Movie Review: True Grit

" You pay for everything in this world, there is nothing free, except the grace of God". This sentence, was at the end of the opening narration in the latest Coen Brothers movie, "True Grit". The first truly great movie of 2011, and probably one of the best and most meaningful movies in recent years.

True Grit, is an adaptation of the 1968 novel of the same name. The first film adaptation was in 1969, starring John Wayne. "The Duke" (John Wayne's nickname) won the Oscar for best actor in 1969. I have seen the John Wayne version when I was a child, but can recollect very little of the film. However, the 2011 version, is a solid film in all aspects. From the casting, directing, cinematography, script, to music soundtrack and production value are all very well done.

The story starts with the narration from Mattie Ross, as an grown adult telling the audience about a story that happened to her when she was 14 years old. Mattie's father was murdered by one of his hired hand, Tom Chaney. Mattie went into the town to take care of her father's business and through trading some of her father's remaining properties, made some money. Then she proceeded to hire "Rooster Cogburn" (Jeff Bridges), a fearless US marshal to track down Tom Chaney and bring him to the law, she told Cogburn that the condition for this job is that he has to take her with him to track down Chaney. Along the way and through circumstances, a Texas Ranger LaBoeuf (Matt Damon) joined the hunt and the trio set out on this improbable quest to bring Chaney to the law.

The story is straight and simple. However, having said that, the story of "True Grit" focuses alot on character development. This is the one thing I liked about this film, Coen brothers told the story in a way that made the audiences think about the meaning/moral of the story, rather than trying to impress the audiences through the flashy, overly complicated and bizarre philosophies so common in many modern day films. The movie started with a quote from half of Proverbs 28:1: The wicked man flees though no one pursues... Personally, I think if the movie maker had quoted the entire verse: "The wicked man flees though no one pursues, but the righteous are as bold as a lion", it would have fitted the movie a lot more better.

The central theme of this movie is in the opening narration of Mattie Ross, when she said nothing in this world is free except for the grace of God. As a 14 year girl who lost her father, Mattie had to bargain, negotiate and fight for her rights against adults who constantly tried to rip her off. One gets a sense of her absence of innocence throughout the entire film because she never smiled, and also her meticulous ways of dealing with day to day transactions in life. On her quest to bring her father's murderer to the law, she witnessed a lot of death and harms that happened because of the quest. In other words, Mattie Ross learnt the price for vengeance during her hunt for her father's killer, she even landed up paying this price with a part of herself (literally, watch the film to find out what it is). It is a journey for her to discover that nothing is free in this world except the grace of God. One can say that although Mattie is a Christian, her sense of biblical justice is twisted because she does not show forgiveness. Now, I may be way off, but personally I think this is what the Coen brother envisioned the film to be, the journey of a 14 year old headstrong girl who insist on having revenge discovers that vengeance comes with a great price, and only in the grace of God can she be really find peace and love.

In the movie, Mattie witnessed the repentance of a criminal who is about to be hanged begging the crowd to have mercy on his family after his death. All in all, this movie will make you think about the meaning of things such as: justice, grace, trust in God, and redemption because these are the main themes of the story.

Jeff Bridge's portrayal of Rooster is solid, Matt Damon put up a strong performance as the supporting actor. The background music is an old hymn (leaning on the everlasting arm), which fits the theme of the film very well. The cinematography and the visuals are stunning, on par (if not better) with "the Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford".

Verdict:

Story 10/10: The Coen brothers masterfully told a great tale of adventure in a very simple and clear way, the story is well knitted, with memorable and interesting characters that will make you reflect on a lot of Christian values, especially the grace of God.

Cinematography 9.5/10: Crisp and beautiful imageries, it is a visually stunning film.

Music/sound 9/10: The main soundtrack "leaning on the everlasting arms" suits the movie really well. Although I was wondering why the Johnny Cash soundtrack from the movie trailer wasn't in the movie.

Acting/production value 9.5/10: I really liked Jeff Bridge's portoryal as Rooster Cogburn, I hope he wins some award for his role in this movie. The support actors and actress put on solid performances as well.

Sex/nudity: none

Violence: The movie is "M" rated, there are some pretty violent scenes, there is one slightly disturbing scene of a man's fingers being chopped off.

Final score: 9/10 - As I said at the beginning of the review, this is one of the best and most meaningful movies (not only from a Christian sense, also in general) I've seen in recent years. Amongst the vast amount of Hollywood media entertainment, I can truly say that I was not only entertained, but this story also directed me to re-think and reflect on how Jesus has paid the price of sin for us, and because of that we can have the free gift of grace. In our world where seemingly nothing is free nor unconditional, God's grace is free, all we have to do is to accept it and loving Him back.

Video game review: King Arthur - The roleplaying Wargame

Do you like roleplaying games (RPG)? Do you like strategy games? Have you ever wanted to play a game that has both elements incorporated? No, I am not talking about Spellforce, this is called "King Arthur the roleplaying wargame".

"King Arthur Roleplaying wargame", as its title suggests is a blend of RPG and real time/turn based strategy game. Released on PC by a Hungarian company called Neocore in 2009. It features the player to play the role of King Arthur on his quest to build Camelot. This game has beautiful graphics, atmospheric soundtrack, interesting quest/plot system and is a very "hardcore" strategy title.

Set in 500AD, the story starts just after Arthur Pendragon pulled out the excalibur from the stone to became the king. The story is loosely based on the traditional Arthurian legend, where the players will engage in famous events such as Sir Gawain and the Greend Knight, Tristan and Iseult, Balin/Balan and the cursed sword etc..

Gameplay:

This is a title that blends strategy and roleplaying. For the campaign, the player will take on the role of King Arthur, and the game and its micro-management (money, food, movement of armies etc..) are controlled on a big map of Britain, in turn based style. When in battle, the gameplay switches to real time strategy.

The ultimate goal is to take over every province in Britain. The campaign story is divided into four chapters, and quests appear sequentially as the game progresses. As King Arthur, every choice the player makes will affect the storyline and will determine the quests you will be getting later in the game. In addition, the roleplaying aspect of the game is based on a morality compass. The choice that the player makes during the game will slowly define King Arthur to two different types of rulers, i.e. either tyrant or rightful, and also his inclination to religion, i.e. Christianity or Old faith. Depending on the morality of your King Arthur, you can unlock different units and heroes.

The questing system plays out like 1980's adventure book, it is text based and you need to use the heroes (i.e. knights of the round table) to activate them. The quests makes the campaign very story driven, and can be very immersive and will drag you into the fantasy world of Arthuraian legend, packed with adventures and chivalry.

Furthermore, recruiting the knights of the round table is when the game really gets in touch with its claim to RPG. In this game, you cannot have an army going around without a hero leading it, you can recruit up to 11 knights/heroes at King Arthur's famous round table, and the heroes are divided into three classes each has unique skills and abilities. As they complete quests, and fight in battles they can level up, there are also weapons and armours you can get from doing quests, and you can equip your heroes with them. Some heroes will be loyal to you if their morality is similar to yours, and you can have ladies in your court to marry them to improve their loyalty. Another feature is you can assign your heroes to be the governors of different provinces.

The battle system is both the strength and the weakness in this game. The battle takes place in real time, and is highly detailed. Things like terrain and weather are the key factors on how you plan your battle strategy. There are three types of basic units: archer, cavalry, and infantry. You have to utilise all three effectively to win battles. However, the key to winning battles usually lies with the hero's skills. Combining these items the battles are really rewarding and satisfying. However, the battles are very hard, perhaps too hard sometimes that can be a bit overwhelming. Also, some of the army units are too powerful, especially the archers. Towards the end of the campaign there are just too many over challenging battles and that will have even the most die hard fan of strategy game holding their heads in frustration. The game can certainly use some better balancing.

Besides the campaign mode, this game also offers skirmish and multilayer mode.

Graphics:

The graphics in this game is great, the design is beautiful and really gives the player the feeling of the world from "The Once and Future King or Le'Morte d'Arthur .

Sound:

The sound effect is pretty good, the soundtracks are of course, medieval style music to suit the game's environment and atmosphere.

Final verdict:

Story 8/10 - The main campaign is very story driven, while the story deviates from the traditional Arthurian legend, it is still very interesting because of the quest system in this game is very well done.

Gameplay 6.5/10 - Like I said earlier, the gameplay is great, but the battle system can use a bit of balancing. The battle involves the player to actually use strategies based on terrain and weather, like in a real war, and it can be really rewarding and satisfying, but the battles in this game can get very, very difficult half way into the campaign mode. Be prepared for many cries of frustration.

Graphics 8.5/10 - The graphics is pretty good, but the frame rate can be choppy sometimes when you zoom in, especially in massive battles. The design is very beautiful and captures the essence of King Arthur world.

Sound 7.5/10 - Good sound effects, appropriate soundtracks.

Replay value 8/10 - If you are not scared by the game's difficulty, you can replay the main campaign again after the first play through, make different decisions the second time to unlock different heroes and see how the story evolves differently. The skirmish mode adds replay value as well.

Sex/Nudity: none, I mean, pretty much every character in this game is wearing a bulky massive metal armour. There are no sex scenes nor suggestive scenes.

Violence: Well, this is a war game, meaning you fight battles and kill enemies by the hundreds. There are no blood splatter effects in the game. When a character die in the battle, he just lie down on the ground... a bit unrealistic but it does reduce the violence in video games a lot.

Conclusion:

I actually really liked King Arthur the roleplaying wargame, this is a solid blend of RPG and strategy genre, and many aspects of this game makes it really fun and will keep you coming back for more. However, the difficulty of the game is too high and it can become a very frustrating experience when you loose 10 battles in a row because of the unbalanced gameplay and some overpowered army units (hmm, especially the archers). The unbalanced gameplay is what is really hindering this title from becoming a really great game.

Final score: 7.5/10 (good)

Movie Review: Ring of the Nibelungs

Do you like Lord of the Rings? If you are a fan, then you would be interested to know the source to Tolkein's inspirations to the forging of the world of Middle Earth. J.R.R. Tolkein was a fan of Norse mythology, and he drew inspirations from various materials such as Beowulf, and some of the epic sagas from the old Norse world. Such as the Völsungasaga and Nibelungenlied (the two are actually parallel to each other, while the Nibelungenlied is pretty much the German version of the Saga of Volsungs).

Nibelungenlied, is the story of Siegfried the dragon slayer and Brünhild (the Queen of Iceland). It is epic, beautiful and tragic. A story about love, greed, friendship and betrayal. The movie, Ring of the Nibelungs is a TV mini-series based fantasy film made in 2004. The story is based on the Saga of the Volsungs and German epic poem Nibelungenlied. It is a 2 parts film that contains parts of the stories from the Völsungasaga. I watched it on home video just a few days ago, and I think it is one of the most faithful film adaptations ever made.

The story of Ring of the Nibelungs is about the rise and the fall of Seigfried, a hero whose fame was built after he slew a dragon. The DVD version of the film is 177 minutes, and has two parts. Part 1 focuses on Seigfried's rise to power. Part 2 is portrays how greed, jealousy and betrayal brought doom upon the main characters in the story. I do not want to spoil the story here, so all I am going to say is that the story is one of the most intriguing tales in Norse mythology.

The movie itself is well made, one must remember that this is a low budget, direct to TV film, so it does not have the Hollywood standard production values. However, the cinematography is very well done. The acting is medicore, while the lead characters did a good job, the supporting actors/actress are less expressive. Part 1 of the movie is a bit cheesy, but part 2 is when the movie really gets interesting, where the characters and the story really start to develop.

The central theme of the story is about the consequences of greed, but I have to put up warnings here, unlike Hollywood productions where most stories have happy endings, the ending to Ring of the Nibelungs is tragic, but this is a faithful adaptation to the original poem, and I thought the director did a good job at keeping the story original and resisted the temptation of altering the story to make an "Americanized, general film". Ring of the Nibelungs is like Lord of the Rings, the differences are that it is much darker and is set in the ancient Norse world.

Overall, I really liked Ring of the Nibelungs, not only because I am a fan of the Völsungasaga myself, but more so because this movie is a great adaptation. If you like Tolkein's Middle Earth mythology, and like the movie Lord of the Rings then I think you will like Ring of the Nibelungs.

Ratings:

Story 10/10 - faithful to the original Völsungasaga and Nibelungenlied, the story is epic, beautiful, dark and tragic.

Video 3.5/5 - this is a low budget direct to TV mini series, the production value is not on par with the Hollywood ones, but the visuals and cinematography are great.

Sound 3/5 - The music is good, but the sound effect for the fighting scenes are over done.

Acting 3/5 - the lead actor/actress did a good job, but the supporting actor/actress are somewhat mechanical in their portrayals, expressions and emotions.

Violence - The level of violence in this film is not very high compared to most of the Hollywood movies. Most of the death scenes only contain blood, and no decapitation or amputation of limbs on human. There is a scene showing the head of a dead dragon, but I think most audience over the age of 13 should be fine with the violence level in this movie.

Sex/nudity: There is one sex scene earlier in the movie and contains partial nudity, there are no frontal nudity scenes.

Final score: 7.5/10 - A good and enjoyable movie, if you like Lord of the Rings then don't miss it.

Book Preview: Hrolf Kraki's Saga by Poul Anderson

The Saga of Hrolf Kraki is one of the Norse Epic Saga, originally composed in approximately 1300 AD, the saga of Hrolf Kraki has many cross references to "Beowulf". The story is about a Danish King, Hrolf Kraki and his path to become the king of Denmark. In this book, "Hrolf Kraki's saga", novelist Poul Anderson has crafted a re-telling of the epic saga in prose translation. Published in 1973, the novel was nominated for the British Fantasy Award in 1973, and was general well received by the public. With stories involving giants, elves, magical swords wielding Norse warriors and background in Norse mythology and much more, this is exactly my cup of tea. The book is currently out of print, and with no small efforts I finally tracked it down on ebay and received it recently.

I am reading it now and a review will follow soon.

Book Review: Soon I will be Invincible

Two years ago while I was browsing through the bookshop, I came across "Soon I will be Invincible", a novel written by author Austin Grossman. I had never heard of Austin Grossman at the time, but the superhero comic style cover was capturing. I read the summary at the back of the book, and the description says: "This morning on planet Earth there are 1,686 enhanced, gifted, or otherwise-superpowered persons. 678 use their powers to fight crimes, while 441 use their powers to commit them, 44 are currently confined in Special Containment Facilities for enhanced criminals. Of these last, it is interesting to note that an unusually high proportion have IQs of 300 or more - 18 to be exact, including me...".

The book seemed interesting so I decided to give it a try to find out what this is all about.

The way the story is told in this book is in first person narrative. Although this is a book about superheroes and super villains, but the entire story is about the super villain Dr. Impossible, a mad genius with Malign Hypercognition Disorder who has attempted to take over the world 12 times, but all his attempts failed due to the effort of a team of superheroes, the Champions. Without spoiling too much story, the plot started with the team of superheroes pursuing a mission to search for one of the greatest superhero "CoreFire", who had been missing for a few month. All the while, Dr. Impossible escaped from the prison and started to plan for his 13th attempt to take over the world. As the story unfolds, the readers find out more and more about Dr. Impossible, such as his motivations and a more in-depth view of the live of a super villain. In the book, it is interesting how Dr. Impossible reflected about his own life and wondered what would have happened if he had used his high IQs for the benefit of mankind, but it is his own impulsive behaviour of trying to take over the world (possibly due to his mental illness) that prevents him from ever living a happy existence. This brings up a very interesting theme of actions induced by mental illnesses V.S. personal choice and personal responsibility. I got the feeling that the author was trying to convey that Dr. Impossible's actions are due to his mental illness, and therefore his is not solely responsible for his actions because it is not "him" who made the choices of being an evil genius. This is a very post-modern concept, and is something worth pondering about. Personally, I think mental illness or not, every one is still responsible for their own choices and actions.

Another unique component of this book is, because the story is told in first person narrative through the eyes of Dr. Impossible, the author let the readers decide the nature of Dr. Impossible.

Overall, this is not a bad book, the story is original but some parts of the plot doesn't really connect very well.

Rating: 3.5/5 (Good)

Video game review: Darksiders

Platform: Xbox 360, Playstation 3, Microsoft Windows (PC)

Year 2010 has been a year of some great action adventure titles release, mostly on the consoles. These are games such as the critically acclaimed God of war 3, Dante’s inferno, Bayonetta and the long awaited Darksiders. While God of War 3 received unbelievably high scores from the various game reviewers, Bayonetta was also well praised for its game play and design. However, Dante’s Inferno received somewhat negative reviews, mostly due to the complains of some minor problems and is framed as an average clone to Sony’s God of War franchise. Out of all these games, Darksiders finally made its way to PC-DVD just a few weeks ago, so is this a good game? Or is it just another clone to God of War again? Today I will review this game.

Watch this video for gameplay trailer, with interviews from the developer

Darsiders was developed by Vigil Games, this is a new video gaming studio. The game itself was published by THQ. The game was originally released on Xbox360 and Playstation 3 earlier this year. The PC port finally arrived in later September this year. I didn’t know about Darksiders until I came across a video trailer on youtube. My first impression was “wow, the guy you get to play looks really cool, he has a big sword and wears a cool armour”. However, I wasn’t too sure about this game so I read some reviews by IGN and Gamespot. In general, the opinions are that this game is a mix between God of War and Legend of Zelda. Furthermore, IGN UK and IGN AU reviews both gave Darksiders 9/10 score, while the general rating is around 8.3/10. Personally I am quite a fan of action adventure titles, such as Prince of Persia and Assassin’s Creed, so I decided to give Darksiders a try, the result? Well, this is what I am here to talk about.

This game has characters with BIG weapons!

Story:

I will rant about the story for a bit, so bear with me. First of all, the story of Darksiders is loosely based on Revelation. Yes, I repeat, Revelation. However I also said it is “loosely based on”. One might think, how can anyone write a video game story loosely based on Revalation? Well, here is the deal. In Darksiders you play as one of the four horsemen of Apocalypse known as “War”. I think this is from the passage of Revelation 6:3-4. In the story the seals were broken and War, as one of the horsemen was summoned to the earth. He started to wipe out every living thing on earth, thinking it was time for the end of days because the seals were broken. Very soon War discovered something is aloof, because it seemed that he was the only horsemen being summoned, and as he performed his duty of “extermination” he gradually lost his power in the process doing his duty in bringing an Armageddon. War was eventually defeated in a battle against a large demonic creature and is presumably dead. He woke up and found that the seals weren’t really broken, and War has been mistakenly summoned. On top of that, War was blamed for starting a pre-mature apocalypse that doomed the kingdom of man. Well, you can imagine this will totally suck if you are War. He managed to persuade the council in charge of the horsemen to let him return to Earth to investigate who was behind the false call in hope of clearing his name. When War returned, it has been 100 years since the apocalypse and the world lies in ruins and all mankinds are extinct. Only demons still lurk around fighting against roaming bands of angels.

Ok, at this point. by now you probably understand why I said the story is “loosely based” on the last book of the Bible, because in the Bible the most important thing about the end of days is about Jesus' return to earth (described in passages such as Matthew 24:36, 25:13). Therefore, one can say script writers for the game draws inspirations from the book of Revelation about the end of days and created a post-apocalyptic sci-fi fantasy story.

Welcome to the post-apocalyptic world of Darksiders

While some might call this blasphemous, but remember this is just a video game story. Furthermore, the story is all about War finding redemption and setting the wrongs right, which turns out to be quite interesting. Despite this game's secular origin, there are some interesting things to think about from the story. For example, a the main antagonist (actually a demon) tried to tempt War to join the bad side, saying to the game's hero “since the Creator has abandoned his creation, why should you still fight for the light and not join me to rule in hell?” Personally, I face this challenge as a Christians every now and then, especially in times of difficulty. Sometimes there seems to be this voice telling me that God doesn’t care, and He has abandoned me, but in reality this is just the devil's lies. In the story War overcame the demon’s temptation and lies and stayed on his original course. At that point, I was thinking, "what about me? Have I sometimes gave up to the devil’s lies and believe that God is not with me? How can I continue to trust in God? The answer is in the Bible, see John 5:24, and John 6:35-40, this is something worth reflecting about. Also in the story it showed that the bad guy became the bad guy because he thought he knew better than the Creator himself and wanted to take control (I will leave this to the would be players of this game to find out). Therefore, I think as far-fetched as the story is, in terms of spiritual and moral content the Darksiders story actually has some good moments that kind of rings home with some of challenges Christians face everyday, such as trusting in God, while knowing that God is in control and He knows better than any of us.

Gameplay:

At the first glance, Darksiders appears to be a God of War clone. However, my flatmate remarked that Darksiders actually bears a lot of resemblances to the Legend of Zelda games. As you take control of War, you can unleash some devastating powers upon your foes. The combat system is somewhat similar to Devil may cry series, as you hit the enemies your combo ranking goes up, and the keys of winning battles often lie in figuring out the patterns of your enemies movements and attack patterns rather than the typical one button mash action in most video games. There are lots, I repeat, lots of puzzles in this game. Some of the puzzles can be very challenging, and sometimes requires the player to think outside the box, but solving the puzzles are a lot of fun and satisfying. As the game progresses the player gradually get new items, often crucial to solve the puzzles that lie ahead. For example, early in the game the player acquires a cross blade, which is a boomerang type of weapon, not only can you use it in the fights, but it is also one of the most essential item in the game to solve the puzzles.The boss battles are very interesting as well, as these boss battles are often puzzles themselves that requires the player to observe the patterns and use the variety of War's arsenals, and formulating strategies to win the day.

The horsemen of apocalypse is as well equipped as Bruce Wanye!

Personally, one of my favourite features in Darksiders is the horseback combat. Later in the game, War regains his horse Ruin, this is fair enough because how can a horsemen be a horsemen without a horse right? The player can summon and un-summon the horse at any time, and the horse can be used in open areas to increase the movement speed, while riding the horse War's attack damage and range increases greatly. Without spoiling too much of the game, the horse is a crucial item in this game.

War rides on Ruin in Wild, Wild West!

There are other features in this game that makes it worth replaying, such as the difficulty option setting. The player can choose to play easy, normal or apocalyptic difficulty when starting a new game. In the game there are many artifacts and items scattered throughout the game world, by collecting these items the player can make War even stronger. It is also possible to back track to the different levels to acquire the artefacts that you missed previously. Towards the end of the game, the story actually requires the player to back track. The control input is very smooth, I only had very minor issues with the control. Overall, this game unshamely borrows a lot of the best gameplay elements from many classic games and blend them together. The result? It totally works and Vigil game managed to forge a unique gaming experience.

Video for War's horse, Ruin (the video is R-rated due to violence)

Graphics:

The design of Darksiders is probably one of the strongest points of the game. This game is very, very well designed. The lead designer is Joe Madureira, a comic book artist/author best known for his work on Marvel’s Uncanny xmen. The game world is very well presented, beautiful and atmospheric, from abandoned wild desert, mystery haunted tower, ruined post-apocalyptic city to demonic infested cathedral, with everything in between! The game world is superb and really grasps the feel of a comic book world, dark mysterious but full of colours, overall, the artistic style is a very unique. The character models are very cool! War looks really hardcore, it is everything that you will imagine a horsemen of apocalypse would look like. The monsters and bosses look scary and imaginative, in a comical way.

Hey look, it's treebeard! Or is it.. rockbeard?

The graphics for the PC version is pretty smooth, there are occasional glitches, but will not cause any major issues provides that you have at least a Geforce 8800GT graphic card. The lightning effect looks great in this game, while the textures are slight low for today’s video game standard, but the design of the game make up for the lack of high textures. Overall, Darksiders is a very pretty looking game.

Sound:

The sound effects in this game is impressive, I had to keep the volume on my speakers low the whole time, otherwise during combats it feels as if the soundwaves will tear open the roof of my little apartment. The soundtracks, on the other hand although epic, but lack something memorable in them. The voice acting in this game is top notch, almost on par with the voice acting in Batman Arkham Asylum.

Violence, language and sex/sexual references:

Violence: One should take note that Darksiders is a very violent game. As War takes on the demonic horde from hell, there is an overwhelming amount of decapitations, flying limbs, and blood animations in this game.

Language: There are minor coarse languages, no actual swearing words.

Sex/Sexual references: There is not sex/sexual references in this game, actually none of the male or female characters are scantily/proactively dressed/depicted in this game, which is pretty good compared to most of today’s video games.

Bugs/issues:

I’ve encountered a problem with gamepads in Darksiders, since this is a PC port apparently only Xbox 360 controllers are compatible with the game, but this wasn't stated on the cover box. Therefore this must be a game bug/issue, and I could only use my mouse and keyboard to play.

Conclusion:

I am very happy that I played Darksiders, this is a great action adventure game. If you enjoy playing 3^rd person action adventure games then don’t miss this one. It is a blend between Zelda, God of War, Devil May Cry with a story and universe unique in its setting. The puzzles are challenging and fun to solve, the boss battles are engaing, epic and memorable. This is a game that won’t insult your intelligence!

Video trailer of puzzles (courtesy of Gametrailers)

Story: 8.5/10 – a unique and interesting story, far fetched yet original.

Gameplay: 9/10 – To be short, this game is great fun, lots of fun!

Graphics: 9.5/10 – Although the textures are a bit low for a PC game, but the game world is very well designed and beautiful, this is a pretty looking game!

Sound: 8/10 – The sound effect and voice acting are both top notch, but the sound track could use some improvement.

Violence: Very high level violence, although the box says MA+15, but I actually won’t recommend it to anyone below the age of 18.

Language: It is relatively clean, only a few coarse words, but no swearing words at all.

Sex/Sexual references: None

Recommended age of audience: 18+

Final score: 9.2/10 (superb!)

Video game review: Dynasty warriors 6

Release format: Playstation 3, Xbox360, PC-DVD, and Playstation 2.

KOEI's hack and slash video game Dynasty warriors is back in the 6th instalment of this "long lasting" franchise! Is this good or bad? Let's find out.

Story:

Loosely based on the historical fiction novel "romance of three kingdoms", Dynasty warriors 6 once again, follows a similar if not identical story to its predecessor. At the end of the 2nd century, China was divided into three factions by three warlords. Each faction is trying to become the supreme ruler of China, it became a warring period known as the "three kingdoms".

The player can take control of one of the 14 characters in the game, and start a quest to unify the middle kingdom.

Although the story sounds epic, which is because it is based on an epic novel, but for some reason when I was playing the game I just couldn't be bothered to pay any attention to the story at all, it is because the story was

told in uninteresting ways.

There are some minor spiritual contents in one of the earlier stages involving witchcraft and rituals that might offend more sensitive players. Otherwise, the story is actually not bad in moral or spiritual content.

Gameplay and design:

Dynasty warriors 6

is like all its predecessors, and this is a one button hack and slash game! One hit by your character can take out 50

people! Almost all the characters use excessively long and large weapon which they wield with great ease. The combat is pretty easy, just like all Dynasty warriors games. One thing worth mentioning is that Dynasty warriors game doesn't have a "kill count" as you, well, kill people, but instead it is called "knock out" count. So you actually don't "kill" people, but simply knocking them out.

Dynasty warriors 6 use

a new combo system called the "Renbu" system (I don't know what "Renbu" actually means). This means if you perform the combo right, your renbu goes up and you can do a even longer combo. This adds a bit more challenge to the gameplay as the player will fiddle through the buttons on their gamepads to try to get the combo right, and rush around the map to keep on fighting so their hard-gathered renbu ranking can stay up.
This time, there are 41 characters in this game. The player have to unlock the characters, each faction is given three charac

ters to begin with. As you play through the main campaign, by completing objectives you can unlock additional characters, but not all of them have story modes. For those characters with out story mode you can play in free mode and challenge mode.

As you play you can level up your characters by gathering experience points. EP can be gathered by either completing objectives or "knocking out" enemy soldiers/officers. The level cap is 50, and the player also have the option of discovering new weapons and horses, which they can equip their characters with.

The replay value is pretty high because of the free mode and challenge mode, this means you can keep on playing the unlocked maps with unlocked characters with your friend. Yes, this game has a two player option, this means your friend can play with you by choosing another character. However, in multi-player mode the screen is split and player 1 and 2 occupy the top and bottom of the screen respectively, which is a pain if you have a small screen, but fine if both of you are playing on a 50 inch TV.

In terms of single player, Dynasty gets boring very quickly as it quickly becomes a repetitive, one button mashing adventure. However, in 2 player mode this is where the game shines as with all its previous instalment. I remember the days when I used to play Dynasty Warriors 5 with my friend until 2 in the morning because we are trying to get 2000 KOs to level up our characters!

In terms of moral and spiritual content, Dynasty Warriors 6 is a pretty clean game, although the game is about war, but there are no blood or death, as I mentioned earlier you don't "kill" people but instead simply "knocking them out". There are no blood animations. However, the design for one of the female characters is in my opinion, more on the side of provocatively dressed but it is nowhere as bad as what you see on the posters on the street of Sydney CBD.

Graphics:

The graphics of Dynasty Warriors 6 is slightly better than the previous game, but not by much. The main improvement is the detail of character design, the texture of character design is now finer, otherwise it is pretty much the same as before. One thing worth mentioning is that KOEI managed to make some of the characters appearance really memorable this time.

Sound:

Personally, I've always love the soundtracks of Dynasty warriors games. Dynasty warriros 6 retains its trademark heavy metal soundtracks, mixed with hints of traditional Chinese music. Where else would you play a game about historical Chinese wars but with heavy metal music in the background? If this doesn't sound cool to you then you don't have a personality!

Concluding remarks:

Dynasty warriors 6 is pretty much the same as all the previous Dynasty warriors, with slightly improved graphics and slightly different gameplay. If you played one you've played them all. While it is not great or definitely not original, it is entertaining playing with your friend in co-op mode. Otherwise, everything about it is pretty average if you are going to play by yourself.

Rating:

Story: 5/10
Gameplay: 6/10
Graphics: 6/10
Sound: 8/10
Moral content: 8/10
Language: no coarse language at all
Sex/sexual references: very minor (almost non-existent)

Overall rating: 6/10