Persona 4 Anime

Spoilers abound.

Persona 4 has lots of issues with pacing. We're currently at episode 20 out of 25 and  So we're at episode 20 out of a 25 episode series and the game hasn't even gone into the kidnapping nor has it shown the fake final villain, the 2nd final boss or the real end boss. At this rate, I'm not sure how they will fit this into 5 episodes. I'm guessing 2 to cover the kidnapping and the fake villain. 2 to cover the real end boss and the last one to cover the final boss, with the defeat of the final boss in the last few seconds of the episode and then a cutscene and when the credits start rolling, they'll show the characters saying farewell to the protagonist as he leaves town. 


On the other hand, this frantic pacing isn't exactly new to the show. I could see it coming back in the single-digit episodes where they would cover near entire social links in 1 episode. These social links would take months to build in the game and the anime pretty much finished them in 1 episode. It's one of the things I'm quite disgruntled about with regards to the anime. 


But then again, I suppose the real problem is that they're too faithful to the source and trying to put in everything or almost everything from the game into the show, even if they have to cram it in by bastardising it. However, the end result is a slightly disjointed plot that seems to skip here and there in terms of scenes and pacing. It might have been better if they had decided to leave out certain things in an effort to make the story flow a lot better but I suppose people would have been bitching about that too so it's sort of a catch-22. 


So in the end, is the Persona 4 anime worth watching? Sure, if you're already a fan of the game since you'll know what's happening better than newcomers. 

Tamaya Dining

Tamaya Dining

45 Cuppage Road, Cuppage Terrace

Was out on town with a friend the other night and we were wandering about for a new restaurant to try when we happened across this restaurant. It seemed like it had a decent amount of patrons (usually we find it unsettling when restaurants have NOBODY around during dinnertime)so we decided to try it out.


We were ushered upstairs into a room with traditional Japanese seating, where you have to take off your shoes and enter a small hall with tatami mats. There was almost no one else up here, only 2 other tables filled with Japanese businessmen (whom I could hear talking all the way throughout dinner)


Anyway, we ordered our food and after a while my friends portions arrived first. However, the waitress had made a mistake as my friend had wanted the fried breaded filet of pork but she brought him pork skewers. Now, both the names start with Kurobuta (black pig) but my friend pointed at the picture in the menu for her when ordering and the two items weren't even on the same page. And then instead of taking it back, she said "Sorry, is this okay?" referring to the pork skewers. Anyway, my friend decided not to make a fuss although I would have just told her to bring it back.


We had 3 appetizers; being the kurobuta, soft-shelled crab and grilled squid, and 2 mains; yakisoba and whatever the picture is above (some sort of ironpot rice). The soft-shelled crab was decent, supposedly the kurobuta was decent as well, although the grilled squid was a bit too dry and mayo they gave with it just tasted weird. My friend initially thought they mixed wasabi in with the mayo but it didn't really taste like wasabi.

The ironpot rice was okay but it took close to 30 mins to arrive. My friend had gotten his main and finished it before my food arrived -_-. Btw, the portions are really small. That bowl of rice? It cost me 14SGD and it was mostly rice with the only toppings the paltry amount you see in the pic above (which consisted of 4 slices of salmon and some fish roe). 

So in the end, would I go there again? No. While the food was decent and I mean decent in a completely average way, the price really really killed it for me. 14 dollars for this?? I could pay 4 bucks more at Waraku and get 2x the serving size PLUS eel. 


End result: 4/10

Warmachine Objectives finished

Managed to finish up the warmachine objectives. They're fairly detailed and pretty nice. I really like the extra details on the objectives like the screws, wrenches, nuts, bags and so on. I've tried to do each one with a sort of faction color scheme in mind. The red one is Khador obviously, the blue Cygnar and the green one is just Mercenary. 

pKarchev vs eSorscha

Right. 2nd match of the night, let's hope things are better

Cryx vs Khador Round II

Had a rematch with eGaspy last night. My thoughts on the match can be summed up in this way. "This is the most b0rked up terrain placing EVER" I have 8 frigging AOEs with which to whittle down his forces before they reach me and because of the way the terrain is placed (ie. 2 forests with 5 inches between them) and eGaspys caustic mists, it basically means all my shooting is worth jack shit; which is ironic cause 4 of those AOEs are located on jacks. It's like that time I played against eKaya and her entire battlegroup was stealthed, but that was more understandable cause it was at least an ability and not due to very peculiarly placed forests >_<. Anyway, enough bitching, batrep below.




Khador
Karchev
+Behemoth
+Spriggan
+Kodiak
+Demolisher

2x Mortars (proxied by other jacks)
2x Kayazy Eliminator units (proxied by greatbears/widowmakers)
Min unit of Battle mechaniks
Wardog


Cryx
eGaspy
+Deathjack
+bonejack *can't recall which*

Bane knights
Tartarus
Bile thralls
Bloodgorgers
Pistol wraith
Warwitch
Gerlak
Withershadow combine

He wins deployment, he goes first. 

Turn 1

-He runs. Pops caustic mists. I now can not see anything. His bane knights run into the forest. I can't see them. Deathjack runs into forest ALSO. 

+I run. I can't shoot anything cause I can't see anything

Green patches are forests and those AOE markers are caustic mists. See why I can't draw a LOS??

Turn 2

-He runs again. eGaspy deathknells my mechaniks and 1 unit of kayazy

+I tow/trample again to try and contest his point. Caustic mists again prevent me from shooting. I also discover the spriggan needs LOS to use his flares -_-. 

Turn 3

-He makes contact with me with his bane knights. Lots of damage taken to warjacks but nothing goes down surprisingly. 

+I beat the crap out of his bane knights before using Karchev to tow/trample to the other side of the forest. A big mistake on my part. 

Lots of bane knights

Bad mistake on my part

Turn 4

-He brings deathjack, kills demolisher. Then he feats and kills off Karchev with the feated bane knights. End of Story

Thoughts on scenario: There's really not much to say about this. I was hemmed in pretty badly and I didn't see many choices because almost every single one would have ended with me taking a charge. Either from deathjack or the bane knights. I originally wanted to try killing off all the bane knights on turn 2 but that would have left me too vulnerable to his feat. In the end, I still got killed by his feat anyway. I was originally planning on shooting the crap out of his army first before engaging but that was before the terrain was set up and I ended up having no LOS at all. I could probably have gone in and tried to control my own zone but that would have left me dangerously in front of the bane knights, which I suppose might have been a better deal. 


Also, probably not going to bother with taking the spriggan in this particular list. While flares are nice, the fact I need LOS to use them basically made them useless as well in this scenario. 

Guilty Crown #18

  It's a testament to Guilty Crown's writing staff that I now consider the evil aliens invading earth and then KILLING EVERYONE a good ending to the story. Seriously wtf, there just aren't enough redeemable characters in the entire show to care if they live or die anymore. Well, okay, I lie. There's still Ayase and Tsugumi but my liking for their characters is severely drowned out by my disdain and disgust for almost EVERYONE else in the series. So yes, death by fire. 

Warmachines: Spriggan with MicroArt base

Finally got my spriggan up. As you can see, he's done in traditional Khador colors and then stuck on a MicroArts studio base. I've been sticking a lot of stuff onto unique bases so far and I have to say I'm pretty fond of MicroArts and their bases. Most people just base theirs normally with grass/snow etc but I figure since I'm already spending a lot on the robot, I might as well give it a nicer looking base as well. This base is from their ancient ruins base set.

Kings of War: Dwarves

Dwarf Mega Army set

So I finally caved and got myself one of the Mantic mega army sets, the ones where you get loads of figurines for set amount. In this case it was 125 miniatures for 140USD *with shipping* from Maelstrom Games. That's about 1.12USD per mini and if there's a cheaper way to get dwarves in Singapore, I don't know about it.

Anyway, opening the box, you'll find it's  packed full of sprues and includes a free copy of the Kings of War 2nd ed rule book. It's a fairly basic rulebook which also includes the stats for all the units in Kings of War; including those that haven't been released yet. 

The sprues themselves are fairly detailed. The ones above are just the ones for the standard dwarf warriors, armed with a shield and a hammer. 

Once assembled, they don't look bad either. In this case, I used the same torso for both shots but in one I gave him a beer mug and in the other a warhammer.

The one complain I have about these dwarves so far is 'NOT ENOUGH ARMOR'. When I think dwarves, I think short surly stout soldiers, packing warhammers and heavy armor. Granted, the rules do indicate they have heavy armor but it just doesn't show on the figure. They do have sprues with heavy armor but those are few and far between and probably meant for the champions of the units. 

Another thing was trying to decide what color scheme to use for the dwarves. I didn't like Mantic's own red/yellow color scheme. I did google for mantic dwarves to see what others had done with their dwarves but didn't see anything that really inspired me. Being dwellers of mountain caverns, I figured my dwarven army should have a darker look with little to no colors. At first I tried painting them all brown except for the metallic armor. Boy, was that a mistake. It looked HORRIBLE. It looked like a brown blob. Then in the end, I decided that I would try the Black Templars color scheme on the dwarves and it worked...sorta

For the Emperor!

So there you have it. As you can see, there is very little armor on the dwarf except for his shoulder plates. Anyway, i painted out several of them below including a 2H weapon champion. There's even one with the horrible afro beard that I so detest but at least there are other types of beards available on the models -_-. I just have to accept that some dwarves have really horrible taste.

Overall, I'm pretty impressed by Mantics quality and prices. I can't say anything about the game system because I STILL haven't managed to get a game of Kings of War and will probably use these to proxy for WHFB. But I can say I am tempted to get their undead range as well because I heard those are probably the best they've produced so far. 

Aquarion Evol #8

Stripping for great justice!

Aquarion Evol episode 8 is....weird to say the least. I can understand why producers and directors put fanservice into anime but I wish they wouldn't do it in such a ridiculous way. Stripping so you can dodge missiles better? Right....


Mix once again proves why I really really don't like her. There's a difference between being an Ice Queen and a bitch; and Mix sorta falls into the latter category. But then so do many anime tsunderes nowadays *coughKirinocough*. It's yet to be seen if her inevitable 'defrosting' will improve my impression of her in any way (I'm betting not). She also sort of reminds me of Nanase from Macross Frontier, who was also another useless character and remained so throughout the entire show. 


Andy needs to stop having this unnatural obsession with holes. I understand the whole hole = female innuendo the show has been pushing but seriously Andy, classes are now CO-ED. For some one who's been so gung-ho about interacting with girls, we seem to see him spend more time DIGGING holes instead of trying to pick up the chicks that are now in the same class as him.

Zessica does more teasing of Amata; a lot like how Sheryl teased Alto in the beginning of Macross Frontier. Why he bothers with Mikono when Zessica is in front of him, I have NO idea. However, it does seem like she eventually starts feeling something for him at the end of episode 8.

Dere Zessica

Also surprisingly, Kagura DOES seem to have some feelings towards Mikono as when touma-lookalike taunts him about Mikono being hurt, he seems genuinely upset/hurt which seems to indicate he DOES see her as a person and not just a 'possession' or a thing. Otherwise he would just be getting angry someone is messing with his things. 


Meanwhile fan-theories about why Altea is abducting women proves to be true. They really don't have any women left on their home planet because a mysterious disease killed them all off. Sadly, none of the women survive a inter-dimensional teleport (while the males seem to be fine...for some reason). However, that doesn't really explain why Alicia; Amata's idol, seems to be known on BOTH Earth and Altea. Unless it's like some weird remix of Macross: DYRL where the Alteans watched her movies and become fans of her as well >_<

And I suppose the big metaphorical take-away from the episode is that basically people shouldn't be shy to expose themselves -_- No, not in that way although the whole stripping off of clothes to prove that point in the show kinda went waaaaaay overboard. But basically, there seems to be an underlying motif in Aquarion that people hide way too much of themselves. Hence the allegory of showing your true self by ....stripping. Then at the end, frog-girl shows up and buys a picture of Amata WITHOUT rendering herself invisible first by using her element power. Compare that to the beginning of episode 8 when she went invisible out of embarrassment. And once she did that, all the guys started wanting photos as well (For some reason, the girls had already gotten over that inhibition already, girls mature faster maybe in the Aquarion universe?)

SW RPG Transcript 18/2/2012

In which many plans are formed...and then ignored.

Dramatis Personae


Kelwynn Young, human smuggler and pilot extraordinare! Ex-owner of the Corellian Light Freighter "Invariably Successful Under All Circumstances" which got 'repossessed' by Imperial forces. 


Hiara shak (hiara'shak),twilek noble and daughter of a prominent slave trader in coruscant. She's out to have fun and try out new things. Towards that purpose, she has hired some tough looking guys to try out bounty hunting along with her friend, Alicia.


Alicia; human female noble. Ditz in the worst possible way.


RC-1148, 'Prime'. Soldier. Republic Clone Commando, leader of Gamma Squad. Engaged with Separatist forces on Fellucia when Order 66 was issued. Refused to follow orders due to morality conflict. Killed squad mates when they refused to follow his orders to stand-down. Now a fugitive and on the run. Currently serving as a mercenary.


Zuul; human scout. Enlisted in the army after the clone wars but dropped out of boot camp as he found military life not to be to his liking.


The scenario so far: Being the first session, not much has happened. The group consists of 5 members, 1 human noble, 1 twilek noble, 1 scoundrel, 1 scout and 1 soldier. The background info for the party is that the 2 nobles have started their own adventuring group to have some 'fun' and thus have hired the 3 mercs. They are supposed to meet on Alderaan, at the Mos Alderaan cantina. 

Members of group go to cantina to meet their employer, Alicia(the human noble). Hiara is not present yet

Alicia *to bartender*: so...what does a person do for work around here? *probably not the best thing to say in a seedy cantina when you're a woman wearing a dress*

3 members are talking to each other. Kelwynn is bitching about how his gunship was impounded and the other 2 are commiserating with him.

Alicia: So any bounties outstanding?

BT: You don't look old enough to be hunting bounties sweetheart. But there is a gentleman over there who looks like he may need your help thinks she's a courtesan

Alicia approaches the gentleman.

3 members want to approach Alicia but soldier holds them back as he wants to wait for the full 2 employers to arrive. He's paranoid, having served in the military.

Alicia: So do you have any work for me to do?

Gentleman: Sure sweetie, how much is it?

Alicia: How much is what?Gentleman: I'll give you 20 credits if you give me a good time.

Zuul asks bartender any jobs around here, bartender points him to the gentleman. Prime walks over to the drunk gentleman

Drunk gentleman: what do you want? Can't you see I'm trying to have a good time here?

Prime reaches down and grabs him and stares at him intimidatingly. Gentleman vomits all over him. Prime gives him a punch and pushes him back. The gentleman starts crying and sobs 'boohoohoo, everything is going wrong for me today'

Prime: Man up

Hiara walks in. Notices the soldier, the drunk gentleman and the alicia.

Prime: This man was trying to rape your friend

Drunk gentleman: Rape? She's a whore! She came up to me first

Zuul asks the gentleman what's wrong. He starts sobbing and says how he lost the latest bactine sample that medicorp developed. He wanted to show it off to his fellow mad scientists but on the way back he was mugged by thugs

They ask him where he was robbed, 4 blocks away and 4 hrs earlier. They try to convince to bring him all the way. This doesn't work that well cause the scientist is a coward.

Scientist: will you protect me?

Zuul: yes

Scientist: can I hug you?

Zuul: Don't make me shoot you.

Scientist hugs Alicia. Alicia orders a drink.

Zuul, Prime, Hiara and Kelwynn go to a corner and talk to introduce themselves to their prospective boss.

Hiara: So we hired you guys so we could have some fun

Kelwynn: Hey, I don't do that kind of things! Not for money at least. I have my dignity.

Hiara: Well, I need to test you guys first

Kelwynn: Hey, I said I don't do that!

Hiara tries to seduce the scientist, who tries to hit on her. She asks why the scientist didn't try to take his stuff back from the thugs himself. He stares at her incredulously. 


Scientist: Are you kidding?? Look at me!! I'm not the 'get things back from thugs' kind of person! I'm the 'get things taken by thugs' kind of person.
Then he starts saying how he got used to it in high school.




PCs agree to take the job. The scientist takes advantage and holds both the nobles hands and leads from behind. He leads them to the alleyway where they see several thugs loitering about. Scientist shouts 'That's them! Those are the thugs who took my stuff'. Thugs turn to look. Roll initiative.

Kelwynn: 20.5

Zuul: 19

Prime: 22

Hiara: 7

Alicia: 14

thugs : 20

Prime shoots thug 1 and kills him. At the first shot, Scientist runs away screaming like a little girl.
Thugs miss all shots. Zuul sprays with auto but misses. But the damage kills them anyway.

Hiara tries to persuade them to surrender but fails horribly. 

Prime tries to stun one thug but does not do enough dmg to. Zuul fails to hit again. Alicia misses with a flame thrower. Prime stuns soldier.

Remaining thug runs away. Zuul and Kelwynn search bodies

Prime tears off the thugs body and binds him with the clothing.

PCs discuss what to do. Prime keeps the box of bactine.

Hiara draws a face on the thug with a marker and then wakes him up. He wakes up and see the two soldiers and pisses his pants. They interrogate him and demand money from him and extort him. 


Thug: Don't kill me, don't kill me.
Hiara: Give us your money!
Thug hands over 2 credits
Hiara: This is not enough!
Thug: Please don't kill me!! I'll give you my brother!


They continue threatening the thug, trying to find out if he works for anyone in particular but the thug foams at the mouth and passes out from the fear of having several heavily armed people with blaster rifles pointing at him *and who had just slaughtered most of his friends* Hiara draws 2 boobs on him before they leave.

PCs group go back to cantina to find out where the scientist lives but fail to as the scientist is not a regular. They decide to go to Medicorp in the morning and find a residence to sleep. 




In the morning at Medicorp, the receptionist greets Hiara when she comes in. They talk and hiara says they 'found' this medical box after a scientist asked them to help him retrieve. Hiara asks to see the scientist but without a name, it's hard to find the scientist as Medicorp has over 500 scientists working for them. The receptionist calls for the assistant director to come down to sort things out. 


The AD is friendly, dressed in armani power suit. They talk and he calls for his secretary to bring down a credit chip worth 2000. The secretary arrives with a kid (Kate) and they talk and how Kate doesn't want to stay up there alone. He gives them the credit chip but PCs dont trust him and want to scan the credit chip to make sure it really has 2000. Unfortunately none of them have a credit scanner -_-. AD scans it with his own personal scanner to prove to them it contains 2000credits. PCs accept and go outside the building.

PCs talk among themselves, wondering if they can get any more quests from Medicorp. Suddenly a bombing occurs at the Medicorp building; bringing it down, and Zuul is the last to go unconscious and sees all the grisly deaths/rubble. Prime wakes up first and hears conversation between 2 guards about the bombings and discovers they're all in jail.

Cryx Vs Khador

So I had my first match against the eGaspy list today. Didn't win it but it was interesting anyway. Could have done better but made a few mistakes along the way.

As usual, was playing a SR2012 scenairo. I won deployment and chose to go first. As you can see, our units are deployed as such. 


Khador
Karchev
+Behemoth
+Marauder
+Kodiak
+Demolisher


Gun Carriage
2x Kayazy Eliminator units
Min unit of Battle mechaniks
Wardog


Cryx
eGaspy
+Deathjack
+bonejack *can't recall which*


Bane knights
Tartarus
Bile thralls
Bloodgorgers
Pistol wraith
Warwitch
Gerlak
Withershadow combine


Turn 1
-I do the usual tow/sidearms shenanigans with Karchev. I move up and shoot with Behemoth/Demolisher and Guncarriage. Do not kill enough things. 
+He runs up, pops caustic mist in front of Deathjack so I can't charge. 

End of turn 1

Turn 2
-Was thinking if I should assassinate but thought it was too risky. It would have involved towing Karchev, using Kodiak to throw his deathjack into eGaspy and then shooting the shit out of him. But I deemed eGaspy to be out of the throw range of Kodiak (more than 6") Of course, in hindsight, I should have gone for it -_-. Eliminators run past his bane knights to his chicken. My FIRST mistake of the game, I thought the bane knights could only be hurt by MAGICAL weapons. I should have just cut through the bane knights with my eliminators. I wouldn't have killed a lot of them but ANY bane knight dead is a good one. GC/Behemoth do more shooting.
+Warwitch tries to make one of my eliminators hit the other. Fails. Chicken walks away and takes a freestrike. Doesn't do enough damage. Rest of units run up. Bloodgorgers charge eliminators and WHIFF EVERY SINGLE roll. Eliminators live. He parasites my GC and my GC dies to the bane knights. He pops MORE caustic mist again, blocking my LOS.

End of Turn 2

Turn 3
- Eliminators pass horror checks, they run to Gerlag and kill him. Other eliminators decide to kill the warwitch siren for making them turn on each other. This is where I make my 2nd mistake. I shouldn't have camped focus this round as it left me open to a charge from the bane knights. Anyway, BB shoots. 
+ His bile thralls kill off 1 pair of eliminators. His bane knights charge BB but don't manage to kill him. Bloodgorgers run

End of turn 3

Turn 4
-I decide to risk it all and fail horribly. I think the picture kinda says the whole picture. I tow/trample with Karchev, kill deathjack and then I get killed by his bane knights + feat on his turn. GG

A sad day for Karchev

Thoughts on game: Basically, lots of mistakes on my part such as thinking ghostly meant could only be hurt by magical weapons >_< Also, I should not have camped against them on turn 2. I should have taken my army and gone to the bloodgorgers side. Sure, I would contact them but I doubt they can stop or assassinate Karchev and his wall of steel since the bane knights were still on the other side of the map. 


I've discovered there are some armies where camping with Karchev + sidearms works really really well and some where you have to go stomp one side of his army first to win. I should have taken the 2nd turn assasination vector on the chance I could have ended the game then. It would have been risky, but would have been very satisfying. 


Also, Kayazy eliminators actually killed somethings this turn (bonejack + gerlag) so that's good. Otoh, GC did nothing. 


In the end, I don't think this was an 'unwinnable' game and I really could have done better. All lessons to be put to future use. 

Kingdoms of Amalur

Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning is the first 'big' game to come out this year but it doesn't quite live up to its hype. It's a pretty game, one which can best be described as some bastardised offspring of WoW/Fable.

Once you get into the game, you're treated to the pretty intro screen. Note that there is already DLC available for the game and unlike most other games, this DLC isn't for the original owners of the game. No, it's only for people who pre-ordered the game because EA likes to brainwash people into believing it shits gold. Either way, pre-order DLC is already a minus in my book.

The main menu is fairly standard although the way it navigates is somewhat fucked up. I suspect it has been heavily 'optimised' for console play since Amalur is coming out on the PS3 and XBOX360 at the same time. 

An example of what I mean can be seen in the inventory system. Instead of listing everything all at once or at least doing it the 'Skyrim' way, the inventory classifies itself into MANY, MANY submenus. I suspect this is so console users have an easier time scrolling through their items as they lack a scroll wheel on their controllers -_-. For example, when you open the weapons menu, you don't see your list of weapons straight away. Instead, you see 'primary weapons' and 'secondary' weapons and you have to open them before you can equip weapons into said slot. It's not a huge issue but considering how often you can switch weapons, it's a pain in the ass.

There are quite a few quests in Amalur and they're split up mainly into 'Faction' quests and the 'Main' quest. Anyone who's played Oblivion/Skyrim/Fallout will be familiar with what 'Faction' quests are. So far, none of the quests are particularly engaging but I could say that of the storyline in general.

Everytime you level up in Amalur, you get to choose to level up your skills as well as ability trees. The ability trees in Amalur are fairly simplistic. There are only 3 trees, mage/fighter/rogue. Of course, they've added something called 'Destinies' which give you certain bonuses if you 'equip' them. However, to equip them, you have to meet the prerequisite and there are destinies which mix the fighter/mage/rogue trees.

The move list is why a lot of people have likened it to WoW. Some one I know has even likened it to a much simplified version of Dynasty warriors.

Like almost every major RPG now, Amalur allows you to fast-travel in the world map by clicking on towns/dungeons you have been to before. 

As for the dialogue, NPCs have a LOT to say. Sadly, 90% of it seems to be rubbish. I don't need to know what every single NPCs opinion of the winterfae are if it doesn't involve anything important; like you know, an extra sidequest or foreshadowing of their major weaknesses. Otherwise, the NPCs can take their opinion and shove it. Hence why most of the dialogue options are still whited out -_- It's like there are only so few conversation topics in the world of Amalur that I almost miss guardsmen telling me they took an arrow to the knee.

The graphics as you can see are very very WoW-like. They're bright unlike Skyrims, and fairly detailed. I admit that I'm quite fond of the graphics in Amalur.

The combat however...is very simplified. It's hardly revolutionary like they were claiming and if any of you have a Mass Effect 2 save and get shepards armor in the game, it's pretty much a walkthrough. In this shot, I'm performing a reckoning which is something like a limit break. Once I kill enough things, I can enter into the 'RECKONING' mode, which greatly increases damage (like combat wasn't easy enough)

After which, you'll be treated to a cut-scene in which you down the enemy as well a QTE in which you mash buttons to increase XP gained. 

After which, you finally get what you richly deserve. Loot. It's even color-coded for your convenience. Green for uncommon and purple for rare. See why this reminds me of WoW?


In conclusion
The game play was fairly interesting although a tad too easy. The storyline is kinda meh so far although I do like the references to real world mythology like the Tuatha de Denaan. The Irish probably aren't too happy about it though. The quests are myriad but unlike Oblivion where you could solve quests in obscenely varied ways, the quests here seem to be pretty straightforward. I'm also not that fond of the combat because of several reasons. Why does my 1H warrior not carry his damn shield at the same time as he carries his longsword? Instead, he keeps the shield whenever he draws out the longsword and vice-versa. What? Do they NOT train people to wield both in Amalur?


Also, one very big con is having to install Origin to play the game if you bought an original version. Seriously EA? Wtf do I have to install your crappy service if I don't want to and all I want to do is just play the DAMN game. I don't want to have to jump through hoops just to be able to use software I bought legally. You're making me wish I had pirated this instead. 


Final score: 6.5/10