, so please click on another post if you want to avoid spoilers. But for those who have read the manga or don't mind spoilers (this is an old manga series anyway), you may continue reading this post.

So where did we left off? Oh yes, Kurama, Hiei and Kuwabara were fighting with Sensui (the main villain for this story arc) at the Demon world. So what happened to them? Sadly to say, they were losing to Sensui, and badly injured too. To be honest, it didn't look good for the trio. But just as we feel that there is no more hope for them to win, Yuusuke (together with Koenma riding on the back of Buu - Yuusuke's "spiritual" animal) came to the rescue! As revealed in Volume 16, Yuusuke died but he came back to life with more powerful strength. Even though he became stronger and was finally at the same level with Sensui in terms of strength, Yuusuke still can't beat Sensui. They fought for quite awhile and eventually Sensui is defeated. But technically it wasn't Yuusuke who killed Sensui. During the fight, 'someone' managed to take control of Yuusuke's body and unleashed a powerful attack against Sensui that managed to kill him, and that 'someone' was Yuusuke's ancestor who was a demon. And so that was the end of Sensui. His body (and soul I assumed) was taken by Itsuki (Sensui's loyal friend/follower and the only 'family' he had left) to another dimension and, as what Isuki said, they will 'remain together peacefully'.

Such a tragic end for Sensui. But on to the next story arc. After the fight and after all of them returned to the human world, Yuusuke, Hiei and Kurama were each visited by representatives from the leaders of the demon world; Yuusuke with representatives from his own ancestor, Raizen; Hiei with representatives from Mukuro; while Kurama were visited by representatives from his old ally, Yomi. According to legend (which turned out to be true), these three leaders had wage wars on each other for supremacy in the demon world for 500 years. And now Yuusuke, Hiei and Kurama were invited to join the leaders as each of them seek stronger ally to win the war. Surprisingly all three of them decided they would join the leaders respectively which disappointed Kuwabara who felt that they were no different than Sensui and Toguro (past villains of the manga series). How would the fight between these three leaders progress with Yuusuke, Hiei and Kurama joined each team? And would this fight for dominance of the demon world affect the friendship between these four friends?

What to watch? ~ 2014 movies: August

Summer movies season for 2014 is ending soon. What movies that would be released in August interest me the most? Let's check them out!


1. Guardians of the Galaxy

Despite having a big marketing campaign, I found out that some of my friends and family members didn't know that this movie is related to the other Marvel Studios movies like Iron Man, Thor and Marvel's The Avengers. Marvel is a big brand commercially now when it comes to movies and for people to not know the association of this movie to the Marvel brand could endanger its box-office performance. But I would not worry too much, I still think the movie will be a big blockbuster movie this year. We would have to wait and see how it would perform. Starring Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldana, Dave Bautista, Vin Diesel, Bradley Cooper, Karen Gillan, Lee Pace, Michael Rooker, Glenn Close and Djimon Hounsou, Guardians of the Galaxy had been released in cinemas on August 1, 2014.


2. Into the Storm

It's been awhile since we last had a disaster movie. If I remember correctly, the last big disaster movie to hit cinemas was 2012, the end-of-the-world film by Roland Emmerich. This film doesn't have that $200 million budget like 2012 though, the budget for this film is estimated at only $50 million, so I'm wondering how will it perform at the box-office? I kind of like what I've seen so far from the trailers, but people could just view this film as an upgraded version of Twister, the 1996 film, and giving it a pass. But we are getting a lot of extreme weathers around the world these days, so perhaps what's been shown in this movie is not that far-fetched, and that possibility itself would get people interested to see it. But then again, when was the last time moviegoers take this type of film seriously? And so I wonder again...can it succeed? Starring Richard Armitage, Sarah Wayne Callies and Matt Walsh, Into the Storm would be released in cinemas on August 8, 2014.

E3 (Electronic Entertainment Expo) 2014 ~ 10 exciting new games (Part 2)

The Electronic Entertainment Expo, or better known as E3, is the annual trade show for the video games industry with the 20th edition had just been held on June 10 until June 12, 2014 at Los Angeles Convention Center. I've been browsing the games that we featured there through the videos that were posted on YouTube and listing 10 of the games that had caught my interest. I've already listed 5 of them which you can read in Part 1 of the post, and now let's check out another 5 games in this Part 2. Let's start!


Rise of the Tomb Raider

The Tomb Raider video game series had received much success throughout the years but in recent years had gained new height of popularity with its 2013 reboot game, so it come to no surprise that Crystal Dynamics would once again be developing a sequel to that game and continue the series legacy. I like how the game become much more cinematic in terms of its story telling but at the same time still keeping gamers glued to the controllers with its exciting gameplay. But will this sequel be as good as its predecessor? Hopefully it will. To view the trailer to Rise of the Tomb Raider, please click here.


The Vanishing of Ethan Carter

Nothing much is revealed in this game trailer debut, the only thing shown were a couple of scenery shots of a rural area with hills and rivers, and some guy beating another guy to death (gasp!). The scenery shots kind of reminded me of the game Alan Wake and Silent Hill: Downpour, the loneliness and deserted feeling that it has makes me relate this setting in the game to those two that I've mentioned. I'm not sure if this game is a horror game though like those two, so I don't know what else to think about this game yet. But I am interested to know more. As of now, the game is set to be released in September 2014, so it won't be long until we hear more about this game. To view the trailer, you can click here.

Salam Aidilfitri 1435!

It's Eid ul-Fitr today, so I would like to take this opportunity to wish Eid Mubarak to all Muslims. May all our deeds that we did in Ramadhan would be accepted by God and may we all have a blessing year ahead of us.

And for non-Muslims in countries that observe this festive season as national holiday, happy holidays to you! Go visit your Muslims friends and let us celebrate together and tighten the bond between us.

Taqabbalallahu minna wa minkum! (which means "May God accept from us and you our fasts and deeds").

E3 (Electronic Entertainment Expo) 2014 ~ 10 exciting new games (Part 1)

I love too many things; music, movies, manga, anime to name a few, that sometimes I just have to give up on certain things. One of it is video games. I love to play video games but I'm like two generations behind when it comes to actually playing them. Yes, I'm still playing on my PlayStation 2 console and I don't see myself upgrading it to PlayStation 3. What about PlayStation 4? Haha! In my dreams maybe. Personally I feel that playing video games is an expensive hobby (I believe I mentioned this before in my blog) and with my money spent mostly on movies and manga, there's hardly a chance I will be playing new-generation video games anytime soon. But I still update myself with video games news, especially anything about upcoming video games from interesting franchise.

Talking about video games, one have to mention E3 which is the Electronic Entertainment Expo, the annual trade show for the video games industry. The 20th E3 was held on June 10 until June 12, 2014 at Los Angeles Convention Center. While I'm not physically there, I did browse the games that we featured there through the videos that were posted on YouTube and I have to say, there are quite some interesting titles that were introduced. So let's check out 10 games that I think look interesting and promising. I didn't watch every video game trailers though so my list would only confined to those that I had been exposed to. To make this post more bearable, I sliced the post into 2 parts with each part listing 5 games. So let's begin part 1!


Alien: Isolation

I love horror video games so let's start with one. Alien: Isolation is a survival horror game developed by The Creative Assembly, will be published by Sega and is a part of the Alien franchise. Set 15 years after the event of the very first Alien movie, the player will take on the role of Amanda, Ellen Ripley's daughter (Ellen Ripley is the main character of the Alien franchise played by Sigourney Weaver for those who don't know or may have forgotten about her) in search of her missing mother. The game looks stunning visually and the gameplay looks pretty scary, players would have to use stealth tactics to avoid being caught by the alien in the game. Looking at the trailer of the game kind of reminded me of Dead Space, a popular recent survival horror video games series. Would this game be as popular as the Dead Space franchise? You can check out the video game trailer to Alien: Isolation here.


ABZU

Nothing much is revealed in this video game trailer; no explanation on the story or what it's about. All it showed were picturesque settings where a character can be seen swimming under the sea. And let me tell you what a beautiful footage they were, totally breathtaking! With unique style of animation and striking colours, the visual alone makes me excited for this video game. To be honest, I'm not sure if these settings are just concept art for the game or the actual footage from the gameplay. Either way, I'm still excited to know more about this game. ABZU is developed by Giant Squid studio and will debut exclusively on PlayStation 4. You can check out the amazing video trailer of ABZU by clicking here.

What to watch? ~ 2014 movies: July

If you've been to my blog before, you'll know that I'm listing movies that had pique my interest each month for this year. So which movies that will be released in July that look interesting to me? Scroll down to see if they look interesting to you too. Let's begin!

1. Deliver Us from Evil

I love horror movies, especially when it involves the supernatural like ghosts or spirits. Judging from the trailers, Deliver Us from Evil seems to be like a very good horror movie. But I learned from the past that you never judge a movie from their trailers, so you never know how it will turn out until you watch it. But so far, I'm intrigued! It says that the event is based on real life events (I think that's debatable don't you think?) of a New York cop who investigates a case that involves demonic forces of evil with the help of a priest. Starring Eric Bana, Edgar Ramirez, Olivia Munn, Sean Harris and Joel McHale, the film will open in cinemas on July 2, 2014.


2. Earth to Echo

When I first heard/read about this movie, I thought it will be a kid-friendly adventure movie that features kids with alien and their amazing adventure together. And what a surprise it was for me when I watched the trailer for this movie; it was a found-footage genre, and it was not all bright and happy that I thought it would be. It looked quite intense and I like the realism the film has with its found-footage style of shooting. And the kids in this movie look like they can really act. The trailer definitely got me excited for the movie, although it does remind me a bit to the 2011 movie, Super 8. Starring Teo Halm, Brian "Astro" Bradley, Reese C. Hartwig and Ella Wahlestedt, Earth to Echo will be released in cinemas on July 2, 2014.


3. Dawn of the Planet of the Apes

Rise of the Planet of the Apes was an awesome movie, so I cannot wait for Dawn of the Planet of the Apes which will be the sequel to that movie. James Franco and Freida Pinto will not be back for this sequel but we will definitely be seeing Caesar again as he is the central character in this reboot series. Andy Serkis will be playing Caesar again through motion-capture along with Judy Greer, Karin Konoval, Terry Notary and Toby Kebbell as the other apes charaters, while the casts that will be playing as human survivors in this movie include Jason Clarke, Keri Russell, Gary Oldman, Kodi Smit-McPhee and Jocko Sims. The movie is scheduled to be released in theaters on July 11, 2014.

Salam Ramadhan 1435!

Happy fasting to all Muslims! It's Ramadhan again and it's time to multiple our effort in giving our hearts and souls to the God Almighty. May all your hard work and dedication in this holy month will be rewarded by Allah. Have a blessing month everyone!

What to watch? ~ 2014 movies: June

May was quite a blast with Spidey, Godzilla, X-Men and Maleficent each had ruled the box-office. But some of them got a little bit of negative feedback from critics and audiences alike despite having quite respectable box-office numbers. But summer movies season still continue on and it's business as usual at the cinemas. So which movies that will be released in June that had caught my interest? Scroll down to find out and who knows, they might catch your interest too.

1. Edge of Tomorrow

I like it when Tom Cruise starred in a science fiction movie; Minority Report, War of the Worlds and last year's Oblivion. For 2014, Tom Cruise will star yet again in another science fiction movie called Edge of Tomorrow, a movie based off the Japanese light novel All You Need Is Kill by author Hiroshi Sakurazaka. Starring opposite him will be Emily Blunt and it is directed by Doug Liman who had also directed The Bourne Identity, Mr. & Mrs. Smith and Jumper before. I'm looking forward to this movie and hopefully it will be as good as I expected it to be. Edge of Tomorrow had already been released in certain territories (including Malaysia) but it will only be released in the US on June 6, 2014.


2. How to Train Your Dragon 2

It was 4 years ago when the first movie came out and I feel the studio took a little bit too much time to come out with a sequel. Nevertheless, here it is with the same voice casts they have for the first movie; Jay Baruchel, Gerald Butler, America Ferrera, Jonah Hill, Craig Ferguson, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, T. J. Miller and Kristen Wiig. Also joining them voicing new characters in the movie are Cate Blanchett, Djimon Hounsou and Kit Harington. Taking place 5 years after the event of the first movie, the sequel will follow Hiccup in another journey with his cute-but-quite-deadly dragon, Toothless, as they travel far and away, exploring new territories and finding new types of dragons, and caught in between another conflict among men and dragons. The second movie in a planned trilogy, How to Train Your Dragon 2 will be released in cinemas on June 13, 2014.

Fear Factor Malaysia season 2 winners!

I know this post is a bit late but as I always say, it's better late than never. Congratulations to Redha and Erin Malik for winning the second season of Fear Factor Malaysia. After weeks of hard (and sometimes disgusting) challenges, elimination after elimination, they emerged as winners at the final episode of this season after beating out the other 3 teams; Kairul/Nas-T, Shuib/Zakaria and Rechel/Azura. Congratulations to them!

Although for this season they are not calling it Fear Factor Celebrity Malaysia anymore (notice the removal of the word Celebrity), it's still a continuation of the previous season since we still have celebrities in this season too. This time though, the regular non-celebrity contestants were paired up with celebrities to form a team of two; there are all 16 teams separated into Group A and Group B with 8 teams in each group. Which means each team comprised of one regular contestant and one celebrity contestant. Some teams work great together while some teams...well...not so much.

Overall this season is quite good and entertaining; we have great personalities not just among the celebrities but also among the non-celebrity contestants, we have some great challenges, and we also have quite a drama with some of the contestants. I don't mind when contestants cry when they got emotional or scared but I don't really like to see contestants fight with each other. Personally, I down-right hate it, it's like the show ask me to pick sides on who I want to side with, which is not fair to be honest since this is an edited reality show which shows parts of what's really happening during the shooting and might not 100% reflect the contestants real-life behavior. So although I like this season of Fear Factor, the fighting was the one thing that I didn't quite like about the show, and fortunately it were just a few of them.

There are quite a few good teams this time around but my favourite team this season is Zain Saidin and Akmal. They were competitive, they work great together and they support each other very well. I really admire their attitude in which they didn't offend or being rude to the other teams despite their competitive spirit. There are other great contestants too like Shah Iskandar who was such a gentlemen and a good supporter to his team member, Samsuri who was such a tough competitor and excelled in most of the challenges, and Dira who has such a high spirit to continue on with the challenges despite suffering from asthma. And also there was Fify, who joined the show in the hope of winning the money to support his father who was in a coma. Her sad background story made me remember her despite her being in the team that were first to be eliminated from the show. Her story showed that it was not all fun and games for these contestants; some of them did joined the show for a great cause.

With this season being quite a good season overall, I believe they would continue with a third season. I also suspect that they will still continue bringing in celebrities like what they did with this season. Of course celebrities can help bring more viewers to the show but I hope they would try to do a normal season with all non-celebrity contestants. If Masterchef Malaysia can do it, why not Fear Factor Malaysia? And perhaps they can also try to localized Survivor as well?

Kudos to the team behind this show as well for bringing in another great season to the viewers and hopefully they will continue their hard work for another season.

Image from Fear Factor Malaysia official website.

Asia's Next Top Model Cycle 2 ~ Top 10 Favourite Photos ~ No. 5 - No. 1

So here we are again. For those who missed my previous post, here's a little background for you. Asia's Next Top Model season 2 had finished airing quite some time ago and I am listing down my top 10 favourite photos of the season. In the earlier post, I've listed the photos that resided at number 10 to number 6. If you missed the post, you can click here to read it. As for this post, let's continue on with the photos that are in the top 5. Scroll down to find out.

5 ~ Jodilly

Contestant: Jodilly Pendre
Episode: 5
From: Philippines

Jodilly can take beautiful shots, and I personally feel that this shot from episode 5 is one of her strongest shot in the competition.I like her pose for this photo and she made it seemed effortless, which I'm sure was not the case. It must be tiring for her to pose like that and at the same time to remain composed, but she managed it and resulted in this beautiful photo. A job well done.

4 ~ Marie

Contestant: Marie Nakagawa
Episode: 9
From: Japan

Marie is my personal favourite contestant from this season and my pick to win the competition. Although she didn't win, she still managed to climb all the way to the top 4 finalists. She's a gorgeous girl and down-to-earth which makes me love her even more. I love this shot of Marie as she looks beautiful and unique in this photo. There is some quality in it that I couldn't really describe that made her look strikingly good. The pose, facial expression, make-up and outfit all blend together perfectly well that makes this photo absolutely stunning. I love this photo very much.

Asia's Next Top Model Cycle 2 ~ Top 10 Favourite Photos ~ No. 10 - No. 6

Asia's Next Top Model had wrapped up its second season on StarWorld and congratulations again to Sheena for winning the title. There are many beautiful shots were taken during the season, so I've decided to come out with my own top 10 favourite photos of the season. It's not an easy job, I can tell you that, but somehow I've managed to list them up. In this 1st part, let's see who's at number 10 to number 6. Caution though, some of the images might not be suitable for young viewers. Now let's start!

10 ~ Janice

Contestant: Janice Hermijanto
Episode: 6
From: Indonesia

This may not be a popular choice by landing Janice at number 10 as the judges hated this photo of her, one of the judges even asked her why she kept on pulling her hair, and Janice ended up in the bottom two for this episode. For the judges, her photo was not high-fashion enough. But strangely, I kind of like this photo. It looks unique and with her pulling her hair like that making it look kind of sexy. I sometime have different opinion on who have the best and worst photos compared to the judges' opinions but for this one, I don't have any clue why judges would hate it that much. It may not be the best photo out of the bunch but I feel it's not the worst either. Personally, I like this photo, she looks nice.

9 ~ Sheena

Contestant: Sheena Liam
Episode: 13
From: Malaysia

This is the final episode of the season and the final photoshoot for them as well, and I can truly say that Sheena delivered in this photoshoot. She looks gorgeous, expensive, and her expression was good. As one of the most consistent contestant of the season (she had a top 3 call-out for eight times from episode 1 until episode 11) she is definitely one to be watched out for by other contestants. And she's also one of my favourite contestant personality-wise. She has a lot of charisma about her and a high-fashion look (well, to my standard at least) and this photo definitely shows that.

What to watch? ~ 2014 movies: May

Summer movies season is finally here! Lots of blockbuster movies are now ready to battle each other to be at the top of the box-office. Which of them will succeed? And which of them will fail? It will be a pack summer this year, that's for sure. Here are some of the movies that I'm most excited for that will be released in May. Let's check it out.

1. The Amazing Spider-Man 2

After an unnecessary reboot (which turned out to be quite an interesting movie anyway), now the sequel to that reboot film is ready to bring audiences to another great adventure with spidey. The Amazing Spider-Man 2 will pit Spider-Man against three villains; Electro, Green Goblin and The Rhino, and will further explore the relationship between Peter Parker's past and Oscorp. Interestingly, two more sequels had already being planned, with the third film is scheduled to be released in 2016 and the fourth film in 2018, with two more spin-offs are being planned as well. Looks like Sony has a lot of faith in this franchise, and only time will tell if the franchise could even survive that long. Personally, I think this new take on the character is refreshing and I certainly don't mind more sequels if the studio manage to keep on producing good films. Let's hope for the best. The movie starred Andrew Garfield and Emma Stone once again as Peter Parker a.k.a. Spider-Man and Gwen Stacy alongside newcomers of the franchise Jamie Foxx, Dane DeHaan and Paul Giamatti. Although already released in certain markets, The Amazing Spider-Man 2 would be released in US on May 2, 2014.


2. Godzilla

As a kid, I really like the 1998 Godzilla movie from Hollywood but as I grew older I understand why most people hated it. Now Hollywood is trying again with a new Godzilla movie and judging by the trailers, it looks like this dark take on the monstrous creature is going to be good. But I'm not sure how this movie will perform at the box-office. Last year we had a same kind of movie with giant monsters in Pacific Rim, although it made quite a lot of money at the box-office, it did poorly in certain markets. Hopefully Godzilla will perform better in those markets and do well overall. We will just have to wait and see. Starring Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Elizabeth Olsen (just a side note, this two will again appear together in Avenger's: Age of Ultron as Pietro Maximoff / Quicksilver and Wanda Maximoff / Scarlet Witch respectively), Bryan Cranston, Ken Watanabe, Sally Hawkins and Juliette Binoche, Godzilla is scheduled to be released on May 16, 2014.

Artemis Fowl Book Three: The Eternity Code ~ review

Title: Artemis Fowl: The Eternity Code
Author: Eoin Colfer

The Eternity Code is the third book in the Artemis Fowl novel series by Eoin Colfer and was first published in 2003. The book follows Artemis Fowl the Second in another exciting adventure as he and his servants, Butler and Juliet, team-up with their elves ally, Captain Holly Short, and the dwarf thief, Mulch Diggums, to take back fairy technology in the form of a cube that had been stolen by an IT billionaire, Jon Spiro. This review would contain minor spoilers, so for those who have yet to read the novel, you've been warned. Now, let's start!

In this book, readers once again were thrown into yet another adventure with Artemis Fowl. The story starts when a business deal with a cunning American industrialist, Jon Spiro, went wrong, and the C Cube, a mini supercomputer created by Artemis Fowl from stolen fairy technology, was stolen from him. As the C Cube could reveal the underground population of fairies to the dangerous man, Artemis Fowl would have to get some help from his fairy allies to get the C Cube back from the manipulative hands of Jon Spiro. To do so, he would need the help of Holly, Mulch, Foaly and Juliet. Although Butler was not able to help him getting back the C Cube due to an unfortunate event, he would still lend his help to Artemis in the final part of the plan, which unbeknownst to the fairy folk, would involve them.

Asia's Next Top Model Cycle 2 winner!

Congratulations to Sheena for winning the second season of Asia's Next Top Model! By winning the title, Sheena had won herself a Subaru XV (that's an awesome car!), a chance to be the face of TRESemmé for one of their 2014 campaign, a chance to appear in a spread and on the cover of Harper's Bazaar Singapore and Harper's Bazaar Malaysia, a three-month contract with Storm Model Management in London, and SGD50,000 cash prize. As a fellow Malaysian, I'm very proud of her achievement and she definitely had made Malaysia proud of her as well. Kudos to her.

Also congratulations to both Philippines finalists, Jodilly and Katarina, for winning second and third place in the competition. I'm sure in a lot of their fan's hearts, they are the true winners. I always knew Jodilly can go far in the competition; she took great photos and she has a great personality as well. As for Katarina, she has one of the prettiest face in the competition and she improved a lot from where she started. Out of the three finalists, I believe she's the only one without a modelling background, so she should be proud of herself because she can compete at the same level as the other two finalists despite the lack of experience in the industry.

Overall, this season is a very exciting season; wonderful contestants, amazing locations, and beautiful, gorgeous photos by the contestants. I'm hoping we can still get our Cycle 3 of the reality show and hopefully it will take us to another country for another great season.

Again, congratulations to Sheena! And also great work by those behind the scenes of this show, you guys have done a great job in making this season happen. Thank you!

Image from Asia's Next Top Model Season 2 website.

What to watch? ~ 2014 movies: April

Usually summer movies start to play in May but it seems that there might be too many blockbuster movies nowadays that some of them had to be moved to end of the year around November and December, or to March and April. While I think it's good to have more blockbuster movies in a year, but too many of them could be troublesome too as it will be too competitive for the movies to fight for audiences attention and it could result in some of them to be overlooked. It's sad if those overlooked movies are the good ones but in movie business that can't be helped I guess.

Now let's look at the movies that will be released in April 2014 (based on the release date in Wikipedia which usually follow the release date for the US) that I look forward to.

1. Captain America: The Winter Soldier

A highly-anticipated film by Marvel Studios, Captain America: The Winter Soldier is the ninth film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe and the first to be released this year out of two films (the other one would be Guardians of the Galaxy). To tell the truth, I didn't watch Captain America: The First Avenger at the cinema, and even when it was aired on TV, I never watched it from start to finish, only a few scenes here and there. The film did look interesting, but I never really care about the character I guess. But for this sequel, I was interested to watch it and the trailer looks good too. And guess what? I did watched it! Yes, I already did! It's ironic when a movie with America in the title didn't even open in America first. Instead, the movie opened in some other countries a week earlier than in the US (including Malaysia where I've come from). Directed by the Russo brothers (Anthony Russo and Joe Russo) and starred Chris Evans, Scarlett Johansson, Sebastian Stan, Anthony Mackie, Samuel L. Jackson, Cobie Smulders, Emily VanCamp, Frank Grillo, Robert Redford and Hayley Atwell, this film will be released in the US on April 4, 2014. It's a good movie, I highly recommended it!


2. Oculus

This movie is only in my radar since a few weeks ago. It's a horror movie about two siblings who want to prove that the death of their parents were caused by an evil entity that possessed an antique mirror in their house. The trailer looks interesting but what pique my interest is the mystery behind the mirror. Was it really a supernatural being? Or was it something else? The movie also looks to be focusing more on the psychological side of horror instead of blood and gore, which is also a good thing for me. Starred Karen Gillan, Brenton Thwaites, Katee Sackhoff, Annalise Basso, Garrett Ryan and Rory Cochrane, Oculus will come to cinema near you on April 11, 2014.

Pray for Missing Malaysia Airlines Plane MH370

After two weeks now, we have still no clue on the whereabouts of the missing Malaysia Airlines plane MH370 which was bound to Beijing from Kuala Lumpur. My heart and prayers go to all the crew members and passengers who are still lost, and to all the family members of the victims, all I could hope for is for them to be strong and to keep on praying. It is easy to play the blaming games in this hard and challenging situation but it will do no good to anyone. Instead I think it is important to be positive and keep the negative energy away from you as it would only consumed you in sadness.

Believe that the authorities are doing all they can to find this plane and pray for the best. May Allah help us all. Amin.

BTOOOM! (anime) ~ Episode 1 - Episode 3 review

A new anime series, BTOOOM!, had started airing on Animax Asia (Astro Malaysia, Channel 715) last Wednesday, 5th March 2014. The anime series is based on the Japanese manga by Jun'ya Inoue and had already aired in Japan from October till December 2012. As you can see from the anime original run in Japan, it was aired a bit late here but it's better late than never, so I don't really mind the time gap. As for my personal exposure to the series, I heard about it before but had never read the manga or watch the anime. So this is my first time watching the series, and so far the first 3 episodes were amazing. This review would not have spoilers so for those who have yet to watch the show have nothing to worry about.

The first episode introduced us to Ryota Sakamoto, the main protagonist who were forced to play in a real life version of a game called BTOOOM! where players have to eliminate each other by using explosives known as BIMs in order to survive. Ryota is actually one of the world's top players in the online version of BTOOOM! but somehow he was nominated to be in the deadly match of the real life version of BTOOOM! by someone. Shocked and confused as he cannot remember how he got on the island where the game was held, he unwillingly participated in the game using his knowledge and skills from the online version. And as he bumped into one of the other player, he would have to make a decision that would determine his survival on the island.

The second episode introduced us to another main character, Himiko. This is my favourite episode out of all 3 episodes that I reviewed here because of the tragic incident that befallen Himiko that led to her nomination to be in this deadly game. Back at her hometown, she was a regular high school student who occasionally hang out with her friends and also one of the player of the online game BTOOOM!. However, due to one unfortunate event, she ended up on the island and met three other guys who decided to team up with her. Soon, she would have to decide whether teaming up with these three guys would come to her benefit or would result in her death. I love how cleverly the episode played out in which they showed the same scene at the end of this episode with the one at the end of the first episode, but because of the revelation of how Himiko ended up in the game, both scenes were viewed differently by audiences despite being the same scene. This showed how deep the story can go and also proved that this anime series is definitely not for kids.

YuYu Hakusho Volume 16 ~ review

Here's my review for YuYu Hakusho Volume 16. As usual, spoilers are scattered all over this review, so if you haven't read the manga yet, you have been warned. But if you don't mind spoilers (since this is an old series after all), then feel free to continue reading this post.

Volume 16 starts where Volume 15 left off, which is Yuusuke and his friends finally meeting Sensui, the main villain of this story arc, in his hideout along with his trusted friend and accomplice, Itsuki. There are long fight scenes in this volume not only between Yuusuke and Sensui, but also between Sensui and the other there protagonists; Kurama, Kuwabara and Hiei. Koenma, the person who appointed Yuusuke as the Spiritual detective of the Underworld, also made an appearance during one of the fight scene to try and stop Sensui but it seems he was too strong for any of them to handle. To make things worse, one of our hero was badly injured and died (for real this time!) and the gateway to the underword that Sensui and his accomplice had been trying to open had finally been opened! Is this the end of the human world? Would Yuusuke and his friends be able to stop this madness? Well, the fight was not over yet and at the end of this manga, we see Yuusuke and his friends chasing Sensui all the way to the underworld. The fight will continue there in volume 17.

I like this volume for its revelation of the main villain, Sensui, and also the main hero, Yuusuke. It turns out that Sensui suffered from multiple personality disorder. All this while, when Sensui said "the 7 of us", he didn't meant him and his accomplices, but in fact he meant himself and his other 6 personalities. Itsuki did mentioned that this multiple personalities was a tragic result of fighting all these years, but personally I think he created these personalities as a way to escape from all the horror and cruelty that he had witnessed throughout these years (maybe that was what Itsuki trying to say anyway). That just surprised me when I first read it, and this revelation truly changed my view on him from just a simple villain to a more tragic character. He is truly a tragic character, and I can see the author trying to made readers sympathize to him just like he did with the previous villain, Younger Toguro. Well, I don't think this is a bad thing, to sympathize with a villain I mean, as this does helps bring depth to the character.

As for Yuusuke, it turns out that he had demon blood in him, as his ancestor is a demon. While this revelation was a surprise as well, I feel that it didn't bring too much impact as the Sensui revelation. But don't worry, this demonic ancestry will be further explored in the next volume as we go to the next story arc. And I think as this story arc coming close to an end, it's only logical that the author wants to focus more on the villain than the rest of the characters. But as I mentioned before, the fight with Sensui will be continued in the next volume, so we still have some little time left with Sensui before we move on to the next main villain.

Overall, YuYu Hakusho Volume 16 is a great read (as usual) and it will be interesting to see how this fight will end. See you again soon for the review of Volume 17.

Image from Amazon.

What to watch? ~ 2014 movies: March

So I am back again to reveal the movies that I look forward to this year. I first did this list for February, now let's look at the movies for March 2014. The movies that I've listed would mostly follow the American release dates but bear in mind that the release dates might have a last-minute change (just like what happened to Welcome to Yesterday which I had listed in my February list). Without further delay, let's begin.

1. 300: Rise of an Empire

For the record, I didn't watch 300 but I'm quite interested to watch this follow-up movie. From the trailer, you can tell that this movie will have the same style as its predecessor, which is a good thing considering how popular 300 was when it was released back in 2006. Zack Snyder, the guy who co-wrote and directed 300, would only act as producer and writer this time. Directed by Noam Murro and starring Sullivan Stapleton, Eva Green, Rodrigo Santoro, Hans Matheson, Callan Mulvey and Lena Headey, 300: Rise of an Empire is set to release in cinemas on March 7, 2014.


2. Mr. Peabody & Sherman

I was not really interested to know about this film until I saw the first trailer for it, and I must say it looks quite fun, visually beautiful and educational as well. The film is actually based on the characters from Peabody's Improbable History segments of the animated television series, The Rock and Bullwinkle Show. It's an 1960s TV show so I think most Asians will not be very familiar with the source material like myself. But as long as its a good film, I think it doesn't matter if the audiences are familiar with it or not. The film actually received good reviews from critics so that's already one good news for the film. Mr. Peabody & Sherman is voiced by Ty Burrell, Max Charles, Ariel Winter, Mel Brooks, Stanley Tucci and Patrick Warburton, and will be released on March 7, 2014.

Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time ~ review

Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time is a computer game / video game from Ubisoft released in late 2003 and is a reboot of the popular Prince of Persia video game series created back in 1989. A commercial and critical success, the game let players to take on the role of a prince who were tricked into releasing the magical sands of time which turned the occupants of the palace into monsters. To save the kingdom and his father, the King of Persia, he must work together with a beautiful prisoner named Princess Farah and defeat the Vizier who tricked him into releasing the sands. Since the game that I played is for the PlayStation 2, this review would be talking about the aspects of the game on that platform instead of on PC. And also please note that this review will contain spoilers. Without further delay, let's start dissecting Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time.

First stop, the plot. This video game put players in the shoes of the Prince, the son of King Sharaman of Persia, who had released, unknowingly, the sands of time throughout the kingdom and turning all the occupants of the palace into monsters. With the aid of Princess Farah, the player will then explore throughout the vast areas of the castle to try reverse the situation by returning back the sands of time into the hourglass that had once stored them. I personally feel that the story was just okay at first but as I played along, I fall in love with the story as it became more emotional, engaging and interesting. I also like stories with time travel element in it, so the time travel element in this game also helps in making me fall in love with the plot. I like the growth of the main character, the Prince that players control throughout the game. You can see him slowly learning from his mistakes and bad behaviours and try to wrap things out in his head (that players will learn through his monologues) while this bizarre incident resulting from his action in releasing the sands is happening all around him. The developer managed to create a character that players can root for, something that I feel is important to make the players relate with this story.

The inclusion of Princess Farah made the story even more interesting with the love twist and since the Prince mostly interact with her as there are not many talking characters in the game, she is definitely an integral part of the story as well as the character responsible for the growth of the main character, the Prince. The main villain, the Vizier, is also an interesting character in the game. But sometimes I cannot really grasps what he wants to achieve with his plan and that somehow made me feel like he is not a strong villain that I would like him to be. I personally think the developer could have done a lot better with him and make him a greater villain. One other thing that I would complaint is that it was sometimes hard to follow with the story because of the low-volume of the character's voice during cut-scenes. It was a bit weird since the music that played during gameplay was loud enough but somehow the volume got lowered during cut-scenes. To be honest, it was pretty annoying.