X-Men Origins Wolverine: Game Review

It's that time again. Yep, I have completed another game that was out years ago!

I decided to play X-Men Origins: Wolverine, and I have to say, it is a very good game. I enjoyed it anyway. The graphics are really good, seeing Wolverine taking damage down to his skeleton and then regenerating is pretty cool, and there is gore galore! The first level, easing you in with a tutorial like structure sets the pace with Wolverine dismembering and slicing up opponents and decapitating a helicopter pilot with the chopper's own blades. Yep, as soon as I played the first level, I knew I was going to like it.

The narrative starts off in the future hinting at the 'Days of Future Past' storyline, which I couldnt wait to play. But before we get ahead of ourselves, we play through Wolverine's past and present. If you have seen the movie, these scenarios are the Amazon jungle type setting fighting mercenaries and mutant statues...weird. And then Wolverine's present is in government compounds in search of alkali lake and finding the root of the Weapon X experiment, fining Stryker to right the wrongs done to you. Like I said, if you have seen the movie, you kind of get the idea.

That's not to say the game is like the movie as it builds upon these scenes much more so it doesn't even feel like it's a game of the movie except for the occasional cutscene that reminds you of certain set pieces from the movie, like the Wolverine Vs Sabretooth fight, and the Wolverine getting his bones adamantium...ized for example. It's all good fun with boss battles like most adventure hack n slash games.

It certainly had enough to keep me interested, including a level up system, collectibles and different costumes. The game is relatively easy, however, the dog tag collectibles, 95 in total in the game...I managed 94 and have no idea where the last one is, with no hints or tracking system to know how many are in certain levels etc. Annoying. But the different costumes are great if you ever get bored of looking at Hugh Jackman. Just feels right playing as the classic yellow spandex Wolverine.

The achievements are all quite relatively easy to capture and playing through once I managed around 45 out of 50. You do unlock hard mode with a achievement to follow if you complete it, but beware, collect everything in normal first, as otherwise starting again on hard will wipe all your statistics.

Oh, and the part of the 'Days of Future Past'? It's a lie. Just when you think you are about to play that level, the game ends. I was pretty disappointed by that since no sequel has been announced, probably until the next movie which is a shame, as I think this game is so much more fun than the film and rightfully stands alone as one of Marvel's best computer games.

4/5

Spectacular Spider-Man

You may remember I posted a sketch of this last year. Finally got around to colouring it in.

Piccolo

Final DBZ fanart for a while...promise...

Devil May Cry 4 Review

So next up in my long list of games years old that have never been played is Devil May Cry 4. I remember I played it on the PS2 and had great fun. Crazy sword and gun combos, big bosses, it was a cool game when you are a teenager, so here I was hoping it would live up to that madness.

And it does. Although, my memory must be hazy as I must have only played the 1st Devil May Cry, as I had no clue what was really going on. To make matters worse, you don't even start the game off with Dante, who is introduced as an antagonist to our new hero...Nero. A Dante clone who has a demon arm. It all reminded me abit of Enchanted Arms on the Xbox...but mainly because I completed that game not long ago either.

While I started off detesting this new, emo version of Dante, I did grow to like him. He had cool combos and moves when I finally got going. The game is just as crazy, with the boss battles bigger and badder than ever. Athough it seemed alot easier than I remembered. No real thought needs to go into beating them. There are quite a lot of cut scenes too, to my surprise. Well polished for its time as an early next gen title, but the voice acting is a little hammy.

When you finally get to play as Dante, you basically repeat the levels already visited by Nero, including some boss battles, which made me feel cheated and uninspired. First getting to grips with Dante, I did miss Nero's moves. But then as you level up and get accustomed to him, I think he is more powerful. Although just when you get the hang of things kicking ass, you switch back to Nero for the final chapters.

Its an enjoyable arcadey game that doesnt take all too long to complete. I cant remember the exact time, but it was around 10-14 hours I would say at the very most. Although there is a lot more to unlock and achievements to gain, with it impossible to unlock everything playing it once. However I don't intend on visiting the game again any time soon just to play it on hard, ridiculously hard and finally 'one hit and you die' hard. Not now anyway. I got more ridiculously old games to try completing before the next xbox console comes out....

Rating : 3 / 5

Its fun, but a little lightweight and repetitive, and yet to get the most out of it, you have to complete it numerous times.

Naruto

Very quick, didnt finish.

Goku Revisited

Finished up that lunchtime sketch.

Goku

Drew up a quick Goku sketch during my lunch break in work. Probably spent about 10 minutes on it.

Thor Movie Review

Finally got around to seeing Thor on the bank holiday in glorious, revolutionary 2D! Well, with it being made 3D in post-production, I thought it would be a waste of money, and usually dulls the colour and detail making it a bit blurry anyway.

So Thor may not be the most well known superhero to Joe Public. Thor isn't really a comic favourite of mine and I personally enjoy seeing him as part of a team, and with the Avengers movie lined up in 2012, you would be mistaken in thinking this is a cheap rushed movie to get audiences aware of the character before the huge marvel movie event next year.

Thor deserves to stand alone in it's own right as a good marvel film. It sets up it's own unique universe and feels like it's own movie. There are nods to the marvel universe, but it doesn't feel as heavily drilled down the throats of an Avengers prequel as Iron Man 2 was.

Asgard looks great and so are the effects. Well I wasn't first convinced with Thor's costume in the promo pictures, it works in the film. Chris Hemsworth makes a good Thor, and Tom Hiddleston is a good Loki. It does seem odd why he auditioned for the part of Thor though, but in general the cast are good. I thought Natalie Portman would be distracting and out of place in a movie like this, but she had a character with substance and fitted in well.

Thor has everything to make it a blockbuster success. A good looking cast, big hollywood names, big special effects, action galore, very funny moments, and finally a heart. It feels like a Marvel movie, and while I am unsure whether Thor will personally get a sequel, I can't wait to see him in the Avengers.

Rating 4 / 5