Back to the Groove

After taking a brief break from gaming, I've slowly getting back into the mix of things. What can I say? A lot of the games I've got right now aren't cutting it for me. Recently though, I've tried to replay both Mirror's Edge and Blue Dragon. While Blue Dragon no longer puts me to sleep on contact, Mirror's Edge has been kicking my ass like never before. I spent most of my time flying off of rooftops, sailing down to my untimely death.

One new game that I've been playing is called The Dishwasher: Dead Samurai. Basically it is a hack and slasher, but it does have a strange and somewhat interesting story behind of it. Favorite weapon of choice: Chain saw!

Another game that has seen some playtime is Resident Evil 5, which is nice to play as a co-op for a change. My gripe with it is this though: Why did they have to split the screen the way that they did (Call of Duty: World at War style)? It's annoying! Just split the damn screen in half!

Yet another gripe is, why do they send in a team (the characters you play) into this place WITH ONLY A HANDGUN WITH VERY, VERY LIMITED SHOTS? Not really helping the chances of success here huh? And speaking of ammo, it is interesting as it is annoying how you can buy the guns you come across and yet you cannot buy ammo! A lot of good a shotgun with 6 shots will do ya in the middle of a crowd of angry, evil intentioned zombie-type people.

Side note: For the first time ever, I finally got to play LittleBigPlanet at Wal-Mart last week. I'd like to say I did well in the level I played in, but I did not. I spent a good deal of time falling off of stuff and burning. Very much like playing Mirror's Edge I'm afraid... my character experienced all too well the sensation of falling to your doom, over and over again.

The Night Where the Xbox Almost Flew... (Round 293)

You know what pisses me off? Having spent hours, months and sometimes even years, on a game and in the end, losing all of that time because the save file goes bye-bye. Now I know this should not piss me off because this happened so many times to me during the SNES days with all those glorious RPGs of yesteryear, but this one still caught me... the dirty son of bitch.

So yesterday I was playing through the Horde (Gears of War 2) with my girlfriend and we were killing shit like normal. We went a few games, then we shut it off and went out a while. Now later that evening, we fire the game up again and I log in.

Now my favorite character to play is a guy named Tai (I call him the Crazy Polynesian Man), because this guy has some crazy shit to say. Anyway, we get to the Horde and I noticed something was missing: No Crazy Polynesian Man.

So after trying to load up the data a few times, I get the idea to go check the hard drive to see what was going on. Well... apparently the data under my gamertag was wiped and the only thing left was a save from back in November (when we got the game).

I kept all of the achivments, though the game does not recognize me having done any of them now. What pisses me off was my kill count (minor cheese I know) and match count were both reset. On top of that, it says I never even played through the entire campaign (which we finished).

Do I want to replay through the game again? Eh, no... not really. I was glad to get through it the last time and I was more then happy to never have to go through that again. So the idea of having to, just doesn't really appeal to me at this point. Perhaps in a few months, once the anger subsides and I lose the urge to either toss the whole thing in a anger little kid fit or I give in and trade in the whole mess and be done with it.

Yes, I tend to be a little overly impulsive when I get irritated/mad.

I'm just glad my Fable 2 game save was not lost or else that would easily be a cause for war...

War Against the Horde

Today is the first time I've actually gotten to try out playing the "Horde" mode online in Gears of War 2. It is fun, certainly a different experience rather then just playing it offline. Life is a little easier when you've got five guns shooting, rather then just you alone or with a friend (or in my case, my girlfriend).

Overall though, it is definitely a work in progress at this point. The furthest we've made it online is level 8 (level 12 offline). The insanity that ensues when one reaches the 9th and 10th level is just, well... insane!

On the other hand, I do have to get back into playing more of Fallout 3. I think this time, unlike how I played things in Fable 2, I won't be the good "saint" of a character. No, this time I think I'll try it on the dark side, I mean I already started out by killing Aneta's Overseeing father after all.

How was I to know I -didn't- have to kill his ass? He did have a gun...

One more thought! We watched "The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou" tonight and it was good fun. A little strange maybe, but it was fun movie to watch overall. Bill Murray is awesome!

Ok, ok... now it's time to go back to the post-apocalyptic "future" and be a prick the world never knew it needed. Fun for all, no doubt.

Here is a little after thought, which I forgot to mention when I wrote up this little post earlier. I've gotten onto Twitter the other day and the entire concept of it seems to be lost to me at this point. It does seem interesting though, so maybe I'll hang around and just keep typing stuff in every now and again.

Who knows, maybe some day someone will respond?

Incredible

It is incredible to me that this month has just blown by! It is stranger still that it feels to me as if time itself just moves so much faster then before! Or maybe it is still moving at the same speed, it is just me keeping busier then ever before?

I cannot say for certain, but what I still can't fathom is the fact that I've been out of high school for almost ten years already. Even with the time that has passed, it feels almost like it happened only yesterday.

Perhaps this is the feeling a person gets when he or she does not change all that much? I'd like to think I am a different (and hopefully better) person then I was before. But can a person really just judge something like that for themselves?

Maybe with each passing trip home, maybe little by little I am becoming homesick. Either that or maybe it allows my mind to clear up for a moment to reflect. Reflect on what I've done and what I need to do next. It is extremely helpful in a sense, because sometimes, regardless of how hard I try, I end up "losing my way" so to speak.

On the flip side though, sometimes this sort of thing just makes things a little more confusing. I think I will ponder over my thoughts further and maybe I'll come back here and write them down. Who knows when or how that might come in handy?

Onto the gaming! I swear it won't be that drawn out, just some quick thoughts to share.

While I was glad to hear that Final Fantasy XIII at least has something of an estimated release date, though Winter, 2010 is a hell of a stretch away. What wasn't so good to hear was how the demo may very well end up being a Japan exclusive. Ouch!

I've finally gotten back into playing Chrono Trigger and I am breezing along though the game, with trying to recall what I can remember of the game being a challenge in it of itself.

I've just gotten Frog to join up and the battle against the Fiendlord, Magus, really almost had me! Now I can't wait to move to the part of the game where I can recruit that powerful son of a demon...

Finished off Gears of War 2 (finally!) and now my girlfriend and I are putting more time into playing the "Horde" mode. It is fun and certainly challenging to say the least. The furthest we've made it to has been the 12th wave...

One final thought here... the next game I'd like to finish would be Fable 2, though progress there has been halted because of a batched evil spree of mine which ended with a untimely auto-save, the deaths of many innocents and a severe dropping in my gold. Meh.

Beyond that? I am wanting to pick up Blue Dragon (again) to finish off once and for all, as well as Assassin's Creed and maybe even Prince of Persia. That will keep me busy for a while, me thinks.

Overload, Overload!

I'm starting to juggle more and more games and I am quickly losing my mind. Besides playing Fable 2, I picked up Gears of War 2 and I am hoping to get Mirror's Edge today too. Thankfully though, I am nearly finished with Fable 2. How will it all end I wonder!?

Ok, I cheated and I've already read a little into how the games ends and even now I cannot decide on which choice to make. Three choices to choose from and you can only make one. Blah.

One thing I will say about the game and this goes for the dog "feature." He really doesn't help much, besides finding buried treasure or chests. Ok and he growls when bad guys are nearby too, but that's it! Maybe he'll gnaw on someone if they are on the ground, but otherwise nothing! Can't we have an attack dog? An aggressive and angry attack dog?

What kind of made me laugh (and also what caused me to consider joining the Temple of Shadows) was being able to "earn" purity and goodness by giving gold to the Temple of Light. What? So really, considering I had the money, I could kill everyone in Bowerstone and all I'd need is to donate money and I'm clean? Whoa, sign me up!

I ultimately did not go over to the dark side, because the Temple of Shadows is just too fucked up! Not in a bad way really, they are just a weird bunch of freaks!

Gears of War 2 feels a lot like the first, just the usual changes of more (and bigger) baddies, more explosions and gunfights and all of that jazz. I think more of the changes took place in the multiplayer stuff and the addition of Horde mode is pretty cool too. Talk about dying badly, I got surrounded and totally destroyed and I didn't even see what murdered my ass either. Don't get me wrong though, it is still a lot of fun (if you're into this sort of thing)!

And then Mirror's Edge, my damn near obsession since playing the demo the first time around. I hope the final product lives up to what it has been hyping itself up to being. One thing about this game, too, is if you experience motion sickness... this is not a game for you! My girlfriend hates this game just for the fact that her stomach does twists, turns and flips when she watched me play through the demo.

But I like it! I like it a lot! I suppose that makes me a little mean, but eh! If I need to hear Korean pop music, I consider this as retribution! Mwahahaha!

November is Hell

I'd want to keep my cool right now and to be as un-cryptic as I can be, I just looked at the release dates for the games coming out this month. Nothing should have surprised me, I mean I looked at all of this a few months back. I knew there would be a lot of games released up until the ending of this year. Common knowledge right? I mean this wasn't unexpected, I knew...

I thought I knew.

I really didn't know after all.

And all I can say to all of this is - Holy SHIT! This month will be fucking insane! It feels like everything is being released this month (list of interested titles are listen in the tags at the bottom)! I mean I know Christmas is just around the corner already and everyone wants to rake in the cash during this time of year, but good lord! Can game companies bombard a gamer anymore then this?

What blew my mind even more was the sight of Chrono Trigger on the list, which is coming at the ending of this month. Goddamn it, I thought it was going to be out in December, along with Prince of Persia (also thought this was next month). I suppose I was wrong...

I know I say this a little often, but I think it is safe to say that being broke this month is definitely a major understatement. At this point I am considering on giving up eating for the rest of this year, you know... to offset the tremendous cost of getting this many games. That, or maybe sell off my first born or something.

I kid.

And I don't have a first born child either.

So I can easily say that it'll be a interesting month, to work and squeeze game time for this many titles... I'm quickly beginning to think I may have to reconsider a good deal of these buggers. I mean with a lack of options on how to effectively buy 'em all, what else can a person do right? Now the problem is, which ones to hold off on? So many choices, so little time (and money)!

I hate the holidays...

Shooting iz Fun?

It's been getting just a little strange for me, as a gamer, these days. While I did play a few FPS (First Person Shooter) games throughout high school, I could never say I was much of a fan of them. But these days it seems that is the only kind of game I've played through, from start to finish.

Case in point, my girlfriend and I just played through Army of Two (and finished it) and now we've rented and are now playing Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Vegas 2.

It has just been fun to be able to run through places and just shoot the place up. Maybe it serves as a stress release for us both? The stories for these types of games (as I've seen 'em so far) aren't anywhere near to par with an RPG, but then, most RPGs these days aren't all that well off in that department either.

But that's entirely a different subject.

Anyway, it has been fun so far and it certainly does take a little more realistic turn in comparison to games like Army of Two and Gears of War. I don't think I've ever been shot up and killed as quickly as I experienced in this game.

Speaking of which, I can't wait for GoW2, which happens to be an 360 exclusive release. Thanksgiving couldn't come soon enough.