Starcraft II: Wings of Liberty

There was some debate on whether or not I would actually try and get this game. I mean going in, I knew my factory set up computer wouldn't be able to handle this game as well as I would like. But at the end of the day, I caved in and bought this. Yes, I am among the millions (and millions) of StarCraft fans from back in the 90's.

A lot of fond memories of high school come back just thinking about this game. Nothing like playing a LAN match against several of your buddies to really get the war going. Zerg invasion in the middle of the base? Ooh, they never even saw it coming!

But alas... as far as StarCraft II is concerned, I cannot really share any personal thoughts on the game just yet. You see, unlike the pictures and videos that have appeared all over the internet lately, my personal game experience does not look anything even close to that. Everything is dull and flat and laggy and generally speaking, not that fun at all.

So as PC gaming tends to go, I suppose I shall be attempting to upgrade my computer in the coming weeks in hope that it'll be enough so that I'll be able to run the game as it should be.

Hell if things work out and the graphics card upgrade succeeds, I may even return to World of Warcraft. No more lagging graphics! Woo!

10 Promises To My Dog

So last night I happened to switch places with my girlfriend (she was watching some dramas on the PS3 and I was gaming in our PC) and I sit down and kind of look around the site she was at. I jumped over to the Japanese movies section and I played the first thing that caught my eye.

How can you ignore a pup with a face like that right?

It was a very good movie, though it is a sad tale, it is also very touching all the way through. And it struck very close to home for me and as the movie progressed, I could relate to Akari (who grows up through the course of the movie) in that she began to neglect her pup as she grew up. Life changes, interests changes and things just don't stay the way they were.

Hell I felt guilty maybe as much as the character did at the end!

Akari brings Socks to visit her mother for the first time.

My own relationship with my dog is somewhat similar to Akari's with Socks. I had got Brindy just as my Grandma was diagnosed with cancer and she had just returned from being here on Oahu for more then a year due to her condition. She passed away shortly after returning home. But she got to meet Brindy, if only for a brief moment in time.

And Brindy was around for just a little over 10 years (about 12 really) and we sure did grow up together. I remember the first day she was brought home. I never experienced having a dog before, so I was more then a little timid. And she had an attitude. She'd growl and snap at me and I just didn't like her at all. What a bitch!

But as time went on, we got along better and better. My folks would yell at her and she'd run away to her house. I'd try to scold her and she'd just jump up on my side and wag her tail like she was the happiest dog around.

I remember times when my step dad would scream and yell at me and I'd walk out to get away. I'd go and sit next to Brindy and she'd just happily sit next to me and be her happy self. Whenever I'd try to leave, she'd bolt up and jump up on my side, as if trying to get me to stay longer.

How I miss those days...

I may not have made the 10 promises to her, but a lot of what was said surely were true no less.

What could make me relate to Akari so much was when the character grows up and leaves home. I can't say for sure if I grew up (matured) myself, but I did leave home at 18 and I never really made it back to visit my folks that much and so I never really saw Brindy that often either. I felt bad about not being able to go home, more so when I began to hear about how time and illness was getting to her.

Akari and Socks, years later.

All of these memories stirred up during the course of this movie and I couldn't help myself as tears worked themselves up in my eyes. It made me feel so bad for not visiting my old friend, but it also reminded me of all the good things about that crazy old dog of mine. I am glad to have stumbled onto this movie and I'd recommend anyone who loves dogs to go and make it a point to see this one. 

Despicable Me

We just we out to see this on Saturday and I think it is safe to say that we both had a pretty good time watching this one. I don't think it is fair to this movie to be compared to Toy Story 3, in that they are both entirely different stories. Personally? I am glad we say this and not Toy Story. I like new! And I feel like I have to support the underdog here (since this movie kind of got panned by some of the critics' review of this).

Probably the most enjoyable aspect for me here was to see the progression of Gru (the main bad/good guy), which felt natural and not at all rushed through. He starts out pretty despicable, be he just couldn't resist the charms of the three girls he adopts for reasons that are anything but honorable.

And then there is, of course, the minions of Gru... (pictured above) those little guys are a strange, strange bunch to be sure. At first they seemed a little odd pairing with Gru, but as the movie went on it all made sense. They were made for each other!

Anyway, this was a worthwhile movie to see and it was a lot of fun for the both of us. Yes, we are getting older by the year. Yes this is a "kids movie," but what can I say? We enjoy cartoons still and this had us laughing more then a couple of times throughout. Maybe we aren't "mature" and maybe we need to grow up. Wait, who says a person has to give everything up to "grow up"? What's wrong with cartoons damnit!

Yeah!

I blame this on the fact that I woke up at 3am for no reason.

I'm getting old!

Game Change

After only a month of not having it around, I caved in and got a new Xbox 360. Okay, it isn't a "new" new Xbox 360, but a brand new Arcade one instead. One of the sales people did try, but they cannot convince me to wait it out for the new "slim" version. I have not read anything all that great about that thus far, so I am not convinced that that would be a better choice.

This wasn't actually going to happen for a while (getting another Xbox), but after trading in almost all of the games I had left... I had enough to cut the cost down to around $50. Can't go wrong there huh?

I suppose I could blame this sort of "renewed" interest in the console thanks to announcements about games such as Fable 3, Dragon Age II and Mass Effect 3 *its coming sooner or later!*. I guess the purpose of the Xbox (for me) is to fulfill my RPG needs. I just hope this new console has a longer life then the previous consoles (about a year each, yeesh!).

Right off the bat I downloaded Risk: Factions and you know what? My luck in dice rolling games continued to hold true: My luck sucks.

But the game is pretty decent fun in my opinion and the added cartoon factions does add a bit of odd personality to the game itself. The campaign mode is weird in its own right, though it does get the job done as far as getting it's point across. I do fancy the undead (Zombie faction), though I got smashed by humans, cats, robots and yeti people. Weird huh?

On a side note though, it looks like I will be taking a bit of a hiatus from World of Warcraft. I just haven't really had the time to dedicate to playing it as much as I would have liked. Plus I've been slowly piling back up on games I haven't played much of (Dragon Quest IX, Final Fantasy XIII, Red Dead Redemption top that list).

I think it is safe to say that I will return to WoW eventually. Perhaps after the Cataclysm expansion is released in fact. I would like to see how the world changes after all of that end-of-the-world stuff kicks in.