Left 4 Dead

The multilayer experience of the year. Moving in as a team clearing rooms full of zombies, and trying to survive as a unit. Filled with suspense, action and drama! A game that gives you a full movie experience. This is the only game i can enjoy listening and telling stories of past experiences.

This is one of the moments that happened last week.
We were at the end of the level and the boat came to rescue us. As we all climbed the boat my friend was pulled down into the water by the zombie horde. He yelled " Leave me! Save your selves!!!" and just as i started to respect his "wishes" the 3rd player jumps into the water yelling "Never! we are a team! and we won't leave you!" He started shooting the zombies but with time he was also overwhelmed by the zombies. After witnessing that I started clearing the area with my trusty pistol and jumped in after them yelling "I'll save you guys!". So after I jump in and start helping them up and entire zombie army starts running towards us. And thats where I threw my friend onto the floor and hit the deck. As I ran to the boat, the zombies kept grabbing me and pulling me down. But I kept shoving them away and shooting them down. Finally as i crawled inch by inch to the boat I finally made it with only 5 health points left. As the boat sailed away, I shouted to my fallen comrades "your death will always be remembered!"

Saudi Independent Film: Ibrahim's Family

The film starts with the worst graphics ever that have been created by man. They are SO TERRIBLY BAD that i thought that the editor was sub human, I honestly believe that there are some spices of chimps that are more talented at graphics. The one positive aspect of such bad Directing was that it made me laugh uncontrollably for a full 5 minutes, I was so loud that I'm sure I've annoyed not only the people sitting next to me, but at least everyone within a 20 meter radius.

A problem with hiring the worst director on Earth is that you end up with the worst acting on Earth. The acting was so bad that I was screaming from the inside. The casting director must have been thinking of the wrong movie when he was on the job, because the entire cast look like they have been auditioning as extras to play the part of the Baboons for The Planet of the Apes!
Worst of all the director never prevented the disgustingly ugly actors from looking at the camera every 2 minutes.

Last Thoughts: A horrible film, somehow not the worst film of all time, but close!

Score: 1.0 (Out of Ten)

I Am Legend

Let’s start with the legend surrounding the movie I am Legend. The film is based on a book with the same name, and the same concept. Our Robert Nebbal (Will Smith) is alone in a world filled with man eating zombies, or where they vampires? He lives alone with his dog and is apparently the last man on earth. He struggles to find a cure and live a desolate life. With that concept it must be very difficult to pull off an action packed movie on the big screen. So how does it fare up? In my honest opinion? It falls flat on its face. The action sequences are so drawn out and pointless that I kept wondering, when this movie will end. Smith had a very difficult role to play.

Our Nebbal is on the borderline of Genius and Insanity, and has an issue with talking to manikins. Since he’s left on the most part as the only character on the screen, there basically isn’t any character development. As for the scenes when Nebbal talks to the manikins and pretends that they are real people, it just lives you feeling awarded and emotionless. I still don’t know what emotions the director was trying to draw out of the audience.
The departure from the book’s concept of vampires and into strange zombies had me puzzled. There is no explanation for why the zombies don’t attack each other, or why they die when they are exposed to sun light.

The only scenes that I enjoyed, where when we see New York City deserted. But as soon as I started to like them they were spoiled with the poorly animated car and animals running around the city.
Last words:
Overall it was a disappointing experience. I was consumed by the hype and I had great expectations for I am Legend.

Score: 3 (out of 10)

Saudi Independent Film: Elal Al Asar (the rise in prises)

A low budget attempt of a film that tries to connect to the audience on a issue that effects all the Saudis. Unfortunately its budget was so low, plot so pointless and acting so useless that it's painful to watch. Lucky for the viewer its super low budget had the film end at a great 2 minutes so all your suffering ends quickly.

Saudi Independent Film: Cob webs

Cobwebs
A well written, well directed suprise of a good film. The special effects alone are a far step ahead of any other Saudi film ever made. The interesting plot with its drama is well paced and had a great comedic aspect that kept the audience awake with its funny set peice jokes. Short, fun, intreasting A gem in Jeddah's film festival.

Saudi Independent Film: Entema

Entema
A film not even fit enough to be broadcasted in prisons, since it breaks the rules of human rights with cruel and unusual punishment! A terrible film with no narration and no acting, just random boring footage of animals and people.

Saudi Independent Film: Hera

Hera
A boring slow paced film so bad that it made me think that the camera operator's were a bunch of specially trained monkeys, trained by horrible untalented Egyptian film makers.
One of the worst aspects of the film are all the one angle shots that were so low quality that it must have been with the cheapest crappiest handy cam one can find in the market.

The wet substance that was streaming down my cheeks was not tears from an emotional story, but i came to conclude that it must have been blood! Blood that was streaming out of my eye balls educed by the horribly bad lighting and the colors that were bleeding into each other!
Fortunately for my ears I managed to sneak in a pair of ear plugs that protected them from the awful sound recording and terrible sound design.
One word of advice to the film makers, BUY A MICROPHONE!

Naruto: Narultimate Hero

Naruto: Narultimate Hero

Platform:PS2

Publisher: Bandai

Developer: Bandai

This new fighting game is based on the hit Japanese anime Naruto. With a cast of 12 characters from the show, you pick one and start your one on one ninja battle. For fans of the show, and for others who never watched it; the game is very addictive and fun to pick up and play. When playing the game you have the option to pull of a "Super Move". If say your "Chakara" (Magic ninja power) is full, you can pull off 1 level 3 attack, or 3 level 1 attacks, and so on. You will watch a super move being executed and you have to press the corresponding buttons to make it even more powerful. The game is similar in style to the Game Cube's Smash Bros. but with that anime touch. The graphics are impressive; the whole game is in 3D but gives you that 2D feel. You will find yourself zipping all around the level collecting items as you doge your friend's attacks. The game has a decent story mode that will keep you in so you can unlock all the characters. The one flaw I noticed is that some of the characters voices are a bit off, they could have easily improved on that. This game will make you throw away your Soul Caliber or your Winning Eleven, and have you challenging your friends for a long time.

Score 9.2 (Out of 10)

Final Fantasy X2

Final Fantasy X2

Platform: PS2

Publisher: Square Eniex

Developer: Square Eniex

As promised the full review of Final Fantasy X2 is here. With all the major fans of Final Fantasy this game might turn up to be a disappointment to most of them. But even so this game is an ok RPG. The story goes like this, Yuna joins Rikku's team of Albed to search for the missing main character of the previous game Tidus. A new addition to the party is the strong but slow character Pa'ne. You search for Tidus by going on missions to find "Spheres" that might contain some info on his whereabouts. . Since you are searching for Tidus you will cover most of the areas that have been explored in the first game. I got the feeling every once in a while "Was I here before?" so that's a cheap way to have most of the levels back and have few new levels. You will meet your old party members around sphera (The world that they live in) but they will be too busy to help you on your quest. The new sphere grid system gives you an interesting battle mode. You start off with Normal, Dance, Strong, and Thief. For example if I choose dance, you can dance your enemies to be blind and not be able to hit you, or choose to be thief who is quick but weak with additional ability to steal your foes items. As you play on each stance gets new abilities and you can unlock new styles altogether. The graphics are showing its age now since it is based on the first game, so the game is not that pretty. The game will only appeal to the super Final Fantasy fans, or girls who are interested in that kind of game. Even though it is not my type of game, square should have done a better job at developing it.

Score: 4.5 (Out of Ten)

SNK Vs. Capcom: SVC Chaos

SNK Vs. Capcom: SVC Chaos

Platform: PS2

Developer: SNK

Publisher: SNK

When it comes to 2D fighting games, nobody fights more than the fans of Capcom with the fans of SNK. The latest installment in the series of the SVC (SNK Vs. Capcom) or CVS (Capcom Vs. SNK) series is developed by SNK instead of Capcom. This piece of news is most appreciated by the fans of SNK games because they keep on complaining that the SNK characters were too weak in the previous CVS games. Unlike the first game where you have a selection of "grooves" to choose from SNK just choose one fighting style and it is applied to all the characters. When it comes to this one fighting style SNK made two big changes in the way it works. First change in the game is that the characters cannot roll anymore, and the second change is that the characters cannot do an air block anymore. The actual fighting is fun at first, but the game play is not as deep as the Capcom games, and the game requires you to be a very offensive fighter, so no blocking or the other guy is gonna pull off a level 3 super move and you will be well... knocked out. The graphics seem to have taken a turn for the worse as this game is actually a part of the Neo Geo game, but still SNK fans will stick to it like glue. The way the characters move and the background are really bad to look at. But one of the worst aspects of the game is the music. Some of the tunes still loop in my head over and over as I scream insanely. My cell phone can pull off better music than the in game tunes.

The game will probably turn away people who care about graphics and music. If you are not an SNK fan, stay away from this game becasue you will hate all the 2D fighting games if this game is your first experience with a 2D fighter. If any SNK fans are reading this, here is a question for you, "Why do you play this game?" Please SNK fans, don't try to stalk me and beat me up.

The Score: 2.1 (out of 10)

Blood the Last Vampire

Blood the Last Vampire
Anime Review

If you have a nice TV screen, and a booming sound system then this anime is a can't miss. Blood the Last Vampire uses a mix of traditional hand drawn anime, with the special effects of computers added to it. The result is excellent, all the characters are drawn with normal 2D anime, but some times the cars or planes and even the environment are in 3D graphics. This leads to one of the anime's bigger problems, its length. I would argue that since the anime is so good, if it ended in less than an hour that would be a bad thing. The total length of the film is 40 minutes, but while watching it you can swear that it's only 20 minutes long. Just when you think that the anime just started it ends. This probably comes about due to the lack of many fight scenes. Excluding the end (which itself is also pretty short) the fighting is too realistic, one slash and your dead, the fights don't have momentum to build upon. But still even after watching it 8 times I still don't mind watching it again to see that samurai sword in action. The main character of the anime remains surrounded in a cloud of mystery, you are only fed a bit of info at the very end of the film. Even though you can get more story development out of the Manga, the anime should have been longer and should have included a better plot. At this length it seems like an episode of a series instead of an movie, the developers probably want you to read the Manga. The agents in the film don't play a major role, they seem to be working along with the main character but have no control over her. This in turn makes character development even more difficult.

With lots of blood being spilt the anime really kicks in with the fun factor. If you have a surround sound system, don't be afraid to turn it up, coz that's the way it's supposed to be watched. An overall good anime, but will leave you wanting more. Total score 8.1

PS2 Game Review - Medal of Honor Rising Sun

PS2 Game Review - Medal of Honor Rising Sun

Publisher: EA Games

Developer: EA Games

As most of you readers know, this latest installment of "Medal of Honor" doesn't include angry Nazis. Instead of fighting Germans "Medal of Honor: Rising Sun" puts you up against the "Japanese War Machine" set in 1942. The first mission has you set in a battleship in which your objective is to protect the ship from the Japanese bomber planes. You start shooting at the planes, despite being at disadvantage. As you move on a few minutes later in the game where you have an AA gun, you can take down as many of the planes as you want. In a normal mission at least you would shoot down from 30 to 40 planes, which is really unrealistic. In the actual event only 3 to 4 planes were brought down and they probably crashed due to engine failure. The scene is very familiar to whoever watched the terrible movie "Pearl Harbor". I believe that this game is headed in the same direction as that movie. Now let's get down to business. At first glance the game's graphics may seem ugly, but that is far from true. Ugly cannot even begin to describe how bad this game looks. This game reminds me of playing the previous "Medal of Honor" games on Play Station 1. As far as the controls go, I can say only one thing, at least they are better than "Max Payne" on PS2. That believe me is not saying much, at first person shooter game can only be played on the PC and should never be brought to PS2 or any other system. The absolute worst aspect of the game is the mentally challenged A.I. troops. Chimps at the age of five are better at using their head than the endless streams of mindless Japanese troops who are marching towards their death. At most when you meet the troops, they shout out Japanese phrases for "die!" or "what!" Then go in a predetermined path, whether they are looking at you or not. This may seem biased from a reviewer who watches Japanese anime and plays Japanese games on his PS2 or Game Cube, but nevertheless this game really sucks.This game is a total waste of time don't even bother picking it up.

Total score 1.0

Star Wars Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy

Star Wars Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy

PC Game Review

Publisher: Lucas Arts

Developer: Raven Software

The new Star Wars game for the PC is now available for all the masses to go and buy it. The latest instalment of the Star Wars series makes you wonder, does Lucas Arts have a deal with the devil? All the games they publish hit the screens as great hits. SWJK:JA isn't just a rehash of the last Star Wars game (in some ways). They have kept all the cool Light Saber matches, and instead of playing few levels without a Light Saber, SWJK:JA hands you your cool deadly weapon right from the start. With no moments to spare, you can start off by slashing as many of the imperial forces as they come. And that's where it starts to get a bit dull, since you have a Light Saber you can just slash, and slash, and well slash your opponents to bits. At least there are two factors that help out with this problem. One is you have cool Jedi powers to choose from, Dark and Light. And the second is you get to fight lots of Siths who are as powerful as you, so they can keep the game challenging. The story starts well, you have all the choices to make and eventually choose sides between the Light and the Dark side. You go down your own path and eventually your future will be clouded till the very end. As you complete more missions you can build up your powers. You have the wonderful choice between strong, aggressive Dark powers and defensive, healing Light powers. (Whatever you choose it won't make a difference in the story). Speaking of the story this picks up where the last game left off. You get to meet characters like Luke Skywalker, the hero from the last game, and many of the classic characters from the Star Wars Universe.

This game will keep you for hours on end playing and completing missions just to move forward in the story. Which reminds me, when you play the game, in each chapter there will be 5 levels for you to choose from. Complete 4 and you can move on, or play the last one for fun. This is great and all, but each mission has a big range of difficulty and time to complete. Some missions can be done in 10-15 minutes, but others might keep you on your PC for more that an hour. The most boring missions are the missions that involve you flying or riding something. You just ride and steer with your mouse for a long time.

A well made game, a can't miss for Star Wars fans and for adventure gamers. It has its few flaws to keep it from becoming perfect, but still even though not perfect, it's a pretty damn good game.

Total score 8.7 (out of ten)

Zone of the Enders: Idolo

Zone of the Enders: Idolo
Anime Review

Anime Type: OVA

Genre: Action

Based on the popular game of Zone of the Enders, this anime does well to add to the story. The storyline is set on 2010, that's 25 years before the first ZOE game. At the time Mars is under control of the brutal dictators of Earth. And the rebel group of Mars known as Barahm developed a new weapon to fight Earth, the first Orbital Frame (super strong robot). The story's main character is a LEV pilot who is chosen to fly the new Orbital Frame. Viola is also in the anime, as she is trying to stay close to the main character.

All goes well till the pilot starts acting strange from piloting the Orbital Frame and becomes very aggressive. As he starts losing his mind the story starts to develop and the people from Earth start their plan of attack against Barahm.

The anime's is well drawn when it comes to the people, but the fighting with the Orbital Frames and the Robots could have been improved. The terrain detail of Mars is very plain and at some times very confusing. You watch as the environment includes waterfalls rivers lakes and trees, while the people in Mars have to be locked up in the biospheres. It makes you think they should have paid more attention to what they were doing.

The story itself doesn't pick up momentum till the later half of the anime, they could have added more characters and more character development, but it's ok as it is. Since the later half of the story is very cool and you realize that's what the anime is all about.

The characters are all easy to relate to and the voice acting done on this job is superb in Japanese. I wouldn't know about the English version but I don't recommend anybody watching the anime in English. I always prefer to watch it in its original form with English subtitles.

I consider this anime to be pretty short but leaves you wanting more. You can always go to your PS2 and start playing ZOE the 2nd runner again, or watching the new series of Zone Of Enders.

ZOE is a refreshing anime, and serves well as a good break in-between watching long anime series'.

Total Score: 8.2 (out of ten)

Samurai X: Trust and Betrayal - OVA

Samurai X: Trust and Betrayal - OVA

Anime Review

Genre: Action / Drama

I guess who ever considers himself/herself an anime fan must have at some point watched the famous anime Samurai X (aka Kenshin).

I got a lot of e-mail suggestions to review different anime's but the highest on the list was for anything to do with Kenshin.

For those of you who don't know what the big fuss is all about, I recommend watching the Samurai X T.V. series. It is regarded in many people's opinion as the best anime to be released till now. So now at last we will have a full review for the OVA Samurai X: Trust and Betrayal.

The plot is set during the last years of the Shogun era, in which the Mejji government of Japan came to power. The anime itself is a Prequel to the T.V. series so you will get to see a lot more blood and fights, and an overall change in the theme from comedy/action to serious action/drama.

The anime quality is amazing, the fights and the scenery are unraveled. You will pick your jaw off the floor from the level of anime, but unfortunately as high as it goes it has it's lows. Since this is also a drama it will have many scenes of peace and a slow pace of story.

Those who watch the OVA before watching the T.V. series will miss out on some key plot points, and feel the anime is missing out on character development. But overall the anime is superb and is a must see for those who have seen the T.V. series.

Appearances of characters like Saito or Kenshin's master will have many people giddy if they are fans for the anime.

An overall summery for the anime is as follows:

Taken by slavers when he was a child, Himura Kenshin is rescued only when an encounter with bandits kills off everyone but him. He is found by a master of the Justice School of Swordmanship, a school so deadly that to train in it means death for either the master or student, as there can only be one master. Taken by the master, Kenshin is trained in this school, only to leave before finishing so that he may join the Meiji restoration and help prevent further tragedies like his own. Thus is born the Battousai, the greatest strength of the Ishin Patriots, a boy of 15 who kills for the sake of building a better world. One night, he comes across an older mysterious woman, Tomoe and he must hide when the revolution stumbles. They marry for appearances, but soon fall in love. Tomoe has another reason to be with Kenshin, one she regrets but cannot stop.

The Score: 9.5 out of 10