Hi everyone-who-cares. Just testing out the blog entries in the updated site, I'd like to give some announcements. I plan on making a retrospective of the main games of the Assassin's Creed franchise, since its my favorite game franchise ever and I am considered the resident AC expert. I had no clue why I didn't had this idea before, but I should do it before Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag is released. I will only review the four games in the main series, from the first one until Revelations, barring the third one since I already reviewed it along with my friend @samimista (Check it out here: http://www.comicvine.com/profile/caiotrubat/blog/samimistacaiotrubats-assassins-creed-iii-review/87508/). They also don't include side games like Altair's Chronicles, Discovery, Bloodlines and Liberation. And yes, I will definitely review Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag when it comes out in October 29 (if I am alive by then, that is O_o), since it still available in the current-gen consoles and I will be getting it for my birthday.

I also plan on making a double review with my friend @deadpoolrules, but our subject still a secret (read: we haven't decided just yet what to review) but this one will not take very long I assure you. Well, thank you for reading it and keep your eyes open for what is coming.

I wouldn't write about this, but since the trailer and official details are already out I should share my thoughts about the next Assassin's Creed game. Not even six months since Assassin’s Creed III was released, some rumors circle around about a pirates-themed game named Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag. When the information leaked Ubisoft confirmed it in the following day to be the next installment in the franchise. What we know about it so far.

The year is 1715, and the Atlantic Ocean is awash in drunken, looting pirates. It's here that Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag is set--during an era where the lawless flew their own flags and answered to no nation. Ubisoft claimed that it wants to make “the game every single kid has dreamed of playing,” where players will sail the high seas and swashbuckle with the best of them. But it's not making a Pirates of the Caribbean game--don't expect to see any peg legs, snarky parrots, or plank-walking. Black Flag is taking its piracy seriously, and eschewing the comedic tropes many associate with the era in favor of a more realistic take on pirates--the kind that murder and pillage, not the kind that sing and dance. Because that is exactly what every single kid dreamed playing I don't like pirates very much, but this just personal opinion, I can understand their appeal certainly. But I would rather have any another period forward than going backwards in time.

We play as Connor's grandfather, Edward Kenway, a pirate trained by Assassins. He is the first protagonist in the franchise to be blonde haired... Not that this says much, but he doesn't look much like his son Haytham just saying. He is said to be rash, charismatic, reckless, cocky genius of a pirate. He's trained by the Assassins Brotherhood, making him such formidable foe on the battlefield (or, rather, on boats), that even Blackbeard himself acknowledges his prowess. But unfortunately it seems he doesn't adhere to the creed very much (which annoys me a lot).

In fact, he resembles Ezio in several aspects such as being a womanizer rogue who is very popular with the ladies, rather than Connor, who was a very withdrawn person. Many people found him to be a boring protagonist, a far cry from Ezio in previous games. So now in order to please them, Ubisoft decide to make Edward just like Ezio. This could mean two things; Edward will be a Ezio carbon copy (with all his superficial aspects and none of his qualities), or he will evolve and become his own character. Its a shame that we won't be seeing Connor again though.

One upgrade to the gameplay itself comes with the addition of free aiming. In past AC games, using any projectile weapon meant locking in on a foe and firing. You were at the mercy of the game's built-in auto aim. This time around you'll be able to just aim and fire, like you would in any other third-person shooter. Take out your gun, aim it at an enemy's head, and blam--assassinated. Edward will come equipped with tools to make shooting enemies even more rewarding.

While he'll still use cutlasses, daggers, swords, and all of the other weapons of the time, he can be upgraded to have four pistols at his disposal. Apparently he can use them all together, chaining up to four gunshots into his normal attacks to take down more enemies. His fighting style resembles Connor if he wield swords like Haytham.

Assassin's Creed III's naval combat was the thing everyone praised to be the best aspect in the game. Even reviewers who hated the game, they'll single it out as the thing they liked the most. However it doesn't change the fact it was entirely detached from the rest of the game. You'd be warped into an arena and pit against a bunch of boats that you'd shoot at until they'd blow up (or you'd be asked to board them in a cutscene). Black Flag has made sailing into the ocean and boarding the ships more seamless, organic, and tangible. After checking out a ship with your handy spyglass (which will give you more information on its cargo and capacity), you can launch your attack. Moving up next to an enemy boat and ordering your crew to throw grappling hooks between the vessels will pull them together. Ubisoft claimed that this was incredibly freeform--you can hook from any angle, instead of simply triggering a cutscene. From here you can decide how you want to approach taking on the enemy. You can simply jump over, just as you'd leap between buildings, or you can stay on your ship and shoot enemies.

Of course, like any proper pirate captain, Edward is in command of a vessel. His ship is named the Jackdaw, as being a character of its own. "It's your Millennium Falcon," Jean Guesdon, Creative Director of Black Flag explained, though in many ways it sounded more like the Normandy from Mass Effect. Through pillaging, taking over enemy ships (more on that later), and completing missions, Edward is able to upgrade his ship with new weapons and abilities. This allows for a more natural progression than what was found in previous Assassin's Creed games, since it's easier to justify fighting a bigger ship than it is a bigger assassination target. The Jackdaw's crew, too, will be important, though their exact role hasn't been explained. From the sound of things, you'll be able to upgrade and outfit the scurvy dogs on your ship, allowing for even more customization. These upgrades to the ocean sections are important, since you'll be spending a lot of time on the water. If you stick to the story, you'll be on a boat for nearly half the game, and considering many of the game's side missions involve naval warfare, there's a good chance you'll be sailing for even more than that. Yeah, this is exactly like Normandy from Mass Effect.

The most innovative thing in the series so far is underwater exploration. The underwater sections weren't talked about too much, but we were told that there'd be actual underwater combat. During a clip, we saw Edward dodge a shark's attack before plunging a sword into its side, leading us to believe it'll work like the quick-time-event system when fighting against wild animals in the Frontier.

Though Assassin's Creed IV is filled with interesting naval combat and underwater gameplay, most of the game will still take place on land. Story-wise, a little over half the game will lead you through "50 unique locations," including fisherman villages, plantations, jungles, forts, islands, and Mayan ruins. Each will serve a different purpose to the gameplay, with the Mayan ruins mostly being puzzle and platforming-based, and the Coconut Islands being filled with enemies to fight. The three largest cities, however, are Naussau (the pirate haven), Kingston (a lively, dangerous town), and Havana (the capital of Cuba). From the sounds of things, these cities will essentially be smaller versions of those found in previous Assassin's Creed games, but with more tropical environments. According to their estimates, you will have spend 60% of the game on land and 40% on water. The notoriety system will be ditched as well, I can't imagine holding one in a lawless setting filled with pirates anyway. To be honest, I actually like not having city guards attack me all of sudden because of high notoriety and having my free roaming set back by removing wanted posters, bribe heralds or the like.

To be honest, for the first time in the series I am actually worried instead of excited. They plan something so radically different from what the series has been, and release it in October 29. I wouldn't mind if this was just small chapter to III like Brotherhood or Revelations was for II, but since this is full installment I can't help but imagine this will be a rushed process. I could honestly wait another year or so. Remember that AC III was in development since 2010 while AC:B and AC:R and it was just as rushed, if the glitches and bugs are anything to go by. Though some of the details did in fact please me and I will buy it, I will avoid having too much high expectations to not get disappointed.

Well thank you for reading my very long thoughts about AC IV: Black Flag. What did you think of it? Are you excited or skeptic? Comments are appreciated :)

I am so sick of hearing people choosing the easy way out and blame video games as an excuse for teen violence, so lets go insane with it. Lets list some video game examples that set up a bad standard for our children. Because f*** it, why not?

Skyrim: you are psychotic mass murderer who doesn't live any ruin, cave or fort alive until every single living thing inside is dead.

Pac-Man: you are schyzophrenic junkie who has to take drugs in order to fight back the ghosts in your head, but they will always come back once the effect wears out.

Mass Effect: you are a dirtybag who thinks the salvation of the galaxy is inside each of crew member's pants.

Assassin's Creed: you are indoctrinated psychopath who uses a abstract concept as an excuse to kill whoever you deem as enemy and is constantly murdering city guards who are trying to maintain law and order.

Pokemon: you are a sadist who enslaves local wildlife and forces them to fight for each other people's amusement and cash.

Persona 4: you are careless teenager risking the lives of everyone around him while trying to do the police's job by solving a murder and sure enough, one of his loved ones ends up price for it.

Knights of the Old Republic: you are a war criminal who should have been killed long time ago but is only alive due to the short-sightness of hypocritical mystical cadre, who ends up f***g the galaxy even worse than your ascended disciple. As for the sequel you are the death of the Force itself. Nuff said.

Uncharted: you are a racist murderer who will kill entire countries full of innocent people so that you can get to a lost ancient city and then you proceed to destroy it.

The Legend of Zelda: you are a delusional adventurer who thinks the best way to save the world is to break people's pots, hack up their chickens and then go fishing.

So what do you guys think? Are these reasons enough for our children to shout people apart with their voice or rip their heads with their bare f****g hands?

It has been a long time since I blogged, since I am bored now its the perfect time :D

Do people still remember Batman & Dracula: Red Rain? It was one of my favorite Elseworlds stories (well at least the first book anyway), where Batman fights Dracula and becomes a vampire himself in the end. It was cool concept at first until it goes way overboard in the sequels Bloodstorm and Crimson Mist, but the first part Red Rain is the best one IMHO. I was wondering if DC would make a animated original movie based on it, instead of just taking elements and making The Batman vs Dracula or showing up randomly in a Batman Brave and the Bold episode. I also wouldn't mind seeing some variation on the next Arkham game too.

What do you guys think? Did you read Red Rain too? Does Vampire Batman interest you?

I am writing this up so I wouldn't forget it later and I posting here because I found it so over the top and insane I had to share it. I will try to recall as clearly and coherent as I can. Also forgive my misspellings and grammar errors. English is not my first language :P

I was once back when I was teenager in high-school probably around 15 or 16. I was being picked on by my classmates until when the teacher came to put a stop to it, he started to call me names too. I bursted out of the room angry and crying and didn't realize I bumped into a box filled with strange and creepy bugs, that looked like they came from Prometheus or something, I didn't notice them, I was too angry to see it. When I hid in the attic, I heard several screams and ruffle taking place. When I looked at the courtyard, giant worms were attacking the students. There were ten foot tall and also there thousands bee-like insects attacking the students. When they were stung, their bodies started to swell, bleed from their eyes and explode just like that poor chick from Cloverfield. I didn't knew what to do, I ran right in the middle of the cloud of alien mosquitoes and somehow didn't got stung, I was unharmed through the entire time but had to escape from the giant worms that looked just like the ones from Dune. They were large and slow. I ran like I was escaping from Hell itself until I realized, the bugs were attacking the streets as well, so I hid under a car and waited. I blacked out.

When I came to, I realized I was 19 again, dressed in military garb and holding weapons. Apparently 74% of the world was overrun by the bugs in just three years and the humans fought as hard as they could. Asia, Oceania and Africa and most of South America was overrun by the bugs while Europe and the United States delved into completely totalitarian states, that refugees regularly tried to get entrance to escape from the bugs. I didn't knew how, I was one of the soldiers of the local resistance on Argentina, and we were locate a hive to destroy it and make the bugs retreat and take our territory. The bugs evolved had more nightmarish forms, they were very close to the Tyranids in Warhammer 40.000, they grew more inteligent and cunning, but in turn, we also learned their weakness. With a few bullets in the right places, they can die like everything else and when their local hive is destroyed, they retreat to the next one and never come back to rebuild. So to each hive destroyed, new ground is taken for us, but also the defense to the next hives becomes more vicious than the last.

Fast-forward to a few years, I was in a room with some Americans and English people discussing a project to create cybernetic soldiers to fight back against the bugs. The bugs turned more vicious than before, I was among the volunteers to the project. It involved incasing the subjects in coffins that sustains them and initiates the physical and genetic changes required to become a super-soldier. A majority of the applicants will have their bodies reject the implants, killing them or mutating them beyond recognition, and still more will awaken and lie imprisoned in the tomb while their bodies painfully change and often driving them insane. Those who accept the change successfully become more stronger, faster, able to heal wounds and are able to live indefinitely. So far there are 16 sucessful subjects from thousands and thousands of volunteers who tried but failed. A scientist and several military men call for us...

I accepted knowing full well of the consequences, even if I fail I would be atoning for unleashing that unspeakable evil upon the world. I was encased upon what a tank with a liqued that looked and smelt like blood. Then several electrical bolts were discharged upon my tank, and I felt like was being boiled alive. We couldn't be sedated, we had to endure a pain that seemed to last for centuries. And then what I felt like was entirely paralized and couldn't feel a thing, I was changed. My body accepted the chemical augmentations and I became a super soldier.

30 years had passed at this point and I haven't aged at all from the day I became a transhuman. After several years, we drove out most of the bugs from their hives but some super soldiers turned rogue and against their creators and so the government decided to shut the project down. The war has taken their toll into the United States and the European Coalition. Even if almost all of the hives around the world were nuked, everything else was destroyed and they didn't have the resources to rebuild. The bugs then retreated back to their final hive, the place were they originated: Brazil. At that point, everything was tried out from nukes to biological weapons. There was no hope to breach against their hive, except for the last surviving super-soldiers who decided on their own to destroy the bug threat. We infiltred the hive through a underground lair, filled with bug warriors in every corner. One by one, they fell until we finally reach the very center of the hive, where a bug queen rested. She was too powerful for us to defeat and when she recognized me as the one who unleashed her upon the world, one of my mortally injured friends took a chain gun and ripped her to shreds. Her death sent the entire swarm into a frenzy, they begun to prey on each other and kill themselves. To avoid the birth of a new queen, my friend instructed me with his dying words to detonate the nuke. With that, the hive was destroyed and the war was over. So I retreated into the shadows...

70 years later, the bugs pretty much died out without their queen but it didn't make things better either; the world was pretty much destroyed at that point and little remained from civilization in the last human strongholds. Techno-barbarian warlords and their warrior hordes continuously fought over the planet, which had become little more than a massive battleground for their wars of attrition. This was a dark period for the people of Old Earth when they were dominated by brutal rulers and despotic tyrants. It was against this backdrop of oppression, violence and casual brutality that I revealed myself to them. Nobody remembered the super-soldiers anymore, I was a divine figure to them now, a symbol of love and hope for the new world. People rose under my banner and I intended to serve as example to reunite the warring nations and bring peace to the world. We rebuild my country where everything started and ended and made it my seat of power, renaming it Hy-Brasil. Some even worshiped me as some kind of god; even if I could see why I made clear it was not true, because in fact I was not immortal. After a hundred years since my transformation, age caught up to me and even if my body remained young, it began to bend as if it was old. When civilization has been rebuilt and they didn't need me anymore, I sat upon my throne and closed my eyes. And then I died. At that moment, I achieved apotheosis.

And then I woke up. Worst B-Movie Plot Ever -____-

So what do you guys think?

After meeting his hero a few months ago, our friend @deadpoolrules (the dude in the left) meets the dreaded Dr. Doom during his stay in the USA. At his request I post this picture. BEHOLD!!!

(*thunder strike*)

To celebrate my 10.000 post, I decide to create a blog featuring casting choice I came across from one of the sites I visit listing the ideal actors to play in a Fullmetal Alchemist live-action movie. I know there is no chance in Hell of this happening for real, and even if does come true, it won't probably as awesome as I pictured in my head. So here is the cast choice.

So do you guys agree? Who would you cast to play in a live-action FMA movie?

"The moment we stop fighting for each other, that's the moment we lose our humanity." - No, really. He actually say that...

You don't have to make necessarily be funny to make a comedy. You can also be serious too. Laughter is something that this movie is good at generating but, as you can probably guess, its was probably meant to be taken be serious. Now I am not necessarily saying that watching billions of people dying is fun, but the complete way this disaster take place is so unrealistic and fantastic, that you may giggle and laugh ironically "Oh really?". I guess when Rolland Emmerich decide to retire from the disaster movies, he decide to go out in style putting everything he know and could into his last 2-hours long flick.

Story

Do you think there is any "plot"? Its your good ol' go from point A to point B plot (pretty standard to disaster movies). Jackson Curtis (played by John Cusack) is divorced from his wife and discovers the world is going to s*** and he must protect his stranged family and together reach the Arks, built by the world government to save the last remnants of mankind.

The Good

- The CGI effects were nice sometimes.

- Some of the acting is actually good though despite the godawful material they were giving. John Cusack, Oliver Platt and The Operative make very good performances, but Danny Glover and Tandie Newton fall flat face on floor.

The Bad

- Oh God. Where do I even start?

- CGI overuse reaches critical mass in this movie. If you hate such effects, there is enough CGI in 2012 to drive you to Arkham Asylum. Even if they are impressive to look at, its very clear its CGI and not for one second it made me think "Oh s*** this is real! This might happen :O"

- The pacing. Oh God, the pacing is dreadful. They manage to drag this plotless abomination down, almost felt like it was 3 hours long. The start is too slow and they introduce like 5 different plotlines until we reach the destruction, and somehow, Emmerich manage to prolong our suffering until the ending sequence, where so much crap is happening at the same time and you just want this to end now.

- The characters are just as deep and dimensional than a paper tissue. You have John Cusack playing David Levinson Niko Tatopoulos Daniel Jackson Jackson Curtis who is your standard action survivor trying to save his family, you of course have his bratty kids, his ex-wife, her boyfriend you know its going to bite it so that they can reunite at the end of the movie. You have Oliver Platt playing the movie's "antagonist" that we are supposed to hate him, but turns out he is the most pragmatic character in the movie, so its kinda difficult to disagree with him. He is also one of the few likable characters that manage to make it to the end without dying. And that is not even bringing the stereotypes on the table.

- The worst offender is the complete and utter exaggeration of the destruction around them. There is not a normal reason or pattern to the destruction around, suddenly all cities are sinking into the oceans, volcanic eruptions can be just as powerful as 10 A-Bombs, Christ the Redeemer is falling over my head and there is way too much water for this colossal flood waves. Its all I was half expecting the Earth to split itself in half (maybe that was a better ending to this travesty). Its AAAAH!! BOOOM!!! KABLAAAAM!!!! MERRDDAAAA!!!!! KABOOM!!! Its even worse than a Michael Bay movie in that regard.

Veredict

3/10 - If you dare to sit through this piece of crap, you may laugh hysterically at its absolutely over-the-top ridiculous nature and how seriously takes itself because that is the only redeeming value of this now outdated movie.

Bonus Feature

http://vimeo.com/5463875

A Christmas Present for the Vine's Vicar @StMichalofWilson Hope you enjoy :D

Homage to one of my favorite moments in LotR.

Dollost - dîr cuiol (You fool - no living man)

ú-'ar nin degi! (Can kill me!)

Le echelithar aen (You will be borne away)

Athar fuin ban (Beyond all darkness)

Rhaw lîn mannen (Your flesh devoured)

Ind tham lîn (Your shriveled mind)

Lanc na chen be-thobas (Left naked to the lidless eye)

Anant i vaethor ú-ritha (But still the soldier did not move)

Hên Rohan (Child of Rohan)

Fim sui anghathel (Slender as a steel-blade)

Bain a goeol (Fair yet terrible)

Na vedui istant (Too late he knew)

Na vedui cenn Na vedui cenn (Too late saw)

Dîr ú-naun hon... (This was no man...)

Vess e tiriant. (He looked upon a woman.)