Too Bad

While I will make it no secret that I am not that into online gaming, I have had some curiosity into MMOs. But with a rather basic PC, a vast majority of these games are well out of my reach. So I am generally happy to hear whenever a potential MMO is announced for a console system as that means I'll finally get to try out something that isn't Final Fantasy XI.

For example, Champions Online.

I was a little disappointed when the PC version of this game released and the console game was delayed indefinitely. But I had hope! I had hope that the game would come through and everything was going to be OK!

How naive of me...

So now I have been reading all about how the developers (Cryptic) want to focus solely on the PC version and will no longer be porting their MMO to any console. So after reading about the game, getting a little hyped up about it, then waiting after it's delay and now seeing it all but dead, I say this:

Too bad. Too bad for the developers.

Why so? Here I am, likely amongst many, who would have mindlessly threw money at this game and now we shall not. I suppose MMOs on consoles are not the biggest money making plan a game developer can come up with, but whatever. I suppose I shall just save that money and throw it at Final Fantasy XIV later this year.

Speaking of interests, here is a little something I read about today that has gotten my attention.

Apparently Persona 5 is being developed and there is potential that it could arrive on the current generation of systems (at last!). Now I admit that the only Persona game I ever played was the original, and that the last few games in the series, while I've heard a lot of great things about (more about this in a second), I never ever played any of them.

Now as for the reason why I never picked this up? I blame that solely on a game named Odin Sphere. That was what killed RPGs for me on PS2 for a good long time and generally the reason why I stopped playing RPGs for a few years thereafter. I mean I believed the hype and I bought these so called "truths" that this game was just that damn awesome.

And the truth is, the only absolute thing that came to my mind was it was an absolute mistake on my part when I wasted money on this. While I understand that not all games are for everyone, this one just made me sick.

So I've kind of made it a point to not just jump up and buy every game I think looks even remotely interesting. While it is true that I still do that sometimes, I am far, far more weary about what I am throwing my money at these days.

Last thoughts go to a couple of movies I've seen recently; Ponyo and Law Abiding Citizen.

Let's start with Law Abiding Citizen....

The previews for this movie did wonders at making this one seem so very interesting and suspenseful. And you know what? It is just that for almost the entirety of the movie. It kept me guessing, it kept me wondering who would die next and how. And it also kept me wondering why did it get rated down so badly?

My answer came during the final 10-15 minutes of the movie. And I just want to throw out the warning now, if you've not seen this movie yet and plan to, I am about to spoil the ending so stop and skip down if so! -SPOILER ALERT!!!-

Now Gerald Butler's character is supposed to be this insane genius of a tactician. He is setting up all of these people who he feels is cancerous and he intends on purging them all since he feels the justice system is broken. Jamie Foxx's character is basically the guy who helps create this madman, all because he feared losing his near perfect conviction rating and so he strikes a deal with one of the men who murdered and raped Butler's character's wife and murders his daughter as well.

Anyway, Butler's character has everyone on edge throughout the movie and even I began to feel like there was just no goddamn way Jamie Foxx's character would walk out of these traps alive in the end.

But what happens? Even after all of Jamie Foxx's colleagues die, he manages to get himself promoted anyway. And Gerald Butler's character's plot gets exposed so stupidly easy, it made me sick. For the whole time, it was a belief that Butler's character had help on the outside when in fact, he had none. He had secretly dug tunnels into all of the cells in solitary confinement and was using these tunnels to sneak out and execute these people.

How did they find out about these tunnels? Foxx's character traces back money used to buy these apparently random properties and finds these tunnels. Then through that, they see a bunch of screens that show off his next target in detail. They go after Butler's character, miss him, but finds his bomb hidden so stupidly in a plain briefcase that I believed that that was a plant. A trick!

But no...

No... no tricks that time and the tables were turned just like that. The tactician was not outsmarted, he apparently just didn't really plan all that far ahead as it was made out to be. And how does it all end? Foxx takes the bomb, plants it in Butler's character's cell and tells him to make a choice. Butler's character chooses to blow 'em all up! But guess what? He learns where they put the bomb as both Foxx and his sole surviving helper (a cop) seal him in his cell as he is killed by his very own bomb.

Just thinking about this and writing it out helps bring to the surface a lot of bitterness towards what was a pretty good movie. Bah... I wasted 320 points on my Xbox for this crap...

As for Ponyo? I think I wrote enough for now. I suppose I shall save this one for next time around. For now, I will just have to leave this blog a bitter individual...