Batman Arkham Knight: I am the Night, I am Batman!

Finished Batman Arkham Knight. 90.8% of the game done along with getting the Knightfall Protocol. Did not get the extended ending as I didn't finish two Most Wanted mission including the Riddler side missions

For me its the best Batman game I have played. The plot was VERY personal, the open world nature from Arkham City was turned to the max, the visuals were astounding and the combat  system was the totally bad-ass. And I loved the Batmobile. Cruising around Gotham at break neck speed was a thrill right till the end. The Tank mode was also fun but got a tad tedious specially near the end but just loved the idea. While previous Batman you did feel like the superhero but in Arkham Knight the feeling of being the ultimate Batman along with the Batmobile was just truly one of a kind.

I loved doing side missions as some of them felt like comic vignettes but I LOVED how the plot was treated. Even though I have not read that many Batman comics but references to great comic books was awesome and DAT Killing Joke reference was to...as Joker says...die for! (Yes I have read The Killing Joke). I also loved the two twists in the plot and how it connected to the Batman universe. Yes Rocksteady treated the game like their last Batman game and it did have a sense finality to it which added an emotional punch.

Visually Rocksteady outdid themselves once again. A living and breathing Gotham City was meticulously created giving it a moody touch (like most of the best cities in the world) . The facial and model animations was some of the best ever. The game did feel a little dark in spots but some awesome lighting made the game shine. And man some of the smoke and explosion effects were insane, I am running out of adjective so I will just conclude in saying Batman Arkham Knight is a stunning looking game!

OK like Mark Hamill was VICIOUS in his voice acting  of Joker! I mean totally incredible! And oh yea bringing in John Noble (Fringe and LOTR Return of the King) to read Scarecrow was a masterstroke as he brought a very polish sheen to Scarecrow's voice which was menacing! The rest were uniformly great esp Kevin Conroy who totally owns Batman's voice. Christian Bale and Ben Affeleck got nothing over Conroy!

So in conclusion Batman Arkham Knight is Rocksteady best game yet and easily the one of the best current gen games around and I wonder what their next project will and whether they will tackle another Superhero or go different route. 2015 has had some truly outstanding games and we are just into September. 9.5/10! 

Drakengard 3: A game of two extremes!

Just finished Drakengard 3 on the PS3 along with 3 of the 4 ending and one word describes this game: MindClusterFuck! This is a REALLY hard game to judge!

The game play is really generic, nothing we haven't seen before, done MUCH better in other games. Its basically a hack and slash action RPG like the previous Drakengard games. Loads of different sort of weapons to unlock, buy and upgrade. Killing masses of very generic enemies and even bosses and going from point A to point B in episodic manner. So while the game play was fun its not really that interesting.

The graphics are just really REALLY crap except the main characters models which have loads of amazing details and an insane art style. The enemies and background are really bad with bouts of crippling frame rates. The game looks like a bad looking PS2 games but the development team of Access Games put a lot of effort in the characters. Donning amazing colors with intricate designs, emotive expressions and outstanding style are the feature of the characters designs.

It seems that the director Taro Yoko loves to put a lot of emphasis on thematic concepts in his games as like Nier and Drakengard games of the past the plot and characters are what set this weird game apart. The story is really depressing with hateful characters which centers around the main character Zero who is on a quest of killing off her sisters one by one. The determination and hate Zero exhibits during the whole game is quite stark. You have this deranged character who only think of butchering people as a means to an end which killing of her sisters. In this day an age finding such a game quite rare. From Software's Souls series is such a game where bringing despair to the player either through game play or story is what drives the whole game. The different branches of the story takes a different look into the story from different dimensions and timelines. The endings of 3 of the 4 ones i got were quite spectacular in the sense that developers had the balls to pull them off. Square Enix should be applauded that they took a risk like this by backing this project.

Zero is a real  bitch who has a dirty mind, insane bad language and openly talks about sex where she uses her disciples to quench her lust and boasts about it. Yes it was REALLY is quite weird. For all the talk of feminism and sexism in the gaming industry this game comes WAY out of left field and takes pride in it!

The other characters constantly moan and whine about life yet embody some of the Seven Sins in some ways. You have this character who likes to inflict pain, another who is into S&M and this old guy who ONLY talks about sex or another other who is vain and shallow! 

And a word of caution: the game has quite a lot of blood and gore on show. Some cut scenes were shocking in their level of violence many of them tying into the story.

And like Nier the audio was quite bewilderingly incredible and it'll be a shame if no one talks about it. Keiichi Okabe who did a stellar job in Nier outdoes himself once again with what he composed for Drakengard 3 . The English VA was quite good with talents of long time voice acting greats like Yuri Lowenthal, Liam O' Brien, Tara Platt and Megan Hollingshead coming to the fore. But was the wild and raw performance of Tara Platt that was outstanding as Zero using high and low octaves! And boy does the lady curse like a drunken sailor or what!!

So in the end I wont be doing the last ending as I have run out of patience and i have to jump through a lot of hoops before even attempting it. Will be YouTubei-ng the last ending

My reviews score is in two fold. The game play is really generic and repetitive, the visual are mixed bag so here I will give it a 6 out 10

but as for story, characters, the endings, the OST and the disturbing vibe it gave off i give it a 10/10

I wont give a final score to this game.