Tony Stark is the owner of Stark Industries - a technology company manufacturing weapons. Fun loving, flirtatious and not bothered by anything other then work and play. With his good looks, wealth, a right hand man (Obadiah Stane) to assist him in his company, a good friend (Jim Rhodes), a competent assistant (Pepper Potts) to help and plan his everyday life, Tony is practically at the top of the world with nothing to worry about. But all these are about to change when he is captured during his visit to Afghanistan. His captor is the terrorist group known as The Order of the Ten Rings and their motive is to force Tony to build them the missile he demonstrated earlier on. Tony is reluctant but agrees as he has a plan in mind. With the help of another captive (Yinsen), they use the materials provided by the terrorists to create a powerful armored suit. During their escape, Yinsen sacrifice himself and Tony managed to run away. After what he has seen and experienced, Tony realize what he has been doing in the past is not helping the world but destroying it. He decides to close down his company and devote all his time to work on an improved version of the suit. One day, he finds out that Obadiah is in fact a traitor who has been selling their weapons to the terrorists and he is also the one who ordered for the capturing and killing of Tony. On the other hand, Obadiah finds out about the suit that Tony created. Using underhand methods, Obadiah makes a bigger and more powerful suit to kill Tony and after that, make a profit from selling this new technology. Tony, Pepper and Jim has to work hand in hand to save themselves and the world from destruction.

I normally don't appreciate movie about Marvel heroes very much but when I watched Ironman, I went "wow..." Unlike other Marvel heroes, Ironman is more realistic. He is not a product of mutation but a rather normal man who gains power through the help of technology. And talking about technology, I was truly amazed by the futuristic gadgets showcased in the movie. I supposed they are all made up and the artificial intelligence is too intelligent to be true but the ideas are great and who knows, all of them might be realized in future. Robert Downey Jr. fits the role perfectly and it's hard not to be charmed by him. The moments of him with his personal AL is really funny and to tell the truth, I kind of look forward to these scenes.

I give Ironman 8.5 upon 10.

Labels: Movie Reviews

Your ultimate aim is to save Haven City from bugs. And your main weapon is a flyswatter. Sounds childish? Perhaps, but this game is really entertaining. There's plenty of things for you to do in Daxter, which involoves puzzle solving, fights, collection of items, riding, jumping+flying around and mini games. As you progress, you get an insecticide sprayer that will have two upgrades later on. This sprayer can also be used to hover in the air to bring you up to areas which you cannot reach by jumping.

Very colorful and pretty surroundings. It might take awhile for you to complete 100% of the game. For my case, I did not try the minigames so i can't really comment on them. But from what I know, to unlock the minigames, you need to collect certain amount of orbs. And if you complete the challenge, you get certain upgrades like your health meter. If I have any issue about this game, it would be the controls.

I give Daxter 7.8 upon 10.

Labels: Game Reviews

In Harry Potter And The Order Of The Phoenix, your main task is to find students to form the Dumbledore's Army. Along the way, you will get side missions to complete so as to proceed in the game and gain popularity among the students. Sounds simple? Well, the tasks are not exactly difficult or challenging but they are very frustrating as you need to run round and round Hogwarts so many times, you get sick of it.

Your wand is your only weapon but the fights are nothing worth looking forward to. All the fights, even the final one with Voldemort is unbelievably simple. Unlike the previous HP games which only requires you to use a single or simple combination of buttons to cast a spell, in The Order Of The Phoenix, you need to remember the different buttons to press in order to cast the correct spell and it takes a bit of time to learn, coordinate and remember.

Ron and Hermione are most of the time beside you, helping you with your tasks. Always blocking your way and nagging you on your missions, sometimes I feel that they are more of a nuisance.

Talking about nuisance, the glitches frustrates me the most. Some of the ones I encountered:
I entered a room and for no reason, the screen went blank and I need to restart my game.
There is a mission that requires me to locate Zachary Smith in the library who will ask me to find the monster book for him. In order to enter the library, you need to gain enough popularity to do so. There are 2 methods to gain popularity. First is to remove the daily prophets dispersed around the school and the second method is to help the students complete certain tasks. What you should do is to NOT remove the daily prophets first. Instead, complete the students' tasks and when you have gained enough popularity to enter the library, you will automatically be prompted. And when that happens, you can then find Zachary Smith in the library. If you have done otherwise (gain enough popularity by removing the daily prophets), you will not find Zachary Smith and if you can't find him, there is no way you can complete this game.

Another thing I don't like about this game is how stiff the characters are. They move like zombies and when Harry is holding his wand, he moves sideways like a crab...He can't jump and you will find his movement very unnatural. The image is rather jerky also.

The camera angle irritates me too. One moment when you are pushing the analog stick to your right, the charcter is moving in that direction but the next moment, the charcter could be moving in the opposite direction.

Of course, this game has it's good points. The campus is huge, grand and magnificent. It is so huge that in order to know where you are going, you need to use the marauder's map. The music is not bad also.

I give Harry Potter And The Order Of The Phoenix 5.3 upon 10.

Labels: Game Reviews