Its really no secret right now that the state of Texas in the USA is in a spot of bother right about now. In the last week, the state of steakhouses was wracked by hurricane Harvey which swept through the state coming in from the gulf of Texas. As of this post, much of the eastern half of Texas has been flooded in part and in regards to areas such as many streets in Houston and Interstate Highway 45 have been mostly if not entirely submerged under multiple meters of water.
Source: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-4830364/Hurricane-Harvey-enhanced-climate-change.html
This kind of devastation, the likes of which has not been felt from a natural disaster in the USA for more than 10 years, has prompted much of the USA to band together and help their fellow men and women down south of the range. What makes this remarkable is not only that police, army, navy and firefighter services and even just civilians have been helping their fellow countrymen in Texas to salvage their belongings and survive, but that many sympathetic people around the world have tried their best to replicate this kindness.
Donations to local services and amenities as well as charities have been flooding in to help out the people of Texas, Houston in particular, and thus far have allowed extensive outreach to not just those on the periphery of the disaster but those who are less able to move themselves.
Source: http://www.cincinnati.com/story/news/2017/08/28/cincinnati-firefighters-assist-hurricane-harvey-rescues-texas/607880001/
Source: http://www.express.co.uk/news/world/846843/Hurricane-Harvey-path-2017-texas-dementia-patients-rescued-from-nursing-home
Unfortunately, Houston is not the only major city in a global economic superpower that has been hit by such a heavy storm. The enigmatic city of Hong Kong has also recently been dealing with the aftermath of a similar storm wracking its streets and buildings. Typhoon Hato, while less covered in the mainstream media has had a similar effect as Hurricane Harvey on the people of Southern China, Hong Kong and Macau.
Source: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-asia-storm-hongkong-idUSKCN1B22JL
However, as is somewhat similar to what has occurred in the USA, the public services in Southern China have been working day and night to drain away the water and then clear the debris from their streets and fields while accounting for the injured, dead and safe.
Source: http://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/health-environment/article/2108481/rescuers-hong-kong-save-11-sea-and-two-mountain
And while I have been less successful with finding links for donating to the recent tragedy in China, I would greatly welcome anyone coming forward with reliable and safe links and sources for donating to the victims and saviours of both events.
Fortunately, I saw this article from Forbes which recommends tips and directions for donating to the disaster in Texas and I urge you all to check it out: https://www.forbes.com/sites/kellyphillipserb/2017/08/28/helping-out-after-hurricane-harvey-where-what-how-to-donate/#16b87e93c798
And as I said above, if anyone has any links or ideas for donating to the disaster in China any help would be greatly appreciated.
I didn't really have anything succinct or opinionated to add to this recent topic unlike the post I made yesterday. I just thought it made sense to raise awareness of the situation that some are facing in the South of the USA and China at this time. Hopefully these people, like this blog, can get back to happier and simpler topics and times in the near future.
Showing posts with label China. Show all posts
Showing posts with label China. Show all posts
Monday, 28 August 2017
Sunday, 20 March 2016
New film review #23: Kung-Fu Panda 3
Warning: Minor spoiler warning ahead for the 2011 film Kung Fu Panda 2
Image source: http://www.liveforfilms.com/2015/08/28/kung-fu-panda-3-gets-a-star-wars-themed-trailer/
I remember way back when I did my first review on this blog on the 2011 FPS release Duke Nukem Forever that I was a fresh-faced young blogger who was possibly the biggest fan of the first two Kung-Fu Panda films (2008 & 2011) in my school. I remember being blown away by the smooth animation and sweepingly beautiful effects and dashing representation of Chinese philosophy and culture through the adventures of a cute panda with a hearty personality and a likeable variety of sidekicks. The first film was a truly philosophical film and the 2011 sequel was and still is one of my favourite animated films not to mention sequels in general of all time which is a precedence for myself even more so cemented by the superb work by Gary Oldman as the villainous warlord Shen.
Therefore, despite minor misgivings about a few bits and bobs of this third Kung-Fu Panda particularly of what I saw in the trailer, my hopes were high for a film that would at the least provide a good wrapping-up to that little plot twist with the panda village at the end of Kung-Fu Panda 2 (2011). Fortunately it does achieve that latter point but aside from that there isn't a huge amount that Kung-Fu Panda 3 does more or better than the previous two films. On a spiritual and philosophical level, this film is allot deeper than the previous two films and represents a great wrap up for the emotional and character development of Jack Black's main character Po as he brings himself closer and closer to finally becoming the ultimate embodiment of what he is meant to be as the dragon warrior.
Image source: http://www.flickeringmyth.com/2016/02/po-teaches-kung-fu-in-a-new-clip-from-kung-fu-panda-3.html/kung-fu-panda-3-8
This development in turn is brought about by the new villain and former warlord of all china Kai, a towering brute of a bull wielding two God-of-War-esque chain-linked blades who once fought alongside Randall Duk Kim's master Oogway and is voiced by the great and legendary J.K.Simmons. Po must not only embrace his past and heritage in this film but also protect his family while Kai rampages across China absorbing the power of all the kung-fu masters in an attempt to conquer the land and dispose of Po as the only one who can stop Kai's ambitions. In this, Po must not only embrace his past and heritage but also harness the power of chi in order to finally become the dragon warrior as he was positioned and prophesised to become in the original 2008 film.
This would ultimately be the best film in the series but unlike the second film it tends to skim a bit on the story and unlike in the first film where this was meant to emphasise the rapidity of Po being thrust into the position of dragon warrior, the quick and straightforward plot and storyline of Kung-Fu Panda 3 does seem a bit rushed and ultimately could've done with a great deal more focus like the first two films did. On top of this, unlike the second film, the third instalment doesn't so much build upon what the previous two films are or big up the scale of the plot and action. In all honesty, this isn't such a bad thing with the character development and philosophical musings of the film itself but the action and the narrative do both suffer considerably as a result of the much smaller scale as compared to the previous film. This isn't of course to say that the story and action are bad as they are still vastly superior to most animated films released since the 2011 second film or How to Train Your Dragon 2 (2014).
Really, the biggest problems I have with this film are all little tweaks and while it is probably the weakest film in the series so far, its still a great family outing and a hearty and innocent action film starring everyone's favourite animated animals of Chinese philosophy. The one big weakness that I'd say this film has in comparison to the previous two films is that aside from the truly superb voice acting by J.K.Simmons, Kai is easily the weakest villain in the movies so far. Some people criticised Ian McShane's Tai Lung for being a bit generic and while he certainly was in places, he was still a despicable bastard who more than represented a powerhouse of feline kung-fu and represented not only a powerful physical but also mental challenge to our heroes. While Kai certainly does the same, I never got the same level of villainous believability or inherent threat and power considering how goofy the design of the character was for a main villain not to mention how he was treated as comedy relief for so much of the film. Kai could've been one of the great animated movie villains of the last half a decade but was ultimately done in by somewhat misguided writing and direction.
Image source: http://indianexpress.com/article/entertainment/hollywood/kung-fu-panda-3-first-teaser-reveals-villain-kai/
If there is one thing that the film definitely does better than the previous two films though it has to be in the department of animation. I always said that the animation in the previous two films was some of the best I've ever seen in a western-made animated film but the animation in this third outing easily blows the last two out of the water with a 100-megaton nuclear chi blast. The textures on the fur of certain characters or the texture of mundane objects such as concrete walls and bowls make it seem starkly believable despite the speed and energy of the animation in general. This allows for each movement and impact of the characters to feel wholly believable despite being animated and allows for some of the most dynamic action I've seen in a new movie since Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015). So if there is one thing the third film has over the first's character introduction and music or the second's story, action, scale and villain it can easily be the visual design and animation which is about as magical as the philosophy and spirit world in this film.
Image source: http://www.inquisitr.com/2733692/kung-fu-panda-3-box-office-in-china-how-will-the-animated-film-do/
In conclusion, this is probably the weakest first act of any of the Kung-Fu-Panda films so far and is easily the weakest film in the franchise to this point but as a film in of itself and even within the franchise as a whole it is still a truly superb animated outing for the young-un's not to mention the whole family. Sure the narrative is a bit weak but it wraps up the first trilogy of films about as well as I think we all could've hoped. I don't think it'd be the best of ideas to make another film as this third one wraps up Po's character arc nicely. If Kung-Fu-Panda 3 is to be the last film in the franchise then even despite all its faults it sure as hell make up for a better end to a classic trilogy than Robocop 3 (1993) or The Dark Knight Rises (2012).
Hopefully you'll enjoy this as much as if not more than I did because this is a film that definitely deserves love and support so until next time, have fun, take care and don't do anything I wouldn't do!
Cinematography/camerawork/animation: 10/10
Storyline/plot: 6/10
Action/set-pieces/key moments: 9/10
Direction: 7/10
Voice acting: 8.5/10
Visual design/sets: 8.75/10
Overall rating: much like the Italian all-you-can-eat that I went to after I saw this movie, this was a bit over-priced for what it was but still deserves support and applaud and is a tasty combination of cheese, salami and green salad...wait...uh...whoops sorry...wrong summary.
My gaming YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCHmq7KX4Qc46VGhYzWqQfOg
My gaming YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCHmq7KX4Qc46VGhYzWqQfOg
Monday, 15 April 2013
Game review #8: World of Tanks
In this modern day and age, video games have come along way from when they were simply pixelated adventure quests about unlucky-in-love Italian plumbers or matches about tennis as shown by moving white blocks that had to captivate their audiences with little else besides retrospectively primitive graphics and game-play with little pretence towards a story of sorts. In this modern day and age we now have games that are able to focus on all of these holy tenets of video games by combining increasingly realistic graphics with more extensive writing and immensely more advanced game-play on consoles that are a world apart in sophistication compared to the consoles of the 1970s and 1980s. However, with this advancement also comes the possibility that some games such as Final Fantasy XIII or Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots will focus more on the storyline and eschew game-play in order to advance the plot which let me tell you, is far from the best method of immersing the common gamer in your game.
That's where games such as World of Tanks, made by Wargamming Studios and designed for use on computers, comes in as this particular MMO (Massively-Multiplayer-On-line) has no story whatsoever and virtually, if not entirely, focuses solely on game-play and the development of game-play over story. Now I am most certainly impartial to both story and game-play-biased games, but when a game such as World of Tanks concentrates solely on game-play and manages to do it so well as the first Mario land games in a day and age when story holds such a strong reign over much of modern gaming my black, bitter heart soars to the heavens above. Now if you don't know what an MMO is, its a game where you advance slowly in a large-scale on-line community by participating in adventure quests in small parties and battle against mythical creatures as shown by the much-acclaimed World of Warcraft series in order to achieve higher ranks and better equipment and skills. In World of Tanks you advance in tiers rather than ranks and most of the game-play rather than some of it is based around harnessing your personal skills in combat. Initially you start off with a slot for a vehicle in your garage filled by the first tier vehicle of each of the playable nations which include; the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom, America, France, China and Nazi Germany.
As expected with all MMO's, when you start off in World of Tanks you will be very weak and most likely die allot however, the more you battle, the more you will inevitably learn the weaknesses and strengths of each tank and earn greater amounts of experience points and in-game credits to advance to higher tiers of tanks. On top of this, the relative ease with which you will be able to advance up the first few tiers of vehicles will allow you to try out different tank types (specifically; Light tanks, Medium tanks, Heavy tanks, Tank destroyers and Self-propelled artillery) from each individual nation to properly sum-up what the play-style of your garage will inevitably represent. As is also the case with allot of MMO's, some content in World of Tanks can only be bought with real money with which you can by in-game 'gold' which allows you to create more garage slots and buy 'premium' tanks which are unavailable by other means except as a gift to be bought outside of the game itself. However, the good thing about this is that it is not always necessary to advance without buying gold and that when it is necessary most 'premium' tanks and other similar actions that are only available through paying real money don't cost too much money unless you buy higher tier 'premium' vehicles or a year-long 'premium' account.
That's enough for the technicalities, let's now move on to the glorious, tread crunching, armour-smashing, cannon-blasting tactics and types of game play that are to be found in this world of steel beasts! As mentioned before, there are six nations and four types of tanks, the differences between the different types of tanks are in themselves, very notable, but what is even more important to take into account is the play-style attributed to each tank tree of each country. One of the foremost countries in the game is Germany: these tanks are generally good for their wunderbar-tough armour, range of their main guns, ability to penetrate heavier armour and, in the case of heavier heavy tanks, tank destroyers and self-propelled artillery vehicles, fearsome damage output. On top of that, the Germans also have some of the highest amounts of health points on their top/tenth tier heavy tanks and tank destroyers. The one problem with the Germans however is their speed and manoeuvrability despite having tanks on their medium and light tank trees, many German tanks lack the speed and manoeuvrability of their main rivals, the Soviets.
The Soviets are largely at the other end of the spectrum of tank design in the sense that they seem to mostly focus more on the damage output of their main guns, speed, manoeuvrability and well-designed rather than simply thick-as-mushroom gravy armour. therefore, unlike the German tanks which excel at holding flanks and sniping, Soviet tanks equally excel at ambushes due to their low profiles (heights), flanking attacks and close-range assaults. In contrast to the Germans, the main weaknesses of the soviets are lighter armour on many tanks (excluding the frontal armour on the most popular soviet tanks amongst the heavies and tank destroyers such as the KV-5 heavy and Object 263 tank destroyer), lower penetration and accuracy on the guns of many heavies and some artillery and some tanks that take the Soviet penchant for speed so far that they take a great deal of taming in order to prevent crashes.
Similarly to the Soviets, the tanks of the Chinese also centrally focus on speed, well-designed rather than heavy armour, manoeuvrability and damage output on the main guns. The reason for this is that seeing as how all of the tanks are from the years between 1917 and the end of the 1960s, and this was the period that communist China and Russia were very close allies, it is only natural that the communist Chinese government which came about much later than the one in Russia holds some influences of Soviet tank design. The one thing that sets out the Chinese apart from other nations however is that whereas the other nations all have individual tank trees, all Chinese tank trees share the same first 5 tanks imported from other countries; the French FT-17 (tier 1), the British VAE type B (tier 2), the Japanese Type 2597 Chi-Ha (tier 3), the American M5A1 Stuart (tier 4) and the Soviet T-34/76 (tier 5).
Similarly, the French also start off their tank trees rather oddly in comparison to other nations. Whereas the tanks of other nations are generally slower the higher the tier they are, French tanks oddly enough start off snail-like slow while the higher-tier French vehicles go faster than an ice-cold bottle of French white wine on a warm summer's afternoon. On top of this, tanks of tier 5 and below for the French tend to have very tough armour for their tier while the higher tier tanks have comparatively weak armour for their tiers. However despite these oddities the French combine well-designed armour, guns with great penetration and rates of fire, heavier tanks with both crazy top speeds and auto-loaders (loading chambers that allow you to fire in quick succession) to create lower tier tanks that excel at defending and higher tier tanks that can overrun the enemy superbly through flanking attacks.
In comparison to all these nations, the American tanks may seem to be the most balanced and perhaps suit players with a generally flexible and freestyle approach to this type of game. Lower tier American tanks on all branches and higher ones on the medium branch follow the speedy, raider-like approach as most Chinese and Soviet tanks, many American artillery vehicles rival German and Soviet ones in damage output, the Americans have great frontal-armour like the Soviets and French and also like the French, have guns with great penetration, accuracy and rate of fire. What makes the American vehicles stand out from the crowd however is the terrifying range of their main guns, damn tough turret armour and finger-licking' good acceleration. With these advantages in play, many American vehicles are able to find de-elevated positions, dig-in, snipe away the enemy's health and move with immediate alacrity when danger rears its ugly-ass head. However, the one downside to these fine examples of American ingenuity is that for the most part, the hull armour on American tanks is pathetic meaning that they are best used in sniping positions and on un-defended flanks.
Lastly we come to one of the most talked about nations of them all, the tea-drinking, roast beef-scoffing, pint -guzzling, queen-glorifying bejewled sceptre that is Great Britain. Naturally, as it was the British who invented the battle tank you would expect British tanks to be the best designed and most powerful in the game, but as it is they are not the most damaging and have some rather odd designs indeed my old-chaps. For the most part, the British tend to have some of the lowest damage outputs for their main guns and have only just been introduced into the game recently meaning that they only have tank trees for mediums, heavies and tank destroyers. Furthermore, the British heavy tanks are compounded by nail shatteringly, irritatingly un-couth and downright 'I dare say!' slow speeds between tier 4 and 8 while medium tanks of the same tier have armour that is notably easy to penetrate. However, the British are surprisingly versatile for a number of play-styles in the sense that all British tanks have good accuracy, guns with great penetration, 10-year-old-Christmas-cake-tough frontal armour on higher tier vehicles and in the case of most light, all medium and some heavy tanks, the British are superbly mobile with truly splendid top speeds.
Subsequently, it might be a good idea to fight up the first few tiers by yourself or with just a couple of friends by creating a temporary 'platoon' to go into battle with each other. However, as your garage and kill-ratio progresses, you may find it more preferable to join the many number of clans that are constantly battling across the world, specifically ones centred in the country you live in. There is no reason to do or not do this depending on your viewpoint but if you take one bit of advice on how to play World of Tanks it is this; always co-operate with your team-mates and promote teamwork through your actions otherwise it might not only be the enemy team you find firing armour-piercing shells at you.
In conclusion; I strongly recommend this game. I know it may seem daunting with all this speak of multiple play-styles and nations to be found in the game but that's all part of the fun of playing World of Tanks as it allows you to be creative and have fun playing the same game in an uncounted number of different ways. What makes this game truly fabulous aside from the increasingly sophisticated physics engine, increasingly refined graphics and increasing variety of vehicles is the fact that it is totally free! OH FREAKING YEAH!!! This game is so free I could write an essay about how marvellous it is to simply go onto www.worldoftanks.com or .eu, click 'play for free', wait to download the game for 2 minutes and make yourself a well-earned cup of mint tea while the game takes its time to install which despite the wait is well worth it as you then venture forward into the World of Tanks.
Oh and BTW: congratulations to the World of Tanks European server on it's 2nd birthday!
That's where games such as World of Tanks, made by Wargamming Studios and designed for use on computers, comes in as this particular MMO (Massively-Multiplayer-On-line) has no story whatsoever and virtually, if not entirely, focuses solely on game-play and the development of game-play over story. Now I am most certainly impartial to both story and game-play-biased games, but when a game such as World of Tanks concentrates solely on game-play and manages to do it so well as the first Mario land games in a day and age when story holds such a strong reign over much of modern gaming my black, bitter heart soars to the heavens above. Now if you don't know what an MMO is, its a game where you advance slowly in a large-scale on-line community by participating in adventure quests in small parties and battle against mythical creatures as shown by the much-acclaimed World of Warcraft series in order to achieve higher ranks and better equipment and skills. In World of Tanks you advance in tiers rather than ranks and most of the game-play rather than some of it is based around harnessing your personal skills in combat. Initially you start off with a slot for a vehicle in your garage filled by the first tier vehicle of each of the playable nations which include; the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom, America, France, China and Nazi Germany.
As expected with all MMO's, when you start off in World of Tanks you will be very weak and most likely die allot however, the more you battle, the more you will inevitably learn the weaknesses and strengths of each tank and earn greater amounts of experience points and in-game credits to advance to higher tiers of tanks. On top of this, the relative ease with which you will be able to advance up the first few tiers of vehicles will allow you to try out different tank types (specifically; Light tanks, Medium tanks, Heavy tanks, Tank destroyers and Self-propelled artillery) from each individual nation to properly sum-up what the play-style of your garage will inevitably represent. As is also the case with allot of MMO's, some content in World of Tanks can only be bought with real money with which you can by in-game 'gold' which allows you to create more garage slots and buy 'premium' tanks which are unavailable by other means except as a gift to be bought outside of the game itself. However, the good thing about this is that it is not always necessary to advance without buying gold and that when it is necessary most 'premium' tanks and other similar actions that are only available through paying real money don't cost too much money unless you buy higher tier 'premium' vehicles or a year-long 'premium' account.
That's enough for the technicalities, let's now move on to the glorious, tread crunching, armour-smashing, cannon-blasting tactics and types of game play that are to be found in this world of steel beasts! As mentioned before, there are six nations and four types of tanks, the differences between the different types of tanks are in themselves, very notable, but what is even more important to take into account is the play-style attributed to each tank tree of each country. One of the foremost countries in the game is Germany: these tanks are generally good for their wunderbar-tough armour, range of their main guns, ability to penetrate heavier armour and, in the case of heavier heavy tanks, tank destroyers and self-propelled artillery vehicles, fearsome damage output. On top of that, the Germans also have some of the highest amounts of health points on their top/tenth tier heavy tanks and tank destroyers. The one problem with the Germans however is their speed and manoeuvrability despite having tanks on their medium and light tank trees, many German tanks lack the speed and manoeuvrability of their main rivals, the Soviets.
The Soviets are largely at the other end of the spectrum of tank design in the sense that they seem to mostly focus more on the damage output of their main guns, speed, manoeuvrability and well-designed rather than simply thick-as-mushroom gravy armour. therefore, unlike the German tanks which excel at holding flanks and sniping, Soviet tanks equally excel at ambushes due to their low profiles (heights), flanking attacks and close-range assaults. In contrast to the Germans, the main weaknesses of the soviets are lighter armour on many tanks (excluding the frontal armour on the most popular soviet tanks amongst the heavies and tank destroyers such as the KV-5 heavy and Object 263 tank destroyer), lower penetration and accuracy on the guns of many heavies and some artillery and some tanks that take the Soviet penchant for speed so far that they take a great deal of taming in order to prevent crashes.
Similarly to the Soviets, the tanks of the Chinese also centrally focus on speed, well-designed rather than heavy armour, manoeuvrability and damage output on the main guns. The reason for this is that seeing as how all of the tanks are from the years between 1917 and the end of the 1960s, and this was the period that communist China and Russia were very close allies, it is only natural that the communist Chinese government which came about much later than the one in Russia holds some influences of Soviet tank design. The one thing that sets out the Chinese apart from other nations however is that whereas the other nations all have individual tank trees, all Chinese tank trees share the same first 5 tanks imported from other countries; the French FT-17 (tier 1), the British VAE type B (tier 2), the Japanese Type 2597 Chi-Ha (tier 3), the American M5A1 Stuart (tier 4) and the Soviet T-34/76 (tier 5).
Similarly, the French also start off their tank trees rather oddly in comparison to other nations. Whereas the tanks of other nations are generally slower the higher the tier they are, French tanks oddly enough start off snail-like slow while the higher-tier French vehicles go faster than an ice-cold bottle of French white wine on a warm summer's afternoon. On top of this, tanks of tier 5 and below for the French tend to have very tough armour for their tier while the higher tier tanks have comparatively weak armour for their tiers. However despite these oddities the French combine well-designed armour, guns with great penetration and rates of fire, heavier tanks with both crazy top speeds and auto-loaders (loading chambers that allow you to fire in quick succession) to create lower tier tanks that excel at defending and higher tier tanks that can overrun the enemy superbly through flanking attacks.
In comparison to all these nations, the American tanks may seem to be the most balanced and perhaps suit players with a generally flexible and freestyle approach to this type of game. Lower tier American tanks on all branches and higher ones on the medium branch follow the speedy, raider-like approach as most Chinese and Soviet tanks, many American artillery vehicles rival German and Soviet ones in damage output, the Americans have great frontal-armour like the Soviets and French and also like the French, have guns with great penetration, accuracy and rate of fire. What makes the American vehicles stand out from the crowd however is the terrifying range of their main guns, damn tough turret armour and finger-licking' good acceleration. With these advantages in play, many American vehicles are able to find de-elevated positions, dig-in, snipe away the enemy's health and move with immediate alacrity when danger rears its ugly-ass head. However, the one downside to these fine examples of American ingenuity is that for the most part, the hull armour on American tanks is pathetic meaning that they are best used in sniping positions and on un-defended flanks.
Lastly we come to one of the most talked about nations of them all, the tea-drinking, roast beef-scoffing, pint -guzzling, queen-glorifying bejewled sceptre that is Great Britain. Naturally, as it was the British who invented the battle tank you would expect British tanks to be the best designed and most powerful in the game, but as it is they are not the most damaging and have some rather odd designs indeed my old-chaps. For the most part, the British tend to have some of the lowest damage outputs for their main guns and have only just been introduced into the game recently meaning that they only have tank trees for mediums, heavies and tank destroyers. Furthermore, the British heavy tanks are compounded by nail shatteringly, irritatingly un-couth and downright 'I dare say!' slow speeds between tier 4 and 8 while medium tanks of the same tier have armour that is notably easy to penetrate. However, the British are surprisingly versatile for a number of play-styles in the sense that all British tanks have good accuracy, guns with great penetration, 10-year-old-Christmas-cake-tough frontal armour on higher tier vehicles and in the case of most light, all medium and some heavy tanks, the British are superbly mobile with truly splendid top speeds.
Subsequently, it might be a good idea to fight up the first few tiers by yourself or with just a couple of friends by creating a temporary 'platoon' to go into battle with each other. However, as your garage and kill-ratio progresses, you may find it more preferable to join the many number of clans that are constantly battling across the world, specifically ones centred in the country you live in. There is no reason to do or not do this depending on your viewpoint but if you take one bit of advice on how to play World of Tanks it is this; always co-operate with your team-mates and promote teamwork through your actions otherwise it might not only be the enemy team you find firing armour-piercing shells at you.
In conclusion; I strongly recommend this game. I know it may seem daunting with all this speak of multiple play-styles and nations to be found in the game but that's all part of the fun of playing World of Tanks as it allows you to be creative and have fun playing the same game in an uncounted number of different ways. What makes this game truly fabulous aside from the increasingly sophisticated physics engine, increasingly refined graphics and increasing variety of vehicles is the fact that it is totally free! OH FREAKING YEAH!!! This game is so free I could write an essay about how marvellous it is to simply go onto www.worldoftanks.com or .eu, click 'play for free', wait to download the game for 2 minutes and make yourself a well-earned cup of mint tea while the game takes its time to install which despite the wait is well worth it as you then venture forward into the World of Tanks.
Oh and BTW: congratulations to the World of Tanks European server on it's 2nd birthday!
Friday, 12 August 2011
Old Film Review 4: IP man (released in 2009)
There are a lot of films out there that are meaningful, some are not. There are lots of films that revise a certain subject or simply highlight it, sometimes to the point of glorifying that particular subject. IP man is one kind of film I like, it explores the beginning of the journey of the legendary Chinese kung-fu master named IP-man (known more widely in his home country as master IP) towards fame and immortality in the martial arts world. Oddly enough, the most interesting thing about this film (the fact that it is about the beginning of the journey of the man who trained the legendary Bruce Lee) is only told to us at (literally) at the very end of the movie.
Just before he became famous in China and then the world, IP man was a respected and highly-skilled practitioner of a highly-disciplined form of kung-fu in his home town of Fo Shuan, a town that housed many schools for different forms of kung-fu. Although he was almost unmatched in kung-fu, greatly-liked by the townsfolk and well-off, IP man was a particularly inept (yet very caring) father.
There really isn't much to say about IP man in terms of storyline, I mean it's a true story about a man following his chosen path and overcoming personal problems along the way. The best thing about the film is (of course) the kung-fiu bouts and battles throughout the movie especially when Ip himself challanges 10 Japanese soldiers to a bout in a hall and brutally beats them all single-handed. As with most action or fighting movies however, the best fight scene is the last one. In this movie it's an intense scene where Ip famously spared with (and killed) a martial arts-practising Japanese general, an event that resulted in the uniting of the Chinese people during the Japanese occupation.
The other main aspect about this film that's definitely worth noting is how patriotic the film is. This is though, very well founded patriotism on the film's part on account of the scenes of Japanese atrocities during the 1930s being very accurate. The film shows (to an almost rage or tear-inducing effect) the pains and depravities put upon the Chinese by the Japanese army during the 1930s and it uses that to set up a good basis for Ip man going on a fearsome revenge-rampage in the second half of the film.
This is one good kung-fu movie about a man who (indirectly) contributed a great amount to the world of action-cinema and inspired an entire country. Even if all that doesn't interest you then the awesome fight scenes still should.
Just before he became famous in China and then the world, IP man was a respected and highly-skilled practitioner of a highly-disciplined form of kung-fu in his home town of Fo Shuan, a town that housed many schools for different forms of kung-fu. Although he was almost unmatched in kung-fu, greatly-liked by the townsfolk and well-off, IP man was a particularly inept (yet very caring) father.
There really isn't much to say about IP man in terms of storyline, I mean it's a true story about a man following his chosen path and overcoming personal problems along the way. The best thing about the film is (of course) the kung-fiu bouts and battles throughout the movie especially when Ip himself challanges 10 Japanese soldiers to a bout in a hall and brutally beats them all single-handed. As with most action or fighting movies however, the best fight scene is the last one. In this movie it's an intense scene where Ip famously spared with (and killed) a martial arts-practising Japanese general, an event that resulted in the uniting of the Chinese people during the Japanese occupation.
The other main aspect about this film that's definitely worth noting is how patriotic the film is. This is though, very well founded patriotism on the film's part on account of the scenes of Japanese atrocities during the 1930s being very accurate. The film shows (to an almost rage or tear-inducing effect) the pains and depravities put upon the Chinese by the Japanese army during the 1930s and it uses that to set up a good basis for Ip man going on a fearsome revenge-rampage in the second half of the film.
This is one good kung-fu movie about a man who (indirectly) contributed a great amount to the world of action-cinema and inspired an entire country. Even if all that doesn't interest you then the awesome fight scenes still should.
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