Random Photo of the Month

Game Review: Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance

Hi guys today’s post will focus on a review on the hit game Metal Gear Rising: Revengance, it was produced by Kojima Productions same people who created the Metal Gear series but they took a different approach by letting a North American company Platinum Games take the reins in developing the game. Revengance is available for the ps3 and xbox360 and was released in North America February 19, 2013.

Story: The story takes place 4 years after the events of Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of Patriots were players play as Raiden who works for the PMC (Private Military Company) maverick securities, as for the antagonist’s of the story PMC desperado Enterprises wants to keep the war going in peaceful nations so they can get funded form the war. Raiden’s main rival is Jetstream Sam in there first fight Sam defeats Raiden easily damaging his body but barely surviving later Raiden receives a newer body making him look sick lol and making him much more stronger.

Raiden soon learns that Desperado has created an allegiance with World Marshal (PMC) as there true goal is to take human children’s brains and implant them into cybernetic bodies to have them trained and ready to kill. As Raiden heads towards the World Marshal HQ he starts to have regret’s towards the people he killed and he start’s to regain his old persona “Jack the Ripper”. At the final turning point Raiden must face of the one behind it all senator Armstrong who has injected himself with nanomachines which have given unavailable strength and he’s nearly impossible to kill. Raiden is nearly killed when Bladewolf gives Samuel’s HF sword to kill Armstrong. In the epilogue Raiden resigns from Maverick and tells them “he has his own war to fight”

Gameplay:Revengance gameplay is different from traditional metal gear games it’s not to say it’s bad, for me it works and fits the story and character well. As you already know you play as Raiden wielding a katana and slashing everything in your path (literally) Rising is action oriented and a slash it up you can use a variety of different weapons like a rocket launcher or a dagger why go for those weapons when you can HF katana them to half. One feature that allows you to freely slice and precisely cut is “Blade Mode” in this mode time slows down and you can precisely aim were you want to cut them note you need the enemy’s guts or slash at the enemy to fill the gauge that allows bald mode. The boss fights are also why this game rocks the boss fights are like a traditional slash it up but with some quick time events and some blade mode trivia not to mentions the awesome soundtrack when facing these bosses I’m not a big fan on heavy metal but it fits this genre perfectly.

Verdict: My rating for this game would have to be 8.5/10 I really enjoyed it and must say it’s my number one from the Metal Gear series, I strongly recommend this game if you own one of the consoles for me it was a good stress reliever which I tried to cut everything in the level after I was done there was basically nothing left of anything. I can’t wait to see what Kojima will do with Meat Gear: The phantom Pain but clearly has gone back to his roots for the next gen consoles.

Thanks for reading 

Jenno            

Anime of the Month ~ Claymore

Claymore ~ Clare (main protagonist)

Hi dudes and dudettes! Donna here with a review on the anime Claymore.  To give you a bit of information on the anime which was adapted by the studio Madhouse and licensed by Funimation Entertainment if you live in North America you may have caught it on Funimation Channel in the US in the year of 2007. The anime is based of the Claymore manga written by Norihiro Yagiwho who has focused on this manga a great deal. The storyline and character developed is not necessarily unique but a rather refreshing take on the many anime that we normally see out there. There is a list of 24 volumes in the manga if you wish to read it and 26 episode in the anime, which is too bad as it would have been a great series to keep going well in my opinion anyways.  I haven’t watched anime’s in awhile let’s say maybe 4-5 years now and I still do reminisce a lot about the days when I used to and how many great anime I watched in those few years I did watch in high school. Some anime’s I have watched and some of the cotes infinis team have watched are Gundam Wing (which is Jan’s and mine’s ultimate favourite), Gundam Seed, Gundam Seed Destiny (my ultimate favourite – getting the picture here?), Escaflowne, Neon Genesis Evangelion, Naruto, Bleach, D.Gray-Man, etc. ,  I owe my anime addiction to Gundam Wing if it wasn’t for that day when I chose to stay up till midnight during the Christmas season of 2003, I would have never caught Gundam Wing and how anime had an everlasting impact on me. I still do enjoy my anime’s but these classic titles have always been given me a heartfelt connection to my teenage years and entertainment. I guess in a sense you grow out of certain things but you can always revert back and enjoy things your previously did which is what I feel is occurring right now as time passes by.  So back to the topic itself, sorry for my rambling, my rating of the anime claymore is probably a 8.5/10, there are some faults to it but it is a deserving anime to watch out for if you are into that whole medieval look and heartfelt story and characters.  Plus, my enjoyment of the anime has driven my need to find out what would go on after the anime series ended so in my spare time I will try to read the 24 volumes of the Claymore Manga and I may double up on a post about the manga to maybe compare and contrast the manga and anime and which I preferred over the other.

 The plot of the anime series is based of a battle between humans and Yoma (humanoid shape shifters that feed on humans). A group known as the Organization wards of these Yoma by creating human-Yoma hybrids to help reduce the amount of injured and killed by Yoma attacks for a fee which the town must return or karma will get them if they don’t pay to the right person or pay-up to the organization. These human-Yoma hybrids are known as Claymores (which we learn is the general public’s name for them) due to their Claymore swords they carry as weapons or their other nickname Silver-Eyed Witches as these hybrids have silver eyes resembling witches (kind of has this St. Joan of Arc storyline into it – who blames them its set in the medieval ages). These hybrid harness demonic energy known as Yoki to give them different powers like speed, strength, shape-shifting, etc. If these hybrids or warrios utilize too much of the energy the demon inside them awakens literally and if this happens they lose their humanity (not necessarily all of it; as they are unable to control their physical self – the human inside them may be still fighting back but are unable to do so) and become an Awakened Being. The world the story takes place in has 47 districts in which 47 claymores are assigned a district whom are part of the Organization. They are ranked by level on their Yoki potential, strength, agility, intelligence, sensing and leadership. An freshman warrior may be able to overtake one of the top 10 if they do have a better ability than the previous ranked members. These warriors are trained to have their own sword technique, fighting style, and yoki ability. In the anime and manga you learn that some warriors or characters tend to hone a technique better than the other or have a balance in them. There are many arcs in the story as there are many characters’ stories the anime focused on (may contain spoilers):

Clare and Teresa

Main story arc is that of Clare who is the main protagonist of the story. Clare’s past in the anime is introduced near the beginning and we see her origin story of why she became a Claymore, although tragic it gives us a look onto her behaviour, actions and personality traits she expresses in the story. With that, Clare’s parents are killed by a Yoma who takes the form of her brother and ends up travelling with a Yoma pack to Teo village. Here we learn that the Yoma she was with abused her and we could see it on her physical body through the scars she holds. Her story aligns with the story arc of Teresa whom is a Claymore ranked#1 at her time. Her nickname Teresa of the Faint Smile was given to her due smiling when she defeats Yoma. Teresa is able to sense the Yoki flow in her opponents and is able to predict the attack of the Yoma which makes her a formidable Claymore against Yoma.  Teresa encounters Clare when she enters the town of Teo and kills the Yoma pack that Clare was travelling with. Clare who is grateful attaches herself to Teresa, Teresa who is a Claymore doesn’t understand Clare’s persistence when she keeps smacking her to the ground as we learn that Claymores become more disattached with their human self and show a lack of emotion.  Clare’s persistence wins over Teresa which in turn she adopts her. They face some trials and obstacles along the way but their attachment and relationship is strong as Teresa becomes the mother figure for Clare. At one point a town Clare is in gets attacked by thugs which angers Teresa causing her to break the one of the rules she must follow as a Claymore: don’t kill a human. This puts Teresa at danger and fuels the events to Clare’s decision on becoming a Claymore when Teresa makes a mockery of the Organization and refuses the punishment. Teresa decides that she wants to live as a human because she has found a reason to live: Clare. But this doesn’t look too well for our duo, the Organization decides to deploy their top ranks including the newly fresh graduate Priscilla who has surpassed many of the lower ranks and onto the number 2 slot. They are ordered to kill Teresa for her betrayal of the Organization, but this confrontation doesn’t bid to well to Teresa although this could have been avoided if Teresa who I felt was the most powerful out of the bunch as she took them on as a group could have stopped and left Clare living on a normal life, but that would give us the story and tragedy that we see in Clare in the present day. I won’t say what happens as you have to watch the anime to find out 🙂 (hehehe ^^)

The other story arc is that of the development of Clare in the present day as she meets a boy name Raki who reminds Clare of herself when she was adopted by Teresa. Clare takes on Raki as a cook and they go on Clare’s missions together. The duo have had lots of obstacles to face but their relationship held strong and continues throughout the anime although for a part they may have been separated due to a conflict that occurred. This arc is the main story as everything starts to unravel and be put into place . I won’t write as much about this because it would give away the story and it wouldn’t be a fun thing to do as you guys won’t be able to watch it :(. So I am going to leave it at that. Clare becomes stronger both as a fighter and as a person she learns the very idea of being human and how that triumphs over the evil inside her.

The thing I enjoyed about the anime is the way the character development occurred, although the anime was slow at first, we get a glimpse of the faults and strengths of each character and the characters are given more humanity which in turn give us the viewers an attachment that we like having when we get on these fantasy world. I will be giving you guys more of a main character list on the bottom to help your visuals. There wasn’t much action which I didn’t expect, if they put in a bit more of the fighting it may have helped brought interests by people, although I found the lack of action scenes didn’t bother me as I was more into the story and the character development hoping for the best of the so-called “good” guys rather than the “bad” guys but we learn that we all have faults, and mistakes and that we are human which makes the anime so argumentative for me deeming my interest in it. Like many Japanese anime’s there are some scenes that portray too much of the female human body and some implict messages like the “Awakened Beings” coming off as sexual images especially the introduction of male hybrids later on in the story. To put it this way to be awakened is to put these warriors onto an orgasmic state of euphoria just like many people get from having sexual intercourse. Although this may be in there, I didn’t find myself focusing on this so much I was interested more in the character’s destiny, behaviours and actions that I cared less that this was happening. Some people may not be able to look past it, but I feel that the issue doesn’t necessarily deterirorate the anime rather it helps you understand some views and themes that we may feel about certain issues in life. Remember, anime is created by people and it stems from our internal desires and thoughts, thus many of the issues and topics raised in the anime is probably what we feel about it in real life depending on the perspective we take. The visuals in the story where pretty good, the animation wasn’t too bad for its time as now the animation’s have improved. The characters were beautifully drawn showing unique features about them especially the different emblems they held encompassing a lot of the medieval culture which I enjoyed as not many animes, tv shows and movies for that matter embrace the setting. There aren’t many animes I have watched that undergo the medieval setting other than Escaflowne which is why I may have enjoyed this as Games of Thrones, LOTR, etc. has always put me in the mood to enjoy this time period specifically. The fighting in the story is kind of remniscent to a lot of other animes, in which it resembled bleach primarily as claymores and soul reapers have weapons to clash with their enemies. In general, this anime was a great pickup for myself as my brother (Jenno) and I were walking in HMV at Vaughan Mills and picked this up out of a whim and thought I would give it a try. Jenno has watched it before and enjoyed it the first and second time around. It was a great pick, although anime’s I have learned in DVD format is pretty expensive, it came up with a $50.00 price tag at HMV, but I am pretty sure you can pick the series for cheaper on Amazon or stream it over the Internet for that matter. So give this anime I try I am pretty sure you guys will enjoy it! Comment below to let us know whether you enjoyed it or not, or if you have already watched it and what you felt about it especially the ending of the anime. I may have been blowing up some steam in the ending as  I felt justice wasn’t received but again always my decisions are always opposite to what occurs (*sigh). Also let me know what other animes we should watch right now I am getting back on catching up with my Vampire Knight 😀 but I would live to give Blue Exorcist a try. I think I have this anime addiction with robots (gundams) or things that fight unnecessary evil (Akuma – D.Gray Man, Yoma – Claymore, Hollow – Bleach, etc.). I think the whole idea of good vs. evil always appealed to me no matter what form it took. Let me know what other anime’s we should give a try sound off on the comments guys and girls! Enjoy!

The characters of Claymore

Claymore – Clare (main character). Rank #47 in the Organization. Lowest of the bunch but the strongest!

 

Raki, Clare’s cook who accompanies her on her Yoma journeys. He becomes the ultimate key to Clare’s humanity.

Teresa – Mother figure to Clare, Rank#1 (best of the best, hate her faith tho

Miria is the friend of Clare she is nicknamed the Phantom, leader of the group of rebels.

Helen the friend of Clare, part of Miria’s group of rebels. Able to stretch arms at great lengths, loves to eat and drink unlike many other Claymores.

 

Deneve is a friend of Clare’s as well and is part of the rebel group. She has good regenerative abilities making her more of the defensive t

Jean is indebted to Clare for saving her life and ends up as her friend. She becomes the ultimate friend for Clare. Able to puncture through hard things by using a hand rotation movement resembling a drill.

Hate this biatch! She tries to redeem herself. Number#2 of the Organization for a minuscule time. Find out in the anime what she did.

As you guys can tell Teresa is my favourite see what her faith is in the anime! Sound off in the comments who you favourite character is. We would be interested in seeing which character is deemed the best. Enjoy guys!

Related articles

• Throwback Video from the Past: D.Gray Man (Anime) AMV (cotesinfinis.com)

Creative Direction – Breathtaking and Inspiration Photos/Art

New York City ~ Hustle and Bustle Landscape Photo

Hi fellow creative, artistic and photo connoisseurs, Jenno here part of the cotesinfinis team. I am in charge of the creative direction or artistic component of cotesinfinis, but I also post on a variety of things. My interests lie in photography, gaming, technology, and artistic flares which is why you will see me posting some of my pictures once I get things going with my sister’s (Donna’s) DSLR camera and having proper rendering programs to show you some of my work, but in the mean time here are some inspiring and creative work of others I was viewing via my Tumblr. If you would like to visit my Tumblr check out: Jd-Stark and you can follow anything I post there whether it be the funny memes, TV shows, movies, art, etc. that I enjoy.

So the photo I found via someone’s WeHeartIt Page unsure of who the photographer who took the photo may be to give credits too but click the link to see the actual photos and other photos the author may have posted.

Like many of you guys know, New York City has many photo-op opportunities which is why we see many landscape or photos being taken in New York City. The picture above is part of the Times Square/Central Park/Upper East Side District nearer to Times Square and Grand Central Station. The picture reminds me of my very first trip to New York City and shows what New York City has to offer. Although for its busyness and traffic, New York City is a beautiful place in which many buildings give off a sense of the city’s character.

The picture’s depths of displaying New York City’s character especially with the many old 1950’s apartment buildings, New Yorker’s character which is to busy minded business/students/fashion-minded people out and about finishing their tasks and duties. The profound symbol of New York which is the yellow taxi cabs numerous in number, the traffic, the heavy density of buildings and cars, alongside with a grey gradient of the atmosphere as pollution and cloudy skies are symbolic of New York City.

The thing that amazes me with this picture is how we can one can visualize this image and look at the Empire State Building which is the primary catcher to the eye, but not only that also the busyness of New York City is also captured. The picture in itself is a landscape type photo, but not only that it sets the tone, emotion and setting that New York City encapsulates. This wondrous beauty is an eye-catching image, and I hope you enjoy it as much as I did. Hope this helps you decide whether or not you should take a photo-op weekend to NYC because count me in if you do decide to do so! Enjoy! See you guys later! Enjoy the rest of the weekend prior to school starts for some of you students!

Jenno.

Gaming Flavour ~ Plants vs. Zombies

Hi dudes and dudettes! It’s Donna from the cotesinfinis team, I do a variety of blog posts, trying to keep my posts entertaining and with different viewpoints. Today I am going to introduce to you a game of the month that myself and my fellow bloggers on the cotesinfinis team have been addicted and love to reduce stress and take our minds of certain things.

Available on the PlayStore on Android Devices, App Store on Apple, All major consoles PS3, Xbox360, Vita, Nintendo DS and on the computer itself.

The game is called Plants vs. Zombies. It was developed by PopCap Games which is a video game company part of one the biggest publishers in the gaming industry Electronic Arts. You may know PopCap Games from games like Bejeweled, Noah’s Ark, Zuma, just to name a few of their popular games. The company floundered on the aspect of casual gaming as more devices and technology was readily becoming available for the general public to consume and use in our daily lives. Ever since Apple’s iPhone device hit the market, our lives have changed forever. Many of us have a smartphone nearby ready to be used for many different things like web browsing, calling, texting, etc. Not only does it do these things rather you can use it to game as the graphics and memory have improved every year. Not only that the ability of touch screen has created an emphasis on creating devices larger than smartphones such as tablets which improve our productivity and lack of requirement for a computer, as all these devices are able to do things a computer can do (not all as there are some aspects that we do require a computer to do such as creating sophisticated artwork on photoshop, etc.). Back to the topic on hand, plants vs. zombies is readily available in many technological outlets whether it be Android, Apple, or even Windows for that matter. So everyone out there with different technological devices can play the game whether you are a hardcore gamer or a casual gamer like myself, these casual gaming platforms don’t require much for you to know rather basic rules which in turn can help produce the strategies you will eventually develops as the levels get harder.

Concept Art

The game plants vs. zombies is known as a tower defence genre which is common to many casual gaming platforms like castle defence, tower defence, etc. Although on different platforms the game functionality may be different due to controller use aspects that need to be considered. There are many game modes available in the game which give a creative change and entertainment factor to keep gamers on their feet on what decisions they must create. For those who enjoy strategy type games, although this may be simple for those hardcore strategy type gamers, this still challenges you in the decisions you make and helps you develop those necessary strategy’s for upcoming levels. The concept itself is very idealistic in a society where zombies has become very popular, especially with the Resident Evil series and other zombie type series influencing our likelihood to associate with a game. The creator had a very unique idea of mixing in a satirical sense of zombies coming after plants, as we all know zombies prefer to have meat, so this fresh take on zombies entertains us.

Gameplay

There are a variety of game modes that plants vs. zombies gives us in which we can play a single-player walkthrough the story, or a multi-player walkthrough, and Adventure mode in which a player can earn money to spend in the store which can upgrade and give gamers bonuses that can be used. There are extra modes available found in the main story in which are composed of a survival game, puzzle mode, vase-breaker mode and mini-games of many assortment. There are many achievements that you can gain throughout the story in which you can challenge your friends in completing the challenges and challenging your scores or achievements.

The gameplay requires some knowledge from the player but the rules and functions of each plant are extensively shown every time you attain a new plant which helps in you developing those particular strategies for later games or levels. The player has to develop some offensive and defensive strategies to fully win a level, there may be decisions that you create that may help or not help you in the long-run. There is two part secondary defence in the game, there is you and the lawn mowers by the house. Obviously, as a gamer you try not to use the lawn mowers as this would leave an opening to your house if some zombies are able to get in. Thus you must be able to use yourself as the primary main defence first and avoid utilizing the lawn mowers as best you can. Obviously at certain levels certain decisions may force you to have an opening as it may be too late. The main thing is you must plant the right plant and have proper resources to plant those specific plants to defend your house and attack the zombies. You can buy upgrades to help out your offensive and defensive abilities via the store to help you in your quest to finish the storyline or game. The game uses many layouts in which is mainly in the front yard but intakes realistic nature of the game in which could be daytime or nighttime levels in which nighttime levels are more challenging as the sun you require is needed to help maintain your offence and defence. The nighttime levels prove most challenging as the number of suns decrease, there is also use of the weather such as fog, lightning and even at the rooftop which has some challenges for the player to confront, which keeps us entertained.

I myself own both the android version which I play on my Sony Tablet and the ps3 version (yes I am one Sony freak) and I actually prefer the ps3 version even if I am a casual gamer. The tablet versions deem to be a more difficult in comparison to console games. This may be due to the cheaper price of the tablet or mobile versions in comparison to the console version. So, if you really want a challenge pick the tablet version as this is more readily accessible, and if you have a console and would like to try it out on there give it a whiz! Trust me you will be entertained and enjoy the strategy component to it. My strategy, use those sunflowers to the full-most extent so you can have enough resources for your offence and defence.

So if you need a game to play for a small price try out Plants vs. Zombies. There has been a newer version which is the sequel to Plants vs. Zombies known as Plants vs. Zombies 2: It’s About Time where the storyline has somewhat change as the main premise is due to time travel to keep the storyline and game interesting. There are a fewer upgrades, newer plants, better graphics and colouring on the newer version in comparison to its predecessor. I enjoy both, but at the moment I am playing two because of the new features it has. So if you would like to try a free game since the first version Plants vs. Zombies isn’t free, then try out Plants vs. Zombies 2, you don’t need to play the first one in order to play the sequel, they have a new tutorial system on the sequel to help you out on your adventure.  Hope you guys enjoy! I am heading out to play some more! Laters guys!

xoxo Donna.