Jumat, 29 Januari 2010

The final fight of the Dark Tournament


Here's my review of the manga YuYu Hakusho Volume 12. Caution: this review has plenty of spoilers. If you hate spoilers, then better skip this post.

I will keep this review simple and short. The first chapter for this volume shows the result for the previous fight (continued from Volume 11) between Kuwabara and Elder Toguro. Elder Toguro has a unique ability with his body but Kuwabara has a few tricks up his sleeves as well. But will he be able to defeat Elder Toguro?

Then after the fight between Kuwabara and Elder Toguro, Sakio steps up on the arena and announces that he bets on his life that the younger Toguro will win in the next fight, which will be the final fight in the Dark Tournament, between younger Toguro and Yuusuke. This means that whoever win in the final round, his team would also win the Dark Tournament. After Sakio announcement, Koenma also bets on his life that Yuusuke would win in the final round.

And so the final round begins. The fight took about 3/4 out of the total pages of the volume, and it did not even finish yet! The result will only be revealed in Volume 13. There is also a flashback showing Genkai and Yuusuke at the start of their training, and what Genkai did to increase Yuusuke's strength.

A lot of damages, blood, and lost of lives (among the devil spectators of course) involved. Yuusuke is obviously overwhelmed by Toguro's powerful attacks. Can he beat that monster? Oh, wait, one main character is killed too (gasp!). But do not worry, all will be revealed in Volume 13.

Until the next review, take care!

Sabtu, 23 Januari 2010

Final Fantasy XIII...the international trailer






















































These are all screenshots from the international trailer of Final Fantasy XIII. Pretty awesome right? The video game had already been released in Japan in December 2009 and will be released in the US in March 2010. You can watch the trailer via IGN. Just click here to go there.

Looks to be an amazing game. Great job Square-Enix! (I hope I'm not congratulating them too soon)

Jumat, 22 Januari 2010

The toys are back!

I'm loving this.

Toy Story 3 is coming out in June 2010. We get to see Woody, Buzz, Rex, Mr. Potato Head and all the other toys again. Hoorrayyy!!!

Check out the trailer I've uploaded below. Buzz acts sooo funny. I think I like him better malfunctioned. Haha! Enjoy!

The trailer courtesy of IGN.


Selasa, 19 Januari 2010

Funny quotes!

OMG, this guy is really funny! You guys have to follow this blog. Caution though, it's not suitable for minor. Here's the link.

Sleep Talkin' Man

Enjoy! I surely did.

Kingdom Hearts ~ Friendship across worlds


I have mixed feelings when I played this game. But before that, let me introduce it first. Kingdom Hearts is a popular and commercially successful video game developed and published by Square-Enix. The video game, a collaboration between Square-Enix and Disney, received rave reviews and sold millions of copies worldwide.



The story goes like this. Sora, the main protagonist, is a 14-year-old boy who longs to go on an adventure, travel from one place to another with his 2 best friends, Riku and Kairi. One bizarre night, he was attacked by shadow creatures, known as the Heartless, and was swept away to another world, called Traverse Town. He met Donald and Goofy there, desperately looking for a key wielder that will lead them to the missing King Mickey. Realizing that he was the key wielder, the one wielding the Keyblade, he made a pact with Donald and Goofy and travel from one world to another looking for King Mickey, Riku and Kairi.



Good things first. The plot of the game is very interesting for me and I was very excited to find out how things would turn out. The story is very engaging and sometimes can be very heartwarming. I love everytime a cutscene being played as it was beautiful visually. For me, the opening scene is definitely the best. The voice acting was good too. If you didn't know already, some of the talents behind the voices for the English version are Haley Joel Osment (The Sixth Sense), Hayden Panettiere (TV series Heroes), David Gallanger (TV series 7th Heaven), Billy Zane (Titanic) and Lance Bass ('N Sync).


The gameplay, although confusing and not-so-interesting at first (for me at least), turn out to be very addictive. Players can also play many other mini games / side quests placed throughout the game. Visually stunning, the characters from two different mediums, Final Fantasy games and Disney films, also blend beautifully together, which was very surprising to me. This makes Kingdom Hearts even more special and unique compared to other video games. Oh, I forgot to mention about the background music. They were really good and very suitable with the different worlds they were set in. My favourite music were the ones in the world of Monstro and Halloween Town.

Now for the bad things. I was very frustrated with the Gummi ships section. I didn't even bother to design my own Gummi ship and used the one I was provided with throughout the entire game. It's not like I didn't try, I did made several attempts to build one based on the blueprint but it was too confusing. I rather focus on the story than this ridiculous side quest.


I have problems with the opening section of the game too. For me, it was too childish. I felt like I was playing The Little Mermaid or Lilo & Stitch the game. Not that it wasn't interesting, but unlike those two video games that I had mentioned, Kingdom Hearts were targeted for kids AND adults alike (eerr...at least that's what I think, correct me if I'm wrong). If it was targeted only for kids, then I wouldn't have mind.

I was also very disappointed with the ending. Yes, I understand they want to build excitement for the sequel but I think they hold back too much. I need more details and longer ending scenes. I was so looking forward to find out how it would end and I got a very disappointing ending. Bummer.

Nevertheless, Kingdom Hearts is a very entertaining game. I would not say that it's one of the best that I've had played before, but it was definitely fun and addictive. I've spent more than 50 hours on it and looking forward to play the sequels. Cheers to Square-Enix and Disney!

*Images courtesy of IGN and Wikipedia.

Jumat, 15 Januari 2010

Cute dragon

Mmm...from the creators of Shrek and Kung Fu Panda eh? I thought the movie was based on a children novel? Anyway, I found the design for the dragon to be cute and cool, and it looks beautiful when it flies. Hopefully the story would be good too.

Here's the trailer for How To Train Your Dragon, scheduled to be released in March 2010 in the US, courtesy of IGN. Enjoy!


Rabu, 06 Januari 2010

What's opening in Malaysian cinemas this week?

A lot of interesting movies are being shown in Malaysian cinemas now, quite the opposite from the US where January usually would be a slow season for Hollywood movies. This in part due to our shores receiving movies that had already been released a few months back in the US, and also because we receive movies from our neighboring Asian countries as well. Cirque du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant had just been released on December 31, 2009. We also have the great Avatar conquering movie theaters here in Malaysia as well, the local Malay movie Duhai Si Pari-Pari, the popular Hong Kong-comic-based movie The Storm Warriors, and also the last movie that starred Heath Ledger, The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus, released on the first day of the year 2010.

Quite a selection to pick from, and I didn't even mention a few others more. But what interesting movies opening in Malaysian cinemas this week?



Carriers

Another late-released movie. Never mind, at least it got here. Carriers, starring Lou Taylor Pucci, Star Trek hearthrob Chris Pine, Coyote Ugly beauty Piper Perabo, and Emily VanCamp, was released in the US back in September 2009. Set in a world of a viral pandemic outbreak, it chronicles the journey of four young adults in surviving the outbreak. The infected looks like they are turning into zombies, I bet my sister would love to see this movie. She's all about zombies...scary.



Paranormal Activity

Oh yes, the movie that created quite a buzz last year. Finally it will arrive in Malaysian cinemas tomorrow. This independent horror film had made a lot of money and considering its low budget, that's a huge amount of profits! I can't wait to see how it would perform in Asian markets.


Ju-on: White Ghost and Black Ghost

This is an interesting release. I had never heard about it before. It was actually two different horror movies that had been simultaneously released on June 2009 in Japan to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the Ju-on series. It will be released in Malaysia tomorrow, December 7, 2009. It had been awhile since I last saw a Japanese horror film, this would be a great opportunity to do so. Hopefully it's a good movie.

I'm planning to go watch a movie with friends this Saturday but I can't decide which one would I watch. I have not yet watch quite a lot of them, so I have a lot of options. This is good! Have a great weekend everyone!

Selasa, 05 Januari 2010

New resolution for a new year

I've been gone for quite a while but I'm back now. It's already the fifth day in 2010 and I'm aiming to build myself to be a better person attitude-wise and career-wise. Hopefully I will have a better year in 2010 after a bad tumbling year of 2009.