So recently the Batman Arkham Origins video game trailer was released. For awhile now there’s been a lot of speculation as to what this game would be about and who the villains would be. Well thankfully they’ve finally released a trailer.
Now a lot of people will be disappointed in the voice acting selection however a quick browsing of the IMBD page and you will see that Kevin Conroy is indeed back as batman, however the lack of Mark Hamill is saddening. Instead they’ve moved Troy Baker (Robin,Two-face from Arkham City) over to play The Joker, he’s a good voice actor so we shall see.
The reason they’ve changed voices is that this is supposed to be a younger batman. Just starting out I believe about two years in. Batman has not yet garnered the respect or help of the Gotham PD. Gordon is just a captain and Black Mask has decided to put such a large price on this new Batman’s head that head hunters from all over the world come to cash in. This includes Slade and Deadshot. The game again takes place over one night, Christmas eve.
It seems like this world will be even bigger and interactive than the last one. Each game seems to build upon what the last one established. Sometimes in video game trilogies this ends up adding too much extra gimmicky stuff and the last one is people’s least favorite. Hopefully the designers have treaded that thin line between too much and not enough growth.
Overall I’m pretty excited for this game, the Arkham series is the only series besides Gears of War that I’ve actually reserved and grabbed a place in line for. It’s never disappointed me so I look forward to this one!
Here’s a list of the voice actors from IMBD-
Cast
Nolan North … Oswald Cobblepot / The Penguin / Roman Sionis / Black Mask (voice)
It’s funny that a lot of the real origin stories for beloved characters remain buried under years of speculation, when the truth is out there lurking, hidden in the brush, but there nonetheless for those who will look for it.
It’s in there, go ahead, don’t be a wimp!
Well this time I’ve searched the depths of the “Internet” to bring you the origin story of one SONIC THE HEDGEHOG. Ok to be honest I read it in a comic book when I was younger but I didn’t fully remember all of the details so I DID search the internet a little. It was released as an advertisment/mini comic book.
I actually like the story. It has Sonic starting off on his homeworld of Mobius, that’s the name of the place every Sonic game takes place. Well, until perhaps 1998 whenthey revamped the story for Sonic Adventure, however this origin story still fits.
In the beginning of the comic Sonic is being chased by one Dr. Ivo Robotnik AKA Eggman. Sonic is too fast which leads Eggman to crash his ship in his haste to catch him. Sonic then attacks all of the Badniks he has with him, releasing the animals inside. After Eggman flees the other animals suggest they should go see Dr. Ovi Kintobor surely the good doctor could help sort this guy out? No silly animals don’t you see what they did there? With the names? Dr Ovi Kintobor is just Dr. Ivo Robotnik spelled backwards!
Right so how did this happen? How did Ovi become Ivo? Well without further delay, here’s the full comic I dug out of the internet just for my too cool readers!
I actually really like this story. It explains why he’s collecting the rings and why he’s this bright blue color. The fact that Eggman is contributing to his own terrible condition by making Sonic drop the rings he’s only collecting to help him is great in my eyes. I’m a sucker for tragic bad guys and heroes who want nothing more than to save them(i.e Batman and two face’s relationship in the animated series). If you didn’t know the origin to Sonic before, well, now you know!
Oh also there’s something floating around called the Sonic Bible which is basically the same story but its a novel and talks more about Sonic’s family. I might upload that later if you guys want me too :).
Thanks For reading!
I remember when I first picked this game up for 2 dollars at a pawn shop in college. My friends and I came back from band practice (all music majors at the time) put it in the Xbox and sat back to see what a crappy game I’d purchased.
Immediately we were blown away by the composition of the music. I mean epic is basically the bare minimum for the term you’d have to use to describe it. It caught us so off guard we actually laughed.
This wasn’t what we expected.
STORYLINE
Almost immediately we were thrown into a new world where the stars were no longer the limits and humans were being sent out as ambassadors to meet an entire species that thought of them as holy creatures. Soon after they meet them, the aliens that want to destroy them attack their ship. The main character Gideon uses previously unknown psychic powers to help stop the attack and then he is sucked through a wormhole. That’s where the game really starts.
I’m big on character driven stories. I think everyone subconsciously is, I mean you can’t really care about what’s going on in a story if you don’t care about the characters. In advent rising they really push the dynamics between the characters. Gideon is the younger brother of a hot shot war hero. His brother basically gets him a job just off of his charisma and Gideon is left wondering if he is completely worthless. There are many other characters that add to the drama and feel of this game. Overall this storyline just gets 5 stars from me, this is what I love to see from my video games. Take it seriously, develop those characters and subplots!
Characters
Gideon Wyeth (voiced by Will Friedle) — The main character of the game. He is a member of one of the last human outposts. Ethan Wyeth — Gideon’s hotshot older brother. Because of his celebrity following the Independence Wars, he is assigned the role of pilot for the mission of first contact with the Aurelians. He used his connections to instate Gideon as his co-pilot. Olivia Morgan (voiced by Vanessa Marshall) — Gideon’s fiancé, a scientist assigned to Luriam space station. Marin Steel — A decorated pilot from the Independence Wars, she encounters Gideon as he attempts to escape Bahr Han on her ship. She is captured by the Seekers and unsuccessfully imprisoned on the island of Teran, having developed her own psychic powers. Kelehm Farwaters (voiced by Dwight Schultz) — A ninth-tier Garhgon (an Aurelian religious caste), he has trained himself in the telekinetic arts. Kelehm belongs to “the old faith” which states that the discovery of humans is part of a prophecy and the Aurelians will gain greater psychic power through them. Enorym Tenspur (voiced by Michael Bell) — Ally to Gideon and the most highly trained of the Aurelian elite fighters, Enorym serves as a commander of the elite Felidic warriors. Enorym leads an assault on a Seeker ship shortly after Gideon learns how to use his psychic powers. Bud – A troublemaking Marine that starts a bar fight with Gideon and later challenges him and Ethan to a training match. After losing, Bud fires a blaster at Ethan. The player then has the choice of either using a stungun to disable Bud or picking up a blaster and killing him, which determines whether his squadmates help you or abandon you in a later gameplay segment. K’Chell — A Seeker ambassador who interrupts the planetary ruling council and demands that the Aurelians hand over Gideon and Marin. When Kelehm refuses, K’Chell kills him, then escapes to the ansible to inform the Seeker armada.
Sevan — A council member on Aurelia, he leads a rebellion to give the humans to the Seekers and avoid retaliation. After staging a coup, he co-opts the council, gives Marin to the Seekers, and puts Enorym on trial for treason. Banath — Originally serving as Enorym’s best warrior, he is revealed to be a double agent for Sevan. Having planted a Seeker ambush inside the ansible, Banath becomes visibly angry after Enorym orders him to escort Marin back to the Aurelian capital. He returns with a dropship manned by other rebels after giving Marin to the Seekers and announces his betrayal by killing one of Enorym’s warriors. Gideon kills Banath shortly after Enorym is put on trial.
GAMEPLAY
As Gideon you’ll be able to utilize his kinetic abilities. One of my favorite parts of this game is the fact that he is just learning them. Now clearly this something many games use in order to make your character weaker in the beginning so the game will be harder. However in Advent rising they really mean he is LEARNING and he doesn’t stop ever. You get new and exciting moves and upgrades all the way through until the last stage. The greatest part of this game is they always throw something new at you and honestly its not even when one thing gets old, they just do it. Oh you’ve got a gun? Here take this Kinetic energy, oh you’ve got kinetic energy? How about SHOOTING FIREBALLS out of your hands? Oh I see you’ve got a Jeep- HOVER CRAFT!
Pictured: The head developer
One of the more interesting parts of this game is the control system. They have made use of a “flick targeting” control system that utilizes the second joystick. It’s very cool once you get used to it. Basically you flick the stick in the direction of the offending enemy and all of your attacks then go directly to that foe. This really comes in handy as its a large cartoony looking world. A third person shooter like that would have been a hair pulling experience trying to aim.
The enemies are intelligent and vary in size and abilities. They all have several specialized attacks of their own. While one tries to over power you with its extra limbs, another might try to snipe you from a distance, while yet another will try and Rambo you with automatic weapons. All in all the controls and enemies you fight make for very exciting and fun game-play.
Here are the actual controls for the game.
GIDEON CONTROLS Left Thumbstick Walk. Run. Click In to Toggle Crouch/Stand Right Thumbstick Flick Targeting A Button Jump. Pull Up From Hanging Position. B Button Melee Attack X Button Arm Left-Handed Weapon (Hold). Dodge From Hanging Position. Activate. Y Button Arm Right-Handed Weapon (Hold). Reload Weapon. White Button Throw Grenade. Toggle Grenade (Hold). Black Button Select Alt Fire Mode (With Right or Left Trigger) Left Trigger Fire Left-Handed Weapon Right Trigger Fire Right-Handed Weapon Combo #1 X + A = Charge Jump Combo #2 Any Direction + X = Acrobatic Moves
Also there are vehicles! These are pretty cool
SCYTHE VEHICLE CONTROLS
Directional Pad Enter or Exit Driver Side (From the Left). Enter or Exit Turret Side (From the Right).
Left Thumbstick Up = Forward. Down = Reverse.
Right Thumbstick Turn Left/Right. Aim Turret Chain Gun.
A Button Jump
Right Trigger Turbo. Fire Turret Chain Gun.
SHIPS/SHUTTLES CONTROLS
Left Thumbstick Forward = Thrusters. Down = Slow.
Right Thumbstick Steering
Right Trigger Thrusters
ANTI-AIRCRAFT TURRET CONTROLS
Right Thumbstick Aim
X Button Activate/Release
Right Trigger Fire
GRAPHICS
Now the graphics are the only reason why any one would ever doubt this game. The director made the choice to have elongated limbs which made them look more like comic book characters. This is an artist’s choice, however it gave them a weird gangly look (the game was originally supposed to be a comic book which may explain why he wanted this so badly). The frame rate does lag in certain areas doing certain things, however it is never enough to detract from the game as a whole. Plus I mean look at it! It still looks AMAZING for an original Xbox game. It plays well and by well I mean its extremely exciting.
Music
Ok I have to come back to this music because…well it’s part of me! I love music and truthfully a game with poorly composed music will make me put it down just as quickly as bad graphics.
But here are two examples of the total and complete epicness of the music for this game.
Here’s another one which is used a few times during boss battles but they have more themes as well.
The music was composed by Emmanuel Fratianni and Michael Richard Plowman and performed by Laurie Robinson and Tommy Tallarico. Here’s the list of songs for the entire soundtrack.
Advent Rising Original Soundtrack (57:21)
No. Title Length
1. “Muse” 3:08
2. “Poeta” 3:36
3. “Bounty Hunter” 3:05
4. “Aurelia” 3:03
5. “Greater Lights (feat. Charlotte Martin)” 3:52
6. “Glorious Human” 1:46
7. “Stolen Transport” 2:15
8. “Canyon Encounter” 2:04
9. “The Rise Of Aurelia” 2:01
10. “Edumeas Last Stand” 2:04
11. “Aurelian Conflict” 2:04
12. “The Aurelian Movement” 2:21
13. “Luriam Down” 1:04
14. “The Human Movement” 2:09
15. “Human Demise” 1:35
16. “Seeker Assault” 2:05
17. “Midst Of The N’Kul” 0:34
18. “Seeker Horde” 1:04
19. “Fiery Arrival On Aurelia” 0:55
20. “Power Within” 2:11
21. “Fortified Strength” 1:01
22. “Mastery Of Self” 2:20
23. “Return To Humanity” 2:16
24. “The Seeker Movement” 2:09
25. “Seeker Unrest” 2:05
26. “Conquest” 0:36
27. “Greater Lights (Jay-J’s Shifted UP Mix)” 3:58
WHY ISN’T THIS GAME HAILED AS AWESOME?
Well apparently there was a terrible marketing strategy of people being able to win one million dollars if they were able to decipher secret messages in the games various levels. Due to issues with security they had to shut down the contest which cost them quite a lot of money and advertisement. Also the first reviews for this game were way off, giving them five out of ten. Later they went back and fixed that with reviews like 8 out of ten or 7.8 out of 10 (IGN). Without advertising its hard to really get as big as you should be able to. However there is a core community online that knows about this game and they LOVE it. Its getting bigger and bigger by word of mouth, unfortunately it may be a little late for the company that produced it. However there are sites and Facebook pages online dedicated to this game and to creating a sequel.
SEQUEL
Will there be one? Who knows, it’s one of those things, teased forever but it’s anybody’s guess. Some things weren’t meant for sequels (Hangover I’m looking at you). However this game clearly was written to be given at least two more entries. Especially taking into account the terrific ending that happens AFTER the credits. Oh and that’s not just a cutscene there is GAMEPLAY after the credits. Yeah I had walked away (like a BOSS) after thinking I had beaten one of the best games ever made.
My face when I saw what was going on.
Suffice to say that last part was the icing on the cake. I mean that really let me know how much one, they respected this genre, and two knew about cinematic qualities being infused with video games. It was an amazing teaser for the next game which unfortunately never came out. Yet there are still those who are pushing for it.
On the plus side they have produced a line of comic books that I haven’t read but apparently they follow up so if you want to check those out here.
RATING
If you couldn’t already tell this is getting five out of five stars. The story is excellent, the music is amazing, the gameplay is exciting, fun and always advancing. It does a great job in making you feel what Gideon is feeling and all of these things merge together at the end to make one amazing experience. The replay value is VERY high on this as they’ve included a way to upgrade different abilities. Also if its ever NOT fun to dive through the air and force blast an enemy into a lake of lava please stop the planet because I’ll be getting off.
So the bottom line is, if you haven’t gone out and purchased this game, do it. Seriously it’s like 2 bucks and an original Xbox is like 30 bucks now(because its not backwards compatible sucks I know.)
Thanks for reading everyone! I’ll keep you up to date with new Xbox One news as well as PS4 news when they start delivering it. As always I’ll be bringing you old school reviews!
Now I know a lot of fuss is going on about Star Trek and Iron man 3. But lets not forget that DC has put out yet another animated film. This is also something to get excited about as they usually do an awesome job when it comes to this.
In this film Brainiac and Superman meet for the first time after one of Brainiac’s droids lands on earth.
The first thing you notice when watching a DC animated film is the artist’s renditioning of the characters. In Superman vs The Elite he had an extremely pronounced jawline, giving him a stranger more cartoony look that I felt didn’t really go with the darker themes they were trying to convey. In this film they lost the hard jaw going with a sleeker look. I like the look for the film.
The Characters
Superman/Clark Kent
Super Girl/Kara Zor-el
Brainiac
Louis Lane
Jimmy
These are just the main characters I can list without giving away too much of the story line.
Superman is going through a lot, he’s a busy guy and the terrorists in Metropolis are starting to bank on this. However his cousin has shown up and tries to take his place during is busier days.
The relationship between Superman and Supergirl is well thought out and plays very well throughout the movie. In fact the side story of Supergirl’s growth and struggles is one of the high points of the movie.
However Supergirl’s babbling dialogue can get very annoying, very quickly. It is as if someone was writing a caricature of a teenage girl and threw it into every word she speaks. The writing for her dialogue doesn’t detract completely from her story but it did pull me out of it from time to time. Her dialogue being so cliche is strange as they definitely put a lot of dedication and effort into making Louis Lane extremely strong, independent, and feisty, everything we’ve come to love from her.
My issues with this movie don’t end there however. While I do enjoy Louis Lane’s character and Supergirl’s struggle to find herself in this new world, the rest of the movie just doesn’t do it for me. My usual problems with Superman come into play many times here. For example when he first fights the droid probe it’s a little tough and can take several hits from him, however eventually it is shown that a desk chair can be used to defeat it. Superman’s own power levels drastically flip flop throughout the movie which is another huge issue for me when it comes to him. Either nothing can constrain him or he’s locked in stop switching it for dramatic purposes, its become to obvious.
As I like to stick to spoiler free reviews this one will be rather short, sweet, and to the point.
3 Stars out of 5. While the voice acting is really good and the idea is well thought out. The overall execution was lacking, surprising coming from a DC animated flick. I wouldn’t recommend watching it but if you have nothing else to do…I’m sure you could find something better to watch than this one…In fact I’ll be uploading a review on a few other DC animated films very soon so stay tuned for that!
Wiseguy Industries Media 
