Assassin's Creed : Rogue (PS3)

While the whole world is hating UBISOFT and cursing UNITY, here I am with my sad PS3, contented with what was made for PS3 players like me. AC: Rogue. It was less anticipated compared to Unity, thus making it seemed like an underdog. And guess what? IT WAS AWESOME.

The gameplay is exactly the same as AC : Black Flag, but a few new features were added. For example, in Ship combats, the R2 button was added as Swivel shots with manual aiming. Also, the enemies are stronger and since the protagonist is a Templar, the Eagle Vision is not only used to spy on soon to be visible enemies, but also Assassins that are stalking you hiding in bushes and closets. It's basically the opposite of Black Flag using the same controllers concept.

We continue the modern day in Abstergo's Animus using the deceased Desmond's DNA to obtain memory fragments from history.  The main character is Shay Patrick Cormac who started as an assassin trained by Achilles (whom was Connor's mentor in AC3), a hot woman named Hope and some Ah Tabai lookalike named Kaasagawe (sp?). Other cameos include Adewale from Black Flag and Haytham Kenway from AC3 (who turned to be the one who made Shay a Templar Knight).

As confused you are on the title : Rogue, the game would make you understand why Shay turned his back against his Assassin brothers without making you blame him or them. It was during one of his big missions, where he realised that the Assassins are no better than Templars, wanting absolute power without caring who gets killed for it. After retrieving a Manuscript for the "Tree of Eden" in a church, a deadly earthquake occurred in Lisbon killing thousands and he was overwhelmed with anger and guilt, and begin his journey as a rogue Assassin as he joined the Templars' side.

Just like other AC games, you find yourself deeply involved with the characters and saddened by the deaths of Shay's former allies as he had no choice but to assassinate them one by one. The storyline was very moving, creating a neutral perspective between the Templars and Assassins.

In the end, Shay managed to save Achiles from being killed by Haytham. Although Haytham shot Achille's leg anyway to make sure he stays crippled. Hence, the reason why he was reluctant to train Connor in AC3. Shay also killed Charles Dorian in hunt for an artefact, an assignment by Haytham he agreed to. Charles Dorian is the father of Unity protagonist, Arno.

Assassin's Creed : Rogue is the Prequel to Assassin's Creed III and AC: Unity and the Sequel to Assassin's Creed IV : Black Flag. The storyline is neatly organised and would fill in the blank spaces left by the former games.

Of course, in the modern day, it was revealed (as we expected) that Abstergo is actually another name for Templars.

Overall, I give this game a 9/10. I would play it again, this time with side missions as well.

Gamerly,
Ms Anne

The Pyramid (film)

I actually watched this movie last Thursday. Just remembered to write a review before I forget about it. Okay so yeah, it was advertised as a horror flick and me, being the horror addict persuaded my boyfriend to go watch it, regardless of his reluctance towards movies like this.

Firstly, the movie is a mix of the standard unedited documentary style with some normal played cameras every now and then.

The trailer seemed good, which drew me into wanting to watch it in the first place, but trust me, the movie is NOTHING like what they trailed you.

It's been a while since they last made movies like this. Usually it's the typical "surprise" elements of supernatural beings popping up here and there making up an entire 'horror' movie. The Pyramid is full of suspense and surprises without the boom bang sound effects. And as you expect there to be mummies walking all over the tunnels, your brain fails you as the villain of the movie is not what you thought it would be.

Of course, the standard blonde girl cliche is included. The persuasive "hey let's go into the pyramid..." speech when nobody else wanted to go in, but went in anyway, and they all turned out gruesomely dead except her because she's cute and wears hot pants.

[SPOILER ALERT]

So the 'ghosts' mummies you expected turned out to be monsters. Deep under the 3 sided pyramid lay generations of sphinx cats (which makes you reconsider about having one just for the value) and a hell yeah 'literally' Anubis. I'm telling ya LITERALLY ANUBIS. Not in a mask, but the half human-half jackal himself! So he went out killing these people and letting his cats eat em. Okay enough spoilers.

This movie would make you go through your dusty old encyclopedias to read all you can about pyramids and their ancient history! I'm telling you that is exactly what I did! Although the Anubis reference was kind of unreal and fake, but the movie is worth watching.

Overall I would give this a 7.5/10. Better than Mockingly Part 1 which I am too lazy to review.

Anciently,
Ms Anne.

Ouija (Film)

First of all, before I began my review, you have to know what "ouija" means. Ouija is a board with letters and numbers arranged on it, including the terms "YES", "NO" and "Goodbye, used to communicate with spirits or ghosts. The rules of playing the ouija board according to the movie are as follows :
1. Do NOT play alone
2. Do NOT treat it like a game.
3. Always end it with Goodbye.

Because it's October, the month of Haloween, cinemas around the world are being spammed with horror movies. OUIJA seemed interesting to me, having just watched Annabelle and was fairly disappointed with it. 

As the title had already pretty much gave away the plot, the story revolves around 5 friends who got themselves into a ouija drama after their best friend, Debbie died due to playing with it alone. Supposedly she conjured an evil spirit named "DV" who started haunting and possessing her, leading to her suicide. 

The main protagonist, Laine, stupidly and obsessively wanted to know more about Debbie's suicide and decided to include her other 4 friends into conducting a few Ouija sessions to communicate with the dead Debbie. Of course, like any other horror movie, they managed to conjure the bad ghosts. The spirit, known as Doris Velor (or something like that) appeared with a stiched mouth in a few boos and bahhs moments (yes, cue the annoying sound effects) and began haunting the teens, killing them off one by one. (Cliche, yes...) It seemed like the ghost's mother was made of pure evil.

After her friends started dying, obviously because of her personal selfish obsession, Laine panically started looking for solutions to end the hauntings. She met DV's mentally ill sister who was put in an asylum due to murdering their mother (supposedly she was practising dark magic and used Doris as a vessel to keep the bad spirits) and told her to remove the stitching from the mouth of DV's corpse to stop their supposedly evil mother from terrorising the teens.

So the stupid Laine did as told and of course, the movie had its twisted plot. You can predict how it goes from here.

Overall, I'd give it an 7/10 for the sound effects and creepiness of the ghost appearances. But, the storyline was a true repetition of ALL the horror stories we have already seen. They could have focused more on the history of the ouija and place a better ending.

And finally, What's with the newspaper cuttings? Seriously movie writers have got to find other ways to flashback the past besides the usual "finding old newspaper cuttings in old boxes". Like seriously, who keeps these articles with the evidence together in a box?!

Ghostly,

Ms Anne.

BEYOND : Two Souls (PS3)

Coming soon ;)

Assassin's Creed IV : Black Flag (PS3 Game)

TOTALLY AWESOME...!!!

I was never a real AC fan, hell I didn't even know what the whole Creed was about. Never cared for, never bothered to know. Until my brother bought this one. It brought my gaming skills and actual interest to another level. A good level.

At first it seemed like the typical PS3 RPG game plays. Missions, kill, combat, climb, side missions etc... But with a purpose! It also helped that Welsh born Edward, the protagonist of the game kinda looks like Gareth Bale, so I got that working for me. 2 hours into the game and I got hitched. The missions had an objective and the story progress was damn awesome.

What made this more enjoyable is the option to take breaks between main missions to go hunting, sail, find collectibles, finish contracts, upgrade yourself or your ships and more... Also, despite the fact that you want to "blend in" with the normal people while wearing a creepy assassin hoodie, the actions were easy and various, giving you the chance to kill people with whatever artistic ways you're in the mood with. And trust me, I enjoy ninja assassinating the templar guards for no reasons at all...!

The mission for the Animus player, myself is to unravel a conspiracy between high-ranking Templars within the British and Spanish empires who, under the guise of cleaning up piracy in the Caribbean, have used their positions to locate the Sage to find some mystic device that can see through people's eyes, revealing secrets.

The  Animus story revolves around Edward Kenway who left his wife behind to be a sailor. And after getting attacked at sea, he killed the captain, Duncan Walpole as self defence and took over his life as an assassin. Little did he know the dude was a traitor and had an army, if not two waiting to pounce on him. So Edward progressed, from sailor to captain, bodyguard to assassin... made friends will cool people like Blackbeard, James Kidd (Mary) etc... Got an awesome ship, Jackdaw which I upgraded like a sir, met and killed the Sage, killed templars and won the hearts of the Assassins brotherhood through Ah Tabai, the leader that time.

And just like other AC series I read about, everyone dies. And life goes on...

Gameplay wise, the controls are as simple as any ps3 gaming experience could get. L and R analogs to move around, R1 for free run, actions buttons for random attacks... arrow buttons for changing weapons... L1 for aiming, R1 for shooting... And a whole lot more for ship combats.

So this game opened my mind to accept the AC saga, making me look forward to the next episode, Unity. If they retained the same controls and game play with a few improvements here and there, I might be reviewing this game within months.

Awesome 5 weeks spent on a game. (yes, I am a light gamer) Worth the price.

A true 9.5/10.

Assassinally, 
Ms Anne.

Annabelle (Film)

Hmmm... After watching The Conjuring 3 times in the cinema, plus a few times after it being available for download, you can only imagine how excited I was to hear about the prequel to the movie, Annabelle. It's a movie about a creepy doll, based on a true story but improvised. The doll as shown in the movie poster was supposedly possessed by a demonic ghost and set on a mission to spook the hell out of everyone around it.

Well of course, expectations were set high for the movie since The Conjuring was a true hit for me. You know how difficult it is to see good horror movies these days without the risk of heart attacks from the typical sudden boos and bahhs... Annabelle was kind of a disappointment. It was more like an "INSIDIOUS" type of movie, a little bit unreal and cliche. The storyline was okay, a normal married couple adopted the doll, some cult followers were interested in it. One killed herself (the girl named Annabelle, duh!) while holding it, causing her disturbed spirit to haunt it and thus the name Annabelle was assigned to it. And it didn't want to let go of the doll. Ever.

There were a few scenes which creeped the hell outta me. One of them was the storage scene where a shadowlike entity made things move around in the dark and chased the girl up the stairs, crawling like creepy asian ghosts. But then it ruined it. The demon showed itself. For me, the way it appeared to be a glimpse and shadowy was horrifying, making a lot of hair stand up at the back of my neck. However, the ram-like head with horns and everything immediately took the horror away. The creators need to learn more about how scary ghosts really look like. Not something out of a Charmed episode.

I would give this movie an 8/10. I personally think some improvements should be made especially in the hair and make up department. However... It's still not a movie I would watch alone. The arrangement and environment of the setting was good and gloomy. And it has an interesting storyline which most horror movies lack of. Good Job, James Wan.

Okay now looking forward to The Conjuring 2.

Being Creepy,Ms Anne.

Perfect Sisters (film)

When I saw the poster for this movie, I was kinda excited. Yes!!! A teenage horror flick... It's been a while since they produced one. Well at least that I know of. I saw the poster, I judged... I assumed it was going to be great since it starred the girl from Narnia and the girl from Signs. 

I was kinda disappointed to see the plastic face of Mira Sorvino whom I once thought was one of the most beautiful women on earth. (Romy and Michelle... At first Sight...) Acting wise, she kinda sucked. And I bet most of you wouldn't even recognize who she was. In this movie she plays the alcoholic mother of the two girls. And yes, I also found out that this movie is based on a true story. And so I waited for the "Horror" genre to start its engine.

Again I was disapointed. Scene after scene I waited for anything terrorizing, thrilling or horrifying to happen. Nothing did. It turned out to be just a normal teen flick. It made the remake Carrie 10 times better. And that is saying something. I guess the writers were too obligated to the storybook or true facts to make it dramatic or entertaining. They could have made the murder part a wee bit more gruesome than it turned out.

Okay enough nagativeness. I guess the acting was okay. The girls were sincerely acting out their sisterly love and their whodahell friends were good supporting actors. I just wish less make up were used on Beth as it hid her traditional beauty. Nevertheless, the casting were alright, minus Mira Sorvino.

Storyline wise... Hey at least I managed to finish the whole movie, making it better than Godzilla (2014) for me xD (spoiler alert) It's a movie based on the true story in Canada about two sisters who killed their mom because they wanted the insurance money and to get rid of their mom's abusive boyfriend. In the movie, they made what the girls did a decent thing because they were left with no choice but to murder her as a way out of their miserable life. But I read in reality, they were just troubled girls who hated their own mother for alcoholism and lack of responsibility. (which I think doesn't make much difference since she already behaves like a dead burden to them...) In the end they were arrested and served 10 years prison, seperately. 

What I liked about the movie is the sisterhood bonding between Beth and Sandra. It's something sisters can relate with, maybe understood deeply. They grew up together, they lived together and they got in trouble together. I just wished people would be a little bit human and let them do their time together. They were afterall underaged...

Anyways... That's all I've got to say about the movie. I give it a 5/10 rating.

Gothically,

-Ms Anne-

The Equalizer (film)

First 30 minutes of the movie, I could have sworn I fell asleep to the extent of snoring like a pig. However, after that 30 minutes of "What the hell is this movie about...?" dilemma, I could honestly say this is one of the best action movies I've seen so far. And I have seen a lot. You certainly wouldn't think Denzel could pull a Liam Neeson and made this movie as awesome as it was.

The equalizer is a spoiler within its own title. It's basically a movie about a mr nobody taking justice into his own hands in a kick-ass way. It's a Superhero movie without the costumes and alien invasions. Mr McCall is your Batman without the batmobile and fancy model girlfriends. The 30 minutes slow introduction was certainly worth it for what happens in the next 2 hours.

The producers I heard were the same ones who made Olympus Has Fallen (Starring Gerrard Butler). In Video Games terminology, I would say that the Gameplay is similar between the two movies. Mr McCall actually listens to the audience yelling "Kill that guy! Shoot him! Don't give him a chance! Run! Face him! Kill!" etc... He does em all without mercy. And as psychotic as this may sound, I love the part where (spoiler alert!) he kills this one dude while staring at him directly into his eyes, watching the life shuts down on the man...

Overall, there are many oohs and aahs moments during the whole movie. Not the kind of movie I'd pay to see again, but definitely recommended to you action movie lovers who wants something different that predictable cliches. An 8/10 for me...

Kick ass!
Ms Anne.

Resident Evil 6 (PS3)

There are not many 2-player Action Games (or horror, thriller, whichever) out there so we kinda have limited choice. Resident Evil 6, however is awesome! I'm saying this from the point of view of someone who had never played any previous RE games before, except the one on PS 1 where you need a walkthrough to make sense of anything. RE 6 took me a total of about 20 hours of gameplay for all 3 campaigns (Chris, Leon and Jake) and I have Ada's campaign yet to complete.

Out of all the three campaigns, I have to say that Leon's was the easiest (melee mobs and more puzzles than action) but the best was Jake's. The storyline was interesting and I get to play as Sherry, the hot chick in the game. Also, the ending was cheesy and suits my crazy-romantic personality. Chris's campaign had a sad ending but well, someone has to die and certainly none's heard of Piers so we all knew what would happen to him in the end...

The terrible part of the game however was during the final chapter of Chris and Piers's campaign. The gameplay was annoying as you had to fight against time to escape a BOW accompanied by horrifying changing camera angles. I had a feeling Capcom did that on purpose just to test our patience and determination. Other than that, the controls and weapons were easy peasy... Plus, you get ammo all along your missions, so I got that good thing going for me...

I look forward to the sequel of RE. Hopefully, they would stay with the 2-players concept as playing horror games like this is better with a partner. RE 6 was a gaming experience noob gamers like me would memorably enjoy.

As in stars, I would give a 9.5/10... Good game, Capcom!

Cheers,
Ms Anne.

Maze Runner (film)

Spoiler Alert...

Well this was a cool movie to watch. It's kinda like The Hunger Games. The theme is familiar, you know... typical post-apocalypse scenario... Some agency ruling the world and making experiments with teenagers etc...

Despite all the cliches and predictable who's-gonna-die-next events, I would definitely give this movie a 9/10. I think it's brilliant and full of suspense, and the choice of new faces as the cast was cool. You don't get too many "oh I know that guy from this movie" moments throughout the film.

Of course, viewers would compare the film with the novel no doubt. As for me, the movie was good reason enough to read the book. A few alterations here and there didn't really change the entire storyline unlike Harry Potter 3 (which totally ruined it for me). If you had read the book, which in my case I just started chapter 34... you would notice how they rearranged the plots making it easier to understand because let's face it, you are too lazy to read the book and just wanna rely on what the movie tells you.. 

Look out for Minho, one of the main characters in the movie. Somehow the producers managed to make an Asian dude look so macho and tough instead of the stereotype cowardly nerdish... So yeah, thumbs up for my man Minho.

Overall, this movie is billiant in its own ways. I would definitey want to watch it again, and looking forward of not hope for them to make, the next Maze Runner sequel, The Scorch Trials.

Peace,

Miss Anne

The Opening...

This blog is not really for the public but also, it's not private.

I'm just writing this blog to write in some reviews of everything random in my life so there'll be no specific genre.

It's okay if you don't enjoy or care about it, as i said, for my own purposes only...

Sincerely,
Miss Anne