Doin' the Omoralsik Schlagerestival '15 (2)

Watched the second part most of the time at least. Regrettably, I admit. Really, most of the songs worthless, slow, boring and even awful. This part probably had the most embarrassing song on multiple levels I've ever heard on this show. A song called "Groupie". And now most of you (I hope, it could be that I'm old fashioned) would think about fans to rock groups that follows back stage and such. Really, quite a well known word if you ask me. In this song it's about... selfies with more people. Now, I might not be the most hip or forward when it comes to cultural phenomenons, but I thought that selfies centered around the photographer taking a picture with him-/herself in the picture with or without other people in the photo. Otherwise how do you explain selfies with celebrities. Already there I'm pissed of, because I can't help but think that they don't know what groupies is, which is just a google away. Made even worse is that they clearly stated they wanted to push this "new" world. And the song is all about that, taking groupies. I feel sick.

Overall the songs are probably some of the most boring to watch ever. The first 5 songs (out of seven I might add) didn't have anything to catch your eye, a stage show with lights and dancers or anything... well, except groupie, but I couldn't watch it due to how embarrassing it was so it was wasted anyway. Also, most of them slow as a snail. I would fell asleep if it wasn't for the attempts at humor that forced me to stay awake so I could face palm over the bottom of the barrel jokes they throw at the audience. The last two songs at least had a stage show to watch. Song number 6 was from a veteran in the business and also had some speed to it and was pretty much the better song of this evening. Song number 7 - Don't stop Believin'. I wish it was something akin to the Journey song, but it isn't. It at least seemed to have something to it. The stage show showed promise, a pity the song didn't deliver. I was expecting either an operaesque sound or even better Phantom of the Opera rock opera. No, and the singers voice didn't make it. But I guessed both would go on to the finals and they did. Thank god for that. Really, nr 7 could have been the best if it had a singer like Roger Pontare with a sound and song similar to his last entry to Melodifestivalen - Silverland, the song that should have competed in Eurovision 2006:

Look at the stage show, hear the rhythm and sadly for you the lyrics is in Swedish, otherwise you would have liked it as well. Damn poetic and even epic. Song nr 7 gave me these vibes, but didn't deliver, damn waste of an evening. 4 more weeks of this.

Shantae and the Pirate's Curse

So what was I doing instead of watching Melodifestivalen? I played Shantae and the Pirate's Curse on the 3DS. You might not believe it, but I think I made the right choice. It was a really fun game, but I mostly picked it up since I had the two first games (also on the 3DS if you were curious) and I'm a OCD on collecting sets. Which mostly was the reason I got it for the 3DS instead of the Wii U. Other things was that I had more room on the 3DS as well. Bonus was that the 3D is amazing, the depth is fantastic although, I can't help notice that they seemed to put some real work into a certain area of the character portraits in story segments. Especially around the chest area.... I'm talking about their bre... How old is Shantae again? No one knows, but appears to be 15-16? Alright I'm staying out of this one. What about Rottytops? Age unknown? But then she is a rotting zombie which makes this rather awkward. Alright, Risky Boots then? Unknown age, but much older than Shantae? I can go with that. Of course, besides the sexy fanservice the environments looks awesome in 3D and if you want some dis-fanserive you can always go talk to the mayor of Scuttle Town. His stomach really pops out in 3D I tell you.

The story then, it continues from where the last game ended. Shantae has lost her genie powers, but still try to protect Scuttle Town from invaders. This time it's the Ammo Baron, but for some reason you get summoned to the palace where they will cut your hair. At the same time Risky comes by and need your help in finding her crew and weapons to stop the Pirate Master from re-awakening. So you set out looking for the den of evils to find maps to the Pirate Master's grave, at the same time finding Risky's crew members and capture the dark magic that cursed them.

Which brings us to the gameplay, it's basically a metroidvania game where you go to a den of evil, look around until you get a pirate weapon like a cutlass, pistol or cannon which gives you a way to reach new places in the dungeons and the overworld. For example the cutlass gives Shantae a down-thrust so that she can destroy blocks below her, the pistol makes it possible to hit switches far away and the cannon gives you three extra jumps. And these weapons can also work as... weapons. Which makes the game easier and more fun than the original games. There you had very limited long range weapon meaning every enemy was close up with your hair whip, here I can stand and shoot them with the pistol or jump on them with the cannon or cutlass, making it easier to dispose of hard enemies. Great plus in my book... what brings it down a bit is that I can't shake the feeling that it is the same game over again. It's the same enemies, the same environments... but done better I guess. Instead of getting lost running back and forth on a singular overworld map you go to Risky's Ship and go to a special island. The boss fights are fun... although maybe a bit easy when you get the pattern down. Still, fun platformer that is worth a shot. Maybe more for you who have played the first games to see these characters again. Best news is that the forth game can't be that far behind.

Doin' the Omoralsik Schlagerfestival '15 (1)

And yet again it's this time of the year again. Two months of awful music, awful jokes and awful whatever they throw at us. It's Melodifestival 2015. So how was the first competition of the year? I... don't actually now since I preoccupied myself with other stuff while the program was on so I don't remember any songs or any contestants. I don't even know who won. Maybe I will focus more next time, but much of the fun for ripping it apart is gone since I only have my family around me and it's not as fun as with friends. So I basically failed you all to describe every song so maybe next week I wont be preoccupied with whatever I did.

Resident Evil 0

 

So after 5 I got the craving for some classic Resident Evil to get the full story. So I decided for the prequel. Got this for the Wii together with the Remake of the first game some years ago as well. Haven't touched this before. And it was an interesting experience. Maybe the intro turned me of because the intro music isn't horror, well except for my ears. So this takes place just before the original game and you play as B.R.A.V.O. teams medic Rebecca Chambers as she search and finds the fugitive Billy Coen and both need to team up to survive this nightmare. You start on a train, then a mansion and lastly a factory. Really, this game has atmosphere that really creeps me out. It might be together with the music and the sense I'm very vulnerable compared to the other Resident Evil games... or that might be the controls that makes the best course of action is standing still and shoot at any monster, no dodging here. I think I understand the talk about these so called tank-controls, a bit frustrating going back and forth trying to get in place to get ammo or whatever. Really, I'm so spoiled by the new games that just walking past important clues trigger a warning to press A or some sort... here I have to run around and press A all the time in order to stumble upon an important clue. The puzzles aren't that hard, I just needed to run around the areas two or three times before I get the right item on the right place. Really, the biggest problem is that my English isn't 100 %. Was some sort of rod for a "vise" (if I remember correctly) and I had no clue what it was. Worse was that I run around in the appointed room and just accidentally stumbled upon the thing I needed.

The story then is kinda hard for the main characters to figure out since important information is only given the player and someone that has played the original game. For example, the main bad guy is Dr James Marcus who was the head researcher for Umbrella on the original virus (which I learnt in Resident Evil 5) and supposedly killed by Albert Wesker and Birkin (the original bad guy and the sequels bad guy), but revived by a queen leech he crossed with the virus? Anyway, Birkin and Wesker tries to cover their tracks and stop Dr Marcus who releases the T-virus in the Raccon forrest which leads to the original game. Now, I don't get how the virus can give him control of looking old or young... or how it's supposed to work overall. Is it some sort of performance enhancing drug with healing abilities... or is it to create zombies? Cause all the games I've played the zombification seems to be the real goal of the research, proven by that they only talk about the B.O.W. as the goal and that none of the research goes into take that away. And this might be for missing the original three games that it doesn't make sense... or maybe it has to do with only some specific people can withstand the zombification, like Wesker and/or Jill Valentine (according to Resident Evil 5). Need to play the remake and Resident Evil 6 (and maybe hope for HD remakes for 2 and 3 on Wii U, although it seems unlikely).

Resident Evil 5

 

Have been playing Resident Evil 5 for some time now (on amateur of course, I'm so bad at action games overall), Another game I bought some years ago and didn't come round to until now. So I finished it and it was all right. Now, to be clear I've only played Resident Evil 4 and Revelations before this so I'm not that old-school with the series so the more action oriented gameplay don't bother me. Actually I find it rather enjoyable how you can move around all directions and when it comes to Revelations also like to be able to move and shoot compared to standing still. I might agree that it's not much horror left, but it might also be to me being more desensitized compared to days of yore when I couldn't even finish the first dungeon in Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time due to being to scary for me. Being 27 might make it easier. I finished it anyway and story wise it was fulfilling. I also got the gold edition so I had two extra missions, one being what happened to Jill and Chris before the events of the game and then what happened to Jill and Captain Stone before they rescued Chris. Spoilers might be in place, but the game is almost 6 years old so I don't bother that much. Fun thing I noticed was that the beginning for the Chris and Jill episode was hinted at in Revelations and tied it together (Revelations came out later as a side story, but since I played that game before this it was kinda fun).

Story wise Chris Redfield has been sent by the BSAA to partake in an operation against a Bio-terrorist named Irving so he meets up with their African branch and start killing zombies. I might not have to be all to careful with ammo compared to before. Who's the bad guy really? Well not Irving, but rather Albert Wesker, the main villain of most of the series who also has Jill Valentine under his control. Plan is to wipe out most of the worlds population with this super virus and establish himself as good for those still alive afterwards. The back-story chapter doesn't explain anything about this, but the flashback in the main game tells you that he is some kind of geneticly engineered child, a super human so he sees fit to rule as his creator (Spencer, the CEO of Umbrella) who he deems to weak of old age so he gets killed of off-screen. How do you finish Wesker? Well, you overdose him with a serum he uses to keep himself stable and then fights him in the middle of an active Volcano until you drop him in the lava and fires a rocket at him. Talk about action climax. And that's the best comparison, a silly action movie.

Now, this game had some controversies when it was released, mostly that it supposedly was racist. And in one way yes, there is a lot of Africans portrayed in rather animalistic ways, but then again it is a virus that makes them so, created by a European/American company that uses the natives for their own goals of world domination, exploiting the nature and destroying old tribes and temples. The only options I would see was to probably whitewash it away with all Africans that aren't white, but it doesn't sound right at all. Cause we are in Africa (no country named so we are only on the specified continent of Africa), you expect the victims to be of some color and in a way that is even more racist if we go all apartheid on them in video games set in Africa. Besides it was made by Japanese, isn't that even more of "white man's burden" when we in the west tells them what they can and not can portray in fiction?

The other thing with this game is the co-op mode where you can have a friend join or your forced to play with the AI. Not that bad, but they waste the ammo I'm carefully saving up. Luckily you can always replay the 1 1/2 chapters to gather ammo and money to upgrade your weapon to make it somewhat easier. Back to the co-op, it works, but this is probably the main reason the games doesn't scare me as much, you are almost never alone. A bit more stressful maybe since you must keep an eye on the AI's health and ammo, but if you finish it once you can get unlimited ammo which at least takes care of that. If I only had someone to play with. Tried with my sister, but the first zombie made her want to quite and the horde of zombies at the end of chapter one was enough for her. Maybe if my youngest sister was here, she played at least the rail-gun Resident Evil games for Wii.

Child of Light

Another one of those games I wasn't gonna get. And then I realized that I had participated in Nintendos Premium deal by getting my Wii U black 32 GB racking up 3000 points giving me access to 300 SEK and due to already maxing out on the Wii U balance I went on a small shopping spree and since it was some Christmas deals for this game I got Child of Light. And I'm glad I did since it was a really charming game. I might go into spoiler territory (which by now would be expected by how I do these usually). First of, the stile is based on European folk- and fairy tales, think the Grimm Brothers, and the art feels like that for me... might be due to the similarities to certain children cartoons I watched as a kid telling different stories from Eastern Europe. The developers might have seen the same show since the music is conducted by the Bratislava Symphonic orchestra, I guess to invoke a similar feel.

The story then begins with telling us about princess Aurora and her father the duke. They mention some Step-mother and here would anyone who have read a fairy tale suspect something fishy. Well, Aurora dies of some sickness and wakes up in this mysterious land and must find her way back before her father succumbs to sorrow. And I'm just gonna spoil it, of course it was the Step-Mother who did it, it's the brother Grimm storytelling 101. And even more obvious she has two daughter's as well. What's more is that the Step.mother is the Evil Queen of the land which you are brought to and it's your job to stop Umbra, the Queen of the Night and bring light to those who live in this land.

A bit short, although after finish it you get a New Game + to do it again, only harder so you can really max out your characters skills and abilities. All in all it's beautiful and a really sweet game. One quirk is that everyone rhyme which might put some people off, but I think it enhance the games atmosphere cause as we know, rhyming is a classic staple in fairy- and folk tales. Well worth the 50 SEK (a bit less than 5 $, € and just over 5 £) and if this is the only modern RPG I get on the Wii U I can't really skip it. A bit short though.

Happy New Year 2015

Happy New Year everybody. Time to summarize 2014 and relive the good and the bad. We begin at the beginning were I suffered some kind of depression. Hadn't felt like that since the winter of 2011/2012. Could have been the darkness, maybe that I had to move back home to my parents in 2013. Could have been my sisters that drives me insane or that my financial situation didn't look that good... or it might have been a side effect of the black mold growing under the kitchen floor that forced us to renovate most of the house. Did I mention the house was just two years old? Really could have started better, but hey 2014 seems to be a rather depressing year overall. Celebrities dying left and right, massacres, wars and civil unrest everywhere you look. The Center-Right coalition lose power in Sweden (of course that is more subjective, those on the other side was probably happy... but maybe not as happy as Sweden Democrats). Doesn't help that the financial crisis have lasted 6 years and few seems to believe it will end soon enough. I have my hopes for next year cause the numerology would be nice with a lucky 7, especially since the upturn last time lasted 7 years starting in 2001 with the Dot.Com-bubble and ending with the bank crash of 2008. It almost biblical... if that would be the case of course.

If that's the bad what have been good then? Well, I actually got a tan this year, I had a couple of interviews and I got myself a Wii U. Thinking about it makes me feel a bit shallow with all this, but then again most of the world is so depressing right now I need the distractions to keep me happy. It could explain why I feel better at the moment than I did last year (if we assume the mold wasn't the only cause for feeling blue). The Nintendo charm and child-like fun can really stop depressions it seems. Really, I thought I saw the light at the end of the tunnel and could taste the air of freedom, but sad to say it wasn't to be so I hope for this year, as every year since 2011.