To War Once Again

Halo: Reach is just around the corner now and this marks the end of Bungie's involvement with the Halo series. Now considering the other kinds of games coming out during this time of year, I kind of thought to maybe ignore this and try and get other games. But considering my girlfriend and I have played through all of the previous Halo games, why not finish things off once and for all and see where the stories all began?

Now I know this won't be the last Halo (obviously, as I am dead certain this series made way too much money for Microsoft to allow it to die), but I just don't think anyone else's take to the Halo universe will quite be the same. A little rough to say that, considering no one else has really tried that yet and who knows? Maybe it will end up being even better. But as of now, I just don't think it'll be the same beast. Kind of like the Call of Duty series. You have CoD, then you have the Infinity Ward's CoD and that just sets a high bar that the other CoD games has to try and surpass.

I even have to wonder if that series will be as successful now that Infinity Ward is kind of a bust after that insanity where they lost a lot of people...

Anyway, below is a couple of videos from Halo: Reach's promotional onslaught. I gotta admit these guys sure can make some good short movies. Like Square Enix and Final Fantasy XIII, I kind of had my doubts as to if I would end up getting their latest game. Then I watched a few of these videos and BAM. I went out and reserved the Legendary edition. What? A statue of Noble Team would look AWESOME next to my dragon!

Side thought: I wonder why they have had such a difficult time in making a full scale movie...

Where Go?

I've been away from here for a little, not so much because I've gotten burnt out and didn't feel like writing or something to that effect. It has been more like I've been working a bit more lately and things have been crazy around here (parents dropping in for a visit, memorial service for my grandparents). But things are slowing back down and now I'm trying to play catch up on a couple of things.

First off, whodathunkit?! Reading the news about Mass Effect II coming to the PS3 next year is a shocker! I mean wow... so I thought that series was a Microsoft exclusive? Huh. So much for that!

I wonder if this will mean that ME3 will follow suit?

Allow me to come clean about something: I am torn. What I mean by that is this coming holiday season is PACKED like a mutha with a ton of games that has me running all over the place like a kid in a candy store. I have reserved Fable III and Star Wars: The Force Unleashed II. But what has me torn is Halo: Reach and Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood.

I wanted to avoid being a game crazed idiot this year and I think I have done a decent job at keeping away. But there is just so much coming out that I don't even know if I should go or don't go. Ya know?

Personally, I actually think I am siding a bit more with Assassin's Creed. I enjoyed Assassin's Creed II quite a bit and the thought of having a Brotherhood that will aid you against your enemies in Rome sounds like a party to me. It just feels more compelling to me at this point.

I honestly just want the Halo: Reach Collector's Edition just for the Noble 6 statue thing that comes with that massive box set...

And Kingdom Hearts: Birth By Sleep is coming soon, too! My girlfriend, being the avid Kingdom Hearts fan, absolutely blew a lid and flipped out when she heard that the game was getting a Special Edition... for UK onry. Har... Har... Har...

That just adds a bit more fuel to the fire, which is adding on top of the hole where Kingdom Hearts II: Final Mix should have been. She is a angry girl some days.

I cheated my way through StarCraft II and went ahead and skipped to the ending. Interesting how things turned out in the end. I then reloaded my honest gameplay save and proceeded to get my ass handed to me.

Such is life.

Last thing I want to blabber on about is Dragon Age II. I still have my doubts about all of these changes being made, but this pre-rendered trailer does a decent job of getting my expectations up over game play that probably won't be.

It would be awesome to see a actual fight in a RPG look the way it does in the video I have linked below this. Probably the next generation of consoles will get us there? I just hope 3D isn't the next step for gaming... that crap gives me a headache.

No Going Back

I don't know what I was thinking, but I picked up WWE Smackdown: Here Comes The Pain again yesterday. I guess I was remembering how much fun I had with the game back in the day and after having some issues with the last year's game, I felt a little nostalgic I suppose.

Well as the title may imply, I think I should have just stuck to the good memories.

This game has not aged well at all and it has gotten to the point where I am even questioning myself on how I found this fun in the first place.

But I guess it is like having a PC running Windows 7, then dropping back down to Windows 95. I mean you get used to all the little extra changes and such, then to take it all away does indeed leave a huge hole. I don't know about the rest of the world, but I know that sort of drop would be the ever loving s*it out of me.

About the only thing real positive thing that I came away from having this game again is to see how some of my created wrestlers have evolved over the years. I have carried a couple of them through the years and it is amazing to see how deformed and weird they look.

What game will I try to replay next? Well I still do have all three PS1-era Final Fantasy games on my PS3. Admittedly, Final Fantasy 9 looks the best as far as graphics and appearances are concerned. But I think I may actually play through them all one of these days soon...

I think it'll be a better experience then the one I just had with this game.

Love The Way You Lie

For a time, I actually kind of liked this song and thought it was pretty good. But then I came to realize that this song gets played to DEATH on the radio (I hear it at work a lot). Am I still liking it? And why am I posting it here then? No earthly idea!

I suppose it has something to do with the fact that I've never actually seen the video for this song. I can say that I don't really think as much of it now then I did previously. Evil radio...

Oh and if I happen to hear about someone or another wanting to be a millionaire, so freaking bad... I'm gonna snap! I can't stand that song! I like listening to a certain radio station in the morning (Island 98.5), but I dread it equally because they play that damn song alot!

Sorry, that was way off topic...

And The First Victory Goes To...

ME.

To my surprise, my very first match online with StarCraft II ended with me actually winning one! Most of my previous experiences with StarCraft online usually ended with me being betrayed midway through the match and getting smashed to oblivion by my former partner and our opponents. So going into this first match, I was wholly expecting to be smashed yet again (though the match up was a one-on-one deal).

But then, something absolutely unexpected happened: I ended up pulling out a rather dominate win via a very timely Mutalisk rush! I say it was timely because I happened to catch a glimpse of my opponent's growing number of Siege Tanks (which moved into my opened up part of the map) and proceeded to send my fliers out to go kick it's teeth in. That is when I discovered that my opponent was actually trying to build a base outside of my perimeter. Needless to say, though I'll say it anyway, he/she/it was not expecting that much of a aerial assault and I moved in rather easily into their base.

And then I won! And I still can't believe it! I feel like I won the World Series and the Super Bowl all at once!

Woohoo...!

*Note: I think I have potentially lost my mind today as I had a total of about 3 hours of sleep. I don't think I'm thinking all that clearly right now. I wonder what I'll think later on, when I am rested, about this random and dork-ish post? Hmmm....

Now The War Begins

Since just about the time I first got a PC of my own, it was always a wish of mine to be able to play modern PC games one day. But due to financial reasons, I have always had PCs that were low grade, standard equipped and so that always meant that I wouldn't be able to keep up to date on those types of games.

So you can imagine how thrilling it is to finally be able to take that step up and finally play these new PC games as they were meant to be played. Fully animated and with all the bells and whistles is absolutely the way to go and I can't imagine how I played what I've played with being so behind.

Now with that taken care of, I am able to look at what other gaming options I have. I can now at least play World of Warcraft without lagging (or so I am hoping) and hopefully a couple of other MMOs in the future as well (Final Fantasy XIV and maybe Champions Online). I also wanted to eventually pick up on games like Diablo III, The Witcher and potentially even Dragon Age 2.

But the problem for me now lies in the fact that my computer's processing power isn't up to snuff to be able to play EVERYTHING.

Meh.

Its always something or another isn't it?

But for the time being, I am much more then content with being able to play StarCraft II with the graphical settings tuned up to the max. The game is absolutely beautiful! Nothing like seeing the details of explosions and the living Creep Colony moving and pulsing.

As for my thoughts of the game itself? I think I shall save those thoughts for next time. I need something to write about in the near future after all!

Branching Out

Now as the title states, I have been branching out to other blogging sites recently and now I've signed up to Tumblr (House Of KO). I can't say for sure as to why I have been joining up with other blog sites, maybe it's to get my foot into as many doors as I can? I guess I have a small paranoia that one of these blog sites may shut down or something and all would be lost. Or maybe the company gets bought and everything gets flipped around or the whole system gets revamped and just becomes a nightmare to use.

So anyway, now I'm on Blogger, WordPress and Tumblr! Maybe eventually I'll link up my Facebook and Myspace accounts here as well. Or maybe not? Honestly, I don't have much activity on either sides of those social networks (aside from some light gaming on FB).

Okay, I'll just come out and say it.

I've lost my mind.