Code Breaker

By: Robert Murphy

  

The story begins with a girl named Sakura Sakurakouji who is riding the bus late one night when she sees a blaze of blue flames and people being burned alive around a boy of about the same age as her. Fearing what has happened she runs to the scene only to find no bodies remained, no flames and no boy to be seen anywhere around. However, to her surprise the next day in her class they receive a new student, Rei Ogami, a boy who instantly catches the eyes of every girl in the room but none more so than Sakura. After initially throwing himself off the scent of Sakura, she catches him in the act once again burning people alive (bad people) with some kind of power he has and Rei in turn threatens to kill Sakura if she tells a soul about his work. But Sakura for whatever reason responds to this by following Rei around to try and prevent him from killing more people that he perceives as bad and by those who employ him as a Code Breaker, people who do not exist and are above the law because they don’t believe in them.

When I first saw commercials for the show I was initially very excited to get to watch Code Breaker and once I learned the ground story and overall premise, that didn’t change. It was kind of a tee-hee moment to call the characters with unique abilities in the show Code Breakers because that is in fact what they are; these people are above the codes that people live by. Also each Code Breaker has their own unique abilities that have been granted to them with six Code Breakers all together killing the scum of the world who have no right to live. It is a very black and white view with no middle ground much like the views of Kira in Death Note, you do bad things like sell drugs and kill people then you die no matter if you are someone like a cop with a few kids, evil is evil. Unfortunately, I got more behind this idea in Death Note than I did in Code Breaker for some reason; maybe it was the cocky kids who were dishing out the punishment or what I can’t say for certain.

Now I will say that Code Breakers is something that you have to wait a bit to get into fully, the first half of the thirteen episode series consists of the odd relationship between Sakura and Rei. Sakura follows Rei around on his various jobs in killing people in order to stop him which is a noble thing to try and do but she mainly ends up giving a long winded speech to the bad guys that doesn’t work and then Rei burns them all. Rather than stopping this Rei continues to let her follow along and she continues to try and stop him each time and she apparently never learns which annoying because she’s supposedly the smartest student in her grade. This got very repetitive for me and quite mind numbing to the point where I almost stopped watching but I trudged on for more scenes of Rei who was so hard to get a bead on as a character.

My patience paid off in another way as well when the show finally picks up more, we get to meet the main antagonist in the story, an ex Code Breaker named Hitomi and this is where we meet the rest of the Code Breakers. Now don’t be discouraged by the fact that they are all attractive dudes, we aren’t in a reverse harem type anime each character has a degree of depth and story to them along with some awesome powers. Some interesting fights also take place between Rei and Hitomi who have a past together but also has an interesting story behind him leaving the Code Breakers and attacking them now. Sadly though this really couldn’t save the show for me, good action can only take you so far and it didn’t do enough to make Code Breaker great.

In conclusion, I feel like there could have been a lot more done to Code Breaker, maybe if it had more episodes or maybe if the characters were a bit more engaging, who knows. I was hoping for a bit more from the show honestly but there is a good level of action and the overall background was quite interesting and leads to some dark toned scenes that I probably shouldn’t of liked as much as I did but oh well, sue me. While the good does outweigh the bad it wasn’t enough for me.

Good:

The Code Breakers all come with unique powers making for some great action scenes

A dark, Death Note, style and premise that got me interested from the get go

Bad:

Characters had depth but not nearly enough

Sakura was such an annoying and naïve character who was initially more appealing but soured

I am not one for the whole pretty boy thing especially when they’re supposed to be professional killers for a hidden organization not teenaged heart throbs

Scully Rating: 5.0 out of 10 

Resident Evil: Revelations HD

By: Robert Murphy

Hey everybody, so it looks like once again we have another addition to the “Resident Evil” franchise but this game you all may have already seen before, if you’re a big hand held gamer, “Resident Evil Revelations” however has step off the small screen and onto the big screen and we here at Scully nerd reviews have a review for the occasion. Now “Resident Evil” is no stranger to HD remakes of their games and as a fan of the franchise, I for one am thankful for it because some of the best games from the franchise have been on the past consoles. But that said a few things can go wrong in the transition that can affect how you feel about the game, even if it was a fantastic game in the first place, let’s see if that’s is the case this time around in “Resident Evil: Revelations.”

Get a look at the Ooze and a look at Jill

The game is set in various locations, the first of which is aboard a large and ominous ship named the Queen Zenobia and returns players to the classic “Resident Evil” game formula where you travel through cramped corridors, hallways and rooms, not knowing what could be waiting around the corner for you. That right there is what made me fall in love with these games as I grew up, the dark and scary atmosphere you are placed in, coupled with the terrifying suspense is what makes “Resident Evil” games fun and have been stepped away from in newer games. Other locations feature the same close quarters style but when they didn’t they still left my heart pounding in situations where I was surrounded on a mountain top by enemies waiting for my partner to come before I was eaten alive. Things become even more heart pounding when you add the primary enemy of “Revelations” to the mix, Ooze monsters; these creatures are new B.O.W’s (Bio Organic Weapon) in the game and are skilled at appearing out of nowhere to attack players. These creatures do come in a few variations but do not usually differ from one to another and they take up most of the enemy base that you experience in the game rather than the traditional zombie motif. But this nothing strange since this is the direction most “Resident Evil” games have gone in lately and the Ooze aren’t the only ones joining our happy gang, the game features a few other B.O.W’s for you all to enjoy.

I don’t like this one bit

Now moving onto the gameplay aspect of “Revelations,” we feel rather at home like I said as the game plays much like old “Resident Evil’s” where you traverse through cramped courters and preform a level of back tracking for various items you need. This comes back to us along with some much enjoyable puzzles in the game which haven’t been very prominent in recent games and that’s something I’ve missed and am happy to see return. A new aspect to the game is the use of scanner known as the Genesis, a big clunky looking piece of machinery that allows you to scan your environment for hidden items like bullets or other more rare items. This machine also allows you to scan your enemies before and after you decide you shoot them but this is just for achievements/trophies mainly and the Genesis comes more in handy for finding those items you’ll need in the game to survive. Now there have been a few problems that the game has had coming over from the 3DS like the graphics, which didn’t really get upgraded just transferred from one format to another. This makes for some grainy environments and some not to impressive character models where people have square like heads and triangle hair styles that don’t match the rest of their bodies which are up to date.

Don’t forget to scan

“Resident Evil: Revelations” gives something back to the fans of the games that hasn’t been seen in quite a long time and that is the return of the classic horror and adrenaline filled moments of the old “Resident Evil” games. Also it feels good to be playing this game on the big screen, the return of moving through corridors, solving puzzles and back tracking for that something I missed gives me the best case of nostalgia and makes my inner child do cart wheels remembering doing all this years ago.

Good:

-The return of the classic “Resident Evil” motif

-Great creepy setting

-The return of more puzzles in the game

Bad:

-Grainy textures and often misshaped characters

-The original format is a much better alternative

Scully Rating: 7.8 out of 10

In the news: Bethesda’s new game

By: Robert Murphy

Link to trailer release here

Hey everyone have I got some news for you, Bethesda the people that brought you “Skyrim” and the “Fallout” franchise are back with information on a new eerie project for gamers. This stand-alone game is known as “The Evil Within” and is a new survival horror game from the creators of “Resident Evil” and looks to be a game that you will want to leave a light on for. Bethesda spent the week teasing an unannounced project through its Vine account and gamers were left to make assumptions on the new title with ideas ranging from a new “Fallout” game or even a new “Wolfenstein” shooter. The Vines tease barbed wire, musical scores, and a dark and creepy environment that gave a very asylum like feel with plenty of scares and horrors hidden away behind its walls but you can watch the trailer above and see for yourself the scary atmosphere this game promises. We won’t being seeing “The Evil Within” this year but most likely sometime next year and is said to be set for Xbox 360, Playstation 3, PC and the next generation of consoles. In closing, I hope you all enjoy the trailer and hopefully it peeked your interest into this new game. 

Evil Dead

By: Kyle Fee

By now you must of heard that Evil Dead is being called a horrific thrill ride and has been proclaimed as a excellent horror movie, maybe the best one this year.  I will not deny these claims, however if you’re a massive fan of the originals then you may feel a little indifferent about this new re-model of the Evil Dead franchise, but again I will not argue that they did a great job with a remake of a cult classic. 

 The movie begins with another group of people that serve to give us a prologue of what’s to come.  From the beginning you see something that when taken side to side with the original Evil Dead would look much different.  After the initial prologue we are introduced to the five characters: Mia, David, Eric, Olivia and Natalie.  They arrive at a cabin in the woods and they have come to help Mia, a drug addict attempt to get over drugs and clean herself up.  This is a interesting approach the story takes and this leads them to finding a book of the dead.  One of the characters finds it wrapped in a garbage bag and wrapped around with barb wire.  This leads to the book taking control of Mia.  When she becomes increasingly violent and crazy the other characters are convinced that it's her acting up because of her becoming clean.  Again, the way the story plays out using Mia and her drug addiction being the cause of her craziness in the beginning was a unique way to start off a story.  Now when the middle of the movie comes it’s a little slow but was still good.  It lacks the same sense of dread that was happening at the beginning but the movie quickly picks up and the rest plays out very well.

Now as for respect towards the old movies, you see a lot of cameos from the old movies, the car Ash used in Evil dead, the signature double barrel shot gun and of course the chainsaw.  This all and said we see that director Fede Alvarez paid homage to the Original movies, which I respected and found awesome. 

With all the cameos from all the original movies, you would think this is just an updated remake of a beloved movie like I have said, but when I watched it there were some terrifying scenes that gave me a few jumps and a different story angle that works.  Overall, I felt like this was a different movie then the original Evil Dead and this helps make this new Evil Dead make a name for itself.  To those who have never seen the original movies, yes you’re missing some classic Bruce Campbell awesomeness, but you will enjoy this new movie.  The cast and crew did a awesome job re-creating a classic and this movie has received much applaud for good reason, and in the words of Ash from the original…"Groovy."

Good:

-Cameos from the original movies

-Cast worked, especially Jane Levy as Mia

-Scares and Gore will make modern day horror movie goes happy

-Just when you think the movie reaches its' apex, it proves you wrong and still finishes the movie strong

Bad:

-Middle is a little slow

Scully Rating: 8.5 out of 10